Marpenoth 15, 1319 DR (continued)
Yet, when everyone decided to head out to meet Teegahn and then ultimately ride out to the lumber camp to investigate, Mist showed up in town to join the group. Apparently she had been attacked by the same Drow who the group had encountered previously, this time with clear intentions to capture her alive. Rather than sticking around, she fled back to Downslope instead and caught up with the Guild. Whatever had set her off concerning Basil seemed to be less important that dealing with situation at hand. As a result, they all mounted up together and rode off to the southeast ultimately destined for the timber yards run by Teegahn on the foothills of the Galena Mountains.
The early afternoon was spent traversing a steep path suited more for goats than for humanoids on horseback, when the trail eventually opened up into a pristine forested valley. Teegahn warned everyone to not become distracted by the beauty as something about the area attracted local beasts and strange creatures of all kinds. This quickly became evident after an hour of riding when they started to hear the calls of some type of ursine creature echo across the valley sporadically. It was Meeshani who eventually spotted a strange Aberration, latter to be explained in detail by Basil as a Tooth Beasts, which appeared to be a hairless bear covered in all manner of sharp protruding bones. The beast had a natural bellow that seem evoke fear in those nearby and a preternaturally fast ability to charge its prey across all types of terrain quickly followed by a pounced and a rend from its tooth encrusted bodies.
It was at this point that Teegahn revealed himself to be a Druid, taking to the air in the form of an eagle to scout for other potential attackers. The rest of the group sprung into action using their usual tactics, dispatching a pair of the creature off quickly and then moving on to a second pair that Teegahn alerted them about. While no one was seriously injured in the battle other than Storm, the larger issues was fatigued experienced by both the Barbarian and the Monk due to staying all the entire previous night, riding all day, followed up by a tiring battle. Needless to say that when their guide suggested bivouacking at the edge of an ancient graveyard at the far end of the valley near sun down, that only Basil argued against such a foolish camp site. Nevertheless, he was voted by the rest of the Guild and Teegahn who assured everyone that the site was perfectly safe.
As such, Basil was completely unsurprised when the group was attacked within an hour of setting camp by a half-dozen extra-planar creatures called Shadow Eft’s. The pesky little beasts functioned best in total darkness, so Basil denied their natural combat prowess with the use of a daylight spell. While this seemed to slow them a little, they still were able to move quickly into and out of melee slashing at targets of opportunity with claws magically endowed with poison. Miraculously, only Mist experienced the debilitating effects of the venom before the creatures were dispatched to the Plane of Shadow from whence they originated. Investigation of the nearby area by Gavin looking for other potential threats revealed a several decade old wooden box filled with several potions and scroll cases, but otherwise nothing of value.
Marpenoth 16, 1319 DR
Dawn sent Basil, Storm and Raindrop back to Galvinston via the use of a Teleport spell to acquire wood samples from the wrecked wagon, check on the Drow children and report to Rayina as to the current state of the investigation. The trio then returned and the whole group proceeded down the trail towards the lumber site. Along the way Teegahn confirmed that the wood samples were taken from this part of the forest, but that they were much too green for them to have been cut down by his crew of lumberjacks. After a few hours of riding the cramped trail, the mail wagon trail was reached and they picked up speed heading towards the camp. As they got closer, Teegahn made an off hand comment about there not being any sounds suggesting that anyone was out working the forest which set the party immediately on edge and preparing for a potential ambush.
When no immediate threat was revealed, Meeshani was sent to scout ahead. She quickly made her way quietly through the wood up the lumber camp which took the form of a wooden fort made from vertically logs arranged in a square. A single look out post was located at the front left hand side with a single door way in the front middle. Meeshani circumnavigated the entire fort looking for any oddities and discovered very little other than the complete absence of anyone around the fort until she approached the door. Once there she found signs of tracks of some type of huge serpent that came from the woods, slithered up tot the front door and then continued along following numerous foot steps away from the camp. The door to the wooden keep was unlocked, so Meeshani made her way inside noting the presence of a well, a collection of recently cut logs and a single long house. She heard the sounds of buzzing as she neared the single major structure inside the keep and decided to report back to the group rather than risk getting caught by whatever was making the noises.
The wily gnome returned to the group and everyone made their way cautiously towards the lumber camp. Once inside they looked down the well, examined the wood piles, checked the look out post and then went inside of the long house where they discovered numerous dead bodies. Almost of note was the presence of a trap door leading underground into a storage area. All of the bodies had clearly been killed in combat by weapons of Drow manufacture. They had all apparently made their stand inside of the long house and had died to the last lumberjack defending it. Teegahn was quite dismayed to discover all sixteen of his seasonal workers had been killed. He went around and identified all of them just to make sure that they were all present and accounted for, before laying them out and beginning last rites.
Meeshani and Gavin poked around the storage space and were surprised to discover recently used blankets as well as an impromptu latrine. The blankets contained wisps of white hair and were placed as far away from the trap door as possible. The latrine had been used for many days including as recently as the previous day. Perhaps strangest of all was the discovery of hand-carved Espruar script on the rear of a storage crate. Once translated by Mist, they suggested that the author might have been a young Drow based on the grammar errors and spelling mistakes. The message was a plea for help from Vhaeraun, the same Drow deity the Guild had encountered on a potion bottle taken from a deceased Drow several days before. Teegahn could not explain what had occurred, but Basil seemed quite sure that some type of misdirection or planting of evidence was occurring.
The next few hours was spent tracking the Drow as well as the serpent creature that was following them higher and higher up the mountains. Eventually the Guild had to abandon their horses and proceed on foot eventually reaching a deep canyon cut by a swiftly flowing underground steam where the Drow tracks vanished. Storm was sent down on a rope into the crevice and could find no obvious clues where the Drow had vanished to, so the group followed the serpent tracks to the end of the canyon until they slide down a chute and into the entrance to a cavern from where the stream flowed. There were several pitons hammered into the rock face, making it easy for the Guild to climb down and enter the tunnel as well. Once there, it was clear that the Drow had passed this way as their tracks continued.
The Guild cautiously made their way through the narrow cave following the crushed stone shoreline that hugged the left wall. Teegahn shifted into a seal and swam through the cold waters following along ad his own pace. After a few hundred yards, the tunnel cut immediately to the left and back to the right again before seeming to open up both vertically and horizontally. Meeshani was in front when she noticed a single word being spoken followed by the presence of a pea sized blob of fire moving her way that exploded into a Fireball inside of the cramped cavern. The group immediately went on the defensive as something deeper in the cavern pulled up a Fog Cloud between the adventurers and it as well as suddenly going quiet trying to prevent its hiding place from being discovered.
The after effects of the Fireball sent Storm into a Frenzy as she charged ahead looking for something to smash while the rest of the group moved to keep up. Mist called forth a rousing tune to instill bravery into her allies, Raindrop moved up to provide back up while Meeshani, Basil, Teegahn and Gavin cautiously proceeded through the Fog wary of any potential dangers. On the far side of the Fog was a wand wielding Banelar Naga with malice in its eyes at which Teegahn warned that Zhentarium would likely be somewhere nearby. The Naga while impressively large and able to cast spells as well as attack almost simultaneously, it could not hold up to the burning anger of Storm compiled with the assistance of the rest of the group providing cover fire or flanking.
However, instead of the creature perishing, according to Basil, it vanished thanks to a contingency Teleport spell previously cast upon it by an unknown source. Luckily, Raindrop had liberated a wand from the Naga before it managed to escape or the party would have had no clues as to the origin of the creature. Unfortunately, the Drow tracks vanished at this point with the narrow shoreline vanishing being replaced with shallower and shallower flowing water, which while quite cold, was easily passable for everyone. The tunnel narrowed again on the far side of the cavern and proceeded deeper into the mountain until it eventually branched into five different small tunnels, each barely large enough for a medium-sized humanoid to fit in single file. At this point, the Guild paused to consider their options and to determine which direction they might end up selecting before continuing.
Marpenoth 16, 1319 DR (continued)
They selected a direction mostly at random and proceeded down the path farthest to the right. It ended rather quickly horizontally but proceeded up at a serious vertical incline. The group debated how to proceed until Basil used a Fly spell to head off to investigate leaving everyone else behind to explore the cavern in a more conventional manner. Basil’s flight took up upwards through a very damp cavern and eventually to the surface at the top of a butte. The butte looked down upon a simple stone circle with carving of various bladed weapons that was clearly the central focus of some local religious practice, likely Drow related and having been used recently. When Basil returned, the group had climbed up several hundred feet, worried that the wizard might have encountered some type of trouble as he had been long enough to worry his sister.
The rest of the caverns seemed to perpetually expand into a seemingly endless series of warrens, loopbacks, lava tubes and rock falls. The entire place was a proverbial maze in the most natural occurring sense of the word and seemed to be more of a dead end based on the lack of any signs of traversal then some place to hide a Drow crèche. Nevertheless, Gavin and Meeshani spent some time poking around until the group got bored and decided to head out of the cavern complex altogether. It was starting to become dusk, so they reconnoitered to look for an out of the way, but defendable location to camp on the far side of the canyon at the base of a cliff face. After setting a low fire to keep warm on what was going to be a cold night, they set a watch and settled down for the evening.
Much like the previous night, they were attacked during the first watch, this time by at least eight humanoid-like aberrations called Deadly Dancers whose four limbs were little more than blades formed by bones. The creatures use their numbers, multiple attacks and the ability to find the most deadly places to strike to their maximum advantage. This forced the Guild to get creative utilizing tactics such as calling down area spells on themselves, crossing over one line of attackers to get range on the other, drawing attacks away from the more vulnerable members of the team all while struggling to stay alive themselves. This seemed to be working to their advantage when it became clear that the attack was merely meant to distract them from the larger threat, the presence of Drow.
The Drow called out in broken Common to cease hostilities and to return their kidnapped children. While the Guild was more than willing to comply with the second half of the request, given adequate time, they were not ready to end the melee until the opposing side did so themselves. The Drow repeated the warnings, but left their allies to press the attack, forcing the Guild to cut down all of the Aberrations, taking significant casualties from the fracas as a result. As soon as combat ended, the Drow tossed a belt containing Zhentarium badges into the camp and demanded the return of their children. It became clear that the Drow were unable or unwilling to distinguish between the various human factions. The Drow left only when the ground made it clear that they would need to wait until dawn to return the children, leaving the Guild presumably alone on the side of a cold mountain for the rest of the night to recover from the ambush.
Marpenoth 17, 1319 DR
Basil left at dawn to Galvinston to recover the two Drow children and was supposed to return to the rocky Butte by the stone circle. The rest of the group spent two frantic hours climbing up the tunnels trying to arrive in time to support Basil in case of trouble. Instead, when they arrived, Basil was nowhere to be seen and they were subject to cries of betrayal from the Drow. This almost broke out into open hostilities on several occasions, even after Mist was able to use Tongues spell to act as a translator for the two opposing sides. For whoever unknown reason, Basil had not returned with the two children as he had indicated he was going to do. Instead the Guild was forced to broker a second agreement to return the children at moon rise at the next full moon slightly more then a ten-day away. This would give them time to return to Galvinston by mundane means and to determine just what had exactly had occurred to Basil.
Mist seemed to think that Basil had chosen this moment to go rogue and betray the guild and the way she spun the argument suggested that several others felt the same way. The Drow clearly could care less about the internal affairs of the Guild. They just wanted their children to be returned to them and to live alone in peace. When the suggestion came up that the Drow had been involved with sabotage, they vehemently denied it and instead points fingers and a group of four adventurers who chased after then with wanton abandon. This lead more fuel to the fire that Basil had become traitorous, but there was still no concrete evidence of any such event. The Drow ended up being a mixed faction of worshippers of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun who just wished to be left alone to live their lives without outside interference. They only ventured on the surface to hunt and gather supplies and to worship their deities. Once they were assured that no harm had come to their children, they parleyed for some time until the agreement was made for the next Full Moon.
Once the Drow had departed the group discussed how they might proceed. Meeshani mentioned that it would take about three days to get back to town if they back tracked to their horses, while only a day and a half if they left and walked back as the crow flies. Storm felt that they all needed stick around for at least a day in case some type of foul play had occurred with Basil, requiring an extra day for him to make it back to the party. While most of the group felt that it was not a good use of their limited time, they acceded to Storm once agreeing that they would abandon their horses and walk back in the most expedient manner the following day. The guild then spent the rest of the day exploring the stone circle consecrated to Eilistraee and the nearby forest before camping for the night in the old lava tube.
Marpenoth 18, 1319 DR
With no sign of Basil an hour after dawn, Storm reluctantly agreed to return to Galvinston. Strangely, both she and Raindrop received slightly conflicting magical messages from Storm as they broke camp and headed home. The Sending to Raindrop suggested that Basil had run into trouble with the blame being pointed at Mist whereas Storm’s message was on an altogether different tone and subject, which she said was private and would not repeat. This lead to quite a rousing discussion about what might exactly have happened to Basil with Mist blatantly suggesting treachery of the part of the absent wizard. While no one could quite agree on what had occurred, they all felt that the faster they could get back to Galvinston, the sooner the mystery might be revealed.
Marpenoth 19, 1319 DR
Meeshani and Gavin received sending’s from Basil at dawn, both of which seemed to conflict with the messages from the day before. It seemed that Basil clearly did not want to be found and had taken the Drow to an unidentified destination with some unknown intentions. After an uneventful trip back to town, the guild checked in with various friends, family and long time acquaintances concerning Basil. The junior adventuring brigade had not seen the wizard since he showed up the day before, walked into the Blythe Bandele Inn and then never walked back out again. Basil’s apprentice then disappeared a short time later and had not been seen since. Meeshani’s mother verified that she had seen Basil the following morning and they exchanged a few sentences concerning the disposition of the Drow children, he took both of the kids and then vanished in a flash of magic. She just assumed the Basil had taken the children to their parents as he had hinted at in their brief conversation.
