A Gathering of Winds - Part Three

27 April 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 10th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 10th level female Elven Monk
Kamal (Ian) 6th level Male Troglodyte Hexblade
Zoook (Ewar) 10th level Gnome Bard
Millardo Maquis (Andrew) 10th level male Human Knight
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/3rd level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

With the main healer out of action the party’s first priority became to find a safe place where they could rest and recuperate, the coldness of the current area making it unwise to spend 8 hours there.

A secret door at the end of the corridor opened out onto a huge sinkhole down which the red river poured. There were obvious ledges and cracks that could be used by a climber, and so Elzara and Zoook went to take a look. On the opposite side of the cave they found a barely conscious figure in the water who had obviously been battered around but had been lucky enough to get his cloak hooked over a small rocky outcrop before he had been swept to almost certain death.

Elzara dragged him from the river and brought him back to the rest of the party who helped her recover. He introduced himself as Millardo Maquis and asked to be able to join the party until they managed to escape from the tomb.

The group briefly considered climbing down alongside the falling water, but after watching a dropped sunrod disappear into the depths they decided to return to the main body of the tomb and rest instead.

After quite a while spent negotiating the river the characters made it back to where they had first entered the water and made camp so that the spellcasters could regain their spells. Overnight, both Elzara and Eolias were taken ill, losing some CON. This, it became apparent, was now a major problem as with Alexis’ death they no longer had anyone capable of using the wand of restoration with any guaranteed degree of success!!

The next morning the characters investigated the huge gatehouse doors to find them covered in levers, dials, gears and other devices which made them impossible to open, so they carefully traversed the river and returned to the room containing the Spider creature with which they had bargained earlier.

From there they came to a room which had obviously been a shrine of some sort, but had succumbed to age with threadbare carpets on the floors and faded frescoes on the walls with a small statue of a Wind Duke in the centre of the opposite wall. The statue appeared valuable, so Kamaal rushed in to claim it.

This rash move activated the room’s guardians, a pair of two-dimensional golems who detached themselves from the walls and attacked, causing a badly wounded Kamaal to flee into the main room. Millardo braced himself in the doorway to await the attack of the creatures, but they simply bypassed him with the use of a Passwall ability and pursued Kamaal.

These golems were eventually killed, and the party moved onto the next room which contained a large transparent sphere in which floated an unmoving figure in tattered red robes – they had finally found Allustan!!

Before they could move to release the captive wizard a bolt of lightning came at them from a metal spike at the top of the sphere, and so they retreated out of the room to consider their options.

Elzara tried to attack the spike with a flying leap, but was not able to do much damage, and Zoook was hit by the lightning and disappeared, reappearing next to Allustan, but in stasis.

Arguments raged about the best course of action, but whilst the others argued Eoilas fired arrow after arrow at the metal spike from the relative safety of the doorway.

Eventually the spike gave way, dispelling the stasis field and depositing the Bard and Wizard on the floor. Discovering that Allustan was unconscious, the party reluctantly used some of their precious healing to bring him around.

He explained that he had been ambushed by the dragon as he tried to leave the cairn, and had fled back inside to try and find a potent weapon to deal with the giant lizard when he had been caught by the trap. He told the party that he believed that this was the tomb of the Wind Dukes’ greatest general, Icosiol, and that potent artefacts were often buried with notable Wind Dukes to preserve them for use against Chaos in the future.

Magical Items Found

None

XP Summary

2 x Relief Golems - 4,000 XP
Rescuing Allustan - 9,000 XP

Total XP - 13,000 XP


Kamal - 2,166 XP
Eolias - 2,166 XP
Crumpus - 2,166 XP
Zoook - 2,166 XP
Millardo - 2,166 XP
Elzara - 2,166 XP

Current Totals

Kamal - 52,194 XP
Eolias – 52,194 XP
Crumpus 52,194 XP
Zoook, 52,194 XP
Millardo – 52,194 XP
Elzara – 52,194 XP

A Gathering of Winds - Part Two

20 April 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 10th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 10th level female Elven Monk
Kamal (Ian) 6th level Male Troglodyte Hexblade
Zoook (Ewar) 10th level Gnome Bard
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 6th/4th level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/3rd level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

Despite being pretty much out of spells, the group decided to follow Flycatcher’s directions without pausing to rest. Leaving the strange spider’s room they came to a largish cavern through which a blood-red river raced into the darkness beyond.

Crossing this eerie waterway was a very old rickety bridge whose pillars had been badly eroded by the churning water over the millennia.

On the opposite side of the river was an impressive gatehouse whose 20’ x 15’ doors were closed and festooned with many obvious locking mechanisms.

Cautiously stepping out on the bridge, Kamaal and Alexis inched out over the rapidly flowing waters but as Crumpus started out to join them the bridge collapsed, throwing Kamaal and Alexis into the waters. Crumpus was lucky enough to be close enough to the shore to throw himself backwards onto dry land but as he landed he was attacked by a pair of Xorn that erupted from the earth on either side of him.

