The Caves of MALECHAI

Present: Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Gillard [Kevin], Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Darryl], and Tu [Shane]. Only Dexter [Jamie] was flopping about in a "marmalade" state. The NPC Dwarf fighter Tankard was guiding us through the Oble hills and is included in the party this week. 

The charging Orc's of five minutes ago

"Well that was easy" boasted Tu, flicking Orc blood off his sword.
"Is it over?" asked Debbie, dazedly looking around at the Orc bodies scattered across the ground, their blood already washing away down the hillside in the persistent heavy rain.

It was only mid-morning and the ambush party of twelve Orc's that we had spotted had been dispatched. 

"Got to choose your battleground!" grinned Tankard, "Now, let's get going"

After a quick scout around the bushes where the Orcs had been lying in wait for us and finding nothing of interest, we continued on deeper into the hills and found ourselves a shallow concavity in the side of a rocky cliff to shelter for the night. The rain was still falling and visibility was minimal. Which turned out to be a really good thing!

During the second watch of Myrtle, Oliver, and Scuttle, a loud guttural screeching was heard out in the night. The sleeping party members were quietly awakened, and the magic Telescope was extracted from the Bag of Holding and setup at the mouth of our "shelter". The sound of wolves howling joined the screeching noises as we nervously donned armour and drew weapons.

"I smell Orc" whispered Tankard.
"I see Orcs" whispered Myrtle, as she peered through the Telescope. "And wolves, and probably goblins. They look like they are searching for something"

We watched about 20-30 mixed creatures for about twenty minutes until they moved off downhill, in the direction we had come from earlier. Thank heavens for the heavy rain!

They never came back, or at least, we never saw them on their return. Morning arrived with no more incidents occurring. But it only got a little lighter. Dark clouds were massed all along the ranges and the rain was falling even heavier than it had been overnight. After a cold and damp breakfast, we started off again towards the higher ground somewhere out there in front of us.

"Pretty sure I saw some lights up there last time I passed" mentioned Tankard. "Strange coloured beams of light stabbing upwards, about a mile from the actual Hymer Saddle"

Just after midday we found ourselves a good dry and defensible location where we set up a basecamp. After establishing ourselves there and having a quick lunch, we moved off to reconnoitre the area ahead. We were pretty close to Hymer Saddle and Tankard thought we should be in the immediate area of those lights he had previously observed.

A dense murder of crows approached

As we were dragging ourselves through the dense bush and up a steep ridge, Myrtle fortuitously spotted a Murder of Crows through the bush. Everyone ducked to the ground and attempted to hide amongst the wet undergrowth. They were sweeping along the top of the ridge, obviously on some form of patrol, but dropped down the other side of the ridge before they came too close to our location. 

"Phew" noted Ouzo, "Way too many to shoot down!"
"Now we follow them" instructed Tankard.

At the top of the ridge Myrtle and Tu cautiously raised their heads over the highpoint and peered between the bushes down the other side. The rest of us waited just below them.

"Telescope please" requested Myrtle.

The trusty magic Telescope revealed a large rock cliff face on the other side of a shallow and bush filled valley. A narrow ravine cut its way through the cliff face, and it could be seen that at the end of the ravine there was a large open area. And it appeared there was indeed a cave entrance there. 

"A cave" exclaimed Oliver, "Just like in my dream"

But, two large stone statues stood to either side of the ravine, about half way along its length. They faced outwards, towards us, and their arms were outstretched, palm forward.
[I'm sure you get the picture] 

The guardian statues

"S'tat u bro? chuckled Bear quietly.

Also, we could see that the ravens appeared to nest in there. Hundreds of them perched along the ravine and in the cliffs and the bush that we could see on the far side of the ravine. They were continuously launching from perches, flapping around above the cave entrance. 

We slipped back down from the ridge, stowed the Telescope, and retreated back to our basecamp. Once back there we fed the horses, fed ourselves, and settled down for the night and some heavy planning.

"Impossible to use the ravine without those "statues" sounding an alarm"
"We could circle round and climb down the cliffs"
"I can't climb down there"
"What about those climbing potions?"
"Or the Spider Climb spell"
"But the Crows"
"How about that Wall of Fog spell?"
"Or the Invisibility dust"

And on and on until ...

"My knife is vibrating" squealed Oliver, "Although, not like undead ... but just ... vibrating"
"And both your arms have turned black again!" accused Scuttle.
"And my Sword is glowing blue" exclaimed Tu.

Something was definitely up! With deft use of Tu's magic Sword [This was the magic Long Sword that glowed blue in the presence of undead creatures, or evil creatures] we determined that there was an aura of evil emanating from Cellar, Dexter's cat, that we had picked up from the basement of Ingrid Barnett in Penstoke. Suspecting some form of MALECHAI witch linkage, probably spying on us for ages, Scuttle took Cellar outside the camp for a walk while the rest of us held a brief council.

