# Knights of the Daystorm



## Jairami (Mar 14, 2002)

I'm doing this more to fish for advice and criticism than anything else, but should it go 30 posts without any comment, so be it.  At least it will help me remember precisely what happened in between posts.

We game Saturdays from 2pm - 12-2am depending on the quality of that particular session with a break for food around 7.  My game is every other week (with a different unrelated campaign run by another DM in between).

I wanted to start this a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't want to try to tell the story up until now.  I decided to do it anyways, just not do the hard part of telling the story until now.  Today I figured, I'm doing it for me, if I don't want to do the backstory, I'm not gonna do the backstory.

*This game is beyond being inspired by something, it is lifted directly from it.  If you do recognize what from (two things actually) please do not reveal it as there are 3 players in my game who read these boards and I don't want to spoil their surprise.*

Now then, as brief a history to present events as possible.

Two months or so ago, the sleepy town of Ardonia had enough adventure to last it a couple more decades.  First the man who serves as the government of the town who holds the title of Baron even though the origins of that title are lost to time, lost his daughter Sara.  Sara disappeared one morning without a trace.  Soon thereafter it was discovered that the Captain of the guards had also disappeared.

The Baron summoned a knowledgeable woodsman to track her down.  In order to give the man as much help as possible he also called for the orphaned young girl who worked in the general store, as she was known to have visions.

In town that day was a trapper who lived alone in the wetlands of the north, he happened to have been following the young girl when she snuck away from work to answer the Baron's summons (she had promised him she would let him buy her a drink, and had every intention of leaving him sitting in the saloon until he gave up).

The young girl, Tylette, knocked on the door of the small manor house of the baron only to have the trapper, Khuuld, surprise her and demand his drink.  It was to this scene that the baron opened the door.  Attempting to diffuse the situation, he bid them both enter and tried to entreat the trapper to aid the woodsman, Byron, in finding his daughter.

Khuuld had little enough interest in this, but when Tylette was handed the earring of Sara, and had a vision of her either running off with or being abducted by the captain of the guards, he figured it was a simple job of fetch and inquired as to the pay.

A month's wages for a couple days walk seemed a fair bargain to him.

Unbeknownst to them was another young man by the name of Collin, listening at the window of the manor house.  An inquisitive lad, he had recently ran away from his instruction in the arcane ways though he had yet to find an actual place to run to.  When news of his escape did not seem to be on people's lips, he tracked the more juicy gossip to the manor house.

It was decided that perhaps the best next step would be to acquire something of Captain Gaedri's and see if Tylette could gather any further information from it.  But when the they came out of the house they noticed Collin stepping hurriedly away from the window.  A few embarassing moments later and Collin quickly won them over and asked if he could come along and perhaps help out with a little of his magic.  He always had thought Sara the prettiest girl in town, and to him, it seemed the perfect way to get away.

The party would grow by one more before they set out though, a conscientious young acolyte of Equitus who consequently knew Collin through their shared scholarly hobby, asked to accompany the group when he brought forth some of Captain Gaedri's belongings.  Equitus is the god of justice, and Frederick had taken it to mind to be something of a lawman.  He insisted that if Collin was old enough to go, that he could as well.

His strong arm, healing magics, and his penchant for reading adventure stories would all come in handy many times.

Tylette's _object reading_ was again extremely useful and garnered a vision of Captain Gaedri exploring some crumbling ruins a few weeks past.  Hoping that this could be some clue to his, and more importantly, Sara's current location, the group set out.

They were comprised of

Byron, a woodsman, fighter 1
Khuuld, a trapper, barbarian 1
Tylette, an assistant shopkeep, seer 1 (psion, clairsentient)
Collin, a summoner, sorcerer 1
Frederick, an acolyte of Equitus, cleric 1


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## Jairami (Mar 14, 2002)

Again, forgive the lack of detail, I'm still in summary mode.  

Both Byron and Khuuld had knowledge of at least the location of the ruins Captain Gaedri was probably exploring, and between them they easily guided them there.

Strangely, the normally peaceful countryside was more dangerous than it had been in years past.  They had barely cleared the last of the spread out farmsteads when they encountered a small band of what Frederick would later identify as goblins.

Khuuld let them know that goblins had begun roaming the countryside about 5 years ago but were usually content to poach animals or the occasional farm.  They did not usually gather the courage to attack humans, or had not in this region in his memory---much less a party with three able bodied armed men.

Further north they travelled, and they began seeing a large number of ravens as they walked.  Some hear, some there, but hundreds of them, perched in the trees slowly emptying of leaves in the early winter.  One night while camped, the night watchman, Collin at the time, noticed a larger than average rat doing nothing but seemingly watching them.  More disturbing than that was the way it's eyes seemed to catch the remaining fire light, they seemed to glow red in the darkness.  With a gesture an icy _ray of frost_ struck the rat and it fled just as a normal rat would.  Shrugging, Collin wrapped himself tighter in his cloak and scooted closer to the fire's warmth.

The next day's travel would prove even more disturbing as the ravens grew more and more thick in the branches above them.  Even worse, among the predominantly yellow-eyed carrior eaters was interspersed the occasional red-eyed raven that set everyone's nerve's Collin's especially on edge.

Tired of the tense silence, Khuuld decided to show everyone they were just birds, though even he couldn't explain why so many of them were around.  Unshouldering his longbow, he skewered one with ease.  It plummeted to the earth in a rain of black feathers.

Then all hell broke loose.

Ravens by the hundreds began diving at the group swooping down with the ear shattering din of hundreds of raven calls.  The group ran for their lives, dodging back and forth between trees trying to get away from what seemed a living malevolent black cloud of ravens trying to swallow them whole.  At the last desperate moment, the ruins they had been searching for came into view and they dove into it's semi-shelter.


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## Jairami (Mar 14, 2002)

Between the fallen collumns and broken flagstones the party received Equitus's blessing as Frederick did his best to heal their wounds.

The overcast sky gave foreboding light that shafted through into the ruins through gaping holes in the stone ceiling of the ruins.  The ravens did not pursue at least, they seemed to be reluctant to come near the ruins.  Understandably concerned they set about searching their immediate area.  Immediately in front of them were a great set of very old looking double doors that were still intact.  The structure itself seemed to be a large rectangle with four square chambers in each corner and a massive central chamber that consumed most of the central part of the ruins.  It's only apparent entrance were the large double doors.

More disturbing were the walking dead that seemed to patrol the halls of the ruins.  While certainly not organized or intelligent, seeing animated skeletons approaching with your death their intent was a new experience for most of the group.

Each of the four square chambers had a single door into them, but these were unusual because unlike most of the outer walls of the ruins, they were totally intact, almost new looking.  Strange designs spiderwebbed the doors in a flowing script Frederick and Collin identified as Elven.  They pattern they formed almost resembled the complex structure of a tree.  Entry by force proved futile.

While most of the internal walls of the ruins were sound, the external ones were not letting in significant light, and neither was the ceiling, providing even more.  After dispatching a pair of spiders as large as a pair of dogs that had apparently made a home in the ruins, Collin came up with the idea of trying to get into one of the smaller rooms through its roof.  It might be caved in like the roof in much of the hallways.

Hoisting themselves up took considerable teamwork and planning, but they were distressed to find that the roof above all but the massive central chamber was uniformly solid.  Further inspiration struck and working together they were able to work a stone out of place in the ceiling of one of the smaller chambers.  What they found was "intriguing" as Collin put it.  Khuuld's opinion of it was something slightly less printable.

Beneath the hole they had made in the ceiling of the chamber was a mostly opaque greenish force of some sort.  Some sort of lighting arrangement was visible through it, but not very well.  It was then they heard a young woman's scream.


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## Jairami (Mar 15, 2002)

Looking into the main chamber from above, they saw a black haired man in jet black metal armor that seemed to suck in any light that hit it.  He stood in front of a gigantic circular mirror of some sort that was solid black.

In front of the mirror was a broken stone altar of some sort, and stretched ontop of it was Sara, her dress slashed and bloodied in many places, her head thrashing back and forth in hoarse screams as the man drew his blade across her flesh.

Rushing to her aid, they dropped into the main chamber and found themselves facing a man who looked like Captain Gaedri.  His eyes were solid black, his black cape hung straight down behind him, despite how he moved, and his black armor made not the slightest sound.  His emotionless gaze swept towards the party and had time to do little else, as two arrows and a crossbow bolt from Byron, Khuuld, and Tylette all managed to thud into him.

His expression did not change in the least, but his armor screamed.  It was the howl of 10-15 tortured souls near impossible to distinguish from each other, and they cried out with each arrow.  Gaedri's bloodless compressed lips were sealed as the screams washed over the party.

Drawing forth a length of black steel he began advancing towards the invaders.  Sara had gone silent on the alter.

Gaedri proved to be a competent swordsman as he engaged the five of them with no apparent difficulty.  Each time a blow landed on him, his black armor screeched and cried out with the agony of tortured souls.  But Gaedri continued on undaunted.

Terrified but determined Collin latched onto a plan and maneuvered himself and Khuuld to the altar.  Sara was stretched and bound hand and foot by flowing black energy.  Her wrists and ankles were bloodied from struggling with them.  Neither Collin nor Khuuld could see how to release her but Collin quickly whispered something to Khuuld and his arms hefted his sword above Sara as his voice called out to the black knight with as much courage as he could muster.

"Stop!  Drop your sword or we will take your sacrifice from you!"

Frederick looked up, battered and bloodied, from under the black knight as his assault ceased and he turned to regard Collin.  Collin stood on the dais trying not to shake as Khuuld kept his eyes fixed on him.

The black knight stood there with expressionless eyes looking up at them, then turned and ran Frederick through.

With a scream Tylette and Byron renewed their assault on the black knight and Collin motioned sadly to Khuuld.

"Better that she should no longer suffer at his hands then that he be allowed to complete whatever it was he was doing."

Nodding, Khuuld did the last thing I expected when I wrote this part of the adventure.


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## Jairami (Mar 15, 2002)

With a flash of light along the length of his greatsword, he swung the huge blade down and it chipped the stone of the altar as it cleft Sara completely in two at the waist.

Khuuld had just a moment to stare numbly at his blade when his head snapped back and his vision blackened, but Collin didn't notice as he was watching the barely perceptable radiance rising from Sara's horribly severed body and being pulled into the now swirling black of the gigantic mirror behind them.  A soundless scream of her ghostly face and a hand reaching out were the last he saw of her before the blackness of the mirror enveloped her entirely.

When Collin turned back to Sara's lifeless corpse, Khuuld was charging down the steps of the raised dais, a wordless scream of rage ripping from his throat as he charged the black knight.

((Ack.  Need a break.  Been sitting here way too long.))


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## Jairami (Mar 15, 2002)

Across the broken flagstones that jutted up at every angle, Khuuld charged the black knight.  Byron and Tylette were slowly and carefully picking their openings and working at Gaedri, but his face was as expressionless as ever.

Launching himself in a full run off the top of one of the flagstones Khuuld came at the captain in such a furious onslaught that he took every bit of his attention.  Khuuld had no thought for protecting his own hide as he rained down blow after blow on Gaedri, forced onto the defensive he continued stepping back his sword almost getting batted away by Khuuld's monstrous swings.

Backed into a corner, Gaedri fought back, but as his sword snaked out and caught Khuuld's ribs, another arrow and crossbow bolt from Byron and Tylette sunk into him just as Khuuld's greatsword bit through his armor and collarbone to lodge itself in his chest.

Gaedri fell like a sack of stones.

He collapsed silently onto the ground and lay still as the barbarian teetered, leaning on his greatsword.  Crashing to his knees, Khuuld remained there for a moment panting and heaving as the fury subsided.  Then his eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out.

Byron kept an arrow nocked and aimed in the direction of the four huge bats that flew about in the upper reaches of the chamber, but as they had not joined in the melee earlier, so to did they remain apart now.  Their loud keening cries and heavy leathery wings the only indication they were still there.

Byron managed to drag Frederick and Khuuld out of the bloodstained chamber and after noticing that both breathed, albeit shallowly, he arranged them as carefully as he could to let them rest.  Tylette joined him and did her best to bind their wounds, though she had little skill at it.

Collin stood alone at the altar, crying over Sara.


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## Jairami (Mar 15, 2002)

Byron and Tylette took turns watching over each others sleep as they slept the sleep of exhaustion.

Frederick mumbled feverishly in his sleep.  In his dreams he stood on an endless black obsidian plain underneath turbulent yet silent black clouds.  A powerful presence washed over him and he fell to his knees of his own will, prostrating himself on the ground.

"MY SON. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE WROUGHT THIS DAY?"

Frederick didn't make a sound, whether in awe or abject terror not even he knew.  But he spoke not a word.

"WHEN YOU AWAKEN YOU WILL WANT TO SEE JUSTICE DONE. BUT YOU MUST STAY YOUR HAND IN THIS. FOR THE CREATURE THAT WAS YOUR FRIEND MAY NOW BE THE ONLY CHANCE YOU HAVE OF UNDOING WHAT HAS BEEN DONE."

Still, Frederick made no move and issued forth no sound.  He lay upon the smooth ground trembling, a thousand emotions washing over him and yet he said nothing.

"VERY WELL. WAKE MY SON. BRING MY JUSTICE NOT TO YOUR ALLIES, BUT TO THE WORLD FOR THE ACTIONS YOU HAVE WROUGHT. BUT ALWAYS KNOW, I PLACE NOTHING BEFORE YOU THAT YOU ARE NOT CAPABLE OF HANDLING. BE STEADFAST."

Frederick slowly allowed his eyes to open to the sound of rain.  Appropriate he felt.  Slowly rising he found everyone else asleep, and he began to weep.  Not for loss, or joy, revelation, or sorrow, but for the guilt he had lain upon himself.

Girding himself in steel, Frederick pulled his emotions inside, forced them aside, and then locked them away.  He began his prayers without resignation, urgency, hope, or fear-only sheer determination.  His healing magicks did not fail him, and in time his sleeping compatriots' wounds were all but gone.  Frederick sat down to watch over them.

Tylette and Collin were tossing fitfully about on the hard broken stones.  Khuuld slept peacefully and Byron slept like the dead.

In his dreams Collin saw Sara, beautiful young Sara.  He had always had a crush on her, but what interest could she have in skinny, bookish Collin?  He saw her walking, he saw her speaking with friends, he saw her laughing, all from a distance.  He saw her die.

Repeatedly.

Tylette's dreams were different.  She had always been good at realizing when she was asleep and in a dream, and also good at remembering what it was she dreamt.  In this dream she had no such luxury, and if she had realized it for a dream, she would probably not wanted to remember it.  Strange images were held before her.  She walked a field of withered crops, flies buzzed above dead cattle.  She floated above the field as fire ravaged it and left it a charred waste.  She stood upon the cliffs she did not recognize and watched the storm tossed sea, and saw the air itself corrupt and billow forth in a noxious cloud from a strange twisting tower.

She saw Khuuld lying face down in the muck with a young man bent over him, calling to him, lulling him, soothing him.  She saw the man look up and saw his stretched gaunt features, his grey pallored skin, and his sunken black eyes and she screamed.  Khuuld was looking at her with the same eyes.


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## Darklone (Mar 15, 2002)

*Wow.*

Not bad (this means: Big compliment in Southern Germany).

Like your players. They act... unexpected. Very unexpected. Killing the girl? I mean why not cut her hands?

Well. Will be waiting to see what happens to Khuuld. And the others. Consider me hooked.


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## Jairami (Mar 15, 2002)

Thank you.    Much.

Unexpected?  I was flabbergasted...  Here I am trying to follow Piratecat's policy of PC actions causing ripples and they go and cannonball themselves into the lake.  So much for a slow simple opening quest to start off the campaign right?

The black energy ties were negative energy, I meant for them to have 2 HD each and for channelling enough positive energy to disappate them.  Or for them to go away in time without Gaedri renewing them.  But you're right, amputating her hands and feet would have been much less-er that is-much more..  eww.

Just goes to show, you never quite fully understand your PC's.

Collin reacts with I think the best RP to the situation.  He grieves for Sara but he also grows up a lot in a short time.  On the way there he was a little introverted and a little cowardly--and he used his stolen cache of eshti for recreation.

Afterwards his hurt lead him to be a little more touchy and for him to lash out.  What was unexpected was, when he did everyone listened.  They didn't bully him with size, or age, they listened.  He started filling his wounds with confidence and overtime became almost the unacknowledged leader of the group.  Even though his new use for eshti, escapism, showed somewhat that he was having a tougher time dealing with events than his brave face showed.  Excellent RP from Velenne (the player FYI).

Tylette, she distances herself from things.  If something hurts or confuses her she buries it and refuses to acknowledge it.  She's always been a very pretty young woman but has never really been in a relationship.  She tells herself that she doesn't want to and doesn't have time for it.  She tells herself that what happened to Sara had nothing to do with her and while sad, she has to see that what has to be done has to be done.

Khuuld..  Well, Khuuld is complicated.

Frederick's player through a lot of thinking out loud and some excellent role play reacted entirely different to the situation then I had thought he would.  Granted, I was thrown for a loop as well by the events and was trying to make it up as I went along using what I knew of events on the larger scale and the why's behind things.  But his decision to pull guilt from his mass of emotions and hold on to it was deliciously unforseen and would lead to almost getting himself and another killed much later on.  Frederick developed a very strong self-esteem problem from this and became very clingy.

My boss just walked in.  I'll be back to update later hopefully.


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## Speaks With Stone (Mar 15, 2002)

*No kidding*

It sounds like a great group who make unusual choices.

I like how you've added lots of flavor by describing their dreams/sleep patterns and reflections on getting the girl.

I also liked the description of the armor.  Very neat.

I look forward to more.  (And you guys play 10 to 12 hours at a time!?!?  Wow, reminds me of high school.  Gosh, I miss those days.)


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## Pillars of Hercules (Mar 16, 2002)

*Color me hooked*

Jairami,

I'm sure it can be intimidating to post a story hour fearing either ridicule or, worse, silence.

Let me assure you that I am in for the duration - this story hour grabbed me immediately.

Major OUCH on the cut her in half decision, although I can sort of see the player's rationale.  I look forward to the ripples in the pond that particular choice will create!

I'll just pull up a chair over here by the fire and listen to your yarn.  Keep posting!


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## Darklone (Mar 16, 2002)

*Re: No kidding*



			
				Speaks With Stone said:
			
		

> *I also liked the description of the armor.  Very neat.
> I look forward to more.  (And you guys play 10 to 12 hours at a time!?!?  Wow, reminds me of high school.  Gosh, I miss those days.) *




Right. Forgot those praises about the armour and the dreams...  

12 hours at a time? Hmm. I gotta get my group back to that hut in the mountains where we play 3 days with a bit of sleeping and eating...


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## Jairami (Mar 16, 2002)

Thanks for the support guys.  I'm in the process of pulling my thoughts together for todays games and writing contingency plans for the things they are going to do that I didn't expect.  

Of course we haven't caught up to that yet.  So I guess it'd be better to talk about the next post.

Next post will have a betrayal or two, Khuuld transformed, a new party member (and a half), and an answer to the burning question...

How many diving ravens can you kill without combat reflexes or great cleave?


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## Velenne (Mar 17, 2002)

w00t!! I've been trying to get Jair to make a story hour of his campaign for the longest time.  I really enjoy each of his games and he does a great job of giving detail to every city, every person (even shopkeeps and peasants) and the events that are occuring outside of the PC's actions.



> Killing the girl? I mean why not cut her hands?




At the time, there were black tendrils of energy coming from the black disc behind her.  She screamed in agony with every one and Collin thought it was killing her.  Worse, he thought, if it did, it would consume her soul.  Since trying to free her from the black energy was futile, we did the only thing we could.  We killed her to save her soul from the disc.  Well that didn't work now did it? 

It's a guilt that Collin bears now which gives him the drive to face every adversity and conflict since that day.  Because of his actions, one of his most beloved childhood friends was killed, and another tainted or possessed by the same darkness.  It should have been him, he feels.




> I also liked the description of the armor. Very neat.




Neat?  NEAT!?  It scared the piss out of poor Frederick who was actually afraid to strike Gaidri for fear of wounding some forsaken souls.  Oh and another thing that didn't get mentioned (understandable since this game happened many months ago) was the blue eyed, man-sized bats flying around the vaulted ceiling above us.  Every time we tried something with Sara they would keen out.  Luckily for us, they never attacked or threatened (though Byron had to test one by putting an arrow into it...).  Combined, the whole scene was like something out of a horrific Ravenloft campaign.

Also, once the black swirling disc was done consuming poor Sara, the bonds that held her disappeared.  Not wanting her body to rot on a profane altar for all time, Collin and Tylette wrapped her in two bedrolls (she had pretty much bled out across the alter, so it wasn't all too messy) and the party began the long trip back to our tiny village of Ardonia to bury her there.

Our poor party.  When we're not squabbling, we getting ourselves wrapped up in the goings-on of wherever we happen to be and feel obliged to solve their problems ourselves.  But when we click, it's a beautful and fearful sight to behold.  Khuuld's giant sword dashing skulls left and right.  Byron, who despite being blind, manages to target and pincushion his prey with seeming ease.  Our poor low-level casters (the psion and the sorceror) who do our part and then watch as the beef does most of the work.


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## Darklone (Mar 18, 2002)

*Hmm*

Byron is blind? cute... somehow didn't realize that. 

How many diving ravens can you kill without Combat Reflexes? Ask me again why I prefer Burning hands towards Magic Missile! BURN BABY BURN!


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## Jairami (Mar 18, 2002)

As the rain faded to a steady mist, Frederick and Byron came to the conclusion that Gaedri was probably not of his own mind and his actions were motivated most likely by a darker power.  Given that guesswork they decided that the least they could do was give him a proper burial.  Collin was capable of summoning dependable horses from the ether, but maintained that he would not be able to keep two horses with them at all times.  Somehow, Frederick's shield got elected as the digging instrument.  In the pre-dawn murk, they slogged mud just inside the outer pillars of the broken temple, beyond the blasted flagstones.

Khuuld had apparently slipped away unseen to think or hunt or some such, but given the grisly task Collin had that morning of attempting to wrap poor Sara in his bedroll, and Tylette's wracked nerves that morning from her disturbing nightmares, no one gave it much thought.

