Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
They came in search of Paradise (A Story of Erth) - Updated 23rd April
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="robberbaron" data-source="post: 2039141" data-attributes="member: 14771"><p><strong>Oh, Mummy!</strong></p><p></p><p>As Cord’s Fullblade passed through the mummy’s torso it slumped to the ground in a huge could of vile-smelling dust. Cord was so close that he could not help taking a great lungful of the mummy-dust and Helga couldn’t keep her nose out of trouble. They were both badly affected and had to have a sit down to catch their breath.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, with the dust still settling gently, Gaelle, Li Kung and Keldor continued down the stairs from whence the Mummy had come.</p><p></p><p>The found a room with a large stone slab, engraved all round with a frieze depicting a warrior, and with a dusty vaguely humanoid outline on the top - obviously where the mummy had lain.</p><p></p><p>Shining the lantern around, Gaelle noticed a crack of darkness at the near end of the slab – it was covering a hole!</p><p>As Gaelle kept watch, Li Kung went to examine the floor around the slab and had his head behind it when two wights appeared from the entrance behind him and attacked.</p><p>The fight was brief; barely enough to work up a sweat, but Keldor felt the undeads’ icy-cold touch before the creatures were slain.</p><p></p><p>Looking down the stair into darkness, Keldor could hear a faint banging – maybe just the blood in his temples, but maybe something else.</p><p></p><p>Leaving the slab for later, they continued further into the hill, coming to a large room with three heavy wooden doors. To one side was a huge mural, showing a lone warrior wielding an axe fighting off a horde of misshapen, demonic creatures. All around him were the bodies of his foes, as well as countless human dead. He looked similar to the man depicted on the slab.</p><p>To his left was a gleaming city and to his right a swirling vortex of darkness. Nice.</p><p></p><p>Keldor could still hear the faint banging, seeming to come from behind one of the doors, but so quiet that he could not decide which one.</p><p></p><p>The left door opened easily into a room the floor of which was covered in bones, all of them cracked and broken. They would appear to have found the lair of the wights.</p><p></p><p>The second door led down a corridor, empty except for the remains of a small wooden plinth in the wreckage of which Keldor found a 3” diameter glass ball, internally streaked with red. The door at the end opened easily into an empty room. Empty except for an alcove with a small metal figurine. It looked like a man wearing a deeply hooded cloak and leaning on a greatsword, only with no body – just cloak and sword. It was also surprisingly heavy and un-tarnished. Keldor added it to the large marble in his bag.</p><p></p><p>Through the third door and they could now hear the banging more clearly, though it stopped as they approached the door at the end of the short corridor.</p><p>This was the only door that hadn’t opened with the lightest touch, though the others had also closed by themselves, prompting Li Kung to stand in the doorways holding them open.</p><p></p><p>Both Gaelle and Keldor pushed at the door for a minute or more until Li Kung stepped up and unleashed a mighty kick, breaking the lock and swinging the door wide, revealing a small room with a Zombie Minotaur about to charge them.</p><p>Li Kung, followed by the others, stepped in and struck at the creature, doing no more than scratching it before its axe took a chunk out of Li Kung. Slowly backing out of the room, they did a little more damage to the zombie but, as it squeezed itself through the doorway, Li Kung took a large slice out of its right shoulder with his glaive. Unfortunately for them it came through the door and, placing its enormous hand on the monk’s face, pushed him back 15’ and into open space. It didn’t help its cause much, however, as they quickly finished it off.</p><p>Inside the room was the body of a second (or was that fourth?) Zombie Minotaur, obviously killed by its “brother” before it tried to batter the inward-opening door out – the banging they had been hearing.</p><p></p><p>Returning to the mural room, Gaelle checked it for secret doors, thinking that if she pressed the warrior’s eyes it would open. No matter how hard she pressed, no door opened.</p><p>Getting annoyed, Gaelle went back to the minotaurs and, dragging one of their axes with her, went on to attack the mural, hackling great chunks of plaster off what appeared to be a solid wall.</p><p>She must have made a mistake. Not like her.</p><p></p><p>They decided to return to the slab room to rest for a few hours to recuperate from the fight with the Minotaur, after which they again investigated the slab.