An aura of evil emanated from Cellar

"Kill it"
"But there might be some form of connection to Dexter"
"Kill it"
"The witches probably know all our plans now anyway"
"Kill it"
"We could capture it in a sack"
"Kill it"

Just then Cellar came flying back into the cave. Literally flying, well literally thrown in by Scuttle who immediately followed.

"The bloody cat attacked me" Scuttle yelled angrily.

Oliver, thinking quickly, let off a Magic Missile II spell, which zipped across the space and hit Cellar in the head. But the missile seemed to fizzz, no burn, no yelp, no apparent damage.

"That's impossible!" stammered Oliver.

Tu leapt for Cellar, taking a nasty scratch on the arm, but missed. The scratch almost immediately turned a nasty dark infected red colour, which started to spread upwards towards his elbow. Ouzo managed to slip a sack over Cellar and tie it shut. Cellar certainly didn't like that and hissed and growled from inside the sack. 

Ouzo tied the sack up from the roof of the cave, Myrtle gave Tu a Neutralise Poison potion which seemed to do the trick, and the arguments started up again.

"Kill it"
"But there might be some form of connection to Dexter"
"The bloody thing poisoned me"
"We could use it to pass disinformation"
"The bloody thing attacked me too"

Blood dripped from the sack

Ouzo thrust his sword through the sack, a number of times, until the hissing and writhing stopped. Blood dripped from the bottom of the sack in a steady stream.

"Oh, look at Dexter" exclaimed Myrtle, and rushed over to him.

Dexter had slumped to the ground just as Cellar had been killed, his marmalade now stained with blood. Myrtle immediately applied a Cure potion. Dexter was still breathing, but totally unconscious. Closer investigation revealed blood was leaking from the corners of his eyes, which had rolled back up into his head.

"Blinded" stated Myrtle, "There was some form of link to the cat after all"

The rest of the night passed without event. Dexter remained unconscious, Myrtle examining his eyes for hours. Oliver studied his spell book and muttered and grumbled about why his Magic Missile II spell hadn't seemed to work. Debbie quietly tuned her flute. Bear sharpened his axe. Scuttle played with the dead cat.

In the morning Scuttle was sent off to scout the cliffs around the cave entrance and see if the ravens were still there, and if they went off for regular patrols at all.

"Don't be too long" instructed Myrtle as he slipped off into the undergrowth.

He came back just as it turned dark! All damn day. But we hadn't been too too anxious.
Except for Myrtle, who had spent most off the afternoon pacing back and forward just outside the cave and regularly peering off through the bush, and muttering.

Scuttle reported that the ravens all flew off just after light, and were gone all day, returning just before dark.

"There was nothing there" Scuttle claimed, "I could have been down that cliff and into the cave in a heartbeat. But I just observed, as you asked"

Without the ravens present during the day, our climbing-in plan was going to work just fine, we figured. The night passed uneventfully, and the next morning we cautiously made our way through the bush, around the ravine location, to the top of the cliffs overlooking the open clearing and the cave. No ravens, the plan was looking good so far.

Potions of Climbing for the fighters, Bear, Gillard, Tankard, and Tu, and they headed off down the cliff face like it was a walk in the park.

Spider Climb spells for the non-climbers, Debbie, Myrtle, and Oliver, and they all scuttled over the edge and actually ran down the cliff face on all fours.

Ouzo looses his grip on the cliff face

Ouzo and Scuttle bought up the rear, like the professional climbers they are. And around half way down, they both slipped on the greasy bit (they claimed) and tumbled off the side of the cliff. If it wasn't for Oliver being so alert, they may have plunged to their deaths. But he saw their predicament as it occurred, and managed to cast two Feather Fall spells that dropped them both gently to the ground beside us.

"Wow" puffed Scuttle, "Can I do that again?"

But we just slipped into the dark cavemouth beside us and headed into the darkness. 

The cave immediately opened up into a natural chamber with two round openings ahead of us. Beside each opening stood a smaller version of the statues we had seen back out in the ravine. But these ones had their eyes open, and they were definitely tracking us as we moved towards them.

Oliver pulled out his cursed Boline dagger, which was once again humming with suppressed power, and was as black as a hole in the night sky.

Boldly stating "They are with me" Oliver held up the cursed Boline dagger and led the party through the right hand opening.

"Oh crap" muttered Scuttle, "Do we want to be with him?

After about twenty yards a round opening in the right wall of the tunnel appeared. A small room, carved from the rock by hand and lined with brick. The sheen of rippling water reflected across the entire floor to the door on the other side.

"Nope" noted Bear, and led us straight on till we encountered a crossroads in the passage.
"Which way now" Bear asked.

There were no tracks on the ground, no noises from either direction, and no drafts. And although Oliver's cursed dagger was still thrumming with contained power, Oliver wasn't feeling any pressure to turn either way. But he did put the dagger on the ground and give it a spin. It came to rest pointing into the wall. Ouzo wanted to search for secret doors in the wall, but Bear just turned right and continued on.

