The Chronicles of Trond (the SI years)

The following is a rough synopsis of my AD&D 2nd Ed. campaign from high school, spanning three entire years of playing. The "Chronicles of Trond," as they have become known, are culled from various emails sent by me, many of them to friends who weren't players in the campaign at that time but had expressed interest in hearing about the goings-on.

In the process of cleaning up this document (which was assembled and preserved very nicely by Bob, but lost some of the original formatting in the process), I inserted bookmarks in various key points to make navigation easier.

Contents

Synopsis of pre-Maztica adventures

Duhr's Naga

Legend of Michaca

The Sun Trail

Further Adventures in the Pasocada Basin

Showdown with Ikitipsa

Survival of the Funniest

The Chalcedon Dilemma

The Quest for the Sword of Law

Kittens and an Odd Job

The Scroll, Translated

Dragon!

The Final Battle

Retirement

- A St. Ignatius Sci-Fi/Fantasy Club Production -

Sam's Campaign, 1996-1999

As recorded by the DM himself.

Compiled by Rodrigo A. Munoz, January 2, 2002

Cleaned up by Sam in April 2004

00
Synopsis of adventures leading up to Maztica
Excerpt from email to Naomi.
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998

OK, first things first: summaries of all the various adventures that have occurred in my campaign. (VERY brief version, I hope, since this spans more than a year of playing.)

The original party met when they were called upon to exterminate a colony of stirges (which are like two-foot mosquitoes) that laired in an abandoned dungeon. They managed to do so, and they also drove out a band of kobolds in the process. The thief almost died for the first time (not to be the last).

During the party held in their honor, an old man sold them a treasure map. They followed it through the forest and discovered a gigantic subterranean labyrinth, long-hidden. It contained many treasures, most of them magical (I was new at DMing and gave them too much stuff). They battled undead of many sorts (including an undead beholder), deadly fungi, giant bugs, and even a horrible Living Wall (which spat eight daggers at them per round... they were level 2 at the time).

After they returned, they were alerted by the town blacksmith to the presence of a gypsy blacksmith, from whose wagon strange lights and noises emanated. The town smith paid them to go drive this guy out of town, on the suspicion of him harboring some kind of evil creature. They went to see this gypsy, and after they had dispelled the ghost of his wife Leyla, the Mists of Ravenloft closed in and transported them to the domain of Invidia, whereupon a long adventure involving a half-demonic darkling ensued. (This was a store-bought adventure called "The Evil Eye".)

The gypsies attempted a magic ritual to send the heroes home; however, it didn't work quite as planned, and they landed on the planet of Trond, in the town of Seacrest (by this time I had tired of my original campaign world and designed a new one). At this point, the only members of the original party were Crioth (human fighter) and Eni (elven thief). They were joined by an elven mage, a half-elven druid, and a half-elven bard. This group of five (during our first summer meeting) was captured by a mysterious anti-magic cult, and most of their magical items were destroyed (which restored balance). They managed to rescue a few of their things from the fires by smashing down a door and grappling barehanded with their captors. However, the only exit was through a nest of giant insects; once they got through that, they had to deal with an ogre (who almost killed the druid) and the mage who led the cult; the mage had been using the cult to supply him with magical items that he would "destroy."

They spent a lot of time recuperating. After this, an earthquake shook the ground and caused a cave-in at the serpentine quarry. The city council hired our heroes (who now consisted of the present party - Crioth, Eni, Durandal, Isaak, and Leuthwinmar) to descend into this pit and make sure that nothing would come up and wreak havoc. They were armed with one Wall of Stone scroll to seal it off. Of course, the entrance was too large to seal off directly, so they had to descend and find a narrower point inside. They battled little fuzzy things with big teeth, a bloodsucking beholder-kin, and gargoyles. They also discovered a drow city, but escaped detection, and sealed off the tunnel that led to it. For their reward, they were given plots of land.

All right... after THAT happened (dang, lemme think), they investigated reports of merchants being hijacked by unknown assailants, and discovered tracks leading to a graveyard, where they were attacked and almost killed by a pack of ghouls. After that little encounter, they found a crypt which, after being explored thoroughly, was found to have a secret entrance to the underground lair of an evil mage and an evil cleric, who were using the undead to kill merchants and steal their goods.

When they returned to town, another merchant heard of their success with this, and he hired them as muscle to protect his wagon as he went to the dwarven mountains to trade with them. The party fought off bandits, orcs, and ogres. When they arrived at the dwarven village, they helped the dwarves out by flying to the inaccessible lair of some evil hawk-like predators that had been descending upon the dwarves and tearing out their hearts. They dispatched the perytons, and were rewarded by the dwarven chieftain with a treasure map that he had no use for. It started at Seacrest, their hometown.

The party enlisted the help of Bartholemew, the apothecary, to read the astrological markings on the map, and to guide them through the forest to the "treasure." When they arrived, they found a hill with a door in the side. The party entered, minus Bartholemew, who the DM seperated from the group. Inside, they found an ancient "testing ground" for adventurers, filled with deadly traps that required every ounce of brainpower to get past. Eni almost died when he fell UP a reverse-gravity shaft and was impaled on the spikes; Crioth had to ascend with a rope and pull him out so Durandal (the cleric) could heal him. There were many other gizmos which I won't detail. During this adventure, Crioth shattered his magical sword (the one piece of treasure left from that labyrinth adventure) while fighting a living statue. However, each person in the party received a magical item as a reward for getting through the complex.

Um.... (thinking) I guess after THAT, they heard about the ship which was sailing west for lands as yet never seen by anyone from Tiburon (the subcontinental island on which our heroes live). They arranged to go along, paying their way by promising to protect the ship from the monsters that might assail it. Before they left, Crioth arranged to begin construction of a castle on his fief (he and Leuthwinmar combined their fiefs, and will share the castle). He spent every gold coin that he had, borrowed a few thousand from Eni, and still has only paid for one-half the construction; the rest will be paid when he returns.

On the ship, the party helped to fight off ghost ships, giant octopi, sea devils, and so on. They also discovered two islands; one was filled with oppressed peasants under an evil lord. The party took it upon themselves to liberate the peasants by slaying the lord and his ogrish henchmen. The lord wielded a sword of great evil power, which none of the party could safely touch. However, he kept in his armory the sword's twin, which held great power of goodness. Crioth took this sword to replace the one he'd lost, and Durandal sealed the evil sword where it would cause no harm.

The next island was volcanic, and as hot as if it were in a tropical area. It contained dinosaurs, man-eating plants, and a race of friendly, psionic natives. The party did a bit of trading with the natives and were invited to their village, where, unbeknownst to them, the natives' leader was on his deathbed with a strange disease. The natives, for the most part, were unwilling to say anything about their leaders' condition, but one man approached Durandal and asked for his help. Durandal healed the leader in secret, and everything was peachy.

Our heroes took their leave. After a month of sailing, the boat arrived at Maztica. At this point, other emails pick up the story.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

LAND HO!

Email to the party.

Date: Thu, 28 May 1998

After a month and a half of sailing, you're all getting pretty tired of it. Clothing and the padding in armor is beginning to smell a little ripe, as are all of you. The aroma of fish and bilgewater is inescapable. The ship never stops rocking, even during calm weather; during rough weather, most of you feel the need to hurl. In every direction, nothing is visible but water. Now it hurts your eyes to look at its shimmering surface, having spent so long with nothing else to look at.

Just when you think that you won't be able to take it any more.... "LAND HO!" comes the cry from the crow's nest. The man up there repeats it, in case anybody didn't catch it, and the cry is taken up by the crew. Singing and dancing break out all over the ship. And sure enough, if you squint, you can make out something on the horizon which is not water! Land, stretching out for hundreds and thousands of miles! It appears only as a dark line now, but it couldn't be anything else! The captain peers at it and lets out a long sigh of relief. "Maztica," he says, almost to himself. "We have found it at last." Seagulls are now hovering over the boat constantly, attracted by the smell of rotting fish. Land looms every closer on the horizon, and with each passing day you can make out more and more.

Eventually, the ship arrives at the coastline, and you are able to see every detail. The terrain is arid, but full of life; shrubs and small trees dominate the land. The captain informs you as to the history of this place: about ten years ago, conquerers from Amn, the kingdom which lies on the mainland north of Tiburon, arrived at this land, which is called Maztica. They were initially welcomed by the natives, but they made no effort to be diplomatic; instead, they ruthlessly conquered. A man named Cordell heads the legion that was able to subjugate the Maztican people. Eventually, he was able to obtain a surrender, and the easterners moved into the cities of Payit, Nexal, and Kultaka. Not everything about the conquest was bad; in Kultaka, the legionairres were able to help the Mazticans stop incursions by the Dog People, their savage enemies which occupy the north. In return for their cooperation, the Mazticans are accorded the same rights as the eastern colonists. For their part, the Mazticans are generally satisfied with the arrangement by now. Most of them, however, wish that a peace could have been reached without so much bloodshed. The main body of Cordell's legion is stationed in Payit. Kultaka is inland.

The captain wishes to sail south, along the coastline, to Nexal, where he hopes to find a market for his trade goods, and perhaps learn more about this place. All of his information is second- or third-hand, so he doesn't quite have all of his facts straight, and this is partially a voyage of exploration. After another day of sailing, you arrive at Nexal, where you are warmly received. The city combines aspects of an eastern settlement and the native Maztican architecture. The captain informs you: "I want to spend a bit of time seeing what there is to see here; finding the best market for our wares, and perhaps exploring the surrounding area. You lads don't have to stick around here, but we'll be leaving in nine months at the latest, with or without you. Be careful out there, y'hear?" It is currently the very end of autumn; you will be expected to return to the ship by the end of next summer, if not earlier. With that, the captain shakes all of your hands, and sees to the business of making sure that his crew doesn't go entirely AWOL chasing native women.

You are able to locate fairly cheap lodgings at an inn, and all goes well for about a day. After that period, however, you all experience strange sensations in your stomachs, and unusually loose bowels. Durandal casts his Cure Disease spell on himself as soon as he notices the symptoms, but the rest of you are stuck. The innkeeper notices your discomfort and says: "Oh, that's right, you're newcomers! Nobody told you? See, there's something about the water in this place that gets you sick as a dog. It'll pass in about a week, and then you'll have built up a resistance to it. I've heard that clerical spells will cure it if they're cast on the first day of the symptoms, but after that, you're stuck. You're all stout-hearted adventurers though, aren't you? You'll survive." So all of you except Isaac and Durandal are pretty much stuck in the inn, feeling like crap.

Meanwhile, the two holy dudes go off to find a temple of Tharon, and seek some guidance.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

Email from Durandal

Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998
[note: this is the only email in this collection not written by me. - Sam]

As always, Durandal is not far off. He will be joining the little expedition. And usually there is some time in traveling from place
to place, so he starts telling what happened while the rest were ill.

"Well, while you were all fighting to make your trips to the outhouse, Isaac and I went on a little expedition of my own. As you well know, I can writescrolls and how hard it is to come up with the materials. At my stay at the temple, I was told that around here, I would be able to get the materials formaking a Scroll of Neutralize Poison. Very useful I think. The Priest told me of a Naga, a Dark Naga, whose eyes and teeth are essential in the making of the scroll, and which has a hide that is good to make scale mail or bookbindings. The Dark Naga is a thirteen-foot-long snake with a human head and poisonous stinger, it can cast fearsome spells, and it is immune to acids and poisons. There was another choice, of course, which was a Behir, but that was a little out of the way and it was a forty-foot-long-dragon/snake/crocodile/worm-type beast that breathes lightning, and can swallow men whole.

Anyway, since the Naga was a Dark Naga, I got Isaac's help to defeat this evil and vile monstrosity of nature. So we set off across the desert to a mountain where the Naga lives at the base. Along the way we meet a not so friendly giant snake, but it was dealt with and was set off since we were merciful.

Eventually we reached the base of the mountain and started looking for a cave, tracks, anything. Isaac found some tracks and we followed them into a cave concealed by bushes.

So we entered and heard some bizarre language that could only come from the Naga, so we guessed. Then a door suddenly opened and the source of that bizarre language went in. We made our way and then to our backside came a giant scorpion. It stung Isaac, but we were both strong enough to do awaywith it with brutal force. Then again from the door came a 6 foot diameter, rolling ball of fire. Isaac dodged it, but it pegged me twice. We ran outside after that scare, and I attempted a Dust Devil. Then while I was taking two minutes for that spell, I again got pegged by three magic missiles. So I took hiding up against a wall while Isaac charged in. Then we noticed that out of nowhere came four kobolds for each of us. At this time I was smart enough to have my Prayer going, Isaac dealt with them swiftly, and I had a little trouble.

Then Naga turned all its attention on Isaac who started disrupting its spells, and in turn I charged at the Naga. Well, both Isaac and the Naga were taking a pounding and the Naga started retreating. We kept at it until Isaac suffered a hard blow from the Naga's stinger and then collapsed into a sleep.Eventually, one minute before the Naga got away, I caved its skull in.

After, Isaac came to, and while I investigated some more noise coming fromthe room where the Naga came from, he took the eyes and some of the skin of the Naga. Turns out the noise was a few hobgoblins. I was forced to kill two and tell Isaac it was time to make our leave. I blocked the door with the three bodies, Isaac set fire to the surrounding bushes, and we just ran.

Another three caught up with us, we killed them, and kept on jogging home.By that time all the hobgoblins were pissed, about 40 of them, all jogging in our direction. They jogged and walked toward us for about two miles, but when we had a mile to go to reach the city, they gave up.

At the city we were warned that hobgoblins carry grudges till death and sowe should deal with them quickly. The priest healed and protected us until the next day where we set off again. This time I was really prepared to scare them all back from where they came.

We entered the cave without trouble, and while Isaac bared the door, I cast a Dust Devil. I sent it in and seemed to scared the occupants off. Then we followed voices into a room of about 40 hobgoblins. The Dust Devil scared a few off but was forced to fight others that weren't. Then Isaac threw in his torch and I cast a Pyrotechnics on it which blinded almost everyone. The rest Isaac, the Dust Devil, and I fought.

Of course I had a Prayer going and defeated the ones that remained, but from our backs came three more. One of which was six and a half feet tall. They we also fought and defeated. After they all ran, we explored the caves and what was left of the occupants. We heard a fierce growl and hobgoblins screaming in terror, but paid no mind to it.

I then dissected the Naga with a dagger that Isaac got off the large hobgoblin. He also found an ice pick, a potion, and three gems on him. I, on the other hand, got the Naga's teeth, the rest of its hide, and examined a sack like organ. In there I found two scrolls, four vials, and a spell book.This took me some time, so Isaac found more. He found a cage that seemed to have animals which the hobgoblins eat. All that was left were two rabbitsand a horse with Tharon's symbol on its forehead. We he cared for them, set the rabbits free and took the horse in for further care. Then we came to a room where the growl came from. It was a giant primate, protecting a sack.Isaac threw a pick of food and I took the sack. Inside was a lyre. He played the lyre, since he could, and, all of a sudden, out of rock, emerged a foot tall statue of a fair maiden. Then I told him to think up a wall, and just as he played, a wall formed around the primate. I looked further, but not much.

Finally we left. I had a deep down felling that we missed something big,but it wasn't enough to turn me back around. I have spent the rest of my time recuperating, preparing for further exploring, and figuring out the scrolls and potions. In my research I found a few interesting things, but that is for later.

So, how was your week?"

Email to the party.

Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998

Once everyone has recovered from the illness (there's a matter of a 30 gp/week bill at the inn to be settled, by the way... who's springing for that?), you're free to wander through Nexal and investigate it. If you were to spend a little time in the taverns and so forth, you might hear a few things from the local storytellers.

A popular tale among the Mazticans is the legend of Michaca, the City of Gold. Stories tell of a wealthy people who have so much gold that even their streets are paved with it. In various versions the story describes a selfish, greedy people who find great wealth and are destroyed by it. It is a myth used to pass on a moral about the foolish love of wealth, but many Mazticans believe it to be a place that actually exists. Some storytellers even have second-hand tales of travelers who have seen Michaca as a still thriving city.

The newcomers from the east have heard these tales as well. Some dismiss them as completely fanciful, or at least exaggerated, stories. Even for those who are inclined to believe those tales, the riches of Payit, Kultaka, and Nexal are closer and far more tangible. (A more detailed account of the legend is available for those who are interested.)

[note: everyone was interested. Tune in next week...]

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

Legend of the City of Gold

Email to curious party members

Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998

Maztican storytellers say that when the gods decided to make mankind, they first fashioned him out of clay. But the clay man was
washed away by the river. Again they fashioned man, now of wood, but fire consumed the wood. Again they tried, this time with gold, precious and eternal. Surely the man of gold would last, and serve them as they desired. But no heart, no breath was in the gold and so it could not live. Though beautiful, strong, alluring, the man of gold was a false hope. He could not please the gods.

To create man, the gods had to give of themselves. Only from their own flesh and blood could human beings come to life and flourish. And so it is that the truest value is purchased only at the greatest cost - one's self.

This wisdom is reserved to the gods, for clearly men are foolish. When the men of the north found the gods' man of gold, they bowed low in worship before the thing, believing it to be a god. The gods became angered and destroyed the blasphemers.

Again men found the failed man of gold. The sight of so much wealth filled their hearts with greed and they toppled him and melted him down, making jewelry and precious objects. "Now," they said, "we are rich, and shall never need to work." But when everyone had gold, its value was lost. No one would work, for they were rich, and rich people need not work. And no one tilled the fields. Hunger came, and strife. Evil men stole and killed, not only to survive, but to steal as much gold as they could.

Years passed, and a third tribe of men came. They found much gold among the bones of the evil men. "This gold is dangerous," warned Chief Tapeyzin. "It is a gift of the gods, but see how the love of it has destroyed these men. Therefore we will not take it for ourselves, but follow wisdom and use it to delight the gods. We shall build a magnificent city, under a cliff. A shining, golden jewel, that the gods, looking down from the heavens, will be gladdened with the beauty we have wrought from their gift. We will make golden vessels for gifts and we will trade gold to men of distant lands, and buy gifts for the gods. By returning the gold to the gods, we will please them. Then will their blessings fall upon us."

In this way was Michaca, the City of Gold, built. The wisdom of its people made it strong. The gold was a treasure for them because it was not their treasure; they did not cache gold out of greed. They gave of themselves, to honor the gods and give back to the earth what is hers.

For this the gods rewarded them with peace and prosperity. The City of Gold still flourishes, and children play, laughing in radiant streets. They are raised with the wisdom to know that it is the golden glow within their breasts, not the gold in the walls of the city, that is the real treasure.

05
Email to the party
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 (my late cat's birthday)
Subject: More Tales From Maztica : The Desert Dwarves

During your time in Maztica, you encounter a few dwarven individuals. Those of you who speak the dwarven tongue might notice that these dwarves, although they are a little different physically from the dwarves of the east, speak a language similar enough that you can understand it. These are the desert dwarves, who live in clans across the deserts, although they are not as common as the various human tribes that populate the region.

Naturally, they have their own stories to tell, and buying a few drinks is a good way to loosen tongues. After spending a few gold pieces, you're able to get this story from one dwarven trader. (Since there was so much interest in the last legend, I thought I might as well give you this one too. Didn't spend quite as much time on it, but I hope you find it enjoyable nonetheless.)

How the Desert Dwarves Came to the Desert

The gods created the dwarves far beneath the surface of the earth, in a place of rock, metal, and gems. At that time, none had ever heard of the sun, the sky, or the oceans. When the dwarves were first made, the gods had given them many great gifts. The dwarves were given long lives, and vigorous health. They were granted the ability to see in darkness, so that they could live comfortably in the underworld. And lastly, they were gifted with a wonderful home.

Their home was a great city, called Muitepinal. It housed millions, and was made of not only the common rocks, but of gold, mithril, adamantite, and precious gems. For millenia, the dwarves lived here, with all that they needed. Life was peaceful and happy.

Eventually, however, a group arose within the dwarves that wanted something more. They were curious about what lay
beyond their realm. The other dwarves tolerated this at first, but such talk had the potential to be dangerous. Everything was perfect the way it was; why spoil it? The seed of discontent remained, however, and grew. Finally, the leaders of the city made a harsh decision. This group would be outcast from Muitepinal, and sent to wander in the darkness beyond it.

And thus it was that a band of hundreds of dwarves left the great city, never to return. They wandered through the underworld for a very long time, perhaps centuries. Some of them died, and some of them had children. A few found new places to settle, but the
curiousity which had driven them from Muitepinal in the first place continued to drive most of them onward.

After much travel, they came upon a crack, high in the rock, where a dazzlingly bright light shone forth. They climbed up to this crack, and came through it into the world above ground. They were amazed, by the bright, hot sun, and by the expanses of sky and sand. This, they knew, was something new and different, and it was that which they had been seeking.

Life above ground was harsh. Water was difficult to find, and the creatures of the desert were fierce and venemous. The dwarves, however, have always been a hardy people. From that day, countless centuries ago, we have lived and thrived in the desert, and we continue to do so to this day.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

06
Email to Dreyus, whose attendance had been less than exemplary.
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998
Subject: Brief update...

The party has just arrived on a newly discovered continent, west of their homeland of Tiburon. The section that they are in is an area called Maztica. About ten years ago, a chap named Cordell, from the land north of Tiburon, sailed over and did some bloody conquering. He is now the governor of Maztica; fortunately, he's not PURE evil or anything, and the Mazticans are used to the arrangement by now.Our heroes landed in Nexal, a coastal city. Payit is where Cordell and the main body of his legion are located; it's not too far to the north of Nexal. Farther inland is Kultaka, and beyond that is Zopal. Beyond that are the lands of the
nomadic Dog People. One reason that the Mazticans aren't that disgruntled is that when Cordell came in, he was able to protect the Mazticans, to some extent, from the Dog People, who are the traditional enemies of Maztica.The surrounding area is fairly dry. Scrub is the predominant terrain, with patches of arable land near bodies of water, and desert farther away. There are a few mountains, but no really huge ones anywhere nearby.After arriving in this land, the party quickly discovered a bug in the water, which causes severe digestive ailments for about a week. After this time, the immune system has acclimated to it. The paladin (holy warrior dude) was immune to this illness, of course. The cleric was able to cure the disease in the early stages, effectively vaccinating himself. Everyone else was stuck in bed for a week.

Durandal (cleric) and Isaak (paladin) went off to hunt down a dark naga, an evil creature from which Durandal hoped to obtain ingredients for a Neutralize Poison scroll. When they found the naga, it turned out to have a tribe of hobgoblins sharing its lair; they were apparently preparing for a campaign of raiding and plundering. The holy guys slew the naga, with a lot of difficulty, and drove the hobgoblins back into the underworld, using a lot of showy magical fireworks. Naturally, there was treasure to be found. They also discovered a pen containing animals for the naga to devour at its leisure; one of these was a horse! The horse, Isaak noticed, had a marking on its forehead vaguely resembling the holy symbol of Tharon, his deity. He took this as a good sign, and
he is in the process of nursing it back to health in Nexal. Durandal has located all of the necessary ingredients for his scroll, and is about to begin scribing it.Meanwhile, the rest of the party has recovered. The winter solstice is a few days away, and great festivities are expected at that time. This is where we will pick up at the next meeting....

07
Email to Crioth, regarding the summer meeting
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 20:32:17 -0700
Subject: Re: wassup!!

On the day of the festival, everyone was participating in the gaiety. Leuthwinmar and Isaak played the flute and lyre, with Eni
juggling daggers in time. Durandal wandered off to mingle with the crowd. You did a clumsy dance with the others for a little while, but got tired and went off to find a drink.

