the Kyri Chronicles - last updated 22 Oct

[Plane Sailing]

(Ynnsfeardh, Monk3 is taking a break from adventuring to meditate)

It is raining quite heavily, everyone is cold and wet and visibility isn’t too good. It looks as if the swamp has turned into a broad lake, with a series of rush-covered islets connected by flimsy looking bridges. Crail sets off to scout the first island, and fairly soon hears the murmurs of conversation - sounds a little like Singharese trader talk. There is a strange contraption of wood and pulleys damming up the water, and two guards up top. A complex plan to attack the two guards doesn’t go off like clockwork, and one of the guards crashes off through the rushes to raise help. Auriel attempts to head him off, but misjudges the shoreline of the island and crashes into the muddy water. Luckily Sula was hot on her heals and pulls her out. Sula joins Crail in running down the escaped guard, but hearing a scream from up ahead they come across his body suddenly - pierced with many small wounds and horribly pale.

They all gather back at the dam, which looks as though it has been constructed with sluices in order to cause a flood down in the valley before them. A fire is built to warm themselves up, and to attempt to throw off the effect of the chill air which is proving draining (especially to those in wet clothes). Meanwhile Sula travels down the valley for a few hours and discovers that the stream leads down towards Oakhurst - if the dam bursts, the village is doomed!.

Returning to the rest of the party, they decide that the best course of action is to disable the sluices, so that the water drains out in a controlled fashion. While they are doing this, they are disturbed by the sudden arrival of something else drawn by the warmth of their fire and their own body heat - a flock of stirges!

[Plane Sailing]

Six of the little beggars attack, latching on to Sula and one of Auriel’s badgers. The company all jump to engage the pernicious little beasts with a lot of success, apart from Auriel’s attempt to spear one of the stirges attached to a badger… missing the beast, she strikes her animal friend who goes into a rage and takes a dim view of this, launching into an attack on his former mistress. The situation is brought under control with no more deaths, but the furious Auriel dismisses her badgers and they wander, whimpering, downstream and into the wilds.

DMs note: The badgers had been animal companions of the Witch since her inception, and at the lower levels were worth more in combat than any two of the other characters! There was a slight element of pathos as they were sent away, but Auriel is notably hard-hearted. If this is how she treats her animal friends, you can guess what she is like to her human enemies!

It seems that the crooked man is living out on one of the islets, and so Lysander, Crail, Sula and Auriel set out to navigate their way across the bulrush covered terrain. Along the way they avoid problems with giant frogs, mudholes and a collapsing bridge which precipitated Crail into the water with a hungry giant catfish which grabbed him but wasn’t able to swallow him before being driven off by Sula and Auriel. There are yet more signs of some great battle in the past - a discarded battering ram head, and the ruined walls peeking out above the waterline of the lake. There are more important things at hand though - Crail reports that the next bridge crosses to an island with a hovel built out on the far end - and warriors guarding the bridge!

The plan is for Crail to stay in the reeds and give covering fire. Auriel conjures the forces of nature and Lysander feels his skin harden to a bark-like consistency. He is to take the point. Sula is less well armoured and protected and will follow up once the bridgehead is established. As they charge across the bridge a tall man armoured in chainmail steps up to guard the end - and at a word Khelsors sword starts sparkling with electrical discharges...

[Plane Sailing]

As the fight starts, Sula is getting bored and wants in on the action. Leaping across to the corner of the island, she aims to outflank the guards, but there are too many of them, and in the ensuing battle Khelsor takes every opportunity to strike at the lightly armoured giantess near his flank. Within a few short rounds Sula is cut down, although the scimitar of Lysander has been making things dangerous for Khelsor, who is nearing his last legs himself. As warrior reinforcements pour out of the hovel, Khelsor runs for it, to prepare himself for a last ditch defence of his master.

As Crail and Oriel join Lysander on the cleared pathway, the remaining warriors are cut down to a man, no match for the infuriated company, ready to raise a pyre of bodies in Sula’s name. The door to the hovel is barricaded, but it is soon kicked in. Inside there is a horrible hunchback at one side of the room, and Khelsor standing guard before a raven-haired woman. The hunchback shouts out “You fools, Oakhurst is doomed! I will have my revenge!” as he dives out of the window and they hear a splash from the lake.

Lysander goes to engage Khelsor, and the woman - a witch perhaps? Darts in front. As she is cut down and falls bleeding Khelsor casts his sword aside and throws himself across the fallen woman to shield her body with his own. Lysander, sensing that things are not as they seem calls upon the power of Asura and stops the woman from bleeding to death. He turns the full power of his personality and diplomacy on Khelsor, and calms the man, who breaks free from the charm he has been labouring under. Grief stricken at the things he has done while under the power of the twisted man, he throws himself upon Lysanders mercy, and asks to be taken back to Knightsbridge to appear before the magistrate. As a token of submission and thanks he bequeaths his magic sword to Lysander.

