Chaos On A Cellular Level

Treas 8, 5540

The Party:

• Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Herman Thorpe, Ectomancer
    • Baelnar Grimtor, Dwarven Sapper
• Crolack, Thrassian Gladiator
  • Kurt Steinbacke, Dwarven Deep Monk
• Saphira Moonstone, Gold Skinscribe
  • Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer, gnomish beastmaster
  • Alun Tsornyl, Sylph Ranger Red Dragonborn Ranger
• Wendy, Terrifying Clown Bard
• Aria Balakdo, Gnomish Librarian
  • Emily Emerald, Librarian Guard
  • Gunilla Sandström, White Mage
  • Lautaro Rodriguez, Explorer
• Characters retired (for now, at least):
  • Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
    • Flit, bat familiar
    • Clench, Wardog War-Badger
    • Midnight, Panther
    • Noona, Lion
    • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
      • Rawf, Wardog familiar
      • Aroof, Wardog familiar
    • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
      • The Metal Man, construct
  • Caranthir, Human Leader of Men Dragon
    • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
    • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
    • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
    • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
  • Aingeal Bàs Eleonara, Witch

Treas 8, 5540

Before I start, a reminder on how XP and leveling works:

• XP gained from fighting monsters is gained at the beginning of the next session
• XP gained from coins and gems is gained once it leaves the dungeon/nest/encounter
• XP gained from trade goods (barrels of rum, monster parts, etc.) is gained once the goods have been sold.
• You can't gain more than 1 level per session; if you would gain 2 levels, instead you are 1 XP away from your next level.
• If a henchman gains a level, he immediately rolls to see if he stays in your service: +1 for each level gained while in your service (including this one), -1 for each catastrophic event (losing an arm, dying, etc.), plus any morale bonuses. If a henchman levels above your own, the henchman will immediately leave your service.

This is important, because while youve gotten a bit of treasure... it's not going to level you up until you haul it out of the dungeon. And now, on to the adventure!

Deciding to travel into the dungeon, regardless of the warnings of its guardians, the party headed inside through a particularly resilient door. After wandering through some very empty rooms and down some well-made stairs (though not of dwarven make), they found a large dome of some sort, with a huge door set in the top. After much struggling, Wendy and Crolack managed to open it, revealing a tube of some sort, set into the floor. Looking down inside, a tiny dot of light could be seen below, just a glimmer in absolute darkness. Saphira chucked a pebble with Light cast on it inside, and watched it fall down and down, until it seemed to just blend into the tiny dot of light below. Whatever it was, the hole was likely hundreds of feet below them.

Exploring around, Crolack found another heavy door, locked; nearby was another door, though with no visible knob or latch. Opting for the more door-like door, Crolack bashed on it a while, and managed to get it open. Behind the door were a lot of metal stairs - about 100 feet down in switchback stairs. At the bottom, there were a few boxes stacked, in not-too-terrible condition. Sorting through, they found:

• 6,000 silver pieces (600 gp, 6 st)
• 75,000 copper pieces (600 gp, 60 st)
• 204 bricks of salt (7sp, 1/2st each) (142.8 gp, 102 st)
• 53 ingots of common metals (1gp, 1/2st each) (53 gp, 26.5 st)

The passage was wide and clean, with no signs of life anywhere. It curved, gently, both down and away from the door. Venturing along the passage, the party found a largish room, circular, with a large pole in the exact center of the room - Saphira correctly summarized that it was the same tube they found above.

After a bit of searching, the party found a small secret door: only a few square feet, with some items stashed inside:

• 500 cp (1/2 st)
• 2 metamphora of preserved special components (1st/60gp, 800 gp each) (1600 gp, 265.6 st)
• 2 silver arrows, each worth 5gp (10 gp, 0.3334 st)

Also in the nook was a large red button, which Wendy was about to happily press, but Crolack got there first. Almost immediately, the room lurched, and began spinning around! As it spun, it dropped, as if it were on a huge screw. It dropped down and down, until finally grinding to a halt. The door was blocked with solid stone, though a tiny sliver of a gap was visible. Wendy flexed his muscles, and with a herculean shove, managed to drag the room about half an inch, giving him enoguh of a view to show that the crack was another doorway, and hypothetically, the two doorways were supposed to align. After much grunting and shoving, Crolack and Wendy managed to move the door another quarter of an inch, but no more. Sighing, Wendy pulled out a Chime of Opening, and with a single clear note, the room shifted, aligning the doorways perfectly.

The hall beyond was filled with plants - mushrooms, moss, mold, and decay. There was enough light from a few glowing lichen to illuminate the passage. Cautious investigation revealed standing water, pooled beside roots wedged against the ground. Crolack was at home in the six inches of slimy, sloshing water, but the others grimaced at getting their boots wet. Those that weren't floating on flying carpets, anyway. A little farther, Crolack found... a pair of cockatrice! Crolack leaped into battle, with the others not far behind, and soon the lizard-birds were little more than mush. Oddly, the birds were smooth-skinned, with only a few feathers at the tips of their wings; something about the slimy cave life, most likely. In the nest, they found a huge pile of copper pieces, silver pieces, and even some platinum, along with some tusks and ivory.

Sloshing down the swampy passage, the party found another room; inside, Laurita cast Speak with Plants, hoping to get some information from the lush jungle inside the room. Large, bulbous mushrooms spotted the room, and trees hung down from the ceiling. Grass and reedy plants covered the floor. Numerous voices answered Laurita's question; shrill, giggly voices begged her to come closer, come closer! - while deep, raspy voices mumbled, "PAIN... GROW... PAIN... GROW!"

A third voice also spoke out of the darkness, low, dry, and rumbly. "You do not belong here..."

A Detect Evil spell showed that while there was evil dotted all around the room, there was a creature in the center that was very, very evil - mostly likely the dry, rumbly voice. After some back and forth, Wendy hit upon a wonderful idea. Using his Helm of Alignment Changing, he would ride a carpet inside, and befriend whatever was there! He enacted his plan, and dropped out of the sky onto... an undead Treant. Grabbing the mummy-tree, he wrestled the helm onto its uppermost branches. The tree flung him to the ground once, but was unable to dislodge him a second time, and in a moment, was a confused and lawful mummy tree. Because why not.

Meanwhile, Crolack, understanding that the room was full of evil puff-mushrooms, grabbed a couple vials of military oil from Saphira, lit them up, and chucked them into the room. The mushrooms burned in bursts of fire, and the reeds spread the fire quickly - though once the fire reashed the trees, the roof-bound plants began to grow! Wendy and the mummy-treant zipped out of the room in a wash of flames, barely missing Pentzkin; a moment later, the burning trees shoved through the doorway, filling the passage and cracking the doorway itself before finally stopping their growth - probably having entirely filling the room behind them.

