Year of Darkness Returned: Explorations of Delos

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART SIXTEEN (1 & 2)

2010-09-19T00:55:00.013-05:00

After an uneasy night of rest, the party healed up and began further exploration of the caverns they were in. Checking the door in the south of the crystal ball room, they found it went south and then over 100 yards to the east. They went along, with Cadelaine using her new Wand of Secret Doors and Trap Detection to check the long hallway (with nothing found). They entered a door at the end of the corridor, which led to a room filled with all sorts of what looked like burial urns, most broken, some still filled with ashes of what appeared to be past priests of the reptillion god. Searching around, the party located 4 urns which were unbroken and looked valuable, as Alando read the runes on the outside and said they appeared to be reptilian high priests inside and the urns must be brought back to the priest of Vistna.

Searching the room, Cadelaine discovered on the north wall a portion that appeared to be an old door that had been bricked over. Eschewing stealth, Mongo simply kicked the barrier down and broke through. A dark corridor lay ahead, which led to a long abandoned and dusty room filled with heaps of rubbish and debris. Carefully entering, Mongo tossed a few silver pieces ahead of him at the suspicious heaps of debris. At that, two rose up, which turned out to be pathwork warriors wearing nothing yet looking fierce and strong. Endefal attempted to turn the creatures, to no avail! They fell upon Endefal and Mongo, striking terrible blows with their fists. Mongo and Kal quickly disposed of one, while Endefal aided by the animals Gra-Gra and Simba destroyed the other. Looking at the beings closely, Alando announced they appeared to be flesh golems, left here centuries ago to guard something. A corridor continued to the north, and a strange glow came from a room beyond.

Carefully treading down the corridor, they found it dead end to a remarkable sight. In a large 40x40 room, atop a pedestal at the north end, stood a large green crystal. Within, seemingly asleep, was a large, 10 ft tall lizardman with wings….the same being seen on the walls of the crystal ball chamber! There was writing on the pedestal, and around the pedestal, heaps of gold, silver, scrolls, and other treasure. The party carefully advanced into the room, and suddenly, the lizard creature’s eyes opened, displaying a look of sheer malevolence. Tulu the fighter screamed with terror and ran out the corridor to huddle in the room beyond. Seeing the creature did not look friendly, Mongo sent two arrows at it (which stuck in the crystal), and Endefal attempted a whirlchain spell that simply bounced off the green crystal. Inside the crystal, the being smiled horribly, and began casting a spell. A small ball of fire appeared within, and then the creature disappeared (apparently teleporting away). At the sight of the small ball of fire floating in the green sphere, Mongo shouted for the party to run as fast as possible, while he stood in front hoping his Ring of Fire Resistance would help him survive. As the party crowded the corridor, Gra-Gra the ape stood staring at the ball of fire (perhaps wondering if it would taste good…). At that moment, the ball of fire exploded with fire, blowing apart the crystal sphere, and sending gouts of fire across the room and through the corridor, knocking everyone to the ground!

As the flames died down, everyone had taken damage, and some were badly burned. Kal checked his animal companions, and while the lion Simba was injured, the unfortunate Gra-Gra had been blown to bits, a casualty of what appeared to have been a delayed blast fireball. The party pulled themselves into the room, and curing began on the burns of everyone. It was decided then that the party must rest and heal, as injuries were heavy. However, before Endefal and Kal could Stone Shape the corridor shut, a howling noise came from down the corridor….suddenly, a whirlwind (air elemental) roared into the room to attack! Mongo was struck and thrown across the room, while Nadal and Kal struck at the creature to try and disrupt it. As they battled the being, Mongo picked himself up, came back to combat, and destroyed the elemental with several swift strokes of his magical swords.

At the short respite in combat, Endefal and Kal quickly stone shaped the corridor shut using rocks and stones from this chamber. Hoping the strange lizard creature wouldn’t teleport back and destroy them, they were at least protected by anything that attempted to enter through the now blocked corridor.

Binding and healing their burns, the party realized that they would have to have a proper mourning for the ape Gra-Gra at a later time. Nadal said a few words, honoring the ape as a true battle ally, and what was left of the ape was wrapped in a cloak and placed within the magical bag of holding for a proper burial later.

The room was searched, the explosion had scattered melted gold and silver across the room, along with a golden crown, scepter and platinum medallion. A sword, wand, potion bottle, and several scrolls were also rescued from the destruction; Alando cast Detect Magic and Detect Curse upon them before they were examined more closely. The scrolls were found to contain many mage spells of very high level (18^th) and were given to Cadelaine, for use later. The Wand was found to be a Wand of Paralyzation, and this was also given to Cadelaine to use, and the potion was one of Fire Resistance. The other items were placed away, except for the scepter which Alando examined after seeing the runes along the sides told of some creature called “The Immortal King”. While looking at it he realized the bottom of the scepter could be removed, and inside several ancient vellum sheets (somehow resisting all aging) slid out. Alando then used spells and knowledge to translate the scrolls during the night, and what he found both frightened and disturbed him……

As he explained to the party, the vellum sheets contained a history of a being called The Immortal King, the giant winged lizardman they had just accidentally released. In the prehistory of the world, before even Lyrian times, reptilian beings ruled the earth over the humans, dwarves, elves and other humanoids. As the centuries passed, the reptiles became less focused and more chaotic, and lost control of much of what the ruled. Even before the Cataclysm, the Reptillions had retreated to the dark corners of the earth, mostly in underground caverns where they could breed and worship Set, hoping for another chance to seize power in the world above. In these dank, dark places society for the serpentmen and others continued as before, degenerate and evil. Near the surface they built temples such as this one, where sometimes humans of ill repute or seeking forbidden knowledge could be corrupted into breeding with serpent and lizard people, creating half-breeds.

Finding places of arcane potency where the fabric of the multiverse converges, the Reptillions built “Sanctuaries” such as this, where their dark magicks could tap into areas of natural power.

This practice changed with the coming of the Immortal King. When the Immortal King took complete control…he subverted the theology and made himslef the link between the Reptillions and Set. Over time, sojourns to temples near the surface were forbidden. Thus the Immortal King became a demigod as more and more Reptillions worshipped him. After creating another paradise and sending his people to it, the Immortal King retreated to this temple to rest. Believing that his people would awaken him in a thousand years, he allowed himself to fall into a comatose sleep. This occurred 4,000 years ago.

Alando then explained apparently the Immortal King was a lich of great power, and now that he was awakened, would begin summoning other scaly beings to worship him and begin once again his conquest of the outer world. From Kitanga, to Delos, then perhaps the world beyond, nothing would stop his ambitious plans. Alando explained that they only had one chance: attack now before The Immortal King gathered his followers or ancient magic, and destroy him utterly….even if it mean their own destruction, for the thought of such a powerful being controlling armies of serpentmen, lizardmen and worse was too terrible a though. Agreeing, the party decided to rest for the night, and began making plans for confronting and hopefully defeating the now-awakened demi-god.

The night spent in the dusty, deserted tomb of the Immortal King was not pleasant. Scattered melted globs of gold and silver were throughout the room, and it was quite uncomfortable as well as frightening as the group wondered if the reptillion lich like creature would return. After a few hours, they heard something at the door trying to get in. A window was stone shaped in the door, and the party saw a mixed group of undead outside the door trying to get in….a half dozen skeletons, some of the deadly gem-eyed skeletons, and two undead wights. Endefal was able to destroy the skeletons with his religious turning ability, as well as scatter most of the gem eyed skeletons. The clerics brought down the stone door to attack the undead creatures, destroying them in short order (but not before Kal was struck by a wight, causing him to feel weakened). Carefully the party retraced their steps until they reached the crystal ball room, where Alando grasped the ball and immediately began thinking of the whereabouts of the Immortal King. Soon, his visage swum into being on the crystal’s face, and they saw him upstairs at the stone altar where they had battled the troglodytes, surrounded by over a dozen lizardman warriors, a shadow like being, and a mummy holding a glowing black sword.

Quickly making plans, the party resolved to make use of the high level scrolls they had found in the lair of the Immortal King. Outside of the temple area, Cadelaine cast Haste on the party from one scroll, then began casting Conjure Elemental to summon a creature from the Plane of Fire. After he was formed, and protection spells such as Bless, Protection from Fire, and Protection from Enemies were cast, the party rushed out hasted to do battle. Kal also cast a Giant Insect spell and several ants also charged and attacked the lizardmen. Then Kal changing into an elephant as they reached the first wave of lizardmen, the druid stomping and throwing them with his feet and tusks.

Immediately several spells were cast on the Immortal King, mostly Dispel Magic, which had instant results as a Mirror Image he had cast vanished. However, his superior spell use had immediate results…Mongo leapt forward with his ring to do battle, struck the lich many times (which were absorbed by a Stoneskin), and then was immediately held fast by a giant hand conjured by the reptile lich. Then, a Chain Lightning spell cast by the Immortal King ripped through foe and ally alike, striking several party members and killing a few lizardmen. The Fire Elemental and Elephant Kal rushed ahead to do battle to the mummy and shadow creature, exchanging blows. Simba, Tulu, Kumar and Epi battled the lizardmen, while Endefal began casting spells at the lich, mostly to no avail. Sholo ran forward to attack the Immortal King hand to hand, hasted, but his blows also did no damage to the protected reptile king. Nadal also ran past the lizardmen to do battle with the mummy and his dangerous, crackling black sword.

Kal in elephant form managed to smash the undead duo several times, but he and Nadal were struck by the mummy’s deadly black sword. After landing a blow that destroyed the shadow wraith, Nadal went down screaming and was paralyzed by the mummy’s sword but Kal managed to knock the mummy and sword off Nadal before his life force was drained. Meanwhile, ignoring the blows falling around him, the Immortal King hit the area with a Dispel Magic and took off most of the protection spells of the party, and also banished the fire elemental from the prime material plane. Endefal, finding little success except with Fist of Faith, then cast a Dimensional Anchor spell on the lich, binding him to the temple floor in case he again tried to teleport out of combat. Win or lose, live or die, the Immortal King would not be able to leave!

Slowly, the opponents of the party were worn down and destroyed, but the superior spell casting ability of the Immortal King began to triumph. An Ice Storm hit the area, not harming the undead, but killing an unconscious Kal who had been struck down by the mummy, the large hail stones crushing in his skull. Simba was knocked unconscious by the ice and Kumar barely hung onto life as he fell to the ground. Nadal could barely move as the paralyzing sword of the mummy had hurt him badly, but Endefal came to his rescue. Using Fist of Faith to destroy the mummy, he spread a healing ointment on the already festering wound of Nadal to bring him back from almost certain death. Sholo continued to batter the Immortal King and managed to strike a few blows here and there.

Suddenly, Cadelaine and Alando appeared at the back of the temple, and Cadelaine used one of the highly powerful spells from the scrolls to strike the Immortal King with a Magic Missile spell! Clearly injured, the Immortal King sent a lightning bolt at Cadelaine, but Alando unselfishly through himself in front of it, taking it’s full brunt. He fell to the ground at death’s door, unconscious, and Cadelaine was also injured. However, again she sent another Magic Missile spell from the scrolls against the reptillion lich, staggering him. Having worn their way pas the Stoneskin, the Immortal King was beginning to take damage and appeared to be heavily damaged. He tried to strike Sholo but to no avail, and Endefal added his mace to the fray by striking the lich king again. Then, Cadelaine finished off the menace with one last Magic Missile spell, this time from here personally memorized spells. The Immortal King was finally defeated! His body exploded into dust, and his robes lay in a pile on the altar. The cost, however, was high, as Kal lay dead, and a few others (Simba, Nadal, Kumar, Alando) were barely alive with heavy wounds. Epy and Tulu had managed to finish up destroying the lizard men, so all the foes had been defeated. However, the party would have to rest immediately, for as long as it took them to heal up enough to move around and defend themselves in combat. The highly defensible secret shaft that had taken them down to this level was right in front of them, and Endefal used Stone shape to open the passageway, then close it behind them after everyone had been dragged or dragged themselves inside.

Inside the circular room and hallway, healing spells were used but with Kal and Alando out of action there wasn’t much to be cast. Using a scroll that Alando had kept for emergencies, Endefal cast Raise Dead on Kal and soon the elf’s wounds began to knit themselves and the druid opened his eyes and looked around, surprised to find himself once more among the living! Everyone else was bandaged and stablilzed, with Endefal casting Cure Disease on everyone unlucky enough to have been struck by the mummy. Barely able to function, the party made quick plans for the night, with Wyvern Watch being cast, and soon the more injured members of the party were asleep and healing from the tremendous battle they had just won.

The only items retrieved from the battleground were the Immortal King’s spellbook, a massive, ancient thing laying in the ashes of the dead lich, and the crackling black magical sword wielded by the mummy. Both items were carefully handled and brought into the hideout, to be carefully examined when the party was healed and ready for any type of foul magicks.

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART FIFTEEN

2010-08-04T23:25:00.003-05:00

After a night spent in the damp, unpleasant secret room, a decision was made to investigate the two other passages out of the room….one a narrow (5 ft) set of stairs leading down, the other a tunnel leading up (the way Epy had entered with her fellow spy a millennium ago). It was decided to take the stairway down, to see what lay below the secret room….perhaps it was a way to the underground city of the beastmen, or something else entirely.

Traveling single file down the dusty stairway, lit by the continual light torch and continual light stone, the party soon came to a four way passage, with other stairways leading in other directions. Not wanting to get lost, the party continued ahead into a long abandoned room with two doors. Searching carefully, Cadeliane opened one door, which led to an incredible sight: a gigantic (100 x 60 ) temple area, with several unusual features. One by one the party cautiously entered the room, which had an odd set of lizardman footprints leading inside and atop the altar at the south end of the room.

The room was thoroughly searched, which took quite awhile due to it’s great size. Another doorway was found on the north end of the room, along with a staircase to the north that led up. To the south, a giant altar with faded tapestries was at the top of a set of stairs. To the west, four odd archways stood, with a blank wall behind them, and a stone set in front of each with a fist sized circle in the top.

Carefully examining the archways, Alando could just make out several ancient writings, which seemed to point to the archways being gates of some sort to other locations. Two told of transportation to some kind of entrance, one to a temple, and the other to somewhere atop a faraway plateau. Obviously requiring some sort of gems to activate, the gates were harmless and non-functioning for now, until the trigger item (something fitting inside the stone in front) could be found.

Examining the altar area turned up nothing except faded, rotting tapestries, and some lizardman footprints in the dust leading to a secret door in the south wall. Carefully going inside, the group found another large room, this one with a giant stone pedestal in the center, which held a large crystal ball type item. On the walls were painted scenes of reptillions ruling the world, dominated by a golden lizardman with a crown and golden wings ruling over all.

The pedestal and ball was looked at with suspicion, as the lizardman footprints came to a stop right in front. Unable to restrain himself, Alando reached out to touch the glass, and immediately the ball lit up with some sort of eternal light. Experimenting with the item, it looked to be a stationary crystal ball, with the ability to look for anyone and anything the one touching it desired!

Taking turns, several members of the party touched the ball and saw glimpses of things and people important to them. Mongo saw his family, the ones still living, being held in a giant salt mine, while his brother was outside the mine somewhere in the jungle with several other hard eyed warrior types; Sholo glanced inside to look at his tribesmen in the Valley of the Elephant, rebuilding their village and helping House Valaryan harvest the scattered ivory; Tulu saw his brother somewhere in the dungeon, conversing with rat-like beings, he himself now half-rat, half-human in form; Endefal sought the Necromancer Horan, and found him writing something in a large journal in what looked like a spacious and well kept study area; Kal spied upon the dragon of the swamp, seeing the massive frog-like being under the dark and scummy waters of the lake being worshiped by several surviving frogmen, sitting atop a pile of glittering and gleaming treasure; Alando tried to find Ardu, and located him enslaved in some large city dominated by ziggurats, where large, bull headed beings seemed to rule, whipping the slaves into action (and causing Endefal’s blood to boil). Using the crystal ball to look at the cave where they had left the totem pole many days ago, they saw it had been cut down and burned, evidence that the frogmen, lizardmen, or both had found the hideout and exacted some revenge. Epy, sadly, had no visions as she tried to glance within the crystal ball…everyone and everyplace she had ever known was gone in the intervening 1000 years since her capture.

Further searching of the room revealed a door going south, but more interestingly, a secret panel in the east wall covered by a layer of bricks, built from this side. Using stone shape, Kal moved the bricks enough to glance into the room next door…..a large room with glowing violet walls, like those of the mage’s tomb, plus the legs of a large stone statue, very much like the one in the mage’s tomb. The room, however, was NOT the mage’s tomb, despite it’s similarities. Wanting to enter the room and find out more, Endefal first reached inside the room to stone shape the statue’s legs to the floor so it could not attack them…but the spell did nothing but awaken the giant stone golem, which turned with flashing eyes, ready for battle! Atop it’s head gleamed a black iron crown with three large gems set inside, which flashed brightly, blinding Nadal. The golems fist smashed through the wall, slapping Endefal, and the golem then breathed a gout of fire that caught Endefal, Mongo and Cadelaine in its blast!

Kal and Nadal (still blinded), managed to make their way past the monstrosity, while Mongo called upon the power of Sentinel to fly in the air to harass the giant stone golem from above. Blows by Kal and Nadal glanced off it, indicating their weapons had no power, and a Fist of Suffering spell cast by Endefal at the golem had no effect. However, both of Mongo’s swords did, and he struck the golem again and again, cracking the stony surface, taking fire breath after fire breath as his Ring of Fire Resistance protected him from the worst of it. Cadelaine managed to nick the creature with a thrown +2 dagger, and Alando suddenly realized he held a Rod of Smiting, with extra powers vs golems! The priest waded into combat, but he was a scholar unused to combat and only managed to strike one of it’s legs once. Meanwhile, the deadly golem continued striking out with his fists and breathing fire everywhere in front of him. A couple of blows managed to destroy the golelms crown, which stopped the blinding effect of the gems, and soon Nadal could see again and attacked the golem with his +2 magical spear instead of sword…which worked quite well! Endefal assisted as he could, with the spells Prayer and Protection from Enemies ’10 on Mongo.

The battle went on quite awhile, with the party just dodging certain doom on several occasions, the golem’s fists tearing a huge hole in the wall separating the two rooms as it swung and missed at the party members. Everyone but Alando, Mongo, Kal, Nadal and Endefal had by this time retreated to a far corner of the crystal ball room to escape the fists and fire breath of the stone golem. Finally, a flurry of Mongo’s blows cracked the golem’s head in two, and it crumbled into loose rocks as it finally collapsed, destroyed. Endefal and Alando were severely injured by the thing’s blows, and rest was called for. One gem from the crown survived, and Cadelaine took it for the group as it appeared to be worth quite a bit.
The room was quite unusual, it contained a large pool of fresh water (waterskins were refilled, and several cave fish and crustaceans were caught for food when it was determined by Kal that the water was pure and nothing deadly lurked within) that was filled from some underwater spring. Swimmers searched the bottom thoroughly but nothing of interest was found within. A bridge over the water led to a door on the east wall, when opened with Stone Shape it was found to go into the Mage’s tomb area, right behind the stone statue in THAT room. Leaving that golem for now, the party retreated back into the chamber, and made ready to rest that night due to the heavy injuries suffered battling the stone golem. For the first time in days a bath was taken and clothes were washed in the cold fresh water, and a proper meal was created by Endefal using Create Food and Water (since their rations were now down to very little).

From the night before Alando had identified one of the wands and found it a Wand of Secret Door and Trap Detection; this day, he identified another item as a Medallion of ESP (which turned out instead to be a medallion of thought projection, because after donning the jewelry everyone in the room could see what Alando thought of Cadelaine taking a bath in the pure water pool…including the very embarrassed Cadelaine!) Several items still stood to be identified, but Alando realized now he must go carefully as at least one of the eight items taken from the Mage’s tomb was revealed to be cursed, so others might be also. Mongo and Epy seemed to have formed some kind of bond, and they soon paired off together in the far darkness of the chamber as the rest of the party pretended not to notice….

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART FOURTEEN

2010-08-03T15:12:00.008-05:00

The night passed uneventfully, as the large chasm across the temple prevented the undead and carrion crawlers from the other side from attacking them. Cadelaine’s fever got worse during the night, indicating some sort of infection, and she missed the disease preventing magic item she had lost in the lightning bolt that had struck her earlier in the week. In the morning, Endefal cast Cure Disease of Cadelaine which cured her completely. During the week, Kumar had also developed a disease, some sort of skin scabies that covered his body with sores. Examining him, Endefal said although painful and disfiguring, the scabies would not permanently harm the priest and he could probably shake it off given time.

Meanwhile, that night Alando read through as much of the papyrus scrolls as he could from the stone box they had found in the room of corpses. He found much of interest, including the name of the Forbidden City (Kitanga), and a partial lineage of the dynasty that had ruled 1000 years ago before the fall of the city. Many references were found to battles with the evil snakemen, and other evils such as the attack of creatures from below the earth, including intelligent lizardmen and others. Given more time, Alando would have to study these priceless papers to learn more knowledge about the city and the temple they were now exploring.

The next morning, as much curing as the party had was performed, with several individuals still injured. Nevertheless, the party tied a rope and went down one by one, to stand once again in front of the secret door, now sealed by Kal’s Stone Shape spell. Preparing themselves for conflict, Endefal Stone shaped the door open once more, and the party pushed into the temple area!

Immediately, the party came into conflict with the many trogs all through the area. Dozens of them filled the area, including the area by the door and the raised temple area. Cadelaine used her wand to shoot a fireball into the temple, immediately blowing a dozen trogs to pieces and injuring half a dozen more. Mongo leapt to the attack with his Ring of Jumping and began hacking through the creatures, as Nadal, Kal, Sholo, Endefal, and the beasts Simba and Gra Gra went to the attack. Immediately, dozens of the creatures surrounded the party, as Cadelaine slipped by invisibly to find a place to observe the battle and contribute as she could. She managed to backstab a leader type and Endefal finished him off, and then cast a Web spell that entangled a few of them (and unfortunately caught a cursing Nadal also).

The battle went on for nearly half an hour, as almost 50 trogs were eventually killed in a huge orgy of combat. Cadelaine had to let loose another fireball with her wand to clear out another ten or so, and at one point Kumar, Cadelaine, Endefal and Mongo disturbed a gargantuan spider than had a web at the far end of the chamber, but the giant arachnid was also dealt with fatally.

After the long battle was finished, piles of bodies lay strewn across the chamber, none left alive for questioning or capture. Everyone had some kind of wound, and the party healing was quickly used up. A statue in a corner of the chamber was of some sort of human/bat creature, and an inscription on it’s base led the party to believe it might assist them in some way. Touching the statue, several members of the party were cured of their wounds, and Kumar’s disease was wiped away. Investigating the large temple area, a statue of some sort of native woman dominated the area, but no clue to her identity could be found. A secret door was located at the base of the raised altar leading down, but before it could be investigated, the area in front of the female statue glowed, and 8 trogs appeared from thin air, as if teleported in! Combat again began, with Nadal, Mongo, Cadelaine and the animals finishing off the unexpected arrival. It appeared that this was the explanation for the many trogs that seemed to keep filling the temple area….they were teleporting back and forth between some unknown base in another location. An attempt was made to destroy the base of the altar where the trogs had teleported in from, but the spell failed to affect the obviously magical stone. While Sholo, Tula, Simba and Gra-Gra stayed behind at the altar to watch for further trogs appearing, Nadal, Mongo, Alando, Cadelaine, Kumar, Endefal and Kal began searching the various corridors leading out of the temple area.

A large opening to the SW seemed to be the actual entrance to the temple, a set of stairs led down to a large chamber with a huge pile of rubble infested by rats. Noticing several carrion crawler corpses, the party realized that this area led upward to the crevice near where they had spent the night. To the south, barracks of the trogs were found, quite foul in their stench. Past these rooms, a secret door led to a stairway down. This area seemed to be long abandoned and forgotten, as thick dust and grime lay upon the floor.

Continuing down into the dark with only the continual light torch to guide them, they came to a short dead in corridor. In quick succession Cadelaine located three secret doors, one at each end of the hall and one in the center of the west wall. Intrigued by the fact that the secret door in the west wall seemed to radiate some kind of cold, Cadelaine opened it to reveal a bizarre scene. A small room covered in frost and ice, up to a foot high, as far back as the light would go. Suspecting some sort of trapped room, the party dithered around at the entrance for quite some time. Finally, using a scroll, Endefal cast Endure Cold on himself and Mongo and carefully entered the room, watching for some sort of trap (Endefal had cast Find Traps, but nothing registered).

As they entered, they quickly saw two bodies on the ground, a man and a woman, both Delosian natives, and frozen solid. Just then the far wall twisted and became a face, which blew a giant breath of freezing cold air on the duo (which was prevented from harming them by the Endure Cold). Quickly, Kal jumped into the room to help them, and the three of them struck the wall with their weapons. The wall tried to breathe again, but several chunks hacked out of the stone seemed to “kill” the wall, and the face disappeared. Immediately, the room went back to a normal temperature, and the ice began melting.

Examining the room, they found a secret door in one corner that they left alone for the time being, and a set of stone handrails in another corner leading up to another level. Suddenly, they noticed the figure of the frozen woman beginning to stir! Endefal and Kumar applied healing, and soon the beautiful lady in black leather opened her eyes. She spoke ancient Delosian, which only Alando and Kal could understand (Kal’s spear translating for him), while Mongo’s sword Sentinel could somewhat understand the ancient dialect she spoke. Her companion, however, was dead, unfortunately not kept alive as she was through the magical cold.

Her name, she said, was Epicaste (Epy for short) and she was a member of the King’s secret police (King Amon, who Alando noted had ruled about 1000 years earlier per the records he had read through), the Golden Falcons. She said that she and her companion (Durnae) had been below searching for a way to the lair of the beastmen that had taken over the temples below the city of Kitanga. They had found about this secret room, and tried to use it as a shortcut, but were struck down. She said that they needed to immediately continue her mission, attacking the beastmen and reporting back to the King. Mongo tried to explain the situation to her….she had been “asleep” for a millennium, and her mission was long gone as was her king…but in typical Mongo fashion, nothing much understandable was communicated to the puzzled Epy. She finally was made to realize that she had been in some sort of suspended animation for a long, long time….so long her original mission was not pertinent, as the king she served and everyone she had ever known was now dead. Resigned to this, yet perhaps still a bit suspicious, she said she would accompany the party for the time being until she could get a chance to return to the surface. Epy showed quite a bit of curiosity regarding the white skinned members of the group, especially Kal the elf. Talking to Mongo, she seemed to regard the ranger and Kumar as the party leaders, and the lighter skinned non-natives as slaves or servants of the two Delosians. The concept of the foreigners to Delos, as well as the demi-humans (she had never seen or heard of “elves” before), was beyond her grasp at the moment, Alando and the others realized. Better to let her think what she wanted and try to explain more thoroughly at a later time.

Having rescued Epy, the party indicated that they were exploring this sub-level, and she was welcome to accompany them as she wished. She told them she was a spy by nature, and very good at moving silently and hiding from view. Endefal asked her if she knew anything about the secret doors at the ends of the passage, and she noted that legend said some famous Kitangan mages were buried in a tomb nearby.

With this, the party entered the passage at the south, and found a very large room with eight large sarcophagi…and a giant stone statue at one end! The other end contained what appeared to be a pool of water and a set of stairs leading up to a door. The walls glowed with a weird violet-red light, casting an eerie tinge across the room.

Carefully entering the room, and entirely avoiding the statue, the party examined all the eight tombs. Momentarily worried about odd sounds and noises they heard, they soon realized it was but a feature of the tomb made to make tomb robbers nervous and paranoid. Each large stone sarcophagus (from the writing outside, translated by Alando) had a long dead mage inside. Apparently back in the old days each mage was known by the name of a magical beast, as the tombs had written on them names such as “The Manticore”, “The Sphinx”, and “The Harpy”. Each sarcophagi also had a small stone statue atop it, with gems for eyes, but these were left alone as the party did not want to trigger some sort of guardian (specifically, the stone statue) if they were unlucky.

The pool of water was examined, and two large diamonds were found inside. Not wanting to touch them, the party thought of ways to get at the gems. They finally had Kal stone shape the stone pool, creating a hole in the side that leaked the water out on the floor. At this, Cadelaine took the diamonds, only to have the large stone statue quickly stride over, and in a booming voice (which Alando translated) told her to hand him the gems. Doing so, the statue placed them back in the now empty pool, and stomped back to his spot at the far end of the room.

Leaving well enough along, the party concentrated on the door at the top of the stairs. Opening it from the inside (from which is was sealed) they found a room filled with 20 skeletons standing along the walls, all with black gems for eyes! Mongo and Endefal looked inside, and saw a stairway leading up from the north, and a ledge above the door they had just exited with two large stone gargoyles atop it. Figuring that at some point the skeletons would attack, they immediately entered, and were attack by the nearly two dozen skeletons! Attempting to destroy them with his holy power, Endefal was surprised to find he only turned them, with 7 stepping back against the wall, leaving seven for battle…and these skeletons with the glowing gem eyes seem unnaturally strong, as well as magically hasted, as they moved supernaturally fast and attacked much faster than a normal skeleton! A long battle followed, with Mongo and Endefal backing into the tomb so Kal and Cadelaine could assist. While a Snare spell cast by Kal caught the first to enter, the other dozen had to be dealt with, and were quite difficult to overcome. Finally, the skeletons lay broken to pieces on the floor, with the gem eyes dissolving as the skeletons were destroyed. Not wanting to deal with anything else outside the tomb, the party then decided to brave the possible attack of the stone statue by opening the lids of the sarcophagi an looking for treasure.

Luckily enough, opening and looting the tombs caused no reaction from the stone creature. In each tomb, an item (later confirmed as magical by Alando) was taken, and the final tally was two wands, three rings, a cloak, a medallion, and a set of bracers. Not wishing to press their luck any farther for the day, the group retreated to the corridor. Summoning the members of the party upstairs at the temple, they decided to spend the night in the no longer frozen, but now very wet, room that Epy was found in. For her part, she dragged the body of her companion to the now opened tomb and placed him inside. For good or bad, she had decided to follow the group that had rescued her, especially attracted to the rugged looks of Mongo.

That evening as the party set up camp, Alando again read through the ancient papyruses that he had found. More information was discovered, including the fact that King Amon had decided to send troops to attack the “beastmen” that had somehow inhabited a giant city on a level below their own. From the presence of the lizardmen and trogs, apparently the beastmen still existed below, perhaps in their kingdom a way out of this underworld could be found?

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART THIRTEEN

2010-07-18T23:16:00.005-05:00

Only one incident occurred during the evening, where footsteps were heard in the outside corridor, and the next morning the room that held the bonesnapper at the end of the hallway found opened. Venturing near to once again shut it, the twins Ular and Tula were surprised by the reptilian creature, yet they managed to kill it with the help of Cadelaine’s magic missiles. The bonesnapper’s lair was searched, and nothing of value was discovered except for filth from the creature.

The party continued on to the stone bridge leading from the chapel over the dark crevice. The bridge led to a dark tunnel, so Cadelaine turned invisible and crossed the unlit stone bridge (which was slick and had no handholds) in total darkness so as not to upset the bats. Carefully investigating the hallway, she came to a t-section that was lit by torches and contained four of the guards with the usual greasepaint and bronzed plate armor. Sneaking back to the group, as they discussed what to do, the lizardman prisoner took that moment to jump off the bridge into the darkness! A splash was heard far below, and it was decided that he wasn’t worth pursuing (and may have been killed by the great fall into the underground river). At any length, he was now gone and they wouldn’t have to spend time taking care of him.

Still in darkness, the party slowly made it’s way across the 50 foot stone bridge. At a halfway point, a trap was triggered by Mongo’s weight, and he fell threw a pit in the bridge to freefall until he triggered his sword Sentinel to fly him back to the bridge. Now carefully avoiding the open section of the bridge, the party slowly made it to the tunnel where Cadelaine and Mongo quietly moved within….just as three of the guards came around the corner, curious to the small noises they had been hearing! Endefal hit the area with a Silence /15, as Kumar used Hold Person on the three guards. They were quickly disposed of, however, not before the 4th guard rushed to the west end of the corridor and shouted for help! Mongo and Kal used their Rings of Jumping to leap into the room for combat. They killed the three guards within, but not before one of the guards pulled down a lever that opened a barred entrance in the rear of the room. Immediately, a gigantic roar was heard, and an albino lion came bounding out of the darkness! Kal immediately threw a Hold Animal, and after securing the great cat, a Charm Mammal was used to entice the lion to follow it’s new master….Kal.

Meanwhile, at the east end of the hall a door had been thrown open, and hordes of white painted warriors began pouring out of the entrance into the hallway. Nadal, Gra-Gra and Sholo began battling the warriors, with Mongo and Endefal leaping into the fray to help. Using his innate Sanctuary power, Endefal pushed past the dozens of warriors around the corner to see the extent of the horde. However, once discerning that the opponents were coming out of two rooms of barracks and numbered nearly 30, he was set on by a quartet that had noticed him, and driven to the ground.

Meanwhile, Mongo, Nadal and Sholo began making slow and steady progress through the warriors, and soon the hallway was full of dead bodies, blood, brains, gore and literally painted floor to ceiling with body tissues. At one point Gra Gra, heavily injured was forced to leap out of the fray and to his master Kal for healing, bleeding from almost a dozen spear thrusts. Seeing Endefal brought down, Mongo again leaped forward using his ring to land atop the foes, striking out with both swords to clear a path for the priest. Fighting from the rear, with Sholo and Nadal from the front, they caught the screaming warriors in a vise and slowly tightened it. Almost 20 minutes later, the four party members stared at each other as the last opponent fell. The hallway had become a butcher’s shop as 27 dead warriors lay strewn in pieces across the 60 or so feet of the corridor. In the frenzy of battle the companions had neglected to keep anyone alive for questioning, but at least at this point the way was clear to explore further on down the passageway.

First, however, the room they had found guarded by the warriors had to be searched, as the party had located two locked chests within. Cadelaine examined them carefully and noted glyphs on each chest, looking menacing. The chest being made of heavy stone, Endefal used his Stone Shape spell to refashion on opening in the front, avoiding the glyphs’ and avoiding actually opening the lids of both chests. It seemed to be the right move since neither glyph was set off. Several items were pulled from inside both chests, including a sack of ancient gold and platinum pieces; a sack of 50 low quality gems; a jeweled ceremonial mace; a ruby encrusted, skull shaped goblet; and most interestingly of all a platinum box that contained two glass eyes that Alando detected as radiating magic.

After searching the room thoroughly, Kal introduced the newest member of the group: the albino lion Simba, who came from a long line of lions bred by the underground warriors as protectors and guardians. Simba was the last of his kind, and while suspicious of the party (he had been trained to attack and kill anyone not wearing the ceremonial greasepaint or bronze armor) he has placated by the charm and the thought of exploring outside his long lived in lair. Kal made a mental note to use Animal Friendship on the great cat before the charm wore off, so as to totally befriend the beast.

Investigating past the mass slaughter of the native warriors (where Endefal, following his custom, had created a gigantic pyramid of heads from the downed warriors), the party found two large, dirty barracks type rooms, as well as a set of stairs leading down. The stairs eventually led to a gigantic room, with several intriguing features. First, the large room (over 140 ft long and 60 ft wide) appeared to be some sort of temple, and was rent in the center by a large, 25 ft wide crack that like the other crevices found so far led into darkness. On the far side of the caverns sat a massive altar, while in the near side there lay hundreds and hundreds of bodies in various states of decay, putting off a charnel odor of awful proportions. The bodies were piled sometimes as much as 10 feet high on this side of the crevice, although the party could discern a pathway leading out and to the left among the piles of dead.

Alando stated that this was a tenet of the religion of Ert, to let bodies decay naturally and not cremate or bury them, and judging from the amount of bodies (about 400, it was reckoned) this must be the burial area of Ertian worshippers for quite awhile. As the party stepped into the chamber, the symbols of Ert on the back of their hands began to lightly glow.

Wary of battling undead, Endefal led the small group of Cadelaine, Mongo and Nadal down the pathway to end near the crevice and a large stone box. Using her abilities Cadelaine was able to pick the lock and remove several items: a wooden box containing two diamonds, a jeweled statuette of a woman; and a giant sheaf of old papers with ancient writing upon them. During this endeavor, carrion crawlers began crawling over the edge from the crevice to do battle with the explorers; luckily, no one was struck down by the tentacles of the creatures, and seven of the giant bugs were killed.

As Nadal, Mongo and Endefal battled the crawlers, Sholo entered the room to assist, but as he passed between two pillars the light of the room dimmed and a rustling was heard. Suddenly, the dead began rising from where they lay! 40 skeletons rose from the ground and began attacking. Endefal managed to destroy seven of them, while Kumar and Alando turned another 14, but that still left 19 to fight. The party ran with all haste out of the room, just as another 40 skeletons rose from the ground! This was beginning to have the looks of something very deadly, so Cadelaine pulled her Wand of Fire out and sent a fireball into the room (as the party ran down the hall). The explosion destroyed over 40 of the skeletons, and the others did not give chase. Alando theorized the fact that Sholo did not have a mark to Ert on his hand must have somehow activated the undead.

During the excitement, suddenly Tulu spoke up that his brother Ular was nowhere to be found! Frantically, he ran back down the hallway to locate him, but nothing was seen….except for a large rat in the hallway that scampered away. Ular wasn’t found, and it looked like perhaps he had contacted lycanthropy from the wererats that had bitten him earlier….and the stress of the undead attacking had caused him to change. Tulu was understandable upset and inconsolable, as he had never known a time without his twin brother by his side.

Venturing back down the passageway, the party saw that there were now no skeletons standing in the room as the stench of burning flesh filled their nostrils. Wanting to avoid the undead and search the opposite side of the room, Mongo and Kal (in giant bat form) flew the party over the crevice one by one until everyone stood on the north side of the chasm staring at the odd altar.

Investigating around the alter, several small holes were found in the floor surrounding the area, Flying to the altar, Mongo set off some sort of trap….suddenly, a demonic, laughing figure rose from flames at the altar, as more jets of flame shot up through the small holes surrounding it! Throwing holy water on the demonic face, the vial broke and splashed water…on what Mongo then saw was a stone statue! Very realistic, it was undoubtedly placed as some sort of fake guardian of the area…..soon it began to lower into the ground inside a circular tube.

