# Justinian's Erendar II Campaign (1/30/04 - Session 5a)



## Justinian (Oct 13, 2003)

Setting Note: This campaign takes place in a world with no gods (as soon as the story begins), meaning there are no clerics or paladins. These changes came about after magic disappeared about one thousand years ago, in the first Erendar campaign. Slowly, magic has returned to some classes, although some has drastically different requirements. Wizardry requires a sacrifice of blood, so wizards are generally feared and hated. To replace these classes, I've included some material from _Oriental Adventures_, particularly the shaman, shugenja, and sohei classes. Psionics is included, with psionics being the same as magic.


*The Beginning: The Disappearance of the Gods*
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It is Midsummer’s Day, and the Festival of the Sun has just begun in the city of Erendar. The people have been gathering since the previous day, and as the sun rises, there is a collective intake of breath as they anticipate the ritual manifestation of the Gods*.

But the twin thrones remain empty, and several seconds pass with none able to move in amazement. Never before in the history of Erendar had either of the Gods failed to appear for either of the two great festivals of the year, at Midsummer and Midwinter.

Runners are sent to the temples, but the Gods cannot be found. The most accomplished mages scry for them, and are unable to find a hint of their presence. At great cost and no small amount of embarrassment, the great sorcerer Naraji is contacted, but even he cannot discern a trace of the Gods on any known plane.

Erendar is in chaos. The Gods had ruled for nearly a millennium, and no one living remembers a time before their reign. After so long with no change in rulers, it takes nearly a day before the nobles begin to fight to fill the power vacuum.

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In the city of Sadir, several days by ship north along the coast, the rumors spread with rapidity. Due to traveling bards and the ubiquity of mages**, magical messages are able to be passed across the continent in hours, and before Midsummer’s Day is past, every major city in the Empire knows about the disappearance of the Gods. Many people immediately embark for the city of Erendar, planning to capitalize in some way on this event, or to investigate it.

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*Garaihn, the Protector of the City and Pontos, Lord of the Sea.
**Mages (psions) are the main users of magic in the world now, and there is a small academy in every major town or city.


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## Justinian (Oct 13, 2003)

*PCs:



Popo, gnome savant
Othi, elf druid
Baikal, human fighter
Vash, human shaman

Notable NPCs:



Wallace, human shaper
Haakon, orc psychic warrior
Riguallaun, gnome rogue
Iayen, human shugenja
Sigarda, orc sohei
Adrian, wild elf shaman
The brewer




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Session 1a: A Shipwreck, and a Meeting with Cannibals*


The good ship _Sea-Falcon_ left Sadir on the evening of Midsummer’s Day, carrying about two dozen people who were ready to depart immediately for Erendar. Though the sailors were worried about the disappearance of Pontos’s Lane*, the captain ignored their objections and pushed ahead. He had been able to charge a very good rate for this early passage, and didn’t intend to waste the opportunity.

The sea was relatively calm for the first three days of the voyage, and the sailors began to relax. The journey was half over, and nothing untoward had occurred. They stopped doubling the watches, and started consuming more of the ale, making up for lost time. Since none of them were cursed with foresight, most went drunk and unaware to their deaths. A mighty wind came up from nowhere, blowing the ship out to sea, and out of sight of land. The few sailors on watch were not skilled enough to face the challenge of the storm, and the ship was helplessly driven before the wind. A small set of islands appeared to the east, and the captain ordered the ship sent towards them. As it approached, a fog formed around the ship in a matter of seconds, causing the sailors to lose all hope. Those who were awake began to abandon the ship, but the captain, still thinking of his fares, began to wake the passengers. He packed them all on his skiff, and sailed in the direction of the islands, as best he could remember. Aided by some of the passengers, he managed to beach the boat on an unknown shore.

As soon as they left the boat, the fog vanished. Several hundred yards away, the _Sea-Falcon_ was fixed on a reef. As they watched, the ship suddenly broke in half and went under. Nothing came to the surface. No sailors swam to the beach, in fact, the sea was calm. The survivors stood in a small cove bordered by trees. The passengers discussed what actions should be taken, since some of them were more experienced in dangerous situations. It was agreed that they should bring the boat far up onto the beach, tie it to a tree, and camp nearby for the night. As some began arming themselves in preparation for any danger, others went through the ship’s supplies, cataloguing the food. Only minutes after they had landed, while they were still arguing over the schedule of rations, a hail of darts flew out of the forest. Some of the passengers died in that first attack, but most survived. Though no one knew their names, a merchant, a chandler, and blacksmith were the first casualties of the island. Immediately, the more warlike of the passengers prepared to fight back as a horde of small yellow humanoids poured out of the trees. They looked like twisted halflings, and fought with dart and claw.

First to charge the enemy was Sigarda. She was successful in her attack, spitting one of the enemy on her blade, but was soon surrounded. Wallace summoned an ectoplasmic form to draw fire, and indeed, many of the small humanoids attempted to attack it. Baikal sheathed his spiked chain and began to attack with a bow, not wanted to get surrounded like Sigarda. The second wave of darts flew out, split between more targets this time. The captain took several darts, though, and dropped unconscious to the ground. Othi, Popo, and Riguallaun began to attack with their bows and crossbows, with little effect. However, Vash’s wolf companion charged into battle beside Sigarda. Iayen, screaming a war cry, rushed into battle with her longsword, but was clearly outclassed. Adrian informed those near him that these creatures were known as tasloi, and began to heal the captain.

As the tasloi continued to attack, the wisdom of Wallace’s summonings became apparent. Though his ectoplasmic allies killed few of the tasloi, they were also less likely to hit by claw and dart. Sigarda continued to cut through the tasloi, and Vash’s wolf was almost as dangerous. The battle was clearly turning against the small attackers, but they refused to flee. Without warning, another hail of darts came out of the forest on the other side of the cove, hitting Adrian and the noncombatants (sailors, a brewer, and a blacksmith) that he had brought with him to shelter in the boat. At this, Baikal abandoned his bow and rushed into battle with his spiked chain, wreaking havoc on the second line of tasloi. Vash joined Adrian in healing, and Riguallaun also turned to face this new enemy, with better result.

Quickly, the tasloi realized that even on two fronts they were outclassed, and fled. Sigarda, the wolf, and the crossbows of Popo and Riguallaun accounted for several as they fled, however, with only a few escaping. After this, the group burned the bodies in a huge pyre and set up watches for the evening. As they made their preparations, a screeching started in the forest, but the tasloi did not attack again. Instead, they screeched all night, attempting to disturb the group’s rest.

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*In return for offerings, Pontos maintained a sea lane between some cities free of enemies and storms, and with constant wind.

_Edited to add the brewer to the list of NPCs. He was a popular man. Luckily, he survived._


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## Justinian (Oct 13, 2003)

*Session 1b: Deals with Fish, and Stepping into the Unknown*

In the morning, some decided to track the tasloi, while Wallace, Haakon, and Adrian remained behind with the noncombatants. The others headed into the forest, following a faint trail that ran toward the center of the island. Along the way, they were ambushed by many tasloi, but repelled them easily. Again, the tasloi tried to flee when the skirmish turned against them, and one even tried to surrender, gasping it out in broken Common. The party killed the fleeing tasloi and captured the verbose one for later “discussion”.

