This portion of the Journal chronicles the introduction of some new party members, and the beginning of a new adventure. The party has been sent to investigate the mysterious events transpiring in the village of Orlane. Why are the citizens shuttered in their homes, afraid to work in the fields and go about their chores?

Real-World game date index
[ 14 Jun | 12 Jul | 26 Jul | 2 Aug | 16 Aug | 6 Sep | 20 Sep | 4 Oct | 18 Oct | 1 Nov | 15 Nov | 29 Nov | 13 Dec | 27 Dec | 10 Jan ]

Real-world date: 14 June 2003
Game-world date: 26 Janus 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

It was past nightfall, and I'd been in Willip for two days, before I stumbled across 'The Bank of Willip'. I went there this afternoon, to deposit my pile of loot. It was getting to be be too much to carry around, and I feel a lot better now that it's someplace more secure than that run-down flop house I've been staying at. There were even a couple of guards armed with pole-arms at the entrance. When I stepped inside, everything went all yellowish for just a second. The teller I talked to, said that was part of the 'magic security system'. 'I' sure as heck wouldn't want to try and break in to steal something. When I told the teller that I wanted to open an account, she pointed at some benches and told me to wait for an "advisor".

When I went to the waiting area, there was this totally hot chick already waiting there. Next thing I know, there's this incredibly lame pick-up line coming out of my mouth. She looks at me like I've got another cockroach crawling out of my nose. (I'm so glad I found a better place to stay.) I figured she'd just pretend I wasn't there after that, but she asked my name, and started asking about what I do and stuff. Turns out her name's Duracell, and she's part of a group that does stuff for some rich guy that lives just out of town. Luckily, they're looking for more people to help them out. When I said I'd be interested, she asked where I was staying. She said she'd send a cab for me at 6 this evening. That way I could go and meet the rest of their group. Whoo hoo! A hot chick sending a cab to pick me up! Now that's a first.

About then, one of the advisors showed up, and Duracell went off to fill out some paperwork. A little bit later, another advisor showed up, and I filled out my paperwork. I deposited my money, and opened an account, all legal like and such. When I got done, Duracell was already gone. It was early afternoon, so I figured I'd wander around town some more; do some sightseeing in this unusual city. Around the corner next to the bank is the 'Merchant's Guild'. Next to that was a place called 'The Tree Stump'. There was a sign at the door shaped like a dude holding out his hand, to show how tall something is. It said, "You must be no taller than this to enter." I stood next to the sign just for laughs, and the dude was poking me in the ribs.

The building across the street looked interesting, so I decided to check it out. It was surrounded by what looked like a fenced in park or something. Turns out, it's a Massage Parlor and Bath House. The park was a Meditation Garden. Massages are 5 sp for 30 minutes. Communal baths are 1 sp a day for unlimited use. Private baths are 1 sp for 30 minutes. You can use the Meditation Garden for 1 sp per day. I decided to have a private bath and a half-hour massage to get ready for tonight. They even cleaned my clothes for 1 cp. I should make a better impression when I see Duracell tonight than I did today. There are also Geishas available here, so I might come back and see if I can get one to teach me to be less of a dumb-ass when I talk to the babes.

It was about time to head back to the Mariner's Fellowship House, I didn't want to miss Duracell's cab. When it showed up, she was in it. Not only did she send a cab to fetch me, she came to get me herself! I must have made a better impression than I thought. There were all these sailors hanging out in front of the inn, hollering all kinds of cat-calls at her. I just turned around and grinned, giving them one of those 'Yep, I'm with her, and none of you losers are' looks. You know the kind.

During the cab ride, I found out that Duracell and her companions work for someone that she just kept calling "X". Turns out they didn't just work for him, they live at his place, too. When we got to his manor just outside of town, Duracell introduced me to a couple of her companions. Thalidimar is a priest of Tymora, and seems to be the current leader of the group. At least, he did most of the talking. Lumiarti is a magic user. All he seemed to care about was whether or not I could use spells too. I guess he didn't want a rival in the group. Typical pompous spell caster.

We went to the dining room for dinner, and Thalidimar introduced me to some kid named Ellis. Thalidimar whispered to me that "Ellis is X's protege, and he's more than he seems". He told me to make sure and treat the kid with some amount of respect, so I was polite and formal with him. Seems like just a kid to me, though. I was surprised not to see this X character at dinner. It felt weird to be eating at some guy's place without at least meeting him first. The food was good, though - a lot better than what I've been forcing down lately. During dinner, Thalidimar asked more detailed questions about what I can do for their group. He always seemed to wait until I had just stuck something in my mouth, before he'd ask a question. I felt like I was in an interview, which didn't really surprise me. I seemed to pass, 'cause by the end of dinner he welcomed me into the group, and said that I would be a good addition to the team. I also found out that Duracell is a monk, and from the way she and Thalidimar were ribbing each other, it sounds like she can be temperamental at times.

After dinner, Nathis (the House Servant) led us into another room that looked like a study. There was a huge Raven they keep as a pet or something on a perch. After a few minutes, this old blind guy walked into the room. You could tell he had lived in this place for a while, cause he knew just how many steps to take between each turn. He started thanking Thalidimar for whatever task they had done for him last, something about retrieving some books for his research or something. Turns out the old blind guy was actually X. Strange I was expecting someone a bit more intimidating. Thalidimar told X that a couple of the people that were working with them, had left: a Ranger and a Fighter. Thalidimar then introduced me, and said that I would be filling in for the ranger, but that he was still looking for someone to take the fighter's place. I hope he realizes that I don't know the first thing about forests and animals and such. Anyway, X seemed surprised that someone new was present, but he introduced himself anyway, and said that his name was something I couldn't begin to try to spell. Now I know why everyone just calls him "X". He welcomed me, and said Nathis would show me where I could pick out a room of my own to stay in. Yes! No more chasing rats out of my stuff in the middle of the night!

X then explained that a couple of weeks ago, he received a letter from a former colleague or employee or something, named Allen Clayborn. Evidently, Allen lives in a village called Orlane, where something seems to be going on. Orlane has a temple to Tymora, but is otherwise just a dinky little farming village with a forest and a swamp nearby. Evidently, the entire village is scared out of its wits. Work has pretty much ground to a halt, and people just hide in their homes behind closed doors and shutters. There are rumors about creatures from the swamps, a strange disease, people disappearing from their homes without a trace, etc. X wants us to go find out what's really going on, and fix it if we can. He'll pay us 5,000 gp each, and we can keep whatever we find.

After that, X left and Nathis took me to pick out a room to stay in. Dang! This is the largest room I've ever had to myself! After I picked out a room, I went to walk back to town to get my stuff, but the cab I arrived in was still out front. The driver said that he had been hired for the day, so he could take me to that flophouse and back, without charge. I tipped him a silver piece when we got back anyway.

Well, I'm going to try out this bed now. I've never felt anything so soft. I'm going to sleep well tonight!

DM's Note: This session was attended by our anemic core of three players. We really need more players. I've got three potential players lined up, but I'll be creating some NPC's just in case. I continue to post the players wanted ads at work, and I occasionally get calls in response to the ad at 'Attactix'. Hopefully, one of the potential players will come through for the group. The next session will be July 12th, as Kim and I will be moving on the weekend of the 28th.

Real-world date: 12 July 2003
Game-world date: 28-29 Febulus 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

It’s been over three weeks since X asked us to investigate Orlane, and we still haven’t found any strong-arm types to take with us. I’ve had about as much weapons training as I can stand at the moment, so I didn’t go back to the fighter school this morning. I decided to study a few of the locks around X’s manor instead. I started with the lock on the kitchen’s outside door. At first it looked like just an ordinary cam-spring system lock, but as I began to manipulate it, the cam following pins would bind up in their guide holes. It’s almost as if the following pins don’t push the spring rods directly, but there’s something between them that falls out of place when the pins aren’t all aligned at the same time. It makes manipulating them individually pretty much impossible.

That’s as far as I got with my examination, because Nathis and Thalidimar came walking up right then. Thalidimar said that there were a couple of guys in the courtyard garden that I just had to meet, and then walked off without saying anything more. So, I went to the courtyard. There was an ugly Dwarf standing by the fountain, and an uglier Half-Orc splashing around in it. It’s going to take the groundskeeper (what was his name again?) about a month to get that film off the stones. I went up and introduced myself to the dwarf. He said his name was “Dokren of the Stone Fist Clan” and the Half-Orc was called Kragus. Kragus said he kills orcs and slapped himself pretty hard. That seems to be a favorite pass-th’-time of his. Dokren asked if our entire group was human. I told him that we had an Elven Wizard with us. He said something about two strikes against us. Why do Dwarves think they have to make up for being short by having bigger egos?

Thalidimar hadn’t taken them to meet Ellis yet, so we took Kragus outside of the manor (where he would be less likely to break something valuable) to wait, and went in search of Nathis. Nathis said that Ellis and X were studying in the library, and that they would be joining us for dinner that evening. X usually doesn’t join us for dinner, so I figure he’s probably going to fire us for not heading out to Orlane yet. I figured I’d just as soon wait till dinner to speak to them, and introductions could be done then. We rounded up Kragus and headed back for the courtyard. I thought maybe Nathis could set them up with rooms. Thalidimar, Duracell and Lumiarti were waiting for us. Introductions were made all around. Dokren is a rangeless Ranger, so the old Ranger’s vacancy is truly filled. Whew! I’m a lot more comfortable in a city. I’d just as soon somebody else took the lead in the forest, etc. “Kragus kill Orcs!” –THWACK!– I don’t know why a Dwarf is hanging out with this Half-Orc. Maybe he found Kragus abandoned in some forest and raised him or something. As long as we’re stuck with him, we can stick Kragus out front as the most conspicuous target. He looks like he can mow down pretty much anyone anyway, so I guess we have a warrior type now. I figured that maybe we could tell X that we could head out for Orlane right away now and maybe avoid getting fired.

I mentioned to Dokren that Thalidimar had originally thought I was going to be filling in for the former Ranger. Dokren grabbed my hand, held it down next to his, and told Thalidimar to compare them. He said there’s no way my “girly” hands could do a Ranger’s job. I wonder how “girly” he’d think my hands were if he saw them wrapped around the handle of his own axe as I buried it between his eyes? Nah, not worth the effort. Getting his axe away from him’d be too easy anyway. You could shave him bald and hang him from the ceiling by his ankles before he’d wake up when he’s sleeping off a drunk.

Since Orlane has a temple to Tymora, I suggested to Thalidimar that he visit the local temple to see if they have heard from Orlane lately. Also, the more contacts we know of in the village before we arrive, the better off we are. We made a list of supplies for him to pick up while he was in town.

We introduced the newcomers to Ellis and X at dinner. X seemed pretty interested in what clan Dokren was from and if there was any association with another clan. Seems X had a run-in with the Iron Boot Clan before. Then he announced that he had called in a favor with a Capt. Highlander and booked passage for us on a “sky-ship” called the Corona. So we weren’t being fired, but it was a not-so-subtle hint to get our butts in gear. He said it will be setting out day-after-tomorrow. It will take us on a two-day journey to Hlondeth. We’ll have to find another ship to take us from Hlondeth to a city called Nimpeth, where a road leads to Orlane.

All through the dinner, Dokren kept complaining that the meat in the meat pie had been cooked. He likes his meat raw. Yeah yeah, we get it. You’re a rough, tough guy. Give it a rest already.

I prowled the grounds before turning in. Kragus snores like a rockslide. I hope we never need to keep a campsite location secret. The flowerbed he flopped on for the night will have to be completely rebuilt and replanted. He doesn’t have much in the way of possessions.

29 Febulus 1001:
At breakfast, we decided to see if we could get aboard the Corona (and out of X’s sight) as early as possible. As we were gathering our stuff to load into the cabs, I noticed Dokren had Kragus carrying a barrel-shaped object wrapped in a blanket. Considering how much they both like beer, it was pretty obvious what was going on.

Dokren claimed to know Capt. Highlander personally, so he told the cabbie to go to some house in Willip. A woman holding a kid answered the door. When Dokren came back to the cab, he said the captain was already aboard ship, and we should just head down to the docks (like we should have done to begin with, duh). Now I know why X called the Corona a “sky-ship.” Instead of floating in the harbor, it was floating above the harbor. And it had extra masts and sails sticking out of its sides. It’s huge, even for a regular ship. How does it stay up there?

There were two longboats tied to the dock attended by a couple of guys in uniforms. One of the guys was a Dwarf, so Dokren walked up to him and started talking to him in what I assume was Dwarven. After a couple of minutes, Dokren told Kragus to throw the barrel into one of the longboats. And that’s what Kragus did. The barrel soared from the dock and through the bottom of the longboat. The longboat sank while the barrel bobbed nearby. Dokren told Kragus to get the barrel out of the water. Kragus jumped in, but the water was deep. Kragus kept trying to lift the barrel out of the water, but just succeeded in pushing himself under. That is, until Dokren told him that the barrel was beer. Somehow, Kragus managed to heave the barrel up out of the water and back onto the dock.

The uniformed guys said we should head out to the ship in the undamaged longboat, and that another longboat would be sent for our stuff. The longboat was lifted up to the ship by long ropes. Once we were onboard, a weird-looking guy introduced himself as Lt. Cmdr. Shamus Sabertooth, the ship’s coordinator. He looked almost normal except for the extra pair of arms sticking out of his ribs. Somebody later told me that his race is called the Hakheerians. Anyway, he said that all of the passenger berths are double berths and he was expecting all of them to be filled, so we needed to decide who was rooming with who. I volunteered to berth with Duracell, while everyone else tried to avoid being Kragus’s berthmate. I was surprised to find out that there is only room enough for 12 passengers. I didn’t realize at first that the Corona is primarily a cargo ship.

Dokren went to find the captain, while we waited for our supplies. While we were stowing our stuff, Dokren came back and said there was a problem. Evidently, the ship has an all-male crew, and the captain doesn’t want Duracell to go anywhere unescorted, just in case. We asked her who she wanted to accompany her, and I was floored when she picked me. I was sure she would pick Thalidimar. While this was going on, the rest of the passengers arrived. They turned out to be dignitaries from Chondath on their way back from some kind of trade negotiations. Thalidimar went off talking with one of them. Dokren convinced Kragus to take a nap and then went off in search of beer. I normally would have occupied my day exploring every nook and cranny of the ship I could get away with, but that’s a lot harder to do while dragging someone else along. I ended up spending the entire afternoon making inane comments to Duracell about how nice the weather is; boy, you can really feel the breeze up here; isn’t this ship huge?; how do you think they keep it up here?; etc. I couldn’t think of a single intelligent thing to say the whole time. She must really think I’m an idiot by now.

We came across Thalidimar in a library at one point. Evidently, the dignitaries we’re traveling with know of X, and they want to meet him. In exchange, they gave us a paper that will allow us to enter their country if we need to flee that direction from Orlane. They also gave Thalidimar some information about the region. We’re going to an area called Sespech, which used to be part of Chondath, and which Chondath is trying to take back. We’re going to be really close to an area where increasing numbers of evil creatures called Nagas have been reported. Nagas are a kind of snake people. Gee, I wonder what might be attacking Orlane from the swamp?

Finally it was dinner time. Shamus told us that we would be eating with the captain in his cabin, which is right next to our berths. I was surprised when it was just us and none of the dignitaries were there. I figured he invited all of the passengers. Kragus had been drinking all day, but managed to behave himself better than I’ve ever seen him during a meal. Dokren was the last to show up, led by a pissed off Halfling. Dokren was already staggering drunk, and had evidently been making fun of the Halfling’s name, “Plinthingus.” Then again, once we heard it, we were all laughing too. The captain told us that we would be setting sail early, at midnight, which was good news to all of us. After dinner, the captain invited us to view the lights of Willip from his private balcony. I borrowed Thalidimar’s spyglass to check out the rooftops of Willip. I wanted to see which ones were flat or sloped, which ones had openings on or near them, that kind of thing. I gave up after a while when I realized I didn’t know what the buildings I was looking at were anyway.

So here I am in my berth. Duracell’s asleep in her cot across the room. Why can’t I talk to chicks? Why is it that every time I get near a babe that’s at all good looking, my mind goes blank and all that comes out of my mouth is totally stupid? Why did Duracell pick me to escort her on this ship? There’s no way she can’t think I’m not a total bonehead by now. And there’s two whole more days that I’ve got to escort her around this ship. Well, I don’t think I’m ever going to get to sleep tonight. I think I’ll see how far up in the rigging I can get away with climbing and then see how long it takes for the lights of Willip to disappear.

DM's Note: This session was attended by four players! I'm still trying to recruit a couple more, and I've already created one NPC. This session marked the introduction of two new characters. Dokren, played by Joe Raiten, and Kragus, played by me (he's the NPC I mentioned). I've recently started linking personalities mentioned, to a new web page. A "Who's Who" page. I hope this new feature improves your enjoyment of the journal.

Real-world date: 26 July 2003
Game-world date: 29 Febulus - 2 Marcav 1001
Written by: Dokren

Well, we departed Willip at midnight on the 29th of Febulus, and we are now traveling in a wholly unnatural (if rather comfortable) fashion. At about noon, a commotion on Deck gets my attention, so I go to see what it is all about. It turns out that there is a shipwreck below us. We are somewhere over the water, between some Islands called the Pirate Isles, and the main land.

Captain Highlander decides to see what is going on. So the flying abomination is brought to a halt, and we pick up some survivors. There are six men total, and two are in bad shape. Those two are taken to a place they called 'Sickbay'. The others are put into some of the other rooms. The Chondathan Delegates are now forced to double up in their cabins.

Thalidimar, who has further exerted himself as the head of this group, is allowed to sit in on a debriefing of the shipwrecks First Mate. It turns out the first mate, a human called Serati, and his five fellows were out there for a day and a half. They had been aboard the Thistledown. The Thistledown is a trade ship from a free city by the name of Procampur. They were transporting Gold and Gems to some place called Alaghon. Apparently there was some confusion, because the first mate first said that he did not know who the pirates were, but then later did. Some Ship called the Maelstrom, captained by one Vurgrom the Mighty, was the ship he identified. Apparently there were many killed and the ship was sunk.

