# DoctorB's Legacy of Alexander Story Hour



## DoctorB (Jan 19, 2002)

Welcome to the *Legacy of Alexander* Story Hour!

I have eliminated the campaign background from this list.  It is now located on my Campaign Webpage

You will find there a description of the world, the characters and some older story hours.  I have also included a number of maps of the world and other great info.  Feel free to visit anytime.

This campaign is more than two years old in real time.  The party completed one story arc in which they rescued the Alexandran Empire from an Undead Army raised by Tychon of Pella, who claims to be the King of Khalkis (the old name for the Empire).  They also rescued a strange young man with long white hair named Arin from a glass tube in Khalkis' lair.  At the start of this story, they have arrived in Sazon seeking information about Arin's master, Horus, and the Companions of Alexander.

Campaign Introduction:

417 years ago, the Triad, the gods of evil, tried to destroy the free kingdoms in a sudden massive invasion from the mountains of Irmak.  They seemed on the verge of success when a little-known noble named Alexander rose to become the greatest general of his era and drive them back.  Championing the Seven gods of good, he forged an alliance from the fractious western kingdoms.  At the battle of Dranas, he and the great alliance utterly destroyed the army of evil and secured peace and freedom for the west.  In the aftermath of his stunning victory, the allies determined never to be caught by surprise again. They elected Alexander to be emperor of all the major kingdoms and arranged for the position to continue.  Alexander's own land, Khalkis, had been virtually destroyed in the invasion so it became the seat of his power.  Alexander became titular overlord of all the kingdoms and built towers and castles to set watch on the land of Irmak.

_That was a long time ago._

Now the kingdoms have fallen back into old habits.  With the threat of evil gone, they war with each other and engage in their petty grabs for power.  Fantastic creatures known in the ancient days are thought to be myths now.  Dragons, and demons are stories for little children.  The emperor still exists, but he rules only the lands of old Khalkis now.  The Free Kingdoms have not paid the price for their lack of diligence for twenty generations.

_Now evil is returning._

The Triad shows signs of preparing another attack from Irmak.  While the leaders of the west ignore the threat, the Lady, leader of the Seven, chooses her Champions to fight the rising tide before it is too late...

The characters have been touched by the Lady.  They are her chosen champions to serve her and humanity against the coming crisis.  They know each other by an undefinable glow of the Lady's blessing on each of them.  Some accept her blessing whole-heartedly and become advocates of her in the world.  Others resent her influence in their destiny, don't believe their importance, or reject her part in their lives.  Whatever their reaction, all the characters are people destined for great things


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 20, 2002)

*Cobbe's Vision in Sazon*

[You are dreaming… you think]

The low hills stretch away to the horizon though those opposite you are darkened with the numbers of the enemy.   Looking at your own lines, your spirits rise.  Lady Breda prances in place.  You can feel her eagerness for battle and glory.  There is Joy glowing with a blue light astride Blueberry.  She gives you a brave smile.  Galena also glows but with a different power as she calls on her magic.  A shadowy presence to your left is your only view of Liana, but you know she will be just as hard for the enemy to find.  Further on your right, you see Bacha marching alongside his Irmakian tribe.  He calls out a battle cry in salute.  Toiva anchors your left with a troop of Dibran warriors drawn from many cities.  They sing a bawdy song about landlocked maidens.  A shame no more than the few hundred he commands could fight alongside you.  

At your back sits the entire strength of Imperial horse and foot.  All of them have chosen to be here and you are confident they will acquit themselves well.  Looking closely, you make out the contingent from Pella; among them are Orace and Jarrik.  You nod at Krum and he seems to understand.  He will keep them as safe as he can.  Nearby ride the Grey Knights.  One of their lieutenants is familiar in the way she rides and sits.  Of course Sheranise would be here.  The Lady does not unchoose her champions.  Hope rises as you see the brave swords and spears....


Then you look across the field.  The enemy blackens the horizon with soldiers.  Against your few thousand are arrayed fifty or one hundred times that number.  Among them stride trolls and giants, ogres and hobgoblins.  Other creatures you have never seen or heard of before walk or shamble among them. Riding a dragon above them is a man in black armor.  The Warlord.  You realize with honest appraisal that you will die today.  

Why would the Lady choose you and the others to be her champions if you were doomed to fall before the might of the Triad?  Are you and the others merely the last desperate cry of the defeated Seven?  Then you think of what might have been.  Where are the shining Argesian knights and the Dwarven legions to anchor your center?  You have no berserkers from Varna to confuse the enemy ranks, no deadly archers from Streda and Tolna to fill the air with arrows.  Absent is the magical power of Sindaria or the solid infantry of Lublin.

Grimly, you put your past failures behind you.  You can only use the ingredients at hand.  Wishing for saffron doesn’t make it appear.  Failing all else, you rely on duty and faith.  You call on the Lady and all of the Seven for their blessing and signal the attack…

[You awaken covered in sweat and reach for your mace.  Lady Breda is kicking the sides of her stall.  The adrenaline of battle is still with you and you find it impossible to return to sleep


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 20, 2002)

*In Sazon*

The Champions are in Sazon trying to find out more about Horus, an important advisor to the ancient hero, Alexander, and Arin's master.  They also want to find out more about the Companions of Alexander.

The next day, the Champions went to the Great Library and showed the keepers their token.  It turned out they had an appointment to work with the chief Loremaster, and man named Luan.  After some difficulty with the oath swearing not to damage any of the library materials or fight in the Library, Luan took the party to a reading room and they began research.  After a couple of days of working, they had discovered a great deal about the seven companions of Alexander and that they were somehow linked to Horace, Arin’s master.  

On the third day, they were in the Library again when things suddenly changed.  Two worms had appeared in the courtyard in front of the Library and Toiva, Liana and Claudia were fighting them when the entire building was suddenly somewhere else.  They found themselves looking at an ever-changing chaotic landscape that confused them even while they fought the two creatures that had come with them.
Here is Toiva’s description to Bacha of what was happening:

_Cobb and Toiva had a long discussion about the appropriate way to get something done. Joy was pretty upset that the temple seemed to be too caught up in the whole "Yay Sazon" thing. Much research was done in the Library; we learned some stuff that makes it sound like we need to recover stuff from the seven companions of Alexander and return to a battlefield from Alexander's War to call back Horace (or Horus?), the kid's mentor, from where he has sequestered himself until he was needed. We discovered that riding Griffons can be learned from books. Toiva and Liana did some snooping. Joy ate a whole lot of Dibrean food. Galena was aloof. Toiva refrained from adding more verses to the Straw Hat Knight song. There was a wine emergency, involving Toiva and the Knight Defender of the Temple, who protected him for a couple of nights.

And then big freaking worms with tentacles appeared and the entire Library,
including the PC's and some random other folks in the Library, got plane-shifted
somewhere, according to our resident expert on the planes. We killed the two big
freaking worms, taking a ton of damage in the process (Cobb, Alexander, Toiva and Bacha get about half dead each), but more worms are on the way crossing the
blighted and twisted alien landscape infused with primal chaos that confuses the
weak-willed (that's you, Bacha) just looking at it, accompanied by "other
things." Joy did her "Healing Hand" thing. We have closed up the Library. It has
a bunch of magic items, and we are hoping that there is something in the Library
that can get us home, but in the mean time, monsters are knocking at the door._


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 20, 2002)

The story continues...

As the warrior types (Bacha, Alexander, Toiva) held the front door, the others went into the center of the library where Luan had all of the magic items in the place brought.  This was the senior loremasters’ study and already had in it a strange orrery and a large box with mysterious writing on it.  Liana went exploring and Galena and Joy got down to the business of figuring out what was going on.  Galena had detected that the force that sent them to this chaos plane came from somewhere inside the building but not where.  She found that the large box had abjuration magic on it and the writing was old draconic giving warnings against opening it so she decided not to.  

At the same time, Liana had discovered some writing on one of the stairwells saying “The Door is Open” in some form of Khal.  She, Galena, and Joy went upstairs and detect magic found that one of the cells on the second floor had magic in it.  When Liana opened the door, a man appeared and cast a Magic Missile into her.

Meanwhile downstairs, the gibbering mouthers (the other things Toiva saw) had burned through the stone on each side of the door.  Something big gray and humanoid with a froglike head ripped the weakened doors away and the battle started in earnest.  Three of the worm things and several mouthers entered the Library.  Toiva, Bacha and Alexander started a fighting retreat intending to defend the narrow corridor into the main reading room.

Upstairs, the battle was over pretty quick.  Liana did not attack right away.  Joy cast a searing light that killed the guy where he stood.  This was the first living creature she had ever killed.  Searching the guy showed he had some kind of spiral symbol and burned into his left arm were seven strange symbols, which Lux said were not language.  Galena ordered “*bring that arm*” and rushed downstairs again to continue the examination of the items in the study.  Galena quickly discovered that the symbols were the same as the ones on the strange orrery which had seven faintly glowing symbols.  Touching one of these using prestidigitation brought up about twenty similar signs to choose from.  The party quickly figured out this object was what had brought them here and that the symbols were somehow linked to this plane.  If only they knew the combination for their own plane!  Luan offered that there was a room of works no one could read.  Maybe something there would be useful.  Galena went with him to see while the others went to aid with the combat.

In the main entranceway, barricading the narrow passageway into the main reading room had bought them some time but they found the gray thing was nowhere to be seen.  Bacha held the barricade against the strength of one of the strange wormlike things and the others used missile weapons against it.  Suddenly, the door to their right burst open and the missing monsters came through.  Seeing themselves flanked, the three fighting at the front door retreated to the doorway leading toward the loremaster study.  Using the narrow corridors to their advantage, they set up ambushes at four-way intersections.  Joy and Cobb showed up to help with healing.

Galena looked through the scrolls Luan showed her and found she could read them.  Several were in Celestial, some in Infernal and others in elemental languages.  She looked at the Celestial ones first.  One of them had a symbol she recognized from the set above one of the symbols on the orrery upstairs.  Looking through it, it was an account of someone who had journeyed to the Heavens and returned.  He had found these symbols in various places and had just copied them down, not knowing what they were.  There were seven.  Running back to the study, she lined up the seven symbols from the scroll on the orrery and cast spells into it to power it.  With the seventh spell level, everyone felt the library shift.

The fight continued in the corridors as the chaos beasts slowly gained ground.  Suddenly a blinding flash went through the building blinding many of the Champions and others.  The creatures were gone.  Going downstairs, they saw a beautific landscape outside.  Galena had transported them to Heaven.


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 20, 2002)

In Heaven...

Only Joy, Bacha, and Toiva went outside.  There they met a celestial who called herself Herald.  She said she was sent by the Lady to help them home.  After much questioning and very little answering she showed Bacha a vision of his people and assured Joy her great-great-great-grandmother was there but did not let her see her.  Finally, Herald gave them the seven symbols they needed to get home.  She also sensed Joy’s desire to become a direct servant of the Lady and offered her the chance if she could restore the Lady’s shrine at Merowe.

Galena powered the device again and brought them back to Sazon.  There they discovered that Claudia and the city guard had been fighting worms that had come through the Temple.  It seems that the door between Library and Temple had allowed the chaos creatures to come through into the world.  They also had to answer lots of questions from Lord Victor and others about what happened.  After an exhausting day, they convinced Luan to let them stay in the Library with the loremasters in case something else happened.  Galena refused to leave the study, thinking she might not get another chance to study the planar orrery if she left.
In the middle of the night, they heard the sounds of yelling and battle…


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 20, 2002)

After the day of the chaos plane, the last thing the Champions wanted was to be awakened by battle outside.  Rushing outside, they found Claudia and Alexander locked in battle with another of the chaos worms.  Before they could go out to help, the thing struck with its seven tentacles and dropped Claudia.  As Alexander fought on, the remaining Champions rushed in against the creature.  Toiva finally killed it with a mighty blow.  Unlike the ones in the chaos plane, this one poofed, indicating it had been summoned.

Detecting evil in the area, Cobbe found there was someone on the roof.  Liana climbed up after him and heard an invisible person running across the roof.  At sight of Liana, he ran to the other side and jumped off.  Toiva, Bacha, and Galena circled around the building and when the man jumped, Galena webbed the area.  Bacha found him enough with his glaive to kill him.  When the man appeared, he was wearing robes and had badly burned hands.  He also had a spiral symbol and another scroll case on him.

Claudia, it turns out, was dead from the beast’s attack.  Alexander was inconsolable and spent some time in the Shrine of the Lady inside the Temple. He then disappeared for a while.

The others began investigating the spiral symbol.

Meanwhile, Galena found the real treasure of the senior loremaster’s room in the Library:  a crystal ball.  She and Joy then took the opportunity to try and scry on every enemy, and most of their friends.  Here is some of what they found:

The remaining scroll from the Spiral guy revealed a man sitting in a room writing.  After watching him for a while, he got up and went outside to stretch and they saw the spiral symbol on a sign.  It was a place called the Whirlpool Bookstore and was known for having a very strange collection.  The Champions decided this was the source of the problems.

Marigold Healinghand (Joy’s mother) was busy in the infirmary at Shrinehill working on people wounded in battle

Scale (the Priest of the Other) was lecturing to Kua-Toa about the Other

Sorin was involved in negotiations to repopulate the eastern Empire after the depredations of the undead army.

Barak Orsay (a priest of the Triad) was busy overseeing the training of hobgoblins in the mountains (Irmak?).

Lord Victor seemed to be worried about the new political aspirations of Lord Nasser, the old governor of Sazon (chosen because he was politically neutral).
The Yakuni (Bacha’s tribe) was moving from higher mountains into lower ones going west.

Tychon of Pella (the undead king of Khalkis) and Henric Dobos came up blank.

Having discovered where the spiral people were, the Champions prepared to attack the bookshop.  They gained permission from the Temple to fight in the city limits to apprehend these criminals with the understanding they would try to bring them in alive.  Bacha, Liana and Galena went with Lady Breda to the back door while Cobbe, Joy, Toiva and Alexander went to the front.

Opening the front door, Toiva used his bardic song to fascinate the clerk there.  The entire place is piled high with stacks of books on very arcane subjects.  Cobbe opens the door to the room the scribe was in and Joy casts hold person on him but it fails.  She then blinds him successfully.  He had already cast a spell to summon one of the chaos worms.  Alexander went in and attacked the clerk breaking the fascinate.  With a hmmf, Toiva begins to inspire courage.

In the back, Bacha breaks down the door and he Liana and Galena charge in.  They find themselves attacked from guys in a neighboring room.  As Bacha and Liana wade in, Galena finds another door leading upstairs and goes up to investigate.

The summoned worm attacks Joy and half kills her before she turns and dismisses it.  The other spiral people are no match for the Champions.   Cobbe and Toiva are careful to attack to subdue so there will be prisoners to arrest.  Alexander and Bacha both kill several of them.  Three are left to question.

Upstairs, they find one large room with a creature chained with silver chains in the center.  He looks like a large frog-headed humanoid who calls himself a Slaad.  After determining he is not evil, they questioned him about how he came to be there.  The spiral people were using him to get information about his home plane it seems.  The Champions agree to free him if he showed them where the gate was.  They broke out the floor and brought him chains and all to the square in front of the Library to point out the gate.  He told them there was no gate there or anywhere nearby.  The party freed him from the chains and he opened a door and seemed to disappear.


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 20, 2002)

*Research on Horus and Companions of Alexander*

From History of the Battle of Alexander, 
written by Marko Vandus in the year 43 NE
(Written in Old Khal)

…As Alexander and his generals gathered to plan the following days battle on the plain of Dranas, Lord Horus entered the tent.  Remembering the wisdom and skill of Horus which had guided him from the darkest days of the Warlord’s advance, Alexander waited to hear what the old sage would say.
I am leaving you now, Horus said.  
Confused, Alexander asked him if he had caused some offense.
No, Horus responded.  I have completed a working that will serve you better than my wisdom in the coming battle.  The legions of the enemy are too many.  Therefore, I will seek to reduce them so that the world will not be plunged into an age of darkness. This working will mean my own removal from the battle.
How can we continue without your guidance? the General asked.
I have already taught you much in the short time we have had together.  I will be reduced by what I am about to do but not destroyed.  In the years to come you will succeed or fail on your own merits.

But My Lord, what if we require your aid in the future?

The old man looked at each of the seven companions arrayed around their leader.  Remember the knowledge and the gifts I have given you, he said.  The seven felt his gaze as though Horus was testing them for their loyalty and worthiness.  Finally, he nodded.

If you should need me again you must return to this place.  Bring before me the seals of our alliance and call my name.  Do not do this thing lightly.  Only when the world itself is threatened should I be called from my rest.

Before the others could speak or move, Horus turned and strode from the tent, never to be seen or heard from again.
No one knows what the old sage did to aid the forces of light on that dreadful day, but Alexander defeated the Warlord on the fields of Dranas and established the world we know today…


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Jan 20, 2002)

*Merowe*

The others don't know much about Joy's orders to restore The Lady's shrine at Merowe.  Cobbe heard her say the name, and she has been asking a lot of questions about the Empire of Sand (where Merowe is located).  Alexander may have the best clue, since he and Joy had a long talk about the Empire of Sand and it's people's fighting techniques.  Joy has the impression that Alexander would go with her if she asked.  However, she is not sure what to do.  She feels that she is not up to the task at this point, perhaps when she gains greater abilities...(9th level and 5th level spells  )  Even then she is not sure if she should tell her friends or not.  Well, she can't just run off because Cobbe will get mad again (she only went off for one day while they were all at Shrinehill so that she could do some thinking, and Cobbe yelled at her for it, even though Mother wasn't worried at all), but she is not sure if she can or should ask them to come with her.  It is _her_ quest after all.  

Joy is just begining to realize that becoming a Divine Agent of The Lady has huge ramifications on the course her life with take--leaving her parents forever, inheriting the shrine at Shrinehill, having her own children..., and she is trying desperatly to work through them.  But she still has time; she is not skilled enough yet for this task.  It could take months and months before her skill in channeling The Lady's glorious powers improve to the point where she is ready.  Until then the Campions have a very important mission (and is that mission more important than Joy's quest?!?).


----------



## Piratecat (Jan 23, 2002)

Whoot, story!

Admittedly, I know where some of this is leading... and it's _good._


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 26, 2002)

*The Ambush (story)*

The researchers hired by the Champions found the final piece of the Companions of Alexander puzzle in the list of the objects that Horus gave to the seven companions before the battle of Dranas.  The party now suspects that these objects are the "seals" referred to by Horus in his final speech before disappearing.

Alexander was not dealing well with the death of his sister, and Joy tried to comfort him.  He finally asked her to use the crystal ball to try and locate his father.  She cast telepathic bond to see what was in his mind.  He first showed her a picture of a severe gray-haired man.  Joy felt that she used it well, but the crystal just clouded and then cleared.  Using other images from his mind, she did see another man of a similar age going to fat but wearing plate armor and a dark haired woman overseeing decoration of a manor.  Alexander would not tell Joy who they were, but just walked away.

In recognition of their accomplishment in rooting out the spiral people, Lord Victor invited the Champions to receive a commendation from Sazon and honorary citizenship in the city (which gives them legal rights in town.  Toiva was thrilled).  The ceremony was to be on Nonus 9, second Knightsday.

As the Champions traveled to the meeting, most were on foot except for Joy on Blueberry and Cobbe on Lady Breda.  Suddenly, a Slaad jumped out of a side alley and cast Chain Lightning on Joy primarily and everyone else secondarily. Blueberry died in the attack and everyone was injured.  Most of the party followed the creature into the alley.

