# Outsiders of Aera



## Cloudgatherer (Jan 15, 2002)

The continuing adventure of the Outsiders of Aera from the old boards.  The old link can be found here and I'll work on putting the complete story into a single document.

The campaign takes place in my own campaign world called Aera, and those interested about some of the details can browse them here.  It's not much to look at, but it provides some basic info on the world (and allows me to be vague so I can throw in twists and turns).

From time to time I'll post NPCs in the Rogue's Gallery, here.  Feel free to post requests if you want to see a character posted!

Since some of you may be new here, I'll introduce the characters! (In alphabetical order).

*Austarian Galanodal* (male elven Rogue 8):  The talented rogue often goes by the simple name of Star while around the campfire or in the local inn.  His skills are exceedingly adept for the art of stealth and sleight of hand, sometimes too good.  Star is especially knowledgable about organized crime and has pulled off a heist or three in his past.  Star is currently in possession of the Amber Flame of Kurisk, the Kurisks being the dwarven mafia family of Saven, a Polarian city

*Canthor* (male elven Cleric 9):  The elven cleric of Bryle was something of a lost soul until he came to Aera.  His past had been locked away by a strange form of amnesia that has since been cured, but the road has been long with still more to go.  An ex-cleric of the deity of war on his home plane, Canthor abandoned his ways of evil by joining the church of Bryle and works to protect his fellow party members and serve the church of Bryle.

*Gale Glory* (male human Fighter 9):  The strong, silent Gale is somewhat of a mystery.  During his relatively short time in Aera, Gale has proven his valor in combat time after time.  His beloved double bladed sword once held a piece of his very soul, however when his sword was shattered in a recent battle against a pair of dwarven brothers, Gale lost part of his essence and strives to recover it.

*Gwenlarianna Melaidon (Gwen for short)* (female elven Ranger 9):  This elven lass has a talent for handling animals and exploring the wilderness.  On her home world she had trained as a Pathfinder, an elite group of guides and protectors who escort caravans and others on the road.  During her time on Aera, she has become interested in the Riders of Gryphon's Nest, and one day hopes to become a Gryphon Rider.  Gwen currently carries two pieces of the Medallion of the Gods, a powerful artifact in the land of Aera.

*Lorethian Eldanesh (Lor for short)* (male elven evoker 7/War Wizard 2):  Lor is a frail wizard of war who has been immersing himself in magic his entire life.  A distant relative to the king of his native kingdom, Lor has fallen into his element in the current chaotic war situation in the Free North of Aera.  Lor's weakness is his frail health and will cough up blood on a rare occasion.  One of Lor's goals is to find a cure for his malady.

*Remus* (male human Fighter 9):  The tall, strong Remus has only recently overcome his fear of fire (thanks to the help of some fire resistant chainmail).  In combat, Remus serves as the party's tank and has been referred to as the party's "blender".  Remus is also an accomplished blacksmith and is one of the few people on Aera who has been able to use the legendary Forge of Liquid Fire.  His greatsword emits an eerie green glow and at odd times he has been caught talking to his weapon.

*Tarmus Woodblood* (male human Bard 9):  Tarmus is a seasoned bard.  He has travelled the world and sailed the great sea to lands beyond.  Originally from a farming family near Mydrana, Tarmus set out for adventure instead of continuing to work on the dying soil.  His knowledge of Aera and support role in the group has been invaluable.  He has an especially strong disgust for the Phantoms (assassins organization).  Recently, Tarmus was reunited with his younger brother Yeric, a skilled swordsmen.


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## Cloudgatherer (Jan 15, 2002)

*The Story So Far...* 

Summoned by a _gate_ spell gone awry, our heroes found themselves in the midst of a battle that would have severe repurcusions for the rest of northern Aera.  The wizard who had summoned them was _imprisoned_ by an elven archwizard, sealing off their way home.

Since their abrupt arrival to this foreign plane, the Norther Alliance suffered the loss of Gryphon's Nest, its most powerful member, due to a "change in government" involving a discreet elven extremist group known as the Sulimarin.  The withdrawal severely weakened the Free North, as the remaining cities could only wait for what was to come.

In the meantime, our adventurers traveled Aera, clearing out an old dungeon, making deals with a certain Polarian ambassador (Lady Lia Quickwater), and exploring the war oriented Polary.

As half the party emerged from Polary, the kingdom attacked its first free northern city:  Ralanov.  After a week of fighting on the walls, the party witnessed a man known only as the Dark Wizard, Polary's only recognized wizard (and apparently only wizard), use his magic to slay the main gate's defenders and allow the invaders into the city.  The city fallen, our adventurers reunited in Aenith.  After a week or two of preparation and adventure in Aenith, the inevitable occurred and Polary set their sights on the Aenith, the city of Bryle.

Thanks to our adventurers, the city started their defenses with their most prestigious paladin, Katrina Purelight and the Summersword.  Katrina served to inspire the other paladins of Bryle, while the Summersword served as the conduit for focuing the cleric's power to raise a barrier of light to protect the city from attacks.

After a month of on and off combat, our heroes have been staying at the Warrior's Courage and taking their turns on the walls.  Our party has also become something of a celebrity in the town of Aenith, having saved Katrina from the Dark Wizard, and prevented the Summerswords theft by the Phantom Ellison Lance.

And so the story continues....


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## Cloudgatherer (Jan 15, 2002)

*The Conflicts Within...* 

Wings.  Flapping wings.  Many large flapping wings could be heard by the elven ears of Gwen and Star as they sat at their usual table in the Warrior's Courage.  Peering into the continually lit sky, five gryphons and their riders passed through the barrier of light encompassing the city.  The barrier turned aside half of all projectile hurled at Aenith, prevent translocation, communication, and scrying into the city, and was capable of resisting magical attacks.  As a side effect, the town was bathed in continual daylight, with only the moon providing a hint to the time of day.

The five gryphons and their riders landed in the courtyard of the Temple of the Spirit, an elaborate temple dedicated to Bryle and projecting the barrier of light over the city.  In total, nine people dismounted the five gryphons.  Sheila Freefall, an elite gryphon rider, gave them a wave as she dismounted Winter, he white gryphon.  Each of the other four gryphons had a rider and a passenger, but it was the passengers that caught the attention of the gathering townsfolk.

Two wizards, wearing the emblems of the Guild Wizard's of Gryphon's Nest dismounted.  An elf in a green robe and a human in blue robes stretched their aching legs, as Olon Matran, the head cleric of the Temple of the Spirit, emerged to meet them.

Tarmus gave out a shout of excitement as the next passenger dismounted.  Yeric, his younger brother, had managed to convince the Riders to give him a ride into the beseiged city.  The brothers hugged as the two began telling their stories.

The last passenger to dismount was a strange halfling.  Wearing bright blue clothing with a streak of blue hair in his otherwise brown mop, the other riders were keeping a watchful eye on the pint-sized curiousity.  He fluttered about, often picking up mundane items to have a look, then returning them when he was through.

One of the riders asked the party about an inn to stay at, and the party suggested the Courage.  Meanwhile, Olon was examining a sword that resembled the Summersword, obviously a sun blade as the guild wizard in the blue robes pulled the blade a quarter out of its scabbard for Olon's inspection.  Olon shook his head, and the wizard placed the blade back on his belt.

The group made their way back to the Warrior's Courage.  The pair of wizards sat at their own table and immediately started talking to each other, their voices low.  The Riders retired for the evening, including Sheila, in order to sleep off the effect of riding the gryphons for hours.  The halfling in the bright blue clothing introduced himself as Milo, and proceeded to examine various items of interests.  Despite Star's attention to detail, Milo managed to examine his money pouch, but was caught putting it back.

"Nice pouch," Milo remarked.

"Give me that!" Star exclaimed.  Needless to say, the party started paying more attention to the small pick pocket.  He had this tendency to see something interesting, lift it off of someone, examine it, then put it back.  Most of the time, this was done without anyone noticing.

The sound of bad pipe playing immediately behind him caused Tarmus to spin around in his seat.  Milo had "examined" his pipes and was trying to play a tune.

"How do these things work anyway?" the halfing inquired.

"Here, let me show you," Tarmus sighed as he took up the pipes and began to play a melody.  The sounds fascinated the halfling and held his attention through the entire song.  During his play, Tarmus laced his song with the suggestion that Milo turn over his mace to him.

"No, I don't think so," Milo smiled at him.  Apparently, Milo was strong willed.

Meanwhile, Star could see an old man, a patron who often told "ghost stories" and similar strange tales, and the blue robed human wizard apparently talking to themselves.  "Odd," thought Star, what could he possibly be saying.  Listening carefully to the old man, he could only hear that he "did not want to return" and that he "was too old."

"You there!" the elven wizard suddenly exclaimed, pointing at Lor.  "Where did you get that?" he asked, pointing at Lor's wand.

"We recently rescued Katrina from the Dark Wizard, perhaps you've heard of it?" Lor inquired.

"No, I haven't.  The wand, where did you get it?" the elf repeated.

"We recovered several items from the tent Katrina was in.  This being one of them.  If you know what to do with it better than I, then please," Lor stated as he offered the elf the wand.

The elf's anger drained from his face.  Lor had reacted unexectedly, and offered the wand to him.  Taking the wand, the elven wizard broke it over his green robed knee.

"Can you cast a light spell?" he inquired.  Lor quickly went through the motions and summoned the cantrip, enchanting a copper piece with magic light.

Lor picked up his spellbook, placed it in his pack and joined the other wizards at their table.  Lor's manners and decor managed to ease the wizards' moods, and stories spilled forth.  The magic just destroyed was known simply as "dark magic."  It was discovered long ago and was once the cause of some distress among the Gryphon's Nest Guild Wizards.  The guild eventually banned the use of the alternate form of magic, but the troubles didn't end there.  A long war ensued, with renegade guild members driving the practicioners of dark magic to extinction.  The "war" had happend over a hundred years ago, but the memory was still fresh in the minds of several wizards, including Avery, the elf in the green robe who had just broken the dark magic wand over his knee.

A man matching Lor's description of purple clothing and a black mask had come to Gryphon's Nest.  Apparently, he managed to buy his way in, which is normally refused.  While in the town, he conducted some business, and left with a few magic items.  Regardless of if he was a dark magic user or not, the blue robed man stated flatly he did not wish to see another war.

The blue robed human, who did not give his name, went on to tell of his position of leadership in the guild, not a position he wanted.  The previous leaders of the order fled Gryphon's Nest when the elves came, and leadership fell to him and two other wizards.  He and Avery had come to Gryphon's Nest to deliver a sun blade to Olon Matran and conduct their own business.  They would be in town until their business was completed.  Lor thanked them for their company, and wished them well as he rejoined the his friends.

"You heard that?" Lor asked, seemingly no one in particular.

"Yes, all of it," answered Star, who had successfully eavesdropped on the entire conversation.  Lor nodded and returned to his seat.

The hours rolled by.  One by one the adventurers retired for the night.  However, one of them had an unexpected visitor.  As he entered his room, Gale could hear a clear voice.

"Come in, close the door, and listen to what I have to offer," the voice stated.  The Dark Wizard's voice was in the room, somewhere in the dark corner, but Gale could not make out any shape.  He did as he was asked.

"What do you want with me?" he asked in his usual grim manner.

"It is what I can do for you.  I have something that might interest you....a piece of your soul." Calmly the Dark Wizard proceeded.  "I came across it unexpectedly, and I can restore it to you.  I'm offering you the chance Gale, the chance to join the winning side.  Join me and the Mithral Blades, and you'll be well rewarded for your efforts."

"What do I have to do?" Gale inquired.

"Not so fast.  I require an answer, now.  This is a one time offer.  Join first, then you get the assignment," he replied.  The silence only hung over the room for a moment before Gale opened the door and walked out.  He proceeded out into the night air, needing to clear his mind and think about the things that are important to him.

Star found him wandering around the city, and the two returned to the Courage.  Star learned of the events in his room, and Gale eventually passed out on a table.

The next morning, the party members exchanged information. The fact the Dark Wizard was in the city concerned the party, however there was little they could do about it.  They had informed the Temple of the Spirit, which already had at least a couple dozen clerics around at all times several city watchmen.  The party proceeded to gaurd duty on the walls, and the watch passed uneventfully.

As the party's shift ended, they saw Katrina heading for the center of town, the Temple of the Spirit., with a city watchman  She gave them a smile and a wave as she went.  Normally, she would have gaurd duty, but perhaps she was summoned to the temple today? Lor's mind began to race, but it was only a smile and a wave right?

Canthor and Gwen wished to talk with Katrina and decided to tag along with her as the rest of the party returned to the courage.  They three talked for a bit about the attack, the arrival of the wizards and other small chat.  As the conversation progressed, additional watchmen started to walk with them.  Five, then ten, then fifteen, and finally twenty watchmen were escorting Katrina and the other watchman to the temple.  As the group approached the temple, Gwen started to get worried.

"Excuse me, Katrina," Gwen started, looking around at the numerous watchmen.  Katrina kept walking as the watchmen barred Gwen and Canthor's path with quickly drawn shortbows and arrows.  As Katrina and her accompanying watchman entered the temple, the watchmen attacked.

Why the watchmen were attacking them raced through Gale and Gwen's minds.  These were true members of Aenith's defensive force, they had seen them on the walls, around town on patrol.  Their more immediate concern quickly became survival.

The swift moving Gwen quickly informed Canthor she was going for help, and did so.  Meanwhile, Canthor had used his magic to protect himself from his attackers as numerous arrows, grapples, and longswords deflected off of his armor.  He held them off valiantly until for a long minute until his companions arrived.

The rest of the party, excluding Remus who moved slower in his armor, quickly arrived back at the temple.  The watchmen were split in two groups, one around Canthor flailing on him with longswords, and another aiming their bows at the rest of the party.  The party swung into full action, Lor unleashing a fireball killing half of the watchmen instantly.  The explosion made the remaining watchmen look at the carnage, and only one fled in terror.  The remainder were quickly slain by the rest of the party, however two were subdued as Remus, the party leader, arrived on the scene and gave the order to do so.

The party quickly proceeded to the temple's main entrance.  The temple was generating the barrier of light that was protecting Aenith, if anything were to happen...

A wall of ice greeted the party as the doors were opened.  Taking his greatsword, Remus proceeded to cut through the ice.  The tepmle beyond was covered with ice, over a dozen dead clerics were frozen stiff, Olon stood in the middle of it all, Katrina was withdrawing the Summersword from the altar, and the Dark Wizard was waiting patiently in the corner with his hands on a blue staff topped with an expensive diamond.

"Katrina, what are you doing?!?!" Gwen cried out as she ran in.  Unfortunately, she collided into a wall of force.

"I'm trapped in a sphere, go around!" Olon called.  However it was too late.  Katrina handed the Dark Wizard the Summersword, and he quickly cast a _dimension door_ to take him elsewhere in the city.

"He's still in the city!" Lor called out.  "He'll be close, within a couple hundred feet!"  As the party spilled into the temple, they had another problem, Katrina was attacking them!  Star left in search of the Dark Wizard, hoping to stop him before he unleashed his next plot, while the party had to fight a paladin of Bryle.

"She's being controlled, don't kill her!" Olon called from his force prison.  Katrina nearly had Gwen on the ground before Canthor could heal her, but in the end Katrina was no match for the party and fell unconscious on the ground as the sky turned back to blue, the light barrier having disappated.

The party did what they could with the fallen Katrina, binding her with rope and removing her weaponry.  The wall of ice and the hemisphere of force wore off around Olon, and he told the party he would handle the situation here.  The party quickly set out, heading toward the main gates, the sound of increased fighting, and....loud footsteps?

On a cross street in front of them, a large, scaly, tailed cornugun turned and headed for the gates.  Glancing over his scaly shoulder, he saw the threat, and turned to meet it.  If pitty could be felt for devils, it would be here as he never had a chance despite his magic abilities, size, and deadly whip.  

In the space of two short breaths, Gwen had fired her most deadly volley of arrows ever.  Her mighty composite longbow obliterated the monstrosity by plunging several well placed arrows in the creatures skull.

Even after it fell, Star still held his drawn bow on the creature.  "I'm worried, don't these get back up?" he inquired.  Lor searched his memory, and Star was correct.  Olon was quickly retrieved, and he blessed his a weapon and ended the creatures evil existence.

The party proceeded to fight on the walls alongside the people of Aenith.  For twelve hours the onslaught raged on, the Polarians were pressing now that the barrier was down.  Finally the retreat was called, and the Polarians withdrew to a safe distance.  Heavy damage had been done on both sides, but the city was safe.  A comforting thought as our adventurers drifted off to sleep...


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## Cloudgatherer (Jan 15, 2002)

I'll give 500 XP to the first PC to register and post a reply.

I thought killing the watchmen was a little excessive.  Anyone else think so?  Out of 20 people, 17 died.  The Dark Wizard made good use of dominate person, but his little band was quickly overrun.

The one who ran away actually succeeded in his Will save (natural 20).  And as of the end of my last post, Katrina and the two watchmen who are still alive are in Aenith's jail, possibly still under the Dark Wizard's influence.


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## Gwen (Jan 15, 2002)

Hello!   I win!  oh, also, my name is spelled Gwenlarianna, but you guys don't know that.

Hello to new visitors- and i hope you come back often... we don't bite...  much.   

-Gwen


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## Cloudgatherer (Jan 15, 2002)

A reply typically involves answering the query in the previous post...(cough cough, wink wink, hint hint).  Sheesh.

I spelled the name as I had it on the character info you sent me...copy paste in fact....


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## Gwen (Jan 15, 2002)

heh, heh, now that i know i am the first poster, i can post an actual reply.

I did think that killing all those guardsmen was a little bad, but we couldn't do much about breaking the control.  I guess we could have gotten a really big net and tried to tie them up.    but I don't really know how well that would have worked.  

Pretty cool with my bow huh?  i kicked butt!!     And now that i have leveled, i shall kick even more.  

Oh, and the best thing about the adventure was that I got to say "hi" to Winter, Shelia's gryphon.


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## Cloudgatherer (Jan 15, 2002)

Did anyone know the watchmen were being controlled before the fight was over?

*[Edit]:  In the spirit of giving (well, it was the holiday season), I'll give 300 XP  to anyone that posts before this Friday's game.  Game feedback, adventure ideas, character info and the like will all be appreciated.  This doesn't apply to Gwen, as she has already posted and collected her reward.*


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## Gwen (Jan 15, 2002)

i had no clue... athough, i couldn't really figure out why they wanted to attack us either.

Lor thought that a) They were enemies in our uniforms or b) being controlled.  However, he didn't expect to thoroughly slaughter them though...


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## Lor (Jan 18, 2002)

For 300 Exp I'll bite...  not that I'm selfish or need exp to motivate me...  never.  =)

As a quick note and follow up to last week's adventure:  at the end of the fighting, exhausted, completely out of magic, and having been fighing for far too long, Lor demanded to go to the temple to check on Katrina.  Upon reaching the temple he inquired as to her health and that of the other two caputred guards.  Olan replied that they were fine, but had been magically bent to the Dark Wizard's will.

Lor, realizing what he had done, dropped to his knees mumbling under his breath incoherently.  Remus had to phyisically carry Lor back to his room.  Sleep offered no respite that night.

-Lorethian "Lor" Eldanesh


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## Gale Glory (Jan 19, 2002)

*Hangover...*

I drank too much mead...my head hurts...can't remember much except the Dark Wizards offer.  I need some coffee.


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## Cloudgatherer (Jan 19, 2002)

So I forgot a detail or five...that's why it's nice to have a few players remind me of such details .

It's 6, I'll use this as a reference for awarding XP.


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## Remus (Jan 19, 2002)

The party has made quite a few unwise decisions in our short time in Aera, with the killing of innocents becoming an all-to-common occurrence.  The first time this happened, it happened to a hapless human griffin rider; some harsh words were exchanged between the party members, and it became evident that no one had wanted him to die, not even the one who flung the fireball. Sometimes, in the heat of battle, things get confusing and decisions have to be made quickly, usually for the best, but not always.  Eventually, I found that the first act was justifiable from a player's perspective, yet I still think it is unacceptable from the view of my character. 

This latest event could have been avoided just like the last one, but it wasn't.  Cloud asked whether or not anyone _knew_ that the guardsmen were controlled. Yet as most things, only the DM is privy to such absolutes; the rest of us have to guess.  As a player I was fairly certain that they were under some sort of mind control, it just "makes sense" with the rest of the campaign.  But of course 90% of role playing is separating character knowledge from player knowledge. 

What did Remus think?  Well, he had lots of time to think about it because being encased in metal along with having the title of party pack mule usually assures my late entrance to battle. Remus saw the same guards that had been fighting next to him for the past month now attacking his friends.  He doesn't know anything about the arcane arts except for the tried and true "get out of the way when the little guy in the funny hat starts to mumble."  But ever since Remus killed that paladin of the evil fire god (it was an accident, I swear!) he has been a little weary of leaving humanoid opponents in little pieces all over the battle field.  Remus has learned that corpses don't say as much about the evil one's plans as prisoners do.  He feels so strongly about this, he is taking a feat which removes the penalty for dealing subdue damage.  I think Remus would not have killed any of the guards had he been able to get there before it was all over.  All he did was yell out to the others not to kill the last two guards. 

From the player's perspective, I understand Lor's player's use of fireball.  I think he thought that it would only soften them up rather than kill them out right.  Oops.  But Remus is confused by Lor's actions, since he was the most vocal during the aftermath of the griffin rider incident.  Canthor's actions also bother Remus, since it is doubtful that Bryle would have condoned them. 

Tonight we will see what the rest of the siege holds for our party, and hopefully we can keep the body count down.


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## Remus (Jan 19, 2002)

*TARMUS  - Yeric's backstory*

Remus was kind enough to lend me his account, since this !#$%!@#$% board software refuses to let me register...

Anyway, guess I'll post good 'ol Yeric's background here, as I described in my earlier e-mail to our illustrius DM.  It's pretty rough, given that it was just pulled from a mailing; I apologize in advance.
-----
Background: Yeric was very young when his brother Tarmus left the farm, entrusting it to his future care when their parents grew too old to do so themselves.  He was a passable farmer, and started his help with the chores at an appropriately young age.  However, the same wanderlust that struck and eventually took his sibling always held a place in Yeric's heart as well.

