D&D 5E Time for Adventure! (A Homebrew Campaign Log)

[pukunui]

IRIANDEL
Dramatis Personae: Calla, Keluak, Keth (and Elia)
Source: "Iriandel" (Dungeon 83)


Tamaich's Tomb
After ensuring it was safe to enter the ancient feasting hall, the PCs began a thorough search of the room. They discovered that the now headless statues sitting on the stools covered more pit-graves - those of Tamaich's elite bodyguard, most likely. Keth also uncovered a cache of magic potions in clay jugs marked in Orcish in a cavity under Tamaich's throne.

The party then proceeded to pry open the door at the end of the hall behind the throne. This opened into a circular chamber with a large stone in the middle of the floor. A passageway at the other end of the room was bricked up with stones - the other side of the wall they'd found at the end of the outer ring passage filled with the warriors' pit-graves. The top of the stone in the room was carved into the likeness of a female orc's leering face. Calla cast detect magic as a ritual and picked up a faint aura from the stone. Wondering what it might be, Keth and Keluak decided to lift up the stone to see what was under it.

Moving the heavy stone out of the way, the group discovered a shaft descending into darkness. Just then, the face on the stone called out "Tamaich!" A rush of air blew up the shaft, followed by several ghostly warriors who flew around the room for a few moments before vanishing into the ether. The group dropped a length of rope and climbed down into a conical chamber with a single passage leading off to the west.

After a short distance, the passage opened into a larger chamber filled with a strange mist. In the center of the chamber was a tall stone pillar carved into the likeness of multiple skeletal snakes, each one facing a different passageway. Keluak went ahead to scout the chamber. As he drew towards the end of the passage, he spotted a tall bas-relief of a mighty half-orcish warrior on the southwestern wall of the room. Just to the left of that was a passage heading south. Beyond the pillar, he could see another passage that headed west for a short way before veering to the north. Another passage stretched away to the north of the pillar as well.

The group decided to try the southern passage first, and Keth and Keluak decided to rope each other together just in case. As the group approached within ten feet of the bas-relief, however, they heard the sound of heavy boots coming down the western passage. The mighty warrior depicted in the bas relief approached and started silently casting a spell at them! Keth called out to Tamaich that they meant him no harm, but Keth rushed forward and took a swipe with his new magic handaxe. The axe went straight through the half-orc, revealing him to be just an illusion that soon vanished into thin air!

But the danger was real, for they soon heard the anguished cries of something no longer living echoing down the passageway, and three hideous creatures that might once have been Tamaich's wives came rushing to the attack. Keth and Keluak stopped them in the passageway so that Elia and Calla could safely attack them from behind. The wights had trouble getting past the warriors' defenses and soon all three of them lay dead on the floor, finally at rest.

Shaking their heads, the PCs turned back to the southern passage. They could see another stone block door at the far end. Keluak led the way and soon found himself falling into a deep pit that lay hidden just in front of the door. Tied to Keluak with rope, Keth was unable to arrest his own slide into the pit. They both soon found themselves breathing in yellow mold spores, but the green flame from Keth's magic handaxe soon burned the stuff away. The ladies watched in amusement as the two boys struggled to get back out of the pit and then spent quite a bit of time debating how to reach the door on the other side.

Eventually they decided not to bother and went to check out the other passages. The one heading north soon ended in a cave-in, and Keluak the dwarf was able to determine that there wasn't anything beyond it. It looked like a passage that had been abandoned. So they headed west. Soon they came across the wives' chamber. Calla again cast detect magic, this time picking up a small aura coming from within the wights' "bedding" on some stone biers. It turned out to be a small pearl, which she pocketed for later. The PCs found some other treasure in amongst the wights' trash, including a matching silver comb and hand mirror set, which they gave to Calla. There was also a large, heavy bowl that looked to be quite valuable.

Before proceeding down the passage heading south from this chamber, the PCs opted to take all the loot they wanted and move it up to the benches in the feast hall above. They then came back down and headed into what turned out to be Tamaich's final resting place. His skeleton lay, still in its fatally-pierced breastplate, on a stone bier, his longsword resting on the floor at its base. Behind the bier stood four rusty braziers.

Suspecting that Tamaich's corpse would rise to attack them, Calla used her mage hand to pull the sword away toward her. As soon as she'd done so, the skeleton did indeed rise up, but instead of standing to attack, it just sat there for a moment before it began to vibrate more and more violently. The PCs winced as the skeleton fell apart harmlessly. Calla got the distinct impression that something had gone awry, but before she could figure out what, the undead spirit of Tamaich appeared and attacked Keluak, attempting to drain the very life out of the dwarf!

The wraith might very well have succeeded, too, if Calla hadn't had the foresight to get Keluak to activate the daylight spell on his driftglobe. Tamaich's spirit hated the light, and that was enough for the PCs to press the attack. The wraith was soon put to rest.

Keth immediately set about taking a look at his distant ancestor's sword. The blade was fashioned from black iron and was carved with vile runes. The leather grip seemed to be fashioned out of the hide of fiends. Yikes! Nevertheless, Keth was determined not to throw it away immediately.

Despite feeling very drained and in need of a good rest, the group decided to continue down the passage leading out of Tamaich's tomb to the south. It soon curved back to the east and led them to the other side of the stone door with the pit trap in front of it. Here they found Tamiach's treasury! Amidst a great deal of loot, Calla found some ancient magic "scrolls" written on clay tablets. They also found the magic spear fashioned from Iriandel's horn, partially hidden in a corner under an old cloth. They might not have ever spotted it had the light from Keluak's driftglobe not reflected off its silvery tip. The weapon resembled the spiraling horn of a unicorn exactly, except that it was a full six feet long. It radiated strong magic. This was a powerful artifact indeed!

The PCs took the spear, along with the other loot, up to the feasting hall. They then resolved to head out of the tomb and get some rest just outside the entrance. Keth and Keluak went out first and soon discovered that they were not alone ...

The Quarry
Six orcs emerged from their hiding places with arrows pointed at the two PCs. They had a bedraggled half-orc with bound wrists. When he began to speak up, one of the orcs struck him to the ground. Keth bristled but did nothing. One of the orcs came forward and informed them that their leader, the great Yventhu, wished to speak with them. Not wanting to start a fight then and there, Keth and Keluak agreed to go along with the orcs, leaving Elia and Calla behind in the tomb.

The orcs confiscated the PCs' weapons and marched them off to the east. Not knowing where they'd gone, Calla and Elia stayed put until Tashek the owl returned a few hours later. He told them he'd seen their companions heading east, so they found the donkey, which Tashek had led to safety when he saw the orcs coming, and packed up all the treasure, then headed after the others.

The orcs marched Keth and Keluak hard, not giving them a chance to rest, until they came to an old, overgrown quarry with a cave entrance up near the top. They could see several other orcs patrolling the quarry and standing guard outside the entrance. They were led up to a platform in front of the entrance, where an aged half-ogre greeted them. He wanted to know who they were and what they thought they were doing invading his territory and stealing from tombs and the like. He also demanded they compensate him for all the deaths of his minions at his hands. The discussion eventually came to the spear, which Yventhu claimed to have in his possession already. The PCs knew he was lying but didn't say anything. In the end, Yventhu decided to take them captive and sell them as slaves. He stuck them in cages alongside the other half-orc, who later introduced himself as Wuhlap. He was an orphan (like Keth) who'd been compelled to act as the orc patrol's guide to Tamaich's tomb, since he'd been there once before. In the night, Keth was able to get a good rest, but Keluak was kept awake by the orcs, who kept prodding him through the bars of the cage with their spears and trying to set his beard on fire with torches.

Meanwhile, Calla and Elia spent the night out in the peat bog and arrived at the quarry the next morning. Deciding against a frontal assault, the ladies opted instead to scout around for a rear entrance. Sure enough, they found one hidden behind some scrubby bushes up in the hills. Elia snuck down the passage and found herself only a canvas wall away from the orcs' cave. Peering around this wall, she spotted Yventhu heading around a corner to speak with his captives. She snuck after him and spotted Keth and Keluak in the cages. Reporting back to Calla, the two devised a plan: Calla would head around to the side of the quarry and use her magic to set it on fire, thus creating a distraction. While the orcs and the half-ogre were thus occupied, Elia would sneak back into the cave and free the boys.

The plan worked like a charm! They were even able to rescue Wuhlap. The party headed deeper into the hills, not stopping to rest until they found a nice, clean cave in which to spend the night. Come daytime, Tashek the owl informed them that the orcs weren't following them. Instead, they were sending out emissaries and gathering the tribes for a war party! That could mean only one thing: they intended to sack Pebbleton!

Hunted
The PCs immediately decided to make for Pebbleton to warn the townsfolk. As they journeyed back across the peat bog, both Keth and Keluak began to have strange nightmares in which something was always following them and no matter how they tried to get away, it was always there on the horizon ... Then, as they were getting close to the edge of the Brown Grounds, they spotted something drawing closer ... and closer ... and then it was on Keluak before he could say "zombie"! Except it wasn't really a zombie. For one thing, it was clearly intelligent. It appeared to be the reanimated remains of the half-ogre they'd slain in the peat bog several days before. And it wanted revenge! Keluak went on the defensive and was able to withstand its deadly attacks long enough for the others to destroy it. They cut off its head and then decided to burn both the head and the body just to be sure. They were able to rest easy that night. But on the following night, the dreams returned ...

Pebbleton
Back in Pebbleton, Keluak headed straight for the common hall and ordered a drink. And then another. And another. Calla was amazed and couldn't stop watching the dwarf attempt to make up for all the dry years in one go. Meanwhile, the others sought out Ruallin and the mayor and presented them with the spear. They managed to drag Calla away and she was just as amazed to see Treetrot the horse transform back into the beautiful and majestic unicorn, Iriandel!

But this was not the happy ending the PCs had hoped for. Keth quickly warned Mayor Thorngage of the coming orc warband and offered his assistance in defending the town. Iriandel said he would be heading back to his woods but would come to the PCs' aid if called. Tashek hung around, trading stories with Ruallin the bard.

Some days later, the PCs were woken up by the thud of boulders being chucked over the town's wall. They rushed to the parapet to see orcs and ogres spread out around the town. To the north, just out of arrow range, stood Yventhu the half-ogre, alongside a massive horned and blue-skinned ogre that was currently attempting to dig out a massive boulder, with the help of some orcs.

Without delay, the PCs rushed out onto the battlefield. Some orcs ran up to engage them and were mercilessly cut down. Another group of orcs and an ogre tried to intercept the PCs before they could get to the leaders but they too were slaughtered. Around that time, Iriandel appeared alongside Calla and encouraged her to climb onto his back. His horn and his hooves proved deadly in the fight, and his healing magic was welcomed by the PCs.

Eventually, the PCs crossed the field to where Yventhu and the massive ogre stood. The latter creature was clearly fiendish in nature. It lowered its head and charged at Keluak, bowling the dwarf over. It then smashed him to a pulp with its tree trunk club, but before it could finish the job, Iriandel came to the rescue and the ogre had another fight on his hands.

Despite Yventhu's best efforts - attempting to alternately protect the ogre and himself with sanctuary, conjuring up a spiritual club to harass the PCs with, and summoning up his fiendish spirit guardians - he was quickly defeated. The fiendish ogre soon followed, although he nearly ended Iriandel's life beforehand. The unicorn was forced to withdraw. With the fall of their champion and leader, the rest of the orcish warband quickly dispersed and the town was saved.

In the aftermath of the battle, the PCs were hailed as Pebbleton's heroes and treated to much wining and dining. Iriandel pledged his friendship for life and told them they'd always be welcome in his neck of the woods. He also offered to do one thing for them to repay his debt. Keth asked if he'd restore Tasklar's eye, and the unicorn agreed. The PCs then gathered up their loot and headed home to Larchwood.

Postlude
Back in Larchwood, Keth and Keluak were able to rest more easily again. They no longer suffered the nightmares, though they still had the sense that the creature was out there, waiting for them ... so they decided to spend some time asking around. Keth prayed to Freya but got no real help from her, so he opted to hunt out someone who worshipped one of the old gods of the dead. He soon discovered that Baroness Wynne of Cromm's Hold was a devotee of the Raven Queen. He headed off to speak with her. Meanwhile, Keluak went to speak with the Andarian Septry's priests in Larchwood. They told him that the gospel of the Stranger spoke of vengeful spirits coming back to haunt those who had caused them to suffer a "cruel and undeserving fate". They suggested he seek out a larger temple or a knowledgeable sage to learn more.

Ten days later, the two PCs had all the info they needed: they were being hunted by a revenant, a vengeful undead creature that was very hard to stop. Unless it succeeded in killing them both, or failed to kill them both within one year, there was no real way to get rid of it. Each time they killed its body, its soul would just fly around until it found another suitable corpse and then come after them again. The two resolved never to go anywhere alone again ...

 

[pukunui]

WEDDING BELLS
Dramatis Personae: Calla, Gil, Keluak, Keth, and Tasklar
Source: "Wedding Bells" (Dungeon 89)

[DM Note: This was the first time all five of my players were at the table at the same time since the campaign started!]


Prologue: Kaylessa's Gift
One fine autumn evening, the PCs all found themselves sitting around Kaylessa's table, sharing a delicious meal she had prepared for them herself. Afterwards, Kaylessa explained that she had called them all together because she had a gift for them. She'd been keeping track of their exploits in the region and was quite impressed. They had more than proved themselves worthy of the name of "hero", and she wanted to reward them for it.

