Episode 22: 11/14/09

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/4-3
Nineve, human knight/7
Xicar, human cleric/7
Haroldur, human wizard 3/cleric 4
Sarek, human wizard 7

We burn Akasha on the cart she rode in on. Mossad takes one last look at her garlic-stuffed, disembodied head before tossing it on the pyre. That evening, Mossad mostly keeps to himself as Arrad pals around with the Legionnaires. We camp for the night in the relative safety of our fortifications.

In the morning, Mossad pokes through the ashes and fishes out a ring, which he tosses to Sarek. He puts the ashes in some urns, and then gives us each one. We scatter Akasha's remains to the four winds while Mossad says a prayer for the departed foe. Afterwards we break camp and head back to the Cabal; a journey of about a week. Along the way, we gain from our experiences and receive some special training from Arrad! As we travel, we finally get around to giving Mossad and Arrad our full report on the Blackwall Keep mission.

We settle in to life at the Cabal, but rumors of trouble in Diamond Lake pique our interest. We soon decide that the time is right for us to go after 31E. We remember that we'll need a Repair spell to attach the new leg to 31E, but those are hard to come by. After a bit of research we learn of a shop, called Stonebones, which might sell such a thing.

We make our way to the Cogs, a bustling foreigner's marketplace that is out of the way and off the radar for most of Istivin's inhabitants. We locate the curio shop and are somewhat surprised to find it is run by Stonebones, a Xorn. He is hesitant to deal with us at first, and things get off to a rocky start when Sarek spots a suspicious-looking amalgam of body parts in the Xorn's workshop. Officially, this is something we should definitely investigate, but it's clear that Stonebones won't deal with us if we give him any trouble. Things get a little heated, but we decide to turn a blind eye here for the sake of rescuing 31E. Stonebones is still uncertain about us, but the "irresistible aroma" of our gems gets the better of him and he agrees to sell us some Repair scrolls. While Stonebones is rummaging around for the scrolls, I spot a disembodied troll hand in a small cage among the jumbled piles of trinkets and treasures. I've been casually looking for just such a thing, in the hopes of combining it with my troll gut rope to make a troll hand grappling hook! I must have it. It costs me a few "delicious" rubies from my personal stash, but I eventually convince Stonebones to let me have it. Thrilled, I attach the hand to the rope and it flips me off immediately. I love it!

That evening, back at the Cabal, we are stunned to be summoned to meet with the Canoness. None of us has met with her since we were inducted as Greycloaks. No one meets with her!

Canoness Embiril Ilustani receives us in her large and richly appointed office. A cheery blaze in the hearth casts dancing shadows about the chamber. Draped in luxuriously embroidered silks and velvets, the elderly Canoness is still more graceful and charming than most women half her age (whatever that may be). Her eyes seem to shift color constantly. She chats with us in a relaxed manner that speaks of her absolute supremacy.

She informs us that since Ironbriar's imprisonment, Marten has been appointed as an Interim Justice for the district. This doesn't surprise me at all, since I've always thought Marten was a power-hungry snake. However, his appointment has elevated the Cabal's status and influence somewhat. Canoness Ilustani goes on to say that due to Marten's new post, the Ruby Temple has a more direct influence over Ironbriar's fate. She asks us to submit a recommendation on this matter. This type of thing is quite a bit above our pay grade, and we're all rather stunned, but of course we agree. After a few more minutes of small talk, she replaces our Greycloaks with Traveling Greycloaks, in recognition of our service to the Cabal. We are deeply honored to be rewarded by the Canoness herself, but we leave her chambers uneasy with the weight of our task to provide a recommendation.

Legally, Ironbriar has earned death as a punishment for his crimes ten times over. However, it seems evident that he was under Akasha's direct control for many months, and was merely carrying out her wishes when he committed his crimes. On the other hand, as Sarek repeatedly points out, it was Ironbriar who actually, physically performed these acts. But if a person is not in control of their own mind, if their will is not their own, can they be held completely and solely responsible for their actions? We weighed the arguments and it was obvious that we were getting nowhere. We decided to seek out help.

We approach Hezzrak and ask him to cast Commune. In the end, though, we decide we can't trust Hezzrak's Commune because we don't know who he's communing with! It doesn't help that when asked, the imp becomes evasive on that point... We ask him to cast Augury for us as well, but both courses of action (leniency and death) return a divination of "Weal and Woe". Those damned Divination spells never clear anything up! Desperate, we consult with Advocat and find there are some precedents for leniency in these types of cases. At length, we turn in our well-written missive to Mossad recommending leniency for Ironbriar based on evidence, the circumstances surrounding this case, and the historical precedents.

As we prepare to leave for Diamond Lake, we find Tamklar ready to depart with us. No caravans have come from the Diamond Lake area in weeks, and he is anxious to see for himself what has happened in his home region. We're happy to have him along.