Ashedyn, our resident sneak, also noticed that some cargo brought on board, and while we all go get what passes for food, he decides to check it out. He returns later, apparently thwarted by a guard. Thalidimar, ever the nice guy, decides he might be able to help the men in the sickbay, so off he goes. Thalidimar tells us that one of the survivors told him that there were slaves taken, and we later find out this is common practice in these parts. It seems I am not alone in my distaste for slavery.

The next morning, I am awakened by knocking on a door nearby. When I answer the door, it is some Human named Rutger something or another. He tells me there has been a murder, that he's doing a head check now and will be interviewing all of us later. Turns out we won’t be dropping these survivors off at some place on the way, like was previously decided. When we go out to the deck the crew is being counted and the morning meal is delayed.

Turns out the dead guy is none other than the trade delegate Ekhahar. A Gnome is the Inspector General of this ship, Lt. Commander Vitus Gothings. I figure I will see if my abilities can help solve this murder. They won’t let me see the place the body was found without permission from the Gnome; so I go to the morgue, yes this huge thing has a place to store dead bodies. By a stroke of luck, I find this Gnome on the way out, and after a short chat he lets me join in his investigation.

The first step, since I am here, is to look at the body. The murder weapon is rounded not bladed, and very sharp. He was stabbed once or twice with killing blows, but then he was stabbed several other times. He wasn’t all bruised up, so he was either surprised, or he knew his killer. I have begun to suspect the other trade Delegates, even if Thalidimar thinks it is Serati or one of the survivors.

I decide to get something to eat. I am starving, as I had forgotten to have breakfast in all the commotion this morning. Kragus, who has been quite less bothersome than I thought he would be, was late for the evening meal. It turns out he was in his interview. Kragus points out that he saw one of the survivors came out of Ekhahar’s room the night before. (This information was not nearly as damning as I make it sound here; because some of the survivors were quartered in the same rooms with the delegates.) When Rutger arrives to continue with the interviews, I volunteer to go for my interview next.

In this interview, Rutger asks me all sorts of questions about who I know, and don’t know. I found that he was interested in some strange details, like whether or not I had seen the dead guy at supper or lunch the day before, and where I met Captain Highlander. Hell I didn’t remember if it was lunch or dinner... well he was at lunch, but I don’t know about dinner. After the interview, I go back to my cabin, but when I get there the guard that earlier told me that I was not allowed to go look in the Laundry closet where the body was found was not there. So I went into the closet. After shutting the door and waiting for my dark-vision to kick in, I deduce that he was killed in the room, while still standing. This whole thing seems odd to me. When I come out of the closet, there is a guard there. The guard, a human, doesn’t seem to believe that I am helping Vitus out, and says that he was relieving the earlier watch, which he claims is a Dwarf. Although I tell the human I am going to report this, and I actually do later, I figure he must be lying as no Dwarf I know would leave a post.

As I am talking to the guard., Thalidimar comes out or Serati’s room. He looks really upset, and we go and talk to the Captain. The Captain has this ... thing, that he takes out and strikes. It rings like a chime, and then he puts it back in a drawer. Then he says that we will not be able to lie for a while. We talk to the Captain about the fact that Thalidimar has found out that Serati and his fellows were all on a plot with the pirate ship. This plot went bad when the pirate decided not to honor his side, which I am sure is common with pirates.

Later that day, the Captain has us all come back in to his quarters. He strikes this chime again, and asks us each whether or not we killed Ekhahar, and did the same himself. He then gives us the name of a Human from whom we can get some horses. I wonder if these people realize that I don't like the idea of riding an animal without it’s permission. There was nothing left to do until we leave the ship, so we all went to bed.

In the morning Serati and his fellows, save the one who decided to tell the truth, were all hanging from the yard arms. Looks like Justice is served. Turns out Captain Highlander will be delivering the cargo that was salvaged. The strange thing is that they are not really sure who killed Ekhahar, even as we leave the ship.

Once on the docks, we now have to try to get across a small sea. I am about as pleased with this, as the idea that I was going to be traveling by flying ship. Kragus has an idea, which I would have thought was beyond him. That is to talk to someone named the Harbor Master. This person, yes another Human, tell us that there is a ship leaving for Nimpeth, or at least I think that is it, in three hours. We arrange passage with it’s captain, a Human by the name of Melvant, and as I know that Kragus has no money, I pay for him.

The Voyage by sea was mercifully short and uneventful. Thalidimar seems quite upset that there are slaves in this port. That, of course does not bother me as much as the idea that Lumiarti, Ashedyn and Duracell are not bothered. Kragus seems to think that Slavery is a bad thing as well, but he and Thalidimar are the only ones who voice much of an opinion. Thalidimar also speaks with some of the slaves in hopes of gaining some information about the city we are headed to, with no avail. It turns out that The Painted Pony was transporting horses from the Corona.

The others all pick out horses from the man who’s name Highlander gave us; but for me it is not so simple. I go and talk to several of the horses to see if they will be receptive, but have no luck. I then go on to the ponies. I think the others do not understand that they have chosen to treat these fine animals as slaves. It is the final Pony, and the eighth mount I look at, that finally seems ok with the idea of me riding it.

Player Note: this is where we left it, with us getting ready to take off for the village of Orlane. I think the DM is right... we need to fill those spots

DM's Note: This session was attended by four players. I'm still trying to recruit a couple more. I've had a few inquiries, but so far no takers.

Real-world date: 2 August 2003
Game-world date: 2 - 6 Marcav 1001
Written by: Thalidimar

Riding a horse; I have not ridden a horse in quite some time, but the animal seems quite agile and friendly. At least he's listening to me, and hasn't tried to throw me off yet. The images of the slave pens in Nimpeth still eats at me. I despise slavery, my sister is now a slave or worse. I will find her, but for now I must follow Tymora's guidance, and hope that through working for X, and making contact and honing my abilities, that one day I will be able to find her. For now, the task at hand is to help the village of Orlane; to find out what it destroying what was once a peaceful and prosperous town. Orlane is known for it's wine and spirits. Why would someone want to destroy a town who's purpose is to provide an escape from the hardships of life?

Ekhahar; strange that I think of him, perhaps thinking of the hardship's of life brought him to mind. A man who saw the good in helping others, now dead, for reasons I still don't understand. Riding along the road to take the Winterwood trail, we came upon a caravan. Safety in numbers being an age old adage, we joined them, traveling with them until we reached Winterwood trail north camp. I really had no desire to get to know any of the people in the caravan, however, I did overhear two rumors being chatted about during the ride.

Before long we reached the Winterwood north trail camp. This semi-permanent camping ground looked well used. A fire pit, now filled with nothing but ash, marked the camps center. No permanent buildings were visible, and as the caravan was not taking the Winterwood trail, we parted ways and decided to camp for the night before traveling towards orlane, through the Winterwood. I shared the rumors with the team, and got the expected responses. I listened, stored for future reference, and stayed focused on the task at hand - helping Orlane. We made camp, set our watch, and settled down for a well deserved rest before beginning the journey through the Winterwood.

My turn for watch - Riding all day gave me time to think to myself, no sense in dwelling more on the past, so I sat down and started my prayers. Listening for signs of trouble with one ear, my thoughts were on Tymora as I asked her to grant me the luck I would need to survive another day. I had just finished my last prayer, and was checking the fire, when a sound, no a cacophony of gibbering, tore through the night. The sound was unnerving, I rushed to wake the party as it appeared to be getting closer. We had some time before whatever it was reached the camp. Everyone donned their armor and prepared to face the unseen menace. The gibbering grew louder, and I could see some of the party becoming unnerved. Kragus stated calmly, with his ever most comical enforcement of the obvious, that the sounds were bothering him, and that he could see what looked like a mass of small humanoids just outside the light of the fire. Lumiarti was definitely unnerved. Perhaps for good reason, not just the sound, but he knew what was making that sound. Gibberlings he stated. They traveled in hoards, not packs, and always attacked en masse, looking to drag their victims to the ground and overwhelm them with their numbers.

I tossed a flask of oil into the fire to brighten it, and the mass of Gibberlings moved in. There were more than 30 of them. The battle was quite uneventful, they were weak, but had numbers, and succeeded in hurting us, but not badly. My ego perhaps was the most bruised thing after that battle; as I was shoved down an embankment by four of them. Fortunately, the team worked like a well oiled machine, and before we knew it, 30+ dead Gibberlings littered the camp. Dokren's string of bad luck continued, as he inadvertently injured his pony during the battle. I will need to remember to ask Tymora look over this Dwarf.

Lumiarti said that he believed we would be ok, as we had slain enough Gibberlings that the rest of the colony would not come looking for more trouble this evening.We settled back into camp, set watch again, and waited till morning to begin our trek towards Orlane. The travel through the forest was uneventful, and we reached the Winterwood south camp. Funny, another camp to stop for the night in. We all laughed that perhaps we should pass up the camp and travel on some, as these camps seem to be great spots for murderous beasts to watch regularly for travelers.

Not to be fretted, we decided against pushing the horses, and settled in for the night again. Kragus woke everyone with one statement. "Orcs" he said. The slapping of the face, the "I kill Orcs" statements were gone. Nothing was in kragus's eyes but confidence and a desire to slay.

We need to talk to Kragus, his strength was quite obvious during the Gibberling battle as he swam into them and killed them one and two at a time, never faltering, even taking a beating, but his headlong rush into the orcs, well perhaps a lesson in strategy would help him understand that we all can kill orcs, and all kill them together more effectively than him alone. Kragus dropped orcs left and right, again the battle was tough, but not too tough, Kragus took a beating, but thanks to Tymora we were able to keep him going. At one point I heard Dokren scream that Kragus was down, I raced towards him, seeing four Orcs standing over him, but as I got there and attempted to heal, he got up, and slew two more orcs before another heartbeat pulsed in my chest. I healed Kragus again, and helped the rest of the party as well.

'This is a team, that if it can stay together, has the potential to do anything', I thought to myself, while nursing the various wounds of Duracell, Ash, Dokren, Lumiarti, and Kragus. Oh and me, yea I am Thalidimar, Cleric of Tymora, bringer of luck and life. On to Orlane...

DM's Note: This session was attended by a full group. We had one new player show up. Rob Ramsey (and Michelle) from the 'Springs. It's a long way to drive, but I'll do my best to make it worth it. I hope they had a good time. Rob played Lumiarti the Schizophrenic. Michelle watched and offered advice. Aside from Rob's presence, I've got another tentative player lined up. Hopefully we'll start to see some six player sessions in the future.

Real-world date: 16 August 2003
Game-world date: 6 - 7 Marcav 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

Kragus woke us up in the middle of the night. He said he smelled orcs. I hurried to put on my armor. Good thing the moon's still nearly full, or I wouldn't have been able to see anything. I still couldn't see very well anyway. Thalidimar had a good idea that I'll have to remember. He used one of the bullseye lanterns once the fighting got started to show where the orcs were. (Note to self: keep one lit and hooded during watch from now on.)

Anyway, back to what was going on. I put on my armor in a hurry, and got ready. Kragus ran off out of sight into the night again. I shot at orcs when they came into view. One ran up to me and hit me with his axe pretty hard, so I put him down with my rapier. I heard Lumiarti do one of his spells, and a bunch of the Orcs fell over and started snoring. I heard Duracell hollering that Kragus needed help, so I ran in that direction. Kragus was on the ground and Duracell was facing three bigger Orcs. I ran up to help, but Duracell, Dokren and Kragus took care of them before I could do much. I yelled that we should tie up the sleeping orcs, but Kragus and Lumiarti just ran over and killed them. So much for trying to get any information from them. Kragus got pretty beat up again. I might have a chat with him and see if I can get him not to run off on his own whenever we get into a fight.

We gathered up the Orcs' stuff, but all they had was axes, scale armor and teeth. I was the only one Thalidimar couldn't heal up right away, so he told me to sleep on the cot he carries around.

I didn't see what the big deal about Thalidimar's cot was when I woke up in the morning. I felt about the same as I would have if I'd slept in my own tent. We decided to rest for a bit before setting out for Orlane, and Thalidimar insisted that I rest on the cot some more. I did, and I felt fully healed when I got up. Maybe there's something to that cot after all.

We left the camp a little before lunch time. Nothin' happened for the rest of the journey to Orlane. We arrived near dinner time. I remembered how X said the people in town are acting, so I suggested to Thalidimar that we go straight to the Temple of Tymora with his letter of introduction. It was on the other side of town on a bit of a hill. As we rode through town, we didn't see anybody. It's not like the town was abandoned, 'cause we could hear some activity. It's more like nobody wanted to leave their homes or shops unless they had to.

The temple is the only stone building in the village. All the rest are built of wood. The large wooden gates were slightly ajar, so we just went into the temple's courtyard, which was all overgrown even though there was a gardener trying to pull some weeds. We tied our horses to a hitching post, and Thalidimar went to talk to the gardener. He said his name was Aferdra, but he didn't seem to want to talk, and he walked off. We went inside the temple, and Thalidimar quickly found the contact he was told about, a Priestess named Misha Devi. She acted like she didn't know about anything weird going on in Orlane, and after a short conversation, Thalidimar led us back out of the temple. We left the temple, and Thalidimar and Lumiarti led us to a grove of trees. Thalidimar told us that the whole atmosphere at the temple is very strange. He could definitely tell that Misha is trying to mislead us, and somebody might be forcing her to. When he traded coins with her, she gave Thalidimar a weird looking electrum piece. It has a snake's head on one side and a couple of ears of corn on the other side. Lumiarti said that she is wearing a magical amulet around her neck and a magical ring. He figures the ring is some kind of protective device, but he couldn't tell what the amulet might be doing.

I suggested that 'maybe we could get some more information about what's going on around here', if we went back to the inn we had passed and got some dinner. While Dokren took our horses to the coral, Thalidimar ran across the street to a moneychanger's shop to see if Misha's electrum piece was a normal coin or not. Turns out it's not. I was disappointed when I walked into the inn's common room, 'cause there weren't very many people there, and they were all sitting alone, so I knew we wouldn't be overhearing any gossip. There was only one table big enough for our group, and the guy sitting at it got up and went to a smaller table when we walked in. He looked at us like we would've beat him up if he hadn't moved, so I made a point of thanking him for the table when we sat down. After we had all been served dinner (Except for Lumiarti, who refuses to eat with the rest of us anymore. I swear, he gets more uppity every day.), a couple of farmers came in. We invited them over to our table and bought them a couple of rounds. Their names are Magnus and Kendrick Fortens. They're humans, and they're brothers. They didn't know anything about any "snake people" in town, but one of them had seen a Green Dragon fly overhead. He figures that's why some of his cows have gone missing. Lumiarti had made a pretty good sketch of the town as we rode through it, and the Fortens pointed out the mayor's house and Alain Clayborns' farm for us (they kept pronouncing his name like Elaine). They also pointed out which farms have been abandoned recently. So far, they're the only people we've met in town, except for the Clayborns that seem to be straightforward with us.

After dinner, we decided to check in with Alain. It was already dark, and there were no lights on in his house, but Thalidimar went up and knocked on the door anyway. Alain eventually answered, and after we had established ourselves as having been sent by X, he invited us into his house. His wife, Marieke, soon kicked us out so we wouldn't wake up their children, so we went out to his barn. Dokren put our horses in the coral and we took all our stuff into the barn, since Alain said we could stay the night there. He went to see if we had been followed. When he came back, he said he saw two of the local boys, which was strange since it was so late and they live on the other side of the town. He went and got a bottle of wine from the house, and when he came back to the barn, he was carrying a sword and a bow. He told us about how people have gone missing, and then showed up later not acting like themselves. He also told us that there's some old hermit that lives in a nearby grove that Alain doesn't seem to think is playing with a full deck. He also suggested there might be a possibility we wouldn't be completely safe sleeping in the barn overnight, so we set up watches again. Lumiarti went to spend the night in a tree, thinking he'd be less likely to be noticed.

7 Marcav 1001, Aprochen
While we were eating the breakfast that Marieke brought us this morning, Lumiarti told us that he had seen some activity really late at night at the house east of the Clayborns' farm. We decided to start off today by seeing if we could find the hermit Alain mentioned, and then we would go and talk to the Mayor. We followed a path into the woods, and soon came to a run-down cottage. There was a hairy old gnome that called himself Ramne. He had a pet weasel that kept hissing at us. Alain's right - the old coot has lost a few marbles. We did manage to get him to tell us that there are "snake people" in town that come out at night - people that hiss at him when they see him. He also told us that he has seen troglodytes in town. From what I know of those smelly lizard men, this seems very strange. Usually they just raid a town and kill everybody they can. Why are they sneaking around?

Everybody else decided they needed their horses to go to the mayor's house. It's like, what, a whole 20 minute walk? How lazy can you get? I walked. The mayor's house is the most ornate building in Orlane besides the temple. Zakarias Ormond turned out to be your typical smarmy politician type, but he did tell us that he is aware that some kind of cult seems to have taken up residence in Orlane. He suspects the blacksmith, carpenter, shopkeeper, and constable of being part of it. He gave us permission to try to find out what's going on, and he offered us a 1,000gp reward to fix it.

After talking to the Mayor, we decided to check out some of the farmhouses that have been abandoned. Lumiarti had a theory that the cult has taken over the temple and is using it for its base, and that Nagas are digging tunnels from it to the neighboring houses. The abandoned houses are all close to the temple and all north of the river that runs through town. He thought that the Nagas can't dig their tunnels under the river or the millpond. We decided to check out the abandoned house furthest from the temple first. The horses were taken back to the Clayborns'. They found a dog lying in the road near the Clayborns' farm that had been killed by some bladed weapon. Dokren went to the abandoned farmhouse to look for tracks around it. He was still doing that when Kragus walked right into the house to look for a tunnel. A couple of stray dogs that were living in the house attacked him, but he and Dokren dealt with them pretty quick. They didn't find anything else in the house.

