# Tales of Azurison's Champions- My High Level Campaign



## Werewolf_26 (Jul 30, 2002)

Here is a summary/session log of the adventures that I am running. The campaign world is one of my own making, fleshed out by the various adventuring parties over the years (game and real time). I hope ya’ll enjoy them. 



The Current Political situation is rather chaotic. The Empire of Emperor Rondran Morenstern I was recently founded (9-11 ADD) and peace has not graced his rule yet. His wife and queen, Empress Kaylyn Von Vidrake-Morenstern, had a terrible past and if it was not for the efforts of the Heroes of Paradur (one of the various titles of the party) she would have parished in a rather horrible situation. Her terrible past included spending her younger days as a Half-Orc Chieftan’s adopted daughter (reason and story gets kinda intricate, but I will explain) performing all of the typical raids, slaughters, and pillages that the Orcs of the Northern Lands are known for. The Heroes rescued her from this life, showed her the heritage that she was unaware of, and assisted her in reclaiming her throne after being assured of her reform. 

During Kaylyn’s younger days, the Half-Orc was also entrusted with a dwarven princess. Kaylyn didn’t get along with the dwarf, going so far as to inconvience her when she was younger and torture the dwarf when she was older. The Dwarven Princess hated the human with almost all of her heart. 

The Human Princess Kaylyn and the dwarven princess were rescued from the orcs at the same time, but the dwarven princess used her influence to cut off all contact with Kaylyn’s father’s lands. During the time that she cut off contact, she rallied the dwarves into a frenzy against the Humans of the Vidrake Kingdom. This took many years to pull off, but eventually she convinced the majority of the kingdom that it was right to war with the "ex-orc queen". 

During the years the Dwarven Princess was campaigning for war, Kaylyn made several life changes. She attends many of the good aligned temples regularly, donates heavily to all good causes, used her late-father’s tax money to make many improvements to the kingdom. She was trying to turn over a new leaf, as they say. Her days of leading Orcs to raid villages were over. She wasn’t like that anymore. 

The Kingdom of Holm was in turmoil soon after Princess Kaylyn became Queen. The leaders of that kingdom had determined via oracles and divinations that it was the right time to invade Paradur (the Hero’s Homeland). Queen Kaylyn lead her father’s armies south to Paradur and aided the Party in defeating the horde of warriors that poured out of Holm. 

Since the Party was sworn to Rondran’s Father, The King sent his son to train under the Great Heroes. This is how Rondran became aware of the beautiful Queeen Kaylyn. She looked as though she had not aged past her early twenties, but tales accounted her age being in the upper thirty’s or forties. She looked absolutely enchanting to him, so he chose to court her after he left the Party’s ranks, even with the strange tales surrounding her. 

Rondran’s father died of old age not to long after the wedding of Rondran and Kaylyn. The combined diplomatic efforts of Rondran, Kaylyn, and the Party brought about the forming of the first empire in Azurison’s history (most of the kingdom’s major cities had been destroyed by an ill tempered red dragon known in legend only as "Big Red"). From that point on, Emperor Rondran and the Empress sought to include others in the empire, with goals of peace, prosperity, and commerce in mind. 

The Empire began its first steps, but a thorn twists itself towards its uneasy feet. Due to an assassination performed by humans baring the Vidrake seals, the dwarven princess is made Queen. The Queen pressed the grieving masses of her people towards war as a means of revenge and they listened. Her diplomats in strange foreign lands had brought forth many new allies against the growing empire and her forces were already assembled from the years spent preparing for the war. 

The Dwarves quickly began suprise assaults on several human strongholds recently. 

(This small history gives a basic reason to why the Queen is ticked off at the Empress. The Queen also does not believe that the Empress is reformed and nothing will convince her of it.) 

After a temporary retirement our heroes take up their swords again (Various titles include: the Heroes of Paradur, the Knights of Doom, the Brozne Dragoons, THEM, The Heroes, Deamoni’s Party, the Saviours of Aristria, Azurison’s Champions, and others that are screamed by dying or angry villains.) to defend the Empire. The decision came after a contingent of dwarven assassins made their way to the various homes of the heroes to slay them. The dwarves failed and were captured in some cases. After some interrogation, it was found out that the Dwarven Queen sent them. Her plan was to take out the most powerful of the Emperor’s Allies and lower the moral of his forces by defeating the heroes they have looked up to for 20+ years. 

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The High Level Party: 

Lady/Countess Deamoni "Snake Licker / Dragon Candy" Salsbane-Vanderburg-Marshfox, Protector of the city of Shore, Wife to Royal Prince (due to marrage) Rasmus Vanderburg, Elven Warrioress, One under the effects of Warris’s Font (now ageless), Master of the Elven Thinblade (Aristocrat 3, Wizard 1, Ranger 1, Fighter 8, Gladiator 3, Knight of the Middle Circle 2). Party Occupation: Diplomat & Hit Point Sponge. 

King Delta Valentine, Ruler of Aristria, husband to Queen Arista. Human in reincarnated Elven Body. (Fighter 8, Paladin 2, Sorcerer 4, Blade Dancer 2). Party Occupation: Leader-type, Master of Mobile Combat, Secondary healer, Diplomat. 