The tunnels led off into the distance

After quite a march we arrived at another crossroads, and this time there were faint sounds from the left. We went that way, and after some distance arrived in a man-made room, carved into the rock, that housed ten barred cells. All the cells were occupied, but only eight were occupied by the living. Their low moaning echoed around the room, a mix of emaciated humanoid creates huddled in the far corner of the cells. There was also a further exit on the far side of the room, which likely led back to near our starting location in this cave system.

"Larder?" queried Scuttle, peering in at a naked human female in one of the cells.

 Just then a booming sound echoed down the passage we had just arrived along, and then we detected voices speaking, and footsteps. Heading our way.

"Orcish" whispered Tankard, "Hide, and get ready to fight"

Tu figures that a rush down the unexplored passage would eventually bring him up behind whoever is approaching, so he and Oliver quietly bolt ahead, to get around behind.

Scuttle scampers straight up the wall and secures himself in the darkness above the passage opening.

Ouzo tries to follow, but slips off the wall and drops. Fortunately, he executed a mid-air cat-like twisty spin and landed lightly on his feet. So he slipped a short distance up the passage after Tu, and froze in the darkness. The non-fighters followed Ouzo into the gloom. Myrtle readied a Silence spell.

The fighters and Debbie crouched down on either side of the tunnel, and waited for the Orcs to arrive.

First into the room was a human women in long black robes. She was yelling and berating the three Orcs that followed her into the room. And they were all totally surprised by the Silence that descended over them, and by the swords that swung silently at them out of the darkness of their "larder". Suckers.

Bear swings a mighty blow into the witch's torso, but only inflicts two damage. Debbie, Gillard, and Tankard engage the Orcs. The witch was quick on her feet and managed to leap back into the tunnel and flee. The three Orcs block our access to the tunnel and fought bravely to allow their mistress to escape. Luckily Scuttle managed to evade the Orc's in the confusion and raced off after the witch, his little short legs pumping furiously to try and keep up.

Despite the overpowering odds and our initial surprise attacks, the Orc battle became quite drawn out. Debbie was quickly cut down by a mighty double strike [The Orc roiled a critical hit followed by a twelve on the critical table, two extra damage, knocked onto back, attacker gets a free hack at +4] and fell back, unconscious and bleeding.

Tankard proved the hero of the hour, his strikes eventually felling each of the three Orcs, although Gillard and Ouzo bothclaimed the respective kills.

Meanwhile back down the tunnel complex, Oliver had outpaced Tu and was barrelling along at his maximum pace, Tu puffing and panting behind him. The tunnels did indeed connect and they were soon racing down the third and final leg of the triangular loop when Oliver spotted a darkly clad figure running towards them. It was Ingrid Barnett of Penstoke, MALECHAI coven member, and right then, enemy number one!

A witch appears from the darkness

Without even a pause for thought, Oliver charged right into her and attempted to grapple her to the ground. He wasn't able to get a good grip though, but did prevent her from casting any spells. Tu followed right behind and swung his sword at her. There was a magical flash and Tu's three points of damage were somehow absorbed. The witch drew an evil looking dagger from her robes and Tu and the witch went at it.

Oliver tried to assist, but somehow only managed to get in Tu's way and distract him from the fight.

"Back off you clod" yelled Tu, narrowly dodging a slash from the witch's dagger. The blade was glistening with a sickly green substance which Tu wanted no part of. The skirmish went on for a minute with Tu and Ingrid trading blows, until Scuttle arrived and surprised the witch with a Backstab to the butt cheek, whereupon she stumbled and collapsed to the ground. Not wasting any time Scuttle fell on her and with a flurry of hacks and a spray of blood, separated her head from her body.

Scuttle stripped the body of all items, a necklace with MALECHAI's symbol, a glittering bracelet, a ring, the glistening dagger, and her flowing black cloak. Picking up the decapitated head, Scuttle started back down the tunnel towards the others.

"You bring the body" he yelled back to Tu.

Back in the cell room, Myrtle had Cured Debbie and was checking the various people locked in the cells. Not to free them, but just to make sure they wouldn't die while we cleared out the rest of the underground complex. Bear and Tu opened up one of the cells, with a dead occupant, and tossed in the Orc bodies, and the decapitated body of Ingrid. Scuttle threw in the head and slammed the door closed.

We decide that it might be safer for Ouzo to use one of the last Invisibility potions and head out to explore and map the rest of the complex. Surely someone will come looking for Ingrid or the Orcs when they fail to return, so time was of the essence. 

About thirty minutes later Ouzo returns and provides us with a rough map, marked up with a few notes.

Kitchen with 8-12 Orcs, Empty sleeping chamber - 3 empty beds only, Torture room with smelly pit, watery room, Pentagram passages, Centre area with no doors.

