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Runs 1-10
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Campaign Diary of Abernathy's Company (runs 91-100) (1830) The plain is gashed by a wide and deep box canyon, and down on the canyon floor is a huge army of skeletons, thousands strong. There are several of the huge spider-things, along with an assortment of other freakish constructed horrors. Built up along the near edge of the chasm are huge scaffolds, and skeletons seem to be constructing some sort of platform-and-pulley apparatus. The carpet team doesn’t spend a lot of time hanging around, but flies back to the rest of the party to report. They decide not to investigate or become entangled with the undead army, but Morningstar does send a detailed dream back to One Shining Mirror, High Priest of Kemma back in Djaw, warning him of what they’ve found. Thursday, December 24 - Tuesday, January 6, 1831- The party travels toward the Grey Wastes and (hopefully) the city of Repose. (The party purchased a map of Kivia back in Djaw that shows unlabeled ruins in the middle of the wastes, and it there that the party is generally heading.) The Company skirts the northern spur of the mountains, within sight of the distant woods. The descent takes them away from the wooded hills and into the gray and barren Dry Wastes. Wednesday, January 7 - While traveling across the hilly Wastes, the party hears a distant bell ringing, right around noontime. At once flocks of birds start flapping overhead, and indeed fill the sky all around the area. All of them are headed toward a specific spot not far away. The party heads in that direction, crests two more low hills, and sees below them a tremendous city wall, largely crumbled away, encircling a large area of ruins. It must be Repose! They descend to the wall, and cautiously enter the ruins of the city. Almost all of the buildings in Repose have decayed to rubble, but a few walls and roofs are still standing. The streets are littered with debris, including the occasional human bone, and bits of wooden golems. Not long after they enter, a lumbering stone golem approaches dragging behind it the rotting remains of some wooden contraption. It doesn’t attack, and the party sees that the wooden debris behind it was once a large cart. They discover that it will respond to simple directional commands, and decide it once must have been a sort of automated taxi golem. The party reaches a plaza near the center of town, and finds why the birds were congregating. In the center of the plaza is a stone pillar, about 30’ high and 10’ in diameter. The top 5’ of the pillar is actually a hollowed stone basin, out of which once ran six curved troughs, arcing slightly downward and into the ruins of the city. (Currently, all but one of the troughs has broken off near the base.) Floating above the pillar, supported by nothing, is an iron ring, fixed in space. About 5 feet off the ground are six spokes, like those on a ship’s wheel, protruding from a black metal ring wrapped tight around the pillar. A clay golem is walking around the pillar, slowly pushing on one of the spokes. As the ring turns, a small trickle of water comes out of the floating iron ring and drips into the basin. The birds crowd around, greedily drinking the water. Elsewhere in the plaza are the remains of other clay golems that presumably once all were used to turn the "water wheel." The party decides to head to the Town Hall, which they heard about from Three Surpassing Wisdom back in Djaw. They don't know where it is, but they cleverly instruct the taxi golem to go there and then follow it. They find themselves standing in front of a magnificent stone building, three stories tall. Though there are places which look like windows, they are completely filled in with stone. There are wide marble steps leading up to great stone double doors. Two metal circles are set into the ground near the stairs. There are more bones than usual in and around these. The party approaches the building, and as they do so, two large stone figures appear, one on each of the metal circles. Each of these tall golems has heavy anvils bolted onto its arms in lieu of hands. Through a Magic Mouth, one of the golems speaks: "Greetings, travelers. We regret that the Repose Town Hall is closed, pending the return of Maker Kinnvhad. Authorized visitors should perform the usual ritual. Unauthorized people should not attempt to enter the Hall; anyone doing so will be executed. We apologize for any inconvenience." The party doesn’t go closer, and after a few moments, the golems vanish. However, each new approach toward the building brings them back, with the same warning. The party contemplates different ways of avoiding the golem guardians. They use Stone Shape to disrupt the stone around one of the round metal platforms, hoping this will disrupt whatever sort of teleportation the golems are using. But when Aravis casts a Knock spell on the double doors, both golems return, and immediately attack the party. A brutal fight ensues; the golems are difficult to damage, and dish out horrendous damage with their anvil-ended arms. One Certain Step’s face is smashed in by one blow, and he is barely saved from death by a healing spell. But before the battle is over, disaster strikes. One of the golems catches Ernie with a devastating two anvil combination. The first catches him in the gut, lifting him bodily off the ground. The second comes swinging in from the side, and hits him in the face. His neck jerks violently around with sickening snap, and his body falls to the ground. Dranko rushes over, but it’s too late. Ernie is dead. The rest of the party manages to defeat the golems, but the victory seems hollow indeed. (run 92 begins) - Much discussion follows about what to do with Ernie. He has said in the past that he would want to be brought back if he still had an important task left undone, and this is obviously the case now. In the end, because time is pressing, they decide to fly him straight back to Djaw on the Carpet at the fastest