West Marches Adventure Log - Volume 2002

• Game 86 [2002-12-23]
• Game 85 [2002-11-10]
• Game 84 [2002-11-05]
• Game 83 [2002-11-03]
• Game 82 [2002-10-29]
• Game 81 [2002-10-19]
• Game 80 [2002-10-14]
• Game 79 [2002-09-28]
• Game 78 [2002-09-19]
• Game 77 [2002-09-18]
• Game 76 [2002-09-15]
• Game 75 [2002-09-14]
• Game 74 [2002-09-11]
• Game 73 [2002-09-07]
• Game 72 [2002-08-25]
• Game 71 [2002-08-23]
• Game 70 [2002-08-20]
• Game 69 [2002-08-13]
• Game 68 [2002-08-11]
• Game 67 [2002-08-07]
• Game 66 [2002-07-24]
• Game 65 [2002-07-21]
• Game 64 [2002-07-17]
• Game 63 [2002-07-15]
• Game 62 [2002-07-07]
• Game 61 [2002-06-28]
• Game 60 [2002-06-27]

• Game 59 [2002-06-23]
• Game 58 [2002-06-13]
• Game 57 [2002-06-07]
• Game 56 [2002-06-02]
• Game 55 [2002-05-27]
• Game 54 [2002-05-19]
• Game 53 [2002-05-16]
• Game 52 [2002-05-14]
• Game 51 [2002-05-12]
• Game 50 [2002-05-09]
• Game 49 [2002-05-05]
• Game 48 [2002-04-29]
• Game 47 [2002-04-21]
• Game 46 [2002-04-18]
• Game 45 [2002-04-14]
• Game 44 [2002-04-11]
• Game 43 [2002-04-07]
• Game 42 [2002-04-03]
• Game 41 [2002-03-28]
• Game 40 [2002-03-18]
• Game 39 [2002-02-28]
• Game 38 [2002-02-25]
• Game 37 [2002-02-19]
• Game 36 [2002-02-17]
• Game 35 [2002-02-16]
• Game 34 [2002-02-10]
• Game 33 [2002-02-06]
• Game 32 [2002-01-30]
• Game 31 [2002-01-23]
• Game 30 [2002-01-16]
• Game 29 [2002-01-13]

[Ed. - Da DM sez:]
After game #85 (hydra cave, spring 7/5) Tyrvail was buried and everyone returned to keep-town, getting back a several days later. Celkirk joined the faith of St Cuthbert as a lay priest.

Celkirk (Rob Carr) wrote:
Just for Chris:

Workers returning to Keeptown from the site of the currently being rebuilt Stockade report seeing a party of six standing around trying to decide where to go next.

Dan Charlson wrote:

It's near the end of spring [Ed. - Week 12, Day 3], about three weeks after that large gathering of heroes returned from the Hydra Cave.

Celkirk, newly joined to St. Cuthbert is in "boot camp" [Ed. - "leveling up"] at the Keeptown Church of St. Cuthbert.

Traevin and Siobhan wait for Celkirk to have some free time; meanwhile, they hang out at the Axe & Thistle.

Also at our favorite watering hole are Ozric and Elijesse. She has been looking for her mast--, er, mentor, Ketch, but he has not been seen for weeks. And so they sit and pass the time the best way they know how: drinking and telling tall tales...

Elijesse, with her keen hearing, notes that a well-dressed middle-aged man is asking after Ketch with the bartender -- who points him to Ozric and Elijesse's table.

He is Voilo, and represents the Keeptown Merchants Association (which is rebuilding the Stockade). He's looking for Ketch -- known to him as a good man -- so he can act as courier.

[Ed. - It is at this point we joke that Ozric should Change Self to resemble Ketch (^_^)]

Elijesse volunteers to act in his stead, and Voilo not only buys the table a round of beer, but gives her a letter, complete with wax seal, to be given post-haste to one Lomass the Grey (sp?), "who won't be expecting it."

Ozric quips that it wasn't such a bad day; they just got some free beer and some free paper!

Meanwhile, at the Church: one of the acolytes interrupts Corwin and Celkirk, saying there are four men, supplicants, as it were, at the front doors. It turns out they are laborers up at the Stockade. One of them has a brother there who has been afflicted by blindness, and couldn't St. Cuthbert help him? Corwin agrees to go check it out, and Celkirk will come, too.

At the Axe & Thistle, Traevin and Siobhan notice the transaction at the other table, and head over. After lots of introductions and exchanging of tales of the Stockade, the four of them agree to go together.

Elijesse has the occasion to say, of Ketch: "(...he's not so bad) Reserve judgment until he screws you next."

Ozric offers to go buy supplies, and Traevin and Elijesse head to the Church, to see Celkirk.

After the 4PM Church prayers end, Elijesse approaches Celkirk about going up to the Stockade. He is obliged to obtain permission...Corwin meets Elijesse and Traevin, and they agree to all go together.

[Ed. - Spring Week 12, Day 4]

The various groups rise before dawn, and meet at the Gates. Corwin shows off his brand new masterwork Full Plate, gleaming and shiny new that it is, covered with ornate extras that cry the glory of the Saint. Everyone admires the other extras, too: air conditioning, surround sound, wet bar...

They join a small caravan group, and travel slowly, steadily north.

By dusk the group has reached Pike Hollow, and camps at its entrance.

[Ed. - Spring Week 12, Day 5]

At dawn, the caravan group enters the forest. Just after noon, it emerges, and spies the Stockade construction effort about .5 mile north.

The construction camp is on lunch break, and its 50-70 people are scattered about. The camp is divided into roughly three groups: the laborers, the Stockade guard personnel, and a much smaller group of somewhat militaristic-looking people...

Ozric sets about sketching the Stockade.

Traevin goes and does that Bard thing [Ed. - Gather Info, as well as Perform]

Siobhan wanders around, checking everything out. She spies a large earthen mound located outside the Stockade grounds. She learn's it's "Hextor's Mound."

After lunch, Corwin and Celkirk go to see Banwen, the afflicted one. They find him in a dark tent, his head swathed in bandages. They converse, and Corwin invokes the power of the Saint (Detect Evil = ok, Detect Chaos = ok), and then cures the man's blindness. Banwen practically leaps from the cot, goes ecstatic, and dashes out among the grounds, crying the glory of St. Cuthbert "It's a miracle! I've been healed! I can see! [repeat]" -- throwing the Stockade into some chaos.

In the meantime, Elijesse has gone in search of Lomass the Grey.

Siobhan presses three laborers for the details about the Mound. Although they clearly don't want to talk too much about it, they eventually say that it is where the dead from the Hextorite razing of the Stockade are buried -- "near a score." They hush up like clams upon seeing Prespa and her men draw near; they're on their way to see what the hullaballo is all about.

Traevin goes into full swing during the distraction, learns much, performs well...

Eventually things settle down, and people get back to work.

After dinner, Corwin and Celkirk get Banwen to talk about what really happened. He says he was out gathering wood on one of the daily wood-gathering details, when, well, he confesses, he was gold-bricking, and wandered away pretty far, just enjoying the time away from the mess of humanity at the construction site. He glimpsed a beautiful, scantily-clad girl -- from town he thought, no less! Youth being youth, he followed her. Deeper and deeper into the forest he went, she leading him on, literally and figuratively, until suddenly she turned on him, haughtily, and gestured -- he was smote with blindness! He wandered for days, then, and was eventually found by searchers.

Traevin eventually hooks up with a member of the third group mentioned above. Armed with a sword, and having the look of a soldier or ranger about him, he is Norwood, the leader of what turns out to be the "anti-goblin" force. They converse about Norwood's strategy and tactics for keeping the increasingly-encroaching goblins at bay...

..

[Ed. - Da DM sez:] After game #86 (the once and future stockade, spring 12/6) Corwin remained at the stockade but sent his new acolyte Celkirk back to town to report that he might be away for a while. Celkirk's companions Siobhan and Traevin accompanied him, perhaps seeing that Corwin was not inclined to pursue the matter of the witch after all. Elijesse and Osric returned to keep-town as well, as already reported.

[Chris writes:]
It'll be a short one, since I need to get to bed.

We went to the cave.
Brag and Ketch explored and then ran away like scared puppies when the
Hydra crawled out of the wall.
We, well armed and prepared, walked into the creature's lair and verily
and mightily smote it!

Vesta blinded and burned the hydra, Walker, Celkirk and Brag slashed at
it, Traevin sang a happy Hydra killing tune and plunked it with arrows,
Hagren used Rapid Shot to great effect from far, far away, Ketch used
the creature's blindness to great effect (3D6 +4 Damage with a +12 to
hit) right close up, Oz doomed the damn thing and used a cool arcane
scroll to heal walker from across the room. Jess, unfortunately, was as
blind as the hydra during the fight and didn't get to pitch in too much.

Post-fight we discovered that the pile of treasure in the middle of the
room was far more copper and silver than gold. The thinking is that the
pile is a ruse meant to throw people off the scent of the real treasure
which, we think, is behind a dweomored and arcane locked door. 

Vesta is working on learning a knock spell so we can get in there. We'll
see. We'll see.

Tyrval had been avenged. May he drink merrily in his chosen afterlife.	

[News flash (2002-11-13) -- Chris adds, much to our satisfaction:]
Hey, folks. Things got awfully confused at the end of the last game. In
the name of keeping everyone sane, here's "what happened" between the
death of the Hydra and Ozric's unsuccessful attempt to open the
magically sealed door.:





The Hydra Cave, just after the battle, so quiet now
 without the roar of the nine headed monster. The
 only sound is the heavy breathing of the nine adventurers
 from keep town.  Missing two heads, arrows dug deep
 into it's flesh, large gashes from swords and
 glaives apparent on its side, the Hydra is, even in death, a
frightening 
 thing.  While Vesta, Ketch and Jess move to examine a newly found 
 door and a previously spotted pile of treasure, Brag bends low over the
body of Tyrval, his eyes scanning the weeks old corpse of his good,
trusted and powerful friend.

"We've avenged you" he says in a low whisper, slipping into a quiet
contemplation.
 
 "H'ki toto poh shoshta!"
 Brag's awoken from his reverie by a stream of goblin
 curses spewing forth from the mouth of the rogue
 Ketch Eling.
 
 "Copper. Worthless copper and silver. There's
 barely,
 what . . 200 gold here. Some 'pile of treasure'
 indeed."
 
 Ketch turns toward the hidden door.
 "The real treasure is behind that damnable door and
 .
 . "
 Ketch turns to Bragg.
 
 "And on that body. What does he have on him"
 
 Ketch approaches Tyrval, but stops short  when
 Bragg,
 rising to his full 7 feet, fixes the short rogue with a stare.
 
 "No."
 "No?"
 "No. He's a friend of ours, not some dungeon corpse, Ketch.
 We bury him as is."
 Ketch's face falls as he backs away from the half
 orc.
 "But . . But . . Jewelery, coins, magic . . By the
 Saint,
 Brag, I'm sorry for calling him 'that body', but he's not using any of
it. Tyrval was a generous guy, he'd want us to have his money so we
could keep all of keep town's grieving women drunk"

 "No."
 "Walker . . talk some sense . . "
 Ketch turns to a stern faced and serious Walker
 shaking his head.
 
 Ketch shakes slightly, shifting his weight uneasily
 from foot to foot, eyeing Tyrval hungrily, and then
 . .
 
 "Fine! Fine! Be foolish for all I care I don't . .  Ozric, Ozric, get
that damnable door open.  I want to get a little richer before I
 go home."
 
 Ketch walks toward the door, closely followed by
 Jess ("Master, why didn't we loot the body?") as the
 Others build a Cairn for Tyrval and bury him just as he fell, blood
soaked and wealthy.
 

------

So, and I've cleared this with Ben, this is "The official version" of
what happened. The game was chaotic, people were tired and jazzed after
killing the hydra. Tyrval and Mike both deserved more respect than we
showed him.

Also, the higher level characters from that game have been discussing
and, I think, have decided they don't want the pile of treasure (Vesta
may want to be reimbursed for her outlay on scrolls.) so the lower level
characters are welcome to the thousands of assorted coins. As much as
they can carry, anyway.			
				

[Chris concludes]
Chapter 3
Undead Kobolds? That's sick!

Pressing on past the stench of mushroom, the blood of
centipedes staining their blades, the adventureres
returned to the pillard grotto to find not much of
anything. Continuing down a side passage, the careful
party stumbled upon THE THRONE ROOM OF THE MUSHROOM
KING!

Choosing to be slightly more cautious this time, Ketch
let fly a dagger, sticking a mushroom right where it's
happy cheery heart would be if it had such a thing. 

And the battle was joined! Walker advanced, swinging
his wheat thresher far and wide, a song to fahrlangan
(who replied with a "um. Why are you killing
mushrooms?") on his lips. Ketch attempted to do more,
to pay those damn mushrooms back. He strode forward to
join the massacre and . . . got frozen in place and
peacified once again.

Celkirk advanced and met the same fate.
Jess, the young rogue, avoided that fate, drawing her
wicked short sword and closing for desperate combat.
Ozric didn't get frozen, but did get peacified. 

Chris and Rob went to play Twisted Metal black and so
I have little knowledge of this fight. 
Ketch thought of home, of prespa, of Azucar, of
scratching his nose and buttocks, but mostly of peace.
Peaceful mushrooms. MmM. Mushrooms.
Walker and Jess fought valiantly while Ozric spoke of
peace. Walker stood toe to toe with many mushrooms,
the rage of the god of roads flowing through his
veins. He cut the king again and again, dropping it to
0 hit points He thought he had done it. He thought he
had won the day when:

"NO! This is not necessary!"
Ozric, not the thaumaturge, lept forward and called on
the uncaring to heal the poor mushroom king. The
uncaring responded with "I don't care!" giving the
king strength enough to lay poor Walker low.

Walker retook his position as royal trampoline.

Trying to convince the king to let Walker go, Ozric
revealed his true form: that of a fellow wounded
mushroom king. The two mushroom kings bowed low. One
of the small mushrooms took up liquid from a pool and
gave it to Ozricmushroom who drank a small bit. 
Celkirk dragged Walker off to the side to heal him.
One mushroom king and his friends retreated, while the
other king, sounding something like Ozric, tried to
approach walker just to be stabbed by Jess.
"Damn Mushrooms!"

Ketch, quite smitten with the mushroom king, walked
off into the darkness alone to commune with the large
fungi. The fungi offered him a pool of liquid, which
he drank, and threw off the doors of perception!

Celkirk and Ozric, still a mushroom, tied Walker up,
trying to keep him from killing the mushroom king.

Ketch drank the strange water offered by the good
mushroom king. It didn't taste good, but neither bad.
A few moments later, the effects set in.

"hmm. I need to shave" said Ketch, staring down at his
dumbfounded body. 
"Hmm. I seem to have left my body. How strange!"

And Ketch went exploring, finding his way along
caverns, moving freely about the cave, floating or
flying a few feet off the ground. After some time he
came to a small room and found the dessicated corpse
of a Kobold."

"Kobold" said Ketch when he came out of it. I found a
Kobold. He looked down to see that Walker had killed
the mushroom king and that Jess ahd spent several
minutes hiding behind him.

"You have to try this stuff!"
During the following hubub, during which Ketch
explained that he could astrally project and Ozric
said he could FEEL THE ROOM (I can taste the floor!),
Ketch took anothr dose of the magic water. Twenty
minutes later he came to and said there was a cliff 40
feet above. It was too hard a climb, so we ignored it
and commenced with the dreaded "LIGHT EXPLORING."

Ketch led the group along several passages, eventually
coming to the room he had visited astrally. Looking
behind a rock he did, indeed, find a dead Kobold.

"Hazzah! I was right!" he said, and then
"EEEEEEEEEEKKKK!!!" as the Kobold looked up at him and
said "hey, stud. Wanna date?"

Chris said "Undead Kobolds? Two of my least favorite
things wrapped up into one horrible, horrible
package."

Ozric, with a cry of "I DON'T CARE" turned the kobolds
away. Walker dispatched three quite quickly while
Ketch, trying to impress his assistant, did minimal
damage. "if they had organs they'd be dead by now." 
Eventually the kobolds were dealt with. Exploring
further down the cavern, off and to the right, Ketch
saw a locked treasure box!

"OOoo! Treasure, treasure, treasure!' he said, walking
right toward the box.
"And as you get to this square . . "
"I check for traps?"
"Too late!"

All of sudden Ketch found himself surrounded by
infernal wolves who were soon joined by the few
remaining undead Kobolds. Ketch fought well
enough,assisting in the killing of a flanking wold,
stabbing at another and then retreating to allow
Walker access. Walker attempted to close on the
wolves, but was stabbed cruelly in the side by a
kobold. Ozric attempted to turn the Kobolds, but
failed, drawing their ire, taking a hit. Ketch lept
over Ozric, went through a kobold and stabbed it hard
in the back, drawing its attention. Walker dispatched
the other wolves (barely) and the fight was soon
enough won (just a note. We were all out of healing at
this point.)

Carefully approaching the box, Ketch searched for
traps on it. 
Ben said "You lucky bastard." Since only the presence
of other magix inthe area made the keen enchantment on
the box detectable, even toa rogue with a 10 search.
"Feeling your hands along the edge of the box, you
feel a strong enchantment inside."

We camped uncomfortably that ngiht, fending off the
stench of dead Kobold and, in the morning, having
regained spells, prepared to open the box.

Jess aided Ketch (back rub.) In opening the box.
Walker dropped spells of protection as soon as the lid
was open and Ketch went to work, desperate to diffuse
the magic of the  trap before his head could explode.

Chris dropped a die. 
It rolled 18.
EXACTLY what was needed to defuse the trap.
EXACTLY!
Woo hoo.
"Ben, could that have just killed me?"
"With your current hp? Um. Yea. Yea. That could've
just killed you."
"oh."
"Wow, you really are a rogue!" said Russell.
"yup."

Wow.
And then we opened the box.
And what we found really isn't your business.
I mean, there were coins, of course, about 240 each
(mark that down, Celkirk), but was there more? There
must be, you'd think, for such a crafty trap to have
been set. For undead kobolds to have been set at the
door.
You'd think.
Wouldn't you?
And then we went back to town to get drunk and
resupply, since we still haven't made it to the
dwarven caves.

The end.

                

The following is a player write up ( I'll include
Brag's comments at the end).  



It's been a long winter.

The Hydra Canyon's have no water, no firewood, no
food, no treasure and no way to map.  You can get lost
for days and if you go too far north, you wind up in
the Rotting Oaks.  They do however contain a Hydra
that leaves twenty foot scratch marks on the canyon
walls.  

Armed with this knowledge Tyrvail said to Vesta and
Brag, "Let's go kill the Hyrda." Vesta and Brag said,
"Ok.".  Who is the more foolish? No one, they are
adventures and what do adventures do? They kill Hydras
who's sin of being alive is sin enough for it to
perish (it's like EXTREME Absolution.)

We gather some supplies.  No Olymandrin.  Healing
potions? They don't need no stinking healing potions! 
Well Brag does and some weirdo sells him a little
pouch.  Vesta and Tyrvail turn up their noses and Brag
counters, "I am the only one going to be in melee
with" (perhaps I said that, Brag mentioned something
about chopping off heads).  Well...there wasn't much
else to buy really, so they set off.

Once they start heading up towards Golden Hills, Brag
finds some tracks....

We now bring you the surprise inter-story :"The Tale
of the Beast Men" as told by the land itself.  5
Beastmen go off exploring.  They go past the stinking
man-meat in the watchtower and make their way to the
lovely Golden Hills. Dogs come and play with the beat
man- don't bite so hard little dogs! The dogs
disappear.  Hurray!  The dogs reappear, ow, ow, ow!
The dogs disappear.  One beast man breaks his spear-
perk up little Beast Man!  One beast man bleeds- ha-ha
bleeding beast man has a bald spot on his bum!  Beast
Men find a road.  Follow, follow, follow- beast men
sure are fast!  Beast men lay their little heads down
in the soft woods. Hey- no fighting, fighting isn't
nice.  Follow, follow, follow... Beast men see a place
full of stinky man-meat.  Yum, yum! Beast-men go home-
"let's tell all our friends, what a great time we
had!".....