Lady Jun, Queen of Black Dragon Castle, wife to the cleric Thomas Coril. Human, Under the effects of Warris’s Font (now ageless) (Fighter 10, Barbarian 5, Ranger 1). Party Occupation: Melee Tank. 

Lady Veronica, Defensive Sorceress and Warrior. (Sorcerer 10, Fighter 5). Party Occupation: N/A (player rarely shows up enough to carve out a niche in the party) 

Lao Kin, Baron of the town of Riverton, Husband to Talvada Eltrid, Elven Cleric of Osig (Cleric 11, Contemplative X, Lore Master X). Party Occupation: Healer, Diplomat, Defensive and Offensive caster. 


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In response to the late night assassination attempt, Lady Jun summoned Lady Veronica to her castle. They soon found that they were both targets of different dwarven assassins. After a bit of planning, Jun decided that they could end the war with the dwarves rather quickly if they could converse with the Dwarven Queen. 

Veronica summoned forth the arcane powers at her command and scried upon the Queen. As the image came into focus, they discovered that the little dwarf was sleeping. Jun felt that this was an appropriate time to suprise the Dwarven Queen, as the assassins she sent attacked Jun while she was sleeping as well. 

The Pair of Adventurer’s prepared to teleport into the chamber of the queen, hoping to confront her and force a truce with her. Veronica held Jun’s arm as she spoke the incantations for the teleportation spell. . . 

Each felt the strange feeling associated with teleportation, something they had become used to over the years. But then they felt something NEW. It felt like being spun quickly around after running into a wall. When the pair ceased their travel, the world was dark around them. 

The clatter of a falling torch greated them. In the dim light of the torch they could see their surroundings: four very smooth walls and an uneven floor. A gruff voice called out from beyond the darkness, "Welcome, my prisoners, to the dungeon. Please place ALL of your belongings in this large basket we are lowering 
down. We want full cooperation ladies. The basket also contains your new wardrobe; prisoners clothing." 

The Adventurers panicked and Veronica chanted the words to her teleportation spell. She suddenly felt powerless, as the magical energies she could normally channel were no were to be found. They began to worry. 

Veronica called back to the voice, "And what happens if we don’t cooperate?" 

Another torch lit in response to her question, revealing a large metal grating covering the ten foot wide cieling to their cell. A rolling sound approached the edge of the pit, bringing a large flexible pipe into view. The dwarves chuckled as they pulled and reset a heavy lever somewhere else down the hall. Before the lever was reset, a liquid poured out from the pipe and landed the far corner of the cell. The liquid hissed and sizzled as it pooled in the corner. 

Quickly, the adventurer’s placed all their worldly belongings into the basket and changed into the prisoners garb. Jun demanded to speak to the queen, but the guard only laughed, "She’ll see you when she feels like it. Your our prisoner now, so behave like one." 

The torch continued to burn for a short while longer, then it faded leaving the pair in darkness. 


Time passed more quickly for Deamoni, who quickly thwarted her assassin and sent him packing with a message for the Dwarven Queen. With her current courtly duties fufilled, Deamoni decided to take a trip to the kingdom of Vashon, which lied far to the south and was across a great sea. She invited Lao Kin and his wizardess wife, Talvada, to go with her. The Trio teleported to the grand city of Vashon. Once they arrived, the sea breeze greeted them with the smell of sea water and fish. A brief journey through the city brought them to the inner keep, where the guards showed them to a waiting chamber. An hour passed before the royal prince of Vashon entered the chamber. 

The small party greeted the prince, but they expected King Henry. With a heavy heart, the Prince explained that he was the new king. His mother had been stabbed by a hand maiden assassin, but the wound was unpoisoned and not fatal; or so they thought. Several weeks later, a strange wolf-beast was found devouring the king in his bed chamber and the royal guards slew the beast. It quickly changed back into a human, proving that it was a lycanthrope, but the human was his mother. Apparently, the hand maiden’s dagger had been cursed and the curse transfered to the Queen. Due to his elder sister still recovering from the arcane ceremony that removed the terrible power that had been given to her by the Villainous mage, Azure Blackthorn, Prince Henry became King Henry II. 

Deamoni was outraged by the news, as she had warned the old King to beware of lycanthropes and shape changers upon their last meeting. King Henry II also warned the party that the nobles of his land and a good amount of the people wanted to war with the Empire, fearing that it would try to take their lands by force. All that they wait for now is the propper omen to signal the right time to strike. 

With this horrible news, Lao Kin and Talvada returned home. Deamoni wished to see the recovering princess. She had assisted Eward the Mage in perfroming th ceremony that removed the magical powers that his apprentice Azure had given the young and spiteful princess. The ceremony had left the princess quivering, frightened out of her mind, as it had involved pulling amounts of energy from the negative planes to drain away her power. Deamoni felt that the Princess’s condition was one of her failures as an adventurer, and she was concerned for her friend’s daughter. She had known Queen Sularra for 20 years and wished to be a friend of her daughter, unfortuantely the princess and Deamoni had first met as adversaries. Now the Princess was kept in a tower of the castle and carefully monitored. 