Leading them into an adjoining room, Kaylessa had them gather around the large silver bowl they had found in Tamaich's tomb. With a few words of magic, the half-elf conjured up a silvery fire inside the bowl. She then explained that by saying a vow and placing a hand in the flames, the PCs would receive a blessing from the Platinum Dragon. At this, the group glanced around the room, finally taking in the preponderance of draconic imagery within. "Kaylessa must have a thing for dragons," they all concluded.

The vow was to swear to do good deeds, to cause no undue harm to the innocent, and to gladly oppose those who would commit evil acts or harm the innocent. If they were to ever break this vow, they would lose the blessing. Upon hearing this, Keth and Keluak were both a bit hesitant, given that they'd seemingly caused undue harm to that half-ogre priest who was now haunting them as a revenant, but Kaylessa assured them that wrongs committed in the past had no bearing on their commitment to the future. Both gladly placed their hands in the fire, as did Gil and Tasklar. As each of them spoke the words of the vow, the fire passed through their flesh and inscribed a silvery dragonmark on the backs of their hands.

Keluak received the Mark of the Storm, while Keth was given the Mark of Warding. Gil was given the Mark of Handling, while Tasklar received the Mark of Finding. The marks sparkled in the light for a few moments, then faded away. Kaylessa explained that they would only show themselves again when their gifts were activated.

Then came Calla's turn. Nervously, she approached the flames. Boldly, she stuck her hand in ... but before she could say the words of the vow, the fire turned an angry red and the roar of a dragon echoed around the room. Calla writhed in agony, unable to pull her hand away even as the fire burned through her flesh. When she was finally able to free her hand, she was horrified to find an evil-looking scar etched onto the back of her hand. Unlike the others' marks, this one did not fade away. In fact, when she tried covering it up with her sleeve, it just burned the fabric away. It did not want to be hidden! At the same time, Calla felt a newfound source of power welling up within her - the power to twist and shape the flames, to burn all her problems away!

Kaylessa was distraught. This was not what was supposed to have happened! Something had gone terribly wrong! She asked everyone to leave so she could have time to think. As she ushered them out the door, she begged Calla for her forgiveness. Tears glistened in Kaylessa's eyes. She had broken her own vows! How could she have been so stupid?


An Invitation
Some time later, the PCs received invitations to the wedding of Gil's teenage sister, Ghenna. She was marrying a farmer's boy, Avan, in the faraway town of Dockalong. Ghenna wanted Keth to officiate at the wedding, and she wanted Calla to be her maid of honor. She also wanted her cousin Tasklar to perform some music for the ceremony. There was no question of Gil attending, of course, and he was invited to bring his dwarf friend along too. The journey to Dockalong would take a fortnight, and there wasn't much time - if they were lucky, they'd get there a day or two before the wedding - so the group gathered their things, found some gifts and some nice clothes, and set off.

Heading south, they skirted around the swamp in which they'd battled the corrupted lizardfolk and passed through a city or two. As they headed back out of the settled lands and into the wilderness again, they found themselves walking along a wooded trail in the hills. Suddenly they realized it had gone very quiet ... but before they could react, they found themselves under attack as someone in the woods off to their right spoke a few words of magic.

Tasklar and Keluak, leading the way, both found their limbs beginning to stiffen. Though the human was able to shake it off, the dwarf soon found himself paralyzed. At that moment, a naked female gnoll came charging out of the woods, swinging a huge flail at the dwarf. Hot on her heels was a quartet of slavering hyenas. Off to the left, another gnoll barked out a command before firing arrows at the PCs.

Unable to move, Keluak was quickly battered and bitten into unconsciousness. Tasklar quickly followed, as the hyenas and the gnoll berserker turned their attention to him. At that moment, a thundercloud developed suddenly overhead, and sizzling bolts of lightning began flashing down onto the road.

The ensuing battle was fierce, as the PCs fought for their very lives. Keth worked furiously to keep his comrades alive, while Gil and Calla took aim at their attackers from the rear, taking cover in the trees to avoid the deadly lightning bolts. Eventually they succeeded in slaying the berserker and all the hyenas, at which point Keth set off to find the gnoll spellcaster slinging magic at them from the cover of the woods. However, he didn't get far before she caused a field of nasty, sharp thorns to spring up all around him, slicing him up no matter which way he turned. He gave up moving, but she inched closer and lashed him with a thorny whip, yanking him through the field of spikes until he succumbed to the pain and drifted into unconsciousness himself.

Seeing his friend go down, Gil pulled a Tarzan and used his grappling hook and rope to swing through the trees over the thorn patch to attack the gnoll spellcaster. He paused to pour a healing potion down Keth's throat, and together they managed to kill the gnoll spellcaster before she could escape. The gnoll archer, however, did manage to leg it away through the trees.

Exhausted, the PCs searched the bodies, finding a few potions on the caster and a magical cat's paw on a silver chain around the otherwise naked gnoll berserker's neck. The paw, though badly preserved, turned out to be a good luck charm. The group decided Keluak needed it the most and gave it to him to wear. A few of the more observant PCs noticed that some of the gnolls' items reeked of something worse than unwashed dog, though they couldn't figure out what it was.


Dockalong
After spending the night in an old abandoned farmhouse by the side of the trail, the group pressed on towards Dockalong. They soon came to a lookout where they could see a broad river valley stretching away in front of them. On the near side of the river lay many fields and small hamlets, with the largest - clearly Dockalong itself - situated on the banks of the river. On the far side, however, lay unspoilt forest. Elf country, they were told. In fact, Dockalong was positioned in the elven borderlands - a region where non-elves were permitted to live so long as they paid taxes to their elven overlords.

As they trudged down the path towards town, they came across a pair of middle-aged halflings. The woman was fiercely berating the man, brandishing a switch at him. As the PCs approached, the halfling woman asked if any of them had seen her son - or his good-for-nothing girlfriend. When they replied that they hadn't, she sighed and turned back towards town, tugging the man, who turned out to be her brother, along with her.

Shortly after this, they came across a human woman picking berries. When she spotted them, she dove into the bushes to hide, thinking the PCs might be bandits come to steal the fruits of her labors. But no, the PCs only wanted to inquire about the impending nuptials in Dockalong.

Moving on, they encountered an older halfling woman riding a donkey. She seemed quite pleased to see them and happily answered all their questions. She introduced herself as Jikk Hardwalk, a Blessed Daughter of the Sisterhood (that is, a priestess of the trinity of deities worshipped by many halflings) and the honorary town priest of Dockalong. She explained that she was just doing her rounds of the outlying farms and villages, but she would be happy to meet with them when she returned to town later.

A little further on, the group came to an old stone arch marking the entrance into Dockalong itself. A human woman sprang to attention, brandishing a halberd. She asked the PCs to identify themselves and then informed them that people were not allowed to bear arms into the town without Sheriff Savil's permission. The PCs were happy to wait for permission, so the guard asked some of the curious children hanging about to go and fetch someone named Honesty.

A few minutes later, up road a hobgoblin bearing the seven-pointed star of the Andarian Septry on his breastplate! He introduced himself as Honesty, representative of Sheriff Savil. He asked the PCs' names and business in town, challenging their answers and deliberately mispronouncing their names in response. He then asked each of them to hand over their most powerful weapon. Some of the PCs were rather cheeky, especially Keth, who claimed his most powerful weapon was his faith. At one point, it looked like the hobgoblin and half-orc might come to blows, but just then another person rode up - a middle-aged half-elven woman in a green cloak. She wore a wooden disk around her neck bearing a stylized tree-and-arrow emblem - the symbol of her office as representative of the eld lord Ulurishay, ruler of this part of the borderlands.

After having a quiet word with Honest, Sheriff Savil welcomed the PCs into Dockalong. As they passed through the archway, Honesty returned their weapons to them politely and respectfully. With that, the PCs made their way into town to find accommodations - and, in Gil and Tasklar's cases, their relations!


A Series of Intriguing Events
With the wedding ceremony planned for the following afternoon, the PCs had a little over a day to relax and explore the town. Plenty of locals were interested in coming to see them too, although not always in the most appropriate ways. For instance, Calla received a nighttime visitor in the form of a small dwarf child who, upon being caught rifling through the sorceress's personal things, tried to flee. Calla used her magic to shut the door in the child's face and then jumped on her. The girl screeched and pleaded with Calla not to tell her parents. She'd only wanted to have a look at a real mage's stuff! At that point, Keluak awoke and went to investigate. Upon being filled in, he was insistent that the girl be taken home to her parents, despite her fear of being sent "under the mountain". Calla, however, took pity on the girl and promised not to tell if she promised not to sneak into anyone's room ever again.

Earlier in the day, the group had been approached by a nervous townsman who asked if anyone in the group might be able to cure his wife of mindfire. Keth agreed to go and have a look. He openly prayed to Freya (since Dockalong appeared to be open to religions other than the Septry) and the half-elven woman was miraculously healed! The couple attempted to pay Keth, but he refused, instead asking them to pay it forward, perhaps by making a donation to someone of the Old Faith.

Meanwhile, a contingent of dwarves came to visit Keluak. They were keen for some news from "under the mountain". Unfortunately for Keluak, he wasn't as up to speed on news from the dwarf kingdoms as Tasklar the bard. Having been listening in, Tasklar came over and told some interesting tales - some true, some improvised. The dwarves appreciated the human's efforts, but looked askance at Keluak. What kind of dwarf was he that he would allow a human to show him up in such a way? The Dockalong dwarves went away troubled, and Keluak tried to drown his embarrassment with more alcohol.

Gil met up with his family and was presented with the wooden leg of his old, now deceased, Uncle Hasken. Gil had once stolen the leg from his uncle, so he supposed that this had been the old man's idea of a joke. His mother was insistent that he'd wanted Gil to have it.

On the morning of the wedding, the PCs were woken up by a disturbance in the street below. The missing halfling's girlfriend had turned up, surprised to find he wasn't in town. They'd arranged to meet in the usual trysting spot in the woods across the river, but he'd never shown up. The PCs went with the halflings to see Sheriff Savil, who arranged to have a patrol go into the woods to investigate. They took with them a standard that acted as a sort of "pass" so that any elven patrols who saw it would know not to attack. The PCs followed along. Halfway down the trail, Tasklar noticed signs of passage off to the west but chose to kept that info to himself until later. He wanted to see the trysting spot first.

The trysting spot, while idyllic, was devoid of any clues. The guards concluded that the elves must have got poor Noddy, the missing halfling, and headed back to town. The PCs hung around a little longer, and Tasklar revealed what he'd found. Calla was fearful of being ambushed by elves now that they were no longer under the protection of the guards' banner, but they reached the side trail safely and followed it to a large tree, where Noddy's footprints suddenly stopped. At the base of the tree were some foul bird droppings, which a few of the PCs recognized as bearing the same stench as the items they'd picked up from the gnolls. Tasklar climbed up into the tree and found more droppings on a large branch. Wracking his brains, he came to a sudden realization, thanks to his newfound investigative abilities: there was a harpy about!

The PCs immediately started to plug up their ears, but Tasklar assured them that this wasn't its roost. No, it appeared to have perched her just long enough to lure Noddy off the path and then snatch him up and carry him away. At this point, Calla was sure that ferocious elves would pop out from behind the trees at any moment, so the group headed back to town and made their report. Sheriff Savil took their information seriously and sent out some patrols to investigate the various old ruins from a past civilization scattered around the valley. She presumed it was possible that a harpy could have set up a nest in one of them.

The news spread around the town, and the PCs soon heard grumblings about how it must have been someone named Laggo who'd taken Noddy. The townsfolk seemed reluctant to talk about him, but Tasklar applied his charm and soon found out that Laggo was a satyr who'd been raised in town after being orphaned at birth. He'd seemed all right at first, but he'd grown up much faster than human children and got himself into enough trouble that Sheriff Savil had exiled him from town. Unfortunately, he still hung around the valley, occasionally causing trouble in the outlying villages and the like.


The Wedding
At this point, the PCs could do nothing more to help with the search for Noddy lest they miss Ghenna's wedding. Calla went to consult with her friend (and inform her of Keth's plans for various barbaric rituals, almost all of which Ghenna vetoed). The ceremony went smoothly, and soon the happy couple were greeting their friends and relations on the feasting field, where a number of games and activities had also been set up. The PCs bestowed their gifts upon the newlyweds, among them some of the jewelry they'd plundered from the ancient tombs and the magical mirror that always presented a flattering image to the viewer that Gil had taken from the evil lizard queen's belongings beneath the ruined fane.

Keth and Tasklar soon found themselves competing to catch a greased pig (which Keth won), while Gil and Calla had a go at each other on a log with cushioned staves (which Calla won, although Gil insisted that he'd "let" her). Tasklar also got into a friendly musical competition with the local bard, an elf named Willon Evesimere. Afterwards, he struck up a conversation with the elf, learning a bit more about the town, its inhabitants, and its history.

Keth and Tasklar also went up against Honesty in a game of fisticuffs, though neither of them was able to beat the burly hobgoblin. He was impressed enough by the gesture to buy them each a round of drinks afterwards, though. Unbeknownst to their comrades, Gil and Calla had both bet against them and thus raked in a bit of extra money.


The Wedding Crasher
As the festivities began to wind down, Laggo the satyr showed up. Charming nearly everyone with his pan pipes, he proceeded to hand the bride and groom a well-made dagger he claimed to have found in the ruins outside of town. Keth, shaking off the satyr's magic, recognized the harpy's stink on the dagger and demanded that the satyr talk about the harpy. When Laggo balked and denied knowing anything about a harpy, Keth punched him. Some of the other townsfolk who'd resisted the magical tune cheered Keth on in an attempt to whip up a mob to drive the satyr away. Those who were still under the influence, however, tried to placate everyone, insisting that Laggo was a friend and should be treated as such!