Suddenly we hear a slam, like a door closing heavily, from somewhere down the passage ahead and near the centre of the complex.

"Secret doors" nods Ouzo sagely.
"Um" whispers Oliver, "Can anyone else hear that chanting?"
"Keep an eye on Oliver" instructs Tu, "I'm sure he tried to attack me earlier"
"In fact, why not tie me with a rope so I can't take off suddenly" suggests Oliver.

Scuttle does exactly that, and secures a rope around Oliver's waist and takes a firm grip on the end.

We all move cautiously towards the centre of the map, and begin searching the "inside" wall of the passage for secret doors. We spread out a bit, with the fighters at each end of the search area and examine the walls.

Suddenly Ouzo yells and leaps to the side as a dark figure appears right behind him and swings a Short Sword at his back. 

"Beware" yells Ouzo as two other figures appear behind Tu and Gillard. Tu is caught off guard by a huge man wielding an axe, which bites into his back for one point of inflicted damage. Gillard is also caught off guard as another big guy swings a Long Sword overhand into her shoulder for one point of inflicted damage.

A mighty battle erupts, the three no longer invisible fighters against our fighters. Weapons flash, swing and smash and the passage is filled with grunts, curses, and the clangs of combat.

Oliver casts a Detect Invisible to check there is no one else waiting silently nearby to pounce, but sees nothing out of the ordinary. As Oliver peers each way down the passage, he spots an irregularity in the rock of the passage wall, walks over to it, and with two quick thumps on the rough protrusions, springs open a hidden door. He whips his vibrating dagger through the rope around his waist, and slips through the door towards the intriguing chanting drifting from just ahead.

Back at the battle, Tu lets off an inopportune fart and is distracted for a round [8 on the fumble table, Belch and fart, loose next rounds attack], Gillard is struck unconscious, and Bear knocks one of the fighters to the ground. Debbie hasn't even noticed there is a battle going on and continues to search the wall for secret doors.

Just to make matters worse, a loud klaxon starts to sound, its piercing screech echoing up and down the passages. 

Tankard gets in a decent blow with his axe!

But Tankard gets in a decent solid blow with his Great Axe and drops another of the attackers. Only one left now, the one with four points of armour absorption! The one that smacks Tu across the head with his weapon, dropping Tu to the ground and turning towards Bear with a nasty grin.

Scuttle has noticed Oliver's rope going slack, and spun around to see Oliver disappearing through the door. He yells to the others and gives Ouzo a shove towards the hidden passage.

"I'm too slow, get after the traitor" he shouts.

Ouzo draws an arrow from his quiver and steps into the secret passage. Oliver's back is just fading into the darkness ahead, so Ouzo looses the arrow which thumps into Oliver's back. There was a magical flash and Ouzo's three points of damage were somehow absorbed by Oliver's robe. [Oliver always maintains an Armour spell on his person at all times. Now that he has achieved level three and has the Armour II spell in his book, he uses that. This spell provides eight points of damage absorption before dissipating and needing to be re-cast. So three points gone from eight available] 

Oliver slips into a room at the end of the passage, and Ouzo can see an unknown female in black MALECHAI robes standing in front of a stone alter. Her hands are raised to the air and a low guttural chanting is issuing from her mouth. Across the alter slumps the emaciated and withered body of Odette Pearson - the inn owner and witch. Also standing at the alter was Hayley Price, the wizard from Penstoke whose husband we had turned over to the REAL Temple at Toluene.

Oliver strolled up towards the alter, and Ouzo skids to a halt before wantonly charging into the room.

Meanwhile, back at the battle in the passage, Myrtle has Healed Gillard and Tu, and Bear, Gillard, Tankard, and Tu are alternating attacks against the big guy. Gillard gets in some serious hits with her armour piercing blade. It will only be a matter of time before our hero's cut him down and take the battle.

But, Orc shouting can be heard from off down the passage, and the thumping of heavy feet are approaching! Time is not on our side it seems.

The dead body waits on the alter

Return of Tankard

Present: Myrtle [Andrew], Bear [Ian], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris], Tu [Shane], and Gillard [Kevin]. 

Marmalading: Debbie [Steven] and Dexter [Jamie].

From Myrtle's diary:

Rewinding back a bit of time before Oliver's Hymer Saddle dream: while we were doing the post-battle tidy-up and licking wounds, Oliver was feverishly doing an Identify on the magical short-sword. In Oliver's case, this spell takes a whole day. This turned out to be +2 OV. Scuttle bagsied that.

We left for Toluene with the two charmed (Animal Friendship) Price warhorses and captive Thomas Price himself (husband of Malechai witch Hayley Price). This trip would take three solid days and two nights on the road.

Dotted line our path: Penstoke to Toluene,
then back to Penstoke, then to Oble hills

REAL Priest Ingbot Mosley of Penstoke had sent dispatches to Toluene REALs. As these were sent by Gnome Post, they would arrive at Toluene in one day (far faster than us).

