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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 4304051" data-attributes="member: 8530">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.</blockquote>

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