The Chronicles of the Boreal Sun (Updated 3/9/2005)

[jester47]

The campaign that the story hour comes from takes place in the Forgotten Realms, specifically in and around Everlund. Though the location might change, Everlund and the Savage North are the "mainstage" of the campaign. For those concerned about spoilers, I will state that the initial modules covered in the summary are The Sunless Citadel and Tomb of Abysthor. Long time players will recognise Bargle and his goblin, and may recognise other very D&D sites, persons, events and things.

Keep in mind that my world is made of my take on the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk and Wilderlands. While the mainstage is in the Savage North of the realms, the players can find themselves in the Flanaess or the City State of the Invincible Overlord. The only canon that I follow are those in the gaming books as printed for 3rd ed and even that may not be true. I use all three of these worlds, love swords and sorcery, and grew up on First Edition and the Basic/Expert Sets so expect anything. I will try to update every 2 weeks with a new short episode.

The first story post is not the standard format of the story hour but a summary I wrote to get players and readers up to speed on the events of the campaign. All the posts afterwards will be less summary and more story.

Also I would encourage you to visit often as bits I have forgotten will appear in the summary as I remember them. I have most of them here, but I am still remembering to add some so check back until I state here that I will not be updating the summary.

Please, sit back, have a read, and enjoy the story...

The Cast of Colorful Characters:

Heinrich – Known as a brilliant tactician what he lacks in brawn he makes up for in smarts. Carries a great sword as tall as he is, and wears flamboyant dress messed up by dirt. His flamboyant manner of dress makes sense because he is from Amn, the Land of Flamboyant Soldiery. A former mercenary who has traveled north in the pursuit of wealth and an “ass kicking good time!”

Delain – Armed with katana and wakizashi, Delain is a sneaky ranger type. He travels from town to town as few put up with his laid back easy going attitude towards life. That and the skin color that comes with being half-drow. When challened about his "attitude" he stands to his full height of 5ft 7in and reminds people that “Drow fight all the time. The purpose of the drow is to flip out and kill people.” This tends to make all but the toughest troublemaker back down. Delain as a real big chip on his shoulder about people mistaking him for a certain Drizzt Do'Urden. “Cheer up angsty, you're only half Drizzt!” – Heinrich.

Lynneth Starreaver - 5ft tall. Often seen over in the corner. Sarcastic Wizard, Goal is spell acquisition. Tries not to look like a wizard. She has plans to study in Silverymoon. She is adventuring to gain some spells and help pay for her education. She is often found going from place to place with very large books that dwarf her diminutive frame.

Morcon- Cleric of Kelemvor, who belongs to the order of the Gauntlet, a division of Kelemvor’s faith whose duty it is to hunt the undead. Somewhat taciturn, many would call him “a real dick.” However he kicks ass in a fight and holds his own against the undead quite well.

Sol- Hired by Kalista the high-class Thayan prostitute as a bodyguard, it turns out that Sol is quite the slayer. Recognized by his great axe and a heavy flail, he is usually found hanging out in taverns and inns out in Everlund. Thug? Mercenary? The less known the better…

Kalista – Companion, Callgirl, Society Woman, Hooker, Prostitute, Operative. All of these yet none of them describe this mysterious (yet prissy and very girly) woman. Kalista was raised in Thay but has been living in the Enclave of Everlund for several years. At first glance one would simply take her for a Tall. 5’10” ample breasted high priced whore. However that would probably be the first in a long series of last mistakes. Not good at fighting: diplomacy and seduction are her weapons of choice. Can speak infernal and abyssal. Wears a pretty white cloak.

Kurm - Departed - Shaman of the Wolf-Fang Tribe. Kurm travelled south from his home in the spine of the world to recover the totem of his tribe: a magical mask that was made from the head of a wolf. Durring his childhood Belek came and tricked his people out of the mask. He swore revenge and when the time came and he was old enough he made his way accross the Evermoors, tracking the theiving Belek to the old citadel where he laired. Kurm is joined by a wolf companion wherever he goes.

