A Biography of a Famous Undead Hunter
Name: Fergis Q Crumblecake
Race: Kender
Gender: Female
Age: 28
Date of Birth: 4/1/396 AC
Fergis grew up always on the road. Her family was part of a caravan of wandering entertainers that traveled the length and breadth of Krynn. Fergis never quite knew just how many siblings were hers, as she grew up around numerous families of Kender who participated in the various circuses events. Fergis always grew up around people who loved her, cared for her and treated her as part of their family, irregardless of their being any actual familial blood involved. Life was generally care-free and absent of any real problems other than making it to the next town to perform.
Tragedy struck about a decade ago when the circus was attacked by one of the numerous mercenary bands that roved across the landed after the rise of the Dragon Overlords. Those who weren’t killed in the initial attack were tortured, sexually abused, and left for the dead. Fergis was one of the lucky ones, while she witnessed some of the worst humanity has to offer and was abused herself, she managed to survive. To make matters worse, Fergis became with child from the attack and lost in a humiliating and physical demanding miscarriage.
Fergis spend the rest of the decade wandering to city throughout all of Krynn making ends meet however she could manage, but steadfastly avoiding contact with other Kender as much as possible. Fergis continued to feel intense guilt that she was the only survivor of the horrible attack. She incorrectly assumed that she would increase the chances of any similar event occurring since she felt that it was all her fault. This led Fergis to become closer to many of the other civilized races on Krynn simply because she shunned her own people.
This made her intensely popular with many of the criminal contingents as well as the poor and underprivileged. Many a Thieves Guild coerced her in playing the role of the lost human child for confidence schemes. Many a night was spent in the sewers and abandoned buildings among the refuse collectors, also known as the Gully Dwarves. These disparate communities ultimately became Fergis’ adopted families. She let herself be used by the local mobsters and squatted with the homeless.
This sad state of affairs lasted until a fairly recent experience in the city of Solanthus removed the almost decade-long blinders from Fergis. She found herself thrust into another bad situation. Walking the various back alleys of the town late one night, she came upon a crime of passion similar to the one she herself experienced a decade before. This time she was able to intercede on the victim’s behalf and save the helpless woman from her attacker. The tumultuous affair seemed to snap Fergis out of her mental haze and wake her up to the real world around her.
Chapter 1 - Scene 1
422SC, Fleurgreen 1st-5th
Fleurgreen 1, 422 SC (12/11/2004)
Dear Knuckles,
While wandering the streets of Solanthus this evening, I came upon a human woman being assaulted by one of the local thugs. I still do not know why I choose to intercede into the affair, but something in my snapped and I went after the man with my Hoopak. The actual events of the scuffle are lost to me, but I do remember seeing the man dead at my feat and the woman crying. The city watch showed up and I was taken away to the local jail since the guard wasn’t willing to take the word of the woman who was attacked than I had acted in self-defense. No matter, as I ended up spending the night in a nice comfy bed with blankets, people to keep my company and a good meal.
Fleurgreen 2, 422 SC (12/11/2004)
Dear Knuckles,
I let myself out of jail some time after dawn when the local warden forgot to bring me my breakfast. I headed over to Greenboro Inn to partake in their usual morning buffet and helped myself to two whole portions before they kicked me out. Shortly thereafter a massive human carrying all sorts of weapons wandered out of the Inn along with a handful of other humans. Some of his weapons looked really cool and I wanted to take a closer look, but I was unable to keep up with the guy before he entered some type of government building. He took forever inside and then left n a big rush. I followed him around the market while he shopped but never got close enough to have a real good look at his gear. Eventually, he and his companions packed up and headed outside of Solanthus. Left with nothing else better to do for the day, I followed along.
The trip was long, boring and I had to run almost all day to keep up. I was exhausted and totally forgot to bring along any food. When the group of four humans and an elf with silver hair all set-up camp for the night, I helped myself to some of their leftovers. I also had a chance to look at the big humans weapons. He had a massive flail that looked like a great deal of fun. I used it to beat trees, rocks and the other rubbish far enough away to not wake up the sleeping group. Eventually I got tired and found a place nearby to rest for the night.
Fleurgreen 3, 422 SC (12/11/2004)
Dear Knuckles,
I woke up to the human screaming about his missing flail. I had no idea why he was so upset; I had his flail safe beside me all night. I managed to find some rations in my pouches and enjoyed a good breakfast before following the group as they made all sorts of noise while trying to look for a cave entrance I spotted the first six times they walked by it. Eventually they stumbled onto it and went inside. I followed behind since caves like this are usually filled with all sorts of traps, monsters and other neat things; I figured that the humans would probably get themselves hurt without my help. I was so right. The big guy almost stepped on a spear trap that might have ruined hi leg, so I spoke up to warn him about it. Did I get any thanks for my warning? No, instead he accused me of taking his Flail. I had no idea what he was talking about, he left it lying around and I was just keeping it safe.
I spent the rest of the day keeping the humans and their elf friend out of trouble. They all wanted to keep stepping onto traps, chase undead around, and generally get themselves into all types of danger. I did find a cool new friend, some older elf ghost who wanted to get some rest. Hen I told him to close his eyes and just all asleep like I do every night, he said that he hadn’t slept in something like forty years. He said that he had to know that the one who had him murdered had been dealt with. I am not sure why, but I agreed to help him out. After all he was such a nice old elf and my hands could pass right through him. How neat is that? We all slept outside under the starts together. This time I helped cook dinner and even provided a few squirrels that I shot on my own. The group was all upset about this guy named Sickle escaping. I guess that Sickle was the guy that the elf ghost needed to have brought to justice. He shouldn’t have cheated and knocked all that rock into the hallway if he wanted to get caught.
Fleurgreen 4, 422 SC (12/11/2004)
Dear Knuckles,
We clobbered a few more skeletons and the old elf wizard managed to find a secret storage room full of neat stuff. We even had to wrestle with some clothes that moved on their own. The room was piled with cool weapons and other stuff. I kept a few things for later. Some of the humans then wanted to give all of the dead humans they found in the caves a proper burial. If you ask me, seems weird to me to go out of your way to bury complete strangers that tried to kill you the day before. Afterwards, we all packed up our stuff and started the long hike back to Solanthus. Everyone was talking about getting paid for all of this fun. I wondered if I would be getting paid as well. I could sure use a new pair of boots or maybe a pretty dress for your birthday this year.
Fleurgreen 5, 422 SC (e-mail)
Dear Knuckles,
Imagine my surprise when we did get paid by the town high mucky-muck and all my new friends even gave me money for hanging it out with them, although they called it y share, not sure what that meant. I’ve never seen so much money at one time. I am not sure what I am going to spend it on yet. Maybe I’ll buy a nice new dress. You’d be so proud of your mother. It is as if the haze of the last ten years has finally lifted.
Chapter 1 - Scene 2
422SC, Fleurgreen 6-19th
Fleurgreen 6-18, 422 SC (1/22/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
The last week or so has been one big blur for me, except this time this is a good thing. I spent most of my time wandering the back alleys and sewers looking for places to gamble, finding them and proceeding to drink myself silly and have a great time. I even bought myself that nice new dress to wear. While this often gets me confused with a human child and some times the owners try to put me to work, it still get me better than average treatment from the tall folks of the world. I managed to win myself a really neat-o magnifying class and a small hour glass to keep time with. I also found a really nifty set of lock picks that seem to be a lot better than mine. I wonder when I’ll get to try them out.
I’ve been standing at the Greenboro Inn now that I am working for the city. Tons of other adventurers going in and out every day and no one kicks me any more when I go back for second and third helpings at the buffet line. Over the past few days, lots of adventures have left on city business and we’ve been hanging out with one of the other groups who also don’t have an active job. They actually have a Minotaur in their group. This is closest I’ve ever been to one before. He won’t let me try and sharpen his horns with my dagger and swats me whenever I get close by, but he is still amazing, even if he stinks like a cow.
Fleurgreen 19, 422 SC (1/22/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
So we got hired to do a new job. This time we are supposed to go into the sewers underneath the Temple of Mishakal and see if we can find the old lair of the Sickle. The sewers are crawling with all sorts of critters who tried to eat me and my new found friends. Someone also liked to leave all sorts of pesky traps around. Don’t they realize that someone might get hurt? Corin even finds a cool secret door in the main section of the sewers that leads into what we think is Sickle’s old lair. We decide to explore hoping to find some clues and maybe I’ll get to keep that promise to my new ghost friend.
It seems that the new Sickle has lots of undead friends that he likes to play with. We got attacked by several Ghouls who almost ate Bly and Mieklos, a trio of Slay mates who tried to have my as a snack and discovered a bunch of graves for some more creepy crawlies. Didn’t anyone teach the new Sickle that messing with the dead and brining them back is not very nice? Eventually we found the heart of the complex and we overheard some guards speaking in Ogre about being bored. I got this crazy idea to impersonate Sickle and we rushed into the room. You should have seen the look of surprise on the face of the poor Baaz Draconian right before he died and turned into stone. The three bugbears were also so shocked to see us that they did not put up much a fight. The silly dragon guy even gave away that the real Sickle was hiding behind a secret door. What a dope!
On the other side of the door was a big temple and surprise, surprise, there was Sickle, along with a strange wizard and a pair of undead types. This fight turned out to be quite a challenge and we also got into trouble when Bly an away and Korick got hit by a spell that made her laugh uncontrollably. I even had a hard time hitting the wizard with my Hoopak. He kept dodging out of the way of my bullets, even after I spent some time hiding behind a pillar to get a better shot at him. The stupid Sickle even managed to get away by dropping down a hole and almost crushing me with a huge boulder. However, he left some stuff behind that he probably didn’t mean to, so we gathered it all up to take back to our employer.
We were all pretty beat up, so much so that when we climbed back up to the surface street that we were swarmed by a group of friendly priests. One of them said that the bite I got from a Slay mate had been diseased. They cured it for me even when I asked them not to. I wanted to see what kind of disease I got from such a cool bite, but they would have nothing of it. All my new friends even forced me to turn over a really sparkly diamond ring to the priests to thank them for all of their healing effort. Once we got back to our employer, he acted like such a complete malcontent. He practically accused us with being in cahoots with the Sickle, eve after we discovered that the new Sickle was likely the male child of the old Sickle of the past. Why would I join sides with a crazy Necromancer? I promised the ghost that I would free him.
Chapter 1 - Scene 3
422SC, Fleurgreen 20-29th
Fleurgreen 20-28, 422 SC (02/052005)
Dear Knuckles,
I spent most of the past week studying undead at the local library, eavesdropping on conversations of local priests, watching the local grave diggers and listening to strangers of the street. Undead seem to both very eerie and strangely exciting as well. I hope that I get to see more of them in our search for the Sickle. I suppose that could always go and visit that ghost I met in the caves way outside of the city and talk to him. One of the local alchemists gave me something called Gravebane that is supposed to drive off undead. I hope to see how it works very soon.