As such, he was fascinated when a wounded, grizzled old man wandered onto the farm, seeking refuge.  His name, or at least, the name he claimed, was Arthir Conrad (lvl 14 Successor), and of his background he spoke very little.  They knew he hid from someone, or something, but the family was able to glean little more.  He did his share of the chores, though, and as the months passed, he fit in like he'd always been there.

While his own past was carefully guarded, Arthir was more than happy to regale young Yeric with tales of the lands he'd picked up in his travels, from the Free North to Polary and even to beyond the ocean.  The boy had no real talent for recalling the stories, however much he enjoyed them, but what he _did_ show some skill in was battle.

Each day, the elder warrior would wake just before sunup and retreat to the woods to train his craft before the days' chores needed doing.  For weeks, thinking himself unobserved, Yeric followed, watched, and later would try to imitate the strangely controlled, yet incredibly powerful movements.  Until the day Arthir, who had himself been secretly observing the younger's attempts, revealed himself and offered to train him with his parent's consent.

The older Woodbloods thought it a good idea, for they knew the land well, and doubted there were more than a handful of harvests left in its increasingly barren fields.  Their offspring would need to go forth into the world and learn a new craft.  The world was a tough place, and a man couldn't go wrong knowing how to defend himself.

Yeric showed a natural ability for the art, and although the word "successor" never touched his lips, his unequaled natural alacrity and farm-bred hardiness, coupled with a keen mind and attention to detail, sped his studies greatly.  Months turned to years, and the farm indeed petered out, leaving the family with what little savings they had on hand and in danger of being unable to support themselves.  But they were given a blessing, in the return of the elder Woodblood sibling, Tarmus, back from lands unknown.

It was Tarmus who had the brainstorm that would save the farmstead.  With Arthir's agreement, the bard set out to find young men and women with the potential to be trained in combat, and yet had the means to provide some payment.  Nothing extravagant, as the extra hands could also be used to work on tilling and revitalizing the land, but enough to support such a large community in the meantime.

Yeric, however, soon became restless, especially as his brother's tales of adventure mixed with Arthir's in his mind.  With no farmwork to occupy his time, he soon set out on his own, seeking to both join his brother and his strange band of stranded outlanders, as well as help in collecting neophytes for their odd training academy.
---


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## Cloudgatherer (Jan 20, 2002)

*Milo and Trouble at Ralanov*

Sleep came easily to our adventurers, save Lor.  The slaying of almost a dozen watchmen on his behalf will trouble his weary mind for days to come, but in other respects the sleep was refreshing to our heroes.

Awaking at midday, they joined a rather large crowd in the common room of the Warrior's Courage.  People were celebrating, drinking, feasting, and swapping stories.  In particular, the well-known bard, Jaren Windwalker, stood among a group of townsfolk and providing them with news of the outside world.  Since the collapse of the light barrier around Aenith, magical communications into the city will once again work.  Tarmus and Star pulled Jaren aside when the opportunity presented itself, and Jaren was more than happy to share what he knew with the subjects of some of his most recent tales.

For starters, Ralanov has nearly been liberated.  The Northern Alliance had mustered an army and had been attempting to retake the city for several weeks.  The tide has turned in the North's favor thanks to a new hero with the name of Lugtee Hardroc.  Lugtee became famous for rescuing Devon Treespire, the lord of Ralanov, and the two of them have been leading forays into the city in an effort to liberate it.  In sadder news from Mydrana, the people there say they have witness Cloudgatherer's death, having seen him consumed by some magic spell.  In happier news, King Starfire of Glarcaster is still looking for a queen, but is narrowing his search and the elven nation of Huranti is celebrating their king's (Aran Leafpath) 100th birthday with a month long celebration.

As for local news, the Polarian army has withdrawn, retreating toward the west (towards Ralanov).  Thrin has left for Ralanov to assist in the fighting, and Katrina has also left on a quest to redeem herself in the eyes of Bryle.  The next day, the clerics of Bryle will hold a service for the slain watchmen, clerics, and the other casualties of the Polarian attack.

The news was a bit for the party to take in.  So much has transpired in the last month, but it was good to once again hear of the outside world.  Over the midday meal, the party discussed the news and celebrated along with the people Aenith.  Lor was not present at the time, he had left much earlier.

While the party saw Milo in the common room, they did not pay him much heed.  The halfling, curious as ever, proceeded to wander about the room, looking for anything curious.  The party held many interesting items (at least to Milo):  Tarmus's pipes (still not sure how to play these), Remus' selection of weaponry (a halfling could get lost in here), Star's lockpicks (nice tools), Gale's dagger (eh, just a dagger), and Gwen's pet rock.

"Gwen's pet rock?" Milo thought.  The halfling studied the rock intensely, as if seeing something in it that others could not.  Sitting at his table, Milo started to bang the rock on the table.

"Bang, bang, bang."

"Ow, ow, ow!" exclaimed Gale.  Milo paused for a moment.  Could there be a relation here? Naw, that would be silly...

"Bang, bang, bang, bang" Milo thwacked the rock faster upon the table.

"Yeeeoooow!  Gimme that!" cried out Gale, as his fellow adventurers, and half of the inn, watched the party close in on the halfling.

Star took the rock from Milo, who admitted to lifting it off of Gwen.  The rock was originally looted from the Dark Wizard's personal chest.  However, not being magical, the party had not paid much attention to it.

Gale took the rock from Star and Star offered to buy Milo a few drinks.  As they sat together at the bar, Star kept a close eye on the cleptic halfling.  While Milo has always put whatever he has "examined" back so far, Star wasn't taking any chances.

<Slap> "Eek," Milo exclaimed, Star having slapped his hand as he reached for Star's dagger.

"Here, take this," offered Star, giving Milo another cup of mead.  "Why were you banging that rock?"

"There's something in it,"  Milo answered, "some kind of glow."

"How many has he had?" Tarmus asked Star, who gave a him a smirk.

"I know!  I'm going to the library," Milo announced.  "Wait... no I'm not...I didn't say that," he added before leaving.

Star, Remus, and Tarmus followed the halfling.  After carefully avoiding some of the librarians, Milo settled down at a table and started to flip through some books dealing with spirits.  The three also saw Lor brushing up on his reading, and passed along the situation to the elven mage.

The party lounged around for several hours.  Around dinner time, Milo returned, a triumphant look upon his face.  Gale's soul piece was in the rock (or was the rock), and Milo could perform the ceremony to restore it to him (more specifically his weapon).  Milo would only require a few things for the ceremony:  a certain type of elven wine, a bathtub full of water with soap, couple kegs of beer, a variety of fruits, lots of meat, a dagger with an ivory blade, an antique rocking chair, and a large room (the Warrior’s Courage most expensive room).

A little puzzled, the party acquired the requested items the next day.  Star "acquired" the bottle of wine (he picked the lock, took the wine, left the money for it) the previous night.  While a few members of the party attended the service for those slain in the attacks, the other members spent their time in the marketplace.  As nighttime rolled around, everything was ready.

Milo ran about the room, seeming to put everything precisely where it needed to be, often moving an item an inch or two in a direciton and re-examining its position.  When he was satisfied, he asked Gale to stand in the middle of the room and placed the other members of the party in specific locations.

Milo then asked Gale to drive his blade into the rock.  Gale hesitated, but with some reassurance from Milo, did as the halfling asked.  There was a small spark, the rock disappeared, and Gale fell to the ground.  Canthor immediately checked on him, he was alive and unconscious.

"Whew, glad that's over with," remarked Milo, popping open the expensive elven wine and starting to drink.  The party stared at him for several long moments.  "What?" he asked.  "Throw him in the tub and let's have a feast!"  With a shrug the party joined in.

Gale awoke the next morning in a bathtub, in the middle of a room with food everywhere along with his passed out friends and Milo sleeping on the bed.  He also had a tattoo on his arm that said "Mom", courtesy of Star (who doesn't really know how to give tattoos).  Gale was upset with the halfling, but Milo reminded Gale that he fulfilled what he said he would do:  restored Gale's soul back into his blade.  Gale decided he would not give Milo a beating.

While Milo was enjoying his large room, new antique rocking chair, and ivory letter opener, the party proceeded downstairs for their morning meal.  As the party finished their morning meal, Olon Matran, high cleric of Bryle, entered the Courage.  He asked the party to do what they could in Ralanov, as it would only be a few more days before the army that had left Aenith would pound the Northern Alliance forces between them and the walls of Ralanov.  The party readily agreed, and as soon as they could locate Lor they would be off.

However, locating Lor was a bit of a problem.  The party checked the library and found he wasn't there.  Next, Olon cast a sending to Lor, asking him his location.  Lor returned a short reply to the effect of "I'm busy" that made Olon's eyebrow rise up a bit.  Slightly frustrated with the elven mage, Olon cast a scrying spell to see for himself.  Lor was speaking with a cleric at the Temple of the Spirit.  At the temple, Lor refused to emerge from the clerics chambers, and Olon had to ask the party to respect their privacy (there was some mention of having Remus knock the door down, but he wisely asked Olon for a key instead).

Without Lor, the party proceeded to the Great Library.  Olon asked the party to trust him as he handed each of them blindfolds.  He was not supposed to show the party "this", so if the party doesn't see it...  The party proceeded down a few flights of stairs blindfolded, each holding the shoulder of the person in front.  When the party did stop, they could hear a small "whoosh" sound.

"After you feel a disorienting sensation, you can remove your blindfolds, but not before."  Each member was given a small push, and reality spun end over end. As quickly as it had started it was over, each standing on solid ground once again.  Removing their blindfolds, the party took a look around.  The were in the courtyard of Temorana, Ralanov's castle and central building.  They had emerged from one of over twenty archways in the courtyard leading to the main entrance of the castle, which they were only (roughly) 50 feet away from now.

The sound of lightning rang out from above the party.  Looking up quickly, the party could see the end of a lightning bolt shoot out from one of the upper levels of the castle.  In the same breath, the castle's main doors burst open, and a well tanned, tall, muscular bald man grunted "Who you?" in bad Common.

"Hi!" greeted Star, "Olon sent us."  Star drew a silver short sword, a piece of proof Olon had provided them to avoid being killed by the forces of the Northern Alliance.

"What? Where you come from?" the barbarian grunted, trying hard to figure things out.  The barbarian was standing in front of a heavy plated dwarf, and a woman dressed in traveler's clothing holding her bow.  When Star inquired of her if she was the one in charge, the fighting began.

Quickly the party took cover behind the archways.  The portal that had brought them to Ralanov had closed immediately after the last member had emerged, but they had moved little since then.  Gale quickly few up to the barbarian, striking him with his double bladed sword.  The barbarian returned the favor in spades, dishing out a good sum of damage to the fighter.  Yeric also rushed in, attempting to close on the bowwoman quickly.  In response, the dwarf in full plate called on his divine powers, and placed a blade barrier around the party.  Luckily, all four party members affected managed to avoid it, and the fighting continued.  Remus became paralyzed during the fight, Gale and Gwen were nearly slain by the raging barbarian, but in the end the party proved victorious.  Gale slew the barbarian, Remus knocked out the dwarven cleric of Valeya, and the female rogue was subdued in a similar fashion.

The fight over, the party proceeded to tie up their captors.  Elven ears could hear footsteps approaching their location from within the castle.  Quickly Star closed the doors and asked Remus to hold them shut.  The large man looked at the elf, took out two rods, and holding them against the doors, he clicked a single button on each of them before walking away, leaving the rods suspended in the air.  (Gotta love immovable rods).

The footsteps came to the doors, and attempted unsuccessfully to open the doors.  Seconds later, a magical doorway appeared just in front of the castle doors and Lord Devon Treespire and a man with bright red hair emerged.  The red-haired man pointed a staff of swirling colors at the party, but Star was already holding out the silver sword once again.

"Wait, wait.  We are foes of Polary," he called to the pair.

"Who sent you, lad?" asked the red-haired man, still holding his staff on the party.

"Olon sent us," Star answered.  This seemed to convince the red-haired man, now lowering his staff.  Devon however, wasn't as thrilled.

"Thieves!" he spat at the party, pointing accusingly at Gwen in particular.  "You stole from me and now..."

"Not now," the red-haired man stated, holding his multicolored staff across Devon's chest to hold him back.  The Lord of Ralanov appeared to have a respect for the staff as he quickly quieted.  The red-haired man introduced himself as Lugtee Hardroc.  He and Lord Treespire have been conducting hit and run missions into the city for several days, attempting to weaken Polary's hold.  However, in the last few days (since the fall of Aenith's light barrier), they have had to contend with the Dark Wizard, who they have fought to a standstill thus far.

"I suggest we leave for now," Lugtee suggested.  The party readily agreed, and hoisting their prisoners they proceeded to leave the city while avoiding Polarians.  A squad of 20 came upon them suddenly, but just as suddenly Lugtee dispatched of them with a single prismatic spray from his staff (which blinded Star and Yeric, Star was healed by Canthor, but Yeric would have to wait).

At the Northern Alliance camp, several hours later when Lor had met up with the party (teleport), Lugtee informed them of the situation:  they are going to retreat.  While they would have taken the city with continued raids by Lugtee and Treespire, the Dark Wizard has made the situation more difficult.  The approaching army would flank the Northern Forces and crush them.  And so, the plan is to retreat to Gryphon's Forest, use the trees as cover, and think of a new plan.  The party consulted Thrin over the suspected rumor of Cloudgatherer's death, and it came as news to her.  The party knew more about it than she did.  After spending the night rumaging through their spoils (the three they defeated were Mithral Blades, Polary's "not-so-secret" police force), they distributed a few items of magic before settling in for the night.

The next day, Lor, Gwen, and Star teleported to Mydrana to learn more of the rumors.  Sure enough they found eye-witnesses who claim to have seen the archwizard be "consumed" by magic.  A following blast of light blinded onlookers, but they found the clothing of the wizard.  Only the wizards of Mydrana Magica would go near the clothing.  Star managed to arrange to see the clothing, he even asked if he could have it, but the wizards refused (go and make a similar set of clothing, they told him).

The three returned to the Northern Alliance camp, and debated their next course of action.  Star was vocal in his desire to vanquish the Dark Wizard, once and for all.  Lor was doubtful, he suspected the party would suffer heavy losses if not slain outright in such a fight.  The debate lasted quite some time, but in the end Lor's opinion prevailed, and the party would retreat to the Gryphon's Forest with the army.

*DM's Notes:*  The fight went a little easier, especially since I forgot barbarians have uncanny dodge and Star dealt quite a bit of sneak attack damage (did I say barbarian? I meant barb/fighter).

Also, did I get the final decision right?  There was quite a bit of discussion at the end of the session on "what do to next".  Any decision is fine with me, but the worst decision is indecision!

Anyhow, let me know how you enjoyed the adventure.  Any ideas for future escapades, plans, or personal vendettas (damn that Dark Wizard, damn him to the Burning Depths!) feel free to respond.  I may or may not offer XP this time so beware!


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## Gwen (Jan 26, 2002)

Hi!

I have been noticing stuff about the player's interactions with the world.  Recently, it seems that events are kind of scripted for us...  I have been thinking about the event with Milo, and how he solved Gale's problem for us.  Milo did all of the work, and discovered that Gale's soul was in the rock, and how to get it out of there.  I think that it would have been a little more fun and challenging to have the players try to solve the problem... for example:

-Gwen is walking along, and falls down (trips or something... or falls off her horse) and lands on her pouch with the rock in it.  
-Gale yells out in pain when Gwen lands....
-Party puzzles over this for many hours... and discover the cool rock in Gwen's pouch
-Party realizes they have to get Gale's Soul out of rock...
-Party (maybe just the smart ones... certinaly not me with INT of 10) goes to the library to see if they can find something out about this rock
-Party succeeds   and Gale is restored.

Now I understand that this would be a little harder to set up (you have to get Gale to react to me landing on the rock w/o giving too much away), but I certainly think that this would have involved the players a bit more in decisions that are going on. 

Now, also, don't get me wrong.  I am not saying that I don't like anything that is happening to us.  I like the fact that we can decide what to do with the army outside of Ralanov, as well as help Katrina out of the Dark Wizard's camp.   

Well, Gwen is ready to kick more bad-guy butt.... we'll see what happens this week.


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## Gwen (Jan 26, 2002)

Hi again!
I just want to say (kinda in response to my last post) that tonight's adventure was lotsa fun because we got to choose a lot of what we did in the tower.  While I am sure Treespire's defection to the Dark Wizard's side was planned, it wasn't scripted as to how we were going to get out of the situation.  I have to say that I had a lot of fun jumping off of the castle.


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## Cloudgatherer (Jan 26, 2002)

The scenario with Gale can be called "scripted."  The party had the stone for several adventures and didn't wonder "Gee, why would the Dark Wizard have an ordinary rock in his chest of magic goodies?"  (Although I have an idea for a wizard who has a pet rock...)

First, I decided to use it to try and bait Gale.  He was offered his soul restored to him, in return for his help.  Naturally, he refused.  I did try to give Gale the choice (it is his soul after all).  So, after several adventures I had Milo "lift" it off of Gwen and pound it hard on the table and the rest is known.  If Gale had handled the rock earlier, then he would have felt the rock's warmth, just as he did in the last story hour adventure.

Since I never intended to take it away in the first place (I didn't know he wanted his soul in the sword when it was broken), I decided to make it relatively painless to get it back.  Gale suffered a little RP embarrassment and the party had a little celebration!


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## Cloudgatherer (Jan 26, 2002)

*Betrayal at Temorana*

In the Northern Alliance camp, our heroes discussed their present situation.  Olon had sent them into a warzone, but the North had already committed to retreating to River's End via Gryphon's Nest.  The party, it would seem, is running out of options and the outlook for Aera looking dimmer by the day.

As the party chatted amongst themselves, an irrated Lord Treespire entered the tent followed by Lugtee Hardroc.  "You!" he pointed accusingly at Gwen, "Return my amulet to me."

"How do you know I have it?" she retorted.

"You were the only one who could have known I had it.  I felt the presence of your piece, just as you felt mine!"

In her defense, the party laid out their situation.  They needed the Medallion of the Gods to free Cloudgatherer and to return home.  Treespire found this tale amusing, as he broke out into laughter at the thought.  The party was quite serious, which gave Treespire a reason to pause and evaluate the story.  He wasn't given long to ponder over it.

"Didn't you want them for something?" Lugtee asked Treespire, a hint of annoyance in Lugtee's voice.

Of course he did.  With reluctance, Treespire proposed a dangerous plan:  he wanted to sneak back into Ralanov and retreive a cache of items he still has hidden in his castle, Temorana.  He would be willing to "forget" about the medallion business in return for their services.

Star's ears instantly perked up.  The party readily accepted the task, and Star in particular took the lead role.  Treespire provided him with a rough layout, a guesstimate as to the defenses, and their target location:  which he asserted he had to access, otherwise someone else's life may be forfiet.

Night came quickly as the party prepared for their escapade.  Sneaking into the city was rather easy.  Multiple gaps in the walls, the cover of night, and Star's expertise easily solved the problem.  Making sure to conceal their sources of light, the party and Lord Treespire approached Temorana's outside gates.

Several hundred feet away, two lone guards stood watch.  Lor, in bat form, surveyed the castle itself.  There were an additional sixteen archers on the roof.  The roof was only four floors up, with each floor being twenty feet to climb.  Their destination was the third floor.

"Take them out quietly," Treespire stated.  With stealth, Star and Yeric crept along the arches along the walkway to the main entrance, as well as their targets.  In two breaths the problem was taken care of and two guardsmen would never rise again.

Using the cover of the arches, the rest of the party proceeded to open the large wooden doors of the castle just enough to fit inside.  In a small, twenty by twenty foot room, a large iron door blocked their path and small circular slots, designed for hurling alchemists fire, flanked the party on each side.  Pulling a scroll from his pouch, Treespire started a spell and an opening appeared to the left of the large iron door.  Treespire had cast a passwall to get through the stone instead of the iron.

The room beyond served as the Lord's audience chamber.  Doors on the right and left and the throne in front of the party.  As Treespire closed the passwall spell that had brought them into the room, Star could hear several footsteps approaching the left door.  The party hid along the leftmost wall, except for Lor, who hid by the throne in a polymorphed mouse form.

Five loud guards opened the door and stepped in.  Closing the door, the talked for a few breaths about the taking of the city and how the army from Aenith would ensure their hold upon Ralanov.  The party was still hiding along the left wall, just barely out of sight, however if they crossed the room to the other door, they would easily be seen.

Sure enough, they did.  Instantly Canthor cast silence, muting any sound.  In the span of two breaths, five guards lay dead or dying in a silent throne room.

Proceeding with care, the party proceeded out the right door.  This brought them to a large corridor, with several doors, but led them to the stairs proceeding upwards.  In mouse form still, Lor checked around.  To the far left of the stairs, three more guards sat at a large dinner table eating.  At one of the table, Lor pushed off a metal plate and ran through another door.  One of the guards cursed the rodent, asked the gods for a cat, and left the dinner area.  Two guards left.

After some debate, the party decided on stealth, and Treespire concurred.  Most of the party easily crept by without making so much as a sound.  However, Canthor made enough noise for the feasting guards to take notice.  They shrugged it off, must be someone on patrol, or a guardsman going upstairs to train.

The party passed by the second floor, listening only long enough to hear the crack of wood on wood:  training.  Treespire described a training area on the second floor, along with wooden weapons.  There were a few still awake and making use of its facilities.

Proceeding up the stairway, the party arrived at the third floor.  In total, an invisible mouse who was Lor, scouted the floor and noted the six longspearmen on watch.  The party quickly formulated a plan, turn Lor, Star, and Treespire invisible, proceed to the room and retreive the items.

With ease once again, the trio made their way across the floor.  The invisible Lord of Ralanov tried the door, it wouldn't budge.

"This door shouldn't be locked," Treespire whispered to Star.  Quietly, the rogue proceeded to pick the lock, however he found the door already unlocked.  Something else must be holding it shut.  

"Go back, let me handle this," asked Treespire.  Star acknowledge, but instead crept around another corner, and proceed to wait.

Several breaths went by.  The door didn't move and no sound came from Treespires direction.  Anxiously the rest of the party waited in the stairway, which suddenly lit up with an explosion of fire!

