THE HISTORY OF THE COUATL

GUARDIANS OF THE SILVER TREE

ADVENTURE TWENTY

“Preparations and Frustrations”

Characters:

Amren : Ophyrish ranger. Prophet of the Silver Tree.

Captain Toki: Indorian Warrior psionicist.

Dovinyae: Wargamer who decided to frustrate the DM into

giving the party what he wanted them to have instead of role-

playing for it.

Ragnar Silverbeard: The Hammerfoe who dislikes Loki.

Sir Xavier: Drychtnothian High Master

Alrek: Indorian warrior who impressed Tyr with his bravery. A

member of the Twilight Gathering.

The Time : 8th Age, 6th Year, 4th of Hera through 3rd of Artim (spring).

The Place: Mountain of the Godmen, Dreamland, Castle Couatl (Drychtnoth), Sea of Storms

Notes on The Mountain of the Godmen: The Godmen are a people who devote their lives to psionics and martial arts. They are patient and wise. The godmen told the Guardians about Xamn Doge and their interest in her capture so that she may stand trial for murder, and then stand trial for defiling a sanctuary.

Toki learned psionics from Godmen.

Elah arrived to teach Amren some spells. Amren requested some spells he had thought of, but Elah did not have some of the more violent ones. In a month’s time, Elah taught Amren several spells. Amren must now choose his method of casting.

Ragnar, and Alrek took a trip to Asgard to find some soldiers. They used one of Elah’s rainbows to join with the Bifrost Bridge. In Asgard they discovered 7,000 warriors on a battlefield. The battle joined and the two Indorians leapt into the fray. Alrek was wounded early in the battle, his spine shattered. Ragnar continued the fight until there were only seven left. Tired and spent, the seven joined in battle and soon there were only three. Unsure of how to proceed, for the odd number made the fighting imbalanced at best, they decided to attack the mortal. Alrek, wounded and unable to move, shouted in defiance that he would fight one of the warriors. Impressed with his bravery, Tyr, the god of Law and War, healed Alrek of his injuries and Alrek met his foe with his weapons in hand, easily defeating the tired warrior. Ragnar defeated his final opponent and the pair found they were standing alone on a field of thousands of dead. Slowly the dead came back to life, shaking hands with their former opponents and heading off to drink ale. Alrek and Ragnar followed. In a tavern filled with thirty three thousand singing, yet grim, warriors Alrek stood on a table and said he needed eleven hundred men. The warriors began a huge fight. Whenever a warrior had killed two men, he leapt up onto the table with Alrek. Soon the table was filled with 1,100 men and the floor was littered with 2,200 dead.

The 1,100 einheriar were loaded onto the dreamship, but it was unable to leave Asgard. The einheriar belonged here. Ragnar and Alrek went to Valhalla and addressed the Norse deities, requesting the use of the soldiers. They argued that the soldiers were needed to liberate Indor, a kingdom devoted to the Norse pantheon. Thor did not want to give them the soldiers, but Tyr and Loki counseled Odin to allow it. Odin permitted the Guardians the use of the 1,100 for forty days and forty nights, or until their deaths, whichever occurred first..

Dovinyae sent a message to the Great Druid Agnoman telling him and his druids to meet him at the magical forest outside of Kharzho to help in the assault against Thosan. The Great Druid thought about this and wondered, Why is he sending us against an ally in the War Against Grindill? Thosan has always tried to preserve as much land as possible. He may be evil and his pyramid an unknown factor at this time, but I do not know why his doings are a druidical concern at this point. Dovinyae is the Marshal in the War Against Grindill, not in his own personal affairs. If he wishes to fight Thosan with such a lack of information, then he must do it himself. I will not sacrifice druids in a non-druid matter to help Marshal Dovinyae settle some personal score. I will send no druids until he can relate to me how this will help us in the War Against Grindill. Indeed, he has recalled the rangers sent to gather information about Thosan and his Kharzho Pyramid. The Great Druid did not send anyone to the magical forest outside Kharzho except for a single messenger to tell the Druid not to use the druids to satisfy non-druidic concerns, and that, until information to the contrary can be gathered, Thosan is to be considered a non-druidic concern.

