The cast of heroes
Arken (Half-Elf Cleric) – leader of the party
Bardan (Human Fighter) – the muscleKnil (Elf Ranger) – the tracker
Korum Proudfoot (Halfling Thief) – the scout
Rioja Hyrule (Human Mage) – the wizard (not present)
Kima (Black Domestic Cat) – his familiar (not present)
Davon (Human Paladin) - the Warrior of Din
An Expected Visitor (day 37)
The adventurers spent the night relaxing in the safe
surroundings of the tower. Each party member had time to think on the last few
weeks and work out what they wanted to do. Korum and Bardan lusted after gold,
food and drink but the other members of the party had more honourable
intentions.
prose supplied by Craig (DM) and Russell (Rioja)
Hugging his long flowing cloak around himself to ward off
the driving wind, Laerus strode purposefully through the Dead
Forest
As he neared the tower, a voice boomed out: 'Who goes
there?' Laerus allowed a smile to play out across his lips.
Striding confidently across the open space between the forest's
edge and the door, one gnarled hand crept out from the sleeve of his robe. The
fingers twitched, and a breath of air escaped Laerus's lips. The voice sounded
no more. The hand grasped the door handle, and he walked into the interior of
the tower. “Anyone home?” he called.
From his vantage point atop the tower (that he was fast
becoming to think of as his tower), Rioja had been watching the old
wizard approach. As he neared, Rioja descended the stairs to welcome him.
Half way down Rioja heard the booming voice of the door 'Who
goes there?'
'Arses,' he thought, 'I'd forgotten about that damned door'.
He sped his descent, managing to avoid tripping over his
familiar, the jet-black cat Kima, who had taken to sleeping on the stairs. When
he got to the ground floor he found the old wizard had already let himself
in.
'Anyone home?' enquired the old wizard.
'Greetings Wizard Laerus, I'm sorry nobody was here to let
you in and welcome you properly. 'I am Rioja of house Hyrule, but I'm sure you
remember that. You must be tired after your journey, please come through and
have some supper.'
Over supper Rioja explained his situation to
Laerus. 'My training at the academy has served me well until now. I've
become quite adept with Magic Missiles, and low-level utility spells like
Spider Climb, but I feel like I've plateaud, not advancing as much as I
should.'
Rioja produces his spell book and continues, 'It
doesn't help that I'm lacking in higher level spells. Look, only two spells for
levels two and three, and I've never actually had cause to use any of them.
'We are on an epic quest, the sort we studied in history
classes at the academy! I look around at the rest of the party and see them
growing into heroes worthy of those old stories, and I want to play my part
too; more than just throwing a few Magic Missiles and then hiding while they
finish the battles.
'Can you help me? Help me become more than I currently am,
to be the hero the party and our quest deserve?'
Laerus smiled. He had heard this tale many times; rookie
Sorcerers looking to get more powerful quickly. Many had approached him, and he
had turned them all away. The power would be too much for them, and it would
destroy them, but there was something different about this Mage. He sensed huge
potential, and Laerus was not about to stifle something that magnificent.
'I will help you Rioja, I will help you fill your spell
book. I will teach you 3 spells of each level from 1st to 4th. I know a great
many spells...what would you like to learn?'
The delight on Rioja's face was clear as he said 'Teaching
me three spells of each level is very generous! I promise to you that I shall
use them to serve my quest and party in a manner fitting with the heroic
stories of old!
'I must consult my notes regarding spells that might help
our quest, and I must inform my fellow party members that I will be studying
with you for a period, and that they must go on without me for the nonce.
'But first let me show you to your room for the night, and
then in the morning we can journey back to your study to commence the
tutorial.'
Rioja showed the old wizard to the room he had prepared for
him, then went to inform the party of his plans, entrusting the information to
Arken as the rest of the party was somewhat the worse for drink.
Returning to his study he consulted his notes, and re-read various
tomes describing the common spells, and even checked recent issues of Wizard's
World for inspiration.
The next morning over breakfast he talked with the old
wizard about the spells he was interested in. He enquired if he might take more
level three spells over level four spells, as they may be of more use in the
coming weeks of this quest, and showed him the list he had come up with:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Level One
- Sleep
- Strength
- Unseen Servant
|
Level Two
- ESP
- Invisibility
- Web
|
Level Three
- Clairaudience
- Clairvoyance
- Fireball
- Fly
|
Level Four
- Dimension Door
- Polymorph Self
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He shifted with unease, and asked 'What do you think of my choices? Are you able to teach me those? And, if I fail to learn any spells... will you be willing to teach me other spells in their place?'
