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Campaign Diary of Abernathy's Company (runs 81-90) (1830) Wednesday, September 9 – While traveling along the road from Trev-Lyndyn to the town of Bynbur, half of the party is suddenly enveloped in a cloud of choking green gas. It’s an ambush! There is a force of ogres and orcs doing the ambushing, and they greatly outnumber the party. Unfortunately for them, the party has mages with Fireballs , and the monsters are soon mopped up. (run 81 begins) In the nearby cave that the humanoids used for a base, the party finds some good loot, and also a crate containing some pots of a chocolate-smelling powder. Dranko tastes some of it, and when he reports feeling somewhat stronger and more alert afterward, Kay also takes a taste. Thursday, September 10 – Travel to Bynbur. Kay and Dranko no longer feel so good; in fact, they are feeling rather sick and weak. Still, the thought of tasting more of the powder seems mighty tempting to them. Friday, September 11 – With Dranko and Kay still feeling sick, the party arrives in Bynbur, a sprawling farm town. Sheep roam in the pastures and sometimes spill into the streets. Goods are cheap, and the mutton and ale are both quite good. The following sign is posted on many of the buildings: "WANTED: Fnag the Ogre, for various crimes of banditry, theft, and murder on the Bynbur-Trev-Lyndyn road. He and his band of ogres and orcs is extremely dangerous. Reward for his death is 500 Miracs. Proof required – bring such to the Mayor’s office in the Towne Centre." The party goes to visit the mayor, a small man named Lynstock. Lynstock thanks them profusely for dealing with Fnag and hands over the promised reward. Then he nervously asks the party for another favor. It seems that he is addicted to a substance he calls "Powder." (Kay and Dranko look nervously at each other.) About a year ago, someone slipped some into his food, and then three weeks later, after he had grown weak, a man had come to tell him that for a price he could be supplied with more Powder to allay his symptoms. Without the Powder, the man said, he would grow weaker and weaker and eventually die. He first thought it might be a bluff, but he did in fact grow terribly weak. The priests and priestesses of Heros (Goddess of Healing) could not cure him, so he has been paying the man his fee. He has even begun to embezzle money from the town to pay for his addiction. He allows Morningstar to cast Memory Read on him, an she experiences Lynstock’s memory of first finding out he is addicted. She relives the memory of a nasty red-haired man informing Lynstock in mocking tones that he is about to be blackmailed and extorted. Lynstock begs the party to find out who is responsible, and find a cure for him. Since it seems that Kay and Dranko are now in the same boat, they agree. They first cast Locate Object spells to see of there is any more powder in Bynbur, but there is not. Saturday, September 12 - Sunday, September 13 – The party hangs around Bynbur, looking for any signs of the red-haired man who sells Lynstock his Powder, but have no luck. The party discovers that the Neutralize Poison spell will postpone the effects of the Powder on Kay and Dranko, but it has to be cast on them every day, which uses up all of Morningstar’s 4th-level spells. Monday, September 14 – Thursday, September 17 – (run 82 begins) Travel to Shayle. Friday, September 18 – The Company arrives in Shayle, and after securing lodgings at the Mutton House, casts Locate Objects spells to locate any Powder. They find some inside the local general store, and it appears that the wealthy owner of the store is also being blackmailed by the red-haired man. However, he grows extremely belligerent when asked to talk about it (presumably fearing for his life, since he has been told not to discuss Powder with anyone lest his supply be cut off). Saturday, September 19 – Monday, September 21 – The Company travels through Dir-Tolia to the town of Lyme. Tuesday, September 22 – The party arrives in Lyme and once more casts Locate Object to find Powder. They discover two locations: one is in the town inn (the Waymeet), and the other is at the outskirts of the town. The latter is actually found secretly buried among the debris in a long-ago burned out building, and with it are 3000 Miracs! The Innkeeper turns out to be another Powder extortion victim, who absolutely refuses to admit anything about it. Wednesday, September 23 – After asking questions around the town, the party decides to take both the Powder and Miracs from the hidden cache. They leave a note, which says (and I paraphrase) "My wife and I were looking into to buying this lot of property, and discovered a cache of money and some sort of delicious spice. We assume that the money’s owner is long gone, but if anyone expects to find it here, you can contact us at the Singing Sickle in Mirj." (The Singing Sickle is an inn that has been recommended to them in Mirj, the next city along their current route.) They hope to flush out the responsible party, by setting themselves up as potential victims. The plan pays immediate dividends. Only a couple of hours out of Lyme, they are overtaken by a man on a horse. He found the note, and claims that the money and "spice" are his. The party spends a bit of time trying subtlety, but in the end decides to intimidate information out of the man with force. It works. The man is terrified and blabs all he knows. His name is Cymnyk, and he works for Lord Dafron, a member of the House of Law in Mirj. He is paid to make pick-ups and drop-offs of money and Powder, but doesn’t know what the Powder does. He guesses that someone else comes to take the jars and drop off money, but he doesn’t know who. He promises the party that he will forget about the whole operation, and be thankful that he isn’t going to be turned into the authorities. (run 83 begins) The party spends the rest of the day riding south toward Mirj. Thursday, September 24 – Travel to Mirj. Friday, September 25 – The party continues to ride. They pass many people traveling in the other direction, mostly carrying wares from the Jewels of the Plains into Dir-Tolia. A minute after a covered wagon passes them on the road, the horses are all startled by the sudden appearance of a large Fire Elemental behind them! Many of them throw their riders and bolt, and the rest of the party dismounts. The last wagon to pass them has stopped about 100 feet down the road, and armed people (who must have been hidden inside) are running toward them. One person climbs up onto the top of the wagon and readies a bow. And a last man, dressed in red and orange robes indicating a Delfirian cleric of Nifi, hangs back by the wagon. A difficult battle ensues. The Fire Elemental is tough enough, but the Delfirian priest casts a devastating Flame Strike from range. And while some of the armed thugs aren’t that tough, one of them is a fighting juggernaut. He wields a magical war-hammer and is just as strong as Ernie, who has called upon the Strength of Yondalla. The hammer-wielding fighter also announces, as he charges, that the party will be allowed to live if they will just hand over the Magic