About four hours down the trail, they found the tasloi village, a small collection of ramshackle huts draped with sailcloth grouped at the bottom of a valley. No sign of life could be seen, and there were only a couple dozen huts, so it was assumed that the tasloi had been fully defeated. The unusual thing in this valley was the existence of a tower, or more accurately, the lower half of a tower. At about thirty feet up, it stopped, as if some mighty force had melted the walls away. Small outbuildings surrounded the tower, and the party went down to investigate them. After an hour or so of searching, leaving the tower carefully alone, nothing had been found other than the remains of the tasloi’s looting except for a wide tunnel leading downward. They marked the tunnel for inspection, and started searching the tower. It was simply laid out inside, with only two floors. A circle was trodden into the dirt on the lower floor, and on the upper floor a complex magical diagram was drawn, right above the circle. On searching the room, Riguallaun found an invisible staff, a secret compartment, and a notch in the floor. The secret compartment contained an fearsome mask, sized for a tasloi. The one they had captured was very free with information, and explained that the tasloi shaman wore the mask when he sent prisoners to their god. Apparently the tasloi worshipped the sky, or something living in the sky. Questioning the tasloi proved frustrating, and finally they gave up. Iayen, experienced in the ways of magic, determined that the diagram was a conjuration spell, but inactive, and Othi placed the staff in the notch. This caused the diagram to activate, and Popo considered it likely that they were seeing a _teleportation circle_.

This was a little too risky to explore at the time, so they decided to see about the tunnel. Othi, Popo, Vash, and Baikal headed into the darkness, while the others guarded the top. After traveling downwards for the length of two torches, they came upon a crossing in the tunnel, and more importantly, a kua-toa patrol. Baikal moved first, his crossbow bolt plunging deep into the leader’s head, staggering him instantly. The leader cried out “Stop! We surrender! If you killed tasloi, we make deal with you.” The group decided to stand down, and further dialogue revealed that the kua-toa were causing the fogs, and the tasloi paid them with bodies from the ships to eat. The tasloi took the wood and sails from the ships to make houses, since their lack of building skills ensured that most of the huts lasted only a few months. Apparently this had been going on for about two years, though the kua-toa wouldn’t or couldn’t tell how many ships had been taken this way. The group decided to sell the dead tasloi bodies to the kua-toa, and managed to bargain for 25 gold and 25 silver each, expressed to the kua-toa as a number of “piles that big”.

After selling the corpses to the kua-toa, the party gave the shaman mask to their tasloi prisoner, freed him, and informed him that he was the shaman now. They placed the staff in the floor notch, and walked through the circle...


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## Baikal (Oct 14, 2003)

The brewer was so notable! Bad enough to be stuck on a sub-tropical island, but stuck without beer! Unthinkable.

 

Baikal


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## Justinian (Oct 14, 2003)

The brewer has been added to the list. Even though he didn't have enough time to brew anything on the island


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## Justinian (Oct 23, 2003)

The thread for commenting about the plot of the campaign, or changes to _OSM_, or related such queries, is here: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67091

That thread is off-limits for my players, since I know some of you read these boards.

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*Session 2a: Introducing Of Sound Mind*

A wide plain stretched out around the confused adventurers and frightened commoners. There was no sign of recent human habitation or _teleportation circles_ of any kind. After looking around, some of the group realized that the mountains to the north were the Barrier Mountains. With that clue, they decided to head southwest, which should lead them to the farmlands of the Chamavir*.

After five days of walking through the plains, stretching their rations to the brink, the group came upon civilization. A large river flowed past from the north to south, and a lone farmhouse could be seen on the other side. With some difficulty, but aided by a raft, they crossed the river and asked for shelter for the night. The farmer was glad to put them up in his barn and share his dinner for a little gold, and he also was anxious to hear any gossip. He was disappointed to find out that they had been at sea, but when Baikal told the story of their adventures, he was amazed. Baikal was just happy to have some ale again.

In the morning, they headed to the nearest small village to try and find a way back to Erendar that didn’t involve walking. The elder there was more than happy to break up his uninteresting day by talking to them, and they asked him what their options were for getting back to Erendar.
“Well, you could walk it. Takes about four to six weeks, depending on how fast you go.” They knew about that, and wanted a better option.
“You could go to the city and buy horses. Much less time that way, although if you buy cheap horses, they won’t get you far.” After some discussion, the group decided that the money from the tasloi bodies wasn’t enough to buy a full set of horses, so that option wasn’t going to work.
“So...you want to go fast, but cheap. Is that about right?”
They conferred for a minute, and Sigarda remembered something about the Chamavir traders, “Actually, yes. We were hoping that we could hire one of the barges that you use to ship grain down to the city.”
“Well, those barges only run at certain times, and they’re expensive to send up and down the river. Without any crops in them, that’s pure loss. I’m afraid that would be even more expensive for you than the horses.”

The party was disappointed at this, and began to break up a little bit. Sigarda decided to go to the city, and see if she could find some paying adventures. Iayen wandered off looking for trouble, and suddenly they realized that Adrian had slipped off sometime on the journey from farm to village.

After they left, as the rest of the group was sitting in the elder’s house, thinking of options, suddenly he spoke up again.
“Actually, I’ve thought of something. You want cheap, and fast? You can take one of the barges, but under my conditions. I’ve got a problem, you see. We’re one of the few villages near a river, so we supplement our food trade in the off seasons by shipping goods in from further north and sending a barge downriver when we fill it. Usually this is metalwork from some of the dwarven clans, or art and other nonperishables from nearby towns. One of our most regular suppliers is the small town of Bellhold. It’s relatively famous for its copper work, and there is a good market for it in Erendar. They send a wagon every month, right on schedule. They’ve missed the last two months, though, and I’ve been worried. A wandering psion came through a couple weeks ago and said he’d look into it, but he never came back. Since the town is only three days away, walking, he’s definitely overdue. If you go check it out, and bring in the missing copper work, I’ll send you on a barge with what we have, even if it isn’t full. How does that sound?”

The party agreed to see what was going on. Despite the lack of pay, it promised a shorter trip when they’re done.

Wallace decided to stay with the Chamavir, and possibly visit a dwarf clan or two, with Haakon in tow. The remaining adventurers discussed their upcoming mission, and decided to split any reward that they found. They spent the night in town, and left the next morning.

Two days later, the group reached the river again, and saw the mountains ahead to the north. According to their information, Bellhold was less than one day away, on a relatively easy road through the foothills. They continued on down the road, and around midafternoon, saw the first sign of human habitation. A man was standing in the road, trying to catch a pair of horses. When they walked up, he began talking almost immediately, introducing himself and asking for help. His name was William, and his horses weren’t cooperating this morning. Othi got in touch with his inner animal, and successfully bridled the horses, but he noticed small scars on their heads. William explained that the horses had run away the week before, and they had just returned that day. He invited them in for dinner, and the party accepted.

