Meet 112, Adv 10, 10/9/10

If I had to guess on how this adventure was going to wrap up, I would have been sitting in some other park looking at the pigeons instead of the resolution the party took us down. They have had the unfortunate luck and choices as of late to either piss off the townsfolk that they had to deal with or leave said town's in a blaze of spell fire and flash of steel.

But nothing exceeded that of dragon, storm giant, Orcus spell book fueled undead plague, set ablaze exit they had done to the beleaguered mining city of Broken Hills.

And in doing so they wiped out the adventure hooks, about every NPC, their original purpose for coming, as well as another permanent PC player (sorry Kyle!)

But they had a good time and that's all that matters to me!

Write up follows:

Bron settled at the landing of the 2nd level, his Fly spell still in force but his heart heavy over what he had been a part of. He took out the Orcus Book of Infinite Spells and realized that it is curse, not a blessing. So keeping his mind clear, he stroked the book, channeled a touch of Brittle into the oakleaf binding, and then balled up his fist and blasted every ounce of his monastic training into the book – attempting to destroy it.

And he did.

But, as the pages and binding were flying about, time seemed to slow down and then stop altogether. Standing before him shaking his head was a fairly non-descript malevolent man. He was bemoaning the fact that this was the 2nd time in as many days that he felt the need to come and see who was attempting to screw with his property. Orcus. Shit sandwich.

He then drew out a deck of battered cards and told our esteemed monk that he was going to have to draw from his deck – and then there was a clattering of a polyhedral dice – and it read “4”. Orcus grinned, “The dice have spoken. Get drawing.”

So our favorite Bron took his time and plucked out one card after another, getting 3 positives to every negative! Well done. One of the most powerful cards drawn was the wishing card – and Orcus had some time to kill – so it was time for Bron to get some questions asked as well so wishes granted.

As for questions, a card did come up that would reveal what was the answer to the biggest dilemma – which at this point of time was Myris the polymorphing red dragon that seemed to have lured the group here and was now up top wrecking the town of Broken Hills. Orcus told Bron that the Sundered Chains and Soren and Company had made some nasty habits as of late in the assault and slaying of a couple of juvenile brown dragons that were nesting at Dragonhole as well as the young adult green dragon that was revered as a swamp god by the lizardmen near Eider.

Orcus told Bron then that dragons live forever, never dying – only becoming more and more powerful. A brief history revealed that dragons were the first race created by the gods and they helped to shape and create the world. The dragon’s main helpers were the elves, dwarves, ogres, and humans and after the gods had ascended to the heavens the dragons sort of stayed in power. It was when the elves who had had enough had then launched a massive assault on the dragons, killing many of the elder ones that the balance of power shifted and the age of dragons went into decline and the rise of the humanoid races was able to take place.

Myris was a warden – his job was to make sure that dragonkind in this area were not assaulted and kept in good health. It was when he discovered that two dead browns that he began to investigate. He learned of the Sundered Chains and their efforts in Dragonhole and decided to find out where the group had gone. It was when he then learned of the change to Soren and Company and the death of the green that he had to put his plans in place.

He was going to lure the group here and make it their mission to eventually get lost in Murderer’s hole. Once here there was no way out with flight and he was going to then exact a personal revenge against the group by assaulting their homes and loved ones. However, Orcus did chuckle, the presence of the book and Bron’s reading of it, the attacks against the mighty red dragon, and the giant and undead horde have sort of confused and side tracked Myris and now according to the undead lord, the dragon was only going to further vent his frustrations here and then most likely leave – leaving the party also to their fates and forgetting about them unless they make the mistake of slaying another dragon.

Bron was surprised to learn all this and was also further surprised to find out that the entire Skelt issue was an unrelated matter all together. Orcus then asked Bron for his wishes and the monk wanted to save them. Orcus smiled and said he was busy – let’s have them now.

Bron did ask to have his strange and dark look removed, returning himself to his earlier appearance. He also asked to have his negative effects from the drawing of the deck abated. And finally he wanted the ability to use his monastic abilities more often per day. Orcus did grant all three wishes – but not in a manner that the rest of the group (specifically Norris) was going to find easy to deal with.

At that point the flow of time returned and Orcus along with his damaged spellbook disappeared. Our monk shook his head and then proceeded down the corridor towards the back of the level and took the elevator down to the 4th floor.

Meanwhile the rest of the group was going back to the 4th floor elevator to take it up to the 2nd floor and hopefully see if they can get out since the dragon seemed to be gone when Norris suddenly seemed to scream. His body swelled in size, the half elf topping out at over 6’ in height, his body massing quickly to over 200 lbs. In addition he felt a stirring disconnect for some reason and his motions became sluggish and less sure. The party was amazed at this and then Bron emerged from the hole.

It took all of 2 seconds for the party to notice the sudden similarity in size and body mass between the monk and the bard and the two of them got to words. Bron told the party of what he had seen above. The dragon, the giant, the town being attacked. It seemed the dragon would not be coming back here anytime soon and the group had a singular opportunity to try and save Arnog.

He did not mention his flight, or the reading of the book. Norris felt the monk had done something but there was no proof. The group was a bit torn at this point. It was asked where Bor was and Bron told us that the brave fighter had fallen down the pit along with Hagni. Then Norris asked where the book was and Bron told us that the tome had also fallen down the pit.

We talked about going down there to salvage it but discounted that possibility for now. No one knew it was there so we could always go back and get it after we saved Arnog and then went topside to see what was going on. We followed the 4th level back to the main chasm, blocked now by 3 and a half feet of ice still standing from Norris’ spell. There was talk of using Gwyn’s new firestaff to burn through but Bron had an idea.

Hoping that Orcus had played his fair, he reached deep within himself again, pulled up the ability to use his Touch of Brittleness again and punched the ice wall in an effort to break it. And it worked! However, Norris suddenly yelped in confusion. His even mind and capabilities to use his bardic abilities just grew weaker for some reason. Bron said nothing and the bard once again blamed the monk. The conversation got nowhere.

We went into the chasm and looked at the situation before us. We needed to cross the 20 odd feet as well as drop 60’ to the 5th level. The group pooled our diminishing piles of rope and Soren fired a stonebiter into the opposite wall. Through ropes and spikes we anchored a line across to the opposite side and one by one, the party slithered across the span and down the wall to the landing.

It was perhaps 10’ by 12’ and there was a crudely fitted door blocking the rest of the area. The group looked through and although it was difficult, there were able to deduce there was a corridor perhaps 40’ wide and then a swelling and widening room beyond of which maybe 90’ or so away were three men playing cards – one of the Arnog. Where the mage was, no one knew.

A number of plans were hatched; many of them involving missile fire and the group got themselves together and opened the door. About halfway down the corridor they were detected and the silent mage walked into view, beefy and red haired, he pointed at the party and a bolt of lightning appeared in front of the party and tore its way across the group. We answered with a few arrows and crossbow bolts and were dismayed to see a number of them stop short as if from a shield in front of the mage.

The enemy fighters rose to their feet and drew swords and we fired for bolts and arrows, poison being liberally used at this point. Some of us tried to get into position to ready ourselves to meet the charging enemy when the silent mage then used his next spell – Invisibility 10’ radius. And the 3 fighters and Arnog disappeared.

Sonovacrap.

Soren took a Hail Mary shot at the silent mage’s last position and hit the mage’s shield – with a stonebiter arrow! The arrow then hovered INFRONT of the mage, in the magical shield spell, marking his position. A blast of power rolled from Brother Beren who used his Monster Summoning spell scroll and an Ogre appeared. The ogre was sent after the silent mage.

And then Norris whistled his spell scroll of ice storm and dropped a blasting of pounding hail on the mage who was casting against the group as well as a number of figures running through the ice to assault us. Two of them dropped from the pounding ice chunks. One of them ran forward to intercept the ogre. Ve tried to interfere but the enemy fighter tore the guard to shreds and stormed on past. Bron willed a charm on the enemy fighter and had him switch sides to fight with us.

Our hit points were dropping quickly and we needed to end this struggle as soon as possible. Soren was out of normal arrows and was now using stonebiters. So he loaded up a line on the back of the drilling bolt and fired it at the silent mage. Hitting him. Brother Beren told the ogre to “bring the line back here now!” The same line that was in the mage. This would bring him into Gwyn and Bron’s reach and allow the two fighters to take him down.

However the charmed fighter then did get a final blow in on the silent mage – a blow that brought him down into negative hit points. A blow that triggered the delayed fireball gem he had been given by Myris.

Chunks of fiery viscera tore through the group, killing Bron outright, the monk knocked on his ass. The fire also consumed Brother Beren – BUT – as he felt his skin blister and burn there were the clarion calls of trumpets and a pair of Valkyrie’s came down, swooping the trembling priest away and out of harm’s way. Remembering his draw from Orcus’ deck, he was using his one intervention of fate card! The valkyries then lowered him back down – 52 miles away in the party’s home in Eider fully healed and with all his spells returned for the day.

As for the ogre, he took the brunt of the blast but he did follow Brother Beren’s last order which was to run the line back to where the ogre had last seen him. He arrived – about 10’ from Norris (at Bron’s death the link between him and the monk was gone so he returned to his normal appearance) who was teetering on the high side of 10 hit points, looked around and did not see his summoning master. All he saw were a half elf in bad fitting armor, a dwarf nursing numerous burns. An elven archer bleeding and smoldering, and a platemail wearing fighter also suffering from too many wounds.

In other words – enemies.

The ogre raised his great axe up and roared – charging Norris who was yelling, “No! No!!!” trying to deflect the mighty blow and failing. His chest was smashed opened and the ogre had to shake the bard off the axe where he fell with a wet thud – ticking his way past the negative numbers.

Soren asked the shocked remaining one time enemy fighter if he was going to continue to struggle against them (them being ONLY Soren and Gwyn remaining!) or if he could count on helping. The fighter agreed to help and the elf, dwarf, and human attacked the now charging ogre and together they finished the fight.

A quick check about the room revealed that Bron was dead, Brother Beren was missing, Arnog was dead (killed during the Ice Storm spell), Ve was dead, and Norris was dying. It took a pair of potions to stabilize the bard but he was brought to the positive side of 0.

There was a tense moment when we learned that the fighter was not going to give up Arnog’s sword, nor his armor – saying that Myris had given them to him days ago. It was decided that it wasn’t a matter to be discussed now and that we should just get out of here with what we could. The portal was in the next chamber and the fighter went first, telling us that he would pave the way for the other two guards up there and that we would all get out together.