A day or two into our journey by carriage, Zolara appears and offers us a reading:

The Choosing:

Nineve - The Avalanche
Sarek - The Juggler
Ashe - The Crows
Xicar - The Cricket

The Spread:

The Paladin The Keep The Dance
The Beating The Avalanche The Joke
The Juggler The Tyrant The Tangled Brier

"Regarding the past, The Paladin is strength through adversity - he does not back down under any circumstances, much like you all. The Beating shows an attack from all sides. You may have survived, but something was lost, perhaps trust. Misaligned, The Juggler has faltered in the past, and a great disaster followed.

In the present, The Keep represents all of you, your quiet strength that cannot by shaken by any force. The Avalanche shows me the chaos and suffering that arises from an unthinking crowd, though it may be averted. The Tyrant is a blight on those ruled. In this case, I see a true dragon, though his rule is felt through the actions of another - one you are familiar with, I think.

The Dance represents the rich and delicate framework in which we all exist. Knowing your place and seeing the patterns will allow you to remain in perfect step. The Joke shows us a terror overcome through trickery or wit - not force. The Tangled Brier is a card of past deeds - it tells of a lost object or person who may still influence the present day."

In a few days we arrive at the outskirts of town. We are "greeted" by a gang of thugs in tattered red cloaks who try to extort us for a "toll". Nineve convinces them that they should look elsewhere if it's easy money they're after.

We round a corner and gasp as we catch sight of what used to be Diamond Lake. It's been largely leveled. We interrupt a town gathering of sorts that appears to be some kind of lottery. Officiating it all is Balabar Smenk. Dressed in faded, tatty finery with a tin crown on his head, he is a far cry from the smooth and powerful crime boss he once was. The town is crawling with his lackeys - the thugs in the tattered red cloaks. After some quick inquiries, we find out what happened.

A huge red dragon attacked Diamond Lake. (We deduce that it was probably the same dragon that leveled Blackwall Keep). The dragon still holds the town. In the wake of the destruction, Balabar stepped in to fill the power vacuum, acting as the dragon's envoy. He and his lackeys hang out on the Harkness, and collect what valuables can be had from the scavenging survivors. About once a week Balabar sends an "offering" of goods and people to the dragon, as payment/incentive for not continuing to raze the town. The people who are to be fed to the dragon are selected through a lottery, which is currently in progress.

Some of the citizens of Diamond Lake recognize us, and beg us to save them once again from their cruel fate. However, our presence is enough to distract Balabar for the moment. He focuses on us and leaves the lottery unsettled for the time being. An excited and desperate-sounding Balabar invites us to dine with him that evening. We wearily accept. Balabar rushes off to make preparations, and in the meantime, we make some inquiries. We are looking for Lazare. We determine that he left town a few days before the dragon attack, and may have been heading to the Whispering Cairn...

A few hours later, we meet Balabar for dinner on board the Harkness. Smenk goes on and on about the fine spread he has assembled for this repast, and from the state of the town, it must have been hard to come by indeed. We enjoy the relative delicacies he has prepared and discuss the Diamond Lake situation. Balabar approached the dragon immediately after the attack and proposed their current arrangement. The dragon's demands were that no one may leave Diamond Lake, and offerings of beautiful maidens and precious objects must be made to it at regular intervals to appease its hunger and increase its hoard. Balabar was able to keep the definitions for "beautiful maidens" and "precious objects" vague enough to satisfy these requirements with what is actually left in Diamond Lake - scraggy peasants and twisted scrap metal. Balabar is aware that he can't keep up this arrangement forever - eventually he'll run out of townsfolk - and the strain of this knowledge has taken a toll on his sanity. From atop a makeshift throne surrounded by piles of junk, he chats glibly about living like a king surrounded by finery, all without a hint of sarcasm.

Balabar talks and talks and we realize he is stalling. It soon becomes evident that he has poisoned us. He really must be crazy! We start to feel foggy and drowsy, but we manage to shake off the effects. By this time Balabar has become increasingly nervous. He realizes the poison has failed and jumps up suddenly. Before we can react, he fires a loaded crossbow at Sarek, pinning him to his chair!
Nineve fires back with a blast from her pew-pew gauntlets and the battle is on!

My old friend Kullen, the albino half-orc with a grudge against elves appears from the shadows. He calls me "Pinky" and cuts into me with his axe! Fortunately, I immediately answer with a cut of Searing Light from Captain Lorring's sword. Xicar throws down Order's Wrath, which dazes Balabar (who turns out to be BalaBARD!) Enemies pour in as the dinner party suddenly becomes a pitched battle. Balabard recovers, turns invisible, and flees.

We take a few seconds to heal up and collect ourselves and then give chase. We run around on the lashed-together decks of various boats that serve as a makeshift village on the water, fighting our way through thugs and pirates. Balabar hits me with a spell and I become confused. The rest of the battle is a blur as I alternate between staring off into space singing the Hamster Dance song and accidentally attacking my dog. My companions finish off the thugs and we continue on our chase, which has now progressed to the docks. Xicar gets shoved off the dock and narrowly avoids falling into the gar-infested waters.

