THE HISTORY OF THE COUATL

ADVENTURE NINE

“The Flesh Golems”

Characters:

Dovinyae : Druid from the Unknown Lands with wild psionic talents.

Ragnar : Runcaster from Indor.

Amren : Ophyrish ranger on a quest for the Ring of the Silver Tree.

Alrek : Indorian who lent a hand during the adventure.

Toki: Indorian who wants to return to the sea.

The Time : 8th Age, 6th Year, 9th through the 11th of Agik (winter).

The Place: Drychtnoth (Ke(xh)yn)

Notes on Ke(xh)yn: This large city, which means “Love of Bloodletting”, is ruled by Baron Morgh, a rare half-orc who once served under the command of Lord Komaaks when he was an officer in the Drychtnothian army. The baron is a cruel leader, but is much respected for his ability to keep the town under control and profitable. The baron answers directly to King Thaxtyl, whose castle sits in the center of the city. Ke(xh)yn is a large shipbuilding facility and their main god is Timballayamu (although they do not neglect Olanigan). One of the three archdruids of Drychtnoth, Oktadsen, lives here. He has quite a following and is the head of Timballayamu’s temple. He also is one of the King’s advisors, although he is not allowed to cast spells except on the order of the king. He has successfully defended his position as archdruid three times. King Thaxtyl, a sneaky thinker, yet a noble warrior, is well liked by his people. The King was a powerful knight in the Order of the Chimera. His warlord, Thokyxyht, is a third level invoker, and is very feared by the townsfolk. He has an incredibly logical mind and has one of the best spy/assassin networks in this area of Drychtnoth, despite his newness to the region (he only took the position as Thaxtyl’s warlord eight months ago).

In Ke(xh)yn, the couatl stopped at a local tavern, the Red Girl. Alrek played with his girls and the others had ale. Xavier the paladin was visiting a temple of Thomtain Hob and missed out on this adventure. Outside they heard the commotion caused by dog fights. They offered 50 gold pieces for anyone who could jump into the pit and fight the dogs and win. Dovinyae asked that if he won he would get a dog instead of the gold. The dog owners thought him mad (they would have sold him a dog for 9 silver pieces), but agreed providing he killed one of the dogs without dying. Dovinyae decided to use his powers to cheat the dog owners for some reason and jumped into the pit and cast Charm Animal to befriend the dog. The dog wouldn’t play dead and insisted that Dovinyae pretend he was dead (even dogs have pride). Dovinyae pretended to die when the dog attacked. The dog was proclaimed the winner and was put into his kennel. Dovinyae was thrown in for the dog to eat (his “prize” for winning). The couatl freed the dog and they decided to leave town.

Hearing a commotion, they found a crowd gathered around a pair of destroyed temples. The temple of Timballayamu and the temple of the Silver Tree had been looted and destroyed. Soldiers arrived and the Captain of the guard offered 600 gold pieces and the status of counts to anyone who could find the perpetrator. The villain was described as being over seven feet tall with evil, Elvish eyes.

Dovinyae put his dog on the scent and they tracked him to the city wall, which the villain apparently scaled. They went to the town gates and left the town and regained the trail. The king sent a legion of three hundred cavalry to find the villain.

All day they tracked. They saw that the villain joined with a female. They slept for the evening. The next day they encountered the army that left the city. All three hundred were dead, even their horses. Their hearts had been ripped out, their backs broken, heads shattered, all sorts of carnage lay strewn about the battlefield. Ragnar used his runes to speak to the dead and the dead spoke of demons that came from the trees and destroyed them, immune to their weapons. Looking to the trees, Dovinyae found their trail. The trail led to a cliff and a river. Down the sheer cliff was a man-made cave. Within the cave was a drawing of Grindill and a man changing into a dragon. Throwing a rock through the tunnel, they found a disintegration field. Touching Grindill’s image dispelled the field and on they went. They found many more paintings. Paintings of the Tower, of Atman Tor, of Kherit, more drawings of Grindill and the man changing into a dragon (always in front of a disintegration field). At one point, the villain used illusion to hide the fact that the disintegration field did not go down and Alrek lost his hand.

