# The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith



## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

On or around December of 2005, our intrepid group gathered for a new D&D game set in Eberron (our first Eberron experience) and under the guidance of a new GM to our group (though not a new GM). 

These are the journals of one character in said group: Artemis Heuw, an artificer and (self-proclaimed) man of intelligencia.

My first and only warning is that I am rather verbose when writing. Some (if not all!) of these journal entries will be a bit long. They are lots of fun, though. 


D.


(Story hour renamed on 4/5/07, to catch up with Artemis' adoption into House Cannith. Hurray!)


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

*Cast of Characters*

We have five characters in this campaign. Artemis refers to them via shorthand in his journals, so I have included that as a prequel to each character's name. Many of the players lurk (or actively post) on EN World, so I'm sure you'll hear from them someplace in here. You'll probably even see someone else's journal in between Artemis' expansive ramblings.

The Cast of Characters

(Author) Artemis Heuw -- Human Artificer, Male
---- Artemis' family is part of the Fabricator's Guild in Sharn, but not connected to House Cannith any deeper than that. He has yet to do anything well. 

(IR)  Iriethyra Kylara Elorenthi -- Aerenal Elf Priestess, Female
----  Kylara is very firm in her beliefs, and is one of the most intimidating members of the party. She specializes in summoning undying creatures.

(CA) Caelen  -- Valenar Warrior, Male
---- Without a doubt, Caelen is our best fighter. Always eager to jump into battle, he is also the only one of us with any real honor. (Though Kylara's faith is honorable, as well.)

(GR) Grinner -- Half-orc Investigator, Male
---- Grinner grew up in the slums of Sharn, and earned his name during the War with a permanent scar that pulls his mouth up into a grin.

(XL) Xil -- Changeling Miscreant, Sex varies
---- Little is known of Xil's history. To be honest, we're not sure what he does with his present, either. Xil is not afraid to fight or to run from a fight, but otherwise does very little.


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

*The Setting*

We start our game in Sharn, The City of Towers, with the characters recently brought together. It is two years since the end of the Last War, and the world goes about it's selfish business.


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, Excerpt 1*

"...then added the three grams of powdered mole snout [ref: CJ-V1-18] to the pestle and began grinding again, this time in a counter-clockwise direction. The ink was begining to absorb the magic of the chant, it's color jumping to a darker shade with the completion of each verse [ref CJ-V1-P12]. The pestle is starting to turn blue, however. I wonder if it's supposed to do that?" 

.        -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 1


"I made another contact within House Cannith this evening, but not until after a very long and gruelling day. It started as a typical day for this time of year: somewhat overcast, but not too cold. My morning was spent in the lab [ref: CJ-V1-21]. At lunch, I met with the Deathsgate Companions [ref: PJ-V1-81] to learn from GR what he had learned about our warforged target [ref: PJ-V1-83]. Our task seemed simple enough, so long as we had everything planned out. As the plan came together, however, it became obvious that what we were talking about was tantamount to kidnapping. The discussion turned to the legality of the situation, and I determined that there was very little to gain from falling on the wrong side of the law. If our plans went awry, we could all end up with black marks on our permanent records. On top of that, I think that many in the DC would be unable to pay their fees. At this point, it does not seem a profitable investment to extract any of the DC from a possible prison sentence. It would be easier to justify simply starting over.

With the decision to pass on the Deathsgate initiation [ref: PJ-V1-82], we turned our attention to other topics. XL had determined in his own investigations that CAG [ref: CJ-V1-82] had a reward outstanding for any who could discover the reason behind the disappearance of their members. It seemed apparent, though, that aligning ourselves with CAG would put us in opposition to DAG, which, given our current assignment, did not seem a good idea. We decided to walk away from both organizations.

After some small discussion we decided that the place to go was Morgrave University. It is a widely known fact that the "historians" at MU often sponsor relic retrieval missions, which seemed like just the sort of thing our group would be interested in. It was on our way to MU that we had our first, and most disturbing, encounter.

We were walking towards a sky skiff on tower 341 -- Dohloon Spire -- en route to the middle plateau. CA was the first to react to a noise down darkened side passage of the tower. Elves must have very good hearing, because I had heard nothing. IR reacted quickly; rushing into the alley, she used her magics to summon light. The scene that unfolded looked like a simple mugging: a cloaked man had knifed a low-classed street walker. He ran. CA and GR pursued. 

IR rushed in to the alley to heal the woman, who still looked very bad. We carried her to the skyboat, with XL hanging about, to take her to the nearby House Jorasco enclave. The driver responded well -- perhaps he'd seen this sort of thing before -- and we were quickly on our way. Meanwhile, the chase between the mugger and my DC companions had gone up-tower, and IR thought she heard the chase continuing on a roof or bridge above us and around the corner. I ordered the skiff driver to go that way, instead. 

The skiff was quick and nimble, and made caught up to the pursuit in good time. The mugger was running, with CA fast on his heels. GR was moving a bit slower, but only because he paused once or twice to get a shot off with his crossbow. Their quarry was bleeding, one or two bolts already lodged in him.

We came around the tower in time to see the mugger leap off a bridge and down to a platform 40' below. CA, who either knew about the FF zones around each bridge or was simply foolhardy enough to jump that far, followed. GR took another shot. Reaching another the edge of the platform, the mugger went straight for the wall and started climbing. He made it almost 50' up the wall in a heartbeat, scrambling on to wide balcony. It was astonishing! We swung the airskiff around to cut him off. 

XL used this opportunity to reveal his true nature, when he stood up from behind the rail of the skiff in the perfect guise of the woman who lay unconscious at his (her?) feet. XL is a changeling! Could GR have picked them any better? XL mocked the mugger, saying he had missed his target. IR, meanwhile, employed more of her magic, stunning the man below us with a shouted command. Thinking quickly, I made a larger loop out of the mooring line on the skiff, threw it over the still form of our quarry. The skiff driver, on my order, took the skiff higher into the air.

GR, meanwhile, had made it from the bridge onto the roof with the mugger, and had even managed to get another shot off. CA, again showing unlimited daring, had spotted a clutch of barrels secured in the air via a rope and pulley system and tied off down on his level. He grabbed the rope, cut the line, and was hoisted all the way up past the plummeting barrels and onto the roof edge where the rest of us were engaged in our struggle. He rolled up over the ledge and raced to engage the mugger.

The mugger, bleeding and outnumbered, reacted strangely to being hoisted up into the air. He shimmied and shook in the entangling line, and slipped right out of his skin! Fascinating, but disgusting! The skiff rose into the air, dragging the sloughed off skin and clothes of this creature in it's mooring line. What fell to the landing was a monstrous insect, a six foot cockroach of sorts that stood upright like a man. It made an angry sound, and charged GR, slashing him with one of it's claws.

CA charged across the roof, swinging his dual scimitar. GR, to his credit, did not panic, but still took a step away from the creature and tried to shoot it with his crossbow. We ordered the skiff lowered, and XL, IR, and I all jumped down to help in any way we could. I used two scrolls in preparation for engagement [ref: CJ-V1-11, CJ-V1-32]. The creature, meanwhile, followed GR and lashed at both he and CA with it's multiple limbs. GR was cut pretty badly, but he engaged with his axe, and CA with his two-bladed scimitar staff. Neither connected, but they came close enough to worry the creature, who ran. With it's back turned, either GR or CA hit the creature (I couldn't see which), and it jerked forward -- seeming dead, but still stumbling in the last direction it moved. Almost silently, it fell over the edge of the tower, and was lost to the rain and mists below.

We now had two wounded, plus the girl we had first rescued. Getting into the skiff, we made our way to House Jorasco.

XL and I looked through the skin remains of the creature, looking for some indication of identity or purpose. (I suspect, though, that XL was looking for money or jewelry.) We found neither, but could guess from the remains that this was a real man who had simply been hollowed out from the inside, and worn like a second skin. IR, meanwhile, postulated that the insectile creature had not stabbed his victim, but had instead used it's stinger to inject into her an egg of some sort. Studying the girl again, IR found that a foreign object had been injected into her stomach. We hurried to House Jorasco.

We gave the girl into the care of House Jorasco, and related our story at a nearby guard station. The guards said that Sharn would cover the costs of healing the girl, but that we were on our own. Such appreciation! Left to our own devices, IR did some healing and I used a couple of scrolls [ref: CJ-V1-2, CJ-V1-26] to comfort GR and CA. Thanks to our warning, I'm told, the Jorasco healers were able to extract the insect's egg from his victim. We haven't had a chance to talk to her, though.

With that behind us, I offered to take everyone out to dinner, to celebrate the success of our first team effort. The DC were happy enough to let someone else pick up the bill [ref: PJ-V1-84, PJ-V1-85, PJ-V1-87], so, after cleaning up a bit, we departed.

We had not gone very far when we stumbled upon another crime -- a murder this time. The killer looked long gone, but laid out on a bridge was the body of an older man. His papers identified him as Bonal Geldam, a provost at MU. His body looked like it had been hacked up by a large bladed weapon. According to IR, he was killed very recently. As if to prove how recent, his apparent killer climbed up over the side of the bridge right next to us. The warforged, marked for Darguun, clambered onto the railing then lept towards GR. His wild axe blow missed. 

GR reciprocated with an attack of his own: valiant CA charged in, too. XL and IR hung back. I waited to see what the warforged would do: would it flee or continue the fight? Wounded, now, the warforged went into overload, his armor plates expanding slightly -- revealing more of his fragile inner systems, but giving room for increased musculature. Enraged, he struck out at CA, knocking him out of the fight in one swing. While the warforged recovered from the powerful swing of his axe, I took the opportunity to jump in and inflict just the right amount of damage to render him inert. Thank goodness for my artificer training! With a clamor, the warforged fell to the ground.

Just then, the signal whistles of Sharn patrols started sounding around us. Knowing they would be here soon, GR grabbed what valuables he could from the murder victim, being sure to replace the pilfered ID papers. He turned to run, then, saying we should get away before the guards found us. How preposterous! I had just finished using a scroll of vigor [ref: CJ-V1-56] on CA, and he still needed time to recover. I convinced GR to stick around, and in no time the guard came to take our story and scolded us about getting involved. The guard's questioning took some time, and by the time we were released, we were more than ready to go. It had been a long day. We decided to go our seperate ways, get some rest, and catch up on the morrow.

When we were walking away from the scene, though, a woman in fine robes came to us out of hiding. She offered to tell us the truth behind what we had stumbled into. There was no pretense at introductions, but did show us a signet ring of House Cannith. House Cannith! The only other thing she would say was that we were to meet her at an inn -- the Broken Anvil -- first thing in the morning. Since the inn was quite close and we were all hungry and tired, we decided to go there for the night. We got dinner and some rooms, paid for by GR and the gold of a dead man.

...

First thing this morning, we met Elaydren d'Vown, who says she is associated with the eastern branches of House Cannith [ref: PJ-V1-39]. She asked if that would be a problem, but I didn't see any issues. Evidently, Ms. d'Vown was working with provost Geldam, who was murdered last night. The two of them were looking for an ancient House Cannith foundry, long sealed beneath the city. Geldam had done much of the research, and was on his way to a meeting with Ms. d'Vown to discuss his findings. He was ambushed along the way, however. Since we had the book with his notes, and she needed someone to go down and recover an artifact for her, it seemed natural that we would work together. She offered us 1000gp to recover a single portion of a schema; a seven-pointed star made of adamantine. It was located in a sealed Cannith vault down below Sharn. We agreed, and she gave us a map to the vault. 

A sealed Cannith vault. I wonder what else we'll find in there?"

.        -- An excerpt from the Private Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 1



"Reminders for tomorrow:
.        Pick up order from Chkazaan's -- troll blood, etc.
.        Wax casting block: 8" cube
.        Request use of one or more emergency healing potions from house
.        Pack up all my scrolls, a couple of weapons, and a nice lunch

.            -- An excerpt from the To Do Lists of Artemis Heuw


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

This is the point where I mention that Artemis has an 8 Wisdom, and maybe just a touch of conceit. Not everything in his journals exactly matches reality. 

There is also not a whole lot that Artemis is good at yet. He keeps on trying, though!


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, Excerpt 2*

"...showing, once again, my inexperience. Especially with live components. [ref CJ-V1-17] Unfortunately that was the only one I had to work with, and without that critical component the potion slowly solidified into a gelatenous, greyish brick that smelled slightly of burnt vanilla. Later study showed no intrinsic value in the concoction. I found the Ballig Leech four hours later on my midriff, below my ribs on the left side. It appears to have grown slightly. I put it back in it's jar."

.        -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 2



I decided to prepare another combat scroll for our journey to the Cannith vault, and after much deliberation, decided on a Shillelagh spell [CJ-V2-2]. It took me longer to get started than I anticipated, though, as I ran into master Donnovan [ref: PJ-V1-45] on my way home from gathering the necessary components. His wagon had broken down -- a broken pin had allowed the wheel to slip off it's axle -- and needed help. His wagon was overladen with statuary: most of it fairly well done, considering how unattractive the subjects were. I offered him my assistance with the wagon, and with the help of some passers-by managed to get him up and running again. He offered his thanks, and possibly a favor in the near future.

The scribing went fine, naturally. It wasn't a real test of my abilities. [ref: CJ-V2-4]

...

The DC [ref: PJ-V1-81] met at the Broken Anvil and began our foray into lower Sharn. XL, bold as brass, stole one of the lightshards from a poor neighborhood, right in front of the residents. We distanced ourselves from him.

We went to a place called the Rat's Market [ref: PJ-V1-104] at the base of Dorasharn Tower in search of the entrance to the E-213 valve cluster [ref: PJ-V1-103]. I looked around at the utter garbage they sold in this "market", and wasn't the least bit interested in what they had. GR, meanwhile, had found our path, and we made our way down into the sewer. It was disgusting! Slippery, too. Thank goodness I had the forsight to ask CA to help me. Unfortunately, there was no way to progress without stepping into the knee-high waste water. Only for House Cannith would I have done that!

Less than half of us had gotten into sight of the valve cluster when we were attacked. A warforged attacked the center of the DC line, while two shifters ran at CA, in the front. It was a short, brutish fight, stomping and splashing about in filth. By the end, most everyone was wounded -- and in this place, that meant facing the danger of disease and sickness. XL had returned, possibly after the attack started. I'm not sure what to make of that. It took two of my scrolls [ref: CJ-V1-37; CJ-V1-42] to get the worst of the wounds closed up, then we fell into discussion as to whether we should continue. IR was out of healing abilities, and most of my abilities had been taxed for the day as well. 

I managed to convince the nay-sayers that we should continue, and less than 100 feet away and around the corner was the door to the vault. After some study, I determined that it was both locked and trapped. We were at an empasse when GR used Geldem's journal [ref: PJ-V1-96] to open the door, matching sign to sign. The door opened, revealing a shaft that went down almost 600 feet. Six hundred feet seems a lot farther when you are standing at the top of a dark pit. 
We decided to call it a day there, and resealed the door. 

After cleaning up a bit, we went our seperate ways, retiring for the night. 

Now I'm tired and hungry, so I'm off to dinner and then to the study for some quiet reading. If Twiggy isn't in there with her friends, that is.

...

Our morning started off on a good note: No one had tried to get into the vaults by themselves. Well, none of the DC, at least.

Drayk [ref: PJ-V2-2] accompanied us to the vault, carrying the rope and forty pitons. He was too sqeemish to go into the sewer without the extra chink of silver in his pocket. Reminder: never hire Drayk again. I told him early on that he would get dirty, but he balked when the work got sticky.

One of the goblins from Rat's Market [ref: PJ-V2-8] lay in front of the vault door, killed by it's traps and his own curiosity. Rolling the body into the slow moving waters, we opened the vault then set about the task of tying our ropes together. Another good sign: everyone brought the three lengths of rope that I asked for. We had plenty, and spare.

The shaft we descended turned out to be an air shaft, and proved an easy climb. Convenient cross-tunnels provided a place to rest when needed. I did quite well for such a long climb.

By the time we had reached the bottom, the shaft curved, and came out in the side wall of a large chamber with a high ceiling. The only things we could see at first were the ruined walls of ancient structures. There was a wierd noise echoing through the chamber, but I didn't get a chance to analyze it. Almost as soon as GR and XL jumped out of the shaft, they were attacked by thousands and thousands of beetles -- a whole swarm of them.

Weapons quickly proved useless against so many insects, so we naturally turned to alchemy to solve our problem. Thanks to Lady d'Vown's warning [ref: PJ-V1-102], we had brought fire. For myself, nothing but Cannith's best alchemical fire would do. I learned later that the others had supplied themselves from lesser alchemists. Perhaps just to be contrary, IR used acid. Fortunately, it did not put out the flames. In short order, the flames, light, or simple loss of numbers caused the insects to lose interest in us. They scattered into the darkness.

I hoped at the time that whatever we needed the fire for could be overcome through other means. I only brought the one flask of Alchemist Fire. As it turned out, though, there wasn't anything else we encountered that required it. Maybe bypassing the insects was the only purpose of the fire?

There were only two intact buildings left down in the chamber. The first we found was a temple to Onatarr. We were just working our way inside when two massive rats with spiked bony carapaces attacked XL. He got bit pretty bad. Scrambling, we all turned to fight, but our weapons could barely punch their hard shells. I tried a quick enchantment on my crossbow, meant to slay them instantly [ref: PJ-V1-21], but I'm really not a very good shot. Especially when the rest of the DC are engaged in melee against the creatures I'm shooting. They would probably look poorly upon me if I started killing them -- plus that would interfere with my plans. 

I'm sorry, but that just strikes me as funny.

With the rats dispatched and some wounds tended, we turned our attention again to the temple of Onatarr. Getting in was no problem. Inside we found a font of magical water: IR used her magic to determine it had healing properties, then tested it herself. Feeling better, she encouraged XL to drink, since it looked like one of the bites he'd suffered was festering something awful. He looked a little better after drinking, but the bite still looked pretty nasty. I'm glad my bite didn't turn that color. There was a little bit of water left, and no one stepped up to take it, so I did. 

It occurs to me now that I should have tested the font to see if it had any magical properties. I tested the water before IR did, but not the font itself. Ah, well, maybe Cannith can do something with it.

The other building we found was, naturally, the vault itself. To be more specific, it was an ancient Cannith foundry, but locked up tight. It had no windows, and it's two doors were made of adamantine. I wasn't able to get past the rather extraordinary lock on the door, but while I was working on it, IR and CA found a hole in the roof large enough for us to go through. It was an easy climb up: XL and I were the first to the top. Looking inside, it was definitely the vault we were looking for! [Ref: PJ-V1-102]. I threw a light in to take a look, and XL scrambled down to the interior.

From nowhere, two iron defenders [ref: PJ-V1-66] attacked. What is it about XL that attracts attacks? He was no match for ancient Cannith know-how, and dropped almost before he could shout a warning. CA and IR lept down to deal with the constructs.

Again, I put a quick slayer enchantment on my crossbow [ref: PJ-V1-21] designed this time to destroy constructs. I'm not a great shot, but I can hit, and it took the defender down. CA, IR, and even GR with his own crossbow managed to take down the other. We gathered around XL to check on him, and he was still alive. Naturally, I had to use another scroll [ref: CJ-V1-19] to revive him. Maybe from now on I'll save my scrolls for my own use. I could always allow the DC to commision me to make scrolls for them. I'd still have to use the scrolls on them, but at least they'd be absorbing the cost.

We searched high and low through the foundry and came up with a number of fine weapons and armor, all marked with House Cannith's stamp. The forge itself was a vault of sorts, and again I discovered it's lock and trap mechanisms. We had some trouble getting it open initially, but after I enchanted my cane with a quick energy resistance spell [ref: PJ-V1-43] and IR came up with a helpful suggestion, we got it open. The vault opened up and inside was the schema and some potions. I was trembling with excitement! There was some gold in there as well, and silver.

The schema is beautiful. The sketching below doesn't do it justice, so I made a wax casting of it [ref: CJ-V2-19]. I'll be sad to give it Lady d'Vown.

[picture included]

Now I'm off to dinner. We're going uptower to celebrate Twiggy's birthday. 

...

I've been busy today, and am now very tired. It's late. I sold the excess gear we'd recovered today, and had a long discussion with father about using the location of the Cannith vault to curry favor in the House. Father allowed me to sign the first letter to the House, so that my name would be the first House Cannith saw. Father said he would be taking over negotiations from there, though. I have high hopes that this will turn out well.

Now, I'm off to bed.

...

The DC met this evening with Lady d'Vown. She had a familiar-looking warforged with her, acting as bodyguard. I think it's the same warforged we contemplated kidnapping when we were planning our Deathsgate Initiation [ref: PJ-V1-82]. Strange, that coincidence.

Lady d'Vown seemed in a hurry -- maybe even distracted -- but she also appreciated what we'd done. She paid us in full and told us how we might get in contact with her again: in case she had more work she needed done. 

The DC stayed together for a short while, enjoying dinner, before going our seperate ways for the evening. Some time during the night a man (halfling) came to us with a proposal -- evidently the DC looks like a full-fledged adventuring company now. Not surprising given the group's leader. The halfling's proposal, however, involved stealing from MU. Between that and some potential grave robbing, we were vocal enough in our disapproval that the little man went his way. I think I offered to do something for him, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it might have been.

.        -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 2



"Boots, one (1) pair, style: Wroat Longstriders, color: charcoal, size: 9, 160 silver
Socks, six (6) pair, black, 6 silver
Total: 16,6 gold"

"Three red roses, long-stemmed, 9 copper
Three yellow roses, long-stemmed, 9 copper
Three magebred roses, eternal (red-spectrum), long-stemmed, 390 silver
Three magebred roses, eternal (yellow-spectrum),  long-stemmed, 369 silver
Tax: 107 copper
Total: 771 silver, 5 copper"

"2 chicken wraps, extra sauce -- 4cp"

.        -- An excerpt from the collected reciepts of Artemis Heuw, tax year 998 YK


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, Excerpt 3*

"...decided to partake of it, as an experiment only. I removed my mask [ref: CJ-V2-27] and breathed in the fumes. Almost immediately, a blue-ish symphonic liquid bled from my left hand and started floating towards the scar on my right elbow [ref: PJ-V2-65] while singing a quavering song to the displacer fur which was, itself, beginning to crawl out of its rhythmically pulsating storage container to attack the copper shavings held in their silver bowl. What the copper shavings were doing is something I never wish to think on again. I have replaced the 'Mild hallucinogenic vapors' warning on the potion's schema with something a bit more stern...."

.        -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 2



"Dinner itself was mediocre. I was surprised, though, to find that I really was interested in what the rest of the DC had been doing in the last week. More surprising, it had been a full week since we were last together. Where does the time go?

Never mind. I just read back a few pages. I have been very busy lately.

We really should choose a better place to meet than the Broken Anvil, but I suppose it has special significance for this group [ref: PJ-V1-101]. If I could only remember where Heaven's Augur was, I would recommend that we start meeting there. They had a wonderful fish stew and it seemed a relatively quiet place. 

I told the DC about my meeting with wagon master Donnovan [ref: PJ-V2-41] and the problems he'd been having making deliveries to a certain part of the Cogs. I told them, too, that he suspected that some of his recent hires were in collaboration with the troublemakers, and that he'd heard of our team and wanted to hire us to escort his wagons. They agreed to help out. This will be two favors, then, that Donnovan owes me [ref: PJ-V2-13]. I'm not sure how best to capitalize on that, but, as father says, "Favors buy what gold cannot."

CA has been taken in by the Caerlyn Blades, after gaining the attention of General Tyrell himself. He was even offered a position but is thinking of turning it down. It seems unlikely, but maybe he doesn't know of the Blades' reputation? I just don't understand it. Maybe elves think differently than regular people.

GR says he's doing inquisitive work, but he's never mentioned having a license. Note to self: ask GR about this tomorrow.

IR has taken on work at the Dragon Crypts, and she, too, has garnered attention from the highest level. The head priestess has asked for her help in what may be some undead in the Fallen. It might just be some superstitious low-dwellers, though. It sounds pretty easy, so we all agreed to go with her when she looks into it in the morning. Maybe we'll find something interesting, but I doubt it.

XL may have been with us. As we were discussing our last week, though, it didn't sound like he'd been doing anything of interest. That is enough to make me think it was actually him. If it was someone pretending to be XL, I'm sure they would have had an interesting story or two to tell.

When I got home tonight, father informed me that he was attending an MU function tomorrow night to witness the unveiling of some ancient armor or other. I think I've heard of it before. Ah! [ref: PJ-V2-28] The important, part, though, is that I would be in charge of the business while they were gone. I acted casual, of course, but found the prospect very exciting! I'll have to set out a nice outfit for tomorrow.

...

What a horrible day. Okay, this evening wasn't that bad. I had a very engaging conversation with Heuriv Ellibib, who is the brother to the ex-assistant to Merrix d'Cannith himself. I think I came across very favorably. The day didn't start there, though.

The DC met at the Broken Anvil once again, and went from there to the Fallen. I was prepared for anything, just in case, and even brought my most complex scroll to date [ref: CJ-V2-42]. I should have used it, too, but I was overly concerned with the cost involved. It probably cost me seventy-five gold to create! Well, that's the last time I worry about that.

I'm getting ahead of myself, again. We journeyed down to the Fallen. The architecture (or what remains of it) down there is relatively spectacular. But that's what I would expect of Sharn's old temple district. Now it's all rubble and disrepair. A shame, really.

IR had been told that there might be some connection between the strange lights in the district and some local disappearances. There was talk of ghosts. Looking around, I thought that appropriate for the area, shadowed, as it was, by the high towers. Almost nothing of the morning sun made it's way down there. We asked some of the locals what had been going on, and they said that most of the odd happenings were near Blackstone Temple, an old Silver Flame temple that had been abandoned decades ago. The place looked in okay condition. It had certainly not been kept up, though.

Our initial exploration showed very little. Two wings to either side of the main chapel had been home to squatters for quite a while. They were abandoned now. XL thought he saw signs of a struggle and someone being dragged away, but I didn't see anything. We went towards the upper chambers and continued our investigation. I cleverly found a concealed compartment in what was probably one of the larger living chambers. There was a trap on the door mechanism, which I easily bypassed. Those new tools were a definite help [ref: PJ-V2-28]. Inside were a number of spell reagents. I was on the verge of working out their properties when IR interrupted to tell me that if used in conjunction with a summoning spell, the creature summoned would be heartier and tougher than otherwise. I confirmed her suspicions, then let her keep them. She says that she summons undying creatures, though I have yet to see that happen. 

Note to self: ask for some of the stones back so that I can use them to create summoning scrolls. Maybe a small bag or a hat that one could pull small animals out of? Hm.... Never mind about that last one -- I'm not really sure how I'd go about making something like that. Still: get a couple of the stones back.

GR was sure he'd heard moaning coming from this upper level (I hadn't heard anything) so we started looking around some more. We were poking around in the upper gallery, overlooking the main audience chamber, when my day really took a turn for the worse.

At first, I though someone had thrown a warm, heavy leather bag over my head and pulled the drawstrings closed. It was very, very heavy, though, and I had trouble keeping my balance. It started squeezing -- and I think it was chewing on me as well. I tried to rid myself of whatever it was, and screamed for help. I'm not sure anyone heard me. I suspect that the rest of the DC were fighting against it, as I'm sure I felt their weapon blows bashing me about the head and shoulders. I was suffocating. Maybe they drove it off, but I'm pretty sure that it was with the strength bourne of desperation that I finally managed to free myself of the creature. Suddenly, the creature flew up into the air and off across the cathedral.  Good thing, too, as I had almost blacked out. 

I lowered myself gently to the floor, and as soon as my vision returned to me I used an invigorating scroll [ref: CJ-V1-89] to restore myself. At first, I thought my vision was still playing tricks, but it looked like whatever it was that had attacked me was surrounded with a cloud of magical darkness. Maybe that's why my companions were beating on me instead of the creature. None of us, it seems, had gotten a look at it. And we wouldn't get the chance, either. There was a strangely familiar noise of metal parting flesh, and IR screamed.

Somehow during the fight, a  group of three glowing-eyed, armed and armored skeletons had snuck up on us from the stairwell. They had almost surrounded IR before they launched their attack and she was bleeding profusely. 

Nearly unconscious, with only a slow regenerative spell on me, I had another fight on my hands. CA charged across the balcony but the creature deflected his blade with it's broad steel shield. GR moved up too. IR shouted a warning to us, telling us that these were Karnaathi skeletons, tougher and smarter than normal undead. 

I can't believe I just used the phrase "normal undead".

I was far too taxed to hasten any of my infusions, so had to resort to my scrolls. [Reminder: get more quick-acting combat scrolls.] I read off one that should have slowed down one of the creatures, but the lighting was poor and I was still suffering from the earlier assault on my person, so I missed. IR was using some sort of ancient Aerenal magic to damage the undead soldiers: they were all showing new signs of deterioration. GR and CA were doing it the old fashioned way, with axe and blade. Their weapons seemed ill-suited to the task, though. I think XL was trying to help, but would always hesitate just before going in.

I went back to my earlier training to find a weapon against these creatures. Enchanting three small stones [ref: PJ-V1-39], I began to use them as potent weapons. I was afraid of hurting my companions, though, and kept on throwing them too wide of the brawl. 

CA was the first to go down, or maybe it was IR. GR was using the recently purchased healing wand [ref: PJ-V2-30] against the creatures, which seemed rather counter-intuitive, but it looked to be having an effect. One of the skeletons was down at this point, but with fewer combatants in play, they started to realize who the real danger was and came towards me. Trapped on the upper balcony twenty feet above the stone floor below, with a wall to my right and railing behind me and to my left, I had no where to go. I only had one stone left. I think that's when it occurred to me that I was in trouble.

The skeleton rushed me, driving me back. I stepped aside and threw the last of my stones, but it bounced harmlessly off the skeleton's shield. I cursed, sure that should have worked. It charged me a second time, and I realized that I had my back to the balcony railing. Well, I had my back to the railing for a moment. Coming in low, the skeleton hit me flat on with his shield, stood up, lifting me off the ground, and lunged two steps forward. He stopped at the railing. I didn't.

It was a weird sensation, getting thrown into the air like that. Time stood still for a moment, and it felt like I was lying on a thick bed of nothingness, looking up at the soot-covered ceiling of the temple while someone else's arms and legs kept flailing through my vision. I had enough time to think to myself: "That shield is pretty useful. I should get one of those," when the floor hit me and my vision doubled. Luckily, my regenerative magic had had enough time to do it's work. The fall hurt me, but didn't take me out.

I stood up immediately and used another infusion to enchant more stones [ref: PJ-V1-39]. I'm not the type to just lie around while my friends are getting killed! The skeleton had charged back towards GR and XL, so I couldn't see him above me any more. I could hear him, though. Running across the room, I used another infusion to enchant the first stone with sure striking [ref: PJ-V1-52]. I still couldn't see the skeleton up in the balcony, though, so I yelled for my friends to drive him closer to the edge. The only response I got was GR crying out in pain and then a heavy "thud" on the balcony above me. Looked like it was up to me again to save the day.

Running off under the far balcony, I finally caught a glimpse of the animated skeleton. More specifically, I saw a helmet and a bloodied sword, both moving purposefully about. Knowing that the sure-strike enchantment was about to wear off, I threw the stone with all my might. I didn't see it hit, but the helmet flew sharply up into the air, surrounded by bone fragments. I heard the creature fall to the floor. Success!

I rushed upstairs after that, knowing that time was precious. CA had already been revived, but IR and GR were both down. Grabbing two potions off of IR's bandolier (neither of which were House Cannith, I noted), I used the first on IR and told XL to use the other on GR. We saved them both before they could bleed to death. Not that they showed any appreciation for what I had done.

With IR revived, it took only a moment for everyone to get to their feet again. She immediately started healing people and tending wounds. That's when we heard more noise in the stairwell. Almost as one, we made for the far stair to get out of there. (Naturally, I had the presence of mind to grab two of the swords that our attackers had used against us. From all appearances, they were of the highest quality. GR grabbed the one suit of breastplate, and I ended up with a helmet somehow.) We ran as fast as we could. I briefly saw three more armored skeletons making their way towards us before we were outside and safe. We didn't stop running, of course, until we were almost two full towers away. That was a close one!

We had arrived at the landing pad across from the White and Gold before I realized we were in the wrong part of town. I reminded our driver that we had specified the Dragon Crypts, not Dragon Tower, but he just stared blankly at me. That's when I noticed the large contingency of redcloaks that had approached our cab. We all dutifully got out and followed them to their commander. He berated us for interfering in some sort of investigation, and took the weapons and armor we had recovered. He was kind enough to produce a writ for our troubles, though. It was a more than fair price for the artifacts we had recovered. Once we were escorted out, each of us went our separate ways. I had business to attend to to.

I got home to find that something had come up and father would not be attending the gala at the university. Instead, he was sending me to "represent the family" at the affair. I had two extra tickets, but couldn't for the life of me figure out who to invite. After agonizing a bit more over what to where, it occurred to me that I didn't have much time to find someone to go with me. I had Jenvis send out letters to a few of the places where the DC were likely to be found. In each letter I told them that I had two extra tickets to the event and invited them along.

I must have been truly flustered by the day's events. I arrived at the Cork & Bull, where the letter had said to meet, and all four of the DC had showed up, excited to go. GR and CA had even bought new outfits for the occasion. (I didn't say anything, but they looked a bit pretentious.) After explaining that I only had the two tickets, IR bowed out of the honor. She said she had something to do. CA and GR both expressed interest in going. XL didn't say anything, but I suspect he was sad that he couldn't go.

After a few drinks, we walked to the lecture hall where the gala was held. Security was pretty tight, and I could see that a number of high standing citizens were in attendance. I counted no fewer than eight House Cannith rings on the people passing us by while we were waiting to get in. I thought I saw Merrix d'Cannith, also, but I might have been mistaken. I had a professor once who looked very much like him [ref: PJ-V1-56].

The inside of the hall was decorated with replicas of famous Dhakaani artifacts. Naturally, I could tell the difference between the replicas and the real artifacts. A few of them were real, but they weren't terribly valuable. The breastplate that was the center attraction -- and the reason for this whole affair -- was up at the front of the room. It was cordoned off and concealed under a thick velvet covering. Evidently, it belonged to a very powerful Dhakaan king before he died. Now it must be famous, or something.

I separated from CA and GR very quickly. Not from a need to distance myself from them, but because there were many influential people that I thought I should talk to. I circulated through the room, conversing with old acquaintances and trying to make new. A rather attractive girl -- obviously a student at the university -- was following me around for a while. I had never heard of her family, though, so I tried to politely distance myself. Finally, she found other interests. 

I spoke at great lengths with Heuriv Ellibib, and he introduced me to many members of House Cannith. They all seemed impressed with the fact that I was with the Fabricator's Guild, and more than a few of them had rightfully heard of the Heuw family. I realized this evening that I am a very sociable person.

I was making excellent in-roads with Marriva Cannith -- she asked me to fetch the two of us a drink -- when the presentation started. Marriva has a very cutting wit, and I was having an excellent time listening to her comments during what would have otherwise been a very boring speech. The repoir between Marriva and I was shattered, suddenly, with the appearance of a number of armed gnolls. In rapid succession, they broke into the party, killed a few would-be-heroes, grabbed the breastplate, and disappeared in the confusion. Worst of all, some time during all the commotion, I lost track of Marriva!"

.        -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 2




"... In fact, many of my colleagues consider me to be very 'adventurous': I am often willing to go deeper into the Cogs than any of my friends, even when only accompanied by one house guard, and there are very few ethnic foods that I will not try. Fear is not an emotion that Artemis Heuw understands!"

.        -- An excerpt from the Application for Attendance of Artemis Heuw, as received by Morgrave University, 994 YK


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, Excerpt 4*

"...completing the last of the blasphemous inscriptions. I double-checked the diagram [ref: CJ-V3-17] and carefully folded the parchment, making sure the arrows touched on both the top an bottom of the page. As expected, the re-arranged characters aligned to spell out something completely different, and vaguely humorous. Without wasting time, though, I allowed the troll's blood to stream down the paper and into the bowl, careful to let it flow over each of the glowing characters. Before the last bit of blood ebbed from the paper, I spit three times onto the flow, turning widdershins [ref: PJ-V3-12] after each expectoration. As I brought the last ingredient to bear, I hoped desperately that my source was reliable and that the monk who provided it was a holy man. I stirred the urine into the mix. It occurred to me at that point to wonder whether anyone of the DC would drink healing potions if they knew what went into them. Rather than dwell on that thought, however, I made a last-second decision to add the recommended sprig of mint to the mixture [ref: CJ-V3-15] and completed the potion."

.      -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 3




"I complained the entire way home about how difficult it was to find the perfect vest for my needs, but the sky coach driver didn't show the least bit of sympathy. I tipped her, but not well.

Since I was already running late, I only paused at the house long enough to change clothes, enjoy glass of wine, and have Jaiya give me a quick trim. (Not that any of the DC commented on my haircut.) Then I was away. It took a little longer than expected to get over to the Broken Anvil, but then it always does. I should really expect that by now. CA and IR were already there, and since we were supposed to get together for dinner to discuss the events at the University last night [ref: PJ-V2-99], I launched right into my tale. There were over two dozen people of import at the event, but all CA wanted to talk about was the gnoll attack. Honestly, I wonder why he even went.

XL finally joined us at the table, only to blurt out some story of how he and GR and some other person had tried to infiltrate a fanatical cult down in the cogs, but that GR and Yithrak -- the man who took them down there -- had been captured. I've seen what cults can do down in the cogs [ref: PJ-V1-17] and I was impressed that XL got away. In fact, I was about to tell him so when another stranger -- some half-naked northlander wearing a rather uncomfortable looking chain skirt -- came up to the table. XL tried to take my wine. 

The newcomer -- Daimhin by name -- told us that he'd overheard XL's story. It turns out Yithrak is a business companion of his, and he'd been hired to scout out another way into the cultists stronghold. He told us then of a chasm that goes from the lower cogs down to where the cultists meet. He offered to join us, too, if we would help him recover his friend. It would have been nice of him to offer a reward or something, but since GR was down there, too, we took him up on his offer. XL had the presence of mind, when fleeing the cultists, of grabbing a number of robes and amulets so that we could disguise ourselves.

We were there for a nice dinner -- well, as nice a dinner as one can have at the Broken Anvil -- not an exploration into the depths of Sharn. Nobody was really ready for this, but we had to go, didn't we? We picked up to leave. Naturally, I had to pay for dinner. 

Earlier in the evening, I had been talking to someone that I thought was XL. I looked around, but couldn't find her. I probably should have said something at the time, but there was a lot of excitement and everybody was ready to go, so I didn't. Maybe if I tell XL that I'm giving him a magical bell of protection, he'll wear it. 

It took a fair amount of time to get down to Khyber's Gate, where the cult met. We came at it from above, and I could tell immediately from the architecture and other clues that there was a chance that this "temple" use to be, in fact, the ancient meeting hall of the Order of the Closed Circle. The guild hall of the Order was lost years and years ago when the church of the Silver Flame came and "purified" them. Something about consorting with the evils of the Dragon Below, and experimenting on abominations. I don't remember much about them, but they never struck me as the particularly "evil" sort. Ah, well. The Silver Flame is always crusading against someone. Maybe they had simply run out of real enemies to pick on When we were close to our destination (though, to be honest, I hadn't been able to differentiate one place from another for the last half hour) I placed a prolonged enchantment of slaying [ref: CJ-V1-21] on my cane. Keeping it at a distance (I had set the enchantment to kill all humans) I placed another on top of it to knock my enemies unconscious, rather than kill them outright. Those cultists didn't stand a chance! Well, they wouldn't have, had we actually faced any. Why do so many of my preparations go to waste? Coming down the chasm, we came out on the roof of the temple. Strange to think of an underground structure as having a roof. Regardless, We were in a large, round chamber, it's roof supported by a circle of pillars that surrounded a hole leading down. There were only a few torches, and I was having a devil of a time seeing anything. DA charged silently out of the darkness, whispering harshly that there were guards up ahead. Lucky thing I was busy dusting the dirt off of my clothes when he crept up on us like that, or I would have walloped him a good one with my cane. 

While I'm thinking about it: Reminder to self -- get a new cane! One that holds enchantments better.... Stupid cane.

Anyway, DA waved in the general direction of the guards -- beyond the light, naturally -- and we started to creep forward. No, not forward. I moved silently forward, the rest of the DC and DA scattered, slinking off gods knows where.

The wizards of the Closed Circle hired some very cunning architects to build their guild hall. I moved forward to get behind a pillar, but what looked like a crude carving into the stone column was, in fact, an ingeniously shaped shelf designed to disappear from view when looked at from a certain angle. Unfortunately, it was built to disappear from sight when it was seen from my angle, and I bumped into it. Imagine my surprise: I was sneaking up on distant enemy when a goblin-shaped shadow came suddenly around the column. It turned out to be nothing more than a vase on the shelf, but I didn't realize it in time. If it had been a goblin, it would been killed, because I batted at it mercilessly with my cane. As it turns out, though, it was merely a vase on the shelf, which shattered quite loudly in the otherwise still hall.

I have always been quick of wit, though, and used the sudden noise as a way of distracting the guards, who were about to engage with DA. CA, with his elven eyes, had been sniping at the guards using his bow. IR seemed lost somewhere in the dark.

I grabbed a torch off of the column and moved towards the guards, hoping to find them in the darkness. A cultist rushed out of a side door at me, and I was about to give her a good drumming when she revealed herself as XL. Lucky for her I have such good reflexes. She was trying to trick the guards into thinking that she belonged there so that she could get closer. I wish she'd let us know of these plans before running off on her own. 

Off in the darkness, the fight was on. XL rushed off in that direction. Rather than charge in blindly myself, though, I threw the torch towards the noise, hoping to finally catch sight of the guards. Not surprisingly, XL was in the wrong place at the wrong time and she barely managed to avoid my well thrown torch. It landed at her feet, nearly catching her robe on fire. She gave me the oddest look. I rushed in to find DA and GR engaged with what looked like four goblins. They were weird little creatures, though. There were only two of them, but each looked like two goblins smashed together. Freakish. CA came in right behind me, and IR had cleverly snuck around to flank them. IR chanted, and a skeleton appeared, and began to attack the goblinoids. 

I don't remember how much damage I unleashed upon the goblin-creatures. The fight was over just that fast.

We listened for a moment, and couldn't hear any sign of alarm. The noise we'd been hearing the whole time was still going: a droning chant of some sort. While XL and GR tried to hide the bodies, I explored the room. The hole in the center of the chamber led straight down -- far down. We were on the flattened roof of a dome, which extended below us. Built into the dome were two more levels, each open in the center just like this room. The hole expanded as it went down, though, and each floor going down had a wider and wider opening in it's center. At the very bottom was the temple itself. It was packed with chanting cultists and priests, all gathered around a central shaft -- the same shaft I was standing at the top of -- which continued through the floor and into darkness. Thanks to my excellent eyesight, I could see a grate at the very bottom, some two hundred or so feet below me. The cultists were all wearing similar brown robes, and we couldn't tell one from the other. 

It was obvious, though, that their ritual was coming to a head. We had to hurry.

We made it two levels down before we saw any guards again. Human guards, this time. They were a quarter way around the large opening in the floor, watching the proceedings down below, and never saw us. We got a quick peek of what was going on, and it was trouble! GR and YI stood at the edge of the pit below us, standing between two priests. They seemed rather passive. The high priestess was there, going on and on about how these two sacrifices would be pleasing to the Dragon Below. They were about to sacrifice GR and YI to whatever was in that pit! 

This is as good a time as any to mention the incense. In the large chamber below were a number of braziers, used not only for light and heat, but for the burning of a very strange incense. I had noticed the odd fumes earlier, of course. Years of training in alchemy had tuned my senses to the point where I could determine immediately that there was something wrong in the air. I theorized that the toxic fumes from the braziers had enraptured GR and YI, breaking their will completely and making them very susceptible to the wiles of the cult's chanting. It's a shame they didn't have my training. If they had, they wouldn't have succumbed to the fumes. 

I was just working all of that out, and thinking about how pleased the Dragon Below would be at the cult's sacrifices, when we raced away to launch our rescue attempt. IR, with her quick elven reflexes, was the first to spring back towards the stairs. In her zeal to get moving, she slapped me rather hard and was dragging me away from the edge. I took a quick moment to clear my eyes of the smoke, but told her that I was right behind her. We ran. XL told us that he had a plan, and that he would distract the ceremony long enough for us to get GR. In an instant, I had my own plan, and we raced back up to the third level.

The drop from the third level to ground level was about forty feet. What's more, the hole at this level was about forty feet wider than the hole on the ground floor. We had one length of rope with us. I did some quick calculations: that rope would be just enough to reach from the edge here to the edge of the pit in the main chamber where GR stood. The problem we had was that there was no railing around the hole, nor anything to tie the rope to. DA volunteered to anchor the rope, and began to climb down so he could hang off of the edge of the pit. That would give us even more room to work. 

XL had begun her "distraction" from the level below us, taking on the guise of the head priestess and decrying her an infiltrator. No one was buying it. In fact, the head priestess responded to XL's announcement by throwing YI into the pit!

I tried to infuse a spell into the rope [ref: CJ-V1-29], but the accursed thing wouldn't hold. I was trying to animate the rope but it was resisting me. Obviously, it was of shoddy craftsmanship. We had run out of time, though. With an exultant cry, the head priestess grabbed GR and threw him over the edge of the pit. I swear he hovered in mid air for moment. 

DA, hanging upside down over the edge of the pit and holding the coil of rope in one hand, must have succumbed to the intoxication of the vapors coming up from below. With a bellow (his face actually turned a deep purplish red), he threw one end of the rope towards CA, and dove after GR. He literally launched himself off of the side of the wall down towards the pit. Forty feet down, he rebounded off of three cultists, and towards the hole. Surprised, I looked to CA. He stood at the edge of the hole, his eyes following the plunging descent of an enraged, two hundred and fifty pound man. Then his eyes went to the rope in his hand, and followed it's length all the way down to where it wrapped around DA's wrist. CA shrugged, slightly, and casually tossed the end of the rope over the side. It literally snapped in midair as it suddenly shot downwards, following it's anchor. In a split second, it was gone. DA was gone, but we had troubles of our own. Thanks to XL's distraction, the cultists knew where we were. The head priestess ordered our capture.

Thinking quick, I yelled "Let's get out of here," and we ran to the staircase, heading up. If we could just get to the chasm above us that we had used to climb down here, then we might get away. I met XL in the stairwell as we pounded our way up the stairs. CA hung back, to protect us.

Never let it be said that a Heuw will leave one of his own behind, though. We got up to the roof with cultists, priests, and guards right behind us. Instead of running over to the rope that hung from the chasm above, I ran over to the hole to look down. I was looking for some sign of GR. IR followed, and dropped a lit sunrod. I tried to tell her that dropping a sunrod two hundred feet onto someone's head would likely kill them, but didn't think she'd hear me over the shouts and curses of the pursuing cultists. CA hung back at the head of the stair, ready to buy us whatever time we needed. 

IR and I watched the sunrod fall down; past the two levels below us, past the priestess, still standing at the edge of the pit, and into the darkness beyond. It was too far away for me to properly see where it landed, but IR, with her keen elven eyes, said that someone -- probably DA -- had picked the sunrod up and was waiving it in the air. GR and YI were standing next to him, mindless of their perilous situation. 

They were still alive, and I knew it was up to me to save them.

Quickly, I shouted to CA to hold back our pursuers. He, IR, and XL did what they could. I chanted, very precisely, the words that would instill into my cane a spell that would allow us to float gently to the bottom of the shaft [ref: CJ-V1-7]. My accursed cane wouldn't take the magic, though, and the infusion failed. That wasn't good. 

CA had already dropped one guard, and proved to be a very effective barrier against anyone from coming up the stair. From the other stairwell came one of the lead priests. I had the opportunity to see him as XL and IR fought to keep him at bay, and regretted the distraction. He was a monstrous man-like creature, with tentacles growing out of his shoulders or back. IR had summoned a small zombie to slow it down. As I looked, the tall creature simply punched through the undead with one of it's tentacles, and appeared to be shredding to pieces from the inside. 

I realized then the danger we were in. I had time for one more infusion, then we would be over-run. Unfortunately, I gauged the power of the magic I could create, and realized that I would only be able to stop the descent of three of us. Would I allow CA to sacrifice himself honorably? Did the world really need another changeling? 

With every ounce of focus I could come up with, I prepared my final infusion. Instead of placing it in my cane -- which had betrayed me on so many occasions -- I put the infusion into my longcoat. I was wearing the charcoal grey coat that Twiggy got for me last year [ref: PJ-V1-67]. Success! Turning, I shouted to CA, "We're leaving. Now! Go for the hole!" 

The last word was barely out of my mouth when he abandoned his position and raced past me, diving headlong down the hole. For the briefest moment, I thought about how funny it would be if we decided to climb out, instead. I didn't think CA would appreciate the joke, though. IR either, for that matter.

Rather than take the time to turn and dive gracefully through the hole, I simply threw myself backward, grabbing for IR and XL. XL, naturally, took that opportunity to enact his own plans, and dodged to the right one step. I had IR, but had missed XL. I felt really bad about that for some reason. 

Luckily, I was barely over the edge when XL turned and dove after us. I wrapped myself around IR and triggered the slow fall enchantment, targeting CA down below me, XL up above me, and IR. I clung to her for dear life.

I don't want to say that our descent was slow and controlled, but it was rather exhilarating, like flying downward. We fell gracefully down past the floor of the temple, past the smiling head priestess, and into the darkness beyond.

Things became far less exhilarating when my enchantment ended. We were floating down through the darkened shaft when the spell simply ended, and we started to plummet. Plummet. There's something I don't ever want to do again. XL and IR both screamed. I don't think I even had time to react. Then, suddenly, we were floating again, out of the shaft and into a large, poorly lit room. GR, YI, and DA were all standing there. Just the way they were a moment ago. Unhurt. When we saw them from so far above. 

I should have realized it earlier. Obviously, there would be a feather fall zone at the bottom of a shaft like that. This place was built by wizards, after all.

Somewhere above us, the grate crashed closed."

.        -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 3



.   -- Sharn longcoat (midnight blue) -- glamourweave
.   -- Wroat Longstriders (boots) -- size 9, dark blue
.   -- Mortar and pestle set -- adamantine, 2#
.   -- 'The Purpose of the Forge' by Merrix d'Cannith
.   -- Sourshards, or anything with dark chocolate from Millatan's Sweet Shoppe
.   -- A new skyboat, red
.        --    An excerpt from the List of Acceptable Gifts for Artemis Heuw, Festival of Thronehold, 998YK


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, Excerpt 5*

"... flaring into light in order, one after another, until it took on the exact shape of the dragon constellation. I paused, then, unsure what to do. The crystal at the creature's eye was pink, and the nose blue, and those were supposed to be reversed. It was something that would only matter if someone was detecting the vest for magic -- and even then only if they were looking at it from behind -- but it bothered me. I was only two hours into the process, so I allowed the enchantment to fade, reversed the crystals, and started over, using my stylus [ref: CJ-V3-66] to draw the magic to the crystals, one at a time. It was like working one of those numbered drawings in a child's book, but this time I would get it right."

.           -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 3



"I don't want to say that our descent was slow and controlled, but it was rather exhilarating, like flying downward. We fell gracefully down past the floor of the temple, past the smiling head priestess, and into the darkness beyond.

Things became far less exhilarating when my enchantment ended. We were floating down through the darkened shaft when the spell simply ended, and we started to plummet. Plummet. There's something I don't ever want to do again. XL and IR both screamed. I don't think I even had time to react. Then, suddenly, we were floating again, out of the shaft and into a large, poorly lit room. GR, YI, and DA were all standing there. Just the way they were a moment ago. Unhurt. When we saw them from so far above.

I should have realized it earlier. Obviously, there would be a feather fall zone at the bottom of a shaft like that. This place was built by wizards, after all.

Somewhere above us the grate crashed closed, locking us in.


We landed in a large, round room. I landed gracefully on my feet, letting go of IR so she could do the same. Maybe I held her for too long, though -- she bumped noisily to the ground, as did CA and XL. CA was on his feet in an instant, though, ready for trouble. We didn't find any. Not yet. It was out there, though, and on it's way.

We were in an ancient library, ransacked long ago. Every open wall held shelves for books. They were universally empty, curse our luck! Circling the room, just a short distance above us, was a wide balcony angled theater-style so that observers on the top deck could look down to the lower floor. In the center of the ceiling was the opening we had fallen through. It looked quite out of reach. Doors led from this floor to other chambers. A few of the doors were big enough that they probably led out, too. I was checking one such door, and XL another, when we first noticed something wrong.

Far above us, the hole in the ceiling was flickering a harsh blue-white light. Accompanying the sound was a rapid, uneven clicking noise and many strange footfalls. A creature appeared, bulbous and horrific. It's tentacles waved spastically through the air while it's four feet clung to the underside of the ceiling. It climbed inverted across the roof and down the wall towards us.

To be honest, I wasn't sure that my companions were in any shape to deal with the creature, and I didn't think I could take it by myself. I wasn't even sure what it was. Worse, the enchantment on my cane [ref: PJ-V3-19, CJ-V1-21] was geared towards dropping humans with a touch. And this thing was not human -- even now, after the fact, I'm still not sure what it was! 

It was getting closer, so I hurriedly turned back to the door I was working on, looking for a way through. I glanced over my shoulder, knowing that it would be a mistake. And it was. The creature was drawing closer. I pulled on all of my training to focus on the task at hand, turning my attention back to the lockpicks I had out to work the door. The enchantment on the lock must have warded it against anything other than it's intended key, though, because the tools shook uncontrollably in my hands. Behind me, the creature growled, charging. Someone near me cried out in terror, and I turned, knowing that I was it's intended target.

When I spun around, I realized that everyone had moved from where they were a moment ago. CA and YI were now out into the center of the room, trying to draw the creature's attention. XL was still over at his door, trying to open it. GR and IR had slid around so that they could flank the creature once it engaged with CA and YI. DA stood back guarding XL. I didn't understand that last bit at all.

The creature charged, reaching out a tentacle towards CA. A bright blue-white flash of light arced between the two of them, and CA reeled back, badly burned by the spark of electricity. He came back in, though, blades lashing out in an attempt to kill the creature.

GR got one shot off with his crossbow, then moved in with his axe.  IR summoned another one of her undead -- "undying", she always calls them. I don't see the difference, really. 

Lightning kept arcing out of the creature, burning my companions. I knew that it would take more than mundane weapons to kill this creature. I was taxed, though, after so long a day. Calling upon the last of my inner reserves, I enchanted my cane once again [ref: CJ-V1-21], this time making it an anathema towards abominations like this one. I circled, looking for an opening. Timing is very important in these situations.

Seeing my opportunity, I rushed in, striking a mighty blow. The creature convulsed, dead without really knowing it yet. Feebly, another tentacle lashed out and the last of it's electricity arced out to hit YI. Everyone else surrounding the creature hacked wildly at it, forcing it to the ground. I was about to tell them that they needn't bother: I had already killed the creature and it was merely in it's death throes. I didn't get the chance, though. 

There was a startled scream across the room -- another of these things had snuck in on us, and had just attacked IR from behind. I quickly formulated a plan to deal with it and shared it with my companions. Naturally, nobody listened. They simply raced across the room, charging and swinging their brutish weapons. I had to sigh. All this brilliance, and no one to listen to it.

This one must have been a weaker or younger version of the first. By the time I got there, it was already dead, hacked up and torn apart like some sacrifice thrown before a rabid mob of barbaric hunters. In a way, it sort of was, I suppose. IR seemed angry at everyone. Not because we let this thing sneak up behind her (and isn't she the one with the keen elven senses?) but because her dead summoned kobold, or whatever it was, hadn't been able to find an opening in the fight that it could step into. It hadn't been able to attack this second creature at all.

We looked around, but it appeared that those two creature were all we'd have to deal with. After some healing, we went back to searching the place. 

Four large doors lead out. Well, presumably they lead out. I quickly determined that they were all magically sealed, and well beyond our ability to open. Smaller doors all lead to what was once probably reading chambers or the like. We found nothing of use and nothing of value, and no way out. We were trapped.

Which was fine by us. It had been a very long, grueling, excitement-filled day. Many of us were still sore from the climb, the fall, or the multitudes of fights we'd been in. We decided to close ourselves off in the largest of the private chambers to rest and refocus our energies. It was a long night, but we were undisturbed. 

The next morning, our plan was to have YI climb up the wall, across the ceiling, and into the shaft leading up. He said he could do his part, and since we'd had time to rest we knew that IR would be able to heal him up when he plummeted to the floor like the crazy fool he seemed. Amazingly, he made the climb -- and made it look easy. I instantly suspected him of being another one of those cockroach people [ref: PJ-V1-97], but I didn't want to voice my opinions and scare my companions. They are so excitable some times. YI tied his rope to the grate and dropped one end to the floor below. DA climbed up and used magic of some sort to trigger the grate mechanism in the room beyond. With squealing protestation, the grate swung open. That done, we all climbed up. All this climbing around was making my arms sore.

We came up in a cross shaped room. Above us, the shaft continued up towards the main worship chamber. We decided to avoid a further climb, and see if we could find our way out from here.

On one wall was a simple mechanism that tilted the grate up so that sacrifices -- such as ourselves -- could fall unhindered down the shaft. Braziers stood in the center of each of the small side chambers. A quick search indicated no secret way out through there. The longer hallway ended in a doorway, though, so CA and I snuck up towards it to find out what lay beyond.

XL took on the form of a brutish looking warrior -- in poor street clothes. I wonder if he actually fights better when he makes himself look tougher? A moot question, perhaps, as this particular form certainly did not make him any smarter. XL continued his practice of stealing light sources by taking a torch out of it's sconce halfway down the hall. The hall, enraged, perhaps, that it's favorite torch was being stolen, immediately attacked.

Countless tentacles sprouted from the wall opposite XL. They immediately grabbed him and started squeezing. Other tentacles waved about, separating CA and I from the rest of the group. XL cried out in pain and IR -- showing more sensitivity than sense -- jumped forward to try to heal him. She managed to get her spell off, despite the fact that she was battered about by writhing tentacles. Before she was done, though, she, too, was grabbed. GR jumped in and tried to grab XL, hoping to pull him out. CA jumped in too with the best weapon at his disposal; his very excellent scimitar. CA was slicing tentacles away from the wall at an alarming speed. There were too many, though, to make a difference. On the other side of this mess, DA and YI, too, attacked the tentacles. 

Knowing this would cause a commotion, I checked the door to see who would be alerted. Beyond was an empty guard room. Tables strewn with food, debris, or dice (it was hard to tell which) were haphazardly scattered around the room. There were a few chairs and what might have been bedrolls littering the ground, too. I was about to thank our luck, when the door on the opposite side of the room started to open. Curses!

I turned in time to see CA free himself from the tangle of tentacles. GR and YI combined managed to free XL, but brave IR was wrapped nearly head to foot in the writhing purple feelers. She was slammed up against the wall, then pulled through it. She was gone!

In the room behind me, guards poured into the room and immediately began to make it even more of a mess. They overturned two of the tables to use them as protection against our non-existent attacks. Some of them had crossbows, and started shooting towards the door. In the dim light of the room (evidently these creatures can see in the dark), they looked like more of those tall, tentacled "people" we'd seen upstairs [ref: PJ-V3-39]. There was almost half a dozen of them! 

I slammed the door, calmly telling my party that we had trouble. The tentacles in the hallway were still attacking. They must have reached some magic minimum number, though, as they suddenly melted away to reveal a hallway leading off to the side. An escape route! I took off at top speed immediately, as did most of my friends. YI jumped to the door I had just vacated, and stood in front of it, barring it with his mighty strength. He bid us go, boldly offering to sacrifice himself, not realizing we were already gone.

IR stood in the hallway, her mace glowing under a newly placed light spell. She warned us that she had seen movement down the hall -- most likely those mutated goblin creatures. Seeking rapid escape, we all ran down the hallway.

I paused long enough to check one of the side doors. Beyond I found a latrine -- filthy beyond description -- and in it one mutated goblinoid. It was too busy to notice us, even with our lights, so we simply let it be. There's probably a moral in there someplace: "Let stinking goblins sit." Okay, so maybe there isn't.

GR and IR had continued down the hallway to find a human priest and two goblinoids recovering from what may have been a compromising situation. The priest was pulling on his boots: one of the goblinoids was brushing it's -- her? -- hair. The room was a rather large bedroom. We outnumbered the half-naked creatures handily, and they didn't last long. The priest put up a little bit more of a fight, but even he didn't have much fight in him. GR was sure that one of the goblinoids had gotten away, but I saw no other way out of the room. Crossing over to the other side of the bed, GR ripped a large tapestry off the wall, revealing another doorway. The party started through.

Except for me. I stayed back to look over the priest and see if he had anything of interest. He had a couple of trinkets, and some keys, so I thought that an excellent find. 

I caught up to the rest of the group, and they were lost without my leadership. Next time, I should stay with them to hold their hands. There were a few side hallways here and there in these back halls. GR and CA stood at one intersection, with DA standing firm beside them. They were preparing to take an assault from a dozen-odd creatures from a nearby guard room. In said guard room, one of the tall, tentacled humans was driving a dozen or so goblinoid creatures on. Our recent fights had given them plenty of opportunity to pick up weapons and start donning armor. They were just finishing up, prepared to assault the collected defensive stance of GR, CA and DA.

IR and XL, meanwhile, continued on down another hall and had come back to report that they found a secret door. It lead to a storeroom that we had passed on our way here, though, so the rest of the group paid it little mind. I was all for continuing our exodus, but the group had gotten in over it's head, again, and they would need my expertise if they were to survive.

YI came screaming up behind us, then, followed by the guards he was supposedly keeping at bay. He didn't even make a passable doorstop. I fell back to help him, leaving GR, CA, and DA to defend their chosen ground.

I will concede at this point that YI is an adequate fighter. In little enough time, we'd taken care of the four-armed goblins that had chased him so far. The fight behind us had been raging the whole time, and by the time we joined it, the mutants had been whittled down to half their number. It took a little work, but we managed to kill all of them without losing any of our own number.

All this time, XL and IR had been wrestling with two of the mutant goblins in a very filthy storage room, trying to clear a path for our escape. We joined them in time to turn the tide and defeat the creatures, then decided as a group to go back through the first guard room we'd seen and hope that that was the exit. Beyond, we found stairs leading up -- which was the direction we needed to go -- but not into any place we'd been before. 

I am going to break the narrative here to mention that the natives of this place are the most paranoid, danger-seeking group of individuals I have ever had the misfortune to meet. Oft-used corridors were festooned with traps -- pits and deadfalls, spikes and arrows -- and we seemed to find every cursed one of them on our way out. 

So where was I? Oh, yes, the way out. 

We were travelling in a recently-created tunnel, rough-hewn walls carved out of the stone below Sharn as if by some monsterous creature. It was empty, if a bit damp. So eager were we to get out of there, that I am ashamed to admit that my feet were moving a bit quicker than my well-trainied mind. My dedicated years of training in alchemy and all things caustic allowed me to notice instantly that a harmless-seeming puddle was something far more dangerous, but my feet were already splashing through said puddle before I could redirect my steps. I leapt forward with a scream of frustration, for the puddle had just eaten through my newly-purchased -- and, I might add, rather expensive -- boots [ref: PJ-V2-117]. The acid burned my feet and legs, too, and I continued forward in a great deal of pain, trying to kick away the remnants of my very expensive and utterly ruined footware.

Behind me, the puddle was moving -- an ooze of some sort, evidently. The rest of the party surged forward to combat the creature, and although it did not last long, it managed to splash both YI and DA, ruining the first's weapon and the second's armor.

I had my own problems to deal with, though. My aggressive calls for assistance -- fueled to a somewhat higher-than-normal pitch, perhaps, by the pain in my feet and legs -- awoke something in the next chamber. More specifically, it awoke a swarm of something in the next chamber, and I was suddenly surrounded by a veritable cloud of large, leather-winged mosquitoes from hell -- if you will pardon the expression. There were dozens of them, give or take. Not content to simply flutter about and tangle themselves in my hair -- which they were doing, by the way -- a good many of them landed on me, digging into my skin with their claw-like feet and stabbing me with their wickedly sharp probiscii. They were sucking the blood right out of me!

Now I am a man of fine constitution, and excellent health, but this had been a very rough day for me. Far worse than my usual day in the lab. In one day I had been stabbed by swords, bludgeoned by morning stars, eaten nearly alive by an aggressive caustic puddle. On top of that, I had been forced to climb to the top of an impossibly large chamber, had a full twenty-stone of bricks dropped on my head, and lost my best boots. I just didn't have much left in me.

I gave it the old Heuw and cry, though, and valiantly lashed out against my new attackers. There were more than I could deal with, though, and I lost a lot of blood before I emerged victorious. IR and XL were there at the end, crushing the fist-sized bugs that had stolen so much of my precious fluid. GR had found himself a victim of the stirges, too, and looked in terrible shape. 

I sat down, done. I had lost so much blood, that it was an effort to even move. It took all the energy I had to complain to my companions about the ruin that was my outfit, and pick off the pieces of insect that still clung to me here and there.

Our battle had not gone unnoticed, though. Just around the corner and up a few more stairs was a halway familiar to GR and XL, and they excitedly reported that we were nearly out. There were two guards up there, though. They had heard our fight but seemed unsure what to do. They were cultists -- humans, evidently. The rest of the DC went forward to deal with them.

Not that I cared. I was too tired to get up to see what was happening. I sat there and tried to make myself presentable. From what I could hear from around the corner, one of the guards was the man that GR was sent in to rescue -- a young Cyran expatriot who went missing some days ago [ref: PJ-V3-26]. There was some sort of argument, and a fight broke out. My shirt and jacket were absolutely ruined. When you crush a feeding mosquito, there is always a small smear of blood left behind. This was just like that, except the mosquitoes were the size of my fist _before_ they were crushed. Large splashes of blood covered everything. The fight raged on while I worked at loosening a painfully embedded insectile limb from my forearm. Reinforcements had come into the fray in the form of the head preistess and more cultists. A solid-sounding k-thunk from around the bend, followed immediately by an exaltant shout and a pained cry, told me that someone, at least, was doing well. GR shouted out that YI had been killed. Why do insects always have hooked, spiny limbs? I was having a devil of a time untangling some of these pieces. Two very different battle cries -- it sounded like GR and CA -- sounded, and more bodies hit the floor. A voice I recognized -- but didn't bother identifying -- shouted for help, and I knew that my friends were in trouble. Now I know why you never see well-dressed adventurers. The cost of replacing one's clothing on a daily basis would be quite prohibitive.

