The Ghost Tower of Inverness (C2)

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 31, “Leaving the Caves”, April 6th, 1006 (Day Fourteen)

The party reaches a chamber that appears to be some type of temple. The still frazzled torchbearer refuses the enter, so Klaaze charges forward to lead the party. They are attacked by a group of sixteen gargoyles. The party enters into the battle, with Phuddi’s Vorpal Blade and Narg’s Sword of Sharpness being the most effective against them. Four of the monsters are slain by the time that the temple’s cleric arrives and starts tossing spells at them.

Between the gargoyles and the cleric the party start to find themselves on the loosing side of the battle. Augustine is killed, and Klaaze is reduced to but a few hit points. Kharole goes up to Klaaze and says “I might be able to use that robe to save us.” The fighter pulls it out of his pack, and she puts it on. She can now see various magical patches attached to it, each with their own power. She pulls off one marked “create pit”, attaches it to her magical throwing dagger, and tosses it at the ground beneath the enemy mage. A ten-foot deep pit opens below him, catching him by surprise.

Once the cleric disappears from view the remaining gargoyles decide to fly away. The party all charge up to the pit, seeing the mage at the bottom attempting to stand up. Before the enemy can throw any spells Kharole tosses Magic Missiles into him, followed by a steady barrage of arrows the all of the party’s archers. This continues until the man is dead. The body is then searched, and the party's cleric uses the rod to resurrect Augustine.

The staircase down to the final level is discovered nearby. Freyland leads the way, finding sections of the staircase to be trapped. The traps are sprung without harming the party, although the gnome looses his two best daggers. The bottom of the staircase is a large forested area, and the party decide to rest there before moving on.

The night is interrupted by the arrival of a human ranger named Lone. He states that he has no home, spending his time searching for those in need. He had wandered into these caves through a tunnel that collapsed behind him, and has been looking for another way out. He agrees to accompany the party, but is unwilling to travel with them to another world.

[Chronicler’s Note #45: My best friend had just come home on leave from the United States Navy, and asked if he could play. The DM agreed, planning to give him the NPC cleric Penzance. However, following a two-week absence, Hherrmyie’s player surprisingly arrived at the game, so the DM decided to give him Penzance instead. The “Lone Ranger” character was quickly thrown together for my friend, a variation of a D&D character he had played in the service.]

They move on, crossing through a room filled with sleeping alligators. They then find that the following room is occupied by an ancient red dragon, that is also sleeping. The party attempt to sneak through the room, but the sound of the clanging armor wakes the dragon. Augustine attempts to negotiate with it. Klaaze then intervenes, and insults the monster, which breathes a blast of fire onto the fighter. Not deterred by that, Klaaze continues to try to negotiate with the dragon. The dragon is somehow aware of the giant diamond that had been taken back on the second level, and asks for that as payment of passage.

Klaaze denies that the party has the diamond, even though it is sitting within his own backpack. The discussions continue without much success. Finally, Phuddipeduzh says to Klaaze “This is pointless. Just give him the diamond Klaaze.” The dragon roars upward, and yells to Klaaze “You lied to me lowly human!”, and then blasts him with a second and more powerful blast of fire, that incinerates the fighter. The rest of the party find the slightly charred but still intact gem from Klaaze’s pack, and give it to the dragon. It allows them to leave, taking Klaaze’s body with them.

The group moves on until they reach a safe location. The party then discuss resurrecting Klaaze. Everyone wishes to try to bring back their most powerful fighter except for the newly acquired cleric Penzance, who insists that he died foolishly, and should remain that way. Since Penzance is the only one who can actually use the Rod this creates quite a stand-off. The cleric is eventually coerced into complying, and Klaaze is brought back.

The group eventually find the dimensional doorway that will take them to another world. They bid the Lone Ranger a fond farewell. Kharole and Klaaze volunteer to lead, and the party then all exit the cave through the portal. The journey is not instantaneous, with them appearing to be falling through a multi-hued tunnel of light. It takes a good quarter hour before they eventually land in a grassy hilltop on the world known as Thibaultia.

Augustine gets his bearings. He notes that in the region they are in the season is now early autumn, the equivalent of mid-September. He tells them that the city of Specularum, their destination, a few days away to the west. He points towards a lake, instructing them that they need to follow a river that flows westward from it that leads to the city. He says that he must leave them for a short time, as there are protocols of his monastic order that must be observed now that he is back on his home world. He departs. The party travel westward for several miles, then stop for the night.

Day Fifteen (April 7th, 1006 at home, September 13th on Thibaultia):

The group reaches the lake and soon find a trail alongside the river. The day proves to be uneventful until dusk, when the party is attacked by a group of 28 creatures that looked similar but slightly different than lizardmen. A major battle follows. During the battle several of the party get bitten by the creatures. The monsters are soon defeated, and the party move on. The group soon decides to stop and rest for the night.

Of all of those who had been bitten by the monsters, only Penzance failed to make his Save vs. Poison, and he now begins to feel disoriented. He suddenly decides that the adventurers are all his enemies and attacks them. The party grabs the cleric to prevent him from casting spells. Penzance pulls a magical dagger from it's sheathe on Mark’s belt and stabs it into Klaaze, doing only minor damage. The fighter backs up and the party surrounds the cleric, instructing him to calm down and drop the weapon. The cleric then plunges the dagger into his owns heart and falls dead at their feet.

The party debates whether they should resurrect him. They conclude that both his usage of an edged weapon and behavior towards the party would have put him in violation of the dictates of his religion, and that even if brought back he would probably be stripped of his clerical abilities. They decide to bury him instead.

[Chronicler’s Note #46: The DM’s only instruction to the player was that the poison made his character feel dizzy. It was entirely the player’s idea to have the character attack the party and then kill himself. Given both this encounter and the prior refusal of Penzance to assist Klaaze, it was obvious that Hherrmyie’s player was still angry at the group and had no intention of being cooperative.

After the game the player intentionally damaged the vehicle of the player who gave him a ride home. Prior to the next game he was unanimously voted out of the group.]

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 32, “Klaaze’s Sword”, Day Sixteen (April 8th, 1006 / September 14th local):

The party arrives at the city of Specularum. It is a large bustling city, with tens of thousands of residents. Freyland, Kharole and Phraakeese have earned enough experience for their next level, and seek out instructors. The rest of the party find lodings.

Days Seventeen to Twenty-two (April 9th to 14th, 1006 / September 15th to 20th local):

Apprenticeships continue. Serita decides that if they are just going to be staying around in the city she might as well make some money, and spends several days unsuccessfully looking for a job that make use of her druid skills.

Day Twenty-three (April 15th, 1006 / September 21st local):

Narg has been missing for the past week, and suddenly returns, having gone off on another excursion with his Pooka. The first thing he decides to do is get a drink, and joins Freyland at the nearest bar, known as The Sisters. Narg asks the owners of the establishment, a pair of elderly humans, “What do you recommend?” They say that the house specialty is a home-brewed whiskey of theirs, known simply as “The Recipie”. “Sounds good,” he states, ordering it up for him and his companion.