Checking in with the Constable Rayina revealed several more unexplained murders having occurred down at the Port. Since the guild was busy with the Drow problem, she asked a wandering priest of Lathander named Jorial Skye to poke around for clues. Since Drow issue seemed to be on hold, at lease until the Full Moon, a ten-day away, she asked the group to head down to the port and try to determine the identify of the maniac committing the crimes. Reaching the port by sundown, Mist found a room at the local inn to catch up on her quality time with Elendil, while the rest of the group asked around for the current whereabouts of the worshipper of the Morninglord. They eventually found him at the Cat’s Cradle immersed in a detailed discussion about the true nature of sex with their old friend Shizy.
Jorial was a vibrant young priest, eager to offer help to those in need and willing to carry on vigorous arguments with people with radically different viewpoints without getting offended if the other party failed to disagree. His only real flaw was that he was perhaps the clumsiest person anyone would be likely to meet. Their introductory dialogue was cut short by the discovery of a fifth body being found down by the waterfront. This time around the corpse belonged to a halfling sailor with a tattoo of a silver dog on his fore arm. This clue led the group to speak to the first mate of the Silver Dog trading coaster where it was revealed the deceased bosons’ love of fishing. After tracking down his favorite watering hole, the guild discovered cloven tracks of creatures leading out in the water. The sound of chanting was heard echoing across the water that eventually lead to a hidden cave at the water line out on the far side of the breakwater on the main pier.
Using Gavin’s magical rope to make their way into and through the water filled cave, they stumbled onto a pack of Goat demons performing a diabolical ceremony of some kind on a very odd undead creature called a Vour. The creatures favored the use of A Stinking Cloud spell that nauseated most of the group at some point in time during the relatively short melee. Thankfully, Mist was able to dispel each of the foul-smelling magical effects, keeping the entire group from becoming totally disabled and likely slaughtered. Jorial provided his priestly skills on the form of spell that blasted the undead creature into ash after Storm had hacked into it several times. Investigation of the grotto revealed a pentacle inscribed on the floor with spinal bone taken from each of the murdered bodies at each point of the symbol. The only object found in the area was an undecipherable codex that appears to be made of several intelligent humanoids species skin. Also of interest was that the goat demons appeared to match the remains of the assailants who attacked Dendrail right before he disappeared several years before.
Marpenoth 30, 1319 DR
The Guild arrives at the peak of the pass between Galvinston and Downslope shortly after moonrise to make their appointment to meet with the Drow contingent. Upon arrival, the crest pass appeared to be deserted until a half-dozen Drow suddenly appeared from behind trees, levitating down or dropping Darkness spells. The priestess of Eilistraee and the wizard both approached carefully and listened to the story spun by Mist concerning the origins of their missing children, the apparent treachery of Basil and what they knew about the Zhentarium in the Moonsea area. The entire group of dark elves patiently waited throughout the entire monologue, occasionally interrupting to ask short specific questions about term, names, or locations previously unknown to them.
Once Mist completed her explanation of the situation, the Drow responded with a story about being approached by a group of Zhentarium offering one of their children as a token of good faith and the second if they agreed to terrorize Galvinston. Not only did they refuse the deal outright, they euthanized their own child, and killed all of the Zhent agents, except for one. They sent him back to his masters to pass the message on that they do not negotiate under duress and they will go as far as to kill their own to maintain their privacy and isolationist manner. This particular group of Drow was clearly more concerned with remaining neutral in the region than engaging in politics with anyone. They respectfully asked the Guild to keep their home a secret and thanked them for telling them the truth about the situation, rather then lying and trying to extort them into performing actions against their will.
Intra-Chapter Timeline
1320/Year of the Watching Cold
The Mining Consortium spends most of the year reeling from a sudden absence of a hired wizard. Ore refining and mineral discovery experience a major decline without the addition of magical assistance for various mining different endeavors forcing the consortium to negotiate their first contract with on a year by year profit sharing increase. Repeated attempts to hire a replacement wizard generally end in various disasters up to and sometimes including the death of the applicant. While the presence of the Drow in the nearby region trickles to almost nothing, sabotage, vandalism and straight out terrorism is on the marked increase, clearly from internal sources, likely disgruntled miners. To complicate matters, Zhentarium traders arrive in the area in possession of Mine Shares and open up a mercantile shop at the port. Needless to say, the absence of Basil seems to be the single largest challenge Galvinston had faced in recent memory.
The gallivanting brownie Sage returns shortly at the first spring thaw with a fantastic story concerning the whereabouts of their Guild’s long lost friend and ally Dendrail. Apparently the dwarf had fallen in with a bunch of demons and damned souls trapped within a mystical fortress deep in the far northwestern edge of the Galena Mountains. An unknown set of circumstances and conditions afflicted the nameless fortress keeping it out of flux with time and space from the prime material plane. Only pure fey luck allowed Sage to escape the constraints of the magical structure and return to Faerun. As near as Sage could figure, the building would return to the same location in four years time. He agreed to return to town in the spring at the next scheduled return of the citadel and lead the Guild to its location.
1321/Year of Chains
The general economy of the mine continues to slid downhill even as the port seems to stabilize with alternate sources of revenue coming from increased forestry products from the vast untapped forests in the region. Continued attempts to hire arcane assistance to aid in the general health of the mine end are repeated misfortune. The overall mood of the town and outlying community turn brooding and introspective with blame being laid on anyone that could conceivably be pointed at as a scapegoat. This ends causes many of the alleged saboteurs responsible for various crimes over the years to be turned into the constable. A detailed investigation reveals no real culpable mastermind behind the attacks. Instead the interrogations reveal no single source behind the any of the acts of mining disruption.
1322/Year of Lurking Death
Local politics and in-fighting grind to a complete halt as monstrous attacks reach a 50-year high. Galvinston is attacked by random arrays of goblinoids and orc humanoids from the Grey Wastes of Thar as well as numerous wandering monstrous humanoids and the occasional Giant pouring down through the passes in the Galena mountains from Vaasa. The shanty town of Downslope is practically destroyed by the almost daily assault of hostile creatures leaving behind no stable governmental structure and almost totally lawless. The port manages to remain relatively unscathed from the attacks, causing a small number of the population to migrate out of the main town for safety. All of this has a serious impact both on the local economy as well as town morale. Things goes from bad to worse with the critical wounding of the town Sheriff in battle against a particularly nasty Ogre leaving Rayina on her deathbed at the temple of Auril.
1323/Year of Dreamwebs
Most of this year is spent on reconstruction and repair from the monster attacks of the previous year. This requires attracting additional miners, construction workers and day labors to participate in all of the required repair efforts. This causes the Galvinston to become filled with more and more strangers, some of them only stay a season while others decide to stick around and try to make their fortune. The Mining Consortium begins to learn the hard way why no one else had built roads in such a cold and inhospitable climate as several sections of the highway between the town and the port start to buckle, warp and crack due to the expansion and contraction based on the extreme weather. They also manage to hire a competent dwarven wizard who seems to be able to stand up to the harsh conditions of the local and is able to defend herself from the numerous questionable accidents that had befallen her previous attempted replacements.
1324/Year of the Grimoire
With the help of the new town wizard, the Guild is finally able to decipher some of the details behind the strange codex discovered almost five years ago. Apparently it was missing fragment of the Demonomicon of Iggvilv, a legendary tome of demon lords, that seemed to detail a lesser lord by the name of Eldanoth whose appearance resembles a Tiefling with snakes replacing his fingers. The single page seemed to illustrate a ritual meant to summon an aspect of the Tanar’ri, which based on the configuration of the grotto was what the Artaaglith demons seemed to had been attempting with the undead Vour. By stopping the ceremony from being created the Guild had been able to thwart the lesser Tanar’ri from bringing forth a Aspect of a demon lord right in the middle of Port Galvinston.
Chapter Seven – Temple of the Demonic Winds
Location: Town of Galvinston & Mountains in Northwestern Vaasa
PC Dramatis Personae
Gavin – Halfling Male Rogue 9
Jorial Skye – Human Male Priest 5, Morninglord 4
Meeshani – Gnome Female Scout 9
Mist – Moon Elf Female Bard 9
Raindrop - Human Female Monk 6, Drunken Master 4
Storm - Human Female Barbarian 8, Frenzied Berserker 2
Alturiak 28, 1324 DR
Sage arrived in town shortly after the first thaw of the season, with the ice just starting to break in some sections of the Moonsea. He seemed completely unaffected by the still quite cold temperatures, but in high spirits and wanting to start off on the trip to the citadel. The fey was quite eager to dispatch with the payment of his long owed favor and to return to the realms of the Faerie to be amongst his own kind. He pushed, prodded, coerced, begged and practically loaded all of your gear just to speed up the process of getting you on the way out of town for what he describes as an arduous journey deep into the upper altitudes of eastern Galena mountains. He recommended that you pack the necessary cold weather, climbing and survival gear to facilitate such a expedition. Sage also suggested bringing along enough food for several months to a year if you manage to get stuck inside of the magical citadel for prolonged period of time like he did last time.
Ches 1-24, 1324 DR
Once the Guild managed to get packed up, find someone to cover for their various jobs and roles around town, they finally made their way north over the pass towards central Vaasa. The first ten-day was spent skirting the foothills along the eastern edges of the Galena mountains in the central Vaasan valley with the sole highlight of witnessing a very cold goblin tribe wintering at the remains of Downslope. The next ten-day was spent on the slow and relentless climb of the mountain range during the dead of winter. Very little vertical progress was made, which kept the weather from becoming much more than their cold weather gear could properly handle. Eventually, during the third ten-day they started to gain serious altitude and needed regular magical enhancements to avoid the worst of the inclement weather and oxygen deprivation. Thankfully, they had planned ahead for just such an eventuality, so no one was bothered by anything more than a little tedious physical fatigue by the end of any given day spent hiking through the harsh Galena Mountains.
Ches 25, 1324 DR
Around mid-morning the usual silence of the area was broken by a rapidly increasing low bass hum that seemed to increase over the course of an hour, with no obvious source, becoming more and more intense, before suddenly ending with an audible treble pop. There appeared to be no visible effects of the sound on the nearby terrain until after the noise vanished, when all of the nearby unblemished snow suddenly appeared to have been subtly rearranged as if an minor earthquake had slightly dislodged just the top layers of the fresh snow pack. Clearly something strange had occurred that even Sage was unable to discern, but he was quite sure that they were very near the location of the mysterious citadel and that they would arrive by nightfall at the latest.
A few hours later, several members of the guild heard the sound of something rapidly approaching by air at the top of the ridge and were able to prepare for the sudden arrival of a blue winged Outsider that appeared to be composed of an unholy merging of both ice and flesh. The demonic creature wielded impressive natural spell abilities that focused on the cold and use them to great effect in the initial moments of the battle. It also did its best to both stay aloft and out of melee range while dividing the group up with a dome of ice. It wasn’t until the creature moved in for a direct assault on the group before they were able to truly overcome it defenses and methodically destroy the creature. The corpse then proceeded to melted away before their eyes upon its death as if it had never been. Its origins were a complete conundrum with Mist only being able to speculate that it was likely a Tanar’ri from one of the many cold-based planes of the Abyss.
Trudging along at the altitude was beginning to wear even on Storm, but when they rounded what they thought was yet another snow covered rocky crag and stumbled onto vista overlooking a huge natural canyon they were relieved to have reached their destination. The ravine was filled with swiftly melting ice from the nearby snow fields with a massive stone structure at the far end. Cleary whatever the origin of the building, it came from some place warm enough that it could sustain its own micro-climate. The main feature of the building was a massive stone statue of a dragon over the main entry way along with several strange features spread across the wide roof . Also of note was a group of a half-dozen bluish humanoids that were waging a battle with a Dire Polar Bear in the middle of a pool of freshly melted water by the main entrance. The Guild had to pause to consider just exactly who the potential allies might be and if they might intercede or simply wait until one side eventually emerged victorious.
Ches 25, 1324 (continued)
The Guild ultimately decided to move a little bit closer to the action between the massive ursine and what would eventually be revealed to be a small group of Uldra hunters. Deciding to intercede before things got too out of control, Meeshani, Storm and Raindrop ran ahead to engage with the bear while everyone else rushed to catch up being limited in their speed and ability to keep up. Three of the Uldra when down quickly and a fourth fell just as the Guild joined the battle and dispatched already quite would Dire animal. Things almost went out of control went thanks to Storm’s frenzy, so Mist Fascinated the out of control Barbarian rather than risk her potentially attacking the Uldra. Afterwards, language and communication were an issue initially with the Uldra quite on edge about a group of unknown strangers showing up, even if they aided in the melee with the bear. Even after Storm had calmed down, once it was revealed that the Uldra were Fey, she went to retrieve her Cold Iron weapons based on her past experience with such creatures.
Thankfully, Mist was able to provide a Tongues spell to Jorial who was already quite a competent negotiator even if he did not share a common language with the Uldra. Using Jorial as a common point of translation they learned that they Uldra were from a nearby tribe who traveled to this location every time the temporal citadel reappeared. It was considered a high honor to be chosen by the tribe to enter the structure and part of their rite of passage. Those who passed the test inside went onto become tribal elders, those who perished never returned. The remaining three Uldra felt that they had failed their first test against the bear and were completely unworthy to enter the building, but the Guild had earned that right be rescuing them. In fact, they confused Jorial with one of their Shaman and asked him to perform the death rites on the failed Fey and agreed to stand guard outside to await the Guild’s return.
Deciding that these Fey seemed to offer no real threat and were instead quite useful and providing information, the Guild set about to explore the area before entering. Gavin set about opened up the series of three locks on the massive double doors while Raindrop climbed up to the room to investigate. From above it was clear that the building had three wings with various roof structures, some of which from a distance appeared to be potential ways inside. While poking around underneath the statue of the dragon, Raindrop was suddenly attacked by a trio of tentacled cat-like creatures. Rather than face them alone, she ran and took a controlled fall down the roof using the rope she had climbed up with. The beasts did not follow her down, but they did alert the group to the potential of attackers on the roof. When the rest of the group went up to investigate further, the creatures made their presence known and attacked.
