The Hall of Harsh Reflections - Part Two

12 August 2006

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 6th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 6th level female Elven Monk
Kamal(Ian) 6th level Male Human Hexblade
Tanith (Ewar) 5th/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 5th /2nd level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard

Game Events

Returning to the Crooked House to recouperate and to mourn the loss of their companion, the party related their tale of woe to Tarquin, the Gnomish owner, who immediately introduced them to Kamal, a Hexblade of his acquaintance who would be willing to join the group in place of the fallen Torvar. Normally distrustful of strangers wanting to join, the party's fears were asuaged by Tarquin's personal recommendation of the fighter.

After a few days had passed, the group returned to the place of their shameful defeat, and once more entered the dusty warehouse, although this time they were fully equipped to meet anything that the place could throw at them.

Moving through the mainly empty storerooms, disaster nearly overtook them again as Crumpus wanted to open all the doors simultaneously as they had done before, but other more experienced hands vetoed the move before it could be done.

Entering the jail room they discovered that the two false guards had been replaced by two other dishevelled-looking humans who also claimed to be guards. Eolias, not wanting to believe their story, shot a couple of arrows into them, dropping one of them. He also, despite several of the party trying to stop him, put arrows into each of the other two prisoners, the female elf and the catatonic human.

Alexis healed the human, who turned out to be completely mad - one minute acting as though the party were servants, the next as a servant himself. The elf was next to be healed, and was questioned by Alexis using a Zone of Truth spell. She turned out to be a minor noblewoman, and expressed her personal gratitude at being freed by gifting the group with the only think of value left in her posessions (which the group had found nearby) which was a periapt of health.

Whilst this was going on, Eolias, Elzara and Crumpus had opened the door at the end of the chamber to find a room whose floor had mostly collapsed into a pool of stagnant river water, leaving only a rickety walkway of planks balanced on the remaining piles driven into the river bed.

Eolias volunteered to go first, but was hit by an invisible assailant and knocked into the water which he discovered was full of rusty weapons whose points were just below the surface. Alexis and Elzara attempted to go to his aid, but were also struck and fell into the water. Alexis managed to find a wand under the water amongst all the bodies with the aid of a Detect Magic spell, but was not able to identify Torvar's corpse. Tanith decided to run back to the walkway in the warehouse to retrieve the Rope of Climbing which the party had left there but as he passed by the first cage he was attacked by the two 'guardsmen' who had to let themselves out of their cell. Assisted by Crumpus and Kamal, Tanith was able to kill the two assailants who immediately turned into a strange looking humanoids with greyish skin and large black eyes. Tanith was able to identify them as being dopplegangers - shapechangers who can read minds and take on the form of anyone they choose.

Crumpus decided that theeasiest way to get across was to build a makeshift raft, but it could only hold three safely so Tanith, Eolias and Crumpus went first with Elzara using the walls and remaining piles to get round with a stunning display of acrobatic prowess.

As Alexis and Kamal waitied for their turn to cross, the others were assaulted by the two invisible beings who had caused them so many problems whilst trying to cross the planks. Alexis managed to strike a heavily wounded one with a spell and destroy it whilst the others managed to slay the last one.

Passing through another doorway the group entered a room whose sole feature was a well, with an empty barrel floating in it. Deciding that they would need some more equipment the party quickly returned to the town to purchase a potion of water breathing each before returning to the mysterious well.

Swimming to the bottom, they discovered a large water-filled chamber where they were attacked by an octopus which they were easily able to despatch. Elzara found a lever on the top of a pillar which drained the water from the chamber, and also lowered the pillar. Now they were out of the water, the group carried on into a corridor with doors on all sides. Crumpus and Elzara triggered a trap and fell into a 40' spiked pit, but when the rest of the group opened the lid to get them out they saw an empty 20' pit as an illusion stretched across half way up!

Realising that they were also in a silenced area, Elzara threw a shuriken up through the illusion, allowing the party to realise what had happened and get a rescue underway.

As the group were busy trying to retreive the missing two party members the other doors opened and half a dozen dopplegangers set upon them, causing serious injuries before being finally defeated.

The final cell was discovered to have an illusory wall, through which a doorway was found, passing through the door the group entered a strange, octagonal room made from smoky mirrored steel, but even more strange was the sight of a duplicate of each of them, manacled to a chair in the middle of the room.

One by one the duplicastes managed to free themselves and decry their double as being false until there was only Elzara's duplicate still chained at which point all the duplicates attacked, including the Elzara who had been with the party up to this point.

A hard fight ensued, with damage being meted out to all including the still-chained Elzara, with Crumpus and Eolias singling her out for particular attention. At the end of the battle, six dopplegangers lay dead on the floor, with Elzara only clinging to life by the slenderest thread before being saved by Alexis.

Magical Items Found

Periapt of Health
Wand

XP Summary

• Giant Octopus - 3,600 XP
• 14 Dopplegangers - 10,800 XP
• Elzara Doppleganger - 1,800 XP
• 2 x Invisible Assassins- 5,400 XP

Total XP - 21,600 XP
Kamal - 4,200 XP,
Eolias - 3,000 XP,
Crumpus - 4,200 XP,
Tanith - 4,200 XP,
Alexis - 3,000 XP,
Elzara - 3,000 XP,

Current Totals
Kamal - 19,341
Eolias - 23,337 - level up!
Crumpus 19,609
Tanith, 20,300
Alexis - 21,781 - level up!
Elzara - 18,141

The Hall Of Harsh Reflections - Elzara's Story

12 August 2006

Players/Characters

Elzara (Will) 6th level female Elven Monk

Game Events

Whilst exploring the town one evening, Elzara found herself attacked from behind down one deserted alley.

Turning around, she was astounded to see she was being attacked by an exact duplicate of herself, but was unable to land much more than a couple of hits before she was knocked unconsious, waking several hours later manacled to a chair in a strange octagonal-shaped room made of mirrored steel.

Also fastened to chairs alongside her were the rest of the party, but no amount of straining could free them from their bonds. Over the next few days they were fed occasionally, but unknown to Elzara the rest were Dopplegangers imitating the group, and her place with the party had been taken over by her double - a traitor in their midst!!

The Hall of Harsh Reflections - Part One

5 August 2006

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 5th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 5th level female Elven Monk
Torvar Hammerguild (Ian) 6th level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 4th/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 4th /2nd level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 5th/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard

Game Events

On arrival at the gates of the Free City the party joined a long line of people waiting to enter. After about 2 hours they finally reached the end of the line where they were subject to inspection by the city guards, who were quite suspicious of the amount of armor and weapons being carried.

Eventually, the party were told that they could enter he city, but that certain items had to be confiscated, including the jar containing the green worm, Eolias' bow, Torvar's sword, etc.

Being unwilling to leave these items behind, the group discussed leaving and rejoining the queue with everything of value secreted in Tanith's Handy Haversack, or even trying to scale the walls at night, but sense finally prevailed when Alexis offered a bribe of 20gp, which was speedily accepted, and the party found themselves inside the city.

Asking around, they found that the Sage Eligos lived in one of the more affluent parts of the city known as the Garden District, and so they set off to meet with him.

Pushing through the crowded streets the party came to an intersection that was blocked by a throng of people watching a parade roll past.

Jugglers and circus-folk of every type interspersed with cages containing rare and exotic beasts trundled past in celebration of the upcoming Champion's Games.

One wagon held a strange cage that had been made in two sections - the inner cage being made of strong metal bars, the outer cage being panes of glass. This cage contained a strange three-headed creature with heads of a lion, a goat and a blue dragon. The dragon head was constantly blasting the inner iron cage with bolts of electricity.

Just as the cage was opposite the party the inner cage gave way, freeing the beast to rampage amongst the crowd who, quite understandably, scattered in all directions.

