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• 45 Su – PCs find an abandoned keep with a cockatrice nest. They (wisely) retreat.
• 43 Su – PCs, Tyler and Lt Maynard head off
• 41 Su – The PCs, Burt, Tyler and mercenaries return to Burt’s tower from getting the kobold treasure. They were attacked by a strange wolf-woman creature along the way back, two mercenaries were brutally murdered. Burt and PCs chased the wolf-woman off.
• 30 Su – After returning to Burt’s Tower to obtain additional help to get all the treasure back, the noble allows PCs to keep initial haul, but will hold onto rest until ownership can be determined (Monk Calandro admitted to the letter they’d found)
• 23 Su – PCs and a group of 20 mercenaries (plus officers) move through the woods and find the kobold village, though at a great cost in lives. They defeat the kobolds by holding the king, and then resisting a counterattack. The king is killed. The PCs find a huge amount (thousands) of coins on the floor of the King’s hut.
• 18 Su – PCs attempt initial search for kobold village from map found in small castle. They are ambushed quite a bit. They retreat back to Burt’s Tower to get help.
• 12 Su – Wilizim believes dwarfs were associated with the town of Crystal Point and the large cliff-mounted crystal.
• 11 Su – PCs encounter warband of bugbears moving to the east.
• 1 Su – PCs clear castle of orcs and wolves. Lindin adopts wolves as companions. PCs find a treasure map to a great treasure held by kobolds!

 

• 50 Sp – PCs find a ruined small castle in the grasslands of northern Corridin, occupied by orcs.
• 41 Sp – PCs return to Lord Elfredo’s tower. Translation of dwarf tablets so far:
  • 150 years
  • Great sin! Atone for sin
  • Gathering for great journey
• 21 Sp – after visiting with various folks in Gireford, the PCs take the Druid Lindin to nearby Druid’s Circle, where he’s inducted into the Circle after participating in a ritual.
• 7 Sp – Party stumbles across Griffon’s Keep while trying to find the Gire River. They are welcomed with open arms and a celebration. Rem and Calandro are feted as heroes.
• 5 Sp – Party finds a grassland area with an abandoned ruined village. They hear strange noises in the middle of the night.
• 4 Sp – Party succeeds in recovering the Artifact of Vicon by distracting the company of militia, bespelling Lorita and her bodyguards, recovering the artifact and running away.
• 3 Sp – Party find the remains of a ruined temple, with a Champion of Vicon, Leadra, near it! (the woman from 85 Wi 59 looking for adventurers) Leandra reveals that a chaotic cleric, Lorita, her bodyguards and a large group of soldiers are attempting to find a valuable artifact within. The party agrees to help Leandra recover the artifact. They scout to see what they’re up against.
• 1 Sp – Party participates in the New Years celebration, with Redwald winning the tournament of champions and being awarded an ingot of veganotter by Lord Elfredo. Rem is not as lucky. Phaedra creates light effects show to entertain folks.

 

• 85 Win 59 – The party reaches Lord Elfredo’s lands and are found by his riders. They are escorted to the castle. Lord Elfredo is happy to allow Wilizim to stay while the party heads to Gireford to let Hazam know of his master’s rescue. The party hears of a woman looking for adventurers to help her “recover a treasure” from a set of ruins to the NE.
• 71 Wi – PCs find hall of records in Dwarf outpost with a ghost of a dwarf (The Watcher) and recover record tablets. They escape the outpost!
• 70 Wi – after rest and recovery, PCs return to outpost, eliminate the guards and re-enter to find the hall of records.
• 57 Wi – PCs retreat from outpost and find track to Feltor’s camp! PCs retreat to a small hamlet – Crickton.
• 55 Wi – PCs find the Dwarf outpost, defeating orc/goblin guards and enter within. After some encounters, they rescue Wilizim, the mage who had been leading an expedition to the outpost and was taken prisoner by Feltor! Wilizim is Hazam’s mentor.
• 50 Wi – PCs find a hamlet in forest where people act in strange, unwelcoming ways. They find a strange mine and explore it, but don’t find very much to explain villagers’ behavior.
• 45 Wi – PCs return to Lord Elfredo’s tower to seek a guide to get them to the Dwarf outpost in Obroam’s vision.
• 43 Wi – PCs defeat Chaos creatures and recover Venomfang!
• 40 Wi – PCs talk to the Druid Oli ; he lives 1 hr north of sacred space; Druids must learn their spells and skills by returning. PCs travel and find mound of Venomfang.
• 39 Wi – PCs enter druid sacred space to help Mort become an official Initiate. Mort becomes an Initiate of the 2nd Circle.
• 35 Wi – PCs return to Gireford. They buy supplies, horses.
• Mort befriends a bear family
• 27 Wi – While selling treasure, PCs are robbed by a “Stella” of the crown and valuable gems
• PCs hire Gustav (cleric) from Church of Light, and 2 archer hirelings
• 25 Wi – PCs deliver Houdin to the Marshall; attend funeral
• PCs help village of Varnier’s Field w/bombardier beetle infestation; discover a treasure cache and a strange crown
• PCs travel to Tannia w/Sheriff Stark and Houdin’s body
• PCs discover that a bandit group (The Real Woodstalkers) was wiped out by fire/attack, near the ruined Six Towers
• Adrin leaves Gireford under suspicion of being aligned with Chaos.
• Obroam receives a letter from Jorann, Priestess of Tangadorn (another PC from the Eastern Borders campaign)
• Marshall Selfridge’s forces arrive to garrison Griffon’s Keep
• PCs liberate Griffon’s Keep, drive off Feltor the Black Cleric, who flees back to the Mistress