Deciding to investigate further, Endefal stone shaped the opening to give them access below. Flying down, Mongo found a long disused room with the idol statue sitting on a pillar of stone. Nothing else was in the room except for a tunnel that led to a dead end…and a secret door, as Cadelaine discovered.

Soon, a rope was tied at the top and the entire party was lowered or climbed down the shaft, with Kal having to carefully take Simba (who did not want to enter the deep dark hole) until all stood in the dusty circular room below the earth. Trying the secret door, Cadelaine opened it to see a giant cavern filled with a large pedestal about 50x40 filled with pillars…and troglodytes! 14 of the monstrosities guarded the pedestal with their large javelins. The entire chamber was huge and she could not see the back of it in the dim light. Thinking this would be a good situation to thin out the monstrous ranks without being seen, Cadelaine used her Wand of Fire to shoot a fireball into the midst of the trogs! The fireball exploded, almost killing all the amphibious beings. As they lay groaning in pain and screaming out into the dark, Cadelaine hit them with another fireball, killing all of them!

Unfortunately, an alarm had gone up and obviously a trog guard from another part of the cavern had seen the flash, for as Cadelaine leaned out to fire her wand again, a shower of javelins flew at her from the darkness! Two struck her solidly, knocking her unconscious and causing her to collapse, dropping the wand! Cadelaine was quickly dragged inside as Alando pulled her down the corridor to stabilize her, and as Endefal opened the secret door to grab the wand, troglodytes lay in wait to attack! Mongo and Kal (who had shape changed into a crocodile) joined the battle, pushing the trogs outside the tunnel and into the cavern. Soon, Nadal, Sholo, Gra Gra and Simba joined in as almost 20 trogs went to the attack, the amphibious monstrosities clawing and biting at the party members. Two large subterranean lizards were sent into combat by the trogs, but were killed by Mongo with help from Kal and Endefal. Meanwhile, the stench of the trogs at separate times caused Kumar and Endefal to fall on all fours to vomit themselves empty, as the rest of the party managed to avoid their fate.

The combat was ongoing when shouts were heard back in the cavern…Alando and Desteri were battling each other! Kumar rushed back to pull his friend Alando away, but not before Desteri had struck him a nasty blow. It seemed that Alando had caught the fighter searching the body of the unconscious Cadelaine, ostensibly to search for healing potions or magic items he could use in the fight. Meanwhile, outside the cavern the battled raged and the party began to despair they would be intact at the end of the combat as the enraged trogs proved dangerous foes. Finally, though, the group had hacked through 18 of the creatures, and the entire chamber was once again quiet and deathly still. Wanting to leave before more reinforcements came, the party quickly hustled down the tunnel to the idol chamber, Kal sealing the secret door behind them using Stone Shape. When the bloodied party reached the idol chamber, Alando tattled on Desteri’s actions, and as Desteri tried to defend himself, Mongo decided he had heard and seen enough from the mercenary fighter over the last few days…a few quick strokes, and the headless body of Desteri, slowly toppled to the ground, blood spilling from his neck stump onto the dusty floor. Alando and Kumar paused to take anything of value off the mercenary fighter’s body, and Nadal spit on the corpse and said good riddance. Cadelaine was flown up the shaft to the altar room, and one by one (nervously watching the tunnel for signs of pursuit) the rest of the party followed, most climbing the rope or being hauled upwards. Once safe, the party pulled up the rope itself…unless the trogs or their allies could fly, their escape seemed to have been effected without pursuit.

Resting in the large altar room and avoiding the holes the flame jets shot through, the party made plans to spend the night…..a few of the party were heavily injured, and the priests were entirely out of healing magic. With the shaft below being nearly impassible, and the crevice to the south being a good buffer from what might come there, this seemed to be the best place to make rest and discuss the plans for the morrow. Cadelaine was tended to, with Alando taking care of her by bandaging and dressing her terrible wounds at the tips of the javelins, but he soon noticed that the javelins must have been dipped in something….the half elven mage/thief had developed a fever, and already looked quite ill.

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART TWELVE

2010-07-11T16:49:00.004-05:00

Deciding to try and rescue whoever was unfortunate enough to be sacrificed under the knives of the priests of Ert, the party left the unconscious Desteri, the twins Ular and Tula, and the still-tied up lizardman behind in the chapel as they forged ahead. Crossing the two rope bridges in utter darkness so as to prevent agitating the bats (and giving away their position), the party used directions from the charmed warrior to move ahead. Coming to a t-section on the swaying rope bridge, the charmed warrior told the party that to the south lay a hidden guard, while to the north was the worship area where the sacrifices were to be made. Not wanting to leave anything behind them unguarded, Kal sent the warrior to the south to talk to the guard and perhaps lure him out so the party could deal with him.

Several minutes passed, Cadelaine had heard whispered conversation from the south but now nothing. Fearing something had happened, Cadelaine snuck invisibly to the end of the rope bridge where it led into a dark, dank cavern. Using her infravision she could barely make out the outlines of a tunnel that ended in a crude set of stairs which seemed to be blocked off by piles of boulders and rubble. On the floor in front of the rubble lay the now dead body of the warrior. Quickly examining the body she found he had a stab wound in the back and a slashed throat. Not wanting to hang around in the dark much more, she snuck back to the group and whispered what she had found.

Leaving Nadal, Sholo, Alando and Kumar behind at the rope bridge to watch, Endefal, Kal, Gra Gra, Mongo and Cadelaine went forward into the tunnel. Using a continual light wand, they searched the area and while they saw lots of rat tracks, they didn’t see anything else. Cadelaine soon found a loose stone that seemed to lead to a secret area. She carefully opened the entrance and it led to a stench filled small stone cave filled with waste. Suddenly, a giant rat tried to run past Cadelaine and through the tunnel to the piled rubble up the staircase! Taking swings a the rat, he was struck by Mongo and Endefal before being snatched up and crushed by Gra-Gra. At this, the rat changed form and became a dead human in a loincloth….obviously a wererat! The only thing of value upon him was a potion bottle, which Endefal determined held a potion of invisibility.

Inside the hidden cave the party found rat holes and an old short sword. They reasoned the charmed warrior much have been killed by the wererat guard, but nothing else of value was located in the chamber. Returning to the others on the rope bridge, they were dismayed to hear loud chanting coming from the north, indicating the ceremony the charmed warrior had spoken of was soon to begin. Mongo sipped the invisibility potion, and long with an invisible Cadelaine they moved quietly ahead and soon faced two white painted guards in a hallway lit by torches. Quickly, Mongo disposed of both guards using the element of surprise, and they faced a door in front of them and some kind of religious ceremony down the hallway to the west.

Just as the rest of the party arrived, the door in front of them was flung open to reveal a group of four guards and two priests! Battled was joined as Endefal and Mongo were held by priest spells. Pushing into the room before them, which was some kind of priest and guard barracks, Kal summoned insects on one priest and attacked the other. The one priest fell to the ground and although he tried to get the insects off he was soon consumed by them; the other priest was run through by Kal’s spear. As the fighters began stabbing the held figures of Endefal and Mongo they were attacked by Nadal, Gra Gra and Cadelaine. A Charm Person by Kal took out one of the guards, and soon the other three lay dead. Dragging the bodies indoors, the group questioned the charmed warrior underneath a large black marble statue of Ert. All the warrior could give the party was that the high priest Tavos had three other priests, six guards and a group of worshippers at the temple to watch the sacrifice of three slaves.

Quickly going into action, Cadelaine cast Fly on Mongo, who flew down the hall. Flying into the temple area, he saw that it was simply part of an other temple overlooking another giant crevice that led down to the lower level. The roughly 60x60 area had a large bloodstained stone surrounded by six pillars, dangerously overlooking the dark blackness of the depths. Mongo immediately focused on the high priest and his upraised dagger, poised to plunge into a sacrifice! He swung a mighty blow that injured the priest, stopping the sacrifice. At that, the rest of the party burst into the area and the battle was joined!

Immediately, Cadelaine cast Web on half the area, capturing six worshippers and a guard, while the rest of the party laid into the nearby worshippers. Suddenly, all the remaining ten worshippers changed shape into ratmen form, as they revealed they were lycanthropes. The high priest yelled with a strange language into the darkness, and a second later Endefal’s mace slammed into him. Dying, the priest toppled over the edge into the darkness below. Endefal and Mongo were then hit by Faerie Fire, and the guards rushed up to engage them only to be met by Kumar and his warclub. Meanwhile, Kal (in crocodile form), Gra Gra, Nadal, and Sholo began hacking through nearly a dozen of the foaming mad ratmen.

As the battled continued, the high priest’s entreaty to the dark was answered, as five giant bats flew to the attack. Mongo, Endefal and Kumar were all snatched into the air and flown over the blackness, where Mongo and Kumar were dropped! Endefal managed to swing up upon his bat and bashed him into flying back over the ledge, bashing against the wall and dropping the priest. Mongo, after being dropped by the bat, flew underneath Kumar and grabbed him and flew him back to the ledge and the continuing battle. Other bats flew low and began slashing at party members. Cadelaine pulled her wand of lightning and blasted one with a bolt, and as the bat fluttered around she blasted it again and it dropped, on fire, into the darkness of the crevice.

Seeing a move to be made, Kal changed into a giant bat and flew among the creatures, using their language to tell them to retreat back to their stalactite homes since the high priest was dead. They flew confused, Kal’s entreaties in their language causing them to be uncertain. Meanwhile, Mongo managed to hack through the remaining two priests, ending their threat, while Endefal and Kumar fought against the guards back to back, managing to kill two.

The battle against the wererats slowly turned the party’s way, as Nadal, Sholo, Gra Gra, and even Alando (who swung the Rod of Smiting better and more tellingly than any weapon he had yet wielded) cutting a swatch through the lycanthropes. After a bit more fighting, all opponents lay dead, the last one beheaded by Cadelaine as she backstabbed the last guard. After seeing this, the remaining giant bats, some wounded by Mongo and missile fire, flew back to their homes in the darkness. With only the creatures in the web left, it was lit afire, and the burned lycanthropes were quickly dealt with, leaving bodies all around. The three sacrificial slaves were rescued, and Mongo flew into the crevice to retrieve the body of the high priest. Finding him floating in an underground stream, he grabbed him and flew him back to the ledge to be searched. Unfortunately, nothing of value was found on any of the priests, guards or worshippers, and the party went back down the hall where they could cure themselves.

Back in the corridor, they noticed that the heavily barred door at the east end had been opened, and a large bonesnapper was dining on the guard Kal had charmed, who had obviously panicked and tried to release the creature only to fall it’s victim. As the creature fed on the guard, the door was once again quickly locked and barred to prevent the creature from leaving.

Since the party was at this point heavily injured and nearly without spells, the decided to stay in the priest/guard barracks for the night, but not before Endefal and Kumar destroyed the statue to Ert and defiled the sacred altar with holy water. Tulu, Ular, Desteri and the lizardman were gathered from the far chapel to join the party as they made ready to spend the night in the chamber. Making camp and setting guards, wounds were bandaged, and the party made ready to rest another night in the underground chambers of the worshippers of Ert.

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART ELEVEN

2010-07-07T23:32:00.001-05:00

The party spent an uncomfortable yet relatively safe night in the chapel of Ert in the depths of the Forbidden City underground. Awakening the next morning, the party talked amongst themselves until finally choosing the secret passage in one corner of the chapel as their way further into the dungeon. There were three other ways to go (North, South, or outside the chapel a hallway to the north and west) but upon examining the hallway within the secret passage, Cadelaine and Mongo noted that the dust was thick and nothing had passed this way for many years, if not decades (if not centuries!). Perhaps some long forgotten wealth was at the end of this forgotten hallway…..?
Forming up, the party began heading cautiously down the hall, with continual light devices lighting the way, and Cadelaine checking for any traps. The hallway ended about 50 feet in at the appearance of a large room, but the first thing to be seen was eight walking undead, eyes blazing with evil intelligence, surrounding a withered priest like zombie in the middle of the room. The priest began speaking in Ancient Delosian, which only Alando and Kal could understand. In a hollow and cracked voice, the zombie stated that his name was Macreus, high priest of Ert, and what was the year? Barely understanding him, Kal told him the year, which seemed to agitate the undead priest. He then asked the party if they served the serpentmen. After a bit of awkward back and forth, it seemed that Macreus had sealed himself within this passage several hundred years ago, awaiting an attack by serpentmen that had apparently never reached his secluded corner. His mutterings spoke of insanity, and Mongo, Nadal and Endefal moved up in anticipation of combat. Kal then preemptively cast a Faerie Fire on the first few zombies, and trying to turn the zombies, both Endefal and Alando failed, Then a spoken spell by Macreus caused Nadal, Endefal and Kal to freeze as they were Held! Immediately, the first line of ju-ju zombies moved forward for combat with the helpless group. Cadelaine fired a Magic Missile at one to find the spell had absolutely no effect.
With only seconds to think, Cadelaine pulled forth her Wand of Fire and commanded it to form a Wall of Fire right in front of the advancing zombies! With his ring of fire resistance, Mongo leapt through the wall with minimal damage and began fighting. Alando cast a Dispel Magic, which dissolved the hold spell but did not bring down the Wall of Fire. The first two zombies passed through the wall and were quickly taken care of by Kal, Endefal and Nadal.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall Mongo began chopping through the zombies by himself, as no one was willing to pass through the Wall of Fire to assist him. Finally, Nadal subjected himself to the flames as he passed through to help the ranger. He took some damage, but was soon also in combat, making his way to the zombie priest Macreus.
With use of Fist of Faith, Endefal cleared a path, and was able to battle Macreus. A blow to the zombie caused a huge puff of a horrible looking dust to fly out of his body, and coming into contact with the pestilent substance caused Mongo to go to the floor, retching. By this time, Nadal and Kal had entered the room as the Wall of Fire had gone out, and they were able to lend their weapons to the fight. Attempting to sneak forward invisibly, Cadelaine found herself suddenly visible and quickly retreated before being struck by the zombie priest. Quicker than he hoped, Endefal brought down Macreus, and the priest dissolved into dust. The rest of the ju-ju zombies were brought down soon after. As Mongo began to feel funny and blood began to run out of his nose, Endefal quickly cast a Cure Disease on the ranger, which seemed to arrest the awful illness the dust had given him.
Searching the room, the party found nothing of interest except for a passage that went further south. Going south aways, Cadelaine found an unusual pit trap that the party was able to bypass on their way down the corridor. After almost 100 feet, they reached the end of the passageway….which ended in a dark, gaping crevice! On the small ledge, the party was just able to make out a rope bridge far to the southwest, as well as a ceiling of stalactites, and to the east, another small ledge that seemed to lead to another dark passageway.
As the party debated their actions, the now un-charmed Desteri (Alando’s Dispel Magic earlier had taken the charm off the mercenary fighter) began throwing torches into the darkness, discovering the level below was about 50 feet or so….then, hearing noises in the dark, he launched a flaming vial of oil into the darkness. Suddenly, a large mass that was unidentifiably in the darkness responded with a thrown boulder, which caught Desteri in the chest and threw him back. Several other throws followed, but none were close.
After this, Mongo took the continual light wand from Endefal and using the power of his sword Sentinel, began flying around the darkness to discover the area of the chasm. He managed to check out the rope bridge, which connected two corridors farther to the SW, and landed on the other ledge nearby. Unfortunately, the light buzzing about attracted the attention of almost a dozen giant bats, which attack Mongo as he flew about. Mongo was bit a couple of times, but managed to fly back to the ledge where the party waited. As the bats followed, They were peppered with missile fire from Desteri, And Cadelaine, and Kal quickly threw a Hold Animals spell that caught four of the animals, sending them to their doom as they suddenly stopped moving and dropped like rocks to crash on the floor of the level below. More missile fire deterred the other bats, who quickly flew up among the stalactites to hide
Discussion of a way to go followed, with the party eventually decided on checking out the ledge and passageway to the immediate west. Using her ring of feather falling to prevent trouble, Cadelaine used a rope tied by a flying Mongo to easily traverse the short distance. Shining her torch inside, Cadelaine saw the edge of a room which was covered by yellow mold! The mold also seemed to cover several skeletons and a large chest-like object. Kal used his shape changing ability to fly over, and with his extensive knowledge of fungi pronounced it as yellow mold, very deadly, but susceptible to fire. Without much hesitation, Cadelaine threw a vial of oil into the mass of the mold and followed it with her lit torch. In the conflagration that followed, the skeletons tried to rise but were destroyed, and the fire burned out every scrap of the mold, revealing a large stone chest.
Soon, the rest of the party used the attached rope to hug the side of the chasm and cross over to the new area. Searching the room, nothing except for the stone chest was found, and it was opened by Cadelaine revealing a mace, rod and a gem. Desteri stepped up and greedily grabbed the rod, which had a skull-head on one end. Nothing happened to him, and Alando cast Detect Magic which showed the rod as magical (but none of the other items). Taking the items, the party vowed to watch Desteri and his new “prize” closely to see if any bad effects overtook him.
At the other end of the room was a large stone door with a heavy stone bar on this side to prevent entry. As the bar was easily lifted, the door opened and the party continued down the corridor north. They soon came upon another set of doors in the east side of the corridor. Not wanting to open the doors, Endefal used Stone Shape to fashion a hole inside one of the doors so they could look within, then shaped it to make it large enough to possibly enter.
Inside was quite a sight. In the large round room was a red tile hexagon, in the middle was a floating, flaming skull that intently watched them! Cadelaine looked inside and noticed a trap attacked to the door, a wire that ran to the ceiling and triggered a ballista bolt if the door had been opened. Entering instead through the hold in the door, Cadelaine was able to disarm the trap, and the party then concentrated on finding out the purpose of the floating skull.
Soon after the party entered the room (everyone but Desteri, Kumar, the twins Ular and Tula, who refused to enter the cursed area, along with their prisoner the still tied up lizard man), the skull spoke to them saying he would answer a single “yea” or “nay” question if asked. Several half assed and useless questions were spoken, none answered with any significance. Finally, Alando asked if Ardu was still alive somewhere within the city and the answer was “Yes”. Then, he was asked if Ardu was under ground and the answer was again “Yes”. Not much info to go on, but it was more than they had up until that time.
As the questions wound down, the skull spoke and said that for the price of a question, their souls were now Ert’s own!!! Suddenly, a small skull appeared on the back of each character’s left hand, much to the consternation of everyone (especially the priests, who were worried this would put them in bad with their own gods). Continuing to travel north in the corridor, they found the passageway led back to the Chapel of Ert through the south door.
Again talking about their choice of direction (either through the north door or back down the passageway to the chasm and the rope bridge), it was decided that they brave the chasm and see where the rope bridge Mongo had seen would lead. When they reached the ledge, they worked out a system where party members armed with missile weapons would watch for the giant bats, while one by one Mongo would ferry party members across using his fly ability.
After a few nervous minutes where a few giant bats flew around but did not attack, the party was flown across to the rope bridge. The bridge seemed new and very solidly constructed, 40 feet long with new strong hemp and closely set wooden boards, and including a “handrail”. One end (to the west) led to another cavern, and beyond that, another rope bridge. To the west, the rope bridge led to another ledge and a passageway lit by torches.
Choosing the west, Cadelaine invisibly snuck forward and rounded a corner, seeing a small chapel with a statue, basin, and several hanging draperies. Also within were six warrior types armed with spears and knives. They were painted on their entire bodies with black and white paint, resembling living skeletons. They seemed to be guarding the chamber, and Cadelaine notice that a doorway to the west was set with strong iron bars that were set into the stone. Sneaking back, she told the party of what they had seen. Throwing caution to the wind, the party rushed the six guards, counting on their excessive numbers to help them triumph. In quick order the guardians were killed, except for one charmed by Kal and commanded to join him. Questioning of the guard told the party this was a worship area to Ert, and to the east there existed a larger chapel where a large ceremony was going to take place later, which included sacrifice and summoning some kind of creature. Resolving to check that out, the party began searching the area, Desteri, ignoring any warning, went to the statue of Ert and removed two gems that were the eyes of the statue. Removing the gems, the statue exploded in fire, and not only flames but some sort of curse from beyond hit Desteri at the same time.
As Desteri stumbled about, the black tapestries were removed, and behind them were found a dozen one foot tall, ugly and evil looking wooden dolls that resembled some sort of fetishes. Asking Mongo about the dolls, Mongo revealed they were known as Kani Dolls, and were often animated with evil spirits to guard areas or stalk individuals. The charmed guardian was filled with fear as he saw the dolls, going to the corner and quivering in fear at the “devil dolls”. Ignoring more entreaties, Desteri grabbed one of the dolls to place it within his pack, pricking his finger on something sharp upon the doll. Immediately the dozen dolls came to life and began swarming the mercenary fighter! The evil little dolls began biting and biting the fighter, and several were destroyed by Endefal, Mongo and Kal as they tried to kill Desteri. Finally, one doll jumped to Desteri’s throat, ripping it out and causing the fighter to fall unconscious as the doll continued to chew! Mongo took the fighter by his legs, and by swinging him around, caused the dolls attached to Desteri to fly off across the room, where they were quickly crushed or destroyed by party members. After the battle, Endefal bandaged Desteri’s throat, and Nadal (who had not helped the beleaguered fighter) said that the greedy bastard had gotten what he deserved…
As Desteri lay unconscious, Alando used that time to take the Rod that Desteri for himself. Using his ability to identify magic items, Alando announced it was a Rod of Smiting, and keeping it as his own he gave his own magical mace to Kumar so the priest of Attar would finally have a magical weapon to use. The gem eyes of the statue were also removed from Desteri, and the party vowed to curb the excesses of the grabby fighter from here on out.
After the party searched the room and rested, Kal questioned the charmed guardian about what lay beyond the barred chamber to the west. The frightened native said that a “giant demon” dwelled at the bottom of a set of stairs through the other chamber. The bars had been placed to not only prevent anyone from entering the lair of the “demon” but to prevent the demon from attacking anyone within.
Examining the room revealed nothing else, and with only one way to go (back west to the rope bridge and the Chapel of Ert beyond) the now even larger group prepared to do battle if the priesthood was indeed going to sacrifice innocents to their god….

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART TEN

2010-07-07T23:28:00.004-05:00

The next morning, the party was somewhat at a loss for any further action. They had been in the Forbidden City over a week and all that they had accomplished was to set almost every group in the city against them! At this point there didn’t seem to be a lot to go on….the group had managed to alienate every group they had come upon, that or make them dire enemies. Not having a lot of direction, Alando cast an Augury that seemed to say their destiny lay to the “south”. With nothing more to go on, the party began heading that way in hope of enlightenment.
As the party very carefully and quietly crossed a large avenue, They were suddenly set upon by a gigantic Rhinoceros beetle that happened to be lumbering down the street! The large creature attacked hungrily, as Nadal and Mongo stood to protect the rest of the party with Cadelaine hitting the giant beetle with magic missiles. As the group battled the insect, soon several giant wasps began also attacking, attracted by the movement. Everyone at that point was engaged in the battle, either hand to hand or missile weapons. Soon, five giant wasps lay dead and after a long battle the rhino beetle finally was chopped to pieces despite heavy injuries to Endefal, Nadal and Mongo.
The party quickly moved to the south after the long and noisy battle, and found a quiet set of ruins to heal up and prepare. Suddenly, the lycanthrope warriors from the day before, Damu and Jamal, appeared before them! They said that they had spoken with the rest of their group, and decided that it was imperative that they show the party the trail through the sewer system that led to the serpentmen’s lair.
Agreeing to follow them, the wererats led the party to the large temple of the bat the party had passed the day before, and through a long, dank stairway that led down. The smell of bat guano and decay was strong, and several rats scurried around in the darkness as Damu and Jamal led them to a large entry chamber. Saying this was part of a larger temple, the wererats led the party down a large corridor to the west, saying that it eventually led to a sewer line that led to the serpentmen’s camp.
As the party pulled out their continual light objects and followed the guides into the gloom of the corridor, they were surprised after fifty feet to come to a solid stone wall! Ominously, at this they heard a loud sliding noise and a boom, and saw the eastern entrance had been shut off by a stone wall. With a bad feeling, the party turned to Damu. Apologetically, Damu explained that a meeting of the wererats had concluded the party could better serve their needs as lycanthropes themselves….their power added to the existing rats could swing the battle between the serpentmen and wererats towards the rats! At that, several rats in the chamber changed formed into ratmen, and these (along with a horde of giant rats) began to attack!
Quickly, Cadelaine used her Web spell to entangle almost all the giant rats at the end of the corridor. A desperate battle followed with the ratmen (Damu and Jamal themselves turning into rat form and escaping) attacking and attempting to bite the party members to infect them with lycanthropy. Through the battle, only Ular and Cadelaine were bit, and several of the ratmen were killed, Finally, the battle turned in the party’s favor and the surviving ratmen turned into rats and escaped into holes in the walls. Five ratmen lay dead in the chamber, and searching by Cadelaine revealed a hidden catch that raised the stone wall at the east end.
Attempting to retrace their steps, to their dismay the party found their exit was blocked by a huge iron wall that had apparently been triggered to fall by the wererats. Attempting to use Stone Shape to go around the iron wall was ineffective as the stone walls themselves were constructed of some sort of unique material that resisted the spell.
After a quick conference, the party resigned themselves to further exploration into the underworld to find another way out of this trap that they had walked into. Exploring the nearby chambers, it was discovered that the temple was one to Ert, the Delosian God of the Dead, and it looked to be long abandoned. One chamber held a stone statue to Ert that was left alone, while another contained a quartet of lizardmen who were apparently capturing giant centipedes for food. The lizardmen were quickly killed, except for one that was Held by Alando and then tied up by the party for questioning. Dragging the captive lizardman behind them, the party went through a secret door in one of the tombs and came upon a group of underground froglike beings…known as troglodytes….who attempted to spring a ambush on the characters. Kal, Endefal, Mongo and Nadal entered combat with the primitive beings, their stench sometimes driving them back. A judicious use of another Web spell by Cadelaine that captured three of the amphibious creatures and led to a easy end to the battle. All the trogs lay dead, and another secret passage lay exposed in a hallway the trogs had sprung their ambush in.
Carefully investigating the passageway, the party saw no evidence anyone or anything had passed this way in a long, long time. At the end of a corridor, a large ancient iron door led into a large room that looked like some sort of worship area to Ert. There were several pillars, pews, a large altar at the front, several slumped figures in the pews and four large urns from which some sort of odd smoke oozed forth from! The chamber was lit by a continual light spell in the center, and it was quite an eerie and spooky looking scene.
Slowly, several members of the party came into the room to examine the figures. Unfortunately, at this, several of the figures sprung up and began to attack….they were undead wights, hungry for life energy! Endefal and Alando attempted to turn them to no avail, and the party found themselves facing eight of the beasts. Unfortunately, to make matters worse, the greenish smoke began causing party members to fall unconscious one by one! This made the battle even more desperate. Alando was struck a couple of times, which caused him to lose some of his health and energy, but after a long battle that involved collapsed characters being dragged out of the room by non-combatants until they awoke, only to re-enter and then sometimes fall back asleep, Alando found out pouring holy water in the urns caused the smoke to stop rising. After the smoke was stopped, the battle was fought on more equal terms, and Nadal, Endefal, Mongo, Kal, and Cadelaine soon had destroyed all the undead.
Afterwards, the party decided to search the room, and discovered two large doors to the north and south, and a secret passage in the SE corner that led to a long deserted passageway. Binding their wounds and curing themselves, the group decided the hidden chapel would be a good place to rest and recover, hidden as it was, as long as no more undead came within. Posting guards, the party uneasily set up camp for the night. As they rested Alando examined a pendent taken from all eight of the destroyed wights, a skull shaped ceramic piece of jewelry on a chain that was a holy symbol of Ert, God of the Dead. Thinking they might come in handy, he placed all eight of the symbols within a pouch for perhaps further use….

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART NINE

2010-04-30T02:20:00.003-05:00

Using Stone Shape, Endefal fashioned a proper door from the secret room to the outer room, making the area they would rest in more secure. After a few hours, the rain died down and finally stopped, and the group began taking guard shifts as the others rested. As the group fitfully tried to rest in their dirty but secure hideaway inside one of the ruins, Mongo heard sounds of furtive searching right outside the room. Peeking through the cracks in the wall, he spotted two natives talking in Delosian, surrounded by a dozen or so giant rats, which seemed to do the native’s bidding! He heard enough to realize the natives were looking for the party, as they had witnessed the destruction of the snakemen, and had even hunted down and killed the one escaping snakeman. They spoke vaguely of allying with the party, as apparently the snakemen were also enemies of their “group”. Walking out through the door weaponless, Mongo presented himself to the two startled natives, saying he would like to talk and parley with him. Several other party members also emerged, and the native types introduced themselves as Damu and Jamal, with Damu doing most of the talking.

Soon, gathered around a small fire in the main room, Damu explained the circumstances of who and what he was. Very quickly the group grasped the fact that Damu and Jamal were lycanthropes, obviously wererats. Damu did not deny this and explained it was the only reason they had survived so long in the city, as they used the underground sewers to travel across the ruined landscape. He said most were bit while they were enslaved, and the bites allowing the change to rat form allowed them to escape the clutches of the snakemen. However, he stated, snakes and rats are natural enemies, and they hunted each other through the jungle ruins of the Forbidden City. Damu stated that this was why the snakemen traveled in groups within the city, a snakeman traveling alone would be quickly ambushed and killed by many wererats and giant rats.

Mongo and the party members asked the duo many questions about the ruins, mostly if they knew where the “headquarters” of the serpentmen was, and if there was an underground way there. Damu stated that the sewers were very dangerous to travel unless one was in rat form, and that close to the western edge of the city the tunnels were guarded by weird fungoid ghouls that prevented most passage. He said he suspected the main lair of the serpent men was beyond these guards. When asked about the Necromancer Horan, Damu stated that he never bothered them, so the wererats left him alone. Asked about the swamp dragon, Damu said he rarely left the swamp, and he had personally never actually seen the giant reptile. Further conversation during the night (only interrupted by Damu pausing to go outside and kill several fire beetles for their light glands, which he said they could use for trade goods) let the party know the wererats worshiped at an old temple of the city dedicated to the bat cult (a bat, he said, is a rat with wings, so what is holier?). Also, he knew of the humans and “mongrelmen” camped at the far west side of the city, as he traded with them often, and said he would bring the party there on the morrow. For his efforts, the party gave Damu some odds and ends for trade, including a mace, some sling bullets, and some arrows with steel heads. They also asked him about ways out of the city, and he mentioned three: a switchback trail to the west always guarded by snakemen; a tall tree in the south of the city that was several hundred feet high and grew near the cliff wall; and a possible tunnel to the north in a lizardman’s cave that was rumored to lead further north and eventually emerge from the city somewhere in the jungle….

The only sinister feeling the party got from Damu was his continually asking the party members if they too wished to be turned into wererats, with Damu offering to do the deed himself, saying it would greatly help them traverse the city and avoid capture. He seemed a bit too eager to do this, and asked continually about Cadelaine (who stayed invisible all night) since he had seen her earlier when she was visible, telling her that she was very beautiful and lovely…coming from the native wererat these words did not fill her with joy.

The next morning, Damu offered to guide the party to the mongrelmen camp by the most secretive and expedient way. They took him up on his offer, as he also told them he could get them past the guards who didn’t let anyone else in due to fear of the serpentmen and others. When asked why the serpent men didn’t either attack and kill or enslave the mongrelmen, Damu said they were not “real” people and the serpentmen seemed to disdain sacrificing them. Apparently, an attack on them would result in too many losses (the mongrelmen were over 100 strong) and so they were ignored in their corner of the ruined city.

Damu led the party on a twisting, hidden path through the city, pausing at one point to show them the magnificent ruins of the Bat God temple, which still rose high in the sky with two giant stone bats on either side of the entrance, a large opening which seemed to go inside the earth. Finally, the party came upon a block long area with piled rubble, and ten horribly deformed guards came out, spears in hand , and asked what the business of Damu and this strange group was!

Damu vouched for the party, saying they were travelers to the city and wished to trade with the mongrelmen and their leader. An old, robe covered shaman came shuffling out of the rubble and cast two spells on the party; Alando identified them as Detect Evil and Know Alignment. Apparently the party passed, as she then motioned the guards to let the party through. The party was escorted inside a long tunnel of rubble, with various mongrelmen hiding in all corners waiting to ambush any intruders. They finally exited the tunnel to a large open area with many hovels built from rubble and wreckage. In the center of the area stood three stone buildings. Towards the edge of the camp was a cooking area with several cooking pits and many unidentifiable pieces of meat hanging from hooks. Nearby was a meager vegetable garden and several scraggly fruit trees. As the party entered and several of the curious creatures pointed, whispered and began following them around, they saw an area off to one end through an archway that looked cleaner and more “civilized”. Out of this area came, surprisingly, a female elf, a human fighter, and several other non-mongrelmen!

Before they could talk with the human and elf, the leader of the mongrelmen emerged from one of the stone buildings. He was a massive specimen with many scars and wielding a large two handed sword. Speaking in a halting voice, he told them they would have to trade something of use before being allowed to enter the area. Endefal and Alando got down to haggling. For two blankets, a steel dagger, some sling bullets, and a few cowrie shells, the party was able to get a magic potion (Alando identified it as Water Breathing) and get into the chief’s good will. The chief told Mongo he wanted to wrestle him, and Damu whispered that wrestling the chief was the only way to earn his respect. However, he said the wrestling could wait until nightfall and the feast they would have in the party’s honor.

Leaving the mongrelmen portion of the camp, the party passed through the archway and entered a new world. Here, apparently, were many escaped slaves and members of ill-fated expeditions that had never been able to escape the valley. The elven female identified herself as Arathea, and said she was the leader of the group. She introduced the fighter at her side as Desteri, and said they were glad to see this party as they were anxious to leave this forsaken hell hole and get back to Port Maugre, where she had much gold and gems awaiting her return (and which she would gladly give to her rescuers). Soon, several other members of the small group came up and introduced themselves: Barren, a human mage who begged the party to take him with them; he said he would loyally serve whoever supplied him with a spellbook, as he had none and could only learn spells through Aratheas’ spell book; Gart, a priest of Vistna, who was ecstatic upon seeing Alando and bade him come talk to him privately, as he had several books and more he had located in the ruins during his many years here; Tulu and Ular, twin Ashante warriors who seemed happy and cheerful and strangely deferential to Aratheas; Lithy, a female halfling who seem rather wary of the party and stayed away from the group; Aster, a dwarven warrior missing a leg from the knee down, who seemed quite ill with some sort of coughing disease, and Desteri, who seemed to be Aratheas’ bodyguard and gave the party dirty looks, never leaving her side.

The party began mingling with the individuals and heard all their stories, as the lost explorers were quite eager to hear news from outside the city. Alando cast Detect Evil on the group, but got no strong detection of any type from any of the inhabitants. Alando got together with Gart, who told him he had been trapped here after an expedition of Vistnan priests was destroyed while exploring the city a couple of years earlier. They only survivor, and two powerless to escape alone, Gart had stumbled upon the mongrelmen encampment and showed them his healing powers, which gave them a reason to take him in. Gart had decided to stay as his healing powers, as well as a daily Create Water spell, helped the inhabitants survive. He also found many old books and such in the rubble, and read and translated them in his spare time. He was preparing a package for someone to deliver to the Vistnan temple in Port Maugre, and in answer to his prayers, another priest of Vistna had arrived! Alando offered to take the package back to civilization, and tell the priests at his temple that one of their own was still in the city.

As the priests talked, Endefal began talking to the dwarven warrior, who boasted that he by himself had killed a giant snaked the last week, even missing a leg! He seemed like he had once been a formidable warrior before the loss of his leg. He told Endefal and Kumar that he had been a mercenary guard of a merchant train that had gone too near the city and been attacked by serpentmen and their tasloi allies. In the battle his foot had been bitten by a snake, and the wound began to swell and fester. Delirious, he somehow found himself wandering in the Forbidden City days later, and was found by Mongrelmen and brought to the camp. The wound being beyond Gart’s ability to heal, he had to amputate instead, and now the dwarven fighter had to get around with a “peg leg” instead of a real one. Listening to Aster’s story, Endefal could hear a rasping far back in the dwarves’ throat. He asked him if the dwarf felt out of sorts, and Aster confirmed that he was often weak and had a bad cold. Casting cure disease on the dwarf, suddenly the warrior could breathe fine, and his sickness immediately disappeared! Extremely grateful, Aster thanked the priest of Attar, and said if only some way could be found of regenerating his leg, he would loyally follow and serve the priest. Endefal and Kumar however did not have this level of healing on a scroll, but they told the dwarven warrior they would return to heal him should they ever run across such healing.

Mongo was speaking with the native twins, who were eager to talk with a fellow Ashante warrior. They said they had been captured by slavers but escaped and came to the city, and helped out the group with their fishing and hunting skills. Mongo asked them if they wished to leave, but they said that they wished to do whatever Aratheas wanted them to. Suspicious, Mongo began questioning them further and soon decided that the female elf may have charmed the twins.

As for the elven mage, she greeted the party and asked them if there was any spot for herself and her bodyguard Desteri in the group, as they wished to escape this disgusting place and head back to civilization. Aratheas was beautiful and apparently a powerful mage, but something about her seem to grate on the party’s nerves. She seemed very imperious, and would only address the elven druid Kal and not the others of the party, assuming as an elf he was the leader. Barren, the human mage, whispered to the other party members that Aratheas was a egomaniacal bitch, and that she had tried to escape with other groups but had always been booted out of the group because of her imperious ways. He said she had charmed Desteri to serve and protect her, and lorded herself over the group because of her power. Incensed that beings were serving her against her will, Kumar and Endefal began casting Free Will spells on all the beings in the camp. Soon, Desteri and the twins had their own free will, and the human fighter Desteri was not happy! He yelled and insulted Aratheas because he now realized his feelings for her were a lie created by the charm. At the sudden loss of power, Aratheas sulked and pouted, upset at losing her charmed servants.

