(G300 29/11/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS14

(G300 29/11/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS14

DAY 276 (11th Nightal)(December) cont ...

[Hail, dear reader! The next part of the story is amply covered by a report that happened to make its way into my possession not so long ago. The writer is a drow detective aligned to House Dusklorn. His name is Merlock Tomes and he takes up the story here ...]

Of course, the death of Elessarwa Nledoor the matron of House Dusklorn was sudden and brutal but perhaps not unexpected. She had a habit of abducting and torturing to death anyone she liked off the streets of Pedestal and that is not a hobby that one can pursue indefinitely without meeting with censure.

I was first told of the murder by my master Lord Gragrax who sent me immediately to the scene of the crime. It appeared that Elessarwa had been shot through the belly with an arrow so forcefully that at first I assumed it was magical. The assassins had been clever and taken all their missiles away, however I later tended to believe that the arrow in question was psionically focused.

Muvaysil, Elessarwa's consort had been struck a mighty blow by a great axe. With a  strength that lead me to think a half-orc had possibly landed the blow.

Of the other's in the room I surmised there was a female magic user firing magic missiles, a male warlock firing eldritch blasts and their pet rhinoceros. The rhinoceros was clearly evident from the smell of rhinoceros that still lingered in the air. On my last trip to the surface I made it my mission to seek out and sniff as many creatures as I could and that endeavour was now bearing fruit.

Surface dwellers then, and since there was only one place I would certainly find them I went immediately to the Dripstone Inn where I located them immediately. I enquired of the locals discreetly and soon found the names of them and their likely professions.
The rhinoceros turned out to be a kiloren druid, which, of course, would have been my second guess.

To put their descriptions briefly here then we have:
Billitoppe - a sex starved gnome scout who appears to be good in nature
Durz - his boon companion, a simple but powerful brute barbarian that knows little else but violence and lust
Dwerry - a quiet, bookish aasimar that is not all that she appears
Arahel - a juvenile kiloren with much more power than sense
Fenrir - a renegade warlock murderer of whom a famous song was written in his home town of Waterdeep
    (also noted that he has vampire bite marks on his neck, which was interesting)

I watched them with keen interest, and observed their various bizarre mating rituals. This was, evidently, not an adventure band that cared much for keeping a low profile.

I initially sent a messenger to Lord Gragrax to tell him the killers had been discovered, but advised him not to move just yet, as after a spot of eavesdropping I discovered that their next target was the Necromancer's Spike. If this was the case then either a) they would die in the attempt to take the spire or b) they would kill the denizens within, who were all enemies of House Dusklorn.

So, on the morrow of the next day I followed them at a careful distance as they did indeed make for the Spike. Well, all but Billitoppe, who escorted his gnomish sex-pets out of the city.
I left Doctor Wazzon to tail after him and followed the others.

On the way, as they swaggered through the streets of Pedestal like they owned them, they were  attacked by a large gang of plaguelost. There were ten of the plaguelost, powerful ones too, drow, goblins and grimlocks, that came seeping out of the cracks of buildings in green mists that formed and then attacked.

Fenrir took to the air, but some of the plaguelost followed him. Dwerry fired magic missiles and the others used their magical weapons. One by one the plaguelost were dispatched but not without the Buffalo Bunch being injured and one of them being infected with ashdoom.

They returned to the Dripstone Inn for healing, but I was impressed by how efficiently they dealt with the undead attack. I would estimate it would take ten of our finest warriors mounted on driders to defeat them and probably a powerful wizard thrown in for good measure.

I sent another message to Lord Gragrax to prepare such a force should it be required.

They did not waste much time though and soon made their way to the Spire of Maroe the  Necromancer. I had instructed the guards at the Spike to let them pass (House Dusklorn lays  claim to the spike although we dare not enter it) and in they went.

I followed at a careful distance and guaged their progress by the destruction they left  behind them.

The first chamber, the one that had killed off so many with its deadly trap, they managed to traverse using an enchanted ring that nullified the magic within.

Taking the left hand door they then explored the trophy rooms and after that made their way into Dining Room. From here they made their way into the guards quarters, looked into the chamber of frozen corpses (I assume Maroe used them as undead advisors) and thence into the Shrine of Lolth.

Here they triggered a trap that made the large statue in the shrine come to life. It was a Bone Spider Golem and a dangerous foe. Swarms of spiders spewed from its abdomen and it attacked with powerful jaws. The Buffalo Bunch did not take long to defeat it though, with powerful blows and magic. The spider exploded as it died, injuring the Bunch, but not in any mortal way.

Once they had got their breath back the headed for the kitchens.

It was noon now. It seemed they were making short work of the Spike so far, but I knew what they did not, namely the evil that lurked further up in the tower.

(G299 22/11/2016 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS13

(G299 22/11/2016  via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS13

DAY 275 (10th Nightal)(December)  cont ...

Durz, after some nagging, got up, put his breeches on and went to talk to Billi.

Billi then decided to have a group meeting and went and woke up Fenrir. Durz went and tried to wake Arahel. When she wouldn't arise after the door was given a hefty pounding he kicked it down. This still didn't wake her, but it did wake the rest of the inn.

In the end though, they all made their way down to the common room where Dwerry was eating. Billi lead the questioning and talked to Dwerry and Berum separately.
Dwerry seemed confused and concerned saying that she could only think that Berum must have been mistaken or deceived.

Fenrir also used his Detect Magic ability and noticed many magical aura's on  Dwerry and none on Berum.

Billi decided one way to settle things was to go to the house Berum had trailed Dwerry to. The house in question was near the Bazaar and did not take long to find. Berum pointed at the door and Billi knocked on it. There was no answer.

Fenrir decided to fly around the two storey building but saw that all the windows were securely boarded up. Durz, impatient, used his 'key' and chopped down the  front door in less than a minute. Fenrir landed and did his best to scare away the people that were watching from the street including a drow beggar who tried to convince them that this was his house.

Once they were in, they found a small front room and a kitchen downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. As the poked about, nine dire rats came scampering in, but they were only interested in raiding the kitchen cupboards for food.

Billi, while upstairs, could smell the strong perfume he knew to be Erin Ja's in and around one of the beds and then came downstairs to question Dwerry further.

Dwerry could not explain what was going on, just that perhaps Berum had seen  someone that looked like her, after all Erin could change her appearance to be anyone she liked.

Billi asked Fenrir to detect magic on Dwerry and he noticed, among other things, an illusion aura on her. She said, 'Oh, that must be my ring, it helps protect me from evil yuan-ti... magic.'
Billi was unconvinced and asked her to take it off, but she refused.

Fenrir tipped Dwerry a wink, he could perhaps see that her story was not stacking up very well, and came in on her side.
'Oh yes, this ring is giving off the aura. It is as she says.'

Billi accepted this, but was deep in thought as they walked back to the Dripstone Inn, tugging on his beard and pondering the evidence.

Dwerry talked to Arahel on the way back, 'You think I'm alright don't you?'
Arahel wasn't so sure, but then, she was just nine years old.

They all went to bed and woke in the morning, going downstairs to have an  Underdark style breakfast of fungus and creepy crawlies.

The next task on the list given to them by Es Sarch was to kill Elessarwa Nledoor.
As the mysterious undead fellow had explained to them earlier:

"The disruption following Pedestal's fall lasts even unto this hour, though I must admit  the vacuum provided by the fleeing drow has been to my advantage. Consider, though, that  the reason this City did and does not completely collapse into chaos is due to my efforts. Nearly everyone here appreciates my influence. Bur gratitude doesn't last, and others seek  to displace me."
Es Sarch's voice fell to a whisper. "The Assassins' Guild has decided to seek an alliance with  House Dusklorn. If my agents were to disrupt this burgeoning accord, I fear I'd do more to cement the relationship than diffuse it. I ask you to eliminate or drive off Elessarwa  Nledoor, matron of the house and a psychotic to boot. I have knowledge of a hidden route into  her secret torture chamber, where she slinks away from her duties to the Dusklorn to apply  her savage arts to hapless victims she takes from Pedestal's alleys. I have arranged matters  so the Dusklorn will believe her death to be the work of the duplicitous Assassins' Guild.
That will be the end of that."

He gave them directions to a secret tunnel under the nearby tannery. The only person they found in the tannery was a crazy old beggar and once he'd shuffled off they located the secret tunnel and followed it to the lair of Elessarwa.

The tunnel lead to yet another secret door which when opened revealed the lair and torture chamber of the wicked drow matron. She was there, with her companion Muvaysil, a drow wizard.
They appeared to be about to sacrifice some poor wee svirfneblin female who was shackled to an altar before them.

Muvaysil cast a web spell at the door to try and hold them back, but with little success. Arahel changed into a rhino and charged in and Billi floated past it. Durz too, charged in and with a huge swoop of his axe killed the wizard. Elessarwa tried to flee as Fenrir's bolts found their target but she was finished off by a deadly psionically focused arrow from Billi's bow.

