THE CHRONICLES OF THE RAIDERS OF MYTH DRANNOR
(written by Daedalus Long—disciple and cleric/sorceror in the service of Cyric) (okay, scribbled is more like it)
DAY 1: Arrival in Shadowdale. Elminster is looking for adventurers for a charter. Party consists of:
Wren Deloren (human female rogue)
Ember Faer (human female fighter/sorceress to be)
Bedford Nathan Forrest (human male fighter)
Daedalus Long (human male cleric of Cyric)
Day 2: BARFIGHT!! An adventuring party calling themselves “THE SIX” take offense at being picked second to be interviewed by Elminster. Fists a flying! We were outnumbered and surrounded, but I knocked out some dwarvish monk with a well aimed clay mug right at his frickin’ face….!!
Oh crap, Elminster picks us….can’t this guy tell I’m a cleric of CYRIC? We’re supposed to get teleported to the ruins of Myth Drannor and find the paladin Athen and his band, who disappeared. ME, find a PALADIN? Yeah, sure—I guess when he runs me through with his holy pigsticker I’ll know we’ve found him. Elminster even gives ME the return stone to come back if things get dicey! This old bastard must be high on that pipe he keeps smoking….but oh well, there’s cash in it for us. He says we have a couple of days to get our stuff together. I’m sure he’ll realize the mistake he’s made and b+~%@ slap me back to Waterdeep when he finds out.
DAY 3: I cannot believe we fell for that forged note! I’m a sophisticated wealthy merchant’s son from the biggest City in the Realms and I couldn’t tell that the “note” from Elminster was actually a forgery—just a lure for the SIX to ambush us in the woods outside Shadowdale….I’m so embarrassed. Well, two of the SIX got away, but the rest of them had some pretty nice treasure.
DAY 5: Teleported through the oak portal to Myth Drannor…interesting place. ORC FIGHT! We find what happened to three of Athen’s band—Fiona, Born & Zar. Their bodies had already been looted! We find some undead and I manage to command some of them….why is the rest of the party looking at me weird when I make the skeletons carry my stuff?
Later that day….why is there a merchant selling stuff in the middle of an ancient ruined elven City overrun with orcs and undead? Yeah, I know his oxen are dead, but why was he here in the first place?
Okay, I gotta talk to Wren—please don’t tell the local elven mystics that I am a cleric who can command undead…that really pissed them off. At least we got some clues about which way Athen went.
DAY 6: We are joined by Qumaris Sinlu—a half-drow fighter sent by Elminster to assist us as he felt we were too few in number.
DIDN’T MATTER DID IT? Holy crap, they all died. I ran away and survived. Why didn’t Wren run away too? Why did she have to stay and fight? Stupid Bedford—ever heard of SCOUTING with something other than your sword swinging madly in front of you like some phallic substitute? Too many orcs for us to handle…going back to Elminster now….at least I have Ember’s mule with her stuff to pay for my journey out of the Dalelands.
DAY 8: Back in Shadowdale. Elminster tells me he he’ll find me another group of adventurers to help me out—he still wants ME to find the paladin…sure, old dude, whatever. I need money to buy potions.
I can’t believe I got the drop on a drow! I can’t believe I’m stupid enough to wander around the woods around Shadowdale at night without being able to see in the dark. I got the drop on a drow! Got some stuff, armor, poison, a fancy crossbow, but I let him go because there was no REWARD for drow posted by the locals.
Elminster introduces me to my new companions:
Amber Faer (Ember’s sister, human female fighter/sorceror—I told her how Ember died and told her that I ran away, so what? Ember could have run too—she didn’t have to die in place just because Bedford was a f+@$ing moron and stirred up the orc’s nest by clanging through the dungeon like a gorgon in a porceilan shop)
Liandrin (human female rogue)
Achaled Ibn’ Rashid Faer (human barbarian, Ember and Amber’s brother) (some beduin or desert folk)
Wolfhir (human male barbarian)
Salendria (wild elf female ranger—native of Myth Drannor’s forests) I thought elves were supposed to bathe regularly??
Great, thanks…Elminster. All Achaled and Amber can talk about is revenge upon the orcs that killed their sister. Joy, oh, joy. Well, at least I got me some drow sleep poison for my crossbow bolts.
Back in Myth Drannor, we continue to follow the trail of the paladin and come upon a secret dwarven brewhouse whose leftover liquor makes you stronger and wiser. I was about to partake of the magical fluid when Amber beat me to it and got a second drink, even though I got none. She just laughed about it and I cast hold person on her. I was about to bash her f%&*ing brains in when she snapped out of the spell and managed to drink the drink right in front of me, laughing as she did so. I would have killed the thieving b&@#& if her stupid ass barbarian brother hadn’t been there. Payback will come someday, my little beduin bandits….death rides a pale horse….(mental note---gotta go buy a cloak, a scythe and a white mare, he he he)
DAY 9: Back in Myth Drannor---we take revenge upon the orcs only to find that some undead are already slaughtering them for us. Continue to follow the trail of Athen the paladin and end up in some dwarvish crypt. The battle was going badly, as usual and I was running away again (hey, I did cast some spells and even whacked one of those crazy, glowing eyed dwarven warriors with those HUGE axes with my light mace), when everything went BLACK!
…..drifting towards the light? No, waitaminit….oh yeah, I’m a cleric of CYRIC….drifting towards the eternal fires of damnation, deception and lies…. I see the accusing eyes of Wren looking at me “Why did you leave me behind” “I didn’t leave you behind, you just gotta learn to run when I run” ….holy crap, she’s coming closer and she’s got fangs bigger than my pinkie finger!!!!
BAM! I’m lying on the floor of a tree house, with some kindly smiling elder elf smirking at me. “As long as you are in the service of Elminster, you can come to us for healing….find the paladin.” I want to throw up. How the hell can I explain to my high priests that I got raised from the dead by good elves? ….while looking for a paladin and working for Elminster…..this ain’t gonna look good on my record.
Everyone else got raised too. We used some better tactics this time and managed to take out the dwarven skeleton warriors. I even got to command one to be my bodyguard! Cool, I get tired carrying this backpack around.
Hahahaha! What a great character - fits a the personality of a Cyricist perfectly. Please post more - I'm enjoying the read.