Figuring out that the disintegration field was up, they pressed the dragon picture and passed to the door. Then Toki was attacked from behind (the villain was using a Ring of Invisibility). He almost crushed Toki’s torso and he told them all to surrender or he would kill Toki. They surrendered and he let them go into the room.

Inside the room sat a tall Elven girl. The room was well furnished and filled with books and scrolls. The Elven girl, though pretty, was unsettling to behold. She was introduced as Lenore (the man pronounced it Len OR a). The tall man (7’6”) was introduced as Astin, Lenore’s brother. Astin wanted to kill the intruders, but Lenore did not. She made it clear that she did not have anything to do with the destruction of the temples, but she did help defend Astin against the army. Dovinyae tried to reason with the pair. Lenore said they were trying to build a temple to Grindill so that he would give them the power of Dragon-Kings. Lenore wanted the power so that she could seek out Kherit and avenge Atman-Tor (she did not feel she could pass the Sea of Storms without this power). Astin wanted the power so that he could rule Drychtnoth as its emperor. He was tearing apart temples because he believed that inanimate objects stored psychic energy, and in a temple, with hundreds of people putting forth their energies toward these holy objects, they must be filled with psychic energy. Amren wanted to attack, but Dovinyae talked him out of it. Dovinyae tried to psionically attack Astin, but failed. And failed. And failed. Trying to prove that he is also powerful like Grindill, Dovinyae cast a spell and enlarged an ant. This enraged Astin, who began to pummel the druid. The rest of the party went into action and killed Astin while Lenore yelled for everyone to stop. (DM’s note - Lenore is a lot tougher than her brother and could have easily destroyed the party had she chosen to attack at this point). Dovinyae escaped death by melding into the wall. Lenore banished everyone from the room (so as to give Astin time to hyper-regenerate, a power that allows him, once he is below zero hitpoints to regenerate 4d10 hitpoints per round). Everyone left. Dovinyae decided to get in good with Lenore and knocked on the door, offering to heal her brother if she would bargain with him. Knowing that Astin would be fine, she decided to let him in anyway. She agreed to try to keep him from messing around with temples in exchange for the healing. She apologized for Astin’s behavior and explained the violent behavior as a psychosis (which was true so far as it goes). Dovinyae healed Astin. Astin woke up and promised not to attack temples. He pulled out the stolen objects and an extra chest of gold to repay the town for its loss. The group left.

They camped for the night. In the morning they met Lenore. She told them Astin had gone on ahead to assassinate the king for sending the party to kill him. They rushed ahead. Dovinyae and Ragnar shapechanged into animals for speed. Ragnar, as a horse, took the unmounted party members. The druid became a bird and flew way ahead. He got into the palace and found the king in his throne room. The others made it to the gate into the town of Ke(xh)yn. They got in and made their way to the palace.

Dovinyae looked around the throne room and discovered that Astin was hanging from a tapestry rod and had used an illusion to disguise himself as a tapestry. He watched the warlord Thokyxyht walk up to the king. Ragnar turned to an owl and flew into the throne room. Dovinyae pointed out the illusion. The throne room was filled with courtiers. Dovinyae figured that casting spells in front of the warlord could be bad, but since it is in defense of a king, perhaps the authorities would look the other way.

The others got into the palace by announcing they had caught the destroyer of the temples (Lenore was with them and actually came up with this ruse). As they ran into the throne room, Dovinyae attacked with his psionics and stunned the creature. His illusion dropped and everyone panicked. The warlord was quick on his toes and cast a Web on the stunned monster. The others ran in and, in a single round, pounded him into instant death, with four critical hits. Dovinyae ordered the body to be cut into bits, but before the party could act on this the King demanded their attention.

They introduced themselves as the Couatl. The king gave them 600 gp and ordered his scribe to come forward and make each of them Drychtnothian counts. This took over an hour. During this time the warlord ordered the guards to take Astin’s body to the dungeon for later dissection. The king gave them a castle two days away and a mansion in Ke(xh)yn. The king summoned Oktadsen the Archdruid and gave him leave to cast his spells on this day. Oktadsen regenerated Alrek’s disintegrated hand.