It was a quiet day of travel in light drizzle. The first night was at a way-station stockade, but was uneventful.

The next day was clear and quiet, and we stopped at a way-station in a small wood. Again, we were the only group there. This way-station building had glass windows; luxury.

Halfway through the night, twelve glowing balls, the size of squash balls, started bouncing against the windows, like firefly moths. Three came under the door. Tu, Ouzo and I were attacked by them and were electrically zapped. So, we resorted to using hessian sacks to block the gap under the door. Then more sacks to catch the ones inside, which we funneled outside.

During this encounter, Cellar (marmalading Dexter's cat companion) took off up the chimney and was gone. Not wanting to go outside with these dangerous things around - I identified them as will-o-wisps - we cowered the rest of the night inside.

The next morning, the wisps were gone, but Cellar had not returned. Scuttle climbed into the roof of the way-station, and spotted a tower off to one side in the wood.

We investigated the tower on the off-chance that Cellar had gone this way. It was four storeys and very old. But there was a newer door on ground floor. Arrow slits on storeys three and four.

The door was trapped and locked, but our thieves took care of that. Just inside were the rotting corpses of two orcs, a couple of days dead. We could hear cackling upstairs.

Sparrow

So, we forayed up. There was a bedraggled, but very attractive, woman. She introduced herself as Sparrow, a sage. She knew a lot about us: our names, our quests, our histories. She was rather disparaging of Oliver "That one reeks of evil". 

There were a bunch of the will-o-wisps floating around her room - her pets. She offered one for me to stroke, but all this achieved was one hell of a zap. Tu too. But the wisps seemed to take to Gillard, and she never got zapped. Sparrow gave Gillard a blue wisp as a pet.

 

In a cage off to one side was Cellar. I asked for her and Sparrow nodded, but upon opening Cellar's cage, he shot out the room's arrow slit and down the side of the tower.

Sparrow then claimed - well, boasted - that she could easily cure Oliver's curse, but it would result in him losing his boline knife. This was too much for Oliver who took off, downstairs, out the door, and into the forest.

Tu organized a party conference. He suggesting that we all take Oliver by force, but Tu wanted all of us to agree. I certainly agreed - that boline knife was part of the Malechai prophesy so better gone than not. But Tu insisted that one naysayer (apart from Oliver!) would be enough. 

Sure enough, contrary Gillard refused. So much for that idea.

Later, when we were all outside the tower again, Scuttle threw a stone at the tower and it went through an arrow slit into Sparrow's room. This act enraged her and she zapped him.

I returned to Sparrow to see if I could get any more info about Oliver, but.. Sparrow had forgotten all about Oliver's curse. Mad as a march hare? Strange...

REAL High Priest Brian Crabb

So, we left Sparrow and headed back on the road to Toluene, arriving a couple of hours after dark-fall. Oliver left for the Wizards' Guild. The rest of us went straight to the REAL temple (Oliver's evil knife prevents him from going anywhere near REAL properties. so good thing he had left us anyway). Here, we got a late-night audience with he REAL big-cheeses High Priest Brian Crabb, Priest Pitt the Procrastinating and Paladin Michelle Journee (but not Alistair Katala, the REAL "Pope"). Sure enough., the dispatches from Priest Ingbot in Penstoke had arrived two days before, and a cleansing squad had been sent off already. (We should have passed them on the road - but we didn't. Maybe they passed while we were with Sparrow.)

I relayed the story of Sparrow, but they didn't know about her. They did however offer to cleanse Oliver: "We can certainly get rid of that cursed knife of his," but the High Priest told me that it was doubtful that frail Oliver (with his low CON) would make it through the cleansing. Boiling holy-oil enemas and blood distillation is seldom survivable.

Thomas Price was taken into REAL custody. He would be magically questioned by the REAL staff. 

"We will contact you when we have an answer," proclaimed High Priest Brian.

Ouzo then got us, via the Toluene Thieves' Guild, a secret apartment to stay a few nights.

Two mornings later, we got summoned. Thomas' interrogation had revealed all: his wife Hayley Price and some other witches were now in the Oble Hills near Hymer Saddle. This agreed with Oliver's dream, which was a small consolation. Hymer Saddle was the next most klibwards crossing of the Oble mountains range (from the Toluene Pass). It was two or three days travel from Penstoke.

Oliver's cursed boline knife

So, we left that day, headed for the Oble Hills. It did cross our minds that the prophesy (confirmed by Oliver's dream) said that Oliver was one of the Malechai witches and that the boline knife he was carrying was THE sacred item required for the ritual! But never let a prophesy get in the way of a determined party. 

The REALs had a mercenary called Tankard the dwarf. A superb strength-fighter and clad in heavy armour. He knew the Oble ranges, so they insisted we take him.