There they found several enemies.  Four warriors attacked on the ground while three rogues attacked from the roof along with a sorcerer.  Cobb walked into this ambush first, and the others quickly followed.  Alexander ended up in a side-alley fighting two of the fighters while Cobbe, Lady Breda, Bacha, and Toiva fought the main attack.  Toiva disarmed two of the fighters, then subdued them when they went for their weapons.  Joy worked her way in behind while Liana snuck up a wall ahead of the ambush.  Liana discovered that another woman in black armor was watching the party from the rooftop.  Having snuck up on her, she saw this person fire a composite longbow at Joy with a sneak attack.  Liana attacked and hit the woman but not very well.  The two of them started fighting on the rooftop with neither gaining the advantage. 

At the same time, Galena summoned first a Xorn and then two air elementals.  She instructed the Xorn to fight whomever Cobbe fought and sent one of the air elementals against the sorcerer and the other against one of the rogues.  The Slaad turned itself invisible, but the Xorn could attack it because of tremorsense while Joy cast Invisibility Purge.  The Slaad tried to flee up the building but was caught there and sent to his own plane.  At this point, most of the enemies realized that the battle had gone against them.  

The remaining rogue on the roof ran, followed by Bacha.  Meanwhile, Toiva made his way to the roof to aid Liana against the black armored assassin.  The woman tried to cast a spell and was struck twice for her trouble, and finally she just ran off the roof and back toward the entrance of the alley.  She was subdued there.

The two warriors fighting Alexander did not realize the battle had gone against their comrades and continued to fight.  One of them finally dropped as Toiva arrived on the scene.  He cast a sleep spell on the other one only to see Alexander execute a coup-de-grace and kill him.  Toiva tried to talk to Alexander about this but the monk just walked away from him.

Cleaning themselves up with a little help from Toiva and Galena’s prestidigitation, the Champions dropped the prisoners, including the unconcious assasin, at the jail.  They finally arrived at the ceremony and endured the small talk of some of the important citizens of Sazon.  Victor presented them with medals honoring their accomplishment and made them honorary citizens of the city.

While there, Cobbe tried to convince Lord Victor that the real war was coming when the forces of evil attack from Irmak.  Remembering his vision, the paladin was convinced he could change that past and give the forces of the Free Kingdoms a chance.  He suggested that Victor should send his army east when the time was right to aid in the battle.  Though he listened carefully to everything Cobbe said, Victor was noncommittal about sending his forces to a distant war.

When the Champions returned to the Great Library for a much-deserved rest, they saw a notice being posted:

"By Order of Lord Nasser, Governor of Sazon.  Due to the infiltration of dwarves intent on destroying the city, Sazon shall now be under a curfew from dusk to dawn and only militia will be allowed to carry weapons at any time."

Spying on Lord Nasser using the crystal ball, the party saw him speaking with a group of guardsmen.  Some of those guards were not human but demonic in appearance.  Nasser spoke to the group about the importance of patrolling the streets and other mundane tasks, seemingly unaware that creatures of evil were among the audience…


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 26, 2002)

That night, the Champions prepared to undertake a meeting with Governor Nasser.  They spoke with the Priests of the Knight and the Lady at the Temple about gaining some kind of dispensation to take their weapons.  The priests explained that Lord Nasser was within his rights and the legal arguments to overturn the order would take months.

They finally sent Liana over to Lord Victor’s mansion with a note asking for an audience.  She arrived there seemingly without being followed and entered through the side door.  After some discussion she convinced Victor’s seneschal to allow a meeting in the morning.

Meanwhile, the others were using the crystal ball to spy on the demonic things they had seen in the meeting.  There were two types, one was tall and skeletal with a great barbed tail like a scorpion while the other was human sized but covered with chains.  Galena knew they were other-planar creatures but no more than that about their exact capabilities.  Finding the creatures, the party saw them attacking civilians in various parts of town.  Though the guards themselves did not seem to think it unusual that these monsters were patrolling with them, the populace caught outside ran in panic at the sight of them.  Some were caught and killed by the creatures.  Unable to watch this, the Champions prepared to attack the monsters immediately.

They met Liana as they left the Library and went patrolling for the guard patrols.  The Champions met with success not far from the Library/Temple complex with one of the skeletal creatures and half a dozen guards.

The devil put up an ice wall to separate Cobbe and Toiva from the others while Galena cast a web to try and immobilize the thing.  What she got was a web with a hole in it where the magic did not function on the creature (she missed the spell resistance roll badly).  Liana fired an arrow at the devil, but it just bounced off.  The guards, thinking one of their own was under attack, went after the Champions.  Toiva fought two of them beside the web, trying not to kill them.

Lady Breda and Cobbe dealt with their section of the ice wall by going through it while Bacha jumped up and over instead.  The devil took the opportunity to try and charm Bacha, but he fought off the effect (no small feat considering his +0 will save).

Liana and Alexander moved into the web to attack the thing while Galena tried a magic missile with also fizzled against the monster.  The devil attacked Alexander and hit him with the tail, draining his strength.  As the others moved into the web, Galena dispelled it.  Toiva ran in and crited the thing.  Alexander hit it, but his hands are not magical, so to no effect.  Bacha ran in and finished it.  The remaining guards ran away, presumably to get help.

The devil’s body did not disappear, meaning it was physically on this plane.  The party gathered it up for evidence and went back to the Library to rest and recover.

That night, Cobbe had a dream of Bacha meeting the Yakuni somewhere in the hills of the Empire.  Everyone realized that the Lady needed Bacha to be with his people so he left Sazon immediately to travel to the east and help refound Pella.  Cobbe wrote him a note saying he and the Yakuni had the permission of Lord Almer of Pella (that’s Cobbe) to settle in the environs of Pella.

As the party left the Library in the morning, a little girl pulled on Galena’s robe and gave her a silver ring with a sapphire.  “You dropped this, Lady” she said.  By the time Galena had looked at the ring and back again, the girl was gone.  After some consideration, she decided to wear the ring though she does not know what it does.

The Champions arrived at their meeting with Lord Victor with the body of the devil slain the night before.  After seeing that, Victor seemed eager to help.  He wrote them a note that would get them in to see Lord Nasser on his authority, and another deputizing them to investigate the corruption of the governor.  Putting his seal on both, he sent them on their way a little surprised at his cooperation.

Legally and physically armed, the Champions went to the governor’s palace to confront Lord Nasser.  Was he an unwitting agent of the Triad allowing these devils into the city, or a servant of evil?


----------



## KidCthulhu (Jan 29, 2002)

Hey Dr. B.  Nice story.  But here's a question.  How is Galena directing her summoned creatures so exactly?  Is she casting _tongues_?  Otherwise they just attack your enemies, at their own discretion.    Or is she just cooler than everyone else?


----------



## Type_II_Gamer (Jan 29, 2002)

Galena speaks everything. Auran, Terran, Aquan, Abyssal, etc.

Just nothing like Elven or any human languages.

Arrogant geek.


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 29, 2002)

Its true that Galena is a specialist in extra-planar creatures (something that is only possible in the erudite Tower) and speaks all the relevant languages.

I am also pretty lenient in how I allow her to command summoned creatures.  I assume that if she is in shouting distance, she can direct them to a new target.   The command that has drawn the most discussion was her order to a Xorn to attack whatever Cobbe was fighting.  I only allowed it finally because he was the only one there on horseback.


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 29, 2002)

*Interview with Nasser (story)*

Going directly from Lord Victor’s mansion, the Champions traveled across town to the palace of the governor of Sazon.  It was a tall structure with intricate carvings and gold leaf done in the standard over-the-top gaudy style of Sazon.

Cobbe used his diplomacy and the first letter from Lord Victor to get them an almost immediate audience.  After waiting a few minutes, they were directed into the throne room.  A large room two stories tall, it had balconies on the other three walls and tapestries below them showing General Zenon, the Sazon hero of Alexander’ day, a map of the ancient Sazon Empire, and a map of ancient Sazon itself at its height.

Sitting behind a desk on a raised dais was Governor Nasser along with an advisor in a fine white robe beside him.  The guards immediately tried to take the weapons of the Champions, but Alexander and Toiva convinced the governor that they had only the interests of Sazon at heart given their rescue of the Great Library.  Nasser seemed distracted and uncertain.

The Governor did not believe them that members of the guard were actually devils or that these creatures had been responsible for the deaths of townspeople the night before.  He assumed those deaths were due to dwarven infiltration of the city.

Cobbe detected evil as the governor spoke, and found several presences.  One of them seemed to be the white-robed man and another was on the balcony above.  He was relieved to find that Nasser himself did not seem to be evil.

At that moment, a woman appeared on the balcony above the governor and shot a well-aimed arrow at Joy.  It was the same assassin they had sent to jail yesterday!  Joy managed to dodge just enough so that the arrow missed her heart but still seriously wounded her.

Meanwhile, a woman in a large black robe came from behind the edge of a tapestry beside the dais and brought with her several large dog-like creatures spitting fire.  The woman had a prominently placed silver triangle symbol and carried a staff that glowed with a black radiance.

The guards, confused at this turn of events, surrounded Lord Nasser and tried to keep everyone away from him.  The man in the white robe fled through a door opposite the priestess.  The Champions had other things to worry about.


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 29, 2002)

*The battle (story)*

Galena immediately cast a web to block the entrance of the balcony with the assassin, while Cobbe and Toiva engaged the hell hounds.  Alexander tumbled past the beasts to the priestess herself and attacked her.

In the midst of this, Liana felt a strange pressure on her mind and heard a now trusted voice in her head telling her that Lord Nasser and his advisors were not her enemy and that she should not attack them.  Since this good advice did not include the hell hounds, she attacked them.  Arin positioned himself opposite her against one of the monsters and looked threatening enough for her to sneak attack the beast repeatedly.

As the others fought the hell hounds, the priestess swung her staff at Alexander and hit him in the right arm.  To everyone’s surprise, he yelled in pain and collapsed as a black energy engulfed his arm.  Both Joy and Cobbe could see that his arm was shriveling before their eyes as he writhed on the floor.

As Toiva and Liana continued to beat on the hell hounds, Cobbe moved to attack the priestess as well.  In the midst of this, he tried his cure disease on Alexander but to no avail.  With a cry, Joy ran up and tried to dispel the magic that seemed to be attacking him.  She was able to heal his wounds, but the arm continued to wither at a frightening rate.

Galena summoned an Arrowhawk to attack the assassin, but the web was empty.  Frustrated, she had the summoned creature shoot lightning bolts up the corridor in case she was there invisible.

After standing in combat against Cobbe for a few moments, the priestess saw that she was overmatched.  Though she hit him with the glowing staff, his limbs did not rot as Alexander’s had.  Perhaps it took a mighty blow to call forth the power of death in the staff.  The hell hounds were all defeated by now, and she looked to retreat.  As Galena cast haste on Toiva, the Triad priestess fled back through the door behind the edge of the tapestry she had entered from.

A shadowy figure behind the curtains of the right hand balcony had tried to control others besides Liana, and Arin tried to subtly indicate to Cobbe that there was an enemy there, but the paladin was more concerned with getting Lord Nasser out of there.  Even as he moved the there, Liana heard her friend tell her that Nasser had turned on them and should be killed.  Pulling out her bow, she shot the governor, but only wounded him.

Meanwhile, Toiva and Galena followed the priestess.  She went into what looked like a waiting room.  It was sparsely furnished by Sazon standards, but had a glowing portal in the middle of it.  As the hasted Toiva moved into the room, the priestess stepped into the portal.  On his action, he followed her in.

Inside, he was suddenly in a much more imposing fortress of iron.  The priestess was nearby and still badly wounded.  Also in the room were two devils.  One of them looked like the tall bony one they had fought the night before, while the other looked male but inhumanly beautiful.  Risking attack from the devils, Toiva used his second action to swing his two-handed sword at the priestess.  She went down at the strike, and Toiva fled back through the portal with his last action.

Convincing Liana to stop her attack for now, Cobbe and the others hustled the confused Governor Nasser from the throne room as the cowled figure in the balcony slipped behind the curtains and disappeared.

Outside the governor’s palace, the Champions were met with a large force of guards in the livery of the city led by their captain.  After some discussion, Cobbe and Toiva convinced them that the governor could be in danger and agreed that the Captain of the Guard and an escort should go with them back to the Temple with Lord Nasser for his own protection.

Alexander, now without a right arm, was taken from the palace to the infirmary in the Temple complex for such healing as could be found.  Joy felt that someday she would be able to restore his arm, but that it was beyond her power for now.  Alexander settled into a bed.
“I am reflecting on the blessings of the Lady” he said bitterly and then lay there quietly.  Joy stayed with him and sang songs to try and encourage him.


----------



## DoctorB (Jan 30, 2002)

*Azar (story)*

Azar

The unassuming servant woman ducks into Lord Gunter’s study.   Standing in his gray cowled robe, he is waiting for her.  Only the lower part of his face is visible beneath the dark hood.  All she can clearly see is a stern mouth and strong jaw, though occasionally she glimpses something not at all human in its place.  Azar quickly kneels at his feet.

“Master” she says with conviction.
“Gather your gang and discover what those adventurers are doing.”  She hears the order with her mind rather than her ears.  The master does not have to speak aloud.
She nods, “I am going to meet with them now”
“Good, report back to me when you have more information.  Use care.  These so-called Champions of the Lady are powerful.”

Azar bows again and quickly takes her leave.  As she winds her way through the corridors of the governor’s palace, she reflects on what she has already lost.  The armor and war hammer acquired for murdering the leader of Corovade’s underworld, lost, taken by these Champions.

She had designed two ambushes to kill these foreigners.  The first failed even as she had the hobbit priestess in her sights, and the second one when her arrow went astray.  She had warned the master against alliance with the priestess of the Triad, but to no avail.  Now the paladin and his band knew of her and possibly her master.  They would probably be hunting for both.  The adventurers had taken the governor out of the master’s reach and now threatened all of his plans.

Carefully winding her way through the merchant quarter of town, she seems only a palace servant on an errand from the governor.  She makes her way through the new walls of Sazon and into the slums beyond.  How mighty the city must once have been to cover so much space!  The remains of the old walls sit more than half a mile from the new ones.  In between are ruined shops and villas from the distant past.  Now these are the homes of the destitute and the desperate.  

Azar ducks into one of these homes and unwraps her disguise kit.  Turning her dress inside out reveals rags and tatters.  She dirties her face and changes the color of her hair.  The master said to be careful.  The poor woman who exits from the rear of the hovel looks nothing like the one who had entered the front.

Careful to take a circuitous route and assure herself she is not followed, Azar comes at last to the meeting place.  It was the foundation of some ancient shop with a tarp thrown over the top.  Inside are her three remaining boys.

They are deep in a discussion about scouting when all hell breaks loose.  The tarp above them explodes downward in flame.  Two of the rogues die immediately.  As the third one runs away, Azar sees several armored people charging through the ruins at her.  The Champions!

As she fights desperately for her life, she goes over every step of her way here.  She was careful!  Even as the enchanted war hammer that used to be hers slams her to unconsciousness in the hands of the paladin of the Lady, her last thought is:

How did they know?

-----

Though her face is calm, Galena seems to be beaming.  If only we could take the Crystal Ball with us, she thinks.  The loremasters of the Great Library have little use for it anyway.

“Ok, now we ah have to deal with this master of hers” Cobbe points out
“I couldn’t scry him, but I did make a map of the path the assassin used to get out of the palace.  We could follow it back in and finish with him,” she responds.

“Tomorrow,” Toiva reminds them.  “Joy is out of miracles and several of us are hurt.  At least this troublesome assassin is dead.”


----------



## KidCthulhu (Jan 30, 2002)

Hey Type II!  Great sig 

Poor Alexander.  Withering sucks!


----------



## Type_II_Gamer (Jan 31, 2002)

I think a one-handed monk would be great. It could spark a new colloquialism - as busy as a one-handed monk in combat.

But Alexander is too full of his own pathos to bring this up.

Damn evil priestesses. And we left her staff in that Iron fortress - where-ever that may have been (I have my suspicions.)

Fortunately, our cleric, Joy, has been working on her withering looks....


----------



## DoctorB (Feb 3, 2002)

*Interlude*

The Sazon camp smelled like a dung heap.  Even the cold late-autumn wind could not drive it away.

Petar, Captain of Sazon, looked over his bedraggled men and sighed.  The high walls of Sarande stood above them, defiant as always.  Though he trusted Lord Altan and his generals, Petar suspected that the siege of this powerful city would fail.  The Sarandi could always supply themselves by sea, while the army of Sazon had to live off the land.  The enemy had burned everything they could before retreating behind the walls and the great army had stripped everything else bare.  The besiegers were starving while the besieged lived in luxury.

Well, most of the besieging army anyway.  Lord Altan lived in the huge tent in the center of camp.  The soldiers could hear his laughter and that of his family at all hours of the night.  Somehow, even while he flaunted his comfort in the midst of their misery, the soldiers remembered his victories and kept their silence… so far.

As dawn broke over the encampment, Petar walked to the edge of their lines and looked at the great city.  Sarande fairly glowed in the sunlight.  He could make out the sentries on their rounds on the walls.  Both sides had given up firing arrows.  The Sazoni were almost out of arrows and had moved their encampments out of arrow shot of the walls.  After the destruction of the siege engines early in the attack by a Sarandi sortie, both sides had little appetite for fighting.   The Captain wondered again if they would all die here.  Sazon had the greatest army on the Dibre Coast, but the weakest navy.  Sazon’s ships were manned with impressed enemies and the destitute.  They were no match for the mighty navies of Koplik and the others.  Only at land could Sazon succeed against her enemies.  But they must take the cities by storm.  A siege without a navy was futile.

Movement stirred around Lord Altan’s tent.  Runners spread throughout the camp.  They were to prepare for battle!  For the first time in weeks, Petar’s soldiers would have something else to do but gamble and brawl amongst themselves.  Now at least they would have an enemy to spend their frustration on.  An enemy of stone anyway.

No new siege engines appeared.  Were they to storm the walls with nothing but their dead to climb upon?  Nonetheless, it seemed a cleaner death than slow starvation.

In their ranks, with lion standards raised, they marched toward Sarande.  Petar braced for the hail of arrows.  Surely the city’s supply would not be exhausted.  Nothing came.  As they marched closer Petar could hear the sounds of battle inside the walls.  Abruptly, the gates began to open.  A grin spread across Petar’s face.  The old bastard had won again!  Not only through great arms were generals made but through guile and cleverness.  He had subverted some of the Sarandi.  Let him have his parties!

With a cry, the army of Sazon rushed into the city.  They swept aside the remnants of the defending army and began their well-earned sack of the city.  Smoke rose over the proud harbor of Sarande.


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Feb 14, 2002)

*Joy's Diary - Nonus 10 (morning-part 1)*

In the 417th year after the triumph of Alexander, Nonus 10, 2nd Sagesday

Never in my life have 10 bells and the Quiet seemed SO long and cost so much!  Not only did the fighting never seem to stop, but I lost two dear friends.  I know we will see Bacha again, but who knows if Alexander will come back!  Lady grant me strength and grace to face what lies ahead.