possible speed. Hopefully, some priest at the Church of Yondalla there will be able to Raise him from the dead. (Yondalla has a significant presence in Kivia. There is an entire nation of militaristic halflings, called Appleseed, about 500 miles north-east of Djaw. These halflings worship Yondalla in her soldier/protector role, whereas in Charagan she is more known as the Mother of the Hearth.) Thursday, January 8 – While the carpet team (Aravis, One Certain Step and Flicker) flies to Djaw (bearing all of the party’s wealth in case it’s asked for), the others try to figure out how they’re going to get into the still-sealed Town Hall. Summoned Earth Elementals are unable to force their way in, and Kay’s magic warhammer makes no noticeable dint in the doors, stone walls, or roof. Meanwhile, the carpet team arrives in Djaw after a 24-hour fly-a-thon over the mountains and across the plains. A priest at the temple of Yondalla takes them in, and announces that he won’t know until the next day if Ernie can be restored. Friday, January 9 – The party members return to the Church early in the morning, and are told that, yes, Ernie can be brought back from the dead. In return, the party is asked to make a large donation to the church, and also told that they must agree to accept some additional task that Ernie will know upon coming back to life. The Raising, says the Priest, will take about three weeks. The carpet team pays the money, swears to do whatever task ends up set for them, thanks the priest profusely, and starts back immediately to the ruins of Repose. Back at the ruins, Aravis has discovered that Gaseous Form also doesn’t allow entrance to the Town Hall, and that Dispel Magic cast on the doors is not sufficient either. Saturday, January 10 – The carpet team arrives back at the ruins, and gives the others the good news about Ernie. Later that day, the party finally gains access to the Town Hall – a combination of a DispelMagic simultaneous with a Knock on the front doors does the trick. Carefully, the party enters the long-abandoned building. The first floor is uninhabited; the doors open into a lobby-like area with a smashed desk at the far end. The party discovers two more round metal discs, which they surmise to be where the anvil-golems stood when not brought out to defend the building. Other parts of the first floor were clearly used once for storage, though nothing valuable (or indeed, recognizable) remains in the store-rooms. There is a wrecked dining room, and a large kitchen. In the kitchen there is a golem made of wood with iron supports, with one leg mostly broken, and wearing a chef’s hat. It still moves feebly about, and when the party requests a meal, it even goes feebly through the motions of cooking, grabbing long-rotted ingredients off a nearby shelf. This makes the party think of Ernie, which just makes them more depressed, so they leave the golem behind and ascend to the second story of the building. The second floor looks like the main golem-construction area. Most of the story is taken up by a large room with a slightly raised pedestal in its center. There are shattered bits of wood, clay, stone, and bone scattered all around the place. Lying half on the floor and half on the pedestal is a battered and broken iron golem. There is also a large bloodstain on the stone floor nearby. A few smaller workrooms are arrayed around the large central room. In one of these is a desk on which rest some finely crafted wooden hands, and some wooden arms and legs are propped up against the wall. In another room is a set of hinged stone casting molds for various limbs and torsos. Others rooms contain scattered and rotten parchment, various broken bits of wood, and assorted laboratory equipment. It looks as if some tremendous fighting had raged all about the place. From one of these workrooms, a voice can be heard shouting from a closet. Carefully the party approaches, and opens the closet. What they find inside, sitting on a high shelf, is a beautifully crafted iron head, worked and detailed like stone, and with two large emeralds in place of eyes. Heaped in the closet below the head is a jumble of smashed wooden limbs. A human voice is coming from the head: it begs to be released. When the party removes the head from the shelf, it begins to shower thanks upon them. It identifies itself as Five Silent Crow, and announces that it once was the Emperor of Djaw. Over the course of a subsequent discussion, it also claims to have been the Emperor’s chef (the finest in the world!), a mighty warrior, and a powerful wizard. Sometimes it’s many of these at once. In the midst of its babbling, it starts wailing that it cannot move its eyes from looking fixedly ahead. And that it cannot eat. It asks frantically about its body, to which it expected to be attached, but the party doesn’t have the heart to tell him about the wrecked body in the closet. The topmost floor of the building contains a large (and wrecked) lounge, and a completely burned out library. It also contains two hallways with a number of emptied out bedrooms. But the last of these bedrooms is not empty. There is a painting on the far wall, and a scroll tube on a desk, both of which radiate magic. Nevertheless, the party marches into the room, and someone picks up the scroll tube. Immediately, the door slams shut and magically seals itself. There is a faint hissing sound, and after a few seconds, it becomes clear that all of the air is being magically sucked out of the room! A Magic Mouth appears on the painting and says: "Hello Kollvhad; just speak the name of our favorite dessert." The party spends about 20 seconds blurting out all the names of
every dessert they can think of, but the air keeps getting thinner and thinner.
And then someone remembers the pot of magical Pigments that Aravis has been
carrying around. He pulls them out and starts to draw a tunnel out of the
room. With no time to spare, and some of the party already unconscious, he
finishes, and those still conscious drag the others out of the room to safety.