As this drama went on, Cadelaine decided to do a little sneaking about and searching. Still invisible (she had never appeared during the entire day to anyone), she snuck inside the largest area there in what was apparently Aratheas’ and Desteri’s quarters. Searching around, she managed to find a something buried beneath the ground under the blankets piled in the room, and inside found a container. Wary of runes written on the surface, Cadelaine used a long held scroll of Erase to destroy the runes, and then opened the box. Inside, she found three large diamonds, which she quickly pocketed, and a large spellbook…obviously Aratheas! Slipping the book into her backpack, Cadelaine covered the area best she could and snuck back out of the room.

Outside, Endefal was lecturing Aratheas on the folly of charming people to serve against their will. Obviously upset, Aratheas stomped off to her quarters. After she left, Barren again begged the party for a chance to leave with them, saying if only someone gave him a spellbook, he would serve them loyally. He said he was here because of an ill fated expedition to the swamp dragon’s cave, where the rest of his party had died under the jaws of crocodiles, with himself the only survivor (but at the cost of his spellbook). Meanwhile, Mongo had managed to convince the now un-charmed Ashante brothers that they should leave when he left, and the cheerful duo agreed they would love to finally make their way back to their tribe now that they suddenly did not wish to stay with the pretty elven lady any longer! Gart turned down the party’s offer to leave, as he said he was needed to help the mongrelmen survive, and the halfling Lithy said she was too frightened of the creatures of the city to ever leave. Aster said he wished he could leave but without his leg he would only slow the party down. Desteri said that now that the elven bitch didn’t have a hold on him, he was free to go as he pleased. He said he was a mercenary fighter hired to guard a caravan that had been captured (and escaped) from the serpentmen, and since that was months ago he was free to go with the party for a share of treasure or a flat payment.

Suddenly, a screaming was heard from Aratheas’ cave! She came storming out, holding an old looking scepter in her hand, demanding that whoever had stolen her spellbook give it back. Barren began laughing at her and said now she would see what life was like without a spellbook! Nearly incoherent with rage, she stated Barren must have stolen it, and it must be returned or he would die. Endefal quickly pulled out his Wand of Negation and zapped her scepter, but Aratheas in her rage didn’t even notice. Screaming something in elven, she pointed at the still chuckling Barren, and a lightning bolt zapped forth to incinerate him on the spot! All around stared in horror as the charred body of the mage fell to the ground, and at that the invisible Cadelaine attempted to stab the enraged mage. Unfortunately, Cadelaine barely scraped Aratheas, who turned in her fury and pointed a finger at Cadelaine, with another bolt flying out to slam the half elf hard against the rubble, knocked her unconscious! At this, the party sprang into action, with both Endefal and Kumar hitting the out of control mage with Fists of Faith, killing her on the spot. Alando quickly rushed to Cadelaine’s side, as smoke rose from the unconscious body. The bolt had struck her at a length of no more than five feet, melting several of her magical items (including her charm against disease and stone of silence) that had hung around her neck, as well as snapping her bow in half with the force of the bolt. Alando ministered to her as Kal and the rest took her scepter and other items from her body. Of the unfortunate Barren, nothing could be done, as he had been killed instantly and was far beyond any help.

At this commotion, the mongrelman leader and four huge bodyguards pushed into the enclosure, demanding to know what had happened. Seeing the dead bodies, especially that of Aratheas, the mongrelman leader went berserk. Saying they would pay for killing the “pretty lady”, he and his cohorts began swinging at Mongo, who stood in their way. The twins Tulu and Ular said they knew of a back way out, one they took when they went hunting or fishing, and the party (grateful they wouldn’t have to hack their way past 100 attacking mongrelmen) began heading out through the opening, with Mongo taking several savage blows as he covered for them. The wererat Damu was nowhere to be seen, but there was no time to look for him as the party (along with Desteri and the twins) quickly made their way out of the back entrance and across the rubble to the north.

After several minutes of running, they noticed only lackluster pursuit (mostly rocks and such being thrown), and the twins said they knew of a safe place to rest. Heading north, the small group found themselves in an enclosure open to the sky that looked a hundred yards or so around that was thickly grown with vegetation. Wary of the growth, the party was assured by Tulu and Ular that the area was safe, as they came here often. Sure enough, slipping through the very thick foliage about 50 yards, they came upon a beautiful, placid pool of what looked like fresh water in a small clearing inside the trees and vines.

The brothers said they often came here to fish and hunt (they said several birds and small mammals were within the wooded areas, and fish in the pool) and that they had never had an encounter with a monster within the area. Suspecting some greater power held sway here. Kal examined the foliage and found nothing of a poisonous or deadly nature, and that the water was fresh and pure, and the fruit and berries that grew within the garden like area were good and tasty. Questioning the brothers further, they admitted that a “beautiful lady, covered with a feathered cloak” would sometimes emerge from the water when they slept to talk to them. They had dreams about her they said, and the dreams seemed to make them fully rested.

Kal knew of certain creatures of the wood that may be protecting a place like this, but whether evil or benign it was often hard to say. However, since the being had treated the twins well, Kal suspected the spirit of this jungle area meant them no harm. Wishing to avoid a possible conflict, he found Desteri peeing against a tree and quickly charmed him, telling him not to despoil the forest, and to keep quiet…while apparently an accomplished and skilled fighter, his conversation since he had been rescued was mostly profanity laced cursing along with lewd and disgusting comments about women, especially the unconscious Cadelaine who was being carried along by Alando. Kal began to feel just a bit more understanding as to why Aratheas had charmed the noisy, not so smart fighting man…..better to have him under control than running around upsetting whatever spirit of the jungled lived here.

With Cadelaine barely conscious after the electrocution, Alando volunteered to take care of here while the others patrolled the area looking to see if there was anything they needed to guard against. Kal commanded the charmed Desteri to also stay, and the rest of the party went through the area to the other side and searched the rubble there. They found a building with trees and plants growing out through the center, complete with a skeletal body hanging from a limb. The party was suddenly attacked by deathfangs, undead flying snakes, but they were quickly disposed of with Endefal’s turning ability and Kal’s entangle spell. Nadal took possession of the dead warrior’s sword, which gleamed like it was new, indicated it was magic (a fact Alando verified when they brought it back to the hidden pool).

Returning to the pool as evening fell, the party soon fell into a deep, restful sleep. After awhile Kal awakened to find everyone around him overcome by sleep. He looked out in the moonlight and saw a beautiful maiden, clad in a white feathered cloak, emerge from the water and walk towards him. She smiled and introduced herself as Safania, and told Kal that she was the guardian of the pool and this area of the city. She said she was a swanmay, a magical creature that had lived for centuries here in the city, ever since it’s “fall”. She wouldn’t elaborate much, except for telling Kal that the once great city fell due to worship of “devils”, which could have been literal or figurative, and the machinations of the serpent men. She said her only purpose was to guard this area, and she had done so successfully for hundreds of years, destroying all invaders. Now inhabitants of the city knew better than to enter her grove, and this was one place in the city where beings could rest without fear of harm. She told Kal she only asked that the adventurers respect the woods and pond, and not to defile or desecrate the area in any way, and they would be free to drink the water, eat the fruit, and hunt some of the animals within. Kal asked her if any other beings like her inhabited the city, and Safania said she only knew of one, a water naga that once inhabited the lake on the east side of the city before it became the large swamp it was now. Safania said she had no contact with the naga in many, many years, and did not know if she still lived within the swamp. However, if she did, Safania told Kal she would also be an ally if approached with friendship.

Kal vouched for the behavior of the party, and told Safania he would make sure the adventurers obeyed her rules while in the sacred area. He noticed the holy symbol of Sybaris, god of lakes and streams (a servant of Kal’s god Faerel, but he did not mention that fact) hung around her neck and suspected she was a high level priest of that god, long forgotten here in the jungle city. After speaking with her, Kal went and laid down with his fellows and also fell into a deep sleep, after watching the woman change into a large swan and swim off across the pond….

The next morning, which was clear and warm, saw the party well rested and healed up after the most restful and deep sleep that had experienced since entering the city over two weeks earlier. Kal told the party what he had experienced that evening, and the group agreed this “safe place” must be protected at all costs. It would be a perfect base for rest and replenishment while exploring the rest of the city.

The little group had grown with the addition of the warriors Desteri, Tulu and Ular, and along with Kal, Endefal, Mongo, Cadelaine, Alando, Kumar, Sholo, Nadal and Gra-Gra, they were now a formidable fighting force. However, they faced even more enemies as they had angered the swamp dragon and his minions, the Necromancer Horan and his undead, the mongrelmen, and of course the evil serpent men. Perhaps only the wererats, along with the swanmay, had become allies of the group. They seemed to be no closer to rescuing their friend Ardu and time could be running out.
Alando faced the party and stated “We can’t keep running around with no goal or purpose. Today I have prayed for spells of guidance and divination, and we need to ask the right questions to find out what our next steps are here….”

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART EIGHT

2010-04-17T20:10:00.004-05:00

That night, again the party heard footsteps walking around above them. Endefal had used his spells to stone shape a proper trapdoor at the top of the stairs, so the party no longer worried about a monster “just dropping in” through the piled up rubble, but there still were chinks, cracks and holes in the above ceiling where light and small creatures could enter and exit…both a feature and a detriment to the hideout. However, no attacks followed the sounds of something traveling around outside. Gra-Gra was agitated by the sounds, and speaking to him Kal (who along with Alando had recovered from his sickness of the day before) found that he smelled undead, decaying flesh….meaning perhaps that undead creatures were outside.

At dawn, Cadelaine once again exited invisibly to check out the area. Soon Mongo followed, and he was surprised by the appearance of a short, pretty young woman in a long robe with an exotic look who stepped out of the rubble surrounding the basement to face him. She hailed Mongo and the party, said her name was Kwano, and that she was a servant of the necromancer Horan come to parley with the party. From the bushes emerged eight Ju-Ju zombies, who appeared to be controlled or following her orders, and nine more regular zombies trudged from the rubble to surround her.

The party emerged from the basement and began to talk with her, as she spoke of “her master” who she said was the rightful ruler of the Forbidden City. She said he was only a seeker of knowledge, did not like the serpentmen, and wished to meet with the party to discuss things of importance having to do with the city. Kwano suggested she stay with the party while the party leaders accompanied the undead guides back to Horan’s mansion to discuss these matters. The party leaders asked her a few questions about the city, but she was very guarded with her information. When asked about the humanoid settlement seen on the west side of the city, Kwano was dismissive, saying the beasts there were not human and beneath the interest of Horan. They asked her why the undead were attacking them if the necromancer was “neutral” as she said, and Kwano stated that the Ju-Ju zombies were created by the snakemen, the ones that served Horan were usurped with his magic from the snakemen’s control. She hinted at an alliance between Horan and the party, one for mutual benefit, if they would only listen to her master.

The party was highly suspicious and was having none of it. Huddling together, they determined that it would be better to take the female necromancer hostage and use her as a bargaining chip against the necromancer who might mean them ill despite Kwano’s talk of alliance. They made a few demands of Kwano, and she took her leave to “speak to her master”, through some device or ability unseen by the party. They used this period to plan an attack. As she returned, Endefal cast a dimensional anchor on the mage, making it impossible to teleport out or use any sort of spell that would let her leave. Cadelaine snuck into the bushes invisibly, and as Kwano continued to discuss terms of the meeting, Kal hit the area with a entangle spell, trapping her and half the zombies, as Endefal turned half the Ju-Ju zombies, leaving only four to deal with. Kwano shouted something and the zombies lurched to the attack, as she hissed that her master would be very, very displeased. At that, Cadelaine hit the trapped mage with two magic missile spells, causing her to go limp.

At that, a misty, insubstantial creature rose up through holes in the ground, and used many misty tentacles to latch onto Endefal. Blood began to drain from Endefal’s body, and the creatures (which appeared to be some sort of ghostly, vampiric undead) began feeding while whispering vile things. Several party members swung at it without effect, and it continued to drain Endefal as the zombies attacked. As Gra-Gra, Nadal, Alando and Kal fought off the zombies, Mongo leapt to Endefal’s aid with his Ring of Jumping and smashed a vial of holy water on the enveloped Endefal, causing the mist to let him go and rear back. Endefal quickly hit the creature with a Fist of Suffering, causing his own drained blood to splatter everywhere as the creature took damage.

While Cadelaine held off the normal zombies with arrows, the rest of the party battled the Ju-Ju zombies as Kumar and Endefal smashed the misty undead creature with Fists of Faith, causing it to wail and sink into the ground. Almost fainting due to blood loss, Endefal was assisted by Kumar, and Mongo helped with the zombies. Several minutes later after a hard fought battle the zombies lay in pieces (with the turned zombies having retreated into the city), and Endefal destroyed the rest of the zombies using his turning power. The unconscious Kwano was taken and bandaged, and tied up securely so the party could question her more closely about her “master”.

Dragging her down into the basement, the party tied her to a support beam as they stripped her of all magic items (found by Alando through a Detect Magic). She had on her a gold coin with writing on it, a ring and wand, Alando identifying the latter as a Wand of Negation the party took control of the items. Soon Kwano awakened, and immediately told the party they were all dead as her master would not allow such an affront to one of his servants. They began questioning her but instead of answers she merely told them that her master would come for her, sending waves of undead if he had to, and that everyone would die. Then she lapsed into a meditative state and refused to react.

An hour had passed since the battle, and the party then heard a booming voice from outside summoning them to meet Horan! Mongo and Endefal emerged, to see a desiccated mummy like creature standing defiantly in front of the basement opening. Treating Mongo as if he was the leader, the mummy identified himself as Horan, and stated he was extremely angry as he didn’t have time for this nonsense. He had sent his servant Kwano to negotiate on his behalf, and the time he had to spend here dealing with the party was time he didn’t have to spend on research. It soon became obvious that Horan was merely using the mummy-like undead to speak through, and was still at his mansion fortress in another part of the city.

With Endefal and Gra-Gra by his side (and Endefal continually insulting and baiting the necromancer with threats to his servant), Mongo attempted to question the necromancer. At first Horan was angry and threatening, telling them to release his servant with her items or he would send armies of undead to destroy them all. He would tell them nothing, he said, until his servant was released, and saying that if she was killed he would merely raise her in undead form to serve him still. As the discussion continued, Horan told Mongo a few things, including something about a master plan the serpentmen had that Horan was opposed to, and his part in trying to stop this plan. He told them he was but a simple seeker of knowledge who did not traffic in slaves, and that perhaps he would be better off as an ally than an enemy. Impressed by Mongo he invited him for a further parley at his mansion, telling him he could use the coin as a “pass” to avoid the serpentmen’s scrutiny. As the discussion wore on, however, Horan began to grow more and more upset at Endefal’s jibes and taunts, calling him Mongo’s “pet monkey” and other insults, until finally his patience seemed to reach his limit.

As Endefal continued to insult him, Horan pointed a finger at the cleric and said one word: “Die!”. At that, Endefal fell stone dead at his feet, and Horan smugly told the startled Mongo that this was but a small portion of his massive powers. Gra-Gra, frightened by the act, dragged the dead Endefal into the basement as Mongo continued to parley with the deadly necromancer.
Shocked by the turn of events, the party huddled within the basement, and finally decided that releasing the captured Kwano was the best way to get the necromancer out of their business and back to his mansion. Kwano was released, and Horan raged that the party would not return her items, but Kwano dismissed this and said she only wanted to go home. Again repeating his offer to Mongo, and telling him his time in the mummy’s body was now brief, he and Kwano took their leave of the party’s hideaway.

Digging through Endefal’s belongings, Alando pulled out a scroll of Raise Dead kept for emergencies, and handing it to Kumar told him that he must cast the spell and complete the ceremony to bring the dead priest back to life. Gathering the materials necessary, Kumar cast the spell from the scroll, and the tiniest spark of life re-entered Endefal’s body. Still defiant, he was nevertheless weak and unable to do anything after his death experience, and he would have to have bed rest for the duration of the day.

As the party discussed their recent experience with the Necromancer, they realized they might have to find another place to stay, one Horan was not aware of. Invisibly, Cadelaine went exploring to the south to attempt to find another hidey hole. She came upon a short tower with several fresh dead bodies in front of it (two of ophidians, two of natives), but passed on as that area appeared to be the site of a recent battle. In a room of another building to the south, hidden by rubble, she found a set of stairs leading to another basement, but looking within she found many giant rats within and decided it was not ideal. Most uncomfortably, all during her search, several bonebats (skeletal undead bats) seemed to fly around and shadow her, and she began to get the uneasy feeling that even invisible the bats could detect her presence.

Making her way back to the party’s basement, she told of what she had seen. Kal then said he would do a more thorough recon of the city, heading to the west in bird form. Kal noticed as he flew that the weather indicated a huge tropical storm brewing, one that would probably hit on the morrow. Flying just above the ruins, Kal also noticed one or two bonebats shadowing him as he darted here and there through the trees and columns. Kal flew over the spot the day before where the party had killed and buried the trio of snakemen, and saw other snakemen there investigating the scene. He flew farther and farther west until he had reached the western cliff wall.

There, Kal saw a several block area that had been walled off with rubble to protect some sort of compound. Inside, several bestial humanoid creatures seemed to live within, and many were guarding the gate and walls of the crude complex. Kal also saw a few humans, a halfling, and a dwarf within the walls of the area. Curious about the group, nevertheless Kal continued flying to find out more about the city.

Kal went south along the cliffside, finding a dangerous looking switchback trail that led from the valley floor to the top of the cliff. He also saw a small group of serpentmen leading slaves through a large boulevard, and they disappeared within a temple like building near the west cliffside. Continuing to head south, he espied a spur leading to the Southwest right south of an area with several impressive towers and buildings. As Kal flew towards the spur, suddenly several bonebats rose from previously hidden spots in the rafters of nearby ruins, and began attacking! Several times Kal was struck in bird form, and he was paralyzed by the bone chilling claws of the bonebats and dropped 30 feet to land upon the pavement of a nearby street. The bonebats immediately lost interest in him and flew back to their perches, as Kal lay paralyzed for many minutes. After finally regaining control of his body, he looked around to see many dead and broken bird bodies laying around the street…evidence that the bonebats had not singled him out, but instead apparently attacked anything flying in that area, which had included himself.

Heading to the NE, Kal avoided the bonebats, and soon passed over what appeared to be the lavish estate of the necromancer Horan. Just NE of there was a large wooded area with a pond, apparently inhabited by a large tribe of Tasloi and their flying spider steeds. Continuing on, Kal finally arrived back at the camp, exhausted but in more complete information about the layout of the Forbidden City and the different areas thereof.

Sharing his information with the party, they agreed that they had to leave their basement “home”, and west to the area of the mongrelmen and humans seemed to be the best choice. Alando meanwhile had identified the ring that Kwano had worn as some sort of undead control ring, and everyone was reluctant to have anything to do with it...everyone but Kal! He slipped the ring on, only to have the unfortunate occurrence of Horan taking over his mind as the ring allowed direct contact with the necromancer! Now controlled by Horan, Kal pretended to act normal but soon everyone in the party was whispering about his odd behavior. He went outside to attempt to command two undead bonebats sitting on a nearby tree, and they seemed to obey him, lending credence to his lie. Several members of the party, particularly Endefal and Mongo, began paying attention to Kal as he seemed to be acting quite unusual…at one point sticking his spear Talon-Bar into the ground, declaring it interfered with the powers of his new ring (in actuality, the personality of the spear was fighting the power of the ring for control of Kal’s body). Alando surreptitiously did a Detect Evil on Kal, finding that the ring radiated a dim evil intelligence, of which he appraised Endefal and Mongo.

That night everyone but Kal was on edge, but nothing untoward happened, with no attacks or visitations from undead or other creatures. That morning, Kal as engaged in conversation, until suddenly Mongo grabbed him in a bear hug from behind and Endefal attempted to cast Remove Curse on him! Kal quickly changed to a snake and began crawling up the stairs, but Alando hit him with Dispel Magic, changing him back to human form, and Endefal was allowed to touch the ring with remove curse….which stopped the effect on Kal’s mind, and he was able to remove the ring. After his mind was once again his own, the party agreed the ring had to be disposed of, so it was dropped into the dark waters of the tunnel that led into the basement through the stone shaped door.

The storm that had been building the last few days had struck, and it was raining heavily as the adventurers emerged outside. The party made ready to leave and left the basement, taking all their belongings, and noticed that some large snake-like being had circled the basement that night by the tracks in the mud….undoubtedly the naga from the nearby abbey. Leaving their encampment behind, the party started marching west through the pouring rain, led by Kal, Cadelaine and Mongo. Sticking to the back alleys and rubble of the ruins instead of the main streets, they quickly began moving west across the Forbidden City. Luckily, due to the rain, it seemed most inhabitants were not about, and they ran into no obstacles for quite a ways. They passed ruined and crumbling buildings of stone that at one time were great edifices, now crumbled and overgrown with vines and trees. Several pyramidal buildings denoted once lavish structures, but there was no time to search or explore as the party only wanted to quickly make their way across the city under the cover of the storm.

The journey was over halfway done when the party came to a narrow diagonal street with buildings on both sides. As Cadelaine scouted ahead, she saw the flickering of a lighted fire, and shadows of moving figures in one window. Peeking inside, she saw a room with nine snakelike beings surrounding a fire, led by a snakeman with cobras for arms. The creatures resembled some sort of proto-snakeman, with narrow heads, vestigial tails, claws, slitted eyes and forked tongues. To make it worse the creatures looked oddly subhuman, as if they had once been fully human, but had devolved. Not wishing a confrontation at this point, she motioned to the party to sneak past the window without looking inside.

All went fine until Gra-Gra, curious about the musty snake odor, rose and peered into the room and immediately let loose a roar of anger! The giant ape jumped into the room to do combat, and the battle was on. Mongo and Endefal followed him through the window before he became overwhelmed by the snake creatures, while Nadal ran down the street in search of a doorway.

Suddenly, at the end of the street there appeared three halfbreeds, one a female, and they moved to the attack. The female, who looked completely human except for weirdly slitted eyes, began firing arrows at Cadelaine as she countered with Magic Missile spells. Kumar battled a scaly humanoid snakeman who swung a scimitar, while Sholo fought with a snake armed, snake tailed monstrosity. Within the stone building, Mongo, Gra-Gra, and Endefal battled the snake creatures, which immediately went into a frenzy and began scratching and biting the adventurers. Endefal fought the snake handed leader and Mongo soon joined him via a giant leap from his Ring of Jumping. Soon the leader was dead, but at that moment a large, snake bodied serpent man burst through a concealed entrance into the room. Endefal hit him with a Fist of Faith, but a gaze attack charmed the priest who stood there transfixed as Mongo battled him.

Outside, the serpent woman rushed forward, and also used a gaze attack to bring Cadelaine under a charm. Alando rushed in to hit the creature with a mace, but was soon also under her spell, as was Nadal when he tried to intervene. Seeing this happen, Kal quickly cast a Summon Insects spell and a horde or stinging and biting ants covered the snake woman, who screamed and began retreating down the street. Sholo at this point, despite many bites from the snake armed monstrosity battling him, struck the death blow against the serpent man fighting him, and the one fighting Kumar broke off combat to join the serpent woman in retreat. Kal quickly cast Giant Insects on the ants, creating three giant ants that swiftly chased the two retreating serpent people. They caught the female one and did battle, chewing off her leg and killing her, which negated the charm holding Cadelaine, Nadal and Alando. The other serpentman escaped into the darkness and rain.

Inside the structure, the serpent creatures and the snake bodied leader had been finished off by Mongo. There were numerous injuries, so the decision was made to spend the night inside the secret room on the other side of the concealed door. The snake bodies were dragged into a nearby building to conceal them, and the party posted a guard at the door to watch in case the snakeman that escaped returned with reinforcements. Just big enough for everyone, but unfortunately smelling of reptiles and worse, the party hunkered down in the gloom and stench for a fitful rest. Surely the most wretched they had been since the crawl down the water filled tunnel in the swamp, they reluctantly made camp, and were somewhat cheered by the small amount of gold, platinum and gems found within the room. As well as the wealth they discovered a basket of bird eggs, which added a bit of happiness to the situation as they boiled them up for a well-deserved change of diet after weeks of dried fruit and boar’s meat…..

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART SEVEN

2010-04-17T14:24:00.002-05:00

Seeing two lights on in the bell tower, the party thought to investigate, but serious problems were developing. Endefal, Sholo and Nadal began feeling ill, and soon were vomiting up their meals in the basement area. Both Kal and Alando, noticing large insect bites inside their shirts underneath their armor, began falling asleep, and soon both of them fell into something resembling a coma. Kumar began exhibiting signs of dry and flaky skin, large bulging eyes, and running nose. Mongo and Cadelaine (who had the token that prevented disease) were the two lucky ones and seemed to avoid catching anything. It looked as thought time in the swamp water had no done well for the adventurers as nearly all of them had come down sick!

Endefal quickly cast Cure Disease on Kal and Alando, hoping that curing the two priests from the sleeping sickness would allow them to cast curing spells. Alas, the Cure Disease spells merely allowed them to awaken from the coma, but they were still tired and tended to drop off to sleep unless shaken or nudged. Alando handed Endefal a scroll he carried of Cure Disease and asked him to use it on himself, as at least one priest should be able to cast cure spells. Endefal did, and quickly the vomiting disease disappeared. Nadal and Sholo were still sick, however, and would stay that way the rest of the night. Along with Kal and Alando, the four were virtually useless in a fight, so it was up to Mongo, Cadelaine, Endefal, Kumar (who, despite his symptoms, didn’t feel that awful) and the ape Gra-Gra to guard the basement. At that, they saw a giant constrictor snake over 30 ft long begin to slide down the stone steps into the room! Mongo, Kumar and Cadelaine quickly dealt with the reptile, and they realized they had to find a cover for the portion of the basement the stairs went out of or perhaps suffer monster attacks all night! However, one good thing is that they now had food to eat, as the snake was cut up and cooked over the fire, making a delicious soup for the group.

While Mongo, Endefal and Kumar dealt with gathering wood and such to pile over the opening, Cadelaine, curious about the lights in the tower, snuck out invisibly to climb the ivy covered walls to the top of the tower where she could glance in the window. Quietly scaling the walls, Cadelaine looked inside the window openings at the top of the tower and saw, to here horror, two floating balls of light hovering in the rafters! Although never seeing one, the magess/thief had heard tales of “Will o Wisps”, balls of floating energy with evil intelligence who were quite deadly. The fact that not one but two of the deadly creatures appeared to be inhabiting the top of the bell tower chilled her.

Cadelaine swiftly descended the ivy and hurried back to the basement as Kumar and Mongo were putting finishing touches on the crude wooden covering with Endefal caring for the sick. After telling the party members about the wisps, they agreed that this was not the time to investigate the ruined church further. Setting the makeshift barrier atop the opening, Endefal then cast Wyvern Watch upon the top of the stairway to attack anything trying to get inside. The night passed relatively uneventfully, as the only item of interest was the sound of walking feet around the basement roof during the early morning hours. The footsteps seemed to be that of many humanoid creatures, but whoever it was, they never attempted to come down the stairs and the sounds soon disappeared.

The next morning, the party felt better as the wyvern watch cast by Endefal had not been triggered, and nothing else had bothered them. Endefal was able to cast Cure Disease on Sholo and Nadal and cure their vomiting, but Kal and Alando, even cured, still had a tendency to lapse into sleep at odd moments. It was decided they would have to stay behind (guarded by Gra-Gra) while the rest of the group scouted out the area.

Cadelaine exited the basement invisibly, but immediately upon the other adventurers coming up the stairs, they were set upon by five Juju zombies that had been hidden around the area! Obviously the footsteps they had heard that night had been the walking undead, who had waited patiently during the night for the party to emerge. Battle was joined, with Mongo hacking three of the walking dead to pieces and the others taking care of the remaining duo (as turning from Endefal and Kumar failed to work). After the short battle, the explorers realized they needed to find the source of the undead they were facing.

Cadelaine, looking out into the swamp, noticed an unusually large amount of crocodile activity all through the waters and grass. Obviously the dragon of the swamp had sent out his reptilian servants to scour the area after the frogmen massacre. As the party made to leave, several of the reptilian beasts began sliding up the hill and (attracted by the character movement) moved to attack. The party then faced off against nine of the crocs, assisted by Cadelaine’s web spell which captured almost half of them until the others could be dealt with. After dealing with them and not being very injured in the doing, they dragged the reptile’s bodies far away from their camp, hoping to avoid other predators finding the basement.

Finally satisfying themselves that Kal, Alando and Gra-Gra were ok, Cadelaine, Endefal, Mongo, Nadal, Sholo, and Kumar set out to scout the immediate area. They headed west past the ruined abbey and into some broken ruins, with an invisible Cadelaine taking the lead. She made her way carefully through some rubble of long-crumbled edifices, noting only insects, snakes, lizards and spiders scurrying in the rocks and scrub. She did make one fine, a shiny ring on the finger of a skeleton buried in rubble, which she removed from it’s bony finger and put in her pouch, for Alando to later identify.

Finally, making here way through a building, she came out on a boulevard that went north/south. The north end led into the swamp after a hundred yards or so, while the south end continued on to an intersection and more of the city. Noises from across the street catching her attention, the invisible Cadelaine crept across the street to look over a low stone wall. She triggered her Silence Stone when she saw what had attracted her…..serpent men! Three of the reptilian beasts, along with two flying snakes that hovered overhead, were in a small courtyard digging at a large hole in the ground. One serpent man, with a snake head and two arms that ended in cobra heads, was watching as two others (both with snake heads, one with a tail, both wielding scimitars) try to dig up a buried chest hip deep in the ground. They hissed to each other in a language Cadelaine could not understand, and she quickly scurried back across the street to present this information to the hidden party members.

Making plans, the party decided to sneak up on the group and attack, with Cadelaine invisibly leading the way with a backstab or two. Things didn’t go as planned. as the group was spotted crossing the street and two flying fangs attacked the party. The battle was joined as Mongo jumped over the wall and attacked one snakeman (who spit poison all over him, catching the ranger unaware as the fluid burned his skin), Nadal took on another with swords, and the last ran to hide. Cadelaine and Sholo quickly dealt with the flying snakes, with Endefal assisting Mongo using Fist of Faith to dispatch another, Mongo took chase after the serpentman with snakes for arms, eventually getting ambushed by the hidden snakeman but fighting back to eventually kill him. Meanwhile, Nadal battled the scimitar wielding snakeman and eventually maneuvered the snakeman into being backstabbed by an invisible Cadelaine, finishing him also.

The party searched the area including the hole the snakemen had dug, which contained a chest. Examination of the dead snakemen found that one had a map of the site, which indicated that many centuries earlier works of art had been buried by the church of Umgawa. The chest revealed several golden and ivory statues, some gem studded, but all worth quite a bit. The snakemen were dumped in the hole, the hold filled in with earth, and the chest hauled back by the adventurers to their hideout. However, on a brief foray by Cadelaine of the area she came across a building that seemed to house a certain foreboding, feeling extremely uneasy as she scouted out what appeared to be some place of ancient knowledge. Marking it on their map, they returned to Kal, Alando and Gra Gra and left the treasure there.

Cadelaine and Endefal both decided it was past time to investigate the abandoned abbey near their basement home, so along with Mongo they scouted it out. Muddy footprints of some kind were found in the foyer and seemed to lead deeper into the abbey, but they were not followed. Several round, dark, muddy sinkholes dotted the area, and Mongo found evidence of a large snake like body having traveled through these sinkholes. Investigating one broken tower, the group was started by the sudden appearance of a large, snake like figure with a human head that briefly slid from a room and disappeared down a sinkhole….a naga! Not wanting to mix it up with the reptilian creature (and uneasy about what spells the creature might have, and his ability to travel swiftly through the sinkholes dotting the area), the group beat a hasty retreat back to their basement lair rather than deal with the deadly reptilian being at this time….

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART SIX

2010-03-27T22:59:00.005-05:00

The next day was beautiful, clear and warm, and no weather to speak of. There had been no attacks that night, and the party began to feel that they had finished off most of the organized opposition in this area of the swamp. Plans were made to head to the stockade of the frogmen that day and hopefully finish off the remainder of the tribe. As they had killed roughly 50 of the frogmen the night before, and the same number the day before that with Cadelaine’s fireball, they hoped not much more than token resistance awaited.

After curing and healing from the events of the day before, Kal once again gathered a large crop of Goodberries, and the party made their way into the swamp. The stockade of he frogmen loomed about 300 yards away atop a large raised mound in the swamp, and seemed to be surrounded by some sort of fence. On the way there, they stopped to rescue a small group of monkeys that had somehow been chased into the swamp and up a tree, one of them being attacked and killed by a swarm of leeches. Mongo accidentally stepped into this swarm, then spent time lighting a torch to pick off dozens of the creatures that had attached themselves to his legs and any exposed flesh. Endefal tricked the swam into following him with some dripped blood, and while the leech swarm slowly surged towards the priest of Attar, the monkeys were rescued by Kal and Mongo. Afterwards, the five monkeys talked some more about the city, giving general pieces of knowledge like the presence of undead, lots of serpent men and other dangers, and told Kal that a group of humans or those that looked like them dwelled in an enclosure on the far west side of the city.

This piqued the curiosity of the party and the resolved to check this out when they finally began exploring the city proper. First, however, they released the monkeys into the spur where the chittering furry creatures could begin a life without immediate predators, protected from most creatures by the nearby swamp. The party once again headed back towards the frogmen stockade. They got close and Cadelaine volunteered to invisibly recon, seeing if an entrance existed in the spiked bamboo wall surrounding the mount. While walking around Cadelaine came upon a wandering black pudding sliding through the tall grass that ignored her and she quickly put distance between the ooze and herself. Coming back around, she told the party that there were no entrances (the frogmen obviously just leapt over the fence when they wanted, as broken and crushed down foliage around the edges pointed out).

The party had also notice a large stockade type structure on top of the frogmen’s mound, that looked like something of a lookout spot. They decided to breach the wall and make for that area first. Using the spell Warp Wood Kal was able to take out a five foot section of the stockade fence and the party slipped inside…but were seen by a lookout at the tower, who began banging on a brass gong! Cadelaine quickly silenced him with a well placed arrow, but it was too late. Giant frogs began pouring out of several dark holes in the mound, and the party ran up the earthen mound to the small tower. Cadelaine climbed the wall to the top to find…nothing but a dead frogman. No escape or way into the interior of the mound! The party would have to battle the six foot long, 250 lb frog monstrosities after all. As the battle began, the giant frogs began shooting out their tongues to entrap the characters and pull them to their mouths, but in every case the party member was able to strike the tongue and free themselves. The only mishap in the battle was Cadelaine accidentally hitting Kal in the back of the head with an arrow as she fired into melee, but no permanent damage was done. Soon the nine giant frogs lay dead with no injuries to the adventurers. Picking one dark hole in the ground, they cautiously entered the mound.

As the party had battled the giant frogs Cadelaine stood as lookout, and noticed in the middle of the lake nearby a large, bubbling spot that filled her with anxiety. Something large below the surface of the scummy black waters had become aware of intruders and she hoped whatever it was would not show during the battle! She told the others after the giant frogs were finished, and they all agreed that they needed to be cautious upon exiting the mound after their business here was done.

Mongo should have know right at the start the mound was not going to be kind to him, he led the way into the mound and fell into a very shallow (2 foot) deep pit, catching some nasty pungi sticks smeared with a weird ichor that looked like excrement. After crawling out on the muddy floor the party began to be attacked by waves of spear wielding frogmen. Although the amphibious creatures were easily dispatched in most cases, they continued to attack after every few rounds. Cadelaine, searching invisibly, managed to find a strange room in the mound with several pits of bubbling goo, so she returned to the party just in time for an attack by a group of killer frogs. She thwarted the attack with a web spell, followed up by a burning hands spell which fried the vicious frogs.

Going ahead alone and eschewing a light source, Mongo thought that he would practice his blindfighting skills instead of relying on a light source…perhaps he felt the light would not allow him surprise further inhabitants in the mound. Maybe he was anxious to prove himself battling the frogmen on their home territory with no advantages. Whatever his motivations, he was set upon in a large dark and damp room and began to get the shit kicked out of him. Falling on his back on the muddy floor, he was stabbed again and again by the aggressive frogmen. The only thing saving Mongo from death was a fortuitous Protection From Enemies ’10 radius spell Endefal had cast on him upon entering the mound. While the party dealt with a few various frogmen Mongo found himself facing several tougher leader types, riding giant frogs, in the dark of a muddy room. Soon even the brave jungle ranger realized things were not going his way and began shouting for help!

Arriving to assist the foolhardy and now pin cushioned ranger, Nadal, Endefal, Kal, Gra Gra and Cadelaine (Kumar, Alando and Sholo took up the rear) brought both light sources and badly needed weaponry. With their arrival the tide began to turn, although fully half a dozen more giant frog riding frogmen appeared to do battle. The battle was a slippery, muddy, gooey mess with the fanatical frogmen fighting to the death to protect their home from the intruders. Soon the king of the frogmen emerged, riding the largest frog yet, croaking his anger and hatred. Several poisonous frogs hopped alongside of him, attempting to bite anyone who got close. Mongo used his Ring of Jumping to leap to the attack, and soon everyone was fighting in the large room inside the mound against the froggy menace. With the help of Nadal and Endefal, Mongo defeated the frog king and after a long battle the room was covered with dismembered frogs and frogmen. After healing their many wounds, the party examined the rest of the mound and found a small bit of treasure in the frog king’s lair, along with a tunnel leading somewhere beneath the swamp, and a room with pools of water containing smaller frogmen…tadpoles, really, the next generation of frogmen warriors.

Saying that everyone was thinking the same thing, Nadal was soon relieving himself in the tadpole pool, joined by Endefal and Mongo, hoping the potent brew might kill the future frogmen. Meanwhile, in a nearby room Kal managed to disturb one of the bubbling pools (which after examination appeared to contain some sort of fungus food for the frogmen) and let loose a deadly ochre jelly! The jelly lashed out at Kal but appeared to only want to leave the complex. As it rolled past the surprised Mongo, Nadal and Endefal, they struck at it and chopped it to pieces.