At breakfast Cobbe told us about his latest vision.  He saw Bacha's tribe looking hurt and weak, wandering around the mountains.  He then saw a lone figure walking toward them to lead them.  The figure was Bacha.  Bacha said that when Yakun spoke, he must listen, and he left right away.  He said that he would lead his tribe to Pella and meet us there.  Cobbe didn't look very excited by that, but he gave Bacha a writ to establish his tribe at Pella (at least Clarice has already meet Bacha, but I bet she isn't going to be happy to have a whole tribe of orcs and half-orcs as her first subjects), but it also has a whole bunch of stuff that Bacha can and can't do, like he can start rebuilding but he can't go down and bother the Gens and stuff like that.  It was a good thing too.  You could tell by the look on Bacha's face that he had been thinking about going down there.  Anyway, Bacha left, and I tried not to cry.  It is not going to be the same with out him around.

Today is the day that we confronted Lord Nasser.  As we were getting into the wagon (the plan was for most of us to hide in the wagon--with the corpse of the bone/scorpion demon--and use the back door to enter Lord Victor's mansion) a little girl gave Galena a silver ring with a sapphire stone, which she said Galena had dropped.  While Galena was showing us the ring, the girl disappeared.  The ring is magical, and even though we don't know what it does, Galena is wearing it anyway.

We made it to Lord Victor's without any trouble, and we were shown into the same room we had been in before.  We showed him the demon body, and Cobbe used it to reinforce the need for the Dibre Coast to band together and fight on the side of good when the big war comes.  Lord Victor didn't make any promises, but he said he can't bring his army in now because it would be breaking the law (I think he is a big chicken).  However, he did have the nerve to write us a writ, deputizing us on his behalf to investigate the corruption of Lord Nasser.  He also gave us a letter of introduction for an immediate audience with Lord Nasser.  He asked us not to use either if we could help it, and thanks to Toiva fascinating and suggesting Lord Nasser's chief steward we didn't have to use either right away.


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Feb 14, 2002)

*Joy's Diary - Nonus 10 (morning-part 2)*

We were shown into a large hall.  There were four guards, Lord Nasser on a small dais and an aid/noble wearing a shield with a bird (dove?) symbol.  Cobbe managed to tell us that Lord Nasser was not evil, but that there was evil next to him (the noble, who Toiva thinks was Lord Azim), on the balcony above him and in the corner to our left.  I could only see the noble, who was trying to tell the Governor that we should not be allowed to have our weapons.  Before we could even argue with him, an arrow flies into me from the balcony above Lord Nasser, and the female from the rooftop the other night (how did she get out of jail?) appeared standing there holding a bow.  She was a very good shot.  The arrow just barely missed my heart.  I didn't tell the others, but that shot came very close to killing me instantly.  Thankfully, The Lady was watching out for me.  I hope that She wasn't paying so much attention to me that She forgot to look out for Alexander, because during the fight that ensued, the evil priestess (she was wearing the triangle within a circle symbol), who appeared in the left corner with three hell hounds (I will have to remember to tell Mother that can they breath fire), did something and Alexander screamed and I could see something terrible and magical happening to his arm.  I tried to dispel the magic but I couldn't get The Lady's power to move right.  I had also tired a moment before to deafen the priestess, but that didn't work either.  I could blame it on the arrow, but maybe I just wasn't good enough and Alexander paid the price.  I rushed to him while the fighting went on and tired to heal him, but his arm just kept shriveling.  By the time it stopped he only had a stub left, and he had lost consciousness, even Cobbe's attempt to cure disease didn't help--not that I thought it would.  Everyone fought really well.  I did have to hurry to Toiva and use The Lady's power to heal him, but in short order the hounds were dead and Toiva rushed to chase the fleeing priestess.  When I followed them into a small room behind one of the tapestries, all I could see was Toiva and blue/black floating disk of magic. Toiva said that the priestess had gone into the disk, and he followed her.  Before I could do anything he was back telling us that he knocked the priestess out, but was not sure she was dead.  He had had to come back because one of the bone demons was there and had attacked him.  I left Galena and Toiva in the room and went back to see what was happening in the main room.  

What I saw was Lord Nasser with an arrow in him, Liana with bow in hand and the guards coming after Liana.  I used The Lady's miracles to frighten the guards away from Liana.  In the chaos, Lord Nasser started to leave, but Liana wrestled with him, and I tried to help.  When Arin showed up, I left to check on Alexander.  Toiva and Galena come out of the room and Toiva put Lord Nasser to sleep.  They told us that the portal was gone, and they are not sure if the priestess is dead, but the portal did lead to a fortress in hell (!) where there was also an incubus.  I healed Lord Nasser's arrow wound and everyone else as much as I could, and we carried Lord Nasser and Alexander to the temple surrounded by Lord Nasser’s entire guard.  In spite of our papers from Lord Victor, they didn't believe us that something had been controlling Lord Nasser's mind.

When we got back to the temple the high priests didn't believe me when I told them that we had just fought a priestess of the tr... evil gods!  Can you imagine?! Well, I told them in no uncertain terms that I knew what I was talking about and if they were going to call me a liar then they could follow her to the hell plane where we chased her and find out for themselves.  I just left them there for the others to deal with and took Alexander to the hospital.


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Feb 15, 2002)

*Joy's Diary - Nonus 10 (afternoon)*

Alexander woke up about a bell or two later and asked what had happened.  I told him what I knew and all that we had tried to do for him, and I also tried to apologize for failing in my use of The Lady's miracles.  He asked me if I could channel The Lady's power to grow his arm back like he really expected that I could do it tomorrow.  I had to tell him that it would be six months to a year before I was skilled enough do that.  He seemed to take the news in stride.  I guess.  He just sighed and closed his eyes.  When Toiva came in a little later, Alexander said that he would just sit there and meditate on The Lady's blessings.  I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but I didn't know what to say in either case.

Toiva told us that Galena had tried to scry the priestess, and Galena is pretty sure that she is dead—thank The Lady.  Galena also saw that thrice-damned woman with the bow, who keeps trying to kill me, in Lord Nasser’s palace talking to a man in a cowl who she called "master."  Galena continued to follow her with the crystal ball, while the others went after her.  I said that I would stay with Alexander; besides I didn’t have any miracles left by that point.  I started working on a new song.  It is partly for Alexander and partly in memory of Claudia.  It is about how The Lady works in our lives.  I will have to get Toiva's help with the melody.

From what Toiva told me when they got back it, it sounds like they had a strange fight.  They had to chase her down while she was invisible.  The good news is she won’t be shooting arrows at anyone anymore.

I also found out later that someone had controlled Liana’s mind and convinced her that Lord Nasser was bad (that's why she shot him with the arrow).   By the time they got back from killing the rouge, she was in control of her own thoughts again.  However, Lord Nasser was still under the control of something.  He refuses to believe he is ensorcelled.


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Feb 18, 2002)

*Joy's Diary - Nonus 10 (afternoon part 2)*

Around sixth bell Galena and Toiva (he brought me food again, too.  He must be part Hobbit.) came to get us since more scrying was about to happen.  Alexander refused to go even when Galena said she needed him and then cursed both of us for staying.  After sitting quietly for a few minutes I told him that Claudia had taught me about being true to one's path, and he had to find his, and I would respect whatever he chose, but he should know he always had a place with us, and please don't leave before I got back.  Then I went to join the others.

Galena was just beginning to scry when I got there.  We saw the noble with the bird shield pacing a room somewhere, probably the governor's palace; it appears that the cowled "master" cannot be scryied; the demons (Cobbe says they are really devils) were in some dark place.  The Galena called up an image of a dwarf who was traveling with other dwarves.  When I asked, Galena said it was one of the escaped dwarves who had been in one of the cages.  I wonder why she was interested in him?  She also found Bacha walking through rocky hills.

I wonder when a new champion will arrive to take his place.  Ever since The Lady sent us Bacha, Valeriu and Sheranese there have always been seven champions.  The new ones should be arriving any day now.  I wonder if there will be a replacement for Alexander, or if he might come back soon enough - I doubt that though.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I did some scrying too, although I can't use the ball as well as Galena.  Mother looked fine and so did Father, but he was in the infirmary playing for a lot of hurt humans.  I hope nothing too bad is going on; those people were wounded in battle.  I also saw Barak (he was with two other priests like him and another priest of the mind killer (he wore a starburst), if the agents of evil are working together already, we may be in a lot of trouble), Bodar, Lord Cristo (he was riding with other men—all in armor—probably in Dures), Turval (he was in the cold woods planning a raid on a caravan—I keep forgetting that he is not a nice person, just better than Grisha), and Grisha (he looked terrible all pale and wasted away—ha! Serves him right).


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Feb 19, 2002)

*Joy's Diary - Nonus 10 (the quiet)*

Since nothing else was going on I went back to infirmary and worked on my new song.  Later in the quiet while I was talking to Toiva about the song, we heard sounds of combat!  The doors to the temple opened and there were the chain and bone devils and skeletons and zombies!  Actually, I was glad to see the undead, because at least I could do something about them, and that is all that I could do because I still didn’t have any miracles left!  At first only Toiva, Galena, Arin and I were there.  We tried to stay together, but the devils could create ice walls, and they were trying to keep us apart.  At first it wasn’t much of a fight.  They got a couple of hits on us, and Toiva and Liana got a couple of hits on them. I did take care of all the undead, though.  Now maybe their spirits will rest in peace.  Toiva finally killed one of the chain devils, and the bone devils tried to poison both Toiva and Liana, but I helped them fight it off.    

During the fighting, the “master” appeared.  He wasn’t human though.  It had tentacles over the lower part of its face.  When I had a chance to tell everyone about it, Galena told us it was an illithid—a mind flayer!  

I almost got singed when Galena used burning hands to take down TWO walls; fortunately the ring Mother gave me protected me.  There was also a red winged demon that appeared while Toiva was separated from us (stupid ice walls), but it turns out it was only an illusion.  Galena sent Lux for Cobbe and Alexander at the beginning of the fight, but it took Cobbe too long to get his armor on, and the fight was over before he got there.  The devils put up two last ice walls to keep us away from them after Toiva dropped the chain devil, and we decided to let them go.  I can guess why Alexander didn’t come to help, but I was hoping that his concern for us would out weigh his own self-doubt and self-pity.  At least he was still in the infirmary when I went back there to sleep.  Not that he was there when I woke up.

About a half hour before first bell Lux woke me up to tell me that there was _another_ fight going on in front of the library!  When I looked around Alexander was gone.  There was just a note saying thanks for my kindness and that he wouldn’t need it anymore.  He had also torn his holy symbol of The Lady—a closed fist—from his robes and left it with the note.  I guess that is a pretty good sign that he is not planning on coming back.  He is free to unchoose Her, but I don’t think he realizes that The Lady does not unchoose Her champions.  Ohhh <Joy’s small foot stomps the ground>.  If I wasn’t so sad and hurt I wouldn’t be so mad at him, but it’s hard to be really mad when you are so worried.  I feel like I should have been able to do something for him.  Some champion I am.  I bet Mother would have known what to do.  How am I supposed to be an agent of The Lady when I can’t even help my own friends?!  By the Other this is frustrating!  If we weren’t so busy fighting all the time I would just lie down and cry for a few days.  I’ll settle for getting out of this evil invested city as soon as we can.

Anyway, there were the devils again, and this time they must have dug up every person who had died in Sazon in the last 30 years!  It seemed like there were hundreds of zombies and skeletons surrounding them.  Cobbe had already turned some of the undead to dust by the time I got there, and he and Liana were fighting their way toward the devils trying to be careful of the chains the devils had scattered around. (Don’t these guys ever sleep?!)  Galena webbed the door to the library to try and stop the undead from tearing down the doors and getting in.  The devils trapped Arin in an ice dome, and they tried to trap Liana, but she was too fast and agile for them.  I was turning the undead; Cobbe was turning undead and fighting off zombies; Liana was fighting. Galena was summoning creatures everywhere including some demon looking things—at least I hope she was the reason they were there; they did attack the devils.  Poor Toiva had the some problem Cobbe had in the previous fight--armor.  Suddenly another HUGE mass of undead came shambling up, but nothing happened when Cobbe tried to turn them.  It must have been another illusion like the red winged demon from the previous fight.  As soon as we figured that out the devils took off running.  Galena’s arrow hawk tried to follow, but it couldn’t kill a devil before its time in this place was done.  I sent the last of the undead to their final rest, and the new day finally dawned.  Lady’s Light, but this has been one of the worst days of my life!  And we still haven’t got rid of the damned devils and illithid!  2nd Farmersday does not promise to be any better than 2nd Sagesday was.  Lady grant us the strength to vanquish Your foes and bring Your peace and grace to this horrible place.


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Feb 20, 2002)

*Joy's Diary - Nonus 11*

In the 417th year after the triumph of Alexander, Nonus 11, 2nd Farmersday

Knowing the task before us, I faced the dawn with great resolve and determination and tried not to think about Alexander.  Grandfather {what Joy calls the elderly priest who is in charge of the hospital} was kind enough to use The Lady's miracles to heal Toiva and Liana.  Even as we were there, more people wounded by the devils were being brought in.

Since Galena was still sleeping, I used the crystal ball to see where all the creatures were.  I could only see the devil with the chains that we had wounded the night before and was now in darkness somewhere and Lord Azim.  Lord Azim was in his anteroom with the illithid, who was gesturing, but there were no words being said.  It was a good thing Toiva went and got the captain of Lord Nasser's guards because he got to see what happened next.  The illithid turned into Lord Gunter!  The captain then agreed to lead us past the guards and into the Governor’s Palace.  Since we had to wait for Galena to get eight hours of sleep, I went back to the hospital to help with the wounded there.

Before we left for the palace we girded for battle with armor, miracles and spells.  Getting into the palace was definitely the easy part; finding the illithid was the hard part.  It wasn't in Lord Gunter’s chambers, and it wasn’t in Lord Azim's chambers.  Cobbe said Lord Azim wasn't evil, so Toiva dazed him, and Liana tied, gagged and put him in a closet--he was getting obnoxious.

Cobbe finally detected strong evil behind a door in Lord Nasser’s wing of the palace.  We had a pretty good plan, but it didn't work the way we hoped it would.  As soon as we burst into the room the illithid disappeared, so instead of guiding the divine energies of dimensional anchor, I had to call upon invisibility purge, but I wasn't as fast as the others, so they were trying to stop what we couldn't see.  Cobbe said there was still evil in the room though.  Of course, before I could anchor it with my next thought, this energy portal appears out of thin air and envelopes it, and it was just gone.  Galena says that it has to be very, very far away, and that Sazon is safe from it for the time being, but I wish we could have stopped it for good.  If only I had been a little faster...  I hope The Lady will forgive me my limitations.  We couldn't even find where the stupid devils were hiding in the palace.

There is some good news at least.  We discovered a magical crystal by Lord Nasser's bed.  We think it might have helped the illithid control Lord Nasser.  There was a small magical vial in Lord Gunter’s chambers.  There was also a magic amulet on Lord Azim when we went back and took him out of his closet.  When Toiva yanked it off, Cobbe suddenly said, "Um, The Lady says he's evil now."  Liana wears the amulet now.

Between all of us--but mostly Toiva--Lord Azim found his hidden bardic skills, and told us at least some of what he knew.  Lord Gunter/the illithid was the one in charge; it claimed that it and Lord Azim could take over Sazon through Lord Nasser.  Lord Azim said the illithid told him to kill the real Lord Gunter shortly after his appointment to Lord Nasser two months ago.  He also took us to the dungeons where the devils were usually kept, but they weren't there.  Cobbe said there had been evil there in the past day or so.  Lord Azim told us that the devils "belonged" to the priestess, and she appeared shortly after the illithid.  The two of them worked closely together.

While we were still in the palace, Lord Victor arrived.  He had brought his army into and taken control of it, declaring martial law.  Lord Nasser was with him, and he looked different--less defiant.  We all think he will get better now that the illithid is gone.  After briefing Lord Victor, we gave him Lord Azim and head back to the temple.

When we got back we tried to scry the illithid, but Galena wasn't able to see him even though the ball and her abilities were working just fine.  That evening a message arrived saying that Lord Altan, the other Council or whatever Lord Victor is, had taken the city of Sarand and would be heading back to Sazon in triumph.  Considering that our visit here began with Lord Victor's "triumph"--for a lot less effort if you ask me, I think we should get out of here before Lord Altan arrives.  I can't wait to leave this horrible place with its ostentatious ornamentation, chaos worms that kill Defenders of the Temple, priestesses that maim champions of The Lady, devils that attack town’s people and mind flayers that try and control everybody!

I wish Alexander had stayed. I miss him already. I scryied him just a little while ago, and he was moving quickly through lands that were getting increasingly mountainous.  I hope he finds his path and comes back to us soon.  I guess I really don't understand what he was going through.  I have never had a crisis of faith, and I hope I never do!  The Lady has been so wonderful to me and my family. Bad things happen, but you can't blame Her.  She has done what She can by choosing us, and _*I*_ won't let her down.  I wish Mother and Father were here though.  Gods get us out of this city soon!

May the blessing of The Lady be with us and especially Alexander.


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Feb 22, 2002)

*Joy's New Song to The Lady*

Nonus 12 - morning

As soon as everyone gathers for breakfast and BEFORE she eats, Joy stands up, clears her throat and addresses the Champions, 
"I've written a new song for The Lady, and I want all of you to be the first to hear it.  Toiva helped with the music."  
She looks a little nervous at first (something she normally isn't when she plays), but she takes a deep breath and strums the first cord on her lute with quiet self-possession.  The music is very different from what she normally plays--more...mature somehow.  It is stirring yet soothing, and you can hear Toiva's touch in the way the melody sticks in your head.  Joy begins to sing,

_The Lady is there.  The Lady listens. 
Open your spirit and hear with your heart. 
Align yourself with Her virtues, and She is never far. 
She does not touch lives as man touches man, 
but Her presence reaches out and covers the land. 
Like a mother and a father, She is parent to us all. 
And Her greatest joy is when we learn to walk - even if we fall. 
For the will to walk and the freedom to choose are Her gifts to us.
What we make of them and our lives is our gift to Her -
and to ourselves._

As the last notes linger in the air, Joy looks at everyone, starting with Toiva, to try and gage their reactions.  Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she anxiously waits for responses.


----------



## Piratecat (Mar 1, 2002)

When's the next update????


----------



## DoctorB (Mar 1, 2002)

*Into the Dwarvenrealm*

Nonus 23, 417
Toiva was having a very bad week.  
Getting out of Sazon was a blessing but riding his new heavy warhorse, Frigate, had not been as easy as he had hoped.  His body was sore in places he didn’t even know he had.  Riding a horse resembled shipboard life not at all.  The final straw came when the sling-stones whistled from the surrounding hills.  Several of them struck him.  Had he been wearing his plate armor they might have bounced off, but he was in studded leather instead and took several nasty shots.  As he looked at their attackers, Toiva was surprised to see that they were all dwarves!  Didn’t they know the Champions were on their side?!  

Where was that dwarf who had marched into their camp the other morning?  He had called himself Krag and said he owed Galena a life debt.  She had apparently freed him from Victor's triumph in Sazon during the confusion of the chaos worms.  Now he wanted to repay the debt.  Boy was this guy in trouble.  She liked looking down her nose at the other Champions.  What would she do with an obligated dwarf?

Liana had apparently caught Krag the night before and had a talk about why he was following them.  Toiva had been waiting up hoping Liana would not get into trouble scouting on her own.  With difficulty, he had kept his eyes open until dawn, only to find that Liana had returned so quietly he hadn’t noticed.

Against the ambush, Joy quickly called up a briarweb over half of the enemies, ensuring that they could not move without hurting themselves on the thorns.  Lux, Galena’ familiar, called out to the dwarves not to move, but of course they didn’t listen and almost killed themselves trying to get out.  Cobbe charged at the other side, and subdued one of them.