Meanwhile Brother Beren ran towards his front door in an effort to go to Baronet Wodenlach when he opened the portal to see two men standing there. Zoltan (looking VERY hurt and worn out) and a somewhat clean looking Detheron! Both sides caught each other up with what had been happening and what was going on. Detheron had followed his geas and went to Principia where he was able to find the severed unicorn head. When the horn was returned the unicorn arose once more, fully healed and a blast of raw magic filled the area.

There was also a young girl there, about 12, that Detheron was able to deduce was Vanir’s daughter. He had her handlers dispatched and along with Summerbloom (the unicorn) they left Principia and went the long way back towards Orihalcus – detouring to see Goloriana. The unicorn was proud to have her sister back and they promised to look into things for the druid. In thanks for his efforts they had called forth a powerful stallion named Tornado from the wild and the animal bonded itself to our druid. With a steed now, Detheron went to Orihalcus where he met with Deidra and the Children of the Wilted Leaf. Vanir’s daughter was left there in secret with the orphanage and he confided in Sir Walter Slaine as to what was going on. Sir Walter said that he had heard from Karis who had returned his bondsman ring and was with some unsavory characters.

Detheron then went on his way back the long way to Eider where he came across Zoltan living outside the city in the swamp. The gypsy had escaped after 3 weeks of abuse from what he said was a group of underground shapeshifters. They had imitated him a number of times and tortured information out of him. Then they had been going into Eider for some reason every 3 or 4 days and buying whatever arrows the bowyers and fletchers had on hand. Hundreds and hundreds and even thousands of arrows were coming out of Eider and into the swamp. The druid had healed our gypsy friend and the two of them had gone into Eider, met with the Baronet, and learned that the party’s house was here and they should go there for a night’s rest before going to Broken Hills – the last place the group said they were going off to.

Stories all shared at this point, the three companions were on their way to the Baronet to talk about the dragon, the storm giant, and the undead.

Back to Soren, Gwyn, and Norris, the three companions along with the 3 guards remaining all took some potions of levitation (an extra couple going into our pouches) and then we all floated up and out of Murderer’s Hole. Reunited with Digger the wolverine, we climbed up the side of the cleft and beheld the town of Broken Hills.

The dragon and giant were gone, but the damage was done. Cornblood Keep was writhed in flames and most of the town square was a burning ruin. Falconhand Park was ablaze and there seemed to be a dark aura across the entire north end of town from the cemetery all the way to the stables. To the south the tannery was on fire as well as a dozen or more nearby homes. And everywhere there were screams and shouts and cries in the darkness. Darkness that seemed to move and float and flit about as if alive.

There was a thin ragged line of fleeing refugees running from the city, casting fearful glances behind them as they made their way out of the remains of their homes and town. The three guards wished the party good luck and said they were NOT going into that – instead would make their way to Eider and then eventually northward to Dilabria. Soren, Gwyn, and Norris took one last look and shouldering their packs on tired frames turned their feet along the northeast road – the road out of Broken Hills and towards Eider.

Meet 111, Adv 10, 10/2/10

At some point all the blood and destruction and broken homes and shattered economies and EVERYTHING crazy that your party's do and leave behind them is going to catch up. I've had it happen before and I always pay some attention to what decisions they make and hope to weave it into the greater tapestry of the world my character's live in.

And it just happened to work out that they faced and defeated three dragons in the period of 2 months in game time. Now, none of these dragons were at all very powerful: 2 of them were about 50 years of age, and the green was just about 130 - nothing to be considered awe-inspiring wyrm. Non of them had any spell power or dragonfear.

So it went to be that I wanted the equivalent of a powerful dragon to let them know that their foray's against lizard-kind were noted, disapproved of, and should be curtailed. So when I designed this adventure - I was running two concurrent paths for the party to explore - Aaron Skelt and the dead man's constant rising from the grave, and Myris the red dragon setting the scene for the party to be in a place far from help, weak from spells, and then eventually trapped underground while he ransacked whatever they felt was important to them.

The two themes went back and forth over each other but in reality had nothing to do with one another - it was two adventures at the same time in town.

And the group really came together for this one - I was proud of them.

Write up follows:

We gathered in the hall, readied our weapons and discussed quietly which of us was going to go on point and attack the volatile mage Fazon and his cronies in the next chamber first. It was decided that Bron would spearhead the assault, the master being the most nimble, speedy, and adept of us all in hand to hand combat. So Norris whistled up a silence charm on the monastic’s claymore while he downed a potion of Infravision and readied himself with Ironskin, Adrenaline control, and drew his blade free – going for a Sure Strike to end Fazon right out and once and for all. The rest of the group was going to follow a few seconds behind, hitting the guards within the chamber like a hammer to an anvil.

Bron nodded to us all, threw his armor class to the wind, and ran down the hall at full speed. He turned the corner and took in the surroundings swiftly – two tables up ended, four men behind with crossbows at the ready, a man behind them in full wizard’s regalia, and a bow wielding skulking figure near the end of the chamber by a crudely fitting door. Most of the men within were surprised at Bron’s charge, more so when the monk vaulted over the table with his pole arm as a lever, clearing the top by almost 6 feet. He dropped his staff, expertly drew his blade, and slammed it full force into the mage figure who was apparently ready for the monk.

He slammed his quarterstaff on the floor and the top burst into flame, which he tried to intersect Bron with. Fire laced about the area, setting the monk’s clothes on fire – but nothing else (Hooray for Ironskin). And then the claymore hit and clove the staff wielding mage figure almost in half and killed him instantly.

Of the 4 guardsmen, only 1 was not stunned into inaction. He dropped his crossbow and climbed over the table barricade, running for thesafety of the hallway and away from the terrifying monk. Only to hit the rest of the group coming towards the fight. He begged for mercy and Gwyn chopped him down, the dwarf proceeding past while Grid gave the bandit a whack to the noggin and ended his cries and begging.

Meanwhile, the skulking bow sporting figure was trying to wave his hands arcanically which seemed to piss him off (inside the silence globe!) so he drew a ring of keys and went to escape out the door. The party arrived at this point and Soren’s deadly bow skill dropped one of the guards who was going to shoot Bron in the back, the monk running to stop and intercept the fleeing skulking figure.

He kicked through the door and tackled the fleeing man who was still waving his hands wildly about as if casting some spells, but frustrated in the silence zone. As for the rest of the guards, they saw the writing on the wall and let fall their weapons, declaring themselves unwilling to fight any longer. We ran out past the door and watched as Bron was rolling about the ground with the wiry figure, eventually the group keeping him from falling off the edge and capturing him, bringing him into the room.

We quickly ascertained that the figure we thought of as Fazon was a ruse and this man was actually the erstwhile mage. He was divested of his belongings, one of which was an enchanted set of leathers which the party took and donned – pleased to note that the hide was draconic in nature! We played question and answer with Fazon and the guards until we learned that Myris was definitely below and he contacts the 3 mages here at least once a day with some telepathic spell, and such contact was seemingly done already. We consolidated our prisoners and discovered that throughout it all we had the three mages (Fazon, Girk and the “other one”), and 5 brigands the mages were using as guardsmen. Coupled that to our own party of 5 and then the additional 3 still living guards (Grid, Ve, and Hagni) we were growing uncomfortable still being down here.

The decision was made to work our way out.

We were going to go back to the top, let the Captain of the guard know what was going on, and then get more men and come down here and storm Myris’ position. We trussed up our prisoners (both Girk and the nameless mage pretty hurt) and walked then back to the elevating chimney, rode the enchantment back to the 2nd level, and started our trek back to the main shaft. Along the way we did ask some of the talkative guards about the two rooms we had seen and not gone into. The room with the clay jars was from some other thief group that had used the caves some time ago and were brewing their own poison – it was very virulent and unfortunately air borne – so anyone who screwed with the covers usually got a dose of it.

As for the room with the sticks, that’s all they were – just sticks. ;)

At the chasm it was decided that Hagni and Bron would climb out, trundling up the 120’ of rope to the surface. Along the way Bron was going to also take the body of Bor out with him, the fallen guard strapped to his back and tied on with ropes. Hagni started climbing the rope first and after a few moments, Bron followed suit.

And about 20’ up the rope the strands near the top broke free and the entire length fell down the shaft taking Hagni, Bron and Bor with it. They screamed as they fell into the darkness with Bron using his preternatural monastic skills to kick off on the passing stone wall, his hands catching tiny indents and protuberances, slowing his fall slightly as he twisted in mid air, his still potion enhanced vision picking out a platform coming up fast. He pulled himself in and rolled over so that the dead body of Bor would take the impact from his fall and he struck with a bone jarring crash. His backpack made a crinkling sound as his potion bottles shattered within and the leather ties binding him to Bor burst upon impact.

The party heard the fall of their friends and then the screams of Hagni shunting off as the guard slammed into the positioned elevator far below, shattered the fragile stays holding it in place, and the entire mechanism rattled and clanged and roared as it collapsed the last 100’ to the floor far below with a choking spray of gravel, dust, and splinters. Then the squeal of excited bats echoed about and the party was frantic – what they hell happened?!?!

Eventually Bron let the group know he was alive. He took stock of his area – a shirt corridor leading down a dozen paces to a crudely fitted door – and according to what the group had learned, at least another pair of the brigand guards and a room with a portal to the 5th level. But he was wounded and pressed for time and the monk had to get the hell out of here now. The remainder of the party meanwhile happy to know that Bron was alive shoved and pushed and cajoled everyone back away from the chasm and back down the corridor to escape any spotting from potential bats as well as just getting the hell out of dodge.

And then we heard, “I know you’re here.” It sounded deep and from below and echoed as if by magic down every room, chamber, and corridor. “You’ve come a long way and it’s time that we finished this, Soren and company, Sundered Chains.” The voice was Myris and he then proceeded to detail some knowledge of the entire party – saying who they were, some of their recent exploits, and where they’ve been. He touched on everyone except for Bron and Brother Beren but did mention Olthar and Zoltan.

During all of this Bron was looking through his gear and unwrapped the Orcas created Book of Infinite Spells that Norris and Beren had trusted him with. Knowing that Henian had used the tome to learn magic on his own without a tutor and having learned from the bard that the book can provide “just the spell one really needs” if it is opened randomly (with the negative problem of awakening zombies in the process) – Bron drew a deep breath and flipped the pages open.

And it settled on a spell titled, “Fly”.