Excellent ! Very funny and entertaining reading. Seems that your DM liked "Pool of Radiance : Ruins of Myth Drannor" video game ! :)
Bran.
Yes, he's basing his campaign on that video game. We're actually using the fold-out map from the video game to navigate Myth Drannor. I'm glad you're enjoying it, I'll post some more after our next gaming session in about a week or so.
Hahahaha! What a great character - fits a the personality of a Cyricist perfectly. Please post more - I'm enjoying the read.
I have to concur. This character is hilarious.
RDS
Okay, so I wasn’t “evil” enough to control the undead. I had strapped my backpack and camping gear to this dwarven skeleton warrior when I felt my infernal control slipping away. I barely had time to recover my stuff before the undead ran off—stupid bastard!!
So we wandered around some more. Big pillars—majestic dwarven cities full of dust. I vaguely recall some party members getting ambushed by a choker-like creature before we ran into a big room full of shadowy undead, who were resistant to our weapons—some of the time.
It was an ampitheater type set up and I parked my ass on one of the upper steps and fired crossbow bolts at the undead I had turned. I told everyone NOT to approach them—just shoot them with arrows, but that dumb s*@& barbarian Al-Khaled almost ruined it with this enthusiasm.
We made out well, though…nice treasure. I got a powerful magical dagger and a circlet that enhanced my “persuasive” powers. We retreated back to the trader’s place because most of my companions felt very weak from the touch of those undead and we had to spend a couple of days restoring them to full health.
I wonder if this is what life is like for the cloistered village priests?
“Hi, Mr. Priest—my son here broke his arm while plowing the field..”
“Oh, okay—here’s a cure spell—go drop a few coins for Lathander on your way out..”
Perhaps I could pick up a halo or something for my three days as a “healer” but I suppose it was necessary so that my companions didn’t drop dead from just carrying out all that gold we found. During my free time I managed to finally unlock some of the arcane powers I had flowing within me and I figured out how to cast some arcane spells I had been trying to learn for a while. We need some more firepower here in Myth Drannor and I want to be able to defend myself a little better. Cyric’s prayers and blessings are certainly welcome, but I need something more.
DAY 14—I hope my “worthy” companions didn’t get too out of shape during their days of lazing about feeding each other grapes and doing the self-congratulatory circle jerk, because off we go again. I left my crossbow and mace behind, traveling much lighter now without armor—just wielding a dagger, a sling and my new ability to cast magical armor on myself. I also picked up some alchemical goodies to fling about with my sling, he he he….too bad this trader is getting most of my money, but gold coins don’t do me as much good in Myth Drannor as good ammunition.
THE CHRONICLES OF THE RAIDERS OF MYTH DRANNOR
(written by Daedalus Long—disciple and cleric/sorceror in the service of Cyric) (okay, scribbled is more like it)DAY 5: Teleported through the oak portal to Myth Drannor…interesting place. ORC FIGHT! We find what happened to three of Athen’s band—Fiona, Born & Zar. Their bodies had already been looted! We find some undead and I manage to command some of them….why is the rest of the party looking at me weird when I make the skeletons carry my stuff?
Ha! Very good account from your perspective! Keep it up!
Stillfoxx
"Live or die, you decide..."
Day 15—Looking at Achaled giving me the evil eye, I decided to keep my crossbow with me. I’m really going to try not to let that son of a b$!$% get the drop on me. Wolfhir seems like an alright sort, a straight up hard fighting and hard drinking barbarian. Salendria is a bit of an enigma, as I don’t know anything about wild elves. She fights and shoots straight and can track pretty well, so I guess she’s an asset to our band. Amber, Achaled’s sister…well, there’s trouble walking if anyone has ever seen it. Liandrin is pretty good at finding those traps and secret doors and getting into places we wouldn’t normally find, so she’s definitely an asset. However, I’m under no illusion that our group is going to last any longer than it takes to complete our mission and get our reward from Elminster….and towards that mission, we’ve made NO progress whatsoever—no clues about where Athen the Paladin went. Well, no clues other than finding some of his party members dead….why couldn’t one of them have had the decency to point towards the last way Athen went when they were croaking? It’s hard to get good help these days, I guess. I suppose once I’ve learned to speak with dead, we can go back and play 20 questions.
My arcane studies are going pretty well. It’s mainly a matter of learning discipline and focusing my mind—I’ve learned to cast several low powered spells and a weakening ray spell that works pretty well. However, I can’t wear armor comfortably any more, so I used a formula that I heard and concentrated hard on it for several weeks and now I’ve learned how to formulate a magical armor spell that helps deflect blows….that will come in handy, especially since I’ve had to put my studded leather armor on my mule.
Our pack mules are staying with Noddle the trader. I paid him another 5gp to keep an eye out and feed the beast. The same service would have cost me 5cp in town, but what choice do I have.
…..back into the Dwarven Halls of Myth Drannor we go……I sure hope we find some sort of clue about where this idiot paladin went.
While exploring the grand hall, we encountered a bald human with red robes and scars on his face. He was running away from something. We made peaceful contact with him and asked him about AThen and what he was running from, but he could not answer us, except that something ambushed his own adventuring party and had killed all his party members.
Let’s see, Athen disappeared and his party is dead…now this guy pops up and all of HIS party is dead. I’ve already lost all my party members once and died once myself—what the hell are we doing here again???? Oh yeah, wealth and magic and treasure beyond the dreams of avarice (gotta remember that point more often)
Salendria tracked this guy, who said his name was Jak, back to where he came from, an area past the dwarven smithies. There we encountered a huge insect-like creature that was busy devouring a whole squad of dead elves. Fighting the creature caused a strange confusion among several party members, who attacked each other or ran off screaming into the darkness, but I managed to keep my wits about me and zapped the insect-giant with my ray of enfeeblement and even managed to throw a couple of acid flasks and alchemist’s fire vials on it to keep it distracted. Wolfhir proved his worth. He stayed out of reach of the creature’s strange eyeballs, which apparently caused the confusion, and kept up a steady rain of accurate arrow fire upon the monster. Achaled waded into melee with the thing and got hurt pretty bad. I didn’t want us to go down again, so I zipped up my courage and went into the fight as well, to cast a healing spell upon Achaled so he could face the thing and not ME….I didn’t anticipate the insect-giant’s long arms and it clawed me up pretty good, so I had to retreat and cast a healing spell upon myself as well.