The feline creatures turned out to be a pack of three Displacer Beasts consisting of two smaller and more common specimens and one much larger pack lord. Mist provided minutiae that the magical beasts were under the effects of a permanent Displacement and also had a natural defense against ranged weapons. While the two lesser felines were quite easy to dispatch, the larger one was another story altogether. It used the sloped terrain of the glass roofed arboretum to its advantage along with its impressive reach to pluck Guild members up at random, slash into others with its serrated tentacles all while deftly avoiding most attacks. At one point the battle was so pitched that both Gavin and Jorial almost perished from life threatening injuries before the group was finally able to take the creature down under a protracted assault.
Exploration of the rest of the eastern wing of the revealed two prospective means to enter the structure from the roof, the first required breaking into the glass roofed arboretum and the second was through a hole in the roof of a bronze terraced dome. Regrettably it seemed that an massively large Girallon occupied the interior of the dome, passing time by reading some type of book while lounging underneath an even larger patina bronze statue of a multi-limbed humanoid with a massive belly. Having faced Girallon a few years back, while it was quite odd that a creature or surmised animal intelligence was reading something, its size excluded any potential desire to enter the citadel by this particular entrance.
The western wing was patrolled by a foursome of Chokers that surprised the Guild from around corners as the passed by. At one point everyone in the group except for Meeshani were grappled by the multi-limbed creatures before they were able to disengage from the Aberrations and eventually terminate them. An almost identical metallic dome graced this wing as well, but the insides were quite a bit different consisting of numerous gold embossed sarcophagi patrolled by a fiendish looking Displacer Beast of equally impressive Leopard-like creatures with a ring of tentacles around the nape of their necks that Mist identified as Kamadan. These distant cousins of Displacer Beasts had a nasty breath weapon and poisonous venom amongst their arsenal of natural abilities. Armed with as many as four means to enter the mysterious building, the Guild set about making an informed decision about which path was the best choice.
Ches 26, 1324 DR
After a restful evening spent over the camp fire sharing grilled Dire Bear meat with their new Uldra hunter friends, the group decided to enter the citadel directly through the front door. After checking against for traps, the Gavin and Meeshani moved cautiously inside exploring a large entry hall hundreds of feet wide, cover in serpentine stone carvings, with the prominent features being a single door opposite the main door and a serious of four balconies that overlooked the room at differing heights. Within less than a moment, they both heard the noise of multiple creatures approaching on the balconies. They were quite surprised to see two Girallons appear on the left balconies followed by two Arrow Demons on the right side. While the magical beasts seemed willing to posture and make threats to encourage the Guild, the demons had no such reservations and immediately opened fire.
The forthcoming battle was perhaps the most intense in the long 25 year life time of the Guild. It would have been much worse if Mist had not Fascinated the Girallon with her Bardic music while hiding around the corner from all of the missile weapons who wee attracted to her likes bees to honey to her cursed ring. This left everyone else the task of climbing the walls to take engage the Tanar’ri directly since their raged weapons were only have limited effect due to some type of inherent demonic toughness. Storm was the first to make the climb and in retrospect it was what almost killed her if Jorial had not slid in at the last second to save her from certain death. Yet, her valiant lead was what encouraged the rest of the group to make the same perilous climb, using Gavin’s magical rope, up to the balconies.
The Guild ended up pushing the battle to the hidden stairwells behind the balcony where they had to deal with demons who could summon more of their own kind. In addition well armed Outsides had the natural ability Dimension Door away at their convenience in order to evade being flanked and to take up better ranged combat positions. This made for a very pitched and long battle with heavy casualties on both sides until the last of the Tanar’ri fell. As they tended to tended their wounds, they attempted to be very quiet in order to trick the Girallon who were no longer held sway under Mists music that they had left. Their subterfuge seemed to work, but it also likely left them trapped inside of the building once the main doors were closed and locked again as the Girallon departed. After collecting the magical weapons from their fallen enemies and uncovering a concealed door, the Guild move deeper into the building.
The doorway turned out to be a portal for an elaborate maze. The front half of the maze was littered with desiccated corpses, spider webs and piles of dust while the back half was filled with rotting bodies, moisture dripping off the walls and channels of water flowing down the hallway. Both sections contained numerous statues some of which were little more than terra cotta or granite while others contained guardian creatures that attacked when a member of the Guild passed nearby or investigated. Whither undead or demon, the creatures were dispatched with the usual ruthless efficiency with only minimal effort apart a bit of psionic mental damage to Meeshani and Gavin that no one really noticed being any different from their usual abrasive demeanor.
Ches 27, 1324 DR
The more intriguing portion of the western wing turned out to a room that was still being used to preserve corpses of various shapes, sizes and classifications. Numerous chemicals, mechanism and accoutrement were litter across the chamber with a humanoid body lying prominently on a table in the middle of the room covered in a clear resin. When approached it tried to grab Meeshani, failing that it stood up and started to cast several spells. While the creature resembled a well armored Mummy that radiate despair to those who viewed it directly and whose touch caused disease, none of the usual vulnerabilities applied. Holy Fire seemed to cause it no real damage, it ignored the divinely inspired power of Jorial and seemed to be healed by positive energy. When it died, it actually thanked its killer for the effort before collapsing into a pile of dust and magically enhanced gear.
Hidden inside of the shield of was a strange book that seemed to be blank to everyone but Raindrop. Once she cracked open the book and read a few words, she was infused with a weird level of magical energy that seemed to waft around her body and manifest itself in the form of a pair of rose tattoos that spiraled around her forearms. She appeared both physically healthier and imbued with a bizarre preternatural quickness mere seconds after simply opening the mysterious tome and appearing to read the first few words. Simple divinations and rudimentary health checks revealed that nothing untoward had occurred to the monk. Raindrop claimed that the book was a missing piece of training that had been considered long list by the members of her monk order at the Abby of the Rose.
Moving deeper into the building the Guild was pretty confident that the next room was underneath the eastern bronze dome which means that it was defended by a Fiendish Displacer Beast and a pack of Kamadan’s. First they needed to get through the front door which Meeshani and Storm found out the hard way was trapped with a magical glyph that took all of Gavin’s skills to detect and disarm. Deciding that since the element of surprise was lost, they opened the door and rushed into the room only to have half the group caught inside of a sleep inducing breath weapon from a Kamadan ruining what little tactical advantage they might have had left. Nevertheless they pushed on and manage to soundly thrash the three feline creatures guarding the room in short order.
The guardian creatures had been protecting four sarcophagi, all filled with deceased six armed humanoids. One of the toms was more elaborate that the rest gilded with a diamond and containing armor, weapons and jewelry amongst the remains of the corpse. In addition, tucked away inside of a shield was a book that was titled the Art of Being Dark that only Gavin seemed to be able to read. Mere moments after he opened the book a strange series of shadow-like tattoos spread out from his eyes clearly changing him in some unknown way similar to Raindrop. Jorial seemed concerned that two members of the group were suddenly under the power of strange unidentifiable magic, but when no one else objected, the group moved on to examine the lone exit out of the room.
The other side of the door opened to the exterior of the building at the foot of a waterfall caused by rapidly melting snow. The door was concealed in the side of the build so it had been unnoticed when the group had scouted the room area the day before. Strom volunteered to dive into the pool of water and scout around. But after finding nothing and almost getting sucked down into an underground stream, the group backtracked inside of the building and headed back to a set of stairs bypassed earlier. They made their way through a set of abandoned barracks, ransacked armory and stumbled onto a giant three armed Aberration called an Athach cooking in what might be considered a kitchen if you had the culinary skills of a garbage collector.
Meeshani scouting ahead taunted the creature and drew it back to he rest of the party laying in wait to take it down. Unsurprisingly the twelve tall beast took a great dealing of beating and ripped into Storm with its bloody cleaver quite a few times before it was eventually hobbled and ten taken down. In order to keep Storm from attacking any allies, Meeshani bluffed that other creatures were just down the hallway, prompting the insanely angry barbarian to run down a series of hallways looking for anyone of anything to smash. The end result of this poorly prepared bait and switch was Storm outdistancing the group and smashing open the next closed door that came across her path. Ironically on the far side was what appeared to be Dendrail engrossed in some type of conversation with several different creatures each with multiple tentacles, arms or both. None of them looked all that thrilled to be interrupted and everyone but missing glacier dwarf moved to attack the unexpected intruder.
The lead creature was a Hound of Gloom, a canine with a collar of poisonous tentacles and right behind it was some type of mutated Grey Render. Both creatures clearly focused on unarmed combat with a specialization on grappling and either ripping their opponents to pieces or incapacitating them with toxins. When Storm tried to engage in dialogue with Dendrail, the dwarf either didn’t recognize her or was not under his own control as he ordered his monstrous minions to attack. Dendrail looked and acted quite different that the disagreeable dwarf that everyone had know for years until his mysterious disappearance almost a decade ago. To start Dendrail no longer carried a bow, instead favoring a heavy mace which he wielded in two hands. He also dressed better, seemed to bear himself with considerable confidence and even bothered to groom himself quite meticulously. Something was quite definitely wrong with the man they had come to rescue, so the Guild moved to subdue him and deal with the fiends in a less pleasant manner.
Raindrop played the part of interference with Dendrail and moved into and out grapples over and over, trying to pin the dwarf and perhaps render him unconscious. Each time Raindrop got close to succeeding she was pushed away, yet for his part Dendrail was totally unable to make any offensive ground himself, so the two were locked in an almost constant deadlock. As usual Storm was up at the front lines, but this time around was quite ineffectual, spending most of her time wrapped up in the tentacles of one enemy or the other for the majority of the battle. This gave both Gavin and Meeshani a rare change to move in close and tag team their opponents with direct melee attacks with devastating results. Mist and Jorial continued their usual support role with inspirational singing and first aid wherever it was required.
While Storm almost managed to die not only once, but twice while spending a great deal of time in the grasp of icky tentacled beasties, that die not turn out to be the least of the Guild’s concerns. Once the evil guardians were dispatched, they all moved into try and restrain Dendrail, but they were quickly surprised when the wily dwarf smashed his mace into both Meeshani and Jorial in short order dropping them dead in rapid succession. With the proverbial arms race of the battle suddenly going nuclear, a peaceful resolutions to the struggle was no longer and option so the gloves were taken off and the dwarf was summarily beaten to a pulp. Along the way, bits of flesh and bone were shed as a result of massive wounds to reveal that some type of fiend has possessed poor Dendrail. Perhaps the most horrifying moment was when Mist revealed that the cloven hoofed, winger and goat headed corpse remaining belong to none other than an Aspect of Orcus, the Demon Prince of the Undead.
Fraught with the fact that two of their friends and allies had perished at the hands of a demon who had possessed another friend only served to heighten the tension of the situation. At several moments Raindrop, Gavin, Mist and Storm all almost came to blows trying to determine the next best course of action they should complete after recovering the deceased corpses of their fallen friends in hopes of giving them either a proper burial or coaxing a major deity to restore them to life if they could ever manage to find themselves a way back home again. Eventually first priority was given to find a secure area to rest and recover from the horrendous after effects of the last few hours of battle. After locating a suitable shelter, they set a watch with Storm remaining up all night long with others taking shifts.
Ches 28, 1324 DR
The next day saw an only slight increase in the overall general mood of the remaining Guild members in a positive direction. While they somehow managed to survive the night uneventfully, they were still trapped inside of the strange Shenshite temple with no clear direction. They seemed to have stumbled onto the central nexus of the place, but no one else was around. Searching several chambers revealed sleeping and eating areas with left over food still sitting on the tables and unmade beds. Quite a large amount of valuables were still left lying around so they were collected up as a means to somehow wrench victory from this clearly humbling defeat. As they moved to the very last chamber at the rear of the building, they were loathe to a discover that is was protected by a very same dragon-like creature venerated on the walls, in motifs across the structure and one the room of the building. They were clearly up for another fight for their very lives.
The Shensahti Serpent was armed with a sonic based breath weapon that could also Confuse those affected by it. In addition it was graces with numerous defensive spells to aid it in protecting the treasure cache of the Citadel. Gavin was caught by the secondary effects for the first half of the battle and was unknowingly taking pot shots at Mist which caused much frustration until she realize what was going on and dispelled the effect. Storm and Raindrop were on the front line trading blows with the creature who seemed to excel on Trip attacks caused most of the group to spend more time prone that vertical. Nevertheless, with sheer persistence and large amounts of personal blood being shed, they managed to dispatch the guardian icon of the entire temple complex. They then proceeded to dig their way through the urns the Shensahti had been protecting and removing all items of value before preparing to find a way out and head home.
Their plans were interrupted by what sounded like a alarm originating from a bell. They were able to find the source of the sound, a hidden bell tower and ended using it to climb up and out of the structure and onto the main room area rather than try to fight their way back through the entire structure itself now that anyone inside was aware of their presence. Ironically, the bell tower was not actually an alarm, but in fact to alert the residents of their return of their warlord and his band of bandits. The leader was a massive Yuan-Ti Abomination by the name of Histchok and he stood guard at the front entrance with a pair of Ophidian warriors blocking the escape route of the remaining Guild members. Realizing that they were going to need to run the gauntlet to escape, the band of adventurers set about formulating a plan.
Using a crossbow bolt ensorcelled with a Silence spell taken from one of Mist’s rarely use collection of scrolls, the group silently moved across the roof, dispatched a guard and made their way down to the ground. They then wait for the enemy leader to be almost alone with all of his pillage unloaded before they fired it at him and rushed to engage. The large serpentine humanoid wielded a massive great axe in addition to multiple tentacles spilling out of its side. Storm and Histchok traded massive blows with Raindrop, Mist and Gavin taking out the few remaining body guards who happened to be near by., It was only by a sheer twist of fate that the Yuan-Ti perished a split second before Storm fell down herself. Focusing on retreat instead of any additional engagement, Mist nursed Storm back to health and the entire group absconded with an empty wagon and drove their way out of the isolated mountain valley in the direction of home.