So Tyrvail, Veast and Brag head back into Keep Town. 
Sleep in their beds and head out again.  They come to
the Hydra Canyon.  It's Vesta's first time,  Brag and
Tyrvail are flooded with memories.  "Ah, the cold, the
lost wanderings and thank goodness we had Walker to
create water for us or we would never have...."  The
merry party heads back to town to buy more water
skins.

INTERMISSION

Ok, they're back at the Canyons.  They wander, they
forage, they track.  Cut to the chase they find what
they are looking for.  It is only then does the, "Why"
question crop up.  Specifically Brag, standing in
front holding a throwing ax and staring at the nine
heads attached to a biggest living thing he has ever
seen, says, "Why am I here." Oh Brag... you are there to
ADVENTURE!

Rock and roll commences.  Tyrvail lets loose with a
fire ball- BOOM!  The creature advances and Vesta
let's loose with a flaming sphere- Sizzle! Another
fire ball- the creature is surprisingly light on it's
feet- BOOM!  The sphere rolls over the Hydra who
twists and dodges but then the sphere bursts into a
choking cloud of smoke.  Ha-ha! Well done team.... ROAR
(x9)!  Brag throws his ax and hits.  The creature
advances and takes some bites and Brag.  Tyrvail has a
new trick up this sleeve- the creature begins to move
slower and slower.  ATTACK! The Hydra moves forward
and narrowly avoids Vesta's and Brag's fists.  Tyrvail
let's loose with volley after volley of magic
missiles.  Vesta PUNCHES THE HYDRA!  Brag gets
Wolfslayer™ into the action and as promised whacks off
a head.  Brag dodges and weaves making a mockery of
the Hydra's pitiful attempt to bite at him.  Vesta
shrugs off a snap.  More missiles, more punching (this
time with glowing fists of doom) and more hacking. 
Brag and Vesta take some licks and with one last
volley of magic- Bam, they bring the mighty creature
down.  There is much rejoicing.  We take the hydra
teeth having no idea if any part of a Hydra is
valuable, but teeth are cool.

Tyrvail mentions the possibility of a lair.  Brag back
tracks the mighty beat.  They find a cave.  Like
children at recess they gaily romp down the dark and
scary...(the killed a Hydra, nothing is scary!).  They
find a huge pile of gold.  However what they find more
interesting is how in this natural cave there are two
flat carved walls.  One has a crack in it and the
other has a carved etching of a Hydra.  An etching
that starts to move.  An etching that starts to come
off the wall.  An etching that is quickly being
replaced by.....another Hydra (yes, like the one that
took over 100 pts of damage).   All of these mighty
adventure's emotions to a 180.  Vesta, has always
known when her luck is running out and (let me add,
wisely, wisely, wisely) runs.  Tyrvail seems to be a
little in shock, but Brag won't leave a man behind
(the 1st person he ever adventured with all that time
ago when he was a mere monk seeking to repress his
barbarous side- which he embraces so much today). 
Brag backs up and stands ready to deflect the
creature's attack to allow Tyrvail to make his escape.
 Just as Tyrvail is about hightail it out of their 4
of the beast's heads descend on the very handsome
sorcerer.   He is killed instantly.  The creature
stands between Brag and Tyrvail's body.  Brag also
runs.  Vesta stand waiting with spider climbs for all
but understand what has happened when she sees Brag
coming toward her along shouting, "RUN!".

There was no victory part in Keep Town, for brave
Tyrvail was struck down.

G

Ps- open the orphanage cause there are going to be a
lot of bastard children around.

When you all return all Brag is somberly saying is
this.

"We killed a hydra, but Tyrvail was killed by
another."
                
                

[Chris writes]
Chapter 2
The next morning, the party lit torches and decided to
explore this new cave. Elijesse wondered "Is this how
we get treasure, Ketch, by exploring caves? How does
that work?." Ketch fixed her with an icy stare.

Moving along a passageway, Ketch, who was in the lead,
felt a sharp, stinging pain. Retreating back, he
discovered that he'd been given the world's worst
brain freeze. After some comical ramblings, Ketch and
Walker determined the source of the freeze to be a
patch of brown mold on the ceiling above. With careful
movements (well, at least by those of us with positive
dex modifiers) the party circumvented the mold and
delved deeper into this strange and wonderous cave.

The cavern the party entered was full to the brim with
fungi. Mushrooms, the regular kind, were strewn
everywhere abotu a large pool. While Walker explored
down various finger passages, Ketch and the others
kept guard.

That's when the mushrooms started moving.
They were stout little guys, ranging from 0 to 3 feet
high. Walker walked right up to one down a small
passageway. It puffed up its chest, releasing spores
into the air (which Walker, with his +10 fort save,
laughed off) and tried to punch our fine warrior
square in the testicles.  That was the last mistake it
would ever make.

After a short skirmish, we followed the mushroom men
up a small incline into additional caves.  Working our
way down a cavern, we came to "The Room of Pillars."

Inside that room were a veritable plethora of
mushrooms, ranging in size from zmall to, in one
instance, quite latrge. We had entered the court of
the mushroom king!

With a cry of "Let the Slaughter Begin" Ketch tumbled
gayly through the door and into the room. 


Let's switch perspective for a moment:

Once there was a mushroom boy named Jimmy. Jimmy lived
in a cave with many other mushroom boys, a few
muchroom guys and one big, strong, card carrying
member of NAMBLA mushroom man-king.  Jimmy and his
friends were sitting around one day, sipping their
magic mushroom juice when a crazy man with a longsword
and a torch did a flying sommersault into the room and
skewered poor Jimmy just for looking funny. Jimmy died
right in the middle of telling Bill McFungi that "Yea,
I always liked the dark haired smurfette."

It was a terrible battle. It was a horrible battle. It
was a battle which saw Walker take up his rightful
place as "Trampoline man."

Walker rushed into battle, heading straight for the
mushroom king, and was immediately set upon by very
many small mushrooms. they grappled him, they hit him,
they said they didn't like his haircut. They called
Fahrlangan a pussy. They did everything they could to
keep him from the king. Several mushrooms, the king
included, released spores into the air. Ketch was
frozen in place  and, while frozen, came to the
realization that this fight need not be, that his life
was a sham. That violence waa a hollow path. Walker
and the mushrooms danced a dance of carnage, many
mushroom men falling before the mighty blade and even
the mushroom king receiving a nasty cut, but
eventually Walker fell before the crush of fungus. 
This is when that trampoline thing happened.

Still out in the antechamber, Celkirk also found peace
and called to his companions "This is foolish. We
should go." he took his torch and left. 
More concerned for the King's safety than in finishing
off Walker, the mushroom men retreated to another
chamber. Ozric tended to Walker and Jess looked
confused when suddently Ketch came out of his
paralysis to say "Walker, what are you doing on the
floor? Oh, you're playing with the mushrooms! 
Mushroom friends."
Turning to regard the mushroom corpses to his side:
"No! No! Poor mushrooms I am so sorry! What have I
done? What have I done? Jimmy? JIMMY! NO! NO! JIMMY!
I'M SO SORRY! I will place copper coins in your eye
slits to pay the ferryman on the river sticks! Why,
random deities, why? Why Jimmy? Jimmy used to dance!
Jimmy used to laugh and sing! HE WAS A GOOD BOY!!!! I
love you jimmy. I will eat you and in me you will live
forever!"

The delusional rogue was led by his companions back to
another chamber, still ranting about jimmy and even
carrying the poor mushroom corpse with him, cradled
like a babe.
A wet thud - the sound of a mushroom falling to the
ground - signaled Ketch return to normalcy.
Well, that and the stream of profanity.
"What the fuck am I doing carrying a mushroom and . .
ack! Why am I short 8 copper pieces!"

Healing, swearing, eating beef jerky and letting Rob
go home, the party regrouped and prepared another
attack. It was a few hours later that they crawed back
to the column room. Only a few mushrooms were in
attendence, and no sign of the mushroom king, but
these few mushrooms were the elite! The LA Lakers of
the mushroom world!. Ketch, bow in hand, lept forward,
loosed an arrow and . . . inahled spores, putting him
once again out of the fight.

Walker didn't become a trampoline this time, but he
may as well have.
"1"
"1"
"1"
"My god, I can't roll for shit today!"
The fight was brutal, Ozric and jess putting their
weapons to work to assist Walker as he swung his sword
in great, beautiful, utterly innefectual arcs.
Many moments later, the mushrooms lay dead and Walker,
standing, looked ready to join them.

We reatreated to the willwood for 2 days to rest and
recuperate. Celkirk foraged for food and came upon
tracks of some sort of beast men.


Rested and healed, the brave adventurers set out once
again to commit mushroom genocide.
Circumventing the freezing mold, they reentered the
pond room and fought deadly centipedes! Well, a few
DEADLY centipedes and one decidedly high centipede. It
was spun in circles and caressed a mushroom.

Moving further on with a single mindedness of purpose,
Elijesse smelled mushroom on the air. Walker looked
around the surrounding mushroomage and the DM said "We
should stop now."

                

[Chris writes:]
The Sum of Satuday's game is simply:
"That's a Lot of Frogs."

We stopped early due to lack of focus and Ben's slow decent into fever
driven madness.
I did, however, kick total ass at Halo.
We're picking up where we left off one week from Today.
-B

[A more energetic Chris later submitted the following (2002-11-06)]
Chapter 1:

Role call: 

Ketch, rogue,  who learned the value of friendship,
love and astral projection.
Elijess, rogue, who learned to always do what Ketch
says.
Ozrix Quince, Cleric of The Uncaring, who learned to
really FEEL those around him and to, perhaps, change
his name before encountering Brag..
Celkirk, ranger, who found peace, pithy comments and
how to take away the light source.
Walker, Fighter, who killed a shitload of mushrooms
and learned to truly value his cleave.


Chapter 1
The DM is tired

We five brave and/or foolish adventurers left Keeptown
behind on a fine spring night. A bounce in our step, a
song in our heart, images of treasure fleeting before
our widened eyes, we traversed the willwood and
slogged through the frog marshes.

There are frogs in the frog marshes.
Many frogs.
Many poisonous frogs.

Coming to a cave, Ketch and his padawan learner,
Elijesse, entered to explore. While they stood in the
darkened cave talking of things inconsequential, the
remainder of the party were set upon by many, many
frogs. Hundreds of frogs. Thousands of frogs. A
MILLION FROGS. The frogs lept at Walker, who, with his
greatsword drawn, used them to improve his baseball
swing. Elijesse and Ketch, having heard the commotion,
left the cave, rallied the troops and THE GREAT CHASE
WAS ON.
We ran as only those who are being chased by hundreds
of rather slow poisonous frogs can run, Elijesse
wondering why we were retreating, Ketch explaining
that some fights are just too annoying to bother with.

The day turned to later in the day, then switched
dramatically into night. The party continued to trudge
along, eager to find a campground that was neither wet
nor frog infested. It was dark. 

Scouting ahead, Ketch came upon a cave in a cliff
wall. Fording across the still pond before the
cavemouth, he entered a dry and pleasent cavern. Ketch
gathered his companions and set camp in cave, happy to
be off the soggy road.

The next morning . . . 
"I'm going to call the game right here. I'm looking at
my wandering monster table and it makes no sense. The
DM needs sleep."

                

[Ping writes:]
A bottle with a piece of paper in it floats gently onto the shores of Keep
Town (does it have shores?... but I digress)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
I, Skyla, being of sound mind and hot body, acknowledge this as my last
will and testament.  When you think of how I treated you in this life,
just remember I was in the slinky, red dress the _whole_ time.  Also, if 
it makes you feel better, I'm really seasick right now.

----------------------------

To Celkirk, nature lover and tree hugger, I bequeath my copy of Keeptown
Streetfinder 2001.

To Traevin, the reckless bard, I leave my +3 dex bonus and a word of
advice:  You should try this salt water gargle.  It does great things for 
your voice. 

To Brag, I bestow upon you my prized Ketch voodoo doll;  high in mileage,
but still under warranty.

To Marduk, paladin of the traitor Heironius, I leave you a clue about the
true nature of the Gods.

To Siobhan, my sister adventuress, I grant all my gold to found The Skyla
Academy of Charm and Tyranny.

To Vesta, fellow monk, I leave you my Lawful Evil alignment since you seem
to dislike the one you have.

Finally, to Ketch, my comrade in arms, I bequeath this masterwork dagger,
properly sheathed in the small of your back.

----------------------

Thus endeth Skyla's Last Will and Testament.  

Ben has promised me she is _not dead_, she is retired.  She will get her 
own little room in Valhalla where the evil monks go to live out the rest 
of their natural (or not so natural?) lives. ;)

[Editor: hmm..._did_ we ever get another person's perspective?]
                

[Chris, as usual, writes]

Role Call:
Ketch Eling - Soot Covered Sucker
Vesta - Magical Monk
Skyla - Goddam betraying swine =-)
Traevin - Sings the Songs the people want to hear.

NPC's
A. . . - An old and proud warrior. (Gavin)
Mildrake - Some guy who didn't talk much. (Seth)

So there I was, deep in my cups, listening to Siobahn talk about some
dwarf she'd gotten killed when some noble - real ponsy looking guy -
came running into the Axe and Thistle, waving a bag of gold around and
calling for a posse to go and "Apprehend" Shel Goroud. I'd been in town
too long without action of any mentionable kind, and so I jumped at the
chance to make some coin and maybe a story to tell around the winter
fire.

To my surprise, Traevin, Vesta and even Skyla had decided to go as well,
so us, these two other fighter types and bunch of Drovers gathered at
the gate to follow our "Lord" -- j something or other -- on his "Noble
mission."

It was cold out, and a bunch of the drovers hadn't brought proper
clothes, but fuck 'em, I had a blanket and a few days food. A couple
hours after leaving town, some guy on a horse rode up. I listened in to
his talk with J and heard him say that this posse wasn't sanctioned by
the magistrate and we should all turn back. J didn't feel the need to
tell the posse that, and drove us on a few more hours in the night.

We got four hours sleep, and I woke up sore from the lack of campfire
and proper sleeping arrangements. Sometime in the night Skyla had snuck
off. Vesta said they'd talked about it and Skyla was going ahead to get
into the stockade first and see if she could help from there. She helped
alright, but not us.

We marched on, the Noble riding high on his horse, all proud of what he
was going to do, all smug. The guy was a real wanker, dashing off ahead
of us to apprehend some guy who was walking toward keep town. Turned out
later the guy was a hextorite, but whatever, that didn't effect our trip
to the Stockade.

We finally got there in late morning and rather than try any sort of
sneaky approach, or even trying to get in the doors, our Noble leader
just rode forward and said "Shel Goroud is wanted by the Duke, turn him
over to us now" or something like that. Real slick, right? Of course the
doors didn't open, but all of a sudden we heard a fight break out
inside. The noble sent some men into the woods to get a battering ram
while A . . something, this guy who was with us and I asked Vesta to
give us Spider climb so we could try to get in and open the gates.

Peaking over the wall, I saw a warzone, with the stockade guards being
easily bested by Goroud's men and several of them trapped inside a
building that looked like it would soon be set on fire.  A and I got
separated as I tried to find a spot to drop into the stockade and he
stuck around the first point we'd climbed.

Circling toward the back, I finally found a spot I could vault over and
lose myself in the junk and random tents. I put my shoes back on and
snuck over toward the building with the kindling out front. Goroud and
several men were gathering near the gate, discussing their next move. I
found a small barred window at the back and spoke briefly with Prespa.
She was charming as always and told me to create a diversion while she
and her men tried to break out through the roof of the building. 

I snuck back over to the tents, picked my angle and, praying to . .
somebody, fired an arrow at one of the guards in front of the barracks. 
A moment later, the chase was on as five or six men went hunting for me.

I realized I was in deeper trouble than I'd expected when I spotted an
unarmored and unarmed man stealthily rounding a corner, looking for me.
Armored men are easy enough to deal with. I can outrun them and hear
them a mile away, but monks are a bigger issue. 
Turning back around another corner, I ran into Skyla. I should've just
kept going, but I guess I wasn't thinking straight so I went into a tent
with her to fill her in on what was going on. She was acting strange,
but that was nothing new. After a few minutes I decided I'd been in one
place too long and tried to leave, only to run face first into two monks
and an armored guy. I took a roundhouse kick, an elbow to the throat and
a poke in the eye before I could even get a weapon out. Backing quickly
into the tent, I told skyla "Monks" and went defensive. They came
crashing in at me, one of them getting a lucky shot and Skyla, cagily it
turned out, just standing there, actively not attacking them. I sliced a
hole in the back of the tent with my sword, took a parting shot at one
of the monks and tripped over my own feet as I tried to exit through the
hole.  It was supposed to be a graceful sideways flip. It wasn't
graceful at all.

The two monks, taking advantage of my unbalanced footing, swung wide
with their arms and legs, missing me completely. The third monk, my so
called ally, set her feet and smashed the heel of her palm directly into
my nose, knocking me silly, and making me drop my new and very expensive
sword.

The other two Hextorites tried to take advantage of my unarmed and
unmoving state, but their deadly hands, feet, elbows, knees and
foreheads bounced harmlessly off my armor. This time the sideways flip
worked. Leaving my sword behind, I beat feet out the back of the tent,
dashed around a few corners and looked for a place to lay low.

I was buried under some debris, keeping my breath shallow, noticing the
smell of smoke when I heard Skyla's high pitched whine of a voice saying
something about me. I could sense all the Hextorites combing the area
for me, but managed to keep my meager covering convincing. A few minutes
later the place had gone quiet enough that I felt it was safe to move. I
ran into Prespa, looking like she'd spent the night Drinking with Bragg
and Syntac. She said she was looking for some old men. I didn't want to
be alone just then, in case the monks came back, so I went with her. We
found the guy and another one, tied up and sweating. I looked for a back
way out of the Stockade, but Prespa just sighed, took her old men and
walked to the front to give herself up to the Hextorites. Didn't sound
like a great plan to me, so I looked for a sturdy section of wall to
throw my grappling hook over. The smoke was thick and cloying, burning
my lungs, but eventually found some solid wall and scampered up it and
over the other side to the ground. I dashed for the woods, then angled
back to the road, thinking it was going to be a long walk alone to keep
town, not at all convinced my companions weren't all dead.
On the road I saw a column of riders - the Magistrate and his men. I
waved them down, told them that the Stockade was a burning war zone and
was brought along with them. It's a good thing, since I don't think I
would've made it town alone.

We rode to the stockade, watching the smoke pour off the wooden
structure. The Hextorites  were lined up against the wall, ready for a
last stand. They had several prisoners - Vesta, A, an unconscious
Traevin and, surprise, surprise, Skyla, being kept under guard. J . .
the Noble, was unconscious and close to death with his man at arms
standing over him.

The Magistrate rode up and demanded Goroud's surrender. Then this other
guy in a spiny cloak and Goroud had a conversation about the rift in the
order, the iron legion, the Duke, hypocrisy and some guy named Heirex.
In the end, Goroud gave himself up and spiny cloak said that Shel's men
would be leaving the west marches with him.

I told the rider I was seconding that Skyla, the little monk, was a
betrayer and belonged with the hextorites. The message was passed on. We
rode up, I pointed her out and she was forced into the other group.

She said something about "I had to." I said "I'm sure we'll meet again."
And that was that. I should've spat on her, or thrown a dagger, or
something.

And that was it. Vesta and Traeving were both in a bad way. Mildrake,
who'd gone with us, was dead. The older fighter was fine, having missed
most of the fight.

And then we rode home. I never did get my sword back (Ben, if I got the
chance I sure would go in and look for it after the fire burned out.
Maybe that noble's sword was left on the field. Or maybe the hextorites
left their weapons. Damn thing cost me 300 gold, I'd hate to lose it.).
We all went home. Skyla, I think, has left for good, but if she ever
comes back I'll stop at nothing to see her dead.

I don't really know what happened in the main fight, but it didn't sound
pretty.