• Houdin, son of Marshall Selfridge, dies in Battle of Griffon’s Keep
• PCs infiltrate Griffon’s Keep via travel circle
• PCs travel to Tannia, meet with Marshall Selfridge, Kreevras the Wizard.
• PCs meet Old Pete and learn about Keep travel circles.
• PCs begin assault on Griffon’s Keep against Black Brotherhood/Orc warband

On the 30th day of Summer, the party departed along with a large host (three wagons, 30 mercs, several VIPs, etc.) led by Burt the Babe, heading back to the Kobold camp with an intent to recover the balance of the treasure.

Enroute, when we woke on the morning of the 33rd day of Summer, we found two of the overnight guard were missing – only a dropped sword was found. A search of the immediate area showed some drag marks.

Linden has Birch use the wolf’s tracking skill to help a small group of us search. We move into the woods and ultimately find parts of guards, viciously rended with guts spreadaround and heads placed neatly near a tree. We see deep, bloody, four-fingered claw marks in the ground!

Then we notice that there are no weapons and no armor with the remains…

We pray and bury what remains fo r dead and return to the main group.

Tyler is very distrubred by all of this. We decide to interview everyone (30+ people so it takes half-a-day) and we learn that some reported hearing beautiful singing in the night – a female voice.

We contenplate taking a multi-layered guard approach (guards watching guards, watching guards) but ultimately decide on a pair-of-guards, one with cloth or wax stuffed in their ears, to optimize for not getting caught by some “siren song” but also not having no way to hear someone sneaking up. We aren’t sure it will work, or even help, but it’s what we try,

Since its late we stay, and overnight we are ALL awakened by howling all around! Everyone gets ready.

Phaedra casts a light spell and we see movement at the edge of the light and the howling continues.

Bert gets tired of us “huddling scared”, dons his armor and pulls out a vial of shimmering liquid. Tyler joins him in armor as well ad sais let’s go get them! We agree to follow as well, anxious to end the terror one way or the other

Lancel casts Bless upon us, and we head toward the noise.

Burt calls out to the noises loudly, “COME OUT AND SHOW YOURSELVES!” but then we hear a woman’s laugh! Then a beautiful song starts…

Lancel begins casting silence, guessing where the singing is coming from to target the spell.

Unfortunately, we all start to feel very lethargic, fuzzy minded and slow in all of our actions,

From the darkness wild wolves charge at us!, followed by a woman – well, a bipedal figure part human part wolf!

Bert drinks his potion and beging to transform! Bram steps forward to attack. His sword is a massive hit, but appears to do NO DAMAGE! THe creature smirks.

Phadrea starts casting Sleep and Lancel starts casting Hold Person. Bert tosses his sword at Bram and says “try this one!”

Linden and his wolves engaged in vicious melee with the wild wolves that are attacking us, and we take several hits to both the party and to Linden’s wolves…

Phaedra’s sleep spell goes off and drops 4 of the 5 attacking wolves. Lancel’s Hold Person is spoiled by a wolf bite.