He read the words and then realized that he was able to soar with only his thoughts to guide him. Knowing the bats were getting closer Bron shot towards the chasm and then straight up and out of the hole, settling near wolverine “Digger” still waiting patiently above for the rest of the party to return. It was dusk now and the light was fading fast.

Meanwhile the group had taken refuge in the room that had the quasit in it earlier, satisfied that they had given the bats the slip and hoping that Bron was away. Myris continued to talk to the group and was growing wroth that they were still “unfound”. So he said, “You have hidden yourself well, little mice. Let me see, since I know you did not dispatch any of my mageborn minions, I can assume they are with you. Ahem. ALICE,” with that the nameless mage lifted his head and the rest of the group muttered, “wait – his name is Alice?”

Myris continued, “Alice In Vas Flam Grav Por!!!”

And then the mage known as Alice looked down as his belly which suddenly glowed bright yellow and he exploded into a tremendous ball of gore splattered fire.

The fireball consumed the mage and filled the chamber without a problem, sweeping over everyone in its mad haste to escape. But the damage from the flames were more than enough to slay some of the brigands as well as fatally wound Girk, the 2nd mage.

Who muttered, “Oh…fuck!” a moment before the contingent fireball gem he had also imbibed some weeks unknowingly from Myris shattered on the passing of his hit point total from positive to negative – and a 2nd fire ball tore through the already oxygen starved chamber slaying the last of the brigands, wounding the hell out of the group, killing Grid the guardsman, and bringing Fazon to a dangerous low 2 hit point total (the last mage terrified at seeing what happened and not wanting the same to happen to him). We heard Myris chuckle, “Gotcha!” and then the sound of something flying in the distant chimney.

We ran out of the quasit chamber and down the hall toward the elevator – the squeal of bats funneling into the corridor behind up growin loud as well as the heavy sound of something with mass landing on the 2nd level platform area. Fazon was staying with us, begging for us to save him. Gwyn and Soren talked and it was decided that keeping Fazon with us was dangerous and too much of a risk – we needed to get rid of the mage and do it in a way that would not have him blow up around us. And that reminded the party of the room with the 3 casks filled with airborn poison.

Soren prayed to Frey, asking his god to grant Gwyn the ability to delay and poisonings he might encounter. The god replied in the affirmative to the ranger – and then said, “and tell the dwarf he’s fire retardant as well.” Soren paused. “What?” “”You know,” Frey quipped, “let the dwarf know he’s also resistant to fire.” Then he heard the god laugh in his mind and the contact seemed to break. Upon telling this the Gwyn both Soren and the dwarf felt that Frey was screwing with them and opted to treat the spell as poison resistance only, not fire resistance.

Gwyn shoved the mage ahead of him, the rest of the party going into the elevator area. Fazon wouldn’t let go so the angry dwarf lifted him up and hurled him into the room with the poison casks – and seemed to actually throw him OVER the casks in his fury. Fazon was thrilled to be alive and was trying to make his way back when Gwyn then took an iron bar and hurled it at the casks in an effort to break them – also missing the pottery jars. Fazon was screaming at him to stop and we heard the bats getting closer – time was about out.

So it was a steady throw one more time from the angry dwarf, this time ringing off Fazon’s skull with a hollow thwock, dropping the mage with a meaty thud. Gwyn ran as fast as he could for the elevator as Fazon exploded from his own swallowed gem and his negative hit point total, the wall of flame catching up to him just as he made a frantic leap for the elevator shaft, enacting the levitating runes, and the dwarf fell into the hole as the fireball washed overhead with a snarling roar.

The same fireball that burst all three poison filled cask, sending a wave of poison tinged air down the corridors, into the approaching bats, infecting them and then setting them on fire.

From above Bron heard first one blast and then a second, a bit of smoke trailing out of the hole. It was when the 3rd one sounded that he was going to go back into the hole that he beheld something coming out of the darkness.

It was a man, about 5’10”, a bit heavy set, black hair, ruddy complexion, and a sense of power about him. And he was floating as if flying without wings or support. He was frowning as he stared into the smoking hole and waving his hand to scatter some of the soot from him. Bron figured that this was Myris and confronted the flying mage.

“Who the hell are you?” Myris asked, snarling at the monk to get the hell out of here he had things to take care of. Bron then flew off the side of Murderer’s Hole and blasted as hard as a blow he could against the mage’s head, attempting to knock him out but failing. The two of them struggled in mid air for a few moments until Myris grappled with Bron and tried to drive the mage against the cliff wall by flying the two of them there furiously fast. Bron twisted in mid air and slung Myris ahead of him, driving the mage against the rock face and bloodying his face with scratches and small cuts.

“Enough of this,” Myris growled and hissed some arcanic words making a fiery bow and arrow appear in his hands – shooting the burning brand at Bron who dodged barely in time, whacking Myris along the head with his polearm.

The rest of the group once again on the 4th level spent a few moments healing up with what little healing was left and then made their way back towards the main chimney area.

Myris effected not knowing who Bron was, saying that he was taking care of some verminous adventuring group and had no time to waste with the flying monk. He snagged his hands together and sent a fireball coursing towards the now rapidly retreating monk. Bron escaped just ahead of the blast and went low to the ground to avoid being seen.

Satisfied that he had gotten rid of the annoying monk, Myris settled himself over the hole and dropped down into the darkness. Bron slowly flew back in see what was going on.

The party was back in the room they had fought Fazon in, turning the tables around so they can use it as cover, Norris hiding in the corner hear it so he could attempt a surprising blow should the mage come through. We heard Myris say through his augmented magical voice, “Sorry about that, I was distracted. Hmmm…you took out my bats, clever. Makes it hard for me to find you.” He paused. “But it matters not because I can already tell where you are.”

He then went on about killing his family and how they couldn’t expect to do that and get away with it. He’s spent almost a month studying us and learning about us and what we were capable of doing so he could set up this lure here and take the group out correctly. Who did we kill? The party was wracking their heads trying to figure it out. And if he wanted to take us out, why the convoluted plot?

Myris informed us that he didn’t want us dead, not just yet and not for some time. He just wanted us to know the horror of having our lives torn down around us. Then something heavy landed on the other side of the 4th level landing and we heard Myris’ voice much closer. “Time to get this over with.” The door was locked and he grew wroth. “You fools, you can’t keep me out!”

Then we heard a whumphing sound and something leatherine and cracking and the door bulged inward until it burst with a wrenching sound – revealing the snout of a furious and scarred looking red dragon!

Shit! Fuck! Myris was a big assed angry red god damned dragon!

He took a breath in to breathe and Soren plugged the beast from the other side of the cover. Norris unfurled the scroll of “Ice Wall” we had picked up earlier and the bard poured the enchanted icy wall right over the dragon’s snout, filling up the corridor, and taking over 2/3rd of the volume of the room. Myris exhaled and his inferno released his jaws from the ice, melted most of the local ice around him, and tore down about 60% of the compacted ice wall leaving only a thin 4’ ribbon of dense blue ice between the party and the dragon.

The group grabbed their gear and ran back down the 4th level corridor away from the dragon and once more towards the back of the area near the elevator.

Bron looked down the hole and saw the dragon in the gloom, fire coursing past its jaws, the great beast taking up the entire bottom of the shaft. He took a deep breath, withdrew the Orcus Book from his pack, flipped it randomly opened and read the spell that appeared there. Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere.

An absolute zero temperate ball of intense cold ice blasted away from the monk, ripped deep into the column, and splattered with moaning power against the red dragon pinned inside the area. Myris screamed terribly and looked up, fixing Bron with a single baleful eye. The monk took off at a tremendous pace and flew towards the safety of the wyvern watchtowers.

Myris polymorphed himself back into his human guise and popped out of Murderer’s hole looking around with death in his gaze. Bron was calling out to the guards manning the tower that the flying figure wreathed in smoke and fire was a magical wyvern like threat. The guards were shocked at what they had been hearing so far for the last 20 minutes that they fired the ballista at the flying Myris – hitting the soaring mage and dropping him halfway to the ground. Bron was pumping his fist and snarling “Yes!”.

Myris shook his head and growled out, “Ok, enough of this shit!” and then polymorphed back into his dragon form. The local wyvern towers were ringing the bells and calling out, “Dragon!” while they shot at the 200’ long hovering beast. Bron dodged away, flying for the next wyvern tower at Myris took a lungful of air and breathed 126 hit points of red dragon breath at the tower our monk had just escaped from. The three guards were immolated instantly and the finger of flame crashed wildly about as the 40’ tall wood, stone, and leather tarped structure was consumed.

As the dragon dove towards another tower Bron wanted to get the hell out of here. He streaked away to the south and then back around towards Cornblood Keep where panic was beginning to set in. He pointed out to the Captain of the guard the dragon and was assured that the militia was getting their men together and crossbows to the ready. However we had another problem as more people were streaming in and crying about the seemingly multitudinous number of ghoulish creatures popping up for the last 10 minutes and attacking the citizenry.

Myris meanwhile loosed his breath weapon on the animal paddock, setting the horses and cows within ablaze and forcing the beasts to stampede, taking down fences and setting other local thatched roofs on fire. The dragon seeing the massing of people near the town square winged over and strafed the ground, breathing out yet another fire blast. Over 60 crossbow bolts were shot skyward, most of them hitting the prodigal bulk of the dragon but few of them seeming to actually hurt the creature. Meanwhile his latest pass set the town square, the stocks, part of the court house, the militia, a section of Falconhand park, and finally Three Finger Weaver’s on fire and killed at least 2 dozen townsfolk, sending scores more fleeing in dragon born terror.

Bron was horrified. As the beheld the dragon winging over and taking up position near the northern part of Broken Hills, ready to blast his way down Main street, he grit his teeth and took out the damned Orcus Book one more time, tearing it opened and reading the words that appeared: Monster Summoning VIII!

A 35’ tall gigantic figure appeared with electricity running across it’s bluish white skin, a terrible glower in its eyes. Storm Giant. The townsfolk nearby screamed, and Bron felt himself twist inside, his skin growing pale, and hair and eyes changing – a crueler outlook on life taking over his mind set as the evil of the damned book took a piece of him. The giant looked at the monk and Bron pointed at the dragon diving fast now, saying simply, “Kill it!”

The Storm Giant replied, “Yes, Master,” its voice like an avalanche of boulders, and it channeled a blast of lightning into its hand and sent the bolt tearing upward to slam into the dragon’s side. Myris dropped lower and that allowed the Storm Giant to leap, grab the wyrm by the hind leg, and drag it down to earth where the two titanic bodies smashed into the cistern and sent 50,000 gallons of water to sweep across the fire scarred ground near the town square.

