A Journey to the Sea (Greyhawk) UPDATED 7 February 2008

[sniffles]

Letter #31

Sefmir, 998 CY

Dear brother;

It seems that the childrens' tale of the Tiger Prince that we were researching is true for the most part, if not in all its particulars. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that some details were forgotten or confused over time; after all the events the story was based on occurred some 800 years ago, and that's many lifetimes of those not of our people.

As I was telling you, Ninad and I had followed the effects of Thor's spell to a low tavern and burst in to find Thor in rather poor condition, being attacked by a strange being of a sort I've never heard of before. Ninad thinks it must have come from one of the outer planes. The tall blue creature wielded an odd staff in two of its hands and hurled lightning at us with the other two. I warded myself as best I could against the lightning and called a flame to my hand, but it turned out that the creature was just as resistant to fire as it was to its own lightning.

While I took cover behind the bar, I saw that there was a trapdoor in the floor and the strange woman with the tiger companion had taken refuge there. Her tiger was injured - it had been attacking the blue being - so I drew out my wand and applied it to one of the big cat's wounds. The woman seemed to want us to flee down the stairs, but I had no intention of following her. We would come to regret that later.

Ninad shouted out that he thought the blue creature had one of the black shards. That must have been why it came for us. I don't think it had anything to do with the other events we've become entangled in. Ninad, Erasyne and Thor were all fighting toe to toe with the creature and were looking the worse for it. Erasyne had been dancing around in a frenzy of whirling blades, while Ninad pummeled it with his fists and Thor reduced Beaker in size to maneuver better in the cramped space. The creature had knocked out part of a wall to give itself more room.

I was about to cast a healing spell for Ninad and Erasyne when I realized that the creature was looking as ragged as my friends. I'd tried cutting it with my scimitar, but though I struck a solid blow I couldn't penetrate its tough blue hide. Ninad directed me to take his staff, which is enchanted, as only magical weapons seemed able to hurt the thing. I quickly snatched the staff and struck the creature as hard a blow as I could. It crumpled to the floor. We had observed that it could regenerate its wounds like a troll, so Erasyne struck off its head.

Ninad took out the dowsing rod and found a black shard embedded in the creature's head, which he carefully removed and stored in his magic bag. By then the city guardsmen had finally turned up, but we'd become known as guests of the sheikh so they didn't give us much difficulty. The woman with the tiger had disappeared, but it seemed she hadn't had anything to do with the creature or the men who'd been attacking Thor and Erasyne. She'd been just as surprised by the creature as they were.

Ninad nearly got into a fight with the barkeeper when he returned and made insulting remarks, but my friend was too tired to do any harm. After that we decided to return to the palace and rest. We're never destined to go anywhere in this city unmolested, it seems. We did manage to stop off at a leatherworker's shop so Erasyne could order a bandolier to store her potions. Then we were approached by a stranger who claimed to know something about the cat's-eye amulet.

He didn't want to tell us much at first, but when we indicated we wouldn't accept anything he said without more explanation, he finally took us to a nearby coffee house and revealed more.

He introduced himself as Namdar. It was he who confirmed that the legend of the Tiger Prince was mostly true. But in reality the prince had been replaced by a rakshasa. A sorceress named Gullala had trapped the rakshasa within the cat's-eye amulet, but her daughter Naveen and son Ravana had been trapped along with the demon. We all realized then that the strange woman at the tavern had called her tiger by the name Ravana. Apparently the rakshasa had cursed him.

Ninad reluctantly admitted that something odd had happened when he tried to examine the amulet to determine if it was magical. Evidently the binding magic of the amulet had faded over the centuries, and Ninad's simple spell had broken the binding and released the prisoners - both Naveen and her brother and the rakshasa as well.

Namdar claimed to be part of an organization called the Order of the Black Sands, who were responsible for guarding the amulet. The man who had been carrying it was one of their members. He'd been transporting it to another location. The people who attacked him were thieves who wanted to sell the amulet. There were also some Tiger Nomads who wanted it, though Namdar thought neither the barbarians nor the thieves knew about the rakshasa.

Although none of us felt that Ninad ought to be blamed for what had happened, he naturally felt responsible for releasing the evil rakshasa back into the world, and we agreed to help try to track the demon and destroy or imprison him if we can. I'm a bit dubious about our ability to achieve this, though. I don't recall anything specific about rakshasas, but I have the impression that they're very powerful and I doubt that we have the ability to defeat one on our own.

After we left Namdar we were accosted by another stranger who offered to show us to where Naveen was hiding, for a price. We were all naturally suspicious of him, what with a shapechanging rakshasa on the loose, and our little group being followed constantly by thieves and barbarians. But the fellow turned out to be telling the truth.

He led us to Naveen and Ravana and they've joined us to seek the rakshasa. We also notified one of the temples here of the rakshasa's presence. Now we're back in the sheikh's palace, since that was where we were when the rakshasa was freed.

I'll have to continue this story later. We're off to search for the rakshasa now.

Your sister, Lothiriel

 

[sniffles]

Letter #32

Sefmir
12 Goodmonth

Dear brother;

After our adventures in the city we returned to the sheikh's palace with Naveen and Ravana. Erasyne invented a tale of Naveen being a princess from the nomad tribes of the Plains of the Paynims to explain her presence.

We were surprised to learn that Prince Hamad had invited the Tiger Nomads we'd seen in the city to visit him at the palace. I’m sure you can see why that worried us, since some Tiger Nomads had shown an interest in the cat’s-eye amulet.

While Erasyne took Naveen on a tour of the palace, I walked around the grounds looking for any sign of the rakshasa. I didn't find anything. Once I rejoined my companions, I learned that the prince was in the sheikh's art gallery with the barbarians, which seemed a bit odd.

Erasyne was convinced that the rakshasa was masquerading as the prince. We spent some time in Erasyne's quarters arguing over what to do. Erasyne suddenly recalled that she'd been given a potion of invisibility, and planned to use that to spy on the prince so she could use her gem of true seeing to determine if he really was the rakshasa. Unfortunately by the time this was decided the prince and his odd entourage had left the gallery.

It was time for luncheon, so we decided that the rest of us would go on to dine and Erasyne would creep in later and try to spy on the prince. The nomads had been invited to dine as well. We sat around making small talk with Naveen and with the barbarians for a bit, everyone feeling tense and noticing that Prince Hamad seemed more mature and confident than usual.

Then Erasyne came in and announced to Sheikh Azman that some of his guests were not who they appeared to be. But it turned out that she wasn't referring just to the prince; two of the Tiger Nomads were actually weretigers! While Erasyne was trying to convince the sheikh's vizier to look through her gem, the nomad leader stabbed him. Then the two weretigers revealed their true nature and attacked us!

The dining hall erupted in chaos as we fought the weretigers. The false prince jumped up and hid behind his chaperone. Erasyne handed the vizier a healing potion, and the barbarian leader ran off to get his weapons from the storage chests at the other end of the hall. I sprang back from the table and called a shooting star down on the weretiger opposite me, but he resisted its effect.

Realizing that these lycanthropes can resist wounds from ordinary weapons - and not having anything on my person but a dagger at that point - I summoned a flame to my hand and began hurling fire at the weretigers. Erasyne pulled out two silver stilettos and jumped on the table to fight one of the shapechangers.