The three day trip back to Penstoke was uneventful. We passed by the Price farm to see if the REALs had visited. Sure enough, it was just a blackened smoking hole. Flame Strike and Sunray does do quite a bit of damage.

Then we headed towards Hymer Saddle. The first day and night were uneventful. 

The second day was overcast and drizzly. We entered the foothills. About noon, with the aid of the magic telescope, we spotted a squad of 13 orcs. They were out during the day, which did not bode well.

Tankard now took the lead. He guided us up trails through the hills and told us when to hide and when to move. Apparently, there were bands of orc scouts all about - not that we saw any....

... until later that afternoon. Tankard spotted a large group ahead. Ouzo, doused in the invisible powder (20-30 mins) went to investigate invisibly. There were 12 orcs in an ambush position. We are a large party and not very quiet with our armoured folk, so this was expected, I guess.

So, let them come to us. We chose a good ambush position, let them see us deliberately, and they did come to us.

It was a relatively big battle. After a few arrow shots (which dropped one orc), Tankard, Bear, Tu, and Gillard took on two orcs each. Ouzo and Scuttle hid so that they could back-stab. The remaining three orcs took on Oliver and me (Oliver fought with his new Armour 2 spell, so he wasn't too worried, despite being so frail). And Debbie and Dexter marmaladed.

Apparently we are strong enough to take on 12 orcs with not too much risk. Gillard was dropped, a few of the group took some wounds, but after a bunch of my cures we were right as rain. That said, my spell reserves were halved, and this was not a safe space for a long rest.

Onwards and upwards, Malechai here we come!

Myrtle Rust

The Battle of Price Farm

Dramatis Personae: Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Gillard [Kevin], Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver[Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris], and Tu [Shane]. Dexter [Jamie] had been startled by a strange marmalade taste, spontaneously transformed into a cat, and fled into the night with Cellar [NPC (non-player cat)] in tow.

Battle Plans

The battle plans had been laid and all was prepared. The disappearance of Dexter had required a small adjustment to the distraction he was to have caused. No distraction! But this was but a very minor revision to a well compiled plan of attack.

Some two hours after midnight the party slowly and quietly made their way down from their elevated observation post in the trees above the rear of the farmhouse to a more suitable staging ground behind the outbuildings. The fighters checked their blades while Scuttle and Ouzo crept off into the darkness.

After Scuttle had led Ouzo to the rear wall of the outbuildings, they prepared for the break-in. Ouzo reached up and attempted to open the window into the bathroom at the rear of the rooms where the three fighter guards were living. He fiddled around for a few minutes.

"You have a go Scuttle" Ouzo whispered, "its an old tricky one"

Ouzo crouched down on the ground, allowing Scuttle to climb onto his back to reach the window. Scuttle fiddled around for a few minutes.

"Not good" Scuttle whispered, "we can't even get in"

They retreated back to the others at the staging ground. Adjustments to the attack plans were made. Scuttle and Ouzo crept off into the darkness again.

"Remember" stated Myrtle, "Only six rounds, tick tock"

After Scuttle had led Ouzo to the rear wall of the outbuilding again, they prepared for the break-in. The covered lantern was briefly opened and a small gleam of light was signalled back to the waiting group. Myrtle cast a Silence spell, its location carefully calculated to include the bathroom within its sphere of influence, but not the sleeping quarters beyond.

Shattered glass silently falls

One: Tick - Ouzo swings his sword into the bathroom window and breaks it open. Shattered glass falls silently to the ground. Myrtle and the fighters start their run towards the rear of the outbuilding - tock

Two: Tick - Ouzo hoists Scuttle up to the window opening. Scuttle clears the remaining glass from the frame and prepares to dive through. The remaining shards of glass fall silently to the ground. Oliver and Debbie set off after Myrtle and the fighters - tock

Three: Tick - Scuttle dives through the window and silently rolls to his feet within the bathroom. It is empty and he steps to the side to leave space for Ouzo. The fighters clatter noisily down the stretch of hill behind the outbuildings - tock

Four: Tick - Ouzo dexterously dives through the window and rolls silently to his feet inside the bathroom. Scuttle shakes his bag of invisibility dust over his head and "disappears". Myrtle splits off from the fighters and heads towards a spot where she can cast her second silence at the front door of the outbuilding - tock

Five: Tick - Ouzo upends his bag of invisibility dust over his head and "disappears". Scuttle silently opens the door from the bathroom into the sleeping quarters and peers through. Two men sleeping in beds and one "guarding" in a chair. But he was slumped over, snoring lightly. Perfect - tock

Six: Tick - Scuttle slips through the door and heads towards the furthest bed, short sword clutched tightly in his hand. Ouzo follows, heading towards the nearest bed, magical dagger gleaming in his hand. Myrtle casts another Silence spell, its location carefully calculated to include the front door and the bulk of the sleeping quarters in its sphere of influence - tock