Eventually the PCs were able to persuade Laggo to take them to the site where he'd found the dagger, but when they got there, he quickly and quietly slipped away into the woods, leaving them stranded ... luckily, Keth's survival skills were good enough to get them back to town, where they found everyone heading back home to bed.

In the morning, Keth was praying at the town's non-denominational temple when he heard the faint strands of Laggo's pipes coming from the woods to the north. Gathering up his companions (all except Keluak, who couldn't be roused from slumber [his player had gone home early]), the group went to investigate. Laggo revealed himself and apologized for his behavior the night before. He admitted to knowing a harpy named Arekla, whom he had thought was a friend. But he'd gone and confronted her and she had berated him as a fool, and he'd realized that she was completely right. He said he didn't know for certain but thought that it was quite likely Arekla had Noddy hidden away in her tree, where she could torture him for days before he died. He offered to take the PCs to her lair but refused to fight with them, saying that even though he knew she was irredeemably evil now, he still couldn't bring himself to hurt her.


The Harpy's Lair
Laggo explained that Arekla laired in a hollowed-out old tree in a clearing in the woods to the north. As the group neared the harpy's tree, he told them to plug up their ears so they wouldn't be taken in by her song. The tree was about 40 feet high and had a hole in the side about 15 feet up. The ground around the tree was bare for about 30 feet all around. A large number of crows perched in the tree's dead branches.

The PCs soon found out that the crows were allied with Arekla, as they swarmed to the attack pretty much as soon as the PCs approached. They also discovered that Arekla's lair had a number of magical defences, included strong winds, clouds of stinking fumes, and patches of mud that would suck them down and then trap them as it hardened.

Eventually Arekla herself appeared, and while the PCs were mostly immune to her magic thanks to the wax in their ears, they still found themselves hard pressed to make any headway against the evil harpy and her magic. The swarms of crows proved to be particularly vicious. Tasklar was nearly pecked to death by them. At one point, Arekla emerged from her lair - in the process revealing herself to be of fiendish blood, with a tough hide and leathery wings instead of feathered ones - and magically polymorphed Calla into a tiny field mouse. Though Calla attempted to hide in the forest underbrush, Arekla soon found her and snatched her up in her claws. She then flew high up into the air and waited ... but there was to be no negotiating with Calla's comrades, none of whom could hear the harpy's demands, so eventually Arekla grew bored and let go of Calla the mouse.

Calla's life flashed before her eyes, and she saw it ending abruptly as she slammed into the ground, but suddenly something else arrested her movement - Gil's bat familiar had caught her up in its own claws!

Wounded and frustrated, Arekla made for her tree with the intention of grabbing her satchel of treasure and fleeing the scene. That was her last mistake, for as she flew into range of Gil's magic, he placed her in a magical slumber. She plummeted out of the sky and landed with a sickening crunch. As Arekla breathed her last, Calla was released from the harpy's magic and found herself back in her own body again.

Eventually freeing themselves of the mud, the other PCs brushed themselves off and then proceeded to climb into the tree to see if they could find Noddy. Braving the foul, diseased air inside the tree, they not only emerged with the sickly halfling but also the harpy's treasure! Keth administered to Noddy, healing his wounds and curing him of his ailments, and the group then escorted him back to Dockalong, where they were hailed as heroes!

 

[pukunui]

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD
Dramatis Personae: Calla, Keluak, Keth
Source: "DDEX3-1 Harried in Hillsfar"


Part I: The Quick
With Gil and Tasklar busy with family, Calla, Keth and Keluak decided to enjoy some quiet time in Dockalong before the long journey back to Larchwood. While relaxing in the inn with some cool beers, they were approached by a scholarly elf who introduced herself as Lady Ineddra. She said that Sheriff Savil had recommended them to her. When she asked the PCs if they could be discrete, Keth accidentally knocked everyone's tankards onto the floor as he gestured in affirmation. The elf winced but sat down. "I need help looking for my brother, Seppremis. I dare not take this to the authorities, as it is somewhat embarrassing for my family. As you may know, this area is dotted with elven ruins. I believe that one of those ruins may have been a fey'ri outpost, and I believe that my brother may be trying to find it."

When the PCs stared at her blankly, Lady Ineddra explained that the fey'ri were "foolish elves who consorted with demons and devils a long time ago". She feared that her brother's investigations would lead to nothing but misery. She offered to pay the PCs 1,000 sp in gems if they would go find out what her brother was doing. She gave them Seppremis' last known address - a rothé ranch on the outskirts of Sowsville - and they were on their way.

Almost as soon as they'd arrived, they knew something was not right. The ranch was deserted, and the fields behind the house were dotted with dead animals, some of whom had been dismembered. There was quite a bit of blood in the barn, particularly around a trapdoor in the middle of the floor, under which they found a shaft with fresh wooden rungs staked into the side.

The shaft dropped below the limit of Keth and Keluak's darkvision, so the dwarf volunteered to go first. Several hundred feet down, Keluak found part of an old mine shaft, crafted by dwarven hands, leading south. The floor was sticky with blood. As the others descended, Keluak lit up his driftglobe so Calla could see.

Heading south, the PCs found that the passageway ran for nearly a mile before ending in a bend leading to a large room. Keluak surmised that they were now under the woods to the south of the ranch. In the room ahead, they found a gauntlet of six statues - three statues depicting elves to the north, and three depicting demons to the south. Each pair of statues shared some features. For instance, the first pair wielded wicked swords, while the second pair held spiders and snakes in their hands. The last pair, both female, wielded scourges and arcane wands. In addition, the walls of the room feature delicated elven carvings and other stonework that nevertheless depicted shockingly terrible scenes.

At that point, the PCs noticed some writing on the floor. Someone had recently translated an Elvish phrase: next to some Elvish lettering etched into the foor, someone had written in Common with chalk: "To pass, you must speak the titles of each of the three, divided by three." Next to that was a long string of letters: TLLHOAERDSDYLVAAEGYNOEONRMY.

Between the three of them, the PCs soon puzzled out the names of each pair of statues: The Slayer, Lord Venom, and Lady Agony. Keluak went first, speaking the names as he passed through the statues. Much to his surprise (and relief), each pair animated and bowed slightly as he passed. Keth and Calla quickly followed.

From here, the tunnel turned north again and quickly ended in another room decorated with ghastly depictions of elves and demons comingling. A blood-stained mosaic depicting the infinite layers of the Abyss with breathtaking and terrible beauty covered the floor. Amidst the carvings, nine gaping demonic maws adorned the walls, each one marked with a number from one to nine. While the maws were large enough for a person to climb into them, they were filled with magical darkness obscuring the other side.

Keluak decided to send his driftglobe through one to see what would happen. It got spat back out - lights off - and the maw closed with a horrible grating sound of stone on stone. Keth then tried tossing an iron spike through another. It too got spat back out, more violently this time (causing Keth to have to duck), and that maw also closed up. Thinking that maybe the maws didn't like magic or metal, Keth broke off the metal tip from one of his crossbow bolts and chucked that into a maw. Nothing happened, so he chucked the metal bit in. When nothing happened again, Keluak decided to climb in himself. Meanwhile, Calla was busy obsessing over cleaning the blood off the floor with her magic.

The dwarf was nearly overcome by horrific visions of the Abyss before being flung back into the room, the maw closing up behind him. Keth decided to have a go, choosing maw #8 at random. The half-orc emerged into a short, narrow passageway leading to another chamber filled with strange lights and bubbling sounds. In the middle of the room, between four pillars of glowing purple stone around which were lashed several dead humans, sat a large slab of purplish stone on which a hideous monstrosity - a human body with the head of a rothé sewn onto its neck - lay chained. Behind the slab stood a hooded, blood-drenched figure, cackling maniacally. As soon as the figure saw Keth, it called out, "Perfect! When my creation rises, you will be its first meal!"

At that point, some vaguely humanoid lumps of flesh each crawled out of the bodies chained to the pillars. At the same time, several baboon-like demons moved towards the passageway threateningly.

Not knowing what was going on, Keluak and Calla climbed through the maw to see what had happened to Keth. They came through just in time to see the fleshy demons climb up onto the stone slab and be absorbed into the body chained to the slab. As Keluak pushed past his friend, two of the baboon demons moved forward to attack, one flatulating a sickly green gas as it approached.

Over the course of the ensuing battle, Calla attempted to set the room and its occupants on fire while Keluak hacked away at the baboon demons with his magic handaxe. Unfortunately, every time the fleshy demons either got absorbed into the body on the slab or were destroyed by the PCs, more appeared a few moments later. Same with the baboon demons. Whenever one was cut down, another would climb out of one of the cauldrons filled with body parts bubbling away in the corners of the room. Kel went and knocked one over as Calla finished off the mad elf with a trio of well-aimed fire rays.

But this did not stop the ritual! More fleshy demons crawled out of the dead humans and up onto the slab. Even as the mad elf breathed his last, the body on the slab grew and twitched and transformed into a demonic minotaur. It broke its bonds and charged Keth, who had summoned up some spiritual falcons to guard him. The minotaur cared not for such things and bowled the half-orc over onto Calla with a mighty blow of its horns. The creature was well and truly outmatched, however, and the PCs took it down without too much trouble.

They then spent a bit of time "cleansing" the room before heading back to Dockalong. Lady Ineddra was saddened to hear that her predictions had come true. Nothing good *had* come of her brother's meddling. She thanked the PCs, gave them their gems, and informed them that she would arrange to have the site reconsecrated.


Part II: The Dead
It was time to say goodbye to Dockalong. The three PCs told Gil and Tasklar that they'd see them back in Larchwood and off they went. A few days into the journey, a thunderstorm forced them to seek shelter in an old abandoned temple. In the night, during Keluak's watch, the dwarf heard a faint murmur and then everything went silent. He could no longer hear the patter of rain on the roof, or the rumble of thunder in the distance, or the snoring of the half-orc sleeping behind the altar. He turned to go and wake Keth up, but as he did so, a flash of lightning revealed a figure standing in the ruined doorway. Although the figure appeared to be that of a gnoll, with a twist of fear in his gut, the dwarf knew at once that it was actually the revenant.

With a silent roar, the creature dashed forward and fixed Keluak with its vengeful glare, freezing the dwarf in place. It then proceeded to pound him into the ground with its fists. At this point, Calla woke up, having subconsciously noted the sudden lack of ambient noise. As the dwarf battled for his life in front of her, she soon found herself under attack - another gnoll stood outside in the rain, firing arrows through the broken windows. She ducked behind a broken pew, trying desperately to figure out what she could do to help. Then it occurred to her that the magical silence most likely wouldn't be filling up the whole building, so she crept down the aisle until she could suddenly hear normally again.

At this point, the dwarf lay dying on the floor. But he was not yet ready to give up the fight. He struggled away from the light and, with a silent gasp, found himself back in the land of the living [Kel's player rolled a natural 20 on a death save]. Jumping to his feet, Keluak attempted to hold the revenant at bay while simultaneously knocking some of the debris atop the altar onto Keth. This woke up the half-orc, who was confused by the lack of sound. He tried to shout at his friends but couldn't even hear himself speak inside his own head! Then he saw the revenant. And then he saw Calla under siege from the gnoll archer. He leapt past the revenant and ran to Calla, leaving Keluak to die as the revenant pounded him down again.

Calla, meanwhile, was exchanging fire with the gnoll. As the revenant came stalking down the aisle toward Keth, its wounds healing up before their eyes, she shot flames out of her hands at it. To her surprise, this seemed to stop the revenant's regeneration momentarily. It had eyes only for Keth, though. The half-orc cried out to Freya to save him and summoned up her spiritual falcons. Their radiance also seemed to hurt the revenant quite well, but it was not enough. Keth was hurting badly, and then the revenant struck a mighty blow, killing the half-orc instantly. At which point the revenant's mission was complete. A look of peace spread across its face as it slowly collapsed onto the rain-soaked floor. The gnoll wisely made itself scarce at that point, leaving Calla to look around her in disbelief. What the hell had just happened? The boys had told her about the revenant, but had they really been *that* unprepared to deal with it?! She could scarcely believe it.

With a sigh, she went and fetched the donkey and dragged the boys' bodies over to it. She thought about taking them to see Iriandel, but the unicorn was too far away. She recalled passing through a city on the way to Dockalong, though. While the miracle of raising the dead was a rare thing indeed, it was not completely unheard of. Perhaps someone in the city would be able to help her restore her idiotic friends to life. As the morning sun burned away the clouds, she guided the heavily-laden donkey back onto the road and headed for the city.

Once inside, she discovered that, while there were no miracles to be had at the local Septry, they did happen to have a crypt consecrated with a gentle repose effect. For a small fee, she could leave her companions' bodies there while she searched for a more permanent solution. Ten days and a considerable amount of sweet-talking led Calla to an enclave of halflings, where an old priestess of the Sisterhood claimed to be able to raise the dead. For a price, of course. She warned Calla that no one was ever the same after being brought back. Resurrection had a way of causing people to lose a bit of themselves.

Calla was nevertheless determined. She wasn't going to let Keth stay dead! They'd been through too much together for that. Besides, who else was she going to take her anger out on and get away with it? She'd hurt Gil once before and had sworn never to do it again, and she wasn't about to do the same to Tasklar. And Kel wasn't around for her to accidentally-on-purpose burn his beard off. Dammit! Luckily, the half-orc - dumb as he was - had had the foresight to convert most of their party loot into easy-to-carry gems. Handing over the vast bulk of their accumulated wealth to the halfling priestess, Calla was relieved to find that the woman was true to her word. After a bit of religious mumbo-jumbo, Keth was back in the land of the living, though he seemed a bit different somehow. Calla wasn't sure what exactly had changed, but she was sure she'd find out soon enough. So long as he'd learned his lesson about not attacking people after they tried to surrender ...