We decided to check out another abandoned building up the street. Turns out it used to be an ale house. Dokren checked around for tracks again, and then motioned for me to join him. He wanted to know how difficult it would be for me to climb up and get into the building through a big hole in the roof. I pointed out that it would probably be a lot easier to just rip the boards off the front door. He was thinking that would be less stealthy, but I figured any chance for being stealthy had already been blown anyway. I pulled out a crowbar and started prying the boards off the front door, but then Kragus walked up and just kicked them and the door in. Having the big lug around does sometimes have its uses. A really nasty smell came out of the building. Looking inside, it was obvious that a massacre had happened inside at some time. The place had been trashed, and there was dried blood smeared all over the place. Thalidimar and I started prying more boards off windows so we could air the place out a bit when we heard what sounded like a fight break out inside. Everybody rushed into the cellar just in time to see Dokren and Kragus finish killing a couple of troglodytes. So that's one rumor confirmed. There are definitely Troglodytes in town. We found a bag of money, with a whole bunch of those funny electrum pieces, but no tunnel. Lumiarti did find a secret door on the ground floor, which explains how the troglodytes got into and out of the building.

Remember what Lumiarti said? Last night he saw someone watching the barn where we were staying. Well, the person was watching from the farm next door to the Clayborns', so we walked over there, and there was a kid in front chopping wood, so Thalidimar decided to go talk to him. When he came back, he said that he could tell that the kid was being forced to act against his own will.

We discussed what to do next. Lumiarti pretty much gave up on his tunnel theory. Everyone's still pretty sure that the cult is based in the temple. We started talking about just going up to the temple and start kicking doors in, but then we decided that we should finish exploring the town first. We ended up back near the Clayborns' farm, and noticed another boarded up house across the road. We decided to check it out.

DM's Note: This session was attended by a full group. We had one new player show up. Matt Lambert, Matt works with Dino, and he just moved to Denver recently (he was staying in the 'Springs). Matt has taken over play of Lumiarti. Basically, he's rolled up his own Wizard, and named him Lumiarti. Given Lumiarti's schizophrenic personality, this change ought to seem normal. So now we have six players, myself, and Michelle. The room gets a bit crowded with 8 people in there, but I'm glad to have a full table. Now I can stop looking for new players. As a matter of fact, I had to refer two tentative players to another DM. This journal entry also marks the introduction of two new web pages.

Where Now and Monsters Known. Where now is a listing of places the party knows of or has visited. Monsters Known is a listing of monsters that the party knows of or has encountered. With the introduction of these two new pages, you may have noticed links to the pages within the text of the latest journal entry.

Real-world date: 6 September 2003
Game-world date: 7-8 Marcav 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

Meanwhile; back at the farm house across from the Clayborn's place...

The barn doors were open, so we decided to check it out first. Nothin' but some old and broken farm tools. Rusted plows and such. We find nothing suspicious in the barn, and head for the house. The house was easy to get into. A couple of boards across the front door came off pretty easy with a crowbar, and I barely had to jiggle the lock to get it open. It looked like whoever lived here moved out on they're own. All they left behind was junk. Not like the descriptions we had heard of people just "disappearing" with breakfast still on the table and all. Thalidimar found an old tin box up in the fireplace Flue. It had an old deed for the place and some keys. According to the deed, this farmstead was sold by one Landsdow to a Reckersmith.

After some discussion, we decide we should probably go find out what's going on at the temple. We stopped at Alain's on the way, to see if he wanted to join us. He said he couldn't, he has a family and farm to worry about. Although he couldn't come with us, he had fortified his barn a bit, and said he could help provide a safe-house if we needed to beat a hasty retreat. When Lumiarti asked, Alain also said he could keep an eye on anyone we brought back; on the off chance we might take a prisoner or two. Maybe we can capture one of the people who've been charmed and de-charm them? We noticed that we were being watched by his neighbors again, and he suggested we wait until nightfall before doing anything. We could make it look like we were settling in for the night in the barn, and then slip out under the cover of darkness. Alain would stay in the barn with some lanterns and make it look like we were still there. While we waited for dark, Dokren and I helped Alain set some additional snares around the farm, and Thalidimar prayed to Tymora.

After we left the barn, we went north a ways, so we could cut through some corn fields. Last year's corn plants hadn't been cleared out, so it was pretty easy to get past Alain's neighbors without being seen. When we got to the temple, Dokren and Lumiarti tried to find some sign of a secret door in the outer wall, but didn't come across anything. We checked the front gates, but they were locked. With no other obvious options, we decided to climb over the back wall. Lumiarti wrapped Thalidimar's grappling hook with cloth so it wouldn't make as much noise, and Dokren threw it. Dokren tested the setting and went over the wall first, with Lumiarti following him. I heard a scuffle break out on the other side of the wall, so I hurried over the wall and came face-to-face with a wolf. That wasn't the only danger, as an arrow hit me in the shoulder. Duracell landed beside me, and a wolf bit her. I drew my rapier and attacked the wolf, but the arrow threw me off and I missed. Thalidimar shot the wolf with his crossbow from up on the wall. Then some guy ran up and clubbed Duracell, but he crumpled when she smacked him back. The other danger turned out to be five guards, two with clubs, and three with bows. The party dispatched the two with clubs, but the archers dropped Lumiarti when he approached them. Wizards should avoid melee combat. The remaining archers ran when Dokren knocked one of them out with a single blow. Kragus chased them to the corner of the temple and fired off a shot towards them. They were out of sight by the time I joined him. I stayed there for a while, ready to fire at the first person that came back, but nobody ever did.

Dokren found that the two wolves weren't dead, and tried to put them back in a kennel. He had to kill one when it regained consciousness and attacked him. Thalidimar and Kragus took the guy Dokren had knocked out into a building to interrogate him for a while. When they came back out, we decided to retreat to Alain's farm. Any chance for stealth or surprise was gone, and we were pretty beat up. Ashedyn summed it up best; "We'll go back in the morning after we've rested up a bit, and we're not hampered by darkness". We tied up the guy Dokren had clubbed. The guy Kragus had shot wasn't dead, so we tied him up too, and brought both of them with us. It took a bit of work, but we managed to get everyone over the wall. We made it back to Alain's barn without any encounters, and Thalidimar healed as many of us as he could. Alain brought us some tea which made me feel a bit better when I drank some. Duracell was left the worst off of any of us, so Thalidimar has her sleeping on his cot tonight. I hope it does more than it did the night I slept on it. I laid out my bedroll on the ground next to the cot after Duracell fell asleep, and I'm really starting to feel it call to me. I have a feeling tomorrow is really going to live up to its name.

8 Marcav 1001, Longday

We went straight to the temple first thing in the morning. The front gates were still fastened shut, so I climbed the wall to try to scout the grounds a little bit. As soon as I peeked over the wall, I saw the most unnatural sight I have ever laid eyes on. A half dozen or more skeletons were standing on the temple roof! Not just standing, they started shooting arrows at me! Bones should NOT be able to move without flesh to power them, and a spirit to command them. I will be haunted by that sight for a long time to come. Someone's remains have been violated and are being used for some vile purpose. Such a wrong cannot go unavenged. By Hoar's javelin, whoever has performed this desecration shall pay.

I climbed back down the wall, and we began to discuss how to get the gates open. Thalidimar had a block and tackle, so we figured we could rig it between a gate and a stout oak tree a short distance away. I thought we should go get a couple of horses to pull the rope, but Kragus thought he could manage it by himself. He must be stronger than we thought. We began to chisel a channel behind one of the iron bands holding one of the gates together, but then Dokren walked up to Kragus and they had a short, hushed conversation. The next thing you know, Kragus grabs Dokren and Dokren is flying through the air and over the wall! I could immediately hear arrows hitting the other side of the gates. Kragus took a flying leap at the gates, to try and bash them open, but those gates are a lot sturdier than the door of some old, falling apart ale house. A moment later Dokren yelled that the gates were unlocked, and Thalidimar opened one and stepped through it.

Into the the line of fire! Out of Thalidimar's mouth came fury and indignation. Condemnation for the damned, and an invocation in Tymora's name. Seconds later there were piles of dust where each of the skeletons was standing. Such is the power of Tymora's holy might. I'm kinda glad we've got Thalidimar with us. Now all we need to do is get through the temples front door, while suffering the arrows from the skeletons on the roof...

Real-World Date: 6 September 2003
Game-world Date: 7-8 Marcav 1001
Written by: Dokren

So we get ourselves together, and check out the house across from Alain's. I go ahead to see if there are any tracks. I found some human tracks that were a month or more old, and some recent dog tracks. Nothing unusual, no signs of troglodytes or such. As we entered the barn, it was evident that there was nothing of real worth here. All of the good farming tools were gone.

Ash decided not to use Kragus as a key for the boarded up door to the house. He used a crowbar on the boards, and then unlocked the door. The house was empty, well not completely empty. It was abandoned. I went into the basement to look for Troglodytes, but only found some preserved fruits and vegetables. I decided that there was no point in wasting the food, so I loaded my pack. When I returned to the ground floor, Thalidimar had found a lock box. We found a deed and key inside. According to the deed, someone named Rekersmith owned the farm.

After some needless discussion about what to do next, we opted to make our way to the temple. Stopping by Alain's on the way, Alain offers to take care of our mounts, and offers his barn as a safe-house should we need to return. He is an odd sort of Ranger, but he is a good man. Alain was obviously preparing for the worst, as he has set traps around his homestead. He showed me where the traps were, so we could avoid them.

Circumventing the suspicious Tasleki farm, we made our way to the temple under cover of darkness, by going through a cornfield. When we got to the temple, we found no convenient hidden back doors into the temple. It becomes evident that we must go over the wall. There is some fussing with Thalidimar's grapple to quiet it, then it is up on the wall and secure.

I am the first over the wall and Lumiarti is next. As he is climbing down, I hear something approaching. I turn to look and see two wolves approaching. I tell Lumiarti that we are not alone, and he takes up a defensive stance. As the wolves attack, I notice two Humans as well. Lumiarti calls out a warning to the rest of the party. As the rest of the party scrambles over the wall, Lumiarti and I take on the wolves. The wolves go down with a nasty little fight, but the Humans (two with clubs and three with bows further away) go down with considerably less effort. During the struggle with the Wolves, I try to use that Damn Kukri again. This was of course a disaster; flinging out of my grip at a vital moment, I end up hitting Lumiarti with the darn thing. Trying to be a hero, Lumiarti approaches the archers on his own, and ends up down for the count; like some elf-sized pin-cushion. What was he thinking? Thalidimar says something about not killing them, so the next one I face, I slap with the flat of my axe instead of the cleaving end. After the humans are dealt with, I go back to find my Kukri. It turns out that it is on one of the guards I fought. I should have left it I think, but it is magical. The Humans also had some money on them. Thalidimar interrogates the one I knocked out, and with a bit of help from Kragus, we find out a good deal of information.

Misha Devi is no longer a Cleric to Tymora. She has been corrupted by some evil influence or creature. She is not the big boss man though. Some guy named Abramo seems to be in charge. There are a number of Skeletons and goblins in the temple.

This all comes as grave news to our party. While the Skeletons and Goblins are nothing but chopping practice, Thalidimar is outraged by the sacrileges being perpetrated at a temple to his god. We decide that we must withdraw for now; as Lumiarti is gravely wounded, and I am not much better. I try to care for the wolves, but one is beyond me and the other attacks, and has to be put down. It is a shame that such honorable creatures are being used in this manner. I go and check on the Human that Kragus felled with an arrow. I'm surprised to find that the man is still alive. I carry him over to Thalidimar, who tends to the wound. Apparently these are just hired thugs, and Thalidimar seems to have no end to his mercy. The two are helped over the wall, and we all go back to Alain’s Farm.

As we approach the farm, Alain stops us and points out a few new traps. We move the two Guests into the barns root cellar, and Alain brings us some tea which has healing properties. I must remember to ask Alain for the recipe. We all get some rest, and in the morning we make plans to assault the 'former' temple of Tymora. In these Discussions, Thalidimar asks Alain about Abramo. Alain tell us that Abramo is (or was) a High Priest of Tymora.

In the morning, we head off to the front gates of the temple. Ash climbs up the wall to look over, and quickly drops back down as a volley of arrows is launched at him. It would seem that there are some skeletal archers in there. At this point, we begin to discuss how to get over, under or through the gates. Thalidimar has brought a block and tackle with him, and we discuss bringing horses. Thalidimar has a better idea though, and asks Kragus if he could break down the gates. Kragus responds that with the block and tackle he could. This is when the discussion of how to attach the Block and tackle to the gates begins. During that an arrow comes down and hits Ash, and I decide that the time for discussion is over. While the others are screaming about how to get the gates down, including an interesting idea involving some magical quicksand by Ash, I ask Kragus if he can throw me high enough to clear the gates. He says that he can. "Throw Me", I tell him.

And so, as the others are still arguing, and arrows barrage Duracell, Kragus hurls me over the gates. I am truly impressed with the Barbarian’s strength. I come down on the ground with a bone crushing impact, and see that there are several skeletons in here. I am actually worried, with no support I could be in dire straights. I decide right there and then that my main concern is the gate. Ignoring the enemies, I turn to the gate. There are two bars on this gate, one can be reached, but the other is almost 20 feet up. Grabbing the lower bar, I hoist it up and use it to dislodge the top bar; the gates are now unbarred. Thalidimar immediately steps in screaming something about Tymora's vengeance, hell, and the skeletons. A second later all the skeletons crumble into dust! I guess this is why he is in charge of this band. When Kragus gets in I intend to have him help me with the bar I am holding. We can use it as a battering ram on the temple's inner doors.

Player note: This is where we left off. All in all, this was a great session. Rob Ramsey couldn't be there, but it was still good.

DM's note: It's a double dose! I hope you enjoyed both entries. Two players submitted journal excerpts, and I decided to post both of them. I left the party hanging in the midst of a battle, and the skeletons on the roof are still a nuisance to be dealt with. Will the party get into the temple quickly? Where are those Goblins the guard told us about?

This session was attended by everyone except Rob Ramsey. Unfortunately, Rob's travel schedule (He was in texas for this meeting, and he'll be in Korea during our next) will preclude his attendance at many meetings. As a result, I'm once again looking for another player. I'll continue to play Kragus for now, but I'd really like to have six players at the table.

Along with this weeks journal entries, I made a few changes to some supporting documents. I added Skeletons and goblins to the monster page. I added Abramo to the enemies category on the "Who's Who" page, and moved Misha to that category as well.

Real-world date: 20 September 2003
Game-world date: 8 Marcav 1001
Written by: Duracell
(Some notes from Ashedyn)

With arrows raining down on the party, Dokren, Kragus and Ashedyn took the gate bar from the outer doors, and tried to batter open the temple doors.

While that was going, on Thalidimar levitated to the roof, and I activated my belt of flying to see if there was an entrance into the temple on the roof. The skeletons had to get up there somehow. While I was on the east side of the roof, Thalidimar levitated above the roof, and sent the skeletons back from where they came; Ashes to ashes, dust to dust! This makes 16 disintegrated skeletons. Maybe the luck of Tymora is truly with Thalidimar.

With the flying belt in full gear for the next hour, I shuttled Kragus and Ashedyn to the roof. When I went looking for Lumiarti and Dokren, they were missing. After searching the perimeter of the roof, we found them near the west wall, where they found a secret door.

With most of us on the roof, we decided to meet Lumiarti and Dokren inside the temple on the first floor.

Splitting up the party is always a dicey decision, and this was no exception. While we found a safe but interesting passage along a long hallway full of golden statues, Lumiarti and Dokren were on the receiving end of the unlucky stick. On their way to meet up with the rest of us, they encountered five evil monks. During the battle, Dokren went down and Lumiarti was left to face three monks on his own. Pinned in a corner, Lumiarti opened a door and discovered the rest of us in a battle with 10 goblins and Misha Devi. The goblins were easily defeated, and Misha retreated after only a couple of rounds. She fled for the safety of her quarters, but before she could get away, Thalidimar commanded her to 'approach'. Compelled by the power of Thalidimar's spell, she approached, knelt down with her hands up in the air, and surrendered.

[Notes from Ashedyn: Once we'd gained entrance to the temple, we stopped at one of the first doors we came to, and Kragus said he thought it led to the main worship hall, where we first met Misha Devi. He opened the door, shouted "Goblins!," and charged through. I drew my rapier and followed him. Soon, we were all fighting with a little over a dozen of these nasty little buggers. Misha appeared from a door nearby, and positioned herself on the other side of the Goblins. She appeared to cast a spell of some kind, but I didn't see anything happen. Then Thalidimar saw her;

"What the hell are Goblins doing in Tymora's temple, you filthy bitch!?"

Thalidimar has really taken the defiling of this temple hard. I am proud to be an ally to someone who is willing to back his convictions up by gaining vengeance for a wrongdoing such as this. If we're lucky, maybe we can defeat her without having to kill her, and then legitimate priests of Tymora can make her spend the rest of her life scrubbing the stones of this temple clean with a boot brush.]

With Misha's hands bound, Ashedyn was relieving her of some of her items when the effects of a silence spell expired. Now able to speak, Misha uttered the words "Explicita Defilus" and Poof she was gone!

Despite his dwindling reserves of divine power, Thalidimar did his best to restore the party's health. Dokren was near death, and Kragus had taken quite a bit of damage as well. After his best efforts, the party was still not at full strength. Thalidimar then approached the alter to Tymora, and removed a variety of foul items dedicated to the Naga spirit.

With all the foul items clear of the alter, Thalidimar knelt and prayed to Tymora for Divine guidance and assistance. When he opened his eyes, he spotted a platinum piece on the floor. With a likeness of Tymora on the front and a sheaf of wheat on the back, Thalidimar took it to be a sign. After taking the coin, Thalidimar went straight to the golden hallway, and approached the alcove with the wheat. After lifting the statue, Thalidimar found a recessed compartment with three vials of liquid. I sure hope they're healing potions!

