# Shadow of the Spider Moon



## NoOneofConsequence (Oct 28, 2002)

I've decided to start chronicling the adventurers of our Shadow of the Spider Moon (spelljammer) campaign. The story is told from the point of view of my new character, Prentice Ash - a level 6 Psychic Warrior. It's written in journal form. I hope everyone enjoys it.

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My name is Prentice Ash. My mother named me Prentice, because she said that I should never cease from learning. I’m not convinced that it wasn’t a joke. Ash is the name that I earned for myself in combat, my battle name. My comrades in the first mercenary company I served with called me Ash because of my dirty, grey hair. My knack for survival in impossible situations caused one of my commanders to remark, “The fire of war leaves nothing but Ash.”
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The Verdant Coast is hot in the dry season, and the sun beat down upon us, when my new companions and I finally emerged from the jungle. The sight of Fareach was a genuine pleasure, its painted and gabled roofs shining brightly under the tropical sky. After a year in a cave, held prisoner by lizard folk, the colonial city seemed like a bustling metropolis to me. 

For the next three weeks we lived high on the treasure we took from the lizard folk, as well as from Mr Smart and his pompous half-elven hireling, Thurolust. Our tales of the ship crashed in the jungle and the Temple of Ardreth give us no shortage of drinking partners. The people of Fareach have no knowledge of spelljamming and they scoffed at each telling of a ship stuck twenty feet up a tree, twenty leagues from the coast. I guess that ignorance is bliss.

The gold was running dry when a merchant named Nataleod, from Holly Canal, sought me out with a proposition. Stories of the group’s battle with the lizard folk tribe had reached Holly Canal, a smaller settlement six hundred miles down the coast. Nataleod claimed that he and the local merchants were having some trouble with the lizard folk population in Holly Canal, and he wanted to pay us to help sort it out. He offered four hundred guilders a piece for the job, as well as the cost of the ship’s fare down and back. He assured me that it should only take a day or two in Holly Canal, with a possibility of further work, if this first job went well.

While I was arranging a meeting with my new companions I was approached by a tall woman with a cascade of long red hair and dressed in leather armour that looked like it was made of tree leaves sewn together. She said that her name was Veridian Pax and that she understood that I was a part of a company of adventurers who might be willing to take on another hand. I never say no to another blade. Besides, a short, simple job, like Holly Canal promised to be, is a great way to test new blood. I needn’t have worried, as it turned out.

When we gathered again at the Reef and Sheet, I outlined the job and introduced Pax to the crew. It turned out Pax was known to many of our company, having adventured with them in the past. In fact, she was more widely trusted than I was. After a little discussion, and some well-brewed ale, it was decided to accept the job and take ship to Holly Canal. Only Celaro, the roguish halfling who always seemed to know more than he was letting on, would not be with us; he was chasing down some old friend. 

After spelljamming, ocean-bound travel always seems as rough as a pony trap over open ground. This sea journey was better than most, with the steady easterly giving a swift, smooth journey. The vessel was a trader skiff called the Coast Rose and she seemed almost to fly across the shallow bays of the Verdant Coast. Only one incident of note occurred during the journey, when two elven warbirds flew overhead. Flying at height, I was unable to make out their markings, but regardless of who they were, their presence boded ill for the treaty that protected the continent. The days of peaceful isolation are surely doomed.

As the Coast Rose turned west into the inlet of the Criaki River we caught our first glimpse of Holly Canal. Or, more specifically, of the lizard folk settlement just east of Holly Canal. It was collection of domed huts, made from wattle and daub, with a pale local mud. The settlement housed the indentured lizard folk workers who did virtually all the menial work in Holly Canal. Strictly speaking, the settlement had no name, but the locals called it Scalytown.

An hour’s sail upstream brought us to Holly Canal, and as the Coast Rose put into port we could see the extraordinary feature which gave the town its name. Running almost directly north from the docks, in a perfectly straight line, was a canal of magnificent construction. The canal predates the settlement itself and is fed by an extensive network of ancient sewers. Like the canal, the sewers are superbly constructed and, as such, the town is undoubtedly the cleanest settlement of any size in the entire of the Verdant Coast colonies. The canal goes deep inland, over three leagues, and so the town of Holly Canal enjoys much more trade and wealth than most towns its size. The town’s name derives from the wild, tropical holly bushes which grow along the steep banks of the canal, forming a natural barrier to any amphibious predators which may seek to enter the settlement from the canal.

Arriving on the docks, the company quickly made its way to the warehouse of Nataleod, which sat right on dockside. Once there, in the cool shade of the Nataleod’s office, the merchant outlined his particular problem and what he wanted us to do about it. He told us that there was some kind of holy man among the lizard folk who was stirring up unrest. The holy man was causing a major disruption to the trade in the town, since the main of the dock workers were lizard folk and were often not available to work, because of the holy man’s sermons.

Many of us were sympathetic to the lizard folk at this point, our previous battles with their race not withstanding, and Harmony the druid and Kakita Kai, a dai-sho warrior, both suspected that Nataleod was not telling us the whole story. However, Nataleod seemed quite genuine. He explained that other members of the ruling council had advocated resolving the problem by force but that he had persuaded them to allow him a chance to find a peaceful solution. He had called upon us to help because of our recent fame in dealing with lizard folk. It appeared that he had not heard the whole story of our battles near the Temple of Ardreth. 

He explained that what he hoped that we would do was to go to Scalytown and locate the lizard folk holy man. Once we had done that he wanted us to persuade him to meet with Nataleod. Apparently it had been difficult to locate the holy man previously and he hoped that our familiarity with lizard folk culture would make us more suited to being go-betweens. After a small discussion, we accepted the job and then sat down in the shade of the warehouse’s courtyard to await the cool of the evening. Towards late afternoon, Nataleod’s foreman, a young man named Maglorix, came to show us the way to Scalytown.

As we walked the west bound road through the dunes, Kuslamarka (“Mark”) scouted out to the side of us, keeping our flank protected. In spite of his best efforts though, the sparse dune grass could not hide even his small form. His cloaked head bobbed back and forth in its peculiar way, crossbow at the ready.

During our journey we learned from Maglorix that he knew how to speak a little of the Draconic creole which was the native dialect in Scalytown. He said that by and large Scalies were never dangerous, but that since the coming of the holy man, the city watch no longer patrolled Scalytown after dark and that he himself would not accompany us into the settlement. He would wait on the outskirts and when we located the holy man, we were to send him word so that he could go and fetch Nataleod to a meeting.

Entering Scalytown, we found the outskirts almost completely deserted. Proceeding to the meeting area in the middle we found the entire population seated together on the ground. They were humming, or moaning, in a vaguely sibilant way, while a single lizard man stood before them, speaking in Draconic. The entire group seemed peaceful and were not offended by our presence. The preacher spoke of all mortals being children of the cosmos, free to strive under the sun. This was the firebrand holy man we were sent to talk to, yet none of his words were the least bit seditious or inflammatory (several of our group could speak Draconic, though the local dialect was a little troublesome). 

When the sermon was over the lizard folk dispersed peacefully and returned to their homes for their evening meal. We approached the holy man, who greeted us and invited us to sit with him in the front of his tent. From him we learned that Nataleod’s story had not been entirely accurate. For the past several months there had been attacks in Scalytown by some unspecified force. Whatever was making the attacks only came at night. It left no tracks or markings and carried off its victims leaving neither blood nor any other sign of struggle. It had even taken lizard folk from their huts as they slept. The population had sent the holy man as a representative to the ruling council to seek help from the city watch. The council had refused to help and so the population of Scalytown became less inclined to leave their homes to work at nights, since they were afraid of losing relatives in their absence. The holy man now led them daily in prayers for deliverance and peace.

We told the holy man about Nataleod’s desire for a meeting and he agreed. We sent Mark to tell Maglorix to set up a meeting and then we agreed to stay and keep watch over the village, in case the “force” showed up that night.

Mark gave the message to Maglorix and then followed at a discrete distance to see if Nataleod was on the level. Soon after Maglorix entered Nataleod’s private estate, a curtained palanquin left the estate and headed towards the canal, away from the direction of Scalytown. Mark tried to follow the palanquin, but soon lost it in the unfamiliar streets, crowded as they were with night market patrons. In the hope of perhaps finding the palanquin again, Mark headed to the canal. He didn’t see the palanquin, but did observe that the sewer openings in the canal walls were large and in excellent condition.

Returning to Scalytown, Mark related the results of his investigations and the party hunkered down to wait, happy to give Nataleod the benefit of the doubt, but becoming increasingly suspicious.

A short while later, there was a terrible scream from inside the holy man’s tiny hut. Harmony, who was resting beside the hut rushed in to see a hole in the floor, into which the holy man’s body had been obviously dragged. Before the hole could close, she transformed herself into the shape of constrictor snake and slithered part the way down the shaft to investigate.

The rest of the party stood at the ready, waiting to respond to any danger. Danger came in the form of an insectoid beast, which erupted from the ground beneath Aria, the beautiful, but flighty, half-elven bard. Caught in the claws of an umber hulk, Aria was almost torn to pieces in a single instant, but the creature instead flung her to the ground like a bleeding doll.

We all turned to face the creature and, looking into it eyes, I suddenly found it hard to think. I stood dumbfounded as Mark tried to put a safe distance between himself and the umber hulk. The beast was swift, though, and its claw raked Mark’s scaly back. He turned and fired a crossbow bolt straight at the beast. Pax, wielding her spiked chain like a deadly iron serpent, charged at Harmony, obviously confused by the hulk’s dire gaze, and struck the shape shifting druid with a whipping blow. In my confusion I took Pax for an enemy – after all, she was attacking Harmony – and fired on her with my Kolter Gorgon. Thankfully the musket bullet went astray, but my shot gave Pax some pause and she ceased attacking our companion.