At first Thor transformed into an axebeak and attacked some of the barbarians, but when he saw that he couldn't hurt the weretigers without magic, he returned to his natural form and began tossing fire at them as well. Ninad was occupied with battling some of the barbarians who weren't weretigers. Fortunately the shiekh's guards didn't have to leave their weapons at the door, and they took on the rest of the nomads.

I managed to glance over my shoulder just in time to see that the shiekh had looked through Erasyne's gem and seen what was masquerading as his son. Then Naveen called on the power of her mother's amulet and the rakshasa was pulled back into his prison like water flowing down a pipe. The barbarian leader returned armed and much to our surprise stabbed one of the weretigers! Apparently he hadn't known some of his companions were lycanthropes. Sadly the weretiger struck him down moments later.

I dropped both of the weretigers with my spell, although I can't take credit for it all myself. Ninad brought down the last of the barbarians with a burst of sorcerous flames that emanated outward from him in a ring very dramatically. There was one last fellow who tried to escape, but between Ninad's orb of sound and the sheikh's guards, he didn't get far.

We managed to save one of the barbarians from death, and after showing him that his leader was dead, he told us where to find the real prince. Prince Hamad was unharmed in his older brother's quarters. He was naturally quite excited to find that his favorite children’s story was based in fact, and didn't seem to care that most of the Tiger Prince's deeds were actually lies told by the rakshasa.

After Ninad admitted that his effort to discern the power of the amulet was what had released the rakshasa from its prison, the shiekh's vizier seemed to be rather unhappy with us. I can't understand why. There was no way for Ninad to know that such a minor spell could cause so much trouble. But to make the vizier feel more comfortable we agreed to go and stay in the city for the remainder of our visit.

Thor thought we ought to be given some kind of reward for recapturing the rakshasa. I think he was disappointed that the sheikh didn't offer us gold. I don't mind; we've gathered quite a good deal of treasure in recent weeks, and it's getting to be a lot to carry. I'll be glad to pick up the enchanted saddlebags I ordered and move on to some other part of the world.

I'll write again when I have more to tell you.

Your sister, Lothiriel

 

[sniffles]

Letter #33

14 Goodmonth, 601 CY
Sefmir

Dear brother;

We thought we'd spend a few quiet days in Sefmir waiting for our enchanted equipment to be completed, then continue our journey to the ocean. But the 'quiet' part of that assumption wasn't to be. I suppose we should have known better. Trouble comes to us like moths to a candle flame.

We took rooms at a comfortable inn called the Golden Minaret to avoid inconveniencing the shiekh any further. We were relaxing in the common room when one of the serving girls approached and handed us a note, given to her by someone at the bar. The note read: "Bring the princely jewelry and box to the Cup and Coin and your friend will be safe." It was signed with some sort of insignia we didn't recognize. There was a piece of fabric with it that apparently came from Rose's dress.

The serving maid tried to point out the man who'd given her the note, but couldn't see him. Ninad had noticed a man who seemed to be watching us, and had observed the man leaving the inn a few moments before the girl brought the note. It seemed safe to conclude he'd been the one who gave her the note. We assumed by 'princely jewels' that the note meant the platinum and ruby necklace and earrings that had been Prince Javid's dowry. The sheikh hadn't wanted them back after the prince ran away.

Erasyne tried to argue that those couldn't be princely jewels because they were meant for a woman. I think she just didn't want to give them up to kidnappers. Not that the rest of us wanted to hand the jewels over to thieves either. We were determined to rescue Rose and keep the jewels.

We set off at once for the Cup and Coin. You'll remember that was the low tavern where we first met Naveen and fought that strange many-armed creature from the outer planes. The tavern was still closed following that event; the building was rather badly damaged. Thor transformed into a bird and flew off to spy on it while the rest of us followed on foot. We took Beaker along because we knew Thor would want him. Sometimes I wonder if it came down to saving one of us or the axebeak which Thor would choose.

It was a little difficult to hide with Beaker in tow, but Ninad and I did our best to secret ourselves in an alley while Erasyne snuck into the tavern through the tunnel we'd found on our last visit. She returned to report that there was only one man in the tavern, presumably the man who'd sent the note. Thor arrived and indicated he hadn't seen any signs of anyone else lurking about. We decided to burst in on the man and try to force him to take us to Rose.

Thor and Beaker broke open the front door, while Ninad and I pulled down the boards covering the hole in the back wall and Erasyne crept through the tunnel again. The man didn't seem surprised to see us and wasn't concerned about being threatened. He insisted on seeing the jewels, which Ninad had brought in his magic bag. We couldn't find any way to convince the man to take us to Rose on our terms. We were obliged to follow him. Thor kept a watch on him and kept annoying the man by having Beaker get very close, which I must admit I found amusing.

He led us to an unsavory part of the city and into an atrium that appeared to be abandoned. There was no one else about, and nothing in the court but a disused well and some rubbish. Thor rode Beaker all around the court but didn't find anything and came back to us.

I had just cast a spell on Rahon in preparation for trouble when I caught a glimpse of something odd out of the corner of my eye. Ninad remarked that he thought he saw something at the other end of the court. Then we heard a whistle, Ninad shouted out a warning that he heard someone casting a spell, and ball of flame came roaring toward us from the opposite end of the courtyard!

We were all burned, Rahon worst of all. I told him to stay with Morwen and stepped forward to fight. Two people, a man and a woman, appeared next to Ninad and attacked him viciously. Our guide had retreated into a side passage to avoid the fireball. Erasyne tossed a tanglefoot bag onto the man who was attacking Ninad, and I moved up to fight the woman. Thor had earlier cast a spell on Beaker, and as two more men appeared at the other end of the courtyard, Beaker ran up the wall and onto the roof.

Ninad was so badly hurt by the two attackers that he had to withdraw into the entryway and drink a healing potion. I couldn't seem to hit the woman; she was very quick. Then the fellow Erasyne had covered in sticky goo ran up to fight her, as did our guide, so Ninad magically shattered the tangled man's dagger. The guide tossed his companion a shortsword and hit Erasyne with his hand. Ninad then shattered the shortsword as well, leaving the sticky man weaponless!

I had my back to the other end of the court, but Thor was struggling with a wand-wielding wizard and another man who had apparently summoned a phase spider. Nasty things, those phase spiders. I don't know if you'll recall, but we fought some in the forest months ago, before we encountered that awful Sanatorum. Thank the Keen Eye this one didn't do anyone much harm.

The man who'd summoned the spider was evidently the leader of the kidnappers. After Thor had Beaker catch hold of the wizard, the leader began threatening to kill Rose, who was lying on the ground behind him bound and gagged. When he shouted out for everyone to hold I stopped attacking the woman, but Erasyne threw another tanglefoot bag on the man who'd guided us there and went into her dervish dance. The leader cut Rose, but not badly enough to kill her.

Thor must have been hurt, or Beaker, because he rode up the wall and out of sight onto a roof. The woman I was fighting moved over to check on the man Erasyne had just downed, and Erasyne attacked her as soon as she was within reach. I ran down to the other end of the court to help Rose, as did Ninad, leaving the jewelry boxes on the lip of the old well.

Thor reappeared in the form of an axebeak and attacked the wizard again. The wizard tried to flee but didn't get far with a bird taller than a man blocking his way. Ninad used his handy spell to destroy the ropes binding Rose, and she was able to get to her feet and move away from the leader as she tore off the gag.