Ketch

				

[Walker writes:]

Quoth Brag:
>Friends...I will let others fill in the details but
>I'll sum up our excursion this way:  Don't ever go to
>the Rotting Oaks. Ever, ever, ever, ever.  There is no
>need to go there, other than to be eaten alive by
>squirrels.  Seriously and literally.  Do not ever go.

Yep.  I'm personally very pleased that there was only one giant 
panther with poison claws and teeth mixed in with all the other 
creatures that burst out of the dark forest and tried to bury us 
under teeth and claws.  Glad Brag was the one fighting the 
carnivorous ape that hit him with the big nasty curse while the 
panther had him grappled and was raking with its back paws (also 
each poisoned, of course).  Relieved that the presence of the paladin 
assisted us in resisting all the mind-numbing, despair-inducing 
attacks the forest itself visited upon us while we were fleeing 
through the dark forest being attacked by terrible creatures.  Happy 
that Tyrvail's second fireball dispersed the huge flock of evil crows 
feasting on our flesh while we ran- I think that neither he nor I 
could have taken even a few more seconds of that onslaught.

Watching a bunch of squirrels, mice, sparrows, and similar 
small-and-cute forest creatures devour a stag, then look up with 
blood and entrails dangling from their little mouths and beaks and 
watch us go by was a little unnerving.

And then there was the whole nonlinear-hypnotizing-doppleganger 
factor...  We were happy to escape from the woods into the maze of 
canyons with the hydra.

Don't go to the Rotting Oaks. 

There and back again, a Sorcerer's tale (really long)

(so very very very long)

[When the Tyrvail, Walker, Marduk, and Brag return after about 10 days, the first thing Tyrvail does is go to the carven map where he spends a minute making some quick modifications. He then has the tavern keeper arrange a hot bath for him saying something about staying warm at night by running. It takes a little bit of looking to find the small change to the map he has made: on the western golden hills where it used to say "Canyons (Hydra?)" the '?' has been modified to a '!'. After a few hours he returns downstairs orders a round of drinks for everyone (three for himself) and proceeds to talk about the Rotting Oaks.... ]

So we started out along the watchtower road and then veered off into the golden hills. we made it to the other side with no real trouble. We explored a bit, Brag guiding us most capably towards the NW. After a day or so we came to a meadowland bordered by the golden hills (which turn decidedly rocky at the western end) on one side, some other hills to the NE and a large dark forest looming over all of this from the NW. Since our intent this trip was to explore the fabled Rotting Oaks, we headed that direction.

After a day of easy hiking we entered the woods. The Rotting Oaks are very dark and foreboding. A malevolent presence seems to hang in the air, pressing down on you. We explored the forest, heading generally NW.

After some hiking we came across a small stream and followed it to an area with several large pools or ponds. We decided to rest a bit and look around the area. As we were doing this we heard a shout from Marduk as he went running into the woods. The remaining three of us followed him and quickly caught up to him as he was returning.

He said that he had seen me investigating some sort of rock and while he was asking me about it, he heard me say something from a distance. I will say at this point that I had not been doing anything like this, had not in fact gone near the rocks he was talking about. What he heard at a distance was in fact me stumbling over a loose log. The "Tyrvail" he was talking to then dashed off into the woods. Marduk yelled to the rest of us and took off in pursuit.

Upon hearing this I recalled an encounter with a creature (called a "Doppelganger") that could mimic people you know and would use this to fool people and infiltrate a group of people for its own evil ends. I believe Father Corwin can attest to this, in fact I think it was the good father that slew it, or perhaps it was the Lady Vesta. But I digress.

Feeling uncomfortable, to say the least, in having something like this stalking us; we decided to track it down and dispatch it if possible. Brag began following the tracks and we stayed on the look out for literally anything.

Shortly we heard something approaching us, and Marduk stepped out of the brush in front of us. Looking around we discovered that the Marduk we had been walking with was nowhere to be seen. To say that we were alarmed would be a bit of an understatement. We then, cautiously, questioned "Marduk" as to what had happened.

Marduk said that he had seen me investigating some sort of rock and while he was asking me about it, he heard me say something from a distance. The "Tyrvail" he was talking to then dashed off into the woods. Marduk yelled to the rest of us and took off in pursuit. After pursuing him for a distance he decided to return to us and was doing so when he ran into us just then.

I then used my magic to try and determine if Marduk (or anyone else) was under any magical effects or was not what they appeared to be. In addition Marduk called upon the power of Heironeous to reveal any evil that was near us. He divined that the whole area was suffused with an evil malevolent presence, and that everything (except for us) radiated an aura of evil.

We then began tracking the first "Marduk", after some time it became apparent that the forest was making it difficult for Brag to track, and seemed to be actively impeding us. After a while we came upon a most disturbing sight; there was the body of a stag with a horde of small creatures feasting upon it. The sight of a bunch of "harmless" squirrels and sparrows feasting on the entrails of the stag is more disturbing then you can imagine. As we took in this disturbing sight, the animals began to notice us. One by one halting their gruesome feasting to turn and stare at us. We decided that it would be best to leave, not just the immediate area but also to head out of the forest as none of us relished the though of spending the night in the woods with such creatures.

As we left, we saw every single one of the forest creatures watching us. We hiked the rest of the day now heading SW, intending to come out of the Rotting Oaks near the Lakelands. As night fell we decided that we would continue marching in an attempt to leave the woods. After several hours of hiking in the dark, dark woods, we were set upon by a large boar which Walker and Brag quickly dispatched.

A wind picked up, blowing the leaves and dust in our faces, as if it was trying to blind us. We pressed on, and the very bushes and trees seemed to be trying to impede our progress, with thorns gauging us as we passed and making it almost impossible to tell which direction we traveled.

After another few hours of this hellish marching, we were very tired our clothing torn and shredding, several of us bleeding from nasty thorns or branches. But this only spurred us to mmore speed, hoping to leave the dark evil woods.

After another hour or so (at this point we were telling time by the Light spells I was casting to allow us to see), we were set upon by a number of forest creatures. To be honest, in the wind and rain and darkness it was somewhat difficult to tell what all was attacking us. At first it was a large mountain lion and a few wolves or wild dogs. As the animals rushed us we felt the weight of some fell power fall upon us, but we managed to fight off its effects and continue fighting. The lion tore into Brag and he felt his blood burn as a lethal poison from its claws and fangs seeped into his body. I will admit to being more then just startled when the ground at my feet spewed forth a swarm of vermin which immediately poured over me biting and clawing. At this point Walker and Marduk were fighting an enormous stag, two dogs, and a wolverine; while Brag was fighting the Lion and I the swarm. It became clear that these were not normal beasts, as they continued fighting after taking enough sword blows to have felled a normal creature. Things then took a turn for the worse as the lion pounced on Brag, grappling him and raking him with all four claws and its bite. As Brag wrestled the lion a large carnivorous ape rushed up behind him, battering him with its mighty fists. AS it struck him, Brag felt the weight of an evil curse fall upon him [curse: -4 to every roll]. And then we all felt the forests malevolent gaze fall upon us and we trembled, but, with Marduk's divine power aiding us we stood fast. Then we rallied as I managed to burn the swarm and the stag, and Walker slew one of the dogs and in what seemed like the same stroke of his greatsword, bit deeply into the wolverine. Brag managed to overcome the dark poison in his blood and the evil curse on his soul and slay the lion, unfortunately the Ape was able to lay into him with several blows from its massive fists. As Walker and I finished off the remaining dog and the wolverine, Marduk went to aid Brag, managing to flank the creature. Whereupon Brag, unleashing his barbarian fury, pounded into it with his great fists, landing a mighty blow that stunned the huge creature. We were then able to finish it off all of us acting together.

And just in time, as Brag began to collapse due to his wounds, the poison and the curse. It took several healing draughts, and the combined magic of all of three of the rest of us to keep the Rotting Oaks from being his final resting place. [short game note: Brag had 5 poison saves to make at -4 due to the curse and each failure lost d4 CON, which made the later rolls even harder, plus lowering his HPs and he was already really hurt].

Gathering ourselves, we pressed on. Now more then ever we wanted to leave these damned woods. After a few more hours, near dead on our feet from exhaustion, I saw the dark sky begin to roil as the darkness seemed to be taking form. Casting my magical light up we saw to our horror, thousands of dark crows in a huge black mass descending upon us. I sent a ball of fire into the main part as we began to flee for our very lives. They descended upon us, pecking and clawing at us. As we fled I fired another ball of flame into what I hoped was the main mass, and succeeded in driving them off. As the sky cleared, showing the scorched and burning treetops, we all sensed the full gaze of the Rotting Oaks fall upon us. Realizing that what we had seen so far was merely a fractioon of its might, we decided to flee as quickly as we could (which was not very fast at that point).

At this point we were all greatly wounded and near collapse from fatigue, but we pressed on. Brag, still suffering from the effects from the curse, was guiding us through the woods that seemed even more intent on hindering us. We stopped to rest only when one of us collapsed for a short time, Brag occasionally carrying one or the other of us for short periods. All the time we were moving slower and slower from fatigue and our wounds.

A few hours before dawn we came upon the cliffs where the Oaks and the canyons of the Golden Hills come together. Working our way eastward we finally found an opening in the cliffs and dragged ourselves barely out of sight of the woods and collapsed. Luckily it was close to dawn as it was very cold on the rocks and we had no fire. Brag and Walker almost succumbed to the cold that night, but despite it all we survived the night. We camped there for two days resting and healing.

Mostly healed, we discussed our route back to Keeptown and decided to risk the maze of canyons rather then return to the woods. We then hiked through the maze of canyons, at many places we saw the signs of a great beast: huge claw marks 20ft up the cliff walls. Once again we decided to continue hiking rather then camp, we had no wood with which to make a fire and did not want the great beast to come upon us while we slept. Several times while we hiked through the twisting maze of canyons we heard the sounds of a great beast and the cries of what sounded like many creatures (or several heads). Almost confounded by the maze of canyons we hiked for almost 20 hours that day (once again marking time by my light spells) before finally, with Walker's guidance (and I'm sure the hand of Farlanghan), we emerged on the southern side of the Golden Hills. After resting we were able to return here to tell the tale of the evil of the Rotting Oaks.

-Tyrvail

[Until finally Brag chimed in...]

And sneak attacking.
Brag will tell this story.

....so there we were. I was tracking a wounded druidic
ratkin through the stones of the monastry.  While I
was trying to pick up the trail of blood, a creature
cast a shadow over the light.  An owlbear was actually
not the last thing I expected to see, but it was
suprising non the less. I has been traveling with a
pole arm to vend of the undead- a move that made
Wolfslayer (tm) uneasy and I could feel him begging to
be unleased on the monster.  Marduk, his heart acting
before his head, appearantly leaped at the creature. 
Trying, it seems to take out the owlbear single
handedly, with this single hands.  Not a wise move-
even I know that- as the owlbear tore into him like
lamp shank.  
Walker, not content with the damage his blade was
doing, proceeded to wrestle with beast mano-a-mano. 
He had a lot of drugs running through is system,
suffering from weakness, tiredness and stupidity from
the various needles and powders he had ingested.
Ketch took advantage of the situation to sent and
arrow deep into the creature and I unleased Wolfslayer
(tm) making the creature sorry it was ever born.
Unfortunately it took it's sorrows about being born on
Walker before he was able to realize that what he was
doing was pretty dumb.
Not to be shown up, I took one more whack at the
creature before I latched on to the beast. Ketch again
took the opportunity to sink a final arrow into the
owlbears heart, before I could use my fist of death.
It was great!

Oh and if anyone was wondering if there was a basilisk
in the that room- there is.

[Ketch teases with...]
And then they returned with sacks upon their backs, bone tired and
bruised and smiling.

When drunk or if pressed or in the corner with friends, they say "Rats!
Ghouls! Big Bugs! Owlbears! And that thing in the basement! That thing
in the Basement!"

But they don't mention the sacks or their new extra cash or Marduk's
shiny new sword.
They just sit around, passing time in the town, as if they are waiting
for word.
On what?

[...and...]

To be  a little more specific:
We found/Killed

20 Dire Rats
2 Ratkin
5 Ghouls
1 Ankheg
1 Owlbear

And a whole bunch of interesting information.

[...and...]

Truly, I could not have slain the beast if Walker, Brag and Marduk had
not thrown their bodies upon its teeth to hold it in place.
Such teamwork!

And really, despite his rough demeanor and aggressive ways, Brag is
quite the cartographer.

[Ketch writes, continuing the report from Game 68 (below)]
Once we'd rested and regained our vitality, we re entered the monastery
and made our way up to the second floor. 

Marduk spotted something moving and took off after it in a very Walker
like fashion.
The Rest of us, scared to be alone I suppose, took off after him,
running top speed around corners trying to keep him in sight. 

Marduk chased the creature through an archway and, in an amazing display
of agility, managed to leap across the pit leading down into the other
room. He rolled gracefully and rose to his feet, as shocked by his
performance as was his audience - several rat men and large rats. I ran
in after him, tripped over my dinner plate and went crashing 25 feet
down to the chamber below. Unfortunately no one was down there to
witness my artful tumble, making the fall much more survivable.

Marduk, Skyla, Siobahn and Selkirk threw down with the rat men - which I
won't go in to since I wasn't there - while I tried to feel my way to a
doorway in the pitch black lower room.

After quite a bit of blind feeling along the walls, I found a doorway.
Going through it I found another door which had been scratched with
dwarven runes. I think it was most likely Goblin and may have been the
sign we'd been warned of, showing that behind that door lay a Basalisk.

Avoiding the marked door, I made my way about the courtyard, trying to
find a way back to the 2nd level. Listening at closed and opened doors,
I heard faint scratching, most likely from more ghouls. Moving back to
the door I originally came from, I spotted something skulking about,
coming my way. In a stunning display of roguishness I don't have the
energy to describe in detail, I avoided the wandering ghoul long enough
to run for an ivy covered wall and climb like death was on my tail
(which it was.)  I vaulted to the second floor mere moments before the
ghoul, just in time to find the rest of the party, battered and bruised,
in the room of the rat man battle. Selkirk, Skyla and Marduk dealt with
the ghoul and we, certainly the worse for wear, tried to make our way
out of the Monastery.

We made it to the doors unmolested, but once outside had a melon of some
sort dropped on us from above. I avoided injury, as did Marduk and
Skyla, but the Ranger and Sorcerer were caught in a noxious cloud and
rendered quite ill. 
I lay down suppressing fire with my bow while Skyla and Marduk helped
the others away from the walls. We walked, we bitched, we cried and then
we camped. Several days later, partially healed, we started the trek
home.

Still no Centaurs in Centaur grove, bears though!

We made our way through the grove in the middle of the day, following
Wizards creek the whole way. Halfway through, I heard something drinking
at the creek ahead of us. Rather than risk a fight with a Centaur, we
turned right and tried to circumvent possible danger, eventually coming
to another stream. We found a spot to ford the stream and had almost
made it across when I saw something skulking in the woods.
I took a shot and the bear screamed and we were all convinced we would
die.

The fight was spectacular (many arrows, Marduk Standing like a man,
Siobahn hitting with a ray of enfeeblement), but the end of it found
Marduk, Skyla and Siobahn unconscious.
Amazingly, none of them died. Several days of bed rest by the stream
brought them back to reasonable health (Siobahn and Selkirk suffered
from Brain fever, but that's fine) and we eventually found our way back
to Keep town.

That's it.
The Monastery rocks. 
Who wants to go back?

[Siobhan adds...]
Ahem.
I note that Chris has omitted entirely the part where
Ketch, having brilliantly led the ghoul back to the
party (by running into the room screaming "Ghoul right
behind me!" like a hagridden toddler), leapt safely
behind the others, letting Siobhan (note spelling - I
put up with it until this) absorb a fine biting from
the ghoul. This caused her to have ghoul-related fever
(that would be a zoonosis, for those who are
interested), which was later compounded by the brain
fungus, the initiating event of which, the tossing of
a big sporophyte 'melon' off the Monastery wall, she
couldn't escape because she was unconscious and Ketch,
absorbed in saving his own ass, didn't yell "Duck!" to
Celkirk (also note spelling), who was carrying her and
thus unable to note overhead activity. Or at least
that's what Celkirk said, after he regained his
capacity to form sentences a week later. (Immediately
thereafter, of course, he and Siobhan went to the Axe
and Thistle to pay good money to eliminate their
capacity to form sentences. Go figure.)
That Ketch. He puts the 'fun' in 'brain fungus'. 
I think the quote of the game came from Seth, who,
channeling Siobhan's fervent (and febrile) interest in
her elfin digits, noted, "They call 'em fingers, but
do you ever see them fing? Noooo. Oh. Wait. There they
go..."

[Ketch retorts:]
The fever you got was from Rat bites, not zombie bites.
And I didn't think the zombie got to bite you in that combat. Celkirk,
yes, you, no.

[Skyla chimes in...]
> Marduk, Skyla, Siobahn and Selkirk threw down with the rat men - which I
> won't go in to since I wasn't there - while I tried to feel my way to a
> doorway in the pitch black lower room.

It was a weird fight.  We definitely could have used Ketch, and I'm sad to
say that we didn't finish off the rats before the scurried away.  We
run into the room and the brave Marduk strides over the pit
while the not so fortunate Ketch falls when that gravity thing gets
through his armor.  Marduk engages the rats on the forefront, and Skyla
joins him on the other side of the pit.  Sibohan brings up the rear taking
rat nibbles and rat bites from _all_ sides.  Self-proclaimed
fish-out-of-water Celkirk, last in the marching order,
gets entangled in magical vines and can not even get a toe into the room.

Not too much exciting happened in the front with Skyla and Marduk.  
Occasionally, I'd get a poke to the eye through, but mostly not.  Marduk 
(probably because the mirror universe Marduk had a bad cold) was not 
hitting particularly well.  There was this wonderful moment though when I 
managed to take down this sneaky, pretend-i'm-dead rat man when Markduk 
makes contact... and kills him again.  oops. It was all good.

Sioban in the rear manages to hide behind her magical shield while casting
fear.  Celkirk struggles with the vines, but manages to kill two rats
while entangled as they flee near him and he stabs through the door.  He
finally breaks free and gets to ready to stab again, when the rat he has 
earmarked goes down with a Sioban bolt in its side.  We are convinced that 
Celkirk must have a natural 5 foot radius, anti-rat aura.

The rats, rat men, rat men magical folk scurry off and we pick up the
pieces of ourselves and try to figure out to where Ketch has landed.  
Ketch then appears and points to the ghoul that's chasing him.  He's right
that the rats are still there to be finished off if that is your desire.

> from Brain fever, but that's fine) and we eventually found our way back
> to Keep town.

Yup, making Celkirk the only ranger to have survived the monastery. 

And there was much rejoicing.

Skyla

------------- 
I see that Jen has quoted the 'fing' line.  I agree that the
quotations of the night belonged to our paladin including as we were
chased by the bear, "We'll let the girls go first and we'll stay behind
and protect them."  Not sure Ketch was having much of that.

[...and...]
Yeah, Ketch also failed to mention that after he plugged the bear from a
far making an already angry bear, angrier.  He darted behind the trees
plunking it occasionally and didn't move forward to engage him until the
very end, thus coming out completely unscathed.

To his credit, he did stabilize Marduk who managed with Celkirk to
stabilize the rest of us.

Skyla
---
It was pretty hilarious.
-P

> Ahem.
> I note that Chris has omitted entirely the part where
> Ketch, having brilliantly led the ghoul back to the
> party (by running into the room screaming "Ghoul right
> behind me!" like a hagridden toddler), leapt safely
> behind the others, letting Siobhan (note spelling - I
> put up with it until this) absorb a fine biting from
> the ghoul.

[...to which Ketch replied...]
Well, yea, but Ketch also did the most damage to the damn thing (and
missed 2 Sneak attacks against an easy ac that would have put the damn
thing down.)

What part of Roguish behavior don't you people understand?

[...and then Skyla said]
I get it perfectly.  First order of business: visit weaponsmith;
purchase crossbow.