In the meanwhile, Kakita Kai and Telara, our halfling ranger, maintained a steady stream of arrow fire at the beast. However, when it became clear that the beast might charge them, Kakita threw down his bow and with a piercing battle cry, drew forth his katana and charged the beast. His swift, downward stroke was brutal and the hulk staggered from the combined damage of Telara’s arrows, Mark’s quarrels and Kakita’s blade. It dove beneath the sands like a swimmer beneath the waves, in full retreat.

With the beast gone, the effects of its gaze soon faded. Harmony caused some consternation when she emerged from the holy man’s hut still in her snake form, but she shifted back to her human form before any further trouble occurred. After tending to Aria’s wounds, the party paused to consider what our next action should be.


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## Cyronax (Oct 29, 2002)

Hey NoOneofConsequence, nice start! Your character (great name btw) and adventures seem interesting, I look forward to reading more.

C.I.D.


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## Richards (Oct 30, 2002)

Very nice!  Looks like a promising beginning.  And hey, you've got a Veridian in the party!  We've got one, too -- ours is a 13th-level druid who up until recently had a dire wolf animal companion.

I look forward to reading your further exploits.

Johnathan


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## Erifnogard (Oct 31, 2002)

The campaign sounds very cool, and your write-up for it is excellent.  Should prove very interesting.


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## NoOneofConsequence (Nov 1, 2002)

I thought it was time to introduce the party in detail

*Cast of Characters*

*Prentice Ash* (Human; Psychic Warrior 6) NG
The narrator and my character. His early life is obscure, though he claims to have been born in a human settlement in the Chain of Tears. He has served as a mercenary soldier for many years, fighting with anyone who opposes the mind flayer invaders of Moradin’s Forge. Of all the party he is the only one with any knowledge of spelljamming and the wider solar system.

*Veridian Pax* (Human Faerie Kin; Barbarian/Ranger 3/1) CG
Pax is a barbarian from beyond the Onzkret Mountains in the south. She is a tall red headed terror with piercing emerald green eyes. She left the party for some time, during which she encountered the creatures of the deep forest and was adopted by them as blood kin. She has returned to the party, who do not fully appreciate the changes she has experienced. Pax is famous for her fear of the sea and all things swimming related. She will not undertake any sea voyage without first obtaining a personal supply of ale.

*Telara* (Halfling; Ranger 6) CG
Telara is the companion’s premier scout and tracker. She prefers bow combat, although she has enjoyed mixed results with it. Telara claims that she is related to the other halfling in the party, (Celaro), but he hotly denies this. Mostly quiet, Telara can always be relied upon to stand by other party members, even to the risk of her own life.

*Harmony* (Half Elf; Druid 6) NG
Harmony is a child of the wilderness. Her ragged hair is covered in grass and twigs and she delights in being in the wild. For some time her closest friend was a black bear who accompanied her everywhere, but during a recent combat, the bear was driven off in terror and never returned. For a long time Harmony advocated only peaceful resolution to conflict. Lately, she has been developing more predatory instincts, and will seek to resolve problems through violence. She laments the loss of her wild companion.

*Oralec* (Halfling; Rogue 5?) CN
There is no more mysterious figure in the party than Oralec. Telara, the other halfling, insists that he is her long lost half twin Celaro. Oralec has never shown any indication that this might be true, although there is a striking resemblance between the two. Oralec frequently works private contracts alongside whatever the party is doing. Until now this has not brought him into conflict with the party, though this might change in the future.

*Aria* (Half Elf; Bard/Shadow Dancer 5/1) CN
Aria is a petite beauty who only cares about two things – having fun and being the centre of attention while doing it. She is adept with magic, and her crossbow, but by far her most vicious weapon is her wit, which she turns upon fellow party members from time to time. Mockery and disrespect are constants in her behaviour. Recently, her personality has taken a slightly darker turn and she has taken to fighting with only a dagger.

*Kakita Kai* (Human; Samurai 6) LG
This exotic warrior hails from a land unfamiliar to the party, but which is also under the protection of the High Trader treaty with the kingdoms of Perianth. As such he shares the ignorance of spelljamming which most of the party experiences. He is a fine bowman, but is most expert with his katana, which he frequently wields to great effect. Polite and urbane, he will often opt to negotiate where other warriors might resort to violence. His most impressive achievement with the party has been to impress a lizard folk shaman with his manners during an intricate tea ceremony, during which he negotiated safe passage for the party through hostile territory.

*Kuslamarka “Mark”* (Kobold; Rogue/Sorcerer 5/1) CG
Mark is an outcast from his tribe, who joined the party after they were shipwrecked on the island where Mark and his tribe lived. Through the use of disguise (and now magic) Mark has in the past managed to convince people that he is a lizard man, a gnome and a halfling. There are even members of the party who do not realise that he is a kobold. Mark is a skulker, often displaying apparent cowardice and attaching himself to strong or powerful members of the party. Both Pax and Harmony (with her bear) have been on the receiving end of Mark’s “attentions”. However, when conflict arrises, Mark wields his light crossbow to deadly effect.


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## NoOneofConsequence (Nov 4, 2002)

*Part 2: In the Sewers of Holly Canal.*

After our run in with the umber hulk, we were all in the mood for some payback. Most of us stood watch and discussed what to do while Harmony treated Aria’s wounds and then ministered to Telara, who had twisted her ankle badly during the fight. Kakita was unhappy that the beast had caught unprepared so easily and so spent several minutes examining the dirt where it had emerged from the ground and also, where it had descended, parting the earth as easily as a swimmer breaks the surface of a mill pond. He was looking for any possible indication that he could watch out for, if it should come again.

Mark wasn’t interested in discussions. It seemed that he felt some kinship with the lizard folk and so he climbed rapidly into the shaft in the lizard holy man’s hut. Descending thirty feet, he found the tunnel at the bottom, which ran from the shaft back east, towards Holly Canal. He followed the tunnel for several hundred yards, before starting back to the party.

In the meantime, Harmony and Kakita insisted that we had to save the holy man. While we weren’t completely agreed on this course, when Kakita discovered that Mark was miss he immediately assumed that the umber hulk had take him and went straight to the tunnel. The company quickly followed. The tunnel was barely five feet wide, so we walked single file, though the roof was nearly seven feet above and so we were able to stand. In the flickering torch light the tunnel seemed very like a rabbit or mole hole, just an empty shaft that wended and wound its way in basically the same direction. It seemed as if it had probably been just dug by the umber hulk in order to carry the lizard folk priest through the earth. This must have been the reason, because otherwise the umber hulk would have had no need of such a construction, since it “swims” through the earth. The tunnel gave us hope that the lizard man was still alive.

Pressing through the darkness, we came upon Mark, who had found some of the umber hulk’s blood upon the ground. Mark scouted ahead, while the party came up with torches some distance back. After about a mile of travel underground, we arrived at a T junction, where our rough earthen tunnel intersected with a stone walled construction running N/S. A hole had been torn in the wall of the stone tunnel to allow access and there was the sound of running water. It seemed that we were entering the famed sewers of Holly Canal.

Keeping the rest of the party well back, Mark jumped quietly through the opening and pressed himself into the shadows of the tunnel wall opposite. Peering into the gloom his slitted eyes made out a figure, somewhere in the distance, trudging towards him through the mucky water. His cautious observation turned to surprise and astonishment, when he realised that it was in fact Oralec. The gnome was muttering under his breath about being lost and feeling stupid. So absorbed in his own anger was he that he almost stumbled across Mark before he knew that he was there. 

Oralec nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Mark’s voice say his name. “Mark?” said Oralec, peering into the gloom. “Is that you?”

“Yes.”

“What are you doing here?” asked Oralec.

“I’m here with the others.” replied Mark, as the rest of the company emerged from the hole in the sewer wall. “What are you doing here?”

We all listened intently as Oralec explained that he had gotten a contract to investigate the sewers here for the possible presence of a secret society. He seemed evasive about what sort of secret society he was looking for and refused to tell us from whom he received the contract. We explained what had happened with regards to the umber hulk and our mission to contact the lizard folk holy man. Oralec was happy to take up with us, since he had gotten himself lost. We all headed off together, with Mark tracking the passage of the wounded umber hulk.

The tunnels of the sewers were impressive, formed of such regular stonework that they seemed all the same. It soon became obvious why Oralec had become lost down here. For the time being though, we were not worried, since the trail we were following would allow us to back track. With Mark and Oralec scouting ahead, we were making excellent time. When Mark thought that he had heard a noise coming from an intersection just ahead, he ducked into a rubbish filled alcove to hide and see. Oralec followed him and just as they were crouching out of sight, Mark though that he had seen something, like a flickering light in the garbage around them.

Oralec and Mark tried to search through the surrounding garbage in the alcove, but Mark lost sight of it and Oralec felt suddenly unwell. In fact, Oralec felt very ill, as though he had just contracted a really bad case of demon fever, and he fell back into the sewer, shaking with fever, aches and chills. It was all he could do to sit up, and the company was very concerned about this outcome. 

Several members of the company advocated pressing on after the umber hulk, especially Kakita, who was afraid that if we did not hurry, we would be too late to save the lizard holy man, whom Kakita was convinced was still alive. The company continued to follow the blood trail for a short while, but Mark stopped and decided to go back. He was convinced that there was something of significance for him there and he intended to find it. As a warrior of the mind, I am sensitive to intuition myself, and I was more than willing to allow Mark to follow his hunch. Shrugging their shoulders, the rest of our number followed as Mark and I made our way back to the garbage filled alcove.

We dug with our hands, risking the infection that had claimed Oralec, and soon found that the alcove was in fact an entry way to a room, which was blocked by a rusted gate, against which the garbage had been pushed against. The flickering light which Mark’s sharp eyes had perceived was in fact a flame which was burning in a censer in the centre of the room. The censer was of embossed bronze and the flame within burned with a warm, sun-like radiance. It was strange enough that there should be a still burning flame hidden here in the dark, but stranger still was the fact that within the fire was a white chrysanthemum, growing and not being consumed by the flame.