Laerus perused the list of spells again...
'Hmmm, interesting choices. Although... to my knowledge, Strength is a 2nd level spell.'
He shifted in his chair, and once again looked at Rioja.
Laerus smiled. 'I am, though, still prepared to teach you
all the requested spells. And as for failing to learn any... we will be
conducting studies in a most comfortable environment'
end prose
The studies go about as expected, Rioja only failing to
learn the ESP and Fly spells. Without the Fly spell Rioja opts for the next
best thing, the lower-level Levitate. For the final one, he is interested in
the spell Material; a spell not familiar to him that the old wizard had in a tome
named Unearthed Arcana.
An Unexpected Visitor (day 38 – morning)
The rest of the party had known of the arrival of the
mayor’s vizier and that Rioja would be called off in search of greater
knowledge, so they prepared other ways in which to indulge themselves. As
mentioned previously, Korum and Bardan were fast becoming good drinking buddies
as they both had the same lust for the good things in life. However, during the
wizard’s visit and subsequent departure, Arken and Knil busied themselves the
best they could in preparation for the rest of their quest. Arken had shut
himself up in his room and was not seen for the duration of the last day or so,
and Knil was seen pining for woodlands.
After Rioja and Laerus had left to further their studies at Laerus’ quarters back in the town, the rest of the party continued on with the tasks they were already performing. After an hour or so, the Magic Mouth at the door boomed out its customary “Who goes there?” Korum immediately wondered why the wizards would have returned so early; perhaps they had had a difference of opinion and had stormed off sulkily in opposite directions? These wizards could be such funny people; always uptight and never enjoying the finer things in life. He poked his head out of his upper storey window in readiness for pouring the previous nights’ soil bucket onto the unsuspecting Rioja but held back when he espied a very large human in full plate armour carrying a huge sword and equally enormous shield. He shouted down to this fellow, enquiring after who he was and what he wanted. After finding out that the newcomer, Davon, was after Arken and not him, Korum sped down the stairs and welcomed him to his humble abode.
Korum mentioned that Arken was otherwise indisposed at that current moment and could he get him anything? Davon was happy just to wait. In the meantime, Bardan had been roused from his stupor by the Magic Mouth and appeared at the top of the staircase. He questioned Davon as to his motives and began to sharpen his axe menacingly. Davon smiled, responded that he was expected and why hadn’t Arken mentioned this, and flung a very fine quality whet stone to Bardan mentioning that it would put a keener edge on his blade than the one he was already using.
Arken made his appearance, greeted Davon warmly, and introduced him to the party; he had spent the last day or so requesting aid from the great god Din and was told that Davon would arrive that day. The rest of the story then tumbled from Arken’s lips: A powerful being had taken a sacred artefact from Din, which may possibly be the third item the party were looking for. This being was most likely hiding away in the Shadow Marches; a huge swamp way out west. The party were most happy to continue their quest but worried about the length of time it would take to get there. Davon mentioned that Din would transport them there directly, and then Rioja when he had completed his studies.
Knil had also been busy during the last day or two. He had
espied a tree from the uppermost window of the tower and knew it to be the
right one. He left the tower early that morning and approached, with due
reverence, the only tree in the Dead Forest
Arken and Davon removed themselves to Arken’s room to pray
to Din and ask for her guidance in the coming quest, whilst the rest of the
party readied the cart and horses.
A few hours later saw the cart fully laden and ready for travel and the party made to mount up. A hazy arch appeared over the main path, into which Korum drove the cart with all its equipment and his fellow adventurers.
The Shadow Marches (day 38 – late afternoon)
The wagon shimmered as it passed through the magical gateway
and the party found themselves in a land of mist and fog. The path they were on
was a track between two very steep cliff sides and only led in one direction;
behind them was now just a dead end. Going forward they noticed an ever
increasing stench of death.
After about two hours travel a ghostly figures appeared
before them. It moaned at them but they could not understand what it was trying
to communicate. Bardan shouted at it at the top of his lungs and the apparition
glided away. The gorge led further onwards and at last made a sharp right turn
before opening into a huge valley, all sides surrounded by sheer cliffs and
wreathed in mists. The floor was an endless bog. The wagon would not be able to
traverse the terrain, so the adventurers unloaded their equipment onto the
horses and used them as pack animals instead. Not sure how to continue, Arken
decided it might be best if they quarter the area in a logical way so that they
don’t miss anything. They could see the far cliffs about 3 days’ journey away
(taking into account the heavy going), but the floor of the valley was in mist
with only a short range of visibility. They decided to head off to the left in
search of clues.