The spidery words of magic turned Treespire visible as he hurled the small red bead at the stairway.  The party had disguised themselves as Polarian patrolmen, but now they were *scorched* patrolmen.

The stunned guards of the third floor looked in both directions, trying to understand what is happening.  Treespire pointed at the stair way, "You have intruders," he informed them curtly, and in a softer tone directed at the stairs, "I'm sorry."

The fight began in ernest. The guards quickly raised their voices in alarm as Treespire teleported himself away.  Lor and Star, keeping invisible, attempted to make heads or tails of the door Treespire had brought them too, while the rest of the party fought for their life.  Canthor manned the stairway, and the rest of the party engaged the longspearmen.  The battle was close, Yeric, Tarmus's brother, fell once, but his brother quickly used his bardic healing magic to stand him back on his feet.  Remus single-handedly fought three of the foes himself, killing two and nearly slain by the third, but was saved as Yeric rushed over and slew the guard.  During the battle, Canthor unleashed a deadly flamestrike down the stairwell, buying the party precious time.  In a flash of insight, Tarmus pulled out a scroll and created a thick wall of stone to block the passageway.  It wouldn't hold for long, but it would have to do.

Beaten, stabbed, burned, and in a general state of pain the party proceeded to heal itself through spells as they discussed their options.  In short order, they decided upon escape via the roof.  Getting out his tower shield, Remus lead the party up the stairs.

The longbowmen had their arrows ready, patiently waiting for a foe to show itself.  It was unusual for someone to lug a towershield up four flights of stairs, and so the archers opened fire.  Over a dozen arrows plunged into Remus' shield.  The party hesitated slightly, Gwen fired an arrow back at the longbowmen, while they unleashed another barrage at Remus, this time aiming for his shield specifically, dealing damage to the formidable barrier.

Around this time, Tarmus hit upon an intelligent plan.  He quickly cast an illusion of burning Polarians, running out of the stairway screaming "Fire, the castle is on fire!"  Needless to say, this served as an excellent distration, as the party poised themselves to make their way down the castle using Remus' immovable rods and rope.  In the meantime, Lor had poised himself to use a feather fall spell to bring everyone down quickly and safely.  Unfortunately, the party had two plans:  an invisible Lor asking the party to jump on his mark, and Remus and Star setting up the rope to climb down.  Tarmus, Yeric, and Gale choose the rope.  Star climbed down himself.  Lor teleported away, and Gwen decided to jump over the edge (perhaps she was thinking Lor would use his magic).

Lor arrived back in the Northern Alliance camp.  He quickly sought out Lugtee.  Lugtee had sensed Treespire wasn't returning to the castle for some item, but something else.  Using a detect thoughts spell, Lugtee had used it on Treespire, mostly because he didn't entirely trust him.  He sensed Treespire was sincere upon returning, and hypothesized he got a "better offer."

Meanwhile, the rest of the party quickly left Ralanov, and decided to make their own camp, away from each side of the conflict.  The next day, Lor rejoined the party, using his polymorph spell to cover the distance.

Once together again, the party discussed the recent events.  Remus and Star were concered over Lor's actions, or lack of action. He did not fling a single spell for the party, and instead teleported himself away at the end.  Remus questioned Lor about trust and liability, while Star felt a trip to the Temple of Natural Balance was in order.  In any event, they had several days to discuss it, as they decided to walk back to Aenith.

During the trip, Tarmus had the hardest time remembering some of his lymerics.  Each day he remebered another line, and after several days he recalled the lymeric in its entirety.  Using the Dark Wizard's wall of stone spell on the scroll had caused some damage to Tarmus, but he quickly recovered as his mind once again sharpened and his mind was no longer dulled.

Arriving in Aenith, the party proceeded to the Temple of the Spirit and met with Olon Matran.  He was sorry to hear of the betrayal, and wondered what the party expected of him.  He informed them the transportation which had brought them to Ralanov could not be used to take the party directly to a person, but to a specific place (ie the main entryway to Temorana).  As a favor, Star asked Olon to scry upon Treespire.  Reluctantly, Olon did as he was asked.

Treespire lay awake in bed with a young woman by his side.  The chambers were elegant, but the party had not seen the room before.  Sitting up in bed, Treespire became aware of the intrusion, and dispelled the magic.  The room had been viewed for all of two minutes.

Star wanted Treespire caught.  He asked Lor to teleport the two of them to the room, where they would subdue him and extrat the answers they need.  After some discussion, the plan was agreed upon, and the party cast *several* spells upon the pair.

Appearing in the room, Star and Lor found themselves next to the bed.  The young woman was in the process of getting dressed, and the voices of Treespire and the Dark Wizard could be heard outside the room.  Not moving, the pair listened for several minutes as Treespire complained about his privacy being violated and wanted to know what would be done about it.  In an annoyed tone, the Dark Wizard acknowledge his requests as the young woman joined the talking pair.  The discussion went on about the placement of the Polarian army in the city, and plans for the Polarians to "secure" the city.  After a minute or two, the couple proceed to walk away from the room, and footsteps approached the room.  Lor didn't wait any longer, and in another breath, the two elves were back in Aenith.

Relaying the informaiton to the rest of the party, they pondered their next move.  Several days passed as Lor spent a good deal of time identifying the magic items they had accumulated from their adventures.  Canthor agreed to make Star a magic sap, capable of better rending a foe unconscious.  Remus took to repairing his tower shield, Gwen to riding her horse she had not seen in a week and a half.  Tarmus and Yeric continued to recruit people for the Woodblood family farm, and Gale continued to practice with his double bladed sword.

Time passed lazily as the party pondered their circumstances.  What would they do next? Who can they turn to?  Would they be stuck in this crazy world forever?  The season began to change, the leaves of fall bringing it's color to the trees signalling the approach of winter....

*DM's Notes:*  The adventure took longer than I had expected.  I had other stuff planned, but I can use that later!  I gave the party a very open ended option at the end of this game, what to do next?  They considered going to Huranti, Mydranna, and Glarcaster, but for now they seem content to remain in Aenith.  Some time will likely pass as the party figures out what to do while digesting the recent events in the city of Bryle.

Since there were a lot of suggestions thrown around, the party's plan is to remain in Aenith, right?  If I'm mistaken, let me know as time will pass and things will change....


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## Cloudgatherer (Feb 3, 2002)

*Treacherous Road and Death by the Dragon*

Summer spilled into late fall as the adventurers spent their time identifying several magic items.  While Lor practiced his _identify_ spell, Canthor put his skill with magic weapons and armor to work.  Canthor made Star a magical sap, better able to subdue an opponent.  He also took Remus' tower shield from the Forge of Liquid Fire, enchanted it to resist damage from all but the strongest weapons.

A full six weeks passed in Aenith.  The party made some money doing odd jobs:  Remus forged armor in a local smithery and Tarmus used his musical talent to pay for food, lodging, and a few new instruments.

News of the world reached the party through gossip and the bards tales. Polary is suffering from a goblin and orc invasion.  They are not alone as the dwarven kingdom of Oblarin is suffering the same troubles.  The two kingdoms have so far refused to work together and are protecting themselves.  The Northern Alliance has apparently given up on Ralanov, leaving the betrayer Treespire to his Polarian allies.  In local news, the road between Aenith and Mydrana has grown more treacherous, a couple of adventuring parties have gone missing attempting to unravel the mystery.  Several Gryphon Riders have also been found missing or killed, their surrounding circumstances still a mystery.

The party sat around their usual table in the Warrior's Courage, debating what to do.  As the party discussed the matter, an older gentleman entering the inn drew Gwen's attention.  She could feel the presence of another Medallion piece, the only artifact known to be forged by the gods in cooperation.  The older man ran his hand through his gray hair, above average merchant's vestments, and asked to join the party at their table.

The party accepted the man to their table.  The merchant Armathon had come to Aenith looking for the adventurers of the bard's tales, the ones who slew the pitfiend, saved Aenith, and the source of so much of Polary's ire.  The party confessed to their deeds of heroism, and Armathon told them they were exactly what he was looking for.

Armathon was a travelling merchant, but had recently suffered the theft of some valuable family gemstones:  an emerald, ruby, and sapphire of the same cut and approximate worth.  Through divination magic he has paid for, he determined the items' location, in the mountains to the north of Aenith, roughly five days travel.  The trouble was he believes the gemstones to be in the possession of a dragon, what color or size he doesn't know.  In return for a map detailing the location of the lair, the party can have the entire dragon's hoard provided they turn the gemstones over to Armathon.

The party took a day to talk it over.  Gwen informed the party Armathon was in possession of a Medallion piece (an important part of freeing the wizard Cloudgatherer and returning home).  The party decided to take the assignment, possibly bartering for the Medallion piece later.

After purchasing their supplies, they set out toward the north.  The mountains to the north-west of Aenith would take several days to reach, having to leave the path and travel the mountains.

The second night of their journey, Star and Gale stood watch over their companions.  Footsteps could be heard in the night, lots of footsteps, coming fast toward their camp.  Gale set himself to face the possible foe, while Star drew his bow and gave a whistle to the rest of the party.  In the next breath, a dozen orcs burst from the underbrush, running right toward the party's camp.  Gale sprung into action, slaying an orc while Star followed in suite with an arrow.  As the orcs ran by, Star and Gale fell another pair of orcs, Gale slaying and Star clotheslining another, rending him unconscious.

As the sleeping party members jolted to action, the orcs continued to run, straight into the night.  Something had them frightened, enough to run through the party's camp.  The party prepared themselves, readying their weapons and armor.  After two full breaths, a woman's yell could be heard from a little over a hundred feet in front of the party.  A woman wearing leathers, dragging two longswords with her and black hair drapped over her face came into view.

"Troll," she called softly, as she fell flat on her face.  The promised troll quickly followed, a large ugly green troll wearing pieces of metal from various armors consituting its breastplate.

Common knowledge ruled the night as the party prepared all of it's fire based attacks.  Gwen lit several arrows on fire with their campfire as Tarmus produced an image of a fire elemental in front of the troll in an attempt to frighten the troll away.  The troll attacked the image, but the image disappeared right as the troll's claw swept through the empty air.

The party was waiting for the troll to come forward.  Lor had made Star invisible while Remus and Yeric were preparing a rope to trip the large creature.  Instead, the troll sought out his closest target, Yeric, and proceeded to claw the young Woodblood.

In response, Star charged the troll, attempting to releive him of his kidneys.  As he approached the troll, his invisibility ability suddenly faded as the troll quickly stepped to his left, only allowing Star's rapier to leave a grazing wound instead of a fatal one.  Thoroughly spooked, Star retreated from the troll as Gale and Remus closed in on him, Gwen proceeded to fill the troll with fire arrows, and Canthor dragged the young woman, who he found to be Sheila Freefall of the Riders, away from the battle as he healed her wounds.

Meanwhile, in the midst of combat, the troll began to show his true colors.  He tore repeatedly into Gale, using his sharp claws to rip into his flesh.  In a matter of two breaths he had been flung to the ground by the troll as it tore Gale's flesh.

Something was different about this troll, magic was surpressed around him and he moved with superiour awareness of his surroundings.  Star and Gwen continued to fill the troll with arrows as the breast-plated beast tore into Remus, the party leader.  His strength failing, his injuries nearly overcoming his senses, Remus struck the blow that brought the troll down.

With fury Remus continued to beat the troll, determined to keep the monster down.  Soon, flame was set to the beast, leaving only burnt metal and bones, from the troll and a few human bones in his stomach.

The threat over, the party looked in on the unconscious gryphon rider, and spent the rest of the night in their usual watchful shifts.

The next morning, Sheila related her tale to the party.  She had been looking for the culprit responsible for the deaths of her fellow rider.  She had been attacked by a big blue dragon, and was separated from Winter, her faithful gryphon.  In the last few days, she had been avoiding the particularly nasty troll the party slew, being no match to stand against it alone.

The party considered their options.  They were after the dragon, and now had more information about their target.  In addition, the troll, the anti-magic troll, had been responsible for many deaths and possibly has treasure at its lair.  Sheila volunteered to track down what she could, while the party dealt with the dragon.  Her plan was to proceed to Aenith afterwards, hoping to reunite with her gryphon there.

The party proceeded north, and soon came to the mountains.  On the 5th day of their journey, the party looked into the sky, seeing a dragon circling over head.  The party choose to seek cover under a ledge in the mountainside, the elevation still being relatively low, and the slopes still walkable.

Taking refuge under the ledge, they could feel the dragon hit the ground above them, close and waiting.  Tarmus sent a horse down the slope, but it was quickly zapped by the dragon's breath.  Tarmus proceeded to cast invisibility on another horse and sent it out.  It met the same fate as the first horse.  "That answers that question," Tarmus said.  "He can see invisible things."

The party was frightened by the dragon's presence, and their thoughts turned to dealing with their fear:  the dragon.  Taking a metallic rod from his pocket, Star looked at the party questioningly.  Breaking it would attract the attention of the Dark Wizard, their greatest foe, but the party was desperate.  Under the party's insistence, Star broke the rod.  At first nothing happened.  Then, the Dark Wizard stood directly in front of the elven rogue.  Star seemed to point and babble a bit, but the Dark Wizard only had a moment to ponder what it meant as Gale rushed him, attempting to push him out from under the ledge, making him the target of the dragon's lightning breath.

Gale flew right through the Dark Wizard.  He had only sent them his illusion, much to Gale's discontent as he became the target of the dragon's lightning.  The situation gave the Dark Wizard a good chuckle, and seeing the party was not interested in joining the Mithral Blades, his illusion faded away.

Recovering from his frightened state, Star decided talking might be a better approach.  He stuck out his hands, and slowly emerged from behind the ledge.

The dragon did not stirke him down instantly.  Instead, he studied the elf intently.

"Hello there!" Star called.  The dragon looked at the elf with an expression of curiousity, not understanding a word Star said.

Tarmus decided to try talking as well.  He emerged alongside Star, and addressed the dragon in his native tongue.  "Hello great lizard!"

The dragon gave him a low growl.  "Who are you?" asked the dragon.

"Well, my name is Tarmus," Tarmus began, " and you're a dragon.  Ever have a song written about you? I mean... you're a dragon, wow."

As Tarmus spoke about the greatness of dragons, Lor quipped, "What are you doing so far south?" from the safety of the ledge.  The blue dragon tired of the questions and the ranting, he had one thing on his mind:  gold.

"I grow tired of this human," the huge blue dragon informed the bard, "I will make you this deal:  you can leave your money with me or I can kill all of you.  If your friend keeps moving, he's going to feel my fury," finished the dragon, indicating Star who had been moving away from the ledge and Tarmus.

Tarmus passed along the translation, but Star kept moving away each time a growl escaping from blue dragon.  Finally, Star took one step too many, and the dragon loosed his lightning breath upon the elven rogue.

Even Star's nimbleness was not fast enough to dodge the blast.  The bolt caught him full on, his magic elemental protection (courtesy of Gwen) had managed to absorb part of the damage, the rest wounding Star.

The party sprung into action, the fighters emerged from the ledge, Star drew his rapier and attacked the dragon.  Lor threw his most powerful fireball spell at the dragon's hind quarters, having no effect on the dragon, as Canthor called divine fire to strike the dragon, scorching the great blue.  With a vicious bite and claw, Star suffered severe injuries from the blue as Gwen fired arrows into the blue's scales, injuring him greatly.

The fighters closed the gap to the dragon, who used his attacks to drive them off, using his claws, wings, and mouth with devastating results.  Gwen continued to riddle the dragon with arrows, dealing a great deal of pain to the blue.  Tarmus hasted Lor, who now threw twim spells into the dragon, with roughly half being turned away by the dragon's innate resistance to magic attacks.  The dragon made his way passed Remus and Gale, and reached it's long neck out to bite the elven ranger who had riddled his hide with arrows.  With devastating effects, Gwen was bitten cleanly, suffering almost fatal injuries.  Taking a single step back, Gwen continued her barrage of arrows at the blue.

As wave after wave of magic missles from Lor struck the blue, the fighters Remus and Gale once again closed the gap on the dragon and continued their assualt.  Canthor and Tarmus were busy healing the wounded, Yeric used his special technique in an attempt to wound the dragon, to no avail.  Taking a single step forward, the dragon bit again into the elven ranger as it dug it's claws into her sides.  Gwen fell away from the dragon's clutches, lifelessly falling to the ground.

The party continued to lay into the dragon.  Another wave of magic missles pouring into the dragon from Lor, Remus and Gale dealing a minimal amout of damage as Canthor prayed to his god to help his friends.

After an unsuccessful barrage of blows against Remus, the party leader, the dragon took to the air, retreating for the time being.  As he left, Lor let twin ice storms loose upon the blue dragon, but it's resistance to magic protected the dragon from the deadly spells.  With a single lone shot, Star managed to plant one last arrow into the dragon as it flew away.

On the slopes of the mountains, a wounded party stares into the sky where the dragon turned around the mountains.  The dragon has managed to avoid death, but has sent the elven ranger Gwen to the afterlife.  What will the party do now?


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## Broccli_Head (Feb 3, 2002)

How old was the dragon? And what are the levels of the party members again?


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## Cloudgatherer (Feb 3, 2002)

Hello Broccli_Head!  The party is currently 9th level (except Tarmus' cohort, Yeric, who is 8th level).  They fought an adult blue dragon (CR 13).  The average party level is 11, so the fight was "very difficult" according to the DMG (and dragons shouldn't be a push over IMO).  The dragon escaped (barely, he was looking very bad as he flew away), so he lives to fight another day (or flee if that is what he wants to do).

*Query for the party:*  Does the party want to revive Gwen first or attempt to take out the dragon (without Gwen)?  It will likely take until the following day (at the very earliest, if not longer) for Gwen to be revived and possibly another day for her to recover (depending on what spell is used).  It's something to consider, and letting me know in advance always helps.

Later!


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## Broccli_Head (Feb 5, 2002)

Cloudgatherer said:
			
		

> *Hello Broccli_Head!  The party is currently 9th level (except Tarmus' cohort, Yeric, who is 8th level).  They fought an adult blue dragon (CR 13).  The average party level is 11, so the fight was "very difficult" according to the DMG (and dragons shouldn't be a push over IMO).  Later! *




I agree wholeheartedly. BTW, if you have Monsters of Faerun, I suggest the use of a shadow dragon. They are quite nasty.


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## Remus (Feb 6, 2002)

Well,  we fought our first dragon, which in a game called Dungeons and Dragons, you would think would be a  common occurrence.  Of course dragons are no pushovers, but I didn't really expect the feeling of being food.  We didn't really have that great a plan, ok ok, we had no plan.  As one of the party fighters, I am there to protect the rest of us and make immediate tactical decisions.  The role that I failed in was party leader.  I should not have let us go after a dragon without any information at all.  This was foolish. I did try to get the part information gatherers (Bard, Rogue and Wizard) to find out all that they could, but nothing was found.  

As a player, I have read the monster manual entry on dragons, I know that they are a force to be reckoned with.  You don't get a game system named after you for nothing.  Does Remus know this? I think not. The only dragons he has seen was baby white (a threat back at level 2, but not much in retrospect) and Maldrator, the ancient blue who helped us immensely.  Neither of these dragons were particularly aggressive, they were downright friendly.  Remus is also in another plane, and not everything is the same, but enough is (we speak the same language at least) Here we have dealt with demons and armies.  How bad could a dragon be?  The Ranger, whose favored enemy is dragon, was downright eager to go and slay this beast.  

And now Gwen is dead.  If we had a plan this might have been avoided.  Everyone made fairly good combat decisions and acted well individually, but we weren't quite working as a team.  Luck was not with us:  Remus made eight attacks, two of which rolled over six and Lor had just under half of his spells get past the dragons SR.  The dragons ability of true seeing (I think) cramped the style of the more stealthy of party members. 

We did manage to make the dragon run away, though I don't think that it was that injured.  Dragons are an intelligent creature.  Maybe it was just playing with us at first, then realizing that it couldn't simply pick us up and eat us it retreated to change tactics.  I hesitate to say this knowing that my DM is going to read this, but I honestly belive any creature that can fly fast and breath death should never engage in melee combat. But the only way our party can effectively fight is close up.  We do have some deadly ranged specialists, but protecting them is near impossible against a dragon breath attack.   

We need to out think this beast.  Trap is somewhere.  But up on some mountain top where ground is scarce and sky is plentiful, we are just food.


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## Cloudgatherer (Feb 6, 2002)

Remus said:
			
		

> *And now Gwen is dead.  If we had a plan this might have been avoided.  Everyone made fairly good combat decisions and acted well individually, but we weren't quite working as a team.  Luck was not with us:  Remus made eight attacks, two of which rolled over six and Lor had just under half of his spells get past the dragons SR.  The dragons ability of true seeing (I think) cramped the style of the more stealthy of party members.
> *




Planning, a little better teamwork, or a little more luck would have ended the dragon's life.  The party had a great deal of time under the ledge before the combat began (it was Star's idea to seek cover under the ledge in the first place).  However, the combat just sort of started:  the dragon got the surprise round instead of the party getting it.  Also, Star was out of combat (with horrendous teethmarks in him IIRC, down to 9 hp), making only two attacks against the dragon the entire time.  And of course, rolling over 10 on your attack rolls does help.

OOC knowledge, the dragon has blindsight.  He just "knows" who's within a certain distance (using smell, vibrations, etc).  Hence the reason he didn't go for Tarmus' illusion:  1) dragons do know a bit about spellcraft and 2) they don't register as "real" to his blindsight.

And since no one has answered my previous query, what is the party going to do?  Taking on the dragon is going to be more difficult the next time, he has a feel for who the threats are (Gwen, Lor) and how he might better prepare for the battle.  Letting me know what you want to do helps me make a better adventure.


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## incarnuim (Feb 9, 2002)

Well.  We cannot revive Gwen without some heavy duty stuff.
And we cannot take the Dragon until our spell casters and Rogue rest a bit (I am still badly injured)

But my vote is for an All-or-Nothing strategy.  Either our spellcasters use all their spells for healing, all of them for bang, or all of them for juice.  When we don't do things half we are quite formidable, but blood is something of a concern.

We shall see.......


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## incarnuim (Feb 9, 2002)

Reminder to the rest of the party

Well, Remus and Canthor anyway.