Billi cut of Elessarwa's ear to try and make it look like an assassination. They also discovered two more svirfneblin, a male and a female in a cell at the back of the chamber. (There names were Lorimila and Yoshik for the females and the male was called Qifyx)

Now, I am not a huge expert on the inter-gnome relationships of the various gnome species but I will say that Billi, when the got back to the Dripstone Inn, took them up to his room and indulged in what can only be described as an orgy. I assume gnomes have a similair view on these things as the bonobos I met in Chult.

The Buffalo Bunch had become famous in the Inn by now so this only added to their reputation
as bizarre surface dwellers and not to put a fine point on it - freaks.
More entertainment for the patrons was provided when Arahel, still in the shape of a rhino, tried to get up the stairs to see what the gnomes were doing and only succeeded in totally destroying the stairs.

This event very nearly made Es Sarch get up out of his chair, something I am lead to believe had last happened three years ago when the tavern had been attacked by an army of driders.
Arahel rolled out of the way and back into the common room as undead servers came to tidy up  the mess and propped a ladder up as a temporary means of escalation.

Billi only came down to the common room again that night to take up as much booze as he could carry. He then shut the door on his room once more and treated the rest of the Dripstone to the sounds of a drunken gnomish sex party.

Meanwhile Durz retired to his room with Berum, to make his own racket and Fenrir, in a more genteel fashion, turned his charm of Dwerry.

They spent the rest of the day and night at the inn, in this fashion.

DAY 276 (11th Nightal)(December)

Fenrir succeeded in bedding Dwerry that night, although once the effects of the alcohol and his charm had worn off her she skuttled through to her own room so he awoke to find his bed empty again.

By mid morning, Durz was up and about and went to the shop near the bazaar to pick up his adjusted armour. Hrodyn had it ready for him and had also added a little extra magic to it. She seemed to have taken a shine to Durz, something that Berum picked up on and was  not overly pleased about. Fenrir had gone with them and spent most of the day selling off the loot they had gathered so far in and around Pedestal.

Billi spend half the day still upstairs doing the god's only knew what and Arahel was in her normal form helping fix the stairs.

No one noticed then, that Dwerry had gone missing, despite all of them agreeing to watch her the day before. Fenrir and Durz were undone by avarice, Billi by lust and Arahel by naivety.

When they gathered that evening for dinner and compared notes they realised that Dwerry had been unaccounted for all day.

Fenrir went upstairs and checked her room and found her reading a book. He invited her down for dinner and to receive her split of the gold made from the selling of the loot.
This she did.

(G298 15/11/2106 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS12

(G298 15/11/2106  via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS12


DAY 274 (9th Nightal)(December)

Dorette left early in the morning. Fenrir was so exhausted that he slept through until the others woke him for breakfast.

It was agreed in the group that they should not waste too much time and get down to the docks and find a boat to get them to Rikaryon's Isle. This was the place, you may remember, that the mushrooms Es Sarch valued so much grew.

On the way they were attacked by a 'plaguelost', a strange ghostly being of green dusty light that was formed as a result of the plague burst that ruined half of the noble quarter. This one was in the form of a dark elf and though it was annoying it was not impossible to defeat. A few well place magical strikes were enough to send it to whatever hell was reserved for such creatures.

At the docks the hailed and talked to an unfriendly duergar that sold them a seaworthy boat for 25 gold. The island was visible from the docks, glowing with a pale blue light, so it was not a difficult task to get to its shore.

The island was not very large and it did not take long to penetrate the mushroom forest and get to the clearing in its middle. Just as Billi went to start gathering the mushrooms though he was attacked by an invisible foe.

Durz, throwing caution to the wind, leapt at whatever it was and began to grapple with it. Billi and Fenrir did their best to guess where the target was. When Billi was attacked again they realised there were two of them.

The attackers were tricky to fight and did some damage, mainly to Durz as he tangled with them hand to hand, but eventually they were defeated and became visible as they died. They were large mushroom type beings.

They gathered the mushrooms Sarch desired and rowed back to the docks. There were more duergar there now and one of them had heard of them, saying to the others, 'These are the ones that killed Scratchy the other day.'
They were low level members of the Assassin's Guild, one of the main powers in Pedestal.
Fenrir easily won them over and even tried to sell them back the boat, without success though.

On the way back to the inn they saw some derro traders. Their wares were mainly junk but Arahel noticed they had a very fine magical haversack.
They did not want to sell it, but did say that they would think about it if she had sex with both of them.
Wether in jest or earnest she replied, 'I could just kill you and take it.'
Durz also joined in the threats, but for reasons I find impossible to fathom he was generally not a very intimidating fellow.

One of the derro picked up the haversack and made a run for it. Durz chased it but the little chap jumped down a hole much too small for the half orc to follow down.
A duergar trader nearby told him off, 'We've all paid our dues to the Assassin's Guild you know! Watch your back mate!'

On his return to the others Billi told Durz to lean down so he could slap him about the back of the head.

They had found an elven chainshirt on a corpse on the island of mushrooms and Durz had an idea to have it reworked to fit him. With this in mind he and Billi left the others at the inn and went to the shop of Hrodyn the female half-orc armourer (they had been given her name by Brurhwol Coalhauler who they had met by chance at the Bazaar). Durz arranged to pick it up in a few days once she had finished with it.

The night in the inn was uneventful for them all. Fenrir noticed Dorette come inside, but she appeared to have business with others so he left her to it.

DAY 275 (10th Nightal)(December)

That night Durz was awoken by knocking on the door. Sleepily he opened it and was surprised to see his wife Berum.

She yawned and after the door was shut started undressing, 'I'm exhausted, budge up!' she said as she got into bed.

When they were all snuggled in she then whispered to her husband,
'I came with Dwerry. Before we came to the inn, she snuck off by herself at the Bazaar. I don't think she knows I am a tracker though because I easily followed her to a house where she met two people. I got a look at them, just for a second, but I'm sure it was Karhad and Erin Ja!'

Meanwhile Dwerry knocked on Fenrir's door to inform him of her arrival. The whole thing had been arranged by Cavu she explained. He had found them both and sent them on their way. They had travelled through the Earth Node and across the Ocean Bridge without incident and had just arrived in the city.

Fenrir smiled, nodded and went back to sleep.

(G297 08/11/2106 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) SS11

(G297 08/11/2106  via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) SS11

DAY 273 (8th Nightal)(December) cont ...

It was getting late in the evening in Pedestal. The city never knew daylight and the denizens of its streets kept no pattern of night and day, but Fenrir knew it was late at night on the surface.

It had been a long day. It had started with him breaking into a gnomish temple the night before, a trip through an earth node and then a period of being dominated by an aboleth.

By anyone's standards to had been a full day. Still, when the opportunity came for more adventure the young chap, to give him his due, was all for it.

Just as he was thinking of going to his room he noticed that a beautiful young drow lady had been watching him so he went over to introduce himself.

She told him that she was known as Dorette and that she was formally of House Dusklorn, but for reasons she did not go into she had recently had a falling out with the rest of the nobles.

After some discussion she revealed that she wished to retrieve a wand she described as  'sort of like a stick snapped off a white tree' and that she had a plan that would require someone of Fenrir's capabilities.

'If I distract then guards,' she said, 'And wake the house up and lead them a merry dance, then you get in through the cellar and search the place for the wand. Anything else you find feel free to keep. I only want the wand.'

Fenrir readily agreed and once they had arrived at one of the Dusklorn mansions in the Noble Quarter he entered through a cellar door that Dorette had a key to.

He was invisible and staying as high in the ceiling as he could. The first room he entered had two guards in it that the just about managed to sneak past. The next room had four drow in it as well as four coffins arranged around the walls. One was a wizard and another a tough  looking fighter. The other two were a servant and a guard. The fighter sensed Fenrir as he entered and shot a crossbow bolt at him.
It was a quick and brutal fight though, none of the drow were a match for the warlock and he slew them quickly with his eldritch blasts.

Unfortunately he did it noisily though and woke the vampire and three vampire spawn that  slumbered in the coffins. As he raised his hands to fight again one of the spawn was lucky enough to dominate Fenrir in the first few seconds of the combat.
'Well,' said the cheif vampire, 'He is your play thing now Ventrexia, take him through to the
blood chamber, I wish to continue my sleep.'

Things looked bad for Fenrir as the spawn sunk her fangs into his neck. The shock of feeling his blood being sucked from him though was just enough to break the spell and he quickly stepped back and blasted the undead being to a more permanent death.

In this room were also a duergar and drow prisoner, which he released. They thanked him and made a run for it.

With no more rooms to explore he went back to the first room and found that a fleeing guard had left a secret door open in one of the store rooms.

He followed the corridor through to a very large chamber that had a rift with a bridge over it. He saw a drider (a drow with the body of a spider) and decided to engage it.
He shot with eldritch blasts and it returned fire with lightning bolts. Another drider attacked him from further up that he had not seen and large spiders skuttled out of the rift although they were no danger to Fenrir as he was hovering a ceiling height.

This was a tough fight for the warlock and he had to use all of his healing. He killed one of them then fled the battle, going for an exit from the chamber on the other side of the rift. The drider that he left alive did not follow him.