Amren went and talked to the priest of Timaballayamu and, temporarily, of the Silver Tree, Oktadsen the Archdruid. They gave the druid Astin’s money and he promised a tapestry of the couatl in the new temple. He told Amren a little about Tho’ef, but did not have a lot of information. The party now has to decide whether or not to go north to Dream Lake, or return south to kill the red dragon in the Kargon Mountains.

Dovinyae asked Lenore to join them, but she did not answer him. Dovinyae spoke to the warlord and told him to destroy the corpse. They went down to the dungeon and chopped the dead body to bits. Then they tried to put it into acid, but that did nothing (the warlord did not have any acid in that quantity, but did not want to admit that to the druid, so the body was actually dipped into colored water). The warlord promised to drain the life out the body using defiling magic.

Each Player was awarded 70,000exp. for succeeding in the adventure.

Current Events : Alisander is still under siege.

In Drychtnoth, Isaxor the Vile and the other 10 remaining members of the Council of Warlords returned and began to re-establish order. They began to set about plans to find a new emperor of Drychtnoth.

Notes on Astin: Astin was created in 1240 V by Zaius Rathe, an Ingaran alchemist. Astin is 324 years old at the time of this adventure. He was created using the body parts of the dead. In addition to human parts, he has several “odd” parts that differentiate him from the average flesh golem. He has the heart of a paladin, Elf eyes, an ogre torso, a mage’s brain, and the blood of a cheetah. He is 7’6” tall and was excellently crafted. Astin was Zaius’ first monster. He is intelligent, but is driven uncontrollably by his passions. A rival mage’s brain was put into the body. The brain went insane, but is still cunningly intelligent. Astin has periodic headaches and gets enraged at the sight of spellcasting (the only spell his mage brain can remember is Phantasmal Force). He can climb sheer surfaces and hyper-regenerates (in addition to his normal regeneration rate of 1 pt per turn). Three times a day he can launch a Venom Bolt from his mouth (Zaius was addicted to chewing tobacco and this manifested itself in his creation in this manner). His stats are: 23 STR; 17 INT; 3 WIS; 19 DEX; 21 CON; 13 CHA; Hitdice 12; hit points 96; Thac0 7; 6 AC; Chaotic Evil. He has two physical attacks per round and does 3d8 points of damage per attack. He is immune to normal weapons. He does not age.

In 1240 V he killed the King of Ingara, whom his creator served, then fled from Zaius’ castle, all shortly after his creation (about three months). Astin terrorized Ingara for the next 5 years, whereupon he fled into the Unknown Lands that would later become Lamapacher. He kept an eye on Zaius, plotting his downfall, until 1247 V, when he caused Zaius to be cast out from Ingaran society. He lost touch with his creator after this.

In 1372 V he wandered into Drychtnoth. Captured, he was put into the arenas. In 1420 V he was teamed with his sister, Lenore. Together they escaped. For 5 years they escaped hunting parties and terrorized Drychtnoth. He separated from his sister in 1425 V. Angered at his treatment from humans he fled into the Unknown Lands. He killed a wizard in 1450 V in the wizard’s tower. He tried to learn spells again. He learned Phantasmal Force, but could not learn any others. He found an learned to use a Wand of Illusions, a Ring of Invisibility, a Ring of Spell Storing, and Bucknard’s Everfull Purse. He left the tower forty years later angered and frustrated with his inability to learn more magic. He took with him several Protection scrolls.

Astin fell into a mudslide in 1495 V. He was covered with the mud, which dried. He went into hibernation until the Destruction at the end of the Seventh Age. He returned to Ingara, which now was in ruins, in the first year of the Eighth Age and built a residence there. In 5 VIII he was approached by Grindill, who offered to restore his brain to full potency and make him a Dragon-King. All he had to do was build a temple in honor of Grindill to prove his loyalty. Astin, believing that psychic energy could be stored in inanimate objects, began to raid, and often destroy, temples as he made his way to Drychtnoth. Grindill also instructed him to sacrifice to him as many warlords as he could, and Astin had no problem with that. Astin was reunited with his sister, Lenore, and together they commenced to build their temple.