Breathing freely once again, Flicker opens the scroll tube, and receives the warm greeting of a Fire Trap. But he is easily healed, and the party finds a letter inside the tube .. The letter is from the last inhabitant of Repose, a man named Kinnvhad, to his brother. It tells all about what happened to the city, and why it is abandoned. At the end of the letter Kinnvhad announces that he is headed for the Jungle of Dreams to find something called the Crosser’s Maze. A ha! (run 93 begins) - The party goes back down to talk with Five Silent Crow. He still talks at length about his old glory days as Emperor of Djaw. He also claims that Kinnvhad’s and Kollvhad’s favorite dessert is "Kai Kin Custard." (The party is disgruntled, because one of the desserts they had blurted out was "custard." Close, but not close enough!) Using a Memory Read, Morningstar learns that Crow was once an old and dying wizard, and that some colleagues of his had worked out a spell to transfer his mind into a golem body. The city of Repose was the only place with the resources to carry off the spell, and so he was going to be taken there. The only problem with the spell was that there was no guarantee when Crow’s consciousness would awaken inside the head. And when that eventually happened, the head was in the closet, and the Town Hall had already been abandoned. Crow’s insanity seems well explained. The party promises to take Crow back to Djaw with them when they go, and he promises them all the reward that a former Emperor can bestow. The group then spends some time speculating about the Crosser’s Maze. A thing made of "mind, metal and thought" (as the letter states) is the best description of the thing they’ve found thus far. There is even some suspicion that Five Silent Crow’s head is the Crosser’s Maze, though this seems unlikely. As Flicker is wont to point out, the letter from Kinnvhad also mentioned valuables that have so far not been in evidence. But there is one more door left unopened on the top floor of the Town Hall, and mapping done by the party shows a large space still unexplored. They open this door and see an empty stone room with a carpeted floor, and two doors, one on each side wall. When some of the party enters the room and approaches the doors, they (the doors) vanish, and the illusion of the chamber is revealed. The walls and ceiling are not stone, but flesh…a sickly pink flesh filled with horrid eyes and wide, gibbering mouths! A thick curtain of flesh spills from the ceiling and covers the doorway through which about half the party entered. In the melee that ensues, the disgusting creature lashes at party members with fleshy pseudopodia, and is able to pin some of its foes with strong, fleshy ropes. The gibbering mouths make it difficult to cast spells, and the touch of the creature slowly drains strength away from its victims. But the party is able to overcome the creature (called "Glaum" in Kinnvhad’s letter) through sheer force of numbers; as it dies, it melts into a sickening puddle of fleshy goo, with the stuff from the ceiling dripping onto the floor. And as Glaum melts away from the far wall, a last door is revealed, and beyond it is a small room containing a great deal of monetary and magical wealth. There is much rejoicing. Sunday, January 11 – Wednesday, January 14 – (Run 94 begins) The party journeys back to Djaw. Thursday, January 15 – While traveling across the uninhabited wilderness, Grey Wolf experiences a "gut-churner," and two young children appear nearby. They are holding crude fishing poles, and both are clearly scared. They look around in surprise and fear, and at first cringe away from the party. After showing that they mean no harm, the party learns that the older girl (around 9 years old) is named Rey, and the younger boy (about 4) is named Cole. They live on a small farm near a city they call "Chinniphath." They are poor and hungry and say that the "bad king" takes daddy’s food and doesn’t pay him what it’s worth. Daddy says the food goes to feed a big army the bad king has. The party spends some time worrying about what to do with the kids, though they realize that they’ll probably vanish. They give the children some money and food, and a short while later, they do in fact disappear, hopefully back to their family. Friday, January 16 - Sunday, January 18 – Travel back to Djaw. Monday, January 19 – That evening while camped, the party is taken unawares by a swarm of rats that attacks without provocation. Their attacks are aimed entirely at Aravis. A Fireball takes care of many, and Aravis goes Gaseous to avoid their bites and scratches. Then a larger creature approaches, cautiously – it is a cross between an overgrown rat and a man. It announces itself as a Warden, and warns them that, should the party try to kill it, they are surrounded by thousands more rats who will attack and kill them all. The party listens to what it has to say. The Warden says that it has been sent by the Council of Nine, to kill Aravis if possible, and to warn him if it’s not. It doesn’t know why it was sent, only that Aravis is a dangerous enemy. The Warden’s warning is that Aravis is not to approach the Endless Wood for any reason. If he goes in, he will be killed. With his message delivered, the Rat Warden flees into the darkness, and they party hears the sounds of hundreds of rats leaving with him. What the heck, they all wonder, is the "Council of Nine?" Tuesday, January 20 - Monday, February 3 – The party finishes their journey back to Djaw. A few days out from the city they pass a pair of field scouts, sent by the Emperor of Djaw himself. There are many such scouts, on the lookout for an army of undead that might be advancing out of the mountains. It seems that Morningstar’s dream-message was received and taken seriously! In fact, in the fields that surround the city, many soldiers