Eventually we got it put down and everyone snapped out of their weird confusion-state. Jak managed to run away during the confusion again, although he did fire a lightning bolt at Ember, who had also run away from the insect-creature. However, she came back to us, and Jak didn’t’.
We healed up, spending the night in the dwarven smithies where Liandrin found a hidden magical warhammer, which Achaled claimed as his. I didn’t begrude him the pick, for I already had a good magical dagger and he certainly would get more use out of that massive dwarven warhammer than anyone else would.
DAY 16
Continuing past the smithies we encountered several powerful undead creatures called Mohrgs, supported by a small squad of zombies. I managed to keep the zombies at bay by calling upon the power of Cyric, but the Mohrgs were a different story. It took everything we had to defeat them, including several more flasks of alchemist’s fire being thrown by yours truly. I was not going to get into reach of their paralyzing tongues!
Later that day we found another strange red robed human mage with burn scars on his face. Wolfhir kind of jumped the gun and started taking out the mage’s drow servants, so hostility was established prior to negotiation even being given a chance. We managed to capture the mage and grilled him for information before Achaled chopped his head off. He had no clue about Athen, but told us that he and his group were looking for something called the Pool of Radiance, some sort of magical pool that sucks the life out of creatures that get too close to it. We were pretty beat up again and I was out of spells, so we decided to rest another night here.
DAY 17
More joyous dungeon exploring—is this what “adventurers” do? Spend all day looking at walls? Thousands of tons of rocks overhead? I have to grudgingly admit that as much as my companions puzzle, annoy and cause me to distrust them, we are working better together as a team. We fought some invisible plant creature. Liandrin tried to use a smokestick to outline the creature, but all she did was obscure it more. I just hung back and watched the comedy! The fighter types swung their weapons around like drunken, blind and not so graceful dancers, trying to connect with the invisible creature that kept slamming them. Was I going to wade in there and bravely melee? I don’t think so. I just looked around to make sure more of those undead Mohrgs weren’t sneaking up on us.
Eventually, they got the thing down—some tentacled plant creature…wonder how the hell that thing got the power to turn invisible?
Continuing our hours of senseless exploration, we came into an area called the “Halls of Light.” Pretty damn dark still, though. We entered a big chamber with many crumped columns and what rose to greet us? More undead—large ogre-type zombies, more Mohrgs and some sort of skeletal warrior types. I tried to push them away with the power of Cyric, but they would have none of it….we knew we were going to get our collective asses kicked by these things, so I ordered the party to retreat back into a smaller room so that we would only have to fight one of the creatures at once, and not all of them at the same time!
Well, it worked, even though the ogre zombies tried to bull rush their way through Al”Khaled and Wulfhir. We just kept smacking them and smacking them. I think the party is not going to let me throw any more alchemist’s fire and acid flasks, because---well let’s just say that throwing wasn’t my strongest athletic endeavour…..
By the time the Mohrgs managed to paralyze a couple of us, we had already put down the skeletons and the ogre zombies, so we still prevailed.
The constant healing I have to provide my “friends” is really starting to annoy me. I know that we need to all work together, but I am studying the mental disciplines of sorcery now—I want to eventually study both arcane and divine magic, for I believe power lies in knowledge and the ability to apply it….but we need more spells to put down our enemies, and we need spells to restore and heal the party. Amber is a fairly effective sorceress herself, she used her Grease and Disrupt Undead spells to good effect. Still, I feel that Cyric will eventually cut me off from his divine grace if I keep healing others—SO WE CAN FIND A MISSING PALADIN!!! Still no clue where that bastard went….if we don’t find a clue about where this paladin might be in this huge place soon, I’m going back to Shadowdale to find another quest…..wandering aimlessly around Myth Drannor is a sure recipe for death, AGAIN!
We had to rest the night to recover spells and heal up.
Day 18—My familiar finally arrived—Bren, a dark grey cat with exceptional intelligence and wit. I’ll keep her close by at all times and she will stay awake whenever I’m asleep and help watch over me. Moving on through the exceptionally dark “Halls of Light” we came upon a four level tower built deep underground. More of those stupid scarred mages. We made short work of them, but found more on an upper level. They took out half the party with spells (held or put them to sleep), but I cast enlarge person on several of us and we stormed the place and got to knife-fighting range with them. Even me….yes, me….learned scholar and gentleman from Waterdeep. I cast enlarge person on myself—what a unique experience! My dagger enlarged as well. The scared look on his face was something I’ll treasure forever. He tried to cast a flame spell on me as I closed in on him, but he missed….how could he miss an 11’ tall version of me, I’ll never know. Next thing I knew I was driving my sweet magical blade between his ribs and he crumpled, dead.
They had been torturing a man named Endrik, who claimed to have been a member of the paladin’s party—we were getting closer, finally. He said they got ambushed while looking for the Ring of Calling, which we recovered from the dead mages. The ring was attached to a skeletal finger and we couldn’t remove it from same….very strange.
Liandrin chopped the head off one of the dead scarred mages so that I could cast speak with dead on it as soon as I learned THAT spell. She spent the better part of an hour flaying all the flesh off that head and mumbling to herself….what a fine candidate for a conversion to become one of Cyric’s followers she is!
We looted the place and had found lots of magical treasure. We didn’t find any pearls or owlfeathers, and Amber announced that she needed those particular things to cast identify spells on the items. We might need that magic, so we decided to head back to Noddle’s wagon to see if he had some for sale.
On the way we ran into a whole bunch of drow. We tried to avoid a fight, but Salendria, a surface elf, well---let’s just say she won’t be an ambassador to the drow cities anytime soon. It ended in violence. Endrik, the retainer of the paladin was slain and many of us fell to sleep poison tipped bolts. However, we managed to chop and hack our way to the chief priestess, who fell….by the time the fight was done I think I had cast enlarge person on most of the party. Hmmm…..lots of handcrossbows. Very interesting….lots of more drow sleep poison too, which could certainly come in handy.