</p><p>They exerted their strength for some time to no avail, only succeeding in moving the slab an inch to the sound of creaking and squealing mechanical devices. Admitting temporary defeat, they stood back only to hear a faint voice from under the slab.</p><p>“Good day to you, brave adventurers,” the voice said in quavering, accented Graecae. “If you wish to speak to the Master, you are welcome to come down.”</p><p>“Fair enough,” answered Li Kung.</p><p>“Then please stand away from the slab”</p><p>They took a step back as the slab quivered and, with a painful sound of tortured gears, slowly moved back away from the dark hole in the floor.</p><p>They could see nothing down the stairway revealed but, as Gaelle put her foot on the top step, tiny flames appeared all the way down the passage with a soft “whoomph”. She flinched minutely, remembering the last time flame had “whoomphed “in front of her. Her eyebrows had not yet started to grow back.</p><p></p><p>They entered a small chamber with a large marble sarcophagus, carved in the shape of an armoured warrior, and could see a small wizened figure to one side.</p><p></p><p>“If you wish to worship my Master, it is customary to do so on your knees”, the little man advised.</p><p>Standing, almost insolently, Gaelle replied “Did your master create all the undead around here?”</p><p>“Yes, my Master is most adept at creating unlife. Most adept. You may worship him now.”</p><p>“We were thinking of bringing more people down here, to meet your master. Maybe he could use them for his experiments?” suggested Gaelle, still firmly upright.</p><p>As the small man was about to restate the offer to drop to their knees, a pocket of shadow around the sarcophagus became somewhat deeper and a dark, shimmering shape rose from the stone effigy.</p><p>Whispering to his minion in some eerie language the darkness gave his instructions. “My Master says you may now worship him, if that is your choice.”</p><p>“I don’t think so,” stated Li Kung.</p><p>“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to..” the minion began as the darkness, whispering menacingly, swept forward and thrust a portion of itself deep into Li Kung’s chest. The monk, open mouthed and shocked to feel half of his strength sucked out of his body, staggered back a pace as the Great Shadow removed its appendage.</p><p>Gaelle attacked, receiving a lesser draining for her trouble while Keldor circled around it, firing a ray of fire harmlessly through it. Li Kung swept his staff through its insubstantial form and Keldor again sent a bar of fire through the dark being. Gaelle was having little luck until, after taking another minor draining of strength (if any draining could be called “minor”) managed to contact it with her greatsword. If she had only known the command word she could have scorched the undead thing as well.</p><p>Li Kung again hit nothing with his staff and Keldor fired a splash of acid at the wall the other side of the shadow, again passing harmlessly through it.</p><p>At last, they succeeded in dissipating the Great Shadow into the lesser darkness, much to the chagrin of its minion. The little man cowered behind the sarcophagus until they assured him they meant him no real harm. And he believed them!</p><p>He explained that he had been captured by the Shadow’s undead some time ago and had been employed writing its memoirs all this time. He asked what year it was and was horrified by the answer. He had been down here, only seeing the daylight a dozen times, for thirty years! </p><p>He had been initiated in the “religion” of the Shadow and had some very minor spells he could cast. Nothing that would be particularly useful in adventuring, though more useful than him – he was 5’5” tall and weighed approximately 100 pounds. The shadow didn’t seem to understand about food and he had had to eat whatever he could lay his hands on. Keldor suppressed a shudder as he realise that probably meant cannibalism, at the very least.</p><p></p><p>“Did your master have any treasure?” asked Gaelle, getting back to the point.</p><p>The scribe admitted that he did and went over to a blank wall, pressed a very well concealed catch and revealed a small room containing 4 chests, “they are full of coins”, a potion, a scroll and a small pouch of gems, along with a greataxe that had not suffered the ravages of time.</p><p></p><p>Taking all the items, they made the scribe open the chests (just in case) and carry everything out of the room. He couldn’t actually carry the chests and only just managed to drag one out before collapsing in a panting heap. Deciding to do it themselves, they quickly discovered 1000 coins each of platinum, gold, silver and copper, which they split between themselves.</p><p>Keldor cast a magical detection and confirmed that the scroll, potion and axe were magical, though the axe held a strange additional feature that he could make out. It was as if the axe’s power was avoiding his arcane gaze. Weird.