We have a very tough slog through Balabar's minions - thugs, pirates and the like, before we finally manage to catch up with him at the end of the dock. He is standing next to a large, violently shaking container, looking smug. As we approach, he says "Oh, now you've made him angry. You won't like him when he's angry!" and unleashes his trained dire ape, ManBearPig, on us!

Nineve and I are on that monkey like a rat on a Cheeto. The men keep Balabard occupied while we hack ManBearPig to pieces before it can become a problem. Without his meat-shield, the mighty Balabar Smenk is easy pickings. Killing him is so easy it almost feels like an accident. Looks like we solved his dragon problem after all...

~Ashe

Episode 2: 2/2/08

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger/1
Haroldur, human cleric/1
Sigmund Gorn, dwarf fighter/1
Nineve Floret, human knight/1
Sarek, human wizard/1

After the fight at the docks, we headed back to the inn for some much-needed rest and refreshment. During the evening, I spent some time in the bar gathering some information on our destination, Kolbenberg. News wasn't hard to come by. Apparently, it had recently been sacked by goblins, and Diamond Lake has been choked with its refugees. Of course, I'd noticed a lot of destitute-looking people around the city, but I just assumed they were displaced fishermen or miners who'd fallen on hard times. At any rate, it seems the reports of goblin and orc activity we'd heard about back in Hookhill were accurate.

The next day, we received another sending from the Ruby Temple:
Retake Harkness.
Acolytes should reach Diamond Lake in 3 days.
Remain in Diamond Lake until then.
Locate the missing bodies from the graveyard.

Seems simple enough. As we were eating breakfast, a messenger arrived, bidding us meet with Lazare at our earliest convenience, so we finished our simple but tasty fare and headed over to his place. As always, he greeted us cordially and invited us to his private meeting room in the back. Earlier, we had offered to help him in his struggle against Balabar Smenk, but we made it clear that any assistance we could provide would have to be on the up-and-up. After some consideration, he'd thought of a way we could help him.

Lazare came to Diamond Lake and bought the mine from Balabar Smenk. Lazare made a down payment, and agreed to pay the remainder of the sum in monthly installments out of the mine's profits. However, Lazare's miners keep getting bought off or chased off the job - by Smenk's men! Lazare suspects Smenk plans to thusly bankrupt him, which would force Lazare to turn the mine back over to Smenk, who would also get to keep all of the money Lazare has given him so far. It was a pretty clever scheme, actually, but of course Lazare was very frustrated by the whole situation.

He asked us to recruit miners for him. We could find them in the town or outlying areas, or we could buy them out from Smenk, whichever we preferred. He also wanted us to find a way to keep the miners actually working in the mine, and prevent them from being bought off or chased off. In return, we asked him to look into Smenk's possession of the Harkness's title. We're sure he obtained it illegally, but without proof, there's nothing we can do to get it back. Thus agreed, we left Lazare's and set about the tasks at hand.

Sarek, Nineve and Haroldur paid a visit to the Church of St. Cuthbert (of all places!) as it seemed to be the congregating place for a majority of the itinerants. Like any sane Greycloak, I refuse to deal with Cuthbertites as a matter of course, unless strictly necessary. The animosity that church shows towards our organization is not easily forgotten. Instead, Sigmund and I went to speak to the local garrison commander.

At St. Cuthbert's, Sarek and the others indeed found a great deal of refugees and poor folk, which were being herded between menial tasks by low-level acolytes. In the center of the commotion was the priest, a stocky, barrel-chested man stripped to the waist and flogging himself (and others) with a lash while bellowing Cuthbertine dogma. While representatives of the churches of St. Cuthbert and Wee Jas don't normally cooperate, this priest seemed rather fixated on the "labor" aspect of Cuthbert, and was pleased to have a new task at which to set some of his flock. He agreed to recruit some healthy workers and have them report for duty tomorrow, provided they understand they are to return to his church in the evenings.

Meanwhile, at the garrison, Sigmund and I met with Toliver Trask, the garrison commander. He seemed very busy and generally frustrated about his garrison being undermanned. He agreed to ask if any of the guards would be interested in freelance guard work for Lazare's miners - in their off-time, of course. I asked him why he hadn't sent any men to Kolbenberg, and he launched into a rant about being spread too thin and how his hands were being tied by bureaucrats in the capitol who kept denying his requests for more recruits... I decided I might not have caught him at the best time...

We all met back up in town, and decided to spread out and tackle some more tasks. While we had secured unskilled labor and guards for Lazare, we had yet to find him some actual miners. I nosed around a bit and found a hangout popular with Smenk's miners. Sigmund accompanied me to do a little recruiting.

The bar was dark and noisy, and a large group of about 40 miners were raucously drinking away their earnings. I strode up to the largest table and had their attention in no time. Deep in their cups, many of the miners took my offer of employment as an offer of a different sort, but a flash of gold coin and a stern look from Sigmund kept them mostly under control. At length, I made the details of the wage and signing bonus clear to them, and informed them that, unfortunately, there were only 12 managerial positions available, so interested parties should arrive at Lazare's mine tomorrow morning early for interviews. Mission accomplished, Sigmund and I headed back to the Able Carter Inn.