Collin and Tylette did their best to secure Sara's body on the horse he summoned, but regardless of their efforts she still ended up with half of her balancing the other half on either side of the horse in two horrifying lumps.  Unshed tears shined in both Collin and Tylette's eyes as they tried not to notice.

Khuuld came back, finding Byron and Frederick muddy and steaming in the cold misty morning, his breath condensing in front of him.  Both went wide-eyed and rigid at the sight of the black irises of his eyes and the jet black color of his hair.  Hardly noticing their reaction he asked if everyone was ready to set forth.

Not knowing what else to do, they nodded their heads and walked out, armed and armored into the surrounding woods.  The trees were black with ravens, but where there had been hundreds, there were now far too many count.  They seemed limitless, there had to be thousands of them.  With expressions varying from wild-eyed fear to guilty resignation to grim preparation, they marched straight into the midst of the black host.

And the raven's parted before them as a great black sheet rent asunder.

Or so it seemed.  Pausing for a second, not knowing whether to feel relieved or even more terrified, a tacit agreement was made by silently looking around and receiving nods that it was best not to test their fortune and to proceed with all speed.  But as they started forth, the ravens rushed in to fill in behind them.  The agitated swarm formed a cacaphony of sound with wings flapping in every direction as they shot from branch to branch following the group but never coming closer than ten feet to them.

For hours the group walked like this through the thinly wooded area, surrounded by thousands of evershifting, cawing ravens.  White knuckles gripped weapons as nerves frayed and silence gripped the party by the throat amidst the din.  Not a word of comfort was to be had among the tight lipped, tight eyed party.

By chance at one point, Khuuld paused to consider one of the larger ravens who stood out from the milling mass as another red-eyed specimen.  While the murderous legions of ravens sped from branch to branch, never sitting for long, seeming to mask their numbers in the milling chaos, the red-eyed ravens never seemed to move.  They sat calmly in the hurricane, watching with tiny red eyes every move the party made.

Unnerving didn't begin to describe it.  And then the ravens stopped receding.  Frederick walked to almost within arm's reach of the raven tempest, when he stopped, turned and saw Khuuld standing behind the party a ways, looking ponderously into the black cloud.  Then the blood drained from his face as he watched a single raven swoop down towards Khuuld and perch easily on his outstreched arm.

That black-eyed face turned to regard Frederick and he was sure that he had seen his last day.

Unbeknownst to the other members of the party, Khuuld had gone off that morning hunting a voice he had heard.  He searched every inch of the temple he could find but never did the voice get any louder or any softer.  And then it began speaking as if to him.

It was mostly non-sensical at first, wandering off into babbling drivel as often as not, but the occasional perceptive statement would shock Khuuld into standing there, wondering.  The voice was _inside_ his head.

What had stopped Khuuld was a giggling cackle of, "Call to my pretties...  You're mine, you're mine, you're mine, just as they..."


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## Jairami (Mar 18, 2002)

A few moments of thunderous silence among the party later, and Khuuld resumed striding forward again.  This time, with not a line of caution or worry on his face, and an intensity had entered his eyes.  He walked right past Frederick and the stunned pair of Collin and Tylette as Frederick whispered in a tight voice, hardly moving his head or lips what had happened to Byron.

Byron knocked an arrow and Frederick hissed at him.

That hadn't worked very well last time either.  With Khuuld moving and the rest of the party motionless, the true barrier of the ravens was painfully apparent, and shock and apprehention were no match for fear of the ravens closing in behind them.  As the ravens neared from the other side, everyone was quick to step to following their now dark-haired companion through the woods and back out onto the plains headed south.

Absolute silence still held the group with the exception of Khuuld who would now and again wonder aloud.  Or perhaps talk to someone...

At the end of the day, still surrounded on all sides by a now very blatant carpet of ravens all around them, the group tried to set up some kind of camp and at least pretend to sleep in preparation for their continued journey.  Darting glances and sideways looks at Khuuld all had sinister interpretations cries of warning from Khuuld's inner voice.  It also began speaking more eloquently, sometimes swaying Khuuld's opinion, using a more refined and less sporadic method of speech.  Perhaps stranger, it started whispering in a strange language Khuuld could not understand.  Almost chanting, the volume rising and falling rhythmically for hours at a time.  That night very little sleep was to be had as Collin tried to force unconsciousness on himself with eshti.

In the morning the tense journey began again, this time with rigidly polite conversation going back and forth.  Hidden meanings were again pointed out by the voice in Khuuld's head as his eyes narrowed on Tylette especially.  She had always had a sharp tongue, and even as leashed as she held it this morning, some of the voice's wilder claims began to make more sense.

One threat was enough to snap her mouth shut so hard her teeth clicked.  And it was also enough to gather every scrap of courage and conviction (and stupidity?) that Byron had as he strode up to Khuuld and called him down for his threat.

Khuuld and Byron had always rubbed sparks off each other.  From the very first day they had stepped on each other's feet, challenged each other's authority and expertise, and been only slightly civil about it.  Any sign of that was gone now as they quickly degenerated into a shouting match.

Khuuld's temper snapped and he sought to teach Byron a lesson for good at the voices's cheering suggestion and pulling a number from his head, sent 50 ravens flying at Byron.

Tylette screamed a warning as Frederick felt his faith tested at its basest level.  Byron nocked and let fly, dropping a raven per shot but within seconds they were upon him.  Diving in, clawing and tearing in a frenzy of gory activity.  Byron spasmed and convulsed attacked at every angle from every direction and collapsed in a bloody heap before Khuuld could make out what was happening and frantically call off the ravens.  The voice cackled away in his head, "You're mine you're mine you're mine you're mine you're mine you're mine..."

Frederick had gripped his mace hard enough to compress the wooden haft and strode towards Byron looking at Khuuld.  Inwardly Khuuld felt a little guilty and shocked at what he had done, but reminders of what Byron had done to him from the voice swiftly and ruthlessly quashed any regret.  Outwardly, Khuuld appeared utterly cold as he motioned for Frederick to do as he would.

Frederick layed his hands upon the balled up twitching Byron who was well past feeling and on his way to greet Death.  Equitus's holy power bathed over him and washed some of the wounds away as a shaky breath was sucked in by Byron.  Collin and Tylette both stood in mute terror at the trauma of the sight.

One can only imagine what Byron felt.

His body mended, Byron stood up once more and faced Khuuld.  He told Khuuld in no uncertain terms that he was leaving.  Khuuld laughed and said he could go anytime he wanted, seeming to infer that the ravens would not hinder him.  Indeed, a swath opened in the ravens to the south at Khuuld's silent mental command.  Except, within it were still three ravens--each with red eyes.  Khuuld again commanded them to step aside and let Byron leave, but they did not budge.

Frederick tersely told Byron what was happening and Byron nodded, wrapping himself in his tattered cloak before racing through the gap.  The three ravens and six more from within the pack alighted and chased after him, harrying him beyond the group's vision.

Unsure of how to proceed, Khuuld assured the rest he had no intention of doing anything to harm them, and indeed that he would protect them.  When Frederick brought up Byron, Khuuld said it was less than he deserved.

((In some of the story I have had to skip over in trying to catch up, Byron had twice lost his temper and put an arrow in Khuuld.  Both times, Khuuld was weak enough at the time that the arrow would have killed him without Frederick's quick intervention.  After almost singlehandedly saving the group from a night attack of driven wolves, Khuuld had the strong opinion that if anything his actions only made him and Byron even.))

Setting out was difficult but it seemed the only thing they could do.


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## Darklone (Mar 18, 2002)

*Hmmm*

How many ravens would you need to kill a dragon (BADD alert!)?

Nice. I really like it. Go on


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## Jairami (Mar 18, 2002)

As they drew nearer to Ardonia, Collin endeavored to come up with as soft a way to explain events to Baron Ardon as possible.  He still maintained that they had acted in Sara's best interest at the time and that it was the only thing they could have done with the knowledge they had.  Vehemently maintained.  Tylette's sharp tongue was still somewhat leashed and said not a word to Khuuld, but it still had some lash for Collin's conscience.

Unfortunately, Collin's true but carefully worded account of events would be for naught as Byron arrived in town first and gave a bitter account of events from his perspective.  A lot of the blame was shifted to Khuuld through shaded inference, but the result was the same.  Byron tried to offer hopes of vengeance to the Baron, but holding his weeping wife in his arms he could find no hatred for the group.  Nothing but sorrow held sway in his heart.  Nodding his understanding, Byron left to wander and sharpen his skills, and someday bring vengeance upon Khuuld.

When Collin, Frederick, Khuuld, and Tylette walked back into the village, they were met by a red-eyed Baron.  He had little anger left for them in his sorrow and he told them that he could not stand to see them.  Before news of what had happened had reached him, he had set into motion the rebuilding of the bridge that once connected Ardonia to the outside world.  He had thought that their isolation must end with the re-emergence of the goblins in the surrounding lands.  While not complete, they were ordered to cross that bridge and never return.

Apologies and explanations were attempted and waved off.  "You did what you thought you had to.  It changes nothing, begone with you before my sorrow burns my blood for vengeance."

Tylette and Frederick both made hasty goodbyes, packing up what little they owned while Collin and Khuuld tried to figure out where to go.  Ardonia had been cut off so long from the outside world that they really did have little or no idea what lay beyond their small part of it.  Tracking down knowledge that the old bridge once was a part of a trade route to a port city far to the west, they waited outside of town for Tylette and Frederick.

Weary physically and exhausted emotionally, they set forth to the northeast leaving their home.


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## Jairami (Mar 18, 2002)

Construction of a bridge out of Ardonia is something that hasn't been considered in well on a hundred years, and had lit more than a few minds up with the idea of travel and adventure.  One such bright and enthusiastic mind was a young lad from one of the farmsteads around Ardonia.  3 years ago he had discovered a strange wood covered book with string bindings written in language he could not begin to decipher.  But all through out it were diagrams and sequential pictures of sketchy representations of people performing all manner of combat maneuvers.  With nothing but pictures to go by, it was more a hobby than anything else for young Andrew, but it was an escape from the drudgery of farm life.  Strong legs and shoulders from days of plough work and great stamina as well led him to be quite a capable student of the images.

He particularly liked the stylized tiger woodcut near the back.

When news of a bridge reached his farm, he only held out a single night before his adventurous spirit would let him hold still no longer.  He told his father that he had to see the world and experience it for himself and set off with visions of grand quests in his mind.

What he found were four out of sorts people of an age with him, waiting on enough of the support structure of the bridge to be completed to cross just on it.  Full of enthusiasm and zest for life, he put upon them to let him join them in whatever quest they had found.  No attempt at discouragement or outright refusal was accepted.

Khuuld muttered that he'd probably turn back within a week and Collin eventually was glad for anything that could lift the mood that was heavy upon the group.  Slowly, Collin's curiosity and thirst for knowledge was overcoming the events that had unpended his life.

Collin, Tylette, and Andrew would banter back and forth at length and laughter was reintroduced to the taught group as Frederick would march along, head hanging low wondering how this could be set before him and what he could possibly do.  Khuuld had his own problems to contend with.  His temper was getting shorter, especially around the seemingly implacable Andrew with his always on smile and slightly naive if not downright dense perception of things.  The voice in his head spoke more and more often in that chanting spidery language, and his mastery of the wild was less complete in lands he didn't know, which was sure to be the rest of their journeys.

After working their way across the bridge they set out without even a map or an idea of what they were looking for, following the coast line west with the idea that if it was a port city, it surely had to be along the sea.  Andrew's adventurous spirit got it's first tarnish as he discovered that adventuring often consists of putting one foot in front of the other all day every day for weeks on end.

A few interesting engagements in a bandit ogre's lands paying off his goblin cronies, and escaping on summoned horseback were about the only diversion from the monotony.

Quite a long journey later they found themselves entering the low wooden walls (perhaps fence would be a better word) of Jigond.  Jigond had apparently been something long ago as it sported cobblestone avenues flanked by decorative trees and a diverted channel of sea water that ran through town.  It was actually a couple miles or so off the coast though there was a series of piers and wharfs that formed the docks out into a protected inlet of the sea south of town.  A single ship was in port, a dual-masted sailing ship sat peacefully with little or no activity on it.

Jigond itself was fairly quiet, with the few people who were out and about looking around skittishly, going about their business with swift economy of movement.  It didn't take long to discover why.  Standing at a corner of the town green or walking in clumps of 5 or 6 were rough men with no manners and too much drink.

Business was taken care of in town and inquiries were made as to maps and incoming vessles when the party suffered an injury that has yet to completely heal.

Tylette was wandering town about her own business when her ways attracted interest and a horrible chain of events unfolded.  ((I will not detail what led to this or what happened for the sake of Eric's grandmother.))

Khuuld was drawn by sounds of a scuffle and was enraged by what he saw.  One of the men lost an arm and bled to death on the cobblestones before they had all managed to scatter.  Sheathing his sword Khuuld collected Tylette and took her to the rest of the party at the inn where Frederick and the herb-dealing healer of the town were called for.

Frederick in a rage stormed out before truly thinking matters through and found the first group of ruffians he could.  Confronting the six of them in icy tones he told them that they had best leave town as he and his friends were about to return the law to it.  He was answered by bullying and an ale being poured on him.

Choking down an urge to slay them all where they stood he warned them again and headed back to the inn to prepare.  Much righteous vengeance was planned that day.


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## Jairami (Mar 18, 2002)

The next morning, Khuuld stood at the door of the inn, looking like thunder as he watched down the main avenue.  When twenty-one men in barefeet and armor in variable states of repair each with a short curving sword and a heavy bladed knife entered town from the south and began apporaching the inn, he nodded grimly to himself and called in to the others in their preparations that they wouldn't have to go track down the ruffians.

In the interim, the group had inquired about the ruffians and been informed that they were thugs and hooligans, cut-rate pirates of the sea who were tolerated because they had gold and because no one could really stand up to them.  That was about to change.

The pirate's apparent leader stopped out in green and called for the backstabbing murderer who had killed one of his crew to show his cowardly face.

Khuuld, Frederick, Andrew, and Collin came out with expressions like thunderheads.  Frederick declared their crimes as he could put them together (at which some of the pirates looked at each other in confusion--and were promptly barked at by their captain) and called for their surrender.  The answer was bared blades.

Summoning forth creatures at range to attack the captain Collin identified himself as an arcane caster of some sort.  The captain ran a tight crew and promptly had the men near him fall upon the summoned monsters while several others advanced and threw daggers at Collin.  Frederick healed Collin on the spot and gave the captain another problem to deal with.  As both sides advanced cautiously, the Captain took more and more hits from summoned creatures that would appear, strike him, and then be struck down.  By the time both sides had closed with each other, all in a matter of second, the captain was gravely wounded.

Swordswinging melee insued with the first mate doing his best to keep the sailors in line as their numbers failed to overwhelm the four.  People fell on both sides, but the losses weighed more upon the small group of four.

Eventually the party was defeated, with one member running for help.  Battered and bloodied in an encounter that did not go anything as planned, the pirates dragged their wounded back to their ship.  When Collin returned with the inkeeper and the herbmistress, Frederick was doing his best to see to Khuuld and Andrew.  Licking their wounds, they limped back to the inn.

The following day both sides clashed again, as the party was successful in preventing the pirates from setting the inn afire.  The battered pirates in bandages and slings were no match for the party healed by Equitus's blessings.  Those that did not scatter were captured or killed.  ((Sorry, still summing up.  Got a long ways to go.  Perhaps Velenne will fill in some details.))

Lacking any established law system or court in Jigond, Frederick tried the remaining five survivors himself.  Their lives and all their possessions were found forfeit and would be auctioned off to make reparations for the damages they had inflicted on both the townsfolk and the party.

In their search of the ship, they discovered a map with sketchy details regarding the locations of several ports in the sea and several possible locations they could travel to from Jigond.  But without the knowledge of how to pilot or navigate a ship, nor the crew to run it, they were stuck.  After a thorough interrogation of the captured crewman, it was decided that they would work off their debt in indentured servitude.  Teaching the operation of the ship and seeing to it's upkeep.  The cowed crewmen were thankful for their lives and accepted the terms as superior to death by hanging.  Though never enthusiastic, they would prove at least competent and pliable.

But upon returning to town from the ship, the party found Tylette stumbling out of the inn, a vision still burning in her eyes.


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## Velenne (Mar 19, 2002)

Ya I remember that first battle not going very well.  Apparently Tylette's *ahem* assailents seemed to conveniently forget to mention to their captain what they had been caught in the act of doing.  Most of the pirates just thought someone in our group had murdered one of their crew.  

Fortunately for us, the pirates lacked a healer.  So we faced them full strength again the next day.  The second battle would not be a repeat.  Poor Frederick did everything he could to take prisoners, but Khuuld wasn't having it.  He would chase the unarmed, fleeing pirates down (even into the water!) and put them to the sword, judge, jury, executioner...particularly the latter.

But we managed to save 5, somewhat reputable individuals who were, at best, misguided.  Pirates? Yes, but only because they followed their captain's orders.  Hooligans?  There's something to be said for peer pressure, or at least that's what Frederick thought.

The rest of us were just fine with hanging the bastards, but justice prevailed that day and the town had seen enough death.  Commandeering the sailing vessel and learning what we could of navigation from the surviving first mate (Kaima?  I think that's how it's spelled), our initial sea-voyages could be likened to a newborn horse trying out it's legs for the first time.  But I'll leave that for Jair.

Most of the party was fairly disappointed with Jigond.  We were all expecting a big city with all sorts of wonders and sights to behold.  Instead we found yet another sobering event and a lot more growing up.  (The party's average age is about 19.  Small village-folk barely of age having no contact with the outside world)  Killing goblins was one thing.   Killing people was quite another.  

Oh and the ravens...yes that session had us all clawing our armrests.  Imagine knowing that at any second your death could be upon you, all around you, biting at your eyes and scratching off your flesh tiny bit by bit.  Needless to say, the group felt pretty betrayed by Khuuld.  Yet as our old friend, we could tell that something was influencing him.  He may have been brash, headstrong, and dirty before, but now he had the aire of evil.  Unsettling, to say the least.  The player also did a great job of talking to himself and keeping his temper only a hair's breadth wide.

And now we get to try our sea legs...close your eyes, this won't be pretty.


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## Darklone (Mar 19, 2002)

*Hmmm*

Did I get that right, the group lost and the pirates left them there without killing and capturing them? ... strange...


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## Velenne (Mar 19, 2002)

Both sides had substantial losses.  The crew was worried more for their captain who was on his last legs.  They had to drag him off and without any leadership, the rest of them fell back when we did.


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## Jairami (Mar 19, 2002)

Ah the joys of low level gaming.  You think an encounter will go one way...

Twenty-one men faced four, and while they did down three, one got away to bring back help.  Already demoralized beyond description at watching their captain taken down before they could even reach them by creatures none of them had ever seen, plus watching each man account for four of theirs, when Caema ordered two men to drag the Captain back to the ship, the 3 men left looked to the inn, looked at each other, and were about to break and run when Caema got them to grab other wounded and take them back too.  He was about to lose his captain and his crew and even if two people came back he wasn't sure he could take them if they were like the first four.

All of this coupled with his own strong urge to run made the fact that there was at least one healing potion that he knew of on the ship the smartest decision a retreat.  At least so far as his own cowardice was concerned.

I know I'm forgetting the details of how it came about, but every session has so many details and occurences (stretched over 10-12 hours) that I'm mainly highlighting events.  Once I catch up to what we did Saturday, things will make much more sense from then on.

Consider this the cliff notes prequel to the main event.


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## Piratecat (Mar 19, 2002)

Wow! This is great!  You had me at the ravens. Good stuff.

Hey, Jai, drop me an email and I'll tell you a sneaky rat bastard trick you may want to use; if you don't, I'll post it here, as it is at least a bit relevant.


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## Jairami (Mar 20, 2002)

That'd make my day.  

E-mail sent.

<Evil DM laugh>


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## Velenne (Mar 20, 2002)

If it's one thing Jair doesn't need, it's to be a rat bastard DM.  He already runs the Sultans of Smack thread!  That's bad enough!!!  QUIT CORRUPTING HIM!!!1


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## Darklone (Mar 21, 2002)

**grin**

DMs don't corrupt each other, they lighten up the lives of their players. Ok, it's the same


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## Jairami (Mar 21, 2002)

Tylette begins telling of the gaunt, almost skeletal, face of the man she saw in her dreams.  The green pasture upon which they lay wilting and rotting away to brown slime and muck as clawed skeletal hands burst forth through the mud and grabbed each of them, slashing and pulling them into the earth's embrace.

Tylette had dealt with her ordeal by locking it away.  It never happened, she was never there.  She wept no tears and allowed no kind words as she locked herself in denial.  Much of her joyfulness, curiosity, anger, and personality was locked away with it.  But as a result she was calm and dispassionate in her dreams and viewed her fortellings in clarity.

What she didn't mention was what she saw within the corrupt earth.  As she herself was pulled down in the odd perspective of dreams wherein she could see herself descending, she reached a massive open air cavern heaped with the remains of all manner of creature.  Fire roared along the ground in places and great vents of steam burst through fissures in others giving an ever shifting ominous light to the horrific surroundings.  Firelight danced through ten thousand hollow lifeless eye sockets in a mountain of human skulls upon which stood Khuuld, strapped down hard to two gnarled boards that formed an X behind him of blood-soaked dark wood.

Except from his expression, he didn't know he was a prisoner.  He gazed in rapt fascination at the captivating and compelling man in front of him.  So much so, that he didn't appear to mind that he was feeding upon him, corrupting his inards, leaving that which was inside cold, black, and diseased.

From her height Tylette could see through the sham to the true features of the man.  Mottled skin the color of slate was stretched taut against his gaunt features, his hands were so bony and elongated as to almost be claws.  His black teeth smiled around the blood dripping from them at his plaything writhing before him in delusional ecstasy, but then he straightened.

He snapped towards Tylette's floating consciousness and hollow black twin voids where his sunken eyes should have been suddenly blazed to light with green fire licked with sickly brown.  They burned into Tylette's soul as he cast a clawed finger towards her and she fled screaming back to her body to find herself trapped in her twisted and coiled sheats, sweating and trying to clamp her teeth shut around a scream of absolute terror.

This part she left out.

Herding their at least clothed now, if still weaponless, indentured servants into a single room they posted Khuuld outside it as a menacing guard while they retreated to the common room to plan their next move.