As four more Xorn appeared across the river, Elzara dropped from the doorway to fling a rope into the water to help her colleagues who were rapidly being swept away into the darkness. The rope landed near to both struggling characters but neither the Troglodyte nor the Cleric were unable to help themselves and disappeared from view, carried by the rushing red waters.

Unwilling to leap into the water herself, Elzara turned her attention to the Xorn, assisting the beleaguered Crumpus in despatching them as Eolias poured arrows into the monsters from the safety of the doorway to the usual musical accompaniment from Zoook.

Meanwhile both Alexis and Kamaal had been washed into a side tunnel where they were soon able to stand up. As they advanced they noticed a rapid drop in temperature, but before they were able to return to the main river they were attacked by gigantic amorphous blood-clots that drained the blood from their very bodies causing Con damage!

Alexis recognised these creatures as being undead but was unable to channel enough divine energy through her holy symbol to cause them any problems, and both she and Kamaal were barely holding their own until the rest of the party, having despatched the Xorn, arrived to save the day. Most weapons were doing little damage with the exception of Elzara’s unarmed strikes, but these two creatures were soon despatched, and Con loss being cured with a few charges from Alexis’ Wand of Restoration.

Wading through the remains of the blood-creatures the party moved on into the cold area and were soon standing at the end of the tunnel where everything was encrusted with red ice.

The sharp eyed archer, Eolias, noticed that there was an opening above that had been covered with a thick plug of ice, but a few hits from Crumpus opened a way into a long room above which was also encrusted with the red ice.

Statues of red ice, covered in white, smoking runes stood at each end of the room, and as the party started to haul themselves up both statues animated and moved in to attack, catching Zoook and Crumpus by surprise.

Once again the party found that their weapons were mostly ineffective against these constructs, so it was left to Elzara to prove that her knowledge of martial arts was once again superior.

Badly wounded, Zoook retreated back down the hole as Crumpus himself fell under the relentless attack of one statue. Eolias tossed an alchemist‘s fire at the statue threatening Zoook but didn’t notice how close he was to the other statue, which bludgeoned him from behind whilst his attention was elsewhere.

Alexis and Kamaal scrambled up through the hole to assist, only to be met with a barrage of ice shards fired from the bodies of the ice statues, and this, combined with several well placed blows was enough to leave Alexis joining Crumpus, lifeless on the ice and Kamaal badly wounded.

With her companions either down or mostly ineffective it was left to Elzara to strike the final blows that sent the statues crashing into nothing more than a large pile of red ice cubes.

Her unconscious companions were checked but only Crumpus was still alive – the massive damage taken by Alexis had sent her to meet her god.

Wasting little time in mourning their fallen comrade, the group used the last of their healing spells and potions, and decided to press onwards to try and find somewhere a little more hospitable to rest and recover their spells.

The first door that they tried opened onto a room filled completely with a slowly rotating pool of slushy ice that radiated intense cold. Not wanting to disturb whatever might reside in its frigid depths the characters continued their search for a resting place.

Next was a hallway lined with six statues of Wind Dukes, all but one had a small model of a building floating on a cushion of air above it’s cupped hands. The one without a model stood in front of the only doorway out of this area, but as Elzara tried to move past it the statue animated and triggered a hidden lever to drop portcullises across the north and south ends of the room, and then attacked

Now the statue was moving, the party were able to see that this was actually a mechanoid wearing some kind of golden armour, very reminiscent of the mural in the room with the black sphere.

Elzara immediately tripped the clockwork monster, and managed to keep it pinned down, shrugging off it’s mental attempts to dominate her mind long enough for the rest of the party to hack it apart with practiced ease.

Magical Items Found

None

XP Summary

• 6 x Xorn - 4,000 XP
• 2 x Animated Blood Clots - 6,000 XP
• 2 x Ice Golems - 9,000 XP
• Kolyiarut Inevitable - 6,000 XP

Total XP - 25,000 XP

• Kamal - 4,366 XP
• Eolias - 4,366 XP
• Crumpus - 4,366 XP
• Zoook - 4,366 XP
• Alexis - Deceased
• Elzara - 4,366 XP

Current Totals

Kamal - 50,028 XP
Eolias - 50,028 XP
Crumpus 50,028 XP
Zoook - 50,028 XP
Alexis – Deceased
Elzara - 50,028 XP

A Gathering of Winds - Part One

15 April 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 9th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 9th level female Elven Monk
Kamal(Ian) 5th level Male Troglodyte Hexblade
Zoook (Ewar) 9th level Gnome Bard
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 5th/4th level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/2nd level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

The message to Elzara had come from Shag Solomon, her companion at the Emporium where she used to work. News of a dragon attacking Diamond Lake galvanised the party, and they sped off to their old stomping ground, stopping only to purchase several 'essential potions' on the way.