Riding his warhorse past another of the dwarves, Toiva entangled the sling in his scimitar and ripped it from the dwarf’s grasp.  The other attackers had had enough.  Not satisfied with them just running away, Toiva brandished his sword at them as they went.  Cobbe rode back to the others.

When Toiva returned, Krag had finally showed up and was berating the dwarves remaining in the briarweb.  Lux translated for Galena, but he was glowing red as he did so.  Could a Lantern Archon be embarrassed?

As Joy healed the injured dwarves and let them go, Toiva tried to catch Liana’s eye but failed.  She was still angry with him.  He half wished he had not brought up Arin before they left Sazon, but there was something odd about the boy.  He seemed a teen-age human but with long white hair but he often cast spells to protect or aid the Champions.  Arin worked that magic in a way that Toiva had never seen and he could not believe the other Champions weren’t as curious as he was.  The others had no better ideas than he did.  Could Arin be a celestial being, or something else?  Whatever he was, they concluded, he was obviously an ally.  Cobbe seemed to think that was enough.  The mystery still tugged at Toiva, but he could do nothing about it for now.

Liana had taken the discussion of Arin as Toiva questioning his right to be with them.  Something was growing between the two of them and Toiva thought she should know what he was before things went too far, if they hadn’t already.  She had not yet forgiven him for bringing it up.  He had to find a way to get back on her good side before she neglected to inform him of a danger that could kill him.


----------



## DoctorB (Mar 2, 2002)

*Journey to the Dwarvenrealm (continued)*

Having sent the attacking dwarves away with the knowledge that not all humans and their allies hated them, the Champions hiked into the mountains along the old Sazoni imperial road toward the Dwarvenhome.  Krag referred to it as just The Mountain.  He also told them that hill dwarves were not permitted inside.  Their families had become dishonored sometime in the past and the leaders of the Mountain exiled them to the outside world.

The tallest mountain in the range would be that of the dwarves.  As they finally reached it and began to climb, the imperial road ran through a tall gate completely blocking the path.  Even as the Champions discussed the best way to get into the Dwarvenrealm, they saw a familiar figure.  Rolf Wolfcaller, the dwarf they had saved from the giants outside Skiros, was waiting for them at the gate.  His two wolves, Nar and Ang, sat beside him in the road and considered them as they approached.  As he moved, Toiva could just make out the silver of a mithril shirt underneath his tunic.

The Champions explained that they had come to find the *Salutorum of Regor Blackblade*, the dwarven Companion to Alexander.  As they climbed the final day to the trade town outside the Mountain, Rolf filled them in on history and politics of the dwarves:

“You will have to gain permission to enter the Mountain from the Council of Nine.  This is the ruling body of the dwarves, and includes representatives from various elements of dwarven society.  The Drukar, the leader of the Council, is Rigall Stronhome, who knew Regor Blackblade in the time of the Great War.  Some of the others will be sympathetic, but he is your best chance to get inside.  You will have to register your request to enter with the Council representative in the trading town.  It may take a few days to get inside afterwards.”

“Are there any, you know, recent dangers here?”  Cobbe asked
“Well…” Rolf looked uncomfortable.  “Not _recent_ dangers, no.  I will let the Council talk to you about that.”
A knowing look passed among the Champions of the Lady.  Every realm of the old alliance they had visited so far had trouble of some type or other.  Toiva saw the words of the madman’s prophesy again in his mind.

*Beyin Oldermek prepares the way
The enemies weaken
With corruption from within*

They arrived in the trading town without incident.  It stood on a plateau about two-thirds of the way up the mountain.  The thirty foot gray metal doors of the Mountain towered over one side of the town.  As they settled themselves in the Golden Hammer, a local inn run by a hill dwarf woman, Toiva arranged for the rooms.
“We will need three rooms,” he told the innkeeper as he turned to the others to explain. “Cobbe and I will share one, Galena and Joy can share the second, and Liana and Arin will have the third.”
He enjoyed the surprised looks from the others.  Though Liana and Arin shared watches, sleeping arrangements had always been divided by gender.
Let Liana stay mad at him after that!


----------



## DoctorB (Mar 6, 2002)

*Interlude - Alexander*

Alexander

Nonus 21

The low dry hills passed swiftly by as he ran.  As dawn approached, Alexander hurried now northeast toward a distant man-made shape.  He knew that his former comrades probably stood somewhere far to the north, near the Dwarvenrealm.  For his part, he had left Sazon and traveled south along the mountain range until it gave way to desert.  There he had turned east, sure of his destination: home.

It was somewhere along the edge of the desert that he had first noticed his shadow.  So self-absorbed had he been as he left the Champions of the Lady and renounced his calling that it could have been with him from the beginning.  His eyes revealed nothing; just a feeling of something following him as he traveled.  That first night, he had slept little as he tried to see if the presence would enter his camp.  It did not.  After a time, he almost welcomed the company.

The hills ahead of him showed his journey’s end.  These lands had known a younger and more idealistic Alexander.  He could see a shadow of himself, dancing and playing in the harsh landscape.  He had imagined service to the Lady would be heroics and inevitable victories for good.  As a third son of the Tilea family, he was free to choose the monastery, leaving his brothers to govern the family lands.  How naïve he had been, to think it was so simple.  How could he have known the bitterness of the path the Lady would set for him?

He had first felt a twinge of doubt when Valeriu died.  How could the Lady allow one of her Champions to fall?  Why would she allow one of her chosen ones to die to someone not equally supported by the Triad?  It made no sense.

Claudia caused a new suspicion in his mind.  First he had heard the disturbing news of his father’s illness and the death of his brothers.  He could be the heir of the Tilea lands if he returned home.  If not, their ancient rival, the Nistor, would hang their garish red scorpion over his family’s lands.  After some thought, he had decided to stay with the Champions.  If only he had abandoned the Lady then!

When Claudia died fighting the chaos worms he became the last member of the Tilea family.  If anyone were to hoist the banner of the White Eagle, it would be him.  The thought nagged at him.  Did the Lady think to test his resolve by destroying his family?  If so, it was a cruel test.

The last exam was more difficult still.  He had spent weary years learning to understand and control his body, so that he could be the perfect instrument of Her will.  The mutilation of that body left him without focus, without center in a chaotic world.  How could the Lady allow these things to happen?

As the castle drew closer, Alexander squinted in the morning light for the eagle banner on the tower.  He could see something waving there but his mind refused to accept what it was until he drew closer.

Soldiers moved along the battlements but the gates to the family keep were open.  Echoes of Claudia’s childhood laughter rang in his ears as he increased his speed.  Even now, the Lady hurt him.  The remains of a bonfire stood outside.  Many relics of his childhood no doubt smoldered there.  A terrible anger suffused him.

One maimed man against the keep.  He laughed bitterly at the thought.  At least the Lady will be rid of me at last.  Let her find other champions more gullible to do her deeds while she watches them die!  This one would choose the hour and the manner of his passing.

As the sentries on the walls challenged him, he felt his shadow coming alongside on his left.  He nodded at it in greeting as cold fury clouded his eyes.  Only the red scorpion remained in his view as he attacked.


----------



## KidCthulhu (Mar 6, 2002)

Ah.  We're getting _there_ are we?  I love knowing what's happening in this campaign.  Perhaps some of the players might want to make me an trade for information.  TypeIIGamer or Joy could ply Pkitty with libations and pry secrets out of him, and I'll return the favor....


Hmmm.  Tinker, tailor, soldier, game spy?


----------



## DoctorB (Mar 7, 2002)

*Hey!*
We'll have none of that!
Besides, telling you guys helps me be patient with all the cool plots I have brewing...


----------



## DoctorB (Mar 14, 2002)

*Secrets*

My name is Rolf Wolfcaller.  I am a dwarf of the Mountain and a servant of Her spirit.  I am also a keeper of secrets.

Others have spoken of my first meeting with the Champions of the Lady when they rescued me from torture and death at the hands of several hill giants.  I owe them a life-debt for that, though I would never speak of such a thing to them openly.  They did not know the service they did for the Mountain.  I am the eyes and ears of the High General, the Kurnzarn, in the wider world.  I travel in the Free Kingdoms in the guise of a merchant selling my trained animals.  My animals aid me in watching for danger to the Dwarvenrealm.  I have trained hundreds, but my dearest friends are Nar and Ang, my wolf companions.  
When the Champions approached the sacred Mountain of the Dwarvenrealm, I recalled my debt and made sure to aid them in whatever way I could.

Having settled them into the trading town, I went to the Council of Nine to petition for the Champions’ entry into our home.  As one of the nine Defenders of the Mountain I have some sway with the council, but I was not prepared for the reaction when I told of their errand.  Cobbe had told me they are seeking the Salutorum, a gift given by Lord Horus to Regor Blackblade, a Companion of the great Alexander.  The Council erupted into argument.   It seems the Council already had a secret plan to try and retrieve the weapon of Regor Blackblade and they worried that these humans had suspicious timing arriving at the time they did.
The Drukar, Rigall Stronhome, though physically frail, looked through me with his piercing eyes.

“How can these people have our own interests at heart when they concern themselves with the entire world?”

I answered the leader of the council with a proverb:
“Both gold and granite fear the touch of the pickaxe.”
Rigall nodded.

“How do you explain these outsiders’ incredible timing?” demanded Sidroc Warweaver, the Kurnzarn.

“I believe, High General, that their own goddess and Mother Mountain have sent them here to aid us when we might have failed alone.”

I bowed and took my leave, but heated argument followed me out until the great doors closed, cutting off the sound.

After four days of waiting, the Council still could not decide.  Rigall held a narrow majority in favor of granting the Champions entry and asking for their help, but he hoped to convince the others.  They finally decided to see the strangers, though.  I watched from the observation seat as they confronted Cobbe and his companions.  Sitting at their raised half-circle stone table, the Council seemed to tower over their visitors.

After formally hearing Cobbe’s request to retrieve the Salutorum so the Champions could recall Lord Horus, the Council displayed their uncertainty.  The Kurnzarn finally allowed that they might be able to help, but first he insisted that they must swear to reveal nothing of the secrets of the Dwarves to anyone else.  While most of the Champions quickly agreed, Toiva recoiled.  As he had announced to any who would listen, he had become a Holy Liberator of the Lady and would not have himself constrained.

“Why can you not rely on my discretion?” He asked.
“We trust your discretion,” replied Sidroc, “but if you tell someone we must rely on their discretion and then that of every person he tells.  Eventually, someone’s discretion will fail.”
Finally, Toiva nodded.  Grumbling to himself he swore on the grave of Claudia of Tilea.  That seemed to satisfy the Council.

Galena seemed pleased she had sworn only not to tell anyone.  Sidroc cautioned the others to watch her.
“She is of the Tower,” he said “and we do not yet know if they are enemies or allies.”

Smiling at the wrangling over oaths, Rigall turned his gaze on the Champions.
“Before you will understand the difficulty of what you ask, I must relate to you something only dwarves of the Mountain have known for four hundred years.  You see, though the Sazoni threaten us, we are already at war…”


----------



## Piratecat (Mar 14, 2002)

Ah, yes; incredible timing.  Most people just pretend that this sort of thing happens all the time. Nice change!


----------



## DoctorB (Mar 15, 2002)

*Drukar Rigall's Story*

“I traveled with Regor Blackblade.  It was my honor to command the soldiers the Mountain sent to fight alongside Alexander in the Great War.  Regor became a Companion to the General and won great fame in his own right.

Soon after we had returned from the war, the explorers in the lower levels of the mountain, in digging for elusive mithril deposits, broke through to the edge of an underground world we call the Underdark.  Pouring out of that world came creatures we had never seen.  Undergoblins swarmed into our mines under the leadership of dark elves called the Drow.  They pushed us out of the lower levels and threatened to force us out of the Mountain.  I still suffered from a wound taken during the war, and Regor would not be denied command of our counter-attack.

At great cost, we drove them back into the lower levels and then back to the place they had first come from, but we could push them no farther.  These Drow and their allies seemed to have limitless numbers of soldiers.  We saw that we could not defeat them utterly so we decided to hold them indefinitely.

It was for that purpose that we constructed the Silver Door.  Made of mithril, and woven with protective miracles and spells, we hoped it would seal the Underdark away from our Mountain for all time. We would set a guardian on the other side and the dark elves would never again threaten us.  The problem was that to finally close the door and call the guardian, someone had to remain on the other side.  Though many volunteered for the task, Regor Blackblade insisted on going himself.  Perhaps he thought to escape somehow, or he needed their power to call the guardian, but Regor entered with Titansbane, his great axe, and with the Salutorum.  Both were lost when he sealed the Door.

Now, though we do not know how, the Silver Door opened again only a few months ago. The Drow seemed prepared and attacked us again.  This time they brought more than undergoblins.  They have a great dragon-like lizard with many heads and three armed giants to aid in their attack.  Again, they have pushed us out of the lower mines, and wear down our numbers defending the passages to the heart of our realm.  Our forces are exhausted and demoralized, and the Council has agreed that the recovery of Titansbane, Regor’s powerful weapon, would give new strength to our fight and to our morale.  Even before you arrived we had decided to send a stealthy force to try and locate it.  If you agree to accompany that force and succeed in recovering Titansbane, then you will have earned the right to take the Salutorum.”

As I knew they would, the Champions agreed even before Rigall had completed his question.  He continued:

“This cannot be a mission of direct attack.  The enemy has too many for us to drive through them to the other side of the door.  We have tunneled around the dark forces’ lines and are prepared to send you through the new tunnel just before our attack there.  Our priests and mages will aid you with darkvision and invisibility for the start of your journey, but we cannot say what dangers you may see on the other side of the Door.  Only Regor knows what lies in those depths.
Since you are six, the Council will choose three champions of the Dwarvenrealm to travel with you.  That way you will have an auspicious number.
Good luck!”


----------



## KidCthulhu (Mar 15, 2002)

[chanting] Underdark! Underdark! [/chanting]

And I get to come play this weekend?  Cool.


----------



## DoctorB (Mar 17, 2002)

*Secrets (continued)*

From the writings of Rolf Wolfcaller:

Naturally, as a Defender of the Dwarvenrealm, I was one of the three who would accompany the Champions on their quest though Nar and Ang would have to stay above.  I met them in their rooms in the Mountain to talk about tactics for the journey beyond the Silver Door.  Since we did not know what lay beyond the door, the Champions and I agreed that Cobbe and Toiva must wear their heavy armor.  Fortunately, Joy could keep them silent for some portions of the trek.  For the rest, we would have to rely on good fortune.

That evening, we met the other two the Mountain had chosen to accompany us on our quest.  I was surprised to see that Onyx was one of them.  A wizard of great power in the Mountain, he gave up his clan name for the sake of his wizardry.  Onyx had gained a reputation for distrusting non-dwarves even more than most of us do.  I hoped he would be able to work with these outsiders.  Though he remained cold to them, he indicated he considered the mission worthy.

The other addition to our excursion was Karl Bloodaxe, an interesting choice.  Karl served once as the master of secret operations in the Mountain but quit the job when the former Kurnzarn gave him an order he didn’t agree with.
“The reason the humans are on this quest is because the Council did not want to risk too many dwarves.  They are expendable.”
I knew his unkempt appearance hid a clever mind.  At least he and Liana could move silently when we needed it apart from Joy’s silence.

After a day traveling to the lowest levels of the Mountain, we arrived near the battle lines.  Dwarves passed us wearing gear for battle rather than mining.  I couldn’t help but notice how tired they seemed.

At last, we came to the rough newly cut passage that would be our way around the Drow lines.  An attack force lined up behind us as we waited for the miners to finish opening the passage to the space beyond.  When they did, my heart quailed at what I saw.

We were nearly opposite the tunnels where battles constantly raged.  The open cavern had very little light in it, but I could see that the floor was crawling with the pale undergoblins.  The shadow of the great hydra (for so Cobbe had named the beast) could be seen some distance away.  Also moving through the crowd were giant humanoid creatures with a third arm coming from their chest.

Onyx had equipped Champions with darkvision, and had made all of us invisible for a short time. Held together by short ropes, I led them around the edge of the seething mass toward the Door.  We arrived at tunnel leading deeper into the Mountain without incident and found the Mithril Door.

The intricate carvings of the door and the surrounding wall stood out clearly against the rough stone surrounding it.  The Door, twenty feet square of shining mithril, stood open and we slipped through.  The passages beyond seemed carved out of the Mountain, but more irregularly than a dwarf would allow.  They also seemed very old.  Hiding to avoid two groups of undergoblins led by dark elves, we proceeded for some time.

Our invisibility had worn off when Liana, who had been scouting ahead, returned to us.  She looked confused.
“There is some kind of hot river up ahead,” she said “it is red but with black pieces moving with it.”
“Lava” said Karl.
I knew what it was. The blood of Mother Mountain!  This was a holy site!

As we rounded the last corner we could already see the glow and feel the heat from it.  As we looked upon the river of lava hundreds of feet wide we also saw a white crystal arc perhaps ten feet wide spanning the living flow.
I bowed my head to pray to the Mother when Galena spoke up.
“Look, creatures are swimming in it,” she pointed out  “I am sure I can talk with them”
As we all looked, we could see beings of earth and fire swimming in the great river.


----------



## KidCthulhu (Mar 18, 2002)

Yeah, and those are just the babies!


----------



## DoctorB (Mar 27, 2002)

*Into the Underdark*

From the journal of Rolf Wolfcaller, Defender of the Mountain

The lava elementals seemed friendly enough to Galena.  They spoke a strange combination of Ignan and Terran and chatted about how new the magical bridge spanning the river was and stressed that “Father” could wake up at any time.  Thinking about a “father” to these nine-foot creatures would seem strange, but we had our proof soon enough.

Something began rising out of the lava downriver.  As it reared itself to full height, the creature’s head almost touched the 150-foot ceiling.  It looked like the smaller elementals but on a vast scale.  As it looked around the cavern, the elemental speaking to Galena scrambled back into the fiery river.

*“Who are you?”* the giant creature asked, its deafening voice echoing in the cavern, 
*“Have you come to renew the terms of the Blackblade?”*
I stepped forward to the edge of the bridge.

“I am the heir of Blackblade” I told the Father, “What were the terms of your agreement?”

*“The terms were for 40 Annos, and those terms are complete.”*

Arin supplied that an anno was equivalent to forty seasons or ten years.  The creature had watched for 400 years, but its contract had lapsed.
“We wish to renew the terms of Blackblade,” I answered.  “What will be required?”

*“You are ignorant for the heir of Blackblade.  I will give my name and my service only for the greatest magics or the Heart’s Blood of the Mountain.”*

He laughed at the tiny magic items in our possession.  Perhaps the final use of the Titansbane would be to renew the guardian.

As we negotiated with the Father of Elementals, a company of undergoblins led by two dark elves arrived on the other side of the bridge.  Toiva already stood nearby and attacked boldly.  Others fired from a distance as the goblins stopped in confusion.  Looking past Toiva to the great creature in the river, the undergoblins turned and fled.  One of the drow escaped as well, but the other fell with an arrow from Liana’s bow in its throat.

We followed as we could, but the fleeing enemies quickly outdistanced us.  We soon came to an intersection of two tunnels.  Listening to our left and right, Liana said she could hear the sound of goblins, and possibly something more.  We decided to continue straight and slowly down.

After another thirty minutes of walking, Liana heard voices ahead of us.  She could make them out talking quietly but not the language.  She and Karl decided to sneak up to see.  They found two drow guards in chainmail talking among themselves in front of a cavern entrance.  Looking to each other they agreed to kill the guards quickly.