The Guards escorted Deamoni to the tower that Princess Sularra II now dwelt in. The chamber in which Deamoni entered was rather large, with tall canvas walls sectioning off the grand room into smaller chambers. The sound of chisel and hammer could be heard in the distance. A grand statue stood in the back chamber, with a young lady chiseling the leg of the statue out of the stone. The young lady turned around slowly, smiling. The Princess appeared to be quiet happy that Deamoni was there to visit. Sularra stated that the adepts of the castle thought she was quiet better now and they allowed her to start sculpting as a past time. Clay, stone, and marble were her mediums mostly, although she wanted to start painting as well. 

The Princess then wished to show Deamoni her favorite pieces. Grasping Deamoni’s wrist, the Princess lead the Elf into one of the sectioned off rooms. She then threw back a curtain, revealing numerous creatures and monsters of the realm in clay statue form. She lead Deamoni to another small chamber, which held several celestials, demons, and devils carved into stone. Finally, Sularra brought Deamoni to her absolute favorite works. Casting back a heavy curtain, Deamoni found that she was staring at herself. A stone and plaster statue, painted to match her exactly was sitting on a shelf. The elf drew closer to the statues and examined them closely. Each of the party members were found here, painted to an almost life-like detail. She searched over each statue for several minutes. Something was odd about these statues. They each seemed as if they had been created recently, in the exact image of the subject. This made Deamoni uneasy, as the party had not seen the Princess in over two years. Jun’s statue included her new hair cut and Deamoni’s had her rather recent marrage tattoos clearly visible. What disturbed Deamoni the most was the replicas of fallen heroes. Fallen commrades like Megosh the barbarian, Bob the Fighter, Chance the cleric, and several others that had been dead for years, were also here in statue form. Most of them had been slain long before the Princess even said her first word and here they were, perfect as the day before they died. 

When Deamoni asked the Princess how she was able to create this set, the Princess replied calmly, "My friends deept within the earth aided in their creation." 

She then laughed quiet loudly and stated, "That was a joke Deamoni, you should really learn to take thing less seriously. I read the tales that the bards of your country scribbed and received a recent visit from a bard from Volmiria (a city in Deamoni’s country). I would be very pleased if you and your companions would visit me again soon." 

Feeling rather disturbed by the encounter, Deamoni then left for her home. 


After the torch had been out for a moment, a small light came into the view of Jun and Veronica. A new guard dropped down a small candle to light the bottom of the pit the ladies were trapped in. It dropped the 60 something feet without going out. Upon closer examination, Veronica noticed that the candle was an everburning candle. This small sign meant that whatever magical wards that had prevented her spellcasting earlier must have worn off now. 

Jun was quiet happy with this discovery, as she had hidden her portable hole in the folds of her prison clothes. The women waited until the guard had moved away from the pit before acting. They extinguished the candle (by placing it in the portable hole) and Jun drew forth her back up set of armor and weapons, as well as 2 brooms of flying. After a few moments the guard commanded the prisoners to bring the light back out so he could see them. 

A moment later, a chime sounded and the grating burst open, send the guards into alarm. Out of the depths of the pit flew the re-equipped adventurers, swinging their blades into their captures. The blood of the dwarves quickly painted what little of their surroundings the women could see. They began to slowly move down the halls of the dungeon. 

Screams and shouts echoed in the distance. They passed many doors and empty cells as they made their way out of the dungeon. The whistle of arrows joined them as they rounded the corner. Even with suprise, the dwarves only landed 3 arrows in their targets. This enraged Jun and she charged down the dark corridor as Veronica summoned forth a magic light to illuminate their assault. After a few swings, the small squad of dwarves were hurrying to meet the prison guards in the afterlife. 

Jun and Veronica then proceeded further through the tunnels of the dungeon. After a few minutes of walking from their last encounter, Jun and Veronica found a set of jail cells. They were occupied by various townsfolk and town guards by the prisoners claims, which lead Jun to believe they were quiet a long way away from where they thought they had originally teleported. 

As Veronica began unlocking the cells, the clatter of bones rang out from further down the hall. Jun drew their light closer to the noise to discover a staircase at the end of the hall. Descending the stair case were eight skeletons, to which Jun showed no fear. She raised her greatsword on high, ready to charge the creatures, when they let out a echoing hiss. Along with the noise, the skeletons pointed at Jun and Veronica. Sickly green energies lept from their skeletal fingers and struck Jun several times, suprising her. The energy bolts halted only a fingers length from Veronica, as she was still warded by her protective spells cast during the fight with the dwarves only moments ago. 

Jun rushed into the small horde of skeletons, only to find another suprise. As she swung her greatsword over her head, the skeleton faded and shimmered. Her sword cleaved into the stone where the skeleton once stood; her foes had become incorporeal. Due to these skeletal creatures incorporeal state, they were able to fight the adventurers for several minutes before they actually fell to Jun’s Sword. 