Day 19
We continued through the Deep Halls to make our way back to Noddle, the trader. I swear that boy has a portal or a gate somewhere that allows him to restock his wares—how could he possibly have so much stuff in stock? Anyway, we ran into some more of the scarred mages and their followers. I’ve developed this brilliant tactic where I cast “Enlarge Person” on Al-Khaled and he uses his barbarian rage to go chopping down the bad guys, which I keep picking on with a “Ray of Enfeeblement” spell. Works out pretty well.
We finally managed to make it back to the trader and spent a day there, purchasing spell components for Amber so she could cast identify on all the magic loot we had recovered. I ended up with a shock-spear—a short spear that also delivers electrical damage. Well, hopefully I never have to use it as I don’t plan on getting into any more hand to hand combat.
Salendria, the wild elf and Amber went to talk to the old elven spellcasters in their tower—the same ones who threw out my previous party because they found out that they were with a priest who could command undead….oh, sure—like their elven Gods are so high and mighty that they’ve never used skeleton labor to clean their homes!! I mean, c’mon! They told them about what they had found out so far about Athen, the paladin we were looking for and also told them about these scarred mages. The asked questions about the Ring of Calling and I think that the elves found out that we knew more about this thing than we let on (hell, we had the ring in our possession)…anyway, they told Salendria and Amber that the Ring of Calling was used by an ancient paladin to seal an inter-planar gate. Interesting……..
Back at Noddles, Wulfhir, the barbarian, took his leave of the party. He said he had had enough of strange elven cities and he was going to rejoin his tribe. He was chaotic and brutal and I can appreciate those qualities. We will probably need to find a replacement for him to bolster our fighting strength. I think I may need to hire a bodyguard, but there are no Cities around nearby!
Amber identified our magic items and confirmed that the Ring of calling was probably an artifact, for she could glean no further clues from it. I got some bracers of armor and Amber found an ancient non-magical scroll had a word on it that seemed to be a gate activation word “Oblivion.” Great, the plot is thickening and yet we’re no closer to finding this paladin!
Day 21
Back into the halls we go. We decided to retrace our steps and explore some of the areas that we had bypassed in previous days. More orcs! Why am I not surprised. Liandrin snuck up on them and overheard them talking about the fact that they couldn’t let the scarred mages gain control of the Pool. They found us and the fight was on. Well, I created another barbarian missile and Al-Khaled went off to smite the orcish priest commanding the group. Salendria hung back and took her sweet ass time about getting into the fight while Amber kept casting grease and scorching ray spells. Al-Khaled, I don’t trust him and I don’t like him all that much, but he was stuck out there all by himself, surrounded by four orcs, including the priest. I didn’t want us to lose another barbarian. I don’t know where I’m getting this reckless courage from, but I cast “Mage Armor” on myself and waded into the fight…..well, not really—I moved closer so I could shoot an orc with my crossbow bolt at close range. When he seemed hurt enough, I pulled out my new magic toy—the shocking shortspear and stuck him with it. He shuddered and went down. Within 4 days I had killed two people in hand to hand combat!!! Wonders never cease—I much prefer to take them down with trickery, so I have to manage this newfound confidence wisely, lest Cyric disapprove.
I got in over my head quickly, as another orc came at me and beat me on the shoulder with his greatclub. It hurt, A LOT! Okay, Al-Khaled—sorry my wonderful barbarian magic missile, but you’re on your freaking own! Finally his sister moved up to do more than just fire arrows and spells into the fracas, so maybe he wouldn’t die. I needn’t have worried, as Al-Khaled’s mighty smiting finally kicked in and he killed all of his opponents and put them into a mighty gore pile. Searching the room we found some maps of the dungeons with orcish writing on them. They seemed to be searching for some sort of pool and were plotting their explorations on these maps. We, of course, pocketed them.
We found two stone chests containing a weird, mercury looking liquid that turned out to be the basis of a gate—we splashed the liquid and it turned into a circular gate that we stepped through to find ourselves in a room that appeared to be a temple to the Goddess Mystra right before the Time of Troubles.
Okay—no one else was courageous enough to step through the gate completely, but if I’m going to be a Mystic Theurge, I need to not be afraid of magical stuff (or should I be MORE afraid???) so I stepped through the gate first and told the rest of the party it was safe.
We were stuck in the room it seemed, for the gate disappeared behind us and three magical runes appeared to bar the way to the outside.
Day 22
I summoned forth a fiendish badger to scout the way ahead and the runes didn’t appear to affect him so we went outside. A female human warrior type was guarding the entrance to the cave that led to the old Mystra temple and she ran off, scared s$**less when Liandrin snuck up to her and said “Hello.”
The great Myth Drannor Foot Chase was on!!! In the lead was the human warrior chick, who had dropped her bow in her haste to get away. Right behind her was Liandrin, female human rogue extraordinaire. Catching up quickly, however, was the grade school track champion—MYSELF—Daedalus Long—disciple of Cyric and 100 yard sprint champion of Waterdeep Prep school for Boys!! The rest of the group just kinda jogged along behind us. We were running along a narrow forest trail through a dark, heavily wooded forest with lots of undergrowth.
I overtook the slower running female and confronted her—“Hey, we’re not enemies, we just want to ask questions!” She pulled her sword and ordered me to surrender.
“We’re not going to surrender, you stupid b%%#$, we’re going to parlay on equal terms, even though we obviously could have just killed you!”
“I have my orders,” she replied and continued to point her sword at me. I noticed that her heraldry looked like something I had read about in Waterdeep—The Cult of the Dragon! A cult of dragon worshippers—HERE in Myth Drannor? Hmmmmmm….
The situation escalated immediately, as six human warrior types came sprinting up the trail, all sporting the Cult of the Dragon heraldry. A ranger in their group cast “entangle” on us and we were stuck in the heavy vegetation. We tried to parlay again, but they started shooting arrows at us and I got nicked by one of them. To hell with them….the fight was on.
A most interesting fight, a most frustrating fight. Arrows, bolts and other missiles came shooting forth between both groups. The female in front of me cut me with her shortsword. I managed to get the satisfaction of seeing the female actually believe my bluff—I told her that a huge army was following our footsteps to destroy the Cult of the Dragon—the fear in her eyes washed into death as Liandrin ran her through with her sword.