Liana struck one immediately and killed him instantly.  Karl was not so lucky.  His stroke at the other guard went astray and the guard called out an alarm.  We all looked at each other.  We had lost the element of surprise.  As the sound of moving enemies beyond the entrance increased, we retreated to the last turn in the passage and awaited the onslaught…


----------



## DoctorB (Mar 29, 2002)

*Into the Underdark (continued)*

Of course, waiting for the onslaught was not such a good plan.  Galena put down a grease spell to counter the inevitable charge we were sure was coming.  Instead, a dark elf female poked her head around the corner long enough to cast a fireball into the middle of us.  It burned out the grease and convinced us we had to storm the place.

Charging past the old guards, we saw a large cavern.  It seems the drow work with crystal too, but theirs look like growing trees.  A large pit dominated the center of the room but we could not see inside it even with darkvision.

As we fought the drow guards just inside the doorway, we heard a commotion from around the corner to our left.  It sounded like a large number of goblins fighting fiercely.  Going around to see what was happening, Karl and I saw that a large number of goblins were pummeling a few drow guards and preparing to rush into the main chamber.

Meanwhile, Liana had scouted forward enough to see that someone was standing by the far side of the pit chanting.  The rest of the Champions charged into the room, scattering the guards in front of them.  As they arrived near the pit, they could see that another armored figure stood near the back of the cavern with two chain-mailed guards nearby.  Galena decided to return the fireball favor, and killed all the guards around the two leaders.  The remaining drow guards and the chanter and armored dark elves went through a door in the back of the cavern and closed it behind them.

Karl and I found ourselves cut off from the others by swarming goblins.  Having killed the drow apparently holding them in, they began attacking everything in sight, including us.  After some difficulty, I managed to force my way through to Karl and the two of us ran for the door.

Cobbe and Toiva tried the door and found it locked.  It was made of some strange dark metal and seemed strong enough to resist being broken open.  Sighing at the delay, Toiva decided to cut his way through with his enchanted great sword.  Several strokes later, he had caved in the door and everyone was able to force their way inside.  Beyond lay a short corridor and another door, which Toiva also destroyed.

Inside, we found a large carved out room with twisted crystal columns.  The shape of a giant spider had been carved into the floor and an alter stood at the other side.  Our quarry stood nearby with their one remaining guard.  Ignoring the guard, Cobbe and Toiva attacked.  We could see now that the one chanting outside had a symbol of a spider worn around his neck, while the more heavily armored one wore a silver symbol with a dragon on it.  The spider priest, sidestepped Cobbe’s attack and poisoned him.  As Toiva attacked the dragon priest, the drow tried to slip by him.  The bard tripped him.

The Spider priest stepped back from Cobbe’s attack and tried to call down a flame strike on him, but Joy was ready.  She called on the Lady’s powers to nullify the priest’s spell even as it was cast.  Toiva cut the prone dragon priest in two and then helped Cobbe finish the other.  Searching the temple, Joy found a secret panel behind the carved alter.  Liana tried to see if it was trapped and then opened it.  They had not counted on magical protections!  The explosive runes wounded Liana and Joy but the object inside seemed undamaged.  A deep red glow emanated from the foot-tall teardrop shaped object.  It seemed to glow and move with an inner light.  Could this be the heartsblood of the Mountain the great elemental had mentioned?

I stood watch at the outer door as the others investigated the temple.  The goblins seemed uninterested in attacking us.  Instead I heard the sound of fierce fighting coming from the cavern opposite where the goblins had entered.  A number of goblins finally began to gather near the pit and seemed to be preparing for a charge.  Before they could, though, Cobbe asked Lux to translate as he tried to negotiate our exit.

A particularly large and nasty goblin finally came forward.
“We hate the evil nasty dark elves (ptui!)” he finally told us.
“The evil nasty drow (ptui!) are our enemies as well!” the paladin told them.
Bringing the body of the slain spider priest, Cobbe threw it to them and they ripped it apart with glee.  After some negotiation and much spitting about the drow on both sides, the goblins agreed not to attack us.

Seemingly satisfied that we were allies (though Toiva soon pointed out that the goblins were still evil), they allowed us to help them clear out the remaining drow from their homes in the adjoining cavern.  Toiva and Cobbe managed to capture one of the guards to question

Our victory lacked only the most important thing, the objects we sought.  Titansbane and the Salutorum did not seem to be in the temple or the living quarters of the drow.  Several of us began to look uneasily at the impenetrable dark pit.  Our prisoner explained that it was the home of “the god” and that victims were often thrown down to appease it.  He also told us that the path out of the cavern opposite the one we entered led to “the world.”  It seems there is more to the underdark than this place alone.  Satisfied he had told us what he could, Cobbe insisted that the drow be allowed to flee toward “the world” on his own.  Several of the goblins chased after him but we do not know if he survived.

Cobbe tried pulling out his perpetually flaming sword and placing it in the pit.  The darkness seemed to swallow the sword’s light as though it had been dipped in ink.
“I can ask the Lady for the Daylight miracle tomorrow” Joy said “but I do not have it right now.  I can close up a stone passage if we need it though.”

We explored the caverns more closely as the goblins celebrated their victory.  A short ways further into the underdark were two abandoned caves.  We determined to hole up in one of those and await dawn before going into the pit.  Joy used Stone Shape to close the entrance off but for a few holes for air, and we resolved to wait until the far-off dawn.

Sometime in the night, Liana heard the distant sounds of fighting.  It did not touch us in our hiding place, but we wondered what we might find when morning outside finally did come.


----------



## DoctorB (Mar 29, 2002)

Next time, a long-held secret is revealed!  Update on Monday


----------



## DoctorB (Apr 3, 2002)

*A Long-Hidden Truth*

In the morning, Karl scouted out the entrance to the drow cavern and discovered that the dark elves had returned in the night.  Two of the massive three-armed giants stood guard beside the entrance.  The Champions made their plans.

Drinking her darkvision potion, Joy ran past the guarding giants into the main part of the cavern as the other Champions and their dwarven allies attacked the guards.  Even as Joy arrived at the side of the pit and prepared to call upon the Lady’s power of daylight, she saw that she was in trouble.  Two more of the giants moved to attack her even as arrows came from beyond the limit of her vision to strike her solidly.  Ignoring the pain, she cast the spell and looked around for a way out.  Three of the giants now had her surrounded near the pit, striking her with their massive clubs.

Meanwhile, the other Champions discovered that they guards were anything but pushovers.  They dealt out massive damage with their greatclubs and took Toiva and Cobbe’s mightiest blows.  As the Daylight spell filled their half of the cavern with light, everyone saw how much danger Joy was in.

Liana tumbled between the legs of one of the giants to run to the priestess’ aid.  As the others forced their way into the edge of the cavern, a third giant joined the others in the melee.  Rolf finally called upon the strength of the Mountain and set his feet, determined not to be moved from that spot.  Meanwhile Arina and Liana covered Joy as she retreated back toward the cavern entrance as arrows continued to whiz around and into her.  Galena could just make out a couple of drow at the edge of the light, and centered a fireball there.  She was rewarded with crys of pain and at least one of the enemies fell there.

As Joy fell back to the others, Rolf died in combat against two of the giants, but his sacrifice had bought the others valuable time.  They retreated into the entrance cavern again where only two of the giants could reach them at once.  Fearing the unseen drow beyond the daylight, Onyx pulled out an ancient scroll and read a spell from it.  A wall of fire sprang up near the edge of the pit, forcing other attackers to run through it to get to the heroes.  Two of the giants did so in addition to the two the Champions now fought in the passageway.  Galena summoned a horde of smaller foes to confuse the giants and allow Liana and Karl to find vital places to strike as Toiva and Cobbe threw all their strength into their blows.  Finally, three of the giants died in the corridor and one other fled rather than face the same fate.

Unsure about the fate of the remaining drow, the party slowly worked their way out into the chamber as Onyx continued to concentrate on the wall of fire.  The Champions considered how to get into the pit where the “god” was supposedly waiting.  Finally, they arrived at a plan.


----------



## DoctorB (Apr 6, 2002)

Slowly, the Champions shoved the 4500-pound giant’s body toward the towering wall of fire and the edge of the pit of darkness below.  Onyx continued to concentrate, holding up the wall against the drow leaders they thought would be waiting for them on the other side.  Cobbe, Toiva, and Liana had been prepared with delay poison spells by Joy against the presumed spider poison awaiting them.  Finally, Galena set the giant’s remains on fire and they dropped the heavy weight in. Everyone stood around the edge with missile weapons ready to shoot the “god” as it came to investigate.  The body caught in a web some distance below the lip of the pit. The vast bulk of a spider bigger than any creature the Champions had ever seen moved surprisingly quickly into view.  It investigated the dead giant and started to move back along its web.  Everyone fired their missile weapons, but as none of them were magical, the projectiles merely bounced harmlessly off.  The flaming body quickly set fire to the nearby webs and burned a hole in the center of the spider’s creation.

Sighing, Cobbe pulled out his hundred feet of knotted rope and dropped it in.  No one knew how deep the pit was, but he hoped it would not extend beyond his rope.  The Paladin lowered himself over the edge and began climbing down.  Toiva followed quickly and then Liana.  The opening went down about ten feet and then opened into a vast cavern.  The spider-god remained out of sight.

	Just as the rogue climbed down past the edge of the pit the beast revealed itself.  Scuttling along the ceiling of the pit, it gathered darkness at its pincers and bit her, channeling evil power into the blow.  Nearly killed instantly by the power of evil in the attack, Liana desperately tried to hold onto consciousness.  She suddenly realized she had been thrown from the rope and fell away toward the darkness.  Without hesitation, Arin, watching from above, dove into the pit after her.

	As the others gawked at his foolishness in throwing himself to his likely death below, they saw something strange.  As he fell, Arin’s form began to melt and shift.  Wings sprung from his back as his body lengthened.  He now had four legs and his neck extended as his head melted into a reptilian form.  Instead of pale skin and the white robe he had been wearing, he now had scales of blue-gray with a streak of silver white extending behind his head.  Sweeping his wings to slow his fall, Arin landed in the web beside the nearly unconscious Liana.  Sure she was dead, Liana dimly perceived the bulk of the reptilian beast beside her, its tail wrapped around her where she lay.
“Liana!” Joy shouted, jumping up and down in excitement.  “Your boyfriend’s a DRAGON!”


----------



## DoctorB (Apr 8, 2002)

The remaining Champions had other things to worry about.  Cobbe continued to climb down the rope, hoping to recover Titansbane and the Salutorum without having to kill the gargantuan spider.  Toiva held on to the rope with his legs and one arm as he swung his sword at the spider clinging to the ceiling near him.  Galena tried to cast spells at the beast, but each was harmlessly absorbed.  Onyx cast spider climb on himself and went into the pit hoping to get to the bottom and cast another daylight spell so they could see down there.

Toiva’s battle with the spider did not go well.  After several exchanges, the spider caught him with a particularly powerful attack, and he lost consciousness.  Fortunately, his arm remained hooked around the rope as he fell.  Cobbe, climbing fifty feet below, decided to catch him.  The Paladin held on to the rope with his legs as Toiva’s weight crashed into him.  Both of them slid along the rope for a few feet and stopped, Cobbe holding the unconscious Toiva and hanging nearly upside down.  The spider, devoid of opponents above, calmly snipped through the rope.  Now beyond the reach of Joy’s daylight spell, Cobbe had no idea how far the bottom was.  He prepared himself for a long fall.  In fact, they fell only ten feet before crashing into a foul-smelling muck of petrified bones, flesh, and gods knew what else.  Cobbe had just enough healing left to keep Toiva alive, but could not wake him up.

Meanwhile, Arin flew Liana to the surface where she could be healed by Joy and Karl before returning below.  Though a dragon, Arin was not particularly large, perhaps fifteen feet from nose to tail.  He flew back into the pit and tried to pull the spider off the ceiling.  He was bitten for his trouble and found his own strength woefully inadequate to the task.  The spider withdrew, however, and moved to attack Cobbe and Toiva below.  As he prepared to fly back into the cavern, a now healed Liana insisted on coming with him.  Arin took her gently in his claws and flew back inside.

Cobbe could not see in the total darkness below, but he suspected the creature would attack him.  Guessing the direction, he called on the Lady to show him evil.  None appeared.  Having not seen Arin change, he was surprised when a strange voice told him in what direction to look.   Cobbe did not stop to question but turned in the indicated direction and found the nearly overwhelming evil that indicated the great spider.

Not needing light to sense the presence of the evil creature, Arin moved to attack it as the spider arrived on the soft floor of the cavern.  Finally arriving at the bottom of the pit himself, Onyx cast daylight, canceling out the darkness that prevented the magically flaming sword Cobbe had bracketed to his shield from shedding light.  The space lit up, showing the ghastly detritus of hundreds of years of victims.  The light glowed in the eight eyes of the twenty-foot spider as it attacked Arin.  Fortunately, it already had large rents in its skin from Toiva’s sword and claw marks where Arin had struck.  Cobbe and Liana joined into the fight and after a few moments finally destroyed the creature.

Using detect magic to scan the space under the muck, the Champions and their allies found the great dwarven artifacts they sought.  Onyx cradled Titansbane against him and Cobbe brought up the great cup that was the Salutorum as well as numerous potions.  Perhaps they could find more if they looked more carefully, but everyone was anxious to get back to the safety of the Dwarvenrealm.  All they had to do was make their way through an army of drow, goblins, and three-armed giants.  Perhaps they would not have to face the nine-headed serpent beast to escape.

As the rush of battle wore off, Liana looked if anything even more stunned than before.  Tentatively, she reached out to touch Arin’s scales.
“I wanted to tell you,” he said plaintively in that strange new voice.
“"But... you're still... *you*?" she asked.

Joy looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Does that mean Horus is a dragon too?” she asked.
“Well,” Arin replied.  “Yeah.”


----------



## KidCthulhu (Apr 8, 2002)

Yay!  The secret is finally out.  Wish I could have been there to see everyone's face.


----------



## Piratecat (Apr 8, 2002)

*does the happy "wish I had been there to see it" dance*


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Apr 12, 2002)

*I told you so*

I told everyone that dragons were still alive.  Now if Horus can just wake Alexander up...


----------



## DoctorB (Apr 19, 2002)

*Arin's Story*

The Champions holed up for the night using Joy’s Stone Shape to close in an abandoned cavern near the remains of the main drow camp.  Finally, Cobbe turned to Arin, now back in human form:

“So, now that we know that you’re a dragon.  I think that is great and all, but you need to go on and tell us everything we need to know about keeping the secret and everything.”

“Well,” Arin began.  “I didn’t tell you because I know that people, especially elves, sometimes fear dragons and I wanted you to let me stay.  I have really spent more of my life in this form than my natural one anyway.  Since you rescued me, I have only changed one other time.”

The others gave a questioning look.

 “When I realized what I was, I became very angry at Khalkis for what he did to me and went to do something about it.  I flew back to Pella and cleaned out his zombies.”

Everyone laughed at this revelation.  Cobbe beamed at Arin. “That was well done!”

“I had some help from the Gens.  I didn’t get to Khalkis himself, but he had to run away.”

“Why do elves dislike dragons more?” Joy asked.

“I don’t know all the lore.  You would have to ask Master Horus for the rest, but I do know that a long time ago, the metallic and chromatic dragons worked together and the elves fought against them.”

“Huranel certainly doesn’t like you!” said Joy.

“It’s a good thing the sword isn’t too smart, though.  It doesn’t seem to know what I am when in human form.”

Liana drew the elven sword from its sheath.  She didn’t feel the fierce hatred radiating from it for Arin as she had before, but Huranel seemed… watchful.

Cobbe was thoughtful.  “Did all of the dragons end up in glass tubes like you did?”

“I only know about myself, but according to the histories in Sazon, some evil dragons were at the battle against Alexander at least.”

After a lot of discussion about the powers of good and evil dragons the Champions settled down to wait out the day.  They knew that the drow might be waiting for them again, but the affects of the delay poison spells against the spider-god began to wear off.  As they did even Joy’s healing skill was not enough to stop both Liana and Toiva from becoming paralyzed by the powerful poison.

Joy and Cobbe could feel when dawn broke in the outside world again.  They healed the others, except for the dead Rolf Wolfcaller, and prepared to fight their way back to the Dwarvenrealm.


----------



## KidCthulhu (Apr 19, 2002)

Poor Rolf.  He was a good dwarf.


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Apr 24, 2002)

*Joy's Diary - Decimus 23*

*In the 417th year after the triumph of Alexander, Decimus 23, 4th Knightsday*
	Mother told me that every event - every surprise - in life holds a lesson for us in its depths.  Now I just have to figure out everything our time in the underdark has to offer.  Lady knows there were enough surprises.  Like 9-headed hydras, dark elves, a magma elemental as big as a small mountain, undergoblins that turn on their masters, Dwarven Defenders that die to buy us more time, obnoxious Dwarven wizards that use family heirloom to save us, giant poisonous spiders the size of a house, shy young men who turn out to be dragons, drow that escape from their masters (who are illithids) and are chaotic good, and our tower mage (Galena) who risks her own life to save ours (she was fantastic – summoning creatures and throwing fireballs!).    It was a very long three days, not that we could really tell when one day ended and the other began.  I just knew when I could channel the power of The Lady again.

After taking Mer (the good drow who followed us out of the underdark or “the world” as they call it) and showing him the “outside,” many of us started to train.  Every time I grow in strength, I feel that it better enables me to carry out The Lady’s work, but this time seems more important.  Rolf bought us the time we needed to obtain the Salutorum and Titian’s Bane with his life, and now I have the ability to repay our debt to him by bringing him back – if he _wants_ to come back.  At least, I think I have the ability.  I have only heard Mother talk about performing this miracle; I have never seen it performed.  Now the whole Dwarven Council will be there to watch (it only seemed right) and who knows who else.  Lady, please grant me the strength to perform this miracle right!  Well, I should not put this off any longer; dawn has come and I can feel The Lady’s power renewed within me.  I am going to ask the other Champions to come with me.  Please, Lady, let me do this right…


----------



## KidCthulhu (Apr 24, 2002)

'Cuz if you do this wrong and he comes back as a badger or something, that's going to be really embarrassing!


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Apr 25, 2002)

*Remember, she's only 21 Hobbit years old*

What?!  That can happen?!!  How?  Surely The Lady wouldn't let that happen... 

Do YOU know how to perform the _raise dead_ miracle?


----------



## DoctorB (May 3, 2002)

*Escape from the Underdark*

The Salutorum appears as a large golden goblet, nine inches in diameter with four gems set on the outsides amid intricate scenes of hospitals and battlefield medicine.  Titansbane is more impressive. The Dwarven Greataxe seems entirely made of mithril with intricately carved scenes of dwarven victories over giants with a spike at the top of the axe blades.  Onyx held the weapon through the night but after a short discussion in the morning, Karl agreed to carry it until it could be given to one with a stronger familial claim.  As soon as he grasped the weapon, Karl seemed more confident, more warlike.  Cobbe worried that he might stay behind to fight any giants they encountered and get Karl killed but said nothing.

With everyone healed, the Champions prepared to find the drow chamber held against them again.  This time, when Liana snuck closer though, she heard something to her left in the drow quarters.  It sounded like a voice talking to itself or chanting.  When she returned to tell the others, they decided to take the opposite way through the chamber and avoid whoever it might be.
When they approached the chamber again, Liana saw an elven figure, going through the clothes of one of the giants killed the day before.  He looked thin even for a drow elf and his clothes hung in rags around him.  As soon as he looked up and saw the group of people coming towards him, he started and then seemed to concentrate a moment before vanishing into thin air.  No scroll, no spellcasting, he just vanished.