The narrow corridor lead down some steps to two doors. He burst through the first one and discovered four hobgoblins and a large bugbear. He fled up the stairs a little but was not followed initially. A few minutes later a hobgoblin nervously came up the stairs and Fenrir killed it with a single blast.

When no more came, he went back down and slew all of them easily enough with his demon magic.

The other room contained a drow wizard how identified himself as Jurix and some more drow guards. Again they were no match for Fenrir who slew the wizard and let the others run off. He then looted the wizard's chambers of magic items which included the wand that Dorette had asked for.

A job well done, he exited the cellars the way he had arrived, went invisible and flew back to the Dripstone Inn.

Some time later Dorette turned up and he gave her the wand. Although getting tired he found it impossible to resist her beauty and turned on the charm.
She did not take too much persuading to join him in his room for a night of passion. I do not know much about the mating habits of drow but from what I understand based on this union, it is not an impossible undertaking. Most pleasurable in fact, but then, Fenrir would say that!

(G296 01/11/2106 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS10

(G296 01/11/2106  via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS10

An so, with Fenrir slung over Durz's shoulder they made their way towards the town of Pedestal. None of them had ever been in the Underdark before, and from this distance  the settlement looked almost pretty, its few green lights twinkling in the darkness of the Great Grotto and reflecting across the Sunless Sea.

Arahel felt along way from the world she was used to, there was no trees or flowers, just mushroom and strange twisted roots.

As they got closer to the town they saw that the wide, sloping base of a massive column was  built up with streets, walls, and hundreds of elaborate structures. A few glimmered with faint  illumination, and here and there, lanterns shed green light in small pools separated  by gulfs of shadow. Portions of the small city were completely collapsed and obviously  abandoned, though others showed clear signs of habitation and upkeep. A great wall surrounded the lowest edges of the city, and upon that edifice, hundreds of rusty spikes pointed toward the cavern's high ceiling. Rotting heads adorned scores of those spikes.

The city gates were no more than half an hours walk away and they arrived at the broken down and half barricaded portal to find it guarded by more fish faced people. These were kao-toa, nasty fish headed fellow that attacked immediately with their javelins and spears.

They were no match for Durz, Billi and Arahel (who turned into a bison). Three were killed quickly, one ran away and the other tried to surrender. Durz walked over and killed the thing with one sweep of his axe.

The streets of Pedestal were pitched black, except where the occasional green everburning lantern  still hung. The houses were either derelict and empty, or boarded up with the occasional chink  of light shining under a door or between shutters. This was not a welcoming place.

The continued on, taking turnings in the streets at random until they came to a crossroads that had a dried up fountain in its middle.
There was a dark dwarf stood at it and as they approached she said,
'What business have you here, sun warts?'

They approached to make conversation, but were then ambushed, crossbow bolts flying at them from all sides. Arahel, still a bison, went charging off to root around in an abandoned building and chase one of them away. Durz and Billi burst into a nearby building and attacked the dark dwarf rogues that lurked within.

Once more it was a one sided fight, these roguish low-life's were no match for seasoned fighters like Durz and Billi or a powerful druid like Arahel. One was killed and three were captured.
Throughout it all Fenrir lay on the road where Durz had put him.

Billi, a good natured gnome at heart, organise the bringing of the three captured rogues into one of the abandoned buildings. They waited a while, none of them were healers (not even Arahel!) and did not know the best way to deal with a dwarf that was close to death.

In the end, after a couple of hours of waiting, they used the pine cones that Cavu had given them to heal them. The first had not been tied up, so after answering a few questions about Pedestal he jumped out the window and cheesed it.

The other two gave much the same information and in the end they released them also. The first one had warned them about not messing with the Assassin's Guild, but if this was the best they had to offer none of them were that concerned.

The rogues had told them that the best place to go in Pedestal for directions and assistance (if you had the coin) was a place called the Dripstone Inn and inquire after the owner, a gentleman known as Es Sarch. The Inn was several streets away but the directions had been  correct.

Lights of every hue streamed from the windows of the sprawling three-story building. Conversing  voices, snippets of song, and the clatter of crockery spilled into the street. Odours of exotic  tobaccos, yeasty drink, and barbecued meat suffused the air. The wall facing the street was a  sculpted formation off flowstone, like dozens of drooping hands, apparently built up from  water falling somewhere high above. Here and there, stone faces leered out from the deposits.

As they entered conversations near the entryway wet quiet as many patrons in this common room  looked over the new arrivals, particularly Arahel who was still a bison. Few of the faces seemed  welcoming, and most that did looked hungry or insane. Dusky dwarves, wild-eyed derro, slim  drow, and stranger creatures sat or stood in the dozen or so lantern-lit niches scattered about the large, high-ceilinged chamber.

A central bar was stuffed with bottles, casks, pipes, vials, cigarillos, and less familiar paraphernalia. Cloaked in white linen, a humanoid figure stood behind the bar. Four servers moved about the room, similarly shrouded. A side door apparently opened into a busy kitchen that was alive with the sounds and scents of cooking. From a great stone chair across the common room,  a humanoid figure observed, wrapped in and hooded by a crimson robe that had a complex pattern  of eyes on it.

Despite being a bison, Arahel was left alone by the patrons of the inn. Bill led them over to where the cloaked figure sat and introduced himself.

It was Es Sarch of course and as a gesture of good will he used a Remove Curse spell to remove  the domination from Fenrir. He explained that they had had a run in with Imaug the Aboleth, a powerful  monster that attacked travellers around the Sunless Sea.

He seemed interested in finding out about their business and the exchange of information began. Billi remembered the note they had found on the corpses back at the Earth Node and handed it  to the strange patron of the inn.

Sarch told them it was written in yuan-ti and read it out,

Fadheela,
I have been delayed. My servants carry the king's bones and all the items of his champions that I could find. Merthuvial I cannot locate. l shall spend a bit more time trying to find it, but I am sending these on so our rendezvous is not compromised. Please give the Vanguard my regards.
l shall be along shortly.
-Xeron

He went on to tell them that he had heard of Fadheela and could find out what they needed to know in order to locate her. In return for doing this, he would set them two small tasks.

He explained:

"The first task involves Rikaryon's Isle, it is an immense island of fungus glimmers atop the Sullen Sea west of Pedestal, and I have been told that it releases dangerous digestive and luminescent spores into the air  around it. These spores create a dim blue light, which you must have seen as you came to Pedestal, but they  also slowly destroy fleshy creatures, including my undead agents. Those who live in this so-called Great  Grotto are more susceptible to these spores. Sending anyone from Pedestal to the isle to collect what I seek  would mean that creature's death. But for you surfacers, the threat should be minimal. Growing upon Rikaryon's Isle, as it is called, is a mushroom for which those here in Pedestal pay dearly. Its cap is a sovereign remedy against the plague that tumbled the ruling drow from their altars and thrones.
Journey down to the dock west of here on the Sullen Sea, find a seaworthy craft, a few are left, and head out to the isle. The mushrooms I seek are obvious, black with red spots in the shape of tiny hands. You can't miss them, though you might have to venture to the isle's centre to find them. Bring me at least ten.

The second task involves the a Dusklorn Matron. The disruption following Pedestal's fall lasts even unto  this hour, though I must admit the vacuum provided by the fleeing drow has been to my advantage. Consider, though, that the reason this City did and does not completely collapse into chaos is due to my efforts.  Nearly everyone here appreciates my influence. Bur gratitude doesn't last, and others seek to displace me."

Es Sarch's voice fell to a whisper. "The Assassins' Guild has decided to seek an alliance with House Dusklorn.  If my agents were to disrupt this burgeoning accord, I fear I'd do more to cement the relationship than diffuse it. I ask you to eliminate or drive off Elessarwa Nledoor, matron of the house and a psychotic to boot.
I have knowledge of a hidden route into her secret torture chamber, where she slinks away from her duties to the Dusklorn to apply her savage arts to hapless victims she takes from Pedestal's alleys. I have arranged matters so the Dusklorn will believe her death to be the work of the duplicitous Assassins' Guild. That will  be the end of that."

Finally, once they agreements had all been made, the drank and ate at the inn. It was Underdark food, but perfectly edible. Billi tried the cockroaches in cold green sauce. Arahel stuck to the milk, although the milk of what, she wasn't too sure.

Billi talked to some svirfneblin that sat in one of the dark recesses (svirfneblin are Underdark gnomes dear reader) and learned a little of the city. It had once been a drow settlement, but after an event known as the Plagueburst, they were all but wiped out. Now the city was riven by inter faction fighting between the gangs and guilds.

Fenrir also tried his hand at talking to the locals, with mixed results. He tried some dark elves (drow) and brought over a round of drunks,
'We want nothing from you,' said one of them.
'Oh I didn't realise I was talking to lady elves,' said Fenrir cheekily.
The elves got up to leave and one of them whispered in his ear, 'You've not heard the last of this, human.'