Al-Khaled caught up with us but was also soon entangled by the vegetation. I sent, Bren, my cat familiar to deliver an “Enlarge Person” spell upon him, but yet he couldn’t break out! He raged against the tangles, but they held him fast. It was quite funny actually, if those stupid Dragon Cult warriors behind me hadn’t kept shooting us with arrows.
Liandrin managed to get out of the tangles and closed to melee with the warriors. One of them fell to Salendria and Amber’s arrow fire. I coated my crossbow bolts with drow sleep poison and managed to knock out the leader of the group.
I had to cast a few healing spells on myself to restore the arrow damage I was taking. Eventually, Al-Khaled broke free from the tangles….exhausted, he trotted over to the remaining Dragon Cult fighters and helped send the rest of them into the afterlife. Al-Khaled used a fly spell and his enlarged size to dispose of the bodies by flinging them into the deep woods in random directions so that it might not be as easy to ascertain what had happened to the Dragon Cult patrol.
We found that we were in deep, dark, primeval forests about a half mile from Myth Drannor—great—at least this gate didn’t take us too far from the City.
We took the unconscious Dragon Cult patrol leader back into the Mystra cavern for interrogation
Day 23
The dragon cult leader didn’t withstand my “interrogation” very long before he decided to see if his stupid god is real or just an overgrown lizard. It was time to pick up the tail (if you could call it that) of the paladin who had gone missing and we set back out on the trail to head back into Myth Drannor proper. Half-way there, I heard a hissing coming from the bushes next to the trail and found some filthy gnome hiding in the bushes, trying to get our attention. He said his name was Tarbash and he was a scavenger who scoured the surface of the area around Myth Drannor to make a living. Okay, so he’s a rat! Well, the rat wanted us to find his cousin, who had been captured by the Dragon Cult and was fixing to be turned into a zombie. “What’s wrong with that?” I thought, a zombie is a perfectly fine way to recycle a dead body….I mean, what a perfect way to serve a useful purpose after death? Much better than just rotting in the ground, I say. Anyway, this gnome-rat said that he could show us unlooted tombs and possibly help us find Athen if we freed his cousin from the Tower of Bones in the Poliandrum, which he said was a cemetery. Having a guide to this god-forsaken place was better than no guide at all, and the Dragon cult did piss us off, so we took on the job. We spent the night in the gnome’s hidey-hole, a bough inside an old oak tree that was big enough for all of us to sleep in.
Day 24
We put on the red cloaks of the dragon cult and moved off towards the cemetery. No one paid us any attention, as we looked just like all the rest of the Dragon cult worshippers. We got into the tower and I fast talked our way past a couple of guards. Wingoth, the tower commander, was on the roof conducing a “ceremony” and we figured, correctly, as it turned out, that the gnome’s cousin was getting ready to be zombiefied. Up we went, but at the roof our bluff was called and the fight was on. Liandrin used a magic item called the “Bands of Belaro” to tie the zombie making Wingoth up and then Al-Khaled gave him a coup de grace. We destroyed all the zombies and killed a couple of guards and used a grease spell to make the doorway to the roof level easier to defend, but we had to bail out by climbing down a rope along the side of the tower. The gnome’s cousin was freed, even though Tarbash showed up after the battle to help un-manacle the prisoner. We beat feet back to the gnome’s hidey-hole, a little cave inside an oak tree.
Day 25
Robalen told us that he knew that Athen was being kept prisoner by the Dragon cult in Cormathor Castle. He offered to show us a crypt that would lead to a secret entrance to the castle. While some wanted to tell Elminster right away about the paladin’s fate, I wanted confirmation. I mean, I want to leave this dreadful place as soon as possible myself, but I don’t want to give Elminster bad information based just on what some gnome scavenger thought he knew. At least it was a solid clue.
We headed back to Noddles. My mule had been eaten by ghouls a few nights before, but Noddle still had all my stuff. I gave Robalen a light crossbow and a dagger, plus some bolts and odds and ends. If he betrays us or is trying to feed us lies for some alterior motive, by Cyric, I will hunt his scrawny ass down and feed him to a ghoul myself. The others pitched in to buy him a shortsword and some armor. We traded off some masterwork weapons we had scavenged but could no longer carry with us.
I sold off some other stuff that I used to keep on my mule and then took my 40 pound backpack and slung it over my shoulder. That is too heavy! I could carry it, but I would have to ditch it in a fight. Liandrin offered to put my stuff in her magic backpack. Al-Khaled also offered to carry it, but I gave it to Liandrin instead. I figured that if she tried to rip off my stuff, I’d just tell the rest of the party that she’s been swiping coins, gems and magic items off the corpses of our victims without them noticing. Of course, I hadn’t noticed either, but it didn’t take a Herald’s Holdfast researcher to realize what I had noticed yesterday—the cleric we fought had boots on when he fell and none on his feet when we looted his body….and Liandrin had been there first. I don’t really care, I’ll use it against her when the time is right.
The gnomes led us to the Palandrium where we saw more Dragon cultists supervising slave work crews, busy looting cairns and ruined buildings. We entered the one that was supposed to have the secret entrance to the castle. The gnomes ditched us, being too cowardly to continue. We found a tomb of some elvish lord who used a lion’s head as a symbol. We fought some undead warriors and found some illusionary walls, but mainly, we recovered several elven swords that had quite a history to them, supposedly given to the elvish warriors by Corellon Larethhian, their depraved God, himself (or herself, who the hell can tell with elves?—except the drow elves, whose females always seem to have ample bosoms……) I digress….there were some animated statues that put up a bit of a fight, and we found a dead gnome impaled on a spear, but we eventually found a tunnel that was supposed to lead to Castle Cormathor
Hello, I am the DM of this fiasco. My good Cyrist desciple takes too much upon himself. His recounting of events is the greatest complement to a DM there is. His enjoyment at MY torturous obstacles makes me laugh with glee. Of course the other characters that died, well they were not so complementary.