My boots were, as reported, absolutely ruined. I had nothing left but two heels, and the upper trim from the right boot. Why couldn't the whole boot been made out of the same material as the heel? I was going to study the oddity of the remaining heels further, but decided, instead, to save my friend's lives. I hobbled around the corner, loading my crossbow as I went. 

I came to the fight in time to see the head priestess fleeing. She ordered her two remaining soldiers to protect her retreat, and, for some reason, they did. There must be something about cults that inspires such loyalty in it's followers. I fired my crossbow at one of the remaining men. I probably killed him, though I honestly didn't care at that point. Whatever the result, the fight ended soon after I arrived.

Everyone was still alive -- even poor YI. He was in bad shape, though. We had little healing available to us, and XL and GR agreed that the corridor to our right would take us out of there. DA picked up YI and moved up the stairs that lead out -- and immediately fell into a pit. He was mostly unhurt, but only because he had landed on YI. The corpse of YI, specifically. The fall, or something involved in the fall, had killed him.

We were too exhausted, the lot of us, to react to YI's death. Tired, we gathered the body, looted the cultists, and made our way out. I wish the cultists had been carrying more money."


.            -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 3



"Twiggy. Found this, thought it was yours. Father found one last week and seemed startled and embarrased about it. Maybe you should keep these in your room."
"Family. Have gone down to Fallen in Lower Dura looking for undead. Will return for lunch."
"Father. Attached is calling card from fifth litigator to come to the house today. See you for dinner."
"When you find this note, please put 20gp back into red vase emergency fund."
"Jenvis. By 'quarters', I meant corner-to-corner. Please cut my sandwiches diagonally in the future."

.           -- An excerpt from Notes to Family and Staff, left around the house and authored by Artemis Heuw, 998YK


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, Excerpt 6*

"... single piece of uninterrupted teak wood, with no metal of any sort: no cap on it's foot and no design on it's head. I bought the cane for it's simplistic beauty, thinking, at the time, that it's singular composition would act as a blank slate -- like a clean sheet of paper -- for holding my enchantments. No such luck. Time and again I have drawn the magical matrices that would hold a spell, and time and again the infusion failed to take hold. I know it's not me -- even my modesty cannot deny that I excel at this profession -- so it must be this equipment. I have composed a list of properties necessary for a cane of masterful craft, which must have the following elements...."

.           -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 3



"And so ends another fruitless day in my laboratory. I desperately need to restock my supplies if I want to start crafting again -- I simply cannot work in such a deplorable state of lack [ref: CJ-V3-87]. What I need, though, are funds. Maybe someone in the DC will have some employment for us? We'll see tomorrow
...
My writing will be brief tonight, as I have been mercilessly pummeled, poked, prodded, and stabbed today. Again, perhaps I should say. Ah, well. "Brevity is a sign of genius," or something like that. I suppose it is no coincidence that I am a man of few words.

The DC met for breakfast in our usual spot: the Broken Anvil [ref: PJ-V1-74]. Ah, the painful joys of greasy potatoes and aged "pork". We were trying to decide how to make some money -- legally, of course -- when the answer fell right into our laps. Little Robin Hazeltine, the halfling we were very nearly acquainted with [ref: PJ-V2-112] came to us with another job offer. Well, the same job offer, actually.

He had heard that the Breastplate of Drakken Khas [ref: PJ-V2-99] was stolen, and he claimed to have some information as to it's where-abouts. Since he had asked us to steal it for him the first time we met, I was instantly suspicious that whoever he did get to steal it had double-crossed him. Those suspicions were wiped clean away, though, as soon as he mentioned that he would pay us each 1500 pieces of gold to retrieve it, then -- after he had a chance to look it over -- allow us to return it to Boromar [ref: PJ-V2-107], it's rightful owner. Since Boromar had a standing reward of 10,000 gold for the armor's return, that meant the tidy personal profit of 3500 gold for what sounded like a simple job!

The rest of the DC wasn't as interested in the prospect, however. Maybe they have some form of income that I am not aware of. They were unseemingly paranoid about RH's motives, and didn't want to trust him at all. IR was still of the opinion that RH would use the map on the breastplate to "loot the sacred graves of the dead." That sounded like an excellent idea to me -- what better way to recover the treasures of the past -- for knowledge's sake -- but to pull them from their place of respectful rest? There's a small bit of coin to be made in the endeavor, as well. IR's argument has always confused me, but she sticks to it and insists that she will not allow RH to do such a thing.

I was most of the way through a rather clever and well thought out conversational stratagem -- an argument that would end with the DC taking RH's job -- when we were very rudely interrupted. The timing was rather inconvenient, as I could see that nearly everyone was seeing things my way. All conversation stopped, though, when we were accosted at our table.

Now the Broken Anvil is not a large place, as these things are measured, but it can hold a fair number of people. Most of the clientele of the Broken Anvil are regulars: why would anyone go down to Lower Dura unless they absolutely had to? Being a regular, myself, I was, of course, on friendly terms with nearly all of it's patrons. Those few I do not know by name I certainly know by appearance. These strangers stood out like shifters at a Jorasco family reunion.

Naturally, my keen senses picked them out as newcomers the moment they came into the Broken Anvil. I had been watching them for some time, but, being caught up in my thesis as I was, lost track of them from time to time. CA and GR had been watching them, too, and after talking to the city watch about the days events, we compared notes. Thus, the complete narrative I am allowed to write here. I'm jumping ahead in the story, though.

The three strangers -- it might have been four or five; maybe even six -- had been circulating amongst the tables, looking over the other patrons and occasionally asking them questions. One barbaric looking fellow -- who undoubtedly had some ogre blood in him -- had been rather aggressively questioning... the guy with the red hair and the missing fingers... I don't remember his name. Regardless, learning nothing from him, he was making his way towards our table when another figure walked through the front door, scanned the crowd, looked to our table, and ordered his compatriots to "get us". 

The ogre took two strides towards us, plucked our table out from between us, and, throwing said table behind him, bellowed, "Give us the map!" Our poor server -- who has never told me her name -- squealed and ran. Actually, that might have been RH's squeal. I'm not sure what happened to RH after that point. He was there one moment, then gone as soon as things looked dangerous.

And dangerous they were! Naturally, we tried genteel persuasion to convince these folks that we did not know what they were talking about, but they weren't here for conversation. They were here for a map. Before I could take control of the situation, they proved just what they were willing to do to get that map, too.

The ogre-man pulled a pair of swords, though, perhaps, "cleavers" would be a more apt description. GR is a fine fellow, and slightly more skilled than I in physical combat, so I infused his jerkin with an enchantment of endurance [ref: CJ-V3-21] and wished him luck. I backed away. 

At the same time, though, one of the ogre's accomplices made his presence known by stepping out of the shadows behind us and throwing a pair of knives into CA's back. He looked sorely hurt by that, and, drawing his double-scimitar, CA charged the man. IR, meanwhile, had engaged the third of our enemies, a priest or warrior of the Silver Flame decked from helmeted head to booted foot in heavy, metal armor. I leant my considerable talent to her aid, infusing the man's armor with an enchantment that would quickly heat his armor [ref: CJ-V3-12] and, hopefully, fuse it into one piece. XL, meanwhile, stepped over to help CA with his foe, and their combined prowess dropped him quickly. The fool had allowed himself to be surrounded, then tried to run.

In the spot where our table used to be, GR and the man-ogre were engaged in fierce combat. CA joined in the fight, but got sliced open pretty badly for his troubles. He fell, bleeding. 

Muscle and steel are all well and good in a fight, but I know that there are far more dangerous weapons one can bring to bear. Across the room, a sorceress had involved herself in the fight, obviously part of the attacking group. My trained eye immediately made note of her mystical acumen, and I knew that I had to deal with her before she "dealt" with us. I sidled around the edge of the room, avoiding the grunting, sweating, and bleeding strains of the physical combats taking place around me. 

XL was shrinking away from the fights going on in the center of the room, and I was about to reproach him for this when the distraction almost brought me in range of the armored warrior's sword. I jumped back and went around him, focusing on my target, not my friends. It's a good thing I did, too, because the sorceress had just pulled a wand, and with a word, unleashed a lightning bolt at IR!

All of the other patrons had cleared out by this point, so we had a little more room to fight. One of IR's summoned creatures fought the armored knight in the middle of the room, the knight's armor glowing a hot, cherry red. IR herself had just gone over to heal GR, who jumped back into his fight swinging. With this new insult, though, IR turned her attention on the sorceress. You would think that an Aerenal elf steeped in the ways of magic would have recognized the threat right off. Fortunately for the DC, I was there.

IR needn't have worried about the woman, though. XL and I were there to deal with her. Between the two of us, we were able to keep her mostly under control, then, with one good thwack from my favorite cane, she crumpled to the ground.

Some time during this, GR -- with the occasional and opportunistic help from the rest of us -- had taken out the barbarian. He staggered, bleeding profusely, and tried to turn his attention to the knight. On the way, though, he used a wand of healing on the comatose CA. That delay may have cost us our success. The leader of our opponents came back in the front door -- perhaps to see whether his friends had the upper hand yet. As that was not the case, he called for a retreat. The giant-man stood again, at that point, healed by some half-ogre trickery, perhaps. Under cover of his long arms and long blades -- he had quite a reach with those weapons! -- those enemies that could withdrew from the combat, running like cowards through the front door. They left a parting gift, though, in the form of a monstrous, summoned scorpion, easily as large as the table we had just had breakfast at. Another combat was upon us!

This one did not last long, though. Between us, we were easily up to the task of sending that giant vermin back to whatever place it had been summoned from. IR had even managed to heal CA into wakefulness, who then tried to charge into the combat. He needen't have bothered, though. Just as he arrived, the creature collapsed, then faded away in the manner of summoned creatures. 

We quickly checked outside, but could find no sign of our enemies. They had escaped. We had downed two of them, though, and when the city watch came we were more than happy to tell our side of the story. Many of the bar patrons spoke up in our defense, even though I did not know any of them personally. A couple of them even inquired as to our health. That certainly was polite of them. 

Whether we were okay is neither here nor there, however, for we had been attacked in public for a reason that none of us could understand. To be more precise, my companions were stumped -- I knew exactly what was going on, even if I didn't know why. Whereas the rest of the DC thought the map in question was the Breastplate of Drakken Khas [ref: PJ-V2-99], I had more logically rationalized that the map that our attackers was seeking was none other than the map we had pulled from the Cannith vault [ref: PJ-V1-119], buried below Sharn these many years. I mentioned as much to the DC, who had as one forgotten all about said map. None of us knew anything about the it, though, so we decided that it would need more research.

Always one to make the best of a bad situation, I must say that I kept my head about me, even as wounded as I was. The city watch had been given the whole story, so I can but imagine their surprise when they made a list of the weapons and items of our downed foes, and do not find a wand of lightning. I took the wand from under their very noses, and they didn't suspect a thing! 

Now I just have to figure out how to use it. If I had the money, I could properly identify it. As it is, I shall simply carry it with me, and call upon it's magics when next the need arises. I am sure that my perfect memory and my very extensive training in the field of artifice will prove up to the challenge of activating so powerful an item blindly. 

And even if, by some small chance, I fail, what is the worst that can happen?

...

It's been a full day since the attack at the Broken Anvil, and I am finally feeling up to moving about again.

After receiving word from professor Boramar ir'Dayne at MU [ref: PJ-V2-107], the DC gathered at his office to discuss the missing breastplate. The night that it was stolen [ref: PJ-V2-121] we had offered BD our services in helping him recover it. He was rather out of sorts that night, but has decided now to take us up on our offer.

The little halfling droned on and on about the very complicated history of the armor, it's relationship with two other powerful artifacts -- one a sword and one a shield -- and how the set as a whole was a map of some sort. I have to admit that I wasn't paying a great deal of attention: staying awake during university lectures was always a problem for me. That is why I have always preferred private tutors.

Regardless, he mentioned again the reward of 10,000gp for the return of the breastplate, and then gave us what information he could of the events that evening. I must confess: I was contemplating what ten thousand gold pieces could do to stock and refit my laboratory, and wasn't paying a great deal of attention. GR is the investigator amongst us, though, and he has promised to follow up on everything the professor mentioned. Good for him, I say. I have more important work to do.

We left the Cannith map  [ref: PJ-V1-121],in the hands of the professor and his ogre colleague. They showed some interest in the map, and said they would look into the matter. Maybe now we can find out what all the fuss was about!

I spent the rest of the day imagining the possibilities of ancient Cannith treasures."


.            -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 3



"All Creatures Huge and Tiny: A Field Guide to the Fauna Under Sharn"
"Dealing with Dragons: A Treatise on Navigating the Customs and Etiquette of the High Courts"
"Through The Looking Glass: A Traveler's Guide to the Twelve Known Planes"
"Where's Your God Now?: Questioning the Relevance of the Dieties in Today's Society"
"All Things Dark and Slimy: A Catalogue of the Things that Lurk Underwater, Under Your Bed, and Under Sharn"

.           -- An excerpt from the List of School Papers of Artemis Heuw, Morgrave University, 994YK


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, Excerpt 7*

"...dizziness made the ritual far more complex than it ought to have been. After two false starts early this morning, pulling another pint of blood from my system was taxing even my boundless energy. I pressed the open wound in my palm onto the head of the clay and stone figure laid out before me, uttering my enchantments. I repeated this over the simulacrum's chest and hands, then moved on to the legs. Before I was done, I heard it's tiny voice suggest a more efficient manner of dispensing my life's fluid into the ritual. My homunculus was alive! I am sure that it was the loss of blood -- and not the surprise at hearing my own voice come this tiny creature -- that caused me to pass out at that moment."

.           -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 4


"... adding a pleasant blue glow to each bracer. Stark always does the most clever things!
...
What a deplorable state my journals have become. Here I am, fourteen pages into my fourth historic journal, and I still have yet to recount the events surrounding our second trip down into the guildhall of the Order of the Closed Circle. A recounting that should have been included in my third journal!

It seems so long ago, now.... Let's see.

It had been a few days since the DC had gotten together: our last outing had left many of us hurt and in need of recuperation. We had agreed to escort a paladin of the Silver Flame down into the vaults of the Order, though [ref: PJ-V3-112], so we gathered once more to see it done. The night before we were going to get together we got word from professor Boromar at MU that he wanted to see us. About the Cannith map, undoubtedly [ref: PJ-V2-67]. A few messages were sent about, and we agreed to all meet on the MU's campus.

I wasn't the first to arrive. When I got there I saw quite a few more people than I expected. Our paladin was there, but so were half a dozen rough-looking elves. They were all part of Caerlyn's Blades, evidently. A mean looking bunch! They had come along with CA, though I never really figured out why. Maybe he's a captain, now, and just hasn't told us?

Anyway, we left the soldier-types waiting for us outside, and went up-tower to professor BO's office. It wasn't a class day, so the halls were pretty empty. My keen senses told me something was wrong, and my usually jovial nature turned suspicious.

Those suspicions were quickly confirmed, too, when we went into BO's office. The place was completely torn up! Bookshelves twice my height had been ransacked, their contents scattered across the floor. There were signs of blood, too, and a struggle. I knew our professor friend was a canny old halfling, so I started searching for his inevitable ecape tunnel. It would have to be low to the ground.

I rarely miss important clues, and never when it matters. Behind the professor's desk was a secret panel that opened up into a tight passageway. I nodded knowingly at my companions and went in. They must have been afraid of such strict confines, though, because they failed to follow me. The height-challenged passage lead me to a larger hall, and this into a hallway even larger still. 

Now I'm not claiming to be an expert tracker, but I have a keen eye and more than enough intelligence to connect the miniscule signs and marks left by another creature's passage. So I followed the trail. Alone, for none of the DC had followed. I wasn't really sure where I was, until I came like a hound to his quarry to my destination. Strangely, the path lead back to the front door of the professor's office. The DC were still in there, and GR was just climbing down a rope suspended from mid-air, carrying the bloodied and battered form of the professor. 

I came in, asking how they had anchored the rope on blank space, but GR told me it was there from the moment we walked in. GR and his silly jokes. If it had been there when we came in, I would have seen it.

BO was still alive, clutching a blank roll of scroll-quality vellum. IR administerd healing and we asked what had happened. It seems BO had been attacked in his office by thugs looking for the Cannith map. They had gotten it, too, curse our luck. Fortunately, though, BO had made a copy. He gave us the map, and told us that it showed the Mournlands. The marks scattered about the map were Cannith marks. I looked at them again, and sure enough they were! I didn't like stoooping to guile, but I needed to know how much the professor knew about Cannith dealings. I casually mentioned that I didn't know what the symbols meant, hoping to trick him into revealing what he knew. He admitted (and from his look, I believed him) that he didn't know what the signs meant. I was quietly pleased.

Later [ref: PJ-V4-7], I was able to decipher most of the symbols. They are the locations of House Cannith holdings. Some are familiar to me. Some are not. I cross-referenced the map with Bonal Geldem's journal, and he mentions something called Whitehearth and another schema. BG associated Whitehearth (whoever or whatever that might be) with a symbol of a red dragon. Whether the schema he mentions is related to the schema piece we recovered for Lady d'Vown, however, [ref: PJ-V1-67] is another matter. 

One of the symbols on our map looks like a dragon, so I naturally deduced that that must be where the schema is. A Cannith holding in the midst of the Field of Ruins.

After the incident with the professor, we talked to campus security and looked for BO's ogre-professor friend. Neither event lead to anything interesting. Back down in the courtyard, we met up with CA's friends and the paladin, and headed down to the empty halls of Order of the Closed Circle. Daihmin had shown up at some point, and he decided to go with us. I guess one of the DC had invited him, though I don't know why. Ah, well. the more the merrier.

Getting down into the depths of Sharn was an easy journey -- if not uncomplicated. There were an even thirteen of us, now. We were quite the mob as we swept along bridges and down the lifts. It took three sky cabs to carry all of us. What a mess.

On the way down, I tried to convince the DC that we really didn't need all these people: the place would be empty. I explained to them that cults -- like the one we'd seen last time we were in the Order's halls -- were like cockroaches. They fled as soon as they were exposed to the light. Nobody believed me though. Sometimes I think these people just don't understand how the real world works.

I knew there wouldn't be anyone around, but I also knew that safe entry would not be easily guaranteed. The cultists had trapped a good part of thier lair while still working there [ref: PJ-V3-27] -- I was sure they would have booby-trapped the place when they left.

The tunnel that lead in to the Halls was blocked by a stack of crates. Stored there by some of the locals, undoubtedly. Just to be sure, I checked the pile for traps. Nothing. On the other hand, the highest box looked a bit unstable, so I stepped back and warned GR to be careful when he moved it. Good thing I did, too, because as soon as he started moving boxes, the top one toppled over and nearly crushed him. I mean, really; who fills a crate with heavy rocks, then puts it on top of a rickety stack of boxes? Whoever it was had no common sense.

We continued on into the abandoned hall, and before long found some of the traps I had warned everyone about. Their concealment and device was no match for my expert training, though, and we easily bypassed them.

At an intersection of halls we ran into a couple of those four-armed mutant goblins that we had seen the last time we were down here. I'm not sure what they were doing there -- they must have snuck back in to loot the place after everyone left. We immediately set about dispatching them. Before we finished, a couple more wandered in from a side hall carrying a heavy crate full of rocks. Yep: looters. And stupid ones at that.

It was IR, the paladin, and I that went up against the first pair of creatures. GR and CA went after the ones carrying the crate while the elves waved swords around or shot arrows into the ceiling or did whatever else they were doing in an attempt to look useful without actually doing anything. XL and DA "stood watch". What heroes.

I have mentioned before that IR is a fierce combatant, and she showed it again when going up against the two goblinoids. One look at me, though, with my completely useless cane, and the little blighters tried to flee. IR and our Silver Flame friend killed one, then IR and I set off in pursuit of the other. The paladin doubled back to help the rest of the group go on watch, or whatever it was they were doing. 

We ran around the corner and into a large, long chamber. The goblin was running as fast as he could for a signal horn hung on the far side of the room. IR almost caught him, but the tricky goblin scrambled away. I was too far behind to catch up, so I did the only thing I could: I threw my cane. (It was even enchanted at that point to deal with creatures like him [ref: CJ-V1-19].) Once again, though, that accursed cane betrayed me, and it missed. I hated that cane. My new one is much nicer!

The goblin made it over to the horn and took an impossibly deep breat, ready to blow, when an arrow struck him square in the chest. CA and a couple of his elven friends had followed us into the chamber and were making their presence known. The goblin was stunned momentarily, which gave IR time to race up and deliver the killing blow. Victory!

I went immediately to see if the horn was magical in some way. I'm not sure why a looter would blow a horn like that unless it was a weapon of some sort, but, no. It was just a mundane horn. Strange.

We gathered our forces again and decided to split up. DA and half the elves would stay behind at the central junction of tunnels, to make sure more looters didn't sneak up on us. The rest of us, meanwhile, would escort our Silver Flame representative down into the library below us so he could check on the seals guarding his precious Orb of Xoriat. [ref: PJ-V3-76]

The halls were empty, and we had no problems finding our way back to the central chamber. There was a ritual sacrifice happening here last time we were about [ref: PJ-V3-41]. Strange sounds echoed up from the hole in the center of the chamber that lead down to the lower vaults. Multi-colored flickering lights could be seen reflecing off of the stony surfaces below us. We immediately headed for the staircase to go down, half of us taking the right hand staircase and half the left.

When we got down to the barracks and living chamber level, the sounds became much more pronounced. The four large braziers that circled the central shaft -- cold and unlit the last time we were here -- were still cold but now lit. Each was filled with a heatless flame of odd, shifting color, and was quite fascinating. I stopped to study them.

The rest of the DC, meanwhile, moved on and had uncovered a secret door. When they opened it, the sounds -- chanting perhaps -- grew even louder. The braziers I studied explained the flickering light we had seen above, but a strange new light was visible through the now open doorway. We moved in to investigate.

We stood at one end of a succession of three chambers, a broad opening leading from one to the next. In the farthest chamber we saw a ritual of some sort in progress. A stone dias in front of a glowing portal held a couple of man-shaped figures and a hulking brute of a monster. Between us and the dias in that last room was a mob of four-armed goblins, all chanting their weird little double-mouth chant. We crept forward.

The ritual was coming to a crescendo. A large tentacle came out from the portal and took something handed to it from one of the robed people on the platform. A male voice, distorted oddly, came from the lead ritualist. He spoke some wierd, twisted language that I didn't understand at all.

I was gesturing to the rest of the group, trying to gather them together. I had surveyed our surroundings and had come up with a fool-proof strategem in dealing with the cultists. We would have to be subtle, though. Just at that moment, unfortunately, our Silver Flame friend reminded us of his presence. Screaming out something about the purifying flame, he charged.

Sigh. I guess for some people, "Charge" is a valid plan. 

With nothing left to it, IR and CA charged forward as well.

In the far room, one of the ritual participants turned and removed her hood. It was the head priestess from the last time we were here! [ref: PJ-V3-65] She signalled to one of her tall, gaunt, tentacled friends standing next to her, and they ran off to the right, out of our field of vision. There was a passage on the right hand side of the chamber we were in, and I knew we were going to see her again soon.

I was in the midst of rallying our group together, pulling them forward to defend the side passage and getting reinforcements for our front line, when the lumbering hulk up on the dias turned in our direction. It was a broad, insectile humanoid, with large, multi-faceted eyes, massive forelimbs, and wicked looking claws. It was his yellow eyes that grabbed my attention, though. They... flashed... or somethng, and suddenly everything got very, very confusing.

I'm not really sure what happened after that. I remember chasing someone -- or something -- once or twice. I was involved in a tremendous battle against a monstrously formed elven warrior. More than once I tried to call to my friends, but they did not understand my words. Everything was chaos and confusion.

I learned after the fact that the priestess had, indeed, shown up on our flank. GR, XL, CA and one of the elven warriors killed the tentacled abomination that accompanied her, then drove her off. She summoned a cloud of smoke to conceal her retreatGR and XL gave chase. They lost sight of the priestess -- or heard IR's call for help -- and returned to the fight 

CA, meanwhile, moved up to fight the goblinoids and the large creature beyond.

In the main ritual chamber, the same confusion that overcame me sent the goblinoids into full riot. They were bickering and fighting amongst themselves, screaming out incoherent babble or just wandering in circles. IR made quick work of many of them, as did the paladin. He was working his way towards the hulking creature, though -- not as concerned with the goblins surrounding him. In the chaotic swirl of combat, he managed to charge the hulk and delivered an incredibly powerful blow to the creature. CA was there, too, his flashing blades slicing through many a goblin.

At about that time, the lead ritualist turned, and revealed himself. A mindflayer! (Later, I would tell the DC that this explained the cult's continued presence in these halls: mind control. They continued to obsess over some theory that the cult never left, though. That they were there of their own free will.)

The mind flayer gathered up the last of the ritual components -- some of which looked very valuable. He took interest in IR then, for some reason, and ordered the hulk and his remaining followers to "bring her to me, kill the rest". With that, he walked through the still-active portal. With his passage, the portal closed and became bare rock once again.

The hulk had it's orders, but first it wanted to deal with the paladin. Grabbing him, it casually ripped the armored follower of the Silver Flame to pieces. Ick. I'm glad I didn't see that.  He turned his attention on IR, who called out for assistance.

CA was still there, though, and moved in to attack the creature. About that time, GR and XL showed up to help. IR stood against the hulk, smashing it mightily with her mace. Though the creature was badly wounded, it continued on. Grabbing her, it turned to move away.

CA charged in while XL moved to clean up the last of the goblinoids. GR put his healing wand to good use, then took up his mace. The creature had IR firmly in control until GR jumped up and planted his mace right between it's large, faceted eyes. It staggered, and the DC converged on the kill. 

They weren't done, though. The last of the goblinoids, perhaps unaware of it's condition of being the only opponent left in the room, screamed two things at once and tackled IR, bringing her to the ground. He fought valiantly -- fanatically! -- and even managed to drag IR eight or nine feet towards the exit. While IR struggled to escape, GR and CA struggled to free her, but to no avail. Eventually, they simply struck down into the squabble, killing the creature.

The last of our enemies were defeated and those of us who were under the guile of the hulk came back to our senses. I found myself far-flung from my companions -- almost all the way to the staircase -- and rejoined the DC.

Now at leisure to explore the halls of the Order of the Closed Circle (it really was empty this time), we uncovered quite a few secrets. And more than a little treasure. The mind flayer had a room on this level, as did the head priestess. We found some odd things in both rooms.

The mind flayer must have gained access to the lower vaults, for almost all of them stood open. The order still had a rich library, and an orrerry, now seemingly non-functional. Many other treasures were found, but the church of the Silver Flame claimed them as their own. 

The Orb of Xoriat was no longer there. With this great and dangerous artifact missing, the church saw no reason to keep the chambers sealed. They scoured the library, removing books they though offensive, then left the place to us."


.           -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 4



"Hair, black, 7.5 inches long -- green potato soup"
"Tooth, bicuspid, humanoid -- ale, mug"
"Dried herb bread, cubed -- green salad"
"Zilargo brandy -- Brelandish brandy, glass"
"One half cockroach, living -- ham sandwich"
"Garbled message for help -- fortune cookie"

.           -- An excerpt from the Catalogue of Foreign Substances Found in Food Served At the Broken Anvil, by Artemis Heuw


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## Devo (Jun 13, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, Excerpt 8*

"...set it down and stared at it until the glow faded. How I had acheived that color, I was not sure: alchemist fire was supposed to glow red, not blue. I looked over to Stark to see him busily working on his own alchemy, his tiny body moving rapidly in the reddish glow of his work. Perhaps the ingredients I had used were contaminated? I looked for the recipe scroll to see what might have gone wrong and -- once I had found the the parchment I sought -- quickly ascertained the problem. My body had been working independently of my mind, going through the motions of creation while I pondered other, grander, issues. I had spent the day creating Alchemist's Ice, not Alchemist's Fire. I quickly relabled the bottle, my mind going back to earlier in the morning when I had been labelling the bright, cheery green vials of healing potions alongside the bright, dangerous looking green of acid vials. I made a note to double-check those labels...."


.           -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 4



"... which brought an end to the second hour of our discussion of just what was going on and who was involved. Too many of our recent events were inter-connected; too many players cropping up more than once; too much that we just didn't know. Another glass of wine was a welcome addition to the conversation. Even from these cellars.

GR came back to the table then, to tell us that a contact of his had spotted Caibher heading into the Deathgate Guild chapter house with a package and a gnoll escort. This might be the break we were looking for. We knew that Caibher was supposed to deliver the Breastplate of Drakken Khas [ref: PJ-V2-99] to Keshta, the leader of the gnoll-dominated criminal organization. We didn't know whether we wanted to recover the breastplate before, during, or after the transfer, but we knew opportunity when it came knocking. Gathering our stuff (Hutch was carrying most of mine), we set off to Deathgate Guildhouse.

And so we set about the long task of staking out the chapter house, awaiting Caibher's appearance. I came upon the very clever idea of creating a Location spell [ref: CJ-V4-11] within the matrix of my new cane (which none of the DC had commented on, yet again), when GR remembered that his dragonmark allowed him to do just that twice each day. We'd been sitting out here for almost two hours: I wish the thought had occured to him earlier.

That complaint aside, a moment later GR said that the Breastplate was, indeed, in the chapter house, but about twenty feet below street level. We went down tower to see if the next level down was accessible, but could find no way to get from the public places of the tower to where the armor was. Still, we knew where it was, so we resumed our vigil.

A short time later, a group of gnolls came out of the chapter house, speaking roughly in thier barbaric tongue. They were not carrying any packages of appropriate size, so we let them go. I kept my cool and they walked right past me; the stupid animal-men had no idea I was staking the very building they had just come from. Some criminal organization they work for!

It was XL who first spotted Caibher. XL was stationed on the bridge between Shooma tower and tower Teema near the skyboat ramps. He saw Caibher crossing a bridge about one hundred feet down, and had to scramble to catch up to him. We ran.

We were almost upon him when he hopped into a sky boat and headed towards Lower Dura on the other side of town. The DC piled into another boat and ordered the driver to follow Caibher. Once we saw which landing he was going for, we ordered our driver to catch up to him, but, somehow, we had picked the slowest boat in all of Sharn, and he couldn't accomodate us. With nothing left to it, we ordered the driver to lower his skiff down to street level ahead of Caibher, and we all jumped out to confront him.

He recognized us right away, of course, and decided that he could take us. That was his first, and last, mistake. If he had run, he might have gotten away. Instead, he charged GR. 

The DC surrounded Caibher -- most bringing their weapons to bear, and IR summoning up the skeleton of a giant, upright, bear-like creature with the skull of a bird. I waited outside of the fight, to make sure he did not get away. 

Caibher quickly realized he was out-matched, and tried to manuever away. The DC was having none of that, however, and scrambled to keep him surrounded. I used the Hold Person scroll we had found down in the halls of the Order of the Closed Circle [ref: PJ-V3-89], but he shrugged off it's affects. IR summoned another large skeleton. 

CA was going for the kill, but GR kept his head about him, and tried to seperate the bundle Caibher had tied across his back from it's owner. Finally, he succeeded.

Quickly, I conjured up an Unseen Servant from a wand I had purchased [ref: PJ-V4-18], and ordered it to bring me the package. XL signalled to our sky boat driver (whom I had promised a goodly reward to), and the skiff lowered itself down to street level.

It was about this time that reinforcements arrived. The city watch almost never comes down to this part of town, evidently, and the local militia seemed to come in the form of a pack of bugbears and a dark, hooded figure. Unfortunately, Caibher seemed to be on good terms with the newcomers, and the reinforcements were his.

In quick succession, the DC piled into the boat. We were lifting off, CA dangling from a rope held by GR, when the hooded figure revealed his true form: a gorgon! It scowled at IR, but she averted her gaze just in time to keep from begin turned to stone. We yelled at CA not to look down.

Suddenly, the boat lurched as Caibher jumped onto the prow of the ship. XL tried to push him back, but Caibher was far too dexterous, and kept his footing. He lept over everyone to the back of the boat and made a grab for the package I had clutched to my chest. I made a show of fending off his attack and defending the armor. He bought it, of course -- I should be an actor! -- and, with a sneer, lept over the side of the boat to the ground far below. I smiled, and scrambled to the edge, looking down.

A fair distance below me, Caibher stood in a circle of bugbears, looking into the sack he had recovered. He had the armor now. Unbeknownst to him, I had used my time in the bottom of the boat to put a powerful enchantment on the armor -- one that I called upon with a word. Suddenly, I held the armor in my hands. Success! Oh, how I would have loved seeing the look on his face as his stolen armor disappeared right out from under his nose. Precious!

We made our way at top speed away from the scene. It was late evening, and raining to boot. Out of the darkness came a flying messenger from House Sivis: a magebred owl. He delivered a letter addressed to me then flew off. The seal was of Lady d'Vown of House Cannith [ref: PJ-V1-36]. She asked that we meet her at the Broken Anvil immediately. There was some dissension in the ranks -- we had just risked our lives acquiring this valued Breastplate and some of the DC wanted to turn it over to Professor Boroman -- but my calm rational argument pervailed. We went immediately to the Anvil.

I hoped the Lady was all right!"


.            -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 4




"She said something along the lines of, 'Ah! I can see here why your magics never work. One of the coins you carry is cursed! Quicky! Place all of your money into this sacred coffer, given to me by the High Preistess of Kol Korran herself! Return, then, when the sun is newly risen, to collect your wealth, and the cursed coin will have turned to purest platinum, it's curse broken. Quickly! There is no time to waste!' I panicked, and did the only thing I could think of...."


.            -- An exerpt from the List of Regrets of Artemis Heuw, Festival of New Beginnings, 995YK


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## sniffles (Jun 13, 2006)

I'm so pleased you decided to restore this, Devo. Your journal entries are so entertaining.


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## Devo (Jun 16, 2006)

I've got another journal entry half done. I just can't find my motivation to finish it!

Is anyone reading this?


D.


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## sniffles (Jul 19, 2006)

_I'm going to start adding my character journal entries back into this thread since they were lost in the Big Crash. But to avoid confusing readers, I'm only going to pick up from where Devo's entries leave off. _ 

From: Caelen Siorath
Caerlyn's Blade barracks
Middle Dura
Sharn
Breland

To my family;

Sharn got a bit hot for us. It looks like we'll be venturing into the Mournlands. My ancestor's spirit should be pleased with that challenge.

While we were arguing about what to do next - Kylara and Xil didn't want to go to the Mournlands - Grinner got a message about the location of the stolen breastplate. 
We thought about ambushing the gnolls before they could get rid of the item, but couldn't find a good location for an ambush. Then Grinner learned that Caibre, a shapechanger from the Deathsgate Guild, had the breastplate at the guild headquarters.

We followed Caibre in a skycoach. Grinner can sense where the breastplate is. We were going to jump onto a bridge from our skycoach, but then Grinner and Artemis remembered that there aren't any manifest zones in the lower levels of the city. We had to have the coach land so we could disembark and surround Caibre.

Caibre was a very seasoned warrior. Even with the aid of my companions I couldn't bring him down. But Grinner managed to slice off the sack containing the breastplate, and Artemis had a magical servant carry it off. Caibre had some reinforcements so we had to let him be.

We all leaped back into the skycoach to leave, but Caibre jumped in with us and snatched the breastplate back. Luckily the human had the forethought to cast a spell on it that would bring it back to him with a word. 

While we were on our way to Morgrave to return it a messenger owl landed in our coach with a missive from our patron, Lady d'Vown. She wanted us to meet her at the Broken Anvil immediately.

We had no time to dispose of the breastplate. We took the coach directly to the tavern. Lady d'Vown seemed anxious. She gave us a magic pack full of money and supplies and told us to get out of the city as quickly as we could. Then some more bugbears and a warforged burst into the tavern and attacked her. I tried to hold them off, but the warforged had adamantine plates. 

The human covered our withdrawal and we climbed out the windows. Now we've got to catch the lightning rail to the nearest town to the Mournlands. We need to recover the next schema before some other adventurers find it. 

I'll write again as soon as I can.

Caelen


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## sniffles (Jul 19, 2006)

*A letter home*

22 Dravago
From: Caelen Siorath
Rose Quarry, near Rhukaan Draal

To my family:

It took us longer than we would have liked to get out of Sharn. We had to deposit the breastplate with House Kundarak and arrange for the halfling professor to pick it up and leave our reward. 

Then our coach to First Tower got stuck in a crowd while we waited for the king of Karrnath to make his entrance. Those Karrnathi wear too much armor.

I met a Valenar while waiting for the lightning rail and he told me that the Karrnathi have been raiding into our territory. I wish I could be there to fight them. 

I thought we were going to take an airship from Wroat to Rhukaan Draal, but it turned out that the writ our employer gave us wouldn't cover the cost. We took the lightning rail part of the way and then bought magebred horses. 

In the goblin territory we looked into joining a caravan but it was travelling too slowly. We didn't have any trouble getting through Marguul Pass on our own.

The fellow we hired to take us to Rose Quarry isn't trustworthy. I don't know why our employer recommended him. I had to fend off a gang of bugbear toughs who were harrassing him. But he does have an elemental wagon, which is very impressive. 

To get to Rose Quarry without any trouble from the hobgoblin tribes, we had to agree to go somewhere else and recover the remains of one of their heroes. They're afraid to go themselves - cowardly lot. We'll take care of that after we get the schema. 

This ruined mining town is a very strange place; everything is burnt and covered in glass! We got here quickly enough to beat the other party, but there is still a large armed force here ahead of us. 

Now we've just got to avoid the Emerald Claw and some glass-coated zombie dwarves. I doubt my patron ancestor ever ran into a challenge like this!

I'll write more when there's more to tell.

Caelen


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## sniffles (Jul 19, 2006)

*A letter home continued*

23 Dravago
The Mournlands

The glass-coated undead proved difficult to destroy until I discovered that I could smash the glass with a mace. The others all had trouble keeping their footing on the slick glass. The human even sat on his homunculus-chest. I don't know why it was such a problem for them.

We made our way to the the quarry stoneworks, and Grinner heard living voices within. Inside we found two people, well armed, digging for something in the main chamber. The woman was no match for my blades, but the changeling slew the man before I could get to him. I took his flail in case we met more glass zombies.

Kylara and I kept watch while the others argued over some message or puzzle the Cannith people had left. While we stood guard a shadowy figure approached us. I believe it was a vampire! It disappeared into a mist before I could strike it and began shouting for reinforcements. As we were outnumbered by the people on the plateau, we withdrew to our wagon.

The next morning we entered the Mournlands. If you've never been there you can't imagine what it's like. We stepped into the fog together, but when I emerged on the other side I was alone. After a time - I couldn't tell how long, since the sky is covered with fog too - most of my companions joined me one by one. It took the human all day to get out. I expect he was walking in circles.

We found evidence of a battle, and it's just as I'd heard - the dead looked like they'd fallen just before we arrived. We frightened off some skeletal wolves and went on to a small village. Everyone there was dead too, though not from fighting. Kylara wouldn't disturb the corpses so we had to seek a cottage with only one body in it to rest for the night. 

There's something wrong with all the food and water here, though everything looks fresh. The water has a sickly glow. Kylara's purification ceremony did nothing. We'll have to take care that we don't run out of water. 

During the night we heard a terrible wail that frightened the half-orc so much he ran off. A ghostly spirit came into the cottage but we drove it off and found the half-orc. 

The next day we came upon a huge battlefield. This must be the Field of Ruin, as the humans call it. I saw a great number of Valaes Taern and went to look closer. In the heap of bodies I spotted the banner of Valea Eldalia. When I went to retrieve it the whole mass of bodies rose up from the ground! 

The bodies were all on the back of a huge crustacean. It grabbed me in one of its claws. No matter how hard I struggled I couldn't get free or bring my blade to bear. It bit me a number of times before my companions came to my aid. 

The human, Artemis, cast a spell that made a pocket of space.... elsewhere, for us to rest in. At least our healing magics work there. After we rested a bit I went out into the field again and found Valea's banner and her double blade 'Talaenkara'. I hope her patron ancestor will look favorably on my using it until I can return it to her family.

We found the command tent of the Cyran army. There's a huge chasm behind it that looks like it opened up in the midst of the battle. It's no wonder that no one wants to visit this place.

Somehow the human found the trail to the mine we're seeking - I don't know how he managed that. 

*Quips & Quotes:*

Jubilee (Kylara): "I guess if you live in a glass zombie shell you *can* throw rocks."

GM: "Caelen's being pulled between the carcass crab and the owlbear skeleton."
Devo (singing): "Torn between two monsters..."

GM: "It's morning now."
Xil: "But we're in the Mournlands - isn't it always mourning here?"


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## sniffles (Jul 19, 2006)

*A letter home, part 3*

24 Dravago
Whitehearth, the Mournlands

Our situation gets worse. We've been forced to bargain with a filthy vampire
to save Kylara's life. 

They've been following us for days, perhaps even since Sharn. The vampire promises
to release us all if we give him the schema. I don't trust him. 

I won't surrender. This filth will not touch Talaenkara. The blade has spoken to me!

This Cannith place is full of winding passages and trapped hatches. The human nearly
killed himself trying to open them. In desperation he summoned a being from the 
outer planes. It took us to most of the keys we need, but we haven't yet found
the schema.

The keys control spherical rooms that rotate to access different passageways. Ingenious,
but too complicated. These people are so wasteful with their magic. 

Now we've made a second bargain with a 3-headed wolf. Her brethren are imprisoned
somewhere. If we can free them we might have allies against the Emerald Claw. I 
can't help but wonder what sort of monster holds them captive if they're
all like Rorsa.

We must find our way back to the hatch with the plate beneath it. The keys should
open the plate. We must hurry. Kylara has only a few days before she becomes one
of Vol's minions. 

*Quips & Quotes*:

Devo: "I cast _lunch item_."

Devo: "Here, hold these two wires."
Hedrin (Grinner): "Okay, I've got one in my ear and one on my tongue. Now what happens?"

GM: "How long does it take to make a vampire spawn?"
Hedrin: "I don't know. How long does it take him to swim upstream?"

Sniffles: "You're supposed to remove the feet before you put the boots on."
GM: "These boots are too tight. They're a foot too small."

Xil: "Try the brown key in the brown hole."
Everyone: Much groaning and laughter.
Hedrin: "Exit only! Exit only!"


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## sniffles (Jul 19, 2006)

*A very long letter...*

25 Dravago
Whitehearth, the Mournlands

We have yet to find all the keys for this strange place. I'm starting to despise these rotating rooms.

We found Rorsa's brethren in a kennel. They were kept by some kind of wolf-like construct. It attacked as soon as we entered. Its breath was foul. _Talaenkara _ and I made short work of it while the changeling released the wolves. But Rorsa won't help us against the vampire.

Grinner found a fancy bronzewood rod, but the human says it isn't magical. Neither is the pearl pendant Rorsa gave us. 

Artemis cast his _rope trick_ again so we could rest and heal. Grinner was able to detect the schema we seek. We found what seems to be the water supply. And the forge. This place is full of 'living' spells. A fiery one got loose and burnt up a whole room. It wasn't hard to kill, though.

There was a strange room with another living spell in it. The room was all mirrors and the spell was just a swirl of colors. My task now seems to be slaying these magical monstrosities. I killed two more fire elementals as well, so we could get into the forge.

Only it wasn't really a forge. We don't know what it was for. But there's a dome that may let us escape without passing the guards. Grinner overheard them say they have orders to shoot us on sight. So much for the vampire's word. 

At least we have the schema now. In fact, we have two of them. And a plate that may have directions how to use them, or how to find more of them. 

But now we have to find a way to rescue Kylara before she becomes one of the bloodsuckers.

*Quips & Quotes*:
[sblock]
Sniffles: "The grill for the stylin' adventurer - _continual light_ on your teeth!"
Hedrin: "The grill of Vecna!"

_GM stands over Hedrin while drawing on the battlemat._
Hedrin: "Ew! GM cooties!"
patv (Xil): "Why do you think GMs stay behind a screen? Player cooties!"

GM: "Much licking and nuzzling and tail-sniffing ensues."
Devo: "But what do the wolves do?"

Sniffles: "I'm going to go up by Artemis in case something jumps out of the chest."
Devo: "It's a chest, not a cake."

Hedrin: "How big is the chest?"
GM: "36D."

Devo: "Hutch, stop rubbing up against that chest!" (_Hutch is Artemis' homonculus, a chest with arms & legs_)
Sniffles: "Suddenly his name is Hunch!"
GM: "In 9 months there will be a lot of little chests running around..."
patv: "At that age they're just coffers."
[/sblock]


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## sniffles (Aug 7, 2006)

24 Dravago
Whitehearth, the Mournlands

After resting for the night we climbed up through the opening in the dome. I found that it looked down on a shallow ravine leading past the Emerald Claw camp. With our numbers so few we decided that a swift frontal assault was our best strategy. 

The artificer prepared us with a few of his handy spells and I said a short prayer to Talaenkara for aid. I think my ancestor Coriandor would be proud. We crept down the ravine quietly, bypassing several skeletal guards by virtue of the human's magic. The ravine narrowed and I had to climb out to look around. One of the human sentries spotted me.

I ran partway across a rough bridge and jumped the ravine to charge him, taking him out with one blow. Not before he could give the alarm, though. In a moment I had four humans facing me. I slew two more of them as fast as the first. Then I saw the vampire come out of his tent. I caught a glimpse of a dismayed look on his face. A shadow fell over me.

I glanced up to see an airship overhead. Descending on ropes were the other adventurers we'd been trying to outrun. The vampire shouted that he'd give gold and eternal life to whoever brought him the schema. No one took him up on the offer.

The vampire summoned up a huge skeletal creature to oppose me. Grinner came to join me and smashed it to bits with his mace. I ran to hit the vampire before he could call another creature. I wounded him badly and he vanished in a mist.

Grinner ran up beside me. Then we heard a female voice in our ears asking if we wanted help. Grinner said yes and the mist disappeared, revealing the vampire only a few feet away! Before I could strike him a bolt of lightning hit me from behind. I still don't know where that came from. But I struck the vampire a vicious blow and he fled again.

The other party were starting to advance on us. Grinner suddenly lost his head and began yelling about how tired he was of being attacked by everyone for the schema. He took the one he carried out of his pack and threw it at one of our enemies' feet. 

I didn't want to let it go that easily after all the effort we'd taken to get it, so I charged the man. But another man on the airship caught hold of the item with some magic and wafted it away. 

I suddenly found that there was a gnome woman standing beside me. I don't know how she got there without my seeing her. The ship started to move off, though some of our foes were still on the ground. 

The gnome wanted to know if we'd let her join us. She'd been with the other group but said they couldn't be trusted. That was obvious when they left their own people behind. Besides the gnome we also had the half-ogre and the priest. I'll have to hold my revenge on the half-ogre for a later time. 

The changeling recovered Kylara. He claimed he'd seen the vampire again, and that it wasn't a real vampire at all but another changeling. He said he killed it, but I saw no corpse.

The gnome tells us an undead wyvern wiped out the hobgoblins we'd promised to help. We'll go back just to be sure. At least we don't have to walk. We have a dozen horses left by the Emerald Claw. And we still have the other schema. 
---------------------------------------------
*New addition to the party: Dahlia, female whisper gnome beguiler*

*Quips & Quotes:*
[sblock]
Hedrin (Grinner): "If you have any spells, fling them now!"

Hedrin (Grinner): "So to go down the ravine and up again..."
Devo (Artemis): "Jump it!"
Hedrin (Grinner): (_scratching his head_) "So to go down the ravine and up again..."

Hedrin (Grinner): "Do I get a Reflex save?"
patv (Xil): "You get a Reflux save."
Zora (Dahlia): "Ooh, is it acid?"

sniffles (Caelen): "What do you want your next character to be?"
Hedrin (Grinner): "Competent."
sniffles (Caelen): "The correct answer is: '12th level'."

Hedrin (Grinner): "I've got something stupid to do next round."
Devo (Artemis): "Get him?"
Hedrin (Grinner): "That's my plan."

GM: "What's the move on an airship?"
Devo (Artemis): "African or European?"

patv (Xil): "Do I see Kylara's stuff?"
GM: "No, it's hidden under her dress!"

Zora (Dahlia): "I want amnesty with your group."
Devo (Artemis): "That's fine. My homunculus outranks you, though."
[/sblock]


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## sniffles (Aug 21, 2006)

27 Dravago
The Mournlands

While I'm not sure I believe that the vampire was really a changeling, he didn't harm Kylara. The marks on her neck were just paint. When she woke up she didn't care much for the skeletons the priest had enslaved and she turned them to dust.

We had trouble finding our way out of the Mournlands. It's hard to tell directions there. Acid rain started falling on us, but the half-ogre found an overhang to shelter us. It had a spring in it that the artificer said was good. 

During the night, though, some snakes came out of the pool and attacked the horses. The snakes were hard to see clearly. By the time I got my blades my companions had crushed them. We put some tent canvas over the pool in case any more of them were down there. I guess there was something else in the water, because in the morning it was trying to get out. We packed up and left.

Eventually we found a battlefield with Karrnathi and Brelish standards, but there weren't any corpses on the Brelish side. Turns out it must have been a warforged unit. When we moved on we heard sounds of fighting. 

I went out to scout, and saw a group of warforged fighting another one of their kind, much bigger than the rest. When I went back to tell the others I found that the gnome woman had followed me. We had to go back and fetch her. The human wanted to stay and watch, but we decided to skirt around that area.

After a while we saw what looked like a dome in the distance. I went to scout that, too, and the gnome came along. When we saw some men working on the structure she made us invisible so we could get closer. The workmen all turned out to be warforged, and the 'dome' was really an enormous warforged head, even bigger than the one we'd seen earlier.

We decided we ought to get back to Sharn and tell someone about that. The human was excited about it, of course - he never thinks ahead. I wouldn't want to face that thing in battle. It will be big enough to crush a city once it has a body. It may already have one; the human says they're not built in pieces normally.

We kept going, still having trouble telling if we were going the right way - we had to rely on the half-ogre for that. Then the ground opened up under his feet and he fell in! Behind us another pit opened and a huge armored creature crawled out. The half-ogre was courageous in battle against it, but I'll never get to take my revenge on him now. The armored thing slew him. 

We all struck it with weapons or spells as hard as we could, and finally one of the changeling's bolts took it out. After that we buried the half-ogre and made our way to the border of the Mournlands. We just have to decide now if we want to go to Rhukaan Draal or head back to Sharn another way.

*Quips & Quotes:*

The GM drew a sketch on the mat of the overhang where we sheltered from the acid rain. It looked like a butt.   

GM: "Kylara crushes the snake's head beneath the boot of her mace."

Devo: "I've never seen the inside of a gnome or halfling."
Zora: "Want to?"


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## sniffles (Aug 28, 2006)

*A new letter from Caelen (finally)*

From: Caelen Siorath
         Sharn
         Breland

I'll keep this brief, as it won't be long until I see you. Thanks to Valea's family I have passage home to return _Talaenkara_ to them. 

I'd forgotten we were to meet our employer in Rhukaan Draal. On the way back we stopped at the hobgoblin village and confirmed what the gnome had told us was true. There's one quest we won't be making. Too bad. It might have been enjoyable.

We also found our former guide had been slain and his magic wagon destroyed, although we couldn't tell by what. But nothing troubled us on our way to the nearest town. 

We ran into a caravan of warforged who told us to watch out for Red Hand orcs. A wise warning. The orcs had taken over the town and were using the excuse of 'taxes' to rob travelers. We decided not to stay. The gnome acquired a token for us that got us past the gate guards and we moved on with only the loss of one wagon. 

In Rhukaan Draal we didn't know where to meet our employer, but she sent us a message by owl and we met in a tavern. She didn't offer much as reward for all our efforts. But the human was so interested in impressing her he didn't complain. He forgets we don't all care to join House Cannith.

Our employer knew about the gnome's former associates, but our news about the vampires was a surprise to her. She asked us to travel with her back to Sharn. We took passage on a ship. I paid to bring the magebred horse I'd taken as part of my spoils from the vampire's defeat. I've also now got a belt that gives me great strength. My friends in the Blades have been admiring it. I'll show it to you all when I arrive.

Oh, and we received our reward for the breastplate when we got back to Sharn. I've put some aside with House Kundarak. I'm still staying with the Blades at present.

Caelen

*Quips & Quotes:*

Hedrin: "You know, concentric circles are not slimming."
patv: "If you get hit often enough they might be."

patv: "Why did we take his purse?"
Zora: "Because it didn't match his outfit!"

Devo: "I'll be working on my wand during the trip."
GM: "So you're spending your whole time aboard ship playing with your wand?"


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## sniffles (Sep 5, 2006)

*Back to Sharn and Gone Again?*

From: Caelen Siorath
Caerlyn's Blade barracks
The Bazaar
Middle Dura
Sharn 
Breland

Lharvion 6

Dearest Mother;

I'm sending a short note to let you know I returned to Sharn. But I've hardly had time to let my friends in the Blades admire my new _zaelshin tu_. Possibly we'll be leaving the city again.

As soon as I got back to the barracks I had a message from Artemis to meet my adventuring companions at Silveros Tower and be ready to fight. Thaen and Cyrian of the Blades volunteered to come along. 

When we got to the tower we found our passage blocked by three big gnolls. I didn't even see any of my other companions. The first gnoll that hit Cyrian wounded him badly. Those gnolls are worthy opponents.

I caught a glimpse of a minotaur down below us. The minotaur must have seen us too, as it charged and leaped up to meet me. Sadly Thaen was closer and it took him out with one blow of its' huge cleaver. It managed to knock me down too.

By the time I regained my feet the fighting had stopped. Some noble had appeared down below with a bunch of warforged bodyguards, and was telling Caibre to get out. You remember Caibre - he's the one who stole the Dhakaani breastplate we recovered. He's all swagger and bluff, out for revenge. He could stand to learn a thing or two about that. 

He went off like a dog with his tail between his legs after this nobleman ordered him to leave. He'd lost all of his dog-heads but two, I think, and the minotaur. I noticed a couple of dog-head corpses that looked like they'd been hit with the bull's cleaver. 

Grinner came over with his healing wand and took care of Cyrian and I, but there was nothing he could do for Thaen. I stayed with his body until the Blades could come for him. My companions were respectful enough to wait with me. While we waited I learned that an illithid murdered Artemis' father during my absence. Seems the tentacle-face was looking for a black orb that Kylara had. I hope it knows she's left Khorvaire.

Then a messenger came up and gave a scroll to the human. Now we're to meet with that King's Hand, tomorrow at noon. He says to bring all our gear, so we may be leaving Sharn again. 

As always, I strive to bring glory to the name of my ancestor. I'll write again as soon as I can.

Caelen

*Quips & Quotes:*
[sblock]
Hedrin: "They're magebred."
Zora: "Mmmm... mage bread."

Devo: "Hutch has brawny arms. Or bronzy arms. I don't remember."

Devo: "Hutch pulls a potion and applies it to himself."
GM: "What's that chest doing?
patv: "He's oiling his chest."

patv: "Are we still connected by the _message_ spell?"
Zora: "Yes, but Dalia has to initiate contact."
patv: "Doesn't stop me from trying. Can you hear me? Can you hear me now?"

Zora: "I bluff the gnolls: 'No, I'm a commoner! I only get 1 action per round!'"
[/sblock]


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## sniffles (Sep 11, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, excerpt 9*

_(Devo has limited access to this site, so I'm going to get this story hour updated by posting his character journal entries for him) *sniffles*_

"...round and round, back and forth, from the shelves storing reagents back to the work table and over to the chest holding the completed vials. They were tireless, skilled, and precise -- and they were doing my bidding. Of course, I couldn't see them: they are called Unseen Crafters for a reason. But for the next week, they would work here continuing their craft, filling empty vials with newly created alchemist's fire. I really wanted to get in there and get my blue, crushed velvet cap from the peg above the workstation, but what if I bumped into one of the crafters? Would it stop working? Would it be sent off it's programmed course and run amok in my laboratory? I decided not to risk it, and left my cap where it was. Oh, well. With the money I made from their work, I could afford that purple hat I saw the other day...."


.             -- An Excerpt From the Crafting Log of Artemis Heuw, Volume 4


"...checked my pockets, and found the note I had hidden there earlier [ref: PJ-V4-49]. Thinking on it's contents warmed me, but I knew better than to pull it out to read it again, despite so desperately wanting to do so. If I did, I knew, my friends would only be curious, and then they would mock me. I should have destroyed the letter earlier just so no one else knew of it. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it. "Matters of the human heart," and all that. I wonder if anyone else ever felt this way?

At least I had something to draw my attention. My first trip out into the "wilds' of Khorvaire, and it was almost boring. Oh, sure, a lot of things could have happened to us. We could have run into trouble when we disguised ourselves and fled Sharn. We could have run into someone interesting while waiting for the Lightning Rail. We could have had some adventure while traveling the rails. We could have run into problems in Therron's Hold or been ambushed when we pushed -- by ourselves and against the advice of the locals -- through mountain pass and into Darguun. Something could have even happened to us while we traveled to Rhuukan Dral.

But, no. This whole thing has been boring, and completely non-profitable. Of course, it's the end of the journey that holds my interest. Alas, we are not quite there yet.

Rhuukan Draal is a sprawling, squalid town that probably used to be something. Now it's just sprawling and squalid. Home to thousands of orcs, goblins, hobgoblins and worse, the smell is unbelievable. Filthy creatures, all of them. We let GR lead the way through the largest market in the city, looking for our House Cannith contact. Round and round we went, back and forth, as GR followed one lead after another. Eventually, we were given the name of a tavern where he did business. It was such an unremarkable place, I have already forgotten what it was called.

IR seemed pleased with our progress to date, as we were at least a week ahead of our competition. I was pleased that we'd soon be getting out of here. Nothing in the market seemed worth what these people were asking.

As is the way of these things, we found our man at the dimmest table in the farthest corner of the tavern. Well, I found him. No one else in this group seems capable of picking out a House Cannith contact, despite the fact that they travel with one. Instead, everyone insisted we stand by the front door like a bunch of freshmen at MU while GR went in and traded good silver to the barkeep for information.

A moment later, we were sitting around a table discussing a trip to Whitehearth. Our man had just mentioned a land wagon, which sounded intriguing, when the front door was thrown open and a pack of bugbears came in looking for blood. Our contact's blood. He was there just long enough for the bugbears to see him -- and come to the conclusion that we were with him -- when he simply disappeared. The bugbears charged.

CA sprang forward immediately and interposed himself between them and us. GR jumped up and back, his crossbow coming up and loading before I could even blink. IR was chanting something intrinsically magical -- it sounded like a summoning. I'm not sure where XL was, but as the first bugbear charged at the table, I realized I had other things to consider. Like what I was going to do to get involved.

My first priority, naturally, was protecting HU. I ordered him back and rose from the table, my cane raised dangerously. I threw a quick slaying infusion into it (PJ-V1-32) and took a swing at the walking mound of fur and stench attacking CA. Thump! That hurt him!

GR was loosing bolts like a madman, climbing up on tables and jumping here and there trying to get in a good shot. XL was in the thick of things (naturally), and IR was fighting ferociously alongside her conjured dead/undead/not-really-undead-dead companion. (I never will understand why it's not really an undead, despite the obvious fact that it's an animated skeleton.)

There were more of them than there were of us, though, so we decided to make our move towards the side door. We did a good job sticking together, the whole group turning like a quarter-gear, pivoting on CA's position. XL was the first out the door, and we pushed our way out one by one until CA came out, slamming the door behind him. We could hear the howls and whimpers of our attackers, but they had been dealt too heavy a blow to give chase immediately. They were regrouping, and probably waiting for reinforcements. 

Our own reinforcement came in the form of our House Cannith contact, who materialized like magic from the shadows of a nearby alley. He urged us towards haste. We strategically relocated ourselves a few blocks over, where, hidden below a concealing tarp, we had our first look at the land wagon. Huh.

It was a wagon -- kind of big, kind of clunky, and pretty drab. Nothing exciting about it at all. When our contact touched his dragonmark to a bluish stain near the driver seat, though, it came to life. Well, more specifically, it drifted forward about a foot on it's own accord. Our man soon had it under control. It still didn't look like much. When I build my first sky wagon, it's going to be something to behold! Like uncle Wiliik's ship (PJ-V1-16).

After a quick discussion, we decided to hold for an hour before leaving town. We wanted to get back to our hotel to gather the last of our gear and sell our horses off. Boy did we get shafted on that deal.

Regardless, we were back at the land wagon and under way in no time. It moved fast! Once we got into open country, the landscape just flew by. XL looked a little green, but I had every confidence in the wagon. The driver was another story.

Our trip up to Rose Quarry was something of a journey. We weren't supposed to have any encounters with the local orc or goblinoid tribes, but we did. IR managed to talk them into letting us go, but we had to promise come back on our return trip to help them out. Something about robbing a priceless heirloom from some dead hobgoblin, or something. I didn't really catch all of it.

It was night when we got to Rose Quarry, and some days after leaving Rhuukan Draal. We were here to find a map room that would show us where Whitehearth lay concealed in the Mournlands. According to our guide, the Quarry had been hidden by the mist surrounding the Mournlands until just about a month ago. We were expecting something odd, but weren't prepared for what we saw.

All of Rose Quarry is up on a small plateau which was completely covered in ice. In order to see the ice from where we stood, it must have been a foot or more thick. The grey wall of the Mournlands stood silently behind the plateau; not close enough to be worrisome (barely), but omnipresent enough to cause concern. 

Some activity on the southern side of the plateau caught my attention -- lights and vague hints of movement. Our approach stratagem was obvious. Which means I had to come up with it, of course.

We left our guide behind and opted for a stealthy approach. Swinging around to the north, we came up onto the plateau from the darkest side possible. Our first revelation came to us as we approached. The plateau was no cooler than the surrounding environs, and we quickly found out why. It wasn't covered in ice, it was covered in glass! Our second revelation came moments later when IR gave out a gasp, and we looked closer at the glass. Buried in the glass were dwarven workers, trapped for all eternity. They looked as though they had been caught off guard by the appearance of the glass, which appeared to flow out from some place in the center of town. Not the kind of end I'd want. 

The plateau was slick, so we proceeded cautiously. From this side, the quarry was laid out like a small town, a couple obvious roads or broad pathways separating closely placed buildings. Most of the buildings were in ruin, as though a great earthquake had struck, but a few still seemed sound. A church was nearby, it's tiny graveyard on one side fenced in by iron and glass. Just across the street was an administrative building, still whole, and that's where we headed. We were sneaking through a darkened orchard when we discovered we weren't alone.

A dwarf and a human -- zombies by the look of them -- moved quickly towards us. They were covered in thick glass, though, which susurrated hypnotically when they shambled. We laid into them, as best we could, in the hopes of destroying them before we made too much noise. Their glass coating gave them a great deal of protection from our blades, but my club (infused against the undead <PJ-V1-32>) was making short work of them. Once we cracked the glass away, GR and CA had a much easier time slicing them up. The fight was over quickly, but was it quick enough? We froze and looked around but no one seemed to notice us. Not wanting to waste time, we moved forward.

We decided to give the graveyard a wide berth, as it looked like someone -- or some thing -- was in the small graveyard nearby digging up corpses. Sneaking up to the building, we heard human voices inside. They were directing more of the undead in what sounded like a digging project. The sound of picks shattering glass and shovels scraping it into wheelbarrows escaped from the building. I would have used the term "filled the night", but HU chose that moment to prove that there was room for more noise in the evening as he slipped on the glass (he wasn't built to traverse such surfaces) with a resounding THUD! A sharply hissed command and the sound of weapons being drawn was the last thing we heard from inside the building. Knowing the gig was up, we sprang into action.

CA and GR bound into the building and found themselves face-to-face with two humans and two of the glass-covered undead. Noises from behind us warned that other undead had heard us and were moving in. While GR and CA took on the humans, IR and I took out the undead. They didn't stand a chance.

Which is not to say that they didn't fight back. The battle was ferocious, going back and forth as each of us sought an advantage. Eventually, the warrior who stood against us fell (he had a chain mail shirt on, with a tabard bearing a green hand), then a moment later, the woman he was working with. More undead had joined the fray outside, and it took us an extra moment to silence them, but only a moment. We stood alone, most of us rather battered, but all of us better off than our opponents. 

We knew that time was precious. The south end of the plateau held a large camp full of people, and if they had heard our fight, they would soon come calling. We quickly surveyed the building, and found a large map room that our enemies had been trying to clear. And not just any old map, but a room-sized encryption depicting Cyre and all of it's Cannith holdings. We had one tiny clue -- from the journal of Geldam Bonal -- to help us unravel this mystery, and no time to waste! Finally! A true challenge for my magnificent intellect!

Alas, the puzzle was not difficult in the least. Of course, I had to explain it to GR and XL at least four times, but they just never really grasped the concept. I guess you have to be House Cannith to understand. And I'm not *really* in House Cannith yet, but I will be some day. Probably as soon as we report our findings from Whitehearth!

We were out of time. A voice outside shouted "Intruders!", and we knew the gig was up. Rather than trying to prove to my companions, yet again, that I had worked out the Cannith encryption, I simply showed them which mark on our own map represented Whitehearth, and we took off into the night. CA is the only one who saw our opponent: a red-eyed vampire who alternated between yelling for his guards, and shouting dire predictions about our fate. He had conjured up (or turned into) an obscuring cloud. Obviously, his intention was to slow us down until his guards could come along. We didn't look for a fight, we just took off into the night. At first, everyone was lost but me, but then we all came together and fled the plateau. The guards must have been farther off than we thought, though, because we weren't pursued. We made our way back to the land wagon and took off at top speed!"


.           -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 4




"Skywagon, sky blue, with night blue underside embedded with diamonds. With living flames on the sides."
"Wand of Detect Magic !!!"
"A fine walking cane that can turn into a real coatl -- or maybe just a snake; that's non-venemous; and has to be thrown to operate"
"Floating tower"
"A tear-resistant cloak"
"A wand or rod of some sort that would turn the food from those inns that the DG likes into something palatable."


.           -- An excerpt from the List of Wonders That I Will Create Some Day, by Artemis Heuw, 998YK


----------



## sniffles (Sep 11, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, excerpt 10*

"... shaded it and drew sparks around it for dramatic effect. I sat back and contemplated the blueprint for a moment, then closed my eyes and tried to visualize the flow of quantum magics through the design and how the interaction of right- and left-handed eldritch ventrices would interact. I woke up with the sun streaming through the window and a bowl of lukewarm oatmeal on the table beside me. I really need to stop working so late. I reviewed my design, stained somehow by a short flow of viscous fluid that had materialized near where my head had been resting, and realized I had been blueprinting in my sleep again. Evidently I had been dreaming of magically animated children's toys in the shape of an upright bear, powered by syberis dragonshards and capable of emitting scathing beams of light from their eyes. The wierd part, though, is that the design looked very much like the one I had used when I made Stark just a month earlier...."