One: Tick - The silence previously enveloping the bathroom expires, and if anyone had been listening they might have heard the gentle night sounds wafting in through the broken window of the bathroom. Scuttle and Ouzo strike their killing blows on the sleeping figures in the beds. Blood spurts silently onto the bedsheets, and the invisible assassins reappear. The fighters, led by Bear, clatter across the path towards the front door and enter the new zone of silence. The night quietens considerably - tock

Two: Tick - Scuttle and Ouzo move quickly across to the snoring, and soon to be very surprised and very dead, guard who was slumped in his chair, head resting on his forearms on the small dining table. Bear reaches the front door and tries to turn the handle. Locked - tock

Three: Tick - Scuttle and Ouzo simultaneously give the guard a new Scabport Smile. His eyes jerk open briefly and a silent yell is not heard. Blood spurts profusely. Bear backs up, preparing to charge down the door and smash his way in to rescue the thieves - tock

Four: Tick - Ouzo steps to the door, flips the bolt and pulls it open, silently. Scuttle begins to rummage through the possessions of the three dead guards. Bear pulls up mid-charge, and warily steps through the open door. The others arrive behind Bear - tock

Five: Tick - Scuttle finds a Great Axe under one of the beds, and some small bags of coins. Bear surveys the carnage, and gives Ouzo the thumbs-up. Everyone else quickly and silently enters the room - tock

Six: Tick - Oliver pulls Debbie through the door, and quickly pulls it closed behind her. The thud is felt, but not heard - tock

Blood pools on the floor

Sound once again flooded the environment. The drop-drop of blood trickling from the bodies onto the floor, the heavy panting of everyone who had just sprinted down from the hillside, the happy snickers from Scuttle poking around under the beds, and Ouzo's grin. Large enough to hear!

"See" he exclaimed happily, "Just like I said. And now for the next bit"

Scuttle slipped off through the door to scout out the main house, while the rest of us quietly debated the merits of full frontal attack versus a stealthy entry. We were only expecting two men, albeit undoubtedly tough, and about three dogs in the main house. We hadn't been able to determine the interior layout of the house, but there were only two of them. How hard could it be?

Scuttle reported back that two of the dogs were sleeping in closed cages on the veranda near the front door to the house. The third must be inside with the men.

Much discussion ensued regarding the keen hearing of dogs, the noisy state of jogging fighters in chain or splint armour, the length of time to Open Locks, the likelihood of traps and alarms, the duration of Myrtle's Silence, the presence of a back door to the house, the challenges of splitting the party, the risks of sending in the thieves alone, and the relatively low chances of bashing in a door.

"Um ..." interjected Oliver, "I do have the Knock spell you know"

And so the battle went like this ...

Fighters began charging in with Gillard at the back of the group, little legs pumping furiously.
Ouzo and Scuttle close behind, with Debbie, Myrtle, and Oliver cruising at the rear.

Two silent dogs

Silence onto the front door and the dog cages. [The range of Silence is 120 yards. Myrtle stopped to cast her spell from way back, and started jogging again afterwards]
Knock onto the front door. [The range of Knock is 60 yards. Oliver stopped once he got into range, cast the spell, and started jogging again]

The dogs in their cages on the veranda go crazy, but silently!

Bear thunders silently through the open front door, down the short hallway and turns left at the Tee.

Tu thunders silently through the open door behind Bear, and stops at the Tee, looking right.

Sound returns: dogs barking, people yelling, footsteps thumping, and armour clattering.

Gillard pushes past Tu, turns right at the Tee and clomps up that passage, past a few doors towards the last door in the hallway. Ouzo pushes past Tu, turns left and follows after Bear. Scuttle follows Ouzo. Tu looks both ways, sighs loudly, and follows Gillard.

Debbie rushes in, Myrtle and Oliver just behind them. Debbie turns right, following behind Tu.
Myrtle and Oliver turn left, following behind Ouzo and Bear.

"Classic" grumbles Myrtle, "split the party in two"

Bear rushed left down the passage, past a few doors, and around a right turn. Just in front of him was a huge dog, bounding straight for him, teeth barred, saliva dripping. Bear hastily triggered his new Crossbow of speed, but the bolt flew over the dogs head and disappeared into a large dark room. The dog flew through the air and bit savagely at Bear's groin. Fortunately his new splint mail armour was up to the task, and no damage ensued.

Having dropped his crossbow and drawn his magical +1 Long Sword, Bear sliced savagely across the bears back, and killed the creature on the back swing. [Ian rolled a twenty followed by a hit, a critical hit. His roll on the critical hit table indicated two extra damage and an extra free hack at +4] 

Somewhere behind Bear Ouzo kicked in the first door along the passage, and yelling at the top of his voice charged into a small empty bathroom brandishing his magic +1 Dagger.

Thomas attacks

Bear stepped forward into a large dark lounge, and noticed a large dark figure stepping out of the darkness on the far side of the room. This was Thomas Price, the husband of Hayley Price, witch and MALECHAI coven member. He was dressed in Chain Mail armour and helm, wielding a Long Sword and Shield. He was swinging his Long Sword in an vertical arc and laughing.