And then we heard alarm bells ringing on the north end of town as the guards and watch up there were fleeing from the cemetery and the people were crying out, “Shadows! Sweet Thor save us! The dead are arising! Shadows!” Flying up to get a better vantage point Bron watched as a black wave emerged from the graveyard and undead shadows swept into buildings, homes, and through cracks, draining the strength and life from the populace there. He then looked at the Orcus crafted Book of Spells he had been using and felt terrible remorse, knowing that his constant use of the cursed tome had made this latest evil befall the people.

While the dragon and the Storm Giant rolled across the ground, knocking Rainbarrels’ Ale and Spirits flat and caving in half of the Swaddling Goose Inn, their wild titanic battle also killed what populace was nearest to them. And to Bron’s horror he watched the recently slain dead arise as shadows themselves and tear off through the town for more prey. The militia was torn between holding off the mounting undead and stopping the dragon and giant.

The monk then took off as fast as he could southward, sweeping far outside the borders of town before coming back to Murderer’s Hole and dropping down to find his group and try to not only link back up, but also explain the terror that was befalling Broken Hills above; the weight of Orcus’ damned spell book weighing heavily on his back…and on his heart.

Meet 110, Adv 10, 9/11/10

A good run for NPC's I've noticed is about 5 meetings - after 5 meetings something happens and they become an expected part of the group - rising past the normal dispensible hired gun and into a more steady and expected part of the party.

I don't play with kid gloves upon reaching 3rd level - you do something stupid - you will die. Go against a pile of baddies that outstrips your skill set, you will die. Get too many swords stuck in you, you will die. The same thing goes for NPC's but it's that magical 5th meeting that elevates the NPC into a semi-permanent party member.

So when I checked when my assassin was going to surprise backstab the party it was when I had the choice of two NPC's to choose from. And one meeting 2, we lost our 1st NPC to an 8th level assassin.

I can assure you, the damage soak of NPC's vs. PC's continues on until the end of the next session. ;)

Write up follows:

We floated down the hole at a steady pace and even when we attempted to “drop” something past us, it fell at the same steady 1’/second rate. The chimney was about 5’ wide so while we were dropping the group shifted their positions around with Bron pulling his way past Gwyn and Ve pulling his way behind Bor.

The light below grew brighter and brighter and Bron emerged first into a chamber that had been converted into some sort of sleeping room for half a dozen men who were standing ready and near a small fire with a cauldron of stew burbling on it. And two of them had crossbows that they fired. The monk dodged one and knocked the other aside as his feet touched the ground. He rolled forward and charged ahead as Gwyn emerged next, pulling his heavy crossbow free.

Two of the guards had swords out while a 5th man was standing back and wending his hands together arcanically. Norris emerged next and sword drawn ran to help Gwyn who barreled into one of the guards. Bron was jumping wildly about, dodging the attacks by only the barest of margins. Grid dropped next followed by Bor, both of the guards had swords drawn and one of them hurled a spear into the melee.

The enemy mage was trying to back away from the twisting and athletic monastic who was getting closer, slapping him with a blast of white sparking fire that seemed to do nothing to Bron. Hagni came next and had his sword out, turning the tide against the enemy arrayed against us. Then Beren and finally Soren emerged and it was a blast of the cleric’s magic missile wand followed by a sure shot of Soren’s bow at the enemy mage trying to escape that had 2 of the guards down, the mage incapacitated with Bron beating him on the back, and the last two frantically trying to hold their own. A hurled cauldron, sparks kicked from the fire, and one angry dwarf stomping later and the battle was done with the exception of the final enemy guard running for the levitating chimney.

He would have made it too but a scimitar sliced open his leg near his femoral artery and Soren plowed him with an arrow (impressing the hell out of the group by firing 2 arrows at once just a few moments earlier) so when he struck the levitating column he was unconscious and his listless body rose on its own, up, up, up – 98’.

Where he did not step off onto the ground above and fell uncontrollably 98’ back down to the earth with a slapping bouncing blood spraying explosion of raw red meat.

We trussed up the mage and some healing (light) was dispensed while we questioned our new friend on what was going on. Told us there were maybe two other mages here and the leader’s name was Myris and he had Arnog. Didn’t know where. Then it was pommel to the back of the head and that ended the conversation from the mage. While all this was going on we did glance down the corridor out of the room and we noted that there were faint candle glow and noises from down there.

We weren’t quiet and whoever else was here knew where we were.

We talked about going back up the chimney and progressing back to the main shaft and dropping down a level to avoid what was ahead but the party opted against it. We would go onward. Bron took point and the group fanned out behind the monk who checked ahead.

And the ground beneath his feet shuddered strangely which made Bron leap wildly up and ahead, barely clearing the crumbling earth and leaping over the 25’ spike bottomed pit! Huzzah! How would we all get past? We could jump it but it was a hard jump. That was when we decided to rope down one side and then rope up the other making it easy enough for the party to get across. But while discussing all this more enemy were gathering and the party readied themselves. Ve and Grid took the dropped crossbows from the other dead guards while Hagni and Grid readied spears to throw. Gwyn had his own crossbow ready and Soren was set with his bow. Bron ran forward to confront the next guards coming forward when he stepped onto a SECOND pit in the corridor! (I believe the bard in the group looked at the sky and whispered, “You BASTARD!”)

But it was with incredible luck that he made ANOTHER save and vaulted over the next pit as well, surprising the first guard with a punch to the face and then it was a twist with his pole arm and the assailant went past him and into the spiked pit our bard had just avoided! It was a rapid fight with the now crowding hall as guards came forward and spells were hurled (another enemy mage) but our own side was filling the air with missile fire and two more guards went down dead. While the victim of a push spell and just before Bron was overrun our master performed a Skyward leap and hurled himself almost 30’ straight backwards from a standing start, rolling into his own group of friends and brandishing the middle finger to the accumulated enemy over there.

A barrage of spear, bolts, and arrows chased the others away until they fled leaving their two dead behind and the still moaning figure at the bottom of the 2nd pit, bleeding himself out and whispering for aid. We used the ropes again to ferry the party down one pit and up to the other side and down again. Meanwhile Bron was talking to the dying guard at the bottom of the pit who was asking for help and some potions. What potions? Girk has them, please get me one. Where? Please help me. Please.

And then Norris finished the guard off with a quick motion and looked at Bron with a quizzical, “What?” The monk said nothing and the group reconvened on the other side. We massed together and went ahead, looking for what we knew was at least 1 wizard and at least 4 more guards.

The corridor split in two here and the fork on the left seemed to split again. We figured to take care of the single one on the right and we went in, finding another chamber similar to what we had seen before, sleeping area for some half dozen men. The fire had been extinguished in here and some of the area of the floor had been disturbed and a box opened, the party going forward to check it out and seeing it was empty.

And then Grid who was talking to Bor (the two guards in the back of the party) saw a flash of darkness a split instant before Bor gasped and fell forward, his skin coloring black and foam flecking his bloody lips. He couldn’t even tell what it was that struck Bor in the back with a poisoned blade and slayed him instantly. We shifted around and readied ourselves for combat, vowing to end this and bring Bor’s body back to the surface as soon as we were done.

Creeping forward we saw the corridor split with some sort of trail of blood going to the left. It was growing fainter and less dense, indicating that whoever had made it either staunched the wound or was healing at a rapid pace (we assumed whoever it was had drunk one of the potions that might have been in the box). We went in and tried to stay as focused as possible, the chamber a sloping oblong affair with two guards and the mage in here. We attacked and were slammed from the side by the assassin hiding along the left wall.

Poison and darts flew wildly about and the group assaulted the assassin with all their strength while the three guards stormed the mage and beat him down with more of Beren’s magic missiles leading the way. It was a fast and furious fight but it ended with the party even lower in spells and suffering from some multitude of wounds. The mage was captured and called himself Girk. He was willing to talk for a bit but even though he was threatened with torture (and even administered some!) all he did was laugh about it and ask for more. Freaking weird!

Amidst the howls and cajoles and cries in the cave we learned that there was Myris the strongest who had put out the hit on the party almost 2 weeks ago and was setting this up. He had Arnog with him below on the 5th level and there were two other guards and a large red bearded mage called the silent one (description matched that of the priest that helped put Aaron Skelt to rest). We could get there through a portal on the 3rd level. In the last room here was the strongest of the mages (other than Myris) called Fazon and the torture loving pain enjoying giggling magus Girk said that Fazon was a weird one!

So we had Fazon and between 3 and 6 guards ahead of us and then up to the 3rd level to get to some sort of portal to take us to the 5th level to go against Myris, a red haired mute mage, 2 more guards all to save Arnog. It was 6:30 PM on Firemonth the 8th and we had just refilled the two lanterns (thanks Gwyn!) with the knowledge that we were going to go and slam Fazon as fast as possible before the other mage could be more ready for us.

Meet 109, Adv 10, 9/4/10

Normally I plan out an adventure way in advance to the party actually hitting it, but in this case, I only mapped out Murderer's Hole and filled in the 7 rooms that were applicable. I had stumbled across something recently about letting the random dungeon generator fill in the missing rooms and decided that I would do this.

So for most of what the party found on this meeting, I DM'ed literally seconds prior to actually describing it and wove it into the total game as a hole.

Have to say, it worked out great! ;)

Write up follows:

The Captain of the guard agreed that he would offer us 4 of his trusted veterans to help out in examining Murderer’s Hole, save Arnog, and bring whatever warlocks would be found there (according to Jarl Trader’s information) to justice. Their names were Hagni (fairly large, red haired, muscular), Bor (a bit shorter and wide, darker complexion), Ve (thin and wiry, blond and tall), and Grid (non-descript brown haired and very plain looking). They met the party and understood that for this exercise they would still be representatives of Broken Hill’s law enforcement community but also answerable to the party and their guidance.

We followed the Eider road northward until it came to the end of the town proper and then took the overgrown and unused path southward to the Eastern Crack. We came to the edge of the drop off and navigated the old steps downward to the platformed area that led to Murderer’s Hole.

The original elevator mechanism and winches had been removed some time ago, leaving only the rusting stays and pitons in place. On one of them (the western most metallic stud) was a triple knotted length of hemp rope going down into the gloomy darkness of the 15’ wide shaft. We jiggled the rope and noted it was well tied but also somewhat new, especially since Murderer’s Hole had been unused as a mine for about 2 years. On asking the guards if they knew how far down the hole went, the best they could say was a couple of hundred feet – none of them really knew.