After his death at the hands of Toki and the others, he began to hyper-regenerate. Ragnar’s Limb Rune speeded the already accelerated process. He died again at their hands in the court of the king. The warlord Thokyxhyt promised to drain the life forces out of his dismembered body.

Notes on Lenore: (She likes to pronounce her name Len-or-a). She was created in 1242 V by Zaius Rathe in Ingara. She is considered to be Astin’s sister, although she is superior to him in most respects. Made female, she was created using Elvish parts. She has Elvish eyes, the arms and legs of several elves, the hands and fingers of elves, and an Elvish composite torso. She is 6’5” tall (which is incredibly tall for an Elf), and, like Astin, was created with excellent craftsmanship. She is Zaius’ second monster. After the failure of Astin, Zaius tried again, but this time using Elvish parts. He felt that Elves would make a more perfect creation. Zaius made this life-form female, hoping for a more tranquil creature. He spent two years after Astin left modifying his research. Physically beautiful is Lenore, but something sinister and unnatural seems to mar that beauty (hence CHA 14). She hates her unlife and seeks a mate who will love her and not fear her. She also hates humans, who have misused her and hunted her. She dispises herself as a “kin-slayer” for, in her Drychtnothian days, she slew three Elves. Recently reaccepted into Elvish society she has begun to forgive herself. Lenore is desperate for knowledge, especially philosophy. She wonders if she has a soul or a spirit, or if she is nothing. She hates her “father”.

Created from dead Elvish ladies, she is hard to distinguish from a True Elf when she is fully clothed (except for her height). She has a scar along the front of her chest (above the breasts) that goes over the shoulders and around the back. She has scars midway around each forearm. She has scars at the junctures of the arms and thighs to the torso, around each knee, and around the left ankle. Although faint, these scars are a source of embarrassment to Lenore and she always dresses so that they are unseen.

Lenore can read Indorian, Angustian, Ingaran, Drychtnothian, Nyandarian, and Midani. She has recently been learning to read Elvish. She can speak all of the above languages as well as Orcish.

At will, she can drain (1/day) 1d6 hitpoints by touch. Half of these are lost permanently. This is surmised to come from her internal conflict to have a spirit or soul. She seems to draw something out of those she is attacking. She can also Affect Normal Fires. This is an outward manifestation of her fear of fire. She is immune to normal weapons and can regenerate 1 hitpoint per 5 turns. She can also, like her brother, hyper-regenerate when her hitpoints are reduced to zero or below. She also suffers a -2 penalty on saves vs illusion (due to drawing the Seven of Cups out of the Tarot of Many Things). Originally she was of Lawful Evil alignment, but recent events have changed her alignment to Chaotic Good. Lenore has two attacks per round, doing 2d8+1 points of damage per attack with her fists. She is also proficient with the longsword. Magic weapons only do their “plus” for damage. Thus, a +2 weapon only does 2 points of damage to her. Her stats are 20 STR; 19 INT; 3 WIS; 21 DEX; 21 CON; 14 CHA; Hit Dice 10; 80 hit points; 5 AC; 10 Thac0.

“Born” in 1242 V, Lenore managed to remain in the “dependant stage” for three years before her feelings of isolation and confusion began to surface. Trace memories also recurred which continued her confusions. She began to test her strengths, and her rages became uncontrollable. Seeing the patterns set by Astin finally coming to pass, Zaius sold her into Drychtnothian slavery. In 1245 V she killed the noble who bought her and tried to seduce her. His astonishment at the scars doomed him. She vowed to never let anyone see her unclothed again. She had no explanation for the scars she had always seemed to have. She tried to remember the childhood accident that must have occurred, but she was unable to remember a childhood. She was sold to the arena masters.

Lenore fought in the arenas until 1420 (nearly 200 years of combat). At that time she met her “brother”, Astin. He revealed to Lenore her origins, her existence as a creation of the dead, her life as Un-Dead. This explained much to Lenore, but devastated her nonetheless. She escaped with Astin and terrorized Drychtnoth for five years. In 1245 Astin abandoned her for the Unknown Lands. Angry at the betrayal, she continued to kill Drychtnothians.