Last but not least, Wendy asked the undead Treant if it would like to be his henchman, to which it agreed with fanatic loyalty. Because of course it did. (Details on it below)

• XP from encounters:
  • 2 cockatrice (700)
  • 1 undead mummy treant (5+1*** HD, 860 XP)
• XP from treasure
  • 6,000 silver pieces (600 gp, 6 st)
  • 75,000 copper pieces (750 gp, 75 st)
  • 204 bricks of salt (7sp, 1/2st each) (142.8 gp, 102 st)
  • 53 ingots of common metals (1gp, 1/2st each) (53 gp, 26.5 st)
  • 30,000 copper pieces (300 gp, 30 st)
  • 200 platinum pieces (1000 gp, 0.2 st)
  • 10,000 silver pieces (1000 gp, 10 st)
  • 28 animal tusks (168 gp, 16.8 st)
  • 21 pieces of ivory (1st/100gp, 54 gp each) (1134 gp, 11.34 st)
  • 500 cp (1/2 st)
  • 2 metamphora of preserved special components (1st/60gp, 800 gp each) (1600 gp, 265.6 st)
  • 2 silver arrows, each worth 5gp (10 gp, 0.3334 st)
• Total XP gained: 1560
• Total XP once out of the dungeon: 3880
• Total XP once sold: 1497.8 (the metamphora and silver arrows were kept)
• Total treasure now: 3380
• Total treasure once sold: 1497.8
• XP per PC: 240
• XP per henchman: 120
• Treasure per PC: 845 (in copper, silver, and platinum)

The Mummy Treant currently has 28 HP. It is 5 HD, Str: 11 (+0), Int: 18 (+3), Wis: 9 (+0), Dex: 12 (+0), Con: 11 (+0), Cha: 11 (+0), and its level progression is as follows:

• Level 5: 4,500 XP; atk 5+; AC 7; 2x attacks, 1d12, mummy rot
• Level 6: 9,000 XP; atk 4+; AC 8; 2x attacks, 2d6, mummy rot
• Level 7: 18,000 XP; atk 3+; AC 8; 2x attacks, 3d4, mummy rot
• Level 8: 36,000 XP; atk 2+; AC 9; 2x attacks, 2d8, mummy rot
• Level 9: 72,000 XP; atk 1+: AC 9; 2x attacks, 2d8, mummy rot
• Level 10: 144,000 XP; atk 0+; AC 10; 2x attacks, 3d6, mummy rot
• Level 11: 288,000 XP; atk -1+; AC 10; 2x attacks, 3d6, mummy rot
• Level 12: 576,000 XP; atk -2+; AC 11; 2x attacks, 4d6, mummy rot
• Level 13: 1,152,000 XP; atk -3+; AC 11; 2x attacks, 4d6, mummy rot
• Level 14: 2,304,000 XP; atk -4+; AC 12; 2x attacks, 5d6, mummy rot

Additionally, it can control up to 2 normal trees within 60' as a treant. It saves and gains proficiencies as a fighter. It has General Profs: Alchemy, Caving, Endurance, Knowledge, Naturalism; Class profs: Dungeon Bashing, Weapon Focus (fists: double damage on nat 20). Like other undead, mummies are unaffected by poison and charm, sleep, or hold spells. Further, mummies may only be harmed by magical weapons, spells, and fire-based attacks, all of which do only half damage. Except for, in this case, magical or mundane fire does full damage, because it's a tree.

Brier Patch Tussle

Treas 8, 5540

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, bat familiar
  • Clench, Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, Panther
  • Noona, Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men Dragon
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Herman Thorpe, Ectomancer
    • Baelnar Grimtor, Dwarven Sapper
• Crolack, Thrassian Gladiator
  • Kurt Steinbacke, Dwarven Deep Monk
• Saphira Moonstone, Gold Skinscribe
  • Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer, gnomish beastmaster
  • Alun Tsornyl, Sylph Ranger Red Dragonborn Ranger
• Aingeal Bàs Eleonara, Witch
• Wendy, Terrifying Clown Bard
• Aria Balakdo, Gnomish Librarian
  • Emily Emerald, Librarian Guard
  • Gunilla Sandström, White Mage
  • Lautaro Rodriguez, Explorer

Treas 8, 5540

After camping for (the rest of) the night in the goblin village, the party journeyed onward. After a short conversation with one of the ancient trees - who didn't have much to say about the location to which they were heading, as trees don't have much concept of travel, apart from their original fall and consequent growth up, down, and out - they used a ring of Command Plant to move the tree aside, letting in sunlight, and letting them easily fly out through the canopy. They traveled on, avoiding any creatures beneath the canopy, and eventually running into a group of young copper dragons. The dragons weren't terribly interested in the "site of great power", saying that their parents had told them it was dangerous, and that they should't go over there.

Ignoring the obvious warnings of danger, the group continued toward their destination. They stopped to sleep, and fought a regenerating hydra, pummeling it with enough damage to keep it from regaining its heads. Once again, they flew onward, finally reaching the location by later afternoon. It wasn't hard to find; the deep, dark forest was entirely cleared around the area. The site was a perfect square, with four large mounds at the corners, and a jagged series of earthen berms forming a sort of simple maze to the center. The berms were covered with strange, jagged things, like enormous briers, with huge, sharp thorns. On closer inspection, the briers were inorganic - stone, not woody plants. Weathered metal signs filled the maze, with images of skulls, running people, people covered with sores, and many more pictures of the dark angel on the maps.

In the very center, there was an irregularly shaped four-sided structure; the architecture was strange, with no line being parallel or perpendicular to another. On each of the four sides was a sign; the forth side had an additional, weathered wooden sign. A helm of comprehend languages could not read the original writing, but it could decipher the writing on the wooden plaque:

This place is a letter message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We consider[ed?] ourselves a powerful culture. This place is not a place of honor... no respected act is remembered here... there is nothing appreciated here. What is here is dangerous and retaliatory for vengeful towards us. This message is a warning about danger [specific]. The danger is in a specific location... it increases towards a center... the center of this danger... is of a particular size and shape, and below us. The danger still exists, in your time, as it was in our time. The body [society?] is at risk and can kill [body kills or danger?]. The form of the hazard is derived from energy. The risk peril is only dropped released if you are physically disturbing this place. It is better to avoid this place and leave it unattended.

After a few minutes of puzzling over the message, the party was interrupted by the arrival of five men, clad in somewhat odd leather armor, but otherwise unarmed. The leader demanded that they leave this place; Lorita was the only one who could understand them, and asked why, but was only repeatedly told to leave. After a few more requests for more information, and explaining their quest, the men became even more terse, finally ending with, "Leave or be destroyed!"

The men were... well prepared. Before the fight even started, they spread out to avoid area attacks; though they were only wearing leather armor, the armor was of such quality that they dodged damage like it was nothing. Their bare fists rained down damage, nearly taking down Wendy and bashing the rest of the party pretty well too. Two of the men ran behind a nearby berm, and returned with two contraptions following them - strange mechanical platforms with heavy shields and dual repeating crossbows that shot up the battlefield with ease. One after the other, however, the men dropped; eventually, the machines were damaged, and the last of the men brought down.

Realizing the men were lawful only after the fight, the party began binding their wounds and bringing them back to the land of the living... The leader was restored to full health, with minor scarring, only requiring a night of bed rest; two of the others also only needed a night of bed rest, though while one only had minor scarring, the other sustained damaged genitals (though, oddly, he didn't seem very upset by that fact). One of the fighters sustained a severed hand, and needs a week of bed rest, keeping the two engineers company, both of whom were lamed. The last of the fighters was utterly destroyed, and unable to be brought back without a powerful spell...

• XP from encounters:
  • 1 Martial Artist leader (2600 XP)
  • 2 Martial Artist (3200 XP)
  • 2 Martial Artist (2200 XP)
  • 2 Engineers (1200 XP)
  • 2 shielded moving platforms (4** HD, 380 XP)
• XP from treasure: (none)
• Total XP from encounters: 9580
• XP per PC: (Laurita, Saphira, Wendy): 1916
• XP per Henchthing: 958 (Herman, Baelnar, Pentzkin, Alun)
• Further XP once you reach civilization and sell treasure: 487 (total)

The moving platforms were reduced to composite parts (and fewer than they started with), but the crossbows were mostly ok. There are four crossbows - automatons - of exquisite design, though two sustained some damage; you don't know much about automatons, but these appear to be quite expensive.