Fleurgreen 29, 422 SC (02/05/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We went back to the city council office today. This time Irae was all annoyed that some one had dug up a bunch of graves from the local graveyard. He wanted us to find both the bodies, but also the perpetrator. When we went to investigate, the guards had accosted a fellow kender who was just trying to be helpful. He pointed us in the correct direction of some corn fields on the east side of the city. Once there we got attacked by a huge pack of zombies and what turned out to be a Sivak Draconian posing as Sickle. We also meet a cool Druid guy named Copper and his large wolf named Nan. When we went to explain things to Irae, he got all made and said he wouldn’t be giving out any more free money anymore. He even told me that I wasn’t allowed in the Solanthus either. So I followed Copper around and spent the night in the ruins of the farm house where we had been attacked earlier in the day. I’ll probably go visit the ghost tomorrow and catch him up on the latest news.
Chapter 1 - Scene 4
422SC, Holmswelth 1st-10th
Fleurgreen 30 – Holmeswelth 1, 422 SC (03/05/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I decided that since I was outside of the city and mean old Irae didn’t want me around anyways, to walk to visit that nice elven ghost. It took me almost an entire day to walk to the caverns. The wonderful warm weather made for lots of fun sites along the way and no one was around to try and tell me what to do or not to do. I spent the night around a camp fire talking to the elf who told me his name was Naladas. We chatted about all of the strangeness concerning the Sickle over the past month. Naladas did mention that he thought he saw a male human around 12 year of age in attendance when he was killed. He hoped that might help identify the surmised child of the Sickle that seems to be behind all of the recent undead mischief.
Holmeswelth 2 – Holmeswelth 9, 422 SC (03/05/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I wandered back to town and got really bored at the farm. I spent most of my time wandering around the local underworld gambling establishments drinking, laughing, playing games and generally enjoying myself until that got bored as well. My nights were spent at the old farm house. Copper seemed to be doing a good job at tearing down all the burnt parts and trying to determine what the replacement house was going look like. He was even kind enough to make a place for me to hang my hammock way up near the top of the new roof.
Holmeswelth 10, 422 SC (03/05/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
Everyone finally meets back up again after running off to do their own things. Korick and Bly went out of town to purchase supplies to start their own smithy business. Rieslm shows up and reports that Irae is now counting crow and wants our help with something. She lets me ride on her horse back to town. I decide to name the horse Peckish as it keeps trying to eat the apples out of my pouches. Irae informs us that the other adventuring group employed by the city has gone missing and he wants us to look for them. We first head to the library to see if we can get an idea of what they are researching. As usual, everyone is arguing about what to do and I stumble onto a book called “Hidden War” with a bookmark in it. The book details the history of Tasalina, the elven woman better known as the Sickle and her three adopted sons. Mieklos checks some adoption records and discovers that those three sons are none other than Druin Uthmateran, the owner of the Dog & Duck Inn, Utin Relengoth, the priest of Shinare and Irae Quetgar, our employer. As soon as he says the three names out loud in the library, we are attacked by five doll-sized flying undead things with a nasty bite!
After we put the smack down on the creatures, we get kicked out by the librarian and the rest of the group takes away all of the cool maps that I picked up. I try to come up with some rather nifty ideas o draw out the sickle such as sending notes for all three adopted sons to meet at a specific time or leaving notes on the bodies in the morgue addressing each of them by name. All of my ideas get completely ignored or ruined by everyone else. Instead we ask about Utin at the Temple of Shinare and are given his home and business address. We make our way to his house where we hear screams. We force our way past the elderly butler are get attacked by guards. I make my way upstairs and am surprised to see the Sickle standing over the body of Aleid and the Minotaur being turned into a zombie. A nasty battle breaks out and Mieklos gets killed and Bly almost does as well. Korick and I have to deal with the Sickle and the Minotaur on our own.
The Minotaur hurts me really bad with its axe before Korick clobbers it good. I jump on the Sickle and tried to pin him with my manacles, but he wiggles out of the way. The Sickle tosses spell after spell at the both of us either missing completely or being unable to effect us in any detrimental manner. We eventually knock him silly and try to save our fallen friends. Bly is still alive barely, so I run off to find Rieslm. When we return she heals up everyone and I run off to find Irae. In the mean time, Korick has found other members of the missing adventuring patty all locked up elsewhere in the house. I eventually return with Irae and some of the city guard to investigate the disaster. For my part I snoop all over the house looking for clues, secret passages, hidden storages places and all sorts of fun and cool things to play around with.
Chapter 1 - Scene 5
422SC, Holmswelth 11st-18th
Holmeswelth 11, 422 SC (04/02/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I spent most of the morning shopping for thing to help with dealing with all of the icky undead I have been running into lately. The nice folks at the Temple of Mishakal provided me with Holy Water, Ghost Oil and Priest Bullets in trade for a very pretty Moonstone Comb I found somewhere. We met with Irae shortly after lunch and were assigned to provide brigand scouting and protection for a trade caravan leaving the next day for Elmwood. Irae assigned us a new Elf Wizard by the name of Jaheira to replace Corin who had decided to quit. Bly and Korick had a very strange long argument with me about sharing the spoils of war with everyone else. When I pointed out that they don’t share their fancy armor and weapons with me, they got quite annoyed. The city was going to provide mounts, but I decided to buy myself a riding dog instead. It took the rest of the day, but I found a large Newfoundland that was of agreeable temperament and named her Paws. She and I will certainly get along marvelously.
Holmeswelth 12, 422 SC (04/02/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We spent the entire day on the road between Solanthus and the small town of Kyre (Pop 150). We saw nothing out of the ordinary and no brigands to speak of. So I spent most of the day getting used to riding Paws around. Being up on a Dog gives me a view much like the humans; you can see so much more when you are higher off the ground. By the end of the day I was very saddle sore and glad to be stopping,
Holmeswelth 13, 422 SC (04/02/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We got started really early and after about four hours, came upon the ruins of an old guard house. At this point, four nasty Brutes attacked us, thinking that we were rather easy prey. I let the rest of the group deal with the three melee oriented brigands and tried to stop the spell caster from doing much of anything nasty. I was able to ruin at least four of his spells and he got really annoyed by it. My distraction was enough to allow everyone else to take down their opponents and they rode up and smashed the caster to the ground. The nice new Elven wizard informed us that the Brutes all had magical weapons. I searched their bodies and found strange bladder pouches under their stinky loin clothes. No one was sure what exactly they were, but seemed content to let me experiment with them until we did.
We arrived at Elmwood (Pop 350) at Sundown. The whole town is a bunch of prejudice humans except for the children. They wouldn’t allow me to enter any place of business, even though I had a badge of employment from Solanthus and had been a scout for he caravan. S I helped myself to some of the food people leave lying around all over the place and camped down near the caravan with Paws to keep me company. She seems to really like apples and while I tried to teach her to play fetch, she didn’t seem want to play all that much.
Holmeswelth 14, 422 SC (04/02/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
Since the caravan had to spend the day trading, I tried to keep myself entertained. This mostly consisted of playing gaming and doing tricks for all of the children in the town. Kids of all races and colors seem to be the only people who treat us Kender with any type of respect. A few of the kids reminded me of what you would have been like if you were their age. It was fun to just spend a quiet day relaxing away from Solanthus.
Holmeswelth 15, 422 SC (04/02/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
The ride between Elmwood and Kyre was mostly uneventful, except that the caravan didn’t show up once we reached Kyre and we had to back track to find out what was wrong. One of the wagons had thrown a wheel and needed to be replaced. The boys helped out and everyone decided to camp there rather than risk hitting some rocks on the road in the dark trying to reach Kyre.
Holmeswelth 16, 422 SC (04/02/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
The caravan got attacked by a small band of Goblins and Hobgoblins right at dawn. These raiders were complete chumps with the small goblins felling after we killed a bunch of them almost immediately. The hobgoblins were a little more of a challenge, but they still didn’t last long with the five of us protecting the caravan. Unfortunately, several of the caravaners were injured in the battle and some of their horses got killed or bolted. Bly & I were able to gather up some of the missing horses while everyone else assisted with healing or bandaging up the wounded. Luckily, none of the caravaners died. Everyone did have to give up their horses to help pull the wagons to Solanthus. Luckily, Paws is lousy at that sort of thing, so I was the only one who got to ride, while everyone else had to walk. Once we got back to town, I went to my room and washed off all of the road dirt from the last five days.
Holmeswelth 17, 422 SC (04/02/2005)
I buy everyone breakfast at the Dog & Duck with the small amount of coins acquired from the Hobgoblin raiders, but not before Bly and Korick try to give me another lecture on sharing. I made it quite clear that I was sharing, that was why I was buying everyone breakfast with the measly coins found on the dead Goblin bodies. Korick goes to meet with Irae to get out payment and while he returns with it, he also is carrying a strange note from Irae. The contents of the note reveals that Irae is indirectly claiming to be the Sickle and sent us on the caravan trip to give him time to collect his stuff and flee the city in secrecy. Boy that made me really mad! The only good thing that came out of that trip was that we have been offered a chance to scout the roads to Palanthus next months for the same caravan. They were so impressed by how much of a good job we did, that they asked for us by name for their next trip. I haven’t been to Palanthus for years. They might have some cool stuff to help me with smacking undead now that we know the truth about Irae; the Sickle is bound to show up again. The other good news is that the rings I found at Utin’s were both magical. One of them helps me hide better and the other is defensive magic. Yay!
Interlude 1 - Scene 1
422SC, Holmswelth 19th - Fierswelt 22nd
Holmeswelth 18-Fireswelt 14, 422 SC (04/16/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
This last month or so has been a bit slow every since Irae ran off. I went off to visit my Elven ghost friend to share the news concerning the death of Utin and the duplicity of Irae. I took my new riding dog Paws along so that I can make the trip much faster and without much hassle. Once backing Solanthus, I spent my days between the old farmhouse with Copper and wandering around the city spending time at the Temple of Mishakal trying to learn more about Undead or at the various seedy drinking and gambling establishments around the city. I even snuck back into Utin's old house to look for clues as to where Irae might have disappeared. I even tried to get Druin at the Dog & Duck to talk to me about growing up with Utin and Irae, but he always managed to avoid me or refused to share his childhood stories. I did spent a little of my salary on shopping for a few knick knacks.
Fireswelt 15-18, 422 SC (04/16/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We started on our trip towards Palanthus. The caravan caster Gaden Phessent says that seven days is the caravan speed record. He hopes to reach Vingaard Keep in three days with a one-day layover and then five more days to Palanthus. I haven’t been to Palanthus in years and never quite got to spend much time inside until the Knights of Neraka kicked me out for something they called vagrancy. A day into the trip we were attacked by a pair of large mutated Armadillos. I quickly realized that there was little for me to do other than help my current bands of friends and allies, so I smothered some of that Brute Paint on Bly and Korick. At first, they were a little annoyed, but the blue paint seemed to make them much tougher to hit and healed some of their wounds. After the battle, they thanked me for my assistance while poor Jahira got yelled at by Gaden for using fire nearby the horses that ended up panicking almost all of them
Fireswelt 19, 422 SC (04/16/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We arrived in Vingaard Keep today and it has become quite a den of iniquity. A pair of pirate groups named the Skulls and the Abyssmen run the city, which is little more than an armed camp far belong the destroyed former keep. The pirates use this camp as a place to relax and spend their loot from raiding up and down the river. Apparently the pirates even sell slaves, which is not something any of us find as acceptable. As a result, I went out and had a little fun emptying the pockets of various rival gangs and trying to make sure other saw me. I even tried to swap valuables of several people just to see if they might all fight amongst themselves and wipe each other out.