Next he tried a table of small blue skinned fellows. He did not know he was dealing with derro, a species of sub-dwarf that are insane to the last man (and woman). They were happy enough to gibber away to him though,
they were part of a gang known as 'The Inheritors' and counted derro, grimlocks and kao-toa amongst their ranks.
The said they would soon control the whole city and had just recently taken control of the south gate.
Fenrir smiled and nodded. He hadn't been awake at the time, but he was aware of what had happened that day at the gate. Eventually he bid them farewell and joined the others.

They also arranged rooms for the night, they would spent the night at the Dripstone Inn.

Angels of Scada

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(G295 25/10/2106 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS9

(G295 25/10/2106  via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS9

DAY 273 (8th Nightal)(December) cont ...

At the entrance of the Barrow of the Forgotten King Cavu bid the brave adventurers farewell, explaining that he would stay behind and tidy up all the loose ends. Primarily he would attempt to fool the Vanguard that nothing had happened and make sure that Kingsholm remained unmolested by the 'big players'.

He also said, 'Just to refresh your memories, agents of the Vanguard of Sertrous raided this tomb two years ago and took the bones of the Forgotten King. They were led by a yuan-ti called Xeron. A band of adventurers tried and failed to stop this, but at least they did stop them from stealing some of (not all) of the magic items in the barrow.
There is an ancient prophecy associated with the bones and the Vanguard seek to either prevent it or pervert it to their own wicked ends! Follow the trail, old as it is, find the bones and put a stop to them.'

And with that, into the Barrow they went. Billi lead the way, once they had worked out their light sources. After the initial empty barrow chambers they found a tunnel that lead them down further into the earth.

Finally the roughly hewn tunnel widened into a terrace, about 20 feet wide and long, with a ceiling that rose to 8 or 10 feet. The porch had no far wall, instead opening into a great, echoing hollow.
This close to the cavernous rift, the air seemed charged as if a great storm was imminent. The walls of the opening ascended and descended, moving closer together as they rose into darkness, forming a wider space as they went downward. Three humanoid figures lay unmoving near where the terrace dropped off into the hollow.

Two of the figures were statues, on a wide eyed female goblin and the other a young man dressed in leather armour. The corpse was of hafling who had once worn robes and who still clutched a message in his hands. Durz took it and showed it to the others but it was in a language that none of them could read.

They descended into the depths of the cave by Fenrir carrying them down one by one.

The hollow's smooth floor was roughly circular. The air was alive with energy and thick with the smell of developing lightning. Small holes punctured the walls near the floor, opening into a dozen small tunnels that ran off into lightlessness. Dull dust was thickly heaped around the edges, thickest near the holes.

Billi was just about big enough to walk down one of the small tunnels at a crouch and he went to take a look. He disturbed a huge swarm of cockroaches though that heaved out into the chamber and quickly covered the floor. Larger ones arrived, then some truly giant ones. Arahel turned into a Will-o-the-wisp and began zapping at them. Fenrir took to the air and went up to the ledge to start making some bombs out of oil and jars. The others fought them off as best they could.

Despite the amount of cockroaches and the unpleasantness of it all, the large ones were easy for such veteran warriors to dispatch. The swarms of smaller ones were much harder to get rid of.
Durz's axe did nothing, as did Billi's arrows and Arahel's zaps.
Fenrir arrived though, with his bombs, and incinerated enough of them to discourage the rest and the last of the cockroaches skuttled back down their burrows.

Once the fighting was all over Billi had another rummage around in the tunnels and found the old corpse of a drow. As well as some gold, he also found a jade statue of a spider in its possession.

Arahel had noticed something about this place, this Earth Node, it spoke to her on a magical, primal level. Billi felt it too, but since he always floated an inch from the ground it was less intense.
She felt her magic power strengthening, but not only that, somehow she knew that if she waited to attune to the place she could activate the nodes power and transport them magically to another node linked to this one.

They discussed the matter and all agreed that even if they were teleported hundreds of miles away this was only way forward for the quest.

They rested for a while and as it approached noon outside Arahel announced she was ready, gathered her power and activated the node.

The next thing they knew they were in a large rock crater with a rim that obscured everything from view. It was dark too, the only light source was their own.

Fenrir flew up, and the others followed, beyond the crater opened a wide Underdark vista lit by pale light shining through enormous columns that marched into the misted distance.
The benighted waters of a sunless sea meet a pebble-strewn shore a half mile or so away.
Across that dark water, a city glimmered around the base of the nearest column.
A cobbled road, which emerged from an opening in the dimly glowing cavern wall about a quarter mile to the left, passed within 10 feet of the crater and continued on to the right.
It finally connected to a narrow but elongated stone formation that spanned the shadowy sea, reaching more than a mile to the city.
Just across the road from the crater, a strange covered wagon sat. A broad and dusky dwarf, bald but with a while beard, stood in front of it, smiling. He wore a thick, leather coat and gloves that have gold piping. Two large grey lizards stood idly nearby.
The grinning dwarf called out in a deep baritone in perfect Common, "Node travellers, and unless I miss my mark, surfacers too! I am Bruthwol Coalhauler, a humble merchant! Perhaps you would like to see my wares?"

They approached the dwarf in a friendly fashion and stocked up on supplies. He then told them a little about the area, that they were in a giant cavern known as the Great Grotto and that yonder was an underground lake known as the Sunless Sea. The city they saw in the distance was called Pedestal and was a den of scum and villainy.

Thanking Bruthwol, they headed towards the city, crossing the sea on a span of rough hewn stones that hugged the southern wall of the cavern.

On a section of bridge that was half fallen into the water they were attacked by four aquatic humanoids. None of the party knew it, but these creatures were skum, powerful aquatic humanoids, the favourite slaves of aboleths.
And indeed, as Durz engaged the first of the skum on the bridge a large tentacled creature immerged out of the ink black water and started to try and dominate them with its sinister mental powers.

Arahel turned into a beholder and moved to attack. Fenrir started blasting at the aboleth and Billi peppered it with psychically enhanced arrows. The creature did not seem all that concerned.
Durz took on the skum and chopped them down one by one. The aboleth reached out with its mind and after attempting Durz and Arahel managed to snare Fenrir.

The warlock then lifted off and flew across the water to join his new master. By now Billi and Arahel had worked out they had just been attacking a projected image but it was too late, the creature was leaving, having never broken the surface of the water.

Luckily for Fenrir, Arahel quickly opened her middle eye and he was hit by the anti-magic effect.
He plopped into the water. He was now drowning, not being a strong swimmer, but at least he was free of the effects of the aboleth's domination.

Coughing and spluttering he eventually managed to swim to shore and haul himself out of the water.

'I can't just keep my big eye on you all the time,' said Arahel.
'Maybe the domination is now broken...' mused Bill.
'There is only one way to find out,' rumbled Durz.
'No, wait a minute!' interrupted Fenrir but it was too late, Arahel closed her eye and he
took off once again. Arahel opened her eye and Fenrir took his second dip of the day.
'Right,' he groaned dejectedly as pulled himself out of the sea again, 'Just tie me
up and take me to the city and find a magic user. Better gag me as well ...'

There followed some banter about using Durz's loincloth as the gag. It was base manly talk that Arahel didn't understand.
'It's just the right size, we have no better bits of material!' laughed Billi.
'No thank you,' replied the warlock firmly. 
'Do you want front or back of the cloth in your mouth?' chortled Durz.
Fenrir tried not to vomit in his mouth at the last remark and then with resignation said, 'Oh, just knock me out then!'
'Okey dokey mate,' grunted Durz and smacked him in the head with the pommel of his axe.
Fenrir went down like a felled tree.

(G294 19/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS8

(G294 19/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS8

DAY 272 (7th Nightal)(December) cont ...

They were taken to a the Western Watchtower at the weset town gates. It was a not a big building but the guards managed to find each of them a cell.

Mia started by talking to Billi as he seemed the most interesting, having admitted while he was being arrested to being under the influence of a devil.

When Billi mentioned the Vanguard of Sertrous she blanched, this was a name she'd hoped never to hear again in Kingsholm and having heard it now she sent for 'the expert'.

Billi didn't know it of course, but the young cleric of Gond that arrived was Freddorick, one of the adventurers that had initially breached the Forgotten King's Barrow.

When the story began to come to light she stormed down to Fenrir's cell to demand the truth, but he was so silver tongued she came to think that Billi was lying or the gnome was simply mad.

Just then though, the interrogations stopped when a messenger arrived and she was called away.

'Just keep them quiet Sergeant!' she growled. 'And don't let them talk between the cells.'

About half an hour later Cavu, with a big supply of Gaseous Form potions went from cell to cell giving each of them a potion and saying,
'Take this and escape! Meet me inside the Cemetery gates, by the compost heaps! If you get lost follow the smell of the rotten flowers.'

Durz pretended to be a ghost and scared off a guard long enough to gather his gear and simply walk out the watchtower. He noticed that there was a big commotion going on in the poor quarter, something not far away from a riot and figured this was a diversion that Cavu  had somehow set. He got to the cemetery gates without incident.
Fenrir arrived by wing and Arahel by a hundred little legs in centipede form.
They were short one gnome though.