Meanwhile, Oriel and Crail speed round the islands, and make nearly as good time as the crooked man as he swims direct. They catch him as he reaches the dam, and hear him moan as he finds the dam sluices wrecked and his plans undone. Turning towards them he clasps a pendant and cries out “People, hear my words - protect me!”. Oriel laughs as the challenge slides from her determined will - but Crail succumbs, and he attempts to launch a sneak attack at Oriel!

Oriel senses that the real challenge is the crooked man and she charges him and brings him down While Crail inexpertly slashes at her back. Auriel renders the crooked man unconscious and smashes the pendant. Crail staggers back, freed from its influence and horrified at what he had attempted to do to his friend. Oriel, meanwhile, vents her frustration and aggression against this man who has destroyed this swamp, upset the ecology, led to the loss of her badgers, their friend Sula and almost cost her her own life at the hands of a friend. She grasps the crooked man and pounds his head on a boulder until there is just blood, and no signs of life.

Oriel and Crail return to Lysander and the others. It seems that Khelsor and this woman were running a merchant caravan from Singh through to Tanor, and were ensnared by the charming power of the crooked man. They take everyone down to Oakhurst where the villagers are delighted to discover that yet again they have been saved by this noble band of adventurers. It is Moonday, and the normal businesses are put on hold as the whole village gathers in celebration of the adventurers. Some of the villagers go up the river valley to finish the dismantling of the dam, others to help Janne and Khelsor to recover the remains of their trade goods.

Next: Enter Azrin, priest of knowledge, and the Swamps of Doom

[Plane Sailing]

Azrin a naïve young priest of Asura has recently arrived in Knightsbridge, having been sent away from his position in the great temple library back in his homeland of Singh. He is weak and clumsy (both Str and Dex are 8) and he is not particularly used to being with people - he much prefers books and abstract knowledge. He is an acolyte of "Asura who opens the way"; in place of his normal domain abilities he has "General Knowledge" like the bardic ability, because of the vast amount of reading he has done and still does even now.

He comes with a message to the High Priest in Knightsbridge suggesting that Alkanar involve him in “adventures - particularly dangerous ones”. Seems like some of his digging in the library uncovered a few morsels of information that others would like to be hidden...

Introduced to the company, Azrin does some research whilst the rest of the party trains and contemplates the things they have learnt. Lysander, particular, feels his connection with Asura strengthened, and he knows that he can now pray for some effective blessings in battle.

Azrin gathers the following scraps of information:

---

In the year of the fall of Usher, Radeem called forth the most dreaded swamp denizen to aid his defence

---
The elven campaign was long and hard fought, but the castle in the swamp was eventually thrown down, at a terrible cost in lives of the faerie.

---
"The wizard Radeem and his apprentice were accused of traffic with the Infernal, but they laughed off the accusation .

---
(marginal note in a local folk song)
"...And the mad mages flesh rot ate him to the bone,
All because he never heard of the day of stone"

---

It is drawing towards the end of Autumntide, and in a weeks time Stormtime will begin - the most violent and wet of the months of the year. Still, next week is the Autumntide carnival, and that would just give the company time to get to the ruined castle and back before the carnival starts.

We wouldn't want to miss the carnival, would we?

[Plane Sailing]

Swamp of Doom

Auriel, Druid 4
Lysander, Jazumai 4
Crail, Rogue 3
Azrin, Cleric 2
Ynnsfeardh, Monk4

Lysander, Crail, Auriel, Ynnsfeardh and Azrin set out back to the ruined castle. Breaking their journey at Oakhurst (amid a riotous welcome from the villagers), they set out back towards the now-drained bog.

The woods still ring with the call of strange animals, and none stranger than a large, plucked chicken with a lizard like tail which stepped out of the bushes and gazed at them, distracted from the rabbits it was chasing. After a moments indecision the company win initiative and attack the creature, which responds by pecking back. It seems unable to touch any of the armoured and dextrous crew until the clumsy Azrin joins the combat - one peck and he stiffens, turning to stone! Auriel strikes down the cockatrice, but too late to help poor Azrin.

Considering what to do, the party reason that cockatrices are not natural for this kind of woodland, and Radeem was involved with supernatural allies, and some things to do with stone… perhaps they are descendants from creatures once kept at the castle, and an antidote was kept there? It seems that the ruined castle is the best chance for the future of their young priest...

Crossing the swamp is almost without incident, apart from when Auriel fell into a mud-hole and inadvertently picked up a giant leech, which wasn’t spotted until it fell off sated, and leaving the witch much weaker from loss of blood.

A search of the ruined castle site by Crail turns up a hidden trapdoor with an aperture for the skeleton shaped key. As the stone door grinds open, dank air issues forth from steps descending into darkness. Carefully moving forward, the stairs wind down to a chamber containing four brass levers, surmounted by symbols for earth, air, fire and water.

Which one to pull? There is much discussion relating to the fragments that Azrin had discovered earlier; Crail suddenly realises that the song fragment is probably the clearest indicator and stretches forth to pull the “stone” lever as the others dive for cover...