are being given extra training in the use of simple blunt weapons, the better to fight skeletons with. Also during this time, Kay surprises everyone by saying "yes" to Dranko. "Yes what?" Dranko replies. "Yes, I’ll marry you," says Kay. Several jaws drop. Dranko desperately tries to remember when he asked her. (It was after battle against the Tiger-man, meant as a throw-away line of gratitude.) Dranko, a low-charisma half-orc whose marriage prospects were never particularly good, instinctively says "Sure!" (Alas, their engagement doesn’t last very long. Over the next few weeks Ernie gives Dranko many lectures about actually being in love with the person one marries, and Dranko is forced to admit that he agreed to marry Kay more because he figured he’d never get hitched otherwise.) Tuesday, February 4 - The party goes immediately to the Church of Yondalla, and there is a joyful reunion with Ernie, freshly returned from the dead. (During the interim, Ernie had found himself back at the Inn Between, helping with the cooking duties beside Dolly and Barnabas. One evening Dolly approached him and quietly told him it was time to go back; his time for eternal rest had not yet come. Before he returned to the living, Ernie was made to promise two things as payment for being brought back to life. One was that sometime after the party’s current quest, they’d have to come back and help the halflings of Appleseed, whose people will be in a great peril from which only the party can save them. The second promise is that when the Nifi Priest Qalonno next demands that the party return the flying carpet Burning Sky, Ernie must assent and give it up. Ernie agrees to both of these things, though he doesn’t actually tell the party about the promise to give up the carpet.) One Certain Step is able to convince his Church to lend him a keelboat, to expedite the party’s travel down the river toward the mountains. It is their intent to go to Levenmud, (and perhaps the dwarven lands of Gurund) to learn of a way across the Stoneguard mountains. (The supposedly-impassable Stoneguard Mountains run southwest-to-northeast for 1000 miles, from the central southern coast of Kivia into the deserted wastes far to the north. Looking at their map of Kivia bought in Djaw, the party sees that there are three choices for reaching the Jungle of Dreams to the east of the mountains. They could go around to the north, but that would (at best) take them many months of travel through dangerous uncharted territory. They could go south to the coast, but that would also take more time, and necessitate travel through two countries with reputations for political intrigues and xenophobia. Plus they’d need to find a boat, since their Folding Boat cannot be floated in Kivian waters. Near the end of the river, past the southernmost of the Jewels of the Plains (Levenmud), is the small dwarven kingdom of Gurund. Several dwarven villages are indicated in the mountains themselves, and while there are no passes marked, the party hopes that the dwarves will know some way across the mountains to the jungle beyond.) Wednesday, February 5 - The party departs Djaw aboard the Floating Light, a ship that belongs to the Church of Kemma. They sail down the river toward Fanaam, the last city before Levenmud. Thursday, February 6 - In the late morning the Floating Light reaches a portage-way. A small riverside village has grown up around the area, and for a fee a group of teamsters will move the ship a few hundred yards down river, bypassing some unnavigable rapids. As the party leaves the ship and walks into the little village, they are approached by a hooded figure who then reveals himself to be Qalonno, the Delfirian priest who has been after the flying carpet. He demands that the party return it, claiming that this time, knowing the party’s combat abilities, he knows he can take the carpet by force if necessary. And then, to everyone’s surprise, Ernie hands over the carpet. Qalonno smiles, takes it, and starts to walk away. When the party calls after him, promising that they’ll meet again, Qalonno responds by saying, "well, when that day comes, I wonder how many of you still be alive." And with that, he pulls three small glowing red stones from his pocket, and drops them on the ground. Then he starts casting a spell. The party tries to thwart Qalonno before he can escape, but attempts by Aravis and Grey Wolf to Mage Hand the glowing stones back into the rolled-up carpet fail. Still, just as Qalonno finishes his spell and vanishes, Kay shoots him in the shoulder with her magic Arrow of Wounding, which she’s been saving for a special occasion. The three red stones erupt in flames, and when the flames die down three large red Salamanders are left "standing" in their stead. (run 95 begins) - A brutal fight ensues against the three Salamanders. The creatures are snakes from the waist down, but humanoid from the waist up. They wield long iron spears that are glowing red-hot. Flames play up and down the bodies of these creatures and along the spears themselves. Their long reach with the burning spears makes melee combat against them quite a challenge. The largest of the Salamanders also demonstrates its ability to cast large fireballs, and the fire damage not only doesn't damage the creatures, it seems to heal them. A couple of minutes and many third-degree burns later, the party overcomes the monsters. (As each Salamander is slain, it pops out of existence in the manner of a Summoned creature.) A brave teamster had bravely (but ineffectually) joined the fight while the other commoners hid; although he is knocked out by fire damage, he somehow survives the encounter, and the party heals him. When the portage of the ship is complete, the party pays the teamsters and heads down along the river to meet up with their ship and resume their voyage. En route they