Carpet. "Over my dead body!" Ernie declares. The fighter grins. The party responds with spells of their own (a Coldfire spell blows the archer off the of the wagon), and Dranko charges across the battlefield to close with the Nifi priest before he can unload another fire spell. He doesn’t quite make it. The cleric retreats, and puts up a Wall of Fire around himself. When Dranko dives through the wall (ouch!), he is greeted with a Searing Light spell to the chest (OUCH!). Meanwhile the Fire Elemental has rushed back to defend its summoner. In the end the party manages to finally defeat the hammer-wielding fighter, and an Ice Storm neutralizes the Fire Elemental (and for a moment obscures everyone’s view of the enemy cleric). When the Ice Storm ends, there is no sign of the cleric; it seems that he escaped magically sometime after the Ice Storm hit. (Coldfire is almost identical to Fireball, but one die of its damage is actually cold damage, and it extinguishes itself immediately. The point being it never sets anything on fire, which is sometimes what you want, and sometimes not.) Saturday, September 26 – Travel to Mirj Monday, September 27 – The party arrives at the walled city of Mirj, northernmost of the Jewels of the Plains. There is a poor "outquarter" outside the wall, and inside conditions aren't much better. The streets are winding, mazey and teeming with low-lives and criminals. The city guards are just as corrupt as the street thugs, hardly lifting a finger to help those in need. The party learns that the House of Law is located in the Upper City, which is walled off from the city proper. They get rooms in the Singing Sickle inn. Tuesday, September 28 – The party spends some time searching the city for Powder, but there doesn’t appear to be any. Kibi flies invisibly over the wall into the Upper City and locates the House of Law. Some of the party approach the gate to the Upper City; Aravis pretends to be "Lord Turlus," who wants to speak with Lord Dafron about the spice trade. The gate guards are rude but agree to pass along the message. Dafron will send word to the Singing Sickle if he’s willing to meet with Lord Turlus. The party also notes a guillotine in an open space in front of the gates; the ground around it is bloodstained, and nearby three headless bodies hang by their feet from a scaffold. It is indicative of the tenor of the city. Later that afternoon a message is delivered to the party: if they mean the chocolate spice trade, then they should come meet with Lord Dafron the next morning. That night, the party is attacked in their rooms in the Singing Sickle. About twenty armed men are in the attacking group, and more are stationed outside with crossbows, should the party try to escape out the windows. The fight is over quickly; a Lightning Bolt from Aravis fries many of them in the corridor, and blows a hole right out the end of the inn. The surviving attackers flee back down the stairs in disarray, and are chased away in terror by several other party members, including a flying Kay and a Feather-falling Dranko. The party spends the night in another inn. Wednesday, September 29 – The next morning, some (but not all) of the party goes to their appointment with Lord Dafron. Before being allowed into the Upper City they are divested of all weapons, magic items, and even spell components. They are then led into the large stone building that is the House of Law; the place is crawling with well-armed guards. Eventually they are shown into the office of Lord Dafron himself, who is an extremely oily and self-confident man with an annoying voice. Dafron listens with (mock) sympathy to the party’s cover story, about how Lord Turlus’ wife chanced upon some Powder, consumed some, and is now sick. (Kay, by the way, has foregone a couple of Neutralize Poison treatments, and actually *does* look sick.) The party tells Dafron that they consulted the Black Circle about what to do, and the Circle’s cryptic answer was that they should talk to Lord Dafron in Mirj. So here they are. While they tell the story, Morningstar casts a silent, still Detect Thoughts , but Dafron seems immune to it. But as Dafron tells the party that he’d love to help, but doesn’t know anything about the addictive Powder, Dranko manages to slip some of the Powder into Dafron’s cocoa, which (in a show of extremely misplaced hubris) he has offered to drink with the party. (Of all the confounded times to roll a "2" on a Spot check!) When it becomes clear that the bandying of words is not getting anywhere, Dafron tells the party that they should leave if they know what’s good for them. And then the party tells Dafron that he might want to reconsider, given that he himself is now addicted. Well, that changes things. Dafron and the party (interrupted often by Dafron muttering to himself about the confounded bad luck of it all) reach an agreement. Dafron tells the party that he doesn’t actually know much about the Powder; an alchemist confederate of his named Klenemon makes it in some secret hide-out in Dir-Tolia. The place is reputed to be haunted, which is perfect for their needs since it keeps people away. Dafron doesn’t know exactly where the hide-out is, but presumably Klenemon knows the antidote. Dafron writes a letter to Klenemon, instructing him to give the antidote to the party. By agreement the party will bring some antidote back to Dafron, and in return Dafron will hold no grudge against the party, and not use his considerable resources to make their lives difficult. Thursday, September 30 – Tuesday, October 5 – (run 84 begins) The party has one lead regarding the unknown hide-out and laboratory used by Klenemon. When Morningstar cast Detect Thoughts on the merchant Cymnyk, she got a mental image of the place where he picks up Powder for delivery to towns. It is a place a bit off the road, about half way between Lyme and Shayle. They spend a week traveling back through Dir-Tolia to the spot. During this period of travel, the routine check of their Box of Transport reveals a piece of paper, which is mostly blank. (The party is now using one of the two magical boxes that Gluefoot and Frohwirth used to send messages. The party has the "receiving" box, and they check it on a nightly basis to see if Ozilinsh (who has the "sending" box) has sent them any important messages from Charagan.) The only words on the paper are: "Speak the name of the familiar parrot." Recalling the name of parrot familiar of the Archmage Grawly, they speak it: "Paciorek." Many more words appear on the page. It is a letter from Ozilinsh , and the news is not good: it seems that some unknown assassin got into Grawly’s tower, and killed both Grawly and his apprentice, Thewana. Their bodies were burned beyond recognition. Wednesday, October 6 – The party arrives at the spot pictured by Cymnyk. Investigation does indeed show signs that heavy shipments of something are moved on and off the road, to a hidden location behind some trees and rocks about 50 yards away. But there is no sign of how the Powder is brought to the location to begin with. Kay notices signs that a fox lives in the area, and discovers it hiding in its hole. She casts Speak with Animals