[Plane Sailing]

The door grinds open. There is a frank exchange of opinions , but Crail shrugs his shoulders and proceeds into the revealed corridor. Trying to avoid splashing in the little stream running down the centre of the corridor, they find a room opens up on their left - and suddenly they are charged by fearsome humanoids, rotted flesh hanging from the frames of several undead zombies, including one zombie ogre.

Battle is quickly joined as the zombies charge forth; the ogres reach and huge battleaxe prove devastating, nearly killing Crail with a single blow!

He tumbles back over the heads of his companions and Lysander and Ynnsfeardh step up to bat - Ynnsfeardh nearly going down straight away to another tremendous blow.

The ogre is slow and quickly killed though - then Lysander calls upon the power of Asura and the fierce flow of divine power routs the remaining zombies.

The small chamber was once an operations room in days gone by - tapestries hanging on the walls still show elements of the old campaigns. A hidden draw in the rooms table reveals a set of vials containing oily liquid.

A few moments with Auriels alchemy kit suggests that they may be a cure for Azrin. The party retreats outside, back to the statue of their friend and apply the oil, which quickly seeps into the stone, turning it back again to flesh! Hoorah!

[Plane Sailing]

Returning to the ruined dungeon, and with Azrin able to provide translating facilities they make their way past the trapped entrance and once more to the planning room.

The remaining zombies lurch to the attack but this time are turned by Azrin invoking the holy power of Asura. Following the path of the zombies lead down a broad marble stairway to a large marbled hall with enormous ruined doors at the far end, and an opening on the left which proves to be a balcony.

There are two ranks of skeletons waiting for action, but once again the power of Asura is channelled through Azrin’s frail body and the skeletons are blasted into nothingness.

Crail, cautious as ever checks out the balcony and discovers it to be unsafe to stand on.

Checking the doors is somewhat more interesting… a large domed chamber with a vast dragon skeleton resting on a dais... and behind that something small, black, winged and scaly...

Azrin calls out in Draconic, and the creature replies “Come, talk to me, I’m lonely. I want to be your friend”. Lysander feels the hairs on the back of his neck rising once again though - this tiny dragon is evil, and there is something else in the room too, below the water level.

Guessing that these are offspring of the dead dragon, which in turn was the “dreaded swamp denizen”, the company decide that they are too evil to allow them to live and grow.

Auriel uses wood-shape to fashion a makeshift bridge to be dropped across the waterway, and then the party burst through the doors and move to attack the dragonet.

The fight is fierce and mobile. A second small dragonet rises out of the water and the company find themselves attacked by acid breath on two fronts. Lysander calls on Asura to bless his blade, and finds with his enchantment the scimitar bites deeply. Crail takes shots with his bow as the dragon takes flight and hovers.

Azrin, remaining by the doorway and unfamiliar with combat attempts to create water in front of a dragon as it breaths, but misjudges the range. He then throws his spear away in a vain attempt to cast it at the nearer dragon before running back into the marbled hall, where he spends a few rounds running fruitlessly to and fro trying to find another usable weapon. DMs note: The player handled this really well. It is the first time that the librarian Azrin has really seen any combat, and he dithered superbly!

Lysander, Crail, Auriel and Ynnsfeardh gang up on one dragonet and kill it, and finally manage to down the remaining flying one too. Battered and badly burnt by dragon acid, the party treat their wounds using mundane and mystical means.

Turning to survey the rest of the room they find a vast pile of copper and silver coins, several artworks and, partly buried amidst these things, the skeletal remains of a nonhuman.

Interestingly, a number of the items of clothing on this nonhuman, probably one of the half-mythical elves, are untouched by time. DMs note: nonhuman races such as dwarfs and elves are extraordinarily rare - nobody has seen one in dozens of years.

[Plane Sailing]

A cloak and boots of soft grey-green material is claimed by Auriel, and she blends easily into the shadows while wearing them. Crail takes the vest of ultra-fine Mithril links which can be worn underneath his normal clothes and Lysander accepts the fine quality Elven bow. The silver clasp for the cloak is identified along with the other items by Azrin - the general knowledge he gained while book-learning in the libraries of Singh has done his church proud here - and he takes the brooch of shielding for himself.
After resting, the company investigates the room below the balcony, which turns out to be flooded.

Auriel re-shapes the wooden equipment into a small boat and ferries Crail and the others across to a series of statues. Crail finds a secret panel, but not the trap guarding it and receives a face full of acid gas, fortunately not fatal.

Retrieving a locked iron box, they investigate the chamber further, but all of the remaining exits seem completely flooded. There are giant centipedes visible under the surface of the water, so they retreat back to check out the one remaining corridor in the dungeon before returning to Knightsbridge.

The remaining corridor poses some questions of its own, since it apparently joins onto a circular corridor which has the floor covered in magical symbols laid out in lines of coloured sand.