Tylette insisted that Khuuld's condition was worsening some how and that they needed to seek out treatment for him.  Collin was also concerned but more wanted to seek out possible knowledge of Gaedri's ruins and what could possibly be affecting the earth and causing Tylette's visions.  He had heard about town of the frontier town of New Galdamond far to the west being built upon the wreckage of the great city that used to stand there of the same name.  Apparently the earth there was almost completely despoiled and, more alarmingly, was still spreading.  The rate and cause of this was readily accepted as being of utmost importance.

It sounded like adventure to Andrew; it sounded like suicidal folly to Frederick, but then what else had they to do?  Consulting their new map--a fairly accurate enough looking thing, at least with landforms though very few named locations, found hidden in a compartment of the desk in Captain Crayder's cabin among charts and notes in a grid system no one understood--they asked about the two towns, besides Ardonia, that they could reach by ship.

According to the map they were stuck in an immensely huge inland sea, that while it reached a nearly unimaginable amount of shoreline, to their adventurous young minds seemed limiting.  Helpful word around town though was that a determined (or maybe insane) dwarf was attempting to construct a canal in a thin isthmus of land about two days south of one of the cities, Yogdush.  Yogdush was apparently a good sized city of hard work and industry and the primary house of the following of Diggadin, the dwarven deity of labor, toil, and unending work.

The other mark on the map was identified as Galearon, the beautiful Elven capital.  No one seemed to know much about those lands, except that for longer than the oldest grandmother's grandmother could remember before she passed, an endless war had been waged by the elves against some shadowy enemy.  There were signs that the war had died down, maybe even ended, but for as long as it had raged, it might simply be a lull.

From what Frederick and Collin had read about elves, they were a long lived people and might have knowledge of the ruins north of Ardonia.  Then again, they were far outside of human lands, much less the elven lands so far south across the sea.  But they were also touted as being masters of powerful magicks, so they may know, or have a way to find out.  And, as Tylette and Frederick both agreed, they may know of what has befallen Khuuld and perhaps some way to reverse it.

Agreed that Galearon was the best choice, they set out gathering supplies and preparing what was needed.

Now if only they could figure out how to get there...


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## Darklone (Mar 22, 2002)

*Hihihi*

Reminds me of a paladin once... Rode in full armour with visor opened and his whole church stuff insignia and so into an orc camp, stopped at the leaders tent and said: "Uhm sir, excuse the disturbance, could you be so kind to tell me the way to...?"


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## Darklone (Mar 27, 2002)

*Calling Mr. Bump*

*DONE*


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## Velenne (Mar 27, 2002)

With all the doom and gloom so far, I think it's time to have a happy moment.  So please sing some Partridge Family songs with me and enjoy these blissful moments brought to you by B.A.D.P (bothered about disposable puppies)


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## Jairami (Apr 2, 2002)

_I'd just like to say, moving sucks.  Oh, and loading 25 ft. Ryder trucks suck.  Oh yeah, and driving 25 ft. Ryder trucks from L.A. to Dallas sucks even more.  Tired Jairami._

From what Collin and Frederick could piece together, the ship they have commandeered for passage required a crew generally of about twenty.  Even if their indentured servants were trustworthy enough to be given a free reign to work, that still left them numbering five sailors and five shorebound land-lovers.  

The conspiratorial voice in Khuuld's head seemed to have finished whatever chanting it was that he had been doing for the last week or so and had taken to taunting Khuuld when not giving him some times obvious, and other times not so obvious, bad advice.  This was not helping Khuuld's temper--neither would the voyage to come.

Collin came up with the idea of supplementing the people they had with Unseen Servants that could be summoned in pairs and could be stretched (if summoned only two at a time) to last most of the day.  After discussing with Caema, the party decided that skirting along the coastline at half-mast shouldn't be impossible for their skeleton crew and they set off with modest ambition to simply follow the coast all the way to the sea port a day's travel north of Galearon.

When their boots were not slipping and sliding on the deck, they were pulling the wrong ropes in the wrong direction.  Caema, worried that every mistake would weigh on him did his best not to correct anyone (especially Khuuld) and to simply give new orders to try and correct mistakes.  Trying to direct things from his vantage point still rankled with Khuuld and after yet another slip and fall landed him on his rump his temper snapped and it looked Caema was going to lose his head over it.

Frederick managed to talk him down, well, not really, but he did manage to keep Khuuld's sword away from Caema.  Khuuld was absolutely boiling inside.

That night strange lights were seen both in the water and on the coast a little way off.

Upon setting out the next day, enough mistakes were made that the sails remained slack despite the wind and little or no progress was made.  Furious, Khuuld slammed his fist down on the bannister running along the port side of the ship--and saw a drenched, yellow and black-green creature over six feet long scaling the side of the ship.

Sliding his massive sword from off his shoulder he grinned and played with the notion of not sounding the alarm, but the decision was taken from him as two others hauled themselves over the starboard side.  Crewman gave off shouts and ran for cover as the first two straightened and revealed themselves as horribly disfigured female humanoids swathed in rags and seaweed.  Two more had made it onboard before the one closest to Khuuld began hauling itself over the bannister.

"Welcome aboard!" Khuuld shouted gleefully as his huge sword slammed into the one nearest him.  The large woman had shown impressive strength in her climb and was absolutely hideous to look at, but Khuuld's mighty blow nearly took her head off in a single swing and she fell back into the ocean just barely alive having not even set foot on the deck yet.

Crewman fell wretching to the deck at the sight of the wart and oozing sores of the hags and they leveled dire gazes on any still standing.  Frederick met one of these gazes and fell lifeless to the deck, Andrew wiped the vomit from his chin and steeled himself, charging into the fray to place himself in between the starboard hags and the crew.  He found out that not only did the things move fast, but they also had long arms--long, *strong* arms--as he was battered just maneuvering into position.  Khuuld just grinned, ground his hands into the grip of his sword as his hands twisted around it, and let the rage he had been building wash over him.  The hag closest to him rent his chest open as he closed on her but he could hardly feel it as his blade wrenched down in a sickening crunch as he cleft her from collarbone to hip.

Collin finishes his summoning just as terrible wounds open on the flesh of another hag at Tylette's intense stare.  The wolf seemingly made of fire that materialized infront of the wounded wretch took advantage of it's pain and sunk its fangs into it, trying to pull it to the ground.

The wounded hag and her closest ally smashed the wolf into the deck, but upon its death it merely dissipated to be replaced by another as Collin finished casting again.  The third surviving hag moved to grab one of the cowering crewman.  Wrapping the terrified sailor in its monstrous hands, the hag edged towards the edge of the ship until Khuuld's sword burst through her chest from behind.

Still breathing in gurgling gasps, it relinquished its prize and threw itself overboard after taking a huge backhanded swipe at the frothing Khuuld that nearly took *his* head off.  The two remaining hags, one injured and with another wolf attached to it, finding themselves routed lurched and fell overboard as well.

Khuuld growled and panted as the red cleared from his vision, but as the severity of his wounds came back to him his eyes rolled up in his head and he fell over bonelessly.  The last sound in his ears, the cackling laughter of the mad voice gleefully celebrating.


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## Darklone (Apr 3, 2002)

Jairami said:
			
		

> *I'd just like to say, moving sucks.  Oh, and loading 25 ft. Ryder trucks suck.  Oh yeah, and driving 25 ft. Ryder trucks from L.A. to Dallas sucks even more.  Tired Jairami.
> 
> "Welcome aboard!" Khuuld shouted gleefully as his huge sword slammed into the one nearest him.  The large woman had shown impressive strength in her climb and was absolutely hideous to look at, but Khuuld's mighty blow nearly took her head off in a single swing and she fell back into the ocean just barely alive having not even set foot on the deck yet.*




Moving sucks: we moved here too. And I am looking forward to 3 friends moving elsewhere, my club moving around and my work moved last month... It's still all a mess!

Khuuld: Nothing like a hearty welcome


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## Jairami (Apr 3, 2002)

As you can probably tell from the lack of direct dialogue, this is still a VERY long time ago, maybe 300+ hours of gaming ago and who knows how much real time ago...  But that moment just sticks with me.  "Welcome aboard!"  *CLANG* ... <groan> ... *SPLASH*

And here I was afraid I was going to rip them all apart limb from limb.  Of course, Khuuld was well into negative hitpoints when he dropped and Frederick lay twitching on the deck..  But still..


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## Jairami (Apr 3, 2002)

Khuuld's body rapidly cooled as it lay on the deck, tendrils of yellowed brown and sickly purple snaking across his body as his lifeblood leeched away.  But if there is one thing Khuuld possesses, it is a stubborn determination to live.  Before Collin or Andrew could even get to him to bind his wounds, his breathing had stabilized*.  While still shallow, he no longer appeared to be dying.

Frederick, besides muscle spasms and uncontrolled twitching, appeared to be alive and unharmed, but he was catatonic.

Dragging them into the crew's quarters, the remaining party set the two of them on bunks to recover.  Tylette attempted to administer to their wounds, but without any formal training, the best she could do was try to comfort them.  Caema and his mates were clustered below decks, wide-eyed and whispering when Collin found them.  He tried to reassure them, but it ended up taking an order to get them moving.  Stretching even thinner, they manned the ship as best they could and it limped along to the south.

It took Khuuld three days to wake from his fitful slumber, dried blood adhered old makeshift bandages to the wounds across his upper chest and sides.  Stumbling into the daylight the first thing he heard was Tylette's gasp.  Khuuld's brush with death apparently had had some negative effects upon him.  His black eyes and jet black hair remained unchanged, but his skin had turned the sickly pallor of a week-old bruise, a putrid yellowed brown color.  His stretched features were somewhat reminiscent of the gaunt skeletal figure she had seen torturing Khuuld in her vision.

Stumbling over to the edge of the ship he waived her off and dry heaved until he was spitting up blood.  Then he collapsed against the banister to sit and in pain trying to recover his strength.

The next morning Frederick came to.  Alive and seemingly unharmed he berated himself endlessly for what had happened.  To his mind, he had failed his friends and Equitus again.  Worse, instead of falling in combat trying to defend his friends, he had passed out in fear.  He knew nothing of the hags' supernatural abilities, and looking around and finding himself the only one laid out on a bunk just added further fuel to his growing fire of self-hatred.

As he sat there railing against himself, he was further angered by his inactivity and with that buried his emotions to fester as guilt and began to see about doing what needed to be done.  His prayers brought him a sense of peace and forgiveness but he pushed it away brusquely feeling he did not deserve it.

Up on deck, the sails were full and the ship appeared to be making good progress to the south.  He nodded to this and then saw Khuuld working the ropes.  At the sight of him, Frederick seriously considered pitching himself overboard and letting his armor drag him to what he felt was his duly earned reward.  But any self-pity was stomped on promptly by Khuuld who noticed him standing there doing nothing.

Khuuld barked at him, "Yeh're always goin' on 'bout 'ow yeh're gonna tayke care o' me.  'ow it's so bloody important to yeh.  But 'ere I em, 'alf-dead an yeh stand there with yer bloomin' mouth hangin' open.  Get up 'ere an HEAL me!"

And so he did, but no matter how much of Equitus's blessing he laid upon Khuuld, the bruised pallor of his skin remained.  Hanging his head and shoulders sagging, Frederick left Khuuld to his work and sought out Andrew to heal his wounds as well.  As it turned out, everyone else was fine, and between making notes on what he had been learning about navigation from Caema and his own observations as they traveled Collin filled Frederick in on the rest of what had happened.

As the days passed, Frederick spent much of his time away from his friends and more in the company of Caema and his men.  Dentral seemed to be having an especially hard time.  He had been one of two cabin boys under their former captain.  Frederick spent his time talking to them of who they were, what they had done, and what must be done.  He did his best to befriend them, but they lived in almost perpetual fear.  Each new that his life was forfeit, and every time Khuuld lost his temper and lashed out, each saw his end.  Frederick did his best to reassure them and calm them and out of it he gained out of necessity a little more skill at sea.

As more time passed, Caema looked to Frederick before called out orders, and eventually he left it to Frederick entirely.  The crew had begun calling him "Captain" though what Andrew, Tylette, Collin, and Khuuld thought of that was anyone's guess.  Regardless, as Frederick became more used to what needed to be done where and how to keep the ship moving, and Collin became more confident with maps and vectors, applying his love of mathematics and geometry there progress increased significantly.  And so it was, that after half a month skirting the coast, Tylette called out from the crow's nest, having spotted a stone wharf jutting out into a sheltered harbor.

As they got closer, they could make out a single wooden house at the end of the wharf and nothing but deep forest in every direction beyond.  Consulting his map, Collin tried to explain that as unlikely as it seemed, there was nothing here but the dock, and that Galearon appeared to be at least a full day's, if not two, ride to the south.  As they maneuvered into the harbor though Collin forgot all about maps, ships, and nearly everything else as he laid eyes upon the two figures standing upon the dock.

They were shorter than even Collin but were beautifully built with long bones and huge expressive eyes.  Their arrow straight hair was broken by long elegant ears that came to points.  It was the first time Collin had seen an elf outside of a woodcut in a book.

Each stood motionless, looking the ship up and down, pausing to rest upon each person aboard.  Frederick gave the mooring orders but as the crew tossed the lines, the elves did not move and the ropes splashed into the water.  Puzzled, they pulled them back aboard and dropped anchor, attempting to dock without aid.  Eventually they managed to secure themselves and lower the gangplank, when they did, they found the elves standing to either side of it.

By that time Collin had exhausted the last of his patience and his excitement overcame him.  He raced down the gangplank to speak with the elves.

*_Khuuld's player actually managed to roll 007 on his first try to stabilize.  He was at something like -8 or -9 so it was important.  I think I said something Eric's Grandmother wouldn't have approved of at the luck, but I merely attributed it to the voice in Khuuld's head.  } _


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## Velenne (Apr 4, 2002)

Poor poor Fredrick.   He tries so hard and does such a good job of keeping track of Khuuld but the big bastard just hates the idea and tries to slip away at every opportunity.  It also doesn't help that he runs faster than the cleric.

And everytime he slips, Khuuld falls just a little further and Fredrick's guilt grows like a mountain on his shoulders.


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## Jeremy (Apr 8, 2002)

The elves stood nearly motionless with huge eyes that at the moment held no emotion as they regarded Collin.  In his excitement Collin's first statement did not reflect his intelligence, but then, his youth combined with his excited curiosity was only exacerbated by the fact that he was the first person he knew of from Ardonia who had met a real elf.

So he rather joyously asked them, "Are you elves?"

The elves' flat expressions changed not a whit.

"Oh, yes, well, silly question I suppose.  Yes, um, let's see.  Is that," with a look indicating the rustic wooden lodge at the end of the dock, "Your home?"

Still silent, and with no emotion one way or the other on their faces, one of the elves slowly rotated his head fist to the left a few degrees, then to the right.

"No, I suppose not.  Well, this is quite exciting, to actually be in the prescense of elves.  I've read all about you.  Well, er, yes, not exactly as talkative as I had expected but I guess that can be, yes that can be explained.  Elves!  I'm actually talking with elves!  Well, speaking to rather really, you're not really doing much talking.  But then, I suppose, yes there must be a reason for that too, and I shall discover it.  Hmmm, but first, hmmm--Elves!--let's see.  Galearon, yes?  This of course isn't it.  It's south correct?"

Collin's unbridled enthusiasm is utterly unaffected by the still expressionless and equally slow inclination of the other elf's head.

"Hah!  Wonderful.  I knew that.  The map is wonderful.."  Collin visibly considers pulling the map out to either study it, show his prize to the elves, or maybe just caress it wonderously and replace it, but after a moment he merely smiles bright again and continues on.  "Well, I suppose we shall be off to the south then.  We are going to visit your capital.  I, um, well that is I don't know if you actually have fun, but well hmmm, I guess this is good day!"  And after an entirely one-sided conversation that probably took less than 60 seconds total, Collin walked up the ramp to relay his findings with one more excited murmur to himself.

"Elves!"

Back aboard the ship Frederick had was slowly coming to the decision that compliant or not, the crew might not be trustworthy enough to be left alone on a ship they once piloted.   The fact that it had taken them twenty-one sailors before and Collin's magic and Frederick's intelligence just now to operate the ship escaped him in all the details of the moral dilemma.

Khuuld strode down the gangplank, not a timid bone in his body but was met with the same bland looks, and shrugging to himself he packed down and buckled on his gear.  Andrew and Tylette also came down; Andrew was grateful to finally be back on the ground even when he heard that yet more walking awaited them.  As Collin came down the gangplank again with the rest of his gear now lashed securely into place, he called back after Frederick.  But Frederick announced that he would be staying to look after the ship.

With a nod, Collin set to summoning forth mounts for the party.

The ride through the forest was peaceful counterpoint to the bare skeletal trees they had ridden through near the ruins north of Ardonia.  The only damper on the soothing atmosphere was the strange feeling of being watched.  Animals that seemed to not know they should avoid man watched them curiously.  Irritated, both at the itch of the hairs on the back of his neck and that hunting should prove so little challenge here, Khuuld dismounted, unshouldered his long bow, and began stringing it at the sight of a great stag.

A dignified voice began at a slow pace, each word carefully pronounced, "Please do not do that."  The silence between his sentences seemed to stretch.  "If you wish food, it can be provided for you."  The pace of his speech had a ponderous quality to it, as if each word were cautiously chosen, though there was no reflection of that emotion in either the elf's face, nor his body language.

Khuuld's reply was equally bland, perhaps in mockery of the elf's fine pronunciation bereft of emotion, perhaps just in strained patience and an honest effort to be civil, "I'm no bloody green ear.  I knows what I'm doin'.  I'm a flippin' furrier.  Yeh just mind yer own business an' lets me see teh mine."

Andrew nodded and looked to Khuuld, "It is their farm, their rules."

Collin added, "It might be adviseable to just carry on, Khuuld."

More irritated now than before, Khuuld finished stringing his bow and fingered the arrows at his hip questioningly.  With an aggravated grunt he deliberately began to draw an arrow out when the elf lifted a single finger unnoticed.

Three loud hisses ended abruptly in the earthy thunk of three arrows imbedding themself around Khuuld.  Each from a different direction, each at a down angle.


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## Jeremy (Apr 9, 2002)

"Yes, um, Khuuld I really think--"  But before Collin had even begun, Khuuld had already begun replacing the arrow in his quiver, muttering to himself.  After a moments thought he bent down and picked up the decorated shafts sticking out of the ground and looked a challenge at the seemingly endless trees.  Daring the hidden elves with his eyes, he placed the three arrows into his own quiver and mounted.

Tylette turned with a soothing smile to offer assurances to the elf only to find him gone.  Collin only bubbled on excitedly about all the fascinating things they were seeing.

Meanwhile, back at the ship, Frederick was checking the log against the provisioning records he and Collin had scratched out.  They had been at sea much longer than expected.  Heading down to check things out personally, he estimated there was about enough food for another week if it was just himself and the crew eating.  This was not long enough in his opinion.

Muttering something more likely to be self-deprecating than anything else, he called the crew before him and announced they were heading into town as well for supplies.

The rest of the group had set up camp with a guard posted in the usual fashion, sleeping in shifts, however pointless it seemed to Tylette and Collin (who snuck back into his tent soon after his shift started).

The next morning would find them breaking through the tree cover to what could only be Galearon.  The forest had been cleared for about a mile in every direction around the elven capital giving at first, a magnificent setting for the town.  The unusual thing was that the resulting grassland was uniformly cropped down to barely two inches in height.  A shadow could not approach Galearon unseen.

At this distance the town appeared to be a grouping of trees, with low houses interspersed around a tall walled structure.  From the eight towers rising equidistant from each other, it could be assumed the compound was most likely shaped like an octagon, though it was difficult to be sure from their vantage.  Another unusal detail was that only the three northernmost towers appeared to be complete.  All of the others were complete to a point at which they ended in a great deal of wooden skeletal structure and scaffolding.

They rode the last mile each keeping their own counsel.  Some expected bigger, some figured it at about twice the size of Jigond and were awestruck, others worried over things they had observed, while the rest rode on with lighter thoughts.  All of them were surprised when they actually entered Galearon.

The elven capitol appeared for the most part empty.  Here and there they could see it being maintained by unusual magic.  Two wooden buckets floated serenely beside a floating tunic that glided along.  By the number of identical tunics floating about, the colors were livery of some sort.  Here and there an elf went about their business with unhurried grace, but all things considered, there was very little commotion.

Collin's eyes lit up at the blatant use of magic while the rest took in the quaint buildings amidst the trees and the more unusual dwellings that _were_ trees.  There were no apparent pathways, cobblestone avenues, or even worn paths; just beautifully maintained grassy spaces between and around trees and homes.  Straight lines were few and far between, spaces and buildings alike were curved more often than not.  Addressing floating tunics produced no effect, but inquiring of an elf at least produced an inclination of the head towards a shaped ivy-covered wooden structure with at least two stories next to apparently a healthy spring that fed a brook that wandered around trees and between homes.

The doors to the building glided silently open for them as they approached apparently unaided to judge by the empty common room that greeted them.  Wooden tables that appeared perhaps to still live looked so natural one might believe they grew that way stood lined by comfortable looking equally natural chairs.  No patrons or even an inkeep were apparent, though the place was obviously well maintained.

Seating themselves and relaxing Khuuld called out for some service.  When an elf materialized next to him he nearly overbalanced his chair.

"I _love_ this place!  I am most certainly going to come back here to live as soon as we fix you Khuuld.  Yes.  Most definately...  Elves!"

A slight itch on the back of his neck later, Khuuld irritably asked what he had to do to get some food.  His temper came even closer to flaring when his response was the elf disappearing again.  But scant moments later honey-brushed grilled quail with red onion and pepper cress salad, capon and smoked oxtail consomme en croute served on leeks, foie grass, and black truffle, smoked sturgeon on mache lettuce with whole grain mustard dressing, with a main entree of crisped magret duck breast in a green garlic sauce with lavender, concord grapes, white asparagus, and a boulangere potato were all brought on fine silver and porcelain and set before people according to taste with remarkable accuracy.

Collin just pointed then folded his arms with a huge grin as if to say, "You see?  Perfect."


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## Velenne (Apr 9, 2002)

Two updates in a row!?  w00t!