As we entered the room with this mysterious flame, a voice sounded within our heads, like the use of telepathy between psions. “Welcome,” it said. “It has been too long since I have had visitors. I am the Flame of the Hearth of Worlds. I exist to heal and to protect. If you would be healed of your hurts or blessed for your trials then rest awhile with me.”

Mark did not hesitate, but knelt before the Flame. Following his lead, each of us knelt, and were healed of all hurts and wounds. Some were even surrounded in a glowing radiance. All of us knelt, except for Oralec and Aria, who looked at us with puzzled expressions. 

“What are you doing?” asked Oralec.

“Kneeling,” said Mark. “Just like the Flame said.”

“The Flame said?” asked Aria. “The Flame is…talking to you?” It was plain she felt that Mark must be crazy. However, looking about group, she and Oralec could see that they were the only ones who could not “hear” the flame talking to them. With some hesitancy the two of them began to kneel. They heard a sudden voice in their heads crying out.

“Hold,” spoke the Flame, telepathically. “Do not seek my blessing unless you would show forth fruits worthy of righteousness.”

In response, Oralec claimed that he had such fruits, and quickly related the story of how he had saved Telara from drowning during a sea voyage from Landfall to Fareach. Aria said nothing. Both of them continued to kneel and were healed, but within themselves they felt a change, a shift in their personalities which made them feel less self focussed and more willing to consider the feelings of others. This strangeness settled about them and they were subdued as the company stood and left the Chapel of the Sacred Flame, healed, refreshed and blessed.

All except Harmony. She was touched by the Flame in a way that she could not describe and, in return for its blessing, she asked it if she might perform a service in return. 

“I have but one service I might request,” replied the Flame. “But it is no small thing. The cost is great.”

“I am unafraid of the cost,” replied Harmony.

“I require a steward,” the Flame explained. “A servant to carry forth my power to the world. To heal the wounded and to defend the weak.”

Something powerful was passing between the Sacred Flame and Harmony because she responded by saying, “I will be your Steward.”

With these words, the Flame grew and enwreathed Harmony, as a part of the fire of the Living Sun, the Hearth of Worlds, detached itself and came to dwell in Harmony’ soul. She and the Flame were now bound tighter than husband and wife, than mage and familiar. They were two, dwelling in one body. As Harmony emerged from the shrine into the sewers, the flames in the bronze censer died away and the chrysanthemum crumbled to dust.

Encounters with spiritual beings, either a blessing or a curse, nonetheless have with them a strange sense of otherness. Though we had just experienced a wonderful moment of spiritual blessing, we returned to our hunt for the wounded umber hulk as though awaking from a pleasant dream, giving our experience no more thought than that. Excepting, of course, Harmony, who was now changed forever.

Continuing to track the umber hulk’s blood through the sewers, we come to a long stretch of tunnel which enters a sluice room. There’s another of the ubiquitous alcoves in this room and a second tunnel exiting. From down this second tunnel came a series of gurgling noises. The whole party was alert and ready, moving single file through the room. Mark and Oralec moved ahead, just inside the range of our torchlight. We kept our eyes open, looking for trouble. Even so, when it came, we just weren’t ready for how.

As we moved down the tunnel towards the noises we could hear, two shapes detached from the walls. They were the shape of large lizard folk warriors but their skin was the colour and patterns of the walls themselves. It was as if they were lizard folk made from the walls. As the came at us, the strange colour and pattern faded and the lizard warriors took on the ordinary hues of their kind. From their heads hung two thick tendrils, like two ponytails made of flesh. Whatever these beings were, they were no ordinary lizard folk warriors. While two of them attacked our flanks from alcoves to the side of the tunnel, we heard Aria cry out that a third one had surprised her as she was just exiting the sluice room.

The lizard folk warriors came at us with steel halberds, which they wielded with surprising aptitude. One of them struck at Kakita, while another lunged at Pax. Kakita’s heavy armour proved an impediment in the narrow tunnel, for he could not dodge the blows. He took two slashing strikes which bit deeply into his flesh. The lightly armoured Pax was more alert however and she weaved lithely away from the attacking lizard man, her spiked chain whipping about her.

I was standing second to last in the line, next to Aria, and I saw with dismay the lizard warrior’s halberd catch her a glancing blow in the shoulder. Knowing that she was ill prepared to stand toe-to-toe with such a powerful warrior, I touched her shoulder, telling her to switch places with me. She waited for the right moment, and then with a deft motion, we switched places, putting me in the front line, as it were. The lizard halberdier was unfazed as to which target he was attacking and pressed me as hard as he could, slashing away. I responded in kind, and my long sword drew more blood than his halberd.

Back in the middle of our line, Kakita was making repeated strikes at his opponent, his katana leaving slash after slash in the lizard warrior’s unarmoured torso. Kakita was appalled however, when he heard a low pitched hum, and the creature’s skin seemed to close some of its wounds automatically, as if healing that would take days, was happening in seconds. Unsure how many times the lizard man could achieve this healing, Kakita redoubled his attack.

Pax continued to rake her enemy with the taloned end of her steel chain. Dancing and weaving with astonishing grace for one so tall, the fey-touched barbarian held her opponent at bay, only once receiving a strike in return.

Shut out from the combat by his position in the front of the line, Oralec nonetheless was resolute in his desire to strike at these foes. Waiting for the right moment, he dove beneath Pax’s legs and then tumbled past the halberdier wielder to stand at his back, in a perfect flanking position. The sudden movement by the halfling rogue distracted the lizard warrior and he strove in vain to protect his flanks as Pax continued to attack. He should have paid more attention to the smaller foe, for Oralec’s dagger found the lizard man’s vitals with the kind of strike that only those familiar to the shadows can make.

 With Pax’s foe slain and Kakita’s falling beneath a storm of steel, I lunged forward at my opponent, only to find that my foot had become wedged in a gap in the stones on the floor. I fell heavily, and lost my grip on my sword. I tried my best to keep my head, rolling out of the way as swiftly as possible as my opponent hammered his halberd down at me. I was searching for a moment to safely re-take my feet when Pax’s chain whipped over my head and ripped its way across the lizard man’s throat. He collapsed to the flagstones, his life’s blood flowing into the mucky water.

While the battle raged, Mark snuck forward to see what lay at the end of this tunnel. Peeking through an open doorway at the end of the corridor, Mark looked into a large chamber, filled with strange objects which looked to be equal parts living beings and magical devices. Across the chamber Mark could make out the shape of the umber hulk, standing so still it might well have been a statue. Behind it, against the wall, were a number of humanoid figures, chained and bound. There were tables which seemed to have been grown from bone and pools of water made from membranous flesh. Something large and distressed writhed in a large, fleshy bag hanging from the ceiling. It looked as if it might well have once been the organ of a living thing, as though a giant had swallowed a man and then the stomach had been cut free and hung from the roof like a sack. Moving back and forth in this biological madness, seemingly oblivious to the noises of combat coming from up the passage, was a single figure in leathery robes. Mark’s blood chilled as the figure turned in profile to a lamplight and he saw the four whipping tentacles hanging from the humanoids mouth and chin. A mind flayer!


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## NoOneofConsequence (Nov 22, 2002)

*Part 3 - The Mind Flayer's Lab*

When Mark returned with the news that a mind flayer lurked at the end of the passage, I knew that we had stumbled upon something of greater scope than some random monster terrorising the lizard folk of Scalytown. Illithids are not given to random acts. They are calculating, cruel and extremely dangerous. I conveyed as much to the others.

Orallec was extremely interested to learn whatever I knew about this creature and its strange environs. I explained that what Mark described was typical of mind flayer bases of operation. The illithidim know the artifice of manipulating living flesh the way mortal races manipulate stone, wood and metal. Where a dwarf, elf, halfling or human might build a table out of wood or a chair from stone, mind flayers grow their furnishings from flesh and bone, often rendering down living beasts and mortals to do so, as though flesh were merely an ore to be smelted for their use. Discussing the depravities of the illithidim there in the dank, cold dark left all of us cold in our hearts and bodies. It was at this point that Tellara noticed that some of our number were missing. During our whispered deliberations, Harmony, Mark and Kakita had snuck forward to engage the monsters alone. Their rashness endangered us all. The mind flayer almost certainly had heard the sounds of our battle with the lizard folk halberdiers and would be waiting for them.

As swiftly as I could I explained that the most fearsome weapon in the mind flayer arsenal was their ability to assault the minds of others directly, by thought alone. It is a deadly and effective power. I knew that of all of us, I had the training that would give me the best chance of survival against the monster’s powers. In a moment of joint epiphany, those of us who remained in the sewer tunnel devised a desperate rescue plan. Aria cast dweomers over herself, Tellara and Pax, rendering them each invisible. Orallec trusted to his skills with stealth for his part. Alone of the party, I would make no attempt at stealth, instead trying to draw the mind blast of the illithid down upon myself.

We snuck as quickly as we dared to the entrance of the mind flayer’s lair, each one in turn stealing inward on stealthy footsteps. At last only Orallec and I remained in the doorway. The halfling rogue flipped himself through the doorway and over the edge of the stairs with the silent confidence of a monkey through high tree-tops. Now the whole of the company were sneaking their way through the lair. In the far corner from the entry stairs we could make out the figure of the lizard folk holy man chained to the wall. In between stood the mind flayer, bending over the collapsed figure of the umber hulk, and the clustered bodies of our companions, apparently limp. Most likely, they had assaulted the umber hulk directly and had been caught in the mind blast of the illithid, which had not hesitated to use its powers on the umber hulk as well as its enemies. Between the doorway and mind flayer was a sheet of membranous skin, like a living curtain. From where I stood, I could see the illithid over the top of this ‘curtain’ but found it disconcerting to have to look at, at the blood vessels in the sheet of skin seemed to move and congregate like symbols, letters and words. The illithid was writing in veins and arteries on a curtain of living flesh. I had heard of such things before but this was the first time I had seen it.