Azrin recognises them as some form of planar barrier, a magic circle either keeping outsiders out, or keeping them in. There is some discussion about how to investigate further, but eventually it is marked on the map and abandoned. After all, the elves that destroyed the fortress must have found it and either left it alone or set the wards up... either way it is not a good idea to disturb it while the party resources are at a low ebb.

Time to return to Knightsbridge for the fair!

During the journey back to town, they contemplate the things that they have learned. Azrin follows up the sparring lessons that Ynnsfeardh has been giving him, and takes the first steps on the road to controlling his weak and clumsy body. Auriel extends her knowledge of nature magic and Crail gets a little better at several of his skill.

At this point the party makeup is as follows:

Auriel, Druid 5
Lysander, Jazumai 4
Crail, Rogue 3
Azrin, Cleric 2/Monk1
Ynnsfeardh, Monk4

[Plane Sailing]

Strange times in Knightsbridge
aka Speaker in Dreams. from WotC

Returning to Knightsbridge on Markday, they find the festival in full swing. Arriving at Eastgate their weapons are peace-bonded as is the custom during festival weeks - to give drunken hot-heads a chance to cool down before they injure one another. The main street is even more crowded than normal, with jewellery sellers, stages with high class performers and musicians, noise bustle and music.

Crail eyes up the situation as ideal for thieves, and all the party take precautions against cutpurses. Lysander and Azrin go directly to the temple while the others attend their favourite local - the Queen of Cups.

Barnabas, the proprietor, greets them as old friends now. “what have you brought me from you adventures, boys?” he calls out. To his astonishment they lay two black dragon wyrmling skulls on the counter.

“well, we killed these two” says Auriel

“and we found this one”

They watch his eyes bug out as they open another sack and pull out an ancient black dragon skull! As busy as the town is at the time of the fair, Barnabas pledges to “Find some room for my boys!”.

At the temple Lysander finds a room has been prepared there for his own use, although Alkanar the high priest seems strangely distant and uncommunicative. Perhaps unwilling to see Lysander for some reason? Well, tomorrow is Holyday, and he’ll have a chance to speak to the priest then...

Peeling Azrin away from the temple library which is closed for the period of the festival, they go to join up with their friends before trying out the fair.

Our friends don’t find much to distract them during the fair, although one rumour leads them to a stall just in the shadow of the bell tower where a swarthy skinned man in a broad-brimmed hat is selling an exotic missile weapon shaped somewhat like hollow Frisbees (they are chakrams).

He is a personable enough sort, but is rude to Azrin because of the deep enmity between his own nation of Tillan and Azrin’s homeland.

There are no problems with pickpockets - rather the reverse as Crail finds a note has been inserted into one of his pouches. It is from Laidley, a girl that used to have a crush on him before he ran away from the local thieves guild. It says “Be careful - there have been many changes in the guild, and it is even less safe for you than it was before. Many outsiders have come into the guild and they have said that they want to find you“.

Crail redoubles his watch for any of the black-haired men who had started infiltrating the guild just before he left them. He has a bad feeling about this...

[Plane Sailing]

Suddenly there is an unusual commotion in the street ahead - the sound of carts being turned over, screams and fighting!
The party loose their weapons and push their way through the crowds to find a bizarre scene - ratmen turning over stalls and attacking merchants and dire rats as big as Alsatians swarming around and biting everyone they can.

The leader of the ratmen espies them and fires his crossbow at Auriel, hitting her while she was still flatfooted - fortunately she was just that little bit too far away for him to aim his shot at a vital location.

Crail returns fire to no avail, and Lysander moves to engage the were-creatures. With no magic weapons, his blows are largely futile - and Auriel is getting a battering every time she tries to cast a spell - until Azrin passes a silvered dagger to Lysander.

In short order two wererats lie bleeding to death on the ground. The others flee, moving faster than any of the party can follow and quickly getting lost in the alleyways around the main street.

Crail nearly catches one but is distracted by a dire rat which is gamely trying to chew his leg off, so he takes a 5’ step back, loads and shoots it with his crossbow.

Surveying the devastation, Lysander quickly goes to check the wounded merchants, and calls upon the power of Asura to heal those who are hovering on the brink of death, although some have sadly already passed that final gateway.

While nobody is looking Auriel finishes off the wounded were-rat that had been attacking her, eliminating their one source of information about what has just been going on. DMs note: bloodthirsty girl, isn't she?

The guards arrive, and demand to know why there are all these dead men around, but the healed merchants explain the situation, and the guards proffer their thanks.

Crail notices that both of the dead ratmen have long, black, greasy hair - and he has a bad feeling about what has happened to his old thieves guild.

So what was going on here? Was it the protection racket and people weren’t paying up? Or was there something more sinister going on?