On arrival at the town they found the town's streets to be empty with only frightened guards to be seen skulking under cover and scurrying across open areas. One of these groups of guards recognised the surviving original party members and approached them, beseeching them to slay the Black Dragon that was plaguing the town and free them all from the horrid creature.

After careful questioning, the group discovered that it was three days ago when the dragon first struck, destroying Allustan's house and then, in a rage, continued smashing houses until it reached the town square. The creature then began gathering wounded victims into the square, and demanded to know Allustan's location, eating those who were unable to give an acceptable answer.

A dozen or more poeple were killed before someone was able to tell the dragon that Allustan had been spending most of his time at the Whispering Cairn. The dragon got directions to the ruined tomb and then flew off to the north, and hasn't been seen since, but neither has Allustan.

Cautiously approaching the tomb entrance, the party decided to first scout out the old mine building that they had once used as a base, but apart from several pigeons it showed no signs of having been disturbed for several months.

Moving on to the Cairn entrance itself, Eolias used his tracking skills to determine that there was a fairly well-trodden path to and from the entrance, and that it had been used fairly recently but no dragon tracks. He did manage to discover several clumps of acid-scarred bushes nearby, though.

Whilst the ranger was doing his thing his sharp ears just managed to catch the sound of wingbeats bearing down on the party before a Black Dragon rounded the hilltop and breathed a gout of searing acid over Alexis, Kamaal, Zoook and Crumpus as it sailed past them.

This was no ordinary acid though, as Crumpus felt some of his marvelous strength draining away.

Eolias decided to make a break for the cave but stumbled badly and ended up head-first in the middle of a clump of bushes as the dragon flew back to land directly over the cave entrance to roar out 'Dragotha take you all - the wizard is mine!!'

Alexis tried to inch forwards to parlay with the dragon, but received another blast of acid which also hit the unfortunate Crumpus. This proved to much for the party, who bravely ran away back to the old mine office to heal and restore lost strength scores.

Kamaal reasoned that the dragon must need sleep, so the group decided to return and attempt to enter the cairn again just after midnight on the same day. All was quiet as they approached, but just as they were about to enter Zoook was once more hit by the dragon's breath weapon as it landed just behind them.

Panicking, the characters re-entered the tomb where their adventures had started so many months before and took shelter in a couple of alcoves, hoping that this would cover them from the dragon's acid stream. This may have been a good plan had the dragon followed it too, but, folding it's wings in tight, the dragon squeezed into the passageway and laid into the party with its bite and two front claws.

Eolias moved a short way down the passage as Alexis, Kamaal, Crumpus and the enlarged Elzara engaged the dragon in close combat, whilst Zoook provided musical encouragement. Eolias also noticed that a passage which had been previously buried under a cave-in had now been cleared.

For a short time this was touch and go, for both Kamaal and Crumpus had to retreat from the fight to swig healing draughts, leaving the enlarged Elzara to face the dragon with only Alexis able to assist in close combat. The two fighters were soon able to get back into the fight, but not before enough damage had been dealt to Elzara to leave her on the floor, bleeding from numerous bite and claw wounds. As the beast was reeling from the renewed onslaught, Zoook stepped forwards and pressed his Wand of Inflict Serious Wounds against the dragon's neck, finishing it off in style.

Pausing to heal, the group investigated the newly cleared tunnel to discover a strange doorway, looking very much like a glossy black surface that rippled like water when struck with a stone.

Alexis decided to touch the surface and was totally surprised when withered, clawed arm struck at her out of the surface, dealing large amounts of damage from a sneak attack. Unfortunately, Alexis had failed to heal her own wounds when curing the rest of the party, and collapsed unconsious in front of the portal. Elzara dragged the cleric to safety whilst Zoook applied healing from the wand to get Alexis up again.

Kamaal charged at the portal and found it to be like passing through soft tar, but emerged into a corridor filled with rushing winds and howling noise. Alexis, Elzara and Crumpus also tried to pass through by charging, Alexis made it through but was sneak attacked on the way through by the entity living within the portal, but both Elzara and Crumpus were bounced back.

On the other side, Kamaal and Alexis were surrounded by whirling smoky shapes which caused them to take damage when the smoke was inhaled, and these shapes solidified into six Belkers as Crumpus, Elzara and Eolias made it through the doorway, battered and torn by the inhabitant of the portal.

The Belkers attacked the group and nearly managed to drop Crumpus (on zero HP) and Alexis (on 1) before the battle prowess of Elzara and Kamaal managed to finish off the last of them. After several abortive attempts Zoook also managed to get through the door and rejoin the party

The next room was 40' high, with strange runes running around the walls and statues and reliefs near each of the 3 doors which animated to show Icosiol's victory over Chaos, culminating in Icosiol holding up a square plaque and a staff, as if to show them off to the characters.