As the PCs did not have the funds to raise Keluak as well, they paid the halfling priestess to cast gentle repose on his body and then carted it all the way back up past Larchwood to the ancient woods over which Iriandel presided. The unicorn agreed to help so long as they agreed to undertake a quest in payment. The duo had no qualms about that, and so Iriandel took them to see some elf druid friends of his. The druids called upon their ancient nature magic and crafted Keluak a new body for his soul to inhabit. They called upon his soul to return to this world, and as Keluak opened his eyes and drew in his first breath, he was stunned to find that he'd been brought back to life in the body of a half-orc!

 

[pukunui]

INTO THE WOODS
Dramatis Personae: Calla, Keth, Sorrel (and Iriandel)
Source: "DDEX3-7 Herald of the Moon", Princes of the Apocalypse


Prologue
It took Keluak some time to come to terms with his new identity. He spent much of that time hiding in a cave near the wood elf settlement the others were staying in. A half-orc, of all things! What a cruel twist of fate. Now he could never go home. He needed a new name. "Sorrel" would do. He needed to practice swinging his axe lower, since he was no longer so short. He hated how everyone tried not to laugh when they saw him. Those elves were doing it on purpose. Calla and Keth too. Everyone seemed to think his predicament was hilarious! Everyone except him. But he'd show them. He'd get them back somehow. Oh, how he would get them back!


Iriandel
A day or two later, Iriandel the unicorn gathered his friends together and told them that he was still working on reestablishing his connection with the forest. During his centuries of exile, the elves had dwindled in number and the heart of the forest had grown wild and dark. He wished to seek out an old friend of his, a treant name Brightleaf, who resided deep in the woods. The elves didn't go that way anymore, tangled as it was with brambles and thorns. He feared the worst.

The PCs agreed to accompany the unicorn on the three-day journey into the Heartwood. The outer rim of the forest consisted mostly of widely-spaced pines, with a soft carpet of pine needles underfoot. They spent their first night on the edge of the Heartwood, a section of older forest with a greater variety of trees packed more closely together. The PCs all had unsettling dreams that night, and when Sorrel awoke, he felt a strange urge to eat dirt. Keth and Calla teased him a bit, much to Sorrel's annoyance.


The Heartwood
The next day saw them penetrating the gloom of the Heartwood. Iriandel was dismayed to see that this section of the forest was indeed overgrown with brambles. After several hours of slogging their way through the thicket, they came across a small glade in the middle of which was a harrowing sight: a dead stag whose alabaster fur was matted with blood. The body of an elf lay crushed underneath. Before they could investigate any further, the ground rumbled as a mighty hill giant and its giant boar companion emerged into the clearing. The giant bellowed and raised its huge club threateningly.

Iriandel implored the PCs to take out the giant but leave the boar to him. The giant proved a formidable opponent, and Iriandel was forced to dash in and heal Sorrel several times with the magic of his horn. Outnumbered, the giant eventually fell to the ground, at which point Iriandel used his magic to calm the boar and send it trotting back into the forest. The giant had a sack. Inside, the PCs found a moldy wheel of cheese, a giant-sized waterskin (which Keth claimed for himself), and a box of turquoise animal figurines that looked quite valuable, although Keth accidentally broke one of them.

The PCs turned their attention back to the dead stag and elf. It looked like they had been crushed by a big rock, perhaps thrown by the giant. The elf had a magic potion and a delicate magic scroll inscribed on a leaf, which Calla spirited away before Keth could accidentally break it too. It turned out to be a charm to protect against plant monsters. At Iriandel's urging, the PCs spent a bit of time building a temporary grave for the elf and his mount before pressing on.

The next morning, Calla woke up with an irresistible urge to eat the moldy cheesy, which she promptly confiscated from Keth, who was incapacitated by uncontrollable fits of laughter, screaming, and weeping. This time it was Sorrel's turn to tease the others. Iriandel, however, was becoming more and more concerned with his companions' behavior. Something was seriously wrong in his forest! The sooner he got to the bottom of it, the better!


Brightleaf
Eventually the companions came to a grove surrounded by a wall of thorns. In the middle of the grove stood a solitary elm. Iriandel teleported himself and the three PCs into the middle of the grove to avoid the thorns. The unicorn strode forward and called out to Brightleaf. The ancient treant began to stir. Over the course of the painfully slow conversation that ensued, it became glaringly obvious that Brightleaf was completely mad. And the source of that madness was most likely the four vine blights crawling around in his branches, corrupting the treant's mind with mad whispers.

Brightleaf was adamant that there was nothing wrong with his forest. In fact, he proclaimed himself to be the god of the forest. And thanks to the machinations of the blights, he didn't appear to recognize Iriandel as his old friend but rather regarded him as a rival come to usurp his position. With no time to lose, Calla whipped out her tree feather token and indicated for Iriandel to come forward with her as she called out to Brightleaf that the unicorn had come with a gift.

As she placed the token on the ground, a mighty oak sprang up in front of Brightleaf. This gesture may have worked, had Sorrel not decided to grab hold of one of the oak's branches and ride it up as it soared to its full height of 60 feet. The sight of a heavily armed and armored half-orc grinning at him from only a few feet away was enough to get Brightleaf's hackles up. He uttered some words of primeval magic and caused both the oak in front of him and another tree in his glade to animate. Ordering them to destroy the intruders, he then picked up a rock and hurled it at the unicorn, who was nearly crushed by the blow.

Sorrel tried to leap from the animated oak into Brightleaf's branches, with the intention of attacking the vine blights, but all he succeeded in doing was falling out of the tree. At this point, the vine blights dropped out of Brightleaf's branches and used their own magic to cover the ground around the treant with grasping vines. They then made to flee into the forest.

Fortunately, the PCs managed to keep the animated trees occupied so that Iriandel could rush in and break the enchantment on his friend. Although Brightleaf tried to avoid the touch of the unicorn's horn, he was too slow and soon found his mind clearing. With Iriandel and Brightleaf's permission, Calla gleefully turned the fleeing vine blights to ash.

At last Brightleaf remembered his old friend the unicorn. He apologized to the companions and thanked them for clearing his mind. He promised Iriandel that he would work hard to help restore the forest to its former glory. Brightleaf then invited everyone to stay the night in his grove. The PCs listened enthralled as the treant and the unicorn traded tales from the olden days, when the two shared their guardianship of the forest.


The Return
In the morning, Calla awoke feeling absolutely certain that she needed to get as far away from Brightleaf as she possibly could. Sorrel, as well, seemed to be suffering from a case of extreme paranoia, although it was unclear whether this was the forest's doing or merely some lingering existential dread from his transformation. Nevertheless, the companions took their leave of Brightleaf and hurried back through the woods towards the elven settlement.

Though they managed to resist the effects of the disturbing dreams during the first night of the journey, on the second night it was all just too much for their mortal minds to take. Calla soon found that she could no longer take anything seriously. The more serious the situation, the funnier she found it to be. Meanwhile, Keth came to the conclusion that the only way for him to be able to stay sane was to be drunk all the time. Last but not least, Sorrel's paranoia took root as he became convinced that everyone was judging him all the time. Clearly curing Brightleaf had not had an immediate effect on the state of the forest. Perhaps something else was the cause and Brightleaf merely another victim? Iriandel was troubled, but he said nothing to his friends.

Back at the elven settlement, the PCs were paid a visit by Hroom*. The treant was overjoyed to hear the good news about Brightleaf. He also wanted his friends to try a special concoction he'd been brewing. They all agreed to have a taste and found it surprisingly invigorating and nourishing. In fact, it caused them all to grow taller! It had the most profound effect on Calla, who grew to be 6 feet tall, while Sorrel further increased his newfound height to a total of 6 feet 5 inches! Keth felt like something was missing, so he acquired some elven wine and mixed it into the brew. This caused him to shoot up to 6 feet 6 inches, at which point he decided all was right with the world, as he was once again taller than Keluak (now Sorrel). Hroom gave the PCs five vials of his brew to take home with them.


Pebbleton
On the way home to Larchwood, the PCs stopped in Pebbleton. Keth offered one vial of Hroom's brew to the mayor, who quite liked the taste and wanted to know where he could get more. This was exactly what Keth had hoped, as he was aiming to improve the relationship between the people of Pebbleton and the creatures of the neighboring forest. The PCs then retired to the common hall, where Keth struck up a rousing drinking song while Calla challenged Sorrel to a drinking contest and won, much to the warrior's chagrin!

Before leaving Pebbleton, the PCs decided to have a bit of a wander around in the countryside. While exploring, they came across a pair of hill giants sitting outside a cave, playing some sort of game using different colored rocks. One of them appeared to be getting rather frustrated. Sorrel's blind and unreasoning hatred of his enemies and Keth's obsession with winning glory in battle drove the two half-orcs to charge in amongst the boulders, while Calla watched with amusement from a safe distance.

The PCs were brought to an abrupt halt, however, when the frustrated giant pointed at them and declared that he wanted to play the game with them instead of the other giant. As the battlelust cleared from Keth's eyes, he sat down on the other side of the game board and listened as the giant explained the rules. They were to play best two out of three and bet 100 sp each time. Keth won twice in a row. The giant looked like he was going to explode but he managed to hold his temper and declared that he would play the other half-orc now. He insisted that Sorrel bet his magic axe, and in return, he pulled a large amethyst out of his sack and placed it next to the axe. Sorrel proceeded to also win twice in a row, which was too much for the giant. He grabbed at the axe, but Sorrel was too quick, so he went for his club instead.

Chuckling to herself at the unsurprising result, Calla decided to launch a fireball into the midst of the boulders. But she was laughing too hard and let her companions get caught in the blast. One of the giants moved away and started hurling rocks, while the other played whack-a-mole with his club. It was a hard battle, but the PCs were ultimately victorious and the two giants ultimately dead. A thorough search of their sacks and reeking cave lair produced lots of coins (including some rare gold and platinum pieces!) and that beautiful amethyst.

The PCs decided to spend the night in the giants' cave, where Calla challenged Keth to a drinking contest. She won again, much to the cleric's chagrin. In the morning, they headed back to Pebbleton to do some more drinking in anticipation of the journey back to Larchwood.


*If you recall, Hroom sprang from a magic bean that the PCs planted in the middle of Larchwood's market square. Keth later took him to see Iriandel, thinking the two creatures might become friends. Hroom has been hanging out in Iriandel's neck of the woods ever since.

 

[pukunui]

ASSAULT ON DELLMON RANCH
Dramatis Personae: Gil, Sorrel, Tasklar (and a host of NPCs)
Source: "Alarums and Excursions" (Princes of the Apocalypse)

Prologue
When Gil and Tasklar finally returned to Larchwood, they were gobsmacked by the news that their dwarven friend Keluak had been killed and later brought back to life in the body of a half-orc. They were also rather surprised to find that Calla had grown quite a bit taller in the few weeks since they'd last seen her.

Orcs!
When reports filtered into Larchwood that orcs were raiding the homesteads to the northwest, the PCs set off to investigate. They soon came across a burning farm. Tasklar turned himself invisible and snuck into the yard, looking for orcs and any survivors. Although he could see plenty of boot prints and some wagon tracks, there appeared to be no one around, not even any bodies. Then he heard coughing coming from within the house. Hurrying to the front door, he found a bloody half-elf male struggling to lift himself off the ground. Still invisible, he called out to the man that, although he couldn't see him, he was there to help!

As Tasklar pulled the man out of the burning house, the man started yelling for his wife, Maygan, who was with child. Turning visible again, Tasklar rushed back into the house, going room to room but finding no one. As he emerged, his companions joined him in the farmyard. Although Sorrel's appearance alarmed the farmer, he was soon placated and calmed down enough to reveal that his farmhands also appeared to be missing. All he remembered was that orcs had come barging into his house, and one of them hit him over the head as he was attempting to shield his wife. Introducing himself as Selwyn, he thanked the PCs for rescuing him and begged them to help him find his wife.

After a quick but fruitless look around the burning farm buildings, the group set off down the trail, following the obvious tracks left by the orcs. An hour or so later, they spotted the orcs resting by a dry riverbed. The wagon appeared stuck in the soft sand, and they could see a woman hunched in the back of the wagon along with various goods looted from the farm. The two farmhands were resting at the front of the wagon.

The PCs were also spotted, however, and two orcs with bows advanced on them. Gil put one to sleep, but the other slipped into the trees and proceeded to flank them as its compatriots charged up the path to engage the PCs in melee. Unfortunately for the orcs, they proved to be no match for the three hardened adventurers, and Selwyn was soon reunited with his wife, Maygan, and their two farmhands. With no home to return to, however, they asked the PCs to escort them to the nearby Dellmon Ranch. On the way, Selwyn explained that the Dellmons had begun fortifying their ranch and had invited their neighbors to join them.

The Ranch
A few hours later, the group found themselves staring at a large compound protected by some crude fortifications consisting of wooden palisades, makeshift crenellations, and a large ditch on the eastern side. The windows of the various buildings had all been boarded up as well. Inside the compound, the PCs found the Dellmon family and a host of other farmers, ranch hands, and children, as well as a group of soldiers led by a holy knight and a trio of scouts. Last but not least were the ranch's two dwarven smiths. The PCs were welcomed in with open arms and introductions were made.

