Age of Worms Campaign

The Prince of Redhand - Part Three

2007-08-17T12:51:00.000+01:00

27 July 2007

Players/Characters
Crumpus (Russell) 12th/2nd level male Human Fighter/Tempest
Elzara (Will) 14th level female Elven Monk
Volon (Ian) 14th level male Human Druid
Balthazzar (Andrew) 14th level male Human Cleric
Ellan (Ewar) 12th/2nd level male Human Wizard/Archmage
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/7th level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

The morning after the feast, a couple of the party seemed to have contracted some kind of food poisoning, but after treatment from Balthazzar all were soon well and raring to go.

Ellan teleported the entire group back to the crypt under St Cuthbert's temple where Balthazzar cast a Speak with Dead spell on the Rhosk's remains. Under interrogation, the cleric's spirit was able to identify the location of the old hideout of the Ebon Triad, and so the party decided to pay a visit.

One there, they realised that the hideout had been beneath a local sickhouse, where the poor went to die when they were too ill to work. The crone who tended to the sick would not allow them in, so Ellan used a teleport spell to penetrate the underground lair.

Inside they were attacked by an animated rope which did major damage to a couple of the less well protected characters.

Entering the abandoned temple itself, the group saw a huge statue of the Ebon Triad which was exactly like the once they had fought at the bottom of Dourstone mine long ago. This statue too attacked, and came close to killing a couple of the front rankers before it was destroyed.

A secret compartment behind a wall provided a veritable treasure trove for the characters. Inside were 10 potions of cure moderate, 10 potions of undetectable alignment, 10 potions of nondetection, ring of evasion, rod of flame extinguishing, wand of lightning bolt (8th, 23 charges), wand of haste (19 charges), belt of Dwarvenkind, cloak of Arachnida, Harp of Charming and 4 beads of force,

As requested, the party vent to visit the Elven sorcerer Lashonna at midnight on the following evening. She told them that she knew who they were, and why they had come to Allhaster.

She provided them with fragments of Ballakarde's journal, which pointed to the Dracolich Dragotha being key to the resurgence of Kyuss.

The journal also indicated that Dragotha had a weakness - it's phylactery had been stolen by a band of Druids called The Order of the Storm who hid it in a place called The Library of Last Resort. They had then sacrificed themselves to ensure that it's location would never be found.

Lashonna also had some bad news, however. It transpired that one of her servants had betrayed her and gone over to her enemies with all her accumilated knowledge.

She offered to scry on this person, and the party agreed, eager to get a glimpse of their foes.

Through the scrying portal the group could make out the deck of a ship which was obviously going through a wild storm, with a man lashed tightly to the mast. Orcish sailors came and went through the image, along with a couple of tieflings, an Effrit and also a tall human who appeared to have the Hand of Vecna attached to his own arm!!

This human noticed the scrying, and killed the prisoner with the Hand of Vecna to break the link.

Ballakarde's journal pointed towards a remote island surrounded by a ferocious storm system as being the most liekly place to pick up clues to the location of the lost library. The party readily agreed to travel to the island to beat the other adventurers to their prize.

Magical Items Found

10 Potions of Cure Moderate
10 Potions of Undetectable Alignment
10 Potions of Nondetection
Ring of Evasion
Rod of Flame Extinguishing
Wand of Lightning Bolt (8th, 23 charges)
Wand of Haste (19 charges)
Belt of Dwarvenkind
Cloak of Arachnida
Harp of Charming
4 Beads of Force

XP Earned -

Hangman Golem – 2,800 XP
Overgod – 12,600 XP

Total XP - 15,400 XP

Volon - 2,566 XP
Eolias - 2,566 XP
Crumpus - 2,566 XP
Ellan - 2,566 XP
Balthazzar - 2,566 XP
Elzara - 2,566 XP

Current Totals -

Volon - 110,315 XP
Eolias – 111,406 XP
Crumpus 111,915 XP
Ellan - 110,165 XP
Balthazzar – 107,566 XP
Elzara – 111,406 XP

The Prince of Redhand - Part Two

2007-08-13T12:35:00.000+01:00

20 July 2007

Players/Characters
Crumpus (Russell) 12th/2nd level male Human Fighter/Tempest
Elzara (Will) 134th level female Elven Monk
Volon (Ian) 14th level male Human Druid
Balthazzar (Andrew) 134th level male Human Cleric
Ellan (Ewar) 13th/1st level male Human Wizard/Archmage
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/6th level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

Once Volon and those others affected by the Acid Wraith had been restored to full health the party continued with their exploration of the city.

As they meandered through the marketplace they were approached by a small band of hobgoblins whose leader introduced himself as B'Kruss. He had heard that the party had managed to obtain invites to Prince Zeech's party, and wanted to check them out before the night itself.

After much braggery on both sides, he set the party a challenge - he wanted a race around the city to prove who was the better horseman. The party nominated Volon to represent them, but unfortunately, even after summoning a swift dinosaur as a mount he was no match for the wily hobgoblin who finished the course even before Volon had managed to steer his unruly mount around the first corner.

This was just what the hobgoblins were looking for to prove their superiority, and they swaggered off, loudly celebrating,

Having a couple of days left before the celebrations, the party decided to investigate the ruins of the Temple of St Cuthbert again, but this time they teleported straight into the ruins to make sure that they weren't observed entering the building.

Once inside they entered the old crypt where they were disturbed to find that the priest Rhorsk who had written the book in Tenser's library was still in residence, and even more disturbed when they realised that he had become undead!! Under questioning, Rhorsk explained that he had kept a watch upon the old meeting place of the Ebon Triad for some weeks before the fall of the city, but as he had not seen any activity he had assumed that the cult had either truely been destroyed, or had moved on elsewhere.

When forced to realise his fate, Rhorsk went insane and attacked the party who were forced to put him out of his misery. They then looted chainmail + 2 from his body.

Learning that Prince Zeech would expect a gift from each, the party set about procuring several expensive gifts, and so on the evening of the banquet they were all well prepared when a carriage was sent for them.

The carriage was pulled by harnessed trolls and was driven by a huge half-orc who conveyed them swiftly to the palace.

On arrival they were entertained by the Prince's jester, a halfling-sized creature who called himself the Ominous Fabler until it was time for the evening's events.

During these events, Eolias found himself outshot by the Prince, but managed to aquit himself nicely by winning a silver skull at a later event.

Volon disagreed with the use of innocent animals in the events and so volunteered for the final event to try and outmatch the Prince, which he did with ease.

Just as everyone was ready to sit down for the banquet, the lady Lashonna, being fashionably late, made a grand entrance and sat at the top of the table, next to Eolias.

During the meal that followed, several of the other guests made contact with the party, the most notable of which was ???, the leader of a group of Rangers from the North who intimated to Eolias that they would be willing to follow if the party started an uprising against Prince Zeech.

Balthazzar found a female Halfling merchant named ???? intriguing, and kept plying her with questions, She excused herself part-way through the feast and never returned to the table.

Part-way through the feasting, Elzara was challenged to a duel by B'Kruss, the Hobgoblin leader. For once the Hobgoblin had misjudged his opponent, and quickly fell beneath Elzara's flying fists.
Lashonna eventually spoke with Eolias, and told him that she knew why the group were in Allhaster, and that they should come to her mansion the following evening, around midnight when they could talk in private.

Magical Items Found

Chainmail +2

XP Earned -

Rhorsk – 1,173 XP
Locating the Ebon Triad - 7,050 XP
Zeech's Banquet – 40,200 XP
Roleplay Bonus - 56,544 XP

Total XP - 105,967 XP

Volon - 16,249 XP
Eolias - 18,740 XP
Crumpus - 16,249 XP
Ellan - 16,249 XP
Balthazzar - 18,740 XP
Elzara - 18,740 XP

Current Totals -

Volon - 107,749 XP - Level up to 15 !!
Eolias – 108,840 XP - Level up to 15 !!
Crumpus 108,349 XP - Level up to 15 !!
Ellan - 107,749 XP - Level up to 15 !!
Balthazzar – 105,000 XP - Level up to 15 !!
Elzara – 108,840 XP - Level up to 15 !!