'Where is Billi?' hissed Cavu to the others.
'Er.. he may be meeting that devil slut of his,' grumbled Durz.

DAY 273 (8th Nightal)(December)

Fenrir was the first to arrive at the gate, he flew invisibly to the top of a tower and waited to see what would happen. The others walked up to the gate from outside and Arahel, still a centipede and scuttled in unseen by the guards.

Billi was waiting in the shadows and at the appointed time he was approached by an  old man. The man talked for a while, then revealed himself, or rather herself to be Erin and made to take the gnome away.

Arahel the centipede turned into Arahel the Beholder and once more she did her best to catch or kill the erinyes. Despite the efforts of Arahel, Billi and Fenrir though she flew beyond the range of the anti-magic field and teleported away.

When they returned to the Cemetery, Cavu gathered them close and said,
'Good, we are all ready to go then. Listen, Gertrude, well she speaks in riddles most of the time, but now she is clearly telling me that if it cannot be done quietly then at least do it quickly! It has to be done tonight. If we don't get out of here tonight all hell will break  loose and I mean that literally! The big players in this tend to drop dragons on each other  when they get excited. We could easily end up with Kingsholm in ruins! If the Vanguard work out we are after the Forgotten King's Barrow then they will drop and army of devils on the place.'

So, duly warned they go on with the task of grave robbing.

First, they arrived at the graves of Bokk, Wulfgar and Banjax. You may or may not remember who  these people were, but just as a reminder then.

Two years ago a band of adventurers came to Kingsholm, through a yuan-ti portal from Waterdeep.
They were met by the locals who had trouble in the graveyard and more or less defeated the evil yuan-ti that were breaking into the Barrow of the Forgotten king there.

Some of them died in the adventure though and they were buried here by the others. The Barrow was sealed magically by the ghost of the Forgotten King and the Sword and Ephod that would be required to open it again was buried in the graveyard. Now, no one knew exactly where they were buried, but each of the adventurers took a single clue to its location, for instance
'East Section' and 'Upper Yard'. For reasons that are not completely clear the three dead adventurers were each buried with a clue also.

Now Fenrir, Arahel, Durz and Billi found themselves, hired by Cavu the Cursed to gather the last of the clues and open the Barrow once more.
'Start with Bokk,' said Cavu, glancing around in the dark to check they were not being watched,
'Then Wulfgar. Leave Banjax to last. Make haste.'

They started by Arahel turning into a badger and digging down into Bokk's grave. She scratched through the wood and rooted around in the coffin. She soon sniffed out a piece of velum scroll that the corpse had laid on its chest and brought it up to the others.

'Row Twenty Six', said Cavu as he read it. He then folded it up and put it in his pocket.

Next was the grave of Wulfgar and Fenrir and Durz began digging with shovels that Fenrir had gone back to the tannery to get. Durz was a powerful digger and it did not take long. They opened the coffin and saw that the corpse of the dwarf also had a piece of scroll laid on it.
Durz handed it up to Cavu who read,
'Column Thirty-five.'
This too he folded up and put in his pocket.

Finally, all together, they dug up the grave of Banjax. It did not take long, but when the coffin was opened it was found to be empty. Cavu looked down at the exhumation and rubbed his chin, 'That's ok. We are done now.'

Durz shrugged and hoisted himself out of the grave then helped out Fenrir.

Cavu took six pieces of velum from his pocket and read them in the darkness.
'OK, North Range. East Section. Upper Yard. Row Twenty Six. Column Thirty-five. Five Stones.
And finally ... ah ... Eight Stones East. Let's go.'

The final grave, where the clues lead to, was marked simply with 'Unknown' and once more they dug up the coffin. To Cavu's utter amazement and horror though it was empty.
'The Sword? The Ephod?' What is going on? How can this be?'
'Found this,' said Durz and handed up a ring.
Cavu and Fenrir leaned in to take a look. It was a tiny ring, as if for a child. It had a symbol of a scroll on it that Fenrir felt was familiar.

It was Billi that worked out most of it though. The ring had a symbol of Ogma on it and was just the right size for a gnome. Cavu knew that their was a small temple to Ogma back in
Kingsholm and that the cleric there was a gnome and also known to be light fingered.
In all likelihood he had somehow got hold of the sword and the ephod.

Arahel, Billi and Durz stood and talked for a long while, on how best to get the items from the cleric. They took so long that Fenrir sidled off, flew back to town, located and broke into the temple (which was just a converted town house) before they had made a move.

As Fenrir was skulking around inside Arahel turned up as a bird, landed, then turned into a gnome and banged on the door.

The little fellow in his night gown and cap who answered the door was not interested in taking in random strangers, even if they were gnomes,
'It's the middle of the night! Go away!' he said as he slammed the door.
Arahel knocked again and showed the ring to the cleric. He may have known what it was but Arahel did not pick up on his reaction as he slammed the door once more.

She knocked a third time and turned into a tree. The gnome opened the door again and grew even more puzzled and concerned. Five minutes later he had his coat and boots on and was taking off into the night.

After he had gone, Fenrir skulked downstairs and checked out the main altar room. He detected magic coming from under the altar but before he could get at it he had to shoo off the little old lady gnome who was dotting about, an old servant of the cleric who was at a loss as to what was going on.
'Your honour?' she called, wondering where her master was, 'Where did he go? I'm all a flutter!'

Fenrir chanced his arm and from the altar, and still invisible he boomed,
'This is the voice of Ogma! Good and loyal old gnome, there is godly business transpiring this
night! Go to your room!'
She squeaked in awe and fear and fled to her room.

It was all too easy then for Fenrir (terror of old ladies everywhere) to move aside the  altar, retrieve the sword and ephod and fly back out the window he had broken in through.

Arahel, none the wiser, felt a waft of wind as the warlock swooped past, still invisible.
Spying the broken upstairs window she put everything together and realised her boreal services were no longer required. Only an alley cat noticed the tree eventually turn into a bird and  flap off.

With the Sword Merthuvial and the Ephod of Authority finally in his possession Cavu, with great reverence, took them to the entrance of the barrow and stood before the large iron bound stone doors.

He donned the ephod and held the sword aloft. There was a grinding of stone then a gasp of air as the doors opened and the Barrow was unsealed. The sword gave off a red glow, enough to light up the entrance and the upper barrow chamber.
'Finally,' whispered Cavu. 'You've no idea how much effort it took to get even this far.
And for you my friends, the adventure is just beginning...'

(G293 11/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS7

(G293 11/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS7

DAY 271 (6th Nightal)(December) cont ...

To continue then, the fellows from Waterdeep were comfortably ensconced in the Coronet and Cabbage. Berum, feeling rather out of place in a human tavern, pulled the hood of her cloak up and kept to the shadows.

Arahel was in the form of a dwarf, but let the imagine down by just ordering milk to drink from the bar.

Fenrir wandered over and talked to the owner, Ian Turband. Part of the plan that Cavu had concocted was that a house or similar would be found to use as a discrete base of operations. Fenrir did not really do discretion, but tried his best and gained from Ian the name of one Adrenin Boor, who apparently owned an old school house in the east side of town that was not being used.

Fenrir sauntered down to Adrenin's address and was met by a footman at the door. Adrenin was not in, but his son Terek was who explained his father was expected home the next day. Fenrir left his name and said he was at the Cabbage and if he wanted to strike a deal on the School House Adrenin would find him there.

He then went to the Stinky Ferret tavern, a tavern in the northern poor quarter of the town. Billi was also there, as they had both heard there was a disused tannery across from the tavern that may be for sale.

The proprietor of the Ferret was a larger than life fellow called Captain Varkin Shemlock who styled himself as a retired nautical cove. Fenrir talked to him, while Billi approached a quiet group of gnomes.

When they left they both had the name of Grannie Umpie as the lady that owned the deeds to the tannery. Fenrir also later discovered his pocket had been picked and he was lighter by twenty gold or so.

Fenrir went down the hospice where old Grannie Umpie resided and was so charming and urbane that she gave him the deeds to the tannery without asking for a penny.
'Oh young man! Take the deeds, I've no need of them!' she declared.

Meanwhile, Durz was back at the Cabbage making sweet orcish love to his new bride. So much so that the neighbours started to complain to the landlord and he sent one of his men up to request a little more decorum.

Durz answered the door naked, 'WOT?'
The person that had knocked was a fellow half orc who did not give his name but said,
'The boss says you've to make less noise. Understood? Less noise!'
Durz grumbled and slammed the door, but was a little less raucous from then on.

Later, around seven o'clock, they all met and went up to find Cavu in his room. It was the best one in the inn with a separate living area and bedroom. For his own reasons he was eating his meals here.