Bram strikes the wolf-woman in the gut with Bert’s sword and draws blood! The creature shrieks in pain and surprise!

Bert has become GIANT now and all of his clothes and armor have torn/falled away. NUDE RAMPAGING NON-GREEN HULK!

The wolf woman, seeing the Giant, the defeated wolves, our approaching party, and her freshly sword-opened abdomen decided to withdraw and runs away!

We try to follow, but are still slow from the enchantment, and she gets away…

Bert is obviously enjoing his huge form and walks back to camp happily showing off – we try to avert our eyes becuase EVERYTHING is proportionally larger…Tyler is more embarrassed than most.

Finally, Bert reverts to normal and the next day we depart for the Kobold village again.

Once we arrive, the treasure is found as we had left it and it takes several days to load it all up in the wagons and get out of the woods.

Lancel mentions “customary tithing” as a half-joke/half-serious comment, but Bert poitns out that we must await the merchant’s inquiry before deciding what to do.

On the 4th day travelling back (41st day of Summer) across the plains, the ground begins to rumble!!!

Multiple many-legged creatures emerge from the earth!!!!!

<END OF SESSION>

Today, we march back into the woods with what I sense is a renewed sense of confidence. I remember, only a few days ago, the feeling of gloom that seemed to hang over our party… We’d managed to survive some encounters with the kobolds whose lair we were trying to find, but they were clearly trying to draw us further into our territory without giving us time to rest, and it seemed like our will was failing, our resources running out, and that it was only a matter of time before we fell.

We’d made the decision to retreat from the area to try and find safety, and when it seemed we were clear, I decided to call upon that which I trusted most… the powers of the Night.

That night, during my midnight meditation, instead of my normal practice of sending the memories of my experiences into the collective memory pool of the Brotherhood of the Night, I dipped my spirit directly into that pool to seek the answers we needed. I was surrounded by whispers, both exhilarated and terrified. I sought experiences opposing kobolds, and found images of hounds hunting them by scent, kobolds living below ground or in the trees, and traps… oh, so many traps.

Discussing with the party in the morning, we decided that in order to take on kobolds in numbers so large, we would call upon the help of one of the local mercenary companies to bolster our forces, and set out to their keep.

Today, we set out for the kobold-overrun area with a company of 20 archers and their commander, hounds that should allow us to track them by scent, and bolstered spirits.

Still, I hope it is enough…

70^th day of Winter, 59 AD

It has been many days since I last set thoughts to parchment – in truth, I remember not when last I had the time or inclination to do so.  Since my sudden and forced departure from my beloved home of Femo, the days and weeks have blurred together into a long and torturous journey westward, away from the legions of Sithasteni Orcs that have taken away all who I knew, and all that I loved.

And so, on this coldest of Winter nights, I find myself huddled around a low, hooded fire in the depths of a wood near the forgettable attempt at a hamlet that is called Crickton, scribbling notes so as to remember the events of today (I know not why, but feel compelled to record, nonetheless).  Perhaps I may eventually find this useful, perhaps not.

It was in Crickton early this morning (verily, it now seems ages ago) that I came upon a group clearly not of this forsaken place, and felt compelled to join them – out of boredom, or loneliness, or guided by the hand of some unknown godling, I know not, but among their company I now find myself (frozen fingers and all).

The group were in the midst of interrogating the strangest of men (Wizzillim? Villizum?… it matters not) about the nature of a subterranean dwarven complex to be found nearby.  The man was clearly a scholar, and of the very worst kind – I feel he was droning on more to himself than to us, and his uncanny ability to bore us to the edge of unconsciousness rivalled the strongest sleep magicks I have yet encountered.

As with all valuable ores, however, dig deeply enough and you will find a nugget.  The old intellectual confirmed some details of the complex that the party had encountered, and offered tantalizing hints of other, and greater, sections of the ruin that could be explored.  Indeed, the point was made that riches may lie within those dank catacombs!  It was the prospect of securing a few more gold pieces that yanked me from my near-slumber; these many weeks of scarcity, living on game and creek-water, have greatly improved my appreciation for the weighty jingle of a few coins in the belt pouch.