and talks with it, and it tells her that a man occasionally visits the area, and "goes into that rock." It indicates the relatively flat face of one of the out-jutting boulders. Flicker checks the rock, and discovers a hidden switch that opens a cleverly concealed secret door. There is short flight of stairs on the other side, which leads to a long, straight passage with a crude rail system. Kay thanks the fox, and the party travels carefully down the passage. It continues fairly straight for about a mile before it ends. At the end is a wooden car with wheels fitted to the rails, and a trap-door in the ceiling. The party emerges into a lightly-wooded clearing that turns out to be the outer yard of a crumbling and seemingly-abandoned keep. They approach the doors (which are still standing) and knock, but no one answers. They go in, and while the ground-floor is mostly crumbled away and open to the sky, there is a wide staircase going down to a lower floor. As they descend they call for Klenemon. They hear a old man’s voice from below, calling for them to come down. Klenemon is an old and good-natured alchemist, who has set up a laboratory in what used to be a meeting-room. A large table is covered with books and notes, flasks and beakers of strange liquids, glass tubes and other odd apparatuses, and even a self-stirring cauldron. When the party tells Klenemon why they’re there, he looks dumfounded. "I’d love to help you, but Dafron knows full well that there isn’t an antidote," he says. He goes on to tell them that he himself is addicted to the Powder, and that Dafron is keeping him there against his will. Dafron, he says, chanced upon the recipe himself. The party asks him if they can cast Detect Thoughts to verify his story. He tells them they can, but that it won’t work: Dafron made him drink some potion early on in their partnership that makes him immune to mind-affecting spells. However, he agrees to eat some of the Powder in front of the party. "After all," he says, "I’m already addicted." The party is startled by some odd (and large) green spider-like creatures, which scuttle along the ceiling of the laboratory. Klenemon tells the party not to worry about them; they’ve been her at least as long as he has, and have never done him any harm. In fact, he’s happy to have them scuttling about, since they help keep the rat population down. The party is somewhat mystified, and spends some time trying to figure out why Dafron sent them all the way out here if he knows there’s no antidote, given that he himself is addicted. Klenemon invites Aravis to study the manufacturing process; maybe he can discover a cure? He even offers to help. Flicker and Ernie stay behind with Aravis and Klenemon, while the rest of the party goes outside to explore the grounds. The two groups stay in contact via Rary’s Telepathic Bond provided by Morningstar. Klenemon excuses himself from the lab for a moment, and walks down a hallway to his bedroom. Flicker follows. At about this time, several things happen. The door to the lab swings shut and locks. Several of the spider creatures drop from the ceiling of the lab and attack Ernie and Aravis. And outside they can hear Flicker shouting: "Klenemon… he’s… he’s a MONSTER!" The rest of the party, alerted via the Rary’s Telepathic Bond , rushes back to the keep. In the meantime, Aravis and Ernie manage to fend off and dispatch the spider creatures. Flicker keeps Klenemon – whatever he is – busy, by using his Ring of Jumping, but eventually Aravis and Ernie hear his screaming stop. Ernie invokes Strength of Yondalla and busts down the locked door just as the rest of the party is arriving. They find themselves facing a large humanoid creature with the head of a tiger, and long, strange claws that curve backward away from the palms. It is a fierce and fearsome adversary. For one thing, it can cast spells, including Lightning Bolt. For another, it itself is seemingly immune to all magic. Worse, most weapons don’t seem to affect it either. At first only Gorok-Nil, wielded by Makel, seems to hurt it. The party eventually figures out that only magic weapons of great enough power are having any effect, so they do some mid-combat weapon swapping to arm as many people as possible with effective weapons. When the tide of battle turns against the tiger-creature, it casts an Obscuring Mist and seemingly vanishes in the fog. After some quick searching, the party discovers that one short branch of corridor, seemingly blocked by a cave-in, is actually open, and that the cave-in is just an illusion. Makel goes charging through the illusion (and through the mist) -- and falls into a spiked pit on the other side. The rest of the party proceeds carefully, and finds a plank spanning the pit on the far right side. Beyond that is a short stretch of corridor that seemingly dead ends. Then, without warning, a secret door opens, and Flicker (who has been healed back to health) is grabbed by a clawed hand and jerked inside. The door closes again, and locks. Aravis goes gaseous, seeps through the cracks around the secret door, and discovers another door. The rest of the party finds the catch for the secret door, gets through it, and Grey Wolf opens that second door with a Lightning Bolt. (Since the creature is immune to magic, why not?) It exposes the creature’s bedroom, which also seems to be a second laboratory. Flicker is once again unconscious and has been thrown into a corner. The party pours into the room, and again beats down the creature, which seems to have healed since they saw it last. The beast tries to escape again, but Dranko bashes its head in with the magical war hammer taken from the Delfirian Priest’s fighter companion after their last battle. Victory! (run 85 begins) With the blood still dripping from the walls after the fierce battle with the Tiger-man, Grey Wolf feels a surging feeling in his guts, and a second later Kibi appears in the room. This time however, he appears on his back, and pinning him to the ground is a large black panther that has two long tentacles coming from its shoulders, and that is strangely difficult to focus on. Battered and resource-depleted as they are, the party attacks and kills the panther through sheer force of numbers, and helped by the fact that Kay is still feeling the effects of Abernathy’s Potion of Haste that she used at the end of the previous battle. Makel delivers the killing blow despite having only 1 HP, after having climbed out of the spiked pit. With all threats taken care of, the party searches the room. Flicker appraises the 14 statuettes he had spotted earlier and gauges their total value at about 9,000 G.P. There are a number of books and papers written in a strange language, along with various alchemical supplies (beakers, powders, glass tubes, etc.) The equipment was set up to slowly drip liquid into a pot, though the pot was partly filled with a black powder, and not liquid. The powder smells vaguely like the Addictive Powder (tm). Also there is a man's skeleton under the Tiger-Man's work-counter. Kay thinks it had been killed with claws, and then the flesh had been boiled off the bones. The party guesses rightly that it’s the skeleton