The
Adventures of The Unknown
Episode 2
“The Devil in Iron”
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Manderkarr: Dwarven master of Axe
and asskicking.
Seth DeCalea: Half-Elven Ranger
Issic: Half Dragon from Sigil
Flower: Elf.
Shanagra Darmal: Nyandarian Druid
late of Drychtnoth.
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The Place: The Unknown Lands, Xapur
The Time: Spring, 21 Artim, Sixth Year, Eighth Age.
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Flower, a small little elf maiden with a green dress, looked around,
panicked, not sure what to do as the stones flew from the interior of the ruined
city to those standing on the wall. Issic, a tall, massive, half-dragon with
wings, looked for a way down the wall to the other side. All around were trees.
The interior of the city was overgrown with jungle and some trees have grown
up alongside the walls. They could not see who was throwing the stones. They
apparently were hiding behind rocks and trees, but within the city. Kalidor
leapt off the wall and escaped the stony onslaught.
“Sons of cowards, come out fight me!” roared Manderkarr the Dwarf,
dressed in armor. He remembered the rope that they used to scale the wall.
Quickly he ran and grabbed the rope and affixed it to the interior side of the
wall.
“Get off the wall!” suggested Seth. Looking quickly around, he
saw a strange person walking along the wall toward them. He was dressed in
bronze scalemail and held a polearm. Seth put away his bow and drew his sword.
Shanagra, a druid with blazing red eyes, jumped into a tree and
started to swing down to the ground. Flower whimpered and ran for cover. Manderkarr
wrapped the rope around his arm and repelled down the wall. Seth opted to hold
the rear to guard against the strange man, intending to follow when everyone
else was off the wall.
“Go for the cover of the trees!” said Issic.
“Run from me, gutless cowards! Daughters of baboons you are!” exclaimed
Manderkarr the dwarf when he reached the base of the wall. A rock smashed into
him. Manderkarr whirled, and saw a large ape. Manderkarr set his shoulders
and charged the ape, his axe held ready. “Here’s an ax, monkey brain!”
Issic, standing with Seth, growled at the oncoming man, showing
his sharpened fangs.
“Who goes there?” said Seth to the man. From the corner of his
eye he could see Flower creeping around behind a tall tree to get a better view.
The man continued toward them as in a stroll, walking straight on, not even
noticing Issic and Seth. Issic tossed a rock at the man’s feet. The stranger
ignored the rock. Indeed, it passed right through his feet. The stranger walked
up to Seth and continued on, walking straight through him.
Down at the base of the wall, Manderkarr missed. He swung again.
“Here's another ax!”
Shanagra charged the ape with his scimitar. Manderkarr cut and
swung. The ape moved quickly, ducking around his ax with preternatural speed.
“Hyper little orangutan! Stay still so I can cut ya!” yelled Manderkarr.
The ape, coincidentally, quit ducking around and attacked Manderkarr.
“Flower, get off the wall,” said Issic. Then, to Seth, “That man
was a phantasm, a picture.”
“How so? An illusion?” asked Seth.
“A ghost. Let’s get together with Manderkarr.”
The ape missed Manderkarr. His paws crashed harmlessly against
his armor. A second Ape arrived on the scene. Up on the wall, Flower took
out her vine rope and hopped down to the ground, listening for sounds. Shanagra’s
scimitar crashed down on Manderkarr’s ape, angering it.
Issic leapt down near to Manderkarr, using his black wings to stabilize
his descent. An ape appeared out of the foliage and attacked Issic
Seth found himself facing another carnivorous ape as soon as he
made ground fall.
Flower moved stealthily, like a squirrel, from tree to tree, hidden
from sight by the trunks, traveling toward the area that the apes came from.
One way to stop any creature is to find its young. Well, at least it’ll
divert its attention from hurting MY demon. Heh, Magic of animal
control revealed - grab its young. “Reveal to me, Forest, this ape’s offspring,”
she prayed. “Clear my way.”