Leuth, Eni, and Isaak eventually noticed a guy watching them. He was an eastern human, about ten years older than the humans in your group, with a peace-knotted longsword at his waist. He was being attended, seemingly, by an old Maztican, about sixty years of age. After a while, he approached the party, introduced himself as Sozarro, and told them to get the entire group together; he had a business proposition for them. When everyone got together, he said:

"No doubt you've heard talk of the City of Gold - a wondrous metropolis where the buildings, even the roads underfoot, are made of pure gold. It is so wealthy that every day the king of this city covers himself with gold dust, head to toe, before bathing. This may sound fantastic to you, but the Mazticans believe the tales - and haven't we already found strange wonders aplenty in this new world? Besides, if the gold is just a tiny fraction of what the legends claim, it would be a priceless find!"

"I'm planning an exploration party. Unlike Cordell, I'd rather set up trading relations than conquer and loot. For one thing, I don't have the resources to launch an armed invasion; for another, I've seen enough blood. But imagine the profit we could make trading steel knives for gold. Gold which, to them, would be no more valuable than, say, obsidian is in these parts. And whoever
finds this City of Gold will be famous. A little glory never hurt anyone, has it?"

"I'm coming to you because I can't do this alone. Good, sturdy partners, that's what I'm looking for. You think I'm crazy? I have good reason to think I have some unique advantages in the attempt to find Michaca - that's the city's name. I have a sponsor,
a rich merchant house of Amn. They are impressed enough to back me, and I can offer you cash down, immediately, to demonstrate the serious character of my offer."

"This is uncharted territory we'll be seeing, the lands north of the Dog People's deserts, where hardly anyone in these parts has ever even walked. The risks are unknown. The danger might be immense. We can reasonably expect corresponding rewards: Fame and fortune to make the conquest of Payit a paltry handful of coppers by comparison."

"Have I caught your interest?"

He then queried the party about their abilities and deeds, to make sure that they would make suitable traveling companions. He was satisfied, and he gave them the week to think about their decision. Leuthwinmar shadowed Sozarro, but didn't see him doing anything other than purchasing supplies and having a few drinks. Isaak and Eni hung around taverns, buying drinks for people and bribing others, in an effort to find out more about Sozarro. The rumors that they discovered were:

1) Sozarro had been purchasing dried meat and supplies using Payit jewelry.

2) He came over with Cordell as a legionairre, but he has left the army.

3) He is wanted for murder in Payit.

This last rumor was disturbing, but Leuthwinmar pointed out that it was, after all, only a rumor. Isaak queried Sozarro about this; Sozarro responded by saying that a wealthy merchant house wouldn't be backing him if he was a criminal. With this, he gave the party their advances: pieces of jewelry worth 1,000 gp each. If the expedition was successful, treasure would be divided into equal shares. One share for each party member, two for Sozarro, and two for the merchant house. The party used their jewelry to buy horses. The elves, being light and unarmored, obtained light war horses. The humans required sturdier (more expensive) mounts, and had nothing left over from the advance. (Isaak, of course, already has a horse, which is more than suitable for the journey.)

When they reported back to Sozarro, he was in the final stages of preparation. He had four horses; one for him, one for his manservant Malco (the old Maztican), and one spare; there was a person in a light tan cloak on the fourth horse, whose face was hidden. Sozarro introduced him as Iguertin, a Dog Person whose brother had been to Michaca. He would be the guide for the journey. Isaak had purchased dried rations for the journey, and he asked Sozarro to put these on the spare horse. Sozarro
grinned and pulled a folded piece of black silk from his pocket. He unfolded it to make a huge circle of material, which he spread upon the ground. As per his directions, Isaak set the food on the material; it promptly vanished. Upon closer examination, the material proved to be a portable hole! It contained trade goods, food, and other supplies; the hole itself was quite spacious and capable of holding a lot of stuff. Next, Sozarro pulled out a waterskin. He turned it over, spilling water onto the ground. Water continued flowing. And flowing. And flowing. "This is a 'skin of pouring," Sozarro informed the party. "With this, water won't be a problem out there."

And so the party set out. First to Kultaka, along footroads, where more supplies were purchased. Then to Zopal. And then, into the wild scrublands!

After the first night in the scrublands, you awoke to feel SOMETHING in bed with you. You made a sudden movement of some sort, and then felt fangs clamp down on your backside, and a numbing venom seeping into your veins. You began lurching around and growling incoherently as the snake hurried away. The last thing you saw was Durandal trying to cast a spell on you...

Since then, you've just been having these really weird dreams. So far, you haven't awoken.

[Crioth slept on his horse for about a month as the party traveled through desert and scrubland They encountered many strange beasts, as well as a few friendly tribes of Dog People, and a couple of Desert Dwarves looking for game.]

Samwise

"HAH! I am impervious to your logic!"

08
Email to Stephanie
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998
Subject: Campaign update

At the summer meeting, we left off after having ridden across the desert for about a month. The party had fought off fire-breathing toads, six-foot scorpions, and vicious axe-wielding raiders. One day, we sighted a column of smoke rising on the horizon. It was stopped at intervals, as if a giant was taking puffs from an enormous pipe. We cautiously investigated, and found it to be a smoke-signal tower.

The people inside were able to communicate with us in the language of the Desert Dwarves, this being the only tongue that any of us had in common. They told us to wait there, and then commenced to send smoke signals. The next day, a welcoming party composed of a priest, his translator, and several warriors arrived. The priest performed a ritual to bless the meeting; during it, he used something that looked suspiciously like gold dust!

After the ritual, he listened to our proposals of trade, and offered us lodgings in his city, Mitzlato. The city was certainly not golden, but then, it wasn't called Michaca, so we held out hope. It seemed to hold about a thousand people. The buildings were made of a substance called adobe, and were constructed in such a way that they were entered through holes in the roof.

We were led to a ceremonial building called a kiva, where a feast was held in our honor. Present there were leaders of the various
fraternities (like guilds where we come from) in the society: healers, pueblo priests, sunwatchers, clowns, traders, fetishists, and hunters. After the meal, a peace pipe was passed around. The Azuposi (the name of this people) watched us a little tensely as we smoked from the pipe, but after it was done, they cheered and we were able to talk. Sozarro ascertained that in many cases we could get twenty times the value of our trade goods; more than favorable, but not as much as he was counting on. Nobody said anything about Michaca.

We were offered hospitality in Mitzlato for as long as we wished. The next day, and days thereafter, a guide led us around the city, showing us the fraternity headquarters, the turkey pens, the craftsmen, and how the signal towers worked. Nowhere in this society did we see a written language, wizards, steel, horses, or even wheels. Nonetheless, it was impressive.

Occasionally we caught sight of a young woman watching us from afar, but she always vanished into the crowd before we could get a better look at her. It wasn't too strange, since many Azuposi followed us around curiously. One night, this woman crept into the kiva where we were sleeping; she somehow spoke perfect Common, and she introduced herself as Yenisha, a clown. She said that she could lead us to Michaca. In return, though, we would need to help her people.

The Gilded Priest, the spiritual leader of Michaca, normally travels to the spirit realm to ask Masauwu, patron of the Azuposi people, to send rain. For the past three years, though, the mystic Sun Trail which leads to Wenimats, home of Masauwu, has been blocked by an evil spirit which scares the Gilded Priest away. [Note: Azuposi people, even the priests, do not choose one god to worship, but pay homage to a multitude of benevolent "spirits."]

Yenisha believes that the Gilded Priest is too proud and short-sighted to see that he needs help. For this reason, we would need to sneak into Michaca, past many guards, to get to the priest and convince him to let us help him. We accepted her proposal, and snuck out that night. Leuthwinmar needed to magically put a few guards to sleep, but we got our horses, and were able to leave Mitzlato. From there, it was about a weeks' travel across scrub and desert, through the Pasocada Basin. On the way, Yenisha told us legends about the places that we passed.

[Original map(8MB) - Pasocada Basin inset(3MB) - added 4/2004 by Sam]

Finally, we arrived within sight of a huge city, whose walls shone golden! Michaca! Yenisha donned her clown garb and went into the city to scout it out. When she returned, she described the area around the Gilded Kiva, the home of the Gilded Priest. The city was being heavily guarded by the hunters. After hours of planning, we arrived at a decision, and set out for the city at nightfall.

Disguised as Azuposi clowns, we were able to get past all of the guards without violence. We arrived at the courtyard in front of the Gilded Kiva, and found that there were many guards: about ten on the ground, and more on the rooftops. We situated ourselves close to the kiva, and began engaging in tomfoolery to amuse the guards. Once they were all laughing, Leuth cast a "fog cloud" spell and obscured a large area in dense mist. The guards were taken by surprise; we muscled past them in the confusion to get to the kiva. The ladder to the first level had been pulled up; undaunted, Eni scaled the wall, as Leuth immobilized the guards that had regained their wits and were heading towards us. Eni's head poked up out of the fog, and as he was lowering the ladder, an arrow struck him in the arm. A hunter was standing atop the second level of the kiva, holding a bow, and getting another arrow ready. As the rest of the party clambered up the ladder, and the hunter was about to fire again, Eni shot a carefully-aimed arrow, and knocked the bow to the ground. However, there were numerous other hunters on the other rooftops, and they began firing arrows at us.

A few minor wounds were sustained as Isaak hauled the ladder up and placed it to allow access to the second level. At the same time, Durandal cast a paralytic spell at the hunter whom Eni had disarmed, and who was now readying a battleaxe. The hunter froze in place as he was about to cleave Isaak's head in two. The party climbed to the very top of the kiva, dodging arrows all the way; Eni was able to disarm one more hunter, but several more arrived every minute! Looking into the entrance to the kiva, we discovered fog even denser than that which Leuth had conjured, as well as an intense, glowing heat. Leuth and Durandal cast "dispel magic" spells, and Durandal's spell unravelled whatever magicks were operating inside that room. We climbed down, to discover an antechamber lined with smoldering tapestries. A hole opposite the point of our descent leads, we assume, to the Gilded Priest.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

09
Email to Stephanie
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998
Subject: Adventures in Michaca, continued....

The party was able to convince the Gilded Priest of their good intentions, and he agreed to lead them to the Sun Trail. He explained the following (this is the short short form):

A long time ago, the Azuposi leader asked Masauwu for a way that they could always speak to him. Masauwu showed them a substance called micha, which is the food of the spirits (it looks like gold dust), and can be used to win favors from the spirit world. It can also be used to magically travel to the Sun Trail.

Unfortunately, for the past three years, Koyisqatapi has always been frightened off of the trail by a huge, scrawny, pale, bat-winged, fanged and clawed spirit, which appears out of nowhere and screeches at him. He is relieved that someone is willing to defeat this thing, so that he may continue to Wenimats.

They spent a couple of days preparing; Leuth was suddenly struck by divine inspiration, and he cast a "stoneskin" spell on Kyrstil, his familiar. He also, out of curiousity, cast a "detect magic" spell in Michaca, and was amazed to discover that the walls and streets themselves radiated magical energy.

When they were ready, a large procession took them to Dunobo Springs, where micha is found after each yearly flood. Here, the
Azuposi priests cast many protective spells upon the adventurers, and Durandal added a few of his own. The Gilded Priest had himself and the adventurers covered in micha, and then instructed them to follow his example and wade into the water. As they did so, the micha flowed off them, coming together to form a spiraling path in the water. They followed it, and the world around them became grayer and grayer, until they suddenly blanked out, and then were standing on the Sun Trail.

The Sun Trail is a path of fragrant cornmeal, floating in the endless silvery void of the Astral Plane. Upon it, people can walk normally, instead of having to deal with the lack of gravity in that plane. Behind the party was a silvery disk, like a vertical pool of mercury. After walking along the trail for about 30 yards, the demon appeared, terrifying Koyisqatapi, Isaak, Eni, and Dreyus. (Everyone else managed to swallow their fear.) The Gilded Priest fled back, through the silver disk.

Durandal cast a "remove fear" spell upon Isaak and Eni, but was unable to help Dreyus, whom the party lost track of as he fled in terror. Leuthwinmar cast a "dispel magic" spell, hoping it would have an effect on the demon, but it did nothing. At the same time, the demon made a gesture and grinned a fangy grin. Two gates opened up from nothingness, and two other demons stepped through them.

At this point, a fierce battle ensued.

Leuthwinmar cast an "enlarge" spell on Isaak, but the paladin was, for some reason, unable to harm the demon with his non-magical blade. Eni lost his grip on his longsword, and it went spiralling off into the void. Durandal and Crioth both, at different times, lost their footing on the path, and had to take a minute to turn themselves right-side-up again. Leuth cast a few magic missiles and lightning bolts, and Crioth acquitted himself well, his sword almost doing the fighting for him. The demons were all slain after an epic battle, and this is where we left off.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

10
Email to Stephanie
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998
Subject: Re: Hey Sam!

After the demon was killed, Koyisqatapi returned to the Sun Trail via the silvery disk. Seeing the slain demon, he expressed relief and gratitude, and then led the party on the Sun Trail.

On the way, they witnessed the sight of an astral whale, being pursued by a githyanki [humanoid race native to the Astral Plane] whaling ship. Neither whale nor ship took any notice of them. After miles of trail, they arrived at a green "color pool," and stepped through.

They emerged in a mountain pool in Wenimats, the Azuposi heaven. It was a land of forested mountain slopes (in the Pasocada Basin, the mountains are the most fertile, since they get more rain). As Koyisqatapi led them to Skeleton House, Masauwu's home, he expressed his hope that Masauwu would show them the more pleasant of his two visages. (He appears as either a handsome man or as a bald, round, blood-covered head.)

After a little walking, they arrived at a huge stone pueblo, inhabited by people dressed in burial garments. A man emerged from the pueblo, and it was clear that he was Masauwu; most of the party was awestruck by his very presence, and found it difficult to think clearly. He asked a few questions of the characters, trying to find some kind of fault with each (such as coming to the Azuposi in search of wealth, or not having a religion). After the interrogation, he allowed those who weren't awestruck to ask one question each.

Then he turned to Koyisqatapi, glared, and suddenly transformed to his "mask of death" form. He expressed his great disappointment that Koyisqatapi had lacked the courage to stand up to the demon, and that the Azuposi had proved so dependent on him, and the micha that he had given to them. He gave Koyisqatapi instructions to give all of next spring's micha harvest to the adventurers, and to invite them to stay in the Azuposi nation for a little while, in order that the Azuposi should learn courage and daring.

With that, he left, and the party returned to Dunobo Springs through the Sun Trail. When they returned, the assembled Azuposi cheered at the success. Koyisqatapi, although humiliated by Masauwu's message, delivered it faithfully. The characters were offered honorary membership in any of the various Azuposi fraternities, and invited to stay in the Basin at least until next spring, when they could take their reward of micha.

After this, there was a brief incident with a behir, which is a dragon-like beast with 16 clawed legs, a really big toothy mouth, and lightning breath. The party survived, and Durandal obtained the components for scrolls of Neutralize Poison.

During their stay in Michaca, the party heard, among many other things, of a pueblo called Kin Elbhaz, which had always had good luck, but had had very bad luck starting about a month ago, particularly in the harvesting area. Our heroes decided to go investigate.

They were greeted at Kin Elbhaz by Lokoshin, the matriarch of the pueblo, Hopala, a merry, rotund, and helpful pueblo priest, and Pokoso, a dour sunwatcher. Hopala took it upon himself to show the adventurers around. They investigated the old storage chamber where mayz had been kept until a month ago [which was when the bad luck started], and found that there was a concealed passageway to the adjacent, ruined room.

In this room, which had been severely damaged by a bent priest many generations ago, they found evidence of small, possibly humanoid creatures having been there: mayz cobs, bits of flint, and small drawings on the walls, about one foot up. They decided to investigate the crops, and discovered that not only was there an abundance of pests, but someone had been sprinkling salt on the ground and pulling buds off plants. The party set up watches at various places around the cropfields, and waited for nightfall.

They weren't disappointed. From nowhere, a fiery creature sprang from the ground in front of Crioth at about midnight. He
backed cautiously away as Eni and Isaak dashed to his aid; Durandal and Leuthwinmar were too far away to even know exactly what was happening. Isaak attempted to detect evil but found none in the apparition, which was now speaking in a fearsome voice, but in Azuposi. Just then, a feeling of confusion descended upon Isaak and Crioth, and a very comic (to me) battle ensued. The two warriors, not knowing which way was up, began alternately attacking each other, Eni, and looking at their boots.

Just as Crioth began to wander away peacefully, gazing at a pretty star, Eni made the mistake of tackling him to the ground. Crioth, in his confused state, took Eni for an enemy, and, screaming oaths, got up and began a ferocious assault. Eni came VERY close to perishing (one more hit and he was dead!), and decided to run like the wind!

Crioth pursued, but didn't manage to catch his quarry (Eni got lucky on some initiative rolls), and after a couple of minutes of running, the confusion wore off. Which is where we left off. The fiery creature was attacked a couple of times, but it proved to be completely insubstantial, and didn't even give off any heat. It vanished without actually doing anything.

Naturally, everyone is completely baffled, and Eni is in a great deal of pain at the moment. I'm curious to see what measures they take for the next night's watch...

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

PS: Looking back, I'm not sure if the characters involved are entirely
clear, so I'll briefly describe each of them here:

Crioth - A human fighter: rather quiet and introspective, but dependable in a fight.
Eni - The elven thief, whose quick reflexes make up for reckless tactics.
Leuth - The elven mage: a bit self-centered but potentially very useful with his spells.
Yzahak(Isaak) - The paladin: just and honest but annoying at times.
Durandal - The human cleric: pacifistic and quick-witted, very devoted to his god.

011
Email to Stephanie
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998
Subject: Doings in the Pasocada Basin

In my last adventure update, I left off with the party attacking each other in a frenzy while trying to solve the mystery of Kin Elbhaz. Here's what happened the next night:

The party grouped together at the place where the thing had last been sighted. At about midnight, a glowing ball of light appeared, and started floating near them while humming and changing colors. (Think little tiny UFO.) Leuth promptly did a "dispel magic" on it and it winked out. As he was congratulating himself, two more suddenly popped into view, and started swirling around frenetically. They then began speaking; Durandal cast a "tongues" spell to understand, and discovered that they were abjuring the "big evil ones" to leave. As Durandal began to try to convince them that their intentions were not evil, another confusion spell descended on the party!

Eni and Durandal were unaffected; the warriors just sort of stood there with stupid looks on their faces, and Leuthwinmar started screaming "SHOE WIGHTS! SHOE WIGHTS!" and stomping on his own feet. As Durandal continued trying to reason with the floating thingies, Leuth suddenly looked around at his companions and shrieked "UNDEAD NASTY THINGS!!!," whereupon he began casting a spell. Suddenly, a cloak of darkness enveloped the party; inside its confines, Durandal caught ahold of Eni to keep him from smashing into a confused fighter, and the two warriors started stumbling around with weapons drawn, looking for something to smite.

The spell eventually wore off; Leuth cast a "dimension door" to get himself far away from everyone else (in his semi-confused state, he landed in the Ethereal Plane, and was stuck there for a few days). The floating things explained that they figured the adventurers were evil because of their warlike equipment, and because their friends in the pueblo had stopped leaving food out for them.

They issued this ultimatum: reinstate the original agreement by leaving some mayz in the ruined storage chamber. And tell no one of the agreement. Durandal called a meeting of the fraternity heads (at 2 am), and they sleepily agreed to put some food in the chamber. Durandal
and Eni staked it out the following night. During that time, Durandal heard Leuth's voice from outside, and went to investigate; Eni was hiding
in the shadows, and stayed put. When Durandal had left, five tiny people suddenly popped into view (looked like a "dimension door" spell), took
one ear of mayz, and winked out. They didn't see Eni.

Here's what was going on: The tiny people were brownies, a race of flightless, benevolent faerie folk. Generations ago, when an evil priest had
destroyed the mayz chamber, and mayz had been moved to the adjacent room, the brownies took shelter in the ruined chamber, and discovered that they could get into the new mayz room from there. They thought that the Kin Elbhazans had opened this passage for them, and took it as a gesture of friendship. They returned the favor by driving the evil priest away, and after that, helping the crops by watering them and driving away pests.

This is why Kin Elbhaz has always had such good luck. When the new storage chamber was built, though, the mayz was no longer accessible to
the brownies, and they felt betrayed! Even though the Kin Elbhazans hadn't known about the "agreement," the brownies decided to begin pillaging the crops, to feed themselves and out of spite. Now that mayz is being left where the brownies can get it, they will return to helping the pueblo. Brownies consider it quite rude for people to brag about their presence, or even speak of it, which is why they asked that nobody be told about them.

So the party returned to Michaca. Upon arriving, Leuth discovered that Yenisha was missing, and foul play was suspected! The clowns who had gone to her dwelling had found a stone that spoke, saying "Revenge will be mine!" The stone had been examined by the priests thoroughly, with all manner of divination spells; it showed no traces of magic, evil, curses, or anything else. The party asked around; Isaak even sought out an old, wise man for advice.

From their investigations, the best guess was that some evil (bent) priest was mad at Yenisha for helping the Michacans out of their troubles. Logically, this same person would have a grudge against the heroes as well! Isaak suggested casting guardian spells, or posting watches, but the rest of the party just laughed at him and went to sleep. He nobly stayed up for as long as he was able, and then went to sleep right under the entrace to the kiva. He was awoken by a flint knife being pressed into his throat.

He immediately yelled to wake everyone up, and the knife was swept across his jugular. By Tharon's grace he didn't perish, but he lost quite a bit of blood. A melee with six human assailants followed; the one that was captured alive refused to talk, and committed suicide at the first chance he got. The only clues gained were the corroded copper coins that some of the attackers carried (the Azuposi do NOT make copper coins), and an unidentifiable smoky gray gem that Isaak's attacker had in addition. The next day was spent asking questions about the gem and coins; nothing was gained. The gem was particularly puzzling because nobody, including those in the party with appraising skills, or any of the Azuposi, had seen its like before.

The next night, alarm spells were cast, and watches posted. During Leuth's watch, the alarm sounded, waking the party; everyone snatched up weapons and shield in preparation for an assault. Unexpectedly, the wall of the kiva suddenly caved in, and a very large humanoid (about 9'6") stood on the other side, grinning a fangy grin and holding a massive club. Probably of ogrish descent.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

12
Email to Stephanie
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 19:22:16
Subject: Adventure Update Part Deux

To make a long story short, the party defeated the ogres that invaded their kiva, after a tough battle. The ogres, it was found, were carrying more of the coins and gems that the humans had possessed; however, one of them had a vial of clear liquid (which radiated illusion magic when Leuth tested it), and another had a leather thong with a number of severed elf ears strung on it.

After swallowing his horror, Leuth suggested that the party proceed to Elfmeet [the Azuposi town where the Poscadari Elves trade with the humans], and perhaps to Esh Alakar [the mysterious haunted ruins]. The party left, meeting Crioth on the way, and arrived at Elfmeet after a couple of weeks. Here they met a group of elven traders; they shared the pointed ears of Leuth and Eni, but were taller, and had darker skin. They didn't speak the same elvish tongue that Leuth and Eni did, so a "tongues" spell had to be used.

After asking a few questions, the party decided to accompany the elves into Long Canyon (the boundary between the Azuposi nation and the
Poscadar Plains), which is the site of Esh Alakar, among other things. When they reached the opposite side of the canyon, and the elves prepared to ascend the plateau, the heroes decided to set off for Esh Alakar. The elves warned them about the race of "very big people" that lived in the canyon, and the party decided to travel the canyon on the other side of the river, in an attempt to avoid this problem.

After a few days of travel, they were ambushed from above by a group of four hill giants, which rained large stones on them from a ledge in the canyon wall. A pitched, exciting battle followed; a number of powerful spells were employed, and the party won the day without a single fatality. Leuth used up 200 gp worth of diamond dust by casting his protective "stoneskin" spell, but it helped him survive many a thrown stone (the hill giants, it seems, had a particular hatred for mage types).