Man, if you're gonna be that detailed about the food, we're gonna need to mark this thread as Adults-Only when we get to Collin's latter nights in Galaeron.   What could be sweeter, more sublime than a ....   ;D


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## Jeremy (Apr 9, 2002)

Some how "brought out custom good food" didn't quite get the correct atmosphere across.

And I think I'll have to sanitize Collin and Andrew's side adventures a little.  Wouldn't want to give Eric's Grandmother a heart attack.


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## Tylette (Apr 14, 2002)

*Let's keep it clean...*

kids.  Collin's exploints may be just a shade shocking.   Great job on the story Jair.  It's really bringing back some crazy memories about the game...especially Tylette's attack.  (bad Jair...bad!!!) hehehehehe.  Anyways...can't wait to see what you have to write about last game.

Tylette


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## Calim (Apr 14, 2002)

And now Velenne and Vadicus need to post their respective stories....


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## Arknath (Apr 15, 2002)

*Wonderful and Inspiring*

Way to go Jair!!  You have done a great job in recreating a story here!  It's inspired me to..well...you'll see.. 

For anyone who cares, I'm the player controlling Byron/Andrew 

Arknath


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## Vadicus (Apr 15, 2002)

*Khuuld*

Excellent work, Jair.  I know it's tough to reprint the happenings of adventures, especially when they are so far into the past.  *lament*  Your descriptions bring much to memory, once again, and I know now the full weight of the goings-on.

Khuuld...That's my character.  He is complicated, that much is true, but he is rooted strongly in his tribe's ways and is dismissed  as barbaric and questioned at every turn.  This, Khuuld finds, is very annoying.  His intensified temper does little to help.  He strives to stick to the ways of his tribe, thick with tradition and very close minded to knew ways of thinking.  He tries over-much to establish and force his leadership upon the party, for where he comes from, leadership is established through strength, and time and time again he has proven to be the strongest - but only physically.  While Khuuld does indeed have strength of arm, he lacks the necessary qualities of a true leader.  He finds it insulting and frustrating that his opinion in matters is washed over, unheard, and unvaluable.

And then this voice enters his head and mucks things up fabulously...


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## Jeremy (Apr 16, 2002)

The very soft (and slow) spoken elf gave his name as Glywen when asked and in general provided everything that was asked with no charge.  Sparkling golden rivulets flowed through the grain of the wooden floor in natural looking paths, occasionally diverting to light up little golden leaves, looking somewhat like a very fast growing golden vine as it led each of them to their rooms.  Khuuld harrumphed and promptly declared that sleeping even a single night in such a place would make him soft.  He decided to test the potency of Glywen's darkest ales.

The next morning as the party awoke in the nightrobes that had been provided, they found that their clothes had been cleaned and mended.  Khuuld had actually managed to make himself comfortable up in a tree outside, and actually managed to stay up there all night even given his condition when he got to it.  Andrew, finding his clothes clean, quickly went through his things to make sure they were untouched when something struck him as odd.  His most treasured possession, an ancient strangely bound book written in a language he didn't understand and containing evocative pictures from which he had adapted his martial art; this book which he valued most, lay open to the last page upon his shaped wooden dresser.

When Andrew stormed downstairs and demanded Glywen revealed himself, Glywen simply replied that he is something of a repository of knowledge and that their stay would be considered paid in full until further notice.  Feeling violated, cheated, and even a little jealous deep down inside, Andrew refused to stay another moment inside Galearon and left town back towards the ship.

As he crossed the short cropped grassland that surrounded the capital, he passed Frederick and the crew with little more than a few grumbled statements about elves.

Khuuld became bored and upon seeing Andrew storming off, poked his head inside and asked Glywen what there was to do for fun or gold in the area.  Glywen mentioned several enlightening, peaceful elven activities but already knew from his quick peak inside Khuuld's head what it was he was after.  So he let slip the continuing problem of the goblinoids and giants to the east that seemed to be becoming bolder and more organized.  He also warned that it was dangerous as the walking dead roamed the plains out there in the night.

Khuuld trotted east out of Galearon without a word to anyone and with a lethal grin on his face.

Collin and Tylette however enjoyed their stay immensely and finding themselves the only ones there, lounged around and allowed themselves to be pampered for a while before questioning Glywen.  They decided that the two best chances for information on Khuuld-who was making himself remarkably scarce this morning-would be Celethiel, the elven Archmage, and Edoath, the high priest.

Frederick had gotten to the inn while Collin and Tylette were bathing in the natural hot spring behind the inn (and while Collin was staring goggle-eyed at how free elves were with the beauty of the elven form).  Tylette chose to bathe in her nightgown.

The three elves who happened to be sharing the warm spring that morning found both of their behaviors amusing.

Frederick, upon hearing that Collin and Tylette had not eaten yet, that Khuuld had already left, and that Andrew would not likely be coming back, shrugged and inquired if he could purchase supplies.

Glywen's slowly pronouced response puzzled him.

"I can prepare for you any meal you and your friends would like.  But I cannot supply you as my talents are bound to this inn I tended while I numbered among the living."

_That_ didn't puzzle him.  _That_ had his hand itching for the scales of justice that adorned Equitus's holy symbol on the chain about his neck.

Glywen, having assumed they had already puzzled out his state from his manner of entry and departure attempted to explain.

"For the last 400 years, my people have been embroiled in the   tail ends of a bitter conflict with our fallen brethren.  The long war with the dark ones has nearly defeated us, and though they are no more our people number scant hundreds now and magical servants preserved by the eternal spirits of fallen brothers now see to much of the maintenance of our once grand capital.

Our king is dead these last 30 years and our prince was struck down only 5 years hence by a terrible curse from the last of the drow.  Despite the high priest Edoath's daily ministrations and hardest work, the Crown Prince Verik, Guardian of the Dragon Range, Lord of the Setting Sun, and Protector of the Elven People, has yet to recover.

Please forgive my current condition, but I cannot leave my beloved home while my people are in such a state."


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## Velenne (Apr 17, 2002)

> The very soft (and slow) spoken elf gave his name as Glywen






> Glywen's slowly pronouced response




Slowly....ever so *AGONIZINGLY* slowly.... in fact slow doesn't begin to describe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!1  

Can you imagine what it's like to live for 400 years?  The elven mindset crawls along like a turtle taking a leisurely stroll from Miami to Anchorage...  

The poor humans were nearly at their wits' end with every drawn out sentence from the elves they spoke to.  Khuuld was ready to strangle Glywen (if he wasn't already dead).  Even Collin had to lean forward eagerly for every carefully chosen word.  

OH THE HORROR!! TAKE ME BACK TO THE RAVENS PLEASE!!!!


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## Jeremy (Apr 17, 2002)

Minor Side Track:

I don't know how interested anyone is in it, but I've put up some pictures of our gaming group I took a while back up on the little skeleton of a website my ISP provides for me.

Check out the pics over here if ya like.

http://home.attbi.com/~jeremy.evans/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-.html

Gotta embarass my players for all reading my thread and making me even more nervous about posting here.


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## Velenne (Apr 17, 2002)

OOOOOH YOU EVIL MONKEY!!


And he complained this baby picture was scaring people away from the thread before...made me change it to puppies....well I'll just show you:







*BOO!! *

As a side note: Take away the Harper's harps was a really genius idea, I thought....I mean....what?


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## Vadicus (Apr 18, 2002)

*Slow indeed...*

Khuuld was just about fed up...The funniest part was when Glywen disappeared only to come back seconds later with food.  The moment he winked out of existence Khuuld's furious impatience rose to a level that could only be quelled by massive destruction to the fine tavern that they were resting in...OOO the damage he would caus--*POOF*-- Oh....well then...that's more like it...


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## The Furious Puffin (Apr 18, 2002)

> The moment he winked out of existence Khuuld's furious impatience rose to a level that could only be quelled by massive destruction to the fine tavern that they were resting in...OOO the damage he would caus--*POOF*-- Oh....well then...that's more like it...





*laughs*

*laughs harder*

*explodes from laughing to much*

Great story


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## Jeremy (May 13, 2002)

As Khuuld breaks the cover of forest he is greeted by a beautiful stretching plain of about knee-high grass that shimmers and waves in the wind with the golden light of the noon-day sun.  It is quite beautiful despite what he has been told is out there.

Some stealthy creeping along later he comes across several groups and clusters of twisted humanoids who for all intents and purposes, seem to be on patrol...  Two ogres and a handful of goblins here, twenty-odd goblins over there, and a single ogre accompanied by six goblins in another place.  Slipping expertly along through the grass, Khuuld--egged on by the ever present whispering in his head, decides that he can take the ogre and his goblin friends..  With a roar in the goblin's own language he charges out of hiding and in one mighty swing cleaves through two of the goblins, sending them to meet their maker.  An equally feral roar bellows from the ogre as it raises its tree-sized club to smash down on the barbarian.

Khuuld's head snaps around, gore covered with goblin club just in time to catch the club full across the chest.

*CRACK*

The sound of one's own ribs breaking is never a pleasant sound.

The goblins don't know what to do.  Not only can this monstrously huge for an elf creature apparently kill two of them at a time, but it can also stand up to the ogre's blows..  They circle him and prod at him with short spears but do not risk coming into his range by actually striking at him.

Khuuld coughs blood up in the ogre's face as his vision clouds over and rage overtakes him.  His greatsword arcs through the air and cleaves under and upwards into the side of the hulking ogre.  Blood sprays as the ogre brings his own answering blow down upon Khuuld's shoulders, dropping him and the ogre to their knees.  Seconds away from eternity, Khuuld turns on his knees bringing his massive sword from the ground behind him, over his head as he stands and all the way in a huge circle around to the gasping ogre, cleaving him from collarbone to sternum.

Goblins scatter everywhere.

Screaming, Khuuld chases one down and leaves little remaining that resembles a goblin after one tremendous blow.  He staggers, panting, towards the edge of the forest and collapses as his anger and his life blood leave him.  "Show....ed.. hi.m..  Heh..*errk*"  Khuuld passes into the dead sleep of oblivion as the pain catches up to him.

_As his rage ends and the temporary hit points fade away, Khuuld is at -6 alone just barely inside the forest.  2 failed and 1 successful stabilization checks later his body stabilizes at -8 inches away from death from massive internal bleeding.  Frederick's player begins breathing again._

_[Edit:  Grrrrr.  This is the problem with trying to backlog a campaign that consists of 12 hour sessions that occurred so long ago, something always gets left out.  Equitus is the god of Justice whom Frederick serves.  Frederick sought a vision after the events in the ruined temple and came to believe that in order that Justice be done and the wrongs done there righted, Khuuld must undo what was done.  It was Frederick's belief at the time that if Khuuld should die, whatever evil ritual was completed in the ruined temple would become irreversible.  He was not far from wrong, though not in the way he thought.]_

Meanwhile, Collin and Tylette have consulted first with Celethiel and then gained admittance to the almost empty feeling palace.  Unseen Servants marked by liveried tunics carried construction supplies and blue prints to and fro between huge scaffoldings erected around the ruined towers of the palace.  Actual living, breathing elves were few and far between.  Managing to question one such, they discovered that the High Priest Edoath was currently tending to the Crown Prince in a room adjacent to the throne room.  The elf directed one of the floating tunics to escort them.

They left the courtyard and entered a well-appointed building in the complex walking down plush carpeted hallways lined by paintings, tapestry, vases, and sculpture of equisite otherworldly beauty, but again, their padded footsteps echoed hollow in such an empty place.  Silence permeated everything.

Frederick meanwhile had been directed to a somewhat lively half-elven gentleman who lived on the southwest side of the capital.  He introduced himself as Voviel and after setting down a bright haired little girl with huge eyes, he sold Frederick a wagon and supplies for the ship and it's crew.

Back at the palace, Collan and Tylette crossed a grand conference room with a great oaken table to a small room with a little desk and a canopied bed infront of which stood the High Priest Edoath.


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## Jeremy (May 13, 2002)

_Sorry for the infrequency of posts, the 200 limit is difficult sometimes to work around.  You'll hit reply and type your message, but by the time you finish typing and submit it, the board is full again.

And yes, I've been lazy.    I'm sorry.  I'll try to do better.  You guys will love the stuff we are doing now, collosal conglomerate demonically-infused spider wights, mobile platform islands, betrayals, discoveries, deaths, and ressurections, we got it all.  Now if I could just fast forward and get to it.  _


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## Vadicus (May 15, 2002)

*Gotta love the LifeLine*

Way out in that wilderness is the best time for my LifeLine feat to help me out.  Thank god for it too, otherwise...well I'll leave that to Jeremy.

Something he forgot to mention, that when I killed my first ogre I skinned the thing.  It is Khuuld's trade, he's a furrier!  The ogre had damaged his armor and for payback Khuuld took his thick hide, thinking that it's probably better than the leather that he was wearing anyway.  Unfortunately, this last battle with the ogres and goblins caused me to lose it...because I threw it at the ogre's feet before the battle started, just get him riled up.  Heheh..it worked.  *erk!*


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## Calim (Jun 14, 2002)

*hmmm*



			
				Jeremy said:
			
		

> *Sorry for the infrequency of posts, the 200 limit is difficult sometimes to work around.  You'll hit reply and type your message, but by the time you finish typing and submit it, the board is full again.
> 
> And yes, I've been lazy.    I'm sorry.  I'll try to do better.  You guys will love the stuff we are doing now, collosal conglomerate demonically-infused spider wights, mobile platform islands, betrayals, discoveries, deaths, and ressurections, we got it all.  Now if I could just fast forward and get to it.   *




well now its been almost a month, have you forgotten about us?


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## Jeremy (Jul 13, 2002)

[reserved]


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## Jeremy (Jul 13, 2002)

[reserved..]


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## Jeremy (Jul 13, 2002)

[reserved.]


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## Jeremy (Jul 13, 2002)

[reserved]


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## Jeremy (Jul 13, 2002)

Ok.  A little explanation, I've gotten so far behind in the story that I don't feel I can do it justice.  And after two months of no updates I was about to quit.  I've got too many current and future plans to remember the interweavings of the past ones.  It's simply too overwhelming for me to do "just for fun".  For this I sincerely apologize.

However, the point of this story hour from the start has been to allow me to relive the fun of the game in a different medium, preferrably one game behind.  I had intended at the beginning to fast forward to present day and failed miserably in standing by my plan.

I've been working for well over an hour now typing up an extremely abridged version of the campaign past, and have decided not to post it.  It cheapens the accomplishments of my players which have been nothing less than world changing.

Instead, I will simply begin with last session with perhaps a teaser before and a little insight into one of the character's developments.

The current situation is this.  The town of New Galdomond was attacked by a fell creature who devestated the town and slew many of its inhabitants.  New Galdomond being a frontier town on the edge of a strange and dangerous phenomena (a spreading rotting of the earth), was currently a hot bed for adventuring types and they were able to drive the creature off.

Unfortunately, those it had slain began to rise and attack the city.  As did those they slew.  So began a dreadful siege that sapped any moral victory straight out of the people with each loss.

The party has stepped up to stop this and has uncovered much about their adversary.

I will begin with a few journal excerpts written by one of the players who has generously been kicking my tail to pick this back up by doing a better job than I have been at keeping up on the game.

Once again I apologize for my lapse and hope that this continuing story will prove as entertaining as it's former incarnation.

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Oh, it is important to mention that along with great successes, the party has suffered many great tragedies, many of them consecutive.  As such the core of the party has been torn down to its only surviving original members, Collin, Tylette, and Frederick.  As we begin, the allies they had made are forced to leave them and they are once again left just the three of them.

This is a good place to begin.


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## Jeremy (Jul 13, 2002)

_The Journal of Collin Alyssar_

*8th day of Chillwind*

	Ah, come morning and the sweet smell of victory.*  It didn’t help that such a sweet smell was nearly overpowered by the stench of the soil outside my second-floor window.**  But knowing that Taviel’s death had been avenged had brought me the calmest sleep I’ve known since visiting the Circle of Oaks.

	The others had gotten off to an early start, especially the night elves.  Insidion was still trying to keep Insurion from setting fire to the dead things around town, which included the uninhabited buildings.***  Fredrick was overseeing the training of the crew, alongside the one of the town’s only remaining lawman.  A solemn chap, but good with the blade.  I’ll have to catch his name again later.  I lost track of Tylette for most of the morning.

	Down in the common room, a note had arrived for Borindra via Two Moons’s carrier bird.  It would seem that the allies he had written to have met with some kind of tragedy of their own, and will not come to lend aid.  Something far to the north, apparently, that is beyond our help.  Vithas was very adamant about that.  She said that if their allies couldn’t handle it, my friends and I stood absolutely no chance.****

	As I began to lay out my books (I have nearly finished the tatters of the first book I acquired at Taviel’s, Treatise on Ardoneth, Volume 6: The Southern Expanse), Insurion entered from outside.  He wore a thoughtful look and sat down across from me.  As we began to talk, the others in our group arrived (save Insidion, who it would seem lacked the stomach to breech the news).  The night elf told us that he and his brother felt they had accomplished the task they were brought to perform.  I’m still not sure if their task was to keep my friends and I from giving up after the loss of Fredrick, or to observe the battle with the vampire, but I didn’t bring it up.  Insurion admitted that they would join us if we deeply wished them to.  Yet it came to pass that the brothers were left to make the decision without our bias, and they chose to stay in New Galdomond.  I will deeply miss them both.  I know that were it not for them, I might be back in Galearon with Praelesian, living out comfortable days and passionate nights….what is so wrong with this, you say?  Well, while I may be comfortable for a time, Tiztserak will surely catch up to me eventually and I will not be doing the duty to which my matron has called me.  It is my hope that the Firestar brothers’ goddess will see fit to drop them (gently of course) back at their true home.^  I wonder if such miracles are common among all Matrons.

	Now numbering only three, I was very worried about the daunting task of delving into Terraj’s Breath.  Fewer numbers might make us harder to find, but I feel confident that Tiztserak is not the only dweller of the caves.  We would need far more leverage against such a legendary mage.  

	My fears would be allayed not a few hours later with the arrival to town of Zerin, quite simply one of the most formidable beasts I’ve ever laid eyes on.  I eyed his great wings and stout, armored frame from afar as I approached the Inn where he stood, arguing with a defiant Tylette who leaned from a second story window.  Perhaps she did not appreciate the reptilian creature’s long limbs, or notice his wings, for she may not have been so uppity if she’d known how easily he could have removed her from her perch.  The conversation was becoming heated, I could tell, for as I walked around him (allotting a wide berth, of course), I could see the agitation in his face, and hear it in his booming voice.

	I did my best to calm the creature while Sheeji, ever there when I need her, informed me that she could see into his heart, and that it was true and noble.^^  I breathed a sincere sigh of relief at that.  Standing on the Inn’s raised deck, I still fell short of meeting Zerin’s eyes, and he was uncomfortably close.  Using the opportunity to size him up, I quickly came to the conclusion that he would make an excellent replacement for Khuuld.  Unfortunately, he seemed to share the dour man’s personality.  Zerin made it clear he was sent by his master far to the north to help restore the balance here, (whether we liked it or not), but that he would not assume any leadership.  That made me feel a good deal better and I welcomed him into the Inn.  We needed help, and the gods saw fit to send us this behemoth.  I wasn’t about spit in their faces.

	That still left us short of our original number: five.  If we were to face Tiztserak at last, we would still need more power.  Zerin was a great stride toward that.  Unfortunately, after asking around, I found not a single other person in New Galdomond willing to make the trek.  As I sat back down at my table and stared blankly at my books, I meditated the way Tylette has shown me and was struck with the idea of sailing to Crescent Lake.  There was a mage there of some power, as memory served.

	Zerin wished to leave immediately, and I was eager to rid myself of the stench of New Galdomond.  With little fanfare, we made for the ship, the dragon-man flying high above us.  I laugh even now when I think of his first experience with the ship. (I have privately come to call her The Sarah Arden, but that’s just between you and me, Journal.)  Fredrick tells me Zerin was in a corner using one hand to cover a porthole with his shield and the other hand to keep himself from retching.^^^  

	We arrived off the coast of Crescent Lake only a few hours later, the sun setting below the mountains to our west.  According to my map, the secluded fishing town wasn’t too far northwest, but I dared not risk the forest.  It was then that eyed Zerin’s wings, and another idea hatched in my head.  I felt it an excellent opportunity to use the newest magicks I had uncovered.  Pulling creatures from another plane is fascinating enough, but pulling forth raw materials and crafting them with my will was equally exciting.  But I digress.  My intention was to form some sort of carrying device for all of us to use, but it ended up being scarcely more than a jumbled net.  

	Crescent Lake was just as I remembered it -an island of civilization in the middle of nowhere, wholly uninspiring.  After speaking at length with her, the lady mage says she cannot help us, nor could she tell us more about the objects we found at the Temple of Elemental Justice.  She recommended that we try some of the northern cities to find such magic. I thought that a grand idea, as I have yet to see any of these cities.  A whole new continent to explore!  Never in my wild dreams did I….but I say that a lot don’t I Journal?  We have purchased rooms here at their quaint Inn, much nicer than the one in New Galdomond.  My writing is interrupted by the odd sounds that make their way across the lake from the forest beyond.  Still, the shutters should keep the sound out.  It will be a restful sleep, free at last of any stench (save maybe the fish I had for supper).

*Another well deserved victory of the party involved them and indeed, most of the able-bodied adventurers of the city slaying the monstrosity that originally attacked the town.

**Unfortunately, as they had already discovered, the creature was not what was causing the rotting of the earth and subsequent stench that permeated the land.

***Insidion and Insurion Firestar worshipped Luminai.  The elven goddess of the Sun, Fire, and Rebirth.

****Vithas, Borindra, and Two Moons consist of most of one of the surviving adventuring companies.  They have reason to dislike our protagonists.

^Insidion and Insurion's entrance was rather unique.

^^Collin's bonded familiar is a pixie by the name of Sheeji.  That has lead to a few interesting developments.

^^^Oh good gracious.  I am not about to explain this in a foot note.  Perhaps one of the other players would be so kind as to explain what they have done to their "ship".  I'm still not completely happy about that little bit of genius.


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## Jeremy (Jul 13, 2002)

*9th day of Chillwind*

	After such a long and eventful day, I scarcely know where to begin.  It would seem that many of my journals start out this way.  A great deal of nearly nothing, followed by a sudden rush of excitement.