Manderkarr whacked the ape tangling with him, splashing blood.
Issic pounded a mighty punch into the ape in front of him.
Moving quickly through the jungle, Flower continued to plead to
the nature spirits, “Jungle, Please help me. These brutes will kill
that poor ape.”
An ape slammed into Shanagra, hard enough that he lifted into the
air and crashed into the bole of a tree.
“Fight me, you poor excuse for a halfling baboon!” challenged Manderkarr,
whirling from his wounded ape to the one that had attacked Shanagra.
“SHANAGRA!” yelled Flower, who, by some unknown communication, knew
the druid had been hurt. She turned around and abandoned her quest so that
she could aid the fiery eyed druid. An ape attacked Issic. She saw that when
she returned. Anger flared in her. My demon! Some roots lifted out
of the ground and entangled the ape attacking Issic. It roared in outrage.
Manderkarr smashed an ape in the face with his ax, crushing its
skull in a spray of blood. “Take that you small balled excuse for a simian!”
He swung at the next ape, but the ape backpedaled and the swing fell short.
No pun intended.
“What's the matter ape? Can't stand still and take like a man?”
said Manderkarr, swinging his axe in a deadly arc.
Seth’s sword crashed down on the ape attacking him, spraying blood
and brains into the air. Issic swung at his ape, caught in the weeds and roots
of the forest, but his attack was ineffectual. Seth ran to Shanagra, who still
slumped against the trunk of the tree he had hit. Seth woke the druid, who
caught up his scimitar and charged one of the apes, slashing it through the
throat, killing it in a spray of red blood.
The ape entangled in tree roots was strangled and died.
“Aahhhhhh! Ape slash!” roared Manderkarr. He whirled around waiting
for the next one. Issic seemed to have that last one under control. Issic
pounded his half-dragon fists into an ape, breaking its bull neck. Issic roared
in satisfaction.
Flower ran up to Shanagra, “You are hurt!” Shanagra quickly said,
“I am fine, or will be in a second.” Shanagra put his hand on his bruised chest.
His hand glowed and he healed his wound.
Flower cut open the stomach of an ape. “Why are they attacking us?
Hunger? Stomach empty? Do these apes seem natural?”
Manderkarr laughed. “Stupidity, Flower. They’re dumb apes!”
Flower giggled.
“Ok,” admitted the dwarf. “So they might be as bright as me, but
I never said I was....”
Flower continued to giggle, watching him.
“Be quiet for a moment,” said Issic. Everyone quieted. They heard
nothing but jungle birds. Issic listened for any more apes (or anything else)
coming through the trees. Seth looked around with his unique vision. Manderkarr
sniffed the air. Flower looked at the green wall and recoiled in disgust, covering
her eyes. The strange green stones unnerved her.
They could see they were in the ruins of a once great city. The
city was made of strange green stones, much like the wall that circumscribed
the city. Jungle growth crowded the broken streets. The only building intact
was a huge domed palace in the center.
“Let’s leave this place and return to the trees,” Flower said in
a weak voice.
Shanagra said, “The weapon we are seeking for Seth is within that
domed building... but so is the demon.”
“How convenient; since we are here for both,” said Issic.
“Let's go then!” said Manderkarr, tromping in the direction of the
large palace.
“We could travel through the tree tops,” suggested Flower. “Jump
from tree to tree, and there are vines and stuff in some places.” She continued
to babble on about the fun of climbing trees. Seth sheathed his sword. Manderkarr
did not put away his axe.
“We can’t traverse the trees as you do, dear Flower,” said Shanagra
Darmal.
They walked through the undergrowth toward the domed palace. They
soon arrived at it. The edifice was massive in scale. A large thirty by forty
bronze door with a ring on it was before them. The designs on the door were
of serpents eating men. Flower looked closer at the building and backed up,
repelled by the despicable evilness of it all. What evil creatures built
this? Flower looked up at Shanagra, “Don't make me go in there, pleeeease!”
“We must go in, Flower. If we can get that massive door open.