Though intrigued by this strange creature, the Champions resolved to move on toward the Dwarvenrealm and safety.  As they left the chamber back toward the river of lava and the “Father” Liana caught a glimpse of a figure moving along the ceiling following them.

The rogue continued to scout ahead of the others, and as soon as she heard sounds at the crossroads they had avoided on the way in, Onyx made the entire group invisible while Joy called on the Lady for silence so even Cobbe in his heavy armor could sneak past.  Both Joy and Onyx held another of these powers in reserve to pass through the army of goblins and drow pressing the dwarves above.

Unfortunately, they found the intersection not just held against them but complete with a makeshift barricade and guards.  Two dark elves watched over the barrier backed by one of the three-armed giants while two others in finer armor stood nearby talking.  The chattering of goblins also sounded close by.  Fearing they might find themselves fighting the entire drow reserve if they stood, the Champions decided on distraction.  Galena moved back away a short ways and called small earth elementals to attack the barrier while the others prepared to move through as soon as an opening was created.

The dark elves must have deduced how this powerful party of adventurers snuck through them before.  One of the armored figures raised her arms and called on her goddess in the strange elven-like language the drow spoke.  Though nothing immediately resulted, Joy pointed out that invisibility purge would have been her first spell if she were in the evil priestess’ position.  Shedding secrecy, the party decided to run the gauntlet.

Though quickly dispatched by the hulking giant and his greatclub, the elementals did their job opening a space in the barrier.  While the others moved forward to run past their enemies, Galena stayed back a moment to send a fireball into the center of the foes. Several goblins burned to death and most of the dark elves were badly wounded.  The priestess, fearing for her own life, retreated into one of the corridors with her guards.  In the confusion, everyone managed to move past the Underdark forces to the other side of the intersection… except Galena.


----------



## DoctorB (May 3, 2002)

Made visible by her spell, the wizardess found herself under attack from a frighteningly accurate archer.  The drow poison soon had her almost unable to move.  The giant now stood just behind the barrier.  Seeing her danger, Karl shouted an ancient dwarven battle cry and attacked the beast with Titansbane.  As it struck the monster, the axe began to glow gently.

Galena now realized her danger and cast expeditious retreat (Toiva’s name for the spell, “feet don’t fail me now,” seemed to her particularly appropriate) and prepared to run past the giant though she feared she might not be able to withstand a blow from the mighty club.  The others shouted for her to wait a moment as Arin ran in and drew the beast’s attention, taking a vicious stroke that would surely have killed Galena.  With the monster distracted, she ran past him and the wounded drow.

Karl mastered himself enough to run when the others did and the entire party found themselves chased through the long corridors to the river of lava by more goblins and dark elves.  The Champions and their allies arrived at the white crystal bridge over the bubbling magma just ahead of their enemies.  Running into the great chamber, they cried out for the Father.  Even as their enemies entered behind them, a glowing head appeared above the surface followed by the hundred-foot tall form of the great elemental.  The goblins fled from the creature and the drow held back, until they could discover the Father’s allegiance.  Only the archer stood a little forward, firing at the Champions.

Karl held up the glowing Heart of the Mountain to the colossus.
“I have come to renew the contract of Regor Blackblade,” he shouted.
A great glowing hand reached down to take the red stone.  It seemed a speck against the huge finger.

*“As was agreed before, I will hold this chamber against all who would pass it.”* 

The mighty voice echoed through the chamber.

*“Forty annos more will I watch, for the Heart of the Mountain.  I give you my name, heir of Blackblade:  Ardens Masa.”*

As the words hung in the air, Cobbe imagined he saw a new volcano erupt in some part of the world.

Looking once again at the thin bridge of crystal cast over the river, Ardens Masa lifted his fist and smashed it to shards.  

The drow on the other side fired their arrows, but knew they were stymied.

Soon, the Champions passed once again through the mithril door and its powerful wards.  Invisible and silent, they passed like wraiths through the army still fighting fiercely with the dwarves in their lower tunnels.  Fortunately, the nine-headed monster stood fighting at the other end of the huge opening where the war continued.  Evil had gained no ground in their absence.  Finding their way through the dwarven lines, Karl and Onyx asked after the leader of the fighting.  Everyone remarked in horror at the body of noble Rolf but Joy held her tongue until she stood in the command room of the Kurnzarn, Sidroc Warweaver.

“I think I can bring him back when I have had a few days to mediate on the Lady’s power, if he _wants_ to return.” She told him.

“I know such things were done in previous generations, but none here now possess the ability.” He replied.
Karl knelt, presenting Titansbane to the General.
“Until the Wolfcaller can wield it, I will take the Great Axe to fight our enemies,” the Kurnzarn declared.
“You have done a great service for the Dwarvenrealm, one that will live in the tales of our Skalds, but I will ask one more thing of you though you may refuse without dishonor.”
“We, ah, will be glad to help anyway we can,” Cobbe replied.
“I need you to kill the great Hydra.” Sidroc said.


----------



## KidCthulhu (May 3, 2002)

Why is it they never say "I need you to pop round the shops and pick up some bread"?  It's always slay this, and vanquish that and break the spine of the other.

Damanding little buggers, NPCs.


----------



## DoctorB (May 11, 2002)

*Nine Heads, No Waiting*

Seeming to notice the raggedly dressed drow in the rear of the party for the first time, Sidroc asked, “Do you want to remove the collaborator before we go further.”

“Well,” Cobbe started.  “He is not exactly a collaborator but an escaped slave from somewhere below.  He claims he was a slave of Mind Flayers.  We have taken him under our protection.”

The drow had named himself as Maer when the Champions caught him following them out of the Underdark.  He spoke no languages in common with anyone else, but could communicate through Lux.  He seemed thrilled at the thought at seeing the mythical “outside.”  Since he seemed a downtrodden person, Liana had taken him on as a personal project and had slowly begun teaching the young drow to speak Khal.  Maer seemed nervous around all these enemies of dark elves, but remained firm in his desire to see the surface world.

“Well then,” Sidroc continued.  “About the Hydra…”
“My people cannot stand against the beast,” the Kurnzarn explained.  “Whenever we gain an advantage, they send the 9-headed monster and we are forced back.  If you could slay the beast, we would be able to finish off this drow army.  For now, go with my orderly, Helm, and rest.  Tomorrow we will attack.”

The young dwarf Sidroc introduced to them led the Champions to a makeshift mess hall for a filling dwarven meal and then to an unused barracks.  There, they rested for another day to recover from the effects of poison and wounds.

The next day, Decimus 17, the Champions returned to the battlefront.  The Kurnzarn met them with an elite force of dwarven warriors.

“Wherever the fighting is toughest is where they send the hydra,” he explained.  “So we are going to create some tough fighting for them to draw the creature to us.  The other Defenders of the Dwarvenrealm lead forces holding the dark elves at all points along the perimeter.”

Looking out over the battlefield, the Champions saw a still impressive host of undergoblins with giants scattered here and there.  The drow leadership stood in the center of the cavern giving orders.  This was the largest entrance to the huge chamber, the tunnel opening partially blocked by a barricade of wood and stone.

Sidroc seemed to talk to himself as he prepared his dwarves.  Titansbane gleamed in his hand like an extension of himself.  The soldiers finally lined up in a wedge and fiercely attacked the nearby goblins.

Cries went up from several parts of the cavern.  The dwarves had coordinated their assault well.  The Kurnzarn and his troop made quick progress through the outer lines of the enemy until three of the three-armed giants waded in with their clubs.  Sidroc gave a war cry and attacked one of them as Titansbane began to glow.

The Champions did not participate in the attack, waiting behind the barrier for the hydra to come closer.  Joy called on the Lady’s power to shield the party as Toiva began to sing a chant-like battle song.

Finally, the drow decided to commit their monster.  Rumbling across the floor of the cavern, it moved at Sidroc with frightening speed.  Up close, the creature’s skin was pale green and the eyes of its nine heads seemed exceptionally large, standing above the sharp teeth snapping at anything in its way.  One of the goblins did not move fast enough and found itself bitten in half by the monster.

Joy called up a wind wall to shield them from the arrows of the drow still behind the lines and Galena opened the way through the goblins with a fireball.  The Champions then charged by the still fighting dwarves to engage the nine-headed beast.

Liana and Arin were the first to arrive in the beast’s range and nearly died in the beast’s first series of attacks.  Liana tumbled away while Arin fell back towards Joy.  Cobbe and Toiva then charged in, slashing at the beast’s heads.    One head collapsed under a blow while another was severed from the neck.  Even as the beast continued to fight, however, the damage slowly began to heal.  The Champions redoubled their attack.

Galena now called on the powers of earth and fire and several creatures sprang up around the Hydra.  Snake-like, the human-sized creatures glowed like magma, especially near the front of their bodies.  Used to the mage’s summoning power, the Champions hesitated only a moment as these strange beings joined the attack.  Soon another group joined the first.  Wherever these fire worms struck, the hydra could not heal.  Even the nine-headed monster could not keep track of all its enemies at once, giving Liana opportunities to seek weaknesses in its hide.  As the great beast finally fell, the Thoqquas, as Galena called them, crawled over it and prevented any further regeneration.

Having accomplished their goal, the Champions withdrew again from the battle.  Galena stayed behind until she had exhausted her magic aiding the battle.  Though it was obvious that the dwarves had a great deal of difficult work to do, the dark elves would see no more reinforcements.  Dwarven victory was only a matter of time.


----------



## JoyHealinghand (May 11, 2002)

*The Prayer to Raise Rolf*

(Decimus 23, 417)

Wonderous Lady, embodiment of perfect Honesty, Compassion, Loyalty and Generosity, I, your humble servant, ask that you hear my prayer and allow my body to be the instrument of your goodness.

Before you lies Rolf Wolfcaller, descendant of Regor Blackblade, who fought alongside Alexander to temporarly defeat the forces of evil.  Following in his forefather's footsteps, Rolf Wolfcaller, one of the nine Dwarven Defenders, rose to aid your champions as we once again strive to protect these lands from the evil that has been reborn.  Because of his loyalty to his people, his loyalty to the Mountain and his loyalty to your champions, Rolf Wolfcaller willingly paid the ultimate price to save lives.

Great Lady, in your infinite Compassion, I call upon you to channel your energies through me and into Rolf Wolfcaller, hero of all that is good and lawful.  By your Grace, if The Mother and Rolf Wolfcaller are willing, cause the breath of life to fill his lungs and let the blood of his anscestors bring strength and movement to his limbs.

Dearest Lady, we raise our thoughts in most grateful thanks to you for hearing our humble supplications. 

Now, Rolf Wolfcaller, if it be thy will and the will of the gods, RISE.


----------



## DoctorB (May 18, 2002)

*Return of the Wolfcaller*

Silence filled the packed burial chamber.  Only the last echoes of Joy’s words disturbed the air.  Rolf Wolfcaller lay on a stone slab adorned for a funeral.  Around Joy and the other Champions stood the Council of Nine, leaders of the Dwarvenrealm as well as many dwarves who claimed kinship to their fallen hero.  No one moved or even breathed.  The glowing diamond Joy had placed on the dead dwarf’s chest had disappeared now and everyone waited to see what would happen.  Everyone knew that once priests had held enough power to sometimes bring back the dead, but no such thing had been done in hundreds of years.

A breath disturbed the air, then another.  Rolf opened his eyes.

“I sat at the table of heroes,” he said in an awed voice.  “Around me sat all the great dwarves from all time, but She told me I did not belong there.  I had to go back.” 

He looked at Joy. 

 “I heard you calling me.”

The tiny priestess smiled at him, and the entire hall burst into sound.  Everyone cheered and crowded around their risen hero, wanting to touch him and talk to him, to welcome him back to the world.

The Champions stood aside and watched this unusual dwarven display of emotion.  The stout people of the Mountain had much to cheer about.  Though the dark elves had fought fiercely and to the last man at the end, the Kurnzarn and his army had finally cornered and destroyed the remnants of their army.  Titansbane had distinguished itself again at the head of the army, though the general now offered the dwarven war axe to Rolf, who looked at it in wonder.  His face changed as he held the handle.  Titansbane had a mind of its own.

Knowing that Joy would call on the Lady to return Rolf to the living, the Council had called for a day of celebration the next day, but most dwarves did not choose to wait.  Casks opened early and the beer and ale flowed freely.

The next morning, when the formal celebration began, the Drukar, Rigall Stronhome presented each of the Champions with a silver medallion engraved with the symbol of the Mountain.

“As long as you live, each of you will be welcome in the Dwarvenrealm and among dwarves of the Mountain.”

A great cheer arose for the heroes, and then they discovered that the party of the previous day had been merely a preliminary.


----------



## DoctorB (May 21, 2002)

*Galena*

Galena had died and gone to heaven, but only for a little while.  She had asked Onyx where he drew his arcane learning from, and it was a testament to their new friendship that he showed her.

Near a little-used corridor in the center of the dwarvenrealm was a chamber with a locked door.  Onyx opened that door and led Galena inside.  She expected shelves of books or scrolls, but the floor of the space was bare but for a few benches.  Puzzled, she looked over to ask her companion what was so important here.  He conjured a light and gestured.  

The walls.

Intricate writing filled every side of the room in dozens of arcane languages and forms.  The wizardess turned slowly to take it all in.  As always with magical writing, the symbols seemed to move with a life of their own.  The entire space pulsed with subtle power.  Onyx smiled at her appreciation.  She fumbled for her notebook.

Galena passed the next several days learning everything she could of dwarven magic.  She and Onyx spent almost every waking hour there studying tiny elements of the walls’ incredible richness.  She quickly found that she could understand no more than half of the writing.  Many of the carved elements included unfamiliar symbols, or juxtaposed letters she knew in ways that she thought to be impossible.

Dwarves had their own interesting interpretations of magic, and combining those with her Tower training led to new insights.  Galena tried to copy everything she could from the spaces on the wall where the combinations were new to her, but not impossible to understand.   She would have liked to copy everything in that room, or find a way to take it all with her.  She would have to settle for returning to the Dwarvenrealm again.


----------



## DoctorB (Jun 10, 2002)

*The Flight*

Arin could not be sure of Liana’s disposition towards him since she had discovered what he was.  He tried to spend time with her when she wanted him to and leave her alone when she needed to think.  Finally, he decided to ask her.

“Would you like to… uh… go flying sometime?”

Her face lit up.  “Yes!” she exclaimed.

Soon afterwards, the two of them walked along one of the smaller paths away from the dwarven trading town.  It would not do to panic people with a view of a flying dragon.  When they thought themselves out of sight of anyone behind them, Arin changed back to his native form.  His gray-blue scales gleamed in the early winter sun.

Liana still seemed a little unnerved at his transformation, but the prospect of flying overwhelmed her concern.

“Just put your legs under the base of my wings to hold on,” he suggested though he had never carried anyone before.

When she seemed safely in place, he leapt into the air, his wings beating to gain altitude. Finally, he could soar alongside the mountains and slowly rise until the entire world seemed to be laid out below them.

Flying transformed Liana.  She remained so quiet and still at first that Arin feared she might not like it after all.  As they soared on the currents of air, she seemed to gain strength and perspective from the wondrous view.  Her self-doubt and fear vanished in the joy of the moment and she became completely the kind and generous Liana he loved.  Perhaps, he hoped, she could love him even as a dragon.

Sharing the experience with her, Arin rediscovered the exhilaration of soaring on currents of air and the panorama of land below them.  His gaze swept along the mountains that slowly gave way to forest to the east.  A mist seemed to rise from the distant horizon.  No, he realized suddenly, not a mist.

Liana had seen it to, and leaned over his neck to get a better look at the distant woods.  Great plumes of smoke rose in the distance.  Massive fires must rage below to create such a huge cloud.  They both knew what lands those forests occupied.  Tolna and Streda fought eternally for control of the great forest below.  Evidently, the war had escalated.

Reawakened to harsh reality by the spectacle, Arin turned for home.


----------



## DoctorB (Jul 8, 2002)

*Under the Trees*

Again, Arin’s silver-gray wings rode the wind over the Dwarvenrealm, but now he and Liana were not on a joyride.  Instead, both watched the east with concern and interest.  The Champions had been grim at the news of fires in the great forest, but they needed to know more before going down to Streda and Tolna.

As they flew closer, the fires stood out as giant conflagrations sometimes miles across, but seemingly all of the flames moved in one direction.  The Stredans had dug great pits and erected great mounds behind the fires which forced the flames to seek south into Tolna for fuel.  Several sets of trenches stood side by side along the border.  As Arin swooped in closer Liana could make out figures fighting at the edges of the flames.  Rumors of a slacking in the eternal war between the Tolnan wood elves and the Stredan rangers appeared to be false.

The two returned to tell what they had seen.  Naturally, Cobbe and Joy wanted to go down into the area immediately.  After all, the Champions required objects from both countries before they could recall Lord Horus.  Aside from the highway leading back to Sazon, two main roads led away from the Dwarvenrealm.  The north road led into Dures while the east road ran through the great forest.  The walk out of the mountains went smoothly.  The number of trees slowly grew as the mountains and then hills diminished.  Just as the Champions wondered if they had entered Streda, they saw a border guard along the dwarven trading road.

The Stredan guards would only say that the war with Tolna continued and went well, but they took a small toll from the party and allowed them to pass, cautioning them not to approach the war zone.  Of course, that was exactly what the Champions intended.


----------



## DoctorB (Jul 9, 2002)

The Stredan camp buzzed with activity.  Thousands of soldiers had that expectant impatience that indicated they would be going into battle soon.  A larger tent stood formed the center of the maelstrom and it was inside that tent the Champions found themselves.  They had passed a keep packed with young soldiers receiving their training for war.  This was the primary camp on the warfront, the headquarters of General Balzar, who every Stredan soldier the Champions talked to praised as the architect of their nation’s recent success against the Tolnan elves.

Inside the tent, Cobbe parried and feinted with the general himself while the other watched.  No weapons had been drawn.  The two engaged in an intricate war of words with Cobbe trying to discover everything he could about the young general, and the Stredan seemingly amused by the entire situation.

Liana spent most of the time practicing her new abilities as a shadowdancer.  Knowing the Stredans would see her as a wood elf, she remained hidden even while wearing a large hat she hoped would hide her eyes and ears if someone should spot her.  General Balzar’s tent held a large campaign table in the center, with a detailed map of the border zone.  Various other objects decorated the space, but a fancy bowcase drew her eyes sitting in the corner.  What was the name of that legendary bow the Stredan hero had used?

Toiva remembered the name of the bow: Heart Render and Irena Capov, its Stredan wielder.
“Earth-Friend flew above the battle, standard-bearer for Alexander and the forces of the Free Kingdoms.  Heart-Render took life after life as the Warlord sent his dragons against the bright banner of his foe.”
He returned his concentration to the conversation at hand.  Balzar had allowed Cobbe’s not so subtle questions about his character, and continued to exude confidence.

“It was my idea to light the fires.  It simply took this long to convince the Council to allow me to proceed.  Now we are close to conquering the center of Tolnan power.  With that we will be able finally to drive them out of the land they have stolen from us.”

I almost prefer Victor, Joy thought.  At least he was more honest in his desire for power.  This general was too smug.  I would love to give him a piece of my mind, but Cobbe would yell at me if I did.  Oh well, we will be away from here soon.