You all did get to see Maldraetor in action against a Horde of several thousand orcs, which he defeated handily (once he was allowed to manifest outside the temple again) and u got to see most of a Dragons sensory powers through Halshimar (but then again, Halshimar is a Whack-Job).


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## Cloudgatherer (Feb 9, 2002)

*Departures*

Gale had carefully placed the lifeless body of Gwen in a spare blanket and placed her on the back of her horse.  In the meantime, Canthor was shaken by the loss of his friend.

"We should go back to Aenith.  We need to help Gwen," he pleaded with the party.  His companions weren't in any condition to go anywhere and rest took the top priority.

"I say we exact our revenge on the dragon first," argued Star.  "Once it is slain, we can use its hoard to help revive Gwen."  This argument convinced the protective cleric of Bryle, who concerned himself with protecting the party against the perils of adventuring.

"In any event, we need to rest and we need a plan..." Star continued.  Star scoured the mountains for a suitabe cave, finding one after several hours.  During their rest, the party planned their strategy.  Gale, Remus, and Star would form the "deadly triangle" with the help of Canthor's strength enhancing spells.  Lor would remain toward the rear of the party, slinging spells as fast as he could, while Tarmus would haste as many as he could with his brother Yeric providing him protection.

It was with this resolve the party proceeded to the dragon's lair with the map Armathon had provided.  Armathon was a travelling merchant, who had had some precious gemstones stolen from him.  After paying for some divination magic, he managed to determine where the gems were and that a dragon guarded them.  In exchange for the map to the lair, the party agreed to return the gemstones, keeping the rest of the dragon's treasure.

At the entrance to a large cave, Canthor began placing lighting protection on his companions.  From their last encounter, the dragon's breath had dealt a significant amount of damage to the party.  As they crept down the wide tunnel, Star could faintly her strange words being spoken a good distance ahead of him.  He then heard nothing.

"Beware the sound of the whispering wind and the shifting sands," Bryle had told Canthor in his divination.  Star crept forward quietly, but a bright light flashed before him, revealing the blue dragon they sought with the flash of his lightning breath.

Star was a bit more agile this time than last, and twisted to the side as came inches from crisping him.  The bolt continued on pass the elven rogue, stopping a mere half-step from Remus.

The party started to put their plan in motion.  Gale, Star, and Remus formed up as the dragon placed a silence spell near the spellcasters.  The cave wasn't echoing as much sound as it should, the sounds were very quiet despite the dragon's great size and impressive lightning blast.

Tarmus and Yeric stuck close together as Canthor provided some additional last minute spells to assist his party members.  Lor, with a haste provided by Tarmus, began bombarding the dragon, deftly defeating his spell resistance.  In response, the dragon breathed on Lor, seeking to end the cause of so much of his pain.

Two lightning breaths slammed into the elven mage, the second nullifying his lightning protection magic and giving him a good shock.  Another one of those and all that would be left of him would be smoking boots.  Canthor quickly came to his aid, giving him as much protection as he can.  Lor returned the dragon's favor as his first wave of ten magic missles inflicted damage on the creature, but the second wave of ten was turned away.  While waiting for Remus and Gale to prepare for a charge, Star threw a sunrod into the cave, lighting up dragon's lair.

Meanwhile, the "triangle of death" had just charged in on the dragon.  Only managing to strike the creatures thick hide, the dragon retreated by burrowing under the sand in his circular cave.  The party could see the shifting sand as the dragon moved about.

For several long breaths the dragon remained under the sand.  Finally, he emerged and unleashed another bout of deadly lightning breath, this time striking three of the party members in a single line shot.  Fortunately, the dragon's lightning was absorbed by the lightning protection provided by Canthor, and the "triangle of death" began its slicing and dicing as another wave of missle streaked into the dragon from Lor.

Battered and weakened, the dragon flew up onto a ledge, positioning himself to unleash another fury of lightning.  As he reached the ledge, Remus took out a javelin of returning he acquired from a dwarven cleric of war and flung it at the creature.  The weapon sank right into the dragon's flesh, collapsing the dragon on its ledge as the javelin returned to Remus' outstretched hand.

The party rejoiced over its victory, and quickly set to "collecting."  Star was intensely interested in the dragon's bile and in total the party stripped the dragon of scales, horn, and teeth.  The party also collected the dragon's treasure in their bag of holding, which consisted of several thousand gold pieces, a variety of gems (including Armathon's), and a painting of a man dressed in armor sitting in the Great Library.  The painting was promply sold for gold upon return to Aenith.

Back in the city of Bryle, the party tended to Gwen's arrangements.  Canthor had asked Gwen's dead body what she wanted, and she told them she preferred to stay dead and wanted a nice coffin, tombstone, and a small ceremony.  The party provided her the service and placed her in Aenith's graveyard.

The next day, Lor took Remus back to the Forge of Liquid Fire.  Razorback greeted Remus in his hearty dwarven fashion and showed off his dwarven waraxe made of the meteorrite metal Remus, Star, and Tarmus had found for him.  Remus also paid the remainder of what he owed on his mithral full plate armor, and Lor and Remus returned safely to Aenith.

Meanwhile, Canthor spent his time in the Temple of the Spirit, praying to Bryle about the loss of his friend.  He felt the burden of guilt only his faith could alleviate.

Tarmus and Star had come to the conclusion they should get more than what had been promised them by Armathon.  Three days later, when Armathon showed up to pick up his gemstones, Star was slow to turn them over.  Tarmus and Star proclaimed the assignment was more lethal than they had anticipated and the loss of their party member entitled them to additional compensation.  Lor rolled his eyes at the situation, leaving the table of taking Gale with him.  Tarmus, Remus, and Star were left to deal with Armathon.

Armathon tried to make sense of what he was being told.  "The deal was I provide you with the lair's location and in return you get the dragon's treasure minus my gemstones.  Now, you've slain the dragon, worthy of song, and collected its treasure *and* you want more?  Are you going back on this agreement? Are you not honest adventurers?"

This struck a cord with Tarmus, who informed Armathon he was a man of his word and asked Star to turn over the gems.  Star did so, and Armathon turned to go.

Star attempted to get him to stay, as did Tarmus.  They knew full well Armathon carried one of the pieces to the Medallion of the Gods, and Armathon appeared to know this as well.  He only smiled at the suggestion of trading it to the party as he left the inn.

Lor and Gale approached the table and stated they would be setting off on their own.  Lor will try to find or research a modified teleportation spell that would hopefully take him and Gale home.  In any event, the pair would remain in Aenith for a while before setting out in search of what they needed to get home.  Remus was saddened by the news, but wished them luck in their travels.

"Well, I'm going to turn in for tonight," Star proclaimed. 

"Yeah, sure you are Star," remarked Tarmus as the elven rogue went to his room, and snuck out his window to follow Armathon.  He did a very poor job, as Armathon quickly discovered this fact, and proceeded to another inn, the Paladin's Smite.  Star checked the guest book, discovered which room he was in, and went to open the door.  He only had it open a crack and could see Armathon's legs on the bed, but the man got up and closed the door, leaving the quiet Star in the hallway.

Sneaking around the outside of the inn, Star waited outside the closed window to the room.  He could make out some mumbling, but nothing else.  After it had been quiet for several minutes, he proceeded to open the window and creep inside.  The room was absolutely empty, save for the typical furnishings.  This baffled the elven rogue, even after a thorough check of the room, and he returned to the Warrior's Courage.

The next day, the party learned of an insidious rumor:  Aenith's graveyard had been emptied.  All the dead bodies are missing, and the authorities have started investigating.

As the awake party members pondered the meaning of the travesty, Lugtee Hardroc strode into the Courage.

"Want to steal from the Dark Wizard?" he asked with a smile.  The Dark Wizard had recently completed some sort of weapon, and he was having another Mithral Blade interview prospective weilders as he was busy with the goblin/orc invasion of Polary.  Lugtee had gained his information from Valgerd, the lady rogue the party managed to capture at Temorana Castle in Ralanov before the betrayal of Treespire.  He also told the party the circumstances of Treespire's betrayal, having wanted to go back to retrieve the woman he was in love with, not a cache of magic items. The Dark Wizard offered Treespire the choice of betraying the party for his love, and he choose his love.

Remus and Star, the only party members at the Courage, accepted Lugtee's invitation.


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## Cloudgatherer (Feb 9, 2002)

Quick rundown of motivations:

Star:  Wants to kill the Dark Wizard
Remus:  Wants to recover the rest of the Medallion pieces
Canthor:  Wants to find Surial's equipment
Tarmus:  Generally doesn't like Polary, would like to see the Phantoms go the way of the dinosaur


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## Cloudgatherer (Feb 17, 2002)

*Stealing the Dark Wizard's New Toy*

"Excellent," Lugtee smiled.  "I'll meet you in the Citadel in a few days, the sooner you can get there the better.  Meet me at an inn known as the _Bloodstained Rose_."  With the details worked out, Lugtee bid them a good eveningand left Warrior's Courage.  

The party had just agreed to steal some new "weapon" the Dark Wizard had created.  Lugtee knew some "interviewer" was examining potential weilders for the weapon, and Lugtee wanted to keep it out of their hands, preferrably through stealth.

Canthor was not as thrilled with the assignment.  He had been particularly disturbed by the recent disappearance of Aenith's dead.  He informed his companions he would be assisting in the investigation, joining his fellow clerics of Bryle trying to determine what happend to Aenith's graveyard.  He would keep in touch with the party via his magic.

The next day, the party ventured south toward the Citadel of the Eye.  The snow had been falling for the last few days and the path, while not difficult to traverse, was covered with snow.  The first two days passed without incident.

On the third day, four brigands emerged from snowy hiding places along the road, and started throwing poison-tipped shurikens at the adventurers.  The metallic projectiles landed into Tarmus, the other adventurers being too nimble or encased in armor.

The fight went quickly.  The brigands were not novices, but were no match for seasoned adventurers.  Remus' blade swirled in a green arc as he bat down brigand after brigand.  In the end, Star had slain one bandit and Remus had knocked the remaining three unconscious.  A thorough search of their bodies revealed they were members of the Mithral Blades, with written orders from the organization to waylay travellers along the road to Aenith.  The party left the three unconscious men with only their clothing.  It would be a cold walk back to the citadel for them.

The remainder of the snowy journey was uneventful.  The party quickly made their way through the Citadel of the Eye, getting directions to the Bloodstained Rose.

The Citadel of the Eye sits between a break in the Deathfall Mountains, the natural border for the northern border of Polary.  Due to the Citadel of the Eye itself, a city eventually sprung up around the mountain fortress.  For now, the gates were open, and travellers were allowed to pass.  After all, it would be foollish to attack the Citadel of the Eye as winter set in.

As the adventurers approached the inn, Star could see a human hand waving them around a corner.  At first glance, the man resembled the Dark Wizard of Polary, however it was only Lugtee dressed in dark gray clothing.  He warned the party of the Bloodstained Rose's patrons, many of them are Mithral Blades and it is highly likely the party could find out some information here.

Star had a plan.  He proceeded in first, walking in like he owned the place and get his "regular" room 14.  After getting to his room, Star took a piece of paper, folded an airplane, and flew it to where his companions waited outsided.  It said simply "14."  Lugtee and Tarmus proceeded to enter the inn an hour later, proceeding to room 14 and meeting up with Star.  An additional hour later, Remus and Yeric entered and likewise proceed to the room.  After discussing their situation, the party proceeded to join the activities in the common room.  Lugtee decided he would simply retire for the evening, not particularly interested in drinking games or arm wrestlng.

The night yeilded only a little bit of information.  Apparently, no one knew about any kind of weapon, but there had been a few "important" people coming through town the last couple weeks.  The next morning, Tarmus and Star related their information to Lugtee, who was the only person awake in the common room early in the morning.  Lugtee was pleased with the progress and the party planned to wait for another potential "interviewee" to come through while Remus posed as a powerful Mithral Blade member who would hopefully attract the attention of the interviewer.

The second day passed into the evening.  As the party sat around their table in the Bloodstained Rose, a hush fell over the inn as a tall, imposing figure flung the door open.  He wore a dark cloak over his black full plate armor.  On his breastplate was the emblem of Balahnin, a black four pointed star surrounded by a circle of flame.  An adamantine battle hung at his belt, and a shield in the shape of a lion's head.  His eyes had an eerie green glow to them, his hands were tipped with sharp claws.

"I think that's him," stated Tarmus.  Tarmus attempted to buy the "man" a drink, but only managed to see a twisted set of elvish features and came away with a sliced up hand as he shook the creatures hand.  At one point during the evening, Star observed the creature look at a scroll of paper, and drink many strong drinks.

The creature retired to his room for the evening and Star went to work.  He quietly crept into the creatures room and examined the scroll.  It was an invitation to see a Mr. A. Enforo at the temple of Balahnin with the possibility of gaining a great weapon..  Star took a long time in studying the document, then spent the rest of the night making a duplicate.

The next day, Tarmus and Star set about their stealthy business.  After consulting with Lugtee, Tarmus set about attempting to gain info on A. Enforo.  His investigation turned up a familiar name:  Armathon Enforo, the man who had hired them to slay the dragon and return some gems.  He also discovered one of the Citadel's popular rumors:  beholders in the underground tunnels.  Of course, no one has ever lived to tell the tale.

Star also witness the "green eyed man" enter the temple.  Shortly thereafter, a man in red robes and the "green-eyed one" left the temple and proceeded down the street, moving quickly into an alley.  Star followed, and they went underground.

They emerged shortly later.  The "green eye" did not have anything new on him.

Armed with the possible location of the weapon, the party consulted Lugtee immediately.  He was in his room, as usual, and asked for a moment of privacy.  Star was immediately inquisitive and demanded to know what Lugtee was doing.  He admitted to checking in on "someone he was protecting" and that was all he said.  Satisfied, the party laid their information out on the table.  Lugtee agreed to their plan:  to enter the passageway and take the weapon.

Dressed as the priest, Tarmus entered the underground passageway.  Three wraiths immediately attacked Tarmus.  The battle started in earnest as Remus and Star entered the fray.  The wraith's touch weakened Remus severely, and slightly weakened Star as Remus responded by slaying one wraith outright.  Lugtee shot two magic missles into two of the three wraiths.  As the third wraith fell, four more emerged from around the corner of the well lit.

Casting a simple protective spell, Lugtee emerged into the tunnel as Tarmus began singing.  Remus and Star took the first swings at the wraiths.  As the party's strike team of Star and Remus engaged the wraith's, Lugtee cast a daylight spell, causing the wraiths to flee the seen.  The fleeing caused Remus and Star to strike them down, only one managing to escape down the hallway, where the tunnel turned to the left.  Yeric used his speed to wound the wraith once more, before it fled through the wall.

As the party rushed down the hallway, Star noticed a strange marking on the wall.  Examining it closely, Star found it to be a rune protecting the suface it was on.  Unfortunately, Star was unable to disarm it safely, and its powerful magic weakened him greatly (Greater Glyph of Warding:  Harm).

After Tarmus tended to the severely injured elven rogue, Remus opened the stone doorway, revealing a skeleton witha purple membrane in its ribcage along with two zombies at its side.  Remus used his greatsword to damage the skeleton like creature, while Star shot at it with his bow.  Yeric rushed into the room, flanking the skeleton creature (Morhg) and slicing at it with his weapon.

Remus fell victim to the morhg's paralyzing tongue.  As Lugtee pulled Remus away from the undead attackers.  Yeric and Star continued to waylay the creature as Tarmus sung a battle hymn.  Lugtee flung an acid arrow at the creature, only wounding it slightly.  Yeric struck the morhg down, and quickly dispatched the zombies.  As the final blows landed upon them, a skeleton in the room pulled a lever, bringing down a stone wall.

Surveying the room, Star found himself in a small shrine of Balahnin.  An eleborate mosaic of Balahnin's holy symbol lay on the floor, a woman with dark red hair was chained to the wall, and an alter with a bowl of black burning flame lay under a hover black broadsword.  Star proceeded to the altar while Lugtee tended to the woman.  A powerful magic attempted to stop Star's approach, but Star proved too strong willed and approached the altar.  Taking a vial of holy water, Star dowsed the dark flames and took hold of the black broadsword.  A chill went through his body, weakening him slightly, and Star wrapped the blade in a blanket before tucking it into his bag of holding.

Meanwhile, Lugtee had determined the lady was indeed alive, but has been tortured for a while.  Star, pulling her hair out of her eyes, recognized her as Lady Lia Quickwater.  The Polarian ambassador had seen better days as Lugtee cast a spell releasing her from her manacles.

As Lugtee tended to Lia, Tarmus had entered the room, immediately sensing the presence of a Medallion piece.  Tarmus and Star quickly located the hidden panel in the alter, revealing the Fire Chain of Balahnin and a simple metallic ring.

"Time to go," Star proclaimed, having had a successful pilaging outing.  They had acquired the weapon as well as another Medallion piece, bringing them one step closer to freeing Cloudgatherer and able to send Remus home.

"Exactly how are we going to do that?" asked Remus.  The stone wall was blocking their escape.  Star reached into his backpack, pulling out his battering ram and handing it to Remus.  As Star and Remus set to breaking down the stone wall, Lugtee supported Lia as they looked down the corridor.  Lia was the first to gasp.

"Beholder!" Lia whispered coarsely to Lugtee, who relayed the message.  Three beholders were coming down the corridor, presumably to end the lives of trespassers such as the party.  A final ram knocked a hole through the wall, allowing the party to flee back into the Citadel.

The adventurers were ready to leave the Citadel.  Lugtee would have preferred a day of recuperation, but Star was intent on fleeing deeper into Polary in order to throw off any pursuers.  Star retreived the horses, and the company started to ride south, toward's Saven.

Star's plan is designed to throw off the ones interesting in gaining the item back.  Riding south to Saven, then west Steelhold where the party would take a boat north to Ralanov or River's End, and finally reaching Aenith.  How well the plan works, remains to be seen.....


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## Cloudgatherer (Feb 17, 2002)

*The Current Party....*

After the "Departures" adventure, the party has now changed considerably.  Three of my players have been bogged down with real life stuff, and are taking a break from the campaign.  The party in the last adventure consisted of 5 people (3 PCs, 2 NPCs).  The current make-up of the party is as follows:

Remus - male human, Ftr10
Star, aka Austarian Galanodal - male elf, Rog10
Canthor - male elf Clr10 of Bryle
Tarmus Woodblood - male human, Brd9/Virtuoso 1
Yeric Woodblood - male human, Successor9, NPC, Tarmus' cohort and in character brother

Also involved in last adventure.....

Lugtee Hardroc (NPC arcane caster) - Lugtee became well-known for his efforts against the Polarians at Ralanov.  He was teamed with the Lord of Ralanov, Devon Treespire, and the two of them led many strikes into the city.  Treespire later betrayed the Northern Alliance for a woman held captive by the Dark Wizard.

Lugtee derives a great deal of his power from his prismatic staff, a staff of swirling color topped with a palm-sized diamond.  The party has seen him use the staff, wiping out a troupe of Polarians in Ralanov.  Aside from his red hair, green eyes, and freckled face, you see what you get with Lugtee.


Lia Quickwater (NPC Monk) - Lia is (was) a Polarian ambassador to River's End.  She made an early deal with the party and gained the party's services in clearing out a desert dungeon.  The party made out with quite a bit in gold, and Lia acquired the Fire Chain of Balahnin along with a couple other items.  She is fond of the party, despite Star's attempt to steal the Fire Chain from her.  She has just been rescued by the party from an underground shrine to Balahnin, having been prisoner there for a length of time.


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## incarnuim (Mar 1, 2002)

*plots and counterplots*

Star here.

Star was modelled off of Locke from FFIII.  He wants to gain fame as a treasure hunter (which he has partly done) but also wants to make his home country of polary a better place. And feels heroic obligation toward the off-worlders. If worse comes to worst, Star would like to leave Aera and join Remus and Canthor in their world. (Ryu-Ko will be envious).

Just a quick synopsis/elaboration of his motivation and goals.


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## Cloudgatherer (Mar 1, 2002)

_This is written by Tarmus, but he's having BB troubles so I'm posting it..._
[ Tarmus, Yeric, and two children  - A girl and a boy, about six and nine - are sitting in the main room of the Woodblood farm. ]

	“C’mon, finish the story.”
	“Yeah, papa.  You promised you would!”
	“Mmmn, that’s good ale.  All right, all right, gather ‘round, kids.  Your uncle Yeric and I were just reminiscing, as a matter of fact.  Good drink and old friends can do that to you.  Now, where did I leave off last time?”
	“With the big scary skeleton thingy!”
	“And the evil elf with claws!”
	“Ah, the Citadel of the Eye.  Now there’s a nasty place.  Can’t throw a rock without hitting a Mithral Blade, and he’d teach you not to throw rocks right quick.  Yes, our intrepid band of adventurers and their dashing and daring bardic accompaniment – ”
	“And his loyal, patient brother.”
	“ – and his loyal, patient brother had just rescued our damsel in distress, captured the evil weapon of mass destruction, located yet another piece in the legendary Amulet of the Gods, and barely escaped some intensely displeased local beholders.  Not bad for a day’s work.
	“But stealing items, casting offensive spells, and knocking down stone walls tends to cause a bit of a ruckus; the group decided they’d need to get out of the city as soon as possible.  Their first stop, they decided, should be Saven, so the six left quickly and quietly through the South gates.  Their luck held fast, and no one attempted to halt their hasty departure.
	“It had been a long day, and once they’d gotten far enough from the city to be at least a little bit safe, Lugtee requested they stop for a rest.  That sounded damn good to me, since those bloody wraiths had left me weak as a kitten.  Oh, I could carry my equipment and all, and could probably have done a little swashbuckling if the need arose, but every few hundred yards I felt like I was gonna cough up a lung.  Some of the others weren’t doing so hot either, so we all delighted when Lugtee moved a bit off the main road and conjured up a very familiar door.”
	“Ooooh!  Oooh!  I know!”
	“Yes, Lita?”
	“It’s one of those thingies like the dark wizard had!”
	“Good girl!  A memory for tales is a fine thing; it will serve you well, child.  Yes, indeed, this was another of those fancy cantrips wizards do when they decide they don’t want to sleep in wet blanket on the cold ground, and Bryle bless ‘em for it.  After we followed him inside (making sure to bring the still unconscious Lady Quickwater), we were treated to a fantastic sight.  A full mansion, complete with individual rooms, a fully stocked kitchen, and a veritable army of sharply dressed invisible manservants at our beck and call.  Lugtee, looking positively ragged, promptly excused himself to his room.