Over dinner, they questioned William about the town of Bellhold. He was quite talkative, especially after he and Baikal begin drinking each other under the table. When asked about the copper shipments, William couldn't remember seeing any of the wagons go by recently. In fact, he said the last visitors he had received were a group of townsfolk hunting for some lost children. William explained that he had lived outside of town for years, ever since the dragon was defeated. A collective gasp went up around the table, and some suggested leaving town. Quickly, William added that the dragon had been dead for almost forty years. He said that it had controlled the townsfolk, forcing them to mine copper endlessly. He said that it was a huge blue crystal creature**, and it ruled the town from its lair in the mountain. Finally, a group of adventurers came through the area and destroyed the dragon, but half of them died. After the citizens were freed, William moved out of town to live by himself. He didn’t want to work in the copper mines, even when it was managed by a human instead of a dragon. When asked, William was able to tell why the town was named Bellhold.

Apparently, to celebrate the death of the dragon, a bellmaker in town had sworn to craft the biggest and loudest bell ever, to warn people in the future. When he was done with it, the town built a belltower in the central plaza, and installed the bell at the top. The bellmaker went up to ring it, and it was indeed the loudest bell ever. When people went to investigate, the sound of the bell at close quarters had killed him, although it’s possible that he died happy. The town renamed itself to Bellhold, and the making of bells (smaller ones) to commemorate this had become common. The bell remained in the belltower, but no one ever rung it again. A smaller bell was placed below it, and that was used for alarms. The party questioned William about the copper trade wagons, and he admitted that he hadn’t seen them go by on schedule lately. However, he didn’t know why this was, since he only went into town every few months for supplies. At this point, William reminded them drunkenly that he was very good friends with Tokket, one of the heroes that killed the dragon, and Tokket always gave him free food at the bar. He invited the party to breakfast with him tomorrow at the inn, and the party agreed. They requested to stay the night in his house, and William didn’t take a whole lot of convincing at this point to give in.

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*The Chamavir are a large tribe of peaceful orcs that farm an area of land south of the Barrier Mountains, which run roughly diagonally across the continent that Erendar is on, from southwest to northeast. The Chamavir have racial adjustments of +2 Con and –2 Int, and have favored class: druid. There is a single major city in their land, and many small cities that have just a tavern, an elder who nominally governs it, a few shops, and the numerous buildings necessary to store crops in.

**Campaign note: Gem dragons are psionic constructs similar to golems that have slightly lesser psionic powers than as written and lack any psionic resistance similar to the spell resistance of golems. Naturally, Popo noted that William was talking about a renegade creation rather than a true dragon, and this also helped to reassure the party somewhat.


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## Justinian (Oct 23, 2003)

*Session 2b: When Horses Attack!*

In the morning, William was preparing to leave for town when Othi asked if he could go check the horses. William agreed, and Baikal decided to go with Othi. He cast _speak with animals_, and began with a simple “Hello.” The horses appeared nervous, and didn’t want to approach him. They shuffled farther out into the field, lowering their heads to graze and turning away. Baikal’s trained survival instincts kicked in, and he drew his bow. Othi followed the horses farther into the field, and was shocked when one of them suddenly turned on him, attacking with the slavering jaws of a wolf instead of a horse’s mouth. He barely stayed upright, and fled immediately. Baikal took a shot at the horse, but missed, and then felt the unpleasant sensation of an outside force controlling his body. He fought it off, and yelled for help in counterpoint to Othi’s screams. As Vash, Popo, and Riguallaun came out of the house, Baikal slowly backed up from the horse’s attacks, drew his spiked chain, and hit it. Othi healed himself, and drew his shortbow to attack, but missed. Vash and his wolf moved forward to attack and missed as well. The horse couldn’t hit Baikal, but kept attacking. Popo and Riguallaun both shot at the horse, and only Popo hit. Othi and Baikal both missed this time around, but Vash and his wolf were more successful, staggering the attacking horse. He tried to attack one last time, and fell unconscious. Othi shot the other horse, since they were both scarred on the forehead, and therefore suspicious. It dropped to the ground as well, and Baikal finished off the first horse. Othi stopped him before he could kill the other, and began to inspect its body after stabilizing it. He located a small crystal shard underneath the scab, and removed it. Popo then healed the horse, and Othi questioned it with the remaining seconds of his spell. The horse was no longer aggressive, and said that goblins captured both of the horses and placed something in their heads. From that point he didn’t remember anything.

Baikal, with William’s permission, skinned and quartered the dead horse, and began to prepare breakfast. Othi sent his eagle down to overfly the town in an attempt to spot forehead scabs on people. Three hours later, the eagle returned without finding anything similar to the horses, although it had only briefly overflown the town.

After the eagle returned, everyone started off for town, this time planning on lunch at the inn rather than breakfast. William guided them through the town, and it was obvious that something was wrong. Everyone looked depressed or irritable. Vash asked William if this was unusual, and William confirmed that the town wasn’t like this the last time he came through. He took them to the inn that Tokket ran, called the Dragon’s Tooth. Tokket welcomed them in, and offered them some of his dwarven ale. A large crystal tooth hung above the bar, and both Othi and Popo _detected magic_ on it. Tokket explained that it was a relic of the dragon that he had killed with his group of adventurers. He appeared cheerful and animated, unlike the rest of the town. They asked him what was happening to people, and Tokket immediately had an answer. He said that everyone was having terrible nightmares, but he was resisting them because of his experience with harmful magical effects. The people said that the nightmares caused headaches, and that they couldn’t make it through the day without pain. Baikal remembered the psion that had traveled to Bellhold to find out what was wrong, and asked Tokket if he had seen him. Tokket remembered him well, since the psion had recruited a set of townsfolk who claimed more combat experience than most to go with him into the mountain. He had left one week ago, and hadn’t returned.

A bell began ringing, and Tokket told them that it was the smaller town bell, meant to bring the people together for a meeting. People started filing into the plaza, and the group joined them near the back. The town mayor got up to speak, which didn’t work out as well as he had planned. The prepared speech degenerated into a question-and-answer session, with the mayor trying to answer each person’s objections to current events. Much of what the group had already learned was rehashed, and some questions were asked more than once. The townsfolk seemed angry, and were only partially quieted by the mayor’s protests that “heroes and adventurers” were taking care of the situation. The mayor claimed that the headaches and nightmares were random, and a local oracle had predicted that they would end within the next week.

Baikal found out who the parents of the missing children were, and the group questioned one of them about where the children had disappeared. They convinced the parent into loaning them a pillow used by one of the children, and went to the riverbank to track the child’s scent. The wolf was unwilling to track, but they were able to find the spot where the children had been abducted, and realized that the goblins headed upriver. It was getting late, so they returned to William’s farm to spend the night, worried about nightmares.

The next morning, the group went back to the river and unsuccessfully tried to push the wolf into tracking again. Finally, Othi _spoke_ with the wolf, and it was willing to track the goblins. The wolf tracked them to a cliff on the side of the mountain, and the party tried to scale it. The goblins attacked them from a superior tactical position, and the party reconsidered their choice of battlefield. Othi sent his eagle out to see if there are any alternate routes to the mountaintop, but it couldn’t find any. Eventually, the party took the main mine road up into the mine. They inquired about the old mine, and were shown the path as well as warned about the dangers of the old mine.