The Prince of Redhand - Part One

2007-08-08T12:42:00.001+01:00

13 July 2007

Players/Characters
Crumpus (Russell) 12th/1st level male Human Fighter/Tempest
Elzara (Will) 13th level female Elven Monk
Volon (Ian) 13th level male Human Druid
Balthazzar (Andrew) 13th level male Human Cleric
Ellan (Ewar) 12th/1st level male Human Wizard/Archmage
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/6th level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

Upon their return to Magepoint, the group met with Agath, Celeste and Eligos who had not been idle whilst the party had been adventuring far to the south.

Several of Balakarde's notes had been found in Tenser's library, indicating the city of Allhaster far to the north as the next logical place to follow the Age of Worms prophecy.

A book by a priest of St Cuthbert called Rhosk noted that the Ebon Triad had been originally founded in Allhaster, but was all but destroyed when the current ruler, Prince Zeech, secceded to the throne two decades before. One of the main reasons the cult was destroyed was an Elven spellcaster named Lashonna.

Ballakarde's notes suggested that he was going to speak to Lashonna, and also check out the priest Rhosk (even though he had not been heard of since then) and he was also going to try to locate the original hideout of the Ebon Triad cult.

Ellan teleported the party to the outskirts of the city, and after managing to bribe their way past the corrupt gate guards the party found reasonable accomodation in a tavern near to the arena.

Asking around, the group discovered where Lashonna lived, and went to pay a visit, only to be politely turned away by the guards on the gate who advised them that Lashonna was not receiving visitors for at least a couple of months. He also told the characters that she would be attending the Prince's banquet at the end of the week, and if the group were able to obtain an invite then they could speak with her there.

More investigation led the party to a merchant who had been given the responsibility of allocating any spare invitations to the Prince's celebration, and Ellan managed to impress him into providing the group with invites on the condition that Ellan himself would be held responsible for the actions of his friends.

With a week to kill, the group explored the rest of the town. Due to some extreme law enforcement by a flock of angels backed up by large and nasty hobgoblin guards there was surprisingly little crime, but the general feeling the group got was one of general resignation and oppression.

Locating the ruins of the temple of St Cuthbert, the party ignored a 'Keep Out' message and entered only to be confronted by an angel who teleported herself into the ruins a few minutes later and instructed them to leave. Restraining Eolias, the group did as they were bid and moved on to the temple of Hextor where they introduced themselves to the somewhat innefectual high priest.

Following rumours of a lair outside the walls that had until recently been occupied by a Black Dragon the party set out to explore, only to be ambushed by four young adult dragons who 'encouraged' the group to enter the lair and defeat the monster contained within which had proved resistant to their acid attacks.

Readily agreeing, the party entered and were attacked by a strange acid ooze hybrid,.

Melee attacks on the creature caused acid damage to the attacker, so it was mainly left to the spellcasters to defeat the creature, but not without cost.

Volon bore the brunt of it's attacks, and was reduced to 1 strength and Ellan lost most of his magic items to it's acid attack. Ellan decided that the best course of action was to teleport both Volon and himself back to the tavern to recouperate whilst the rest of the party searched the lair and returned on foot.

Searching uncovered two strange potions which were later identified as providing permanent stat boosts to Constitution and Strength and to Charisma, but finding nothing else the party exited the lair and went to report back to the Black Dragons.

Erupting from thier hiding places in the nearby river, the dragons ambushed the party and sprayed them with their acid breath, causing many of Eolias' magical items to melt, as had Ellan's earlier.

After several rounds of combat, the battered party managed to slay three dragons and drive off the last one before returning, battered but victorious, to the tavern.

Magical Items Found

Potion of Strength +1 and Constitution +1
Potion of Charisma +2

XP Earned -

Acid Wraith – 11,700 XP
4 Black Dragons – 5,200 XP

Total XP - 16,900 XP

Volon - 2,340 XP
Eolias - 3,640 XP
Crumpus - 3,640 XP
Ellan - 3,640 XP
Balthazzar - 0 XP (not present)
Elzara - 3,640 XP

Current Totals -

Volon - 91,500 XP - Level up to 14!!
Eolias – 90,100 XP
Crumpus 91,100 XP - Level up to 14!!
Ellan - 94,450 XP - Level up to 14!!
Balthazzar – 86,460 XP
Elzara – 90,100 XP

The Spire of Long Shadows - Part Four

2007-07-08T07:47:00.000+01:00

6 July 2007

Players/Characters
Crumpus (Russell) 12th/1st level male Human Fighter/Tempest
Elzara (Will) 13th level female Elven Monk
Volon (Ian) 13th level male Human Druid
Balthazzar (Andrew) 13th level male Human Cleric
Ellan (Ewar) 13th level male Human Wizard
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/6th level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

Having nowhere else to go, the group approached the sea of worms, but were attacked by two of the spell-casting undead supported by a gargantuan worm that rose from the surface of the worms to attack. This took the group a little time to defeat, but eventually they were all flying above the surface courtesy of Ellan to one of the opposite passageways.

At the end of this passage the group were confronted by an undead spellweaver which immediately cast Repulsion to keep them all away.

Volon managed to dispel the Repulsion allowing the party’s fighters to get into combat, following up with summoning an Earth Elemental which managed to grab and pin the spellweaver before it was Plane Shifted away.

The group managed to destroy the spellweaver and experienced a sixth vision, which showed all the Age of Worms prophecies coming to pass with hte exception of the final two, 'A tripartite spirit once again becomes one, and at its advice are the mighty undone', and 'On the eve of the Age of Worms a hero of the pit shall use his fame to gift a city to the dead'.

The spellweaver had managed to inflict major damage on the characters before it was defeated, so after looting the corpse of a Robe of Resistance +5, Ring of Force Shield, Rod of Fury +2, Rod of Extend and a Circlet of Charisma +6 the party retired to the Naga’s chamber to rest and recover spells.

Returning across the sea of worms they noticed that all the worms appeared to have died, and at the end of the final passage they discovered three more Kyuss undead, similar to the one which had killed Elzara earlier, but they posed no problems for the full strength party and were soon despatched.

These bodies had 3 x +2 Full Plate, 3 x +1 Heavy Steel Shield, 3 x +1 Unholy Bastard Swords.

Gathering their treasures together, Ellan transported the group back to Magepoint to report their findings back to Tenser.

Magical Items Found

Robe of Resistance +5
Ring of Force Shield
Rod of Fury +2
Rod of Extend
Circlet of Charisma +6
3 x +2 Full Plate
3 x +1 Heavy Steel Shield
3 x +1 Unholy Bastard Swords

XP Earned

2 x Kyuss Wormcaller – 2,600 XP
Overworm – 7,800 XP
Spellweaver - 15,600 XP
Interpreting Vision 6 – 5,850 XP
3 x Kyuss Knights – 11,700 XP

Total XP - 43,550 XP

Volon - 7,260 XP
Eolias - 7,260 XP
Crumpus - 7,260 XP
Ellan - 7,260 XP
Balthazzar - 7,260 XP
Elzara - 7,260 XP

Current Totals

Volon - 89,160 XP
Eolias – 86,460 XP
Crumpus 87,460 XP
Ellan - 90,810 XP
Balthazzar – 86,460 XP
Elzara – 86,460 XP

The Spire of Long Shadows - Part Three

2007-07-08T07:11:00.000+01:00

22 June 2007

Players/Characters
Crumpus (Russell) 12th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 12th level female Elven Monk
Volon (Ian) 12th level male Human Druid
Balthazzar (Andrew) 12th level male Human Cleric
Ellan (Ewar) 12th level male Human Wizard
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/5th level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

Returning to Magepoint, the party sought out the High Priest Agath who agreed to cast True Resurrection upon the deceased members of the party.

Milliardo decided not to rejoin the group, so Agath introduced Balthazar, a cleric who would be willing to accompany the party.

The newcomer was swiftly brought up to speed with what had gone before. The update completed, Ellan cast teleport and returned them to the City of Kuluth-Mar.

Swiftly returning to the library-type room where they had been so easily rousted before the party made swift work of despatching their undead foes with Ellan’s disintegrate spells being very useful. Looting the remains turned up 3 x +1 Full Plate and a +1 Mithril Breastplate.