pass a trio of slavers, members of the Guild of Chains, leading a string of six Dwarves in chains going the other way. A brief, tense encounter follows, but the slavers don't seem to consider the party a real threat. But as the slavers leave, Aravis can't resist; he casts Gaseous Form on the last Dwarf in the line, using Pewter to deliver the touch. The slavers demand to know what happened, but the party feigns ignorance, and since there's no proof of wrongdoing (and since the party outnumbers them three to one), the slavers depart, grumbling. But the Dwarf, named F'Guz, becomes desperate to return to the slavers! F'Guz tells the party that when any slave tries to escape or revolt, his family and village are made to pay. The party reluctantly lets him go back to the slavers, but they vow that when they're done saving the world, they're going to come back and free the dwarves from the oppression of the Guild of Chains. Friday, February 7 - (run 96 begins) - The party sails into the city of Fanaam, stopping only long enough for Aravis to pick up some alchemical supplies and for some of the others to procure materials for on-the-road training. (Fanaam is famous for its alchemists, and it is rumored that the Alchemists Guild there pretty much runs the city from behind the scenes.) On the way out of Fanaam, all ships must pass beneath a huge wooden archway built out over the river. Any ships that cannot fit through it will also be too large to sail through the Sea of Snakes, a swamp to the south through which the river runs for many miles. The party asks about the Sea of Snakes, and learns that it gets its name from (surprise!) a large snake population. The man at the arch tells them to watch out for snakes dropping from trees onto the deck, and that they should sleep below decks if possible. There are manned guard-posts along the main river-route, to help defend from the occasional predations of "snake-skins" (lizard men) that live deep inside the swamp. Saturday, February 8 - Monday, February 10 - The party enters the Sea of Snakes. It's a shifting swamp, with a maze of barely-navigable channels marked by buoys to indicate what size ships will safely be able to pass. Trees growing on the banks form a canopy overhead, and often Makel has to navigate carefully to prevent catching the mast on low-hanging branches, or catching the boat on large snags in the channels. Oa Lyanna proves invaluable, being able to finely manipulate the sail and maneuver the ship. There are swarms of insects, and of course snakes (some poisonous) are constantly dropping onto the deck. Makel carefully guides the ship, while the party stays alert for signs that lizard men have moved markers or are waiting in ambush. In the evenings the ship docks at one of the guard posts, and the party is advised to sleep below-decks, put out all lights, and make as little noise as possible. There is some dispute as to whether the Sea of Snakes is more or
less pleasant than the Mouth of Nahalm. Tuesday, February 11 - In the afternoon the party realizes that they have taken a wrong turn; up ahead they see a guard-post, but it proves to be half-destroyed and abandoned. They are not attacked by lizard-men. Instead, they are attacked by a large force of green bugmonkeys, identical save in color to the bugmonkeys the party encountered long ago beneath Gohgan's basement back in Charagan. They swarm the boat, even after the mages clear out a bunch by Fireballing the trees. Some approach from the water, trying to climb the side of the boat; Water Elementals are summoned to help deal with these. Other bugmonkeys drop from the trees above, and soon the deck is swarming with them. Kay, Ernie and Grey Wolf position themselves to protect Makel, while he turns the boat around as quickly as possible. Everyone does their share of fighting (with Kay in particular laying waste to the enemies, sending them flying off the boat), and eventually Makel steers the boat to safety. The bugmonkeys give up their attacks, and the party is able to continue on their voyage. That night at the next guard post, the party learns that no one has heard of bugmonkeys, but that now a mystery has been solved. A piece of bugmonkey shell had been discovered amidst the wreckage of an abandoned boat some weeks back, but no one knew what it was. Wednesday, February 12 - At last, the Floating Light emerges from the Sea of Snakes, and the city of Levenmud is within sight on the opposite bank of a wide delta. (run 97 begins) The party lands the boat in the wide and busy harbor, and walks into the un-walled and bustling city. On their way to a recommended inn (The "Snake's End") they reach the Auction Ring outside the Guild of Chains headquarters in the center of town. The day's auction is getting ready to start, and while a majority of the slaves in the cages are human, one of them is a dwarf. Morningstar pushes her way to the front of the gathering crowd, and casts Rary’s Telepathic Bond on the dwarf. His name is Azer, and in a brief telepathic conversation with him Morningstar learns that while Azer knows nothing of any means to cross the Stoneguard Mountains, there is an old village elder he knows of named Athulf who might be able to help. Athulf lives in the dwarven village of Culud, southernmost of a string of small villages south of Gurund City. Azer also asks not to be set free; he doesn't want to be bought by anyone in trouble with Guild of Chains, and he would probably just be re-captured and sold again before too long. He's depressing to talk to. That afternoon, the party leaves Levenmud and begins the journey to Culud. Thursday, February 13 - Sunday, February 16 - The Company travels eastward, up into the mountains, to Gurund City. Every 20 miles or so along the road is a Guild of Chains outpost; the party remains aloof from the slavers who stand guard. Monday, February 