Erasyne had come running up with the jewelry cases tucked under her arm - she was determined not to let them go. When the leader saw that he was nearly surrounded he fled down a side passage. I ran after him, drawing my bow. Once he realized I wasn't going to let him get away, he turned on me. He was very fast. I was in bad condition when my friends came after me. Then the leader stabbed me and I fell. Rose healed my wounds and I got back to my feet.

The kidnapper called his phase spider to aid him, but that didn't stop us from slaying him, though it was a struggle. We were all hurt and weary by that time. I don't know why those fools wouldn't give up. One man, the one Erasyne first entangled, did manage to run away, but the rest of his companions all died.

We summoned the city guard and told them the whole story. The leader of the kidnappers turned out to have a signet ring indicating he was part of a group called the Ring of Wrath, a band of cutthroats. Erasyne was disappointed that there was no reward for destroying them. Rose told us they had been hired by the renegade Prince Javid!

We should be able to pick up our magic items tomorrow. I hope we can get out of Sefmir before we get into any further trouble. I pray to Solonor that Prince Javid won't try any other schemes to get the jewels or gain revenge on us. Hopefully when he sees that we destroyed the Ring of Wrath he'll realize we're not people to be trifled with.

Your sister, Lothiriel
________________________________________

Quips & Quotes:

patv: "She is nimbly avoiding your attacks."
sniffles: "No, my scimitar is nimbly avoiding her!"

Devo: "I didn't roll very good (on a grapple check)."
patv: "I rolled really good. But the wizard is still grappled."

patv: "He waits until his action to fall over."

Hedrin: "I should have done a stunning fist on the phase spider. Then I could have done a stun on a phaser!"

 

[sniffles]

Letter #34

1 Harvester
Zier-i-Zief

Dearest brother;

Well, we've finally done it. I never thought we'd make it before some of my companions ended their too-brief lives, but we've finally reached the ocean!

We didn't get here without trouble, of course.

We left Lopolla with plenty of rewards for our efforts to stop the rakshasa. Rose came along with us after all, as she'd heard news of the missing brother she's seeking. We hadn't been out of the city long when trouble reared its head.

We came upon a group of rcs and some bodies in the road. The orcs were some of the Sultan's mercenaries such as we'd met before. In fact, it turned out they were the same ones we'd met previously. They were investigating the remains of a merchant caravan that had been attacked by brigands.

Ninad rode ahead to talk with them, and Thor very nearly managed to get us all into a fight with them when he flew off in bird form and then returned to his natural shape right beside a scout. If their captain hadn't recognized us it might have gone badly.

While Ninad was talking with the captain some other travelers came up the road from the opposite direction and wanted to know what had happened. Then a merchant and guard from the caravan appeared, claiming to have escaped. They reported that the bandits had taken some captives.

We offered to help the mercenaries recover the captives, and the other two travelers also offered their assistance. They were well armed so it seemed wise to accept their offer. I wasn't happy about working with orcs, of course, but this meant I could fight orcs too, since the bandits were also orcs.

After we'd agreed on a plan of attack, Rose and Erasyne made themselves invisible and went to free the prisoners. Just as the rest of our company were about to proceed, a magical gate suddenly opened up behind us. Who should emerge from it but Ninad's twin Shishir and his bride Liselle, accompanied by a small child! The twins had a quick reunion and Shishir joined us for the assault on the brigands.

I didn't see much of my companions or the two travelers after that. No one was near enough to me but Ninad. I caught glimpses of bursts of flames from beyond some trees that turned out to be Shishir's doing, and I could hear the bandits' companion bear roaring until Thor drove it away - which he was very proud of later, of course.

Rahon fought bravely beside me. He's become a very faithful and useful companion. He told me the bandits were orcs before the mercenary captain mentioned it. He even managed to bring one of them down himself.

Once we'd eliminated all but a few of the brigands, the mercenaries had no further interest in pursuing them, which I found a little odd. But we didn't have any interest in hunting down the last few either. Rose decided to ride with the caravan the rest of the way to Zief. But our new acquaintces, the two well-armed men, seemed very interested in staying near my group. Their names are Varian and Xolo.

Varian seems to be a knight of some sort, though he wears no insignia. Xolo resembles the local people, but he says very little and usually keeps his face covered.

When we came to the River Road Inn, Varian wanted to speak with us in private. He took a private dining room and paid for dinner for our entire party. He then told us a long, complicated tale about a prophecy he'd received. As you know, I'm not much a believer in prophecy and this one was particularly obscure. I can only recall portions of it now.

Varian is on a quest to find the lost city of Darjiin, which can apparently be found using a map drawn on the shell of the egg of a kokobu bird. He claims to have two of these shells, though he didn't show them to us. He's on his way to Zier-i-Zief to see a third egg in a museum there.

He'd been given his prophecy by a seer who told him to beware "followers of the ebon fire" and "the sliver of darkness that divides the one". My friends thought that the "ebon fire" sounded a bit like the black flames that had slain Illtud, and the "sliver of darkness" naturally reminded us all of the black diamond shards. But we didn't mention this to Varian at that time.

Varian believed that the prophecy mentioned us, as it said something about "four and one" and "one with two heads", or something of that nature. He thought the twins represented the two heads. The prophecy also spoke of something called archomentals and a lost temple of elemental good, which mean nothing to any of us. But Ninad was interested in the story, as were Erasyne and Thor. We decided that as we were on our way to Zief anyway, we may as well see this egg Varian is so eager to view.

Ten days after leaving Lopolla, we came to the ocean. I would have spent longer strolling the beach watching the waves roll in, but my companions of course are always in a hurry.
Zier-i-Zief is a very large and cosmopolitan city, much more so than Lopolla. It has two vast palaces and a huge temple to the god Vishnu. Varian kindly paid for our lodgings in a very nice inn near the museum.

As we made our way to the museum we met another of the prolific Magoon clan of Halflings. This one is called Norp. He seems a bit more trusty than his brother Kirp. He was engaged in escorting a young princess from some distant land. Erasyne thought there was something odd about the princess, but I noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

Speaking of little girls, I neglected to mention the little girl who came with Shishir. She is his daughter, Pari. If you recall, just before they parted from us Liselle had announced she was with child. Of course humans don't ordinarily grow so quickly, but it seems that Shishir and Liselle have been living in the fey realm, where time passes differently than in the ordinary world. Though it has only been a few weeks for us, five years have passed for them.
I expect Ninad is going to have a little difficulty adjusting to his twin now being several years older than he is, not to mention getting acquainted with a niece who shouldn't even have been born yet by his perception.

Norp and the princess went with us to the Sultan's museum. They wanted to see an exhibit of animal curiosities. We went with them to view the exhibit. Among the creatures on display we saw an owlbear and a manticore. But the most unusual creature in the display was a two-headed serpent with wings covered in multicolored feathers. It was contained in a crystalline case, still living, and behaving rather oddly. One head hissed and snapped at viewers while the other head appeared quite calm.

Varian now concluded that this creature might be the two-headed thing mentioned in the prophecy. While he was exclaiming over the creature, Erasyne took her gem out and began peering all around through it. Then Ninad whispered to me in the sylvan tongue that he'd used the dowsing rod to detect black shards, and it sensed something in the direction of the winged serpent!