Just before darkness was about to fall, the party came
across a large rectangular structure; a crypt with a wooden door for an
entrance. Korum was able to ascertain that there were no traps on the door but
could not open the lock. Bardan, realising that the metal and wood that made up
the door was very old, grabbed the lock and physically pulled it from the door.
They were greeted with a sonorous voice “Who dares enter my resting place?
Leave or die!” Although nervous, the party refused to leave the crypt and were
greeted with a gust of wind. The ghostly voice repeated its threat but unbowed
Arken requested if it knew of a powerful undead threat that was within the
valley. The ghostly voice gave the party directions to a place that may harbour
just such a being but requested again that they leave. Bardan, now sick of all
this talk, rushed to the coffin inside and pushed it open. He grabbed the skull
of the incumbent and threw it out of the crypt. The ghostly voices stopped. He
then searched the rest of the coffin and found a large pile of gold for the
party to share. The impending night fall forced the party to make their usual
nightly preparations within the confines of the crypt. There were no more
ghostly voices and no sign of the Darkness.
The Dead Marshes (day 39)
The band of adventurers set off across to the other side of
the valley the following morning, covering as much ground as they could. There were
more of the harmless ghostly apparitions but no sign of anything else of
interest until late afternoon. Another crypt emerged from the roiling mists.
Korum began his usual checking of the door for traps, but before he is finished
Bardan stormed past and kicked the left hand door open. He promptly
disappeared. Shocked, the party wonder what to do next, but are reassured when
he casually walked past them from behind and had another go at the doors with
the same effect. Korum, his interest piqued, pushed at the right hand door and
found he too was teleported twenty metres behind the party.
Both doors now opened, Arken approached the entrance but was
stopped by the appearance of a shambling cadaver. He asked it if it knew where
a powerful undead being may be located within the marshes, but the cadaver
calmly and smoothly reclosed the doors. As the way in seemed to be trapped in
an ingenious way, Arken attempted to walk through the stone wall but Davon
stopped him just before he did so by explaining that his spell would not work
on walls, only live rock. Korum, meanwhile, had got back from his teleportation
and pushed open the doors again. He was teleported away again. Bardan, who was
also making his way through the doors again, began liberally sprinkling lamp
oil as he went. He too was teleported away, but the open doors gave Davon, holy
symbol held aloft in front of him, the opportunity to walk through unscathed.
The rest of the party heard a whoosh and a crash come from within the crypt and
rushed in to see what had happened. Davon had the shambling corpse held up
against the wall in cowering terror. Bardan put it out of its misery with a
deft sweep of his axe. Whilst this was going on, Korum had slid the top off the
coffin and searched it for goodies. Inside was a skeleton holding a pristine
sword and a pouch of gold. The party were handed the sword and a variety of
pieces of rotten chain mail whilst the pouch of gold found its way undetected
into one of Korum’s many pockets.
Using the old bones and more of their dwindling supplies of
firewood, the party slept the night in the crypt.
Ghouls, ghouls, ghouls (day 40)
The journey continued again at first light. Trudging through
the brackish waters of the swamp for the whole morning began to take its toll
on the travellers. Their adventurous spirits were beginning to wane just as
Knil spotted another, smaller crypt in the distance. The party approached it
with caution but their fears were unfounded as there was no door to the stone
structure. Carefully checking it over, Korum found that the lid of the
structure needed to be lifted off. Bardan and Davon provided the muscle power,
and Korum peered inside. In the gloom, he could make out a set of stone steps
leading down. He quickly vaulted over the walls of the stone cist and made his
way down the steps. The steps ended after about twenty feet and continued
onwards into a corridor that stretched for maybe another fifty feet more where
it either ended or turned a corner. Lighting torches and bringing forth their
permanently lit miniature unicorns as light sources, the party made their way
cautiously along the corridor. Approaching the end of the corridor, they noticed
a strong stench of rotting flesh. Rounding the right hand corner at the end
they were surprised to see a large pack of flesh eating ghouls in the darkness.
The foul creatures turned their heads towards the light as the party approached
and two erupted into flame as Bardan’s phials of Greek Fire hit them and
exploded.