The Dellmon family included a number of able-bodied warriors, led by patriarch Kerbin, who'd refused to flee from his ancestral lands. His oldest son, Perd, stood by him, determined to fight. Perd's wife, Marka, a skilled hunter, was also fiercely determined to protect her children. Kerbin's younger son, Fyndrick, was full of bravado and wanted to take the fight to the orcs instead of waiting for them to lay siege to the ranch. Lastly, Kerbin's daughter, Dreena, was a member of the local druid circle. She informed the PCs that she'd sent an animal messenger to a nearby tribe of wood elves but hadn't heard back. She hoped they would send aid in time.

The knight was one Ser Erned Stoutblade, a member of the Order of the Warrior's Sons, part of the military wing of the Andarian Septry. Full of zealous bluster, Ser Erned had brought his contingent of faithful warriors to deliver retribution for the orcs' wanton savagery.

The trio of scouts were led by a halfling named Flameran Verminbane. The halfling and his two human cohorts had been tracking the orc war band as it moved through the countryside and had come to the ranch to warn the Dellmons of its approach. When asked, Flameran explained that the war band consisted of about forty orcs.

The dwarves were twins named Stowal and Branikan Gorunn. They had a bet on to see which of them could slay the most orcs.

The First Attack
The PCs took a moment to catch their breath and then set about organizing the ranch's defense. They ordered oil to be poured out in various places, hot coals from the dwarves' forge to be carried up to the roof, zip lines to be strung up between the various buildings, and so on. Gil also activated his silver raven and sent it out to look for the orcs. No sooner had they positioned everyone to their liking but the orcs' scouts were spotted on the ridges. The orcs soon came pouring into the fields and surrounded the ranch, approaching from all sides.

Then the drumming started. It seemed to give the orcs heart, while it chilled the defenders to their core. Not liking the unsettling beat one bit, or the demoralizing effect it was having on their fellow defenders, the PCs pinpointed its source and took aim. Tasklar fired on the orc war drummer with his wand of magic missiles, then Gil put him to sleep. As the defenders shook themselves free of the drum's effects, a heavily-armored orc bent over and shook the drummer awake ... which merely prompted Tasklar to unload his wand on the poor drummer, taking him out of the fight before it had even properly begun! [DM note: This prompted comparisons to that scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Arab guy brandishes his scimitar theatrically only to have Indy pull out his gun and shoot him dead.]

While the defenders were able to pick off a few orcs as they approached, the melee was soon on as the orcs charged the barricades. A few of them clambered over the wall and got into the compound, but they were quickly dispatched by the defenders. During the course of the fight, Kerbin and both of his sons were taken down, only to be revived by Dreena. Fyndrick nearly lost his head when the war chief attacked him with a mighty sweep of his falchion. As the young human dropped to the ground, the chieftain roared in victory, seemingly growing stronger, much to Sorrel's dismay. That said, although the half-orc was quickly surrounded, he was more than able to hold his own, even against the war chief.

When a number of orcs approached the front door with the intention of smashing through, the defenders realized they'd forgotten to place anyone inside to protect the noncombatants. Fortunately, the men up on the roof had the presence of mind to drop the burning coals from the forge down on the orcs, sending them reeling.

Before long, the orcs withdrew out of sight. The defenders were able to lick their wounds and count their dead, among them Branikan the dwarf and a number of farmers and ranch hands. Two of Ser Erned's warriors had also perished. Fyndrick was now sporting a nasty scar on his neck from when the war chief's falchion had nearly separated his head from his shoulders.

While they nursed their wounds, the PCs concluded that the ranch was too large for the survivors to defend properly, so they ordered everyone to withdraw to the southern side. All the noncombatants were moved out of the house and into the barn, and the majority of the defenders set themselves up in the space between the barn and the forge or up on those buildings' roofs. They also laid out more oil for Dreena to light up with her fire magic.

The Second Attack
It soon became apparent that the orcs had plans of their own. Rather than make another mad rush across the open fields, which had proved too costly for them, they moved upwind and set fire to the fields, shrouding the compound in smoke and reducing the defenders' visibility to thirty feet.

In response, Gil sent out his raven and his bat familiar to keep watch. As the bat's echolocation picked up the orc scouts advancing through the smoke, Gil lit up the oil they'd placed in front of the house and then zipped across the yard to the forge to warn the others. Hot on his heels were several of the orc scouts, emerging from the smoke and peppering the defenders with arrows. As the scouts melted back into the smoke, a group of orcs rushed across the yard to assault the defenders' northern flank. As the archers on the roofs fired arrows down, Dreena lit up the oil, burning them severely.

At the same time, orc scouts appeared out of the smoke from the west, just as several orc grunts came climbing up onto the forge roof. A number of the defenders were slain up there, and Marka Dellmon was knocked to the ground, where she was set upon and laid low by the orcs' war chief. Her sister-in-law, Dreena, came to her aid, reviving her with the last of her healing spells.

More orcs came rushing out of the smoke to assault the southern barricades. Things looked pretty desperate for a while, but the defenders held out, and soon the orcs' war chief was the last man standing. He spat at Sorrel as the half-orc approached, calling him a traitor to his race. The war chief, knowing that his doom was at hand, was determined to at least take Sorrel with him. Alas, it was not to be. Although the chieftain managed to take out one of Sorrel's eyes, he was unable to kill him. Outnumbered, the war chief quickly succumbed to his wounds, with Gil delivering the killshot.

As the smoke slowly cleared, the result of the battle became evident. More than forty orcs lay dead around the compound. Though many of the defenders lay among them, their numbers were far fewer. Ser Erned had lost all of his men, and if it hadn't been for Dreena with her healing magic, the Dellmons would all be dead as well.

And at that moment, the elves showed up!

Epilogue
As the ranchers settled into cleaning up the mess, the PCs went in search of the orcs' camp, where they found all the loot that they'd stolen from other farms and homesteads. They gave a good portion of it to the common folk, keeping only a few choice pieces for themselves, including a pair of sending stones and a magic breastplate granting resistance to fire. Sorrel also claimed as a prize the hideous belt made of tanned dwarf skin that the orc's war chief had worn. He sensed it was magical and found himself being drawn to it despite his utter revulsion. He spirited it away in his pack, determined to figure out what to do with it later.

After all was said and done, the PCs had proved themselves to be capable leaders of men, ensuring that their heroic deeds at Dellmon Ranch would be made known far and wide for years to come!

 

[pukunui]

HORDE OF THE GOBLIN LORD
Dramatis Personae: Keth, Sorrel, Tasklar (and Elia)
Source: "DDEX3-10 Quelling the Horde"

The Stop
As autumn progressed towards winter, Sorrel, Keth, and Keth's protégé Elia found themselves in the Stop, a one-horse town west of Larchwood. Its tavern, the Plodding Plow, was run by a kindly dwarf woman named Glenna Moonsmith. As the trio made themselves comfortable at the bar, Glenna pushed some ales in their direction and told them they could have them free of charge if they let her give them a tip. They readily agreed, and so Glenna related what two ranch hands who'd passed through the day before had told her: namely, that they'd been awakened in the night by goblins parading around as knights with crowns on their heads, lighting the place up and killing anything that moved. The ranch hands had fled through the night, not stopping at several neighboring farms that appeared to be under attack as well, before stopping for a rest (and a few drinks) at the Plow.

Glenna cautioned the adventurers that others in town would dismiss the ranch hands' tale, as they were known to drink a lot, but she insisted that they were sober. She acknowledged that fear makes people exaggerate, though, so it's possible they didn't actually see any goblin knights with crowns. She pointed out that the ranched belonged to the Arcruses, a well-liked (and well-heeled) human family, while the neighboring farms belonged to the Lumbuses, a clan of hardworking halflings, and the Callidells, a family of humans who, it was rumored, were into witchcraft.

Goblins with crowns and rumors of witchcraft only excited our protagonists. After draining their drinks, they asked Glenna for directions, let her know a friend of theirs might be along shortly and to let him know where they'd gone, and then hit the trail.

Callidell Homestead
A light drizzle set in as the group approached the Callidells' farm. Elia went to scout ahead and reported back that there were bodies lying in the farmyard. The group decided to approached stealthily through the wheat field west of the compound. Much to their surprise, the four scarecrows posted around the field animated and moved in to attack! The scarecrows were truly frightening, able to paralyze their prey with a mere glance! Three ganged up on Sorrel while Elia and Keth teamed up against the fourth.

As Sorrel reduced one to a lifeless pile of straw and sackcloth, Tasklar came running up through the wheat and started firing at scarecrows with blasts of eldritch magic. The bard's arrival helped turn the tide, as the scarecrows were proving to be quite tough to defeat. With the help of Tasklar's magic, however, all four were soon down.

Free to proceed into the farmyard, the group discovered seven bodies on the ground. All were clearly related (and quite probably inbred as well), and ranged in age from young to old. They looked like they'd been hacked apart while trying to defend themselves with weird knobby clubs wrapped in humanoid skin. [Before the adventurers left the farm, they made sure to burn the clubs.]

The Callidells' house was burnt to the ground, but one of the outbuildings -- a shed by the look of it -- was still intact. As was the lock. Elia picked it, and inside our protagonists found a circle engraved on the stone floor, with fat black candles ranged around it. And a set of manacles screwed into the middle of the circle. It would appear that the rumors of witchcraft had been true!

Keth stepped forward and pissed into the middle of the circle. As he did so, he noticed that the piss was quickly sinking beneath some cracks in the stone. With some grumbling about the stink, Tasklar bent down and noticed that part of the stone could be pried up. Underneath, Keth found a wet wooden box containing some gems and jewelry and a nightmarish wooden idol. They smashed the idol to bits but took the other treasure.

They then moved on towards the halfling family's farm.

Lumbus Farm
An hour later, they trudged into the halfling farm to find it deserted. Except for a goat that stuck its head out of the barn, bleated, then withdrew. The group went to check out the barn and found a small halfling boy hiding behind some hay bales. They coaxed him out with assurances that they were not going to hurt him. He asked them if the rest of his family was all right, so while Elia stayed with him, the others went to check. The rest of his family was not all right.

Their bodies were quickly buried, and the boy was escorted to another halfling family's farm. Along the way, the boy told them that goblins had burst into the house while everyone was sleeping. He'd climbed out his window and hidden in the barn. He also told them, quite proudly, what he knew about goblins from listening to his uncle's stories. These ones, he said, were quite unusual, in that some had crowns of spikes on their heads and metal armor on their bodies. Some of them were also riding on monsters, like giant frogs and two-headed dogs! One of them, the leader, had a giant centipede mount, and he could shoot fire out of his fingers!

Our protagonists stayed the night at the other family's farm and warned them to seek shelter in the Stop until the all-clear could be given. They agreed to take the boy and leave home in the morning. As the new dawn broke, the adventurers said goodbye to the halflings and retraced their steps. From the Lumbuses' farm, they headed to the Arcrus ranch, where they discovered a fierce battle had taken place, in which some of the goblins had actually been killed. These ones were like normal goblins, with just piecemeal leather armor and no spiky crowns on their heads. They also surmised that only the ranch hands had been slain in the battle. The Arcruses had all been taken prisoner. Digging through the remains of the Arcruses' house, they came across a strong box the goblins had overlooked. Inside was some silver jewelry that had melted in the fire, along with a few gems. They took this along with them as they followed the goblins' tracks south.

Into the Underdark
Another hour's travel south, our protagonists came upon a narrow cleft in the side of a hill. Lighting up the driftglobe so the two humans could see in the dark, they headed in. After a short distance, the entered a large cavern with several rock formations in it. A narrow passage descended into the dark on the far side. At that moment, two heavily armored goblins riding two-headed dogs moved out from behind the pillars and challenged the adventurers. One of them had a "crown" of spikes sticking out of his head, while the other did not.

The two half-orcs attempted to deceive the goblins into thinking that they were delivering two human prisoners at their leader's request, but this ultimately failed when they could not even give the name of the goblins' leader. (It didn't help when the goblin knight pointed out that his tribe didn't even normally have any dealings with orcs anyway.) The fight was on!

The adventurers decided the best strategy would be to unseat the knight and his squire from their mounts. While this proved relatively easy for the latter, whose death dog mount was swiftly slain, forcing the squire to retreat behind a rock pillar, the knight was adept at fighting while mounted and was repeatedly able to force his attackers to attack him instead of his dog. Outnumbered, the knight was soon brought low. Neither he nor his squire were shown any mercy. After the battle, Keth and Tasklar used restorative magics on each other, as the death dogs' mouths had been quite dirty and they were worried about getting sick.

The group noted that both goblins were wearing chain shirts with bits of metal plating bolted on. They also discovered that the knights' spikes had been hammered into his skull! Crazy goblins!

As the adventurers pressed on, Sorrel soon realized that they were heading into the Underdark! At last they came to a T-intersection. They chose to go right and, after a short distance, found another passage branching off their left into a garden of fungus. Hearing voices coming from beyond the garden, they snuck up amongst the mushrooms and discovered that they could all see into the large cavern as it was dimly lit by phosphorescent fungus. In the middle of the cavern was another goblin knight mounted on a giant toad. Three other goblins were rearranging barrels and ropes to create a course for the toad to navigate.

Being one for bold action, Tasklar charged out of cover, and the others were forced to follow. A savage fight ensued, with Sorrel at one point getting swallowed by the toad only to come bursting out in all his gory glory! One of the goblins managed to make it to a side passage, where he started hollering about intruders, before the group slew him from afar.