They proceed to down three consecutive shots of the beverage, which has an exceedingly high alcoholic content. Narg regales Freyland with the details of his most recent trip, where he and his Pooka visited an advanced world and watched various games of a sport known as Hockey. Narg enthusiastically sings the praises of a player named Bobby Orr. Freyland doesn’t believe a word of this tale about a giant penguin taking the fighter to another world, and concludes that the half-elf just has a drinking problem.

Freyland then makes the mistake to downing a fourth shot, and then collapses straight to the floor. The sisters tell Narg “Oh, that happens quite often.” The ladies then have their bouncer bring the unconscious gnome into the back room to sleep it off.

Elsewhere in town, Klaaze has been looking for a new magical longsword to replace the one that he lost while in the caves. He finds a shop that has a +5 Sword of Sharpness for sale, and concludes that he has to have it. Unfortunately it also has a price tag of 30,000 gold pieces, which Klaaze does not have. The fighter sells his magical shield, his +1 longsword, and two magical daggers, which still leave him 12,000 short. Phuddi agrees to loan him half of that amount, which Klaaze instantly aceepts. Klaaze then asks him to sell some of his own possesions to get the remainder, but Phuddi refuses.

Klaaze attempts to talk the merchant into selling it for less, but the man refuses, saying that he has another potential buyer for the full asking price. Klaaze and Phuddi walk around town looking for the others, spotting Narg at The Sisters. Klaaze immediateley hits Narg up for a loan of 6,000 gold pieces. “What do I look like? The Bank of Narg?” the half-elf replies. Klaaze asks where the others are, and Narg replies “I don’t know, except for Freyland, who is passed out in the back room.” “Freyland, That’s Great!” Klaaze yells, remembering that he had loaned the gnome a +3 Defender Shortword to use a few weeks earlier.

Klaaze explains to the bar owners that the gnome’s sword belongs to him, and he wants it back. The women do not belive him, and refuse to allow the fighter to go take items off of an unconscious patron. One woman then says “Besides, we consider him to be a very special person. He now holds the record for drinking the most consecutive drinks of The Recipie the first time.” “What! He only had one more than me. Get me two more!” Narg yells out. Phuddi manages to talk Narg out of it, saying that they don’t need two unconscious fighters on their hands.

The others in the party soon find them at the tavern. Klaaze is angry that nobody will sell their own possessions in order to get him 6,000 more in gold. Serita takes an interest in this highly-potent beverage, and offers the elderly ladies to work as a waitress in exchange for learning how to brew it. The final one to arrive is Phraakeese, who has just finished up his apprenticeship. Narg suggests that they start a bar fight, Pharaakeese refuses, which soon escilates in an argument between the that ends in a bar fight. Serita quickly breaks up the two, stating that it took her a week to find a job and she doesn’t want to lose it the first hour.

Day Twenty-four (April 16th, 1006 / September 22nd local):

Klaaze talks Kharole into attempting a Charm Person spell on the sword merchant to get him to lower his price. Narg joins them for a visit to the shop, only to find out that the sword has already been sold, the merchant reminding Klaaze “I told you I had another buyer.” “Not fair. I thought that was just a negotiating tactic,” the fighter replies. Kharole inquires as to who purchased the sword, and is told “The Prince of the City.”

They decide to go and talk to this prince. She winds up using the Charm spell on the leader of the Palace Guard in order for them to gain admittance. They are soon in the presence of the Prince, an elegantly attired robust human fighter in his early twenties. They soon discover that it is just as well that she already used the Charm, as the Prince starts to flirt with Kharole even without the inducement. They exchange small talk until Klaaze interupts, stating “We’re here because I want that sword you bought. How much do you want for it?”

The Prince says that he paid 30,000 gold for it, and will sell it for twice that amount. Narg exclaims “What! Where is your mask and your gun?” Not understanding the expression that Narg had picked up from his journeys, the Prince replies “What does that mean?” Kharole interjects “Oh, that is just a friendly greeting from where we come from.” “Oh,” the Prince answers, then repeating the phrase to Kharole.

Glancing back at Klaaze and Narg, the Prince asks Kharole “Are you sure that either of them would even be capable of weilding such a sword?” “Your Mama!” Narg snaps back. “What was that?” the Prince asks. Kharole interjects “Just a term of endearment. I think he is sweet on you.” “He’s not my type,” the Prince replies, smiling back at Kharole. Deciding that this could lead to more trouble, and not trusting Klaaze or Narg to not say anything worse, she explains to the Prince how they need to be going. Klaaze manages to convince some of his friends to sell some of the large diamonds that they found on Lendore Island, but is still 16,000 gold shy of the new asking price.

Day Twenty-five (April 17th, 1006 / September 23rd local):

Freyland finally wakes up, and gives Klaaze back the magical shortsword. Klaaze manages to talk the sword merchant into paying the full 16,000 gold for it, and heads back to the royal palace. He is told that he Prince is not there, having left the city that morning with the Royal Army, in order to go fight a great monster that was terrorizing villages to the west. He gets angry when told that the Prince took the sword with him.

The party convince Klaaze that he should just forget about the new sword, and that since Augustine could arrive at any time to get them, neither he or Freyland should be without a primary weapon. Klaaze goes to the sword merchant and buys back the shortsword and +1 longsword, loosing 800 gold pieces in the transaction.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 33, “Leaving, What a good idea!”, Day Twenty-six (April 18th. 1006 / September 24th local)

The Royal Army returns to the city. The somber procession moves through the streets, with a carriage with a flag-draped casket housing the Prince’s body. The party decides to head over to the place, but because of the scene he made there the night before choose not to take Klaaze with them, or his known associates Kharole and Narg. The group of
Freyland, Mark, Serita and Phuddipeduzh arrive at the palace and ask for an audience with the King, stating that they may be able to resurrect the Prince.

The four are soon ushered into the great hall of the palace into the presence of the very distraught King. The King tells them in anquished cries about the Prince dying at the hands of the dreaded Jabberwock, stating “I warned him to be careful. I told him ‘Beware the Jabberwock my son’.” The players all groan in unison at the reference to the line from the Lewis Carrol poem.

The group tell the King that they have a resurrection device, which can be used to bring back the Prince. They agree to have his cleric use the rod in exchange for them being given the Prince’s new sword. The King agrees to these terms, and the resurrection is successful.

The King then hands them the sword, which is broken in two with its magical properies gone. “What is this?” Freyland exclaims. “That is how the Jabberwock left it” the King replies. Phuddipeduzh protests “You tricked us. We helped you bring back the Prince in good faith. You owe us something of equivalent value to the sword.” The King replies “Get out!” When the party do not immediately move the King orders his guards to arrest them. A fight follows, with twenty guards converging on the party. The Captain of the Guard and four of his men are killed. The party manages to escape from the royal palace, wounding several more guards in the process.

They quickly find their fellow party members and retrieve their possessions from their lodgings. They regroup at The Sisters Tavern. The city itself is now in a state of panic, as the Jabberwock is seen approaching from the distance. Thousands of people are fleeing the city in panic. One of the tavern owners suggests to the players that this sounds like a good opportunity to become local heroes, that slaying the Jabberwock will surely put them back in the King’s good graces.