The ghouls could only see Arken and Davon in the glare and
charged them without fear. The cleric tried to turn the undead minions but his
cries to the goddess went unheeded. The pack of ghouls bore down on them and
Arken took a hit which left him paralysed. Bardan pulled Arken out of harms way
which gave the ranger and thief an opportunity to loose their shafts. All of
their shafts hit, but the nightmares kept advancing. Davon, his mighty sword
now drawn, hacked down another of the foul beasts whilst Bardan stepped into
the gap to plug the fighting line.
Now the way was blocked, the two archers could no longer
fire into the melee, so tended to Arken and prepared to plug any gaps that
appeared in the defence. Davon again hit one of the dreadful creatures, but
Bardan received a wound for his hesitance.
This gave the ghouls another opportunity, which they took
well, hitting both Bardan and Davon, who could not shrug off the feeling of
cold coursing through his limbs. Seeing what had happened to his companion,
Bardan slipped and knocked Davon over. This, however, proved fortuitous as both
of the archers could now fire into the melee again, injuring one ghoul and
killing another.
The fighting continued apace, with Bardan soaking up more
damage but not succumbing to the ghouls’ paralysing strikes, allowing the
archers to keep the pressure up with their bows. Knil took advantage of this,
his new bow singing as he dropped another ghoul and struck the next one behind
it. Bardan, knowing that he had to hold his ground or run the risk of the party
being overwhelmed by the pack of ravenous beasts cut another to the ground with
his great axe, whilst Knil put down another of the undead minions.
The tide of battle was turning the way of the party until
Bardan missed the ghoul in front of him and Knil fumbled with his bow, dropping
it to the ground. Bardan got hit again by his opponent, but Knil was able to
recover his bow in time to launch an arrow at the same time as Korum, both
shafts striking the same creature and felling it. Davon was just beginning to
come round from the effects of the paralysis as the last two ghouls advanced.
Bardan and Davon concentrate on the ghoul to the left of the corridor, thus drawing
themselves away from the firepower behind them. This proved a good strategy as
a bolt and two arrows felled one ghoul whilst Davon and Bardan combined their
attacks to drop the final opponent with a last snarl of defiance.
Licking their wounds, the party went to the aid of Arken.
Rubbing his limbs, they slowly brought him round whilst Davon Laid Hands on
Bardan to tend to several of his wounds. Looking around the fight scene they
discovered that the corridor had ended at a large door. Korum stepped up to
investigate and found it to be trapped. He disarmed the trap, unlocked the door
and Bardan entered boldly. In the centre of the room beyond the door was a
large coffin with a glowing orb of fire hanging above it. As soon as Bardan’s
foot hit the floor inside the confines of the room, the orb sank to the coffin
and a ghostly shade rose from it.
Arken moved past him and called upon the power of Din to
remove this abomination from their presence but his goddess did not answer this
time and the ghost made straight for him. Without pause, it struck Arken and he
felt the strength start to ebb from his limbs. Bardan drew the magical sword
from the previous crypt and advanced towards the melee. Before he got there
though, two shafts flew past his shoulder, but neither got anywhere near to the
ghost. The next two flights found their target but passed straight through its
misty presence. Bardan and Arken joined combat and their magical weapons struck
true – a resistance was felt. This angered the shade and it struck back with
fury, causing more strength to ebb from Arken’s already weakened limbs.
By this time, Davon could see that Arken was weakening and
joined in the melee. All three of the goodly heroes hit the ghostly figure, but
again it kept up its inexorable effort of draining Arken’s strength away. A
small gap opened up in the melee allowing Korum to scout past, and for Knil to
let loose with a brace of his magical arrows which, unfortunately, missed and
clattered against the far wall of the crypt.
Arken traded further blows with the ghost and was now close
to the point of collapse. Bardan managed to strike the ghost just as Korum had
opened the coffin and crushed the skull of the skeleton inside it. The ghost
gave a final scream and fell to the floor where it turned back into an orb of
fire and slowly dissipated.
Whilst the rest of the party rested, Korum searched the
coffin further, finding a suit of prestige chain mail, a short sword of great
workmanship and a small pouch of gold that he pocketed without the party
knowing. He handed over the suit of armour to Bardan and slipped the scabbard
of the short sword through his own belt.
Arken’s strength started to slowly come back, so the party
put him onto a horse so that he could recover whilst they journeyed further
across the valley. A few hours later he was feeling much better. As the
daylight started to fade, the party came to the other side of the valley again.