[...and then Ketch got all hot-and-bothered...]
Ooo.
We're totally gonna have the blindfighting "mistaken enemy" showdown
someday. =-)

[Lastly, with the calm voice of reason -- or is it protest, Celkirk sez]
> Self-proclaimed fish-out-of-water Celkirk, last in 
> the marching order, gets entangled in magical vines
> and can not even get a toe into the room.

Can I point out that at the moment we entered the
room, I was already down 8 hp?  I was possesed of a
tremendous sense of foreboding, being a Ranger in the
monastery; it wasn't helped by the constant murmur
from the monk "I'm going to drink my health potion and
take my chances down the hole".  Lastly, I did stick
around (albeit somewhat unwillingly), and the moment I
was able to get behind the attacking force they left
the field.

I was useful.  Really.

[Ketch writes...]
We took 5 strangers, put them in a monastery infested by evil and tried
to find out what happens when they stop being nice and start being Real.

The Cast.

Ketch, The Rogue.   Favorite movie: Man Hunter

Siobahn, The Sorceress.   Favorite Music: Elvish Language Death Metal.

Skyla, the Monk.  Most Valued Painting: The Color of Tyranny by an EVIL
EVIL GOD

Marduk, the Paladin.  Most Embarrassing moment: That Time in High School
with the Midget and the Blow Torch.

Tr. . Teslock? Traevin? Selkirk!, that's it! Selkirk!  Damn Rangers,
they die so quick I have a hard time giving them names.  Best Pick Up
Line: "I am SOOO FED UP WITH THIS!!!"

Ben, the DM, Thing most astounded by: No Multiclass Characters.


Part 1.
Ketch, Marduk and Siobahn went to the opal caves and came back. It was
amazingly exciting.

Part 2: The Trek to the Monastery

-We went about 4 miles north, then 4 miles west and ended up being away
from the Monastery by about, oh, 4 miles.  Using the grave of some dead
ranger to guide us, we found the Monastery of St. Cuthbert.

-Foray 1!
Ignoring oddly dug holes outside the Monastery, we made our way inside.
We explored room to room, with Selkirk kicking down doors left and
right. He was finally punished for his hubris when he kicked a door down
and was pounced on by a ghoul - a hungry dead, eager to take a bite out
of him.

The Ghoul's paralyzing bite put Selkirk out rather quickly, the rest of
us swarmed it and were able to kill it off. Searching the room, I found
a trap door leading down into the basement level. We cautiously went
down, working our way along a narrow passage, using the glowing shield
of Marduk to light our way. At the end of a corridor we found another
ghoul - actually a Ghast. The fight went badly, all of us falling prey
to the foul stench of the creature and most (Selkirk, Marduk and myself)
being paralyzed by its bite. Just when hope seemed lost, Skyla let forth
with a mighty right hook, crushing the creatures head.

We retreated to the outskirts of the ruined town to heal for several
days. Skyla, not particularly injured, went exploring and saw an insect
the size of a horse digging in the woods. She was eager to confront it,
but the rest of us were too busy coughing up blood.

So with no healer, no healing potions, 4 days of food
and a 7 to 8 day journey back to town I suggested we
head back home.  Luckly no one heard me say that
because Vesta and Tyrvail were heading back to the
temple to make the beasts pay.  Be wary of the
Barbarian with the common sense.

In the temple we went, explored the one room we hadn't
been in, then went displacer beast hunting.  This
temple is not all that big.  It's about 150' x 80'
(correct me if I am wrong, but it's not much bigger
than that.)  It had a center structure in the middle,
hallways on every side, and some pillars.  Soon the
beasts were upon us.  Vesta and I had battled one
while Tyrvail single handedly battle the other -- with
fireballs.  Wolfslayer found it had a taste for the
beasts and drank much of its blood, while my early
monk training kept me well out of reach from its
girly attacks.  Tyrvail roasted his beast and before I
could deal the deadly blow, the second beast ran. 
Vesta ran after it and proved to be the perfect
targeting beacon for magic missile that put the kitty
down.  

I skinned the non-charred cat.  While Vesta and
Tyrvail deciphered the writings on the wall.  Then I
climbed up the walls to retrieve the jewels in the
ceiling.  9 of them.  They were each worth a lot of
money.

NOW we decided to go home.  I foraged and Vesta and
Tyrvail caught marsh fever.  Apparently a very nasty
case of it.  We hiked a couple days, then had to camp
so they might recover.  This continued on until we
spotted another building, smaller than the first.  We
all agreed to look at it.  I reasoned that we were in
no shape to battle more displacer beasts and going in
would be foolish.  Sick with marsh fever, Vesta and
Tyrvail went in and found a dead body and a golden
mask.  The golden mask was for a costume party the
Shadows were going to.  I stayed in the sunlight,
while my companions attempted to do the same.  Vesta
scared one off with a chill touch but not before the
shadow had a little snack.  Vesta was now weaker than
a one armed goblin, but we were able to make it into
the safety of the sunlight, and continue on our way
back.

Swamp fever does not make for quick travel.  We made
camp often and narrowly avoided and encounter with two
Centaurs.  But after almost two weeks of hiking, we
made it back to Keep Town, where Vesta was finally
able to shake off the fever.

Now bring me another drink.

[Tyrvail chimes in with a couple of comments:]

Brag's *ahem* eloquent description fails to do justice to these "cats".
Picture a massive black puma standing 8' tall at the shoulder and 10'
long, six powerfull cat legs, and two 15' long powerfull barbed tentacles.
Every round it attacks you with the tentacles (at +9!!) and its powerfull
jaws (it could do 30hp in a round with all of its attacks).

And Brag is forgetting to mention the most horrific part of it: it get's
the name "_Displacer_ beast" from the fact that it magically projects an
image/mentally clouds its opponents minds/or something freaky. This
makes it very hard to tell exactly where it is. So when you think you've
hit it, its still a coin toss as to whether or not you've _really_ hit it.

When you do hit one you find out how tough they are. There are few
creatures that can take a massive blow from Brag (i.e. a critical) and
stay standing, let alone take a few _more_ blows from Brag and still be
able to run away.

So picture this huge puma creature, flailing tentacles and snarling teeth;
now blur it with lots of drugged out trailers/afterimages/etc and put it
in a dark room. Now attack it. Oh, and watch out for those attacks of oppt
that it gets since it threatens everything within 15' (a truly evil person
would teach them "combat reflexes").

It was only with a large amount of Skill, team work, and some luck on all
of our parts that we managed to defeat them.

But now we know the answer to "How many fireballs does it take to get to
the center of a displacer beast?"

one.....
two.....
three...
four...!!

Four fireballs!

[A bit more point-counterpoint...]
Tyrvail will only say that he can cast at least 3 a day.

If you want to know the exact number, go stand over there and start
counting.....

-tyrvail

"So now you're trying to remember how many fireballs he cast...was it 3?
maybe 4? Well you gotta ask yourself punk, do you feel lucky? Well do
you?"

On Fri, 9 Aug 2002, Gavin Cummins wrote:

> Tyrvail can only cast three a day right?
>
> They are terrible.  So...why did we go back in with no
> healing ability at all? Wow.  We were sure determined
> to defile that temple ;-)

Vesta's "Game Summary" for this game (at a time when the party was still _rather_ incommunicado, thus heightening everyone's pleasure/anticipation....

Of course, _now_ I can say that "she left off the tentacles..."

After resting a few days, it was if the cranes never
existed and we went looking for more trouble.

Instead we found a mysterious temple.  Mostly in
ruins, but with great carvings and statures mostly
depicting a woman with a spear or some kind, her face
we could not distinguish.  What we could distinguish
however was twinkling of jewels glittering in the
ceiling.  We could also distinguish the sound of some
beast lurking about.  We went looking for it.  Luckily
we didn't' have to look long before it found us.  It
used it's 15 foot long spiky tentacle to say hello.

Picture a giant cat.  Now picture that same cat with
two more legs than any cat could use.  Now picture
that six legged cat with two fifteen foot tentacles
that a cat doesn't need at all. Now saw hello to his
little friend! 

Two beasts, six attacks, three of us.  Ow, ow, ow, ow,
ow, ow.  Once again things did not look good. Vesta
gave it a chill touch and went down.  I looked mean. 
Luckily, Tyrvail was clear headed enough with a
displacerbeast eating his mirror images to launch a
fireball.  That at least confused them enough to run
off.  Vesta was the beneficiary of our last healing
potion and we ran -- well not quite like sissy girls,
but that was only because sissy girls aren't usually
leaving a trail of their own blood.

We rested up and considered again how nice if would be
to have a little home out here, it's so pretty.

In the morning the group woke up and headed back to the stones. The corpses were decaying quickly (too quickly, it turned out) but the stones were dormant. On a lark, Ketch suggested that Marduk detect evil on . . well, on them.

And evil he did detect. It seems the group was covered in the stuff. They waited until night fall, watching the stones for activity, and waited all through the night, seeing nothing. In the morning they, rather than sleeping, decided to head out and try to get back to town to wash the evil off.

Along the way they were ambushed by another Satyr, which they dispatched quickly. Finding a stream, they decided to try to physically cleanse themselves of the evil influence. It didn¹t work for Sugar, but a bath sounded nice to Marduk anyway. While Marduk was bathing, Sugar went out to forage for food, and was attacked by two more Satyrs while another three stormed the camp. And the battle was joined.

Azucar was seperated from the group, fighting hard to get back to them. Marduk was down to his loincloth, but never complained. Ketch made a few bad tumbles and suffered for them (down to 1 HP at one point). It was a bad scene. At the end, three were injured and Sugar was dead, dropped by a critical hit with a spear.

They burned the goats, buried Sugar and tried to trudge home, following a stream to the road. Hours later, tired again, Ketch looked over his shoulder and noticed (another real high spot check) several creatures chasing them. The three double timed for a few hours, trying to gain distance, and made it to keeptown just as the doors were closing.

Belorkin was no help. The apothacary was no help. Finally a man said "We can help you" and led the three of them out of town blindfolded to meet with several druids. The head druid (Turtle Mask Guy) said we¹d been tainted by the Brood, and that now they would come from around the world to kill us.

He couldn¹t help us, but perhaps the keeper of bees could, or perhaps some powerful positive magic. On the way back to town they were ambushed by three more goats. Still wounded from before, and emotionally exhausted, the group was utterly convinced they all would die.

At one point Marduk was dropped to negative hit points, but Siobahn saved the day by summoning 3 celestial badgers to fight. Marduk was stabalized, the two townsfolk who helped us were consoled (Welcome to Hell) and the three adventurers went back to the Axe and thistle to wait for day when they might find Father Corwin. The end.

Ben was discussing with us Character Knowledge vs. Player Knowledge. It'd be a shame not to do a write up just because Characters shouldn't know exactly what's going on, so I'll just denote what people do and don't know.

So: Walker - You get the whole story, top to bottom. Corwin - Gets the version we already told him. Everyone Else - Gets "Azucar, Ketch, Marduk and Siobahn left town about a week ago, mumbling something about Druid Stones and the full moon. They came back a day or two ago missing Azucar, looking beaten and bruised and acting very agitated.

The most you'd get out of them is something about "Goat Men" and "Those Damn Bushes." If I try to write this out in anything resembling flowery prose it'll spread into novella territory.

But here we go: Roll call: Ketch - New and Improved. Now with More Rogueish Power! Marduk - He puts the Pal back in Paladin! Siobahn - Don't cry for us, little half elf .. .no . . really . . don't. Azucar - Oh, honey, Sugar, Sugar, you were our Ranger Cleric, but now you are dead.

After our last foray into the Golden Hills (See the walking recap) Ketch, Sugar, Siobahn, Marduk and Walker decided they'd like to take another stab, literally, at Torval and the Ogre Caves. Unfortunately Walker forgot about some pressing issues (Something to do with a pile of red heads, a blow torch and a midget named Carl) and couldn't leave town, so the rest of us, not willing to go after Torval alone, instead decided to head back to the Druid Stones around the time of the full moon to see what they were for and what would try to kill us.

We set out under the blazing sun and walked for a damn long time. It went something like: Ketch: Are you sure you know where we're going? Sugar: Of course not, I never said I knew where we were going.

There was a lot of "Well, if we head up this way about 4 miles and then turn this way for 4 miles I think we'll be about 4 miles away from being 4 miles away." So we kept walking.

And then we found THE BUSHES OF DEATH Sugar stopped short as we trudged through the woods and said: Sugar: "There's something Strange about those bushes." Ketch: "The Bushes?" Sugar: "Yes." Sugar approached one of the bushes to check it out and was, for his trouble, horrifically attacked by two of them. Small, devilish needles shot out from the bushes, sticking right into his flesh.

So Ketch shot a bush with an arrow. Really, it had no effect. Siobahn fired a ray of frost at one, causing it to be sad. Marduk charged a bush, headlong, raised his mighty longsword and Hacked At The Bush Until Dead, declaring his sword at that moment to be the mighty BUSHWHACKER! Sugar: "Retreat from the Bushes! Retreat" Sugar ran back toward Ketch, who was watching the whole thing, quite amazed.

(The following takes place to the background noise of Sio and Mar fighting the evil, non moving, heat seeking bushes.) Sugar: "We need to go around the Bushes." Ketch: "You're going to run away from a bush." Sugar: "It attacked me! What could we possibly do to these horrible, unnatural plants." Both: "THE AXE!!!" Ketch: "I'll hold your stick." Sugar drew the mighty dwarven Axe and rushed towards a bush, cutting it down with one mighty mighty blow. It was mighty! and the first time the mighty magic dwarven axe had been used in mighty anger.

Later, Sugar, Sio and Mar: HA! We defeated them, the evil bushes! Obviously evil! Ketch: What are you talking about, I didn't see a damn thing. You're hallucinating. And they walked.

And came to the ruins of a small village. Siobahn, with her keen elvish eyes, discerned a faint impression in the flagstone of one house. Using paper and pencil lead stowed in her pack, she made an impression and, searching back through her memory discerned the village was the remains of followers of ST CUTHBERT!! The others, however, had simply walked to the edge and looked at the big old monastary. (I can't do justice to this. It was amazing. We all rolled search checks, Jen rolling lowest. Ben, more animated than I'd ever seen him, pantomimed her search, drawing out a broken symbol of the cudgel and getting her all excited before dropping the bomb that the rest of us had beat her to the punch by several minutes. The bushes bit was amazingly funny as well.) We were on a schedule and fearful of the Monastary, so we moved on.

Hours later, using eyes trained to keep nasty half-orcs at bay, Ketch noticed a snake about to bite the ankle of Azucar. Drawing his fabulous rapier, Ketch cut the thing in two, only to be attacked and bitten by another snake also lying in the dirt. The snake and Ketch battled mightily while Sugar, god bless 'em, cast a spell to make the snake his friend. Ketch incapacitated the snake, and was about to deliver the killing blow when Sugar stopped him: S: NOOO!!! K: It bit me, Sugar, let me kill the damn thing. S: NO! He's my friend! He'll help us! K: He bit me! Siobahn: Guys, I'm leaving! They argued for awhile with Siobahn continuing to threaten to leave (and Ben making little snaky faces saying "KEtch, I will kill you in your sleep! I will" Eventually it was decided to NOT kill the snake and NOT bring the snake along.

And hours later, having gotten lost again, having camped, and having been spied on by some weird owl, the group found the stones.

They waited until evening and they approached the stones. Once close enough, they saw a large bonfire and several dancing shapes.

Numbers were impossilbe to to note, due to the motion, but the creatures, humanoid but not human, were deathly silent in their glee.

Ketch moved forward to get a better look, confident that he would remain undetected (Hide and Move Silently 11). Looking closely at the creatures, he saw that they were goat men - Satyrs - cavorting about the flames. Looking even closer (rolled a 28 on a spot check) he noticed that, while they hadn't stopped dancing and were obviously trying to maintain a ruse that they hadn't noticed him, every satyr had its eyes pointed directly at the hapless rogue.

Ketch retreated into the woods to his friends, arriving just as the creatures stopped dancing. The two sides stared at each other: Siobahn: Oh, god. Ketch: What's the plan, guys? Azucar: Can we out run them? Ketch: What's the plan guys? One of the Satyrs then reached down behind a rock to draw a short sword.

Ketch Let loose an arrow, and the battle was joined. And, really, it wasn't that bad.

Marduk moved to the front, establishing a flank for Ketch and Azucar to work off of (Azucar was using the axe, Ketch his rapier with 2d6 Sneak attack and 1d6 Normal damage) and Siobahn cast rays of enfeeblement >from the back. Marduk took a hell of a lot of damage, getting knocked to negatives at one point.

Siobahn was corned by one of the beasts after making the mistake of wandering away from the group and Ketch, in his only ever heroic act, tried to Tackle one of the things that was . . attempting to . . eat . . marduk. Eww. He failed, but hey, its the thought that counts.

Even in death the creatures stared at them, with that same evil smirk on their faces. The group wandered into the circle. Ketch powedered out and went back to poke the eyes out of corpses. Sugar did the same, but he decapitated the things The others walked around a bit, and nothing happened.

Well knowing the perils of "light exploring," Vesta,
Tyrvail (who both just discovered the gift of fire)
and I decide it would be less hazardous to do some
heavy exploring.  So we paid for our rooms a month in
advance, bought some supplies, some healing potions (3
or 4) and started our long foray into the wilderness.

Acting as the guide we headed of pass the Watch tower
and into the Lake Lands, quite literally looking for
adventure at the temples and castles hidden in the
Lake Lands vast expanse. 

We found an unfortunate swamp crock that tasted the
new found abilities of the sorcerer and monkmage. 
Nothing is better than fresh BBQ out in the bush.  Now
with an extra day of rations we kept exploring.

At this point all we found was some great real estate
to retire on.  Secluded, plenty of food and water and
the serene beauty of watching the sun set and the
cranes flying across the horizon, reflecting the
light.  Ahhhh...

We kept looking of something.

We walked past a lake and disturbed some of the cranes
resting there.  They squaked and we decided to leave
them in peace.  Cranes being a rather nervous and
suspicious creature, took to the air and observed our
departure.   We cautiously made our way somewhere. 
The cranes molted on us, which would have been simply
embarrassing except their feathers were made out of
razor sharp iron.  Our laughter turned to terror as
the cranes rained daggers on us as we helplessly ran
around in circles. Tyrvail lobbed fireballs, but
cranes are surprisingly adept at flying out of the way
of giant balls of fire hurled launch up at them.  The
1st and only thing we had going our way was that
cranes are not very smart and decided to come down and
eat us.  By the time the 1st one landed we were all
half as healthy as we were that morning (that would be
after I swallowed a healing potion).

Soon the birds were upon us.  Now those fireballs
would make short work of [editor's note: is there something
missing here?] Tyrvail has to be conscious
to use those right?  

The Cranes were not be underestimated, I fought hard
and was hard pressed to land any hits (some might say
Brag would have been hard pressed to stab himself that
day), but we were getting our ass kicked.  Soon
Vesta and Tyrvail lay bleeding to death on the ground
and I in a mad rage was attempting to kill the
remaining three birds with my bare, deadly, hands. 
Soon I felt that I was fueled only by my rage and
would collapse once that had expired.  Finally I
squashed the last little bastard's head and quickly
quaffed a healing potion ( game wise rage gives me
10hp, I had 5 or 6. Killed the bird on my second to
last round of rage, drank potion on last round and
thus we didn't all die).  Weary I quickly fed potions
two potions to Vesta and Tyrvail, which only served to
stop them from their path to deaths door.  We moved
away from the cranes and made camp to rest and
recover, a long was from home.

[Ketch writes:]
And we walked, through the heat, through the pain, through the hatred in our
hearts. We walked as sweat poured down our backs, soaking our clothes,
making us uncomfortable in our skin. We walked in search of treasure, in
search of adventure, in search of . . what?

Five. Five adventurers bound together, bonded through shared trauma and
triumph, we were, seeking, ever seeking.

Ketch, myself, a rogue scarred deep by the claws of a barrow wight, leashed
now, loosely, to St. Cuthbert, trying, ever trying, to buy happiness.