Norris activated his Boots of Levitation with a solid stomp and with one hand on the rope for guidance, began going down, checking out the area as he did so with the aid of Gwyn’s lantern. It was about 60’ down to the 1st landing, a platform of wood and stone on the eastern side of the shaft with a fairly wide (8’) corridor that went on into the darkness as far as the lantern’s light was able to shine. Our bard continued downward, coming upon a small supply niche on the western side about 30’ further along – 9’ deep and about the same in width. It was filled with old picks, shovels, iron crossbeams, small casks of what might have been oil, and a few lanterns and other mining gear.

He went lower, the sun above 120’ over his head appearing as a circle of light and nothing else, arriving at a 2nd level on the eastern side and the same as the 1st level, going in a deep as his light could shine. It was here that a couple of stones were dislodged from the wall and fell into the darkness below – and then Norris heard the shrill cry of bats and the flutter of leathery wings from down there. Feeling uncomfortable being this far down and with some bats below and not sure how long his levitating boots would last (as he hadn’t had the opportunity to try and exhaust the magic) he grabbed the rope and began willing himself up the shaft and out of the hole back to the sunlight and his friends.

We listened to what Norris had to say and decided that the shaft did go below the 2nd level and we should go carefully down, checking it out methodically and intelligently. Gwyn and Soren felt that the ropes would hold 3 of us easily, but a 4th might not be a good idea so we opted to go down in 3’s – with Norris levitating down by himself. It was on our 1st attempt down the rope that we learned that some of the party – and some of the guards, were not good climbers. Brother Beren and Ve were in danger of slipping, only blind luck and aching hands kept them from falling into the gloom. Even Soren slipped up at one point, ripping his palms open as his feet slipped out from underneath him.

Norris had to spike the rope across the length of the shaft, the heavy length stretching across the darkness, in order for the party to set foot on the 1st level platform. But we made it down and then broke ourselves down into 2 wide in order to better explore the cavern. Soren took a look around and he felt that although the stone was difficult to gather prints off of, he was unsure if anyone had been down here on this level for many weeks. We opted to check it out anyway – eyes peeled and weapons ready.

The corridor ran straight for 15-20 paces, sloping slightly, before there was a side passage opened up, telltale bits of brass still glinting on the walls along with crystalline gypsum growing in the cracks and crevices. The side passage opened into a smallish chamber, testament to the miners following the vein of precious metal in here and harvesting what they could. However the place was empty and we moved on back to the main corridor.

The 2nd side chamber was on the left this time and there was a steep slope upward, at the bottom of the slope was a small scattering of fist sized stones and a left boot. On checking out the boot, Bron was almost bit by a centipede within and the insect was crushed. Otherwise there was nothing else untoward there. A quick look up the slope revealed a plain chamber also mined out, however the back was somewhat smooth and the ceiling did slope up almost 11’ in height. We pondered the wheres and whys of it but decided that it was not important and went back to the main corridor to look onward.

At this point only Soren and Norris went onward, no need for the rest of the party to follow down the dangerously dark and uneven caverns. It was at the 3rd chamber on the right where they came across 2 long dead skeletonized bodies lying amidst the dust that the realized that they were following a dead track. They backtrailed to the party (and the light!) and we decided that the deeper we went, the less sign we had of anyone else coming in this far into the caves. Let’s try the next platform down.

So as a party we went to the main chimney/shaft and we slithered down the thick ropes in groups of 3 until we arrived at the 2nd level down, some 120’ below the surface.

Norris and Bron took the front with the party spaced tightly behind. It was some 25 paces or so to an area where the corridor had two side corridors as well as continued onward, the one on the left having some smell like rodents in it, and the one on the right we heard a scurrying noise. A quick look to the left showed a dead chamber with a ceiling barely topping 7’ in height and little else. We felt there was nothing here except for possibly vermin but according to Soren, the ranger was able to tell that “people” had been up and down the main corridor in the recent week or less.

Bron took out his bear trap, arranged it down the right corridor, and placed a bit of dried meat on the trigger. Feeling that it would deter whatever critter was down there, we went onward with caution. The main corridor wove into a gentle 2 as the former miners had followed what veins of ore were here, eventually splitting into two passages; the one on the right continuing on and the one on the left opening into some sort of mined out chamber.

The chamber was roughly 20’ x 25’ with a ceiling just under 8’ in height. And in the middle of the room was a pile of sticks numbering just over 30ish and mounded in some haphazard order. The group stood outside the chamber, looking at the sticks, and frowned before saying, “Yeah, don’t want to go in there, don’t care what it is.” Feeling it was trap of some sort the party wanted to keep on going when they heard a definitive SNAP from behind them. Ahh – Bron’s bear trap caught something!

The monk ran back (snagging a lantern while doing so as we now had Brother Beren’s lantern and Gwyn’s lit) and was delighted to see the trap had caught a 60# giant rat, almost dissecting the creature from the force of the huge jaws. He pried it opened, pulled it towards the left corridor (where we had original thought there was some other vermin hiding down) and used a bit of the giant rat as bait, leaving the remainder of the carcass down the right passage and then came back telling the party of what we had learned.

The group walked on, the main corridor “Y”ing here, and we went right this time. It turned 90 degrees more and down the short corridor before it turned to the left we saw a dark black furred wolf just standing there. Umm, weird. Soren went to step forward and used his wand of Speaking to Animals to communicate with it.

It was very calm and to the ranger, spoke very well. It called itself Tisig and said it had been left here by a former master. It wanted to go with Soren and would agree to be his friend. Yeah, just too damn easy. Soren was relating this to the group and we were very uncomfortable and at this point Bron was trying to divine what the wolf’s feelings were (contentment, but also like it knew something nasty and secretive) while Norris was going to use his wand of Detecting Magic. Bor meanwhile was walking up to the wolf to pet it.

It was at that time that all hell broke loose as the wolf seemed to talk into Norris’ mind begging him not to wave the wand and that he could partner up with him. The bard yelled out, “It’s evil! Kill it!” and the wolf snarled in a decidedly humanized manner. Its form shifted until it appeared to be a 3 1/2” tall horned grayish red skinned demonic figure. The group sprung into action, Bor swinging at the wolf/demon and missing while weapons were readied and holy water was hurled – hitting the beast with a plume of angry red smoke!

Norris took out his net to throw it and the demonic figure went invisible! Trusting to luck he gave a mighty toss, just clearing Bor, and the net fanned out and ensnared the flying hellspawn! Well done! He yanked the bottom rope and bagged the net, attempting to bring it to bay, Bron helping him out. It was then that the demon gave a hissing abyssal bark of power and a blast of fear aura snarled out, striking Norris, Bron, Bor, Gwyn, and Soren.

Soren turned first, running Brother Beren down and trampling the priest. Then Gwyn kicked the priest as well and knocked down Ve before shoving his way into the hall. Bron and Norris followed, the poor priest and guardsman getting kicked and shoved and stepped on at every opportunity. Meanwhile Bor ran the other way into the darkness of the demonic figure’s cave, eventually running full tilt into the unyielding wall and knocking himself out. Brother Beren used his magic missile wand and two of the eldritch bolts slammed home into the demon figures chest, slaying it!

It took another minute or two for the party to overcome their fear (Gwyn having to tackle Soren at one point to get the ranger to stop running) and regroup. We checked out Bor (he was fine after a few minutes) and took stock of the chamber we were in. The demonic figure (some sort of Quasit according to Beren and Norris) is usually summoned as part of a familiar ritual for a decent level mage, and yes, it is usually evil. The chamber had some soiled and older robes and magical paraphernalia in it as well as some spent looking scrolls.

It was when they were checked for magic and two of them registered that the party took the time to check them out. The scrolls were written in invisible ink! Bron and Norris spent some time heating up the paper near the lantern, burning it slightly but allowing the ink to become visible. Then Norris spent some time reading magic and let us know the spells were Ice Storm and Wall of Ice – two fairly decent 4th level spells – and both penned by a wizard of 8th level experience. Our bard took them for now and after we made sure the rest of the chamber was empty we moved on.

We knew there had been traffic down here in the recent days, but so far we had seen nothing except for the quasit and some giant rat earlier. As we came to the end of the corridor there were two final chambers – the one on the left was rough looking, 3 fairly large pottery jars covered were in the middle and there were 4 humanoid shaped clusters of mushrooms growing about the room. Soren told us they were corpse fungus, mushrooms that often grow on decaying flesh underground. We looked the room over and decided that whatever was in the pottery jars most likely killed the last group of 4 in here – so we weren’t going to screw with it.

During all this Bron had decided to go back and get his bear trap so he borrowed Beren’s lantern once more and walked back towards the entrance where he was surprised to see things had changed.

The meat of the giant rat was now gone (as well as the rest of the body) and in its place on the bear trap was a single platinum bar. Bron was looking at it, walking around it, trying to get an idea what the hell was going on. The teeth of the bear trap had some sort of faintly greenish residue on it and the cautious monk assumed it was a poison of some sort. He dislodged the platinum piece and triggered the trap, letting the teeth clack shut. He was about to pick up the 6’ chain/rope when he had a sneaky suspicion and doused it with his water skin. The water that ran off had a greenish tint as well. Great, bastard poisoned the rope as well.

Someone else was down here and they were screwing with us.

Using his blanket he wrapped it around the wet rope/chain and held the trap off the ground as he worked his way back to the party. Explaining what he had seen and found we were all of the mind that we were getting close to whatever was down here and most likely had Arnog. Meanwhile the party had checked out the last chamber on the right and it was fairly low ceilinged except for the back right hand corner where it had been squared off and on the floor were about 9 planks of wood all next to one another.

The wood was a cover and it was nailed together, blocking a 5’ wide hole that went straight down, a faint breeze blowing up, and it smelled very faintly of stew. Gwyn volunteered to go down first and a length of rope was tied around the dwarf, the free end being held by Grid, Ve, and Bor. It was when the dwarf placed one foot over the hole with the intention of going down that unseen forces grabbed him and pulled him down the hole at a moderate and steady pace!