Sometime in 1247 she was in Nyandar and witnessed the persecution of Winged Folk. She attacked and killed many Nyandarians, but when the Winged Folk discovered her true nature, they reviled her. Hurt, she fled to seek answers amongst Zaius’ inspiration, Angustian magic. For 60 years she sought ever-elusive Angustian ruins. She found Atla in 1488. She found the Mind-Stone and an intact library. In the fourteen days she spent there she found and translated ancient evil philosophies and learned how to use the Mind-Stone to give her powers of Human Influence.

She traveled to the Elf-Lands, but was refused entry. The Elves hated her. She was Dead. She was Kin-Slayer. Angered and hurt, she fled again. She spent many years studying philosophy and necrology. She soon owned 12 books of philosophy. One of them was a tome she never let anyone near. It was an Angustian translation that detailed Golem Construction.

By the Eighth Age, she used the mind gem to start an army to begin her own nation. The mind gem was eventually stolen from her by a paladin and his party of adventurers. She spent six months in recovering the Mind-Stone and eventually she recovered it.

On the 14th of Hera, 4 VIII she met Anzoshi the Elf and his companion Barnaby. He reintroduced her to Elvish society and redeemed her of her past evils. Her alignment shifted to Chaotic Good. Lenore helped Anzoshi and Barnaby rescue halfling slaves from Drychtnothians. On the 15th of Eul, 4 VIII, she and Anzoshi met Kerchak the Barbarian and they killed Trevor, another of Lenore’s siblings. Lenore began to live at Atman Tor. She began to feel accepted.

On the first day of Ankou, 4 VIII, Larbius the Gelugon ensnared the Lamapachan city of Karn and sent the plague to Atman Tor. Anzoshi returned to Karn and realized that the Prince of Karn was allied to a Baatezu and rushed to warn Atman Tor of the danger. He arrived too late. The plague killed many of the workers building the new tower. Anzoshi spoke directly to Demi, who contacted Thigru and Neria. Neria contacted Elah. Anzoshi went to attack Karn and stop Larbius himself. He failed, but soon, Demi, Thigru, Neria, Elah, Jiblet, Tho'ef, and Lenore attacked Karn and put a stop to Larbius. Anzoshi claimed leadership of the now nearly abandoned city of Karn. A few days after rescuing Karn, Anzoshi, Lenore, Jiblet, and Barnaby traveled to the location of an old treasure trove of Lord Komaaks'. Kayonna and Kerchak followed. All were taken captive by a Dragon living in the cave system where Komaaks dumped his treasure. Anzoshi and Lenore killed the Sapphire Dragon with a stalactite several weeks later. She found a magic stone which enhances latent psionic talent. Still in anguish over her Un-Dead state, Lenore found little solace at Atman Tor until Demi killed Omarik, one of the Council of Drychtnothian Warlords. Using a spell gained from Omarik, Demi "fixed" Lenore - removing from her golem body all taint of Angustian evil.

Lenore and Anzoshi killed a black dragon. Anzoshi soon became trusted by Lenore and she finally surrendered her evil Angustian book to him. Things went well for Lenore until Kherit arrived in 5 VIII and destroyed Atman Tor. Anzoshi died in the defense of Atman Tor. Lenore herself was rotted away by the mummy minions of Kherit.

It took several months, but she finally hyper-regenerated to full power. Hungry for revenge against Kherit, she accepted Grindill’s offer to make her a Dragon-Queen. She was reunited with Astin and they began to build the power source necessary for Grindill to begin the change on them. Upon realizing that her brother was still Evil, she opted to put an end to him and she helped the couatl by telling them that Astin would attack the king.

Notes on the Couatl’s castle: A small keep in the southwestern portion of Thaxtyl’s lands. It controls two small villages and a small silver mine. It was abandoned two years ago when the ghost frightened the former tenants.

Notes on Oktadsen the Archdruid: An archdruid, he is one of the three operating in the Drychtnoth area. He has quite a following and is the head of Timballayamu’s temple. He also is one of the King’s advisors, although he is not allowed to cast spells except on the order of the king. He has successfully defended his position as archdruid three times. He also now heads, temporarily, the temple to the Silver Tree when that temple’s priest died at Astin’s hand. He is close to all the nature gods, so it is no problem for him to handle both responsibilities.