From my left there came a noise, like metal scraping against metal. It sounded as though Pax were readying her chain for a strike. I froze, watching the illithid to see if it had heard. It seemed as though it must have, because it turned in the direction of the noise, focussing its lidless eyes in space, doubtless using its psychic powers to scan the space before it. Trying to take advantage of the distraction to sneak closer, Orallec made his way silently around the suspended sack of fluid. He was almost past it when he was suddenly assaulted by the half dissolved figure within. The dying body was no longer strong enough to pierce the fleshy skin of its prison; nonetheless its deformed features were pressed against the flexible surface like a distended silhouette. In spite of himself, Orallec cried out in horror. We all cursed his ill luck as the mind flayer’s head whipped in his direction, intent on finding him out.

Realising that I had no more time to wait, I emerged onto the stair’s landing. “Over here, squid face!” I shouted, raising my musket to my shoulder and firing. There was a loud report, and through the smoke of my weapon I saw the musket ball hit home, tearing a hole in the illithid’s chest. In spite of this effort though, the mind flayer was not off balance. The air between us rippled with psionic force as it unleashed its mind blast at me. I felt the wave of alien mentality crash against my mental defences like a the brutal tide upon the rocks, but my defences held. Another like that might finish me though.

With a whooping cry, Pax emerged from her invisibility and struck the mind flayer across the head, the taloned end of her chain leaving a brutal gash. As grey ichor ran down the alien humanoid’s face, Tellara likewise struck, sending a flight of three arrows to their target. Bristling with fletched shafts, the mind flayer staggered back, having forgotten about Orallec’s presence. The halfling’s knife sliced through muscle and tendon, finding a vital organ. Even so sorely pressed, the illithid never uttered a word, disdaining speech, like so many telepathic races.

Aria had not emerged from her covering enchantment, hoping instead to see to the health of our friends. Still invisible, she checked the life-pulse of first one and then the others, finding them to still be living. However, she had no idea what danger she had placed herself in, for the mind flayer had decided to flee rather than face our continued assault. Utilising a power I had not anticipated, it stepped into the midst of the bodies upon the floor and then vanished, along with the unconscious umber hulk, our comrades and Aria. 

It was a moment before we realised that our invisible bard had been swept up in the power of the mind flayer’s translocation.


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## Sen Udo-Mal (Nov 22, 2002)

*very cool story so far...*

Really like it, please keep it up! I love Spelljammer...


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## Knightfall (Nov 22, 2002)

*Very cool!*

What a great start for a Spelljammer story hour.  Knightfall gives this his nod of approval.

Squid face... heh.  Funny!

Keep it up NOoC!

KF72


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## NoOneofConsequence (Nov 26, 2002)

*Part 4: No mind flayer gets out alive.*

As the mind flayer disappeared with our unconscious comrades, I dove forward to the point on the floor which they had just been occupying. Seeing the illithid vanish, I could tell what psychic ability it had engaged and I knew that I might have a chance at doing it as well. With desperate hands I pulled away the biological trash from the cold stone floor, searching for the marked circle which I knew must be here. I managed to find it, but only because I had seen where the mind flayer had been standing exactly – if I hadn’t known where to search I would never have found it. When mages utilise teleporting circles the powers which they invoke are complex, requiring sophisticated rituals and intricate markings. Awakened minds can use similar powers, but their circles are so simple that only the most skilled searchers might find one by accident. 

While I scrabbled amongst the mortal detritus of the illithid laboratory, Pax and Tellara saw to the health of the lizard man priest. It appeared that he was shaken, but unharmed. Meanwhile, Orallec searched through the tables, making no secret of his investigations. After a moment he took a parchment from beneath a series of bottles and rolling it into a scroll, shoved it into his vest. None of us bothered to question him about it though and he joined us as we prepared to follow the mind flayer and rescue our friends.

“I believe I can work the teleport circle,” I told them. “But I don’t know how long its power will last and I can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to get back.”

“What choice do we have?” asked Tellara, and this summed up everyone’s attitude. One at a time, we stepped into the circle and the transportations were effected.

----

Aria had done her best to resist the power of the circle’s pull, but to no avail. She was dragged through a psionic hole in the fabric of space and time and emerged almost immediately through another such hole, into the middle of a darkened room. With her enhanced vision she watched the mind flayer leave the bodies of her comrades, and its pet umber hulk, and walk out of the small room. Still invisible, she pressed herself into a corner and considered her position. A minor shifting of weight on the floor told her that the umber hulk was still alive and might awaken at any point. She had already faced this brute once this night and it had nearly killed her. She would not do it again.

Aria was contemplating her next action when there was a low hum and suddenly Tellara appeared in the middle of the room. Tellara took a combat stance and peered into the near pitch blackness. Seeing her disorientation, Aria whispered a warning; “Tellara! It’s me, Aria. We’re in a room with the others and the umber hulk, which is just behind you. Ahead of you is a doorway, that’s where the mind flayer has gone.”

Before Tellara could whisper her thanks, there was another low hum and Orallec appeared in the room. In spite of the tension, Aria had to stifle a laugh. Two bodies naturally refuse to occupy the same space, and since Tellara had refused to move, the psychic power had deposited Orallec directly on top of her. With his excellent sense of balance, the rogue landed deftly on the ranger’s shoulders and stood there, accustoming himself to his new surroundings. Like blind circus tumblers, both stood comfortably, one atop the other in the dark, as Aria repeated her explanation of the situation.

Tellara was about to move when a third low hum was heard. Both Tellara and Orallec tried to react to save themselves as the unyielding figure of Pax appeared in the space where they stood. Tellara was thrown to the ground, but Orallec flipped neatly from her falling frame, to land deftly on the stones near the door. Pax was swifter to orient herself than any of the others had been and quickly took up a position near the door, her chain at the ready. Without a word the barbarian conjured a series of flickering faerie lights to see by. Her companions were puzzled by this incongruous ability and would have questioned her on it when, last of all, I appeared in the room. I spared only a bare glance for the others, first quickly reassuring myself that there was indeed a circle here by which to transport us back.. I breathed a sigh of relief as I did indeed find the psychic energy traces I hoped for. Then I stepped back away from the door, kneeling down by the umber hulk. Thinking to waste no opportunity, I thrust my sword into the beast’s throat and twisted until the blood flowed freely. It died with not even a murmur. 

After a quick discussion, it was decided that Aria would scout ahead and find out what we should expect. The rest of us would follow at a short distance, ready to provide support as necessary. We all waited quietly as she snuck into the next room. As we waited I drew out my ram rod and reloaded the gorgon; as my sergeant at arms used to say, there are no quiet moments in a battle, just opportunities to reload!

Following Aria’s whispered voice, the company quickly explored what turned out to be a series of caves which had been fitted to function as storerooms. In short order we found a long passageway that looked to lead to daylight. As we looked out, we could see the flickering figure of some predatory beast stalking down the passage towards us. The beast seemed to jump about, shimmering like a distant mirage on a hot day. In shape it was akin to a predatory cat, grey to black in colour, and above its head whipped two long tentacles which originated from somewhere on its back.

There was a palpable tension amongst us as the beast began to make its way deliberately down the passage toward us. All possibility of stealth was lost as Pax roared an eldritch battle cry which echoed through the chamber. The enraged barbarian and the stalking displacer beast leapt upon each other, like fell lovers flinging themselves into a deathly embrace. We quickly followed our companion and in the dark confines of the tunnel battle was joined, lighted only by arcane will-o-wisps of light.

The displacer’s shifting image was terrifyingly difficult to strike, even though we managed to surround it, and for a time it struck about itself, its barbed tentacles scoring first one of us and then another. I wasted a good shot with my musket, piercing only a false image. The leadshot struck sparks from the cave wall where it struck.  Soon we were all bloodied and increasingly frustrated by its ever shifting appearance. It was Pax though who first began to gain the upper hand. As the beast’s tentacles scoured her thigh, she returned the favour, raking the displacer’s back with her chain’s spikes. After a few more hits from all quarters the beast panicked and fled. By accident rather than design, I was closest to the beast as it fled and so was the first to follow it up the passageway, toward the light. Behind me charged the still raging Pax, her spiked chain whistling through the air as she spun it above her head. I ran at full pelt, more desperate to keep ahead of the armed storm of angry steel behind me than to catch the fleeing displacer ahead.

The displacer beast reached daylight ahead and turned to its left. I heard it scream and saw its hind quarters slip downwards out of sight. Warned by the scream, I eased back from my headlong flight and was able to not lose my footing as the tunnel burst forth from the rock onto a mountain ledge, half a pace from infinite space. Ahead of me stretched the sky, a line of rounded blue. Below me, far below me, the clouds carpeted my vision. Most shocking of all though were the stars and night sky which yawned above me. I was high, unfathomably high, on a mountainside that neared the empty void between worlds; at the horizon of the lifebreath of a planet. I had seen vistas like this before, but only from the deck of spelljamming vessels, never when land bound. Somewhere far below, the displacer beast was descending inexorably, already beyond the range to hear its screams.

The ledge ran a hundred yards to the left, ending in a small open plateau, barely thirty paces across. In the midst of the plateau stood an object which resembled a small insect, like a maggot, but was the size of a large carriage or even a small skiff. It was an illithid boreworm, the smallest vessel by which mind flayers travel the voids between worlds; and heading towards it was the mind flayer from beneath Holly Canal, moving unhurriedly and apparently still ignorant of our pursuit. Behind me I heard Pax catch her breath as the vista drained her rage in an instant. She stood dumbfounded, the spiked chain forgotten in her hands. Behind her the others crowded up the passage until they too were awe-struck by the view.

Heedless of my lack of support, I ran swiftly after the mind flayer. As it reached the boreworm, the vessel’s entire front opened upwards like a door and the creature made to step inside. Only at the last second did it hear my footsteps and it turned just in time to see my blade swing before it clove the monster’s head from its shoulders. It was with grim satisfaction that I flung the illithid’s head over the edge of the plateau and then returned to my comrades in the caves.