The battle with the dwarves and the skeletal creatures was now wearing upon Jun’s endurance, but she felt confident that she oculd lead the prisoners out of the stronghold. Veronica aided those that were to weak to walk and Jun lead the way. 

The stairway lead to a larger chamber, lit by torches along its walls. In the reddish glow of the torches stood a small band of dwarves. Eight of the dwarves resembled the assassins that had been sent to Jun’s home not to long ago, while the nineth dwarf looked drastically different. Chains rapped his body and were woven into his beard. The shadowy light made it difficult to see the small barbs that were forged into the chains. The dwarf unraveled one of the many chains, as if he had no fear of the barbs on it or the woman he was about to face. 

The Dwarf called to Jun, "You’ve done quiet well so far, Lady Jun. But now I ask you to surrender your sword and go back to your cell. We shall not allow you to pass." 

Jun did not surrender her blade, but raised it in challenge to the dwarfs words. 

The combat was brief and fierce between them. The Dwarf’s speed took Jun by suprise, allowing him to land a shot with his spiked chain. The wound was startling to Jun, as it had greater force behind it than she expected. As the whistling chain left her, the barbs on the chain broke off, leaving the metal deep in her arm. The chain began to glow as well and as it arced away from her, a spell activated. A horrible coldness shook through Jun’s body, like her life force was being drained away. With the first swing the dwarf had done more damage to her than all of her fights in the dungeon had thus far and the spell the chain cast seemed to make the dwarf glow sinisterly. Frantically, Jun counter attacked. 

The dwarf survived the first onslaught of Jun’s blade, but he abandoned his spiked chain for another. This new chain crackled with arcane energies, which made Jun rather worried. The chain hit her armor squarely, discharging a great amount of magical energies similar to lightning into her. 

Jun changed tactics at this point in the battle. If the dwarf continued to hit her with these magical chains at this rate, she would fall in the next few hits. She elected to disarm the dwarf of his chain. It took her several rounds to succeed at this, but she finally caught the chain with her sword "just right" and yanked it away. 

It was the dwarf’s turn to be suprised. He had not expected this from her, but was always prepared; he brought forth a third chain. Much to Jun’s liking, this chain seemed mundane in every sense. The two exchanged blows for a few more rounds, each wound each other rather viciously. 

Jun’s greatsword came to rest in the dwarf’s chest through his shoulder as the combat ended. Battered, bloodied, and bleeding, Jun looked to the Assassins expecting to have to fight them as well. The now dead chain warrior slumped to the ground with a loud clang. 

Another dwarf decended the stairs at the other end of the room. He introduced himself as the general of the Queen’s Army. 

The Genral made an offer, "Leave now Lady Jun and do not return. You can walk out of here peacefully, or I can call our DRAGON allies to give you a proper fight, now that you’ve bested our master of chains. It is your choice. I will grant you this one favor for saving our queen from the clutches of the Empress long ago. I will not be so kind upon our next meeting." 

Jun and Veronica accepted the offer and left the dungeon to find that they were over two hundred miles off target, in a town known as Van Drake’s Keep. The Keep had recently fallen to the dwarven armies and the Human forces were sieging it to the best of their ability. After walking to the Humans front line, Jun and Veronica teleported home. 

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That’s it for now. We play this high level game once or twice a week, so thats hopefully how often I’ll be able to update this story. 

Werewolf_26 
"Red Warrior needs food badly."


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## Werewolf_26 (Jul 30, 2002)

The party does not get a great deal of time to rest as. . . 

An invitation to go to Sir David Azril’s keep was recieved by Delta, Deamoni, and Jun. Sir David had married the wizardess Jade, who used to work for Deamoni before she went off on her own. Jade and Deamoni had remained friends over the years although they don’t keep up with each other very much. The Azrils were a powerful family in the large city of Volmiria, due to their lineage. Sir David’s grandmother was the villainous Sarah Young, who was the high priestess of the goddess of conflict, Sarran. She had died about two years ago and left her fortunes and businesses to David’s father. David’s father shared the same interests as his grandmother, but David did not. Ms. Young arranged for a small keep to be built for her grandchild and his wife, rather distant from Volmiria, so David’s father would not have to keep an eye on him (enemies trying to find and kidnap his son for leverage, holding them hostage, etc.). David and Jade moved out to this Keep, recruiting a rather large number of people to move out there as well. The Keep was located near several natural resources people would be intersted in, it was not difficult to start up a small village, which Sir David hoped would become a small town soon. 

The Prince of Vidrake (the kingdom the village was in) knighted David and charged him with protecting his village with all the resources he had available. War with the dwarves was coming and all of the towns could use a mighty protector. 

Each invitation was brief, telling the subject of the letter that Sir David needed their aid rather desperately and that they were to arrive as soon as possible. 

The trio of heroes arrived at the keep via teleportation spells. The Keep looked rather strange. Its stone was a dark charchoal gray, with lengthy spires rising out of the towers and ramparts, like horns of some great beast. The mortar of the stones had a red tinge to them, as if they had been recently mixed with blood. The party proceeded into the keep, even though it reminded them of the architecture of several evil places they had visited over the years. 