At the mine entrance, they encountered a shaft leading downward, with a rickety elevator. The party investigated the shaft by placing a sunrod on the platform and sending it down. It illuminated a passageway below, which was safe enough for Baikal, who climbed downward to the platform below. He descended without incident, and successfully got off the platform without tipping it. With him anchoring the rope below, everyone was able to climb down, and they began to investigate the mine.

A few uneventful rooms down the main corridor, a signpost of screaming heads momentarily disturbed everyone, but Riguallaun and Baikal cut them to pieces. The party checked the room to the right, but there was nothing but rotted bodies and stinking flesh. On the left, they avoided patches of green slime and explored some abandoned rooms. They continued on down the passageway, and came upon a set of side tunnels which contained zombies. When the zombies attacked, Riguallaun was searching ahead of the party, but he escaped to the rear before taking too much damage. Baikal and Vash moved up to attack the zombies, and destroyed them while taking no damage in return.*

When the zombies were again peacefully dead, the party moved forward. A copper door barred their way, and a whispery voice began to rave about something that had killed his people. Baikal and Popo ignored the voice, and hacked through the door with their weapons, ignoring the stench of troglodyte that comes through. When they entered the room, there were no inhabitants, and they started exploring the passageways that exit the room. Soon, they found a brightly lit room with a troglodyte inside, standing near a horrific tangle of bones that seemed to be animate. A huge statue of a dragon with wings outspread dominated the room, looking down at an altar.

Othi moved first, criticalling the troglodyte and nearly killing him. Riguallaun and Vash moved up to attack, but Vash was repelled by the troglodyte’s stench.** Riguallaun missed the troglodyte with his bow, and Baikal missed as well. Popo charged into the room, hitting the troglodyte with his morningstar, but failing to kill it. It struck back, hitting him with a claw and dropping him dangerously low on health. The skeletal creature moved forward to attack, and unfortunately, Popo was the nearest. As a gnome, the bonetangle’s attack and grapple were irresistable, and he was swept into its grasp. As it began to constrict him into death, Baikal and Riguallaun vainly tried to kill the troglodyte. Othi moved up to heal Popo a few times, but was barely able to counteract the constricting damage. The troglodyte, meanwhile, was repeatedly miscasting spells. Finally, Baikal cut down the troglodyte, and Riguallaun tumbled forward and pulled Popo’s morningstar off the floor. Othi had run out of spells, and the bonetangle tore Popo apart with its bone spurs as Baikal’s spiked chain and Riguallaun’s borrowed morningstar broke it into pieces.

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*First incident where a cleric would have made a significant difference, as opposed to a shaman, which can't turn at this character level.
**Troglodyte’s stench ability has changed from 3.0 to 3.5. I didn’t notice this, and Vash was nauseated during this fight rather than sickened.

Edit: Further, since I made this mistake, and Popo died, my DMing policy is to reverse character death if it is a rules mistake that is my fault. Vash had a few healing spells left, and Popo only died by two rounds. Therefore, we edited the past, and Popo was dragged from the crushed corpse of the bonetangle at -9 hp.


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## Justinian (Nov 4, 2003)

Note: Make sure you read the edit in the previous story post, since it's rather important to the cast of characters.

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*New PC:*

Feliks, human fighter
*Departed PCs:* 
Baikal, human fighter. Walking back to Erendar seemed better than fighting evil in a dark mine.
Vash, human shaman. He fell a long, long way. You always want _feather fall_ when you don't have it.
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*Session 3a: A Long Way Down* 

The party needed to return to safety, but wanted to sleep outside of town, so they made the long trek around town back to William’s house. As they neared the house, they saw a man walking towards town in the twilight, accompanied by a war dog. When they warned him of the nightmares plaguing Bellhold, the man chose to stay the night with them in William’s barn. In the morning, he introduced himself as Feliks, a mercenary traveling from the dwarven lands back to Erendar. He offered to help clear out the mines for a share of any treasure, and the others accepted. Baikal decided to walk back to Erendar, claiming that there wasn’t any reward large enough to keep him exploring those mines.

They stayed in William’s barn another day, filled Feliks in on their previous experiences, and healed everyone back up. The next morning, they prepared to assault the mines again. They walked down into town and restocked on food, in case the mines kept them busy for more than one day. The group retraced their steps back to the mine, and Vash attempted to push his wolf into taking the elevator down with them, this time succeeding. As they continued back along the mines, there were no differences that indicated anyone’s presence. While this was somewhat reassuring, the shadow of the psion’s adventuring group hung over their heads. There had been no clear evidence that they had passed through. In the troglodyte room, Riguallaun and Popo searched the basin for any traps, and found none. The group looted the basin of anything valuable, and Riguallaun continued to search the room. He found broken glass near the wall, and Popo’s examination revealed that the glass pieces were part of a mirror. There was a clear spot on the wall, opposite the dragon statue that loomed over the basin. Popo decided to place the mirror that they found previously up on the wall, and blue beams reflected back and forth between the dragon’s eyes and the mirror. After a few seconds, the mirror shattered and the dragon moved aside. The party rushed into the next room as the dragon’s wing sealed the passageway again. They looked around the room, but it was empty, and long unused. A tunnel led upward out of the room, sloping gently. Feliks lit a sunrod, Popo lit his eyes with psionic power, and the party moved forward.

They came to a vertical shaft, but luckily someone had passed that way recently and left a rope hanging. This evidence gave them hope that some allies might be ahead. The climb wasn’t difficult, and it was little trouble to pull Feliks’ war dog and Vash’s wolf upward in improvised slings. They continued up the tunnel toward a roaring sound that grew louder in the background.

The roaring sound was identifiable as a waterfall, but when they came upon it, a beautiful woman stood half-concealed in the spray. Her song briefly entranced them all, but only Othi was unable to shake it off. The others quickly realized Othi was in love, and Vash remembered that the creature was a type of fey known as dananshee, but couldn’t think of anything else that might help them deal with her.

Since they didn’t want to fight with Othi still charmed, they haggled with the dananshee, but distrusted her answers about the mines. She claimed that the dragon was holding her prisoner, which disturbed them quite a bit. Feliks didn’t want to help her, and Popo wanted to investigate the caverns further. Vash wanted to help her, and so they argued about it for quite some time. Finally, they decided to leave Othi listening to her song, and explore a little bit before making a decision about the dananshee. She promised not to hurt Othi if they came back soon. They began to climb a ramp that spiraled around the waterfall, and it was a little slippery. Even that little was dangerous for Vash, who slipped off the ramp halfway up, and plummeted helplessly through a series of spiderwebs to crash into the ground.* After someone falls about 400 feet, there’s not much left, so the others continued on to the top.