They traveled for another two days and arrived at the Bridge of the Ancients, a stone bridge left over from the time of the Ancients who inhabited Esh Alakar. It was built with engineering skills unknown to the Azuposi, and the fact that it stands undamaged after centuries is a testament to the genius of its builders. The party crossed the bridge, and arrived at the site of Esh Alakar in a few hours.

Esh Alakar proved to be little more than a few toppled pieces of stone at first glance. A bit of exploration, however, revealed an entrance to a vast subterranean complex; the vegetation around this entrance was trampled by huge feet, as if it had been used recently. The party peered inside and then ventured within. Apparently, the original buildings of Esh Alakar had been covered by the centuries; the portions of them that still lay above ground had been toppled by the weather. Undergroud, however, everything is in remarkably good repair, built with that same stonemasonry that was used in the bridge.

So far, the party has been wandering through the ruins of Esh Alakar for a couple of hours. In that time, they have encountered: venomous
cobra-like snakes, which have the images of screaming humanoid faces on their hoods; a ghost which caused disease with ethereal arrows; a pool of acid that was slowing eating away the floor; treasures, some left as if in a great hurry, and some guarded by magically trapped chests; a room filled with the illusion of a raging fire; a diagram on a wall that seemed to depict interplanetary travel; a perfectly chiseled statue of a human cowering in terror [like what you'd get if you turned someone into stone]; a hallway which echoed with a thousand screams of rage, causing
temporary madness to those passing through it; and an actual person, dressed in sorcerous-looking robes, and looking very hostile, frozen in
time by some bizarre magic. (The party tried to wake him up, but found that any object getting within one inch of him is suddenly slowed and
stopped.)

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

13
To: Melissanne@aol.com
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 20:45:38
Subject: Re: Doings in the Pasocada Basin

[In the time since the last installment, the adventurers wandered through a little more of Esh Alakar, and then had to defeat a small group of ogres which guarded the entrance to Ikitipsa's inner sanctum.]

Poor adventurers indeed. They're in the process of being whomped by a bent priestess, Ikitipsa, and the fire elemental that she conjured
up. I'll talk about this battle when it's all over, but here are the highlights: Leuth's lightning bolt AND Durandal's flame strike both failed miserably (these were their most powerful attack spells) due to Ikitipsa's ready-and-waiting protection spells. (Little did the party know that while they were dithering, casting spells, arguing, and so forth, Ikitipsa was weaving a veritable fortress of spells around herself.)

Leuth then flew up and over the fire elemental, and attempted to polymorph Ikitipsa. She was quicker, though; remembering his lightning bolt, which had been completely blocked but was annoying nonetheless, she cast a flame strike at him, nearly knocking him out of the sky like a duck hit with a twelve-gauge. His material component was incinerated, his concentration was lost, and he lost more than half of his hit points. (He MADE the saving throw too, by rolling a 20; he had to roll a 17 or higher or be killed instantly by that little doozy. Lucky ducky.)

Also, as Eni was about to shoot an arrow through the fire elemental and hit its mistress, the elemental took a swipe at him and scorched his bow, causing it to snap in half.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

14
To: melissanne@aol.com
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 19:08:29
Subject: The ferocious battle with Ikitipsa

Well, it was an EPIC battle, let me say that. Quite a few rounds of combat, and a few hours of playing time. I mentioned some of the
highlights in my last one; here's what happened after that:

Eni and Leuth had both fled. Eni took a chance and quaffed the mysterious potion that he's been carrying around for the better part of a year
without identifying. It turned out to be a potion of extra-healing, which REALLY helped him out. Leuth made him invisible at the same time,
so he could creep around behind Ikitipsa and do the ol' backstab.

Leuth then drank his potion, which he had salvaged from an ogre assassin earlier. It made him invisible too, and he flew back into the room to watch the proceedings. As Eni was creeping around to get into position, Isaak fell back (having been hurt quite a bit), and Durandal helped Crioth fight the elemental. Crioth's mystic sword cut the last strands of magic that had been holding the elemental to its prime-material shell, and it dissipated.

At the same moment, however, Ikitipsa (looking a bit shaken that her elemental had been destroyed) intoned a spell that ended with these words: "Mighty spirits come to my aid; let this man's life now dim and fade!" Crioth, whom she had been pointing at, toppled over, lifeless.

Isaak and Durandal charged up as Eni made his backstab. Ikitipsa created a flame blade and began doing battle. When she felt Eni's backstab, she spun around and hissed another spell. (This was an interesting series of dice rolls; the good guys won initiative, but they missed every single attack roll, so they didn't disrupt her spell. She then succeeded very nicely with her attack roll to make the touch spell work, and Eni failed his saving throw miserably.) She put two fingers on his forehead as she muttered the final syllables; his face turned pale, and he toppled over.

Ikitipsa then battled Durandal and Isaak, who had borrowed Crioth's sword in order to seek revenge for him. She incapacitated Isaak with a well-aimed swing; Leuth immediately landed (still invisible) and set to bandaging his wounds, in the hopes that he would survive long enough for healing magic to be used. At this point, only Leuth and Durandal remained. Durandal fought well, but was eventually incapacitated with a "hold person" spell. He was able to continue directing a "spiritual hammer" spell until she dispelled the magic that held it aloft.

Leuth made a few flying tackles (literally) and threw a few daggers. Finally, whispering a prayer to Thogom, god of magic, he cast a point-blank lightning bolt, hoping that the "dispel magic" that Durandal had cast earlier was enough to bring down her protection spell.

When the smoke cleared, all that remained of Ikitipsa was a pile of ash. Subsequently, the surviving party members rescued Yenisha from the cell were Ikitipsa had imprisoned her. They then hauled the variously dead and incapacitated people to the surface. (Eni died after about ten minutes from the magically induced poisoning; Durandal had nothing left to save him.)

Durandal spent a couple of days using his most powerful of spells: RAISE DEAD. Crioth and Eni were back on their feet; Isaak recovered with nothing more than a bit of healing magic. When Yenisha regained her wits, she thanked the party members profusely, and explained Ikitipsa's plan: she was going to master the ancient magicks of Esh Alakar, and control the "living statues" (stone golems) in order to destory the society that had cast her out.

And here our adventures in the Pasocada Basin draw to an end. At the next meeting, Sozarro will return to divide the profits, the Azuposi will collect the adventurers' reward micha, and they will set sail for home, far richer, wiser, and more powerful than when they first left its shores.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

15
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 20:57:16
Subject: Doings on the planet of Trond

When last we left our heroes, they had entered haunted Esh Alakar to track down their friend Yenisha, who had been kidnapped by the evil
bent priestess Ikitipsa. They defeated Ikitipsa by the skin of their teeth; in the process Crioth and Eni were slain by "slay living" and "induce poison" spells, respectively, while Isaak was incapacitated by a vicious stab with a "flame blade," and Leuth and Durandal (severely wounded) had to carry their comrades to the surface, and use necromantic as well as healing spells to restore everyone to functional again. Our heroes, having rescued Yenisha, returned to Michaca, where, after a few weeks, they were given the micha harvest (200 pounds of the precious substance), which was split according to their agreement with Sozarro (nine shares, two to Sozarro, two to his employers).

Well, after this, they returned to Maztica across the desert, with a large party of Azuposi escorting them (random desert encounters not a problem at that point). In Kultaka, they parted with Sozarro and most of the Azuposi; one pueblo priest by the name of Kiotucq, nicknamed "Tucq," decided to accompany them home, to learn their ways and see the world. He is to return to his home eventually, to share what he has learned.

They met up with Captain Scollin and his ship, and set sail for home. Along the way, they were attacked by a giant squid, which nearly killed Crioth and Durandal, and sank to the ocean floor after being killed by a few lightning bolts and magic missiles. Durandal and Leuth decided that the squid's ink was too valuable for its use in fabrication of magical scrolls to waste. They cast appropriate spells: "water breathing" and
"free action," and descended into the depths. About halfway down, they were attacked by four great white sharks, which took a few chunks out of them, but were driven off by friendly sharks that Durandal was able to summon (Animal Summoning II... gotta love it).

On the ocean floor (it took them about half an hour to get down there) they met a bizarre, crab-shelled beholder-kin (an Eye of the Deep), which stunned them with a dazzling beam of light from its central eye, and then began snapping at them with its lobster-like claws. The "free action" spells helped them snap out of it, though, and the beholder's "hold person" and "hold monster" powers, emanating from its two secondary eye-stalks, had no effect (thanks to the aforementioned "free action"). Undaunted, the Eye pursued, attacking with claws and teeth. Leuth cast a couple of lightning bolts at it and took off at top speed.

Now, bear in mind that visibility in these deep waters was thirty feet with a "continual light" spell. Leuth couldn't even see where he was sending these bolts. So our two heroes held still and waited for it to follow... nothing came. They finally descended again, and, seeing no sign of their assailant (which had fled, being severely hurt), they sought out the gigantic, sixty-foot-long corpse of the squid.

Leuth was able to safely cut out one of its ink glands, but ruptured the other. They took the one gland with them as they ascended, and enlisted the sailors' help in hauling it on board. This done, they continued back home to Tiburon without incident. They arrived at a large town called Mensherville; not their home of Seacrest, but fairly close, on the same coastline.

Scollin decided to give his sailors a bit of shore leave, and offered to meet the adventurers at Seacrest after a few weeks. They would get home faster by walking (and wouldn't suffer from the seasickness that plagued some members of the party), and he could carry their heavier items of treasure to the city for them. They accepted, and found lodgings in an inn, in order to rest and recuperate before beginning their overland
trek.

While Crioth and Eni were out looking to buy some cider to settle their stomachs, the rest of the party was approached by a rather
singular individual. He was tall, thin, not terribly attractive, and clad in unfashionable garments that bore a light dusting of dandruff. You know, the wizardly type. He hemmed and hawed for a few minutes, and then frothed the following speech in the general direction of our heroes:

"Well, hello there... Um, sorry, not terribly good at all this - too many books, too many books by far, you know. [Here he stopped and laughed for no clearly apparent reason.] Um, well, anyway, um, onto business, I suppose. Yes, business! [Dramatic pause.] Jalzannel - you haven't heard of him, I suppose, but anyway, he's um... he's deh - I mean missing, gone sort of, and here's the map - you know, usual sort of thing. Oh, but bring back anything - scrolls and such, I mean, with the rune on the map - that's really important. There, that wasn't so bad after all, was it! [He looked pleased with himself, and then interrupted as Leuth started to ask him a question:] Oh, almost forgot the money. A thousand gold suit everyone? See you here in five days, now don't be late! [He looked at them sternly as if they were unruly children.] Bye for now!" And he immediately vanished in a veritable cloud of pungent lilac smoke, leaving Leuthwinmar holding an undecipherable map, which was in pretty bad condition.

After the party debated what this all meant (the paladin, always the party pooper, and having trouble getting into his role, started screaming about how they had no obligation to help this guy, and since there wasn't any clear reward for them, they shouldn't...sigh...), they noticed a short, childlike figure paying a worrying amount of attention to them. When he saw that he had been sighted, he walked over to them in a peculiar fashion, and offered his services.

Apparently this fellow, going by the name of Childlike, is an expert at deciphering the illegible. He stands a mighty 3'4" in black imitation dragon-skin boots, and wears worn-looking leather armor. Seems to be a halfling thief. He offered to help the players with their problem, in exchange for "first refusal concerning anything found in, on, beyond, and around the place where this map leads, in addition to my share of the treasure, of course." Meaning that he didn't have to do any fighting if he didn't want to, and if there was any doubt about who was getting an indivisible piece of treasure (like a big gem or a magical item), it was going to him.

He pointed out that, from what he had overheard, the heroes had only five days to fetch "the item with the rune" and be back, and he hinted that the place (he refused to say anything about where it was, since that was the only reason they'd ever hire him) was far enough away that they'd want to leave soon. Thus, he gave them half an hour to get back to him with a decision.

Now everyone has gone out looking for Crioth and Eni, and everyone except Isaak seems to be in favor of accepting this challenge, such as it is.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

"I have a special place in my heart for the criminally insane, but you have worn out your welcome!" - The Tick (author Ben Edlund)

16
To: melissanne@aol.com (Jade), impanther@yahoo.com (Panther)
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 19:16:09
Subject: Trond Update: The Wizard, the Map, and the Halfling

First, a quick review of the people involved:

Crioth: the human fighter, sort of introverted, and possessor of an eldritch sword.

Eni: the elven thief, prone to sudden impulse, and actions lacking in common sense.

Leuthwinmar: the elven mage, who has a tendency to stay well out of harm's way.

Yzahak: the human paladin, sort of intolerant of others, but honorable and devout.

Durandal: the human cleric, talented at the arts of healing and comedy.

Tucq: short for "Kiotucq," the Azuposi pueblo priest who just joined the party.

When we last left our heroes, they had received a map from a tall, mysterious, somewhat discombobulated stranger, and they were approached by a somewhat odd halfling who offered to help. They wound up accepting his offer; he insisted on shaking the paladin's hand to seal the deal, knowing that a paladin wouldn't go back on his word. This proved useful for him; later, when he was being at his most annoying and Crioth tried to threaten him into submission, he reminded them of their unbreakable bargain.

Childlike (as he calls himself) led the party to the edge of a deep, dark forest, which he promptly plunged into, stomping through the underbrush as fast as his little legs would carry him. Twice during the journey the party came across nice-looking paths, which he ignored. He looked at the map only once, upside-down, stuffed it into a pouch, and assured the party that they were definitely going the right way.

After traveling for a couple of days, Childlike burst out of a particularly stubborn bush, whooped for joy, and pointed out a seldom-used path. They followed this, and were attacked along the way by a mysterious sticky amorphous creature, which they defeated without too much trouble. Childlike stood around gawking uselessy.

The path led to an area of smooth, solid stone, with geometric patterns carved into it. Close examination revealed that some of the patterns outlined a plug, which was set into the stone. Childlike produced some steel spikes, which Crioth pounded in to get a good grip. This noise, of course, attracted an owlbear, which barrelled into the party and did a bit of clawing before being killed.

With the spikes in, the party tried to hoist the plug out. They couldn't; it weighed over half a ton. Durandal, fortunately, was able to utilize his engineering skills to design a hoisting apparatus, which made it possible. When the plug was removed, it revealed a well-lit shaft, apparently thousands of feet deep. Rusty iron rungs spiraled around the pockmarked black walls. Yzahak was the first to descend. After seven feet, the rung he stepped on made a "clunk" sound, and gouts of steam sprayed from the pockmarks in the walls, scalding him and causing him to lose his grip! He plummeted to the bottom... all forty feet, which was painful but not lethal. Apparently the thousands of feet thing was an illusion. Leuth flew in after him, trying to make a catch. After about twenty feet, he saw that Yzahak was all right, and he tried to stop... without success. At exactly that point, his "fly" spell fizzled as if dispelled, and Leuth took a fall as well. Durandal climbed down on the rungs, and was steam-cleaned, and dropped, after fourteen feet. Crioth and Eni used a rope to descend. Childlike went down on the rungs, but skipped every seventh rung, and
was unhurt. Tucq followed Childlike.

As the last person started to descend, a disembodied voice yelled something out in an unintelligible ancient language. After going down about five feet, it yelled, "I hope you understood that last message!" After five more, it said, "I wonder if that grease spell is still working!" After ten more, it said, "And watch out for the poison gas at the bottom!"

At the bottom, which was three feet deep in sludgy water, the party found an iron door, with a bas-relief face in it. The face dolefully informed them, in a voice sounding like rusty iron plates being grated together, that people who aren't funny, and go through life with too serious an outlook, usually end up with their souls bound to impassable doors at the entrances to hideously dangeroud dungeons. It refused to be drawn into a dialogue.

A keyhole was just by its right ear. The party searched the water, and, after a couple of minutes, found a key. When it was used, the door
slid upward, and the water drained out. Beyond this was a ten-foot long tunnel which led to a brick wall. Nothing else. Leuth stepped in, after much experimenting with throwing things in. He vanished and reappeared in front of the wall, with a number of directional light spells (like spotlights) suddenly illuminating him.

Tiresome organ music began playing, and a disembodied face appeared, introducing him as "the amazingly funny, ludicrously hysterical
Leuthwinmar Lorelian, whose wits are sharper than his ears." At this point, an unseen audience began exhorting him to tell a joke.

Leuth told a somewhat long-winded and barely funny joke. The audience applauded half-heartedly, and Leuth vanished.

Yzahak told a really boring, unfunny joke. He was booed, and the tunnel began spinning, battering him around for a bit of damage, and he tumbled through the brick wall.

Childlike told a bad pun, and was booed and battered.

Durandal told a few "You might be an orc if..." jokes and was applauded wildly. He vanished as Leuth had.

Eni was unable to come up with a real joke. He was booed out of the place, and thrown a few daggers to hurry him on his way.

Crioth asked why the chicken crossed the road. You can guess what happened.

Tucq said something unintelligible. He was booed off the stage.

Now, after this was all done, and most of the party was battered and bruised (I need to sign them up for comedy lessons or something), they found themselves in a 20' square room. In the center of the room is a table. On the table are two items: a pile of coins, and a box [the box is blue with a yellow star with a red question mark inside it]. Disembodied voices, much like the audience from the comedy club, are hinting at two courses of action: taking the box or taking the coins.

"What do you think is in the box? Something valuable, I bet!"

"Nah, it's probably a poison snake or something. You'd have to be nuts to stick your hand in there with all that money there!"

And so on.

Meanwhile, images of powerful staves, suits of enchanted armor, huge gems, and so forth manifest themselves on the wall. On the opposite end of the room is an exit portal, illuminated by pink and blue lights; this portal is currently closed.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

17
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 16:10:07
Subject: The Test of the Box vs. the Coins, and the Test of Adaptation

So there they were, given the choice between 100 platinum coins and "the box."

Eni decided to choose first; he opened the box. "ENI L'NAVE," a voice boomed out, "YOU HAVE WON A WISH!" Eni wished for
improved thieving skills, and his wish was granted! (+5% on each ability, total of +40%, equal to one and a third levels worth of progression... not bad!) He then left through the newly opened exit, which closed behind him.

Childlike rushed over to the box, which had also closed, and opened it. He drew out a coupon from the Fates, which would allow him to avoid any one unpleasant situation, at any point in time.

Yzahak opened the box and won a loss of 10,000 experience points (oucha magowch!), but was told he'd receive a consolation prize; the box closed. He opened it again, and drew forth a title deed and a picture of a majestic temple of Tharon, situated in Seacrest. It was his. He was also given the gift of leadership; his Charisma soared all the way up to 18!

Leuth took the coins, and left the room to shouts of "You shudd'a open'd da box!"

Crioth went for the box, and was promptly stricken with the Curse of the Euryale; he henceforth will suffer a -3 penalty on all saving throw vs. petrification (ie as that of a medusa, cockatrice, gorgon, and so on).

Durandal chose the box, and received a scroll (which turned out to be a map of some sort, starting at a city called Govaria, charting the landmarks of The Spyre, the Cave of Lektos, and leading to a Locus Antiquus), as well as an unassuming-looking, but presumably magical, sling.

Tucq chose the box, and was gifted with better "people" skills. (+2 Charisma.)

The entire party was then together, in a rather cold room. The door had vanished behind them. The room was hewn from chilling, uncracked stone; it was hemispherical, with a 30' radius. In the center, ten feet from the top of the ceiling, was a globe of softly glowing light; the floor, which was cold, packed earth, was littered with yellowed bones, blankets, backpacks, and various piles of junk. From nowhere, a voice softly intoned, "Welcome, my friends, to the bastion of chaos."

Over the next fifteen minutes, a few things happened. Searches of the room were made, turning up nothing interesting but the inscription "You may know yourself well, but how well do you know your friends?". Everyone peace-knotted their weapons, suspecting that they would come under the influence of another confusion spell. And over this time, the light grew brighter and brighter. In addition, a deep thrumming sound could be heard, and it grew louder and louder. Something was about to happen. Childlike said how great it had been to work with everyone, and he invoked his Fates coupon, promptly vanishing.

A few minutes later, the sphere of light seemed to silently implode. The party lost consciousness as their souls were torn from their bodies, and for a few seconds they perceived nothing. Then they could see again; they blinked and looked at each other... only to discover, to their shock, that they were not in their own bodies! Crioth and Leuth had switched bodies; Yzahak and Tucq had done likewise, as had Durandal and Eni! And as this sank in, a large, hungry-looking bipedal monster, with claws, mandibles, a black exoskeletal shell, and big beady eyes, clawed its way up out of the floor in a matter of seconds (the floor probably would've snapped the average shovel trying to dig into it).

Now, to the consternation of the party, the warrior-types are generally stuck in unarmored, weak bodies that don't seem to have swords
at their sides. The spellcasters, all except for Durandal, are in heavily armored bodies (preventing spellcasting), and equipped with weapons they haven't a clue how to use. Tomorrow the battle begins.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

18
To: melissanne@aol.com
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 19:55:10
Subject: Porridge! (____)

When they saw the large, vicious, hungry creature coming, everyone had varying reactions. Leuth began trying to get his spell components from his body (now inhabited by Crioth); Eni dashed over to Durandal to get his swords. Durandal snatched a pinch of sulfur from his Eni-possessed body, and cast a quick flame strike at the creature. Tucq tried to cast a spell, but was thwarted by his armor and his lack of components.

Meanwhile, Leuth realized that his spells wouldn't work within the confines of a suit of plate mail, and he snatched up his staff to do battle. Crioth began chucking daggers, and Yzahak charged into the fray with Tucq's club. Tucq found Yzahak's club and joined him. The battle went on for a few minutes.

All of the spellcasters except Durandal found themselves severely disadvantaged, mainly because they were in heavy armor that prevented spellcasting, but also because they couldn't even melee effectively, for the same reason: although their new bodies were strong enough to hold the armor easily, they weren't accustomed to it, and they moved very awkwardly. By the end of it, Crioth's body was incapacitated; he returned to it just after this happened and Durandal healed his mortal wounds. (Tucq had delivered the mortal blow with a double-critical club hit. Impressive.)

The creature having been defeated, the party was mysteriously teleported to another chamber, this one made of panels of flashing light fused at bizarre angles. In the center of the room was a globe of light with a scroll case encased in it: the object of their search. A voice boomed forth, "LET HE WHO HAS PASSED THE TEST CLAIM HIS PRIZE!" After a lot of debate, Durandal took the scroll.

As he did so, the room rumbled and began falling apart; solid magical energies tore through the area, and reality itself seemed to scream in pain. Then all was dark, and the party knew no more.

They awoke (phew!) in the forest next to an arrow-shaped sign saying "THE WAY BACK." Childlike had returned to them (now that the danger was over). The scroll case bore the inscription, "WARNING: Contains sentient, self-actuated theories of capriciosity and random chaoticness! To be used only by the mightiest of mages!" They didn't open it.

When they returned to town, they (and Childlike) received one thousand gold pieces each from Zadderghast (the original mage), who took the scroll case. They interrogated him for as long as he would put up with it, but didn't learn anything useful. Childlike made a discreet exit as soon as he got his money.

Leuth tried turning invisible and shadowing old Zaddy. Zaddy walked about a block, and then sniffed and turned around. He pointed at Leuth, who immediately became fly-sized. Leuth narrowly survived the experience, which I won't detail here, and eventually recovered thanks to Zadderghast's kind heart (he discovered a "drink me" bottle next to him one day; he drank it and was restored most of the way [he's one inch shorter than he was]).

After all this, they left for Seacrest. When they stopped in a small village and went into an inn, they discovered a member of the village militia bleeding profusely, being tended to by the innkeeper and a few onlookers. Durandal healed him; he drew a ragged breath and said that bizarre, animalistic, humanoid creatures had entered the village seeking Chalcedon, the resident mage; he (the guard) had confronted them and was badly wounded before driving them off.