In the meantime, Sarek, Nineve, and Haroldur were looking for information about where the stolen corpses were ending up. They went to the jail, and fortunately, the 2 grave robbers we'd apprehended earlier were still there. Sarek bails them out and charms one of them, who tells them everything they need to know. Unfortunately, the other grave robber escaped, but Sarek's new best friend tells him where the escapee lives. According to the charmed grave robber, Morovin, one of Cullen's lieutenants, is the one who gets the bodies from the grave robbing crews. Morovin is noted for being extremely rude, wearing a flashy red cape, and hanging out at the Emporium. Having gleaned all the useful information from the knave, Nineve moved to restrain him. She missed and he took off running, but Sarek eventually caught up with him thanks to his superior stamina. They beat him unconscious and eventually managed to tie a noose and hang him in the Greymere Convent's graveyard for his crimes.

The next morning, we met Lazare outside his mine, and found our efforts have paid off. Guards, experienced miners, and laborers were all there, ready to begin work. Lazare couldn't have been happier. After ensuring that everything was satisfactory, we headed over to the Emporium to have a word with Morovin.

The Emporium is a combination freak show, tavern, gambling house, and brothel. Nearly any sort of illicit entertainment can be found within its walls, but despite its reputation, the Emporium's proprietress is known not to tolerate any brawls or violence in her establishment. Sarek charmed the bartender and learned that Morovin was upstairs sleeping off a hangover in room 5. We bluffed our way past the half-orc guard and climbed the steps to the rooms. Nineve and I knocked on Morovin's door and tried to bluff our way in by claiming to be a present from his friend (the late grave robber). Unfortunately, he called our bluff, and when he flung the door open, we had a fight on our hands. Luckily, we subdued him quickly and managed to sneak him out the kitchen in the back.

We took him to the Greymere Convent and I tied him up. Once he regained consciousness, the others interrogated him. I find interrogations rather unpleasant, so while that was happening, I went out to bury the grave robber that was hanged earlier. Unfortunately, I find his body has been removed - and probably consumed, judging by the tracks of about 5 ghouls in the vicinity of the gnawed-off noose.

The interrogation reveals that the bodies are ultimately going to Filge, a necromancer who recently moved into the Observatory outside of town. Morovin is then hung for his crimes. We decided to inter him immediately, as leaving him hanging there would likely violate my strict "no ghoul-feeding" policy. We were just finishing the process when we were set upon by ghouls once again!

They managed to sneak up fairly close to us while we were performing the funerary rites, and they were almost on top of us before we noticed them. The ghouls rushed in and paralyzed Nineve immediately. Haroldur managed to rebuke one ghoul, but we're forced to fight the other four. Fortunately, between Sarek, Sigmund and I, we manage to dispatch them all without much trouble. After the scuffle, we return to the inn for the evening. I tried to dig up some information on Filge the neighborhood necromancer, but it seems he's quite the shut-in as no one knows anything about him except that he lives in the observatory. We decide to pay Filge a visit in the morning.

On the morning of the next day, the acolytes finally arrive from Hookhill, and they brought with them a care package from the Cabal! We received:

4 scrolls of CLW
5 potions of CLW
2 MW longswords
1 MW Dwarven Waraxe
1 MW crossbow
20 MW bolts
20 MW arrows
2 vials of antitoxin
2 vials of acid
2 vials of alchemist's fire
2 scrolls of Sending
1 scroll of Ray of Enfeeblement
1 scroll of Shield of Faith
1 scroll of Divine Favor
3 vials of holy water
and new clothes for everyone

It's always nice to know the Cabal is looking out for us. We get kitted up and head out to raid the observatory.

About five minutes' walk outside Diamond Lake, on a bluff overlooking an abandoned mine, we found a crumbling old observatory. We entered through a side door and heard scratchings and cries for help from emanating from a tool shed attached to the main building. We opened the door expecting starving prisoners... and were met with a 2 ghoul ambush instead! We make short work of them and continue into the main building. The next room was in total disarray, making it very hard to navigate. At the far end, skeleton archers were set up to fire on intruders from behind a makeshift barricade - it seems Filge doesn't want company. After dealing with that little unpleasantness, we move through a few empty rooms before reaching
something interesting.

We smelled it before we saw it, really. The stench of rotting flesh wafted through the open door. In the room beyond, ten chairs surrounded an oblong dining table. Plates of fresh food and bottles of wine were laid out at all the places except the head of the table, which was unoccupied and had clean plates and utensils set. The other nine chairs were occupied by awkwardly seated humanoid figures in various states of decay. They looked as if they were in the middle of a feast. Out of curiosity, I went up to a corpse and touched it, hoping to gain some insight into how the person died, but was startled by a grotesque pantomime. Apparently, I had somehow "activated" the zombies, and they started acting out a formal dinner party! One zombie turned directly to me and said, "Once again, milord has provided a delicious meal. It is an honor to dine in your august presence." Then, the other diners chimed in with similar sycophantic comments. "The Guild of Wizardry was wrong to turn you out", a male elf corpse remarked. "You ought to show them like you showed me!" The tattered remains of what must have been a young woman spoke up next. "I shouldn't have ever doubted you, Filge", it said earnestly. "I always loved you when we were together - now I'll love you forever!"...Oh my.