The Elven Bard of Tethyr - departed- Sort of a hack comedian, called back to Tethyr as he was heir to the headship of a woodelf tribe. Had traveled to Everlund with Heinrich.

Mishiru - deceased – A holy warrior of Anhur journeying from Mulhorand in an effort to assess the operations of the Red Wizards in the rest of the world. Her assignment was Everlund. At some point she decided that the party’s mission was not hers and she wandered away from the party. As best the party can tell she wont be coming back. All the evidence (tracks, blood, sword on the ground) suggests that trolls ate her.

Sarge - departed – A general provision and labor provider. Provided the group with mercenaries and goods to help in their endeavors. Has gone south on a mission for his family.

 

[jester47]

(Summary of Campaign Events) Hard Winter, Sunless Citadel, Dark Tombs:

It all begins during one of the heaviest snowstorms in the history of Everlund. In the taproom of the Missing Minotaur, a watchman brings in a man that was found just outside the city gates, beaten, and frostbitten. The watch has summoned the Clerics of Helm to attend to the man. After a long wait they arrive. They state that the man will live but he needs to be taken to the Keep of Vigilance where they have better means to care for him. After the snow stops the party visits the man in the Keep. The man, Albrecht by name tells them his story.

Albrecht told of a wizard that entered his home unseen. The wizard put him under some charm or compulsion. The wizard told him to meet him outside the city the next day. When he arrived there was no one there and so he waited and apparently fell asleep. He awoke chained in the courtyard of an old keep some distance from town. There were some other prisoners there. He and the others were sold to two other men. One was a half-orc, the other was most likely a human. He could only tell by their trappings that they were both priests of some dark god. They spoke of a temple, but never stated the god’s name. However the wizards name was Bargle, who has a price on his head, as one of the priests used his name when Bargle seemed to be asking for more than the agreed price. At which Bargle quickly chastised him for it. The priest explained that they did not have the money that Bargle wanted and would only be able to pay him such an amount if he journeyed with one of them to the Valley of the Shrines. Bargle agreed. With the priests was a contingent of orcs, mercenaries most likely, as there was a discussion of payment. They seemed to be using the Keep as a sort of way station for the drop off and sale of slaves and other goods. He was chained to the other slaves and they were given over to the orcs and beaten. This seemed to be part of their payment. Afterwards, with some cloaked soldiers distantly flanking the group, the one of the priests led them for the rest of the day and into the night through the blizzard to the valley of the shrines, with Bargle following the group at a safe distance. They never saw who the soldiers were, though they had armor and swords and dark cloaks. All the way the priest and one of his underlings were discussing Bargle. It seemed that Bargle was becoming too high profile of a supplier and they wanted to do away with him. Unbeknownst to them, for some time Bargle had been walking next to them in the line of slaves, invisible. Upon hearing this he cast a spell that released Albrecht and several of the other slaves from the chains. Hearing the rattle of the chains, the priest looked back. The man ran as best he could, as Bargle ran the other way and prepared to cast a spell. In the confusion of the night's blizzard the man was lost to the group. He eventually made his way back to the city gates.

[Background about shrines given to players and info about fires at an abandoned keep placed here soon]

With the party initially investigating the shrines and getting mauled by spiders, along with well armed and dangerous skeletons over the course of several forays into the valley, Sarge and the Bard took a job to the south, delivering a book to candlekeep for one of Sarge’s relations. The bard had also been called back to his tribe. Delain, Mishiru, Heinrich, and Lynneth, decided that the mystery of the shrines could wait. Braving the winter of the savage frontier they then pursued the rumor of the missing initiate of Tyr, Sir Braford. Following the rumors to Oakhurst they discovered that he had headed into the sunless citadel with three adventurers two of who were of a local cattle herder family.

They spoke to an old gold elf who imparted the tale of the citadel. Centuries ago, before the citadel sank, an elf lord ruled the surrounding lands. His son had travelled to a far off land and was gone several years longer than was expected. However, he eventually returned home with a strange package in tow. An odd book bound in the skin of a dragon. He began to invite strange folk into his father's home and later that year his father fell sick and died. After killing off his siblings using foul magics he inherited all the surrounding lands and the citadel. And that was how the Cult of the Dragon came to dominate a small part of the north for a brief time. He lived secure in the citadel for several years. And those were dark and terrible days. But eventually his sins caught up with him. No one knows who was behind it, but the cultists met their death and the citadel sank into the ground, never to see sunlight again.