Feliks, Popo, and Riguallaun explored the room at the top of the waterfall, finding a draconic face embossed in copper. It spoke a riddle to them, and Feliks answered correctly. The walls moved downwards, and the dragon’s hoard was revealed. It was filled with copper, but also had some gold and silver in one corner. They took the gold and silver, and looted a small chest of some scrolls. Popo found a pair of statues in one corner of the room, half buried in the tons of copper, and threw them down the waterfall to collect later. They decided to take this reward, return to town, and try to find another spellcaster, assuming that Othi would stay fixated on the dananshee. On the descent, Feliks slipped, but caught himself before falling. When they reached the bottom, Popo began roping the statues together, planning to drag them out to sell in town. Feliks actually managed to convince the dananshee to let Othi go, as long as they returned within two days to bargain with her again for Othi’s life, and they headed back to town. When they got to the dragon statue, Popo checked it out with his psionic powers, and tried to charge the statue with psionic potential. When he did, the statue moved aside. The group finished the trek back to town, and liquidated most of their loot. They went to the local alchemist and paid him to identify some potions that they had found, and were pleased to find out that they were healing potions. Feliks, Popo, and Riguallaun went through the local shops, adding to their equipment in preparation for the next assault on the mines.

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

*Vash’s player rolled 2-3-5-3-1-3-5 in the attempt to avoid this disaster. This was a Balance check failure that caused him to slip, a reroll (hero point), a Reflex save failure to catch himself, a reroll (hero point), and three consecutive Reflex save failures to catch a spiderweb. This was possibly the worst luck I’ve seen at one time.

Edit: Punctuation, clarity, and spelling.


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## Justinian (Nov 10, 2003)

*Interlude – The Warriors of Light

*-------------------------

*Description:* The Warriors of Light are the sole monastic tradition in Erendar. All monks, shugenja, and sohei have trained for at least some period of time in one of their monasteries. The Warriors of Light consider themselves a sovereign nation, and do not give allegiance to any ruler.

*Background:* As far back as recorded history shows, there has been a monastery in the northwestern mountains of Erendar. Its founder is unknown, but its tradition endured over thousands of years, spreading smaller schools across the continent. About one thousand years ago, a hero of Erendar named Lee-Fei created a monastery in the south, outside of the city of Erendar. He formed it for the defense of the city, and for hundreds of years, this school flourished, gaining members at an astounding rate. However, when the Empire invaded, all of the monasteries were forced to band together. Outside the protection of the cities, they formed a stronger, more organized monastic league. When the Empire retreated, the discipline of the sohei and the shugenja found a home in this new monastic tradition. It stressed unity and preparedness, autonomy and power. Soon, all of the smaller schools had been swallowed up by either the northern or the southern monastery.

The leaders needed a cause and a hero to further weld their people together, and they reached back into history to construct both. The hero: Frederic, called the Son of the Sun by many, slayer of the First Vampire. The cause: Eradication of nonhumanoids. Far back in the dawn of Erendar, hordes of monstrous creatures raided across the Barrier Mountains. This had never really stopped, although the dwarven population in the mountains reduced the impact to Erendar’s citizens. For the monasteries, nothing less than the complete destruction of all nonhumanoids would suffice. They called themselves the Warriors of Light, and began to train fanatically for Frederic’s return, when the War for Humanity would commence.

*Locations:* The Monastery of Fire is in the northwestern mountains of Erendar, near the domain of the Sun Elves. The Monastery of Water is about one week’s journey east of Erendar, on the coast. Both monasteries cover a large area of ground, and have extensive training facilities, armories, and barracks.

*Notable Traits:* Sohei that are active members always dye their armor white, and generally use polearms or two-handed swords. Shugenja that are active members likewise dress in white. All members, unless specifically outcast or rejecting the monastic tradition, rise one hour before dawn and meditate during the rising of the sun.

*Requirements:* Anyone can join a monastery and train as a monk, shugenja, or sohei. If a student leaves the monastery, he is given the choice of remaining as an active member or leaving to pursue his own path. If he stays as an active member, he must send 10% of his income to the monastery, and in return can receive assistance when he needs it. If he chooses to leave, he can never return for help or to train again. In either case, however, he can return for sanctuary. Sanctuary must be given to anyone who has trained with the monasteries, but can be limited to one month at the discretion of the head of the monastery.

*Style:* The Warriors of Light are fanatical opponents, and will not hesitate to destroy their enemies completely if provoked. It is a matter of record that they have eliminated one Great House and a number of mercenary guilds that attempted to kill a member that had been offered sanctuary. After the incident with the Great House, the monastery outside Erendar successfully defended itself for six months against two battalions of troops, before a truce was declared.

Metagame Notes
*Requirements:* For active members, 10% of all income tithed to the monastery.
*Benefits:* For active members, _raise dead_ 1/year for free, healing for free at any time, sanctuary on request. For inactive members, sanctuary on request.


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## Justinian (Nov 14, 2003)

*New PC:* 
Aoshi, human monk/druid
-----------------------------------------------
*Session 3b: For Whom the Bell Tolls

*The next morning, they searched around town for another companion, and found a druid who was visiting from the plains named Aoshi. He accepted their offer to join, and the newly formed party left immediately. They went back through the mine again, and opened the dragon statue with the _mended_ mirror. This time, after a short bargaining session, the dananshee gave them some potions to help them on their way, and let Othi go along with them. Feliks took his armor off for the waterfall climb, and they headed upwards. Everyone made it to the top this time, although Feliks again nearly slipped off. At the top, Popo collected some of the copper hoard to give to William, in exchange for letting them stay with him for so long.

They continued down the passageway and came to an odd room with an oversized dollhouse in one corner, and twisted copper statues around the room. They looted a huge workbench that loomed around the corner, and continued down a ramp to an illusory wall. On the other side was a ledge, and below them was a goblin encampment, with the missing children in a cage in the corner. The shattered crystalline corpse of a dragon dominated the encampment.

A group of goblins was moving toward the children, and one goblin, with a blue and abnormally enlarged skull, was ordering another to implant a crystal in one of the children. At that moment, the group attacked. The lead goblin was nailed to the ground, along with a slightly smaller goblin who also had a blue skull. At this, the goblins started to scream for help and scatter. As more goblins came out from their rooms, missile fire was exchanged, and Feliks went down to the level below to fight. Two larger goblins, one enraged, and the other with a small crown on, moved to fight him. Feliks destroyed the raging goblin with a single deadly blow, and those remaining on the ledge above continued to whittle down the multitude. As Feliks moved toward the other goblins, visions of cleaving in his mind, the goblin ruler moved up to Aoshi, who had just descended, and hit him with a morningstar. Popo climbed down behind the ruler to flank him, and dropped him in one shot. With their leaders dead, the goblins were easy prey, and they fell to concentrated missile fire and the deadly melee attacks of Feliks and Popo. Two goblins fled inside the dragon’s corpse, scrambling down its throat. Riguallaun pursued them, with Popo backing him up. Halfway through the battle, one goblin came out below the ledge, and surrendered in broken Common. The party left him alone until the battle was over, and then ordered him to wait while they inspected the children. One of the children weakly attempted to fight, but Aoshi disabled him. Feliks broke the cage, and Othi extracted the crystals from their heads while Feliks guarded their goblin prisoner. After killing both goblins inside, Riguallaun came out of the dragon’s crystalline corpse carrying a large blue crystal that flashed a malevolent red. It mentally spoke to everyone, threatening them with death and destruction.