As a note, automatons fall into two categories: those that require an operator, and those that do not. Those that require an operator are essentially just machines, and will not count towards XP - though they do count towards treasure. Automatons that do not require an operator are treated like enemies, giving XP by their HD and special abilities. What that means is, an automaton with an operator is similar to a magical weapon; as long as it is not used, it can be sold as treasure, but researching it removes the ability to get XP from selling it.

The Final Scale

Naoidheamh 35, 6639: Beastnight!

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, bat familiar
  • Clench, Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, Panther
  • Noona, Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Herman Thorpe, Ectomancer
    • Baelnar Grimtor, Dwarven Sapper
• Crolack, Thrassian Gladiator
  • Kurt Steinbacke, Dwarven Deep Monk
• Mor Gibs, Wonderworker
• Saphira Moonstone, Gold Skinscribe
  • Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer, gnomish beastmaster
  • Alun Tsornyl, Sylph Ranger
• Te'a Tsuki Megumi, Elven Polydoctorate
  • Harvey Usagi, Rabbitwere
• Fayleen Ross, Darklord
  • Zai-car, Zaharan Ruinguard
• Aingeal Bàs Eleonara, Witch

Their armies teleported in, the party quickly organized both the battle and the strike team. With Rig Bigny commanding the battle, they launched their attack...

The units under Rig's command destroyed a unit of bloodhounds, a (terrifying) unit of death chargers, a unit of zombies, two skeleton units, and a flight of wyverns. The dwarven troops, a unit of archers, and a unit of infantry were lost.

The units under Ajeela's command destroyed a unit of bloodhouds, a unit of necropedes, a unit of ghouls, a unit of zombies, and a bone dragon (carrying a commander). She lost her barbarian troops.

Fayleen Ross, commanding the lizardmen, destroyed three units of skeletons.

The war raged back and forth, until Herman Thorpe managed to Hold the majority of the skeleton armies. Shortly afterward, the strike team entered the tower, and quickly (through Locate Object, Detect Traps, and a pile of other spells, wands, and magical objects) managed to race through the magical maze with little effort. They arrived at the scale, and quickly dumped more magic (and holy water) onto the black altar holding the evil scale; those on the battlefield felt its powers weaken. After some quick thinking, Te'a cast Remove Curse on the scale, Saphira quickly wrapped it in a temporary Bag of Holding, and Gróin teleported the lot of them to the main temple to Thor, in the Mountain Dwarf capital.

The evil sinkhole removed, the remaining undead were quickly cut down, while the living creatures routed, fleeing to the hills and forests. Even the general and his unit of manticores fled.

XP is a little weird, so bear with me. Hopefully this isn't too unbalanced.

• XP from destroyed units
  • 1200 Skeletons (15600)
  • 240 Ghouls (6960)
  • 240 Zombies (6960)
  • 120 Chaos-zombies (9600)
  • 120 Wights (9600)
  • 20 Necropedes (16400)
  • 240 Bloodhounds (11280)
  • 60 Death chargers (8100)
  • 1 Bone Dragon (12800)
  • 60 Wraiths (11400)
  • 240 Harpys (75 of the 240 killed, the rest routed: 15600)
  • 20 Wyverns (22800)
  • 60 Manticores (5 killed; the rest routed: 40800)
• Total XP from units: 187,900
• XP lost from friendly losses
  • Berserkers (60 died) (2520)
  • Paladins (0 died) (0)
  • Green Men (2 died) (0)
  • Bladedancers (4 died) (0)
  • Clerics (11 died) (0)
  • Heavy Infantry (98 died) (600)
  • Longbowmen (60 died) (600)
  • Dwarven Heavy Infantry (60 died) (1200)
  • Lizardmen (40 died) (0)
  • Gnomes (0 died) (0)
  • Roc Lobbers (1 died) (0)
• Total XP lost: 4920
• XP for Rig Bigny (General): 91,490
• XP for Rig Bigny (Commander): 22,110
• XP for Fayleen Ross (Commander): 2,340
• XP for Mor Gibs (independent hero): 5115
• XP for Llarm, Ffaufe, Alun, Herman (commanders/lieutenants): 2557

Of course, that's not all. There is also treasure! Hooray! The surviving troops collected 1/2 of the battlefield treasure as payment (or final gifts for the family of the dead); the rest, as well as the treasure in the tower proper, will be split up as desired. With a little bartering, I'm sure you can trade items for cash, so I'll just tally it all as if you got 100% gold.

• 1,231,200 gp worth of supplies, equipment, and other battlefield treasure was recovered
• The tower contained the following (well-labeled!) treasure:
  • 81,700 gp in silver, electrum, gold, and platinum
  • 12 jasper (600gp)
  • 8 shells (240gp)
  • 6 citrine (300gp)
  • 4 onyx (200gp)
  • 5 wrought silver studded with moonstone (25,000gp)
  • 23 jade carvings of heroes, monsters, and gods (4600gp)
  • 1 wrought gold necklace (100gp)
  • 1 porcelain curio (200gp)
  • 1 Bone curio (24gp)
  • 1 wrought copper curio (110gp)
  • 1 moonstone curio (3000gp)
  • 1 Fine wood curio (600gp)
  • 6 jars of spices (4800 gp, 6 st)
  • 2 vials of rare poison (2200gp)
  • 1 coat of chimera fur (19,000 gp)
  • 4 rolls of silk (1600 gp, 16 st)
  • 33 rugs of wolf hide (990 gp, 6.534 st)
  • 24 pieces of elephant ivory (1152gp, 11.52 st)
  • 1 metamphora of preserved special components (600 gp, 99.6 st)
• XP from captured/killed commanders:
  • Hakan Soroush, Zaharan Ruinguard/Mummy Lord: 8200
  • Chulcx Bloodbather, Thrassian Assassin/Vampire: 6600
  • Abigail Rojas, Bladedancer: 3900
  • Geoffrey Wells, Mage: 4800
  • Kharajit, Rakshasa: 3650
  • Porco Chefe, Demon Boar: 2000
  • Sisskt, Arane: escaped
• XP from treasure: 762616
• XP from enemy heroes: 29150
• XP for destroying the final scales: 10000
• Total character XP: 801,766
• Total gold for Rig, Caranthir, Gróin, Mor Gibs, Saphira, Te'a, and Fayleen: 108,945 gp
• XP for Rig, Caranthir, Gróin, Mor Gibs, Saphira, Te'a, and Fayleen: 66,814
• XP for Faufe, Llarm, Rhea, Gimli, Herman, Baelnar, Pentzkin, Alun, Harvey, and Zai-car: 33,407

Also recovered were the following well-labeled items: Leather Armor +1, Potion of Climbing, Oil of Slipperiness, Scroll of Arcane Spells (Written in Old Zaharan): Invisibility (2nd lvl), Scroll of Ward against Elementals, 2 Short Sword +1, Potion of Sweet Water, Ring of Protection +3, 15', Ring of Wishes (1 wish remaining), Scroll of Divine Spells (Written in Old Nobiran): Angelic Choir (1st lvl), and a Treasure Map to 20,000gp. Additionally, the mage's library was rigged to explode if he ever left the area; the dark knowledge within was lost.