They party head away privately to discuss it. Phuddi asks “What do you think?” “After the way that King just treated you, I say forget it,” Phraakeese exclaims. “Yeah,” Klaaze adds “The Jabberwock can have both him and his city for all I care.” Serita interjects “I agree. Who’s to say that anything would make the King grateful. We saved his son, and he treated us like crap.” So the entire group decides to take advantage of the fleeing populace, and they manage to sneak out of the city disguised as commoners.

[Chronicler’s Note #47: The DM clearly overplayed his hand with this one. He had been running this module for three-months, and a parallel module for six-months with his other group, anticipating a climax game with the combined gaming groups. His other group was delayed getting to Specularum, so he had been stalling for time during our previous two games. His plan this week was to give the party incentive to fight the Jabberwock, and use up another game night or two in the city, but the plan backfired on him with the party leaving the city instead.]

Day Twenty-seven (April 19th, 1006 / September 25th local)

The party joins up with a merchant wagon traveling north. The group soon discovers that these men are criminals who are wanted back in the city. The DM suggests that the party might want to consider taking these men into custody and returning them to the city. A player responds “Are you kidding? We’re now criminals wanted by the city too, we’ll fit right in with these guys.” The wagon continues north towards the mountain for the entire day. The DM tosses out several other meager excuses for the players to head back, none of which are consented to.

The wagon stops for supper, during the meal it becomes known that one of the crimes the merchants are wanted for includes running a slavery and prostitution ring, and implies that they now wish to add both Kharole and Serita to their product line. Neither of the female players of these characters get overly upset by this, stating that they are more than capable of defending themselves against a pair of merchants, especially with the assistance of their friends. The merchants keep a distance from the party that evening.

Day Twenty-eight (April 20th, 1006 / September 26th local):

The party are now about 25 miles north of the city, travelling into the mountains. They see fires burning in a distant village, situated about 10 or so miles back towards the city. The DM suggests that they may want to head back to investigate, but it instead prompts the party to continue north at an even faster pace. They travel for another 10 miles, where they are now high up into the mountains are can see the city in the far distance.

They decide to stop for lunch. A meal is cooked up, and Phuddipeduzh carries a plate of food over to the wagon for the merchants. “How does this look to you guys?” he asks. The merchants look in his direction, and then their jaws drop and all blood flows from their face. Phuddi hears a roaring sound, turning around to see a 40-foot tall Jabberwock standing before him.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 34, "Jabberwocky", Day Twenty-eight (April 20th, 1006 / September 26th local):

Towering far above him, the golden hued monster dives toward the fighter. Phuddi charges back, the monster chasing after him at a far faster a pace than one would have imagined. The monsters hind legs and tail go crashing into the wagon, reducing it to splinters and the two merchants to pulp. The sound of the crash alerts the rest of the party, who had just sat down to eat a short distance away.

The monster swipes its clawed hands at Phuddi, slashing holes into the fighter’s armor and knocking him around like a rag doll. Narg and Phraakeese charge to their friend’s assistance, only be treated like annoying insects, the monster batting them away with its hind legs while continuing to grab towards Phuddi. Kharole tosses a few Magic Missile spells into the beast, while Serita attempts a number of spells which appear to have no effect on the behemoth.

Klaaze and Mark begin to fire arrows from their bows up towards the monsters head, as Freyland lobs sling bullets in that direction. The creature continues to focus its attention on Phuddi, who has now been reduced to a mere dozen hit points. Phuddi continues to take several swipes of his Vorpal Blade at the monster, which attempts to grab the sword. The monster’s right claw gets cut several times and skewered once by the blade, but none of this deters him.

Kharole is the first to connect what they are all seeing, yelling out “The Sword! It wants Phuddi’s Sword.” “Of course,” Serita exclaims “A Vorpal Blade is the nemesis of the Jabberwock. It must have sensed the presence of its adversary.” Kharole finishes the through “Which is why it came to the city, and then that village we saw burning. It’s been following the sword!” At this point both Narg and Phraakeese have been trying to keep the monster from grabbing Phuddi by inserting themselves between the two. Both fighters have stabbed the creature several times, but have taken far worse than they dished out in its counterattacks, each now to below half of their hit points. “More Fight, Less Talk” Narg yells back at the women.

The creature’s left claw then swings around, grabbing Phuddipeduzh and lifting him high into the air. Phuddi is helpless, his arms and the sword pinned to his side by the fingers on the creatures claw. It squeezes the fist holding the fighter to the point where Phuddi is on the verge of passing out. The Jabberwock then opens its mouth wide, bringing the fist up to its gaping jaw, to bite the fighter’s head off.

Phraakeese jumps up onto the monster’s right knee and uses it as a springboard to bounce even higher. Holding his magical sword with both hands, Phraakeese buries it deep into the Jabberwock’s left shoulder, which causes the monster’s left arm to go limp, dropping Phuddi to the ground, becoming unconscious. The monster uses its right claw to bat Phraakeese away, sending him flying so twenty feet and landing in a unmoving heap. The monster balls its claws into a fist, and prepares to pound the life out of Phraakeese’s unmoving body. The Jabberwock suddenly yells out in pain, as a well-thrown pointed bullet from Freyland’s sling finds its way into one of the monster’s eyes.

Narg alone stands before the wounded beast, although his greatest concern at this moment is not his own safety but that of his friends. To stop the monster from stepping on and crushing either Phraakeese or Phuddi the fighter decides to lure it away from them. Narg drops his own sword and grabs up the Vorpal blade, running away from his allies. The wounded beast pursues, and quickly catches up with the half-elf, grabbing him up with the right claw as he had done with Phuddi. There is however, one key difference, as Narg saw the shadow of the claw reaching towards him, and raised his arms and the sword up in order to keep them from being pinned.

As the monster squeezes its fist and lift Narg high into the air the fighter moves his arms back, preparing to swing the sword with full force in the same way that a baseball player swings a bat. Narg waits until he sees the monster’s teeth before him, his own head just entering the monster’s mouth, and lets the sword fly. This allows a perfect swing of the Vorpal Blade directly into the monster’s neck.

[Chronicler’s Note #48: The player had just barely beaten the DM with an initiative roll. The DM informs the player that while he only needs a “12” or better to hit the creature, a “17” or better will be required for the Vorpal Blade to actually decapitate the monster. Otherwise, it will be Narg who will find himself decapitated this round. The table is totally silent as Narg’s player lets the dice roll. It lands as a “19” and the entire table erupts in a resounding cheer so loud that others in house of that week’s host come to see what the commotion is all about.]

The sword cleanly slices through the neck of the creature, which falls backwards. The rest of the party arrive, and have to help pry the barely conscious Narg out from the death grip of the monster. Serita casts healing spells on Narg, Phraakeese and Phuddipeduzh. Narg decides to check to see if there is anything of value in the monster’s stomach, and slices it wide open. A magical net is found, along with the partially digested remains of what Narg hopes are cattle, but suspects otherwise. Meanwhile, the others search through the wreckage of the merchant’s wagon, finding a map with writing on it in a language they cannot understand.