We weren't certain what to do about the black shard. For the time we stayed with Varian and went in search of the egg he'd come to see. To his great disappointment we learned it was missing. We found one of the museum docents, who explained that several years earlier the Sultan's only son had removed the egg from its case and it had simply floated away! The docent showed us a painting that had been made of the egg, but it showed too little detail to see clearly the map Varian seeks.

I'm not certain what we'll do now. I have no doubt we'll try to find a way to recover the black shard from the winged serpent, if it truly has one. But I don't know how we'll achieve that without causing ourselves a great deal of trouble.

I hope I'll be able to write you again soon to tell you how we fare.

Your sister, Lothiriel
________________________________________________
Quips & Quotes:

patv: "If you're within earshot you can make a Listen check."
sniffles: "How far can an ear shoot?"

Zora: "Did you say it sucks to be an edible companion?"
Devo: "Because it bites to be an edible companion."

patv: "Describe your characters to DH (Varian's player)."
Devo: "Well, Thor is a common meadowlark, with brownish feathers..."

patv: "Does he take fire damage this round?"
Devo: "The dire bear could put him out."

Hedrin: "You can never find a decent docent."

 

[sniffles]

Letter #35

3 Harvest
Zeir-i-Zeif

Dearest brother;

We've found a new quest. It seems we've decided to help Varian in his search for the lost city.

We draw trouble the way flowers draw bees. While Ninad and I were shopping for supplies, our companions were attacked by some ruffians. And Shishir ran into another black flame wielder. It must have something to do with Varian's prophecy, although we don't yet know why these Ebon Flame people have a grudge against us.

Now we have a lot of difficult decisions to make. How do we find the missing egg? How do we remove the black shard from the couatl and free it from the Sultan's menagerie?

We returned to the menagerie the next day to try to get more information about the couatl. The little princess from the north was there again, too. Erasyne claims the child knows a great deal about the couatl, including its names - she claims each head has its own name. I'm not certain why Erasyne is paying so much attention to the imaginative ramblings of a child.

Shishir found a more promising source of information when he met an elder priest who seems to know something about the creature. This old man, Kianeous, proclaims himself a servant of elemental good. He's seeking the same temple in the lost city that Varian's prophecy leads him toward.

Kianeous says the appearance of the couatl fulfills a prophecy he was given, but now the feathered serpent must be taken to the temple to restore it. The temple, that is, not the couatl.

According to ancient lore known only to Kianeous, the temple was built to contain an evil got created long ago by some ancient people. How people could make a god I don't know.

In any case, we hope Kianeous can help us free the couatl and recover the black shard. Varian seems to think the couatl will be fine with only one head and keeps suggesting we simply cut off the head with the shard, an idea that horrifies the old man. I'm not too fond of that suggestion myself.

But our meeting with Kianeous wasn't the only event of note. I was examining the couatl's enclosure when I noticed that the guard dogs chained beside it weren't the same animals I'd seen the day before. They were behaving very aggressively and one of them was poorly secured.

I observed that they seemed to respond to a nearby man the way they would to their pack leader, so I tried to speak to him. But he left before I could approach him. Ninad told me he'd seen the man watching us and had tried to talk to him, but the man had denied any interest in us and left.

Ninad and I decided to tell the guards about the dogs. They wouldn't pay much attention to us until they realized the dogs wouldn't obey their commands. Then Erasyne took out her gem and saw that they weren't natural dogs at all, but some kind of dog-like creatures disguised by illusions.

After she showed one of the senior guards what could be seen with the gem, the guards cleared the menagerie chamber and closed the exhibit for the day. We never found out what became of the dog-creatures.

We spent the rest of the day in the museum, trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on in the menagerie room. When evening fell Thor disguised himself as a sparrow and hid inside the museum after it closed.

Later Thor returned to the inn to tell us he'd seen how the transparent enclosures could be opened, though he still didn't know how to open the couatl's prison. He's naturally very concerned about the beasts being held in such cramped quarters. He'd like to set them all free, even the manticore, which made Kianeous think him mad.

After Kianeous left us, Thor and Erasyne wanted to go find the orc captain whom we'd helped against the bandits. They wanted to claim the reward he'd offered. Having nothing better to do, we all trooped off to see the orcs. At least the smelly orcs didn't deny us our reward.

Yesterday Varian dickered with a merchant for a flying carpet, and now Erasyne wanted to purchase one right away. I wasn't much excited about flying carpets, but it will come in handy searching for the floating egg.

Off we went to the carpet merchant's shop, though it was evening and most shops were closing. Varian managed to convince the merchant to see us, though we ended up paying more than what they had previously agreed to.

I neglected to mention earlier that when we saw the orc captain, he told us the bandit leader is a minotaur called Mormog. It seems that part of Varian's prophecy says something about a maze with a stone in it that he must seek, and this minotaur is reputed to live in a labyrinth. The orcs claim no one has ever returned alive from the maze. But Varian is now very excited about finding it.

If you never hear from me again it's because I'm lost in a minotaur's maze. Or perhaps I've fallen from a flying carpet while seeking a floating egg.

Isn't life strange?

Your sister, Lothiriel
__________________________________________________
Quips & Quotes:

Zora: "Could you turn down the gnomish charm if you want to go
adventuring with us today?"

DH: "Does that mean the gem of true seeing can see through my
illusion of fertility?"
Devo: "And your illusion of masculinity."

patv: "Well you've heard of the Temple of Elemental Evil back in
Homlet..."
Zora: "But everyone's been in there 3 or 4 times."

Jubilee (to DH, who keeps involving himself in conversations his
character isn't present for): "Are you going over there?"
sniffles: "Can't you tell Varian's running around inserting dialog into
every conversation?"
DH: "I have dialog with reach."
Zora: "He has Hold the Conversation."
Jubilee: "Wouldn't that be Thor?"
Devo: "No, Thor has Conversational Cleave."
DH: "I have dimension leap at will, only to join conversations."

Zora: "Varian exercises his Jumping to Conclusions skill."
DH: "Keeps me thin and agile."
sniffles: "For running from conversation to conversation."

 

[sniffles]

Letter #36

6 Harvest
Zeir-i-Zeif

Dearest brother;

I won't be able to write to you again for perhaps a month. Tomorrow we set out for the maze of the minotaur.

We had some excitement a few nights ago. It seems that someone wants to be rid of us. We suspect it's a person called Kaligos who's involved in the cult of the Black Flame Zealots. We're not certain why he's attacking us, but it may have something to do with Varian's prophecy.

During the night of the 3rd of Harvest, I was resting in my room when I heard some odd noises from the other end of the hall. I got up to investigate and took Rahon with me. Something was happening in Shishir's room, although I could only see a little past the heavy curtain in the doorway.

I paused to call on nature's favor for Rahon, which prevented me from getting to Shishir's room before the threat was dealt with. Ninad came stumbling backward out of his twin's chamber and pushed the curtain aside enough that I could see an amorphous shape outlined in purple faerie fire and flames. After a moment this form dwindled away into nothing under the onslaught of Thor's spell.

The innkeeper and his guards showed up a short time later and there was nothing to prove our story but a few scorch marks on the floor. Varian hadn't even awakened, as his room was across the atrium. What little evidence I saw leads me to think the attacker was an invisible stalker, a creature that can usually only be summoned by a wizard.

The next day we decided to prepare for our trip to meet the minotaur. I purchased a new suit of enchanted armor and a magical dog collar that will afford Rahon some extra protection. My companions sought all sorts of outlandish magical objects, but even in a city as cosmopolitan as Zeif such things aren't always readily available.