Inside the Keep, as they were lead to a waiting area by the guards, they found several pieces of artwork about the home. Decorative suits of armor, weapons, furns, ornate candlabras, and very detailed small statues. Deamoni was reminded of the statues that the Princess of Vashon had created. Carefully, she checked the small statues bases for the mark of the Princess. It was there as plain as the nose on her face. 

Sir David met with the party not long after their arrival. He explained to them that Jade had been rather busy since they last met with the party. The Green Wizardess had been striking at the forces of the Dwarves, capturing the different types of creatures under their banner so that she could study them. The Strange Skeletal creatures, dwarves, humans, halflings, ghouls of unusual size, and centaurian-lion creatures were among their ranks as well as several new types of undead. One such undead, a strange reddish colored wraith, struck Lady Jade and drained her of her memories. She lost a great deal of her life force, but she defeated the creature. After the battle, however, she was still troubled. Terrible nightmares afflict her, preventing her from gathering the proper energies to prepare her spells. While she is a terribly powerful wizardess, she is weakend because of the random nature of these nightmares. The last enemy scout that was capture admitted that he was one of many searching for the Green Witch that had been assaulting their forces. Several special forces had been assigned to destroy this terror. The dwarf proclaimed that it would only be a matter of time before the dwarves found out where she was hiding and destroy this tiny village. 

With his wife’s spellcasting abilities under attack and the enemy closing in, Sir David pleaded with the heroes to help defend his town from these monsters and to find the source of his wifes nightmares. An out of breathe guard interrupted the meeting to announce that ghouls were sighted nearing the opposite side of the town. Quickly, Deamoni and Jun left to destroy the creatures, with Jun’s husband Tom quickly following. 

When they reached the other side of the village, they looked out at the quickly darkening horrizon. In the distance, they could see creatures quickly moving towards the town in two small groups. It seemed the ghouls were taking an extremely long time to get to the town when Deamoni realized, "Those aren’t ghouls, they’re giants!" 

Night quickly settled in on the heroes as the giants moved in closer to the town. One of the groups broke away and headed for a stray farm house, while the others spotted Deamoni and Jun. They rushed towards their prey with great speed. The horrorible truth was clear when the giants closed with Deamoni and Jun; their hands were elongated into large claws, teeth long and sharp, and the hideously long tongue of a ghoul was present. When the huge ghouls closed into melee range, their stench confirmed that they were infact ghouls as the guard said earlier, but they were GIANT ghouls. 

The first group of ghouls went down rather quickly as they were foolish enough to melee stupidly and brutishly with Jun and Deamoni. While Deamoni could not harm the ghouls very much., she kept them very busy while Jun hacked them limb from limb. Tom was still in the distance, approaching slowly due to the wieght of his plate armor. 

The Second group of ghouls started approaching before the first group fell. The second group was much more deadly than the first. As they divided to conquer their foes, they used their impressive size and strength to knock Jun from her feet repeatedly, keeping her from striking at them. Deamoni was quickly cornered and pinned. Things were going badly for the heroes at this point. Slowly, Jun was able to overcome their reach and benefits from size, allowing her to cleave through the giants. By this time Deamoni was already wounded terribly and on the verge of dying. Seeing that Jun was a grander threat than the dying elf at their feet, the remaining giants charged Jun. Tom finally arrived to aid Jun in the destruction of the final creatures. 

After a quick bit of healing, Tom, Jun, and Deamoni made their way back towards the keep. In the stretch of the half mile between the vilage and the keep, another danger showed itself. 

Much to their horror, a strange black creature shimmered into view. The hellish creature was larger than that of most grand houses, had four strangely colored eyes, and eight barbed legs. A great demonic spider now stood before them and their well deserved rest. But what was such a creature doing here? They had little time to find out, as it opened fire with strange beams of energy from its eyes. A blue ray of energy shot past Deamoni, who narrowly escaped the full brunt of the ray. A gray ray shot out at Thomas, who appeared unshaken by the effects of the ray. Jun quickly rushed up the the creature, but her swing was wild and unaimed. 

The next round, Deamoni pulled out her wand of fireballs and sent a blast at the gargantuan creature. The flames of the fire ball washed over the creature like water over a rock, leaving the creature unharmed. The creature then used another ray to shoot at Deamoni. She narrowly dodged the ray again, but felt horribly cold just from being near the blast. The ray that shot down at Lady Jun was much more devestating though. A thin red beam struck the earth at her feet and a column of flames sprung from the spot on the ground the ray had touched. Grasping her sword in agony, Lady Jun unleashed a horrible flurry of attacks on the gaint spider creature. Her greatsword cleaved through its torso, legs, and head with amazing speed, quickly reducing the creature to a pile of rubble. The corpse of the spider-creature fell to pieces infront of them, then the pieces of the corspe floated skyward with a strange red glow and disappeared. 

With the battle over, Jun went to Tom to see if he was alright. He didn’t respond to her voice. Jun called for Deamoni to come and help her with Tom, she didn’t know what was wrong with him. Deamoni drew near him, raised the visor on his helm, just as the magic was finishing its work. Thomas had been turned to stone by the creature. 