Azucar, a Ranger of the wood, a priest of nature, a man with a golf bag of
weaponry, quick to jest and reason, hiding the pain of being a pirate's
hostage.

Walker, focused and kind, always eager to rush into battle, quiet about his
religion, fearful, it seems, only of snakes. What urges him to always lead
the charge? Why does he give so little thought to his own survival or
prosperity?

Siobahn, a young sorceress, but older than the rest of us, still. A half
elf. A woman of mixed parentage, not truly comfortable among either race.
She carries pebbles in her pockets and is not yet comfortable enough in her
magics to adventure without armor.

Marduk, the Paladin. A rare man, member of a rare order, and growing rarer
still. Charismatic, slow to laugh, always willing to say the wrong thing to
those who could slay him. Young, still, learning slowly the way of his
order, well or foolishly unmindful of fear.

We walked, the five of us, we five adventurers, to the Golden Hills, on news
of treasure and ogres and broken monastaries of the Cudgel.

We walked for days, in the heat, in the company of our companions and would
be friends, unharrassed by the dangers of the wilderness, led truly by
Azucar, man of the wood. The hills, truly, are golden, but not in a way that
enriches the pockets. We found trails of dogs and followed them for no
reason more than curiosity. I, Ketch, the rogue, and Azucar, scouted out
ahead, away from the party, moving quickly, quietly and stealthily, to watch
golden dogs frolick. One, a beautiful creature, confronted us, showing its
teeth even when Azucar tried to charm it to his side, dissapearing in a puff
of gold when I loosed an arrow to it. Blinking away.

They came on us, the dogs, golden, four of them, surrounding myself and
Azucar, flanking us, taking small bites, blinking away from our weapons.
They would have worn us down, these feral, beautiful creatures, if not for
the others, loud and imposing, cresting the hill, scaring those marvelous,
horrible, maddening creatures off.

And we walked, exploring, searching for . . searching for what?
I spotted a bear trap in Azucar's path, and tripped it with a stick to
prevent some accident. We travelled further into the wood and set camp in
the comfortable darkness.

A man with a bow, having seen us walk, perhaps. Having found his trap
sprung, threated the Paladin with an arrow.  "Get out of the Golden Hills,"
said this Torval the Hunter, I'm told. He didn't wake us, the Paladin. He
didn't allow us to explain our intentions.

Thinking this man would know the area and point us toward what we sought
(but what? But What?) we followed his path. We sought only and audience with
this man, this Hunter, this Torval, but talking was not his intention. We
walked, we did, the five of us, and as we walked we were ambushed, an arrow
and then another piercing Azucar's chest, sending him to the crowd in a
hump. There would be no talking with this Torval, this man, this horrid man.

Once he'd truly, verily, horridly killed Azucar (but not completely, his god
is strong) the villian did not walk, but ran away from us. Walker, sword
loosed and threatening, legs pumping furiously with magical swiftness, took
off after him, and suffered.

His arrows were poisoned, weakening the strong Walker, only the sight of the
rest of us, armed heavily, cresting the hill scared this Torval off.

And we walked, muttering under our breath, planning to one day rid the wood
of this man. One day. not now.

We explored, finding streams and cliff faces and evil.
A stag, possesed by evil, chasing deer crashing through the woods, running
over us, through us. Rocks standing high on end, emenating fear in the dark,
fear our brave Paladin ignored out of hand. We crushed a snake while Walker
lay wounded to the side. We bravely crossed Centaur grove, and were
unmolested for our boldness.

And we returned. No richer. Having not found for what we were searching. But
what? But What?

And fuck, yes, we're gonna kill that son of a bitch Torval. Oh, fuck yes.

It turned out that the damage to the Horn of Plenty was greater than we 
had imagined, and we had to find land to enact repairs. After a day of 
searching, we came upon a small island. Both dusk and a storm were upon 
us, so both ships wanted desperately to land before nightfall. Being 
more sound, the Saint's Daughter went first, and, after a few close 
calls, seemed to be on course to make a landing. Then the fog came and 
made the approach impassible. We waiting the night, and fortunately the 
storm turned away. The next day, we landed, and found the Saint's 
Daughter. The same could not be said for her captain and crewÖ


Led by Norwood, we were able to discern some very alien tracks in the 
sand, with what must have been the signs of a boot or leg being dragged. 
We followed them until we came upon a clearing near a rock formation. 
That's when they appeared: grotesque satyr-like beastly magical 
creations.  Immensely strong, the first one speared a crewman (and a 
prisoner) before we had time to react. The second prisoner managed to 
run off, but I'm sure to only a fate matched to his crimes. As we set 
upon attacking the first one, a second one appeared, and again speared a 
crewman before it could be stopped. Again blessed with great strength 
from Pelor, I was able to dispatch of the first of the foul creatures. 
Able to now focus on one opponent, we managed to fell the second as 
well. Soljay later revealed that these creatures were known as Gorgoi, 
the gorgers, in constant search of their next meal. At least the two 
fallen sailors didn't suffer that fate.

Further following of the tracks took us to a strange set of ruins. There 
were rock formations that were certainly not random, but not of humanoid 
craftsmanship either. Upon our careful approach, we spotted some of our 
lost crewman, sitting in the bottom of a large (60' diameter) but 
shallow pit. It almost had the makings of a feeding bowl, but much 
larger. We got lost in the aura of the ruins, and our minds became 
clouded with a sense of apathy. While the prospect of rescuing the crew 
bolstered the strongest of us, the power of the place could not be 
ignored.  Especially when the rocks started moving, followed by visions 
of sailors past.

More accurately, there were things crawling amongst the rocks. And they 
had lots of legs, eight of them to be exact, half of which were 
outfitted with weapons.  Some of these Devils of the Deep were also 
ìridingî the catatonic shells that were once our sailors. As I alluded 
to earlier, there were also eight staggering undead, zombies of sailors 
shipwrecked long ago.  A most tumultuous battle ensuedÖ

After getting beyond the evil aura that saturated the place, I called 
upon the power of Pelor to turn the wretched zombies. As they were 
disengaging, the leader of the Deep Ones called upon the foul spirits 
that gave them power and managed to regain control and have the zombies 
press their attack. With an amazing display of wizardry, Soljay induced 
two of the accursed octopi to fall into a deep slumber. Our forces 
scatted, and mostly on the defensive, it was difficult to maneuver into 
favorable fighting positions. At the same time, a warbling field covered 
part of the battlefield, disorienting the team and making verbal 
communications and spellcasting impossible.

The zombies pressed the crewman, and the latter could not withstand 
them. Only the Captain and his second were able to stave off the attack. 
Even Norwood suffered grievous wounds and was temporarily disabled. I 
too was on the losing end of the battle, when finally I was able to 
cleave through the enemies. Soljay was keeping her distance, but with 
her magical shield intact, was able to withstand the mindless pursuit of 
the zombies. Finally, I was able to pass on to her a scroll, from which 
she immediately released missiles that found their way to their hideous 
leader. Sadly, that would be the only wound that we would inflict upon 
this Deepest One.

Able to regain my position, I was able to heal Norwood and bring him 
back into the fight. The octopi priest was able to revive his two 
comrades, but again Soljay's wizardry was again able to fell one of 
them. The tide of battle was going back and forth, with our side holding 
out on pure determination more than anything else.  As the tide was 
about to turn, a fog crept onto the battlefield, not unlike the one out 
at sea the night before.  Surrounded by zombies, I once again called 
upon Pelor to drive them away. This time, the fog worked to our 
advantage, as the opposing Deep One could not see his servants to return 
them to the battle. Things were quiet for the moment.

With many of our crew on death's door, I took the opportunity to quickly 
tend to their wounds. Then Norwood, Soljay, and I crept out of the mist, 
but the enemy had left. With the zombies dispatched, and three of the 
five deep ones destroyed as well, we had to be thankful. It would have 
been nice to pursue the leader, but we were out of spells, and still 
very wounded. We would have to settle for what we had just accomplished, 
which was saving all but two of the crew. We rescued folks from the pit, 
and gathered the sailors being used as automatons and even mounts for 
the fiendish creatures. Their will do act independently was completely 
gone, but the could be guided, and they could bear the wounded.

Still toying with the idea of tracking the deep ones, we heard an 
unsettling noise from opposite shore, beyond a canyon. As we peered 
through the canyon, we saw more heads than we wished to see. But they 
were attached to only one body. A hydra was indeed making its way 
towards the battlefield. Hmm, perhaps the pit / feed bowl analogy was 
all too accurate. It was a ways off, and we were able to hastily get 
away without an encounter. Still, the sight was one I'll not forget. I 
can't even imagine the evil magicks from which these creatures were 
spawned, all on one accursed island.

As we got back to sure, we were faced with the sad reality of having to 
abandon the Horn of Plenty- there wasn't enough time for repair. As we 
left shore on the Saint's Daughter, we were again beset by mists, and 
barely caught a glimpse of a horrible Deep One off the ship's hull. This 
time, we pressed on through the breakers, and made it out to sea. Two 
days later, the shores of the Red Duke's land were quite the welcome 
sight.

[Therian writes, from afar...]
This recounts some of the recent adventures of Therian's "Three Hour 
Tour"...  It's a tad long, and hey, better late than never...

I was back home finishing my training and teachings. The High Priests of 
Pelor looked well upon my endeavors in the West Marches and decided to 
send me back to further spread the goodness of Pelor and bring back more 
information from these interesting lands.  I arranged for passage on the 
Horn of Plenty, and yearned to return to the Axe & Thistle to sample the 
ales and hear the tales of Tyrvail, Vesta, Corwin, Brag and the others. 
However, the trip back was not exactly smooth sailing, pun intended.

While Norwood, a Ranger, and I were comparing stories, we noticed, along 
with the captain, another vessel, the Saint's Daughter, heading full 
sail across our bow. Then we saw the Harpy. In this case, it was a 
pirate vessel and not the accursed creatures. She was running up along 
side the former vessel, and their attack began. Not wanting to see 
innocents slaughtered and robbed by these sea wretches, we joined in the 
defense of the Saint's Daughter.

The pirates had been ravaging the seas for some time, and were 
overwhelming the crew of the Saint's Daughter. Siviss, the first mate 
and sneaky sorcerer, was enchanting the sailors to succumb to their own 
weariness.  While the Captain of the Saint's Daughter was stoutheartedly 
defending his ship and crew, Norwood and I, and a few members of the 
crew began our assault. Fighting stemmed across both vessels, with the 
waves making it difficult to cross between the ships. Baulkiss the 
Black, the pirate captain and his great bastard sword were dictating the 
battle.

Blessed with strength from Pelor, I was finally able to fell the 
Baulkiss and subdue Siviss and two of their more experienced men at 
arms. Meanwhile, the Captains were able to dispatch of the remaining 
pirates and rouse the remainder of the crews. After achieving the costly 
victory, we sent the Harpy to its fiery death. We split the remaining 
crew across the two ships (one in tow). Norwood and I stayed on the Horn 
of Plenty, along with Soljay, a wizard whom the pirate sorcerer 
neutralized early in the fight. We also had three few prisoners, who 
would all but surely hang.

Siviss was a lively captive, and tried several times to escape. Between 
attempts, we were able to get out of him that the Queen of Lyons was 
soliciting the pirates' help in disrupting the shipping lanes to the Red 
Duke's land, and she also offered them safe harbor. This has been 
recently relayed to the Duke's advisors, who will most assuredly deal 
with the manner in their own ways. Still, this was a disturbing 
revelation. Finally, the sorcerer went too far with his attempts to 
escape, and Norwood put an end to it.

Really Short Version:
We all came back!

Not Qute as really short version:

I'll break this down by game session as best I can.

The Players:
Princess Vesta, the Wizardly Monk
Bragg, the Monkly Barbarian
Tyrval, the disarming Sorcerer
Walker, the God loving Fighter
Corwin, no longer Pre Late, now just normal Late
and Me, Ketch, the waning rogue (Though  hope to wax again soon).

Game 3:
War
Vesta casts a bunch of Spider climbs on the party. We all crawl up the walls
of the hole to the hall and ambush a few goblins. Unfortunately that
attracts a whole bunch more goblins. The next 7 hours of game can't be
accurately described here. It was a running war, featuring the deaths of 24
goblins, 9 wolves and 3 worgs. At our darkest hour (we were all going to
die) Vesta released a fire elemental into the fray, turning the tide. We ran
like the little girls we are, heading first to the stockade and then home.


Yes, I know this report lacks verve and humor, but damn, people, I'm tired,
the I on my keyboard isn't workng right and even after a Minotaur, an
assload of goblins and a fire elemental, I've got less XP than I started out
with.

My original report was going to read: "Ketch Doesn't want to talk about it"

[Ben later added]
At 10:53 AM -0700 06/24/02, Gavin Cummins wrote:
>A fine exchange came up when we were being flanked by
>10 goblin archers
>
>"Does Vesta of have any scrolls?"
>"Uh...mage armour, sleep, magic weapon..."
>Everyone - "SLEEP!"

I will back-up the players' account of this situation.  They were 
terribly terribly desperate.  Even with the elemental escape was not 
a sure thing (note I say escape and not victory - the bugbears kept 
the field, and the elemental for that matter though they would have 
rather just had the field).

Russ did a very good job of being Vesta, but I realized almost too 
late that he had no idea what the ring did.  Almost a very big oops.

[Russell then added]
Thanks.  ^-^   I wasn't expecting to be playing a second character, and did some
very quick learning of Monk rules.

I did get to experience Walker at three hit points, flanked by a pair of worgs...

The situation was quite desperate- we came out of the pit and quickly dispatched the 
goblin sentries, then got away under cover of an Obscuring Mist, courtesy of Father
Corwin.  We ran a bit, fought a pile of goblins and wolves and used most of our
resources in the process of kicking their asses, ran some more, then got flanked by
wolves and goblins working together with worgs, with more goblins and several
veteran-looking bugbears close behind.

Father Corwin and Walker held the line against three worgs (held them off the rest of
the party by keeping them occupied chewing on us).  Brag, Vesta, Ketch, and Tyrvail
fought the goblins and wolves, bringing our wolf kill total to 9, and keeping the
goblins from engaging effectively (this is where that 'Sleep' scroll incident occurred).
Walker and Father Corwin ran out of meat to chew on for the one slightly-scratched
worg and his two unwounded companions (Walker: 3hp, Father Corwin: 8hp, three worgs
doing what, 1d6+4 at +7 melee?) at around the time Brag came up and kept one of the
worgs from charging in to the rest of the party.  We then spotted a whole 'nother force
of goblins reinforced with bugbears coming on to the field.

Things were looking pretty desperate.  Both Walker and Father Corwin were extremely likely
to go down the next round, leaving the three worgs followed by goblins and bugbears to
digest the remaining wounded party members.  In the process of casting around for
last-ditch measures to avoid a "and they never came back" situation, someone (Ben?)
pointed out Vesta's ring to me, and mentioned that releasing the fire elemental was
an option, with the risks of a) it turning on the party, and b) not being able to get
it back into the ring.   I opted to give it a try.  Vesta was able to keep control of
it and sic it on our enemies- first round it toasted a goblin that was in the midst of
the party, then it started after the worgs.  With it attacking and distracting the enemy,
Walker, Father Corwin, and Brag working together were very fortunately able to kill
all three worgs!  At that point, the fire elemental started in on the bugbears, and
we fled, leaving it in combat behind us to delay pursuit. 

We could have stayed and tried to kill off the bugbears and the remaining goblin
cohort with the aid of the fire elemental, but I think the consensus is that we would have
gotten completely mopped, very quickly.  Sacrificing the fire elemental pretty much
kept the entire party from dying.

[Ben finally joked]
At 12:01 PM -0700 06/24/02, Russell Harmon wrote:
>Things were looking pretty desperate.

This is how desperate it was - Tyrvail attacked with his spear.  Several times.

[From Skyla / Ping...]
Skyla, Morduk and Traevin and some hunters come back into the Axe &
Thistle...

Skyla:  "I need a drink, a big drink.  Maybe I need 8 little drinks, but
that's neither here nor there."

After said drink(s):  I'm not the best at telling tales, that's Traevin
our most esteemed bard.  I'm also not as deserving of telling the tale as
that honor is reserved for Morduk the paladin who led us bravely into the
fray and stood his ground against the most horrible thing I've ever seen.
All I can say is that my life has been forever changed by witnessing the
cleaving of my comrades in the heat of battle, and the slicing I took.
The spider issue has been identified, and it bites, slices and wields a
big polearm.  We are not going back without a lot of anti-toxin, but we
are going back.

I know Traevin will get this to rhyme somehow...

[And just a couple days later, Traevin whips out his instrument...]
Cast:
Traevin, rakish bard
Skyla, flurious monk
Marduk, reluctant paladin
Assorted cannon fodder, er hunters

It begins for me at the inn.  Sitting at the Axe & Thistle,
perhaps enjoying my ale too much, when Marduk sat down and
told me he'd been approached by some hunters about helping
them clear the Wilwood of a growing spider infestation.
Apparently what used to be a comparitively safe wood is now
a spider haven, fraught with peril, and last fall a hunting
party had been slaughtered with but one survivor, a young
lad by the name of Rado.

After recruiting a busy Skyla we went off into the
Wilwood with six hunters.  After a day of wandering and
wondering about our location relative to the Barrow Mounds,
we started to find webbing hanging from the trees.

Cautiously, we crept forward, alert for movement, weapons at
the ready.  Then a hunter stops - and there's something
moving sharply ahead.  We inched forward, trying to see
what's disturbing the quiet, quiet forest.  Finally, peering
through the bushes, we saw it:

A deer, trapped in a web, frantically trying to leap free.
And failing.  We neared, cautious, ready, and one of the
hunters saw movement on the left.  And we were surrounded by
spiders, large and 'small'!  In the trees, creeping over
bushes, drawn by the trapped deer they were ready to bag
some dessert.  The hunters were rattled, and some horribly
bitten, but we won through and everyone was still walking.
I offerred to heal their leader, but they wanted no part of
the magic finger.

And now we had spider tracks to follow.  Good thing we had
people who could track or Marduk and Skyla and I would
quickly have been lost.  In the afternoon, we came upon a
jagged hillock, dark and ragged, and there crawling to and
fro, and ducking out of sight, were spiders.  We'd found
their nest.  Many of the hunters were disheartened, and we
had been weakened by venom, but having arrived we pressed
on, stooping to enter the gaping maw.

And fought spiders.  The mound is riddled with small
chambers, and we couldn't bring our numbers to bear, only a
few could fight at a time.  The eager Rado was horribly
poisoned and nearly died, so weakened was he.  We thought
about retreat and returning with re-inforcements but Marduk
pushed us into the next chamber, and the next, every chamber
a battle, and every battle someone was bitten, and the venom
was merciless.  I lost my trusty crossbow to a narrow
crevasse, but in crossing that we found another chamber, and
another channel to the surface.

Some hopeful hunters wanted to leave then, but we wouldn't
be denied, so weakened and battlesore, we pressed on.  Next
we found the spider pantry and the likely remains of the
lost hunting party.  We had been emboldened by the last
fight where we had swarmed into the room and our numbers
were overwhelming, so we eagerly pressed on.

A dark passage, tall and broad, led out and we entered,
Marduk and Skyla boldly leading.  Quickly the tunnel
ended into a large room, full of what looked to be eggs, and
filled by....

Oh my.

Understand that at this point, everyone was still alive and
walking, even if they could barely stand.  Marduk and I had
been weakened by venom and fighting in every open chamber,
and several of the hunters could hardly draw their bows.

I had been pretty fearful before when I thought I was being
attacked by a giant walking tree.  This, this put it
all to shame.  Dark it was, and unlovely.  Sitting high on the
wall, eight huge legs spanning maybe 30 feet, reaching to a
swollen body, black and hairy.  As if that wasn't enough,
from the body sprang what could loosely be described as a
massive torso, with four great arms, and a head full of
sharp, venomous, gnashing fangs.

Oh, and it carried a treetrunk of a polearm.