Bron reached out and grabbed the dwarf’s hand but he too was pulled into the hole and Norris who tried to stop them also reached out but he was pulled into the hole! Then the three guardsmen were dragged forward and one by one went into the hole, leaving Beren, Hagni, and Soren. Seeing that the party was now dropping at a steady pace of roughly 1’ per second and that they were in no immediate danger of falling, we deduced that this was by design and most likely going to lead us to the mages below. So Hagni went in, followed by Beren, and lastly Soren – as the party dropped into the darkness to confront whatever was below.

Meet 108, Adv 10, 8/7/10

I have used the Deck of Many Things a total of 2 times in all my years of DMing (27 now!!) and not once in the last 12 years at least. However it is one of those iconoclastic items that everyone recognizes and in some games it is whipped out as often as a ubiquitous sword +1.

However the party has stumbled across a rather almost artifact level item, Book of Infinite Spells. I've had it creep up in my campaign before and it has been met with, and to quote Jeff Goldbloom from the 2nd Jurassic Park movie, "Yeah, that's how it starts with Oohs and Aaahs - and then after a while it turns to running and screaming."

In the original incarnation of the book I had it crafted by Orcus, Lord of the Undead and it was eventually used to help a powerful mage learn the spells necessary to become a lich (Dareth Causticus for those keeping track at home!) and saw no reason to change it even though demonology has been minimized over the years in my campaign world. So here they were, some 6th level bard attempting to Dispel the magic on the book of infinite spells and it flubbed - which attracted Orcus' attention (I figured a 1 out of 8) and he showed up with deck of many things in hand and made the 3 people in the room choose.

The group was actually quiet during the drawing and one of the players in the silence muttered, "This is so damned cool" as the cards were laid out for the bard to draw for the 1st time.

That's what I like to hear as a DM - this is so damned cool.

Write up follows:

The group had gone to the mausoleum where upon arriving noted that another one of the Bather’s rings opened the doors here. It was now well past midnight and the group had some investigating. After opening the door, Bother Beren went in and some red energy shot across the door. The party was unsure what it was, so while our priest began to consecrate the tomb, Bron smashed a hole in the side wall. However upon attempting to enter he was struck by the red energy and was knocked out.

It was upon the completion of the consecrating that Aaron Skelt showed up, spectrally angry and pissed. He was told him not to come any closer Bren would destroy his sword; the spectre didn't believe him so on his charge the priest shattered the sword and sheath with a blast of magic. The undead horror let out a banshee scream that knocked out most of the merchants as well as Kazak.

Furious, Aaron punched Brother Beren twice dropping him two semi-permanent levels and dangerously coming close to killing him. It was at this time that Soren shot his bow and missed horribly – hitting our beleaguered priest! Ignoring the unconscious adept, Skelt picked up the sword cast some spell and the sword reformed. He then placed the sword some sort of extra-dimensional pocket about 5’ off the ground and in this “cubby” he placed the sword and we noted that there was also the helmet and the brooch.

And then he disappeared. At this point the rest of the party came through the door, which made it obvious that anyone could enter and the rest of the party did. As for the extra-dimensional pocket, how were we to get in there? There was some experimenting but the group learned that if they touch the air in just the right place and make an opening motion with their fingers the pocket opens and allows them to go inside. They then took out the 3 items and just before shutting the pocket threw in a couple of bottles of holy water so they burst opened. This way the next time the spectre opens the pocket it will rain holy water upon him.

We went back to the inn, deciding to avoid Two Cats for now, instead going to the Swaddling Goose and getting rooms there. We had a fitful night and the next day we went to Cornblood Keep where we met with Lord Falconhand to see about garnering our charter as well as some sort of restorative potion or scroll for our Brother Beren. It was then that we learned that there was ANOTHER murder last night! This happened about 1 PM near the culvert, a guardsman was found with his head torn free from his body, a broken bit of a hitching post shoved into his heart, and the remains of hardtack shoved into his mouth.

His sword was missing.

What the hell? A request was made to get Moltas Falconhand to come down (Lord Sverek’s father, Aaron friend) but it was discovered that Moltas was missing – and no one knows where he is. A page was sent out to the tracks as well as the two local watering holes in an effort to find him. The deal for the 750 was reiterated and a blank charter was handed over to Soren for us to fill out.

We then went to Jarl’s Tradegoods and spoke with the Halfling trademaster for a bit – his cousin, Esias, was coming back to town today/tonight after a long trip to Dilabria – and it was understood that he had the last of the Skelt cursed treasures. We told Jarl of what was going on and the Halfling thanked up for being upfront, sending one of his cousins out on a swift pony to intercept Esias and bring him back to town as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, someone asked Norris to attack the people who had been watching him. He attacked the guard, doing minimal damage, and then the guards defended themselves. Since Norris wasn't really into it he kind of let himself lose the fight. The guards however were very into it and they beat him after he had let himself be disarmed and called for the watch. We showed up just as the watch was getting there. We all went to the watch station where the captain of the watch corroborated our story about Norris being under a Charm spell. He did warn us that if Norris did anything else he'd be kicked out of town.

We had some words with the local Captain of the guard and some of the other information the inquisitor had gotten from Henian Bather, plus some other information that had come to light and we had deduced that Arnog is most likely being held in Murderer’s Hole – and not at the mercy of Jarl’s Tradegoods.

While a solution was coming for Brother Beren’s brush with the spectre and its draining touch, we also wanted to resolve the problem with Norris’ ensorcellment (charming) that he was under. Something that had come up before regarding the oakleaf bound leather book that we had gotten from Henian was that not only did it help to teach the neophyte mage the basics of magic, but it also seemed to supply whatever spell was needed!

Brother Beren had spent some time praying at the shrines and even in his weakened state from Aaron Skelt’s draining touch was able to come up with a pair or lesser restorations which did return most of the priest’s lost levels. We were anxious though to come up with a solution for Norris’s charming and when the bard went lookinh through the tome, it opened up to a Dispel Magic spell! Just what he needed.

Brother Beren was uncomfortable with the book’s acquiescence to our needs but decision was made to dispel magic on Norris’ charm as well as impact the book. So Beren, Kazak, and Norris retreated to the inn room and cast the dispel magic – ending the charm – but failing to assault the book.

This ended up making a strange silence fall over the room and a wrenching seemed to feel out of place – and there was a rotund, sweaty ruddy skinned older man shuffling a deck of cards. He pointed to Norris, spread the cards and said simply: “CHOOSE.” The cards were old and worn and there was a strange miasma of malevolence in the room – it was Brother Beren who made the great mental leap – book was evil, using it summoned and created undead, an attempt to destroy it made this being appear and although it was clad in “human” form, he knew it to be otherwise. Orcus, Lord of Undead.

Fuck.

With shaking hands the bard picked a card and upon looking at its face began quivering – and the luck that had guided his existence was smited – giving him -3 to all of his saves permanently.

Then the man pointed to Beren and said, “CHOOSE!” The priest took a careful hand and pulled out a card – it was the fates! Of his own choosing if something horrible was to happen to him – he could have the skein of destiny change what would be the outcome and spare him from it!

And finally the aspect of Orcus pointed at Kazak and said, “CHOOSE!!!” and the half orc ex slaver took a card – and the air around him swirled – his features became wonderful, his personality sparkled, and then Orcus disappeared and the page from Lord Falconhand came in with orders to bring Kazak immediately to the lord as his mother was a direct descendent of Moltas Falconhand – making him royalty and the next in line after Sverek for the family name!

It was an odd and strange twist of fate that we bid Kazak farewell and the decision was made at that point to NOT use the book NOR attempt to allow it to be the victim of a harmful spell of effect. It was right after this that the book’s necromantic energies summoned a zombie from the graveyard to trek across town and close on the Swaddling Goose – which had the people frantic and calling for the guard. Brother Beren used his conduit from Tyr to turn the undead, but the energies were warped and twisted from the book and instead of turning the zombie – it was instantly upgraded to ghoul! It assaulted three other people in the street and began feeding on them and there was a general melee before it was destroyed.

We then gave the book to Bron who would keep it safe while Soren told us that the Captain of the guard would be lending us 4 of his trusted veteran guards to go with us to Murderer’s Hole and attempt to get Arnog back.

We had until the next day when Esias would return and it was on that day that the shade of Aaron Skelt would assault him – reclaiming the last of his 4 treasures. So we had to go into the hole, save Arnog, bring what mage’s we could find down there to justice, and get out to do what we needed to. And it was already about 1 in the afternoon – the clock was ticking!

Meet 107, Adv 10, 7/31/10

The art of misdirection as a DM isn't to contradict yourself, but to only provide a partial list of facts - and then at a later date, supply the rest or in some cases, more of the facts. If digested in two separate piles, it can and will drive the party nuts - and that's what had been happening here - so much so that one of the players spent a good half hour writing out the bits and pieces of our activities so far in an effort to see how it all came together.

Write up follows:

Soren used the 1st of the antidotes on Gwyn (an incense you burn that smells like shit covered skunk) and then the 2nd on Kazak – waking our two friends up. On waiting for Bron’s return they then went to Skelt Manor with a bit of trepidation as Soren informed the group of Bendern’s seeming duplicity and the fact that Beren was there now.

On arriving the door was closed and no knocking opened it, although we did hear some grunting inside. Norris used his thieves tools and his severe lack of lock picking – and it just goes to show exactly HOW cheap the locks were at Skelt manor because he opened it! On the rugs were some muddy foot prints that went in and to the right, then up the stairs to the 2nd floor.

Inside and to the right in the sitting room was Quaris Skelt, trussed up, gag in his mouth, and sporting a purpling goose egg on the back of his head. He was released and told that someone knocked his ass down and out about an hour ago and he didn’t know who or what happened. When asked where Bendern was he told us that the younger Skelt was upstairs in his room and had been there most of the night. Damn it.

We followed the prints up the stairs where they went to a door and it required Norris and his lock picks and ANOTHER terrific roll and the door was opened! And lo and behold – there was a small pile of ash inside the door, the muddy foot prints ended at the bed, and the room smelled faintly of oranges. Bendern was asleep and did not awaken to our prodding. We asked where Brother Beren was and was told that he was on the 3rd floor in one of the old servant’s rooms.

We checked and he was there, unharmed and once again succumbed to the poison. We dragged him down the stairs to Bendern and using the last antidote, lit it and woke the two of them up. Then it was question time.

Bendern did not remember meeting the party last night, telling them that he had gone to Two Cats about 6:30 last night and then to Madame Greenbelt’s for some nightly pleasure with a girl named Agatha. Around quarter to 8 he left and came home where he sat with his father for a spell and then went up to his room to read and eventually fall asleep. However as far as we were concerned we saw Bendern at Two Cats at 8ish in the company of the 2 men who tried to Orange Blossom us and even pass on a magic mouth pouch (that Bron had eventually heard and said it was the same voice that Aaron Skelt had during his short fight with the buggish undead thing).