Jun now had two concerns that wieghed heavily upon her mind. The first was the restoration of her husband to a living, breathing human. The second was finding where the Dwarves had taken her equipment when she was captured. 

Deamoni was busy trying to make sense of everything that had happened and hoped that she would be able to get a good nights rest. 

Their enemies were setting up to add to the parties current troubles. Storm clouds moved in as Jun and Deamoni hauled Tom into the keep. 



Deamoni and Jun were taken to their temporary rooms in the Keep. The town’s adept was summoned to bind and tend to their wounds. Deamoni welcomed the adept’s skillful aid in healing her, but Jun was still feeling uneasy. Jun refused to have the adept look at her wounds and insisted on keeping her armor on. Deamoni relaxed, waitning for Jade to arrive so she could speak to her about the evening’s events. 

Jade entered the rooms rather late in the evening, after dinner had been served to the adventurers. Deamoni wished to know what was going on from Jade’s point of view. 

Jade said that she had been attacking the dwarves to find out what kind of creatures they had at their disposal. This alerted the Dwarves to her presence and they had decided to send a group of powerful creatures that they believed would be capable of destroying a powerful spell caster. Her memory loss was due to a strange wraith that suprise attacked her one evening she was exploring the country side. 

It was searching around an ancient tomb that Jade had only recently discovered. Undead seemed to be gathering outside of the place, like moths to the flame. She narrowly escaped death and returned home, only to find that spells she once found easy to cast were completely unavailable to her now. 

This disheartened the Lady, but she continued to search for the creatures the dwarves were unleashing upon the kingdom from their mountains. Soon the nightmares started, which reduced her abilities a great deal. She has no knowledge of whether or not she will be able to gather the energies necessary to prepare her spells every morning. The entire scenario is rather frightening to her. 

She dismissed the adept from watching the adventurers, stating that she would check up on them as needed instead of the healer. Jade then requested for Jun and Deamoni to gather near. 

Jade: "I feel that I must tell you a secret, but you must swear that you will not resist the spell that I cast afterwards. The secret is to remain with us and no one else." 

Deamoni: "What kind of spell is it?" 

Jade: "It wards the people against scrying effects. Do you agree?" 

Deamoni and Jun gave rather vacant nods and shugs, but never acknowledged a yes or no to Jade’s question. 

Jade: "It is rather clear that we have not produced an heir in the little more than two years that we had been married, David and I. It began to concern me, so I started visiting temples and praying to the deities for an answer to this problem. Through my journeys to the various temples, I found a cleric that said she could help and I accepted her aid. Recently we found that a child would soon join our family, but then the nightmares started." 

Jade then began to make the arcane gestures for the spell she was wanting to cast on them. 

Deamoni searched her limited knowledge for what spell matched the gestures that Jade was using. She quickly realized that Jade was casting a "modify memory" spell on Jun and herself. Both adventurer’s attempted to resist the spell, but Jun found herself sitting near Jade and Deamoni for no apparent reason. Shrugging, Jun went back to her room to watch the statue that was her husband a few hours ago. 

After casting her spells, Jade smiled, wished Deamoni goodnight and headed out the door. The spell had not taken effect on Deamoni. Deamoni waited for Jade to move down the halls of the cast a bit before exiting her room to follow. She knew that "modify memory" was not something that Jade could cast, unless she had researched a version of it for herself. Suspicious of her friends behavior, Deamoni shape-shifted into a wolf, using the ability of scent to track Jade to where ever she went. 

The scent lead Deamoni to a room not too distant from their own. It seemed to be another guest room. Deamoni pressed her ear to the door to listen. Light footsteps could be heard through the door. It seemed that someone was pacing, towards the door and away from it. A woman’s voice could be heard quiet clearly; it was Jade on the other side of the door. She was talking to herself, but only when she finished pacing to one end or the other. 

Near the door: "I didn’t know that he would summon them here." 

Distant from the door: "Yes, I did not expect him to do such a thing either, but they are here now and we must make the best of it." 

Near the door: "What shall we do? The Heroes of the Realm are in our home now." 

Distant from the door: "We need not worry. They count me as a friend and no harm will come to us." 

Near the door: "Thomas has been turned to stone. They will seek to cure him as soon as possible." 

Distant from the door: "Then perhaps the nightmares will cease tonight. I shall take care of curing the cleric." 

Near the door: "And what do we do about the heroes?" 

Distant from the door: "Perhaps you will lead them to the tomb where I can not enter. They are especially good at finding ways to enter dangerous places. The undead there will be no match for them as long as we cure the stoned priest." 

Near the door: "I’ll lead them there then. I hope that everything goes well." 

Distant from the door: "I’m sure it will." 

Then as the pacing neared the door again, the lock began to turn. Deamoni quickly hid from the person exiting the room. Jade walked down the hall, away from the guest room. Deamoni moved back to the door, checking it for other scents. To her suprise, Deamoni only found Jade’s scent. It was rather strong, unusually strong infact. The wolf returned to deamoni’s room for the night after following Jade to her bedroom. 