Marduk and Skyla ran in and stopped, I began my battlechant,
and the hunters nearly broke and ran, but pulled through.
Marduk leapt up and barely scratched the hideous thing,
Skyla was cut nearly in half by its great weapon, and I,
having lost my crosswbow, was forced to fight in close.  It
bit at us and struck at us with dagger-filled hands,
swinging its mighty spear through our ranks.  Pale with
venom and fear, the archers could hardly nock their
arrows, never mind aim them, and we were hardly any
braver.  Two hunters fell, brave Tuvis and Blate.

And we broke.  And ran.  Two hunters tried to retrieve the
bodies and one was smashed into a pulp, the other barely
escaping.  Half carrying each other we fled back the way we
came and ran pell-mell out of the western exit, fleeing the
sound of a monster dining on human flesh.

We had lost our wits and ran westward into the forrest
before remembering that way lies the barrow mounds and so we
turned and fled north to the road, running until we passed
out from fear and exhaustion.

And so we regrouped and returned quickly to Keep Town,
racing the new full moon.  After a few days of rest for the
venom and nightmares to pass, we're making plans to go back
and kill the thing once and for all.  Such things can not be
allowed to live.

Deaths:
Three (NPC) Hunters (Blate, Tuvis, Semfar)

		

(Radio silence continues...)

[Now much later, we can post what happened...]
Game 2:
Fire

Searching the walls of the hall, we find a hidden door. After a day of work
to dig our way through, we come to a crypt. I crawl in, eager to raid it,
just to get attacked by a nasty, nasty wight.
(RASSAFRASSFUCKNGHELLSHITRUSTFUCKFUCKFUCK). No. I'm not bitter.  The boys
kill the damn thing. We wait around for a day. I lose a level (I feel so
small). Lots of planning and magic spellcasting and then we rush the fire
elemental, makng relatively short work of it.  There's treasure. It's outs.
Nah Nah Nah.

		

Game 1:
Horns

We gather. We talk. We travel. We find a hole in the ground. We go down the
hole. We examine a room. A minotaur "kills" (Drops to Negatives) both Walker
and Ketch before being chased off by the higher ups.
We explore. We find a door. It's a bad door. It's a horrid door. It's a door
that turns Vesta's hair just that slight bit grey.  We find another door, we
open that door and get attacked by a pillar of sentient flame.  There's
probably more exploring involved here, but it all runs together.  We try to
leave, just to be ambushed by Goblins and wolves who've set up camp at the
top of the hole. They cut our rope and drop a log on Bragg.  Vesta almost
falls to her death.  We hole up for the night and get attacked, again, by
the wounded Minotaur. Bragg or walker (They're both big guys with
Greatswords) puts it down before I can ready my "Killshot" bow.

That Ent What I Think It Ent

While sitting around town and socializing with other hearty heroes (cough,
cough, why don't they believe I killed the damn ogre? and no, I didn't throw
a tantrum at a dead dwarf. No.) Brag said "Hey, Ketch, what about that
Prespa chick?" so I told him all about the "When a halfling loves a woman"
incident. Brag decided he'd like to head out to the stockade, so we rallied
the troops (Tyrval, Brag, Ketch, . . . . um. . the bard. . . the monk) and
headed out.

There was interesting conversation on the way to the stockade, most of it
revolving around the wisdom of hitting on Prespa and her sexual orientation
(Strong woman = lesbian?).
At the stockade we were allowed in for free (woo hoo) and immediately
proceeded to drink and bullshit with the locals.  Many of them were all too
happy to recount the "When a Halfling Loves a Woman" incident. Brag went out
to talk to Prespa. I went outside to do handstands in the mud (Drunken
handstands!)  Brag walked by, grabbed my upended leg and threw me into the
tent, much to the amusement of the locals.

Locals: Ha, ha. You aren't gonna take that are you?
Ketch: Um.
Locals: I mean, I'd be pretty pissed. You should do something.
Ketch: Heh . . heh (Falling over laughing), wait, are you trying to convince
me to attack HIM? Oh . . Oh .. that's rich. . oh, god. Hey, Brag . . Brag,
they want me to attack you! HAHAHAHA!

The next day we hired on with a caravan heading to keeptown.
Jem tried to negotiate our rate, but it wasn't going anywhere so I offered:
"Hey, we're heading that way anyway. We'll walk with you. If we're attacked
and repel the bandits you owe us 10GP each. Otherwise we get nothing." They
jumped at the offer, the fools.

Brag and I scouted ahead while the others hung back with the caravan. During
one of our longer forays ahead a  . . well. . well, a giant tree walked
through the forest and stopped in the middle of the street. (Ben represented
it with a snapple bottle on the map). The drovers, screaming about angry
druids, ditched out of their seats and ran like hell while Tyrval, Trayvan
(ha, remembered) and "The Monk" stood looking at the thing. It didn't
attack. It didn't move much and the sounds it was making didn't match up
with what it was doing.
After a moment it faded away and a clutch of bandits (about 15) surrounded
the caravan.

Bandit: Lay down your arms and we may allow you to live!
Bandit 2: Yea, maybe!
Tyrval:  Lay down YOUR arms or taste my wrath (followed by magic missile).

And the combat began!
Brag and I turned back toward the commotion, running headlong into battle. I
shot an arrow off and put down a bandit from a good way off. Trayvan hid
under a wagon and sang a pretty song and The monk faced off with two well
rolling bandits. Tyrval had a nice "Sorcerers duel" with the real cause of
the giant tree.
Brag ran back and cut into the woods to the right, slaying archers and
bandits as he went. I cut to the left doing the same. Tyrval wounded the
sorcerer with burning hands. The sorcerer ran, I pegged him with an arrow
(Continuing my "Killing Blow" streak.) Trayvan and Monk held their own and,
suddenly, we were on a quiet road surrounded by bodies.

We called back the drovers (how dare they doubt us), piled the corpses onto
a wagon and went back to town to collect a handsome reward. The drovers
tried to get out of the deal (Brag and Tyrval let them off, Trayvan took a
reduced rate, I demanded full payment as did Monk) and we went back to the
axe and thistle for beer.
The end.                
                

[Penned by Traevin...Part Two (see Game 50 - May 9th for Part One)]
Azucar, Holy Ranger
Skyla, Wholly Monk
Traevin, Holey Bard


Cue Wandering.  Cue many jokes on the ways a Deity might
create water for his cleric.  Cue strange tracks.  Not
knowing what to do, we decide to follow them.  Good thing
one of us is a Ranger.  Despite sand and wind and adverse
conditions, Azucar tracks true, and we feel we are getting
closer.  Cue movement.  What's that?  Short, dun-colored,
walking on two legs?  Oops, kobolds!  But wait, they seem to
be out hunting, and we're pretty sure not for us.

Deciding a reasonable Kobold bounty could salvage a
potentially unsuccessful expedition, we veer off to overtake
them.  Fighting ensues.  Skyla mows thru their ranks, Azucar
picks them off with his bow, and I manage not to get hit.
As Skyla and I corner the final Kobold, I see movement.  Low
to the ground, red-dun colored, long tail, are those
antennae?  Hey it's a Rust Monster!  And to seal the matter,
the bugger runs up and eats my sword.

That puts me in mind of a song, so I sing while Skyla
pummels the thing with her fists, Azucar does the same with
his staff, and I try to hit it with my club.  Meanwhile the
Rust Monster is trying to climb up on my back to get the
metal bait I'm carrying and keeps biting my knee.  Finally
it runs, and Azucar shoots it with his bow, dropping the
creature.  Thankfully Obad-Hai doesn't seem to mind healing
Rust Monsters, and Azucar stops the thing from dying.  We
tie it to a handy kobold spear and start trudging home.

Along the way we discover more tracks.  Big tracks.  Really
big, fresh tracks.  We pick the direction we hope they're
going and go a different way.  Rust Monster isn't looking so
good, so we have to stop and stabilize it.  Finally Azucar
heals it, and the thing wakes up and isn't happy.  It's
displeasure is increased by the sandstorm that blows up, and
after that blows over we're back to trudging.

We still don't have a plan to get a live Rust Monster into
town, so after more trudging and an exciting meeting with a
rattlesnake, we stop in the hills outside of the Keep to
discuss strategy.  I go into town to see if I can talk the
Wizards into considering take-out instead of delivery, but
they insist we have to bring the thing to them.  It worked
out I had to stay the night in town, leaving Skyla and
Azucar alone in the hills ... on the first night of the full
moon.  Oops.

Amazingly they were still alive when I returned empty
handed.  It went something like this:

Skyla: So, did they agree to take it off our hands?
Me:  Uh, No.

Azucar: Well!  (Rants about Townspeople and his misadventure
	with a Watchfire lighting expedition leading to an
	unfortunate encounter with smugglers) We're low on
	metal bait to feed the Rust Monster, did you get
	some more for it?
Me:  Uh, No.

Skyla: Ah.  We're also low on food, did you think to get any
       more for us?
Me:  Uh, No.

Azucar: Hmm. So did you get a bag or a barrel or something
	we could hide the Rust Monster in?
Me:  Uh, No

Skyla:  So what exactly did we send you into town for again?
Me:  (breaks down crying)

And before it got really ugly the Rust Monster escaped, and
being rather dull, went for the remaining metal bait we had
left, allowing us time to bludgeon it back into
hibernation.  Azucar healed it, he and Skyla tied it up
again, and we went back to discussing the finer points of my
ancestry.  And the Rust Monster escaped *again*, and this
time we hit it too hard, and Obad-Hai lost patience with us,
and it expired.

So we tied it to our spear, hauled it into Keep Town, and
sold it to some merchant who *ahem* thought it might be fun
to eat.

And now, if you don't mind, I think I'm going to finish my
beer and take a bath.   (wonders aloud why the room is tilting 
as Traevin wanders out of the common room)

Ketch (Chris H.) writes:
We regret to announce the death of one Lugal the Dwarf.
He died high on a cliff, at the hand of an Ogre.

Of course he also killed a man in town and made the wanted list.
Who knew?

Siobhan (Jen M.) writes:
[Editor's Note: Siobhan was in town, hallucinating,
or perhaps experimenting with too many of those strange
sorcerer's booster drugs...]
(Scene: a cliff. A half-elf sorceress with a rather
overdeveloped sense of her own mortal frailty finds
the skull of a dwarf...she picks up the skull, gobbets
still hanging free, and stares into its half-filled
sockets...)

Alas poor Lugal! I knew him, a fellow of infinite
jest, of most excellent fancy.  He hath borne me on
his back a thousand times.  And now how abhorred in my
imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung
those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.
Where be your gibes now? Your gambols, your songs,
your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the
table on a roar? Not one to mock your own grinning?
Quite chapfall'n? Now get you to my lady's chamber,
and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this
favor she must come. Make her laugh at that.

(Then the sorceress pitches the skull and runs away,
because who knows when the damn ogres will come
back...where there are cliffs there's bound to be ogres.)
                

[Penned by Traevin/Jem...here is Part One (see Game 52 - May 14th) for Part Two]
Azucar, Holy Ranger
Skyla, Wholly Monk
Traevin, Holey Bard

Sitting at the Axe + Thistle, we three decided to hunt the
Rust Monster.  Since we don't seem to have the resources
(read: skills) to really trap such a thing, we go to plan B:
bludgeon it into submission.

Whilst Azucar and Skyla gather supplies, I went out to learn
what I could about Rust Monsters.  A quick stop at the
Wizard Tower to chat with their friendly doorman confirmed
the rumor, and after a near-mugging in a not-so-nice part of
town I learn the preferred habitat of the Rust Monster seems
to be somewhere near the Notch Fells.

The next morning sees us off, marching hard and trying to
find a good cudgel, since I would like to keep my sword
intact, thank you very much.  As night falls, we push hard
to arrive footsore and weary at the Watch Tower, only to
learn to our surprise that it is not a hostel, and they
don't give room and board.  Now they tell us.

After a long night camping on their rocky doorstep, we have
breakfast and a nice chat with some guardsmen, and a jolly
good tune from yours truly.  They have little information on
the Fells, except to tells us to watch out for the great
Black Eagles that'll carry a man off.  And then it's
Westward Ho into the Notch Fells.

Which, I must tell you, isn't the most hospitable place to
go wandering around in.  But, it's a dry heat.  After some
time spent wandering around trying to reach the Farther
Highlands, enduring the taunts of an over-caffinated Monk,
we see movement.  Low to the ground, dun-colored, long tail,
is that a stinger I see?  Oops, scorpions!  Skyla and Azucar
handle the little ones while I mightily slay the largest of
the group with my patented Stumble and Fall on It move.
Azucar, if I recall, suffers a nasty sting and starts to
feel a little spent.

Opal Caves 2 - The Search for More Money

Starring
Ketch "Man, if I could see in the dark I'd be such a badass" Eling
Lu "It's not the size of the Dwarf, it's how he swings his axe!" Gal
Wa "Yea, I know I might die, but if I don't it'll look really cool" Lker
Rob's Character who's name I don't rememb "Yea, let's stay in the cave with
the Trog's" er but what's with this duck group and their negative Dex
Modifiers? I mean, geez.
Jen's Sorcerer who's na "What do you mean he threw my glowing rock in the
pit?" me starts with an S

And we're off
After our previous, not wholly satisfying, foray into the opal caves (Opal
Caves One: Weekend at Trogies) Lugal and Ketch got heroically drunk. Even
completely sloshed, Ketch insisted on doing backflips.   Lu told really
dirty dwarf jokes about women with sexy beards well into the night. The next
early afternoon (oh, the headache) they awoke to find their five companions
missing, replaced in the night by Walker and two "new recruits." Happy to
have Walker's sword and hands (ooo. it feels so good) and new folks to hide
behind, we set back into the Opal caves in search of weeping walls.

We went in the left most entrance, made our way to the higher cliff and
headed west. A bit down the wall was a large crack in the wall.
(This is where I, down the end of the table, went into an apoplectic fit,
gnashing my tongue as I flashed back to Bollis' first adventure and THOSE
DAMN STIRGES.)  Short version. We went in, made too much noise, got attacked
by stirges, killed them and went on our way. It was horrible. I hate them.

A bit further west we found the weeping wall. We went in and, rather than
following the mapped out section, took a right down an unexplored corridor.
It led to a jagged stairwell leading down to a cliff overlooking a chasm.
Across the chasm lay stone pillar which seems to have fallen there some time
ago.

Fishing for danger as always, the party tied a rope around Ketch and said
"Go explore." Almost to the other side, Ketch was attacked by a Trog dog
which lashed its tongue around his leg. (Pause for the visual of Ketch, all
170 pounds of him, suspended in the air, stuck between a Trog Tongue and a
Rope held by Walker.)

Big fight. Walker charged across the chasm and managed not to die. Lugal
charged across, fell on his face and dropped his newly bought longbow into
the abyss. Kobolds died or fled, Trogs just died, we stood victorious.

And then we made a very stupid decision.
"Man, I'm out of spells, we should camp."
"It's 7Pm"
"Yea."
"We'd need to travel all the way back up and out of the caves."
"Why not stay here?"
"In the Trog Lair?"
"In that cave. There's only one entrance."
"Um . . . "
"Oh, Come on. If they come at us there's a bottle neck."
"Um. ok."
"ok."

So we set up camp down a narrow cave with only one entrance and tried to get
to sleep early.

Lugal and SRanger took watch. Lugal saw something, let out a dwarven cry,
ran out into the darkness and mightily slew a kobold.
He was proud. He was ferocious he was extremely stupid as he was then
swarmed by 3 trog warriors, a trog Cleric, 10 kobolds and a Trog dog.
He took some obnoxious amount of damage and ran like a little girl back into
the cave.

Let the death watch begin! The plan became "If we survive 'til dawn Walker
gets his spells back!"
They came in waves, and the bottle neck worked, but I was shocked no one
died. Walker cut down a Trog or two. The Ranger dropped to 1 hit point. I
took out the Trog dog after it took a mighty bite out of me.

A reasonable party would have looked at their batterd bodies and said "We
can come back!" But not us! We healed at dawn as best we could and then
chased Trog Cleric and his Kobold pals through the halls. We were
magnificent, we were ferocious, we were .. expected.

Lu waded into battle. Walker waded into battle. I was cursed and spent much
of the combat depressed, trying to get Kobolds to talk to me. Sorceress cast
light and threw some rocks (in a great spot, she threw a rock into the
middle of the combat, a kobold scurried over, picked it up and tossed it
down a hole.) After much die rolling (and many Kobolds having self esteem
issues as we ignored them in order to get to the Trogs) we slew all but the
Trog cleric.
He Ran
We chased
We came to the edge of a cliff where I spotted him crawling quickly down. I
took a shot and missed. Lugal took my bow and used his dwarf vision to try a
few more times, hitting the cleric but to no real avail. Walker climbed
after him, his gauntlet ablaze but wasn't going to catch up.
We thought he was getting away. But, having learned from the Kobolds in the
moat house, Walker found a rock and dropped it on the cleric's head.
He died! he cried! He pretended to be the Emperor in Return of the Jedi!

Digging though the Trog lair, we came up with about 40 pounds of stones and
such worth over 500 gold.
We went home.
Most of us made money (Lugal lost his 75 GP Bow and had to pay me 75 GP for
a healing potion.)

More importantly, I leveled and am now a badass third level Rogue - with
more HP than Bollis had at third. Damn that poor, pitiful glaive bearer.

The end.                
                

Ketch Eling - Short man with a rapier. Specializes in bowmanship, saving
halfling's lives, lending money and holding the damn light source.

Azucar (Sugar) - Likes leather and big sticks. Communes well with nature,
enjoys getting into debt and poetry.

Lugal - Short. Stocky. Sees in the Dark. Carries a big Axe. Gives Kobolds the
evil eye, angy at his own inability to do a damn thing to them.

Syntac - Short. Not Stocky. Loves the big ladies. Alligator bait. (Owl bear
bait. Wolf bait. etc.)

Walker - Walks. Swings a sword. Touches us all in uncomfortable ways and
makes us feel better. Gets in trouble with his girlfriend.



Part 1 - Kobold Hunting.
Charlie ain't in the trees, he's up on the walls, pushing rocks and throwing
cruel little darts. We never should've gotten into this war. We never
should've gotten in. But now we're here, and damn if we ain't gonna kill
every last mother fucker in the room. Damn, We ain't.

The town was abuzz with talk of a half-orcish woman and her cohorts, a red
willow and a Secret lake. They went to Pike Hollow. They. Never. Came. Back.
We (Ketch, Syntac, Azucar and Lugal) ignored this information, packed up
(Azucar going into debt so as to no longer be naked.) and headed back to the
Moat house to kill those damn Kobolds. We walked slow, due to Dwarves and
Halflings, and found the place slower since I was the only one who'd been
there before. But eventually we found the moat house, and things went about
how we thought they would.
Enter. Take a right. I probed a doorway with Azucar's stick while he watched
my back with my composite shortbow. Poke. Poke. Crash. Boom. The rocks come
crashing down, same trap as before. Syntac and I went exploring in the dark
places, finding not anything interesting while the noise attracted those
little ugly buggers. Azucar took a few shots, putting one or two down. Lugal
didn't have a bow and so stood there and allowed them to throw their
impotent little darts. The kobolds ran when injured, retreat and attack,
retreat and attack.

I crawled up the walls to get a better look and got a dart in the back for
my trouble, but saw where the Kobolds went running. The party moved through
the halls, me still up above, tracking after them. I had to climb down to
keep from falling through a roof. Syntac ran off ahead, right into a big dog
like thing, a rat eater we think. Syntac hates animals. Animals want to eat
him. They think he's small and tasty even with the punch daggers. The Dwarf
and Halfling put the animal down while Sugar and I covered the rear. It's
den was in the bottom of a tower, the upper level collapsed. Another,
smaller tower was further down the hall, also collapsed. Syntac ran off,
exploring further, and came to a point where the wall had been knocked out,
leading to the swamp. Syntac clambered up on top of the wall and . . stood
there dumbly for three rounds while Kobolds pelted him. The rest of us
arrived. I tried to enter a room, trying to find a better way up to the
Kobolds, but triggered a trap (and deftly avoided it), cutting off that
path. Sugar tried climbing the wall, but fell and knocked himself out.
Syntac finally woke up only to be pushed off the ledge to the ground by a
charging Kobold.