Bye the Bye, this was created out of the PC game, and then a game supplement. I have combined the two to see if my victims can negotiate it well. Buwahahahha
We followed the tunnel and ended up in some more ruins on the surface, near the castle. An undead elven spirit named Mordethoi or something like that gave us advice about how to find a rune staff and other magical items to unlock the doors that lead to the pool of radiance in the lowest level of Castle Cormathor, where the paladin was also kept prisoner. I offered the elven spirit the opportunity to serve my lord Cyric and unfetter his soul if he would help me carry my stuff, but he refused, stating that Corellon Larethian had placed him here to aid those who would destroy the dragon cult. Whatever, I’ll go back to take care of Mordeothoi AFTER we get the paladin back for Elminster. I’m so sick of this place.
We moved on and soon found ourselves confronted by nearly twenty Dragon cultists. It wasn’t much of a fight, but I did have to use up more of my spell allotment for the day than I wanted to. Using a word of power we found written on the cult leader, we entered the crypt of the elven judge Rathilion (elven justice? What a concept—what do they do to their prisoners? Make them wear flowers and rake the forest???) In the crypt we found an undead mindflayer who sought only escape. He scared me s+#+less so I turned invisible, but after we told him the word of power in exchange for a nice emerald, he escaped the crypt. The power I felt emanating from him was palpable, so I’m actually glad we didn’t have to fight him.
Side note - F2K, is this where Daedalus is working his machinations for Lord Cyric? If so, that's awesome!
*goes to adjust image slightly*
Yeah, it's hard to keep all the posts "in-character" and be as colorful as I'd like all the time, but thank you, ma'am....
Day 25 continued: Liandrin’s scouting and investigations revealed that we had to obtain the scepter of Orbakh in order to penetrate Castle Cormathor and free Athen. A night time run across the open ground resulted in an ambush from a gargantuan spider, which we polished off with spells rather handily, even though I got webbed.
Amber used some sort of magical sigil to enter the long sealed tomb. We cleared the place rather quickly, undead, water ogres, and strangely naked humans who died screaming and easily much to the pleasure of my lord Cyric. However, then things got nasty.
Approaching the final crypt, four of the water ogres had prepared an ambush for us. We couldn’t move very fast because we were in thigh deep water (waist deep for me). Stupid Salendria ran into an ambush and after four great club strokes her pulped body floated face down in the water, dead. We spent the next minute trying to pry the ogres out of their ambush position using missile weapons. I coated some of my crossbow bolts with drow poison and managed to drop one of the beasts. We finally managed to get in there and finish them off. I hate waist deep water.
I have resigned myself to cooperating with my fellow party members because I have finally made peace with the fact that the faster we get this paladin out the faster I can finally get back to Waterdeep. I have enough money already to set myself up nicely and my newly acquired magical skills and divine skills should make me a popular choice as a court advisor for a powerful merchant lord or noble—a place where I can start sifting off cash for my own empire of wealth and perhaps even avenge myself upon my thankless father for forcing me to leave my studies at the university.
I hope I never have to fight another telepathic tentacled thing called “Little Flower” holding up a naked man again! At least we found Orbach’s scepter, a bone-mantle and what looks to me like a possible lich phylactery. Al-Khaled, the Calimshite savage, nearly got himself drowned by the stupid tentacle beast before we finally finished it off. It was resistant to my spells, even my new found spell powers that came with finally learning the ability to improve both my devotional gifts from Lord Cyric and the magic I can just bring on by concentrating on my arcane abilities.
Torbash, the gnome rodent scavenger showed up with his little titless cousin, a female gnome (shudder) named Elly Jobell. Elly declared herself a priestess of Shaundakul. Well, well, well…..the lord of travel who likes to rescue adventurers trapped in Myth Drannor…..two good things about this—she can cast healing spells on the party now and I can finally use my Lord Cyric’s powers for what they were intended to—and her God’s reputation as helping adventurers trapped in Myth Drannor means that maybe this is a sign our quest may soon be over.
So, here’s a quick review: Mordethoi, our helpful undead elven spirit guide, sent us on a scavenger hunt to get Orbach’s scepter….he explained that this scepter could be used to smash the phylactery that held the essence of the undead dragon lich that the Cult of the Dragon was keeping in the lowest level of Castle Cormathor. Apparently they were readying this thing for some sort of ritual involving the tainted Pools of Radiance so that they could increase its power tenfold. Of course, our deal paladin Athen was kept in the same place as the dracolich, its phylactery, some zombified dragon (excellent style—at least some of the Dragon Cult has class)
We made it back to Mordethoi and he said we should rest in the hidden temple to another sickening elven goddess—Sheblossomturd Moonbow or something or other. Fine, fine, fine…..I’ll put with just about anything at this point to get the hell out of here---I’ll make amends with Lord Cyric later on. I’m gaining much power, wealth, knowledge in this place, plus I’m ingratiating myself with some of these goody two shoes such as Elminster and the elven tree fornicators…..such “goodwill” might be put to excellent use later on when Lord Cyric’s revenge sweeps the Realms clear of the self-righteous and constipated enemies of my lord.
Castle Cormathor was like a popular brothel back in Waterdeep—I’ve never seen such lax security and complacency—as long as you were human and wore a red cloak, you could apparently wander about the place with relative impunity—which I did—to scout the place and use my powers of gab and trickery to gather information on the lower levels. I felt very proud of myself until the helpful ghost of Mordethoi actually gave us a map to the lower levels and a route we could use to bypass most of the Dragon Cult via secret door…..::sigh::
Julie, the beautiful castle guard of the dragon cult was sitting on a stool guarding the secret passage to the lower levels….”yes of course, my sweet morsel—you can join me in Waterdeep—as I’m a renowned representative of the Cult of the Dragon from Waterdeep….and of course I’m here to inspect the secret passages within the castle for the High Lords…yes, please close the secret door behind us, you’re such a helpful damsel in armor, my report to the cult leaders will speak highly of you.”
Our plan worked….EllyJoBell just cast a wall spell behind us as we’re escaping the castle!!! The phylactery is smashed, the dracolich has been buried behind a cavern collapse (and apparently it was being attacked by another adventuring party)….Athen’s fate has been determined (he was a zombie, but Liandrin got his signet ring—her ability to shadow walk across the cave was most handy)
Al-Khaled battled the zombie dragon……
EllyJobell helped battle the zombie dragon….