Along with the magical items in the tower, there were some found on those killed or captured: Hakan Soroush (captured) was carrying a greatsword, four bone-vials, a crystal ball, and a wand. Chulcx Bloodbather (dead) was wearing chain armor. Abigail Rojas (captured) was wearing a helm, leather armor, and a cloak, and carrying a sword, a knife, and a scroll. Geoffrey Wells (captured) was carrying a staff, a rod, and a wand. The Rakshasa and the Demon Boar had no special items, and were both killed. The only survivor was the arane...

That's a LOT of XP, so I will remind you that you can only advance one level at a time; if you got enough experience to level up more than once, you must cut it off one XP below the next level. However, the XP for the final scales trumps that, so if you're about to go over, you can keep at most 833 over the next level for PCs, or 417 over the next level for henchmen.

Bog-Cheese

Ochdamh 25, 6639; next holiday is Beastnight, 9/35

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Noona, the Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Herman Thorpe, Ectomancer
    • Baelnar Grimtor, Dwarven Sapper
• Sorvald, Thief
  • Kurt Steinbacke, Dwarven Deep Monk
• Mor Gibs, the Wonderworker
• Craydos Silverskin, the Gold Skinscribe
  • Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer, gnomish beastmaster
  • Alun Tsornyl, Sylph Ranger
• [insert-name-here], Elven Polydoctorate
  • Harvey, Wolfwere
• [bad-with-names], Darklord
  • [some-other-name], Venturer?

Realizing they were about the enter the final floor of the tower, the party stopped and retreated upstairs for a night's rest. Refreshed (though warned by the locals that something bad was coming), they headed back downstairs.

The final level of the tower smelled of damp and rot, and the sulfurous smell of swamp. They had barely gone a few feet into the passage when a voice echoed through the passages: "You... dare... intrude?"

Interestingly, each party member heard the voice in their own native tongue - some kind of magic, surely. They continued on, uncovering the maze surrounding the center, and occasionally hearing more echoed speech. First was a call: "Where... lies... my champion?" followed by a rush of wind, laden with the scent of decay. Then, "My children... come... to me...", and the sound of scrabbling sound and a cacophony of chirping and clicking. Finally, as they near the center (having toasted a couple green slimes), the voice roared, "Erklik... accept this blood sacrifice! ERKLIK!"

The voice receded, but continued to chant. Finally (after the thief and his henchdwarf fell into a pit), they reached the center of the tower, the lowest floor. Torches lined the walls; four pools of water surrounded a dark throne. Mist and magical darkness obscured the throne and its occupant. Six figures lined the walls, human with dark, almost black skin, standing at attention, looking... well, fairly normal, actually. And then combat started... the dark-skinned creatures, awoken by their master, writhed and flailed - bog bodies! The scent of decay was nearly overwhelming, and the poor cat-badgers choked on the overwhelming smell. Caranthir immediately began slashing at the bog-bodies, bringing down six before they could awaken; the others began slowly spreading out.

After a few seconds of fighting, the chanting... stopped. And eight ankhegs burst out of the ground, thought were quickly destroyed. And behind the party, a new mummy stepped out - the dead Thrassian from the day before! The priestess and ectomancer, working together, managed to turn the mummy. The other Thrassians fell before Rig's arrows and a few well-placed hits from the dominated lizardmen.

The battle seemed to be going pretty well, so far at least. Sorvald fired an arrow at the dark shape, but only managed to ricochet from the magical glass surrounding it. Gróin tried to damaged it with a blast of his trumpet, but only managed in damaging himself, and those around him! Caranthir and Gimli slashed at the strange roots dipping into the pools, but apart from damaging them, didn't manage to do much. Finally, Caranthir touched the glass with a Rod of Cancellation, and having drained its magical ability, slammed into it with as much force as his double-sized self could manage. The glass split, cracked across, then in a rapidly-shattering sheet, fell downwards into nothing but shards. The mist cleared (revealing that one of the four openings was, in fact, open), revealing the four carcass scavengers and four rust monsters held within! Caranthir blasted them, and the dark figure, with a double-breath, killing the monsters and... well, gently tickling the massive Thrassian Conduit Bog-Mummy-Lord. The mummy strode out, chopping into the Darklord's companion, and firing a curse at Caranthir (which missed).

This was the main threat. As he fired spells left and right, the Polydoctorate cast two spells: first, a death-ward spell on Caranthir, and second, "Jail", which slams a portcullis-cage onto the target. As the others blasted lightning, cones of cold, and the many earth-based spells of Gróin's party at him, the creature returned fire... and failed. First, his no-save-turn-directly-into-an-undead spell was rebuffed by the Death Ward; then, his other attempts at dishing out damage (or causing everyone to fall asleep) were thwarted. The only one that ever failed was the poor ectomancer, and even he managed to survive the sleep of death.

Even summoning swarms of insects didn't work; eventually, screaming hatred against the skinscribe in particular (he remember the skinscribe's uprising - he was there!), the dark mummy-lord was slain, and his corpse fell into a swarm of insects, which flew out of the chamber. The party quickly located, de-trapped, and smashed the canopic jars, and the mummy lord was no more. The last ankheg, hunted down and slain, revealed a network of tunnels underground, containing treasures; under the throne were even more treasures.

Last, but certainly not least, the vines on the throne were dunked in holy water, and eventually had Cure Disease cast on them; they writhed and healed, and almost immediately, the four stagnant pools cleared of the boggy water. A deep rumble sounded from the tower itself...

And that, folks, is how you use your spells in an intelligent manner and make what was going to be the second hardest fight of the yet-planned story into a walk in the park.

• Experience from encounters:
  • 2 green slimes (76)
  • 8 Ankhegs (4000)
  • 24 Bog bodies (1920)
  • 4 undead Thrassians (860)
  • 1 Mummy-thrassian (660)
  • 4 rust monsters (800)
  • 4 carcass scavengers (540)
  • 1 Ancient Thrassian Bog-Mummy Lord (9300)
• Experience from Treasure:
  • Cash (11,450 gp, 12 stone total):
    • 2,000 platinum pieces (10,000 gp, 2 st)
    • 1,000 gold pieces (1000 gp, 1 st)
    • 4,000 silver pieces (400 gp, 4 st)
    • 5,000 copper pieces (50 gp, 5 st)
  • Gems (1.333 stone):
    • 2 diamonds (1,000 gp each)
    • 1 jacinth (4,000 gp)
    • 1 ruby (8,000 gp)
    • 1 ivory jewelry (900 gp)
    • 2 moonstone jewelry (2,000 gp each)
    • 2 gold statuettes (1000 gp each
  • Everything else (42.287 st):
    • 26 jade carvings of dark gods, each worth 200gp (5200 gp, 4.333 st)
    • 1 rich fur coat (2,000gp, 1 st)
    • 16 rugs of large common fur (panther) (1st/150gp, 90 gp each) (1440 gp, 9.504 st)
    • 3 rolls of silk (400gp, 4st each) (1200 gp, 12 st)
    • 12 sticks of rare incense (1 st/100 sticks, 17 gp each) (204 gp, 0.12 st)
    • 3 jars of dyes and pigments (50gp, 5st each) (150 gp, 15 st)
    • 2 sets of superior thieves tools, worth 200gp (1 item) (200 gp, 0.1667 st)
    • 1 vials of rare perfume (1 item each, 125 gp each) (125 gp, 0.1667 st)
• Total experience (before selling): 29,606 XP
• Total experience (after selling): 181,469 XP
• XP for PCs: 2277
• XP for henches (everyone but Luce and Rhea): 1139