Thor meanwhile decided to follow up on the three fellows who'd attacked my companions while Ninad and I were elsewhere. The taverner at the establishment where the attack occurred hadn't been forthcoming with information at the time, but Thor persuaded him to say more. He told the gnome that Kaligos was behind the assault, and that Kaligos might be found at an inn called Kourosh's.

As it happens we'd heard of Kourosh before. When we were passing through the mountains we met a man called Xymos. We helped him out of some trouble and in gratitude Xymos gave us tokens to show to Kourosh. Naturally we had to go off to Kourosh's at once and present our tokens. Apparently they're color-coded, but not knowing what the colors mean, some of my companions thought it would be worthwhile to magically alter the color. I declined to let them change my token.

Kourosh the innkeeper was very solicitous when he saw the tokens - the tokens that hadn't been changed, that is. He kept insisting that we take rooms at his inn. We declined, though we did tell him we'd consider staying there when we return from our mission.

When we mentioned the minotaur he was horrified. Thor, never being one to dissemble, blurted out that we were on our way to the maze. It turned out that a regular customer had actually been to the maze and seen the minotaur, and Kourosh summoned him to our table to persuade us of the folly of our plan.

This man was a former soldier, badly scarred and missing an arm. He recounted how a group of the Sultan's soldiers had been sent to the maze, and only he and another man had survived. He'd lost his arm during that mission. But as he went into further detail I began to see why their effort had failed.

A wizard had gone along with the soldiers but hadn't entered the maze. Nor had their commander. They'd also been ordered to split into two groups. It's no wonder that they were all slain.

The former soldier described how the terrain near the cave entrance was very rough, covered with piles of earth and rubble from excavation of the cave. There were also various deadfalls and pitfalls inside. He claimed that the minotaur is enormous and has far longer horns than any minotaur I've heard of. And the man-bull may have ogres and even a giant in his gang of bandits.

Armed with this information, we're going to set out for the maze tomorrow. We're not certain yet how we'll enter the maze, but we'll determine that once we see it with our own eyes. Once we've completed our investigation I'll write you again and tell you how we fared.

Your sister, Lothiriel
______________________________________________
Quips & Quotes:

sniffles: "Who's that with Thor?"
Zora: "Just some little bird he picked up downstairs."
Devo: "She's a hot chick!"

patv: "A gust of wind blows into your room and does 22 points of damage to you."
Devo: "A fowl wind."
sniffles: "Did it come from Thor's room?"
Devo: "Not from Thor's room, exactly..."

sniffles: "Why doesn't Thor learn to speak some other language when he's a bird?"
Devo: "OK, I turn into an owl."
patv: "Now you can speak owlbear. Sort of."
Devo: "It's a pigeon language."

patv: "We don't take Discover cards."
Devo: "Do you take expeditious retreat? Do you mind if we do?"

DH: "Are there towns in the area of the maze? Mazeville?"
Hedrin: "Victimsburg?"

DH: "We're all going to die by bear."
Zora: "Well, it is a die-er bear."

Devo: "The bear says, 'I'm looking for the man who killed my paw.'"

patv: "Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Varian's rear."

 

[sniffles]

Letter #38

15 Harvest
Zeif

Dearest brother;

I'm writing you from our camp outside the minotaur's maze. We've made our first foray into the maze and escaped relatively unscathed.

We arrived to find the entry to the maze just as described. To get around the rugged terrain most of us flew up to the entrance aboard the flying carpet we purchased. It wasn't sturdy enough to carry all of us, so Thor cast a spell to shrink Beaker, and he himself flew alongside as an eagle. Shishir and Varian got to the cave mouth via a spell Shishir knows that allows the caster to cause two creatures to switch places with one another.

We had to fight off some orcs and ogres and even a rather stupid hill giant, but we quickly eliminated them with little hurt to ourselves for the most part. After we entered the cave we were met by a dire bear, one we'd seen before when we fought the orc bandits. Thor couldn't persuade it to leave this time so we were forced to slay it.

We started off down the passage into the depths of the labyrinth when suddenly the minotaur himself emerged through a wall. The ex-soldier had neglected to mention that this minotaur has six arms. I've never heard of such a creature before.

The minotaur didn't attack, though. Instead it just threatened us, something about decorating its lair with our bones. There are in fact quite a lot of bones in the cave, but I doubt we'll be adding ours to the collection. Not when the minotaur turned and fled.

Erasyne took a look through her gem to see if the wall was an illusion, but it proved to be real. We don't know how the minotaur was able to walk through it. As we were heading off down the passage in pursuit, the floor suddenly vanished beneath Thor's feet and he fell into a pit shaft. Strangely, he stopped falling about twenty feet down. In fact, he stopped moving altogether.

Erasyne got a rope and dropped it down to him, but it quickly revealed that Thor was actually caught in some translucent substance that was burning him with acid as it held him immobilized. Unable to think of anything in our possession that would survive contact with the acid, Erasyne jumped down herself in hope of freeing Thor. Instead she too was caught in the gelatinous creature's embrace. I couldn't prevent Beaker from jumping after his master. He got stuck above Thor and Erasyne.

Shishir decided that as we had plenty of healing available to us, he would try burning the creature. He blasted it with magical flame. Then his twin joined in with orbs of cold. The creature pretty quickly began to dissolve into a puddle at the bottom of the shaft, and we were able to lift our three comrades out with ropes.

Once everyone was healed back to health and able to move again, we decided to make our way across the pit and continue on down the passage. I used my ring to lift me over the gap in the floor. Erasyne took point to look for other such traps, aided by the taciturn Xolo.

It wasn't long before they located a trap that was apparently intended to drop stones on the passage below. Erasyne jammed it with pitons from her pack and moved on into the next connecting passage. As she did I heard a faint crackling sound.

Once most of our party had passed under the overhanging stone, I glimpsed an arc of blue lightning shooting down the passageway. I heard yelps of pain from some of my companions. There were two lizard-like creatures that resembled rhinoceroses at opposite ends of the passage, and with them two minotaurs, smaller and with fewer arms than Mormog.

I hurried under the stone and wielded my spear against one of the blue lizard creatures. They could blast lightning and apparently had some method of sending the lightning from one to the other, hence their positions. I received several painful shocks, being unable to get out of range of the lightning.

After a short but nasty struggle we eliminated all four creatures. Thor and Shishir both wanted to leave the cave and rest at this point, as they'd expended most of their spells and it was already evening when we arrived at the maze. Varian was opposed to this, almost to the point of continuing on his own. But finally he was persuaded of the folly of that course and we agreed to retreat and spend the night at our campsite outside.

Before we departed, Thor summoned a thoqqua and sent it burrowing through the stone that had fallen behind us while we fought the blue lightning lizards. Erasyne's pitons hadn't been able to prevent the stone from descending, though they had slowed it. It proved to be intended to block the passage behind us rather than to crush anyone beneath it. After the thoqqua burrowed back and forth several times and we allowed its tunnel to cool, we made our way back outside to the hidden location where we'd left our horses.

To be continued...
_________________________________________
Quips & Quotes:

patv: "I'm amending your buckler to metal with a hole in the middle, Thor."
Devo: "So I can wear it on my arm or on my waist!"

Zora: "Change into a chicken. Then you can run around for 10 minutes after you die."