.           -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 5



"...which is all I want to say here about going through the wall of mist surrounding the Mournlands. I have written copious notes about the event, however [ref: PJ-CM-1]. Enough that as soon as I can find them, I plan on expanding upon them and recording the whole experience and my perceptions on the event into a book. Perhaps I shall call it "Artificers in the Mist"....

The Mournlands were, as all accounts had lead us to believe, gloomy. The landscape seemed drained of color. I could not tell if the sky was overcast, or simply the dead gray of a sky that must naturally associate itself with a dead-gray land. It was as if we stood in the center of a great wound; we were mites standing on the dead flesh of the conjoined dragons Eberron, Syberis, and Khyber.

On the plus side, I didn't have to go back into the mist to rescue anyone: the whole group was just a short distance away in a gloomy looking camp. Even HU was there waiting for me. I waved and went over to join them. They acted as though they were grateful to see me come out of the mist alive. I knew as well as they did, though, that I was the only one adequately trained to study and experience the mist without getting lost. That is why I was the last one through. Where they bumbled, I explored.

We had a good idea of where Whitehearth was, but only a vague idea of where we were. Finding the lost Cannith site would be an true expedition. We weren't as well equipped for this mission as I would have hoped, though. For all the research IR had done on the Mournlands [ref: PJ-V4-95], we didn't have the time to stock up on the necessary provisions before we had to leave Sharn. I knew healing would be a problem here, but thanks to IR's discussions on the matter, I had a few tricks up my sleeve that I thought would serve us well. And eventually, they did. That is jumping ahead in the tale, though.

We travelled east -- as best we could reckon -- seeking Whitehearth. The stasis-dead were all around us at times. According to my studies, Cyre was the site of may decisive battles towards the end of the War. Travelling through one such battlefield, we were all of us surprised when a mountain of corpses rose towards the sky, on the back of some monstrous, hideous insect or crustacean. It moved quickly towards CA and grabbed him in one huge pincer. CA, to his credit, already had his sword out and, though pinned, continued to hack at the beast as best he could. The rest of us jumped into action, too: GR with his crossbow, IR with her summoning, and XL with his stick-spear. I directed HU to put some of the alchemist fire to use against the creature, and set about infusing myself with just the right combination of magics to destroy the creature, save CA, and not get myself killed in the process. The last of my enchantments complete, I charged forward. The creature perished.

We recovered CA, who was badly wounded but not mortally so. We started contemplating ways to restore his health when he started climbing up on top of the beast and pried a long pole with banner off if it's crusty hide. He stood there for a moment, holding the banner aloft and looking at his find. It struck me as very funny for a moment. Bodies lay impaled on the creature next to CA; dead yet looking nearly alive. Some almost seemed to be reaching for CA and some for the banner. It looked like a poorly colored picture plate you might associate with an adventerous epic tale: a warlord holding his banner aloft while his enemies lie dead and dying around him. I had to cough to cover up my giggle, but I think no one noticed.

CA came down from the carcass with his two finds. Along with the banner -- belonging to some dead elven guy, to hear CA speak on it -- he carried a twin-bladed sabre. It looked like a terribly unwieldy weapon. Five feet long, if an inch, with a scimitar-like blade jutting out in either direction. How would one swing that without gutting themselves, or cutting off their own foot? CA seemed excited at the find, though. He did like living dangerously, I guess.

We did what we could for our wounds and continued on. The whole of the land was creepy and quite unsettling. HU and XL kept jumping at shadows, and they were starting to make me a bit anxious. For almost two days we travelled like that, encountering a number of plague dogs (undead), a rather aggressive vulture (also undead) and a very spooky ghost who wanted GR's soul, or something equally trivial. (The ghost was undead, naturally -- well, not *naturally*, but, you know -- I didn't think it worth mentioning the obvous, though.) We overcame all obstacles.

Through grit and determination we made our way to where our map said Whitehearth would be located. My Cannith-honed senses spotted the place from -- literally -- a mile away, though no one else remarked on it. As we approached, GR suggested we spread out a bit to search for the entrance. I simply rolled my eyes and walked right up to the opening in the hillside. To the untrained eye, it looked like nothing more than an abandoned mine shaft. I could read the signs, however. One of those signs was a placard hanging on the entrance's cross-beam that translated to "Whitehearth".

That undead vulture attacked us again, and we ran into the cave for protection. There was plenty of room for us inside: the tunnel almost immediately ballooned out into a large staging area. The cave was empty except for a single tunnel that exited from the far end. That tunnel branched almost immediately into three passages, each ascending or descending at different angles. I turned to GR and bet him 10 silver that the passage to Whitehearth would be in the lowest chamber, but he just grunted, pointing off in the direction of the one tunnel that sloped gently upwards. I'm not sure if that was acceptance of the wager or not.

We went up, and just around the bend found an adamantine hatch in the ground. My Cannith senses were tingling. "This is a false hatch," I told him. Still, he wanted to see it open so I obliged him. The hatch was cunningly trapped, and locked to boot. I was having a heck of a time getting around both before they would reset themselves. CA and XL came while I was working and told us that there was a similar hatch down both of the other corridors. Since the one I was working on was a fake anyway, I gave up on this hatch to see the other two. I pointed out to GR which hatch would lead down to Whitehearth (the one in the lowest room), then set about openning up the third hatch just to prove my point. I opened this one without much difficulty. Beneath the hatchway was bare stone. A fake.

And this is where I learned a very valuable lesson. I was focused on overcoming the hatch -- so much so, in fact, that I failed to notice that some alien force had been attacking the rear of our party. I allowed myself to become distracted and without my supervision, the DC had fallen in trouble again!

I raced out to discover a fight in the outer cave. The vampire we had run from at Rose Quarry had caught up to us -- that undead vulture was his familiar and he had been tracking us for days. He (the vampire, not the vulture) held IR casually in the crook of one arm, while his green claw minions and their undead cohorts were attacking my friends. A woman elfin sorceress hit GR repeatedly with magic missiles, while her goons had GR, CA and XL choked up in the bottleneck of the back tunnel. A couple of our attackers were down, but CA and GR both looked pretty bad.

I had just finished up some of my best infusions [ref: CJ-V3-16, CJ-V3-12] when GR called for surrender. I was farther back in the tunnel, so I couldn't see what was happening, but we must have been winning! Alas, I should have known that without my involvement, we were not. XL immediately agreed to a surrender, and even CA seemed willing to stop fighting. We had given up.

Which is not to say that we were cowards. The vampire had IR at his mercy, and threatened to kill her if we did not surrender. GR and XL were simply protecting her life. The vampire told us that in order to save IR's life, we must venture into Whitehearth and retrieve for them the very schema that we had come to recover. I was outraged! I moved forward to launch my own attack and win back IR, but GR was negotiating, stalling for time. I'm not sure what he was stalling for; it's not like we could heal up to renew the attack.

I joined the diplomatic mission at that point, and tried to negotiate IR coming down into Whitehearth with us. There was but one exit, and vampire could guard that, couldn't he? But he wasn't falling for it. Our fate was sealed. We would have to go down into Whitehearth, overcome it's defenses (along with whatever curses the Mournland had affected within it's locked halls), recover the schema, and trade it for IR's life.

Ah, well. That's what we came here to do, anyway. Now it was more interesting!

We retreated into the tunnel again, while the vampire backed his group out, taking their dead. They set a guard outside of the main cave. 

Now, with a purpose, I set about opening the main hatch down into Whitehearth. HU helped. Before long, it was open. 

Below the hatch was a shaft going down. A ladder was built into the wall on one side. I dropped a sunrod (one of my own creations, I might add [ref: CJ-V3-97]) into the shaft, but it simply passed through a curtain of darkness and was lost. I couldn't even hear it clang against the ground below. This would be exciting!

GR asked who should go first, but I didn't really think that a valid question. I descended into the darkness, followed closely by HU. Despite his large chest, those arms make him an excelent climber!

The darkness extended for a mere ten rungs of the ladder and then ended. The shaft continued on for another fifteen feet or so. My highly trained senses immediately grasped the significance of the darkness: it was a magical globe surrounding Whitehearth, an impeneterable field that would prevent any sort of detection from piercing it's protective shell. Just the sort of construction I would have placed around a secret research facility. There was a very tiny curvature visible to the darkness -- so small that I doubt anyone as simple as those I travel with could have noticed it, or garnered the it's significance. My trained eye measured the curvature and I did some quick calculations. If this was a spherical effect, and I was on the inside of the sphere, then the whole complex would have to fit within an area no two points of which were farther than two hundred feet apart. Ha! I wasn't thirteenth in my mathematics class for nothing!

The shaft came down on the side of a spherical, metallic room, the ladder tangential with the west pole of the room. (To fully grasp that concept, one must accept that a spherical object has an upper pole -- which is the point on the sphere that represnts it's upper-most point), a lower pole, and cardinal north, south, east, and west poles. One could conjecture, of course, that there is also a north-north-northeast pole, but that would be silly.)

Coming down into the room was relatively easy, but it was something of a balancing act since there were no ladder or stairs to help one transition from the vertical to the horizontal. HU had an easier time of it than I did. The inner surface was composed of high-friction metal plates that were a bit rough on the hands an knees. Across the room and about a quarter of the way up the sphere a metal cylinder capped with a mithral plate jutted out into the room. It was the only point of interest so I went to investigate. Along the way I snatched up my sunrod, which had rolled to the lowest point of the sphere. The other memebers of the DC streamed into the room.

The cylinder was plain metal with an octagonal mithral plate on it's top. Evenly spaced along each side of the plate were holes which I estimated to be about an inch-and-a-half deep and about an inch in diameter. A colored ring surrounded each. Most of the rings were blue, but two were green and two were brown. Another hole in the center of the plate (with a blue ring) made for nine openings in total.

There were no operating instructions and we had nothing that resembled a matching key, so we were stuck. We searched over the room again, and the shaft leading out, but found no other exits. Once again, it would came down to my rather impressive skills as an artificer to save us. I told the others to get comfortable, and began one of my more time-consuming infusions [ref: CJ-V1-8].

An hour later, I had identified the purpose and use of the pedestal. It was operated by color-coded dragonshard keys. When the properly coded key was inserted into one of the keyholes and turned one quarter turn to the right, the chamber we were in would reposition itself to the designated doorway and present an egress. Now all we needed was a key. 

We racked our brains, trying to think of any time when we may have had one of these keys, or had the opportunity to acquire one. No one could come up with anything. I was perusing the journal of BG when an idea struck me. I turned to GR, a dragonmarked member of House Tharashk, and asked him, "Can't you find a key for us?"

The look of slow-forming recollection on GR's face would have been amusing to watch, if I hadn't been rolling my eyes in exaspiration. Honestly, the level of nescience that I must put up with in this group is astounding at times. Even HU seemed amused. GR set about the task of locating a key-like object immediately.

A few minutes later, GR had determined that there were a number of such keys, all within a couple hundred feet, and all quite out of reach. He climbed out into the outer tunnels to see if he could sense anything, but found nothing. The anti-divination globe was working fine, it seemed.

We worked for a few minutes more, trying to come up with some way to fetch a key, but found nothing. With a sigh, I pulled out the summoning scroll we found some time back [ref: PJ-V3-68]. I told the rest of the DC what I was about to do, then started reading the scroll.

The being to answer my Calling was tall, gaunt, and alien. IR would have known what it was were she here, but she wasn't. I had to deal with him on my own. The creature would not "steal" any of the keys for us, but he would take us to their location. We negotiated a price.

We were teleported to a dining hall, still inhabited by House Cannith personnel. They lay scattered about the place, dead where they had collapsed on the Day of Mourning. It was sad. GR immediately pulled the boots off of a nearby body and compared them to the size of his own feet. He put the boots on.

Amongst their personal possessions we found a number of keys: dragonshards inserted into a color-coded ceramic handle. Most were blue, but we found a red key as well. A quick search of the adjoining kitchen failed to turn up anything interesting. The food still looked good, but I didn't trust it. Finely honed senses, and all that.

The only exit was a long hallway that ended in a vault-like door. I used one of the blue keys we had found and a moment later the door swung open. We were looking upon a spherical room with a metal column jutting up from the lowest point on the floor. There were signs in the room that indicated that this was the very same chamber we'd spent so long in.

I hypothesized to HU (the only one in the DC I can hold a rational discourse with) the possibility of localized gravitational control, emenating from this central, spherical chamber. He just tok'd at me, and I had to agree. A simpler explanation was more likely.

We gathered in the sphere and tried one of the keys. Immediately, the door leading to the dining hall snapped shut, disappearing from view, and the whole room spun. I had, naturally, already come to the conclusion that this would happen and was braced for it. HU and a few of the others were a bit surprised by our sudden movement. I helped them up as a new door opened in the wall.

Over the next few hours, we explored the place fully. There were a few dead Cannith researchers here and there, but not many. Most of them had been in the dining hall. We encountered two very interesting spell effects -- living spell effects. They were a bit tiresome to deal with, but, unfortunately, they continued to attack us, so had to be destroyed. A pity -- I kind of liked them.

We also found a couple of intelligent, living creatures. The first was a large she-wolf named Rorsa. She looked as though she had been experimented upon and might have been part construct. She had kin somewhere here in Whitehearth, and asked our assistance in rescuing them from a "stone wolf'". In exchange for our help, she offered a magical necklace that she wore. There were living creatures in danger -- of course we agreed to help.

It took us some while to find the stone wolf. And when we did find it, it was a surprise to everyone involved. I noticed it first, naturally, and repositioned myself to a more tactically sound location. GR wasn't nearly as quick, and got pounced.

The stone wolf was, sort of like RO, a wolf that had been experimented upon. He could speak, which was a surprise, and had great slabs of black marble grafted onto his flesh. I surmised that he, too, was part construct.

Whatever he was, he was a killer. The fight was quick and dangerous -- just the way I like them. XL had the idea of slipping past the stone wolf and opening the cages in the room beyond. We could see and hear wolves in those cages, but when they had an opportunity for freedom they hid until the Stone Wolf was defeated. 

And before long, defeated he was . He crashed to the ground with a mighty crash, almost pinning CA. We had been hard set upon this day, and could go no further. We needed rest. Before we did so, however, we communicated to the wolves that RO had sent us. They allowed us to escort them back to RO and it was a happy reunion. We chose our resting place and camped out for half a day. One of my most basic infusions [ref: CJ-V1-21] allowed me to mold the very structure of magic to my will and create a trans-dimensional space that we could climb up into. That little rope trick was the only space we could use to heal ourselves here in the Mournlands.

After resting, we continued exploring. One of my favorite rooms that we discovered was the linen closet. I know that sounds strange, but it's true. A number of long-lived invisible servants were in the room, taking the linen, cleaning it, drying it, folding it up, and putting it back in it's place. It was a simple, elegant process that repeated again and again. That's the kind of magic I will have in my tower some day!

Late in our stay at Whitehearth we found the administrator's office, which had a wall that showed the foundry room. We hadn't found the foundry yet, so this was pretty exciting. According to what we could see, though, the foundry was a mess. Appearantly, the fire elementals bound to the glass kiln had escaped. Virtually everything in the room was burnt and useless. Back by a molten glass pool, however, I spotted the treasure that we sought. In a glass or crystal chest were a few red vials, a large metal plate, and the schema we had come to find. We were one step closer! Now all we had to do was find the room shown to us on the wall, defeat the fire elementals guarding it, and claim our prize.

One step at a time, though. We thought by this point that we had scoured the entire complex, but still had no idea where the kiln room was. Guess who worked it out? That's right. Me. There was a second "switching chamber" that we had found -- similar to the spherical room we first discovered, but the control panel was just a little different. In a flash of pure genius, I put two of the keys in the panel and operated them simultaneously. The way to the kiln room opened up to us.

From where we stood, we could see the heavy vault door that led into the foundry. GR and CA were all set to go charging in, but I knew better. A whole slew of protective, offensive, and utilitarian infusions later, and we were standing in front of the vault going over our battle plans one last time. I opened the vault door and CA, guarded against fire, went in first. Two large elementals charged immediately. GR counter-charged, his weapon powered-up with an elemental-destroying infusion. XL slipped around the creatures and made for the chest.

A moment later, as CA was getting pounded and surrounded, I used my infused cane [ref: CJ-V3-7] to prod one of the elementals away. He fled under my command. CA finished up the elemental that had him still pinned in place while GR charged the retreating elemental and destroyed that one, too. The battle was over disappointingly quickly. And after all that preparation, too!

After taking stock of our condition, we went about searching the room. Virtually anything that could have been of use had been destroyed by fire and the once-free elementals. The crystal chest, however, was unharmed. Therein lay our bounty.

My trained eye picked out the two potions of fire restistance immediately. There was also a mithral plate, about two feet across, that had patterns all over like a schema. Five ports on the plate were designed to hold actual schemas, however. One matched the adamantine schema we had recovered for Lady d'Vown over a month ago [ref: PJ-V1-103]. Another was for the diamond-shaped schema that we had been sent to Whitehearth to recover. 

When I pulled that schema out of the chest, I felt suddenly elated. There was not one, but two diamond-shaped schemas. They were exactly alike! I practice-fitted each into the plate, and they fit like a charm. I was careful to minimize the time I had the pieces conjoined, however, so as to avoid any unwarranted magical effects. I handed one of the schemas to HU and, at someone's suggestion, gave the other to GR. You guessed it. It as GR's suggestion. I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me.

The fight with the elementals had not been dangerous to us, but it had exhausted most of my resources. We decided to rest once more before going back to negotiate with the vampire for IR's release.

At some point during our down time GR snuck out of the cave. Reportedly, he wanted to "test the keys on the hatches" in the outer cavern. He came back claiming to have overheard that the guards in the cavern were given a shoot-on-sight order. I suspected that GR might have gone to negotiate on his own, but no matter. One way or another, there would be no further negotiating with IR's captor. Now it was a fight!

The roof of the kiln room was a large hinged dome. After we felt properly rested, we worked out how to escape Whitehearth through the dome and snuck outside. We were on top of a hill that overlooked the vampire's camp. A couple hundred yards from where we stood, a single large pavilion was surrounded by six lesser tents. Around this setup was a ring of bonfires, and even from this distance we could make out guards encircling the camp. Dotting the ground between our location and the encampment were scattered undead. On watch, no doubt.

I came up with a plan. Infusing a quick spell into my cane, I summoned an illusion that would conceal all of us from the undead. It would hold until one of us attacked or actually touched one of the creatures. I set CA the task of killing the humans in the camp, infusing his newly acquired blade with a bane enchantment to help him out. Somewhere along the line, GR had found an enchanted mace, so I gave him the task of destroying any of the skeletons defending the camp. I re-iterated to both of them that as soon as either attacked, our invisibility would disappear. (An excellent pun, and no one caught the humor in it. I travel with boors.)

XL had a very special task. One admirably suited to his camoflauging nature. He was to infiltrate the camp in the confusion of the attack, find IR, and bring her out. His was the most challenging role, but I thought him up to the task.

Naturally I had a part to play, too. Someone had to stay in the back and supervise the entire affair. Gods only know the kind of mess we would be in if our overall strategy was left up to anyone else. HU would stay with me, to defend me and help out as needed. In case of emergency, I had a couple of surprises ready for anyone foolish enough to get close to me.

A dried-out river bed started at the foot of our hill and ran within ten paces of the enemy's encampment. We used this to approach the camp, walking right under the noses (?) of half a dozen skeletal guards. We hit a snag, literally, about fifty feet shy of our goal, however. A tangle of dead brush and logs had jammed the river when water still flowed, and blocked our way now. We would have to exit the ravine.

Rather than exiting on the encampment side of the ravine -- we would have surely been spotted by the human guards standing watch nearby -- we exitted on the far side and attempted to sneak around. CA ran swiftly and silently forward, then GR went. I brought up the rear, mimickig CA. I should have realized, though, it wasn't the man I needed to mimick, it was the boots I had created for him [ref: CJ-V3-76]. I don't think it was me the guards heard. I'm sure it was HU. 

Regardless, the alarm was raised. CA sprinted towards a makeshift bridge some distance away, while GR clambered noisily down into the ravine, just on the other side of the jam. That's when we learned that the log jam was not unoccupied. Some living-dead plant-like creature-sentience sprang to life, lashing out at GR with a large prickly-looking vine. It was big enough to snare a horse!

GR was just a bit too quick for it, though, and scrambled away. He made it across the ravine and up the other side, battling the vine and it's life-like roots. I wasn't close enough to be in any danger from the vine, but the far-flung root system of this crazy plant-creature was another matter. It animated and sprang up from the dry, cracked earth to grab anything it could. I have always been an excellent dancer -- very light on my feet -- so I managed to dodge the roots for quite a long time. HU, on the other hand, was constantly forced to take the time and effort to tear himself away from where he became rooted down.

Meanwhile, the fight was progressing. Displaying his dexterous elven heritage, CA had run across the rickety bridge and launched himself over some very difficult terrain. He landed gracefully, planting one end of his twin-bladed scimitar in the now corpsified guard who stood waiting for him. Within a heartbeat, though, CA was surrounded by the camp's other guards. He fought like a devil.

The elven sorceress had come out from one of the tents by this point. She ordered the skeletons to "Kill the intruders!". I had counted on this tactic. There were about a dozen skeletons standing guard out away from the camp. The nearest "intruder" at this point, then, was myself. Perfect. They charged towards me, but, lacking my quick-footed reflexes, quickly became entangled in the still active plant creature. A fair distance away and struggling to move at all, they were out of the fight for quite a while. The undead that were closer to the camp had GR as their closest enemy. They charged towards him, but didn't stand a chance against his artificer-infused mace. 

There were enough undead, though, that GR was quickly getting overwhelmed. Worse, there were enough human guards engaging GR that he couldn't focus solely on the skeletons. A good thirty feet seperated GR from CA. I was throwing lightning bolts from my confiscated wand into the largest groups of enemies I could find. XL was no where to be seen. That was good.

Then the vampire came out. That was bad. He stood close to the elven sorceress at first as she directed streams of magic missiles at GR. Then he started spellcasting. Summoning a giant skeleton and directing it against CA, the vampire moved out of my view. Things were slowly going down hill for us.

That didn't last long, though. Five seconds later, things were as bad as they could possibly be.

A Lyran airship had drifted silently towards the battle, coming in low behind us. Rapelling down were the four remaning members of the team that had jumped us in the Broken Anvil in Sharn [ref: PJ-V2-54]. They had friends.

The half-ogre and a knife fighter charged off towards CA. Behind them was the wizard woman. Near me (close enough to be trapped in the entanging roots, in fact) was the armor-plated priest. I could see that he still bore the burn marks that scored our last encounter. He acknowledged my presence, but made no hostile actions.

A gnome woman came down with the attackers, but I lost sight of her almost immediately. Up at the railing of the airship was a man, shouting orders to his people. He told them to kill the "Emerald Claw" first -- whatever that was -- because we would have to be questioned. Just like that, our enemies had turned into our allies.

Things really started cooking, then. It was almost impossible to seperate friend from foe from not-foe in the melee surrounding the camp. I threw more lightning bolts. CA, showboating his elven speed once more, lept from clear ground into the path of one of my bolts quicker than the lightning itself was moving. Impressive, but he got burned for his efforts. Evidently, I need to talk to him about staying out of my line of fire.

A tiny voice whispered in my ear, warning that they would eventually turn on us, too. I had no idea what was going on, so I looked to HU. He merely shrugged. tok tok

The man up in the airship was shouting down to give up the schema, and we would all be spared. One of the newly arrived adventurers was pressing GR and CA for the same thing. The vampires men were quickly dropping. It would only be a matter of time before the newcomers turned on us.

That small voice came again, whispering that she could help us, but wanted amnesty within our group. Realizing what was about to happen, I called out my agreement.

But I was too late. GR read our situation and found his own solution. He pulled out the second schema and threw it at one of the attackers, who grabbed it and caught one of the mooring lines still dangling from the nearby sky ship. I was so mad I tried to hit him with a lightning bolt, but the damn thing chose that moment to fail to operate. 

The ship took off so fast that they left two of their own behind. Radigast the cleric and the huge half-ogre.

Suddenly the little gnome appeared and said "Hi, my name's Dahlia," in that same small voice I had heard just a moment before.

Correction: they left three of their own behind."



.           -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 6



tink -- "Yes."
tok -- "No."
tink-tink-tok-tink-tok-tok -- "You look nice in your blue jacket."
tok-tok-tink-tok-tok -- "I am concerned that the alchemist fire I am carrying will detonate."
tok-tok-tok-tok-tok -- "Danger, Artemis Heuw! Danger!"
tink-tok-tink-tink-tok -- "I have to go to the bathroom."
tok-tink-tink-tink-tok-tok -- "You want me to follow you where?"

.           -- An excerpt from "Translations of a Pack Homunculus" by Artemis Heuw, 998YK


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## sniffles (Sep 11, 2006)

*Caelen writes home again*

From: Caelen Siorath
Zilargo
10 Lharvion, 998 YK

To my family;

As I expected, our new employer has sent us out of Sharn. Out of Breland, too. We're headed east in pursuit of a coach containing a stolen item. I can't say more. I gave my word.

Our employer gave us an audition before he offered us the job. We had to capture his pet basilisk in his conservatory. It would have been a simple task if my companions always used good tactics. The human strolled off as if he meant to admire the topiary. He and that walking chest of his make more noise than a cavalry troop. 

Three of them got themselves turned to stone before I knocked the beast unconscious. The gnome did manage to blind it with glittering dust, but it doesn't need to see to direct its petrifying attack. Our employer paid to have them restored to flesh. I don't know what we would have done with an invisible stone gnome otherwise.

We rode hard into the gnome country and heard some news of the coach we seek. There's a bridge out ahead so the coach has to take a longer route. We tried to take a shortcut through a forest and hired a local guide. He managed to lead us into an ogre ambush. I think he was distracted by the changeling turning into a pretty girl to persuade him. We likely would have made better time trying to cross where the bridge washed out. We'd already decided to go that way, but the changeling wouldn't give up on the shortcut. 

Our employer gave us magebred horses to keep as part of our pay, but the half-orc lost his to the ogres. We'll have to double up now. We should have enough gold to buy another horse when we get to a larger town. Our employer's paying us well, but for some reason the human keeps complaining it's not enough, though it's far better than what our last employer paid for our trip to the Mournlands. 

As always, I continue to glorify the name of Coriandor in battle.

Caelen

*Quips & Quotes this session:*
[sblock]

Zora: "Does this petrification make me look fat?"

Hedrin (to Hutch the homunculus -  see Artemis's journal entry above): "Tok, damn you, tok!" 
Zora: "All you do is tok!"

Hedrin (tv announcer voice): "12.2 swords are stolen every day."

patv: "So I don't know anything about this sword that steals your soul..."
Hedrin: "We've seen you dance - you have no soul."

patv: "We might have to change our tact."
Hedrin: "You have no tact."

patv: "We need a magebred pony for some people."
DH (our illustrious GM): "There's a child seat on that one."

patv: "Should we be flashing the papers around?"
Zora: "Ew! He's flashing again!"

sniffles: "Caelen goes around grabbing people by the shirt front and demanding 'Have you seen a black coach?'."
Hedrin: "No, but I saw this movie about some inner-city kids and a white coach..."
patv: groans
Devo: "When you say something that bad you can groan."
Zora: "When you say something you can groan."

patv: (_referring to Xil disguising himself as a pretty girl to charm the guide_) "Like everyone who's charmed that way, you just use them temporarily."
DH: (_leering_) "So you're being used..." 

DH_ draws a map on the mat._ 
Devo: "It has long eyelashes!"
patv: "Those are cilia, silly."

DH: "Why don't you play Hutch and have Artemis as his cohort?"
Zora: "As his humanculus!"
[/sblock]


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## sniffles (Sep 25, 2006)

*Continuing adventures*

12 Lharvion, 998 YK

From: Caelen Siorath
Trolanport 
Zilargo

To my family;

This trip is turning out to involve more of my skills than just my expertise with a blade. 

We got out of the forest safely and said farewell to our guide. After we'd been on the road a few hours we caught sight of a black coach. I don't know how it got ahead of us. We planned to ride ahead to the bridge, pretending to be ordinary travelers. 

As we picked up speed to pass the coach, another rider broke from the trees and galloped ahead of us. A bolt of lightning from the coach knocked her out of the saddle. Grinner stopped to heal her. I spurred my horse to a gallop as the coach started to flee. Then a large pack of wolves ran out of the trees on the other side of the road and attacked me!

They brought my horse down, and by the time I'd dealt with most of them our prey had escaped, abandoning their coach. The gnome says the man we're after is a vampire - a real one it seems, since he actually had a coffin in the coach. 

We decided to stay the night in a ruined tower. We had to fight off several giant bats first. Grinner took time to smash the coffin. The other rider has joined us for now - another half-orc, this time a female.

We forded the river further on since the bridge was too damaged to use. On the way back I saw a huge wolf sniffing around the abandoned coach. 

En route to Trolanport Grinner heard that someone had stolen a coffin, and also that two strangers bought a horse and cart. We knew we must be on the right trail.

Trolanport is mostly water. I hadn't seen much of this city on my way to Sharn. You have to get around by boat. The gnome has taken the lead since this is her land. 

The vampire is meeting someone here. The gnome found out that it's the ambassador from Aundair. There's a party tonight at the embassy. We're going to sneak in via magic and try to catch the vampire when he arrives. The gnome's pretending to be some noblewoman - Grinner and I will be her bodyguards, and the human will be a servant. The changeling will get in its own way.

I won't be allowed to carry any weapons into the party. I don't know how I'm going to catch a vampire without my swords, but in Coriandor's name I'll do my best.

This party was a fancy-dress affair. I had to wear a mask. It was dull until suddenly some man started brandishing a black sword.

_(To be continued...)_

____________________________________________________________
*Quips & Quotes*
[sblock]
DH: "So you see lightning hit the horse."
patv: "Does the horse veer off the road and crash?"

patv: "Is the person on the ground moving? Standing up? Pulling a machine gun?"

Zora (_to patv, whose character was riding off at an angle from the party_): "What are you doing?"
Devo: "He's going to jump the gorge."

Hedrin: "Does this make my Dex look big?"

Hedrin: "Do you have _invincible_?"
Zora: "I have _invisible_."

DH: "The woman raises her crossbow and fires - twang!"
sniffles: "You know, it would work better if she actually fired instead of going 'twang'."

Devo: "Is the coffin high quality?"
Zora: "You're not gonna animate it!"

Hedrin: "Can you put _raise dead_ in an item and have raisin' bread?"
[/sblock]


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## sniffles (Oct 2, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, excerpt 11*

_(I'm posting another entry on behalf of Devo -  sniffles)_

"... cold and still. On the upper shelf, a small ceramic cup with blue flowers -- the one I had made when I was just five years old -- held a clutch of tindertwigs, their red and yellow heads barely visible. I mechanically moved the burner back against the wall, noticing with dull surprise that I could not smell the burning fumes I always associate with that particular piece of equipment. It's fire was out, as it had been for over a week now. My whole lab was like that -- sterile, silent. Lifeless. Even Stark sat motionless. For the first time in my life, I found no comfort in my lab. My father is dead."

. -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 6



" I record this now because I am supposed to. It was my father who first convinced me to keep a journal [Ref PJ-V1-1]. I can still hear his voice: "Every day you will find both success and failure. Learn from your failures. Record your successes. In this way, you will become and remember your greatness. A journal will help you with that." And so I write. 

It seems to have been a whle since my last entry.

Our exodus from the Mournland was not without incident. UF guided us rather skillfully away from Whitehearth. I recognized that he was helping us avoid some dangers. Others, we willingly sought out. 

On our first night out we made camp at a magical spring. It's waters providing healing to those of us brave enough to try them. The well was occupied, though, by large, magically displaced serpents who took umbrage at our appearance. We dealt with them harshly, then covered the well when we discovered there were many more in the waters below. 

It was our second day out when we started running into the warforged. In our first encounter, we witnessed a pack of seven or eight warforged warriors fighting a warforged titan. The titan appeared to have the upper hand, but it wasn't a certainty how the fight would end. It was hard to see what damage the titan might have sustained, as he bore a number of makeshift parts and attachments. Even with my training, I couldn't tell what was working properly and what wasn't. We were quite some distance out, though, as we didn't want to get involved in their fight. We moved on.

Later that same day we ran into another project manned by warforged. What at first appeared to be a large, globular structure in the wastes of the Mournland turned out to be the backside of what looked to be a gigantic warforged head. Workers clambered all around, with warriors on patrol as well. Scattered steam vents and piled scrap indicated a much larger operation underground. Perhaps they are building an enormous warforged super titan? If the rest of the creature was proportionate to it's head, it would be large enough to threaten Sharn.

Again, however, we didn't get too close. The danger was simply too great.

It took us longer than expected, but eventually we left the Mournland. There would be one last fight, though. It was still light out -- what passed for day in these lands. Without warning, we were attacked by a monstrous creature that could burrow through the earth. It had enormous horns, and impaled poor UF before CA and GR could take the creature down. Even RA showed his colors during the fight, using his body (and one of our magebred horses [ref: PJ-V5-85]) to bait the creature away when CA and GR needed some distance. 

In the end, we destroyed the creature and buried UF. A short time later, we were out of the Mournlands. 

Within a day, we had located the remains of our Cannith contact [ref: PJ-V4-54] and his magical wagon. It looked like he had been killed by some large creature. His wagon was smashed to pieces. I may have been the undead wyvern DA had warned us about. The hobgoblin village we visted later that day gave the same appearance. Much of the village -- and many of the villagers -- had been burned, however. Whatever did this was large and powerful.

We made our way to Rhukan Draal to meet lady d'Vown [ref: PJ-V4-37]. Along the way we passed through a village that had just been taken over by an orc bandit army calling itself the Red Hand. We stayed just long enough to learn that we didn't want to stay at all, then were on our way.

It was in Rhukan Draal that IR left our company. She had been visted by a spirit vision -- she called it something like that -- while we were in the Mournlands, and decided that she needed to go to Aerenal to discover it's meaning. I mentioned that Sharn had some wonderful dreamspeakers, and that they could help her interpret her vision, but she just gave me the harshest glare. I'm sure it would have shaken a lesser man. I was sorry to see her go: the DC will miss her convictions. I had a feeling we'd miss more than just her convictions before too long.

Rhukan Draal was just as I remembered it. Filth and stink. Luckily, Lady d'Vown met us within a day. She paid us for our recovery of the schema, and was keenly interested to find out that there were other parties involved in the hunt. She gave us a bonus for the mithral plate [ref: PJ-V5-77], then paid us to escort her back to Sharn. I used the time on the boat trip to craft my first wand [Ref: CJ-V6-17].

On a side note, we were a bit rushed in Rhukan Draal and I had to ask GR to do some shopping for me. Prices were a bit high in there, sure, but you would still think that someone with his "Lower Sharn" mentality could have managed to find better deals. GR does not know how to haggle with merchants. I won't be asking him to buy anything else for me, that's for sure.

We got into Sharn late in the afternoon. We had just enough time to check up on our House Kundarik account [ref: PJ-V4-18] before going our seperate ways. Professor Borramar had gotten our note, thankfully, and had not only picked up the breastplate [ref: PJ-V3-84], but had deposited our reward as well. We took the money and split it.

DA was still with us, as she had never been to Sharn before. She asked where she might find decent accomodations and, naturally, I was the only one in the DC who knew of any. I spoke up before anyone could mention the Broken Anvil. DA and I bid farewell to the others and made our way over to the southeast districts. I left DA in the skyboat and paid the driver -- tipping him nicely. I gave DA and the driver the names of three places I though DA would like, then made for home. As HU and I made our way through the Court of Nine Lamps in Stavros tower, I noticed that vandals had marred the statue. I told HU to remind me to find out who the statue represented -- he was ugly even before being marred like that. The statue was ugly, not HU.

I noticed the door to the office was

It was dark when

It happened almost a month ago. To be fair, though, I suppose this is the first time I've ever written about it. Why can't I pull my thoughts together?

It was evening by the time I came home. I have no recollection of rain or wind or cloud cover of any sort, nor if there was even a sky at all. That's silly, though. Of course there was a sky. I just can't remember it. I wish I could.

The tower was quiet except for the sound of splashing water. I set my chest over near the fountain. (Actually, HU reminds me, he went over there himself to set a lilly afloat in the waters). No one was about, which wasn't odd. I had been away for almost a month, and wasn't up-to-date on Sharn's social calendar. The rest of the family could have been out at a show or at a party hosted by one of the city's elite. Twiggy might have been bored enough to demand the family pick up and go out for an evening's entertainment. Jaiya would have accompanied them, to attend mother.

But I'm rambling. I saw nothing out of place when I came home, with one notable exception. On the floor above me, visible through the second-floor overlook, the door to father's office was open. He only left that door open when he came out to fetch someone from the waiting room. I glanced to my left, but there were no wine glasses on the waiting room tables, nor any other signs of recent occupation. Rather than call up to father, I climbed the stairs and went around to his office.

I wish I could forget what I saw there, and remember instead the rain that night, or clear skies or brisk winds. Anything else.

My father's office was a little darker than normal. There was a smell in the air that I had sensed before, but it was so alien in this familiar place that I simply shut it out. Shadows played in the far corner, giving the impression of movement. I paid them no heed. 

My father sat in gentle repose, draped forward over his desk. His head lay on a sheaf of documents; one hand in his lap and the other curled lightly around the mithral-sheathed pen mother had bought him for his birthday last year. There was a wound, large and horrible on the top of his head, but surprisingly little blood. The next few moments were a blur. I know I went over to his side. I moved him, to see if he could somehow still be alive. HU's account of the situation and a later inventory indicated that I may have tried using a healing potion on him. He was dead, though. Though I had never seen it's like before, I knew the wound was caused by an illithid.

I ran out to find the rest of my family.

Mother was just down the hall in her bedroom, and Twiggy across the tower in hers. An argument earlier in the evening had sent them both sulking to their respective rooms.They were in the hall, wide-eyed with surprise and panic, when I came out of father's office. Perhaps some noise I had made had roused them. I stood there, in the doorway to father's study, eyes locked with mother's. 

Twiggy was yelling something; shouting questions, perhaps. My mother looked from my face down to my right hand, and shuddered in fear and horror at the blood she saw there. I brought my hand up to look at it, and realized that this was probably the first time she had seen someone else's blood on me.

She ran past me before I could react. And screamed; a loud piteous noise.

I came into the room with Twiggy right behind me. The window was open now, the fresh air a stark counterpoint to the scent of blood that still filled the room. A scent I had blocked out earlier. HU pulled at my jacket and pointed: on the mirror over the fireplace, scrawled in my father's blood, was the phrase, "Give me the Orb of Xoriat". Overcome, I was suddenly sick."


. -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 6




-- "37"

. -- An excerpt from the margin note "Nmbr litigators this wk" found in the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 6


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## sniffles (Oct 2, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith, excerpt 12*

"Mother knocked at the lab door again, asking if everything was all right. I yelled to her that everything was fine, and could she please leave me alone? She must have heard the strain of my exertions, however, or my labored breathing, because she knocked again, asking the same question. I told her go away as I was doing something very private. My lapse in concentration almost cost me. I had to put both hands on my wand to bring it back up to power. Closing my eyes, I focused on my desire and put everything I had into one final thrust. I had been at this for over an hour; my arms were leaden with the effort and I was now spent, but what a finish! I smiled broadly at HU while he put away the iconography, and I wondered why everybody didn't do this...."

.           -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 6



"... asked HU what they could be doing all the way up here in Stavros Tower, but he just tok'd at me. He didn't know either. I took a deep breath, then surreptitiously glanced around, hoping the Watch had magically appeared while I was readying myself. No such luck.

The Court of Nine Lamps is a gallery in the middle of Stavros Tower. It serves as a way stop, of sorts, on the raised boulevard that connects tower t-342 with the Haaluv Dreamtower. A side lane connects to the level of this tower, and, in fact, runs right past my front door. The Court takes up almost the entirety of the interior of Stavros Tower (on that level, at least), minus a few shops

On any other day, the Court would be an excellent place to relax and be seen. There is usually a cart vendor selling chicken wraps -- with an excellent brown sauce, I might add -- and in high summer there is usually someone selling shaved ice. Benches along one side provide a comfortable area to relax, and a handful of game tables stand nearby awaiting players of Shah or Kings. Today, however, was not a good day to be in the Court of Nine Lamps.

Half a dozen gnolls surrounded a young human couple and their child. It looked like they were terrorizing the poor people, and were about to get rough. No one else was standing up for them, so I had to step in. Naturally, I did so without hesitation. I stepped forward to the edge of the Courtyard, calling out for the ruffians to disassemble. Two of the gnolls immediately broke off and loped towards me.

Gods, I had forgotten how tall gnolls really are, and how ... massive. Plus their breath stank something fierce.

They growled something about leaving, this was their tower now. I persisted, however, as is my nature, and was rewarded for my heroism by having the largest of them (easily eight feet tall) bodily pick me up and prepare to throw me off of the avenue. I have learned a thing or two of fighting, however, and escaped his grasp. What followed was an extended wrestling match. I had him on skill, but he had brute force on his side. 

HU was having problems, as well. My gnolls smaller friend had the bright idea of picking up HU and throwing him off of the tower, too. HU is pretty strong, though, and managed to break away from his assailant. He slapped the gnoll on the nose for good measure. Unfortunately, this caused the gnoll to break out his axe chop HU to little bits.

In a burst of energy brought about by what I can only call parental concern, I threw off my attacker and interposed myself between HU and the foul axe-wielding beast that threatened him. The look of grim determination on my face must have given my opponent pause, for he took a half step back and growled deeply at me.

This gave me the opening I sought. I glanced behind the pair of gnolls to see that the young couple had escaped their aggressors. With a wide, threatening swing of my cane at the two gnolls opposite me, I bid HU to run away: I couldn't protect him and fight these creatures both -- especially with another four gnolls heading towards me!

HU ran away, and with a flourish and salute, I leapt from the bridge. The look on their face as I did so was priceless. They stood there slack-jawed, their eyes wide in shocked amazement.

That is the benefit of fighting on one's home turf, I expect. I knew these towers well. The next landing was a mere hundred or so feet below me. My recently crafted Griffon Badge [ref: CJ-V6-49] allowed me to drift gracefully downward until I landed soft-footed on the cobblestones below. That's when I realized that I had been roughed up a bit in the fight. One always ignores such things when in the thick of it. Cycling rapidly through a few wands, I had made myself presentable -- and comfortable -- by the time HU caught up with me. I quickly repaired the damage [ref: CJ-V1-30] done to him by that dreadful gnoll. We went to find a watch patrol to escort back up to Stavros Tower.

...

...were not as impressed as they should have been with my recounting of the previous days events. Like any of them could have stood up against a half dozen gnolls. Well, maybe CA could have, but he was still out of town, and had been for weeks.

I turned my attention back to the ... stew ... that sat congealing in a bowl in front of me, vowing, yet again, to never return to the Broken Anvil. Nothing good ever came of our meetings in the Anvil. As if to prove my divinations, who should walk through the door but Kaiber [ref: PJ-V2-29]. He was trailed by a good fifteen or so gnolls. If it were possible, the place smelled worse for their presence.

KA was in an odd mood. His sole purpose there that day was to gloat and make absurd demands. They were his gnolls, he informed us, that had been pushing people around in Stavros Tower yesterday. He claimed that he was growing in power, and that he was "taking over" the tower. Bearing a smug grin, he "informed" me that I would be given the "opportunity" to appear at the Court of Nine Lamps and "beg his forgiveness for interfering in his business, in public, for one and all to see." I had to laugh. 

Ah, well. At least he recognized my part in yesterdays events.

I informed him, in no uncertain terms, that I would never bow to him. The DC had the grace to back me up. I went one step further and told him flat out that Stavros wasn't his, and that I would make sure he understood that. He laughed (nervously, I am sure) and said he'd see me at noon the next day, that I may pay homage to him. Then he turned and moved quickly out of the inn.

We let him go. No use fighting in the Anvil again. The place was ugly enough already.

I'll give the DC this, they've got spirit. Each of them agreed to help me face off against KA the next day. GR arranged for some of his thugs to create a noon-time disturbance a short distance off, to draw any of the city watch away. We didn't want any of them hurt. XL went down to the barracks of Caerlyn's Blades to look for CA or leave a message. I don't know what DA did.

For myself, I had preparations to make. HU and I went home.

The DC met at my place the next day, an hour or so before noon. We strategized. Naturally, the I was the only one equipped (mentally and materially) to concoct a sufficiently intelligent plan. DA had ideas of what she would do, but had little to share with the rest of the DC. GR had the excellent idea of bringing along some friends. Well, it would have been an excellent idea if they had been more than half-starved, lice-ridden street brawlers. A more wretched clutch of scum and villainy I have never seen. I sent them to "mingle" with the crowd in the Court of Nine Lamps, just to get them out of my house. When the time came, maybe they'd be able to strike the gnolls from behind, or distract them with their excessive body odors.

I infused most of our weapons to make them more deadly to gnolls [ref: CJ-V1-21], then augmented mine and GR's defenses [ref: CJ-V3-18]. I augmented HU, since I knew he would be involved in the fight [ref: CJ-V1-29, CJ-V3-18]. Finally, I placed a couple of spells in my cane. Something to hopefully help out later. I checked my wand sheaths to make sure everything was in the proper order, and, naturally, they were. HU, meanwhile, was reorganizing his stock, to make the alchemy and healing potions more accessible.

We were ready. Just before noon, we left my house and crossed the bridge towards Stavros Tower.

DA was there ahead of us, invisible and letting us know via whispered Messages what was going on. Supposedly, XL was down in the crowd somewhere in disguise. A number of gnolls had gathered, and were milling around like they were about to fight. GR, HU, and I arrived on the scene at the same time KA did. Because we were coming in from the north, we stepped out into the Court of Nine Lamps on a small landing half a story up and overlooking the scene below. A sturdy railing separated us from the crowd below and stairs led down to the courtyard proper on our left. I stopped at the railing about the same time KA stepped into the center of the tower. He was not alone.

KA had a couple gnoll guards with him, but also one of the largest minotaurs I had ever seen. He was huge! I wasn't sure how he had gotten this far up with that axe he was carrying, also. On the other side of KA was a well-groomed man who had an air of education around him. That, I thought, was our danger.

I called KA out before he had a chance to say anything stupid. With the very polite but forceful tone that I usually reserve for misbehaving servants, I told KA in no uncertain terms that he had no claim on this tower -- he was to take his band, leave, and never return. 

He looked, for a moment, like he had bitten into a sour plum. It rankled him, I guess, that I had interrupted his speech -- a speech he had probably stayed up all night preparing. He decided to go forward with it anyway. It was some long, boring bit about how I needed to come down there and kiss his boot, thanking him for not killing me and apologizing for getting in his way. I'd heard better speeches from three-copper street plays.

We bantered back and forth a bit. It was KA's educated friend who realized that KA was losing this battle of wits. To cover up for his employer's gross incompetence, he gestured towards HU and some eldritch energy sprang forth to nearly hit my homunculus. I looked at the scorched wall behind me, then down to HU. HU just shrugged at me.

"Interesting," I remember saying. "So that is what you do."

"This is what House Cannith does!" and with that, I threw a vial of alchemist's fire at the man. It hit him square in the chest and lit him on fire.

With that, the fight was on.

KA sprung forward -- I remembered then his prodigious jumping abilities [ref: PJ-V3-75]. GR hit him in mid air with a well-timed crossbow bolt, then KA was on the railing next to us slashing down at GR with his sword. HU, as planned, stepped towards the stairs and tossed a broken a smokestick in that direction. He added another, for good measure. The stairs on our left flank flooded with black smoke. 

There was chaos down below. A gnoll archer started shooting at us backed up by a couple of his friends. They were all in for quite a surprise: CA had just showed up, with two of Caerlyn's Blades in tow. The three swordsmen charged, and a gnoll fell. GR's people were doing their best, but were no match for the gnolls in the courtyard. One was cut down immediately; two others did what they could, but were fighting now for survival. XL, according to his later reports, was using his gnoll disguise -- and, I say with no modesty, the gnoll-bane weapon I had prepared for him -- to quite effectively drop one gnoll after another. DA was slinging spells as fast as she could at the warlock.

Up on the upper balcony, we were having problems. KA may not be a smart man, but he is a very skilled killer. He had gotten between GR and I, and was attacking everyone within reach. HU had sidestepped to the top of the stairs, where he fended off two of the gnoll attackers while I employed different wands on both KA and the battle around us.

KA's warlock friend had employed some magic to transport himself up onto the balcony on the other side of GR. With a second spell, he transposed himself with the minotaur, and suddenly our situation became much more dire. GR was now flanked by KA on one side and the minotaur on the other. Almost simultaneously, we had the same idea. We jumped from the balcony.

GR was the first to hit the courtyard, and he hit it hard. His landing looked quite painful. To make matters worse, he had landed at the feet of several gnolls. My landing, a moment later, was far more graceful, naturally, but still I decided to stay low to the ground so I could spring off in any direction. One must always be prepared.

By this point, all of the principles were rather badly wounded. I was holding on through sheer tempered will, and poor GR looked about to collapse. CA was very badly wounded, and stood in front of his one surviving Blade friend, who looked near death himself. The other Blade had been killed in a single stroke from the minotaur. None of GR's thugs remained. KA was hurt badly, as was the warlock. The minotaur, XL, DA, and a the few remaining gnolls were the only ones in good health still.

The minotaur had made it down to ground level again, when he inexplicably cut down two gnolls in one vicious swing. Well, it would have been inexplicable to one less trained in the arcane arts: DA had mentioned once that her specialty was enchantment, and I could see the tell-tale signs that she had control of the huge creature's tiny mind. GR quickly dispatched the gnolls closest to him then applied healing magics to the both of us. I was fencing with KA, still, as HU battered unceremoniously at a gnoll. The warlock turned and ran away. With barely a sigh, the battle had turned in our favor.

As I have mentioned once or twice, KA isn't the brightest man. He failed to recognize the signs and began gloating over his unearned victory. I just pointed my wand at him and laughed, clearing blood from a cut above my eye.

A burst of smoke and light preceded a sudden, raucous explosion that shook the foundations of the tower. When the smoke cleared, four enormous warforged -- all kitted out for destruction -- leapt forth and covered KA, the minotaur, and the gnolls with large, glowing weapons. Left standing on the fading patterns of runes that the warforged soldiers had sprung from was none other than Merrix d'Cannith.

Boy, was I glad to see him!"


.           -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 6



"Flawless memory"
"Perfect diction, pronunciation, and grammar"
"Noble Bearing; elegant"
"Cunning Linguist"
"Bright, violet eyes, with flecks of gold"
"Heartfelt delivery of poem at father's funeral"
"Exquisite taste in patrons"

.           -- An excerpt from the list "The Patronage of Maia Soone -- Pros" as written by Artemis Heuw Cannith, 998YK


"Young"

.           -- The complete list "The Patronage of Maia Soone -- Cons" as written by Artemis Heuw Cannith, 998YK


----------



## sniffles (Oct 2, 2006)

*Caelen's correspondence continues....*

_I'm moving this entry to get things back into chronological sequence. sniffles_


----------



## sniffles (Oct 2, 2006)

*The Observations and Musings of Dalia Sunrule, letters 1 - 4*

_And now for a different point of view...

Dalia's player, Zora, has been writing journal entries/letters from Dalia's point of view. Our GM, DH, gives 10% XP for such contributions to the campaign.

Here are Dalia's thoughts thus far:_

Well, it's been a fairly boring adventure so far.  This group I've hooked up with is one of the worst for working
together that I've seen.

You've got a bunch of selfish types that are just WAITING for a reason to betray the others.

There's the half-ogre barbarian that's mean and ugly until you get to know him.  
That's Ufthak, and he's pretty much mind-candy.   Very strong, very easy to control.
Kindel, a knife-fighter who's all style over substance.  Typical sadist.  Found out he's deeply afraid of Changelings.
It's been fun to mess with his head.  Not too bright.
Eklavdra, a mage of no small ability.  However, her arrogance leads her to do foolish things.  Likes to summon undead.
Radagast, a priest who specializes in summoning, especially earth and fire elementals.  If everything goes south,
he needs to be dealt with first.  Does seem like the most honorable among this group.  If I can sway his friendship, then
I'll feel a little safer.
Vim, last but not least, is their leader.  An Artificer of some power, he's by far the most dangerous and the most likely 
to turn on you.

We're on an airship flying into the Mournlands, headed towards a place to retrieve a schema that Vim has been tasked
to get by Baron Merricks.  Attacked by undead wyvern.  Got kinda hairy there for a bit, but pulled through okay.  Everybody's
on edge, now that we’re in the Mournlands.  Gods, I wish this trip would end.

As we get closer, it's obvious that the group we were worried about is already there.  Everybody starts loading up on magic,
getting ready for a fight.  Our orders are clear: kill everyone and get the schema.  These poor people we're approaching don't
stand a chance.  Time to switch sides, I think.  This group just isn't for me.  They're too obvious.

We get there in time to join sides with the unknowing group in a fight against some undead and a vampire.  I sit out for a bit
'til I see "our" side winning, when I offer this new group my allegiance.  Naturally, I do this quietly in case things go bad and
I have to fall back to working with Vim's bunch.  Things get a little hectic as one of the new group's members decides to go
throw the schema at the half-ogre.  Vim decides to take it and run, leaving behind a couple of his guys…Ufthak and Radagast.  I
make a brief show of trying to get the schema, but I don't really care who ends up with it, as long as Vim is gone and I get
a chance to ingratiate myself into this new group.

Before things get ugly, as I can see these two groups have had their differences before, I take control of the half-ogre to show
my willingness to join these new people and keep the peace, as it were.

Turns out they're trying to rescue one of their own from the vampire, some Valenar priestess of the undying.  Not fond of those,
as my particular skills are not as useful against them.  We retrieve her and get ready to go.

More about this new group to come...
________________________________________________________________
Well, it has been a few days travelling with my new companions and I have some insights on each:

Xil - Changeling.  So far the one who's most mistrusting of me, which is to be expected.  Their very 
nature lends itself to mistrust.  Seduction doesn't work on those who have no specific gender.

Artemis - Human male, Artificer.  Not too bright, but seems to know what he's doing.  I don't think
I'll have to lie or cajole him at all, as he's pretty gullible.

Kylara - Aerenal elf female, Priestess.  Summons the undying to fight for her.  Arrogant like most
elves, seems to have a firm grip on the group.  Hates undead.

Grinner - Half-Orc male, Investigator.  Knows many languages and has many useful contacts I can
ingratiate myself with.  Seems to be skimming off the top.  He knows that I know.  We have an 
arrangement.  Ply him with just enough of the truth and he won't feel the need to investigate me.

Caelen - Valenar elf male, Warrior.  Worships the dead, but not like Kylara.  Honorable.  Arrogant.
Best candidate for mental control, if need be.  Betting that if I prove myself useful, he'll accept me.


We managed to wake Kylara, and then travel under the half-ogre's guidance towards a way out of 
the Mournlands.  We found a resting spot that has a watering hole that heals wounds, which is not
easy to do in this accursed place.  Displacer snakes took umbrage at us drinking from where they
reside, so we left. 

Even though I have been given amnesty within the group, and been accepted as a part of them, I
show just enough ability to prove my worth, but not so much as to give away everything.

During these few days, it is interesting to sit back and watch their interactions with each other, to
get a better feel for who they are.  Such as an argument over whether to bring back a banner of some
near-forgotten warforged leader.

Speaking of such, we came upon the sounds of a battle, and the male elf and I went to investigate.  I
could tell he wasn't sure he liked me there, but I was so quiet I don't think he minded.  Just one part
of trying to win him over.  

We saw a warforged titan fighting against a small unit of warforged.  I've never seen a warforged titan 
before.  Although patchwork in quality, it was still impressive.  Not long after that, we saw signs of what
looked like a metal dome building.  Again, the male elf and I went to see it.  Although he seemed irritated,
once I showed him I could use invisibility on us to get closer, and would not give us away with as quiet
as I can be, he accepted me.  Worked like a charm.

It turns out the metal dome was actually just the HEAD of an even bigger warforged being constructed
out here in the Mournlands!  I'll bet that information is worth some money.  That thing looks like it could
destroy a city.

After investigating that, we continued on our way out of the Mournlands,  but not before a cadaverous 
bullette emerged from the ground and managed to kill the half-ogre in the ensuing fracas.  It's a shame
to lose a nice tool like that, but it happens.

More later...
___________________________________________________________________
It's been a few days and we come upon a village.  Turns out an orc village calling itself the Red Hand has taken over and stiff fines and taxes are being placed on anyone or anything coming through here.

Not wanting to tarry in a place as filthy as this, I took it upon myself to appropriate a certain token from a nearby merchant.  Said token says you've seen the one in charge and been taxed appropriately, so you can leave.  We're on our way.

We finally arrive in Rhukan Draal and it's not a lot better.  But at least it's civilization.  At some point, Grinner asks me to help him identify a ring in his possession.  I don't ask, he doesn't tell.  Light abjuration, probably protective.  Best I can do.  He pays me, and we're good.

Now I have his confidence.

Artemis is all giddy at meeting a lady by the name of Eladryn D'Vown.  She's paying for their -I mean OUR- services.  He doesn't even look at the writ, just assumes it's good and tosses it into is homunculus.  The puppy-like way he looks for her approval is disturbing.  

She offers us a ride to Sharn.  Pays us for accompanying her.  Something just doesn't feel right.  My suspicions are confirmed when I spot a warforged following us in Sharn.  The group and I go to what is evidently their regular meeting place, the Broken Anvil.  Not all that appetizing, but I can wash the taste out with something better later.  I prevailed upon Artemis to show me to a nice inn to stay at until something else shows itself.

Kylara leaves for her homeland on a vision quest of some sort.

Artemis and Grinner divvy up the group's spoils, and Artemis seems apologetic that he can't offer much except money to myself and the changeling.  I'm okay with that.  He even offers to make any magical items we might want.  I'll have to think carefully.  What's a girl to choose?

Over the next few weeks, I'm moving around the city getting to know the layout.  Time to do what I'm good at to supplement my income.  Got to make sure to do it right and carefully.

I also find out the Artemis is missing.  Seems his father was murdered, and Grinner is investigating it for him. They wonder if it might be a Dragon Below cult, and I thought of Radagast's plans, but he wouldn't have had time yet, if he's even made it back by this time.


List of known magic items:
Caelen - Belt of Giant Strength
Artemis - Homunculus; Wand of Lightning; Wand of Cure Light
Grinner - Wand of Cure Light; Ring; 

"Contingency Plans" for my protection:
Charm the elven fighter.  Send him after the Changeling.  Changeling MUST be killed.  Angry, vengeful 
changelings are not good.
Charm the half-orc.  Send him after the Changeling or Artemis.
Artemis: can probably just sweet-talk him.  Blind him if necessary.  Use Silence up close to neutralize his command words.
_________________________________________________
A few weeks have gone by and I'm settling in very nicely.

My "excursions" have garnered some attention from a local crimelord by
the name of Caibre.
He's "offered" me the opportunity to "donate" 10% of anything I make in
exchange for certain
"benefits" that go along with such enterprises. He's also willing to
forego any lost "donations"
up 'til this point if I help a friend of his who's in search of
adventurer types to find something.

This Caibre is not as dumb as he's letting on, but I don't think he's as
smart as he believes,
either. Knocking me unconscious is not a smart thing to do. Time is
money, and how much
did he waste there waiting for me to come to? Not to mention the old
saying: "You catch more
dire flies with honey than you do with alchemist's fire".

It's going to be fun pushing his limits.

Not one to necessarily believe in coincidence, he came into the Broken
Anvil during our meeting
and challenged poor Artemis to meet him in Artemis' own tower and
apologize publicly to him.
And Artemis wasn't even fully recovered from running into some of
Caibre's gnoll henchman the
previous night.

I think Artemis' father's passing has affected him more than he knows,
as he jumped up and
challenged Caibre right back. Boy's grown a spine, evidently.

We went to the appointed meeting place at the appointed time, me making
sure I spell-prepped
ahead of time. Artemis looks off his game as he went into this with
hardly any preparation at all.
Not something an artificer should be doing. He did passably well in the
confrontation. Caibre
had a bunch of gnolls there with a warlock and a Minotaur. Managed to
keep the warlock off-balance
with a well-done illusion, I must say.

After a couple of tries, I finally managed to get control of the
minotaur and had him off killing gnolls.
I got to Caelen in time with a potion of healing that Artemis had
supplied me with earlier. Saved
his life.

In the end, Baron Merrix showed up and decreed Artemis to be of house
Cannith now, and ordered
Caibre to leave.

I won't be taking Caibre up directly on his "request" to help a friend,
as we're even now for any
supposed loss of income he believes he's suffered. He's smart enough to
realize I could've sent
that minotaur at him at any time.

Call it an unspoken truce and agreement to his terms of 10%.

Although I don't think this group's heard the last of him.

We're possibly setting off on the morrow on some trek for an old
acquaintance of the group's. Will
write more then.


----------



## sniffles (Oct 9, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith, excerpt 13*

_(note: Devo's character journals are still running about one session behind)_

"...were working as fast as we could. I was about four hours behind Stark, who had worked through the night, but I was confident I would make my pre-noon deadline. Hutch was over at the side table on his own project. He was trying to weave together some spare mithril wire I had set aside, holding the rather delicate assemblage up to his front wall or draping it over his lid. I kept my eye on him, but he didn't ask for help so I didn't interrupt him. What was he making? A doily or something?"

.           -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 6



"My mind was still spinning. The House Cannith administrators had been here less than three hours, but my whole world has been turned sideways. I am House Cannith now! As were the rest of the family, of course, but it was my actions, my ability that had brought the machinations of three generations to fruition.

But it was strange. It wasn't the House ring on my hand that made this feel so important. It wasn't the signature on my change-of-name forms, nor my name scribed out in such large, bold, letters on the "Acknowledgement of Incorporation ~ House Cannith" document. It wasn't my name on the title of this house, the monthly stipend, the promise that DR will keep his position in the foundry, the acceptance of LL into the Cannith administrative arm, Twiggy's education trust fund, or the stipend she and mother will receive.

What made it all so meaningful was the look in mother's eyes. She.... I don't know. She had life again. For the first time since father's death, she was taking an interest in the world around her. Cannith's offer to put a statue of father in the Court of Nine Lamps really inspired her. She smiled. Twiggy was actually laughing again! LL had caught the mood, too, and was pantomiming various poses for the statue. Some of the poses were quite absurd. Some made us miss father terribly.

But we are a family again. Now, I know, we will be able to move on. Has it really only been seven weeks?

...

...ever want to do that again. MK's "test" was simple -- capture his pet basilisk without harming it -- but it ran completely against my training. The creature had hidden itself back in the crowded shrubbery of the greenhouse. Views from all angles were blocked by vegetation, hanging planters, or stacks of ceramic pots. Unfortunately, my well-trained senses could not help but pick out details both large and small. There the basilisk; there his eyes; nothingness. Awareness again; basilisk, eyes, nothingness. The perceived loss of time was really throwing off my normally unshakeable poise. Fortunately, MK had provided us with a number of antidotes to the petrifying gaze of his little "pet". HU was kind enough to administer mine.

Unfortunately, he did not provide enough. Enough of the DC avoided the creatures gaze that we eventually overcame. The test passed, we listened to his proposal while an assistant ran out and fetched another potion for DA. She stood in stony silence on the table while MK talked. 

The mission, as they usually are for MK, was strictly confidential -- business of the state, and all that. As such, I shall not record the specifics in this journal, except to say that someone had left Sharn recently, and possibly with a stolen artifact. MK wanted the man back alive and the artifact back in one piece, and he was willing to pay for it. 

Not that he was paying a lot for it. He had his priorities off, too, paying too much for the man and not enough for the item. To each his own, though.

We accepted the job: a little charity for the king could only help our reputation. With DA restored, we were underway.

A clutch of magebred horses awaited us by the northern gate. We were twelve hours behind our quarry, who had fled in a large black carriage towards Zilargo. With luck, we would be able to overtake him before he left Breland. Luck is never on our side, though. That's why the DC is so fortunate that I am along. Who needs luck when one has skill?

The road to Zilargo was long, tiresome, and, if I dare say so, quite the pain in the posterior. It has inspired me to look into alternate means of travel [ref: CJ-V6-23]. I look forward to the day that I can complete that work.

We found signs along the way that our quarry had traveled our same route, and that we were catching up to him. What was troubling is that we found others who were searching for our prey, too. A half-orc from House Tharashk was ahead of us, hunting the same carriage and driver. There was word of a red-haired woman on the same trail. If we heard of her, she must be ahead of us, too. We redoubled our efforts.

I thought we were in trouble when we hired a local woodsman to take us on a shortcut through the woods of Breland's eastern border. XL used her shape changing abilities -- and her remarkable ability to flirt with the dirty peasant without retching -- to "entice" our guide. XL did not deliver on some of her implied promises, though, and I was sure our guide would leave us stranded.

Fortunately, we were attacked by ogres. Our guide -- wonderful human being that he was -- fled at the first sign of ambush and ran straight into a trap. We had to fight off the ogres, who finally retreated when we offered them one of the horses they had killed. Our guide was stuck in what, at first, seemed to be an enormous spider web. The creatures surrounding him were no mere spiders, however, but grotesque abominations in the guise of spiders. (Imaging being so hideous that you had to look like a spider to fit in. Yuck.) We drove the creatures off, but their very presence worried our guide. He told us of a seal of some sort hidden in these woods. It was his job to watch over this seal, for it held at bay twisted creatures from another realm. He was afraid, suddenly, that the seal was weakening, and that those spider-like creatures were proof. 

We chatted that night over the camp fire and he spoke of abominations and their ilk. I asked him some questions about mind flayers [ref: PJ-V6-12], and the Orb of Xoriat [ref: PJ-V3-50, PJ-V6-14]. He had some advice for the former, but no knowledge of the latter. He mentioned byeshk, a metal that, naturally, I have more than passing knowledge of. He mentioned that even if it wasn't exceptionally effective against mind flayers, it would do significant damage to the dolgaunts, dolgrim, and other aberrations surrounding one. An interesting possibility, there.

The next day we went our separate ways. His "easy trail" out out of the woods disappeared into a rather nasty looking swamp a good half day shy of the eastern edge of the forest. Rather than going through, we decided to go around the foul smelling area. We saw an interesting Dhakaani tower -- a ruin left over from that ancient empire, but did not want to take the time to properly explore it. It was almost evening before we exited the forest. We found ourselves on the road to Zilargo.