	We left Crescent Lake this morning the same way we had come, except that this time I managed a much more comfortable and workable carrying piece for my friends and I.  Before we left, we had to wait on Fredrick to speak with the town’s priest.  He seemed to owe the man some debt that he had promised to repay.  My poor friend, both fiscally and fatefully, was overcome with guilt that he could not do as he promised just yet.  Whatever the priest told him, I don’t know, but it seemed to allay Fredrick’s guilt for the time being.

	Fredrick and I plotted several courses using the ship’s maps and navigation tools.  According to my old map, there are several possibilities of northern cities we might find help at.  Two, specifically, struck my interest, one to the east and one to the west.  Tylette wanted to try the western-most city first because it might be where Borindra’ allies were.  Throughout our planning, Zerin remained quiet, content with whatever we came up with as long at it eventually resulted in, as he puts it, “restoring the balance”.

	Hours later, and still far from our destination, our progress was markedly slowed by an odd, dark water.  From my view, it looked oily, corrupted almost.  I backed the ship out of it and skirted along to the north, and then to south, but found no break.  Calling in the others, we decided not to venture further into the muck. 

	Our next course, then, took us due east.  It also happened to be just south of the Wastelands of Helgedad.  I would not remark on this were it not for what we saw floating in the sea inlet there.  A fleet of what I can only describe as warships straight from the oldest and most fantastic tales I have ever read.  We did not linger long, as only few moments passed before we, too, were spotted.  Far off, from the decks of the ships, arose flying creatures.  Unsure of what do to, or if this fleet of ships were truly hostile or not, we decided to make haste away from the area and back to our course.  Someone must be told of this, however.

	We arrived at a small inlet in the southeast of the northern continent where, according to my map at least, there was supposed to have been a coastal city.  There is nothing of the sort, here.  I sent Sheeji into the forest to have look, telling her that there should be some kind of civilization nearby.  Civilization she did not find, but instead a plethora of creatures come straight from the old stories of the Daystorm.  Her invisibility kept her safe from their wild, predatory eyes, and for that I am infinitely grateful.  She managed to find some kind of city at last, domed with a shield of translucent energy that repelled the creatures mindlessly attacking it.  One creature took note of Sheeji, despite her protections, and gave quite a chase.  Yet thankfully she managed to elude it and return to me safely.  

	We tried several different ways to contact whoever lives in that dome.  None seemed to work and ultimately, we have left a sign outside telling whoever lives there to come find us.  I’m not sure if it will work, and with the sun finally set in the west this day, I fear that one of the creatures may have destroyed our sign.  I have moved the ship out to sea to prevent any of the beasts from reaching us in our sleep, and we have posted no watch.  I have a feeling that the creatures in the city are not hostile, but I cannot be sure. If this be my last entry, Journal, you will know what happened to me.


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## Jeremy (Jul 14, 2002)

*10th day of Chillwind*

I find it amusing now that here I thought yesterday was eventful.  Of all the days of my life, I do not believe that any have ever held so much meaning as this one.  In one fell swoop, the entirety of our quest has been laid bare before us by the most unexpected of sages.  A Circle of Oaks, an aged elf, a dusty tome, to these I might look to find answers.  But twelve unified wielder(s?) of magic, casting the most powerful of all spells, and guarding the nexus of our world?  I had never thought of that.

It would seem that those who reside within the dome have come to collectively call themselves Caretaker.  He, or they, took every precaution in catching us unawares this morning, subduing us in a quick and relatively painless fashion.  After determining that our intentions are noble, that we hold the items we do, and that we fly the ancient banner of Ardoneth Calienthus from our mast, Caretaker became very forthcoming.

The dome itself protects what Caretaker calls Origin, the birthplace of the world.  Thousands of years ago, our world was created by wizards who wished to study magic in a place where time did not flow as it did on their world.  Time here, in this…it is strange to say it….artificial world, passes far slower than in the….real….world.  Harnessing the elemental magicks, the creators sealed these energies into four artifacts called Elemental Anchors.   These, appropriately, are the same four objects we found at the Temple of Elemental Justice, the same temple we know to have been created by the Daystorm.  The Daystorm, as it turns out, are only four knights who protected the Anchors, along with one wizard, Tiztserak himself.  I already knew from my studies that Tiztserak was once a member of the Daystorm, and a goodly man at that.  I know what he studied (the functioning of worlds, life, death, and greater magicks including flying ships), what magic he specialized in (necromancy), and, according to the tomes I found in Galearon, it was his ambition that corrupted him.

After a time, Tiztserak, being the most powerful of mages, decided that he wanted to return to the real world.  (Caretaker calls the real world Ersadia, which is the same name the Firestar brothers gave to their home world.)  To do this, Tiztserak needs to corrupt the elements of this world until they break down, or break our Anchors (I’m still not sure which, perhaps both) destroying our world and allowing it to meld into Ersadia.  Unfortunately, Caretaker tells us, this would actually annihilate both worlds.

To corrupt the elements, he has enlisted a variety of agents.  The Tiztserak we plan to face in Terraj’s Breath is a mere clone, it turns out, and the real mage’s essence lies somewhere outside of this world.  He also has a Yuan-ti, a kraken, and a hydra corrupting the other three elements (which, we cannot know for sure, though I can venture to guess easily enough).

In order to aid us, Caretaker divulged the full truth of our Anchors’ powers.  He now calls us the Knights of the Daystorm*, and has bid us to end Tiztserak’s corruption of the world, thus preventing the utter destruction of two worlds.  Quite a lot to ask of four young adventurers.

With that, Caretaker left us, needing to return his attention to protecting Origin.  We, the Daystorm (and how it fills me with pride to think of ourselves in such a way!), concluded that we had the leverage we needed to go to Terraj’s Breath.  The subsequent trip around the world was introspective and somber as the weight of our task began to finally sink in.  

Terraj’s Breath turned out to be well protected.  Scores of slave-beasts with spades and shovels were keeping the mouth from caving in on itself.  The corruption of the earth was so complete that even a cave named for the earth god was not immune.  To complicate matters, the flying Kraan circled above.  I took the liberty of making our group invisible and dismissing our mounts.  

Now with a little more time to scout, Zerin took to the skies and got a better look.  He felt it might be possible, but risky, to fly straight into the cave.  We did not know just how deep we might be able to go, but it was a risk we were willing to take.  We would be prepared to fight at any time if the cave got too small for the dragon man’s wingspan.  

Luckily, very luckily in fact, Terraj opened his mouth wide for us and we managed to bypass dozens of slave-beast groups.**  So far below the surface did we end up that it felt as if we were in another world entirely.  The walls even this far deep were little more than wet clay, easily scraped with a fingernail.  Tiztserak’s clone did his job quite thoroughly.  Reaching the end of our decent, those of us who could see in the dark (Sheeji, Zerin and, by psionic extension, Tylette) noticed we were in the center of a cavern with seven exits, two of which were lit by torches.

Sheeji scouted ahead while we all hid back in a cave.  She discovered a few small buildings, several dead ends, a staircase leading further down, and that two of the tunnels connected at the end, making a big circle.  Down this last tunnel were two giants with stony, grey skin.  Down one of the lit tunnels was a larger building, a command post, we thought.  So, guessing there might be some important information there that would lead us to Tiztserak, we quietly made our way down the tunnel until we reached a spot where it narrowed in.  Fredrick turned around and wisely sealed the tunnel behind us using Druveln, the Earthstaff.  

It created quite a noise, but the hundred feet of muck seemed to be adequate for keeping the other guardians at bay.  
There were about a dozen of the slave creatures in the large building.  The pitiful creatures proved utterly defenseless against Zerin’s flamberge.  Tylette managed to dominate one of the creature’s will who we thought could read some of the documents found in the building.  But alas, the stupid beast proved uselessly illiterate.  Judging our location, we used the staff to open a new portal to the adjacent cave.  We passed through and could hear the giants beating on the wall like idiots, digging through ponderously with their great clubs.  We walked a bit down this new tunnel, the one which had the staircase leading down, then sealed it all once more behind us.  The giants would have a difficult time with that, to be sure.

Up ahead was another group of the slave beasts, nearly twenty, led by one of the larger lizards.  We held back and thought to get the drop on them.  Imagine my shock when Fredrick instead chose to charge right out into their midst.  It took only seconds for the swarm of axes to bring our friend low and he would have surely died again were it not for Zerin’s valor.  The dragon man flew over the top of them all with one great sweep of his wings and landed right on top of the priest, thoroughly covering him with his bulk.  I called forth great lions from the plane of earth who managed to cut down the beasts at Zerin’s back whilst he dismembered those before him.  The battle was short, and Fredrick would be healed.  With a bit of time left on their stay, I sent the lions through the muck behind us to play with the giants.

We have decided that it will be possible to actually seal ourselves into this area between the staff-formed wall of muck behind us and the door before us.  Fredrick called upon the Earth Anchor to seal us in and so it was.  There are rumblings from somewhere far off, or deep below.  The earth here is so fragile that it cannot support the vast open caves.  Wouldn’t it be a humorous twist of fate if Titztserak’s clone buried himself in his own corruption.

*The Daystorm were some of this world's greatest champions over a thousand years ago.  Collin has been fascinated with them for a while and commissioned a banner with their long forgotten symbol which he began flying from the mast of their "ship".  Caretaker took in this and their possession of the 4, erm, artifacts and began addressing them as such.  Collin was very pleased.

**Imagine for a moment if you will a monstrous cavern beneath the earth so large it bears the earth god's name.  Imagine the terrible excavation at Isenguard beneath Saruman's terrible tower of Orthanc.  Imagine the orcs mining and digging and building and sweating, now imagine a 10 ft tall dragon man invisibly circling it from above, then tucking his wings and praying that a catwalk or turn or drop or wall doesn't come up on him too fast to notice.  Most of the party couldn't bear to watch.  *THAT* was fun.


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## Jeremy (Jul 16, 2002)

*12th day of Chillwind*

	Good morning, Journal.  I’m afraid I could not write to you yester eve.  I was in a coma.  As to the events leading up to this, all will be explained.  I must be swift in my writing –Fredrick is praying and when he finishes, we will set off into the blackness once more.  Though it is of note that I think we have been scryed again.

	Not long after I set you into my pack two nights ago, we were set upon by corrupted earth elementals.  To my surprise, they were also evil.  This would coincide with some of my studies which indicate that even the elemental lords can sway from their sturdy neutrality.  I have been reading a book from Taviel’s that seems to have been written by a close ally to the Daystorm.  He has written extensively on the nature of the planes and I have gleaned a great deal of knowledge from his observations.  If Tiztserak has somehow corrupted them himself, I will feel much more at ease.  If he has enlisted some evil elemental lords, I fear our quest may be in vain.

	Either way, the elementals we faced were dispatched quickly, and we only lost our captured slave.  After resting, Fredrick destroyed the dungeon wall before us.  We could hear the creatures attempting to dig their way to us behind, but it would be some time before they managed to get through the hundred feet or so of muck.  Tylette linked our minds so that our voices would not carry in the large stony halls.  Sheeji scouted ahead and came back with a general layout of the area.  Many large, square rooms, linked by open doors, combined to form a maze of sorts.  In some of the rooms were minotaurs.  We decided the beasts could be effortlessly brought down and moved forward, Zerin at point.

	To our surprise, battles with the minotaurs were not only short, but bloodless.  The creatures nearly soiled themselves at the sight of Zerin and after their mighty swings failed to even turn his cheek, they swiftly allowed us free passage.  Of note, we found a boulder rolled in front one of the doors.  The dragon man rolled it aside and we found behind it a small room with several chests.  A treasury of sorts, it seemed.  

	Moving on, we discovered stairs (or what passed for stairs, bumpy mudslides, more like, apparently the rot of the earth is not condusive to maintaining stairs against the pounding of troop movements) leading down.  At the bottom was a large cave with a cavern niche off to one side.  In this large niche was what appeared to be another command post.  We could have possibly skirted around the niche unseen, but we did not like the idea of leaving the creatures at our backs.  I chewed over an idea in my head and at last it came to be.  

	Sheeji created illusions of our group, armed and ready, which charged into their midst.  To my surprise, there seemed to be several dozen more of the creatures than I expected.  The slave-beasts, their drivers, and even a kennel of the infernal hounds.   The game already afoot, Sheeji drove our illusions near the command post and the creatures swarmed around like bees to spring flowers.  When an appropriate number were clumped together, I called forth one of the greatest powers of my Water Anchor, an Acid Fog.    Fredrick used the Earth Anchor to turn the ground below the creatures to sinking mud.  Combined, it was enough to bring them all down.  Every last creature was eaten alive by the acid.  A fitting way to go.  Wretched things.  There was nothing noteworthy in the command post so we moved on.

	The cavern opened up into a natural geode bisected by a river.  Nothing special here either other than that the rot of the stone had allowed the running water to bite deep into the center of the cavern.

	What happened next is still somewhat blurry for me.  The next chamber we came to had a very deep pit spanning the length of it.  A rope-and-plank bridge that needed over a dozen supports at each end to keep from pulling free of the muck led across the chasm.  We decided not to chance walking across and asked Zerin if he would be so kind as to give us a lift.  He was, and he did.  But we did not make it all the way across.  The dragon man had Tylette and I in his arms when our flight was suddenly halted by rope-thick, transparent strands.  Spider’s silk, I realized in horror.  I had a plan to counteract the strand’s sticking goo with some conjured grease.  But alas, to my further horror, a spider with a head as big as I am sprang from the darkness and bit down into my shoulder.  I could hear it snapping my bones.  Worse, my vision blurred and every muscle in my body turned over on itself.  I tried to retch but even my stomach rebelled against me.  The spider’s poison held me fast.  

	I tried to look on but even my eyes would not move.  I saw a great light, felt heat, and I then felt a great rush of wind a few times.  I could hear the struggle through my blood-filled ears, but could do nothing.  Moments later, I knew naught but darkness.

	Tylette tells me of the goings-on after that.  Fredrick ended up on the bottom of the chasm with the entire mass of the spider atop him.  Zerin managed to kill the beast I think, thankfully.  Everyone survived, mostly intact.  They found another vault and bedded down there sealed inside to lick our wounds.  I don’t know exactly how long it has been since we entered Terraj’s Breath anymore, but I believe the date above to be correct.  I can surmise this by the length of Fredrick’s facial hair, the number of times we’ve slept, and the number of layers of caked muck on Zerin’s armor.  I will write again tonight journal.  Fredrick is finished and there is some kind of scratching outside our bouldered-in room.


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## Jeremy (Jul 16, 2002)

*13th day of Chillwind*

	This day started out marginally well.  It then got worse several times, but got better just as often.  I am thoroughly exhausted as I write now.  Even my fingers tremble with weariness.  

	As it turns out, the scratching I mentioned in my writing this morning was a lone gourgaz pushing his way into our room to make a deposit in this vault.  Imagine his surprise when one arc of Zerin’s sword lopped off its leg, only to be followed by its head in the return swing.  

After we sealed our grisly deposit in the vault, we prepared to set forth into the darkness once more.

	Sheeji scouted ahead for us again.  She reported that there were three ways to go.  One way held a small city of the slave-beasts and their kin.  Several hundred of the creatures milled about in a shanty-town of sorts.  At the end of another fork was command post like the last few we’ve seen.  And the last had another fork.  One way held a treasury, the other a long passage down.  

	We prudently decided to avoid the hoard of creatures, but not before investigating the treasury first.  I glamoured us all invisible to avoid any confrontations with patrols that may happen out into the caves.  Tylette linked our minds to further enhance our stealth.

	When we arrived at the treasury, Fredrick decided that if a gourgaz could move the boulders, he could too.  Zerin stood back and watched the boulder slowly creep open as the invisible priest struggled with all his might.  Ah, but fate is a cruel master.  You see, journal, instead of a treasury, this cave just so happened to contain a nest of cockatrice.  These beasts, I have read, can turn a man and all he carries into a stone statue with but a touch of their beaks.  They swarmed out of the cave in a tempest of squawks and feathers.   Luckily, the invisible priest ducked out of the way and the beasts did not detect his or our presence.  Some flew back toward the hoard of slave-beasts, other down the way we were going.  

	Descending deeper into the earth, we came to a split.  We went to the right first and came upon an ancient and apparently unused shrine to Terraj.  Zerin removed the lock in his own way (by removing the door itself).  Inside, the stone had turned the temple into a slimy shadow of its former grandeur.  Only the stone alter, magically enhanced, was not corrupted.  Fredrick made a donation into the dusty offering coffer (which still held a few coins and gems, but we were not about to steal from the earth god in his own midst).   Deciding the temple held nothing further for us, Fredrick used the Earth anchor to solidify all the rotten stone in the temple, for whatever it was worth. Perhaps Terraj may have taken notice.  Nevertheless, we turned back down the passage.  The second fork was a long causeway flanked by pillars and bat-winged stone statues.  The center was trapped several times over, but Zerin, in the lead, held firm against all of them.  The end was caved in, but a small excavation had been resumed off to one side.  

Moving further down, we discovered a door bearing Tiztserak’s symbol.  To complicate matters, five cockatrice were pecking about the room.  In the center of the door was a small circular inset which happened to perfectly match the size of the lich’s phylactery we finally found last week.  Still invisible, I carefully picked my way across the room and drew forth the amulet.  Sure enough, the door opened before us.  The cockatrice were quick to run in, one even moving between my legs.  Ahead, we found another stone maze of square rooms.  I had not believed to find anything here, as we are the first to discover the phylactery in what is assumed to be thousands of years, yet I sent Sheeji ahead to scout anyway.  

Amazingly, she managed to find the stairs leading down in one pass.  She also saw no enemies.  We proceeded forth and stopped in one room which bore a cold, unnerving feeling.  Fredrick dared to pull out the glowing axe he had found in one of the treasuries and was immediately set upon by moving shadows--the source of the ominous feeling.  Fate was not kind to Frederick today.  Calling upon Equitus, he managed to convince some of them that he wasn’t to be trifled with.  Yet still the others came.  Deciding not to chance anymore encounters, I glamoured Fredrick invisible again and we fled for the exit. 

Other sounds came to our ears as we made directly for the stairs.  We paid them no heed, and at last our goal lay before us.  Between us and them lay a dark patch in the center of the room.  Since only Zerin and Sheeji could see, they led us far around it.  Unfortunately, the dark shape lashed out at Zerin and myself.  It slammed the wind out of my lungs and its corrosive touch melted my coat and tunic, eating its way into my flesh.  The dragon man was much luckier and rolled his massive armor out of the path of the fearsome acid.  We dashed across the room, saving the battle for another time, and slid down the mucky steps on our backsides.  

Crashing into the room below, Tylette and I had the feeling we were being watched.  For the third time since descending into Terraj’s Breath, we knew we were being scryed.  Yet currently we lack the means to do anything about it.

Sheeji came back from scouting to tell us that all paths on this floor led to the same three consecutive rooms.  And these rooms were occupied.  The first, by four stone giants, the second by six ogres, and the last by three humans in a large laboratory.  
Zerin had a rather brilliant idea:  I could summon creatures to draw the giants and ogres out into lab’s large antechamber.  We would then run in behind them and take the mages by surprise.  The mages, we knew, were the more serious threat.  (I assumed they were mages, but they could have been mere alchemists.  Still, I doubted that Tiztserak would employ brew masters to make tangle foot bags for him.)

	But by the time we managed to quietly make our way through the stone maze and spot the giants up ahead, they had congregated outside the lab.  Arranged as if they knew of our prescence and were ready for us.  Without a backup plan, we were forced to press on.  I summoned a Xorn and two girallons (four-armed apes with a ferocious temperament) from the plane of earth and instructed them to burrow beneath the ground, come up before the giants, engage them, and then retreat to the back of the room.  As they did so, Zerin’s keen ears could pick up the mages whispering to their guards to hold steady.  The loyal giants did so and the ruse was up.  My summoned creatures then foolishly came up between the mages and the giants, temporarily blocking the doorway with their great bulk.  

	Zerin picked up Fredrick in the same instant and invisibly flew toward the door.  Yet his shield had managed to escape my spell and hovered through the air.  A voice called out to the giants and they swung their massive clubs at shield. Seeing no other way around, the game was truly lost.  The remaining giants in the rear made quick work of the girallons and Xorn even as I called forth a great crocodile from the earth sphere.  The battle was afoot and we were sorely outnumbered and hard pressed.  I knew that drastic measures must be taken so I created a small sphere between my hands and called to the heavenly planes.  My matron heard me.  Eight columns of light filled the room for a moment and a pack of hound archons descended from the astral heralded by mighty howls.  Their greatswords glinted with holy energy as the proud warriors touched down into the rotted earth.  

	It was then that the mages answered with a calling of their own.  Descending from the ceiling like living shadows, a dozen babbling allips filled the room, entrancing nearly all within, including myself.  I cannot say what transpired in the moments after that.  But when I managed to finally shake my head of the inane murmurs, the mages had entered the antechamber.  The center human held a scrying pool open before him, showing New Galdomond surrounded by legions of Tiztserak’s army.  The two flanking him were ordering us to stand down, that the battle had been lost before it had begun.  But none of these had such a commanding presence as the gaunt figure to their right.  None other than Tiztserak himself was staring into Fredrick’s eyes only a few feet away.  The evil man’s eyes shone like unholy torches.  

	Between the mages and I, Zerin was bringing his sword back up after decapitating one of the still babbling stone giants with his massive flamberge.  The defiant dragon man was not about to stand down.  The truth is, none of us were.  If the clone had enough forces to level New Galdomond, it only made our stand here all the more critical.

	Yet before me, Tylette was surrounded by a triad of the allips.  The undead’s touch drained the spark from her eyes and seemed to dull her senses.  Seeing no other course, she sidestepped their attacks and dove under the creature directly before her, suffering yet more of their cold touches.  Now afforded a view of the entire scene, she spoke to the Fire Anchor and it came alive around her.   Indeed, it nearly tripled in size, blazing white-hot and spinning so fast it could not be tracked with the eye.  The earth above each of our enemies grew red, then orange, yellow, and finally white in only moments, finally erupting in a storm of fire that nearly covered the entire cavern.  I began to see how the original Knights earned their name.  Only the four of us, the new Daystorm, were spared the inferno if the fire storm.  When the smoke began to clear, the mages were dead, Tiztserak was mysteriously gone, and only a fraction of our enemies remained.  Conversely, all of the mighty hound archons stood singed but alive.  The tide of battle had turned our way and we had Tylette to thank for our lives.