Whilst in this room, Zoook decided to investigate a strange spiky stone barrier-like arrangement but activated a trap which blew him onto the spikes, impaling him. Before anyone could react, a large spider-like being scurried out of the shadows and paralysed the hapless Gnome before retreating back into the shadows with Zook firmly grasped in its mandibles. Kamaal approached the shadowy nook , but both spider and Bard were gone.

Moving on, the group came across a large room with dull, black tiles above which a large black sphere was suspended between four chandeliers. There was a balcony around this room showing scenes from the Wind Dukes' battles against Chaos. Also shown was a large mechanical man in golden armour reaching for a square crystal object - three runes were shown falling from the mouth of the construct as he reached out, but without their language specialist the party had to press on.

In a small room nearby, Crumpus broke open six chests containing some jewellery and a wand. In the same room Kamaal was investigating a large funerary urn when he triggered a trap and was hit by a pale grey ray which drained several levels!!

At a corridor intersection was an 8' tall statue of a Wind Duke holding a mithral greatsword, which the party removed, setting off several Word of Law traps on their way through.

As they entered the next room, a voice from the ceiling asked 'I think we must make a deal now?' as the same spider that had snatched Zoook cautiously lowered itself into view. The creature introduced itself as Flycatcher, the Guardian of the Tomb, and asked that the party eliminate a 'two legs' who had been a thorn in its side for millenia, and in return it would release Zoook. Alternatively the party could leave valuables with it as a ransom, and it would return Zoook early. The party offered the mithral greatsword and Alexis' Periapt of Healing, which the spider accepted, and released the Bard from the Plane of Shadows to rejoin his companions.

In a small room off the spider's lair the group found a magical suit of banded mail, but before they could take it they were attacked by a wraith that materialised through the wall and drained Con from those it hit, using spring attack to its best advantage. The monster was eventually despatched, but not before several players were severely drained - Alexis and her Wand of Restore were never more appreciated than now!!

Returning to the balconied room, Zoook was able to read the runes spoken by the mechanoid with a Comprehend Languages spell - these were in Avanti - the Wind Duke language, and were representations of 'Icosiol', 'Pesh' and 'Aaqa', these being the leader of the Wind Dukes, the battlefield where the Wind Dukes defeated Chaos and the name of the Wind Dukes' empire, respectively.

Armed with this information, the group pressed on deeper into the dungeon to search for the 'two legs' to keep their bargain with Flycatcher.

Magical Items Found

• Wand
• Banded Mail

XP Summary

• Black Dragon - 16,200 XP
• Belkers x 6 - 8,100 XP
• Wraith - 5,400 XP

Total XP - 29,700 XP

Kamal - 4,950 XP
Eolias - 4,950 XP
Crumpus - 4,950 XP
Zoook - 4,950 XP
Alexis - 4,950 XP
Elzara - 4,950 XP

Current Totals

Kamal - 45,662 (level up to 10!)
Eolias - 45,662 (level up to 10!)
Crumpus 45,662 (level up to 10!)
Zoook, 45,662 (level up to 10!)
Alexis - 45,815 (level up to 10!)
Elzara - 45,662 (level up to 10!)

The Champion's Belt - Part Two

6 April 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 8th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 8th level female Elven Monk
Kamal(Ian) 4th level Male Troglodyte Hexblade
Zoook (Ewar) 8th level Gnome Bard
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 4th/4th level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

That evening as the party prepared for their coming encounter with the Snow Leopards, another quarter finalist team, they were surprised to learn that they had been selected to fight in the exhibition match against the wild beast instead in place of the current champions, Auric's Band.

Elzara was sent to scout the upper levels completely, and she skulked off into the darkness, avoiding contact with the roving guard patrols.

Whilst hiding from one such patrol she overheard the guards complaining about having to look after the huge Frost Salamander that was to star in tomorrow's exhibition match - vital information indeed!!

Swiftly covering the upper level, Elzara came across a detention area which was empty apart from one prisoner who seemed unable to converse normally. Elzara attempted to communicate by mime, but was unable to make the poor wretch understand, so she left to try and locate the keys to his cell.

Returning to the guard room discovered the evening before, Elzara made a swift check around the sleeping guards but was unable to find a set of keys, surmising that they were probably with the roving patrol.

Checking the last two store rooms she found a large number of flasks of Alchemist's Fire, and one room which stank of vinegar thanks to a large open vat of the stuff against the far wall.

Returning to the party Elzara updated them on what she had heard and seen.

The party decided to re-investigate the vinegar storage room, whereupon a secret door was found behind the open vinegar keg.

First onto the landing behind the door, Elzara triggered a Glyph of Warding trap and almost fell victim to a Slay Living spell, a signal that what lay below would be no push over!