17 - They arrive in Gurund City, which is hardly bigger than most average-sized human towns. The dwarves actually have a thriving mining economy, and the standard of living does not seem especially poor. But there is a large Guild building on the outskirts of the city, serving as a constant reminder of who's in charge. The party wastes little time in Gurund City, and heads south immediately along the mountain road. Tuesday, February 18 - Monday, February 24 - Travel to Culud Tuesday, February 25 - The party arrives in Culud and seeks out the dwarven elder Athulf. He's old and crotchety and has little hope for his people, but he is willing to share his knowledge and opinions. For starters, Athulf reveals that some dwarves are traitors to their race, and are paid squealers for the Guild of Chains. The party should be careful about who they talk with; Athulf doesn't know exactly who can be trusted. Regarding the predations of the Guild, the healthiest young-adult males are usually taken as slaves. (About 100 dwarves are taken each year.) Even in the few generations that this practice has been going on, the dwarves have noticed a decrease in life-span. It's basically a depressing time and place to be a dwarf, but the Gurundians lack the numbers, the strength and the will to do anything about the powerful Guild of Chains. Decades ago the halflings of Appleseed raised a small army, marched southward, and temporarily broke the Guild's hold on the dwarves of Gurund. But some enemy of the halflings (presumably the Anlakis, their warlike neighbors to the west) launched an assault on Appleseed, the halflings had to withdraw their forces, and the Guild soon took hold again. Regarding a way through the mountains, Athulf doesn't know of any, but he is old enough to remember hearing stories from some dwarves who were only one generation removed from those who lived in the mountains. He knows that the dwarves once lived under the mountains, and that the Empire of Great Gurund stretched all the way across them. But the dwarves were driven out of the mountains long ago -- perhaps by Ogres, perhaps by a Dragon, perhaps by something else -- and they sealed off all of the old tunnels that emerged from their former home. Athulf does seem to think there would be some hope for his people if they could escape back underground, but he doesn't consider this a possibility because the underground is so extremely dangerous. He also suggests a general area where they might find one of those blocked-up tunnels, in an area with some seismic activity that might have opened one of the passages. (Also, that area is far from dwarven settlements, which means less risk if something dangerous escapes.) The party tells Athulf that there are places in the world where dwarves are free and strong. Even if they can do nothing else, they will tell those other dwarves about their enslaved kin and perhaps they will send help. In addition, Morningstar gives Athulf a thousand gold pieces to aid the dwarven cause. He is quite overwhelmed. Morningstar decides that she'll try to send dream-messages to Athulf, letting him know what they find under the mountains. (run 98 begins) The Company departs the home of Athulf and the dwarven village of Culud, heading southward into the mountains along narrow and seldom-used trails. Once Certain Step realizes right away that Thunder will be unable to navigate the mountainous terrain, and sends her back to Levenmud. There are some minor earth-tremors as they travel, but nothing devastating. The party camps in a small cave along a winding ledge-trail. No crack opens up in the back with goblins leaping out in ambush. Wednesday, February 26 - The next day the trail peters out, and the party is obliged to scramble up and down steep rocky slopes, often using ropes for security. After half a day of this weary meandering, the party crests a peak and sees some distant ruins in the bowl-shaped valley below. Dranko jumps and Feather Falls down, while the rest lower themselves down the steep mountainside with rope. Aravis slips as he starts his descent, but fortunately is caught by Makel, while Pewter hangs on to his master with his claws. Eventually, all are safely down at the bottom. Some exploration of the ruins reveals a) that they are dwarven in size and construction, and b) that there is an entrance into the mountainside on the eastern side that is entirely blocked up with stone. It looks like a controlled cave-in was used to thoroughly seal up the opening. Morningstar casts a Though Capture there and finds a thought of someone who is satisfied with a job well done. Aravis uses Gaseous Form to seep slowly through the cave-in and discovers that it can be bypassed about 30' in, though it's completely dark in the interior. He returns with his report, and the party makes a plan. Thursday, February 27 - The next day, Aravis casts Gaseous Form on all of the non-halflings, and they seep through the cave-in into the tunnel beyond. Aravis then Dimension Doors to transport himself, Flicker and Ernie. With Continual Flame torches out, the Company finds itself in a wide but low-ceilinged corridor, clearly dwarf-made, heading east through the mountain. This continues straight for a while, though there are short, meandering branch-tunnels that lead to featureless dead-ends. The party finds some rusting and rotten mining picks scattered about. There are also small creatures living in the darkness, cat-sized black-and-gray blind lizards that hop about on their hind legs. They seem harmless. The main tunnel opens into a large natural cavern, filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and some hoppers. The party chooses one of the two branching tunnels leading out from it, and continues. Soon after, they find that the hallway has collapsed, but the collapse has broken a hole into a new cavern. This