Tarsakh 30, 1328 DR
Arriving back in Galvinston, the members of the Guild were shocked to find out that for each day spent inside the citadel, a year had passed in the real world. All of them had been assumed lost or perished more than four years ago and the town had moved on without them. They were greeted by various children as they walked into town on foot and were meet by the new town Sheriff, and the town wizard, both dwarves, and the four junior members of the adventuring Guild lead by Meeshani and Mariasha’s last remaining sibling Mirushal. Mist’s family had packed up and moved out of town when she never returned, while Raindrop’s New Dawn had tried to unionize the miner and failed, so they had fled the local area to avoid being arrested. Storm’s lone child had returned to town after the completion of his schooling and was living with Storm’s sister Jill. Gavin was the only one without any local family of friends to speak of, so he was the least impacted by this unexpected passage of time.
1324/Year of the Grimoire (continued)
With the vanishing of all members of the adventurers Guild, the Mining Consortium executes a hostile takeover. While the install the last remaining adopted member of the Kiyoshi-Farren family as acting Guild master, he clearly has little say in the day to day functions of the Guild. Members are paid in mine shares based on their tenure and are given free accommodations in the shanty town. The New Dawn quietly moves into the Fairgrounds and begins to erect a formalized headquarters in a direct response to the aggressive actions of the Consortium. Meanwhile a wandering priest of Shaundakul appears from the wilds and opens up a map shop at the Port.
1325/Year of the Great Harvests
The beer and wine of this year are legendary as the bounty of Faerun is quite abundant. As a result, the local Chauntean faith experiences a major up swelling. This prompt the local worshipers of the Earth Mother to kick-off a major agricultural festival that they promise will occur on each and every High Harvestide holiday. A regional dwarven war hero from Damara is installed as the replacement town Sheriff and the adventurers Guild are re-assigned to report to the Constable. The Guild becomes little more than the town militia acting as underlings and lackeys for such mundane tasks as breaking up bar fights, handling unruly sailors and dealing with the occasional rogue wild animal that wanders into town.
1326/Year of the Striking Hawk
The Zhentarium kick off a major economic offensive in town rapidly acquiring several warehouses, the granary, a small Inn, a nearby pub, several fishing boats and marina access at the port. The New Dawn makes a surprising move to organize the miners while the Consortium is distracted by the hostile takeovers, but ultimately fails in its bid to unionize. As a result, the ring leaders flee Galvinston for fear or major reprisals. The town of Downslope is destroyed during a battle between a tribe of goblinoids and a pair of passing Hill Giants. Rumors of a major Bloodstone strike in the nearby kingdom of Damara wrap up a tumultuous year.
1327/Year of the Blue Flame
Snowfall occurs on Mid-Summers to grace the birth of a grandchild to Frostfell clan at the Temple of Auril. A school is built in town by a wandering Oghmite who seems to be completely disinterested in local politics and simply wants to invest in the education of the town’s truant youth. Using adventuring proceeds inherited as a result of the death of two of their adoptive children, the Blythe Bandele Inn goes through a major renovation adding on several floors and improving many of the major features to the business. A small post office opens at the Port offering the ability to send and receive personal messages with guarantees of security and delivery around the Moonsea region.
1328/Year of the Adder
A Temple of Chauntea is consecrated on the site of the former town fairgrounds. This large open air structure is capable of seating all of the nearby faithful who have flocked to the religion over the past several years. The Consortium wizard opens a small shop dealing in potions,, alchemical wonders, curiosities and the occasional magical trinket. The Sorenson clan obtains enough Mine stock to finally gain a seat on the board and uses its new found power to acquire a major trading coaster along with a small shipping fleet. Local gossip suggests that the head of the Human clan is using some type of magic to prolong his life span in order to avoid his children taking over the family enterprise.
1329/Year of the Lost Helm
Frost Giants are spotted at the northern pass from Galvinston into Vaasa. While unsuccessfully trying to keep it a secret, the New Dawn makes a major mineral strike far outside of town and suddenly reappears on the political scene burgeoning with new found wealth. A long time rumor suggesting that Sharess was no longer worshipped at the Cat’O’Nine Brothel is revealed as fact when a major orgy is uncovered purely on accident due to noise complaints from the neighbors. A strange sickness starts to hit miners with no obvious cure or means to resolve. Local clergy of all faiths are stymied as to the origin of the disease which seems to turn the skin of its victims a shade of Scarlet confirming infection.
Chapter Eight – The Scarlet Tide
Location: Town & Mines of Galvinston
PC Dramatis Personae
Gavin – Halfling Male Rogue 10
Mirushal – Gnome Female Wizard 3, Shadowcaster 3, Noctumancer 4
Mist – Moon Elf Female Bard 10
Nameless – Wild Elf – Dragon Shaman 10
Storm - Human Female Barbarian 8, Frenzied Berserker 2
Zodel – Human Male Cleric 10
Uktar 1, 1329 DR
After a month since the initial illness occurred in town, begrudgingly the Mining Consortium initiates attempts to quarantine Galvinston from the outside world to help stem the deluge of infection. The local population has given the name Scarlet Tide to the disease after the shade of skin color of those contaminated turn once they are exposed. The infection vector appears to be touch related and the disease is clearly both magical of evil in origin. Things look quite bleak, with the infected rising into triple digits, but strangely no one has actually died from the disease. Instead they simply become comatose during the daylight hours and need to be force-fed, washed and changed by volunteers. Over the course of several ten-day they become more and more lethargic eventually slipping into a complete coma.
Since the Guild is ultimately ordered by the Mining Consortium, this forces them to get involved with what is clearly becoming a town crisis. Still upset by the takeover of their organization by the Consortium, as usual, they perform a quite lackluster job of keeping the peace. Strangely, amongst all of the people trying to leave town by any means necessary, an unknown wild elf warrior actual tries to enter the enter Galvinston. Apparently, the elf was an outcast from one of the local tribes who had come to finds information about the plague, which also was afflicting his people, as well as to petition to join the Guild. Needing all the help they could and benefiting from the knowledge that the disease had already spread outside of any attempt to contain it, the elf was given conditional membership and put to work.
With little information to work with, it was agreed that Zodel should try a few Divination spells and inquire from his deity in hopes of gaining any type of useful lead. Over a series of four questions asked, only two were answer and both were quite oblique. Yet armed with that data, they were able to determine that of the twelve initially infected people town, six were from the same mine crew. They all had been working on a series of experimental tunnels before coming down with the disease. The mostly likely cause was something that they discovered or stumbled across during their digging. When the Guild petitioned to enter the mine, the Consortium demanded that an experienced crew investigate in detail first before allowing the untrained to poke around an unsafe work zone.
Uktar 2-3, 1329 DR
The experimental tunnel collapses when a crew send by the Mining Tunnel is sent to investigate the potential lead. Due to a number of architectural short cuts taken by the infected former mine crew during the initial delving, the entire area is quite unstable. The Miner are confident that their co-workers are safe on the other side, being prepared for just such a eventuality. As they can do now is take their time to carefully dig out the buckled section of the tunnels, properly bracing them along the way. The initial estimate is that it will take several days to safely perform the excavation. All help offered by the Guild is politely decline by the self-supposed expert miners.
Uktar 4, 1329 DR
The collapsed tunnels are excavated and the all members of the delving crew are rescued. A detailed investigation of the main shaft along with the half-dozen ancillary shafts both by magic and in person reveal nothing strange or out of place. The tunnels are explored using natural vision as well as being aided by a magical light source. Mist conjectures that perhaps some type of magical darkness should be used instead based one of the Divinations made by Zodel a few days back. Everyone agrees that this is a good idea that will have to wait until the priest of Shaundakul is able to pray to his deity for the use the spell on the following day.
Uktar 5, 1329 DR
Members of the Guild are awoken in the middle of the night to either knocks on their doors or the sounds of distraught voices coming from the center of town. It appears that a group of ten of the initial infected, including Storm’s son Jamison, have started to sleep walk are milling about in the streets. No amount of pushing, prodding or cajoling seems to either awaken the individuals or stop them from wandering around aimlessly over time. The Guild tries rather unsuccessfully to dissuade the friends and family that are present to leave the area until the last two remaining individuals from the original infection shamble into the square. The dozen Scarlet Children suddenly all become alert as if under the control of a single presence and then randomly attack the nearest person to them.
Most of the victims were the afflicted loved ones, friends or family, but a few members of the Guild were also part of the initial attack. Once the it became clear that the gathering in the middle of town had gone completely out of control, those not grappled by the Scarlet Tide ran from the area screaming for their lives. Those that were trapped in the embraces of the enemy quickly fell victim to the eyes and tongues of their attackers shooting out like tendrils, kissing them and then dropping the now comatose bodies to the ground. At first the Guild tried really hard to disable rather than kill the innocent towns people afflicted with the Scarlet Tide and clearly not under their own mental faculties, but once both Storm and Gavin receive the Scarlet Kiss and collapsed, more lethal actions were take. In the end, three of the afflicted were burnt to cinders with the rest smashed into various states of unconsciousness via blade, spell or fist.
Strangely, those who were knock unconscious or worse all appeared to still be alive and seemed to manifest trait more in common with plants rather than living humanoids. For their own and others safety, all the afflicted and the newly infected were all bound and restrained. Emergency medical care was provided for all of the newly infected and everyone, including the Guild members, had the taint removed, albeit they still remained passed out even after the healing magic was administrated to them. Everyone consider themselves fortunate that things had not been worse since Jamison was amongst the afflicted and they could only imagine the ire of Storm if they had been forced to kill her only son. As it was, the first victims of the plague had come to Galvinston at the hands of the Guild in defense of the town.
Uktar 5, 1329 (continued)
Divination magic and quite a fair amount of sheer common sense was used on a strange rock was in possession of one of the afflicted dwarven miners that clearly pointed it out to have been the initial cause of the infection. With all signs pointing to the mines, the Guild packed up their gear and head down. After significant trail and error, they were able to use the stone as a key of sorts with the addition of a Darkness spell to act as a catalyst to open up some type of magical portal in one of the experimental bone holes. They then crawled through narrow and constricting tunnels for better part of an hour before the passage opened up into the first large cavern they had seen. There were no immediate signs of any having passed by recently, but it was clear that they were quite deep in the earth, way beyond the range of surface tunnels dug by anyone in Galvinston.
The cavern was oval in shape, filled with stalactites and stalagmites with an exit on the far side that appeared to be some type of lava tube that was much larger than the crawl space the Guild had been previously navigating. As Gavin and Mirushal moved around to search the area on the far end, the gnome was suddenly grabbed from his floating magical disk but a multi-tentacled creature that seemed to be a collection rock on the ceiling on second and something quite carnivorous mere moments later. Several members of the group realized that it was a Balhannoth, a natural Underdark predator that had evolved to snuff out the magic of any creature it touched in order to allow it to feed unhindered. Needless to say, Mirushal was going to have to depend on everyone else to get himself free.
The rest of the group was clearly up to the task with Zodel providing a few well aimed spells, Gavin spending quarrel after quarrel at the creature and Storm jumping him into the air to get in a few well placed licks. At one point Mirushal stopped struggling and was dropped in favor of the nameless Dragon Shaman as the next likely dinner choice of the anti-magical generating Aberration. Storm also figured out that she could climb on top of the magical disk allowing her to get in quite a few extra licks standing around almost in mid-air that her previous jump and run strategies. As usual, Mist provided her usual degree of battle poetry inspiring everyone else into combat formations. Eventually the creature perished, but not before it tried to squish Mirushal into a pulp who had been kept from the brink of death by Zodel.
After a detailed search of the cave revealed no other obvious entrances or exits, nor anything of obvious financial value, the Guild pushed onward. Several hours later and at least one dead end led them to a tunnel that was under guard by a pair of Kuo-Toa. When they moved ahead to try and parlay with the creatures, they were attacked not only by the aquatic humanoids but by a pack of Dragonspawn abominations known as Bluespawn Stonegliders. The creatures were part Blue Dragon and part Termite who glided into and out of the stone like water as well as being so lightning quick that as long as they kept moving, they were quite difficult to land a blow upon.
The combat was just getting under control when the noise of the battle called more creatures to the fray. By sheer luck, Mist pulled out a Sun Rod and its brightness seemed to put the Kuo-Toa into some type of torpor. It was then that everyone realized that the creatures were infected with the same disease as had afflicted Galvinston. The quasi-natural daylight provided by the alchemical item made it quite easy to subdue and destroy the pack of Kuo-Toa. It also proved that the Guild was heading in the correct direction to the ultimate source of the disease that was clearly still some distance deeper into the confusing labyrinth of tunnels.
Once the Guild actually moved into the room that had been guarded by the now deceased Kuo-Toa they came under attack from a burrowing Bulette drawn to them by the vibrations on the ground. Gavin was in the lead and so was smashed against the wall by the massive creature until he was able to tumble away to safety. Storm and the Dragon Shaman moved in to pummel the beast working together as a team aided by Transmutation magic provided by Mist. Mirushal, wary of the battle a few hours before with a creature many times her size, stayed back and provided ranged magical support while Zodel provided both healing and melee coverage when it seemed sensible.
The dust from the first battle had barely settled when the Dragon Shaman stumbled onto another opponent. The main feature of the cavern was a some kind of shrine built in the middle of a pool of water. When the Wild Elf went to swim across to investigate further, a guardian Chuul tried to grab and drown him. Being granted power of his Green Dragon proctor, the elf easily escaped, but we snatched again on dry land. Everyone quickly moved to engage with Gavin blasting away with bolt after bolt and Storm charging ahead. In a matter of moments, the beast was dispatched allowing the Guild to explore the vast underground chamber without interference.