Manderkarr, how much would you estimate that door weighs?”
“But look at it all, Shanagra,” said Flower. “The stones crammed
here so unnaturally, the wood brutally forced together. I can practically
hear it screaming out to me, ‘You humans are evil!’” Flower began to cry slightly.
"I know, Flower. Just trust to us. Humans did not
build this town. This was built by demons for the Angustians."
“Elves don't torture things of life. They lovingly shape their
homes, Not break the trees and cram them together cruelly.” Flower looked
up at Manderkarr, “Can we return this place to the ground when we are done
here?”
Seth drew his sword. Manderkarr looked at the door for the hinges.
He could not see any. If it was hinged, it was hinged on the other side. He
finished his inspection of the door and said, “I’d say the door weighs more
than I can handle, unless balanced and oiled.” The dwarf grasped the ring and
tried to open the door. It did not budge. Issic grabbed the ring and pulled
along with Manderkarr. Seth grasped the ring also and pulled.
“I may be human but I still prefer the outdoors,” said Seth as he
pulled on the ring with Issic and Manderkarr. Suddenly the door, unhinged obviously,
came crashing down on the trio. Manderkarr threw himself to one side, Issic
threw himself to the other.
“Damn human architects! Clangeddan favors me yet!” exclaimed Manderkarr.
“or he doesn’t want me there yet.” He and Issic realized Seth had not made
it. The dwarf reached down and struggled to pull the door up off him, his muscles
straining with the Herculean effort. Pausing, he grabbed his axe and tried
to use it as a lever, but the weapon just made ruts in the loam. Issic grabbed
the other side of the door and waited for Manderkarr to drop the axe and help
him lift.
Flower ran to the door as they tried to lift it, pulling leaves
out of her dress. Slowly, ponderously, the door was lifted by the muscular
pair. When the door was up high enough, Flower squiggled underneath. “Just
don’t drop it on me!” she called as she disappeared. She reached Seth and he
felt his crushed ribs heal and the strength returned to him to crawl out from
under the door.
“Hurry, my back's too short already, young ones!” gasped Manderkarr,
his voice tense under the strain. Seth crawled fast. Once he was out, Issic
and Manderkarr dropped the door with a loud thud. Flower gave Seth some leaves,
telling him to eat some every half hour. “They taste awful,” she added. “and
makes you dizzy for a few minutes, but it helps your inner side to not hate
you.”
“Do I eat one now?”
“Yes, but I don’t know if it will work for you.”
Seth ate one. Shanagra walked up and said, “Well, that was the
first door.” They noticed a second bronze door behind the first.
“OK, so the humans are more paranoid and better trappers than I
thought...,” said Manderkarr.
“Push this time,” suggested Issic. Manderkarr shrugged and tried
the second door, warning all to not b in the way. He pulled on the door, but
to one side so he could jump away if it also fell.
The door swung open easily. They saw a large darkened chamber within.
A dais was in the center of the room, and on the dais was a dagger. I looked
and listened for sounds of the demon.
“Don't touch it just yet,” said Seth as Manderkarr stepped into
the chamber.
“I wasn't gonna. I don't need a knife,” said the dwarf. Issic
looked at the floor and ceiling carefully before stepping in. The ceiling was
domed. The floor was dusty. Everything was silent.
“Face me, evil coward!” the dwarf yelled in challenge. The challenge
went unanswered, but it echoed throughout the domed chamber.
Shanagra walked cautiously in, followed by Seth. Flower went in
behind them. Issic followed next, looking around, waiting for something to
jump out at them. She, Seth, and Manderkarr noticed something odd about the
dagger, something unreal.
“That dagger ain't even, boys!” said Manderkarr with a dour grin.
“Come out, come out, where ever you are...”
“Don't touch that thing,” suggested Flower.
Manderkarr nodded and smelt deeply. “Demons got stinks,” he grumbled,
“or was that me?” He smiled.