one is larger that the previous, and bends away out of sight. There are signs that mineral veins have been mined out of this new cavern, but (to Dranko's dismay) there are no signs of treasure remaining. Near the back end of this cavern, Dranko spots something moving in the darkness, high up on a rocky formation. He looks...and is instantly turned to stone! Ernie instinctively looks for the attacker, and he too becomes petrified. The rest of the party, looking in horror at the statuesque forms of their companions, catches on and shields their eyes. Morningstar casts Detect Thoughts and gets a slow patient thought of something waiting for the still-living creatures to go away so that it can eat. The party spends a short time thinking about what they should do; the creature, whatever it is, is content to sit upon its rock. Morningstar Summons a small Earth Elemental that immediately moves to engage the creature in combat, but the Elemental is dispatched fairly quickly. Morningstar then decides to take matters into her own hands, ties on a blindfold, and climbs up to engage the creature while blindfolded. All of her years of blindfighting training pay off in spades; going on slight noises and instinct, she manages to pulverize the creature with her holy weapon. (A Celestial Badger Summoned by Grey Wolf delivers the killing blow, though Morningstar has done the vast majority of damage.) With the creature killed, the party gets to observe it safely; it's a large six-legged lizard, which Kay remembers is called a Basilisk (having seen one described in Gadrunas' library). Aravis conjures up a Leomund's Secure Shelter for the party to stay in that night... Friday, February 28 - ...and the next "day," (who can tell underground?) Morningstar casts the Break Enchantment spell on the statues of Ernie and Dranko. It works on Ernie, but to everyone’s disappointment Dranko stays a statue. Saturday, February 29 - In fact, it takes two additional days before her spell takes effect and Dranko is restored from his petrified state. Sunday, February 30 - The party continues on, and at the far end of the cavern there are three passages leaving it. On the right is a passage with stairs leading down into the darkness, and a musty smell emanates. On the left is a passage with stairs going up, and fresh air can be faintly detected from that way. The center way continues straight, leading into another dwarf-tunnel, though taller and wider than the previous ones. The party chooses this last one. It leads past a pair of wrecked and defaced churches of Moradin; gems have clearly been pried out of wall-mounted holy icons, and a secret closet has been long-since discovered and plundered. A crude graffito arm has been scrawled on the wall, with a gnarled, hairy hand drawn to be "gripping" a tarnished metal hammer that was clearly holy to the dwarves. At last the corridor ends at a set of large wooden doors (one bent back on its hinges) through which a sliver of daylight is coming. Little can be seen through the crack (as a nearby boulder blocks most of the view), but Oa Lyanna can sense fresh outside air coming through. The party pushes open the doors, and beyond them is an extremely steep, narrow valley, perhaps 50 yards across and 100 yards long. It's more like a cavern open to the sky. Birds wheel overhead, and an eerie wind blows through. In the center of the valley is a huge dragon skeleton, mostly intact. Its rib cage and spine tower overhead, and the skull is larger than a man. Dranko immediately climbs on it. On the other side of the skeleton from where the party emerged, built into the rock face on the other side of the valley, is a very large pair of iron doors. Between those doors and the skeleton is a pile of skulls (some hopper skulls, and some... larger), surrounded on three sides by wooden stakes with runes carved in them. (run 99 begins)The party does some brief investigation of the skull-pile-and-stakes; Aravis determines that there is some minor warding magic on it, though when Kay flies down into the warded area from above, nothing happens. The party decides to camp back in the tunnel out of which they emerged into the valley. Their camp includes a Leomund's Secure Shelter, and standard watches are set out at the mouth of the tunnel. During her watch, Kay sees the large iron door on the other side of the cavern open up. An ogre comes shambling out carrying a bag of skulls, which he rolls onto the pile while chanting something she can't quote make out from so far away. She sends Makel inside to wake the others, but by the time they emerge (quietly) outside, the ogre has finished his ritual and has returned through the iron door. Monday, March 1 - The next day the party decides to continue the journey in the only likely direction -- through the iron door. It is barred from the other side, but Aravis solves it with a Knock spell, and in they go. After resetting the bar, they head down into the darkness, with Dranko moving ahead at point, beyond the range of the party's Continual Flame torches… As the Company proceeds down the tunnel (which is straight and wide, built for ogres rather than Dwarves) they start hearing a distant sound of metallic tapping, as if many miners are at work. A couple of minutes later Dranko approaches a T intersection. While he is still about fifteen feet from it, he hears the sound of ogrish screams coming from the right-hand branch of the T, and intermingled with the screams are loud zapping noises as if bolts of electricity are being discharged. A few seconds later eight ogres come tearing out from the darkness on one side of the tunnel, and on into the darkness on the other side, shouting wildly. The last ogre is caught from behind by a tremendous arc of electricity and drops to the ground in a burning heap! By this time the rest of the party is almost at the intersection. They