Jubilee: "Do I get +1 for Trapsense?"
patv: "It's not a trap."
Jubilee: "Well I think it's a trap."

Jubilee: "Does Thor look like he has word of recall?"
Zora: "He has word of recaw."

patv: "You're not feeling quite yourself."
Hedrin: "Who are you feeling?"

patv: "Are you sure you're not going to touch it?"
Jubilee: "Will it level me?"
patv: "You mean will you level up or will it level you?"
Jubilee: "I want to be flat on top."

 

[sniffles]

Letter #38 continues

We returned to the maze this morning after a quiet night in camp. We found that Thor's summoned thoqqua had been sliced in half, though we couldn't tell by what. The two minotaurs we'd slain were gone but the lightning lizards had been left where they fell.

On our way back through the maze, Erasyne found a doorway equipped with a nasty trap: a false floor would spring up to impale the victim on spikes. We triggered it, but the door didn't appear to lead anywhere we hadn't already been so we didn't bother going through it.

After a bit more winding about we came upon a small room with what at first appeared to be a body in it. Several of my companions went in to investigate. Then a set of bars slammed down behind them. Ninad smashed them with a spell, but not before the 'body' rose up and attacked. The undead thing was chained to the wall and couldn't pursue us far beyond its chamber, but before we could retreat it managed to injure Varian. I lent him the enchanted mace I've been carrying as it's especially useful against undead creatures.

After that we followed more winding passages until Erasyne saw something shiny on the floor and stopped to investigate. She suspected it was meant to trigger another trap, so we proceeded past cautiously.

Shortly we came to a chamber that was more like a natural cave. Shishir and I had been bringing up the rear to look out for attacks from behind, and we hadn't yet entered the cave when an umber hulk erupted through the floor. Erasyne had just identified a pit trap behind the area where it emerged, and we couldn't get behind it to flank it.

Its gaze had an odd effect. I was obliged to avert my eyes. Rahon couldn't do the same and became confused. He started snarling and snapping at Varian. Thank the Keen Eye he couldn't get through the knight's armor. Then Varian started shouting out nonsense commands.

The rest of us fought the hulk with a will, except Thor, who had been riding Beaker up the walls all morning and had gone behind a rock outcrop where he couldn't see what was happening. By the time he reappeared one of Ninad's attacks had slain the umber hulk.

After we left the cave the passageways became worked stone again. Thor made himself useful by sending lights ahead of us down the tunnels. Eventually I noticed that the echoes of our footsteps were being deadened and Ninad feared we'd been going around in circles. Then I heard a noise I recognized from Mormog's first appearance. I shouted a warning to my companions as the minotaur stepped through the wall.

Mormog turned to me and before I could raise my spear to attack he swung one of his many axes and sheared my spear in half. I stepped back into a corner and summoned up a pair of 'spiritjaws' to combat him, but the magical jaws could never get a grip on his flesh.

The minotaur worked himself into a berserk rage, so I took cover around the bend of the passage to cast the strongest spell I had at my command. I knew it would take longer than usual to summon the energies. While I was preparing the minotaur managed to knock Rahon over with his flailing arms. Then I saw Shishir drop to the floor unconscious, and I gave up on my spell to go to his aid.

By the time I had Shishir back on his feet Mormog had disappeared again. I expended some charges from my curing wand on Shishir and Rahon. Then we headed back to the cave to find another passageway, as the one in which we met the minotaur was a dead end.

Along the way we searched the corpses we found for anything of use. I found a dagger that looks to be enchanted, though I don't know what it can do.

The next direction we took eventually led to another dead end, this time in a chamber that appeared to be a shrine to the minotaur's god. There were two large columns flanking the entrance, and a statue of a minotaur-like figure stood at the opposite end.

Erasyne suspected a trap in the doorway, but before she could disable it the columns suddenly collapsed, injuring her and Xolo and leaving a pile of rubble before us. Ninad had just advised us he thought the statue might be some sort of construct, and he was proved right when it began to lumber toward the entrance.

Erasyne, Xolo and Varian scrambled over the rubble to get behind the golem while Thor and Beaker hung from the ceiling. I swapped my bow for my scimitar and stepped up to meet it. Its stony surface was nearly impenetrable to both magic and weapons. But Ninad realized that some of the spells he and his brother knew might affect it. They blasted it with cold and sound while the rest of us struck as hard as we could with our blades until it finally crumbled under a blow from Varian.

By this point we were all tired and Thor and the twins were low on spells. We determined that it would be wise to retreat to our camp to recover. Nothing accosted us on the way out, but we discovered that someone, presumably Mormog, had come behind us and used magic to block the tunnel Thor's thoqqua had created. He had to summon another thoqqua to open a new tunnel.

Mormog was trying to trap us in his maze. He'd also blocked up the exit with stone. Thor couldn't summon another thoqqua, so I followed his example and called one myself. We were fortunate Mormog didn't try to take us while we waited for the creature to finish burrowing.

To be continued...
_______________________________________
Quips & Quotes:

Hedrin: "He hit me with a wand. It was a wound of wanding."

patv: "There's an incredibly thick chain."
DH: "I'll take it."
patv: "It's attached to the wall."
DH: "I'll take that too!"
Jubilee: "If you wanted to be that encumbered why didn't you just get married?"

Devo (running Varian in DH's absence): "I'm babbling incoherently. So is Varian."

Jubilee: "I can't hear myself sneak! Be quiet!"

Hedrin: "The sound is deadened here. We might be going around in circles."
Jubilee: "Or we're getting close to a rubber room."
Hedrin: "Thor's always this close to a rubber room."

Devo: "The minotaur must like electricity. He keeps..."
patv: "...attracting it?"

Jubilee: "That's why we carry that monk around, for his 10 foot pole."
patv: "It's not 10 feet long, no matter what you say!"

patv: "The minotaur looks strong, and he is strong."
Devo: "And he smells strong."
patv: "He has Irish Spring in his step."
Hedrin: "Made for a man but strong enough for a minotaur."

patv: "The statue is moving."
Hedrin: "It's mooing?"
Zora: "It's mooooving."

Devo: "There aren't any egresses within 9 miles."
sniffles: "That's egrets, not egresses."
Zora: "I'm having a few egrets about this adventure."

 

[sniffles]

Letter #38

We spent another night safely resting in our camp outside the maze. Ninad had found an amulet among the detritus inside. He discovered it would be useful to someone like Thor or myself who can transform into animal shapes. It was given to me, since I've only lately learned to take animal form and haven't had much opportunity to practice.

We returned to the maze the next morning to find that the entrance hadn't been re-blocked. We searched an area we hadn't looked at before. I found a longspear to replace the one the minotaur broke, and a shield that we put in Erasyne's magic bag, since I can't use a shield with a longspear.

After a time we came upon a very large pit. It was too broad for most of us to get across on our own so we floated across it on the flying carpet, which Ninad had been keeping rolled up inside one of his magic sacks.

On the other side we found what seemed to be a shrine to the minotaur's god. There lay a minotaur skeleton on a stone slab, and the two minotaurs we'd slain two days earlier had been neatly arranged on the floor. At the far end of the room stood an archway containing a darkness that couldn't be pierced by any light source.

Then we heard the familiar sound of Mormog's entrance again. As the six-armed monster emerged into the room he bellowed, "Your bones will not defile this room!"