Soon the mound had no more secrets and it appeared that every frogmen had been totally wiped out. The party had ended any menace the frogmen might have been to the swamp and environs. Investigating the tunnel, Cadelaine (and Kal in crocodile form) found it traveled about 300 yards in five feet of water until it ended in the basement of a building in the Forbidden City itself! Having found a secret way to the city, the party decided to take the way in rather than exit the stockade more visibly and perhaps get into another combat with creatures they could easily avoid.

The trip in the dark, wet, slimy tunnel was not easy (especially for Cadelaine who was the shortest of the group and had to hang on to others to stay above water) but soon they emerged in the basement of a ruined building in at the edge of the swamp. Climbing a set of stone stairs led to a completely collapsed building, right next door to an old ruined church with one standing bell tower. Looking out over the swamp, Cadelaine saw a blood chilling sight: a gigantic, black and yellow toad thing (fully 65 feet long) with wings emerged from the black water of the lake, followed by dozens of crocodiles of every size, The frog-dragon flew to the top of the frogmen’s mound, landed on the top and crushing the tower, as the crocodiles swarmed the mound and entered the black holes. As they went inside the frog-dragon screamed its anger to the heavens and that chilled the adventurer’s souls, for if they had decided to not take the secret tunnel they might even now be facing the dozens of deadly crocs plus the dragon!!! Cadelaine, remembering there was no way to close up the tunnel, began yelling down into the basement what she had seen.

Thinking quickly, the party moved several large broken pieces of stone to cover the opening in the basement, which Endefal used stone shape on to quickly form into a large trapdoor that could not be opened from inside….not a moment too soon, as he finished he could hear noises in the water filled tunnel and see shining eyes in the darkness! Shutting the stone cover the party was well protected from any thing attempting to enter the basement from the tunnel end. Up top, Cadelaine saw the huge toad dragon rise on wings and splash into the waters of the lake, followed by his crocodile entourage. Apparently the party had gotten quite lucky this day not to face the further reptilian horrors of the swamp.

As dusk began to fall the party decided that although damp and not ideal, the basement was the best place to spend the night since it was easily defendable now that the tunnel entrance had been blocked (the only other way in being the stairway that led outside). Using flint and tinder and some wood they had found, a fire was started inside to dry off everyone’s soaked clothing, and guards were put on the stone stairway leading up. Alando cast Detect Magic on the items found in the frogmen's stockade, as well as Identify on the one magical item (the frog-king's weapon), which turned out to be an Ashante made spear of +2 power. As the party prepared for rest they uneasily noticed the abandoned church next door did not seem to be totally empty…as two bright lights went on at the top of the one standing bell tower!

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART FIVE

2010-03-21T13:01:00.002-05:00

With their injuries healed and stomachs filled, the party set watches and got ready for possible interruptions of their evening since they had made waves with both the lizard men and frog men in the swamp that day. Trouble was not long in coming. During first watch Kal and Mongo sat quietly inside the thick plant curtain in front of the cave entrance, listening for unusual sounds.

Soon, froglike croaks and grunts filled the night. They heard the screams of what was left of the boar herd as they were obviously killed, which alerted them to possible intruders. Soon sounds of the frogmen filled the area outside the cave (as the totem only protected against reptiles, amphibious beings were free to come within it’s influence), and several normal frogs began hopping into the cave, obviously frightened. Not long behind them several large frogs with sharp teeth and claws followed….killer frogs! Kal and Mongo, as well as Kal’s ape and boar, began battling the amphibious menace as the guards shouted for help. Soon, a pure wave of killer frogs seemed to hop over the two like a deluge! Fully thirty of the monstrosities were attacking the pair, and the two each used his ring of jumping to leap back from the entrance and temporarily out of reach of the killer frogs. As they left the front of the cave, Cadelaine quickly cast Web at the entrance, trapping all but a handful of the frogs (the four not trapped were stomped and stabbed to death). The frogs were hung in the web with no way to get out, and nothing could enter the cave, so for the time being the adventurers were safe. Endefal quickly cast a Protection from Enemies ’10 on Mongo, and the group readied themselves for battle. Soon, the sounds of dozens of croaking beings filled their ears from outside the cavern, and the group heard the decidedly unpleasant sound of sharp objects striking the magic totem!

Not wanting their barrier vs reptiles to be destroyed, the party quickly made a plan. Using her Wand of Fire, Cadelaine shot burning hands at a trio of frogs caught in the net (frying them) and set the web afire, doing damage to the couple dozen frogs trapped within. Endefal, Kal and Mongo quickly ran to the front of the cave and attacked several frogmen trying to hack at the totem pole with their crude spears. The battle was on! Endefal activated his innate Sanctuary power, and the frogmen ignored him as he strode past them to find the leaders. Kal quickly threw up an Entangle spell that caught many of the frogmen in it’s grip; Mongo began laying about the creatures with his twin swords. The numbers were overwhelming as almost 50 of the frogmen hopped forward with spears to attack, but Kal and Mongo held them off with flaming spear and swords, respectively. Inside, Nadal, Sholo, Cadelaine, Kumar, Gra Gra and even Alando began smashing the surviving killer frogs against the rock floor. Unfortunately, the charmed wild boar fell under the frog’s assault and was bitten to death by several (causing Nadal to remark that wild boar would again be on the menu that evening!) The other deadly frogs were slowly crushed one by one, even as Kumar and Alando took ferocious bites about their body and had to retire from combat to bandage their wounds. At that point, frogmen began hopping inside the cavern from the outside, and Sholo and Nadal went forward to join combat as Cadelaine provided missile cover and fortuitous Sleep spells to stop the invasion into the cave. Gra Gra was badly speared by a frogmen and fell unconscious, requiring bandaging from Kumar to heal the nasty wound.

Outside, Mongo proved just as effective vs the amphibious beings as he usually did vs reptilian creatures, cutting a huge swath through the creatures with Kal aiding him. Endefal had made his way to the leader types, but he was spotted and a couple resisted his innate Sanctuary power enough to attack. The leader of the frogmen sat on the back of a giant frog with dozens of other frogs hopping all around him, and he finally stirred his mount to action as they hopped forward, croaking orders. After battling the frogmen for awhile, the entangle spell fell and even more of the frogmen tried to pour onto Mongo and Kal, who fought their way to the leader. In their minds the destruction of the leader frog might turn the tide, as the frogs now attacked with fanatical fervor. With Nadal and Sholo guarding the cave entrance, the druid and ranger slowly worked their way towards the leader, killing frogmen all the way. At the same time, Endefal had managed to finish off the two frogmen attacking him, and came at the leader from the rear.

The frogmen leader and his giant frog mount hopped into combat, and the giant frog’s tongue wrapped around Mongo and dragged him to it’s maw. However, with two swift strokes Mongo cut the frog in half, and then knocked the leader to the ground, where Endefal crushed the skull of the startled amphibian. Suddenly, panic set in among the still living frogmen and they began croaking in panic and hopping off into the darkness.

With the siege broken, the party members dragged the sliced up bodies of the frogmen far away from the encampment, then went back to the cave to rest up. Sholo, Kumar, Alando, Nadal and Gra Gra were heavily injured and required rest. Frog blood and guts covered the floor of the cavern and had to be cleaned and the dead boar was sadly (or hungrily, as Gra Gra and some of the party members salivated thinking of the cooked meat) skinned and butchered for food.

The next morning, an uneasy night’s sleep bore little rest for the exhausted party members. However, they did re-learn their spells, and Kal used the opportunity to cast multiple Goodberry spells on the surrounding foliage. The tasty berries could be used to bring many of the party members up to speed, as did the healing spells of Kumar, Alando, and Endefal. While walking through the spur, Kal noticed the dearth of any life, including the rest of the wild boars (who had been slain by the frogmen). Dragging a couple of boar corpses to the cave, these too were butchered and the meat added to the party’s dwindling stores of fresh food.

After spending the early part of the day healing, cleaning, and once again fortifying their cavern base (Kal assisted this by re-casting a Plant Growth on the entrance to again block it from sight; the attack of the night before had torn down most of the vine and ivy curtain shielding the opening), the parry discussed their next move. Two items of interest were on the table: the frogmen and the lizard men. The frogmen, losing fully 50 of their number the night before (as well as a large number to Cadelaine’s fireball the day before) might be ripe for a final attack. Their stockade, surrounded by a bamboo fence, could be seen several hundred yards away from the edge of the spur on a raised hillock in the swamp. However, Mongo’s hatred of all things reptilian soon convinced the party that the now-depleted ranks of the lizardmen were ripe for conquest also. As over 30 of the beings had been killed the day previously, perhaps their cavern would be lightly guarded and ready for conquest.

Finally, the party decided that they would deal with the depleted lizard men and their cave first, saving the frogmen’s enclosure for a future date. Unfortunately, this would mean another trek through the swampy mess that had bothered them so much the previous day. Resigning themselves to the muddy travel, they first had a flying Mongo check out the cave entrance, but he saw nothing. The group, traveling along the cliff wall, did not encounter anything but found their battlefield the day before. Surprisingly, except for churned up mud and broken plants, little evidence existed of the battle…crocs and other predators may have carried off lizard man bodies and parts, and the grass and plants seem to already be growing back into place….in a week there would be no evidence at all anything unusual had ever happened here.

When the party reached the large cave mouth, Cadelaine volunteered to invisibly scout ahead and see where the lizardmen were. She quietly swam up the wide corridor, as it came to a division into three directions, each guarded by a lizard man. There was, however, no further sign of lizard men, and the caverns were quiet. Going back to tell the party, before a plan of action could be decided on, Mongo flew ahead to confront his foes. He immediately came into battle with the three lizardmen, and with Nadal and Kumar backing him up, slew the trio. Investigation of two of the corridors found large rooms that looked hastily abandoned, with no eggs or belongings of the lizardmen. Apparently a quick desertion of the area had occurred with the slaughter of most of the warriors of the tribe. Kal, in crocodile form, floated up the third corridor and found one leader-type lizard man guarding a chest of treasure. Thinking Kal was a “friend”, the lizard man spoke to him and told him to help him in his ambush he was going to spring on the humans…when battle was joined, he would ring a large gong, causing a group of lizardmen in the swamp to rush in behind the humans. Playing along, Kal spoke with him awhile in croc form, finding out the tribe had left after the disastrous attack the day before to join another tribe further to the west. All indications were that the force left behind was not extensive. Going back to tell the party, Cadelaine snuck up and using her Stone of Silence, stood invisibly near the gong as Mongo, Endefal, and Kal attacked the lizardman, killing him. They in turn set their own ambush for the lizardmen, getting in place and then ringing the gong themselves. Over twenty lizardmen rushed into the chamber and immediately entered pitched combat. The joke however was on the party as these lizardmen (soon joined by another 7 leader types) fought with a desperation and ferocity that threatened to overwhelm the adventurers. Even after two Sleep spells by Cadelaine and two Hold person spells cast by Endefal it was still a tough battle. Again and again the lizardmen scratched and bit the adventurers, until finally, slowly, the battle turned and after many rounds of combat all the lizardmen lay dead.

Extensive healing was in order, and the party would have to rest after the day’s events back at the cave, due to the damage the lizardmen had done to them. Taking the chest with them (which had obviously been left as some sort of lure), they found it contained 700 old silver pieces, one gem, and a scroll tube with a single mage spell within. Nothing of note happened on the way back except for Kumar being attacked by a swimming giant bloodworm, which luckily was killed after only doing a small amount of damage to the priest. Back at the cave, they roasted the wild boar, and again several party members began stiffening up and running fevers due to something they had caught while traversing the swamp. There were enough Cure Disease spells for all except Endefal, who after being diagnosed by Mongo as having a sickness known as “Stiff Neck”, learned it often faded away after a day causing no more than stiff muscles and neck joints. Determined to fight his way through (and, since he possessed potions vs disease he could cure himself if it progressed any further), Endefal resigned himself to having the disease and becoming immune to it in the future. As the night before, the party set up watch hoping for no repeat of the last evening’s festivities, but prepared in case the frogmen or something worse made an appearance.

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART FOUR (CONTINUED)

2010-03-18T10:31:00.008-05:00

The next morning, many tracks were found outside the cavern, giving a wide berth to the protective totem…Mongo identified them as lizard man tracks, and it was obvious the scaly folk had come from the swamp that night to scout out the smells, light and noises they must have heard the night before. However, the magical totem pole had done its duty and kept the reptilian beings far away from the entrance, as there was no evidence any of them had gotten within 10 feet of the totem (and thus, the entrance behind it). Although the magical totem had accomplished its purpose, the party was now extremely wary as it was obvious the lizard men had discovered their hideout…

Keeping a watchful eye out, the party made plans to investigate the other two cave entrances, and then perhaps a bit of the swamp, during the daylight hours at least.

The first cavern was nothing but a crack in the cliffside, only three feet wide. Questioning the wild boar, Kal found that the boar had seen snakes emerging from the crack, and the group reasoned it must be a snake lair. A vial of lit oil was tossed within, and the party sat and awaited anything retreating from the smoke and flames. Soon, several poisonous bushmasters emerged, discomfited by the smoke. They were hacked to pieces and killed, and when the smoke cleared out, Cadelaine (the smallest member of the party) managed to slip inside invisibly, and found nothing but a stinky cavern with many nests and hidey holes for snakes. Satisfied none were inside, and even if they were they would be of no danger, Cadelaine left (without treasure also, for the half elf did search for that in case something of value lay around….)

The last cave had a very large entrance, and the boar told Kal that large scorpions and spiders laired within. Sure enough, as the party approached, three giant scorpions skittered forth to attack, clearly protecting their territory. Kal used a Shrink Insects spell to take care of one of the abominations, zapping it down to a size where the stomping foot of the druid killed it. Mongo easily handled another one, while the last was battled by Endefal, Kumar, and Nadal, Cadelaine providing missile fire. Cadelaine was even able to milk a bit of scorpion venom for herself….to later brew into a sludge she could coat her weapons with to poison a foe. Finally the last was destroyed, leaving the mouth of the cavern only. Cadelaine entered invisibly, to see a large chamber (obviously the lair of the scorpions) and two branches from this chamber, each leading off into darkness. Silently she slid along the wall into the eastern passage, and soon came upon webbing filling the rest of the corridor top to bottom….and spotted several large spiders crawling in the mess. Not wish to go any further, Cadelaine crept back outside to the light of day and told of her findings. So now who would be brave (or foolhardy) enough to slash through the webs and spiders for any sort of treasure? Where was Mongo?

Mongo, finally seeing a concrete use for his Ring of Fire Resistance, volunteered to investigate the caves. First pouring a vial of oil upon himself, he then lit himself on fire, and using the sword Sentinel he flew ahead into the darkness! Burning a path through the webs (and sending the large spiders scurrying), he blazed a trail to a large chamber at the end of the corridor…and was promptly struck by a pair of magic missiles! In the chamber, he saw a man sized shape, an unholy amalgamation between man and spider, and it appeared to lair here (and was casting spells). Soon a stinking cloud formed in front of Mongo, but he flew around it and struck the spider-creature, killing it in two blows. As it flew in pieces to the ground, many large spiders scurried away from both the flames flickering off Mongo and his furious sword. As Mongo began flying among the webs, burning them, and cutting up spiders, Kal, Gra Gra, Kumar, Cadelaine and Endefal (following the burnt trail Mongo had blazed) took up the rear and began picking off other spiders in the webs, or ones that dropped down on top or beside the group. No one suffered damage, and soon a full dozen of the loathsome arachnids were dead. In the chamber many copper, silver and gold pieces were found scattered on the ground among bones and other filthy goo, and these were gathered.

Since the plan had worked so well, it was repeated on the other side, with the same results (down to the appearance of a spider-man who cast spells). As ineffective as the other spiders had been, once again a flying, flaming Mongo cut the spider creature in half and began hacking at the large spiders crawling in the webbing. After the slaughter, more coins were found, gathered and cleaned off, but nothing of note was otherwise found in the caves.

At this point the entire spur had been investigated, and all it’s caves cleared of potential hazards. Becoming curious about the lizard men in the swamp that had scouted out the spur the night before, Mongo stayed in the air and checked the swamp from on high. The swamp consisting of many clumps of ragged trees and bushes, surrounded by fields and fields of 6-7 foot high swamp grass, cat tails, rushes, bushes and other foliage. This made visual examination difficult as anything inside the area would be hidden from view if it was traveling low to the ground (or under the water, as may be). Besides the tall grasses, several hundred yards away stood a large mound with a stockade surrounding, and frog like figures hopped to and fro around it…..it looked like home to many of the amphibious frogmen. Flying low along the north cliff wall of the swamp, Mongo did find what appeared to be a cave mouth, and a couple of lizard men entering and leaving. Seeing the lair of his hated foe, Mongo returned to the group (as the last of Sentinel’s flying power wore off) and told them he was off to confront the hated reptiles in the cave, and they were welcome to follow! With that, Mongo and an invisible Cadelaine began forcing their way thorough the head high marsh grass, knee high stagnant water, and clutching mud….perhaps not the most well thought out plan, nor the safest, but the flying power of Sentinel was used up for the day and it was the only method of reaching the cave. Sticking along the cliff wall to prevent getting lost, Mongo moved off into the muck. Most of the party reluctantly followed…except for Alando, who gave excuses to as why he did not want to slosh around in the swamp (they might need him for healing later!). The priest of Vistna, and the charmed wild boar, both stayed at the swamp’s edge to await the group’s return. Kal, Endefal, Nadal, Kumar, and Sholo could only gripe and complain as they slogged after the quickly advancing Mongo in the knee-high water. It did not help that almost immediately upon entering the swamp they were set upon by clouds of stinging mosquitoes and swarms of hungry leeches (which covered their legs and any bare flesh upon entering their domain).

As the party determinedly followed Mongo’s path, they heard yells, struggling and fighting ahead! Mongo, upon getting within a hundred yards or so of the lizard man lair, had been set upon by over two dozen of the scaly foes! With claws and bites they attempted to bring the ranger down, but Mongo quickly began weaving a web of death with his swords as the creatures hissed and clawed at him. Coming upon the battle, Kal quickly hit the area with Entangle, taking care of many of the creatures, and the battle was joined. Nadal, Sholo, Kumar, Cadelaine and Endefal soon found the environment was not ideal for fighting, as several times the mucky area played havoc with their footing, sending them sprawling wildly. Soon, more lizard man reinforcements met the party, including leader types. Mongo inexplicably once again left the group to go towards the entrance, and was set upon by three leaders near the entrance to the cave. Meanwhile Kal turned into a crocodile to facilitate travel in the swampy environs and headed, with Cadelaine, farther towards the frogmen encampment in case those creatures wished to join in…which appeared imminent, as they could see several hopping shapes coming towards the battle. The fighters and priests appeared to have the situation with the lizard men in hand, although the battle was far from elegant.

Distressed by the sight of several dozen hopping forms getting closer, Cadelaine used her fireball spell, sending the ball of flame directly where the mass of the froggy foes seemed collected. A gigantic explosion, a geyser of mud, burnt plants, and frog parts exploded out of the swamp, and in the aftermath the adventurers noticed the entire swamp had gone completely silent. They could hear the sounds of yelling and voices as far away as the city itself, as their presence had undoubtedly been noted by anyone with ears or eyes who was watching the swamp! Investigating the crater her fireball had caused, Kal and Cadelaine noticed no survivors from the fireball, but saw far away in the city several figures riding giant spiders buzzing the edges of the swamp trying to find the source of the noise and flames. They advanced no further, however, so Cadelaine was able to keep her wands in reserve just in case…

Deciding that enough attention had been drawn, the party made to head back. Mongo returned just in time as another wave of lizard men attacked, this group including a scaly shaman that cast entangle on the party. Cadelaine returned in time to kill the shaman with well placed arrows (assisted by a Fist of Faith by Endefal), and then cast web on the mass of lizard men to restrict their movement. When the few loose foes had been dealt with and healing had taken place, the web surrounding the remaining lizard men was torched, and the burnt reptiles (those that didn’t escape) were soon dealt with. Fully 30 of the lizard men had been killed in the carnage, and the area was churned up with blood, lizard man parts, and broken grasses all around the battle site.

Finally the party (quite beat up) headed back to the swamp’s edge, dirty, smelly, bloody, muddy, leech covered and soaked with disgusting swamp water. Immediately upon reaching the cave, they had to disrobe to clean their almost ruined clothing, and clean their weapons of the muck coating them. Very quickly several party members began feeling hot and faint, and were running fevers….exposure to the swamp waters (including swallowing same) and open wounds in the filthy area had already caused the beginnings of some sort of swamp fever. Quickly, Kal and Endefal cast Cure Disease on the four members showing the worst symptoms, and all the wounds were expertly cleaned and dressed by the priests to hopefully prevent any further disease. Clearly walking through the swamp pell-mell was not the best method, but what other choice had they to get to the city itself (or the lake where the dragon lurked)? Better plans would have to be made, now that the group had brought attention to themselves through the battle royale with the lizardmen and the fireball thrown by Cadelaine. After cleaning, healing and eating, the party set up watch for what might prove an uneasy evening now that the swamp creatures knew something new and powerful had invaded their territory…

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART FOUR

2010-03-17T00:31:00.007-05:00

The next morning, the party got up bright and early and formed a plan: they would first investigate the caves in their small spur, making sure nothing inside any of them would either do them harm, try to invade their cave, or contained a lot of treasure or magic. They marched to the east and came upon the first cave, with seemed to smell of dampness and wet. Cadelaine invisibly looked inside, and saw a very low ceilinged natural chamber that was filled with croaking frogs, some very large. Due to low visibility she couldn’t see anything much, and exited to tell the party what she had seen.

As the adventurers stood around trying to decide on a plan of action, a handful of the large frogs hopped out, and immediately began jumping on the adventurers and biting them! After the surprise of the attack, the frogs were killed, and found to have large sharp teeth and claws! Obviously they were going to be a big tougher to destroy than your average amphibian. Sticking his head in, Kal was rewarded by another wave of the deadly frogs. Nadal, Sholo, Alando, Kumar, and even the giant ape Gra Gra wanted nothing to do with crawling in the muddy, dark cave to battle biting frogs! Finally, Cadelaine cast Web inside, trapping most of the frogs, and the web was lit up with fire that burned many of the frogs away. Still, Mongo, Kal, Endefal and Cadelaine ended up having to stab quite a few of the frogs to death as the survivors swarmed in the mouth of the cave to be eventually cut down.

While this was happening, a small group of four wild boars found the party, and attacked in a rage. They were all killed except for one which was charmed and befriended by Kal, and while Gra Gra feasted on one, the other two were butchered and the meat brought back to the Base Cave to be eaten later that night….the fresh meat was great needed now that they were down to dried fruit and flour.

To the adventurer’s disappointment, after the killer frog cave was cleaned out, nothing except for one small gemstone was found inside the muddy cavern. The party wondered if all the caverns would be this much of a waste of time and resources, but still each had to be searched so nothing useful (or deadly to the party) might be left behind.

The second cave looked long abandoned and there were no tracks of anything in front of the overgrown entrance. Throwing a Continual Light rock inside, the light just dimly illuminated a cavern corridor. Suspicious of the feeling they were getting (cold inside with darkness that made even continual light dim), sure enough, reading some of the runes engraved on the walls told them what they feared: this cavern was a area consecrated to the God of Shadow! Much as the Temple of Shadow they had discovered many weeks earlier, this was another outpost to the ancient, evil religion. At this discovery the priests took the lead, and Endefal cautiously made his way forward to a fork in the corridor. Taking the right most passageway, it soon led into a large chamber with a large, shadowy looking being floating in it. At the sight of the party and their continual light rock, it began gliding towards them! Endefal’s turning was completely unsuccessful, and Kal’s magic spear shouted in joy at a chance to take down a shadow, particularly a “shadow wraith” (as the spear called the creature). Talon-Bar struck again and again, even after Kal was struck by the Shadow Wraith and drained of a point of strength. Finally, Kal’s spear seemed to suck up the essence of the shadow, and with a wail it disappeared.
Stopping to rest a minute, the party turned around and went down the other branch, which led to a larger cave. At the other end stood an alcove with what looked like an altar, and two statue to either side. Several flitting shapes were in the room, which the party immediately recognized as shadows. Endefal turned six of the creatures, and the party did battle with the four left, quickly destroying them. The six that were turned had floated to the altar, between the angry looking stone statues (which resembled aspects of Shadow). The room was searched, and a long dead, desiccated body was found (at the body’s disturbance one of the shadows seem much agitated, so the party assumed it might be the form of the dead body).

Determined to get at the treasure on the altar (which contained some swords, a set of bracers, and ivory tusks), yet equally sure the stone statues would come to life, Endefal and Kal came up with a plan: they carefully approached the statues, then suddenly each darted at a statue’s feet, and stone shaped them to the floor! Each was struck by the suddenly animated statue, but in both cases the stone statues were welded to the floor, unable to move! Now with their way clear, the party investigated the treasure (Endefal turning the shadows again, and they flew to the shadowrath’s old lair). Using Detect Magic and Detect Evil, they found the weapons, a golden container, and the bracer detected as magic….but one of the weapons (a longsword) detected as evil! Carefully handling the longsword, they dumped it into a sack with plans to dispose of it later. The other weapon (a morning star) might have been more useful, but a decision was made to hold on to it for awhile. The container held two potions, after testing were found to be useful, so they were put aside. Some gold and gems were also gathered, after which Endefal poured holy water on the altar and desecrated it. With a wail, the party heard the shadows from the other room disappear, and they made certain to take the bones within the chamber for a proper burial. Deciding to destroy the trapped statues, they struck from behind where the statue’s reach was difficult, and soon both guardians lay on the ground in stony pieces.
After desecrating the altar, the room seemed less cold and dark, and the party left satisfied they had ruined one more stronghold of the god of Shadow.

Another cave, this time against the south cliffside wall of the spur, showed only a small open area, then a pool of fresh water. Kal asked the Boar about the cave, and the wild boar told him that something nasty waited inside the pool, to leap out and grab anyone who drank at the water. Deciding to lure the creature out of the water, some wild boar guts (from the animals gutted earlier) were thrown in the water, attracting a large, clawed, slimy creature…a freshwater troll! Endefal, Mongo and Cadelaine quickly cut him down, as well as another that followed behind him, and dragged their bodies to be burnt. Conferring among themselves, the party decided that an underwater lair must be here, so Water Breathing was cast on Endefal, Kumar, Cadelaine and Mongo, and they swam in the dark depths to find the lair.

In the twisting, dark underwater passageways (lit by the continual light torch) they fought and killed another two scrags, and found a large heavy rusted chest covered in chains. Bringing it back to the surface (along with the bodies of the scrags, which were also burnt) they broke open the chains holding the swollen chest closed and found some gems and rusted silver within.
Calling it a day (as most if not all the spells of the mages and priests were gone), the party headed back in the growing darkness to their base cave. A giant meal of roast boar was prepared, a good change from the recent fare, and the party made plans to search the last two caves the next day, and then investigate further into the swamp to see what lay within. While resting that night, Endefal disposed of the evil longsword by stone shaping an opening in the rock wall of the cavern, dumping the sword inside, then closing the opening back up my sealing the stone wall...making recovery of the sword by any malign beings very difficult if not impossible.

Using his innate priestly power of identification, Alando handled the bracers and declared them Bracers of Regeneration....a highly valuable prize! After discussing it, the group decided they should go to Mongo....being in combat the most often he would benefit the most from the healing jewelry. The morning star, while apparently of good alignment and having powers, was put aside (as none of the party members had proficiency in it's use, and all had weapons they were comfortable with). After the meal and discussion, the party set watch so they could arise on the next day and finish exploration of the small spur valley, after which the swamp itself awaited.

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: PART THREE

2010-03-01T10:39:00.005-06:00

After a day’s journey and a short tropical rain, the party came to the spot marked on Marsh’s map where the trail to Juma’s village would begin. Carefully walking the trail, they soon came to an unusual sight: a network of large (20-50 feet high) totem poles, each within about 100 feet of the other, stretching to either side of them in the jungle. Very carefully they made their way past the poles, which were decorated with religious symbols (the priests could detect many images of the native Delosian god Umgawa in the imagery), feeling a slight tingling as they did so. The druid soon noticed that on this side of the totems, no reptiles of any sort (snakes, lizards, turtles, etc) could be seen. He told the others of this unnatural phenomenon, and the group speculated that this powerful magic is probably what let the tribe survive so close to the Yuan-ti stronghold and the Forbidden City.

After walking awhile, the party noticed several shapes in the trees, and soon they were surrounded by almost 100 native warriors. A jovial, fat native and what looked like a phalanx of bodyguards and shamans came out of the trees, approaching them while shouting in Ashante. Mongo and Alando both spoke the tongue and came forward to parley. The large man turned out to be the chief they sought, Juma, and he questioned them carefully as his shamans cast spells on the pair. After showing him the note written by Marsh, and assuring him the party did not have evil intent (backed up by the results of the scrying spells cast by the shamans), Juma happily invited them to the village for a feast.

As they reached the village, the party could see it was very isolated, not used to outsiders or visitors (particularly any with white skin except for Marsh and his associates). The elf drew particular attention, with Kal and the ape Gra-Gra coming in for many looks of fear and astonishment (apparently a full-blooded elf had never made it this far into the interior of Delos, and what legends of elves survived among Juma's people did not paint them in a flattering light). Cadelaine also drew attention, for her white skin and half-elvish features, which made her exotic indeed as this tribe possibly had never seen a light-skinned woman.

A feast and entertainment (music with drums and dancing) was soon begun, with Mongo and Alando acting as translators for Juma’s questions. As they had guessed, Juma told them that the network of totem poles that surrounded the several square miles of jungle the village was set on kept out all reptiles, including the deadly serpent men (who could not come within 10 feet of a pole, and when passing through them suffered great pain, forced them into their true serpentish form, and incapacitated them until they could be killed). He said the poles were centuries old, a gift from the god Umgawa, who placed them around the village one day after sending the secret of their creation to the village shaman in his dreams. Over the years more poles were made and the originals and the new ones were slowly moved outward, expanding the village’s area of protection from a few hundred yards to a few miles. More and bigger poles were continually being made and enchanted by the tribe’s shamans, and these were used to expand the ring of protection still more, and some were even used to form “rest stations” here and there in the jungle where no reptiles could enter. Juma indicated that the first shamans that created totems were guided by dreams of Umgawa, who told them their village would be needed close to the Forbidden City in the year’s ahead to help others who explored there, and they were always told to give aid and succor to those who braved the evil city to destroy the reptiles within. As the year’s went on and the city became infested with the scaly ones, the village's purpose was fulfilled.

Juma told them that often the serpentmen’s allies and servants (particularly the hated tasloi) would attempt to destroy poles, so much time and effort was spent building protecting the old ones and constructing new ones. In fact, one of the main trade items the tribe sought were long smooth tree trunks. Marsh’s group (from House Mith) were the only “outsiders” the tribe did any commerce with, giving them dates, exotic fruits and animal hides in exchange for beads, cowrie shells, tools and steel weapons (with which to hunt and combat snakemen)

After a few amusing interludes (one where Juma attempted to marry off Mongo to one of his fat daughters, and another where he tried to purchase the “exotic” looking Cadelaine until Mongo made clear that Cadelaine was “his” and not to be bartered away), the darkness came and fires were lit, and Juma got down to business. After hearing the adventurer’s stories about the yuan ti slavers and the search for House Valaryan’s men, he told the party that the serpent men slavers were getting bolder in recent years, seeking more humanoid victims for sacrifice, food, or to be changed into histaachi or ophidian servants. He admitted that he recently had lost one of his many sons (a young man named Zura) to the claws of the serpent men, and would pay dearly to get him back. He had many tales to tell about the Forbidden City, although most sounded like tall tales or legends as he admitted he had never actually been to the city, and those that had survived and returned could not be trusted with their bizarre tales! Juma said none of his tribesmen had been into the city in many decades, and those poor souls who escaped the city that were found when out on patrol were often insane or died quickly from disease or poison; only a few lived and those quickly put the horrible experience behind them and became members of his tribe. Only glimpses of the city could be seen if one climbed the cliffs surrounding the valley the Forbidden City was located in…and these alone were frightening enough. Legends of a Black Necromancer who raised the walking dead, and a flying black reptile that could be a black dragon, as well as tales of hordes of frogmen and of course the serpent men and their allies attacking those in the ruins, were told around the fire until it was time for bed. The chief gave the party members community huts on the edge of the village and bade them good night.

Even in the relative safety of the village, the party set out a watch, so it was that after midnight strange noises were heard by Mongo and Sholo when on duty. Sounds of cries cut off, as well as rustling in the bushes, caused them to summon the rest of the sleeping party. Suddenly, half a dozen shapes came towards them in the darkness, with eyes lit by a red glow, obviously undead zombie men! The battle was joined, and the walking zombies proved to be terrible foes. The rest of the party joined the battle, and were dismayed to find the zombies had many powers including resistance to non-magical weapons, and the ability to ignore illusions (even Cadelaine’s invisibility, as she found after one chased her around and around the battle area). Endefal was able to turn five more that showed up through the bushes, but the ones remaining were tough and deadly foes. Village members that showed up to battle them were quickly killed as most of their weapons were non-magical and ineffective, so the party took the lead in battling the undead horrors. Soon, all the zombies lay chopped into pieces as the chief and his bodyguards arrived, solemnly telling the party that the patrolling guards had all been killed stealthily by the “ju ju zombies”. Juma told them that this appearance of the undead was unprecedented, which got the party to wondering if someone was keeping their eye on or following them…and had sent the zombies hoping to catch them unawares.

The next morning, the party got ready to leave, and Juma gave them gifts….magical arrows effective against serpentmen, many sacks of supplies consisting of dried fruit and water (to be stored in Endefal’s bag of holding), a Ring of Jumping, a magic stick that fired lightning bolts (happily taken by Cadelaine, who was slowly getting quite a collection of magical wands!) and one rather large gift: a 50 foot totem pole to act as a ward against reptiles! Although the gift was large, bulky and impractical, the party realized that the protection it offered was worth the trouble of hauling it through the jungle. Bidding Juma and the village farewell, the party started off the five miles or so to the only known entrance into the Forbidden City, guided by the many maps they had (including a new one penned by Juma’s chief shaman). They stayed off the well-trod path, and soon found the totem pole a huge problem to haul as it took all the strength and hands of Mongo, Nadal, Sholo and Kumar. Cadelaine quickly solved the problem by casting levitate on the pole, and this was very effective as the object could then be pushed through the air, leaving the fighter’s hands free for combat.

After a few hours, the party found many signs of the serpent men’s spoor and tracks. They stealthily crept to the entrance marked on the map, which stood inside a giant, mountainous cliffside covered with lianas, vines and bushes. The forbidding entrance was sure to be guarded, so while the party rested, Mongo decided to use the flying power of the sword Sentinel to fly up the cliffside and look at what lay at the top.

Borrowing Cadelaine’s invisibility ring, the flying fighter was astonished at what lay in front of him as he flew above the tall trees (some more than 100 feet tall) and cleared the cliff walls. On the other side of the large hill was an entire city in a huge rift there in the jungle! Perhaps a couple of square miles in circumference, from his vantage point 400 feet above Mongo could make out many buildings, towers, pyramids, pillars, and streets…all strewn with rubble and overgrown by foliage. The entire eastern end of the city was a gigantic swamp and lake, and looked quite formidable. The cliffs looked almost vertical and practically unclimbable…it would take quite an effort to enter the City not using the main entrance.

From his vantage point high above, Mongo could make out creatures moving on the thoroughfares….serpentmen, leading slave trains! He also made out several hopping figures near the swamp and the areas near there, obviously the horrible frogmen. As his power of flight only lasted an hour, he quickly looked around for any suitable area that the adventurers might enter the valley, and make camp. Seeing a likely spur of the valley a mile or so north, he quickly flew back down to the party and told them they were in for a long hike….

Talking together, the party discussed their next move, and decided entering through the main entrance would be foolhardy as it was likely to be well-guarded. Instead, they would climb the hill, and head around the cliff tops until they reached the small wooded area Mongo had glimpsed, which was separated from the Forbidden City by swamp. It would make a good camp spot, he told them, as they could be reasonably sure that no one from the city would cross the swamp to attack them (or if they did, there would be sufficient warning).

The rest of the day was hard going. The party hiked their way up the very steep mountainside perhaps 300 ft, then stood at the rim of the cliffs over the valley to take in what Mongo has described. Several features jumped out at them…the massive swamp, a large fortification of frogmen in the swamp, serpentmen walking the streets (the sight of them driving slaves in chains before them burned at Endefal’s very being, but patience was called for so he stood there fuming), the obviously ancient structures....here lay an entire "lost" city awaiting discovery!

Walking the precarious ledge of the cliffs, the adventurers made their way around the edge of the cliffside towards the spot Mongo had found from the air. Luckily they had no encounters, but did notice a lot of giant wasps flying to and fro in the air above the city, and uncomfortably close to the cliff tops. It was 400 feet at least from the clifftops to the city below, and it was very steep in many spots. They passed most of the swamp, and observed a lake there that seemed to go into the very cliff itself, with a waterfall coming from some underground river falling into it. Although numerous crocs were seen sunning themselves and swimming in the waters, no sign of a dragon-like being was witnessed.

Finally they made their way around the valley, and saw the area Mongo had spotted...it looked perfect, with a profusion of giant vines extended all along the cliff face the entire 350-400 feet of the cliff side. Only one problem: the nests of the giant wasps they had seen seemed to be congregated in the very spot! Careful observation showed the wasps nested in holes and caves on the side of the cliff obscured by vines….which was the only safe way down! Putting their heads together, a complicated but sure plan was developed. Making use of Cadelaine’s ring of invisibility and the ring of feather falling, each person in turn would put them on, jump off the cliff, and invisibly float to the ground. Mongo would then fly down, collect the rings, fly them back up, and the ritual would begin again. The totem pole, still under influence of one of Cadelaine’s levitation spells, could be levitated down also. As long as they were careful and Mongo did not attact any attention, they would be protected from wasp attacks (they hoped!)