Once their opponents were dead the group experienced another vision – this showed Kyuss being tought something by a six-armed spellweaver. After this the group had a chance to investigate the room more fully and discovered several green worms that were intended to infiltrate the mind of the host and give innate bonuses to specific knowledges. Ellan and Balthazar both partook of the worms, but the remainder of the group refused.

Moving to the central pit, a dropped coin proved that the pit was very deep, so Ellan used Dimension Door to transport himself and Volon 490 feet down, which left them flying 10’ above a room filled with thousands of swarming green worms, which they eventually destroyed with the use of spells.

Ellan brought the rest of the party down, and they moved into the next chamber which was filled with rows and rows of bodies which appeared to be still fresh.

The next room was similar, but here the bodies were mere skeletons, the flesh having decayed many years before.

A passage was discovered that led to a literal sea of green worms with a couple of exits across from the characters.

Another door opened onto a chamber filled with books and scrolls that had been fashioned into some kind of nest.

Carefully checking the room, the group came upon a Naga which was eager to talk rather than attack. Balthazar spoke with the creature and discovered that it was willing to leave all it’s magical possessions behind if the group could help it to escape from the city – at present it could not cross the obsidian ring.

The group agreed, and Elzara used her step ability to cross the Naga out of the city. Searching the room, the group found a magical book which turned out to be a Manual of Bodily Health +1 that Crumpus took and started to examine.

Returning to the only door yet unopened on this side of the worm sea the group discovered a room with a strange fountain carved from black marble, and three of the strange hunch-backed Kyuss undead guarding it.

Crumpus was affected by a suggestion spell and went to drink the water, and Eolias fell victim to a Quickened Hold Person spell before the rest of the group managed to defeat their foes, recovering 3 +1 Mithril Breatplates from the bodies.

A fifth vision showing the passing of Kyuss into godhood was experienced in this room showing the entire city being sacrificed.

Magical Items Found

+1 Full Plate x 3
+1 Mithril Breastplate x 4
Manual of Bodily Health +1

XP Earned

Interpreting Vision 4 – 5,400 XP
3 x Swords of Kyuss – 5,400 XP
4 x Kyuss Wormcaller - 7,200 XP
Interpreting Vision 5 – 7,200 XP
6 x Wormswarm – 5,400 XP
Naga – 10,800 XP

Total XP - 41,400 XP

Volon - 8,700 XP
Eolias - 6,000 XP
Crumpus - 6,000 XP
Ellan - 8,700 XP
Balthazzar - 6,000 XP
Elzara - 6,000 XP

Current Totals

Volon - 81,900 XP - Level up to 13!
Eolias – 79,200 XP - Level up to 13!
Crumpus 79,200 XP - Level up to 13!
Ellan - 83,550 XP - Level up to 13!
Balthazzar – 79,200 XP - Level up to 13!
Elzara – 79,200 XP - Level up to 13!

The Spire of Long Shadows - Part Two

2007-06-22T15:26:00.000+01:00

15 June 2007

Players/Characters
Crumpus (Russell) 12th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 12th level female Elven Monk
Volon (Ian) 12th level male Human Druid
Milliardo Maquis (Andrew) 12th level male Human Knight
Ellan (Ewar) 12th level male Human Wizard
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/5th level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

Tenser provided the party with two scrolls of Greater Teleport to allow them to travel to the ruined city of Kuluth-Mar.

On arrival the group found themselves looking down onto what had once been a magnificent city, but was now in ruins and mostly covered by encroaching jungle.

The main points of interest were a 30' obsidian wall surrounding a huge ziggurat, at the peak of which was a strange looking spire that had been broken at its apex.

Vollon wild shaped into an eagle and flew over the wall, noting that it was 5' wide, and was inscribed with glowing runes on the top. The runes repeated the same phrase over and over, and by using a Comprehend Languages spell the group read that it said 'Kyuss, forever bound'

When they crossed the wall, Elzara and Eolias felt a strange popping sensation in their heads, but apart from that there appeared to be no other effects.

As the party carefully approached the pyramid they all experienced a vision in which the city was restored to its former glory and the space around the ziggurat was filled with thousands of people, all worshiping one man on a green throne. The crowd were chanting for Kyuss.

As the vision faded, one of the group noticed that the ground was slowly moving, and brushing off the surface revealed hundreds of tiny green worms!

At this, the party all broke and ran for cover at the pyramid, Elzara easily outdistancing the rest, but that proved to be her downfall.

As she raced up the steps of the ziggurat she was attacked from the shadows by a Kyuss Knight, plus two giant undead beetles whose maddening clicking caused several of the party to stop and cover their ears.

Before help could arrive, Elzara had been cut down and lay still on the step as Ellan managed to disintegrate both Knight and one of the beetles. The Knight's magical Full Plate +2, heavy Steel Shield +1 and +1 Unholy Bastard Sword were collected by the group whilst Volon cast reincarnate on their fallen comrade.

Returning to life as a Human, Elzara rejoined the party and they decided to investigate the strange-looking spire. Volon wild-shaped and flew up to get a closer look, but as he got close to the ruined apex the party all experienced another vision in which the peak was restored as a fifteen foot tall three foot thick trapezoidal pinnacle of black rock. The characters only had enough time to register this before it was ripped off and carried away by an ancient red dragon.

Entering the pyramid they passed through an antechamber and came into a large room which dominated the interior of the ziggurat - doors led off but the main point of interest was a large jagged hole in the floor which appeared to have been blasted, felling pillars all around it.

As they approached the hole feelings of palpable evil eminated from it, so the group decided to try the doors first.

One led to another antechamber which mirrored the one through which they had entered, but upon opening the third door they were confronted by a dark skinned Elf flanked by two 9' tall angels who immediately attacked.

The angels turned their forearms into flaming blades and attacked whilst the Elf started to cast spells at the group.

One of the angels smashed a glass wall, releasing a swarm of greem worms which landed squarely upon Milliardo.

Ellan once again came to the rescue with his disintegrate spells, but not before the angels had done serious damage to the main fighters by diving at them and turning incorporeal to pass through the characters.

As soon as the last enemy fell, the group experienced another vision in which a strange six-armed undead creature presented Kyuss with a green worm. The party identified the creature as a spell weaver - a creature that can cast up to six levels of spells in a single round.

From their foes the party took a +3 breastplate and a +4 unholy greatsword.

Eager to press on the group moved to open the final door to find a kind of library guarded by four more Kyuss creatures whom they attacked.

Unfortunately these creatures had a way of dealing negative energy damage which healed them whilst injuring the party. This, combined with the fact that the characters had not fully healed after the encounter with the angels, led to both Millardo and Crumpus being hacked apart, and Ellan surviving just long enough to use the scroll of Teleport provided by Tenser to snatch the rest of the party from certain death!

Magical Items Found

+2 Full Plate
+1 Heavy Steel Shield
+1 Unholy Bastard Sword
+3 Breastplate
+4 Unholy Greatsword

XP Earned

Interpreting Vision 1 – 5,400 XP
1 x Kyuss Knight – 5,400 XP
Interpreting Vision 2 – 5,400 XP
2 x Beetles – 3,600 XP
2 x Wormswarm – 3,600 XP
Elf – 5,400 XP
2 x Angels – 4,800 XP
Interpreting Vision 3 – 7,200 XP

Total XP - 40,800 XP

Volon - 6,800 XP
Eolias - 6,800 XP
Crumpus - 6,800 XP
Ellan - 6,800 XP
Millardo - 6,800 XP
Elzara - 6,800 XP

Current Totals

Volon - 73,200 XP
Eolias – 73,200 XP
Crumpus deceased
Ellan - 74,450 XP
Millardo – deceased
Elzara – 73,200 XP

The Spire of Long Shadows - Part One

2007-06-07T16:15:00.000+01:00

1 June 2007

Players/Characters
Crumpus (Russell) 11th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 11th level female Elven Monk
Volon (Ian) 11th level male Human Druid
Milliardo Maquis (Andrew) 11th level male Human Knight
Ellan (Ewar) 11th level male Human Wizard
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/4th level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

Mindful of the mauling that they suffered at the hands of the creature in the portal on their way into the tomb, spells were prepared and weapons hefted in anticipation of a stiff fight.

Crumpus and Milliardo led the way, charging through the portal without any trouble at all, followed swiftly by Eolias.