cautiously turn the corner to see what was chasing the ogres, and a bevy of dog-sized lizards comes swarming out of the darkness. Aravis launches a Fireball that takes instant care of the lizards in front, but many more behind continue to charge forward. Kay and Grey Wolf step forward to meet the charge, when the lizards all stop for a moment. An electrical discharge erupts from a lizard somewhere in back, and it quickly arcs from lizard to lizard, until a thick strand of blue energy is launched out of the body of the front-most lizard. The bolt strikes Kay in the chest knocking her backward and doing tremendous damage. Grey Wolf then toasts most of the remaining lizards with another Fireball while Dranko rushes forward to heal Kay. At this point Makel and Aravis see that two ogres have come back to investigate; in fact, they are rushing toward Aravis! Makel intercepts one of them, executing a Bull Rush and actually managing to deflect the heavier ogre's course away from Aravis. Morningstar then steps up and delivers a Searing Darkness spell, heavily wounding the second ogre. The rest of the party joins the fray, and soon the two ogres, along with a couple of surviving Lightning Lizards, are dispatched. Dranko announces that fried lizard is actually quite tasty, as the party drags the dead ogres into a side corridor. The party then heads carefully down the tunnel from whence the ogres had come. At the end of the corridor they find another cross-corridor and a large room directly ahead. To the left the cross corridor appears larger and better hewn while to the right the corridor is smaller and not as well cut. Quietly investigating the large room, Dranko discovers about a dozen or so ogres hacking away at the rock at the far end with mining picks. They’re not mining, but simply expanding the size of an otherwise empty and featureless room. Then the party hears a group of ogres coming from the left corridor, and deciding that discretion is (in this case) really the better part of valor, they slip back to the corridor where they had found the lizards. Unfortunately, Ernie's plate mail makes it nearly impossible for him to move quietly. A troop of a dozen well-armed ogres marches across the corridor, but the last in the line stops, hearing a strange and suspicious clanking sound from around the corner. It starts moving toward the party to investigate… (run 100 begins) - Grey Wolf then feels a sharp pain in his guts, and Kibi appears – directly on top of the ogre! He’s riding piggy-back on the ogre warrior, and it’s an even bet as to which of them is more surprised. The ogre flails about, dislodges Kibi, and begins to cry "Gish! Gish!" (In ogrish: "Dwarf! Dwarf!) The party decides that this would be a good time to rush out and attack. The approaching ogre lets out a further shout of alarm, and the fight is joined. The first thing Morningstar does is cast a dog-leg-shaped Wall of Stone, sealing off the room full of ogre miners and this latest ogre’s military friends. Immediately the party hears the angry shouts of the trapped miners, and the sounds of picks being hammered against Morningstar’s wall. But while those ogres are sealed in, the other ogres in the troop can be heard running away, and the party soon realizes that they are probably just finding another approach to their current location. After making short work of the lone ogre (who puts up quite a fight, wielding a great-axe in one hand and a large battle-axe in the other), the party decides that discretion really is the better part of valor in this case. They take off blindly down one of the corridor branches (armor clanking loudly) before those other eleven ogres show up. The chase is on, and oh what a chase it is. The party runs swiftly through what seems like a maze of straight tunnels meeting at right angles. Behind them echo the angry shouts of ogres. Every time it seems like they’ve lost the pursuit, only a few more moments pass before the echoes are upon them again, and they are forced to keep running. Makel does notice at one point, as the sounds of ogres are close behind, that there’s a sheet of skin-paper tacked to the stone wall at one of the junctions. He grabs it as he runs by and stuffs it into his pack. Eventually, the party begins to hear the sounds of ogres coming from many different directions through the tunnels; the monsters have split up, and are moving in on them from multiple directions! Realizing that a fight is inevitable, they stop at a tactically-defensible spot and prepare. Dranko uses a Stone Shape to create a chest-high (to a human) wall across one approach, to slow down encroaching ogres without completely cutting off an avenue of retreat. And the ogres arrive, and launch a fierce attack. The fight that ensues is an ugly one, and not just because the ogres are ugly, though they are. Most of them are armed with Great-clubs, and two Ogre Elite Double-Axe-Wielding Bad-asses™ show up from the direction of the low wall. Blood of several races is spilt, and Fireballs and Lightning Bolts fly from the fingers if Grey Wolf and Aravis. One ogre runs off during the battle, and One Certain Step gives chase. Another ogre decides that the best way to deal with a pesky wizard is with a good old-fashioned ogre-style grapple; he charges Aravis (shrugging off attacks of opportunity), picks him up, and slams him head first into the stone wall. Lights explode behind Aravis’s eyes, and he slumps to the ground stunned, but Morningstar fires off a Searing Darkness and finishes off that ogre before it can do the same to the wizard. The fight rages on for a few more rounds, but the party gains the upper hand, and eventually every last ogre is dispatched. Step comes back, but grimly reports that the fleeing ogre out-ran him and escaped. It seems inevitable that soon all of ogredom will know about the intruders… |