Elzara was the first to react, but upon seeing an abandoned child on the opposite side of the broken cage decided to rescue the child instead of attacking the beast. With an acrobatic leap she managed to clear the cage and performed a superb tumble on landing, snatching the weeping child to safety as the rest of the party closed with the beast and swiftly dispatched it.

It was around this time that Alexis noticed that one of her prized Pearls of Power had been lost - probably pickpocketed during the crush around the parade?

Dusting themselves down, the group continued onto the Garden District, and even though their scorched and battle stained gear was eyed with suspicion by the guards at the gates of the district, they were allowed entry to the area and made their way to Eligos' address.

Eligos' manservant, Pollard, showed them into a parlor where they were given fine wines and fresh fruit while they waited for the Sage to appear.

After explaining their problem, Eligos agreed to try to find out more about the worms, Wind Dukes, Ebon Triad and all the other groups that the party had encountered over the past few weeks. He was particularly interested in the Silver Diadem and the inactive Talisman of the Sphere from the Wind Duke's tomb, and the preserved green worm from Filch's laboratory that had been stolen from Dourstone mine by Balbar Smenk. He requested that the party loan these few items to him to aid his research, to which they readily agreed.

He told the group that it would take about a week to find out more, and suggested that they stay with a friend of his who ran an inn called The Crooked House in the Foreign Quarter where he would contact them once he had more news.

The Crooked House was run by a gregarious Gnome called Tarquin who gave then a good deal on board and lodging once he heard that Eligios had sent them, giving them a single room each, plus free food and drink for 4sp a night each(compared to the normal rate of 6sp excluding drinks).

The next couple of days passed pleasantly as the group wandered the town by day, spending the nights in the cosy bar at The Crooked House.

On the third night, after Alexis and Torvar had retired for the evening, the group were surprised to see the Cleric return a short while later and approach Tarquin at the bar. They were even more surprised (as was Tarquin) when she produced a dagger and stabbed him before fleeing back upstairs.

Eolias leapt to his feet and chased after the Cleric, Elzara jumped over the bar to try to aid Tarquin and Crumpus moved to cover the door to prevent anyone leaving. Tanith tried to spot anyone looking suspicious, but by now the whole room was in uproar as many patrons armed themselves with broken bottles and barstools and moved towards the party, intent on taking revenge for their fallen friend, led by a merchant who had seen the whole thing from the stairs and who exhorted the mob to pin the guilty parties to await the arrival of the watch.

Eolias tried unsuccessfully to break in Alexis' door, and she hurriedly donned her armor and picked up her mace to protect herself from the intruder. Torvar, awakened from sleep by the noise downstairs, picked up his greatsword and went to investigate.

Meanwhile, Elzara had stabilised Tarquin but was attacked by the merchant and several customers, so was forced to retreat to the rafters for safety where she was able to deflect the odd stray bottle or knife away from her for the rest of the fight.

Tanith was forced to retreat to the bottom of the stairs by a group of customers wielding broken bottles and knives, but this group started to move backwards as they saw a very grumpy Dwarf holding a greatsword on his way down. Tanith used this as a distraction to get upstairs and out of the window, where he unfortunately fell trying to reach the roof. Fortunately for him his fall was witnessed by the City Guards who were arriving to quell the disturbance, and they took him into custody.

Eolias managed to speak with Alexis through the locked door and explained what had happened - Alexis then hurried down the stairs whilst Eolias retrieved his bow and arrows before following.

Crumpus was successfully preventing anyone from leaving until the merchant used the Spring Attack feat to jump into combat and severely wound him, leaving him unconscious in the doorway at the feet of the arriving guards.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, Torvar laid into the merchant with the flat of his blade (although the merchant had no such compunction about causing non-lethal damage) and managed to knock him senseless just as the Watch Captain and his men arrived.

With Torvar and Alexis (newly arrived to the scene) arrested as the only ones carrying substantial weapons, the Captain then set about trying to find out what happened. After talking with the patrons, Torvar was released but Alexis was held for attempted murder until Eolias managed to convince the guards to search the unconscious merchant, upon whom a duplicate of the dagger used to wound Tarquin was found.

Alexis was then released, and the unconscious merchant arrested instead. Alexis healed Tarquin and the party were asked not to leave the city until the Captain's investigations were completed.

Once revived, the situation was explained to Tarquin who was grateful for the party's actions in saving his life, and offered them free board and lodging for as long as they wished to stay.

After the merchant had been dragged out, Torvar noticed that he had dropped a small pouch, inside which was found a strange crooked key, the head of which bore the design of a ship being pulled under by a giant octopus.

Tarquin was able to identify this as the sign of a deceased merchant who used to own several warehouses along the waterfront in the River Quarter. Most of these had been sold off or rebuilt - the only one left standing is called Sodden Hold.

The next morning the party decided to take a short trip to investigate this warehouse, and, as bearing arms publicly was frowned upon, left most of their weapons and armor behind.

Opening the door with the crooked key the group carefully entered a large storage hall dominated by dozens of crates and barrels of varying sizes with a rickety catwalk at the far end, and four doors out of the room.

Crumpus, Torvar, Tanith and Alexis positioned themselves in front of a door each, and opened them - all opened onto empty, dusty rooms except for Crumpus who activated a trap and fell 40' onto rusty spikes. As the doors were opened, three mimics attacked those who had opened the doors, and pressed the party hard before finally being defeated, a glue-like substance on their bodies causing weapons to stick to them and become useless.

Eolias used his ring of feather fall to reach Crumpus and recover him from the pit, and the party climbed to the catwalk and exited into a chamber containing five cells. Two were empty, one contained a dead male human, another a live female elf and the final one had two male humans who claimed to be captured guardsmen.

Deciding to release the guardsmen first Torvar attempted to bend the bars apart, but as he was doing this the two prisoners retrieved swords from under the straw and attacked, unfastening the bars from inside. Poor Torvar, unprepared for this treachery, fell beneath their swords.

As he had not been healed fully from the encounter with the mimics the doughty Dwarf could not take this level of punishment and died protecting his fellow party members - just as a paladin should do

Sorely beset, the party decided to withdraw, and Alexis raised the body of Torvar as a zombie to cover their frantic retreat.

Magical Items Found

None

XP Summary

• Chimera - XP
• Bar Fight - XP
• 3 x Mimics - XP

Total XP -

Torvar - ,
Eolias - ,
Crumpus - ,
Tanith - ,
Alexis - ,
Elzara - ,

Current Totals

Torvar - Deceased
Eolias - 17,237
Crumpus 11,909
Tanith, 13,600
Alexis - 16,681
Elzara - 12,641

Encounter at Blackwall Keep - Part Three

5 August 2006

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 5th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 5th level female Elven Monk
Torvar Hammerguild (Ian) 6th level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 4rd/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 4rd /2nd level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 5th/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard

Game Events

Learning that the monsters mainly came out at night, the party had much discussion upon the various tactics that they could use.

A full frontal assault into the basement area was discounted, as was a raid with Alexis in front to attempt a turn of the creatures in favor of a stakeout at the top of the stairs to pin them in the doorway with ranged attacks and magic.

Night fell and the party readied themselves to combat the monsters.....

Around 3am the makeshift barricade was thrust aside as a zombie-looking humanoid, crawling with bright green worms pushed past and into the room where the party were waiting, only to be met with a hail of arrows and spells that dropped it before it could take more than a few steps.

As the group began to congratulate each other on an easy victory two more of the horrid creatures stepped out and charged into Elzara and Crumpus. Torvar bolstered the party with his aura of courage, but he himself was so badly affected by the fear eminating from the monsters that he turned and fled into the night. To the characters' horror, they discovered that each blow from the things transferred a putrid green worm onto them which immediately started to burrow into their skin.

All the group began slashing away at the monsters, but as Elzara unleashed a flurry of blows on the creature she was facing she was almost sick with horror as when she withdrew her hands they were crawling with many more worms!

Many of the group then halted their attacks on the monsters to aid their companions in ridding them of the worms - either picking them off or, in Eolias's case, shooting them off with a superb display of bowmanship.