Narg decides to head down to the river to wash himself and the net off. The others decide that cleaning up sounds like a good idea, and follow. They arrive at the river, seeing an old human with assorted fishing equipment. He yells at the party “Are you the ones making all that ruckus up the hill! I came here to fish, and that roaring has scared all of the fish away!” Phraakeese exclaims “Hey, don’t blame us. It was the Jabberwock’s idea to come to your fishing hole, not ours.” “Jabberwock? The same one that attacked the city yesterday?” the man exclaims. “Yeah, we just killed it,” Narg states. “Sounds like a mighty big fish story to me, I’ll have to see it to believe it” the man replies. The man introduces himself as Old Man Hawkins, and starts to tell them some mighty big fish stories of his own.

After Narg and company clean up they bring the man back with them to see the Jabberwock’s body. They also show him the map, and he is able to translate the writing. He tells them is a poem which reads: “In a Castle of Old, In a Casket of Gold, Is the Basin of Time, Without Reason or Rhyme, You Appear Where it’s told.” He says it refers to a mystical basin rumored to be able to transport people to other worlds. “How convenient” Phraakeese’s player interjects.

He is very impressed at seeing the body of the Jabberwock, saying “It sure looks like the same one that attacked Specularum.” “Hold on, if you saw it there how did you get her so quickly?” Kharole asks. He says that he has a teleportation device, which he uses to get to his favorite fishing spots. He offers to use it to bring the party back to the city the next morning. He states “I’ll be a witness to the fact you killed it. That will make you heroes and the King will have to honor you.”

[Chronicler’s Note #49: The DM informs the players that his other group had reached the city of Specularum during their game the night before. It is now necessary for the Silver Moon Adventurers to return to the city, and for the two groups to meet each other and find out about what they need to do during each of the their games the following week, with the combined group climax game scheduled for two weeks later. The players decides to go along with that plan, as many are now anxious for this module to just be over and done with.]

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 35, “The best laid plans of dungeon masters often go astray”, Day Twenty-Nine (August 22nd, 1006 / September 27th local):

The party awakens on the side of the mountain. Old Man Hawkins had gone back down to the river to fish, so the party cooks themselves up some breakfast. The peaceful morning is then interrupted by a bright flash of light, coming from the distant city of Specularum. The party looks up to see a cascade of smoke and ash traveling upward from the city. The rising plume is the width of the entire city, and eventually forms the shape of a giant mushroom. The party stands silently in awe, as the cloud begins to dissipate, leaving behind a crater surrounded by charred husks that were once buildings, with fire and smoke pillowing up from the outer environs of what had once been a great city.

[Chronicler’s Note #50: The DM tells the players about what transpired during his other group’s game the night before. The characters found out that their mission was to stop a megalomaniac time traveler who was threatening to detonate a nuclear bomb in the city. The players had then been told that another adventuring team would soon be joining them to help deal with this threat. The group decided not to wait, feeling that they alone had sufficient power to handle the situation. The DM stated that he warned them that without the combined resources of both teams there was a high probability of failure, but they choose to proceed on their own despite the warning. The end result was the explosion that the party had just witnessed.]

Old Man Hawkins returns, and stares at the distant remains of what had once been his home. Klaaze is the first to speak, saying “Maybe we should find ourselves a nice tropical island to go to instead?” “I just want to go home,” Serita states. Hawkins says “You might still be able to. It’s hard to tell from this far away, but I think that part of the Royal Palace looks to still be standing. That was the “Castle of Old” from your poem. It is worth checking out. The party decides it can’t hurt to check. Hawkins teleports them to a safe location a good distance away from the city, and the party spend the rest of the day hiking towards it. They reach the outer edge of the blast zone by evening, and decide to wait until morning before entering the remains of the city.

Day Thirty (August 23rd, 1006 / September 28th local):

The party arrives in the city and cautiously make their way towards the castle. As they near the building it becomes obvious that it is the only structure in the entire city that is still partially intact. The enter the charred ruins, carefully making their way past debris and fallen walls. They enter the castle proper, finding that the upper floors of the manor house have collapsed into a pile of rubble. They check the still standing servants’ quarters, and soon discover a slightly ajar door leading to a staircase downward.

The party descend downward, finding themselves in a series of well-traveled tunnels, which they conclude is how the servants traveled between the various buildings of the palace. They follow the tunnels to area beneath where the great hall of the palace stood, with Kharole discovering a secret door. It leads to another corridor, which spirals downward. They soon reach an intersection, which has a series of recently made tracks, that from the size Mark identifies as having been made by either elves, half-elves or small humans.

A series of traps and secret doors are found along the way. The hallway eventually ends in a section of wall that has been covered by both magical webbing and darkness. The fighters uses their magical blades to cut through the webbing, and then charge through the darkness, entering through a doorway into to a large brightly lit chamber. Inside of the room are twenty margoyles and about forty human females. At the far end of the room the party sees the Basin of Time that had been mentioned in the poem.

The leader of the women, attired as a wizard, points towards the party and says “More enemies of the Master have broken through. Attack.” Hearing that, the fighters all draw their weapons and charge into the room. Kharole tosses a fireball into the women. The fireball is quite powerful (almost at maximum) and with a lower ceiling than she is used too covers a much wider area of the room than she had planned on. It kills most of the women in the room, also catching Narg and Phuddipeduzh. The party notice that the leader and the two women beside her were unaffected by the fireball, apparerently surrounded by a magical protection sphere.

The enemy leader tosses up a Wall of Fire between the party and a group of ten female archers. The women begin to fire arrows into the fighters, who cannot reach them for melee combat due to the flames. Another of the women leaders orders the margoyles to attack, and a fierce battle follows, during which one of the margoyles bites off one of Phraakeese’s thumbs. They party appears to be having success against the margoyles, but they keep getting picked off by the arrows from the enemy archers, many of which catch fire as they fly through the flames.

The gnome Freyland tells Narg “Enough of this. Can you toss me through the flames fast enough that I won’t catch?” Narg grabs him and says “Fine, I’m the outfielder, they’re home plate.” Other than a slightly singed beard, the gnome sails through with minimal damage, hitting several of the archers and knocking them back. Narg comments “Okay, so it was bowling instead of baseball.” Freyland cuts into many of the archers, until succumbing to a Sleep spell cast by the enemy leader. The group of Mark, Klaaze, Phraakeese and Phuddipeduzh all draw their bows and begin to fire back into the female archers.

The leader’s two bodyguards move forward to engage Narg and Serita in battle. Kharole has invisibly made her way around the room to the leader. She jabs her dagger into the leaders back, disrupting a spell. The leader moves aside, and begins to toss spells at Kharole. Elsewhere, an invisible female assassin had moved up behind Mark, and stabbed him into unconsciousness. However, before she can finish him off Klaaze, Phraakeese and Phuddi turn and fire their arrows into her. She turns invisible again and retreats. The three fighters then concentrate their arrow fire on one of the leader’s bodyguards, who appears to be a cleric, freeing up Serita to come and heal Mark. The cleric soon falls, and they then concentrate their arrow fire back on the remaining enemy archers.