The party decided on this course of action, and one by one the party went down into the valley spur, into the tall green trees and foliage. (Even the ape Gra-Gra, after much prompting by Kal, wore the rings and floated down, seemingly much amused by the procedure). They attracted a small bit of attention from the wasps when the totem pole was lowered, but the curious insects quickly buzzed away after finding it of no interest. Finally on the floor of the valley, the party almost immediately came upon perhaps a half dozen caves in the walls of the cliffs there. Inspecting one of the larger opening, they found they cave inside cool and dry, with a sandy floor, and nothing inside except for various bugs and bats. The interior was large (40x30) and contained a spur that lead to a freshwater pool fed by an underground stream! Surely the blessings of their various gods were upon them, and they claimed the cave as their “base” for further exploration. The totem pole was erected at the entrance of the cavern, after the fighter’s dug a deep pit to place it securely. It’s position would allow it to ward against any reptiles entering the cavern as it was placed within 10 feet of the opening. Kal and Endefal used the spell Stone Shape to mold and transform the entrance of the cavern….soon, they had the very wide opening down to a manageable 10x10 by shaping the stone, adding boulders, and sculpting the rocks down to a smaller entrance (to prevent any larger creatures from inspecting the opening or coming inside). The rest of the party was kept busy clearing out the cave, where they found large, gnawed bones indicating the presence at one time of a large predator….but the tracks and spoor were very old, and the cave apparently had not been used as a lair for some time.

A cursory look around the outside area (which was perhaps 100 yards wide and 500 yards long) showed signs of some creatures, as Mongo found tracks of wild boar, hyenas and lizardmen….but exploration would have to be put off until the next day as night was quickly falling, and in the valley with the steep cliffs, large vines and tall trees (some growing over 100 feet to reach the sunlight) it was soon pitch black as even the stars could not be seen! Setting their watch, and starting a small cook fire, the party indulged after their strenuous and difficult day with the last remaining fresh meat and cheese on hand…unless they found fresh meat they would be stuck eating dried fruit or biscuits from the flour they had been given by Marsh. Even a rare chance to bathe and wash the dirt and grime from their bodies was possible by hauling water from the freshwater pool into one of the smaller spurs, a luxury they had not had in the last week (the stench from Kumar was particularly awful; for some reason, the native priest seemed not to notice the eye-watering effect it had on nearby people and was encouraged to bathe by Endefal and the others).

Endefal cast a divination spell that evening; out of curiosity he asked “Where is the dragon?” and his deity showed him an image of the swamp, and especially the lake portion, and a voice said to him “Underneath the water”…which prompted Endefal to think perhaps the dragon had a lair behind the waterfall or in a underwater cave there. Although not talking of it much, the idea of a dragon being so close both intrigued and perhaps frightened the party of adventurers, as they felt it’s might would perhaps have to be dealt with if any exploration of the swamp was to take place. For this evening, however, they had a protected area for the first time in many days, and took advantage of it…tomorrow they would inspect the rest of the valley spur, checking the other caves to make sure no threats existed in their immediate vicinity, before crossing the swamp to investigate the city.

The Forbidden City: Part Two

2010-01-31T23:30:00.001-06:00

After resting the night and curing themselves, as well as stocking up on supplies, the adventuring group made ready to pursue the snakemen slavers deep into the jungle, perhaps into the Forbidden City itself. Traveling light, they would leave their beasts of burden behind, hoping to move fast enough through the jungle to overtake the caravan with Ardu and the others, even though the serpent people had a few days head start.

It was thus that Kalphistane, Cadelaine, Endefal, Mongo, Alando, Nadal, Kumar, Sholo and the loyal ape Gra-Gra made their way into the wilderness. Outside of the Valley of the Elephant, they back-tracked their way to the site of the ambush, and from there, began following the trail left behind by the serpent men.
The small group made good time through the jungle for the next three days…traveling quickly and quietly, they were able to avoid any dangerous encounters. Covering almost 30 miles in three days, they were able to eat up the distance between themselves and the captured slaves, but still the serpent men stayed maddeningly ahead of them. On the 4th day, resting inside a cavern, they were attacked by a large group of Carrion Crawlers who proved tough foes, having honeycombed the cave complex with many tunnels they used to attack by surprise. However, Cadelaine’s Web spell, as well as summoned and enlarged giant ants from Kal, turned the tide and allowed the party to kill all the crawlers and discover a small amount of treasure.
The next day the party traveled yet deeper into the jungle, and going began to get tough. It became obvious they were far, far off the beaten path, perhaps going where no outsiders had ever traveled before. Soon they began to see signs of the snake people, along with marks like beasts of burden and wagons. The next day, early on, they heard sounds of a large group heading through the jungle. Cadelaine and Mongo very stealthily scouted ahead and saw a small caravan of serpent people leading a group of slaves! Unfortunately, after following them for awhile they realized the slaves were not Ardu and the rest of the members of House Valaryan. Nevertheless, they hurried back to the group, where plans were made to rescue the slaves and kill the slavers.

Quietly and carefully scouting, the party numbered the enemy at around 20 tasloi, the same amount of ophidians, and nine pureblood serpentmen with three wagons and around a couple of dozen men in chains. Traveling ahead and setting up an ambush, the party hit the wagons with Entangle and Web as soon as they got near, and commenced with missile weapons on the serpentmen driving the wagons. The first two serpentmen drivers threw up darkness spells to shield them, but their allies the tasloi and ophidians were not as lucky and several were brought down with arrows and slings.

As Alando, Sholo, and Kumar stayed in cover of the jungle and used missile weapons, the rest of the party attacked. Cadelaine used several poisoned arrows and invisible attacks to confuse the enemies, while Endefal, Nadal and Mongo rushed in for hand to hand combat. Kal changed into leopard form to attack and destroy half a dozen tasloi, chasing them through the jungle and bringing them down. Mongo attacked his hated enemy with a fury, downing three ophidians and working towards the serpent men leaders themselves, as he and Endefal attacked their sworn nemesis. The druid Kal’s spells of summon insects and giant insects worked well as several giant wasps also aided the party members in stinging and killing serpent men, and Gra-Gra battled one serpent man to the death.

The battle was long and hard, and before it was over the middle wagon had been set afire by Endefal during the heat of battle, and the serpent and their allies were scattered. Mongo and Endefal managed to bring down three of the serpent men leaders each, and once the leaders were down their servants were no match. Several tasloi escaped into the jungle, but the ophidians and their masters were butchered to the last snake. Unfortunately in their anger the party had managed to destroy every reptile, with no one left to question! After the battle, as Endefal made his usual pyramid of heads, the enslaved merchants were released. Their leader, Marsh, was a fighter with House Tarn and thanked them profusely. He told the party members that they had been ambushed while trading with some of the more distant Ashante tribes, which was very lucrative since the attacks by serpent men had become worst in the last few months. Marsh mentioned the snake men, when attacking them, made sure not to try not to kill anyone and he had caught snatches of conversation that the party was destined to be sacrificed to some great evil! He affirmed their destination was a place called “The Forbidden City”, and from some notes and maps found among the serpent men’s supplies they soon pieced together where it was relative to the information they already had…not five miles distant, almost to the western edge of the Great Plateau itself!

Marsh stated that now rescued, he would take his decimated merchant train straight back to civilization, trying to avoid all conflict and ambushes, and let the leaders of House Mith and House Valaryan know of the dangers here. He rewarded the party members with a small bit of treasure and a small horde of potions he had kept hidden in a wagon, grateful as he was. He also gave them anything from the wagons they needed, and the party loaded up on flour, dried figs and dried pears as they might need the supplies in the future. Marsh also mentioned the village of his last trading partners, and drew the party a map to the heavily fortified location. He said the chief, Juma, had managed to hold out against many serpent men attacks and was now avoided by the scaly ones….the party would find a place to rest, recover and re-supply there if they wished. He gave them a note, written in Ashante, and told them to give it to Juma when they saw him so the native chief would recognize them as friends. At this, he and the survivors of his merchant train quickly began heading NW back to civilization. The party moved towards Juma’s village and camped for the night off the trail in case the escaped tasloi brought trouble. Another wave of Remove Curse and Cure Disease spells would follow the next day for the party members bitten by the ophidians, and after curing they slowly and carefully made their way through the jungle towards Juma’s village….

The Forbidden City: Part One

2010-01-14T19:04:00.000-06:00

The next week was a whirlwind of activity for the adventurers, despite finally being given time off the rest by the head of House Valaryan, Gam. After being allowed to rest for a few days, they were called into a conference with Gam, Talith, Ardu, and the Vistnan priest Vespasian. All the adventurers were there, including Alando, and the “tag alongs” Kumar and Sholo.

Gam quickly got down to business, telling the party that he had spent the last few days quickly getting together a large group to return to the valley to both set up a permanent camp there, and continue gathering the ivory tusks. He told them that per House Valaryan rules, they were entitled to a percentage of the ivory they had brought back. He brought several sacks of gold onto the table and said it equaled 36,000 gold pieces to be divided however they wished!!! He assumed the party (Endefal, Cadelaine, Kalphistane, Nadal and Mongo) would split the money evenly, and they voted to give Alando a share since his spells and healing had come in handy. Also out of their profit was taken weregild for the dead native porters, as well as payment for the caravan leader Ajada, and payment for the lost mules. He told them Kumar and Sholo must be paid out of their own shares, as they did not work for House Valaryan and were the adventurer’s responsibility. All in all, each adventurer received a sack of 5000 gp in coins and gems, a huge amount even after paying off Alando and Ajada. Gam told them that they had a week to rest; he was sending his best men, Talith and Ardu, to lead the next expedition and he wanted the characters to go along as scouts (since they knew the way there). However, he was giving them a bit of relaxation time to have a bit of fun.

While in the meeting, the subject was brought up of living arrangements; did the party members still have to stay in the House Valaryan barracks now, and what was the status of their servitude towards the house? Game explained that Mongo and Kal were free to go as they would; they were only employees of the house. Endefal was paying off his “rescue” from the sea by working for the House, but due to the vast amount of profits he had helped generate for them Gam declared him also free to go, to be employed by House Valaryan as he chose. Nadal must stay, he declared, as his father had given him to Gam to watch over; Cadelaine, also, was told to stay, as it appeared she might be the target of those who would wish her harm due to her “connections” to House Valayan (being the merchant prince’s bastard daughter). Cadelaine gladly said she would stay, as she knew it would be safer for both her and her adopted family if she lived within the walls of House Valaryan.

Kal immediately began making plans for a place of his own outside the walls of Port Maugre, in the shanty town of fishermen on the beach. He used much of his money to begin building a large, reinforced grass hut where he and his animals (the ape Gra Gra and the captured water buffalo of the cannibals) could live in peace. After getting rip roaring drunk in town, Nadal, Mongo and the wide-eyed Sholo decided to purchase a “bachelor’s pad” at the Number One Inn, keeping their own rooms in the inn with the tavern close by, so time spent in town could be spent enjoyably. Endefal and Kumar went to the small shrine of Attar and Endefal presented the head priest Jerrod with a massive offering of gold to further the aims of the god Attar. Jerrod gratefully accepted the offering, and rewarded his faithful servant with magic items (potions and magic sling bullets) and the knowledge that slavers were on the move. Scuttlebutt around town said that snakemen and their servants had been spotted nearby and several expected merchant trains had not shown up in the past week. Jerrod told the pair that the worshipers of Set were notorious slavers, and had been active for years, but only recently so bold as to kidnap entire caravans. Endefal and Kumar vowed to keep their eyes open in the future. Cadelaine spent most of her time to herself, sending gold and a generic message to her family back in the Empire.
Finally, after a week, the adventurers were once again called into Gam’s presence. His expedition back to the Valley of the Elephants was ready, and he once again needed the party. He told them that he wished to hire them to lead the larger caravan he had assembled back through the jungle to the Valley, as they had already blazed the trail. Their job would be to lead the merchant train to the valley, guard them as they loaded up ivory, and then lead them back….Gam assured them that this time, other mercenaries would go along to watch the caravan, their job would be scouts only. Although they hadn’t been back long, the party quickly agreed, as they already missed the simple Armec tribesmen and were eager to see how much they had progressed in the last few weeks in the valley.

Cadelaine asked Gam about whether Alando would also accompany them, and Gam said that unlike the first time he was not being supplied by the Vistnan priesthood, so he wasn’t being hired. Cadelaine then took it upon herself to travel to the Vistnan temple and meet with Vespasian herself. With Alando in tow, Cadelaine had an audience with the high priest, who surprised her by agreeing to not only meet with her, but to give her and Alando important information. First, he said he would release Alando again to travel to the Valley, and he also wished to “hire” Cadelaine for a job. Intrigued, the thief/magess wanted more details. Vespasian said that he had gone through the papers and books Alando had returned to them, and inside Honapo’s journal he had found several unusual tidbits. First, it appeared that whatever madness had overtaken Honapo was the result of some ancient tome he had found while in a library somewhere he referred to as “The Forbidden City”. This notation greatly intrigued Vespasian…an entire library of ancient knowledge somewhere in the depths of the jungle? He and the Vistnan priesthood wished to know more. He told Cadelaine (and Alando) to keep their eyes and ears open, and gave them a crude map he had transcribed from the notes of Honapo from the journal. If they were able to locate the location of the city itself, Vespasian promised great rewards in treasure and magic! On parting, he gave Cadelaine and Alando some minor potions and scrolls to help them on their journey, and told the adventuress she was free to keep this to herself, or share with her friends, but to be circumspect about who she trusted with the knowledge. For his part, Alando was ecstatic on being able to spend more time with Cadelaine and travel by her side once again for a long period of time.

As for the rest of the adventurers, after making donations to local temples in exchange for Healing potions and scrolls, they were once again ready to head out into the jungle. The caravan itself consisted of twice the mules, buffalos, and bearers as last time. It included a complement of a dozen mercenary fighters and priests, and the main House Valaryan fighter Talith (along with the ranger Ardu and the fighter Ajada) was in charge. Traveling a half mile ahead of the main caravan, the party picked up their old trail easily, and readied themselves for any sort of foe on the return to the valley.

For the next few days, travel was easy as they struck out over their well-marked trail, and the party noticed little activity in the jungle. As a matter of fact, they traveled almost the entire way to the valley with no opposition or monstrous battles. The only things that put them on edge were the complete lack of larger creatures (mammals or other) in the jungle, and the appearance of what appeared to be a large battle fought with the cannibals by snakemen, with no survivors on the cannibal’s side. Increasing they became suspicious of the lack of creatures in the jungle, and became super-vigilant of any sort of attack.

Within a day of the valley, the tension was finally broken. While traveling, the scout party of adventurers heard screaming, shouting, and the sounds of battle half a mile back at the caravan’s location. As they made to hurry back, they were attacked by a large undetected group of snakemen and their servants! Several dozen tasloi and ophidians, led by eight human looking snakemen and three “halfbreeds”, attacked from ambush. A giant snake/man crossbreed abomination commanded them from behind the battle lines, and began casting spells on himself to prepare for battle.

Quickly the battle was joined with a Sleep thrown by Cadelane taking out several of the tasloi, and a well placed Web spell trapping three of the pureblooded snakemen. Kal also used his Entangle spell to trap several other tasloi, and then hand to hand combat was joined. Cadelaine and Kal battled a snakeheaded half breed, while Mongo quickly chopped through another halfbreed with a long constricting tail. Endefal and Sholo battled another halfbreed with scales instead of skin, as the rest of the paty took on the pureblooded snakemen and opidians. Unfortunately as Mongo went to help another he was trapped with the nets and lassos of the tasloi, and those bitten by the snake-headed halfbreed were quickly saved with applications of the spell Slow Poison. The snakepeople and their allies fought expertly, and managed to bite most of the party members during the battle. It wasn't until Mongo got loose not once, but twice, from the nets of the tasloi that he was able to lead the charge against the reptilian foes. Finally only the leader was left, and he was brought down through the combined efforts of Mongo, Kal, Cadelaine and Endefal in a hard fought battle. The party was quite injured and unable to chase the few escaping tasloi and ophidians. Beaten, tired and bleeding, they finally made their way to the caravan to find chaos everywhere.

The attack here had consisted of twice as many snakemen and their allies, and Talith and his men had barely fought them off. Half the caravan’s native porters were dead or had been dragged off, and this included Mongo’s uncle Ardu! Many of the bearer animals had been slain also, it was quite a disaster. It appeared that an effort had been made by the snakemen to take prisoners rather than kill the caravan members. Quickly taking charge, Talith got the survivors together and with a couple of snakemen captives, made way through the jungle before dark to the abandoned Armec village ahead where they made camp. The surviving snakemen were charmed and made to tell much of their plans and the destination of the captured people before they were executed. Through this knowledge Talith and the rest were able to draw a crude map showing a location many miles deeper into the jungle, almost to the base of the great plateau!
In the day ahead, as Endefal, Kal and Alando cast Cure Diseases and Neutralize Poisons on the snake bitten party members, Talith called for the group. He told them that his job was the same as before….to harvest the ivory, even under such awful circumstances, even now that he was short of men. However, he gave the party leave to pursue the escaped snakemen through the jungle to rescue Ardu and the others taken prisoner by the reptiles. Cadelaine and Alando looked at each other, realizing the same thing: the map given them by Vespasian and the location indicated by the charmed snakemen led to the same place. It appeared that the so-called “Forbidden City” would be their destination! The party took the day to rest and interact with their friends in the Armec village, who had done much to start rebuilding their town and plant their crops, before taking what meager supplies the main caravan could spare and make their plans to track down and kill the hideous snakemen!

Elephant's Graveyard: The Return

2009-12-21T21:28:00.000-06:00

In the days that followed, the Armec people used building materials they had brought from their outside village to begin constructing a new village. The druid Kalphistane assisted their efforts to begin tilling the old fields with several spells that would make the plants grow faster and stronger. Cadelaine studied the spellbook taken from the temple to learn new spells. Endefal, Mongo and Nadal destroyed the stone golem guard in the upper temple to help clear it out, letting Brolo take it over as his own. The rest of the time was spent gathering ivory and getting it ready to transport via mule and water buffalo.
After several days, it was decided that after a week of gathering ivory, the party would make it’s way back to Port Maugre with as much tusks as they had, and let the next expedition gather the rest. They really only needed to prove the ivory was there, as well as supply a map, and their duty was done.

Part way through the week the party was joined by a young warrior lad of the Armecs, the chief’s son, who told them his name was Sholo and he was curious about the world outside the Armec village and valley. Although his father did not approve, Sholo had decided to follow the party to Port Maugre. His hero worship of the native warrior and elephant god worshipper Mongo was evident, and he appeared quite fit and athletic, so the party acquiesced to his entreaty and let him join up with them. The reasoned they would need all the help they could get on the way back, and Sholo looked competent with his weapons and eager to help.
One night while guarding the porters gathering the ivory, there was a disturbing encounter. As the party rested, a group of snakemen and their ophidian servants crept close enough to the group to attack, seeking to capture rather than kill party members. They were led by a spear wielding human looking snakemen with slitted eyes and forked tongue, and a halfbreed snakeman with a snake head and a deadly poisonous bite. Half the party was back at the new Armec village, but Cadelaine and Endefal managed to hold off the serpent men long enough for Mongo, Kalphistane and his ape to join the fray. The monsters were quickly killed, except for a couple that managed to escape into the night. Following him, they found a small group of guards at the valley entrance had been overcome and were tied there, awaiting the return of the snakefolk ( to be taken to some unknown fate, probably slavery). From that point forward the party made a point to watch the entrance, and trapped it with glyphs of warding and various traps set by Endefal and Cadelaine, respectively.
Soon, a week passed and 900 lbs of ivory were gathered. Goodbyes were made, including several Armec ladies who had enjoyed the favors of Mongo and were perhaps future mothers of Mongo’s brood. Traveling out of the valley, the party resent the traps to the entrance and the druid Kalphistane cast several spells to cause the vines growing over the outer entrance to extend and grow thicker, further concealing the valley. The party hoped their way back would be quicker and their journey to the valley, as they were worried about the length of time it might take them to arrive back at Port Maugre….perhaps House Tarn or another rival would ambush them along the way, and they were ready.

Several days passed with few incidents. Passing through the area where the cannibal tribe had been found earlier, the party was attacked by almost 50 of the savaged, and a pitched battle followed. Several cannibal leader types were among the attackers, and the battle was very deadly. Half a dozen native porters were killed and dragged off for food, and both Sholo and Kumar were knocked unconscious. The cannibal leader rode a tamed water buffalo, which Kal held, throwing the leader onto the ground and making him a quick kill for Endefal and Mongo. The rest of the cannibals were slowly brought down, until at the end only a half dozen lived to retreat back into the jungle. The battle however had taken it’s toll with several native porters and mules dead, and the party shook up by the violence of the attack. They quickly gathered their surviving animals and porters, as well as the ivory, and headed to the Kumar’s village which was nearby and a good place to rest and recuperate.
The next day they continued their trip, and on the way back to Port Maugre only ran into a few menaces, including a group of trolls, some jungle stirges, and finally a band of half-ogres who attempted to ambush the caravan. Another battle was fought, and a surviving half-ogre mercenary confessed his group had been hired by “someone” to make sure the caravan never reached Port Maugre. More evidence that someone knew much more than they should was evident, but the party could only concern themselves with reaching Port Maugre, as by this time they were only a day away.
Finally, after more than a month away from “home”, the party entered the gates of Port Maugre at the head of the merchant train, causing dozens of villagers and merchants to crowd around and comment on the size and amount of the ivory. A huge group gathered but let the party pass to the gates of the House Valaryan estate, where the tired group reported in to Gam and the priest Vespasian.
After a short rest, the ivory was unloaded, and Gam debriefed the successful group on their journey. His happiness at their quest was quite evident, and after their tale he immediately began making plans for a larger, better equipped group to travel back to the Elephant’s valley and begin the task of gathering all the ivory. The party was given leave to rest after their rough journey. Finally, a well cooked dinner, hot bath, and soft bed to sleep in were the only reward for the triumphant adventurers as they quickly took advantage of their return to indulge themselves.

THE ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD: CONCLUSION

2009-12-14T19:26:00.000-06:00

The Elephant’s Graveyard: Conclusion.

After the epic battle against Honapo and the golem, the party spent the next day in the relative safety of the priest’s tomb, healing and resting. Soon, they begin to finish their explorations of the temple, as there were several locked rooms they had not visited. One in the main hallway had a symbol on the door that Alando had identified as a Symbol of Death, so they avoided it. They went into the room next to it (which appeared to be a priest’s room and tomb) and stone shaped a door out of the wall, entering the large room. It was a mage’s tomb, with only a dozen or so skulls there, and a large book resting on a pedestal in the center. Once again, using the powers of a priest of Vistna, Alando was able to see another symbol upon the pedestal. Not wanting to disturb it, they brainstormed various methods of retrieving the book, and finally stone shaped the floor under the pedestal, causing the book to drop, which Cadelaine expertly caught before it hit the ground. Checking out the book, it appeared to be a large ancient spellbook with dozens of spells, all written in ancient Armec.

Also in the tomb was found a long stone rod. Alando examined it and noticed the runes along the sides were a history of sorts…the history of the Armec people! This would prove invaluable to the priests of Vistna. The top unscrewed, and within the hollow center were five potions. All were tasted and found to be potions of longevity…Alando said this fit the history of the Armecs, which stated mages were rare and might live 100’s of years.
With the spellbook and rod, the group made to exit the tomb. Mongo went back to the resting place of Armec to retrieve the sword. The sword, Sentinel, stated it was a Defender blade that could give other powers (flight and Detect Magic). All it asked is that it’s bearer be the protector of the Armec people, who were in perilous danger of becoming extinct since there were so few of them left. The blade also noted that Armec’s skeleton was wearing powerful studded leather armor, and Mongo should also wear that in his quest against evil. Mongo assented to the terms of the sword, a small price to pay for such a powerful weapon.
Leaving the lower level, the party made their way back up, and brainstormed a way to get the elephant god icon out of the room with the statues. Working a method where Mongo flew in and attached a line to the icon, it was yanked out, and Mongo narrowly avoided one of the stone statues that came to life and tried to crush him (but did not follow him out of the room). The party then decided to leave the building, and begin the long task of summoning their bearers, and gathering the ivory, and telling the Armecs the valley was again clear.
However, danger still awaited them. Upon exiting the temple, a hideous site reached their eyes…as they passed through the gate (noticing the elephant that had earlier attacked the temple peacefully grazing outside), the 20 stone statues surrounding the temple suddenly moved, and came to life! As one, they began striding after the party, death in their eyes. The party scattered, trying to separate the statues, but they kept heading after Endefal…who was carrying the elephant god icon! Endefal immediately went into the lake, and although it slowed the statues down, they doggedly followed Endefal across the lake. Getting an idea, Endefal yelled to Mongo to fly over, take the icon, and throw it in the lake. Doing so, Mongo dropped the jeweled icon in the center part of the small lake. The statues followed, to eventually come to a halt surrounding the sunken icon. Standing thus, the party decided they were no longer a menace and made quite a good monument up to their rocky waists in the lake. Whatever the icon was worth, it was not worth battling the stone guardians over

Again resting and preparing to travel back to the entrance to retrieve their porters, mules and water buffalo, the adventurers were surprised to see a long caravan of people and belongings headed their way, followed by their own merchant train. Soon, the Armecs reached the area by the lake. Brolo the shaman commended the party on task fulfilled, saying he saw their victory in his dreams, as well as the death of Ark and the destruction of Honapo. Saying that now that the valley was cleansed, the Armec people would resettle the valley, and stop the decline of their race. Having spoken thus, Brolo collapsed, as his 90 years appeared to be finally catching up with him. He whispered that he only wished he had been able to train another elephant shaman, as he was the last of his kind. Quickly, Endefal grabbed the rod and poured the contents down the throat of the dying shaman. Immediately, Brolo grew younger, and soon was a heartier 80 years of age, and not in danger of dying! The slightly rejuvenated Brolo thanked them, saying they had given him the gift of another decade to train another Elephant God shaman to protect the tribe. The now victorious group gathered their men, and the Armecs, and had a huge celebratory feast where for the first time in several weeks they allowed themselves to enjoy themselves (and Mongo seeded himself liberally among willing Armec women).

THE ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD: PART FOUR

2009-11-23T13:54:00.002-06:00

Having dealt with the Pteraman menace, the party rested overnight on the quiet, lush plain filled with scrub grass and elephant bones. Nothing bothered them in the night, and the only sounds were the occasional hyena or jackal cry. The next morning was clear and bright, and the party completed the rest of the hike to the end of the valley. Beside a small (500 yds around), placid lake fed by a waterfall, there stood a large granite wall surrounding a one story stone building. The gate in front was opened, but the adventurers spent some time investigating the lake (finding nothing but fish and fresh water within), and a large cavern nearby (finding nothing but a few wandering carrion crawlers that were quickly dispatched). Finally, the adventurers entered the stone gate and stood before a large granite building, crumbling in places, with 20 statues surrounding it depicting a creature with the body of a human and the head of an elephant. At that time, they heard something from behind them in the valley….going up on the wall, Kal and Mongo saw in the distance a large bull elephant, seemingly uninjured and not near death, traveling at full speed towards the temple! Fearing the elephant had been summoned by Honapo, they shut and locked the gates, and retreated into an inner courtyard. Soon after, they heard the large elephant slamming into the gate, which shook and cracked, but did not give. Kal attempted to speak to the elephant, and even charm it, but a foreign presence in the elephant’s mind prevented him from learning anything useful. Obviously, the same force that had taken over the temple was able to summon and control elephants….they had to forge ahead unless they wanted to battle the giant pachyderm to the death!

After talking with several coconut bearing trees in the courtyard, Kal learned that no one had left the building in almost 100 years, except for a large elephant-headed man who placed the stone statues around the exterior of the building. Cadelaine was able to force open the door to the building, and a grisly sight met their eyes: a pile of skeletal remains on the inside of the door, with their bones cracked and crushed. Searching the first few rooms on the upper level, the party found nothing but barracks and chambers for the Armec warriors, some dead in their rooms, their skeletons showing they tried to defend themselves from some superior force.
Carefully going from room to room, the party found grim evidence that all the inhabitants had been slain at one time or another, probably by Honapo. In one room a skeleton which looks like he was a warrior of some authority (perhaps a captain of the guard), lay crushed and dead. As his sword and armor were not aged, they were gathered up by the party, as well as a beautiful matched pair of daggers in his footlocker. Throughout the temple, the party attempted to not become tomb robbers as they realized the wealth and items within belonged to the Armec people, so often they bypassed items of wealth and worth….their reward would come later, after clearing the temple and getting back to Port Maugre with the ivory!
One room on the ground floor contained a stairway leading to a lower level, but the group continued to search the upper level to cleanse it of evil. A large barracks was found with dozens of skeletal warriors, and a pitched battle was fought as Endefal could only turn a portion of them. After a long battle, and imaginative use of Cadelaine’s web spells, over 30 of the skeletons lay destroyed across the floor. Another room that appeared to be a priest’s room contained a large snake in the ceiling, which dropped on the unsuspecting Mongo and was quickly killed by Kal and Endefal. A hole was found in the ceiling and the snake had obviously entered through, but it looked too unstable to be used to leave from. In the room, and in a high priest’s room next door, the party came across several small, silver plated ivory tusk replicas studded with sapphires…holy symbols of the Elephant Cult. Mongo felt a sudden pull from the symbols and placed one around his neck, feeling a religious fervor he had never before felt in his young life. The next room appeared to be the original room of Honapo, which was richly decorated and contained a larger and much more valuable holy symbol of the type found in the lesser priests’ quarters. It’s presence here was ominous, as it must prove that Honapo no longer followed the will of the Elephant spirit.

Also in Honapo’s old room the party found a large ivory mace, which Endefal took for himself (and named “Tantor”, by runes written on it’s head), a magic scroll of Protection from Fire, and a notebook written in ancient Delosian. Translating it, Alando said it was Honapo’s journal, and the most important entries were the last ones….Honapo stated he and a small group would be soon exploring a nearby Forbidden City, which rested in a valley in the jungle, where it was rumored many buildings still stood and a large ancient library still held many books and scrolls. Honapo told of his eagerness to investigate the ancient writings, and the party speculated finding a cursed or evil tome, or perhaps an intelligent, evil weapon or item, caused Honapo’s insanity.
Another room contained several holes in the walls, and an unusual plant growing in the room that Kal was wary of. He identified it as a yellow musk creeper, a nasty growth that was known to grow into a person’s brain and take over the body. From the doorway, several vials of oil were thrown at the root bulb, and set alight, which killed the plant. Searching the room only turned up a smattering of ancient gold and silver coins that the party gathered up.
The final room on the level seemed to be some sort of a temple. Two elephant statues stood against a wall, with a golden icon of a elephant headed man between them. In front, a jeweled dagger lay on a low pedestal. Thinking trapped, Cadelaine slowly entered and searched the room, discovering a pit trap by the door, and some sort of trap around the icon and on the pedestal. Leaving the icon for now (concerned the elephant statues would come to life if something on the altar was touched!), Cadelaine carefully tied twine around the hilt of the dagger, then exited the room to yank it off. Sure enough, after leaving the pedestal, a sharp pendulum swung down, which would have struck anyone standing in front of the pedestal. The dagger was small and rusted but had a nice sapphire in the hilt, which Cadelaine soon pried out.

Nothing was left but to explore downwards. Taking the staircase, the party came upon a dark and dusty hallway with many doors leading off it. They soon found the lower level contained the tombs of the Armecs, and they had the unusual habit of burning the bodies (as evidenced by a large room with a pit full of burned bones, and several barrels of a clear substance that burned without smoke). In other rooms they found skulls of the dead arranged in shelves along the walls, some wearing jeweled headbands (that the party left alone out of respect for the dead). One room held many zombies that shuffled to the attack as the door was opened, but it was quickly closed. What looked like a “commoner” crypt with thousands of skulls was discovered, and a “warriors” crypt with many skulls was searched and a single large sapphire was found in the brim of a helm (and taken by the party). A crypt with some sort of symbol inscribed on the door (which Alando identified as a Symbol of Death!) was bypassed for the time being; a narrow, small tomb was then found with a single stone slab and an actual skeleton resting upon it. The skeleton wore nice studded leather and held a beautiful long sword and shield. Reading the inscriptions, Alando stated this was the Tomb of Arm, the warrior-hero of the Armecs that had led them to the valley over 1000 years ago. He had been specially honored with this internment, a tomb of his own and his body intact.

The party very carefully stood outside, reluctant to go inside in case of traps. Finally, after Cadelaine gave the all clear after examining the room, Kal, Endefal and Mongo went inside and began searching the small tomb. Curiosity overcame Mongo, and he grabbed and lifted the sword….with amazing results! Immediately, a voice spoke in his mind saying it was the sword, Sentinel, and he was the ultimate weapon of the Armecs. Saying he was a special defender sword with the power to give flight and detect magic, he urged Mongo to head for the door at the end of the hallway straight away to battle Honapo. Suddenly, upon taking the sword, the three in the tomb noticed a small, one inch tall figure that leapt upon the ground from the arch above the doorway…the figure rapidly grew, until it filled the entire doorway, preventing escape! The large, clay monster began attacking, and swinging the newly acquired Sentinel did not harm the golem at all, bouncing off his hide, as the golem pounded the fighter. Endefal swung the mace Tantor, which put a dent in the figure, as Kal quickly cast Stone Shape on the south wall to form a crude passageway into a crypt beyond! The party members quickly squeezed through the opening, which was too small for the golem to follow through. Sticking an arm through got it broken off due to a strike from Endefal and his mace, so the golem retreated back in the tomb and began pounding on the stone door (which had been quickly shut by Cadelaine and Nadal from the hallway!). Thinking quickly, Endefal ran through the door out into the corridor, and used his Stone Shape spell to blend the edges of the stone door with the wall, trapping the golem. The creature, however, continued to pound on the wall, causing dust and grit to settle down from the roof and the wall to slightly shake, but he had little chance of escaping.

Deciding at this point to rest up and regain spells (and cure themselves) before talking the rooms farther down the corridor, the party made to leave the lower level for up above. However, the sword Sentinel would have none of this! His purpose to destroy Honapo overrode everything else, and he took over Mongo’s mind and body. Suddenly, the ranger got a strange look in his eyes, and sprinted down the corridor to kick open the door at the end! Inside, the party could hear a buzzing sound as a strange mist (which obscured the floor) began drifting out.
At the end of the large room stood what was obviously Honapo, a large figure with the head of a elephant and body of a giant man, wielding a large ivory battleaxe. The imposing figure was surrounded by a couple of dozen flying giant wasps, who the priest obviously controlled.
Endefal attempted to stop Mongo/Sentinel’s mad charge with a charm, but all the charm did was completely subsume Mongo’s personality, and with that the sword took over completely. Activating it’s fly power, Sentinel flew across the room to engage Honapo in hand to hand combat! Caught totally by surprise, the rest of the party began the run down the corridor to help Mongo against the evil priest. However, they were stopped at the door by the attacking wasps, and soon they were caught up in battling the flying insects to try and get inside the room.
The giant wasps proved formidable foes, sometimes stinging an adventurer and paralyzing him, only to have one of the priests cast slow or neutralize poison to get him on his feet again. A stalemate of sorts was thus joined at the entrance to the room, as Mongo and Honapo hacked away at each other furiously. Soon, however, the evil priest’s battleaxe was taking his toll, and Mongo was forced back in danger of death. Ark took the initiative, jumping into the room and running to the combat, and getting close enough to Mongo to throw him a pouch filled with Healing potions. Mongo caught the pouch, and backed off enough to drink them quickly as Ark and then Nadal engaged the elephant priest. Nadal, however, triggered a trip (the misty fog prevented anyone from seeing the floor) and a bear trap snapped on his leg, pinning him. At the same moment, several giant wasps swarmed Ark, sending him to the ground, and to the horror of the party members he was stung again and again, and soon lay dead and unmoving under the mist!

Cadelaine then realized she must use the Wand of Frost otherwise Nadal and Mongo would follow Ark into death. Firing her wand in the air inside the room, she killed a dozen or so of the wasps, and was able to clear a path into the room. Entering, both Kumar and Alando triggered another trap, falling into a pit, as Endefal hit the room and Honapo with Dispel Magic. The spell worked well, dispelling the fog, the wasps, and several protection spells on the Elephant priest. Unfortunately, Honapo countered with his own Dispel Magic in the corridor….which had the unfortunate effect of undoing the Stone Shape on the door of the room holding the clay golem!!! Soon, the party faced danger on two fronts as the golem kicked in the door and emerged into the corridor….

Meanwhile, in the room, Mongo was hit by Honapo hard enough to lift him off the room and slam him against the wall, unconscious. Kal, Endefal, Nadal and Gra Gra the ape swarmed the priest, and after a flurry of blows, brought the evil creature down! At that, the party felt a tremor through them and the temple, as the spirit of the Elephant God, trapped inside the form of Honapo the last century, was released to once again tread the world. Immediately, Honapo turned to dust…..but just as immediately, the clay golem leapt into the room over the pit (landing on the dead Ark and crushing him completely to goo) and began flailing at the party! Only blunt magical weapons would injure the golem, so only a few of the party members could even combat him. Alando was helped out of the pit trap by Cadelaine, and he joined Endefal in swinging his mace at the creation, while Kal threw magical sling stones at the monster.
Alando was quickly beaten to unconsciousness, and Nadal picked up his mace to strike the creature, but soon followed him as a mighty fist struck him and took him out. Only Endefal (who had paused many times to cure himself and drink potions) was still standing to battle the monster hand to hand, but the golem had several pieces missing and was unsteady. Kal kept throwing stones that struck the mark, and finally Endefal struck a blow with Tantor that cracked the golem down the center, destroying it.

At the destruction of the golem, it grew silent within the tomb, and the unconscious party members were bandaged and healed. A decision was made at that point, with such serious injuries among the party, to rest in Honapo’s room and pray for healing. The remains of Ark (crushed beyond recognition) were taken into the cremation room, and the priests gave his remains over to the fire after a short ritual. Brolo’s prediction of a party member’s death had come true; luckily, it had been the once evil ranger (who had proven valuable even in death) and not some other. The Helm of Alignment Change the ranger had wore was bent beyond repair, and could no longer be used to convert their foes, so it was tossed into the same fire that was used to dispose of the ranger's body.