Unfortunately, the zombie which had been dropped in the doorway, having healed back much of the damage, chose this precise moment to get up again, and flicked a worm across the room at the paladin.

Tanith used his fire breath to turn two zombies into mush whilst Crumpus finished off the other one, and then Eolias, aided by several other party members, used his Heal skill to successfully remove the worms burrowing under Elzara's skin and towards her brain. The last worm was removed and killed as it reached the very base of her skull - the equivalent of a bomb being disarmed with 0:01 on the timer!

The next morning the relief column sent from Diamond Lake arrived carrying a message from Allustan asking the group to escort Marzana, the battle mage, back to Diamond Lake.

After an uneventful two day's journey the party arrived at Allustan's home, where he spoke at length with Marzana, but was unable to learn much more about the worm-ridden undead that was already known, apart from the fact that there had been sightings all over the hills nearby. Obviously the threat was growing!

Allustan gathered the group together once more and presented them with all the artifacts that they had gathered along with copious notes documenting their discoveries and adventures of the past few weeks. He suggested that they travel to the Free City and seek out a sage called Elligos who would no doubt be able to help them further.

As they had already promised the Lizardman Shaman that they would petition for peace with its rulers, the party readily agreed, and set off for the great Free City.

Magical Items Found

XP Summary

To Follow

Encounter at Blackwall Keep - Part Two

22 June 2006

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 4th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 5th level female Elven Monk
Tovar Hammerguild (Ian) 4th level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 3rd/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 3rd /2nd level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 4th/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard

Game Events

Not wanting to brave the dangers of the Mistmarsh in the dark the party decided to rest at the Keep before setting out to follow the Lizardfolk and their captive companions, and it was around this time that a solitary traveler who had been drawn by the smoke and sounds of battle arrived. The human fighter introduced himself as Crumpus, and as the group were now down 2 members he was willingly co-opted into the party to enhance their firepower.

The Mistmarsh ( so named due to the mist that covers it every morning from an hour before dawn to just around midday) consists of waterways that are either too shallow or too full of crocodiles to make use of boats, and many sections with mud over knee high as you struggle to bypass the huge mangrove-type trees that help to make this a very eerie place to be.
Eolias' tracking skills were put to good use as he found the best path through the treacherous marshes, but even then the party were forced to wade through waist-deep scummy stagnant water on more than one occasion.

Towards the end of the first day when in one of these patches the party were surprised by a pair of crocodiles who had managed to close with them unseen, just showing eyes and nostrils above the water's surface. Alexis was bitten and dragged under, but was rescued before she could take too much damage.

A little shaken by this encounter the party found a small mound of muddy ground slightly higher than the surrounding swamp to rest on overnight before continuing on their search for their missing companions.

Towards the end of the next morning the group had their second encounter with the denizens of
the swamp when four jumping spiders leapt from the branches above and sank their poison-filled fangs into several characters, causing severe pain and loss of Strength before they too were dispatched.

Battered and bruised, the party managed to continue along the trail and managed to find the Lizardman lair which was made amongst the roots of a group of ancient swamp-trees.

Following what looked like human bootprints the adventurers came across a large pile of compost in the middle of a corridor. Eolias stepped up to investigate and was promptly attacked by an animated vine which was clinging to the corridor wall.

Retreating from this and trying another tunnel the characters entered into a high roofed area which was inhabited by two foul Harpies who immediately started to sing their mesmerising song.

Eolias and Torvar were captivated by the sounds and started to walk forwards but Alexis activated her shield's special property and caused a brilliant flash to fill the room, temporarily blinding one of the harpies, but also affected Tanith and Crumpus, leaving Alexis as the only unaffected member of the party!

In a moment of great, if rare, insight, Alexis suddenly remembered that she had a scroll of silence tucked away in her backpack. Reading this scroll neutralised the beguiling song of the harpies and released Eolias and Torvar to deal damage to the filthy creatures who were then soon defeated. The party discovered a magical circlet of persuasion and a pair of Boots of Springing & Striding made of an exotic red scaly leather in the creatures' nest.

Moving to the next chamber, a group of five lizardmen were surprised and easily defeated but one managed to escape to the next chamber with the party chasing hard behind. In this new room the group were pleased to find Elzara, two guards and the battlemage from the keep, bound and unconcious. Perched on Elzara's shoulder was a large spider that seemed intent on defending her from harm! Also in the room was an ancient-looking Lizardman Shaman, who bargained with the party for the release of the hostages in exchange for a service.

He explained how the recent aggressive attitude of the lizardfolk was essentially due to a relatively recent arrival who had defeated the old king in battle and taken his place. This new King had made a deal with a 'giant black lizard' who had offered to protect the tribe if they started a war with the humans. The black lizard had not been seen for some time. The deal was simple - kill or chase off the new King and his Lieutenant, and the prisoners would be released unharmed. The raids would cease and he also asked the PC's to visit the Free City to negotiate peace on their behalf. He also gifted them with two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds.

The party readily agreed, and Elzara was released, the other prisoners being kept as surety against the party completing their part of the bargain.

The group decided to move against the Lieutenant first, and found him in the next room along - he was a large lizardfolk with unusual black tinges to the scales around his mouth and throat along with a normal female lizardfolk. When the party entered he threatened to kill a pair of tower guard who were bound and unconcious at his feet, but the group swarmed around him and attacked.

The Lieutenant immediately raged, and laid about him with claws and bite to such an extent that things were looking bad for the group until a couple of well placed shots from Eolias knocked him from his feet. Pausing only briefly to loot the body of it's hide armour + 1, and an Amulet of Natural Armour +1 the group charged onto the King's chambers, only realising later, with hindsight, that they had left to two tower guards, still unconcious and bound, on the floor.

The King was a huge lizardman, with more a pronounced black tinge then his Lieutenant, who hurled his +1 Returning Tridentat Torvar as soon as he appeared in the doorway. The weapon then wrenched itself free and flew back to the King's hands leaving the poor Dwarf in a very weakened state.

Alexis healed Torvar, and then Elzara, Crumpus and Torvar charged in as one to attack, but the King struck first and Torvar slid to the floor unconcious.

After a prolonged fight the King was dragged down, more by weight of numbers than good tactics and planning. Elzara's missing equipment was discovered in this room, along with the battlemage's gear and the King's +1 Returning Trident, Amulet of Natural Armour +1 and Bracers of Armour +1.

Returning to the Shaman, the party recovered the survivors from the Keep, and were about to leave when the Shaman asked for more help. It appeared that the black lizard had left some more guards around who were stopping the Lizardfolk from tending their egg pool - the party were asked to assist with removing them, to which they readily agreed, looking forwards to another fight.

The Shaman led them to a submerged tunnel and indicated that the egg chamber was about 40' along. Eolias led the way, followed by Torvar. None of the others were able to hold their breath long enough to get through in time to help in the following combat, so the Elf and Dwarf had to face the 8 kobolds that awaited them alone.

These kobolds also had the by now familiar black tinge to their scales and fought the two characters almost to a standstill before finally being defeated.

The rest of the group made it through the submerged tunnel to find a huge chamber filled with hundreds of tiny pale leathery eggs, and one halfling-sized black egg towering over them all, which Alexis identified as being that of a Black Dragon!!! On the other side of the pool was an earthen bank with three chests on it.

Elzara carefully moved through the egg pool to the chests, which proved to be empty, then returned to the dragon egg. Upon investigating the egg she realised that it was filled with sqirming green worms!

Gingerly picking up the egg in one of the empty chests Elzara carried it back to where the rest of the party were waiting. Tanith Magic Missiled the egg, which simply released a tide of worms to swarm towards the group until Tanith flame-breathed them to a green-brown paste.

In this room the group found four potions of Cure Light, two Cure Serious, two Bull's Strength, one Haste, one Invisibility and a Minor Ring of Spell Storing.