The hallway had ten alcoves with a black velvet lining. In each alcove was a representation of Tymora's bountiful harvest. Various forms of crops from the surrounding countryside. According to Lumiarti, all the statues were emanating magic.

After investigating the rooms that Misha retreated to. We found found a secret door in the ceiling. After opening the trap door and climbing up, Dokren found himself face to face with two very large dogs. Dokren described them as "As big as Kragus!" Given this discovery, we decided to go up to the second floor via the stairs instead.

Upon reaching the second floor, we came into a skeleton factory. A couple of coffins filled with bones, and the partially desiccated remains of several exhumed bodies littered the floor. Dokren and Kragus destroyed the coffins, and busted up most of the bones. After the skeleton factory we came upon a small room with a table and chairs. A quick search revealed a hidden arrow slit. We continued through a doorway into the next room, where we found a torture chamber complete with a rack, an iron maiden, and several coffins. (Some empty, some full?)

From there we found ourselves in the Goblins barracks. After searching the barracks we found several Goblin porno magazines and a box of racing cockroaches. Kragus seemed to be very interested in those items, and kept some of the magazines and the cockroaches. All I can say is, "Don't ask, don't tell!" Lumiarti found some more arrow slits in this room. It's a good thing we fought the Goblins in the temple hall. We might have had a harder time taking them on here.

We searched for a secret door in this room, but didn't find one. So we headed back to the torture chamber and tried another door. Dokren was the first through the door, and he triggered a trap. Thankfully Dokren was not injured. Luckily, the trap was designed for a taller person. Ashedyn then used his dexterous digits to disable the trap.

As the party continued forward, we found ourselves in a maze. We didn't get very far though. We were soon thwarted by intense fear and an impenetrable darkness. We had a very difficult time traversing the maze, at one point we all ran back to the skeleton room and tried another door. This other door happened to be the door to the temple's library. A large prayer book was found desecrated, which only strengthened Thalidimar's determination to rid the temple of this evil.

Kragus was the first party member to successfully make it through the maze. While the rest of the party was fighting down waves of intense fear, we heard Kragus shout, "Evil priest, I will destroy you!" With that, the rest of the party did their best to make it through the maze in order to help Kragus. It didn't take too long, and eventually we found Abramo! With Thalidimar, Kragus and myself attacking Abramo, it seemed as if I was the only one able to hit him. Eventually, Kragus and Thalidimar got some good hits on him, and Lumiarti showed up to do some damage as well. Just when we had him cornered, and things were going our way, he spoke the words "Explicita Defilus" and he disappeared. Aarrgghh! how frustrating!!

Where did Misha and Abramo disappear to? Will we ever find them? I think so, when we least expect it. <Insert Evil laugh here> It will require the party to have their wits about them if we are to succeed in defeating them. Onward we go to rid this temple of Tymora of the evil that resides here!

DM's note: With Rob Ramsey out of the picture, five players is a full house, and that's what we had. Joe showed up early, despite the wedding, and Rob Garrity was late arriving as his Barbecue got rained out. Joe's going to try and recruit another player. If that doesn't work, I'll try the good old bulletin board at work again. There were a couple of questions regarding house rules, and I've been hard at work updating the pdf download.

Real-world date: 4 October 2003
Game-world date: 8 - 9 Marcav 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

After searching Abramo's quarters, we found a secret door in the corner. Since we had explored almost all of the second floor already, and the area behind the secret door would be above Misha's bedroom, we figured that the room with the dogs must be on the other side of this secret door. Dokren put his ear against the door, and after a while confirmed that he could hear the dogs moving around on the other side. We decided to open the door and got ready for a fight.

The door swung around a horizontal pivot halfway up its height. To go through, you had to crawl under it, which put you on your hands and knees face to face with the dogs on the other side. We put a table under the end of the door on our end so it wouldn't swing back closed, and Dokren crawled underneath but not into the other room yet. Surprisingly, the dogs didn't attack him. He said that they just walked up to the edge of the room and stood there looking at him, like they did when he saw them through the trap door earlier. He also said that he could see someone in a cage in the room. He called out, and we heard a girl ask who we were. Thalidimar told her he was a cleric of Tymora, and that we were here to reclaim the temple. She warned us that the dogs would attack us if we went into the room. We had a discussion about various ways to trick or avoid the dogs, but we eventually decided that our only option was to storm into the room as best we could and deal with them directly.

Dokren started crawling under the door, and I thought that maybe I could stand on top of it and attack the dogs from above. I stepped a little to far, though, and the door rotated around and dumped me in the room. The dogs attacked me, and one of them bit me pretty hard. I was still staggering from that, when everything went black. When I awoke again, Thalidimar was kneeling next to me, and I was back in Abramo's bedroom. My head really hurt and everything was really fuzzy. (Dokren told me later that the door had kept rotating around and had hit me on the head, which had knocked me out.) I felt around for my rapier, but then I realized that I must have dropped it in the dog room, so I pulled out the mace I took from Misha and crawled into a corner to try and clear my head. Once I had gotten my eyes uncrossed, I crawled back over to the door, but there were too many people in the way and I couldn't crawl through until after the dogs were dead.

Thalidimar handed me a bottle of something and told me to drink it. It tasted funny, but right away the ringing in my ears went away and I felt as good as new. The dog bite didn't even hurt anymore, and you could barely tell that I had been bit at all. I went to unlock the cage, and Thalidimar handed the girl inside a cloak, since the rags she had on really didn't cover anything. As soon as I got the cage open, she went hysterical. She grabbed a bottle from a crate and started screaming and beating one of the dead dogs with it. Then she ran over to a chest, pulled out a book, and used one of the torches in the wall sconces to set fire to it. Dokren grabbed the book away from her and put out the fire. Thalidimar took the book and he and the girl went into a corner to have a private conversation. I saw him flip through the book a little bit and get a really grim look on his face. Then he tied the book shut and put it in his pack. The girl said that her name was Cirilli. She said that some time before (a couple of months?) she had been taken with her family deep into the nearby swamp. She said that they had been brought before the "lizard king," and her family had been brainwashed into following him. The next thing she knew, she was Abramo's captive, and she's been kept in the cage in this room ever since.

We looked around the room. There were several crates of wine. There was some money in the chest that Cirilli took the book out of. Cirilli said that it was her family's life savings, so we gave it to her. Even if it wasn't her family's, she's been through a lot more than any girl her age should have to go through, and she'll need the money to start a new life. There were several stone statues that had been crudely reworked to look like combinations of people, lizards, snakes, etc. Dokren broke them into pieces rather than leave them defaced. There was also a very well crafted statue of a snake-woman made of several different colors of jade all blended together. So this is what a naga looks like. Cirilli said it was a representation of "Explicita Defilus", the snake-god Abramo and company are following now. We were going to smash it on the spot, but Thalidimar wants to wait to destroy it as part of some kind of ceremony to reclaim the temple for Tymora. We lowered it down through the trap door with ropes, and Kragus carried it to the altar in the worship hall.

Lumiarti noticed that the torches in the dog room didn't give off any smoke. Dokren discovered that although the torches do put out heat, they don't burn if you put your hand in the flame. We decided to take them with us. Thalidimar wondered if you could put the flames out and get them back again. I have no idea how to do that, but I thought maybe you could just cover the flaming end with something if you wanted to hide the light. I tried wrapping some cloth around the end, but it burned. Maybe some kind of leather or metal cover of some kind? I'll have to figure this out more when we get back to Willip.

Cirilli really wanted to get out of the temple, but didn't know where to go since her family is serving the Naga now. We told her Alain would take care of her. Dokren and I went to escort her there, but we were attacked almost as soon as we stepped out of the front gate of the temple. It was just the two Tasleki boys that had been watching us while we were at Alain's, but they did manage to hurt Dokren some before we could subdue them. I hollered back at the temple for Thalidimar and then tied up the two boys. Thalidimar told Dokren to join everyone else in the temple, and he and I each carried one of the Tasleki boys to Alain's to join the two guards in the root cellar. We got Cirilli situated, and Alain gave us some more of the tea he makes which we brought back with us to the temple. We've jammed the trap door shut that leads down below the temple from Misha's bedroom. We're going to spend the night here. Kragus refused the tea again, so Dokren ended up drinking it all. Kragus is going to spend the night on the cot, if he doesn't break it.

I was right; today did live up to its name. I hope tomorrow does too.

9 Marcav 1001
Endsnear

First thing this morning, we decided to see what was below the temple through the trap door in the floor of Misha's bedroom. It led to a hallway with just one door along its length, and another trap door at the other end leading back up into the temple. A sign on the regular door said it led to the burial chambers for the temple. On the other side of the door was more maze-halls that would make you feel afraid, or sick, or would go completely black even with our new torches. There was also this voice the seemed to come from nowhere in particular, telling us that the crypt belonged to it. Thalidimar kept arguing with it and telling it that he had come to reclaim the temple for Tymora. Just a little ways into the maze, Thalidimar went ahead of the rest of us and started talking to someone just around the corner. He pulled out his holy symbol and demanded that whatever-it-was go back to hell. We could all hear it from around the corner. "Oh! You're one of Tymora's clerics?" "Yeah! That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Then Thalidimar disappeared around the corner and I couldn't make out the rest of the conversation. After a while, he came back and told us we had to go back. Evidently, there was some kind of guardian that would only let Tymora's servants into the catacombs. He called it a Crypt Thing. It had told Thalidimar that there were caverns beyond the catacombs, and that the invaders had come from those caverns, so there must be another way in. Since the crypt thing wouldn't let anybody but Thalidimar past, we had to go find the other entrance into the caverns.

I was greatly heartened by this news. The fact that the Crypt Thing would only let servants of Tymora pass tells me that the invaders have not been able to completely remove Tymora's influence from the temple.

Lumiarti's tunnel theory was sounding pretty good again, and the Tasleki farm looked like the best place to go look for it. We barred the front doors and the front gate to the temple and climbed over the wall. When we approached the farm, a couple of women and a girl were on the front porch. They quickly went inside as we approached. While everyone else went up to knock on the door, I went and took a peek inside the barn. There was something in there that looked like some large creature had shed its skin like a snake does. I joined the others on the porch, and when I told Thalidimar what I saw, he just said, "Kick the door in," and Dokren did. The old woman was standing in front of the others and was pointing a kitchen knife at us. Dokren told her, "Put the knife down and go upstairs and nobody will get hurt." They took the knife upstairs with them, but we let it go. We looked around, but nothing seemed unusual. There wasn't any basement or cellar. Dokren stepped outside to look for a cellar entrance, but then he saw farmer Tasleki running toward the house from a field. The farmer poked at Dokren with his pitchfork as he ran past and into the house. Kragus clubbed him and he dropped.

We found the cellar in the barn. The tunnel was in one corner. It was just big enough to crawl through. Kragus had to wriggle through on his belly, and I was sure he'd get stuck. Eventually, the tunnel broke through into an underground cavern. We could see a stone staircase, and Dokren and Thalidimar figured out they lead back into the catacombs under the temple. We went the other direction, down some rough steps carved into the rock. Suddenly, there was a loud shrieking sound. We rounded a bend, and there was a man-sized mushroom yelling its cap off. Damned Shriekers. Dokren and Thalidimar shut it up pretty quick, but everybody down here knew we were coming anyway. We had come to a "T" intersection, and both of the other tunnels turned after just a little distance. They also both had mud for floors. A perfect place for an ambush.

DM's note: After our last session, Matt dropped out of the campaign. He's running his own campaigns now, and doesn't have time for three games. Thankfully, I was still looking/advertising for more players when Matt pulled out. Well, I've managed to recruit one more player. Five people made inquiries, and one ended up joining the game. Jason answered one of my advertisements, and played Lumiarti for this session. Jason will be joining our group on a regular basis. He'll be bringing in his own character as soon as feasible. I'll put out an add at work, maybe I can get one more player. Six players would be ideal.

The characters are approaching the end game now. They've asked Cirilli to draw a map to the Naga's lair, and I'm sure they plan to go there after ridding the temple of any remaining evil. Thalidimar still plans on performing that cleansing ritual at the temples main alter.

This session introduced us to Cirilli, A Crypt Thing, and a Shrieker. The "Who's Who" and "Monsters" pages have been updated with new information. I didn't add the Tasleki's because they still haven't been major players in this adventure. Just another family that's fallen victim to the dark Naga's charm. I've also added a game date index to the journal. (See below). It may not seem like much now, but the anchors/bookmarks that I've embedded in the page will help with external references.

Real-world date: 18 October 2003
Game-world date: 9 - 15 Marcav 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

Where we left off last session:
We had come to a "T" intersection, and both of the other tunnels turned after just a little distance. They also both had mud for floors. A perfect place for an ambush...

And that’s just what happened. We'd barely waded into the mud, when a couple of javelins came flying out of the darkness ahead. There was also this awful stench. Troglodytes. Lumiarti lost his lunch and was pretty useless for the rest of the fight - again. We rushed forward and found two Troglodytes confronting us. As the fight began, I saw Lumiarti go splashing past me pointing the other direction. That's when I glanced over my shoulder and saw four more Troglodytes. I yelled that there were more coming up behind us and started firing arrows into them. Dokren and Duracell ran up to engage the new attackers, and Duracell dropped two at the same time! That is one woman you do not want to piss off. The other two Troglodytes seemed to think the same thing, ‘cause they immediately ran off. They’re not very bright creatures, though. A little while later they tried to ambush Duracell, and she reminded them that she’s not nearly as easy to pick on as most women are.

We made our way down the short tunnel to a small lair, where the other tunnel joined up. We searched around and found a chest half-buried in the dirt floor. I opened it and found some money. There was also this silver clasped broach thing, shaped like a shield. I handed it to Lumiarti to see if it was magical. He seemed to think that it had protective properties of some sort and put it on.

We decided to return up the other tunnel. Halfway back, we came across a couple of doors on either side of the tunnel. Kragus and Dokren threw themselves at one, but they just bounced off it. After they were done beating themselves senseless, I examined the door. It was locked, so I unlocked it. The mud still jammed it shut, but I figured maybe they could bash it open now that one of the obstacles had been removed. It worked. It led to a small room. Inside there were a couple of tied-up elves that had been beaten up pretty bad. I asked them in their own language who they were. Dorian and Llywillan were residents of Orlane that Zakarias had hired to investigate the strange occurrences around the town. Shortly after that, they were woken up in the middle of the night and kidnapped by a group of Troglodytes aided by the carpenter and one of the local farmers. I’m not sure just how long ago this was, but they’re really lucky the Troglodytes hadn’t decided to have them for dinner yet. I wonder why they didn’t? Thalidimar healed the Elves while Dokren and Kragus got the other door open. This one was an empty store room. That was all that was down here, so we escorted the Elves back to Alain’s. He gave us the map Cirilli made, and showed us how to get to the Naga's lair.

We decided to rest up for the night and head back to the temple first thing in the morning. Thalidimar wants to perform his cleansing ritual to reclaim the temple. In the meantime, I’ve performed a cleansing ritual of my own. I just had to get the mud and the smell scrubbed off me and my clothes.

10 Marcav 1001
Godsday

Well, you can’t pick a better day of the week to sanctify a temple than today. So that’s what we did. We accompanied Thalidimar back to the temple, and he led us in a ceremony to rid the temple of Misha and Abramo’s corrupt influence and restore it for Tymora’s use. At the end of the ceremony, Kragus smashed the naga idol into thousands of tiny pieces. Thalidimar is strongly dedicated to his convictions in serving Tymora. It got me to thinking. If I want Hoar’s aid in bringing down the men that took my inheritance from me, maybe I should be doing more in his service instead of just praying every day for his help. I’ll have to see if any of his traveling clerics have wandered into Willip when I get back.

Dokren didn’t like that we were destroying the idol. He felt that it was worth a lot of money for it’s material and craftsmanship. After is was smashed, he got out a sack and filled it with broken jade pieces. Perhaps we can salvage some of its value.

Since today is supposed to be a day of rest, we decided to hang out at Alain’s farm and wait until tomorrow to head out for the Naga encampment. I thought that maybe a short visit to Ramne might be useful. When we first met him, he seemed to have a protective attitude toward nature, and we definitely know that he doesn’t like what’s going on in Orlane. Maybe he'd be willing to accompany us and help out in the swamp. When we got to his little shack in the woods, he told us that he’s been watching us and likes what we’re doing. He disappeared into his shack and came back out with a couple of things. He handed a couple of scrolls to Lumiarti. Then he asked us if we liked something called “pop”-corn. I asked him what the heck “pop”-corn is. He explained that it’s a special kind of corn. When you cook it in oil, it kind of explodes and makes a larger, fluffy morsel that can be eaten. Then he handed me a pouch of the stuff and told us to leave and “stop stinkin’ up my forest.”

I don’t think Ramne is nearly as nuts as he lets on to be. He seemed almost normal when he was explaining the pop-corn to me. I think that Ramne is just a hermit who wants his solitude, and the “crazy old gnome” bit is just an act so people will leave him alone (if for no other reason than because he can be so annoying when you’re in his presence). I’ll bet he gave those scrolls to Lumiarti to help us out not so much because he likes us personally, but more likely because the Naga's evil plans threaten his comfortable situation. I don’t think I’ll mention my suspicions to Alain or anybody else, though. It’s not like he’s hurting anybody, so who am I to ruin things for him?

We hung out at Alain’s for the rest of the day and relaxed. I asked Alain for a little oil so I could try out this pop-corn stuff. The pouch was filled with what looked like little corn kernels that had been removed from the cob, but they were hard as rocks. I almost broke a tooth the first time I bit one. So I put a couple of the pop-corns into the oil and put it over a small fire. Nothing happened for a while, and then all of a sudden there were a couple of small bangs. Where the pop-corns had been, there were now what looked like a couple of small cotton balls. They were kind of crunchy, and they tasted pretty good. These pop-corns aren’t half bad, but the way they popped gave me an idea. Since they have to be heated for a while before they pop, I’ll bet they could be used to create a distraction if I need to call attention away from myself for some reason. I’ll bet I could figure out some more uses for this stuff, too.