Once they were all in he said,
'Well, since you lost all the money I gave you, and your cleric to boot, things are going to go a bit differently. I'll have to hide out in the inn while you chaps do the things that need doing. Here is the plan then. Firstly, I have written down all the clues for where to find the graves you'll need for the final clues. Once you have the last clues, this will give the location where the sword and ephod has been put.
Dig them up and  bring them to me.
How you do this is up to you, but try not to draw attention to yourselves!
After that, we will start thinking about getting past the Forgotten King and down the rabbit hole that the Vanguard of Sertrous disappeared down two years ago! I'll deal with your cleric situation, in the mean time, here are some things that will help alleviate his loss'

He handed each of them a magical healing pine cone, that could be used to heal wounds once a day.

He carried on, 'What else do I need to tell you? Ah yes, there are agents of the Vanguard in Kingsholm so try and avoid them as much as possible. Keep a low profile. Also, Dwerry has just arrived, but she caught a cold out in the snow and is warming up in her room.'

An hour later Fenrir and Arahel flew out to the Kingsholm graveyard, a massive complex of graves, tombs and crypts, far larger than the town of Kingsholm required and of ancient origins.

Here they soon found the three graves, of Bokk, Wulfgar and Banjax, who were all buried together in a quiet section. All was as they expected. They noticed a single light, some distance away from a guards hut or somesuch but other than that the place was deserted.

Billi and Durz, good companions and wanting to help, but not always thinking things through went down to the tannery to check it out. It was dirty and full of junk. They borrowed some brooms from the Ferret and started to tidy it up.

Eventually they all met up back at the Cabbage. Billi was so taken with the idea of the hospice that looked after the old people in Kingsholm that he asked Iain about it. Since Iain was on the town council Billi gave him 200 gold (the gold he had received from Jolly Underdown you may recall) which Iain informed him would do a lot of good.

That night Fenrir talked to Iain some more about the old school house and revealed to Iain that he had the deeds to the Tannery.

Durz made yet more noise with his new bride but did calm it down a bit when he was told he would be asked to leave unless he was more considerate for the other guests.

DAY 272 (7th Nightal)(December)

That morning they had breakfast, then Billi went to the general store to get more equipment for the cleaning and repair of the tannery.

Both he and Durz then went there to fix it up. They brought Berum with them. Arahel turned into a donkey to help out (although in truth there was not much for a donkey to do) and mischievously Billi went to the store again and returned with a harness to put on her.
You can imagine that the sight of a gnome chasing a talking donkey with a head collar drew a crowd and it did. People from the Stinky Ferret and nearby houses all came to see what was going on at the tannery. So much for maintaining a low profile!

Back at the tavern Fenrir waited for and met Adrenin Boor and began preliminary talks on renting out the old school house. Having two hide-outs is not a bad idea, but it was a pointless exercise as will be proved later.

Dwerry meanwhile was recovering from a chill she had picked up while out on the Thar and after he'd finished with Boor Fenrir spent the rest of the morning tending to her and turning on the charm. This, he had been instructed to do by Cavu. It was all part of a plan cooked up by them both.

The workers at the tannery returned to the Cabbage for lunch, then went back and worked until nightfall.

That evening, Billi and Durz sat drinking and talking in the common room. Billi noticed a young gnome wench giving him the eye and went over to talk to her.

'Hello, what's your name? My name is Hilda,' she said.
They flirted a bit, but Billi was still in love with Erin. When he described her to Hilda she replied,
'Perhaps I can arrange for you to meet her...If you follow me outside...'
Billi willingly followed her, but was held back by Durz who sensed something amiss.

Needless to say, it all kicked off. Hilda turned into Erin, for of course it was her and made to fly off with Billi once again. The others reacted too quickly though. Durz held her up long enough for Arahel and Fenrir to come down from their rooms.
Arahel, not familiar with the word 'overkill' turned into a Beholder at the foot of the stairs and caused everyone in the common room to flee for the doors and jump out the windows.

Arahel used one of her eyeballs to cast Finger of Death and came close to killing Erin in one hit, but the erinyes survived and made a run for it. Before teleporting out she whispered in Billi's ear 'Meet me at the east gate at midnight.'

[A side note: As a druid I am, of course, very impressed at Arahel's ability to turn into such a powerful aberration. They don't call them aberrations for nothing though, these beasts go against nature and on hearing this story my first reaction was 'she is playing with powers beyond her ken'. I think though, as will be learned later, I was misjudging her.]

Arahel, opening her central eye hit the area before her in an anti-magic field. It came too late to stop Erin, but did make a seemingly innocent bar patron turn into Karhad.

He tried to flee into the street but was caught and beaten up by Durz, Billi and Fenrir. While the eye was on him Billi was free of the charm and Karhad could not fly off.

Before they could question Karhad though, the Mia Desarna and the town guard arrived arrested the lot of them.

(G292 04/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS6

(G292 04/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS6

DAY 267 (2nd Nightal)(December) cont ...

Arahel as you may not be aware was not only a druid of moderate power but also an even rarer thing, in that she was a Master of Many Forms.

These types of druids specialise in shape shifting and as such there was very little that she could not turn into. How one so young came to have such power I have no idea.

As a result of this though, she could change into a Horrid Umberhulk and in this form she attack the leading edge of the attacking bears. An Umberhulk is a sort of huge insectoid horror if you are unfamiliar with the beast.

She killed one, then another, but was then swamped. Although she had the power of an Umberhulk she lacked its endurance and so she retreated, changed into a giant owl and fled the combat.

Durz, who was near Arahel when she changed, stuck his arms up and she swooped down and grabbed him. Together the flew south away from the ogres and bears, abandoning Veddic to his fate.

Veddic had already gained a lot of ground on the bears, but in the sparse snowy terrain of the Thar there was nowhere to hide.

Dwerry stayed with him, but when they were about to be overrun she vanished to be replaced by two small snakes that slithered into a snow bank.

Veddic used every spell in his arsenal to try and keep the bears at bay and summoned a  cascade of rocks and fire, a mini volcano, with an Earth Reaver spell that killed two more bears and injured many more of them.

He cast a Briar Web spell to delay them further, but the end was inevitable, with Arahel and Durz long gone and Billi away in the snow he had nowhere to hide and no means of escape.

Exhausted he was eventually surrounded by the maddened and bloody bears.

Billi, who watched from a great distance and saw the poor cleric's end but could do nothing to help. Though they were mere specks from where he stood he saw the bears crowd in and savage Veddic as the ogres arrived to finish off the hunt.

Meanwhile, inexplicably, Arahel and Durz made camp in the snow, not much more than a mile away.
It was not even noon.

Billi did his best to try and find them, he was a good tracker, but since his companions had been flying and the snow had started coming on again his task was a difficult one.

Eventually though he found them and joined their camp. Together they made a shelter from the snow, tunnelling into a snowbank in a sheltered gully.

At around three o'clock though they discovered the bears had not been sitting idle, but were still on the hunt and one approached the camp, sniffing and snuffling.
When it sensed them, it gave a mighty roar and they heard a hunting horn answer in the distance.

They rushed up and killed the bear, Durz being injured in the fight, but it was too late to remain undetected and they fled west, pursued by the sound of horns echoing through the falling snow.

About an hour later they found a cave entrance and sheltered there. More by luck (the snow came on much more heavily as the day passed) than judgement they remained undetected by the bears for the rest of the day.

DAY 268 (3rd Nightal)(December)

At dawn they exited the cave and headed west. It was slow going through the snow so Arahel shape shifted into a giant owl and carried Durz and Billi on her back.

It was tiring on her wings though so they took a break at noon. By evening they spotted another camp in the distance to the north, a haze of black smoke on the white horizon.
They landed and approached to take a look.

It consisted of about twenty yurts and the people were human sized but rough in appearance. They also had a great many dogs or wolves with them.

Billi snuck forward, undetected and saw that these people were orcs and he estimated there were about a hundred of them. He also noticed that the adults all had marks of daggers on their  faces.

When a dog sniffed the air and started to come towards him, he returned to the others.

He told the others what he had seen and after a little discussion, Durz picked up his axe and headed  straight to the camp by himself, thinking by now that this was their last hope of getting out of the Thar alive.

He was spotted and surrounded as he approached the camp and was met by a large aggressive looking orc who introduced himself as Narbat the Red.

When Durz asked for directions to Kingsholm they all laughed at him.
'You are lost. And you stink of human, half breed!' said the leader, but he was still impressed by  Durz's size and weaponry.

They eyed each other up for a few more moments and when neither made a move to kill the other the haggling began.

In the end Durz found himself losing a bottle of expensive wine and one thousand gold's worth of gems, but gaining an orcish wife who would, apparently, guide him to Kingsholm!

The ceremony lasted no more than an hour and Durz was welcomed to the family, more or less. The priest was orcish, and of Kossuth. These orcs were part of the Burning Daggers, the most powerful orcish clan of the Thar and loyal worshippers of the Fire God. It was just bad luck for Veddic (a cleric of Kossuth) that the first camp they had stumbled into had not been orcs but ogres.

His new wife was a fine orcish female called Berum. A little too old for the average orc to take as a wife though and the warchief had been anxious to marry her off before she got too old.
She was a tracker by profession and had lived in the Thar all her life so taking Durz and his companions to Kingsholm would be trivially easy for her.