Assuring the Shaman that they would go to the Free City to speak on their behalf the party returned to the Keep to find the few remaining soldiers in a state of terror. It transpired that the Keep's previous Battlemage succumbed to a strange disease a couple of years ago, and had been locked in the basement to either die or recover. It seems that neither has happened, and in the Lizardfolk raid the baricade on the basement room was broken and let him out.

Two soldiers have been taken and dragged into the basement where the survivors can hear at least two monsters roaming around. The soldiers describe the creatures as being like a zombie crawling with green worms!!

The party readied themselves to combat the monsters.....

Magical Items Found

• Circlet of Persuasion
• Boots of Springing & Striding
• Hide Armour +1
• 2 x Amulet of Natural Armour +1
• +1 Returning Trident
• Bracers of Armour + 1
• Minor Ring of Spell Storing
• 4 x Cure Light Potions
• 2 x Cure Moderate Potions
• 2 x Cure Serious Potions
• 2 x Bulls Strength Potions
• Potion of Haste
• Potion of Invisibilty
  

XP Summary

• 2 Crocodiles - 1,120 XP
• 4 Medium Spiders - 2,240 XP
• Assassin Vine - 780 XP
• 2 Harpies - 2,240 XP
• 6 Lizardfolk - 1,800 XP
• Lieutenant - 1,548 XP
• King - 4,650 XP
• 8 x Kobolds - 4,400 XP
  

Non-Combat XP

• Negotiating with Shaman - 3,099 XP
• Egg Chamber - 4,650 XP
  

Total XP - 26,527


Torvar - 6,509
Eolias - 5,750
Crumpus 4,109
Tanith, 4,109
Alexis - 3,750
Elzara - 2,300

Current Totals

Torvar - 15,550 - double level up!
Eolias - 17,237 - level up!
Crumpus 11,909 - level up!
Tanith, 13,600 - level up!
Alexis - 16,681 - level up!
Elzara - 12,641

Encounter at Blackwell Keep - The Prisoners

15 June 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd/2nd level male Elven Spellthief/Rogue
Elzara (Will) 4th level female Elven Monk

Game Events

Elzara and Aust were rudely awakened from their slumbers by a splash of dirty water in the face to find themselves some way in to the Mistmarshes as captives of a band of Lizardfolk.

As the light was fading the lizards soon made camp on a section of the marsh that was more mud than water, securely fastening their prisoners to a large tree, where they were interrogated roughly in broken common by the leader of the lizardfolk.

Once it was understood that Aust was a spellcaster both his hands and jaw were broken by well placed strikes of a club and the two unfortunates were left to rest as best they could under the circumstances.

After another day and a half of travel they arrived at the lizardfolk's home where they were presented to the Lizardman king, a huge brute whose scales showed an unusual black mottling pattern around his mouth and neck.

Both Elzara and Aust were herded to a large enclosed section of the marsh where they were to be pitted in gladatorial combat against some of the marsh's inhabitants. The Lizard shaman healed Aust's wounds first, and they were dropped into the water, much to the delight of the surrounding tribesmen.

Also with them were two soldiers captured from the keep earlier.

The first test was against two crocodiles who managed to drag Aust underwater but were killed quite swiftly by Elzara and one of the soldiers who managed to get into a flanking position to assist her.

Aust's wounds were tended by the Shaman once more, then the second test began.

This time their opponents were four jumping spiders - Aust was unable to do anything to them as Elzara hammered the first spider. The two soldiers fared much worse and were killed and hauled up into the branches above to be stored for food.

Aust, succumbing to the spider's poison, slipped under the water's surface even as Elzara used her stunning fist strikes in quick succession to kill the remaining spiders. Despite her best efforts she was too late to save her companion from final death.

Elzara, the only survivor of the watery ampitheatre, was rebound and led off into the depths of the Lizardfolk lair where she could only lie and hope for rescue.

The first night inside the lair, Elzara was startled to see a 3' spider squeeze through the gaps in the walls behind her, and gently lay a dead wrapped creature at her feet. The spider then retreated to the ceiling where it watched her with what appeared to be adoring eyes.

It would appear that Elzara has found an admirer!!

XP Summary

• 2 Crocodiles - 1,200 XP
• 4 Huge Monstrous Spiders- 2,400 XP

Total XP - 3,600 or 1,800 XP each

Current Totals

• Elzara - 10,341 - level up!
• Eolias - 10,737
• Tanith - 9,491
• Alexis - 10,931
• Tovar - 9,441
• Aust - deceased

Encounter at Blackwall Keep - Part One

10 June 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd/2nd level male Elven Spellthief/Rogue
Elzara (Will) 4th level female Elven Monk
Tovar Hammerguild (Ian) 4th level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 3rd/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 3rd /1st level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 3rd/1st level male Elven Ranger/Sorcerer

Game Events

Setting off on horses (and a pony) provided by Allustan, the party headed East along a well-marked track towards the distant keep. Allustan indicated that the plan was to stop for the night at an abandoned farmhouse known as Shank's Rest that was used as a way-station, then set off early and arrive at the Keep by early evening.

The first day passed uneventfully apart from Eolias and Alexis trying to bully a small group of halflings pushing covered wheelbarrows towards Diamond Lake. If Alexis had had her way the halflings would currently be in a shallow, unmarked grave!!

Eolias and Elzara went out to hunt for supper, and a pleasant time was had by all as tales of high adventure and fantastic treasures were swapped around the campfire.

The mood changed suddenly the next afternoon, as the sharp eyes of Eolias and Elzara noticed a plume of smoke rising above the trees in the direction they were heading.

Cautiously approaching the Keep, the party saw several groups of Lizardfolk who were obviously besieging the building. Allustan charged them with assisting the soldiers in the Keep before using his emergency scroll of teleport to travel back to Diamond Lake to arrange for re-enforcements

Splitting into two groups - the heavies - Alexis, Tanith and Tovar, and the sneakies - Eolias, Elzara and Aust - the party made their plans.

The Sneakies were to circle the keep and attack from cover whilst the Heavies remained in reserve, ready to gallop in to save the day should they be needed.

Just before dusk the Lizardfolk attacked, a dozen attacking the hastily barricaded doorway and another dozen attacking the low balcony that ran around the keep. The balcony-attackers were targeted by the Sneakies and two of the attackers fell to their missile fire.

Having betrayed their position the Sneakies found themselves under attack as half the attackers turned their attention to them, but worse than that happened when Elzara and Aust found themselves completely entangled by the very grass and bushes that they were hiding in.

Unable to defend themselves they were subject to coup-de-grace hits that knocked them out - Eolias, on the other hand, was smashed to the ground by multiple club hits and left for dead as the other two were borne away from the battle and into the swamp.

Seeing that their companions were in dire trouble, the three heavies whipped their mounts forwards to charge to the rescue.

Unfortunately none of them were unable to ride particularly well, and so all three ended up on their backs in the dirt, their mounts racing wildly for freedom away from the battle.

Having to approach the battle on foot meant their friends were far gone, and even Eolias was beyond help as he slowly bled to death in the long grass where he had fallen.

Tanith was the first to reach the group attacking the doorway and let loose a terrible blast of fiery breath, which, although it did singe a few lizards, had the unfortunate effect of also cutting down the three human defenders of the gateway, allowing the lizards free entrance to the keep.

By the time his two companions had reached him the lizards had managed to rebuild the barricade and were now securely ensconced within the very walls of the keep itself.

Alexis went to Eolias' body and was amazed to find that the bleeding had somehow staunched itself, and the hardy Elf was still alive. Several cure spells later he was back on his feet and eager to spill reptilian blood!

After a hard fight the few remaining Lizards inside the keep were killed, and the remaining 4 soldiers who had survived were heartily thanking their rescuers.

They told the group that the Lizardfolk had attacked the evening before and taken them totally by surprise - when they broke down the door they had been able to attack and kill several soldiers, and had even taken a couple of prisoners (including their Battle Mage) whom they had seen led off into the Mistmarsh.