	Still, the remaining foes would not die easily.  I called once more upon my Matron.  She heard again, and the pillars of light descended into the chamber before me.  This time, however, the pillars were heralded by the gong of a tremendous bell.  The earth shook at my feet as the many pillars formed into one and from that shaft of light spilled forth an array of floating spheres of holy energy.  The lantern archons led with a volley of rays into our enemies, slowly bringing them down one by one.  Fredrick had not faired well against his giant and were it not for one of the noble archons rushing to his aid, he would not be alive before me as I write this.  

	But in the end, bruised, weakened, and wholly drained of our resources, we stood victorious over the bodies of Tiztserak’s elite guard.  We are now holed up in the laboratory, protected by a stone wall.  The earth trembles around us as we prepare to bed down and gain a much needed respite.  If the gods are good, we will get it.  The lab’s notes have provided us with a great deal of useful information.  Before we sent them on their way, one of the surviving stone giants told us just where we could find our quarry.  I can only hope after all we have fought for, all we have lost, all we have sacrificed, that we have the strength to stand against the world’s oldest mage.  If we do, well then we have truly earned the right to be called the Knights of the Daystorm.


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## Jeremy (Jul 17, 2002)

_No update today.  All caught up.

But we'll be playing Saturday so hopefully I'll have some goodness for you Sunday about what happened down in the depths of Terraj's Breath.

Showdown.  Fun stuff.

Many thanks to Velenne (Collin) for catching me up with those last 5 posts.  I can't explain how long our sessions run.    Those last two were from 2 pm to 2-3am each.  Makes these write ups somewhat daunting sometimes.  Perhaps I should start taking notes?  _


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## Jeremy (Jul 21, 2002)

Well, let's see, we gamed til 2 a.m. this morning and what _didn't_ happen?

They didn't fail to find a great victory.

They didn't fail to find a great loss.

They didn't rest on their laurels.

They didn't fail to hit as many towns on the opposite sides of continents as possible.

They didn't use Teleport to do it, (though they did use Teleport at some point).

They didn't take more than a day to travel.

And they didn't stay out of trouble.

Man, this is going to be complicated.  

Edit:

Possibly needed background information:

The party has had considerable amounts of time to meet and befriend two other groups of adventurers, and through twist of fate continually cost one of the groups the lives of it's members.  They are well known to the party but I should give quick characterizations of them to you.  Or at least do that for the ones you are likely to encounter.

Party 1:

Imver: Perceptive and introspective swordsman and default leader.
Valhalet: Taciturn warrior of very cool and unemotional tendancies.
Lilly: Likeable, loveable halfling sorceress.
Lisara: Flamboyant evoker with a particular fondness for deep cut dresses and fire evocations.
Durchek: Resigned and totally desensitized dwarf cleric.  Most notable for his seemingly limitless apathy.

Party 2:
Borindra: Hunter of the Dead and paladin party leader.
Vithas: Twin elven sister, also paladin though without the painful experiences of her sister.
Zon: Half-Elven telekinetic psion.
Two-Moons: Human druid who recently lost his love Dawn Mist.
Dawn Mist: Human priestess and love of Two Moons, slain under the party's noses.
Rudderly: Flamboyant and inventive halfling rogue.  Slain defending the party filling in for them in a moment of weakness.

Other notable NPCs:

Phillip Tearlin: Most experienced suriving lawman of New Galdomond, has been under the care and employ of Frederick for quite some time.

Praelesian:  Young elven girl who's playful innocence and carefree physical nature stole Collin's heart.

Celethiel: Long time aid and respected friend of the party.  Elven "Archmage".  ---The elven decline had rendered their most powerful mage barely capable of 4th circle transmutations.


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## Jeremy (Jul 22, 2002)

_Short update to tide any readers out there over while I write up the rumble.  _

Frederick spun Druveln around in his hands and the muck and mud walls about them shaped together.  Another gesture and a command word later they solidified into rock solid granite, sealing the lab of the apprentices for the time being.

Zerin lay where Collin’s summoned Formians had dragged him and moved not an inch.

As their blood cooled from the encounter they settled down to listen.

It was a tense few minutes of silence before Tylette let out a sigh of relief and everyone plopped down into the mud to catch their breath.  After a few moments of looking around at each other wordlessly, Collin pulled out his books and his memoir and began scratching away.

The wounded had already been dealt with by the Formians so Frederick simply sank down and rested.  Tylette, with only a little of her sanity left after the ravages of the Allips paced back and forth endlessly murmuring to herself.  Meanwhile Zerin lay trapped in his skull, unable to lift a single armored finger, much less move---drained by the life stealing powers of the Shades.

All in all, the poor group would probably prefer to have been fighting giaks or hill giants than necromancers deep in the bowels of the earth trudging through rotted granite the consistency and smell of old fecal matter.  They had traveled in the terrible rot so long that they sometimes saw past it, but with nothing to do but wait until Frederick could draw upon more of Equitus’s power they had time to reflect on the sheer horror of what Tiztserak’s foul clone was doing to the very earth itself.

When the earthquakes came again the party could only pause in the scratching of notes to wonder what awaited them.  In their present condition, they would be little match for whatever could be thrown at them.  Frederick pulled forth a scroll and a charged sense of static electricity filled the air.  He nodded to himself, whether for his own sake or that of Tylette’s fraying wisdom, and mentioned that it would be considerably more difficult for anyone to scry them for a while.

With that he wrapped in his mud-caked bedroll and tried to force himself to sleep.

After they awoke and prepared Frederick was finally able to repair Tylette’s mind and Zerin’s body, though he still did not move.  Frederick came forward with his final _Restoration_ for Collin who waved him off.

“I am uninjured.”

“But how?  With everything we were surrounded by I assumed—“

Collin summoned up his brightest smile and flourished a bow only slightly marred by his acid tattered (but still magically clean) clothes, “I am a powerful sorcerer!  I am not seen by my foes to be injured.”  He winked and took on a look of concentration as he spoke to Sheeji.  After a moment he cast a spell and announced that Sheeji would scout out what changes and preparations had been made in their inactivity.

The pixie flew in her temporary ghostly form through stone walls and endless muck communicating her findings back to Collin telepathically.  Following the instructions they had extracted from their captured foes, she navigated the maze and located a strange warded room sealed by a very intricate double door.

“I can’t get through this door Col---“  She called back mentally.

Collin looked so proud of his new abilities he was positively insufferable.  “Now now Sheeji.  We don’t need doors anymore.  Go around.”  Collin was grinning ear to ear at his new found power.

“Um, Col—You’re not going to believe this but...”

Frederick and Tylette watched Collin as he continued to relay events and Collin merely shrugged.  Telepathically he instructed Sheeji to return, “Don’t worry about it little one, I kinda figured.  But we have a few tricks left.”


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## Jeremy (Jul 22, 2002)

Applying his mind to how the outside of the maze must work, Collin patched together a plan.  "Frederick, might I borrow the staff?  Oh, and you may want to come stand by me everyone."

Collin had that glint in his eye so everyone but Zerin crammed into the corner with him.

Zerin didn't budge.

Frederick looked over at him, "Zerin?  Are you all right?  Come over here so you don't get buried."

"I have yet to be judged."

And in that he spoke true.  For when the party was held helpless but for Zerin and Frederick by the power of the apprentices and their allips, Frederick surrendered to save Collin and Tylette while Zerin declared his contempt for them and advanced regardless.  After he had been drained to within an inch of his life, saved only by a protective spell cast by Frederick, Tylette had sneered and spat venom at him.  Zerin had used his last ounce of strength to heave his sword to her.  "My life is forfeit.  Do with it as you see fit," he had said.  And indeed, now that they thought about it, he had not moved since.

In their near deaths, they had thought it a jest or at least dismissed it as such.  But as they could all see, Zerin was deadly serious.

"Come now, your words were a bluff were they not?  You could not falter, the lives of your friends and of New Galdomond swung in the balance.  You fought on as was right, right?"  Collin deployed his reasoning to try to comfort Zerin but missed Frederick's wince at the words.

Frederick's shoulders sagged under some great weight and he added, "You did the right thing Zerin.  I cannot judge you."  These words seemed to cost Frederick something, but he had faded into the background and no one noticed his pain.

Zerin nodded to himself, "And you Tylette?  What would you say?"

Tylette harrumphed, "Get up and let's go kick ass."

Zerin's grunt served as an answer as he hauled himself out of the muck and picked up his mighty flamberge from where the Formians had dragged it.

"Now this might be a little close, but if my calculations are---"  Collin mumbled to himself as he concentrated on the earth staff, attuning himself to the mud and muck, searching around the worked stone and tunneling to what he presumed was right in front of the warded room.  "This won't hold long, so as soon as the tunnel is clear you'll have to hurry through.  It should be safe---I think.  Right then?  Ok."

Collin didn't wait for opinions and yanked back on the staff like a fisherman hauling back on his rod, the subsequent flood of earth into the room was impressive.  And fearsome.  Fearsome because it showed no signs of stopping and it was rapidly filling their little stone enlosed room to the ceiling.

"Uh, Collin--"

"Shh..."

Tylette tapped Collin's shoulder, eyes wide at the approaching wall..  "Collin, are you---"

"Shhh!  Trust me."

"COLLIN!"


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## Velenne (Jul 23, 2002)

> Perhaps one of the other players would be so kind as to explain what they have done to their "ship".




If I may be so bold...

You see, if you might recall from the pre-elven-quest era of this story hour, our adventurers had "inherited" a sailing vessel from a group of "former" pirates.  Former, only because they were now dead and would not be needing the ship any longer.  

And so it was that over time, the little ship has slowly evolved into a sort of home base for the group.  The remaining pirates have been converted, of a sort, by Fredrick (helped along by a few gold pieces from Collin) but in truth were never wholly bad people.  The truly wretched ones were dead, leaving behind those that merely had no other options open to them in life but piracy.

Along the way in their adventures, our group aquired an elven artifact that unlocked several doors in the ruins of the Temple of Elemental Justice (no relation to the Evil kind -at least not that we're aware of just yet).  Behind these doors were what we now know to be called Elemental Keys (mistakenly called Anchors in Collin's journal.  He had misunderstood Caretaker's words).  They are, in no particular order:

Earth - a wooden staff
Water - a blue vase
Fire - a long red ribbon
Air - a set of chimes

Each Key has several unique powers.  Most importantly, they are used to unlock the Elemental Anchors (located randomly in the world) and therin access a particular element's fundamental powers.  The Vase, as is relevant here, has the odd ability to repel all water.  In addition, if placed wholly within an object, allows perfect maneuverabilty within the water (even so far as to submerge said object).  

So as you can see, Collin's first instinct was to try it on the ship.  Unfortunately, the ship has no windows in the front of it.  So in order to maneuver, Collin had to turn the vessel sideways and propel it along as such.  Propel may be somewhat of a euphamism.  Skyrocket, perhaps?  Well let's just say, moving along at 250 miles an hour has its advantages.

The ship kicks up no wake as the water is actually repelled from the sides.  And so it moves deftly across the ocean leaving no trace.

The next obvious step was to create some kind of way for Collin to pilot through the front of the ship.  Docking procedures from the hull of a sideways ship are...tricky at best.  The elves were gracious enough to lend Collin some knowledge of carpentry (we won't get into the specifics of that) Taking a few days with the party, and crew, at hand, he oversaw the renovations.  The crow's nest was covered, a 3-paned window added to the front of the ship in the hold, and several rooms were added, including a small kitchen!  

The final touch came from the marvelous Sheeji, whose expertise and talents have come in handy innumerable times.  Using a permenant illusion, she changed the ship into a tropical island, complete with a great viney tree where the mast was, a small treehouse for the crow's nest, a cottage for the castle, and even a picturesque waterfall in the back end.  (Sorry, I'm not overly familiar with the fore-aft-poop deck terminology)  And so it was that the pirate ship was turned into our party's private sanctuary, complete with all the trappings an adventuring party would need.  

Next, Collin plans to inscribe a summoning circle in the hold, and add a few permanent defences to ensure our privacy and safety. Recently, the island was invaded and now Collin questions the wisdom of leaving such a prize out on the open waters while the group is out saving the world.


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## Jeremy (Jul 23, 2002)

And that is their "ship".  <groan>

You see each of the items has a particular use for which it was intended, the dual powers of the Water Key, well, no I'm not going to say that until they figure it out, regardless, it was not meant to move ships around.  But it can through will power move any closed container through water at about any rate imaginable.  So Collin temporarily turned the ship into a box.  Then he made it into something of a submarine.  Then into an island which Tylette still firmly maintains is an actual island.

Don't even get me started on what Zerin has started doing with the Wind Key.  <mutters>


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## Vadicus (Jul 23, 2002)

*Curious Ship*

There is something to say for rocketing along peaceably--which, mind you, in the middle of the ocean seemed a leisurely pace...well except when the ship passed a bird or dolphin--and for having seen land hurtle toward you where land was no where in sight, yet it nearly instantly shows itself, and then for stopping on a dime just before your boat scrapes bottom along the beach.

Khuuld still has nightmares about his ride in the "crow's nest".


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## Jeremy (Jul 24, 2002)

Collin stared at the streaming wave of mud and muck with a look of intense concentration knowing that any second it would be leave a temporary tunnel for them to escape through, but he was cutting it close.

"NOW!  GO!"  He called as the rushing current stopped.  The mountain of muck he had collected had filled every crevice of the lab and was less than five feet from them, but the precision would hold little consequence if the tunnel, supported only by entropy and it's own sticky nature, collapsed.

Zerin charged in, shield raised with Frederick directly upon his heels, Tylette followed swiftly and Collin was only an instant behind her.  They dashed through the tunnel as it began to fold in on itself and dove out the other end as it gave in to gravity.

Another day at the grindstone.

Twin doors of ancient make stood before them.  In the wan orange light of their continual flame rods they appeared very similar to the locked arches of the Temple of Elemental Justice.  Set into the door was a familiar symbol, the large plaque with three triangles and a disk that when brought together formed a symbol resembling a mountain range.  Collin opened the small steel box that contained Tiztserak's blackened amulet and pressed it into the inset disk on the doors.

At first nothing happened, then a low hum began and the doors began to glow softly.  Brighter and brighter they grew until a single crack appeared as the doors parted slightly.  They ground inward ever so slowly still glowing brightly until the amulet fell into Collin's waiting hand.  The doors faded back to normal and swung the rest of the way open.

"Well now, _that_ is an unexpected bonus.  Bring that amulet to me child."  A voice came to them from the depths of the chamber.  The vaulted hall before them was lined with columns that had rotted to muck; each was mounted with a continual flame torch that glowed with a ghostly blue flame.  At the end of the columned procession was a large dais also rotted away to filth above which floated a massive vertical ovoid chunk of granite that slowly rotated in the air.  The granite was still solid but it was covered in leeching purple and white vines oozing bile and puss.  Surrounding the huge Anchor were five braziers that burned with black fire and crackled black arcs of charged energy that flicked out and struck the Anchor constantly.

Sitting rather nonchalantly in front of it was a tall and very gaunt man with his legs crossed.

"Come and get it."  Collin taunted with a menacing tone as the group entered the room.  Tylette added her sentiments in an even less polite manner.

Perhaps it was the two empty potion vials at his hip, or maybe the twin seven and a half foot tall humanoids in front of him with the huge shoulders and arms that drooped down almost to the floor, but Tiztserak's clone did not seem perturbed by their entrance.  He rose to his feet and stated rather matter-of-factly, "You will give me that amulet and the staff."

Collin and Frederick exchanged worried glances as both of them had read about the creatures before them.  Clay Golems.  Utterly impervious to Zerin's blade, talons, and bite.  They informed him of that over the mindlink but he still began advancing.

"So?"  He replied over the mindlink as he grabbed his shield in both hands and strode forward.

"Oh please.  Deal with that would you?"  Tiztserak motioned his two guardians forward as Frederick and Collin began casting and Tylette drew upon her energies.  Tiztserak was apparently a little slow on the draw and began casting a moment later.

Tylette reached out to try to link the Fate of the two golems before her as Zerin stopped about twenty feet in front of them and readied his shield to smash the first golem to come into his range.  But Tylette's power failed against their unliving bodies and their shambling gate proved slower than Zerin had anticipated.

In a flash Collin's spell was complete and he entered the whirling time slipstream of his _haste_ spell, he was able to begin and finish a second casting while Frederick's now ponderously slow looking movements were still working on his first.  Of course he second spell brought Frederick too into the accelerated time slipstream.  Zerin saw Tiztserak's eyes widen a little.

In a flash accompanied by a bellowed roar Frederick’s spell was complete.  The entire party felt heartened as their strength and toughness increased.  In Collin’s case it nearly doubled.  Recognizing the seemingly slow movements of those around him he swiftly took advantage of Collin’s spell and began casting _Negative Energy Protection_ on himself.  It was then Frederick noticed that Tiztserak was not one of the people who appeared to be moving slower.

The tight cluster the group was in that allowed Frederick’s spell to affect all of them worked against them as Tiztserak targeted the cluster.  His hands rose and with them wailing ghosts and spirits rose out of the ground with terrible wrenching cries of agony.  There were so many of them that they formed a solid dome that encompassed Tylette, Collin, and Frederick.  The horrible moans of the spirits tore and clawed at their sanity and Collin, who had simply seen too much death, snapped.  All plans forgotten he simply fled in panic from the grisly apparitions and their terrifying screams.

Opaque as the _spirit wall_ was Tiztserak turned his will on the dragon man and tried to bend his will, but the slave had been _charm_ed one too many times by his draconic owners and shook off the influence easily.

Frederick gritted his teeth and forced the mental image of Equitus in all his glory into his mind, forcing the cries of the spirits from him.  Over the mindlink he told Zerin, “Cut off the head and this all ends now…”

While Zerin did not particularly like leaving the others undefended he couldn’t deny the logic so as he charged forward his mighty wings unfurled and launched him up and over the twin golems.  Their arms were longer than they looked, but their pathetic attempts to strike the fast moving extremely heavily armored dragon man were almost laughable.  Tiztserak back-pedaled quickly as the creature sent all of his bulk hurtling straight at him, shoulder set firmly behind his shield.

Meanwhile Frederick was not idle, bracing himself he cast a spell on himself and stepped onto the air, climbing through the roof of the dome.  The spirits gouged and clawed him but he paid them little mind as his target came into view.  “Now it ends.”  The 40’ column of fire and holy power that slammed down on Tiztserak and totally engulfed him accentuated his cold statement admirably.  When the _flame strike_ cleared and he saw Tiztserak stumble out of it hammered but not charred he altered his second casting subtlety and instead launched a searing blast of radiant energy at the necromancer.  Unfortunately his spell protections held true and diverted the powerful blast just enough for him to avoid it.

Of course that was not going to help him much if Zerin got to him.

Tylette raised her arms to her face and ran through the wall getting savaged by the spirits as they drained her life away, she came out the other side dazed and tried to see what was going on.  Collin didn’t fare much better as he ran panicked the other direction.

Tiztserak backed up as fast as he could but had no room behind him as Zerin closed, he cried out in desperation and hurled his most powerful remaining magick at just the dragon man.  Frederick felt his heart clench as he recognized the spell.

_Circle of Death_.


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## Jeremy (Jul 25, 2002)

The black wave washed over Zerin and he applied all his might to holding on to his spirit.

But it was for naught.  The spell ripped it from him and left his lifeless corpse hurtling through the air the fall in a heap at Tiztserak's feet.  Tiztserak's smile was terrible in the flickering blue torchlight.

He reached down, touched the ground at his feet and impenetrable _darkness_ sprung up around him.  His laugh echoed through the room.

Tylette didn't know what to say or do.  Frederick was enraged.  His red rimmed eyes held a fierce light in them as he scraped mud and muck off himself and balled in his fist.  The bright light of day shone forth from his hands as he imbued the little mud ball with _daylight_ and tossed it into the _darkness_.

Light blasted out all sides of black shroud and it winked out leaving a very suprised Tiztserak standing in mid-cast.  He finished and summoned forth a babbling Allip from the void but just then Tylette said something over the mindlink that stopped Frederick in his tracks.

"Anyone mind making a detour by the Temple of Elemental Justice?"

Frederick stopped in mid air even as the Allip's mad babble hit the wall of his Faith and will and it's life draining touch sparked off his god's magical protections.  He folded his arms and smiled a viscous smile at Tiztserak as he thought to Tylette, "No.  Make it hot in here."

With a thought the Fire Key unwrapped itself from around Tylette and coiled in her hand, when she tossed it in the air before her Tiztserak's head snapped to her so fast his neck audibly cracked.  His eyes went wide as she cried out three magical commands.

Tiztserak fell to his knees shouting, "You don't know those words!  You don't know those words!!  You can't know those words!"

As sash spun in mid air it trailed fire all around spinning faster and faster until it appeared a solid spinning disk of fire.  It lit up the room as it flashed once and began to grow into a portal of immense size, through the portal all manner of creatures could be seen, some so gigantic they could not step through, but some could fit through just fine.  As seven 16 foot columns of fire jumped down through the portal and landed around Tiztserak's mumbling, babbling form he looked up at Tylette with huge glassy eyes.

"But you don't know those words..."

Tylette looked to Frederick, standing in mid air with his arms crossed, she heard Collin's screams, she saw Zerin's lifeless body, and she turned her gaze to Tiztserak.

"Burn."


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## Jeremy (Jul 26, 2002)

The sixteen foot tall fire elementals surrounded Tiztserak as the portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire continued to widen.  They pounded on his frail form smashing him into the ground and tearing through his energy buffer.  All Tylette and Frederick could see was a maelstrom of fire.  When the elementals straightened there was nothing left but a scorch mark.*

The clay golems halted their advance and sagged forward and the summoned allip and spirit wall faded away leaving only the crackling black electricity attacking the Earth Anchor and the roar of the fire elementals and the portal.

It was just about then that Collin ran back into the room, a little out of breath from his ordeal.  He surveyed the situation.

Frederick stepped down out of the air and saw to Zerin, but there was nothing he could do.  Zerin could not be _raised_, he would have be _resurrected_ or buried.

As the gate continued to spin and grow, four huge fire elementals stepped down and looked at their brethren.  Tylette began gathering their attention when she was nearly blinded by a greater fire elemental coming through the portal.  The massive monstrosity would have been almost 4 stories tall had it been able to stand erect.

Everyone basically stood around and gaped.