THE ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD: PART THREE

2009-10-31T21:14:00.001-05:00

The expedition continued on with clear weather for a change, as Ark took the place of Roho in the scouting party of Mongo and Kal that traveled 100 yards ahead of the main group. The next day, the party came upon a small group of apes that had brought down a beast of the jungle…carnivorous apes! This rare species fed on bloody, red meat as well as the fruits and berries of their brethern. Sensing they could get by this encounter without killing the great beasts (the hairy apes stood 7 feet tall and looked very mean and powerful), the rangers and druid did not attack but instead threw the apes food and did not appear threatening. Kal began speaking with one, and casting Animal Friendship, got the giant beast (who said his name was “Gra-Gra”) to follow him around like a docile puppy…..a docile puppy that enjoyed eating red, bloody meat (as they found when they were attacked by wild boars about an hour later, where Gra-Gra promptly ripped one in half and began noisily feasting!).

As the expedition continued, and hour or so later the scouts were shocked to hear the sounds of battle and shouting up ahead…as well as a loud baritone singing voice which they found strangely familiar. Summoning Nadal and Cadelaine, the small group rushed into the jungle and came upon a grisly scene: a clearing that held the remains of some sort of expedition, surrounded by a horde of cannibal warriors about to overwhelm the party. Bodies of cannibals and members of the expedition, along with dead mules and broken carts, were strewn across the small glade as the remnants of a party, their backs against a stone cliff, were making their last stand shooting crossbows and arrows into the mass of screaming, slavering natives. The party quickly made plans, coming from the rear they were not seen or heard by the natives. Ark and Kal threw Entangle spells, Cadelaine threw two Sleep spells, and a couple more Hold Person spells by Endefal took away fully half the 50 or so warriors.

Mongo rushed into combat and quickly killed a shaman chanting spells before being set upon by bloodthirsty, howling native berserkers. Endefal engaged the leader of the natives, who had been blinded by a spell cast by Kal, and quickly killed him also. The rest of the party, including the ape Gra-Gra, began hand to hand fighting. Cadelaine snuck through the battle invisible and helped the trapped expedition survivors by casting Web at an attacking group, capturing a half dozen of the natives. She then saw the leader of this party was Drake, the intenerant bard of Port Maugre. Meanwhile, the battle was a tough one against the berserking natives and at one point Kumar and Alando had to join the fray for their healing powers, as Ark went down unconscious and several other party members were desperately injured. Gra-Gra was a definite asset, ripping off heads, arms and legs of cannibals and pausing to take a bite or two before getting back to the business of killing. Even Kal’s stores of goodberries came in handy as they were eaten by the handful to keep up strength and soon the natives were all either dead or routed. Pausing for curing, they checked with Drake and the members of his party, also healing and helping the few left of his group.
Drake heartily thanked the party and said he and some other mercenaries were out looking for adventure when they had run afoul of the cannibal horde. He offered the party extra rations and half of the little treasure he and his men had gathered (several ivory tusks) as his only aim now was to make it back to Port Maugre in one piece. He wished the party luck and continued on his way, as the adventurers quickly left the scene of carnage (and half a hundred dead bodies) for fear of predators, and continued moving down the trail.

Finally, early the next day, the end of their trip was in sight as the map showed only a few miles to the village at the mouth of the Elephant’s Graveyard. Pushing ahead wearily, the rangers noted several human footprints criss-crossed with reptilian footprints and tail dragging the ground. Discussing the find briefly, the party (consisting of Ark, Mongo, Endefal, Cadelaine, Kal and his ape) decided to follow the reptilian tracks, as Mongo identified them as Ophidians, servants, scouts and guards of the dreaded snakemen (the Yuan Ti).
They quietly followed the trail to a steep overhang looking over a small village. The village was undoubtedly the one marked on their map, and they saw five of the ophidians observing the villagers go about their daily business. After a short planning session, Cadelaine snuck up invisibly and hit the group with a Web spell…only one got loose, and he was set upon by Ark and Endefal, who quickly killed him. Suddenly, two unseen snake creatures slid out from the rocks and attack the party, with Mongo, Cadelaine and Gra-Gra taking care of them. As they did so, The other members of the party pour oil on the trapped ophidians and lit them on fire, killing them. During combat both Gra-Gra and Kal had been bitten by the creatures, and Mongo told them that per legend, the poison would cause them to become ophidians in a few days time. Quickly, Cure Disease spells were cast by the priests to prevent this awful eventuality.

Having seen and heard the combat, as well as the plume of rising smoke, the villagers were observed running into their small village surrounded by a 10 foot stone wall as the gates were dragged shut behind them, a warning horn being sounded at the first sign of fire so close to the village. The party members soon presented themselves at the gate with several ophidian heads prominently displayed on the ends of their weapons so as to quell any fears the villagers had concerning their intentions. They noticed there were only perhaps a dozen warriors on the walls, indicating a very small tribe. Soon, the chief Hamar and his shaman Brolo were engaged in conversation with Mongo (which, despite drinking a Philter of Persuasiveness, they found very confusing), then Alando and Kal (who could somewhat understand the ancient Delosian dialect of the tribesmen). After telling the villagers they meant no harm and were there to trade food (which the tribesmen, known as the Armecs, were very much in need of), the gates were opened and the small expedition with pack animals was allowed to enter.
Entering the small village, the adventurers noticed the poor health and non-existent wealth of the Armecs. Talking with the chief, with the shaman hovering around, the adventurers were told that the Armecs barely scraped out a living here on the edge of the jungle with their few crops and very small amount of game the hunters brought in. Due to the nearby cannibal tribe, and the threats of predators like the ophidians, the men of the tribe were reluctant to travel very far to hunt or gather. The party immediately sensed the helplessness and sincerity of the chief and his villagers; they were probably on the last generation of the tribe if conditions continued. The adventurers gladly opened up their wares to the grateful villagers, sharing the contents of the large amount of iron rations Drake and his group had given the party for being rescued. This was obviously more food than the Armecs had seen in awhile; immediately, the chief called for a celebration in honor of the visitors as the hungry villagers began eating the bread, meat and cheese.

Soon after, as the small caravan had settled inside the village (which only numbered a dozen or so stone buildings inside the enclosure), and as they shared their rations with the Armecs, the ancient-looking shaman got up to speak. The adventurers had been asking about the “elephant’s graveyard” for awhile, and the chief had talked about it only in passing, to say that the entrance to the valley where the elephants died was only a short distance away. As the shaman faced the characters, they could see the carved ivory elephant token hanging from his neck, identifying him as a shaman of the Elephant cult.
In answer to their questions, and why they had come, he told them in his dreams he had seen his own death not far in the future (from what he said and events in the past he talked about, the party estimated his age at 90 or more). However, he had also seen the arrival of the adventurers, and the fact they would be searching for the elephant’s graveyard. He looked across the fire at the cliffside past them and spoke: “ When I was still a small child, the Armecs lived in the “Valley of the Elephants”, which was abundant in everything we needed….there was a small lake with fish, fields to plant crops, and many edible creatures. A temple was built there in worship of the Elephant God, and many a generation of Armecs lived peacefully in the valley and tended the temple there (the tribe was named for it’s greatest warrior of centuries past, Arm).
Many years ago, a man called Honapo became high priest. One day he came back from a journey outside the valley filled with madness. He entered the temple swinging a great battle axe and struck down many of the Armecs. Only those who quickly ran outside survived. Honapo then locked the doors of the temple with himself inside. Frightened by what had happened, my people left the temple and the valley to make a home for themselves outside the valley, in the edge of the jungle. Any who re-entered the valley since that awful day decades ago never returned, so now it is forbidden to return there and no one living in the village has seen inside the valley except for myself. In the years since, some mystical power is in the valley, possibly caused by the priest Honapo and whatever has befallen his mind…dying elephants began to find their way here from all over the jungle, and they all travel down the tunnel into the valley never to return. Sometimes the gods intercede and one of the great beasts falls dead outside our walls, not making it into the valley, and our god has told us this is for our survival as we are then able to use it’s meat, tusks, bones and skin for our purposes since it is taboo for us to kill any of the great beasts ourselves.”
Brolo paused to stare down, clearly exhausted by his long speech and the memories. “Leaving the valley proved to be the downfall of our tribe, as each successive generation has grown smaller. While in the valley, we were protected from attack, but for the last few decades the beasts of the jungle and eaters of flesh have worn down the tribe to its present state. The only thing standing between us and utter destruction is myself, the last Elephant Cult shaman. When under attack I can summon elephants to battle intruders…Unfortunately, I am very old now and can barely call the power to summon the elephants, and the village will have no shamans or protectors after I die…and I have not very long to live. Please when you enter the valley, cleanse the temple of evil, for in my last days I will be able to re-consecrate the temple then and my people will again have a land they can dwell in and be protected from the outside evils of this land. I can then die with the knowledge my people are safe. ” At this, the shaman sat down and was silent, except for one more thing. “I have seen in my dreams your arrival here, and you will free the valley from it’s curse, but some of you will die. I and my people thank you for your sacrifice…and know the Elephant God looks upon you with favor also.

The next morning, plans were made for the party to investigate the Valley of the Elephants. The chief told them his son, Sholo, would guide them to the entrance (which was in the cliff wall, shielded by hanging vines), but could go no further….from there, it was up to the adventurers. So, Kal and the ape Gra-Gra, Cadelaine, Mongo, Endefal, Nadal, Ark, Alando, and Kumar packed up their supplies and followed the chief’s son to the entrance several hundred yards away. They left Sholo at the large opening and pushed past the hanging vines…there was a tunnel 200 feet long lit by light from the other side, and the tunnel was immense…large enough for the great elephants to pass inside on their journey into the valley.
The trip through the tunnel was short, and soon the party stood at the entrance of a valley, approximately 1 mile wide and five miles long. Around the entrance where they stood, the floor of the valley gradually tilted down to a basin, where shimmered a small lake, and a large stone building. Between them and the structure was several miles of broken plain, and the sun gleamed off the hundreds and hundreds of elephant skeletons laying all across the valley floor! The party surveyed the area; besides right next to the entrance, there was little growth except for scrub bushes and grass, and the sides of the valley looked crumbling and sheer. Several groups of large vultures fed on recent elephant corpses, and the adventurers saw several lone jackals and hyenas running across the plain. Nothing but small animals, scavengers, seemed to inhabit the treeless valley.
As the party made their way from the entrance, suddenly the air filled with pollen. Ark, Alando and Kumar had a glazed look in their eyes, and began walking towards what appeared to be a large, 6 foot tall flytrap…a gigantic “mantrap”! They had been hypnotized by it’s pollen, and began heading toward the open maws of the plant to step inside, but Kal threw up an Entangle to stop them, and then Endefal used several vials of oils to burn the abomination to the ground. After it was on fire, the charmed individuals’ heads cleared, and the group began to head into the valley.

However, attracted by the smoke, several man sized winged creatures began circling the party from a couple of hundred feet up. Coming from what looked like caves on the side of the mountain, these dozen or so creatures began trailing the party from above as the adventurers moved through the valley. Small bones crunched under feet as the party marveled at the sheer amount of elephant skeletons scattered across the plains…estimates of how much ivory could be brought out of the valley by Nadel and Ark took the total over 100,000 gp worth! Walking past and through huge skulls, rib cages, leg bones, and great curving tusks, the party could see nothing alive except for small rats, mice, insects and such. The occasional jackal and hyena kept their distance, as did the great vultures feeding on the corpses. Only the winged beings kept pace with the adventurers, keeping a couple of hundred feet away as they circled overhead and began screaming to each other in a strange guttural language. Ark gave them a grim look and told the party he recognized the creatures…”Pteramen”. They were winged reptilian beings, he said, with no redeeming qualities…as a matter of fact Ark told them, they were cruel and evil and lived in trees and caves attacking creatures weaker than themselves, not just for food, but for sport.
Resolving they needed to find out more about the reptilian flyers, Cadelaine volunteered to climb to their caves. Turning invisible, she made the long climb up over 180 feet to a ledge that connected several cave entrances. The stench of shit and worse hit her nostrils, causing her eyes to water as she gagged, moving invisibly and silently past several of the perching creatures (who resembled, in her mind, winged lizardmen). Walking through a few caves and searching, she found some bodies of past explorers and their packs. Cadelaine was able to gather a wand, a scroll tube, and many gold pieces, until picking up a bulging leather pouch, the rotting thing fell apart dropping dozens of gold coins onto the stone floor with a ringing sound. Immediately, the flying reptiles went silent, only to began screaming and squawking as they rushed through the caves angrily searching for an intruder. Very quietly, Cadelaine slipped out and climbed down the cave, bringing her findings to the party. Identifying the wand would have to wait, but upon opening the bone scroll tube they found a priest’s scroll with several spells.

Suddenly, the air 100 feet above the party was a dozen or so pteramen clutching rocks. They began dropping them on top the heads of the party, causing several injuries! The party responded by firing arrows and sling bullets, as the pteramen returned again and again to drop rocks from on high. A crude shelter was sought by the party members in the carcass of an elephant, as Nadal threw a blanket over a giant skeleton to shield Kumar and himself. The rest of the party returned missile fire but they were not killing any of the creatures. Seeing a storm front blowing in, Kal began concentrating on a spell as Ark, Alando, Endefal, Cadelaine and Mongo returned fire at the pteramen. Suddenly, after concentrating for ten minutes or so, with raindrops hitting his face, Kal gestured dramatically, and lighting bolt ripped down into a small group of the pteramen clustered on the ledge, incinerating them! Three burnt bodies lay crumpled at the edge, and the rest of the pteramen, realizing the gesturing figure was causing the bolts to hit them, retreated in fear into their caves. Kal caused bolt after bolt to hit the area, hopefully scaring the creatures into leaving them alone.

As the small storm blew through, the adventurers huddled underneath the crude shelter in the elephant’s skeleton (supplemented by several more blankets). Ark told them that even if the pteramen were scared now, they had to be dealt with, as they would return to bother the party until they got brave enough to try to snatch individuals up and bring them to their lair for food. A plan was then drawn up, more of necessity than good planning, where Cadelaine and the ape Gra-Gra (with Kal riding on his back) would climb the slope, tying several hundred feet of rope to rocks, hopefully before the pteramen came out of their caves to investigate. The rest of the party (excluding Alando and Kumar) could then climb up, and perhaps they could ambush the pteramen in their lair. Not a great plan, but it was the best the party could think up on short notice, as it appeared no alternative existed to getting pelted with rocks for however long they were in the valley.It was decided that Cadelaine (while invisible) and Gra-Gra, with Kal riding on his back, would take up long ropes (or many ropes tied together); fasten them at the top, and guard/defend the ropes as the rest of the party members used them to slowly climb up to the pteramen’s ledge and lair. Hopefully, they wouldn’t disturb the Pteramen (who had all retreated into the caves), and most of the party would be on the ledge ready for battle by the time the reptilian bird men noticed intruders on the ledge.

Quietly and quickly, Cadelaine and Gra-Gra (with Kal in tow) traversed the rocky slope, and reached the ledge. Cadelaine quickly tied her end of the rope off, but Kal had may problems and could not seem to fasten the rope to any nearby protrusions. As this went on, a scream was heard, and pteramen began pouring out of the cave openeings to battle the party members! Gra-Gra leapt to the attack, battling two of the creatures, as one by one the party members reached the ledge and joined in the battle. It was a long, dirty, bloody combat, as the party members had to be careful of their footing, as well as the claws of the pteramen. One time Cadelaine was grabbed by a pteraman and dropped over the side, but her Ring of Feather Falling made the drop a slow, floating fall to the bottom of the valley.

Ark, Endefal, Kal, Mongo, Nadel, Cadelaine and Gra Gra (both Alando and Kumar were told to stay below to prevent injury) slowly fought through the screaming, slashing creatures as one by one they fell dead at the blows rained upon them. Mongo fought madly at the reptilian enemy he hated most, and soon the party was surrounded by steaming pteraman parts on the blood-slippery outside ledge, all the creatures destroyed. Then, reluctantly searching through the filth of the pteramen’s lair, the party discovered a few additional coins not located earlier by Cadelaine, as well as a potion in a metal vial. With their meager treasure in hand, but secure in the knowledge the winged reptiles would cause no further damage, the party scaled back down the cliff and set up camp for the night.

THE ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD: PART TWO

2009-10-25T00:09:00.000-05:00

The next day, the expedition (with it’s ranks swelled by an extra 40) started off heading for the nearby lake, and from there, to the village of the ex-slaves. Within a few miles they had hit the western shore of the small lake (perhaps a mile in diameter), and heading north another mile along the shore brought them to the village. When they arrived, several startled natives came out of the their huts…these were fortunate members of the village who were out hunting or fishing the day the Taranthian slavers raided the village, and had been spared capture. They screamed and cried in happiness as they saw their relatives returned to them, and the reunion was quite joyful. Of course, nothing else would do but for the village to hold an impromptu festival, and the trip to the Elephant’s Graveyard was delayed a day as the adventurers and their entourage enjoyed the hospitality of the grateful villagers.
Long into the night, music was played with drum and flute, there was dancing, feasting, and games of skill, and merriment abounded. Most of the party stayed alert and did not drink much of the fermented banana wine, except for Mongo who not only heavily partook of the beverage, but told the party “It is time for Mongo to plant some seeds!” and commenced to dallying with several of the village girls, including one incredibly comely lass at whose hut he spent most of the night.
The next morning, the adventurers made their leave, with the newly minted priest of Attar, Kumar, joining Endefal at his side. Using a broken chain link as his holy symbol, Kumar reluctantly said goodbye to his family as he joined the expedition to spread the word of The Rescuer to others.

The first night there was little problem, except for a poisonous fer-de-lance snake that crawled into the camp and was killed by Endefal before it was able to bite Kumar. The next day, skirting the lake they crossed a swampy, wet area with water up to their ankles, slowing the expedition down. Scouting ahead, Mongo, Roho and Kal ran into a nest of crocodiles with 9 crocs guarding the eggs. As they were attacked, they fought back and a giant specimen slid into few and attacked Mongo. Kal entangled almost all of the reptiles, as Roho and Kal dealt with the two crocs that escaped the vegetation. Soon Cadelaine and Endefal were there to help, and between them all they killed the crocs with Mongo performing fanatically against his chosen foe (downing five of the beasts by himself).
The rest of that day was uneventful, until late in the day. The scouts found signs of a battle that had been fought, with broken weapons, blood, and pieces of bodies. Mongo identified the items as cannibal weapons, and it looked as if someone had run into them. Immediately the group became suspicious because so far they had found no sign of anyone on the trail to the Graveyard except for slavers…they immediately suspected something wrong. Mongo and Cadelaine snuck up ahead but made an abominable mess of noise, alerting the trio they found in a nearby clearing. All three were light-skinned and clearly not Delosian natives. A large man in armor with a large sword, a woodland type of man holding a bow, and a half elven woman in leather stood talking in the clearing. All were wounded and all immediately looked to the bushes as they heard Cadelaine and Mongo thrashing through. The thought crossed the party’s mind that this might be the group of thieves that had stolen the map from the priesthood of Vistna, for why else would this group be alone in the jungle dressed like mercenary warriors, on the exact path as they?
The trio immediately readied their weapons as the ranger-type shouted “Who’s there?” to Cadelaine and Mongo as they remained hidden. Hoping to confuse them into revealing something, Mongo walked out of the bushes with his hand held free of weapons. Meanwhile, Endefal, Nadal, Kal and Roho arrived to back up the hidden duo, leaving Kumar and Alando a few hundred yards back to watch the caravan.
The trio of mercenary types in the clearing were clearly confused by Mongo’s appearance, as he was obviously no cannibal, but was far too well equipped to be a native of the area. From concealment, Endefal cast Hold Person and Kal cast Heat Metal on the large fighter type, but neither seemed to have any effect on him. The trio in the clearing kept shouting questions at Mongo that he did not answer, then finally the large man said “Screw this, let’s just kill the bastard!”
At that, Mongo attacked, and all hell broke loose! Both Nadal and Endefal rushed from concealment to assist him. Suddenly, a wall of flame burst up in front of Kal, Roho and Cadelaine…and the unfortunate Endefal, who had begun charging and took full damage from the fire as he rushed through the wall. A now-visible mage stood about 30 or so yards back behind the party, concentrating on the wall. Obviously, the party was not the only one planning an ambush! Cadelaine quickly dropped her blowgun and darts and began pouring deadly snake venom poison on her arrows; Kal and Roho tried to rush the mage, but suddenly Roho was stabbed by a previously invisible half elven thief type, and they began battling. Kal was left with the mage, who by virtue of being able to cast a Wall of Fire, looked quite capable and deadly!
Back in the clearing, Mongo, Nadal and a now-healed Endefal began mixing it up with the trio, a fighter (Charl), ranger (Ark), and a female half elven thief (Hem), who avoided combat to stand back and fire sling bullet after sling bullet at the party members. Charl was quite experienced and competent, he was struck many times but fought on, delivering nasty blows to the trio with his bastard sword. One blow knocked Nadal unconscious, and only Mongo and Endefal were left to battle him. The ranger Ark took a few blows and retreated to the foliage to leave Endefal and Mongo to Charl, but before leaving cast Entangle on the area! Both Endefal and Mongo were caught up in the grabbing vines and grasses, but so was the enemy fighter Charl, who began swearing threats to Ark for getting him along with the others. From the bushes, Ark and Hem continued to pepper party members with missile weapons.
On the other side of the trees, the battle had taken a desperate tone. Struck by what appeared to be a poisoned blade, Roho gasped, and fell heavily to the ground. At almost the same time, Cadelaine’s poisoned arrows were bouncing off the mage (who appeared to have some sort of Protection spell going) so she shifted to the thief that had attacked Roho, striking him solidly and killing him almost instantly with the poisoned arrow! Meanwhile, Kal had thrown a magical puffball at the mage, who was engulfed in the cloud and began coughing and gagging. After stabbing the nearly helpless mage with his spear a few times, he realized desperate measures must be taken as the mage had reached into his robe and pulled out a wand! So, dumping two vials of oil on the ground and all over the coughing mage, he used his spear to light the mage up, turning him into a flaming bonfire as the oil ignited whatever the mage himself had on his person. The enemy mage was quickly consumed by the flames and the blaze became a funeral pyre for him. The threat ended for now, Kal rushed to Roho, but it was too late. The poisoned blade had taken the life of the native fighter, and Kal grimly decided his death would not be in vain.
Back at the clearing, Alando and Kumar had arrived in response to the shouting and sounds of battle they had heard back from the caravan. Cadelaine at this point was trading missile fire with the hidden Ark and Hem, and Alando crawled into the clearing to minister to the unconscious Nadal with healing spells. Still caught in the entangled shrubbery, Endefal, Mongo and Charl could only watch helplessly. Joined by Kumar, who shouted “For Attar!” as he raised his club high, Nadal rushed the hidden Ark who was still firing arrows into their midst. The party heard a short struggle, then the crack of something striking a skull. After several minutes, Nadal and Kumar emerged from the jungle, dragging an unconscious form…they had taken care of Ark with a well placed blow from the novice cleric!
The mercenary fighter Charl still held by the entangle spell cast by his own comrade, Kal, Alando and Cadelaine used him for target practice with missile weapons as he finally collapsed unconscious, just in time as the spell dissolved. Without wasting time, Mongo and Endefal rushed into the jungle to find the missing thief, who had a several minute head start and had disappeared into the trees. After about a mile, there was an ambush as a now partially healed thief dropped from a tree onto Mongo, backstabbing him with a poisoned blade. Mongo, however, wasted no time in dispatching the thief with several powerful blows, separating her head from her shoulders with the final one. The poison did not seem to have any effect on the native ranger, and so he and Endefal dragged her body back to the clearing.
Finally, the party’s survivors dragged the bodies of their enemies, as well as the still alive but badly beaten Charl and Ark (now tightly tied with rope) to the camp for questioning. Searching the bodies, the party found the original stolen map in Ark’s pack, marking this group of five as the mercenaries who had ambushed the priest of Vistna back in Port Maugre. Under questioning, Charl gave up everything, saying he was just a hired hand and the jig was up, He told them they worked for House Mith, and had been tasked to find the Elephant’s Graveyard before the party, and eliminate any witnesses to the deed. They were the ones who had attacked and stolen the map from the priest of Vistna, on orders of the merchant house (or so Charl said). They had unfortunately been sidetracked on their mission to find the Graveyard when they had been attacked by cannibal headhunters the day before, who had killed their cleric, another mercenary fighter, and scattered the few native porters they had brought along. When the party had come upon them, they had been debating whether to return to Port Maugre empty-handed or go onwards.
At these words, Ark began shouting to Charl that his life was now forfeit, as their employers were not forgiving men and would kill them all rather than be revealed. He was silenced as Endefal placed the cursed Helm of Alignment Change on his head, causing the ranger to revert to an alignment much more aligned to law and good! Ark immediately became sorrowful at the attack that had killed the party member Roho, and asked if he could do anything for them. Charl was quickly executed and searched, along with the rest of the dead mercenaries. As Ark was talked to more and more, it appeared he had definitely changed profoundly, and now could be trusted to not only assist the party, but join them in the rest of their journey! With a written confession from the now-dead mercenary Charl, Kal tasked a bird to carry the papers to Port Maugre and the House of Valaryan.

Searching the mercenaries yielded quite a bit of magic that the party could use, so they divided it up. Cadelaine got one thief’s (Jakk) ring of invisibility, and a wand of frost that had survived the intense burning of the mage’s (Mofti) body. She also got a magical dagger and longsword, and some magical arrows. Mongo was able to get a set of magical hide armor worn by one of the mercenaries, as well as a ring of fire resistance worn by the fighter Charl (the reason the Heal Metal spell had no effect on him). Kal acquired a Ring of Jumping from Ark, but the party was loath to take more from him less his now firm loyalty to them fail. Nadal took the magical bastard sword of the mercenary fighter, and Endefal took a magical sling and ring from the dead female thief.
It was with great sorrow the party then held a ceremony for Roho; as per his native customs, his body was burned to let his ashes rise in the air and his sprit reach paradise. Somberly the party stayed in the clearing for the night, and were attacked by a swarm of large spiders that overran the camp at dusk. With Ark’s help, Cadelaine’s two sleep spells, and Kal’s entangle spell, a couple of dozen spiders were dealt with and destroyed. Ark proved a big help, as he was now firmly on the adventurer’s corner and was quite a good fighter. He also showed his skill the next day as a flock of jungle stirges attacked, unfortunately killing a mule and several native porters before being destroyed. As long as the helm stayed on his head (and part of the enchantment was that Ark nor anyone else could remove it without the assistance of a spell) the now-good ranger could prove to be very useful in the wilds of the jungle on the way to the graveyard.

THE ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD: PART ONE

2009-10-17T14:45:00.000-05:00

After a week of relatively “normal” activities after their return from the expedition to the village of Onnja, the small group of adventurers found themselves one evening summoned to the meeting room of House Valaryan. Inside was the “Patriarch”, Gam, and the head of the Vistnan temple, Vespasian, along with his assistant Alando (both had been met by the party on the night the adventurers had saved them from unknown assassins). Ardu was also there, but no one else. Gam told the adventurers that this meeting was “top secret”, and no word of it must pass beyond the doors of this room. After Vespasian cast several spells around the room and on the adventurers, Gam told Vespasian to tell the adventurers the legend of the “Elephant’s Graveyard”.
Vespasian faced the adventurers and began his tale: “For many years, there has existed a legend of the Elephant’s Graveyard in Delos. Supposedly, deep within the jungle there is a hidden valley surrounded by high cliffs, impossible to locate by the air. There is only one way into this valley, through a secret entrance. The legend says that the spirits of elephants across Delos are attracted to this hidden valley. This mystical attraction causes any pachyderm who is aged, maimed or near death to attempt to travel to this valley. As a result, the valley’s floor is covered with thousands of elephant skeletons…and the mighty tusks of the great beasts. Yes, a fortune in ivory supposedly exists within the walls of this hidden enclave.
I have spent many years researching this legend, with little beyond native tales to go on. I had not thought of the Elephant’s Graveyard in years until an unusual circumstance brought it utmost in my mind. Last week, some native Ashante came into Port Maugre trading for essentials. One of the items they had to trade was a pair of giant ivory elephant tusks, and when asked where they had come upon these they volunteered the information they had traded food, fruit and grains with a primitive tribe within the depths of the jungle for the tusks. They said the tribe had a village at the mouth of a large cavern and their shaman was a Beast cultist of the Elephant. The villagers the Ashante traded with said they guarded the entrance to the Elephant’s Graveyard. The natives who brought the tusks were told to contact your patriarch as he would be willing to pay for the tusks and any further information. “
The Patriarch jumped in at this point, telling the party he had the natives brought to him, and for gold and trade goods had them draw a map of the location on the off chance it might bear fruit. Like Vespasian he had for years heard rumors of this “Elephant’s Graveyard’ but thought it nothing more than tall tales. He added “After they drew the map, I took the precaution of having the natives taken out of town t night by rowboat several miles down the coast so they couldn’t spread the word any further about their find. Plus, I wasn’t taking the chance they would draw the map for anyone else with a bit of gold.” Looking the map over, Gam said that even he was unfamiliar with many of the landmarks, and that’s when Vespasian and the Vistnan’s got involved, as he had to confide in them in exchange for what meager information they might have about the Elephant’s Graveyard.
The crude map in the Patriarch’s hands spurred Vespasian’s interest, and he went to work finding the landmarks on the map through old trade maps of the area. It appeared to be around 45 miles or so deep in the jungle, past a lake and stream not on any of Vespasian’s maps. However, he told the party, he was able to rewrite the map somewhat and sent the original back to Gam for safekeeping.
“It was this original map that was stolen that night you rescued my servants; you almost foiled the attack although the main perpetrator escaped with the map” said Vespasian.
Gam then added: “Someone must have been shadowing House Valaryan and noted our comings and goings, and managed to grab the original of the map that night. The natives either aroused too much interest when they came in and flapped their lips too much, or we have a traitor in House Valaryan or in the Vistnan temple. Either way, we no longer have the original map. However, Vespasian was able to duplicate the map as he said, as well as decipher many of the landmarks and such. So while the “competition” has a copy of the map, it’s not as detailed as the copy we have.”
“We have no idea who now has a copy of the map…it could be House Mith or House Tarn, or the Taranthians, or even some other competitor. Nevertheless, now the clock was ticking to as when we could field an expedition to find out the truth of this Elephant’s graveyard. If true, there could be tens of thousands of gold pieces in ivory there, and I want it” Gam said with a gleam of greed in his eye.
Vepasian said “After the attack you interrupted, there have been other incidents. A Vistnan priest and his bodyguard were attacked by shadowy figures, one a mage who used a Wand of Paralyzation on the priest and then incinerate the bodyguard with a Lightning Bolt. The mage was searched before being left behind. Another incident involved an attack with a poisoned blade on another priest. Obviously the assailants are those who have the map and realize there may be a better copy somewhere.
Undoubtedly many want the horde of ivory, if this valley is indeed the fabled treasure trove. However, for the priesthood of Vistna knowledge is paramount, and the valley may contain ancient temples or libraries that can improve our understanding of the history of Delos. Your patriarch has graciously agreed to give any books, writings or other historical documents discovered, along with any unique magical items, to the priesthood in exchange for assistance in reaching your goal. We fear the loss of knowledge that may occur if some other entity arrives before us and plunders any temple or repository of knowledge that exists within the valley.”
Gam then explained the plan: “We are going to attempt to pull a fast one on the competition. Tomorrow, a large merchant party with Talith and Ardu leading it will take off for a false destination. That leaves you, the newest and youngest members of House Valaryan, who we hope will arouse no suspicioun when you leave for the ACTUAL location on the map. Unfortunately, because of the circumstances we don’t have as much time as I would like to get this expedition equipped. You will leave tomorrow morning with a light train of pack animals and bearers, with a false destination as a cover story. Once in the jungle you will follow the map and hopefully reach the graveyard before the competition. I want you to parlay with the villagers at the entrance to the graveyard, gain entrance and get as much ivory as you can on the pack animals after you secure the area. Clear the area of hostiles, and this means all monsters that may interfere with future ivory expeditions. Explore any structures and bring back any ancient writings, scrolls, whatever you can get. If you can, eliminate the competition and destroy or bring back the other map. Since this expedition is a bit unusual and it looks like it’s going to be a real bitch, you can keep all the magic you find unless it’s something unique or unusual, that goes to our friends in the Vistnan priesthood. I’ll even let you keep all gold over the amount it takes to finance this little adventure. All House Valaryan wants is the ivory and the rights to bring out as much of it from the graveyard as we can carry. “
The party members were both astonished at the plan and their large part in it, given their relative inexperience, yet excited and humbled they had been chosen to follow it through. Vespasian said the priesthood of Vistna was going to assist in all matters and told them Alando would be traveling with them to help translate or cure as the need came about. He also distributed many potions of Healing for the party, and Gam also added in a few items such as a Helm of Comprehending languages to facilitate communication with any native tribes they found. When Gam was asked what kind of creatures lived in the area they would traverse, he smiled and said “Cannibal headhunters, for one!” Despite this the party members were eager to leave on the morrow for their first solo foray into the deep jungle and the unknown.

Early the next morning, with much fanfare, a large, well equipped expedition into the interior left by the main gate. With Talith at it’s head, along with over 100 men and beasts, the scuttlebutt on the streets was that a “major” find of either gems, ivory or ruins had been made and House Valaryan was on it’s way to claim their treasure. Soon after, smaller expeditions from House Mith and House Tarn also left in the larger expedition’s wake, undoubtedly seeing if they could also profit from the “leavings” of the major expedition through either stealth or force. Several smaller groups also left, either to shadow the larger expeditions or try to discover where the expeditions were bound so they could perhaps arrive earlier.
That afternoon, a smaller group including the adventurers (Kal, Cadelaine, Endefal, Nadal, Mongo), along with Roho, Alando, and a native Delosian fighter called Ajada (leading 40 porters, bearers and guards) slipped out of the gates with no fanfare, at the head of 20 mules and 10 water buffalo. Their ostensible “mission” was to make contact with a distant tribe so they could establish trade relations, and they were well loaded down with cowrie shells, glass and metal beads, and gold nuggets to assist the trade. If anyone noticed this minor expedition manned by members of House Valaryan who were still wet around the ears, there was no visible reaction. So far, the Patriarch and Vespasian’s plan had worked….

For the first day, the expedition to the Elephant’s Graveyard stuck on established trails east. At the beginning of the next day, they struck out into the wilderness in accordance to the map they held, chopping through undiscovered territory. The going was very, very slow, as there was no trail at all, and all the animals and men must be accommodated. Several times entire trees had to be cut down as they grew so thick, and would grow thick again if let uncut. Only 4 miles a day was able to be traversed in the thick wild jungle area as the party headed east to a unknown lake on the map, from there to a stream, and from the stream to the mysterious village outside the fabled valley.
For several days there was no trouble except the usual spiders, ants, insects and small mammals that were always encountered in this territory. Traveling ahead were Kal, Mongo and Roho, who acted as scouts for the main body of the force. On the third day, Mongo came upon some reptilian tracks of a large, upright walking being that probably weighed 500 lbs or more. Sneaking up on a clearing, he saw two reptilian creatures known to natives as “Bonesnappers”, stupid reptilian creatures that only cared about eating and breeding, and were quite dangerous. Mongo felt his hatred of all cold-blooded beings rise in him, and as the creatures were alone feasting on the carcass of a giant ape, he signaled Kal and Roho to back him up. Kal cast Entangle on the beasts, which would hold them enough to kill them..except at that moment, another six of the creatures burst through the foliage behind them!
Kal, Mongo and Roho yelled for help as they combated the powerful reptilian beings, who used jaws and tail snaps to quickly injure the trio. Hearing the cries for help, Nadal, Cadelaine, and Endefal rushed to help just in time to see Roho brought down with a powerful swipe of a tail. While Endefal bandaged his wounds, Nadal charged into combat with his two handed sword, and Cadelaine stood back firing arrow after arrow into the man-sized creatures. Mongo brought down three of the creatures himself, including one of the Entangled reptiles as they soon thrashed free of the vines and grasses holding them. Endefal entered the combat after tending to Roho, and between the five of them, soon all eight of the creatures lay dead. After the battle, Roho was strapped to a mule until he healed up and the rest of the group continued on it’s way.
That evening, after a hard slog, the party camped in a small clearing overhung with large trees. During the nigh watches, Alando and Cadelaine managed to find themselves on one shift, and Alando soon began making uncomfortable conversation with the half elven lass. Soon Cadelaine began to slowly realize that the socially inept Alando had been taken with her and having no experience with women (he told of growing up in a monastery) he was making up for lost time by becoming infatuated with her (as she soon realized she was literally the only female he had ever spoken to for any length of time!).
Their awkward conversation was broken by screams of a native bearer who stepped out of his blanket to relieve himself….he stumbled back into the light of the campfire, covered with hand-sized hairy spiders! As he fell dead with half a dozen bites, Cadelaine and Alando quickly rose the rest of the party as well as the native porters and Ajada and found they were surrounded by the giant arachnids! Along with the hairy spiders, several large and even huge varieties began to drop down from the trees and skitter into the camp, searching for prey.
Battle followed, Cadelaine helping with a Sleep spell that took out 7 of the horrors, and Mongo quickly chopping through half a dozen of the monstrosities. A bite on Kal brought his to his knees as the poison took effect, causing the spiders to try to swarm him. Valiantly, Mongo fought them off, as the rest (including spear wielding natives) fought off the poisonous creatures. Even Ajada acquitted himself well, killing two of the huge creatures, and soon 30 or so dead arachnids lay strewn around the site, with several others crawling back into the dark underbrush. Afterwards, Kal recovered from the bite as the poison had only made him dizzy, and a head count found only one other native bearer dead from the beasts’ poison. According to custom, both dead natives were burned, and the party saw their profits fall as they calculated their first wergild for two native porters…..