Due to their lack of numbers they are unable to go to help their friends themselves, so they suggest that the party should go to help all the captives.

The lizard bodies were searched, but the only thing of note found was a magical club

Magical Items Found

• Club

XP Summary

• 13 Lizardfolk - 3,900 XP
• Lizardman Leader- 1,200 XP

Total XP - 5,100 or 1,275 XP each (Elzara and Aust - 0 XP)

(Only 1,148 XP for Eolias due to multiclassing penalties)

Current Totals (please note these are different to those given out on Sat)

• Elzara - 8,541
• Eolias - 10,737 - level up!
• Tanith - 9,491
• Alexis - 10,931 - level up!
• Tovar - 9,441
• Aust - 8,166

The Three Faces of Evil - Part Five

10 June 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd/2nd level male Elven Spellthief/Rogue
Elzara (Will) 4th level female Elven Monk
Tovar Hammerguild (Ian) 4th level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 3rd/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 3rd /1st level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 3rd/1st level male Elven Ranger/Sorcerer

Game Events

Barely pausing to draw breath the party charged into the next room, surprising six more Grimlocks who didn't stand a chance against the massed firepower that the group can now muster.

Swelled with their success they switched their attention to the final passageway that spiraled down and down until they came out in a small cavern that had a 10' high shelf blocking the way forwards, over which they could make out a faint reddish glow, such as from a small fire or perhaps a lantern.

Elzara and Eolias swarmed up the cliff face, only to be met by three mask-wearing Grimlocks armed with longspears who were protecting their holy man who was perched ontop of another 10' high shelf behind them. They poked their spears at Elzara (being the first to reach the top). Wounded quite badly, Elzara fell back, slow-falling back down and Eolias also fell, using his ring of Feather Falling to float down gently.

Unable to get a line-of-sight to the enemy, Eolias tossed a vial of Alchemist's fire over the edge, followed by a Sound Burst spell from Alexis, but as the party tried to assault the cliff en mass a retaliatory sound-burst spell exploded in their midst, followed by a Spiritual Weapon attacking Eolias.

Alexis managed to scale the cliff and moved to engage the mask-wearing Grimocks, being hit with Javelins and longspears on the way. Elzara, Tanith and Aust also reached the edge, but were then attacked by the Grimlock Spellcaster who had made himself invisible and charged into them, dropping both Elzara and Aust. As he became visible the party noticed with horror that he had sewn large preseved eyes into his empty eyesockets to give him a fixed strange staring expression

Tovar, meanwhile, was struggling to climb the cliff, even when assisted by Eolias. Dwarves are very dangerous over short distances - as long as that distance isn't up. Even a charge from the wand of enlarge didn't help much.

Alexis managed to fell the last of the mask wearers and entered combat with the leader but fell as Eolias once more reached the platform and was engaged by the madman. Being a ranged specialist Eolias was faring badly until Tovar saw his chance and got in a solid hit on the Grimlock when he strayed too close to the edge of the cliff.

With their companions dying all around, Eolias and Tovar managed to finish off the Grimlock and administered aid to the fallen, rescuing more than one from the brink of death.

The bodies were looted and the battered group decided to spend the next 18 hours resting until Alexis could regain her spells and heal them all back to a semblance of health.

A Rope of Climbing and a suit of +1 Banded mail were found on the Leader's body along with a couple of scrolls that were written in a very disjointed cryptic style. Tanith used a Comprehend Languages spell to get the gist of what they were saying - lots of ranting about the Age of Worms and Great Kyuss - , and also deciphered the Braille on the potions - 2 x Remove Fear, 3 x Cure Light Wounds.

Whilst the rest of the party slept, Eolias was on watch when he heard a bellowing cry echo down the passages and heard the unmistakeable sound of wood being splintered, albeit quite far away. He also heard the sounds of one or more large things movong about, also a long way distant, but nothing came to disturb them throughout their rest.

The next morning the almost fully healed party returned to the large cavern containing the pool and elevator they found the elevator in pieces. Tovar moved towards the pool just as a 10' six-armed figure stepped out and attacked.

Eolias and Aust stood back and shot, Tanith let fly with Magic Missiles while Tovar, Alexis and Elzara were engaged by the beast.

Eolias' first shots didn't do much damae so Alexis cast Magic Weapon on his bow to try and negate any damage resistance which appeared to do the trick as a Spiritual Weapon appeared and attacked Eolias. As Tanith's spells seemed to be healing the monster he also tried to use ranged weapons but to no avail due to damage resistance.

Eventually the sheer force of numbers wore it down and it collapsed to the floor, dead.

Tovar, who had noticed the surface of the black pool pulsate after the creasture had climbed out of it, was horrified to see another, identical creature rise up and attack the party.

Already weakened by the previous battle the group fared less well, especially as this creature seemed to posses a rage-like ability which was very effective in dropping both Tovar and Alexis, joining Elzara who was already lying down on the job!

As the echoes died away it was left to Eolias and Aust to bring round their colleagues as Tanith too had succombed to the might of the creature before it fell.

After ascending the remains of the elevator's ropework the party found that Dourstone Mine had been abandoned. There was evidence that at least one of the six-armed beasts had ascended to this level, but no trace of it could now be found. Eolias examined the tracks carefully and announced that the beast(s) had indeed returned to the cavern where they were eventually slain.

The group returned to Diamond Lake, battered but not beaten, with lots of nice new shiny things to play with.

Allustan agreed to identify the magical items for free in return for information upon what they ahd been facing over the past few days.

These items were Full Plate +1, Pearl of Power - Level 1, +1 Ring of Protection, +1 Bracers of Armour, Lesser Rod of Extend, +1 Large Steel Shield of Blinding, Cloak of Charisma +2, +1 Studded Leather, +1 Mithril Shirt, 2 potions of Remove Fear, 3 potions of Cure Light Wounds, and a Heward's Handy Haversack.

Upon pooling their resources the party decided to invest in a Wand of Cure Medium Wounds and four potions of Mage Armour for Elzara.

The group, spending more and more time with their new-found friend Allustan, rested in and around Diamond Lake for a further week whilst Allustan's investigations were continuing.

Towards the end of the week Allustan came to the group with a proposition - he wanted to pay an old friend a visit in connection with the rumours of worms and undead in the hills, and asks the party to accompany him - both as friends and bodyguards.

His friend's name is Marzena and she is a battle-mage for the Free City, currently posted at Blackwall Keep on the edge of the Mistmarshes, about 2 days ride away.

Magical Items Found

• Rope of Climbing
• Banded Mail +1

XP Summary

• 6 Grimlocks - 1,800 XP
• 3 Mask-wearing Grimlocks - 900 XP
• Grimlock Shaman - 1,600 XP
• 2 Ebon Aspects - 4,800 XP

Total XP - 9,100 or 1,516 XP each

(Only 1,364 XP for Eolias due to multiclassing penalties)

The Three Faces of Evil - Part Four

3 June 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd/2nd level male Elven Spellthief/Rogue
Elzara (Will) 4th level female Elven Monk
Tovar Hammerguild (Ian) 4th level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 3rd/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 3rd /1st level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 3rd/1st level male Elven Ranger/Sorcerer

Game Events

Having despatched the summoned ape the party swifly moved down the corridor in search of the Mage and found themselves in a smallish room containing a couple of bunk beds.

As they searched the room, they were surprised by the Mage standing at the end of a small corridor who lightining-bolted Tovar and then sent a rolling 5' high ball of flame into him. This had the dual effect of dropping the Dwarf to the ground, and effectively blocked the way through to the mage.

At the same time as this was happening at the front of the group, the incorporeal mage who had been repulsed earlier made his presence felt again and attacked Tanith, Aust and Elzara.

This time luck was with them as they made short work of it, and then moved to observe the strangely unmoving ball of fire.