They could see the cliff walls but in front of it the mist had banked up to
become a thick curtain obscuring everything more than a few feet in front of
the adventurers’ faces. Korum scouted ahead and found that the wall of mist
suddenly abated to reveal a small knoll of dry ground surrounded by a moat of
swamp water. Standing in the middle of the grassy knoll was a large skeleton
with a massive sword strapped across its back. It didn’t notice Korum, so he
pulled his head back within the bounds of the mist and told the party what he
had seen and that he would scout around the far side to see what was behind it.
Knil stepped through the mist and fired off two shots. Both
were aimed true and struck the skeleton in the chest. It didn’t flinch. The
skeleton slowly reached behind its head with both hands and then threw them
forwards in a motion towards Knil. Knil was rooted to the spot in a state of
paralysis. It reached behind its head again and slowly drew the large
double-handed sword strapped to its back.
Noticing that Knil was not moving, Bardan pulled him out of
the way as the cadaver boomed in a menacing voice from beyond the grave, “Step
in here, if you dare!” Bardan, always up for a fight, happily obliged.
The two combatants advanced on each other, and upon seeing
this, Korum snuck up behind the large skeleton. Bardan and the skeleton traded
a few feints and minor blows whilst they sized each other up. This to-ing and
fro-ing meant that Korum found it difficult to make a clean stab at its back.
Having the knowing of his enemy, the skeleton then proceeded to take Bardan
apart. Two swift blows rendered the fighter hors de combat but in
revenge Korum finally managed to deliver a solid blow. Davon, upon seeing his
comrade-in-arms fall, flung himself into the melee. Whilst its attention was on
the newly arrived human paladin, Korum managed to get another big strike on its
back, but was still unable to sever anything critical. The two larger
combatants circled each other looking for a way through each others’ defences.
This gave Korum another strike of opportunity, but he was still unable to find
a critical point; these strikes would have felled at least three strong men by
now! Davon managed to get a couple of minor blows in but then the skeleton got
the measure of his foe and started to deal a great deal of damage to him.
However, it didn’t reckon on the tenacity of his smaller enemy. Korum managed
to get a final hard blow in, which finally got the undead’s attention, upon
which Davon capitalised, dispatching the foul fiend back to the netherworld
from whence it came. The cadaver crumbled to dust taking its foul weapons with
it.
The unconscious Bardan was quickly healed by the cleric and
paladin, and Davon’s wounds were also tended to by Arken when they got Bardan
back to health. Knil, however, was still paralysed. They tied him to a horse
and set off in search of somewhere to pass the night in safety. They only had
to travel a short distance to find another crypt that contained two coffins.
There were no ghostly inhabitants, but the party burned the bones in the coffin
just in case. Again, the Darkness did not return.
Choices (day 41)
The party passed an uneasy night in the crypt, but by
morning Arken had managed to cure Knil of his paralysis. The morning dawned
misty, as always, but the end of the valley was now within reach. However,
there now appeared to be only three objectives left to investigate; a small
grove of trees, a small structure on a small hill and a large mausoleum at the
very end of the valley. The party headed towards the small structure on the
hill which turned out to be a crypt guarded by a lone skeleton which was
dispatched without effort. Within the crypt they found a small bag of gems that
they divided up amongst themselves. The distance involved in travelling to this
crypt meant that they would need to spend the night there. Again there was no
Darkness; perhaps they had finally shaken it from their tail?
The Grove (morning - day 42)
Dawn spread grey gloom across the valley floor. The party
broke their fast and continued upon their journey towards the grove of trees
they had spotted the day before. It took them most of the morning to get there,
but they found it to be surrounded by a bank of mist rather like the “arena”
they had encountered two days before. Korum stepped through the wall of mist
and into the glorious sunshine of the glade beyond. He motioned that it was
safe for the party to follow and they did do, their moods lifting almost at
once in the bright sunshine and green splendour of the grove.
At the centre of the grove of trees was a stone altar, and
upon the altar was a metal chest. Korum tried to open the chest but the lock
stymied him. Knil reached past him and just popped the lid open. Embarrassed,
Korum moved away, allowing Bardan to reach in and see what treasures it
contained. He pulled forth five vials of liquid and a huge diamond. As soon as
his hand touched the diamond, though, dark storm clouds rushed in. He continued
to stare at the treasure with greed in his eyes, and Korum approached to feast
his eyes too. Arken, always most sensible, suggested they put the diamond back.
Reluctantly, Bardan dropped the diamond back to where he found it and the storm
clouds started to dissipate.
They would need to think on how to claim the large precious
stone from its container. Rioja would have the answer, but he was not with
them. That said, his arrival was now overdue.
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