She spoke common as well as orcish so could answer for herself when Durz brought her back. They were astounded at the outcome, but pleased that they now knew where they were going!


DAY 269 (4th Nightal)(December)

Since there were now too many of them to carry on the back of an owl they spend the day walking towards Kingsholm.

Berum lead them to the south east.

Berum spent a lot of the day berating Durz for being incompetent and not knowing how to find is way around the wilderness. She soon shut her mouth though when he gave her a  black eye.

That little episode didn't stop her crawling into his bedroll that night though, and ever night there after. Such is the way of orcish love.


DAY 270 (5th Nightal)(December)

Another day of travel for the companions towards Kingsholm.

It was still snowing so it was slow going.


DAY 271 (6th Nightal)(December)

They arrived in Kingsholm by mid afternoon.

They were met at the gates by Fenrir who had arrived the day before with Cavu
(Having come directly from The Devil's Brew Tavern with no mucking about).

Fenrir saw Arahel had changed into a dwarf and recognised Durz and Billi. He wondered for a moment if Veddic had been turned into a female orc, but he was later to learn of the cleric's end.

The gate guards had their bows drawn at the sight of a group containing orcs, but Fenrir, the master of charm, soon had them all friends and with a wink and a smile to Mia Desarna the captain of the guard he lead the party into the town, explaining that they were all part of a expedition setting up a new trade route from .. 'oh you know, from here to there!'

Later in the Coronet and Cabbage (a local tavern) he met Mia again and turned on even more of his charm. Alas, Fenrir, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, had given his really name to the people of Kingsholm and it was not long before  he was connected to Waterdeep and all his misadventures there.

Still, for that night at least, he was there to 'set the record straight' and paint himself in the best possible light. I presume he brushed aside all the murders and concentrated on incidents such as when he saved all of Waterdeep by using his wit, charm and guile to convince Obuld Many-Arrows and his northern horde to 'take the gold and bugger off'.

You could always count on Fenrir to work a room.

(G291 20/09/2016 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS5

(G291 20/09/2016 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS5


DAY 266 (1st Nightal)(December) cont ...

An observer out on the moor that morning would have seen, then, the most unusual sight of a naked gnome being carefully carried by a succubus flying high out across the snow.

If Billi was cold, he did not feel it, for he was warmed by the passions of desire that he felt for his new lover. Erin Ja too, looked fondly down on her new beau and licked her lips.

Perhaps the others suspected that Erin's desire for Billi was more culinary than carnal, because they gave chase immediately.

Arahel turned into a giant owl and swooped out of the bedroom window while Veddic made to leave the room and rush down the stairs. Durz simply leapt out into the snow and began trudging through it as fast as he could. The half-orc was not especially gifted at making friends and did not want to lose this one.

On the stairs Veddic was stopped by Karhad who was wondering what was going on. 'Your misses is a succubus, cant stop!'  explained Veddic as he tried to go past.

Arahel made good progress and it did not take her long to swoop down onto the evil temptress and her goosebumped cargo. As she dove she skilfully turned into a cloaker and engulfed both of them in her rubbery flaps.

All three of them then began to plummet to the ground, but by some magical means Erin removed herself from the situation and was gone, leaving Arahel to grab at the gnome as best she could and land them both in the snow safe and sound.

Durz arrived and gave him his clothes then dragged the sulking gnome back to the inn. Billi had the psionic ability to float above the snow so he was not slowed  down by it.

Billi then cried for an hour, still under the charm spell of Erin, wondering where his true love had gone. Veddic realised that this spell could last anything up to ten days so tried a Dispel Magic spell on the gnome. It failed.

Arahel still flew about outside, not wishing to 'waste' her Wild Shape, for a few hours and Billi, still sulking, went out and threw snowballs at her. She just moaned at him, but no harm was done by either to the other.

Veddic was getting more and more concerned about everything to do with this inn and sat down to question Karhad. He learned that he had been married to Erin Ja for a year.
Veddic had a hard time believing that Karhad had not known his wife was a demon,
'Are you impaired?'
'No!' cried the young man. 'I am as astounded as you! I'm devastated!'

They went on to discuss the surrounding lands and he mentioned that he had heard  that there were tribes of orcs to the north, but didn't know much more than that.
He then called over a hunter called Rinso who informed them that Kingsholm was ten miles to the north east.

It was about an hour before noon, so after more conversation they had some lunch. Billi refused to eat and went to cry into his pillow upstairs.

Durz, after a big meal, grew irritated at his friend going so soft over a girl and went upstairs to bring Billi down. The door was locked so Durz used his
'Orcish Master Key' (i.e. his axe!) and opened it.
Billi was there with his crossbow ready, but in the end Durz persuaded the gnome to come down for a drink.

Billi got the strongest drink he could find (something called 'Barbed Vile Delight') drank half a mug of it and passed out under the table, frothing at the mouth but smiling.

Arahel grew bored of flapping about above the inn and came in for some lunch.
She stayed in her Cloaker form and scared all the inn's patrons upstairs.

Veddic, the only one vaguely focused on the mission, went upstairs to look for Rinso to hire him as a guide but could not find the fellow anywhere. Durz helped by knocked down the doors of any locked rooms they found.
Karhad asked why they were wrecking all his doors but Veddic gave him enough gold
to keep him happy.

Veddic came back down and told Arahel to make herself useful and go see if she could find Rinso. When she returned she reported that she had not seen him, or indeed any tracks at all leading from the inn. Rinso, she was sure, had not left.

They both agreed that something very strange was going on.

Next Veddic went from room to room, searching all the wardrobes, beds and cases. He gave silver coins to the inn's patrons to stifle their complaints. It was odd, he thought, that the people here seemed to have no more clothes than those that they had on.

Finally he gave up trying to figure out what was going on and gathered up the others to leave.

With Arahel flying above them in owl form they headed north east for what they estimated to be ten miles. It was slow going in the snow, even though he had cast a magic snow shoe spell on everyone.

It was now night time, about eight o'clock, so they lit a fire and made camp.

It was a bitterly cold night and those that did not have magic bedrolls suffered greatly.

DAY 267 (2nd Nightal)(December)

In the morning they broke camp, having had no trouble in the night, and had a look around. Arahel flew up in the sky and scouted about. To the north she saw a campsite in the distance and taking a slightly closer look saw about ten yurts (large hide covered tents) with many large humanoids going about their business.

She flew back and reported this to Veddic who decided it was worth taking a look, reasoning they could run away on their magic snow shoes if need be.

It took a couple of hours to get within visual distance of the camp, but as they approached they heard the call of hunting horns and a group of the humanoids came towards them at the run, with bears ahead of them.

(Just to add dear reader, these were the famous Thar Hunting Bears that have white fur in the winter, but shed it in the summer for a grey or brown pelt.
They are fearsome, but tamable to a certain extent. Not that they knew this yet.)

They ran for it, but after ten minutes it was clear that the hunters were gaining on them. Billi dove into a snow bank, unnoticed by the others and four bears stopped and sniffed him out when they arrived.

Arahel and Durz, suddenly realising their companion was in danger turned to go help, not realising that the cunning fellow had a plan.

Using more of his psionic powers he teleported himself into another snow bank 500 feet away and safe from harm.

The others though, were not in such a good position...

(G290 13/09/2016 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS4

(G290 13/09/2016 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS4

DAY 265 (Feast of the Moon)(December) cont ...

Having defeated the strange statue creature, Veddic, Billi, Arahel and Durz then proceeded to loot the chests and gathered together a good quantity of coins and gemstones.

After such an exhausting fight they yet again settled down to recover for the rest of the day.

To pass the time Billi told stories of his mercenary days to entertain people. Durz did likewise but his tales mainly consisted of hitting people over the head and so fell a little flat.

Their chatting drew the interest of a denizen of the dungeon however who opened the door to the east and tried to make conversation. It was a dwarf like creature with a sinister look, but who was being friendly enough. Durz made to go after him, but the dwarf just closed and locked the  door and tried again later.

After some talk they learned his name was Zallater and he was the mason of the dungeon. He asked, 'How are you finding it so far? I'm sorry I had no budget to install any traps. The client ran out of money.'
'Who was the client?' asked Veddic, 'Was it Freddorick?'
He meant the cleric they had went to see in Hommlet in the summer when they had killed the two Bullettes.
Zallater would not be drawn on that subject though.

(Also, just to add some additional info dear reader. There was hardly any knowledge of anything at all in these brave companions. They were not scholars. However, I deduce from the description that Zallater was a half-fiend durzagon, the offspring of a deep dwarf and a devil, the same kin as Cavefoot, who was now working as an agent of the Thunderstaff family.)

Zallater said he had a pack of cards and offered to pass the time in a small game of skill with them and they agreed. He pulled up a chest to the table and sat down.

Money went back and forth as they played for a couple of hours. Then there was another knock at the door and a gargoyle poked its head in and asked if it could join in too.
Zallater looked at them and said, 'It's up to you, but gargoyles are cheating bastards.'