Elzara was determined to get past, and attempted an acrobatic leap over the sphere. Unfortunately she had not considered the height of the ceiling above the ball, and bounced off it to land squarely on top of the flames.

As Alexis was kept busy reiving and curing both Monk and Paladin, the rest of the group waited for the fire to die down, but after a few minutes the group decided to try and find a way around instead.

Heading down a previously unexplored corridor they came upon a storeroom filled with boxes and barrels, and as some of the barrels contained water both Eolias and Elzara decided to manhandle a couple of them back to the sphere to try and extinguish it, but by the time they had returned the firey sphere had disappeared.

Opening the door previously blocked by the fire they came across a well equipped laboratory, filled with all kinds of alchemical equipment and apparatus including a large wax-sealed cauldron in the centre of the room. Also waiting in the room was their ellusive adversory.

Leading the charge, Alexis managed to get a hit on the Mage with her mace, but unfortunately this was not enough to distract him as he summoned another huge centipede between them both and the rest of the party.

As the party tried to take out the huge creature the Mage managed to hit Alexis with a Magic Missile which knocked her over before he fled to the main hall where he was to make his last stand.

The centipede was quickly killed with the assistance of a couple of charges from Eolias' Wand of Enlarge onto both Tovar and Elzara, and Alexis was brought around by Elzara before she could slip away forever.

The party converged on the mage in the main hall who had to resort to defending himself with a dagger, having exhausted all of his spells earlier, and so was easily done in. On his body the group discovered a pair of Bracers and a Rod, and they also found a Shield, Cloak and pair of spellbooks in the laboratory room, along with a couple of documents.

The group returned to the room with bunk beds to rest and recover spells, and also to investigate the two documents. From these they learned of the uneasy peace between the three cults, and also that they were also searching for the worm-infested undead that had been mentioned by Filge the Necromancer and their friend, the Sage Allustan, from Diamond Lake.

There was reference to an 'Ebon Aspect' stirring in the pool, but that it was not ready to emerge as yet without some traumatic event taking place, and also a mention of something held by the Lizardfolk of the Mistmarsh that could possibly be of use to the cults of the Ebon Triad.

The next morning, fully rested and almost healed of the effects of both centipedes and the Allip, the party returned to the elevator room and opened the unmarked door with a large stone key found in the Hextor temple.

The passageway beyond was totally different from the other two areas - this looked like a naturally formed passage, complete with plenty of stalagtites and stalagmites.

Entering a small chamber, the ever-alert Eolias noticed a humanoid creature hiding behind a rock formation, and with a series of hand signals he alerted most of the front rank as to it's location, and they attacked.

Another two humanoids revealed themselves and fought back briefly - two died and one ran away.

Alexis identified the bodies as Grimlocks - strange eyeless subterranean creatures who worshipped Erythnul, and the party moved on to the next cavern.

Here Eolias noticed a couple of large cat-like creature, but when he attached they peeled the flesh back from their faces and screamed in such a horrific way that he dropped his bow and ran away. The rest of the party were a little shaken by the screams (more from the Ranger than the creatures) but were able to despatch both cats and both Grimlocks accompanying them without too much fuss, despite one of them being in some kind of rage or frenzy. Elzara broke from combat to try and find the panicked Ranger. Searching the body of the dead barbarian revealed 3 potions.

The group discovered a 20' wide shaft leading down about 60' into the darkness, with a series of spikes set into the wall as hand and footholds and Eolias, obviously trying to compensate for his previous reaction to the screaming cats, stepped off the edge first and floated down with his ring of feather fall as Elzara used the spikes to rapidly climb down to join him.

As Elzara was nearly half-way down a couple of Grimlocks appeared on a ledge opposite and flung a couple of tanglefoot bags at her, one of which caught her squarely, sticking her to the wall, a perfect target for their arrows.

Eolias tried to shoot from the bottom of the shaft, Alexis from the top, and Aust tried to climb down and help to free Elzara, but was himself hit and caught by another Tanglefoot bag.

Elzara managed to get free of the bag's effects and lauched herself across the gap to engage the archers in melee, and Tovar started down to assist Aust. Elzara, with an impressive display of martial arts, deflected several arrows and easily took out both archers, finding two potions when she searched the cooling bodies.

Another tunnel, more of a crack in the rock really, was found just under the archer's ledge, and Elzara dropped a rope to help everyone get up there. Alexis went first followed by Eolias while Elzara was helping Tovar and the others to climb.

After a few feet Alexis was attacked by a female Grimlock who fought with two rusting knives. As the tunnel was so cramped Alexis found it difficult to use her mace effectively, but even so the Grimlock eventually fell, but not before doing a considerable amout of damage to the party's main healer.

At the end of the tunnel the party found a 20' long rope bridge that spanned another shaft - Eolias went first but when he was attacked with javelins by 3 Grimlocks on the other side he jumped off and floated to the ground, 20' below.

Elzara raced across the bridge to engage the Grimlocks in melee followed (more slowly) by Tovar. As Tovar was part way across he noticed that Eolias had been attacked by a pair of Chokers who had emerged from the pile of rubble at the bottom of the shaft, and so, having faith in his Dwarven constitution, flung himself off the bridge to assist his beleaguered comrade, in true Paladin fashion.

All these creatures posed no problems for the group who moved onwards up a steep natural slope into a larger cavern where two Grimlocks were on guard at the entrance to one of the three other exits.

These too were swiftly taken down, but when the party moved down this tunnel they were dismayed to find a full enraged barbarian Grimlock swinging a greataxe waiting for them. The barbarian dealt out large amounts of damage before being subdued and killed - on sarching the body a shirt of mithril chain was found.

Magical Items Found

• Bracers
• Rod
• Shield
• Cloak
• Studded Leather
• 5 potions labelled in 'braille'-type writing (2 of one kind and 3 of another)
• Mithril Shirt
• Backpack

XP Summary

• Incorporeal Mage - 1,200 XP
• Vecna Leader - 2,400 XP
• 9 Grimlocks - 2,700 XP
• Grimlock Kennel Master - 600 XP
• 2 Krenshaws - 600 XP
• 2 Grimlock Archers - 1,800 XP
• Grimlock Barbarian - 1,200 XP
• 2 Chokers - 1,200 XP
• Grimlock Chieftan - 1,200 XP

Total XP - 12,900 or 2,150 XP each

The Three Faces of Evil - Part Three

27 May 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd/1st level male Elven Spellthief/Rogue
Elzara (Will) 3rd level female Elven Monk
Tovar Hammerguild (Ian) 3rd level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 2nd/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 3rd level female Human Cleric
Eolias (Richard) 2nd/1st level male Elven Ranger/Sorcerer

Game Events

Moving through the doorway marked with the symbol of a human hand holding an eye, which Alexis identified as the symbol of the cult of Vecna, the party found themselves in a worked stone maze where they were ambushed several times by strange bird-men and a couple of dire weasels. The bird-men were frighteningly good at flanking and sneak attacks, causing serious wounds to several members of the party, and were adept at using alchemist's fire as well as vicious club attacks. When the party did manage to take these bird-men down they were dismayed to find nothing but a few coins and empty potion bottles on them.

The ambushes continued for a while, the group being hampered by the bird-creatures ability to open and close secret doors at will whilst the party had to search for the trigger point. Slowly the group managed to whittle away at their foes until Eolias decided that he would charge around the maze at top speed to try and catch the last of the creatures by surprise.

Whilst he was off doing this the group managed to find (more by luck than judgement) a secret door that led out of the maze and into an large L-shaped ante chamber with strange bulges studding the walls where they were ambushed by another group of bird-men.

This time it appeared that the leaders of these creatures were also involved, as spells and magic items were used against the party for the first time, including a simple grease spell that caused great problems amongst the less dexterous of the group.

As soon as the first spell had been cast, all the bulges along the walls opened to reveal hundreds of eyes watching every move that the party take.