Talking with Balzar made it clear that he was a rising star in the Stredan military, and that he had powerful allies.  It also seemed that his strategy was working.  His army advanced into Tolnan territory and might capture this “center of power” whatever that was.  Worse, the Champions had not found a single Stredan who did not want to crush the Tolnans.  Rumors had held that the current Guardian of Streda favored peace in the seven-hundred year war.  Balzar had not taken the old man’s place, but had made him irrelevant.

The party all felt discouraged as they took their leave of General Balzar, and debated whether they should go north to the capital of Streda and the shadowy druidic Council or plunge south into Tolna and see what was happening to the elves.

Just then, the sounds of battle erupted nearby.  The Tolnans struck at the Stredan camp, and as soldiers organized themselves to fight off the raid, they heard a woman’s voice beside them though no one visible was there.

“If you want to hear a different perspective, visit my master.  Go two days travel north-east and seek the trees with the red mark.”

As they prepared themselves to follow this strange advice, Cobbe suddenly turned to Arin.
“You could, uh, see her, couldn’t you with your… senses?”
“Yes.” Arin replied looking away, “but she didn’t want to be seen.”
The others laughed or rolled their eyes.
“Just tell us next time, okay?”


----------



## DoctorB (Jul 24, 2002)

The man could have been Liana’s brother.  Dark skin and golden eyes framed by black hair.  Though his ears were slightly pointed he exhibited Stredan as well as Tolnan blood.  He wore only a simple brown robe and carried nothing but the silver disk holy symbol around his neck.

“My name is Olemar,” he said.  Welcome to the opposition.”

It was a very strange camp.  Even the few semi-permanent buildings, like the wooden house the man led them to looked rapidly erected.  Most people seemed to live in tents and lean-tos scattered around a central clearing.  The strangeness came not from the settlement, but from its inhabitants.  Swarthy human Stredans worked side by side with willowy Tolnan elves.

Leading them into his home, Olemar brought one of the wood elves with him, a young man with piercing eyes.
“This is Hevian,” he said.  “Now, I am sure there is much you want to know about our little movement and I want to hear what you have seen on the warfront.”

They talked for some time.  Hevian interjected sometimes with a frustrated comment about his people or the Stredans.  Most of the time as the Champions told their story, he sat quietly, seemingly deep in thought.  Olemar seemed interested in every detail.  As a priest of the River, he desired balance between Tolnans and Stredans and the end of senseless destruction and warfare.

Hevian told the Champions that the Tolnans were weakened because of a strange corruption of the Heart Oak, a tree that strengthened and defended wood elves.  The Champions looked at each other.  Balzar had bragged about approaching the Tolnan ‘center of power.’  For a time he sat again, brow furrowed.

Finally, Hevian seemed to come to a decision and stood up.
“I will guide you into Tolna,” he said.  “I know a way that should get you to the Heart Oak without being killed by my people.  They see no victory in this conflict but are determined to go down fighting.”

After discussing it for a moment, the Champions resolved that they had to restore the Tolnans to their former strength before trying to overthrow the Stredan general.

As the party prepared to leave Olemar’s camp, a great tree seemed to separate itself from the woods and approach the priest.  No, not a tree, but very tree-like. This must be one of the tree herders, the Treants.  It towered over them, its mighty limbs moving easily through the forest.  What a terrible enemy it would be.

“*I cannot stay with you any longer, Olemar,*” the echoing voice boomed.  “*The Stredans have slain too many of my flock and I will not stand for it any longer.*”

“I am sorry to hear that, my friend,” the half-elf responded.  “Return to us when you are again ready for peace.”

The Champions spent the night among the peace-party before starting into Tolna.  Hevian would take them on a roundabout path away from the fighting in hopes of avoiding most patrols.
In the foggy morning, they started into the xenophobic kingdom


----------



## Piratecat (Jul 24, 2002)

Yay!  Writer's block gone?

How far backed up is the story hour now?


----------



## DoctorB (Jul 27, 2002)

About two full sessions, not counting the one we have tomorrow.  I hope to get more up before then.


----------



## DoctorB (Jul 27, 2002)

*A Tolnan Ritual*

It was night when the Tolnan patrol caught them.  For three days, Hevian had led the Champions around the battle lines and into Tolna.  The brooding trees seemed to give up an arrow, which bounced off Joy’s armor.  As the Champions prepared for battle, Hevian ran out to stop the fighting.  He demanded to see the Aina, the wood elven queen.  After several minutes of discussion, the patrol leader agreed to take them to the nearest of the Maragil, the clan of leaders.

After hours of walking into the deep night, the Champions found themselves in a clearing facing an elven woman wearing no armor, but with a star shaped earring.  She called herself Iluve and insisted that she could speak for the Queen on the intruders.  Hevian argued fervently for allowing the Champions in to try and heal the Heart Oak, but Iluve would hear nothing of it.

“They may leave in peace.  I will grant them this much,” she said.  “But if they stay, their lives will be forfeit.  You are fortunate that elves do not harm their own, Hevian, for it was a foolish thing to bring them here.”

Hevian sighed as though he expected this outcome.

“Then I will undertake the Ritual of Adoption,” he declared.

“Nothing like this has been done in hundreds of turnings!” Iluve objected, but she seemed unable to refuse Hevian’s demand.  Resigned, she subtly signaled with her hand and a score of wood elves appeared out of the forest.  Even Liana had failed to notice that so many were close.

Iluve seated the Champions in a circle around Hevian, with the Tolnan rangers surrounding them.  All of them carried bows on their backs and stone knives at their sides.

Hevian raised his voice to a chanting shout as he lifted his hands to the canopy of trees.  The flowing elven words seemed rough as he spoke them.

“*I take the otherness of these people onto myself,*” he chanted.  “*Let my blood be their blood for one turning of the seasons.*”

He then turned to Cobbe.

“*I take your strangeness to myself.  My blood is now your blood for one turning of the seasons.*”

With each of the Champions he repeated the phrase, facing each in turn.  When he had finished he cried out.

“*Now my blood flows in their veins.  No longer are they strangers, but of the People!*”

As his words echoed through the clearing, the waiting Tolnan rangers rose as one, drawing their daggers.  Rushing past the shocked party, they savagely stabbed Hevian to death.  This was no cold ritual killing, but the death of a hated enemy.  They stabbed him again and again, even when he was clearly already dead.

Joy hoped to save Hevian’s body so he could be raised, but finally Cobbe and the others helped burn him in the clearing. Numb with surprise at the death of their guide, they sat and waited.

Iluve calmly approached them.

“I will take you to the Aina,” she said.


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Jul 28, 2002)

*Of the People*

*In the 417th year after the triumph of Alexander, Tenebrea 17, 3rd Sagesday*

We reached the main camp of the Tolnans today.  Under normal circumstances this place would be beautiful and majestic.  The tree are so old and the elves so graceful.  Yet, being here—no, not being here, being “of the people”—makes me sick to my stomach.  Why would anyone want to be part of a race that is so xenophobic they would kill one of their own, stupid ritual or no stupid ritual?  Words didn’t make Hevian any less a Tolnan.  I really don’t understand how they kill those who obviously only have their best interests at heart.  Don’t they want to live?  And the way they killed Hevian with such glee…  By all that is holy, these elves have a blackness in their souls.  It is only Hevian’s sacrifice and The Lady’s mission that keeps me here.  Hmm, I wonder if they have always been this bloodthirsty.  I will have to ask Olemar when we see him again.  Maybe the corruption of the Heart Tree is affecting the elves too.

We have learned all we can from the Tolnans.  The Aina spoke with us briefly and sent Galen to answer our questions.  He told us:  "We only did one divination and it was drawn from an item of power.  We have no priests who can call upon such powers regularly.

The Orn (the druidic clan) can tell that the creatures now surrounding the Heart Oak are unnatural but not undead.  We also see that every aspect of nature has been corrupted there.  The Great Tree itself seems to have changed its essence from an embodiment of the natural world to a source of corruption.

The divination was: 'What is the source of the contagion to the Heart tree?'
The answer given was: 'The source is not here.  The enemy is not at hand.  None can reach the weapon that strikes you down.'

We believe the words of the stars and strike out at the enemy we can.  I do not believe the Stredans are behind this.  Others think simply that some of them have placed themselves beyond our reach.  In either case, the People will not wait for death to take us.”

This seems to match what The Lady told me when I prayed to Her for guidance.  When I asked Her, “How best may we, your champions, permanently remove the corruption of the Tolnan Heart Tree?”  She replied, “Find the other place; source of the illness; discover the keeper; turn the key.”

I had been working on questions for the Commune I will pray for in the morning (we are not sure where to go from here), but I had to take a break, so I decided to write this.  I think I have done as much as I can on my own; I had better go check with the others.  I don’t want to miss any important questions.

May the blessing of The Lady be with us all, especially the Tolnans, and May Hevian’s Gods hold him in the high regard he deserves.


----------



## DoctorB (Aug 3, 2002)

*Joy's Commune*

*Joy’s Commune with The Lady – Tenebrea 18, 417*

*Questions about "the other place, source of the illness"*
1	Can we, your champions (and our companions), using the skills, powers and artifacts we currently have in our possession-right now, reach "the other place, source of the illness" that you mentioned in my divination yesterday?  
NO
2	Will it serve us in our goal to find "the other place, source of the illness" that you mentioned in my divination yesterday to begin by approaching the Tolnan Heart Tree? 
YES
3	Can we learn the location of "the other place, source of the illness" that you mentioned in my divination yesterday from the creatures near the Tolnan Heart Tree? 
NO
4	Is “the keeper” that you mentioned in my divination yesterday Stredan? 
NO


*Questions about "the keeper"*
1	Is “the keeper” that you mentioned in my divination yesterday evil?  
MOST DEFINITELY
2	 Is “the keeper” that you mentioned in my divination yesterday regularly present in "the other place, source of the illness" that you mentioned in my divination yesterday? 
YES
3	Would “the keeper” that you mentioned in my divination yesterday normally inhabit the area in which we will find it?
NOT NORMALLY, NO
4	Is “the keeper” that you mentioned in my divination yesterday what he/she/it appears to be?   
THAT IS DIFFICULT TO SAY, BUT I WOULD HAVE TO REPLY, YES


*Questions about "the key"*
1	Is “the key” that you mentioned in my divination yesterday regularly in the possession of “the keeper” that you mentioned in my divination yesterday?  
YES
2	Is “the key” that you mentioned in my divination yesterday an object? 
YES
3	Is “the key” that you mentioned in my divination yesterday magical? 
YES
4	Is “the key” that you mentioned in my divination yesterday most strongly made of divine magic?
YES


Bonus question: Does restoring the shrine at Merrowe require my attention within a certain amount of time?
YES


----------



## DoctorB (Aug 28, 2002)

*Under the Trees*

“I should have known better,” Selmi Hewflank thought to himself as the Champions of the Lady marched into the deep Tolnan forest to take on a corrupted Heart Oak.  A dwarven priest of the Mountain, Selmi had once done great deeds on his own in a group of adventurers who fought evil in Irmak.  He had known Cobbe only as a very intelligent and interesting Innkeeper who also happened to be his friend.

He had become overconfident he now realized.  The group’s success had blinded them to the growing power and organization of the evil forces in Irmak.  They had not been prepared when a combined force of creatures had attacked their camp.  He had been the only survivor.  Despondent, he returned to Skiros alone.  He had heard of the legend of the “Straw-Hat Knight” but he had not realized that his old friend was that hero.

Not trusting his own instincts anymore, Selmi resolved to place himself under the command of Cobbe and his Champions of the Lady.  He respected the Lady and the other good human gods even while he practiced the hard priesthood of the Mountain.  Selmi had met Cobbe again outside the Dwarvenrealm and had pledged himself to fight in the Champions’ cause.

Never did he imagine he would be marching into a dangerous forest to battle a tree.  The head Druid of the wood elves, Galen, had left them at the edge of the corruption several hours walk from the Heart Oak.  At first, the woods seemed supernaturally quiet, as though waiting for something.  Slowly, the sounds of occasional small mammals and insects appeared nearby.  Those sounds seemed to follow the party as they penetrated into the haunted looking forest.  Only slowly did he and the others realize that increasing numbers of these small creatures followed their progress.  Soon they saw a female figure ahead of them.

She would have been the most beautiful thing he had ever seen if half of her face and body had not seemed diseased and twisted.  She introduced herself as Crea and tried to talk Cobbe and the others into leaving the forest.  The Heart Tree had no personal grudge against them, she explained, but would have to destroy them if they continued.  Even as she talked, the small creatures around them gathered.  Naturally, after everything he had been through, he was not surprised when the squirrels attacked.

Well, it wasn’t only the squirrels but every kind of small forest mammals.  Insects flew and crawled to that attack and every little creature seemed wrong somehow.  Either their limbs did not curve as they should, or their fur remained only in patches.  Though hundreds of creatures attacked them, Selmi realized that one intelligence governed their actions.

The many small enemies were more of an annoyance than a real problem, though the cumulative effect of dozens of tiny bites began to tell.  More importantly, Selmi began to feel strange, as though his fortitude were being drained from him.  Only when Joy yelled did he realize that some of their attackers had come from below.  Worm-like creatures had burrowed into his skin and began attacking him from the inside while he had been distracted by the more obvious attacks.

As soon as he realized that these strange grubs were attacking them, Cobbe cured disease on Joy and Liana.  Not waiting for his Lord to get to him, Selmi applied fire to his own wounds to destroy the creatures.

Meanwhile, Arin transformed into a silver-grey dragon to help the others fight or escape the attack.  As soon as he did, Liana, wielding Huranel in battle, got a strange look and attacked him with the sword.  It was almost as if her left hand sword tried to stop the right hand from attacking him.  Selmi had heard the others talk about Huranel as an elven sword pledged to fight dragons, but it seemed the weapon had a mind of its own.  Fortunately, Toiva was skilled in the art of disarming and Huranel spun out of Liana’s hand.

Soon the Champions had routed the remains of the furry mammal and insect army, at least for the moment.  The Champions gingerly managed to get Huranel back into its scabbard at Liana’s side as Arin changed back to a human form.  Selmi had the distinct feeling that the Tree merely tested them with the first attack.


----------



## Piratecat (Aug 29, 2002)

Cool!  Talk about creepy....


----------



## JoyHealinghand (Aug 29, 2002)

*yeah, right*

Cool says the man who did not have rot grubs burrowing in through his feet.  It was almost enough to make a hobbit start wearing shoes ... almost.


----------



## DoctorB (Aug 29, 2002)

*Under the Trees*

After only a few minutes of walking, Selmi heard the rumble of hooves, like a giant cavalry charge.  Looking into the clearing to his left, he saw two great and twisted Boars charging at them.  Toiva faced down one of the behemoths and took serious wounds in the process.  As the other attacked Selmi and Cobbe, Liana struck it from behind.  This time Arin kept his human form and tried merely to distract the beast.  After both creatures had been dispatched, Selmi helped Joy to heal the wounded.  The Champions staggered on, but Selmi had the feeling that the Heart Oak merely toyed with them before exerting its real power.

Selmi could feel the closeness of the Tolnan forest close around them as they approached closer to the Tree.  The forest seemed if anything more twisted than before, with writhing shapes on all sides suggesting constant attack.  Nonetheless, nothing bothered them for a long time.

Finally, a rustling in the underbrush signaled something moving towards them.  Crea burst from the forest and threw herself at Arin.  The others raised their weapons, but they all noticed that her demeanor had changed.  Before she had shown only cool confidence.  This time, she seemed genuinely distraught.

“Please, you have to help us!” she cried.  “Save the master!  It is being changed slowly for moons now.”

Everyone seemed to speak at once, ready to ask their questions, when the twisted dryad called out again.

“No!  He knows I am here!”  As she started to rise and the expression on her face began to change, Toiva stepped up and knocked her out with one flat-bladed strike.  Before they could absorb what had just happened, darkness abruptly fell over them.  Even Selmi’s keen eyes, used to seeing in the deep caverns of the Dwarvenrealm, seemed struck blind.

Combat raged inside the darkness as the party tried to move clear of the effect to see what was happening.  Selmi knew only that some giant creature attacked him and Krag with great limbs.  He heard Galena chanting a spell and he hoped she would remove the darkness, but her frustrated curse revealed she had failed.

He heard the hill dwarf grunt as the blows connected even as Arin picked him up to carry him out of the darkness.  Selmi also worked his way out of the darkness to find giant tree creatures fighting Cobbe and the others.  One of these looked more humanoid than the others.  Selmi had heard stories of the shepherds of trees, the Treants, but this one was twisted and diseased like everything in this accursed forest.

Selmi, Toiva and the dragon Arin fought an awakened tree even as Cobbe, riding Lady Breda, charged the Treant, who was some distance away awakening another twisted tree.  The Lord of Pella found himself trapped between Treant and one of his servant trees as the others finished the corrupted plant they were fighting and ran to his aid.  Even as the Treant seemed about to collapse, it stepped back and invoked another sphere of intense darkness.  Undaunted, the Champions continued to fight.  Selmi took serious wounds and heard the crash of metal as Cobbe fell from his warhorse’s back before Toiva’s greatsword cut down the creature.

Carrying his fallen liege-lord from the scene of the fighting Selmi could see immediately that Cobbe was beyond hope.  He could do nothing to help.  

The Straw-Hat Knight was dead.


----------



## KidCthulhu (Aug 30, 2002)

Yeek!  Say it ain't so.


----------



## DoctorB (Sep 6, 2002)

*The Heart Oak*

Unwilling to abandon their quest, even upon the death of their leader, the Champions pressed on toward the corrupted Heart Oak.  They carried with them the bodies of Cobbe and Krag, the hill dwarf.  Lady Breda showed no such patience.  Seeing that her knight was dead, she huffed once and turned back toward the Wood elven encampment.

Finally, the great tree came into view.  The trunk was a broad as a house though the canopy started only a little above other trees in the area.  Its broad branches extended at least forty feet beyond the edge of its bark.  The Heart Oak remained awe-inspiring in its majesty, but now that awe came tinged with disgust and fear.  Great swaths of white covered large parts of the tree with disease while once shapely limbs had become twisted and black.  Nothing lived near the oak.  Even the twisted animals of the forest seemed to avoid it.

Pausing at the top of a small hill, the Champions considered whether the tree posed a direct threat to them and debated how they could hope to heal it.  Finally, they decided to move forward and see if they could communicate with the plant or at least find the Arms of the First Oak, the artifact the heroes needed to restore Master Horus.

While most of the party concentrated on the tree as they approached, Liana happened to look back at the hill they had just descended.  Her eyes widened as the hill itself rose up behind them.  A great mouth opened in its center as tentacles of living plant sprung from its sides.  The corrupted forest affected even this terrible monster.  Once made of leaves, twigs and other healthy plants, the beast now seemed made up of blackened and diseased fragments of living things.  Liana quickly warned the others of the danger towering above them.

“*Run for the Tree!*”  Joy shouted as the plant-monster attacked.


----------



## Piratecat (Sep 9, 2002)

Yeesh! You're a bad man.



> Her eyes widened as the hill itself rose up behind them.




Who knew that knolls would still be a challenge?


----------



## DoctorB (Sep 9, 2002)

*Cobbe is Dead, Long Live Cobbe!*

[DM Note:  These are a series of Emails that the player of Cobbe and I exchanged the week after his character died to the Treant.  He suggested he would like to role-play his death.  I had never done that before but I think it worked out really well.  The question was whether Cobbe would want to come back when Joy (presumably) tried to raise him.  I started to change all the pronouns to put it into third person but didn't like the way it sounded.  I still think it is really cool, though, so I will post the exchange as is, but in several pieces.  BTW, Clarice is Cobbe's wife.]