Shanagra approached the dais. He motioned Issic over. "I
think there was an illusion at work here." He motioned for the rest of
them to come over. Seth went first, the others cautiously followed. Manderkarr
was watching around the room, not looking at the rest of the group. “Something
ain’t right here,” he said. He backed away from the group.
Issic looked at the dagger. “Then smash it and find out what is
really there?”
Suddenly, the bronze doors both clanged shut with ominous finality.
Manderkarr inhaled deeply and held his breath. Shanagra whipped out his scimitar.
Flower jumped into Issic’s arms and Seth drew his sword.
“Let’s dance, demon!” Manderkarr challenged, shaking his axe. He
swung his shield to his back and drew out his warhammer. Issic gently set down
Flower, then swung his sword down on the dagger.
Flower put her attention on the dagger as Issic’s sword rang out
on it. “I think we forgot the main attraction here, besides, who was to say
the doors are really there either?”
The dagger became a sword. Seth gasped. Shanagra looked to Seth,
"This was the sword we came for!"
Issic grabbed the sword and swung it around for Seth to grab. Seth
approached the dais. Flower shook her head in doubt. “Ummm, I don’t think
it will be so simple as grabbing it and running,” she said. Seth reached out
for the sword.
Manderkarr examined the door hinges. He readied a blow with his
warhammer right when Seth grabbed the sword.
Seth reached out and grabbed the sword. “Hinge popping time!” roared
Manderkarr, slamming his hammer onto the lowest of the door hinges. BAM! The
sound echoed and reverberated throughout the chamber, the acoustics enhancing
the sound. “That is what I call METAL!” exclaimed the dwarf with enthusiasm.
Flower smiled and said, “This would be a great place to sing.”
Seth put his other sword away. The new weapon felt very natural
to him. Then an answering echo came from one of the dark shadows at the other
end of the room.
Issic, not noticing the new echo, walked over to Manderkarr. “Wouldn't
it be easier to smash the stone wall than the metal door?”
Manderkarr looked at the wall. “I was smacking the hinge, and if
anyone with good stonemanship made this wall, the wall would hold. Besides,
I think that if I knock in the wall, the whole dome will fall in.”
Shanagra, peering through the dark shadows, said there was a doorway
there. Flower, apparently the only one paying attention to the second echo,
started a few leaves on fire and threw them into the shadows. She didn’t like
shadows that make noise, creeping up on her at night and scaring her. And she
knew the shadows go away when you throw fire on them.
Manderkarr readied another whack. Everyone then heard another echo
from the gloomy shadows. Shanagra approached the doorway shrouded by the black
shadows.
Another metallic ring sounded from the dark shadows. Manderkarr
looked around in alarm, but could see nothing in infravision.
Another metallic ring echoed. Closer this time. Flower looked
around desperately for any wood here that hadn't been twisted and built into
something, draining all the life out of it.
“Some trap is setting guys, be wary!” said Manderkarr, familiar
with the loud traps in his homeland.
Another metallic sound rang out loud. Closer still.
“We have half of our goal,” said Issic. “I would guess that that
other half is there,” he continued, pointing at the door in the shadows. He
threw a rock through the doorway as far as he could. Shanagra disappeared into
the shadowy entrance. He looked back, and all they could see was his glowing
red eyes. He turned and disappeared from view. Manderkarr grabbed up his axe
and ran in after the druid. Flower cried out in terror when Shanagra vanished
from view. Seth and Flower followed more cautiously.
Manderkarr, Shanagra, Seth and Flower entered a dark room after
traversing a hallway filled with dark shadows. The room was large. A throne
was at one end of the room. Around the throne was treasure. A lot of treasure.
On the throne was a large, sleeping snake, coiled on the seat. A metallic ring
sounded from another hallway. Closer yet.
Issic looked at the reptile. “Another fake, I bet,” said Issic.
Manderkarr threw his hammer at the coiled snake. It bounced off
the reptile. The snake opened its eyes and lifted up. A hood opened over its
head and it spat poison at Manderkarr, spraying him.