</p><p></p><p>After a further rest, they moved their booty up into the outer chamber, where Cord and Helga were still sitting propped against a wall, wheezing. There they were met by Boldo Chanunga and his new friend, Fragh the Uruk Barbarian. Fragh had been in a mixed Uruk/Orc group that had been taken over by Kron, the murderous fugitive Uruk. Kron had killed the chief and his bodyguard and declared himself chief, turning the generally roughly law-abiding tribe into a marauding band. Fragh didn’t mind that but hated the idea of an outsider just taking over like that, but knew that he was not powerful enough to take on Kron and his new cronies. He decided to leave and get help, training and experience before returning to claim what would become his birthright. </p><p>Boldo had come upon the Uruk as he rested and, after removing all Fragh’s wealth from his pockets realised that he was very unlikely to get away with them so put them back before sneaking away and approaching the dangerous-looking Uruk from the front. Fragh took a liking to the tiny rogue, little more than quarter his height, and they had been together for some months. Neither particularly liked Byzantium: Boldo was never taken seriously and Fragh was run out of town for being a “bad sort” whenever he was seen by the Watch, so they kept to themselves in the wilds. A day ago they had come across the ruined wagon and chose to follow the trail back to the hill and the tomb, arriving after dark and in time to join the others for further adventures.</p><p></p><p></p><p>6th October 1699</p><p></p><p>Thinking that enough time must have passed that they would not look so suspicious returning to Byzantium, they helped Cord and Helga to their horses and headed back.</p><p>After a quiet four days in the saddle, taking it easy for the sake of their unwell members, the finally arrived back at their villa. Leaving the wounded there, the others first made their way to the Temple of Set to return Gracientus’ holy symbol.</p><p>Gaelle explained to Boldo that the Set Temple took rather unkindly to anyone who harmed one of theirs so they were going to go out of their way to ensure they were seen the best light possible.</p><p></p><p>They were warmly greeted and thanked for their consideration to their dead companion and were assured of Maxis’ (the High Priest’s) gratitude.</p><p>From there they travelled to Massos the jeweller to unload the sparkly stuff, then to the Mages’ Society, etc., to identify and exchange the items they had found. Deals were done and items ordered, before retiring to their villa for a few days’ rest and recuperation. After all, Li Kung was still a bit weak.</p><p></p><p>Boldo was charged with finding out whatever he could about possible jobs for them. Li Kung specified legendary treasures, hidden tombs and lone wizards in towers and the pygmy rogue went off to do his best. Meanwhile, the others disposed of their ill-gotten gains and ordered more personal items from the Mages’ Society – always happy to relieve an adventurer of his gold. After discovering that the Shadow’s axe was psionically-powered (a Collision weapon, altering its balance toward the head during a swing to do more damage) Li Kung decided to offer it to the Set temple in exchange for a belt that would enhance his monky abilities. Always on the lookout for items that might give them an edge, the temple agreed gladly.</p><p></p><p>Boldo found that there were many hundreds of tombs in the rocky hills of Ionia, with the possibility of many more still yet to be found. He also heard rumours of bandits, monsters and perhaps fouler things in the hills to the north of Turkistan, and it was to there that the party decided to go.</p><p></p><p></p><p>13th October 1699</p><p></p><p>Crossing the great Hellespont Bridge, a magnificent structure made of a strange metal which gracefully arced over the strait a hundred or more feet below (though it was mere string and driftwood compared to the fabulous 30 mile long Silver Bridge linking Granbretan with Normandia), they stopped at the Turkistani Border Post to enquire after notorious threats.</p><p>“For a moderate consideration…” the guards pointed them towards the far hills, some 2 days’ travel north of the capital, Ankara, where not only bandits might be found, but hordes of dragons, of every hue and size.</p><p>Gaelle handed over a gold coin, which the guards looked at with surprise and displeasure. The ranger added another but the guards were not happy until Keldor added a few more coins. Smiling and bowing to the most generous adventurers the guards watched as they rode off towards the hills and glory.</p><p>“Five silvers only half of them come back,” offered one guard.</p><p>“Ten says we never see them again,” countered the other.</p><p>“Heh, heh. You could be right at that.”