Ellan cast a Dimension Door spell to transport the remaining party members to safety a few feet past the doorway, but they were shocked to find themselves bounced back as he had chosen a space which was already occupied by solid rock!

Realising that the portal was transporting them much further than his spell, Ellan stepped through but stumbled and fell out of the other end, followed by Volon and Elzara who both nearly fell over the prostrate Wizard.

Meanwhile, Eolias, Crumpus and Milliardo had made the somewhat unnerving discovery that the dragon corpse that they had left blocking the tunnel about a week earlier had been literally eaten from the inside out. All that was left was skin and bones. Checking the bones, Eolias announced that this was the work of one or more undead, probably some kind of Ghouls.

Returning to Diamond Lake, the party found Allustan very busy with the task of organising the rebuilding of the homes and businesses destroyed by the Dragon. He was very happy to see that they had survived, and asked to examine the artefacts that they had discovered in the tomb.

After a few days, he came to the group and explained that he had now reached the limit of his powers and understanding, but recommended that they travel to a small lakeside village about seven day’s travel south, called Magepoint, where his one-time master and friend now resided.

Allustan sent a message to his former mentor, the Archmage Tenser, to introduce the characters and to warn of their impending arrival, and the group set off for Magepoint on newly purchased ponies (plus Milliardo’s warhorse).

Six days into the journey, Eolias’ sharp ears picked up a strange soundm but before he was able to act, four Bone Devils and Two Barbed Devils appeared around them, demanding the piece of the Rod of Seven Parts!!

Using Ice Walls to separate the group, and fear auras on both mounts and riders to split them even further the devils toyed with the group, allowing one or other to nearly escape before teleporting into their path and forcing the fleeing character to retrace their path back to the rest of the group.

The Barbed Devils constantly repeated their requests for the rod, and Ellan had the idea to toss out his own Rod of Maximise as a decoy.

Following a successful opposed Bluff check, the Devils swooped on the rod and teleported away, leaving a battered but thankful party sprawled across the track.

Realising that their assailants might return at any moment once they realised that they had taken the wrong rod, the group hurried into Magepoint where they were pointed in the direction of the Inn.

Waiting for them at the Inn was Celeste, who had been last seen in the Free City just before the Champion’s Games. She welcomed the group, and led them into a meeting room where the party were surprised to see Eligos, now raised and well.

Also present was a female mage (?) who quizzed them on their exploits and what they had learned of the Age of Worms prophecy. After several hours she was satisfied with their answers, and advised them that Tenser was currently on another plane, and that he would send for them when he returned.

Three days later the party found themselves being escorted across the causeway to the Archmage’s tower.

Tenser and his companion Agath, the High Priest of Hieroneous, met them in the library and discussed the specifics of the Age of Worms prophecy, and also examined the various artefacts and evidence that the group had collected over the past few months.

He also told them of a colleague of his called Balakarde who had disappeared several years previously whilst also on the trail of Kyuss

Tenser asked about their encounter with the Devils, and offered to take the fragment of the Rod of Seven Parts off their hands, partly to keep it safe in his vaults, and also partly so he could examine it at his leisure.

In return he offered a powerful magical item to each party member. His offer, not surprisingly, was accepted.

He suggested that their next destination should be the seat of Kyuss’ power when he was still a mortal priest, a city located in a jungle about seven hundred miles to the south.

Magical Items Found

None

XP Earned

4 x Bone Devil – 9,156 XP
2 x Barbed Devil – 8,400 XP
Negotiating with Tenser – 6,000 XP
Roleplay Ad Hoc Award – 20,000 XP

Total XP - 43,536 XP

Volon - 8,256 XP
Eolias - 8,256 XP
Crumpus - 8,256 XP
Ellan - 8,256 XP
Millardo - 8,256 XP
Elzara - 8,256 XP

Current Totals

Volon - 66,000 XP
Eolias – 66,000 XP
Crumpus 69,000 XP
Ellan - 67,650 XP
Millardo – 66,000 XP
Elzara – 66,000 XP

A Gathering of Winds - Part Six

2007-05-30T14:27:00.000+01:00

25 May 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 11th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 11th level female Elven Monk
Volon (Ian) 11th level male Human Druid
Milliardo Maquis (Andrew) 11th level male Human Knight
Ellan (Ewar) 11th level male Human Wizard
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/4th level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

Being badly beaten, and with few spells in reserve the party decided to rest outside the pillar room, where they were not disturbed through the night.

Fully restored, Ellan cast fly on himself and Milliardo whilst Volon wildshaped into an Eagle, and all 3 cautiously approached the doors on the far side of the room.

As Milliardo neared the doors he held up the crystal seal as he had before, but this time he was rewarded with a bolt of lightning and a hurricane-force gust of wind that sent him tumbling back across the room.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party had entered the room, just in case the first set of doors closed, splitting the party. Elzara jumped up onto the widest pillar and discovered an indentation which would take the seal.

Milliardo flew to her, and set the seal in place. The pillar upon which they were standing started to rise, and they were eventually lifted up and through the illusory ceiling and into the true tomb.

This tomb was dominated by a sarcophagus floating 10' off the ground with the depiction of a Wind Duke on it’s underside, but before the two could investigate further they were attacked by the guardian of the tomb.

A demon had been lurking invisibly across the room and so was able to attack with surprise, paralysing Elzara and causing Milliardo to flee back through the hole in the floor.

The rest of the group, now all able to fly courtesy of Ellan, attempted to fly up through the ceiling to come to Elzara’s aid, but unfortunately this triggered more lightning and hurricane winds which kept some of them out.

Meanwhile, the demon (which was covered with hundreds of eyes) used a couple of Vampiric Drain attacks on Elzara which nearly killed her. Fortunately the others were able to intervene in the nick of time, but not before being severely mauled themselves.

Running away to heal up, the group made plans to deal with the beast on the next day.

Despite being specifically tooled up to deal with the creature the characters found that it was very hard to hit the demon in the first place, and due to it’s impressive list of immunities, spell resistance and damage reduction any hits that did get through were fairly useless as well.

Eolias discovered another carving of a Wind Duke on the top of the sarcophagus, but this carving had a space for the seal to be inserted.

Whilst the others kept the demon busy Milliardo set the seal in place on the coffin lid which slowly vanished to reveal a +2 mithral axiomatic longsword, a +2 mithral shocking burst shortsword, a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts and a Ring of the Wind Dukes in amongst the remnants of Icosiol's skeleton.

The demon was playing with the group, causing one after another to either run away or be knocked unconscious with pale grey rays it shot from it’s many eyes, and only Ellan was able to do any significant damage, but only when he managed to beat it’s spell resistance.

Finally, Elzara recalled that she had an Oil of Bless Weapon which she used to anoint her fists, allowing her to bypass the demon’s damage reduction. After this, it was all over very swiftly, leaving the party to claim the demon’s +2 unholy longsword.

As they examined the treasure from the sarcophagus, a feeling of anger swept over them, but quickly changed into one of blessing. At this, Eolias realised that the inert Talisman of the Sphere that he had been carrying since the first adventure in the Whispering Cairn was now fully activated, and Elzara’s Circlet of Wisdom was also upgraded to +4, and would also now act as a Circlet of Persuasion as well.

Very pleased with their finds, the party prepared to leave the tomb of Icosiol

Magical Items Found

+2 Unholy Longsword
+2 Mithral Axiomatic Longsword
+2 Mithral Shocking Burst Shortsword
Part of the Rod of 7 parts
Ring of the Wind Dukes

XP Earned

Oculous Demon – 0,000 XP
Gaining the Blessing of Icosiol – 0,000 XP

Total XP - 3,600 XP

Volon - 00 XP
Eolias - 00 XP
Crumpus - 00 XP
Ellan - 00 XP
Millardo - 00 XP
Elzara - 00 XP

Current Totals

Volon - 57,744 XP
Eolias – 57,744 XP
Crumpus 60,744 XP
Ellan - 59,394 XP
Millardo – 57,744 XP
Elzara – 57,744 XP

A Gathering of Winds - Part Five

2007-05-11T13:30:00.000+01:00

11 May 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 11th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 11th level female Elven Monk
Volon (Ian) 11th level male Human Druid
Milliardo Maquis (Andrew) 11th level male Human Knight
Ellan (Ewar) 11th level male Human Wizard
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/4th level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

After a fruitless search for their missing companions, Elzara, Volon, Milliardo and Crumpus healed back to full and went to speak with Moreto who was still waiting for them by the red river.