Korick gets into a fight with a Skull and kills him in the dispute while off exploring the camp to see if he might be able to purchase some of the slave’s freedom. Later than night, a half-dozen of the thugs try to make an example out of him, but to no avail. We sent them packing and clean the corpses of their valuables for the trouble. I even end up with a suit of magical leather armor than resizes to fit me perfectly. Most importantly, I have the badges of the fallen Skull members. I promptly sew them on my gear to make sure that everyone knows just how tough we are and stop trying to mess with us.
Fireswelt 20-22, 422 SC (04/16/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We headed out of Vingaard Keep today with a written apology from the Skull leader Masten. Jahira identifies all of our new magical gear from the dead Skull bandits. The rest of the trip towards the fallen High Clerists Tower is generally boring and uneventful even with all of the nice weather.
Interlude 1 - Scene 2
422SC, Fierswelt 23rd - 24th
Fireswelt 23, 422 SC (04/16/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We reached the collapsed tower today and Rieslm seemed very upset to see it. I was so bored the past few days that I was just itching to explore. I had to get into Sturm’s tomb and see if the stories about him were true. Maybe I could find some scales from that nasty Kitiara’s dragon who murdered the poor fallen knight. While poking around the tomb, a hole opened up in the rubble and I fell down a deep shaft and was told later that I must have been knocked unconscious.
Fireswelt 24, 422 SC (04/16/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I was woken up by a torch falling on to me an almost singing my hair. I was at the bottom of a deep shaft which opened into a finely crafted tunnel. The rest of my friends had dropped the torch on me when I did not return to the camp. They eventually have to come down the shaft because the door to Sturm’s tomb closes and they are unwilling to desecrate it by destroying the stone door. I do not stand around to wait for them and start poking around at a pair of doors nearby, setting of a fire trap and unlocking both of them. I open one of the doors just as everyone arrives down the shaft and discover one pair of Gargoyles made entirely out of ice are inside. On a whim I open the other doors and discover a pair of gargoyles made of fire. Talk about being stuck between the ice house and the fire pit.
To make a long story short, once each set of Gargoyles attacked other, there was a huge explosion which destroyed both groups. They left band these amazingly cool gems that Jahira would not let me touch. Later on we found similar rooms with Air and Earth Gargoyles as well. This time we were able to plan ahead and not get stuck right inside the explosion. Jahira said this place must be one of the hidden laboratories of the insane Black Wizard Fistandantilus. Jahira finds a secret door that seems to lead into the main laboratory if she can only figure out what the pass word is while I eventually get us into a bedroom after numerous attempts that leave me very stunned and dizzy at the end of it all. Jahira finally manages to get inside the laboratory and finds a strange pedestal with four indentations, a desiccated corpse and an archway. While inside the bedroom all I find is a journal. Jahira places the four strange gems from the gargoyles into the pedestal and is rewarded with a magical spell book. She then translates the archway, discovers that it can send us to Palanthus, and activates it, sending us there immediately.
We all step through the portal and end up hundreds of feet up the eastern mountainside, above the city of Palanthus on a ledge. There doesn't appear to be a way down. A few moments later, our vision begins to shimmer. Palanthus disappears, and instead, only four of us- minus Jahira - find ourselves in a well-appointed room, complete with a roaring fire, several comfortable-looking chairs, and a table full of good food. The walls are made of stone, with a single wooden door leading away. There is a note on the table. I help myself to the food, drink and note and wander over by the warm fire to relax and read. The note is from someone named Jenna and seems to be about something called a ‘Test’ that is occurring for Jahira. Apparently she seems to be doing poorly and might die as a result. We will be sent back to the caravan at the High Clerists Tower in the morning.
Interlude 1 - Scene 3
422SC, Fierswelt 24th - Paleswelt 2nd
Fireswelt 25, 422 SC (06/18/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I woke up after a comfy night in some secret magic place on the hard ground back with the caravan. Gaden, the caravan master, made me hide inside one of the wagons since kender are not allowed inside the city unless they are slaves. Extensive searching by the city guards revealed no improprieties or even little old me. The rules of the city are pretty harsh, even by the standards of the Knights of Neraka. All weapons must be peace bonded, all visitors must register their location at the governor’s mansion and a strictly enforced curfew is in effect at sun down. In order for me to be able to even see the city, I have to take the role of a slave, giving up my hoopak, weapons, armor and play a subservient role to my new owner, Korick.
While heading to our lodgings, I notice an older human male doing a horrible job of trying not to be seen while following us. Once we reach our lodging of choice, the Inn of the Bloated Fish, in the dock ward I tell Korick about the tail and he confronts the man. The guy turns out to be a priest of Zivilyn who says he said had some strange vision about us and needs to join us and provide help. A fight breaks out in the bar between two groups and I get myself slammed into a wall so hard it takes my breath away. City guards show up and demand our identification papers which we haven’t had a chance to acquire yet. The new priest, named Illiam, who turns out to be a local, escorts us to the mansion to get our papers and talks the authorities out of arresting us. We obtain our official papers and then head back to the lodging to try and get some rest.
Fireswelt 26, 422 SC (06/18/2005 & 07/17/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We are awoken in the middle of the night by a group of strange gorilla creatures who were kidnapped the innkeeper and attack Illiam who had been sleeping in the common room. The bar maid managed to hid out in the kitchen and avoid being taken or injured. Guard show up again and are not all that thrilled that we’ve drawn weapons and killed something, even while trying to defend our friends and a notable business owner. We have to talk to the Captain of the Watch and end up being deputized to help solve a series of outstanding crimes. We are given two days to try and determine who is behind the strange creature attacks and kidnapping over the past few weeks. If we do not meet the deadline, the Knights subtly suggest that our lives are forfeit. One can only guess that they consider us completely expendable.
Illiam tries to Speak with the Dead gorilla beast, but it very quick to discover that neither he, nor anyone else can understand the beasts’ language. The fact that this strange man has the power to speak with the dead is amazing to me. I’d love to be able to speak with the dead or maybe even the undead like I chat with the Elven Ghost near Solanthus. Thanks to my suggestion, Jahira manages to track down the purchaser of the leather harnesses found on the gorilla creature’s corpses. The special order was made by a Knight of the Lily but when we tell the watch commander, he blows us off suggesting that we would need more proof that the circumstantial evidence to indict a member of the Knights of Neraka. Rieslm and Korick spend time while Jahira is away hunting down a source of Adamantine for their blacksmithing endeavor. While I spent my time hunting down anything of value in the now empty inn, but only find a few coins in the till.
We do manage to track down more details concerning the Knight of the Lilly. He works as a gate guard and is used by a go-between for a lot of groups who want to move contraband material into and out of the city. Chances are that he did the same thing for the special order harnesses. Amazingly, some Guild guys some up at the Inn when it becomes clear that no one is visiting the place of business and we’ve hung up a very lousy sign declaring that the building is quarantined with some type of communicable disease. I let the Guild guys know about me by using the usual Cant and get myself invited back to the Guild for an official meet and greet. The local rogues take me around in circles in the sewers until we eventually reach the final destination. I chat for a bit with the head honcho and pay their cut for not only the work I’ve already done, but a lot of future work. I even offer up the Inn of the Boiled Fish in an attempt to get some information about the Knight of the Lily and the gorilla creatures. I guess I impressed the local Guild as they provided me with the detailed directions to the part of the sewers they avoid because it is too dangerous.
After the successful meeting with the guild, I made my way back to the Inn, fixed myself some dinner and waited for everyone else to show up. I did share all of the information I found out about the local sewers including a partial map. Korick wanted to wait until tomorrow to investigate since he was rip-roaring drunk, but common sense prevailed and he agreed to go out immediately. The old priest of Zivilyn showed up with a new friend, a woman named Jan, who he said could help us escape the city if things went awry. I am still not so sure about the self-proclaimed seer’s intentions. First he skulks around following us across the city and now he brings more of his religious friends along to supposedly help us. I am going to watch him closely for signs of trying to double cross us.
We head down into the sewers until I stumble upon a very ancient concealed door. Korick and Bly have to force it open as it has been closed for longer than any of us have been alive. We may our way down the other side and stumble into a proverbial abattoir filled with bodies. I think I spot the remains of Tolo, the kidnapped Innkeeper just before we get attacked by a pair of Forsaken Shells, an undead creature made from the flayed skin of formerly living humanoids. They put up quite a fight, but we managed to destroy them before they cause any permanent damage. A closer examination of the multitude of rotting corpses reveals that they were all killed in one of three ways; a hole in the skull, gouges in the chest or jaw incisions. The Seer does confirm that Tolo is among one of the dead.
While they rest of the group picks up their discarded weapons and patch themselves up, I go to work on the door on the other side of the room, disabling a trap and unlocking it in short order. When everyone is ready, we head through and spend the next few hours wandering the tunnels mostly aimlessly, but we do end up discovering that some of the tunnels lead down to the harbor. We hope to find tracks of something that might have carried to dragged all of the corpses to the dumping ground but find nothing. Eventually the creature actually stumbles on to us in the middle of refuse dumping trip and decides that we look like an excellent source of nourishment.
The thing puts up quite a fight and we discover the hard way that its four tentacles are all coated with a nasty strength sapping poison and it as some type of magical attack that put Jaheira into a state of catatonia. We are all so beat up that we decided to head back to the surface to recuperate rather than risk getting into trouble without a wizard to provide magical support. Before we go, I forge a note in the name of the Captain of the Guard, taking claim for the killing of the creature, hoping to confused anyone who might wonder how their pet had died. I managed to convince everyone that we should go to the Temple of Zivilyn to see about immediate healing, rather than wait until the next morning. Not only do we manage to get a discount on their services, it gives me a chance to check out the validity of both Illiam and Jan. After we pay the local clergy for their work, we head back to the Inn to rest for the night. I decided to play it safe and drag down a mattress and spend the night in the kitchen alone.
Fireswelt 27, 422 SC (07/17/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We head back down into the sewers where we left the remains of the pet beast and discover that it is missing. I hope that my hidden note sowed confusion and grief amongst the owner and perhaps caused some havoc amongst the Knights of Neraka. We wander the tunnels some more and eventually come upon a pair of double doors which look out of the ordinary. The hallway nearby it trapped not only with one trap, but three. I am able to easily handle the poison javelin trap, but get a little cocky with the smashing walls trap and then manage to set off a pit trap outside the doors while trying to get them open in a panic. Everyone else managed to get out of the way, but I try to hang off the edge of the pit and end up falling down it for my trouble. After landing I found myself in complete darkness and with no easy means of making my way out. Eventually my so called friends figure out how to pull me out and I am able to mark the wall trap, disable the pit trap and unlock the main doors. We then prepared ourselves for the eventuality of battle since we made so much noise that anyone on the other side likely be ready for us.