Approaching the Citadel, they encountered Kurm, an orc druid from the spine of the world, on a quest to recover the lost totem of the Wolfs-Tooth orcs. After some mistrustful debate, they descended into the Citadel. There was some excitement falling down the ice covered stairs and dealing with the rats at the entrance. Eventually they began to carefully explore the buried ruins. They quickly dispatched the skeletons in the closet, and moved on. Finding a stone door, they opened it to discover a series of chambers. At this point they discovered a strange sphere that made a lot of noise among some other broken spheres. After silencing the sphere they moved further in. Then, they came upon a chamber with a great sarcophagus. Opening the sarcophagus they freed a strange troll hybrid. After dispatching this monstrosity, the Quazit who was forced to guard the sarcophagus attacked, Lynneth freaked out and ran head long into an arrow trap which knocked her out. At which the Quazit followed invisible. The rest spent their time seaching the sarcophagus room for the Quazit to no avail. As a result the quazit had plenty of time to inflict grevious wounds on the magic user. As the approach of the rest of the group the quazit fled, not wanting to risk its freedom any longer. The group healed their magic user and carried out some further exploration gathering the loot from the sarcophagus. (some scolls, an everburning torch, coin, jewelry, and a masterwork dagger) They climbed out of the rift and returned to Oakhurst. And from there they traveled back to Everlund and sold thier riches for coin.

Upon returning to Everlund, the party discovered that someone or something had brutally murdered Albrecht and his family. This did not bode well but it weighed little on thier minds. While in Everlund they trained. And then began planning a return trip to the Citadel.

During this time Khurm observed the prejudices of the people of Everlund against the orcs. Indeed even while he lived in the city many towns in the nearby countryside were offering rewards 50 gold per orc head turned in.

It had occurred on their last visit to the citadel that some of the doors and statues in the citadel might be valuable to the right buyers. So finding an art collector to front the money, they invested in the needed equipment to remove the items from the citadel. With sled and magical horse they returned to Oakhurst and the sunless citadel.

On this foray they descended to further explore the place for more treasures. This is when they found the kobold Meepo. At this point, a strange event occurred: Khurm opened a door and upon entering, disappeared. It was in that exact same moment when Morcon appeared. Apparently, somthing Kurm was carrying caused a gate to activate.

He had a strange story to tell:

He had arrived in Everlund to carry out the funerary rights of the murder victim Albrecht and his family. Durring his stay he was told of Albrecht's strange story and the rumors of the presence of Undead in the Valley of the Shrines. He decided to offer his aid to the priests of Helm should the rumors of the undead infestation in the valley of the shrines be true. He visited the Keep of Vigilance and the Abbot General told him the following: “The shrines were abandoned in Helms sorrow over the loss of his lover during the Dawn Cataclysm. Indeed that is why the shrines were built, as a celebration of that love. The shrines are forsaken by Helm and of no concern of yours. Not since the time of Abysthor and his heretical followers has any of this order stepped foot in that vale." When he suggested that the Abbot General send someone to investigate the rumors the Abbot seemed to become irate. "It was Helm’s will they be left alone, become of them what may! And I warn you Cleric- ignoring Helm’s will is a sure way to invite death from the priests of Helm! And even if the rumors were true, we would not need help from a servant of an upstart god such as Kelemvor! Gaurds! This man has blasphemed Helm in his house! Throw out this excuse for a Cleric! Be glad servant of Kelemvor that exile from this keep is your only punishment!” Upon being thrown out of the Keep, Morcan noticed two men running from a crowd as he walked down the streets of Everlund. Summing up, the men (a tall barbarian from the north and a short grey clad Calimshan man) directed him to “Run with us if you know whats good for you!” Apparently they were running from a crowd of angry wedding goers. The one in gray claiming that he did not know that the fair damsel he had been caught with was the bride to be, and that he was sure the crowd was angry about the table the tall one turned over at the first sign of an inquisition. They told the Cleric the best place for him to hide would be one of these barrels. Upon closing the top of the barrel, Morcan found himself in a barrel in the sunless citadel.