DA was the first to see it: a black carriage ahead of us in the distance, moving rapidly away. I spurred my horse forward to give chase, but the rest of the DC chose to hang back, instead. Their plan was not to adventurously charge forward like heroes, but to casually approach, so as not to spook our prey. We were faster than the carriage, but not by a lot.

Our gambit never had a chance to play out. From the edge of the woods ahead of us sprang a dark horse and rider. The horse turned and galloped towards the carriage at full speed. Within moments, the driver of the carriage had noticed, and the chase was on. We all spurred our horses forward, in the hope that our magebred horses would catch up first to the mystery rider, then the carriage.

The rider was easy to catch up to, though not because of our superior horses. In rapid succession, first a lightning bolt then a series of magical missiles streamed from the carriage and slammed into the pursuing equestrian. The lightning severely wounded both rider and horse. The missiles struck the rider and threw him from his horse. We sprinted past.

I tried to get a look at the stranger as I rode past, but saw nothing but burns and bruises. GR must have seen something more, though, for he slowed down enough to tap the rider with a curative wand. He resumed the chase.

It was nearly nightfall by this point. We had almost caught up with our quarry. My keen senses picked out a stream of bright red hair on the carriage's driver. This was, indeed the prey we sought.

Obviously, the carriage -- which looked like it would be more at home leading a funerary procession than a high speed chase - was well crafted. It was taking an extreme amount of punishment, however, driving as fast as it was. It disappeared around a bend in the road ahead, taking a sharp, hazardous-looking turn around a gothic Dhakaani tower. That was good news, for we had been told that this tower marked the bridge into Zilargo, and the word we'd been given is that the bridge was unfit for carriages such as this one. Finally, we would catch up.

We approached the tower at full speed. Coming out from the woods to our left, however, was a large pack of wolves. There were a dozen, if there was one. They came out of the trees and, almost as one, turned in our direction. Obviously, this was no casual encounter. 

It was my superior horsemanship that had kept me in the lead throughout the entirety of our chase. (To be honest, though, I think the whole chase lasted less that two minutes.) This was very fortunate, as I, above all the rest of my companions, was prepared to deal with this kind of threat. 

But that is an obvious generalization, is it not? I am capable of dealing with all kinds of threats. I am a skilled artificer -- part of House Cannith, in fact.

But I digress. I pulled hard at my horse's reins, drawing a wand [ref: PJ-V3-48] as I did so. With a shouted command I sent a stream of electricity down their ranks, and three of the beasts fell. Four others had jumped aside at the very last second, and were simply quite badly wounded.

CA galloped past me. Perhaps he was too focused on the chase, and not enough on the obstacles? Regardless, he raced forward, intent perhaps on winning some elven honor. I would swear that it looked like he was going to jump his horse over the entire pack of wolves. He never had the chance, though. Quick as a wink, the wolves surrounded the horse and, snapping and biting, pulled it to the ground. CA, to his credit, leapt to his feet and came up, sword swinging. Before long, he was bourn to the ground as well, and was forced to pull himself up time and again. I advised him to lean a bit to the right, then sent another lightning bolt down the flank of the wolf pack. More of the wild dogs screamed, howled and lay still; never to move again.

GR was moving from one position to another, busy with his crossbow. He struck one wolf, then another, then another. XL and DA had disappeared someplace. Maybe together. DA had been giving XL some strange looks, lately.

CA, GR, and I were finishing up the last of the wolves when we noticed the carriage just around the bend. It was less than fifty feet away. LU, our prey, was no where to be seen, but a red-headed woman who we took as his sister stood there. We had heard reports of her on our journey, though we knew not what she did. 

She showed her colors when she cast a spell of bodily harm at CA. We were making short work of the animals now, though, and she could see it. Her next spell was a short duration flight spell that she used to flee around the bend in the road and towards the bridge that must necessarily be there. The road had been running parallel to a deep river canyon for some time now.

I spurred my horse heroically into the small copse of trees on my right, running parallel to the path the red-headed wizardess had taken. It was a short ride, then HU and I slid off, standing at the very precipice of a four hundred foot drop. HU seemed a bit nervous, but I have no fear of heights.

The sun had set some time during our fight, and the light was fading fast. I could see the enchantress out in the middle of the collapsing bridge a fair distance away, going toe-to-toe with DA. So that's where she had gotten to. I had my wand [ref: CJ-V5-48] at the ready and let loose. A beam of electricity arced between the wizard and I, a semi-visible trail of energy and the scream of the red-headed woman the only after-tell of my power. I smiled, and readied another charge.

She had had enough though, and vanished -- a spell of limited teleportation it seemed. DA gave chase, picking her way carefully over the broken bridge, but came back a time later to report she'd found nothing. Our prey had disappeared completely.

I came back in time to see CA finish off the very last wolf, GR helping. XL was rummaging through the carriage. With a shaking voice, he called us over to witness his find.

The black carriage was not what one would expect to see in use by travelers. It did, in fact, look exactly like it should have been at the head of a funerary procession. It was a black hearse, complete with coffin. XL showed us the inside of the grandly decorated coffin, it's red velvet interior very finely appointed -- and covered with a sprinkling of dirt. So that's what DA had been shouting about. LU was a vampire.

Worse, he had seen us, then escaped. It was too dark to give chase now.

We set up camp at the tower that night. There was a little trouble with some ferocious and fiendish blood-sucking dire-bats, but DA and I took care of them. Quick work.

I'm looking forward to testing myself against a vampire. A showdown of his powers versus my intellect should prove interesting."


.           -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 6



"Voice box in Baby Betty -- quite disturbing"
"Placard: 'World's Greatest Ar' -- (incomplete?)"
"Moth with iron wings -- deceased"
"Stavros Tower, detailed, in miniature"
"Life-size bust of Twyla Heuw Cannith, sans eyes"
"Bronzed sandwich -- half-eaten, ham and onion"

.           -- An excerpt from the "List of Unexplained Items Found in Lab With Stark After Long Absences" by Artemis Heuw Cannith, 998YK


----------



## sniffles (Oct 9, 2006)

*Observations & Musings of Dalia Sunrule, letters 5 & 6*

*Letter 5*

We met in a different part of the city at the Iron Gate at Myriad Tower to see who might employ us.

It was some botanist who claims he was from the Dark Lanterns.  As a test, we had to find his 
basilisk in and amongst all the plants and topiaries and capture it. Damaged was fine, but not dead.  

Sounds like a waste of time to me.

Artemis and the rest headed around one way, tromping around enough to wake the dead ancestors the elves worship.  I smartly decided to go the other way, moving invisibly on the wall, up about 20' to get a better vantage point, careful to not look to closely at anything, in case the basilisk was 
there.

As soon as I saw some movement, I cast Glitterdust into the area to prevent the beast from hiding from us.  And if I happened to catch some of my companions in it, all the better for me to see them so they won't be caught in any of my other spells.

In the end, Artemis, Xil and myself were turned to stone.  I fell from the wall and luckily landed on 
some topiary to break my fall and not me.  I took all the precautions, yet something went wrong.

I'll need to research that.

After proving we could capture it, our contact told us the job.

We're looking for a rogue member of the Dark Lanterns by the name of Lukan Stellos.  Seems at the same time a magical sword was stolen from the DLs vault.  We've been offered compensation 
for returning Lukan dead or alive.  Worth more alive, of course.  We've also been offered monies to retrieve the sword.  By the way he upped the compensation on the sword, I'm guessing it's pretty valuable.  It goes by the name Black Razor.  Means nothing to me, but does to somebody, I'm sure.

Seems they have a tip that Lukan's heading to Trolimport.  He took a very conspicuous looking black coach with him.  Lukan is reportedly a master of disguise and deception.  

This should be fun.

Along the way, my companions and I ask whether anyone's seem him or not. Supposedly, an elven woman was through here looking for him also.  Another account has him with a female human with flowing red hair.  Not all we hear can be trusted.

We've asked a local woodsmen on the way to take us through the forest, to gain ground on Lukan and the coach.  We found some ogres that ambushed us.  Not too much of a threat, but we lost a horse.  Grinner's, and he wasn't happy about it.  At least he showed some smarts and let the ogres have it.  Smart man.

More as I learn it.
_______________________________________________
*Letter 6*

We made it through the forest to the other side. After we emerged, we
see the black coach ahead of us
on its way to the bridge.

After using Clairvoyance to confirm it was probably Lukan, we rode to
catch up to it. On our way, another
rider burst forth from the trees between us and the coach. During our
pursuit, we say some lightning and
magic missiles topple the rider from their horse. We found out later it
was the female half-orc we'd heard
had been asking around about Lukan. Her name is Kuralaa. I determined
from her thoughts that she was
hired by somebody from Aundair.

Just before we managed to catch the coach, an entire pack of wolves
stepped onto the road to block our
path. Figuring they were probably summoned, I encouraged Xil to run
them down. My mistake was riding
with Xil, as changelings have a tendency to want to run and hide when
there's action. As he made to bolt
from the path, I leapt from the saddle and cast Expeditious Retreat to
help me move quicker. I was already
invisible, as I didn't want to make our mount a bigger target if it
showed 2 riders instead of one.

Like they say, don't put all your gems in one purse.

I ran through the wolves so fast they hardly had a chance to snap at me
as they caught my scent. I stopped
just shy of Lukan and the red-haired woman he was with. I remained
silent and simply watched to see what
they would do. Lukan said something about Trolanport and Krell and
meeting up, things we had already heard
or suspected. Then he disappeared. No obvious spell, which causes me
concern.

I stepped to the side as the woman cast a spell at my companions.
Caelen was trapped fighting off the wolves,
Artemis was in the back slinging lightning -have to watch out for that-,
while Grinner was shooting his crossbow
and Xil was nowhere to be seen. Luckily I had Message going so could
let them know what was happening.

The woman attempted to cast Fireball, which would have been terribly
deadly for my companions, so I countered
it, giving away my position, a scant 15 feet away. She cast a swift Fly
spell and took off. I almost got her to halt,
but she resisted. With my quickened movement, I managed to catch her on
the dilapidated bridge and attempted
to render her witless, but the spell was not as efficacious as I would
have liked. She Dimension Leapt away out
of the darkness she had cast, and I lost her.

We're not done with each other yet, I can feel it.

We investigated the black coach, and found a coffin in it...confirming
my suspicion that he is indeed an undead.
When I saw him briefly, he had fangs, very pale skin and red lips. I
know he's a master of disguise, but that seems
a little overboard for a disguise.

We headed towards Trolanport and found that on the way, Lukan and his
accomplice had stolen a cart and a coffin
for him to sleep in. Again, I believe there's a good chance he's
vampiric now. With the information we found out
regarding Krell and Aundair, we found in Trolanport that the Aundarian
embassy is holding a diplomatic function
that night. We decided to crash the party and see if we can catch Lukan
by surprise. I am posing as a diplomat
with Artemis as my assistant, and Grinner and Caelen are my bodyguards.
Managed to get us in the front door
and distract everyone long enough to appear without causing any alarm.

Made some rounds, finally found Neya Ir'Krell, and read her thoughts as
she seemed awfully troubled. Would've
like to ask some pertinent questions to get better information, but
didn't want to give the game away. She evidently
knew Lukan was a vampire and was only concerned with how.

She doesn't seem to be afraid of him, so I'll keep my eye on her.

Lukan has arrived in the middle of the dance floor with a big black
sword in his hands.

Looks like the party has started...










__________________________________________________________


----------



## sniffles (Oct 16, 2006)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith, excerpt 14*

"...and told Stark to fetch me some tea, since they would take some work to decipher. I looked over the notes, as I always do after adventuring abroad, and tried to make sense of what I had written. The first was obvious: "Gr-B (FF) xDC". I had saved the lives of the DC so many times, using my powers to keep them from plummeting to their deaths, that creating a Griffon Badge (or some other feather fall effect) for each of them was more a matter of economy than necessity. The next note, "Fl-Ca HU+m >MBH" was equally obvious. I am a man of culture and the big city, and riding a horse all day tests even my endurance: I needed some conveyance -- a flying carpet, perhaps -- that would carry both Hutch and I in comfort and style and could keep up with a magebred horse. The next note had me completely baffled. "Hutch needs an internal shelf that functions as a bag of holding." It made absolutely no sense. Was this even my handwriting? I looked over at Hutch, who stood at the end of the table with practiced nonchalance polishing his front latch with his knuckles. Hutch can't write. Can he?" 

. -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 6 

"The craft of an artificer is one of practiced preparation. Sometimes one under-prepares. Sometimes, one over-prepares. The true test of an artificer comes when one measures the cost of one's preparations against the price of lack of preparation. 
On the other hand, I believe that it is far better to be over-prepared, and waste resources, than to be caught unawares, and left floundering. 

The Grand Masquerade at the Aundarian Embassy was... quaint. Certainly, I have experienced far grander [ref: PJ-V1-24]. Such is the privilege of one of my stature and upbringing. Then again, I have seen far worse. I must say, though; this is the first time I have ever attended a function of this distinction with the sole aim of killing one of the undead. A vampyre, to be specific. 

The series of events that lead us to the Masquerade were interesting enough that I will pause a moment in my reflections to describe them. 

After fighting the vampire and his magically-talented sister at the bridge on the Brelish border, we rested for the night. I see that I already mentioned the little bat problem [ref: PJ-V6-54], so I shall not recount that event. 

The next morning, we picked up early and headed north, where we were told a ford crossed over the river that separates Breland from Zilargo. Though we were camping at a bridge, my exceptional training in all things crafted and engineered told me that it would be dangerous to take the horses across. Oh, we could probably do it, but we were already down one horse. Losing another would be a serious inconvenience. 

After crossing over the river, we came back to the bridge and road, but on the Zilargo side this time. We thought that sticking to the road would improve our overall speed. I happened to glance across the bridge to the scene of yesterday's battle, and saw the largest wolf I could have ever imagined. It was easily the size of a strong coach horse. He was surveying the field of battle. When he saw us, however, he howled once into the air -- a mournful cry that evoked images of endless hunts and moonlit nights -- and ran off. The creature was quick, too. 

We turned, and made our way down the road with all speed. 

In due time, we came across farmsteads, then communes, then villages. We stopped every once in a while to see if the locals had seen any sign of our fleeing prey, but few could admit to such witness. Mayhap they were too short. 

We did hear that a buckboard wagon was stolen, however. And then as we approached Trollanport we heard of another strange theft: that of a coffin. We were on the right track, it seemed. 

Trollanport is a large city, considering it is inhabited mostly by gnomes and other small folk. Some of the buildings looked like they would be downright uncomfortable to venture into. Most, however, were built for a more normal sized occupant. 

This is where the last of our clues lead. LU was to meet someone by the name of "Krell" here in Trollanport. Where he planned to go from there, though, was anybody's guess. With that little to go on, we set to work. 

We took as our base of operations a "cozy" little inn by the name of "The Diamond Doorstop". The place had a very closed-in feel about it, but the food was excellent. After a quick lunch, we strategized our search, then split up to go our separate ways. 

I must admit that HU and I spent a mostly fruitless afternoon in our queries. No one at the local Cannith chapter house knew anything of a "Krell", nor had any ideas on how to find a powerful artifact. I asked around a few other places, but to little effect. 

Fortunately, the others were a bit more successful. 

"Krell", it turns out, is none other than the Lady Ambassador Krell of Aundair. Evidently LU has some excellent connections. This is not to surprising, however, considering his background. GR had located the stolen coffin and cart, left abandoned in a rather seedy part of town. Our prey had gone to ground someplace in the city. With no other leads, we had to follow the only clue we had. 

Fortunately, the Aundarian Embassy was hosting a gala Masquerade that very night. Under the cover of such merry-making, we would be able to approach the Lady Ambassador and speak to her. Better, we may be able to wait, and see if LU made an appearance. We had to run out and get costumes, of course. I chose a pant and doublet affair of dark blue silk with a gold sash. Very rakish. I chose it more for it's re-usability (the whole ensemble cost about three hundred gold), but it had the added benefit of matching HU. A silvered mask with sparkling blue arcane symbols completed the set. 

HU complimented me on my impeccable style. 

We almost had issue when CA and GR realized that they would have to leave their armor and weapons at the inn. Not even "courtly" weapons were to be allowed at the function. They protested, but eventually relented. I set a few preparations in place, but could have done far better. 

I was prepared to lead the DC into the party. I am the only one in the party trained in such things, after all. DA, however, had other ideas. 

She argued that she had been born in Zilargo, and would therefore have a natural advantage. Also, she can be rather well spoken when she needs to be, and would be able to talk her way past any problems that cropped up. Lastly, she claimed that she was no stranger to the homes and estates of the very rich. I did not ask her to elaborate on this last point, and she did not volunteer any new information. 

I was not convinced that she should take the lead until DA mentioned that she would be using her magic to get us into the party. Now, I am a man of considerable skills, but I, above all others, know the power of magic. I consented, assuming that she would use her spells to convince the guards that we should pass without invitation, or that she would charm them into allowing her passage. But no. A mass invisibility spell, a silencing illusion to mask the sounds of the less agile members of our party, and we were in. A crude illusion of fireworks up near the ceiling distracted the party-goers long enough for us to re-appear, and we were in. 

Cheap parlor tricks. 
But we were inside, so perhaps the results speak for themselves. 

The party itself was not as sophisticated as I would have expected of an ambassadorial function. The band was too loud, the lights too low for a masquerade, and the wait staff was mediocre. There was one serving woman, though, who seemed keenly interested in me and how my night was going. She was constantly hanging around. I know what she wanted, but I had work to do. 

We spent the next hour alternatively splitting up to look for our prey, and roving around in a very conspicuous looking pack. I was the only one of the DC who knew how to move in these circles. DA wasn't doing bad, though. 

We located the Lady Ambassador in short order. Our initial plan was to sit back and watch her, to see who she was interacting with. She was the hostess of this party, however, so we learned very little from that. At one point, however, she spoke to a man who looked very much like an Aundarian wizard. I watched as he cast a Divination spell. He spoke his reply to Lady Krell, who seemed quite surprised at his foretelling. For the rest of the night, she would be agitated and quite distracted. DA chose that moment to make contact. 

So that we didn't lose the chance completely, I volunteered to fetch Lady Krell to DA, who was going under the nom de guerre of Lidia r'Kane. Droll. The Lady Krell was pliable enough under my well-mannered charms, and I brought her to "Lidia". 

DA got nowhere. Lady Krell refused to speak of anything "business" related, and seemed quite distracted by her earlier Divination. She kept watching the dance floor. IN a span of time that would have been considered rude had she been dealing with one of her peers -- or even one of her assistants -- the Lady Krell dismissed DA and wandered away. She didn't even grant us the respect of pretending to have some place to go. DA didn't seem to notice this slight, and I thought it best not to point it out to her. 

We held a quick conference amongst the DC, and decided to split up so that we could watch events unfold. We paid particular attention to the dance floor, which the Lady Ambassador seemed particularly interested in. 

We didn't have long to wait. 

An argument on the dance floor drew our attention. By the time the argument became apparent over the din of the party, though, LU had shown his hand. He stood there, the black artifact sword raised high overhead. Opposite him stood a human woman of indeterminate age -- she was resplendent in her blue dragon masquerade ball, but what she looked like beneath her mask and costume was anyone's guess. The fight was on. 

Perhaps more to the point, the "flight" was on. The power exuding from the black sword was amazing and terrifying. It moaned with evil power. All who beheld it were terrified. Naturally, my long years of training and conditioning -- not to mention my steadfast composure -- allowed me to overcome this terror and act rationally. Few other at the party were so lucky. They swarmed towards the exits with no regard for who or what they trampled. The exodus was an exercise in unadulterated chaos. 

It would have been interesting to watch, if there weren't other things going on. 
Expecting a fight, I used some of my more potent items and abilities [ref: CJ-V4-30, CJ-V1-9, CJ-V3,98]. I needn't have bothered. 

Two unarmed men came to the rescue of the woman opposing LU. They were skilled brawlers, both of them. It didn't matter, though. In short order, LU and the sword killed them both. One died screaming in horrified agony. Something much worse than a mere flesh wound had killed him. Perhaps the sword had stolen his soul? Regardless, it would make a study of the sword that much more interesting. 

LU's red haired sister appeared. She argued with LU, all the while assisting him with her magic. The woman in the blue dragon costume started using some magic of her own, for both defense and offense. The Aundarian guards, mysteriously, were firing crossbows into the crowd. 

XL came up behind LU and broke a chair over his back. I have to say, that did nothing but draw his attention. CA was moving up to do the same, but stopped when he saw the effect XL's chair had. Luckily, DA appeared just at that moment to hand CA the knife she had secreted in to the party. CA seemed happy to be armed, but not so thrilled at his only available weapon. To his credit, he leapt into the fray, fighting a vampire that was wielding an artifact-level sword, all the while carrying nothing himself but a common fighting knife. 
IR was there in the fight, too. Where had she come from? Beside her stood a tall, gaunt looking elf in armor wielding a long spear. IR must have known what was going on, or she asked someone while I wasn't looking, because she leapt straight into the fight with LU. 
My attention was on LU's sister. I knew that if we could stop her, our chances of capturing LU would be greatly improved. She had already managed to get off a spell that sped up the both of them. She was engaged in a battle of magic with the dragon lady. A battle that I was happy to jump into. 

I started off, as is becoming my favorite, with my oak wand, the one tipped with the storm opal [ref: CJ-V6-23]. I have been burning through that one rather quickly, and will soon need to make another. It's electrical discharge struck true, naturally, leaving a trace line of energy between the two of us that would aid my future attacks. 

She made eye contact with me, and I saw her eyes widen in fear -- possibly surprise. Good. She knew who it was that stood against her, and it caused her concern. She shouted to LU to run, and cast her next spell: she turned invisible. 

At that very moment, the upper windows of the ball room exploded inward. Thousands upon thousands of bats swarmed into the room and began diving at the crowd. The already unbearable noise and confusion intensified dramatically as the panic of each partygoer intensified tremendously. 

I kept my cool. 

LU had been fighting with CA, IR, and XL. CA had been hit hard, and wasn't looking good at all. With his sister's warning, though, LU turned and fled, taking one last slash at my friends. CA staggered again, but persevered. LU fled, his magically enhanced speed serving him well. The DC gave chase, fighting against the fleeing mob that LU seemed to flit through so easily. 

His sister tried to keep up, but she simply wasn't as quick as he. She was invisible, but the line of energy that connected the two of us was still there, so I threw another charge of electricity at her, and then another for good measure. HU applauded my efforts. I wasn't sure where she had gotten off to, but a moment later, the fleeing crowd pushed it's way through the door and revealed her body; trampled, burned, and quite dead. 
LU, meanwhile, had escaped. 

The DC gathered in the tumbled remains of the once fine masquerade ballroom and took stock of our situation. CA looked terrible, but reported that he had managed to follow LU all the way outside. The vampire had changed form once again, and took flight over the canal. The mage ambassador who had started the fight with LU had gotten away, also. Mostly because none of us had thought to try to stop her. We searched LU's sister, but found no indication of where they had planned to go next. I pulled off the wands she had used against us earlier. 

At that moment, Ambassador Krell returned, and asked us what we had been up to. We explained what we knew of the situation, and she shared what she knew. She and LU had a long history together. She didn't think it odd at all when he approached her and asked for quick passage to Karrnath. She was surprised, however, to learn that LU was a vampire. Thankfully, she didn't hold us there long. 

I asked IR how she had found us and what she was doing here. Her only answer was a cryptic, "The elders sent me." I had a better view of her armored elven companion and suddenly didn't want to know more. He was undead. Or perhaps Undying. I really don't know the difference. 

Ambassador Krell told us the name of the airship that LU was headed towards, and told us that it left tonight. We had to hurry! Unfortunately, we weren't prepared for another voyage. Most of us had to leave our armor and weapons behind (not to mention our other gear) for the masquerade ball. I told the DC to go to the docking tower, stall LU and the ship, for I would go back to the inn and retrieve our gear. 

I told HU to watch over the DC, and tried to comfort him by telling him I would be back soon. Without another word, I kicked up into the air using a flight spell I had prepared earlier, and raced off towards our inn. In my mind's eye, I could see HU racing along the boulevards with the DC. 

Getting our gear was a trivial thing. I scooped most of it into GR's magic haversack. When it could carry no more, I bundled everything together as best I could and took flight once again. The Lyrandar docking tower was easy to spot -- it is the tallest structure in all of Trollanport. I was quite concerned that the flight enchantment would fade before I reached my destination, but I needn't have worried. The magic faded just as I was passing over the nearest dock, and I touched down gracefully, breaking immediately into a dead run across the tower. I could see the DC just coming up out of the stairwell moving rapidly towards the dock opposite me. I caught up with them. 

Our timing could not have been closer. As we approached, a half dozen gnome dockhands were throwing off mooring lines so that the "Cloud's Destiny" could take flight. It was a beautiful ship, brightly painted, but visually dominated by the fiery ring that surrounded it at mid-ship -- its bound elemental. 

We shouted for the ship to hold, but they were paying no attention. Our charge forward was impeded suddenly by the dockhands springing to attack. It was an ambush! 
CA has never been one to stand down in a fight. He counter-charged one of the gnomes, and sent him flying over the edge of the dock. He paused only long enough to grab his double-scimitar from me. GR grabbed his backpack and pulled from it his crossbow. Bolts started flying towards the gnomes. XL, IR, and IR's companion launched into the fight as we tried to push our way past to the ship. 

I deployed my wands, doing what damage I could. IR summoned up a monstrous zombie, which waded immediately into the fray. She then noticed what had somehow, mysteriously, inexplicably evaded my attention. "The gnomes," she shouted, "are are being magically compelled to attack us!" 

Before she finished the sentence, I knew what she was going to say. Of course! All the signs were there. I had noticed the small, tell-tale signs immediately, of course. It was just that I was distracted by the monumental effort it had taken for me to fly all the way here. It was dark out. My arms were tired. They were very short people. 

No matter, I had prepared for this eventuality, also. The last of the magic I had stored in my cane had been meant for LU and his sister. I had never had the chance to use it, though. Turning it's power, now, on the rough area of the gnome combatants, I released the energy and dispelled all of the magic present. IR's zombie disappeared. 

At that very moment, the "Cloud's Destiny" started pulling away from the dock. XL and I ran side-by-side to the end of the dock, skirting confused gnomes. XL, who had earlier been willing to face a sword-wielding vampire armed with nothing but a chair, skidded to a halt at the very end of the pier, suddenly afraid to make the jump. My will is made of much stronger stuff, though, and I threw everything I had into a leap towards the rapidly moving ship. 
In retrospect, I probably would have done better had I had my eyes open...." 

. -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 6 

"Iron Golem, flat grey -- very heavy" 
"Gorgon -- excellent possibility" 
"Blue Dragon -- too... common" 
"Gnome, complete with extended reduce potion -- BORING." 
"Dragonmarked, Mark of Death -- evil?" 
"Peacock, bright blue and gold, wide plumage -- very nice" 
. -- An excerpt from the "The Short List of Possible Costumes" by Artemis Heuw Cannith, Trollanport, YK 998


----------



## sniffles (Oct 16, 2006)

*Jade's Luck and Cloud's Destiny*

_(Continued from previous letter)_

When the man started waving the black sword I felt a strange trepidation, but it swiftly passed. I made my way toward him through the crowd of panicking gnomes. Dalia had vanished. 

When I got to the dance floor there were two men in white masks attacking the vampire, who seemed to be focusing his attention on a woman. The red-haired woman who'd been with him on the coach stood beside him. I grabbed an empty chair and hit him with it, cursing that I'd had to leave my weapons at the inn. The chair broke to pieces without doing him any harm.

The gnome woman reappeared long enough to hand me the dagger she'd hidden for me. It wasn't any more use as a weapon than the chair. The vampire grabbed one of the men and ripped out his throat. Then he ran.

The human woman disappeared. I ran after the vampire. It was hard to make it to the doorway; the guests were all trying to get out, and a swarm of bats had appeared from somewhere and were swooping all over the room. By the time I got outside the vampire had a long lead.

I chased him down to the canal, but he leaped out over the water and then vanished. I hung around for a while watching to see if he'd reappear like the one we'd met in the Mournlands, but he didn't. 

When I went back into the embassy I found that Kylara had suddenly appeared, with an Undying warrior called Valadrin (sp?). The Elders had sent her for some reason. The Aundairian ambassador told us that she'd given the vampire a pass to board a Lyrandar airship that evening. We had to hurry if we wanted to catch him.

The artificer offered to fetch our things from the inn while the rest of us hurried to the docking tower. Somewhere along the way we lost the gnome, or maybe she was still invisible. And the half-orc woman was gone, too.

The changeling had a clever idea to disguise itself as the red-haired woman, who'd been killed in the fighting. We thought perhaps we could use her to lure out the vampire. I wonder if she knew her brother valued her so little.

When we got to the tower the ship was about to leave. A group of gnomes blocked our way as we ran up to the gangplank. I tried to shove past them without hurting them but managed to knock two of them off the walkway. Kylara summoned up a skeleton and in a few moments only a couple of gnomes were still standing. 

The airship started to draw away from the tower. Then the human jumped across and caught hold of the railing near the ballista! Before I could react the ship was too far away to reach.

As I stood there watching it fly away a second airship rose up to meet us and a half-elf shouted out to get aboard. He said he'd been sent by the ambassador. It didn't look like much of a ship but we boarded. 

After two days aboard we caught up with the other ship, which was on its way to Karrnath. The captain of our ship seemed awfully curious about who we were after and why. But when he told us to board a skiff before dawn we got really suspicious. 

After a lot of argument Grinner tried to detect the vampire or his sword, but couldn't find any sign of them. That wasn't too worrying since he'd never been able to sense them before. Kylara cast a spell to determine that the human was still aboard the other ship and seemed unharmed. 

We decided to go along with our captain's plan. We'd take the skiff over and rescue the human before the ship he was on could react unfavorably to the presence of a privateer.

We got to the other ship safely and boarded her, but as we were preparing to look for the human we spotted more skiffs leaving the privateer with boarding parties of armed men. We knew we'd been double-crossed when we saw the armsmen: they wore the sign of the Emerald Claw!

I found myself fighting alongside the ship's crew as we fended off the Emerald Claw warriors. I cut two of them down with a single blow each. The vampire turned up again and started attacking whoever was nearest him, the Claw men as well as the ship's crew. I couldn't do anything against him. 

Then Grinner shouted out that the privateer was going to ram us! The human shouted for us to gather round him. By the time we could get together the privateer had struck the middle of the other ship. Both elementals broke free of their bindings and started battling as they fell to earth. Our ship was plummeting bow-first toward the ground as the artificer muttered an arcane phrase, and we all jumped over the rail.

We managed to float safely to the ground and avoid all the falling debris. It seems we were the only survivors. We couldn't find any sign of the vampire in the wreckage, nor the captain of the privateer. We were a short distance outside of Darguun. 

In the name of Coriandor, I continue to seek glory in battle.

Caelen

___________________________________________________
*Quips & Quotes*:
_(I've got more quotes than notes!!)_

DH: "Don't worry - the rounds will go quickly."
sniffles: "What dream world are you in? You have players at the table!"

patv: (pretending to read GM's notes): "'Round 1: Players die.'"
sniffles: "Round 2: Characters die."

DH: "The bats fail their Reflex saves."
Hedrin: "Ah! I've got people in my hair!"

Jubilee: "Vampires can't cross running water!"
Devo: "It's not running. It's just sitting there."

patv: "I'll reproduce any wounds the woman had."
Jubilee: "Can we help?"

Devo: "Hutch swallows the Handy Haversack."
sniffles: "Heuw's Handy Hutch!"

DH: "The gnome falls off the gangway. Oh, the gnomanity!"

DH: "Instead of a fire elemental this ship has an air elemental."
patv: "So it sucks."
DH: "It blows."

Jubilee(to DH): "Do we need to break for the day so you can finish reading the adventure?"

DH(as NPC): "So what's the most interesting person you've ever tracked down?"
Hedrin: "A serial killer."
patv: "He killed Captain Crunch, and Count Chocula..."
DH: "...Snap, Crackle and Pop..."

DH: "Vampire? What vampire?"
Hedrin: "The vampire who summoned the bats that ate the rats that lived in the house that Jack built."

Jubilee: "I'm going to look over the side and yell 'Oh God, oh God, we're all going to die!'"

patv: "I'm looking for extra skiffs."
DH: "There are none."
patv: "This ship is out of code."
DH: "It's the Titanic."
sniffles: "It's the Skytanic."


----------



## sniffles (Oct 16, 2006)

*Aboard the lightning rail*

From: Caelen Siorath, Thrane

I'm writing you from the lightning rail to Flamekeep. We're still in pursuit of our quarry, who's heading for Karrnath.

The gnome woman turned up again at the airship crash site. She'd somehow been knocked unconscious in the hold, although I'm still not certain which ship she was on. 

Kylara, Grinner and I stayed at the wreckage to keep scavengers and looters from the bodies, while the rest went to Sterngate to report the crash. When the town guard came we went to get rooms at the inn. There was no sign of the vampire there. But we assumed he'd be taking the lightning rail toward his destination, so we bought tickets ourselves.

An elf came up and started chatting with us in the common room, but he seemed a little too curious so the gnome followed him when he left. She got in a fight with him in his room and we had to go to her defense. We still don't know exactly what this fellow wants, but we're not having anything to do with him. He's not one of Kylara's people or ours.

On the way to the lightning rail the following morning we had our first sign that we were on the right trail. Bats swarmed us as we tried to board. The guards had been mind-controlled somehow, and the rail started to leave before everyone had boarded. I jumped aboard to try to help my companions but the carts moved forward so far I couldn't reach them. They all got aboard, though. I think someone must have cast a spell that made us all faster.

Kylara and the half-orc tried their best to find the vampire with magic, but had no success. The private compartments are all lined with lead. We just had to wait for him to make a move. 

During the night some warforged showed up and started threatening other passengers. When my companions blocked the doorway some of them went onto the roof, so I climbed up to meet them. 

I managed to knock one off the roof of the cart, but then the rail stopped suddenly and I nearly fell off myself. I managed to climb back up with help from Valirdryn, Kylara's Undying companion. Then one of the warforged demanded that we hand over the schema! I couldn't believe they still thought we had that thing.

We had more trouble than just the warforged, though. Halflings on flying lizards threw javelins at me. And my friends were fighting the vampire in the cart below.

I did my best to uphold the memory of Coriandor, but I can't do that if I die so I jumped back down in the cart. The vampire got away again, it seems. 

_(to be continued)_
___________________________________________________________________

*Quips & Quotes* _(maybe I need to start a separate section for these!)_:

Jubilee: "Hutch can see? Where are his eyes?" 
Devo: "He keeps them in a lower drawer."

Zora(to Jubilee after she rolled poorly several times): "You might want to choose new dice today if you're going to come adventuring with us."

patv: "Market day is a specific day of the week. It's called Market Day."
DH: "But it's so hard to market."

sniffles: "Artemis takes a 5-foot step off the parapet."  
Jubilee: "That's okay, he can't hit the ground - you've seen his dice rolls."

patv: "Because he's Captain Suck-Up, we took the job."  
Devo: "Excuse me, General Suck-Up."

Zora: "Do you have any carry-on undead?"

Jubilee: "Well, we look like adventurers. He's undying" (gestures vaguely toward Devo) - "well, not him, but him." (pretends to point to Valirdryn).  
Zora (pointing to Devo): "He's just brain-dead."

Zora: "Illithid vampires - it's like surf & turf but different."

sniffles: "I don't think we should give him any info."  
patv: "So we're at an impath."  
sniffles: "An empath?"
Zora: "I feel for the guy."

Hedrin: "We rub each other the wrong way."
Jubilee: "Perhaps you should stop rubbing."

DH: "So while everyone else draws weapons, Artemis just plays with his cane."  
Zora: "It's a full round action."  
Hedrin: "Actually, for a boy it's a standard action."  
patv: "I think it's a free action."

Zora: "Do Undying come with Undying flies?"  
Hedrin: "You only get flies with the combo."  
Jubilee: "Waiter, I'm in my soup!"

sniffles: "Do we get on at Platform 9 3/4 and go through the illusory wall?"  
Devo: "No, just the loser wall."
sniffles: "Artemis gets to go first!"

Zora: "There's Lucan!"  
Devo: "He's Lucan pretty."

DH  (getting up from the table): "I'm going to pee, then Grinner's up."
sniffles: "TMI!!"  
Zora: "Yeah, we don't wanna know when Grinner's up."

Devo  (rolls poorly on a Spot check): "Artemis goes, 'Where?! Boba Fett?'."

Jubilee: "I cast _magic circle against evil_. No non-good creatures can be in my circle."  
patv: "They're not on your calling plan?"  
Hedrin: "They're not in her circle of fiends."

Jubilee: "Would the train work in an _antimagic zone_?"  
Devo: "No."  
Jubilee: "I'd better not do that, then."

Hedrin: "Can you detect alignment? Has this sandwich gone bad?"

DH: "The captain casts _protection from PCs_."

sniffles: "The bats are hanging out in their cave - 'Oh, crap, he's calling us again.' "  DH: "Nobody answer the batphone."

DH: "The tops of the train cars aren't flat. They're only flat in the lower level adventure."


----------



## sniffles (Oct 16, 2006)

*The Ziggurat of Doom*

I swallowed a potion and felt some of my wounds close. Outside the leader of the warforged, the one I'd knocked off the roof of the rail cart, was still shouting about the schema. 

The human yelled back that we didn't have it anymore, to which the warforged replied that he'd have to take us all to see someone called the Lord of Blades. The artificer showed more backbone than I would've expected and declared that we weren't going anywhere with the warforged.

I jumped across to the cart my companions occupied and joined them. There was something odd going on in the middle of the cart with Kylara, but our foes were massing at the other end of the cart and I didn't stop to find out what it was.

The warforged weren't very good tacticians for having been made as soldiers. They all attacked from one end of the cart. I slew three of them. Grinner and the human were facing their leader, so I leaped behind him. He decided to withdraw and took a slash at me as he ran. Coward.

The gnome had cast her spell that gave us all great speed, but we still weren't fast enough to stop the halflings from picking up the leader and flying off with him. I'm sure we'll see him again.

The lightning rail wasn't going anywhere, so we settled down to rest a bit after determining that the vampire didn't have anywhere to go. The nearest shelter other than the rail carts was a ruined hobgoblin ziggurat about a mile away.

At midday we made our way to the ruin. The human cast a spell to let us walk on water so we could cross the stagnant lake that had formed around the structure. 

When we got to the top and started to enter the place something happened that I don't recall clearly. I remember running, but not where I was going. Then the gnome spoke to me, and for a while my memory was just a blank. I stuck close to Dalia after that.

There were some creatures that looked like living black cloaks, but I didn't need to do much when they attacked. 

The whole structure is rather unsettling. It's dedicated to some demon or monster from Xoriat.

We found a room where the walls were set with emeralds, though Dalia said they weren't greatly valuable. A skeletal undead beast attacked us. My blow destroyed it. 

Going down into the bowels of the ziggurat, we found a flooded room inhabited by a nasty beast with tentacles. It smelled foul. It kept catching hold of us so we couldn't hit it. I finally managed to kill it and for good measure the homonculus set the carcass on fire.

The half-orc found a hidden door, and I pried it open. It led into a burial chamber, partly flooded. The half-orc had discovered that this place had something to do with the Dhakaani breastplate we'd recovered - there was a sword and a shield connected to the breastplate, and all of them were supposed to have some great power. The shield was in one of the sarcophagi we now faced!

Before we could get to the shield an oozy shapeless thing attacked from under the water. When I slashed through it the pieces moved on their own. I had to resort to the flail I'd acquired in the Mournlands. 

After we finished it off Dalia went to open the sarcophagus and get the shield. The water started rising rapidly. Then the door shut. I could hear Kylara and Valirdryn pounding on the other side. I managed to heave it open again, and the human courageously dived under the water to find a way to stop the flood from rising. 

After we'd got the shield, Grinner detected the vampire up above somewhere. We went back upstairs and found him in a great hall, sitting on a black throne beneath a statue of a demon.

This is the sort of adventure that is worthy of my ancestor's memory!
____________________________________________________________

*Quips & Quotes*:

patv: "I stick the black sword in the bed point first."
Devo: "The bed dies."

DH: "Xil can't let go of the sword."
patv: "Well, going to the bathroom is going to be a butch." (yes, he actually said "butch")
Hedrin: "Not for long!"

sniffles: "'My wand is out! I forgot to put it on the charger!'"

DH  (after Grinner killed one of the warforged): "'Leave one alive - but not that one!'"

Zora: "How do you know the wand doesn't work? Does it go limp?"
DH: "Give that wand some Viagra!"

Hedrin: "It's silhouetted by the glowing ziggurat - it's a ziggurat lighter."

DH: "It lands in the copse of trees."
Zora: "The cops arrest it."

Hedrin: "I'm wearing sturdy boots."
Zora: "And Artemis is wearing dirty boots."

DH: "The undead minotaur's flesh oozes off the bones."
patv: "Ew! Five foot step away!"

Hedrin: "Dais ex machina. The ghost in the shelf."

patv: "It smells like the vampire's deodorant."
sniffles: "_Old Must_."

Devo: "I wet my pants all the time. I mean, I get my pants wet all the time."


----------



## sniffles (Oct 17, 2006)

*The Observations & Musings of Dalia Sunrule, Letter 8*

The excitement continues.

As a bunch of warforged under the command of one named Scimitar threatened us and demanded the schema we no longer had, the changeling was wrestling for control
over the sword Black Razor. As Grinner attempted to disarm him, the sword -using the changeling's body- cut deeply into Grinner, who managed to avoid death at -what we believe- the tip of a soul-stealing blade. Left a scar that healing could not remove.

The Aerenal elf would not let the sword out of her sight and gave us this information about the sword:  Black Razor was created by the demon lords and held by the giants. It is one of 13 created. It absorbs all light, has a large red-faceted ruby in the pommel. It was wielded
by the fiends in the age of demons.  At one point it was held by a warlord of Karrnath

I determined that it has a mind of its own and was attempting to use the changeling to take it north to Karrnath to some place called the "Red Keep", and would kill anybody getting in its way. It was afraid of going back to "the dark place", which I am assuming is the vault it
was in recently.

Meanwhile, Scimitar and his minions demanded we accompany him to his master, the "Lord of Blades." I'll have to ask around as to whom that might be. A fight ensued, but I stayed next to the changeling and the aerenal elf to make sure the sword didn't go anywhere. I enspelled
the room to look empty in case one of the warforged made it this far. I was keeping my eye on the bounty. We now had one half of our commission: the sword. Lukan comes next. He had loped off towards the ziggurat just before Scimitar's gang showed up in force.

Casting a spell to improve my companions' prowess, I stayed back to watch the sword, the changeling and the aerenal elf, who was demanding that she take possession of the sword. Shortly after the warforged were defeated, Kylara then took out a black orb approx. 4 inches in diameter and black energy came wafting out of it, shutting down ALL magic in the area, including the sword. I figured the sword to be of a power level unaffected by that, so either my estimations of its power are off, or that orb is more powerful than the sword.
Take note.

At this time that the elf was concentrating upon the anti-magic effect, my companions wrapped the sword in cloth and found a box to place it in. In addition, there were spirits
emanating from the orb, some of which even attempted to harm the elf. Definitely the look of "escapees".

We rested and I did my recitations, then made our way to the ziggurat with the hopes of giving ourselves a six hour window of daylight with which to find Lukan before he could
escape into the night again. As we breached the entrance, something magical assailed us and caused the normally heroic Caelen to flee. With a quick Suggestion spell, I managed to belay his flight and take up as my bodyguard until such time as we have captured Lukan. It was really a simple version of the suggested verbiage as taught in Semantics 201: The Art of the Deal, in the Academy. I had not only saved a companion and our best warrior, but secured myself a bodyguard.

This place was definitely devoted to fiendish gods, as their presence is painted on nearly every wall and tapestry in the place. After encountering several of the "inhabitants" of the
place, we came upon a room full of sarcophagi. Grinner used his dragonmark to _Detect Person_ for Lukan, and found that Lukan -now free of the influence of Black Razor- was outsmarting us by going UP into the ziggurat, instead of DOWN, as we had assumed and proceeded.

Grinner also found the location of the Shield of Light. As you know, there are three items that put together create a map to the tomb where the Sword of Kas is hidden, according to
legends. The Stone of Kings, the Shield of Light, and the Breastplate of Fire. Unbeknownst to me, my companions had recovered the Breastplate of Fire previously and turned it over to House Cannith, I believe. Will find out more.

As we were attempting to retrieve the shield, the door to the room closed, and the water started rising quite quickly. A few Knock spells opened the door just enough for the rest to force it open. Quite a rush, as we were getting perilously close to drowning. I just love days like this. 

We traversed upstairs, where Lukan is waiting on a giant throne for us. He seems much more like the kind of person I would associate with being a Dark Lantern now that the sword
isn't controlling him.

Wish I had something to control him with.

LIST OF SPELLS USABLE AGAINST A VAMPIRE:

See previous letter regarding Deathless Knights. Same spells work on
both.
(There is an interesting rumor that a vampire cannot attack someone with
a mirror. Will try to verify.)


----------



## sniffles (Oct 30, 2006)

*Caelen the Vampire Slayer*

_Note:  This campaign is going on temporary hiatus following this adventure. sniffles_

As anticipated, the vampire was not an easy foe to defeat. He healed as fast as I could hurt him. His touch drained away the life of his victims. And he had the power to confuse the mind. 

He didn't like it when the human artificer hit him with an unerring bolt of lightning. He ran around behind the demon statue, and when I followed him he managed to cloud my mind and make me try to kill the human. Kylara cast a spell to free me of his control. 

The chamber swarmed with rats, but Kylara's spells held them off. Grinner kept trying to wound the vampire with a healing wand, since its magic does harm to undead. But that meant he got within reach of the vampire, and eventually the foul monster drained away all his life. 

I fought all the harder after seeing my comrade fall. The half-orc was a worthy companion. Kylara's holy symbol glowed with the light of the sun, which the vampire didn't care for at all. He ran around the room like a hare fleeing a hound.

He got control of the human's mind just as he'd done me, but the arrogant human wouldn't believe he'd been affected. Kylara had to stand in his way to keep him out of trouble. The vampire managed to get Kylara's holy symbol away from her and cover its light with the lid of a sarcophagus. But Dalia used her magic to get it free again.

In spite of what he'd done to me before, when the vampire ran behind the statue again I followed him and hit him as hard as I could. He turned into a mist and seeped into the wall. 

Dalia found a hidden door in the wall that led into a shaft. There was daylight there, so we assumed that the vampire had died, although we couldn't find any remains. 

The human enspelled Grinner's corpse to find out what he wanted done. It told us to take his things and burn his body, so we did. It was just as well that we did so, since he would have become a vampire spawn in a few days.

We spend some time searching the temple, although we left the sarcophagi alone. The half-orc woman showed up again, but while we'd been fighting the vampire she was sent to find, she'd been stealing emeralds from the walls. We didn't offer her any share of what we found.

Among the things I received were a magic ring and an amulet that both give me greater protection. I wish I'd had them before we fought the vampire, though they wouldn't have helped against his mental powers. I'll have to see if the artificer can do something about that.

On the lightning rail back to the city I told my companions the ancient story you told me when I received my _zaelshin tu_, and read the verse for them that is inscribed on it. We don't know if it has anything to do with this black sword we recovered from the vampire, but it might.

After we returned to Sharn we took the black sword to the King's Hand. Even though we had no proof we'd killed the vampire, he gave us what he'd agreed to for the vampire's death. If you're concerned about the sword, it's in a vault here in Sharn. 

I've descended to the depths below Sharn, traveled to the Mournlands, and now slain a vampire. I think I do the memory of Coriandor proud. But I still hope to find a way to Xen'drik to truly uphold his heroic spirit.

Caelen

*Here's the story Caelen learned and the verse from his Zaelshin Tu:

The Jade Man
He strode from the Xen'Drik forest one day and stood in the square and 
told the people what was to come-that the city lay in the center of some 
particular configuration and that it was only here that the High Lords 
could meet.
 In return for the city, your line would, in the future, increase their power. He gave your ancestors great knowledge and the means to build a new city elsewhere. Those of your line were given the knowledge to build Aerenal and the City of the Dead. Coriandor was the strongest warrior, a great elf Hero of Xen'drik, a Giant Slayer. He wielded one of two ancient Black Blades of Power, now Lost somewhere on the Isle of Xen'Drik.

Brought to Xen'drik centuries before and wielded by mighty Elf Heroes, these blades were turned over to the Couatls and placed in the Crystal Cavern when they became too powerful to control. They were known by the names Ebonskaith and Black Kalagath and they have the ability to give the wielder unparalleled strength.

Runes on the Zaelshin Tu glow deep red and the following rede can be seen, written in ancient Elven glyphs:*

_*"Thirteen times, the steps to the Mad Giant's lair;
 And the Chaos Shield lies there.
 Seven times seven are the Elder trees
 Twelve times twelve warriors he sees
 But the Chaos Shield lies there.
 And the hero fair will the Mad Giant dare
 And a Black sword wield for the sad giant's shield
 on a mournful victory day."*_
_______________________________________________________________________
*Quips & Quotes:*

DH: "He reaches out his clawed hand to Grinner."
Hedrin: "Yes, he is a clod."

Jubilee: "Maybe when you're raised you become a commoner."
patv: "No, it's worse than that - you become a serf."
Hedrin: "Just bury me in the ground and I'll be serf and turf."

DH: "I didn't realize what a huge asset Lucan's sister was."
Zora: "Was she a big girl?"

Zora: "It's a religious temple. It's holey everywhere."

Devo: "This will be weird - the spell says it gives 'a semblance of life and intellect' to the corpse."
Zora: "That's alright - that's all Grinner ever had anyway."

Devo: "Well, that's it, except for the magic box."
Zora: "Well Hutch always wanted a little box of his own."


----------



## sniffles (Jan 29, 2007)

*We're back!!*  
____________________

From: Caelen Siorath
Sharn 
Breland

To my beloved Mother and Father;

I regret that I'm not coming home to join in the fight against the Karrnathi. But something tells me that isn't the way to bring glory to my ancestor's name.

I've been working with Caerlyn's Blade for a few weeks, as well as putting in some time at the stables. I hadn't heard from my adventuring companions much during that time. The human's in charge of his family's mansion and I think a couple of the others have actually taken rooms there. I'm not sure that's for me even if he does offer me space. 

I will have to look for new lodgings soon, as the Blades are heading home to join the fighting. I'll let you know as soon as I've found a new place. It won't be for some time, though. I'll be traveling to the Talenta Plains next.

The human's found some ancient crypt where he hopes to get his hands on some special dragonshards. He's planning to trade them for a book. The book doesn't hold any interest for me, but the crypt is supposed to be older than the Dhakaani empire. That should provide some adventure worthy of Coriandor's name. 

Dalia has heard that our nemesis Caiber sent some people and they didn't all make it back. His people aren't that good, but that news still bodes well for the challenge.

The artificer sent a message asking us all to meet at a restaurant called the Terrace Rose. The changeling showed up in a new guise - it's lucky we don't kill it out of hand when it does that.

The human gave us more information there about our latest venture. We'll be taking the lightning rail to the Plains, but we're taking along horses for further travel. I'll be glad of an excuse to ride Flamewind outside the city.

The human now has a bodyguard, a warforged called Sten. Evidently the Cannith people value the artificer highly, or so he claims. I don't know what I think of having a warforged around all the time. 

While we were chatting Dalia started staring off at another box on the opposite side of the restaurant, which has an amphitheatre style to accomodate performances. She said she saw something odd over there. 

Then the warforged announced that there were walking skeletons coming up the stairs. It started firing some kind of energy bolts out of its hands. Dalia shot off some kind of shadowy stuff that wrapped around the skeletons and held some of them in place. 

Kylara was closer than I was and tried to command the skeletons, but it didn't work. Kylara yelled out that they were Stillborn. I'm not sure what that means, but they were Aereni who'd made themselves up to look even more like living dead than Kylara does.

I jumped up and ran to meet them but the stairway was too narrow so I leaped over the railing and ran along a balcony to get behind them. When I reached the bottom of the stairs I realized more of the Aereni were approaching, so I took a position to oppose them. 

They tried to surround me but I sprang up on a table to get higher ground and slashed one of them fiercely. Then a blast of energy hit me from behind, leaving me bruised.

Kylara sent a Deathless soldier over to aid me, though I didn't need his help. I kept slashing at two Aereni at a time and even gave one of them a couple of good kicks to the head. They moved awfully slowly. I felt a blast of flames behind me at one point but it wasn't close enough to singe me.

After I'd taken care of the four Aereni I found that there wasn't much going on behind me. Kylara and the others had been talking about a dragon outside and then something about a wizard, but I'd been too busy with my opponents to catch it all. I went onto the balcony so I could see the full interior of the Terrace Rose.

The woman who'd been singing and most of the other patrons had fled. There was a creature made of earth and stone standing on the stage. Another Aereni had shown up, evidently the wizard, and Dalia was standing right next to him. I could hear Kylara chanting and then an undead troll appeared next to the earth creature. 
______________________________________________________
*Quips & Quotes:*

*Devo * (to Kylara): "You can put your zombies in the closet."
*Zora*: "Which zombie do you want to use today?"
*Devo*: "Hmm, I thought I only had skeletons in my closet."

*Zora*: "She's a pole elf?! Pole elves rock!"
*Hedrin*: "Aw, I was hoping for a moon elf."

*sniffles*: "Did you say make a Spot check?"
*Zora*: "You need to make a successful Listen check to make the Spot check."
*sniffles*: "No, I need to make a successful Short-term Memory check."

*Zora*: "Have you seen my Spot roll? Because I'd really like to make one."

*DH*: "You see some skeletons coming up the stairs."
*sniffles*: "Kylara, stop inviting your friends along!"

*DH*: "That's why Xil is always late for breakfast - he's trying to find himself in the mirror."
*Zora*: "He couldn't find himself with a mirror and two hands."

*patv*: "Xil has a new job: substitute in the police lineup. He's number 4."

*Jubilee*: "My Deathless moves over here. He'll freak out the wait staff."
*sniffles*: "Waiter, I've been waiting so long I died!"

*DH*: "You see a cloaked figure holding a staff."
*Jubilee*: "He must be a wizard."
*DH*: "No, he's got a butler, and maid..."

*patv*: "What wizard through yonder window breaks?"

*sniffles*: "Do you need a permit to summon things?"
*Jubilee*: "I didn't summon those undead! They were here when I got here!"


----------



## sniffles (Feb 5, 2007)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith, excerpt 16*

_Yes, I know the numbering is off, but that's what # Devo gave it. He hasn't been able to post this yet and I want to post Caelen's latest entry in chronological order, so I'm putting this up on Devo's behalf.  
sniffles_


"...commonly find myself in need of an extra hand or two. I was looking at HU when I thought this, and paused to admire his bronzed, well-crafted arms. He tok'd me once, sternly, and spun around. With his back to me, he folded his arms up under his lid and sat still, looking like nothing more than a normal chest. I made a note. Retractable would be a useful feature, too....."


.                    An Excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7



"I tried again to engage the DC in conversation, drawing CA in by asking what he had been doing for the past few weeks. I even feigned interest in his response, but the conversation dried up in less time than it takes to extract a simple dram of millaissance from a Tagdrim matrix. I gave up at that point.

No matter, MA was on stage, below us, performing that witty piece we'd been working on earlier in the week about a three-headed bull. She had some musical accompaniment, which I didn't think the piece needed, but she was the artist, not I. She really is quite the poet.

ST's formal introduction to the DC went easily enough. They doubted my claim that House Cannith had a vested interest in my protection, despite the fact that the proof was right there in front of them. I considered telling them that I have become one of the more skilled artificers in Sharn -- owing in some part to the depletion of skilled craftsmen during the War, but in no small part because of my own talent. I didn't want to sound conceited, though. Modesty is a gentleman's virtue.

My exceptional talent is the reason we were all together, though, so I thought it time we got to business. Money would bring them into the conversation. We discussed again the trip into the Talenta Plains, the dragonshard I was after [ref: PJ-V7-18], the possibility that KA had already sent agents to recover it, and the necessity for speed. Not one of them was impressed that our return from this trip would culminate in attendance to the non-annual social event of the year -- the christening of the Golden Dragon. The DC do not move in the same circles that I do, however, and somehow, it seems, they do not understand the significance of having acquired an invitation. I could only hope that such ignorance did not lead to disaster when the event finally did take place.

We agreed to leave the day after tomorrow, and I turned my attention back to MA. DA was doing the same, leaning intently forward and staring across the room to the stage. I thought to tell her that she should not gawk so, but I did not want to detract from her enjoyment of the performance. ST, who had taken a guardian's position near the balcony entrance, suddenly announced -- in a voice far too loud for a place such as this -- that there were skeletons attacking. I turned towards him, intent on issuing a stern instruction to keep his voice down, when his words sunk in. What were skeletons doing in the Terrace Rose?

The stairs to the balcony... weren't narrow, but neither I would call them spacious. You could pass someone coming in the other direction if you were boorish enough to do so, but an adamantine-bodied warforged wielding a blade of psychic energy made the space seem positively cramped. I could see multiple attackers, but they were bottlenecked in the stairway.

I stood and engaged one of my many wands [ref: CJ-V6-68] to encase myself in protective energy. Unlike the rest of the DC, I had the good manners not to wear full armor and weaponry to the Rose. HU pulled himself up to the edge of the railing and looked out. He tok-tink'ed at me that no one else in the Rose had reacted yet.

Before I could gain control of the situation, the fight had boiled up onto our balcony. One of the creatures had pushed past ST and came to threaten the rest of us. My trained eye immediately told me that this was no skeleton, but a man dressed up to look like one of those particular undead. I was about to point this out when IR commanded the creature gone. He did not noticeably react to her presence. It was, I think, because she was using her powers to command the undead, not mortals. Quickly realizing her mistake, she announced that these were no skeletons, but were Stillborn.

Somehow, that sounded worse.

I had all of my wands with me, but was concerned about hitting my companions with the barrage of magical energies I had at my disposal. Placing myself in harms way, I entered the fight bodily. I clouted one of ruffians with my cane. DA was employing her specialized magic to hamper the villains, while ST and CA mechanically hacked away at their enemies. XL was in the fight too, with his staff. One of our enemies fell.

ST still held the choke-point at the top of the stairs, but pulled back onto the balcony when IR urged him to let them through so that we could all engage them. CA, eager to get into the fight, leapt off of the balcony and sped across the Rose to engage our foes from behind. A split-second later, DA used her magic to hasten the rest of us.

More of our foes stormed past ST, displaying a keen interest in IR. Stepping back, I used another of my wands [ref: CJ-V7-42] to throw the first bodily from the balcony. He landed with a satisfying crump on the walkway below, but soon staggered to his feet. IR and VA were working in tandem with ST to drop our foes one at a time. IR even had time to summon in some reinforcements, in the form of a brace of dead elven warriors. I kept my distance from those.

Before long, we had cleared the balcony and pushed down into the Garden Room. CA was standing atop a table far across the room, enjoying himself immensely, it seemed, while surrounded on all sides by enemies. XL rushed to assist. DA went to help him, too; just as her magic had hastened us, she used it to slow down CA's enemies. He really did look like a hero of legend, his blades a blur of motion while his enemies moved as though stuck in some cube of gelatinous material. I should mention that to him; I'm sure he would appreciate hearing it.

IR was warning us that a small dragon was hiding in the lattice wall of the Garden room when a small bead of fire flew through the lattice and into our midst. I knew immediately that one of my best cloaks was about to be ruined. 

The fireball hit almost everyone. CA and some of his opponents were the only ones too far away to be damaged. It hurt a lot -- doubly so for me because it hit HU, also. The fire almost destroyed VA -- perhaps he is particularly susceptible to it? Regardless, I had to do something, and quick, to protect the DC from our unseen opponent. Pulling another wand [ref: CJ-V7-30], I used it to scan the immediate area. The magic located everything within about twenty feet of me -- including the presence of the dragon. I pointed it out to ST, who used his blade to remove a large patch of lattice. The dragon fell away, lost to sight as it plummeted downwards.

Opposite us, about eighty feet away from the tower, was an elven man standing atop a flight disk. It was a wonderful piece of work, seemingly a single roundish crystal about four feet across and crackling with energy. I knew very well that it was the manifest zone within Sharn that kept the disk afloat, but still I was impressed. The power necessary to charge such a device, and the complicated matrices involved in it's construction would have been an interesting challenge, even for my unparalleled skills. I wondered if the crystal had to be natural, or if the construction process itself built the crystal? Were I to build such a thing, I would start with a lattice of Tagdrim matrices, built into a frame that would eventually surround the constructed crystal. The frame could be submersed in encillated quicksilver for dismemberment at the project's completion. Concurrently layered Stromm fields in the presence of tor shift-light generator and eight silvered refraction lenses would work as a basis to build the device. Naturally, the seed would be a Syberis dragonshard with a Kinsian octal cut. It's center would need to be bored out, however, to redistribute it's millaissance alignment into more of a flattened torus paradigm. Sixteen rierdra crystals would need to be embedded into the construct for control, but how co-linear containment be achieved?

My apologies. I seem to have drifted away from my story. Regardless, that is what was going through my mind when I saw the arcanist. He had just completed a spell and a half dozen air elementals, each about the size of HU, broke through the lattice to surround IR. They tried to spirit her away. XL dropped back to help her, as did a number of the summoned elven warriors.

Something else happened outside, and where the wizard stood just a second ago, the psuedodragon now stood. I quickly pulled out a wand [ref: CJ-V6-81] and blasted him with beam of electricity. The creature flew backwards, severely wounded. It flew out of sight in a barely controlled dive.

DA had managed to use a light spell to stun most of the elementals, and IR had extracted herself from their midst. She and VA moved back into the main room of the Rose. I threw a quick enchantment on STs blade and told him to clean up the last of the elementals. He jumped to obey.

Through the main entrance to the Rose strode the elven wizard. He must have teleported to the far side of the tower. As he came in, he challenged IR to a conjurers duel. The prize would be the orb she carried. Naturally, IR wanted nothing to do with the duel, but VA pointed out that the man was Aerenal, and the challenge was a valid one. Velrys, as he named himself, summoned up an earth elemental and waited. 

Patrons and staff both were flooding out of the Terrace Rose and onto the landing outside."


.                    An Excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7.



"Monique Hasdin, server at The King of Cups; nice smile"
"Adelienne Silverstar, bard; great voice"
"Glorianna Hopebringer, ex-paladin; well equipped"
"Samm Hardpole, blacksmith; strong arms"
"Tarya d'Cannith, artificer; House Cannith"

.                    An Excerpt from the "List of People Mistakenly thought to be Xil, and Their Noticeable Traits", by Artemis Heuw Cannith


----------



## sniffles (Feb 5, 2007)

*Caelen's letter continues...*

The Aereni wizard seemed to be watching the earth creature intently, so I took up a position where I could strike him if he threatened any of my companions.

I could hear Dalia chanting some arcane words behind me. Kylara ran down to aid her summoned zombie when the earth elemental dealt it a heavy blow. The wizard seemed concerned by my presence and tried to cast some enchantment on me, but I heard Dalia say something and he hesitated.

The human hurled something at the wizard's feet. Two pebbles hit the floor and then exploded in a thunderous blast. The wizard didn't seem injured or disturbed by the noise. After he tried to cast a spell on me I let him feel the edges of my blades. I knew I'd hit him hard several times but he must have had some magical protection because I drew no blood.

The Aereni had two bladed chains at his waist that seemed to move of their own accord, and these attacked me viciously. I tried to cut through one of them but it was too hard for my blade to sever. 

The wizard began to retreat down the steps toward his summoned elemental. Dalia and I followed him, Dalia surrounding them in silence so the Aereni couldn't cast his spells. Then the artificer fired off a spell from one of his wands that caused the wizard's chains to fall limply at his sides. 

This was too much for the Aereni. He jumped down to the amphitheatre floor and was surrounded by a strange vortex for a moment. When it cleared he was gone and a tiny dragon-like creature stood in his place. It took flight toward the terrace.

My companions must have known what this meant as they all pursued the dragon-thing, all but Kylara. The earthen creature had attacked her and she nearly fell. I ran down to her aid. The creature was tough to hurt, but the artificer reappeared and blasted it to dust.

After Kylara had summoned the magic of the Undying to heal us, we searched the corpses of the Aereni she'd called Stillborn and found they all had enchanted bracers and targath longswords. We took these. 

While we gathered up our loot I overheard the others discussing why the wizard had been attacking us. He wanted a talisman Kylara's father had given her. He'd challenged her to a duel of magecraft but he hadn't followed the proper courtesies. I believe he only made the challenge when his minions failed to take the talisman by force.

I expect we'll run into him again. We seem to attract this sort of attention. I hope he lets us be until we return from Talenta. Wizard's feuds don't hold much attraction for me.

Caelen
______________________________________________________

From: Caelen Siorath
Sharn
Breland

To my family;

Our trip to the plains may be delayed a little. Apparently we've been seconded to the City Watch.

On our way to the lightning rail station we took a detour to follow up on an errand that Dalia and Artemis had arranged. We were accompanied by a dwarf from the Watch. We went to the shop of a merchant who was suspected of gaining his merchandise by theft.

When we arrived we found the shop in the process of being robbed. The warforged slew one brigand who attacked us. Dalia brought another to a halt with magic. The other thieves set the shop on fire as they fled. 

I ran inside and put the fire out while the dwarf caught one of the thieves. Then the shopkeeper arrived and began wailing that they'd stolen a key. At first he insisted it was a family heirloom, but eventually he confessed that he'd had our nemesis Caiber steal it for him. It was a magic key that could open any door. This concerned the dwarf, since it meant thieves could go anywhere and take anything. 

I thought it was the Watch's responsibility to deal with the matter, but the dwarf pleaded with the human to help. The captive thief named an orc called Irontusk as leader of their gang, so we set off to the Grayflood dock district to find him.

We located Irontusk easily enough. He started to run when he saw us. I pursued him over a series of moored barges, which proved difficult when their decks were all covered in rubbish and fish offal.

By the time I caught up to him he'd fallen in the water. Kylara summoned up a couple of winged creatures and swooped down on him. One of her creatures snatched him up in its jaws and I pummeled him into submission.

He wouldn't talk even under threat of being slain and raised as one of Kylara's minions, but Dalia had a spell that made him speak the truth. He told us he'd been hired by a sickly elf at a guildhouse in the Precarious district. He didn't know the elf's name.

The changeling made itself useful for once by taking the orc's form when we went to the guildhall. It went in with an invisible Dalia. She cast another spell so she could speak with us while inside.