As Mormog loomed over Varian, Thor produced a tanglefoot bag and hurled it from Beaker's perch on the ceiling. Covered in the sticky substance the minotaur couldn't move as quickly. But that didn't prevent him from swinging an axe at Erasyne and then knocking both Varian and Xolo off their feet.

I called a spell to mind and repositioned myself for better aim. Then I blew a cloud of frosty breath at the beast, covering him in hoary rime. I hoped the spell would stun him for a moment but he was too hardy. Erasyne began to dance around him in a cloud of whirling blades. The minotaur hurled one of his axes at me, then bent to gore Xolo with his horns.

Xolo suddenly vanished from sight. Varian shouted a challenge to the beast, turning its attention to him despite the wounds he'd just suffered. He slashed at the monster and then moved away, trying to draw the minotaur after him.

I tried another spell, surrounding the minotaur in a wind that was meant to bind him in place, but it failed to affect him. Shishir slipped up behind our foe and set him on fire with an evocation of his own. His twin attempted to shatter the minotaur's largest axe without success. Thor commanded Beaker to snatch the throwing axe out of the air, but that also failed.

A moment later Xolo reappeared and stabbed at the minotaur from behind. Varian continued to attack the beast as well, despite having been knocked down yet again. Finding my spells ineffective, I nocked my bow and fired arrows at Mormog. I had decided to keep my distance so that I could give healing to my companions.

Ninad hurled a burst of fire at the minotaur, while Thor added more fuel to the flames with his own magic. The flames burning in Mormog's fur provided a dramatic backdrop to Erasyne's flashing blades. Evidently Mormog began to feel threatened, as he abruptly withdrew through the portal at the end of the room, ignoring Shishir and Varian as they attacked him.

Shishir immediately leaped through the dark opening after the minotaur, followed in swift succession by his twin, Thor, and Erasyne. Xolo and Varian paused for a moment so that Xolo could offer Varian a healing potion before they also stepped through the portal. I ran across the chamber with Rahon at my heels, drawing a potion of my own from my purse. I hesitated for a moment to swallow my potion, then felt myself grow lighter and flew through the opening.

As I hovered near the ceiling I found myself in a circular chamber with many evenly-spaced openings admitting to it, all of them as dark as the portal I had just passed through. Below me I saw a small pool in the center of the chamber. Xolo lay in the water, obviously badly injured. Mormog loomed over Shishir and Erasyne, his coat still flickering with flames. Ignoring the burning he struck my companions each a mighty blow that toppled them.

The minotaur's returning axe came hurtling at me again, giving Thor and my two friends on the floor an opening to strike. Xolo crawled out of the pool looking somewhat improved and stabbed into the minotaur's leg with his dagger. I fired two arrows into the hairy hide. My first arrow missed its mark, but as the second arrow struck, Mormog slowly crumpled to the ground.

Ninad quickly made certain the minotaur was dead. Recognizing that the pool had healing properties, Erasyne began to bathe in the water. There was little water left by the time she had finished. I settled to the floor and expended a spell to help Shishir with his wounds.

While Erasyne bathed in the pool she noticed that the bottom was studded with numerous gems, and in the center sat a large cylindrical green stone. One of the twins confirmed that something in the pool was magical. Erasyne tried to remove the green stone but she was too weak after her exertions during the fighting. She contented herself with prying out the gems. These proved to be only weakly imbued with magic, and worse they had all lost their luster somehow. But Erasyne gathered them all up in any case.

Varian managed to pry the green stone out of the pool. Thor determined that it radiated healing and water magic. He became quite fascinated with it. After looking at it more closely I realized I'd heard a tale of such a stone, but I couldn't recall any more details.

Once we'd thoroughly searched Mormog's corpse and removed all the stones from the pool, Thor walked through one of the dark doorways - and reappeared at a different one! We all attempted this at once with the same result. I examined the entrances to see if Mormog had been using one more than any other, but there was little sign he'd come to this chamber often.

Thor began concentrating intently on the green stone, feeling it might hold the answer to our dilemma. I've seldom seen him so focused. Eventually he managed to activate a magical property of the stone and a passageway formed in the wall of the chamber. When we exited we found ourselves back in the maze near the chapel we'd visited previously.

We searched the maze thoroughly for any rooms or tunnels we'd missed, gathering up various weapons and items of value as we went. After we'd collected a number of items and looked them over, Ninad noticed that several of the things we'd found bore the same maker's mark as some other objects we'd come across in our previous travels. There was a mage by the name of Castanamir who appeared to be a prolific maker of magical tools and weapons.

It occurred to me to look at a dagger I'd picked up the day before. When I drew it from my purse and looked at it closely I noticed an indentation in the hilt that looked like it would accept a ring. I tried my ring of levitation in the spot and found that it fit perfectly, though my ring didn't bear Castanamir's sigil. This provoked a period of experimentation as we tried various rings in the space on the dagger and then brought out other weapons made by Castanamir to see if they, too, had spaces for insertion of rings.

We came to the conclusion that most of Castanamir's product was made to accept rings or other items. The rings didn't have to be made by Castanamir; they only had to be enchanted. Once an enchanted ring was set into the weapon it was possible to use the magic of the ring as if one were wearing it. I've always heard that one can only wear one magic ring on each hand else the magic of each ring will start to interfere with the others. Being able to attach the rings to the weapons bypasses this problem.

We even discovered that my broken spear will form a lance when fit together with an odd buckler Thor had acquired, and that once combined their individual magics become something entirely different, though we don't yet know what the lance can do. Varian is quite covetous of the lance. I suppose I'll give it to him once the spear is repaired.

Thor had also discovered that the green stone contains earth magic that will allow him to manipulate earth and stone. He's quite enamored of the stone, proclaiming that gnomes are very attuned to the earth. Which seems odd considering his fascination with creatures of the skies.

Having had enough of the minotaur's maze, we set off for Zeir-i-Zeif with the minotaur's severed head as proof of our success. On the way we paused at the nearest town to ask if a priest could cast a spell on Mormog's head to preserve it during the journey. This drew a great deal of attention from the townsfolk, who were all aware of their proximity to the minotaur's lair.

By the time we reached the city we were drawing substantial crowds of gawkers. This may have been because Shishir and Thor insisted on attaching the head to one end of our flying carpet to parade it through the streets in the most dramatic manner possible.

On our arrival in Zeif we were met with great fanfare and escorted to a central plaza to meet the Sultan himself. He made a great ceremony of giving us our reward for slaying the minotaur, presenting us with ceremonial scimitars and red sashes and declaring us heroes of the nation. At the same time it seemed to me that he was taking most of the credit for himself.

Ninad consulted one of his lorebooks and discovered that the green stone is an artifact known as the Rock of Mages. His information showed no connection to the temple of the elements that Varian seeks, but we still suspect that the stone is the one from Varian's prophecy.

We've been invited to dine with the Sultan this evening, so I must close now and go to prepare for our formal dinner. Erasyne made the clever suggestion that perhaps we can return the gold we were given and ask the Sultan to set the two-headed couatl free as our reward. We're going to present this request during dinner.

I'll write you again soon to tell you how we fare.

Your sister, Lothiriel
________________________________________________
This documents the most recent session of this campaign. At the present time no further sessions are scheduled, but we expect to return to the campaign at some point to continue the quest for the temple of elemental good.
sniffles
________________________________________________

Quips & Quotes:

There were so many cow-related jokes I couldn't write them all down and still be able to play.