As I open the door, we are all hit by a magical effect that stuns many of us senseless, including myself. The origin of the blast was a strange colored, multi-tentacled humanoid creature that followed up its attack by trying to wrap its tentacles around my head and eat my brain! Luckily Rieslm was able to wrench the creature away from eating me, but not before it ripped out half of my scalp in the process. As we all started to beat on the creature and I gave it a good poking for trying to devour my very important brain, it changed tactics on us. It started to move away and then blast us again, trying to stun as many of us as possible.
Then things got weirder with the new woman friend of Illiam’s suddenly starting to shoot arrows at me and Illiam bringing the creature back from edge of death. I knew something wasn’t right about those two worshippers of Zivilyn and I turned out to be correct. Nevertheless, Bly and I managed to stay on top of things put the horrible tentacled thing out of its misery. Then when we both accused Illiam and Jan of turning traitor, they both claimed that they heard voices inside of their heads making them act against their will. Even though Jaheira confirmed that such a thing was possible and Illiam made quite a convincing argument in his favor, I still do not trust their intentions. Illiam tried to get back on my good side, but I would not let him touch me, especially not after supposedly being under mind control. Instead, I let Rieslm tend to the welt and bruises from the aberration. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about my hair, so it looks like I am going to finally have to cut it all off and let it grow back in again on its own. I haven’t cut it since I lost you those many years ago, but maybe this is a sign from the heavens that I need to let go and my hair is what is standing in the way of me finding my final closure.
Fireswelt 28 – Paleswelt 5 (07/30/05 – Not Present)
Dear Knuckles,
It has been a few days and I have been a bit to busy to write with the trip back from Palanthus to Solanthus having been all sorts of crazy. There were several significant events on the trip back home with the first being the departure of Rieslm from our happy band of travelers. Karick seemed to be quite upset by the whole ordeal, but I wasn’t really surprised; she was more into her Solamnic duty that just happened to temporality align with our mission. Part of the way through the trip according to Jaheira we were attacked by a band of Chaos infused Fey. They were all sorts of freaky weird, even weirder than me. As a result of that encounter, I kind of understood why Kender seem like outsiders to the rest of the civilized species on Krynn, not that I would ever consider changing my way of life.
Perhaps the most noteworthy event of the trip was the Sickle sponsored attack by a diverse coterie of undead. The half-dozen varied creatures were some of the most specialized undead that any of us have ever had a chance to encounter. Sickle must had spent some time gathering up, creating or coercing these creatures to track us down and assault us. The Quell was the most amazing with its natural ability to sever a divine spell caster from its ability to cast spells for a short period of time. Poor Illiam, I do no think that I’ve ever seen him that disconcerted and confused before. The first real evidence that Jaheira had been changed by her arcane test occurred in this battle and it was impressive. I am definitely glad that she is on her side and considers me a real friend compared to some of these other knuckleheads. Oh my, I didn’t mean to insult you my dear child. I cannot believe that I used that word to describe anyone but you….
Chapter 2 - Scene 1
422SC, Paleswelt 6th - Gildember 28th
Paleswelt 6, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We arrived back in Solanthus to a throng of annoying hero worshippers. While the rest of the group allowed themselves to be lavished by the crowd, I slipped away from the public spectacle to one of my favorite drinking holes to recover from the long trip. Much to my dismay, it appears that all of locals at most of my favorite dive bars knew of my involvement with the aforementioned heroes. While all the free drinks were definitely appreciated, all of the notoriety was certainly going to put a serious crimp in my style for days and weeks to come.
Paleswelt 10, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
When I went to visit my ghostly elven friend Naladas at one of Sickle’s old lairs, he had strangely vanished. I searched all over the caverns and found no sign of him. This makes no sense. Ghosts just do not get up and wander off on their own. All of my research has shown that they pick a place or a person and haunt them until whatever motivation caused them to return from the nether regions is resolved. They don’t just go a wandering without any good reason. I wonder if Sickle is the cause of Naladas’ disappearance.
Paleswelt 11-Gildember 19, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I spent most of the last several months isolated away doing research in the local library on undead. I decided that I would sit down and write a book on the subject of the undying from my own personal perspective. I started with the various creatures that my friends and I have encountered in our time traveling together. I both drafted some original artwork and companion text. It took quite some time to do properly and I only ended up with about seven pages when I was finished, but it looks quite impressive for someone without any real formal training.
Gildember 20, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I’ve been quite annoyed with all of this popularity and I think I’ve finally managed to track down the source of who leaked our roles in the handling of the Sickle issue. It seems that all signs led back to the Dog & Duck tavern and the third of the Sickle adoptee’s, none other than Druin. When I went to harass him about this involvement, he shared his reasons which all seemed quite altruistic, but not all that interesting. What was intriguing was that he invited me back to hear special performer schedule to play at the tavern later that night. I agree to stop by later and was shocked to see a crazy Gully Dwarf up onstage banging on pots, pans, cutlery and kitchen utensils and spinning some yarn about the supposed heroics of myself and my friends from earlier in the spring. Druin was highly amused and felt that he owed me for all the trouble, offering me a private room at the inn which seemed to come with a Gully Dwarf as a permanent door mat.
Gildember 21-23, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I spend quite a bit of time around the Dog & Duck getting comfortable in my new room and taking advantage of all the free food and drink. The Bard gains quite a following with one of his songs about the Sickle, so much so, that someone shows up and transcribes the song into sheet music and then spreads the story around town. When the Gully Dwarf isn’t up on stage, he won’t leave me alone, always asking me countless crazy questions about my adventures. Since the only way to get him to shut up is to offer up a tidbit now and then, always making sure to add a few random embellishments and to change the names of the characters to at least keep them from suffering the same misfortunes of fame.
Gildember 24, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
Thanks to the crazy Gully Dwarf Bard song about Irae’s role as the Sickle it has become the topic of public conversation across town. Gong starts to follow me around everywhere I go, like a lost little puppy, as I wander about on my normal daily routine. I start to learn that the local Guild’s have allowed the deities of darkness to build temples across the city next to the gods of light. I have a nice civilized chat with several of the less reputable priests of Morgion and Chemosh and they are quite full of themselves and slight off kilter. Strangely, the followers of Chemosh have started leaning towards the most attractive and beautiful as well as quite suspicious. Further investigation revealed that the priesthood of Chemosh appears to be undead in origin. When I try to find Druin, the only real authority figure I know in town, the Dog & Duck is shut and locked. Apparently Druin was out of town on business, but was kind enough to leave me note. I passed the day by reading to Gong from my journal while trying to determine how to handle the Chemosh problem. In the end, I made my way to the Guild Hall and acquired some construction maps that might help me unveil some of the sneakiest of the town’s darker priesthood.
Chapter 2 - Scene 2
422SC, Darkember 16th - 25th
Gildember 25-29, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I spend quite a bit of time gathering more information concerning the Temple of Chemosh with Gong following along in my shadow. All of the construction workers seem quite happy and are paid well, but the general populace doesn’t seem all that thrilled with the Guild’s actions. Ultimately, I decided to follow several of the Priests of Chemosh and hope to find one alone. It took a few nights but I managed to find one on the prowl looking for a sweet nothing to convert. When I confronted him, he attacked his convert and then turned on me. He called himself a Beloved of Chemosh and was quite impressive in battle. I would have died if it hadn’t been for Gong, which is the first time I’ve ever been grateful for having him around. We were eventually able to clobber the priest, but his convert has risen from her forced conversion as another Beloved and tried to escape. We managed to get lucky and caught her before she escaped. We then called out for the city watch and were eventually taken to the Temple of Mishakal to tell our story. At first the priests did not believe me, but eventually my past heroics and fame won them over enough to justify looking into the issue in greater detail.
Gildember 30-Darkember 4, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
The Temple of Mishakal sequestered me for a few days as they searched for the truth of my investigations and then suddenly went on the offensive. They attacked and destroyed the Temple of Chemosh burning them all to the ground. Needless to say I was a bit surprised by their vehement ferocity and tried to help as much as I could, but mostly all I could do was stand back, watch and act as a look out for them while trying to keep Gong out of trouble and from revealing our hiding spots with his loud instruments.
Darkember 4, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I was awakened by the sound of war horns followed by the city militia going on full alert. Rumors of a large wall armed and armored force was on the move in the direction of Solanthus. As it turns out, it was a large contingent of the Knights of Solamnia lead by Druin. They were there to wrest control of the city from the now quite unpopular Guilds and ended up being quite well received by the locals. The entire coup was non-violent and without anything but minor bloodshed of a few rowdy troublemakers. It didn’t hurt matters that a large contingent of White Wizards was also part of the occupying force. Everyone was in quite good spirits as the Solamnic flag was raised over the city at dusk.
Darkember 5-11, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
The Knights were quite busy over the next few days tearing down the partially constructed temples of Sargonnas, Hiddukel and Morgion as well as handling all of the transitional government details and making sure no malcontents caused any trouble. Both a new governor is eventually appointed and the city officially rejoins Solamnia. Druin and my old friend Rieslm showed up at the tavern to brief me on their participation in this political victory. In an apparent act of patriotism, the Dog & Duck is renamed the Rose & Kingfisher.
Darkember 12-24, 422 SC (09/09/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I was awoken in the middle of the night by an eerie chill. Surprisingly, it was my old friend, the elven ghost Naladas with a message of sorts. He had me hold up a map of continent of Ansalon and pointed at a place in Northern Ergoth, telling me that the Sickle was destined for a secret citadel hidden deep within the mountain there. Then just as quickly as he arrived, Naladas vanished into the night without ever explaining how he left the place of his death or how he had acquired such information.
Chapter 2 - Scene 3
422SC, Darkember 25th - Frostkolt 28th
Darkember 25-Frostkolt 18, 422 SC (09/23/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
All of my old friends showed back up in Solanthus after s prolonged trip out of town without me. Sadly, they are carrying the body of Jaheira who had died in a horrible battle. I recommended that they talk to Taisul Honerr at the Temple of Mishakal about the possibility of restoring her to life. While discoursing with the High Priest about the topic, Illiam and Bly learned that they had become infected with Lycanthropy a disease they acquired from the bite wounds from a pack of werewolves. The duo agreed to be quarantined until the next full moon in order to be liberated from the horrible disease. At first Bly wasn’t willing but then he got an offer from Jann he couldn’t refuse.
Frostkolt 19, 422 SC (09/23/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
Illiam and Bly changed during the full moon today and were cured of their affliction shortly thereafter. While I tried really hard to witness the ceremony, the priests were just too watchful to let me get near. It didn’t help any that Gong was following me and making all sorts of noises giving me away. I did so want to witness the change, but I never got close and had to settle for a second hand accounting which was dreadfully boring by comparison.
Frostkolt 20-21, 422 SC (09/23/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We all got together like the old days and talked shop and future plans. I was all about going to find Sickle, but Illiam convinced me that we should travel to the Daargard Mountains instead. Apparently we would find information hidden there that would make finding Sickle easier. Illiam also mentioned some random weirdness about the City of Truth and the Heart of the World. Frankly, I think he is spouting quite a bit of nonsense, but I am willing to put up with it if everyone is willing to eventually travel to Ergoth to deal with the Sickle.