It was time to retreat. Lugal picked up Azucar while Syntac charged through
the other room toward the door. The kobolds lay in wait, so we pulled back
to the collapsed wall room and laid down Sugar so I could give him a healing
potion.

So:
I give him the healing potion. He wakes up to see me saying "You owe me
money."
Then a rock falls on Lugal.
So Sugar wakes up.
And Lugal passes out.
We should've kept the lighter guy awake.
I cover with my bow while Sugar stabalizes Lugal and Syntac takes care of the
Kobolds in the other room (Syntac Wall Runner. Little and fierce.

After a day we got the Dwarf on his feet and we all ran back to keep town.

Kill total:
3 Kobolds
2 Traps
1 Rat Eater

Part 2 - Sheep Head?
Walker found God. The God of Roads. So now he's a big man with a sword who
can heal what ails you instead of just a big man with a sword.
After recouperating for a few days we decided to head back out. The
possibilites were back to the Kobold house or go looking for Orc woman and
her friends. I'd had enough of Kobolds, so it was time to head to Pike
Hollow, the Secret Lake and the Red Willow. We hired on with a caravan
heading to the stockade as an easy way to the hollow (and an easy way to
make a few gold). The trip up was uneventful and we got free lunch and free
entrance to the Stockade for the night. Most of us were eager to get some
sleep and head out early the next day, but Syntac had other plans. He'd been
here before. He was in  love with a woman named Prespa.
Now, I don't know what he said to her - maybe it was the "When a Halfling
loves a woman" comment - but ten minutes after he left I saw this woman . .
this gorgeous woman (the way she backstabbed, the way she threw a dagger,
the way she never smiled despite Syntac's lustful gaze. My god. I want to be
her.)  She hurt him badly, and I had to interfere and beg for his life,
promising he'd never bother her again. An old man with a peg leg healed him
up, for a price - all the gold in Syntac's pocket.
The next day we followed the stream down, looking for the lake.
When we got near it we found an abandoned campsite and four graves, none
older than winter, one recently dug up. We disinterred one - the most
recently disturbed one - and found a man's body with a goat's skull.
The second grave was just a man, as was the third, but the fourth held the
body of a dog.
We were very confused.
We followed the lake around until we eventually spotted the red willow.
Heading out to it we found a mound with holes leading down into the ground.
The mound was decorated with skulls, one of which was that of a half orc.
We'd found the missing folk's final rest. Vengeance and gold on our minds,
we headed into the dark.

The second level down we saw a lizard man. He retreated, we followed, and
the next thing we knew we were in a fight with five of them as well as a
Lizard man druid. It was a long battle, Azucar and Lugal both dropping at
various points and Syntac being attacked by an Alligator. I spent most of my
time jumping around, trying to keep one or two lizards busy while the
fighters dealt with the others (though I did kill one of them). It was a
long fight. Walker cleaved well and killed the damn croc. When cornered, the
druid tried to attack us by hand, and I dropped the lantern and got bit by a
snake, but we won and we all lived. Huzzah.
We found
A masterwork dagger
a bunch of jewelery
700 or so gold in a chest.
and a religious symbol of St. Cuthbert.
And then we went home.

Kill total:
5 Lizard Men
1 Lizard Man Druid
1 Crocodile
1 trapped box full of money.

The end.
                
                

Dear Diary:
I'm so confused.
I really thought this would be simple.  Mom said "Go to the University!
Become a Wizard!," Dad said "Go on the Road with me, become a wealthy
merchant!," my sister said "stay in town, become a priest!" . . . . So why
did I listen to the man doing acrobatics in the street and fleecing those
who watched him of their valuables? Why did I decide to head to the edge of
the world and become a thief . . a thief who hasn't ever stolen anything,
even? Should I really have paid for those "Quick and Easy Thieving" books he
was selling? I just don't know. It must've been that gleam in his eye.

I'm still in the West Marches. It's still an interesting place. I'm still
not dead or in prison. So that's going alright.
After my last adventure, being chased away from the docks by pirates, I
learned a little more caution, maybe a little bit too much.
I asked around a bit about other ways to make money for a man of action,
like myself, but all I found was talk about giant spiders. None of that,
thank you. Walker was in the Axe and Thistle along with an acrobatic man
named Taki (he says he was in the circus. That would explain the nose) and a
wizard named Barlow (I can hear my mom now "See, see what you could've
become!", but Mom, I don't LIKE magic! and there's no MONEY in wizardry! I
mean, thievery is a growth industry!) We all put our heads together, vetoed
the giant spiders and Barlow's caravan guard idea and decided to go out
Kobold hunting. Walker had heard of an old fort in the swamp that should be
kobold infested, and maybe we'd come across some ill-guarded treasure.
Unfortunately Syntac (you'd love him, Diary. He's a very little, very angry
man.) and Sugar weren't around, so it was just the four of us.

Two days later, while trudging through the woods near the sea, I caught site
of a man. The others stayed back while I went to investigate and found a
whole band of brigands sitting among the trees (well, I think they were
brigands, they certainly looked brigandly to me.. . you know, unshaven,
wearing lots of leather, carrying cutlasses), waiting for something or
someone. I snuck back to my friends (ok, compatriots, I'm not really sure if
they like me. I just have such trouble expressing myself.) and we decided
that if the men (about ten) were actually brigands we should kill and/or
capture them. It was getting dark at this point. I took point, scouting
ahead, trying to find my way back to the brigands. The plan was to lay in
wait until whoever they were planning on ambushing and/or meeting showed up
and then, if they were attacking a caravan, save it, and if they were making
a trade . . run away . .or something. Unfortunately we got more seperated
than I had planned. I was within 20 feet of the road brigands. Taki went
back to tell Walker and Barlow to wait for signs of action and then rush in.
While Taki was gone the three guys watching the road decided to head to the
docks and see what the hold up was. I followed them as quietly as I could,
wondering the whole time where Taki had gotten to. Further down the road, in
the pitch black, I ran into Walker and Barlow, who were also following the
three men. Barlow used his magic to put them to sleep while walker and
myself prepared to pounce on any who stayed awake.

Now, this is where things went awry for me. The bard, who somtimes came to
my father's villa, told me plenty of tales of Brigands and heroes and
thieves. We tied the men up, waited for them to awake and then tried to
question them. They were reticent, saying something about being average
business men. Then I hit one of them with the butt of my sword, which seemed
appropriate to me, but the two who were awake just started yelling. I tried
intimidating them with my sword, but they weren't buying it. Then, I'm not
sure why, I tried to apologize to them and all my authority fled. We
eventually found out that two of the men, Blute and Argus, were wanted in
town - so now we knew they were brigands indeed! -I thought maybe we should
kill the three guys, but instead Walker let one of them go. And the guy just
left. That was it. he never came back to haunt us.The other two stayed tied
up (and unconscious) while we headed back towards the brigands. I snuck
through the woods to get a good angle with my bow, Walker headed straight
towards the camp and Barlow stayed back in a support role, ready to cast
another spell. We attacked the brigands and . . well, massacred them. See,
that's where the overcatiousness comes in. This was barely a fight. Walker
cut Blute to the bone. Taki, who had been waiting for battle as previously
told, shot Argus impressively and the other brigans fell like very unstable
things. We searched them, found a good amount of coin and tried to make sure
we knew which was Argus and which Blute.
Blute was dead so . . well .. . ok. I didn't really want to carry his body
back to town and I read something once about "Head and Hands" for this
Thaumaturge guy. So . . we cut off Blute's head. I put it in a nice litle
sack and tied it to my belt. Seemed reasonable at the time.  Argus was
alive, barely, and Walker carried him.

Now, there was still that meeting to worry about. We had no idea what was
coming in. Argus wasn't about to wake up and tell us. Blute was dead. The
tied up brigands were battered and unconscious. We walked to the sea and
camped for the night. The next day a ship came in. After much debate about
whether or not we, ourselves, were becoming bandits, we retreated to the
point where Blute and Argus had been waiting. Walker and Barlow stayed near
the bodies. Taki watched the overgrown side road, I snuck forward and
watched the main road. Six wagons turned down the side road. I followed
them, trying to sneak up and find out what they had with them, but one of
the drivers saw me. I decided to play it cool and waved my hands over my
head like "Hey, I was just walking"

It went like this:
Guy in Charge: Who are you?
Me: Are you looking for Blute?
GIC: Huh?
Me: Are you looking for Blute and Argus?
GIC: Who are you?
Me: Um. Ketch.
GIC: Hold on.
He went and talked to some other guys.
GIC: I don't recognize you.
Me: I'm new.
GIC: We're camping here for the night.
Me: ok.
GIC: We're camping here for the night (this time a little more emphatically)
Me: Yea. We're down the road. i'll tell Blute.
A moment of awkward silence with many crossbows pointed my way.
GIC: What's in the bag (meaning the bloody bag with a head in it.)
Me; Um. Nothing.
GIC: Really. What's in the bag.
Me: Um. Some rations.
For some reason he didn't believe me.
GIC: What's in the damn bag, really.
Me: A trophy from some guy who tried to rip me off.
GIC: What is it?
Me: Do you really want to know?
GIC: Yea.
Me: Really?
(can you feel the tension)
GIC: Yes. What's in the bag.
Me: I'll have to open it.
GIC: Open it.
So . . well . . I threw it at him.
The bag
With the head that was worth some money.
And he opened it, and all the guys with crossbows tried to see what was in
the bag.
And I ran.
And a guy said "Hey, he's running"
and then I was in the woods because they were horrible shots.
So I went back to the boys and told them what happened and said "That's it,
I'm never talking to anyone again."
We walked back to where the wagons were, but they were gone. The head,
luckily, was in the road, not much worse for wear.
So we went back to keeptown, carrying a head and a man on a stretcher. And
when we got there I stayed outside because I was scared that the guys I'd
dealt with were real merchants and knew my name and reported me.
But they didn't.
And Blute and Argus were in fact wanted, so we made about 70 gold off them.
Not a bad run.
 Barlow said something about learning new spells, so we hung around town for
a week and then ventured back out to kills some damn Kobolds.

It was an easy trek to find the sunken fort, and it was sunken and battered
and, indeed, a fort. We explored a bit before being attacked by a stray
kobold. Barlow fried him with Magic and we, quite cautiously, rounded the
corner. And then, well, I feel bad about this, maybe I should have been in
front - Walker fell in a pit. Not, in itself that big of a deal, but down
the pit was a giant snake. This, as well, we could handle, but at the same
moment a pack of Kobolds attacked from high on the walls.
Through some nice bow work I put down one kobold, Barlow made three fall
asleep and Taki had a standoff with another. They seemed more annoying than
dangerous, but they kept us from helping Walker, who was badly battered by
the snake. Once the kobolds were chased off Barlow threw a light down the
pit and saw the snake wrapped around Walker, squeezing his life out. Take
made a masterful shot with his bow (yay, Sneak attack bonus) to chase it
off, and I went down the rope to help Walker with my healing potion. Once
Walker was Walking again, he and I went into the snake den to kill the damn
thing (ok, I held the light. Walker did the killing)

Barlow (with no magic left) and Taki headed to the front while Walker and I
explored a bit more. The highlight of my adventure was next as I spotted,
avoided and disarmed a trap! I'm so proud! That enough for me, though, so
the whole party headed back to town.

I've spent the last week practicing my tumbling, sneaking and pick pocketing
and really think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Now If I could just get
around the morality of taking other people's things (and, more importantly,
of being hung for doing so).
Ahh, well, Diary.
Until next time.
Ketch.
		

Real Date - March 27, 2002
In Game Date - I have no Idea

The Players:

If you can find them, you can hire The B Team, a highly trained, lightly
armored cadre of low level badasses.

They are:
Ketch Eling, Rogue - What he lacks in Charisma he makes up for in
obnoxiousness, lack of negotiating skill and impressive ability to run away.

Syntac, Fighter - A pint sized powerhouse and amoral demon of logic, Syntac
has shed his prior wrecklessness and learned the value of sneakery and
"Tactical Retreat."

Walker (Say it with an Australian accent. Really. Do it), Fighter - A man of
the road who carries a big shiny sword.  Walker loves his kobold ears, hates
snakes and feels bad for boats in bad weather. Harpies throughout the land
do fear him.

Sugar (Ok, so his name is something else, but I know part of it is the
Spanish word for Sugar, so sugar he is.), Ranger - Wields the power of
brutal honestly. Able to make hard nosed pirates doubt their manliness with
but a word, Sugar wields his wood with two hands, smiting down enemies and
tracking them to their graves.


The Game
By Ketch

I met Sugar and Walker at the Axe and Thistle. Like me, they were new in
town. Also like me, they were desperate for cash. Asking around a bit I
found a merchant willing to hire us to travel down to the coast and light a
fire in a tower so that a ship can make it's way into the harbor. A little
back and forth harranguing got him to raise his price from 100 GP to 150GP.
I went back to the boys, told them we'd been hired for the princely sum of
100GP (damn, I'm smooth). Needing a bit more muscle (and a guide) I talked
up Syntac into showing us the way and helping out. He was a tough sell and I
eventually had to cut him in for a greater percentage (50 for me, 50 for the
guide, 25 each for the other guys.) and try to talk him out of killing the
whole crew and running off with the shipment.

The job wasn't for ten days. We geared up and headed out early aiming to go
Kobold or Goblin hunting.  Syntac and Sugar guided us out the East road
bringing us near some "Opal Caves" Syntac liked to talk about. We spent a
few nights near the caves, casting about for trouble. Bored, we eventually
tried crossing a stream and almost lost our Halfling to the . . 3 feet of
water. Oh, my. Somewhere around here we were attacked by Kobolds. I, in a
very manly fashion, hid behind some trees. The battle waged fierce, one of
the Kobolds casting a spell or two on walker, but we managed to dispatch six
of them. The seventh ran off into the woods. Syntac and I tried to give
pursuit, but couldn't catch up to him. While I pillaged the bodies Walker
got into a horrid fight with a very little snake (familiar of the Kobold
wizard) and didn't deal well with the poison (12 points of con drain).
Unable to track the seventh Kobold, we gave Walker a day to rest and then
packed up and headed down to the coast. The ground fire crew (they were
lighting another beacon) seemed happy to see us. I managed to convince
Syntac not to kill them all. The next day we made our way to the ruins where
we were to light the fire.

The ruins were . . ruined. Partly submergered, there were several towers
overlooking the sea. In the first tower we were attacked by rodents of
somewhat unusual size. After killing the bastard vermin (bit three of us,
Sugar said "I think rat bites do something bad"), we scouted through more of
the castle.

One of the towers was missing a huge chunk. We found a ripped and eaten body
(with a little gold and nice little ring on it) and tipped it into the sea.
While we were trying to make our way across the big missing section of
castle a bird-woman-harpie thing attacked, almost sending poor me to an
unfortunate death on the rocks below. Walker (Australian accent, dammit!)
put the thing down with one mighty stroke of his quite large sword.

Back in the castle proper some rank amateurs tried to ambush us. Sugar and
his stick took down one, I tumbled across the other two and sunk my blade to
the hilt in one of their backs and . . somebody put down the other guy. We
pillaged the bodies finding more then we were going to make for the five
days of fire lighting.

The next day we trudged across the marsh to get firewood. It was hard,
backbreaking work, not at all worth the minor financial reward. The day
after we decided to split up, Walker and Sugar getting the firewood
(suckers!) while Syntac and I scouted the castle for a better tower.

Sneaking around a bit, we found a hole in the wall and a small clutch of men
(pirates, we think, pirates).  Rather then rush in, blades singing, we
retreated to our tower and then out of the castle to find the other guys.

Hours later, we found them, abandoned the idea of lighting the tower fire
and formulated a plan to go in and kill the pirates. A day of rest later we
trudged across, confident that we would bathe in the blood of our enemies.
Unfortunately, when we opened the front doors of the castle we were ambushed
and spanked liked screaming babies. Sugar went down to a crossbow bolt,
Syntac was surrounded by bandits, Walker was the subject of a spell and I .
. . ran away. . very quickly.

Both Syntac and Walker managed to get out behind me, but Sugar had to be
left behind. Once a good distance away Walker gave his name, address and the
word "Ransom our Friend" to the pirates.

A few weeks later Sugar was back in keep town without his equipment but
otherwise alright. Someday that bastard pirate with the mark on his face is
going to pay.
Someday.
Someday.



Quote:
Zach (to Chris): You attack? You mean you aren't running away?
Chris: Of course not, I'll run away next round.

Syntac: This Job Sucks
Ketch: This Job Sucks.
Sugar: You're the one that got us this job!
Ketch: I know, and it sucks.

Pirate: Did you kill our three men?
Sugar: Well, yea. I mean, they were trying to sneak up on us, but were
really bad at it and they attacked us so we defended ourselves.
Pirate: Really bad at . . . grrr.. . mutter. . . mutter

		

Bollis sez, from beyond the grave:

Bollis, Brag, Corwin and Vesta went out two days before the full moon,
knowing full well that Brag and Bollis might turn into werewolves.
We trekked out to the Dwarven mines, arriving there the day of the full
moon. Night came. Nothing happened.
Eventually we figured that it might be because from at the cliff face we
couldn't see the moon.
So, and this may have been where reason left us, the four of us walked out
to where we could see the moon.
The plan was for Corwin to use Remove curse on one of us if we were
"afflicted."
Brag, who had been bitten, managed to shake off the affects (made the fort
save), Bollis, appropriately, I think, didn't, turned all hairy and fierce
(20 STR, 19DEX, 14CON) and pounced on Corwin.  Brag drew his Silver Dagger
and placed it squarely between the wolf's shoulderblades (Critical Hit).
The Wolf/Bollis ran off into the woods.

Fast forward until morning where a very confused and mortified Bollis wakes
to find himself A.) Naked and B.) Not at all hungry. He finds a nice big
stick to use as a weapon and sets out to try and find the party (with his no
track ability or wilderness lore).  The party sets off from the cave
searching for him as well. There's lots of walking around shouting and
hoping that goblins or wolves won't attack (Although part of me really
wanted to have Bollis the Naked fight a Worg). After about 8 or 9 hours of
this and a bit of Corwin's "Helping Hand" Bollis and the Party find each
other just as night is falling.

Very dramatic, very movie like, very bad.
The party runs towards Bollis, Bollis runs towards the party, screaming for
his mommy and then . . not.
Corwin casts Magic Weapon on THE BIG FUCKING SWORD
Bollis the dog attacks Vesta scoring a bite, Corwin casts Remove Curse
Successfully, Bollis rolls his will save unsuccessfully, Brag swings his
giant phallis of Wolf Smite (another Critical) very successfully and kills
poor, hapless, innocent Bollis who, in some way, was really happy to finally
have hair on his chest.

They buried the body (not yet 20 years old, the poor lad) and went back to
the caves. Brag picked up the Glaive and carried into the dark.

Father Corwin adds:

• It really was poor planning that led to the lad's tragic death; I really feel that I carry much of the responsibility.
• On the other hand, it's true we did not know which or whether both would succumb to the Moon's call.
• I should add that we slew poor Bollis not 100 yards from the Barrow Mounds, the sheer proximity of which was quite daunting.
• We carried Bollis' body a fair distance, buried it, and then I, Corwin, cast Consecrate upon his grave.
• Then we returned to the Caves, and entered within. We briefly checked that the stone block was still where we'd left it, then went to the Chamber of the Horn...