DMs note: Something I ommitted from an earlier account was when the party went back to the town armourer and requested some silvered weapons - and he refused, saying that they didn't have any in stock and he wasn't able to make any. In fact, he seemed a little nervous about talking to them about the issue. Azrin had his silvered dagger as part of his equipment that he brought with him from Singh when he entered the game - it would have been much tougher for everyone if that had not been the case. Clearly, the wererats had forced the thieves guild to put the frighteners on the blacksmith one way or another.

[Plane Sailing]

The foul, filthy bites of the giant rats have infected Auriel and Crail with filth fever. Lysander calls upon Asura to heal Crail, but Auriel will have to wait awhile, and she finds her strength starting to fail, so she plans to spend more time resting.
Crail, Lysander and Azrin spend a little more time looking around the festival. Crail picks up rumours about deaths down in Southspur, the poorest area of town outside the fortified walls.

Also, apparently Tonar, the chief of the guard has disappeared a couple or weeks ago.

He was investigating something down in Chatterstreet or Southspur and hasn’t been seen since.

They also hear about a foreigner selling exotic weapons near the bell tower, and go to make his acquaintance. The see a swarthy man called Chandra, dressed in a broad-brimmed hat and clothing with fringes along the arms and legs.

He greets Crail happily, and shows his Chakrams - exotic thrown weapons that look a little like steel frisbees (think of Xena).

Azrin tries to make conversation with him, but Chandra tells him to “keep his stinking Singharese nose out of things.”

DM note: Chandra comes from Tillan, a small state far to the west across the barrier range which is continually threatened by the religious super-state of Singh. He is understandably upset when one of his hereditary enemies tries to strike up a conversation with him!

The group decide that the exotic weapon looks interesting, and several are purchased. They then pick up Auriel and decide to pay a visit to the strange little bookshop which was going to be selling the Candlemakers spell book for them.

Proceeding into West Hill, Azrin is surprised by yet another tirade when a passer by starts shouting at him.

“You priests, you say you are looking after our spiritual welfare, but what are you doing about the ghosts around here, eh? What are you doing about the West Hill ghosts? You are just foreign scum trying to get our money and prayers, aren’t you!”

Azrin can’t get a word in edgewise, and is bemused - he certainly hasn’t heard of any such trouble, but apparently ghastly moans and gibberings have been heard in the neighbourhood of cheap street and the jewellers mall at night.

[Plane Sailing]

They proceed on to the bookshop and once more find the lecherous old man, who intersperses every statement with licking of his lips and slobbering glances towards Auriel, to whom he addresses all his comments. If anything he is worse than before, and Auriel finds herself particularly disgusted. No, he hasn’t managed to sell the book yet, yes he does have a potential buyer but it is expensive, and the sale can’t be rushed, and would the young witch like a quickie behind the stairwell while the others leave? No? Perhaps next time then?
Shortly after leaving the vaguely disturbing bookshop, as they travel back to the Queen of Cups, the group are accosted by two more tall men with long black greasy hair. One of them swigs a potion and suddenly grows to large size, as they both transform into humanoid rats and press their attack!

This time the battle goes much better for the party - they have Azrin’s silvered weapons to hand and even with the reach advantage enjoyed by one of them the creatures are quickly defeated.

As the party watch the bodies return to their human forms, a merchant hurries out of a nearby bakery. “Please”, he calls out, “can you do something to stop the depredations of these creatures? We have all been paying protection money out of fear, but it looks like you might be able to stop them? I don’t know if its any help, but the festival stallholders who are near the bell tower have been complaining about rat problems...”

[Plane Sailing]

Making their way back to the town centre, the party visually survey the bell tower, standing tall in the middle of the town. It is tall and sturdy, with only the one entrance. Auriel decides to keep watch over the tower until dusk, drawing her Elven cloak around her shoulders and fading into the shadows. The others will meet her back here at sundown.

An argument breaks out between Lysander and Azrin. Azrin seems more interested in knowledge about the wererats and less about the terror which they have been inflicting on the local people. Lysander is incensed that Azrin would place his own thirst for knowledge above the well-being of people. Issuing a dire threat for the priest to keep out of his way, he storms off into the festival.

Crail was somewhat intrigued by this exchange, and engages Lysander in conversation. In turn, Lysander decides to try to interest Crail in the tenets of Asuran religion, and Crail decides to get into a full blown theological discussion. As the time is whiled away, Crail finds the arguments advanced more and more convincing, and somewhat against his earlier wishes finds himself a convert to Asura! Lysander decides that there is no time like the present for introducing him to the temple, and proceeds off there with Crail in tow.

Lysander continues to have great difficulty in getting to see Alkanar - he is still “too busy”, and it is only by really forcing the issue does he get to see him. It is an unhappy conversation with Alkanar - not least because after voicing his concerns about Azrin’s suitability, Lysander is actually charged with his protection, much to his horror.

Alkanar seems very distracted, not his normal pleasant self, and he dismisses Lysander abruptly.

The fuming Jazumai returns with Crail to meet Azrin (Who is given the command “stay out of trouble and stay out of my way”) and then to join up with Auriel outside the bell tower.