The portal flashed again and slammed shut in a wake of fire that spread across the ceiling and dissipated.  There was no sign of the Fire Key.

“Um, ok.  You guys see that door?  Go that way and work your way out of these caverns.  Just kill anything you see moving, ok?  Go.  Wait, you, the little one, you stay with us.  The rest of you hurry up.”

Frederick looked up from Zerin’s still corpse and nodded grimly.  Collin got the hell out of the way.

“So now what?”  Tylette asked, but she was met by shrugs.  Turning to face the gigantic rotating granite she studied the braziers arranged around it.  Backing up and standing behind one of the columns she instructed the remaining fire elemental to destroy the braziers.  It complied and smashed them to scorched kindling.

”Burn away those sickly vines too.”  It reached up with its fiery arms and brushed away the poisonous creepers like a torch through cobwebs.  “Well that was easy, I guess go help the others, just work your way up through the cavern.  Good luck!”  Tylette had a huge grin on her face picturing what those elementals were going to do when they found the giaks and gourgaz.  She briefly considered psionically looking in on them but decided against it.  “That’s one evil horde that won’t be razing any towns.  Anyone got any ideas what do with the rock here?”

“I might,” Frederick answered.  “Stand back.”  Frederick approached the revolving granite monolith and examined it.  As it turned there was a small channel running up it vertically that would come around every few seconds.  Frederick asked Collin for the Earth Key and held it up next to the channel, comparing them.  After a whispered prayer to both Equitus and Terraj, he inserted the staff into the Anchor of Earth.




_*When I say scorch mark, I meant nothing but a black char mark on the ground.  No ash, no nothing.  They took him from 70 hp to -77 in less than 6 seconds.  They are _SO_ not supposed to know the command words to those items...  _


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## Velenne (Jul 26, 2002)

*Let's Kick the Tires and Light the Fires, Big Daddy!*

My dice have really begun to hate me lately.  I'm going to need to take them down to New Orleans and get them re-hexed like Jeremy's dice.  Rolled a 4 on that Will save ...  and the last time I won init?  I've got it written down:

Aug. 14, 1988

 

This was a bad day for Tizzy too.  He deserved what he got, though, so we don't feel sorry for him.


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## Jeremy (Jul 29, 2002)

The torch light in the hall dimmed as the monolithic Anchor of the Earth ground to a stop.  The sound of earthfall behind a static hum grew then clanked to a stop.

There was just a moment of silence for the party to wonder what it was they had done before draconic runes began forming in a flowing script before Frederick that only he could see.

"Is this bad, Col?"  Tylette whispered in the dimmed light.

A tremendous crash like a column of lightning audibly washed over the entire party accompanied by a blinding flash of white light from the Anchor as it was touched by Frederick and suddenly begun to spin faster than his eyes could pick up!  The entire party was thrown bodily to the ground as the immense wave of energy bowled over them and washed out into Terraj's Breath.  There was a great heaving sound as of a great giant clawed for breath followed by an upward thrust of the land as if the entire cavern shot straight up forty or fifty feet.  A loud crackling like a sheet of ice over a lake slowly splintering turned their dazed gazes towards the Earth Anchor that was spinning so fast it hummed.  Underneath it the crackling sound was granite, growing underneath the anchor and spreading out in every direction in a creeping gray color lit by the brightly glowing anchor.  As it moved along the floors, ceiling, columns, and walls it accelerated exponentially, doubling and redoubling in speed until it shot past the group faster than their ship could travel.

"No Tylette," Collin said, beaming at Frederick, "This is very, very good."

Brilliant smiles broke out across the room as the solid granite floor they stood upon broke out in a plush carpet of seemingly impossible thick grass.  Ivy wove and intertwined up and around the now sculpted granite columns and when it reached the torch scones revealed them as burnished gold glowing with lively green fire.

Terraj's Breath breathed Life.

The Earth Anchor slowed in it's rotation but still glowed brightly.  Frederick looked to corpse of Zerin, looking peaceful in the soft grass and sighed.  Looking back to the Anchor he wondered aloud, "Do you think the Keys are meant to remain in place?  I wonder what would happen if I..."  Frederick snaked out a hand and removed the staff from it's place mid-rotation.

The Anchor dimmed, blinked, and went cold.  A slowly spinning ovular granite monlith stood before him.  He watched it for a moment, then shrugged and turned back to the rest of the group.

"Well?  Now what.  Can any of you lift Zerin?"  Looking at the dainty little arms of Tylette and the even thinner framed Collin Frederick shook his head, "Nevermind.  Can either of you Summon something that can lift Zerin?"

Collin answered, "Yes.  For about one whole minute."

"Well that's not going to help us much, even knowing the way out and assuming the Fire Elementals have cleared the way it'll take much longer than that," Tylette interjected.  "So what do we do?"

"Hmm."  Collin grinned* and excitedly pulled out a scrap of parchment and a quill and began writing in a flowing hand.  He rolled it, sealed it with his signet ring and began casting a spell.  The temporary summoning circle formed on the ground and as a sphere coalesced and dissipated a Hound Archon stood before them with imperious looking glowing orbs regarding them.

Collin bowed before the celestial and quickly handed him the note.  "Please Teleport yourself to New Galdomond and hand this to the first Adventurer you see.  If they have time to reply, please bring the reply to us.  Thank you very kindly for your aid."

After an exceedingly brief description of the common room of the New Galdomond inn, the Archon disappeared in a flash of tiny white motes of light.

After about two minutes passed Collin sat down and pulled out his journal.  Looking up from the edge of it he added, "You may as well sit down, this is going to take a while.  Perhaps a good long while as they may need to prepare new spells on the morrow."




_*That insufferable Collin "I'm-being-clever" grin._


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## Jeremy (Jul 30, 2002)

Indeed, though they did detect they were being scryed, no calvalry showed up.  Collin explained in the interim he was requesting Lilly or Lisara show up and _teleport_ them out and he assumed they were preparing spell getting ready for the jaunt.

The amount of time the party had spent fighting or sneaking their way through Terraj's Breath was probably about 5 hours, the amount of time they had spent locked in one room or another catching their breath and restoring their energies was probably closer to 100 hours.  Frederick was patient but he wasn't that patient.  And besides, he was in debt and had been in debt for a very long time.

"I'm going to have a look around," he said as he started picking up his gear.

"Let Sheeji look around first, just to be safe."

Collin made her ghostly and able to travel through floors and walls again as she made herself invisible and zipped off.  A couple hours later she and Frederick headed off together.  Amazingly few mishaps later they returned with four small coffers, then again with three larger coffers, then again dragging a sarcophagus screeching over the granite.

Frederick winced as he set down the last, "I'm really not trying to be greedy, my share goes straight to Argus*."

Tylette and Collin didn't seem to share the moral pin-pricking Frederick was under, one summoned creature later the containers were opened and the party found they were not dirt poor for once.  At least, until Frederick could give his away that is.

Back to the waiting.

After many more hours Collin received a _sending_ from Durchek.  "Yeah, they can't get to you. _Teleported_ and ended up outside a mountain. Still got the scroll ya need. What'cha want us ter do?"

"The whole mountain is _'anchored_?" Collin wondered aloud.  He was beginning to think Fate had it out for him and was taking it personal.  It didn't occur to him that the Archon got out ok.  He sighed and responded, "No.  Thank you for your efforts.  They are appreciated."

Collin relayed the message and began gathering his things.

"Well where are they then with the scroll?" Frederick asked.  Collin just shrugged.  "You mind if I do a _sending_ to find out?"  Another shrug from Collin.  "Ok."

"Don't, I can handle it Frederick.  Just a second, you guys figure a way out of here," Tylette dropped in as she sat down and began to go into a trance.  She entered the Astral and decided to search for Durchek.

Fate apparently was toying with Tylette too.

Collin and Frederick decided the fastest way out, assuming the way was clear was to each _Air Walk_ then use the Air Key to blow them along.  Sort of a poor man's _Wind Walk_.  Collin added _invisibility_ to the plan and it was agreed upon.  "Can't be to careful, we know that at least a few of those damn chickens survived.**"

Tylette finally came out of her trance and reported, "Durchek is Durcheck.  Bored as ever and sitting in the common room of the Inn.  Looks like it's up to us."

Leaving Zerin on his grassy bed, the party set out swiftly.  Navigating the twisting warrens as fast as possible they actually found cornering to be their biggest problem as the Fire Elementals had been exceedingly thorough.  That is until they reached the now granite plug they had placed in the hallway so close to the surface.

"Oops.  Forgot about this..."



_*Argus is the priest of a small congregation in Crescent Lake.  He performed a favor for Frederick on good faith long ago on their first visit to town.  Frederick is still trying to pay him back.

**Some of the undersized cockatrice have proven remarkably durable._


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## Calim (Aug 2, 2002)

*we game tomorrow...*

and your only half done with the last session...


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## Jeremy (Aug 2, 2002)

*Speed Demons*

"Shhhhh..  You hear that?"  Tylette asked.  One of the things that her meditations and far reaching senses had brought to her was a superhuman sense of hearing.  Faintly in the distance she could hear scrapings, and the clanking of heavy chains, hard impacts and shiftings of stone.  "What is that?"  She asked.

Frederick shrugged, but being invisible the effect was lost.  Over the mindlink he said, "Back up, this might get messy."  Concentrating on the staff Frederick began turning the now granite-filled cavern in maleable mud.  When he was finished he began concentrating on the softened earth through the staff.  I washed away from him in waves and Tylette mentioned she thought she heard screams.

When the way before them was finally reopened they saw much of the excavation gear that had originally been being used to keep the collapsing entrance of Terraj's Breath open.  Well, they saw some of it anyways.  Most of it was buried in mud with the odd booted or clawed foot sticking out here and there.  But Collin and company did not stop to investigate, in a blast of wind from the chimes, their _ air walking, invisible_ forms were blown past the confused scene and up the massive central column of Terraj's Breath.

All the way up they saw giaks and gourgaz lazing about, whereas before the cavern had rung with the sounds of metal upon metal and wood and muck, now only the gutteral grunts of the giaks filled the air.  They sat about on now stone steps encircling the massive hollow column, they sat in mined caves dug straight into the walls of the earth, they sat on mining gear, scaffoldings, and supports.  They sat confused and inactive.

The huge gust of wind out of Terraj's Breath didn't seem to help their confusion as many jumped up terrified and looking around.  But still, Collin's Illusion protected them from sight and they exited the huge cylinder without event.  When they navigated the last few twists and turns and emerged stunned into daylight it took them awhile to accustom themselves to the surface world once more.

When they finally could see, the images their eyes showed them brought them joy, triumph, startlement, confusion, and laughter.

Instead of emerging from a massive collapsing wound in the mud and muck, they had stepped out into the air aside a mighty mountain of titanic proportions.  The immensity of it was astounding but the sounds of battle quickly drew all attention.

Far below the party, all up and down the slopes of the mountain were scattered giaks and gourgaz fighting with huge massive worms of immense size that burrowed through the earth and errupted in fountains of stone and dirt around the giaks' feet.  Additionally there were several scorched craters where the charred remains of other giaks lay scattered in pieces.  These were quite distant from the worm battles, much further up the mountain but they apparently had the same effect.  Many dead giaks.

Freed from the confines of the earth and out in the open air with no twists or turns or ceilings or rock formations or even kraan riders, strangely enough, Collin let loose with the Wind Key and blasted them through air so fast it began to hurt.  In almost no time at all the party stepped down from the air onto the deck of their tropical island and stood about staring at each other stunned as the the invisibility faded.

Still young and wide-eyed at the world it still amazed them what they were capable of sometimes.  Out of Terraj's Breath from its deepest bowels in a little over an hour.

Then they rocketed through the water to arrive back in New Galdomond in less than ten minutes.


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## Jeremy (Aug 2, 2002)

*Re: we game tomorrow...*



			
				Calim said:
			
		

> *and your only half done with the last session... *




Well if the sessions weren't 13 hours long...


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## Velenne (Aug 2, 2002)

> *That insufferable Collin "I'm-being-clever" grin.





LOLOLOLOL!!!

Now all you have left is where we leave Terraj's Breath, go to New Galdomond, go to Crecent Lake, go to Galearon, go back to Crecent Lake again, and finally go back to Galearon again and you'll be caught up for tomorrow game.  Good luck!  I can't wait to read it!


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## Jeremy (Aug 2, 2002)

That's easy.

Triumphant PC's, Embarassed PC's, Conniving PC's, Convincing PC's, Encumbered PC's, Miniature PC's, Teleporting PC's, Speed Boat PC's, Pleasure Cruise PC's, Nosey PC's, Heroic PC's, Crazy PC's, TOTALLY INSANE-LOST-IT-LOO-LOO PC's, Bleeding Heart PC's, and hopefully tomorrow afternoon, just plain Bleeding PC's.

That about sum it up?  I already updated once today, what d'ya want from me?


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## Jeremy (Aug 5, 2002)

Back in town Collin went for supplies while Frederick checked out the inn.  Sure enough, Durchek was sitting there bland and bored as ever.

"Where be everyone else?"

"Huh?  Oh, Collin is getting supplies and Tylette is resting.  We haven't figured out how to rescue Zerin yet."  Frederick supplied.

"Nah.  Where be Lilly, Lisara, and the rest?  They went ta rescue ya.  They was waiting out back b'hind the Mountain with th' scroll ta fix yer mess."

Frederick managed a remarkably bland expression.  "Oh them?  I'm not sure.  Hang on a minute."

About 25 minutes later having regrouped, slapped foreheads, "sailed" back to the cape south of Terraj's Breath, invisibly circumvented it, and looking up the backside of the Mountain Frederick said to Tylette and Collin, "Just one second."

He sent a _helping hand_ up the mountain to guide the other group to them.

As Imver, Valhallet, Lisara, and Lilly got to them the hand winked out of existance and Frederick smiled at them.  Lilly bounded up to Collin and flourished two wound up scrolls which she handed over.  "Took you guys long enough.  Have any difficulty getting out?"

The group collectively mumbled in negative and Lilly nodded and hopped back over to where Lisara and the warriors were already linking hands.  "Actually, I can probably take care of this faster on my own.  Lilly, can you take Tylette and Frederick with you as well?"

"Are you sure Collin, that could be extremely dangerous," Tylette warned.  But Collin just waved her off and grinned with a flourish of his acid shredded clothes.

"_I_ am a _powerful_ sorcerer," he winked, "I'll be fine.  You guys head back.  Frederick, can I borrow the chimes and bother you for an _air walk_?"

Collin winked out of site and zipped off in a rush of wind as Frederick and Tylette _teleported_ directly back into the inn in New Galdomond.  Durcheck looked up, then went back to drumming his thick fingers.

Meanwhile, Collin shot through Terraj's Breath invisibly though heralded by great gusts of wind.  In any other place that might be considerably out of the ordinary, but deep in the now once more sighing depths of the mountain, it was just another gust for which the mountain was named.

Activity was light and he found Zerin still lying where he had fallen, though supported by a soft bed of thick green grass.  The Earth Anchor's chamber felt so alive and clashed terribly with the still form of Zerin.  Bending over him and unfurling the scrolls Collin shrunk Zerin to 1/12th of his size and slipped him into his bag before taking one last look around.

Then he read the second scroll and _teleported_ directly back to the _Sara Ardon_.  He summoned an earth ape to winch up the anchor as he headed below decks and set the Water Key in the place he had made for it.

The _Sara Ardon_ lifted gently from the water and streaked off to the east.

Around half an hour later Collin rode into town on a summoned horse and finally began to marvel at the restoration they had accomplished.

Green fields and trees gave New Galdomond a peaceful feel.  The cool air of the month of Chillwind still blew, but the land that had laid rotten now burst forth with so much life as to appear in springtime.  Collin smiled so wide his chapped lips cracked and he dismounted and walked the rest of the way towards the inn.

The fearful cry from inside one of the shops he passed completely spoiled his mood.

"Guards!!  Help me!"


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## Velenne (Aug 5, 2002)

"Oh great!?  What now, more vampires?  Can't they take a hint?! Or is it Giants now?  For crying out loud can I get one peaceful day without having to kill something?"


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## Jeremy (Aug 5, 2002)

Pouring out of the inn comes Phillip Tearlin (one of the last remaining guardsman) as well as Frederick and his band of would-be swordsman.  They charge into the shop to find the shopkeep with both hands high above his head in plain sight standing fearfully before--

Tylette.

Everyone stops and stares for a moment and Tylette calmly walks out, "I was just trying to get a fair deal."

Collin, standing outside sees Tylette come out and walk to the inn.  Scratching his head he follows, undecided as to whether he wants to know what happened or not.

Back inside the shop stands Frederick and company as he's still trying to figure out what happened.  "What happened here?"

The shopkeep, still shaking somewhat after being held up at spell-point stammers out, "I think she tried to mind control me..  I offered her the same price I offered Collin Allysar..  1000 gp discount seeing as you've done so much for me..  Next thing I know I'm hearing bells in my head and I feel my will draining away.  I don't think I was supposed to have resisted..."

Frederick finds himself in a familiar situation; morally and spiritually torn between two seemingly impossible options.  He turns to Phillip, who although is not as powerful as Frederick, is still the ranking official law in town with the Sheriff dead.  "You know what I have to do."

Phillip shrugs, "Go ahead, clap her in irons.  Don't expect me to back you up though.  This is bad, but throwing one of the saviors of the town in prison after what we've been through, that's just suicide."

Frederick thought he was torn before.

Back in the inn Collin speaks to Tylette and ascertains what happened.  To her mind the fact that she could not get full market value for her used items was preposterous, especially when she was simply exchanging them for goods and not gold.  Collin sighs exasperated as he puts the rest of it together for himself.  He stands and walks out.

He steps past Phillip and Frederick who are now standing outside the shop saying nothing.  Frederick with guilt, pain, indecision in his dilemma written all over his face; Phillip with a simpler resigned look.  Not saying a word to either he walks into the shop and offers an apologetic smile to the shopkeep who is in the process of tacking up something on the wall.

Collin apologizes eloquently and offers 200 gold pieces in reparations.  He is so persuasive that the shopkeep nods though he does mention that he requests she refrain from entering his store further.  As he steps away from his flyer it is a magical sketch of Tylette, complete with charges of Attempted Robbery and Magickal Assault on Lawful Persons.

Collin wants to hang his head but instead he agrees graciously to the terms, bows, and leaves.  But he can see the familiar look on Frederick's face outside and as he approaches, he steels himself for a more difficult encounter.

Collin assures Frederick that all is made well and everything is taken care of and asks him to come to the inn.

Frederick is silent but he does follow.  Once inside the inn, things are no better as Tylette sits totally unruffled and even slightly smug, Collin sits exasperated, and Frederick sits with a tortured look on his face.

The situation does not improve when townsfolk begin to peer through a window and point and whisper.


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## Jeremy (Aug 6, 2002)

"Well so much for a little rest," mutters Collin irritably.

"I was just trying to--" the rest of the party tunes out the rest of Tylette's by now familiar reasoning.  Frederick twists in his seat uncomfortably at every mention.  The whispers and pointing he feels are directed solely at him.

Tylette changed the subject.  "Well in any case, where do we take Zerin?  I don't know anyone capable of the spell we need.  Can Argus do it, Frederick?"

Frederick shrugged.  "I don't believe so," he said with a sigh, "He's powerful, but I don't believe he's that powerful.  And I have yet to pay him back for the _sendings_ he performed for us."

"Well if he can't, perhaps the Circle of Oaks can," Collin offered.  He looked around and received grim nods.  Everyone remembered the price they paid the last time they stepped into the mists.  "We don't have much choice."

"Yer mind if I come too?  I'd like ta see this here Circle of yers."  Clanking footsteps accompanied the monotone voice from behind them.

Frederick turned around, astounded that Durcheck could show interest in anything at all.  He nodded, dumbfounded.  Collin grinned figuring his unabounded curiosity was rubbing off on the desensitized dwarf.

"We should get going.  I'll summon mounts for us.  Come on."

The party boarded the _Sara Ardon_ and carefully navigated the still dangerous harbor* before rocketing to the south and blasting away to the east.

Durcheck was unimpressed.

Frederick steeled himself and went to go have a talk with Tylette.  He had two spells prepared and he meant to use both.  Five minutes later a further conflicted Frederick left Tylette having only cast one of the two spells.  He went back to his room and sat confused for the other 100-odd minutes it took to get to the other side of the known world.

The party _air walked_ over the raucous jungle surrounding the lake which gave Crescent Lake it's name, it never seemed to die down.  Indeed, it appeared to have grown worse.  Frederick thought he saw something on the horizon but the party was busy.

As the way to the Circle would only come with the morning mists, the party split up to rest and relax in the inn while Frederick and Collin went to take care of personal business.  Frederick payed Argus in full and chatted with him a little about the area.  Frederick's eyes went wide when he heard accounts of gorgons mixing it up with the trolls, minotaurs, hydra, huge centipedes, huge scorpions, and giants in the rowdy jungles but Argus smiled and told him that they would survive.  They always had, for longer than they could remember.

Collin went to visit Atilly but was met with a familiar note.

_Out investigating.  Be back later.  -- A_

He muttered and went back to the inn to study his own books and work over his notes some more.




_* When New Galdomond was initially attacked, there were 7 ships in harbor that were scuttled by the powerful undead lieutenant.  To a ship without the precise control of the _Sara Ardon_ or a very shallow keel, the harbor is impossible to navigate because of all the debris and ships on the bottom of the harbor._


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## Jeremy (Aug 7, 2002)

I put up a couple character sheets for PC's in my webspace.  So far I've got a first draft of Collin (he hasn't double checked it) and a sheet up for Frederick.

I'll post Zerin's and Tylette's when I get them..

Here's the link: Character Sheets

Special thanks to PC Gen and all involved for the format.


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## Jeremy (Aug 7, 2002)

_Short update to keep things rolling.  Maybe more later.._

In the morning Durchek stood alongside Zerin's corpse on the small cultivated green looking out into the rising mists on the lake.  The mists rose and swallowed the two whole.

_[Note: I'd like to tell you what happened here, but the players read this and this is personal to one of them, the Circle of Oaks has a personal challenge for all who seek them.  So I'll leave it to him to reveal if he wants.]_

Zerin found himself standing, alive, on a small rocky shoal surrounded by ocean as far as he could see in every direction.  At least, it seemed like ocean by the way it crashed upon the jagged black rocks he stood upon.  But the water was foul, black, and turgid.  It was corrupted, thick, and putrid.  He stood surrounded by thirteen stone statues of men and merfolk that besides being barnacle encrusted and smoothed by the sea, were also now rotting and cracked.  Chunks of stone fell off them as voices began to issue united from them.