The party interrogated the goblin, who said his name was Prukk. He was both obsequious and helpful, and explained that his prince had dragged their tribe here at the request of his seer, who Prukk identified as one of the dead goblins with the grotesque blue deformities. The seer had been having dreams, and convinced the prince to bring the tribe along. He showed them the cliff route that the goblins used, and helped them bring everything out of the goblin cave and down to the hillside. The party also removed all of the dragon’s remaining teeth before they left the cave. When they reached the bottom, they let Prukk go free, and he fled off the north immediately.

Feliks came up with the idea of throwing the blue crystal off the cliff, but it healed itself faster than he could damage it. After awhile, Popo thought of putting the Dragonstone in the belltower and ringing the bell, so they all headed back to town. Feliks was also very insistent about bringing the children back to their parents as soon as possible.

When they reached the edge of town, the Dragonstone flared brilliant blue, and the children’s eyes went blank. The Dragonstone spoke from their mouths.

“I should have convinced someone to bring me closer before now, I see. The children were not worth my time alone, but now...”

Townspeople emerged from alleys, walked down streets, and came out of their houses. All had the same blank look, and the Dragonstone’s voice spoke from one mouth, and then another, for no more than one or two words each time. The voice echoed eerily across the town, near and far.

“Put. Me. Down.”

The party split into two groups and began to circle town. The townsfolk followed Feliks and Aoshi, who held the Dragonstone. The group moved backwards, drawing everyone away from the town proper. When the people were spread out, Feliks and Aoshi tried to race past the line of townsfolk to the bell tower on their horses. The others followed as closely as possible, but were mostly ignored. As they approached the bell tower, a line of townsfolk could be seen, holding position in a ring around the tower.

“I will destroy this town in fire and death if you do not submit to me.”

Unmoved, Feliks and Aoshi charged toward the tower, and Feliks successfully overran the line, but didn’t have room to dismount. Aoshi failed to block people away from him, and Feliks was forced to subdue some of them with his sword before getting into the tower. As Aoshi moved to guard the door, the entire town began to filter into in the plaza. The others in the group moved to the top of a nearby house for a good viewpoint.

Inside the tower, Feliks ran up the stairs, placed the Dragonstone in the top room, and ran back down the stairs to ring the bell. Aoshi initially held the door shut, but soon the relentless weight of humanity pushing against the door broke it open. However, in matters of hand-to-hand combat, Aoshi was far better than any simple villager, and no one was able to pass him while Feliks continued to ring the bell.

Up on the roof, the rest of the group watched in surprise as most of the townspeople stopped rushing the tower and began going into the houses. The surprise turned to shock when the Dragonstone made its next move.

“Is it worth this price?” Ten people hurled themselves from a rooftop to the ground below, striking with a sickening crunch. 

“This will continue until you surrender to me.” Another ten people jumped. Popo and Othi started running down to the street below to see if any were still alive, but none of the party suggested giving up the Dragonstone.

Finally, there was a loud concussion, and the townsfolk all dropped to the ground. Quickly, Feliks checked one of the townsman that had been trying to enter the tower, and he was still alive. When Feliks went upstairs, the Dragonstone had been destroyed. Popo, Othi, and Aoshi were able to heal everyone who had tried to suicide under the power of the Dragonstone, although it was a close call for some people. The worst of the injured only needed a few days of rest to be healed, however. No one had been killed, which made the town grateful.

The mayor, once awakened, promised that they would be honored with a grand feast and a reward ceremony. Feliks asked if William could receive a reward as well, since he was instrumental in their success. The mayor agreed, and the ceremony was scheduled for the next day. The town rewarded each of them with an ornate medal proclaiming them heroes of Bellhold, and sent men to help them remove all of the dragon’s hoard.

The task of removing the copper hoard was immense, but they had plenty of time to work on it. The mayor assured them that he would fill the trade wagons with copper goods, but they wouldn’t be ready until the end of the week. Long before then, with the help of the town, the dragon’s lair had been looted. The dananshee had fled in the meantime, and they found some fresh skeletons in her pool. Othi’s charmed state had faded over time, and he wasn’t pleased to see further evidence of the dananshee’s treachery.

When the trade wagons were ready, the group hired an extra wagon to transport some of the more unusual treasure with them, including a nearly lifesize set of copper chess pieces. They rode peacefully back to the orc village, happy to be out of the mines and in the sunshine.


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## Justinian (Nov 19, 2003)

*Interlude – The Axemen

**--------------------

Description:* The Axemen are the most prestigious and successful mercenary guild in Erendar. Their badge is engraved with words “We never fail” in Dwarven, and they uphold this boast. The guild also has a higher turnover rate than any other mercenary guild, since members are expelled if they fail to complete a contract, at which point the contract is given to another member. Each member must take a contract every three months.

*Background:* The Axemen were founded by two dwarven brothers who came to Erendar in about the seventh century looking for adventure. They saw that the city guard kept a close eye on town, but left the villages outside of Erendar to fend for themselves, sending only occasional patrols to keep order. The Axemen filled the gap by serving as a central location where people could bring their problems to be solved. At first, they were bounty hunters, but the jobs have grown more complex as time goes by. One of the brothers is still alive, though venerable for a dwarf, and his word runs the guild.

*Location:* The House of the Axemen is a large stone building in southern Erendar, just off the main road.

*Notable Traits:* Though it doesn’t have as much in the way of in-guild services as some guilds do, its network of merchants and healers is second to none, and members receive a price discount while on a contract. The guild house is mostly used for practice grounds and as an armory. The badge of the Axemen is a small adamantine medal with two crossed axes and the words “We never fail” in Dwarven across the top. It is generally worn over the heart, embedded in armor or sewn into clothes. The Axemen use a variety of weapons and armor styles, and are always experienced with whatever they use. The inexperienced Axemen are unable to fulfill the contract requirements, and quickly die or are expelled.

*Requirements:* The Axemen have little in the way of formal requirements, simply sending potential recruits on a test mission, and then having them swear by the Code. The pragmatic founders of the guild assumed that incompetence would be soon obvious, and be rewarded with death on a contract.

*Style: *The Axemen are strictly professional, and often take contracts other deem impossible. One can always depend on a team of Axemen to either finish the job or die trying, at which point they are usually _raised_ to complete it on the second attempt.

*Metagame Notes*
*Requirements:* Pay the first job’s reward to the guild as an initiation fee, follow the Code, and complete four contracts per year.
*Benefits:* Healing spells (including _raise dead_) at a 50% discount during a contract, and basic supplies at a 25% discount. Healing and supplies at a 5% discount at all times. Resale of equipment at 60% rather than 50%. Living quarters for up to one month when between contracts, storage space for up to one year at a time as long as membership is retained.