DH: "I prefer [the spell] avasculate."
Zora: "You've already been avasculated."
Devo: "That's "emasculated"."

Zora: "I still think we should strap the minotaur's head to the front end of the flying carpet. Everybody mooooove! Set carpet for bull rush."

Hedrin: "He finally got that boomerang thing to work."
Devo: "That won't come back to haunt us."

 

[sniffles]

Letter #39

Patchwall 1
Zier-i-Zief

Dearest brother;

Well, as usual adventure finds us whether we're actively seeking it or not.

We had only a few hours to dress appropriately for a feast at the palace. I think Thor would rather have stayed at the inn with Beaker. The rest of us would probably have agreed to that. It would likely have been less disruptive than his presence at the feast.

We met the halfling, Norp, again at the palace, as well as his young charge, Princess Luminia. We weren't seated with the princess, however, so we didn't speak with her until later. Norp was supposed to act as our interpreter. He didn't know the twins speak Baklunish.

The dinner was long and tedious and served far too much food for comfort, all of it overcooked and over-seasoned. After the desert was served a curious dancer entertained us: she appeared to have snakes for hands. According to one of the other guests she came from a strange race of very rare beings.

Then a heavily armored centaur came in to speak with the Sultan, which was odd not so much because he was a centaur as because he was allowed to bear arms in the Sultan's presence. Evidently he's of the same rank as Norp. One he'd left we had a few words with the princess, who offered to arrange a meeting with the Sultan. I'm not quite sure why a child has such importance, but if it works in our favor then so be it.

Our discussion eventually led to our quest for the items in Varian's prophecy, since my companions are incapable of keeping anything to themselves. Norp remarked that yet another of his brothers had told him of a tale about a crystal oasis that we thought might be the place of ice mentioned in the prophecy. But neither Norp nor his brother have ever seen this place.

When the interminable affair finally ended the Sultan sent guards back to the inn with us to escort the 10 chests of gold coins we were given as reward for slaying the minotaur. Unfortunately they didn't stay to look after the gold. We have to do that ourselves. We could put it in our magic sacks, but since we want to offer it to the Sultan in return for releasing the couatl, we don't want to put the coins away.

It was after we returned to the inn that Thor realized Pheretima's bottle was missing. He still had a bottle that looked very like hers in his possession, but closer examination proved it was a copy. Somehow someone must have stolen the djinni's bottle and replaced it with this replica. When we told the innkeeper, Kouroush, about the theft, he realized what had probably happened.

It seems that Xymos, the man who directed us to visit this inn if we came to Zief, belongs to an organization that claims to free imprisoned djinn. He must have hidden Pheretima in our gear after he met us. We'd always assumed she was a gift from Liselle's parents, even though Liselle wasn't aware of her family owning any such thing. But Kouroush had heard that a djinn had been stolen from the Archmage Shopar sometime not long before we met Xymos. He suspected Pheretima was that djinn, and that Xymos had hidden her in our gear so he could avoid being found with her while still getting her back to Zief. Now that we'd arrived, he'd somehow snuck into our rooms and stolen the bottle back.

Kouroush told us he knew where Xymos' organization takes the djinn they release. He took us to a room in his inn and opened the door - onto a room full of clouds. A gust of wind blew out of the doorway. We suspect it's a portal to the Plane of Air. Kouroush says it's been that way since an 'accident' in the room several years ago.

As we were staring at this amazing sight, we sensed something small and invisible was blown back by the wind and hit the railing opposite the doorway. Shishir reached out and caught hold of whatever it was. A fairy appeared in his hand, wearing about her neck a pendant on a chain big enough to be worn by one of us. She struggled mightily but of course she couldn't escape. She was horrified when Shishir unwound the pendant from around her neck, explaining that it was something rare called "show glass" that allowed another person to see whatever was visible around the bearer of the pendant, like a scrying device.

The fairy, Delna, was evidently sent by the fey queen Morgaine to spy on us - but not on Shishir. She was supposed to follow Erasyne, though the queen didn't tell her why. She's terrified the Queen will kill her now that she's been exposed and the pendant taken. Ninad immediately offered her the safety of our company. She seemed to have trouble deciding what to do, but ultimately concluded she'd be safer with us than on her own.

In the meantime Thor transformed into a bird and flew through the portal for a few moments. He was eager to search there for Pheretima, assuming that Xymos must have released her. Erasyne was equally eager to enter, thinking that perhaps the lost egg might have floated away to the Plane of Air, though I'm not quite sure how she came to that conclusion.

As we couldn't find any way for all of us to fly like Thor, we decided to see if we could get more information from Xymos about Pheretima. Kouroush knew of a sea cave where the organization might hide. But before we went there we decided to go to the carpet shop we'd visited previously and talk to the djinn who worked there to see if he knew about this organization or Pheretima. I'm not sure how we came to that decision, either. Sometimes my friends' thought processes leave me bewildered.

The djinn at the carpet merchant's knew about the organization Xymos operates, but little else. He did tell us that Pheretima's father is someone important in the heirarchy of the djinni, though he wouldn't tell us more. He also told us to seek the king of the air whales if we wanted to travel through that plane, and to be prepared to repay the whale king with some service in exchange for his aid.

Kouroush told us he'd tried to contact Xymos on our behalf but had been rebuffed. We decided then to visit the sea cave. It was an unpleasant place, surrounded by the remains of dead plants and animals. The water in the area seems to have some deleterious effect, though it isn't poisonous.

Thor went ahead as a bird to scout the cave and reported that he heard odd voices, though he couldn't understand what they said. We crept cautiously into the cave and headed down the passage, moving slowly in the darkness. Eventually we could all hear what sounded like two voices singing in some strange tongue. Erasyne and Ninad crept forward to peer toward the sound and spotted two odd-looking giants tending a fire.

Unfortunately the giants also spotted them. We backed out into the cave and prepared to defend ouselves. When the two giants entered the cave Ninad called out to them that we just wanted to talk, but they didn't heed him. They came rushing out wielding the biggest hammers I have ever seen.

I set my spear against the first giant to exit the tunnel and fairly ran him through, but that didn't stop him smashing his hammer into Ninad. Thor scooped up a handful of pebbles and murmured over them before hurling them at the giant. They transformed mid-flight into boulders and slammed into the creature. The second giant came barreling out of the tunnel after Thor.

Shishir swallowed a potion and grew to greater stature, then rushed the second giant. He began pummeling it with his enlarged fists, which were also coated with corrosive slime courtesy of a spell. Ninad tried to set fire to the first giant, managing to burn him badly. I jabbed him several more times with my spear. Behind us Thor and Shishir made quick work of the other giant, while Erasyne danced around the first slashing him with her blades until he collapsed.

Then three men emerged into the cave.
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Quips & Quotes:

patv: "You see a djinn and an efreet behind the sultan. There are two distinctive gold lamps on the table."
Jubilee: "Dibs!"

Hedrin: "Bring out the hookahs!"
Zora: "Hookahs for everyone!"

patv: "The sultan claps his hands."
sniffles: "And all the lights go out."
Jubilee: "Sometimes I'm not sure the lights were ever on."

patv (to Zora): "You sense something small and invisible hits the opposite wall."
Devo: "You know, so small you can barely see it, your wife comments on it a lot..."