“Grab whatever you can,” I said, pointing to the stores in the various caves. “We must be gone very soon.”

Orallec and Tellara came upon a cash hoard in a small hard wood chest. I managed to find a warrior’s kit, with a fine battleaxe and a suit of armour made by a master smith. It was Pax who turned up the jewel of the booty though. Hidden behind a crate, hanging on the wall, was a fine bugle, silvery in hue and inlaid with a mother of pearl design. Aria recognised it at once, naming it a blasting horn. By blowing upon it, she claimed, it would produce sound that would strike like the force of a catapult throw, knocking down mortals and structures alike. It was with no small amount of pleasure that we gathered up our treasure and our still unconscious friends and passed back through the psionic circle to the sewers of Holly Canal.


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## NoOneofConsequence (Dec 4, 2002)

*Part 5: Evil in Holly Canal (1)*

Upon our return to the mind flayer laboratory we were divided as to what we should do next. With barely a wave, Orallec left us. Whatever he took from the mind flayer’s work table was what he had been searching for and with that, he felt no inclination to remain with us. The lizard folk holy man was eager to return to his people and tell them that the monster which had been terrorising them had been slain. Aria and Tellara offered to escort him, in case their were any more illithid thralls lurking in the sewers. Those of us who remained searched the laboratory with a mix of disgust and morbid fascination. 

Mark found the vials which Orallec had ignored earlier, along with a wand fashioned from a length of bone. Magical examination lead us to conclude that the wand would cast minor healing magic, while the vials contained potions of necromantic magic. All the items were stashed in backpacks for closer inspection at a later and safer point in time.

Kakita was horrified by the strange, biological apparatuses scattered about the laboratory. He searched resolutely for any living thing which might have survived the mind flayer’s abuses. When it became clear that everything in the abominable space was dead or perverted beyond recovery he declared that he would destroy everything. Harmony concurred, and the two of them began to set fires using lantern oil. Soon the laboratory was blazing and we were forced to leave through the entry tunnel. The skill of the original builders of the sewers became apparent again, as the laboratory burned effectively and the smoke was taken away through some sort of ventilation. In spite of my misgivings, not only did we not choke, we didn’t even suffer a loss of visibility. Truly the sewers of Holly Canal are a marvel of engineering.

As we made our way up the tunnel away from the burning laboratory we began to here a hesitant voice calling from somewhere ahead of us. The sharper eared among us realised that it was the voice of Maglorix, Nataleod’s foreman, who had shown us the way to Scalytown. We wondered how it was that he was down here in the sewers. Of greater concern however was the fact that he was calling out an illithid name. He was searching for the mind flayer!

Suspicious of treachery, Kakita hatched a strange plan, and ran to attack Maglorix directly. Naturally, Maglorix turned to flee and was promptly clubbed unconscious by Mark, who had managed to slip past Maglorix in the shadows. The little figure could be seen kissing his sap in the smoky darkness while standing over Maglorix’s collapsed form. The fallen foreman was quickly tied up and then we woke him up with some water, thinking to interrogate him.

Once he had awoken, Maglorix seemed genuinely pleased to see us, though he was a little puzzled as to why we had tied him up. We explained that we did not realise who he was when we heard his voice calling and that there was a dangerous monster down here, called a mind flayer. We noted the smoke and explained that we had set fire to the creature’s lair. While listening to all of this Maglorix revealed no indications of duplicity or even awareness of the illithid’s existence. He seemed genuinely shocked by our story, and eager to flee the sewers with us. Yet we knew he had been calling out the illithid’s name – he had to have known that it was down here. The only possibilities were that he was an exceptional liar or else he was under the thrall of illithid. Rather than waste time arguing the possibilities to no good end, Kakita enacted the second part of his…unusual…plan.

He cut the bonds around Maglorix’s arms and legs and then, seizing him by the shoulders, began to jabber as though completely panicked. “You’ve got to get us out of here!” he cried. “There could be more of those damn things down here! We could be in danger, damn it!” 

Watching the normally dour and taciturn warrior feign panic was fascinating, almost comic. For his part though, Maglorix seemed to believe that Kakita was indeed in terror for his life. He jumped up and quickly led us through the sewers to a ladder which led to the street. Mark virtually flew up the ladder, only to bang his head on the heavy steel grating at street level. Heaving with all his strength, using first both hands and then both feet, Mark could not budge the grating one whit. In complete impatience, Pax reached past him without even placing one foot to the ladder rungs, and flung the grating wide. Still gripping the iron bars with both hands and both feet, Mark was flung bodily through the opening and tumbled out onto the street. Quickly scanning about himself, he noted that the night trade was dying away and the quiet streets were hushed in anticipation of the dawn. A baker’s cart rattled some streets away, and there was some laughter from the direction of the canal, but otherwise all was quiet.


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## NoOneofConsequence (Dec 5, 2002)

*Background Piece: Mythology*

In the Dawn Age came the original mortal race - no one remembers their name or what they were truly like, except that they were powerful beyond mortal ken and were unafraid, even of the gods. They spread out across the planets which orbited their sun, which they called the Hearth of Worlds, because by its warmth all life grew. They lived in an age when the boundaries of the universe were more fluid. 

The Origines (there is an acute over the e) - as theologians call them - developed all manner of skills and powers, not the least of which was the ability to grow and change themselves. They separated their society into castes, with the most powerful ruling and the least powerful serving. Scholars are divided over whether this caused discontent or whether each was happy in his role. 

The Origines began to encode their caste system into the worlds around them and even into their own bodies. Animals were bred to serve each caste and each caste was in turn bred to serve its function. This is how the mortal races began - being created from the star-born lifestuff of the Orignes. 

At the bottom were servants, each bred to suit their world or function. From these were born the elves, the dwarves, sahuagin, suited to their respective worlds. Gnomes and halflings were bred to service the devices and the little spaces of worlds. Humans were the multi-role workforce - adept at learning and changing from generation to generation.

Above the servants were the masters of lore and craft, superior to the lower caste because of the knowledge which they possessed. In this caste grew the illithids, masters of the biological magic which underpinned the entire of Origines culture. Some scholars argue that there were others, such as the now far fallen descendants of Gith. These scholars claim that the githyanki were the craftmasters of the Origines and that the githzerai were their researchers of mystical secrets.

At the very top were the rulers, about whom almost nothing was known, only that, over time, they became immortal beings of pure intellect and magic.

No one knows how long this situation continued, but all agree that the achievements of the Origines were without par. However, at some time the Origines empire had grown to fill the entire of the solar system and they began to look to the Void beyond for further frontiers to explore and conquer.

However, in the Void the Origines found powers unlike anything they had ever before encountered and these powers had a dark purpose. Offering powerful secrets in exchange for allegiance, the Demonic powers of the Void seduced the Origines. By an insideous conspiracy, the Demons and Devils who were drawn into the worlds by the Origines caused the inhabitants of the worlds to darken the sun, for Demons from the Void cannot abide the light and warmth from the Hearth of Worlds. By dint of a gargantuan effort which stretched even the powers of the Origines, the first sun was extinguished. 

What resulted is a time of terror and almost limtless corruption which is known by some as the Age of the Void Fallen, and by others as only the Darkened Age. With the power of the sun gone the Demons and Devils of the Void invaded the worlds en mass and fractured the empire of the Origines. The Origines were split into various factions and made to war for the entertainment of their demonic masters. New races were born in this time, such as the corrupted orcs, the ogres and giants. For an unmeasurable time, hell stalked all the worlds.

However, not only Demons and Devils dwell in the Void, and the spirits of the stars, the Celestials, saw the extinguishing of the Hearth of Worlds and they mourned its passing. Then they gathered in force and led an army to overthrow the darker powers and restore the sun. Their war is said to have lasted for over a millenia and by its end all peoples had sworn themselves to one side or the other.

The war between the celestials and the dark powers ended when the celestials gathered all of the dead from the endless conflict of the Darkened Age and, purifying and consuming them in an almighty ignition, created a New Sun. Because it was born from the bodies of so many dead, it was called the Pyre, though some still knew it by the name of the old sun, the Hearth of Worlds. Caught close in the ignition of the New Sun, the world of Ashen was burned, scoured of almost all life and of its past, so that only ruins remained.

The ignition of the Pyre drove the main of the demonic forces back into the Void. Many of their servitors, such as the now corrupted Yuan-ti, were left behind. Others - like the mind flayers - were taken as slaves into the Void, only to return at a later time. The mortal allies of the celestials all agreed upon a compact and the final power of the New Sun was to purge the racial memories, so that the follies of the Dawn Age and of the Origines would never be repeated. Recognising this power of the New Sun, many of the remnant demonic servitors hid from the New Sun, to preserve their Dawn Age knowledge. This was the beginning of the split between the elves and the drow, as well as the permanent sea life of the sahuagin. That is why, although the greatest evil comes from the Void, it is the deepest darks of the world which hide evil. 

The celestials returned to the Void to become stars, to keep watch for souls which might become lost in the Void.

Of course many theologians debunk all this as silly myth. After all, how can this story account for the gods? And what of the other great beings. And if the New Sun drives away the knowledge and lore of the Dawn Age, how is it the Mind Flayers have returned. Nonetheless, this is the most comprehensive creation myth of all the worlds which orbit the New Sun, the Pyre, the Hearth of Worlds


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## NoOneofConsequence (Dec 5, 2002)

*Part 6: Evil in Holly Canal (2)*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Once we were all back on the street, Maglorix told us that we were in fact not far from one of his master’s warehouses, and that we should be safe there from any monsters. Continuing to feign panic, Kakita insisted that we be taken there immediately. Maglorix was all too happy to oblige. In spite of his apparent honesty, none of us fully trusted Maglorix and we were careful to keep a wary eye out for trouble as we followed him the short distance to the warehouse. In little time we were standing out the front of a single story group of buildings surrounded on most sides by a high wooden fence. The only entrance was by a kind of short alley between one of the buildings and the fence.