The Code of the Axemen

1. _We never fail_.
An Axeman must always complete a contract. _Raise dead_ will be provided at a reduced cause while an Axeman is on a contract, but death does not release the obligation. If at any point an Axeman considers himself unable to fulfill the requirements of his contract, he must procure assistance from another Axeman, at whatever cost is deemed appropriate.

2. _We do not allow internal conflict.
_Axemen never kill each other. If combat occurs, all damage dealt must be nonlethal. If there any dispute among members, a judgment will be rendered by the guild leaders.

3. _We never reveal our contracts_.
Axemen are not allowed to tell anyone what assignments they are completing or have completed. While it is permissible to talk about exploits, for purposes of spreading fame, no link to the Axemen must be disclosed. Some contracts are not allowed to be divulged at all.

4. _We do not allow external conflict_.
Axemen do not fight with other mercenary guilds. This can lead to large-scale wars, and weakens the guild as a whole. Axemen may defend themselves, but may not initiate combat.

Breaking any one of these points is punishable by expulsion from the guild.


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## Justinian (Jan 12, 2004)

This is a little longer than usual, since it's been several weeks since I updated. 

*--------------------------------------------------
*Departed PCs: 

Othi, elf druid. Left to help his family, and avenge a relative's death.
*--------------------------------------------------* 

*Session 4: Swords for Hire*


The orcs fulfilled their promise, and sent the group downriver on a barge filled with copper and other trade goods. A few other travelers bought passage south to Erendar on the barge with them, including a bard named Marrek. He livened up the trip by telling tales of adventures, and eventually one of the group started talking about the mines of Bellhold and what they went through. When they got to the part where the Dragonstone shattered, Marrek was shocked. He asked them to repeat the story in detail, and then went off by himself and started reciting something in a low voice. This continued throughout the night.

The next day, he told them why he had been surprised. Like most bard tales, it began long ago. Five centuries ago, more or less, when a small-time cooper named Julian suddenly walked out of his market stall and said to no one in particular, “Flame comes out of the east, and the earth shall rend the speaker apart.” As he finished saying this, Erendar was invaded. Warships from the east attacked the harbor, and sorcerers rained fire from the sky. During the panic that followed, Julian stood peacefully in front of his stall, and continued speaking. A nearby bard had witnessed this, and found it unusual enough to keep listening. Nearly a full day later, Julian was still speaking. The bard was still listening to him, even though little of what he said made sense. Suddenly, the buildings began to shake as _earthquakes_ and _disintegrates_ tore city and ground apart. A fissure opened up below Julian, and he disappeared into it as falling rocks crashed in around him. At this point, the bard fled back to safety, but he had memorized all of what Julian had said. In the years to come, bardic circles passed on and analyzed Julian’s words. Though incomprehensible at first glance, his words, in hindsight, often seemed to foretell major events. His words became known as the Proclamation of Julian, but they were kept secret by the bards, and handed down from generation to generation. One day, they believed, it would all become clear.

Marrek had matched one of the verses with their story about the Dragonstone, or so he believed. “The breakers of the sapphire heart shall ride the copper river. They shall rid the sky of stones, and their word will drown the song.” Marrek believed that the Dragonstone was the sapphire heart mentioned. In his opinion, they were currently riding on the copper river, in a way. Marrek didn’t know what the second sentence was about, but he said that he’d record the information in the annotations to the Proclamation. Perhaps someone else would be able to figure it out. He was pleased to find even this much correspondence with current events.

They arrived at Erendar shortly afterwards, and gathered up the wagon and their gear to enter the city. There was a group of guards at the gate, and one of the guards came out to talk to them. He introduced himself as Jared, the lieutenant on duty. It was his job to explain the laws and requirements currently in force in the city. As there had been no such position when any of the group had left Erendar, they asked him what had happened since.

After the gods disappeared, the nobles moved into a position of power. The most powerful formed a loose council and convinced the City Guard to support them. They promised to enforce the taxes and keep the city running (and not incidentally, pay the Guard’s wages). This worked well for awhile, but it seemed that some people in Erendar didn’t believe the nobles had quite as much of a godly right to rule them. Demonstrations began to spread, and they weren’t usually peaceful. The nobles had no choice but to reassign most of the City Guard to work as bodyguards. As Erendar used to be a large and law-abiding town, there were enough to give every major noble three bodyguards, and at least one bodyguard for the minor nobles. This pleased the nobles, but no one else. The City Guard was displeased about being reduced to a skeleton force that could barely keep order in the main streets of the city, and the people were unhappy that they couldn’t express their displeasure in the traditional way. Using the continued discontent as a leverage point, the nobles gained more and more legal power. Currently, anyone who attacked a noble could be executed on the spot by his bodyguards, and nobles were notoriously loose in their definitions of an attack. The Guard recommended that all travelers peacebond their weapons and allow them to be officially sealed, so that it could be proved whether they had drawn a weapon if necessary.

This was disturbing news to the party, especially the part about power-hungry, cruel nobles. They had their weapons peacebonded at the gate, and asked Jared if he knew of any good places to stay that had stables for their wagon and horses. He recommended a large inn named The Broken Spear in the southwestern part of town, and gave them directions. It was easy to find, since it was on a street mostly occupied by tall warehouses. The Broken Spear was clearly a warehouse that had been thoroughly converted to an inn, and it also looked very popular. The party made their way inside and managed to rent a large room that could hold them all for about a week, planning to look around town before deciding what to do next.

Othi contacted some of the elves in town, and heard disturbing news about his family. Apparently, his aunt had been murdered recently, and his family was in danger. He decided that he was needed in the elven capital more than in Erendar, and prepared to leave immediately. The rest of the group wished him luck and gave him his share of the gold, but didn’t want to leave town again so quickly. Popo took most of the unidentified items over to the psionics guild to have them identified, and the group then split up the ones that were useful from the ones that simply represented gold. The most interesting item was a whistle that could generate a cone of sonic energy once per day in the hands of a psion. The group agreed that it was worth keeping, and Popo was anxious to test it out.

The next day, most of the group researched the opportunities for inebriation in town, since the week-long harvest festival began tomorrow. Aoshi, however, was researching possibilities for jobs. He first went to the shrine of Garaihn in the center of town, to see if anyone was there. A single priest remained, named Brock, but he didn’t seem very lucid. His sole focus was on finding his god again, and he begged Aoshi to help him, although he had nothing to offer in return. Aoshi promised Brock that he’d definitely hunt for Garaihn, if he came up with any leads. Aoshi went next to the headquarters of the City Guard, and asked if they needed any short-term help on the streets. He was told by the sergeant on duty that the Guard wasn’t allowed to recruit anyone at this time. Aoshi then asked if there was any place he could get work, and the sergeant recommended joining a mercenary guild. He suggested one called the Axemen, originally founded by dwarves but now an eclectic and highly respected guild. Aoshi thanked him and went to the Axemen guildhouse. He spoke with a representative of the guild, and determined the entrance requirements. Considering this a good day’s work, Aoshi went back to find the rest of the group. They were more concerned with preparations for the feast tomorrow, and said that the guild could be dealt with after the holidays were over.