of the real Klenemon, killed and impersonated by this tiger-creature. Aravis sets to work trying to analyze Klenemon's work with the Powder, hoping to learn a cure. Meanwhile most of the others engage in a long discussion over what questions they would ask the next day, when Morningstar will cast Speak with Dead on both the Tiger-Man and the skeleton. This discussion involves a great deal of speculation about the Tiger-Man's relationship with Dafron, whether Dafron was a Tiger-Man, what the real Klenemon's motives had been for working with Dafron, and other similar questions. There is also a digression while the party reviews the various Enemy Groups(tm) with whom they are embroiled: the Sharshun, the Emperor, the Black Circle, the Red-Armored people, the Delfirians, Lapis, and the still-enigmatic "P" are all discussed. Eventually, the party settles on some questions. That night, Morningstar has a strange and vivid dream in which she and Clariel (her old trainer at Kynder Hold) are plunged into a slick and corrupt darkness while sparring in Tal Hae. When the darkness passes, all the buildings and people in the world have been wiped out, except for the Temple of Ell. The dream-Clariel then tells Morningstar that the Darkness isn't even the real problem -- it is a side-effect -- but that she should still not be there when the Darkness passes by. Morningtstar then starts to tell the party about the rest of the dream, but decides instead to keep the details to herself. She goes into Ava Dormo briefly, to take another look at the wall of darkness that she had seen before out to the west, but it is too dark to see if it had changed. Thursday, October 7 -- When she goes back the next morning, however, the dark wall has clearly moved closer, as if an enormous black tidal wave is slowly advancing across the landscape of Ava Dormo. Morningstar casts Speak with Dead first on the Tiger-Man; the questions and answers are (and I greatly paraphrase, I'm sure): 1. What is the antidote to the poison? "I didn't ask... it didn't
matter to me." The three questions asked of the skeleton of Klenemon: 1. What is the cure for the poison? (here, the tongue-less skull
rattled off a list of ingredients, most of which were unintelligible)
Aravis, meanwhile, is able to gain a great understanding of Klenemon's alchemical work, and figures out the cure for the poison on his own. Kay gulps it down, starts to shiver and convulse, feels a burning sensation course through her body, takes ten points of damage, and all at once sweats out huge beads of greasy black liquid. It's not yet clear if she is actually cured. Wit the aid of Kibi and his uncanny dwarvish senses, the party discovers a secret closet behind the Tiger-Man's work-shelf. It contains 5 magical potions, a magical blue-glowing longsword with runes on the blade, and 16 sacks of coins, which altogether hold about 16,000 Miracs! Grey Wolf casts Identify , and learns that 1) The glowing blue sword is a +1 sword, that 2) the person holding it doesn't need to breathe, and 3) it might do something more if it is used enough. Grey Wolf feels as though the sword itself prevented him from learning anything more about it. (run 86 begins) Soon after the interrogations of the dead, Grey Wolf gets that familiar gut-churning sensation, and Kibi vanishes, back to wherever it is that he’s been summoned from. Aravis finishes concocting enough antidote for Dranko, who consumes it, and much like Kay he takes ten points of damage and then sweats out great black beads of greasy liquid. Aravis spends the rest of the day mixing enough antidote for four more people, while Grey Wolf Identifies more magic items. Kay goes and hangs out with her friend the fox and catches it a rabbit. The party decides that Aravis should make a second potion, which will turn Dafron’s skin purple, and that they will give Dafron instructions that the second potion should be consumed a day after the first. Heh. Friday, October 8 -- The Company sets out back westward,
to Shayle, to deliver antidote to the ornery General Store owner. Saturday, October 9 -- Travel to Shayle. Sunday, October 10 -- Despite causing a scene, they successfully make their delivery, and heal the man after the antidote damages him. When he asks what he can do to repay the party, they reply: "Kick the crap out of the red-haired man when he next comes to sell more Powder." The man smiles broadly at the prospect. Monday, October 11 - Friday, October 15 -- They travel next to Bynbur and make a similar delivery to Lynstock, the mayor of the town. He is extremely grateful, and tells the party that they can always count on him for favors in the future. The party leaves him with 5000 Miracs from the spoils, since he had been embezzling from the town to pay for his "habit." Saturday, October 16 - Sunday, October 24 -- Lastly, the party makes their delivery to the Innkeeper in Lyme, before heading southward to Mirj. Monday, October 25 - Thursday, October 28 -- Travel to Mirj Friday, October 29 -- The party arrives in Mirj. Some of them go to deliver the antidote to the guards at the gate to the Upper City. They also use a Whispering Wind spell to help start a rumor that Dafron has been "cursed by the Gods for his double-dealing." (Remember the potion that will turn his skin purple!) With the delivery done, the party heads south-eastward to the city of Djaw. Saturday, October 30 - Sunday, November 1 -- Travel to Djaw. Monday, November 2 -- En route to Djaw the party notices that some barges being poled downstream are making better time than they are. They decide to unfold Burning Sail and sail down the river to Djaw. However, as soon as any of the party sets foot on the boat, it begins to rock violently, and it becomes nearly uncontrollable. Dranko, using the no-breathing power of the blue glowing sword, hangs out under the boat while it rocks, and is swept about by powerful rip-tides in the otherwise placid river. So much for that idea. (At some point the party figures out that a) the Folding Boat is probably holy to Brechen, the Charagan God of the Sea, and that since b) the "Uncrossable Sea" is supposedly uncrossable because Brechen and the Kivian Sea God (Posada) are waging eternal war, it makes some sense that c) Posada is not going to sit still while some holy Brechenish device is floating around on His waters, thank you very much.) As they continue on foot, and are riding past a field of very tall grass, they hear screams coming from the field's interior. Moments later two men come bursting out, followed by two extremely hideous insect-like creatures. As the party watches, one of the creatures skewers one of the men on a long sharp claw. The party rushes forward to kill the creatures and try to save the life of the other man. They succeed at both, although Dranko, Makel, Ernie and the stranger are all seriously wounded by the creatures (including a third one which rolled into the fight about ten seconds after the initial rush.) The man, grateful at having been saved, introduces himself as Four Yellow Stalk. Stalk and his now-dead friend were hunting in the grass for Grass Reavers, the plates of which are very valuable when sold to smiths. They had heard that Grass Reavers were solitary creatures, and were overpowered when three of them had attacked at once. Stalk is from Djaw, and he has some interesting information about the City. He calls Djaw the greatest of the Jewels of the Plains, and (like the party) has an extremely low opinion of Mirj. As they travel together toward Djaw, Stalk imparts much information about his home city, some bits of which include: - There is a license that must be bought by those who would wear