Kurm, after taking some berings, found himself in what he was sure was the neverwinter wood. This was bad news, even for an Orc. So Kurm began to correct the situation. His whereabouts are unknown to the rest of the party.

With Meepo’s help, they cut a deal with the queen of the Kobolds. They would recover the White Dragon Mascot Calcryx in exchange for free passage in the Kobold area of the Citadel. A punitive strike was launched. Cleaning out a room of some undead, they found even more interesting treasure, namely several statuettes that linked together head to toe to form a circle and a glass whistle. Tracking down the dead body of one of the missing paladin’s crew in a giant rat’s nest, the party recovered the dragon and laid waste to the goblin half of the citadel, ultimately killing their king, and taking his stuff (some cool treasure). They returned the dragon to the kobolds. Deciding to return to Everlund to heal, rest and train, they left the sled and the equipment hidden in the small woods near the rift.

Keeping a low profile from their debtors and apparently random assassins, the group trained, and then waited for spring. Upon returning to Oakhurst, they took up residence at the Inn. There they encountered a gent:

He invites us to sit down and play cards, Me and Drowboy look at each other and kind of say "hey, whatever." Don't recall the others' reactions so much, but I generally remember that it was a "hey, why not, not doing anything better right now" sort of thing.

We play a couple rounds, with Gamblin Dude who turns out to be dealing special poisoned cards to the cleric. The cleric makes a couple Fort saves, but eventually gets poisoned... Delain also noticed the guy's dirty dealing. We flip the table over on the guy and proceed to pummel him into submission.

We root through his stuff--finding the note, I think, and a bunch of gold he'd gotten from the others in the bar. We start to interrogate him in the bar, and he almost turns it on us by mentioning everyone else's gold, which is now in our hot little hands. I walk up to the bartender and tell him, "Hey, you know these people, I'll let you decide how to divvy this crap up." We drag the guy out of the bar and interrogate him more liesurely.

Arriving back at the citadel they found the sled and their salvage equipment burned. Descending back down the steps, the party found that a troop of hobgoblins had arrived in aid of the goblins. The kobolds were dead slaughtered and scattered. The Goblins controlled the citadel in its entirety and had apparently been eating what Kobolds didn’t escape. After a short bloody battle, the party found themselves trapped in the room that had once caged the dragon.

While we're taking account of things, one of the goblins comes up to the door and (after Delain tries to skewer him through said door) tells us, in Common, that the King (or whatever) wants to talk to us.

With the Hobgoblins facing destruction and the party not wanting to risk it, a parley with the new Goblin King, Balsag was agreed to. When Balsag revealed that his plans were to turn the party over to the mad druid downstairs.

The King basically tells us that druid-guy wants to see us for some reason, and tells us to go down dat hole. Which we do.

They then descended to the second floor to find the rest of the paladin’s party. After a brief encounter with a shadow and a seeing the stray goblin, they reached the druids lair. In the lair was a big tree. Around it were the druid, a snake, and the remaining members of the missing party, including the missing paladin. The paladin seemed to be long gone on the mental front. His personality had gotten a little wooden so to speak. Upon inspection after death his skin was noticed to be like bark.

Belek the druid had the totem mask of Khurms Tribe. The Druid explained that the orc tribes of the spine of the world would soon swarm out of the mountains. In the chaos, enterprising individuals could take power. Indeed the cult of the Demon Lord Orcus, and the Orcs under King Obuld Many Arrows were both preparing just such a grab. The Goblins in this very citadel were a part of the plot by Orcus and answered to the goblin city in the lost tombs of Rappan Athuk.

He offered an alliance with the party: all they would have to do is supplicate to the tree and join him. Upon learning that the supplication process leaves you as a vegetable the party was not too inclined to take up the offer. At which point hostilities broke out.