Tovar found himself grappled and held fast by an animated leather whip thrown by the spellcaster which effectively kept him out of the combat, but eventually these minor bosses were swiftly despatched and Elzara chased around the corner to confront the sole bird-man survivor who had been sent running by a Cause Fear spell from Alexis.

Eolias arrived just as the fighting finished (he never did manage to find any more bird-men in the maze) and hurried around the corner to assist Elzara. Tanith paused briefly to snatch the necklace of missiles from the neck of the leader and followed with Alexis.

Aust held back to free Tovar from the whip, which turned back into a feather facsimile of a whip (non magical by now) and to loot the bodies, finding Elixirs of Vision, Hiding and Sneaking on the leader of the bird-men and a wand of magic missiles and two Quall's Feather Tokens (Bird) on the spellcaster.

Elzara caught up to the bird-man at the entrance to another chamber, but as she attacked him she herself was attacked from within the chamber by two mages and through the very wall itself by another incorporeal mage, who drained Wisdom rather than causing damage and constantly babbled to itself, causing several party members to become hypnotised for a short time.

As the others raced up to help, Elzara managed to dodge a scorching ray spell, but a number of the party were slowed by a web spell across the entrance which they had to set alight (causing some damage to those trapped) to get through. Alexis tried unsuccessfully to turn the incorporeal mage and Elzara, Aust and Tovar had a hard time trying to hit the elusive being.

The walls of this new room were made of a strange green rock with writhing purple veins through it, and the pillars down the centre were made of some black tar-like substance that appeared to have humanoid hands pushing from the inside as if trying to escape.

As soon as they were in immediate danger, the two mages drank potions that turned them into vapor and started to drift away. Seeing this, Tanith plucked a bead from the necklace of fireballs and threw it towards them, instantly slaying them in a blast of fire.

Three more mages appeared at the end of the room, one wearing a strange mask that covered his face, and summoned a gigantic 20' tall centipede into the centre of the room, effectively blocking the way through for Eolias, Alexis and Tanith who had already started forwards.

Alexis attempted to dispel the summoning using the Scroll found in the Hextor temple, but failed. The mages took the opportunity to drink several potions and cast defensive spells during the combat .

Eolias was bitten by the centipede and became poisioned, losing several points of Dex, and during the combat Tanith used the last bead from the necklace of missiles, which did absolutely no damage to the creature at all due to it's innate resistance.

The party's efforts to fight the centipede were hampered by the use of spells from the three mages from their safe vantage point behind the centipede, the most notable being a lighting bolt and another web spell that Eolias set alight to free his companions even though he knew that the damage caused would surely knock him unconcious.

After being revived by Tanith, Eolias used the wand of enlarge on Alexis who used her scroll of Bull's Strength on herself but was still unable to do much damage to the beastie until Aust, Elzara and Tovar, who had managed to drive off the spirit mage, rushed to join in the combat to help strike the final blows.

The lesser two of the mages swiftly fell and the party turned on the mage with the leather mask only to have their way blocked by another summoned monster, this time a giant ape, which covered it's summoner's retreat for a couple of rounds until it too was defeated.


Magical Items Found

• Elixir of Vision
• Elixir of Hiding
• Elixir of Sneaking
• Necklace of Missiles (Used up)
• Wand of Magic Missiles (37 charges left)
• Quall's Feather Token (bird) x2

XP Summary

• 14 Bird-men - 4,200 XP
• Bird-man Spellcaster - 600 XP
• Bird-man Leader - 1,350 XP
• 2 Dire Weasels - 1,200 XP
• 4 Wizards - 2,400 XP

Total XP - 9,750 or 1,625XP each

The Three Faces of Evil - Part Two

13 May 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd/1st level male Elven Spellthief/Rogue
Elzara (Will) 3rd level female Elven Monk
Tovar Hammerguild (Ian) 3rd level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 2nd/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 3rd level female Human Cleric
Eolias (Richard) 2nd/1st level male Elven Ranger/Sorcerer

Game Events

Before they could launch an assault of their own, a massive pig with iron capped tusks came barrelling out of a side room and charged into Eolias, Elzara and Tovar, badly wounding Elzara before being despatched.

Having breezed through the cultists in the previous room this considerably shocked the group so they decided to hole up to rest to restock their spells. They chose the small room which had previously housed the cultists, and Aust used the padlock and chain from the dire boar's room to secure the door.

A couple of hours later, before anyone had been able to recover anything there was a smell of burning as the cultists set the door on fire in an attempt to smoke out the group. Aust was unable to remove the padlock and chain in time so Tovar (assisted by Elzara) charged through the burning door and into the corridor where Tovar was shot twice by a couple of demonic guards who then retreated back through the double doors at the end of the corridor.

One of the guards fell to arrow fire but the other made it back into a large ampitheatre-type room where three more cultists awaited, longspears at the ready. Tovar, Elzara and Alexis charged into the room whilst Tanith, Eolias and Aust sent arrows, bolts and spells from the doorway.

More cultists in heavy armour appeared on the balcony surrounding the room along with a couple of large zombies, and a major battle broke out. Eolias engaged the Cult Leader in a ranged duel (bow versus spells) whilst the other party members spread out into the room to engage the other cultists. Elzara climbed to the balcony and traded blows with a couple of troglodyte zombies and a cleric, Aust, Tanith and Alexis exchanged spells and arrows with the cultists on the balcony while Tovar tried to push over a 30' high six-armed statue in the centre of the room to try and make a ramp up to the upper level. A summoned fiendish ape attacked and wounded Eolias but was beaten off and despatched with Aust's help.

The battle suddenly turned in favor of the party when Eolias' use of True Strike combined with Magic Weapon from Alexis and a lucky critical strike penetrated the Cult Leader's protections and left him lying dead on the floor. The rest of the cultists were swifly despatched, despite one half-orc being enlarged and in combat, mainly due to his inability to hit anything!

The dead were looted to recover Scrolls of Silence and Sound Burst at 3rd Level and Dispel Magic and Bulls Strength at 5th Level, wands of Cure Light and Enlarge, a ring and plate mail and a number of Potions of Cure Light Wounds.

The party then explored and looted the rest of the temple of Hextor, finding a magic pearl in one of the rooms before resting to regain health and spells. They then returned to the elevator room where they now went to check out the pool of dark viscous liquid at the other end of the room to the passageways.

Tovar tested the liquid finding it to be deathly cold while Alexis investigated the platforms overlooking the pool where she found some GP and a gold holy symbol of Erythnul.

The group decided to avoid the unmarked passageway in favour of the one marked with the symbol of a human hand holding an eye.

Magical Items Found

• Four Potions of Cure Light Wounds
• Scroll of Silence and Sound Burst at 3rd Level
• Scroll of Dispel Magic and Bulls Strength at 5th Level
• Wand of Cure Light Wounds
• Wand of Enlarge
• Ring
• Full Plate Mail
• Pearl

XP Summary

• Dire Boar - 1,500XP
• 3 Cultists - 900XP
• 6 Demonic-Looking Guards - 1,800XP
• 2 Zombies - 1,200XP
• 2 Clerics - 1,200XP
• Cult Leader - 1,800XP

Total XP 8,400XP

• Eolias - 1,450XP
• Elzara - 1,450XP
• Alexis - 1,300XP
• Tanith - 1,300XP
• Kovar - 1,450 XP
• Aust - 1,450XP

The Three Faces of Evil - Part One

6 May 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd level male Elven Spellthief
Elzara (Will) 2nd level female Elven Monk
Kovar Hammerguild (Ian) 2nd level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 1st/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 2nd level female Human Cleric
Eolias (Richard) 2nd level male Elven Ranger

Game Events

Returning once more to Allustan the party discovered that he was concerned that the green worm found in the Old Observatory and the undead creatures from which it came from could represent a grave threat to Diamond Lake.

He suggested that the letter also found at the Observatory stating that cultists were deep inside the Dourstone Mine should be followed up on. To this end both Eliolas and Elzara went to stake out the mine compound.

