Episode 17: 8/15/09

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/2-3
Nineve, human knight/5
Sarek, human wizard/5
Xicar, human cleric/5

*FLASH FORWARD*
The sun rises over the rim of the valley as we finish placing the last stones on Captain Lorring's cairn. The sunlight turns the heavy smoke still drifting across the valley from the ruins of Blackwall Keep gold and crimson in the early light. The few surviving rangers and convicts share a solemn moment of silence over their fallen leader. Edain, his arm in a sling and his face badly burned, turns to us and mentions that someone should say a few words for the Captain.

Skill Challenge! A few kind words
We're on the spot and we hardly knew the guy, but as professionals, these survivors-turned-funeral-attendees are looking to us for peace, comfort, and profound insights on the nature of mortality. Drawing from our deep well of experience in service to the goddess of death, we take turns addressing the group and manage to put in a stirring eulogy for Captain Lorring. Edain offers us the Captain's sword (a +1 Spell Storing longsword), which we graciously accept.

*FLASHBACK TO BLACKWALL KEEP, BEFORE SETTING OUT FOR THE ORC STRONGHOLD*
Xicar finds some time to talk to Captain Lorring and confirms that the dragons do seem to be working with the orcs. The orcs have become much more organized in the last 6 months or so, and Lorring suspects the appearance of the dragons around the same time is related to this change in orc behavior. They discuss some details of Lorring's proposal to strike at the orc leadership while the bulk of their forces regroup.

Sarek finds Black Bart working among the convict teams and pulls him aside. He commends Bart for doing such an excellent job, and rewards him with a necklace of dragon teeth reclaimed from the wyvern cave.

I look around for my dog and realize I haven't seen him in a couple of days. He must be in the woods. After we set out for the orc caves, a few of us notice the elven hound shadowing us from the woods. I leave some food out for him at the edge of our camp that night.

*FLASH FORWARD*
We finish of the half-dragon arcanist and advance to a large chamber, deep in the cave. The chamber is basically empty. It's lit by a large fire, and orc bedrolls and supplies are scattered about. Like the rest of the cave, this chamber reeks of foundry smoke.

The chamber slopes upwards. At the far end, three orcs spot us and the hostilities begin. Suddenly, orcs and goblins pour in from all sides - an ambush! It's a long and grueling fight, but we manage it.

We advance down a passageway that seems to be the source of the smoke. Emerging from a tight corridor filled with choking smoke, we find ourselves in an exceptionally warm chamber...

At the far end of the room, crudely formed iron racks suspend stony black and red ovoid objects over a large, tended fire. Could these be dragon eggs? Suddenly, an incredibly cute red dragon hatchling hops up to us and seduces Nineve into attempting to feed it. Then, it tries to take her face off. Two other hatchlings, as well as two hellhounds are drawn to the commotion and join the fray. Waves of fire wash over the party as we battle fiercely on. Soon, a red dragon wyrmling flies over to join the fight. Swords flash and spells fly as we are locked in a life-and-death struggle with what are essentially dragon TODDLERS. However, they're so evil and dangerous that when the last one finally falls, we're just happy to be alive. We smash all of the dragon eggs - no sense taking any chances.

Moving on, we climb up the crude steps into a large cavern. Fire from huge cauldrons casts dancing shadows on the rough stone walls. Along the edge of the chamber, a large gathering of orcs of all ages and stations look down on us, just watching. We cross the wide, recessed floor of the cavern and can't shake the feeling of being in an arena. At the far end of the room, seated on an iron and bone throne, is the first old orc we've ever seen. At our approach, he gives a nod, and several orcs and ogres jump down and charge us. So much for diplomacy.

An orc battle royal ensues, where groups of orcs and ogres jump in and attack us in waves while the crowd looks grimly on. The last champion to fall is an orc riding a dire boar, and we survive by the slightest margin. Exhausted and battered, we wait in tense silence for another challenger to appear. Suddenly from behind us, we hear one person clapping in slow, grim applause.

We turn to see the old orc, now standing in front of his throne, applauding us. He was obviously once tall and broad shouldered, but his thin frame is now hunched and bent, and long stringy white hair hangs around his face. When he has our attention, he stops clapping and begins to speak:

"Congratulations, pinkskins. You've done what old Kroghut could not." He thumps his chest dramatically, indicating he must be Kroghut. "You've freed my people from the tyrant, and I expect, destroyed the other pinkskins in the bargain. We will fight you no longer. You have bested my champions, and you have surely brought burning doom upon my people. Go now. Your work here is done. My people will not hinder you further. Were I you, I would scurry back to the walls of the pinkskins so that you might die heroically at their sides when their doom comes on fiery wings."

He sits back down with a note of finality, and we are aware that the conversation is over. After a pause, we turn around and leave the cavern the way we came in, watched grimly by the orc crowd, our footsteps echoing loudly off the walls of the silent chamber.

Once free of their oppressive stares, we heal up and discuss our options. We realize we don't really have any. We've accomplished our mission - the orc leadership is definitely broken, and the dragon-orc alliance is almost certainly on the out since we smashed up the hatchery. We decide there's nothing left to do but return to Blackwall Keep, so we head out.

The first half of our journey goes uneventfully, though we're all tense over Kroghut's parting words. No one is in the mood to talk, and we travel for hours on end in silence. I notice the elven hound periodically, watching us from the woods.

As we travel from the orc hold through the deepening shadows of the mountainous foothills, around late afternoon of the second day, a flicker of light from a high distant peak catches our eyes. Far off, the peaks are barely visible on the darkening horizon; mostly screened by the hills and pine forest at the far end of the valley. Suddenly the peak flickers back to view, a brief glow touches it and fades away.

We continue on, trying not to think about what this might mean, when suddenly, a great light appears in the low place in the hills where the orcs make their lair, and the gathering evening clouds turn golden. Faintly, in the distance we hear warning trumpets sounding,and drums booming and echoing along the rocky foothills as the glow fades, then flares again, even brighter than before.

We press on towards the keep. An hour passes. Distantly we can see something; a spark of fire low in the sky rushing towards us and growing ever larger and more bright. Before long, so great is its speed that the fantastic shape of a fiery dragon appears over the tall trees. Soon the roar of the dragon's terrible approach grows loud, and the rocks turn red as fire beneath the awful beating of its wings. Roaring it sweeps over the valley, leaving flaming desolation in its wake. We crouch behind what cover we can find as it flies past us, perhaps 100 yards to our right. Frightened, but with no other options, we continue our desperate march towards the keep.

We're still several hours away from the keep when the valley trembles with the dragon's approach. Things happen quickly as we look on helplessly from the far side of the stony valley.

As the dragon wheels to swoop upon the keep, a hail of dark arrows leap up and nap and rattle on its scales, and their shafts fell back kindled by the dragon's breath, burning and hissing into the swift running stream. At the twanging of the bows and the shrilling of the trumpets the dragon's wrath blazes to its height, til it was blind and mad with rage.

Green and scarlet fire leaps from the dragon's jaws. It circles for a while high in the air above the keep lighting all the valley; the trees shine like copper with leaping shadows of dense black at their feet. Then down it swoops straight through the arrow storm, reckless in rage, taking to heed to turn it s scaly sides towards the foes, seeking only to set the keep ablaze. Fire leaps from thatched roofs and wooden beams, and hard stone flows like wax as it hurtles down and past and round again, breathing gouts of terrible fire. Back swirls the dragon. A sweep of its tail and the tallest tower of the keep crumbles and smashes down. Flames unquenchable spring high into the night. Another swoop and another, walls crumble and towers spring alight and fall, burning. Still, no arrow hinders the dragon or hurts it. Men jump from the walls on every side. Weapons are flung down and the dragon vents its full wrath upon them at its leisure.

At last the dragon circles the blazing keep with a broad sweep of its dreadful wings. It swoops to snatch at a pair of fleeing figures, and then roaring and belching fire, spirals up through the low clouds to vanish into the darkening night sky.

With heavy hearts, we continue onwards to the now destroyed keep. When we finally arrive late at night, the keep and most of the valley is still ablaze. As we arrive, we find a few of the rangers and convicts have actually survived the attack, Vander Anderhoff among them. Vander is with a group of people searching the rubble near the ruins of the wall, evidently for survivors. Another group of 4 or 5 is huddled around a still form near the base of one of the walls.

As we approach this group, we are shocked to see they are gathered around Captain Lorring, who is pinned under a huge piece of stone. He's dying, but still cheerful. He sees us, and insists on knowing if the orcs have been stopped. We tell him their leadership is broken and they've been thoroughly routed. Upon hearing this, he coughs out a "Jolly good show, chaps" - his last words.

The rest of the night is a blur of activity - putting out fires, tending to the dead and dying, and trying to rebuild order in the wake of utter destruction. We learn that Astrid was taken by the dragon in his final dive, and that Black Bard died defending her. Jakardos was killed when his tower fell, his remains were found int he wreckage of the stairwell. Parne and Torkan were killed defending the walls, and Orin, Astrid's brother, died in the subsequent fires. Edain and one other ranger have survived, along with a mere 15 of the convicts.

After the last of the bodies has been buried, the survivors salvage what they can from the wreckage. We find a leg for 31E in the ruins of the observatory tower, along with a large golden scarab. We also scavenge:

a Sepulchral vest
oil of Greater Magic Weapon +2
potion of Greater Magic Fang +3

Talk turns to what to do next. Obviously, we will return to the Ruby Temple in Istivin, but what of the survivors? Vander and the rest of the convicts refuse to return to the city, i.e. prison. Edain proposes they take up residence at the Broken Bow lodge until the Keep is rebuilt, if that ever happens. Until then, they can continue the rangers' work of maintaining the frontier by keeping the orcs, ogres and goblins in the mountains where they belong.

This sounds like a reasonable plan. With things pretty much wrapped up at the ruins of Blackwall Keep, we agree to set out with the survivors for Broken Bow lodge in the morning.

Episode 14: ?/?/09

The Party:

Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/2-3

Haroldur, human cleric/5

Nineve Floret, human knight/5

Sarek, human wizard/5
Xikar, human cleric/5

[Note: It's been a long time since we've run this campaign, and a new player has joined the group. Since it's been so long, we just dropped his new character right into the story.]

As we finish exploring the small tomb, we're set upon by more orcs and goblins. Some of these orc leaders are incredibly strong, and this is a really tough and lengthy fight. After the battle, we return to check on our convicts and Astrid. One of the convicts managed to kill an escaping goblin, and they all start complaining about being taken, shackled and unarmed, through goblin-infested forests. Led by a man called Black Bart, they start to raise a ruckus, but we manage to quell the mutinous dogs.

It's now evening, so we camp at the shrine for the night. We spend half of the next day reinterring the exhumed remains and directing the convicts to bury the bodies of the orcs and goblins. Around mid-afternoon, we head in the direction of the hunting lodge.

Before long, we hear the distant sounds of woodcutting. Wary of what me way find in this orc-infested territory, I scout ahead and discover an orc, goblin and ogre logging operation. They appear to be erecting a roadblock on a part of the trail that leads through a gorge. I report back to the group and we prepare to crash their party.

Sarek sneaks up to the top of the gorge and kicks things off with a Fireball. We all scramble up the roadblock (eventually). Tamclar maims the ogre erecting the roadblock, but he eventually escapes, limping off into the woods as we turn our attention to the veritable swarm of orcs that's threatening to overcome us. It's a very tough fight, but at last, the final orc falls.

Victorious, we press on and come to a clearing in the forest. It seems quiet. Too quiet. As we're looking around, we notice blood on the grass. Upon closer inspection, I recognize the tracks of a limping ogre! Buoyed by the prospect of finishing off the wounded ogre, we walk right into a trap - literally! Tamclar steps right into a bear trap.

Suddenly, goblin archers appear in the woods nearby. I work on freeing Tamclar while the others battle the goblin menace. Through the confusion, I hear several orcs and an ogre running through the forest towards our convicts! I shout a warning and Xikar, Nineve and I take off to help. Sarek (who doesn't care about convicts), Haroldur and Tamclar(who don't run very fast) stay behind to finish off the goblins.

While we rescue the convicts, Haroldur steps into another bear trap! Fortunately, Tamclar mightily pries it open and frees the unlucky cleric. We manage to save all but one of the convicts. During the fight, Black Bart helped us out by strangling an orc with his bare hands. After this, I seriously consider lending Bart my longsword, Aernin, Rite of Law, but after much deliberation, and dissenting opinions from the party, I decide against. We bury the bodies of the deceased and set up camp for the night. That evening, we use up the last of the food for the prisoners...

In the morning, we press on to the hunting lodge, hoping to at least find supplies. As we approach the lodge, we hear the steady sound of wood chopping coming from the barn. The path leading up to the lodge is littered with bear traps, and Nineve almost steps in one! We approach cautiously and are set upon by 2 goblin wolf riders and some orcs. We're in a bad spot - all spread out, so this fight is tougher and longer than it needs to be. The wolf riders escape into the woods, but instead of being angry, we're just glad to be rid of them. We've really got our hands full with the orcs.

Suddenly, we notice the chopping noises coming from the barn begin to be punctuated by cries for mercy, and we all have a sick feeling that whoever's in there isn't cutting up firewood. We finish off the last of the orcs and hurry over to the barn.

The area is littered with body parts, strung up or nailed to trees, the building, anything convenient. The outside of the barn is covered in orc graffiti, written in blood. The front of the barn has doors which open out from a second story hayloft. Haroldur decides to use his clockwork wings to try to jump through the doors into the loft. The rest of us quite sensibly elect to go around to the other side of the barn, where the doors are on the ground floor.

We burst onto a grotesque scene. In the corner are crudely constructed cages. Some are empty. One contains a terrified human teenage boy and a man with a dirty, bandaged stump where his left foot should have been. Another contains a strange looking dog, which seems very upset. The interior of the barn is littered with body parts. Bits of several dismembered corpses are everywhere, and I do mean bits - it appears the ogres have been taking their victims' limbs off a few inches at a time. In the center of the barn is a bloody chopping block. A recently-deceased human is tied to it, surrounded by three ogres. One of them holds a bloody cleaver.

Both parties spend a silent moment staring open-mouthed at each other in shock (and for us, revulsion). The sound of Haroldur futilely flinging himself against the closed hayloft doors (again) snaps us out of it, and we wade in. The ogres are brutal, but we fight savagely, enraged and horrified by the gristly things which have happened here.

Sarek throws down a fireball, which drives the ogres into a frenzy. In retaliation, the ogre with the cleaver attempts to hurl it at us, but misses! The cleaver sails from the ogre’s hand and somehow boomerangs directly into his stomach! He promptly starts bleeding to death. We capitalize on this opportunity to finish one of the ogres off quickly. As we’re cutting down the accidental seppuku-ist, Sarek casts Tasha’s Hideous Laughter on one of the remaining ogre threats. What Sarek lacks in cross-cultural understanding he makes up for in obscene gestures, and the ogre collapses to the floor in gales of laughter. I rush in and tickle his kidneys with my swords while the rest of the party deals with the last ogre, who has decided to leave the barn all of a sudden.

As he’s making his exit, he receives some parting shots from Tamclar and Nineve. They’re not enough to take him down, however, and he runs outside the barn… calling for his mammie? Our curiosity piqued, we all peer outside the barn. We look on in horror as “Mammie”, aka the most grotesque, obscene and unnatural creature we have ever seen, erupts from the lodge.

Her thin, stringy hair is pasted to her head and face in sweaty black mats. She is wearing a dirty, ratty red sarong, which, although it must’ve been fashioned from a giant’s bedsheets, is woefully inadequate to cover her enormous bulk. Purple scars and boils mar her dull, blubbery flesh. She looks as if she smells like week-old dead fish. I am suddenly glad that we are upwind.

She begins to loudly berate her son in a voice that is somewhere between a belch and a raspy cackle. Terrified, the wounded ogre starts to run off. Around this time, she notices us. Tamclar very sensibly takes the opportunity to shoot the fleeing ogre in the back with his trusty crossbow, which finishes him off.

She lurches towards us, vomiting zombies in a spray of sticky spittle. Xikar bravely wades in, and casts Bleeding Touch out the foul she-beast. Unfortunately, she takes exception to this assault, and chomps him! As she munches thoughtfully on her bite of cleric flesh, the hapless victim wriggles away and escapes to a safe distance. Sarek Webs the ogre matron just as her zombie minions close in on Haroldur, who has stopped jumping at the hay loft doors and re-joined the action. Haroldur and Sarek handle the zombies while the rest of us shoot at the trapped ogre matron from a distance. She struggles futilely in the Web while we pepper her with arrows. Drawing on her impressive size and strength, she eventually breaks free of the Web, but to no avail. Weakened by her struggle, she finally collapses under our onslaught. Victory is ours!

~Ashe

Episode 13: 3/7/09

The Party:

Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/2-3

Haroldur, human cleric/5

Nineve Floret, human knight/5

Sarek, human wizard/5

Zolara interprets our reading:

[insert reading here!]

We've made camp. Sitting around the fire, our conversation drifts to Tamclar's wavering faith. Despite a slight misstep by Nineve, we manage to have a stimulating religious conversation, which gives everyone plenty of food for thought as we head off to bed.

Dawn breaks and we head out, but unfortunately I find it impossible to lead the group through the wilderness effectively while also preventing my party and our convicts from actively killing themselves. I spend all day saying things like, "No! Don't eat that!" and "Wait! That's poison ivy!" and we end up wasting a day wandering through the wilderness. At the end of the day I'm frustrated with our lack of progress, but fortunately I have little time for self-chastising as we spend another evening chatting with Tamclar around the fire. We talk late into the night, and in the end, he announces that he has resolved his issues and decided to stay with the church of Wee Jas. This is great news! Buoyed by our success, the next day I'm feeling very confident in my woodsmanship and we make terrific progress!

Unfortunately, on day three of our journey I am struggling to make headway with our group through the dense forest. We're lost, and we're running low on food. Preoccupied with putting us back on the right track, I neglect to pay attention to the signs of danger around us. Suddenly, we find ourselves at the entrance to a wyvern's cave!

The criminals run from the clearing into the cover of the forest, but our group has been spotted. We get a few shots off at the wyvern, and suddenly it dives at me, attempting to snatch me into the air! I manage to twist out of its grasp at the last second, and it flies past us, just as it's mate emerges from the cave!

Nineve charges the wyvern on the ground, but stumbles and misses. Nineve is taking a beating from the wyvern at the cave entrance, so I charge forward and deliver a telling blow, wounding it gravely. Sarek summons a hellhound, which joins the fray at the cave entrance. Working together, we manage to finish it off.

While Nineve and I are fighting the grounded wyvern, the airborne one continues to menace the rest of the group. Sarek blasts it with a bolt of lightning, but then it swoops down and snatches up Haroldur. The cleric struggles, but the wyvern is making off with him. Out of nowhere, Tamclar shoots the beast down with an expertly-placed crossbow bolt, saving Haroldur and the day! We loot the Wyvern's cave and find:

700 gp
400 sp
Sandals of Sprinting
some valuable cleric's vestments
a jade pendant
a Lesser Crystal of Life-Keeping
a magic Crystal of Glancing Blows
a CLW potion
a scroll of Invisibility (arcane)
a scroll of Remove Paralysis (divine)
Panpipes of Sounding

In all, it turned out to be a profitable excursion. As an added bonus, I finally orient myself and recognize this cave as one marked on our map! I feel like I've gotten us back on track, and as evening starts to fall, I know we're nearing our goal - the hunting lodge, where we will rendez-vous with some of the rangers affiliated with Blackwall Keep. We decide to camp in the shelter of the cave. Near dusk, we hear the baying of hounds and oafish, inhuman laughter mixed with cries for help. It sounds close. We leave the convicts at the cave and investigate the nearby commotion. In a short distance, we come upon another clearing.

Two ogres and their pack of hunting dogs have treed a naked human and are making obscene taunts at him. They don't seem to notice our approach. Sarek pounces on the opportunity and nukes the clearing with a fireball, laughing maniacally. The charred corpse of the naked man falls from the tree. Several of the dogs also go down, and the ogres are singed and angry. Before the rest of us can react, the ogres and their remaining dogs are upon us. We fight valiantly and eventually put them down.

Looking over the bodies, it's clear the naked human died violently in a fire... Puzzlingly, the ogres are clearly not equipped for travel, meaning that they must not be far from their camp. This doesn't make sense, because Blackwall Keep is stated goal to prevent ogres and their ilk from settling this area...

We respectfully bury the human and head back to trail, but I can't shake my growing sense of foreboding. Suddenly, everything in the woods looks suspicious. As we hike along in the gathering dusk, I spot another naked figure sprinting through the woods some distance away. I call out to the person, who cries for help and dashes towards us headlong. At the sound of my voice, another naked person emerges at about the same distance, and flees towards us, recklessly tripping and scrambling through the brush.

Suddenly, the source of the nudists' fear becomes evident as goblins on wolves appear over a small rise. One of them, clearly the leader, calmly levels his crossbow at the first fleeing human and shoots him in the back - the man collapses about 20 yards in front of us. The image of the midwife appears to Sarek, and he feels more resilient (gaining DR = his WIS modifier for this encounter). The mounted goblins seem surprised to see us and charge forward, warning us away from their kill. We notice the leader is riding a hellhound. They fire on us and the battle is joined. Incensed, we rush in and slaughter them.

After the panic of battle dies down, I hear something in the woods, just the slightest quivering. Silently closing in on the sound, I find a naked female elf crouching under a bush, shaking. Speaking softly in Elven, I coax her out of her hiding spot. I suppress a gasp as she crawls cautiously into view. She has been badly tortured, recently - her eyes are gone.

I wrap her in my cloak and we heal her as best we can; we can't restore her sight, but at least her other injuries will no longer trouble her. She can hardly speak as she's still quite in shock, but we manage to make out that the hunting lodge has been overrun. We try to reassure her as much as possible, and bring her back with us to our wyvern-cave camp. Nineve tends to the girl, who mutely allows herself to be fed, clothed, and put to bed. She moves like a frightened animal. The rest of us explain the situation to the convicts. Surprisingly, they seem to pity the girl and appreciate the gravity of the current circumstances. They give us no trouble, and we all pass an uneasy but mercifully uneventful night in the wyvern cave.

Morning comes and the girl seems to have recovered a bit. She tells us that her name is Astrid. A few nights ago, orcs, goblins, and ogres attacked the lodge, and captured and tortured the residents. She was taken to an old ranger shrine in the woods, blinded, and released to be hunted. She suggests we check out this shrine for clues to the attacks, or perhaps even survivors.

The shrine isn't included on my maps of the area, but following her rough directions we eventually discover it. At the shrine, we find orcs and goblins milling around, desecrating the shrine and exhuming the graves of the rangers buried here. A building to the side of the shrine is a smoking ruin. As we approach, the goblins spot us and shout, "Kill the pinkies!" Thinking quickly, Sarek casts Wind Wall to protect us from the hail of projectiles that soon follow. Nineve receives a vision of the Mute Hag (and gains DR = her WIS modifier for this encounter), and the battle is joined.

The orcs and goblins try to pick us off from a distance, but their attempts are thwarted by Sarek's Wind Wall. They soon become frustrated and charge our position. We make quick work of them.

After the battle, a search of the granite shrine in the center of the area reveals a concealed mechanism. Everyone stands well back as I activate it - and a hidden stairwell descends into the earth under the shrine! We move down the stairs and enter an ancient burial chamber, obviously for some sort of barbarian lord. Centered on the back wall is an altar. The chamber seems to be guarded by immobile skeletons, keeping mute vigil over the tomb. As we approach the altar, the dust-shrouded skeletons move to an uncanny semblance of life!

We dispatch the undead guardians and find:

2 MW scimitars
a suit of +1 half-plate
a +1 helm of defense
a +1 orcbane short spear

~Ashe

Episode 11: 9/20/08

The Party:

Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/2-2

Haroldur, human cleric/4

Nineve Floret, human knight/4

Sarek, human wizard/4

We proceed down the stairs after Vander Anderhoff. Just as we're leaving, we hear armed men running to the front of the building. Captain Tevlis of the city guard, accompanied by two of his men, bursts through the door. He demands we cease and desist. We try to convince him that his goals and ours are not mutually exclusive. He concedes, but insists on accompanying and keeping an eye on us while we investigate the slaughterhouse.

We decend down the stairs and Vander is waiting for us in ambush! We rush into combat. As Nineve and I flank Vander, a vision of The Twin appears to me, and I gain a mirror image! Haroldur and Sarek take on Vander's burlier, angrier brother, Parn. Nineve eventually convinces Vander to surrender to her. Haroldur finds himself in a bad spot and flees across the slaughterhouse... only to run into another of Vander's barbarian brothers, Torkan! The cleric whittles him down eventually. In the meantime, the city guards turn on us and their erstwhile leader! Captain Tevlis, totally caught off guard, gets stabbed in the back by his own men and goes down. The guards are dealt with. Sarek also falls, but I manage to navigate the treacherous gauntlet of chutes, platforms and machinery, making it across the slaughterhouse floor just in time to save the wizard from certain doom. As the battle wraps up, we stabilize the three unconcious Sawfish brothers, time them up, and hang them by their bounds from the hook line in the ceiling. Then, we proceed deeper into the slaughterhouse in search of Lord Ondore's missing body.

As we're exploring the warrens of the slaughterhouse, we stumble upon an ogre, who attacks! He catches me on his hook, but fortunately, Nineve disarms him of his weapon before he has a chance to drop me into the mysterious vat of bubbling slime he's presiding over. As Nineve and I are battling the ogre, another stealthy Sawfish brother, Kinto, sneaks up behind Haroldur and Sarek! Nineve and I finish off the ogre and turn our attentions to the last Sawfish boy. We quickly subdue him and tie him up with his brothers.

At last, we enter a room obviously used for illegal necromancy and other foul-smelling evils. Disturbingly, the walls of this chamber are lined with familiar-looking cylinders - acid zombies! We've all been through this drill before, so rather than waiting for them to burst out and attack, I pop the cylinders from afar with my bow, and surprisingly, the zombies slump lifelessly to the floor.

Throughout, I can hear frantic chanting in an ajacent room, followed by some panicked-sounding but fluent cursing. Something must be going poorly... Suddenly, our old friend Filge the Necromancer bursts into the room. He must've heard our approach because he doesn't seem particularly surprised to see us. He animates the zombies with his familiar "Arise, my beautiful monstrosities!" line. Then he runs away like a little girl.

The battle is joined. We mow through the zombies and chase after Filge. We burst through a door farther down the hallway and find him - with some friends. Filge and a closely hooded female seem to be arguing over the shambling, reanimated corpse of what used to be Lord Ondore. Two acid zombies, massive skeletal monstrousity, and two cultists (from the shadows!) attack us. In what is becoming a disturbing trend, Filge uses foul magics to escape our wrath. The female and Lord "Shambles" Ondore escape up a concealed elevator of some sort while we are locked in a battle royale with the rear guard. Between Filge's pets, the cultists, and Haroldur's uncontrolled spider swarm, it's a tough fight, but we somehow manage to stay up and put them all down.

~Ashe

Episode 7: 5/24/08

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/1-2
Haroldur, human cleric/3
Nineve Floret, human knight/3
Sarek, human wizard/3

Zolara interprets our Harrow reading:

"Ancient secrets influence events that have brought you to this point, but hidden danger threatens as well. Strange runes guide your path. Unshakable loyalty binds inseparable companions. Someone you seek still lives, but is pinned beneath an 8-pointed star, and is held by another will entirely. Fire first and darkness after. A group, once coherent, is now lost in madness and forever waiting in the dark to share their curse."

In Diamond Lake, Brolan and Lazare become research buddies, as both are interested in the Whispering Cairn stuff. Lazare hands over his findings, along with Brolan and Sarek's interpretation of Alastor's notes:

The cairns are reputed to be the final resting places of ancient warriors known as the Storm Kings who ruled a great empire long before the Imperium. The Whispering Cairn itself is and intricate grave that is thousands of years old.

All of the known Cairns share a similar architecture: wide, tall corridors constructed from strange white stone blocks of massive size leading to a central tomb chamber. These cairns have long ago been throughly looted, and whatever defenses were once in place have been defeated. However, local legends persist, insisting that unexplored chambers with undiscovered treasures from a bygone era remain hidden within the cairns, awaiting someone clever or brave enough to claim them.

The Whispering Cairn itself is one of the larger tombs, known locally for the eerie sounds that whisper within the entrance and corridor of the cairn. It has gained a sinister reputation around Diamond Lake, with many claiming that it is haunted or filled with still active, deadly traps. The last recorded expedition to the Whispering Cairn was some 60 years ago, lead by Ulavant.

Alastor had been studying Ulavant's notes for several years during his retirement in Kolbenburg, and learned several things of great interest. Through his research, Ulavant had come to believe that the Storm Kings had gone to great lengths to hide the tombs of their fallen warriors. Most warriors were interred in tombs with several false burial chambers and dead ends to mislead would-be tomb robbers. The truly important tombs of their greatest warriors were concealed so well that none have ever been found. Ulavant believed that some of the more prominent Storm King tombs were linked to these important tombs, providing the only means of access. Ulavant theorized that the true burial chamber within the lesser tomb also contained whatever method the Storm Kings used to link the tombs together, most likely some variety of portal.

Moreover, Ulavant had come to be convinced that the tomb known locally as the Whispering Cairn was one of these lesser tombs linked to a greater burial site. The prospect of locating one of these greater tombs, un-plundered for countless years became an obsession for both Ulavant and Alastor.

Lazare asks us to please pass along any additional information we find on our expedition to the Cairn. I agree to take judicious notes.

Haroldur shops around and acquires a butler's outfit for his new thrall, whom he fusses over and calls "Jeeves". I purchase 3 horses for the party, and food. We make preparations to head out, but Nineve seems to have contracted ghoul fever. Haroldur does what he can for her.

On the way out of town, Hezzrak tells us not to trust Lazare, and that he threatened to eat him! I ask dryly if that was a telepathic threat. Hezzrak says he's surprised I didn't hear Lazare, because he sure did... I tell Hezzrak that I bet he hears a lot of things that I don't.

We hit bad weather on the way, but eventually make it to the Whispering Cairn without incident, even though we are now deep in ogre country. Nineve is clearly ill with ghoul fever, but insists we press on. It's been drizzling all day and we arrive at the Cairn just before nightfall. I find a secluded copse to tether our horses, and we move into the cave-like entrance of the Cairn. Once inside, I realize this is a mistake, as we are clearly in the ogre's lair. With nowhere else to go, we continue into the Cairn, scaling the makeshift barrier of logs and detritus that blocks the passage.

From farther down the corridor we can hear angry, inarticulate roaring. It sounds as if the creature is chained in some way. Since it isn't an immediate threat, I spend a few minutes to look around while the rest of my companions struggle to surmount the pile of logs. I find a green leather quiver and 4 usable arrows among the refuse littering the floor, clearly the work of my people. Just as Nineve makes it over the logs, the wailing creature breaks free and comes barreling around the corner.

A degenerate ogre stands before us, it's milky blind eyes rolling in their sockets as python-thick arms shake with rage. Nineve and I rush in to meet the new threat. The rest of the party joins in as they scramble over the obstacle. At the beginning of combats, the Hidden Truth appears to me, and I am granted extra insight about our foe. The only insight I need, however, is the fact that this particular degenerate ogre is suddenly, inexplicably seized with a fit of allergies, and we beat it down quickly. At the end of combats, Haroldur receives the vision of the Wanderer, and finds value others may have overlooked. This time, he finds a magic buckler.

Soon, a pair of ogres enter the Cairn and lumber into view. Hezzrak suggests the larger ogre is the star of the metropolitan ballet. Thus distracted, we defeat his companion easily. However, the would-be ballerina proves more challenging. Just before he knocks me out, he impales Nineve on his massive bailing hook! Fortunately, we pull through. Just as we're healing up, Haroldur gets shot in the back - it's Zasalamel!

He again begins listing off crimes we don't recognize, except "consorting with devils", which Hezzrak takes exception to. In response, Hezzrak blasts a Scorching Ray into Zasalamel's chest. Jeeves the butler ghoul is utterly destroyed, much to Haroldur's dismay. At length, Sarek exploits a loophole in the fabric of the multiverse and banishes the Justice Archon with a darkbolt, blasting him into the past (or is it the future?). Haroldur carefully retrieves the butler outfit.

We turn our attentions back to the degenerate ogre. We find he was chained to a mysterious stone object. Upon closer inspection, we determine it was part of a transportation apparatus, and is covered with mysterious ancient runes. I take rubbings of the runes to show Lazare, Brolan, and the Cabal later. Sarek is fairly certain the base of the sculpture bears the name "Zosiel".

Moving on, we find ogre-vandalized mosaics and bas-reliefs surrounding a marble dais. Haroldur cleans them off with a Create Water. While Haroldur is washing the walls, I search the disgusting ogre bedchamber opposite the marble dais area. I find:

a marble index finger from a statue
an elven armband
a lantern with violet glass panes
9gp
15sp
assorted ancient clockwork pieces

Once the mosaic is clean, I make a detailed sketch of it for posterity.

Continuing down the stairs, we enter a large central chamber with several passageways branching off from it radially. The passageways are distinguished by different colored lanterns. In the blue lantern hallway, we find a skeleton. I determine he died from falling damage.

The center of the room contains a sarcophagus. The marble finger i found earlier clearly was at one time attached to the sculpture. It is wearing an ornamented disc around its neck, and I take a rubbing of it. Then, we carefully open the lid of the sarcophagus. A blast of wind knocks us back and coalesces into a whirlwind humanoid shape, which of course attacks us. Nineve lands the killing blow, to Hezzrak's infinite frustration, and the creature dissipates.

Closer inspection of the sarcophagus reveals that it appears to rotate. We rotate it one position (to the yellow passageway), and an elevator appears! We enter it after some ridiculous "safety" debate with Head-Injury Nineve, and take a ride down to a new chamber. More carvings cover the walls. At the end of the hallway, a faint light flickers. As we advance towards the light, we smell the odor of burning flesh. Soon, we notice the source of light - a burning corpse which rises from its resting place and advances on us menacingly.

Nineve receives the vision of the Rakshasa, and feels more resilient and willful. With the distance closed, we notice the foe is actually a smoldering body bearing the 8-pointed star of the Seekers of Wee Jas. The body appears to be being controlled by a flaming effigy. Haroldur separates the effigy from its victim, and Hezzrak finally lands the killing blow, after several misses.

We heal up the charred (but living) body and find that he's Alastor Land! After a brief explanation, we take him with us.

The next room contains a brown mold, which Sarek dispatches. Hezzrak is perched atop one of several clockwork horrors, which appear to be inactive. In the center of the room is a large gray fixture with fountains on either side - one flowing with water and the other an orange sludge, which I determine to be nutritive. I take a vial of it for further analysis. Suddenly, the clockwork horrors spring to life, startling Hezzrak.

They start making high-pitched whirring noises, and then unleash a barrage of electrical attacks! The horrific beetle-like robots attack with deadly accuracy, slinging darts, arcs of electricity, and buzzing circular saws. Ash falls under the weight of a particularly well-placed dart. Hezzrak rains corrosive acid on them from above as the rest of the party hacks away at their tough metal exteriors.

At length, they fall to our might. With the aid of the Wanderer, Haroldur finds a golden amulet and some magical oil. We are all feeling stronger from our experiences and decide to rest in this chamber before continuing on.

~Ashe