weapons on the streets. Tuesday, November 3 – Thursday, November 5 - (run 87 begins) Travel to Djaw Friday, November 6 – The party arrives in Djaw. Djaw is a tremendously large city, probably five times the size of Hae Charagan back home. The party has to pay exorbitant fees for visitors papers and weapons rights. The Falcons are immediately evident – silent, imposing figures watching over the city. Four Yellow Stalk goes off to find the wife of his slain companion. The people of Djaw have bronze-colored skin and are generally tall. The men wear white robes adorned with various colored strips of cloth denoting their houses; the women wear a variety of gauzy skirts and dresses, with light scarves. The architecture runs the gamut, from the grand and gleaming limestone palace of One Supreme Intellect, to the more common squat clay-and-brick houses of the commoners. As they make their way through the city en route to a recommended inn, the party sees many interesting sights. One is the Living Garden, a public park in which animated topiary wanders freely. Another is the Court of Cats, a huge plaza inhabited by hundreds of felines, and with bowls built right into the stone-flagged ground. Most disturbing is the presence of slaves, who wear plain gray robes, red iron collars, and who aren’t typically allowed to speak. Many of the slaves are Dwarves, and there are no non-slave Dwarves to be seen. Good thing Kibi’s not here! In the Court of Cats, Aravis seems to be extremely popular with the felines there. They crowd around him, seeking his attention. Kay speaks with one of the cats, asking why they all like Aravis so much. "Because he’s like a cat," says the cat. She can’t get the cat to be any more specific. The party gets rooms at the Lamp of Heaven, and Flicker goes out to see what he can dig up about a shrine of the Goddess Dralla in the city. While he doesn’t learn any direct information, he does find someone who claims they can broker a meeting between the party and the city Thieves’ Guild, known as the Faceless. (It is said that no one can remember what the Faceless look like, even moments after seeing them.) Saturday, November 7 – A letter is delivered to the party at the Lamp, detailing a time and place for the party to meet with a representative of the Faceless. That night they go to a poor part of town, far from any of the patrolling Falcons. They meet with a plain-looking woman calling herself Two Flickering Candle. They tell her they want to go the Shrine of Dralla. She tells them that she’ll see what she can do; she’ll send another message to the Lamp. After the party leaves the meeting, they realize that they cannot, in fact, remember what she looked like. Sunday, November 8 – In the morning another letter is delivered, indicating another meeting place and time that evening. Another representative of the Faceless is there. They have arranged a "visit" to the Shine of Dralla for the party, though they are warned to keep the visit short; the Drallans value their privacy. The Faceless man leads the party into another remote and lawless part of the city, and goes with them to an abandoned plaza surrounded by squat clay buildings. He leads them into one of them, and moves some furniture to reveal a trap door in the floor. It leads to a long underground passage that passes through a stretch of complete (and likely magical) darkness, and past an open iron door. The Faceless man with them has been growing more and more agitated, and the party lets him hang back. He tells the party that about 50’ down the passage is a door, and that they should knock, and when asked a question respond with the phrase "darkness hides our strength." The party goes on, discovers the door, and knocks. There is no answer. And then a Lightning Bolt comes blasting down the passage from the direction they had come! It is followed immediately by the sound of the iron door slamming shut and locking. It’s a trap! Moments after the door has shut there is a hissing sound, and a white gas begins to fill the corridor, coming out of hidden holes high in the walls. Fortunately the entire party is able to resist the gas, while Oa Lyanna is able to keep most of the gas up near the ceiling. Meanwhile Flicker works feverishly at the lock of the iron door. He opens it… and another Lightning Bolt zaps more of the party. Undaunted (and not too badly damaged) the party charges down the hallway, and through the area of magical darkness… which has been strewn with caltrops! Ow, ow, ow! Kay is the first to make it through and up into the clay building. As she emerges she smells oil… and then a fiery bottle comes through a narrow window, and the entire one-room interior becomes an inferno. And the crowning touch is that a dozen crossbowmen open fire as soon as she cuts her way through the one door back out onto the plaza, and three or four find their mark. Still, despite all of the well-laid plans of the Faceless, the party emerges into the plaza relatively whole and not badly damaged. The crossbowmen are clearly not prepared for the party to still be at fighting-strength, and despite being deployed on low rooftops they are overpowered by a combination of Hold Person spells, a Summoned Air Elemental, returing fire, and a well-employed whip. Two of the ambushers are captured and questioned separately. The party learns that the Faceless had been both threatened and paid to ambush the party should they show themselves in Djaw… by a person named Lapis! One of the prisoners is allowed to escape, but Morningstar, Detecting Thoughts on the other, sees that he has no intention of reforming or changing his profession. She kills him. (Run 88 begins) - That evening, back in the Lamp of Heaven, another note is delivered to the party by the Faceless. It seems that the Faceless want nothing more to do with either Lapis or the party. Included in the note is (what the Faceless claims is) the actual location of the Shrine of Dralla. (Lapis was an enemy spellcaster who was trying to unearth a second Blood Gargoyle, and who was foiled by Cencerra. The party guesses that Lapis's boss is the same as Manzanill's -- the mysterious "P" -- and that she was sent by "P" to retrieve the Crosser's Maze after Manzanill was killed.) Monday, November 9 – In the evening, the party goes to the location indicated by the Faceless, a dangerous neighborhood known as "The Hole." En route they occasionally see people in golden robes shining lanterns into alleys and dark doorways; it is clerics of the Sun Goddess Kemma, celebrating a holiday known as the "Day of Reach." But soon, as they go further into the less reputable parts of Djaw, the Kemmans are left behind. As they approach their destination, they