They found the elf right away, along with several other sick people. The changeling didn't get anywhere so he left, but Dalia stayed invisibly in the room and listened to the elf's thoughts. 

When the changeling came out we burst in and I followed him back to the room occupied by the elf. The door was locked and I couldn't kick it in. Dalia had to use another spell to open it from inside.

I held the elf at bladepoint while the others questioned him. He agreed to tell what he knew after Kylara offered to cure what ailed him. He said he'd been hired by a priest from Thrane to steal the key. The priest had told him he'd cure the elf's sickness in return, but he'd lied.

For some reason Kylara insisted that she couldn't leave the city until she healed all the sick men. I don't know why she wanted to waste her care on thieves. But we all agreed to wait until they recovered before leaving for Talenta. We're not giving them our aid for free, though. The guildhall was abandoned, but I don't believe the gems and tapestries we found belong to the building. We took some to cover the cost of the healing scrolls Kylara wanted.

Speaking of tapestries, there was one with the image of an unusual structure with two towers. It reminded me of a tale I've heard about an Aereni diabolist who was exiled. It also reminded me of some ruins we saw when we were hunting the vampire. It's odd how everything we do seems to be so interconnected.

We should be leaving for the halfling lands soon, unless the human finds some other way for us to do the City Watch's jobs for them.

Caelen
_______________________________________________

*Quips & Quotes*:

Hedrin: "His _wrack_ is ruined."

Devo: "Artemis plays the bad cop. Or plays a cop badly."

Zora: "Dalia casts _detect thoughts_."
DH: "On Artemis? You get nothing."

Zora: "He's part of the Watch, not the Help."


----------



## sniffles (Feb 12, 2007)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith, excerpt 17*

*Devo's latest entry.*

"The next step was to connect the re-inforced plates to HU's frame. After that, I would add the interior lining and be done. Each of the nuts and bolts necessary for this operation had been hand-picked for quality, durability, and aesthetics. HU was fine with the bolts, but didn't like the nuts for some reason: he claimed they were too thick and made him feel bloated. I argued with him, but he wouldn't stop tok'ing back. I even rolled them around in the palm of my hand, showing him how much he would enjoy them. Eventually I succumbed to his desires, put his nuts in a vice, and shaved them down. The things I do to make him happy!" 
. -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7 

"Summoners are funny people. I suppose, though, that this is only a true statement if you are the type to consider Aerenal elves "people". I do, but I am a well educated man, and not prone to the narrow-minded racism that all of the lower-ward illiterates share. 

I could tell immediately that VE and IR were engaged in a conjurer's duel. They couldn't have picked a better spot for it, I thought. 

The interior of the Rose is the better half of a round tower, making it a near perfect semi-circle. One can consider the entrance to be the "ground" floor (preposterous, I know, given the fact that we were half a mile up in one of Sharn's nicer districts); it is a circular area defined on one side by the bar, on the opposite side by the front entrance, and on the two remaining sides by broad stairways that sweep up to the second floor balcony. From the edge of this balcony, one has a clear view of the combatants down below, without being close enough to get hurt. It was this balcony that the two duelists occupied, VE on the right side of the tower, IR on the left. 

Of course, this wasn't an arena, this was a place of business with innocent spectators. A duel of summoned creatures would do tremendous damage to what was quickly becoming my favorite social spot. 

Fortunately for us, VE chose not to follow the rules of a conjurer's duel. He tried to cast a spell at CA, but DA stopped him in his tracks. If he attacked us, we were free to attack him. HU and I both lobbed Thunderstones [ref: CJ-V4-19] in his direction. They were square on target, but it didn't appear to deafen VE as I had hoped they would. CA, never one to back down from a fight, leapt forward to embrace the battle. XL stood ready, a dart held high in case VE tried to use his magic again. It looked like the scene was well in hand. 

I turned and walked past ST, who was methodically destroying air elementals. One flew past me, on it's way to attack IR. Another breach of ettiquette in a summoners duel. Continuing on, I went back to the far edge of the tower where I used one of my many wands [ref: CJ-V6-53] to bring the soarsled into the room with me. It was an interesting piece of work. 

Coming back into the main room, I saw that the duel below between zombie ogre and earth elemental was going as expected. They stood there, toe-to-toe, bashing one another. IR was part way down the stairs and behind her ogre, using a wand and her magic to keep the dead ogre healed. 

Across the room, the DC were having a hard time taking out one solitary wizard. I regretted leaving this fight to them: the only other person in the DC who could properly handle a wizard was IR, and she was distracted following the rules of the duel. It looked like DA was making a difference, but perhaps not enough of one. I sent HU over to give a healing potion to CA, who seemed badly abused. 

Resorting to one of my untested wands [ref: CJ-V7-11], I struck VE with a burst of flat grey energy that left much of his magic drained. The animated chains by his side went limp, giving CA one less opponent to deal with. DA, taking my cue, cast a zone of silence around herself and ran up to the cornered wizard to negate his spellcasting. CA stepped forward to engage once again, but VE had had enough: he turned and leapt into the air. In a flash, he was gone, replaced once again by his dragon. It raced away, but not before I got one more shot at it with my wand [ref: CJ-V6-44]. Both beams of fire struck the creature, but it's natural resistance shrugged off the magic. It was just past the confines of the tower when DA stunned the creature. It stopped flapping, and started falling. 

I raced over to the sill of the tower, looking down, but I could not see the creature. DA raced over as well, but didn't bother stopping. Completely silent, she cleared the ledge and was gone, plummeting downward after the dragon. I looked to ST, who had followed me, and shrugged. We turned in unison to go back to the main room. 

The zombie ogre was destroyed, gone. The earth elemental persisted, however, and was doing considerable damage to CA, IR, and XL. Not one of them would survive another hit from the creature. Using the wand I had to hand, I struck the elemental with two beams of fire and it exploded in a shower of burning rock and ash. Before the detritus even had time to settle, the remains of the creature faded from view. HU clapped, the only one with courtesy enough to thank me for saving the DC. Again. 

I came around the balcony's edge, calling down to the patrons and staff to see if everyone was all right. A crowd of people unfolded from behind the bar and out of the back rooms -- customers and staff who had been too fearful to intervene, but too curious to leave. Many of them congratulated me on driving the interloper away. Naturally, I had the courtesy to suggest that the rest of the DC had some small part in clearing the place of ruffians. No one was injured, much to my relief. 

The same could not be said of the DC. ST was badly damaged, and all of the rest of us bore deep wounds -- most from the fireball. Hutch was rather beat up, as well. Some quick magics from IR and myself set things mostly straight. 

We were barely healed up when the owner of the Rose came to us and suggested that we didn't need to be there when the Watch came. He volunteered to tell the watch captain what had happened and handle all of the ensuing questions. I thanked him and we headed towards the door. At his suggestion, though, we turned around and took our exit through the kitchen and down into the lower part of the tower, where we were able to find our own way out. 

It just occured to me that I am using a single mnemonic to annotate two different people: Sten and Stark. From this point forward, Stark shall be referred to as S1. 
The next day was spent in preparation for our departure. I realized that my supply of healing wands was a bit low, so set S1 to creating another [ref: CJ-V7-50]. I arranged for a horse and with gear to be ready for me down near the lightning rail station, and set about putting my affairs in order. I was expecting be gone for the next twenty or so days. 

The day of our planned departure, the DC met at my tower for breakfast. We were more than ready for a trip out. JE was there, too. He had stopped by the evening before to ask me to complete one more task in the investigation that DA and I had been working on for the past week. It involved questioning a suspect to see if he needed to be brought in for interrogation. I told JE that we would take care of it in the morning and he said that would be fine. I asked the DC if they wouldn't mind the slight detour, and no one around the table objected. After waiting for XL to finish eating, we left with JE in tow. 

We were on our way down to the lower wards, to ask a merchant by the name of Theldryk (TH) about his sudden rise in wealth. Our investigations had followed a string of recent robberies, and we were looking for how they had been acheived. Many of the thefts had seemed impossible to pull off, including the last: the burglary of a Kundarak vault. Through circumstance too tedious to dictate here, TH's name had become attached to the investigation, and we were going down to ask him a few simple questions. 

The lower wards can be a maze at times, and the area around the shop was no exception. As I came around the corner, my well-trained senses warned me that something was amiss. The door to the shop stood open, and a seedy-looking fellow stood watch on the front step. Loud crashes and rustling noises came from the interior. At our approach, he yelled over his shoulder that there was trouble. The man was a clairvoyant! 

That was sarcasm. He didn't really seem anything important. 

I ordered the man to stand down, and CA came to back me up, flashing his blades dangerously. The yellow-tailed thief (sarcasm, again) clumsily pulled a weapon, and looked at me with obvious fear in his eyes. He was rooted to the spot. Evidently, he had heard of me. 

Two more would-be robbers came out of the shop. One sprinted away. The other threw a knife at me, which I easily side-stepped. ST, who seemed to take the assault upon my body personally, threw his energy blade at the man who tumbled to the steps, bleeding. 

XL raced past the group and into the shop, only to cry out in fear when he learned that a lantern had been spilled in the confusion and a fire had started. DA bound our first thug in magic, while IR finished a spell that summoned a fleet-footed skeleton to chase down the one getting away. The sound of their clattering, wailing chase faded into the distance. 

ST moved forward to secure our captured brigand while CA and I moved into the building to salvage what we could. XL and CA tried to put out the fire. I had better ideas, though, and used a wand [ref: CJ-V7-30] to instantly search the area. Three of the stolen items were hidden about the shop, and the wall-mounted lock-box had been broken into. The shop itself seemed full of spices and unusual herbs. Other than the stolen goods, though, there was nothing "illegal" about the place. 

A commotion outside took my attention away from the shop. TH, the shopkeep we had come to question, had just arrived and was lamenting the ransacking of his shop. With wide-eyed terror, he rushed past us to check on his lockbox, then cried aloud at the loss of his key. 
When pushed, he admitted that the key lead to a Lost Room, and that from this room one could go anywhere. Anywhere at all. We produced some of the stolen items, and he admitted to taking them. JE had his man. 

Our captured robber knew nothing about a key. He had been advised by an orc friend named Irontusk (IT) that this place would be easy pickings after IT was through with it. Evidently, it was this IT that had the key. After a few more questions, we learned that IT lived down in the Grey Flood wharf district. The watch had arrived by this point, so we turned TH and the robbers over to them. 

We had a debate at this point, though. Our rail was leaving soon -- if we continued the investigation then we would very certainly miss our departure time. This was the only lead we had, however, and JE asked that we follow up on it while we could. The DC decided to delay our departure, and moved to finish the investigation. 

If I had known how complicated it would become, I might have pushed onward instead. 
Grey Flood is right on the river, a stinking, decaying wharf district characterized by a virtual boardwalk of tied-together skiffs, barges and boats. The river boats on the very outside of the flotilla were out in the river fishing when we arrived. Our prey was much closer. 
I had just spotted IT, half a dozen boats away from where we stood on the pier, when a shrill-voiced halfling woman cried out a warning to him. At the sound, he took off, leaping boat to boat away from us. CA immediately gave chase, following him in kind. The rest of the DC, with JE still in tow, ran back up the pier and between the warehouses in the hopes of circling around and cutting of his escape. 

DA disappeared at some point during our mad rush. IR and VA had the lead and ran as fast as they could towards the third warehouse down, beyond which lay a lane that would take them to the farthest pier. HU and I passed ST easily, his adamantine frame causing hiim to run very slowly. We took the first chance we found to get back to the river. XL was right behind us, but ST kept on running, following after IR and VA. 

Emerging from the shadows of the warehouse, I saw CA on the river. He was having trouble getting across some of the boats. Ill repair, fish netting, and the slime left from months of cleaning fish on the unwashed surface of different boats was slowing him down. CA found his stride, though, because he suddenly picked up speed, jumping from one boat to another in rapid succession. I shouted my encouragement to him. 

I paused on the causeway to see if I could spot our quarry, but there was a whole flotilla of madly bobbing boats between he and I. XL scampered down into the boat that we had first seen IT in, looking for clues. HU and I moved adroitly down onto a long barge tha jutted farther out into the river than any of the other boats. My intent was to go out as far as possible so that I could see my prey. 

Unfortunately, CA had just scampered across this particular barge, rousing the ire of three guard dogs. I tried to warn them back, but was forced to defend myself when they attacked. 

Meanwhile, farther down the line of boats, IT had almost made it to his getaway boat. He would have made it, actually, if he hadn't stopped to set a barge on fire. He was trying to dissuade his persuers. If I had been given the opportunity, I would have warned him of the futility of that act. DA, having used her magic to go invisible and fleet-footed, was one step ahead of him. The boat she chose to make her stand in, unfortunately, was occupied. A giant spider in a wicker cage slung a web at her, it's infallable spider senses ignoring her invisibility. She was entrapped. 

Two dead wyverns circled above us, summoned, no doubt, by IR. One performed a diving attack on IT and the boat he stood upon. He managed to keep his feet, but was seriously wounded by the bite. The other zombie wyvern looked lost, if that is possible for one of the dead, until IR summoned both creatures to her side. ST arrived on the scene, but his pursuit was slowed when he had trouble navigating past the flaming barge. No doubt, he would be asking me to fix the fire datmage he sustained. 

IT made another run for it, but collided with the invisible DA and they both tumbled into the river. He came up first, and tried to scramble onto his boat. CA was there by this time, and kicked the orc in the face. IR and VA flew in on their newly acquired dead zombie wyverns. When one of the wyverns grabbed IT and lifted him free of the water, CA knocked the orc out with another kick to the face. DA struggled up out of the water, and once the spider cage was covered, our fight was done. 

Our investigation, it turns out, was far from the same. 

After some magical persuasion from DA, IT was more than happy to tell us his side of the story. He had been hired by a sickly elf to acquire the key; and had been paid only 100 gold to do it, too. We handed IT over to JE, who took him up to the nearest watch tower, and followed the only lead we had left. IT told us where he met this elf, and that is where we were headed. 

We were on our way up to an old guildhouse, located in the lower wards on the east side of Sharn. I don't even remember what distraict it was in. XL had the idea of disguising himself as IT to infiltrate the guildhouse, and we liked the idea. DA volunteered to go with him, invisibly, to see what additional information she could glean and offer what protection she could. IR, VA, and CA came towards the guildhouse from one side. ST, HU, and I came at it from the other. 

The area of town we were in was rather run down. The architecture of the place was rather interesting, though, and I spent a few of our waiting minutes discussing some of the more interesting construction with ST. He was fascinated with my lecture, naturally, but had a hard time forming the type of interesting questions that would have turned a lecture into a companionable discussion. Ah, well. House Cannith sent him to me not for his social skills, but for his ability to protect me from harm. 

There were a handful of ruffians in the immediate vicinity, and it looked like they held ill intentions towards the three of us. They were probably curious to see what riches HU contained. As I did not want to draw attention to our position, however, I made the universal sign of "Do not approach and you will not be harmed, what you are thinking is dangerous to your health" in the direction of the unsanitary-looking gang. They probably noticed one or more of my wand sheaths as I did so and decided, rightfully so, that I was far too dangerous to tussle with. I suppose they could have seen ST, as well, but when they slunk away, proverbial tails between their legs, I was the one their fear clad faces kept turning towards. HU stooped down to examine a shiny rock. 

I judged the time was right, and the three of us moved forward. IR had begun her approach a scant prematurely and was at the guildhouse a few seconds before us. A narrow passage led to the entrance of the building. As we approached, we could hear XL, playing at IT, in the doorway talking to a couple of goons. Something about the way the hooligans spoke nagged at me, but we were in motion and I didn't have time to ponder the situation. 
IR and VA rushed into the house, bullying one of the brigands back against the wall. CA went in swinging, and the other one dropped to the ground, dead. I took one look inside and stepped back. 

The sour scent of sickness suffused the soiled house. HU handed me a silk kerchief, and I quickly covered my nose and mouth. A quick infusion [ref: CJ-V3-12] bolstered my immune system, and a second [ref: CJ-V1-11] made me more resistant to whatever sickness lay within the house. Cautiously, and without touching anything, I moved forward. I told HU to touch nothing. Right on queue, he folded his arms up under his lid. That was handy. 

Our remaining brigand did not put up a fight as VA tied him up. The man was too sick to resist. IR looked the two men over and pronounced them sick. I made some comment to her, but her elven ears must not have caught my sarcasm, muffled as it was by the rumpled silk I held before my mouth. Blinding Sickness, I think she named the disease. Sounded uncomfortable. 

XL showed us the way upstairs, where the head man was. I took a moment to appreciate the splendor that the guild house once contained. It was obvious that the place had been abandoned long ago, then taken over by this gang. There was still a fair amount of wealth scattered through the house -- tapestries, carved furniture, and the like -- but one would need my trained eye to see past the filth and wear to see it. I am sure that the rest of the DC did not appreciate their environs on the same level I did. 

The leader of the gang sat alone in a large, dim room. For a moment, there was a locked door that seperated us, but it was either CA's strong shoulder or DA's clever fingers bypassed that obstacle. As I came into the room, I noticed that someone had spilled oil just inside the door. Sloppy. 

After one look at us the leader shrunk in on himself, surrendering in self-pitied acquiessence. He was an elf, as we'd been told, and sick, though not as bad as some of his followers. It took very little to convince him to tell us his tale. He claimed that a sickly, crooked-toothed priest of the Silver Flame by the name of Veltargo (VT) had approached him and made him a deal. VT offered to hand over to the elf a curative for the disease that he and his men suffered under, if they would procure for him a certain key. 

The leader of the gang agreed, and hired IT to steal the key from TH. IT broke into TH's shop, then sold the information about the robbery to another gang, who came in after IT to clean up the shop. It was luck that ran into the very last gang, but skill that took our investigation from them to IT to the elf, and now to VT. Unfortunately, we had no leads that would help us find VT. 

I took a look at the "potion" VT had given over as a curative, and had to suppress a laugh. It was nothing more than a (very poor) mead. There were no additives at all that I could discern in the "potion". 

IR took pity on the sickly elf and his men (it must be an elf thing), and offered to heal all of them. After a quick assessment of the gang (there were eight in total; half a dozen of them were too sick to move from their beds) IR determined that an immediate stop-gap measure was needed for four of them or they would not live through the night. At some point, she must have been told about the valuable properties scattered about the place, because she informed the gang that we would be taking all of the nearby items of value to help pay for the necessary scrolls. No one put up a struggle. 

IR informed the DC that she would need four days to heal these men. We agreed to delay our trip. 

So now I have four days before we leave. I can probably spend most of that in my lab. What to do? Maybe I'll reinforce HU, for the rigorous travels ahead...." 

. -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7 

"Yes, a Companionable Homunculus Elocating Storage Trunk." 
"No, it is self-perambulating asset containment apparatus." 
"I appreciate that you admire my chest, but I do not craft that way." 
"What are you, some kind of blind man?" 
"Why don't you go back to staring at women's chests, and keep your eyes off of mine?" 
. -- An excerpt from the List of Witty Responses to Yesterday's Question, "What is that, some kind of chest?", by Artemis Heuw Cannith


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## sniffles (Feb 12, 2007)

*Caelen writes home*

From: Caelen Siorath
Sharn, Breland

To my family;

Once again we've delayed our trip to Gatherhold. But it was a more worthwhile delay than caring for a diseased gang of thieves.

The human and Dalia found more information about the false priest who took the enchanted key. He dropped a stone with some runes on it that the warforged recognized. We made our way to the Cogs in search of the place those runes could be found.

After descending a long flight of steps we came to a chamber with a channel of lava running through it to a pool. Dalia searched the area carefully and found a way to drain the pool, revealing another flight of stairs. The pool started to refill quickly and I had to leap over the lava to get through the doorway.

We came into a winding passage with more stairs. Zombies swarmed on us right away. Kylara sent several of them tumbling off the side of the stair into darkness. The rest overran the warforged and knocked it down. They clawed the changeling and weakened it before I could get into position to attack them. I destroyed one and Kylara took care of the rest.

Dalia then found the mark of a green hand on the wall. It set off a blast of sound that hurt. This was by the entry to a room full of crates and barrels and discarded clothing. More zombies attacked while we searched. 

Kylara drove some of them off. I overran the zombies this time and killed two. The warforged fired energy projectiles out of its hand - a useful ability. The human fried some of them with lightning. They smelled foul. Kylara said they weren't typical zombies but something called ghasts.

After we finished the ghasts off the human put an infusion on our weapons to harm undead. He's getting to be more useful now. I appreciate the belt he made for me. But neither he nor Dalia realized the danger when we came to a passage with lots of holes in the wall near the floor. We were swarmed by undead rats. They were hard to hit. 

The artificer infused us with resistance to flames and had his walking chest throw alchemist's fire on the rats, which did a good job of eliminating them. Perhaps I'll have him make me something that does fire damage.

After descending further we came to another lava pool. Across it we could see a colonnaded structure. There was a sculpture of a dragon head protruding from the wall on our side of the pool. It reminded me of a mural we saw in the goblin ziggurat, you know, the one where we slew the vampire. I told the others what I remembered and Dalia realized that there was an invisible bridge across the lava.

Creatures made of lava rose out of the pool and hurled blobs of magma at Dalia as she crossed. Kylara followed her while the warforged shot at the magma creatures. I ran across the narrow bridge and jumped past the women to get into the building. 

When I landed I saw a man come out from behind the columns. He yelled a warning out to someone called Veltargo - that was the name of the false priest. I charged him. A door opened behind him and a tall bony creature with long claws attacked me.

I turned to fight the bony creature. It was like chopping wood with a sword. Even with the infusion against undead on one end of my scimitar it took me a long time to destroy it. Blasts of lightning and vials of alchemical fire flew over my shoulder as my companions attacked it too. Kylara summoned of a glowing thing to fight the man. 

I was sorely wounded by the time the bone creature fell. It had claws like long knives and unerring aim. I ran through the doorway behind it and found myself face to face with a soldier wearing the hated green claw emblem. I cut him down with one slash. 

There was a priest in the room. The warforged dropped him. But he wasn't the false priest we sought. The artificer ran back and opened a door, revealing a room containing the false priest and more green claw soldiers. He slammed the door shut, trapping the false priest in the room with us. 

The false priest had the magic key. The warforged knocked it out of his hand and he ran. I chased him, but he had some spell that would let him move in little hops and leaps, disappearing from view in between. He got away, but he took one of my arrows with him, stuck through his shoulder and coming out his chest.

The artificer and Kylara and Dalia are all excited about some book they found. All I care is that the false priest was also the false vampire we met at Whitehearth, and the airship privateer who led us into trouble on the way to Darguun. It turns out he's a changeling called Garrow, if that's his real name. 

I'm going to have his scalp.

Caelen
____________________________________

*Quips & Quotes:*
[sblock]
*patv*: "I don't do undead."
*Devo*: "That's not what I've heard."

*DH*: "You travel down to the bowels of the city."
*Devo*: "Let's get out of here and disembowel ourselves."

*Zora*: "Want somebody's knees broken? Because that's as far as I can reach."

*Zora*: "I've only heard of crap rolling downstairs."
*Hedrin*: "So you're at the bottom of the stairs?"

*Jubilee*: "I didn't hear you rolling any dice!"
*DH*: "I'm rolling them in my head. I'm that good."
*Zora*: "Well there's something rolling around in there. I guess it's those dice you shoved up your nose when you were a kid."

*DH*: "The dragon head has gemstone eyes."
*Zora*: "_Had_."
*Devo*: "They're very hot."
*Zora*: "They will be once I take them."

*Zora*: "Ooh, lava sharks jump over us."
*Jubilee*: "I thought we were supposed to jump the shark."
*Zora*: "Oh, we did that a long time ago."

*Devo*: "So you're _invisible _ and _displaced_?"
*Jubilee*: "Aw, Dalia's a displaced person."

*Hedrin*: "I attack with my longsword."
*Jubilee*: "Wasn't that a bastard sword?"
*Zora*: "Shrinkage."
*Jubilee*: "Well, there are some cold spells in here."
[/sblock]


----------



## sniffles (Mar 9, 2007)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith, excerpt 18*

*At last, an update!*  
_sniffles_

"My arm was achingly tired by the time I finished the last rune. It hung in the air with it's companions; the complete spell copied over and over again like sentences on a chalkboard. The blue glow from the runes drained all color from the room. With a sigh, I picked up the uncharged wand I had constructed earlier this morning and walked around to the other side of the writing. I had just finished retracing the first line backwards, erasing the runes by absorbing them into the wand, when Hutch, bored, started juggling. His antics were distracting me at a very critical time. I gave him two of the hard-boiled eggs I hadn't eaten with my lunch and took away his alchemist fire. I hate it when he juggles those. They are very expensive to make."

.                    An Excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7



"It was DA who had first heard that the Five Nations express wouldn't be leaving as scheduled tomorrow. Something about needing to load a very special freight aboard it's cargo cars, delaying the lightning rail excursion by one day. I sent letters to those of the DC who do not live in this tower. CA and XL must have been looking for something to do when the letters found them, because they came to the tower for an early dinner before we all headed out to track down VE.

Perhaps an explanation is in order. Our investigations a few days ago led us to the name "Veltargo" (VE). He was dressed as a priest of the Silver Flame, and is the man who ultimately ended up with the magic key. Unfortunately, all we had was a name -- nothing else to go by and no way to find him. It was a simple matter to learn that none of the known Silver Flame temples in Sharn had a priest by that name. What was harder to come up with is that a young priest had been robbed a few days ago, and his outfit stolen. DA went to talk to the priest and came back with a small rounded stone, with a goblinoid rune on one side. She said "Veltargo" had dropped it when he mugged the priest. I recognized the rune for "Strength", but knew nothing else about the stone. ST, on the other hand, had seen it's like before; on the wall of an ancient crypt, buried in beneath the Cogs below Sharn. Once the DC had gathered once again, we were under way.

I am no stranger to the depths below Sharn; my family has had foundries there for the last four generations. It took us very little time to find our to the area ST thought contained the crypt. After a bit of searching, a bit of backtracking, and a few questions directed towards ST to gauge whether or not we were in the right area, we finally reached our destination.

We stood before a narrow stairway that led downwards. Hot, sulfurous air rose up towards us, and the tell-tale red glow of a lava pit spoke of the dangers we would face. While DA scouted forward, I used a pair of infusions [ref: CJ-V5-7] to protect HU and ST from fire. I checked the wand that would provide the same protection to the rest of us [ref: CJ-V6-23], and put it someplace handy. Ready, we moved downwards.

The hall was narrow, dark, and extremely dirty. I warned HU against touching anything he didn't absolutely have to. A short cross-corridor attracted my attention, as it contained a thin rivulet of molten lava that crossed our paths. I turned down the corridor to find a tight, round room that held a waist-high basin of lava, which acted as the source of the flow. I studied it to see if it had any magical properties, but it did not. I lost interest at that point. VA had followed me into the room, interested in the goblinoid carvings that filled the walls. They seemed to be some sort of funerary exhortation. Quite dull, really.

We caught up with the rest of the DC and found ourselves in a rectangular room with an alter of sorts opposite the entrance, and niches in the wall, each holding a cracked and broken-into sarcophagus. There were remains of ancient goblin heroes scattered around, but nothing more of interest. The wall held a large number of the lapidary runes -- ones very similar to what the false priest had dropped. Many spots that once held stones were empty, as if this place had been plundered for years and years. 

In the center of the room, bordering the religious carvings along the back wall, was a rectangular pool of lava, this one large enough to be considered a comfortable bath. DA, who had been here long enough to conduct her own investigations, was crawling along the relief, looking for a button or other opening mechanism. She found it, evidently, as, with a grind of stone moving, the lava pool started draining away. A short flight of stairs was revealed below line of the lava, leading to a short corridor that continued onward. After waiting for the stairs to cool, we moved forward. We were hurried along a bit when a doorway started closing and lava started filling in the pool once again. 

Coming out in a rush, we were a bit surprised to find ourselves on a wide ledge overlooking a pit that descended at least one hundred feet. The red glow coming from below, plus the oppressive heat, told me that the pit was filled with lava. DA mentioned stairs leading down on one side, but I didn't get a chance to look around much before trouble found us. 

Half a dozen hobgoblin warriors, long dead and yet animate enough to defend their ancient grounds, attacked us from two sides. Three of the creatures had climbed up the cliff to attack VA and IR. Two more raced up the stairs to attack XL and ST. IR used her divine power to drive the creatures back, and the bright light scintillating off her holy symbol caused the creatures to burn and melt. Still, they came. Wherever they stood, they tried to claw at the DC, but we stood firm. I used one of my favorite wands [ref: CJ-V6-19] to disable one of the creatures. CA went for a good old-fashioned body-block, knocking the creature off of the ledge to go sailing down into the lake of lava so far below. ST used a blade formed of his own energy, methodically chopping and hacking at the creatures. Even XL jumped in to bash and stab with his spear. DA was no where to be seen. The safety of my companions is my paramount concern, so I called out for her. From somewhere nearby she whispered that she was okay. I still could not see her, but once I knew she was safe I returned to the fight. In very little time, we had the creatures bested. 

The place smelled even worse now, if you can imagine such a thing.

With our enemies gone, I took a moment to survey our surroundings. We stood at the edge of a large cylinder of space, surrounded on all sides by rough, natural stone. One hundred feet below was a pool of bubbling, churning lava. The far side of the chamber was difficult to see with the smoke and heat shimmers coming up from below, but it almost looked like there were other chambers looking out over the pool. I didn't bother mentioning this to my companions, having assumed they saw the same thing. That was probably a mistake, as they have not all shown their senses to be as well developed as my own. 

DA was leading the way again, going down the rough stairs on our left. CA was close behind her, hoping to find another fight, not doubt. With a curt reprimand to HU against throwing stones down into the lava pit, I made my way down the stairs. ST, ever vigilant, was a pace behind me. HU tok'd his displeasure at being crowded, but ST didn't seem to listen. I'll let them sort it out.

The stairs wound downwards through a darkened tunnel. I could tell from the ambient light that the landing below opened up onto the lava pit. The striations on the walls, the movement of thick, sulfurous air, the shape and placement of ash deposits, marks indicating prior lava flows -- all these were the subtle clues that my trained senses picked up. Plus, DA told us as much when she got down there. The landing was much broader than the one we had just had a fight on. It was naturally occurring, as was everything but the steps so far, and nearly circular in dimension. The far side of the circle opened up onto the pit, and a nearby passage held more stairs leading downward.

What immediately caught my attention was a large, clawed hand painted on one wall in bright green. I knew immediately that it was magical, so HU and I went to investigate. ST stood in the center of the room, ready to defend my person from any assault. The rest of the DC were carefully making their way along, either coming down the stairs to join me, or continuing downward into the next passage. A quick curse from DA, heading onward, was the only warning I got.

The green hand pulsed, a resonate chiming that shook my body and rattled HU, sending me reeling. CA had been hit by the blast, as had CA. The rest hadn't quite gotten into the room, yet. I shouted for everyone to stop where they were, until we could find the triggering mechanism, but DA volunteered it's location. She had stepped on it. And without even looking! One would think she would be smarter than that.

I moved cautiously over to her and we examined the mechanism. Crude was the best word I could use to describe it. DA, ashamed that she had stumbled over such an obvious trap, gave me the honors of disarming it. She even produced the Design Slate [ref: CJ-V7-30] that I had made for her. I offered to let her disable the mechanism, but she deferred, admitting that I was better suited to the task. She was, naturally, correct in that assessment.

After making sure the room behind me was clear, I jammed the trigger then disabled the device. It took about four seconds.

I went back to look at the hand print to see what else could be learned from it. DA took up the lead again, and shouted up that there was a fair amount of House Cannith property where she was. I went to her immediately. The stairs leading downward were through another rough passage, this time opening into an oblong cavern with two other openings. The heat was far less oppressive here, but a tell-tale red glow indicated that at least one of the two exits on the far side of the room led to another chamber overlooking the lava pit.

The room was packed with boxes, crates, and other storage containers. There were property marks not only for House Cannith, but other forges, foundries, and industries from the nearby Cogs. I started rummaging through their contents, but they seemed mundane. Some were little more than iron shavings.

A cry from the far side of the room indicated trouble. Before the echo of said cry died, a nauseating stench filled the room. More undead. DA and CA were fully engaged by the time I had a weapon ready. XL was charging forward and ST was letting loose with his energy bolts. I just had time to scorch one of the hobgoblin dead when IR lifted her holy symbol on high and caused half of the creatures to flee in terror. The rest of us pressed the attack, driving the undead back into the tunnel they hailed from. 

Our combat must have roused some other nearby ghasts. From the other tunnel came three more of the undead, charging into the room before we could react. They scratched and clawed at my face, their teeth snapping and breath foul. I beat them back with my coatl cane, noticing as I did that it was starting to look somewhat battered. A shame, really. It has been a fabulous accessory.

My natural fortitude was more than enough to keep their stench from overpowering me, though XL appeared sicker than I had ever seen him. XL, ST, HU, and I fought back against our adversaries, using staff, wand, and energy to efficacious effect. IR, VA, CA, and DA fought off our original attackers. After a brief but violent struggle, we stood unopposed. I quickly checked my nearby companions, then rushed to the next room to see what had befallen the other half of the DC. They were all of them battered, but okay. We performed some quick healing before moving on.

The platform we passed looked out over the lava pit, as predicted, but we chose not to tarry. Rather, we moved forward, looking for those ghouls that had fled from IR. They were a ways away, having run down another passage to yet another pit-side ledge, lower still, where they crouched in a cowardly clutch. Rather than fight them ourselves, IR summoned up a great ogre zombie to dispatch them. I thought that a sub-optimal summoning, but IR did not ask my opinion, so I did not offer it. Though cornered, the ghasts fought back with startling ferocity, and the ogre was quickly ripped into small, bloodless chunks. CA, IR, and a few of the other DC jumped into the fray. ST and I offered ranged support. Our exertions were soon rewarded with a decided lack of enemies. Once again, no one was seriously hurt.

I was tending those wounds we did have when DA called out again for my assistance. She had discovered what looked like large vents from of a poison gas trap. Excited at the prospect, HU and I rushed over. We needn't have been so excited. As I approached, hordes of undead beetles poured from the "vents" and swarmed all over us. They were everywhere! DA (or perhaps XL) screamed and ran away. ST started slashing across the swarm with his blade. I opened my mouth to tell him that his actions were the acme of foolishness, when a deceased vermin crawled into my mouth. I spit it out and clamped my mouth shut, and got about the business of destroying the creatures. 

With perfectly choreographed timing, I brought up a wand [ref: CJ-V7-30] and set all of the nearby DC resistant to fire. HU simultaneously drew out a vial of alchemist fire and dashed it onto the ground in the center of the swarm. The sound of shattering crystal punctuated the wands command word like the cymbals of the Wroat Guild house Symphony. A bright explosion of fire filled the chamber and dead bugs fell dead. There were more vermin than one vial could take care of, though, and while HU utilized another vial, I brought out a wand [ref: CJ-V5-33] to scorch what remained. Remnants of alchemist fire sloughed off HU, my jacket, ST, and IR burning in the hot air but leaving the lot of us unharmed.

One last flesh-eating beetle scuttled across the floor, but XL stomped on it. Good for him, it probably made him feel useful.

That excitement behind us, we moved cautiously forward. The ledge behind us was close enough to the lava that we knew the glowing red chamber ahead of us could very well be completely flooded in boiling hot magma. 

Our luck held true, and the chamber we entered into was completely flooded.

It was a large pool, fifty or sixty feet across. It was separated from the pool of lava we'd been traversing by a thick natural rock wall, but it was level with that pool. The ledge we stood on was maybe ten feet deep and twenty wide. Across the room, just visible through the heat shimmer, was the remnants of a temple entrance. Two rows of weathered and worn columns lead away from the pool, out of sight. A rivulet of lava fed the main chamber, traveling in a channel from deep within the temple. The architecture -- and I know my architecture -- was old.

On the wall to the left of the ledge, looking out over the pool and towards the temple, was a crudely carved lion's head. It stood about three feet above the lava. I was crouched down near the floor, getting a level view of the lava pool, when CA mentioned the carving we had seen in the ziggurat some months back [ref: PJ-v6-83]. That particular piece of art had depicted a hobgoblin warrior walking above flames from a lion's head towards a large, stone marker. IR pulled out a crude wand and pointed it at the pool: there was magic there. An invisible bridge of force that led from the carving on this side to the temple entrance on the other. We had our way across!

CA insisted on going first, clambering up onto the lion's head and hopping down -- with great faith and a fair amount of bravado -- onto the invisible bridge. He rushed across, seeming oblivious to the fact that a mis-step would send him to fiery and final oblivion.

VA moved into position to go next. That's when trouble arrived.

Two creatures rose from the lava, bright rivulets of fire and magma draining off of their burning forms. They had massive shoulders, monstrous heads, and arms shaped like elongated scoops. In near unison, they vomited lava into their hands and flung their waste at CA, who was still making his way across the bridge. CA managed to duck one of the attacks, but was struck solid by the other. I heard the impact from where I stood almost fifty feet away. Somehow, CA managed to keep his feet on the narrow, invisible bridge, using his new-found momentum to lurch forward and onto paving stones that supported the columns. He was across!

VA had started across, too, and was most certainly in trouble. I pulled my most potent wand [ref: CJ-V5-30] and infused it to produce cold instead of fire. I was hoping these creatures were vulnerable to their opposing element. HU moved in front of me, throwing a smokestick out into the pit to block the line of sight between myself and the nearest of the creatures. ST was throwing energy out towards the farthest creature, trying to gain it's attention. It worked.

The creatures were not great shots -- lava not being the most aerodynamic of projectiles, but I heard a grunt as another of the DC was struck. Focused on my task, I shouted out the command word and two blue beams of energy arced across the lava, both beams striking true. The creature solidified and shattered; broken chunks exploded outward and rained down across the chamber. It companion, showing more intelligence than I thought the creatures had, disappeared below the lava. 

VA made it across and pulled out his bow, covering the pool in case the creature returned. ST covered the pool as well, as I took a moment to infuse his armored plates, granting him a better sense of balance [ref: CJ-V1-7]. I knew he would need it to cross the beam.

As XL made his way across, the rest of us stood ready. Sure enough, the creature rose up again, but this time we were prepared for it! VA and ST fired at the creature as best they could, but then I hit it with beams of cold. It got one attack off, but it, too, died an explosively frigid death. One more kill for the Artificer. Blowing the frost off of the tip of my wand (so it would not stick in it's sheath), I put the weapon away.

With those obstacles gone, it was child's play getting across the lake of lava.

I arrived on the broad, pillared avenue leading up to the temple doors to find a fight underway. Sixty or so feet away, in the shadowy entrance to the temple, an armored defender stood, fighting CA and IR. DA, once again, was no where to be seen. XL tossed aside a potion bottle that he had just emptied. I thought to reprimand him -- as I know from experience that those bottles are expensive -- but thought better of it. He would need his fighting spirit if the temple was still occupied. 

ST, XL, HU and I joined in the fight at the same time something else did. From inside the temple came a horrific sight; an undead creature in the shape of a man, but easily ten feet tall. It had enormous clawed hands, and thin bony arms that were so long it had to tuck it's elbows in to pass through the broad double doors. HU threw a vile of home made alchemist fire at it. The creature was not amused.

In front of the creature, battling CA, was a human warrior in a shining breastplate, wielding a wicked looking mace. Every time the man struck out at CA, vicious energy exploded out from the weapon, hitting man and elf both. The warrior, who looked rather confident at the start of the fight, was starting to look a bit worried. He slid over into a corner, to better defend himself.

IR was in the front line of the fight. She summoned up a ghost of some sort, a creature of shadow, and sent it against the warrior. She used some of her magics to heal CA, who stood fighting man and monster both. VA stood in the back ranks, using his long spear to good measure, while XL danced back and forth, getting in an attack where he could. ST started with ranged attacks, but eventually went in to do melee. I used various wands, slinging fire and electricity both, while HU merrily slung alchemist fire at our two opponents.

A great deal of shouting and running around could be heard from within the temple. My guess is that DA had made it in there, and was disrupting whatever opponents were still awaiting us. 

Outside, our warrior friend was starting to panic. He was finally catching on to what we had already figured out -- he was losing. Attacking the shade in desperation, he left himself open to VA and XL's blades, and finally fell. With his death, CA was finally able to turn his full attention on the bone creature. He and IR were doing what they could against it, but the thing was immensely powerful. Fortunately for both CA and IR, they had an artificer along with them. Scorching rays made quick work of a dangerous foe. 

With the creature down, we rushed into the temple. The shade made it in first, and dropped an Emerald Claw soldier in one hit. The man must have been something of a push-over at villain finishing school. DA stood in a mocking pose next to a man in priestly raiment, but as I watched, she was slowly faded from sight. A thousand tell-tale signs told me that she had conjured an illusion of herself in her efforts to keep the guards distracted. That means she was probably invisible, and from the layout of the room I gauged the best place for her to be was....

She materialized at the point I was watching. I gave her a quick thumbs-up to let her know she had been doing well, then turned my wands on the priest. He fell with a short, angry scream. CA was there, his blade still in the man, as was XL. ST stood nearby, after having just fired one of his energy bolts at the remaining Emerald Claw soldiers. DA winked at me (she does so love to flirt with me) and solidified the shadows near the last two soldiers, trapping them. Our enemies were defeated.

Deadly combat is always so abrupt. It starts in a flare of adrenalin and excitement, then is over before you know it. Sometimes you come out unscathed, some times you wake up after the fact, your friends standing over you. And some times, you finish a fight, recover your breath and quell your beating heart, and an old enemy walks into the room. This was one of those times.

Garrow (GA), who we had first met in the Mournlands, walked in through a side door. The air that followed him into the room I would normally describe as hot and muggy. Seeing how we were just one room away from an expansive pool of lava, however, I would instead classify the air as cool and damp. GA was wearing the clothing of a House Lyrandar sky captain, and he was conversing rather casually with a trio of Emerald Claw soldiers who were coming up behind him. He turned and saw us. We turned and saw him. A beetle the size of my thumb lazily flew from one side to another between us. Then we all jumped into action.

GA had a familiar looking golden key in one hand. I was the first to react (naturally), but CA reached GA first for the simple reason that he was closer to the man than I was. In a blur, CA's sword came out and he struck GA in the arm with the flat of his blade. The key flew upwards in a slow, lazy arc. 

I had seen the chamber that GA was stepping out of, with it's light gray stone and natural lighting. We had been told that the key opened any door to "another place" -- the Lost Room, and that from there the key would take you to any other door you could describe. My quick-thinking mind had ascertained that GA had just come from this Lost Room, and that when that door closed, so, too, would his escape route. I slammed into the door, driving it closed. One of the soldiers on the far side automatically put his arm out to hold the door, but he was still too surprised to put any effort into it. The door clicked shut. 

As if by magic, DA appeared on the other side of GA, her hand outstretched to catch the key. It bounced once in her palm, then disappeared from sight, hidden away in a heartbeat. 

GA stood in shocked amazement at our quick reaction, then cast a spell. I recognized it instantly, and cursed. With a pop, he disappeared. I shouted out that it was only a short range teleport, and we all rushed out of the temple and to the pillared causeway. ST and XL were closest, and they reported seeing GA appear briefly before casting the same spell and disappearing again. There was no way we could catch him. He had escaped.

Again."

.                    An Excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7.



"Identification and circumvention of enemy magics."
"Acting rationally and without prejudice."
"All artificers are intelligent and charismatic."
"Traps that blind, burn, or explode need detection and disablement."
"The ability to handle any situation at any given moment."
"Training."

.                    An Excerpt from the "List of Reasons Why An Artificer Should Always be in Charge," by Artemis Heuw Cannith


----------



## sniffles (Mar 9, 2007)

*Caelen writes from Talenta*

*3/14/07 
I'm retconning this letter to accomodate Kylara's departure.
sniffles*

From: Caelen Siorath
Near Gatherhold, Talenta Plains

To my family;

It's hard to be so close to home and not be able to go there. 

We've arrived safely in the Talenta Plains after a long and boring trip aboard the lightning rail. But I should tell you about the rest of our adventure in the ancient goblin ruins beneath Sharn. 

Some of the others thought a big cylindrical stone in the wall might be the stone mentioned in a prophecy about the goblin hero - you'll recall, the one whose breastplate was stolen and we recovered it. We think we found his shield in the ziggurat where we fought the vampire. 

The warforged and I went to remove the stone, which turned out to be bigger than we expected. Dalia discovered a trap set on it but she couldn't disarm it. It burned me a bit and left the changeling and the human blind for a short while. 

After we pulled the stone out of the wall all the surrounding stones blew out and fell on me. The others claimed they heard something whisper "I'm free at last" but I didn't hear or see anything. There was nothing in the niche behind the stone.

Dalia tried out the magic key on the door the other changeling had come from. It took her to a room in a tower somewhere. She figured out that one had to go through that room to get anywhere else. When we all went through into that room, Valirdrynn told us we were on the coast of Argonnessen! I would have liked to stay and explore, but the others were afraid of the dragons.

We came out into the human's rooms in his family manor. We took the stone back with us. After we arrived there was a long argument about what to do with the magic key. For some reason Kylara thought the Watch should take charge of it. I don't know why she thinks they'd be any better at guarding it than us. They haven't demonstrated much capacity for that in my estimation. But she seems to think we'll misuse it. I'd like to use it to explore Argonnessen, but perhaps that should wait until we're stronger.

We boarded the lightning rail the next day. They were carrying a huge obelisk from Xen'drik, which they wouldn't let us see. I'd rather see it in its native setting than on a rail carriage. 

As I said, the rest of the trip was dull but for Kylara's departure. She's chosen to pursue a career hunting the undead. Her decision makes me wish even more that I could return to Valenar and battle the Karrnathi, but I can't desert my companions now.

After six days we came to Gatherhold and spent a night in a comfortable but expensive inn run by halflings. The map the artificer had showed us that this crypt we sought was about two days out from Gatherhold. 

When we came to the spot where the Crypt of the Crimson Stars was supposed to lie, we found some halflings grazing a herd of threehorns in the area. Most of the halflings were in Gatherhold for the big gathering of tribes. We just had the misfortune to run into the ones who'd stayed with their herd. 

Dalia and I snuck off to scout out the cave we thought led to the crypt. I stood watch while she went inside, as she can see better in the dark. After a few minutes I heard a roar and she came racing out warning me that there was something big in the cave. She babbled out a spell and as I snatched her up I could feel myself moving much faster than usual. She rattled off another incantation and surrounded us with a globe of invisibility, although of course I couldn't see any change. 

I caught a glimpse of the thing in the cave when it squeezed out the entrance in pursuit. It was a manticore. Dalia said it had hit her with a couple of its spikes before she even saw it. 

I sped back to camp, leaving the manticore far behind. After we told the others about the manticore, we spent a long time discussing how to get into the cave without attracting the attention of the halflings. I suggested taking out their scouts, but no one wanted to try it. Dalia had already tried to drive off the threehorn herd with an illusion of fire, but it hadn't worked. 

Finally we decided to move at night, riding all the way around the small lake that's next to the cave to come at it well out of sight of the halfling scouts. The human and Dalia can cast spells to let our horses walk on water and make us silent and invisible. Then we'll just have to see if we can kill the manticore without alerting the halflings on the plateau above the cave.
_______________________
*Quips & Quotes*:

*Devo*: "Can I find out more information about the key? Knowledge (Arcana)?"
*patv*: "Actually, Knowledge (ar-key-na) might work."

*patv*: "Who puts a door in front of a pool of lava?
*sniffles*: "People who need a quick dinner."

*Jubilee*: "Anybody want this vicious mace?"
*DH*: "Actually, it's gel-filled. It's viscous."


----------



## Jubilee (Mar 13, 2007)

*Gwaenna Goldenbrow of the Quiet Folk joins the campaign*

My previous character, Kylara (IR in Artemis's journals), parted ways with the company in Karnath and we introduced my new character last session:

… On my way into the Crypt of the Crimson Stars I saw one of the strangest things I have ever witnessed.  After I had evaded the halflings who camped on the cliffs above and climbed down the cliff face, I was about to enter the cave when I scanned the area one more time to make sure I was not observed.  Much to my surprise, I saw a large warforged, illuminated by the light of three half-moons, riding across the lake on a sturdy, though somewhat nervous-seeming, horse!  As I watched, wishing I had the artistic skill to render the scene on canvas (it was so perfectly absurd, and I think it would make even Hunter smile), he began to pull on the reins, steering his horse toward me.  I concealed myself behind what little cover there was beside the cave to see what would happen.  Unfortunately, in my haste, I chose the side with no avenue of escape save back up the cliff or into the water.  I think I will not tell Hunter about that bit of foolishness.

As I watched the warforged approach, I realized with some distress that I could no longer hear the sounds of the night around me, nor the breeze I could feel on my face, or the sound of his horse.  I cursed and crouched lower, hoping whatever magical companions this warforged had wouldn’t notice me, but I was not entirely successful.  The warforged and his horse stopped about fifteen feet out from the cave mouth, still hovering slightly above the water.  My second surprise for the night came in the form of a Valenar jumping out of the air and landing (silently, of course) on the shore in front of the cave.  He began moving towards it when another figure and her horse appeared at the shore.  She took a moment to tie the horse to some scrub and follow the Valenar.  The warforged wheeled his horse and rode ashore before he joined the other two at the cave.

I foolishly assumed these three to be the only adventurers, as the female was dressed somewhat like a wizard or sorcerer and carried only a short spear.  I should have known something more was afoot when the warforged did not ride straight forward!  However, as soon as the three of them moved into the cave, I peeked around the corner to see what was happening.  I couldn’t see past them in the narrow entrance, and thanks to that silence zone, I couldn't hear what was happening either.  I crouched low again, and waited for the wizard and her awful silence to go with her, but once I counted several heartbeats, I still couldn’t hear anything.  I'll admit here that I began to feel a bit panicked and trapped at this point, so once again I took the risk of peeking into the cave.

A large form, a horse I later learned, though I couldn’t see it at the time, nearly trampled me and knocked me from my feet as I moved.  I scrambled upright as quickly as possible and tried to back away from the cave, but didn’t want to risk falling into the water.  A moment later, a well-dressed human jumped down from his invisible horse (almost stepping on me himself).  As he turned, brushing his coat straight and untangling his gorgon-headed staff from the reins of his horse, he looked straight at me.  He was clearly startled, not to mention paranoid, because he gave me a false smile, waved in what I presume he imagined was a friendly manner, and began reaching for a wand.  For my own part, I knew I could draw my sword in half a heartbeat, but I didn’t want to fight so many if I could avoid it, so I raised my hands and tried to look friendly.  I don’t think I will tell Hunter about that, either.  He wouldn’t understand.

A few moments passed while the human tried to decide what to do with me, but some glowing writing appeared on the cliff face beside us – “Artemis, our companions need you inside, I will take care of it.”  Without a pause, the human turned and ran inside the cave.  I learned two vital pieces of information:  This man was Artemis Huew Cannith (Hutch appeared on the other side of the horse and hurried after him another half-heartbeat later, confirming my guess) and there was a spellcaster, of unknown power and disposition, out here with me.  I knew I could probably negotiate with Artemis, so I raced in after him.  

As I came up behind him, I saw that his other companions had discovered a manticore inside the cave (I counted the blessings that had made the warforged visible at just the right moment and kept me from entering the cave alone to be its next meal), but I was still within that cursed zone of silence, so I continued circling around the chamber, hoping to help them and thus make my benign intentions clear to Artemis and his friends.  I didn’t have a chance to fight the beast, curse my luck!, for the woman I had mistake for a wizard struck it a fatal blow between the ribs just as I was about to charge.  Instead, I yelled out that I was no enemy and called Artemis a d’Cannith just for good measure.  Artemis’s only response was to correct my usage of his name – it must be a sensitive issue.

Before I had the chance to respond, a gnome woman came up beside Artemis and began to spellcast.  As I felt her spell settle over me, I found myself not really caring what she had done to me.  At the same time, a nasty, tentacled creature popped out of the shadows of a sarcophagus behind me and struck at me.  The warforged made a fine shot, right past my ear, which struck and killed the tentacled beast and the Valenar ran past, searching another spot where the warforged claimed another was hiding.  

Artemis and the gnome began to argue, and I again tried to explain to them that I wasn’t here to hurt them, when the woman I had mistaken for a wizard picked up her crossbow and pointed it at me!  Well, this was when I realized that the gnome had cast a charm over me, and I was quite angry that she should have distracted me so her ally would have the time to hurt me.  I demanded to know why she did it, and she exclaimed that she couldn’t be sure what my intentions were, and Artemis cried out that I was from Sharn and knew his name.  I thought they were all fools to be arguing about this on the field of combat (perhaps I should have parted ways with them right then, despite what I might find deeper in this vault), and told them their priorities were all out of alignment as I stepped forward to dispatch the tentacled beast that had appeared out of the shadows to attack the Valenar.

The gnome continued to argue with Artemis as the Valenar and I spread out to either side of the chamber to check for more gricks.  We each found one and dispatched them with ease.  Finally, everyone had quieted down enough for me to explain whom I was and that I was after the knowledge that might be contained in the vault, not here to steal their riches.  They didn’t press for details, and I have been laughed at enough for my theories that I didn’t volunteer an explanation.

Artemis introduced the rest of his companions:  Dalia was the gnome; Sten, the warforged; Caelan, the Valenar; and Xil was the last.  Xil turned out to be a changeling with a variety of skills but no particular specialization as near as I can tell.  I shall simply call him by his name and not worry about it.  I explained to them that I had been exploring ruins like these for most of my life and Artemis invited me to join them.  He even promised me an equal part in the treasure if I should do my equal part of the work.  I told him that I would protect them with my sword, and asked if they had a trapsmith.  He declared that he was a specialist in all things mechanical and that Dalia had some skill as well.  

Well, he was competent enough when he put his mind to it, but everyone else did seem to rush around a bit and he was easily hurried, which didn’t do us much good; especially considering they didn’t have a healer with them.  I am used to doing things the hard way, though, and am confident I will manage.  Hunter would think me a fool for trusting these folk.  But I must trust somebody; I am not as strong as Hunter.

There was a broken door at the other end of the chamber, and a body probably three weeks dead was lying there.  I knelt beside it to search for anything useful as the others clustered around and peered into the room beyond.  Some of it seemed of very fine quality, so I cast a dweomer to look for magic; lo, some of the poor unfortunate’s gear WAS magical.  Artemis expressed surprise that I could cast spells; no one else seemed to notice.

We moved into the next room, which was guarded by a statue.  Artemis swept the room for magic and declared that there was only something at the far end of the chamber, where another body lay.  As we stood contemplating this room, a ghost rose out of the body behind us!  I’ll admit here that ghosts frighten me a little – I have no defenses against them, and they can be devistating foes.  It had its pick of targets, but didn’t damage any of us before I got a chance to strike at it.  I discharged the scorching rays I had stored in my sword when I hit it, and the brilliant flash of fire dissipated the ghost immediately.  I breathed a sigh of relief and stepped away from the body, just in case.  Dalia assured us that she could see invisibility and that the ghost had not simply disappeared to attack again.

As Xil and Dalia moved into the room, a cacophony of noise and pain assaulted me.  In the room was the sound of whirling blades, while the statue itself came oddly to life, swinging the crook it had in a circle, striking Artemis, Sten, and myself.  It struck Sten so forcefully that it knocked him against the wall and then to the ground.

I should take a moment to describe the statue, for it is quite remarkable:  It stood about twleve feet tall and was definitely humanoid, but of no particularly discernable race.  It appeared to be wearing some kind of draping robe over its body and a hawk-head mask over its head.  In one hand it seemed to hold a dragonshard and in the other a staff with a hook at the end.  This stony staff is what it used to batter us about.  It was too weathered by time to discern a gender; however, I am confident it was built not by the Hobgoblins who placed their tombs in the room before, but by those who originally built this place.  I believe the traps are also their construction.

I crouched at the base of the statue and looked to Artemis, waiting to see if he had any instruction.  He began to search the statue over to see what was causing it to batter us when Caelan rushed past to rescue Dalia from the blades and sent the statue spinning again!  We all took quite a beating and Artemis screamed, a bit shrilly (I think I would have been a little shrill if people were making my job harder), that no one was to move!  He took a few more minutes searching the thing and I asked, politely I think, if I could move.  I had no desire to get hit by it if his trap-working set it going again.  He growled at me, so I stayed in place and drank a potion.  

He did disable it and he, Xil, and Dalia began a systematic search of the room for more traps.  There was a pit in the room beyond the statue, so as soon as the floor was declared safe, I moved up to peer down.  It was only about 40 feet deep, with a floor of rusty spikes that had impaled another of the hapless adventurers.  As I was contemplating the best way to retrieve the body (there was magic upon it), another ghost rose up from the body!  I was thankful I had taken the time to set another scorching ray into my sword, because I was able to dispatch it almost at once.  I felt the chill of its touch all the way to the marrow of my bones, but suffered little permanent damage for it.

I am not sure how it came about, but Dalia suddenly fell like a rock to the ground in the middle of a sentence while Sten, Caelan, Artemis and I were discussing whether one of us ought to climb down to the body or if we should try to pull it up to us.  Artemis insisted he had the magic to lift it up instead.  After some muttering and some examination of Dalia by the others (I have no skill or knowledge of healing myself, so I kept out of the way), Artemis pulled out yet another wand and used it on Dalia.  This seemed to revive her immediately and she told us the blades of the trap in the corner had poisoned her.  

In short order, we recovered the body and salvaged his useful gear, including a dragonshard.  The body didn’t appear to have a dragonmark, or perhaps the body was too far rotted and mangled to see one.  The door presented the problem of being guarded by two magical traps that couldn’t be disabled without triggering them.  Dalia and Artemis managed to suppress the magic for a time, but couldn’t disable them before they reset.  Two shadowy forms appeared in the chamber between us and the two trapsmiths at work, but they seemed to have no great effect.  Dalia kept muttering about how ingenious the trap was.

The final body lay crumpled directly in front of the door.  Sten and I stayed close; ready to strike if another ghost should appear.  Of course, it did while Artemis was standing over the body to examine the door.  I was too careful about hitting him and missed the ghost!  Once again, we dispatched it without much trouble and Artemis finished picking the lock (a very fine set of lockpicks had been left there by the previous owner).  After he was finished, he backed away and Dalia volunteered to open the door.  She pulled a mummified hand out of her pack and slipped it around her neck.  After a moment's concentration, the door opened ahead of us.  Remarkable!

What followed was a couple of long, narrow, winding corridors that seemed not to have been walked on in generations.  Like the rest of the complex, the walls were smooth and completely bare – if these people had any form of art or decoration, it was something they took with them.  We came across a room that was filled with ranks of stone guards.  They looked much like the statue in the first room, with hawk-headed masks and standing about twelve feet tall, but they were dressed and armed as guards.  It was rather eerie, and we all moved through it cautiously.

After we got through the guardroom, Artemis began moving faster.  I suspect he was not searching as thoroughly as before, having declared that one traps their front door, not their living room.  I would trap every room in my house, if I had the knowledge to do so (and a house!).  Vignaroth would teach me, I think.  I would, of course, know how to move safely about my own house, but an invader wouldn’t.

I heard a loud crash in the corridor, around the corner from where I stood.  I called out to know what had happened and Sten yelled that a portcullis had come down and that Artemis was trapped on the other side.  I felt a chill; why use a portcullis instead of solid door?  Dalia said she would disable the trap and make the portcullis rise, and Artemis declared there was nothing he could do from his side.  I waited, counting heartbeats.

A swarm of beetles overtook our party.  The swarm was massive, and the creatures were faster and much more vicious than anything I had encountered before.  I cast a scorching ray into them, while others began to drop flasks of alchemical fire at their own feet.  They dodged around both rays, which struck harmlessly at stone.  I backed away, giving them fewer targets to choose from, and Xil clambered up onto a statue.  I thought about telling him the creatures could probably climb it better than he, but decided not to demoralize him.

Dalia came scrambling out of the swarm, coughing and retching, absolutely covered in the biting creatures.  She splashed alchemist fire at herself before she fell writing to the ground.  I stepped past her to face the swarm again, readying a shocking grasp and reached out to discharge it at the creatures.  Hutch, too, withdrew past me into the guardroom and I heard a soft pop of displaced air.  Artemis was standing there and I surmised that Hutch must be back at the other side of the portcullis.  Artemis pulled out another wand and knelt by the writing Dalia.  He waved it, but nothing happened.  He cursed.

I swear to you, I only blinked, but between one look and the next, there was nothing left of Dalia but her clothes and the remaining beetles scattering away.  They had consumed her, right down to the bone and I was sure for a minute I was looking down at my own sad fate when the beetles once more swarmed over us.  Artemis fell to the ground with a broken curse.  I reached out with another shocking grasp and dispersed the rest of them.  I cried out to Sten, who was about to throw another alchemist fire at my feet (I had been splashed a number of times, I noticed afterwards.  That’s one kimono ruined), that the beetles were gone, as was Dalia, and that Artemis was unconscious.

Xil administered a potion to Artemis, who then used his wands to heal himself and the others a bit more as we all stood, sadly contemplating what little remained of Dalia.  We speculated whether there was anything of Dalia left on that blade trap that had shredded her earlier – could we use that to have her brought back?  But Artemis reminded us that Dolurrh was too distant for resurrection magics to work for at least another year.  Dalia could not be saved by us.  I didn’t know her well, and we hadn’t gotten off to the best of starts, but that’s not a fate I’d want for anyone; and besides, I thought we might have gotten on quite well, given enough time.  I’d gotten the feeling she’d have understood the kind of life you lead in Blackbones better than any of the others. ...


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## Jubilee (Mar 13, 2007)

*Description and Background for Gwaenna*

Most of the other characters don't know and likely won't find out much about Gwaenna's background, but I figure why write it if no one is going to read it?  So here's some more about Gwen. 

***
The most striking feature of this small, purplish-skinned goblin girl is the 
fine, golden ridge of scales on her forehead and her inquisitive, flashing 
golden eyes.  She seems to have a sunny disposition, with a smile on her 
lips and a laugh in her eyes.  She is usually dressed in a silk wrap-around 
kimono over her fine chain shirt.  If she doesn't have a sword in hand, it's 
likely she has a book instead.  She is tidy and stands upright, making the 
most of her mere 3'6" of height.   She has bluish-purple hair, which is 
usually pulled back in a bun.
***

Gwaenna grew up in the warrens underneath the sewers of Sharn with a clan of goblins known as the 'quiet folk' to the denizens around them.  Their way was to stay quiet and out of the way, for their elders had decided the best way to survive was to live without being noticed.  This was their path to survival, but not prosperity.  They gathered what little food was to be had in out of the way places and ran away from any conflict before it could begin.

When Gwaenna was very young, a purple-skinned stranger, who looked somewhat like a man, took sanctuary with them and began to hunt for them.  Gwaenna knew that the stranger, whom they called Hunter for his gifts, was not one to run away and hide as her kinsmen taught her.  He met his foes straight on and defeated them.  He was dangerous and terrifying; Gwaenna wished with all her young heart she could be a man like him instead of a small and frightened goblin. 

Years later, halflings from the world above came upon a group of Quiet Folk gathering their food.  For sport, they gave chase and caught Mok, who was leader of the food gatherers and Gwaenna's father.  He let the halflings have him so the others could escape – and he submitted to their beating until they grew bored.  The rest of the gatherers found him then, and brought him home.  Then they sent for Hunter.

Hunter's rage was terrifying, quiet and seething.  Not long after, he returned to them with the halflings who had done it, one of them dead and the other nearly so.  The other did not live past the night - Gwaenna's heart swelled with pride when it was her father's own knife that landed the killing blow.  But this one night of triumph over their fear did not change the Quiet Folk.  On the following day, they once more went creeping about the warrens, searching out food and fleeing from danger.

Gwaenna urged them to fight back and make a better place for themselves with youthful vigor.  She wanted a better life for herself and her kinsmen, but they did not believe it was possible.  They told her to stay quiet, to stay in the shadows as their people had always done.  They assured her it was the only safe way to live, the only way they could survive in this world of wild folk and people bigger, stronger, and meaner than them.  No matter what she said, her kinsmen would not listen and began to distrust her.  They told her she would bring doom upon them all if she lived so loudly. 

She did try staying in the shadows and quiet as a mouse for a while.  But she did not run away from conflicts; instead, she sought them out - sometimes to watch others brawling in a tavern, sometimes to take her anger out on one of the feral halflings with her fists and a sharpened stone - when she could catch one alone.  She picked up scraps of fighting as her kinsmen searched out scraps of food.  Eventually, she grew so bold as to sneak above the sewers Sharn, where she could witness some true magic.  These scraps she treasured and practiced, determined to find a way for her people to rise above their pitiful existence.

When she showed her father the little cantrips she had gleaned, and the skills she had developed with her fists and a sharpened rock, he was horrified.  He begged her to stop and warned that she would bring danger and death to them all if she continued this way.  They were the Quiet Folk, and had survived that way for generations.  Her loud ways were destruction to her kinsmen.

Gwaenna saw that she was not yet strong enough to defend them, as Hunter had done, and so in a way her father was right - She had to be able to roar like Hunter before she could hope to bring a new way of life to her kinsmen.  And she could not learn how to roar while she lived with them - her mewlings would bring predators that would harm them all.  So she took her sharpened rock, and her little bits of magic, and began to delve into the ruins of the Dhakaani even further below Sharn than the Quiet Folk’s home.

She was trying to make a living and a name for herself in Blackbones, beneath the Cogs, when a group of topside adventurers came to her and asked that she act as their guide.  They were looking for an ancient Dhakaani ruin, but were anticipating trouble navigating the twists and turns of the corridors so far below Sharn.  She wasn't interested in the gold they offered (having that much wealth in Blackbones just made you a target), but when they offered her a metal knife and a wand that could shoot rays of frost, she accepted.  

In short order, she helped them find their ruin.  There were many large and dangerous creatures there, and many deadly traps.  For the most part, she stayed out of the way, but something in the final chamber caught her attention.  One whole wall contained a carving of a host of goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears, all bowing down before a goblin queen.  A veneer of colored and metallic pigments was still present on some of the wall carvings.  The goblin queen had a golden crown low on her brow -- one that looked just like Gwaenna's birthmark! 

Unfortunately, the halfling trap finder botched his attempt at getting into a vault built into the wall.  Red-hot magma flooded into the chamber, pinning the small man where he was and burning him alive.  At great personal risk, Gwaenna leapt from statue to altar to pillar over to the halfling, and was just able to rescue his sword.  She made it back to safety as his cries finally died down. Now she had a magic sword!  Her goblin queen, though, was quickly being covered in lava.