Frostkolt 22-23, 422 SC (09/23/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
We had an uneventful two days of travel in the dead of winter under the auspices of light snow. We passed through Kyre and Elmwood without incident. Amazingly, Gong was able to sing for drinks and his supper as well as a spot by the fire every night. People seemed to just ignore the fact that he is a Gully Dwarf just as soon as the percussion comes out and the songs start. It is probably one of the most ironic things I’ve ever seen.
Frostkolt 24, 422 SC (09/23/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
Around mid-day we got jumped by a pair of Icegaunt’s, a type of undead quite fond of the cold. One of them called forth a column of ice along with Jaheira and Illiam while the other got all up in Korick’s face. The undead chilled those they hit quite severely and drained some of their vitality in the process. They were also accomplished spellcasters tossing around a sphere of cold and summoning an ice demon. Yet with team work, we managed to dispatch the undead leaving the bodies for Gong to loot for valuables. The strangely resourceful Gully Dwarf gave everything of value to me to pass along to the party, but strangely kept a decapitated head as a trophy. We then traveled for the rest of the day, spending the night on the banks of the frozen over Vingaard River.
Frostkolt 25, 422 SC (09/23/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
With dawn came extremely low temperatures, more than our cold weather gear could handle properly on its own. Illiam provided us with magic to protect against the elements before we proceeded. The frozen river wasn’t all that stable so we used a magical bridge to cross but our luck had apparently run out when a White Dragon happened by and attacked. The creature’s horribly cold breath weapon killed my friend riding dog Paws. The fight is vicious and the serpent almost kills Korick with its tooth and nail, but we are all surprised by when an extremely funny joke incapacitates the dragon with laughter. This gives us the edge to clobber the beast, but not before Jaheira knocks out Korick with a poorly aimed spell and Gong proves his worth again by aiding Jann with her archery skills which ultimately lead to the death of the beast. That little gully dwarf has really started to prove his worth for all the trouble he causes by tagging along. We might make a proper adventurer out of him yet.
Frostkolt 26 – Frostkolt 29, 422SC (10/07/05 – Not Present)
Dear Knuckles,
I think that the passing of Paws has probably been the weirdest thing to happen since I lost you so many years ago. I was so afraid that his death was going to incapacitate me, but surprisingly it was actually quite cathartic. It was a clear sign that I’ve gotten over your death caused by the rape and trauma of those murdering bastards who attacked my families’ circus caravan more than a decade ago. The change of focus over the last few months towards hunting down and destroying the undead has really been beneficial. It’s been years since I’ve seen things so clearly and truly know that this is the fate that the gods have decreed me to follow. I just hope that I survive long enough to make the Sickle pay for what he has done to all of the innocents in Solanthus.
Along the way on our trip we encountered one of the rarer forms of Knight Haunt, a suit of armor possessed by the deceased soul of a former Knight of Takhisis. Luckily this type of undead was particular susceptible to the star metal which Korick had forged his new maul from and as such was relatively easy to destroy. We also stumbled onto a wacky old coot that seemed friendlier with wolves than with more civilized folk. He did give us a tip about a band of Ergothian’s that had passed be a few months back that seemed to be heading in the same direction that Seer had been leading us since Solanthus He was extremely distrustful of magic and at one point misconstrued Jaheira trying to be polite as a magical attack. We also had quite a scare on the trip when an entire pack of Saber-toothed tigers snuck up on us and attacked from deep within several snow drifts. They ripped into all of us, including me and if Gong hadn’t acted to draw the beast away from me, I might have bleed to death in powdery cold wastes.
Chapter 2 - Scene 4
423SC, Newkolt 1st
Frostkolt 30, 422 SC (10/21/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
While everyone slept, I went out and explored the ancient Ergothian outpost. Nobody seemed to be inside, yet one of the fire places was kicking off smoke the entire time I was there. The building has certainly seen better times and might have been quite defendable in the past with the numerous arrows slits on the side, but now it was falling into complete disrepair. Climbing onto the roof revealed little information but did confirm that the chimneys were far too small for anyone, even a kender to climb down. An examination of the two doors revealed no traps, extremely flimsy locks and doors that were practically rotting off their hinges. Strangely, I sensed the presence of both active and destroyed undead within the outpost. Rather than trying to go inside, I set an improvised trap using a bag of marbles and two vials of Holy Water. I learned that apparently my little trap worked when on the way back to camp, I heard a horrible scream originating from the outpost.
Newkolt 1, 423 SC (10/21/2005)
Dear Knuckles,
I sort of filled in the group on my previous night’s activities as we approached the outpost, but it did not turn to matter much as we got attacked by a pair of Wraith only a few moments after we arrived. Strangely these Wraiths seemed to be able to function in bright sunlight which went against all of the research I had done on the subject. The horrible creatures were eventually destroyed but not before they had fed on several members of the group leaving their vitality drained. As we moved to explore the outpost, we found that rubble had been piled against the inside of the doorways and it had t be cleared or smashed away. Once inside, we strangely found piles of clothing, armor and weapons, both new and old scattered around. I figured that they were some of the destroyed undead I has sensed the night before, so I did not mentioned anything.
Unfortunately all of the noise riled up a pack of Ghouls lead by a Ghast, but thanks to the divine presence of Illiam and a well placed Lightning Bolt by Jaheira, they were little more than a nuisance. The bigger problem was the freakish Ergothian that attacked us in the lower level. We never did find out why they attacked, but they three of them had been camped for awhile, having stockpiled food and supplies for quite some time. In addition, they were the cause of the smoking fireplace, so at least one mystery was solved. Somewhere along the way, a strange voice had started speaking to me, suggesting that it could answer all of our questions. When I mentioned it to everyone, they just blew me off and claimed it was just a quirk of being kender. Little did they know, it was a huge warning sign of what was to come later.
Jaheira managed to find two successive secret doors revealing another pair of nasty Wraith, one of whom managed to touch me before evaporating at the end of my Hoopak. The big surprise was the presence of a Shadow Wight in the bottom fortress in a hidden room deep underground and well under the nearby mountains. It was the creature who has been whispering to me and what it really wanted was to feel on all of our personalities and to destroy us all from all perceived and recorded existence. We know that it managed to get one of us during the fight, but the last vestiges of he fallen deity Chaos were so powerful that we forgot who they were and what they might have meant to us. I certainly hope that they were not anyone important to me. For my part, I too almost fell prey to the attack of the Shadow Wight and became quite surly and rude to my long time friends as a result. For reasons I do not quite understand, Illiam felt it was necessary to treat my affliction last. I can’t begin to imagine what I had done to make him feel the need to punish no just me, but everyone else who had to put up with me for days afterwards.
Interlude 2 - Scene 1
423AC, Newkolt 2nd - 18th
Newkolt 2-4, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
We spent a single night at this horrible place and all shared the same terrifying nightmare. In the very vivid dream, both Jaheira and Illiam were struck down by a Shadow Wight and we all forgot that they even existed. This scared almost everyone quite thoroughly, so while we originally intended to spend several days recovering at the Ergothian outpost, instead we packed up and headed out almost immediately. Several days of uneventful travel through the cold snow pack passed us by. I made sure to stop and pay my respects to Paws at the shallow grave we had dug for him when we traveled by. For a second I thought I felt his presence nearby, but it was probably just the chilling breeze rather than the company of an errant soul of a non-sentient creature. I guess I am just getting spooked more and more these days with all the undead I have been experiencing. I am starting to jump at every perceived undead presence these days now that it seems that I can sense them with a single thought.
Shortly after passing Kyre, we noticed dispersed smoke on the horizon and many figures on horseback headed our way. Imagine our surprise when the riders were none other than several Knights of Neraka lead by the former Watch Commander from Palanthus. Apparently they were on the run and were willing to offer us a bribe to delay those who were chasing them. While several member of the group seemed intrigued by the offer, Karick was a little more direct in his bartering process, using his maul to kill the Knight of the Skull for her impetuousness. The morale of the Knights disintegrated with the quick deaths of half of the group, leading the remaining three to surrender. Surprisingly, one of the Knights seemed willing to give up his previous life and repent his crimes. Illiam was eventually able to broker a deal with an armed contingent of Knights of Solmania who were chasing down the quarry we had captured. We ended up being escorted back to Solanthus by a squadron of knights and the prisoners were going to be given a proper trial for the crimes they had allegedly committed.
Newkolt 6-10, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
We only end up spending few days back in Solanthus sorting through the various knickknacks we picked up on the last trip. Gong is still wearing the ridiculous tribal head piece he acquired from the fallen Ergoth Shaman. He looks like a complete goofball when he wears it, but whenever I try to take it off he scraps and bites until I leave him alone. Illiam seems convinced that we need to hurry our way to the City of Truth in Northern Ergoth so we hit the road again. Thankfully, Gong & I have acquired horses from the fallen Nerakan so we no longer have to share mounts with anyone. This tie around we spent most of the time on established roads as we make our way towards Caergoth where we hope to hire a vessel to take across the Bay of Monsters to Ergoth.
Along the way we happened upon a pack of half-woman half lion creatures that Jaheira called Lamias. While we first noticed that at quite an extreme range in the middle of attacking a single human, we later learned that it was all a ruse to get us to come closer. The touch of the Lamia drains mental acumen of anyone its touches. To make matters worse, they have uncanny skill with Enchantment spells and used them to turn Bly against us until Gong used similar magic to incapacitate the Ergothian before he killed any of us. They even used some of that pesky magic to put me to sleep until Illiam slapped me hard enough to wake me up. Eventually we were able to overcome their magical gifts and emerge victorious, but not before most of us were subjected to the Lamia touch and end up suffering mental sickness as a result.
Newkolt 11-18, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
The next few days were spent on the road to Caergoth and within the city itself. The last day of the trip had us in melee with eight white furry giants that none of us could properly identify, and while they were quite fierce, did not present that much of challenge, even without Karick traveling with us. Once in Caergoth we settled in at the Inn of the Thirsty Whale and tried to find passage. It ended up taking a few days, but we arranged a trip. We had some time to kill, so Gong sang songs about our adventures and travels which ended up paying for out food, drinks and lodging which just about made up for the fact that he was embarrassing all of us with his crazy stories about our supposed heroism. This also allowed all of us to recover from the various mental and physical wounds we had incurred on the trip from Solanthus. As a result we were completely rested and ready for anything when the ship departed Caergoth for Hylo at the end of the week.
Interlude 2 - Scene 2
423AC, Newkolt 18th - 27th
Newkolt 22-23, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles
The boat journey ended up taking four cold, wet and windy days; much of the time I spent feeling very apprehensive about returning to the homeland of my people. I had always grown up on the road and have never been to either Hylo or Kenderhome in my lifetime. I had no idea what to expect when we would arrived, but I had a feeling of dread similar to those fateful moments before the caravan attack that killed my parents and ultimately left me with you. This led to a great deal of apprehension about the entire trip. I can only surmise that if we had not been on the hunt for Sickle, I would have never voluntarily partaken of this journey home to begin with.