Shortly after dark, we noticed that there was a large fire somewhere in town, so we went to check it out. It was the farm across the road from the abandoned ale house. The whole house was burning, but the barn looked untouched. Dokren found some fresh boot-prints that went from the house to the barn. Inside the barn we found a family hiding in the loft. The farmer was pointing a crossbow at us. We eventually convinced him that we were working against whoever had burned his house. He said his name was Anton Anias. Thalidimar and Dokren questioned him for a while, but he didn’t have any information we didn’t already know. He hadn’t gotten a good look at the people that set the fire. We eventually just left him alone and went back to Alain’s farm.

11 Marcav 1001
Newday

We set out for the Naga camp today. The map Cirilli drew for us shows it’ll take about four days to get there. Since a lot of the journey will be into the swamp, we left our horses at Alain’s. We stopped short of the “Winterwood South Camp” though. No sense setting ourselves up for another ambush.

[Note from Dokren: We enter the region of permanent twilight that is the Winterwood. It is strange that there are no animals around. The only exception is a lone Tanuki, which is a rare enough occurrence, but the silence is unnerving.]

Something weird’s going on. I took first watch again so I could write my journal. Duracell came over to my tent and pulled my backpack and stuff out and then climbed in. What’s she doing? She’s never said she wants to sleep in my tent before, and there’ve been a lot colder nights than tonight during this trip. And it’s not like the tent is very big. Two people would have to get pretty friendly to squeeze into it, and even then it’ll be crowded. Or maybe she thinks she’s just going to take over my tent for the night? Like we’re supposed to rotate who gets to sleep in a tent among all of us? Why couldn’t she have kicked Lumiarti out of his tent? Wait a second. No way! She can’t just kick me out of my tent. Just ‘cause Lumiarti and I were the only ones smart enough to bring a tent along doesn’t mean everybody else just gets to kick us out when they want to use one. I paid for it, it’s my tent. If she wants to sleep in there, she’s just going to have to share it. But what if I get a hard-on and she notices? How embarrassing would that be? Could I lay that close to her and not get one? Who am I kidding? I’m just thinking about laying in there that close to her, and I’ve already got a raging boner. I guess I’ll just have to be careful and lay with my back to her. It’s like being on the Corona all over again. I’m never going to get to sleep tonight.

12 Marcav 1001
Nexsta’

I know I normally wait until evening to write my journal updates, but this can’t wait. I found out what Duracell was doing in my tent last night. Yes, she noticed I had a boner as soon as I climbed into the tent. She had been counting on it! I think it would be accurate to say that I got “attacked” last night. It was like when Duracell fights, but it wasn’t pain she was inflicting. I felt like I was exploding like one of the pop-corns. I can’t describe it any better than that. There’s only one word for it - WOW! We knocked over the tent support poles several times and had to put the tent back up. Luckily, Thalidimar was on the other side of the camp with his back to us, and everybody else was asleep. After we finished, I discovered that the tent didn’t seem nearly as crowded as I thought it would. Probably ‘cause we wanted to get pretty friendly.

Well, everyone’s breaking up camp and getting ready to travel again, so I’ll write more tonight.

We found the trail marked on Cirilli’s map pretty easily, and spent the day following it through Winterwood Forest. I guess it was just as gloomy and creepy as before, but I really didn’t feel it. Dokren seemed really unnerved, though. Something about a disturbing lack of wildlife. I don’t know. I really couldn’t bring myself to care.

I still can’t talk to Duracell without sounding like an idiot. If anything, it’s gotten harder. “Gee, it sure is dark in here for the middle of the day.” I am such an idiot.

We reached the edge of the swamp at the end of the day. Cirilli’s map calls it the Rushmoor Swamp. We’re camping here for the night, and we’ll start into the swamp in the morning. Duracell’s in my tent again, so maybe she doesn’t think I’m totally stupid. Or she doesn’t care.

13 Marcav 1001
Onward

We got woken up in the middle of the night last night. By the time I got out of the tent, there was this Goblin standing in the middle of camp talking with Kragus. Thalidimar was using Kragus to translate between him and the Goblin, but Kragus did a lot more talking than translating. That made me nervous. I got the impression that the Goblin doesn’t like the Naga in the swamp and was actually pleased that we're going to get rid of it. Thalidimar thought that maybe we could hire the Goblin’s tribe to help us out. He gave Kragus one of the teeth necklaces we took off the Troglodytes in the caverns, and Kragus gave it to the Goblin. The Goblin took it and ran off into the forest. You could hear him chuckling as he left. Dokren got upset at Kragus for “paying the goblin just to run away.” I pointed out to Dokren that we also paid the goblin and his tribe to run away and leave us alone. Besides, where else are we going to be able to “spend” teeth? I went back to my tent and got “attacked” again. Man is Duracell insatiable.

We traveled into the swamp. It was your typical, fetid, foul-smelling collection of stagnant pools of water and muck with bulrushes growing in and around them. Cirilli’s map showed areas where there was quicksand and other dangers. Luckily, the trail was well defined and easy to follow, which was a really good thing since I was practically sleeping on my feet as we traveled. I haven’t exactly gotten much sleep the last couple of days.

At one point, we were attacked by three more Troglodytes. I just couldn’t take the smell this time, and I puked my guts out while the rest of the guys took care of them. These things are getting kind of annoying.

We started to keep an eye out for a place to set up camp toward the end of the day. Dokren was whining about having to sleep in a cold, wet swamp. I thought rangers liked sleeping outdoors? Aren’t they supposed to be tougher than this? At any rate, we found a small hill that rose out of the water and was just big enough to set up camp on. The ground was barely damp, so Dokren quit complaining. I don’t think it’ll even soak through my bedroll, so Duracell and I should be able to stay completely dry tonight.

I can barely manage to keep my eyes open as I write this. My handwriting is probably terrible. I hope I can read this later when I transcribe these loose sheets into my journal back in my room at X’s. I might cut my watch a bit short and get Thalidimar up a little early to take over. I doubt anybody’d even notice.

14 Marcav 1001
Forens

Some big commotion outside my tent woke me up last night. I poked my head out and saw everybody slapping at the biggest damned mosquitoes I’ve ever seen. I quickly ducked my head back inside and fastened the tent flap shut again before one of them blood-suckers decided to try and come inside. The noise died back down pretty quick and I went back to sleep.

We traveled all day without being bothered by any more Troglodytes. We found some high ground to set up camp again. Dokren expressed some concern about the giant bugs coming back. He suggested that Thalidimar sleep in Lumiarti’s tent, but he was worried about himself and Kragus. I suggested that maybe the bugs might not be able to get to him if he wrapped himself up in a blanket. He looked at me like I was nuts and asked if I had ever seen him carry or use a blanket before. I offered him mine, but he just threw it back in my face. Fine with me. That’s all the toastier Duracell and I will be tonight. I don’t get Dokren. He’s rough-and-tough enough to sleep outside in the winter without a tent or even a blanket (as long as the ground’s not too wet, of course), but a couple of bugs gets him all worried. I think I’m beginning to see why you don’t see very many Dwarven rangers.

While I was writing down what happened today, I heard something big splashing its way toward us. I managed to get Kragus, Dokren, and Thalidimar awake before it was on us. It was the biggest damned snapping turtle I’ve ever seen. I mean, this thing was huge! I could have ridden on top of its shell. Is everything in this swamp bigger than it should be? It managed to knock Kragus down, but didn’t do any real damage before we killed it. Thalidimar thought it’s shell might make a good shield or something, but when we looked at it closer, it had been crushed and cracked in several places during the fight. I figured we could cook it up, though. It’ll add some nice flavor to these bland trail rations we’re living off of. Dokren offered to dress it, and I’m sure he’ll hide some of the meat away to keep it from getting cooked so he can have raw meat to eat. To each his own. I’m going to bed now.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a rest day. According to the map, though, we should be able to get to the lair of the Naga tomorrow. So maybe instead of being a rest day, tomorrow might be the day we “free” Orlane from whatever evil plans this Explicita Defilus has in mind.

15 Marcav 1001
Freeday

[Note from Dokren: In the morning, Kragus got out a small set of vials and used it to identify some of our potions. It strikes me as odd that this brute would know how to use such a thing, but cannot even write it’s own name.]

We found the entrance to the lair just where the map showed it to be. We’ll have to make a point of thanking Cirilli for her help later. I’m sure she’d feel better knowing she was a big help in finding Abramo, Explicita, etc. and bringing them to justice.

There was a clear spot in the swamp surrounded by an earthen rampart and short wooden palisade that kept the water out of the depression. The entrance was in the center at the lowest point. Kragus thought that maybe all we had to do was knock down the palisade and let the swamp flood the underground lair, but I pointed out that there may also be innocent people inside. What if there was another Cirilli down there resisting the evil charm right now? We couldn’t risk it. We’d have to go down there and resolve this the hard way.

A short ladder led down to the top landing of a staircase. At the bottom of the stairs was a small “reception” room with four guards to “welcome” us. We took them out pretty easy and went down a hallway straight ahead. It opened up into a large, stone-lined room with a large pit of mud in its center. Lumiarti wondered if there were any Troglodytes waiting to ambush us in the mud. As Kragus waded into the mud to find out, Thalidimar went through the doorway opposite where we entered. He immediately came running back yelling that he had seen Abramo and a bunch of armed men. I got ready to fire an arrow at whoever followed Thalidimar into the room, but then arrow slits in the walls along that side of the room opened and arrows began flying at us. Kragus charged forward at the mention of Abramo. Duracell flew (and I mean that literally. Her feet were off the ground. I have got to remember to ask her about that.) through the doorway and around a corner out of sight.

Players note: (From Joe) Combat sorta fell apart at the end of the session, due to the lack of the info on one of the magic items... For next time that has been rectified. The group seems to have filled out nicely, and I am hoping that all of the current players can stay on.

DM's note: This was a particularly productive session. The party cleared out the temple, sanctified it, and took a well deserved rest before heading off into the Naga's lair. Ashedyn's journal entry contained some very juicy details regarding Duracell and Ashedyn, but I must remind everyone that this personal information has not been revealed to the rest of the party yet. Remember to keep your player and character knowledge separate. The only who might 'suspect' anything at this point is Thalidimar.

This session also so the introduction of another new player. Nicholis joined our group, and did a fantastic job playing Kragus. I imagine his character will be just as lively. Jason and Nicholis will bring new characters to the group as soon as there's a logical spot for that occurrence. In the meantime they'll be playing Lumiarti and Kragus respectively.

I'm sure the battles ahead will test the party's mettle. It's time to break out the magic items. Misha, Abramo, and the Dark Naga aren't likely to go down without a fight. Watch out for that charm ability!

Real-world date: 1 November 2003
Game-world date: 15 - 16 Marcav 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

Where we left off last session:
In the midst of a large scale battle with Abramo and a squad of his goons...

I followed Kragus and Duracell around the corner, and found them fighting a bunch of guards. I also noticed that we were now standing in a passageway that ran alongside the wall of the room, which allowed access to the arrow slits.Thalidimar immediately joined Duracell fighting the guards. I didn't see Abramo, so I turned around. Kragus was fighting with two of half a dozen more guards, and Abramo was about thirty yards further down the corridor. I let loose with a beautiful shot, and my arrow caught him just below his right collarbone. He opened a door to his left, releasing about half a dozen or so skeletons, which he sent in our direction. Then the coward fled around a corner and out of sight.

As soon as the skeletons had closed with us, Thalidimar held out his holy symbol and once again let loose with his war-cry. All of the skeletons just crumbled into dust! Well, that confirms it. Now I know for sure what happened to the skeletons on the roof of the temple back in Orlane.

I noticed that Kragus and Dokren were having more trouble than usual dispatching the last of the guards, and the rest of us had to help them out more than usual. Kragus kept shouting for someone to light a torch even though there were several of them burning at intervals along the passageway. We eventually dropped the last of the guards. Then Dokren and Kragus told us that they had been blinded! Thalidimar gave Kragus a potion that healed some of his wounds and allowed him to see again, but there was only one such potion. For now, there is nothing we can do to help Dokren. Lumiarti is leading him around at the back of the party, and I have taken Dokren's place next to Kragus for now.

My quiver was less than half full, so I refilled it with arrows that the guards had meant to fire at us through the arrow slits. While I was doing that, Kragus charged off down the hall in the direction that Abramo had disappeared. The door Abramo had opened led to a small room more like a closet. Abramo had a bunch of skeletons in his closet! Part way down the passage, around the corner where Abramo had fled, there was mud flowing across the floor. It came through some loose stones in one wall, and the opposite wall had collapsed entirely, allowing the mud to flow into a small natural cavern. We rounded the corner just in time to see Kragus step into the cavern and disappear below the surface. Evidently, the mud flow had formed a deep pool. I managed to snag Kragus with my grappling hook and pull him out. All he had to say before he charged off down the hall again was something about some fish nibbling his toes.

We continued exploring passageways. We found a small storeroom full of foodstuffs which we had to convince Kragus not to destroy. We also found a couple of empty storerooms. The moisture down here has swollen most of the doors shut, and these rooms were partially collapsed. We had just left the second of these rooms, when four large snakes attacked us. Kragus called them Red Venom snakes. They were about 10 ft. long, with red bodies and black stripes. I pulled out Misha's mace and got ready to smash the head of the first one that got in reach. That's when a large hail storm started falling from the ceiling! It crushed two of the snakes flat! Now there's something I never would have expected to see down here. Hail, underground? It unnerved me so much that I missed with my first swing, and the snake I had tried to hit bit me. Luckily, it's venom didn't make me sick. More hail fell and crushed the last two snakes. (I found out later that the hail was caused by a magic item that Lumiarti is carrying.)

Just down the passage was a door with a big red X painted on it. As soon as Kragus opened the door, we heard a very sweet, feminine voice singing an enchanting song. The room we entered was another large, stone-lined room. Its ceiling was held up by stone pillars, and the center of the ceiling was domed. There was a large arched passageway at the other end, and the singing was coming from beyond it. Kragus was the first into the passage, and it was immediately obvious that the floor of the passage was another mud pit. Kragus kept walking anyway, until there was nothing left above the surface but his face. Even then, he kept calling out how pretty he thought the song was and how hard he was trying to get to the singer. Ok, the song was nice, but it wasn't that nice. While I got my rope back out, Duracell grabbed Thalidimar and flew him through the passage and into the room beyond (the passage was only about thirty feet long). While she was flying back, this hideous creature swooped down and tried to club Thalidimar with a big bone. It looked kind of like a dirty old hag, except that it had these leathery wings sticking out of its back that it used to fly with. It was naked except for the grime and dirt that covered it, and its hair was a tangled mess of caked in blood and dirt. Could such a disgusting creature really be able to sing such a pretty song? My mind still has trouble putting the two together.

Anyway, by this time Dokren had stumbled into the passageway, but at least he had the good sense to not keep walking down it. Duracell carried Lumiarti into the other room to help out Thalidimar. I told Duracell to see if she could get Kragus, but there was nothing for her to grab onto to lift him out of the mud. Instead, I had to throw Kragus my rope and haul his ass out of the mud for the second time today, while Duracell carried Dokren to the other room. The singing had stopped by now. From the racket I heard, it was apparent that Lumiarti had killed the Harpy (that's what he called it, anyway) with another one of his hail stones. Duracell carried me over last (and I doubt she grabbed the other guys quite the same way). The room was a lot like the other one except instead of a domed ceiling, there was a hole that disappeared up out of sight. Duracell flew up it and said that it led up to the surface. The Harpy had built a sort of nest in this room. It had suspended some kind of net between the pillars and then filled it with old blankets and stuff. We also found some necklaces hanging from the nest. According to Lumiarti, one of them is magical.

We figure that the red X on the door was put there to remind people to stay out of here because of the Harpy, which probably means that Abramo and his minions don't come in here. So unless the Harpy has friends or relatives that stop by, we should be able to rest here without worrying too much about anybody finding us. We're still keeping watches just to be sure, of course.

I finally remembered to ask Duracell about this flying business. Turns out she's got a magical belt that'll "hold up more than just my pants". It doesn't work all the time, though. She has to turn it on, and then it turns itself off after a while. It must have a limited number of uses, otherwise she'd be flying all the time.

I don't like being down here. Traveling through tunnels dug through nice, solid rock or even firm earth is one thing, but wandering through passages dug through mushy ground under a swamp makes me nervous. We've already seen several places where walls or ceilings have collapsed. I will be so glad when were done and we can leave this swamp and get back on firm ground again.

Kragus has got me a bit worried, too. I never did have that chat with him about not charging off on his own, but I don't think he'd listen anyway. If anything, he's been worse ever since he saw Abramo down here. Eventually, he's going to blunder his way into some situation that the rest of us won't be able to "fish" him out of.

16 Marcav 1001
Hafn'mor

Since we didn't have the privacy of my tent, you'd think I could have gotten more rest last night. But the way Duracell kept groping me in her sleep (at least, I think she was asleep), it made it really hard for me to fall asleep. She eventually settled down, though, so I wasn't too tired today. I wonder if anyone else has figured out what's going on?

In the morning, Duracell carried us back across the mud passage, and we went back out the door with the red X. Someone had shut it sometime during Thalidimar's watch. We went back down the passage we had been following, but we didn't get very far before the floor was submerged in water. It was actually water this time, not the mud we've seen in pools and streams. The path ahead was completely submerged, and it stretched around a corner and out of our view. Maybe it's actually an underground lake or something? Anyway, we decided to check out some of the other passages before we try to tackle this watery hazard. Backtracking, we found a kind of dining room. There was a passage off one corner that was lined with shelves of plates and bowls and stuff, and it ended at a stove. The smashing bug that had a hold of Kragus yesterday must have infected Thalidimar and Lumiarti last night, because they started tipping over the shelves and breaking the dishes. They were making a lot of noise, so I went back to the dining room and got my bow ready to shoot anybody that walked in the door.