</p><p></p><p></p><p>15th October 1699</p><p></p><p>Two days travelling across the plains of Turkistan brought them into the lower foothills of the range they had spied from the border. Gaelle, Keldor and Boldo were riding ahead to scout for anything interesting when Gaelle spotted a column of men in a dry river valley – they looked like bandits, twelve of them.</p><p>When she returned to the party, it was decided to move forward quickly to ambush the bandits before the bandit scouts (who hadn’t been seen but whose presence was assumed) found them.</p><p></p><p>This they did, apparently catching the bandits by surprise. </p><p>The archers popping out of cover told them that they had been incorrect and Boldo was pinned down by two of them after he popped out of his own cover to shoot.</p><p></p><p>Arrows rained down into the valley prompting the bandits to charge the party – not their best move, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. The obvious leader moved closer to a very slim bandit who began firing magic missiles into whoever seemed the biggest nuisance at the time – Li Kung mainly.</p><p>Half a minute later, all the bandits who had charged in had fallen down, two of the scouts had scarpered, as had the bandit-mage (moving as fast as Li Kung could run) and the bandit leader (moving about as fast).</p><p>After making sure the bandits were really dead (some weren’t, but the party fixed that) the party, led by Gaelle, set about following the bandit leader’s tracks.</p><p>He had been accompanied by skilful scouts who, at several points, managed to obfuscate the trail sufficiently to force Gaelle to spend extra hours hunting for signs of passage.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, some 5 hours later, well after the sun had gone down, Gaelle lost the tracks again. She had been using her lantern to illuminate the trail but it had disappeared as the bandits crossed a rocky outcrop. Spending yet another fruitless hour searching in the fading light for the continuation of the tracks, the party were surprised by a pair of hidden bandit archers. These bandits must have been the least useful of the band, left behind to keep them out of the leader’s way as they were particularly useless, only scoring 1 hit out of 6 and that little more than a graze.</p><p></p><p>Swiftly dealing with them, Gaelle lost all chance of finding the trail again before daybreak and they settled down for what remained of the night.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Cord and Helga had recovered from their nasty bout of corpse cough and followed the rest into Turkistan. Bribing the same border guards (“Good gig, this” “Yeah, soon be able to retire”) they headed towards the mountains. By the second evening, as they were about to set camp, they heard the sound of a brief fracas, not too far away in the darkness. Carefully, they picked their way through the rocks until they could see Gaelle wandering around with her lantern.</p><p>The gang was back together.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="robberbaron, post: 2039141, member: 14771"] [b]Oh, Mummy![/b] As Cord’s Fullblade passed through the mummy’s torso it slumped to the ground in a huge could of vile-smelling dust. Cord was so close that he could not help taking a great lungful of the mummy-dust and Helga couldn’t keep her nose out of trouble. They were both badly affected and had to have a sit down to catch their breath. Meanwhile, with the dust still settling gently, Gaelle, Li Kung and Keldor continued down the stairs from whence the Mummy had come. The found a room with a large stone slab, engraved all round with a frieze depicting a warrior, and with a dusty vaguely humanoid outline on the top - obviously where the mummy had lain. Shining the lantern around, Gaelle noticed a crack of darkness at the near end of the slab – it was covering a hole! As Gaelle kept watch, Li Kung went to examine the floor around the slab and had his head behind it when two wights appeared from the entrance behind him and attacked. The fight was brief; barely enough to work up a sweat, but Keldor felt the undeads’ icy-cold touch before the creatures were slain. Looking down the stair into darkness, Keldor could hear a faint banging – maybe just the blood in his temples, but maybe something else. Leaving the slab for later, they continued further into the hill, coming to a large room with three heavy wooden doors. To one side was a huge mural, showing a lone warrior wielding an axe fighting off a horde of misshapen, demonic creatures. All around him were the bodies of his foes, as well as countless human dead. He looked similar to the man depicted on the slab. To his left was a gleaming city and to his right a swirling vortex of darkness. Nice. Keldor could still hear the faint banging, seeming to come from behind one of the doors, but so quiet that he could not decide which one. The left door opened easily into a room the floor of which was covered in bones, all of them cracked and broken. They would appear to have found the lair