• Magic items on the Thrassian Conduit:
  • Lifedrinker, a dark, twisted sword (evil, but not cursed; lore says is drains health and gives it to the wielder)
  • Earthbreaker, a Hammer +3 that grants resistance to Earth magic (-1 damage per die, +2 to saves)
  • The Soulstaff (which, if lore is correct, can speak with dead once per hour, as the spell)
  • A tarnished silver coin, currency of Ancient Zahara
  • Plate armor, Thrassian-sized
• Elsewhere (the throne, the ankhegs, and the ankhegs' nests):
  • A ring
  • A very oddly-jointed club (+3 after testing)
  • Two bags
  • Two swords (+1, after testing)
  • A potion
  • A Scroll of Divine Spells (Written in Dwarven): Command Word (1st lvl)
  • A Scroll of Arcane Spells (Written in Dwarven): Resist Electricity (lvl 2), Trance (lvl 1)
  • A lumpy rock

Life's the Pits

Ochdamh 24, 6639; next holiday is Beastnight, 9/35

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Noona, the Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Herman Thorpe, Ectomancer
    • Baelnar Grimtor, Dwarven Sapper
• Sorvald, Thief
  • Kurt Steinbacke, Dwarven Deep Monk
• Mor Gibs, the Wonderworker
• Craydos Silverskin, the Gold Skinscribe
  • Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer, gnomish beastmaster
  • Alun Tsornyl, Sylph Ranger
• [insert-name-here], Elven Polydoctorate
  • [I-forgot-I'm-so-sorry], Wolfwere
• [bad-with-names], Darklord
  • [some-other-name], Venturer?

While Caranthir, Gróin, and Sorvald (and friends) began their trek into the Jungle Tower, Craydette (sorry, I keep forgetting to write down your new name) dropped in on the, er, seamstresses' guild, to learn about being a woman. No, not like that, just... nevermind. After that, she set off to find the rest of her party. Additionally, some new members passed by, but kept to their mounts - and I'd tell you their names and so forth, but I forgot to write them down. I'll update this later once I figure it out...

And that's not all! Rig Bigny headed out as well, with his pet badger-cats! As the parties converged, they managed to all find their way to the tower, just as a thin figure climbed out. The darklord quickly dominated the creature, and in the morning, the ratman lead them into the tower, eventually uniting the lot of them. Whew! GM fiat aside, they were ready to go deeper...

On the stone throne of the troglodyte King, the newest additions to the party noticed some scratchings - a verbal description of the lower levels! Just below them, the 7th level was full of traps... Sorvald lead the group through the area, only managing to get himself thumped on the head once. By a single brick. What can I say, the trap was really old...

Turning a corner, however, he, Kurt, and Alun found themselves face-to-face with a rather large grasshopper, who immediately vomited a thick stream of brown goo onto the poor Fae, then leapt away, managing to get out of sight with only a single hit-point to its name. Alun, after spending several minutes cleaning himself, caught up with the party, and they continued.

Apart from glowing moss (which was rather slick), there wasn't a lot going on here; just some food stores. The 8th level, however, was "full of scary black things," and avoided by the troglodytes. The party found a strange, yellow-brown moss, dry and stringy, unlike the wet glowing moss. A little poking around, and they managed to activate it - yellow mold! Thankfully, no one inhaled it, and they left it alone after that. They did, however, manage to get a potion or two, hidden around the area.

In the larger room, they encountered the spiders, as well as a sharktipede - er, sorry, a Skittering Maw - and fought them handily. They also encountered a trio of carcass scavengers, who's nest poor Craydette had the misfortune of mistaking for a spider's nest, and nearly got eaten for her troubles.

Down a level to 9, they found a room full of holes, tilting traps, and cloth-covered pit-traps. Sorvald, with his perfect night vision, lead everyone through safely, marking the traps for later memory. He spotted something hiding in a corner - a staff, with what looked like a curved beak. It was the Staff of Stork’s Blessing, which removes 1d6 hp from the wielder, and gives that to everyone within five feet (that is, adjacent)!

Moving the staff, however, awoke whatever dark creatures were hiding in the pits, and soon, a horde of lizardmen and Greater Thrassians ascended! And, after a shout of command, bowed their heads to the Darklord, in her service. The battle was bloody, but fast; the lizardmen wavered, as did the greater Thrassians, under the rule of their own lord, an ancient, enormous Thrassian, one of the few survivors of the Zaharan purge. Well, survivor no longer...

With the way clear, the party is ready to venture deeper, to the lowest level of the tower, buried for centuries!

• Experience from Encounters:
  • 1 Skittering Maw (1600)
  • 7 Black Widow spiders (4 killed, 3 escaped: 320)
  • 3 Carcass Scavengers (405)
  • 15 lizardmen (dominated or killed: 525)
  • 6 Greater Thrassians (dominated or killed: 840)
  • 1 Thrassian Overlord (2500)
• Experience from treasure: (none, only magical items)
• Experience for each PC (Rig, Caranthir, Gróin, Sorvald, Craydette, ?Darklord, ?Polydoctorate): 495
• Experience for each Henchbeing (Noona, Midnight, Gimli, Lucille, Laurita, Herman, Baelnar, Kurt, Alun, ?Venturer, ?Wolfwere): 248

Additionally, there were some various potions picked up, plus the Staff of Stork's Blessing, and a strange, magical, iron crown...

Troglodyte? More Like TrogloDIED

Ochdamh 23, 6639; next holiday is Beastnight, 9/35

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Noona, the Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Herman Thorpe, Ectomancer
    • Baelnar Grimtor, Dwarven Sapper
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin (retired)
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator (retired)
• Sorvald, Thief
  • Kurt Steinbacke, Dwarven Deep Monk
• Mor Gibs, the Wonderworker
• Craydos Silverskin, the Gold Skinscribe
  • Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer, gnomish beastmaster
  • Alun Tsornyl, Sylph Ranger

Moving deeper into the dungeon, the party found what appeared to be some sort of holding area! They surprised a number of troglodytes, and after killing a few, allowed a few others to escape. The escaped trogs immediately opened a number of cages, releasing all sorts of creatures, which the party slashed and burned through with the greatest of ease. Eventually, all that was left was a ratman, and a still-caged old man. They allowed the ratman to leave, and spoke for a while with the old man... who turned out to be a doppelganger. Who eventually escaped.

The next level held a full troglodyte city; inside, they battled a number of well-equipped troglodytes, including a mage firing lightning bolts and fireballs at them. After killing all but a couple of the troglodytes, they raided the store room for treasure!