Zodel identified the shrine as belonging to Blipdoolpoolp, the main deity of the Kuo-Toa. Cleary this room was some type of holy location for the aquatic humanoids. General exploration revealed a single exit on the far side as well as several dozen stones infected with the Scarlet Tide that matched he one that had some how made its way up to Galvinston. A more detailed search of the pool and shrine revealed numerous coins, gems and a pair of scorpion carapace bracers from amongst the offerings made at the shrine. Fr her part, Storm climbed around like a monkey through the numerous vertical columns, stalactites and stalagmites looking for hidden treasure caches, secret lair or other exits to no avail. After a few hours of concerted investigation, the Guild decided to moved ahead through the adjoining lava tube deeper into the cavern complex.
They swiftly came to a three way intersection lit by some type of bioluminescent moss or fungus. Along the way they started to noticed cave drawing, caving and painting suggesting that they were nearing what might pass as civilization for a community of Kuo-Toa. The tunnel on the far left lead to some type of work area filled with Chuul, Kuo-Toa and other aquatic species all busy building something. The center tunnel clearly lead to the local village based on the volume of religious and secular artwork that was inscribed along the tunnel. The right tunnel left to a small shoreline littered with mineral and metal ore on the far side of a massive underground lake about a mile across from the city by watercraft.
Unfortunately the last tunnel was occupied by a Lodestone Marauder who had been busy feasting on the rock piles at the beach. Once it was alerted to the presence of intruders it moved down the tunnel to investigate. Mirushal sent a few well placed magic missiles and tried t use the terrain against it only to have the rocky skinned aberration burrow underground and come up from behind the group. The beast had he power of magnetism and use it to try to knock weapons out of enemy hands or known those wearing metal armor prone. Even with this nifty set of tricks, it was no match for the guild and went down under a combined assault. However the noise of the battle attracted unwanted attention from the nearby city forcing the Guild to collect whatever valuable ore they could rapidly appraise and set off for a safer location.
Uktar 6, 1329 DR
After much discussion and planning about how the might surprise anyone approaching the beach head, they choose discretion over valor. The Guild backtracked to the defaced Shrine and spent the night safely tucked away in the extra-dimensional space provided by a Rope Trick spell. On the following morning they discovered a pack of Kuo-Toa with a pair of Yugolith mercenaries poking around the chamber looking for potential intruders. A Priest of Blipdoolpoolp was amongst the expedition and was in the process of trying to repair the damage to the holy shrine both physically and spiritually. Thinking that they could try to parley with the creatures, the Guild unexpectedly came crashing down from their hiding place with nothing but malice on their minds in the eyes of the resident defenders. Therefore, rather than any useful conversation being conducted between potential future allies, things immediately turned violent with missile weapons being hurled by the Kuo-Toa.
Ruby led the way dangling from the end of a rope brightly lit by a spell provided by Zodel. As a result, he took the brunt of the initial assault until he dropped safely into the water around the shrine. Mirushal stepped out on a floating magical disc and provided magical cover while Mist and Zodel began to climb down the rope. Not wanting to get caught behind slower allies, Storm climbed across he ceiling and made her way down one of the stone columns that supported the main cavern. Gavin spent some time trying to snipe from the relative safety of the portal before climbing down the rope and dropping into the water as well. What no one was prepared for was he extensive reach of this sub-species Yugolith called Voor. While they were just over nine feet tall, they each had four whip-like appendages that were almost twenty feet in length and a preternatural quickness to use them rapidly whenever anyone let their guard too for even a second.
As it turns outs, the Kuo-Toa, while good enough on spontaneous offense to knock Ruby senseless and unconscious, there were unable to follow through on their lethal threats. Even with Gavin being out of the battle for failing to remember that no one had even taught him to swim, this turned out to be of overall little consequence. Zodel kept busy pumping healing spells through a Great Status spell while Mist provided a inspiring song and Storm went off with her usual berserker frenzy after making her way down to ground level. Once Ruby was roused he also provided some of his trademark acidic breath weapon from any adversary slow enough to not get out of the way.
The battle quickly moved from a botched parley to a complete route in a mere thirty seconds leaving only a single Kuo-Toa left behind who surrendered hoping to be cut down on the shrine to provide some measure of faith to its deity. Attempts at interrogation yielded next to no information from the petulant captive. Eventually the creature was put out of its misery when something strange happened. The death of the Kuo-Toa in the water of the shrine to its own goddess prompted a verbal response from the divine being. Only Mist was able to understand what was spoken thanks to a previously cast Tongues spell. Based on the strange behavior of the former captive combined with the cryptic statement of Blipdoolpoolp suggested that there were at least two factions of Kuo-Toa in the nearby city. One that was in league with whomever was infected and another that was trying to do something to resolve it.
Deciding to push ahead back in the direction of the city, the Guild made a stop at the labor camp. Using light based spells to drive off infected creatures along the way, they stumbled onto something quite unexpected. All of the infected had been busy harvesting a red, mossy type plant that was growing over the entire surface of the nearby stream. Based on the consistency and texture of the plant matter, along with the symptoms of the infected suggesting that they were transmuting into some taxonomy of vegetation, clearly indicated that the red fungus was the main cause of the Scarlet Tide. Following the stream towards the underground city lead the Guild to unattended gates of the derelict metropolis. It was going to take some exploration of the moss encrusted structures to find the source of the flora in order to destroy it.
They warily entered the market on the outskirts of the city and saw nothing but corpses, debris, signs of a riot and the occasional scavenging lizard, The city appeared to be complete deserted and empty with no obvious signs of the thousands of Kuo-Toa who must have dwelled there. They decided to focus their initial foray at a lone stone building that sat alone on an island completed surrounded by walls. The red moss had grown over the surface water and seemed to bear weight when walked upon. Ruby used his acidic breath to slowly eat away at the surface of the structure and was immediately under attack from a group on infected Kuo-Toa trapped inside. Judicious use of bright light and melee weapons dealt with the creature who had been trapped inside due to the extreme growth of he red moss. When nothing inside the build yielded any more clues, the Guild moved on.
Climbing back up on the interior walls of the city, the Guild could make out several buildings of notice further inside. Their first stop was the ransacked remains of what had been some type of museum before moving onto the main temple of Blipdoolpoolp. The build was a combination of a circular and pentagonal shapes. It had five exterior doors, all locked and barred from the inside. All of the noise made by the Guild was heard by whomever had barricaded themselves inside. Eventually they opened up a dialogue via magic with Mist under the effect of a Tongues spell.. The Kuo-Toa were clearly quite dubious of strange foreigners claiming to be able to cure the disease. Mist was able to negotiate a means to enter and talk with the Kuo-Toa inside after proving herself with some type of magical test. Everyone participated in and passed the test except for Ruby whose likely cause for failure was defiling the Shrine the day before.
Under general agreement of a truce and that Ruby not enter the temple, the doors were opened and information was passed back and forth between both parties. Storm was actually asked to enter to the center of the temple to have divination magic cast upon her to prove that she had been previously infected but then later healed of the Scarlet Tide. The parlay was proceeding along quite well when the sounds of a trapped entrance up on the roof previously set off by Storm were heard and intruders of some kind managed to penetrated the temple from above. Within moments, the Kuo-Toa priestess was slain by enemy magic, breaking the bonds control over a pack of Yugoliths and Forge Wraiths who turned on both Guild and the other Kuo-Toa alike. Melee immediately broke out as everyone moved to defend themselves against hostile enemy forces.
Right before the priestess died, she provided a defensive Blade Barrier spell that interposed the main floor of the temple with the open areas of the levels above. This gave everyone a brief moment of respite to deal with the unexpected attackers on the main floor before whatever had breached he defenses above had made their way down to the main level. For their part the undead briefly attacked Ruby & Storm before flying off to attack something on the other side of the barrier. They behaved like there were under some type of Confusion effect. Occasionally attacking both enemies and allies alike, which is impossible for most undead to be under the influence of. Also instead of discorpreating upon death, they flow back into the corpse of the High Priestess as if they were really part of her mortal essence than actual undead.
Meanwhile the Yugoliths used their expansive reach via their multiple tentacles to grapple with the nearest opponents and attempt to rend them into pieces. Working as separate units, the Guild dispatched five of the size without taking significant harm thanks in part of a Fugue spell provided by Mist that kept half of the extraplanar mercenaries off guard or under constant damage. The last was cut down under the combined efforts of the Kuo-Toa temple guards who them rushed to their fallen priestess to see if they could revive her. Shortly thereafter the Blade Barrier was dispelled by something on the upper levels and infected Kuo-Toa started to make their way down. The board majority of them fell catatonic when they came within range of a Daylight spell cast upon Ruby’s shield, but some seemed immune. It seemed that the real battle for the temple and the city was bout to take place momentarily.
The band of unlikely heroes was given only a mere moment to prepare before creatures started to move down from the upper levels and attack. Leading the charge was a group of Briarvexes, a hybrid humanoid plant creature that seemed to be infected with the Scarlet Tide, but still remained immune to the light vulnerability. These creature had a rather annoying ability to pummel opponents and then later use the briars left behind in their wounds to rip and tear into them at a later time, even at range, as if the briars themselves had a mind of their own. Luckily some of the Kuo-Toa temple guard guards were around to help provide some offensive and some nastier creatures ripped through the exterior doors of the temple and attacked.
Leading the charge was a massive infected Kuo-Toa Leviathan that had a good half-dozen of the infected stones embedded into its skin. Throughout the course of the battle, this creature managed to swallow Mist and only through the insanely quick thinking and self-sacrifice of Zodel was she managed to almost certain death. The priest of Shaundakul actually voluntarily followed mist down into the gullet of the monster and kept her alive long enough for Storm and Ruby to dispatch and cut open the stomach of the beast before both occupants were burned alive by the vitriolic intestinal acid. The death of the massive beast caused the strange stones around its neck to dissipate into smoke and vanish.
The remainder of enemy were a horde of Uchuulon, a ooze warped variant of the common Chuul and a cadre of Echinoloth, another type of Yugolith mercenary. These new shock troops were all paralyzing tentacles and nauseating auras. The sheer quantity, physical size and volume of attacking creatures made for a deadly battle. Over the course of the fray every member of the Guild, except for Mirushal was seriously wounded or worse and all of the defending Kuo-Toa were slaughtered to the last fishy corpse. The several minute long affair was certainly both the longest and potentially most deadliest conflict the Guild has faced in their thirty year careers.
In the aftermath, they raided the bodies of the fallen Kuo-Toa and the temple for anything of value before looking for the mysterious spellcaster who had killed the Priest of Blipdoolpoolp. The found the Theurge on the third floor, collapsed into unconsciousness due to the presence of bright light, but still alive. Rifling through its possessions revealed a strange stone similar to the other stones at the Shrine cave and around the neck of the Leviathan. When Mirushal calmly picked it up she found herself rapidly infected with Scarlet Tide and collapsed due to the nearby light source. Based on the all of the clues discovered, the renegade Kuo-Toa was the likely cause of the heinous disease and the stone was its creation.
After collecting up everything of value, patching up their various wounds as best as possible, the group decided to strategically retreat out of the city rather than trying to camp within the temple. Shouldering the comatose bodies of the Kuo-Toa Theurge and Mirushal, they set out and warily made their way back from whence they came. Along the way, they saw remains of infected Kuo-Tia littering the streets as well as numerous Chuul who were preoccupied with the sudden bounty of fresh food left lying abbot in the form of corpses. As a result, they were able to navigate their way back to a relatively space place to camp without any interference from hostile creatures.
Uktar 7, 1329 DR
The following morning found Ruby & Gavin having come down with Filth Fever, likely from the Bulette a few days before that required immediate attention. Immediately thereafter was the quite grim and bloody interrogation and torture of the captive Kuo-Toa for any information that might lead to the cure of Scarlet Tide. Only Mist seemed to be bothered by the treatment of the prisoner and flat out attacked Storm to try to make her stop to no avail. Eventually enough information was dragged from the prisoner as to give clues, but it ultimately killed the Kuo-Toa in the end. Zodel used he proper selection of spells to remove curses and diseases to eventually relieve Mirushal of all symptoms of the Scarlet Tide. Albeit, she still remained unconscious, likely requiring extensive bed rest to recover fully. Fully mended, the Guild activated the portal using a Darkness spell and the master stone, destroying it on the other side and made their way back through the mine shafts to Galvinston.
Returning to town, they were met by guards inside the experimental portion of the mine who then escorted them to the surface. Mist was sent off to explain their misadventures over he past few days to the Foreman on duty while Storm went to the Temple of Auril to share the details with the clergy there. Ruby and Gavin dropped off Mirushal with his family to allow him to rest and recover and then joined everyone at the temple. They all ran into Raindrop, who had returned to town after more than a year to seek a cure for her mine Foreman; Grimble Grimble. After the details of the cure were shared with all of the towns healers, they set to work on tending those the most worse off. With the limited number of healers in town working around the clock, the cure would still take several ten days to pass along to everyone who was infected.
As night came, everyone gathered at the Blythe Bandele Inn for rest and relaxation. As usual whenever they returned victorious, they were not paying for any of the food or drinks. Shortly after sun down the militia alarm sounds and when everyone went outside to investigate, strange lights were seen to be emanating from the Temple of Auril. Grabbing their gear and rushing to the look into the problem, they passed screaming towns folk running for their lives. Some type of creatures had appeared inside of the holy sanctuary and were slaughtering clergy, disease victims and their families alike. Realizing that perhaps the demonic patron of the Kuo-Toa who created the disease was likely the cause, the Guild members rushed ahead and entered without any strategic forethought or planning.