A year later, her newly acquired wealth nearly gone (for, somehow, none of the adventurers had made it out of the depths alive, but their monies had), Gwaenna was deep in the library of Morgrave University.  She had learned to read and write, and was still looking for information on her goblin queen.  An ancient goblin came up to her, his eyes gold and mysterious.  He told her that what she was looking for was not in this library, but on a mountaintop far to the west, in Droaam.  Without being able to explain why, she believed the old goblin.  He would answer no more questions, though, and as she followed him around a stack of books, he was suddenly gone. 

So she left Sharn and found her mountain top with nothing on it, but was not there long before she was approached by a gold dragon with mysterious gold eyes. In his strange, draconic way, he confirmed that there was once an empire ruled by goblins, more than a thousand thousand years before the Dhakaani empire rose to supremacy – so long ago that not even the elves remember it, and only the dragons do.  He told her of other ruins that predate the Dhakaani, and of a hobgoblin hero’s tomb that may reveal even more secrets.  She has been traveling Khorvaire, investigating ancient ruins and seeking more information about the hero’s tomb ever since.


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## sniffles (Mar 14, 2007)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith, excerpt 19*

*Here's another post from Devo. This one comprises two game sessions, hence its length.*
_sniffles_

"Hutch, on the seat next to me, tried his best to remain stationary as the lightning rail rocked slowly from side to side. His upper lid was open and I was working with Stark, deep within the containment box that was Hutch's top-most shelf. Stark must have seen the movement of the car, because he asked to be let out so that he could it's faulty design. We had a quick discussion about what might be wrong with the Orien coach, then I turned his attention to the scroll I wanted him to work on today. I had already complained a dozen times to the chief porter, but he wouldn't let me anywhere near the main drive car. If I wasn't allowed to fix it, there was no way I was going to let Stark have all the fun."


.                    An Excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7



"I pride myself on my ability to be prepared for any contingency. The craft of artificing lends itself to infinite capability, but in my secondary profession as an "explorer" time is invariably one of the components of an obstacle that makes it tricky to overcome. As mentioned, an artificer has infinite capability but needs a finite amount of time to prepare said ability. Often enough, the obstacles one encounters must be overcome quickly, or one pays for one's failure.

Sometimes, though, someone else pays the price.

Dalia Sunrule has died, and I find myself culpable.


Our journey began in comfort. After many delays, we finally made our rendezvous with the Five Nations rail on it's way towards Karnaath. The delay to the train was caused by a keenly interesting monolith of epic proportions and ancient design. So large was the construction that it took two conjoined cargo cars just to hold it. I sought out the person in charge of the artifact but was rudely rebuffed. It was as if they knew who I was and intentionally ignored me. I spent some minutes looking over the monolith from a forced distance, but then had to join my companions in the ever-growing crowd of the passenger car. The one day delay had affected a great number of travelers, I saw.

Soon enough, we were on our way. It would take four days to reach Karnaath. I spent the time reading and holding intelligent discourse with HU and S1. Each morning, I would instruct S1 in the work he was to accomplish that day, and by evening I had a newly created scroll [ref: CJ-V7-80], wand [ref: CJ-V7-82], or other artifact [ref: CJ-V7-85/91] to add to my collection. I was preparing for all of the eventualities that I could foresee. 

I have come to enjoy traveling with my dedicated wright, and will have to start carrying more materials.

I spent time with the DC, also. We had a merry discussion in the dining car about the finale of the temple of lava below Sharn. I was ribbing DA good-naturedly about her attempts to remove the marker stone from the wall. The same attempts that resulted in an cacophonous explosion of stone and dust that left most of us blind and all of us bleeding. It got better, of course, but the explosion absolutely ruined one of my best traveling shirts. Fortunately, the stone was undamaged, and, after a long, long discussion of what to do with the key, we had made our way back home. 

It's funny. Over the last few months, DA spent a great deal of time flirting with me. HU and I even had a discussion about it a few weeks back. Whether I should encourage it or discourage it. I even thought to talk to MA about it. DA always wanted to show off what she knew about mechanisms, traps, locks, and the like. She really wasn't very good with them, though, and managed to set off more warding devices than she overcame. It occurs to me now that she was probably trying to show an interest in something that I excel at as a way to get closer to me. I think that she put herself in harms way just to impress me, and I never even thought about it. A shame, too, since day by day our journey was leading us ever closer to some of the most cunning traps we had ever seen. And the last that DA ever would.

The monolith was unloaded in Thrane. I tried to see it moved, but they simply disconnected the cars and moved them into a rail house that stood under heavy guard. We were in Thrane for less than an hour, then on our way again.

Crossing the border into Karnaath was a bureaucratic nightmare. Long lines. Dull, pointless questions. A body cavity search for HU. It was obvious that they were up in arms over some trivial matter. Perhaps it had something to do with the attempt on the king's life when he was down in Sharn last month. I don't know. National politics have always bored me so.

It was in Karnaath, though, that we got our biggest surprise of the journey. IR decided to leave our company. I'm still unsure on the specifics of the situation. I know that there is a group calling themselves the Deadgrim, and that IR was off to join them. Whether this group came to IR, though, or she to them, I am uncertain. We tried to talk her out of leaving, but she would hear none of our arguments. Our split must have been causing IR some distress, for she was trying to get it over with as quickly as possible. I have to admit, I was a bit choked up, myself. IR is the only one of the DC whom I can suredly assert saved my life. On more than one occasion, too.

I presented some fierce arguments as to why she should stay, but she chose not to listen. She was convinced that the Deadgrim were doing more useful work than we were, and that joining them would be better than breaking into an ancient crypt. Come to think of it, though, IR was probably right. History may record that what we were doing was being done for noble causes, but in the end, it was a search for material possessions. 

Unfortunately, material possessions are the lifeblood of the artificer. I don't care what she said: this trip was necessary. It is sad, though, that it cost us two true companions. IR and DA will both be sorely missed.

We had very little time to talk to IR before she was gone, but maybe she planned on that. Our rail had a schedule, and so we did too. Karnaath is a rough country -- not the idyllic scenery of Breland -- but the hours passed by quickly. Before long, we were routed south into the Talenta Plains, then to Gatherhold. 

Gatherhold. City of halflings. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Somehow, I had imagined myself towering over a town of tiny buildings. But such was not the case. Some of the buildings were small, true, but most were built for regular people. And there were a lot of people.

Well, to be specific, there were a lot of halflings. Turns out we arrived just in time for some tribal gathering of some sort, and there were tribesmen in from all over the plains. They brought their beastly dinosaurs in with them, too. Nasty creatures. They smell like snakes, every one of them. Seriously. Every - single - one of them.

Still, Gatherhold is the center of House Ghallanda, and their hospitality lives up to the reputation. The food was extraordinary, and everyone enjoyed themselves. All of us except ST, that is, who was complaining about having to pay for a meal that he could not eat. Warforged have no sense of humor. No sense of taste either, I suppose.

The next day we left Gatherhold and went north. I would have expected CA to take the lead, as his people are supposed to be skilled plains riders, but, as is appropriate I suppose, the DC turned to me to lead them. Somewhat surprisingly, my natural gift with navigating the complexities of the city translated well to the Talenta Plains, and I guided our little group in direct and safe measure to our goal. It took a day and a half, which is what we expected. Our crude little map was some help, assuredly, but it is the skill of the craftsman that shows his quality, not the tools he uses.

The small lake we had come all this way to find was a placid affair -- quite quaint. We approached from the south. A plateau on the east side -- no larger around than many of the towers of Sharn -- restricted approach from that side. Extending from the plateau around the north side of the lake was a steep and crumbling cliff face. The Vault that we were looking for was supposed to be at the junction between cliff and plateau, and we could just make out the entrance over the distance. Unfortunately, it was that distance that was going to cause us problems. It was occupied.

A... herd -- for I can think of no better term -- of monstrous three-horned dinosaurs grazed on the south side of a long hill, on the other side of which was the large plateau. We could see camp smoke rising from the plateau, and as we watched, three halflings mounted on quick-looking, two-legged dinosaurs came loping around the hill. They circled the herd then disappeared around the hill again. Waiting, we saw them return. It was, perhaps, a twenty minute circuit.

DA used her magic to spy on the plateau. She told us that more halflings lay encamped there, and they had with them a pet of rather unusual qualities. It was a dinosaur, naturally, but larger than anything DA had ever seen. It was the size of a two story building, easily, with massive jaws. It stood on it's two back legs, and had tiny little arms. To be honest, I was having a hard time visualizing such a creature -- it seemed rather comical. DA assured us, however, that it looked quite dangerous.

Given that we were interlopers in the halfling's domain, we thought it unlikely that they would be willing to parley. Our first plan was to drive the herd dinosaurs away. DA conjured an illusion of fire, heat, and smoke. As expected, the animals panicked and ran directly away from the lake. We got our first glimpse of just how fast the riders were. Two raced out to cut off the pack and steer it back around. One of the halflings, however, came around the other side of the hill to investigate what might have startled the herd. DA dropped the illusion just in time, and the poor fellow could find no trigger for the stampede. After a while, the herd and riders calmed down and settled into their previous routine.

Our next plan was to to send scouts towards the cave. While the rest of us hung back, DA and CA crept forward. They were gone for quite some time. 

They returned in a hurry, as if DA's dinosaur were right behind them. They were bloodied, both of them, but assured us they were not being followed. As I set about healing them [ref: CJ-V5-12], they told us their tale.

Under a cloak of invisibility, DA and CA had snuck forward to the entrance of the cave. They told us that the entrance is rather tight, but it opens up into a worked chamber very quickly. They had just stepped inside when a roar and a fusillade of spikes washed over them. It was a manticore. They turned and quickly exited the cave, hurrying all the way back to where we had set up camp, some distance off. 

Now that we knew all that we were up against, it was child's play to come up with a plan. It was complicated, however, by the fact that no one other than myself was willing to leave the horses behind. 

We set out to approach the cave under cover of darkness, when the watchers would be least likely to notice us and the manticore most likely to be settled in for the night. Rather than pitting ourselves against the halfling patrol, however, where our tracks would surely be noticed, I put into my new gorgon-headed cane a spell that would allow each of our horses to walk on water [ref: CJ-V1-12]. Circling around, we came across the lake from the west. DA, riding with CA on his horse, put up a ring of invisibility around us. CA held all of our reigns, so that we would stay close in together. To complete the screen of non-detection, DA put up a zone of silence around us, too.

The plan was to approach the cave from over the water. The melee specialists among us would then go in to the cave to engage the beast. DA would then move her silence spell over the entrance to conceal the signs of our fighting. DA and I would go in next, then HU and XL would come in with the horses when the fight was done. The perfect assault.

I have to remember, though, that whereas my plans always proceed flawlessly in the laboratory, as soon as I bring the DC into the mix, something will go awry. And out in the wild, there are always unknown variables.

The first deviation from the plan was introduced by ST. His mount was uncomfortable moving over open water, and ST had a hard time controlling the beast. In his efforts to control the animal he managed to separate himself from the group. Eventually, too far away from the invisibility that DA provided. We were fortunate that neither patrol nor plateau looked out towards the lake, or they would have seen a warforged out standing in the field of water. 

HU was the first to notice ST's disappearance. He tugged on my jacket and showed me where ST had gotten off to. I sighed heavily, and though I could not be heard, I felt better for expressing myself. I was about to reach out to DA when an illusion of an arrow, just under the water, appeared in front of ST and began guiding him back towards us. DA had seen him, then.

I still could neither see nor hear the rest of my companions, but we made our way over to the cave entrance none-the-less. And then we stood there. 

And stood there. 

Had everyone forgotten the plan? I looked around, searching the area for any sign of disturbance that might have caused CA or ST to hold where they were. It looked clear. ST was just sitting behind us, waiting. HU motioned him forward, but I reminded my comrade that ST could not see him. HU made a comical gesture towards the warforged, and I had to laugh. 

Tired of the delay, however, I reached out and found CA. Grabbing his shoulder plate, I nudged him forward, towards the cave. He immediately moved forward, dismounting.  A moment later, he was out of the invisibility zone. ST joined him on the shore. A second later, Xl joined them. What was he doing?

The trio disappeared into the cave as HU commiserated with me about the headache of having poor assistants. We never had to deal with this kind of amateur behavior in the foundry. I mentally directed HU to go retrieve the farthest horse, and dismounted. 

I stumbled for a moment on the soft, uneven ground of the shore, then tied up my horse. As I finished, though, my eyes fell on a goblin woman hiding in the bushes right next to me. Of all the random variables my master plan had accounted for, seeing a three foot tall goblin woman dressed in a silk kimono over a chain shirt, carrying a longsword, in the middle of the Talenta Plains, had not been one of the possibilities I had accounted for. 

She was just watching me, though, so I smiled politely and slowly reached for one of my more potent wands [ref: CJ-V7-55]. The goblin raised her hands in either surrender or challenge -- I really couldn't be sure which. I was about to resolve the situation when ghostly words appeared to my right: DA telling me to move into the cave, letting her deal with the goblin.

If there was one goblin outside, it stood to reason that there could be many more inside. I backed slowly away from the woman in front of me, then turned and hurried into the cave. I am sure my companions needed me. 

The fight inside was raging. We stood in a large, semi-rectangular chamber trisected by a row of columns. XL and CA stood opposing the manticore, while ST moved outside the fight, shooting beams of energy at his enemy. I saw no other foes. As soon as I cleared the silence zone, I let loose with two scorching rays [ref: CJ-V5-43] and burned the beast terribly. It roared. Manticores are quite large!

ST had said something about an enemy hiding in the corner. I turned to look in time to see the goblin girl race around from behind me and to one side of the chamber. "Deal with her," indeed! I wondered if DA were all right. It wasn't until she was deep in the room, though, that the goblin drew her sword. It was clean, so I stopped worrying about DA.

The goblin introduced herself as Gwaenna Goldenbrow (GW), and called to me by name. Actually, she called me "Artemis d'Cannith", but it was close enough. I corrected her on my nomenclature, and told her that we could talk once the danger was over. 

Right behind GW, however, came DA. I was ready to direct DA's attention to the manticore, who was in the process of applying tooth and claw to CA, but as soon as she cleared the silence zone she charmed GW. That was rather rude. And I told her so. Still, an enchanter is going to do what enchanters do. We argued for a moment.

ST had time to get one more shot in before XL leaped under the manticore's wing to deliver a powerful thrust with the butt of his spear. The cuts, bruises, and abrasions proved too much for the creature, and it finally succumbed to it's wounds, collapsing noisily onto the ground.

DA and I were still discussing the goblin situation when ST turned and fired his energy towards GW. An ugly creature like a thick-bodied snake with a clutch of powerful tentacles around it's beaked mouth squealed and fell dead. GW had the good nature to thank ST for killing the creature behind her before racing across the room to slice another of the creatures in two. CA leapt to action, and killed another. XL sat down where he was and looked over his wounds.

Finally at peace, we settled down to introductions and explanations. I went around the room applying what healing I could to the DC while we interrogated GW. HU, meanwhile, had started to bring the horses in. GW told us that she was from Sharn, but I had already gathered as much. The common tongue was obviously not her native language, and I had detected the tell-tale sign of a Morgrave education in her speech. She did not know we would be here, but recognized both HU and myself as soon as she saw me. The name KA came up during the discussion. GW knew the name well, and vowed that she would never have anything to do with such a villain. Good marks in her favor. 

As I had already gathered, GW had, in fact, been a student at Morgrave University. She was something of a historian, specializing in pre-Dhakaani history. I thought that odd for a goblin, but did not comment on the matter. Once I was assured that she was not here for the same dragonshard that we were after, we agreed to travel together. This place was obviously dangerous. So long as she did an equal part of the work, though, she would get an equal part of whatever we found. Minus the dragonshard, of course.

With that out of the way (even DA was mollified by this point), we continued our exploration. The chamber we stood in was remarkably bare of ornamentation. Smooth walls and columns were marred only by the crude addition of several hobgoblin sarcophagi. Crypts that were obviously added to a pre-existing structure, and had been looted many times.

Beyond the manticore's nest was a destroyed doorway. Just on the other side of that was the body of an elf, perhaps three weeks dead. It was obvious that the manticore had gnawed upon the dead elf some, but it was still in decent shape. All things considered. 

We searched the body and came up with his travel papers. He bore the sign of the Deathsgate Guild -- the same guild that KA works with. This, then, was one of the agents he had sent to take the dragonshard. The guild is no ally of ours, so we took what things of value we found and moved on. The hallway the body occupied turned and opened into another large, rectangular chamber. Standing vigilant before the chamber was a massive statue, a good twelve feet tall, of a smooth-skinned human in a hawk mask. His arms were crossed over his chest and in one hand he held a crooked staff. In the other was a massive dragonshard. We were in the right place.

GW and I stepped up to examine the statue. A wailing moan from behind us drew our attention back. A ghost had risen up from the corpse of the ex-adventurer, and it was angry! With nothing else to do for it, the DC laid in to the creature. It touched XL once, it looked like, but between ST's blade and my wand [ref: PJ-V3-72], we dispersed the creature. Once I had verified that everyone was okay, we continued our study.

I scanned the statue and room for magic, and told everyone that there was something at the far end of the chamber. Warning them to tread carefully, I returned to my study of the statue. Though old, it had held up well to the ages.

DA moved into the room going one way around the statue, and XL moved the other direction. Somebody triggered something, unfortunately, and the statue sprung to life. Spinning around and sweeping it's arms out, it clobbered GW, ST, and I, hitting ST the hardest. I was hurt badly, but ST was knocked clean off his feet and slammed into a wall. What a brilliant device!

Simultaneously, DA and XL found cunning devices of their own. In the near corner, a dozen churning blades appeared and sliced deeply into DA. XL narrowly avoided the same fate in the other corner, but managed to dive away in time. That movement set off another trap, but fortunately XL was one foot farther to the right than would otherwise be dangerous. CA, hero that he is, dove forward to pull DA from the blades. Unfortunately, that set off the statue again, and we were all struck heavily. ST had just managed to get to his feet again, too.

I yelled for everybody to  please  stop  moving, and tried to figure out what was triggering the statue. I immediately found a locked over-ride mechanism. Instead of moving into a position where I could disable the mechanism, I called to DA to use a knock spell against it. With a click, the trap turned off.

Stepping back slowly, I advised my group to not move into any area that had not been searched for traps. After applying some healing wands [ref: CJ-V5-13], I began my search. DA was searching up the right wall, XL up the left. 

My priority were the mechanisms already in action. They were making such a commotion. A quick search turned up the triggering device for each, and after a minute or so, all of them were quite again. They disappeared into the floor seamlessly. Brilliant!

DA and XL made it to the far side of the room without finding anything new. DA called out that the magic I had detected earlier was a trap of some kind, so I made my way over to her. 

GW, meanwhile, went to the pit that was near the middle of the room, but off-center a bit. It looked like a pre-sprung trap. I was walking by when a ghost rose up suddenly, moaning piteously. With blinding speed, GW drew her sword and struck the creature. Fire danced along the blade and the ghost vanished, completely destroyed. With barely a word, GW cast another spell into her sword. 

A spellcaster? How surprising! We spoke for a moment about spells before she attempted to divine the presence of magic down in the pit. I looked down to see the desiccated body of another tomb-robber, impaled on a series of nasty looking spikes. She said that there were, indeed, magic items on the creature, and prepared to climb down. Warning her against other traps within the pit, I tried to lift the body with a wand [ref: CJ-V6-40]. It was too heavy, even after almost a month of deterioration. ST pulled out a line and grapple hook, and I guided the hook down with another charge from the wand. Once it was secured to the body, ST pulled it up. A quick search confirmed that this was another member of the Deathsgate Guild. He had some minor magic on him and a few coins.

CA ran past us in a rush, crying out. DA had fallen, seeming dead. We rushed to her side, and she was alive, but paralyzed. Poison, perhaps? I told CA to watch her and went back to the trap DA had been pulled out of. Sure enough, a sticky black substance on some of the blades hinted at poison. I checked through my wands, scrolls, and potions, but I had nothing to deal with that kind of injury. 

Fortunately, IR had the foresight to send a restorative wand along with us when we parted company. It was the most powerful healing wand we had, so I tried it. Before that, though, I had HU apply one of my antitoxins to her. Just in case, I told him. Applying the wand, I activated it. 

DA's color returned immediately, and she began to move. Thank goodness!

We turned our attention to the magic trap on the far end of the room. It was a ward of some kind, triggered by a proximity alarm attached to the doorway ahead. We couldn't approach the doorway to disable it, and couldn't move on any other way. Someone else had already tried: the body of another Deathsgate adventurer lay before the door, his lockpicks still hanging from the lock.

Using my search wand [ref: CJ-V7-29], I discovered all of the traps within twenty feet of my location. There were the two stones that represented our traps, but the corners of the room were trapped, also. Spears, if I wasn't mistaken. Pulling a different wand, I devised a plan. It would take masterful timing, though. DA -- every adventurous -- agreed to it.

We each set ourselves up as close to the warding stones as we could, with GW behind us scanning the area for magic. I warned everyone else back, but ST opted to stand immediately behind me. On cue, DA and I attempted to dispel the wards, me with my wand [ref: CJ-V7-8] and her with her magic. GW called out that we were both successful.

I raced forward, tools in hand, and immediately got to work. Before our plan had been set in motion, I had infused both DA and myself with greater skill in trap-breaking. I hoped it would be enough.

I was rushing, because I knew the ward would only be down for moments. With elation, I finished just as GW cried out that the magic was active again. I was a second too late.

The air in the room changed as it was suddenly displaced. Immediately behind me was a magnificent warforged battle titan. It was beautiful -- gleaming adamantine, red glowing eyes, and an axe with a blade edge longer than I was tall. It raised it's axe up high and in a mechanical voice intoned "Artemis Cannith, you will pay for the enslavement of my race!" 

How did it know my name? The answer was obvious. It didn't. I knew my name, and this was not a construct of metal and wood, but of my own mind. An illusion. I recognized it for what it was and it's blade passed harmlessly through me. With a muttered "Bastard!", it disappeared. Strange. I didn't think titans swore....

I turned to see DA standing there ghostly white. She had obviously seen her own nightmare coming to kill her. She must have gotten the better of it, though, because she stood there unharmed. She turned, and winked at me. I smiled and nodded, gesturing invitingly to the traps behind us.

GW told us that the magic was gone again. Now that it was triggered, I was sure that it was gone for good. Just to be safe, though, I reached over and turned my spanlock a quarter turn to the right, disabling the trap. Taking up my tools, I moved to the nearest spear trap. Disabling that one was a joke. 

Unfortunately, DA can't take a joke. Spears shot

Wow. That was in poor taste. My apologies, DA. 

DA had troubles disarming her own trap. Perhaps she was still shaken from her illusory encounter. Maybe she was rushing again, so that she could show me that she was just as good as I. Whatever the reason, her trap sprung and nearly a dozen steel spears launched out of the wall. Four of them hit her, and two barely missed CA, who was unfortunately also in the path. I leapt over to her, and judicious application of a healing wand got her back in fine condition. I made sure everyone was feeling fine before we continued on.

The last of our obstacles out of the way, we moved over the the body in front of the door. Right on queue, a ghost rose up to terrify us. GW was in position to deal with this one, too, and even ST stood ready. The ghost managed to hit GW, but did not survive past that. We sent it to it's final resting place.

GW had already seen the magic this man held, and we stowed that away. He had a little bit of money and the symbol of the Deathsgate guild. 

While the DC were separating magic items from the corpse (have I ever described how grisly it is to pull magic boots from a decaying corpse?), I turned my attention to the door. Obviously, something bad had happened to this man while he tried to open it. I searched the area and there it was, like a huge sign with bold red letters: TRAP! He had missed this? How could a total incompetent have gotten so far?

I shut off the trap then bypassed the lock. I was about to shoulder open the door when DA offered to do it. Shrugging, I stepped back. She put the mage hand around her neck and pointed at the door. It resisted at first, but then opened. Dust, and the still air of ages past blew into the room. We were now moving into an area that man had not tread in thousands of years. I was very excited!

With another check to make sure everyone was in top condition, we moved forward. DA was up front with me, helping me search for traps. It was an arduous process, and the dust was soiling every peice of clothing I wore, but it seemed necessary. The traps in the out room had been so cunning and masterful that we were taking no chances.

We were in a tight corridor, not even wide enough to spread one's arms. The hallway angled off to the right, continued fifty or so feet, then angled off to the right again. It took a couple of minutes for us to get to the next corner. We were being cautious.

Around the corner, the hallway continued before turning right again. We had been going downward since first entering the hallway. No one else had mentioned it, so I just assumed that everyone else already recognized it. ST drew attention to the fact at this point though, and I just turned and looked at him. HU tok'd at me, and I shook my head. We got back to work and continued searching the hall.

We didn't find anything interesting until we got around the next corner. The corridor opened up into a wide, long room filled with statues. They looked like warriors, all of them. Just like the outer statue, they were human-seeming, with hawk masks; each man standing twelve feet tall and facing the entrance that we stood at. There was a narrow walk-way in between them. We moved cautiously into the room, searching for traps or anything else of interest. There was nothing. Out the other side of the room, the corridor continued, sloping downward and angling off to the left. 

And this is where I made my fatal mistake. We had come what seemed a long way without encountering any traps -- nor anything else of interest. Except for the statuary in the room behind us, there was nothing of interest in here. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all smooth stone, unadorned in any way. I rationalized that one traps one's front door, not one's living room. We moved forward again, but I was much more casual in my searching.

From the statue room, left, down a short corridor, and left again. We were still moving down. I paused to search then moved five or ten feet forward. With a squeal and a crash, a metal portcullis slammed down behind me. I realized I wouldn't make it to the far side, so didn't even bother jumping for it.

The sound of the slamming portcullis died down, to be replaced by the sound of my companions, shouting to find out what had happened. We were spaced apart some, and part of the DC were still around the corner. I tried to calm everyone down (HU seemed particularly agitated), and asked DA to look for an opening mechanism on her side. I searched where I stood, but found nothing. 

DA found the mechanism and started working. A sound like rushing air -- or waves pulling back from a pebbled beach -- came to me, and I pulled out a wand [ref: CJ-V5-42]. Looking down the corridor, I had no chance to react as a swarm of coin-sized beetles scuttled into view. There were millions of them!

They were on me before I could do anything, biting and gnawing and burrowing into flesh and gear. I screamed. Almost as quickly, they continued forward, passing through the portcullis easily to swarm over my companions. 

I fought the creatures off as best I could, and dove away from them. Coming up, I activated my wand, strafing beams of fire across their mass. I managed to score one beam into a pile of creatures swarming up and over DA. The other hit one or two, but the creatures adroitly avoided it.

Screams and swearing filled the hall. DA, trooper that she was, was still trying to get the gate raised. I told her not to worry about it -- just get away! I heard the pop and explosion of alchemist fire again and again as my friends used the only weapons they had to hand that could affect these creatures. Two more scorching rays lit up the hallway coming from who I could only assume was GW.

DA finally stood to run, but was having trouble fighting off the swarm. I shifted my vision to see what HU was seeing, and it was chaos. Pure pandemonium. GW cast a spell and one hand glowed with stored electrical energy. ST fought as best he could, but neither he nor CA had a weapon that could affect these creatures. XL had already scrambled all the way back to the statuary room, and was looking to climb one of the hawk men.

I tried to visualize the shape of the statuary room. I built in my mind a blueprint of the corridors between where I stood and the center of that room, taking into account the angle of descent and measurements that I had seen but not actually measured. I mentally ordered HU into the statue room and pulled out a wand [ref:CJ-V7-67], hoping it would be close enough. I displaced.

It's the first time I've actually used that particular wand since I created it three weeks ago. It worked flawlessly. With no sense of movement whatsoever, I suddenly stood where HU once stood, and I knew that he was on the far side of the portcullis. One more mental command sent HU up to that doorway, holding vials of alchemist fire through ST on the other side.

DA screamed and I saw her stagger towards the room, smashing a vial of alchemist fire against her own chest. She was distorted and oddly formed, a patchwork of ripped flesh, burns, and smooth skin, all of it bubbling and puckering unnaturally. I realized with horror that some of the beetles had gotten under her skin, and were burrowing through her living flesh. And not just a couple. Hundreds of them. I almost retched at the sight.

A discharge of electricity from out in the hallway announced the continued movement of the swarm as an explosion of beetle corpses pattered into the doorway moments before the swarm itself. DA staggered forward and fell, propelled more by the wave of tiny creatures than her own strength. I leapt forward to catch her but was struck by the physical force of the swarm, still in their thousands. The flesh-eating creatures did their work, and I, too, fell, overcome by loss of blood. The sear of alchemist fire and another flash of GW's electricity was the last thing to cut through the darkness.

I awoke to that strange surge of energy that always comes from powerful healing. I lay on a blanket of dead beetles, still sizzling and popping from the electricity and fire. I remembered seeing XL in my last moment coming down to splash DA with a healing potion. He stood over me now with the empty bottle of another. Only seconds had passed. 

DA was alive still, but just barely. So much damage had been done to her little body that it was amazing she was still struggling. XL's healing potion had managed to counter some of the continuous damage that the swarm inside of her was doing, but that just gave them more to feed on. I didn't think I had anything that could save her, but I had never been trained for this sort of thing. IR had. 

And maybe she had given us what we needed?

As quick as I could, I drew IR's wand. The most powerful healing we had. I pressed the tip into DA's convulsing sternum and pushed against it, willing the magic to work. Suddenly, the magic in the wand was gone. I had done something wrong. The magic had failed. The wand did not activate.

The wand didn't fail. I did.

DA's body expanded suddenly, and I had an instant of hope -- the briefest moment where I thought that the wand had actually worked -- but the truth was far different. And far, far more horrifying. 

With a final surge, the beetles inside of DA burst forward, consuming every last bit of flesh, blood, bone, and hair. Bloated, perhaps, the tiny flesh-eaters scattered in every direction, leaving us with nothing left of Dalia but the shredded equipment she wore into this place.

She wasn't just dead. She was gone. Wholly and irrevocably. Utterly consumed."


.                    An Excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7



"Robe of Useful Items: window, door, pit"
"Wand: Dimension Leap"
"Wand: Benign Transposition"
"Scroll: Stone Shape"
"Infusion: spell (any above)"
"Infusion: spell (Gaseous Form)"
"Infusion: Swarmbane Armor - Dalia"


.                    An Excerpt from the "List of items I could have used to save Dalia" by Artemis Heuw Cannith


----------



## sniffles (Mar 14, 2007)

*Caelen writes from Talenta, part 2*

This crypt is proving to be a challenge. I regret Kylara's decision to leave us. We could use her magic and Valirdryn's battle skills. We've acquired a new companion but I don't know yet if she'll prove a worthy successor, although she does seem talented in both magic and warrior skills.

After nightfall we made our way across the lake cloaked in spells. I was the first to dismount on the narrow strip of land before the crypt entrance. I made my way cautiously into the crypt with the warforged and changeling at my heels. The manticore pierced me with several of its tail spikes before I could get out of range.

I took cover behind a pillar and drew a sunrod from my pack. The changeling ran to the opposite side of the antechamber and followed my example. It gots its light out quicker and the manticore turned its attention to the changeling. As I made my way behind the beast a creature like an octopus attacked me but I shrugged it off.

When I flanked the beast it turned on me. The changeling managed to get below it when it reared up and stabbed it through the heart. After it fell more of the octopus beasts emerged. Then the rest of our group entered the crypt and I discovered a female goblin had been spying on us. While the human and Dalia argued about whether to trust her, I took care of several more of the octopus creatures. 

The antechamber didn't hold anything of value. The hobgoblin sarcophagi were empty. The doorway to the next chamber had been destroyed. We found an elven corpse in the corridor, not one of our people. When we passed it by a ghost suddenly rose out of it and attacked us. I was sorry I didn't still have Talaenkara. My blades couldn't touch the ghost. My companions had to destroy it.

The next room held nothing but a tall statue of a hawk-headed being and a pit in the floor. Another corpse lay in front of an intact door at the opposite end of the room. There was a body impaled on a spike at the bottom of the pit. When the goblin looked down at it another ghost rose up, but it was no threat.

The room turned out not to be so empty after we entered. The statue swung an arm and knocked over the warforged, and a mass of spinning blades came out of the walls and floor to wound Dalia. I jumped across the room to yank her away from the blades. Then she and the human found the trigger to stop the statue, though not before it struck me a blow. 

Dalia found the key to turn off the first group of spinning blades, but while she was looking for the trigger for the others she suddenly collapsed. I picked her up and the human treated her poisoned wounds. Then she and the human and the goblin turned to examine the door. 

Suddenly two huge shadowy shapes appeared between them and where I stood. They vanished as fast as they appeared. The mages explained that it had been some spell intended to terrify them, but they'd recognized it for what it was. Evidently the corpse on the floor hadn't been as clever.

Of course the corpse by the door had to have a ghost like the others. Then a trap pierced me and Dalia with spears. She took the worst blow. After the human treated us we proceeded through the door. It appeared no one else had been able to open it previously. 

Beyond the door we found a room filled with tall statues of warriors bearing strange weapons. A very narrow hallway led away from the chamber. The human forged out ahead of us and was cut off by a descending grate. I couldn't get close enough to help the warforged try to lift it. Then a huge swarm of beetles came rushing down the passage toward us.

The beetles crawled all over us, burrowing into our flesh. Dalia was trying to trip the gate mechanism but had to give up and retreat from the beetles. I threw a flask of wizard's fire at them, as did the warforged, while behind me the goblin fried them with lightning. 

The human cast some spell that caused his homonculus to swap places with him. He retreated to the statue room. Then his walking chest handed more wizard's fire to me through the grate. 

While the warforged and I were dropping flames on the beetles at our feet, our companions moved into the statue room. I heard the goblin shout that the human had fallen and Dalia was gone. I thought at first she meant Dalia had gone invisible again. But when the beetles were dispersed I went back to the statue room to find that the beetles had consumed the gnome woman, leaving nothing behind but a heap of her possessions. 

_To be continued..._
_____________________

*Player's note: Farewell to Dalia. We didn't know her long, but we enjoyed working with her. *  

*Quips & Quotes:*

*DH*: "There are sarcophagis in here."
*Jubilee*: "There better be some sarcophagals, too!"

*Jubilee*: "I have gold eyes, thank you very much!"
*Zora*: "How much gold?"
*Jubilee*: "Hey, I'm still using those!"

*Devo*: "Hutch is going to slowly... stay where he is."

*Devo*: "I don't know that I have a spell that will expel beetles. I don't have a Yoko spell."


----------



## sniffles (Mar 23, 2007)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith, excerpt 20*

_"Stark held the pieces together as I infused each in turn, following the investiture of magic with the a rubbing of the compound we had mixed together earlier. It had taken almost an hour to get this far, but it had been a fun challenge: creating a non-permanent binder that would hold the two thin plates together. Stark and I were in the last stages of implementation when I looked over and saw Hutch clamping similar plates together with hairpins. He had about almost twenty of them done, stacked up neatly to one side. I looked to Stark, who looked at me. I hate mundane solutions to interesting problems. Wait.... Why was Hutch carrying hairpins?" _ 
*. An Excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7* 

"I awoke this morning sore, exhausted, and soaked in sweat. Images of DA's last moments had danced through my dreams all night and I was not well rested. It took more than half an hour for me to get out of bed -- an event that hasn't happened since the fever I'd had as a child. I have always been energetic, always been ready to go out and take on the world. But now.... Now, I have seen such things. So much death. So much pain. Is this what it means to "live by the sword"? 

What have I become? 

When I did get up, I took special care with my appearance. I didn't want my state of mind to introduce doubt into my companions. I know that they look up to me -- expect me to lead. I have a responsibility to them, and I cannot fail. Not again. 

I busied myself for the first part of the morning with household affairs, then went into my laboratory. I sat with S1 and HU for a while, but couldn't work up the drive to get S1 started on any projects. I set a few things out of his reach, then gave him free reign to work, clean, or organize the lab as he wanted. 

XL came over about the time I expected he would, and had with him the items I asked him to fetch last night. Missing from the bag he held out to me, however, was the rare ointment I had put at the very top of the list. I had drafted a very fine letter to Master Huygen d'Cannith with the express goal of convincing said alchemist to sell that rare commodity. Obviously, I was not convincing enough. 

We had to wait to see if that lack would lead to our destruction. 

GW spent the night at the tower (after making a very unusual rooming request), but had gone off a little while ago to fetch our healer. She returned with a halfling named Robin (RO). 

RO was an energetic fellow, but smelled as though he had been up all night in his cups. I examined his dragonmark to determine it's veracity, and concluded that the mark, at least, would prove useful. After a few minutes of questioning, I concurred with XL that RO would be a good addition to our expedition. He was eager to join us. Very eager. 

In short order, we were ready to go. I gathered the DC, plus RO and GW, in the music room so that we could go over any last minute preparations. I had HU put the alchemist frost and spark that XL had acquired the night before out on a table and quickly explained their use. I refrained from commenting on Master Huygen's choice of vials for the two types of alchemy. He had chosen a periwinkle blue for the frost, rather than the universally accepted frost blue. Worse, both vials were the same shape. Dangerous when one is in a hurry and needs to know what one is grabbing. Still, the alchemical symbols for "Cold" and "Electricity" were in prominent relief on both front and back of the containers. I hoped that the DC were as well-trained as I at rapidly distinguishing the two by touch so there would be no mistakes. 

Adding to the collection on the table, HU set down several vials of alchemists fire and arranged them in pairs. 

XL, bless him, loyally chose to stick with the brand of alchemist's fire that was my own creation, rather than using something from an unknown. I commended his decision, but told him that Master Huygen was a well-respected alchemist, and that cold or spark could occasionally solve problems that fire could not. He would not be persuaded. The rest of the group, barring RO, of course, helped themselves to what they wanted. 

HU, seeing that two vials of spark and two of frost remained, happily gathered up the surplus vials and stowed them away. I, meanwhile, was giving a brief lecture to RO, showing him which wand bracer held my healing wands, and which wand did what. He seemed very impressed that the wands would identify themselves to any who could use them. 

It is sad how a lack of education can reduce even a respected member of House Jorasco to a veritable bumpkin. 

Once everyone was ready, we departed. XL had the idea of passing the the Key [ref: PJ-V7-53] to CA, to see if someone untrained in the finer arts could use it. I thought this a capital idea, and passed the key over. With some trepidation, he used it open the music room door into the Lost Room. 

The Room was as it had been every time we visited. It was a bright sunny day outside the keep. A fire burned in the hearth and the interior seemed undisturbed. Once again, CA stepped in to guard the only other known entrance -- a stairwell leading down to a closed door. GW went to one of the windows to look out -- I think she wants to go exploring. This was RO's first visit and he certainly was impressed. 

Once we were all in the room, I came in and closed the door. CA came once again to open it. I calmly attempted to guide his concentration so that he was focused on the particular door we sought. When he opened the door, however, we were looking out on a stable. An elven stable hand stood with his back to us, speaking to what appeared to be a Valenar-bred horse. CA closed the door rapidly, but I think the stranger turned and saw us before CA could do so. 

I looked to CA, who seemed embarrassed, but was trying to play it cool. I told him that he had done well so far, but he needed to focus on our desired location. On his second try, we opened the door to the Vault of Crimson Stars. 

Signaling for silence from the DC, I strained my ears, but did not hear the tell-tale "All Clear" message I had left in the vault the last time we were there. A magic mouth, triggered when this door opened, was supposed to signal the all clear. If it didn't, that could only mean one thing: someone had been through the vault since our visit last night. 

I told my companions as much, and we moved quietly through the doorway and into the Vault. Closing the door, I re-opened it up onto the trapped room. My suspicions were confirmed: the bodies of two tomb robbers lay in the room, and the loud whirring of spinning blades filled the air. They had activated all of the traps we had, and it killed them. At least one of their number had survived to open this door, though, so some had survived. We debated what to do for a moment, then decided to engage the enemy that still lived, rather than loot those enemies that had fallen. Cautiously, and as quietly as ST could manage, we crept forward. 

It was hard to say -- even with my training -- whether or not more people had passed through this hallway since our last visit. The dust was heavy, but we had tramped back and forth a number of times in our last visit. 

We were just passing through the statuary room when a sudden grinding klank sounded from up ahead, followed by a loud shout. Almost immediately, that same sound that had plagued my dreams of last night came to us; hundreds of wood bearings bouncing across stone, a wave retreating from a pebbled shore, a swarm of flesh-eating scarabs. Evidently, the survivors from yesterday's swarm had joined forces to feed again. 

Before the first sounds from the swarm had time to echo, XL was clambering up onto one of the statues. 

I told everyone to stay where they were, and pulled one of the patches from my robe [ref: CJ-V7-30]. It reverted to a scroll, which I read immediately, and with more than just a modicum of grace, I lifted off the ground and flew around the corner towards the swarm. They could crawl, but they could not fly. I would be safe. 

Evidently, that was the theory of the vault's other visitor. I came around the corner to see not one, but three portcullises dropped across the hallway. The first was cut through, thanks to ST's work last night. Trapped between the other two, however, clinging to the ceiling some how, was a dinosaur the size of a massive dog. On the dinosaurs back -- underneath the creature, from my point of view -- was a halfling in native garb. Reins, tassels, hair, and the occasional loose tie was hanging down from this odd duo, so I knew that gravity had not been adversely affected in the area. Nor were they flying. The dinosaur was somehow walking on the ceiling. 

At the same time that I came around the corner to witness this odd spectacle, the swarm came around the far corner and into sight. It swept towards me just as I raised my wand [ref: CJ-V6-66]. With a strange battle cry, the halfling on the ceiling gestured towards the bugs and a small explosion of fire sent dozens of the tiny creatures scattering. 

Unfortunately, they didn't seem to be actually hurt by the fire. I hoped to have better luck. 
With a word, I sent a bearing-sized ball of energy sailing through all three portcullises to land in the midst of the swarm. It exploded outward in a massive detonation of super-heated fire as soon as it hit. Bugs went flying everywhere, rattling off of stone and portcullis like an explosion of hard biscuits. The halfling cried out again, and I realized he was yelling "Fire! Fire!" with disturbing enthusiasm. Reforming on the move, the swarm churned slowly towards me. With another cry, the halfling summoned a solid sphere of fire and set it in the insects midst. 

Needless to say, the DC did not follow orders. GW appeared behind me, followed by ST. GW unleashed one of her spells, sending two searing beams of fire towards the swarm. They scattered away from the points of impact, however, and only one or two of the insects were hurt. 

The swarm moved forward to cover GW and ST. ST just had time to throw his alchemist's spark before he was completely engulfed. CA had the unfortunate luck to arrive just at that moment, and was caught up in the mass, also. He swung his sword into them, and though the blade did little damage, the infusion I had placed upon it [ref: CJ-V1-12] melted the creatures by the dozen. HU, following CA, pulled up before he was swarmed and threw a vial of alchemist's spark at the creatures. Many died. 

The sight of thousands of medallion-sized insects slowly eating my companions alive nauseated and revolted me, but I kept my head about me. I realized that this group was more resistant to fire than the last. With a shout, I told GW to switch to electricity. Following deed to word, I switched wands [ref: CJ-V5-38] and let loose a stream of energy that destroyed the creatures by the hundreds. GW did the same, using a spell to coat her blade in electricity then sweeping it broadly through the swarm. The combined energy of our two spells spread from one scarab to another, and soon there was nothing left but a few survivors scuttling off into the darkness. 

The ancient halls of this unhallowed place were not silent, however. CA was screaming and thrashing. The swarm had burrowed into him while we fought, and he was left struggling for his life, being eaten alive from the inside, out. Unwanted images of DA's last moments came unbidden to my mind. 

Stumbling out of control, CA fled the scene, trying to run from an enemy he could not fight. I shouted for XL to slow him down, then for ST to grab him. DA had died to these creatures, but only because we didn't know how to stop them. Now, we did. 

One of the things that I had sent GW out to find the night before was an answer to the swarm problem. She had visited House Jorasco, who told her that the flesh-eating infestation of beetles acted much as a disease does -- though, of course, the individual elements of a disease were much, much smaller than a flesh-eating scarab. I didn't quite buy into their beliefs, but they were the experts in such things. While ST held CA still, I quick-infused a spell into my cane to remove disease [ref: CJ-V1-12]. Knowing I may not finish in time, I called out to RO (who had run away at the first sign of trouble) to do what he could for CA. 

CA was strong, but he couldn't hold out long against such an adversary. RO was moving far too slowly, and I wouldn't risk CA's life on untested ability. With a word, I touched my cane to CA's abdomen and let loose it's magic. The forced expulsion of scarabs was... disturbing to watch... but it freed CA from their feasting. Robbed of their meal and the companionship of their fellows, the beetles scuttled away into darkness. 

I checked CA's wounds and the wounds of the rest of the DC. We didn't get through the fight unscathed, but did far better than we had last time. Knowledge and preparation are key in all things. I set about healing those who were injured. 

ST, meanwhile, had gone forwards to cut through the bars of the portcullis, freeing the halfling trapped within. XL reported seeing a body while he was up on the statuary, and retrieved said corpse from it's hiding place in the corner of the room. It was another of the DG adventurers, killed, perhaps, by spear wounds. GW, in her practicality, searched for magic on the body and removed any items of interest. 

We moved on, finally, meeting up with the halfling. He introduced himself as Conshru (CN) and his mount as Grix (GX). He looked like one of the halflings that we saw riding patrol outside, so I subtly asked of him what he was doing here. CN told us that his tribal brothers sent him in because a group of seven adventurers entered this sacred place without first asking permission. CN was unclear as to what he was supposed to do to these tomb robbers, but his fixation with fire provided some clue. This worried me, as we did not have permission to be here, either. It took a very delicate hand to weave the conversation that followed in the direction I needed it to go, but, naturally, I succeeded brilliantly. 

By the end of our discussion, CN had invited us to accompany him deeper into the vault. We had accounted for six bodies so far, and the seventh must have continued onward. CN hinted that he was dissatisfied with his life amongst the tribe, and that he wanted to see Sharn. I cultivated that desire with grandiose descriptions of Sharn, her towers, and the wide variety of people, places, and things one could find in such a place. By the end, CN was hanging on my every word. 

My hope, naturally, was to bring him back to Sharn with us when we left, rather than letting him return to his peoples and explain our presence here. He seemed the type that would be open to the idea later -- CN himself didn't mind our presence here, as he wasn't told to keep us out. He just wanted to find out what happened to those who had come before us. 
So we traveled together to find out what happened to the last tomb robber. And, of course, to look for the dragonshard that we had come here to find in the first place. 

I took the lead, searching carefully as we went to make sure we triggered no new traps. The way was clear. The hallway continued to slope downwards, an angled spiral down to gods only knew what. 

Before long, the hallway turned another corner and left us standing before a large archway with a scarab motif above the doorway. Three runes marked the only decoration we'd seen to date, but none of us could make anything of them. I searched for traps while GW searched for magic. We found neither. 

Beyond the arch was a chamber almost one hundred feet deep, forty feet wide, and just over forty feet tall. Three massive carvings evenly spaced along each of the side walls depicted more hawk-faced men; these more than forty feet tall and bearing the weight of the ceiling upon their carven backs. The last two carvings stood above a dark, ten foot wide pit that separated the far side of the room from the side we entered in on. The ceiling here, as it was back in the well-trapped room with the original statue, was black, with stars depicted in red inset gemstones. I stood under the arch for a few minutes, shining HU's beacon lantern here and there and looking around. The rest of the DC (plus our new followers) stood behind me. The room was large, silent, and dusty. 

I began the long process of searching the floors and walls for traps. No more mistakes. 
It took more than a few minutes to cover the room. By the time I was done, we had determined that except for a trap door just in front of the pit, the room was safe. A curtain of magic divided the room, however, over the pit's location. On the other side of the pit we could see a large sarcophagus propped up against the far wall. In front of it was a dry basin, and in front of and to either side of the basin was a large brass brazier. The room was otherwise plain. 

As I disabled the trap door, I began investigating the pit. There was some magic above it -- abjurative in nature -- and everything below floor-level was obscured by magical darkness. Bringing out a rope, I plumbed the depth of the pit to see that it was merely thirty feet down. We could climb down, but what would we find? 

CN, still walking the walls with his dinosaur, crossed over to the far side of the room. When he crossed over the pit, however, he and GX started to fall. CN twisted and turned, landing on the far side of the pit. GX scrambled and rolled, and landed on this side. They looked at each other for a moment, before GX backed up and leapt across the pit. The companions reunited (CN leaping onto GX's back), and backed away from the pit. 

The sarcophagus opened. 

I had had images of what we might find in the sarcophagus, and the creature who stepped out met every one of my expectations. Well, all except one. He was massively tall, probably nine feet tall in total ,with an elaborate headdress. Covered in bandages, he satisfied every image of a two-copper theater rendition of a mummy attack, except that he moved very quickly. He carried a wicked looking black rod, too, and as I watched it pulsed to life with black energy. The strange thing about the creature, though, is that it looked hobgoblin rather than hawk-headed. It was definitely out of place here. 

We didn't stop to dialog about it's alien appearance, however. Quick as a wink, CN and GX withdrew from the creature and raced back up the wall. The mummy bore aloft his dark scepter, and black-fire electricity erupted from the weapon, striking CN and GX both before arcing off towards the nearest statue. 

GW responded as I am learning she is inclined to: she quick-cast a spell of extra movement and leapt over the pit. Her speed was sufficient to reach the mummy, but her attack deflected off of dusty bandages. XL jumped across too, and positioned himself to get into the fight. 

I had seen three people cross the pit, and two of them do so with magic. My extensive training in all things magical took the miniscule clues provided by my companions actions and formed a very vital piece of information. Hovering above that pit was a veil of anti-magic. No magic would cross the barrier. I pondered, suddenly, how the pit itself could then be shrouded in an obviously magical darkness? How, too, was the lightning from the black rod piercing the veil so as to strike the pillar? 

I urged my companions to bring the battle back to this side of the pit. The obstacle was only ten feet across, but I wasn't sure ST could leap that distance. He was built for durability, not mobility. CA must not have heard my orders, because he leapt across to take the fight to the creature. 

CN dropped fire down upon the creature, who reciprocated by blasting CN, GX, XL, and GW with lightning from his rod before withdrawing to the other side of the basin. GW followed, and in a flurry of magic and steel destroyed the mummy with a single hit. Fire and lightning were her specialty, too. 

Most of us gathered on the far side of the pit to tend wounds and examine the area. Looting the fallen mummy was a priority for most, but there were some who were simply looking around, too. I joined in the search: our path lead here, but there were no other exits, nor any sign of the dragonshard we had come so far to find. I started my search at the sarcophagus, then expanded outward from there. No traps. No secret doors or compartments. Nothing. 

I looked over the gear that the mummy had carried, but the dragonshard wasn't there, either. The scepter looked rather interesting, but that was research for another day. 

We were still missing one tomb robber. If the scarab swarm had consumed him, then we would have found the gear piled at the location of his death. We had found nothing, though. With few other leads, we lowered ST down into the darkened pit, but brought him back up as soon as he reported more scarabs. It seems the pit was full of them. 

Our last lead, then, was the trap door in front of the pit. The DC stood around me as I opened it up. A shaft descended into the darkness, angling slightly towards the pit. I could see right away, though, that the shaft would descend beneath the scarab-filled pit. What we did not know was how far down it went, or what was down there. 

HU came over to help, and dropped a lit sunrod into the shaft. It slid and bounced until it descended out of sight. There was a slight curve to the shaft that hid it's endpoint from our vision. We waited a moment, to see if anything would respond to the noise and light, but nothing did. 

Not trusting what we could not see, I infused a quick spell into my cane [ref: CJ-V1-12] and cast my vision down the shaft, centering it on the sunrod. My clairvoyance revealed a rectangular chamber twenty feet wide and fifty long, filled with three alcoves along each of the side walls and another on the far end of the chamber. The floor was covered in an indeterminate amount of water; piles and piles of bones extended out of the water, but didn't exactly fill the room. The body of a human male lay at the base of the shaft. Was this, perhaps, the chamber we sought? 

I told my companions what I had seen, and they immediately set to work. ST drilled a hole in the stone with his energy blade, then secured a piton within it. HU, meanwhile, tied two ropes together so that we could descend the steep slope with less difficulty. CA opted to go down first. 

It seemed to me that CA was disappointed that he did not get to fight the mummy, and so was eager to find another battle. 

Following CA was GW, then CN, then ST. I had the opportunity to follow XL, but decided that if a four hundred pound warforged was going to trip up and slide down the shaft, I would rather be behind him than in front of him. I followed ST, then HU, XL, and RO came after. 

I had never used a clairvoyancey spell before, but they work just fine. The chamber was just as I had seen it earlier, though better lit now that more light filled the room. I had just found a stable place to stand when trouble arrived. 

Mummies burst forth from the nearest alcoves, one on each side of the room. ST turned to fight one, keeping it pinned in the alcove. The other stepped out to attack XL. Before we could react, a gibbering shade of pure blackness drifted out of one of the walls and charged straight towards GW. XL stood fascinated by the sound the creature was making, and CA stood paralyzed at the sight of the mummies. I have to profess that I was feeling a deeper despair than I ever had before. Still, there was a fight to be had! 

From my wand [ref: PJ-V5-62], I unleashed a handful of magic missiles at the shade, my other targets seemingly not as critical. A mummy slammed his dusty fist into XL, knocking him out of his reverie. The other mummy clawed at ST, but was rebuffed. The shade struck GW, who began babbling a bit herself. 

Our footing shifted slightly as the bones beneath our feet started to quake. from the center of the room rose two massive skeletons, each the size of an ogre. They struck out at any living creature near them. 

CN responded with his normal war cry, and a small explosion of fire struck the skeleton and the mummy nearest XL. ST was having trouble with his mummy, but XL struck his a solid blow, the infusion I had placed on it earlier [ref: CJ-V1-33] cutting through the creature like an axe through soft clay. 

As if we didn't have enough problems, a pair of well-preserved hobgoblin corpses came out of the far alcoves, and started making their slow way towards us across the piles of bones. 
The shade's incorporeal form protected it from GW's counter-attack, and when it touched her again she giggled and started babbling a little louder. I hit it again with force missiles from wand, then GW followed up with a sword strike that hit true, and the creature discoprorated. 

ST continued to trade blows with his mummy, while XL turned his attention to the skeleton behind him, using the infused haft of his spear to good use. The creature was large enough that in this room it nearly divided our party in two. CA came out of his reverie, and made his way towards the nearest skeleton. The combined efforts of the DC caused the creature to collapse before CA could get there, so he turned, instead, towards the mummy fighting XL. 

CN continued to unleash fire into our enemies, and the remaining skeleton fell. Two zombies shuffled up into the fight. CA, XL, and GW teamed up on the mummy, dropping him, then CA turned and with one strike cut the nearest zombie in two. CN destroyed the other zombie. 

ST, meanwhile, was still fighting determinedly with the mummy he had trapped within the alcove. GW called for ST to move aside so she could get a clear shot in, but ST pressed forward, keeping the creature contained. Eventually, though, it, too, fell, and we were alone in the chamber. 

Once again, the DC spread out to search the chamber. I busied myself making sure everyone was healed before beginning my search. 

XL had gotten hit at some point during the fight, and a black decay was spreading slowly but inexorably across his skin; deadened flesh was flaking off into dust and blowing away on a wind that wasn't there. Was this the mummy's curse, as is so often depicted in the theaters? 

We had little time. Whatever it was, it was killing XL. I took out the only scroll I had capable of breaking a curse [ref: PJ-V7-84] and read it over XL's wound. I could feel the magic of the scroll fighting against the mummy's power. Then I felt the curse break. The blackness was still spreading across him, but it was just killing him now, not disintegrating him. Not good, but better. Rather than figure out where Robin was, I pulled out our only potion of disease removal and spread it over the wound. More progress: the disease was no longer spreading. XL was saved! 

RO came up from whatever concealment he had found during the fight to administer aid. His curative wand was helpful in restoring CA to full health, and his restorative wand set both XL and GW aright. I tended to ST myself. 

With all of the DC healthy once again, I utilized a divinatory wand [ref: CJ-V6-59] to search the room we were in in two broad sweeps. The body of the adventurer had some interesting gear (he was, in fact, the last member of the DG adventuring party), and the mummies had a little bit of useful gear. There was nothing else in the room of interest, though. Nothing buried under the bones, nothing concealed within the walls or floor. This was another dead end. Where was that dragonshard? Had it already been stolen, centuries before we got here? 

We returned to the upper chamber, and began a long, exhaustive search. When that proved fruitless, I set about identifying the scepter that the mummy lord had carried. Perhaps it held some clue? 

Identification of a magic item is a long, tedious process. Quite interesting, though. While I was working on the scepter, CA and CN went back out to the outer chambers to collect anything of value still on the bodies of the DG tomb robbers. I warned them to be wary of any traps that might still be active. 

An hour later, the black rod provided no clues as to where we should go next. It was an interesting device, though, with a negative energy effect on anything you attacked with it and special electric-fire abilities that worked only in this room. But it didn't answer the questions I had about this place. Where was the dragonshard? Why did the mummy we fought here not "fit in", thematically speaking? If the tomb wasn't built for that creature, who was it built for? Where was he? 

GW had the idea of lighting the braziers on fire and filling the basin with water. It seemed a waste of effort to me, as there was no magic to be triggered by such activities and my -- very thorough -- search had found no mechanisms that would activate. Still, we had little else to try, so we got about it. 

The fires were harder to light than I expected. There were traces of residue in each, and we tried using existing materials to light the fire -- in case it mattered. We were able to get the fires started, though, through sheer determination. Nothing happened, unfortunately. 
The basis was easier to deal with. GW collected water skins from the DC and simply poured them in. There was an immediate and obvious affect. 

The water did not splash or ripple when poured into the basin. It went in like poured glass, filling the basin and reflecting the red lights that glowed in the ceiling. We had determined quite some time ago that the lights where placed in a very detailed pattern, mimicking the placement of stars in the night sky. The scarab motif in the entrance to the chamber held a cartouche with three symbols -- each of them representing a known constellation. We had identified the constellations mapped out on the ceiling, but had been unable to discern any pattern or hidden meaning behind them. 

Those same three constellations were reflected in the pool before us. This wasn't a mirror, though. It was a portal. 

But where did it lead? GW tried lowering a rope into the pool, but the rope simply gathered on top of the water. When she reached down to touch the bottom of the basin, it seemed endless. Not wanting to leap into the unknown, I began the process of infusing my cane with a spell to analyze the gate [ref: CJ-V1-12]. It was a magic I had never done before, so I took my time with it. 

GW, however, was not one to wait. I had told her what I was doing, and was already in the middle of it, when she simply jumped into the pool. There was no splash; no ripple. There was just GW disappearing into nothingness. With barely a second's hesitation, CA followed. 
That's all we need -- rivalry between our two best swordspeople. 

There was a cry of great injustice from across the room. CN had just returned from another scouting expedition to see CA jump through the gate. Not wanting to be left behind, CN and GX ran across the room, jumped the pit, and leapt into the basin at full speed. 

Or perhaps "Fool Speed" would be a better descriptor...." 
*. An Excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7 * 
--------------------------
"Reignstones on rosewood" 
"Whiskers from Kytons" 
"Bright copper scepters" 
"Wyrmwood in pitons" 
"Brown parchment punk-sticks tied up with fronds" 
*. An Excerpt from the list, "These Are a Few of My Favorite Wands" by Artemis Heuw Cannith *


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## sniffles (Mar 23, 2007)

*more from Caelen....*

I recall that in Mother's last letter she mentioned Belgaer complaining that I never call my adventuring companions by name. I'll have to remedy that.

We were all shocked by Dalia's sudden horrible death, but I think Artemis, the human artificer, was the most disturbed. He wanted to return immediately to Sharn. To his credit, he didn't want to give up on exploring the vault. He suggested using the key to the Lost Room to get us back. We could leave our horses in the city and return to the Vault of the Crimson Stars at will now that we'd seen it. 

Before we left Artemis reset as many of the traps in the vault as he could. The changeling, Xil, made a surprisingly good suggestion: that I should try the key to see if someone with no magical talent can make use of it. 

That pleased me because I wanted to be first into the Lost Room, to check for enemies. We found the room the way we'd last seen it, although our new companion, Gwaenna Goldenbrow, noticed that while we'd entered the vault at night it appeared to be midday in the Lost Room. That's a puzzle for another time. 

After we'd assured ourselves the room was safe we brought the horses through and I tried the key again. My first effort was disappointing. I've spent more time in Caerlyn's barracks than in Artemis's tower. The door opened there, much to the surprise of some of the Blades. I shut it quickly and tried again.

Once we were safely in Artemis's rooms, Gwaenna and Xil went out to seek supplies and a healer to accompany us. We worried that Caiber might have spies watching the tower, so we chose the two who wouldn't be recognized as part of our company. 

I rested while they were gone. I didn't realize until then that while I'd had some unpleasant visions during my meditations on the lightning rail, I hadn't experienced them after Kylara left. 

Gwaenna returned with a Jorasco halfling named Robin. He doesn't seem too trustworthy, but I suppose we don't have much choice on short notice.

We returned to the vault about mid-morning. Caiber must have had another team right behind us on the lightning rail, because the traps had been set off and we found several corpses. He's sending some pretty poor examples of adventurers. Something in the vault raised them as ghosts, just like their predecessors, but they were no trouble for Gwaenna and the warforged Sten to destroy.

Armed with alchemical substances to combat the beetles, we set off for the room where Dalia died. As we came to the statue room I heard the clang of a metal grate falling, followed by screams and shouts. I decided that caution was the better part of valor and climbed a statue. But the rest of my companions decided to run down the hall to see what was going on. 

I couldn't see anything so I climbed back down. In the hall I could see some bright flashes from around the corner. The beetles came swarming into the area and Gwaenna turned them all to dust with a spell. 

In the hall we found the goblin woman talking to another halfling, this one riding a dinosaur upside-down on the ceiling. He calls himself Conshru. He was following the Deathsgate people. They were supposed to get his tribe's permission to be in the vault, but they'd snuck off during the night and he'd been sent to spy on them.

We went on down the passage to an arch with a carving of a beetle above it. Beyond lay a tall room lined with pillars carved like the hawk-head statues in the other room. At the far end stood a sarcophagus and a basin. Between us and the basin lay a dark pit the full width of the room. Overhead the ceiling twinkled with red gems.

Artemis discovered a pit trap in front of the opening in the floor. He disabled the mechanism. When Conshru rode his dinosaur up the ceiling over the opening in the floor, his magic failed and they fell. 

Then Gwaenna decided to jump the opening. When she did the sarcophagus lid rose and a tall mummified creature emerged.

It wielded a black rod that fired blasts of black lightning at Gwaenna and the carved pillars. I jumped across to help the goblin. The mummy hit me with some of its black lightning. Gwaenna fired off a spell through her sword and the mummy collapsed. 

To make up for my disappointment I tore its wrappings off in search of treasure. I found nothing. Gwaenna took charge of the magic rod. 

Artemis climbed up the walls and started searching the ceiling. While he did this Gwaenna and Conshru went to search the other bodies outside the room. I couldn't help thinking that Kylara wouldn't have liked us disturbing the dead.

Finding nothing on the ceiling, Artemis decided to examine the pit trap. It turned out to be an angled shaft leading toward the other pit. He threw a sunrod down it and cast a spell to see what was there. He could see that it didn't lead into the other pit. There was a room full of bones and water lying at the end of the shaft. Then we let Sten down on a rope.

The warforged came back up covered in beetles. But we decided to make the descent. The room was knee-deep in water and heaped with bones. As we entered a mummy emerged from an alcove and attacked. Bones rose up out of the water, forming themselves into a large creature like the ones Kylara could summon. A shadowy form floated up and I found myself unable to tear my gaze from it.

A second bone creature rose from the water and a second mummy emerged, but I still couldn't look away from the black thing. Then Gwaenna blasted it and I came to my senses. I moved to fight the mummy that Xil faced. Two zombies appeared and when the mummy fell I slashed a zombie in two. 

Once all the undead things were destroyed Artemis had to use a scroll to prevent Xil from getting a disease from the mummy. After that we found another body, one of the Deathsgate adventurers. Conshru said there were seven and we'd accounted for them all.

There was nothing else of value in the chamber so we climbed back up. We all jumped across the black pit, except Sten, who's too heavy. Artemis tried using the black rod to see if it would trigger a secret doorway or something. We spent a while poking around the sarcophagus and two big braziers suspended above the dark pit, without finding anything. 

Finally we decided to try putting water in the shallow basin. Once it filled with water it looked bottomless. Gwaenna stuck her arm in and it went in much too far. Then she jumped in the basin and disappeared!

Artemis had been casting a spell to learn more about the basin, but I decided that would take too long and jumped in after the goblin. We found ourselves in a dark passageway. Gwaenna summoned a light, revealing a descending stair. 

At the bottom of the stair was a pillared room. As we climbed down Conshru appeared behind us. We all three began searching the room, examining a magic boat and a series of jars with carved lids. Then we descended another stair to a second chamber. 

This one held another sarcophagus - and just like the previous one, it opened to release a tall mummy. Then two more mummies emerged from behind the pillars. We were trapped. 
____________________________
*Quips & Quotes:*

DH: "There's a fireplace burning in the hearth." 
Jubilee: "There's a fireplace in the hearth?!" 
Hedrin: "Yes, there's a fireplace in the hearth. They burn fireplaces for fuel in Argonnessen."

Zora: "Is there an advance on this job?" 
Patv: "You have a full purse!" 
Zora: "Yeah, but that's mine!"

Zora: "See that mole? That's my dragonmark." 
Jubilee: "That's not a mole - that's cancer!" 
Zora: "I'm an heir of House Melanoma."

Zora: "Alcoholism is a disease!" 
Patv: "So you've been to rehab?" 
Zora: "House Rehab. It's an offshoot of House Jorasco."

Zora (_throws a candy bar at the GM_): "Sorry your monster died. Have some candy."


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## Jubilee (Mar 25, 2007)

*Journal of Gwaenna Goldenbrown (Session 3-18-07)*

... We traveled back to Sharn almost instantly by means of a magical key. 
This key took us to a room high in a tower on Argonessen! I was quite 
excited by the prospect, but the others seemed nervous and apprehensive 
about going back there, much less exploring! While Sten and Xil argued 
about a wardrobe and Caelen stalked around like a monster might pop up from 
the stairwell at any moment, I went for one of the four windows on the room 
and looked out over the landscape. It wasn't anything I recognized from my 
studies of the draconic continent, but there were a number of dragons on the 
skies - quite far off, it would seem. I was surprised to see that it was 
sometime in the afternoon here, though it had been the early hours of 
morning when we left the crypt.