• Experience from combat:
  • 4 chameleons (1400)
  • 2 Rust monsters (800)
  • 3 Lizardmen (105)
  • 1 Wererat (escaped)
  • 2 Giant rats (10)
  • 1 minotaur (320)
  • 5 Berserkers (105)
  • 1 Doppelganger (escaped)
  • 118 trogs (2360)
  • 4 greater-trogs (320)
  • 1 mage-trog (190)
  • 1 cleric-trog (190)
  • 1 chief-trog (320)
• Experience from Treasure:
  • 900 Copper
  • 600 Silver
  • 1100 Electrum
  • 5 jars of dyes and pigments (250gp, 25 stone)
  • 11 rugs or tapestries (55gp, 86st)
  • 2 barrels of beer (20gp, 16st)
  • 4 barrels of liquor (800gp, 64st)
  • 2 barrels of preserved fish (10gp, 16st)
  • 7 gallons of lamp oil (14gp, 3.5st)
  • 16 gold idols (8000gp, 2.6667st)
• Total gp when sold: 12486gp, 207.1667st
• Total XP now: 6739
• Gold for Caranthir, Gróin, and Sorvald: 206gp (each)
• XP for Caranthir, Gróin, and Sorvald: 1123
• XP for Rhea, Gimli, Laurita, Herman, Baelnar, and Kurt: 562

Gnome Gnowledge and Phearful Spheres

Ochdamh 12-18, 6639; next holiday is Beastnight, 9/35

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Noona, the Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Herman Thorpe, Ectomancer
    • Baelnar Grimtor, Dwarven Sapper
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Sorvald, Thief
• Mor Gibs, the Wonderworker
• Craydos Silverskin, the Gold Skinscribe
  • Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer, gnomish beastmaster
  • Alun Tsornyl, Sylph Ranger

The group teleported back to the main path, and continued their search for the bandits. After a day's travel without encountering anyone, they found a forest of tall mushrooms, some of which glowed dimly in the darkness. Ahead, they heard the sounds of an approaching group - someone was calling, "Company, march! Two, three four..." into the darkness ahead.

After some deliberation, the party decided to face what was coming. Ahead, they heard a voice shout, "Company, Halt!", and a moment later, a single gnome, well-decorated in military attire, marched up to them. Introducing himself as the commander of the Queen's Guard, he inquired their business; the party responded in kind, asking him where he came from, and where he was headed. He shouted back down the passage, "Preseeeeent... MAP!", then turned, pulled a map out of his pocket, and turned back to the party.

As it turned out, the entire Redoubt of gnomes was but a single commander. Luckily, he realized he was heading the wrong direction, and decided to accompany the party.

As they journeyed on, the gnome lustily shouted that there seemed to be a lair of basilisks ahead, and that his "company" only barely made it past last time. The five basilisks were quite alert by the time the party arrived; after a short battle, the creatures were dead. Oddly, there were no statues about; either the creatures had eaten everyone who had happened past, or something had cleaned them out. Interesting.

A day later and further ahead, the party passed a large lake; wondering what was inside, the wonder-fairy summoned a kraken, plunging it into the inky water. It swam down, deeper and deeper, until it encountered a number of mermen, riding large, albino sharks; the kraken attacked, but only managed to kill four of the sharks before the rest tore it to shreds. Shaken, the party continued on.

Two days later, they reached a branch in the trail, and chose the less-traveled. The gnome strode off, then returned, scratching his head. "Aha! Yes, here we go." He followed them as they reached a thicker forest of mushrooms. Heading off the trail, the party tracked a number of footprints to a clearing - where a strange creature covered with eyes and tentacles stared down at them! It began chanting a spell, and the party quickly cast a few spells of their own. The creature summoned berserkers, and a shield for itself; another strange floating globe, not far from the first, revealed itself and began doing the same.

The berserkers were taken down quickly, but the creatures fired spells from memory and from their wands and staffs, whittling down the party; Craydos dropped, as did his minions, and Gimli soon followed, just after the first sphere fell. The second was finally defeated, and Gróin set fire to its corpse. While they treated the wounds of the fallen, the second sphere suddenly rose again! It cast a spell, and was gone...

On the corpse of the remaining sphere, the party found two wands and a staff (the staff cast Cone of Cold, and one of the wands cast Fireball; the other is unknown). Further into the forest, they found two statues - travelers, it looked like, frozen by the basilisks. One seemed to have some sort of map, but the stone writing is entirely illegible. Craydos managed to collect 400 XP worth of parts from the dead sphere.

• XP from Encounters
  • 1 Gnome (peaceful)
  • 5 basilisks (4900) (harvested 2450 XP or parts from them)
  • 18 Great White Sharks (4400, only killed 4)
  • 18 mermen (unharmed)
  • 2 Sorcerous Spheres (9600)
  • 6 berserkers (78)
  • 3 hydras (4650)
• XP from Treasure: none, again! How strange!
• Total XP: 23,628
• XP for Craydos, Gróin, Mor Gibs, and Sorvald: 3375
• XP for Gimli, Laurita, Herman, Baelnar, Pentzkin, and Alun: 1688

Simply Kraken, Old Sport

Siathamh 27 - Seachdamh, 6639; next holiday is Brightest Night, 6/35

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Noona, the Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Herman Thorpe, Ectomancer
    • Baelnar Grimtor, Dwarven Sapper
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Sorvald, Thief
• Mor Gibs, the Wonderworker
• Craydos Silverskin, the Gold Skinscribe
  • Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer, gnomish beastmaster

Having found the lair of the Draugr, the party swooped in to clear out the last of the baddies. After killing and/or turning a group of haugbui, the group went further in. Craydos illuminated the way, as Sorvald found and disarmed traps. After quite a bit of searching, they uncovered a strange map, and finally the way in to the draugr's lair. As they found later, the entrance to the lair was through solid stone - the draugr could cast passwall, and thus move a section of solid earth. Through a murder pit under a fake coffin, they discovered a secret entrance; following it, they finally found the undead creature's tomb. The turned haugbui were destroyed, Gróin walled the entrance off, and Laurita began casting Dispel Evil. A few minutes in, and the draugr's mist-form rose from the coffin and fled towards the door; finding it closed, he attempted to cast a spell, but was frozen by the light. Finally breaking free, the draugr managed to cast Passwall again, and fled into the passage; Gróin dispelled the passwall, but too late. Craydos dispelled Gróin's wall, and the group moved into the hall! Sorvald, thinking quickly, grabbed a bag off of Gróin and tried to catch the gaseous form as it slipped by, to no avail. Craydos, however, pulled one of his jars for monster parts out, heaved it over the cloud, and snapped the lid shut, trapping it!

Returning to the tomb, they waited until Laurita was nearly finished casting, then opened the container... and the spell failed. Luckily, the gas couldn't escape; the draugr was out of passwall spells. The second casting was enough, and the creature was instantly turned to ash. After collecting the ash, the party dumped it into the stream near the troll's camp, and the draugr was finally defeated.

The hex cleared, the group travelled back to Caranthir's land, for the midsummer feast. The golden dragons were invited; when the topic of the undead kraken came up, the male volunteered his services. When the festival was finished, the party set off to find the northern paladin and finish off the undead kraken once and for all.

Before that happened, however, Gróin needed to check his henchmen's loyalty... and the sapper decided not to stay with him. Luckily, he did choose to hang out with the Ectomancer, so he's still with the party.

The paladin was overjoyed to see them, and introduced his companions: Ham, a hide-clad barbarian with a saber-tooth tiger for a mount; Twych, the cleric; and Toxwell Dishthunder Galazooks, aka The Great Galazooks, Gnomish Wizard. They set off, with Galazooks accidentally teleporting himself there, Twych and the Paladin flying with the party, and Ham riding the saber-toothed tiger, who appeared to be wearing boots of speed. Or something.

Along the way, they ran into another draugr - not as high level as the previous - and watched with great interest when the barbarian killed it in a single round, hardly slowing down at all. Galazooks was waiting for them, having somehow managed to find sand to make a small beach with. Craydos summoned a 10-headed sea hydra, which dove towards the water... and was absolutely shredded before it ever touched the surface. Mor Gibs, laughing, summoned his battle kraken, dropping it towards the lake... and it managed to survive a round before being destroyed. Mor Gibs stopped laughing.