I smashed the phylactery with the scepter of Orbach, and I killed a cleric of some sort of God….
Amber’s fire spells helped take down a wizard and the zombie dragon…..
It was a confusing minute or two down in that dark cavern, but we distracted those idiot Dragon Cultists long enough to draw the dragonkin guards away from the phylactery so that it was just me facing a cleric…..no match for the fell powers bestowed upon me by Cyric and my own talents.
The roar of the dracolich as I smashed its phylactery is something I will never forget. Athen was a zombie !!! How incredibly amusing—I wanted to command his corpse and present him to Elminster in his current state—the look on that old bastard’s face would have made my year!! Alas…logistical difficulties prevented my idea from coming to fruit—Liandrin dispatched Athen’s corpse and slipped the signet ring from its rotted finger…to present to Elminster for our reward….
Now we just need to escape from Castle Cormathor…….. (Day 27)
Howdy from West TEXAS!
I am the DM of this fun game, and my good/bad but not truely evil cleric of Cyric has been detailing the adventure.
I explained earlier tht I combined the PC Game with a true game supplement that was made for D&D 3.0. Yes shudder all you wish, but I had to correct a few adjustments; which included the zombie, adult black dragon. In the 3.0 version it only had 55 HP! Ahhhhhhh, the blatent down play of huge monsters.
Anyway, in my final battle the fun was amok, and that zombie dragon (properly templated) was rude. The heroes won out for the moment as we had to stop prior to their great escape! (It was 4 a.m. and we had started at 7ish.)
Great game
I love a messageboard where Calimshite gets censored, but you can call someone titless :)
(Day 28—being sometime late in the month of Tarsakh, I’ll know the exact date when I get back to civilization, thank you very much!)
…..so off we ran down the long corridor. The dracolich’s wrath was great and when we emerged in some ruins 300 yards away from Castle Cormathor, we saw the great skeletal wyrm sitting on top of the castle, sending forth his dragonkin minons to find us, I’m sure. Apparently he had beaten the other adventuring party, whoever they were. We dodged a few flying patrols and ended up outside the city. Mordethoi reappeared and congratulated us, but he gave us no reward except to tell us that there was a gate in a temple about 20 miles north of Myth Drannor that we could use to teleport back to Shadowdale.
Along the way we got ambushed by harpies. Two of them managed to flee but we got to loot their incredibly nasty nest. I’m so glad I didn’t have to actually “touch” any of that treasure, as my compatriots piled it all up and I cast “store an item” on the stuff, sucking the treasure into the tiny extradimensional pocket in a vial. Handy spell I learned, there. Al Khaled did go down during the fight, shot up by many harpy arrows, but I went down into the ditch and healed him up a bit, enough so he could stumble over to our new healer, Elly Jobell, and get his wounds closed for good.
We got lost….how absolutely wonderful. We ended spending another night in the woods. Others may enjoy camping in the wild, but not me. Liandrin climbed a tree and saw a distant glint of light off some building that we hoped was the temple.
(Day 29) This temple was the most perplexing thing I’ve seen—tall, incredibly thick pillars under a shadowy roof, but open on the sides and a titan’s staircase up front. Guarded by carapace armor wearing drow, we yelled at them that we just wanted to use the gate, but they threw curved sticks at us that came back to them if they missed. Amber fireballed them and most of them died, crisped to death inside those weird carapaces they were wearing. I “hasted” the entire party and we went to work. Liandrin disappared into the shadows of the temple, but the temple’s defenses came out in full force—four double headed ettins, a strange dog like creature with mind control abilities, and more drow.
If I had any doubts left about the combat capability of our party, they were dispelled. With everyone hasted, we worked together like a well-oiled apparatus. Liandrin danced about the shadows, only emerging long enough to drive her sword into the guts of a drow or an ettin. I summoned an ogre zombie and used acid orb spells and true strikes to attack, while using my speed from the haste spell to keep out of melee. Al-Khaled did what he does best—splattering ettin after ettin, even though the mind controlling dog creature (barghest) gave him a bit of trouble. Amber alternated scorching rays and fireballs to dig the enemies out of all corners while Elly Jobell cast spells that enhanced our ability to fight and avoid enemy attacks. I’m most impressed. While I don’t trust my companions, I think we should stay together and move to Waterdeep. Our capabilities together are much more effective than our capabilities as one. I want to kill my father and take over his company, then use our talents to slowly begin to destroy the various thieves’ guilds of Waterdeep, scattered and divided thanks to the efforts of the City. Working together, we can finally make some of the profit we deserve and make our own rewards. I’m still going to pay Amber back for that magical draught she stole from me back in Myth Drannor, though.
(Day 29 continued)….Exploring the weird scorpion temple. Found an extraplanar space with a large scorpion statue holding a big red gem. Purplish mist floating about islands connected by invisible landings. We kill more drow. Liandrin takes out a copper dragon with her bands of Belaro. We use my “haste” and Elly Jobell’s “dimension door” capabilities to full effect. Very long drawn out battle as we try to get to t! he dragon at the bottom of the mist covered room, as the mist slows us down to just a step or two every few seconds. Liandrin finally coups de grace the stupid beast. Amber figured out the gate and we stepped through, back in Shadowdale.
CIVILIZATION AT LAST……AN INN, A ROOM, A BATH….EVEN IF IT’S A BROKE DICK BACK WATER DALE HAMLET!!
4-2-1372…finally, a calendar!!
Back in Shadowdale, we make our peace with Elminster and tell him of what we found. Rewards from a Chosen of Mystra for ME? Calling me “learned scholar” with that twinkle in his eye—thanks for the condescending tone you old bastard, but at least you held your part of the bargain.
Deciding to stay together for now after a few days of well deserved rest in Shadowdale we take passage with a riverboat captain.
4-9-1372
Down the river Ashaba we go on the “Forestrunner” a delapidated wooden contraption smelling vaguely of fish.
MYSTERY IN THE FOREST—A GHOST TOWN!
The ship captain agreed to knock off a few pennies from the passage if we explored the town that was devoid of people, a small forest edge river dwelling where he had made port just days before. We find that something has destroyed the place, lots of blood and gore…tentacled critters that die pretty easy pop up out of various buildings. However, suddenly we are faced with something much bigger….