“For a warehouse, it’s not exactly easy to enter,” I mused quietly, as Maglorix walked quickly down the alley.

“Excellent place for an ambush,” agreed Kakita. We prepared for trouble and followed Maglorix’s path cautiously. Mark slipped away from us to scout the warehouse compound from the outside.

The short alleyway emptied into a earth floored courtyard. Within the courtyard the night’s darkness was compounded by a thick mist which seemed to hover deliberately in the fenced space. It reminded of the magical mist which Aria had conjured on the docks of Fareach. Through the dense fog we could make out some shadowy figures moving towards us and, at a distance, we could here a voice intoning words of magical invocation.

Kakita turned his blade to the iai position and stalked quickly along the side wall of one of the buildings. From out of the mist an armoured figure appeared, bearing a steel shield and a morning star flail. There was no doubt in Kakita’s mind that the figure meant trouble. With a shattering “kiai”, he drew his blade and slashed in one smooth motion. However, the mist deceived him and his blade bit only air. The armoured figure returned the favour by swinging wild with his morning star’s iron-spiked head. When no one called for calm, we knew indeed that Maglorix had been lying and we were betrayed.

Other armed figures emerged from the darkness as Pax and I stepped up next to Kakita and joined the fray. In the confused, swirling melee it was a lucky blow from either side which landed effectively. However, one specific opponent made the mistake of stepping into the midst of all three of us and in a very short time suffered such an assault that he panicked and, throwing down his mace, fled through the mist. With her blood up, there was no way that Pax would allow his escape. She turned and pursued the fleeing man. We heard through the mist as first the fleeing thug and then the pursuing barbarian banged against the fence, as they made the turn back down the alleyway and out into the street. Pax’s war cry echoed off the quiet houses and shop fronts.

Harmony, alerted by the intoning voice, used her own magic to sense out what she was sure was an enemy spellcaster. She swiftly located the individual and shouted warnings to us as her spell revealed more and more information. It appeared that the individual had covered himself in several magics; some to enhance his own capabilities, some to protect him from attack. Kakita and I fought our opponents while keeping a wary eye out for this mysterious spellcrafter. Kakita had just struck down the flail wielding opponent when the watched for enemy appeared from the shifting grey. It was Nataleod, the merchant who had hired us to go to Scalytown in the first place, only now his body seemed preternaturally swollen with muscular strength. He carried a magnificent steel shield and a heavy headed mace. Kakita nearly fell to his knees, so heavy was the treacherous mage’s first blow. 

Barely making Nataleod out through the mists, Harmony did her best to aid Kakita and I in our battle. First, by her druidic magic, she made all the metal on Nataleod’s body begin to chill, so that it became freezing to the touch. I realised just how effective her magic was when I could feel the coldness coming from the head of his mace as he struck me. There was no doubt that his shield was painfully icy on his left arm. Next Harmony intoned another spell and, with a sharp cracking sound, the wooden haft of Nataleod’s mace visibly warped, making the weapon much more unwieldy. In spite of these impediments though Nataleod still managed to hold Kakita and I off.

Meanwhile, Mark had completed a circuit of the small warehouse compound and had determined that there was no one awaiting outside to add themselves to the ambush. He picked one corner of the fence and tried to climb up. In spite of his considerable skill however, he had great difficulty and in the end he pulled some rope from his pack and used that to climb. Scrambling deftly up the rope, he dropped down into the fog enshrouded courtyard and drew his sap. Using his keen night sight to guide himself as best he could, he headed towards the sounds of battle. 

As fate would have it, Mark stalked straight up behind Nataleod. Before the merchant had even noticed him, the plucky kobold laid him out with a single blow. Twice in the same night, Mark had done someone in with a single strike. He stood as tall and proud as a kobold can.

The mist was just beginning to clear when Pax returned and told us the outcome of her pursuit. In her fury she had toyed with the fleeing scoundrel for a little while, tripping up and then raking him with the spikes before tripping him again as he tried to rise. Finally though, she had wrapped her chain about his neck and choked the life from him. Her look of grim satisfaction was mixed with an inhuman calm, which reminded us that her time in the forests of the Verdant Coast had wrought changes in her we had not begun to understand.


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## Laslo Tremaine (Dec 10, 2002)

Great story-hour!  

I was very intrigued by the mini-game in Polyhedron and it's nice to see it in a story hour.  And well done too!


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## MavrickWeirdo (Dec 11, 2002)

Clever ploy, 

mention that some of your players _might_ want to try different characters 

put out a call to create new characters for the game

then include a link to your storyhour.

Well it worked, I'm hooked.


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## NoOneofConsequence (Dec 11, 2002)

MavrickWeirdo said:
			
		

> *Clever ploy,
> 
> mention that some of your players might want to try different characters
> 
> ...




If only I was so cunning IRL .

I'm glad you're hooked - our next session is Friday, I'll try for a new episode by the end of the weekend (no guaruntees though).


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## NoOneofConsequence (Dec 18, 2002)

*Part 7 – Friends and Enemies in Holly Canal*

We had tied up Nataleod and his men and commenced searching through the warehouse that Maglorix had led us to. The building was divided into three areas. The first two were stocked high with crates and iron bound chests all of which, upon closer examination, turned out to be empty. The entire thing was a facade, a ruse, like the branches and leaves strung about a hunter’s hide to fool animals in the forest. It was the third room that housed the building’s true purpose. The small, windowless space contained only two objects. The first was an altar, grown rather than made, in the illithid fashion, from flesh and bone. I have heard tales of debased men and women worshipping mind flayers, as though they were celestial powers, and it seemed that this room was a shrine for one such cult. The mind flayer who laired in the sewers was the centre of a secret religious sect, probably no more in number than the six who ambushed us, plus Maglorix. Given the magic which he manifested, the merchant Nataleod probably served as the group’s priest. The prospect made us very uneasy, and Kakita withdrew to keep watch over the bodies of our foes, in case of treacherous magic.

The only other item in the shrine was a rod of ironwood, bound at each end by bands of adamantite. There was no doubt that it was a magic item of some kind and we were puzzled as to why the cultists had not used it against us. We agreed that most likely it was either sacred to the mind flayer or else the cultists did not know how to make the magic work. Aria took the opportunity to examine the rod closely and claimed that it resembled a Flailing Rod, which she had once seen used in a duel. Since she seemed to know the most about it, we left it in her care. It took her seemingly no time at all to figure the rod’s operation. At her command the two foot long rod manifested two spiked mace heads, attached, one to each end, by adamantite chains. Pleased with her new toy, Aria retracted the dire flail heads within the rod and we left the shrine to examine the bodies of our enemies. There was a bittersweet moment for some as Mark made the comment that such a weapon would have been perfect for Iyanden, a former comrade of the party, who had been executed by elves during a sea voyage to Landfall Island.

We were just beginning to search the bodies of the fallen and captured, most especially hoping to find a purse to the value of the gold we’d been promised, when a full patrol of the Holly Canal city watch entered the warehouse courtyard. With their spears held ready, they were fully intent on arresting us for banditry, robbery and murder. With swift words we managed to persuade them to investigate the shrine in the warehouse and the mind flayer lair in the sewers. We were held under guard in the courtyard while a magistrate was summoned and members of the guard went down into the sewers to confirm our story. It was midday by the time a decision was taken and we were set free.

However, justice in Holly Canal, as with so many parts of the Worlds-lit-by-the-Pyre, is a pragmatic thing. Until we had arrived, Nataleod and his cronies had been considered to be upstanding citizens. We on the other hand were freebooters and strangers, with no one to vouch for us. Since the evidence supported our version of events, we were not imprisoned or enslaved. However, we were exiled from Holly Canal and everything taken from the bodies of the cultists were confiscated, though Arial managed to keep the Flailing Rod. We were escorted to the docks and held aboard a ship to Fareach, sailing on the evening tide. A little before sunset, we set off down the Criaki river to the ocean, travelling with the flow, sails furled. It was nearly fully dark as the ship slid past Scalytown, its lights barely visible through the dunes.

As we passed the lizard folk settlement, we were astonished to see what must have been close to the ghetto’s entire population gathered on the beach. They carried torches which they waved in the darkness, and they cheered and sang in their strange sibilant fashion as we passed by. In their midst, the holy man bowed to us and waved. We waved back from the gunwales, touched by this display of gratitude. It seemed that we had made both friends and enemies in Holly Canal and though we were officially exiled from the town, if ever we were to return we would doubtless find allies ready to support us. That night’s voyage was particularly sweet.


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## LGodamus (Dec 25, 2002)

Bada bump


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## NoOneofConsequence (Jan 1, 2003)

*Part 8: The Test of the Demonweb*

By the time we had returned to Fareach an early wet season had burst forth upon the Verdant Coast with a deluge so heavy that it threatened to wash the coastal colonies into the sea. For weeks on end tropical storms battered jungle and town, river and port. Commerce came to an irrevocable halt, as man and beast hid in whatever shelter could be found. For our part, or adventuring company took whatever lodging that was affordable and available. Kakita returned to his house near the beach just north of Fareach. Most of the rest of us took lodging at a tavern, dividing our time between drinking and trying to keep dry. Save for the thunder and lightning, it was a quiet season for all of us. For my part, the encounter with the mind flayer left me with a wound in my mind that took a long time to heal. At first, drink seemed the only solution, but as the season progressed, with only the four walls for company many nights, I began to find a way to heal. As my psychic wound healed, the scar hardened to forge in my mind the will to hunt and slay every illithid that I could.

By the time the rains broke Pax and I had a standing appointment to play cards and drink each evening in the taproom of the Frog’s Flippers. Kuslamarka, Aria and Tellara regularly joined us and on this night Harmony was in from the jungle, where she had spent most of the season, in defiance of the weather. We were several rounds of drinks into the evening when the head of the city watch, Captain Hearny, whom everyone called “Hogwash”. With him was the Hetman of a small village just north of Fareach named Lerick. The Hetman’s name was Allar and Hearny Hogwash had brought him to us because he needed to hire some adventurers. We were not exactly in the best condition to discuss business when Allar sat down with us. I was almost seeing double, Harmony needed Allar to repeat the name of his town twice before she got it and Aria and Pax fell to arguing whether the people of Lerick fished or farmed for their livelihood. 