“No fake, Issic,” said Shanagra.
Manderkarr started to feel pain, but Flower put a healing fire on
him, praying that the fiery leaves she threw on him would give their lives for
his. A nimbus of blue flame dances all around Manderkarr, and the poison was
slowed. Angered, the dwarf charged the snake, his axe swinging at a
deadly arc. Another metallic clang resounded through the room. Louder and
louder they were. Seth ran and attacked the snake.
Manderkarr swung his axe. “Eat ax, demon spawn!” The blow did
little to the giant reptile.
Flower ran to lock the doors from any other hallway so no one could
come in. She saw a twelve foot tall man walking toward her from one of the
halls. With each footstep, she heard the metallic ring echoing through the
chambers. She looked about for a door or anything to close it off from the
room she was in.
The snake lashed out at Manderkarr, but Seth swung his newfound
sword at it. The sword bit into the snake, but did not kill it. It launched
itself at Manderkarr and bit through his armor, latching onto his shoulder.
Issic lashed out with his sword and beheaded the massive reptile. The snake
thrashed around in its death spasms. Blood splattered everywhere. They heard
a metallic screech and they saw the twelve foot man enter the room. He looked
like a man, but he was made entirely of metal. Flower ran toward the group,
away from the man.
“Whoa, total metal head!” exclaimed Manderkarr. Issic turned to
the noise. “Hmmm a rarity. Some one I have to look up to,” he said in jest.
The metal man said, "Intruders! you are not welcome here!
surrender, or be crushed!" His voice sounded like metal scraping on metal
to create the terrible sounds coming from his lips.
Flower looks up at Shanagra. “Should we surrender?”
Issic stepped to the front before Shanagra could answer and demanded
of the Iron Man, “On who's authority?”
Shanagra and Flower did not wait for an answer. Shanagra knew this
was the Devil in Iron. He ran to attack the man with his scimitar. Flower
followed the brave druid. Shanagra’s sword, swinging in for a powerful blow,
shattered on the man’s iron skin. The man laughed and grabbed the druid by
the throat and lifted him into the air, intending to crush Shanagra’s throat.
“The Devil in Iron!” gasped the druid as he struggled.
“My authority!” boomed his ear-piercing voice of crashing metal.
Flower leapt up, whipping her skirt off and wrapping it around the
Devil’s head. Manderkarr looked for a weak joint to plug, but the man seemed
without joints. It was as though the iron was like his skin. So the dwarf
grabbed his rope and ran around the thing, wrapping its legs. Issic rushed
it, trying to rattle it with a full body hit. He crashed into it and bounced
off, but the iron man barely stayed up, his legs getting more and more tangled
by Manderkarr’s rope. He was still crushing the throat of Shanagra, but his
other hand was occupied in getting Flower’s dress off from around his head.
“Maybe my sword will work!” said Seth as he ran in with his new
weapon. Flower, nude, backed out of the way. “Don't hit meeee!” she exclaimed.
Unbalanced by Issic, the Devil in Iron crashed to the floor, his
legs tangled in Manderkarr's rope. He nearly dropped the druid, but managed
to retain his death grip.
Manderkarr cried out, “Hammer time!” as he brought his warhammer
to bear, crashing it down on the iron body of the Devil. The Devil in Iron
lashed out at Manderkarr, hitting him hard.
“Release him!” ordered Seth, his sword moving swiftly. The Devil
in Iron rolled to the side and avoided Seth’s sword, roaring out in his metallic
voice, “Drop that weapon! You do not know the evil that created it!”
“Release him and we will talk!” commanded Seth as he swung the sword
down, cutting into the iron like it was hot butter. The Devil screamed in agony
and released Shanagra. The iron man continued to struggle to rise and strike
others . Manderkarr, unable to harm the golem, tried thwarting the attacks,
parrying them with his hammer to protect the others. Issic plunged his sword
into the cut, but his weapon had no effect except to knock the iron man back
down.