start to hear noises from the surrounding buildings, as if they’re being shadowed. Nothing shows itself. Finally they reach the Plaza of Glory, a small abandoned place with a broken statue of an angel in its center. There is no obvious church or temple to be seen, but some searching reveals a concealed door; one of the boarded up doorways is itself a door, boards and all. When they open it, they are challenged by a small kobold-like creature, who demands that they leave all of their weapons outside if they wish an audience within. The party assents, and is led inside. They find themselves in a dark courtyard, surrounded on all sides by dilapidated buildings. Eyes peer out from the darkness all around them, and the air is full of whispers. A humanoid shape approaches out of the darkness; it appears to be a horribly disfigured man, limping, with a hunched back and one eye covered by his own drooping brow. In a coarse whispering voice, he introduces himself as Shreen the Fair, Night-Master of the Temple of the Dark Mother. The party greets him, and when he asks why they have come, they ask him straight away about the Crosser’s’ Maze. Shreen answers. As he talks, his voice fluctuates, sometimes a cracked whisper, sometimes pleasant and normal, and sometimes rising into a harsh scream. When his voice rises, many rasping and hooting cackles come from the darkness all around them, making it evident that the party is surrounded by dozens of unseen creatures. Shreen is a horrible and unpleasant person, and he mocks Morningstar, whose connection to Ell is stifled and then severed while standing in this unholy place. But he does give the party information. It seems that some weeks before, a wizardess named Lapis had stormed the Shrine with force, calling upon "spirits of the Earth" to force her way in. She had demanded Shreen to surrender any information he had about the Crosser’s Maze, and he had given her the only book in their library that mentions it. According to Shreen, that book talked of a people called the Walkers of the Maze, who used the Maze to travel between the Planes. These people lived in a southern country called Ocir, and it is there, Shreen guesses, that Lapis is now going. However, Shreen himself doesn’t believe that book is true. He considers its author a heretic, one who holds the blasphemous belief that monsters were originally created by man to be servants, and were then freed by Dralla. Shreen himself has heard a different story. He offers to share it, but first he makes the party, each individually, swear to Dralla that they when they are "finished with the Crosser’s Maze," they will return it to him. He also makes them swear that they will bring him back Lapis’s head. When they have done so, he tells them what he knows of the Maze. Shreen was told a story by the previous Night-Master, about a snake-man named T’sserss, who learned to walk the Maze. T’sserss had (according to the story) been granted a vision by the Goddess Dralla, that the path to the Maze "begins with the City of False Life, and ends with the City of False Life." According to the legend, T’sserss made this journey, and eventually walked the Maze and returned to his home Plane. That’s all he knows. Shreen then bids the party begone, and shuffles back into the darkness; the Company departs to the hoots and howls of the unseen masses hiding in the darkness. They can’t get out of there fast enough. At least their weapons were left undisturbed. Tuesday, November 10 - Tuesday, December 8 – The party decides to spend some weeks training in Djaw. A whole lot of other stuff happens too. The party consults a sage named Four Keen Mind about Het Branoi and the City of False Life. (Four Keen Mind actually refers them to a colleague, Three Surpassing Wisdom, on the matter of the City.) From Mind, they learn that the Hets were towers built and used by a splinter group of the Black Circle called the Insulati. According to legend, the Hets were enchanted so as to be bigger on the inside than the outside, and also to be invisible from without. About 400 years ago, the Black Circle decided that they could no longer abide the existence of the Insulati, and the Hets were destroyed, or at least gutted and emptied. The rumor was that they were involved in something so horrible and dangerous that even the Black Circle would not reoccupy them. There were four known Hets, all accounted for: Het Chanob in the mountains between Delfir and Bederen; Het Kai Kin in southern Ocir; Het Runnel in the hills of central Anlakis, and Het Shirfin somewhere in the Endless Wood. Those are the only four; there is no known Het called "Branoi." However, there was a place called Branoi. It is not shown on any current maps, but Keen Mind has found a map scrap which shows a region called "Branoi" in the uncivilized wilds of north-east Kivia, in a country once known as Surgoil. Presumably, Het Branoi is a heretofore undiscovered Het somewhere in that region. (Het Branoi is the place where the Company's two Eyes of Moirel (speaking through Eddings) said that a third Eye of Moirel was located. The party will need the third Eye (say the first two Eyes) in order to "travel nowhere" (whatever that means). Other interesting occurrences during training in Djaw: While sparring with other party members and a hired trainer named Three Sudden Strike, Morningstar is suddenly (from the point of view of others) enshrouded in darkness. From her point of view, the sparring field vanishes and her companions vanish and are replaced by her Avatar trainer from Dream. Morningstar spars with the Avatar for what feels like an hour, though it’s only a few minutes in reality. Then the darkness vanishes, and Morningstar discovers that her shield and weapon have been transformed into holy items, augmented in power. A week later the party is approached by One Certain Step, a Paladin of Kemma (the Kivian Sun Goddess). Step had a dream some weeks ago about that he believes concerns the party: he saw a dense jungle, and a small bamboo hut hung over with vines; he saw a jet-black tower inside a ring of rock, with a gate of giant ribs; he saw two great swinging anvils, with small figures running between them; and he saw a huge black circle hanging in the air, with armies of evil pouring through them. Still dreaming, he saw a scared text of Kemma, pages dry and cracked and long unused. He saw the book open, and words blazed out of them, but he could not read them. The next morning when he awoke, he went to the church library and found the book from his dream. In it he found an obscure poem whose meaning had never been gleaned, but which he believes is referring to the party. Step had observed the party moving through the Court of Cats on the Kemman holiday of the Day of Reach a couple weeks back, and has been trying to decide how best broach the subject. In the end he has decided for the direct approach. The party immediately makes the connection that the "Last of Five"
is Het Branoi, and decide that One Certain Step is destined to go there with
them. They agree to take on Step as a traveling companion. They are pleased
to learn that he owns a war horse (named Thunder) and a flaming greatsword.