Allar was not too offended by our behavior, and agreed to meet us the next morning over a meal. As we broke bread with him, the hetman of Lerick explained that his village found itself exposed and vulnerable. For some time the village had sponsored a group of adventurers who called themselves the Golden Band. The Band lived in the village receiving free room and board and in return they defended the town. Just over a week previously the Band had traveled west into the hills to investigate sightings of giant spiders. They feared that the spiders were the precursors to a goblin invasion of the area. Giant spiders are known to be sacred to many jungle goblin tribes and they are often used to terrorize enemies in battle. However, something must have happened to the Band, as they had not returned and no word had been sent by them. Allar assured us that the Band was steadfast and loyal and they would not have disappeared for so long without cause. With nothing else pressing, we decided that we would come to Lerick and help locate the Golden Band.

----

Lerick was little more than a day’s march north of Fareach. It was a small cluster of wattle and daub huts with thatched roofs clinging to the thin strip of ground between the beach and the jungle. The locals were fisherman mainly, making their livelihood by selling their surplus catch to the markets in the nearby capital. One of the huts was the lodging of the Golden Band, provided for them by the villagers. We stayed the night here, taking the opportunity to search for any clues which the Band may have left behind. From their journals and writings, as well as the ways they stored their kits and treasure (most of which we located with some ease) we came to the conclusion that the Golden Band were competent, if somewhat inexperienced, adventurers. They should not have fallen victim to any mere accidents, or amateur’s mistakes. The next morning we set off into the jungle, hoping to find out what exactly had befallen them.

For two days we tracked the Band’s path through the jungle. Between myself and Tellara, we never lost the trail, and on the afternoon of the second day, we came upon a grass covered clearing in the rainforest, a hundred paces across. Scouting the edges of the clearing first, we determined that while the Golden Band entered the clearing, they never left it, for we could not a single track leading back into the jungle in any direction.

Gradually working our way through the towering grass to the middle of the clearing, we saw that the tracks led up to a low mound of earth. We approached the mound cautiously, weapons in hand. For my part, I wondered if the mound might be a barrow or burial mound, and that some dead thing might have arisen and taken the Golden Band into the next life.

Our investigations showed us a flat square of marble, a lid-like trap door, hanging open over a narrow stone stairway. The Band’s tracks led up to the doorway and then went crazy. The tracks became confused, crisscrossing back and forth like the lines of a spider’s web that has been tangled by a vicious wind. Suspecting an ambush, we all stood watch in a circle about the trapdoor as Mark checked the entrance for traps or other treacheries. After a careful investigation, Mark declared the entry to be safe. We decided to go in.

I was to go first. I paused before entering to draw forth psychic power within myself. Through a synchronicity of physical and mental discipline, I embodied the tiger, the animal serving as a symbol of affinity to draw forth new might within me. Made stronger by the psychic affinity I was prepared, and stepped onto the first stair. Instantly I became aware that Mark had been fooled by a treacherous cunning, for he had missed the trap which I had now triggered. 

The air became a boiling cloudlike mass of buzzing, stinging insects. Our cries of alarm and discomfort echoed down the stair well. Even Harmony, normally unconcerned by assaults of nature such as this, cursed under breath and swatted wildly at every uncovered patch of her skin. Instinctively, I ducked down to avoid the offending swarm and realized that the cloud of insects made no move into the stairs, instead staying at the surface. I called out to others that the stairs would provide a sanctuary and then stepped downward a half a dozen paces. 

In short order the rest of the party joined me and we crouched in the half dark stairwell, listening to the buzzing of angry insects just above us. Clearly we now knew where the Golden band had gone and why. Doubtless their fate lay somewhere below us. We wondered at the kind of being that might set a trap so clearly designed to force enemies in, rather than keep them out. Like the Golden Band before us, we had become the invited guests of a host hiding somewhere underground beneath the dense jungle. Mindful of our fates, we went down the stairs, armed and ready.


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## LGodamus (Jan 2, 2003)

more please.


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## NoOneofConsequence (Jan 9, 2003)

*Part 9: Demonweb Test II*

Descending the stairs, we found ourselves in a simple room cut from the earth. The floor was dusty and the whole area seemed to be lit by some indeterminate means, so that everything seemed to be in dim twilight. Through the dust on the floor we were able to make out the tracks of the Golden Band, heading north across the room and up a passageway. Following the tracks, we came first to an intersection with a branching passage to our right. Although the Golden Band’s path led straight north, we paused to investigate this branching passage, nervous of allowing any potential enemies to get around behind us.

The branching passage led to another small room. As we made our way quietly to the doorway we could hear a disturbing hissing sound coming from ahead of us, as well as another, stranger sound – the laughter of a child. Reaching the doorway, we looked in to see three monstrous spiders, each larger than a dog, wrapping a small figure in silk. The figure was an elven child and as the dire process continued, the little one laughed and giggled to himself as though it were all a game. We charged swiftly into the room and had at the spiders without hesitation. Our ambush served us well for all three beasts were dispatched in a single volley of strikes. Even with its captors dead, the elf child continued to giggle madly. There is something disturbing about laughter in the face of danger, especially from a child, and the whole situation made us all uneasy and cautious.

Harmony searched about the room, while Aria, Pax and I attempted to talk to the child. No matter what we said, the boy would not talk to us. I wondered if perhaps he was delirious from some drug or perhaps the venom of the spiders, but Aria and Harmony could find no signs of poison or drugs. As my frustration grew to my shame I began to threaten the child and I even poked him lightly with the tip of my sword. Although the others insist that this was the point when the illusion was dismissed, I continued for several moments more to interrogate a small wooden statue, convinced that it was an elven child. Eventually my smirking comrades appraised me of the truth. We left the wooden dummy in the otherwise empty room and went back to tracking the adventurers from Lerick.

As we headed north, there were two more branches in the passage, one to the left and another to the right. To swiftly explore the passage to the left, Aria cast a spell of invisibility upon herself and snuck down alone. She found another intersection with two more rooms. The southern room appeared to contain some bones and an altar. The north room was covered in dried blood, sprayed about as if from a battle or something similar. Since a quick perusal indicated that neither room was occupied, Aria returned to us and we continued following the Golden Band.

At the final right branching, the tracks changed, looking as though a skirmish of some sort had occurred and, following that, the bodies of the Band had been dragged further north. We could just make out a large room ahead through the gloom. However, a sense of thoroughness drove us to investigate the final branching passage first. At the end of this one we found another simple room, just like the others. In the middle of this one was a chest, made of wood. As we watched, the lid of the chest sprang open and then shut, with a noise like a heavy door slamming in the wind. Most of us moved to investigate the chest, while Aria searched the rest of the room.

The chest continued to spring open and closed at irregular intervals. None of us fancied trying to stick our hands into it when it opened, since broken fingers were the almost certain result. Even the nimble Pax was unwilling to take the risk. After watching for a moment, I thought I might be able to beat the chest; using my sword like a bat in a stick-ball game, I waited for the chest to open again and then swiped at the helmet that I saw inside. I was not fast enough however, and my sword shuddered in my hands as the tip of the blade was caught by the slamming lid. When the lid opened again I retracted my sword to discover that not only had I missed the helmet, I had actually shattered one of several glass vials also contained in the chest. The pale liquid dribbled down the sword’s edge. 

In the meantime, Aria had discovered a fresco in a corner of the room we were in. The fresco depicted a multitude of small spiders with elven faces in a large web, beneath another, larger spider with a female face and a malevolent grin. A carved caption in the language of the drow was beneath. Aria leant against the wall, concentrating hard, as she did her best to decipher the script. In a little moment, she slapped her palm against the wall in triumph and declared “We are all Lolth’s food.” As she did so there was a loud clicking noise and the chest lid flew open one last time. Once it became clear that the lid would not again close automatically, we withdrew the helmet and flasks from the chest.

Harmony was pleased to inform us that the flasks contained healing unctions and poison antidotes and that the helmet was magical, but she could tell us no more about it. After a moment’s close examination, Aria declared that the helm resembled a famous sort that was sometimes called a “foe maker”. People who wore such helms frequently lost many friends turning their backs on old alliances and relationships. We put the helm into my rucksack and Harmony took possession of the potions.

Knowing now who was most likely behind this strange complex under the jungle, we continued following the tracks of the Golden Band, though we now held out little hope of finding them alive. The dusty passageway ended in a vast, domed vault, with a roof stretching into the darkness. The centre piece of this hall was a huge statue of a spider with the face of a beautiful drow woman. We suppressed a shiver as we entered the area, hoping to find some sign of the lost adventurers. In spite of the great vault’s apparent emptiness, Tellara’s instincts told her that we were not alone.


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## NoOneofConsequence (Jan 15, 2003)

*Test of the Demonweb III*

“I hear something!” cried Tellara.

“I hear it too!” cried Mark. “Coming from near the statue.”

The whole company turned to face the statue in the middle of the chamber, with Mark and Tellara taking the flanks, aiming bow and crossbow in turn. As we scanned the area it was clear that we could hear something moving near the statue, but we could not see anything.

“Perhaps it is invisible,” offered Pax, in a moment of insight.

“We’ll see,” said Aria, and she invoked a spell to dismiss invisibility enchantments. As the power of Aria’s magic shifted the interplay of mystical forces about the statue a form came into view; a form so unrational that the mortal mind could almost not accept it. Standing upon the statue and observing us keenly was the face of a dark elf female, a not unattractive drow. Her arms and chest were clad in the admantite chainmail characteristic of her race and she wielded twin short swords of the same metal. This unremarkable figure was however fused at the base of her torso to the thorax and abdomen of a gigantic black widow spider, so that she went about on eight legs like a perverted centaur. Several of us swore at the sight of this creature, but it was Pax who gave the monster its name.