Druid starts yappin. Tree-critters come out, Entangle gets cast on us, etc. I start fighting the 'slaves' first, getting the worst of it from Braford and his magic sword. The cleric guy and Delain were more or less neutralized, I think...Delain made it out of the entangle spell, but stayed on the periphery of the fight, taking down tree-critters.

I was able to avoid gettin tangled -- and eventually I go for broke and rush past the minions toward the druid. Linneth is about to get killed by Braford, when she casts Charm Person on him, causing him to(at least) stop attacking. "Help me!," etc. I manage to take down the druid...but the minions and tree thingies keep fighting. Linneth yells at me to attack the tree. I yell, "what do I look like, some kind a lumberjack?" She says to just do it anyway, and I shrug and hack it, causing a big 'wound' to open up, spraying evil black crap all over me. I keeps at it for a couple rounds, 'killing' the tree, which manages to stop the other baddies.

We exited through a separate tunnel, which apparently shunted into the Underdark we spent a couple days getting lost in the tunnels. But Delain found us a way out back into the large crevice that is the entrance to the citadel...

Returning to Everlund with the loot gathered from the insane druid in tow, including the legendary chondathan steel sword shatterspike, and with the information gained from Morcon the party then snuck back into the valley of the shrines. This time they found the Shrines unoccupied. After searching through the shrines and not finding much they continued on to the Burial Halls. After dealing with a nasty Glyph, they entered the halls to find them desecrated. A fountain of blood spewing bones began releasing skeletons of dead paladins into the hall. After some running away, tactical advances, decent turnings, and closely approaching death, the heros were able to barricade themselves into an empty room using a stack of three sarcophagi. After healing up and debating a bit the heros had a plan. Taking down the top sarcophagi and spinning the other one in place, they rode down the steps like a roller coaster car, crashing through numerous skeletons! They then high tailed it to the entrance, where Delain on an off chance found a secret passage down. Closing the door behind them and fishing the wizard out of a floor trap, they descended into the deeper halls.

After escaping the evil fount and its army of skeletons through a secret door in the entry hall, the group made their way down some stairs to a room with a pool and an iron door. After some deliberation on how to open the door Lynneth cast knock on the heavy iron door, and it slowly groaned open.

 

[jester47]

Opening Doors [Episode 1, Segment 1]

The stairs led down to a small chamber that widened out to about 20 feet and then narrowed again to a large iron door. Lynneth’s ever-burning torch showed rusted and empty sconces on the walls and a small pool that took up half the room. After the pool the available space in the room was about a five-foot wide walkway that curved around the pool to the door.

The iron door was covered in strange runes. The runes seemed to have one layer that was stately and carved into the door. Another layer covered that layer and seemed more like graffiti than something important.

Heinrich tried the door. It wouldn’t budge.

“I bet it’s locked.” Stated Lynneth.

“Hey Drow, you’re into that stealth stuff. Unlock it.” Commanded Heinrich.

“Unlock it with what? Not like I have a key…” replied Delain.

“I thought you were a stealthy drow…” said Heinrich.

“I AM, but I don’t know the first thing about picking locks.” Interrupted Delain.

“Hrm… Ok, we’ll just have to break it down,” Heinrich concluded, “Where’s that Shatterspike sword we found? Hey Cleric hit the door with the sword.”

“Umm… I have a suggestion,” prodded Lynneth.

“My name is Morcan…” said Morcon.

“I have a suggestion,” said Lynneth a little louder this time.

“I don’t care what your name is, break down the door, we haven’t got all day,” stated Heinrich.

Lynneth gave up trying to reach her companions. Reaching into her bag and muttering the right words and making some gestures she cast a spell. The lock on the door shifted with a clacking noise and the shifting weight as the door opened caused the hinges to groan.

Two forms then stepped forward from the shadows of an alcove near the stairs. One was a gruff looking man brandishing an axe. He bore a countenance similar to the thugs you might find working for assorted “businessmen” on the streets of Everlund. The other was a beautiful Mulan woman, dressed in a deep red and a white cloak. She looked at Lynneth, “Thank you, how nice of you!”