Fearing retaliation, the group headed to the north end of the cavern, where they had spied a small stable and corral that they hoped to hide in their long enough for a short rest. Unfortunately, the corral contained two large insectoid creatures that busted the fence down as our protagonists approached. They made a beeline for Sorrel in his heavy armor, and the former dwarf quickly realized that they were facing a pair of rust monsters! Luckily, both half-orcs were wielding magic weapons. Keth, too, felt safe in his new fire-resistant breastplate. Elia and Tasklar kept their distance. It was just poor Sorrel who was forced to deal with the rust. His chainmail will need a bit of repair when he gets back to Larchwood.

Much to their relief, after they'd dealt with the rust monsters, the adventurers were able to hide in the stable shed to catch their breath and bandage their wounds. No one came looking for them. The cowardly goblins appeared to be waiting for the adventurers to come to them!

Over the Wall
As our protagonists emerged from their hiding place and proceeded in the direction the fleeing goblin had taken, they found a wide passage descending towards another large cavern haphazardly filled with small shacks. Thirty feet up the left-hand wall of the passage was a ledge on which a crude battlement had been built. From beyond the battlement came a deep red glow. The wall even had convenient handholds. The group decided to climb up and investigate the upper cavern. Fortunately, Tasklar's dragonmark flared up as he approached, and he was able to see that the handholds were a trap! Each of them consisted of a sharp blade cleverly concealed by a layer of rock dust. Best not to climb up that way! Instead, Tasklar turned himself invisible and then scaled the cliff the hard way. Once at the top, he found another sizeable cavern with a chunky blockhouse to the right, an empty stable further along on the left, and two exits to either side at the far end. The blockhouse's windows and door were shrouded by curtains. Several braziers filled with glowing coals were placed around the cavern.

Tasklar tossed a rope down for his mates but decided not to wait for them and made for the blockhouse. Shoving the curtain aside, he found himself looking at a decadently appointed bachelor pad, in which lounged a giant centipede thing (actually a carrion crawler!) and a tall, six-fingered goblin man with a crown of horns and coal-black skin. Sensing danger, the goblin flung rays of fire at the doorway. One of them struck the invisible Tasklar, who became visible once again as he hit the occupants of the room with a shatter spell.

The fiendish goblin laughed and attempted to charm Tasklar, but the bard shook it off and laughed in return. But then the carrion crawler lunged forward, its flailing tentacle striking the bard and freezing him in place. The goblin then leapt up and slashed at him with his scimitar.

The rest of the group reached the top of the wall just in time to see Tasklar fall backward out of the blockhouse doorway, a cheesy grin frozen on his face. Elia rushed forward and dragged Tasklar's body back towards the wall. As she did so, he came back to life [rolled a natural 20 on his first death save and then successfully saved against the paralyzation!] with a gasp, just as the carrion crawler and fiendish goblin came dashing out in hot pursuit.

In the ensuing battle, the goblin managed to charm Elia into defending him. After Sorrel was also paralyzed by the crawler's tentacles, the group focused their fire on it and destroyed it. As its carcass collapsed to the ground, the goblin let out a cry of anguish. He turned on the group in a fury, and they discovered that the had the power to teleport. As Keth summoned up some spiritual falcons to aid him, the goblin teleported up onto the roof of the blockhouse.

Sorrel slapped Elia back to her senses and she turned on the goblin. Sensing that he was losing the battle, the goblin vanished. The group waited a moment, then went into the blockhouse to loot it. They found some treasure, as well as a bottle with some red liquid in it. Keth tossed it to Sorrel, who promptly broke it, spilling the liquid on the ground. ['Twas an elixir of health.] Keth also found a strange green crystal that, when he picked it up, made him feel uneasy. He decided to keep it, though, so he could show it to Calla or Kaylessa later. He thought maybe they might know what it was.

Tactical Withdrawal
At that point, our protagonists decided it was time to leave. As they descended the wall, several goblins started shooting arrows at them from the relative safety of their shanty town. Keth decided to jump down, rather than expose himself to such fire (having already been hurt quite badly -- both physically and in terms of his pride -- by goblin arrows earlier). The group then hightailed it back up the passage to the surface, then hunted around the countryside till they found a defensible copse of trees in which to take another short rest.

With the echoes of Tasklar's restful music still ringing in their ears, our protagonists made ready to descend into the Underdark to face the horde of the goblin lord once again.

To be continued ...

 

[pukunui]

HORDE OF THE GOBLIN LORD (Part 2)
Dramatis Personae: Keth, Sorrel, Tasklar (and Elia)
Source: "DDEX3-10 Quelling the Horde"

Down the Rabbit Hole Again
A few hours later, the adventurers felt rested enough to head back down the miles-long passage into the Underdark. At the T-junction at its end, they found that the narrow tunnels to the left and right had been blocked up by crude wooden barricades. It looked as if the goblins had torn down some of their hovels.

The adventurers split up and assaulted both barricades at once, drawing fire from the goblins hiding behind them. To the left, Elia poured burning oil on the wood and then Keth used his tinderbox to light it on fire. To the right, Tasklar lit up the goblins with faerie fire while Sorrel used brute strength to batter down the barricade. Both of the illuminated goblins died quickly, while the two behind the burning barricade went running off up the tunnel, hollering.

Our protagonists decided to let them go and pressed on down the right-hand tunnel, past the side passage they knew led to the fungal garden in the first main cavern. More than five hundred feet later, they came around to the south side of the cavern in which the goblins had set up their shanty town. Here was another, larger barricade, manned by four goblins. As Tasklar sniped at them with his blasts of eldritch energy, Keth charged the barricade with his shield and actually managed to smash right through it. The goblins on the other side were swiftly cut down.

As they made their way through the maze of hovels towards a large central hall in the middle, no goblins came out to harass them. The hall was shut, but a rope leading into one of the hovels was tied to the doors. They could hear grunting and snorting coming from within, and as they neared the hall, the rope was pulled, yanking open the hall doors and releasing two very angry giant boars! The animals charged the heroes and a fierce melee was joined. A few brave goblins took potshots at the heroes from the relative safety of their hovels at the same time. Ultimately, though, the boars were reduced to little more than large piles of bacon waiting to be cooked.

Rather than go hovel to hovel, our protagonists pressed on to the north, towards a large, ascending tunnel that they surmised led around to the goblin lord's lair from the other direction from the cliff face. However, as they came out into the clear, a pair of goblins herded several suits of animated dwarven plate armor into their way.

Sorrel's dwarven spirit was incensed! How dare they! Such sacrilege! He charged, aiming for the goblins. They were sneaky, though, and were able to interpose the suits of armor between themselves and their would-be attackers. Keth moved into the middle of the melee and summoned his guardian spirits, but he was soon hit hard enough that he lost concentration and began fighting defensively in order to defend his friends and stay alive.

A few of the goblins in the hovels fired arrows at Tasklar, who'd remained behind so he could attack the suits of armor at range. This prompted him to move into melee range, which proved to be a worse mistake, as he was quickly pummelled into the ground by the hammers the suits of armor were wielding. Elia managed to kill the goblins and then rushed to tend Tasklar, while the half-orcs attended to the suits of armor.

As the dust cleared, Keth scooped up Tasklar and the group beat a hasty retreat back through the goblin village and out through the tunnels to the surface again. Somewhere along the way, however, they lost Elia. They decided they couldn't go back and search for her right away, so with heavy hearts they returned to their camp from earlier in the day and took a long and much-needed rest overnight.

The Kiss of Death
In the morning, they descended into the Underdark once more, only to find the caverns deserted! As they explored the place, our protagonists eventually found themselves back at the goblin lord's blockhouse. Inside, they found a different fiend waiting for them! This one looked fairly human, except he had large, leather bat wings. Elia was with him, wearing very little and engaging in a bit of heavy petting with the fiend.

The creature looked gleeful as he informed the adventurers that they were too late! The goblins had cleared out, taking their prisoners with them! He had remained behind to let them know that his friend, Lord Agrak, sent his greetings. The fiend then pulled Elia close and gave her a big, passionate kiss. Her eyes grew wide and her skin went extremely pale and then she collapsed onto the ground, dead.

As Elia's friends began to attack the fiend in their fury, he just shrugged and faded away, his laughter ringing in their ears. Keth rushed over to Elia and prayed fervently to Freya to revive his friend and protégé. He offered up some diamonds in payment, and as they vanished in a swirl of magic, Elia sucked in a deep breath and opened her eyes again! Keth had miraculously restored her to life!

Aftermath
Feeling somewhat deflated by their failure to slay Lord Agrak or rescue his hostages, the Arcrus family (who were most likely now doomed to a life of misery as slaves in the Underdark), our protagonists headed back to the Stop, where they reported back to Glenna the dwarven innkeeper. She was disappointed that they'd been unable to permanently stop the goblins' depredations, but she thanked them for at least driving them out of the area. She was also saddened by the loss of so much innocent life, but still gave them their payment of 500 silver.

In the days that followed, Keth discovered that Elia was not her old self. Just as he and Keluak-cum-Sorrel had experienced, Elia had lost a bit of herself in the process of being brought back from the dead. The most obvious manifestation of this came upon their return to Larchwood, where Elia's secret crush on Gil quickly blossomed into a serious infatuation. She seemed determined to make him hers no matter what the cost.

 

[pukunui]

FEATHERGALE SPIRE
Dramatis Personae: Calla, Gil, Keth, Sorrel
Source: "Feathergale Spire" (Princes of the Apocalypse)


Shallow Graves
A shepherd by the name of Larmon Greenboot, known to frequent Lao Chen's shop in Larchwood, had reported finding some freshly dug graves on a hill east of the town, near where he grazed his sheep. He took the heroes to go check it out. As they began to exhume the bodies, Larmon warned them not to anger the Stranger (the aspect of death worshipped by the Andarians) and cautiously retreated down the hill. In response, Keth mumbled a prayer to the Raven Queen, the Stranger's counterpart from the Old Faith, and continued with the grim work.

What our protagonists found were the bodies of a well-dressed dwarf artisan and his female human bodyguard, plus the body of a human dressed in stony armor that conjured up memories of Larrakh, the stone priest who had been corrupting Larchwood's town elders. Lastly, there was an emaciated man in white robes with a feathery mantle. An examination of the body revealed that the man in stony armor had been slain by arrows, whereas the man in the white robes had been hit with something blunt but hard, as had the dwarf and his guard.

Taking advantage of their vantage point atop the hill, the heroes noticed a tall, thin spire rising up from the hills to the north. They could see what appeared to be some rather large birds (judging from their size from such a distance) circling it. They were curious, as they'd never noticed the tower before, so they set out to see if anyone was living there. If so, perhaps they might have seen something that would provide some clues about the dead on the hill.

After about two hours, they came to the bottom of a wide, gusty canyon through which a small river wound its way south. The tower rose up from a rocky promontory at the far end of the canyon. Deciding that the canyon looked a bit difficult to navigate, our protagonists found a way up onto the western lip and proceeded along the relatively flatter ground. As they made their way along, one of the giant birds swooped towards them, and they could see it was a massive vulture with a human riding on its back! The man gave them a wave as he passed overhead. They waved back, and the man directed his mount back to the tower.


The Feathergale Society
They soon came across a path that led to a point directly opposite the tower's raised drawbridge. A bell on a post stood nearby. When they rang it, a small window to one side of the drawbridge was opened, and a woman leaned out, courteously inquiring as to their business. The heroes replied that they were conducting an investigation of sorts and were hoping that the occupants of the tower might be able to help.

Much to the heroes' delight and relief, their answer proved sufficient, for almost immediately the drawbridge lowered, revealing a set of double doors that opened once the bridge was completely down. Through the doors came the woman they'd just spoken with. She was dressed in a uniform of sorts, consisting of scale armor with blue and grey trimmings. Walking a little way out onto the drawbridge, she introduced herself as Savra Belabranta, a member of the Feathergale Society. As she invited the heroes in, Savra explained that they had good timing, as the society was planning on holding a feast to commemorate its tenth anniversary that very night! The heroes were most welcome to join them.

As the heroes entered the tower, they peppered Savra with questions about her group. She explained that she and her fellows were aerial mount enthusiasts. Mostly nobles from all over who liked to ride flying mounts like vultures and hippogriffs and go hunting in the skies.

While it was obvious from Savra's eloquence and poise that she was of noble blood herself, the same could not be said of the two dour-looking men in drab robes standing guard inside the entry hall. In fact, these two men looked a bit under-nourished, as far as the heroes were concerned. They glowered sullenly at the heroes as they passed beneath a large wooden eagle suspended from the ceiling. Its wings and beak were made from steel. It looked heavy.

Savra ushered the adventurers into a central stairwell and led them up to the tower's pinnacle, where, she explained, they could meet with with the society's leader, Lord Commander Thurl Merosska. As they headed up the stairs, the heroes were vaguely unsettled by some ominous chanting coming through a slightly open door to the north.

The stairs wound up several flights before reaching a rotunda at the top of the tower. The heroes were surprised to find a grassy lawn spreading out around the rotunda, with four white stone paths indicating the points of the compass. Two knights mounted on giant vultures watched the newcomers warily as Savra introduced them to her commander.

An older man in his fifties, with faded blond hair and a muscular build, Lord Merosska had "aristocrat" written all over him. He was also pretty smooth, bowing to Calla and kissing her hand in gentlemanly fashion. He welcomed them to Feathergale Spire and repeated Savra's invitation to join the festivities that evening. When the heroes attempted to broach the subject of the dead bodies on the hill, the commander waved a hand dismissively, telling them they would talk of such matters after the feast. After providing the adventurers with more details about the society and its goals, he directed Savra to give them a tour of the tower.