At this point, I decided it was safe to assume that we were dealing with someone who was even more unhinged than the average power-hungry, corpse-reanimating necromancer. Having had our fill of this "dinner theater", we left and made our way upstairs.

The second floor is just a single massive bedchamber. We found it to be finely appointed, with some rather interesting touches. Dominating the room was a statue of a thin human man with outstretched angelic wings and a beatific expression on his idealized face. Large letters on the base of the statue read "FILGE". Near the center of the room stood what I thought was a statue of a halfling, but on closer examination, we realized it was actually a mummified goblin! The goblin was dressed in an expensive-looking suit and tophat, and he held out a silver platter. On the platter was the freshly-preserved, severed head of a middle-aged woman. Also, two hideously deformed severed heads (practice makes perfect?) were sitting on a nearby desk. When we approached the desk, the hideous severed heads opened their eyes and started shrieking... they were varghouilles! Luckily, Sigmund and Nineve put them down before they became a problem. When we approached the head on the platter, she yelled loudly "Filge! Someone's come to visit!". We figured our cover was pretty much blown, so we moved on to the top floor of the observatory.

The top floor is obviously the lab. There is a sunken operating theater and stairs leading up to a catwalk that wraps around the room. Four huge glass vats were standing near the corners of the operating theater, and each contained a large, murky shape. Filge, flanked by a skeletal body guard, sneers at our arrival and shouts "Arise, my beautiful monstrosities!". Then he high-tails it to the top of the catwalk. Sarek and I concentrate our fire on Filge while Haroldur, Sigmund, and Nineve focus on the newest threat - a zombie has burst from one of the tanks, and it seems to be able to spray acid or something. Filge calls forth his acid-zombies from the tanks one by one, and then starts slinging some spells. Nineve, Haroldur and Sigmund eventually defeat the acid zombies, but Sigmund and Haroldur seem worse for the wear. Nineve tries to charge Filge, but is blocked by the skeletal bodyguard and has to fight her way through. Before Nineve can reach Filge, our peppering-him-at-range pays off, and Sarek finally takes him down with a crossbow bolt to the chest.

Feeling pretty confident, we tie up his unconscious form and are getting ready to toss the place for damning evidence when out of nowhere, a very torn-up looking Justice Archon planeshifts in and starts attacking us! We are naturally quite surprised, but he seems to think we've met many times before, and isn't really in the mood for chitchat. He calls us all out by name and not-so-patiently explains that he must punish us for releasing the Titan of Chaos. We're all pretty sure we'd remember doing something like that, but he won't have any of our excuses. Nineve calls him out and he responds by sundering her sword and beating her down! At this point, we realize we have no choice but to fight, so we beat him into unconsciousness, and he fades away, leaving his staff and some tattered white vestments behind.

With that threat removed, we turned our attention back to Filge, only to find that he has escaped! It looked like he used a crossbow bolt to cut the ropes... wizards can be so clever sometimes! I remembered when I was tying him up that Filge had a black circle tattooed on the back of his left hand. I make a note of it, since it might help us find him later. We rummage through the observatory for clues and find some notes on necromancy and alchemy (Necralchemy!), and some letters to Filge from someone in Hookhill that include the message "Thanks for the recent shipment of bodies. Signed, W". We also find a scroll of animate dead, 4 vials of liquid (blue, red, yellow and zebra!) and various surgical notes and records. Full looting of the observatory yields an additional:
1110 gp
60 pp
100 sp
various goods: tourmaline, jet amulet, zircon bracelet, silver ewer, marble platter, ornate wooden box
various magical items: scroll of Create Food/Water, scroll of Prot. from Energy, scroll of Speak with Dead, scroll of Detect Magic, wand of CLW, wand of Ray of Enfeeblement, wand of Read Magic, wand of Mage Armor, a potion
1 sleep arrow
MW heavy steel shield

We take the stuff back to town, and swing by Lazare's. We're shocked to see Kullen, Smenk's right-hand-man there. He just sits there glaring at us until Balabar himself comes in, amidst a press of people and much ado. He lets us know he wants to talk. However, Nineve is feeling feisty and is in no mood to negotiate with the evil, dishonorable Balabar and his number 1 thug. We tried to calm her down, but she'd really whipped herself up into a frenzy. She's actually being quite rude, so I was a little relieved when Balabar gave a slight nod, and Kullen knocked her out with one punch. I find it much easier to engage in civil negotiations when there's not a madwoman screeching insults during the proceedings.