Moreto asked after the two missing characters, but was successfully bluffed by Milliardo that they were investigating elsewhere and were making sure that the spider did not return.

Moreto cautiously entered the spider's room, and when it was obvious that the spider had indeed been driven off, he upheld his end of the bargain and handed over the crystal seal to Millardo, then he and his Mohrg minions left the tomb.

Shortly after this, Eolias and Ellan arrived, relating a tale of planar travel and battling giant undead, but they were remarkably unscathed!

The seal was examined, one side showed three symbols in Aquan for 'Pesh' 'Aaqa' and 'Icosiol', the other showed a picture of a Wind Duke holding the seal up high infront of a pair of huge black doors whilst standing on a pillar slightly larger than the seal itself.

Returning to one of the doors near to the statue from where Kamaal had removed the mithril greatsword, the party opened it to discover a room covered in burning hot coals inhabited by a large salamander and a huge fire elemental. The Salamander introduced himself as ?????, and advised the party not to step into the room as he would then have to attack them, something which he would rather not do. He explained that he could not attack the holder of the seal of Icosiol - this tallied with the groups earlier observation that the Symbol of Law traps were now inoperative.

The remainder of the upper level was checked thoroughly but found to be empty, so the group used Ellan's spells to traverse the waterfall once more.

As soon as Millardo (the holder of the seal) reached the area where the second Wind Warrior ambush had taken place he immediately noticed a secret door in the rockface which was outlined with softly glowing light that no one else could see.

Opening the door the party found a steep staircase, at the top of which was a cavern blocked off by 50' tall black doors which were covered by hundreds of runes and symbols.

Standing before the doors, Milliardo raised aloft the seal and spoke aloud the three runes. The doors silently opened to reveal a strange room beyond.

There was no floor, but approximately 80' down a mass of clouds boiled and swirled, lit from within by occasional flashes of purple lightning. In front of the party were several pillars which thrust through the clouds, one was slowly rotating in place, one appeared to be coated in tar, one was a lighter colour, one reached to the roof and the last was about twice the diameter of the others. Across the other side of the room were another pair of black doors matching those that Milliardo had just opened.

Being the most proficient in jump, Elzara lept easily across the gaps between the first few pillars with no trouble, but as she reached the other doors a gust of wind and lightning bolt forced her onto the tar-covered pillar. This tarry substance turned out to be some kind of rubber forcing a balance check, which she failed and fell into the pit, falling 500' through the clouds before hitting the bottom and being knocked unconcious.

Seeing this, Ellan, Milliardo and Volon used their spells and wild shape to fly across to try and help Elzara, but were set upon by two huge air elementals that were hiding in the clouds.

Volon was caught in a whirlwind effect and thrown out at the bottom of the pit whilst the other elemental entered combat with the remainder of the group.

Volon healed Elzara, and they both started up, Volon wildshaping and flying, Elzara climbing, and they eventually reached the top just as the party managed to kill the last elemental

Magical Items Found

None

XP Summary

2 Air Elementals - 3,600 XP

Total XP - 3,600 XP

Volon - 600 XP
Eolias - 600 XP
Crumpus - 600 XP
Ellan - 600 XP
Millardo - 600 XP
Elzara - 600 XP

Current Totals

Volon - 57,744 XP
Eolias – 57,744 XP
Crumpus 59,744 XP
Ellan - 59,394 XP
Millardo – 57,744 XP
Elzara – 57,744 XP

A Gathering of Winds - Planes Apart

2007-05-11T13:26:00.000+01:00

11 May 2007

Players/Characters

Ellan (Ewar) 11th level Human Wizard
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/4th level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

Stranded on the Plane of Shadows by the guardian of Icosiol’s tomb, Ellan and Eolias sifted through the piles of coin and other mundane items in the spider’s lair in the hope of finding a way back to the Prime Material plane.

Having found nothing of use, they set off through the shadowy realm to try and locate a gate between the planes, Ellan remembering that such areas, whilst uncommon, did exist. He also recalled that they were also usually watched by strong guardians.

After travelling for several hours they were drawn to a place where some slight strands of colour were visible in amongst the monochrome drabness of this plane. Getting closer it became apparent that these swirls of colour were emanating from a tiny tear in the fabric of the plane, but as they approached to investigate they were set upon by a Dread Wraith who had noted their advance.

Eolias was hit first, and decided to retreat to use his arrows from range, leaving the hapless Wizard to combat the undead menace face to face.

Using all his spells to their maximum effect, Ellan was able to withstand the assault of the Wraith, and between them the Archer and Wizard managed to do enough damage to force the monster from the plane of Shadows.

Ellan checked the area and discovered the remnants of a spellbook which contained a few spells that he did not already know.

Pushing through the tear joining the planes the two found themselves back in the Tomb of Icosiol, and hurried to join the rest of the party where they found that time had passed more slowly for them, what has seemed like 10 mins had actually taken over 30!.

Magical Items Found

None

XP Summary

Dread Wraith - 3,3000 XP

Total XP - 3,300 XP

Eolias - 825 XP (50% NPC)
Ellan - 1,650 XP

Current Totals

Eolias – 0,000 XP
Ellan - 0,000 XP

A Gathering of Winds - Part Four

2007-05-08T15:11:00.000+01:00

4 May 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
Milliardo Maquis (Andrew) 10th level male Human Knight
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st/3rd level male Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer

Game Events

Deciding that Allustan would probably be more use to the party outside Icosiol’s Tomb (and also less of a liability in a firefight) the Mage was asked to return to Diamond Lake to reassure the inhabitants that the Black Dragon was indeed dead. The characters rested to heal and recover some ability damage before pressing on.

It now appeared that the only way forwards was follow the red river down the waterfall where Elzara and Zoook had rescued Milliardo the day before. They decided to return to the ice room and then to the waterfall through the secret door at the end of the corridor, and so they once again entered the river.

As the least armoured, Elzara went first, but was swept away by the water and so missed the turning to the icy rooms and was forced over the edge of the waterfall, falling 100’ into a small underground lake. Unfortunately she had no light source so had to strike out blindly in the hope of reaching the shore.

The rest of the party were unaware that Elzara had gone over the waterfall and so were surprised not to find her ahead of them in the icy rooms, but pressed on and started to climb down alongside the raging waters.

After about 100’ the passageway narrowed, the red spray soaking the rocks and making it more treacherous than before, causing first Eolias and then Kamal to fall into the darkness below. Milliardo and Crumpus tried to descend as fast as possible to assist their comrades as Zoook levitated down with them.

As the hapless trio in the water tried to make it to shore, six Wind Warriors flew down into the cavern and started to pepper them with crossbow bolts.

Upon reaching the shore, Eolias made the mistake of shooting back, disarming three warriors with a spectacular display of accuracy. Reforming their weapons, all six fired at the Elf, knocking him unconscious as his companions tried to shield him from further harm.

Eventually the Wind Warriors ran out of quarrels and flew further down into the passageways, leaving the group to dole out their meagre healing before having to follow their foes into the darkness.

The next level down was another large waterfall where the waters swirled before dropping further into the depths.

Whilst the party were investigating this area the six Wind Warriors flew in to attack, using two sword attacks to devastating effect. By striking their swords together the Wind Dukes were able to create a sonic effect, and with multiple uses of this hammering into the group, both Zoook and Kamal were knocked unconcious. Without a healer present the party were unable to save them, even though they managed to defeat the enemy warriors.

As they resting again to heal as best they could, the party spotted a light source falling towards them, which turned out to be a human wizard called Ellan accompanied by a human druid called ???? who was in eagle form. They had been contacted by Allustan and asked to provide arcane and divine support to the party, as both had been in short supply, and so had entered the tomb and followed Allustan's instructions to reach the group.

Eagerly welcoming the new source of healing the party pressed on to a cavern at the foot of the falls where they met a strange gentleman who introduced himself as Moreto, Marquis of Ravenstone.