Auriel has had a boring afternoon. There hasn’t been any activity around the bell tower, nor from the surrounding buildings. The single door at the base of the tower hasn’t moved while she has been watching. Although the street festival is continuing into the night, they are away from the bright lanterns, and the noise covers their activities. The party decides to unravel the secret of the bell tower...

[Plane Sailing]

Crail picks the lock, and finds a lobby with a door opposite and a stairway on his right that probably spirals up around the inside of the tower. Pushing open the door gently, he sees an elderly man sitting in a comfy armchair, reading a book by the light of a small oil lamp. The room has a small bookcase, a bed and several bell-ropes hanging down the centre of the room.

“What are you doing here? Go away” shouts the elderly man.

“Sorry” replies Crail and he shuts the door again.

The rest of the party look at him - thief, burglar extraordinaire - and he says “sorry”?

DMs note: the rest of the players just cracked up over this whole exchange - they couldn't believe the politeness of his response when they were intending to clear the place of were-rats!

They decide to leave him there and head up the staircase. Crail and Auriel lead the way, both moving silently and hiding amidst the shadows. A full spiral around the stairway has taken them up about 20 feet, and reveals another door, which they decide to open.

They enter the small, empty room which is littered with debris and smells of damp fur, and suddenly they are ambushed by three wererats who had been hiding above the doorway!

One of them attacks Auriel, the other two attack Crail. Spying the silvered spear that the witch carries the wererat decides to make a disarm attack, and he then steps sideways and places his foot firmly on the spear so it can’t be picked up.

Crail desperately fences with the two facing him. Hearing the call for help, the rest of the party start running up the stairs.

Auriel moves to one side and casts shillelagh on her cudgel. Crail shifts his position slightly and two of the wererats spot their chance, move to flank him. One strikes, critical hit, triple damage! The next one strikes, critical hit, triple damage!

Mortally wounded, Crail stumbles but heroically attempts to strike once more. The ratman who was attacking Auriel swings round and strikes the wounded rogue too, running him through.

Crail slumps to the ground, dead...

... to be continued!

DMs note: I make a point of rolling important rolls to hit out in the open, and I couldn't believe that both of the flanking wererats got a critical hit on poor Crail. If he'd slumped to the floor they would probably have left him, but he didn't want to leave Auriel alone and the rats percieved him to still be a threat.

[Plane Sailing]

Auriel finally lands a solid blow with her shillelagh, taking down one of the wererats, and Lysander appears at the door and strikes down a second. He calls out “Surrender” to the final wererat, and it complies, throwing down its weapon.

Questioned, it says that Squim, the leader, is up at the top of the bell tower with his two remaining cronies.

Lysander and Auriel start up the stairs to the bell room, and on the next landing there is a flash, and cold black energy leaps around Lysander, but the divine grace he enjoys from Asura keeps the enervation trap at bay.

Finally, at the top of the bell tower they find Squim and his two remaining cronies, in ratman form hiding up amongst the bells and ropes. Azrin is sent downstairs, and an arrow knocks one of the ratmen down to the floor.

Auriel goes to take advantage of the downed wererat, but finds herself flanked by Squim who has read a scroll summoning a strange alien squid being which attacks Lysander, grappling him thoroughly.

Squim lands telling blows against Auriel, who starts returning the favour. Lysander struggles to free himself from the squid-things grasp while it produces a cloud of inky darkness around itself.

After a scrabble for a few rounds the squid thing is dispatched, as are two of the ratmen. Squim makes a run for it, quickly climbing up the bell ropes and escaping through one of the small windows.

Outside, Azrin who was waiting and watching sees Squim attempting to make his exit - quickly calling to Chandra, the Tillanian weaponsmith, he points to the wererat. “Can you hit *that*?”. Chandra whirls one of his chakrams at Squim and knocks him from his precarious perch.

The 40 foot fall wounds squim severely, and Azrin leaps forward and grapples the wererat, pinning him quickly in his weakened state. The others burst out of the foot of the tower, and help to quickly tie the wererat up, so he can be taken to justice.

Searching him, they find something particularly interesting... he has some notes on him that are written on headed notepaper - notepaper from the strange little bookshop up at West Hill...

[Plane Sailing]

That same night the two captured were-rats and the body of Crail are taken to the temple of Asura. Knocking at the side door, they are allowed in by a local acolyte - but to their surprise are told that Alkanar is unable to see them because he is unwell... but a new high priest, Daros can speak to them!

Daros meets them in the main temple sanctuary - a big, bluff man, with the shaven head typical of the religious natives of Singh. He is pleased to meet Lysander, and tells Azrin to “speak up man! If you’ve got something to say, spit it out!”.

He introduces them to a companion of his, Felgar - a female Jazumai who came with him from Singh. His duties will place him in charge of the temple until Alkanar recovers, then he will be moving on.