At the bottom of the stairs three Spawn of Kyuss zombies lay in wait. Forgetting what had happened the last time she faced these creatures, Elzara rushed forwards to attack one. As before, when she withdrew her hand it was crawling with green worms which immediately burrowed in, making their way to her brain. Alexis managed to turn all three zombies and then the party turned their attention to their stricken comrade, managing to extract all the worms before they could kill Elzara, but not before they had done serious damage to her Intelligence.

Moving on, the group came to a room with a 5' wide hole in the floor which, from the smell, led to a sewer outlet of some kind.

Being the only character able to climb the slimy walls, Elzara scrambled down to find herself in a large cavern through which a stream of refuse-filled water slowly flowed. Deciding not to investigate further Elzara started to climb back to the others, but came under attack from a group of slimes and jellies which were attached to the ceiling, but she was quickly able to outdistance them.

Moving on the group came across what used to be a machine room used for magically transporting huge quantities of water, presumably for recreating naval battles in the arena above. Crawling into the guts of the broken machine itself, Zoook disovered a small pipe that he was able to move down until it was intersected by a strange transparrent barrier to a cocoon-like chamber glowing with strange green light. Inside this chamber was a gigantic maggot or grub, and in his eagerness to see more Zoook touched the barrier which gave him a massive jolt of negative energy.

In the next room the party discovered the source of this unearthly green light - a beam was being transmitted from an open scroll on a desk and through a set of closed double doors, presumable towards the maggot that Zoook had seen. After attempting to bypass the beam of light, the party discovered that touching the beam had no apparent ill effect, and moved onto the next room which was filled with six Spawn of Kyuss and a further skeletal creature which still had it's intestines writhing within it's ribcage.

The Spawn were once again easily turned by Alexis, but the other, identified as a Mohrg, proved much more difficult to destroy, inflicting damage on both Elzara and Crumpus before being eventually despatched.

Just as the final undead was killed, the room was entered by another spawn and a strange four legged bird that stood over 6' high, followed by a Tiefling in chain holding a glowing club.

The bird and the undead were quickly destroyed, but the attacking Tiefling proved somewhat problematic - no-one was able to get within 10' of him, and only Eolias was able to damage him at range with arrows that passed straight through the force barrier.

In response to this, the Tiefling cast blindness on Eolias and retreated into another room where he dispelled his shield and awaited the inevitable assault of the party.

He didn't have long to wait, and the group managed to knock him down fairly easily due to the massive amounts of damage that they can now dole out.

Also in this room was a motionless female zombie which resembled Ekayim's missing sister. Alexis checked the body and determined that the cause of death had been manual strangulation - there was even still an imprint on her neck from a serpent-styled ring, almost exactly like the ring worn by Raknian, the arena's director.

Searching the Tiefling's body the party found a +1 unholy club, +1 chainmail, +1 light fortification wooden shield, a Periapt of Health and a strand of Prayer Beads. Opening a nearby chest, Alexis was fortunate to avoid a particularly nasty trap that would have imprisioned her in another dimension, and found a quantity of cash and gems along with a potion of Cure Moderate Wounds, a scroll of Death Ward(11th), 2 scrolls of Ethereal Jaunt(11th), 3 doses of Dust of Tracelessness, a Wand of Restoration(36), a Murylands Spoon, 2 blocks of Incence of Meditation and 3 Potions of Gentle Repose.

Knowing that they had to fight the Frost Salamander at 10am, and as the time was now rapidly approaching 3am the group decided to return to their room under the arena.

The next morning, the party were brought out onto the sands for their exhibition match, and cast the various spells and drank the potions that they needed to combat the Frost Salamander whilst they were being introduced to the crowd.

Ten long minutes passed as the teams of handlers struggled to bring the beast into the arena, so many of the party's spells and potions had worn off by the time a huge waggon was manhandled into the centre of the arena. The guards retreated 100', holding ropes attached to pins holding the waggon together, and at a prearranged signal the beast was let loose.

As the sides of the box dropped the party found themselves looking at a very strange monster indeed - almost like a 20' high frog, but with four tentacles instead of front legs, three eyes on a central eyestalk and a mouth full of very sharp, long teeth! Whatever this was, it certainly wasn't a Frost Salamander!!!

Crumpus carefully edged towards the beast but was snatched up in the tentacles and squeezed before he could retaliate. This was the signal for the others - Zoook began his inspiring song, Alexis cast Deific Vengance and Eolias stood his ground and let loose a hail of arrows whilst Elzara and Kamaal charged into combat.

Despite taking huge amounts of damage the beast concentrated on the task at hand - namely eating the unfortunate Crumpus who quickly found himself inside the stomach of the strange creature. Drawing a dagger he attempted to cut himself out, but wasn't able to do enough damage before he succomed to the grinding and churning of the creature's stomach muscles.

On the outside the combined damage of all five remaining party members managed to slay the behemoth, but it was too late for Crumpus who was already dead by the time he was cut free.