Moreto was dressed in a stylish, if somewhat outdated outfit, with very pale skin, and teeth that had been filed to a point. He also carried a lantern which gave off an eerie green glow which made flesh look unnatural and anyone who stayed in the light for long started to glow withthe same light. Some of the party were uneasy about this, but the main point of concern came when Moreto introduced them to his two minions, a pair of undead Mohrgs who were under his control!

He admitted to being an adventurer from the White Kingdom, an underground city, who was trying to find a way to the surface when he stumbled upon Icosiol’s tomb. Whilst investigating the upper levels he came across a large 1’ across seal carved from a single crystal, but he was ambushed by the giant spider when trying to leave.

Leaving some of his controlled undead behind to cover his retreat, Moreto managed to escape and has been examining the crystal ever since in the hope that it might provide him with some way to defeat the spider and reach the surface world.

Eolias told Moreto that they had promised the spider that they would attempt to recover it’s stolen property and slay the thief. At this Moreto laughed, and made a counter-offer. If the party would return and attack the spider, he would give them the crystal disk. The disk was engraved with three runes on one side, the other with a scene where a Wind Duke, standing on a floating disk, was holding up the crystal in front of a gigantic pair of black double doors. The runes were quickly identified as Icosiol, Pesh and Aaqq.

Deciding that the spider would probably be the weaker opponent, the group agreed to help Moreto to reach the surface, and so started to scale the waterfall yet again.

Reaching the broken bridge the characters decided to rest and recover here before their assault on the spider. During that evening Eolias once again suffered some CON damage from an unknown source.

Marshalling their resources, the party burst into the spider’s room and attacked, making sure that the vulnerable spellcasters were protected in the middle of the party.

After the initial assault, the spider managed to travel via the shadows thrown by the party’s own light sources and bit both Ellan and Eolias, paralysing and transporting them to it’s lair on the plane of shadows before being driven off by the damage being meted out by the remaining party members.

The four characters left in Icosiol’s Tomb looked for Eolioas and Ellan in vain, whilst the two on the Plane of Shadows filled their pockets with the spider’s treasure.

Magical Items Found

None

XP Summary

6 x Wind Dukes - 9,000 XP
Traversing the Falls - 9,000 XP
Shadow Spider - 9,000 XP
Moreto - 4,500 XP

Total XP - 31,500 XP

Volon - 5,250 XP
Eolias - 5,250 XP
Crumpus - 5,250 XP
Ellan - 5,250 XP
Millardo - 5,250 XP
Elzara - 5,250 XP

Current Totals

Volon - 57,144 XP Level up to 11!!
Eolias – 57,144 XP Level up to 11!!
Crumpus 58,144 XP Level up to 11!!
Ellan - 57,144 XP Level up to 11!!
Millardo – 57,144 XP Level up to 11!!
Elzara – 57,144 XP Level up to 11!!

A Gathering of Winds - Part Three

2007-04-30T12:36:00.000+01:00

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

2007-04-23T12:43:00.000+01:00

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

2007-04-12T12:36:00.000+01:00

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

2007-04-10T11:52:00.000+01:00

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

2007-04-03T10:01:00.000+01:00

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

The Hall of Harsh Reflections - Part Five

2007-02-26T12:00:00.000Z

25 February 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 7th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 7th level female Elven Monk
Kamal(Ian) 7th level Male Human Hexblade
Zoook (Ewar) 7th level Gnome Bard
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 5th /2nd level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard

Game Events
Pausing briefly to heal the wounded, the group turned their attention to the remainder of the room.

A small enclosure held a scrawny underfed cow and a couple of pigs, but of more interest was the closed iron door to the south of the cave.

Opening the door, Alexis discovered four zombies, all with holes in their heads, which she managed to disintegrate with the power of her faith. These undead were guarding five frightened captives, whom the party decided to escort to the surface before returning to the underground complex to continue their investigations.

With Eolias and Alexis leading, the party discovered a small cavern where the floor had been smoothed and inscribed with a faintly glowing purple symbol which was the same as on Allustan's forehead in his natural form as a doppleganger. The two cautiously investigated the symbol, but were both caught unawares when the glyph of warding attached to the ceiling was triggered, showering them with an acidic spray.

The next cavern was dominated by a huge white marble double doors, streaked with veins of a weakly glowing purple mineral and flanked by a pair of ivory colums bearing the same tentacular symbol seen elsewhere in the complex.

As the group spread out to search the area before attempting the doors, Alexis, Zoook and Kamaal were surprised by three creatures that seemed to be some kind of mullusc-type hybrid that clung to the walls and cast slow on the characters with their gaze whilst ripping into them with huge claws. Unfortunately Alexis was not able to withstand this attack, and crumpled lifeless to the floor as the remainder of the party eventually despatched the monsters, but not withous sustaining huge amounts of damage in the process. The group decided to withdraw and recover, and also to revive the hapless Alexis.

After a day of rest at the Crooked House, as they returned to the marble doors Eolias and Alexis triggered the same acid trap as before through sheer carelessness, and the party attempted to open the doors which appeared barred from the other side. By a combined effort, the door was burst open to reveal a large chamber which contained a carving of a huge brain, fashioned in purple-veined white marble, which pulsed as if alive. Whilst in this room, several of the party were drained of some Wisdom, albeit temporarily, so they hurried out and into the next room which was a laboratory containing benches, bookcases and a giant tank filled with a murky green liquid.

The books on the desk, written in undercommon, detailed the creation of the octopus-like creatures that had so damamged the party earlier, but whilst searching the room Alexis, who was checking out the giant tank, was attacked by a much larger version of the mollusc which had been hiding within.

After the creature had been killed, the group followed a passage leading to a pool that appeared to have been used as a scrying device, as it was currently showing the throne room where Allustan had been defeated. Zook, Crumpus and Kamaal stayed to investigate while Alexis, Eolias and Elzara moved further on to check out the source of a strange green glow down the next passage.

The passsage ended in a small balcony about 45' above the floor of a huge room with a 80' tall octagonal column of jet-black stone glowing with green symbols running up one of the faces, and a deep pool of placid green liquid bathed the entire room with an eerie green light. Floating above this pool, almost opposite the trio on the balcony, was the Illithid that they had chased into the sewers a couple of days earlier.

The mind flayer taunted the three by telepathy before sending a stunning mind blast at them, followed by an enhanced lightning bolt causing serious injury to them all. Hearing the blast of the lightining bolt, Zook, Crumpus and Kamaal raced to their comrades and managed to drag them out of harms way, but not before one of them had received a magic missile for their troubles.

As there was no obvious way down, the party decided to press on and assault the mind flayer from the floor of the chamber, but before they got there they had to pass through a room containing display cases containing all manner of curiosities, dominated by a huge ebony statue of a vulture-headed humanoid with large feathered wings and razor-sharp talons.

Wisely deciding to leave everything alone the group moved to the large room where the Illithid awaited, and moved out to do battle leaving Zoook and Kamaal to bring up the rear.

As the others moved forwards into a barrage of enhanced lightning bolts, scorching rays, mind blasts and magic missiles, the rearguards were surprised by two more of the octopus-type creatures that had been hiding on either side of the passage entrance, Kamaal managed to break free but Zoook decided to go on the offensive, using his Boots of Levitation to get into strike range of the creature attacking him, only to be slowed by it's gaze and very nearly ripped apart before he could get aid from the others.

Due to a displacement spell in effect, most of the party's missile fire was innefective, so Elzara quaffed both a haste and a shocking grasp potion, raced to the octagonal pillar and started to climb. As soon as she was level with the mind flayer, she launced herself at the floating villain and, amazingly, managed to grapple and successfully deliver electricity damage.

Unfortunately for her, the Illithid had seen this tactic before through it's use of the scrying pool, and so was able to resist all of the damage before breaking Elzara's hold and dropping her into the glowing green pool 40' below, which turned out to be full of foot-long tadpoles!

With several of the party either slowed or stunned, Alexis was kept busy alternately healing the party and deific venganceing the illithid until the mind flayer was eventually defeated, leaving many of the characters severely wounded.

On searching the body two potions of Cure Serious Wounds, a Necklace of Fireballs Type III, a Lesser Empower Metamagic Rod, Boots of Elvenkind, a Cloak of Resistance +2 and a Ring of Counterspells loaded with Dispel Magic were found.