"You know what you have to do Dragon Slave. Go now, we can hold open the bridge between our realms no longer.  Go.  Quickly."

Zerin looked around confused at the ocean surrounding him as Durchek appeared next to him.  Zerin looked to Durcheck confused as Durchek shrugged and walked right off the southern tip of the rock onto the water.  Zerin had just enough time to blink before he too ran out onto the water.  Their belief held them up as they ran and the mists rose once more and swallowed them.

When the mists cleared and Zerin found himself standing on the small green in Crescent Lake he became even more confused.

Durchek looked thoroughly unimpressed.

Collin and Frederick smiled broadly at Zerin's return and welcomed him back.  Tylette as well hailed him, though he flinched at her prescence.  Zerin made a noticeable effort to be personable, but at the moment he needed time to think.


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## Jeremy (Aug 8, 2002)

Collin spent some time with Atilly and Frederick spoke with Argus.  Both heard about increasing troubles in the area as if something was stirring up the already frenzied creatures.  Frederick had serious suspicions about the brown/black haze over the mountains to the west while Collin tried to pry out of Atilly what it was she was researching.  "Ancient magicks," was the only answer he got.

The little fishing village actually provided a very nice and very welcome respite with hot meals and warm baths and waking every morning to the crystal blue lake.  But both Frederick and Collin wished to visit Galearon.

As they were talking Tylette's head snapped up and she looked around worried.

"What is it?"  Frederick asked.

Tylette's answer was a foreboding shudder, "I don't know, but something is very wrong.  We should go.  We should go _now_.."

Five _air walk_ spells later the group was being ferried along on a continuous gust of wind Zerin generated to fill his wings with the Air Key.  The wind chimes played softly as they shot over the jungle and back towards the _Sara Ardon_.  As they began to slow Zerin's draconic vision spotted movement on the deck, a quick glimpse of a red-hued face and what he assumed to be a tail popped up from below decks, then returned.  Zerin growled a gravelly sound deep in his chest and told the others what he'd seen.

Collin's usually pleasant demeanor immediately acquired a fire in his eyes and malevolent expression that would have caused Khuuld to back up a step.  "_NOBODY_ messes with this ship..."

They hit the deck and Zerin took a defensive position infront of one of the doors to below decks as Frederick and Collin buffed and summoned.  Collin sent two absolutely massive crocodiles into the water to cut off any unorthodox escape as they prepared to send a very painful message to the intruders.  A sound like an arrow's flight reached their ears as they proceeded down the stairs each covering each other checking room by room methodically.


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## Jeremy (Aug 14, 2002)

Frederick's room was ransacked and there wasn't a single intruder to be found.

So they ransacked Frederick's room again for good measure.

A thorough search revealed a book missing and yielded a single odd tuft of red hair, odd in that Frederick's hair is very black. Of course it could be a lighter bit of Collin's hair or a darker bit of Andrew's still floating around, but when one has a Seer around, nothing is hidden.

Tylette concentrated on the hair for a moment and formed a picture in her mind of a tiger-faced humanoid with glowing green eyes. The book that was missing: Andrew's mysterious tome of fighting.

Not sure whether to be frustrated or relieved that the thieves were gone by the time they arrived, the party did what it was getting used to doing.

They shrugged and moved on.

Durchek nodded approvingly.

Collin and Frederick still wanted to visit Galearon and no one else had pressing affairs that they wanted to speak about, so the Sara Ardon once more rocketed through the seas, docking soon after in the quiet harbor port south of Galearon.

As they tied off the moorings and disembarked, the sounds of a distant horn reached them ever so faintly. They shrugged and moved on.

Enjoying the, by comparison, extremely normal mode of transportation---riding on magically summoned horses, the weather was kind to them. Chillwind was losing it's grip on the land and the dark clouds above promised warm rain instead of icy sleet.

Galearon was as quiet as they remembered it. The town proper had no one walking about through it's winding wooded walkways, and it's meandering brook splashed softly on smooth stones. Strangely, there weren't any archers to be seen manning the parapet walls of the palace, nor were there even the occasional elf going about his or her business. Galearon is a quiet town without many inhabitants, but this seemed more like a ghost town.

After a few moments of calling out, tensions rose. They rode for the inn, dismounted, and ran in. Calling out for Glywen resulted in a unnervingly long silence. As he appeared, the party found they had been holding their breath. Glywen's face was hard to read, his blank eyes and courteous demeanor could be read in any number of ways.

"Glywen? Where is everybody?"


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## Piratecat (Aug 19, 2002)

Jeremy said:
			
		

> *Tylette concentrated on the hair for a moment and formed a picture in her mind of a tiger-faced humanoid with glowing green eyes.
> *




Is it what I think it is?  Does its fingers curve backwards?


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## Jeremy (Aug 19, 2002)

Rawr.


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## Piratecat (Aug 19, 2002)

Ohhhh, are they in trouble.  *grin*


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## Calim (Aug 21, 2002)

piratecat is not the only one who is behind


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## Calim (Sep 3, 2002)

*Since Last we saw our intrepid knights*

Fought an Army, rescued a kid, discovered how to make a lot of noise, and traveled through an underground river full of some blind guys 
I will leave the writing to Jeremy


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## Jeremy (Sep 4, 2002)

Glywen slowly intoned in his eternal monotone, "Many have fallen, the rest fight to spare what is left.  Every husband, wife, and child who can lift a bow."

There was little sound in the room, Frederick's gloves ground over the leather-wrapped grip of his mace, Zerin growled low in his throat as Collin's eyes lit with fire, Tylette blinked back tears, and Durchek sighed with resignation.

"Where?"  Collin growled.

"The same.  The ogres and goblins march in ordered ranks backed by hobgoblins and bugbears."

"What of Celethiel?"  Tylette offered, Collin was right on top of her and added, "and Praelesian?"

"Celethiel disappeared just before the first attack," Celethiel's form wavered and faded as his head tilted back.  When his visage stabilized he regarded Collin with a terrifying lack of expression, "And Praelesian yet lives."

Collin let out the breath he realized he had been holding as Glywen finally finished the important syllables.  He turned abrubtly on his heel and strode out the door followed silently by Zerin's massive form.  Frederick nodded his thanks to Glywen and proceeded out with Tylette and Durchek.

Outside, Collin had already mounted his summoned horse and was looking at first to the east, then to the south.  He wheeled his horse around as Frederick came out.  Frederick and Collin, while different as night and day in their confidence and manner, had always grasped situations intuitively.  Frederick shook his head wordlessly at Collin.

"No more.  We've left this for too long," Collin argued.

"Borindra and her allies could mean the difference, and this is there home.  They deserve the right to defend it.  And we _owe_ them.  Big,"  Frederick put into words the thoughts Collin was already fighting with.

Durchek stumped by Collin and patted his leg twice before trotting off alone to the east.  Collin grunted and snapped his reigns savagely galloping south across the plain of cropped grass that encircled Galearon.  In a great downsweep of his wings Zerin launched into the air, followed soon after by a great rush of air as he used the Wind Key to fill his wings and send himself rocketing away to the south towards the _Sara Ardon_.

Frederick and Tylette vaulted into their saddles and followed with Phillip to the south.  The rest of the crew began to the east to support the elves as best they could.

Durchek ahead of them paused in his trot and concentrated for a moment.  Just as abruptly he started off again to the east, but before he had reached the treeline Imver, Valhallet, Lilly, and Lisara had teleported in aside him in full flight.  With a touch from Lilly, Durchek too took to the sky as they sped off to the east.

Phillip pointed this out and Frederick and Tylette nodded as they galloped to the south.

_To be Continued..._


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## Jeremy (Sep 4, 2002)

Collin took the steps four at a time as he ran below decks.  The others had just gotten below when Collin vaulted into the helm he had constructed and pulled the Water Key into place brusquely.  Water spiraled away in a great cascade from the ship as it formed and seemed to float in it's little bubble of protection.  The thunder off to the southeast suited Collin's mood perfectly as he shot off along the coastline with a will.

He didn't bother with the charts and maps and merely relied on his memory and his reflexes to skirt the coastline west and around the southern tip before ripping around to the north towards New Galdomond.  Sweat beaded on his forhead and his concentration on the rope thick magical energies surrounding them was intense.

Frederick sat in brooding silence with Phillip wondering how he was going to breach this to Borindra.  Zerin stood stalwart behind the helm watching the coastline scream by at well over 200 miles per hour.  Tylette scraped tears away angrily as her eyes glowed faintly with crackling silver energy.

As the ship came to a stop amid the sunken wrecks at New Galdomond's port Borindra, Vithas, Zon, Two Moons, and even Grulvani stood at the end of the docks.  As Frederick came on deck and saw them he was slightly taken aback, but promptly lowered the gang plank with Phillip's help as Collin held the ship in place.

There was little conversation as expressions were still grim and Collin turned right around heading back to Galearon with visions of _fire storms_ and _acid fogs_ playing before his eyes.

Night had begun to fall as ten severe-looking adventurers deployed from the deck of the _Sara Ardon_.  By land and air they set off directly to the east.  Zerin scooped up Frederick and Phillip and flew off alongside Two Moons who had taken the form of an eagle.

Collin and the others began to encounter the scattered retreat of the elves soon after they entered the tree line.  They were being rallied along by dark-faced members of Durchek's company and hurried back to Galearon.  As the adventurer's divided, providing aid where it was needed and encouragement where they could Collin rode ahead asking repeatedly after his Praelesian.

Meanwhile Frederick, Phillp, Zerin, and Two Moons landed on the now dark field of battle.  Arrow riddled corpses of elves lay in various states at the edge of the tree line accompanied by the grotesque forms of elves incased partially or totally in sheathes of ice.  There forms were in cases blue and frozen in expressions of terror, or shattered in gruesome pieces.  The outlines of the icy blasts were clearly visible and the elves within them were one and all dead.  Frederick, Two Moons, and Phillip began searching for signs of life as Zerin unlimbered shield and sword and stood watch.

Collecting and arranging corpses as best they could Frederick and Two Moons found scant few their healing magicks could save.

Someone said they had seen her near the front lines in the north, someone else thought she was heading back with some of the other elves in the south, another thought he had seen her with bow in hand guarding over the retreat of others.  Too many simply shook their heads.  Collin did not allow himself to feel as he searched, he lost himself in mathmatics and geography.  His horse did it's best not to break it's ankles among the underbrush of the dark forest.

Eventually he broke the tree line and saw Frederick and others seeing to the fallen.

_To be Continued..._


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## Jeremy (Sep 5, 2002)

As Collin walked the lines of the dead he came to rest at Praelesian's body.  Her face was poignant and beautiful, a measure of peace on her face that made it seem as if she merely slept.  The left side of her body was incased in ice and her left arm below the elbow was missing.  Collin had no words or emotion to show, on the inside a countdown had started this morning and it was ticking down swiftly.  His heart boiled and raged but he didn't feel any of it, his mind was in total control.  Logic and mathematics.

Part of her arm is missing.  Search and find it.

He scoured the ice encased trees theorizing that if the left side of her body was frozen she was on the edge of one of the blasts that must have come from the silver dragon.

How many times had they crossed swords with the strange ogres and organized goblins?  How long had it been since the silver---it had to be the same silver that had helped them so long ago---had heeded the horn trumpets of the ogres and landed in their midst?  How long?  Probably even longer since Taviel's urgent message.  Action/Reaction.  Action.  Reaction.

Reaction.

Too short.  Male arm.  Right hand.  Left forearm.  Left hand.  Match.

Collin moved stiff and mechanical and came back with three pieces, one complete and one in two pieces that might be the correct appendage.  Frederick tried to offer words, Collin walked right past him to Two Moons, "You.  I need your help."

Two Moons, who had seen so much death so close to him, Dawn Mist, Rudderly, countless townspeople, Frederick, Khuuld, some quiet, some savage and final, but so much of it...  Two Moons looked with sad eyes on Collin, "I can't.  She is beyond my reach."

"Not mine damn you.  Just say you'll help me."  His voice lacked the vehemence of his words and it came across cold and unconcerned but Two Moons nodded none the less.  "Zerin.  I need you as well."

The black dragonkin nodded his massive head wordlessly.  Collin pulled matter from the ether and constructed it into a harness for himself and Praelesian and Two Moons.

"Collin?  What are you going to do?  Collin?  Collin!"  Frederick looked at Collin and saw dead eyes and concentration and it scared him terribly.

Zerin shrugged into the harness and spread his wings as Collin finished securing Praelesian and motioned for Two Moons to do the same.  "I'll be back," Collin said curtly as he fastened himself in and nodded to Zerin.  Frederick backed up the Wind Key launched Zerin's massive frame into the air and sent them hurtling off to the west.

Collin directed Zerin south to the _Sara Ardon_ and walked briskly downstairs.  Seating himself once more at the helm he grabbed hold of the Water Key and the ocean spiraled away from the ship in a torrent.  By moonlight he set off to the east, rounded the southern cape and came up just southeast of Crescent Lake.

Faced with the tumultuous jungles surrounding the tiny lake town, Zerin was forced to ferry Collin and Two Moons over.  They touched down on the grassy half-meadow on its stilted supports.  Two Moons had heard of the Circle of Oaks before, both in legend and from Collin as he related the tale in the past.

Zerin had been silent for the entire journey and was troubled both by their location and by Collin’s apparent plan.  But he held his peace and stood vigil.

Collin paced for a moment, gazed at the stars and the position of the moon, and sat down to wait out the rest of the night.  Meanwhile Two Moons set to gently thawing Praelesian as best he could.  When he finished, he used needle and thread to mend her body at least on the outside so that she could rest whole and complete.  It took him most of the night but it kept his mind occupied.  Collin had no such distractions and drilled himself mercilessly to keep himself awake, eventually exhaustion, both physical and emotional from suppressing so many intense emotions, overcame him and he slipped into unconsciousness.

The night passed to the sounds of the jungle’s endless uproar.

Zerin woke Two Moons from where he had slumped over as the sky began to lighten then went back to where he had stood vigil through the night.  As the mists rose he carried Collin’s sleeping form off the platform.

The mists from the lake swept over Two Moons and Praelesian and swallowed them from sight.  As the sun rose the mists burned away but Praelesian and Two Moons did not return.  This troubled Zerin even more and he woke Collin remarkably gently.

Collin looked around, blinked in the sunlight and took in his surroundings.  Pieces fell together and Collin’s expression became harder and colder.  The walls around his emotions were doubled and redoubled as he headed swiftly to Argus’s little chapel with long purpose-filled strides.

Argus was setting up little cups upon the simple altar when Collin entered.  He called out greeting but his old face saddened as he took in Collin’s fiery haired demeanor.

“The Circle of Oaks,” Collin began, “Do people ever fail to come back?”

Argus straightened and his heart reached out to the young man who tried to take on so many of the world’s problems.  “The Circle of Oaks offers great wisdom, but at a dear price.  Sometimes, that price is too high.”

“Has anyone ever returned after the mists have cleared?  The next day?  After?”  Collin’s tone was flinty and cold, it held no emotion whatsoever.

“I’m very sorry, my son.”

At that moment, something inside Collin changed drastically.

_To be Continued…_


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## Jeremy (Sep 5, 2002)

C'mon..  Somebody's gotta be reading this..  Any comments?    Please?


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## Calim (Sep 10, 2002)

*picture of Frederick*

check out the art forum for a picture of Frederick Drawn By the DM's Wife


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## Jeremy (Sep 10, 2002)

Artwork

Character Sheets (Selected)


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## Vadicus (Sep 10, 2002)

*Well...*

I guess that it would be safe to say that the entire party is slowly going insane...wouldn't it?


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## Calim (Sep 10, 2002)

not everyone is insane anymore in fact Frederick is much better recently


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## Velenne (Sep 10, 2002)

Collin takes a nose-dive off the deepend at this point.  And joins Khuuld for a game of marco-polo.


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## Vadicus (Sep 10, 2002)

*Hehe*

Khuuld: "Maaaar-bloody-cooooooooo"

Collin: *short-spoken* "Polo!"

<WHACK WHAM THUD BOOM>

Khuuld: "Marco?"

*crickets*


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## Calim (Sep 10, 2002)

*Ya'll need some help*

and I know just the person for it to help you, Zerin the children are fighting again....


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## Calim (Sep 13, 2002)

*This is a BUMP!*

This is only a BUMP! if this were an actual emergency this BUMP! would be followed by directions for what to do in case of emergency.  This is only a BUMP!


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## Jeremy (Sep 16, 2002)

Collin smirked and said, “Even after all we do…  Fate bends over and shows us his white ass.”  He grinned at the metaphor and sauntered out to find Zerin.  Laughing he approached the troubled creature and said, “Well, we killed another one.  Who do you think will go next?  C’mon,” Collin leaned in close and whispered privately as if it was some personal jest, “Let’s go _save the world_”  He drawled melodramatically.

Zerin was thunderstruck by Collin’s tone, behavior, and manner and didn’t know what to make of it, but if there was a leader of the party, it was he and so he did as he was told.  Lifting Collin’s slight frame into the air he returned them to the _Sara Ardon_ where it lay anchored off shore.  With a careless gesture he summoned forth an ape to crank the anchor back up as he went below decks.  Who knows what happened to it when Collin lifted the ship out of the waters and shot off to the south.

Back in Galearon tactics were being discussed among the adventuring companies.  Several plans were proposed, discarded, and modified before one was generally agreed upon.  The elves themselves were battered and numbed with their own losses and kept to the woods, quietly watching and waiting for the inevitable return of the phalanxes.  As for the individual adventurers, each reacted in their own way.  Some grew more focused, others nursed barely contained rage, while others spoke with eyes brimming with unshed tears.  But today things would change.

Today retribution would crash down like a thunderstorm.

The elves kept watch while the warriors, wizards, and priests discussed placement, fall back points, spell preparations, and possible offensives.  Three separate strike teams were formed with strict instructions.

“Hit hard, hit fast, and get the hell out,” Borindra summed up.

Imver nodded, adding, “And if a horn blows, don’t wait to see the dragon, retreat then.  We’ll give them one hell of a surprise today, but we can’t afford to lose a single person.”  He looked around the room, gathering eyes quietly, “Divided, we’ll be easy pickings, so this is a one-shot opportunity to deliver as much firepower simultaneously as possible,—” He punctuated his statements with a gloved fist pounding down on the table, “—before we have to group together to overcome the dragon.  Do not, I repeat, do _not_ engage the dragon until we are all collected and replenished.”

Discussions were covering various minutiae when Collin returned with Zerin and strode into the commons with a strange light in his eyes.  Borindra looked up, irritated, but Collin swept his gaze past her and latched on to the wan form of Zon, the half-elf.  Zon had been the first of New Galdomond to accept Collin and his friends and despite what Borindra blamed them for, he still offered a weak smile upon the fiery-haired young man’s return.  That smile was returned by Collin as he almost skipped over to Zon suppressing a giggle that would have sounded more than a little mad.

Zon fought to hold onto the smile in his confusion and looked at questioningly at Collin who motioned him to lean close.  Collin bent over and whispered in Zon’s ear in a cheerful and excited voice, “Guess what?”

Zon was definitely in need of some good news, he and his friends had been through tough times as late, and looked down upon as he was in Galearon, it still hurt to see it decimated so.  He leaned in closer to Collin.

“We, the great heroes that we are, went to visit the Circle of Oaks again to bring back an innocent life.  Two Moons, came with us just as Durchek did and being the wonderful fellow he is, took her into the mists with him.  And…”  Collin paused dramatically, leaning over even closer before loudly announcing, “He’s dead!”

Jaws dropped all around the room at Collin’s sick idea of a joke, as Zon froze not knowing what to think.  It couldn’t be true, he wouldn’t have said it like that, but what would ever possess Collin to…  But it only got worse as Collin barely paused before almost seeming to taunt Zon.  “Yup.  No good deed goes unpunished, and yet another one of your friends has died in an utterly meaningless fashion.  Who do you think will be next, hmmm?  It could be me!  It could be you!”

Zon eyes brimmed with tears as his face screwed itself up in rage and his fingernails clawed into his palms but Collin didn’t even notice and continued, “It doesn’t even matter, it’s all just blind _luck!_  Any second now some terrible fate is just waiting to spring on anyone of us or anything we care about!”  Collin continued on laughing and jesting and pointing as Zon’s chair overturned and he flung himself at Collin as an anguished scream clawed its way out of his chest and howled through the room.  His hands closed around Collin’s scrawny throat as Zon’s eyes blazed and brilliant explosion detonated point-blank on the two of them, hurling them to the floor and blackening and crisping their skin with the sickening smell of burning flesh.

Collin was totally insane and cared not a whit, he just kept laughing through gasps and did nothing to protect himself.  Zon slammed his head into the floorboards repeatedly, a wordless shriek pouring from his lips.

Zerin would have gone to help but he was busy interposing himself between them and Borindra who had drawn live steel and had murder in her eyes.  Most of the room was aghast at what was occurring, and while some had been injured and hurled back by Zon’s _brilliant blast_, Valhallet and Frederick kept their heads and worked to pull the two apart before Zon killed him.  A thunderous crack like a whip snapping full brought Collin momentarily back to his senses as Valhallet nearly took his head off with a backhand then threw him bodily from the inn.  Frederick handed Zon into Vithas and Durchek’s care before hurrying after him.

_To be Continued…_


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## Jeremy (Sep 17, 2002)

In the tradition of the wonderful group pictures still up at:

http://home.attbi.com/~jeremy.evans/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-.html

I give you some of my talented wife Leslie's incredible painted miniatures!

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24689

Head over and support her hard work!


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## Arknath (Sep 24, 2002)

> and I know just the person for it to help you, Zerin the children are fighting again....




let me get my sword...


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## Jeremy (Nov 12, 2002)

Agh.  Nevermind.

*Continued on the other boards.*


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## Vadicus (Nov 12, 2002)

*WOOHOO an update-- what the ??*

It's the same post as the previous one!  You got me all excited!!  BUMP BUMP!


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## Vadicus (Nov 20, 2002)

BuMp


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## Arknath (Nov 21, 2002)

*???*

Other boards?


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