“2 hours, a clean change of clothes, and a dinner fit for a king later, our gracious host rejoined the party, once again dressed in his fantastic red, blue, and green self.  We examined our latest spoils, trying the amulets together to observe their effects.  Remus informed us that he’d been in touch with our absent cleric Canthor but, fearing magical spies, had refrained from giving him specific directions.

“Lugtee asked to examine our sword, which we’d stuffed in the bag of holding for safe keeping.  None of us were too keen on messing with the bloody thing much, but he insisted that he’d be very careful, and that in his “extradimensional” abode our enemies would have quite a time tracking the weapon down.
“With a couple of forceps from Star’s – ah – “toolkit,” we got the bloody thing out and into some thick blankets.  Remus wondered how long the magical house would stay up, but the wizard assured us we had plenty of time.  ‘You should get some sleep,’ he said.  ‘It will take me some time to analyze this… thing.
“Sounded like a good idea to us.  And oh, those were some comfy beds.  I’ve never seen finer, be it in castle or tavern.  Great, fluffy pillows, and fantastic quilts of a myriad of – ”

“You’re rambling again, papa!  Get to the part where you kill something!”

“All right, all right.  Kids these days; no respect for the finer points of living.  So, our courageous crowd awoke, just in time for Remus to catch another message from Canthor.  The cleric was a wee bit peeved, it seemed, as he had wanted our location so he could join us before we left.  Remus gave him some more precise coordinates – if someone was listening, well, we didn’t intend to sit still long enough to find out – and assured him we weren’t just ‘vacationing in another plane.’

“At which point we were once again joined by Lugtee.  He summed up his findings rather nicely: ‘This…’ he snarled, throwing the sword down on the table, ‘…is evil.’  He elaborated a bit more, of course; it seemed a sinister parody of the lost Summer Sword, designed to slay angels and kindly mortals alike.  He suggested we destroy it, and although I had my doubts – in my experience, sinister mages of unequalled malice and power make their items do nasty things when they’re casually snapped in two – the others insisted that it needed to be obliterated immediately.  Especially since, as Lugtee pointed out, part of the enchantment on the weapon meant it could be tracked by its creator, possibly even if it was destroyed.

“Remus lay the weapon, carefully of course, on top of the two immovable rods.  Lugtee concentrated a moment, mumbling a few arcane syllables, and then loudly pronounced, ‘Now.’  With an impressive swing, the warrior split the weapon in two, as easily as if it’d been a hobgoblin’s kitchen knife.

“That done, we prepared to leave, but were greeted by a finally cognizant Quickwater.  With some gentle questioning – the poor girl was still quite weak – we discerned that shortly after returning to Polary, she was jumped by several Clerics of Balanin, who took her to the dungeon we’d so recently escaped.  Her stay, we gathered, was – ah – unpleasant; Clerics of the fire god have atrocious manners.  Though her memory was understandably foggy, she did recall our new best friend’s mention of sending someone to the Eastern edge of the woods between Aenith and Trademeet.  Something to do with a “Nimra” or “Manba” or some such.  Unfortunately, based on when she was captured, the dark envoy had probably already had a good two weeks travel time to reach their destination.

“But there was still a way to beat them, Lugtee claimed, although it wouldn’t be particularly pleasant.  First, of course, we’d have to pick up our cleric, who by this point had gotten himself very much lost in the woods.  Lady Quickwater was tired of adventuring; she opted for a much deserved early retirement.  As for us, we gathered outside the door to wait, and we didn’t have to hang around long; oblivious to the danger of our enemies from the Citadel discovering our position, Canthor called a huge column of flame to pinpoint his location.

“The damage was done, though, and we would be miles away before anyone came searching, so we rejoined the holy roller and bid our wizard take us elsewhere.  As it turns out, he wasn’t kidding about the ‘unpleasant’ part – the plane of shadow makes quick travel easy, but it’s no place for a living thing, children, believe you me.  I’m not going to go into the details – your mother is already after me for giving you nightmares with that little fairy-tale about Merion’s Ghost last month – but suffice to say, we were very happy to leave that accursed place behind several hours later.

“We didn’t know exactly where the clerics had been headed, so the closest Lugtee could bring us was the edge of the forest.  A bit of walking determined exactly where the trees stopped, and we pulled back a little ways to rest the night.  Unfortunately, during our brief trek, our arcane companion suddenly declared, ‘Oh,’ – ah – ‘shoot, I gotta go,’ and promptly winked out.  He could at least have left us that delightful stick of extremely loud death and destruction he’d been so proud of, but what you gonna do.

“Come morning, however, myself, Remus, and Star’s odd undead-induced ailments hadn’t cleared up.  A quick examination later, Canthor declared he could definitely patch us up.  All he needed was 300 gold pieces worth of diamond dust.

“Well, guess who doesn’t, as a matter of course, carry diamond dust?  Things worked out OK, though, thanks to a quick message to our old buddy Lor.  He certainly wasn’t too pleased, but then again, I don’t recall that boy every being happy about much of anything that didn’t involve obliterating his enemies.

“So good ol’ Bryle-boy patched us up – hell, I actually felt even better than usual, like I was a hot-blooded youngster again – and we started to search the edge of the trees for whatever it was Armathon felt worthy of such a lengthy excursion for retrieval.  Wasn’t long before we’d found an old, abandoned, moss-ridden ruin of a castle.  In fact, as I recalled now that I saw it in person, it looked much like a story I’d though pure fancy about an old man named Rothrups who’d died without an heir, leaving his great palace to rot.”

“Fancy?  You mean, one of your stories wasn’t true?”

“Ah, hold it, I didn’t say that, little Yon.  Just – er – I though the story was too, well, fancy.  Yes.  Anyway, everyone’s favorite rogue made a quick sweep of the area, and he found some fairly recent footprints (the snow would have covered anything older) made by a bare-footed human.  There was no sign of our mysterious man, though, so we continued up to the ancient house.

“The doorway had what was likely once quite elaborate stonework surrounding the entrance, although time and the weather had long since dulled its effect.  And, written carefully around the doorframe in the ancient language of angels, was a message:

‘In the darkest times,
Against the demons ire,
Mortals and angels can rely on this protector.’

“The door wouldn’t budge an inch, so we figured magic was involved.  Star climbed up to the roof, where he found some beautiful statues of angels and a completely open stairwell down.  He threw us a rope, and once we’d all gotten to the roof, we proceeded down the stairwell.  Or tried to, anyway; an invisible barrier, set horizontally across the path flush with the top step, barred our way.  Remembering the earlier footprints, I tried the stairs without my shoes on, but I just ended up a stupid-looking, barefooted old bard standing in midair.
“So, it seemed we would have to solve the riddle.  Once we’d all gotten back down, we started rattling off anything (in both common and celestial, thanks to yours truly) that sounded like it might protect against a demon’s anger.  A while later – a long while later, I’m afraid to admit – Canthor finally hit upon the idea that, just maybe, we were supposed to replace the ‘this’ in the prompt.  It wasn’t much time then until he remembered that Bryle, his relatively new deity of choice, was often described as the ‘divine protector.’  And the second he voiced his opinion aloud, the door popped open.

“The inside looked much like the outside.  Run down and riddled with rat droppings and fungus, it reeked of age and neglect.  Bandits had long since relieved the old house of anything too valuable, but I was eager to search the place anyway; the tale of old man Rothrup was widely known but incomplete.  No one really knew how he spent his final days locked in his mansion, bereft of the son he needed so desperately.

“More immediate matters were at hand, though.  We could hear the sound of water running, an odd occurrence in a place like this one, from the room to the right of the entrance.  The doorway in that direction stood wide open, but yet another riddle awaited us in that same glowing scrawl:
‘Only those who wield the power for good may claim Namarra.’
“The truth hit both Canthor and myself like a giant’s club to the skull.  Namarra!  Of course!  What else other than the legendary sword of Surial, the greatest cleric of Bryle in history, would be guarded by stony angels and their mellifluous script?  All of us entered the room carefully, expecting further traps.

“Most of the area was taken up by a large pool of clear, blue water.  In the center of the pool stood a fountain shaped like a giant angel, and the water we’d heard falling earlier was flowing out from her hand.  In front of her, hovering silently a few inches above the surface of the water, was a long, ornately crafted blade.  It glowed slightly purple in the dim light of the room.
“The cleric, stunned by the proximity of a weapon known only in story, closed his eyes and felt for any magic in the room.  He reeled almost instantly, falling to his knees with tears streaming down his face.  Staring with disbelief, he regarded the pool in openmouthed awe.

“All of which got us nowhere, of course.  As I could get no response from the god-groupie, I decided to go get the bloody thing myself.  I didn’t get far, though; there was another of those blasted magical barriers a few feet from the water’s edge.  Some quick legwork revealed it extended around all four sides of the water, so we weren’t going anywhere unless we figured out how to get through.

“By this time, the cleric had composed himself somewhat, but was still kneeling in prayer near the entrance.  I didn’t like the idea of hanging out in this creepy room for too long, to tell the truth, and besides, there was a castle to be exploring.  So I tried to get some sort of response out of ‘im, but before I’d said more than a few words, our resident sword monkey decided he’d rather clamp his hand over my mouth than try to get Canthor in gear.  And since I wasn’t getting any help from a certain Successor…”

“I was enjoying the silence.”

“Yeah, go fu – Um, that wasn’t very nice of your uncle Yeric.  Anyway, he eventually came to his senses and, with a few more of what looked like particularly fervent prayers, pushed through the barrier and stepped into the water.  As he took the sword, a soft but omnipresent female voice spoke in common: ‘Namarra is now entrusted to you.’  I got a quick look at the blade later on, and it was engraved with ‘Namarra’ on one side and ‘Never Sleeps’ on the other.  A nice little item, that.

“So, finally, we got around to exploring the castle.  Which wasn’t much to write home about, to tell the truth.  A few moldy carpets and some broken chairs, yee-hah.  Star ran up to the roof – the barrier from before had disappeared, along with all the celestial writing in the house – while we waited in the main room.  A quick glance out the front arrow-slits revealed no one was waiting for us outside.

“Which meant, most likely, we’d beaten them there.  Not all that hard to believe, thanks to Lugtee’s shadow trick.  But if we were going to stay here, or even if we just wanted to annoy our enemies, I had the perfect plan: write on the outside stonework, in celestial, a dire warning about what would happen to anyone who entered the castle without the proper, difficult-to-perform rituals.  I rushed to complete it before Star returned, delighted by my, as always, supreme intellect.

“Remus blocked my path.  He refused to let me outside – even though we could plainly see no one was waiting within at least 100 yards – and demanded to know what my plan was.  Now, kids, your father isn’t one to keep a great plan to himself.  But he’s also not about to let someone half his age tell him, right to his face, what he can’t do.”

“Well, he was the party leader, Tarmus.”

“Exactly; the party leader.  He gave orders to that unlucky lot who’d been summoned in Mydrana, and Star seemed to go along with his plans to a certain extent.  But I agree to no rule but my own, and I would be damned if I was going to back down, especially after his rough treatment earlier.  The big lug shook off a quick spell, so I asked Yeric, who is quite a bit faster than this humble bard, to open the door for me, which he was kind enough to attempt.”

“I never agreed to do what he said, either.  I just think you should have talked a bit more.”

“Yes, well, there’s a time for talk, and there’s a time for action.  As the thug roughhoused your brave uncle, I strolled right out the front door.  Yeric soon followed, and we slammed it behind us, seeing as how they were so scared of enemies.

“I think we smelled them before we saw them.  Purple, shambling, hideous things that belong in a crypt, not a forest: ghasts.  They weren’t exactly moving quickly, and were still far enough off for us to depart, so I turned both myself and Yeric invisible as we retreated around the side of the structure and into the forest.  They could handle a few rotting purple guys themselves, and my trick wasn’t going to do much against the undead; besides, I’d had enough of being manhandled.  But, my brother here didn’t think it was right to abandon them like that.”
“We couldn’t just high-tail it, after all y’all had done together.  C’mon, you’re a bard, man, how could you exit before you heard the end of the story?”

“Yeah, yeah, I would have come to my senses eventually.  Anyway, the group found us arguing about it few minutes later.  Apparently, there had been one of those eyeball thingies there too, which I’m still sad I missed.  I’ve always wanted to see a living beholder.  I had a brief but enlightening discussion with Remus, and he agreed to a hands-off policy.  I also disabused him of the idea that I was just another lackey in his parade; as I said before, I take commands from no man.  He wanted the amulet piece back, which was fine by me.  Amulet of the Gods my ass; it made my voice a bit lower and got rid of some of the gray in my hair.  It takes a god to do that?

“Anyway, now that we had the sword, we had to decide what to do next.  We were a bit worried about Lugtee, but we had no leads on where he’d gotten to, and there probably wasn’t much we could do to help if the wizard himself wasn’t powerful enough to deal with it.  Canthor wanted us to assist in repelling a growing army of undead recently on the move, but between the increasingly severe winter and the fact that they’d only attacked orcs so far, the party decided they could wait.  Of the most immediate interest, we decided, was showing the sword to Olin in Aenith.  After all, Surial did found their order; he might have some vested interest.”

“The trip to Aenith was slow going, as the snowfall rose to nearly two inches.  Normally, the area would be dangerous, but luck was with us: our trip was entirely uneventful.  Once there, Canthor met with Olin a brief while, and quickly retreated to the library, while yours truly headed for the nearest tavern.
“And speaking of taverns, I’m out of ale, so this is where this story ends.  I think I heard your mother calling you two, anyway.”
“Awwwww, c’mon, papa.  There was only some ghasts and a beholder, and you weren’t even there for the fight!  Tell us a story with some real monsters an’ stuff!”

“Heh.  Hear that, Yeric?  They want monsters.  Well, do your chores, kids, and bring me another mug of ale, and I might be persuaded to continue.  And believe me…  You won’t believe what happens next.”


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## Cloudgatherer (Mar 1, 2002)

*Of Namarra and the shadow blade*

(_Namarra_ appears in Magic of Faerun, but is not tied to the setting itself.)

There are no tales of Namarra creation.  Even books in Aenith's Great Library do not reference any stories that predate Namarra's creation, and thus the sword is very old.  The sword says "Namarra" on one side of its blade, and "never sleeps" on the other.  Namarra functions as a +2 keen longsword in battle, radiates a purple light equal to a candle, and can cast silence on itself on command. The silence lasts until the wielder dismisses it or lets go of the weapon.

Namarra was last used by Surial, the paladin of Bryle who did so much for Aenith.  It has been lost since his disappearance and was recently discovered by Canthor, a cleric of Bryle during one of his adventures.

_Shadow blade_:  The adventurers destroyed a shadow blade last adventure.  It is essentially the sun blade's opposite.  The Dark Wizard crafted the blade by studying the Summersword, which he has had in his possession for a while.  The weapon was intended for a Mithral Blade, but now its magic is gone, but Star is still carrying it...


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## Canthor (Mar 5, 2002)

*The Future*

The Undead Army must be destroyed.  I will rent Army of Darkness and memorize all the lines if I must.  Canthor, Cleric of Bryle, may soon be surprising Katrina Purelight by saying "Give me some sugar baby" (It is, however, rather unlikely).

Questions: what was the ring you guys picked up at the Citadel of the Eye?
What was Katrina Purelights quest?
Should I brag to Katrina that I have Namarra?
How do we get Eve Darkstar to loan us her "Protector"?

I am a cleric of Bryle, I totally should have looked into the disappearance of the losers of Aenith.

Sincerely,
Unworthy Follower of Bryle the Divine Protector


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## Cloudgatherer (Mar 8, 2002)

*Re: The Future*



			
				Canthor said:
			
		

> *Questions: what was the ring you guys picked up at the Citadel of the Eye?
> What was Katrina Purelights quest?
> Should I brag to Katrina that I have Namarra?
> How do we get Eve Darkstar to loan us her "Protector"?
> ...




0) Ring:  Allows change self at will.
1) You don't know.  Ask her yourself .
2) If that's what you want to do....
3) Keep it "in character", eh?

"Losers of Aenith":  You can't go around solving everything.  Don't think you have to investigate every little thing, especially when there are other people going about it.


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## hong (Mar 8, 2002)

Cloudgatherer said:
			
		

> *Of Namarra and the shadow blade
> 
> (Namarra appears in Magic of Faerun, but is not tied to the setting itself.)
> 
> ...




Trivia time: Namarra is a sword that appears in the CRPG Baldur's Gate 2. A number of the items in MoF had their origins in that game, actually. Others include the arrow of biting, runehammer, shield of vigilance, Laeral's spell shield and spectral dagger.

Not sure why I posted this.


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## Cloudgatherer (Mar 8, 2002)

Thanks for the info, hong!  In my game, the sword has its own role, but I thought the name was nice and thus it was used.


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## incarnuim (Mar 9, 2002)

*......Shoot the Hostage....*

....."Drop the broach, Austarian!  Or Illeyanadel's gonna bite it!"
shouts the burly human warrior, gripping the throat of Star's youngest daughter.

Star thought of another burly warrior, a fowl cleric of Baalahnin, and the young woman he had taken hostage; one of Tarmus' students, he mused, thinking back to the old party: Tarmus, Remus, Canthor, and himself.  But that was nearly 300 years ago.  Star knew he should be more confident, but these situations always brought out the worst in him.  Even after dozens of decades. 

"COWARD!" shouted back Star, "Release Illeyanadel! And I will consider your request!!"

Slowly Star drew his bow taut, and knocked the arrow of mercy; he knew that moment would eventually come, he remembered......

The party was Yerric, Tarmus, Remus, Canthor, and Austarian.  Caught in the political maelstrom that was the free north then.  Diram was gone, the party was without direction, and in dire need of funding.  We had all thought to visit the elven nation of Huranti, perhaps forming a mercenary company there, at least until winter broke. Tarmus and Yerric talked fondly of the Woodblood farm near Mydrana, where our great adventure had begun, what seemed like ages ago. It was then that she burst into the Warrior's Courage, to inform Tarmus that a number of his students at the Woodblood farm had been taken hostage.  We double-timed it to Mydrana, a feat for which our horses never forgave us fully, and on the road learned that a Demonic priest of Baalahnin had taken 2 young girls hostage, but was willing to trade them for the Dark Blade.  This priest was a terrible sight. He had once been elven, or so it seemed, but now his skin had become black and scaly, his face twisted under a metal covering, with batlike wings and eyes that emulsed a sickly green fire.

We spent our time hastily preparing for his arrival and his offer of "negotiation." But how can one negotiate with such a corruption? How can one sell ones soul to a Demon.  He came riding a dark horse, gripping the neck of one young maiden in his clawed hands.  His terms of negotiation were dubious.  It is fortunate that Star circled around during his approach and negotiation, cutting off his retreat.  Star could hear, even at a great distance, that negotiations weren't going well. It was unsurprising when Tarmus gave the signal to kill the Demon. Star's arrow was already knocked and drawn.

Then disaster struck: quick as thinking, before anyone could react, Star let three arrows fly; but two struck the young maiden in the throat and shoulder, her body went limp. The third did not fair much better, striking the demon on the arm. Quickly, the black steed wheeled round, and it appeared it's master would escape, as the party gave a slow and hasty chase.  Star figured that if he could not kill the Demon, he would at least contain him: slowly Star bent his bow, and aimed carefully at the steeds front hamstring. His arrow struck true, and the steed crumpled, throwing the rider some distance.  He regained his footing and faced Star, but it was then that young Yerric, supernaturally enhanced, thrust into the demon's back with his rapier, like a wasp bent on vengance for the young maiden's life.  The demon quickly found itself flanked by two such wasps, with two such rapiers, Star and Yerric; as Remus loomed ever closer, heralding the destruction of the demon as he advanced.  The Demon faught furiously to break the pin, weaving a deadly dance with barrage after barrage of swings with it's mighty Axe.  It was then, bless Bryle, that a column of holy fire ripped down from the heaven's upon the beast; stunned and reeling, Remus had found the moment he needed upon closing in; Star added a strike to the back of the leg, bringing the beast to its knees, then Yerric struck the final blow: a coup de grace through the creatures throat. Its death was met by silence, as it gasped on the ground, unable to scream even a final curse on it's destroyers.

The other maiden was found a day later, hanging dead from a tree.  Apparantly, the negotiation was meant to have some kind of time limit, an ingeneous, if cruel, plan.

Star, having felt bad about the killing of all the hostages, payed for the magic nescesary to bring their souls back to the mortal realm.

.......Austarian's attention snapped back to the present.  To Illeyanadel and Caraathis.  This time he was prepared.  Without hesitation or grief, he let fly the Arrow of Mercy........


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## Cloudgatherer (Mar 9, 2002)

Goodness.  I think Tarmus and Incarnuim are much better at Story Hour than I am....

I really enjoy seeing some of the situations from the character's point of view.  Excellent story!


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## Cloudgatherer (Mar 12, 2002)

*The Prelude Dream*

Remus and Canthor have started to share a common dream.  They do not know why they share this dream or what significance it has, but the mere fact they both have it troubles them....

In life, Butterfly was Remus' step-sister.  She loved animals, the outdoors, and rarely spoke to people outside of the family.  While she was killed with the rest of Remus' family in a orc attack, she has manifested herself in the greatsword Remus has always used.

The dream is thus...

Butterfly is running quickly through an unfamiliar forest.  The forest creatures look at her inquisitively, but she yells at them to flee.  She continues to run, the forest trees scraping against her as she makes her way through the forest.

A recently erected wall of earth and stone obstructs her path.  Turning around, a shadowy, human like form approaches through the trees.  Fear dances in her eyes as the shadowy form lifts his arm and ball of darkness launches from its hand.....

and so the dream ends.


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## Canthor (Mar 13, 2002)

*Pondering*

There might have been a reason that the Green Winged Thing couldn't summon his fellow uglies.  Do summonings have a chance to fail?