Narg continues to engage the enemy fighter in battle while Kharole goes one-on-one against the leader. By now both have already exhausted all of their high-level spells. Kharole uses both her Ring of Invisibility to evade, but the enemy has a Helm of Teleportation that she keeps using to move around and behind Kharole. Both strike each other with Magic Missile and Shocking Grasp spells. The enemy actually has more low level spells, but Kharole compensates by using up most of the patches from her Robe of Useful Items. They are soon both down to single digit hit points, when Kharole changes tactics, and instead of relying on spells tosses both of her magical daggers into the women. The enemy leader falls dead. Seeing this, the enemy fighter parries Narg’s next three blows while maneuvering over towards the wall, and then disappears into a secret door. Narg considers pursuing, but the party tell him not to leave, that it may be a trap.

The bodies of the enemies are quickly searched, Kharole grabbing the helmet of the foe she was fighting. Kharole then investigates the basin, trying to figure out how to activate it. Klaaze dips his hands into the basin’s water, and they come out with webbed fingers. Freyland says “The poem stated ‘You appear where its told’. Why don’t we just ask it to take us to Orman?” “Sounds too simple,” Serita states, but they try it and the fountain begins to glow. Deciding that they have nothing to lose, the party all jump through.

[Chronicler’s Note #51: While the battle itself was fun, it would have worked far better if the players had had an idea who is was they were fighting. The DM then tells the group that the women were working for the megalomaniac, saying that the DM’s other gaming group had fought them earlier. He adds that the Megalomaniac was named Namro, and that he was the evil twin of the arch mage Orman who had sent them on this mission. This did not mean much to anyone since the party never met or fought him. Instead of just ending this fairly unsatisfying module at this point the DM then asked each player now roll a System Shock roll, with a modifier of –25%, to see how they managed their journey through the basin. Both Freyland and Serita failed their rolls. “Then they are both dead,” the DM stated, ending the module on that note.]

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 36, “The Illusionist’s Study”, April 23rd, 1006:

The party appear in the middle a wooded forest. The party discovers that both Freyland and Serita perished during the journey. Orman is very surprised to see them. The party gives him a summary explanation of what happened. The Arch-mage offers to assist, but says that he can only teleport up three people. The party decides to have him bring Freyland and Serita’s bodies back to their ship in Halla, and Mark also decides to accompany him. Narg says “That’s fine. We’ll find something to do around here. By the way, where are we?”

Orman says they are in the Kralt Lordholding, the northwestern most land on the continent, near the western end of it. He tells them that the town of Byr is approximately ten miles away. Phuddipeduzh says that he has heard of Byr before, as it is was where his late wife Beulla was originally from. They ask Orman why he is there, and he answers “I was going to see an illusionist who is conducting some experiments for me in this vacinity.” Orman teleports away with Mark and the bodies.

Kharole, Klaaze, Narg, Phraakeese and Phuddipeduzh travel in the direction of Byr, and soon run into a friend of theirs from three weeks earlier, the Lone Ranger. He is accompanied by a young male halfling who is introduced as Blake. Lone tells the party that they two of them are on a scouting mission for a family in Byr, and are on their way back to Byr to apprise the family of their progress. The halfling Blake says he was originally from a halfling community in hills a few days to the north, and that he had hooked up with Lone because it was safer than traveling by himself. On the way to town the party is attacked by a group of giant beetles. The party has no difficulty dispatching them, but Narg gets sprayed by one of them, causing him to reek.

They arrive in Byr, a small forest town, heading to its only inn, The Broken Web. Narg gets some water and soap to wash up. The party talks to a human healer named Jacques, who then heads off with Lone and Blake. Phraakeese heads off to find someone to train him for his next level, being told of a retired high-level fighter who lives in a cabin north of town.

[DM’s Note #52: The remainder of this chapter was played as Module #7, a month prior to the above. My Navy friend was home for a short visit and wanted to play D&D. The current DM, as well as Serita and Mark’s players, all planned to introduce new characters in my next module and Kharole’s player had yet another new boyfriend that she was anxious to have join the group. So I put together a short one-night game for the five of them to introduce the characters and also serve as a prelude to my next module.]

Lone, Blake and Jacques decide that based on what they just found they may need some more help. The regional priest for this section of the Lordholding has just arrived in town, so they go to ask if he will join them. They soon meet with Vincenzo, a young but balding rather rotund human cleric of the Twin Gods (the Wind & Weather god Hoturu and the War god Huan-ti, both Chaotic Good).

They then head over to local farmhouse of the Bernmitzolgawitz family to talk with the member of the family who had hired them, a young human named Ji-do Kwan, who had recently studied the monastic lifestyle (where he took on an oriental named from the monastery). Ji-do Kwan’s twin sister Jamie disappeared in the forests a week ago, and he hired Lone to look for her. Lone explains that he discovered what he thinks are her tracks, but there is evidence of a struggle with several people including a giant, so he decided to get reinforcements before proceeding. Ji-do Kwan also decides to accompany them.

Lone leads the four humans and the halfling to where he found the tracks. Along the way Ji-do Kwan says that his sister is the third young woman from the town to disappear within the past two months. They soon find the tracks, which appear to be a day old. The Lone Ranger explains how the tracks of the woman appeared to have been running from the east when she ran into the other set of tracks, coming from the northwest. The other set consist of one set of giant-sized tracks and a group of five to eight man-sized humanoids. A struggle followed, after which all tracks head back to the northwest, and it appears that the woman was then being pulled by the giant.

They follow this trail for about two hours, with it ending at the side of a hill. A pair of shut wooden double doors are at the mouth of the cave. The party spread out to look for another way in, soon discovering a shaft further up the hill. The shaft smells of smoke, and Blake also detects the smell of grease and cooked meat, so they conclude it is a chimney for the cave occupants. Vincenzo is clearly too large to go down the shaft, and both Jacques and Lone see the shaft as being too smooth and vertical for them to traverse. So Blake and Ji-do Kwan alone climb down. As they near the bottom the shaft gets hotter, indicating that there are still hot coals from a recent cooking fire at the bottom. Distant voices are also heard below. They climb back up, suggesting that they wait until later that evening, for both the coals to have died down as well as for the occupants to have fallen asleep.

Several hours later Blake and Ji-do again climb down, finding themselves in a darkened chamber that serves as a kitchen and pantry. Two passageways branch off, which they follow through the cave complex, Blake guiding the human with his infravision. They find a large chamber with a giant and seven hobgoblins in it. All but one hobgoblin are sleeping, and the one that is awake does not see them, being busy sharpening a dagger. They quietly move on, finding a shut wooden door. Ji-do attempts to open it, but it appears latched on the other side. They conclude that the young woman may be in that room.

The pair continue through the cave, soon finding the front doorway. They remove the bar holding it shut, and quickly find their three allies. They decide to shut the door, but to hide the bar, so that it cannot be quickly locked. They consider dealing with the latched door, but doing so could potentially put them in a crossfire between the monsters and whatever else might be behind the door, so decide to deal first with the room of monsters.