The gargoyle joined the game and won a few handfuls of gold from Durz. Durz began to think that the gargoyle might well be a cheating bastard and began to snarl.

Zallater took the hint and dragged off the gargoyle. Before he went though Veddic had the clever idea of bribing the durzagon 300 gold to escort them out the rest of the way.
The wily dungeon-maker agreed to take them through the 'maze' when they were ready but he would not enter the room at the end where the 'bad thing' was.
He said, 'When you are ready just come through this door and knock on the one to the right. That's my room. I'll take you from there.'

They spent the remainder of the day resting and talking about alcohol, which was the one subject on which Billi and Durz were experts.

DAY 265 (1st Nightal)(December)

At eight in the morning they set off and Zallater led them through a tight set of twisting corridors to the door where the 'bad thing' was. Veddic tried to pay in silver, but when Zallater saw the two big bags he said, 'Come on now, gold if you please' and Veddic grudgingly handed over gold instead.

The corridor they found themselves in terminated in another strong looking door. While heading for it, kitchen scraps and barbeque sauce fell on them from above, through small grills in the ceiling. They could also hear the noises of talking and laughter, the chinking of glasses and plates. In short, the sounds of a tavern.

The door was unlocked and when opened revealed a medium sized chamber full of rubbish and slime.
Durz crossed over to poke a suspicious looking pile and it rose up and attacked him, a large mass of ooze easily fifteen feet across.

It was none other than an infamous Black Pudding and it was eager to feast on them. Billi shot a well placed arrow at it, but this only made it split in half. Both halves then attacked them.
Durz found his weapons and armour being destroyed by the strong acid that formed part of its attack until Veddic cleverly cast Resist Elements on them all which made them immune to the acid.

Dwerry attacked with magic missiles from the back and Arahel turned into a troll. Her claws split the pudding even further, into four new parts, so she closed her fists and started punching it. Durz saw this as a good method and put down his weapons and also began to punch the creature.

Despite it doing damage to them, all the Puddings were finished off by magic missiles and punches, Durz and Arahel almost seeming to enjoy the experience.

There was a door in the other side of the room that opened onto some stairs that lead up to a trap door. They opened the trap door and found themselves in the common room of a tavern.

It had a dozen or so patrons in it and the usual complement of barmen and serving wenches.
The owner of the tavern, a well dressed young gentleman called Karhad, was astounded to  see theme arrive in such a fashion but was happy to feed them and arrange for them to have a bath (in order to wash off all the rubbish and sauce).

While Billi was the first to go up to get cleaned up, Veddic was rather skeptical about the whole set up and questioned Karhad.
He told them, 'I've only owned this place three months. I purchased the lease from an agent back in Melvaunt. We get trade from merchants travelling between Melvaunt and Glister. I had no idea there was a dungeon below here or who Zallater is or anything!'
Karhad also introduced his wife, a lady of great beauty called Erin Ja.

Arahel, although just a youngster, also picked up on the unease of Veddic and Durz and went to talk to a family at a table at the other end of the common room.
'Can we help you, little green person?' asked the only adult male in the group.

Arahel got a tale that seemed to back up the one told by Karhad.
'I am a merchant, this is my wife and children,' said the man, gesturing to the woman and the two young adults with him, 'I trade up and down all of this road. I like to stay here because they do good venison, you should try it.'

Billi too, was uneasy. As he went upstairs to where his bath was being prepared he looked out of the window at the snow covered moor and thought,
'This place is in the middle of nowhere! How can it still be in business?'

Despite his reservations he could not resist the hot bath and stripped off to his birthday suit and jumped it. He soaked for a bit, then Erin Ja entered with some towels.

At first Billi was shocked by her arrival, but then she cast a Charm spell on him and he became putty in her hands. She stripped naked, stepped into the bath then made passionate love to the lucky gnome.

Veddic, back in the common room, was getting worried about Billi when he had still not returned after an hour so he and Durz went up to check on him.

He entered the upstairs room and to his utter amazement saw an empty bath, an open window and in the distance Erin Ja now in her true form of an Erinyes (a more powerful type of Succubus) flying away with a naked gnome held lovingly in her arms!

'Come back with our gnome!' he bellowed out the window across the snowfields, but it was no use, Billi was still under her spell.

(G289 06/09/2016 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS3

(G289 06/09/2016 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS3


DAY 264 (30 Uktar)(November) continued ...

The Moathouse and its dungeons were still deserted so they had no problems finding the yuan-ti snake gate.

There was a sign placed beside it that Dwerry translated:

Mind how you go
Stone men have sore stomachs
Make signal to *gibberish*
In the maze follow the moon

Rather cryptic they all thought, but Durz an Veddic put their best foot forward and stepped through the gate ... and fell down a fifty foot shaft into a spiked pit.

Dwerry was next and managed to keep her footing and step to the side. Billi tumbled out of danger and Arahel simply turned into a gargoyle and flapped to safety.

She chose this form as she, and the others that hadn't fallen, noticed that their were six gargoyles watching the portal which then attacked them.

Gargoyles can be tough customers, but the party was much tougher, so despite their initial disadvantage they felled one gargoyle after the other. Arahel lifted Veddic out of the pit and he, thinking that perhaps these gargoyles had been left by good forces to attack yuan-ti, offered a parley. Durz was still alive as well after his fall but was having trouble getting out of the pit.

The fighting stopped and one of the gargoyles that remained on his feet said,
'Very well guv'ner. How about me and my mates just walk through that door through there and say no more about it eh?'
Veddic was unsure as he thought perhaps they would then just ambush them later. One by one he could see that some of the gargoyles were edging towards the southern door and scampering off anyway and in the end he just had one to deal with.
'How about I cast a zone of truth on you?'
'No problem guv'ner, I am a truthful fellow after all.'

Veddic however had not prepared Zone of Truth that day so he attempted to bluff the gargoyle into thinking that he had cast it.
The gargoyle didn't fall for it though and said,
'Oh I can do that sort of magic as well!' and wiggling his fingers he pointed at Arahel and said
'You are now a giraffe!'
To his utter amazement Arahel then turned into a giraffe (using her own abilities of course!) and the gargoyle looked down at his fingers and said, 'Bugger me! I didn't know I had it in me!'

Veddic, tiring of the pantomime just let the last one go. Two gargoyles were dead anyway and two more had been carried off unconscious. After a minute or two of the door closing tp the south they heard  rumbling from that direction.

The door had been locked by the gargoyles as they left the portal chamber but Durz applied his 'key' to it (his axe) and soon had it open.

They saw a ten foot wide corridor with a recent rockfall at the end of it. Two of the gargoyles were trapped here too, but the one healthy one picked up its injured mate and flapped through the portal as quickly as it could to avoid the party and Durz's angry snarls.

The area now reasonably secure they rested for the remainder of the day in the northern part of the corridor, mainly so the spell casters could get their magic back.

DAY 265 (Feast of the Moon)(December)

They were not entirely left to sleep though. One of the gargoyles that had gone through the portal returned to keep an eye on them and had to be chased off.

Later, fluids poured down near where they were resting from a grate in the ceiling the first of which was was urine.

An hour later about a barrel of beer came down the same way. Durz tried it and declared it was very good stuff!

Finally, a while after that a thick brown gloopy substance trickled down the grate into the pools of beer. Durz tried it and pronounced it to be barbecue sauce.

The corridor they were resting in now smelled like the alley behind a tavern in Waterdeep!

In the morning though, they were rested enough to move on and tackle the rock fall. This was done by the good old Druidic method, namely the Stone Shape spell and Arahel tunnelled a small passage through the top of the rocks big enough for everyone to scramble through.

They now found that the corridor ended in another set of double doors and Durz applied his 'key' to this one as well.

The next room was much larger, contained a table and chairs and many chests scattered about. There were also three of the gargoyles skulking around and a tall statue which came to life as they entered.

This statue was a real threat to them as they found out when attacked them. It had the power to turn people against their allies and this caused chaos, as you can imagine, as they party were suddenly fighting amongst themselves. This it did by spraying them with blood from the weeping runes on its head (it had no face).
Not only that, but anyone struck by it ran the risk of being confused.

Durz did battle with his axe, Veddic cast spells and healed people where it was needed and
Billi tumbled about and using his mental powers to fire arrows right into the most sensitive
areas of his enemies. Arahel turned into a rhinoceros and Dwerry used magic missiles.

[Dear reader, from the description above I have deduced that this thing was a Rogue Eidolon and luckily for Veddic and his fellows not a fully powered one which would have been much more deadly.]

The Eidolon couldn't take them all on though and once the cowardly gargoyles had once more exited through a door to the east, the weight of numbers of the party managed to beat it back. Arahel again over-reached herself in the fighting and brave though she was, was struck to  the floor and came within one more blow of being killed. She turned back to her normal form and  played dead and luckily for her the Eidolon ignored her to concentrate on the threats from Durz  and Billi.

It was struck down with one last mighty blow and the battle was over. Veddic healed them all with his clerical magic and they wiped the dreadful Eidolon blood from their arms and armour.