The slow journey continued the next day, with the party only making 4 miles a day through the thick, untrammeled jungle. Having to cut their own trail was slow going for the small caravan of mules, water buffalo and porters. Towards the end of the day, the trail crossed that of a large group that had passed through earlier; Mongo checked the tracks and found a larger group of natives, probably walking with shackles, with many others around them…slavers with a coffle!
Calling a halt to the caravan, the party decided that although it wasn’t part of the mission, they would follow the trail (which was only an hour or so old) and see who was holding the slaves and whether or not they could be rescued. The entire adventuring party went with Alando reluctantly tagging along, for he seem to now be infatuated with Cadelaine and didn’t wish her to get into any trouble.
About a mile through the trampled down jungle grass, they found their slave train. In a clearing, a large group of 40 or so frightened and wounded natives were sitting, shackled, as around 40 or more piratical types walked around with whips. There are several campfires and tents as obviously the group was camping for the night and the slaves were being watered and fed. Mongo’s sharp eyes spotted a dozen Tzulan warriors who were arrayed on the outside of the camp as lookouts…and in the middle of the camp, a larger tent from which strode a priest of Taranthus, decked out in his holy clothing! At the sight of his enemy Endefal’s blood ran hot, and then there was no doubt that the party would go against the overwhelming odds to rescue the prisoners.
A quick plan was formed. Cadelaine and Alando snuck around the north side of the camp, and she liberally poisoned several blowdarts with deadly snake venom. At the same time, Kal quietly cast a Charm Person on what looked like the lead fighter type of the slavers, causing him to drop what he was doing and head for the hidden adventurers. Mongo made his way to the other side of the camp to try to engage the evil priest, Endefal behind him.
Cadelaine did well at first, killing two Tzulan guards with here poisoned darts, until the third was only partially hit and managed to yell a warning. All hell broke loose as Kal through Entangle, immobilizing 10 of the slavers, and Nadal and Roho attacked the nearest Tzulan lookouts. Kal’s charmed fighter rushed to their defense and began attacking the Tzulan’s also, giving Kal and Roho a chance to try to help Mongo, who was engaged in a battle with two other Tzulans and the high priest across the camp. The priest hit Mongo with a Fist of Faith, then pulled a Taranthian bullwhip and made a magical energy whip appear in his other hand, ready for battle. Soon Mongo was almost overwhelmed….the priest showed great skill with the whip and managed to disarm the ranger with several well placed whip strikes at Mongo’s hands and wrists. Even with Endefal curing and helping him, it looked like a tough battle. The only thing in the adventurer’s favor was that the bulk of the slavers were slow to act, as they didn’t’ seem to understand what was going on, and saw their charmed leader attacking Tzulan warriors on the other side of the camp.
Soon Cadelaine and Alando were running for their lives through the brush as the last Tzulan warrior she had shot with the blowgun began chasing them, the poison not doing it’s full work. Cadelaine and Alando were finally able to set up and pepper the native with missile weapons, killing him. Cadelaine then used two Sleep spells to knock out 8 of the milling slavers and further sow confusion. Kal’s charmed fighter helped immensely as he killed one Tzulan and gravely injured another before being killed. Kal and Roho slowly battled their way through a small group of slavers to reach Mongo and Endefal and their battle with the high priest.
Disarmed, Mongo’s fury got the best of him as he launched himself at the priest, driving him to the ground. The priest dropped his bullwhip but his energy whip continued to swing and crack, hitting both Endefal and Mongo. Mongo got his hands around the priest’s throat and began strangling the life out of him and Endefal applied cures and other protective spells to the ranger while dodging attacks. Soon, a loud crack was heard as the priest’s neck broke, and Mongo wearily rolled off to partake of healing potions.
With the highly deadly and skilled Tzulan warriors dead, the slavers were no match for the infuriated party. Mongo began to slice through them like butter, killing half a dozen that Kal had captured with another Entangle spell, and the rest of the group joined in. Soon, the remaining slavers began surrendering, but to the party’s shock, Endefal answered by bashing in the brains of the nearest surrendering slaver with his giant club! The rest, seeing there was no mercy from the priest of Attar, began fleeing into the jungle, to probably become a predator’s meal in the unforgiving green depths.

In the aftermath, the priest’s tent was searched, a large chest was dragged out, then Endefal lit the structure on fire with the priest’s body inside. He began decapitating the slaver’s bodys and arranged the heads on spikes all around the camp, causing much concern and worry among the other members of the group. They had heard how obsessed and vengeful Attarian priests were, now they were getting a first hand look!!! The rest of the party tended to the slaves, as many were sick, wounded and frightened. Assuring them they were there to help, they found out they had been taken from a village near the very lake they were on their way to find (the first large landmark on their journey), so they vowed to take the natives back to their homes. Leading them back to the caravan, the immediate problem was enough food and water for 40 extra mouths. Using a high level scroll, Alando was able to Create Food and Water in a large enough amount to satisfy everyone, and the stores of the expedition were dipped into so that no one would go hungry. Back at the camp, Endefal had lost some of his fury and tended the native’s bodies with bandages and souls with quiet words of comfort. One native youth with a heavily scarred face stared at Endefal for awhile, then slowly approached him later.
Not speaking a common tongue, Mongo translated from Ashante the native youth’s (Kumar’s) entreaties to Endefal: while being held prisoner the past several days, he had prayed and been touched by the hand of Attar. After talking to the boy, Endefal realized the youth had been chosen and was now a acolyte! Kumar told Endefal he wished to join the group and also spread the word of Attar, and Endefal was happy that such a horrible episode had something good come out of it. The next day, the party would head for the lake and then make a slight detour to drop the villagers off at their home, but Kumar would continue on with the expedition.

TEMPLE TO DARKNESS: CONCLUSION

2009-10-11T12:55:00.000-05:00

After the events at the Temple of Darkness, it was time for the adventurers to find out what had happened to Talith and the merchant train the week before. Following the now faint trail, the party and Ardu attempted to backtrack to the spot where the merchant train was attacked. Adding to their difficulty was the fact it had rained the night before, but several good trail indicators helped them on their way. They had a minor encounter with a plant known as a “Thorn-Slinger”, which threw sharp wooden thorns in a large radius, but escaped relatively unscathed. Later that day, a tiger was spotted, and it was bleeding from the same or a different thorn slinger, and was hurt. Mongo and Kal used their knowledge of animals and special powers (including Speak with Animal and Animal Friendship) to approach the wild beast, remove the thorns, and place a poultice on the wounds. Their good deed done, the great cat bounded off into the jungle.
After a minor encounter with killer frogs at the stream where Ardu had been attacked by the tiger several days earlier, the trail became easier to follow. Soon, they stumbled upon the skeletons of the small band of Tzulan warriors that had defeated directly after the caravan had been attacked, and after that, the spot on the trail where the attack had happened. Cleanly picked mule and water buffalo bones, along with several native bearer skeletons, spoke of the fury of the attack. It was seen that all the head were missing on the dead native bearers, a fact Ardu attributed to the Tzulan warriors taking trophies to prove their manhood. With no sign of Talith or the others, the decision was made to carefully move onward to the village of Onnja, as it had been six days since the attack perhaps the Tzulans had left the area entirely.
Several hours later, the party halted as voices and movement were spotted ahead. Suddenly, they saw a group of over 100 Ashante warriors, accompanied by Talith, Derk, and a few of the House Valaryan mercenaries! Hailing the group, they were greeted as Talith and Ardu exchanged happy greetings….Talith explained they figured Ardu and the rest had perished. Ardu told a story about holing up in a cave for the past week (leaving out all mention of the Temple of Shadow) as he fought off a dangerous infection. Talith explained that he and a few others were the only survivors of the attack, fleeing until they reached the village of Onnja. They had spent the last few days recovering, and then with the help of the Ashante warriors and a village shaman, had decided to turn the tables on the Tzulan warriors and track them down to extract bloody vengeance. The party joined in with the Ashante war party as they continued to track the Tzulan warriors….hoping they had been delayed and had not already left and gone back to Tzulan territory.
Luck was with them…half a day’s journey later, Ashante spies returned to the main force with news: ahead, at a small lake, the Tzulans were camped! Spying on the encampment, the Ashante had listened carefully and discovered that after leaving the sacked merchant train, the Tzulans (unfamiliar with the territory), had stumbled into the air of a angry giant hippo by a secluded stream and lake. The hippo had attacked and killed the war party leader before it had been slaughtered. The death of the leader had led to arguments about who was then to lead, with the two leading candidates splitting the war party in two. Now, several days later, the two would-be chieftains and each of their followers were each on a side of the stream, waiting an inevitable confrontation to prove who would lead.
The situation would be perfect, Talith and the village shaman agreed. With the war party split, they would be easier to destroy! Making plans, Talith and the shaman decided that the shaman and about 100 of the Ashante warriors would tackle the larger group of Tzulans (perhaps 30 strong) while Talith, the party members, and the remaining mercenaries would take on the smaller force of 20 odd warriors on the other side of the stream. Talith, Kal, Mongo, Cadelaine, Nadal, Endefal and Ardu, joined by natives Roho, Po, Jade and Kira, would wait for the Ashante to attack the main force; then, as the warriors were distracted, Talith and his small force would attack by surprise and hopefully finish off the smaller group.
The plan went off as it should have at first, except for the fact not as many natives were incapacitated by spell as was hoped. Sneaking up on the small force of 22 men, two leader types and one minor chieftain, as the Ashante attacked across the stream in a blood mad rage, the party threw spells to hopefully take a few out of commission. Kal threw an Entangle, Cadelaine a Sleep spell, and Endefal a Hold Person spell but they unfortunately did not stop very many, and the battle was on. The fight was long, bloody and desperate. The Tzulan warriors were skilled and tough, and managed to kill Po and Jade almost immediately. The rest of the force fought on, some more effectively than others, with Talith, Ardu and Mongo taking the brunt of the attack. Cadelaine used her potion of Invisibilty to great effect, sipping it to slip behind the lines, backstab, and then sip it again to disappear. Pouring deadly snake poison on her sword, she invisibly backstabbed the Tzulan leader twice as he battled Talith, killing him the second time as the poison struck him hard. Unfortunately, she was then knocked unconscious with a spear butt to the head as Tzulan’s swarmed her before she could again sip her potion and disappear.
The battle swayed back and forth for awhile. Kal and his self-appointed bodyguard Roho held their own but couldn’t take out the pair they tangled with, despite spells being thrown by the druid, while the spear Talon-Bar urged him on but gave little help when attacking (as Kal was not yet proficient with the weapon). Meanwhile Talith used every potion and magic item in his arsenal to fight off the chieftain (before the chieftain was killed by Cadelaine) and the sub-chiefs, deliberately taking on the tougher fighters to save his men and mercenaries. Mongo and Nadal acquitted themselves well as they killed several of the Tzulan warriors between them. Several times healing potions had to be consumed in the midst of battle, healing spells cast by Endefal, and soon all healing magic and potions were gone as the battle dragged on over 30 minutes! Finally, after a long and bloody battle, the party members stood triumphant with only a handful of loses (a pair of the Delosian mercenaries and the unconscious Cadelaine and Kira) standing against a couple of dozen dead native warriors, several of the Tzulans having broke morale and fled to the unforgiving jungle. On the other side of the stream the Ashante had triumphed after losing a score or so of men, and were loping off the heads of their hereditary enemies. A quick search of the bodies by the party members turned up a beautiful jade ring (that later turned out to be a Ring of Coolness and was given to Nadal) as well as a gold necklace and armbands wore by the chieftain, and a handful of gold and silver. Talith let the surviving party members keep it as a reward for the exceptional fighting ability, and the party regrouped with the Ashante to head back to Onnja for rest, healing, and a victory feast.
After taking a break for a week with the Ashante tribe in Onnja (and, with the recovery of his trade goods, successfully completing his mission), Talith finally called the party together for their trip home. Roho, having seen the fighting “skills” of Kal, told him he would stay with him and be his bodyguard, as he was too ill-equipped to survive on his own….being the first elf any of the Ashante had ever seen, Roho was certain Kal was an emissary of the Forest Gods by his appearance and swore to protect the reluctant Kal in battle. Talith was able to hire enough bearers and porters among the tribesmen to outfit his merchant train for a return trip to Port Maugre. With little incident the party thus returned to the port city, the powers at House Valaryan very worried as the arrival date for the return trip had come and gone and an expedition had been outfitted to search for what remained.
At the conclusion of the trip, the party was told to keep whatever items (gold, equipment or magic) they had come across, so they took to pooling their money and having the House Valaryan mage identify many of the items. A robe they had found turned out to be an evil Robe of Shadows used by the Shadowmasters, and this was donated to the temple of Vistna for research after the priests there evinced an interest in the ancient item. The magical helm found in the Temple turned out to be a Helm of Alignment Change, and they placed that in the Bag of Holding (now theirs) for future use. The party also purchased many healing potions, and turned their small horde of silver into metal and glass beads and cowrie shells, the preferred trade items for tribes in Delos, for anytime they once again braved the jungle wilds. Cadelaine found the only local bakery in town, a small enterprise run by two ex-slaves who only spoke Kongon, and took to hanging out there as the smells brought memories of her home. Surreptitiously, she met with Captain Bohema and convinced him to get a letter to her adopted family in the League without letting them know where she was. Endefal donated the bulk of his treasure to the temple of Attar to support the good work of Jerrod and the church, but also spent time at the Vistnan temple as the mystery of the Shadowmasters and their evil ilk intrigued him; however, even in the temple of knowledge information about the forbidden masters was sketchy and difficult to find. Kal began research on the elvish history book he had found earlier, while Mongo, Nadal and the rest of the party went about their daily duties of escorting merchants, running errands, and taking short trips into the jungle to deliver goods. For a few weeks at least, after their huge adventure, things began to quiet down in the Port city….

Temple to Darkness, Part Three

2009-09-26T16:05:00.001-05:00

Early the next morning, the party's third foray into the temple began. It started out well, but soon became a mess, due to some poor planning. First, the party entered with Endefal in front, and he turned the group of ghouls waiting in the main room (no sign of the ghast, however). The party, satisfied the undead creatures wouldn't be returning for awhile, went to the door in the north wall of the room that they had yet to check or open, having investigated the staircase, east and west corridors. Finding it locked and barred from the other side, Cadelaine was able to pick the lock, but Mongo was then forced to break the door down to enter inside. Upon stepping inside, Mongo saw a large bare room with a large dark pit in the middle against the dark wall. As he stuck in the Continual Light torch, a loud squeaking came from the pit, and a horde of slavering, rabid rats poured over the lip towards the party! Throwing oil, both Mongo and Endefal missed the swarm horribly as the vials broke off target on the ground (one in front of the door), forcing them to retreat into the main room. Soon, the rats were swarming the party, biting and scratching, as the druid Kal attempted to communicate with them but found them maddened by pain, fear, disease and rage.
It was every man for himself as the party members began hacking and bashing at the Giant rats climbing and biting on them. Finally, their numbers were cleared out enough for someone to drop a lit torch on the oil in front of the door, and the flames shot up to burn many of the rats and put up a wall of fire between the party and the other room, temporarily stopping the tide of living, squirming flesh.
Finally, after every rat in the main room had been killed and wounds bound up, the party entered the pit room to see what lived. Out of the pit came a giant, pig-sized rate with huge jaws that seemed to be the leader! Endefal and Mongo attacked, and soon killed the "leader" of the rats with arms and a Dust Devil spell cast by the priest. After the beast was dead, the party began searching the room, only to find the remaining rats had fled into holes at the bottom of the pit. As they made to leave the room Mongo leading, a sudden stench overtook him and a sickly grey arm reached out and scratched him. Falling back into the pit room, paralyzed, he was suddenly followed by the form of the Ghast, slavering and cackling! Endefal attempted to turn him and two ghoul minions, but he failed, Nadal was also quickly struck and paralyzed, and with the two party fighters' down the battle became desperate. Kal faced off against one ghoul while Endefal hammered the Ghast with a fist of faith spell as Cadelaine pegged it with arrows. Luckily, Kal finally killed one of the ghouls, and the Ghast was held off long enough by Endefal for Mongo to shake off the paralysis and rejoin the attack, dropping the killing blow on the undead leader! Kal finally finished off one of the ghouls, and the other was wounded by Cadelaine and Mongo before bolting the room to escape.
Wounded, bleeding, tired and out of spells already, the group decided to go back outside not an hour into the latest exploration. The made a camp under the trees and the spellcasters rested and regained their spells as the fighters took watch. Late that afternoon, the spellcasters again loaded up on healing and other spells, and the party decided to once again brave the halls that day. They went down the east hall to the cells and back down into the ghoul's lair, but the now leaderless abominations scattered before them and would not engage them. Satisfied the ghouls wouldn't bother them any further, the party checked a few rooms off the east hallway. They found a couple of treasure room, guarded by a pit trap, and managed to find Healing potions, many bags of silver coins, a magical set of leather armor and dagger, and a bronze statue of a shadowy figure and a covered mirror (the last two they left behind, but hauled the other chests out and looted them). Further investigation in the hall found a large door with signs of fire and lightning scarring the walls, and several skeletons. Another skeleton of a dead priest type was found, and since his robe was still intact they took it also. Investigating one last room in the east, they found a giant spider as big as a small horse, which Mongo and Nadal took care of, with Cadelaine gathering it's dripping venom in a vial as it lay dead. Deciding to call it a day, the party went outside to rest as the night was upon them. To their surprise, they found Ardu up coherent and somewhat mobile, as the sickness was almost gone. He told them to stop their explorations of the Temple, as only evil resided there, and soon fell back asleep. That evening, they had another dream....

In this dream, they all saw the shadow fiend Sathlos in his dark pit. His red glowing eyes seemed to see everything inside them. He knew their greatest fears, and their greatest shame, and chuckled as he threatened to reveal each of theirs to the other.

The next morning, the party was nervous and suspicious of each other, not knowing if their secret fear or shame had been revealed to another of the party. Nadal especially seemed nervous and anxious to now leave the place instead of search further.
Deciding to again brave the banquet room full of Shadows, the party went and Endefal again attempted to turn them..to no avail! The battle quickly became difficult as Mongo and Nadal, blocking the door, were struck again and again sapping their strength and cause them to weakly continue fighting the undead. Cadelaine and Endefal helped with spells such as Magic Missile and Spiritual Hammer, and Kal got a light spell cast at the doorway that kept half the creatures inside the room. As four of the creatures were finally brought down, Mongo and Nadal rested as the other three fired magic arrows and silver sling bullets into the room to bring down a couple more shadows. Finally, Mongo and Nadal were healed up sufficiently to enter the room and finish up the undead, but everyone was heavily injured. Searching the rooms off the banquet hall found a worship area for Shadow, cold, dark, and very eerie. They left the room alone and investigated another room with looked like a meditation chamber, and their were many hacked up bodies covering the floor and sofas in the room. Cadelaine located a secret passage, and the party realized this passage was in their dream and led to the chamber of "Sathlos", the demon form they had witnessed.
Going back outside, the party once again rested the day as the strength returned to the shadow-injured party members, and the spellcasters recovered their spells. That evening, they once again decided to brave the temple, and perhaps find and put an end to this "Sathlos" once and for all....
Going to the east, the party ended up in front of the large fire and lightning scarred doors they had the day before. After carefully examining them, they pushed them open to face the room they had seen in their dreams. A dark open pit lay before them in the center of the room, with 20 ft above a lantern with a blazing light shining forth, held in place with a silver chain tied off by the door. As they slowly entered, a deep, evil voice from the pit began cajoling them, threatening to reveal their greatest secrets and shame to the others. Nadal was especially anxious and not eager for a confrontation, while Endefal was defiant and shouted out his faith in Attar and the eventual destruction of Sathlos.

Sathlos whispered to each of them, if they freed him from his imprisonment and served him, he would help them with that which they most wanted. To Mongo, Sathlos revealed he knew the location of his enslaved family, including the brother who had went to track them down, who he said was in danger. To Kal, he revealed he knew the exact location of the lost elven city Kal and his group had been searching for. To Cadelaine, he revealed the fact her father never loved her, and wanted her dead, and had sent an assassin disguised as someone she trusted to finish her off. To Endefal, he said he was far older than even his god, Attar, and that instead of being a enslaved man who fought for freedom and justice, Attar had died mewling and pissing himself and begging for release at the hands of his captors. Endefal shouted down his lies (?) and taunts with chants to his god, and at this, suddenly Kal walked stiffly to the chain from which the lantern hung, struck it with his scimitar, breaking it and causing the lantern to plunge into the pit! A shattering sound was heard, and then the room went completely dark.....!

Suddenly, a demonic form 8 ft tall, with wings, horns and red glowing eyes, as fiery as red hot coals, leapt from the pit and landed solidly on Endefal, tearing and biting him! Kal had collapsed to the floor, his body wracked with pain after it had been usurped by the demon's consciousness and used to help release the beast. As the fiend reared up to strike again, Cadelaine read from the scroll she had gotten from the Bag of Holding and hit the demon with a high level magic missile, knocking him off the priest. Nadal screamed and attacked wielding the magic short sword, striking Sathlos for a large amount of damage. The battle began in earnest, as Mongo borrowed Ardu's magic longsword from Cadelaine and began chopping at the beast with that and his magic short sword. Endefal was able to roll free and hit the creature with a Fist of Faith spell. Kal could do little but managed to hit the creature with the Magic Stones given him by Endefal. Badly hurt by the numerous attacks, the creature slashed and bit among them, screaming, taunting and laughing. Grabbing up Nadal, he threw him against a far wall over Cadelaine's head, causing him to slam to the stone and then limply to the ground like a sack of potatoes. He lay bleeding and unconcious as Kal, now recovered, hurried over to bandage him. Cadelaine managed to strike the creature with a few arrows, but Mongo took the brunt of the demon's attention in a long and bloody battle there on the edge of the pit. Seeing Mongo's distress, Endefal taunted Sathlos until the shadow demon again leapt on the priest and began tearing him apart, slashing and ripping with his claws and fanged mouth. While he was distracted (and right before Endefal was torn in half), Mongo was healed by Kal, and then the ranger took advantage of the creatures inattention to strike him a deadly blow! The shadow demon wailed and became a fine black dust that fell softly all over the room.

With Sathlos dead and Nadal stabilized. The party healed their wounds and searched the chamber. At the bottom of the pit, they found the lantern, now broken and destroyed, and a key. Also, they found the skeletal body of the Ashante warrior they had seen in their dream, who had obviously given his life to keep the shadow demon trapped in the pit while the lantern was used to hold him in forever. Beside him lay his great spear, which they knew from their dream held great power. Reverently, the wrapped the warrior's bones up in a blanket, and along with his spear, lifted him gently up out of the pit to bring outside for a proper burial.
Searching the room brought out a few items like a jeweled baton and a ring, along with some scattered gold, which they placed in the Bag of Holding. Leaving the structure, they found the still surviving ghouls huddled in a corner of the complex, looking at them with a mixture of fear and awe. They went outside and were surprised to find Ardu walking about, almost fully recovered!
Long into the night they talked with the old ranger, who told them the warrior must be the long-ago Ashante chief Boshir, who wielded the flaming spear "Talon-Bar" (Burning Spear in Ashante). As they talked, Kal, who had felt weak since Sathlos had usurped his body, began to get sicker and sicker, and soon toppled over sweating and with fever. Ardu said he had been infected with the Shadow virus, a fatal disease that probably infected him when the demon had taken control of his body. After a short period where Kal seemed to fall deeper and deeper into some sort of delirium, Endefal forced his Elixir of Health down Kal's throat, which immediately took down the fever and destroyed the virus. Kal's health, however, would forever be scarred as afterwards he found he was much weaker and not as strong as before, as if some of his strength had been permanently leeched away. the "Mark of Shadow", as Ardu said. Ardu added he was very lucky to be alive, though. As he lay recovering, he reached out and grasped Talon-Bar, and the spear began speaking in ancient Ashante, and then ancient Delosian, saying that the party was "worthy" of bearing him, especially this one......while not a native Delosian, he had battled the power of shadows and was permanently scarred in the attempt, but survived, making him a good wielder of the flaming spear. The spear revealed special powers to Kal, as well as the fact it could speak, and said as long as he was brave in battle it would serve and assist him. Grasping the spear by his side, Kal seemed to sleep easier from then on, and that night the party had no dreams outside the temple.
The next morning, the party re-entered the temple (with Ardu, now fully recoverd, staying outside as he refused to have anything to do with the evil place). The entire atmosphere had changed....it was not as dark, as cold, and did not feel as oppressive and evil as it had days earlier. None of the undead, including the shadow hound, seemed to be about. No longer like a temple of gloom, the interior seemed like just another abandoned structure sitting isolated in the jungle...with the destruction of Sathlos, the curse seemed to be lifted on the temple. Entering the upstairs room ready to battle the haunt by the locked and barred door, they were surprised to find it sitting quietly, asking if it could now go. Endefal released it, and it disappeared.
After using the key found at the bottom of the pit to open the locked and barred door, the party came upon an small treasure room. Heaps and chests full of silver, along with a odd jeweled helm on a pedestal, and several other valuable objects, lay within. The party took everything, and later identified many of the items found the last few days as magical...the leather armor, the dagger, the helm, the stone, the robe, the ring. Cadelaine took the ring (which turned out to be a ring of Feather Falling), the leather armor and the dagger, and Mongo gave her the "Silence Stone" to wear about her neck as he translated the trigger word for her; Kal kept the flaming spear, and the robe and the helm were placed inside the Bag of Holding for further investigation before using. Ardu told them now that he was back to health, their job was to find if there were any surviving members of the merchant group, and then warn the village of Onnja there was a war party of Tzulan warriors nearby. It had been six days since the attack, but there still might be Tzulan warriors lurking about, and if they couldn't find survivors or warn the village they must at least make it back to Port Maugre to let the powers that be know of the war party. Ardu said that he and Mongo would attempt to backtrack their trail back to the initial attack site, and from there try to follow the trail of Talith and the rest (if they survived) to help them or at worst recover their bodies. Ardu also cautioned the eager adventurers not to mention their foray into the Temple of Darkness to anyone else......superstitious native types would shun and perhaps even attack them, while telling of the demon itself and Kal's shadow virus would guarantee that no native Delosian would have anything to do with those who had come so close to evil's darkness. "You aquitted yourselves bravely, but some things must not go beyond these stone walls, eh?" The party agreed, and resolved to not speak of the last week to any but themselves, even to House Valaryan authorities. Making their pledge, they party buried the bones of the warrior Boshir in front of the now powerless temple, with Endefal blessing the spot, and then began to make their way back to the site of the attack a week ago....stronger, wiser, better euqipped, and more experienced in the ways of battle and spellcraft!

Temple To Darkness, Part Two

2009-09-19T18:11:00.001-05:00

After a fitful night of sleep, the adventurers awoke and made plans to investigate the temple. First, they dealt with the wounded snake by smoking him out of his lair, then killing him when he emerged, so they wouldn’t have to worry about the giant reptile while they were inside. Then, they had to decide what to do with the sleeping ranger Ardu while they investigated inside the temple. It had been noted that none of the beasts of the jungle seemed to want to enter the courtyard, so Ardu would probably be safe from the tiger that had earlier stalked them. Finally figuring that the ranger would be fine in the tent with as many of the giant rats guarding him as possible (courtesy of Kal’s animal friendship) and Endefal’s Sacred Guardian spell cast upon him, they made ready to enter the darkness.
With Cadelaine in the lead, and Nadal in the rear holding the Continual Light torch, the party slowly entered the temple through the jammed open door. Immediately they entered a large entry room covered with bat guano, as hundreds of the mammals laired on the ceiling. Inside the room, there was a staircase to the right leading to a balcony surrounding the room, as well as openings to the east and west, a door to the north, and a spiral staircase filled with rubble in the center. Calling out to the bats, Kal got them to talk about the “dark ones” that laired in the room, and after their eyes got used to the gloom (after putting away the continual light torch so that the elves and half elves could use infravision), they did notice flittering movement out of the corners of their eyes. Finally fully entering to investigate the entry room, four evil shadows rose out of the darkness to attack! They seemed to flutter and moan as they went for the party. Only magic or silver would hurt the creatures, so Kal and Endefal were helpless weapon-wise…both retrieved vials of holy water, and began trying to splash the undead menaces….where it splattered, it effected the shadows like acid! Nadal took out his continual light torch, which caused the shadows to shriek and pause, giving him a chance to furious chop at them with his magical short sword. Meanwhile, Cadelaine used her magical arrows to good effect, and Mongo did the same with his magical sword.
Seeing the distress of the shadows in the flare of the continual light wand, Endefal took the rock with continual light on it from the small box in the Bag of Holding, and used it to force one of the shadows into the corner, while Kal did the same with the torch, allowing Nadal to hack two of them to bits. Mongo finished the other two, and soon the characters stood alone in the room except for the frightened bats. All had been touched by the undead except for Nadal, and where they had been touched a burning coldness enveloped them, causing a weakness and loss of strength that was very slow in returning.
Investigating the room found nothing, so the group trooped up the stairs. Much search brought forth a concealed door, which Cadelaine opened to lead them into what once had been a torture chamber. Inside, various instruments of torture lay scattered across the long abandoned room. In front of a door in the far wall lay the skeletal remains of some ancient guardian. As they searched the room, Endefal stooped to give the dead one a blessing, which caused a spirit form to rise screaming from the corpse! The body was all that remained, but the torturer’s spirit was now a Haunt, cursed by his life and violent death to guard the door. As he spoke ancient Delosian only Mongo could understand him, and in his ravings he spoke of a “great treasure” beyond the door. As Endefal held the spirit at bay with his prayers to Attar and his holy symbol, the others examined the door. It was triple locked and barred stone with iron, a formidable challenge to enter. unless one had a key! Using her still meager skills Cadelaine attempted to pick the locks but was only successful with one. Using brute strength, Mongo, Nadal and Kal were unable to break or bend the locks or bars, even though they were of great age. Resolving to return when they were through searching the ruins, or when they found a set of keys, the group reluctantly left the chamber (the haunt did not follow as he was bound to that area). A giant, 6 foot long centipede tried to attack Mongo on the stairway down, but it was quickly dealt with.
Downstairs again, the group began investigating down the western hall. Disturbing imagery of darkness, death and cannibalism were carved into the ancient stone walls, and a constant murmuring was heard almost below the adventurer’s perception. At the end of the hall was a T-intersection, and as Cadelaine investigated, a shadow slid itself from the rubble and attacked her. Cadelaine and Mongo’s magical swords spelled doom for the undead, and they went back to the hall to examine doors on both the north and south walls. All the locks had been broken a long time ago, so they pushed open the southern doors to find some kind of burial chamber, long collapsed. Bits of bone, armor and glints of coins poked out from the soft earth of the room. The group carefully picked their way through the death chamber, until suddenly the earth at the south end broke open, and two slavering ghouls emerged! One struck Mongo and rendered him paralyzed; however, two strong blows from Kal (who, as an elf, was immune to the paralyzation) brought the stinking undead down. Nadal engaged with the other one, and after striking a few blows, was assisted as Cadelaine backstabbed the menace and put it down. Searching the room only brought forth a handful of gold, silver and copper coins, but nothing else.
The north room proved to be a banquet chamber, with a long 20ft stone table stained with long dried blood. Many hacked up skeletons were in the room, as it had obviously been ransacked and destroyed sometime in the past. As Endefal cautiously entered to examine two doors against the far wall, 8 of the shadow monsters detached themselves from the walls! Attempting to turn them and failing, Endefal ran for the door, which was quickly shut tight behind him…..if 4 shadows in the main room had been a challenge, 8 would have surely finished them off!!!
The group went back down the corridor, then north past rubble and a basin filled with dirty water. Rounded a corner, Cadelaine froze in fear as she saw 40 ft away a large dark hound with glowing red eyes sitting in front of a door! She carefully withdrew and told the rest, who guessed the shadow hound must be some undead or mystical guardian. Rounding the corner to get a better look, the party stared at the dog, and Cadelaine fired two magic arrows (which missed), This did not amuse the hound, who arose growling and ran full speed at them, barking an eerie and ear splitting howl!!

Cadelaine, Mongo and Nadal reacted with fear as the dog bounded at them, dropping their weapons and running full speed to the outer exit. As they reached the sunny outside, the fear (magical in nature) seem to dissipate, and they quickly turned around and began running back inside as they knew Kal and Endefal had no magic weapons and would be helpless vs the menace!
Inside, Kal and Endefal had braced for the attack, but the shadow hound pulled itself up short as it reached the end of the corner and the basin. Endefal opined that the hound was mystically bound to the corridor, and found a symbol on the base of the fountains that seem to indicate the dog could go that far, and no further. There it sat, slavering dark drops of shadow, growling and whining, as the three who had fled in fear returned to the party.
Discussing the situation among themselves, they could find no way past the hound to the doors on it’s other side. A sling bullet fired at the dog at point blank range merely bounced off his skull, seeming to assure that magical weapons were needed to harm it. Swinging at the hound from the safety of the other side of the basin, Mongo missed the mutt but a quick jerk of the hound’s jaws clamped it’s teeth on Mongo’s wrist, hauling him into the zone and dragging him down the corridor!!! Nadal and Endefal rushed down the corridor, fighting off the hound and retrieving Mongo, before running full speed back into the protected area! Mongo’s wrist had nearly been bitten through by the hound, so the party decided to explore elsewhere until they could figure out how to get past the deadly dog. After healing, the party headed back to the main room.

Once back in the main room, the party made the decision to go down the west corridor. The corridor went back 90 ft to a T intersection, much like down the East corridor. They passed a door and checked it out, finding a “dorm room” consisting of bunks chained to the walls, two high. Several skeletons were in here, and Cadelaine found a nice emerald ring that had rolled under a bunk. Placing it with party treasure, they went to the next door, which was already ajar….the room within was filled with webs, which Endefal quickly fired with a torch, causing a spider as big as a cat to jump out of the flames and skitter around the corridor, until Mongo put and end to it with his sword.
Going to the end of the corridor, south they noticed rubble and a wooden door. Inside the door, they found a row of cells on both sides of a corridor…and old prison area. They carefully looked inside each cell, noticing some skeletons, mummified bodies, and in one a dark hole. One by one, they entered the still locked cells by means of a set of keys hanging on a ring beside the door..most contained either human or animal skeletons, some were empty (or appeared empty). There were a few encounters of interest, including a strange dancing snake skeleton that hypnotized and began biting both Mongo and Endefal (who were hauled clear before the door was again locked); a hole leading into the earth and a tunnel system that a ghoul popped out of, only to be cut in half by Mongo; another haunt bound to a cell (a priest of Shadow who wanted to take over a body to leave this place, but was avoided and locked up again); a shadow (which Mongo quickly destroyed), and finally, a mummified human body. As the cell was unlocked, the body rose, it’s eyes pinpoints of gleaming evil intelligence. Turning failed, and the creature was quickly locked back in the cell. However, it had other ideas, and the zombified form smashed it’s way through the cell door. The party, now worried, ran out into the outer corridor, and locked that door behind them. Endefal had distributed some magical stones earlier that did damage to undead, the party threw them to little effect. Suddenly, the zombie smashed his hand through the wooden door, which Mongo promptly hacked off with his sword. Worried about what sort of undead this was, and what it might do if it caught up to them, the party backed down the hallway arguing the entire way what to do….until finally the zombie smashed through that door also and continued towards them, one arm hacked off at the elbow. At this, the party was in full retreat to outside!
As they reached the outer chamber, the party decided to try and ambush the undead. Mongo and Nadal awaited it with swords drawn, while Cadelaine hid in the shadow near the entrance, awaiting a chance to backstab the creature. As it entered, Cadelaine missed her first blow, but then struck from behind and cleaved the creature to the bone! It’s eyes lost all semblance of activity and it collapsed to the ground. Hurt and without any more cures, the party then decided to head for the entrance and come back the next day for further exploration….

That night, as they slept in the courtyard under the stars, another dream…

A large, room, dark everywhere except for a lantern that hangs from the ceiling by a silver chain. It hangs above a large deep crevice, preventing what lies within from leaving. Two bright red eyes, surrounded by shadows, peeks out from the darkness below but cannot leave because of the lantern. The eyes seem to bore inside your own right before you wake with a jolt!

The next morning, again leaving Ardu alone in the tent (except for the many rats that had taken to sleeping in the nooks and crannies of his body), the party cooked up a hearty meal of giant snake (from the constrictor’s body they had killed the day before), healed themselves, then made way into the darkness for further exploration. Immediately, they realized the cold and darkness inside, which they had been subject to all day, again fell upon them like a blanket and their mood immediately changed to wariness.
Making their way back again to the cells, they investigated a door at the end of the corridor that lead to another short corridor with three rooms off it. One room led to a sort of dissection/experimental chamber, which had been thoroughly destroyed; another had a charnel pit 30 ft deep, the last ten feet full of skeletons, and another a room of sand where a creature composed of the substance came to life and struck Cadelaine, after which the party ran out and locked the door behind them.
In the charnel pit, a gleam of something shiny could be seen, but the party was reluctant to go downward. A cell door was removed, and thrown down the pit to disturb anything that might be hiding here….soon a ghoul appeared at a heretofore unseen passage leading into the charnel pit from below, but he withdrew before he could be attacked.
There was now much discussion about where the party should go next. Finally after much haggling, they decided to go into the tunnel in the cell to discover where the ghouls were coming from….perhaps a ghoul warren would have much treasure! Single file, they entered the tunnel and immediately pulled out their continual light torch as they headed west. Traversing the stench ridden, slimy, earthen tunnels, they soon came upon the bottom of the charnel pit. Within, Mongo looked among the bones and came upon the shining object, a small diamond worth about 500 gp, which was put with the party treasure. Heading further NW, they soon quietly came upon the main ghoul warren in a basement area under the main chamber above (they could see the blocked spiral staircase in the center) and saw a half dozen ghouls and a larger, more evil looking leader type (a ghast) eating some giant rats. There appeared to be loose kinds and various items that looked like treasure all over the room. Quickly forming a plan of action, Endefal cast the Protection From Enemies ’10 radius from a scroll on himself, forming an impassable barrier around the party.
The party entered, and the evil creatures surrounded the party as close as the circle of protection would allow, but they could not enter. Hissing and gibbering, the undead creatures patrolled the outskirts of the circle as Mongo fell to the ground retching at the stench exuded by the ghast. Soon, the party carefully made their way around the room, gathering treasure in the form of coins, a scroll tube, a book, a ruby pendant and a stone hanging from a thong necklace. After this, they began to slowly retreat, and came back out the way they had come in, followed by ghouls the entire time. Slowly down the corridors and into the main room, where 10 ghouls and the head ghast followed, growling and screaming as the party was about to make it’s escape. Before the circle went down, the party exited the temple and breathed in the outside air and bathed in the sun, safe at last and with a bag of treasure. From inside they could hear the incoherent evil shrieks of the undead, deprived of their meal. The return to exploring the temple the next day would definitely by complicated by the presence of the enraged group of ghouls awaiting them right beyond the door!