The plan is to have Ji-do Kwan take out the one who is awake, and the party will then dispatch the others. Blake also sneaks into the room, hiding behind a large rock that the giant apparently uses as a chair. The plan falls apart as one of the hobgoblins wakes up just as Ji-do sneaks walks him and calls out an alarm. Lone and Vincenzo charges into the room to support him. Jacques stays in the doorway, protectively holding a dagger, told to keep the monsters from escaping.

Lone quickly dispatches three of the hobgoblins and then goes to fight the giant. Vincenzo and Ji-do Kwan each fight a hobgoblin. A hobgoblin presents his back to Blake and is backstabbed. In the hallway, Jacques hears footsteps approaching, and retreats around the corner of the cave. He does not see anyone, but hears a pair of footsteps approaching, followed by the sounds of a spell being cast. Inside the room, the enemy are soon reduced to the giant and a lone hobgoblin. As Ji-do and the hobgoblin spar, Vincenzo casts a Spiritual Hammer spell to assist Lone against the giant. They are then shocked to see a section of the wall slide aside, and four more giants charge out to assist. Lone lets out an explicative as Ji-do finishes off the final hobgoblin.

Blake decides to backstab one of the new giants, jumping him, only to sail right through the creature. Meanwhile, Jacques tosses his dagger in the direction where the spell came from. The dagger does not hit, but is enough to disrupt the man’s concentration long enough that the illusionary giants momentarily freeze in their tracks. “Huh,” Vincenzo states, with Blake then yelling out “They’re illusions.” Jacques yells out “The guy casting it is out here,” as he scoops up a handful of dirt and rubble and then tosses it in that direction. Enough dust falls on the invisible man for Vincenzo to make out an outline, and he casts a Hold Person. The illusionary giants disappear. The party then concentrate their attacks on the remaining giant, who soon falls.

The illusionist is tied up and the rest of the caves are then searched, finding a secret laboratory but no evidence of Ji-do Kwan’s sister. The illusionist is questioned, and he says that all he is doing is conducting experiments, and that the giant and hobgoblins were his guards. He confirms that his servants had run into a hysterical girl in the woods the day before, and decided to bring her back to the cave. On the way back she screamed about escaping from humanoid spider-people that were going to sacrifice her. She then grabbed a sword from one of the hobgoblin’s and attacked them, cutting the giant’s hand. They decided to then just let this crazy woman run away, rather than attempt to stop her again. Ji-do Kwan tells the others that his sister has been trained in the use of a sword, having been taught by their older sister Beulla, who was also a fighter. They decide to bring the illusionist with them back to town to talk to Byr’s mayor and maybe face charges when the regional magistrate arrives.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 37, “The New Team”, April 24th, 1006:

Deciding that they can use some more assistance to look for Ji-Do-Kwan’s sister, the five who had searched for her the previous day head over to the Broken Web Tavern to speak with the five Silver Moon Adventurers. Lone handles the introductions and Ji-Do Kwan then briefs them about looking for his sister. However, before they leave the tavern the sister arrives.

The girl Jamie appears to be tired and covered in dirt, but in otherwise unharmed. She is still clinging onto the sword that she had stolen from the hobgoblin. She tells of having been kidnapped by man-sized humanoid spiders, who sought to sacrifice her to their spider god. She was one of three girls captured from the village thus far, but the only one who managed to successfully escape from the spider’s lair.

Kharole asks “Would the others have now been sacrificed?” Jamie replies “No, they said they needed eight for the ceremony.” Narg says “Then our mission is clear, we must take all of the attractive young women from this village away from this place.” Kharole interjects “And let me guess, you’d bring them all to your place?” Narg answers “Yes, I’d be willing to protect them.” “Uh huh,” Kharole comments.

Jamie says that she is willing to lead them back to where she escaped from, but first needs an opportunity to eat and rest. They decide to wait a day or two more, for when Phraakeese will also be available to join them. Lone heads out now to do some preliminary scouting in that area. The party members introduce themselves. Jamie recognizes Phuddipeduzh’s name, and says “You’re the fighter who married my sister Beulla!” Phuddi says that he is, and that he had hoped to have a chance to visit with her family while in Byr. He then points to Ji-do-Kwan and says “Wait a minute. Buella said her brother’s name was James.” “He changed it at the monastery” Jamie interjects.

April 25th, 1006:

Supplies are obtained for the mission. The party also transacts business with a local merchant who has a number of magic items available, although whether all of the items are what he claims they are is highly questionable. The one item that there is a great deal of in town is seed for planting, and the party buys 74 ten-pound bags of it to possibly use for trade. The seed is loaded into Vincenzo’s wagon. Lone returns having possibly found the monsters’ trail. Jamie agrees to head back with him to check, and Narg decides to join them, telling the party to catch up with them the next day.

April 26th, 1006:

Phraakeese returns from his apprencticeship, and is accompanied by an old friend of the party’s, Silas-the-one-eyed. Silas is happy to see Kharole, Klaaze and Phuddipeduzh again. They tell him about what the group has done for the past nine months, and he fills them in on his life, which consisted primarily of getting lost in the mountains and then the forests. He has spent the past several months with an old fighter named Gramps, who had given Phraakeese his apprenticeship.

So the group of Blake, Jacques, Ji-do-Kwan, Kharole, Klaaze, Phraakeese, Phuddipeduzh, Silas and Vincenzo head out in the direction that Jamie, Lone and Narg had gone. Midway through the morning they run into a group of white furred bear-like humanoid monsters known as Quaggoths. Rather than attacking them as a group, the party splits up, resulting in them taking far more damage than they otherwise would have. Vincenzo and Jacques assist with healing.

By mid-afternoon a heavy rain shower begins, and the party decides to stop and set up camp. During the evening, when Klaaze is on watch duty, a goat arrives in the camp. The goat is wearing a collar, and Klaaze comes up with the notion that it is an intelligent humanoid in goat form. Klaaze tells this to the goat, and recieves the telepathic command “I am, don’t give me away.” The problem arrises when Silas is woken up for his own watch duty, and he wants to kill and eat the goat. Klaaze eventually convinces him to leave it alone, saying that “It is probably somebody’s pet. And we may just be needing help from that same somebody.

April 27th, 1006:

The party starts up a fire to cook breakfast, which Silas still insists should consist of the goat. The smoke from the fire attracts Jamie and Narg who are nearby. Narg and Silas are happy to see each other again, especially after Narg agrees the goat should be eaten. They say that Lone has gone on further ahead. Kharole notices that Narg appears to be a bit more muscular and somewhat fatter. He explains that during the night his Pooka took him on a trip, which actually lasted a couple of months, and they ate and excercized well. Narg points to a mountain in the distance, saying “That is where Lone said the tracks lead to.

[DM's Note #53: This night was my "back to basics" approach following what the group had endured for the past four months. Several players were still bitter about how the prior module had gone, so it was nice to have the group dynamic change with the addition of Kharole's player's new boyfriend as well as the return of Silas's player after a year-long absence from the group. The module itself was a rather simple but well designed one from a recent issue of Dragon Magazine, which I then added to by developing the land around the town of Byr in a bit more detail.]