Bron was a keen discerner of the truth and on looking at Bendern and hearing him speak, was convinced he was telling the truth – or at least BELIEVED he was telling the truth. So now what? The group then looked at Bendern’s shoes and saw that they were about the same size as the prints on the rug but that meant nothing – plus the boot prints although ending in his room did not go up to the bed, nor were his current shoes or his spare set covered in mud of any sort.

What was going on?

Soren went down to the very angry wolverine in the cage in the pantry and called on Frey to give him a blessing to befriend the animal. And suddenly the 135 lb giant wolverine stopped hissing and spitting, became docile, and snuffled happily at Soren’s hands. Mission successful! 60 hps of snarling wolverine fury now in the hands of the party’s ranger. ;)

Feeling that it was time to get the authorities involved in light of last night’s attacks and then to arrange a visit with Sverek Falconhand, Soren went to the militia house and spoke with the tired Captain of the guard. He talked about the attack, his response, and what had been learned of the matter. And was surprised to find the captain was less than pleased with Soren’s results!

Not once did the ranger call for the watch, and he took it upon himself to shoot two men with deadly if not lethal force and accuracy, question them, lead them to his room, bind and interrogate them, and then kill one and let the other go and THEN come and tell the watch so they can clean the dead guy out of his room.

When it was redescribed (with the party helping out as interested militia men listening in and making snarky comments during the questioning) the group realized it didn’t sound so great. But in light of all the good the group had been doing, it was excused (not forgiven) and then the party was told they could go to Sverek Falconhand and speak to the Lord on the matters at hand. Be ready in an hour. He did ask about questioning Henian under the Zone of Truth and was told it was not necessary at the Bather was very forthcoming on his actions and did not mince words or try to smear up his crimes or parts in them. In fact he did not know of Aaron but DID admit that he had looted Aaron Skelt about a year ago right after the old man was interred and sold most of the goods to personages not local.

What?

If that was the case then how was Quaris able to open the tomb 10-11 months later and see Aaron there with the same 4 items that Henian admitted selling? This needed more discussion with the party.

Soren grabbed the group, Bendern as well, and they tramped back to Cornblood keep where they checked weapons and went to Sverek himself. The lord was in his late 30’s, long black hair pulled back, thin moustache waxed heavily, military air and bearing to him. A pair of swords girded his chair and there were plenty of guards around.

We explained what was going on, Aaron Skelt, the 4 items, and the order of the deaths – the fact that Sverek was most likely next. The lord said he did not have the sword, he gave it to his father, Moltas, Aaron’s longest living friend. Moltas was brought in along with the sword and the older man spoke long about his friend and the fact that he had a gypsy curse on him. The curse was something along the lines of “Never rest, Always hungry, and Never satisfied.” It was almost 40 years ago and the gypsy was unknown. Moltas did tell the group that his friend didn’t sleep much (2-3 hours a day) and ate and drank like a pig, and gambled to excess and then some – so the curse was true.

This also seemed to be in line with Aaron’s awakening and going after his belongings but if Henian had fenced them about a year ago – how did they get back? The group then guessed that since the items had been sold and been done outside of town, the deaths of the new owners were not noticed by those living here and Aaron had killed and retrieved his treasures – eventually coming back to his crypt where he slept undisturbed until Quaris opened it a few weeks ago and sold the belongings again – once more restarting the curse.

It was a working theory the party had – at least for now.

They assured the lord they could do the job and eventually Sverek offered them 750 crowns and a group charter if they could face Aaron’s shade and put it to rest. We took the job and asked for the sword. We then went to the Keep’s chapel to Thor and Odin, ground that was holy and consecrated, Bron holding the blade (which we did check – was not magical) and waited.

Norris kept up an almost continuous litany of countersong, hoping to keep any potential further affect and charm of him at bay. The clock passed – and passed – and passed – and no one came. As we crept closer to midnight we were growing worried and frantic – a seeming pressure was surrounding the group and the chapel and it was like the time was growing slower. We readied weapons and tried to look around – seeing no one.

At a few minutes before midnight Brother Beren asked Tyr for the ability to detect undead – and he received a pile of them – two sets of 6-10 right outside the stained glass windows, and a single one in the hall right outside the door – but invisible to sight. He then begged for a blast of pure sunlight and slammed it down the main hall – searing the undead and causing it to shriek in agony and dive into the wall to escape the flaming white light.

Spells of strength, blessing, competence, and health were called forth and as one the group entered the hall ready to do battle. Aaron Skelt appeared in a blast of acrid fumes and chittering bugs, assaulting Bron who was fighting as defensively as he could. Gwyn used his Hydraspear on the undead, scoring the man viciously in the midsection. Soren fired some of his bolts coated with holy water from the temple’s font, Bron had dipped rags into the font and wrapped his fists inside of them – hitting the undead beast as well. Bottles were thrown and weapons plied and even the wolverine slammed and slashed into Aaron, the undead flailing at Bron and just missing both times. And eventually the monster collapsed into bugs and dissolved away and the group smacked and slapped the insects with wild abandon.

What now? Did we kill Aaron? Was he really dead for sure? The group wanted to go to the cemetery and check the coffin and if there finish him off. We left and made our way there (learning that SOMETHING had coming into Cornblood Keep through the water culvert under the wall and had left the same way – zombies was our guess) as fast as we could, arriving at the cemetery in a few minutes. Brother Beren used Henian’s keyring and found one of the keys was the one for the cemetery gates – opening it and ushering the group inside to do battle and meet hopefully for the last time with Aaron Skelt.

Meet 106, Adv 10, 7/24/10

The party had done their deed against the Bather and did it well - but upon final review of the facts, there were some gaping holes - and those holes did not make sense with what they had been learning.

And then I screwed their perception by having their employer appear in league with some threats against them and even seemingly involved in masterminding it.

But as the party leader was apt to discover - the timing and facts did not make much sense.

Really good deducing and playing so far - let's hope they continue as a keen mind is currently in more demand than a swift sword.

Write up follows:

At the death of the 3 mages, the other door opened and Henian and two more of his apprentices were there, arms raised and begging for mercy. The water elemental around Norris faded and fell back into the tub with a splashing crash. The guards began rounding up the three men, fingerlocks used and Father Bjarl made a number of noises about Thor and how the men would be judged honestly for their crimes (if any). The party then listened to Henian for a bit, one of them asking where his esoteria might be, he indicated upstairs in his office. Half the group went up there to check it out while others stayed behind to listen in on whatever Henian might say about what was going on here.

The guards went through the dead and living mages, withdrawing keys, coins, even a wand and other items. As for the upstairs, there were 2 doors and the ring of keys downstairs (9 on the ring) worked on the doors at the top. One was an office fairly standard and normal looking. The group went over it with some detail, eventually finding a single black leather clad tome with a pair of oak leaves on the front and the marking on the spine reading 1A2. The next chamber was also locked and a quick twist revealed some other items of interest. 3 sets of wizard robes, chalk, odd bits of incense and etcetera.

A quick whick of Norris’ detect magic wand showed the book was magical, 1 set of robes, hat and slippers was magic, 2 pieces of unused chalk was magic, and about 8 bottles of oil were magical. Nice. As for Henian, he was talking without rancor or hesitation. His sister was a midwife and had a healers hand and she had gone north to do what she could where she was outed as a witch and burned at the stake in Flatrock. He was distraught and when this occurred about a year ago resolved that he would do what he could to learn magic and seek his revenge on those who had her killed.

He had been graverobbing for some years now (5 to 8) and had dug a series of tunnels under the cemetery gates and to some of the mausoleums, getting Friar Morn’s aid and silence (easy to do since he’s a mute) but gifting him with some rich food stuffs and some books. He now used some of his ill gotten gains to buy books of magic and primers on how to cast spells from book shops in Cymbarton. He knew that most of them would be crap, but enough of them might have some reality in them so it was worth it.

About 11 months ago he had gotten a bad headache and fell asleep early, dreaming vividly about going into some house, to a bookshelf, and taking a tome with the marking 1A2 on it, knowing that it would answer his problems. The dream continued showing him having 3 sets of silver holy symbols to Thor and that he might need to mount them. And when he woke up, he had the book and the symbols! He spent the next some weeks studying it until he felt that he understood even the simplest rituals, and then he cast it – and it worked! However it had an unintended side affect – one of the recently deceased animated out of the graveyard, made its way to his tunnels, and wandered into his bathhouse.

The pairs of symbols acted as wards on the portals, allowing him to squirrel away the waking dead (and they kept on coming every time he fully studied the book or randomly when he would cast spells he had learned from it) in the basement of his bathhouse. He also found other like minded people in town who wanted to learn magery and prove that it wasn’t anything to fear. There were 6 of them (3 now) and of them all, only Henian had any skill – the others no better in ability that apprentice.

Henian and the other 2 were then taken to the jail where they would be further questioned and eventually turned over to the magistrate. All of their belongings were taken as well and the party made sure to not give up the book, oils, clothing or chalk they found but they DID give up the cash box they took out of the office upstairs (which had Norris grunting in disgust).

We went back to Two Cats in and talked about what we had learned, knowing that we would get some more information the next day when we would see Henian in the morning at the jail (Brother Beren offered to cast a Zone of Truth for the guards). We also knew that we had to talk to Sverek Falconhand tomorrow as that would be the day (according to our calendar) that Aaron Skelt would try to get the sword. We also did not know where Arnog was at this point and all we had to go on was a brief glimpse that Brother Beren had gotten when his Sacred Guardian spell went off of the party’s fighter in an underground area (but not like the cemetery).

Soren went to the area just outside of town on the Eider road where he was looking at the places where Jarl (the Halfling) from Jarl’s Tradegoods said that they threw people who were caught stealing after cutting off their thumbs. While walking the area up and down both sides of the road an 8 year old boy came out and asked the elven ranger if he was looking for bears. Soren said no and the young man (after a very successful encounter check) then went on long about how a night or two ago some men with torches were leading a bear to the Cracks, most likely Murderer’s Hole – one of the old Brass mines that had a couple of gas explosions some years back and was not used any more. Soren found no bear fur, but he did find some deer fur and suspected it might have been Arnog wrapped up in a covering and brought to the place as said. He told the young man to go home, gave him words to not share any of this info with others, and suggested that he not leave his house again to talk to strangers.