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## Canthor (Mar 13, 2002)

After a trance, Canthor awoke and prayed to Bryle for forgiveness.  The day before had witnessed the death of two innocents in a particularly cruel mishap.  Though Star may be a follower of Bryle, he still needs much guidance before he truly understands what Bryle the Divine Protector desires of his believers.  His heart is good though his methods are not always as good.  “What must I do?” Canthor asked himself as he began his daily ritual.  Bryle’s presence soon comforted Canthor and as he relaxed he felt his energies renewed and his divine grace grow stronger.  Words of ancient holy wisdom flowed into Canthor’s mind, some old and some quite new, and thus Canthor sat for a while.

    During lunch the Party discussed what to do with the various articles taken from the evil follower of Balahnin.  Since he had been mighty warrior, we supposed that he had powerful magic woven into his armament.  Since Tarmus and Star were confident that they could figure out whatever power these items might have, Remus and Canthor stood back and watched the action.  Star soon had the lions head on the black steel shield chomping on a nearby tree.  Tarmus was anxious to copy this act and quickly he too discovered that the lions head could be provoked to attack, though it was after he became frustrated with the shield that the lions head turned and bit him.  Nothing else proved of interest, though having two options for sleeves from the dark full plate did seem fun.  It’s too bad we don’t know anyone evil and winged who has retired with lots of money.

    Delayed only by a brief search for a buyer for the dark full plate, which came equipped with accommodations for wings (and a lousy sale price), we set off for Huranti, the land of the elven kingdom.  Remus and I had never been there, while Star and Tarmus hadn’t been there in a long time.  The army of undead would wait until the company of clerics of Bryle could leave Aenith in the spring season.  The Dark Wizard could wait until we were prepared to take him.  And, Canthor thought pleasantly, Armathon will be dealt with when the time is right.  So in essence, we had free time.

    After the first night, Canthor had a very strange dream.  Not one to dream of much other than the extreme excellence of Bryle, nor one to dream of cute female humans, Canthor was distressed by the vision.  A young woman dressed in green with white flowers.  She’s running through a forest warning the creatures of the trees to flee.  They flee and she continues to run.  Then she stops and there in front of her is a newly constructed wall of stone and earth.  It’s unnatural feel is like a blade into the heart of the grove.  An intangible creature of darkness reaches toward the young female and a ball of glowing darkness streaks out towards her.

    The next morning Canthor spoke of his dream to his companions.  Remus replied, “Her name is Butterfly.  She is my sister.”

    “What?”  

    Remus then spoke to Canthor with a very somber tone, “My sister’s soul is in my sword.  One time before she has reached out to speak to me in peril, so I strengthened the blade at the Forge of Liquid Fire.  That seemed to help.  I do not know what to do.  This is not to be spoken about with others outside the party.”

    “Surely there must be something that Eaonway of the Temple of Natural Balance can do.  Did you feel anything while you were there?”

    “No I did not.”

    “Hold on, let me contact him.”

    With that having escaped his lips, Canthor spoke the spiritual words of sending and he asked, “It’s Canthor. Hi Eaonway.  What do you know of communal dreams about the restlessness of long dead souls?”

    Eaonway replied, “Dreams are very important.  Good luck figuring it out.”

    “Umm, Eaonway has no knowledge on the subject.”

    After a long silence, Star spoke, “Come on guys, lets go blow up some sheep.”

    Quickly Tarmus grinned and soon an image of a small sheep with large sparkling innocent eyes standing amid a large field arose between us.  The sheep said, “Baaaaa” and then went *Boom*.  Little tufts of wool drifted back down onto the field as the entire party busted up in howls of laughter.

    On the journey to River’s end, on route to Qualin in Huranti, during the hours Canthor and Star were on watch, Tarmus could be heard mumbling in his sleep, “One sheep… boom… heehee…two sheep…boom…heehee.”

    Around the fifth day of the journey, the group sited a woman on a horse in the distance.  Hopeful for news of any interest, we hailed her.  She waved back and lifted her helm, revealing Katrina Purelight.  Soon she joined us and Canthor, speaking words of praise to Bryle and congratulations to Katrina, asked and received a large feast worthy of heroes.  Katrina told us of her quest into the dark land to retrieve the Necklace of the Gods of Bryle.  The rings under her confident eyes bespoke of the terrors she must have witnessed.  She spoke mostly of her awakening from what she believed would be her final sleep, and finding her blade stuck into the corpse of the hideous foe who had almost sent her to Bryle before her time.  After what must have been an hour of dining and storytelling, she left our company and headed off to Aenith.  She would not listen to our plea that she stay that night, for a better rest.  A feeling that she should make haste had set upon her shoulders and she believed it to be an omen.

    So we wished her farewell and continued on the way to River’s End.  During the Third Watch, which happened to be when Star was on watch, the faint sound of leathery wings began to drift through the air.  In an act of pure foresight, Star woke us.  He could not see them, but he could hear them.    Not much time passed before a voice spoke into the minds of the party, each hearing something different.  The lack of appearance caused the adventurers to question the sincerity of the question each was asked (which happened to be about which way the woman rider had gone).  Tarmus and Star each told contradictory stories with incredible conviction (neither of which were the truth), Remus became mentally confused, and Canthor asked the speaker to come and appear in body his question.  The sight of eleven green skinned, four armed, vicious battle ax wielding, winged and clawed creatures soon answered the question the hung about the camp, “What did we get ourselves into?”

    Suddenly a voice that was not only in our minds spoke, “Tell us the truth stupid mortals or face your death.” 

    Tarmus, thinking quickly, spoke, “Now gentlemen, I mean great green powerful evil guys, I don’t know what these guys said, but the woman on the horse went that way.”

    Star, falling in line with Tarmus’ idea, agreed, “Wait, the woman on the horse?  Not the whore?”

    “Star, why would these great green powerful evil guys want a 
whore? Of course they want to know about the woman on the horse.”

    “Oh, she went that way.”

    “Exactly, I think we’ve had a misun….”

    Suddenly five of the winged creatures opened their hands and released coins which fell to the ground and emitted darkness.  Tarmus spoke hesitantly, “Now this doesn’t help at all.  I already told you that she went that way.”

    “Silence.  The truth or death.”

    Quickly Star readied an arrow, Tarmus muttered songs of heroic acts, Canthor cast a spell of protection, and Remus picked up the coin and put the darkness squarely in his pants.

    As the darkness lifted the winged creatures sprang into action.  Combat began and lasted for quite a while.  The fly by attack that the creatures employed revealed a weakness in the party in their reliance on melee combat.  The adventurers realized that only two creatures were actually there and the other nine were illusions.  

    Star fired arrows in large numbers and realized the necessity to discern which of the images was real.  When one of his arrows landed true, Canthor reacted by casting silence upon the creature.  Then that creature ran out of images and was carved down with a mighty blow by Remus.  The other creature continued to fight, but retreated when his wounds were too much.

    Wounded, but proud for repelling what was following Katrina, the party cleaned their wounds and healed and began their sixth day of journey on the way to River’s End on route to Qualin of Huranti.


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## Broccli_Head (Mar 13, 2002)

What were those evil green guys?


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## Cloudgatherer (Mar 14, 2002)

They were nycaloths from Manual of the Planes.  They are nasty, the battle took most of the evening and I had other stuff planned!

I also made a mistake regarding mirror image, it is not a spell that can be disbelieved.  So, players, I will not be allowing that from now on.  Only spells that have the "Will (disbelief)" descriptor allow for a disbelief.


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## Cloudgatherer (Mar 18, 2002)

If you are a reader and know the solution to the below, please do not post it.  This is for my players to figure out.

*A Strange and Deadly Disease*

_Arangraph Thorgard, a half-elven lumberer/businessman, lies asleep in his bed as a strange disease attacks his body.  Lugtee Hardroc has been using what skills he has as an alchemist and healer to treat his wounds, but admittedly he can do little for Arangraph.

All attempts to magically heal him have failed.  It is as if the disease itself resists all magic, yet spells can still be cast on Arangraph himself.  Lugtee is at a loss as to how to cure this dying man, who only has about a week of life left...._

Alright, you can think of the solution in character or out of character.  When you do find the solution, it is not much of a stretch to say it really happened in character.  Here's a couple of things you can assume:

 - Access to all cleric and wizard spells of 6th level or less. (Lugtee can provide the arcane spells, Canthor the cleric spells)
 - Basic knowledge of human physiology (organs, blood, bones, etc.  You know not to use leeches, but don't know what a white blood cell count is...)
 - Ability to do *simple* medical procedures (giving blood, getting a shot, along those lines)

That's basically it.  Remember, the key here is the key property of the disease:  it's magic resistant nature.

And for anyone who is curious, no I didn't think of this by myself.  I took it from another source and know the solution as presented there.  Enjoy!


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## Canthor (Mar 25, 2002)

*Being sick sucks*

After racking his thorough knowledge of the healing arts, Canthor was still unable to procure a solution or even a cause of the illness.  Sitting next to the bed of Arangraph Thorgard, Canthor tried to relax and think about the events of the past few days. 
	Arriving at River’s End, and avoiding one certain mercantile street, Canthor, Remus, Star, Tarmus, and Yeric found a nice quiet inn and became nice and quiet.  No need to stir up trouble like the last time they had come to town.  No priests, no old dueling debts, no more store encounters of the growing ship kind.  The only news to be heard was that there were some discontents speaking against the “protection” secured from the Hurantian Empire for River’s End.  One person, the news went, would not be speaking, since his home had been incinerated the night after the protest.
	Star, whose curiosity has concerned Bryle more often than not, went to investigate.  After speaking to neighbors and searching the remnants of what was a house, he discovered that it was very likely Lugtee who had been staying there.  Upon returning to the inn, Star spoke his grim discovery.  Canthor immediately tried to contact Lugtee through spiritual means, but to no avail.  “This is a sad day for the cause of justice and many innocent people should bow their heads for the death of Lugtee.”
	“I’m sure he’s fine.  I’m SURE of it.” replied Star, with a nudge of his elbow.  With that the issue was settled and the night passed uneventfully.
	The journey to Qualin was restful. Noteworthy only was that the darkness stopped eminating from Remus’s pants.  We arrived and starting looking for troubles to fix.  We found that there was trouble up north and that the King of Huranti was ill.  
	In a miraculous event, as Star sat on a corner listening to people talk, he heard Lugtee’s voice from three blocks away.  Lugtee was inside a shop arguing over the price of a herb.  After approaching Lugtee with warm greetings, Star learned that Lugtee’s friend Arangraph Thorgard had become ill and was seemingly incurable.  As bade by Lugtee, Star brought everyone to the home of Arangraph.  Canthor tried to think of a way to help, but came up useless.  Star and Canthor even went to the area where Arangraph worked as a lumber harvester, but not a clue was to be found.
	That night Star went out and partied with old friends and Remus, Tarmus, Canthor, and Yeric sat and thought.


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## incarnuim (Apr 10, 2002)

*The end of an Aera*

"Wait! Wait!! I've got it" Boomed Remus, with a deep thunderous laugh.  "The disease is resistant to magic, right? so we just Teleport him downstairs."

"That won't do anything, it just proves that you really don't know squat Remus." whispered Yerric.

"No, no, you're missing it, the diseased portions of his body won't be able to teleport, because they'll resist the magic, only the non-diseased pieces of him will be left." retorted Remus

"That sound's pretty gruesome" said Lugtee

"Yeah!" chimed Tarmus "What if his bones or his blood or his skin or all three are diseased??  Are you gonna Teleport a holy bag of dried organs and puss downstairs?"

"But we can bring him back, after the disease is gone, can't we?" Remus looked expectantly at Canthor

"The holy writs don't take kindly to this kind of self-immolation. And even if Bryle was to make exception in this case, for he is all wise and all understanding, we would need 51% of the carcass in tact to perform the ritual.  Even Bryle needs clay to mold a chalice. Or so the high priests tell me."

"Arangraph is dying" urged Yerric "If something can be done, why don't we give it a shot. The longer we argue, the less likely Arongraph is to have 51% of a carcass."

"Enough!!" scolded Lugtee "I'll not have you Strange One's talking about Carcasses and rituals! This is my friends life!! You are talking about life and death here."

"*cough cough* you're gonna do what with the hey now?!" asked Arongraph meekly.

In unison: "Nothing! go back to sleep!!"

Silently and dejected, the party tried desperately to think of something to do.

"I've got it!" said Lugtee with a snap of his fingers. "Canthor, come with me, I'll need your help!"

After a few hours, the screaming began.  Apparantly the cure is almost as bad as the disease, thought Star.  The rest of the party did what they could to avoid the house, what with the screaming and all.

Lugtee sent word to the Royal Healer, that if the King had the same disease, this method might work. It had worked with Arongraph, after all.

Soon after there was a knock at Arongraphs door, "Open! In the name of Magemaster Diamondflower, Royal Wizard of Huranti! Open the door!!" At length the door was answered, and Magemaster Diamondflower himself sauntered in.  He confiscated the device used to heal Arongraph, and asked how we came by it?  "It was Lugtee's idea" blurted Yerric, making a slight error in the continual information war that is Aera.

"Oh!? retorted Diamondflower "I thought he was killed at River's End! It is good that he is well." matching blunder for blunder.

Several hours later, a well armed group, led by an elf named Hemost, came asking for work.  Star didn't put 1 and 1 together. Preoccupied by hunger, fatigue, or more far reaching concerns, the rogue missed a crucial observation.

That night, Hemost and his team assaulted the house (hereafter referred to as "the compound").  Star was the only one asleep at the time, or else he would have given the group more advanced warning.  He was wholly unprepared for an assault.

It is unfortunate that the rest of the group sought resistance.  The battle was brief, the party fractured.  In the first few moments, Remus and Yerric were held, utterly motionless.  Star took a few moments to gather his thoughts, and his clothing. But what good could he do without a weapon in hand or armour on his back? Canthor engaged in a spell battle with a sorcerror, trading Flame Strike for Fireball, Wall & Barrier for Dispel Magics, and the brightness of Searing Light for the crackling blackness of Enervation.  Star tried desperately to use what tricks he could muster to save Remus, but he was outnumbered 5 to 1, at those odds, and of diminished capacity, Star fled.  Tarmus, unsuited to the martial arts, crept invisibly toward his brother, using Dimension Door to save him and our charge, Arongraph.

Throughout the battle, the party's thought was, "Why is such an experienced team here? What makes a humble lumberjack so important?" Perhaps the machinations and conspiracy's of the Elven Royalty are beyond human comprehension, perhaps the party was caught at the end of some plot which took 300 years or more to come to fruition. 

Yerric recovered from his paralysis, and returned to the house to aid the others, but to no avail.  Remus, Canthor, and Yerric were defeated.

Star finally prepared himself for a singlehanded assault on the compound, opening with a poisoned arrow to the back of a gaurd, but the poison failed to incite further retaliation from Hemost and his team, and the villians fled via Spell.

Star contacted a Wizard friend, and Tarmus the local malitia.  The response time was too slow, however and the investigation turned up little, other than that Hemost's team was VERY well financed, and EXTREMELY well connected.

Arongraph was safe, at a local inn.  But for how long? That is anyone's guess.  It seemed to Star as though the Outsiders of Aera would breathe their last.


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## Cloudgatherer (Apr 10, 2002)

Only one (important) nitpick.  Diamondflower did not say "It is good that he is well."  He was surprised to hear he was still alive, believing him to be slain in River's End.


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## MWoody_450_ (Apr 19, 2002)

Yay!  ENWorld removed the need to “activate” your account by receiving an e-mail and following the link it contained!  Probably a good idea, since they simply refused to ever send me an e-mail, no matter how many different servers and addresses and usernames I tried.

OK folks, just a quick recap this time.  Doing it from Tarmus’ point of view was fun, but it took waaaaay too much time to type that thing out.  Besides, “quick ‘n’ dirty” is the way everyone’s favorite bard prefers it…

(*sigh*; Tarmus was such a nice character when I first wrote his backstory.  I think I’m a bad influence…)

So, half the party was captured, and Star and Tarmus were left alone and bewildered in the strange elven city of Qualin.  But before the pair could do much of anything about it, Star up and split for reasons of his own.  Arongraph had promised to help, which turned out to be more useful than expected; far from a simple logger, he was a member of the Silver Swords, an organization headed by Katrina Purelight and dedicated to protecting the free cities of the North.

It wouldn’t be quick work, though.  Working closely with the Swords, it took Tarmus a good three months before he could get any breaks.  But when it rains it pours; information on both the location of the escaped rogue and the missing party members came at almost the same time.  Lugtee in tow, the bard approached a house in Aenith, finding a magically disguised Star living it up on his own.  He denied his identity, of course, but the informant had been very certain of his information; once they were out of sight and earshot, the two became silent and invisible and crept back to the house.

Star had quickly fled, so Tarmus searched the house for any belongings that he may have left behind in his haste.  He found nothing, but Lugtee was able to track and retrieve the rogue via magical means.  Left with no other option, he agreed to help retrieve the absent party members, who had finally been located in Ralanov.  He did, however, refuse to give up any of the party items, claiming he didn’t trust his two companions.

The three made use of a well-hidden magical portal beneath the Aenith library to travel to Ralanov.  It was the same method they’d used before, as it turns out, although it was a bit easier without the blindfolds this time around.  On the way, Lugtee quickly described his plan: get the others – who, as it turns out, had been forced to do very bad things while under mind control by the dark wizard – to get close enough for the mind control to be disrupted by a circle of protection against evil, then dispel it permanently.

Wasn’t long before they’d found the group, slaughtering foes along with their abductors.  All were swiftly reunited, as Remus, returned to his senses by the helpful mage, once again did his impression of a blender on amphetamines.  However, things were not immediately all right: not only were they still in a war-torn city in chaos, but Tarmus was no where to be found.  A few quick questions revealed that Tarmus had mistaken Star’s attempt at getting behind the enemy for yet another abandonment, and had attempted to use magic to hold him until the others could assist in determining the thief’s motives.  He failed in doing so, and was poisoned by Star in the attempt; he barely managed to escape before being knocked unconscious.

The situation was worsened by Yeric’s accidental – according to Star – wounding and near-poisoning by one of the rogue’s arrows.  The two brothers were incensed, but the situation was dangerous enough that a cease-fire was declared until they escaped the city.  They located Tarmus, out cold and sporting two arrows in his side, and dragged him along to the gate.  Lugtee vanished, requesting that the five secure their exit and stating that he had something he needed to do while here.

Three ruffians were near the gate, and after a dangerous battle that left everyone bleedin’ an’ achin’, the two whose heads were still squarely attached to their shoulders high-tailed it out of there.  Lugtee appeared again, this time with a young woman who looked a bit familiar.  It was, amazingly enough, one of the guards whom the party had left unconscious during their first visit to the beleaguered city.  Questions would have to wait, though; through the portal the party went.

Surprises waited back in Aenith, though.  The first wasn’t so bad: Milo, a frustrated and extremely confused librarian in tow, met them as they came through the gate.  But something was amiss.  It seems Lugtee, whether by design or accident no one knew, didn’t come through with everyone else.

Canthor, nearly out of his head at the horror his hands had caused while under the Dark Wizard’s control, bolted to the great temple to be absolved.  The party followed, getting healing for the still poisoned Tarmus as well as the rest of the group.  They decided – over the bard’s protests – to deal with the matter of Star’s questioned loyalties in the morning.  Retiring to different inns, as the brothers would not sleep in the same house with the rogue, the party went to sleep.