“Who the hell are they!” shouted Heinrich.

Lynneth looked at Delain, “What do we say to them?”

“Don’t look at me, I’m not spokesperson. Ask them,” said Delain as he gestured at Morcon and Heinrich.

Pushing through his companions Heinrich asked: “Who the hell are you guys? …aaaand what are you doing here?”

“I just answer to her,” said the man with the axe. He indicated his companion with a motion of his axe.

Heinrich looked to the half-drow.

“I don’t want to talk to them,” said Delain.

“Well exactly, they don’t want to talk to you, that’s what we got him for,” said Heinrich as he pointed to Morcon.

The woman turned to Morcon and stated: “We are here to investigate.”

“Well crap if I had a copper for every one of those! What are you investigating?” queried Heinrich.

“What are we investigating?” repeated the woman.

“Wait! How did you get in here?” asked Delain.

Answering Heinrich the woman continued: “We heard rumors, through the course of my employment. And my…”

“Rumors didn’t get you in here!” interrupted Delain. “Wall, Wall, Wall, Skeletons, Zombies…” he continued as he pointed for effect.

“Maybe they went in the front way, like the secret door into the secret door…” began Lynneth, “…a secret passage that goes into the secret passage.” She looked around for approval of her idea only to find blank puzzled looks from the woman, the man, Morcon, Delain, and Heinrich.

“Then we are at an impasse,” muttered Lynneth.

Morcon raised his hands and shook his head as if to clear the confusion. “Moving on! I’m here to hunt undead, not to interrogate new people we might run into…”

“Works for me…” muttered Delain as he shrugged his shoulders.

“It has come to my attention that neither of these people are undead. So lets move on and explore the rest of this place.”

“Well, now I’m just curious,” started Heinrich.

“Quiet you!” shot Morcon.

“I don’t want to know a lot, I just want to know what you came to investigate.” continued Heinrich unphased.

“We heard the rumors about all the activity up here. So we came to find out what was going on. We were able to get information about the secret door before we arrived. There was a secret door down to these levels, we came here,” answered the woman.

“Why didn’t we know about the secret door?” asked Delain looking at Lynneth, Morcon and Hienrich.

“Because. You… didn’t… know… the right… contacts!” stated the woman with a bit of sass.

“…because you… don’t… have… breasts!” added Heinrich in close imitation. “Its hard to get information without ‘em!” he finished.

“A courtisen is really good for getting information!” blurted Lynneth.

“Yes,” said Heinrich.

“Verily,” said the woman.

“Except from undead,” added Lynneth.

“Depends on what kind of undead,” corrected the woman.

“So what are you investigating?” asked Heinrich again.

“Just rumors from work,” stated the woman.

“We seem to be headed in the same direction, perhaps we could work together,” suggested the man.

“How many directions are there?” asked Lynneth.

“Two!” stated Delain as he peered down the hallway beyond the door.

“Not with the Skeletons up there,” stated Heinrich.

“Then just one,” stated the man with the axe.

“Inside the depths, or outside the depths,” said Lynneth. A comment most everyone else ignored.

“We are more effective if we are together,” said the woman.

“If we can be of service, that would be good,” added the man.

“Ok…” said Lynneth, “you can go first!”

“Lead on O Brave Leaders!” Morcon mocked.

“No problem,” said the woman, “just one thing.”

“Whats that?” asked Delain.

“What are your names? My name is Kalista. This is Sol, I hired him to protect me,” answered the woman.

Heinrich spoke up: “The dark angsty drow fellow is Delain. Best not mention the two scimitars guy around him, he’s a bit testy on that as he is mistaken for him all the time. The dark dressed fellow over there is Morcon. He’s a dick but he keeps us breathing. Little miss annoying there is Lynneth. She’s the resident mage on this expedition and handy to have in a scrape. And like hell are you going first. It will be me, Morcon, and you Sol, with angsty pullin up the rear and the girls in the middle. Lets go.”

With that the group filed down the hall and into the darkness of the tunnel.