Sure enough, I heard footsteps coming, but before anybody could come in, Kragus stepped into the doorway and started swinging at whoever was out there. He wasn't using his axe, and he said that they were towns-people. Thalidimar ran up to Kragus and told him that "Abramo has woken up but he can't cast spells. He's going to take us to it" Huh? I looked towards the storage pantry just in time to see Lumiarti covered in some kind of shimmering, like you see on a roof on a really hot day. Then it went away, and Abramo was standing where Lumiarti had been! I couldn't think what to do. Abramo walked over and stood behind Kragus. He started talking in a really raspy voice saying that we had defeated him and he would take us to "it". He also told the people outside to put down their weapons. It finally dawned on me that this somehow was really Lumiarti, and I decided to join the act. I put my bow away, drew my rapier, and walked over to put it at Lumiarti's back.

Then Duracell started acting weird. She stepped in front of me so she was part way in the dish storage alcove, and she started unbuttoning her shirt! In the middle of what's already going on!? I swear, I think I could learn to understand magic stuff like Lumiarti does before I could learn to understand how a woman thinks. Before anybody else could see her, I grabbed her arm and pulled her farther into the storage alcove so I could ask her what the heck she was doing.

DM's note: The party has begun the hunt for Eplicita. With Abramo and Misha on the loose. Getting to the root of the evil may prove more difficult than the party anticipated. It's a good thing Ramne gave the party those magic items. With Dokren being blind, Duracell and Ashedyn being a bit distracted, and Kragus on something of a rampage; I've got a feeling that the party is going to need more than Lumiarti's Hail-Stones to get through this one.

Ashedyn's journal entry contains some details regarding Duracell and Ashedyn, but I must remind everyone that this personal information has not been revealed to the rest of the party yet. Remember to keep your player and character knowledge separate. The only who might 'suspect' anything at this point is Thalidimar. Once again, he was on watch when Duracell and Ashedyn we're making 'noises'.

Real-world date: 15 Nov 2003
Game-world date: 16 Marcav 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

Where we left off last session:
In the midst of a large scale battle with charmed villagers. Duracell was getting frisky with Ashedyn?

...Duracell said, "They've got things under control." So I asked her, "Yeah, but is this really an appropriate time and place?" She just replied, "Yes."

I could tell I would never be able to make sense of any of this. I left, and went back to the dining room. Poor Dokren had been left alone in there. Lumiarti (now described as Abramo) was tying somebody up out in the hallway. Farther down the hallway, Kragus and Thalidimar were fighting more spear wielding townspeople. Thalidimar shouted that they needed help, so I drew my rapier and went to help out. Kragus went down as I was approaching, so I stepped up in his place. I could now see around the corner where the townspeople had come from, and there was Abramo. More of Lumiarti's magical hail fell; striking Abramo and two townspeople. The townspeople went down, and Abramo went running down the passageway away from us. He has got to be one of the biggest wusses I have ever seen.

Lumiarti immediately ran after Abramo, and Duracell went flying after him too. After subduing the last of the townspeople, I followed as well. I found Lumiarti and Duracell up on the surface. Abramo was laid out on the ground; bleeding and unconscious. While I was busy binding and gagging him, Kragus came running up holding Dokren under one arm. Dokren looked pretty pissed off about being treated like a sack of potatoes. Kragus was about to kill Abramo on the spot, but we managed to convince him that there was no honor in killing an unconscious, tied-up victim. Besides, if we can manage to bring him back alive, I want to be sure Abramo is properly punished. Considering what a pervert he is, I hope they castrate him. We removed his belongings, and Thalidimar bound his wounds. Abramo was wearing chainmail under his robes. Thalidimar offered it to me, but chainmail is too noisy, to restrictive, and too heavy for my taste. Kragus took it. Thalidimar thought that Abramo's mace and shield were magical, so he took those. We took Abramo to the harpy room and tied him to the base of one of the columns. We'll take him with us when we finally leave this horrible place.

We went back to where we'd fought the townspeople, and found several barracks rooms nearby. Thalidimar found some potions that looked like the ones he had found back in the temple at Orlane. He gave one to Dokren, and Dokren regained his sight. It was a relief to all of us, but most of all to Dokren, I'm sure. We also found a key in one of the barracks that fit the locks on their doors, so we put the townspeople that weren't dead in one of them with some food and locked them in. Then we continued to explore the passageways. Around a corner, we came to a hall filled with another pool of mud. There was a door at the other end of the hall. Before wading into the pool, Kragus used a spear to try to figure out how deep it was. I think he's learning. Suddenly, he jumped back and yelled, "Something's eating the spear!" From my vantage point at the back of the party, I could barely make out something bright green. I started firing arrows at it. Duracell yelled out, "Its Green Slime. Use fire or cold to kill it." Then she flew the rest of the way down the passage and hovered near the ceiling there. Thalidimar hollered for flasks of oil to be thrown at it, and threw one himself. Kragus was in his way, though, so he missed. Kragus picked up the flask and poured it out. Then Dokren grabbed one of the magic torches, ran up and set fire to the oil. With another flask of oil, it didn't take long for the fire to kill the slime, and more poking around in the mud by Kragus didn't reveal any more Green Slime.

Kragus was getting ready to throw himself at the door at the end of the hall, but I convinced him that maybe it might be better if I attempt to open it first, and he could bash it in if I failed. I quickly realized that the door was a fake. It was recessed into the wall, but there was no door frame. I decided to have a little fun with Kragus, so I told him that on second thought, perhaps he'd have better luck getting this door open than I would. He threw himself at it, bounced off, fell on his butt, and the door fell over on top of him. There was nothing on the other side but a stone wall, but Kragus got up and started looking for the room on the other side! I'm not the only one that almost fell over, we were laughing so hard. Eventually, I regained enough control to tell Kragus that there wasn't any room and that the door was a fake. He seemed to take the joke good-naturedly enough, and we went back to exploring.

We quickly came to another locked door. I couldn't get it open, and Kragus couldn't smash it down, so he started hacking at it with his axe. As soon as there was a sizeable hole, a couple of arrows came flying at us through it. Kragus stuck his arm through and lifted the beam barring the door out of place (which explains why I couldn't get the door open in the first place). We opened the door and were confronted by what looked like three mercenaries. Duracell charged into the room, and I stepped forward so I could have a better shot. I had to retreat, though, when one of them struck me with an especially heavy blow that severed several of the straps of my armor and gave me a nasty wound. When we finally defeated them, I noticed that one of them was wearing studded leather armor. It wasn't as nicely crafted as mine had been, but it was intact, so I changed into it. The room they were in had a pillar in its center. A pair of corpses were manacled, and the manacles were chained to the pillar. We'd killed one of the mercenaries, but the other two were still breathing. I managed to get the manacles open, and we secured the two mercenaries that were still alive. Thalidimar managed to revive one, but when he tried to ask some questions, the mercenary just started swearing at us. He tried to kick Thalidimar and then he passed out. I gagged them so they couldn't call for help when they woke back up, and we moved on.

We found what appeared to be several private bedrooms. I took a gray, woolen cloak from one. The door to the last one at the end of the passage was locked and trapped. When the doors latch handle was turned, a small, spring loaded, scythe-shaped blade would be released to try and take your hand off. I knew there must be a way of releasing the doors latch without releasing the blade, but I nearly lost a couple of fingers trying to find it. In the end, Thalidimar held a shield to block the blade, and I picked the doors lock. This bedroom was much more lavish than the others we'd seen. It had a canopy bed and a writing desk. The papers on the desk had more writings on them like we found in Abramo's bedroom in the temple. It's clear that the man has become obsessed with wanting to have sex with snakes. There was a large chest in the room. I examined it, and discovered that it was trapped. If it wasn't opened with a specific key, a spring-loaded plunger would spray acid from the keyhole. I managed to disconnect the plunger release from the lock mechanism, but I couldn't get the lock itself open. I could just have Kragus smash the chest open, but the acid plunger was still armed and could still spray the acid.

By this point, Kragus noticed that this room had a wood floor, unlike any of the other rooms we've been in down here. He shoved the bed off to one side and found a loose floorboard. Inside was a small copper box. I checked around the box, but the compartment it was in didn't seem to be trapped. Neither did the box itself, but that turned out to be wrong. When I opened it, there was a bright flash, and I could feel a sudden release of some kind of magical energy. Nothing bad seemed to happen, though, so I think I got lucky. Inside was a robe and a mace. I gave the robe to Lumiarti to examine. He unfolded it, and it was black and red and had pictures weaved into it that looked like people having sex with snakes. Yuck. I figured that if the mace Abramo was carrying around with him was magical, the one he was guarding with so many traps must be too. Since the mace I took from Misha has been completely useless so far, I traded. Duracell discovered another jade naga statue on the bed. I hate to think what Abramo was doing with it there.

We found several more rooms that appeared to be nothing more than mud pits, and more than once Kragus nearly fell headlong into one after bashing a door in. One of the rooms appeared to be used as a dump for dead bodies. We also kept running into the underground lake. At one point we could see where another passage led down to it, but when we tried to find that passage, we ended up at the back wall in the passage where the guards had ambushed us behind the arrow slits. Then somebody found a secret door, and we were in the other passage. There was a boat, and we could see another passage directly across from where we were. We piled into the boat and shoved off. Kragus and Dokren took the oars. Dokren wasn't familiar with how to row a boat, though, and we drifted a bit off course. About halfway across, we could see the full extent of the lake. In size, it was somewhere between a small lake or a large pond.

There wasn't much time for site-seeing, though, because suddenly three humongous crocodiles surfaced around the boat. What is it with this swamp? Is there some power here that makes all of the creatures grow bigger than they're supposed to? I can't swim, so I was nervous enough in the small boat as it was. I thought I'd try to discourage the nearest crocodile from bothering us, so I drew my rapier. I buried it to the hilt in its body, but the beast barely seemed to notice. Moments later it ripped the back end of the boat off. I stabbed at it again, and then Kragus leaned over the side of the boat. He opened his mouth, and belched out a searing hot stream of flame onto the crocodile! Now, I know his breath can be really rotten sometimes, but where did that come from!? I didn't have any time to wonder, though, because the boat chose that moment to completely fall apart. As I fell into the water, I saw Duracell carrying Thalidimar to the far shore and then fly back to where I was. I managed to grab onto her ankles before I went completely under, but then an iron vise clamped down on my chest and everything went black. When I regained consciousness, Duracell was carrying me to where she had taken Thalidimar, and Thalidimar was trudging up out of the lake behind her as fast as he could. Duracell's face was a pale white color, and I've never seen her look so scared. I told Thalidimar that I couldn't go anywhere the way I was feeling, so he read a prayer from a scroll he was carrying in his hand. I felt well enough to travel again.

And that was it. That was the moment I realized that I truly hate this swamp. It doesn't just make me nervous or uncomfortable anymore. I HATE this swamp. I hate the oversized creatures. I hate the passages dug through soggy ground with walls that are already collapsing. I hate being damp all the time. I hate the evil creatures that have caused me to be here. I HATE THIS SWAMP!

Duracell filled me in on what happened while I was blacked out. One of the crocodiles had me in its jaws. She said there was suddenly a huge cloud of blood in the water. A split second later, Kragus, standing on the bottom of the lake, swung his axe and hit the crocodile with a blow that split its side open. The crocodile sank to the bottom with me still in its jaws. Duracell dove in after us, pulled me out of the water, and took me to Thalidimar, who'd waded into the lake as close to me as he dared. Thalidimar says that if Duracell had brought me to him one heartbeat later, it would've been my last.

The whole thing leaves me feeling like I was in a tug-of-war between the two sisters of luck. While I have always been able to feel Beshaba's influence in my life since I was just a little kid, there's no way I could have survived this encounter with the crocodiles without Tymora's help. If Kragus hadn't finished the crocodile when he did, I'd be dead (and this more than makes up for the inconvenience of having to fish him out of the mud a couple of times). If Duracell had gone to carry someone else to shore she wouldn't have been right there to fish me from the water when she did, I'd be dead. And if Thalidimar, Tymora's own cleric, hadn't been ready to heal me right away, I'd be dead. And even then, by all rights I should be dead anyway. I really feel that the Lady of Good Fortune tipped the scales in my favor just enough that my friends could save me. I don't know for sure why she would do that. Maybe it's just that her influence is a little bit stronger in the presence of her clerics. Maybe its because I'm helping reclaim her temple. Maybe she just happened to feel like it at the time. I don't know. What I do know is that when I wake up Thalidimar for his watch tonight, I'm having him teach me how to offer a prayer of thanks to Tymora in the way she finds acceptable.

Real-world date: 15 Nov 2003
Game-world date: 16 Marcav 1001
Written by: Dokren

Where we left off last session:
In the midst of a large scale battle with charmed villagers. Dokren is still blind. Damn that Abramo!

Being blind is tough enough, but having an Elf lead me around like a little child just adds insult to injury. Abramo will pay for blinding me, and for his involvement with the evil infesting this swamp.

At one point, Lumiarti left me alone in whatever room we had come to. I heard what sounded like furniture being overturned and then dishes falling to the floor and breaking. Then I heard Kragus call out that townspeople were attacking us. I drew my axe and got ready to defend myself, but there was very little else I could do without some direction from somebody. I heard Thalidimar say something about having defeated Abramo. Then I heard a raspy voice telling the townsfolk to put down their weapons. I heard a door slam shut and open again. It all got very confusing. Damn this blindness!

Moments later I heard Thalidimar call out that he needed help. I moved in his direction until I bumped into a wall, and then I guided myself along the wall until I bumped into Thalidimar. I told him to point me in the enemy's direction, but he either ignored me or couldn't take the time. I could hear the sounds of battle nearby. I hate missing out on a good battle! The next thing you know, somebody picked me up and started running with me under their arm. How humiliating. I certainly hope the Elf didn't see that. A familiar grunt at each stride told me I was being carried by Kragus. What was going on? Were we retreating or charging?

Soon, Kragus put me back down. The breeze on my face and the scents in the air told me we were back on the surface. I hope that's good news. I heard Ashedyn trying to convince Kragus not to kill Abramo, since the priest had been subdued and tied up already. Did somebody carry him up here with us too? Personally, I kind of wish Kragus would kill Abramo. That man has escaped us too many times, and he deserves death for what he did to Cirilli. After some discussion about divvying up his belongings and what to do with him, we decided to take him back to the room where we had rested last night. We'd leave him tied to a column in the Harpy's roost. He shouldn't be able to cause any more trouble that way, and we can bring him with us when we leave. Perhaps he can be reformed, and his sanity restored.

After that had been accomplished, somebody told me we were returning to where we'd just fought the townspeople. Some were still alive, and Thalidimar wanted to tend their wounds. There is still a very good chance that these people are not acting of their own will and are not responsible for their actions. We still want to save as many of them as we can. While I was waiting, Thalidimar pushed something into my hand and told me to drink it. Unfortunately it wasn't a stein of Willip's finest lager. Another healing potion no doubt. But I had no wounds other than my blindness, and I told Thalidimar as much. Thalidimar insisted that I drink it, so bottoms up... A few seconds later and I could see again! Very few times in my life before have I felt such relief. I'll have to find some way to repay Thalidimar.

After Thalidimar tended to townsfolk's wounds, we put the people who were still alive into a room nearby and Ashedyn locked them in with a key he'd found. There were several more identical rooms. They had bunks for four people each. This appears to be where the townspeople were quartered. Around a corner, we came upon another puddle of mud occupying the floor of the passage. With surprising foresight, Kragus started probing it with a spear when something attacked him. Duracell identified it as Green Slime. She said we should use fire or cold to kill it. Thalidimar tried to throw a flask of oil at it, but the flask didn't break, so Kragus unstoppered it and poured the oil over the slime. I took one of our magical torches and used it to light the oil. The slime seemed to scream as it burned, but another flask of oil silenced it's eery screams. Further probing of the pool by Kragus did not reveal any more slime, so we proceeded to the end of the passage.

At the end of the hallway was another stout door. Kragus was preparing to throw himself at it, but Ashedyn convinced him to wait a second. Ashedyn then tried to open the lock. But then Ashedyn looked the door over and changed his mind. He told Kragus to go ahead and knock it down. Kragus backed up a couple of paces, motioned the rest of us out of the way, girded himself with a couple of grunts, and launched himself full force at the door. With a resounding "Thud" he bounced off the door and fell flat on his back. Then the door fell on top of Kragus. Lo-and-behold, the door was a fake! There was nothing behind it but a stone wall! Ashedyn seemed to think this was pretty funny, and thankfully, Kragus didn't seem to get mad that such a joke had been played on him. With a slight smile, and something about "Good Orcish Joke", he walked back the way we'd come, and we continued to search through the tunnels.

We went past the entry room where we had first come in. Beyond it was a tunnel that ended at a door that had swollen shut with moisture. Kragus looked at Ashedyn for a second, and then burst it open. With a fantastic display of reflexes, he immediately caught himself on the doors frame. The room beyond was a large pit of mud, and Kragus almost fell headlong into it. We could see another tunnel that also led from this room. Rather than trudging through the mud, we decided to try another direction. We went back to the room with the pit of mud in its center and turned right in the corridor beyond. This tunnel led to another locked door. Ashedyn wasn't able to open it, and Kragus failed to bash it in, so he started hacking at it with his axe.

Chop, Chop, Chop...

After a few minutes, Kragus had chopped a one foot diameter hole in the door. That's when a couple of arrows came flying through the hole from the other side. Ignoring the danger, Kragus reached through the door and unbarred it from the inside. When it was open, we found ourselves facing three humans in armor. One was at the far side of the room and had a bow aimed at us. The other two were just inside the room and were brandishing swords. Duracell flew into the room to confront the man with the bow. Kragus, Thalidimar and Ashedyn took on the other two. In a short but bloody fight, Duracell and Ashedyn ended the battle pretty heavily wounded. Ashedyn's armor looked a little worse for the wear, too, so he traded it for one of the human's armor.