A small door led to a living area, where the group discovered that the mind flayer (who was called Zyrxog) had been buying and selling rare and dangerous items with patrons throughout the Free City. The most recent was the sale of an ancient relic called 'The Apostolic Scrolls' to Loris Raknian, the director of the Arena of the Free City.

Of more interest to the party was the discovery that Raknian had paid Zyrxog to eliminate the party!

Returning to the collections room, the group were not surprised when the statue came to life, but were surprised by the amount of damage it was able to resist until a fantastic critical from Kamaal sent it back to the nether planes.

Looting the cabinets the group found a +2 Holy Dagger with the ability to cast Heal on the wielder once per day, a bronze Griffin Figurine of Wondrous Power, a +3 Longsword of Defending and a Periapt of Health. They also were attacked by an animated book, but when it had been killed they discovered that the book contained the true names of 100 demons, the location of their homes and their conquests.

Zook tried to read another of the books, but to his horror discovered that it was really a Vacuous Grimore, causing him to permanently lose 1 point of Int.

Magical Items Found

Two potions of Cure Serious Wounds
Necklace of Fireballs Type III
Lesser Empower Metamagic Rod
Boots of Elvenkind
Cloak of Resistance +2
Ring of Counterspells loaded with Dispel Magic
+2 Holy Dagger with the ability to cast Heal on the wielder once per day
Bronze Griffin Figurine of Wondrous Power
3 Longsword of Defending
Periapt of Health

XP Summary

3 x Octopins - 4,200 XP
4 x Zombies - 1,050 XP
Giant Octopin - 6,300 XP
2 x Octopins - 2,796 XP
Zyrxog - 8,400 XP
Animated Book - 390 XP
Vrock Demon - 4,200 XP

Total XP - 24,626

Kamal - 4,556 XP,
Eolias - 4,174 XP (part 50% NPC)
Crumpus - 4,556 XP
Zoook - 4,556 XP
Alexis - 2,228 XP (50% NPC)
Elzara - 4,556 XP

Current Totals

Kamal - 29,272 - Level up to 8!
Eolias - 30,632 - Level up to 8!
Crumpus 28,697 - Level up to 8!
Zoook, 28,697 - Level up to 8!
Alexis - 28,850 - Level up to 8!
Elzara - 28,697 - Level up to 8!

The Hall of Harsh Reflections - Part Four

2007-02-09T12:13:00.000Z

4 February 2007

Players/Characters

Crumpus (Russell) 7th level male Human Fighter
Elzara (Will) 6th level female Elven Monk
Kamal(Ian) 7th level Male Human Hexblade
Zoook (Ewar) 6th level Gnome Bard
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 5th /2nd level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard

Game Events

Swiftly healing their wounds, the party chased after the fleeing Illithid into the maze of sewer tunnels that ran for miles beneath the city, but were soon hopelessly lost and had to surface and make their way back to their base at the Crooked House above ground.

Following up on the only clues they had, the strangely worded letter giving a meeting location as 'beneath the cold forge', and the strange yellow fungus coating the boots of the dead Drow, they were able to find a smithy called 'The Cold Forge'. Entering the sewers through a nearby grating, the group paused whilst Elzara and Eolias scouted ahead.

Turning a corner, the two scouts discovered a natural cave off the worked sewer tunnel which glowed faintly with phosphorescent yellow fungus and was scattered with huge swathes of giant toadstools, some quite gigantic.

Elzara and Eolias moved cautiously forwards, only to have four of the largest mushrooms emit a piercing shriek as they sensed the movement. Throwing all caution to the winds, the rest of the party hurried around the corner and piled into the mushrooms in a vain attempt to quieten them.

Moving on, about thirty yards past the mushrooms Alexis noticed that the floor ahead was glistening, almost oily. As the group were taking extra care not to slip, a flask of alchemist's fire was dropped from a ledge above onto Eoilas, igniting the oil on the floor and also catching Zook in it's flames.

Elzara, being the only one able to climb swiftly, scaled the 20' sheer cliff face to the ledge only to be met by a hail of crossbow bolts from the Drow stationed there, and was then bull rushed off the edge to fall back into the raging flames below.

The rest of the party started to shoot up at the Drow, keeping them pinned whilst Elzara made the climb again, and this time was able to keep her footing on the ledge while she eliminated the Drow with her martial artistry. Searching the bodies revealed another alchemist's fire and also two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds.

A few yards further on, the passage opened out into a large chamber dominated by a pool of water on the far side, but of more interest to the party was the fact that something in the pool was glowing green, bathing the entire room in curtains of gently shifting light.

As Zoook stepped forward, he noticed a serpentine form coiled around a stalagmite near to the pool which lifted to reveal that it had a human head! The Naga charmed Zoook with her gaze, and demanded tribute to allow the party to pass unmolested. Kamaal was next to be charmed, and Zook obeyed his new friend by slipping the Wand of Cure Moderate that he was carrying into the glowing pool.

Seeing this, Eolias drew his bow to fire upon the creature as he knew that Zook was acting out of character and shot at the Naga. This provoked a response in the shape of a fireball spell at him, and Alexis, who had also been charmed by now, grappled with him and interrupted his shots whilst the Naga turned invisible. The other charmed party members tried to grapple and otherwise stop their friends attacking their new friends, and a summoned swarm of bats descended on Eolias who immediately jumped into the pool to get away.

Unfortunately for him, this was the same hiding place chose by the Naga who attacked, poisoning him quite severely before being finally killed by the remaining members of the party. As Eolias was dragged from the pool he managed to grab hold of the wand dropped by Zoook.

Alexis and Zoook cured most of the wounds inflicted by spell and wand, then the party continued into the next chamber, where they found that the inhabitants had used the advance warning from the conflidt next door to array themselves in battle formation.

Three Drow faced the party as they entered, with two more providing cover from a high ledge whilst the leader, a Drow Cleric, threatened the entire cave from the rear.

No sooner had the group entered the cave than Eolias, Zoook, Kamaal and Alexis were hit with the effects of a confusion spell, causing Eolias and Zook to fight their own private battle which effectively removed them from the main fight.

Kamaal eliminated the first three Drow as the cleric cast a couple more spells and braced herself for the arrival of Elzara and Crumpus. Alexis struggled to despatch the two Drow crossbowmen who had charged her from their vantage point.

Despite taking a few good hits and a trip attack from the monk, the cleric summoned up all her force to drive Crumpus to his knees with a couple of well aimed strikes from the floor supplemented by her smite ability, then turned her attention to Elzara just as Kamaal arrived to assist.

Elzara was also knocked unconcious by a vicious swing before Kamaal finally managed to kill this most worthy of opponents. Looting the body provided a +1 light fortification Breastplate and a +1 Spell Storing Morningstar

Magical Items Found

Six potions of Cure Moderate Wounds
+1 light fortification Breastplate
+1 Spell Storing Morningstar

XP Summary

4 x Shriekers - 1,100 XP
Drow Cleric - 4,600 XP
8 x Drow - 8,800 XP
Spirit Naga - 4,600 XP

Total XP - 19,100

Kamal - 2,975 XP,
Eolias - 2,188 XP (part 50% NPC)
Crumpus - 2,132 XP (NPC)
Zoook - 3,600 XP,
Alexis - 2,975 XP,
Elzara - 3,600 XP,

Current Totals
Kamal - 24,716
Eolias - 26,458
Crumpus 24,141
Zoook, 24,141 - level up to 7!
Alexis - 26,622
Elzara - 24,141 - level up to 7!

The Hall of Harsh Reflections - Part Three

2007-02-08T12:10:00.000Z

28 October 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 - Deceased
Zoook (Ewar) 6th level Gnome Bard
Alexis Serria (Andrew) 5th /2nd level female Human Cleric/Fighter
Eolias (Richard) 6th/1st level male Elven Ranger/Wizard

Game Events

Having revived the hapless Elzara, the group moved through a secret door that had been spotted by the sharp Elven eyes of Eolias and found themselves in a bewildering maze whose walls were made from polished steel.

Crumpus volunteered to lead, but was separated from the party when a steel wall suddenly sprang from the floor with dazzling speed.