of the wights. The second door led down a corridor, empty except for the remains of a small wooden plinth in the wreckage of which Keldor found a 3” diameter glass ball, internally streaked with red. The door at the end opened easily into an empty room. Empty except for an alcove with a small metal figurine. It looked like a man wearing a deeply hooded cloak and leaning on a greatsword, only with no body – just cloak and sword. It was also surprisingly heavy and un-tarnished. Keldor added it to the large marble in his bag. Through the third door and they could now hear the banging more clearly, though it stopped as they approached the door at the end of the short corridor. This was the only door that hadn’t opened with the lightest touch, though the others had also closed by themselves, prompting Li Kung to stand in the doorways holding them open. Both Gaelle and Keldor pushed at the door for a minute or more until Li Kung stepped up and unleashed a mighty kick, breaking the lock and swinging the door wide, revealing a small room with a Zombie Minotaur about to charge them. Li Kung, followed by the others, stepped in and struck at the creature, doing no more than scratching it before its axe took a chunk out of Li Kung. Slowly backing out of the room, they did a little more damage to the zombie but, as it squeezed itself through the doorway, Li Kung took a large slice out of its right shoulder with his glaive. Unfortunately for them it came through the door and, placing its enormous hand on the monk’s face, pushed him back 15’ and into open space. It didn’t help its cause much, however, as they quickly finished it off. Inside the room was the body of a second (or was that fourth?) Zombie Minotaur, obviously killed by its “brother” before it tried to batter the inward-opening door out – the banging they had been hearing. Returning to the mural room, Gaelle checked it for secret doors, thinking that if she pressed the warrior’s eyes it would open. No matter how hard she pressed, no door opened. Getting annoyed, Gaelle went back to the minotaurs and, dragging one of their axes with her, went on to attack the mural, hackling great chunks of plaster off what appeared to be a solid wall. She must have made a mistake. Not like her. They decided to return to the slab room to rest for a few hours to recuperate from the fight with the Minotaur, after which they again investigated the slab. They exerted their strength for some time to no avail, only succeeding in moving the slab an inch to the sound of creaking and squealing mechanical devices. Admitting temporary defeat, they stood back only to hear a faint voice from under the slab. “Good day to you, brave adventurers,” the voice said in quavering, accented Graecae. “If you wish to speak to the Master, you are welcome to come down.” “Fair enough,” answered Li Kung. “Then please stand away from the slab” They took a step back as the slab quivered and, with a painful sound of tortured gears, slowly moved back away from the dark hole in the floor. They could see nothing down the stairway revealed but, as Gaelle put her foot on the top step, tiny flames appeared all the way down the passage with a soft “whoomph”. She flinched minutely, remembering the last time flame had “whoomphed “in front of her. Her eyebrows had not yet started to grow back. They entered a small chamber with a large marble sarcophagus, carved in the shape of an armoured warrior, and could see a small wizened figure to one side. “If you wish to worship my Master, it is customary to do so on your knees”, the little man advised. Standing, almost insolently, Gaelle replied “Did your master create all the undead around here?” “Yes, my Master is most adept at creating unlife. Most adept. You may worship him now.” “We were thinking of bringing more people down here, to meet your master. Maybe he could use them for his experiments?” suggested Gaelle, still firmly upright. As the small man was about to restate the offer to drop to their knees, a pocket of shadow around the sarcophagus became somewhat deeper and a dark, shimmering shape rose from the stone effigy. Whispering to his minion in some eerie language the darkness gave his instructions. “My Master says you may now worship him, if that is your choice.” “I don’t think so,” stated Li Kung. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to..” the minion began as the darkness, whispering menacingly, swept forward and thrust a portion of itself deep into Li Kung’s chest. The monk, open mouthed and shocked to feel half of his strength sucked out of his body, staggered back a pace as the Great Shadow removed its appendage. Gaelle attacked, receiving a lesser draining for her trouble while Keldor circled around it, firing a ray of fire harmlessly through it. Li Kung swept his staff through its insubstantial form and Keldor again sent a bar of fire through the dark being. Gaelle was having little luck until, after taking another minor draining of strength (if any draining could be called “minor”) managed to contact it with her greatsword. If she had only known the command word she could have scorched the undead thing as well. Li Kung again hit nothing with his staff and Keldor fired a splash of acid at the wall the other side of the shadow, again passing harmlessly through it. At last, they succeeded in dissipating the Great Shadow into the lesser darkness, much to the chagrin of its minion. The little man cowered behind the sarcophagus until they assured him they meant him no real harm. And he believed them! He explained that he had been captured by the Shadow’s undead some time ago and had been employed writing its memoirs all this time. He asked what year it was and was horrified by the answer. He had been down here, only seeing the daylight a dozen times, for thirty years! He had been initiated in the “religion” of the Shadow and had some very minor spells he could cast. Nothing that would be particularly useful in adventuring, though more useful than him – he was 5’5” tall and weighed approximately 100 pounds. The shadow didn’t seem to understand about food and he had had to eat whatever he could lay his hands on. Keldor suppressed a shudder as he realise that probably meant cannibalism, at the very least. “Did your master have any treasure?” asked Gaelle, getting back to the point. The scribe admitted that he did and went over to a blank wall, pressed a very well concealed catch and revealed a small room containing 4 chests, “they are full of coins”, a potion, a scroll and a small pouch of gems, along with a greataxe that had not suffered the ravages of time. Taking all the items, they made the scribe open the chests (just in case) and carry everything out of the room. He couldn’t actually carry the chests and only just managed to drag one out before collapsing in a panting heap. Deciding to do it themselves, they quickly discovered 1000 coins each of platinum, gold, silver and copper, which they split between themselves. Keldor cast a magical detection and confirmed that the scroll, potion and axe were magical, though the axe held a strange additional feature that he could make out. It was as if the axe’s power was avoiding his arcane gaze. Weird. After a further rest, they moved their booty up into the outer chamber, where Cord and Helga were still sitting propped against a wall, wheezing. There they were met by Boldo Chanunga and his new friend, Fragh the Uruk Barbarian. Fragh had been in a mixed Uruk/Orc group that had been taken over by Kron, the murderous fugitive Uruk. Kron had killed the chief and his bodyguard and declared himself chief, turning the generally roughly law-abiding tribe into a marauding band. Fragh didn’t mind that but hated the idea of an outsider just taking over like that, but knew that he was not powerful enough to take on Kron and his new cronies. He decided to leave and get help, training and experience before returning to claim what would become his birthright. Boldo had come upon the Uruk as he rested and, after removing all Fragh’s wealth from his pockets realised that he was very unlikely to get away with them so put them back before sneaking away and approaching the dangerous-looking Uruk from the front. Fragh took a liking to the tiny rogue, little more than quarter his height, and they had been together for some months. Neither particularly liked Byzantium: Boldo was never taken seriously and Fragh was run out of town for being a “bad sort” whenever he was seen by the Watch, so they kept to themselves in the wilds. A day ago they had come across the ruined wagon and chose to follow the trail back to the hill and the tomb, arriving after dark and in time to join the others for further adventures. 6th October 1699 Thinking that enough time must have passed that they would not look so suspicious returning to Byzantium, they helped Cord and Helga to their horses and headed back. After a quiet four days in the saddle, taking it easy for the sake of their unwell members, the finally arrived back at their villa. Leaving the wounded there, the others first made their way to the Temple of Set to return Gracientus’ holy symbol. Gaelle explained to Boldo that the Set Temple took rather unkindly to anyone who harmed one of theirs so they were going to go out of their way to ensure they were seen the best light possible. They were warmly greeted and thanked for their consideration to their dead companion and were assured of Maxis’ (the High Priest’s) gratitude. From there they travelled to Massos the jeweller to unload the sparkly stuff, then to the Mages’ Society, etc., to identify and exchange the items they had found. Deals were done and items ordered, before retiring to their villa for a few days’ rest and recuperation. After all, Li Kung was still a bit weak. Boldo was charged with finding out whatever he could about possible jobs for