“Drider!” she whispered hoarsely.

When the drider realised that it was no longer invisible it crawled from behind the statue and leapt to the floor. Brandishing both swords it announced in a loud voice, “ We are all Lolth’s food. Surrender your spirits to the Queen of the Demonwebs, and your lives will be spared until she calls upon you for sacrifice, as she calls upon us all.”

No words passed between the party members, but with our weapons already drawn, we threw down and charged to the fray. Bowstrings hummed as first Mark and then Tellara fired accurate shots, piercing the carapace of the drider’s lower body. The creature screamed and reared, but fell back to the ready in time to receive the charge from Pax and myself. Whipping her spiked chain in a wide circle, Pax didn’t even need to close with the beast in order to rake its bare skull. I was forced to contend with the two short swords however. I ducked a brutal slash from a short sword to get inside the drider’s reach and drive my own long blade upwards under the chainmail and into its heart. The thing’s black blood splashed to the floor as it fell, dying on the flagstones. Pax walked to the dying monster and, wrapping her chain about its throat, choked the life from its body. The battle was over as swiftly as it had commenced.

Feeling especially pleased with our easy victory, I turned to my friends and said, “I guess someone should tell Lolth, dinner’s served!” 

----

Leaving the drider’s body for the moment we decided to head down the western passageway, since we could not find any more tracks of the Golden Band. The floor of this wide passage was covered in glittering stones that offered the promise of gems or jewels. Like a greedy and overeager greenhorn I strode quickly into the passage, examining stones at random, expecting junk rocks but hoping for wealth. Bent over as I was, not to mention separated some distance from my companions, I was easy prey for the monstrous spider which was lurking in the shadows on the ceiling above. It’s pony sized bulk dropped from the roof onto my back, its envenomed fangs scraping along my breast plate. I was thankful beyond measure that the thing’s bite never struck my skin, only my armour, as I sprang away and turned to face my ambusher. A hail of arrows and a swift pass with my sword put an end to another of Lolth’s pets/meals. After some close examination by Aria and Mark, we came to the conclusion that the whole area contained only a single gem of any worth. The rest of the apparent “horde” was merely paste. I felt especially foolish to have fallen for such an obvious trap.

To the north of the _gemstone_ passage were two small rooms, probably chapels, as each contained a small altar to the drow’s spider goddess, not to mention more carved admonitions that we were “all Lolth’s food.” Each of the two rooms gave palpable impressions of enchantment and we none of us felt comfortable standing there. However, it was in the western of the two rooms where we found more than just a chapel. Close inspection of the walls revealed a secret passage, leading down stairs and into darkness. The nearest steps showed signs of bodies having been dragged, making us think that perhaps we had found the trail of the Golden Band once more.

As we descended the stairs, torches at the ready, we came to a long passageway of simple stone, cut from the earth. Less than twenty feet down the passageway was a curtain of darkness, impenetrable to our torches. Walking closer to the curtain made no distance and passing a hand into the darkness caused the extremity to disappear as though passing beneath water and then reappear upon withdrawal. There was no doubt in our minds that we faced more magic. Aria used the last of her day’s art to try to dispel the darkness. However her spell was either mistargeted or else lacked the necessary power, for the darkness remained. 

Faced with being forced to relinquish our quest, it was decided that we would press on in the hope that the darkness would not last for long and that we might be able to come out on the “other side” of it. Using one hand to trace the wall of the passage, and with my sword held ready, I went first into the realm of darkness. For many paces I groped my way along, doing my utmost to not stumble or fall. It didn’t count for much because there was a sudden groan and shaking and then the roof fell on me.


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## NoOneofConsequence (Jan 15, 2003)

*Test of the Demonweb IV*

The earthquake didn’t last very long, but when it had passed my body was battered and broken and I was very nearly at death’s door. Moaning and peering through the dust, I realised that the darkness that had been blinding my progress had gone with the earthquake. With Pax’s help, Harmony pulled me from the rocks and set to healing my injuries. There’s something disconcerting about watching a twisted limb straighten itself and then relocate at the joint with a loud “pop”. Still, I didn’t complain.

After I had been healed and following Mark’s report that nothing had come up behind us, that the passage was still clear back to the main complex, we were faced with the question of what we might do next. Clearing the rock would take great effort and time. We weren’t sure how long it would take but the longer we stayed underground in this complex the greater the chance that we would be found and set upon by more spiders, driders, drow or whatever else the spider goddess saw fit to throw at her impending “meals”.

However, we were still loath to give up on the Golden Band, having given our undertaking to find them. Pax took her Horn of Blasting from her pack and, pointing it at the rockfall and speaking the command word, she blew a long blast. The air before the horn shimmered like it was boiling hot and then the rock in the passage began to vibrate and shake. The sound reverberated off the walls, pressing painfully into our ears. The fallen rocks began to crumble into dust and soon a channel, roughly one foot across, had formed at the top of the blockage. It was not quite large enough for a human to fit through however and it took the better part of an hour for us to clear sufficient rubble.

Once we had a passage I scrabbled through, swiftly followed by Pax, who was reaching the end of her tether as far these delays and enemy magics were concerned. While Pax helped Harmony and Aria through the newly made opening, I thought I saw something in the shadows near a bend in the passage. Heedless of my safety (for the third time this day) I chased the movement around the bend and saw a spider, not much larger than the size of a gauntleted fist, fleeing down the passage. Considering its size, and my own personal frustration for the day’s pains and sufferings, I pelted after the little beast, bent on making a corpse of it.

Many people know the feeling of someone “walking over your grave”. Imagine if you will, that feeling taken and then forged in the black reaches of the Void until it was a solid force, like a hammer head or a mace. Then imagine that mace of death striking you with the force that only a giant or ogre can muster. Such is what I felt, as though rocks from a mountain of death and emptiness had collapsed upon me. I staggered back, winded. No matter how I tried I could find no strength in my body, not even enough to make my heart beat. I had been touched by death itself, I thought, and I lay curled on the floor until my companions discovered me. Again I was in need of Harmony’s tending.

Ahead, the passage ended in a flat stone wall and no sign of the spider could be found. Whatever power it had utilised against me was great enough to make us think that the wall at the end of the passage had been conjured to prevent our pursuit. Given the destructiveness of the attack, I doubted that our company possessed the power to assault whoever or whatever lay beyond the wall, even if we could devise a way through it, which we could not. The pursuit ended at the wall. Cursing and dejected, we left the passage we had struggled so hard to explore and returned to the rest of the underground complex, hopeful of finding some sign of the Golden Band elsewhere.


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## NoOneofConsequence (Jan 31, 2003)

*Test of the Demonweb – Part V*

Returning to the main complex, we continued our search of the various chambers. To the south of the gem room we found a chamber covered in a rust coloured powder which it didn’t take us long to determine was in fact the blood of some long dead being. The blood was sprayed about the room, as though someone had been torn apart in an act of the most savage frenzy. We were encouraged when Harmony declared that the blood was probably several years old, and therefore did not belong to any members of the Golden Band.

Beyond the blood room, connected by a short southward passage, we came to a very large rectangular chamber. Mark brought us up short at the entry, pointing at the floor which was covered in sticky white webbing. Forewarned, we quickly scanned the entire room for the certain ambush that awaited us within. In the shadows of the far corners I was able to make out two figures, pressed high up into the join between the two walls and the ceiling, one in each corner. Their bodies were bulbous, seeming bloated and fat, but their limbs were thin and spindly, making the creatures seem misshapen. Having spotted them, I fired upon the one to the left with my musket, while calling the location to my comrades. Mark took aim on the creature in the right hand corner with his crossbow. Firing into the shadows, I misjudged my shot and missed, the ball striking sparks and dust from the rock wall near my target. Mark’s eyes were better suited to the darkness and his target squealed as his quarrel hit home.

The two creatures began to slide down the walls to the floor, and they spat great gobs of the same webbing that covered the floor. Most of the webbing harmlessly struck the walls to either side of the entryway, but one globule hit Mark with full force, exploding like a grenade, to cover him in thick, sticky strands. Pinned in place by the webbing, he could neither move nor fight. He struggled to work his way free, and had almost succeeded when a second gob of webbing struck, pinning him even more securely.

In the meantime, Harmony had used her druidic powers to conjure a sphere of flame and she was rolling it along the floor in front of us to clear a path through the webbing already spread around the doorway. Realising that we would be at a significant disadvantage if we continued to trade missile fire in this fashion, Pax and I resolved to take the fight to our foes. While Harmony manoeuvred the flaming sphere out of our path, the two of us ran full pelt down the burned path and threw ourselves headlong over the remaining webbing, hoping to clear it in a single desperate leap. Pax’s foot touched down right at the edge of the webbing, clearing it by a cat’s whisker. My leap was stronger, clearing the webbing by a full foot, but as soon as I had touched down I was struck by a spit of webbing from the nearest ettercap – for we had realised that that was what these creatures were. The webbing stuck me fast, causing me to come to a wrenching halt.

Pax roared past me, calling out her eerie battle cry, now lost in a battle rage. Trapped as I was I knew that my danger was acute. Seeing no alternative, I conceived of a mad plan to get myself free in time. 

“Harmony,” I called. “Use the sphere to burn me free.”

“But you’ll burn too,” she objected.

“Better that than eaten alive! Just do it woman!”

In spite of her misgivings, Harmony did as I asked. The roiling ball of fire scorched my agonised flesh and choked on a savage cry of pain. Nonetheless, the sphere did its job and in short order I was free. I stepped up beside Pax, who was already engaged with the nearer ettercap, and with my sword drawn struck the beast down in a single furious blow. The second ettercap had been charging to engage us as well, but seeing its fellow fall, turned to flee. It had nowhere to run though. Pax brought it down with a whip of her spiked chain and I fell upon it, hacking its body to pieces. With my body still smouldering from Harmony’s flames, I felt that I had well and truly earned my battle name, Prentice _Ash_.


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