The party went to see Chalcedon. They told him what they had heard, and he expressed the belief that it was connected to the anti-magic cult that had been active in Seacrest the year before. (These are the same chaps who destroyed most of the party's magical items at
that time, so they have an axe to grind.) He offered to hire them as protection, and to flush out their lair. They agreed eagerly. The
next night, they waited outside his house. They met five of the creatures, who seemed mostly man-like, but had characteristics of various
animals. One of them had twisted, clawed hands and a rat-like nose; another had a scorpion-like stinger and chitinous plates; and so forth.

They battled the things after a minimum of parleying, and made the discovery that they regenerated. They weren't too tough, though, and the three surviving creatures fled. Yzahak and Durandal followed their tracks to the forest, where a rather obvious trail became apparent. They marked the place.

The next day, the party returned to this spot and followed the trail. It led to an area of overgrown ruins, eerily quiet. As they walked through, a huge spider attacked them by leaping from the basement of a ruined house. It was squished promptly, and they continued. After about half an hour, they found a building that was still standing; it was about barn-sized, it had stained-glass windows, and an unrecognizable symbol was on its roof. They decided to enter. Inside, it contained pews, an altar, and a cabinet-like item. (Sound at all familiar?) As they moved inside, though, something VERY unexpected happened.

A figure from one of the windows STEPPED OUT and began attacking them! They quickly discovered that most of their weapons couldn't harm it, either. Even the majority of the enchanted ones. Only Crioth's mysterious sword and a couple of Spiritual Hammer
spells did any damage. After about three rounds, the thing began glowing, as if in full sunlight, and after a minute of this, beams of
color shot out in all directions! Leuth was hit by a blue beam and he ran into the forest, gibbering insanely. Durandal was hit by a violet
one and he disappeared into the Ehtereal Plane. Yzahak was struck by a red one and he nearly turned to stone (but made his saving throw and was unharmed). Tucw was hit by the green one; he turned green too and fell to the floor, stricken by a lethal poison. Crioth was grazed by a yellow beam and was mortally wounded. (That beam inflicted 80 points of damage or 40 if the save was made; he made the save.) Eni was grazed by an orange beam and was hurt quite a bit. (One-half of the last one.)

After this, only Yzahak and Eni remained. Yzahak, of course, tended to Crioth's wounds to stop the bleeding. Eni, of course, swiped Crioth's sword and shattered the thing. Durandal found his way out of the Ethereal Plane (fortunately it's REALLY easy to get out
of) and dropped in from the ceiling. He neutralized Tucq's poison and cured Crioth's wounds quickly. Leuth, meanwhile, had recovered when the golem (it was a stained glass golem) was destroyed, and Kyrstil led him back.

Durandal then opened the little cabinet thing. Inside he found a book with a strange symbol on the cover, a scroll of Control Winds, a scroll of Heal, a necklace, and a vial of clear liquid. Yzahak peeked at the book. He couldn't comprehend it, but he sensed that it was good. Eni peeked at the book. He sustained MAJOR damage, was blasted backwards through the air, and he lost a point of
Dexterity. (YOW.) Durandal looked, and was able to understand it; it was a record of the exalted deeds of holy people. A sacred text of some sort.

Now the party is limping back to the town to recover from the golem; they still haven't uncovered the location of the creatures, but they have uncovered some pretty cool treasures! Next Monday, they might get a little farther.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

19
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 22:41:33
Subject: "And enjoy my stay, to traveler! Welcome your" - A Xaositect named Sival... for today.

The party made it back to the village without further incident, although they were hurt quite badly. All except Crioth (who was too badly hurt to do much of anything for a few days) decided to keep watch outside Chalcedon's door that night. Unfortunately, they were still worn out from a long day of exploring and fighting, and most of them fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.

They spent a couple of nights in the village, alternating between recuperating and fighting off attacks on Chalcedon's house. The attacks increased in ferocity; when it reached the level of ten creatures per assault, the party began to doubt their ability to handle things. It seemed that the creatures hated Leuth in particular; they began carrying missile weapons, in order to be able to attack him even if flying.

At one point, he evaded attack by becoming invisible. When his foes began fleeing for their lives, he cast a lightning bolt at their backsides; this might have something to do with their dislike for him, but that's just guesswork.

Strange thing of note: it seemed that members of the village had been vanishing under mysterious circumstances. The strange thing was that their homes were in disarray, but there were no signs of forced entry from outside! It seemed that they had gone insane and fled their homes in a panic.

Eventually, the party decided to return to the ruins. Along the way, they fought off a bizarre creature that seemed part stag, part lion, and part badger. It wasn't much of a threat, though. They also found a small building that seemed to be only about ten years old. The door was off its hinges, and it seemed deserted. The party cautiously investigated. The building was, apparently, a wizard's laboratory, or at least it used to be. Smashed cages, broken vials, burned books, and puddles of unknown liquids littered the room. A thorough search revealed some lab notes that provided enough information for Leuth to eventually learn a few spells.

The only thing of note in these papers was the "Reincarnation" spell. The heading was there, but after it came only pages and pages of procedures, all scribbled out as if they hadn't worked properly. Apparently whoever-it-was had been in the process of researching this spell, but had been having a difficult time. [Stop reading here and try to figure out exactly what's going on. If you do, award yourself a hundred thousand experience points!]

Leuth stashed the notes and the party continued onward. They wound up at a clearing in which many huts had been recently constructed. As they peered around, they spotted a creature limping between huts. It appeared to be part man, part wolf; one of its legs was twisted and deformed in some way that prevented it from walking normally. It spotted them, pointed, and yelled (its speech was thickly slurred,
but this was clear enough), "Quickly, come out! They've come to kill us!"

Just then a ferocious melee was about to break out. Durandal, however, decided that he didn't like the impression that the creatures had received of them. He walked forward, no weapon in hand. And was not attacked.

There was a little bit of talk; I don't remember exactly who said what. It came out, though, that Chalcedon (or so the creatures say) was the one responsible for creating them! In the process of researching powerful necromantic magicks, he had screwed up royally and mingled these people's essences with those of various animals, twisting their bodies, minds, and souls permanently. They now live only for the hope of revenge ("justice") against him, and our heroes had been doing nothing but stand in their way! Our heroes decided to believe them. The creatures were infuriated by the very sight of Leuth, citing past instances in which he had "changed man into beast, just as Chalcedon did" (Leuth's polymorph spells didn't go over well), and attacked fleeing opponents from behind ("O dishonorable foe!").

Durandal offered his help in trying to break the curse, however, and insisted that Leuth's knowledge would be needed. Here's the real
pickle of the "curse," by the way: these guys can't even be released from their existence on this world! It seems that whenever they are killed, polymorphed, or whatever, their souls (what's left of them) move on to another body, infecting that unfortunate person with the curse of a half-animal form, as well as all the knowledge, pain, and madness of the soul that has entered them. This is why so many villagers had been fleeing their homes; they had become unspeakable creatures! It seems that each time our well-meaning heroes killed an opponent, they unwittingly inflicted the curse on an innocent person!

And lest you think that this issue is black-and-white, with Chalcedon as the bad guy, I give you this side note: It's worthwhile to
remember that Chalcedon didn't really do anything most people wouldn't have done. He wasn't doing research of an evil nature; on the contrary, he was trying to create a spell that would help people by giving them a second chance at life. He made an unlucky mistake, and then ran from it in terror. Terrified and out of options, he tricked a group of adventurers into helping him (he was afraid, of course, that telling them the real story would only get him burned at the stake).

On the other hand, he has unwittingly committed what Hawthorne called "the unforgiveable sin." Simply put, he has condemned other people's souls. His magical mishaps bent and twisted his subject's hearts towards evil; they are now beyond redemption, and will spend their afterlives in one of the more dismal Outer Planes. So what should the party do?

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

[Note: Chapter 20 is so short that I'll send it right now.]

20
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 19:09:24
Subject: "Everything decays. We're just here to help it along." - Factol Pentar of the Doomguard

Yzahak did some pleading and bargaining, and the broken ones decided to allow the heroes to confront Chalcedon. They were only
willing to give him one day, however; if he was unsuccessful, they would take matters into their own hands.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

"Beautiful is! Chaos too dim the multiverse to comprehend the most of." - a Xaositect

21
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 19:56:38
Subject: Confrontation with Chalcedon

So Yzahak, Crioth, Leuth, Durandal, and Tucq set out to confront Chalcedon. They arrived at his house to find the door slightly ajar.
They walked in, Yzahak calling out to him. The furniture of the room had been shoved over to one side of the room; it looked deserted. Just then a voice came out of the air.

"I'm really sorry, but I can't risk having the villagers find out about my mistake. You know how it is." With that, the door closed and bolted itself (locking Crioth out) and the party was assaulted by spells of various ghastly types.

Durandal was attacked by an invisible elemental creature. Leuth was hit by a bolt of necromantic energies that knocked him down three levels. Tucq was drained of almost all his hit points (these were added to Chalcedon's total, giving him more hit points than any party member, including the warriors). Yzahak was attacked by a phantasm, and suffered a fatal heart attack when it struck him. (He knew it was illusionary, but he underestimated its physiological effects; in order to fully dispel it, he needed to spend one round focusing on disbelieving its existence. Instead, he turned his back on it and began attacking another opponent; when it struck him, he died of fear.)

At present, Leuth has set fire to the building; Crioth obtained a crowbar and unhinged the door, providing an escape route. He is now hauling Yzahak's still-warm corpse from the flaming building. Durandal holds out hope for restoring life by means of the powerful "heal" scroll that he discovered in the ancient temple; this could restore Yzahak to full vitality in an instant.

Chalcedon seems to be invisible, flying, and immune to attack. He thus far has refused to bargain; he is convinced that if the heroes live, they will expose him to the villagers, and he will be killed.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

22
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 19:15:50
Subject: Fleeing from the burning building...

Just as Durandal was invoking the powerful Heal spell to get Yzahak's heart moving again, Leuth heard Chalcedon whisper in his ear, "I
suggest you run now." The party did so; most of them were half dead.

At the same time they heard Chalcedon raising the alarm, calling upon the villagers to help him against the arsonists/ assassins that had
attacked him and set fire to his house! The party ran without looking back. They went back to the broken ones, and admitted defeat.

Durandal cast a few "remove curse" spells on some of them, and they decided to spend the night to memorize new spells to try the process with others. The next morning, a quick head count revealed that three broken ones were missing. They said that they had dealt with Chalcedon; in the process, three of them who had died had not returned! They take this to mean that they are at least released from the endless cycle of reincarnation/possession that Chalcedon's goofup caused.

Yzahak, with the aid of invisibility and flight, went back to the town. Chalcedon, it seems, is homeless. His house and lab were both completely destroyed. (This means that there is no evidence against him; anything that might have been there is ashes. Also, it means that Leuth doesn't get to see Chalcedon's books, which contain a few spells that he's been dying to get his hands on.)

Chalcedon is also handless. Clerics were able to keep him from bleeding to death, but it looks like he'll never cast any more spells that aren't verbal-only. General opinion in the village is that the heroes took Chalcedon's money to protect him, and then double-crossed him, burning his home to the ground in the process. When Chalcedon bravely fought them off single-handed, they sent evil creatures to maim him. This village is close enough to Seacrest that, if they don't take steps to mend their reputations, our heroes will need to find a new place of residence... a difficult thing, since some of them have already built strongholds there.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

23
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 00:17:12
Subject: They Fought the Law, and the Law Won....

Yzahak decided to try to find and talk to Chalcedon. To this end, he had Leuth cast spells of identity concealment, invisibility and
flight on him, and he went back to the village to try to find the now-handless mage. After learning all he could by flying around
invisibly, he dropped that spell and talked to people under the guise of a simple villager. He discovered that Chalcedon was staying at a certain inn, since his house had been burned down. The innkeeper at that inn, however, was under instructions not to let anyone disturb Chalcedon, and he values his customers highly.

So after trying a gambit of renting a room and knocking on doors asking to borrow towels, he was ejected from the inn. The next day he returned, disguised as an old mage, with an invisible Eni next to him. He claimed to be from the International Seacrest Wizard's Guild, and he offered his help in regenerating Chalcedon's hands. The innkeeper, a little suspicious, went to confer with Chalcedon. Eni followed to eavesdrop. Chalcedon saw right through the deception ("international" isn't even much of a word in medieval times, and for another thing, he had never heard of the so-called guild), and asked the innkeeper to go fetch the village guards to arrest these lying assassins. Eni relayed the conversation to Yzahak, who said that he had heard the conversation, and was insulted that they didn't believe him. He then turned to storm out.

As he did so, the innkeeper's two brawny cousins tackled him from behind, pinning him down beneath four hundred pounds of muscle. Yzahak was unable to free himself, try as he might, and was eventually knocked out. The innkeeper ran to a temple to get Kaelan priests; one arrived and began dispelling magic. Eni had been too close; he hit the ground with a "thud" and took off before he was attacked. Yzahak's illusions fell away, and he was recognized. A quick search discovered the dagger that he had been carrying for self-defense; it was, of course, seen as the weapon of a vile assassin.

Yzahak was hauled before the village council and a brief trial was held. He protested that he was a holy paladin of Tharon, and attempted to prove it by using his divine abilities. He was unable to, though; apparently he's temporarily fallen from grace. He was imprisoned, pending execution for his crimes. Eni ran all the way back and told what had happened.

Leuth (invisible) went to scout the area out. He found no way to bust Yzahak out without alerting about twelve guards that were stationed around him. (He seemed genuinely surprised that the keys weren't left out in some obviously accessible place.) So he returned; a more elaborate jailbreak is planned for the next day, when he can obtain a few more spells. Notes: All of the priestly types have lost their spells for now, since they've been messing up for a while, and have only made things worse. Tharon and the Azuposi spirits have decided that their followers will need to get out of this pickle without any supernatural help; after all, that would be kinda like buying someone a Christmas present with money you borrowed from them. Had Yzahak tried to convince people that he was a paladin BEFORE getting arrested, it might well have worked. However, his credibility was damaged by the fact that he had hidden his identity with magic, and that he needed to be knocked out for the safety of his arresting officers.

A dream might arrive soon, if these guys get completely stuck... it'll probably be something to the effect of "Deception and subterfuge are not the way, my son. Speak the truth to wise people, and they will listen with open hearts." (IE: The solution to this scenario I have in mind is talking to the priests of Kaela, without any disguises, weapons, or anything. Appealing to their senses of mercy and fairness, it probably would've been possible to convince them of the party's good intentions, and the priests in turn could have helped convince the villagers. At this point, that may or may not work.)

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

24
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 21:00:58
Subject: The Daring Jailbreak

Sometime during the night, the broken ones left. It can be assumed that they decided to find a new place to dwell, away from the
eyes of men.

Leuthwinmar, armed with several spells, flew back to the village the next morning, under an invisibility spell. He landed outside the prison, and cast a Wraithform spell. He then cast a Fog Cloud spell over the guards, and slipped into the cell like a wisp of smoke. With Yzahak in tow, he Dimension Door'ed up to the roof. After this, he cast Invisibility and Fly spells upon the both of them, and they flew away with nary a scratch.

Yzahak had a conversation with Durandal (who, at this time, was being played by me, luckily for him). Durandal went through a few logical steps to find the flaws in Yzahak's previous plans. One: he had been talking to biased, unwise people (the innkeeper and Chalcedon). Two: he had been armed, not only with weapons but with deceit. The solution to the problem: tell the TRUTH to a wise,
merciful person. Such as a priest of Kaela.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

25
To: impanther@yahoo.com, melissanne@aol.com
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 18:08:27
Subject: A resolution to the whole sticky mess...

Well, the next day, the party returned to the village, under a "seeming" spell to make them look like miscellaneous farmers. Along the
way they battled a hideous, slightly magically mutated troll, but defeated it, despite a lack of normal weapons or armor. They sought out
a temple of Kaela, and requested a private audience with the head priest. They explained their story to him, and, being a wise man,
he tested them under a few spells ("detect lie," "know alignment," and the like), and then brought them to see Chalcedon. (Chalcedon had saved his life more than once, he explained. He still wanted to hear his side of it.)

When they confronted Chalcedon, and the priest explained the situation, Chalcedon sighed. "Well," he said, "here's how it happened.
Kyranthiotem ki wa gyzrnquelaf fga!" As he was saying the last syllable, Leuth started to do something, but it was too late. Chalcedon
had vanished into thin air. Leuth immediately began a search of the town. Neither he nor Durandal was familiar with the spell that had been cast; it could have been anything from "invisibility" to "temporal shift." Chalcedon was never found.

The priest took this as an admission of guilt. He took our heroes to the village council to clear their names. The heroes were fined four thousand gold pieces for the destruction of Chalcedon's house, which had been property of the village. (This drained Leuth's coffers,
and put a dent in Eni and Tucq's pocketbooks as well.) That was all the law did to them; their consciences, however (and particularly their deities) required a bit more. Durandal resolved to talk to those that the victims had left behind. (By victims I mean the villagers who were possessed as a result of the heroes' slaying of the broken ones.)

There were five families left behind, although twenty had been affected; the others had been either single or entire families had been taken.
The reactions varied. One wife kept her composure, understanding that the heroes had meant well, but she asked them to leave as she
started to sob. The others were less forgiving, and the adventurers were spat at, cursed, and pelted with rocks. By the end of it, though, they had faced the consequences of their actions, and apologized to those they had hurt. Their consciences were eased just a little; they had done all they could do. And with this done, they continued their journey homeward.

Samwise

"KEEEEEEEEEERRRNNNN!!!!!!"
(sustained for 30 seconds)

26
To: dbvegeta@juno.com

Cc: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 19:06:11
Subject: Re: Meeting on Friday

All right. Here's what's gonna happen tomorrow that affects YOU, Crioth:

While lounging in a tavern or some such place, you see a bardic-looking fellow playing his lute (six-stringed) and singing. He looks to be in his early thirties or late twenties; he has a neatly trimmed mustache and he wears a headband. Fairly slim build, but not puny by any means. After he finishes his set, he sits next to you at the bar and orders a stein of mead. As he's waiting, his glance happens to pass over your sword, and he makes a strange noise.

"That's an interesting sword you have there, friend," he says. "Looks oddly familiar. Mind if I take a look at it?"

You draw the sword and let him peer at it while you hang on to the hilt. He squints at the runes on the blade, muttering to himself, and his eyes grow wide. "THIS is unusual," he says. "Quite exceptional. I mean, WOW." He looks pretty excited. "Follow me outside," he says.
"I think you'll want to hear what I have to tell you." You follow him to an alley.

"There's the matter of my consulting fee, of course." As you begin to groan, he adds, "Five gold. I need to eat, you know." You fork it over, relieved. "The name is Samwise, by the way," he says as an afterthought. "Professional minstrel, poet, troubadour, bard, entertainer, and jack-of-all-trades."

Now he asks to actually HOLD the sword himself. "Don't worry, if I'd wanted to steal it, I would've had my assistant there knock you out the instant we got here," he says. "Kidding," he chuckles as you look back nervously.

You hand over the sword, watching him closely. He scrutinizes the blade again, peers at the diamond set into the hilt, runs a finger along the edge, and taps it while listening to the sound it makes. Nodding, he fishes a copper coin out of his pocket. He tosses it into the air. As your eyes strain to follow its flight, he sweeps your sword in a graceful arc, and catches something in his free hand. He opens it. One half of a copper coin lies there. The other half is on the ground, neatly bisected from its mate. "A fine blade, indeed," he says. "I think I can tell you a bit about its history, too."

"It begins in the time of the Ancient Ones, whom you may have heard of. Really powerful people. Excelled at everything... technology,
magic, art, warfare." Your mind suddenly wanders to that ancient training ground under the hill, which created powerful magical items like
party favors for those who passed through it.

"Anyway, they discovered this powerful artifact. The tool of a deity. Some say it was the crown of Tharon. Some, the bow of Kaela.
Myself, I think it was the scroll upon which Sparila wrote the epic poem that we act out even now, but that's just an opinion. Now, the Ancients did some experimenting with it, and discovered that it contained a great deal of power. In the hands of someone capable of fiddling with it and harnessing its full energies, the possibilities were endless. And as much as the Ancients would have liked to have this power, they realized that it was dangerous. So they set out to find a way to destroy it."

"Naturally, artifacts can't be destroyed by normal means. Sure you can destroy their physical manifestations, but that's irrelevant. They have a way of reforming someplace else. So the Ancients did some more experiments and research, and determined that the way to destroy it was to strike it with four weapons, each representing either law, chaos, good, or evil. To this end they forged four swords, one for each of these corners of the diagram."

"Unfortunately, the artifact vanished before the swords were completed. Stolen, probably. And soon after that, the records end. The
Ancients aren't around any more, so we can assume that their fears were realized. The swords were lost track of for the most part. It seems, though, that you have discovered this one."

"This is Celydt, (kell-EET) the Sword of Good. Only one of pure heart may use it without being hurt. It seems to have a good owner."

Yzahak is standing around, by the way. He and a few other party members came with you, so you don't need to recap this for them.

Samwise holds the sword and concentrates, murmuring something (to it, it seems). There is a very faint humming, and Samwise looks up. "You're a paladin, aren't you?" he says to Yzahak. The paladin nods, confused. "The sword knows one of its own, you see," Samwise says with a faint smile. He hands the sword back to you.

Something occurs to you. "What did you mean when you said the swords were lost track of for the most part? Do you mean this one?"
Samwise shakes his head. "The Sword of Law appears in another legend. Actually, I'm not sure if it is the Sword of Law, but I don't
see why it shouldn't be. Stories tell of a mighty warlord named Govar, who wore armor made from the hide of a silver dragon, and wielded a mighty sword with a ruby in the hilt. After causing a bit of havoc on this island, he mustered an army and sailed to the southwest, looking for new lands to conquer. He was never seen again."

"Now, bear in mind that all of this is just legend and so on. It's patched together from ancient scriptures, graffiti in deep caverns,
and this old storyteller in Amn who mentioned something about this when he'd had a few pints of rum in him, but didn't remember a thing when he was sober. I wouldn't put too much stock in it. But then, you seem to have found this sword, and that lends a certain credence to it."

And that's the end of that. In addition, the party will meet up with a local sage, who will ask them a few questions about the New World,
and maybe answer a few of their questions in return. (Sages have a way of knowing just about everything. It's their job.)

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

27
To: dbvegeta@juno.com
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 22:54:05
Subject: Re: Meeting on Friday

All right. When you ask Samwise about all this, he says,

"I've told you pretty much all there is. The artifact, of course, is long gone. Items of that much power have a habit of disappearing after they've caused enough trouble. The swords, as far as I knew, were lost as well, but it seems that you've found at least one! Now, if you should be interested in seeking out the Sword of Law, your best bet would be to get in a ship and sail southwest, and see where the wind takes you. I have no idea where the Sword of Chaos might be; chaotic things are generally difficult to locate in any case."

"Bear in mind, of course, that I'm not even sure if the other swords still exist. I wouldn't want you to go off on a wild goose chase halfway across the
world and not find anything, and maybe get killed in the process."

He's a little vague about his background, saying that he's from "here and there." He politely declines offers to go sailing across the uncharted oceans in search of ancient swords; he has no need of such things. If you should do it, though, he'd like to hear the story when you get back.

[Regarding the conversion of micha into gold]Bartholemew isn't terribly rich; he's a humble apothecary. Besides which, he's not a spellcaster, so he'd have no use for the micha, really. Shador, however, who's the city's resident magus, might be interested. Leuth is currently involved in negotiations with him, and Durandal might join in. If they establish a good price, you might sell your micha to him. The way things are looking, you might need to sell all of it, and fork over every cent you own, AND borrow some money, just to pay of the builders.