I longed to go find MY Dragon, and ask him more questions, though I knew 
that would ultimately be fruitless. I had asked questions before and he 
hadn't answered them. I think I have to do something spectacular before he 
would consider answering any more questions. Still, the chance to explore 
Argonessen was an exciting one - but it was an excitement my new companions 
didn't share.

Without my noticing, they had opened a door back to a room in Sharn. 
Artemis called sharply to me that he was going to close the door and wanted 
to know if I was coming. Of course, I ran for the door. I think if I were 
to try to explore alone, the first dragon that saw me might eat me. Maybe 
if I could bring Hunter with me, he would take care of them.

I found myself in a fancy room in another tower - this time in Sharn. The 
horses looked quite out of place in the "music room," as Artemis referred to 
it. It looked like quite a lot of useless junk to me, although there were a 
few things that could serve as clubs in a pinch.

Everyone was nervous about being noticed by Caibre's watchers, not that I 
blame them, but once they marched the horses out of the house and tied them 
up front, I figured any fool would have noticed and reported it to Caibre. 
If they were lucky, no one was watching the tower. In the interest of any 
secrecy that might remain, they decided that Xil and myself should take care 
of the errands that needed doing. Artemis was keen to leave with the 
sunrise, but I reminded him that both he and I would need at least eight 
hours of sleep to be fully refreshed, and if he wanted me to do errands, I 
wouldn't have time to rest! He agreed to push off our leaving until the 
lunch hour.

I set off to find a healer, while Xil went to find a number of supplies 
Artemis wanted. Artemis gave me a large sack of platinum pieces, and I did 
my best not to look surprised. I don't think I have ever seen so much 
platinum in one place! It made me a little nervous to carry so much money 
around, but as it turned out, hardly anyone took notice of me. I don't 
think anyone expects to see a goblin, even one with as noble a bearing and 
as nicely dresseed as I, to have a lot of money.

Unfortunately, the healers at Jorasco took very little notice of me as well. 
They could recommend no traveling healer unless I gave them an exorbitant 
amount of money. I wasn't about to waste someone else's money, so I 
politely declined their assistance. I asked around on my own but had no 
luck.

I returned to the house without a healer and returned the money to Artemis. 
Sten kindly offered me the bed in his room, as he had no need to sleep. The 
bed was much too big, and the room too open, for my comfort, so I took the 
blankets into the closet instead. I don't know how those people can sleep 
in a place where any person can sneak up behind them, but having three walls 
at my sides made me feel better.

In the morning, I learned that Xil had located a healer - a halfling by the 
name of Robin! Of course, I should have thought of Robin - I know of him 
only by reputation, but it is a well-known reputation. He's supposed to be 
a competent healer - dragonmarked of Jorasco, even - but he's had a run of 
bad luck lately. Seems the last few adventures that've hired him on haven't 
returned, though Robin has returned with a pile of treasure. Well, I can't 
hold a bit of opportunism against him - I can imagine his adventuring 
companions might not have treated him very well - so I went to fetch him 
while other preparations were made.

Robin was quite eager to go, either to get out of the city or just for the 
chance to turn his luck around, I don't know. When we returned to the 
house, Artemis inspected his dragonmark and quizzed the halfling on his 
abilities and knowledge. Artemis seemed satisfied, and we set out.

I was very excited to be returning to Argonessen! There was another 
argument about searching the room or somesuch, and Caelen was eager to rush 
through and look for enemies. I waited, with some impatience I'll admit, to 
get through the door and peer through another of the windows. The scene was 
much the same, including the position of the sun. I was almost certain it 
was exactly the same time as the day before. Once again, I was rushed out 
of the room and back into the long tunnel that led to the scarab swarms.

Artemis told us that there had been someone else through the door. He had 
left a ward of somesort behind that had been triggered. We opened the door 
back to the room of traps, and sure enough, there were several blades 
grinding away at some bodies and the pit was open again. I wanted to go 
search the bodies for anything useful, but Artemis insisted we carry on in 
case there are others about to beat us to their prize. I wasn't as worried; 
since I doubted anyone was interested in what I wanted, but I suppose it's 
possible some fool could damage important information in a hasty search.

We got to the room of soldier statues when we heard the sound of falling 
gates, followed by a loud curse. I didn't have to strain my ears much to 
hear the scuttling sound of beetles. Xil and Caelen went for high ground - 
again, I refrained from telling them how futile it was - and Robin asked in 
a loud, strained voice if anyone was going to help them. Artemis told us to 
stay behind, giving himself flight with a scroll.

I ran towards the gates, with Artemis right above me in the air. I know it 
was foolish of me to run towards such terrible danger, but I couldn't bear 
the idea of standing here while someone was eaten alive by those bugs. I 
guess I'm a bit soft when it comes down to it. I don't think I'll tell 
Hunter about it. He wouldn't run into danger for a stranger.

As it turns out, the stranger was one of the halfling plains riders - he and 
his mount were standing on the ceiling between two fallen gates! I took a 
moment to admire such a well-trained beast. The halfling summoned a large 
sphere of fire, and sent it rolling down the hallway, where the scarabs were 
just appearing around the corner. They scuttled out of the way of the fire, 
and perhaps a few of them were roasted, but it made little difference in the 
strength of it. Artemis similarly threw a fireball down there, with the 
same result. Luckily, I had prepared myself already with a shocking grasp, 
so I could hit them as the swarmed over me - as they shortly did.

Artemis actually had the audacity to tell me not to use fire. As if it wasn't 
obvious I had already figured that out on my own!

We dispatched the scarabs with a minimum of trouble, at least so I thought, 
until I noticed that someone had singed my kimono with more acid, and Caelen 
appeared to be about to suffer the same fate as Dalia. I called out to 
Robin, who I think had run away when the fight began, and Artemis began 
chanting over his gorgon-headed staff. He finished his infusion, and tapped 
the staff against Caelen's abdomen with another command word. The scarabs 
were forcibly expelled from Caelen's body. I decided to attend to the 
trapped halfling while Robin began attending to their wounds.

It took some time, but I managed to lift the bars high enough so that the 
halfling, who had introduced himself as Conshru and his mount was Grix, 
could lift it the rest of the way into the ceiling. I decided we ought to 
take care of both doors while we were at it. However, when I stepped 
through, the gate behind me fell again. I think my heart skipped a few 
beats while I waited to hear if the scarabs were coming for us again, but I 
didn't hear their scuttling, so I began to lift the grate again.

Around this time, the others joined us, and with Artemis's help, the doors 
were disabled.

Conshru informed us that there were seven in the group that was behind and 
ahead of us. We had only accounted for six so far, and hadn't found a pile 
of clothing that would indicate that someone else had been eaten by scarabs. 
Conshru told us that this was a sacred place, according to his people, and 
that he was here to remove those who had entered without permission. I 
think everyone in our group looked a bit nervous about this, but Artemis 
played it cool enough, and offered to help Conshru find the final 
adventurer.

We continued down the hallway without further mishap, although there was a 
length of it with a number of holes in the wall that were probably where the 
scarabs came from. I think we all breathed a bit easier once we were past 
it!

We came to an arched entry into a large, square room. There was a winged 
beetle at the apex of the arch, the design much like those on the stone 
soldiers we had found earlier. The room beyond was dark and glittered with 
pinpoints of red light from the ceiling. There were more twelve-foot tall 
statues along either side of the room, and two above a dark, 10-foot wide 
pit. Conshru continued along on the ceiling, while Artemis made a thorough 
search of the chamber. When Conshru crossed the chasm, his magic suddenly 
failed. He fell to one side of the pit and Grix to the other.

With remarkably little hesitation, the small dinosaur jumped across the 
chasm to rejoin his master. We started to discuss how the rest of us might 
cross the pit, and I made ready to jump across to hold a rope while the 
others crossed. Conshru backed away from the chasm, to give us room to come 
across, when the sarcophagus on the other side suddenly swung open, and a 
mummy stepped forth!

Conshru retreated up the wall while I finished my jump, giving myself a bit 
of a boost to speed before hand, so I could reach the mummy once I got 
there. I swung at him, but my sword was deflected by the pectoral hanging 
from the mummy's neck. In very little time, Caelen was also fighting beside 
me. The mummy retreated from us and lifted his scepter, which shot forth a 
black mix of fire and lightning that arced between us all before grounding 
out in one of the statues above the pit.

I charged the mummy, this time attacking with all of my strength and 
expending a fair bit of magic, but I burned him with a combination of fire 
and lightning as well! He practically exploded with the force of my 
strength and magic. I felt triumphant, and smiled at my new companions. 
Everyone but Caelen looked impressed, I thought. Caelen seemed a bit sour, 
and complained that he hadn't had a chance to attack the mummy himself.

I don't think any of us was ready to enter the dark, magicless pit, so we 
began to search the room more thoroughly for clues. As we still hadn't 
found the seventh adventurer, Conshru and I returned to the entrance to make 
a more thorough search for bodies, and to strip those left behind of useful 
items. I wondered if the last had hidden himself amongst the statues while 
we passed, and made his retreat after we were gone. I figured the person 
leaving would likely take time to at least strip some of his companions to 
help his escape, so we might glean some clue of they didn't have much of 
value on them.

We confirmed there were, indeed, only six bodies (and unfortunately, six 
ghosts!) and found a number of magical and alchemical items in their 
possession. Conshru and I returned to our companions; he elected to take a 
nap while I made a study of the ceiling, which I discovered was decorated 
with some kind of glowing red gems in constellation patterns. I made notes 
of them, but we couldn't find any way to make use of them.

Finally, we decided it would be necessary to lower someone into the pit to 
investigate. After some argument, we decided it would be Sten, who was more 
resilient and somewhat resistant to the beetles' effects. It turned out to 
be lucky we had, because when we pulled him up again, he was covered in a 
number of the horrible bugs! They dropped from him as soon as we got him 
over the edge and scuttled back into the darkness.

I borrowed Sten's grappling hook and dragged it along the bottom of the pit 
to see if the seventh adventurer had fallen down there and left his clothing 
behind. No luck. Finally, we decided we'd have to investigate the pit trap 
that would open at the edge of the magicless pit. We discovered that it was 
a chute that dropped down below the darkness pit, so after some preparations 
by Artemis, we climbed down and found ourselves in a very wet, skull-piled 
room with a number of niches to either side. There was also a body down 
here - the seventh adventurer.

As we tried to determine what had killed him, two more mummies appeared out 
of the first set of niches, attacking Caelen and Xil. A shadowy form came 
rushing out of the darkened end of the room towards me, babbling 
incoherently. A number of our companions were held spellbound by the 
strange voice, while it reached out to me with a cold hand that made me feel 
a bit light headed as it passed through my body. I began to attack it 
vigorously, though my blade passed harmlessly through the incorporeal body 
as often as not. I felt a little mad, I admit, and was almost overcome by a 
fit of giggles when the terribly cold hand passed through me again.

Two zombies had joined the fight somehow, before I took care of the black 
shadow, which I caused to explode in a mix of fire and electricity. Xil was 
fighting off one of the mummies, while Sten battled the other. Caelen came 
out of his stupor as the shadow dissipated and ran over to help Xil. 
Conshru was holding off the two zombies with blasts of fire. Still a bit 
light headed, I really would rather have sat down for a rest, but I moved 
forward to help Conshru with the skeletons. In short order, we dispatched 
the rest of them. Xil seemed to have been affected by the mummy's curse, 
something I had heard of but never seen. Blackness was spreading over his 
body, but luckily for him, one of the scrolls Artemis had thought to buy was 
one to break the mummy's curse. Robin had a wand that cured me of my 
light-headedness and Xil of the remaining effects of the curse.

We thoroughly searched the room and still couldn't find the dragonshard 
Artemis and his companions were looking for. We made the climb back out of 
the lower chamber and once again looked around the room, trying to decide 
what to do.

Sten wondered if we should light the braziers on the other side of the pit, 
and I suggested we try filling the pool between the mummy's coffin and the 
pit with water. Artemis seemed doubtful, but didn't have any better ideas, 
so he agreed. Conshru, Artemis, and myself made our way across, armed with 
water and fire. ...


----------



## sniffles (Apr 5, 2007)

*The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith, excerpt 21*

*Here's another entry from Devo. Enjoy! sniffles*

_"I came back to see everything in my lab split into pairs. A line of chalk divided the table into two halves, the contents of each perfectly mirrored the other with the same tools, components, and materials laid out on each. The doors, the chair, the bookshelf, the window -- everything was cut down the exact center with chalk, each side a mirror of the other. Stark lay on one side of the table, and on the other half lay... Stark. In the day that I had been gone, he had split the lab in two and constructed another version of himself. I approached, worried that he had somehow managed to create a living homunculus. My concern was in vain, however. As I came close, the Stark on the right stood up and ran over to the Stark on the left, picking him up so they could stand side-by-side. I laughed at him, shaking my head. 'Perfectly symmetrical artifice never solved anything,' I told him ." _ 
. An Excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7 
---------------------------
"When we caught up with the others, they were, naturally, in trouble. 

Getting ST across the pit had been a simple exercise in teleportation -- two of my favorite wands [ref: CJ-V5-72, CJ-V6-24] are geared towards just that. I told him to enter the portal, as CA would most assuredly be in trouble. He talked back, saying something about not leaving me behind, but I assured him that I would be just behind him. XL jumped in, good man that he was, and then ST went through. I told RO to follow, then hopped back across the pit and right into the portal. HU came in right behind me. 

The corridor we came into was narrow, with steps that descended steeply downward. There was light, even before HU arrived, as CN was running round and round in a lower chamber, a light spell placed upon his spear. He had just shouted something out to ST, who hadn't had a chance to fully descend the stairs, and he sounded a bit panicked. I hustled forward, asking to know what was going on. 

CN spoke rapidly of a large chamber up ahead, filled with mummies. CA and GW were in that room, but the connecting hallway had been sealed off when a stone slab slid down from the ceiling. There was no way to get to them. 

Enter the artificer. I had arrived just in time, again, to save my companions. They never seem terribly appreciative, but I've gotten used to having them around, so I rushed forward to deal with the block. At the bottom of my stairs was a rectangular chamber in the center of which was a long reed boat. Four plinths surrounded the boat, each bearing an alabaster jar topped with a carved animal head. I knew from the condition of the boat that it was magical. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to stop and examine it. A pity. 

Beyond the chamber was another stairway down, this one sealed off at the end by a broad stone wall. I could tell right away that the stone had been recessed up into the ceiling until just recently, some mechanism causing it to fall into place to trap those on the other side. I tapped it hard, once, to measure it's thickness. My extensive knowledge of all things architectural served me well, and I estimated that it would be just narrow enough. 

I pulled a patch from my vestments [ref: CJ-V7-18] and it instantly took the shape of a scroll. HU stood behind me to provide light, and I read the words of magic. 

A vortex appeared in the center of the wall, stone swirling and sliding away as though disappearing down a drain. When it stopped, there was a perfectly round bore all the way through the wall. I crouched down to look through, and saw a vast pillared chamber lit by a single source of moving light. Shadows battled one another, and the sound of fighting echoed through to us. 

I was about to move through when CN and GX pushed past and scrambled through the opening. XL saw me off balance, and took advantage of the opening, sliding through, himself. ST insisted that he go first, so I backed up to let him go. Not nearly as agile as the other two, nor as petite, he found himself wedged in the opening. 

I could hear fighting and screaming from the far chamber, and decided that I could wait no longer. Raising my gorgon cane, I activated the wand inside [ref: CJ-V5-72] to teleport across. It failed. Strange. 

It must have had something to do with this place. That's the third wand to lock up on me since I'd been here. 

With titanic effort, ST finally got through the opening. I turned to HU and RO and told them to find any who were wounded and heal them, then crawled through. I stepped immediately into a fight. 

The side walls of the chamber I had just entered into lead away from the opening at an angle, giving the whole room something of a triangular shape. A row of pillars extended from the door straight back towards the far wall, with at least one more row of pillars visible in the shadows to either side. The far wall was almost one hundred feet away, where another -- much larger -- sarcophagus lay. It's lid was open for obvious reasons. 

Standing in the center of the room was a walking, battling corpse; a figure easily twelve feet tall with the body of a man but the head of a hawk. He was wrapped head to foot in burial bandages, over which were ceremonial accoutrements and a small amount of jewelry. The evil, red glow of his eyes was matched by the deep red glow coming from the giant dragonshard hanging from a chain around his neck. He wielded a massive, two-handed weapon. It's top was a long, hooked sword; it's bottom a large axe blade perpendicular to the haft. The way the creature spun and moved the weapon, though, it was hard to say which was the top and which the bottom. 

CA stood weapon-to-weapon with the monster, a look of extreme concentration on his face as he tried to ward off the creature's blows. XL was there too, having just entered the fight. CA looked badly hurt, but it was obvious that both he, XL, and GW had done some damage to the mummy. Most of CA's attacks had landed near or below the creature's waist. GW's were much closer to it's knees. 

I couldn't see GW, but CN shouted that she had fallen deeper into the room, behind one of the pillars. CN and GX were there, now, fighting another, smaller, mummy. ST battled a third mummy to one side, keeping the creature off of CA's flank. 

I knew CA could handle himself, so I turned my attention to ST's opponent. Drawing a wand of brass [ref: CJ-V5-48], I unleashed a stream of electricity at ST's opponent, which left a satisfying scorch across it's right side. We were connected now by a river of near-invisible current -- a current that would carry my next attack unfailingly to that same location. 

CN let us know that GW was still alive, and that he was drawing his opponent away from her. XL shifted to one side to take the attack to the giant mummy, the infusion I'd placed on his weapon earlier serving him well. CA was there beside him, fighting defensively, but still fighting. HU and RO, as ordered, had come in behind CA to try to heal him. Good men. (Well, "good halfling", and "good construct". The sentiment stands fine on it's own, however, without a long exposition detailing the physiological differences between the phrases "man", "halfling", and "construct", even if in a normal sense, a construct would never be considered a man.) 

ST and his mummy exchanged blows. I decided at that moment to talk to ST about getting hit so often. He really needed to find a way to keep people from bashing him every time he gets into a fight. He relies too much on his adamantine plating, I think, and that's not a good thing. Now was not the time for such a discussion, though, so I concentrated on the task at hand. 

Bringing another wand to bear [ref: CJ-V5-64] I called forth it's magic and two bright streams of fire leapt from the wand to strike ST's mummy. The creature exploded outward, a violent expulsion of long-desiccated flesh, bone, and wrapping. Of course! The embalming process must have left them vulnerable to fire. I turned to the giant mummy with a grin both wicked and dashing. Had he been a living foe, I am sure he would have cowered at the sight of me. 

Such is not the way things work when one is hundreds of feet underground in tombs both ancient and evil. I took a single step towards the king mummy and the aura of despair I had somewhat sensed coming from the creature hit me of a sudden like heat from a blast furnace. Such suffering! I kept hold of myself, naturally. Nothing can break the mind of a Cannith artificer. I had mastered the ability to control my emotions long ago, and my training held up even when pitted against this foul abomination. With a knowing smile, I raised my wand and let twin streams of fire be my retort. Like an arrow shot from the bow of a champion marksman, each beam lanced out and struck the creature directly in the heart. 

Well, it would have hit it in the heart, if it weren't for that pesky dragonshard. The magic was absorbed harmlessly into the medallion hanging around the creature's neck. A fascinating bit of artifice, that, but rather unfortunate in our present situation. 

Come to think of it, his heart was probably up in one of those jars, too, and no where near the center of his chest. I will keep to my first description, though, as it makes for far more dashing a tale. 

"I told you magic wouldn't work against him!" shouted GW from across the room. "But I didn't hear you!" I cleverly rebutted. 

I looked over to see that GW had been having a rough time with her fight. The mummy she had been battling had reached out with the long weapon he carried (one that matched the king mummy's weapon in all but size) and tripped her. He had smashed her into unconsciousness twice. CN had been there the first time to help, and RO was there now, healing her wounds. She stood, drinking another potion, and seemed somewhat upset. CN had drawn the creature away, and was clinging to the wall again, trying to get some distance from the mummy coming after him. I casually arced a stream of lightning across the room at the creature from a wand [ref: CJ-V5-48], destroying it utterly. 

XL and CA had done a fair job of keeping the king mummy busy, but they had paid for it. CA withdrew from the fight to take a couple of healing potions before stepping back in. XL looked about ready to drop, himself. ST turned his energy bolts against the creature just as the mummy was beginning to realize that it was outmatched. 

He wasn't out of the fight yet, though. With a rapid sequence of attacks, the mummy drove CA to the ground. I was standing close to HU, who looked ready to run in and heal CA. Rather than let that happen, I ordered HU to wait, and activated the wand [ref: CJ-V6-24] that would cause CA and I to swap places. HU immediately applied a healing potion to the fallen elf. I stepped back from the mummy. Quickly. 

The creature wasn't interested in fighting me, though. He must have seen what I did to his longtime companions. Rather than face the righteous wrath of House Cannith, he backed away into the pillars. ST moved up to protect me while RO dispensed healing magics on GW. 

XL cautiously pursued the creature, driving him farther back but using the pillars as cover against the creatures counter-attacks. ST slid this way and that, finding whatever opening he could to blast the mummy with his bolts. 

GW, now feeling much refreshed, came after the king with a vengeance. She charged, swinging as hard as she could. He repelled her attack and countered with his own, but RO's healing had brought her to near full fighting force. She swung again, a broad overhand strike that carried with it all of her little goblin rage and all of her little goblin might. She struck, and struck true. The mummy collapsed, cut in half at the waist. With it's magic dispersed, the creature's form disintegrated before our eyes, turning to dust and ragged bandages. The dragonshard lay on top, glowing a dull red. 

It had been a titanic battle, but we had persevered. Without IR, we had been hard-pressed to keep ourselves healthy enough to continue. RO's presence helped some, and, of course, HU and I played no small role. I will have to come up with some way of keeping this group healthy for longer stretches of time. 

With the known dangers out of the way, we began searching the room. The king had no treasure with him, excepting the dragonshard itself. GW wanted to take the mummy's weapons and wrappings, which CN allowed so long as they went to a museum. I found a secret compartment behind the king's sarcophagus, which lead to a winding staircase that went up and up, but ended in a blank stone wall. We could find no other exit. 

ST and XL suggested digging through the wall, to see what was on the other side. I convinced them that this could be dangerous, though. What if the lake were on the other side? Reluctantly, sullenly, they agreed that maybe digging through wasn't such a clever idea. 

We spent another couple of hours looking the place over. Each of the pillars and every wall were covered in some sort of cryptographic language. The imagery was quite interesting, especially to GW and CN. Pictographs described a kingdom ruled by a large, hawk-headed man, with goblins and hobgoblins giving obeisance at his feet. GW dated the site as being some time during or just after the Age of Demons. Quite a long time back. 

She insisted that it must have been the goblins that overthrew the empire. I corrected her, saying that it was probably the Dhakaani empire that came next, ruled by hobgoblins. She would hear none of that. GW is convinced that before the Dhakaani empire came into power, there was an empire of goblins. She seemed rather adamant about that, so I let it go. Imagine, an empire of goblins. It makes me smile. She mentioned that she had seen proof of just such an empire, but that it had since been destroyed. 

I thought to tell her of the Dhakaani artifacts that we had, but she was distracted by a new mural. 

After searching the main chamber, we returned to the boat chamber to look over the artifacts there. They were extremely interesting, but CN did not want them taken from this sacred place. Pictures along the walls showed the hawk-king flying on a reed boat very similar to this one, and it occurred to me that it might be our only way out. CN had been extremely helpful, however, and I still did not want him to tell his tribe of our presence. That means we had to leave the boat where it was. 

When we were done studying the tomb, we left in the only way we could. I pulled another patch from my clothing [ref: CJ-V7-18] and produced a door which we opened with the Lost Key [ref: PJ-V6-54]. It took us to the keep in Argonnessen (which I am starting to develop theories about) and then we returned from there to my tower in Sharn. It took very little convincing to bring CN with us. 

It's beginning to bother me, the number of times I save the lives of someone within the DC -- or the DC as a whole -- without so much as a simple "thank you" from any of them. Ah, well. I'm not in this for the glory. Still, a little appreciation wouldn't kill them. 

Finally at home again, I went immediately to clean up. GX was sniffing around the house, so I gave CN some suggestions on places he could stay that would house the two of them. I invited everyone else to stay the evening if they wanted. Instead, GW took CN and GX out to see the city. This was CN's first time in Sharn. By his account, it was his first time anywhere other than Gatherhold, actually. 

We had a pile of magical gear from the two DG groups that had died within the tomb, and I began to sort through it and get it cleaned up. I contemplated how best to identify the items, as the infusion that does so takes an inordinate amount of time to finish. Then I remembered a book I had read last year about a device that could do just that; a monocle that one could use to study magic items. Searching through my library, I found the book and enough information to make the item. It was relatively inexpensive! Putting the list of materials together, I handed it off to one of my house staff to fetch from the Cannith Holdings after dinner. S1 started putting it together the next day. 

The DC went their own way for the next day or so. ST, HU, and I went shopping, securing supplies for the house and my laboratory. I checked in with the House, and was told that the construction of the Golden Dragon could wait no longer. The launch party would commence in just two days. When I got home again, I told the DC and they were all excited to go. I'm not the only one who was interested in meeting some of Sharn's social elite! 

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the library, identifying items. There were some very interesting pieces here! the most powerful was a dagger devoted to the Keeper. It would capture the living soul of any creature it killed, sending it to a special vault that was directly under His control. Scary stuff. 

The next day, ST and I had a short discussion about his inability to dodge blows. He explained in painful detail how he was built for durability, not dexterity. In the end, I decided to use some of the materials I had laying about the lab to enchant his composite plating. If he couldn't get himself out of the way, then I would do it for him. 

That same day, S1 finished the monocle he had been working on, and I identified the last of the gear. The DC came together again, and we divvied up the loot." 

. An Excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7 

_"...wands, over thirty of which I constructed and charged myself. They are of essential use in not only my explorations into ancient crypts and wards, but also into the investigations I have conducted in and around Sharn on behalf of the Blackened Book, Morgrave University, the Sharn Watch, and, most importantly, House Cannith. I have learned to rely heavily on these wands to deal with enemy and ally alike, harming the first, but aiding and restoring the second. With the proper tools, there is nothing I cannot do..." _ 
. An Excerpt from the letter, "A Petition Into the Prestigious Order of Wand Adepts, House Cannith" by Artemis Heuw Cannith


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## sniffles (Apr 5, 2007)

*Caelen's latest letter concludes*

I say we were trapped because we'd already tried to go back through the portal. From this side it was a solid wall.

I drew a flask of wizard's fire from my belt pouch and waited for the hawk-headed mummies to get closer. 

That was the wrong decision.

The two shorter mummies receded into the shadows among the pillars. The larger one bore down on me. I couldn't move. All I could do was think that this wasn't the way I wanted to meet my patron ancestor.

The mummy swung a strange weapon at me, a long haft with a hooked sword at one end and a curved axe-blade at the other. Not surprisingly, he didn't miss. 

I heard a sound like a stone sliding from behind me, though I couldn't turn to look. I found out later a stone door had fallen in the passage, leaving the halfling on the other side. Only Gwaenna and I were in the chamber with the mummies.

Gwaenna tried to attack the mummy with her enchanted sword, but the magic didn't seem to affect it. It struck her twice and she collapsed. 

My paralysis vanished, but by then I was sorely wounded. I backed off, fighting defensively to give myself time. Conshru and his dinosaur reappeared, accompanied by Xil. I stepped behind the changeling and swallowed two potions of healing.

Conshru and his mount climbed the wall and fired a spell at the mummy. Artemis waved a wand at it, sending more magic its way. Gwaenna shouted at them that magic didn't work, but they didn't seem to hear.

I moved in on the mummy. It swiped at me but missed. I didn't miss. 

The other halfling, Robin, came up behind me and healed me with his magic. Gwaenna was back on her feet again, but the other two mummies had reappeared. Gwaenna went down again. Artemis set one of the lesser mummies afire and it exploded in a burst of sparks.

I moved behind the big mummy to flank him, but he caught me with his blade and that's the last I recall for a short time.

When I woke I wasn't where I'd been. Artemis had cast a spell to swap places with me. His homonculus administered a potion to me. Then Conshru came and gave me more healing. 

Gwaenna managed to get back on her feet again in time to give the large mummy the final blow. Then Artemis cast another healing spell over everyone and we started searching the chamber.

The biggest mummy had the dragonshard Artemis sought. But the rest of the room was a disappointment. The first room still held the boat and jars, but Conshru didn't want us to touch them. He didn't stop Gwaenna from taking the odd weapons the mummies had wielded.

Artemis uncovered a trapped door hiding a winding stair out of the chamber. When we tried the stair we found it led to a blank wall. We went back down and the artificer pulled a patch of cloth off his coat. When he stuck it on the wall it turned into an iron door!

We used the magic key to get us to the Lost Room, and from there back to Sharn. Conshru came with us. It was amusing to watch the halfling gape in awe at both the room in Argonnessen and the towers in the city.

Gwaenna took the weapons to Morgrave University, promising Conshru she wouldn't tell them exactly where the vault lay. I went back to the barracks.

Artemis wants us all to come with him to the launching of a new airship. But I've been thinking that hunting treasure in ancient crypts and riding around on airships isn't really the way I want to bring glory to Coriandor's name. I'm considering taking Caerlyn's offer to join the Blades and return to Valenar.

I'll let you know what I decide.

Caelen
__________________
*Quips & Quotes:*
[sblock]
Jubilee: "Who charges Orcus, anyway?"
Hedrin: "Most of the time you just comp him."

Hedrin: "He can't be holding a crook. This is 3.5. He'd be holding a rogue."

DH: "What's your character's name again?"
Zora: "Conshru."
sniffles: "You can call him Con. COOONN!!"

Jubilee (as Conshru steps over a fallen Gwaenna): "Hey, I'm difficult terrain, thank you very much!"

Devo: "So now the mummy's got two columns of energy on him."
DH: "Don't cross the streams!"

Jubilee : "Don't give the GM ideas."
sniffles: "Somebody should."

Jubilee: "Anything was a delicacy where Gwaenna came from."
Hedrin: "Things in the sewers... Sometimes you feel like a nut."
Zora: "Sometimes you just don't want to look that hard."

DH: "Artemis is a living wand."
Devo: "That's what they say."
Hedrin: "I believe they say he's a living *tool*."
[/sblock]


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## Devo (Apr 6, 2007)

*Confusing?*

I think I'm going to have to preface my next journal with a who's who of short-hand names. It always seems to me that anyone reading this would lose track of who I'm talking about if they don't know the characters as well as I do.

On a side note, every time I refer to any of these characters in an email (the the rest of the group, for example), I have to fight not to use shorthand. Habit, I guess. 


D.


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## sniffles (Apr 20, 2007)

Devo said:
			
		

> I think I'm going to have to preface my next journal with a who's who of short-hand names. It always seems to me that anyone reading this would lose track of who I'm talking about if they don't know the characters as well as I do.
> 
> On a side note, every time I refer to any of these characters in an email (the the rest of the group, for example), I have to fight not to use shorthand. Habit, I guess.
> 
> ...



Confusing, conshmoozing. We're just waiting for you to make your next journal entry!  
(taps fingers impatiently)


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## sniffles (Apr 30, 2007)

*Azlin Valkara's tale, part 1*

*Well, we're falling behind a bit here, so I'm going to get things up to date and we'll just have to keep waiting for Artemis's journal entries. I apologize to any readers that my entries just aren't as entertaining as Devo's. 

Player's note: I've decided to retire Caelen. He's joined Caerlyn's Blades and will return to Valenar. In his place I'm now playing Azlin Valkara, a female dwarf fighter/cleric of the Sovereign Host.

sniffles*
______________________________

Consul Lain Soldorak wants me to bodyguard him at a gala for the christening of the Golden Dragon. It's the biggest airship ever built, if House Lyrandar's claims can be believed.

I feel naked without my armor. Thank the Host for magic.

This is dull. Soldorak's just chatting up everyone and enjoying the food. I've got to stay on my toes. House Lyrandar's certainly put on a fine show, though. This ship is pretty impressive. Lots of giltwork and fine carving.

It must be near midnight. My feet are sore from standing. Nearly everyone else has gone home, or retired to the observation deck. I wonder if Soldorak's going to be here all night?

Bam! What's that?! Time for action. What are those - minotaurs? And hobgoblins! Coming up from below decks. One of the hobs is yelling, "Get on the floor! There's a bomb!"

A bomb! I've got to get Soldorak off this ship.

"Don't worry about it," he mutters to me. "Lyrandar will just pay the ransom and we'll be fine."

We're outnumbered. I've only got a dagger. Blast them to Khyber, I'll just have to do as they say.

They're herding us all together. I think that's the representative of House Cannith over there, that young human in the blue and silver outfit. He's got a warforged bodyguard with him. Some other kind of construct is with him, too, a chest with arms and legs following him around like a dog.

There's a goblin woman with weird skin and eyes talking to the Cannith, and there's a halfling with her who doesn't look local. What strange guests.

I hear one of the hobs yelling, something about Lyrandar refusing to pay! There's a lot of nervous muttering and shuffling around me. Somebody mumbles something about letting the bomb go off!

That Cannith artificer's rummaging around in his walking chest. What - those are harpies alighting on the deck. The hobs tell them to look after the hostages - us.

I don't know what that just was, but I'm sure that artificer had something to do with it. I tell Soldorak, "Keep out of the way!" Then I pray to the Host, "Let my enemy hold," and aim the divine power at the nearest hob. It worked! He's not moving, just staring at me.

I mutter another prayer, "Send me ice to gird my fist." A rime of spiky ice forms over my fist. The hobgoblin's swinging his sword at me now. Ha, he missed! I punch him with my icy gauntlet and he crumbles like the biscuits they were serving earlier at the buffet.

I notice that the artificer has run around the wheelhouse, but his warforged is still near me. He's toe-to-toe with a minotaur and getting the worst of it. 

A harpy comes flapping down, singing her siren song, but it doesn't bother me. A lot of the other guests are starting to gather around her, though, or wandering off to the other side of the wheelhouse.

I move over by the warforged and swing my icy fist at the minotaur, but he dances away, surprisingly nimble for such a beast. The warforged backs up, then slices out at the minotaur with some sort of weird purple energy that comes out of his hand. The minotaur falls to the deck. 

The warforged pours a liquid over himself and I can see the damage on his exterior sealing up. I throw a punch at the harpy and get clawed in return. 

Zap! A bolt of lightning sizzles from the corner of the wheelhouse and the harpy goes limp.

Some of the crew are back, yelling "Evacuate! Abandon ship!" I follow Consul Soldorak toward the docking tower. He must have invested in the airship. "Stay on board," he says. "I'll be fine. Do what you can to help save the ship."

I see the Cannith artificer going below with the goblin woman and the halfling. So I follow them and ask, "Need any help?" 

The halfling's riding a dinosaur now - how did he get that aboard? It's climbing the walls like a spider. I've never heard of dinosaurs doing that.

The artificer's trying to find the bomb. Somebody says, "The hobgoblin leader's still on the ship." I say, "I'm going to take care of him."

As I start to walk away from the group, the halfling's voice suddenly says in my ear, "This spell will let you talk back to us."

"I found him!" the goblin woman yells. I can hear her via the spell. I run downstairs, praying to the Host as I go. An axe made of ice fills my hand. 

I find the goblin and the halfling fighting a hobgoblin and a warforged - a different one, more heavily armed than the artificer's bodyguard.

The halfling's dinosaur is clinging to the wall, and the halfling's shooting rays of scorching heat at the warforged. The little goblin girl draws a sword and sends lightning down the blade. It burns right through the hobgoblin and then takes the warforged down! 

The hob's still on his feet, so I let him feel the cold of my axe. It makes a nice meaty thunk as it hits his nasty red hide. He falls like a side of beef. A nice-looking warhammer falls out of his hand. It looks to be adamantine. I pick it up and push the haft through my belt.

The door opens up and a stranger sticks his head in. "We need to leave," he says urgently. Wait, the room beyond the door doesn't look anything like the rest of the ship - that's not the hallway I came through! 

But the halfling and the goblin go right through. I guess it would be prudent to follow them. Dol Arrah keep me safe.

Where in Boldrei's name are we? It looks like we're in a stone tower, but it's not the docking tower. It reminds me of Consul Soldorak's mansion. I can't see where the windows are facing, but I don't see the Lyrandar airship anywhere.

The human who opened the door opens it back up again, with a key I note, and now I'm looking at the airship again! Is this some trick of the Mockery? The man leans out into the room and disappears in a cloud of steam. I follow the other two out into a corridor.

I can hear someone talking excitedly, but I can't make out what they're saying. The man reappears and opens the door into the tower room again.

"Get in! Get in!" he urges. The warforged bodyguard is with him. Those things don't have expressions, but something about the way it's walking makes me think it's reluctant to be here. I don't see the artificer anywhere.

Now we're walking out of the stone tower into the airship docking tower. This is getting stranger and stranger. 

Just as we emerge onto the docking tower, I see the elemental ring on the airship flicker out. The huge ship starts to list to one side, then begins falling ponderously toward the lower levels. People are shouting and screaming all over the place. 

The airship hits a smaller vessel moored at the tower and smashes it to splinters on its way down. Eventually it disappears from sight. 

I follow the man with the key one more time when I see them all filing through a doorway again. No one objects. Now we're coming out at the base of the docking tower. The Cannith artificer comes floating gracefully down to the ground in front of me, covered in soot. 

One of my own people comes running up, pointing at the Cannith. "You set the bomb! You destroyed my ship!" I recognize him as the ship's engineer; I met him earlier this evening. 

He's got someone wearing Lyrandar heraldry with him. I turn to the Lyrandar. "These people have been trying to save your ship," I tell him. "They were held hostage by the brigands along with everyone else."

The engineer looks like he's going to have an apoplexy. "If only you'd done what I told you, everything would have been fine!" he bellows at the artificer.

Consul Soldorak shows up and starts trying to smooth things over with the furious engineer. I back off to let him handle the situation. Eventually things get straightened out enough that the Cannith representative and his friends can leave, and I escort Soldorak back home.

This has certainly been an interesting evening. On the way back to his mansion the consul tells me the Cannith artificer, Artemis Heuw Cannith, is an up-and-coming member of his House who's been making a name for himself as an adventurer. 

I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be with a goblin and a warforged for company, but I may have to look Artemis up again. He certainly seems to lead an exciting life - far more exciting than guarding a consul during parties and dinners.

_______________________
*Quips & Quotes*:
[sblock]
Devo: "That's one of the reasons Artemis is sporting a new cane."
DH: "Put that away!"
Devo: "No! He's sporting with it."

DH: "Do you have reservations? Yes, many."

Jubilee: "Pat, you're not suspicious enough to be a player!"

patv: "I can do a minotaur."
Zora: "Ew! Gross."

Zora: "I'm going to do my Aquaman signal to Grix. "(Conshru's animal companion).

DH: "The door is ajar."
Zora: "So which is it, a door or a jar?"
sniffles: "It's magic, so it's both."
Zora: " Made by the Masons?"

patv: "You can't just Sten around here. Heuw knows how much danger there
is."

Jubilee: "You can double move on a stair."
DH: "You're assuming it's a stair. It's a lift. Grix is listening to 'The
Girl From Ipanema'."

Jubilee: "The minotaur's so large he has penalties for being squeezy."
[/sblock]


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## sniffles (Apr 30, 2007)

*Azlin's tale, part 2*

I've been in Sharn for a couple of months now. Starting to learn my way around, though this place is so complicated and multi-leveled I doubt anyone can ever know all of it well. 

Got a message from the Cannith artificer, Artemis, inviting me to dinner, more than once. Got acquainted with him and his adventuring companions. Gwaenna and Conshru are both new to the group, too. Nobody seemed to want to say much about it, but I think Artemis has lost a couple of friends. Adventuring is a dangerous business.

Got a message from Artemis. He's checking into the deaths of some warforged down in the lower levels. I guess he takes it pretty seriously. I'm still not sure they're really people, but I'll go along, see what happens.

Seems people blame the killings on some fabled ghost, 'Jack in Irons', supposed to haunt down deep somewhere. A Cannith heir, according to the stories. But the warforged think humans are destroying them. They had trouble with that before I got to town. Artemis had something to do with finding the killer then, too.

Went down to Blackbones to talk to a warforged named Ash at a place called the Red Hammer. Warforged tavern of sorts, not that they need taverns. Met another warforged called Dandy that actually wears clothes! Pretty foppish clothes at that. Saw a mad warforged, too. Didn't think those things could go mad. Guess maybe they're more like people than I thought.

All the dead warforged were dismembered, parts missing. Is somebody trying to build new ones from old parts? It's against the law to make new ones. Went to see Lord Shlogar, head of a foundry. He had the bodies. Wasn't much help. Says he's investigating and doesn't need any help from Artemis. But he didn't find the gold chain link with the body of the last victim.

Artemis found another link at the scene of the last death. Nobody down here would make gold chain. We were checking the other murder sites when 3 shifters ambushed us. They must have been crazy or desperate. We killed them all. Gwaenna's pretty impressive with her little sword. Conshru likes fire magic. And Sten can shoot some kind of weird purple energy from his arms. 

We found more gold links at the other sites we visited, 10 in all. Sten suggested using him as bait to lure the killer. Xil said he could pretend to be warforged too. He's not like other changelings I've heard about. Doesn't try to hide what he is. We might try using Xil to lure out the killer. Hope the killer leaves him be when it figures out he's not really warforged. 

Took a while but we found out all the victims worked at the Tain foundry. Went there to talk to the man in charge. Turned out to be one of my kind, but there's something wrong with him. He shaved off his beard! Ugh, I've never seen anything so ugly. He wasn't any more help than Shlogar. Doesn't think warforged are people, doesn't care if they all die.

We heard one of the warforged from the Red Hammer was stirring up trouble. A whole crowd of them had gone off to the foundry. We ran off to stop them. Artemis was able to talk them down before they started a riot. 

But we're not getting anywhere with finding out where those gold links come from. The fellow at the Tain foundry had one, but he claimed he'd found it. They're not magic, unless breaking the chain breaks the magic. Maybe they do come from the ghost. But what stirred him up and where is he? 

Maybe I'll say a prayer for guidance tomorrow, see where it gets us. 
_____________________
Quips & Quotes:

Hedrin: "Are they regular or irregular?"
Zora: "That's kind of a personal question."

patv: "If we had four more warforged could we make Voltron?"

Zora: "I have a Johnny on the spot."
sniffles: "Johnny, get off that spot!"
patv: "You need some spot remover."
Zora: "No, that's a spot on the Johnny."

Jubilee: "Do the shifters have darkvision?"
DH: "No, I don't think they do."
Zora (as shifter):"I hate living down here. I can't see nothin'."

Zora: "Your Diplomacy check bounced."


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## sniffles (Apr 30, 2007)

*Azlin's tale, part 3*

My new comrades and I weren't sure if we wanted to continue looking for the warforged killer. We weren't getting far tracking him down 'til we heard that the crazy warforged, Copper, was the one handing out the gold links we were finding.

Artemis decided to give the search one more day. The day after the riot we went back down to the Red Hammer and found Blackbones very quiet. There was a big crowd of warforged out front of the inn. We were told there were three dead warforged inside: Ash, who'd been helping us; Link, the warforged who'd come to Artemis for help; and Shadowblack the rabble-rouser.

We found them all dismembered. Ash's head was missing. One of my companions noticed that they all had copper shavings in their hands, as if they'd scratched something made of copper. 

Artemis decided that our first course of action should be to find Copper. He asked around some more and finally learned that the crazy warforged stayed at the Tain foundry. Funny no one mentioned that before. 

Turned out that even though the foreman doesn't like warforged, they let some of them stay in barracks in the forge. That's where Copper stayed. His little cupboard was completely empty, but Artemis noticed a false panel at the back. After Sten broke through it we saw a crevice leading off into the stone. 

We left the foreman at the entrance and headed down the winding passage, with Sten and Conshru carrying lights. Too bad they didn't have goggles like Artemis. He could see even farther than I can. 

It smelled bad down there, like offal or decay. Gwaenna ran into a trap that set a bunch of spinning and stabbing blades going. Conshru had to have his fastieth run out and carry her to safety. Artemis got across the blades, though he was hurt, and the changeling Xil fell right in them. I guess pretending to be a warforged made him clumsy.

Sten got across the blades and called out that he saw something like a big snake in a cavern at the end of the passage. I couldn't see much of the cavern from where I stood. But I could see when the separate legs and torso of a warforged - or maybe two different warforged - started attacking Sten and Artemis.

I summoned up a divine axe to hit the torso piece that was grabbing at Sten, and prepared to try to jump across the spinning blades. Sten destroyed the torso. Artemis sent the legs flying into the blades, which cut them apart.

Then Artemis yelled that he had a spell to get me across. He swapped places with me and started trying to turn the blades off, while I fought with a thing made of chains and scrap parts that was attacking my companions.

The snake thing Sten had seen came out from behind a rock and attacked Xil. I moved over by Gwaenna to deal with another scrap monster. That goblin is pretty impressive. She dealt with the thing herself. 

I moved around to face the snake-creature and so did Gwaenna. When she hit it there was a big flash and it just disappeared. Artemis announced that he'd disabled the blades, but we'd noticed a door at the other end of the cavern. He came back to the cave and started looking the door over.

There was a long tunnel beyond the door. Before we stepped through, Artemis gave me a sphere he carried. He said it's a hammer sphere, a magic device that can summon a hammer like my divine axe only it does more damage than the axe does. I appreciate how he's always trying to help everyone. 

We came out of the tunnel into another cavern that looked like an artificer's lab according to Artemis. Copper was there, claiming he'd been waiting for us. He started spouting some nonsense about someone coming and some other stuff I really didn't pay much attention to. Then he drew a wand and blasted Sten and Artemis.

Whatever hit Sten hit me too, as I was standing near him. Xil attacked Copper with his staff-spear. Artemis did something to Sten that made him tougher and Sten turned on Copper. 

I took up a flanking position opposite Xil and drew the adamantine warhammer I'd acquired the previous day. Copper had a dagger that seemed to do a lot of damage to Sten. It burst into flames when it hit especially hard. Copper himself was very resistant to damage. Conshru threw a lightning javelin at him and missed, and Gwaenna's spell didn't hurt him either.

A dog-like construct emerged and attacked Artemis, but I guess he dealt with it because he came over to help with the warforged. Copper fired his wand at Gwaenna and Artemis. Then the rest of us surrounded him. He retreated over to the entrance, but Xil followed him and knocked the wand out of his hand. Then Sten took him down.

All the while there had been something strange going on with a shape on a slab, and some dragonshards flashing on the wall above it. Just as Copper fell, the last shard went dark and the shape rose up and threw off the black silk sheet covering it. It was another construct, but this one was very big and cobbled together out of all sorts of warforged parts - including Ash's missing head!

The thing's fist burst into flames. Conshru gestured at it, but his spell didn't have any effect. I decided to take cover behind a boulder and ward myself with divine magic. I used my gauntlets to throw my hammer at it, but I missed.

The construct attacked Gwaenna first with one of its long arms. It tried to hit me, too, but thank the Host it missed me. Then Artemis took a hunting horn out of his pack and blew it. A moment later eight constructs appeared, encircling the bigger one. But that didn't stop the monstrosity from grabbing hold of Sten.

I stepped out of cover and hit the thing as hard as I could. My hammer met its metal hide with a satisfying clang. Our opponent dropped Sten and destroyed three of Artemis's summoned constructs with a sweep of its arm. They weren't much use against it, but at least they gave it some other targets.

A ball of fire came flying from Conshru. That halfling loves fire. The thing wiped out three more of Artemis's constructs an instant later. Conshru hit it with another fire orb. It responded by hitting Gwaenna and Xil and one of the remaining constructs. Xil collapsed. Artemis healed the changeling with an amulet he wears.

We surrounded the monster. It destroyed the last of the constructs. Artemis threw a knife at it that he'd crafted to hurt warforged. It tried to rush Gwaenna. Conshru blasted it with another orb. Gwaenna got back on her feet and sent a bold of lightning through her sword. I kept pounding it with my hammer. 

Finally Sten lobbed a flask of alchemist's fire on it and a couple of heartbeats later it crumbled into a heap of assorted waroforged components. 

After we caught our breath Artemis and Gwaenna searched the chamber. They took the wand Copper had been using, along with a magic ring he wore and another wand. They found a magic bag too, and pried a mithral piece out of what had been the monster construct's chest plate. When we'd done with that we brought the Tain foreman down to see what Copper had been up to in his secret lair. 

I'm not sure what I'll be doing next, but it sounds like it will be with this group, whatever it is.
______________________
Quips & Quotes:

Zora: "Artificers aren't allowed to dip into the company funds. 'Ooh, the House really needs a _ring of protection +4_!'."

sniffles: "Luckily Shadowblack is dead so he can't blame us for the deaths."
Devo: "No, he saved his one standard action..."
Hedrin: "... to say 'J'accuse!'."

DH: "I contradict myself enough. You don't have to help me."

patv: "You find a secret lavatory behind the panel."

patv: "Can't you put your wands away when you're done?"
Devo: "I'm still playing with them."
sniffles: "He's always 'playing with his wands'."

Devo: "Someone has to pay for all these deaths."
sniffles: "That will be one gold piece each."


----------



## sniffles (May 7, 2007)

*Azlin's tale, part 4*

*I hate to get so far ahead of Artemis's journals, but the campaign will be on hiatus for several weeks while we return temporarily to our Greyhawk campaign (Journey to the Sea). So here's my next entry.
sniffles*
_____________________

Seems my new companions don't know much about that magic room I saw when I was aboard the airship. They want to go check it out. There's more to it than just a room. But magic doesn't work there. I'll have to buy an ordinary pack. A healer's kit would be a good idea, too. I don't see how that place can be cut off from the Host, but they say it is.

That was weird. Walk through a door, any door, with a special key, and you're there. In that tower. We had to go back and start over so the door wouldn't lead back to Artemis's tower. Just in case someone else is in the Lost Room. That's what they're calling it.

Looks like an ordinary room: bed, wardrobe, desk, fireplace. White bearskin rug on the floor. Staircase in the middle is a bit odd. Can't open the windows. 

Searched pretty thoroughly. Not much there. Doesn't look like anyone lives there. Xil says he left a coin under the bed but it's gone now. Artemis found a brass button on the floor.

Surprise - stuff in this room can't be affected. Put some paper from the desk in the fire - won't burn. Can't cut the fur off the rug. Maybe some kind of stasis?

Went downstairs cautiously. Door at the bottom, locked. No keyhole. Artemis unlatched it somehow. Opened into a big room full of colored lights. Oh, it's an orrery! But made of light!

Don't know how that magic works when ours doesn't. I'm already tired of being behind everyone else. I want my boots to work.

Lots of writing on the walls, big letters, floor to ceiling - and it's a high ceiling. Big enough for a dragon. Written in draconic, too. Too bad I can't read it, though Artemis says it doesn't make sense. 

Big set of brass-bound doors on the other side. Conshru runs over and opens them. Halfling's got no sense. 

There's a beach out there, like you can see from the windows upstairs. Conshru rides right through - and he's gone! No tracks in the sand. 

Just realized, this room is bigger than upstairs. Wonder if this room isn't in the same place as the upstairs room? 

Everyone's going through the doors, all together so we don't get separated. We're not on a beach - it's a cave, but not a deep one. Not made by people. 

The doors are gone! Not a sign of them. Conshru comes riding back. Thank the Host he's okay. Artemis found a keyhole in the wall. That's a relief.

Conshru found some crates and barrels. Full of weapons, supplies. It's all from Sharn. So we're not the only ones here. 

Fire! Where did that come from? Oh, it's Conshru. Testing out his magic. Some magic works here, but it's weak. 

Conshru comes running back in again yelling something about "don't hurt me!" Says there are bugbears up ahead. I move up to meet them with my waraxe ready. He says he saw four of them.

Bugbears take cover at a narrow spot. I move in. Conshru sets them on fire. Bugbear and I can't hit around the corner. Conshru burns them again and one falls. 

Xil steps up with a sword - haven't seen him use one of those before. Uses it pretty handily. Now there's a third bugbear fighting. Conshru runs after the fourth - it went for help.

Sten's got a bow - where was he carrying that? The three bugbears are down - run after number four. Can't let him get reinforcements. 

Cave leads outside. There's a stream with a bridge over it. By the time we catch up Sten's taken down the last bugbear, but he's not dead. We drag him back to the cave to question him.

It's starting to get dark here, though we haven't been here long enough. The sky looks funny. There's only one moon. What the Mockery does that mean?!

I bandage up the bugbear's wounds and wake him up. He doesn't want to talk at first, but he's not very bright. Somebody named Garrow hired him - the others seem to know who that is. Garrow's working with a lycanthrope named Gerard, who lives here. Bugbear doesn't know where 'here' is, though.

Bugbear says Garrow's looking for something. He doesn't know what. Nobody's come through the tower for weeks. Apparently not since my friends got the magic key. Sounds like they took it from Garrow. 

We promise to let the bugbear go if he tells all. After that he helps us move some of the boxes of weapons into the orrery room. We go back to the tower, then back where we started from - the Red Hammer - then come back again, just to see if anything changed. The crates are gone.

Artemis wants to do some research before we go back there again. We need to prep better for doing without magic. That's hard on him, and on Gwaenna especially. She barely said a word while we were in that place. 

The bugbear said something about the natives calling that place Kathera. I've heard that name before. I need to do some research myself.
_____________
*Quips & Quotes*:
[sblock]
Hedrin: "So I look under the mattress. Anything? under there?"
DH: "No."
Hedrin: "No dragon porn?"
DH: "Is there such a thing? How does that work?"
Zora: "They *are * called great wyrms for a reason."

DH: "Wait, cosmic reset."
Zora: "Grix backs up. 'Beep, beep, beep.' Grix, quit making that noise."

Zora: "Raaaarr!" (_waves a huge plastic dinosaur over the table_)
sniffles: "Someone put out a glass of water."
Devo: "Xil just put out some water."
patv: "It's not in a glass."

patv: "Check the walls for writings of a madman."
Hedrin: "Have you written anything yet?"

DH: (_draws an amorphous shape on the battlemat_)
sniffles: "We're in an intestine!"

Hedrin: (_huddles three bugbear minis together after they're killed_) "Guys, this isn't working. We're getting killed out there. Why is it so hot in here?"

Devo: "It's firing range."
patv: "Everything for Conshru is firing range."

patv: "Did you put a dinosaur in your pocket?"
Zora & sniffles simultaneously: "No, he's just happy to see you."

patv: "Now we can test to see if the objects from the Lost Room are magically indestructible."
Zora & sniffles simultaneously (_again_): "Or are they magically delicious?"
[/sblock]


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## sniffles (Sep 21, 2007)

*Azlin's tale resumes*

*We're back!   

I've decided to start placing my "quips and quotes" inside the narrative to put them in context. They're sblocked for those who don't want to see them.*
_______________________
*Quips:* [sblock]
DH: "Let us move forward a little bit. No, let us back up."
sniffles: "Beep, beep, beep..."
Patv: "Let's review. No, no, that takes too long."

DH: "Let's do a quick overview of the campaign so far. In the beginning..."
Zora: "...when a mommy loves a daddy..."

DH" "So you met some warforged agents of the Lord of Blades."
Devo: "Cutlass, Sabre, Scimitar..."
Sniffles: "...Pointy Stick..."
Devo: "...Left Elbow...

DH: "You found out the vampire might actually be a changeling."
Jubilee: "He could in fact be Xil. Have we ever seen them both in the same room?"
Devo: "Xil says, 'I killed him. I'll show you the body. Oh no! It's gone!'"
DH: "So Garrow killed Xil and took over his character."
Jubilee: "Because you know Pat loves it when that happens to his characters."
Patv: "I could use the extra levels."
[/sblock]
Azlin's tale, pt. 4

Things are starting to get interesting. My new friends are involved with some pretty unusual stuff.
I meet with them at the Heuw estate and learn that back before I joined - before Gwaenna or Conshru turned up either - Artemis’s old group got into quite a bit of trouble. Got a couple of them killed. 

Seems some ancient hero of the Dhakaani Empire left some stuff lying around. Well, not exactly lying around. But it could be trouble in the wrong hands. I’d say a demon-bound sword is trouble.

My companions rescued Khas's breastplate when it was stolen from Morgrave. Then they found the Stone of Khas in the undercity. Now we're off to Droaam after the sword.

The king's interested in the Sword, too. A man called Malekith Kain sends for us and questions us about our plans. I wonder who told him - like Gwaenna said, we haven't told anyone but each other.
[sblock]
 Jubilee: “Too bad I didn’t put any ranks in Decipher Script. So I could read the message.”
Zora: “I have something I can do with the message. Scorching Ray! FIRE!”
Jubilee: “I like the way you operate!”
[/sblock]
He wants first crack at the sword but isn't willing to send anyone to get it. Artemis isn't having any of that. Doesn't trust this Kain fellow, even though Artemis's brother is working for Kain. Sounds like Artemis and his brother don’t exactly see eye to eye.

Artemis tells us before we get there that he wants to use the sword to take revenge for his father. His father was killed by a mindflayer. He thinks it’s something to do with an orb his old group found, but the orb was taken away by the elf priestess who used to travel with them. I’m not sure if the artificer using that sword would be a good idea.

Kain doesn't push about the sword. He even bives us some leads. He tells us the Emerald Claw are looking for it, too, or so he thinks. We’re trying to track down a couple of people from Morgrave who went after the tomb of Khas, on behalf of Kain. We're to meet one of Kain’s agents in Greywall. 

He gives us some messenger bees to send back to him - wonders never cease in this city!
[sblock]
*Messages we suggest sending back to Malekith Kain using the messenger bees*
Zora: “The trip’s been easy so far.”
Devo: “There’s a great price on shoes here.”
sniffles: “That sandwich I had for lunch was delicious.”
Zora: “Stay away from power lines.”
sniffles: “Oh my gawd, what the hell is that?!”
patv: “Aaaaarrhhhh....”
Hedrin: “Artemis is insane, my job is impossible.”
[/sblock]
After what I've heard, I'm not sure I'd trust Kain’s people either. They lost another such sword - it was stolen by a vampire! Artemis recovered it, which makes me think we’re better suited to dealing with Khas’s sword than this Dark Lantern crowd or whatever they call themselves.

Bought a new chain shirt so I've got something to wear even when I have to take off my splint mail. Best to be prepared. Can't protect my friends if I don't protect myself.

Took the lightning rail to Wroat. Sten thinks we're being followed. Costs 40 gold pieces to get to Wroat!

Buy a horse in Wroat. I don't like riding, but no other choice to get where we're going. Trying to find someplace called the Valley of Blades, or Djanet Draal. Nobody seems to know where either one is, though. Sounds familiar, but I don't know why.

Some shifty characters at the first inn we stop at. Then we almost get turned back. Border’s closed. But Artemis drops Kain’s name and they let us pass.

Run into the shifty folks again later on the road. They dropped a tree to block the road, then ambush us when the halfling rides up to help move it. Filthy Karrnathi. Men come out of the woods with crossbows. Conshru's surrounded.

One of them hits Conshru with a poisoned bolt. Gwaenna moves up to help him. 
Sten blasts somebody with that creepy energy he shoots.

I shake the earth under the ambushers’ feet and most of them fall over like ninepins. Too bad I do it before the zombies show up. The Karrnathi had them hidden under the earth. Artemis torches those - leaves a big pile of zombie ash in the middle of the road. 

They have a wizard with them. He freezes Gwaenna in her tracks, but Conshru cooks him good. He even has Grix breathing fire somehow! As usual, I never see what Xil does. He’s always behind me or something else.
[sblock]
Zora: "Tonight on Cooking With Conshru, our secret ingredient is: FIRE!"
[/sblock]
I pull out the hammersphere my friends gave me and let the hammer go on one of the Emerald Claw devils. Then I summon up a hammer of my own. This is fun! But it'd be more fun to chop up a few with my ice axe. 

Don't get the chance, though. My friends wipe most of them out before I can get off my horse. But a couple of them run away. I guess that's not the last we'll see of them. 

After we search the bodies we cut up the log and keep heading for Graywall. I’d like to see the reaction when the next travelers see that spot!


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## sniffles (Sep 25, 2007)

*Azlin's tale, pt. 6*

[sblock]
Jubilee: "I can't help it - I see written things, I read them."
DH: "Cursed scrolls, here we come!"

Jubilee: "I am not getting naked to get into a pool!"
Zora: "Yes, but what about your character?"
[/sblock]

Graywall's pretty scummy. Doesn't hold up to the stone carving of the Six Kings we saw before we got there. Town stinks like a cesspit and the buildings are all… _wrong_.

Ran into some folks from House Orien. They tell us we'd be safer in the human quarter. We find a decent inn and stabling for our horses.
[sblock]
Zora: "Don't they have a non-human quarter, where we can stable our human?"
[/sblock]
Have to ask around a lot to find our contact. Kain only told us his name. Too bad none of us are good at that sort of thing. We're better at starting fights.

Conshru's got a new pet. Some kind of cat-like critter tried to crawl up my leg. Apparently considered good eating. He and Gwaenna save it from someone's dinner plate.
[sblock]
DH: "You see a cat-size animal with gliding membranes between its limbs."
Zora: "What is it?"
DH: "You don't know."
Zora: "I roll Knowledge (nature). Ooh, not on that roll. By the texture of the claws, I think it's some kind of grizzly bear!"
[/sblock]
Turns out our contact is an orc tending bar at a pit-fighting dive. Place is packed with vermin, gnolls, bugbears and the like.

The orc gives Artemis something and we leave pretty quick. Conshru says trouble is brewing. We hustle down a winding alley and set ourselves up to make an ambush. Conshru hangs back so he can warn us. 

They catch up with us quick: an ogre, some kind of wolf-like creature, and a strange black-skinned woman wizard. She's trouble. Actually, they all are. 

I call up the hammer from the sphere to wallop the ogre. Too bad the magic doesn't make it more accurate. Then I pray for Boldrei to give us her divine protection. Gwaenna's too far away to benefit, which is a very bad thing for her. 

The wolf-thing is sort of hard to see -and to hit. The ogre has heavy armor and a huge mace. They're doing a lot of hurt to Gwaenna and Conshru. Some black energy hits the Halfling and he sags on Grix's back. But he still points a wand at the wizard woman.

A burst of lightning crackles around Gwaenna and Conshru. Both of them look a little scorched. The flickering wolf-thing claws and bites at Gwaenna. Behind her the ogre hefts his massive mace. He swings at Conshru but Grix dodges out of the way.

Conshru wreathes the ogre and wolf-thing with flames that bind them like rope. He and Gwaenna exchange terse shouts with Artemis about the magic that's flying around the filthy alley. Artemis points his wand down the alley at the wizard, who I can't see from where I'm standing.

Gwaenna swings her sword at the ogre and lightning plays along the blade. He stumbles back a half-step. From behind me Sten's purple energy shoots past but misses the ogre.A bugbear rushes out of a side alley and hits the ogre with a staff- it's really Xil. The ogre staggers but doesn't fall.

The wolf-creature lunges at Gwaenna, drawing a sword. I can see it better now - it's got armor on! It moves really fast, but Conshru's fire keeps it from striking. 

A blast of fire fills the alley around me. I nearly pass out. Coins and bottles scatter on the ground as Artemis's homunculus turns to ash. Grix flings himself and Conshru out of range and the flames just wash over Sten.

The ogre swings at Conshru, and that's too much for him. He misses his aim and falls over. My hammer keeps on thwacking him as he lies on the ground.

I use my belt to heal myself, but I'm still in bad shape. Artemis looks pretty weak, too. Gwaenna's collapsed and it looks serious. Conshru grabs Gwaenna and disappears. At least the fire didn't take her.

Artemis blows a horn, and a whole swarm of constructs appear, running off toward the wizard. I can't see them after that. I ask for Dol Arrah's aid to heal myself some more.

Sten points up to a rooftop - the wizard's up there now. I send my hammer at her but it has no effect. I shoot a moon bolt at her too, but it does nothing. Artemis's constructs are climbing up the building after her. I think she looks worried.
[sblock]
DH: "She's worried about the guys climbing the building."
Patv: "So she casts _grease_. Because grease is the word."
[/sblock]
Conshru's flying - he's turned Grix into a glidewing! He wraps some green stuff around the wizard so she can't move, and then has Grix spit fire at her!

Artemis stamps his feet and starts to lift off the ground. Gwaenna grabs hold of him and they both go flying up to the rooftop. Gwaenna shoots a crossbow bolt at the wizard - funny, she doesn't carry a crossbow.

Xil maneuvers around behind the wolf-thing while Sten stabs it with his strange energy blade. Their blows are deflected by the wolf's armor.

The wizard disappears, still wrapped in Conshru's green ribbons. The ogre's near dead, but the wolf-thing's still fighting Sten and Xil. His swipe misses Xil. I can't see Conshru and Grix anymore. They've flown off toward the tavern.

Sten and Xil position themselves on opposite sides of the wolf-creature and attack together. Xil slams it with his staff and the creature goes limp. The changeling makes sure it's dead. 

I turn around to see some locals eyeing Artemis's stuff, so I glare at them and heft my axe while Sten picks up the artificer's gear. Artemis, Conshru and Gwaenna return, complaining that the dark wizard got away somehow. All we've got to show for nearly dying is the loot we can take from her two companions.


----------



## sniffles (Sep 25, 2007)

*Just a refresher*

Since the party makeup has changed quite a bit and the campaign has take a couple of hiatuses, I'm offering a Who's Who:

*Artemis Heuw Cannith* (_Devo_) - male human artificer

*Azlin Valkara* (_me_) - female dwarf fighter/cleric of the Sovereign Host

*Conshru * (_Zora_) - male halfling sorcerer/druid

*Grix * (_Zora_) - Conshru's fasteith animal companion

*Gwaenna Goldenbrow* (_Jubilee_) - female goblin duskblade

*Sten * (_Hedrin_) - male-personality warforged soulknife

*Xil * (_patv_) - male (?) changeling rogue


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## sniffles (Oct 16, 2007)

*Azlin's tale, part 7*

You'd think an angry goblin might be funny, but it's not - at least not when it's Gwaenna. 

She storms back into the taproom and threatens the barkeep. She's not afraid of his troll bouncer. She's trying to get him to tell her where to find the black-skinned sorceress, but he claims he doesn't know.

Back in the street, we start heading to our inn when a bunch of Deneith mercs surround us. They say their head of house wants to talk to us. They won't answer Artemis's questions.

They take us to a keep, which makes Gwaenna really nervous. But they don't take our weapons or lock us up. We just talk to the head of house, Lady Endira. 