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## Canthor (Apr 22, 2002)

*I had a dream*

For the first time in months, I awoke to find myself in control.  Not of my destiny for that I entrust to Bryle, but at least of myself.  Soon, hopefully, the group would come back together and I would have a chance to regain Namarra.
	We met at Star’s home, which he had purchased as part of his cover in the city of Aenith.  Although I agree with Tarmus about Star’s silent disappearance at the city of Qualin not being in the party’s favor, I believe that Bryle had a hand in Star’s decision.  Bryle would have known to have Star go into hiding since the Dark Wizard would be looking for him.
	At the beginning of the three months that Yeric, Remus, and I had been under the influence of the Dark Wizard, we were interrogated.  The Dark Wizard thus knew that Star had two amulets of the gods and that I had one.  I was soon without my medallion and Namarra.  Yeric and Remus did not lose much, in fact Yeric gained better equipment.  For the rest of the three months, after getting tattoos affiliating us with the Mithral Blades, we did the dirty work for the Dark Wizard.  We killed the governor of Kilinay, whom aspired to replace King Doombringer (the Dark Wizard’s boss… well, more like his employer) and we stopped an attempt on the Dark Wizard’s life.  Most recently we were at Ralanov fighting with the Sulimarin (the secret ethnocentric elven agency apparently were taking an interest in Ralanov).
	So our rescue was most fortunate, given the circumstances.  I had thought that Tarmus and Star would assuredly be dead.  I suppose that Tarmus was safe, since he had nothing of value and that Star was safe only because of his drastic actions.
	I slept near Star, still considering his safety to be endangered.  We spoke before we slept.  Star had stayed at Aenith to keep an eye on Lore and Gale.  If anyone had contacted them, Star would have investigated and would have responded if any of us had been doing the contacting.  I trust Star, I have more dirt on him than anyone in the world and I’m not dead yet (there is a problem with being the priest for an elven thief, if they aren’t faithful you end up with 200 years worth of things to confess).
	Yet for some reason, as we all sat around the table listening to Tarmus condemn Star and Star defend his actions, I could not help but think of all the bad things Star has done.  How could I trust this follower of Bryle who has gone so astray.  Maybe the last three months had affected me.  I thought Tarmus was feeling awfully important since he believed that his loss of contact with Star condemned Star.
	Yes… Star had bought a house with party gold.
	Yes… Star had disappeared without a trace.
	Yes… Star didn’t drop his disguise when Tarmus and Lugtee came knocking on his door.
	For some reason I didn’t really care what Star did or didn’t do.  He was either with us or not, and he was useful most of the time.  Tarmus had the problem with him.  Star proposed plans of setting a quest upon ourselves that we might hold true to one another.  Tarmus replied that if half the party is mind controlled than both sides are betraying the other.  After plenty of argument, I bored of the bickering and proposed that I cast zone of truth, which would mean that Tarmus would get the truth he wanted and would either accept or cast away Star.  Everyone accepted the plan and soon the truth was upon the table.  Tarmus didn’t trust Star.  Star thought Tarmus too long winded and thought safety was not in numbers but in shadows.  In the end, Star spoke his loyalty to the group and Tarmus was reassured.  So I proposed we go into town to get supplies to make Remus a ring enchanted with Remove Paralysis and then go after Treespire and find Lugtee.  Armathon and the Dark Wizard would come later (though being a good cleric, I certainly have a hit list).
	While at Alfgar’s shop of crafting necessities, Star overheard some paladins talking about guards falling asleep on the job and the oddity of the incident.  Remembering the last time something was amiss the Summersword was stolen.  I approached the paladins and asked about what they had said, but they knew no more. We went to the Temple of Bryle and I asked a guard and he did not know.  I then went to Olon, who was in the company of Milo, and asked him what was going on.
	Apparently, and this was hush-hush, there was concern that Lugtee had keys to the portals under Aenith, since there was no reason for him to know their existence.  The church placed some paladins to guard the portal.  Lugtee had today popped in, looking rather worse for wear.  Katrina and Olon were there quickly and tried to pry information out of him but he was evasive.  One of the more zealous paladins decided to detain Lugtee and so Lugtee knocked the paladins unconscious and left (after throwing a bag of gold to be delivered to his informant whom had returned with us to Aenith the day before).
	During this conversation, Milo quipped, “Gee, the moons are gonna align tonight.”
	“Align? What does that mean?” I said.
	“The moons align once a year in front of the constellation for one of the gods.  This year it happens to be Balahnin.”
	At that point I decided that I should tell everyone about the dream I’d had (Olon already knew since I confessed to him yesterday).  I had dreamt of a ritual taking place with many acolytes and a main priest who looked like Armathon and sounded like Armathon.  Suddenly all the acolytes died and Armathon, wielding a great purple magic, tore a hole into another plane.  A dark shifting shadow that had been beside Armathon went through the portal and entered a statue on the other side and the statue started coming to life.
	Then Remus spoke, “I too had a dream.  My sister appeared to me and warned me that a great evil would happen when the moons align.”
	At this point Tarmus gave his brother a questioning look to which Yeric replied with a shrug.  Not everyone gets a visionary dream.
	Olon then looked at me intently and said, “But where?”
	“Tarmus, can you play that image again of the Citadel of the Eye?”
	“Sure, it might be a bit fuzzy, but I can manage it.  Here we go…”
	“That’s it.  The stonework and vague vile feeling is the same.  It must be below the place where you went.”
	At that point we left with all haste and I invoked the holy words that would dissipate us into clouds and whisk us away to the Citadel of the Eye.
	We materialized next to the entrance to the underground temple and descended.
	Star scouted ahead and found that there were many undead blocking the stairs that lead deeper into the temple.  The party dealt quickly with them, many of them being vanquished simply by the holy aura I channeled against them.  
	Descending the stairs we saw two giant minotaur looking creatures beating a Deva into the wall.  One of the minotaur things struck a mighty blow and the Deva, nearly crippled, drew a scroll and escaped through a rift that appeared.  She left behind her glowing white mace.  The minotaur things started dashing toward us, but the distance was great.  We sat and waited while Star pumped them full of arrows.  Before they reached us, they were so wounded that they turned and fled around a corner at a four way intersection far ahead.  I raced over to the mace and pledged to return it.  Yeric reached the intersection before the rest of us and was battered as both the minotaur-like behemoths charged him.  The rest of us arrived and Yeric fell back.  One of the beasts ran around me and started stomping with its tremendous hoofs.  Rocks started falling atop us all and the other minotaur thing fell dead.  Soon we dispatched the second minotaur creature and headed to the intersection and chose the direction that chanting could be heard from.
	Laying before us was a statue with a holy symbol of Balahnin and beyond that was a large pit with a thin bridge that crossed it.  Written on the statue were the words, “Unbelievers shall be burned.”  Star tried to cross but intense heat rose from the walkway and scorched him.  So, I channeled divine energy to create another stone bridge.  We crossed unharmed and reached the chamber where the ritual was taking place.  Before we opened the door, the screams of people dying could be heard.
	Inside the room were four giant columns at the corners of the room and an altar at the side farthest from the door.  Floating a little above the door were three gems and Namarra.  Circles of cold blue flame ten feet high surrounded each column and the altar.  We rushed inside to find the Dark Wizard on the left side of the room so we attacked with haste.  In terrible pain, he escaped through his spellcraft.  Inside the circle of flame around the altar were Armathon and a large black skinned humanoid with green eyes (a familiar face, hey… didn’t we kill him?  Uglies never stay dead).  The humanoid fell quickly amid the onslaught of the party, but Armathon, which I realized was no longer alive, proved a much greater challenge.  After charging at him, running away from his blade barrier, shooting at him over the flame circle, and charging him when he came out of the circle, he finally fell.  Armathon was now a dead lich.  I had almost died during the attempt to kill (re-kill) Armathon, and yet he could easily revive if we did not find the item holding his soul.  We searched, but to no avail, though I did get Namarra back.  A large explosion went off as the ritual spell finally unraveled.  Tarmus quickly dressed us in the robes of the dead acolytes and we rushed out of the temple.
	Soon we were safe inside a hiding place for Silver Swords and wondered, “If I were Armathon, where would my soul be?”


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## Cloudgatherer (Apr 22, 2002)

The party is narrowing down the Medallion pieces, but do they know where they all are? There are six Medallion pieces, can any of the party members account for them all?


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## Cloudgatherer (Apr 23, 2002)

Quick rundown of the different pieces (Note:  there are additional clues to the whereabouts of the missing pieces, but this is what the party can be sure of):

Oakleaf Pendant (Mist, +2 Con):  The original medallion piece given to the party.  Up until recently, Canthor was wearing it.  It is now in the Dark Wizard's possession (last it was seen).

Fire Chain (Balahnin, +2 Dex):  The second piece the party came across.  Originally discovered by Lady Quickwater, the party acquired it from a raid on Armathon's underground shrine to Balahnin.

Glowing Sapphire (Edina Runeway, +2 Cha):  Originally adorned the neck of Devon Treespire of Ralanov, this piece is currently around Canthor's neck.

Mithral Hemisphere (Bryle, +2 Wis):  Katrina retreived this medallion piece from the north, as the party thwarted her followers on her way back to Aenith.  It is still around Katrina's neck.

???? (Loraloren, +2 Int):  Whereabouts unknown.

???? (Valeya, +2 Str):  Whereabouts unknown.

And since the party seems to have forgotten previously provided info....

·	Each piece is protected by a mind blank spell.
·	The wearer of a piece is protected by a nondetection spell (DC 31).
·	Once per day, the wearer of a piece can sense the number and general direction of each piece within a 3-mile radius.  Similarly, the wearer of a piece can feel if he is being sensed and from what direction.
·	The wearer is instantly “aware” of any other piece that comes within a 60-foot radius and can locate any individual piece within the radius by concentrating for 5 rounds.  This works much like other detection spell, and is blocked similarly.
·	While wearing a piece of the Medallion, servants of the piece’s deity (outsiders, chosen, servants, avatars, and clerics 10th level or above) can determine the presence of the artifact by making a successful Will save (DC 25) when within 60 feet of the wearer. (Works like the "detection" ability above)

The party also knows the following powers when combining multiple pieces:

·	2 pieces:  +2 attack bonus, +10 competence bonus to Spot and Listen checks
·	3 pieces:  +2 bonus to AC, +2 to all saving throws

Gathering all the pieces of the medallion entitles the wearer to release anyone from any kind of binding (dismissing any “intervening” spells used to keep the target contained) or open any seal or imprison one target within 1200 feet (as per the 9th level spell, no knowledge needed, spell resistance does not apply, activated on command).  In addition, the Medallion will automatically save the wearer’s life, preventing anything that may cause death or imprisonment and at the same time restore the character’s hit points, ability scores, and XP (if level drained).  If any of these powers is used (release, open a seal, imprison, or life saving), the Medallion splits into its individual pieces and only one piece remains with the wearer while the rest scatter across Aera (roll a d6 to determine which piece).


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## incarnuim (Apr 26, 2002)

*Magical Crack*

Star here

I can testify that wearing two medalions at once is incredibly addictive.  Having a total Spot and Listen of +30 (!!) lets you do wacky things.  In the words of T2, "I see EVERYTHING!"


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## Cloudgatherer (Apr 27, 2002)

*Slow night...*

Note:  It was a slow session, the party mostly debated, so most of this is RP info...

Clara welcomed Tarmus and co. into her home.  The Silver Sword/waitress/bartender kept a house used to hide other members of her organization, and Tarmus being active within the Silver Swords, knew the right words to secure a safe place to sleep.

The next morning, in beggar's guise Tarmus went into the city to check out the ruckus they heard the previous night.  The patrols had been stepped up due to an attack on the city (go party!), and the Dark Wizard himself, nursing a shoulder wound, is leading the search for the party himself.  Canthor, calling upon his wind walk spell, takes the party from the city, and heads to the castle where he claimed Namarra.

Galla, the astral deva they saw the night before, lounged by the pool room, and gave the party a warm celestial welcome.  Tarmus used his bardic abilities to allow Canthor to understand the deva's language, and she thanked him and his companions for stopping the ceremony.  The sword Namarra hold the spirit of a powerful devil, whose body still rests in another plane. Armathon was attempting to restore that spirit.  The sword is known to "never sleep" for the nightmares Namarra causes for the weilder, attempting to always work his way back toward his body.  Galla insisted that Canthor return the sword to the pool, to which he agreed.  Out of gratitude, Galla allowed him to hang onto her mace, for which Canthor was very grateful.

Back in Aenith (using wind walk again), Canthor relayed his story to an attentive Olon.  In return, Olon reported how Lugtee is still somewhat of a mystery and how a pair of paladins were lost the previous day.  Canthor, a little confused, took Olon's advice, and went to see Katrina Purelight.

The party met her in the Great Library.  She reported her mission into Ralanov was met with mixed results.  The fighting among the Sulimarin and the Mithral Blades made locating Lugtee difficult, but they managed to find him in a spell battle with several Sulimarin (elven) spellcasters.  He was handling them with little trouble when Katrina's company was attacked by a man dressed in black leathers weilding a curved sword (she doesn't know what kind of sword it is).  More unsettling than the man's swift attacks, that slayed the pair of paladins, was presence of a medallion piece on the attacker.  Star, using his knowledge of all things underhanded, concluded the man was Varrius Afus, leader of the Phantoms.

Troubled by the news the party debated their course of action.  They pondered taking on the Dark Wizard or going after Armathon's phylactery, but in the end decided to go to Mydrana, have items identified, and give Canthor some time to craft an item or two.

Meanwhile, Tarmus returned to the Woodblood Farm, only to set out with Yeric again for the town of Derwin.  The small town dedicated to Loraloren delighted the bard with several stories and a small, yet cozy, library.  Looking back over his recent activity, Tarmus had saved his friends from the Dark Wizard and stopped the return of a powerful devil.  Not bad for an old bard, eh? However, he had not been made any richer, despite the fact the party now possessed a great deal of wealth.  When called upon by the party, he informed them he would charge for his services (and Yeric's), as he had not gained any monetary wealth during his time with the party.

Canthor, Remus, and Star decided not to pay the bard's fee, and instead go after Devon Treespire and Himoust, associates of the Dark Wizard's.  As they searched Ralanov, the party of 3 discovered a meeting between the two at the top of Temorana Castle.  After one group left, the party ambushed Treespire's group.  Devon flung a couple fireballs at the party before teleporting away.  Having lost that objective, the party quickly took off down the stairs after Himoust and Noto (leader of their old Mithral Blade unit while under Dark Wizard domination).  In just a matter of a couple breaths, the party brought down the elven sorcerer and proceeded to make short work of Noto and company.  Fortunately, the party managed to take Noto and Himoust alive, and can now question them....


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## Cloudgatherer (May 6, 2002)

*Round One with the Dark Wizard*

The party interrogates Noto, their former halfling Mithral Blade leader, yet learn next to nothing.  Himoust, their elven attacker, is quite the conversationalist.  He provides the party with the location of the Dark Wizard's hideout, the one he knows, and a layout of the first room.  The party discusses the information, but the words of magic reach Star's ears, but the party only finds frozen, broken rope.  Himoust had good reason to be comfortable with the party, he was able to easily escape his rope binding despite the gag... slightly dismayed, the party decided to sleep on it after failing to find the pair of Mithral Blades.

The feeling gripped Star in the middle of the night.  Now that Tarmus had left the party, Star now wore both medallion pieces once again.  The amulets told him someone had activated their search power, a 3-mile radius that tells the wearer the direction and estmated distance the probing medallion piece is located.

While rousing the party from their slumber, Star pondered the location he sensed from his medallion pieces.  Having lived outside of Aenith for months, he concluded the feeling originated from the Great Library.

"We've got to go! Whoever is looking for medallions is in the Great Library," Star exclaimed to the party as he set out the door.  Remus and Canthor exchanged glances, donned equipment, and set out after the rogue.

Arriving at the library, Remus tried the door.  It doesn't budge, magic is holding it tight.   Moving to the side window, Star enters the building and looks about.  Three armed men adeptly creep around the bookcases, searching for someone or something as quietly as they can.  As Star studies the men, obviously hired, well-trained mercenaries, the shuffle of someone in metal armor moves swiftly on the second floor.  The movement, heard by everyone on the ground floor, including Star, attracted the attention of the intruders and they ran up the stairs.

Star could hear many footsteps running up the stairs and on the second floor.  Someone in heavier metal armor was being pursued by assailants in chainmail.  Star motioned to Canthor and Remus, and the armored pair stumbled their way through the window and up the stairs after the footsteps.

As the trio ascended the stairs, Canthor called upon Bryle's power and sent a message to Katrina, stating he was in the library, the strange men in the library, and asking where she was.

"Get up here and help me!" Katrina's voice echoed in Katrina's head and the party's ears.  She was on the roof!  As the party emerged onto the roof, the sound of steel on steel rang out as Katrina fended off the first of many sword thrusts on against her.  Four men had a longsword and shortsword in each hand, while the remaining six men held longbows on her.

Star wasted no time.  Arrows flew from his bow, finding their marks on the bowmen.  Canthor stepped forward, calling upon his gods power, while Remus brandished his sword to render his foes into unconsciousness.

As the party engaged the assailants, a fireball rang out among the attackers.  Confused, but glad for the help, Star contiued firing.  Mysteriously, one of Katrina's attackers fell off the edge of the library roof, and landed on the soft ground below.  Moving to press her attack, Katrina moves to strike, but bumps into an invisible form.

The battle is over in the next few breaths.  Bolts of energy flew out of thin air to strike the attackers.  A small figure in a gold cloak ermerged from magical invisibility.

Rax is a strange kobold indeed.  He introduced himself to the party and Katrina, and informed them he was told to help them.  Apparently, he got some information from Tarmus as to their whereabouts.  His distinguishing characteristic is his gold robe, kobold stature, and a gold gem embedded in his forehead.

Introductions were cut short as Katrina looked into the city.  She told the party she placed her medallion piece with Olon for safekeeping, given Canthor and Remus had likely told the Dark Wizard of its location.  A fireball exploded upon the Temple of the Spirit.  He is here, in Aenith.

The party, along with Rax and Katrina proceed to the temple.  A barrier of magic protects the temple from harm, but it could not save the dead people lying outside, casualties of the attack.  After a couple more fireballs, all is silent and Star feels a probing from within the temple.  Star probes back, and only feel's a medallion piece within the temple as Olon emerges.  His explanation is obvious, the Dark Wizard came for another medallion piece, yet failed.  He thought Katrina had it, but it was safely tucked away in the Temple of the Spirit.

A few days pass and the party prepares.  The Dark Wizard must go down (DM:  About damn time).  Potions of see invisible are purchased, a couple items are made or bought, and the party flies to Ralanov to find the Dark Wizard.  They have no luck with a medallion search, and proceed to Saven, the location of where the Dark Wizard has a hideout, according to Himoust.

Star breaks a cardinal rule of dealing with wizards:  never let them know you are coming.  He uses the medallion search power once again, and finds a pair of medallions where Himoust stated the Dark Wizard's hideout would indeed be located.  The party moves into position, and begins to cast their combat spells.  It is only a matter of a few breaths before the battle begins.

The people of Saven are going about their business this fine day as fireballs start to rain down upon the party.  The Dark Wizard was using a classic wizard offense:  improved invisibility, fly, and rain of death.  The party, which now included Rax, accompanied by Katrina, had purchased potions of see invisible, but their range was limited.

Rax drank his potion, turned invisible and shortly ascended into the air.  Meanwhile, each time a fireball rang out, Star and Katrina fired into the air, but their efforts were met without success.  Meanwhile, Canthor took cover under his near-indestructible tower shield, while Remus got onto the roof of Rama's Courier Service, the supposed location of the Dark Wizard's hideout.

The battle was going badly for our heroes.  They seemed incapable of penetrating the Dark Wizard's magical defenses.  Finally, Rax managed to dispel his invisibility.  Startled, but undaunted, the Dark Wizard continued his assault.  He called upon his most destructive spells now....

Finally Rax managed to get his hands upon the Dark Wizard.  At 40 feet above the air Rax and the Dark Wizard struggled.  If they could bring him to the ground, if Remus could get his sword on him...

Remus called for Canthor to grab on, and the two started to ascend using the immovable rods.  At 40 feet, even with the struggling wizard and the invisible Rax (who had assumed the form of a gold dragon), Canthor cast a spell:  anti-magic field.  It proved to be a mistake.  The four people fell to the ground, Rax reverting to his kobold form and releasing the Dark Wizard.  The Dark Wizard was quick to get up, move out of the field, and flee the scene via teleport.

Angry, Remus searches for the entry to the hideout, but it is Rax who finds it.  Proceeding down the stairway, the party comes to the room described by Himoust, a comfortable meeting room complete with a closet, food, tables, chairs, paintings.  Remus steals the paintings, Canthor hangs back with Katrina, who warns the party they should not stay long....

Rax flies down the next corridor, into the next room.  A dining table stretches out across the room, and a glowing stone sits in the middle and lights the room.  Rax pulls a patch from his robe, and a pair of dogs emerge.  He orders them to retreive the glowing stone, and they do so.  He then hears footsteps from the next room infront of him.  Changing to windform, he flies past a startled Dark Wizard, without his mask and weilding a wand, and proceeds to cast wall of iron:  sealing him off.

The tactic does not hold long, as he hears footsteps from another room, again in front of him.  He changes to wind form and again rushes down the hallway.  The room in front of him this time was completely dark save for the light being given off by a golden blade:  the Summersword.  Rax placed his hand upon the blade (today was the day to take shiny things!) and uttered his dimension door spell to take him back outside just as a fireball was streaking at him.

Rax appeared among the party, who had heeded his advice and went outside to wait for the kobold.  Assuming wind form once again, the party fled as a small army of city guards descended upon the well-burnt neighborhood....


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## Cloudgatherer (May 6, 2002)

(Oops, accidentally posted twice)

Since the party has forgotten things before....

*Astral Star:*  These perfectly smooth, hand-sized oval stones give off a soft glowing light equivalent to a torch.  Astral Stars are rare occurrences in the outer planes, where these items are typically found.  No one is quite sure how to make an astral star, but are treasured by the clergy of good-aligned deities for their effectiveness against undead.  Once per day, someone holding an astral star can create a double-strength daylight spell.  The astral star gives off a light radius of 120 feet that counts as “natural sunlight” and effects creatures as if they were in broad daylight.  This effect lasts for an hour and cannot be dismissed, but can be covered up.  In addition, when held in one of her hands, a cleric can turn undead as if she were four levels higher than her actual class level.  This effect does not work with clerics who rebuke or command undead. 

Caster Level:  10th; Prerequisites:  unknown; Market Price: unknown; Weight: 2 lbs.


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## Cloudgatherer (May 20, 2002)

*Elves on the move...choosing the least of two evils?*

_The party has successfully defeated the Dark Wizard.  He awaited them in his lair under Rama's courier service in Saven and there he engaged them.  Star was killed by his own worst feats (phantasmal killer), Remus and Katrina trapped in a force bubble, while Canthor and Rax barely managed to defeat the Dark Wizard, then carry his unconscious form away from an iron golem.  In the end, the party had him turned into stone, and sent him to the ethereal plane...._

"Five down, one to go," she smiled to herself, walking out of Aenith's main gates and proceeding to our heroes' house.  Katrina dreamed of her husband, whom she has not seen for an entire year, as she strode along the dirt path.  

Her demeanor soon sombered as she recalled the sending she had received.  Aenith was being threatened once again, but it was not by Polary, it was the elves this time.  For months they have controlled the Free Northern cities (or formerly free cities), and taxed them extensively.  The last group of elven ambassadors had made threats, at least indirectly, to Olon, high cleric of Bryle and informal leader of Aenith.  The danger came as no surprise....

"We should check it out!" Star proclaimed.  His sly sense of discovery taking hold of him.

"The message I heard said that we had roughly three days, and that Ralanov fell to a ship.  I suppose the elves built a ship and sailed it down the Qizix to assault Ralanov, if that is the case, it does not threaten Aenith, we do not have any rivers," reported Katrina.

"We could use the portal to go to Ralanov and check out the city," offered Remus.

"I'd rather not," Katrina stated quickly.  "Alerting the elves to the portal might only cause them to enter Aenith this way.  Also, if we seal it off, then we are trapped in Aenith as well, the portal goes to more places than just Ralanov."

"I could teleport!" the gold-cloaked kobold proclaimed.  "I could do it tomorrow...."

"We should check it out today," decided Star.  "We'll go see Olon, perhaps he can call Canthor back and he can cast that wind spell of his."

"We've tried contacting Canthor.  Something is interferring with magical communications..." stated Katrina.

The party proceeded to seek Olon's help, and he agreed to provide them with the necessary spell to allow them to travel to Ralanov and investigate the situation.  The gaseous form of the party members raced across the sky, however the sight that met them along the way answered many of their questions....

Sure enough, Ralanov had fallen to a ship:  a bloody floating one!  With massive metal plates fastened to its underside, over a dozen propellers for propulsion (forwards and back), and a small congregation of elves on the deck the ship appeared capable of leveling an entire city with the amount of weaponry it possessed.  Studying some of the elves on the deck, it was easy to make out their chosen profession:  arcane magic.