Aravis decides to take a cat as a Familiar. He goes to the Court of Cats to perform the ritual, figuring he’ll get a good one that way. Once again, the cats crowd around him, and this is only exacerbated by his Summon Familiar ritual. While he is casting, one particular grey cat walks up to Kay and starts meowing. Kay casts Speak with Animals. The cat says that he remembers from earlier that Kay can speak the cat-tongue. He asks Kay to intercede on his behalf, and tell Aravis to pick him. He lists his credentials as a superior intellect and great skill at mousing. This particular cat also thinks that Aravis is "like a cat," in a way that he can’t explain, but which is obvious to the cats. Kay tells Aravis about the grey cat that wants to be his Familiar, and Aravis goes with him. The cat has no name for itself, so Aravis, for the short term at least, calls it Pewter. As Flicker trains, he comes back each night particularly tired. He claims this is because of the difficulty of staying hidden from the Faceless, who do not permit non-member thieves to practice in Djaw. Also he confesses that he has "invested" a large sum of the party funds (specifically, the proceeds from the sale of the Tiger-man’s statuettes, plus a bit of his own cash) in the upcoming Farangi match. Farangi, also known as the "Sport of Emperors," is a game played in a huge arena in the center of town. It is somewhat like soccer, played on an uneven field and with multiple ways to score. Flicker is willing to reveal that he has "an angle" on the upcoming game, and is certain enough of the winner to bet the farm. Some of the party is furious with him (especially Ernie and Morningstar) for risking party funds without consulting them. When the morning of the Farangi match arrives, Flicker is gone, but has left a note for the party. He has gone ahead to the match to make arrangements, and has borrowed Dranko’s magical bag, presumably to transport the winnings he expects. The party eats breakfast and goes to the coliseum. There, they sit next to a woman who explains the rules of the game to them. She also mentions that one team, the Lamplighters, is heavily favored, since the Hawks are missing their star Carrier. (The Carrier is the only person on a Farangi team allowed to carry the ball and run with it.) Apparently, the Hawks have trained a new Carrier who had never even played Farangi before a few weeks ago. And then, just as it dawns on the party… …the Hawks come running onto the field, and Flicker is with them! The game begins, and it is soon apparent why Flicker was so confident. He was born to be a Carrier. His mixture of strength and speed is excellent, but it is his ability as an Escape Artist that makes him so valuable. Each Farangi team has two Ropers, who are allowed to use a 24’ length of rope any way they see fit, as long as they do no permanent injury to anyone. Often, the Ropers will use their rope to constrain the opposing Carrier, but Flicker is able to escape from every trick the opposing Ropers try. With his help, the Hawks win the game handily. Flicker expects the party will be thrilled at his little surprise, but they are not amused. What about keeping a low profile? What would have happened if the party had had to leave Djaw suddenly? It’s clear that Flicker hadn’t thoroughly considered some of the possible implications, but on the other hand, he made about 30,000 GP profit on the match. He promises to consult the party before trying any similar stunt in the future, and he does seem contrite about the whole affair, so the party generally forgives him. (Here are the Rules of Farangi, Sport of Emperors ) (Run 89 begins) - The party finally hears back from Three Surpassing Wisdom, on the subject of the City of False Life. The "City of False Life" is the name given to a failed experiment out in the Dry Wastes to the south of Tev. Long ago, mages of Tev thought that they could make a city (which they named "Repose") in which all drudgery and manual labor would be done by constructs. For many years, it seemed to be working; golems were put to use in building the city buildings, quarrying stone and hauling materials. The wizards build themselves a magnificent Town Hall and Guild headquarters, and other Golems were built to defend Repose. Then, all at once, some disaster struck the city. Some say that the Golems all went berserk and struck down their creators. Some say that an earthquake struck the city and the wizards then abandoned it. Some say the city was overrun by monsters despite its defenses, and the wizards driven out. A few adventurers who have ventured into the Wastes have reported finding the ruins of Repose, but have claimed it’s not worth venturing inside, since nothing valuable remains. One night, about three weeks into their training, each member of the party (except for Morningstar) is visited in a dream by Shreen the Fair, who reminds them that they promised Dralla to return to the Crosser’s Maze to him. Morningstar is aware only of a faint scratching at the edges of her dreams. A few nights later Grey Wolf is awoken one night by the now-familiar churning in his gut. He sits up to discover that a small, almost kobold-like humanoid is in his room, clutching a scrap of paper. The little man looks at the paper, looks at Grey Wolf, and then speaks in a strange tongue over his shoulder to some unseen person behind him. Ernie, also in the room, wakes and pulls a weapon on the man, but the man ignores him. The stranger keeps talking in different strange tongues, until finally he says "Can you understand me? Can you understand me?" in Charagan Common! Grey Wolf responds that he can. The little man holds out something in his hand; it is a small, green pellet. In halting Common, he says "Please… it is not permitted for those in my order to take a life. But for the sake of all of them, please, take this. It is quick and painless. Please, take it." He hands Grey Wolf the pellet. Then he looks over his shoulder, and a look of absolute terror crosses his face. "Please…" he says to Grey Wolf – and then a spear blossoms from his chest, there is a tremendous spurt of blood, and the man vanishes. Before training ends, Aravis has time to analyze the pellet. It is a swift and deadly poison. Before they leave Djaw, Aravis finishes making himself of Wand of Magic Missiles, and Ernie brews some healing potions. (Later Aravis discovers that, having had to use someone else’s laboratory and unfamiliar equipment, there is slight malfunction with the Wand. It fires Magic Missiles just fine, but with each use there is a bright flash around Aravis’s head, and his hair changes color and style. The same change affects Pewter’s fur. Their hair typically returns to normal after a few hours.) Speaking of magic items, the party finds buyers for a couple that they want to sell: their Cloak of the Fire Cat (taken off of Hodge at Seablade Point), and a magical mace consecrated to Nifi, taken in one of the battles as they fled Delfir. Lastly, the party meets with One Certain Step at the gleaming Church of Kemma. They have an audience with the High Priest there, named One Shining Mirror. Mirror asks the party to go with Step, to investigate a location long thought to be controlled by