Many of the party noticed that Loris Raknian was visibly shocked and upset at the defeat of his monster, but was able to control himself to present Ekayim with their trophy (a gold human gladiator statue) and 10,000GP.

When Ekayim came down to the party on their underground home to congratulate them, and to also bring a Cleric to cast Raise Dead on Crumpus, Alexis briefed him on the success of their mission to determine his sister's fate. Obviously upset, Ekayim asked the party to kill the zombie, but bring her body back to him so that he could take it home and either attempt to raise her, or to bury her in the family plot.

Later that afternoon Auric's Band decisively defeated the Snow Leopards, so the final was to be between the defending Champions and the party.

That evening, the party slipped back into the catacomb to recover the body of Ekayim's sister. Disconcertingly, as the party bludgeoned her unresisting body, Alexis noticed tears running down her cheeks. Alexis worried that she had read the signs wrong, and that they had just killed a perfectly healthy young woman!

Exploring further into the cave system, the party came upon a room split in half by a spidersilk curtain. As Elzara attempted to move the curtain a stinking cloud spell caused her to retch and run for clean air.

Eolias, Alexis and Zoook were separated from the others by a Wall of Ice and Crumpus also fell victim to the Stinking Cloud.

Kamaal was hit by a Cone of Cold, so when the others were able to destroy a section of the ice wall Crumpus, Elzara and Kamaal made a break for it, closely followed by the rest of the party, persued by the entity that had so effectively beaten them.

Fortunately for them, the battered party managed to outdistance the creature, and deciding that discretion was, in this case, the better part of valour, decided to leave the complex and prepare for their final battle in the morning.

The next day found the party arranged on the sands of the arena facing off against Auric's Band, consisting of Auric himself, his wizard companion Kelellek and three flesh golems. Loris Raknian was nowhere to be seen, so the wizard MC announced the start of the battle.

Both Auric and Khellek immediately flew up 40' while the flesh golems lumbered into combat.

Zoook blinded Khellek with a spell as Elzara, Alexis, Kamaal and Crumpus got into battle with Auric and his golems. The very floor of the arena shook with the violence of the confrontation.

Khellek managed to dispel the blindness as damage was done on all sides, then to the amazement of all present the shaking of the ground increased until the sand of the arena was flung away as the gargantuan maggot seen by Zoook a few nights earlier forced it's way to the arena floor.

Loris Raknian then appeared in the stands, shouting that the Apostle of Kyuss was upon them, pointed to the gladiators and instructing the worm to attack and devour!

All emnity against each other gone, the two sets of combatants pooled their resources and attacked the creature with everything that they had.

Alexis cast Searing Ray doing 1.5 times max damage (powered by her Minor Metamagic Rod and also one of the Incence of Meditation cubes used the previous evening), blasting a huge hole in the worm's side.

Undeterred by this, the worm bit and swallowed Auric whole, and also damaged those fighting in close combat against it.

Two maxed Deific Vengances from Alexis, plus the cumulative damage from all the other charcters eventually killed the beast, but not before it had managed to destroy Auric with it's stomach acid.

The crowd went silent, then the chant of 'ALEXIS!! ALEXIS!! ALEXIS!!' reverberated around the arena as the crowd went wild at the spectacle they have just witnessed.

Khellek conferred with the wizard MC, who announced that Auric's Band was withdrawing from the combat, leaving the party as the new Champions of the Free Arena!!

Raknian had disappeared, and so the party accepted their winnings and headed over to Raknian's Palace to confront him there. On arrival the sight of hastily ransacked rooms made it obvious that Raknian had fled, so the group decided to visit the sage Elligos to let him know what they had found below the arena.

When they arrived at his house they found the badly mutilated bodies of both Elligos and his servant Pollard who had been dead for several days. The bodies looked like they had been tortured at length, and a cleric who is summoned to attempt a raise informed the party that the souls of the departed did not wish to return, and so any raise attempt would fail.

Over the next few days, the group revelled in their new-found fame as Champions of the Free Arena until one night a disturbing message arrived for Elzara, being the only surviving member of the party to have been a native of Diamond Lake.

It appears that part of the village has been destroyed by a dragon, and that they are needed urgently!

Magical Items Found

• +1 Unholy Club
• +1 Chainmail
• +1 light fortification wooden shield
• Periapt of Health
• Necklace of Prayer Beads
• Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
• Scroll of Death Ward(11th)
• 2 Scrolls of Ethereal Jaunt(11th)
• 3 doses of Dust of Tracelessness
• Wand of Restoration(36)
• Murylands Spoon
• 2 blocks of Incence of Meditiation
• 3 potions of Gentle Repose

Summary

• 9 x Spawn of Kyuss - 7,998 XP
• Mohrg - 2,400 XP
• Tiefling Cleric - 7,200 XP
• Froghemoth - 14,400 XP
• Apostle of Kyuss - 19,200 XP

Total XP - 51,198 XP

Kamal - 8,533 XP, -
Eolias - 4, XP (NPC)
Crumpus - 8,533 XP
Zoook - 8,533 XP
Alexis - 8,533 XP
Elzara - 8,533 XP

Current Totals

Kamal - 40,712 (level up to 9!)
Eolias - 40,712 (level up to 9!)
Crumpus 40,712 (level up to 9!)
Zoook, 40,712 (level up to 9!)
Alexis - 40,865 (level up to 9!)
Elzara - 40,712 (level up to 9!)