Imagine my surprise that when I suddenly found myself surrounded with thousands and thousands of my own people that I felt completely homesick. Why I had never bothered to come home, I cannot quite understand. Just being among our own people brought back all kinds of the happy memories of my childhood. I truly regret that I did not return here after losing you so many years ago. It would have certainly allowed my mind to heal from the dark tragedy that much quicker if I had been among my own kind. Alas, we can not turn back the River of Time, so there is no real point in lamenting over the past.
Perhaps the biggest personal surprise of the trip to Hylo was the sudden and very specific urge to procreate with wanton abandon. For the handful of days we spent in Hylo, I was horizontal most of the time enjoying some of the finest offerings the local den of pleasure could provide for my meager coin. While losing myself in the pure physical pleasure was certainly quite enlightening, my primary focus was to become pregnant and hopefully carry a child to full term. The need for this was paramount in my mind and drove my urges to take tumble and tumble with some of the most skilled male kender I’ve ever had the luxury to experience in my life. Only time would tell if would achieve my goal. I would know for certain by the next turn of Solinari if I had been successful.
Apparently, while I was pre-occupied, Jan got herself into quite a bit of trouble. Allegedly, she kicked and stole from a Kender child and was incarcerated for her crimes. Eventually, Seer was able to negotiate her release from the Queen of my people no less. Yet, Jan felt completely humiliated by being lead around in chains until we were able to procure horses and lead town. So much so that she officially cancelled her contract with Seer to provide his protection services and instead became a self-made woman warrior. While she still intended to travel with us, she chose to do so without being shackled to the very man that while ultimately saving her life, also lead to her to deep personal shame.
Newkolt 24-27, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
Several days ride north from Hylo we stumbled onto a strange scene. A black-robed kobold Wizard with magically summoned undead was attacking a human Sorcerer with two armed guards. At first it was quite unclear just exactly who was in the right, after all the kobold was wearing lack robes and using undead as his allies. In the end, he turned out to be a renegade hunter sent from the Conclave itself to deal with a rogue spellcaster. The battle was quite pitched with control changing sides several times before we managed to achieve victory over the renegade and save the kobold from almost certain death. Afterwards, the wizard explained the situation in detail as we patched him up, thereby confirming our choice of action as proper and just. Of course, I did have to have a frank and civil conversation with the small draconic creature over the perils of using undead, but I am not quite sure he either cared or even understood my point of view after my lecture was over.
Interlude 2 - Scene 3
423AC, Newkolt 28th - Deepkolt 13th
Newkolt 28, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
While heading towards the lost city, we stumbled onto this monstrously large construct of what Gong called a Thunder Lizard. Apparently of band of crazy gnomes had created the creature and then lost control of it when the primary gnome who was attuned to it had a heart attack. I tried to climb on top and look for a way inside and was starting to tear over the neck joint before I got thrown off. Bly managed to use some Universal Solvent to some success so I joined him in this endeavor which managed to weaken one of the rear legs. Nevertheless, over the course of the next few minutes, we all managed to get swallowed by the creature and get ourselves trapped inside of it in these strange little cages. Only master Yap managed to get away and he promised to find someone to get us all out as he rode away on his war pony.
Newkolt 29-Deepkolt 11, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
Over the next twelve days we all spent more time in each others immediate company that we have ever spent before. Something in the construct kept us all under a magical dweomer that removed the need for food, water and sleep. This meant that we all spent most of the time talking, singing, sharing stories and getting to know each other so much more than we ever had before. At the same time, we also argued, complained, farted, taunted and generally made each other quite miserable. We were having some much fun that I almost told them about you, but then I decided against it at the last minute. Imagine out surprise when we finally got out of the creature and discovered that our savior was none other than Karick. Some strange series of event occurred back in Solanthus and he set out after us to see if he could help out after all.
Deepkolt 12, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
We had two different life threatening conflicts today. The first being with a particularly loud and exceedingly touch undead creation called a Wheep. It snuck up on us and tried to scare us all with its unnatural yell, but Gong dealt with that problem rather quickly. We then had to chase the thing all over the place as it primarily tried to chase down Jann who seemed to have the greatest success at trying to kill it. In the end I managed to get the killing blow, much to Bly’s chagrin who felt that Gong would once again give me all the credit. Unfortunately, he was probably right as Gong immediately responded by saying that I was the most famous and renowned kender currently still alive. I supposed that is what I get for allowing the little brat to tag along and right stupid poems and songs about me.
The second was with a group of five giant-like humanoids covered in crystal scales that resembled trolls in shape, form and the ability to regenerate. We stumbled upon them while stopping off in the remains of a plains village on the edge of the forest. The place had just been burnt to the ground a few hours before by a band of the Ergoth tribesman who had long standing violent relations with their more domestic neighbors. Karick and Illiam both demanded that we honor the dead, so we stuck around to burn the bodies of those who had died. As a result, we were still around then the Trolls came down from the mountains to pick over the remains of the destroyed settlement. Gong even managed to kill one of them after Master Yap paralyzed it with a spell. The gully dwarf was so happy about being able to clobber something twenty times his side, that I suspect that we will never hear the end of it.
Deepkolt 13, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
Gong & I foolishly get lead into a trap by a tribe of crafty Ergot thanks in part to the idiocy of Jann chasing after a lone rider on the plains. As is turns out, the tribe made a deal with the Sickle that allowed him rite of passage and entrance to the City of Truth. We were forced to agree to a similar quest to recover a Tear of Mishas on order to gain our freedom and directions to the city. We were taken to the Dark Mound by the tribe and left without horses or Master Yap. When Illiam communed with Zivilyn about the quest, he became possessed by something that gave us a complex riddle about the quest that made little sense at the time. Searching the mound revealed three buried entrances, two of which were trapped and ultimately lead to dead-ends while the other was much more elaborate and seemed to match the litany riddle. I spend quite a long period of time discovering and disabling various traps in the last tunnel as well as determining the nature of two potential doorways into the burial mound before we all decide to camp for the night and start fresh the next morning.
Interlude 2 - Scene 4
423AC, Deepkolt 14th - 19th
Deepkolt 14-15, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
Little did I know at the time, but today would be another extreme test of my faith. When awoke inside of the elaborate tunnel filled with mosaics, pictographs, and paintings and spent some time messing around with the weird portal with the flashing gems. Eventually, we stumbled onto a pattern that seemed to mean something and foolishly Jann and Bly went through the portal and vanished. Luckily, Illiam had the foresight to cast a Greater Status spell on them before they vanished so we could at least track their general direction and health. After a short period of time, it became clear that they were in trouble, so while Illiam kept sending healing spells down the magical link, the rest of us figured out how to turn off the mist in the archway so that we could pass through once things had calmed down. Later we would find out that they had been attacked by a large group of Tomb Motes after falling into a deep pit and that they would have likely perished without the Illiam’s help.
When the rest of us went through, we also vanished and appeared somewhere else. The first chamber contained an inanimate four armed gargoyle with single missing arm. With some deduction, we placed some gems in the remaining outstretched hands only to have them crushed. Thinking it was safe to proceed we moved into a long, elaborately painted chamber filled with pictograms of various creatures all holding differing colored spheres. At the far end of the gallery was another mist filled archway, lit with three different colored gems. Investigation of the walls revealed some to be illusions that hid concealed doors. Behind the very first concealed door we found was another gargoyle, this time it had all four arms, was animated and seemed to want to crush us into a pulp. The melee was intense and would have been a complete disaster if Bly and Jann had not have heard the entire fracas and managed to come and find us. As it was, Gong was a victim of the battle, killed for interfering even after begging for his life. I became quite numb and mentally withdrew from my surroundings once I heard confirmation of his passing.
The activities of the next few days only came to me after the fact. I clearly recall arranging Gong’s body after taking all of his personal effects off his person. I felt that it was the only way to treat the fallen Gully Dwarf with dignity since we had no real way to properly conduct any formal ceremony in the middle of this crazy puzzle crypt. I then recall proceeding to a series of chest discovered by Jann & Bly and opening them one by one releasing several creatures that I apparently attacked as if under the influence of a frenzied rage. One of the chests had a simple mechanical trap that I disarmed before recovering a crystal box containing a silver ring. Apparently I also searched another room in the longer gallery that contained a jar with a preserved eye, a divine scroll and a bag of gems. I guess I pocketed the gems, slipped the scroll into Jaheira’s pockets and handed over the jar. I was clearly not acting either rationally or anything like myself if I truly did these things.
I guess we eventually left the gallery filled with real and imagine creatures holding multi-colored spheres and moved down a narrow tunnel deeper into the dungeon eventually ended up in a long abandoned temple of Chemnosh. The pews were filled with the left behind donations of the faithful as well as several traps. Most of us inhaled some type of poison when someone other than me opened a pew without properly checking it beforehand. It seems that I also wandered up to the temple alter during my watch and picked up a sacrificial daggers, triggering several traps that almost killed both Bly and Illiam. I vaguely recall running off and collapsing in grief over what I had done coupled with finally coming to terms with what had happened to Gong. All of the deaths for the past few decades came back to me all at once and it was if I had wakened from some type of horrible nightmare.
Realizing that my actions over the past few days had almost lead to the death of the only people that I had ever considered my friends, I felt that now was the time to finally come clean with all of them about my past and the fact that the dead spoke to me. I shared with them those most intimate of moments from the death of my family at the hands of those bandits so many years ago, the ravaging of my body from those cruel enough to take an unwillingly partner and the eventually lose of you, my beloved child, during your birth. I revealed that I continually spoke with the dead, usually with Naladas, the strange ghost elf we found in the Sickle’s original lair some many months ago. It was also at this time that I realized that Gong had started speaking to me. He didn’t seem to be blaming me for his death, he just seemed happy that his life had meaning.
Deepkolt 16-17, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
This infernal dungeon appears to be one trap, secret door or elaborate puzzle after another. Whither it is an impenetrable wall that can only be opened with a magic ring, a series of interlock doors with swarms of blood suck undead, or the most complex series of locks that I’ve ever witnessed this place is starting to get on my nerves. I certainly wanted to give its creator a piece of my mind on the subject and was rather surprised when we stumbled onto his tomb. He took offense at my criticism of his home and tried to kill me with a Disintegrate spell, according to Jaheira. Luckily, I had the foresight to pick up what appeared to be a rusty weapon and pass it off to Bly. He used the mace to send Lich Acerak back to the oblivion for his role in building the undead spawned structure.
After the death of the Lich, we rushed to get out before the room collapsed. However, this turned out to be an illusion which we only discovered on accident during a break trying to dig through the walls looking for another way out. We found quite a few magic items and keys for the door we could not pass through. This lead to a derelict laboratory evidently used to create undead. While investigating I was grabbed by a species of ooze that paralyzed me until I was able to be rescued. Hidden inside was part of key that unlocked another hidden doorway. We passed through a tunnel filled with a quite long spiked pit trap and culminating in an elaborate room trap. Illiam almost died thanks to a green slime posing as elaborate tapestries. Based on the consternation we all exhibited as a result of this encounter, everyone was clearly showing signs of adventuring based anxiety with no clears means of resolving the condition.