The Devil in Iron tried to rise again, but Manderkarr knocked him
down. Seth plunged his weapon in again. Issic dropped his sword to pull on
the rope, keeping the iron man down. Flower, still naked. dragged Shanagra
out of harm’s way. The Devil in Iron screamed in agony and tried to nail Seth,
but Manderkarr parried the blow for Seth, opening the way for Seth to strike
a third blow.
“Lop off its limbs, Seth! It can't attack if it ain't got limbs!”
shouted the dwarf. Seth’s sword struck like a serpent, cutting the head off
of the Devil in Iron. The iron head rolled around on the floor.
“Good limb choice!” congratulated Manderkarr. He proceeded to bash
the head flat with his warhammer.
Flower checked to see that Shanagra was breathing. He was. “Thanks,
Flower,” he said. Then he blushed when he realized she was naked again. Flower
kissed the druid. “I was so scared,” she confessed. “Thought you were, were....”
Seth put away his weapon and walked over to Flower, removing his
cloak from his broad shoulders. He gave the cloak to Flower, as he could see
there were no trees around this time. Seth bent down and checked Shanagra out.
Flower wrapped the cloak around her nude little body and walked over to the
dead iron thing. “This thing is what comes of building things. Putting
life into that which has none,” she commented as a shiver warped through her
tiny spine. “We should destroy it so no one else can learn from its construction.”
With loud, ponderous clanks and bangs, the outer doors slowly opened.
Shanagra’s brows furrowed as he watched the valve open. With Seth’s help, Shanagra
stood up on shaky legs. “I will be able to heal some of my hurt shortly,” said
Shanagra. He wobbled over to Manderkarr and summoned the energy from Mother
Nature to heal the dwarf of his wounds. His hand felt warm on the dwarf, but
his bruises and scrapes healed. Flower went up to Shanagra and stroked the
druid’s wounds lovingly, holding them shut from bleeding, and his wounds were
healed. This startled Flower. That had never happened before.
Issic said with a grin, “Let's go see what the snake was guarding.
I am ready for my share!” They returned to the room with the throne and the
dead snake. The treasure amounted to 400 silver coins dating to the first age,
100 gold coins dating to the first age, a jeweled golden box dating back to
the first age, and five rubies. Issic felt twinges of greed, feeling his dragon
half wanting to hoard all of the treasure.
Flower climbed up into Manderkarr's arms, “You were SOOOO brave!”
“Just doin' my job; it's all I can do, little lady.”
Flower noticed the gleam of greed in Issic’s inhuman eyes. She
smiled and told him he could have all of it if he wanted as far as she was concerned.
She hopped down out of Manderkarr’s grasp, her cloak flaring out behind her,
revealing her beautiful charms for a second before the cloak fell and wrapped
around her. “But you might not want to open the box,” she added.
“Why not?” asked a suddenly alarmed half dragon, his dreams of avarice
bursting with the hint of danger.
“I wouldn't want a spider to come out of the box and bite you.,”
she explained. “Maybe I should take the box so you don't get bit.” She clambered
up Issic’s back and started combing his hair, her naked limbs wrapped around
his torso. Issic ignored the shapely limbs to continue examining the treasure.
Shanagra, however, had a hard time taking his eyes off of the shapely limbs.
Seth identified the snake as a giant king cobra.
“Wow,” said Flower. “King. No wonder it was on a throne. This
place worship snakes?”
“Many of the early dumb humans did,” said Manderkarr.
“We should hang it up so they know they shouldn't worship snakes,”
said Flower.
“Good idea, we can pike its head outside the doors.”
Issic went over to the grand throne and sat down on it, saying,
“This is where I belong!”
Flower laughed at Issic, “You aren’t a snake, you are my demon!”
Issic just patter her on the head and continued to enjoy the treasure and the
throne.
“The throne wears well on Issic, the demon-king!” saluted Manderkarr.