[From DM]

The battle rages around you, the corrupted Treant towering over you ahead while you know it’s awakened ally comes from your rear.  Darkness has hampered your ability to finish the enemy and you worry about the success of the others.  Suddenly, the double blow comes from behind you and all goes black…  

You awaken to the smell of flowers.  Opening your eyes, you see that you are sitting on a garden bench.  Unknown but beautiful plants surround you with paths winding between fruit-laden trees.  The sound of flowing water creates an undercurrent of peace and serenity.

“Walk with me,” the quiet voice speaks, and it is familiar.  Looking up, you see Clarice as she looked when you first met her.  Her eyes are calm and she wears a flowing blue gown.

You walk quietly with her through the garden, coming suddenly upon a small waterfall leading to a pool before joining the nearby stream.  Looking into the gently moving water, you see that a scene emerges behind the water’s reflection.

An enormous tree towers over you.  As broad as a house, it rises and spreads out creating a canopy above you, dwarfing the fully-grown trees surrounding it.  Though you can guess the beauty of this place when it was healthy, the great tree exudes corruption.  It’s branches twist in a way that seems unnatural, and its bark seems diseased.  Pulling away, you see the entirety of the Heart Oak, as surely this must be.

Focusing on the tree, you suddenly realize that the surrounding forest is gone.  The tree remains but now you are in a different place.  A vast strange plain extends in all directions.  Beasts move on the horizon, but now the great tree stands alone.  Still, it looks wrong somehow, though it obviously belongs here just as much as it did in the Tolnan woods.

“All it would take is one leaf or twig for Joy to transport my Champions to that place.”

Abruptly, you are falling away from the tree.  Its enormity seems diminished as you see that the ground surrounding it is subtly curved.  As your perspective grows, you see that the Heart Oak sits on an unimaginably huge cylinder.  Then you see the other branchings from the monstrous structure.  It must be a tree limb!  As you fall away, you see that the Heart Oak is only a tiny part of a much mightier tree, bigger perhaps than the entire world.  Looking down, you see misty shapes that might be still larger branches in an even larger creature of wood.

“Here, I am able to show you a few things more plainly than I can when you are part of the world,” the image of Clarice says gently.


----------



## DoctorB (Sep 10, 2002)

*Cobbe is Dead, Long Live Cobbe*

[Cobbe]
"Hmmmm.  Well, what I'd really like to know is: what's the point?  Life, I
mean.  Now that I'm dead . . . I am dead, right?  Now that I'm dead, I'm
here, and it's beautiful and smells nice and it's peaceful, and my joints
don't ache and I can see more clearly than since I was  . . . well, ever.
It's nice, you know?

Bein' alive has it's good points, I suppose, but often it hurts.  So why
bother with the bein' alive part?  Can we not just jump straight to the
pleasant afterlife part?  And skip the fear and sufferin' and hurtin'
part?  Or at least hurry through it quicker?

So, sure, I understand that you're fighting against the forces of evil,
but what I'm wantin' to know is why it matters.  I mean, here's heaven,
full of goodness, and if good and innocent people are killed down there
they just come up here, so why bother fighting to keep 'em alive and,
y'know, thus preventin' 'em from comin' here sooner?  Seems like keepin
'em alive we're just extending the length of time that the evil can get at
'em.

And while we're at it, I'm havin' trouble with the whole killin' in the
name of goodness stuff.  I mean, yeah, the Drow are torturing and out to
commit hurts on others, and the hill giants, and orcs and whatnot.  . .
but while me and your other champions are beatin' 'em to pudding and
settin 'em on fire, aren't they just as afraid and suffering and all?  Is
creating "fear, pain, and untimely death" in evil folks not just bringin'
about more fear, pain, and death?  And isn't that bad?"


----------



## DoctorB (Sep 11, 2002)

*Cobbe is Dead, Long Live Cobbe*

[DM]
"My dear Almer," she replies.  "You have already done great deeds to further the cause of goodness in the world.  You are here because you have earned the right to walk in these gardens for as long as you like.  The most precious part of what you are is your right to choose your own destiny.  If you want to understand what is happening in the world, I will do my best to explain."

"You are correct that those innocents who know goodness and die will come to this place, but the strength and beauty of the celestial plane is built on the belief and struggle of generations of people like you holding back the forces of evil in the world.  The forces of the Triad and their allies can corrupt even innocent spirits.  Good only exists in the world as long as others live exemplifying the traits of goodness for present and future generations to see."

"I will tell you a secret.  We the Seven did not create you.  Nor did the Triad.  We exist only so long as people in the world believe in us and place their trust in us.  We are the embodiment of all that is good (or evil) in your mortal nature.  The gardens you see around you are built from the aspirations of benevolent people."

"As for killing in the name of goodness, the Knight would have a quick answer:  'those who are irredeemably evil serve only to strengthen the Triad.  Their destruction is an act of goodness then because those creatures' own spirits are already condemned.  At least they do not take others with
them.'"

"I would answer instead that killing for any reason can be a taint on your spirit.  Many of my followers, including Marigold Healinghand who I believe you know, have taken a vow never to kill any living thing.  I honor and respect those who make that decision, as I do those who tend more to the Knight's view."


----------



## DoctorB (Sep 12, 2002)

*Cobbe is Dead, Long Live Cobbe*

[Cobbe]

Oh!  So . . . so Heaven . . . and . . . and *you* . . . don't have an
independent existence?  I mean, it's goodness in world that sustains you, and heaven . . . and I guess the world also makes Hell and the chaos plane and everything . . .

So if goodness "lost" in the world . . . so goodness isn't inherent?  If I'd grown up in a slave pit and never seen anything in my life but cruelty, I'da been evil too?  Hmm.  Hard to fathom.

But see, it's confusing.  So the world really is super-important, and . . . all these other, uh "planes" are . . . reflections, sorta, of aspects from the world?  But . . . we've fought devils and chaos worms and whatnot *in the world*.  If those things are just reflections of aspects of the world, how come they're so damned powerful?

And "irredeemably evil?"  I mean, is that really how it works?  Orcs
*aren't* irredeemably evil.  Or else Bacha's taken us for a long ride in a covered wagon, bringin' his full-blood orc relatives right into the Pella.

Mph.  Well.  Okay.  Joy's going to ask me to come back, I figure, if she lives through the fight with that damned treant.  Sounds like if I want there to *be* a heaven for Ana and the rest of the kids--and their kids--to get to, there's more that needs doin' down there.  Unless you've got someone lined up to replace me that you think'll do a better job.  I am just an old man.  When I'm not dead, anyway.



So about that Tree.  You said "All it would take is one leaf or twig for Joy to transport my Champions to that place."  It seemed like the tree was sorta . . . uh, simultaneously in both the world and that other place.

So . .  . can we just pluck a leaf off the tree in the world and use that to go to the other place?  Or what about the "Arms of the First Oak"--is *it* from the aspect of the tree in that other place, maybe, and could we use it to go there?  Or . . . what?

So the Tolnan Heart Tree is kinda like a branch of the gigantic tree.  Do the other branches of the gigantic tree all form, like, other heart trees? Where?  Are they in the world, or . . . or. . . .

Is the whole gigantic tree sick?  It's awful damn big.  It . . . it's like
a . . . is it Yggdrasil?  I've heard of a big tree named Yggdrasil that
holds up the world and other . .  worlds.  Planes, I guess.  But I thought they guy telling me this was Other-touched.  At the very least he was drunk.  Because if it holds up all the planes, what does it GROW in?


----------



## DoctorB (Sep 12, 2002)

*Cobbe is Dead, Long Live Cobbe*

[DM]

She laughs.
" So many questions!  I will respond as I can.
I cannot speak for the existence of all the planes, but the Seven of us created the heaven that you see.  Many strange creatures exist in the world and the planes reflect all of them somewhere.  Some of them have since made the planes their home sometime in the distant past.

Leaving them aside, the beliefs and emotions of thinking beings are powerful.  The creatures here are built up over centuries and millennia while only one generation of beings lives in the world at one time.

'Irredeemably evil' is a difficult concept for me, and a subject of many debates among us.  It seems to me you must weigh the damage the evil being can do to others against the chance that it might be redeemed.

As for the tree, it exists in a place that reflects all wooden objects that ever were.  The Heart Oak is also in the prime material plane (as some call it).  One piece of the tree would allow Joy to transport the Champions to that 'Plane of Wood.'  Not all of the tree is corrupted.  The corruption is very localized (at least for now).  I cannot show you the actual source of the corruption, even here.

Come, there is another gift I wish to give to you."

She takes your hand and leads you to a doorway in the garden.  Stepping through, you find yourself on the slope of a hill.  Grass and flowers extend from your feet up the hill.  Above you stands a low tower of smooth stone.
The sky above it is perfectly blue with not one cloud.  The sun stands high in the sky and makes the air comfortably warm.

The image of Clarice picks a white rose from the flowers at her feet and hands it to you.  Taking hold of the stem, it suddenly feels different in your hand.  Looking down, you see a silver key with a rose symbol carved into the handle.

She takes you up to the door and opens it.  Inside you see a hall with tables.  An open doorway leads to a kitchen, while stairs lead up to higher floors.

"This place can serve as an occasional haven for you.  I have given you the key to return here.  You will find that one day here lasts only one bell on your world.  You may only visit when the Haven is close enough for you to reach.  That is only true on the monthly Festival of the Lady [first ladyday].  At least here you can occasionally remember who you are and why you fight against such terrible enemies.  It will also give you time to strengthen yourself without endangering our allies by a lengthy delay.  Use it well."

She turns away from the tower and you find yourself again in the garden of the Lady.

"Walk here for as long as you like.  I am certain we will speak again soon."

Though you cannot say when, she is suddenly gone.  You find yourself alone in the garden again.  Night is falling but the fireflies continue to light up the beautiful plants and waters with their light.


----------



## DoctorB (Sep 12, 2002)

*Cobbe is Dead, Long Live Cobbe*

[Cobbe]
Oh, shoot; I forgot to ask her about Meroway.  Joy keeps gettin' all bent outta shape about Meroway, and then looks at me like it's my fault.  Bad for morale . . . Ah, but it's nice here. . . .  [heavenly crickets . . . trickling waters] 
. . . Maybe I can ask the Lady about . .  What did I want to ask her?  Ah well.  [snooze].


----------



## Type_II_Gamer (Sep 12, 2002)

No freaking way, when I die, it's going to be that nice. I'll probaly get assigned to the gardening team or something....

Toiva, on hearing Cobbe's tales of the afterlife...


----------



## Sacred Cow (Sep 12, 2002)

Type_II_Gamer said:
			
		

> *No freaking way, when I die, it's going to be that nice. I'll probaly get assigned to the gardening team or something....
> 
> Toiva, on hearing Cobbe's tales of the afterlife... *




(checking clipboard) "You, Cobbe! Go be an angel and walk amongst the beautiful flowering trees. You, Toiva! Here's a shovel and there's the manure patch. go make those trees flower so Cobbe can enjoy them."


----------



## Type_II_Gamer (Sep 12, 2002)

Fair enough. Toiva does have a talent for shovelling the manure...


----------



## DoctorB (Oct 14, 2002)

Sorry I have been so slow to update.  Real life keeps getting in the way.  In the meantime, here is something the player of Bacha wrote about his doings recently:

*Bacha Tales
Part 1*

Bacha, the Black Tiger of Irmak and the 143rd Fist of Yakun, listened to Cobbe’s recitation of his dream the night before.  The Yakuni people were threatened and required Bacha’s return.

“It is clear, Beer-Pourer, that I must go.  Your visions, gifts from the Prophet, do not lie,” Bacha said impassively, “I will leave immediately.”

To the surprise of some, Bacha the Fist, immediately gathered his belongings.  It took a few moments for the Champions to realize what this meant.  

Joy, ran up wrapping her arms around Bacha's leg, tears streaming down her face, but a brave smile on her lips and whispered, “be careful.  I'm gonna miss you until we see you again.”

Bacha grunted an indecipherable response as he continued to pack.  [Spot check 25: Are he eyes really glistening?]

The others, one by one, said their farewells.  Bacha nodded to each in his gruff, stern manner.

Then, without warning, Bacha dropped to one knee, facing his companions, “fight well, live well, and die well, Honored Elders.”

The huge half orc rose, spun on his heel and strode away toward the city gate.  

Bacha paused a moment and turned his head to look back with a fang-filled grin on his face, “and be sure not to bleed while I am away....”

[Bacha’s Humor roll: 8.  Not bad for Bacha, but pretty feeble by human standards]

****************

Bacha ran at a brisk pace along the rocky road, leaving the city of Sazan far behind.  His hair ringlets clinked slightly together at every step.   His glaive was held low in his hand, multiple scalps hung from the shaft, swaying in time with his stride.

Although the half-breed barbarian only left that morning, the city’s gaudy décor, huge crowds, and the overwhelming stink of human filth were thankfully now a distant memory.

Still, his thoughts turned back to the “Lady’s” Champions.  The servants of the Triad and creatures of the Spiral had attacked them repeatedly.  How would they fare without the Fist to defend them?  

His eyes moistened slightly.   He had grown fond of them  -- all of them.  Although he would never admit it, he missed Joy’s prattle about the mid-evening pre-supper meal, and the Beer Pourer’s devotion to the Prophet.  Their faith was strong.

Their faith needed to be strong to fight against such monstrosities.

Never, in all of his experiences in the wilds of Irmak, had Bacha seen such beasts as they had fought.  Truly the need of the tribe must be great for the Prophet to send him back to Irmak in the face of such dangers that the Champions fight.  

Did his tribe fight such beasts as well?  Few among them would last more than a few seconds in combat against such things.

A chill ran up his spine at the thought.

Bacha pushed on.

*****************

Bacha, the 141st Fist of Yakun, bent down to examine the corpses strewn about the clearing.  

Bodies of hobgoblins and their hacked-apart dire wolf mounts lay scattered about.  

Bacha’s orcish eyes picked up the glint of a Yakuni blood spear, as well as few Yakuni arrows.

This had been an ambush.  

From the tracks it was apparent that the hobgoblins were traveling southwest in pursuit of the Tribe.  This hobgoblin cavalry force was a smaller war party of the larger pursuing horde.

Yakuni braves, at least thirty according to the tracks, had lain in wait for their pursuers.  There appeared to be no Yakuni casualties, although at least fourteen hobgoblins and six wargs were brought down.  The hobgoblins and wolves scattered during the attack.  Although many were slain, more escaped. 

The battle occurred not 3 hours ago.  Bacha was close.

******************

It had been three weeks since Bacha left the Champions of the Lady.   He had traveled almost constantly, pausing only for eating and short naps.  

He would have already reached his people several days ago if they had not been on the move.

He examined the tracks of the Tribe.  They were heading almost due west, out of Irmak.  

An Irmakian force of at least ten times their number was locked in pursuit and was slowly gaining on the fleeing Yakuni people.

It was obvious to Bacha that the Tribe’s Voice had commanded them to flee Irmak in the hopes that the horde would be unwilling to follow the tribe out of their homeland.  

If the tracks were any indication, the gambit hadn’t worked thus far.

Bacha spotted his first living member of the enemy force about one hour later.  A dozen hobgoblin cavalry that had paused to examine tracks and hadn’t noticed the giant barbarian stalking them through the hills.

Without saying a word, Bacha walked into the middle of the force and soundlessly began swinging his glaive.  Hobgoblin bodies fell without heads, wolves collapsed with their riders, as the whirling blade slashed among them.  One wolf managed to cry out before being felled.  

Before the bodies even stopped twitching, Bacha removed the water skins and food sacks off of a couple of the fallen.  He opened one flask and took a long, hard drink.  He replaced the cork and quickly and stealthily disappeared into the rocky foothills.

*************

The cry of alarm quickly turned to one of recognition as Bacha entered the Yakuni encampment.  The half orc was wounded in over a dozen places and his left eye was swollen shut.   “Where are the Elders? I must speak with them immediately!”

Jorak Skullsmasher, his left arm ending in a bloody bandaged stump spoke up, “it is good you are here, Fist of the Prophet, for the times are dark and our people suffer.”   He points with his remaining arm toward the center of the camp

Bacha immediately altered his course to take him straight to the elders without saying a word to the wounded that surround him.

It had been a difficult journey for Bacha.  As he got closer to this encampment, he had to pass through many of the enemy.  He had used all of his arrows in addition to many that he stole off the dead.  Bacha lost count of the numbers he had killed after about ninety, but his many wounds were a testament to their ferocity and great numbers.

A young brave, no older than sixteen years of age spotted the Fist and moved to intercept him.  His torso was bare and heavily muscled.  Despite his young age, he was clearly an accomplished warrior, and carried a long spear with many hobgoblin scalps tied to it.

The young half-orc clearly favored his human parent.  From the looks of him, Bacha deduced that this was Yargath’s son.  

The boy ran to block Bacha’s path.  With a look of anger and youthful passion on his face he cries out, “Hail, Fist of Yakun!  The Tribe bleeds because you were not here.  I invoke the Shagra and claim your Office by right of combat!”

Not now, thought Bacha.  He needed to meet the Elders immediately.  The pursuers were only a half a day behind the tribe and something clearly needed to be done quickly.

Bacha pushed past, “Begone, Son of Yargath.  It is not your time.   I must speak with the Elders.”

The youth’s anger flared even stronger.  He leapt in front of the Fist, barring the way with his long-spear.

A crowd of Yakuni had begun to gather at the sound of the exchange.   Almost all of them bore some wound or injury from the last few weeks of fighting.

Bacha’s temper began to flare.  He had traveled three weeks at a speed that would kill most other warriors and now his own people blocked his way!

Inhaling deeply, Bacha controlled his anger and spoke out, “The Fist has returned.  I have killed Enemies of the Tribe.  I have been to the human realm.  I have met the Beer-Pourer and Bridge-Builder and the path to our Salvation is before us.  I have been to the Heavens and seen the Halls of our Ancestors.  I have spoken to the Herald of Yakun.  Will you, my own people, hinder me as I go to meet our Elders?”

Bacha’s words seem to have a profound affect on the crowd and they began to nod in agreement. Some eyes widen in awe at Bacha’s words.  The path once again opened in front of him.  Some dropped to their knees.

As Bacha tries to leave again, the youth once again blocks his path.

“I am Yir, 3rd Son of Yargath.  I have challenged you to combat and you flee me?  Our tribe suffered and you fled then?  Can it be our Fist is a coward?”

Bacha paused.

If those words had been spoken only one year earlier, Bacha would have removed the youth’s head from his shoulders before the word “coward” could be fully spoken.  Not now, however.  Bacha knew the tribe was short of fighting men.

“Yir, Son of Yargath, you do not know your place.  You will stand down or be struck down,” Bacha’s voice growled in warning.

Yir lunged at Bacha with the long spear but stopped short as Bacha stepped forward, letting the spear pass under his arm.  The heel of Bacha’s hand slammed into Yir’s jaw, breaking it with an audible crack and knocking the youth unconscious.

Bacha stepped over Yir’s unconscious body to meet with the Elders.


----------



## Type_II_Gamer (Oct 25, 2002)

*The winner and still the champion...*

By the Lady, Bacha has become quite the diplomat...


Toiva of the Lady.


----------



## Bacha the Fist (Nov 1, 2002)

*diplomatic Bacha*

You should see him negotiate with the Lady of Pella.  His -2 diplomacy skill rolls get him invited into the manor for dinner at least twice a week!  (okay, maybe not.)


----------