Returning to the hill near the great lake where the entrance to the complex lay, we encountered an organized guard of Orcs – ORCS, DAMNATION BE UPON THEM – securing the portal on top of the hill.  I struggle to record these next words, because my mind reels at the reality of what I witnessed – but we also spied another group with a mixture of Orcs (damnation be upon them) and humans.  Humans.  TOGETHER!  What strange and hellish circumstance brought together Orcs (damnation be upon them) and humans to work in concert will forever lie beyond my ability to understand.  After witnessing with my own eyes the depredations and cruelties that the Orcs of the Sithasten mountains visited on the people of Dawn, the people of Femo, my city, indeed the people of my own family – I tremble with rage at the thought of humans in league with the Orcish devils (damnation be upon them).  I pledge, with these words, that I will exult in watching the spark leave the eyes of these humans as they bleed out upon my sword.  I swear it.

After a failed attempt to split the guard detail in two and draw them into a trap we had set in the woods, we have pulled back to this frigid campsite to regroup and consider our next move.  That we will stay here and find a way to re-enter the complex, I have no doubt.  The bravery of the warriors I have joined is beyond question, after seeing for myself the peril to which they subjected themselves in attempting to draw the Orcs (damnation be upon them) into our trap.  Not since the Thrice-Blessed Stand of Heroes at the doors of Femo Basilica have I seen such valour in the face of evil.  I will do my utmost to reflect this courageousness myself.

And so, as this 70^th day of Winter slowly becomes the 71^st, I will close this journal and move a little closer to the fire – the ink is beginning to freeze and I can no longer feel my feet.  As always, may the memory of my Orc-slain father warm my soul, harden my heart, and steady my hand.

The 57^th Day of Winter, 59 AD

My hand shakes as I write this….the Chaos is so strong here….but let me go back. It has been some time since I have written in my journal. Much has happened…..Houdens Funeral, the chief priest of Gyreford being false and in service to Malacai, the claiming of the Venomfang…..but those were then and this is now. Lets stay with the now.

We arrived at the ancient dwarven complex to find the workers murdered by goblins and orcs, whom we have dealt with for the moment at least. We discorvered a small blue glowing orb that was connected to the wizard Willisim, who was scared of those who hunt him. Sadly he had to cut communication before much information was shared. So, leaving our able and wounded followers at the camp, our group entered the complex.

The corridors are clean…possible magically so, though the Blue eye of Tangadorin shows no such magic actively at work. If not, perhaps the work team was rather busy cleaning before the foul ones arrived. The walls bare dwarven script that reads “Pain brings Service”, not sure what that is supposed to mean yet. The first fork lead to a body of a cultist to the right and metal sounds to the left. The corpse was missing half its torso and head….seemingly melted. Our group suspects a trap of some kind, though none is readily visible. So who choose to pursue the metal sounds. The path left has offshoots before the din and not wanting to leave things behind us, our party takes the side paths first.

This turned into a series of bracing, dog legging, and zig-zaging corridors…..I do not care for them…The first set brought us to rusted pips that seemed to whistle and a chest with tiny motes of green light. Like dust in a beam of sunlight…..and still the Blue Eye sees no magic, the Purple eye also had YET to detect any chaos…..a very strange place indeed. Either way, we leave these alone for the moment as they could be trapped and Brother Calandro doesn’t feel confident in dealing with them at the moment.

The next intersection held undead horrors. Littleling apparitions of some kind floated in an alcove that seemed ether a prison or torture area, their unclean touch was a cold as ice and sharp like a knife. Yet Calandro, Rem and I put them back to rest. With Rems final sword stroke with the Venomfang letting out almost a musical note as it dispatched the last of their number. Truly that sword is a tool of use against the Darkones and their ilk. It is good that our party has access to such an blessed item. What followed the fight was letting the skeletons the apparitions were around down and giving them finals rest. The others suggest these could go back to when the dwarves were around and that they could have been the ones to imprison and kill these poor souls. If true, may their Souls find Rest in the All Seeing Light of Tangadorin now.