As the rest of the group tried to find their way back to him, Crumpus was attacked from invisibility by two mopre dopplegangers, and in their haste to come to his aid the party triggered more of these moving walls and were split even further before they finally managed to assist him to wipe out his final opponent, despite them shape shifting to resemble the party in an attempt to sow confusion.

Unfortunately for Tanith, he was also separated from the group and set upon by an invisible doppleganger, but this time it was the hapless party member who was despatched with ease before help could arrive to slay the one remaining enemy.

After looting the doppleganger bodies of two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds and with little time available for mourning the party decided to move on. Just around the corner Elzara discovered a wrapped body in the darkness of an alcove, which turned out to be that of an unconcious Gnome.

Once revived by Alexis he introduced himself as Zoook, a Gnomish Bard, and asked to be allowed to accompany the group on their rampage through the lower levels to exact his revenge upon the dopplegangers who had abducted him.

Finally being able to negotiate the maze without fear of further attack, the party found and opened a door which led into a huge chamber with a vaulted ceiling. Along the far wall was lined with a macabre assembly of vats, pipes and tubing connected to a table equipped with numerous straps and a strange silver helmet.

At the far end of the room, a throne stood on a raised dais, and sat on the throne the party saw, to their astonishment, their friend and mentor the Sage Allustan from Diamond Lake!!

Allustan rose from his throne, and told the party to follow him to learn the truth of things, but as the party followed him the set off two spiked pit traps and two poisoned spear traps which did some damage to them.

As the first trap was sprung, Allustan whirled round and cast a fireball sttraight at the centre of the group, badly wounding Crumpus who was unable to get out of the way.

More spells followed, and with Magic Missiles flying around their ears the party prepared to attack, only to have Eoilas and the newly recruited Bard fall victim to a Confusion spell and start to attack each other, the end result being that Eolias was magically blinded, and …… was sorely wounded.

Kamaal, Alexis and Elzara charged Allustan, but were dismayed when his form shimmered and became that of a very muscled Orcish barbarian swinging a great axe whose edge trailed a stream of icy crytals.

Alexis was kept busy simply keeping the other fighters on their feet, but Allustan was eventually beaten down and killed, upon which his body turned into that of a doppleganger, but with a strange spiral pattern on its forehead. Searching the body provided a +1 frost greataxe, ring of protection +2, and a wand of cure moderate (26 charges) as well as a key ring holding many keys.

Searching the throne, the group found a button that opened a hidden door behind which was a lavishly furnished bedchamber. A quick search turned up a sack containing 1500gp, a scroll of dominate person and a letter which suggested that the doppleganger had not been working alone as he was ordered to meet his master at a sewer junction beneath the ‘cold forge’, whatever that was.

Having explored the whole complex, the party returned to the room which had been filled with water on their arrival to return to the surface, but were surprised by the appearance of two Drow fighters and a Mindflayer who had come through a secret door.

The two Drow charged the fighters at the front of the party whilst the Mindflayer blasted them with the power of his mind, but ultimately the two Drow died protecting the retreat of their master back into the sewers that lay behind the secret door. Their bodies were searched and two vials of alchemist’s fire, one tanglefoot bag and two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds were found. It was also noticed that their boots were caked in a strange phosphrescent yellow fungus.

Magical Items Found

Four potions of Cure Moderate Wounds
+1 Frost Greataxe
Ring of Protection +2
Wand of Cure Moderate (26 charges)
Scroll of Dominate Person

XP Summary

3 x Dopplegangers - 2,832 XP
2 x Drow - 4,000 XP
Allustan - 6,500 XP

Total XP - 13,332

Kamal - 2,400 XP,
Eolias - 933 XP (50% NPC),
Crumpus - 2,400 XP,
Zoook - 2,400 XP,
Alexis - 1,866 XP,
Elzara - 2,400 XP,

Current Totals
Kamal - 21,741 - level up!
Eolias - 24,270
Crumpus 22,009 - level up!
Zoook, 20,541
Alexis - 23,647
Elzara - 20,541

The Hall of Harsh Reflections - Part Two

2006-10-02T13:22:00.000+01:00

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

2006-10-02T12:56:00.000+01:00

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

2006-08-11T12:44:00.000+01:00

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

2006-08-11T11:05:00.000+01:00

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

2006-08-05T11:14:00.000+01:00

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

2006-06-18T09:26:00.000+01:00

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

2006-06-12T12:34:00.000+01:00

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

2006-06-09T08:35:00.000+01:00

10 June 2006

Players/Characters

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

2006-06-07T11:50:00.000+01:00

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

2006-06-01T09:03:00.000+01:00

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

2006-05-13T00:09:00.000+01:00

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

2006-05-04T22:33:00.000+01:00

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

2006-05-04T21:52:00.000+01:00

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

2006-05-01T20:17:00.000+01:00

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)

The Whispering Cairn - Part One

2006-05-01T15:54:00.000+01:00

22 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
Eolias (Richard) 1st level male Elven Ranger

The Background

Elzara and Aust concocted a plan to help them get out of Diamond Lake by raiding a long forgotten cairn about an hour's travel outside the town. Realising that they didn't have the skills necessary to survive such an adventure they set about finding like-minded individuals within the town.

Aust, tasked with getting mining and clerical experience, recruited Kovar and Alexis whilst Elzara brought in Eolias and Tanith for their respective fighting and arcane abilities.

The entire group met in an abandoned building just a short distance from the cairn entrance...

Game Events

The party entered the tomb, discovering a long abandoned bedroll in an alcove. Elzara, Aust and Tanith, being born locally, recalled the tale of a teenager who went missing around 15 years ago after accepting a bet to stay in an abandoned tomb alone, overnight. After a quick battle with three wolves, where Alexis learned the virtue of not rushing blindly into combat, the group found themselves in an octagonal room with seven short passages running off it, all bar two containing lanterns on a chain corresponding to the colours of the rainbow with an everburning torch lighting the green one. The blue lantern, having been found in the wolves' lair, was returned to it's rightful place.

Also in the centre of the room was a sarcophagus resting on a base like a stylized arrow. Pushing it around topoint at each tunnel in turn caused elevators to rise under three of the lanterns. Beneath the yellow lantern the party found brown mold and an earth elemental-type creature to defeat, and managed to unearth a magical suit of chainmail, a wand of shatter, a wand of unseen servant and a pair of eyes of minute seeing.

The passage beneath the green lantern collapsed after delivering Kovar to another subterranean area. The rest of the party were attacked by a swarm of acid beetles plus a strange creature that was little more than a central eye with six sharp legs sprouting from it. Fire and magic from both Tanith and Aust was sufficient to defeat the swarm, but not before Elzara had been knocked unconcious. After climbing down the elevator shaft the party defeated another swarm plus two giant beetles. A search of the area turned up 3 cure light potions, a magical pearl and a magical ring plus a set of masterwork red leather armour emblazoned with the eight-pointed symbol of the Seekers, an organisation of archaeologists and adventurers, before they came upon an area that was fully submerged.

Elzara bravely volunteered to search the area (at the end of a rope) and was attacked by a water elemental for her trouble. This was easily despatched, and then both Elzara and Alexis searched the rest of the passages, finding and defeating a ghoul in the process. This area yielded a magical short sword, a gold ring with the Seeker's insignia on it and the final missing red lantern.

Out of spells and in need of rest, the party returned to Diamond Lake to get more information about the things they had found from Allustan, the smartest man in the village. He told them that the many glyphs they had found carved all over the tomb were, in fact, probably artifacts of the Wind Dukes of Aqaa, a powerful pre-historic race of elemental beings once said to have dominated an Empire that spanned worlds. He intimated that he would be willing to assist the party for free in future as long as they continue to bring him information regarding the construction and contents of the tomb.

He asked the party to return in a few days when he would know more about the Wind Dukes.

Magic Items Found

magical suit of chainmail
wand of shatter
wand of unseen servant
pair of eyes of minute seeing
3 cure light potions
pearl
ring
short sword

XP Summary

3 Wolves - EL2 - 900
Beetle Swarm & Slasher - EL3 - 900
Brown Mold - EL2 - 600
Earth Elemental - EL1 - 300
Giant Beetle - EL2 - 600
Giant Beetle & Swarm - EL3 - 900
Water Elemental - EL2 - 600
Ghoul - EL2 - 600

Total XP gained - 5,400 or 900 each