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 38, "Little Boy Mountain", April 27, 1006

The tracks lead to a peak known as Little Boy Mountain. It is named that due to its shape, which from the southern end has a series of rock ledges that resemble a small boy seated on the ground with his arms locked around his knees. The single path up the mountain is rather treacherous, but the party manages the ascent. At one point the goat slips and falls from a cliff. Silas complains about loosing a solid meal.

They pass a number of different caves along the trail upward, but the only recent tracks by any of these appear to have been made by animals. The trail winds back and forth. The party is then surprised, as rocks from the ledge above pummel them. They quickly hurry along to the bend in the trail, seeing that a group of around two-dozen hobgoblins had thrown the rocks.

The party charge forward, and the hobgoblins round the next bend in the trail to the next ledge up. From there they continue to throw loose rocks down at their pursuers. The party soon reaches these enemies, and a fierce battle follows. When approximately half of the enemies have been slain the others break off their attack, and charge upward, with the Silver Moon Adventurers chasing after them. The hobgoblins charge into the next cave, and the Lone Ranger confirms that based upon the number of tracks by the entrance, this appears to be their lair.

The party cautiously enters. The caves are silent, and a quick exploration reveals that the surviving hobgoblins have escaped out of a tunnel to the other side of the mountain. A small amount of treasure is found and pocketed. There is no indication of any non-hobgoblins having been inside of this particular cave, so the party decides to proceed upward.

The next cave reached is more elaborate, having been apparently worked by people familiar with carving stone. The path leads to a large room that has been sculpted in the shape of a rough octagon, and leads deep into the mountain. The floor is fairly smooth, leaving few if any discernable tracks. The walls of the cave have been braced with timbers, and the ceiling is a full ten feet high. The party decides that this looks promising.

There are three side passageways off from the room. Klaaze leads the group down the first one, and gets attacked by a giant spider. The Lone Ranger and Silas come to his aid, and soon dispatch the creature. They soon reach a dead end, with nothing other than a rusty old shield and some bones, which they conclude belonged to a prior victim of the spider.

The second passageway is explored, with a secret door being discovered. The party spends an inordinate amount of time trying to determine how to get the door to open. Phraakeese decides to try using a chime found in the hobgoblin’s treasure pile, and ringing it does indeed cause the wall to shift. The door only stays open a short time, then shuts again. Phraakeese rings it again, and this time the party hurries through before it closes.

Beyond the doorway is a stone staircase descending down and into the mountains. The staircase ends at a vast abyss, going down as far as the eye can see. The only way to traverse this chasm is a stone bridge. On the opposite side of the bridge is an elaborate set of double doors with a large depiction of a spider’s face etched on them. Carved on the wall surrounding the doors is an outline of the remainder of the spider.

The party begins to cross the bridge. When they are about halfway across the doors open, and the surviving hobgoblins from the prior battle charge out and at them. A battle breaks out on the bridge, during which the party manages to toss about half of the hobgoblins off, dispatching the others with weapons and spells. The only party member to fall over the side is the monk Ji-do Kwan, who manages to grab a handhold and climb back up.

A lone hobgoblin survives the battle. Kharole observed that this hobgoblin was not in the prior battle and did not appear to be with the others. Furthermore, he is carrying no weapons. The party engages him in conversation, and the very articulate hobgoblin actually manages to convince them to let him go. The creature crosses the bridge, and departs the way the party had come.

The party enters the room that the hobgoblins had come out from. It is octagonal shape and approximately 40 feet in diameter. Four hanging glow lanterns light the room, and each wall is painted a different color, namely green, red, gold, black, orange, purple, yellow and blue. There are a number of cots in the room, which the party concludes was for the hobgoblin guards. A pair of doors is on one of the walls, and they are opened to reveal a long corridor.

The two battles against the hobgoblins have left the party in pretty rough shape. They decide that, with the enemy’s guards all gone, it would probably be safe to stay and rest in this room. Watches are kept, as the remainder of the party lie down on the cots and fall asleep.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 39, “The Chagmat and the Derro”, April 28th , 1006:

The group awakens, eat, study and/or pray for spells, and then proceed down the long corridor. It ends in an eight-sized room with doors on five walls. Jamie says that it looks familiar, that she was taken through here when initially captured. Secret doors are found on the other three walls, and the party decides to head through one of them. Another long hallway is traveled down, leading to another octagonal room. Based upon the items in the room the party concludes that this was another room for the hobgoblin guards. A secret door is found, beyond which is a short corridor leading to the room where the party spent the night.

The party heads through the doors from this new room to a large octagonal chamber. This room appears to be some type of pantry, with several cabinets housing dishes. There is a large crack in the wall, into which several giant ants scurry. The room has piles of empty sacks and containers, which party concludes once held food before the ants got into them. Another hallway is found, which continues for a while before turning at a 90-degree angle and continuing onward. There is also a long vertical shaft downward at this intersection. Jamie remembers being carried down a shaft, so the party decides to descend rather than continuing to check out this level.

Blake and Ji-do Kwan have the best climbing skills, and they descend attached to ropes held by the party above. It continues downward for sixty feet before opening up into a system of caves. They scout out the immediate vicinity, seeing and hearing nothing. The rope is secured to the bottom, and Ji-Do Kwan climbs back up, informing the others it appears safe. The walls do not appear sold enough to safely spike the rope in, so Phuddipeduzh stays up top holding the rope as each member slides down. He then jumps down the shaft, with his Ring of Feather Falling activating before he hits the bottom.

The party spends a few hours navigating through the various caves and tunnels. Jamie says that it was through similar caves to this that she had escaped, eventually finding an exit in the side of the mountain, but that she did not have a light source at the time so has no way of identifying if any of these were the exact tunnels she traveled through. They eventually reach a pair of massive double doors, each door being fifteen feet high and ten feet wide. Jamie’s face turns white as a sheet, and she whispers, “We’re here. The Chagmat Temple is on the other side of the doors. That is where I was held with the other girls”

The party spends the next hour discussing strategy, before falling back upon the old plan of “Get’Em!” The fighters work together with the combined strengths to push one of the doors open, and charge into the massive chamber, which is a 130-foot diameter octagon with double doors on each side. The center of the room has a huge 20-foot diameter gold-painted octagon. The remainder of the room has stone tapered octagonal obelisks, each 10-foot in diameter at the bottom and five feet diameter at the top. Human females are chained to two of these. Also in the room are a dozen of the humanoid spiders known as the Chagmat.

A massive and lengthy fight follows. Ten of the Chagmat are brown-colored fighters, the other two being white-colored clerics. The fighters are eventually killed, as is one of the clerics. A third cleric then appears, tossing Hold Person spells onto most of the party. He and the remaining cleric then escape out of the one the sets of double doors. The party pursues, but loose them an another vertical tunnel, which the Chagmat are able to quickly traverse.