Inside of the former consecrated build were a random assortment of Purple Fungi an a Vrock all lead by an Aspect of Zuggtmoy. The patron demon of disease, slime and fungus had come to Galvinston to acquire some modicum of revenge for the destructions of its plans in the subterranean Kuo-Toa city. It was using is demonic powers to turn innocent bystanders into Purple Fungus by ingesting them and vomiting them out again. Both Storm and Mist experienced the fist half of the procedure first hand, with the frenzied barbarian being able to cut herself free on her own while the bard requiring significant assistance to avoid almost certain death. Raindrop & Zodel went face to face to the Vrock and the poor monk took the brunt of the damage when she became infected by the demons supernatural spores which overcame her natural immunities Meanwhile Gavin and the barely conscious Mirushal blasted away at the Fungus and the Vrock.
While the Guild was eventually able to overcome the demonic presence and escape with the lives, there were numerous fatalities on the part of the town people who had depended on the Temple of Auril as a safe house against such attacks. Someone the Tanar’ri had overcome the most basic protective abjurations of Auril and turned the turned the make shift hospital into a charnel house. Whither fate or luck, both Storm’s son and Raindrop’s adjutant managed to escape death, but dozens of others were not so lucky. The ramifications of the bloody battle and the search for the cure for the plague would likely dwell on the minds of everyone in Galvinston for years to come. With some the emotional scars would fade with time, but for others, they would place the blame on whatever convenient target they could find.
1330/Year of The Marching Moon
With the increased threat from the northern wastes emininent, construction begins on town gates leading to the pass through the Galena Mountains. The long term goal of the Mining Consortium is to finally build defendable walls around Galvinston as protection against all external threats. While initially starting as nothing more than a bar fights and back alley mugging, a full on gang war erupts in the Port between the Zhentarium and a new group calling themselves the Wickermen. To complicate matters, sabotage and other terrorist activities start back up again, mostly targeted at the mining operations. Blame is pointed at the two rival groups, but rumors suggest a third well-funded, but yet unnamed, organization has set up shop in the area and is looking to shake up the local political climate.
1331/Year of The Leaping Dolphin
Internal strife between the town militia and three different rival groups threatens to become out of control. Regular citizens start to complain loudly to anyone who will listen, whither it be local clergy, the sheriff, or even their favorite bartender. The town jail swiftly becomes overflowing every night of the week with miscreants, malcontents and drunk disorderly cases. To make matters worse, rumors of internal factional issues within the nearby Baronies of Damara reaches Galvinston. Apparently numerous assassination attempts within the Baronies have sent several nobles into hiding in the Galena mountains. Damaran adventurers, mercenaries and bounty hunters alike are suddenly seen all over the nearby area looking to make quick coins and thereby adding more fuel to powder keg of the local crisis.
1332/Year of The Sword and Stars
In an unusual display of diplomatic openness, the Mining Consortium invites all factions, organizations and public interest groups, both public and private to the Mid-Summer collective bargaining tables in hopes of resolving the internal crisis before it breaks out into a full blown civil war. Agents from all major and a few minor groups send representatives, diplomats and ambassadors to participate in the talks. Based on feedback, a great council is proposed and free elections are held for the first time in the region. The newly elected councilors immediately descend into bickering and general disagreement as they try to formalize the first session of the new government.
1333/Year of The Striking Falcon
Known Zhentarium agents suddenly become quiet within the eastern edge of the Moonsea. Demons are seen with increasing frequencies in the marshes of central Vaasa. The fey stones slowly start to behave quite erratically and unpredictably. One day it will snow, a week later it will be completely overgrown with plant life or covered in mold spores while by the end of the month the entire area had changed color to a rather nauseating shade of yellow. The stockade walls around the city of Galvinston are finally completed after massive cost overruns threaten to bankrupt the Mining Consortium. Almost immediately the price of land within the walls of the town skyrockets in value.
1334/Year of The Blazing Brand
Two previously unknown spell casters of questionable, but undeniably powerful backgrounds, Manshoon and Fzoul, with the help of their beholder allies, become the new lords of Zhentil Keep. The new formalized alliance between the Zhentarium and the Church of Bane publicly announce their intention to take over all trade and religious faith for the western Moonsea region. In response, all major Moonsea cities expel all known Zhentarium agents in an effort to avoid being take over from within by a fifth column. The Black Hand retaliates by announcing a Jihad against all non-believers of Bane and begins to recruit forces from across the region. Zhentarium presence in Galvinston increases ten-fold in a rapidly short period of time creating all kinds of strife predominately in the port.
Chapter Nine – The Twilight Tomb
Location: Galvinston & Faerie
PC Dramatis Personae
Gavin – Halfling Male Rogue 10, Guild Thief 1
Mirushal – Gnome Female Wizard 3, Shadowcaster 3, Noctumancer 4
Mist – Moon Elf Female Bard 11
Nameless – Wild Elf – Dragon Shaman 10
Storm - Human Female Barbarian 8, Frenzied Berserker 3
Zodel – Human Male Cleric 10
Ches 15, 1334 DR
Raindrop was visiting with Storm when a knock on the door revealed a surprising visitor in the form of the Fey named Sage astride none other than a Faerie Dragon. Think that she wanted to avoid any untoward violence, Raindrop slipped outside and parleyed with the two Fey rather than risk Storm going berserk and killing them both. Sage revealed that something untoward was occurring in Faerie and was hoping that his old friends might be interested in helping out. Raindrop gathered all of the Guild together and they all met up at the Fey Mound to discuss the particulars. At first Storm was quite wary about helping the Fey with anything until it a pack of Energon’s, energy based Outsiders, spilled forth from the portal to Faerie and attacked everyone nearby. When it was clear that whatever was causing the Fey Mound to act so erratically was likely threatening the entire town, the distrustful Barbarian reluctantly agreed to render assistance.
The other side of the portal was unlike what they had expected based on the initial description by the two faeries. A night realm covered by a rough sea stretched to the visible horizon. A narrow bridge transversed the distance between the arrival point on a small island to a translucent crystal tower. Several other towers were visible nearby through the fog thanks to several sparking light sources shining from within each structure. A massive skeletal serpent lie atop the main bridge as if a guardian, but suggested no movement so perhaps it was little more than a warning. Magical investigation of the area revealed additional bridges and a guardian golem protecting each causeway. A glass golem was hidden amongst the bones of the deceased serpent standing guard in front of a large double doorway.
Prior to Sage leaving to look for help, the nearby area was a bright sunny day, with crystal clear coastal waters and massive tower grown from the stone and trees. He blamed the radical transformation on a planar rip that was being caused by the invaders. Based on the transition from light to dark and from organic to crystal, Mirushal surmised that the intruder were from a less known elemental plane closely related to either Earth or Dust perhaps nearby to the Plane of Radiance. Whatever the source, it favored creatures made from energy or crystal based on the presence of four constructs built from mixtures of those two different source materials. This also explained the amplification sonic based energies with a slightly weaker gravity allowing for easier climbing and jumping.
After becoming quite annoyed that neither their extra-dimensional luggage nor a Rope Trick spell seemed to work near the portal, Mirushal conjured up a rustic structure that grew up from the crystalline rock and everyone settled in for the night. The two elves started to see creatures in whatever reflective surfaces that happened to be nearby, first with a mirror carried by Ruby and then along the walls of the magically created hut. Eventually a an initially mirror-like creature crawled out of one of the interior walls and attacked, but was dispatched without much effort. Mist called the creature a Susurrus which was more known for attacking undead rather than living creatures. Obviously something really weird was occurring this close to the planar rift and the Guild would have to keep a watch out for other strange occurrences or out of character behavior.
Ches 16, 1334 DR
Fresh from a marginally interrupted period of rest, the Guild easily dispatched the Glass Golem guarding the entrance to the main tower thanks to several sonic blasts provided by Zodel. and then immediately set about exploring the interior of the transformed edifice. Corpses of numerous Fey were scattered across the main foyer surrounded by piles of dust, dirt and other mineral substances. A huge glass statue of a Fey dominated the room and while Ruby initially thought it might attack, it remained quite dormant. A pair of Gulgar on the other side of a door were not quite so friendly and attacked with their sonic blasts before letting lose with their warhammers. Storm, Ruby & Raindrop simply waded into melee and chipped away at the earthen humanoids with Gavin providing ranged critical hits until nothing was left but a pile of rocks and some next to worthless granite based armor and weapons.
A nearby room’s main feature was a active fountain with several Fey bodies floating in the water. A trail of blood lead from the fountain to one of two doors in the room. When Raindrop went to investigate, a pair of Walking Walls stepped out from adjacent spaces to the doors and started to pummel her. The noise of combat alerted a small group of Crystalline Trolls on the far side of the door who agilely moved into attack. The battle was on and for once in a long time, while Raindrop was in the thick of things, she could do no wrong. Of course, having the Bardic Music backup of Mist, ranged magical support from Mirushal and little bit of medical first aid from Zodel certainly did not hurt. It did not take long before all of the creatures were disabled and eventually dispatched. The Troll lair yielded a collection of magical items clearly harvested from the deceased Fey seen in previous rooms. It was all collected and codified for later evaluation.
Moving upstairs the second floor, the Guild encountered the first organized and tactical response from an enemy force. Upon entering the remains of a large former ballroom, they were attacked from an overlooking balcony by four silvery humanoids. Mist later identified the enemy as Nerra from the Plane of Mirrors once she was able catch her breath again after being the focus of the ambush. The Neera had several unique qualities including being able to fire blasts of mirror shards out of their hand and to reflect most spells cast against individual Nerra. They used the strategic position of the balcony to rain down missile attacks until the Guild was able to climb, fly, or otherwise use magic to move into melee range. Once every were able to move in close they made short work on the Nerra.
Exploring the rest of the second floor revealed an exterior door that lead off to two more towers, a partially collapsed section and a mostly empty office. The office contained a desk which had several hidden compartments. Each contained a decanter that when one was opened by Ruby revealed itself to be a Swarm of Elementites that attacked. The tiny creatures tried to destroy the remaining decanters and free their brethren, but failed once the Guild realized their tactics. Everyone quickly grabbed a container and raced away except for those best capable of handling a large volume of very small nuisance creatures. This left the Guild in possession of three Decanters filled with an unknown type of Elementite Swarm that they might be able put to good use elsewhere.
The third floor was completely empty except for another external door leading out to the fourth crystal tower and a trapped hallway that was being used as a hiding place for an actual still living Fey. The Fey called himself Mistletoe and it seemed that he and Sage were somehow previously acquainted. Mistletoe had been hiding out and drawing invaders into the reusable trap for some time and was quite surprised to discover someone who was not initially out to do him harm. As with most Fey, he had no reasonable sense of time, so could not really provide any details on how long the invaders had been present. However, he did provide a few details as to the origin and goals of the attackers.
The planar raiders seemed to come in all shapes and sizes, but the Neera appeared to be in charge of the invasion. Once the four towers were taken, the spellcasters of some kind detached them from the Plane of Faerie and were slowly moving them to the Plane of Mirror through an unknown process. This was what was causing everything to slowly transmute into crystal from its natural wooden state. Golems were placed outside of each tower with some type of password used to bypass them. Regular patrols of disposable shock troops did occur between towers, so it would be difficult to avoid notice for too long. Enemy forces seemed to be heaviest at the tower reachable via the third floor exit. The floor fourth of this tower was little more than an observation area and was empty.
Deciding to fortify themselves in order to partake of a prolonged period of rest, the Guild made camp behind relative safety of the mechanical wall trap. This ended up being rather a wise decision when a pair of Gulgar commandos showed up looking for the cause behind their missing allies. The compressive nature of the trap combined with Ruby being quite alert on watch allowed the attack to be funneled through the narrow and trapped hallway. Defending the small room where everyone was camped out was then a simple matter. The Guild avoided heavy casualties other than the usual front line melee fighters. Once the earth based elementals were reduced to a pile of crystals like others, the trap was reset again and the rest period passed without any further incident. Yet, all members of the Guild experienced some rather vivid dreams unique to each individual while the Fey had no similar occurrence.
Ches 17, 1334 DR
The following day had the Guild deciding to explore the Throne Tower first, hoping to surprise the leaders of the invasion force. They needed to deal with the guardian Sand Golem with a nearby Ice Golem protecting the Tomb if they wanted to enter either location. In an extremely rare moment, Mirushal actually participated in direct combat with the Ice Golem in order to keep the rest of the Guild from being out flanked. He had some assistance from both Mist and Sage as well, allowing time for their more physically imposing allies to dispatch the first of the constructs. Perhaps the most impressive tactic of the battle was when Storm reversed an attempt by the Sand Golem to push him off the narrow walkway down to the water below and instead managed the leverage to send the construct to its own demise instead.
After bashing their way through the front doors of the Throne Tower, they discovered that the only way in was up an eighty foot tall sheer crystal wall. There was no way to tie a rope, no obvious means to control a lift and the circular walls were too wide for reach across. While some of the group had the ability to fly to travel extra-dimensionally there was no easy means for the entire Guild to make it up safely. With the strange behavior of their magical storage devices as a concern, they felt that using travel magic might be a bit risky. After some discussion, they decided to proceed to the Library first and see if they could discover an easier way to navigate the obstacle. If not, then they had several different ideas on how they might be able to bypass the formidable passage.
Gavin was able to force open the Library doors and standing in the Foyer just inside the door was a pair of Stone Children. One activated some type of defensive magic item while the other warned the Guild members to return to their home plane in Terran. With Mirushal translating, Ruby decided to force the issue and walk into the Foyer which prompted the Stone Children to close and relock the door. Faced with the potential of a trapped ally, alone on the other side of a door faced with potentially hostile forces, Storm immediately went berserk and smashed the door down with a single swipe of her battle axe. The rest of the group than moved into to engage with the enemy.
Thanks to a Stoneskin like property from a magic item used by one of the two adversaries, he managed to stay standing longer than his peer. Rather than wait around for Gavin to unlock another door, Storm bashed down another one and moved ahead to smash a third. When that door managed to withstand her amped out physical prowess, she turned her anger to anyone who happened to be nearby, starting with Raindrop. While Mist tried to calm Storm down with her music, Storm was able to resisted somehow.