He is pleased with their nights activities but disappointed to hear of the death of Crail, their recent high-profile convert. Although Alkanar always believed in waiting for holy days for performing the mightiest magics, Daros tells them to leave Crails body here and return tomorrow after dawn. Even though it is only Moonday, he will pray for the power to raise Crail from the dead.

The next day the party assembles early at the temple, and Daros performs the rite of resurrection, breathing new life into the young rogue, their friend. They spend the rest of Waneday with Crail, helping him to recover from his ordeal and planning their next steps.

Several clues seem to point towards evil activities up in the West Hill district, and the arcane bookshop with the lecherous bookseller would seem to be near the centre of the problems. Auriel leaves them to spend a few days meditating in a grove outside the town.

Walking through the fair and talking with the guards at the West Hill guardpost, they find out a little more about strange goings on - mysterious deaths (“we don’t know what killed him, but it wasn’t sword or blows. He seemed real pale-like though” . There have also been mysterious mists rising up in the middle of the afternoon. Azrin suggests that maybe this is to allow people to move in and out of the bookshop covertly...

That afternoon, as they are checking out the jewellers mall close to the arcane bookshop, mist billows out across the square. Without hesitation, Lysander charges into it...

[Plane Sailing]

Crail follows him into the mists, and they zero in on the sound of two men talking - engaging them, Crail finds himself struck by magic missiles, and a fan of burning flame also shoots forth from the mist.

These two hooded sorcerers would not be too much of a problem though, and Crail quickly takes one of them down - but suddenly with an awful sucking sound a huge, tentacled slimy worm like creature appears in their midst.

Its head dips down and five of its tentacles slash Lysander, hauling him up in the air and transferring him towards its terrible sucking mouth. Ynnsfeardh and Azrin head into the mist to aid their fellows, the monk striking at the creature with a kama, while Azrin finds himself duelling across its tail with the sorcerer who produces flaming hands.

Lysander calls upon the healing powers of Asura to keep himself going, and the worm gets bored with him and flings him aside before attacking Crail. Things are starting to look serious when suddenly the creature vanishes, sucked back to whatever plane it had come from. One of the cabalists has escaped, the other is captured, relieved of a number of potion vials which Azrin looks after, and a wand in a holster which Crail appropriates.

They need to take some time to recover before tackling the bookshop itself, so they drag the cabalist off for questioning, but all they get from him is babbling inanities

- "the door swings open", "the dreamer awakes", "doom will befall all, all will fall before him Mwha-ha-ha-ha!".

Lysander is a little concerned about the way that the cultists mind seems to be going, considering the religious secret he uncovered during his recent studies in the library - that some prophets teach that there is an unspeakable entity, imprisoned forever by mighty Asura in the dawn of time, the god of this world and its inhabitants before men ever arose. Some prophets say that one day this unspeakable one will awaken and destroy the world. No wonder that information is well hidden!

DMs note: every 5 ranks in Knowledge(religion) or knowledge(arcane) will reveal one of the campaign secrets to a player)

They decide to take the cultist back to the temple, but on the way Crail notices that they are being followed...

[Plane Sailing]

Just before they reach the temple Crail ducks into a side alley and doubles back around a couple of side streets to find himself behind the follower. It is a man, clearly a foreigner with straight, jet-black hair, sharply featured nose and cheekbones and a tunic made of some kind of fur. He seems to be studying sweetmeats at a stall, but when he sees Lysander striding back up the street in his direction he turns to leave - and is tripped by Crail, or very nearly.

He stops himself from falling and first attempts to bluff out of the situation, but as Crail waves Lysander over, he changes his tune.

“Why were you following us?” Crail demands.

“I’d prefer not to talk about it in such a public place” the man retorts. “Could we step into an alleyway? You choose one”.

Crail agrees, and Lysander senses no overt evil from the man so the three of them step out of the immediate vicinity of the festival.

His name is K’tan, and he is one of the mages of Cadlan, a mountaintop city far to the North of Knightsbridge. Apparently the mages are concerned - “Crystals deep under the mountain have started moaning” and as a result representatives have been sent across the known world to track down any evidence of attempts to waken “the dreamer”, a mysterious prophetic figure.

K’tan had been following up rumours of strange activities in West Hill, and observed their combat with the Wyste, an alienist creature summoned by servants of the dreamer.

“You are in great danger”, he warns them. “We all are”. “The cabal of sorcerers working out of the bookstall have much magical power - I would be willing to aid you in any assault on the place should you so desire”.

Lysander sends Crail a little further away in the alley to confirm some of his suspicions about the nature of the dreamer - (which Crail lip reads, the sneaky beggar) and then agrees that K’tan's help would be valuable. They will meet with him in the Silver Hill amphitheatre late that afternoon, and proceed to the bookshop.

Having arranged that, they return to the temple to meet up with Azrin and Ynnsfeardh once more. They are let in by *yet another* new acolyte from Singh who leads them round to the meeting room where the others are waiting. How many new guys are there in the temple anyway?

