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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 4161293" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 28, “Reunited”, March 23rd , 1006: It is a calm spring day when Jerry and Phraakeese are sitting on the deck of the ship Moon when he is startled by the sudden appearance of a pair humans beside him. One is a tall mage in dark robes with a pointed hat and long staff. The other is attired as a monk, in robes with a simple rope belt and sandals on his feet. “Do not be alarmed, I am a friend,” the monk exclaims. Jerry looks towards Phraakeese, who replies “Don’t look at me, he’s not anyone that I know.” The monk says that he is named Augustine and that he has worked with their team mates before, and has need of them again. “Well, they’re not around, they all went home,” Jerry comments. “Very well,” the mage states, throwing his hands up into the air and begins an incantation. The next thing they know, the four of them appear near the riding stables of what looks to be a rather large country estate, with the ocean off to the distance to the west. An extremely well-dressed Klaaze has just come in from a ride, and comments “What the hell?” Augustine replies “Get your things, we have a new mission.” Klaaze heads off to a large manor house, handing his riding gear over to a servant. “He never told us his family was rich” Jerry comments. “With you around I wouldn’t have either,” Phraakeese replies. They then make two more trips, to Curigull to collect Phuddipeduzh, and to the Aldorn Lordholding to collect Mark and Serita. They then make one more trip, which ends at a barren location in the Thenossian desert, near a large pile of rocks where a human holding a bag of torches is waiting for them. “Would you mind telling us what is going on?” Serita exclaims. The mage finally introduces himself, stating that his name is Orman and that he is an Arch-Mage from the world known as Thibaultia. Augustine then explains that it was that world where he and Nimmy originally came from, having been originally brought to this world by the same Arch-Mage. He says that Nimmy has already returned to that world, and he needs to go there as well to avert a disaster. Unfortunately Orman can not longer transport between the two worlds due to a barrier erected by the Arch-Mage’s evil twin, an Arch-Mage named Namro. Orman explains that the only other way to reach the other world is through a mystical portal deep in the earth below where they are currently standing. Because of Namro’s barrier Orman himself cannot go, but Augustine has volunteered to. Unfortunately there are also many dangerous creatures living below, with each of the six levels being more dangerous than the one above it, and it is unlikely that Augustine would survive without assistance. The party agree to accompany Augustine on this task. [Chronicler’s Note #40: Augustine’s player was the DM for this particular module. For the past year he had been the primary DM of another D&D gaming group which used the world of Thibaultia as their campaign setting. It became obvious to the players a ton of back-story existed that they did not know yet, nobody asked any further questions since Augustine was coming along for the ride so we could always ask later.] Orman shows them where in the nearby rock cropping a secret door to the tunnels below is located. Orman introduces the man with the torches as Bryan, a who will serve as their torchbearer. then hands Klaaze a Bag of Holding, stating “You might need this.” The party enter, going down a long hallway that then spirals downward. The eventually reach what they conclude is the first level. They make their way through several chambers until they run into a group of six angry minotaurs who do not like visitors. A fight soon follows during which the party eventually manage to kill two of the minotaurs and wound one more before the minotaur leader calls a retreat. The party are all now fairly wounded, and the servant Bryan is lying dead, so they decide not to pursue the monsters. They continue down several more hallways, including an area where Mark recognizes a set of tracks as their own. They come to the conclusion that this level is all one big maze, and decide that they had better start mapping it. With the assistance of the map they soon figure out where a section is that they haven’t been to yet, and find a long stone staircase down at that location. The second level is reached. The party passes by four wooden statues followed by thirty skeletons. They soon reach a vast room with a total of forty skeletons standing up along all of the walls. There is also a large diamond the size of a softball sitting in the middle of the room on a pedestal. Despite the fact that this is clearly a trap, Klaaze insists on taking the diamond. Not surprisingly, once he touches the diamond all of the skeletons become animated and attack. The group identifies the skeleton who appears to be the leader, and concentrate their attack on it. It crumbles, and the other skeletons stop. The group is then ambushed by a group of ten zombies coming in from the entrance. The group quickly hurries down the hallway to get away from them. This leads to a vast chamber which is a large underground cemetery. It has hundreds of tomb stones and a large crypt. Jerry heads over to the tombstones while Klaaze goes to check out the crypt, both running into trouble. Jerry quickly hurries back to the group, with five ghouls chasing him. Klaaze runs into a vampire, who chases after him. Klaaze realizes that he cannot move fast enough to get away from it, so runs around to the side of the crypt that is within sight of the party. He then opens and jumps into the Bag of Holding, the bag falling to the ground. The party concentrate their attack on the vampire, miraculously managing to kill it. They then attack and defeat the ghouls. They soon coming to another large room filled with boulders. They find a section of the room filled with recently killed bodies, five being ogres and three being gnomes. They move on, and run into a group of a dozen gnomes, several of which are wounded. The gnomes confirm that they have just come from a fight with a group of ogres, and invite the party to join them for the evening. The gnomes say that they are looking for a group of adventurers lost in these caves, one of which is the son of their clan leader. Midway through the night a tall, dumb half-orc by the name of Eiowhah wanders into the camp. The gnomes start to attack, but stop once the half-orc speaks the name of the clan leader’s son. The half-orc says that he was part of the same multi-race adventuring team as that gnome, and became separated from them.</blockquote>

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