The room had a stone column at its center and two fresh corpses were manacled and chained to the column. It appeared as though they had been tortured to death. Ashedyn managed to get the manacles open, so we removed the corpses and replaced them with two of the humans we had just fought. The third was dead. Thalidimar managed to revive one of the men briefly, but couldn't get any information from him before he passed out again.

Beyond this room was a tunnel that had several bedrooms along it. The last door was locked, and when he examined it, Ashedyn found a trap. He wasn't able to disable the trap, so Thalidimar held a shield in front of the trap so that Ashedyn could work on the lock without danger. He got the door open, and we found ourselves in another of Abramo's bedrooms. The papers on the desk were covered with the same insane ramblings as the papers on the desk in the temple. There was another jade statue carved in the likeness of a Naga. It has large black gems for eyes. Hopefully I can convince the rest of this group not to destroy this one. The craftsmanship appears to be equal to that of the statue they destroyed back in the temple.

After thoroughly ransacking the room, we retraced our steps and continued to explore the tunnels. At one point, we found ourselves looking into the pit of mud Kragus had almost fallen in earlier, except we were now at the other passage we had seen. Later, Kragus had to catch himself on another doorframe to avoid falling into another pit of mud after bashing another door in. This pit contained hundreds of bones sticking out of the mud in this room, and it smelled strongly of death and decay. Shortly after that, we found ourselves blocked by the clear water of an underground lake. Everyone seemed to think that it was the same lake that had blocked our progress yesterday. We could see another tunnel a short distance away, so we doubled back to search for it. Eventually, Thalidimar found a secret door, and we once again found ourselves on the shore of the lake. There was a rowboat here, so it was decided, despite my displeasure, that we would cross the lake in the boat to another tunnel directly across from us.

Since Kragus and I are the strongest, we were given the task of working the oars. I've never rowed a boat before, and I soon discovered that rowing this unnatural contraption is harder than it sounds. It doesn't just take strength, it also takes some amount of skill to get the oar lined up right in the water, and the strokes of both oars have to be timed together or the boat immediately goes off course. It's a lot to learn all at once, and we ended up in the middle of the lake and way off course. Suddenly, Ashedyn yelled for us to keep rowing for the shore and then stabbed at something in the water behind the boat.

The next instant, the back of the boat was torn off and the oar was jerked from my grasp. I turned and found myself facing an impossibly large Crocodile. It was easily 15 feet long, and the largest reptile I'd ever seen. After getting a good look at its massive gaping maw, I drew my weapons to fight it, but missed with my first swings. I quickly realized that there was no way we could win a fight with these creatures in their natural environment. I knew I had to disable the beast quickly, and I could only think of one way to do it on the spot. I dropped my Kukri into the bottom of the boat and pulled out a vial of magical glue. I unstoppered the bottle with my teeth and threw it into the Crocodile's open jaws. As soon as it hit the creatures tongue, the Crocodile clamped it's jaws shut. Then it started thrashing about wildly and quickly sank out of sight.

At that moment, the boat fell completely apart. An immense dread washed over me as I sank beneath the silent waters of the lake. I knew the shore wasn't far away, so I willed myself to be calm. Once I hit the bottom of the lake, I felt around in case my Kukri had come to rest nearby. With a huge stroke of luck, and I found it right under my left foot! Still holding my breath, I looked up and saw a couple of people swimming on the surface. Since I couldn't see much further than a couple feet, I started walking in the direction they were headed. On the way I passed under another Crocodile, and it appeared to have someone in its jaws. With as much effort as I could muster, I jumped up to swing my axe at it's soft underbelly, but the combination of water blurring my vision and slowing my movements made me miss-time my swing, so I missed. A hulking shape that could only be Kragus came up to the Crocodile, and a large red cloud began to issue from it's side. I trudged on toward the shore as I couldn't hold my breath any longer. When I got there, Thalidimar and Duracell were hovering over Ashedyn. Evidently, he was the victim the Crocodile had in it's mouth. From the way he looked, he was fighting his way back from death's doorstep.

Looking back, I really regret having to use my glue on the Crocodile. It's going to starve to death now, and there's nothing I can do about it. I thought that maybe I could wrap my vial of magical solvent in the last of my turtle meat and leave it floating in the lake for it, but then I realized the Crocodile still couldn't get it into its mouth anyway. I can't think of any way to undo what I've done, and nobody else seems to care. It's not the Crocodile's fault. We were trespassing in its home, and it probably attacked us more from curiosity than anything else. I've got to figure out a way to help the Crocodile avoid a slow, painful death by starvation.

Players note: Due to personal reasons, Joe (the creative force behind Dokren) had to leave our group. Joe, we'll miss you at the table, and I'm sure our characters will miss Dokren when he leaves the group too.

DM's note: This session saw a lot of combat. Some of it was very dangerous, and the gods must have had a hand in preventing the entire party from dying in the battle against the crocodiles. As the party continues its hunt for Explicita, the battles may get more intense, the challenges greater, and the enemies more resolved to thwart our heroes efforts. It's a good thing that luck is on their side.

Real-world date: 29 Nov 2003
Game-world date: 16-17 Marcav 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

Where we left off last session:
The party had just completed a major battle against three giant crocodiles. They were beaten down pretty badly, and certainly needed some rest and healing before continuing

I was totally soaking wet and I still hurt, so I said I wanted to go back to the harpy room and rest again. Duracell was still flying, so she could carry us back across the lake. Kragus said he'd just wade across. I lost a bunch of equipment in that battle with the crocodile, and I needed a sword to replace my rapier. Before Kragus became crocodile bait, I asked if I could have the longsword he's been carrying. He gave it to me, and said he'd see if he could find my rapier on the bottom, too. Then he waded into the water, and I haven't seen him since.

Duracell carried the rest of us across the lake. I suggested that we break a few doors up to use as firewood so we could dry out. The harpy room has a chimney out the top, so the fire wouldn't smoke us out. We had to cut down the harpy's nest and get it out of the way, but I feel a whole lot better now that I'm getting dry. I lost my tent and spade in the lake, and I can't find the popcorn that Ramne gave me. We got a nice fire going in the middle of the room, and we strung ropes between the pillars for clotheslines. We also rigged a rope bridge across the mud pit, so you could get across without getting covered in mud. Now Duracell doesn't have to carry us across every time.

17 Marcav 1001
Aprochen

I slept on Thalidimar's cot last night, and I felt almost completely well again when I woke up this morning. Abramo kept grunting, and he wouldn't take his eyes off Thalidimar. I figured he was hungry or thirsty or something, so I was going to feed him. But then Thalidimar reminded me about how Abramo could shout Explicita Defilus! and disappear, so we ended up just leaving him.

We needed to get across the lake again, and I figured Duracell could just fly us across, but Thalidimar was worried about using up all the belts charges. He wanted to build some kind of raft to get across. A well-built boat gets torn apart in seconds by giant crocodiles, and he wants to try again on some jury-rigged raft!? I pointed this out, but he said he didn't think there were any more crocodiles. He asked Dokren how many a lake like that could naturally support, and Dokren didn't think more than three could live there. So I asked how many could be there if somebody had put them there and brought them food and stuff, but nobody seemed to know, but they still didn't think there were any crocodiles left. Ok, if all the crocodiles are gone, where the hell was Kragus? Why didn't he show up last night? Nobody was listening anymore.

We went back to the storeroom with all the food. Thalidimar wanted to empty out some barrels and use them for the raft. One of the barrels was full of wine, and Dokren wasn't about to let it go to waste, so he drank as much as he could before they poured the rest out. He spent the rest of the day singing Dwarven drinking songs, which was really annoying since I don't know dwarven, and I couldn't understand a word he was shouting. Thalidimar built his raft, and then he discovered he couldn't get it through the storeroom door! Yeah, this is really going to work. He took the raft back apart, and we carried all the pieces to where the boat used to be. He put the thing back together, and put it in the water. Then he started shouting for Kragus, and Kragus answered! So he wasn't eaten after all! Maybe he just smells so bad that the crocodiles avoided him. Anyway, Thalidimar asked Kragus to pull the raft across the lake with a rope. When the raft was about halfway across, Thalidimar stood up on it and started rocking it around, and the stupid thing just fell apart. He managed to grab one of the barrels, and Kragus finished pulling him to the other side. In the end, Duracell flew the rest of us across anyway.

The passage came to a four-way intersection almost right away. There was mud covering the floors of two of the passages, but the other one looked fine. Duracell flew a little ways down the passages with mud floors. She said one of them was collapsed just a little way in. A weasel as big as a dog followed her out of the other one. Kragus threw it some meat, and it left us alone.

About then, we heard someone shouting to us from back across the lake. It was Alain! Duracell carried him and two companions across the lake to join us. Alain introduced his two companions as Solindria Silverthorne and Emrikol-Oz. Evidently, they were part of some second group X had sent to Orlane after us to "help clean up." (Yeah right. X doesn't trust us and sent somebody to check up on us, more likely.) Alain says they arrived a day or so after we left. He said that as soon as they showed up, the town erupted. A bunch of troglodytes and charmed townspeople attacked his farm. The cult has moved back into the church. He says that Misha and a bunch of troglodytes captured a bunch of regular townspeople and were bringing them here. Alain and this second group caught up with Misha here in the swamp. They managed to kill Misha and the troglodytes and free the townsfolk. So Misha's dead. Damn it, she got the easy way out. Alain said a tribe of goblins helped. I wonder if it's the same tribe Thalidimar gave the teeth to? Alain said that Solindria and Emrikol wanted to join us (spy on us so they can report back to X, I think), but he needed help back in Orlane. Since Solindria was wearing the heavy armor of a warrior, and Emrikol appeared to be a magic user, Kragus and Lumiarti went back with Alain to replace them. I really would have liked to go with them and get out of this swamp, but I'm probably still needed down here. We told Alain where he could find Abramo so Alain could take Abramo with him. We also warned Alain against removing Abramo's gag. Duracell flew Alain, Kragus, Lumiarti, and Abramoback across the lake. When she got back, we all went down the one passage that seemed intact.

[Notes from Alain - Happenings above ground:
As soon as the party told me that they would have to leave Orlane in order to track the evil into the swamp, I notified "X". I was concerned about the vulnerability of Orlane, the presence of the cult members, and troglodytes in the vicinity.

After the party left town (11 Marcav), the bad guys stepped up their nefarious activities. They moved out of some homes, and re-inhabited the temple. Then they started abducting some more townsfolk. With Misha's assistance (Yes, she was hiding out in one of the homes in town), they managed to abduct the widow in cottage 20, the tailor in house 11, The Jeweler, his wife, and bodyguard. Thanks to some astute skulking, and an young informant/apprentice, I learned that Misha and eight troglodytes were planning to leave for the swamp.

Latter that evening (14 Marcav), a group of adventurers arrived in town. A clean-up crew sent by 'X'. The clean-up crew came directly to my house, but they must have been noticed by observers posted to watch the roads into town. The clean-up crew consisted of six adventurers and ten men at arms. They were sent to shore up the defense of the town, defeat any evil remaining in the town, re-sanctify the temple, and follow the path of evil into the swamp in an effort to assist the previous group.

My farm was immediately attacked. Thankfully, the traps I'd set earlier worked well. The attackers were repulsed easily, but the barn was lit afire. Luckily we were able to extinguish the flames. Believing that Misha had already taken townsfolk into the swamp, I sent the Paladin, the Wizard and two elven town folk after Misha, and the others took to the temple.

I hope Thalidimar's group is still alive out there in the swamp...]

Real-world date: 13 Dec 2003
Game-world date: 17-18 Marcav 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

Where we left off last session:
The party had just defeated another evil follower of the Dark Naga and his undead companion. The battle was surprisingly short, and the party was just about to search the temple where the battle occured.

As we began to examine the worship hall, Kragus barged in on us. He said that Solindria was needed back up on the surface. Solindria left and Kragus stayed to help us out. We found another snake-handled sacrifice dagger under the altar. We also found a jar of some black jelly stuff. Kragus pulled out his box with all the little jars of liquids in it and started messing with the jelly. After a while, he said that if the jelly was rubbed on someone or they ate some of it, it would cure all kinds of stuff like blindness, deafness, poisons, etc. He said that it can't heal wounds, though.

At this point, I proposed an idea. I said that I was tired of chasing this Naga all over the place in these underground tunnels. Since we know that it comes to this worship hall, I suggested that we set up an ambush and wait for it to come to us. I figured that we could trash the worship hall, and leave the door with the strange black wood open. Then, we close the doors of the room that the demon was in. We could wait in the room where the jail cells are with its door closed. When the Naga (or anybody else) comes, they see the trashed worship hall and immediately go to investigate. Then we come out behind them and attack when the only way out is through us. Emrikol ruined my plan, though, when he found a secret door in the worship hall behind the raised dais the altar and statue had been on before we smashed them. My ambush plan wouldn't work if they could just flee away from us anyway.

Behind the secret door was a very short passage that looked like it just came to a dead end. After a while, Kragus was the one who finally found the other secret door at the dead end. When we went through it, we were standing on a small beach next to another underground lake. From the way the echoes sounded, Dokren said that this cavern (and probably the lake) was much larger than the one where the Crocodile almost ate me. There were some dead bodies littered around, so Thalidimar gathered them together and buried them. Dokren wandered off a little ways for a while, and when he came back, he said he found where a Naga had crawled across the beach and either went into or came out of the water. There was nothing else on the beach, and we didn't feel like swimming, so we went back through the temple to go explore some of the tunnels we hadn't yet. Before we left, Kragus tried setting up his bear trap at the secret door. Then he noticed that it wouldn't work if he just left it sitting out in the open since you could totally see it and just walk around it, so he tried burying it in the sand right in front of the door. You could still see where he had buried it though, and I knew it wouldn't go off anyway if someone somehow missed seeing it and stepped on it, so I dug it back up and set it right for him. I tried to disguise where it was buried a bit, too.

As we walked through the worship hall, Thalidimar tried shouting "Explicita Defilus!" Dokren and Kragus both stopped in their tracks and told us to put out our torches. We did, and then Kragus told Thalidimar to shout again several times. Eventually, he told us that when Thalidimar shouted, he could see some ghostly figures really briefly.

We went back to the base of the stairs and then went down the tunnel the Ghouls had come from. Eventually, we came to a small rock cavern. Thalidimar whistled, and this really Huge Spider came out of a hole in the ceiling and attacked us. We killed it, but it was the biggest damned Spider I've ever seen. Its body was bigger than the Crocodiles' had been! And that doesn't include its legs! There is definitely something wrong with this swamp.

Emrikol started flying up the hole the Spider had come from. Duracell activated her belt and grabbed me so we could follow him and make sure he didn't get himself killed wandering off by himself. After a little bit, the hole stopped going up and turned so it was running flat instead. There must have been something wrong with Emrikol's flying spell, 'cause he had to push himself along with his staff. He probably could have moved faster if he could have walked, but there were pieces of spider web all over the place, and it looked thick enough to get stuck in. As it was, we flew past him like he was standing still. The hole came out in the swamp in a rocky outcropping. There was a clear area around where the hole came out, and then the whole area around that was covered in the thick spider webs. There was a pile of coins on the rocks. Digging through it, we found a shortsword and some really cool looking gloves. They look like they used to be part of some kind of costume or something. They're red, and they have pointy yellow fingernails. They also have these small spiky things on the knuckle ridge above the fingers. When I put them on, and I can feel them contract and mold themselves around my hands! It's a really weird feeling. They go halfway up my forearms.

When Emrikol finally caught up with us, he stuffed all the coins and the sword into a sack, and we went back down the hole. When we got back to the cavern, Dokren was trying to "milk" venom from the dead Spider. Unfortunately, he ended up just spraying it all over the floor instead of getting it into the jar he was holding. Too bad. It might have been cool to be able to dip the heads of my arrows in the poison.

We went back to exploring. As we started to get close to where Solindria had said she could feel something evil, we started hearing some creaking and splashing noises. It kind of sounded like a rowboat rowing around, or a water wheel or something. I saw Thalidimar pull a coin out of a small bag, and everything went quiet again. Good idea. If there's anybody up ahead, they won't hear us coming. The thing making the noises up ahead turned out to be a bunch of buckets tied to a rope that was wound around some pulleys. The rope pulled full buckets from a pool and lifted them up through a hole to somewhere up above. It also brought empty buckets back down. We figure the whole thing's there to bail this whole complex out, kind of like on a ship. What was really weird, though, was the "people" operating the bucket contraption. They were like the Ghouls, but more rotted. We could see bones and ribs poking out in places. We decided to leave them to their work for now. Thalidimar didn't want to, but I convinced him we could come back and put them back to rest after we'd finished off the Naga. He seemed to accept that.

As we entered a cavern nearby, we smelled Troglodytes nearby. Thalidimar shot at one, and then we were swarmed by about a dozen of them. We fought until the last three or four fled, and then we retreated ourselves to heal and rest. We're spending the night in the cave where we killed the Spider.

Emrikol-Oz doesn't seem to be as snobbish as Lumiarti, but he does seem to have just as much of a magic user's big ego in his own way. He's always talking about his grand schemes for fame, fortune, and power. And he is one of the greediest people I've met. I've never seen someone put so much effort into gathering every coin in sight, no matter how much effort its retrieval takes, even if it's just a copper piece. Still, so far he's shared everything he's found with the rest of us, and he seems to do a lot more than Lumiarti did, so I think we'd be better off if he stuck around and Lumiarti stayed with the "clean-up crew."

Solindria is harder to read. She's better looking than Duracell, but she also seems a lot prissier. For one thing, she's a Half-Elf, and they always seem like they think they have to prove that they're just as good as anybody else. Also, I think she's one of those Paladins, so she'll probably start lecturing us about how we're supposed to act, etc. Like when she insisted that we had to help Kelond and the other prisoners all the way back up to the surface instead of just to the stairs to the next level. She's probably the one who's reporting back to X on us. Then again, maybe I just got the wrong initial impression of her. At any rate, she'd look a lot better sleeping naked outdoors than Kragus does.