Raindrop managed to disarm Storm, but then her Frost Rage activated in some type of previously unseen manner. Thinking quickly, Rudy started to taunt Storm which focus all of her rage on the Dragon Shaman who was able to bear the brunt of the attack until Storm was able to calm down. This would have been the end of it, except that the Faerie Dragon tried to its Breath Weapon to get things under control and failed miserably. The Fey fled when they received an retaliatory swipe for their interference and then the tense moment passed.
Exploration of the nearby rooms revealed a pair of privies and piles of supplies, bed rolls and other items one would need to barrack a small army. Ruby was able to identify the magic item from the body of the Stonechild as a Skin of the Mineral Warrior. The skin flowed over the bearer for less than a minute a day imbuing them with a potent array of defensive and offensive based magic based on the Elemental Plane of Earth. The last remaining door lead to a small office, likely used by an enemy commander with another door in the rear. Several stone tablets were scattered on the desk containing requisitions, patrol logs, contingency orders, but nothing of value.
When Gavin went to explore another door, a pack of Nyth who had been hiding invisibility near the ceiling. While their were only four of the creatures really only armed with an endless supply of Magic Missiles, once Mirushal tried to use a Fireball on them, they multiplied to eight rather quickly. As the Guild learned the hard way the Nyth absorbed Fire and Electricity, using it to heal themselves as well as reproduce. At least Sonic and Acid based energy seemed to be effective, so they used a combination of both to vanquish the mosquito like creatures. Hidden amongst the litter behind the doorway was a collection of magical trinket and a chimney-like crawl space that lead down the main level of the Library.
The next level down seemed to contain a mostly derelict and empty research depository that was protected by a small groups of Liths’. Two of the gargoyle like creatures jumped the Guild right inside the main door way from on top of the shelves while the third provided magical support from across the room. Once dispatched, the Guild surveyed the room and found that it was completely devoid of all periodicals, scrolls or devices to store information, which was quite odd for being in a library. There were four crystal statues of Fey creatures in the middle of the room, each containing a sconce to place a large tear shaped gem into around the forehead area. Unfortunately, no gems shaped objects were anywhere in the room and the gems discovered along the way did not seem to activate any of the statues.
Finding the stairs, the proceeded down to a small foyer and a room filled with wall to wall mirrors. Ruby was quite nervous about the mirrors due to the previous problems with local creatures walking out of reflective spaces. Gavin was able to determine that a portion of the mirror was trapped, subjecting anyone contacting it to a massive electric shock. Mist pointed out that the same area contained some type of concealed or secret door, so they needed to disable the trap. When Storm tried to smash the mirrors, she was surprised to have the attacked reflected back onto herself as if the copy of her battleaxe in the mirror was able to swing out and cut into her. Eventually the trap was disable, the door was opened and revealed a flooded research laboratory.
Clearly this lower level was below the water line of the ocean outside which had flooded it to the depth of around four feet. Numerous tables, benches, shelves and other furniture stuck out above the water including an operating table than seemed to contain a partially finished Flesh Golem in a slow state of transmuting into silicon. Since Ruby was at home in the water, he started to investigate the area with Raindrop following behind. Ruby ended up stepping onto an Earth Glider hiding under the water and was thankful that Zodel had cast Heroes’ Feast earlier in the day protecting him from the poisonous horns.
Raindrop ended up suffering the brunt of the initial attack after Ruby moved back hoping to draw the creature back to try land. The tactic did work, but not as expected when the Earth Glider burrow through walls and started to attack the opposite flank where the more melee challenged portion of the Guild has been standing. Ruby & Storm managed to backtrack through the water, Raindrop got healed by Zodel and they all attacked given Mist, Gavin and Mirushal a change to move away and provided tactical assistance more suitable for their individual skills. Finally after numerous near strikes and misses, the Guild managed to damage the creature enough for it to retreat for a short period of time and move to the flank again before finally being destroyed without anyone suffering from a fatality.
A through search of the laboratory revealed numerous coins, gems and items of value locked up inside of a vault. Also inside was a tear-shaped gem that Mirushal confirmed worked in the statues up in the main library. The gem contained the memories and thoughts of the Jester of the Fey Court as he witness the initial stages of the invasion from the Plane of Mirrors to the Plane of Faerie. It provided some insight into the tactical nature of the invaders, how many troops, where all of the Fey had vanished to and other important details. They also found a magical crystal rod which no clear use other than as an elemental control device. Deciding to play it safe, the Guild made camp for the evening, fortifying themselves inside of the flooded vault area for their protection.
Ches 18, 1334 DR
Heading straight for the throne room, the Guild encountered the Crystal Golem immediately upon moving onto the causeway between the Entry Tower and the Throne Room. The construct had an annoying habit of dispelling magical effects and then using the energy to power its own healing while at the same time trying to push all assailants off the edge to the depths of the water below. Both Ruby and Gavin were on the wrong end of a Bull Rush and ended up treading water until help arrived to swiftly return them to battle. Only through sheer tenacity and constantly beating, blasting and bullying the massive pile of animated gem stones were they able to finally defeat it.
Initially apprehensive about traps due to a earlier mishap, Gavin was bullied into examining the front door in the absence of any helpful Fey. Ironically, the door was indeed trap with a dead fall wall in place of the front door that almost squished him and Ruby much to the intense amusement of the rest of the guild. Inside of the door way was a sheer columnar tunnel with no apparent means of entry until the scepter found in the locked vault of the Library was activated, summoning small Air Elementals to carry everyone up the shaft. Once on top, they entered what appeared to be the main throne area accented by almost life-like statues of Queen Titania and King Oberon. While they could not be exactly sure, they guess that the crystalline figures were most probably the actual rules of Faerie, trapped by the Transmutation magic shifting the entire plane into a realm of reflective surfaces.
Passages lead in both directions away from, the main room and back tracked following the curvature of the tower. Each hallway ended in a single, identical doorway. Deciding to head left first, they carefully check for the presence of traps, secret doors or other pitfalls. Once at the door, Gavin confirmed that it was indeed trapped by a undeterminable magical effect. When he initially tried to disable the effect, he managed to set off a Prismatic Spray effect which he deftly avoided. When Mirushal mentioned that the spell effect was random deadly effects, Ruby decided to try and use his breath weapon to take down the door in a more direct method. Unfortunately, while he was able to avoid several effects, one of them managed to send his body off to another plane of existence leaving the group suddenly without the presence of their quite formidable Dragon Shaman.
Extremely frustrated and bolstered by Divine Magic from Zodel, Storm proceeded to bash the door down, ignoring all remaining effects. Yet when all the dust had settled, the entrance was false and did not contain anything but a blank wall on the far side. Searching the other doorway revealed another magical trap in the form of a Chain Lightning spell that Gavin was able to dispel on the second attempt with the aid of Bardic Inspiration from Mist. Yet the door would still not open, apparently under some other type of magical effect. Undaunted, Mirushal applied a Knock spell to the entrance and was rewarded with it opening to reveal a room on the far side. A small entry hall lead to a much larger room and filled the remaining portion of the tower via a glistening translucent stairway.
Upon a raised platform at the top of the stairs was stone circle of menhir, but completely missing the horizontal braces that the portal to Fey had contained. In the center was an elevated rough hewn stone bowl with a deep hole in the center where Mirushal and Mist surmised a key might be placed to activate the magical portal. Strewn around the room in a large circle around the portal were a dozen additional menhir also made out of crystal, cut to the same size and overall dimensions as the eight on the main platform. When a detailed investigation of the exterior of the room and all of the menhir revealed nothing, Gavin climbed into the stone bowl. Almost immediately thereafter a series of silicon based creatures appeared to step forth from random menhir and attack.
Quickly identified as Shardcasters, beings only seen on the Plane of Mirrors or Elemental Plane of Earth. While only three of the creatures initially were appeared, additional creatures kept appearing over time as if summoned by something. The Shardcasters seemed vulnerable to the Shaundakul granted ability to rebuke Earthen creatures that Zodel had recently received. They also seemed to be able to coax tentacles from the menhir which attacked anything nearby. Eventually, the Guild was able to determine that the largest of the Shardcasters had a central core that was responsible for the continual summoning of reinforcements. Once the effect was Dispelled after several tries, they were able to finish off all of the creatures and destroy the remaining tentacles as well.
Perhaps the strangest event of the entire battle was the sudden appearance of a human male in his mid-twenties through one of the menhir. He clearly was a priest of paladin of Ilmater and he claimed to be the son of Basil Goatherdson claiming that he had just been back in the village of Galvinston mere moments before. Only Raindrop and Storm recognized that the boy bore any resemblance to the son of their former ally and family member, but his sudden appearance was circumspect. His behavior was odd, his claims about how he arrived even more outlandish and his accusations that Mist was a demon spawn was even more curious. Once the battle was over, it was clear that the Guild was going to need to investigate the young mans claims to his identity and other anomalous behavior.
After a prolonged interview and discussion, it seemed that the young paladin was indeed telling the truth about his background and his relationship to the Guild exile and father Basil as well as his Aunt Susan. While the circumstances of his arrival were indeed out of the ordinary, Basil Jr. appeared to be forthright in his convictions. With the aid of this new ally, the Guild made their way back to the tomb, easily climbed their way up the lift tube without the aid of Air Elementals, unlocked the door and entered the main crypt area. As Storm lead the group into the center of the main floor, she was attacked from around a corner by a hidden Neera who flickered into and out of visibility as it attacked and then vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.
The reflective invaders from the Plane of Mirrors had clearly staged an ambush, but it almost immediately failed due a series of mistakes and poorly chosen opponents. While half of the attackers were invisible, a True Seeing spell on Storm and a See Invisibility on Basil removed that advantage. While the Neera definitely put up a fight causing half of the Guild to suffer physically debilitating wounds, some of which bleed until treated, they caused very little overall harm before falling to the onslaught of the party. One of the Nerra did manage to vanish into one of the nearby walls, but he was so close to death that it was unclear if he made it alive to the Mirror Plane.
Of the five nearby exits, two had been used to stage the ambush and contained small sealed wall cairns that were not all that easy to open. Two others contained small dead fall doors while the main entrance contained a much more elaborate dead fall door that was the focus of everyone’s interest. Storm & Basil worked to lift the door inches off the ground and then Mirushal used her magic disc to lift the remaining distance and hold it in place. The room on the other side contained three items of note. A small central sarcophagus that was sealed, but not trapped; a massive frozen icicle containing the body of a fey frozen inside and a small tomb completely obscured by magical darkness.
The ice stalactite was so cold that when Storm probed it with her battleaxe, it froze solid and shattered. A strange eerie Evocation magic seemed to permeate the two side tombs; so Gavin spent his time on the main sarcophagus. He would have opened it if Mist had not insulted Storm about the unexpected loss of her weapon causing the graying Barbarian to leave the room quite incensed and jump down the lift shaft rather that deal with the insults hurled by the elven bard. This caused the group to stop searching the main burial chamber to avoid being split up. Once Mist was able to calm down Storm by apologizing, she and Raindrop decided to lift up one of the small side doors while everyone else was busy back at the sarcophagus. Some type of Nerran spellcaster was on the far side and it blasted both the Barbarian and the Monk in the brief moment before they dropped the door from surprise.
The majority of the Guild moved towards the door waiting it to be broken down so that they could assault whomever was one the far side. Instead the door served as a distractions as another Neera and a renegade Fey appeared in the hallway and separated the group by a Wall of Thorns. They then started to attack Basil and Gavin on the other side. Thinking quickly Zodel was able to Teleport everyone except Mirushal to the other side to join the battle. The two Nerra were then quickly destroyed and the Verdant Price was forced to retreat. As a last ditch effort, he was able to dispel the magical darkness that was covering on of the two tombs, but he died before he was able to oath bind whatever had been imprisoned on the other side.
The creature in the tomb called itself the Queen’s Darkness and was clearly Fey. Mist swiftly realized that while the Fey might look humanoid, it was merely a metaphysical representation of the absence of light. When questioned Darkness blamed the Queen for his imprisonment and inquired as to who had freed him. Mist tried to parley with the Fey, but things got out of control when Mirushal tried to blast it with a wand and Gavin tried to assassinate it from behind. Things could have gotten really nasty at this point, but rather than kill those who freed him, the Fey instead toyed with the Guild. He called forth Deeper Darkness, returned the assassination favor on Gavin and then vanished. The Darkness did not manage to hit a vital area, so Gavin survived, but he certainly wasn’t please about the almost crippling injury.
Searching the nearby rooms revealed dozens of captured Fey inside of magical cages, Frustrated with the turn of events, both Storm and Gavin took out their anger on Sage. While they both has murderous intents, Gavin was faster and his revenge was quite thorough. The remaining Fey were shocked at the treatment of their own kind. They had been told that the Guild was going to rescue them from the Nerra and instead Sage was killed in cold blood. While they were all offered their freedom, every single Fey refused the offer in defiance of the unexpected execution. Disgusted with the lack of gratitude, the Guild left the Fey to rot in their cages and started to look for a way home.
Digging through the remains of the Neera and the traitor, they found what they felt was the likely portal key. When they took it back to the crystal portal room and utilized it, not only did it eventually send them home, but it also started the process to remove the planar intrusion. As the planar magic flowed across the pocket realm, all presence of mineral calcification decayed off every surface, leaving behind only the living organic material underneath. The Queen spoke directly to everyone’s mind as they began to Plane Shift back to Galvinston. While she thanked them for freeing her people, she rebuked them all for their behavior. As a result of their actions, she would remove the gateway to Faerie from Galvinston and withdraw the friendship of her people. All Fey would consider the Guild and Galvinston as enemies from this point forward.