After checking on Ardu (who was now occasionally opening his eyes and murmuring, his fever broken) and the campsite (nothing had disturbed the area still), after another dinner of snake steaks the party members watched the dusk come and the bats leave the temple. They heard some murmurs and shrieks from the ghouls, but like everything else undead within they did not seem able or willing to leave the confines of the dark structure. Still, the door was watched carefully in the gloom, with the continual light stone sitting outside on the ground to blind or deter anything that might think of leaving. They divided up the treasure with Cadelaine taking the book (which turned out to be an old traveling spellbook of some mage), Endefal a priest scroll, and Mongo the stone hanging on the thong, with the ancient Delosian word for “Quiet” inscribed on it’s back (he did not want to speak the word to activate it, in case the item had charges and each use would use it up).

Again a fitful sleep, and again a disturbing dream…..

The food had been prepared for the feast, and was delicious. Pygmy stuffed with shallots, herbs and fruit, and their tender and delicious children for desert. Even better than the heart of ape stew the night before. A special blood wine had been prepared for the priests of Shadow as they sat in their banquet room, talking gloomily of the ominous signs in the jungle that might foreshadow trouble with the local native tribes. The temple, who once ruled as far west as any of the Shadow servants, was slowly losing worshippers and power, despite the presence of Sathlos.
Suddenly, faint screams, cries and howls could be heard, and the priests looked frightened as they stood up and began placing on their armor and getting their spells ready. The natives had finally gotten the nerve to attack the temple! Suddenly, a servant stumbled through the door, with a spear transfixed through his body and blood on his lips. “They are here! They have overrun the gates and fences! We are doomed…” and as he slid to the ground, the door burst fully open. The priests screamed as a light as they had never seen burst through the darkness, from a lantern wielded by an old shaman, caused them to cringe and cover their decayed eyes. No less dangerous was the light flickering from the spear of a native warrior, who began stabbing his flaming weapon again and again through the hearts of the cowering priests as more native warriors burst in, hacking the rest to pieces in a frenzy. Only one priest survived to slip out through a back door, and then through a secret door, to the chamber where dwelt their demonic servant…
“Sathlos, hear me! We are doomed without you! Sathlos, help us!”
The howling of the shadow hounds reverberated through the complex, and from one double door leading into the chamber an explosion was heard. The demon’s words slid into the priest’s brain…”Help yourself, human..” As the doors flew open, the priest barely had time to start his spell before his body was filled with arrows fired from the screaming native warriors….His last sight was of Sathlos, rising up out of the pit to face the now frightened warriors….

Temple to Darkness: Part One

2009-09-12T20:24:00.000-05:00

Week Three:

A week passed and the new members of House Valaryan attended their duties, slowly getting accustomed to the heat and humidity. Finally, the House Valaryan head warrior Talith approached the newest five members and told them their services would be required on a short trip to an Ashante village, Onnja, to trade steel weapons and cloth for cloves, pepper and ivory. He told them the trip would take a week, and should get them more acquainted with the area more than anything.
To celebrate their first real trip out of town, the five (Nadal, Mongo, Cadelaine, Kalphistane and Endefal) went to the Number One Inn for some drinks, but the occasion ended up being somewhat quiet as they wondered about their eventual fate in the jungle, even on such an easy mission as this. They met another newcomer to Port Maugre, a young, nervous priest of Vistna named Alando, and he talked of his apprenticeship to the temple in Port Maugre as being punishment for some deed. He was uneasy about the area and had heard several unsavory things about the flora and fauna, and was disappointed to be so far from a “real” library. He was, however, resigned to serving the church in whatever method necessary.
Walking back to their quarters that night, they parted with Alando at the Vistnan temple, but were soon alerted to trouble as Alando passed around a corner and yelled in fear. Rushing down the street, they saw a priest of Vistna being assaulted by five large, tall and primitive looking natives armed with knives and clubs. Alando was standing and watching the assault, yelling for help, as the party came upon the scene and engaged. Nadal and Mongo took on one very tall (nearly 7 ft) specimen with a giant war club, as the rest of the party mixed it up with the bandits (one who appeared to be stealing a scroll tube from the unfortunate unconscious priest of Vistna)
Cadelaine, outclassed by the swinging weapons, climbed above the fray to a nearby rooftop and spotted a shadowy figure further down the passageway on the ground, watching the combat. The native with the stolen scroll tube passed it to him, and Cadelaine let a few arrows fly, hitting the man in the shadows. He appeared to direct the native who had given him the scroll to attack her, so he ran across the street and began climbing up to her hiding place. Once there, Cadelaine quickly disposed of him with well-placed arrows, but the man in the shadows below had now taken better cover as he was warned of her presence.
On the ground, the combat went well, as the party quickly cut through the primitive native types, one fleeing heavily wounded as Kalphistane gave chase. Nadal and Mongo went to confront the figure in the shadows, but after being hit with poisoned arrows from the man, Nadal collapsed in a heap and started turning blue as the poison took effect. Producing a vial from his vest, the shadowy figure told Mongo the antidote was inside, and then threw the vial in the air as he took off running. Endefal leapt and caught the vial before it hit the ground, but at this point the leader type had disappeared without a trace. Quickly forcing the liquid down the fallen fighter’s throat, the priest of Attar was rewarded as the potion brought Nadal back from the brink of death and restored his breathing. Of the man from the shadows, and the other bandit, nothing could be seen.
Soon after the city guard arrived, led by the captain of the guard Manshu, and the native Delosian remarked upon seeing the bodies that the four dead bandits were Tcho-Tchos, and that the party would now be marked for death by their tribe. Asking who or what Tcho-Tchos were, Manshu gave them a look and said one didn’t speak of these things. Later, Mongo told them legends of a debased, primitive tribe that inhabited Delos’ highlands, who were rumored to be the inbred remnants of the ancient Shadowmasters, identifiable by their sloped heads, filed teeth, great strength and resistance to pain, and single-minded pursuit of violence.
As they left the scene, the priest of Vistna they had rescued said he would speak to Gam in the morrow about the adventurers saving his life, and might have further words with the adventurers about the scroll tube he had lost, and it’s contents. The mystery of what was inside, and why the priest was attacked, would have to remain so for several more days.

The next morning, a small group consisting of the adventurers, a few other mercenaries, 25 or so native Delosian bearers, the fighter Talith, the ranger Ardu, and a priest of Akadi named Derk started off with many heavily packed water buffalo for the village of Onnja. Nervous yet excited, the group listened to what Ardu had to say, which mostly consisted of nearly useless advice of “Watch the trees!” or “Watch your feet, where you step!” or “Watch were you piss!” Along the way, a small flight of a dozen jungle stirges (horrible variations of the regular variety with sharp tails and poisoned bite) attack the rear of the caravan and the party fought them off after killing a few.
For the next few days, the travel became monotonous as nothing out of the ordinary was seen, heard or encountered. Suddenly, on the third day, Ardu took Mongo aside and pointed out several bare footprint tracks on the ground….”Tzulan warriors, a war party on a manhood rite, very bad!”. He went on to explain to the party that occasionally a large group of young Tzulan warriors invaded Ashante territory to collect “tokens”…ears, noses, eyes, even genitals….of Ashante warriors as a rite of manhood. Tzulan warriors were quite skilled and deadly, and even worse this looked like a large group. The native ranger told the party to keep their eyes and ears open, and passed the bad news along to Talith.
Talith looked grim, and quickly ordered double-time to perhaps reach the village of Onnja before nightfall. Alas, luck was not with the party. Several hours later, a horde of almost 100 screaming Tzulan warriors threw a rain of spears into the caravan, killing bearers and animals alike, and descended on the survivors with a fury! Ardu had stayed close to his charges, and they were immediately cut off. He yelled at them to run as he grabbed a backpack from an animal, and followed them as they ran pell mell into the jungle wilderness.
As they left the path and quickly became lost in the vines, grasses and plants, almost a mile away from the screaming and fighting, suddenly the party ran smack into a group of ten Tzulan warriors, obviously some sort of rear guard assigned to prevent stragglers or runners from escaping! Battle was joined, but the party quickly realized that the warriors entirely outclassed them all but for Ardu. Cadelaine quickly slept two, and the battle got nasty after that as the hide and wooden shield wielding natives armed with javelins and spears quickly began striking dangerous blows again and again. Soon, Ardu was surrounded by four warriors, and the rest of the party was barely holding their own as they each had a warrior fighting them. Their cures were quickly used up, and quick thinking allowed Kalphistane to cast a Entangle spell that caught four of the warriors and Ardu, giving the party a brief respite as they then only faced four of the Tzulan warriors. Two were quickly killed by Cadelaine’s arrows, and she butchered the two still asleep by her spell, evening the odds somewhat as Nadal and Mongo struck down two others. Unfortunately, a plan by Kalphistane to unnerve the warriors went awry as after beheading a dead warrior and holding up the head, he was set upon by a vengeful warrior, and a spear was run completely through his stomach. He fell to the ground nearly dead, and Endefal had to bind him up before he bled out.
However, the Entangle spell had given the party a much needed break, and they were given time to heal and ready themselves as they peppered the entangled warriors with sling bullets and arrows. By the time the remaining four warriors escaped the vines, they were all bleeding and injured, and much easier prey for the four and Ardu (minus the unconscious Kalphistane). After a short and violent battle, the warriors all lay dead around the exhausted and bleeding party members. They were victorious, but there would be no rest. Ardu told Mongo to grab the unconscious Kalphistane and follow him, they still had much ground to cover to put space between them and the blood mad Tzulan war party!

After several hours hacking through the trackless jungle, finally as dusk came, Ardu told them to halt. They had reached a small stream, and nearby was a rock overhang where they could rest for the night. Kal was made comfortable, and Ardu showed the remaining four what he had rescued from the caravan: a backpack containing rations, some weapons (including magical arrows and a sword), and a small Bag of Holding with a few potions, scrolls and other needed items for survival. Distributing a clerical and magical scroll, the magic arrows, and the potions, Ardu said these plus the rations might be the difference between life and death as they were now alone here in the jungle. Ardu said that travel to the village of Onnja was going to be closer than a trip back to Port Maugre, so they would start in the morning. First, he took Mongo as they went downstream attempting to hunt some wild game for food and save their rations for when needed.
As it became dark, Ardu and Mongo managed to kill a antelope that came to the stream to drink, but as they began butchering it for the meat, another predator announced himself. Suddenly, a large tiger leapt from the brush and landed on Ardu, biting him several times! Ardu and the big cat rolled around until the ranger fought free, then Ardu and Mongo managed to kill the tiger. They finished butchering the antelope and brought the meat back to the waiting camp, but that night Ardu became feverish and ill from infection. The next morning, he was worse, and heal spells were not working to banish the sickness (although at this point Kal was up and functioning with the help of rest and heal spells, carrying a scar across his belly from the Tzulan’s spear) The day was spent searching for herbs in the jungle that would cure his affliction, but the best the party could do was find some Sleepthistle, which when brewed in tea has the effect of causing a long and restful sleep. This was given to Ardu, with the hopes that the next morning his fever would break.
That night there was a scary encounter with a 12 ft bushmaster snake that crawled into Kalphistane’s bedroll as the slept, looking for an easy meal (under the eye of Mongo who had fallen asleep on guard duty). Kalphistane was able to talk to the snake and convince him to go elsewhere for food, and when he began sliding towards Endefal, he was attacked and driven off by Kal, Mongo and Cadelaine.
The next morning, Ardu still slept, his body healing as the ranger was in a semi-coma from the sickness and the Sleepthistle. Truly on their own, the party decided to head downstream to eventual civilization, with Nadal rigging up a stretcher for Ardu to drag behind them as they traveled.
Into the afternoon, they soon noticed they were being paced and hunted by a large tiger, possibly the mate of the one Mongo and Ardu had killed. The great cat was careful to never come out in the open for missile weapon fire, so the party picked a good spot for a trap, and Cadelaine (who had experience in this sort of thing) directed the men to dig a tiger pit, with sharpened stakes at the bottom, and cover it with palm fronds. As they worked, they notice a few yards behind them a very ancient looking stone arch and fence surrounding an overgrown area. Investigating, they found as soon as they entered the courtyard all jungle sounds were silenced, as there seemed to exist none of the small bird, insect or animal sounds elsewhere in the jungle. The tiger was soon seen on the outskirts of the stone wall, but would not enter the area the party had just entered. In the center of the overgrown courtyard stood a large dark temple, covered with thorns, brambles and briars, and investigation found it covered with disturbing death and dark imagery…..the priests and Mongo recognized the seal on the opened door as that of the God of Shadow, and apparently they party had discovered one of the ancient temples to this blasphemous god! The place looked long abandoned
After battling and chasing off a giant constrictor snake inhabiting the courtyard that had tried to attack Endefal, the party looked around and found only rats and giant rats inhabiting the ruins of the courtyard. Kal was able to speak to a giant rat (and later a bat) about what kinds of creatures inhabited the abandoned temple. The adventurers deduced from the animal’s descriptions that the temple was mostly inhabited by undead (perhaps shadows and some king of walking dead) and that nothing human had been there for quite awhile. Learning that nothing from within the temple ever left the temple, they felt somewhat safe about spending the night there rather than leaving the relative safety of the courtyard and perhaps facing the tiger at night.

The gold-nugget studded bronze door spoke of treasure within, and Mongo told them that legends among his tribe told of giant treasure hordes secreted by the evil priests of Shadow who had demanded all sorts of tribute from subjugated tribes. The opened front door ended in darkness beyond; as it was now dusk (and as swarms of bats began flying out of the opened door into the night air beyond) they decided to postpone any exploration of the temple until the next day and morning’s light. A watch was set up (for anything leaving the temple, and perhaps the return of the giant serpent), and Ardu was placed within a small tent to rest and hopefully recover soon. By the light of the Continual Light torch and stone, the party quietly discussed their plans and distributed the magic weapons among themselves (including Ardu’s magical longsword, which went to Cadelaine, some magical arrows, and the magical short sword from the bag which Nadal appropriated) and took stock of their meager magic and holy water. The proximity of the temple kept sleep at bay until exhaustion finally caused those not on watch to, one by one, drop off to a fitful rest.

Suddenly, as clear as day, the party stands in the courtyard in full daylight…but does not. A dream? Perhaps, but it seems so real. The temple, unlike the sunken, razed pile of rocks in the present, stood tall and gleaming, light seeming to be sucked in by the absolute darkness of the basalt and obsidian walls. No vegetation mars the smooth stamped rock surface of the courtyard, and nervous dark men wearing symbols of darkness and death begin to file out of the doorway to man the stone walls of the holy place. They cringe in fear at the light, and you realize only dire necessity would draw them out of their cold, dark home to face whatever is coming. A yell is heard, along with booming drums, and the distant yelling of hundreds of screaming natives gets closer and closer.
Suddenly, a large group of Ashante warriors, well armed with weapons, and led by a proud warrior carrying a spear that licked with an unearthly flame, howled like madmen as they swarmed over the walls like ants. Priests in black leather and cloaks, armed with staves made of black wood and knives of some dark metal or stone, tried to stop the advance, but though their spells took their toll they were all eventually brought down and hacked to pieces by the wild eyed mob.
Afraid to brave what was beyond the door, the warriors used thrown rocks and crude catapults, pulled up from the jungle, to hurl stones against the shadowy walls, finally bringing down the roof which collapsed into the first story. Eventually the leader with the flaming spear calls upon his men (in Ashante, but even if you cannot speak that language you can here him as clear as any orator in your native tongue), to finally show their courage and brave the depths of this hellish temple to drive away the shadow demons who have ruled this land for too long. Only a quarter of the warriors have backbone enough to follow their leader inside, and they are accompanied by a wise looking shaman holding a lantern that seems to burn brightly without any fuel source.
Violent scenes flash across your eyes, of cold and darkness and death, the brave warriors going from chamber to chamber killing the priests and their unearthly servants. The images begin to blur, and you are back outside. The remaining warriors have waited a day and longer for their brothers to return to the light, muttering to themselves and praying to their gods, until finally they gasp in sadness and fear as only a small fraction of the invading warriors exit the doorway, all wounded and bloody, and without their spear-wielding leader. Finally the old shaman exits, without the lamp, and you see him face the stunned crowd to tell them that many gave their life but the priests are dead, their servants destroyed or banished, and their demon ally imprisoned for all time.

You awake with a start, a low moaning in your ears…but it is only the wind.

1st Patrol on Delos

2009-09-05T18:34:00.002-05:00

Week Two:

During their first week at House Valaryan, the adventurers acclimated themselves to the tropical weather (hot, wet and muggy) and their new circumstances. Endefal took the time to visit the Attarian temple in Port Maugre, and met the high priest there, one Jerrod. Jerrod filled the young half elf in on doings around the Port Maugre area, telling him it was mostly cleared of slavers and their ilk. Far to the south, and to the east, however, Tzulan warriors took slaves for their Taranthian masters, and the Snakemen and their loathsome allies were rumored to be taking entire caravans of merchants and their followers captive. Many merchant trains had disappeared entirely, leaving nothing behind, not even bodies. What the Snakemen wanted with the humans, no one knew.

After getting a small gift of a Healing potion and some holy water from Jerrod, Endefal left to join with his new mates as they were also exploring the small town. That afternoon, Mongo’s uncle Ardu told them that the next morning they would go on patrol outside of the village’s walls for the first time, and they would have to get rest…

Early the next day, with the ground wet from an evening rainfall, the small group (Ardu, Cadelaine, Endefal, Mongo, Kalphistane and Nadal) left through the large wooden doors of Port Maugre to their first patrol. Skirting the edges of the temple to Akadi, the market, and Swinetown, they entered the foliage of the jungle proper. Although it had been cleared for several hundred yards, Ardu told them that there were workers constantly tearing up new growth as the jungle continually threatened to take back it’s own. Up to the edge of the jungle, several plots of land grew crops for the village, and several groups of cows, goats and water buffalos sat in wooden pens, guarded by vigilant city guards and tribesmen.

Right at the edge of the small farms, the jungle quickly overtook them. Suddenly, all sunlight disappeared as the heavy vines and growth blocked out the light. Many noises assaulted them, from birds, insects and small mammals, to the sounds of the jungle itself. Ardu led them on patrol, right on the edge of the jungle, for about a mile or so south of Port Maugre. He continually shared knowledge of the dangers in the jungle, chuckling at mention of this or that former mercenary for House Valaryan that had died instantly from a snake bite. His refrain of “It was so funny!” when referring to particularly gruesome deaths due to poisonous reptiles, jungle stirges, or other creatures of the jungle did little to reassure the nervous group, who besides Mongo had little (in Kalphistane’s case) or no experience in such territory. Former trails cut through the undergrowth were barely visible as they followed Ardu, looking for any signs of enemy warriors, slavers, or creatures that should not be there.

Suddenly, Ardu held them up with a lip to his fingers and pointed up towards

the jungle canopy. The party heard a strange whirring and flapping, and from above several bat-winged forms descended down on them. “Flying snakes”! shouted Ardu “Very bad, they spit acid!” Luckily, the party dealt with the flying reptiles quickly, with virtually no injuries. Ardu proceeded to cut off the wings and heads and throw the snake bodies in a sack. “Good eating!” he exclaimed happily, as he led the now-blooded party along.

Heading back towards the village, a child’s scream caught their ears. Ardu ran ahead full speed, with the others following. They burst out on a small clearing next to a stream, to see several small, evil monkey-like men encircling two native children who were huddled near the bodies of a man and woman pierced with small javelins. The monkey-men, known as tasloi, were scourges of the jungle as they attacked in large groups to use humans for food or worse. They were trying to tie up the children when the party burst through the foliage, and immediately attacked!
Ardu and Nadal quickly split a couple of the creatures in half, as Kalphistane cast an Entangle spell which held tight six of the tasloi. As the battle was joined, Cadelaine also used her spell abilities to good effect to put down another six with a Sleep spell, evening the odds considerably. After a short combat, the tasloi were killed (including the slept or held ones), with only two wounded creatures escaping deeper into the forest. Speaking to the children, Ardu discovered they and their parents were attacked on their way back from gathering fish and water from the stream. Ardu then questioned one terribly wounded tasloi before wringing his neck, finding out the location of a small cave nearby wear the creatures laired. He told Mongo that he must use his skills to track the wounded ones back to their cave, and eliminated them. This, he said, would be a good test of their abilities of planning and executing an attack, and he reasoned the tasloi would not be too tough of a foe for the fledgling adventurers. Saying he would stay with the children to guard them, he bade them hurry and track down the tasloi!

Applying some minor healing, the party quickly followed the ranger Mongo through the twisting vines and growth of the jungle a short way until they came to a small hill. Sure enough, a trail of blood led into a dark cave entrance in front of them. Some confusion then resulted, as Mongo and Cadelaine tried to sneak ahead, only to be quickly discovered by guards at the entrance, who attacked. Nadal ran forth to protect Cadelaine, cutting down a few, and Kalphistane and Endefal were left on the edge of the jungle to ponder how quickly their “plan” had become no plan at all! Battling at the entrance, soon Mongo and Nadal had taken very nasty blows from the tasloi’s javelins and clubs, and glances inside showed more than a dozen of the creatures still ready to fight! A retreat was called for, and Kalphistane saved the day with a Puffball spell as he threw a magical mushroom into the entrance, causing a huge stinging cloud to appear which caused any tasloi passing through to fall to the ground gasping and choking. The party healed the injured and quickly dispatched several of the incapacitated tasloi, only to enter into a grim standoff at the entrance. Sneaking in was now out of the question; frontal assault would be suicide, and the tasloi refused to come out and engage the party outside the cave.

Other means of entrance to the complex were then sought for along the cliff base. Finding none there, Cadelaine climbed the small bluff (perhaps 20 feet high) to search along the top. As she wandered around, a whirring sound gave her pause and she jumped behind a tree trunk, only to see a giant spider with dragonfly-like wings emerge from a hole beside a dead tree trunk, fly around for awhile, and then re-enter the hold. Very carefully creeping forward, she saw the hole led downward…..perhaps a hidden or back entrance to the caves? Summoning the others, they decided on a plan: Nadal would stay and watch the front entrance, while Endefal, Mongo, Cadelaine and Kalphistane would attempt entrance through the spider-hole entrance on top the cliff. A shout from Nadal would let the party know that the tasloi were attempting to exit; if so, the he would retreat and the party would attempt to meet up with him.

Soon, the four found themselves staring down a dark, slimy, web covered hole leading down into the ground. A very faint light came from down below, but the party was loathe to enter. As they stood pondering, the giant flying spider stuck his head out of the hole! Taking them by surprise, Endefal dropped a vial of oil he held onto himself, preventing any firing of the hole or spider, and the party began swinging their weapons, but couldn’t strike the arachnid nightmare. The spider flew out of the hole and began buzzing around their heads, trying to bite and poison the adventurers! A blow by Endefal almost brought the spider down, and wounds by Mongo and Cadelaine almost tore his wings off….as he attempted to fly away, Kalphistane finished him off with a well placed sling bullet. Soon, as their hearts beating slowed down to normal, a plan was made to tie a rope to the tree and lower themselves down. One by one, all four entered the hold to a small, disgusting room that must have been the spider’s lair. Webbing, pieces of bodies and equipment, and other nasty bits of effluent were scattered in the 5 foot tall chamber. The party soon found a tight passageway of 2 feet leading onward, but searching the webbed bodies produced some treasure, including a continual light torch, potions, and some gold!

While the elf and half elves were able to slide themselves down the narrow passageway, Mongo found himself too large and bulky to do so, and had to remove his armor. As Mongo and Cadelaine reached the exit, they found themselves in a chamber filled with stained cushions, pillows and blankets, along with sacks filled with items. On the opposite side of the room stood an ancient looking iron door with a new lock, and a corridor leading onward. With only a minute to investigate their surroundings, they were surprised as a tall, strong looking tasloi strode into the chamber, glowing short sword in hand…they had come upon the tasloi leader’s room! Combat was joined as the leader, one Urglat, screamed for help!

All was pandemonium in the small chamber. Mongo and Cadelaine blocked the leader at the entrance, preventing any further tasloi from entering, as Kalphistane and Endefal quickly entered behind the battle. They were unable to join the combat, so tried to help with spells of healing as Mongo and Cadelaine were injured during combat with the head tasloi. Soon, Urglat lay dead at their feet, but swarms of tasloi began to pour into the room. Combat got deadly, as injuries resulted that led the party members to rotate themselves in combat as tasloi were downed and party members injured. Finally, Endefal threw a container of lamp oil down the corridor, and followed up by throwing a lit candle. Immediately, the oil caught flame and in the confined space caused masses of black smoke and flames to fill the corridor and small room. Mongo was overcome by the smoke, and had to be dragged back down the narrow corridor back to the spider’s lair. Unfortunately, the companions forgot to remove his armor, and he became stuck! This left only Cadelaine and Endefal in the chief’s chamber, with Cadelaine’s curiosity getting the better of her as she examined the large locked iron door. Her thief skills could not get her inside, so she and Endefal instead collected several sacks of booty lying around, consisting of books, coins, weapons (including the tasloi chief’s glowing sword) and more. As the stinging smoke died down, Cadelaine found a key in the chief’s belongings that seem to fit the newer lock on the iron door. Opening it, she and Endefal found a dark, gloomy chamber with a human figure rising to meet them….an undead zombie! Presenting his holy symbol, Endefal turned the creature to the back of the small tomb. The tomb, obviously older than the caverns dug around it, seemed to have been untouched for many centuries. As the pair entered, the tasloi again began to attack from the open corridor! At this point, Nadal had joined the party…having seen the dark smoke pouring out of the cave entrance, along with several retreating tasloi, he had climbed up the rope and then entered the spider hole himself. Pulling his chainmail off, he had managed to squeeze down the narrow corridor just in time to take the brunt of the tasloi’s attacks. Nadal and Mongo met the newest tasloi attack, as the other three quickly investigated the small tomb and it’s inhabitant.

Inside, the undead introduced himself as Gruumstead, and said he was a worshipper of Shadow, the ancient god of darkness. He hinted cryptically at several things, including a return of darkness and shadow to the continent of Delos, but was unable to attack the party due to Endefal’s steadfast faith and holy symbol. Noticing several rolled up scrolls in an alcove in the tomb, Cadelaine gathered them up and the tomb was exited and locked upon leaving. As the tasloi again pressed their attack and injuries mounted, again oil was tossed down the corridor, and again lighted. However, this time a burning tasloi ran into the room screaming, and began rolling amongst the furnishings, setting the entire room alight! It was time to leave, and the party, dragging their booty, hurried through the narrow corridor to the spider’s lair, and from there, up to the hole in the hilltop. After leaving, covered with soot, blood, grime and gore, the weary adventurers made their way back to Ardu, who was anxiously awaiting their return with the still frightened children.

Telling Ardu all that had transpired, he said on the morrow he would lead a group of soldiers to finish cleaning out the tasloi lair, and praised them on a job well done by killing the tasloi leader and wreaking havoc on their lair. They returned to Port Maugre with the children in tow, weary but triumphant on their first foray into the jungle.

Upon their return, the scrolls were found to be written in ancient Delosian and contained much information on the history of the Shadow worshippers and their reign many hundreds of years earlier….they were sold to the Vistnan church for a tidy sum, along with some older mold covered books found in another sack. Kalphistane, to his wonder, found one of the books to be a huge tome, rune covered leather with gold hinges, and written in high elvish! The book was a true treasure, a history of the elven House S’thelian, the elven house who had attempted an ill-fated conquest of Delos several hundred years before. It seemed to be a journal and history written by one of the survivors. The priests of Vistna were very interested and offered the elven druid 750 GP for the tome, but something inside told Kalphistane that this tome might hold the knowledge he and his mentor had been seeking, the location of the lost elven city and temple. He resolved to study it on his own and see what knowledge he could find…

Among the other treasures, Mongo was allowed to have the magical short sword, while a magic scroll went to the mage/thief Cadelaine, and various potions and coins were divided up among the rest. A substantial donation was made by Endefal to the Attarian church, and a grateful Jerrod rewarded his faithful worshipper with potions and holy water. Ardu had been pleased by their quick thinking and battle prowess, and mentioned to the house Patriarch, Gam, that perhaps it was time to let the adventurers join in a short trip to the interior of Delos on one of the trade routes to an Ashante tribe…

Intro to Delos, the Dark Continent

2009-09-05T18:06:00.004-05:00

FIRST CONTACT WITH DELOS:

It had been a rough life, and particularly a rough month for the half elvish Cadelaine, as she gazed out over the ocean. Born to a Silver elf ambassador and a noble merchant prince of The League (House Valaryan), she had been both blessed (daughter of the leader of a noble house) and cursed, as her mother’s dalliance led to an embarrassing exile for the silver elf and her half breed offspring. Silver elves lived quite different lives from their Gold or Wood elf brethren, and were considered royalty among their kind. Unfortunately, this meant the bloodlines must be kept pure, and half-human liaisons with Silver elves were not spoken of or acknowledged. Except for her silver eyes and streaks of silver in her hair, Cadelaine could pass for human….too closely, some said, for as she grew older her resemblance to her father grew far too recognizable.

Instead of being in line for the throne, Cadelaine had been a constant source of friction. Being a bastard child, even of an elvish ambassador of a Silver Elven Noble House, and the head of House Valaryan, was a hindrance more than a help growing up. When it came time for her mother’s entourage to return to the Elvish isles, Sedalia stayed behind because the shame would have been immense and she reasoned a half-elven child might be treated better in The League than back at home. Cadelaine’s mother taught her the magical arts, and gave her a spellbook when she came of age. Of her father, she saw little, although guilt and love for her mother made him support her with sporadic gifts. However, Sedalia died young for an elf, and at that Cadelaine’s father’s visits (and support) stopped abruptly.

Virtually abandoned on the streets, Cadelaine was lucky enough to be taken in by a local family whose same age son was infatuated with her silver hair and eyes, and became her best friend. His family (a large but happy brood of bakers) welcomed her and soon she lived alongside them as one of their own. The son, Taylor, became as close as any brother, and she soon learned the art of thievery as well as her magic to supplement the business in weeks of low sales.

However, the wonderful life she had fallen into ended the week before. Her resemblance to her father had become too close to ignore, and whispers around the city placed Cadelaine in the middle of any number of rumors and muddled plots among those who wished House Valaryan evil. Sadly realizing her presence would only endanger her new family, Cadelaine packed up in the dead of night, and stowed away aboard a House Valaryan merchant ship bound far, far away…to distant lands, where she knew not. The name "Delos" was mentioned, called "The Dark Isle", "The Dark Continent", or "Island of Shadows". This sounded like an ideal place to escape to, and she hid aboard the ship as it headed out into the unknown.

Discovered several days into the journey, the gruff but kind Captain Bohema put her to work on the ship, telling her she must earn her way and plead her case before the head of House Valaryan when the isle of Delos was reached….for no one rode for free! Captain Bohema hinted when they arrived there would be a way for her to work off the cost of the trip, and if she played her cards right, she might make some gold in the bargain….

On top of this interesting set of circumstances, two other variables had entered her life…another shipmate, a “Sir Nadal Kingsworth Valaryan”, had attempted to befriend her on the voyage. A tall, strong, brash fighter type, Cadelaine soon realized he had also been sent off to far away Delos for reasons of birthright. Being the fifth son of the leader of House Valaryan’s 2nd wife, he had also muddied the waters of succession had his father passed. The scheming of his older brothers and sisters quickly got him out of the way, as he was told he was being sent to far away Delos to learn how to be a leader of men so he would one day rule the noble House. Cadelaine quickly realized (even if Nadal didn’t), that no only had his brothers hoped he would leave to never return (perhaps perishing in the harsh climes of Delos), but that she was his half-sister. Resolving to let him know neither, she wished him well but kept her distance, not wanting him to examine her too closely and wonder why she looked so much like his father….!

The other interesting shipmate was found floating on day on a piece of lumber, miles and miles from land. His name was Endefal, and he was a Gold half elf and priest of Attar. Although the marks on his wrists and back told of a past of servitude, he refused to tell anything about himself, or how he came to be floating on the ocean, even to a fellow half elf (but truly, he and Cadelaine had as little in common in their heritage than any other random human, elf or half elf). Captain Bohema had his ship cleric nurse the young half elf back to health, then put him to work also. Endefal showed a remarkable ability on the boat and sees, which seemed to place him as a sailor at some point in his past. Whatever his origins, he refused to speak of them to either Cadelaine or Nadal.

After several weeks, after open seas, soon various islands began to dot the ocean around them. Unlike anything she had seen back in the League, the islands were covered by lush, tropical foliage, the arm was warm and muggy, the sun hot and merciless. When Captain Bohema would talk to her sometimes, he told her of the dangerous waters they plied, full of orcish, human, and Taranthian slavers and pirates, and containing many other dangers such as dragon turtles and worse! He also talked of Delos, a land hundreds of miles long, filled with jungles, dark skinned natives, incredible monsters, and danger underneath every tree and vine. Yet he also spoke of great treasures contained in ruins on the isle, of cities made of gold, diamonds as big as a man’s fist, and lost magic that had been undiscovered since the Cataclysm. The stories fired Cadelaine’s imagination and she felt excitement to explore this strange new world. If Endefal felt anything, he did not speak of it, but Bohema’s tales of battling pirates and slavers cause his golden eyes to angrily flash and he would rub his wrists where Cadelaine saw knife marks. perhaps where he had sawed free of a set of manacles? She was too embarrassed to ask, and Nadal seemed to be oblivious, in a world of his own…planning his training to one day rule House Valaryan with the troops he would train at their landing spot, Port Maugre!

The arrival at Port Maugre had been a bit anti-climatic. For what is was worth, she felt a bit smug yet also sorry for the proud Sir Nadal, who had been laughed at and scoffed at during his arrival as he found out rather than “commanding” anything, he was to be assigned to work at House Valaryan like any other employee, family member or mercenary alike. His pride with his plate armor and sword were even taken from him, as well as his bragged-about riding skills, after finding out that heavy armor could not be worn, the best weapons to use were small and compact, and that no horses existed on Delos to ride (they all caught some sort of disease within weeks of landing and died).

She, Endefal and Nadal all stood in the plush office of Gam, referred to as “The Patriarch”, who was the nominal head of House Valaryan here on distant Delos. Along with other members of House Valaryan, Gam took care of trade with the native Ashante and Kongon tribesmen from his villa in Port Maugre. Dealing mainly in spices (cloves, cinnamon) and ivory, House Valaryan was along with House Tarn and House Mith (rival trading houses) the only noble houses of the League able to operate out of the outpost of Port Maugre. Captain Bohema had introduced her and Endefal to Gam, saying they were “not half bad youngsters”, and suggesting perhaps Gam could find a place for them there. Gam told Endefal that he owed House Valaryan his life, and it would only be right of him to work off his debt working for House Valaryan; to Cadelaine, he sternly told her the penalty for being a stowaway was indentured servitude, but since Bohema had vouched for her, he would instead let her work off the cost of the trip while working there at House Valaryan.

Three others were there, also. A tall native warrior type, and an older warrior named Ardu who obviously had worked for House Valaryan for awhile. He introduced the young native boy as his nephew Mongo, and said since his village had been destroyed by Tzulan natives, he was eager to join his uncle at House Valaryan to use his skill as a ranger and tracker. The last individual was a full blooded Gold Elf, wearing the holy symbol of Faerel…a druid! Apparently from the conversation he had with Gam, he had come to Delos with several other elves searching for a mythical elvish city founded some 500 years earlier, and his mentor and the rest of the expedition had been killed not two days into the jungle by “snakemen”, creatures who sounded perfectly horrible! The elf, Kalphistane by name, had survived with several Vistnan priests accompanying the expedition, and he had been brought here awaiting a future delegation of gold elves. Not knowing when they might arrive, Kalphistane was offering his skills and powers to House Valaryan until that day. Gam questioned Nadal, Kalphistane, Mongo, Endefal and Nadal a bit, and then told them their duties and the rules of House Valaryan: they were employees of the House, and would be assigned duties such as caravan escorting, scouting, or being bodyguards of important members of House Valaryan or merchants they had to deal with. In return, they would be given room and board, and allowed (when not on duty) to pursue their own explorations. Agreeing to the terms and signing a contract, Gam produced a small sack of gold for each member (10 gp each) and told them to go out on the town and celebrate their employment, as the next morning would be their first day of work!

The five made their way to the local inn/tavern, taking in the rough dirty streets of the town, which sat on the end of a peninsula extending off the coast of Delos. A huge stone and timber wall separated the town from the heavy rain forest only half a mile away, and looked to be (even at this late hour) manned by ever alert warriors on several towers along the walls. While the area they walked through consisted of several poor huts, they could see a few expensive mansions and towers farther on towards the end of the peninsula, indicated that there were at least a few inhabitants that seem to have profited from their stay in Delos.

Still a bit stunned by the recent turns of events, the five made their way down to the “Number One Inn”, the best known drinking establishment in Port Maugre. Inside, the age of the building was evident, and it was full of every sort of individual. Port Maugre was the ass-end of the world, it seemed, and every criminal, outcast, runaway, warrior with something to prove, secretive mage, or worse ended up there. While drinking banana beer in the bar, they met the acquaintance of one bard of ill-repute, Drake by name, as he introduced himself to the five. A man of high spirits, and apparently low morals, Drake seemed to be an engaging rogue and entertained them with a few tales. When the head of the local house of ill repute (Nann) came into the bar roaring his name (something about money owed), he beat a hasty retreat out the back. The young adventurers also met the bartender, a shifty old gnome named Skull, who told them a bit about the town (and told them not to wake the muscled halfling woman passed out at the bar, if they valued their lives), and several other interesting individuals. Tired yet excited, they walked back through the earthen streets to their barracks in House Valaryan, eager to discover more about this strange land.