18 Marcav 1001
Longday

The first thing we did this morning was head back to where we fought the Troglodyte tribe yesterday. Nearby we found a small cavern that had thousands of eggs in it. There were four Troglodytes guarding it, but they didn't come out and attack us. I think they were females. Emrikol started hissing at them, and one of the Troglodytes that ran from us yesterday stepped around the corner and started hissing back. Kragus translated what they were saying for the rest of us. Basically, the Troglodyte just wanted us to go away since we'd already wiped out almost the entire tribe, and Emrikol threatened it into helping us. It told us that the Naga lived on an island in the lake nearby. It even helped us get past some kind of creature guarding another rowboat before Emrikol let it go. The beach we were on yesterday was just a little ways away.

This time, I made sure I was sitting next to Duracell and her belt. Emrikol cast his faulty flying spell on himself again and held onto the back of the boat so it would tow him along. Dokren and Kragus had barely started rowing us out when Emrikol shouted "Incoming!" and dove under the water. I immediately grabbed Duracell around the waist. There was a flash of fire that washed over us, and then I passed out. When I woke up, it was totally dark. I must have dropped the magical torch I was carrying. When people showed up with the other torches, I figured out that I was on the beach. Thalidimar used his prayers to heal me almost completely even though he looked like he could barely sit up himself. He couldn't even heal himself up all the way after he finished healing me.

Emrikol was still hovering out over the lake. Duracell flew over and hauled him back to the beach with the rest of us. He wanted to head back out and find the Naga right away and attack it. I still thought we should find a way to make it come to us instead of fighting it on its terms. After a long discussion, we finally decided . . .

DM's note: This session saw a lot of character changes. Last session, two party members (Kragus and Lumiarti) departed for the surface, and two new characters (Emrikol-Oz and Solindria) joined the party to continue the hunt for "Explicita Defilus". As we picked up this session, Solindria and Kragus switched positions again. Apparently the 'Clean-up crew' wanted Solindria back on the surface. Finally, the party has encountered Explicita! Or have they? They never actually saw the Naga. Still, all indications seem to mark the lake as the Naga's lair.

It looks like the Naga won't be as easy to defeat as the other monsters have been. That fireball sure woke everyone up in a hurry! The party is currently rethinking their strategy. How will they beat the Naga in its lair? The Naga can swim, has the advantage of darkness, and a highly defensible island in the middle of a great lake. Time to haul out the big guns!

The battles have been getting more intense, the challenges greater, and the enemies more resolved to thwart our heroes efforts. It's a good thing that luck is on their side. Next session should mark the conclusion. A final battle of good vs evil!

Real-world date: 27 Dec 2003
Game-world date: 18-19 Marcav 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

Where we left off last session:
The party was on the verge of a confrontation with what they believed was the Naga. The source of evil in this part of the area. Responsible for charming and corrupting a large portion of the population, both in and out of the swamp. A discussion, strategy, and a whole lot of soul-searching was just about to begin.

. . . that we might be able to get more information from the Troglodytes about the Naga. We went back to their lair, and eventually we got it to tell us about how the "High Priest" would call the Naga to the worship hall. Then Emrikol went off about how we would come back and kill them all if they were lying, etc. We practically had to drag him away to get him to quit his little tirade.

We've come back to the cave we rested in last night. We've come up with a plan to ambush the Naga in the worship hall, but we're going to wait until tomorrow so Emrikol and Thalidimar can replenish their spells. They both say that they have spells that can keep the Naga from charming us. Emrikol says he also has a spell that will make him look just like the priest we killed in the worship hall. He will go out onto the beach and call the Naga. He will lead it into the worship hall. Kragus and Dokren will be against the wall on either side of the secret door behind the altar so that they can step in behind the Naga when it gets into the room and keep it from fleeing back into the lake. Me, Duracell and Thalidimar will be in the passage outside the hall with the black door closed, and we'll come into the room and join the battle on a signal from Emrikol, Kragus, or Dokren.

19 Marcav 1001
Endsnear

Today was the worst day of my life.

We went to the worship hall and set up our ambush just like we planned. Eventually, I heard Emrikol's muffled shout, so I opened the door and charged into the room. For some reason, Emrikol hadn't led the Naga into the worship hall. I saw Dokren dash down the secret passage, and then fire erupted back up it toward me. It died back down right away, so I ran to the beach. Dokren was lying on the sand looking rather singed. Kragus' bear trap was clamped to his leg. Duracell, Kragus, and Emrikol were fighting the Naga at the water's edge. It didn't seem to like the 3-on-1 odds, 'cause it slipped back into the lake. Emrikol floated up to the cavern's ceiling, and then I was surrounded by thick yellow vapors that smelled like a whole lot of really rotten eggs. I started to try to stumble my way out of the vapors, but then something grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let me move. I struggled to move for what seemed like forever, and I couldn't see anything because of the vapors and the darkness.

I heard some confusing splashing sounds, and Emrikol kept shouting for Duracell to either take the torch from him and follow the Naga, or else grab ah old of him and pull him along to follow it. Then the vapors finally dissipated, and I saw Duracell flying out over the lake carrying one of the torches. She came near the island, and I saw her kick at the Naga. Then the Naga bit her, and she went limp. It dragged her into a cave.

Shortly after that, a glow from somewhere behind me let me see that I was being held by thick spider's webs like we saw around the Huge Spider's nest. A moment later, the webs holding me burned away, and Thalidimar stepped up next to me holding two of the magic torches. He was using them to burn the webs. I grabbed one and started helping. As soon as we had burned the webs out of the way, he, Dokren and me walked into the lake toward the island. We walked as quickly as we could along the bottom of the lake, and when we finally got to the island, Kragus was dancing around near the cave holding the Naga's head in one hand. I asked him where Duracell was. All he said was, "She's dead." I ran as fast as I could to the cave, and Duracell and Emrikol were both lying there on the floor dead.

I can't believe it. She's the first woman to really notice that I even exist. I barely got to know her, and for so little time. Where was Tymora when Duracell needed her? Or was this all just some cruel joke on me? Did Tymora really help me at all earlier, or was it really Beshaba or Loviatar or some other evil force that just wanted me alive to see Duracell die? If somebody wanted to make me miserable, they have succeeded very well. This hurts more that getting eaten by a Crocodile. The worst thing is she saved my life twice, but when she needed me, I was completely powerless and couldn't help her. All I could do was watch her die. I feel so stupid. Maybe I should just give all this up and go back to Derek's bow shop like I was supposed to. It may be a totally humiliating life of menial work, but at least people I care about probably wouldn't be dying on me. I'd probably be a lot better at it than I am at this, anyway.

DM's note: This session was the climax of the adventure. The party finally met and defeated the Naga! But there was a price to pay. Duracell and Emrikol both lay dead in the Naga's lair. Poisoned and charmed. The party's well laid plans all unraveled from the beginning of the encounter, and the characters ended up attacking the Naga one at a time. That's not the best way to take on the main adversary of an adventure, she held all the trumps. Tymora was definitely on Kragus's side as he resisted the Naga's charm. The outcome could've been much, much, worse.

With the death of the Naga, the denizens of the surrounding countryside will be free of the foul charm, the corrupting influence, the deadly scourge that was strangling the community of Orlane. Farmers can tend to their fields. Forest residents can resume their hunting without fear of being hunted. Carpenters will help rebuild the town, and Cirilli can return to her family. It'll take time for the town to return to normal, but they surely will never forget the adventurer's who freed their town from a nightmare of evil.

The party has already begun talking about bringing Duracell back from the dead, and I imagine the 'Clean-up crew' will be somewhat upset by the loss of Emrikol. The adventure's not over yet. There's still a journey back to Orlane, and then one to Willip. Hopefully, it'll be less than noteworthy.

[In addition to these in-game notes, we have a few changes to the player line-up. David has informed us that he will not be able to game with our group. At the same time, Stacy has decided to join our group and roll up a character. Kim and I hope everyone had a merry Christmas, and we wish you a happy new year.]

Real-world date: 10 Jan 2004
Game-world date: 19-23 Marcav 1001
Written by: Ashedyn

Where we left off last session:
Explicita Defilus is dead, but so are Duracell and Emrikol-Oz. The group was assessing it's losses, and collecting it's loot.

Anyway, I remembered that sometimes priests can bring dead people back to life (really back to life, not like the moving skeletons and dead bodies we've seen down here), but it has to be done right away.  Emrikol and Solindria had been part of a "Clean-Up Crew" that X had sent, and one of the things they were supposed to do was reclaim Orlane's temple for Tymora, so there must be some high level priests back in Orlane now.  Since we're the ones that removed the evil that took over the temple to begin with, it wouldn't even be possible to reclaim the temple yet if it weren't for us, so I figure they owe us a bit.  I wrapped Duracell's body in my blanket, but I couldn't lift both it and all the stuff I was already carrying, so I started dumping out some of my equipment on the floor of the cave.  Then I grabbed Duracell's body and started heading for the entrance to this dungeon so I could go back to Orlane.

When I reached the surface, I saw an Elf woman holding the reigns to several horses.  She had a funny, slightly green color to her skin.  Maybe she's got some Orc blood running through her veins like Kragus does?  I didn't stop to think about it much at the time.  I was in a hurry.  Since she didn't attack me on sight like everything else in this swamp has, I showed her Duracell's body and told her that I needed to get back to Orlane as fast as possible.  She handed me the reigns to a horse and said that it was the fastest one of the group.  I thanked her, and then I tied Duracell's body to the saddle so I wouldn't have to worry about it falling off.  Then I got in the saddle and started riding as fast as I dared back down the trail out of the swamp.

After I had ridden for a while, the woman rode up behind me.  She said that Thalidimar had told her to tell me to wait up so he could cast a spell on Duracell's body that would keep it from rotting until we had gotten back to Orlane.  So we stopped and waited and let the horses rest.  It seemed like forever before Thalidimar and everybody else caught up to us.  While we were waiting, I found out that the funny colored Elf woman's name is Nibori.  When Thalidimar finally did catch up, he said he couldn't cast the spell he had been thinking of after all.  Something about not having served Tymora long enough for her to grant that particular prayer or something.  I think he just wanted to slow me up to keep everybody together.  He also pointed out that we could probably only shave a day off the trip back to Orlane by pushing real hard one day, so we should probably wait a couple more days until we make that push so that we'd end up in Orlane instead of making the push now and then being exhausted the entire rest of the trip.  I had to admit that he made sense, so we're traveling as a group now.

Tymora, please help speed us back to Orlane.

20 Marcav 1001
Godsday

We traveled back into the Winterwood Forest today.  At one point, we had to stop because there were a whole bunch of Goblins marching across the trail.  Kragus said something to them, and a Goblin on a really big wolf rode up to him.  They started talking for a while.  I finally had to ask Kragus to fill us in on what they were talking about.  He said that several of the Goblin tribes have been called to some kind of council, and that they are going to war.  He didn't know who they're going to fight.  I told him that maybe he should tell them that we've killed the Naga and maybe he should ask if we might be allowed to pass by.  He pulled the Naga head out, held it up, and shouted something.  All the Goblins started cheering and chanting.  Then they paused and made a gap we could pass through.  I wonder who they're going to fight?

21 Marcav 1001
Newday

We were attacked sometime last night.  I barely woke up before I got clubbed back into unconsciousness.  I think that Thalidimar healed me, too, but it's all really fuzzy.  He totally healed me back up this morning.  When I saw the bodies this morning, they looked really strange.  Kragus called them "Bladelings."

We decided we would push all the way to Orlane today.  When we passed the Winterwood South Camp, Dokren and Kragus said that it had been used recently.  They also said that Orcs had been here.  Sounds like somebody else got ambushed like we were.  That seems like it was so long ago.  I can't believe it's only been a week-and-a-half.

We made it to Orlane.  It is really a changed town.  Doors and windows are open.  People are walking around in the streets.  People actually say "Hi" now.  In fact, the town almost seems like there's a festival going on.  If I wasn't so anxious about bringing Duracell back, I might have even stopped by the Inn for a few drinks.  I'm too tired anyway.  As it was, we went straight to the temple.  The first priest we talked to turned out to be the most senior priest that is currently at the temple.  He couldn't raise Duracell or Emrikol (Dokren brought Emrikol's body with us), but he said that the High Priest from the Tymoran Temple in Chondath was on his way and could probably perform the rites.  He's supposed to arrive sometime tomorrow.  Thalidimar talked this priest into casting that preserving prayer he had been talking about earlier on Duracell's and Emrikol's bodies.  Then they took the bodies into the temple somewhere to wait for the High Priest guy.

I decided to head to Alain's before it got too late so I could let him know we're back and that we killed the Naga, etc.  Then I went out to his barn to get some sleep.  The Clean-Up Crew is staying here, too, so it's getting a little crowded.  I went to the only somewhat secluded corner, but Lumiarti is already sleeping there.  I'm too tired to try to find someplace better.

22 Marcav 1001
Nexsta'

First thing after breakfast, I went to the temple.  Then I waited and paced and fidgeted waiting for the High Priest to arrive.  Thalidimar, Dokren, Lumiarti, Kragus, and Nibori all eventually showed up too.  Eventually, the High Priest and his attendants arrived.  He was introduced as Farin Proballi.  After the usual introductions, chitchat, etc., Thalidimar broached the subject of Duracell and Emrikol.  Farin started some comment about how bringing someone back from the dead is not a trivial task, and I pointed out that getting rid of the Naga so they could have the temple back for Tymora hadn't been a trivial task either.  Heck, that's why Duracell and Emrikol are dead!  He agreed that he could do it, and he and Thalidimar worked out payment.

After Farin left, Kragus started talking to Thalidimar about returning Abramo's belongings in case Abramo wasn't really responsible for his actions.  Thalidimar didn't think we needed to bother, an opinion I share.  A priest nearby overheard them and told us that Abramo is no longer charmed, but if anything, he's more nuts now than when he was charmed.  Eventually, Kragus gave up the chainmail armor he had been wearing since we took it from Abramo to Thalidimar and left the whole issue up to Thalidimar.  We all left the temple after that.

The argument had left me with a headache, and I needed something to distract me from waiting for Farin to do his work, so I decided to see if Ramne was up for a visit.  I made sure nobody tagged along or followed me, and then I went to his hut in the woods.  I came across his weasel along the way, but when I told it that I wanted to thank Ramne for helping us out, it left me alone.  I'm even more convinced that the crazy-old-hermit-in-the-woods bit is an act.  I spent a rather enjoyable, calm mid-day making small talk with him.  He may be a little eccentric, but he's not nearly as "crazy" as he made it seem when we first met him.  He gave me some more pop-corns to replace the ones I lost.  He's also actually met Foilsunder.  Evidently, the Green Dragon has plans for ruling this area, but there are some Giant Eagles that keep interfering.  It sounds like Orlane could be right back in trouble if Foilsunder ever gets an upper hand against the Eagles.

Ramne said he wanted to take a nap, so I decided to head back to the temple.  As I was leaving the woods near Alain's, I saw Nibori.  She asked me if I had seen the "giant walking, talking tree standing in the middle of the path."  The path had been clear (except for the weasel), so I had no idea what she was talking about.  We went back to the temple together.  She started asking people around about the tree, but nobody else knew what she was talking about either.

Thalidimar and Lumiarti were there, and when he found out I had been at Ramne's, Thalidimar asked me if I had found out anything about transportation back to Willip.  I told him I hadn't; I didn't realize I was supposed to.  Then he told me that Duracell was alive!  I asked where she was, but he said she hadn't come out yet.  I asked the priests where she was, and they said they were finishing checking her out to make sure everything went right.  They took us to the room where she was, and we waited outside for what seemed like an eternity.  Then Duracell came out.  I gave her a big hug, and everybody else congratulated her on her return.  We all left the temple then and went in separate directions.  Thalidimar and Nibori went to talk to Ramne.  Duracell and I spent the afternoon catching up.

23 Marcav 1001
Onward

Emrikol-Oz was revived this morning.  The Clean-Up Crew seemed pretty happy to see him up and about again.

We all went back to Ramne's this morning.  Thalidimar seemed to believe that Ramne could "teleport" us back to Willip.  I found out later what that means.  When we got to Ramne's hut, Thalidimar asked him about the tree-creature Nibori has been going on about.  Evidently, it does actually exist.  Ramne called it a "Treant."  He said it helps guard his hut.  Then Thalidimar started haggling with him about the cost of this teleport.  Eventually, he decided that Ramne would just teleport him back to Willip, and then he'd talk to X to see if X had any ideas about how to get the rest of us back.  Ramne cast a spell, there was this loud popping sound, and Thalidimar was gone.  The rest of us went back to Alain's to wait for a pigeon message in a couple of days, but then Thalidimar showed back up a couple of hours later.  He was carrying this sheet of leather with a funky circle design drawn on it.  He had each of us stand on it, and when he said a strange word, there was the popping sound again and the person standing on the circle was gone.  When it was my turn, Thalidimar said the word, but then nothing happened.  That scared me, but before I could do anything, Thalidimar said the word again, and I was standing inside a room.  X was there, and he told me to step away and join everybody else that had already come.  Eventually, we were all in the room.  Thalidimar was last, and he was holding the leather sheet.

It turned out that we were now in the basement of X's manor.  X paid us each a 5,000 gp fee for fixing things in Orlane.  Since the Clean-Up Crew had also come back with us, Thalidimar had them reimburse us for some of the costs we had to pay for all the teleports back to Willip.  Then we went to the Mages' Guild in town to have some of the stuff we found identified.

DM's note: The party has returned to Willip. Two fallen party members have been resurected, and they've collected their fee from "X". I guess that pretty much seals the final chapter on this adventure. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. What trouble will the party stir up next? Be sure to tune in next week for more fun in Willip.

Author: Robert L. Vaessen e-mail:
Last Updated:

This page has been accessed times since Thu, Jul 10, 2003.