All was quiet for the Adventurers, until rather early in the morning. Deamoni heard a creaking noise in her room, that sounded like the door. Lifting her head to look, she saw that her door was still closed. She stood up and limped over to the door to investigate it. The door offered no resistance to her hand. She grasped at the handle of the door several times with her hand passing through it and the door each time. Deamoni then chose to walk through the illusionary door. She continued to her brief journey to Jun’s door, which was just a few feet ahead. Deamoni began tap and knock on Jun’s door to check if it was real as well. 

Jun approached the door and opened it, finding Deamoni standing in the hall looking rather puzzled. 

Deamoni, "Just checking if your door was real." 
Jun, "Huh?" 
Deamoni, "My door’s an illusion. Kinda odd ain’t it?" 
Jun, "Yeah." 
Deamoni, "Well, Good night." 
Jun, "Good night." 

Deamoni walked back down the hall to her door. Instictively she reached for the handle, even though the door was an illusion. The handle was not an illusion this time. In fact, the door was locked. 

Deamoni cried out, "Oh great. Someone made an illusion of my door, walked back into my room, and locked me out of it. What is going on here?" 

The elf walked back to Jun’s room, since it had a door that went between the two rooms, she could enter her room through that door. 

Jun opened her door again, "What’s going on now Deamoni?" 
Deamoni, "The illusion isn’t an illusion now, so I’ve gotta enter my room through the side door. Sorry to trouble you." 

Unfortunately for Deamoni, the side door was locked as well. She rapped on the door for a few seconds, calling for whoever was in the room to open the door and explain what was going on. There was no answer. After waiting a few more seconds, Lady Jun pulled out her Chime of Opening. The door quickly opened, revealing that Deamoni’s room had been sacked. The only thing missing from the room was her armor. Infuriated, Deamoni shape shifted into the wolf form again and sought out the scent of the theif. The scent did not betray a method of escape from the room, which meant travel magic was involved. Hoping that the theif had used Dimension door, or some other lower level travel spell, Deamoni began to search the castle for the theif’s scent. 

Jun, worried about the increase number of spell casters in the area, locked her door and the door that lead into Deamoni’s room. After about ten minutes, she heard the noise of metal-on-metal in Deamoni’s room. It was the familiar sound of a weapon being drawn. Lady Jun backed into a corner of the room and kept her eyes focused on the doors, because there were no windows in the rooms they were in. 

Jun heard something that sounded like an arcane chant in Deamoni’s chamber. She raised her greatsword and shield towards the noise, preparing to destroy whatever burst through the door. Instead of the door bursting open, the locks on the door slowly turned, allowing the door to creek open. Looking into Deamoni’s room, Jun saw nothing. 

Then a scratching noise occured on the other side of her main door. Jun called out for the beings to show themselves. 

The Voice behind the door answered, "Hello Lady Jun, we’ve been watching you for a long time. We were looking for the best time to collect the prize we are being paid for. We’ll give you an option; you can give us what we came for, or we will take it from you, its your choice." 

Jun, "What is it that you want?" 

The Voice, "Well, we are being paid rather well to recover your sword hand. The ears of Deamoni are also on the list." 

Jun, "Wouldn’t a lock of hair or something suffice?" After her statement, a dark cloak was drapped over the statue of Tom and a small empty vial hit the floor. Someone was in the room with her. 

The Voice, "I’m sorry, but our instructions said that we had to get at least something in the neighborhood of a cube of flesh. Flesh only. So either you cut off your own hand, or we take it from you. Please be reasonable, after all, I’m certain you can get it repaired. You do know a large number of powerful clerics. It would only be a temporary set back. We really don’t want to fight you, but you have 18 seconds to decide." 

Jun spent the next few seconds trying to recall her past, as she didn’t recall whether or not she had ever fought competant opponents alone before. The assassins the dwarves sent were rather inept compared to the villains she was facing now, or at least it seemed that way to her. No encounters came to mind, which began to worry her. Slowly, she drank a curative potion, as she was still wounded and knew she was about to be in a fight. 

Before she could answer a small pin-point of light struck the doorway between her room and Deamoni’s. The pin-point burst into a ball of flame that consumed the room. The flames scorched the outside of Jun’s dragon hide armor, but didn’t harm her a great deal. Jun quickly looked for the source of the fire ball, but was unable to get to the door as a hail of arrows shot from the upper corner of the room. A warrioress dressed in dark breastplate and equipped with a bow rained down a volley of arrows at her. One of the arrows pierced her armor, sending a great amount of pain through her body. Jun needed time to think. She quickly brought forth a potion and disappeared from view after drinking it. 

The Archer called out to the spell caster, "She’s gone invisibile on us!" 
The Voice, now apparently a spellcaster of some sort, answered, "Ok, Plan B." 

With that, the Archer flew out of the room. Jun was now carefully kneeling by Tom’s statue on the other side of the room, she saw a transparent shimmer enter into the room and burst. She knew what this was; they were attempting to dispel the magic of the potion. But since they were firing blindly into the room, the spell caster was doing a general area dispel. This worked in Jun’s favor partially; the spell failed to get to the invisibilty spell, but it managed to drain the protective magics from her armor. 