--we went down the stair a looong way. At least 500', doing who knows how
many rotations.
--at the bottom was another carved room (like the rest of the dungeon),
with a portcullis at one end. Since it was already damaged to allow
entrance, we entered.
--we found more and more dungeon -- it just went on and on, at least as
much as the firt part we're all familiar with
--it was extremely creepy, if only because we knew there were miles and
miles of rock over our heads
--we found a great hall with huge runes carved into the walls, and we
found another staircase leading further down
--we decided not to go down it, but went one ofthe myriad other ways.
--we entered a room (more of a widening of the corridor, almost) where
there was much rubble and stuff strewn about on the floor. We found a
necklace, a dagger, miscellaneous adventuiring gear and chipped stone --
and then it all came alive and attacked us! Very freaky...but once we
realized it was a large number of "micro-" mimics, we calmed down and
dealt with them. The monks proved their abilities yet again, while my
armor helped reduce the damage dealt.

And that's where we stopped.

We are deeeeep underground.

[about a week after we all got back, Tyrvail & Therian headed out 
again, after about 2 weeks the return, riding with a caravan. When 
they get to the Axe&Thistle they gather: Bollis, Vesta, Briarweed, 
and Brag (if he can be found) in a private room in the inn. Tyrvail 
begins his story....]

About a week after the 6 of us got back from the hall of Kings, 
Therian and I decided to head back and try and get past those two 
doors. We managed to avoid a hunting party of goblins&wolves in the 
moors and other then that had no trouble getting to cradle wood. 
about a day into the wood however our luck ran out and we ran into 2 
large Ogres. It took all of our skills and might with a substantial 
amount of luck; but we managed to defeat them (important bit of 
trivia: did you know that 2 ogre's can flank two characters at once? 
its true!).

We camped at the entrance of the Hall of the Hidden Stair, and made 
our way in fully rested in the morning. We decided to try the door 
marked "forbidden" (according to Vesta) first, as this one we had 
opened before. We wedged the first door open and moved to the second. 
Inside the second door, was an empty room with a strong magic aura. 
Upon entering the room three swords appeared and began attacking us. 
I managed to destroy two with my magic but they instantly reappeared 
and renewed the attack. After some efforts to discover a way around 
the swords we gave up and moved to the door by the altar.

By working together Therian and I were, umm, able to circumvent the 
magics protecting the door. When we opened the door we discovered a 
small room with several coffers of coins and gems.

We then began the long arduous trek back to keep town. Slowed by our 
heavy burdens and worried about bandits and other dangers we mad our 
way back to the keep.
		

Da DM sez:

FYI  By the time Therian and Tyrvail return from their third trip to 
the Hidden Stair it is only a week until the next full moon...
		

Karen:
> It was touch and go for a bit there, but when 4 am rolled around the whole
> party was still kicking.

I'm astounded.  Really.  Someone will have to fill me in on the details.

When I left (at 2:30 am) the entire party was trapped in a dark, 15 foot
room filled with 12 feet of cold water.  In game time, we'd been there for
about 4 hours and everyone was taking up to 2d6 subdual per hour.  Briarweed
(the new guy) had passed out once and the last tiny bit of healing left in
the party was spent to keep him from passing out and drowning.

Everyone, with the possible exception of Bollis, was fatigued and taking
increasing strength penalties to try and open the door keeping us trapped.
Even if the door were opened, everyone would still have to swim out under
the door with no light.  Everyone had to drop all their gear as it was, so
even getting out didn't guarantee we could get back to town.

	Da DM sez:
	Oh it was worse than that.  Therian, Brag & Tyrvail were Exhausted 
	(-6 str/dex from hypothermia), Briarweed & Vesta were Fatigued (-2 
	str/dex), and Briarweed passed out from fatigue and had to be fed 
	both healing potions to survive (if you had healing potions in your 
	eq list, they're gone).

	Only strapping Bollis resisted the cold and fatigue long enough to 
	single-handedly pry that door open.

Back to Karen:
So I'm guessing that Bollis finally got the door raised and Brag was able to
wedge a shield underneath it.  How did it go from there?

	Da DM sez:
	Something along the lines of "huddled in the freezing cold, half 
	naked and soaking wet, trying to get a fire started in the comfort of 
	an ancient tomb".  Compared to the trap it was a cheery day of 
	everyone trying to thaw out.
	
	It's interesting that the "watery grave" trap would have been a bit 
	less dangerous in warmer weather (both because there would have been 
	no hypothermia and no problem surviving the cold weather once you got 
	out).  Naturally there was no way for any of you to anticipate that - 
	I just think it's interesting.


Back to Karen:
Vesta is going to have to give up adventuring and get a job.  Each adventure
is resulting in a pretty severe net loss.  Maybe she'll just start selling
scrolls and stay in town.

For the benefit of those who weren't there, I'd also like to mention that
this was not the first really awful moment of the evening.  The first moment
occurred out on the moors just after we'd successfully fended off an attack
by 11 wolves.  We were standing around congratulating ourselves on the
victory when we looked down and saw that one of the wolves wasn't a wolf
anymore.  It was a man.  Which means it was a werewolf.

And we didn't know who had been bitten by that one.

	Da DM sez:
	Well... you did opt to set out right before the full moon, and camp 
	on the wolf infested moors right in the height of the full moon just 
	in sight of Cradle Wood.  And you were a large party (easier for 
	wolves to find) and it was a nice clear night with a crystal clear 
	full moon.  But hey, it's experience points.

Karen notes:
(Ben thought this was really funny).

	Roy sez:
	That _is_ really funny.

	Da DM sez:
	Karen is giving me too much credit for being the only one with a 
	sense of humor.  I seem to recall the entire room thinking it was the 
	most cruel yet amusing thing they had seen in a long time.  I can't 
	remember if Chris said he hated or loved me, but I could tell he 
	meant it.

Back to Karen:
Vesta, Tyrvail, Brag and Bollis were nearest it, but both Vesta and Tyrvail
were pretty confident they hadn't been successfully attacked by that one.
Which leaves Bollis and Brag who aren't sure.

I will then follow this with the second moment - in the caves, by the evil
altar.  We had just finished destroyng some undead and a magical construct.
Brag decided to smash the wolf-skull sitting on the altar.  When he did
there was a force released. Therian saw it and saw it go into Brag.

And now I hear that Brag has run off into the woods.

..

Further details from Karen, in response to Gavin (Brag):
We mopped up after the skeletons and took a look at only other door in the
room.  It was magical and had some sort of powerful necromantic spell on it.
(Brag had enchantment magic on him).  Closer inspection of the door revealed
that it had a glyph on it.  We tossed around some ideas for opening it, but
nothing really seemed like a good idea so we opted to wait until morning.

In the meantime we decided to do some 'light exploring' and found the water
trap.

When we finally managed to drag ourselves out of that, we just crept home.


		

"Damn Wolves want to eat my baby"
by Bollis the 3rd level fighter.

-After living the high life for several weeks after escaping the damnable
dwarven cave, several of the town's adventurers, found themselves destitute,
hungry and on the verge of financial collapse. To such harrowed souls the
idea of trudging out into the harsh winter, looking for trouble and gold
seemed a good idea (actually, to Syntac that seemed like a good idea
anyway.)  One morning, decked in our best (and mysteriously gained) winter
cloaks, Syntac, Vesta, Brag, Lucky and myself, Bollis, headed out into the
wilderness, determined to find gold.

-After a day's march we came to a stockade which Brag assured me had not
been there before. We scrounged enough silver to pay for a night's stay, and
were well fed by the companion starbed guards. Syntac rested fitfully at
best, since he was thrown into the jail for the night for hitting on Prespa,
the night commander and so called "Mother of Witches."

-The next day, being laughed at by the guards, we headed into the woods
searching for a statue. We came upon some ferrets or lemurs or some such and
slew them mightily! Mightily, I say!  After much patting on the back we
continued on our way. After additional marching, working our way deeper into
the woods, we sensed that we were being followed. Rather then wait for some
wretched beast to jump us, we lay in wait for it, crossbows at the ready.
After an hour a horrible creature emerged from the woods. It had the
hindquarters of a bear and the head and arms of some sort of bird or owl.  A
fierce battle saw Syntac picked up by the creature and chewed on like a
piece of beef jerky. Only the thrown dagger of Lucky (as well as a few good
bolts and strikes by the rest of the party) put the beast down.

-After tending to Syntac as best we could, we ate the bear.

-This is where our normal pattern of adventuring kicked in. A.) Get a party
together. B.) Go seeking trouble or treasure. C.) Find more trouble then
expected, and no treasure. D.) Run.

-Since Syntac was unconscious, we had to carry him back to town, trading him
back and forth as we went. While following a path we were attacked by a lone
Goblin archer, quickly disposed of by Brag. Not ten mintues later, an entire
Goblin hunting party, including two wolves attacked. I was carrying syntac
at the time, and the beasts must have thought him a helpless child, for the
pounced upon me, trying to rip him from my arms.

-I learned that day never to carry a halfling into battle.  That and wolf
teeth hurt an awful lot.

-We ran out of the woods as fast as we could, sensing danger behind us (at
least they weren't worgs this time). Once we broke the tree cover we
retreated into the field, put down the unconscious halfling and prepared
ourselves. Seconds later four wolves burst out of the woods and right toward
us.  Vesta put one to sleep with her magic, and I swung my glaive wildy
cutting into one of them who summarily cut right back into me. We downed the
beasts one by one, but Lucky's luck ran out. He was visciously mauled and
without the power of Father Corwin (or a competent heal skill) he slipped
away. We buried the finest Bard in all the land and took his rations for
ourselves, trudging back to keep town, weary, worn and poorer then when we
left.

On the upside, three of us advanced a level.=-)
	

And a second missive came this scribe's way...

Brag wishes to clarify a couple of points:

Lucky killed the owl bear with a lucky dagger toss
after I, Brag, sank about 3 feet of my sword into it.

More importantly we heard a rumor about a place called
"The Hall of Kings" somewhere in Northern part of
cradle wood.  An adventurer described as 'weary' named
Bardun Zalen went searching for this cave some weeks
ago and hasn't been heard from since.
	

And finally, Lucky speaks to us from beyond the grave:

Have to back up Brag on this one.  His 2-handed critical strike
put 30-odd HP of hurtin' on the pesky beast, and Lucky's last
silver dagger was a meager 4 HP critical (including +2 for point
blank).  His "lucky" shot may have saved poor Syntac, but Brag
gets most of the kill credit.
	

• Cockily, the party returned to the Dwarven Caves, prepared with the right equipment, and brimming once again with many members.
• We entered, and went back to the "Hall of the Dead" -- but found no opponents.
• And so, we went back to the first chamber, and for the first time, ventured "to the left."
• We found a large kitchen-like room, with a firepit, raised ceiling with apparent roof vents, and perhaps some exits to larders.
• Alas, when some of the party attempted to enter the "larder" doors, it triggered a most formidable trap: with a series of cluncks and a great grinding noise, a massive stone block lowered from the ceiling of the one corridor entering the "kitchen," blocking egress.
• Only Vesta managed to dash to safety. And so only she was on the side of freedom.
• The party explored the rest of the chamber, and found only dead-ends, with trap triggers elsewhere. We puzzled over our misfortune, wondering about the firepit, secret doors, ways to reset the trap (you know, a mere 132,000 pound block of stone, that)...
• And then the Shadows struck. Once again we were sorely pressed -- and Vesta could but listen to our screams -- but we managed to slay one, and no one perished.
• Syntac the Halfling volunteered to receive a Spider Climb, and investigate the flues. Unfortunately, his curiosity got the better of him, and he ventured far, eventually seeing the outside, but could not descend without the aid of magic. And so he was stuck in the flue.
• The rest of us went to half-rations, and reduced light. When we realized the Shadows woudl continue to assault us, we kept brighter light, and sharper vigil. Eventually we slew them to the last, and were bothered no more.
• Except by our entrapment.
• Vesta returned to Keeptown (she waited for Syntac to make the perilous climb down from the flue's exit), and went to seek the aid of the those in the Wizard's Tower.
• In exchange for some knowledge about Willow -- perhaps not willingly given, alas -- the Wizards gave her the scrolls she sought (Reduce spells), and returned to free us.
• Weeks passed in darkness for those within. Brag will never be the same, nor perhaps, will any of us.
• After many attempts to use the scrolls, finally all of us were able to shinny past the stone. And so we returned to Keeptown after many weeks of absence -- after many weeks of madness-inducing existence beneath the weight of Rock.
• But we all made it back alive.

• Emboldened by their "success" in the Dwarven Caves the last time -- no one died, and yet we mapped far into the dungeon -- Father Corwin, Brag, and Bollis encouraged others to return with them: Father Bibulous Nimgimmer, Barlow Mrnstl, Tyrvail, and Syntac the Halfling (Vesta had a sudden obligation arise)
• The party made it without incident through Wil Wood and the marshes, and reached cliffs of the Highlands after dark on the second day.
• With good fortune, we found the small -- and dry -- cavern west of the Kobold Caves, and settled down for the night -- only to be rudely awakened by a small swarm of stirges!
  Syntac and Brag were hit and drained slightly of blood (Con), but Barlow's quick Sleep spell sent most of the stirges spiraling to a watery death in the marsh water (incidentally returning Syntac to his slumbers...)
• The next day the party slogged for seven or eight hours westward, hugging the cliff walls, keeping as dry as possible (not very). In late afternoon we reached the entrance to the narrow canyon leading back and up to the foot of the Dwarven Caves.
• Camping for the night in the cul-de-sac below the doors of the Caves, the party passed a not too unrestful night. In the morning, the spellcasters carefully chose their spells, knowing and fearing what they faced...
• Brag and Bollis made short work of the carved doors, and we secured ropes to the loops of iron inside the doors in preparation for hasty retreats.
• Lighting lanterns, and establishing a careful marching order, the party entered the Dwarven Caves, eyes peeled for Shadows among the shadows. We went straight to the large, pillared room we call the "Halls of the Dead." Brag, Syntac, and Tyrvail checked again on the three dwarves' corpses, and took the ring and two dwarven "scrolls" - carved runestones
• Bollis thought he saw something (the flapping of shadow-y wings?), but perhaps it was just nerves.
• Encountering nothing, the party descended the stairs into the darkness. A room at an odd angle followed, and we all felt cooler air. The next corridor opened up into a partial room, cut short by a huge shaft that was much larger around than our light could penetrate, and going up and down into the darkness. The paved flooring stopped abruptly in front of the abyss, except where narrow stairs led downwards, spiraling out of view. In a sconce on the one worked wall, hanging by a chain, a great horn about three feet long presided over the abyss. No one thought to blow it, although Syntac jested about touching it.
• Fearing that this might be the treasure beyond bearing -- what might it summon from the depths? -- the party turned, and returned to the main level to continue exploring the corridor "to the right" (the corridor leading rightwards off the hall two "units" from the pit room).
• The party strung itself out, with Bibsy and Barlow standing guard in the main hall, while Brag and Syntac entered the ensuing room. The others spaced themselves out between them. The room had only a door on its "north" wall, with a great ring to open it.
• Unfortunately, the ring did not open the door, but rather, armed an ancient trap of fiendish (dwarvish) genius: the corridor between the the main hall and the room itself became a "Hall of Blades:" stepping on the wrong flagstone caused great blades to shoot out of the floor, walls, and ceiling, doing great damage to those in their path.
• Worse, the Shadows chose this room (not surprisingly), to attack, as our morale and guard were down (and actually, Syntac fallen (see below)).
• But here the party's preparations paid off: a couple of Magic Weapon spells enabled Bollis' and Bibsy's weapons to affect them, and with one tremendous (critical) blow, Bollis destroyed one!
• In the end, we destroyed but one, and scared off one (or two?) others after damaging them, and while the Shadows drained some of us of some strength, seeming to grow bigger and darker in the process, it was truly the Hall of Blades that was our foe.
• Only by expending many charges of his Wand of Levitation did Barlow manage to get the majority of the party out of the room safely.
• And so the party retreated to daylight, returning to the canyon's floor just after noon, struck by awe at the horn watching over the abyssal darkness, and triumphant in the destruction of one Shadow!

• Bollis, Brag, Corwin, and Vesta met at the Axe & Thistle. While Vesta worked on her table-map, we decided to visit the Dwarven Caves
• Halfway between the Road and the Highlands Cliff face, we found spider webs in the trees, found and killed 7 spiders (2 medium, 5 small), and recovered three cocooned hunters' bodies (obtained Masterwork Mighty short composite bow)
• After serious slogging through the marshes (where Bollis earned his swamp patch by passing out (^_^)), we arrived at the cave canyon
• Brag won clever-points by trying to open the dungeon's doors with Spider Climb and his own brawn, but we ended up breaking a shovel getting them open
• We ventured deep inside, creeping foolhardily (Brag and Vesta) and warily (Corwin and Bollis) along, past the room of "Pain" (the pit trap), creating a gorgeous map. Deep, deep inside, we found what might be called a mausoleum (with stairs leading down which we didn't manage to penetrate). In one "crypt" we found three desiccated dwarves' bodies: the wizened old wizard, and two young fighters the party fought six months previous.
• Vesta found and retrieved the wizard's spellbook (triggering a ghostly cawing!) -- just moments before the Shadows attacked. The monks proved the virtue of Total Defense, but three of us were drained of Strength, and dangerously so. We fled, barely making it out to the light.
• On our way back to the Keep, we ran afoul of two (or more?) Worgs-with-Goblin rider pairs, who felled both Brag and Bollis, both of whom nearly perished. The party managed to slay one pair, and at last made it to safety, where we earned good karma/rep by reporting the hunters' demise to their survivors and returning the bow -- and pleasantly having the bow given back us as a token of thanks.

• Corwin and Vesta take a holiday -- to the Western Watch Tower
• Corwin and Vesta see the Sea!
• Corwin and Vesta extend the map
• Corwin and Vesta help defeat a foul, flying beast (Giant Bat), and save the lives of several Tower personnel

			At the Axe'n Thistle, Tyrvail regals folks with the story of his latest
			adventures:
			
			I'd been feeling like there was a lot more to the Opal Caves then what
			Brag and I had managed to explore, so I decided to see if we could map out
			the whole thing.
			Brag was occupied elsewhere, so I made the acquantence of some hardy
			adventurers, my new friends Bollis and Syntac.
			We headed out to the caves, and having been there several times before we
			had no trouble getting to the cave enterance. We began exploring and
			mapping out the caves. We ran into a large group of giant centipedes. My
			companions showed that I had been right to pick them, with Bollis clearing
			them out with mighty swings of his longsword, practically killing two with
			a single blow! Syntac killed his share as well, but was injured and began
			to succumb to the effects of their deadly poison. With the help of my
			magicthe was able to throw off much of the affects, but suffered some
			effects for days. 
			
			After more exploring we managed to surprise a few kobolds at dinner, my
			stalwart companions were able to make short work of them with the help of
			my magic. Syntac is an excelent shot with a bow, by the way. we discovered
			an exit from the caves onto an upper ledge (about 100 feet up and 150 feet
			wide). We also managed to map out most of the lower caves (there's
			probably some nooks and crannies we missed though).
			
			Tired, with Syntac still suffering from centipede posion, and with a good
			amount of treasure, we decided to return to Keeptown. After recovering a
			bit and hooking up with Brag, the four of us headed back to the caves to
			explore the upper ledge area. 
			
			After getting up to the upper ledge we began to explore along the cliff
			face and we began exploring some more caves leading into the cliffs from
			there. The first cave was somewhat small, but we found the remains of
			another intredpid explorer. While we were investigating the body, several
			stirges descended upon us from the darkness. We fought them off but not
			before some of us lost a lot of blood to the pesky suckers.
			
			Then we continued further along the cliff face and found another cave.
			Inside there was a section of the cave that had a large amount of dripping
			water, almost like rainfall underground. And the "rain" would dissolve
			skin and wood. We managed to get past it and began exploring what may be
			another large (and wet) cave system. In one of the 'rooms' we were
			attacked by 3 large cave crabs. At this point Brag demonstrated the use of
			his new greatsword, dispatching one of the huge cnabs with a single blow.
			SYntac demonstrated that being small and quick makes one hard to hit.
			While my powerfull magic helped destroy the other two.
			Then we were jumped by two troglodytes and a trog-dog, which almost went
			badly for us due to the exhaustion and wounds from the previous fights,
			but luckily I was able to turn the tide with my magic.
			
			And then we returned here for some well earned rest.