After this was done, I inspected some sacks that exploded with dust, cause me to cough and sneeze uncontrollably. This could have been humorous if it didn’t possibly alter foes of our presence. But this act did reveal several bottles of powders, liquids and other things our new Mage Phaedra, thinks could be useful. For now they are with her. We moved on to several twisting and turning corridors, leading us to what brings my hands to shake and my stomach to churn. An area OOZING with Chaos, the Purple practically aches in my palm from the strength of it. The Very walls seem to move and writhe with the unclean presence. Down a side chamber stands and alter with a vile and loathsome idol upon it. The very presence of the object fills me with disgust. Its aura is a putrescence that cannot be tolerated. I could not bring myself to approach it….though it shames me to admit it. And even stout Rem could not douse it with holy water as I asked. Nay, the few drops that he managed to shake out evaporated before even making contact. Though Phaedra seems less bothered by its foulness and was able to examine it a bit closer, even making a sketch of the thing…..perhaps though not blessed with protections from a god like I am….perhaps my companions are better able to deal with such things more easily than I due to their lack of a connection to the divine?….I will pray on that later. I stand here, making these notes as my companions discuss our next path of ingress. By the All seeing Light of Tangadorin….i think that is an Idol of an actual Dark One….or as close to a facsimile as can be produced by mortal hands. It must be destroyed…..but how. I am shamed to say that….i dont know if I am capable of this at the moment. When I find the time I will pray on the matter and seek guidance in HIS Brilliance. For now We will continue on. There is a Wizard to save and Feltor MUST be stopped.

Brothers,

I’m sectioning off this part of my journal to record the relevant facts of my party’s expedition into this underground dwarven complex. I can scarcely believe those words even as I write them, such a rare opportunity to recover lost knowledge and history! And my hopes are that this valuable information can one day be added safely to our libraries for protection.

It’s clear from our exploration so far that the dwarves – or perhaps their masters? – designed this complex to confuse or frustrate outsiders, as we have found many dead ends and gotten turned around in our mapping of its maze-like tunnels. The construction is of very well-done stonework in a brick pattern, and seems to be perfectly clean and free of dust, the reason for which we have only been able to speculate on.

Some of the features we’ve discovered so far are as follows:

A short message on the wall near the entrance, written in dwarven script and translated by Obroam: “Pain Brings Service”

A dark-robed body… or rather, half a body, as half of it had seemingly just melted away. We guessed that this was one of the cultusts devoted to Chaos or the Dark Ones

A soft, rhythmic metallic noise

A set of 6 pipes going from floor to ceiling at the end of one tunnel, with a whistling noise that could be heard within – we could only guess at their function, perhaps some gas or smoke escape from somewhere down below?

A strange metal chest with no lock, surrounded by strange colored lights that moved when we approached them. I detected no traps on the chest, but when I tried to gently pry it open I felt a strange resistance, and we decided to leave it for now…

A section of wall with patterns on it that seemed to shift and change as we watched

An idol that gave off such a strong, malevolent aura of Chaos that even from across the corridor I felt the urge to shoot it with a crossbow bolt

Our only resistance so far was encountered in a room that I assume to be a torture chamber, with skeletons chained to the walls. Here we were attacked by what must have been undead creatures, two in animated bodies, and two translucent floating figures. Fortunately, all were susceptible to physical damage enough that we were able to rip them apart in our counterattack, but Obroam reported feeling quite a chill when one of the floating ones had managed to touch him during the battle, and I fear the damage to him might’ve been much more severe if he hadn’t been so resilient.

We’ve been able to collect several items that may be of use or historical value, including a cache of bottles that Phaedra believes contains material used in practicing the arcane arts, and several shaped, flat metal objects with patterns inscribed on them that perhaps a sage could tell us more about.

I must note, as Defender of Tangadorin, Obroam has been empowered with the ability to detect both magical and Chaotic auras, as I’ve written before. Some of our discoveries so far seemed to defy any natural explanation, but neither was Obroam able to detect anything supernatural. Is there some other force at work here, if not magic nor Chaos?

I’m thinking about asking one of the other party members to take this journal back to the monastery for me should I meet my end down here, but I haven’t decided which of them I can trust to do the task. I’m leaning towards Rem, as the companion that of all of us seems to be least beholden to other agendas. Obroam is loyal and has a good heart, but his service to Tangadorin must always come first. Mort, as is appropriate seems to be as the shifting winds; deciding what to do next on the whim of the moment. My other companions Lindin and Phaedra I don’t feel I’ve gotten to know well enough in our travels to ask, though I’m hoping that will change with time.

We’re resting as I’m writing this; hopefully I’ll be able to add more soon but I’m going to suggest that we go back to that chest next in order to try something – I think I may have puzzled out the meaning of “Pain Brings Service”, and I’d like to see if Obroam would be willing to try out a little experiment…