Upon return to town, the Queen upheld her promise and the stone circle collapsed into a sinkhole, almost trapping Basil and Gavin inside. Without exception, the Guild was quite proud of themselves and their actions. They removed the Fey threat from their town with what appeared to be a permanent solution. While a few of them argued that the killing of Sage was excessive, none of them could argue with the end result. The Fey Mound was gone. The portal to Faerie was closed. Gavin was proclaimed a hero in the eyes of his friends. Yet, none of them could help but wonder if they would ever cross the path of the Faerie at some future time with dire results.
1335/Year of The Snow Winds
A concentrated effort by the armed forces of Galvinston strikes back against active Zhentarium presence at the Port. Agents of the Black Network utilize terrorism and counter insurgency to retaliate and the harbor turns into a regular battle zone. This makes it all but impossible for any quantity sea trade to take place. The Zhentarium all but embargo the Port, forcing all ore shipments to take the more expensive and hazardous overland routes. Exercising extreme measures, the Council authorize the use of the Wickermen to enforce the law through often less than civilized warfare. Lead by hired adventurers with the local Army and Militia, the Port stoppage is eventually broken and the majority of the Zhentarium are forced to withdraw. As a result of the conflict, large portions of the Port are razed to the ground by the retreating forces as revenge.
1336/Year of The High Mantle
The brutal nature of the insurrection during the previous year at the Port darkens the hearts of many council members. More than half decide forgo reelection. The first major test of the new government has definitely met with mixed results. While the immediate threat of the Zhentarium has diminished, rebuilding the Port has once again stressed the mine finances to a breaking point. With half of the town council as freshman and the other half from the initial founding, sessions frequently end in dead-lock stalemating even the simplest legislation.
1337/Year of Wandering Maiden
Marshes of Vaasa never thaw in the spring. Winter remains all year long. Extreme weather is blamed on the presence of an Ancient White Dragon. The extreme cold weather musters hordes of snow goblins, winter wolves, polar worms, yeti and frost giants. A constant cavalcade of creatures continually attacks the Northern Gates of Galvinston straining the resources of the weather embargoed town. By the end of the year, the intense weather has turned the nearby area into a nigh glacier. The town is under siege, food supplies have dwindled to dangerous levels and the council is debating over capitulation or evacuation to the Port. The warmer saline Moonsea has managed to keep the Port from suffering the same weather conditions, somehow maintaining a more temperate climate likely through the same insidious magic causing the blizzard conditions further north.
Chapter Ten – Headless
Location: Galvinston & Nearby Foothills
PC Dramatis Personae
Basil Jr – Human Male Paladin 11
Gavin – Halfling Male Rogue 10, Guild Thief 2
Mirushal – Gnome Female Wizard 3, Shadowcaster 3, Noctumancer 5
Mist – Moon Elf Female Bard 12
Raindrop – Human Female Monk 7, Drunken Master 5
Storm – Human Female Barbarian 8, Frenzied Berserker 4
Zodel – Human Male Cleric 11
Nightal 7, 1337 DR
While preparing for a humanitarian mission to bring cold weather gear, wood, food and other supplies to the beleaguered inhabitants of Galvinston during a prolonged period of a freak winter storm system, word came from guards at the northern gates of town that they were under attack. Upon arrival at the scene, a group of Frost Giants, Minotaur’s and Undead had managed to overrun the defenders of the gate and were in the process of moving inside of the town. Unwilling to let such monstrous foes free reign of the town they had spent so much time defending over the last several decades, the members of the Guild rushed forward to hopefully forestall the invaders.
At first the Guild tried to use the front gate as a choke point to keep the attacking marauders from funneled together, but this ended up failing when a pair of giants climbed the exterior walls and started using zombies as missile weapons. When the Minotaur’s suddenly burrowed their ways underground and up the other side was when things started to get really nasty. Zodel turned the first wave of undead to ash, but end ended up being the target for the both the thrown weapons of the giants on top of the gates, but from the chilling blast of the undead leader who appeared immune to the divine power. This forced Zodel to retreat to behind a building with solid cover to conduct first aid upon himself.
In the interim Basil and Storm fought their way to the front of the pack with Raindrop not far behind. Waiting for just such an assault, the Minotaur’s then used some type of earthen magic to buckle the ground causing movement to slow to crawl. It was at this point that Raindrop become a casualty of war under the intense blows of the great horned creatures. Zodel managed to come to the rescue with the aid of a Fly spell and his power over Earth creatures to send one of the Minotaur’s scurrying away. He arrived just in time to save the bleeding Monk’s life and rallied the Paladin and Barbarian to cut down their immediate adversaries.
This turned out to be the turning points of the battle. While Gavin provided some excellent ranged support, sending bolt after bolt into sensitive areas on each creature and Mist sang her heart out while avoiding the blows of the Winterspawn leader, the worshipper of the Wind Walker carried the battle. The rest of the battle quickly turned into a rout with the enemy falling in rapid succession. The undead leader with its powerful Greataxe and icy glare was the last to perish. Investigation of his possessions revealed a statue of Orcus, a letter written in a dark touched version of Abyssal in addition to the axe. The details of the note suggested a greater power had ordered the attack with the goal of collecting the heads of all of the fallen for some undermined nefarious deed.
Nightal 8, 1337 DR
Armed with powerful necromantic divination magic, Zodel interrogated the remains of the deceased giants for details as to their origins, intentions and leadership. As with any use of the Speak With Dead spell, sometimes the answers were more oblique that the questions themselves. Nevertheless after two castings, the Guild was able to determine that the armed force had been one only many that had been tasked with identical orders. Some type of base camp had been established somewhere in the general direction of the main pass through the Galena Mountains on the way to Downslope. Mirushal created a large number of magical steeds and everyone headed off to investigate, except for Basil Jr. who had gone missing under mysterious circumstances. With the urgency of the situation, he was left behind with instructions on how and where to follow should he turn up.
A mere three hours later near the crest of the pass, the Guild stumbled onto a hastily constructed wooden fort blocking the road. A pair of Frost Giants stood guard behind blinds. Given little choice but to defend themselves, the veteran band of adventurers dismounted their swift magical steeds and entered the conflict. One of the giants started throwing rocks at any target within range while the other banged on a large drum to alert the rest of the camp. In total a quartet of the Giants, a pair of Winter Wolves and a lone Bulezau had been left behind as a rear guard for the entire camp. While at first this seemed like overwhelming odds, a few well chosen tactics leveled the playing field quite rapidly.
Raindrop surprised everyone by activating her Mineral Warrior skin and then burrowing up underneath opponents using hit and run tactics that made her almost untouchable. Zodel & Mirushal used fire based spells to the empowered effects felt by creatures especially flammable due to their icy heritage. Gavin’s magical cloak was invaluable in allowing him to strike again and again at the most vulnerable portions of the enemy anatomy. As usual Mist’s bardic songs inspired battle prowess of an amazing quality. Leaving Storm’s melee aptitude to clear the way up and over the front gate and to Intimidate the demon into fleeing for reinforcements rather than risk its own demise.
Investigation of the remain of the camp revealed a small collection of coins, gems and a some very crude maps. The hand drawn atlas’ were very short on detail, but broad on size and scope of attack. Multiple bands of giants had been sent to every established settlement within several ten-days range based on the roughly scribbled maps. A larger map of the region directly to the east labeled several mountain peaks as well as the Hold of the Frost Jarl. The map itself was too vague to provide exact coordinates lacking such useful items as a compass or scale. However, Storm felt that if she got anywhere near the key points on the map, she would be able to orient herself in a way that they would eventually find the hidden caves. After Mirushal satisfied herself with blowing up large portions of the make-shift fort with fire magic, everyone remounted their magical mounts and headed east.
Using the lose details of the maps coupled with Zodel and Storm’s orienteering skills, they were able to may their way to the hidden fortress of the Frost Giants by nightfall. Mirushal used magic to scout the interior baileys and determined that it was guarded by as many as four Dwarf-like spellcasters. They appeared to be some type of magical construct, perhaps Simulacra, rather than real dwarves and they could become Ethereal seemingly at will as part of their regular patrols. Also of note was the skeletal remains of a white dragon underneath a pile of frozen rubble. The head of the dragon was strangely missing which made sense when it was pointed out that the original invaders had been ordered to collect the heads of anyone they killed. Deciding that waiting until they had recovered to full strength was a higher priority that rushing in, the Guild camped for the night inside of a magical structure provided by Mirushal.
Nightal 9, 1337 DR
Approaching carefully and using magic to open the front gates, the Guild was surprised to discover a demon, in the form of a Retriever, rather than a small contingent of dwarves guarding the outer bailey. A pair of ice statues also turned out to be Entombed, a type of undead who could walk through Ice like water and enjoyed grappling their prey and dragging them into the ice to drown. This posed a problem as the Guild had prepared for Spellcasting dwarves, not a Tanar’ri and a few Undead. To make matters worse, the demon had the high ground on the top of a narrow ledge up an precariously icy wall. It was able to blast away with energy rays from its eyes while the Entombed seem to ignore the divine power of Shaundakul channeled through Zodel.
Storm climbed up the cliff the hard way while Raindrop activated her earthen skin and burrowed up from the inside both arriving together on opposite sides of the canine-like demon for maximum combat efficiency. Mirushal was grabbed by one of the undead and used magic to re-appear on a nearby battle out of any future melee range but close enough to toss spells for or against any enemy or ally. Mist sang her heart out and did her best to stay out of the way of anyone or anything while using her newly fiery eye blast to great effect against the frozen undead. Gavin drew attacks from the undead and ranged attacks from the Tanar’ri while keeping up a regular fusillade of bolts against whatever target he was the most effect. Zodel was grabbed almost immediately and drug under the ice, left to die if Mirushal had not interceded with fire based spells to blast huge holes in the ice pockets scattered across the area.
Eventually the Guild was able to slowly whittle away at the defenses of the enemy all while keeping a sharp eye out for the dwarven simulacra seen the night before. The Retriever was destroyed first is a flashy explosion belying its construct nature followed in short order by one and then the other Entombed, but not before Zodel was boiled and then re-frozen a few more times then he would have wished. Detailed investigation of the inner and outer bailey revealed little else of detail other than one sealed door leading into the core of the fortress. Amongst the remains of the undead a few items of value were collected, evaluated and then stored away for later. After everyone’s wounded were adequately tended to, everyone turned their focus on how to safely and quietly bypass the main entrance.
It was much warmer just inside the main door. A large domed ceiling wide hallway opened into what must have been a beautiful temple at some point in the past before it became a dumping ground for piles of headless corpses. While the room was slightly warmer, only a slight smell of decay permeated the room from the heap of Frost Giant and Winter Wolf corpses spread around the room. The reason behind the lack of rot became clear after Mist went to investigate and was attacked by a Blood Hulk, a type of undead composed primary of red liquid that sustained most humanoid life. Multiple of the mindless creatures clambered forth from the cadavers and moved towards the nearest living creatures hoping to feed on the spark of life pumping from the Guild members.
When Divine energy from Zodel failed to halt a single of the creatures, Storm and Raindrop moved into direct melee ranged and started to pound on the massive creatures. As it turned out any type of weapon with a sharp point seemed to caused more damage and it took very little to break through the thin skin of the creatures. Nevertheless the Blood Hulks seemed to be able to take a massive beating before they exploded into a pools of coppery colored liquid bathing everyone nearby in a sticky and possibly toxic mess. With the Undead rendered down to their constituent components, the Guild moved deeper into the mountain citadel looming for clues that might reveal the location of the Frost Jarl.
In an uncharacteristic moment of frustration Mist pushed ahead of the group and managed to set off a pit trap, narrowly managing to avoid it. After being dutifully chastised, by almost everyone. The group moved ahead with Gavin in the lead this time making a large amount of noise on a lock that was slightly harder than previous ones bypassed earlier. This alerted the denizens of the room inside who were ready to attack the moment the door was opened. Surprise, surprise, but it was none other than the escaped Bulezau from the encounter at the mountain pass a few days earlier. Much like in the previous melee, the demon proved to be almost just as ineffective as before.
At first the frenzied Bulezau charged Storm and was surprised to find itself on the receiving end of a battleaxe. Raindrop then practically danced around the demon occasionally getting in a hit while Gavin used his magical cloak to send it several volleys of sneak attacks to great success. Changing tactics, the Tanar’ri tried to fill the room with Solid Fog which was immediately counter spelled by Mirushal. Thrashed and bleeding from far too may wounds, it decided to flee again via Teleportation magic rather than perish at the hands of the insufferable adventurers. Exploration of the room revealed a summoning circle which suggested the demon had been bond by a Calling spell or was some type of Planar Ally. The presence of demons, undead and the lack of living creatures suggested that either the Frost Jarl was not in charge of his own domain, or that he was a powerful spellcaster in his own regard.
The lone door exiting this room was unnaturally cold while wind could be heard behind a previously bypassed barred door. The later turned out to be a rear entrance into one of the inner bailey towers with a alchemical trap that sealed the trap door to the roof when it was triggered. While the former opened into a huge cavern filled with ice, snow and piles of both littered around as natural formations. A tiny amount of light filtered in from cracks in the ceiling from above illuminating the room in a vague bluish twilight reflected and refracted by the large amount of crystalline ice. This served to help obfuscate a pair of Rimefire Eidolon’s who laired nearby who sprung forth and attacked by means of frigidly cold based magic as the Guild unknowingly passed near their hiding places.
The Fey did their best to stay out of melee whenever they could using their ability to ignore the slippery terrain, as well as shape it, to their advantage. Accentuated by powerful elemental magic harnessing the freezing temperatures of the cavern also played a major role. At one point half of the Guild members were encased inside pillars of ice until being freed by themselves or their allies. Everyone felt the chilling bite of a Cone of Cold or Polar Ray at some point as well. Tenacity eventually won the day as the Eidolons were eventually vanquished through coordinated attacks or just lucky strikes. Exhausted from the ordeal and critically wounded, everyone retired to the relative safety of a the extra dimensional space of a Rope Trick to rest and recuperate.