Interesting things happening in the city: Word is that a couple of wealthy families have had members kidnapped, or possibly worse. Ransom notes have arrived, demanding more money than is payable. Investigations have been made by every means conceivable, including magic, tracking, questioning, and so forth. At this point the only possible way to help is to keep your eyes and ears open.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

Subject: 28 - Brenner
To: impanther@yahoo.com, melissanne@aol.com
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 00:53:15
Subject: Eni's New Friend

One night, as Eni returns to his room at the inn where he's been staying, his ear is caught by the sharp click of flint, somewhere in the corner of the room. He looks and sees a rather slender, dark figure there, previously concealed by the shadows, now revealed by the glowing tip of a (hand-rolled, obviously) cigarette. "Eni, I presume?" the mysterious person says.

He offers a hand, stepping forward into better light to do so. He is human, perhaps about thirty years of age. About 5'10", wearing a dark grey cloak. "Brenner," he says, by way of
introduction. "Word on the street is you're a real rum rover." [Cant for "skilled thief."] Anyhoo, they get to talking, and here's the short of it:

Brenner has the idea of starting up a guild of sorts. A place where scouts, locksmiths, delvers, and knights of the cross-trade can dwell and be sought out for odd jobs. Brenner isn't any bumbling amateur, but neither is he well-known and skilled enough to be the head of a guild. Nor does he have any capital. Enter Eni, whom Brenner believes has the potential to make something big of himself. And Brenner wants to be right alongside him as he does.

So here's the deal: Eni's new follower wants to lend any assistance possible in the construction of a decent hideout. You know, with secret doors, a rumpus room, and a minibar. That kind of thing. Being native to the area, he has many connections that Eni does not, including several skilled craftsmen who don't ask questions, or answer them. So now Eni
begins the process of establishing a lair of his own. Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

Samwise

"WAAAFIIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

29
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Cc: drkryoga@juno.com (Elf 1), rmunoz01@siprep.org (Elf 2)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 23:07:48
Subject: Adventures Below The City

Crioth's castle being in need of a scavenger beast of some sort to dwell in the latrine, the party resolved to descend into the sewers and capture one. Armed with precious knowledge given to them by the renowned sage Destrin, they found a removable grate and climbed down into the urban underworld.

They wandered for hours, encountering more bizarre creatures than they would have believed existed so close to home. Rats, both normal and giant sized, scampered past them in droves, running from gods-know-where to find gods-know-what. Flies the size of dogs buzzed around the tunnels looking for fresh meat (and were caught, for the most part, in dweomer-woven webs).

A couple of times they discovered the very creatures that they sought to capture, but had a difficult time; the oozes seemed quite resistant to most of Leuth's spells. After exhausting nearly all of his magicks, Leuth was able to shrink a gelatinous cube down a manageable size... however, at the same instant, Eni struck a mortal blow and killed it. Leuth immediately struck Eni with a not-so-mortal but still painful blow. At that point, the party returned to the surface. After a couple of days, healed and rested, they returned. They encountered tentacled horrors, gigantic tunnel worms, and even a crocodile. In addition, they began having run-ins with bizarre rat-man creatures, which initially seemed to be encountered randomly, but began attacking them with organized ambushes, and in larger numbers.

Along the way, they found a couple of leathery gray pods which, according to Destrin's research, would eventually produce mature gray oozes. They put the pods into a specially
made stone box (one of the few substances indigestible to gray oozes), which Crioth had to lug along, it weighing about fifty pounds. While trying to find another grating to reach the surface (they had taken many twists and turns, and navigable gratings are not quite so common as one might think), they encountered a small, nervous-looking human man, who seemed quite surprised to see them. He was armed, and he wore ratty clothes. They questioned him; he bolted, changing into the form of a giant rat to help his escape. The party
decided to pursue, sick of being ambushed, and wanting to find some answers. (It also stood to reason that intelligent, agressive creatures, capable of assuming human form, living under a city, might well be Up To No Good.)

They lost the were-rat (for this is what it was) somewhere in a long tunnel. The one thing of note that they found was a rectangular stone block, about two feet high; too heavy to lift, but they could push it around without too much trouble.What will they do now?

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

Subject: 30 - A Daring Rescue
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Cc: rmunoz01@siprep.org
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 19:19:42
Subject: Adventures Under the City, Part Deux

Leuthwinmar's sixth sense buzzed about the stone block, and he insisted that the party check the area out. So they did. They pushed it around to see what was under it, Yzahak tried to sense any evil intent that it might be having, Eni hopped around looking for secret doors, and someone even stirred the muck up to see if anything was in there. Finally, someone had the idea of standing on the block and looking at the ceiling. And lo and behold, the ceiling budged when pushed! A trapdoor!

It seemed to be safe inside, so the party climbed up and had a look around. They were in a small room, about twenty feet high, with a ladder leading up to another trapdoor. Apparently simply a passageway of some sort. Eni climbed to the top of the ladder and listened carefully; he heard some activity on the other side, and advised caution. Tucq enchanted his vestment to act as armor (this is one of those spells that he has talismans tied to, which makes it very effective when he employs it). Leuth cast a monster summoning, and three large frog-like creatures, armed with swords, appeared in the room. He sent them up to open the trapdoor and go through. There was a bit of commotion for about a minute. Then pieces of giant frog fell through the trapdoor, hit the floor, and vanished. All was quiet.

Yzahak yelled (this was not very wise), "Hey! What'd you do to our scouts?" A face appeared in the ceiling and squinted down. "Oh, um, let me go find them," the face said. It then vanished, and urgent whispering was heard. The party began debating about what was going on; Eni was convinced that the people above were good, and only trying to defend
themselves from wererat incursion. Yzahak insisted that they WERE wererats, and the fact that they had human faces meant nothing. (He had been the only one to really see the human aspect of a wererat, so nobody believed him.) As they talked, they heard a noise from above. Scalding hot oil cascaded into the room they were standing in, causing quite a bit of pain and consternation. They decided to retreat down into the sewers.

As they began to do so, a torch dropped down, igniting the oil, which burned them for even more damage. (This coincided with Leuthwinmar trying to re-cast his spent Stoneskin spell; his spell was disrupted, and a pinch of precious diamond dust was wasted.) Shortly after this, large rocks rained down upon them; by then, though, they were able to get into
the safety of the sewers. "We warned them not to send anybody in!" a voice yelled from above. "Now the hostage gets it!" With that, the upper trapdoor slammed shut.

Cursing, the heroes began to plan a return. Durandal flung healing spells about as Leuth made himself invisible, and when they were ready, they resolved to go up THEMSELVES
this time, and be ready for battle. Tucq and Crioth burst through the upper trapdoor, and beheld fifteen wererats, some in ratman form, some in human. All were armed with shortswords. At the far end of the large room (which appeared to be part of a warehouse or some such), they saw a lady tied to a chair and gagged, clad in once-rich clothes that
were now a bit stained and tattered. The priest and the fighter held off the first tide of wererats as the rest of the party came up through the floor.

Eni ran to help Crioth (Tucq was holding back and using a spirit hammer to smite his foes) as Durandal, with a pinch of micha and a flourish, summoned Tharon's holy wrath in the form of a towering column of fire in the center of the room. Five wererats were incinerated instantly. Unfortunately, the room was littered with various items of trash, some of them greasy and flammable! A small blaze started and spread to the walls, adding a bit of time pressure to the proceedings.

As Crioth beheaded a wererat and Tucq bludgeoned another into running away, the foes decided that they had underestimated the heroes. They scattered like rats fleeing a burning warehouse, and barred the exit behind them. Leuth cut the lady's ropes; Yzahak scooped her up and ran for the trapdoor. Tucq, meanwhile, confiscated an interesting-looking chest, and our heroes retreated once more into the sewers. The building was falling down on their heads; burning debris injured a few of them, smoke inhalation was a problem, and the whole thing threatened to buckle a couple of times, but they made it out with their lives.

Safe in the sewers, they ungagged the lady, and asked her who she was. "Lady Kindernis," she said, curtseying as well as she could. "Thank you ever so much for rescuing me. Did it have to be to this horrid place, though?" she said, wrinkling her nose and peering around at her dark, damp, odiferous surroundings. She appeared to be a little shaken but uninjured. She described the wererats ("horrible things; they were men one minute, and rats the next! It was all very strange,") and her ordeal being held for ransom that even her wealthy family couldn't have paid. The heroes encountered one gelatinous cube, which they drove away, before finally finding a navigable sewer grate, and emerging from the sewers, a little stained and battered but alive.

Samwise

"Oh great. This stench is NEVER going to be completely out of my cloak."

31
To: dbvegeta@juno.com (Crioth)
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 21:44:19
Subject: One day at the castle....

There comes a knocking at the gate.

(Knock knock)(Knock knock)

You get up from your comfy chair and go to see who it is.

(Knock knock)

Peering outside, you espy a fairly tall man wearing a traveling cloak. Underneath this, plate mail, which he wears quite well and with no signs of discomfort. A bastard sword hangs in a scabbard at his side; daggers protrude from his boots; a bow hangs on his back, along with a backpack. His hair is dark and cropped; he is clean shaven."Good day and well met, milord," he says. "May I come in?"

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

32
To: dbvegeta@juno.com
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 11:17:56 -0800
Subject: Re: One day at the castle....

The visitor says,

"My name is Kraig, milord Crioth. I have heard tales of your heroics, and that you are going to establish a patrolled fief here. I come here to seek employment as the leader and organizer of your troops, since surely you shall be too busy with your own matters. I have had much experience in battle, and hope to serve you well in this matter. Might I enter so we can discuss this in more detail?"

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

33
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 19:38:00 -0800
Subject: Leaders and Followers

To begin, I shall copy and paste transcripts of emails to Crioth and Eni.

CRIOTH'S FOLLOWERS
Kraig (leader of your troops)
7th level fighter
Armed with bastard sword, daggers, and longbow; wears plate mail.
Tall with cropped black hair; clean shaven. Diplomatic and exacting.
Your twelve elite guards:

Gordon, Norm, Terum, Renalli, Luke, Nivlem, Drenov, Glim, Perkin, Brin, Melville, Salinger
3rd level fighters
Armed with long sword, daggers, and shortbow; use plate mail and shield.
Twenty heavy infantry
Zero level soldiers
Armed with morning star and handaxe; wear chain mail.
Sixty light infantry
Zero level soldiers
Armed with pike and short sword; wear studded leather.

ENI'S FOLLOWERS
Brenner - 8th level human thief. He wears a Cloak of Protection and carries two enchanted daggers, which are his only weapons. He is adept and charismatic, but lacks the reputation that is needed to establish a following of his own, which is why he sought you out. He is skilled with gaming, and he is a master juggler. He is practiced at lockpicking, moving silently, hiding in shadows, and reading languages.
Knox - 3rd level human thief. Armed with shortsword and light crossbow. He is quite skilled with stonemasonry and blacksmithing. He is skilled at picking locks and moving silently.
Glenn - 2nd level human thief. A bit of a thug; he carries a broadsword and a sling. He is a carpenter, a cobbler, and he can set snares. Finding traps and moving silently are his fortes.
Thalas - 4th level elven thief, who was happy to find someone of his own race running a guild in a human-dominated city. He is armed with shortsword and shortbow. He is a tailor and a cook; he also reads lips. He is skilled at picking pockets, moving silently, and hiding in shadows.
Spion - human dual-classed 3rd level thief/2nd level mage. He carries a shortsword and two daggers, as well as a spellbook with these spells: Alarm, Armor, Comprehend Languages, Hold Portal, Magic Missile, Message, Sleep, Spider Climb, and Wizard Mark. He has a keen mind and took up magic in hopes of finding a good intellectual challenge. He hopes that his magical skills will be useful to your guild, and hints that with a properly outfitted lab (which could be set up in one of those spare rooms), he could be even more useful. In addition to spellcasting, he knows spellcraft, brewing, pottery, and a bit of alchemy. Picking pockets and finding traps are his two greatest thieving abilities.
Mik - 2nd level human thief. He carries a shortsword and several darts. Apparently he used to work in a circus of sorts; he knows disguise, tightrope walking, rope use, tumbling, and jumping. Hiding in shadows and climbing walls are his two greatest strengths.
Queslai - 3rd level elven thief. Like Thalas, he wields shortsword and shortbow; he has similar motives for joining your guild. Having spent a lot of time in the forest, he knows direction sense, weather sense, tracking, and survival. He is skilled at moving silently and detecting noise.
Fidaddle - 3rd level gnomish thief. He doesn't like any of the other guilds, which tend to be run be much more sinister types than you and your jolly band. He carries shortsword and dagger. He is excellent at intricate and detailed skills such as appraising, gem cutting, engineering, and forgery. As a thief, he excels with lock-picking and disarming traps.
Lorinis - 4th level elven thief. He carries longsword and shortbow; he's a merry sort with a love of music and beautiful things. He knows leatherworking, painting, singing, dancing, and flute playing. At moving silently and hiding in shadows, none can surpass him.
Kilborn - 6th level half-elven thief. He uses longsword, daggers, and a light crossbow. He speaks little of his own past; he tends to be a bit more withdrawn and pensive than most of your other followers, so it seems that he might have had some unpleasant experiences that he needs to sort out for himself. He is quite knowledgeable, however, with appraising,
ancient history, and ancient languages. Pickpocketing and lockpicking are his two best skills; he also has a bit of an ability to read languages.

These followers were accumulating during the period in which Leuth was researching his Teleport spell (two months and two weeks). During his research, the mage found a way to construct a magical beacon, in the form of an engraved, enchanted, platinum-inlaid pentagram. He spent 500 gp building one in Crioth's castle; this beacon removes the normal risks that teleportation carries with it, by removing any chance of error.

After Leuth finished this, Durandal cast a Protection from Evil spell, and summoned the Aerial Servant. With a gust of wind and crackles of lightning, the invisible creature was gated into the Prime Material Plane, and it resentfully asked for its orders. Durandal had information about Govaria's location from two months of communing with the powers and their agents; he directed the elemental to carry Leuthwinmar to the city of Govaria, which is 41 degrees south of due west, for about 2,000 miles. Leuth was to arrive safely and as quickly as possible. With that, Leuth zoomed off into the air, carried by the unseen force.

Unfortunately, he had forgotten Kyrstil! Yzahak realized this just as it was too late; he leapt on his horse, Baltimore, and sped off towards Crioth's castle to fetch the cat. (The elemental had been conjured at the temple.) When Leuth was one mile away, he felt his contact with Kyrstil sever, and he realized his mistake. The elemental, of course, would take no orders from Leuth, and would in fact welcome a chance to cause him grief. Leuth teleported back to his beacon. Yzahak was waiting there with Kyrstil; he scooped Leuth onto
Baltimore's back, and galloped pell-mell back to the temple. Just as Leuth arrived, with Kyrstil in a backpack to make travel easier, the elemental returned, and with an angry roar, scooped him up again. (Aerial servants greatly resent tasks that are lengthy and complex; when prevented from completing their tasks, they go insane and return to kill the summoner. This one, not knowing where Leuth was, was heading back to Durandal with murderous intent, but seeing Leuth allowed it to try to complete its task a second time.)

The next morning, Leuth was awakened by the sensation of being underwater. The elemental was flying through the ocean; Leuth was unable to breathe or cast spells, and the
body of the elemental was unbreathable. Just as his elven lungs were about to give out, the aerial servant surfaced. "You are safe," it said maliciously. Leuth gasped for air, and, fearing the worst, checked on Kyrstil. She was soggy and half dead; cats don't have the same capacity in their lungs that humanoids do. By the grace of the gods, though, she
survived, and there were no more hitches in the journey. (Air elementals find it very difficult to travel through water, but this one was willing to do it once just to punish Leuth for making him turn back.) Leuth found his ride to be unresponsive to chitchat; he tried to speak to it once, and it dipped dangerously close to the water. After that, he just spoke telepathically to Kyrstil.

About two weeks had passed when Leuth finally sighted land on the horizon; it was the city of Govaria! The aerial servant dumped him unceremoniously in the outskirts of the city, and vanished in a puff of dust. Leuth found the city to be a safe place; the inhabitants spoke Common, and were human. The land all around Govaria was sun-blasted desert; the river that the city was built near provided a narrow stretch of farmland, but that was it. He rented an inn room for a week, and locked the door. He spent two days studying the room, sleeping in it, familiarizing himself with it until he could find everything in it with his eyes closed. Satisfied, he was able to teleport back to his beacon in Tiburon.

Now, meanwhile, he had had a caller. The men manning the drawbridge called to Crioth about a week after Leuth had left, announcing a visitor. The visitor was admitted; he was a tall, fairly muscular youth with a shock of blond hair. He carried only a staff and a wax-sealed note. This person inquired after Leuthwinmar, and when informed that Leuth was not present, he left the letter.

"I will return in two weeks," he said; "you can find me at Bartholemew's if you need to before then; I think you know the place."

When Leuth returned, he opened the letter. It said:

"Dear Leuth, Baxter, the lad that brings you this letter, comes with my highest recommendations as a pupil. As his uncle, I have begun teaching him what I can. He is a quick study, but his mind is wasted on simple things like the apothecary's trade. I believe that he could become quite adept with magic, if schooled by the right mage. I could not abandon him to the fate of being apprenticed to Shador, so I send him to you. It would be an honor if you would accept him as your apprentice. - Bartholemew."

Leuth set out to Bartholemew's shop of the rare and exotic, a place where he had once sought lodging while studying the dirgis, an Underdark creature that he had captured. He found Baxter here sorting the stock, and Bartholemew at the counter. After a bit of small talk and so forth, Leuth accepted Baxter as his pupil, and offered him lodging at the castle.

Baxter said his goodbyes, packed a few belongings, and returned to the castle. Here, he was properly introduced to the other inhabitants of that place, given a room, and settled
in.

Soon after he arrived, Baxter overheard one of Crioth's guards making a snide comment about the quarterstaff as a weapon. Baxter regarded him with an inscrutable look. "Would you care for a demonstration of this clumsy weapon, Glim? Snatch one up and I'll show you a thing or two about it." Glim obtained a staff, Baxter got his, and they squared off. Glim, it was obvious, didn't think that an apprentice mageling would have much to offer in a fight. Baxter did a quick hand-over-hand twirl of his weapon, and swept it down around
and behind Glim's knees. The fighter landed on his rump soundly; a second swipe, which seemed to be a fluid continuation of the first, knocked Glim's staff harmlessly to the floor. Baxter chuckled and helped Glim to his feet. "I have no doubt that you could best me in a fencing match," he said, "but in the hands of one who knows its ways, a staff can
be a formidable thing." Glim was a bit chagrined, but a good sport. This display of martial prowess surprised quite a few onlookers. Later, Leuth found out that Bartholemew had initially begun training his nephew in combat, and Baxter's weapon of choice had always been the staff.

With everyone's followers settled in, our heroes began the process of magical teleportation to Govaria. It went without a hitch until Leuth missed his destination and brought himself, Crioth, and Yzahak into the roof. "Into" is the word. Fortunately, only the soles of their boots actually hit solid roofing; a few inches lower and they would have lost their feet.

After buying new boots, the party did a bit of preliminary investigation as to Govaria's history. At one time, it had been part of a large empire; the surrounding land had been lush vegetation. Something had happened, though, and the vegetation became desert. The empire fell apart, leaving Govaria an independent city-state. The dynasty of emperors begun by Govar, millenia ago, is long gone. The center of the empire, from which Govar ruled (this city was named after him because his fleet had first landed at that site), now lies in the hazardous desert. Our heroes decided to follow their map.

Leuth created Phantom Steeds to provide transportation. Durandal used his spells to produce food. Tucq magically protected his friends from the desert heat; with this magical backing, the party could cross the desert in relative luxury. They encountered a few strange creatures. Fire toads, which they had seen in Maztica, threatened them once, but they wisely detoured around the beasts. A giant snake fanged Yzahak but was killed before doing any serious harm. A large party of mounted ogres was routed with spells and swords; a huge spider was shrunk down to the size of a normal tarantula and batted away. At an oasis, they encountered a creature with a winged lion's body, and a man's head. It was unsociable, and seemed thorougly annoyed by the visitors; after finishing its drink, it flew away.

One landmark on the map was the "Cave of Lektos." Upon arriving, Leuth stuck his head in and shone his light around; a resounding bellow of "GO AWAY!" bowled him over and deafened him for ten rounds. He took the hint. We left off at an oasis; according to the map, the party is quite close to the "locus antiquus," which they hope is the resting place of R'nezu, the Sword of Law.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

34
To: impanther@yahoo.com, melissanne@aol.com
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 20:38:31 -0800
Subject: Tomb Raiders

Not that I've ever been able to do it before, but I'll try to make this account as succint as possible.

After fighting off a giant scorpion at the oasis, the party arrived at the spot designated on the map. A small stone building was visible, but nothing else; from the building came a sphinx (for lack of a better word) who announced that she would not talk with the party unless they proved themselves to be mentally capable. With that, she gave them four riddles. They solved them with minor difficulty, and the sphinx agreed to deal with them.

It turned out that she knew everything about Govar and his famous sword, but she wanted payment. Fortunately, she was very interested in locating a male sphinx, and the party knew of one. In exchange for his whereabouts, she told them that Govar's tomb, and his sword, lay under their feet, buried by millenia of shifting sands.

Durandal used his Control Winds scroll, within the safety of a magically constructed shelter. The ancient scroll unleashed a hurricane of phenomenal proportions; outside the shelter, sand was blown about at enough speed to scour the flesh off a man's bones in seconds. The shelter itself nearly collapsed, but Yzahak's Lyre of Building lent it strength. After a terrifying hour or so, the winds stopped. The small stone building that the sphinx lived in turned out to be a 100-foot obelisk, of which only the tip had been visible! And now the party could see the tomb... a pyramid shaped building, 60 feet high and 120 feet to a side. The shelter was tilted on its side, sliding slowly down the pyramid, and it fell apart before it hit the sand.

The party slid down the side and found the entrance. Inside, they encountered a few snafus. While going down a long passageway, Yzahak stepped on a floorplate, and stepped off without thinking. Poisoned darts filled the air and nearly killed Leuth and Eni, seriously harming others. If not for Durandal's healing spells, the two elves would have perished. Later on in the same passage (which traced out the base of the pyramid, on the interior), they found magical glyphs which Eni recognized as a trap. Leuth summoned hobgoblins to set the trap off for them, which was smart. However, he stood too close to the trap (the rest of the party had backed far away, but Bob was convinced that I had built the trap to hurt the
people who backed away only), and was hit in the back by a full-strength lightning bolt.Durandal, again, saved his life. This time, though, the shock had wiped the spells from the mage's mind, and he left the pyramid, fearing for his safety.

The rest of the party continued, not wanting to miss their chance, although they tried their best to persuade him to stay on with them. At the end of the passage was a room, with murals of fabulous beasts all over it. In the center was an illusionary beholder; of course, our heroes didn't know that it was illusionary. Durandal had the right idea; he stood in front of it and was not attacked. He might have avoided the trap, had Yzahak not discovered evil thoughts emanating from the illusion, and decided to attack the "beholder." The illusion vanished when an arrow hit it, revealing a glass globe suspended by a thread. The globe shattered, and the true threat arose from it: a sinister mist that arose and formed into a vaguely humanoid shape. It attacked Yzahak, draining some of his blood and taking on a reddish hue. Sated, it tried to escape to the ceiling to digest its meal, but Crioth took a
swing at it and killed it. The undigested blood showered down, splattering Eni, Crioth, and Yzahak, who had all been fighting the vampiric mist.

From this room, a stairway led up into a slightly smaller room. Four sarcophagi lay here. As the heroes began to wonder whether to seek the sword in the sarcophagi, the
choice was made for them. The lids were pushed off from within, and linen-wrapped corpses rose to defend their resting place. The party fought bravely, nearly perishing, but they destroyed the undead abominations at last. Interestingly enough, Tucq, who has the most primitive equipment, and is lowest in level, did more for the group than any other, due to his greater command of elemental flame, which mummies are apparently vulnerable to.