The two women are rescued, with them identifying themselves as Melina, an apprentice fighter, and 0-level woman named Stephanie. Jacques and Vincenzo help heal the women and remainder of the party to the best of their ability, and they head back out of the temple the way that they came. They are very cautious, knowing that the Chagmat clerics could be waiting to ambush them, but the only resistance if from a pair of hobgoblins who are now guarding the first room.

The party exit and begin to cross the stone bridge. As they near the other side a new group of humanoid creatures charge at them from a side tunnel near the beginning of the bridge. “That tunnel wasn’t there when we entered” Kharole exclaims. These creatures are carrying axes and swords, and yell at the party in a language that nobody understands. They resemble dwarves, but with much larger eyes, pale skin, and all facial hair is completely white.

There are only twelve of these creatures, but they turn out to be fierce and ferocious opponents. The rescued woman Melina is struck in the head with an axe and killed. The opponents do not back down, even after some of their number are slain. One is apparently a type of magic-user, and tosses a lightning bolt into Phuddipeduzh that nearly kills him, Vincenzo casting his final healing spell to save his companion. Narg slays her third enemy.

It isn’t until after five of them are killed that one yells out the word “KREGGDA”, and the remaining seven then make a fighting retreat back to the tunnel. While all members of the party are still standing, most are down to single digit hit points, with no healing magic remaining, so they choose to not pursue.

[DM’s Note #54: I had also been DM for the “Chagmat” module the year before in my other gaming group, where Narg’s player was also a member. He was originally not planning to be around during most this module, but was unexpectedly available. Equally unexpected when I began was the return of Silas’s player, who had also participated in the module with the other gaming group. I therefore decided to make some “modifications” to the dungeon, to surprise these two.

My biggest change was the addition of the Derro just when the players expected the combat to have ended. The back-story was that these creatures resided deeper below in the mountain. Part of the Derro’s lair was at the bottom of the chasm, and one of their leaders had been killed the day before by a hobgoblin that had been thrown from the bridge. These Derro were sent up above seeking revenge.

The Derro battle was particularly vicious because of the unexpected return that night of another former player, who had previously run the character Lysdashi. He has missed the past few modules because of acting in local theater productions that rehearsed on our game night.

Rather than giving him either or both of the relatively weak NPC’s to play, I instead offered to let him play on my side of the table. He did a great job with the twelve Derro, although I think that he overdid it when he appeared to go out of his way to brutally kill the 1st level fighter Melina. Kharole’s player had just introduced Melina that night as a new playing character. I’d like to think the death had nothing to do with the fact that these two players had previously dated, and she was now at the game with her new boyfriend.]

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 40, “Back to Byr”, April 28th. 1006:

The party climbs down the mountain, and make their way back to the campsite where Klaaze had left his pet Buzz. It is now starting to get dark, so the group decides to stay there for the night.

April 29th, 1006:

The party heads back in the direction of the town of Byr. While they are waiting for the boat to arrive to ferry them across the river they are approached by a human mage. He tells them that his name is Grammont, and that he has recently met them twice before. “That articulate hobgoblin?” Kharole inquires. “Yes, and also the mountain goat that the one-eyed fighter wanted to eat” he replies. Silas face turns red with embarrassment. “Why all the subrifuge?” Narg asks. Grammont replies “I needed to find out what type of people you were, to determine that you are truly observant and don’t take everything for what it appears to be.”

“But why?” Phuddi asks. He answers, “I have a mission I need an adventuring team to undertake. It involves a secret slaving operation run by an evil church. I figured that people willing to risk their lives to free prisoners from evil humanoid spider clerics might also be interested in this assignment as well. Would this be something of interest to you?” The party indicates that it would. He replies “Very well. I will meet you in another month or two at the location described in this letter.” He hands Phuddi a rolled up piece of parchment, and then wanders away.

As soon as he is out of sight they have Phuddi unroll the paper. The note is written in magical script, and Kharole does not currently have the spell to read it. “Ah, there will be time for that later, he said a month or two” Klaaze comments.

The party continues to hike back to town, arriving in Byr by nightfall. Jamie and Ji-Do Kwan head over to Melina’s house to break the news of her death to her family. The others get lodgings for a few days at a boarding house in town. Blake and Vincenzo stay as guests at the Bernmitzolgawitz family. Phuddi is invited to, but declines, saying that it is probalby best for all not to dwell on the loss of his beloved Beulla.

April 30th, 1006:

The party transacts business for the day. Magic items that were found are identified. Silas brings Klaaze to meet his mentor and receive his apprenticeship for 6th level. Jamie and Ji-Do Kwan tell the party how Melina’s family did not take the new very well, and ask if there is anything that can be done. A discussion follows, during which the party acknowledges that Melina had been trained as a fighter, and fought bravely alongside the party against the Derro. Since the party still has a significant number of charges in their Rod of Resurrection back at the ship they decide to bring her body with them to attempt a resurrection.

May 1st, 1006:

The town holds is annual spring fair and feast to celebrate the completion of crop planting. The actual feast consists of a number of different poultry dishes. The party decides to join the the festivities, except for Vincenzo, who is busy preparing for the next days church service.

One of the day’s contests is a “Turkey Chase”, which consists of young couples heading out into the woods to catch a number of semi-wild turkeys that are released. Jamie explains how this event is really just an excuse for young people who are attracted to each other to have some alone time on this day of fun. Several young women in the town approach the young men are visiting in town, with Narg, Phraakeese and Silas all asked to participate in the chase. They are gone for most of the day, and none of them manage t locate any of the turkeys.

May 2nd, 1006:

A heavy rain falls all night long, and it is still cold and blustery the following day when the whole town turns out for the worship service to the Twin Gods. This will be Vincenzo’s last act in the city before moving on to his next assignment, and he makes the service a memorable one. A large collection is taken up, which Vinnie will later turn over to his chruch. Once he is done the party packs up to move on with him. Jamie and Ji-do Kwan both decide to join them.

May 3rd, 1006:

The party travels northeast for the day, heading towards the closest seaport. The road runs parallel a river. They travel around twenty miles then start for the night. The night is interrupted by an attack by a group of 13 quaggoths, which run away once two are killed and several more are injured.

May 4th, 1006:

By mid-afternoon the party arrives at the woodland port town of Fairbanks Cove. Much to their surprise the ship Silver Moon is anchored in the cove, and they are told it has been there for three days. They find their friends in a nearby tavern. Along with Boz, Lysdashi, Mark, Natasha and Tao are their newly resurrected friends Freyland and Serita. Also with them are a dark-skinned human cleric named Isaish and an elvan mage named Tolbyrne, who Tao introduces as “Friends who accompanied me last year when the rest of you were away at Lendore Island.”

Natasha says, “That Arch-Mage Orman told us where to meet you.” Freyland says that they need to stick around this town for a few more days, as he is currently in the middle of his apprenticeship for 4th level. Blake is also now ready for an apprenticeship, which Natasha agrees to provide to him. Jamie manages to convince Klaaze to apprentice her, but only after promising to give him a necklace that she had found in the Chagmat lair. The party finds lodgings in the town. The final thing done this day is having Vincenzo use the Rod to resurrect Melina.