Deepkolt 18-19, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
Will this infernal dungeon ever end? The next trap we encountered was a complex series of pits, spears, sliding doors and a juggernaut in the form of a massive elephant that tried to run us all down. If I had not insisted that we be careful and discovered the lesser traps, we would have likely all perished in the large trap when the construct was let lose and tried to turn poor Karick and Bly into metal pancakes. While I was more than a useless in the eventual battle that occurred, when we stumbled onto the Crypt Chanter a few rooms later, the situation was completely reversed. Everyone but Jann and I fell under the sway of the creature’s twisted magical melody leaving the two of us to batter the creature with ranged weapons. I dove under the water that was all over the room and then blasted the creature while it was surprised. We each only took a single shot and the creature fell under the onslaught of our fury. Unfortunately, the encounter left everyone else quite drained.
Eventually we found out way deeper into the tomb via yet another secret door and camped in a small hallway protected by a intricate lock. Bly was finally able to deduce how it worked and opened it by using three of his bladed weapons inserting them into appropriately sized slots. This opened the door to reveal a room filled with disturbingly colored magical columns, several doors, a throne and numerous trinkets strewn around the area. Having learned from past experience not just pick anything up, we first thoroughly searched the area for obvious signs of danger before starting to do anything stupid. Divination magic revealed multiple powerful magic items on the thrown, over doorways, and in the center of a scorched section of the room, in addition to several undead creatures hidden behind two of the three obvious exists.
Eventually we formulated a plan and initiated it, but of course, things did not turn out quite exactly as we intended. Jaheira put on a magical crown which revealed additional dangers in the room as well as another hidden doorway, but when she touched the wrong end of a scepter to the crown, she vaporized into dust. I had to get creative at that point, grabbing a gem on the floor hoping it would help, wishing the elf back into existence, tossing the gem away before it exploded and opening up the door with the other end of the scepter. Luckily this all worked and we decided to push ahead rather than risking our luck with the other more obvious exists. Proceeding along, we found a hallway with the key to its exit lying in plan sight. While the key was magical, I seemed resistance to its effects and used it to open the door without an issue.
The next room was filled with iron statues, a sarcophagus, several chests and a smoking brazier. The inhabitants of the brazier ended up being an Efreet who was rather upset about being disturbed and attacked. The chests were covered with traps and held nothing more than a pile of shiny stones made to look more expensive via the use of illusion magic. The coffin had been stolen from elsewhere suggesting it was another false crypt. The exit happened to be hidden underneath one of the statues which we had initially feared were magical constructs. Moving ahead, we found another hallway and another secret door, revealing a third supposed burial chamber of the mad necromancer.
This one was protected by a floating skull, which seemed to be its phylactery and hidden amongst its valuables was the item we had really been sent to find; the Tear of Mishakal. The fragment of the undead was difficult to dent, but with the help of the magical artifact of healing, some creative use of alchemical items and Karick’s maul, we managed to defeat it. After collecting all the items of value, we used the last key we had found and used it to find ourselves outside of the dungeon for first time in days. We were jubilant of our success and head back immediately to recover master Yap from the band of Ergothian brigands who had accosted us previously.
Chapter 3 - Scene 1
423AC, Deepkolt 19th - 20th
Deepkolt 20, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
We spent the rest of the previous evening and the following day rooting through all of the wonderful items, coins and jewels we had managed to haul back with us out of the atrocious dungeon we had barely managed to escape. We were then approached by a lone rider who turned out to be a member of the tribe who was holding Yap captive. The rider, named Merket, was quite odd, seemingly to share much in common with legendary dragons, but somehow contained in the form of a man. He lead us back to his people only to discover that they had been destroyed by a massive undead ossuary called a Boneyard. This gigantic creature almost ripped me to pieces and would have succeeded if it had not been for my faithful friends and allies. Yet the destruction of the creature almost killed us all when it exploded into thousands of bone shards.
Chapter 3 - Scene 2
423AC, Deepkolt 21st
Deepkolt 21, 423 SC
Dear Knuckles,
As we made out way to the City of Truth we were attacked by numerous undead creations that could only come from the Sickle himself in that they all shared the same features of the Boneyard destroyed the day before. They all were freezing to the touch when they struck and when they perished, they exploded in a blast of negative energy harmful to living flesh. We first encountered a pair of Blood Wight’s, a misnamed creature have little to do with a common Wight but everything to do with Blood. Poor Karick was engulfed by one of these beasts during the battle. Later we fought a herd of Lantern Goats who hunted with a type of Life Sense attacking those who seemed to have the weakest spark of life. Yet, the worst battle was yet to come as we stumbled upon the Sickle himself, surrounded by a coterie of undead minions, in the middle of some type of clandestine ceremony.
The insane necromancer had somehow managed to coerce Master Yap into doing his bidding and had brought forth the remains of Merket’s tribe as his lackeys. The poor man ranted and raved about being unstoppable and for a time he might have been correct. The crowd of Skeletons, Zombies and Ghasts made an effect wall between us and the magical artifact that he was imbuing with unknown magical powers. The creatures exploded upon their demise healing the others in the line and were quite effective in keeping us contained. Then the Sickle completed at least part of his incantations, setting off the weaker undead like exploding cinders, bringing forth a Shadow and the igniting dozens of magical effects on himself.
The Sickle used his sudden magical prowess to amazing effect, vaporizing Jaheira, snuffing the life from Merket and almost killed Jann. While Karick was quite effective in destroying the Shadow thanks to his Disrupting weapon, Illiam kept busy just keeping us alive, Bly fought like a madman and I was effectively useless the entire battle. We only managed to prevail because before Jaheira died, she realized that if the two portions of the Tear of Mishakal came together, Sickle might be stripped of his powers. Illiam executed the procedure and was thrown across the battlefield, while Karick, Bly and I took advantage of the turn of events to destroy the man we had been chasing for the past half year. Yet, we were unsure of our success since our enemies body seemed to melt away rather than remain as proof of our victory.
At first we thought we had achieved no tangible benefits from our effort, but when we examined the strange artifact that the Sickle had intended to destroy us all with, it granted us a possible vision our of future and a magical gift that seemed to compliment each of us. The quick and sudden demise of our hate enemy left us all with a void of activity in our foreseeable future. While we camped for the night and tended to our grievous wounds, we discussed possible options. After some time we decided to travel south to Bly’s home town and then to the capitol to spend out spoils from the Tomb of Horrors. Illiam also managed to return Merket’s soul to his body thanks in part to his effort spent to destroy
the Sickle.
When you touch the Heart of the World, you experience the following vision: You see yourself, decades from now, raising young children. You are an older kender to be having children, but you are content and happy with your family. You sense that everything is at peace. You know that, should you have children now or stop what you are doing now, this vision will not come to be.
Chapter 3 - Scene 3
423AC, Deepkolt 21st - 424 AC, Yurthgreen 10
Deepkolt 22-25, 423 SC (07/08/06)
Dear Knuckles,
We spent four days of practically uneventful travel to the south, first to Tantyvil and then onto Gwynned. Along the way we learned that Bly’s family had perished in one of the waves of plague that had swept across the island shortly after he left home several years before. He was quite distraught and ended up burying several of his weapons alongside their graves to honor their memory. Merket also almost suffered the wrath of the superstitious townspeople who consider him a demon until he wisely chose to flee rather than to face a lynch mob. Apart from that little bit of excitement, the rest of the walk across the western plains of northern Ergoth was boring, cold and basically tedious to the extreme.
Deepkolt 26 – Yurthgreen 1, 423 SC (07/29/06)
We spend the winter in Gwynned and I eventually grow really board even with discovering a strange elven designed music box in my pouch after a night of expensive binge drinking and random gambling. The music box plays this really haunting music when it is wound up and I am pretty sure that a female elven ghost haunts the object. She occasionally sings along to the music, but it really shy and won’t talk to me, Knuckles, Gong or Naladas. Even more odd is that once I start to try to talk to her, Naladas finally decides to vanish and move onto the Elven realms of the dead. I guess he must have gotten bored sticking around with my after we dealt the Sickle a major set-back to his world domination plans a few months back. Even the rest of my friends eventually grow restless and we go looking for something to occupy our time. We end up taking a job from a Red Wizard called the Professor to try and find a Clockwork Tower across the bay of Monsters near Hylo.
Yurthgreen 2-8, 423 SC (07/29/06)
Dear Knuckles,
We travel across the mountain range, meet some of my own people and get attacked by a group of disguised Bozak Draconians. We spend some time with a wandering Carnival which reminds me of my childhood. We even ran afoul of a White Dragon minion of the Overlord Gellidus that we somehow manage to parlay with instead of getting into our usual array of violent trouble. We eventually find our way to an old light house and meet a crazy Gnome named Tick-Tock who we convince to take us to the tower after s short side trip into Hylo to acquire a few spells that would help carry spare part for the tower rather easily. Tick-Tock agrees to let us explore the tower for the High Conclave once we make it clear that we will help fix whatever is broken with the crazy place. Some people seem to think that Kender are instance, but this Gnome is quite a piece of work unto himself and should probably avoid polite society to avoid being locked up somewhere rather permanently.
Yurthgreen 9, 423 SC (08/26/06)
Dear Knuckles,
I manage to get us through the impressive lock on the front door of the tower with a little help from Illiam, which is surprising since he seem disinterested in helping me figure out the secrets of my music box. The first level of the tower is little more than bedrooms and general storage. We do find this really need wind-up mechanical butler that appears to be broken which Tick-Tock won’t let me touch. The Gnome busied himself taking part inventory while the rest of us poked around. We eventually found a motorized lift shaft with no lifting device inside forcing us to climb up a ladder to move between levels. In addition, the entrances to each level were by means of very well concealed secret doors that I seemed to be the only one that could find and manage to unlatch. The second level consisted of an woefully overgrown arboretum that was filled with found plat creatures that seemed eager to teach us carnivores a lessen. This was the first of several combat in the tower where I felt completely useless and really did little good.
The third level contained several really fancy alchemical and magical laboratories along with the private rooms of Tick-Tock and his assistant Cogsworth. The poor assistant we completely bonkers and I had to talk some sense into him before we could make any sense of out his ravings. The fourth level was filled with crates filled with source materials to craft magic items and something that the Prof called a Negative Energy Elemental right before he was vaporized to dust by it. The strange thing about this battle was that Illiam was messing around with the undead. As it turns out he is having a crisis of faith right now with Zivilyn and was getting assistance in battle from both Mishakal and Chemnosh who both wanted to swing him in their direction. If the Seer goes the path of Chemnosh, left me be the first to warn you that I will put his ass down the moment he makes the decision.
Yurthgreen 10, 423 SC (08/26/06 & 09/23/06)
Dear Knuckles,
The fifth level was filled with dazzlingly bright light that might have originated from stars while the sixth level was amazingly hot similar to what the surface of the sun must feel like. The seventh level was filled with twirling balls of metal of three different sizes that were meant to represent the three moons of Krynn. We all had to weave and dodge to make out way across the room without being hit. Every single one of us managed to get whacked by the smallest and fastest of the three metal spheres while others got hit by more than one while trying to safely across the room. All that remained was the eight and final level where the dreaded Celestial/Infernal engine was supposed to be located. This strange gnome built creation was what broke the tower in the first place and had currently moved the tower from the shores of the Bay of Monsters to some unknown dimension of space and time. Our only way of getting back home again would be dealing with it properly.