The top floor consisted of the knights' quarters. Not much to see there. When Keth asked where they worshipped, Savra replied that they held their religious observances on the pinnacle lawn, in the open air, which didn't really come as a surprise to anyone.

The next floor down contained some more living quarters (including some spare rooms where the heroes could rest later on) plus the great hall, complete with hunting trophies and tapestries and a long, curving table laid out for a feast. Two off-duty knights were already at the table, having a few quiet drinks. The outer wall contained several large windows, open to the air outside.

Back down on the ground floor, Savra showed them the kitchen, where several of the society's under-nourished acolytes were huddled around a bubbling cauldron. According to Savra, they were attempting to become one with the steam - an initiation rite that she herself had undertaken. The idea, Savra explained, was to free yourself from worldly concerns and attachment to physical things.

Moving on, Savra showed them the solarium next door, where two more acolytes tended to a large variety of plants, while a blue-skinned woman meditated while standing on one leg in the middle of the room. As the group entered, the woman opened her eyes and greeted the heroes warmly. Savra introduced her as Whisper, a member of the rare genasi race.

Whisper asked if any one of them would be interested in sparring with her. She was keen to fight someone better matched than the acolytes. Sorrel stepped forward with a grin. The two bowed low then began trading blows. Whisper revealed that she could push and punch without ever touching her opponent, but Sorrel proved hard to move. He gave as good as he got, but he eventually yielded first in order to save his dignity, asking that perhaps they could resume the bout another time. Whisper thanked him for his time and congratulated him on holding his own so well.

Savra then took them down to the bottom floor, which consisted of a circular store room surrounded by open-air stables, some of which housed more giant vultures, as well as a few hippogriffs. The tour seemingly over, Gil took Savra aside and asked her to take him for a ride on her hippogriff. Blushing, she told the others that they could go back up to the great hall and relax, then started getting her mount ready. Gil paid close attention to how the saddle and all the fiddly bits worked.

While the two lovebirds went soaring out into the canyon, the others climbed back up to the great hall. Sorrel retired to one of the spare rooms to rest his aching back, while Keth went to have a drink (or two or three) with the off-duty knights. Calla hovered nearby, keeping an eye on the half-orc in case he did anything stupid. Keth ended up playing them a song on his lute, a song that turned out to be about Calla. That prompted one of the knights to ask if she was his girlfriend. As Keth spluttered out a no, the knight turned to Calla: "You better watch out, lady. He's fallen for you. Hard." Everyone had a bit of a laugh at poor Keth's expense.


Feast, Interrupted
As the sun began to set, the knights of the Feathergale Society gathered in the great hall, clad in their finest garments. The heroes were invited to sit near Lord Merosska, who asked them to share some tales of their adventures. They spoke about the work they'd done in and around Larchwood, about the half-ogres they'd fought in the badlands to the north, and so on. The knights seemed suitably impressed.

As the meal progressed, Keth decided to broach the subject of the dead men on the hill again. Merosska's face darkened, and he began telling his guests about the knights' sworn enemies: cultists who worshipped Ogrémoch, the evil Prince of Elemental Earth. It was clear from the vehemence with which he belittled them that the lord commander despised the members of the Cult of the Black Earth, as he called it. When the heroes told him about Larrakh, the commander confirmed in no uncertain terms that he sounded just like one of the cult's priests.

Later, the heroes noticed one of the society's acolytes approach Merosska and whisper in his ear, glancing at them as he did so. Much to their surprise, they were sure they recognized the man. Although he had shaved his head and was unhealthily thin, he looked very much like Rotharr Hatherhand, one of Larchwood's disgraced elders. The one who'd run out on his family after the Believers scandal had blown up in everyone's faces. The one who'd thought crushing his son under some heavy stones for several days was a good way to punish him for failing to deliver a message. What on Erathis was he doing here?!

Before our protagonists had a chance to find out, however, one of the knights still on watch burst into the room, shouting something about a manticore. Rotharr scuttled away into a corner as Merosska leapt to his feet. Yanking a ring off his finger, the lord commander offered it as a reward to whoever brought him the manticore's head. He then invited his guests to join in the hunt, if they so wished. When they all said yes, Merosska approached Calla and asked her to accompany him on his personal mount.

As the adventurers emerged onto the pinnacle, they were taken aback by the change in the atmosphere after dark. The wind had died down to a gentle breeze, and the canyon had filled with fog. A half-moon shone amidst the twinkling stars in the night sky.

Suddenly, a dark shape went flitting through the fog down below. Several of the knights, already mounted on their giant vultures, swooped after it. Gil rode with Savra on her hippogriff again, while Sorrel and Keth climbed onto hippogriffs flown by the two knights Keth had entertained with his music earlier in the day. As for Calla, she was not at all surprised when Merosska's personal mount turned out to be a snow-white griffon. Despite the warnings from her dreams, she hopped up behind Merosska and they were off.

After a few minutes of flying blindly through the dark, foggy canyon, a horn sounded from nearby. The manticore had been found! As the adventurers and their escorts approached, one knight was already in retreat, having been struck by some of the manticore's wickedly sharp tail spikes. As the hunt progressed, Calla let loose with not one but two mighty fireballs, scorching the creature badly enough that Gil was able to finish it off with a well-placed arrow.

Back at the tower, the knights cheered Gil (and Calla) for their excellent work. Gil received his ring. And everyone went back to partying. Some time later, after quite a bit of drinking and flirting, Gil found himself being led away by Savra for a bit of hanky-panky in her quarters. They were still going at it when the others began thinking about turning in for the night.


Ritual Sacrifice
In the middle of the night, the society's acolytes came to wake up the adventurers and invite them to come up to the pinnacle for worship in the open air. Calla growled at them not to disturb her sleep and rolled over, while the two half-orcs began gathering their weapons. The acolytes convinced them that they wouldn't be needing weapons and shields - and, furthermore, such things were not welcome at the service. They spouted some strange lines about emptying oneself into the void and becoming one with the wind and so on. Keth and Sorrel couldn't make heads or tails of it. After the two half-orcs had headed up the stairs, the remaining acolytes waited for a few moments before binding Calla's hands and feet while she slept. Gil, meanwhile, was still with Savra in her boudoir, completely oblivious to what was about to go down elsewhere in the tower (or who, for that matter). Little did they know it, but our protagonists had been expertly divided and conquered.

When Keth and Sorrel reached the pinnacle, a man dressed in white robes with a black feather mantle was addressing the assembled knights and acolytes on the lawn in a language they couldn't understand. They couldn't see his face, as it was hidden behind a black, bird-like mask, but they could tell he looked just as emaciated as the dead man they'd uncovered on the hill, and he was wearing the same outfit. Just as the two were beginning to feel like something wasn't right, the acolytes carrying Calla arrived at the top of the stairs!

Up to this point, Calla had not struggled with her captors, but when she took one look at the assembly on the pinnacle, she muttered a word of magic and teleported out of her bonds. As she did so, the Feathergales bounded into action. As the feathered priest began shouting about how the adventurers were to be sacrificed to someone named Yan-C-Bein, several of the acolytes and knights grabbed at Sorrel and Keth. The cleric responded by summoning his guardian falcon spirits, which flew around him in, slaying many of the acolytes in one go. Calla used her pearl of power to regain enough magical energy to cast another fireball, which wiped out a good number of the knights.

The strange emaciated priest conjured up gusts of wind and magical dust devils in an attempt to push Sorrel off the edge of the tower, but the warrior proved yet again to be nearly unmoveable. He slowly but inexorably fought his way back towards the central stairwell.

Merosska drew his greatsword and advanced on Calla, cutting her down with several powerful cuts. He then dragged her body over to the edge and tossed it off the side.

Meanwhile, one of the remaining knights swooped in on his giant vulture, which grabbed Keth in its mighty talons and flew off into the night with him. The half-orc managed to maintain his guardian spirits, which eventually slew the vulture, causing both Keth and the knight to plummet into the fog. The knight used air magic to slow his descent, but Keth plummeted the full five hundred feet in a matter of seconds and hit the rocks in the canyon with a sickening crunch.

Keth's death was not entirely in vain, however: Gil had heard his friend's scream and had looked out Savra's window in time to see the half-orc fall past. This alerted him to the danger, and he began gathering his things. Someone knocked on Savra's door, shouting that she was missing the fun. Realizing it would take too long to don his armor, Gil just grabbed his gear and fished around in his pack for the magic apple he'd been saving since forever. Biting into it, he turned his naked self invisible.

As Savra headed out the door, Gil climbed out the window and swung a grappling hook up to the roof to help him climb. He made it to the top in time to see Merosska throwing Calla's body over the edge and Sorrel make a leap past the bird priest and into the stairwell. Gil cottoned on to the society's true nature - a cult devoted to elemental air rather than earth - he decided not to hang around. Hastily climbing back down to Savra's room, Gil grabbed the rest of his stuff and then made his way down to the stable level.

Sorrel, meanwhile, ran as fast as he could down the central stairwell as the surviving knights chased after him. He spotted Whisper coming up and barrelled past her. She tried to stop him, but he was not to be deterred. Even though she was faster than him, the half-orc was determined to get away. He made it all the way down to the entry hall, where he muscled his way past the two acolytes on guard duty. Much to his relief, the drawbridge was down! Not stopping to wonder why, he charged out onto it. Whisper dashed out behind him and tried to use her magic air powers to push him off the side but to no avail. Unfortunately, Sorrel could only withstand so much punishment. As he ran out onto the misty plateau, Whisper chased him down and beat him into submission with her fists and feet.


The Survivors
After a few false tries, Gil managed to find Savra's hippogriff in the stables. It recognized her scent on him and was willing to listen when he used his dragonmark to speak with it (unlike the first two hippogriffs, who had refused to listen to him since he wasn't their master). He managed to convince it that Savra was in trouble and needed help. Then, remembering what Savra had done with the saddle and all the fiddly beats, he got the hippogriff ready and escaped out the stable door just as some of the knights were coming down the stairs to get their own mounts. Gil directed the hippogriff down into the fog, successfully evading the knights' notice.

He spent upwards of fifteen minutes scouring the canyon for any sign of Keth, all the while evading the knights' notice. Much to his relief, he managed to locate his friend's broken body at the base of the tower. He managed to convince the hippogriff to scoop Keth's body up in its claws, but had a hard time convincing it that the body wasn't food. By the time they reached the outskirts of Larchwood, there wasn't a whole lot left of Keth.

Calla, meanwhile, had miraculously survived her fall [thanks to a natural 20 on a death save]. Her body was badly broken, though, and when she tried to move an arm to reach a healing potion she had in her pack, she blacked out. When she eventually came to again, she found she could move. Fearing that the knights would soon be hunting for her, she managed to get her scroll case in hand and pulled out her scroll of dimension door. The spell was not one she was able to cast normally, but she gave it her best shot. Nothing happened. She watched in misery as the words faded. Resigned to her fate, she lay back on the stones, waiting to die. Some hours later, however, the spell kicked in [scroll mishap!] and she suddenly found herself up at the top of the cliff near the entrance to the tower. It was still dark out, and none of the knights seemed to be around. She was able to get a healing potion out of her bag and drink it, which healed her body enough that she could limp away.

Many hours later, Calla hobbled into Larchwood, broken but alive. Somehow she'd managed to find her way back in the dark. After a good rest and some mothering from Kaylessa, Calla sought out Gil. The two survivors mourned Sorrel's loss as they bundled up Keth's remains and headed off to see Iriandel and his elf druids. The party had amassed enough wealth to pay for the costly reagents needed in the druids' reincarnation rituals. As the magic did its work, Keth returned to the land of the living in a brand new body. Standing up, he was shocked to find that Gil was no longer the shortest member of the group! Keth had been reincarnated as a halfling!

To be continued ...




DM Notes: My players have sworn to get revenge, so we'll be returning to Feathergale Spire next session. Even though I left Sorrel's fate undecided, his player wanted to make a new PC. It looks like he'll be bringing in an elf paladin of some kind. Still waiting for details.

 

[pukunui]

THE SOWING OF DEATH
Dramatis Personae: Bhára, Berrian, Gil, Saul, Tasklar
Source: "Feathergale Spire" (Princes of the Apocalypse)

Interlude
Iriandel could tell that Keth was struggling to come to terms with the idea that he was now a halfling, so the unicorn suggested to him that he go and spend some time with the halflings community in nearby Pebbleton. Keth, now calling himself Saul, reluctantly agreed, although before he left, he sought out Hroom and had another pint or two of his special brew, thus increasing his height ever so slightly above three feet!

In Pebbleton, Saul let only Mayor Roscoe in on his secret. To everyone else, he was just a halfling from other parts. Gil and Tasklar came to stay with him and help him adjust as best they could. Saul spent much of his time drinking, mulling over his anger and growing desire for revenge. He would make those snooty cultists pay!

After a few days, Tashek the talking owl came to visit. He informed the heroes that Iriandel wished for them to return to his grove, as he had some guests he wanted them to meet. Off they went back into the woods, where they were introduced to two rather androgynous high elves. One was wearing heavy armor and carried a rapier, while the other was dressed in the robes of a magic user. Iriandel introduced them as Berrian and Bhára of House Amastacia (or Starflower, in the Common tongue). Both of them came across as rather effete, and the more down-to-earth heroes had a hard time determining the elves' respective genders.

Although Berrian was ostensibly on a quest to find his family's long-lost ancestral moonblade, he was aware that he may never find it. In the meantime, he was in no hurry to go home and so would be happy to lend his sword arm to whatever endeavors Saul, Gil, and Tasklar had planned. And wherever Berrian went, his younger sister was sure to follow. Knowing what awaited them back at the cultists' tower, the heroes were glad to have the extra help.


