THE HISTORY OF THE COUATL

GUARDIANS OF THE SILVER TREE

ADVENTURE TWENTY-FIVE

“The Angels of Yam ibn Saud”

Characters:

Amren : Ophyrish ranger. Prophet of the Silver Tree.

Alrek: Indorian Twilight Gathering warrior.

Daragru: Once again a Warlord.

Toki: Indorian captain of the Dreamship. Psionicist.

Dovinyae: Druid, Marshall of the Druids in the War Against Grindill.

Ragnar Silverbeard : Back in full form again.

Aethelric: Captain of the Legion of Three Hundred.

Endeem Valos: Silver Dragon

Neb Rekhis: Former Mummy. Now a Priest of the Silver Tree

The Time : 8th Age, 6th Year, 14th through 20th of Artim (spring)

The Place: Indor; The Sea of Storms; Lamapacher

Notes on Indor: Indor is the land of the Vikings. Traditionally protected by the Legion of Three Hundred, Indor is the home of Grindill and Adilbrand Noblesword.

The Guardians had been merged with a storm cloud with the magic of the Statuettes of Vendulamon. Although unconscious, Amren the Prophet had a dream vision:

Ghosts, translucent and vaporous, fly in and around a dark area. The ghosts seem to be screaming, but no sound issues forth. Beyond them, in the darkness, buildings begin to loom, and they are on fire and the sky turns red. The ghosts flit and move quietly amongst the burning buildings and the people of the cities turn to ash and die.

The ghosts coalesce into oriental assassins and they feed a couatl to crocodiles. The assassins seem to be seeking a missing portion of the couatl, but they disappear, replaced by a massive tome of eldritch aspect. The book is obviously ancient and the hands hovering over it appear to be leathery, dry, and skeletal. The evil looking hands cross over the pages and then a pile of stones on a mountaintop, shaped like an altar, replace the scene.

Anduin the Heirophant, ancient and withered, steps to the Altar and tries to destroy it in the Name of Grindill, but he fails. The Altar is unmoved.

Far away, near the Pyramids of Khemt, the Light Reborn, who Gathered Twilight, falls into eternal darkness, the waters of Evil swallowing him.

Desert winds sweep over all and everything dissolves. Out of the tearing sands Tho’ef comes and says, “Guardians do not hide, they go to the source and fight.”

The Guardians found themselves trapped. Inside of that stormcloud they were at the mercy of six ghosts that appeared, flying around, staying with them Dovinyae knew they would simply destroy them as soon as they landed due to the length of time it would take them to reform. He moved the stormclouds out over the ocean to the Sea of Storms.

Grindill thought about stopping the Guardians as they moved past the border, but decided not to. He anticipated that they were trying to land on Golgaryllgar, the island buried in the Sea of Storms, a place where the Angels of Yam ibn Saud could not go. But Grindill had more nasty things waiting there.

Dovinyae merged his storm clouds with the clouds of the Sea of Storms. After a short time, he moved back out of the Sea. Two of the ghosts were still with him. He decided to go to Alisander.

As they crossed the distance, the other four ghosts rejoined him. As the storm neared Alisander, Dovinayae decided to just cancel the spell and the party appeared in mid air. Endeem Valos solidified a cloud beneath them and they landed on the soft surface. The Ghosts howled in to the attack.

Ragnar pounded one with his hammers and Alrek did considerable damage to another. Toki had most of his life energy drained, but Amren, with the Ring of the Silver Tree, saved Toki from eternal Undeath (which is what happens when someone dies from life draining). Alrek was picked up by Shedou and was flown down to the ground as a captive. Endeem Valos and Dovinyae dove after them.

Ragnar dispelled one ghost with his hammers and Daragru, now in his red Warlord outfit, dispelled another.

Seeing the pursuit, Shedou slammed Alrek into the ground after flying into a hut and fled. Endeem Valos swept away the hut and Dovinyae quickly healed the Indorian.

Alrek remained unconscious for a while due to the unholy touch of Shedou and had a wildly improbable dream that he was captured and rescued, and then the Guardians, with help from Armuth the Ghost Strangler and using powers they do not in reality possess, killed Iss’ul and battled Yam ibn Saud. In this dream, the city of Alisander was ruled by Iss’ul, instead of by Lord Nadam, those drained of life by the ghosts did not rise as the undead, Ragnar’s speak with dead rune did not need a grave or body to be cast, contingency spells could be cast upon ghosts, Yam ibn Saud had the divine powers of an intermediate deity instead of the modest powers of a demigod, Iss’ul kept his captives alive and hanging on throne room walls in easily escapable death traps, the Guardians could develop completely new powers and runes in a mere six weeks without a laboratory, materials, or the spending of money, and the Guardians were silly enough to allow Endeem Valos and a Legionnaire Paladin to go through a gate into a building protected from gates, and personally attack Yam ibn Saud and get slaughtered.

Alrek eventually came to, no worse for the wear. The Guardians now were about fifteen miles out of Alisander. Now they had to decide if they wanted to go and attack Iss’ul, or not. They did know the magical words that would render Iss’ul practically harmless, after all.

All characters were awarded 40,000 exp. for defeating the Ghosts

and participating in the Dream with good grace.

Current Events : Due the quickness of the Guardian’s assault, Grindill stepped up his plans. He cast the second spell in the series of seven that he needs to have cast by the last day of the Sixth Year. He considers himself very fortunate that the Guardians left Indor. Had they been quicker about attacking Catemar, he could have been terminally delayed. Now he just has to keep them out of Indor again so that they don’t get a second chance. Grindill has given the Latipac Device to one of his priests to control the weather around the Guardians so that they would have no more storms to use. Disappointed in the Angels of Yam ibn Saud, Grindill is considering terminating the relationship he has with Yam ibn Saud.

Kherit has sent an ambassador to Itsitlawikanah to find out more about the Guardians and their activities from Samadhi. The Khemian ambassador seems intent on seducing the arch mage to get the information. Kherit has begun gathering stones for some sort of altar.

Sir Raloth has uncovered hellish information on the infernal alliances of Grindill.

Notes on the Angels of Yam ibn Saud: Emperor Yam ibn Saud sent the most powerful of the priests of Saud into The Desert. Upon entering the Sandy Sea all of them died. The last six to die was deemed worthy by Yam ibn Saud. He used the power of the Desert and caused them to rise again as his Angels of Death. The first amongst the newly risen was Fshehte. The others were Shedou, Mashtrues, Deshir, Zool, and Sulmoj. (winter, 16 Agik, 5th Year, 8th Age) They are Fifth Magnitude ghosts and when they completely drain a victim of life energy, that person immediately becomes their Undead servant.

Notes on the Silver Dragon : Endeem Valos (“Talon Master”) is an adult Silver Dragon sent by Tomodachi to help the Guardians. He has two breath weapons. It can breathe a cone of cold or a cloud of paralyzation gas. This dragon is not native to Inzeladun and has lived in the Tower all of its life. His lair, and his hoard, can be found in the Tower of Magic.