She says she's protecting us. The mind-flayer who runs Graywall wants us. He works for the hags who run Droaam. We don't want to get involved with them. 

There's some house politics involved, too. A Cannith artificer is working with the Karrnathi, and there's someone from Deneith involved. Some of the Deneith people think they should be in charge of the Nations. 

I hate house politics. This is why I left the Holds.

If this faction finds the Sword they could raise an army of gobbos to run the Nations. Not good. We need to get the sword before anyone else does.

Lady Endira gives us rooms for the night. Artemis uses the magic key to get back to his place in Sharn and drop off some of his gear. 

Next day - Xil sneaks out with the Key and goes to the house where we're supposed to find our next contact. He says it looks abandoned, but he heard some goblins talking. We go to check it out.

Conshru goes in first and tries talking, but the goblins just attack. It doesn't take us long to get rid of them - although one of them manages to stick me good. We save one to question. We seem to have adopted him. Great, another goblin in our midst. 

	[sblock]DH: "The goblins have bows, not swords!"
	Patv: "I don't have any goblin minis with bows."
	sniffles: "Stop the game - we don't have the right minis!"[/sblock]

Sten and Gwaenna find a book upstairs with a journal hidden inside. It's mostly in code. But there's an entry in the back with details of Cazhaak Draal, one of the goblin cities we need to find. And it says Boroman and Karg are being held in a fort, with a map showing where the fort lies.

We loot the goblins. I've got two more healing potions now, thank the Host. The goblin prisoner says a priest of the Keeper sent them to get the book. Our contact was already gone when they arrived.

	[sblock]Devo: "I use a wand of prestidigitation. Nekkid (the goblin) is now clean."
	sniffles: "But still naked."[/sblock]

We use the Key again to go back to the Deneith keep. We need an ally here. Should we tell Lady Endira about the Sword? I'll let Artemis decide. Gwaenna's not happy about this.

Lady Endira can't help us with rescuing Boroman. She doesn't have enough men and the fort is too well defended. We'll just have to send a message to Malekith Kaine. His contacts have been compromised, too.

At breakfast. Lady Endira's acting kind of funny - and there's a hooded figure with her. I almost didn't notice him. It's the mind flayer! It looks sickly - or undead. Lady Endira jumps up and exclaims, "What are you doing here?"  Then she sits back down. 

	[sblock]DH: "The illithid looks pale and desiccated like an undead creature."
	Hedrin: "It's an il-lich-id?"
	Zora: "Illichidly."

	Zora: "I mentally call Grix. 'Grix, come!'
	sniffles: "Grix, save us!"[/sblock]

Artemis has a wand out, but puts it away. The mind-flayer knows some of what we're here for, but not all. It wants us to work with it. Maybe the mind-flayer isn't as bad as I thought. But it's not giving us much reason to trust it - though an offer of an airship to Cazhaak Draal is pretty tempting.

	[sblock]Jubilee: "I tell the mind-flayer that the orc at the tavern didn't tell us anything."
	DH: "The mind-flayer makes a mental note: Put orc on the menu."[/sblock]

I can feel it trying to intrude on my thoughts but I fight it off. 

Gwaenna's mad again - she blasts the mind flayer with flames! What's she doing? He goes up like an oil-soaked torch. Something isn't right about that.

Lady Endira acts like she's been asleep. I realize she never said a word while we talked to the mind-flayer. He had her under his control somehow. And the figure in the chair was just an illusion. Now we're not even sure if it's really the mind-flayer who's responsible.

We need to get out of town Lady Endira can't help us with rescuing Boroman and Karg, but she can help us get out of Graywall. And she sends a man with us. His name's Dresden.

It's going to be a long trip. We'll have to skirt around the Great Crag to avoid notice from the hags. We camp for the night in a cave.

We're getting ready to head out next day when we notice something odd outside. A boulder seems to be moving. Not a boulder - a giant! 

Xil rushes out before I can pray to the Host for aid. Someone's firing on us from above. A couple of arrows hit me in the back. Ugh, it hurts!

There's a man on a winged creature flying around outside. Artemis seems to know him. The artificer certainly has lots of enemies.

I can only extend Boldrei's protection to Sten and Dresden. Conshru's going after the gnoll archers. Artemis and Gwaenna head for the giant. Even our goblin prisoner is helping us fight. 

I put my hand on the earth and set it trembling. The giant's balance is poor - he tips over like an uprooted tree. Xil stabs him repeatedly with his spear. There's a pool of blood under him. 

Gwaenna's flying and hitting him with her sword, lightning crackling down the blade. The giant stops moving. Conshru and Sten have taken care of the gnolls. The man on the flyer takes off. We'll probably see him again. 

This is going to be a long trip.


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## sniffles (Oct 23, 2007)

*Azlin's tale, part 8*

Midday we come to a river. It's running fast and deep, no place to ford the horses. We'll have to go upstream to look for a narrow spot where we can cross.

	[sblock]_We make fun of what the GM's drawing on the Tac-tiles._
	DH: "You guys kill me."
	Devo: "Well, we try, but you keep on ambushing us."[/sblock]

As we turn to head upstream, three eyeless creatures on two legs approach. The nearest one howls. It *hurts*!! My bones are being turned to jelly. Suddenly the area is full of screaming. Some of it might be me.

Several of the horses go down. Dresden and the goblin are both flat on the ground. Dresden's horse grabs him by the collar and pulls him behind a boulder.

The other two creatures move closer and howl, too. It's not the same, but it still hurts. Sten's buckler shatters like glass. The saddles are falling off our mounts. Praise the Host my armor doesn't succumb.

My ears are bleeding. I run over to Sten and extend some of Dol Arrah's protection to him. If these things affect metal they could kill him.

Artemis is trying to blast the things with a wand - but the wand isn't working. Gwaenna flies out and lightning arcs from her sword to the first creature. Xil jumps up on a boulder and stabs it with his spear. The creature slumps to the ground.

Conshru's attacking the second creature, with the same kind of lightning Gwaenna used. Then he calls out that the things are wearing collars! Did someone send them after us?

I didn't even see how the third creature died. But they're all dead now. Conshru takes their collars and gives them to Artemis. Gwaenna attends to the goblin - thank the Host. I heal some of our horses enough to get them back on their feet.

We're all hurt too badly to continue our trip. But we move away from the corpses when carrion birds start circling.

Artemis says the collars look like the same thing that flying beast wore when we fought the giant yesterday. It's that Cannith artificer who's working with the Karrnathi, curse his black soul.

Thank the Host, Artemis has a box that can restore some of the shattered items. It won't bring back their magic, but at least he can repair some things.

It's hard to relax after we make camp. I keep imagining every little noise is another one of those creatures, come to splinter my bones with their eerie cries.

[sblock]Jubilee: "Why can't we _scry _ on Cazhaak Draal and then use the Key to get there? Everyone else uses that _scry_/_teleport _ combo."
DH: "Thinking outside the box - I like it."
Jubilee: "No, I'm thinking inside the box that everyone else uses."[/sblock]

We try to figure out how someone could have tracked us. We're starting to suspect that little flying creature Conshru found in Graywall. 

	[sblock]Jubilee: "How could anyone _scry_ on Xil? *We* don't even know what he looks 		like!"[/sblock]

Artemis is studying the creature intently from across the campfire he conjured out of his pack. Suddenly Sentinel Marshal Dresden leaps to his feet, sword drawn, glaring at Conshru! What's going on?

Conshru jumps up and calls Grix. Then he bolts, carrying the little animal. Where is he going? It's after dark! He throws some green stuff at Gwaenna and Artemis that binds the artificer's arms. Then he mounts Grix, reshapes him into a glidewing, and flies off! 

Before he can depart, I call on the Host to grant me their aid and fire a moon bolt at Grix. Hopefully that will slow the dinosaur down a bit.

Gwaenna lifts off the ground by virtue of her ensorcelled boots and flies after him, though I don't think she'll be able to catch up. She shoots off into the darkness.

Dresden tells us he sensed something evil near Conshru, and Artemis explains that he thinks the little flying creature put some kind of compulsion on the halfling.

Some time later I'm proved right about Gwaenna, as she comes stumbling back into camp complaining about how tired her feet are. We can't do anything else in the dark. We'll have to wait for daylight. My friends can't all see as well as I can, but I'm no tracker - and how do you track a flying animal, anyway?

We break camp in the morning and head upriver again. At least during her flight in the dark Gwaenna found a place where we can cross it. Not long after that we hear wings flapping. Out of the glare of the sun comes Grix. 

We're all suspicious, but it turns out Conshru's okay now. When he got too tired to continue and stopped to rest, the enchantment was broken. The creature tried to snare him again but this time he resisted.

Unfortunately that doesn't mean we're out of the woods, so to speak. Conshru says he's being followed by a wing of harpies!

	[sblock]Zora: "Everyone's got a role in the party. Mine is to roll ones."
	Devo: "It's a stupid job, but someone's got to do it."[/sblock]

We take cover amid some rocks, some kind of ruins. I pray to the Host to give us their divine protection. Artemis conjures up a silence to guard us from the harpies' song.

The harpies alight on the rocks overhead. We're surrounded. Assuming we're being ambushed, we draw weapons and attack. I can't hit the broad side of an airship with my throwing axe. 

	[sblock]Jubilee: "When Sten manifests his mindblade, does he have to do anything 	verbal?"
	Zora: "He says, 'By the power of Grayskull!'"
	sniffles: "No, it's 'By the power of my skull!'"[/sblock]

But the harpies apparently don't want to fight - or at least, their leader doesn't want them to. She wants to talk. They've been watching us. They claim they don't serve the Hags, and they want to know what we're doing here.

I don't see any reason to trust them, but they didn't attack us on sight, so we listen to what they have to say. They're offering to fly us to our destination. I'm not too comfortable with that. And we'd have to leave our horses, which isn't an option for Dresden. 

It's agreed that they'll take us to their aerie so we can talk further. They'll even find a way to get our horses there. Oh joy, praise the Host, I get to be carried aloft by a harpy! 

Boldrei's braids, I think I'm going to be sick.


----------



## sniffles (Oct 28, 2007)

*Azlin's tale, part 9*

[sblock]
DH: "So you'll trust the bloodthirsty goblin but not the harpies. You guys kill me."
sniffles: "We kill you? How much XP do we get?"
DH: "Well I'm not a very good GM so my CR must be pretty low."
[/sblock]
Before the harpies carry us off, Conshru casts a spell so he can relay messages between us. Wonderful, now I can hear the halfling yammering in my head on top of being carried by a harpy. 

The harpies were going on about something they call the Mountain That Eats. At one point during our trip Conshru says he sees it below us. I don't open my eyes.

I've never been so relieved to touch good native stone. The harpies have set us on a ledge. Griffons bring our horses. 
[sblock]
DH: "As you look around, you see other shelves on the mountainsides."
Zora: "Great, we're on the display shelf."
DH: "It's a diorama."
sniffles: "A dire-rama?"

DH: "You see the horses down below. They're shouting, 'Help, I'm being 	devoured!'"
Devo: "Listen's not a class skill for me."
[/sblock]
In the evening we have dinner with the harpies. Turns my stomach. I can't believe we're doing this. We've agreed that as a show of good faith, we'll try to help get rid of the Mountain That Eats! What kind of insanity is this? We don't even know what it is. The harpies claim it's unbelievably big and their songs don't affect it. 
[sblock]
sniffles: “I don’t want to see harpies dancing.”
patv: “It’s better than listening to them sing.”
[/sblock]
Conshru and Gwaenna go to have a look at this thing when it's light. The rest of us have to sit around and keep company with the harpies. They're telling stories. One of them tells a story about how the Host turned against them. I'm no bard, but I've got to tell them a parable of the Host to let them know they're wrong.

The gnome and halfling are back. According to them the Mountain That Walks is every bit as big as the harpies claimed. I have no idea what sort of creature it could be.

But it's got a sort of collar, like the screaming beasts. Looped around one of its horns. And we've conceived a plan - well, Artemis, Conshru and Gwaenna have - to swoop in and steal the collar. Artemis says the collar is controlling it. 

Oh, Dol Arrah save me, I have to ride a griffon. Surely the depths of Khyber couldn't be any worse than this.

At least I don't have to get as close as Conshru and Sten. Sten's going to shoot the collar with his energy bolts. I just have to stay close in case anything bad happens. Like flying isn't bad enough.

My knuckles are white from clinging to the griffon's back. I'm sure I'm going to faint if I look down. Oh, Onatar's hammer, that thing is big!! There aren't words to describe how big. It could devour the world! The armies of Aundair couldn't slay it.

But the Host are with us. Sten's bolt flies true and the collar drops off the thing's horn and plummets to the earth. Free of the gem's compulsion, the monster just wanders away. I'll have to make a big tithe of thanks at Citadel of the Sun when we get back to Sharn.

The harpies are certainly happy. In return for this favor they'll take us to another ancient ruin, one they claim contains a portal to Cazhaak Draal. 

The harpies have dropped us off at the entrance to the ruins. Glory to Onatar, they're beneath the roots of the mountains. I feel at home here, even if it is hobgoblin delving.
Gwaenna's excited by the carvings of heroes and kings on the walls. 
[sblock]
Hedrin: “Actually it’s the wall of registered sex offenders.”
Devo: “Great king, priest, priest, priest… Yep.”
[/sblock]
We're faced with three doors, two sealed and one hanging open. We decide to check the open one first. 

Down a short passage we come to a ledge over a chasm. The height’s not quite as bad when it's under the earth. I'm not standing next to the edge, though. And hobgoblins are bigger than me - why in Onatar's name did they make those winding stairs so narrow?

There's a very narrow causeway across the chasm to another ledge with some kind of structure on it. I do not want to cross that causeway on foot. Not that I want to fly across, either. 

Conshru rides over to check out the other side, clinging to the causeway like a spider. As soon as he approaches, a whirlwind starts up and rushes him, nearly sucking him up in its embrace. Then it crosses the chasm and scoops up Artemis and Sten!

I grab hold of the nearest statue to avoid being swept up by the whirlwind. It's blowing so much dirt and grit around that I can barely see. 

The wind is gone, so I take the chance of looking over the edge of the ledge. Sten’s on the narrow stairs. He must have a griffon token. That reminds me, I still have the one Artemis gave me before we went after the monster. 

I can see Sten and Artemis floating down toward something that looks like fog. Gwaenna warns that the elemental might return. I back away from the edge.

Now the wind is back. Boldrei lends me her strength so I can avoid being caught up. I retreat down the passageway. Curse it, I have no magic that will affect this wind. But I pray and extend the Host’s protection to my friends who are still with me.
[sblock]
patv: “Oh, no, the master is gone!”
Hedrin: “Are you trying to do a bad Roddy McDowell impression?”
patv: “I was kind of going for a bad C3PO.”
Zora: “You have a good one?” 
[/sblock]
Sten's rushing down the long stairs to find Artemis. Conshru and Gwaenna can fly down. I hear a few faint voices, I think, but I don't know what's going on down there. I need to get down there. 

Dol Arrah protect me. I activate the griffon token and step off the edge.

Ugh! Spider webs! I manage not to get stuck in the web. Artemis is nearby, not badly hurt from what little I can see. But he’s yelling about a huge spider! 

It lunges and bites me. I can feel the poison in my blood. I quickly pray to the Host and summon up a divine axe. The Host are on my side. The axe chops the spider in two with one blow!

Conshru's burning away some of the webs. The spiders are dead. We can use the remaining webs to get back to the stairs. 

Artemis says he thinks the portal is in the structure on the other side of the chasm. But we may take time to explore more of this place before we try the portal.

I don’t think we’re going down, though. We still can’t see the bottom of this chasm. For all we know it may lead all the way to Khyber.


----------



## Jubilee (Nov 1, 2007)

*From the Journals of Gwaenna Goldenbrow (10/28/07 session) part 1*

*Sniffles missed the last session, so I decided I'd go ahead and write up another journal entry so we'd have some record of what happened.  It got rather longer than I intended and I sincerely apologize. *

*------*

… After the air elemental had been vanquished, its essence seemed to flow towards the portal in the center of the platform before us.  The circle was filled with mystic light and we all paused for a moment, to see what further challenge might await us, but nothing terrible happened.  Artemis, Conshru, and myself approached to examine the portal.  

Artemis began to study the nature of its magic and I started to make out the runes on the floor and the archway.  Almost immediately, I recognized some of the runes on the floor matched some of those on the Stone of Kings we carried, as well as from a journal entry from Boraman.  In his journal, he wrote that the symbols were connected in some way to Cazhaak Draal, although he didn’t know why they were important.  It’s a shame the man didn’t have the stone and shield before he left, for I’m sure he’d have made better sense of all this than any of us could.  If only we were in not so much of a hurry, we could free him from his captivity..

The light from the portal faded at about the same time that Artemis finished his identification; I also was able to make out the writing on the arch, which read “May the Winds of Acheron blow you to your destiny.”  Although it did not mean much at the time to me, I was later to learn that the Winds of Acheron is a proper name that shows up fairly frequently in Dhakaani stories and histories.  

I was finally allowed to return to the first chamber, whilst the others tended to each other’s wounds and speculated about the nature of this place, the portal, and the chasm below the bridge.  The markings on the walls, of which I have made many fine copies, allowed me to determine that this was an outpost for a hobgoblin prince who had once been very mighty, but fell into disfavor, for his name had been defaced in every place where it might have been shown.  There were sealed doors, four in total, that bore warnings against tampering, although Artemis found no traps on them and there were no magical seals accompanying the physical.

I also discerned that this was one of many ancient sites of the Dhakaani that was used for travel and communication.  We speculate that there must be other portals such as the one we have found.  However, I was not able to decipher what the ‘name’ of this place might be, so I don’t know how we would return here with a similar portal.  Conshru pointed out that there would probably be no need for the symbols that brought a traveler here to be in the circle of runes on this portal, so perhaps I will be able to figure them out in Cazhaak Draal.  Artemis mentioned seeing a circle much like this one somewhere near the border between Zilargo and Thrane, in the same place where they found the Shield, so I will have to get him to take me there.  

Conshru, in particular, was becoming increasingly impatient with the time it was taking for me to record and decipher the site, so we decided to begin exploring behind the sealed doors.  The warnings seemed to say that it would be impious or unpatriotic to unearth whatever lay behind, which I must admit made me even more curious to discover what lay beyond.

The first room was a disappointment – it was probably barracks, but there was only some debris and a great deal of dust.  The walls were bare, and there were no secret doors or panels that we could find.  Sten had been a little too enthusiastic cutting out the door and it had fallen right out of its frame.  Artemis asked him to leave the other doors functional, so that we would have at least one left on which to use the Key.  The second door in the first room revealed a wide hallway that was filled with debris after about 20 feet.  On closer inspection, we discovered that amongst the debris were some ruined statues – some of hobgoblins whose features were not quite right – twisted in some subtle way I did not understand until we found the statue of the tentacled beast.  It was not, quite, an illithid, but bore enough resemblance to such a creature to give me a shiver.

I remembered then that there was a hobgoblin prince who had turned against his people and allied himself with the Daelkyr.  He had raised an army against the Dhakaani and was sealed away after a costly battle.  The stories say he had five, or maybe six, great beasts of the Daelkyr that accompanied him.  I wish I could remember whether the translation indicated that he had been entombed or trapped.. but surely after so much time, even beasts of nightmare would have died..

We moved into the second chamber, which had in it a platform on the far wall, with a tunnel leading out towards the strange bridge, flanked on either side by statues.  The northern door revealed a 30-foot wide, 60-foot long corridor with two rows of pillars flanking the central aisle.  Azlin commented that the stone must have been brought from some distance, because she was fairly sure the marble was not native to these mountains.  We saw a pair of doors at the far end of the corridor, and as Artemis and I began cautiously to enter the room, Xil expressed some doubt of the wisdom of opening these undisturbed doors.  We, of course, ignored him.  

Artemis stopped me with a gesture and indicated there was some kind of trap that was triggered upon proximity to the pillars.  He began to study the trap as best he could from afar and I checked the room for magic.  The pillars were, indeed, magical; however, the auras seemed more of divination and protection than those of harm.  Artemis could not tell what the trap would do, but that it might prevent passage of those who weren’t worthy.  Perhaps it set off an alarm for someone who could no longer hear it.

Conshru threw his pack down the corridor to see if it would set off any alarms, but nothing we could perceive happened.  Artemis dragged it back with magic and threw a lighted sun rod near the door.  Again, nothing moved and no sound came.  Finally, Artemis summoned – a bunny, of all things – in the center of the hallway.  It hopped towards us and twitched its nose.  There was no alarm and no bunny guts were spilled onto the floor.

I decided that my curiosity could wait no longer and started down the corridor, making for the door as quickly as I could without appearing too fearful.  The back of my neck prickled a bit, as if I were being watched – which of course, I was – by anxious companions in the doorway.  When nothing happened as I reached the door, Artemis used one of his many useful wands to teleport himself to the door beside me.  Luckily, both doors were sufficiently far away from the pillars that he didn’t risk triggering the traps.  Conshru, Xil and the others waited at the other end, declining to tempt the pillars as I had done and lacking the magic Artemis had used.

I pushed open the doors with some effort – they were swollen with age and nearly fused together by time – but one of them gave way before me.  The most beautiful sight I have yet witnessed awaited me – the unmarred tomb of a hobgoblin prince!  I learned that it was the burial of the son of the dishonored hobgoblin.  This place had been created before his dishonor, but had somehow escaped the wrath of those who had imprisoned or killed the prince – perhaps it was the magic of the pillars?  For here I learned the dishonored prince’s name was Alderash!  What a find!  I will have plenty of material from this expedition for my next book.

As I was recording the murals on the walls, Artemis moved towards the center of the room, where five chests were arrayed before an elaborate carved tomb.  There was also an urn, made of some kind of shimmering red metal or stone, with them.  I noticed peripherally that he was about to open the first chest he came to, so I told him the urn was likely the ashes of the dead prince’s wife, or possibly Alderash’s wife, and would probably hold little of interest.  Also, I felt for some reason I cannot explain, even here, that it ought not be disturbed.  

We found a number of interesting items in the room.  There were some scrolls in one of the chests, but sadly the first Artemis touched crumbled to dust immediately.  As we did not have the knowledge or skills to preserve the other two, we decided to leave them in the box where they were, at least for now, somewhat safe.  Inside the sarcophagus we found the mummified remains of a hobgoblin.  He was wearing a breastplate of adamantine!  He was laid out in repose, with the broken pieces of his long spear held in his crossed hands.  We took the spear, but decided to leave the breastplate and body as it were – I hope to return at some future date and remove the entire thing.  It would make quite an exhibit, especially if it were preserved all together!  

The urn we determined was magical, and very strong, but neither of us could divine the exact nature of it.  We did not want to disturb it if it were dangerous and I was fairly sure there would be ashes within it, although I regret I could not discover whose ashes were inside.  We decided to leave it, hopefully for a future expedition.  

The last door had a corridor with pillars much like the one leading to the burial chamber.  On the far end of the hallway, however, a solid sheet of strange metal with a reddish sheen – Artemis said it looked almost like adamantine – covered the space where the door had been on the opposite corridor.  The traps on these pillars, Artemis told us, were definitely harmful.  He wasn’t certain whether they would drop the ceiling on us, drop the pillars on us, or something else equally painful and none of us dared test it.  On the floor just beyond the doorway in which we studied the room were the words “Here lays Alderash, sealed in Verak’s name.”  Verak was a name I knew – he was a dragon who was the founder of the Gatekeeper Druids!  I did not know the Gatekeepers were involved in sealing Alderash and his abominable allies away.  Artemis thought there was a phrase of some kind that would allow us to bypass the trap and that it probably had something to do with the declaration on the floor; although we tried half a dozen variations of the phrase “In the name of Verak, let us pass,” we could detect no change in the trap and did not feel comfortable risking it.  I could tell there was some writing on the seal on the far end, but it was not for me, at least not on this trip, to discover what it said.

We decided to return to Artemis’s house in Sharn, via the Key.  I only had to wonder for a few minutes how Artemis planned to accomplish it.  He asked Sten to carve a space out of one of the working doors (for none of them had locks in them, which is required for using the Key) and after a lengthy infusion, he had created a working lock made of ironwood inside the cavity!  He really has the cleverest ways of using his talents!  This allowed us to return the horses to the relative safety of the Closed Circle (Artemis’s house does not have stables, probably because it is so high up in the city), since we do not think we will need to travel by horse again any time soon.  

Even though we thought we could now cut our trip from 11 days to fifteen minutes, we didn’t want to take too much time away from it.  I briefly considered suggesting we attempt to rescue Boraman, because he would be very useful to have around, but we have no idea how quickly our Kaarnathi adversary will prepare new defenses against us – and the sooner we get there, the more likely he will be unprepared.

Conshru and I both hoped to do some research – he on the four dragonshards we found in the sarcophagus of Alderash’s son (all that Artemis could ascertain was that they were attuned to each of the four elements) and I wanted to learn more about Acheron and Alderash, as well as the portals that must have connected the hobgoblin Empire.  Alas, this was not meant to be, for when we arrived at Artemis’s house, his steward approached to say that there were visitors – for me – that he could not be rid of.


----------



## Jubilee (Nov 1, 2007)

*From the Journals of Gwaenna Goldenbrow (10/28/07 session) part 2*

When I exited Artemis’s house to greet these visitors, I nearly stumbled down the steps with the shock of it.  A most unusual camp had sprouted up in the courtyard in front of Artemis’s house.  Darguun goblins moved around the camp and guards patrolled the perimeter.  As soon as I emerged, with a curious Conshru at my side, a pair of goblin guards hustled up the steps and informed me that General Oksumoto of the Kesh Volar tribe would see me!  I could barely contain my laughter, for the scene was so outrageous here in the high heart of Sharn, but I managed a polite smile and allowed them to lead me to the general’s camp.

When we entered the tent of the general, he informed us, without much preamble, that he knew of my search for the sword of Khas, and that he had come to be my husband and rule the new goblinoid empire at my side (or he would wield the sword and be king, he offered graciously, if I wished it.  Hah!).  Conshru and I were both quite irritated by this announcement – Conshru put it quite well when he looked towards Artemis’s home and grumbled, “does everybody know?” for indeed, it seems our mission proceeds us no matter where we go and how secretive we intend to be.

As we weren’t yet sure what we were going to do with the sword, or even whether we would be able to get it, I wouldn’t have wanted to accept the general’s offer even if I were inclined towards marriage – which I am not.  I am not even certain I would want to be queen – for a queen, I am sure, is not also allowed to be an adventurer.  Furthermore, if I were to be queen, I would do it in my own right and I would not be required to have a king to make them accept me (as the general tells me).  However, as I wanted these people out of Artemis’s courtyard and I did not want to make enemies of them, I gave the general a quest.  In retrospect, it was not as clever as I thought at the time; for there’s the chance he might succeed.

I have for quite some time now desired a ring of wizardly power, which would greatly enhance my spell casting ability.  Artemis tells me that this is an object that he is not yet able to make and there is a possibility he will not be able to make it for a great many years.  Additionally, although he used his contacts within the house, there was no one who would either admit to having one or to wishing to sell one.  So I told the general that if he should retrieve such a ring for me, I would marry him.  Really, I ought to have said I would consider marrying him if he found it for me or I should have given him a series of quests, each more dangerous than the last.  But, if he should find the ring and I should have to marry him (it was, sadly, witnessed by the dirgesinger and a priest, so I am bound), I am sure it will not change my life too much.  I can certainly best him in arms if he ever tries to force me to retire from exploring or to enter the marriage bed.

Besides, if we fail to get the sword, or if I choose not to wield it or lead the new goblinoid empire, I am sure he will not want to marry me.  As I do not much desire to be a queen, I will have to find some other way of safely destroying or disposing of the sword.  I am not sure I would trust it in any one else’s hands; would I be allowed NOT to use it if I had it?  The general did warn me that there were other tribes seeking us and that some would work against us.

Perhaps we could change its nature so that it is no longer such a strong call to the goblinoid people.  The stories say that Khas made a deal with a fiend of some sort in its creation, and that its power is fiendish in nature.  Whether it was his fiendish ally or the sword itself, or some combination, that controlled his people, I’m not sure of.  But I fear it would subjugate the goblin tribes against their will, even if there were not so many willing to blindly follow the sword because of the stories.

We did learn that it was not the loose tongues of our companions, the dark lanterns, or anyone in Droaam that led this tribe to Artemis’s doorstep.  Rather, it was the tribe’s Dirgesinger who had a vision and brought them here.  He told me more of this prophecy, which seems both dire and cryptic:

	On the Red Moon will come the Firestorm
	The one bonded to the blade will watch
	As their people die
		If they do nothing, then they and all those they love
		Will die in its heat
			For no blade, forged of steel or conjured by sorcery
			Can touch this foe 

I will have to think on it a great deal before I reveal it to the rest of my companions, for I would like to have explanations to offer the inevitable questions, rather than let it get confused in a morass of ignorant speculation.  I did ask the Dirgesinger about Alderash and Acheron, of which he knew little, and gave into his keeping the Dirgesong of Alderash we had found amongst his son’s grave goods.  I hope I made it clear enough to the Dirgesinger that I will take it amiss if the saga is damaged or destroyed, but he did not seem one to be overtaken by ancient religious zeal.

We decided to move the tribe down into the Closed Circle, because I did not know where else I could put them.  I was fairly sure they would not simply go away.  I thought Artemis would be pleased that I got them out of his courtyard, but he told me rather tartly that it wasn’t HIS courtyard.  I believe he was implying that he felt the Closed Circle was HIS and that I had violated its sanctity by leading the goblin tribe there.  However, I believe the place will be better off if it has some guardians; for all that it was a “secret” hideout of a cult before Artemis and his friends took possession of it, it is impossible to keep the location of any habitable place from the denizens of the lower wards for long if you do not have the strength to guard and hold it.  I always expect when Conshru and I return that we will find another cult has taken over in our absence.

While I was in the Closed Circle, I managed to get away from the others long enough for a small bit of peace for myself.  I had intended to meditate on all that I had learned, but instead found my golden-eyed goblin waiting for me!  This time, he gave me his name: Alistra’Vorhak.  He told me that I figure prominently in the Draconic Prophecy and that my fate is entwined with my quest (does he mean the quest for the sword or the truth of the ancient goblin empire?  I tried to ask him, but he will be cursed if he answers any questions of mine!).  He told me only that I must study the prophecy, for it holds the secret to my fate.  Study the prophecy, indeed.  Have not the Dragons been studying it for more years than I could live, even if I lived a peaceful life, and still they disagree with each other on its meaning!  

Alistra’Vorhak did tell me that I must cut two heads from the three-headed beast to assume my rightful rule.  This reminded me of a song by Artemis’s elven friend, Maya, who was with us on the wretched flight of the Golden Dragon.  Her song is something about the three-headed bull of house Cannith and compares it to the current three “leaders” of the house who are vying for supremacy.  I believe Artemis and his friends have, in the past, worked for two of those leaders, and the third might be the patron of our Kaarnathi adversary.  Of course, there are many literal three-headed beasts in the world, so it may not have anything to do with House Cannith (and what have I to do with Cannith politics?  And would I want to be a ruler, if I had the chance?).  It was a day of questions, certainly.

In addition to a few more cryptic warnings “Beware the Trine.”  “The Ice Queen stirs.”  “In your moment of dire need, follow the way of the Dirge Singer.”, he introduced me to a clever, adorable little spiretop dragon, whom he said would accompany me as his gift.  The little dragon’s name is Astralininan Moonscale, and I am quite enchanted with him.  In fact, his arrival distracted me from the infuriating old goblin long enough for him to slip away while I was introducing myself to Astralininan.  I think I will call him Astral here, because the rest will turn only to scribbles when I am writing in a hurry.  He says he won’t mind terribly, as he would rather have a shortened name than a mangled one.

The general has gifted me with four goblin guards (a day of gifts as well as questions!) trained in stealth and the deadly arts.  At first I thought to refuse their company, because I did not want to explain, among other things, the Key to them, nor did I wish to be responsible for their deaths.  However, I judged that it would be almost impossible to convince the general or the “honor guard” to abandon the plan and perhaps they will be useful for guarding the camp at night or scouting (the rest of my companions are not, in general, very stealthy and the guards seemed quite capable of remaining unseen). 

After we settled the goblin tribe, I was able to find a wand with a spell of electrical orbs, which would enable me to damage the black elven sorceress, should we meet her again, and Conshru found another wand of healing (we have using these up at an alarming rate).  Artemis had been busy in our absence as well – he had arranged to sell most of the items we had collected in our various battles, of which we received half the money now with the promise of the rest when the items sold.  This would have been more welcome if I were able to find someone to sell me that ring I desire so greatly.

Just before we left Artemis’s tower, via the Key, his steward once again rushed up to him carrying a small package.  He said that it had been delivered some time ago, but he had put it aside and forgotten it until now. Artemis asked us to wait a moment while he opened the package, which proved to be a message from one of his former companions, an elf by the name of Kylara.  Although she left before I met them, it seems her message may lead me, along with my companions, to new places in the future, so I have recorded it here in case I need to remember it:


Artemis –

I hope this finds you well.  I have been very busy in Karnaath and I believe I will soon be allowed to join the ranks of the Deadgrim.  I once promised to his people that I would come and sing the song of Ythryk’s deeds and death.  Did I ever tell you they visited me when they came for his body?  In any case, here is the token they bade me bring.  As I cannot possibly do this for quite some time, I hope I can trust you to complete the task in my stead.

Light shine upon you,

Iriethyra Kylara Elorenthi, Deathspeaker for Avolyn Elorenthi


As we re-entered the ruins of the Halls of Acheron, as I have determined they were called, Conshru revealed that he had discovered the elemental dragonshards would allow him to command creatures of the elements.  This was good news, for none of us wished to risk being dropped into the chasm below, especially since we had destroyed most of the webbing that had so fortuitously saved some of our number in the last fight.  When we came to the platform before the bridge, Conshru summoned up a small, comical looking lizard that ran across the bridge and triggered the trap in the center.  

The air elemental sprang into being and whisked the little lizard off the bridge and into the chasm below.  As it moved towards us, Conshru held forth the dragonshard and a field of elemental power surrounded us, keeping the creature at bay.  Conshru struggled against the elemental’s will but could not win out.  He could keep it at bay but not command it.  His attempts to herd it into the portal were also fruitless, for the elemental was too canny for that.

The summoning eventually expired and the elemental disappeared.  It did not, as we had hoped, once again power the portal upon its dissipation.  It would either have to be destroyed or commanded to enter the portal.  Artemis began to prepare with a spell to enhance his presence and asked Conshru to allow him an attempt at controlling the elemental.  Conshru handed over the dragonshard with good grace; but before the trap could be triggered, I suggested that there might be some magic in it that would make the dragonshard work better in the hands of one with goblinoid blood (me, naturally).  After all, we had found them in Alderash’s son’s tomb, had we not?  Artemis agreed, perhaps with a little reluctance (he does like to experiment with new magic.  Perhaps I should have let him make the attempt first?  It would have hurt nothing… ).  

Conshru turned Grix from a fastieth into a flying dinosaur of some kind and went out onto the bridge to trigger the trap.  I exerted my will through the shard as another elemental (or was it the same one?) came into being.  Before it could sweep Conshru and Grix off the bridge, I had its attention, though at first I could not overcome its will.  However, with a great deal of concentration, I did manage to overcome the elemental’s reluctance and drive it into the portal!  We did not have time to celebrate, because the portal would only function as long as the duration of the original summoning, so we all hurried across the bridge (Azlin was brought across by Artemis’s magic, being very uncertain on the narrow path).  Quickly, I touched the Stone of Kings to the symbols that I believed would take us to Cazhaak Draal.  The portal flared and stretched like quicksilver, before it steadied into a flat, mirror-like surface.  I straightened my shoulders, looked to my companions to confirm that they were ready, and walked into the portal.

Only belatedly did it occur to me that if we found the right place, we would very likely be entering the heart of the Kaarnathi excavations!


----------



## sniffles (Nov 8, 2007)

*Revised character intro*

I realized in looking back at this thread that my introduction of Azlin was done in a completely different narrative style than her subsequent entries. 

I've revised the original post to keep the style more in line with the way I've written the rest of my entries. 

I'm also putting all of the old "Quips & Quotes" sections in sblocks, since some of those are nearly as long as the actual session writeups.


----------



## sniffles (Nov 9, 2007)

*Azlin's tale, part 10*

Before we step through the portal, I call upon the Host to place a blanket of silence on my armor, since we don't know if anyone will be waiting on the other side. I lay my hand on Sten and extend the power to him, too.

I'm still smarting that I didn't even think to use the Host's power to turn aside that living whirlwind that attacked us. But I guess in a way that's a good thing. If I'd destroyed it we wouldn't have been able to open the portal.

We step through into darkness, the whole crowd of us. Now we've got four extra goblins with us, plus that little dragon Gwaenna just acquired. I hope it's not going to be a repeat of the flying critter Conshru had.

We're in a small room, full of the dust and litter of ages. No one's been here for a very long time. There are several doors out; I stand next to each for a moment to sense if there's anyone on the other side. Good thing this place has stone floors.

It's a little hard to sense with so many people standing around, now that we've got not only Dresden with us but also Gwaenna's "honor guard". 

Conshru keeps asking me, 'Want to see what I can do?" I'm not sure I want to know.

There's nobody here. The other doors all lead to storerooms, empty except for a nasty-smelling pool in one of them. The doors are all swollen with age and Sten has to cut the hinges to get them open. 

We must be in an outside room. There are arrow slits in the walls. Sten knocks the debris out of one and looks out. We're in some kind of tower.

The last door we try opens onto a landing. Stairs go down. There's a rotunda in the next area, overlooked by a balcony, with a fancy mosaic on the floor below. Above we can see a glass dome. It must be some kind of enchanted glass, because it's still intact though covered in ages of filth.

I'm checking more doors. It's really quiet in here. Gwaenna flies out over the rotunda. She thinks she saw something. It's infuriating her goblin guards that they can't fly with her. It's almost funny.
[sblock]
Jubilee: "I'm thinking of getting a ring of _evasion_. They seem to be a dime a 	dozen. All my goblin ninjas have one."
sniffles: "You get one when you graduate from ninja school."
[/sblock]
Gwaenna yells, "They're cockatrices!" That could be trouble. I pull on the goggles the illithid gave us. Conshru shouts his favorite word, "Fire!" and a huge blast of flames shoots down to the level below us. 
[sblock]
Patv: "These are googles of what?"
Jubilee: "Goggles of gaze protection."
Zora: "No, they're googles of searching."

DH: "They (the cockatrices) are about the size of turkeys."
Jubilee: "Turkeys can't fly."
Patv: "Maybe we should tell them that so they'll fall."
[/sblock]
When Gwaenna flies down to investigate all she finds is a bunch of charred bones.
[sblock]
Jubilee: "I'm searching for their nest and squishing any eggs."
Devo: "Those are worth a lot of money!"
Jubilee: "Yeah, but I don't want them to hatch while I have them. I don't want to be stoned."
Devo: "Baby cockatrices just give you a little high."
[/sblock]
We may have made too much noise, though - someone's blowing a horn off in the distance. Or maybe it's just meal time or shift change. 

Gwaenna found a way to see out. She says the tower overlooks the city and the streets are full of statues. Then she stops herself - "No, they're not statues. They're petrified people!"

Slag it, that means this place is probably swarming with medusas. 

From the tower we can see two areas of interest. There's a bunch of people off toward the mountains, and to the east we can see something being built, something tall with a wooden scaffold around it. We have no idea what that could be. 

We decide to go out and investigate. We creep out of the tower and start making our way carefully through the twisty streets, heading for the crowd of people we saw. 

We don't get far before there's trouble. Gwaenna was right - the figures in the streets are all petrified people, and there are medusas here. Medusas riding on gorgons, for Arawai's sake!

Conshru is riding ahead and runs into it first. Oh, and while we worry about that, let's have some gargoyles show up, too! I'm standing right next to one. I thought it was a statue until it moves. 

The first thing I can think to do is turn the Host's power against it. "Get back!" I shout. To my relief, it backs off.
[sblock]
Zora: "I'm going to spell and run."
Jubilee: "What are you going to spell?"
Zora: "Fireball."
[/sblock]
Curse it to Khyber - the medusa has turned Dresden to stone! And Gwaenna's not happy about having one of her guards petrified, either.

Everyone's talking excitedly. Conshru - or was it Artemis? I'm not quite sure - just roasted the medusa and her steed with a ball of fire. Glory! 

I can feel the connection with the gargoyle - I can command it and it has to obey me! Praise the Host. I think to it, "Keep a watch and warn us if you see medusas coming toward us. Don't tell the others you've seen us.". I like this. 
[sblock]
sniffles: "What should I tell it to do?"
Zora: "You could ask it if it has any good ideas of what you should tell it to do."
DH: "Here's the user manual."
[/sblock]
But Conshru says the gorgons can smell us. And one gargoyle won't keep us safe from all the others flying overhead. There's nothing for it but to leave Dresden and the goblin guard behind. We'll have to try to come back for them later.

Artemis says, "Get closer. I'll make us invisible, but if you get too far apart you'll be visible again." We can all still see each other. We must look ridiculous, the whole crowd of us creeping along on one another's heels - or we would if anyone could see us.

We pause, and Artemis calls up another spell to cloak us even further, so the gorgons won't be able to smell us and we leave no tracks. He's clever, that human.

There's an open square up ahead. That's where the crowd we saw is located. It's a bunch of gnolls, apparently standing guard over some excavation. Xil's been a gnoll the whole time, so he creeps off and pretends he belongs there to check out the area.

When he returns he says they've got a signal gong. "We need to take that out first," says Artemis. "I'll silence it." Ready for a fight, we get closer so he can center his spell on the gong. 

Most of the gnolls don't even notice when it gets unnaturally quiet around them. We're going to try to draw the rest to us so Conshru can roast them.

It worked! They're coming this way. I don't even need to fight. Gwaenna and Conshru are taking care of most of them. The last gnoll breaks and runs, but Conshru burns him to a crisp.
[sblock]
sniffles: "He was slightly browned before but now he's toast."
Jubilee: "He's a blackened chicken gnoll."
[/sblock]
But all the fire has drawn the gargoyles. We don't have time to move the bodies. There's a rope hanging down in the pit. Artemis climbs down. Sten follows. So do I.

It's some kind of tomb. The open chamber has writings all over the walls. Gwaenna is fascinated. But there's a spell on the door. A mouth opens and addresses Artemis by name! "If you're here, I can only assume you've avoided my patrols. Welcome, Artemis. I hope you find what you're looking for, but alas, you're going to be too late. I've left you a nice surprise. Hopefully we will never meet again.'

Blast him to Khyber, it's that damned Cannith artificer who's working with the Karrnathi. Artemis mutters, "Damn, I hate him."

I have a funny feeling. "There's something else in here," I tell my friends. "Where?" they ask. But I can't tell where - only that there are four creatures in here that aren't with us.

There are four crates in the tomb. They're breaking apart! Some kind of creatures inside. One of them hits Artemis with a limb.

Artemis stumbles back out of the chamber, his belt falling around his feet. The buckle has disintegrated. His boots are flopping around his ankles, their buckles also gone. 

I jump to the doorway and pray to Onatar, "Let me shape this stone!" The stone flows under my hands, covering the doorway. I can hear the creatures scrabbling against the other side. I hope they're not strong - that wall I made isn't very thick.

Sten cuts a narrow hole in my wall with his arm blade and starts shooting the creatures. Gwaenna and Conshru take turns firing through the opening too. It doesn't take them long to kill the monsters.

But now there are things at the edge of the pit above us - probably gargoyles. My new gargoyle friend can't do anything against so many. Someone's yelling down at us - the voice sounds familiar. It's that artificer again. I'd like to give him a taste of my hammer.

Artemis tries to make a deal with him, to swap him the stone for our freedom. The other artificer just laughs when Artemis says the stone is in a Kundarak vault in Sharn.. "You've probably got it in your pocket. I'll come back in a few days when you've all suffocated and go through your pockets myself," he sneers.

He still thinks he's got us trapped. He's got the gargoyles lowering a heavy cover over the pit. He's expecting us to suffocate down here - ha!
[sblock]
sniffles: "I so want to be here in a few days when he comes back to check and we're not here! Sten doesn't breathe - he could stay behind and use autohypnosis to memorize the expression on that guy's face."
[/sblock]
But the last laugh is ours. Artemis just created a door in the wall of the pit! We'll wait until the cover is set in place, and then calmly walk through the door and back into Artemis's subterranean lair beneath Sharn.

Blast it, I don't have any way to bring that gargoyle with me! Almost everyone else has some kind of creature to help them. It would have been fun, having a gargoyle at my beck and call. I wonder if I can tell it to come to me and it will fly to Sharn?


----------



## sniffles (Nov 25, 2007)

*Azlin's tale, part 11*

*I updated the previous entry slightly. I was mistaken that we'd already returned to Sharn at the end of last session.*
--sniffles
------------------
[sblock]
Devo: “I should leave a _magic mouth_ behind for the other artificer.”
Zora: “How many words is ‘phppptttt!’?”
[/sblock]
We look around the crypt a little before we leave. Looks like our adversaries opened all the other tombs but one. Conshru’s on watch – he says he heard something. And he found a recent bloodstain on the floor. There’s something down here with us.

“Something humanoid!” he yells. I head toward him. Artemis and Sten go that way, too. Something doesn’t like the light. I can see them silhouetted against the torchlight. They’re coming up a narrow passage toward us! 

Some kind of eyeless creatures in crude leather armor rushes Grix and bowls him over. Conshru sticks to the saddle like a spider on a wall. 

A second blind creature runs up behind the first and takes a swing at the halfling.  Grix leaps back on his feet and Conshru rolls out of the way of the axe blow, then bursts into flames! The blind thing is scorched. Conshru’s grinning like a madman. 

The first creature that attacked Conshru is right in front of me now. It swings a huge two-handed axe at me. Ow! It cut right through my armor. They’re all swarming down the passage to get to us. I can’t tell how many there are – the passage is just too narrow. It’s starting to smell of burnt flesh where they’re running into Conshru’s flames.

I give the nearest one a couple of whacks with my waraxe, chopping through the ill-fitting chain shirt it wears. Just for good measure I use my enchanted bracers so I can hit him one more time. 

Suddenly Conshru emits a tremendous roar, like a herd of stampeding dinosaurs. I’m glad I’m not in front of him. I see at least a dozen of the blind creatures flinch from the noise and crumple to the floor. “Ha!” I yell, shaking my axe at the few still standing.

But there are still more of them. Artemis and Sten are shooting at them. Gwaenna appears and slashes one with her sword. The passage is full of smoke now. 
[sblock]
Devo: “Why would grimlocks find smoke a problem?”
sniffles: “Somebody told them about it.”
[/sblock]
One of the creatures surges out of the smoke and knocks me off my feet. I fall next to Gwaenna. I start to get back up when I hear her say something arcane and feel a tingle of magic that lifts me to my feet. Conshru blasts two creatures with flames. Both of them fall, cooked like a roast for dinner. 
[sblock]
Zora: “If you’re going to stand next to me you’re going to catch on fire.”
Devo: “At the end of your turn.”
[/sblock]
They’re all dead now. All wearing some kind of ancient hobgoblin armor according to Gwaenna, though they’re not hobgoblins. There’s still some noise from the other end of the passageway. Guess we’ll have to check it out.

It opens out into a cavern. My friends precede me into the space. Something’s attacking Sten! I can hear the struggle, but the passage is full of corpses and I can’t get through them quickly.

There’s a weird warbling cry from the cave. “Chokers!” Gwaenna yells. I hurry, but it seems like the blind things’ arms and legs are trying to trip me. When I finally make it to the cave entrance, I pause to pray to the Host and extend some of their aid to those of my companions that are close enough to me.

My friends are still struggling with something in the cave. Now there’s a disturbing moaning sound coming from somewhere beyond us. Gwaenna yells that there are more of the blind creatures there. We certainly stirred up a hornets’ nest down here.

By the time I get all the way into the cave the chokers are dead, but Conshru thinks there are more of the blind creatures coming – and he’s right. Gwaenna moves up to attack them. Two of them grab hold of her but she shrugs them off. 

Another one grabs Conshru and tries to pluck him off Grix. The halfling and his dinosaur struggle with a big one. I move in, swinging my axe. “Azlin, don’t get too close to Conshru,” Artemis warns as I move past him. Then he brandishes a wand and fills a corner of the cave with flames.
[sblock]
DH: “Something emerges out of the shadows.”
Devo: “I hate those guys.”
sniffles: “What the hell is that?”
Devo: “One of those guys I hate.”
[/sblock]
There’s a big, barbaric-looking creature in front of me so I give it a good chop. But now something else emerges into the cavern. It lashes at me and Gwaenna with tentacles. I feel a faint weakness from the tentacle’s touch. 
[sblock]
sniffles: “Stop touching me! Bad touch.”
[/sblock]
Gwaenna slashes the tentacled thing with her sword, sending a bolt of lightning and a jet of flame through the blade at the same time! The thing’s flesh twitches and burns as it crumples. Then she follows through with a swing at the big creature but can’t quite hit it.

I shake off a bit of tentacle still clinging to my arm. The blind creature grabs at Gwaenna again and she slices at him, then shrugs off his grip. She’s awfully strong for a goblin. 

The creature in front of me slumps at the touch of a spell from Artemis’s wand. I step back toward him and use my healing belt, though I don’t feel like it does much for me. Conshru steps up beside me and wields a wand, which makes me feel a bit better.

Sten calls out “There’s something in the shadows down there,” and fires one of his energy bolts at it. Artemis moves over by the warforged. Gwaenna looks kind of odd, like she’s fallen asleep standing up. “I believe the creature is doing something to them,” says Sten. I realize one of the eyeless things is threatening Gwaenna while she’s helpless. I utter a quick prayer to the Host and summon their vengeance to harm the creature.

Something swoops over the warforged. Sten slashes it with his purple blade. It’s like a big black cloak wound around his head. I can hear claws or teeth scraping on his metallic hide. He saws at it with his blade and its tattered remains fall away.

Grix leaps toward Gwaenna and Conshru strikes out with a blinding blast of flame at the big creature still looming over her.   I realize more creatures have entered the area – something like a cat on two legs and two things that look like brains with tentacles. I smell burning hair and flesh.

I feel the stones of the cavern tremble as Artemis sends a shockwave of magical energy at the cat-thing and the two tentacled brains. One of the brains sways and then falls. “Gwaenna’s in trouble!” Artemis shouts over his shoulder at her guards. The big eyeless creature hits her, but it doesn’t wake her from the trance.

 Someone shouts in a sinister voice. The floating brain that wasn’t dropped by Artemis’s spell surges toward Conshru. Another voice, one of the goblin guards I think, calls out that more blind creatures are coming. I call on the Host to send a moon bolt at the brain-creature, draining a little of its strength. 

Conshru jumps off Grix, hands moving in a complex gesture. A jet of flame shoots at the tiger creature but washes over it like water over stone. At the same time Artemis points a wand at the brain-thing and surrounds it with lightning, but that doesn’t have any effect either. And someone’s shooting a crossbow from somewhere – I can’t see where it’s coming from. This is looking bad.

A goblin appears out of nowhere and slays the blind creature that was menacing Gwaenna. She’s snapped out of the trance, praise the Host. And one of her other guards just made sure the fallen brain-thing stays fallen.

Onatar’s hammer! There are tentacles everywhere. The remaining brain-thing is trying to grab everyone at once. A tentacle slaps me. It wraps around me and hangs on. I can see little barbs trying to sink into my flesh but the Host protects me. I wrestle with the tentacle but can’t get free of its grasp.

Fire shoots across the cave. The tentacle holding me goes limp and the cat-creature roars with rage. Conshru bounds back astride Grix. Gwaenna produces a wand and sends a small orb flying at the cat-man. It sizzles where it hits his striped fur. 

Now I realize what the cat-thing is: a rakshasa from Khyber. “Dol Arrah preserve us!” I hiss. I wish I could remember more about them. 
[sblock]
patv: “They all eat Frosted Flakes.”
Zora: “And they’re grrreat.”
[/sblock]
 We all start backing toward the passageway to the burial chamber. Sten grabs Xil, who’s still entranced. “I think if we go away and don’t come back he’ll stop chasing us,” Gwaenna calls out. “He was trying to cast a spell on me to encourage me to leave.” 

I have no problem with following that advice. I’ve used up almost all of the magic the Host have granted me this day. And I’m getting tired of killing those blind creatures. I wish I could destroy this demon from Khyber, but I know I don’t have the power.

Praise Dol Arrah, Artemis’s invisible servants cleared most of the corpses out of the passage so we can get through faster this time. I get back into the tomb chamber pretty quickly. Artemis hangs back, and Sten hangs back to look after him. They’ve paused to look at something carved around the end of the passage, some kind of warding. It’s meant to hold the rakshasa there – he can’t pass through into the tomb. 

Artemis says to the demon, “We did not mean to disturb you.” Gwaenna says, “I don’t think he’s worried about that. I think he wants us to free him.” Then Conshru asks, “Would a spell to dismiss the magic work?” 

“We don’t want to do that!” I exclaim. “He’s an evil creature.” 

“I know your dreams and desires,” the rakshasa says. “I know a shortcut to the tomb of Khas.” “So do I,” Artemis answers. 

I find myself putting my hand in my belt pouch to feel the hammersphere there, just in case one of my friends is tempted. The demon is talking to Gwaenna, trying to tempt her with tales of the goblin empire she seeks. But she’s convinced that she’s fated to find what she seeks. I don’t have to resort to the sphere to stop her from helping him.

“Leave this place and do not enter my realm again,” the demon demands. “Leave so that I can recover the bodies of my children.” I think Gwaenna and Artemis are a little disappointed that we can’t loot the bodies of their mithral armor. “There isn’t any gold in the world you need badly enough to deal with a rakshasa,” I tell them. 

Artemis takes us back to his tower. It’s too quiet. Where are the servants?


----------



## sniffles (Jan 6, 2008)

*Azlin's tale, parts 12 - 14*

*I'm three sessions behind and we have another session scheduled for tomorrow, so this post is going to be rather compressed to get the story current.
--sniffles*
---------------------------------------------
"There's something wrong. No one's here," says Artemis. He's checking all the rooms. What's that overstuffed armchair doing on the landing? There's a halfing sitting in it like he owns the place. Artemis seems to know him. 

"What are you doing here?" he demands. The halfling just smiles. "You have something of mine and I've come to reclaim it."

The halfling claims the Key belongs to him!! That's a likely story. Gwaenna comes up the stairs to see what's going on and I explain this to her. Meanwhile Artemis keeps demanding more information and the halfling keeps smirking and ignoring his questions.

Artemis whips out one of his wands and blasts the halfling, but it doesn't seem to hurt him.

I say, "What proof do you have that the Key belongs to you?" The halfling acts like he doesn't hear me. He's going on about how the Key has powers "beyond the knowledge of mere mortals", which implies he's not mortal. Gwaenna wants to know what he is, then. He ignores her too.

I grab the halfling He doesn't resist. But when I try to pin him, he slips out of my grasp like a greased throwing axe.

Now Gwaenna wants to know what proof he has. He says, "Give me the Key and I'll show you." What fools does he take us for? Anyone can use the Key from what I've seen.

Poof! The halfling's across the room, by the fountain. How did he do that so fast? And now there's a red dragon in the middle of the room!

Gwaenna starts babbling at him in some tongue I don't speak. She sounds angry. She stops jabbering long enough to say the dragon is real, but I don't believe it. I call on Dol Arrah to show me his true form.

Well, that's a revelation! He is really a dragon, unless this is some incredibly powerful spell. What's a dragon doing in the middle of Sharn? I thought they never left Argonnessen. 

This dragon, Razelthorn, claims he made the Key and gave it to someone to see what would happen. Sounds like a troublemaker. 

Artemis tells the dragon that we want recompense for giving up the Key. Gold equivalent to its actual value. I cringe. That seems so mercenary.

But we've made a deal. In a week’s time we'll meet the dragon - in Xen'drik! - and hand over the Key for gold. Now we've got to finish our business with the Sword of Khas in a week.

Back to Graywall we go, to talk to the mind-flayer. At least we've still got the Key for a bit longer. 

But the mind-flayer says he can't offer an airship any more. Funny, on the way out we notice one moored up above! It's a snap decision, but we're going for it. I don't care for piracy, but if it will get us to the Sword first...

I can't believe I'm fighting to get on an airship. I have to run across a gangplank over the gap between the airship and the building it’s moored to. Boldrei’s braids I hate being up high! It's not an easy fight, but we've forced our way on board, praise the Host.

The captain agrees to take us to our destination, the goblin city in the mountains. It's an uneventful journey - until we arrive. Our enemies have set up camp all over the ruins. 

Dol Arrah preserve us! This place is cursed by living spells. Clouds of knives fly through the air at random. And worse yet, part of the ruins are in a field that blocks magic! 

Why is it that every airship I board ends up falling?

The Host's blessed us again - the ship stays aloft til we get out of the anti-magic zone. The anti-magic effect reveals something else: our captain is a changeling! Does Artemis know *everyone* we meet? Seems this is who the Key was taken from! 

And we've given our renegade Cannith "friend" a poke in the eye. Turns out his wyvern mount is being held under duress. Sten manages to set it free. Hah!

We can't hide that we're here, but at least we've got the Stone of Khas, and we know more than the Cannith and his Karrnathi friends. There's something about the weather vane on top of an old temple - it will tell us where to find Khas's tomb. We just have to wait til the moons are in the right position.

By moonslight we find the entrance. But there's something funny about the two columns by the door - they're not supporting anything. And they look sort of like women... Ah! They are women! Women of white stone. Nothing seems to hurt them. They're not earth creatures; I can't command them.

Oh-ho, but they're weak against magic! My blast of sound shatters one. We heal our hurts and head into the tomb.

Which way to go? There are many doors. And each has a sculpture of a hobgoblin head that speaks. Ugh. They speak in riddles. Gwaenna manages to puzzle out the right way to go.

At least we're alone. Well, maybe not. We see two more of those statue-women marching around, but they don’t pay any attention to us.

We're descending. There's a river down here. Odd inside a volcano. It's fast water. We have to cross by sliding down a rope. I never thought I'd say this, but I might actually prefer being flown across by Grix! 

Gah! Some sort of nasty creature on the cave roof grabs Gwaenna. I throw my hammer at it. Boldrei's braids, it's big. Lucky it doesn't fall on us when it dies.

What's that pile of stuff? And more importantly, what's that creature on top of it? It's bright in here - the thing has three heads, each a different color. Whatever it is, it doesn't want us touching its' shiny stuff. 
[sblock]
DH: "Oh no, bitter player face!"
Jubilee: "I'm not bitter. I'm just resigned."
[/sblock]
Nasty green breath! It burns. And the blue head is shooting lightning! It's hard to see now. Dol Arrah protects us. That thing's bitten off more than it can chew, so to speak. It may have three heads, but we outnumber it.
[sblock]
Devo: "Is Sten going zap-zap or zap-zap-zap?"
Patv: "Zappity doo dah...."
[/sblock]
Look at all this coin! I wonder where it came from? It's old. There's an enchanted horn, too. How did that creature get in here, anyway? It couldn’t have got past the statues at the gate.

Looks like there must be a passage beyond the rubble in this cavern. We still have to find the tomb and try to get out with the Sword before anyone else shows up. We’re all tired and it’s very late at night. We’ll have to hole up here til morning.


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## sniffles (Jan 7, 2008)

*Edits to last post*

I made a couple of additions to the last post to include some scenes I'd inadvertently omitted. We had to solve a puzzle involving some talking sculptured heads in order to find the right way to head for the tomb, and we crossed a raging underground river by making a zip-line with Artemis's _spool of endless rope_.


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## sniffles (Jan 25, 2008)

*Azlin's tale, part 15*

Artemis's invisible servants gathered up all the coin. They unblocked our path, too. Handy things to have, those servants.

We're going deeper and deeper. It's getting hotter and we can see orange light sometimes. 

Oh, the Host preserve me! Now we have to cross a Mockery-cursed rope bridge. Over a chasm of lava, no less. And my companions want to save all the flying in case we need it later.

Thank the Host that's over. We made it across safely. This cavern is vast! And it's so hot now. I'm baking in my armor. Onatar protect us all from the heat of his furnace. 

What's that glittering up ahead? I can't look - I've got to make sure I don't fall off this narrow causeway.

Agh! What in Boldrei's name is that?! A big floating head with no limbs and too many eyes. It wants to know what we're doing here. It's disgusting - its biggest eye is all rheumy and it drools when it speaks.

Gwaenna steps up and tells it her name and that she's here to fulfill a prophecy. It seems to know what she's talking about. It says she has to pass four tests. We can't help her on the first one. 

Who's that on the other side of the causeway? It looks like Xil. But he's right there!

Gwaenna draws her sword. But she's not trying to kill the other Xil, just knock him out. He's gone, and so is the eye-monster.

Wow! It's a whole chamber of dragonshards. That was a bright idea: Conshru turns the stone around them to mud so Artemis and Gwaenna can pull some of them out.

There's only one other way out of this chamber - down a lava tube. That still has lava flowing down it. But there's room for us to drop a rope down the tube. I can't climb that in my armor. 

It's a long drop, but we've made it to the bottom. There's a pool of lava here, and a horn on a sort of stand. What should we do with that? Gwaenna gives it a blast. 

Is that a boat gliding over the lava?

The hooded figure wants something to ferry us across. It doesn't speak. It just points at Gwaenna's sword. She hands it over. We each have to pay. It only wants magical things. I give it a potion. 

There's a building on an island. It has a colonnade like a temple. I suddenly feel slow - my boots aren't working! 

What's that coming out of the building? Two fiery demons. Gwaenna starts fighting them. I hit one with my axe - it's not a demon! It's a sort of centaur with horns. I yell to the others, "They're no demons!" They act like they don't believe me.

The centaur-things are dead, but they've nearly killed Gwaenna. Artemis says they had enchanted horseshoes. That's how their magic kept working.  He hangs one around Conshru's neck. The halfling heals Gwaenna.

Beyond the colonnade a skeleton sits on a throne. Next to the throne is a three-headed dog-like creature. Guess we've found Khas's tomb. But the dog-thing is still alive.

Gwaenna creeps across the room and grabs the black sword from Khas's bony hand. Uh-oh, this is bad. That sword is dangerous. I wish she'd just throw it in the lava.

The dog's woken up. It lets out a howl that sends Artemis and Xil cowering. Gwaenna's yelling at someone, but I don't think she's talking to us, or to the dog. And lava's starting to cover the floor! Oops, there went my throwing axe.

Gwaenna's trying to kill the dog. She keeps talking to someone - I think it's the sword. That's not good. By the sound of it the sword wants her to kill us. She's fighting it off for now, but how long will that last?

We have to get out. This whole place is sinking into the lava. The dog jumps in the lava and swims away. Gwaenna blows the horn again and the boatman returns. At least we don't have to pay this time.

The dog made a new passage, so we don't have to climb back up the rope. We're back on the bridge. The dog's fighting the eye-monster. Gwaenna starts attacking the monster instead of the dog? 

Good show! Conshru shapes the bridge into a ramp to dump the dog into the lava.  Too bad it didn't work. 

What's that giant eagle doing here? Oh, Artemis called it. Hurrah! It knocked the dog over.

Blast, that dog is tenacious. The eye-thing is dead, but I've nearly used all of my spells fighting this dog.

I could throw Gwaenna into the lava, sword and all. But I don't think it would do any good. With all the magic that artificer and his allies have at their command, they could probably recover it. We have to find some way to destroy it. And I can't kill my friend.


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## sniffles (Jan 25, 2008)

*Azlin's tale, part 16*

*This entry chronicles what will be our last session for a while. We're taking a break to return to another campaign. In order to get the story up to date I've compressed this entry a bit.

I've tried to make the narrative very stream-of-consciousness to give a sense of immediacy, but I realize that may make it difficult to figure out what's going on. Readers, feel free to ask questions.
--sniffles*
-------------------------------------
Now we're back at that cursed rope bridge. Ugh, it makes my stomach churn. 

By Dol Arrah's halberd! What is that? Something's shooting flaming bolts at us!! Oh ho, someone left some animated ballistae behind. Conshru's just reduced them to ash.

That's not all. It's that damned black-skinned sorceress again, with some dratted Karrnathi. And one of the undead has another black sword!

I can't get off the rope. One of the undead is fighting Sten ahead of me. But I let the one with the black sword feel some of the Host's searing light. 

Uh-oh, they've got reinforcements. Looks like they've captured our airship. Blast that Karrnathi! He just killed one of Gwaenna's bodyguards the way I'd kill a spider. He needs to be expunged from existence along with that sword.

There, that should slow them down some. Let them try getting around all those stone spikes! If things weren't so dire I'd laugh.

That renegade Cannith is so full of himself. He thinks he's got the upper hand. We're not giving in so easily. He'll be sorry he tangled with us. We won't let him get his hands on that sword.

Glory to the Host! Gwaenna's found the strength to cast aside the sword. But... no!! Damnit, it's not falling into the lava. It's just hovering there. Curse it to Khyber!

Artemis is so clever - he's talked the Deneith man into turning on the Cannith! The Deneith just clubbed the artificer over the head. The undead with the black sword has stopped fighting. I'd like to knock him off into the lava, but that will have to wait.

Gwaenna's so brave for such a little thing. She's facing the undead without her sword. She's not looking too good. I've got to get over there!

Praise the Host, I'm on solid ground, even if I do have to dodge my own spikes.

Who is this fellow, now? I haven't seen him before. I think I've heard Artemis mention Kaiber, though- and Kaiber seems to be after the black sword. That's not going to happen. 

Ouch! I didn't know Artemis could be so vindictive.

Boldrei's shield! That undead thing's back in the fight. Ha ha!! Artemis took care of him. It was funny to see him slip and fall.

No! Sten! He rushed the undead. They're falling over the edge... No, wait, it's only Sten whose fallen! 

Aaaahh!! Oh, Host preserve us, he's lopped off Gwaenna's head. No no no!

Stop, Conshru! Not you too. They're both going over the cliff, plunging into the lava. And the undead's damnable black sword is floating just like the other one. 

Our enemies have fled. We've got the Morgrave scholars, and the two swords. But what does it matter when so many of my friends are dead?
---------------------------------------
*Just to clarify what was going on, the Karrnathi contingent had a Death Knight with them who had another one of the sentient black swords in his possession. Artemis cast grease under his feet and Sten knocked him down, but he got back up again and either stabbed Sten or threw him into the lava (or both). 

He then beheaded Gwaenna. Then Conshru and his flying mount bull-rushed the Death Knight and they all went plunging into the lava. *


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