Unfortunately, despite their victory, the party seems to have contracted mummy rot, which is preventing them from healing by normal or magical means, and will eventually prove fatal. It seems that they will need to retreat from the pyramid so that Durandal can use his more powerful healing spells to remove this curse. The problem is that the large basin which the sandstorm dug out is very slowly filling back in... it's only a matter of time before Govar's tomb is covered by sand again, and the chance to possess the sword is gone forever....

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

35
To: impanther@yahoo.com, melissanne@aol.com, drkryoga@juno.com,

rubendrndl@aol.com, dbvegeta@juno.com
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 18:54:25 -0800
Subject: Toe to Toe with Govar

First of all, the party spent the night outside the pyramid, and woke buried about a foot deep in sand; nothing serious. However, the entrance to the tomb was getting smaller and smaller as piles of sand drifted in.

The spellcasters prepared new spells; this took about seven hours for some of them. By the end of that time, the pyramid was three feet deep, leaving three more feet of doorway to crawl in through. Remove Curse spells were tried on the mummy rot, with no success. Durandal, fortunately, had prayed for several Cure Disease spells as well, and these eradicated the disease without a trace. After a few minor healing spells, which work just fine now, the party entered the tomb again.

The room above the one with the four sarcophagi was guarded by a huge marble golem, which did some serious pounding before the death blow was landed by Tucq's Spirit Hammer. Crioth nearly died, but received a powerful Heal spell from Durandal. At the feet of the golem, as part of the pedestal, was a sculpted marble sword, which looked remarkably like Celydt (Crioth's Sword of Good). The walls were covered with murals of a person who looked very much like the golem; he was depicted slaying monsters and foes.

The room above this last room held eight pedestals, each with a small statue, and a standing sarcophagus at the end. The walls depicted jungle and forest scenes. Each pedestal had a small statue on it; most of the statues were gilded and gem-inlaid, but one seemed to be a common teddy bear. From the teddy bear's pedestal, a ladder rose to a trapdoor in the ceiling. Eni went to the ladder, and in so doing, brushed against the teddy bear. It moved.

Eni leapt back, drawing weapons, as the teddy bear's eyes began to glow red, and steel fangs sprouted from its mouth. With blinding speed, the doll leapt at Leuth, who was beginning to cast a summoning spell, and bit him quite hard. A melee ensued, with everyone trying to smash the little construct, which was leaping from person to person, biting as it went.

As the sounds of battle echoed through the chamber, a sound of stone grinding against stone was heard. The sarcophagus was opening. Leuth didn't wait to see what was in it; he cast a Wall of Ice to seal it off. Meanwhile, the doll was still wreaking havoc. After suffering one really bad bite, Durandal began giggling. Then laughing. Then rolling on the
floor cackling hideously. In fact, he couldn't stop, and began to take damage from the muscle spasms.

Crioth managed to slice through the doll, as the wall of ice began to crack, under the stress of something hammering it on the other side. Durandal was helpless and close to death, his face turning blue from magically induced laughter. Leuth tried a number of Abjurations before hitting on Dispel Magic, which stopped the hideous cackling just in time.

Tucq cast a Wall of Fire just as the ice began to crack. The monster came barrelling through it, though, wielding a sword with a ruby set into the hilt. It was a mummy, but it moved with an agility unlike its lesser brethren. It wore a purple cape, fastened with a golden brooch, and it attacked Crioth ferociously.

Around here we stopped; from what the party has seen thus far, though, this mummy (whom it would be reasonable to guess is Govar) is more than a match for Crioth as far as fighting goes.
(Crioth: you are currently at 31 hit points. Yes, even after the Heal. Govar
hit you for 28 points of damage in just one round; be VERY afraid.)
(Durandal: you are at 5. Laughter is a powerful force, for good or for evil.)

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

[NOTE: I'm going to be leaving for Saline Valley on Saturday, and I'll be
gone for a week, so this week I'm sending two each day to make up for it.]

36
To: impanther@yahoo.com, melissanne@aol.com, rmunoz01@siprep.org, dbvegeta@juno.com
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 19:42:12 -0800
Subject: The final showdown with Govar

The undead warrior Govar, backlit dramatically by a sheet of brilliant flame, attackied and parried flawlessly, wielding R'nezu, the legendary Sword of Law.

"Impudent whelps," he said in sepulchral tones. "None of you shall leave here alive." Saying this, he turned and looked at Eni, eyes glowing. The thief, who had been about to join the battle with his enchanted shortsword, faltered and ran from the room, terrified beyond reason.

At about that time, Govar's sword cleaved a gash through Crioth's armor, and hit an important vein. Cursing, Crioth dropped his sword and staggered weakly away, a hand pressed to his wound. Yzahak, who had been fighting with a Shillelagh, dropped the club and started to retrieve the dropped Celydt. Tucq, having cast a Prayer and a Flame Blade, began charging up to attack the foe. Govar struck a near-deadly blow with his sword before Tucq could make an attack; the priest fell back, fearing for his life. After this, Yzahak and Govar dueled in a proper style, the twin swords clashing with eldritch fire. Durandal and Tucq cast Spiritual Hammer spells to lend some support from the rear, as Crioth and Leuth kept a lookout. Leuth at one point summoned fire beetles to aid in the fight, but Govar's state of undeath made him immune to their attacks.

Yzahak finally ran Govar through; the mummy looked about as surprised as mummies can look, as the sword clattered from his grasp and he slumped to the floor. Crackles of energy ran over his body as the powerful enchantments holding him together finally dissipated.

After this, the party ascended the ladder to the trapdoor in the ceiling. Here, Eni, Tucq, and Durandal fought a bizarre ape-like firebreathing guardian creature. Eni had borrowed Crioth's sword, and he fought with two magical weapons, but neither could harm the creature. Tucq and Durandal were able to dispatch it with their Spiritual Hammers, however. [Something the characters don't know: The creature was a yugoloth, a particular kind of guardian daemon. Most yugoloths are immune to one particular form of attack; this one was impervious to harm from SWORDS, of all things.]

The creature was guarding a small treasure room, which contained magic items of various types. Right now, the characters debate over the ethics of taking the treasure. Will they take none of it, some of it, or all of it? (What are your feelings on unnecessary tomb robbing?)

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

37
To: dbvegeta@juno.com, rubendrndl@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com, melissanne@aol.com
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 21:07:29 -0800
Subject: Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig

The party finally arrived at a decision: they would take all of the magical items, and 3/4 of the coins and gems. Tucq left his suit of armor in place of the studded leather found in Govar's treasure room, following the example of Yzahak, who had left his treasured longsword Sheff in place of R'nezu.

They left the pyramid; the entrance was all but covered by sand, and they had to do a little bit of digging to escape. Durandal had laid the bodies back to rest in their coffins, and
said a few words over them in the hopes that their souls, at last free from their bodies, would be able to continue on their final journey.

Lugging about 250 pounds of precious metals, the party oomphed out of the basin, lest they be covered in their sleep by the drifting sands. They pitched a rude camp and spent an uneventful night.

The next day, Durandal spent six hours in prayer, asking for as much healing power as his mortal frame could hold. It took him twenty minutes to cast all of his spells, and by the end of it, many grievous wounds remained. The most life-threatening injuries had been treated, though, and the heroes breathed easier.

Around this time, the sphinx came to congratulate them on their success. They offered to lead her to the androsphinx's cave; she accepted, and they spent a couple of days doing this. Before she went to proposition poor Lektos, she left them a spellbook as thanks. Leuth, naturally, clicked his heels. A nearby oasis provided a handy place to recuperate, and use as a base of operations for the trip home.

Leuth spent days in meditation and sleep upon a particular flat rock, which he planned to use as the focus for his teleportation spells. After all this, a 1% chance of fatal error still remained, but he could deal with that. It was the work of a few minutes to teleport the party back to Seacrest; Leuth teleported to his beacon, back to the desert, and back again to transport Crioth, Eni, Tucq, and half of the treasure. Durandal used a Word of Recall spell to transport Yzahak and the other half of the treasure to his sanctuary in Tharon's temple. The party met up in Crioth's castle, glad to be home, and is now in the process of dividing the treasure.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

38
To: dbvegeta@juno.com, rmunoz01@siprep.org, melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 19:37:20 -0800
Subject: Settling the Accounts

Safely back in Seacrest, with 3/4 of Govar's treasure, the party was free to pursue less dangerous undertakings. First things first: the treasure was divided. For almost the first time in history, the division didn't go straight down the middle, but was accomplished by a method known as the Eni Plan. (Bob, Leuth has 1100 gold total. Take note.)

Durandal used most of his share to build a holy water font in the temple; he will now be able to create holy water, as well as have something to use for Magic Font spells. After this was completed, he attempted to pen a Neutralize Poison scroll, using ingredients brought back from the Azuposi nation (claws of behir, venom of Esh Alakaran snakes, ink of giant squid). He was probably successful.

Crioth finished furnishing his castle; he also hired a cook to prepare meals for himself, Leuth, Tucq, Baxter, Kraig, and the twelve guards. With what remained, he paid back half of his debt to Eni, and donated a thousand gold pieces to the church of Tharon, in gratitude for the many times that Durandal's divinely granted spells had saved his life. Eni gave Spion the money that he needed to set up a lab in the guild; he hopes to research new spells that will greatly benefit the organization.

A couple of days after Leuth and Kyrstil had returned home, Baxter was holding Kyrstil when he frowned, puzzling something out. He hefted the cat, looked into her eyes, and nodded. "Did you know that this cat's expecting?" he asked. Leuth was baffled. He asked Kyrstil if this was true. It was. Why hadn't she told him? He hadn't asked, she replied. Baxter predicts that the kittens will arrive a few months after the party's return from the desert. He can't be sure, but it seems like about three, he says. (How could this happen, you might think? Remember that Leuth was cooped up in his tower for two and a half months, researching the Teleport spell. Kyrstil got bored, and she left the castle a few times. Lots of other cats out there, and Leuth never thought to have his familiar "fixed".)

Now, a preview of coming attractions. (I have yet to see if anyone, especially Leuth, wants to do anything before this happens, so we're treating it as the future for now.)

Eni is relaxing one night in the guild's rumpus room when Glenn comes from the tavern to have a word with him. "Some old guy at the bar wants to talk with you about a job," he said. "He looks serious." A minute later, Eni and Brenner emerged from well-hidden secret doors, looking for all the world as if they had been in the broom closet and stockroom the whole time. Eni went to a table to talk to the "old guy," and Brenner kept an eye out for trouble, a respectful distance away. "You are the famous Eni L'Nave, I presume?" said the visitor, a human male of about eighty years. "Word has it that you're one of the best, and that's exactly what I need." Eni nodded. The old man explained that he is a sage: seeker of forgotten knowledge, finder of ancient truths, and keeper of obscure facts. He has spent the last twenty years of his life, as well as a large chunk of his savings, doing research to find the location of the oldest known historical document in existence. What is on it, exactly, he's unsure of, but he believes it to be a record from the time of the Ancients.

The problem that he faces is the particular locus of this thing: it's deep within the bowels of the earth. The time for research is over; now he needs a skilled delver, as well as a bit of muscle in case there's trouble. He can direct the party to the approximate location that he has discovered; after that, he relies on their skill and experience to bring back this item.

"Give me a week," Eni said. "I think we can work something out." The sage nodded and departed, to return seven days later.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

39
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com, rmunoz01@siprep.org,
joebob2317@aol.com, rubendrndl@aol.com, dbvegeta@juno.com, drkryoga@juno.com
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 19:45:31 -0800
Subject: Once More Into the Dungeon

The months passed quickly. Durandal finished his scroll writing and his research; the reputation of Eni's guild soared; Crioth's fief got running like a well-oiled clock; everything went well. Leuth began instructing Baxter in the arts of magic, and was surprised at what a good pupil he was. Exercises that had taken Leuth weeks, Baxter mastered in days. The recommendations from Bartholemew began to take on a new meaning.

After about three months, Kyrstil was ready to have her kittens; Baxter, having had some experience in this sort of thing, played the part of midwife while Leuth fluttered about in the background. Three healthy kittens were the result of that day: one of them as black as its mother, one of them mixed black and brown, and one brown and white. Baxter took a liking to the brown and white one, and, with Leuth's and Kyrstil's permission, claimed it for his own after it was weaned. He gave it the name Bixby, and from that day it was his constant companion.

The black kitten began growing into a lean, sinewy beast with a bit of a feral look. The black and brown one is distinguished by its knack for climbing, as well as a maddening habit of moving with absolute silence, and being able to find hiding places where none exist. Of all of them, Bixby is the only one that looks like a normal housecat. However, one of the guards was overheard whispering that he could swear that that cat's eyes stared right into his soul.

Meanwhile, at Eni's guild, Spion, the one with the magical knack, is making use of his new lab, which he is very grateful to Eni for providing. He gets money for magical research through the occasional bit of employment as mage or scout, and thus has been discovering many spells as of late. His most recent trick, the one that almost blew up the lab, was a Continual Light spell; he spent about a week on magically lighting the guild and tavern to save on lantern oil.Anyway, all that was going on for about six months after the return from Govaria. That was when Eni was approached by the old sage. He relayed the proposal to the other party members. Crioth was only too glad to go; after six months of being the lord of a fief, he was ready to get his hands dirty again. Leuth needed money for spell research, so he was in. Yzahak wants to put his new sword into use, besides which, he wants to help the sage accomplish his life's goal. Durandal favors the mission for similar reasons; discovering ancient wisdom and that sort of thing seems to him to be a worthwhile goal.
Tucq, naturally, wants to go with his friends, and see the strange new things that will surely lurk about during this mission. The party met with the sage, who agreed to pay them each two thousand gold pieces. They are to meet him in one week; the site that he will lead them to is about ten miles from the city. After that, they will be on their own; he will be waiting for them in Seacrest. He knows that the item is deep within some subterranean location. It is probably in a scroll case, which may be gold-inlaid (he apparently has employed mages to do divination spells which gave somewhat hazy and imprecise results). They are to bring back the scroll case and everything in it; any incidental findings are up for grabs.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

40
To: impanther@yahoo.com, melissanne@aol.com, rmunoz01@siprep.org,
dbvegeta@juno.com, drkryoga@juno.com, rubendrndl@aol.com, joebob2317@aol.com
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 17:59:21 -0800

Subject: Down, down they go... down, down (obscure reference to "The Mole People" on MST3K)

The party prepared quickly, and the sage led them into the forest, which grew progressively deeper and darker. After about ten miles, the sage announced that according to his research, the place was just a bit farther ahead; he had to return now, since he didn't want to be out after dark. The party bid him farewell, and Kiotucq sat down to cast a divination spell. The spell was "Commune With Nature." He focused his attention on the area ahead of him; the spell has a radius of five miles. It was typical woodland, he found, with one exception.

There was an area about half a mile ahead in which the normal flow was disrupted. Powerful unnatural creatures resided there; he was also able to sense something like a subterranean opening. The party continued. Soon there was no direct sunlight, even though it was about noonday. Eventually there came an area of six-foot high mounds, like
barrows. The party drew weapons and proceeded forward cautiously. Seven manlike creatures began emerging around the heroes, surrounding them. They looked human at first, but as they approached their clawlike hands, burning eyes, and dead flesh gave them away as undead. As they closed, Durandal and Yzahak brandished holy symbols and roared, "By the might of Tharon the Lightbringer, return to the darkness from which you were spawned, mockeries of life!" The creatures had time for shocked looks before they crumbled to dust. (These had been wights. Not quite so powerful as you might have thought, eh?)

A little ways ahead, they found a nearly overgrown hole, from which stairs seemed to lead downward. Enchanted torches were brought out, and they descended. It appeared to be a subterranean construction, with stone walls that were crumbling and mossy but apparently stable. After passing a few rooms filled with junk and vermin, they came upon a very large room, about fifty by a hundred feet, filled with small creatures that chittered and shuffled about nervously. They turned out to be kobolds, brandishing spears in a defensive
posture. Fortunately, Leuth was able to communicate with them via Orcish. The kobolds agreed to let the heroes pass in exchange for a toll of 42 gold pieces each. The party paid, and the small creatures parted, forming a corridor to the far wall of the room. On the way, they passed an alcove in which sat a larger-than-average kobold on a wicker chair,
holding a broom and wearing a moth-eaten hat. This was the chieftain.

At the far wall was a pile of stones; when cleared away, it revealed a curving, natural passage that eventually led down. The kobolds said that they had never gone down there; they believe it to be inhabited by "scary things." Naturally, the party went down there. Here they encountered numerous things, including a heat-draining mold in one chamber, and a passageway from which emanated the sounds of many man-sized creatures as well as an unpleasant odor. They retreated from this last thing. In another chamber, they fought a
group of seven troglodytes, who emitted that same unpleasant odor. The battle was short; once it became clear that the lizard-like creatures weren't going to be friendly, Yzahak, Eni, and Leuth charged out into the chamber. (Everyone else nearly fainted at this last thing.)

Meanwhile, Crioth, Durandal, and Tucq were trying to get into the chamber, but the narrowness of the passageway prevented this; I mention this to make it clear that they weren't sitting on their hands. Leuth blasted two of the trogs with a Burning Hands spell; Eni and Yzahak engaged the other five with flashing blades. Then the rest of the party emerged, and
combat became one-on-one. Tucq fought with staff, Durandal with mace. Leuth cast a Sleep spell, knocking out two opponents, and the remaining three were dealt with the old-fashioned way. From this chamber went a passageway leading yet further down. So far the party is about fifty feet under, and it looks like they might have farther to go.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

41
To: melissanne@aol.com (Jade), impanther@yahoo.com (Panther),
dbvegeta@juno.com (Crioth), drkryoga@juno.com (Eni),
rmunoz01@siprep.org (Leuth), lamsf@msn.com (Yzahak),
rubendrndl@aol.com (Durandal), joebob2317@aol.com (Tucq)
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 19:13:37 -0800
Subject: They'll never look at earthworms the same way again.....

So the party descended down the tunnel, to another level of the caverns. The tunnels widened out to about thirty feet high and wide, giving theparty a lot of breathing room, but also creating a vast, empty, dark, and scary space to wander through.After a couple of forks, they were ambushed by a HUGE spider. When I say huge, I mean in the "gargantuan" category. The body was ten feet long; with the legs, it was a twenty foot diameter. Durandal screeched, fled, and ran into a wall. Meanwhile, everyone else attacked. In one round it was dead; Leuth delivered the killing blow with a pair of Flame Arrows.

A little while later in that tunnel, four umber hulks surprised them. They had fought ONE hulk earlier, in the "Survival of the Funniest" adventure. These are large creatures with claws that tunnel through rock, eight eyes, and tough shells. Naturally, our heroes were a bit scared.

Durandal tried to use a flame strike, but it tore into him and disrupted the spell. Leuth cast a Hold Monster on it before it could do any more harm, and it froze in place. Meanwhile, Crioth miscalculated a swing and dropped his sword, as Eni and Yzahak battled mano-a-mano with the monsters, and Tucq lent a hand with a Spirit Hammer.

As Crioth was scrambling for his sword, Leuth decided that some backup was needed. He cast his most powerful spell, a Monster Summoning IV. Three ettercaps appeared, summoned from some far-off land. Now, the ettercap is a sort of spider-esque humanoid. It's bipedal, with claws, but has bug-like eyes and paralyzing venom. A fairly tough monster.

Crioth was getting wailed on, and was nearly dead; the ettercaps moved to intercept the beast that was attacking him. Around this time, a couple of party members made the mistake of looking directly into the eyes of their foes, and were stricken with Confusion, such as an umber hulk can induce with its wildly rolling eyes.Yzahak ran his opponent through as the ettercaps held Crioth's assailant at bay. Eni finally emerged victorious in his combat, but was still confused, and wandered away down a tunnel. Tucq ran to bring him back (NOT punching him, though). As the hulk tore an ettercap to shreds in one round, Yzahak came to the rescue, and delivered the killing blow. The party made the decision to slay the paralyzed one, lest it revive and attack them again.

Not too far from there, they found a tunnel leading yet further downward, and they followed it. It went down about forty feet before leveling out. Here they went through a series of small forks, and emerged in a large chamber, about 70'x130'. The odd thing about this chamber was the floor; instead of solid rock, it seemed to be loose gravel, dirt, and sand. A few cautious steps determined that it wasn't quicksand. The party began walking slowly across the chamber, on guard; something felt wrong about this place. The sense of uneasiness was heightened by the discovery of a collection of human bones at around the midpoint of the chamber.

Suddenly, without warning, the gravel shifted wildly. The head of a tremendous purple worm, several feet in diameter, burst up through the floor! It wasn't much of a head, really; it consisted of a mouth opening lined with teeth, and eyes around it. In any case, it was quite surprising to the party, and before anyone could react, it had swallowed Eni whole! At the same time, a stinger-tipped tail worked its way to the surface and stabbed Yzahak in the back! Gradually, the rest of the worm began to become visible as it surfaced.

It seemed to be about thirty feet long in all. A furious melee ensued. Leuth cursed his own shortsightedness for not doing it earlier, but he cast a Stoneskin, sensing that his life
would be quite short otherwise. Meanwhile, as Tucq cast a Prayer, Durandal attacked with mace, and Yzahak tried to slash the tail off, Crioth was swallowed along with Eni, leaving only four people in the chamber. Things looked bad. The stinger on the tail was deadly, not only for the fact that it was about the size of a polearm, but also because of
the poison it contained. Meanwhile, the worm's mouth seemed to be quite accurate, and its teeth were quite damaging. Leuth summoned a horde of hobgoblins to help in the fight as the rest of the party pressed the attack as best as they could. Durandal could be heard shouting, "To our deaths then! WHEEEEE!" or something to that effect. And after another
round, he was swallowed.

The worm looked bad, though, bleeding red and purple where Yzahak's blade had slashed into it. Leuth held up a piece of crystal, and intoned the words to a spell he had never tried before. A blast of pure cold hit the worm's midsection, frosting it over with crystals of ice. And one second later, the point of a black shortsword burst out, followed by a soggy-looking Eni, who had been nearly digested by the worm's stomach. Crioth and Durandal followed him out, both of them weakened but alive. The worm collapsed, dead.
They'll never look at earthworms the same way again...

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

42
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com, dbvegeta@juno.com,
drkryoga@juno.com, rmunoz01@siprep.org, rubendrndl@aol.com, joebob2317@aol.com
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 19:26:11 -0800
Subject: Their Search Ends

The worm lay slain, all thirty feet of it. Yzahak raised a point: could any part of this beast have use as magical components? Durandal got Eni to procure a bit of the venom from the worm's stinger before they left, hoping to use this in a Neutralize Poison scroll.The party proceeded out of that chamber, and after only a little way, found that the passage became square and artificial. Instead of solid rock, the walls, ceiling, and floor were now made of blocks of stone, cemented with mortar. And now the passage became a stairway, leading down about sixty more feet.

The level that they ended up on was a hallway with six rooms. In the first room was a bed, a stand with a cloak hanging on it, and a staff leaning next to it. Yzahak went to look under the bed, as Durandal went to check out the other exit. Meanwhile, Eni went for the cloak... and was he ever surprised when it tried to eat him!

The cloak unfurled itself and turned about, revealing a hideous, fanged, glowing-red-eyed face. A tail unfurled itself at the trailing edge and began whipping back and forth in anticipation. And then it flew at Eni, trying to bite his face off. A short battle ensued. The party finally emerged victorious, with a minimum of damage. Yzahak tried a Detect Magic spell on the staff, and found it to be unmagical.