As the acolyte leaves them, Lysander concentrates and receives the familiar sensation on the back of his neck - he’s pretty sure that the guy is deeply associated with evil! He looks across at Azrin - is it normal for a church to be subtly overtaken and placed in other hands...?

He finds himself in a dilemma - it is well known that Asura has evil as well as good worshippers - but both are concerned with the rule of law and the promotion of the worship of Asura, even though they may have different, uh, methods of going about it. It seems that this alienist plot that they have uncovered at the bookshop is a greater and more insidious evil, stretching back to an ancient horror... this temple politics is probably safe to leave alone for a short while.

Isn't it?

[Plane Sailing]

Late afternoon on Markday they return to the amphitheatre and pick up K’tan, then head off to the bookshop in West Hill. Crail scouts around the alleyway behind the bookshop and disables the lock on the rear door, to make sure that nobody is going to be leaving that way in a hurry. Then they meet up around the front again.

The shop appears to have been doing its customary poor trade, and nobody is inside, so they enter.

“Yesss?” intones the obsequious bookkeeper from behind his counter. “What can I do for you? Have you got that pretty witch with you again so I could SEE her? (snigger snigger)”.

Disgusted by this foul pervert, Crail walks around the counter and tears down the curtain to the back room, revealing yet more bookshelves, a stairwell and a large cupboard.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing!” cries the bookkeeper

- then Lysander steps up to him and picks him up by the throat “Tell us about the cabal, you scum” he says, menacingly.

The bookkeeper isn’t intimidated. “I don’t know what you’re talking about” he replies, choking.

“Wait” says Crail. “I can hear some strange, manic humming in here”.

He opens the door and a horrific gibbering sound fills the room, as a mound of flesh covered all over with eyes and mouths spills out into the room in front of him!

Steeling his nerves against the horrific sounds, he strikes at the creature to no avail. Three of its mouths launch out on tentacles and latch hold of him, sinking deep into his flesh. Three more lash out and grab Azrin too.

In desperation, Azrin drinks two of the potions they found earlier - and he finds his feet levitate off the floor and his outline becomes blurred and shifting.

Lysander takes a step into the room, and against the better judgement of his conscience casts the bookkeeper into the midst of the aberration, where he is engulfed.

K’tan concentrates and the sound of a low hum builds rapidly into a crescendo of a shout and the open door next to the creature is shattered as if by a blow.

Lysander moves in to the attack and calls upon Asura to bless his blade. Asura says "NO". DMs note: he should have listened to his conscience...

Both Crail and Azrin feel themselves weaken as blood is drained from them by the awful sucking mouths. Worse, Azrin is tugged off his feet and enveloped into the centre of the heaving mass and feels a dozen more small mouths biting at him!

Another soundless shout comes from K’tan and a portion of the doorframe is blown into splinters. The power is there, but his aim today is rotten. (DMs note: Concussion is a ranged touch attack which can affect objects in my campaign).

In desperation Crail whips out the wand he got from one of the cabalists earlier and attempts to suss out how to use it - somehow he is successful, and the wand crackles with electricity - he swings at the creature and electricity lances into its amorphous form, felling it with the shocking grasp.

As it collapses into a stinking pile of goo, Azrin floats up from its midst. Among the remains on the floor is a partially devoured and bloodless husk of the bookkeeper...

...Action hotting up a bit now, and Lysander has made a bad mistake in his actions here. While not quite going as far as stripping him of his Jazumaihood (aka Paladinhood), Asura is certainly withholding certain benefits and graces until atonement is made. Oh dear.

[Plane Sailing]

Fog starts rolling down the stairs, and a large fiery ball bounces into the room. Lysander leaps up the stairs and is confronted by a hooded and robed figure just visible at the head of the stairs, who conjures another fiery ball between them before retreating into the mist. Lysander attempts to leap over the ball and doesn’t quite clear it, getting scorched toes. Ynnsfeardh follows him up. Back on the ground floor Azrin grabs a fire bucket and douses some of the fires started by the rampaging fire sphere, before following Crail and the others up to the first floor.

Detecting the cabalists by the sound of their enchantments, our hero’s cross the floor and attempt to engage them; Lysander is struck by an Acid Arrow, and Crail ducks two of them during the combat. One of the cabalists is cut down, the other escapes up a further set of stairs in the mist after Azrin manages to fumble and trip Crail rather than his target (This came just after an inspired lunge by Azrin *underneath* the rooms table to trip the cabalist, although nobody was able to take advantage of that effort.)
Azrin levitates up the next stairwell, bursting through the mists, and is greeted by two flaming bolts, both of which sear into his chest.

Asura is clearly smiling on him, as only a miracle keeps him from dying instantly (rolls a 20 on his save vs instant death). In the thinning mist on the first floor the company see his dying body, and Crail and Lysander quickly run up the stairs, followed by K’tal and Ynnsfeardh after some rudimentary first aid keeps Azrin alive.

(I wonder if I've got the record for highest number of posts in a storyhour without anyone else saying anything )