Aoshi spent the next week studying various creatures in the psionics guild, preparing for when he could shift his shape. The others caroused with the city in a lengthy denial of the current stifling political situation. The nobles were paying the entire cost of the feasting this year, and many people were mollified by this action, forgetting their previous disgruntlement.
The group rents a smaller room at The Broken Spear to hold ther supplies, but holds off on renewing the larger room’s rental until they have talked to the guild about jobs. When they arrive, the guild representative is more than happy to explain the requirements of membership. _[See earlier post for details on the guild.]_ He shows them several contracts that could be done, and explains that the reward for their first contract is taken by the guild as an entry fee. After some deliberation, the group picked the one that offered the least, and was closest.

This contract had been posted by an alchemist who was experimenting with nonmagical oils that simulated magical potions. He had developed a formula that worked like _enlarge person_, except that it worked on more than humanoids. Unfortunately, he found this out when some spiders got into his workbench, and grew to the size of small dogs. The alchemist fled his workshop, locked and sealed the door to his house, and went to the Axemen’s Guild for help.

They set up a meeting with the alchemist at their inn, and questioned him for some time about the specific details of the problem. He wasn’t sure how large the spiders were, since he suspected that the potion might have continued to work. He offered them some flasks of alchemist’s fire in case they found it useful, and gave them the key to his door.

As the group wanted to complete this contract before the end of the day, they hurried off to clear the house of spiders. Nothing came out as they opened the door, so Feliks carefully stepped into the front room, followed by his dog. The walls were covered in webs, but no spiders could be seen. The others filed in behind him, and Popo lit a torch to illuminate the darkened room. As he closed the door so that nothing could escape from them, a spider even larger than Feliks’s dog sprang forward, and several smaller spiders came down from the ceiling to attack. It didn’t take long for the adventurers to cut through the spiders, with little injury, and Aoshi continued through the room to the hallway beyond. He saw the stairs down to the alchemist’s workshop, but before he was halfway there, he was attacked by even more spiders. They bit him more than once, and he retreated back into the front room so others could take the lead. Feliks moved forward, and between his sword and Popo’s _lesser concussions_, the spiders only lasted long enough to poison Feliks once. He was weakened, but decided to press on. They moved down into the basement, and saw spiders everywhere. A large spider crouched over the shattered remains of a worktable in the center, and a puddle of strange liquid could be seen on the floor. Medium-sized spiders were scattered around the room, and the shelves around the room had smaller spiders all over. Popo figured this was a good time to try out the psionic whistle, and luckily moved before the spiders. He eliminated most of the smaller spiders with it, wounding the larger ones, and then got out of the way for the fighters to come down. These spiders began trying to web Feliks, Aoshi, and the animal companions, but only delayed the inevitable. Slowly, the medium spiders dropped to the combined attacks, although one of them managed to further poison Feliks. Luckily, Aoshi was able to kill the large spider with his ranseur before it could reach him.

With all the visibly dangerous spiders dead, the group quickly cleared an area around the pool of liquid, and searched the room for any other dangers. Riguallaun went to get the alchemist while the others guarded the room. The alchemist was soon back, and he mixed some chemicals into the liquid, changing its color. He pronounced it safe enough now, and sent them back to the guild with a signed acknowledgement of completion.

The group returned to the guild and were confirmed as members. The guild representative gave them each a medallion for identification, and then they returned to The Broken Spear. Even though there wasn’t much room, they hung hammocks in the room with their gear, and rested there while Feliks healed from the spider poison.


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## Justinian (Jan 31, 2004)

New PCs: 

Dexter, half-elf rogue. 
*--------------------------------------------------*

*Session 5a: The Rat That Walks Like a Man*

After Feliks had recovered, they headed back to the guildhall to look for some new contracts. While they were there, a man named Dexter asked if he could join them, as doing contracts alone had proved too difficult. He said that he had some talent with bow and blade, and the group decided that they could use someone like that. Riguallaun decided to leave at this point, since he had been having trouble contributing lately, and wanted to go back home. Feliks had the idea of moving their stored equipment from the inn to the guildhall, and they managed to fit it all into the space they were allotted.

They looked for a contract that was both simple and close to town, and found a small village nearby that needed help with some rat swarms. Since most of them felt that they could handle a bunch of rats, they signed it and prepared to leave.

As they returned to the inn, three people intercepted them on the road. Silently, they attacked. Popo and the enemy sorcerer exchanged _lesser concussions_ and _magic missiles_, while the others surrounded the enemy fighter and shaman. Dexter hung back, shooting into the fight, and was able to spot the fourth enemy before he could sneak into the combat. In a short time, they had eliminated all of the opponents. As an afterthought, they stabilized the fighter, and took the bodies into a nearby warehouse to examine them.

None of the bodies looked wholly human, and all were branded on the wrist with a different symbol. The fighter’s skin had a grayish cast, and he was unusually tough-skinned. They managed to _charm_ him into talking, and questioned him at length. He informed them that he and his companions were part of a guild, based on their elemental heritage. The four of them, representing each of the elements, had been sent to capture the group. The information had included descriptions of each person, as well as both animals. He had no other information, and would not reveal who his leader was. They took him to the City Guard, and had him put in jail for assault. They also paid the Guard to board him for two more days, in order to give them more time to get out of town.

They gathered their equipment, and left to fulfill their contract. After a little more than one day of traveling, they arrived at the small village that had requested help. They questioned the elder of the village, and he said that the attacks had gotten worse in the time since he had sent the contract.

They set bait along the road, and oil-soaked brush to funnel the rat swarms into a killing zone. When the rats came, Feliks and Aoshi lit the brushfires, and Popo used his whistle to kill great numbers of the rats. It didn’t take long before the rats began to flee. After waiting for a short time, they began tracking the rats back into the forest. They soon came to a cave that was surrounded with thousands of rat tracks. Slowly, they went into the cave. At intervals, small swarms of rats attacked, but they were quickly driven off. Dexter fell into a pit trap at one point that was covered with a light framework of branches and leaves. The rats could cross it, but he could not. It almost seemed that they were luring him into the trap. Feliks took his torch and burned the covering of the pit, and they all descended to the bottom and continued along the cave. As Feliks climbed back out at the end, he found the last of the rats, covering the entire end of the cave. A strangely rat-like creature as tall as a man commanded the swarms to attack, and battle was joined again. The swarms were difficult to resist, and until Aoshi began using _calm animal_ on them, it was hard to even get to the wererat leader. Eventually, Dexter managed to get out of the rat swarms and flanked the wererat with Feliks. It was over quickly, then, as Dexter’s precision hits meshed well with Feliks’s more powerful attacks. As they engaged the wererat in close combat, Dexter noticed that a small moonstone was embedded somehow in the flesh of his throat. When the wererat finally died, the gem exploded, tearing off the wererat’s head and injuring those around him slightly.

The group was disturbed by this strange event, but found a significant pile of goods in the cave that the wererat had captured in his raids, and they happily packaged it all up to sell in Erendar. They returned to the city, informing the village elder along the way that the threat of rats was removed, and received payment for the contract.


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