forces of Drosh, the Harbinger, God of Death and nemesis of Kemma, the Sun Goddess. The location is more or less on the way to the presumed location of the City of False Life, which is the party’s next destination, so they agree. Wednesday, December 9 – With training done, the party and One Certain Step strike out east of Djaw, heading generally for the mountains which separate the Plains of the White Sun from the Dry Wastes. Somewhere in the hills east of the mountains is the purported Droshi unholy ground. Thursday, December 10 – Wednesday, December 16 – They travel across the plains. At first the party passes through fields and farms, and then across uninhabited grasslands. Eventually the land becomes more rocky and less vegetated, and starts to rise to meet the distant hills. Raven seem to be flying overhead in slightly higher numbers than might be expected. Thursday, December 17 – Near dusk, a number of ravens stop circling and dive-bomb Aravis without provocation. Although they prove to be just an annoyance, they turn out be accompanied by two huge Dire Ravens, which prove to be an outright danger. They are clearly targeting Aravis (or maybe Pewter, who’s hiding in Aravis’ pack) and don’t attack anyone else. The party slays the birds without too much difficulty, and they are not accosted again. Friday, December 18 - Monday, December 21 – The party continues to travel into the foothills of the northern Greytowers, heading toward the supposed location of the Droshi unholy spot. Tuesday, December 22 – They find one wide pass that leads through the hills, and discover, scrawled on a large boulder in a foreign tongue, the word "Death." Hm. A few hours later on they discover a more grisly warning: five skeletons are mounted on crude wooden crosses, and in that same language the words "turn back" are written nearby on another boulder. Of course this only confirms to the party that they’re on the right track, so they continue up the pass. Finally they see an actual skeleton walking toward them from ahead; it seemed to have risen right up from nowhere, as though moments before it had been just a pile of bones on the ground. As it approaches a voice comes from it, saying "Turn back now, or…" But whatever the warning was, the party never hears it, as Dranko calls upon the holy might of Delioch and blasts the skeleton to splinters. And as the pieces of bone fragment rain down, an ominous sound starts up, from all around them, getting quickly louder. It sounds like the clatter of thousands of dice in a huge wooden cup. And then, from over the hills on almost every side, dozens of skeletons come streaming toward them. Some are human-sized, and some are larger, and some look like the skeletons of giants. And one huge jointed skeletal leg can be seen stepping over the hill in front and to the left. (Run 90 begins) The party talks it over for about three seconds, and decides to turn the horses around and ride back the way they came, before the circle of encroaching skeletons can close around them. They just barely make it, largely in part to Thunder (One Certain Step’s war-horse), who has a calming and controlling influence on the other horses. Looking back, they see that the huge leg was part of a 40’ tall bone construct generally shaped like a huge spider. It has eight huge legs, sharpened to points at the bottom. The body is a huge ring of bones, somehow fused together. The head is also not a single skull, but dozens of bones built into a monstrous shape. The head is mounted at the end of what looks like a flat bone platform, half of which is inside and half of which is outside the body-ring. And while the horses are leaving most of the skeletons behind, the huge bone-spider is not falling behind, covering ground swiftly with its eight huge legs. To make things even more interesting, a huge skeletal tiger comes running at the party from the other direction as they flee. It’s 30’ long, but unlike the spider, this new foe really does seem to be the skeleton of a real creature, in this case likely a Dire Tiger. Step charges it, waving his fiery greatsword. Kay and Oa-Lyanna fly upward to attack the spider. The fight that follows is long and brutal. The mages fly upward on the flying carpet and out of harm’s way, while the others do battle with the spider and the tiger. Grey Wolf sees that the rest of the skeletons, along with a second skeletal tiger, are catching up fast, so he slows them down with a Sleet Storm. Kay attacks while flying, but the platform-mounted head-assembly of the spider can quickly spin around the ring. It catches her in its mandibles, which turn out to be two rhino horns grafted into the head. Crunch! Kay is punctured and in pain. Makel uses his Wand of Wonder (command word "Axelthrood") , and it shoots out a Lightning Bolt. He is very pleased. Morningstar makes good use of Searing Darkness to wound the spider. The mages wield Flaming Spheres. Makel uses the Wand again… and produces a fierce thunderstorm in his immediate vicinity. Undaunted, he uses it a third time…and the already gigantic spider grows in size! Makel curses, flings the Wand to the ground, and charges to attack with his sword. Meanwhile Step and Dranko have nearly killed the Tiger, and the Spider is also looking bad. Finally, the party manages to kill both creatures, though when the spider collapses, it falls on Makel. Ernie calls upon Yondalla’s strength, and rushes into the heaped bones of the fallen spider to save him. At about this time, the rest of the skeletons show up, well over a hundred strong. Most are man-sized, but some are more like ogre-skeletons, and a scattered here and there are the skeletons of giants, 16’ tall. And there’s that second huge skeletal tiger. Dranko uses the Infinity Book, which currently shows the powerful spell Reverse Gravity, to take the tiger out of the combat. (The page burns up as the spell is read; each spell from the book is one-use-only.) The mages bombard the skeletons with Fireballs. But the real damage is done by the Clerics and Step, who spend most of the combat Turning wave after wave of the undead. Morningstar especially, with her augmented powers of Turning, blasts dozens of skeletons to bits. But after each Turning blasts some foes to fragments, more skeletons rush in to fill the gap, and the party is hard-pressed, mostly fighting back-to-back. There seems to be no end to the undead attackers. Grey Wolf, out of spells, is fighting with the magic sword Bostock. Kay rides the ragged border of consciousness, and Ernie burrows his way to Makel, moving a huge piece of bone off his chest and healing him just in time. The clerics keep blasting, and with their last Turning kill the final humanoid skeleton. Victory!…and not a moment too soon. Several party members have been clawed to or near unconsciousness during the fight, and the party’s total resources are nearly depleted. They finish off the helpless and gravity-reversed tiger, and take a breathless moment to survey the field. All the ground around them is covered with a layer of splintered bone, punctuated by pools of their own blood. The party does some quick healing to get at least into traveling shape, and then they retreat back down the pass to rest and recover. |