The Champion's Belt - Part One

1 April 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 8th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 8th level female Elven Monk
Kamal(Ian) 8th level Male Human Hexblade
Zoook (Ewar) 8th level Gnome Bard
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 4th/4th level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events
After defeating the mindflayer Zyrxog and his minions the party returned to the Crooked House to recover and distribute their spoils.

A couple of days later the characters were invited to the sage Eligos' house so he could tell them what he had found out about the items that they had left with him, i.e. the demon horns, the preserved green worm, the diaries of the leaders of the Ebon Triad whom the party had defeated in the mines under Diamond Lake, etc.

Eligos told the group that there are many references to the Age of Worms in ancient books and scrolls, and it seems that the Ebon Triad was merely being used as a cover for the Cult of Kyuss. The increased incidence of these events and the reports of Spawn of Kyuss in the surrounding hills point to something building to a climax fairly soon.

These worm-tainted zombies are the most minor of the Kyuss-marked creatures, and the Apostolic Scrolls (which had been purchased from the mindflayer by Loris Raknian) detail how to create a much more powerful undead known as an Ulgurstasta which is large enough to swallow creatures whole, and regurgitate them as undead. The scrolls also describe a ritual which will boost the powers of the Ulgurstasta immensely and allow them to create more powerful undead. Eligos suggested that the party try to keep an eye on Loris Raknian, the director of the Free City Arena.

One of Eliogos' associates called Celeste had already approached him about finding a team of gladiators for the games, so Eligos promised to send her along to the Crooked House to find the party.

The next night, Crumpus was dismayed to notice that his Periapt of Health had changed from blue to red and was inflicting ability damage to his Str, Con and Dex - borrowing the Holy dagger from Zoook to use it's heal ability he discovered that it, too, was cursed. Instead of healing, it cast Harm on him, and was actually a +2 Unholy Dagger!

A couple of days later, Celeste approached the characters and introduced them to a bard called Ekayim Smallcask, an out-of-town merchant who had acquired a manager's licence for the games and was looking to hire a band of adventurers to fight under his managership. After a brief discussion the party agreed to his terms, and after purchasing several potions to assist they arrived at the arena in time to experience the opening ceremony and feast, and then entered the arena's vast subterranean holding area which would be their home for the duration of the games.

The Games were to be held over a five day period, with six four-way battles on day one, a day off on day 2 and three one-on-one battles on day 3. On day 4, one team (traditionally the reigning champions) would fight an exhibition match against an exotic creture with the remaining 2 teams fighting each other, with the final bout scheduled for day 5.

The party decided to call themselves 'Storm Force', with Crumpus as the nominated leader.

At the ceremony Crumpus was approached by a female Elf, Tirra, whom the party had previously met in Diamond Lake in the company of Auric, the current games champion. She put a proposition from the Thieves Guild to the party - if they made it to the final against the current champions, the Thieves Guild has been able to get very good odds on them - they were willing to pay 3:1 odds if the party could find 2,500 GP of their own to put up as a wager!

After an uneventful night, the party discovered they were in the second group to fight, their opponents being a band of female Elf archers called Arcane Aruga, a human Druid with his Dire Badger companion and a couple of Gnolls, called Badlands Revenge, and a mounted group led by a Janni swashbuckler, called The Sapphire Squad.

The battle started with the gnolls charging the party whilst the Elves peppered the gnolls with arrows, and the horsemen charging the group with ride-by attacks whilst their leader held back and attempted to cast Reduce on the party members who had taken Enlarge potions.

These fine tactics soon degenerated into a free-for-all battle, with the leader of the horsemen forcing Zoook to surrender as they battled in midair, and Elzara forcing the leader of the elves to do likewise.

The leader of Badlands Revenge wildshaped into a crocodile and also raged which caused some consternation amongst the party due to the large amounts of damage being dealt by this frenzied beast.

As the dust settled at the end of the fourth round of combat, the only participants remaining standing were all of the party (with the exceeption of the sidelined Zoook) and a single elven archer, who very promptly surrendered, leaving the party victorious.

Ekayim collected their trophy of a bronze bull plus 1000GP and met the party in their underground room where he distributed their winnings. He also asked the party for their help - he was trying to discover what had happened to his sister who had been an entertainer at the previous year's games, but had not been seen since.