With that out of the way, we sit down to business. Basically, Smenk finds our presence in Diamond Lake inconvenient and wants us gone. We negotiate that we'll leave if he gives us back the Harkness and keeps the Greymere Convent under his protection. He even offers to make a sizable donation to the church. Of course, I don't really trust him, but he did hand over the deed to the Harkness, and truthfully, the goings-on in Diamond Lake are not our concern. With the Harkness in our possession, we can finally proceed to Kolbenberg and look for Alastair Land! We shake on the deal with Smenk and he leaves with his entourage.

A few minutes later, Lazare comes in, livid over reports that Balabar was in his establishment. We tell him about the deal we struck, and say our goodbyes. Lazare says he's in our debt - the mine is running smoothly and they just found a large vein of silver! We congratulate him and part ways.

We still had quite a mess to clean up, so we recruited the newly-arrived acolytes to help us transport all the bodies from the observatory back to the Greymere Convent and put them to rest. While everyone is working on that, I swing by the garrison commander's office one more time in the hopes that I can catch him in a better mood. I'm in luck, and I manage to convince him to send 6 of his men with us to Kolbenberg! We spend all night interring the bodies with the acolytes. In the morning, we all seem to have learned from our experiences, and it has made us stronger. I spent some extra time during my nightly trance pouring over those anatomical notes from Filge's observatory, and I seem to have gained a new perspective on combat from them.

After congratulating each other for our spiritual growth, Sarek sent this message to the Temple:

Harkness retaken.
Acolytes arrived.
Cleared graveyard of ghouls.
Punished grave robbers.
Observatory contained missing bodies, who were zombies.
Rogue necromancer Filge escaped.
Properly interred bodies.

To which they replied:

Good work.
Please proceed to Kolbenberg.
Alistair's report is now 2 weeks overdue.
Pity about the necromancer...

A pity indeed! At any rate, we clean up, pack up, and head out. Fortunately, one of the soldiers from the garrison was a sailor before he joined, so he's confident he can get us safely across the lake. We set out.

~Ashe

Episode 1: 1/12/08

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger/1
Haroldur, human cleric/1
Sigmund Gorn, dwarf fighter/1
Nineve Floret, human knight/1
Sarek, human wizard/1

First, some background. My associates and I are Keepers of the Grey Covenant, or Greycloaks, for the church of Wee Jas. Essentially, we are one of the tools the church uses to fight unlawful necromancy. We are custodians of the deceased, and also an investigative team that can be sent in to handle any threats to the church or its tenets. We are based in the Ruby Temple, the grand church of Wee Jas in Hookhill, the capitol city of Caledon.

We were assigned to oversee the funeral of Lord Ondore, a minor noble and slumlord, quietly infamous for his oppressive dealings with the local poor. A knife found its way into his back, and now his family wants to have him raised. For that, they have to come to Wee Jas, so here we are.
The open-casket ceremony was... interesting. Nineve and Haroldur totally botched the service in front of a large crowd of nobility and the well-to-do. In their defense, there really wasn't much flattering to say about the late Lord Ondore, and I doubt many of the mourners present were terribly interested in anything except whether he would be raised and how much they stood to inherit if he wasn't.

In the middle of a particularly uncomfortable speech by Nineve, interlopers led by a man calling himself "The Hawk" crashed the ceremony. Some form of violent outburst was not entirely unexpected, but this group seemed to be reasonably well organized and prepared. Shouting things like "An end to Lord Ondore's injustice!" and "Vile Lord Ondore will pay for his crimes, even in death!" (humans can be so excitable), a group of miscreants deployed smoke sticks as they moved through the now panicking crowd towards the casket. Meanwhile, the leader of the band bravely hurled haughty insults at us from the relative safety of a nearby rooftop, peppering us with arrows all the while. As we all rushed to meet the coming threat, The Hawk deployed - get this - actual hawks to dive-bomb the casket with alchemist's fire. This stately funeral was swiftly turning into a cheesy roadside circus. Unfortunately, one of the hawks managed to catch Lord Ondore's body on fire, so I broke off my attack and rushed to put it out. Just as the flames were extinguished, one of the ground-attack crew produced another vial of alchemist's fire and with a lucky shot managed to ignite the corpse again. Out of water and patience, I slammed the casket closed and hoped the flames would extinguish themselves. Nineve, Sigmund, Haroldur and Sarek managed to turn the battle in our favor while I was putting out fires, and the remaining brigands beat a hasty retreat. The funeral (such that it was) was over, but the corpse of Lord Ondore was badly burned.

Naturally, the Temple is not pleased with the condition of the Lord Ondore's body, but it can be salvaged, and at least it wasn't stolen or completely destroyed. However, if he is raised, his "dashing good looks" certainly won't be coming back with him!

A few days passes and we are summoned for another mission. Alastor Land, a Seeker, has been missing for 4 days. (Seekers, like Greycloaks, are another of Wee Jas's tools. They are tasked with research and investigation for the church, however, their role is primarily academic.) We will travel by coach to Diamond Lake, a large mining town in the vicinity. From there, the Greymere Convent will provide us with their ship, The Harkness, to ferry us across the lake to the hamlet of Kolbenburg, where Alastor was conducting his research. There have been rumors of orc and goblin activity in the mountains near Kolbenburg, so we should be on our guard.