The two dragons dove for the lake, blasting it with frost and fire; Mor Gibs launched lightning bolts at the water, as Galazooks shot a cone of frost and Gróin blasted it with boulders. The cleric cast something on the barbarian and paladin, and the barbarian stepped forward, yelling a challenge to the undead monster. It accepted, slamming its great tentacles down... and sliding off, reflected by the cleric's Protection from Evil spell. Grinning, the barbarian slammed his mighty hammer into the creature, flattening a tentacle. The paladin rushed in, slicing at the beast - and destroying it! He continued forward, dumping a handful of holy water into its decaying beak, and the creature melted into a black ooze.

The cleric sat at the shore and began casting a ritual spell he had prepared, to cleanse the lake...

As a note: I assume most of what was taken from the first draugr was left in Gróin's stronghold. The draugr's lair contained two potions and a strange map, as well as a Scroll of Arcane Spells (Written in Draconic): Magic Mouth (1st lvl), Light* (1st lvl), 2 Scrolls of Ward against Elementals, a Scroll of Ward against Magic, a Sword +1, light 30' radius, and a Spear +1. Finally, Gróin's birthday was the 3rd.

• Experience from Encounters
  • 5 haugbui (325)
  • 1 draugr (9HD, 3100)
  • 1 cloud giant (peaceful)
  • 1 draugr (7HD, 1840)
  • 1 undead kraken (24100)
• Experience from Treasure
  • 1000 Electrum
  • 1000 Gold
  • 6 crates of armor and weapons (1350)
  • 2 crates of glassware (400)
  • 5 jars of spices (4000)
  • 3 amethyst cylinder seals depicting religious scenes (3600)
  • 7 opal cameo portraits and intaglio erotic tableaux (5600)
  • 15 pieces of ivory (1500)
  • 26 jade carvings of heroes, monsters, and gods (5200)
  • 400 monster feathers (400 - these were kept by Craydos for making magical stuff, and taken out of his share of the treasure)
  • 1 alexandrite (500)
  • 1 Bone jewelry (28)
  • 1 pearl jewelry (2000)
• XP sans Kraken-hunt: 4925, plus 24,178 once sold
• Kraken-hunt XP: 25,940
• XP for Caranthir, Craydos, Mor Gibs, Gróin, and Sorvald: 4253
• XP for Rhea, Luce, Gimli: 274
• XP for Elenora, Pentzkin, Herman, Laurita, and Baelnar: 2127

Bilkthistle Wanderthrust's Magical Funhouse

Seachdamh 8-15, 6638; next holiday, Guard's Day, 8/3!

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator

Finally, the party reunited. Rig, having spent some time hanging out around town, relayed that there was an interesting new dungeon discovered somewhere nearby; after some discussion, the party decided that they would take a look. As it turned out, the dungeon was... well, an interesting place. A funhouse, actually. Created by a mad Gnomish wizard.

Let that sink in a moment.

The rooms, it seems, were full of jump scares, puzzles, and various horrible tests. Two different tests included "basically doing nothing," in fact. One room sported a portion of a chess board; scraping the pieces across the board, the group managed to awaken a level 1 fighter by moving the pawn out of order, and a level 5 fighter, mounted, by moving the knight out of order. They didn't manage to awaken whatever was behind the queen and the bishop, much to my dismay, and their joy.

Not long afterwards, the party came across a room with a table full of potions; each person was to choose a potion, then drink it. Choosing from a rainbow of odd potions - none of which were anything the dwarf or gnome had run across - the party chose the following colors:

• Rig choose green; upon drinking it, he turned a bright shade of purple.
• Llarm chugged a solid black potion; his eyes lit up, projecting a 90' beam of light.
• Faufe drank a smokey potion; his health suddenly fluxuated. His max health will change by 1d8-4 each day.
• Caranthir drank a white potion; something happened, but he wasn't quite sure what.
• Rhea drank one of the invisible potions, and gained a familiar - an undead snake! (As a giant python)
• Elenora chugged the infrared potion, and was suddenly able to speak and understand Draconic and Nobiran... but forgot Common.
• Gróin drank a shimmering potion; his beard began to grow - so quickly that he must shave twice a day, or suffer a -1 to his attack throw!
• Laurita, finally, drank a purple potion; she realized that the taste of meat was unpalatable, and can now only eat fruit or vegetables.

Wandering through yet more puzzles, they party managed to gather some magical treasure! Though two items were damaged, they did gain a pair of Eagle Eyes, a potion of Restore Life and Limb, a wand of Lightning Bolt, and a wand of Fireball. Eventually, the party made its way to the exit, where Luce was waiting. Happily, they found a small trove of treasure - piles of mundane items, along with a Staff of Wizardry, a Wand of Fear, a Helm of Teleportation (with no teleportation spell active), a shiny helm they decided was likely a Helm of Change Alignment, and a Necklace of Adaptation!

• Experience from treasure: none
• Experience from encounters:
  • 1 knight (lvl 5 fighter: 200 XP)
  • 1 pawn (lvl 1 fighter 10 XP)
• Total experience: 210 XP
• XP per PC: 38
• XP per henchman: 18

A Maze of Twisty Passages

A'Chiad 9-14, 6638; next holiday: Dragonning, Treas 35 (the spring equinox)

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Sal Rrentath, Thrassian Gladiator
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Gottes Segen, Cleric
  • Betül Tirmizi, Ectomancer

The adventurers once again returned to the tower, certain that they were near the lowest levels. The winding passages of the 9th floor turned this way and that - a maze!

Laying out the occasional chalk lines, they slowly moved through the maze, looking for traps and fighting the occasional zombies or hulked-out skeletons. Down one corridor, hidden in a secret passage, they found a group of creatures, huddled at the dead end. One had a gold ring, which Quetgar took.

Completely Floored

A'Chiad 8-9, 6638; next holiday: Dragonning, Treas 35 (the spring equinox)

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Sal Rrentath, Thrassian Gladiator
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Gottes Segen, Cleric
  • Betül Tirmizi, Ectomancer

After a quick rest upstairs, the party once again returned to the tower, planning on delving into its depths. Rig and co stayed behind.

The adventurers continued sweeping the 8th floor. The discovered (and avoided) many traps, though found few creatures. The first creature the party ran into was actually summoned into a trap - a mummy! The creature, surrounded, didn't last long.

Don't Eat That

Dara 27 - A'Chiad 7, 6638

Next holiday: Dragonning, Treas 35 (the spring equinox)

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Sal Rrentath, Thrassian Gladiator
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Gottes Segen, Cleric
  • Betül Tirmizi, Ectomancer

With the godmurder dealt with and the pockets stuffed, the party made one last shopping trip before leaving town, picking up a strange ring that seemed to be a +1 Ring, a Duck of Many Things, a Bag of Banking, and a Tankard of Theft. All handy items in their own right. The duck (currently in the form of a cat) seemed ambivalent about the party, but that may simply be because it's in the form of a cat. Gróin, meanwhile, opened a bank account at the nearest Gnomish Bank, which immediately linked it to his Bag of Banking.

Deep and Dangerous

Deug the 24th - 28th (Wintermas tomorrow!)