Flower walked around, letting the cloak billow out around her, exposing
her nudity again. “My dress was ruined,” she complained. “I hope the trees
won’t be mad.”
Shanagra doubted anyone would mind. “And if the trees object, then
I'll send Manderkarr and his ax after the trees.”
“You gotta to survive. Don't pull your weight, you push daisies!”
said Manderkarr.
Flower looked angrily at Manderkarr, “Why would anyone push around
poor little defensive daisies?”
“To feed them, little lady!”
“You eat daisies?” she asked in surprise, again pulling the cloak
tight around her naked little body, then opening it, then closing it. She giggled
at the idea of eating daisies. “Dwarfies are funny,” she said.
“No, the daisies feed off the body once buried.”
“Ohhh.”
Gathering the treasure, they left the isle of Xapur. Manderkarr
threw the head of the Devil in Iron into the deep river as they rowed back to
the river shore.
All the characters received 3,200 experience points.
Finished Campaigns in Inzeladun
| The Adventures of The Unknown | About Vincent N. Darlage
--------------------------------------
Current Events In Inzeladun: The Guardians met and helped the
Legion of Three Hundred. Aethelric, the leader of the Legion and wielder of
the Axe of Adilbrand, decided to join forces with the Guardians. (see Nash 23
for more details) (spring, 5 - 7 Artim)
The Guardians were helped out by Groll. Grindill had sent a
succubus back in time to kill Ragnar. The Guardians went back in time and rescued
the baby. Dovinyae actually delivered the future Guardian. Returning to the
present, the Guardians began their journey to Catemar to attack Grindill. Grindill
allowed Yam ibn Saud’s assassins to go into Indor. The assassins killed Daragru
(but he was later resurrected) and in an attempt to kill Dovinyae, Sir Xavier
was destroyed. Sir Xavier’s body was taken Alisander where it was disintegrated.
A silver dragon was sent by Tomodachi to help the Guardians. (see Nash 24 for
more details) (spring, 9-13 Artim).
Yodfah tried to take revenge on the cutthroats who caused his
fall from grace in Muluk (Zakhara). They battled ghouls and then went on a
futile search for Yodfah. (spring, 10-22 Artim) (See AlQadim02 for more details)
Issu’l took an interest in the doings of the Guardians and targeted
them for immediate termination (and possible digestion. Iss’ul is rumored to
be so evil that he is cannibal). He prepared plans to bring them to his new
citadel in Alisander. Having successfully destroyed Sir Xavier, he now planned
the next assassination.
Stuck in a stormcloud, the Guardians were attacked by the Angels
of Yam ibn Saud. Defeating them they stood poised to attack Alisander (see
Nash 25 for more details) (spring, 14-20 Artim)
Notes on Xapur: An island in the Unknown lands. Technically not an
Angustian city as is often supposed, but built with remnants of Angustian knowledge
and magic.
Notes on The Devil in Iron: An Iron Golem that houses the essence of
the evil alienist Khosatrel, the last lord of Xapur. Twelve feet tall. All
magical weapons (except for the Golem Slayer) do only 2 pts of damage to him.
Chaotic Evil. Dmg 4d10. Can cast spells as a 9th level wizard. His zeitgeber
is the Golem Slayer noted below.
Notes on the Snake Throne: The snake throne was the throne used by
the Lords of Xapur and is a charged alienist magic item. It grants the Lord
of Xapur one wish per month. It further grants any who sits in it a wisdom
of 18 so long as the person is sitting in it. It further allows any who sits
on it the permanent power to shape change into a giant snake 1/day, but use
of this power has a 1% chance of driving the shapeshifter insane.
Notes on The Sword: A +2 Golem Slayer, +5 vs Golems, double damage vs
Iron Golems. Named “Shreenlamarr”, this weapon was created to defeat Khosatrel,
the Devil in Iron. It has an obsessive need to destroy golems, and its wielder
can eventually become consumed with this obsession as well. It detects golems,
detects intelligent swords, and has a few other, undisclosed powers at its disposal.