The second room they tried seemed to be a study. It contained a small shelf with six books on it, a desk, and a chair. The desk had only a blank sheet of parchment and a quill on it. The six books were much more interesting. The lettering on their spines was unfamiliar, but the symbols helped. One had a picture of a sword; Crioth took this. One had two pentagrams; Leuth took this. One had two daggers; Eni took this. The others had numbers from one to three, and Yzahak, Tucq, and Durandal took a peek at these. Crioth's book seemed to be instructions on fencing and combat tactics. Leuth's book contained magical formulae that he was unfamiliar with, but looked comprehensible enough, and possibly even useful. Eni's book was a guide to various methods of pilfering, backstabbing, and other types of skullduggery. The numbered books were spellbooks.

The third room contained something that was oozing about, as Eni was able to deduce by listening carefully at the door. Durandal flung the door open for a second, ready to slam it. Inside was a black lump, oozing about the floor. Sort of a pudding. It stopped as the door opened... and then began oozing towards Durandal, who shrieked and slammed the door. As the party was about to leave, they smelled something. Like wood burning. And lo and behold, some sort of ACID was eating through the wooden door. QUICKLY. Looked scary. Leuth, fortunately, had the presence of mind to seal the room off with a Wall of Ice, warning the party that it wouldn't hold forever; they departed in a hurry.

After this they found stairs down, and decided to investigate the other rooms later. The stairs led to what might have been a torture chamber, properly equipped: a room about 60'x180'. It had about a quarter of an inch of standing water on the floor, with algae, slime, and mildew prevalent. There were also scattered bones of small animals. Nothing living. In the center of the room, strangely, was a black pedestal-sized block thing, with two red handprints on the top and side.

Durandal decided to be bold; he put his hands on the handprints to see what would happen.The thing turned out to be a mimic. Durandal's hands were stuck fast, and pseudopods whipped out to attack the rest of the party. The thing was slain, though, with a minimum of fuss. Leuth attempted a Hold Monster but failed; swords did the job just as well. As
an afterthought, Leuth scraped a bit of the ichor from the monster into a small vial, commenting that the ichor of a shapeshifting creature might be of some use in magical research.There was one way out of this chamber; it led down a hallway lined with small dungeon cells.

One of them was occupied by a humanoid skeleton. And at the end of this hall was a small cell, one fourth the size of the others. It was locked; in it stood a pedestal, with a gold-filigreed scroll case on it.Eni bent down to have a look at the lock. It was of a type he'd never seen before; it involved sliding panels and dials. Sort of a cross between a Rubik's Cube, a Chinese box, and a combination lock. He gave it his best, feeling for loose spots and probing into the mechanisms with thin wires, but it was beyond his capabilities. Leuth pondered it and motioned him out of the way. Uttering a magical incantation, he put a hand on the lock. The panels and dials whirred and clicked, falling into place. With a loud
"clunk" the lock opened, and the door swung out with a "creak." Durandal looked at Leuth, impressed. "'Knock' spell," the mage responded.

Eni reached out and took the scroll case, as Durandal bit his lip and jumped away. Nothing exploded. Eni opened the case. Still nothing exploded. Inside was a rolled-up piece of parchment, and a small vial of some black-red substance. Durandal unrolled the parchment, which was remarkably well-preserved, and took a squint at it. He didn't recognize
any of it. Eni took a look. He was able to make out a couple of words, a few symbols, but the greater meaning of the message was unintelligible to him. He put it back in the case, which he stowed away carefully. The party agreed that this was probably what they had been sent to find.

Now, they just need to worry about making their way back up to the surface.... (I lost count, but I think they're about 300 feet below ground, at least.)

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

43
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com, dbvegeta@juno.com,
drkryoga@juno.com, rmunoz01@siprep.org, rubendrndl@aol.com, joebob2317@aol.com
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 19:25:50 -0800
Subject: Ancient Secrets

Well, the scroll had been found. And so the party made their way back up to the level above, to which they had been meaning to return and investigate. They peered about in three remaining rooms.

The only interesting one was the first, which appeared to be a kitchen. It had a table, a fireplace, and two shelves. The first shelf held something that might have been food at one point, but ceased to be food about ten thousand years ago. The second held more non-perishable items, including jars and bottles. The jars held pickled food of various kinds; the
bottles held an orange-brown liquid. Leuth took down a bottle, opened it cautiously, and took a whiff. Rum, of superb quality, probably originally used in cooking.

Leuth wrinkled his nose and put it back as if it was going to bite him. Eni, however, is a rogue first, a tavern owner second, and an appraiser third. And he realized that bottles of rum from the time of the Ancients would probably be something nice to have behind the bar for special occasions. "Well, if YOU don't want them..." he said, and hoisted them into his pack. [I commented later: imagine that you found a bottle of wine that predated the Roman Empire. How much do you think it'd be worth?]

They were about to leave when Eni, who had been mapping for most of the adventure, took a look at the map, and saw something: there was about ten feet of empty space between the rooms in the current level. Once he brought it to the attention of the party, they realized that there could very well be a secret compartment back there. After looking all over for secret doors, and finding none, Durandal decided to cast his very powerful divination, called Find the Path. He centered it on that empty space, closed his eyes, and allowed the magic to guide him.It led him back into the kitchen, and to the fireplace, where it indicated an ornamental knob. He gave the knob a tug, and lo, the back of the fireplace slid up as if by magic, belching forth some stale air in the process. Behind it was a ten-foot-wide, corridor-like compartment, over a hundred feet long. Durandal peered in, holding out a light, and he saw a glimmer at the end of the hall. He and Tucq went to investigate. At the end there, they found three things: a suit of chainmail, a short sword, and a large, clear gem (Eni's eyes bugged out of his head when he saw it, but nobody bothered to ask him what it was.)

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

44
To: impanther@yahoo.com, melissanne@aol.com, dbvegeta@juno.com,
drkryoga@juno.com, rmunoz01@siprep.org, rubendrndl@aol.com, joebob2317@aol.com
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 17:08:03 -0800
Subject: Up, up, up....

The party took their find and decided to skedaddle out. They clambered up stairs, they sprinted over the purple worm's lair, they spent about half an hour climbing up a narrow tunnel of solid rock, and then followed their map to make sure they could find their way out.

Up ahead, at this point, they heard something around a corner. Something big. Thumping towards them. The only way out was through that way. Leuth decided to take action. He stepped out into the path of the whatever-it-was. And then he could see it in the light of his enchanted ring. A tremendous, twelve-headed reptilian beast, each head like some gigantic red snake!

It paused and eyed him, with all twenty-four eyes. He "eeped" and then cast a Web spell, with the intention of trapping its heads and allowing the party to scurry past. The spell worked. Unfortunately, it didn't work for long. The hydra roared, and blew flame into the web that was wrapped around its heads. The web burned away, and the hydra looked at Leuth again, this time maliciously. Leuth "eeped" a little bit louder. The rest of the party couldn't see this, but they heard roaring, burning, and eeping. Crioth and Yzahak yelled and came charging out, swords bared. Durandal cast a Prayer spell. Tucq stepped out and cast a Spirit Hammer. Eni nocked an arrow. Leuth, meanwhile, cast a Lightning Bolt just as the rest of the party came to the rescue. A forked bolt of lightning crackled out. One head was practically burned off; another was grazed but hurt. Crioth and Yzahak each lopped off a head, as Eni put an arrow in the eye of another. The pyrohydra retaliated, biting at those who were close enough, and spitting fire at its more distant foes. When it lost another two heads, though, it didn't look like it wanted to press the attack, and it began retreating. Crioth and Yzahak held back to let it go; Leuth stepped around a corner to refresh his Stoneskin spell. Durandal pulled out the mysterious wand and uttered the command words, "Jokers wild!" A blast of sparkling dust flew from it, and hit the hydra on various noses. The hydra twitched. And then sneezed. A roaring gout of flame blasted the party, heavily injuring a few people, but there were no fatalities. After this, the hydra retreated a bit
faster, no longer in the mood to fight. After it had gone back into the darkness, an occasional fiery sneeze could still be seen.

The heroes continued on their way, quickly. And eventually they hit another ascending tunnel, which they had to clamber up. From here they emerged in the kobolds' lair; the occupants brandished spears and demanded a toll. It was paid; 42 gold pieces each, as before. The party continued through the structure, and emerged from the underground, into the barrow-field. Here they encountered a small group of wights, quickly disposed of by Durandal. They hiked home. Along the way, seven dire wolves threatened them, but were driven off by a swarm of rats conjured by Leuth.

By the time they reached Crioth's castle, it was dark, and Crioth invited them to spend the night, rather than trudge through the city streets at this late hour. He had to throw a rock to wake one of his guards up to lower the drawbridge, but the party got in safely and spent the night in comfy beds. The next day, Durandal did a bit of healing, and Leuth settled down to identify the items they had discovered. The sword and chainmail were magical in a standard sort of way; the scroll case had some temporal-alteration spell operating
inside of it. Nothing else was enchanted.

Eni brought the scroll back to his guild, and gave it to Kilborn (one of his followers) to translate. Kilborn, being an authority on ancient languages, was able to complete the task; he wrote it out in hastily but beautifully executed calligraphy. (Tomorrow I'll send the complete text of the scroll in an email. It tells of the rise and fall of a great civilization.) At the end of the week, the sage arrived at the tavern. He paid the party 2,000 gold pieces each, took the scroll case, thanked them, and walked out the door. Durandal, as an afterthought, went out the door after him. "I'm curious, sir... what do you plan on doing with this knowledge?"

He spoke to empty air. There was no sign of the old man.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

45
To: melissanne@aol.com, impanther@yahoo.com, dbvegeta@juno.com,
drkryoga@juno.com, rmunoz01@siprep.org, rubendrndl@aol.com, joebob2317@aol.com
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 20:48:30 -0800
Subject: The Scroll, Translated

After a day of study, deciphering, and scribbling, Kilborn was able to translate the ancient scroll. He gave Eni the following translation, which I'm rendering here in an Old English-looking font for the proper effect.

My time grows short; I am old and the dampness of the underground is not conducive to a long life. Before I depart the mortal realm, I, being perhaps the last wizard of my age, shall endeavor to set down to parchment the story of my civilization's downfall.

With great power comes great danger; this is a maxim that many of us have thought to ignore at one time or another. Unfortunately, it has always proven to be true, despite our best intentions. This was the case with the Staff of Creation. Even our mightiest divination magicks were unable to discover its exact history; the best guess is that its existence predates time itself, and thus it is not subject to any scrying within our time continuum. However, I have theorized that it is a physical manifestation of an energy nexus through which the very stuff of creation was first channeled. It now holds but a mere fraction of the power that it once held, but even this fraction is more than any mortal could hope to master. Fools that we were, we tried to master it.

After discovering the Staff, wizards and priests alike experimented with its awesome powers. And indeed, it proved to be more of a boon to magical research than we ever could have imagined. Spells the like of which no man had ever dared dream became possible. Limitless sources of energy, permanent conjurations, and warps in the fabric of reality itself were only the most minor of enchantments that I and countless wizards besides me could wield. The old ways of magic became irrelevant. Our society entered a golden age, for the powers of the staff were applied not only to magical research, but to technological, mathematical, mental, and martial areas. If the staff were to remain in our responsible hands, all would have been well unto eternity. The elders realized, though, that there was a great danger of someone unscrupulous abusing this great power. We had learned all that we could. Thus the momentous decision was made to destroy this potent artifact. More research.

We at last determined that the staff could be neutralized by contact with four opposing forces, but how to accomplish this? Finally, we hit upon the solution of four powerful weapons, each given an otherwordly intelligence and ethos. One was dedicated to Good, one to Evil, one to Law, and one to Chaos. Striking the Staff with these four weapons would, in theory at least, cause the energies to "ground out" and destroy this potent artifact. The irony that the weapons could never have been forged without magic gleaned from the Staff was not lost on us, of course.

Disaster. The Staff was purloined, despite incredibly painstaking precautions. Thieves will always advance to match and surpass methods designed to thwart them, it seems. Celydt and Otahk had just been finished; R'nezu and Iiurac were still in the making. We finished the swords, just in case, and prepared ourselves for the worst.

The worst came. A creature, doubtless conjured by the powers of the Staff, appeared to devastate our people. We called it the Tarrasque; no other name seemed appropriate. It can be described as a gigantic, bipedal, reptilian killing machine. This is to put it briefly.

Its carapace deflects nearly every spell that is directed at it; disintegration rays, fireballs, magic missiles, as well as the more advanced dweomers all bounce off, and occasionally rebound on the caster. No normal weapon can harm the beast, and any warrior who dares advance close enough to combat the beast is devoured with one quick snap of its jaws. Horns, claws, a lashing tail, and the crushing weight of its gigantic feet complete the picture. It appears to have been born of the darkest elemental powers.

Vast armies rushed out to engage the creature, and were ground to pulp under its feet. Some of our mightiest spellcasters fell while futilely trying to ply their crafts against it. Finally, I realized the hopelessness of the situation, and retreated underground; I have remained here for twenty years and have not dared emerge. I imagine that by now I am the only one of my people remaining. Surely even the summoner of this beast has been destroyed, for I cannot imagine that any mortal being could control it. I have in my possession a single vial of the creature's blood. Hopefully it shall be valuable as research material to any future civilizations that, gods forbid, might need to deal with this menace; at the very least, it should be a wonderful addition to the collection of a sage or alchemist. My analysis of the substance indicates that the Tarrasque shall probably go dormant once its fury has been spent, so perhaps hope for the world is not lost. In addition, the eternal dispatch of the creature could perhaps be accomplished by cutting it into pieces with enchanted weapons, and using a "wish" or more powerful dweomer to render it unable to regenerate. Naturally, this is all conjecture, for no warrior yet born could ever accomplish the former, and after my death, no wizard shall exist to accomplish the latter.

I now seal this record against the elements, in order that future generations should know what transpires here. You who read this, know its importance.

Glanik of Droffatshire
3675 F.Y.T.

46
To: impanther@yahoo.com, melissanne@aol.com, dbvegeta@juno.com,
drkryoga@juno.com, rmunoz01@siprep.org, rubendrndl@aol.com,
joebob2317@aol.com
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 21:17:33 -0800
Subject: When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads....

Months passed as numerous things happened. Leuth researched the Polymorph Self spell successfully, at a cost of around 2000 gold (I forget the exact amount). This took two months. After that, he spent a couple of weeks researching the steps needed to create a charged Ring of Flying. The ring, which of course must be exceptionally well crafted,
must have a gem, freely given by a sylph, set into it. It then requires platinum bands, worth 100 gp, to be added. After this is done, it is enchanted, and then charged. There are additional relatively mundane processes, only requiring money, which I won't detail here. After he finished all that, Leuth studied the book of magical theory which he had
taken from Glanik's study. Durandal and Tucq both researched new spells as well.

Durandal did some research to find out what making a permanently enchanted staff or vestment would entail. The staff needed to be fashioned of wood from an ancient treant, banded with mithril by an elder dwarven craftsman, and carved with runes by a master elven woodcarver, before being laid upon an altar and being imbued with Tharon's might.

The vestment, even more difficult, requires wool taken from a lamb at its first shearing to be woven and fashioned into a vestment without seams. Both items also require raw materials, incenses, and so forth which would break Durandal's savings.

Crioth spent about a month studying and practicing the techniques detailed in Glanik's book of Puissant Skill at Arms. He also finally got his troops, castle, and guards running like a well-oiled clock, including watches set at night. About a year has passed since the party retrieved the scroll.

And one day, the sky grew dark with an unnatural storm. It was high noon, but the sun could not be seen. As Leuth peered out of his window, he muttered that this weather was not natural (the Weather Sense proficiency proves useful for perhaps the only time in history!). Priests at Tharon's temple in Seacrest reached the same conclusion. The people of Seacrest were uneasy as they shuttered their windows and prayed for the best. Slowly but steadily, the sky darkened as a particularly dense part of the storm rolled in from the sea. A patch of almost pitch black roiling vapors was moving over the city; lightning crackled inside of it.

Suddenly, a bolt hit a building, blasting the roof right off and starting a small blaze! The light drizzle, which was quickly becoming a downpour, put out the flames, but the cloud moved farther and farther into the city. And now, as Durandal and Yzahak watched it near their temple, they could see faces, humanoid and bestial, appearing in the black vapors.

Meanwhile, at the castle, Leuth saw the lightning strike, and couldn't stand it any more. Casting a Phantom Steed, he sped into the city, having a gut feeling that his help might be
needed. Yzahak and Durandal stood on the roof of the temple; Yzahak had his sword drawn, his eyes narrowed as he watched the living cloud near the building. In the distance, a speck approached. Inside of a few minutes, it turned out to be Leuth, who cast a look upwards and had his suspicions confirmed. The storm had destroyed two more buildings,
and it was about to center over the temple. Leuth cast a Fly spell on Yzahak, and then galloped upwards to lend his assistance. Blasts of freezing winds and bolts of lightning assailed Leuth, Yzahak, and Durandal. Yzahak carved swaths through the vapors with his sword; Leuth vaporized a bit of it with a Burning Hands spell, and then cast a
Protection from Evil after being hit by a particularly hard wind blast.

The cloud started to change its course to move around the temple, and it sped up as well, as if wanting to leave the scene. As a parting shot, it fried Yzahak and Durandal with a bolt of lightning, just as Yzahak swung his sword. It slipped from his grasp and clattered to the cobblestones below. He swooped down to retrieve it, and then back up to Durandal, in dire need of some healing. Durandal cast a Heal spell quickly, and Leuth, seeing that the cloud was moving towards the castle, teleported the three there ahead of it. They arrived and began raising the alarm.

Crioth clambered up to the roof, ready to defend his home. Tucq went outside to get a better view. Durandal followed Crioth, and Leuth and Yzahak flew up to join him. Leuth gave Crioth the power of flight as well, and the two warriors were ready to meet the cloud in battle. It was a fierce fight, to be sure. Tucq used a Spirit Hammer from the ground, as Crioth, Yzahak, and Leuth swooped about in the air. Leuth tried both a Cloudkill and a Hold Monster without success before leaving the battlefield. Crioth and Yzahak struck telling blows before being battered down by a whirlwind. The tempest had had enough, though. It began moving away. As it left, it sent another lightning bolt down, this time at Tucq, who hadn't been ready for it. Tucq hit the ground. Alive, but barely so. Meanwhile, the cloud moved off to settle about a mile away. Everyone at the castle was safe, and healed enough to ensure survival.

They watched as the cloud stopped, ready for it if it chose to return. It didn't. Instead, the storm intensified over that one area. Rain poured. Lightning struck. Hurricane-force
winds blew, and that was only the beginning. Torrents of every element poured forth, down from the cloud or up from the earth, it was impossible to tell. Wind, lightning, fire, earth, water, ash, ice, mud... all of these things and more swirled about in the dark maelstrom. Finally, it stopped, and only a swirling cloud of dust remained.

The party, in need of rest, retired for the night, leaving guards to make sure nothing more happened. The next morning, they arose and peered out to the site of the storm's resting place. All seemed well. But wait... There wasn't a mountain there before.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

47 - Dungeons... and... oh, crud....

Naturally, the sight of a mountain where there had been none before was surprising to our heroes. Not to mention intriguing. So after spending a morning in some intense magical healing, they cautiously set out to investigate.

It was about a twenty-minute walk through light forest from the castle to this new mountain. When they got there, it became clear that it wasn't simply a lump of dirt. It held plant life, some of which was foreign to the Seacrest area. The logical deduction was that this mountain had not been created, but rather imported from some distant land. Naturally, this revelation created more questions than it answered.

Another interesting feature: about halfway up the mountain was a huge opening, about a hundred feet wide, like the gaping mouth of some gigantic creature. The entrance to a cave or some such thing. Seeing this, the party considered investigating further, but caution got the better of them and they decided to return to the castle and make preparations first. ("That mountain's not going anywhere," Crioth pointed out wisely.)

A meeting was held in the "war room" (really a dining room, but it can be two things). Present were all of the player characters, plus Kraig and Baxter (Bixby at his side, as always). They discussed this matter for a while; the castle guards were getting a bit nervous, as were the peasants living on the fief outside. Kiotucq listened to the discussion, a bit bored, and his gaze wandered. Bixby, Baxter's cat, caught his eye. The cat seemed to be paying genuine attention to what was being said. Intrigued, Tucq cast a "Speak With Animals" spell, and asked Bixby what was on his mind.

"This matter of the mountain," the cat replied. "Quite puzzling. We're wondering if there's a way to investigate it safely."

Tucq was a bit taken aback; usually, cats didn't have such coherent thoughts. Something had caught his ear: we? "Baxter and I. We've just now been talking it over."

At this point, Baxter's attention shifted to Tucq. Then to Bixby. Then to Tucq. And he looked a little worried. "Excuse us," he said hastily, and made a quick exit with Bixby. After a few minutes he returned, with himself looking wearied, and the cat looking contrite. "I think we might be able to help you with this problem," he said reluctantly.

"Before I begin, let me apologize for not being more forthcoming before this. I had to exercise caution earlier; after a year, though, I know that I can trust all of you. Do you remember the island of the terrible lizards that you voyaged to? And the natives, who could speak and move objects with the powers of their minds?" Various party members nodded.

"When I heard of this, it was not entirely unfamiliar to me. You see, this sort of thing runs in my family. For several years now I myself have been honing abilities of this kind. I was always told to keep them secret; my great-grandfather's family was forced to flee their home after the villagers in the Old Country discovered his powers. As I said, though, I believe that you will be more open-minded."

"Here is how it can help you. Bixby and I can travel inside this mountain, at very little personal risk, and tell you what we see there. Perhaps this will be better than sending in an exploration party; ever since that storm began, I've been having bad premonitions."

The party, although a little taken aback by this sudden revelation, agreed to let Baxter try his scouting mission. He left for his room, with Bixby, and didn't come back until that night, rubbing his temples and groaning. He then related the story of what he had seen.

Inside the cavern entrance had been a long, immense, dark passage, perhaps four hundred feet long. And at the end, had been something gigantic. He had heard the snoring of something truly immense. Suddenly, a small burst of flame had pierced the darkness, illuminating the area for just a second. It was enough. Baxter had caught a glimpse of the

creature: red scales, huge teeth, claws, wings, and the source of the flame had been the beast's nose. At the same time, he felt FEAR. As if it were something tangible that could press up against you. He had fled, not looking back.

The party had a guess about what this was.

Dragon.

Yzahak went off to Destrin, the sage, hoping to gain insight on red dragons. Baxter, in the meantime, answered a few of Leuth and Durandal's questions about the form of travel he had used. To put it briefly, Baxter and Bixby have the ability to leave their bodies, and travel into the Astral Plane (what Tucq's people call the Spirit Realm), tethered to their corporeal forms by silver cords. Once there, they may return to the Prime Material plane, but remain separate from their bodies, existing in the astral form. In this state they may travel through this world, unseen, unheard, and unfelt. It was in this form that they traveled to the beast's lair.

Yzahak returned after a hard day of looking for support from the city of Seacrest. Destrin had been marginally useful, providing information about red dragons: they lair in mountains, breathe flame, use magic, and are the most feared of all dragons, with good reason. The city council had been too busy with the destruction wrought by the storm to be of any help; Shador, the local mage, had been in a crabby mood and Silenced the knocking at his door. The party decided to wait for the dragon to awaken.

The spellcasters prepared spells that they thought would be useful in the confrontation ahead; everyone temporarily moved into Crioth's castle, in order to keep an eye on the mountain. After about a week, their fears were realized. They were brought to the window by the shouts of guards and the screams of peasants. Something huge flew overhead, blotting out the sun.

Its scales gleamed blood red, its powerful wings beat the air, and its eyes surveyed its surroundings. It must have been two hundred feet from its nose to the tip of its tail; its wings spanned a hundred feet easily. It circled and passed, peering around it. Peasants were fleeing their homes in terror; the troops were stirring restlessly. With a mighty roar that was painful to listen to, even though it was a quarter mile away, it opened its mouth and blew a cone of flame at a cottage which had just emptied. The cottage was incinerated in a flash; its roof was gone, and its walls collapsed under the intense heat.