We did some research on Alastor Land and his mission before setting out: Alastor moved to Kolbenburg to follow up on another Seeker's research. Several years ago, a seeker named Ulavant led a band of Seekers into an ancient site he believed to be from the Age of the Imperium in search of relics. They too vanished suddenly. The Imperium was a great empire that spanned the multiverse ages ago. Ruled by enigmatic beings called Spell Weavers, they linked their vast empire together through a strange amalgam of magic and science. The empire stood for millennia, holding whole worlds under its sway until centuries ago, when the Spell Weavers suddenly vanished. Their immeasurable empire collapsed in an instant of terrible destruction and chaos. However, relics from this time are occasionally found, and such relics have served to greatly advance our understanding of magic... Sounds like Alastor Land may have gotten in over his head.

The 3 day journey to Diamond Lake was pleasant. When we arrived in town, however, we found the Greymere Convent abandoned and in disarray. To make matters worse, the Harkness, which is moored at the pier, has been commandeered by a band of ruffians in the employ of Balabar Smenk, a local mine manager.

Further inspection of the Greymere Convent revealed obvious signs of violence. We discovered 3 discarded holy symbols of the church, some dubious-looking dark stains (blood, perhaps?), and someone had taken a greataxe to most of the furniture. This convent hadn't just fallen by the wayside and slowly dissipated - it had been raided.

Armed with this knowledge, we set about discovering who had done such a thing. In short order we found the man in town to talk to was Lazare, a sage, mine owner, and renowned chessmaster. He claims to be able to answer any question - for a price. We visited Lazare in the afternoon at his nicely appointed chess parlor and found him to be well-mannered and courteous. We chatted for a bit and learned that he too has a beef with Balabar Smenk. We explained about the Harkness and our mission to get to Kolbenburg. At length, we paid his (rather steep) 20 gp fee and asked our question: Who was behind the attack on the Greymere Convent? He told us to come back in a day for our answer.

We spent the next day cleaning the Convent and putting things back in order. At the appointed time, we returned to Lazare's for our answer. He told us that it was Cullen, Balabar Smenk's right-hand man, who had led the attack on Greymere. We thanked him for his time and trouble, and immediately set out to report our findings to the local authorities.

We arrived at the Sheriff's office, and, to our horror, found it to be in a terrible state. Papers were in disarray, and two lazy guards were drinking wine and playing cards (!) at the desk. The sheriff himself was sleeping off a hangover in his office. Nineve, who became rather impatient at this point, may not have made the best impression as she slammed her shield down on the card game and demanded attention. Fortunately, Haroldur managed to smooth things over before too many hackles were raised, and we reported that there had been an attack on the Greymere Convent (which was old news) and that we suspected Cullen (and therefore Balabar) was behind it. They seemed completely indifferent to these allegations of desecration and slaughter! I'm not even sure they filed a report. Realizing these people were useless and we were getting nowhere, we returned in a huff to the Greymere Convent.

As we were tidying things up, I noticed that some of the graves in the graveyard looked to have been recently disturbed. Quickly and carefully, we exhumed one of the disturbed graves to find our fears confirmed - the interred corpse was gone! We decided then that we needed to guard the graveyard at night and attempt to apprehend the culprits. I put the "grave" back in order and, in the gathering dusk, we settled down to wait.

We didn't have to wait long. Between dusk and dark, we noticed a light bobbing into the graveyard in the distance. Soon, it split into two lights which moved off in opposite directions. Sarek and I headed for one light and Nineve, Haroldur and Sigmund took the other one. We were able to get fairly close before we were spotted by our quarry. Sarek cast a sleep spell and 2 of our 4 graverobbers instantly fell into a deep slumber. The other two sprang to attack, but I handled them easily. I glanced over at the other scuffle and saw that Haroldur and the fighters had their situation well in hand, so I tied up the sleeping survivors.

The last graverobber in Haroldur's group escaped, sprinting off into the night. In all that armor, catching him was out of the question. As Nineve shook her fist at the fleeing ne'er-do-well in frustration, he darted behind a crypt, let out a blood-curdling scream, and fell silent.

We figured he'd gotten his just desserts. After all, he was just a superstitious commoner, cavorting around in a graveyard at night. He probably got frightened by his own shadow and passed out cold! We tended to the fallen (all dead) and I was just re-checking my knots on the sleeping survivors when the real source of the fleeing brigand's terror became known. Ghouls had sneaked up on us!

Our group was separated, Haroldur, Nineve, and Sigmund being quite a distance still from myself and Sarek. I could hear Haroldur rebuking the foul aberrations and the sounds of clean-up - I mean, battle, as I sprang to slay our undead attackers. I cut one down in short order, but meanwhile the other ghoul decided to take his chances with a softer target. I turned my back on him for one second, and the next thing I knew, Sarek was paralyzed! I always forget about that! Cursing my carelessness, I called for backup as I finished off my opponent and rushed to save the helpless mage. The others showed up just in time. Haroldur rebuked the ghast, who stopped gnawing on Sarek and stood there, awestruck, while the rest of us cut it down.