The Hunters and the Hunted
Tasklar, always keen to charge boldly into the fray, wanted to head straight to the spire. The group decided to swing back through Pebbleton first, though, and it was a good thing they did, for reports were coming in that a land shark was terrorizing the farms on the outskirts of town. Mayor Roscoe explained that land sharks, also known as bulettes, loved eating halflings. The heroes needed no further motivation. Off they went in search of the beast. It didn't take them long to find it. One farm with lots of disturbed earth and blood and before they knew it, the beast was burrowing up out of the ground and leaping at them! It soon had Saul in its jaws, and things looked dire for the cleric. Would he need to be reincarnated again already?! But no, his companions came to his rescue and slew the beast before it could make a proper meal of him.

A few days later, as the heroes were marching down the road towards Larchwood, they were set upon by a wyvern. As it made its first pass, it bit and stung Tasklar, who lost consciousness as the beast's venom raced through his veins and collapsed on the ground. Seeing what they were up against -- and seeing how useless her brother's sword was since the wyvern never got close enough for him to use it -- Bhára took charge of the fight, blasting the creature from afar with bolts of lightning and rays of frost.

The wyvern screamed in pain and made a strange cry, as if calling someone or something. Berrian roused Tasklar, flushing the poison out of his system, and then used his magic to protect himself against the beast's venom. Just then, Gil came running back, having realized that the rest of the group weren't still following him. He took aim at the wounded wyvern, only to see another wyvern flying in from the other direction.

While the group were able to chase off the first wyvern, the second swooped in and slew Berrian's beloved horse. It then grabbed the corpse and made off with it before the heroes could slay the beast. Saddened by this tragic turn of events but determined not to get distracted, the heroes opted to let the wyverns go and continue on their way to Larchwood.


A Nasty Surprise
Upon their return to Larchwood, the heroes went up to their rooms to find out if Calla was around. They found nothing but some scales and some blood in her room, and if Kaylessa knew where the sorceress was, she wasn't telling. She was able to recognize Keth in his new body, however. Perhaps she could sense the presence of his dragonmark, which had manifested on the back of his new hand, just like Sorrel's had.

Up in the boys' room, the heroes were surprised to find a small wooden crate waiting for them on the table. Tasklar went to open it and had a frightful premonition* in which he opened the box to find Sorrel's head staring back at him. His friend's mouth then opened and spewed forth a noxious yellow gas that rapidly filled the room and expanded out into the hall. His friends were all dying, gasping for air as the gas burned their lungs as well as their skin. But vision disappeared just as quickly as it had come, and he found himself staring at his hand, which he'd managed to stop only inches away from the crate's lid. His dragonmark of findingflared up, enabling him to see a nearly invisible glyph inscribed on the crate. Had he opened it without noticing, it would've triggered some kind of spell effect. Instead, he and the others took the crate down to Kaylessa, who dispelled the glyph with little trouble.

Inside the heroes found Sorrel's head, just as Tasklar had suspected, but this time nothing happened. Still, there was no denying what this meant. Their friend was dead. And they all knew who had killed him. (And who had tried to use his remains to kill them in a most underhanded manner!) Although the Starflower siblings did not know Sorrel personally, they were able to see the injustice of it and vowed to assist their new friends in seeking justice.

The heroes retired to their rooms for some much-needed rest. In the morning, Saul sought out Kaylessa and pumped her for information on the elemental princes. She informed him that there were good ones and bad ones. Yan-C-Bin was one of the bad ones, a mercurial demigod-like creature known as an archomental. Saul wanted to know if the half-elf had any magic she could lend them that would help in their fight, but she just shook her head. He wasn't sure if that meant that she didn't have anything, or that she didn't have anything she was willing to part with. Troubled, he headed back to his friends and they got ready to head into the hills northeast of town.


Return to the Spire
As they headed into the hills, the heroes concocted a plan: Gil -- as the only member of the party the knights would recognize -- would use his magic to disguise himself as the elves' herald, while Tasklar and Saul would pose as their servants. The elves would then seek entry to the spire as nobles searching for a lost relative.

As it happened, the plan worked swimmingly! Drelin, one of the knights with whom Saul had done a bit of drinking the last time he was here, was on guard duty. He welcomed the party into the entry hall but let them go no further. As Berrian prattled on about looking for a lost relative and wondering if the knights had seem him in the area, Tasklar gave in to his impatience. He couldn't take it any longer! Out came the wand of magic missiles and three magical darts went arcing towards a very surprised Drelin!

The ruse was up. As Drelin shouted at the cult initiates lurking by the inner doors to raise the alarm, Gil had the foresight to slip behind the party and close the main gates. One of the initiates pulled a lever on the wall that released the giant steel-capped wooden eagle hanging from the ceiling. It swooped down into the hall, and had Gil not shut the doors, the party would've found themselves being swept out onto the drawbridge (or, worse yet, knocked into the canyon below).

Drelin died shortly thereafter, but the initiates managed to get away, shouting that intruders had breached the entry. The party opted not to chase after them immediately and instead took a more thorough approaching, sweeping each floor room by room. Gil found a cultist lurking in the kitchen, and Tasklar found some more in the solarium, along with the blue-skinned genasi monk, who gave them one hell of a fight before leaping out an open window and disappearing.

The heroes then headed upstairs, where they slew a cultist on the landing, then smashed through the barricaded doors to the great hall, where they were set upon by a number of initiates and knights waiting in ambush. Much magic was hurled into the chamber, and only two knights escaped with their lives, leaping out the windows and using their magic to float safely down to the stables level.

The heroes then had the idea of closing and barring the shutters on all the windows in the tower so the knights would have trouble flanking them. They took some time to close all the shutters on this hall, and as they were busy doing so, they heard someone raising the drawbridge on the floor below them. Once they were finished, they hurried down to the stables level, thinking they could close up the stable doors as well.

They weren't terribly surprised to find the stables empty -- the knights had all flown the coop, taking their vultures and hippogriffs with them -- but they were dismayed to find that the stables could not easily be blocked up entirely. Abandoning that plan, they headed back up to the ground floor, where they were attacked by knights circling the tower on their flying mounts as they set about barricading all the windows.

The task complete, the heroes then ascended to the highest floor, where they set about shutting all the windows in the knights' quarters. Every once in a while, someone took a pot shot at them from the top of the stairs. Not daring to head up onto the dreaded pinnacle, the heroes decided to shut themselves up in Lord Commander Merosska's suite to catch their breath (with Gil standing guard via his bat familiar, which he'd posted in one of the other rooms). They also took the opportunity to ransack the man's room, finding a potion and a few scrolls in the process, as well as written evidence that the Feathergale Society was mixed up with a larger cult devoted to Yan-C-Bin.

To be concluded on Thursday ...




*I had arranged it so the crate carrying Sorrel's head was booby-trapped with a glyph of warding with a cloudkill spell on it. But I had misread the spell description for cloudkill and though it was supposed to expand in size by 10 feet per round rather than just move away by that amount, and I also mishandled who was doing what when and several PCs looked to be dead when they shouldn't have been. I had given Tasklar inspiration for just bowling on up and opening the box without checking it for traps or anything, so when I realized my error, we decided that he could just use his inspiration to say that it had just been a horrible premonition of Tasklar's as he'd gone to open the box. As I have expanded the uses of inspiration in my game to include some minor plot editing, I agreed and we rewound the clock back to just before he opened the crate. I then gave Tasklar a chance to spot the glyph, which he did, thanks to his dragonmark of finding (which gives him the benefit of eyes of minute seeing).

 

[pukunui]

THE SOWING OF DEATH CONTINUES
Dramatis Personae: Berrian, Saul, Tasklar (and Elia)
Source: "Feathergale Spire" (Princes of the Apocalypse)


A Few Surprises
As our protagonists set about discussing what to do next, the priest shouted down at them that he would give them 5 minutes to surrender or else they would regret it. "I reckon we don't need much more than one minute," Saul quipped to his companions.

But then, all of a sudden, Gil disappeared in a puff of black smoke, only to be replaced by a rather bewildered-looking Elia! She looked around at all the strange faces, then settled on Tasklar. "Where's Gil?" she said.

"He was right there ..." the bard replied, indicating the spot where Elia was standing. "You seem to have magicked him away."

"Dammit! It was supposed to take me to Gil, not make me swap places with him!" Elia replied cryptically. She took a moment to compose herself. "Who are your friends, Tasklar? And where are we?"

After a brief round of introductory conversation, Elia got the feeling that she knew Saul somehow, but he wouldn't admit to being Keth reincarnated. Tasklar also explained to Elia the current situation, and she agreed to help them out. As the group got back to planning the next phase of their attack, Bhára collapsed in a heap on the ground. No one had any idea why, and nothing could shake her out of her coma. Berrian decided to hide her body under the lord commander's bed. He promised his sister he'd come back for her.

Hoping that would be the last of the surprises for now, the group resolved to tie a rope to the door handle, unbar it, then yank the door open in hopes that any spells or attacks the enemy had ready would be wasted. Then Berrian would charge out into the hall with his shield at the ready to protect the others.

Unfortunately, before they could enact this plan, a wispy form came down the chimney and whirled out into the form of an air elemental! It immediately attacked, attempting to pound the heroes with blasts of air and toss them about the room, but they proved to be too tough for it. Standing their ground, they slashed, poked, and magicked it away into nothing. During the fight, Saul was rather taken aback to see Elia using magic as well as she caused hellish flames to sear away some of the elemental's substance. Where on Erathis had she learned to do that?!


The Plan of Attack
With the elemental dealt with, our heroes proceeded with their plan and yanked the door open from across the room. Nothing happened. Berrian advanced into the hall. Nothing. He checked the other rooms. Still nothing. As the others emerged from the lord commander's room, the elven paladin gestured up the stairs. Tasklar turned Elia invisible and she snuck up to the pinnacle so quietly that no one could even tell that she'd gone. When she returned, she reported that a guy in white robes with a bird-like mask was standing at the ready on one side of the grassy lawn, while a bird-man was waiting on the other side. Several knights riding giant vultures were circling the tower. And it looked like a storm was brewing out there, too.

Nevertheless, they charged up the stairs, taking the fight to the enemy. Tasklar went up first and lost another eye to a readied magical strike from the bird-man. Ignoring his attacker, however, Tasklar turned to the air priest and unloaded fireballs on him. Unfortunately, the priest turned out to be quick enough to avoid the brunt of the blasts. Berrian ran out to engage him in melee, only to have the priest call down a bolt of lightning on him. The priest then flew up onto the roof of the pagoda, out of the range of Berrian's blade.

Meanwhile, Elia was firing shots at the bird-man, who was blasting the group with spells. At one point, he swooped down and, as they were all nicely lined up inside the pagoda, sent a lightning bolt surging through them. At the same time, the knights on their vultures were flying past, taking potshots at the heroes with rays of frost.

Without Bhára's spellpower, this proved to be too much for our heroes. They opted to retreat down to the armory by the entry hall. Grabbing bedding from the knights' rooms (as well as the still unconscious Bhára) on the way down, they heaped it up in the stairwell on the ground floor and lit it on fire, then closed the doors to the entry hall and, at Elia's suggestion, started cutting down the eagle-shaped battering ram with the intention of using it to barricade the inner doors.

Before they could, however, the doors burst open, revealing Whisper, the air genasi monk, and two initiates with crossbows. "Did you really think you could get away?" asked Whisper.

Tasklar attempted to parlay with her, but she was having none of it. She was dedicated to helping bring about the world's destruction so that people could leave unfettered by physical things. She hit Tasklar with a fist of compressed air, blasting him back into the front doors and knocking him unconscious. The others moved in to retaliate, with Saul moving close enough that his guardian falcon spirits could do their work. The initiates died quickly. Whisper didn't last much longer. The heroes rejoiced when the "blue bitch" collapsed onto the ground.


A Few More Surprises
While attempting to rest in the armory, our progatonists were surprised by another cloudy form slipping through the cracks. Only this one didn't turn out to be an air elemental. It was Azoth the air priest himself! And in each hand he held a leather bag. "You must let go your earthly tether! Enter the void! Enter and become wind!" he shouted, as he shoved one bag into the other. Immediately reality was torn asunder and the heroes found themselves being sucked into a silvery void. The priest was also sucked through, and then the rift closed. They were trapped!

The priest continued to cackle maniacally until the heroes silenced him. They then tied each other together with rope so they wouldn't get separated. Looking around, they found themselves surrounded by an endless silver sky filled with distant clouds. Here and there were strange roiling shapes of color. None of them had any idea where they were.

Suddenly the sky in one area started to rapidly darken, and the heroes found themselves being buffeted by a psychic wind composed of lost dreams and memories. All but Saul were able to resist the psychic storm; the halfling, however, was stunned by the overwhelming psychic surge. Saul was also dragged into a swirling pool of flaming red. Still attached to him by the rope, the others decided to follow.

They found themselves standing on a massive iron cube, cracked and pitted and rusty, floating in an airy void. It was cold here, unlike in the last place. They could see other cubes of varying sizes floating all around. As they watched, two cubes collided with a loud clang. They could also hear the sound of a massive battle taking place somewhere nearby. Wandering over to take a look, they found two massive armies of orc and goblin spirits attempting to slaughter each other. Not wanting to disturb them, they retreated to the edge of the cube and had a look over the side. They just found more of the same.

Where the hell were they?!



To be continued ...


EDIT: Just a note to say that next time we play will be on April 1st. In commemoration of April Fools' Day, we will be taking a break from our regularly scheduled program to play through "Death House" with some pregens that I recently whipped up.