The dragon glided back to the mountain without looking back, and soon vanished into the cavern. What comes next? Not even I know.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

48 - Into the Lair

After having seen this tremendous beast torch a cottage, the party mobilized. They hiked to the foot of the mountain, where they began casting spells. Spells of protection from fire, flight, courage, enlargement, and haste were bestowed upon the party. After about ten minutes of this, though, they were interrupted. It was a low muttering, issuing from the mouth of the cavern.

"How long have I been sleeping?" it said, as if some huge beast was talking to itself. "No respect. A kingdom sprouting up right here in my backyard. Well, they're going to learn, those scrawny little bipeds..." the voice was getting louder and closer.

And just then, it emerged. First a huge, red-scaled head. Next two monstrous claws, gripping the bottom edge of the opening. The rest of the dragon was shrouded in the darkness of the cave, but these parts of it were enough to inspire some terror. Durandal's knees started shaking uncontrollably; everyone else was able to swallow their fear and stand their ground. The dragon looked around, blinking as its eyes adjusted to the sunlight, and then saw a group of armored, flying humanoids lurking about its front door. It growled, and then roared. And as it roared, a brilliant cone of fire issued forth, lightly toasting quite a few party members, despite the protection spells surrounding them.

Leuth tried to cast a Hold Monster on the dragon. The huge beast ignored the spell and drew back into its cave silently. The party took flight and pursued it inside. It was a long tunnel, a hundred feet wide, and four hundred feet long, that led into the mountain. Of course, even magical lights couldn't illuminate the entire thing, so the party had no idea how long it was until they finally saw the dragon itself.

Before entering, Leuth had summoned a five-headed hydra, which charged forward, seeking its foe. As the party neared, the dragon breathed on them again. The hydra was killed instantly, all five heads and a good portion of its body burnt to ash. The protection spells began to buckle, but there were still no casualties.

The warriors and rogue, enlarged to double their normal size by magic, began to fight with steel. Durandal tried to Silence the dragon to prevent it from using spells; his spell seemed to bounce off the dragon's scales. Leuth tried to blind it with a Continual Light spell; he had a similar level of success. Tucq, meanwhile, landed the first blow with a Spirit Hammer.

The dragon proved to have skills beyond breathing fire. Its bite was fearsome, attacking Eni and Tucq as they fought it from the front. Crioth and Yzahak, trying to find weak spots in its sides, were met with claw attacks and powerful wing buffets. Leuth swooped in to try to summon another monster from behind; the tail lashed out unexpectedly and swatted him down, mysteriously shattering his Chill Shield in the process.

Eni had to withdraw from the fight to allow Durandal to heal him; Yzahak had the wind knocked out of him by the tremendous wing, and was trying to breathe again; Leuth was nearly defenseless; Tucq was feeling less confident after the dragon's teeth took a chunk out of him. Crioth pressed the attack, though, and struck a telling blow.

"Enough!" the dragon said. "I yield."

Crioth stayed his hand. The dragon said, "Allow me to leave, and I shall fly far away and not return to this kingdom."

Yzahak was feeling lucky. "Why should we let you live?" he said.

"Because if I die, some of you will go with me," the dragon said, its eyes narrowing as it eyed Leuth, his protections gone, and Eni, blood streaming from near-mortal wounds.

The party decided to let him go; there was more talk, of course. During which they learned that this dragon, Feryndoll by name, and about five hundred years of age, had simply awakened from an after-dinner nap to discover farms, castles, and a city outside his door. He hadn't been aware of his mountain being moved. Feryndoll hastily scooped up most of his treasure cache before leaving, allowing a few items to remain. He took a running start and launched into flight, swooping out of the mountain in the direction of the sea.

In the nook where Feryndoll had kept his treasure, only a pile of black cloth remained. Eni picked it up to inspect it; it appeared to be a cloak. From a pocket, a small ring dropped and "ping"'d as it hit the floor and began rolling. Under the cloak was a longsword in a beaten leather scabbard.

Leuth toured the cave quickly; it was about three hundred feet in diameter, and almost a hundred feet high. He found only one thing of interest: a cleft in the rock, which led to a relatively narrow tunnel. (By "relatively narrow," I mean comfortable for a humanoid, but barely wide enough for a dragon's toe.) He ventured a little way inside.

On the wall was wizard-marked, "You will not leave alive." He took a few more steps, saw no end to the tunnel, and decided to come back a little later.

The party left for the security of the castle; Feryndoll was only barely visible as a deep red speck, receding in the distance. The next day, Leuth made an attempt to identify the items that the dragon had left. The cloak was apparently endowed with minor protection magic. The ring bestowed Free Action to its wearer. The sword was the most interesting. When Yzahak and Tucq touched it, a violent jolt was sent into their hands. Eni and Leuth could handle it freely; Durandal and Crioth decided not to try. Set into the hilt was a brilliant sapphire; the metal was something not unlike, and yet not like, normal steel, and runes were engraved into the hilt. Leuth's divinations revealed that it was a fairly powerful magical weapon, and it contained within it an intelligence of some sort. Beyond this he could learn nothing.

Could it be Iiurac, the legendary Sword of Chaos?

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

49 - The Final Battle

Having prepared themselves, the party set out with a little bit of trepidation for the caverns that they had not explored. Eni, magically invisible, went into the narrow passage, creeping along silently.

After about a hundred feet of irregular, natural tunnel, it leveled out, becoming ten foot square and absolutely smooth, as if hewn from the rock by master craftsmen. The walls were also coated, very thinly, with some sort of paint-like substance, which didn't seem terribly decorative. At this point, Eni heard the voice.

"Ah, welcome, Eni," it said, echoing throughout the tunnel. "Allow me to thank you for your help; the tarrasque's blood is proving quite useful to me. I expect all shall be ready in a couple of days." It was the voice of the kindly old sage, but with a malicious undertone. "However, I am rather upset that you drove away my dragon. You have outlived your usefulness, and SHALL BE DISPOSED OF."

As this last sentence was spoken, the voice changed, becoming deep and sepulchral, as if something was dropping a disguise. The source of the voice was still unseen, but presumed to be farther ahead. Eni got scared and ran. "IT MATTERS NOT WHERE YOU GO," the voice boomed. "WHEN MY WORK IS COMPLETE, NOBODY ANYWHERE SHALL BE SAFE." And after about five seconds of standard-issue villain cackling, the speaker began to intone the words of a spell.

Eni made it back to the party, who were able to hear everything the voice said. The spellcasters began preparing, with protective and hasting spells. Meanwhile, the voice finished its spell. "TANETAL, LORD OF THE NINE HELLS, I INVOKE THEE! COME TO REPAY THAT WHICH IS OWED!" The crackling of magical energies could be heard. And then two tremendous footsteps.

Leuth sent three magically conjured worgs into the tunnel to do battle with whatever it was. The baying of the worgs was replaced with screams of agony as grisly crunching sounds and unholy chuckling could be heard. This lasted about a minute, and sounded quite painful... from the sounds of it, the worgs were being drawn, quartered, and flayed simultaneously. And being kept alive throughout.By the time the party made it down the tunnel and into a large chamber, nothing remained of the worgs; after being killed, their
dismembered corpses had no doubt returned to their origin.

The creature responsible was now visible. It stood twelve feet tall, and was vaguely humanoid, with a bit of a potbelly. Its red, scaly skin emitted thin tongues of flame. Its eyes glowed red. Its tremendous fangs dripped a greenish substance that pocked the floor whereever it hit. Bat-like wings folded around its body. About half the party ran in terror.

Yzahak was able to halt his flight by using a spell; Tucq used the same spell on the two elves. Leuth benefitted, but Eni was too frightened to be affected, and he ran clear out of the mountain (being hasted, he was going quite quickly). Meanwhile, Crioth got close enough to use his sword. He found the pit fiend to be a difficult opponent; most of his swings glanced off the demon's thick hide.

Meanwhile, the fiend was attacking ferociously, with claws, a bite, its wings, and a prehensile tail. Nearly every attack punched through Crioth's enchanted armor. The tail grasped Crioth around the waist and squeezed him hard enough to crack a rib, making him drop his sword. The bite injected a deadly venom, and the room swam around him.

The rest of the party charged to the rescue. Durandal neutralized the poison, and Crioth managed to break free and crawl away. Yzahak went into melee with the fiend, roaring battle cries. Tucq attacked it with a Spirit Hammer. Durandal cast a Dispel Evil, and began waiting for a chance to use it.

Now, while all this was going on, there was a figure in the background. It was draped in a cloak, and when it looked up at the party, its face was visible. It was nearly fleshless, its eye sockets empty. Pinpoints of red light glowed within, like eyes. The undead creature was casting a huge web of spells around itself; protections glowed, crackled, and flamed around its body. Leuth surmised "lich," but was occupied with the pit fiend.

Crioth managed to pull his bow out and fire an arrow at the lich, while everyone else attacked the fiend. The arrow richocheted off, but seemed to annoy the lich. It glared at Crioth, and raised a hand. "Zzahk therradosz," it uttered. Crioth's skin hardened and petrified, and within seconds, nothing remained of him but a marble statue, bow in hand, forever frozen in the motion of nocking another arrow. [Remember the Curse of the Euryale?]

The lich then turned its attention to Tucq, who was attacking it with a Spirit Hammer. It waved its hands, and Tucq vanished into an extradimensional labyrinth.

At around this time, though, the pit fiend was weakening, many gashes cut into it by Yzahak's sword. Leuth had cast a few spells at it; about half of these had seemed to evaporate on contact. Durandal was being squeezed to death by the tail. He willed the energies of his Dispel Evil spell to focus, and he laid a hand on the pit fiend's scaly hide. The beast roared and vanished, banished back to its own plane.

This, of course, left the lich to deal with. Durandal tried to use his Turn Undead ability. The lich grinned and waved a hand. The holy symbol writhed in his hand; the priest dropped it in shock. As he watched, the small icon grew, its shape changing, until it became a huge spider! Durandal shrieked in terror and tried to run, as it leapt at him. It wounded him, but not too seriously, and the warriors chopped it to pieces soon thereafter.

The undead wizard then cast a powerful necromantic spell (Finger of Death) at Leuth, who steeled himself and was weakened but not altogether killed. By now, it had attained magical flight, and hovered just out of range of the swords that could have cut it down easily. Eni and Yzahak fired a huge volley of arrows at it; these served to bring down one of its protective spells, but had no other effect. They had no more magical arrows, and the normal arrows that were left had no effect, protections or no.

Eni tried throwing his shortsword, but had no luck.

Tucq eventually returned from the pocket dimension, having solved the labyrinth. He cast another Spirit Hammer. The spellcasters were reluctant to use spells against the lich; a few offensive spells that they had attempted seemed to simply rebound back, often with ill effect. When Durandal had tried a Wall of Thorns, for example, most of the spell's effect had occurred around the party, who needed to teleport away. The Dispel Magic spells which had been used had limited success; a few spells had been brought down, but a portion of the dispelling effect had rebounded and removed the party's own spells.

Leuth cast a Flight spell on Yzahak, who crowed and flew up to even the odds. The lich looked quite perturbed, but maintained his cool. He uttered a brief spell, and the paladin shrunk. Down to about half an inch in size. The lich swatted him away with a hand that had dark energies coursing through it; Yzahak was severely injured, and he retreated. The gray ooze, which Leuth had conjured earlier, waited below the lich, but could not reach its target.

The two priests cast various combative spells, throwing enchanted hammers and stones at their foe, unable to reach it any other way. They were able to disrupt a great number of its own spells, but were hit by a few as well. Finally, Eni, frustrated and seeing that the battle might soon turn against them, hit upon the idea of using the wild magic wand. The lich had just cast a Wish spell to heal itself, so it seemed that this would be a good idea.

As Eni shouted the words "JOKERS WILD!" to activate the wand, many different things happened. Rain fell from the ceiling. Lightning bolts and Slow spells bounced off the lich's spell shields and zapped Eni. He persisted though, hoping for a break. Tucq was paralyzed by a spell from the lich, leaving only Eni and Durandal to continue the fight; Leuth had used every useful spell, and his silver daggers had no effect on the undead creature.

Eni muttered a brief prayer and activated the wand for the last time, slapping it with the palm of his hand as he did so. The entire room erupted in a massive fireball; it mattered not that part of the spell rebounded, since no matter where the spell was centered, it would fill the room. Nobody was killed, although many came close to it. The lich's charred corpse lay on the floor, now inert, the animating spirit gone from it.

The party did a quick exploration of the area; three rooms branched off from that chamber. The first was a storeroom, containing a pile of platinum coins, a longsword with a black gem set into the hilt, and the battered remains of an iron case. (The case and sword looked VERY familiar to Durandal and Eni.)

The second room was a library, with shelves and shelves of books, and a small desk with a deck of cards resting on it. The books were being sorted by a strange, rectangular clockwork creature, which fluttered about on delicate metal wings. It took very little notice of the visitors, asking them brief questions about their identities. They didn't try to engage it in conversation.

The third room was a lab, containing tables full of bubbling liquids, jars with strange things inside, and a cage containing a creature best described as a cross between an octopus, a praying mantis, and a gerbil. On one table was a gnarled staff, supported by two wrought-iron holders, and flickering candles of different colors arranged in a circle around it.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

50 - After the Fire

Leuth thought back to an ancient tome he had found a couple of years earlier; it described, among other things, the procedure necessary to become a lich. One part of it was quite alarming; a lich stores its life force in a phylactery. Even if the physical form of the lich is destroyed, the phylactery preserves its essence, and the lich can eventually reform in a new body!

When Leuth shared this insight, the party realized that they needed to find the lich's phylactery to ensure that it didn't reincarnate itself and carry out its plans to summon the Tarrasque, which would surely destroy every civilization on the continent. After poking around the lair for a while, they hit upon the idea of talking to the librarian. It identified itself as a modron, type duodrone, classification Rogue. It referred to itself as "We," seeming incapable of conceiving of itself as a single being. Apparently, the modron originated on the plane of Mechanus, but was cast out for some kind of "aberration." Since then it has been working for the lich (whose name, it informs the party, was Riazs), trying to maintain the forces of order within the library by sorting the books. A bit obsessive-compulsive, but there it is. The modron was willing to follow any orders that the party gave it, and it found books for them dealing with several subjects that they were interested in.

One was the specifics of a phylactery's ability; they discovered that it could be any distance from the lich, as long as it was on the same plane, and could be almost any manner of object. The lich would reform anywhere from a day to a month after the destruction of its physical body, unless this phylactery was sought out and destroyed. A more important find was the diary.

From this, they determined that the phylactery was somewhere within or underneath the mountain itself, protected by several tons of rock. They also found a little bit about the Staff of Creation, which was apparently the staff resting in Riazs's lab. Riazs had done magical research for millenia before being able to fully utilize the staff's power; apparently there were a few minor abilities that would function as well, such as creating light, summoning weak elemental forces, conjuring monsters, and making plants grow.

The party also discovered that holding the staff would channel pure energy into the possessor, healing him gradually. This healing was able to affect even the unnatural wounds inflicted by the pit fiend. There was a side effect, though; the sheer power of the staff was too much for a mortal frame, and along with the healing would come aging, due
to the stress placed on the body. After discovering this, the party was reluctant to hold the staff unless necessary.

Finally, they decided to adjourn to the castle and return the next day. Leuth shrunk the marble Crioth for easy transportation; back at the castle he was able to restore the fighter to a fleshy form.

Durandal tried casting a Commune spell, but found its power to be insufficient for discovering the exact location of the phylactery. He now debates with himself whether to play his last card, the Bead of Summons, which will summon Tharon to come to him in material form. Either way he chooses, the consequences could be grave.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."

51 - One Story Ends... And Another Begins

The party convened back at the mountain to try new ways of finding the phylactery. More research in the library did no good; Riasz hadn't ever needed to set down to paper any location or description of his phylactery. Divination spells didn't work. Leuth tried summoning an earth elemental to find and retrieve any unnatural objects within the mountain; it only found the lab. Durandal asked the stones, which didn't know anything about a phylactery. They were down to their last resort: the Bead of Summons.

Durandal sucked in his gut and invoked its magic. With a thunderclap and a poof, a tall man with a flowing white beard appeared before them. The physical form that Tharon chose to adopt. He was brief and to the point, but fairly cordial. As Durandal began to explain the situation, Tharon nodded. "I know all that you know, my son," he said. "There is a solution." He meditated for a fraction of a second as his godly intelligence solved the problem. "In the lich's diary there is mention of the tremendous energies which would be released upon the Staff of Creation's destruction." Durandal nodded, understanding starting to dawn as he remembered that passage. "If you destroy the entire mountain, finding the phylactery's exact location isn't an issue. This is the simplest way, in any case, and I don't think you want to waste any time as your foe's new body begins to form."

Tharon paused. "Next time, my son, you will need to find the answer on your own." With that he vanished, as did the necklace which had summoned him. No fanfare; as we have seen with Masauwu, the truly powerful don't need to show off with a lot of extra fireworks.

The party now had the solution, but it was a difficult one. It meant destroying the powerful Staff, as well as, possibly, themselves. There seemed to be no option, though. They went to say their last goodbyes as preparations were made. The universal response to these goodbyes, of course, was, "You've survived everything else. I don't think this will be any different."

The party assembled in the lich's main room, with the Staff and the four swords. Leuth had a teleportation spell ready to make a quick escape. Crioth, Eni, and Yzahak had Celydt, Iiurac, and R'nezu in hand. Otahk waited in the other room. When Tucq tried to take Otahk, though, he couldn't bring himself to get his hand close enough to touch it. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead as he tried to touch the evil blade, but he was unable to do it. Being sworn to the service of the benevolent spirits, and to never use a sharp weapon, he couldn't touch an evil blade. Leuth gave it a shot, and though it stung him, he was able to wield the sword.

Standing in front of the Staff, the party began to dither about how to go about it. Leuth worried that he'd have trouble making his spell work while holding Otahk; Eni started to talk about switching off. "THERE IS NO TIME FOR THIS!" roared Yzahak, finally fed up, as he drove R'nezu into the Staff. The enchanted sword bit into the side of the ancient artifact, and stuck there. Staff and sword began to glow and hum; the ruby in R'nezu's hilt began sending forth halos and beams of red light. Eni followed suit; Iiurac joined its opposite force in the Staff, and the energies began to intensify. Crioth swung Celydt, driving it in with two hands. Leuth tried to use Otahk with one hand, but had not the strength. Leaning against Durandal, hoping to be able to use his teleport spell, he used his other hand. All four swords clung to the Staff as their mystic energies attracted and neutralized one another. Their wielders were rooted to the spot, unable to release the swords, their hands welded to the hilts.

Mystical energies swirled around the room; wind howled, lightning flashed, and the swords began screaming in a crescendo pitch. Leuth intoned the words of his spell, and found it
blocked; too late he remembered the magical shielding around the room, which shielded it not only from scrying, but from astral, ethereal, and intraplanar teleportation as well! (Which, he might have suddenly realized, is why the lich didn't simply teleport to safety instead of accepting defeat at the hands of the party.)

All seemed lost. Suddenly, though, the swords slipped loose from the Staff. They felt inert; the evil energies of Otahk no longer stung Leuth's hand, and the swords felt like normal weapons now. The Staff, however, still glowed and hummed, with growing intensity. As Leuth stammered, "My.. spell.. didn't... work... guys..." Yzahak began prodding people towards the door. Tucq led the way, running as fast as his legs could carry him, screaming "GET OUUUUTTT!!!" The rest of the party followed, Yzahak bringing up the rear, as the Staff's energies built faster and faster behind him. They thundered up out of the lich's lair, into the dragon cavern, and heard loud sounds behind them. Heat and wind *foofed* out of the passage they had just left. They kept running, out of the cavern, and down the side of the mountain. Kyrstil and the modron, who had been waiting there, saw the party, and took off running in the same direction, as Leuth screamed, mentally and physically, "RUN!!!!!" They heard a low rumble, a roar, and a BOOM behind them, and felt the beginnings of a huge shock wave.

A blast of energy, flame, wind, earth, water, and chunks of the surrounding forest hit them in the back, sending them flying! Dirt, bushes, and even trees piled on top of them as they landed. All was quiet. And the party discovered that they had survived. Broken bones, bruises, burns, but all were alive. Groaning, they pushed aside the debris that had piled over them and stood. Where the mountain had once stood, a mighty crater marked the earth. Already it was filling with water, as if an underground spring had been blasted open. And
suspended above the center of it all was a tiny, shimmering sphere.

Leuth took the form of an eagle and flew out to it. It looked, to use a modern-day reference, like a glittering snowglobe. It floated, unaffected by gravity or wind. Leuth grasped it in his talons and flew back to the party. What it was, they didn't know; was it the lich's phylactery, or something else? Leuth pointed out that it was the Staff of Creation, after all, and that in its destruction it might have given birth to this thing. The crystal sphere didn't radiate magic (probably ruling out the phylactery theory), and as they peered within its depths,
they saw swirling masses of light. Like tiny, tiny stars and galaxies, forming and drifting apart.

The party returned to the castle, where a great feast was held in their honor. The sphere was set to rest in Leuth's study, where it would be safe.

Shortly thereafter, Crioth and Yzahak were offered the honor of being knighted, by the city council. Before this, the government hadn't been strong enough to take this much authority in anything, but they believed that with these two heroic figures, the people would accept their decision. And it was that the two warriors became Sir Crioth and
Sir Yzahak, Protectors of Seacrest. Naturally, they'll have to give up their freewheeling, adventuring lifestyle, in order to protect their city, but they have accepted this honor.

The rest of the party settled down to retire in similar fashions. Durandal is ready to dedicate himself fully to the temple and its worshippers. Leuth was getting ulcers from the terrible strains and frights of adventuring; besides which, it'll take him years to learn all he can from the spellbooks he liberated from the lich's library. Eni's guild needs a leader, and he figures that one guy's luck can only save him from death so many times. Tucq, having seen and learned much from this land, is now ready to return to his home and return to his
responsibilities as a pueblo priest; after bestowing afros on all his friends (his new Create Afro, or Cure Baldness, spell), he casts his new Transport Via Plants spell, and, stepping through the oak tree in the courtyard, he emerges a stone's throw from Michaca.

And thus our party's adventures come to an end, for the time being. Here are some things you may have been wondering about:
1) The swords each had a divinatory power, which nobody ever bothered to learn about. Celydt could Detect Good, Otahk could Detect Evil, Iiurac could Detect Magic, and R'nezu could Detect Gems. Now the swords have lost their magical properties and their intelligences; they function as +1 weapons due to the semi-magical alloys that they were
forged from, but no more.

2) The lich's phylactery was a large gemstone. This is why the stones and the earth elemental didn't notice it; since it was an object of elemental earth, they didn't perceive it as a foreign object. And yes, it WAS destroyed in the blast, along with any chance of the Tarrasque arriving back on Trond's face, to do what it did in the time of the Ancients.
3) The kittens. Bixby is smarter than the average human, and has several wild talents to boot. The black one is normal except for having 6 hit dice, which gives it more fighting ability than a lion, even though it is the size of a normal housecat. The black and brown one is an elven cat; it possesses magical abilities (enlarge, trip, and assuming the form of a tree limb), as well as innate stealth abilities, swimming, and a pretty high intelligence.
4) The crystal sphere. I'll let you imagine for yourself what it contains. My best guess is that it is, in fact, our universe, and that the "Big Bang" theory is more accurate than you may have thought. It could also be the location of the new campaign. In any case, it's probably a good thing that the party didn't smash it. (Durandal, I'm looking at you.)

If anyone has any other questions about anything that has happened, any foe that was fought, ANYTHING at all, ask and I will probably tell. The curtain has fallen. The story is over; nothing about it need remain secret. Goodnight everyone, and drive safely.

Samwise

"Do or do not. There is no try."