Tanith discovered that his Raven familiar had been kidnapped, and a letter requesting a meeting with Balbar Smenk was found nailed to the door of the character's base, along with a raven feather.

At the meeting Smenk returned the raven (which had been well treated) and explained that he had been forced to supply the cultists at Dourstone Mine with food and supplies, but when he tried to increase his prices he awoke one morning to find the decapitated head of his right-hand man in his bed. Suitably frightened, he has made contact with the party with a view to assisting them to get into the mine to eliminate the cultists.

Eliolas and Elzara were smuggled in in boxes with a regular shipment (including the adventuring gear of the rest of the party) whilst the others took jobs as miners and investigated from the inside.

After a run-in with the mine guards, Kovar, Aust and Elzara rode an elevator down and defeated a couple of demonic-looking guards and a few skeletons whilst Eolias, Tanith and Alexis dealt with more guards above.

More skeletons and Cultists were easily defeated along with a couple more demonic guards. Whilst the fighters followed the survivors of these groups as they retreated along a corridor and through some double doors and out of sight, Aust and Alexis searched the bodies, finding seven potions of Cure Light Wounds and four potions of Shield of Faith on the demonic guards' bodies.

The party readied themselves to assault through the doors (and also levelled up)


Magical Items Found

• Seven Potions of Cure Light Wounds
• Four Potions of Shield of Faith

XP Summary

• Infiltrating the mine - 900XP
• 8 Mine Guards - 2,400XP
• 4 Demonic-Looking Guards - 1,200XP
• 2 Skeletons - 600XP
• 7 Cultists - 2,100XP

Total XP 7,200XP

• Eolias - 1,550XP
• Elzara - 1,350XP
• Alexis - 1,175XP
• Tanith - 1,175XP
• Kovar - 975 XP
• Aust - 975XP

The Whispering Cairn - Part Three

6 May 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 2nd level male Elven Spellthief
Elzara (Will) 2nd level female Elven Monk
Kovar Hammerguild (Ian) 2nd level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 1st/1st level male Human Sorcerer/Warmage
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 2nd level female Human Cleric
Eolias (Richard) 2nd level male Elven Ranger

Game Events

After conferring with Allustan and getting items identified the party revisited the Land farmstead and re-interred the bones of the family then returned to the Whispering Cairn.

Hoping that the ghostly Alastor was true to his word, they carefully negotiated the balance beam where Elzara had defeated the Grick and found the door at the end was, indeed, open.

They entered a circluar room which was lit from above as if by daylight with a walkway around the edge and a column of air rising from the centre of the room and through a hole in the ceiling. Two walkways led to the central column of air. Around the room were bas-reliefs which, when approached, animated to tell the story of the Wind Dukes and their battle against Chaos, specifically the demonic entity Miska (a creature with a spider's body, and a human and two wolf heads. The final panel shows the Wind Duke Qadeej destroying Miska with a seven-sectioned rod.

As Kovar stepped onto a walkway, two Wind Warriors in full armor rose out of the air column and attacked, eventually being defeated but not before Kovar had been knocked unconcious and Elzara severely wounded.

With the Wind Warriors dead, Kovar, Eolias and Tanith rode the air column to the true tomb where nore bas-reliefs depicted the death of Zosiel, whose tomb this was, from a Sphere of Annhiliation. Inside his sarcophagus they found a Circlet of Wisdom +2, and a dormant Talisman of the Sphere.

Magical Items Found

• Circlet of Wisdom +2
• Talisman of the Sphere (Dormant)
  

XP Summary

• 2 Wind Warriors - CR4 - 2,700 (450 each)

The Whispering Cairn - Part Two

29 April 2006

Players/Characters

Aust (Russell) 1st level male Elven Spellthief
Elzara (Will) 1st level female Elven Monk
Kovar Hammerguild (Ian) 1st level Male Dwarven Paladin
Tanith (Ewar) 1st level male Human Sorcerer
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 1st level female Human Cleric (run as NPC)
Eolias (Richard) 1st level male Elven Ranger

Game Events

The party returned to the Whispering Cairn well stocked and refreshed. Entering the Lantern room they investigated each of the corridors and discovered a passageway 50' up the Blue corridor, down which they could see a carved face covering the entire 20'x20' end.

The everburning torch was retrieved from the green lantern. Aust went first and triggered a pressure plate after 50' which animated the face with the eyes whirling with all the colours of the rainbow and caused a wind to blow, increasing in strength each round until Aust, Eolias and Elzara were blown away and forced to grab at the lantern chain as they fell past.

After some deliberation they placed lights in each of the lanterns which effectively disabled the trap - now the pressure plate opened a passageway behind the face.

The room behind the face was another elaborate trap with iron spheres the size of oranges firing from the walls and knocking Elzara off a balancing plank onto an unstable floor made of the spheres. Once on the floor she was attacked by a Grick that burst up through the spheres, which she despatched in a single round due to an impressive critical hit.

A spectral figure then appeared and introduced itself as Alastar Land, a young boy who had fallen victim to the trap over 50 years ago. He told the party that the only way through the next door was to release a switch inside the room itself, and without his help there was no way through. All he wanted was for his bones to be buried alongside his family, to which the party readily agreed.

The party returned to Diamond Lake to recover, resupply, and level up to 2nd level and then set out for the Land farm where they discovered five recently opened graves and five sets of tracks leading to the abandoned farm but only four, running tracks returning.

Entering the farm Eolias was surprised by a wounded Owlbear, but it was soon despatched. The party searched and found a baby Owlbear (which Eolias took into his care) and also a dismembered human arm bearing a distinct tattoo.

Tanith recognised the tattoo as being the same as one on the face of Kullen, the half-orc leader a gang who frequented the Feral Dog inn, and so half of the party went to speak to Kullen in the pub whilst Eolias and Elzara took the baby Owlbear to the Druid's enclave a day and a half away.

Managing to change the half-orc's attitude to friendly, Tanith discovered that Kullen's boss, Balbar Smenk (one of the local mine owners) had instructed them to assist one of his friends, a Necromancer called Filge, to move into the old Observatory and get him whatever he needed. In this case, he needed skeletons to animate as guards.

Rather that wait for their friends to return, Tanith, Korven, Aust and Alexis decided to pay the Necromancer a visit - after destroying a couple of undead-type creatures in a toolshed and three skeletons (part of the Land family) and being wounded in the process the party decided to wait for the other two before returning to assault the building.

The party attacked and defeated the Necromancer and his zombie and skeleton bodyguards, capturing the Necromancer alive who bargained information for his life. He told them that his friend, Balbar, asked him to come and be his undead expert. He told the party that Smenk had been in the Dourstone mine where he found the place was crawling with hideous beasts in hooded robes. These cultists called themseves the Ebon Triad, and said something about the Age of Worms being upon us.

The party found a glass jar with a dead green worm floating in it - Balbar pinched it from the Dourstone Mine - Filge identified it as being one of hundreds that infest a powerful undead known as a spawn of Kyuss. If the worms get inside you they can turn you into undead within a day.

They also recovered a Scroll of Animate Dead (at 3rd level), potions of Gentle Repose, False Life, Ghoul Touch and Chill Touch (all also at 3rd level.)

Also found was a letter from Balbar to Filge detailing his discoveries at Dourstone Mine.

Magical Items Found

• Scroll of Animate Dead (at 3rd level)
• Potions of Gentle Repose, False Life, Ghoul Touch and Chill Touch (all at 3rd level.)
  

XP Summary

Passage of The Face - CR4 - 1,350

Alastor & the Grick - CR3 - 900

Owlbear - EL3 - 900

Kullen & the Gang - EL3 - 900

2 Undead things - EL2 - 600

3 Skeletons - EL1 - 300

Filge, 3 x Troglodyte Zombies, Bugbear Zombie, Skeleton - EL5 - 1800

Total XP gained - 6,750 or 1,125 each (565 for Alexis - NPC)