Jun then moved to her main door, opened it and stepped through, as quietly as possible. She was not quiet enough however, as she soon found out. The Archer shouted, "Got a target!" and let loose another volley of arrows. Even though she was firing blindly down the hall, the archer was an amazing shot. The first arrow grazed past the bridge of her noise, giving her both a good look at the wicked broad heads on the arrows and a bit of "rope burn" as the fletching on the arrow moved past the tip of her nose. It was now Jun’s turn to act. 

Slowly, she raise a small marble sized globe in her hand, which was prieviously on her necklace. Carefully, lobbed the marble down the stone hall and backed through the door, into her room again. As the marble hit the floor it burst in the same manner as the marble of energy did the preivous round. A flash of fire burnt through into Deamoni’s Room and the hallway. 

Disturbed by the thunder, Delta rose from his bed in the castle and began to wander it, looking for the pantry. 

The mage flew into Deamoni’s room to get a better perspective on their target. Jun was huddle in the corner of the room, looking carefully for the first target she could get a swing at. Extending a wand towards Jun, the mage sent 5 bolts of energy into Jun. These caused her some pain, but alerted her to a possible target; the wizard was flying lower to the ground than the archer. 

The Archer however, was not about to let Jun leave the corner. She kept up an impressive rate of fire, striking Jun with another arrow. This one did not land in her, but rather clinked off a small bit of her armor and cut her shin. 

Delta then rounded the corner to see a flying archer firing into a room of the castle. In normal response to such an event, he drew his sword, lept at the archer, and cut the bow string. 

The Archer frantically cried out, "Its HIM!" and flew towards the mage. With a rather quick incantation, the archer and the mage disappeared from view. 

Deamoni eventually found her armor, as it had been stolen and ditched in a broom closet. The events here were becoming more and more puzzling to her. She then returned to her room, to find Delta and Jun discussing something. Jun told Deamoni how her attackers wanted her hand and Deamoni’s ears. They hoped that sun rise would come soon, as this night seemed like it was going to last forever. 

The sun did rise for them without any more difficulties. 

____________________________ 

One more to go before they are up to date. 


Werewolf_26 
"Red Wizard shot the food."


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## Werewolf_26 (Jul 30, 2002)

In the morning, Delta, Deamoni, and Jun had breakfast with Sir David and Lady Jade.  The PCs explained that they needed Jade's help in restoring Thomas to flesh and blood.  The wizardess donated a small amount of stone salve to cure him and then broached the subject of the tomb that she had discovered a small time ago.

The party agreed to go with Lady Jade to investigate the tomb, as Deamoni felt that Jade was somehow (at least partially) possessed by some kind of spirit.  She thought that the tomb could have had something to do with Jade's strange behavior.

The party went back to their rooms to gather their gear and make preparations for the short journey to the tomb.  On their way back to the main gate of the keep (where they were supposed to meet Lady Jade, so she could guide them to the tomb), the party overheard someone.  Listening closely, the party found that it was Jade.  Rather than enter the room, they gathered near the door to listen in on the conversation.  Jade conversed with herself for several minutes, talking in second and third person to herself.  The Eavsedropers attempted to create the illusion of "just passing by" when they heard her approach the door. Unfortunately for the party, Jade did not buy their excuse of "we were just passing by" as she exited the chamber.  She asked that Lady Jun accompany her to the armory to pick out some weapons for the journey.

As the pair of nobles entered the Armory, Lady Jade made sure the door was shut tight.  She then toured Lady Jun around their small armory, composed mostly of spears and crossbows.  As they finished the brief tour, Lady Jade changed the conversation.

Lady Jade, "I have been studying the battle prayers of the local warriors of this land for the past few months, would you please give your opinion of my recital of this one?"

Lady Jun agreed to listen and Jade began a haunting chant.  It echoed through the small chamber, making it sound as if the weapons themselves had joined in the prayer.  The sound of Jade's voice was completely entrancing to Jun.  The Brave Warrioress soon found herself concentrating on the chant alone, as her surroundings seemed to dim and become less substantial.  Jade continued her siren's song, relieving Jun of any previous concern or thought.

Jun then heard Jade's voice clearly through the chant, as if she had ceased, "I wish to ask of you a few questions, I suggest that you answer them truthfully." As the chant continued to fill the room, Jun found herself nodding silently in agreeance to the suggestion.

Jade, "Were you listening to the conversation I was having in the chamber a moment ago?"

Jun, "Yes, I was."

Jade, "The others of your party, were ALL of them listening as well?"

Jun, "No. (In truth Delta as a little late joining them because he started his morning prayers late."

The chant began to die as Jun heard Jade's voice a second time, "You are to remember the chant clearly, but nothing else, Jun."

With the sound of the chant now all but a memory, Jun thought it was a wonderful performance.  She advised Jade to bring with her a crossbow, incase they ran into something that her spells could not contend with.

The party then set out for the tomb, only to find something that they had never set eyes upon before in the twenty years of their journeys.

I'll post the next update tomorrow.

Werewolf_26
"Green Warrior is about to die."


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