He wanted the party to explore the underground area of the arena, and also Loris Raknian's palace as these were the only areas that he couldn't get into himself. In exchange he was willing to pass over all his winnings from the games. The group readily agreed.

Later that afternoon they started to explore the warren of passages under the arena whilst most of the guards and attendants were busy above ground. Following up on a rumour of a stone plug which had been placed by Raknian himself to keep out marauding ghouls the party investigated an area known as the Titan's House, but found nothing other than a couple of underwater passages which they were unable to explore fully.

Moving to the upper level, the group came across an area where wild animals were caged, and a barracks where they were lucky not to awaken some sleeping guards before deciding to return to their room to wait for the next battle.

The third day dawned and the party found that they had been matched against last year's beaten finalists, a pair of Dwarf barbarians called Pitch Blade. Being very wary of this group, Zoook cast Invisibility Sphere to hide all but Eolias, Kamaal and Alexis, and the group slowly advanced across the bloodied sands.

Their caution proved well founded as the Dwarves leapt into the air under the effects of a Fly potion and charged the visible group of characters. Alexis had started to charge up a spell, using her mace as a focus, but this was the Dwarves' first target and it fell to the arena floor, sundered in two by a flaming bastard sword. Eolias' bow was next, having been determined as the weapon most dangerous to the flying barbarians.

Once again, the carefully prepared plan was immediately discarded as the invisible characters burst from concealment to attack the flying menaces. Crumpus swung wildly at one, but missed and activated yet another cursed item from the mindflayer's horde, a -2 cursed berserking longsword that had masqueraded as a defending longsword until now! This caused Crumpus to attack the nearest person, which just happened to be Alexis!

Elzara leapt at one hovering Dwarf and managed to grapple, but was unable to stop the barbarian from flying up to 40' off the arena floor before shrugging her off to crash into the sandy floor far below.

Picking herself up she went to assist Alexis in fighting of the berserk Crumpus and eventually managed to pin the frothing fighter to the floor.

Meanwhile the other Dwarf was confronting the rest of the party. Zoook cast a Mirror Image on himself, but not before the raging barbarian had manager to sunder his +1 war trumpet!

Kamaal tried to use the scare ability of his Krenshaw familiar, but it was only the use of the Wand of Fear by Zoook that saw off the flying barbarian, who fled the arena and, fortunately for the party, was not able to return before the end of the battle.

With Eolias reduced to throwing daggers, Elzara and Crumpus locked in a grapple and Alexis without her mace, the remaining dwarf attacked Zoook, Kamaal and his krenshaw.

A couple of mirror images were dispelled before Zoook was able to pass his necklace of missiles out to Eolias who managed to toss the entire string around the hovering barbarian before it detonated, severely wounding him.

Kamaal decided to draw out his griffon Figurine of Wondrous Power with the intention of mounting the beast to attack the dwarf in midair, but unfortunately for him this was another cursed item from the mindflayer's store. The summoned griffon was a fiendish one, and proceeded to rip the poor Hexblade apart before anyone was able to help him.

Having managed to pin Crumpus, Elzara knocked him out and removed his bow, throwing it out to Eolias. The grateful Elf snatched it up and used it to good effect, reducing the barbarian to a state where the remainder of the party were able to finish him off, and not a moment too soon - another round and the fear effect on the other barbarian would have ended, allowing him to return to the arena to continue the fight.

The summoned fiendish Griffon was swiftly despatched now that the full attention of the remaining party members could be turned upon it, and the characters were declared the victors of this second round match of the tournament.

Battered and brusied, saddened by the loss of another comrade and also some of their more powerful magic items the party accepted the prize of a silver dwarven gladiator statue and 5000gp before returning to the undercroft of the arena. A Druid brought in by Ekayim was able to cast reincarnate on the Kamaal's body who returned to life within a Troglodyte's body. As Kamaal no longer had enough levels of Hexblade to have the Krenshaw as a companion the druid agreed to return it to a safe place in the wilds outside the city.

Kamaal rejoined the party just as they prepared to investigate the remainder of the tunnels under the arena and also Raknian's palace to try and ascertain the fate of Ekayim's sister

Magical Items Found

• +2 Unholy Dagger
• -2 Cursed Berserking Longsword
• Fiendish Griffon Figurine of Wondrous Power

All cursed items previously identified otherwise.

Summary

• Arcane Aruga - 6,000 XP
• Badlands Revenge - 4,500 XP
• Sapphire Squad - 3,192 XP
• Pitch Blade - 7,200 XP

Total XP - 20,892

Kamal - 2,907 XP, - (Reincarnated)
Eolias - 2,341 XP (part 50% NPC)
Crumpus - 3,482 XP
Zoook - 3,482 XP
Alexis - 3,482 XP
Elzara - 3,482 XP

Current Totals

Kamal - 32,179
Eolias - 32,973
Crumpus 32,179
Zoook, 32,179
Alexis - 32,332
Elzara - 32,179