Dovinyae was very frustrated at the lack of storms happening around the Mountain of the God Men. The forecast was for at least the next three days being clear. The Druid decided to go find a storm. When pressed on how to go about doing that, he became very frustrated. He finally decided on the deadly Sea of Storms. In a complete rush to get there, a one day journey, he did not think how he would cast a spell in that onslaught of terror without leaving the ship behind to be utterly destroyed.

As the Guardians traveled, Thosan discovered where they were. He transported the Tarrasque, a cursed monster, to their ship. Dovinyae threw up his hands in disgust at the supposed delay (even though the ship had not slowed down its travel rate) and made his Elephant Statuette turn into a real elephant. The boards underneath creaked and threatened to break. The Tarrasque slew six men immediately. Sir Xavier and Ragnar were the first to arrive on the deck where the monster was. Ragnar struck it and Sir Xavier slashed at it viscously, cutting off its tail when its head proved to be out of reach. The lack of tail destroyed the monster’s balance and made it an easier target. In the mast, Alrek leapt down on the monster and hacked its head off.

(DM’s Note: I wish to apologize to Amren, Toki, Ragnar, Alrek, and most especially Sir Xavier on this battle. I should have handled it better. Sir Xavier’s blow was well struck, but I should have indicated that its head was out of reach when he arrived on the scene. I should have also used the phase system as this would have determined who attacked the monster at -13 AC and at -3 AC. I was so frustrated with Mark’s attempts to force me to bend to his desires at every turn that I already wanted to stop the game and perhaps I should have. Anyway, I handled the battle poorly, and I apologize.)

The monster changed into the body of a decapitated female warrior. Using Past Life, a spell taught to him by Elah, Amren found out that the monster was a curse. Whoever killed the monster took its place. It was a curse decreed by the gods. Alrek began to turn into the monster. Dovinyae cast remove curse. Ragnar resurrected the girl. The remove curse took effect and saved Alrek, but now the resurrected girl began to change into the beast again. They noted that its tail was still damaged, but all other damage to the monster (such as having its head chopped off) seemed to have healed. Dovinyae started casting Heal spells at it. The spells began to heal the monster and again Dovinyae became frustrated at this waste of time. He had hoped the heals would damage the monster. He cast another Remove Curse and the spell reflected back to Dovinyae. He cast it again and now Alrek was turning into the monster. Ragnar figured out that the Holy Sword could possibly cure it forever, so they removed the curse again and slew the monster as it possessed the girl, then resurrected the girl.

When they finally arrived at the site of the Sea of Storms, Dovinyae prepared to cast his Storm Transport spell. As he began the casting it was made apparent to him by Alrek that the ship would not be able to go with them. It would be left at the mercy of the Sea. Whoever commands the ship to fold up would have to be conscious and if it was folded before consciousness was lost as the spell took hold, the wind and the seas would scatter most of the people out of the radius of effect and probably kill everyone involved. Dovinyae wanted to cast the spell outside of the area of the Sea of Storms, but that was shown to be unworkable. The spell had to be cast while in the storm. Dovinyae threw an impatient fit in complete disgust and decreed that they will just wait around for a natural storm. It took two days to sail back. They decided to head toward Kharzho. Three days of the forty gone due to impatience.

All characters were awarded 12,000 exp. for defeating the monster

Sir Xavier received a 10,000 exp. bonus for good role-playing - you came up with a lot of paladin-like ideas.

Amren received 12,000 exp. bonus for staying so well in character despite all the interruptions during your talks with Elah the Elf.

Ragnar and Alrek received a 10,000 exp. bonus for excellent role-playing on Asgard and 3,000 exp. for battling and defeating the armies and 5,000 exp. for getting the 1,100 einheriar.

Toki received a 10,000 exp. bonus for very strong role-playing and remaining in character.

Current Events : Drychtnoth battled and defeated more and more Nyandarians. Wars in Lamapacher raged from both ends. Yam ibn Saud fought in the south and Drychtnoth fought in the north. The Lamapachans cried out for a savior, but, to date, none have answered that cry.