With the battle in the graveyard finally over, we took the still-sleeping prisoners and their incriminating gear (shovels, lanterns, bodybags) inside and I ran to town to fetch the sheriff. I had a tough time convincing the lazy sots in the sheriff's office to get up and actually do their jobs. In the end, I had to drag them out of the office by their collars and threaten to wake the sheriff at home to get them to come along!

I arrived at Greymere with the useless deputies in tow. The prisoners had awoken, and were putting up a fuss and whining to be let go. We reported the events of the evening to the disinterested law enforcement officials, and handed over the graverobbers. We were assured that for such a serious crime, they would definitely spend "at least one night" in the lock-up. Talk about justice...

We finished putting things in the graveyard in order and went back to our rooms at the Able Carter Inn for the night. Sarek sent a message to the Ruby Temple relating the events so far:

"Diamond Lake church was found abandoned and in disarray.
Harkness taken by thugs.
Balabar Smenk believed to be responsible for razing.
Bodies stolen from graveyard.
Advise."

The next morning, we received a reply:

"Please determine more hard information.
Four replacements to be sent in three days.
Your target is in Kolbenberg.
Diamond Lake is a secondary concern."

Accordingly, we decided to see about securing passage across Diamond Lake. With the Harkness seemingly inaccessible, we needed to find another vessel to take us to Kolbenburg. At the docks, just down the pier from where the Harkness was moored, we found a shabby but suitable-looking vessel being tended by an ancient, spindly-looking man. Ignoring the heckling calls of the thugs on the Harkness, we entered into negotiations. The old man would take us across, but was afraid to cross the lake on his own, for some reason. Because of the ambiguity of our mission, we had originally intended to book one-way passage to Kolbenburg, take care of our business, and arrange the return trip later with a ship on the other side of the lake. However, the skinny little man flatly refused to return to Diamond Lake alone. We offered to arrange for his lodging once we reached Kolbenburg, but he was hesitant to commit to being away from Diamond Lake for an unspecified period of time, and was very concerned about becoming "stuck" on the wrong side of the lake. We told him to think about our offer, and we would give him a day or so to make up his mind.

As we walked back up the pier past the Harkness, the heckling grew more intense, and at last, Haroldur could stand it no longer. He wheeled around and informed the brigands that it was exactly this sort of attitude that had cost them our business, and we'd be paying that other ship to take us across the lake... for a whole gold piece! (One gold! Can you imagine? These country bumpkins had probably never seen so much money in their whole lives! Doubtless they'd sell their own mothers for such a paltry sum!)

At seeing the color of our coin, the thugs' attitudes changed immediately. They were falling over themselves to allow them to take us across the lake, claiming to be a much better, stronger crew (which was almost certainly true) and asserting that the Harkness was a better, faster and more seaworthy (or maybe "lake-worthy"?) vessel.

However, the damage had been done, and Haroldur rudely informed them that they had missed their opportunity for fame and fortune. Our noses in the air, we began to leave, when one of the brigands shouted, "Let's get 'em and just take their bloody gold!". Burly thugs rushed down the docks at us, and the battle was joined. Sailors on the deck of the Harkness fired crossbows and threw marlin pikes at us as the ones on the dock attacked us with belaying pins. At first, I tried to merely subdue my opponents, hitting with the flat of my blade, but when one thug lunged past me to strike at Haroldur with murderous intent, I sliced him open from stem to stern. The first casualty seemed to enrage the thugs even more, and they attacked with renewed viciousness.

Nineve and Sigmund boldly cut a path of blood through the surging mob, as Haroldur and Sarek traded fire with the brigands on the deck. For my part, I reproached myself for being so rash as to kill that first ignorant thug - death by my longsword, Aernin, Rite of Law, was too good for him - and I resolved to take a different approach. I shoved the body off the dock into the water, in disgust. To my surprise, within seconds, huge, man-eating gar surfaced from the depths and devoured the corpse! This gave me an idea. The thugs that managed to rush past Nineve and Sigmund's deadly gauntlet were met by me, as I slammed into them and threw them off the docks and into the water. Those who couldn't swim fast enough learned a final lesson about survival of the fittest.

However, a few did manage to swim to safety, and began to climb up onto the pier. Also, a few of the thugs on the ship leaped off the prow onto the docks (some missed and ended up in the water with the gars). The push of sailors running up the docks through Nineve and Sigmund had thinned, and it seemed the remaining thugs were bypassing the fighters and closing in on our unprotected flank - Sarek and Haroldur. Sigmund and I moved to defend the casters, and we left the indomitable Nineve to deal with the remaining threats running up the dock from the ship. In my haste, I sustained a grievous wound, but Haroldur healed me, and I returned the favor by neatly dispatching his attacker. Meanwhile, Sigmund was bravely battling two thugs, but one managed to slip past him and struck Sarek down! Sigmund and Haroldur finished off the remaining brigands and stabilized Sarek, and the melee at the quayside was finally over.

~Ashe