Returning to Two Cats we talked for a bit of what we had learned and what was to come up. We knew we needed to talk to Sverek, face off on Aaron, and find Arnog (as well as have Soren make friends with the Wolverine). At this point we noticed that Bendern Skelt was here and was talking to two men in greenish gray cloaks, eventually giving them a small bag that one of them pocketed. The 2 men got up and went to go upstairs and the group had Norris follow them while they went to Bendern’s table and talk to the young nobleman.

Bendern told us that the 2 men were King’s men (rangers) who were on their way through from Northedge and he wanted to make sure that nothing happened to Sverek Falconhand so had hired them to go to Cornblood Keep tomorrow and try to convince the guards and the Lord there that there was a real threat and they should be ready. He seemed believable but the group hadn’t forgotten the strange flash in his eyes outside the Temple of Thor, nor the sometimes difficulty Quaris (his father) had in tracking the younger Skelt down. Eventually Bendern left and the group waited.

Meanwhile Norris followed the two men to the last room on the 3rd floor and listened outside their room. He listened…to rhythmic chanting. And then he felt that hanging outside his friend’s doors was not necessary and he should just go to his room and go to sleep. That’s a good idea!

The party went upstairs at some point and went to get ready for bed (after checking on Norris and seeing him in his room sleeping). The night was passing and Soren was silently sitting in his dark room, making arrows by feel and with his infravision when he heard the door open slightly, knowing that he had locked it before. Someone tossed a warm and growing warmer bag into his room that began to smell of oranges and then backed out shutting the door again.

He picked up the bag which was also smoking slightly now and went to the window to chuck it out, but the shutters were sealed…from the OUTSIDE!! The smell of oranges was growing quickly and he dropped the bag, hit his door and burst out into the hallway. Wearing his underwear he snatched his bow and arrow quiver and quickly checked the hall. Brother Beren’s room also smelled of oranges and a quick look at Gwyn’s was the same. Shit. He checked them, they were alive but sleeping deeply. What the hell?

He went to the stairs and listened, faintly hearing movement up there. He crawled to the top and overheard a part of the conversation where two men were saying it was done and that it was time for them to leave. They were at the window and one was already out and climbing down the wall of the inn, the 2nd ready to do so. Without pause Soren fitted a blunt arrow to the bow, took aim at the man’s head, and fired. Dead on. Struck in the noggin the 2nd man slumped down and hit the floor. The 1st man saw what happened and DROPPED down almost 25 feet to the garbage in the alley below.

Soren ran to the window, saw the 1st guy was out, and watched the other guy running. He drew another blunt arrow, took aim, and FIRED – hitting the guy in the head. He hit the ground near the mouth of the alley and was blubbering when the ranger shot again – this time cracking him in the chest. He was in horrible pain and Soren hit him a 3rd time – this time knocking him out. He checked the 2nd guy, dragged him to his room, took his cloak, and thumped him on the head to keep him out. He then went out to the alley, picked up the guy there and using the cloak as cover, brought him back into the inn and up to his room (a quick tell to the innkeep that the guy was drunk and out of it).

Once in his room he trussed the two men up and when they woke up had them speak. They had been hired from Flatrock some days ago to come here, and meet up with a guy who would give them a description of who we were and to make sure that Orange Blossom was put in the rooms of everyone except for the half elf. Orange Blossom in an incense type poison that will knock out whoever gets a lungful or more for a full 24 hours. Soren gathered what info he could and realized that there was not going to be any going to the guards now. He told the two men to sleep and that they would be brought to the guards and watch for question after he had some rest.

When the two men didn’t comply and were trying to get free of their bonds Soren lost his patience and started hitting them about the head with a torch in an effort to knock them out. It did succeed and he was surly and cross and in foul spirits but the ranger did go to sleep.

He awoke not much better about 6 AM and was dismayed to find one of the two men had died during the night (the one with the busted rib). He then went to try and awaken any/all of the party – only succeeding in wakening Norris who had not been given Orange Blossom. He couldn’t remember anything about going to the door only that he was tired when he found out that it was nothing. The two of them suspected a charm of some sort. They went to the one remaining living assassin and learned that there was a antidote but he doesn’t have it.

That meant a quick review of the town and there was an herbalist here, Kuzia – and she lived off Main Street. Upon visiting he had to wake up Kuzia (it was just after 6 AM) who was not only angered, but was VERY ugly. She talked for a bit and offered to make an antidote, 3 of them. She then talked about how Bendern Skelt had come in not too long ago and bought some Orange Blossom and paid over 400 crowns for them. This had us very concerned because why, where would Bendern get the money, and what’s the reason? Have we been duped?

Norris cast a delay poison on Brother Beren which had him wake up and a subsequent one was cast on Bron who then used his monkish ability to flush the rest of the poison from his system. This left Kazak, Gwyn, and Beren (eventually the delay would wear off). Beren then attempted to dispel the charm on Norris but was unsuccessful.

They group then went to talk to the lone remaining failed assassin. They had been hired by some guy with a dog about a week ago in Flatrock to come here and meet up with a man who would supply them with the Orange Blossom as well as a target listing. The target listing was a magic mouth spell in a pouch (the same pouch that Bendern gave to the 2 men) and we took it and listened to it – it described the party and mentioned that “the half elf did not need the Orange Blossom as he was going to take the fall as the warlock”. Interesting.

He gave us dates, times, and details and on completion just wanted to be escorted back to the stables, get on his horse, and ride away. He was bitter at the job and the death of his friend and didn’t blame the party but the man who had hired them as he had unstated the group’s abilities and their resources. It took a few moments but it was decided by Soren to be honest and honorable and let the guy go. Bron escorted him to the stables where he grabbed horses and left. Brother Beren went to Skelt Manor where he asked Quaris to let him use an unused room to sleep off the poison (not knowing what Soren had learned from Kuzia and Bendern’s supposed part in this).

We knew that the timing didn’t make sense in some fashion but someone wanted us to be asleep this day – and this was the day that Aaron Skelt would be going after the 3rd artifact, the sword – the sword that was in the hand of Sverek Falconhand – Lord of Broken Hills.

Meet 105, Adv 10, 7/10/10

The party was getting a bit more proactive at this time, actively seeking out the next victim and trying to be "one ahead" of the killings. I would say they came in at a tie and had a direct interaction with what seems to be the BBG for the adventure.

I like saying "seems". It reminds me that not everything is as it seems. Lol

A good adventure isn't just a list of encounters for the group to go against, but also a mystery for them to unravel. And this one will lead them back to the original thread that the group had lost some time ago: Djohrgahd, Vanir, and the Necordiam Fenrir Codex.

If they opt not to follow that trail to see where it leads then I'll let it die and shuffle to the spur line. But I hope they don't.

Write up follows:

The party was on their way back to Skelt Manor, the afternoon getting on in time. We had a drugged huge wolverine to take care of and there was the need for us to find out where Marcus Goodblood, the owner/purchaser of Aaron Skelt’s brooch, was.

The wolverine was lured into the basement with some fresh meet and then the party stacked some boxes on the stairs – hoping the hallucinogenic mushrooms would keep the great beast at ease until we could return. From there we went to Cornblood keep where we did some investigating – learning that Marcus Goodblood worked at the Keep as a private smithy.

We spoke to Marcus at length telling him only some of what the issues were that we needed to resolve, hoping not to alarm him. However it became apparent that he did not have the brooch on him, instead he had given it to his wife as a gift. Fearing the worst, the party ran out of Cornblood Keep, following Marcus as he charged down Main Street, telling the party that his home was just past the Stoneheart Hospice. The party was stopped at the barbican of the Keep as they had to reclaim their weapons, only Bron able to keep up and pace with the frightened smithy.

The door to the Goodblood home was closed, but the lock had been splintered off. Entering it showed blood splattered everywhere and some movement upstairs. Bron and Marcus charged up, the smithy grabbing a sword off his wall as they did so. The turned to the right at the top of the stairs and burst into the bedroom to find Ms. Goodblood slain – her head torn from her neck, the bed post slammed into her chest, and some bread shoved into her rictus frozen mouth.

There were 2 figures in here, both long dead and turning as one to assault Marcus and Bron. The two did battle with the zombies while Aaron Skelt made an appearance – at around the time the rest of the group arrived. Aaron went to leave but Gwyn set the stairs on fire, and the monster that was Aaron turned into a horde of bugs and went to flee up the steps. Marcus was horrified and yelling, screaming at the death/murder of his wife.

More fire was set and the bugs that we felt were Aaron did partially escape. Marcus was a wreck. Eventually a number of guardsmen showed up, one of them the captain. The group told the lawmen of what was going on and some of the truth of what has been happening. Then it was revealed that there were zombies found under the bathhouse the Henian Bather runs. At that, Marcus grew wroth, lifted his weapon, and went to leave. Bron disarmed the angry man and he tried to get a 2nd weapon – at this Marcus was rendered unconscious and the party went with the captain, his men, and Marcus to the courthouse and militia house to get the full story and decide what to do next.

We talked at length of what we had learned and what we had discovered. Bjarl was called and we went to the Thorian temple to add what he knew along with our own discoveries. Marcus was fairly silent during the entire recounting and when he had the chance, grabbed a guardsman’s short sword from his scabbard and slashed his own throat. No one had any healing at this time and Marcus died in his grief.

It was then decided that we go to Henian’s Bathhouse and investigate the veracity of the zombies there, determine if they came from that area, and then arrest the Bather. On arriving there we noticed it was silent and dimly lit – all 4 baths full. We attempted to cross the place when strange affects began assaulting us. Odd pushes tumbled some of us into the bath (Bron and Norris), lights flared around us, gnats appeared, the floor became slick and oily, hair sprouted from faces and heads. To make matters worse, those in the bath were affected as if the water itself was alive. The drain was pulled out and it wasn’t draining fast enough. An attempt was made to bash open the bottom of the tub but to no avail. Norris to avoid drowning gathered his feet beneath him and kicked – empowering his boots of levitation and lifting himself on a column of water free from the bath.

The Captain thought he heard something and turned BACK towards the entrance and main hall, kicking open a doorway there and surprising 3 men there waving their arms and chanting. Magery! The neophyte mages hurled some spells at us but a single magic missile and globe of darkness was not going to deter either the lawman’s blade or Soren’s arrows. The 3 went down screaming, their magical affects fading instantly.