"Guess that answers 'where the money went'", thought Star.  As daring as usual, Star floated below the great ship, and carefully made his way into an open portal in the ship's side and started to reform in the presence of a studying elven wizard....

Meanwhile, Remus and Rax were trying to make out what they were seeing, studying the ship closely, and mistakingly thinking Star was that fluffy cloud right next to them....

"Egads!  Alarm, alarm!" the elf in gold starred, blue robes exclaimed as Star changed his appearance in his cabin.  As he materialized, Star could hear the approaching footsteps of elven guardsmen, and quickly hid in the upper shelf of the closet.

Within a few breaths the room was filled with elven swordsmen.  Cautiously the blue-robbed elf entered the room, followed by two other elves (Star could hear, but not see).

"What is it Calvis?" one remarked.

"I saw a wind form reshape right in front of me," Calvis, the blue-robbed mage, answered.

The two elves who had entered with Calvis began casting their spells, scanning the room for possible life forms.

"I don't sense the life force of anyone but who I see," stated one elf, silent until now.

"And I see Calvis has a collection of magic items in his closet!" laughed the first elf.

"No, I don't," Calvis protested.

The elves gave a hearty laugh, not believing the elven mage as the patrol left the room.  When convinced he was alone, Star decided to leave his hiding place and investigate.  Peering outside the room, the blue-robed mage was keeping an eye on the door, but studying his spell book as well.  Assuming the form of someone he studied on the ship's deck, Star used his ring of change self to slip into the hallway unnoticed and make his way to the main deck.

On the deck, Star surveyed his surroundings.  Enough artillary to severely damage Aenith's walls, not to mention the number of mages.  Aenith had no arcane support, the clerics and paladins of Bryle served as its cheif defense.  Carefully, Star proceeded to make cuts in several of the larger ballistea ropes, hopefully they'll break during the fight and go unnoitced until then....

Changing forms when needed, Star proceeded down the ship's decks.  At the third level, a pair of elven guards stood a vigilant watch.  After surveying them for a bit, a bearded male gnome waltzed up the stairs and proceeded up.  Assuming the gnomes form, Star proceeded down the stairs.

He did not make it far, for the quickly encounted a runned door.  If there were any more magic on the door, it would have bitten Star on the rear, probably literrally...  Star removed one of the continual flame torches from the hallway and replaced it with a normal torch, then hid in the shadows and waited.

He waited for about 15 minutes when the gnome returned to find 2 very confused elven guardsmen.  Detecting something was amiss, the trio proceeded down the stairs and found an identical looking gnome.

"Grab him, he's an imposter! I'll go get help," Star shouted.  The guards responded quickly, and siezed the gnome.

"Hey, wait! I'm no imposter you tree-huggers!" he protested, as Star quickly walked back up the stairs and into the nearest open room.  He decided to waste no more time, as he shifted back into wind shape and returned to Aenith with Remus and Rax.

Olon was shocked by Star's tale.  The door was obviously heavily magically sealed.  The party debated a variety of ways to bring the airship down, but they had access to none of the options they could think of, and others appeared longshots at the very best, suicide missions at worst.  Olon advised against going back to the ship, especially since Star's presence was likely reported and security will be much tighter.

The party decided upon a previously open course of action:  retreival of the last medallion piece.  With that power, they could finally free Cloudgatherer, and he could set things right.  With Olon's assistance once again, the party, along with Katrina, proceeded to Kilinay, the home of the Phantoms, the deadliest assassins in all of Aera.

Katrina took up a room in the Inn of the Red Blade, laying low.  She was a target in this city, the less she did, the better.  Meanwhile, the adventurers proceeded up to the Phantom Estate, and knocked on the large door.

At first, the butler, a stately looking older gentlemen, would not permit them access.  Star persisted, he used his medallion's detection ability, which would alert Varrius Afus, to a medallion's presence.  The butler rolled his eyes and later returned to say the group will be admitted.  Storing their weapons, the party was shown to a table filled with delectables, and seated across from Varrius Afus himself.

With a formal air, Varrius conducted himself while he ate and questioned the party.  Star did most of the talking, and asked to "rent" his medallion piece for one month.  Varruis looked upon it suspiciously, "only if you have the other five is this one of much value, especially for 30 aquans" (30 aquans = 30,000 gp).  Star assurred Varrius that he only had a couple, but in response Varrius scanned the area for himself.  He felt the presence of 4 other medallion pieces, the 3 on the party, and Katrina wearing hers once again.

Varrius related a tale of a man who wished to procur his piece:  the Dark Wizard.  The only way the party could have possibly gathered that many is to have slain him, as he would not give them up lightly.  Star admitted to the deed, and Varrius called to his butler, who proceeded to cross off the name of Silven Nightmantle from the wall.  In the Phantom Estate, the names of traitors, failed assassinations, and others who have opposed the Phantoms are named upon a wall.  Katrina's name is also on that wall, meaning if she were killed, her killer could become a Phantom.

Varrius offered membership to the Phantoms, but doubted the party would accept.  Star declined, but said he may join at a later time.  Varrius promised to think over the matter, as he had business to attend to, and would see the party in the morning.  Star's protests to resolve the matter presently were ignored as Varrius left to take care of some "business."

That night the party slept outside of town, lest Varrius' business included acquiring Katrina's medallion piece.  The next morning, Katrina agreed to let Remus carry the piece, lest Varrius discover her in the city.

Returning to the Phantom Estate, they again met with Varrius.  He had thought of the offer, and would be willing to agree with one condition:  the party recover his blade, the Wind's Edge, that was recently taken from him.  If the party produced the blade for him, he would agree to Star's deal of 30K GP, for the loan of the medallion piece.  The party agreed, and left the estate.

The party was attacked by some Phantom thugs while debating their next course of action.  The arrogant attackers threatened for their money or lives, to which Remus answered with his green glowing sword.  In short order, the thugs were routed, but the townfolk looked at them in shock and horror, for they had just slain Phantoms, which one just does not do in Kilinay.  As the party walked away, a man asked to speak with them.  He inquired if Remus was the "Green Death" and said he was once known under that name (while under the Dark Wizard's control).

The shrouded man made the appointment to meet with the party around noon at a local tavern.  Meanwhile, the party returned to Katrina, who did her best to heal the wounds the thugs had inflicted on the party.  She mentioned a sad event, the death of a merchant who has funded the Silver Swords for years.  He was killed just the previous night, by Varrius Afus.  The party was saddened by the news, but being so close to their goal of acquiring all the medallion pieces, they set it aside...for now.

At their scheduled meeting, the plot thickened for our heroes.  Ambros, an obvious follower of Valeya, goddess of War, stated his business plainly.  He was a leader of an organization, composed of several smaller organizations, mostly thieves guilds, who want the Phantoms displaced.  For far too long the Phantoms have been hired and end up killing who they please in the underworld, he wants it to end.  Star, sensing the man's dedication, asked about Varrius' weapon, the Wind's Edge, and Ambros confirmed he was indeed in possession of the weapon (not on him, naturally).

Unsuccessfully, Star attempted to persuade Ambros to allow them to use the blade, returning it to Varrius in order to gain his trust.  Ambros scoffed at the idea, not only does it make Varrius considerably more dangerous, but the plan Star proposed would mean at least an addition month of Varrius wreaking havoc _with_ the blade!  Also, he had no reason to trust the party with such a weapon...

Instead, he proposed the party slay Varrius.  If successful, he would give the party the blade as payment after the deed is done.  Ambros would be able to secure Varrius' next target, as the trading of this kind of information was rather common among the Phantoms, often for sale for those outside the organization.

The party, considered the deal, and asked for some time to ponder the decision.  Ambros agreed, and left them to their thoughts.....


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## Cloudgatherer (May 26, 2002)

*Fiery Unification*

"We agree," Star boldy addressed Ambros, the cleric of Valeya, outside the Cloak and Dagger.  Canthor had joined his companions at the table and was being updated as Star returned with the meeting time and place of the Phantom informant.

Without delay, the party set out to meet the informant.  Star crept into the appointed alleyway while his companions remained in the street.  An old man asked for some spare change, to which Star provided.  The old man asked if Star watched the birds fly at night, and picking up on the innuendo, Star stated he did.

"Never thought you would be a hired killer," stated the "old man", who revealed himself as Ellison Lance in disguise.  Phantom, and once an enemy of the Outsiders, Ellison Lance is a capable assassin, but tonight he is an information broker.

"Well, you know how it is," Star remarked.  "You wouldn't happen to know Varrius' next target?"

"A couple aquans might refresh my memory..."

Commander Idar Haslof, a high ranking Polarian Army officer, was staying at "The Hunted Lord" tonight.  Around 1 AM, Varrius is scheduled to slay the officer in his sleep.  Idar will be staying on the 4th floor of the inn, with a small company of guards.

After exchanging some lore about poisons, Star emerged from the alleyway and filled his companions in on the situation.  The party debated warning Idar, but decided against it. Even if they were believed, the party is not high on Polary's list, not to mention what they do to clerics of Bryle...

Stealth was the action of the day, as the party set up around the inn.  Star crept into Idar's room, hiding among the shadows as the Commander relaxed in the room's bathtub.  Remus took his rods and positioned himself on the roof, so that he might be able to see a bit better.  Canthor positioned himself outside his own room's door, acting like a guardsman for someone important, as two to four similar guards were doing for Idar.  Meanwhile, Rax had assumed his dragon form and took to the skies.

At the appointed time, a shadowy figure approached the inn by jumping rooftops.  Stopping at the back of the inn, the figure drew his blade, a finely wrought katana, and with a single leap jumped into Idar's room.

Right about the same time all hell broke loose...

Star peppered Varrius with arrows, Varrius caught most of them, but was then confronted by an invisible form attempting to grab onto him.  He was hampered by the adventurers as Remus joined his allies and proceeded to attack Varrius as Idar's guards burst into the room, followed by Canthor shouting warnings and orders to the men.

His opportunity ruined, Varrius leapt out the window, and took off with astounding speed.  The party attempted to run and gun him down, but Varrius easily leapt over barriers, obstacles, and even up onto buildings with ease.  After evading the party, wounding Rax, and catching several of Star's arrows, Varrius retreat to the Phantom Estate.

The party stopped in indecision.  Do they follow the wounded assassin into what is most likely the most dangerous place in Aera? At Star's urging, the party broke into a second story room.  Fortune was with them, as it was unoccupied.

The party attempted to find Varrius within the mansion, however Star used one of his detection powers to pinpoint Varrius behind the mansion, in the training grounds.  Here the battle started anew, as Varrius had had time to heal himself with numerous potions.

For several minutes the party exchanged blows with the trained killer.  His defensive and offensive capabilities were excellent, however he was at a stand still as Canthor continually healed his companions and used his tower shield to protect himself from harm.  Finally, Varrius disengaged from the battle, fleeing once again into the mansion.  Quite upset, Star set fire to the building, and Canthor used a pair of flame strike spells as well.  This brought a small contingent of people, who opened fire on the party as they ran, and the Phantoms now were fighting the fire.

As people started to arrive at the scene to fight the fire, the party waited for Varrius to come out.  He did not, and Star once again used a medallion detection ability to locate Varrius' medallion piece.  Against Remus' better judgment, Star entered the burning building, a fire he had created, and followed the feeling of the Medallion piece to the main feasting hall.  It was there he could feel the Medallion piece close by.  Taking a few moments to pinpoint its location, Star found it resting on Varrius' table with the head Phantom nowhere in sight.  Snatching up the piece in victory, Star left the burning building and the party spent the night camping outside of Kilinay.  In the morning, the party assumed the form of clouds, and swept across the sky toward Mydrana to free the archmage of Mydrana from his imprisonment and hopefully save Aenith...

Assembling the pieces together, the Medallion of the Gods hang around Katrina's neck.  The Mithral Hemisphere (Bryle) contained the Platinum Circle (Loraloren) and the arrangement was held together by the recently acquired Adamantine Pin (Valeya).  Inside the Platinum Circle, the Oak Leaf Pendant (Mist) fit snuggly, with the Glowing Sapphire (Edina Runeway) in the center of the arrangement.  Lastly, the Fire Chain (Balahnin) attatched to the Adamantine Pin, holding the Medallion on Katrina's neck.

She was happy to do the honors when Remus asked if she would like to be the one to release Cloud.  Arriving in the clearing of Mydrana, the party assembled the Medallion and gave it to Katrina.  With a firm voice she commanded the Medallion to release Cloudgatherer.

Energy rippled through the clearing as a blue ring appeared above it.  Reality seemed to give way as a massive, scaly form with tremendous claws landed soundly upon the ground.  It's ugly fish-like head appeared twisted, and almost immediately it raised its clawed hands and started to approach the party.  A hasty spell could be heard from behind the party, but as the creature was about to crash against the party in mortal combat, it was swept up in a powerful gust of wind and energy, flung back through the closing gateway that had brought it here.

Lugtee Hardroc strode forward, smiling at the company.  The party stared dumbfounded, and noted the Medallion had not scattered in its six pieces as it would if it had performed one of its functions.  Trying to make sense of the arrangement, Lugtee pulled a scroll from his cloak, and started a quick incantation.  Pressing his hand to the ground, a white circle enveloped the ground and a naked human form started to emerge.  With another quick spell, Lugtee covered the naked form in illusory clothing.

The unconscious form of Cloud fell upon the ground, supported by Lugtee.  The party ran over to the pair, and Canthor and Katrina started to summon their powers of healing...

"Save your strength," Lugtee ordered, starting to read a limited wish spell from the same scroll.  He fused the archmage with healing energy, and color returned to Cloud's face.

"Hi guys," the recently healed wizard spoke, blinking repeatedly.

"You should really be more careful, Diram," Lugtee said with a smile, "but at least I can drop this disguise now..."

Slowly an illusion faded from around Lugtee, revealing the true form of the wizard as (the real?) Cloudgatherer.  Katrina, Remus, Star, Canthor, and Rax stared on in shock...


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## Cloudgatherer (Aug 1, 2002)

*Backstory:  The Travels of a Wizard*

Diram had been conducting his own research into how to free his original (without using a _freedom_ spell, since he did not have access to one).  After some extensive research over the course of a few months, Diram had managed to come close to finding a solution.  However, he had to make a few deals with some powerful outsiders in order to gain the knowledge he needed.  In exchange "he" (being Cloudgatherer) promised to carry out variety of services.

Finally, Diram was ready to make an attempt.  The _imprisoned_ Cloudgatherer would be replaced by Diram via a "swapping" spell.  While the party defended Aenith from the Polarians and Ellison Lance, Diram cast the spell that set Cloudgatherer free, but entrapped himself in the process (as planned).

There were a few witnesses to the attempt, however due to the "help" Diram had received, a blinding flash of light covered any signs of the swapping.  When Cloudgatherer regained control of his senses, he whisked himself away to heal and learn what was going on.

After a few days of study, rest, and healing, the wizard determined a few facts.  1) The Sulimarin, particular Ivelan Diamondflower, had become alarmingly powerful.  2) A band of adventurers were attempting to put the Medallion of the Gods together in order to free him.  3) He owed a lot of favors to a several outsiders.  Cloud kept his stealth advantage, no one knew he had been freed, so he could act incognito.

Over the next year he worked against the Sulimarin and "payed back" his debts.  The majority of the time he spent off world, in the outer planes performing various tasks due to Diram's bargains.  On Aera, he assumed the name Lugtee Hardroc (an anagram for Cloudgatherer), and fought small battles to slow their shady, diplomatic conquest of the Free North.  He managed to slow the organization down a little, but since he was refraining from using his more powerful magic to avoid detection, he results were minimal.

In addition, he watched over the party and his wife, Katrina, whenever he could and even lent a helping hand along the way.  If knowledge got out about his release, he feared a swift death at the hands of the Sulimarin.  Actually, he feared Diamondflower.  His magic had surpassed any Cloudgatherer had felt before, and that meant very little could stop him.  Fortunately, the Medallion of the Gods could, and he did not even have to wear or use it.  The adventurers had been slowly acquiring piece by piece, battling the Dark Wizard along the way....

As Cloudgatherer completed his last "payback", an alarm spell informed him the Medallion was assembled and in the clearing where Diram still lay imprisoned.


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## Cloudgatherer (Aug 1, 2002)

*Conclusion:  Life and Death Aboard an Airship*

"You bastard," Katrina and Star exclaimed.  Katrina beat Star to the punch though, as she gave the wizard a knuckle sandwich.  Fortunately, this caused Star's sap to veer off course as Cloudgatherer sprawled out on the grass.

"Glad to see you too," he said to the sky.

Slowly Cloudgatherer rose, rubbing a bright red bruise on the side of his face.

"I don't understand," Canthor spoke at last, "why didn't you tell us?"

"Simple, I like living," Cloud countered.  "The word was 'out' that I was 'imprisoned' long before Diram took my place.  If Diamondflower found out I managed to get free, I'd have *big* problems."

"What about Katrina? You couldn't tell her?" asked Remus.

"Katrina, I could not put you at risk anymore than you already were.  The Dark Wizard managed to conquer your mind once, briefly, and you can't betray someone you think is imprisoned."

Katrina blushed slightly at the remark.  She had failed against the Dark Wizard's magic, and for her penance she sought out Bryle's piece of the Medallion (also to free her husband).  She realizes Cloud had helped her a great deal in the lands to the north, where a kingdom of vile monsters ruled unchallenged by the already known kingdoms of Aera.

"But what about the airship over Aenith now? What are you going to do?" Star exclaimed.

"Airship over Aenith...."  Came as news to Cloud.  He knew the Gnomes of Gnimili were building one, but was not able to stay very long.  The airship was now above Aenith, and the battle had already begun.

The group began to take action.  Cloud asked Diram to get Thrin (Diram and Thrin are simulacrum siblings, it turns out, who knows what magic Cloud used to make one female).  Milo had volunteered his services, up until now he had been silently "inspecting" the equipment of the party ("Oh, I was just looking at it, here you go!").  When all was said and done, the group was going to attempt to take control of the airship, land it outside of Aenith where the Paladins of Bryle could board it and fight on even ground.

Using a very large magic carpet he took from the gnomes, Remus, Star, Canthor, Rax, Diram, Thrin, Milo, Katrina, and Cloud started to fly into the Mydrana forest.  In a flash they appeared in a stone room, with an archway (a portal, no doubt), loomed in front of them.  Cloud hopped off the flying carpet only long enough to use his keys, activating Aenith's portal, before flying through.

The sounds of battle could be heard even in the basement of Aenith's Great Library.  The party quickly made their way outside and began their assault on the deck of the airship.  Cloud was going to serve as a distraction at the end of the ship, while the other eight attacked its front, seizing control of the ship, and landing it safely.

There was a vital contingency in all this activity:  Diamondflower.  Cloudgatherer had already warned the group not to fight the elven archmage, he was far too powerful even for him.  Instead, the Medallion (worn by Remus) would need to be used against him...

The fight on the deck started out easily enough, but then got real tough real fast.  A prismatic sphere was erected around the ships steering, a small brigade attacked the party, and a senior elven wizard on board summoned a Balor to do his fighting for him.  After all was said and done, Diram was dying or already dead, Thrin was unconscious, but stable, and the rest of the party had fair to severe wounds (after using healing magic).  The Balor's death wipped out a fair number of attackers, it was fortunate Star was able to get out of the way of the blast.  Canthor and Katrina battled the Death Slaadi that were conjured in to fight from a summoning circle built into the ship.  Rax flew above the fray and used his magic and dragon skills whenever he could.  Remus... made sure anything that stood in front of him didn't stand for long.  Cloud joined the battle late, and managed to force the elven wizard to teleport away just before the Balor exploded....

As the party recovered from the battle, Cloud was treating to his simulacrums when Ivelan Diamondflower suddenly appeared.  With a feirce blast, Cloud was flung over the side of the airship, smoke rising from the blast upon his chest.  Rax dove after him, flying as fast as his gold wings could go.  The party was near the prismatic sphere, and quickly took cover behind it as Ivelan flooded the deck with magical blasting energy. Remus attempted to use the Medallion of the Gods against the elven archmage, but an aura of energy prevented the blue beam from entrapping him.

As Rax rose above the airship holding Cloud, the wizard threw a spell at Diamondflower.  "Now," he shouted to Remus.

The aura of energy around the elven wizard fluttered slightly, and Remus sent forth the Medallion's power again.  This time it struck home, and Iveland Diamondflower started to change.  As pieces of the Medallion disappeared from Remus' neck, Ivelan became a metal disk upon the deck of the airship, 1 foot in radius, stamped with the holy symbols of the Aeran gods.


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## Cloudgatherer (Aug 1, 2002)

*Aftermath:  Going Home*

As Star landed the airship, Remus had to ask..."What was that spell you used against Diamondflower?"

"Disjunction," Cloud answered with a slight smile.

"And what was he blasting us with, what was that energy?"

"I'm not sure.  He managed to become more than mortal.  I would say he was a small-god, if there were such a thing," he chuckled.

The following days in Aenith were those of celebration.  The Free North threw out their elven "protectors" and reclaimed their governments.  The adventurers were being hailed as heroes for assembling the Medallion, and using its powers justly to stop Diamondflower.  Many heroes who fought in (and above) the city were honored, but there was one seat always empty.  When asked, Olon remarked a young man had appeared and come to their aid, a man who asked about the location of Aenith's graveyard after the battle was over.

The party, curious to the identity of the young man, went ot the graveyard  to investigate.  A man was standing over Gwen's grave, a hood pulled over his head and bowed in respect.

When the party had been kidnapped, Mith stopped getting Canthor's sendings.  Concerned, the young wizard started on a journey to find his lost companions.  For months he wandered the planes, looking for the world Remus and the others had gone.  He finally found it, and as the party fought in the sky, Mith used his magic on the ground, helping the clerics of Bryle fight against the demons summoned against the city.

Mith was glad to see his friends alive, and to meet new acquaintances.  He had come to take them home, return to the world of their birth.  Rax had already departed to return to his dragon lords, but Star, Canthor, and Remus accepted the offer, and using his magic, Mith was able to take them home.....

Thus the Outsiders of Aera returned to their world after saving a world they happend upon by mistake....

*The End*


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