The mechanical monstrosity at the top of the stairs was huge and came alive once we entered the room. Metallic tentacles grabbed most of the group until Illiam suggested that I try to break the machine somehow. I jammed my lucky chunk of obsidian into one of the larger gears which set off a chain reaction breaking off a huge piece and sending it careening into the main core of the magical construct. The small explosion broke off a scroll case that rolled across the floor shortly before the entire mass of whirling gears, cogs, valves and pistons all imploded leaving behind a massive minotaur looking demon in the aftermath. With the construct gone, everyone but Karick is dropped to the floor and we began to pound the demon, which Illiam called a Goristro. We must have really been hurting because suddenly it swallowed Karick whole, grabbed a weapon dropped by Janissary and vanished by some means of magic. We were suddenly missing on of our own and with no clear means to recover him.
Eventually after things had quieted down for some time, Tick Tock showed up and informed us that the tower had arrived on the other side of Ansalon in a place called Noordmaar., near a small town called Picketville. After collecting the strange scroll and all of the magical materials, we set off towards civilization in hopes that we maybe might find out where Karick had gone. The town was full of gnomes who had forsaken their tinker ways and had gone native. They were under the protection of a smaller Black Dragon named Pitch who help defend them from the Black Dragon Overlord Sable many years before. They were all quite friendly, willing to put us up somewhere, but seemingly terrified by roving packs of Bakali Lizardman who seemed to be infected with a type of plague.
Also of major curiosity was a huge magical lens they had discovered out in the swamps that had been converted into a source of energy in their local town hall turned greenhouse. When I went to have a look around on my own, the previously mute elven ghost suddenly spilled forth from the music box in my pack and started to scream loudly. She suggested that the gnomes had no idea what they had in their possession and it did not belong to them. When I tried to explain this to everyone else, we were interrupted by a pack of marauding lizard folk. These reptilian creatures were infected with a disease that seemed to be in the middle of turning them into undead. After destroying the creatures, I offered to help the gnome village deal with the cause of the problem in return for the lens. When no one complained, it was clear a deal had been struck, even if the rest of my friends were surprised to see me act so assertively any anything.
Chapter 4 - End-Game
424 AC, Yurthgreen 11th - 23rd
Yurthgreen 11, 423 SC ( 09/23/06)
Dear Knuckles,
Illiam spent some time examining the music box revealing that it is not magical at all. While the scroll tube from the Clock Tower is some type of Universal magic of amazing power that he is completely unable to translate. The head of the gnome colony sends us out into the swamp to met with the Black Dragon Pitch and his draconian majordomo named Brathrus. We also hoped to run into the local gnomish wizard who was also supposed to be off conversing with their local dragon protector. We spent a rather boring day traveling through the swamp. This gave me a lot of time to think about what might have happened to poor Karick at the hands of the nasty demon. If he had died, it was likely that his ghost would have come back to at least say goodbye, so he was probably alive somewhere, lost in the abyss with all of the other demons.
Yurthgreen 12, 423 SC (09/23/06)
Dear Knuckles,
Today was another horrible day that started with a pair of tree creatures called Gnarlwood threatening us to leave their swamp and ended with the death of Bly. In between we all fell victim to some of the most vile and evil magic we had ever experienced before. They were so tainted by negative energy that they animated the Ergothian corpse, returned him as a zombie and sent him to attack us. Two of our long time allies have now either died or gone missing beyond out ability to rescue them in a very short period of time. We are halfway around the world and while that should be really intriguing with me, it is all I can do to avoid becoming preoccupied with death and falling into a morass of depression again. The only thing keeping me going is the mystery of the lens and the elven ghost. Fate dictated that the music box fell into one of my pouches, so we need to follow the threads of destiny to see where they lead, hoping that we do not lose anyone else along the way.
Yurthgreen 13, 423 SC (10/07/06 – Not Present)
Dear Knuckles,
In a very rare occurrence, I actually fell asleep on watch. I must certainly have been quite conflicted over the tragedy that occurred to Bly the day before. Watching a friend die and then be brought immediately back as an undead creature was quite disconcerting. What was even stranger was the dream I had about Bly coming back in the middle of the night and taking all of his weapons that we had collected from the battlefield after we had to put him down. Yet when I managed to struggle awake the next morning, the weapons really were missing as if the entire dream had actually been real. Illiam suggested that I had been under the influence of some type of Enchantment spell which might have explained by abnormal behavior and the lucid quality of the entire nights events.
Yurthgreen 14, 423 SC (10/07/06 – Not Present)
Dear Knuckles,
While traveling through the swamp we came up a misshapen group of Giants attacking a single gnome who was accompanied by some type of crocodilian construct. The Gnome was named Grumb and was the arcane caster we had been sent out to find by the inhabitants of Picketville. He was able to translate the engraving on my music box as “Property of Kayleigh, Dragonsinger” inscribed on the inside. As we traveled to meet with the Black Dragon guardian of the swamp we were attacked by more Bakali Lizardman who were much further along in the disease than the group that had attacked us a few days earlier.
Eventually we managed to find the island in the middle of the swamp were the dragon laired. Near the center was a stone amphitheatre filled an audience of kobolds, humans, Lizardfolk and Wyverns. On stage was a motley collection of entertainers putting on some type of performance for the dragon. They were lead by the Aurak Draconian majordomo named Bathras. Even the mighty Dragon had been contaminated by the disease that seemed to only infect lizard-like creatures. One of the dragons minions had made some progress in identifying the cause and maybe a cure before they too fell under its influence and became another victim. What really pissed me off was this researcher was none other that the cowardly Master Yap. I so wanted to beat his weasel-ly ass but Illiam stopped me. Instead he got directions to this placed called the Fountain of Renewal that would help us solve the mystery behind the disease.
Yurthgreen 18, 423 SC (10/21/06 & 11/18/06)
Dear Knuckles,
After a few days of travel we ended up at the location which seemed to be little more than a old stone stairwell. A batch of tribal humanoids guarded the chamber and while we tried to parley, they attacked us anyways. One tries to escape and we hunt him down before he manages to escape through a secret door. We explore the tunnels, finding a stone tablet that explains how to turn draconic creatures into undead. We rummage through several bed chambers, including one with a poisoned door trap that saps my strength. We find a series of correspondence between Onyx and Pitch from several years before. A secret door hides a chest filled with coins, pearls and a magic shield.
When we find no resistance anywhere else, we realize that they must be lying in wait inside of a central room with four entrances, so we device a plan to enter all four at the same time. The strategy doesn’t work quite as well as we had intended, with me arriving quite late in the battle. A stupid Green Wyrm Dragon decides that I look like a tasty treat until I blast it with my one magic spell taught to me by my ghost friends and it flies off in disbelief. One of the enemy, a priestess of Chemosh tries to bait us to kill her, but we do not fall for the ruse and take her prisoner instead. Illiam manages to at least partially convince her to renounce her path of evil but when she makes threats to continue to kill in the name of her undead god, we have to leave her all trussed up until we can take her to the proper authorities.
We back track to the secret door and make out way through several rough caverns and tunnels. We stumble upon a treasury filled with all kinds of useful loot, like used to bank roll the coven we discovered. We also discover a strange sarcophagus with a horn and use the mouth piece we found in the treasure stash together and blow it at an altar we discovered. Then in an astounding series of events, a manifestation of Chemosh himself appears to taunt us. He summons his minion, the majordomo draconian of Pitch, imbues the creature with great power and prompts us to attack each other for his own personal amusement.
While we ultimately destroy his minion, he continues to tempt all of us with ultimate power which Jan almost agrees to. The fight ultimately ends because of some type of inner conflict within Illiam. Apparently, this whole contrivance was to force our friendly neighborhood priest to final choose a deity to server and his choice was one we did not expect; Mishakal. While we managed to find out the who was the cause behind the disease and managed to put the stop to them, we were no closer to finding a cure. We did discover a fifth column within the allies of Pitch and has earned the ire of one deity and the acceptance of another. The events of the past few weeks have certainly held major ramifications for the rest of our lives. Will these revelations continue?
We decided to interrogate the prisoner for information about the Fountain of Renewal after we are unable to find it. As it turns our Bathras had hidden the lens somewhere safe, the green house in the town of Picketville. My elven ghost friend from the music box had even warned us of that it was not what it appeared. Armed with that knowledge, we waited for Grumb to join us before heading back to town to collect the object. He arrived near sun down with a new construct companion, having replace the broken crocodile with a massive Hill Giant.
Yurthgreen 19-20, 423 SC (11/18/06)
Dear Knuckles,
We travel back to the village, acquired the lends and had Grumb’s magical friend haul it back for us to the old ruins. Once there we were surprised to see Bathras and a Demon suddenly appear and try to kill us. Illiam figured that it was because the Aurak Draconian was some type of Lich-like creature and we would have to find something called a Phylactery and destroy it to be rid of the creature. This battle was quite an embarrassment to me falling victim to a spell that tried to crush all my bones and made my so sick that I was unable to help anyone. Grumb almost, but was saved at the last second by Illiam who seemed to be taking to his new deity with quite a passion. Afterwards Grumb foolishly gave everyone the control words for his Hill Giant. He thought it would allow us to all help him in battle, but I could think of dozens of fun things I might want a magical creature to do for me while I spent time alone on watch. Silly humans and their magic gizmos.
Afterwards we added water to the fountain to make it start to bubble again and had Merket climb up and remove a plug in the ceiling to allow access to the surface. Grumb guesses that exposure to the moon light of Solinari that evening would activate some type of magic based on writing he was able to roughly translate. He turned out to be correct and once the light struck the fountain all of the horrible paintings of Chemosh were washed away and replaced with pleasant pastoral scenes. In addition, a serpent-like creature with a female head called a Naga appeared and announced that it was the new guardian for the shrine. Those who bathed in the healing waters would recover from their afflictions. She was able to imbue the Tears of Mishakal with that power so that we could heal all the sick, but Pitch would have to come to the fountain as he was the likely cause for the disease. When we ask about the strange fountain, the Naga freaks out and uses powerful magic to destroy it, sacrificing her own magic to be rid of something called the Horn of the Corruptor.
Yurthgreen 21-23, 423 SC (11/18/06)
Dear Knuckles,
While traveling back to the swamp island of the black dragon, we encounter a cross-breed between a giant toad and a dragon that tried to eat me for lunch. While I managed to amazingly fend it off three times, on the fourth try it managed to swallow me whole and I had to cut myself out of the corpse after everyone else teamed up to kill it. We did manage to find its treasure hoard of coins, weapons and a brooch hidden deep in the mud in large pond. Illiam’s Divination magic identified the two weapons as having a property called Dragon Bane which could be used to injure Draconic creatures. Since no one else wanted the dagger, it was given to me, which made it a nice compliment to my Undead Bane Hoopak. I was also given a magical head band that amplified my already impressive intelligence which was quite cool. Now I could have arguments with almost anyone and win them through sheer my sheer brilliance.