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
  • The Metal Man, construct
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Gottes Segen, Cleric

The party, unhindered by the attack of the overly-ego'ed Zaharan, continued their sweep of the dungeon. Continued exploration of the 7th level revealed 6 ghouls, easily dealt with, and a bone golem, only a momentary pause. Pilfering its magical swords, some treasure, and a scroll, the party continued its merry way. Soon, they found a scrawled map of the dungeon; following it, they quickly mapped the remaining rooms, and continued down the stairs. Unbeknownst to the party, however, they had released a group of five wraiths, which wandered along behind them. Let that be a lesson for you - never assume the floors above are truly empty. You never know when you've missed a secret room...

Songs, Spectres, and Strangers

Deug the 18th - 24th (only 5 days 'til Wintermas!)

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
  • The Metal Man, construct
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Gottes Segen, Cleric

Picking up from last time, Quetgar read through the golem's book; he reasoned that the golem was looking for its control stone in the well, and decided that he would try to retrieve it. Moving quickly, he dove in before the stone golem could catch him, and dug through the fine silt at the bottom of the pool. He found a small chalice, and buried under the silk, a large ruby! Leaping out of the water, he turned, pointed the ruby at the golem, and commanded "Stop!"... and the golem kept moving. Realizing that the commands in the book were written in Nobrian, he again commanded "Stop!", but this time in the ancient language. The golem creaked to a stop.

Wait, Vampires Are Scary?

Deug the 13th

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
  • The Metal Man, construct
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
• Gottes Segen, Cleric

After selling off the treasure, the dungeon delving continued, now on the sixth level. In the first room was a message, written on the wall: "That Which Never Sleeps shall reign forever!" Secretly, Caranthir swore to never sleep again, just in case. After some careful sweeps, and the discovery of a secret door, the group found a nest of six giant beetles - bombardier beetles, in fact. Leery of an encounter with ranged attacks of burning acid, the party decided to turn the other way, instead. Oddly, the rooms appeared to be well maintained; rather than lichen-covered walls and dusty floors, the rooms were actually fairly hospitable. Creeping forward, the party discovered a single footprint - a dusty tread from another room. The footprint was humanoid. Looking through the door in front of them with her x-ray ring, Rhea saw several cages, each with multiple humanoid figures inside. A few in the party heard scrabbling and hooting on the other side of the door. After a few moments' hushed conversation, Rhea knocked on the door, with Caranthir just behind her, and Quetgar the Thrassian Assassin lurking next to the door frame.

A Dungeoning We Will Go

Deug the 11th

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
  • The Metal Man, construct
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
• Gottes Segen, Cleric

In Wallace, the party sold the goods they had collected; while they were there, Llarm happened to run into a human cleric from her hometown, Sacred Grove. Recognizing an emblem on his robe, Llarm introduced himself, and offered the cleric a place in the party.

Are You My Mummy

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
  • The Metal Man, construct
• Loriel Straight Arrow, Elven Ranger
  • Little Bandit, ferret

After taking down the Skittering Maw - aka Sharktapede - the party returned to their original path, through the (now empty) insect room. After spotting two lesser hellhounds and dispatching them easily, they discovered the stairs down, hidden behind a trapped hidden door; Loriel also found 57 gp worth of gems, which she pocketed. She shared the 600 gp she found, though.

The group continued down the stairs, leaving the rest of the fourth level unexplored. Barely 10 feet inside the fifth level, they spotted a group of five giant scorpions! The menacing beasts clacked their great claws, but Llarm read them a soothing bedtime story, placing them in an enchanted sleep. The fifth beast was quickly slain, and the sleeping monsters destroyed.

The ranger, constantly forgetting to check for traps, flung open a door and set off a trap - a 20' deep spiked pit trap! She fell, impaling herself on two spikes; the party sent Zarc the thrassian down to retrieve her, and did their best to heal her, but she still needed a week's bedrest. Moreover, the fall had damaged her lung, and she was no longer able to move as quickly or as long as the others.

Kicking open a door, Caranthir stared into the gaping maw of three tentacled monsters! The nasty carcass scavengers struck, missing Luce (for once!), but instantly paralyzing Caranthir. The lizardman charged with his two-handed spear, stabbing the creature with enough power that it exploded into a cloud of red mist! Luce and the lizardman struck at the other creatures, and soon, both were dead.

Temples and Towers

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
  • The Metal Man, construct
• Loriel Straight Arrow, Elven Ranger
  • Little Bandit, ferret

Picking up from last time, the party approached the blacked temple. The gouts of flame seemed to erupt every 10 minutes or so, blasting from the top and several window-like holes around the outside. After some discussion, several members entered the temple. The temple itself is a large, round structure, set on top of a hill; inside, a second wall formed a shell. The party moved north, and ran into a group of zombies! These creatures looked like normal zombies, but for a tongue of flame, dancing over their head. And the fact that they unsheathed longswords from within their torsos. Not that it mattered; the zombies were quickly dispatched or Turned. Pursuing the fleeing zombies lead the party to a second set, guarding a doorway into the next ring; those zombies were also quickly dealt with. As the ranger held back attacked the zombies from a clockwise direction, the rest of the party continued pushing them counter-clockwise. Eventually, all the zombies were turned, and crushed as they cowered in a corner.

The second layer of corridors were filled with fire elementals - easy enough to deal with, especially when all those in combat had rings (or spells) of Fire Resistance. After destroying two of the creatures, they ran around the circle again, trapping the remaining two elementals and finishing them off. During all of this, Caranthir managed to traps the spirits of three of the creatures in his sword, joining the dragon and the poor lizardman. He felt the blade gain in power - it's now a +1 sword!

Dungeon Bash

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• James Morthor, Warlock
  • Doggan, Tiny-Sized Dragon familiar
  • Iodberta, Fighter
  • Frauuara "Frauline", Fighter
  • Leah Thewend, Airwalker
  • Encarna D'Cruz, Priestess
  • Alice, human child (age 10)
• Airsen Birdmaster, Airwalker
  • Sara, Airwalker
  • Erik Stein, Dwarven Vaultguard
• Sneakily, Spy
  • Dzixud, Thrassian Assassin

Caranthir and Airsen returned to Wallace to fetch their companions; since Morthor, Rig, and Llarm's players weren't present, they were left behind in Wallace. As long as they were there, they scoured the area for henchmen, and ended up hiring two: a Thrassian Assassin named Dzixud for Sneakily, and a Dwarven Vaultguard named Erik Stein and an Airwalker named Sara for Airsen. They also borrowed Elenora, the white mage, as they knew they would need some healing. As a special note, that makes Erik the third humanoid male this party has hired, beside Zarc and Faufe. There are still no human male henchmen...

Split Party: Part Two

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Grerr, Wardog totem animal (deceased)
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Airsen Birdmaster, Airwalker

Meanwhile, Caranthir noticed most of his companions were no longer in town; with Rig and Llarm still recovering, he and Airsen had nothing to do. They spent a few days listening for rumors; first, they heard of a small shop, with cut-rate merchandise, and picked up a Scroll of Gods, hoping to glean some hidden knowledge. They left a Potion of Anything, planning on returning for it later. Eventually, they ran into a city guard who was tasked with finding adventurers to clear out a problem on the Wall: the lower half of Mareten Tower had been closed off for centuries, but recently, something had been knocking on the door... from the inside. Eager to participate, the duo, along with their henchmen, explored the first floor of the tower. Apart from a painful magical trap and a carefully avoided pit, there was little of excitement. However, on the second floor (down), they had not explored far before a portcullis came crashing down, cutting off the exit! Airsen and Caranthir were trapped on one side, with Luce and Rhea Trueheart on the other. Hoping the paths rejoined, they continued exploring.