TENTACLE BRAIN SMASH!
They were tentacled huge monsters, but we took them down fairly easily, although Liandrin and Al’Khaled had some trouble getting grappled by the tentacles. Investigating the town we found that a bard poet (apparently from Waterdeep—Liandrin remembered her, but I didn’t) named Sofia Lassaralen, who had moved to the town, had put on a play where some sort of gate had opened up, bringing in a mass conversion of townspeople to these murderous tentacled things we had encountered. Murder on this mass scale is something my dark lord Cyric would appreciate, but we also found a symbol of “Hastur” which angers me, for this means the chaos and mayhem caused by this incursion was not being done to honor Cyric, but to honor some other cause. Oh yeah, we also freed some serving wench who had been hiding out in an attic of the poet’s mansion.
She filled in the pieces of missing information and we found out that the poet-bard and her troupe of actors had moved downriver to Ashabenford. I gave the wench some food and water and turned her over to our ship captain. We found a book called the Corcosa Codex, which Amber started reading (and I started keeping an eye on her, lest she become a tentacled b&$#~-monster and would have to be put down like a rabid Chihuahua). This book was the catalyst that had apparently turned Sofia into a worshipper of something called the “King in Yellow.” We looted some easy to carry off items from the townsfolk who’d no longer come looking for their stuff and moved downriver. In the morning, Ellyjobell summoned a stinking celestial creature—a hound archon (speaking of rabid Chihuahuas!), whom she sent ahead via teleport to warn Ashabenford of the possibility of an extraplanar attack. The stray dog returned and told us the town was already under siege.
12 hours later, as night fell, we arrived in Ashabenford. I had reservations about helping the town put down the attackers, but the pathetic sniveling guard captain offered us 700gp apiece if we rescued their pox-infested mayor from the amphitheater where Sofia’s “play” had ensnared over half the town’s citizens. I also wanted to learn how to turn this murderous power of chaos into a useful tool for Cyric. It was good that Amber was reading the codex, for if she was overcome by it, I could learn how to control its power, perhaps.
I cast “haste” on the party and we moved off past the town guard fortifications towards the amphitheater to rescue the mayor. Liandrin and Al’Khaled (upon whom I had cast invisibility) had scouted ahead and told us the mayor was ranting and foaming at the mouth about the “King in Yellow” in the bottom of the theater, guarded by a tentacle-headed dwarf and dozens, if not hundreds of the mundane tentacle creatures.
Our attack failed when the tentacled creatures poured out of every orifice to grasp, punch, kick and flail at us. We had to beat feet out of there, lest we were pummeled into mulch and eaten. Using flying magic, Amber finally got the mayor out of there and blew up the dwarf guardian with fireballs. I put one of my zombie servants to work, an ogre-zombie that bashed the crowds with his club until they dispersed. We got our reward and found out that the poet Sofia and her troupe’ had already moved off again, this time towards the much larger town of Highmoon, from where we were supposed to get passage back to Waterdeep ourselves. The chase was on!!!! 4-9-1372
Hee hee hee...somebody's been playing "And Madness Followed"...:P
Good thing I hadn't read it yet. I lent my 12 AoW collection to the DM of this game, because he is going to run us through the AoW as soon as he gets a TPK on us, but it's taking longer than he planned :)
After surviving an orc ambush on the river, led by a tiefling and a huge sword wielding man wielding a highly magical bastardsword, we arrived in Highmoon on 4-13-1372.
The play was already on. I went to alert the town guard and the rest of the group went to intercept the troupe before they turned more villagers into tentacle headed monsters.
I dont' know what happened, but when I finally arrived at the playhouse a few minutes later, a squad of town guard in tow, I looked in, heard a mighty roar of some ancient evil and saw Ellyjobell, the little gnome, sprouting bat wings, horns, glowing red eyes and turning towards me.
I wanted nothing to do with this evil. Lord Cyric did not bring this chaos upon Highmoon and Ashabenford. Apparently my former party members had all been converted to tentacle creatures or whatever demon Ellyjobell now was. I ran back to the boat and made arrangements to leave.
Surprisingly, a few minutes later, the rest of my party straggled in. Al'Khaled, Ellyjobell and Ember were half-fiends now. Liandrin had recovered and was herself again.
Al'Khaled, Ellyjobell and Ember talked of murder, mayhem and looting the town after the ancient evil creature from another plane that the playing troupe had unleashed was done with it.
I knew better, I knew that Elminster and every Harper and Dalelands ranger within 100 miles was going to descend upon Highmoon to undo the evil that Sofia and her group had wrought. I also knew that the half-fiends in my party now serving this ancient evil (they claimed to have free will, but one look in Ellyjobell's eyes told me different) were going to fare very poorly in such a situation. I wanted to be as far away from them as possible when some paladin lopped off their heads in the name of Selune or some other depraved god. Liandrin agreed and we slipped away during the night, to leave our "friends" to their fate. We had enough magic and cash on us (over 120,000gp worth) to set us up nicely. I'm planning on finally taking my revenge on my father, taking over his merchant company and with Liandrin, making sure that the gold starts rolling in by the wagonloads. Adventuring in the wild is for suckers, the real money lies not in the hoards of trolls and dragons, but in commerce.
What happened to Ellyjobell, Al'Khaled and Ember? I don't know if I'll ever find out. On to Waterdeep!!!
DM of the Raiders!
Well once again, I destroy another party! muwahahshhshshasdfadsjdlfkjlsadfjldkj
Sorry, that was my 8% evil coming out. I had taken a D&D character test. The test would determine what race and type of character I would be if instantly transferred. Now mind you I am 5'11 225Lbs, but the test resulted in me being a LN Halfling fighter that was 8%evil. Well.... good thing I flunked wizard school!
Anyway the party all failed their saves (except Liandrin) and were transformed into Halffiends. Liandrin and Daedulus fled (taking most of the treasure) leaving the half fiends to their fates. COOL!
Only one character from this campaign will play on in the follow-up campaign. Daedalus Long retired to become a merchant/thievesguild leader in Waterdeep is referred to as "the patron" in the next campaign, the log of which is located here: