# The Borderlands (jester47's FR Story Hour)



## jester47 (Dec 31, 2002)

There are places found between. Between good and evil there is struggle. Between law and chaos there is change. Between the light and dark there is shadow. Between history and myth there is memory, between fact and legend there is truth. Between civilization and wilderness there are the borderlands. ===============================

In the future on this thread you will be able to find the happenings in my forgotten realms campaign.  

This camapaign originally started as a Greyhawk campaign.  However, as time progressed the camapign grew into my own world and then it switched to the Forgotten Realms.   However the transition was so easy and simple that it realy did not matter and nothing realy changed all that much.  The entries here have been changed to reflect the change in setting, but by and large the story remains the same.   

Also, as time has progressed, the party has gotten smaller.  Which is good.  It started with about 12 people and then jumped to 14 and then leveled off at 9 and then sank to 4.  Which is good.  

While it is forgotten realms, I have imported a number of d20 sources.  I have added the The Necromancer Games dungeons Rappan Atthuk, The Tomb of Abysthor, and Demons and Devils.   Freeport is a city in the sea of fallen stars (found appropriately enough in the pirate isles).  I also make use of Monte Cooks Tower of Deception, using the character of Ustran Yg'niv as an NPC.  I use Monte Cook's free ranger and his alternate bard and sorcerer along with the originals.  The bards from the PHB are story tellers, and the Monte Cook Bards are actual musicians with magic woven in.  Cook Sorcerers are of dragonblood and PHB sorcerers are of outsider blood.  

The first post wil list the characters at the start, and other initial posts will include summaries of the first four chapters as I want to get what is going on right now down as soon as possible.  

The chapters are as follows:

Shadows of Anihilation
Quest for a Black Sword
Red Eyed Tauntings
A Frakkas In Freeport
Wings Over Scornubel

Aaron.


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## jester47 (Dec 31, 2002)

*Shadows of Anihilation (characters)*

Wizards meddle.  Thats what they do when they are not shunning the world in persuit of arcane knowledge.   However, the more a wizard meddles, the more help he needs to make his meddling worthwhile.  And if that wizard should own a large estate outside Waterdeep then it might be said that he will need a full time group of employees to help keep him informed and aware of the things that his magic cannot tell him.  

And it is with this in mind that Trismegistus, a wizard living outside waterdeep in a large estate, collected a group of people to help with his meddling.  

The first he collected was Sypa.  A blond orphan half elf, he found her in the streets of waterdeep following the rumors of a girl with errie eyes that glowed amber and possesed an inate capacity for magic.  He took her in as his pupil and began to teach her the ways to contol her powers, and guessing what her past might be began teaching her the language draconic.  

Another in his employ for several years was the gnome woman known only as Fen.  A thief of capable ability, and a former guild member of Waterdeep's Xanathar's Guild Fen keeps Trismegistus informed of the unseen happenings in the city.  

A long time friend of Tris and occasionaly in his employ is Lirel.  A diplomat of Waterdeep to other cities and kingdoms.  Lirel's main asset is her skill at diplomacy.  Her insights give Trismegistus a view at the politics of the world few rarely see.  

Tesigirian is a member of the security forces of the Grey Manor.  His woodland skills come in handy when dealing with intruders on the estate and in dealing with the true head of security on the grounds of the estate.  

Well known among some of the bars of waterdeep is Gunnar the Red.  Hailing originally from the north and a veteran of the Tuigan Crusade and the Tethyr Civil wars, he tells a rousing good tale, and is never far from his tankard.  Most things remind him of the wars he has fought in.  

Ora came into the service of Trismegistus in a strange way.  A Grey Wolf Barbarian converted to the service of a strange Dragon God.  With her service came new powers as the curse of lycanthropy was removed from her body.  She was then ordered by her new god to gaurd Trismegistus and keep him safe from harm. 

Fenix, a halfling is a trained warrior in service of Trismegistus.  Where Tesigiran was in charge of the grounds, she was in charge of the house.  

Kama, a monk of the Lady's Hand monastery, has come to help the downtrodden of Waterdeep and is staying with Trismegistus, helping out wherever he can.  

Cassy, a mysterious Druid has come into the service of Trismegistus as an advisor to the wizard on the natural world.


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## jester47 (Jan 12, 2003)

*Tales From the Longshoreman's Daughter*

The Journal of Trismegistus, 17 Kythorn 1372

Much has gone before.  There are many places to start and not all is clear where they will finish.  I will tell you this tale.  I wish it were a story of heroic deeds and people wishing to do good for the world of Toril, but alas, the heroes are more common in the way they have chosen to lead their lives.  Many of the group I assembled that winter in the Gray Manor outside Waterdeep have disappeared from my sight and knowledge.  What I tell you here is only what I know through powerful magic and exhaustive investigation.  

The year was 1371, and things did not truly begin with me, the sage known as Trismegistus of Waterdeep.  Indeed they began with a quest for the coldest dish: Simple revenge.  

The following events transpired in Hammer, just after new years day.  A woman, Aliana Turlharrow by name, brought these events to my attention.  Some weeks before, during a great blizzard strange events had occurred in her inn, known as the Inn of the Longshoreman’s Daughter.  

A respectable and small inn it can only accommodate six guests.  It is a place well known for its clam chowder and being near the docks of the city it is decorated with the typical trappings of an old inn.  Behind the bar hangs an ageing harpoon.  No doubt a relic of Aliana’s family from the days when they were whalers and hunters of the sea. Candles and lanterns are the only light source in the Inn as there are no windows at all in the building.  The lanterns hang from the ceiling while the candles can be found at the bar and at each of the six tables.  This makes the inn cozy in the winter and a bit stifling in the summer.  However, the service at the inn makes up for any condition of the air.  If one were to sample the air from the taproom, they would definitely find it a not unpleasant mixture of spilt alcohol, greasy meat, pipe weed, lamp oil, and burning candle wax.  Not to mention the excellent clam chowder.  

Aliana’s father, Silas Turlharrow was one of many children born to a whaler, Krosen Turlharrow.  One of weak stature in his youth, he took a job harvesting clams along the cliff lined shores of the sword coast.  A late bloomer he grew into a mighty man that towered over his fellows.  Most are aware that even the shores of the sword coast are no safe place.  And after several adventures and some wealth “The Longshoreman” as he was known retired into the merchant class by buying a small run down old inn near the docks.  But I digress.  

Mounted and chained to the ceiling as a chandelier hangs the prize of Silas the late Longshoreman:  two clamshell halves that encroach on the rafters the pearlesent insides facing down on the patrons as if they were about to be swallowed by the clam. On a claming dig one of Silas’ friends inadvertently got too close to a giant clam, and was being crushed by the beast.  Accounts say Silas single handedly split the mouth of the clam open with his bare hands, freeing his friend and allowing the other men to kill it.

Candles and lanterns are the only light source in the Inn as there are no windows at all in the building.  The lanterns hang from the ceiling while the candles can be found at the bar and at each of the six tables.  This makes the inn cozy in the winter and a bit stifling in the summer.  However, the service at the inn makes up for any condition of the air.  If one were to sample the air from the taproom, they would definitely find it a not unpleasant mixture of spilt alcohol, greasy meat, pipe weed, lamp oil, and burning candle wax.  Not to mention the excellent clam chowder.  

On the 3rd night of Hammer of that year six strangers had sought refuge at the inn.  One was an elf, conducting business.  The other five were travelers wintering in the City of Splendors.  One was similar to a centaur in form, but altogether strange.  Marduk was his name, and a lack of appreciation for magic was apparent.  Several times he had stated to the innkeeper and her staff that this whole city stank of magic, and according to the good innkeeper he complain often that this entire world reeked of the abuse of magic.  From his description, I could only suspect that he was an exile from some other plane, far from my ken to understand.  I suspect that he was exiled for this hate of magic but I cannot be sure given how events apparently unfolded.  Another was a man of arms, Soren, kind in his ways, but the innkeeper was sure to point out that there was something strange about him.  He had an aura of some sort that seemed odd.  The other, Kalra’ath was a fellow from far off Unther, a wizard of some sort by her description.  She described him as keen eyed with pointy teeth.  I can only suppose him to be of fiend blood.  The third, Soloman Tangiers, appeared to be a well-kept holy man, but the six arms and blades of his symbol showed it to be no kind god.  Earlier that morning, an old haggard man bearing a bundle had entered the inn, sat at a far table in the corner and ordered a bowl of soup.  He then fell asleep.  The last patron of the inn was an elf from Silverymoon and in fact is the instegator of the events of things yet to come.  

The name of the elf was given as only Aravilar.  A common name and one I suspect was an alias.  The day of the strange events, he was interviewing two men apparently in his employ and was having an argument with them over the payment of services rendered.  They claimed that he owed them for their trouble in recovering some guide to the location of some ancient treasure of Netheril, and his reply was that he did not agree to pay for the directions to ancient magic but requested that magic be brought to him.  Apparently these were not the only people working for him.  Aliana informed me that later that evening he told one of the other patrons that the Aravilar had told that his family wanted some revenge on the Morume dragon brood but lost the specifics of the story.  The two men left leaving a rune covered bone on the table with the elf. 

At this point things began to happen. Shortly after the men left a halfling moving very quickly entered the Inn ran across the room and took the sword that the elf was keeping beside his table.  The innkeeper had noticed the fine hilt of the weapon, as had most everyone else in the inn.  The thief ran upstairs, the elf, and Soren running up after him.  At this point the wizard disappeared and took the bone.  The two others, Marduk and Soloman were busy talking to one another in some debate over the use of magic.  

Soren related the following to Aliana later in the night. He had gone up with the elf and began searching the hallway fro any sign of escape.  All the doors were locked.  However at the end of the hall was a large grandfather clock.  It was about two feet wide and seven feet tall with the top foot and a half reserved for the mechanisms of the clock.  The door on the clock was wide open and the hands set to 2:59.  Soon everyone was investigating the clock.  It did indeed register as magical.  

One should be careful when buying real estate.  When you buy real estate you also buy the secrets of that real estate, if you are aware of them or not.  Apparently when the Longshoreman had purchased the inn from the previous owner, the owner had left what appeared to be a broken grandfather clock at the end of the hall on the second floor.  It was missing its pendulum and for years was thought to be an ordinary piece of time keeping furniture.  This was clearly not so.
After intense investigation by the wizard he learned that it was a gate.  At this point they were at a loss as to what the key used to activate it was.  Several times they turned the hands on the dial.  This did no good.  They were stumped for a while.  So they returned downstairs.  Apparently that is when they discovered that the haggard old man in the corner was dead.  Prying the book from his hands they opened it up.  In the oilcloth bundle they found a key, a stone with a rune carved on it, and a large book.  Opening the book they found it to be some sort of log, in dwarvish.  None of them could read dwarvish, and none of them had the magic to read it, or so it seemed.  The log was left open on the table along with the rune and the key.  In the man’s hand was a note.  According to Aliana it read “In the Ships Lockbox!”  The body of the man was placed outside in the blizzard and the watch was summoned.  However, they would not arrive until morning.  When I asked where the book, the key and the stone had gone, she replied that the watch took them when they took the body.  I can only suppose that these items are somewhere in the safe keeping of the Lords of Waterdeep.  

Eventually it was discovered that the key to the gate was to provide something that looked like a pendulum.  This proved to be anything metal with more weight on one end than on the other.  Apparently this included weaponry.  Aliana mentioned that there was a run on the kitchen for spoons.  The group was never seen in Waterdeep again.  

With this information, I began my investigation.  Still being the dead of winter, I started with the clock.  Most people did not need clocks.  They were curiosities.  In fact this was not really a clock at all.  Something like the “clock” inside the Inn of the Longshoreman’s Daughter was something else entirely.  I figure that close inspection would reveal that there were no working parts inside the clock at all.  Indeed it was simply a portable gate.  

Setting the clock to 2:59 I opened the door and having compensated the innkeeper for the spoon, put the spoon through the clock to appear in a snow covered forest.  Luckily it had not snowed much here and what had once been a path starting from where I was, broken through the snow was still visible.  The spoons were gone as the gate uses them to open.  Following this path that I could only assume the one known as Marduk made.  I soon came to the body of the halfling.  A quick divination told me that the halfling was killed by wraiths and that he did have the sword.  Our four travelers picked up the sword and they continued to the east taking on a group of wraiths.  Afterwards they began to meet with bad ends.  Another spell gets me to the place they began to die quickly.  I found their remains.  Apparently they had fallen prey to some undead intellect devourers.  One of them, Soren, fell prey to their ability to dominate the will.  Long enough to attack Solomon, the Cleric of Garagos.  Solomon injured Soren and soren did likewise to Solomon, but Solomon did not count on Soren’s mind powers and suffered the consequences as the devourers appeared from invisibility and took down Solomon.  All this time Marduk had been saying he smelt magic on the air, but it was apparently too late.  The three remaining made quick work of the devourers and then buried their friend in nearby ruins.  It was these ruins that was the death of them because within was an ectoplasmic ooze.  This creature made short work of Soren.  I now understood where they had gone.  This was the Vordorn Forest.  A place even the powerful such as I seldom go.  At this point I recovered the rune-covered bone and moved on to the last two who outran the ooze.  But they were also running from something else.  It must have been a nightmare, heading out into the cold snowing darkness.  Even if they did have ample magic to protect them from the cold it would still have been uncomfortable.  The two remaining continued to head east.  And there terror caught up with them.  Legend speaks of the spirit of a great eye tyrant haunting these woods.  The Bariar gave the spirit a fight, and the wizard was just about useless in its eyes.  There is no trace of their bodies, or their gear.  There was no trace of the sword.   Even at my age and my power I would not risk a fight with such a creature.  Nothing else can be done here.  

I perceive the bone as a curiosity and I have taken it back to the Grey Manor and have put it with my things.  I have returned to the Inn of the Longshoreman’s Daughter and informed Aliana that the clock is dangerous and should not be touched or tampered with.  However it does make a nice decoration.  I have warded the door against casual use, but not before some casual experimentation.  I now know how the gate works.  

How does this episode impact my interests you may ask?  It is not apparent on an initial observation.  But further divination indicates that the one who stole the sword was part of a larger group (how could he not be?) And this group would eventually come knocking at my door… 

================================

The events of this account are the results of a holiday one shot run in the week after Christmas 2002.   They were designed as a prelude to the ongoing campaign that will be detailed in this thread.   My story hour will not be told as a narrative but rather in the form of "primary source documents."  This keeps me from having to remember the absolute specifics of each session and will allow me to catch up on a campaign that has been running for almost a year.


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## jester47 (Jan 13, 2003)

*Shadows of Anihilation*

While I could recount the events of those initial days with the dry and analytical style that I am wont to use, I find this conveniant summary to be quite handy and a more interesting method of conveying the events that followed the interesting events at the Longshoreman's Daughter.  I would say that I found this as a result of a misshelving except for the fact that NOTHING is ever misshelved in Candlekeep.  I thank the brave soul who did put it in my path as I quickly coppied it and brought the volume to the attention of the Great Reader listed here.

Trismegistus 
==========================================
From Scryings and Visions of Candlekeep Volume 231
==========================================
The scrying of Orchtalen of Candlekeep, being a history of the events concerning the actions of a Cult of the Dragon cell and the recovery and destruction of a powerful weapon.  As transcribed by Great Reader Marilius.  Transcription made on Twenty-ninth day of Ches, Year of Wild Magic

The Grey Manor outside Waterdeep, Early Winter Late Fall, Year of the Unstrung Harp.

Fog, cold, haze.  
Trismegistus calls a meeting of those in service.
He informs them that he has become aware of intruders on the grounds of the Grey Manor.
He feels they will come again with more magic.  
Night comes.
There are three entering the manor.
They are discovered, two get away.  
One is caught questioned let go and followed into town by the druid.  
They seem to be members of a cult, outfitted leaders.  
A family in the city thier reverence lies with dragons.  
They run a poor inn.  
Day breaks.
The old wizard calls the people in his employ together once more.  
"They are after a talisman of the sphere, how they came to know of it I know not.  It is no longer here.  but in another secret place."  
"The sphere has been sequestered in the tower of crane."
"Crane I have not heard from for years."
"The Talisman is hidden in the caverns below Stoneheart Mountain."
"Seek a rod of cancellation.  The sphere must be destoryed."
A visitor and from far away indeed.
Ustran Yg'niv a wizard of the Githyanki appears past wards and spells.
6 retainers of similar race. 
An exchange of words.  
Trismegistus is taken!
The wizards and the warriors astral are gone.
The retainers of Trismegistus then went about thier way.  For some time they searched and researched.
Five days later, the student of Trismegistus, Sypa the Strange uncovers the information of such a rod.  
Buried with the spirit Zelkor deep in a distant graveyard, a tomb of ill repute.  Rappan Athuk.
The presence of another.
Alike to the dwarf Gunnar, but yet different.  An impostor.
The dwarf is taken, captured.  
Hiden under the stairs, bound and gagged.
Clothes removed.
The impostor approaches.
Enters the house.
Gunnar escapes, running through waterdeep naked, from the tavern.
At the house.
"Where is you mug Gunnar? You never leave without it."
A naked dwarf with a Mug running up the lane shouting of the time in the civil wars in Tethyr ends the charade.
Spells are cast, the infiltrator brought down.
The dwarf immobilised until they are sure.
The next day they set out.
The graves are not far and they make it to the site of that long ago battle. 
Into the Mosoleum.
Down they delve.
Free of traps.
What do they find there? 
The monk and the dwarf find Rats and Worse.
Exhausted they return to the manor.
They return soon.
The cult is there, an ambush.The cultists all brought down.
Ropes down the well.
They are followed.
Caverns dark and deadly.
Lost. 
They find her.
The wearer in purple.
Fiece is the fight.  
The paladin hold sway.
Lucky are the retainers. 
The band cut thier losses, return to the surface.
They folly.
The rod is down the well, but they return to the mosoleum.
They have set off the trap! 
They have opened the lid.
Black death.
A skeletal foe they cannot beat.
A lamp found by the diplomat inside the sarcophagus.
The lamp is rubbed.
Efreet!  
The wishes are granted. 
All items, the sphere, the rod and the talisman are made present.
The black skeleton is destroyed as Sypa takes control of the sphere.
The door is anihilated.
Everyone stands back as the rod is touched.

Somthing blocks my uinderstanding of the rest of this tale.   
There is no more.

==========================================

Authors note:  At this point my party had succeeded in blowing themselves up.  This was not without intention.  Two people were leaving the campaign and I was still getting my style down.  I wanted to create new characters and change my style.  However, the players wanted to keep thier characters and continue, and since I really had not told them that I would essentially trick them into blowing themselves up I decided to use the DM Magic and bring them all back.  

Please excuse the munchkinism to follow.  Thanks,

Aaron.


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## jester47 (Jan 15, 2003)

*Shadows of Anihilation*

From a note found in the journal of Trismegistus, 

Only a few days passed while I was in the hands of the Githyanki.  My escape from thier beutiful yet horrible city was fortuitous if not lucky.  Surely if I had been brought before the lich queen I would not be here today to write my tale.  While my escape was violent and hasty, I would like to point out that the city is quite a spectacle to behold.  Especially charted against the colorful background that is the astral.  I would highly recommend the sight should one want to go there under more agreeable conditions, as the city does accomodate those of a non-githyanki heritage.   Merchants, traders and such.  Though tourists may be frowned upon. 

Upon my return to this plane I was given a vision of a fully armored fellow with  his visor down.  This vision informed me that he was there to tell me that my retainers would be returning to this world in about a weeks time.  Furthermore I was to hide myself from them as they were now aware of my true nature.  I was to track them as an observer but was forbidden to contact them.  I was told that everything would be made clear.

So there was nothing else to it.  I gathered thier things andprepared them for immediate departure.  I wrote a letter to a curior service and told then to watch the north gate for people matching the description of my retainers.  I then proceeded to collect a few things and made it known that I had left the manor and all its contents to another who was to eventually arrive in waterdeep.  I let people in town know that I was leaving the city for a very long time.  

Investigating the graveyard they went to, I found that their presence had been completely erased. 

The letter simply stated: 

To my fiends and former retainers,

Do not question your memories.  Some things have been changed that might make you do so.  I assure you that everything in the graveyard happened just as you remember it.  For your gear and animals, check thestables.  The caretakers will assist you any way they can.  As for me I have many things to do and little time to do them.  Should any one of you ever need to reach me be rest assured that I will find you first.   I am not one for long goodbyes.  

yours, 

Tris. 

PS, about thewhole dragon thing, mums the word!


My diplomat friend Liril depareted on a mission to Cormyr.  I am sure her talents served well.  Ora has travelled into the north, looking for me, of all ironies.  Kama has returned to the monastery of the yellow rose, and for all I know was never seen in the north again.  Fenix remained in Waterdeep joining up with the guard.

The remaining portion of my retainers, Cassy, Sypa, Tessigiran, and Fen set out for the town of Everlund. There were rumors that Gunnar's brother Keldaghan was doing good business out there and that there were orcs abroad in the land.  So after wintering in Waterdeep, they made the trek to Everlund setting out on 19 Ches 1372 Dalereckoning.


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