them. Li Kung specified legendary treasures, hidden tombs and lone wizards in towers and the pygmy rogue went off to do his best. Meanwhile, the others disposed of their ill-gotten gains and ordered more personal items from the Mages’ Society – always happy to relieve an adventurer of his gold. After discovering that the Shadow’s axe was psionically-powered (a Collision weapon, altering its balance toward the head during a swing to do more damage) Li Kung decided to offer it to the Set temple in exchange for a belt that would enhance his monky abilities. Always on the lookout for items that might give them an edge, the temple agreed gladly. Boldo found that there were many hundreds of tombs in the rocky hills of Ionia, with the possibility of many more still yet to be found. He also heard rumours of bandits, monsters and perhaps fouler things in the hills to the north of Turkistan, and it was to there that the party decided to go. 13th October 1699 Crossing the great Hellespont Bridge, a magnificent structure made of a strange metal which gracefully arced over the strait a hundred or more feet below (though it was mere string and driftwood compared to the fabulous 30 mile long Silver Bridge linking Granbretan with Normandia), they stopped at the Turkistani Border Post to enquire after notorious threats. “For a moderate consideration…” the guards pointed them towards the far hills, some 2 days’ travel north of the capital, Ankara, where not only bandits might be found, but hordes of dragons, of every hue and size. Gaelle handed over a gold coin, which the guards looked at with surprise and displeasure. The ranger added another but the guards were not happy until Keldor added a few more coins. Smiling and bowing to the most generous adventurers the guards watched as they rode off towards the hills and glory. “Five silvers only half of them come back,” offered one guard. “Ten says we never see them again,” countered the other. “Heh, heh. You could be right at that.” 15th October 1699 Two days travelling across the plains of Turkistan brought them into the lower foothills of the range they had spied from the border. Gaelle, Keldor and Boldo were riding ahead to scout for anything interesting when Gaelle spotted a column of men in a dry river valley – they looked like bandits, twelve of them. When she returned to the party, it was decided to move forward quickly to ambush the bandits before the bandit scouts (who hadn’t been seen but whose presence was assumed) found them. This they did, apparently catching the bandits by surprise. The archers popping out of cover told them that they had been incorrect and Boldo was pinned down by two of them after he popped out of his own cover to shoot. Arrows rained down into the valley prompting the bandits to charge the party – not their best move, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. The obvious leader moved closer to a very slim bandit who began firing magic missiles into whoever seemed the biggest nuisance at the time – Li Kung mainly. Half a minute later, all the bandits who had charged in had fallen down, two of the scouts had scarpered, as had the bandit-mage (moving as fast as Li Kung could run) and the bandit leader (moving about as fast). After making sure the bandits were really dead (some weren’t, but the party fixed that) the party, led by Gaelle, set about following the bandit leader’s tracks. He had been accompanied by skilful scouts who, at several points, managed to obfuscate the trail sufficiently to force Gaelle to spend extra hours hunting for signs of passage. Eventually, some 5 hours later, well after the sun had gone down, Gaelle lost the tracks again. She had been using her lantern to illuminate the trail but it had disappeared as the bandits crossed a rocky outcrop. Spending yet another fruitless hour searching in the fading light for the continuation of the tracks, the party were surprised by a pair of hidden bandit archers. These bandits must have been the least useful of the band, left behind to keep them out of the leader’s way as they were particularly useless, only scoring 1 hit out of 6 and that little more than a graze. Swiftly dealing with them, Gaelle lost all chance of finding the trail again before daybreak and they settled down for what remained of the night. Meanwhile, Cord and Helga had recovered from their nasty bout of corpse cough and followed the rest into Turkistan. Bribing the same border guards (“Good gig, this” “Yeah, soon be able to retire”) they headed towards the mountains. By the second evening, as they were about to set camp, they heard the sound of a brief fracas, not too far away in the darkness. Carefully, they picked their way through the rocks until they could see Gaelle wandering around with her lantern. The gang was back together. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
They came in search of Paradise (A Story of Erth) - Updated 23rd April
Top