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.