"F-off out of my house" he yelled, charging forward.

Somewhere behind Bear Ouzo kicked in the second door along the passage, and yelling at the top of his voice charged into a small empty study brandishing his magic +1 Dagger.

Meanwhile on the other side of the house, Gillard was boldly marching down towards the end of the hallway he was in. And marching the other way was the second big guy, a Great Axe spinning in his grip. He was just wearing a pair of shorts, and his hair was all messy. Just awakened.

Somewhere behind Gillard Tu muttered something about narrow corridors, but confident in Gillard's prowess against larger opponents, paused and watched to see what would occur. The Great Axe cut the air over the top of Gillard's head with a loud SWISHHH, and Gillard's magical Short Sword slipped past his knee as she stepped under the Axe and attacked.

From somewhere behind Gillard came the rousing tones of Debbie's flute, +2 to our attack rolls for this combat!

Aiming a little lower, the Great Axe swung in again and collected Gillard across the upper chest, parting her studded leather armour like a hot knife through butter, and continuing on to slice into Gillard's chest. Blood spurted and Gillard flew sideways into the wall and slumped to the ground. She was totally unconscious, and blood was spurting from the massive wound. [Gillard was struck with eleven damage, less two for her armour, dealing nine damage. Gillard has five hit points, so was rendered unconscious on negative four, and bleeding out at one hit point every round. Fortunately she is able to drop to her -CON stat before dying. But if too many rounds of bleeding occurred, it could be curtains]

Tu stepped forward and engaged the Axe wielding maniac, but couldn't force him back to let Debbie tend to Gillard. Blood continued to spurt ...

Back in the Lounge, Bear was facing off against Thomas Price. Long Sword vs. Long Sword.
Fighter vs. Fighter. Although Bear was recalling that Thomas was a retired adventurer, and noting that he was actually quite handy with his sword.

In fact, so handy that his next strike thumped into Bear's head like a hammer on an anvil. Bear staggered backwards, his eyes rolled up into his head, and he nearly toppled backwards. [Thomas struck Bear with a critical hit, ignoring his armour protection, stunning him senseless for three rounds, and applying a -4 to-hit penalty for the rest of the combat. He took six damage from the blow]

And of course Bear missed his swing. Oliver did fire off a Magic Missile II spell, which bypasses any armour protection of the target. Three damage dealt. And Scuttle was sneaking quietly around behind Thomas to deal a surprise backstab in the next round.

Myrtle wields her obsidian staff

Myrtle boldly stepped forward with her magic obsidian Staff to hold Thomas back until Bear recovered from his stupor. She was parrying, rather than attacking, to reduce the chance of Thomas actually hitting her. Because that would not be good! 

Thomas's eyes tracked Scuttle from the door, so there was no surprise there. In fact Scuttle was so astonished that Thomas was actually watching him "sneak" past that he tripped and fumbled his attack. [Chris rolled a 17 on the fumble table, "hit so well that your weapon is wrenched from your hand, loose weapon, do normal damage"] 

Scuttle staggered forward, dagger stretched out, and struck Thomas in the leg. The blade slipped between the knee pad and the shin guard, and wouldn't come out. Scuttle hastily retreated.

Oliver's second Magic Missile II shot into Thomas's chest for another two points of damage.
Ouzo bravely stepped forward and attempted an attack, but totally missed.
Thomas's distracted swing at Myrtle hit her, but was absorbed by her armour. Zero damage.

Seconds later Thomas swung again at Myrtle, and this time the parry effect was successful and his blade was deflected aside. 

Bear had regained his senses, and reengaged Thomas. The -4 effect was still in force. Bear felt that he was almost unable to actually hit the big guy, so he also choose to parry, hoping the others would eventually arrive and assist in taking Thomas out.

Three quick attacks by Thomas against Bear followed, the first ringing off Bear's new armour, and the next two attacks missing.

Back on the other side of the house, Tu and the other Axe wielding enemy were trading blows in the hallway. Tu had taken one solid blow and four points of damage, and dealt three points of damage in return. Tu then ducked under a couple of wild swings of the Axe and skewered the guy with an excellent thrust to the throat. Seven damage and down he went.

Debbie rushed up to assist Gillard. Four rounds had passed and the spurts of blood were definitely smaller, but Gillard still lived. Debbie applied the customary bandages to stop the bleeding. They could both hear the sounds of battle from back down the hallway behind them. With a final check to make sure Gillard was comfortable on the floor of the hall, they both hurried off to help the others.

They arrived through the door of the Lounge to see Ouzo leaping onto the back of Thomas with a mighty backstab. Scratched his neck for one point of damage. [While the successful backstab does do double damage, the targets armour protection is deducted from the damage roll. Darryl rolled a one, plus one due to the magic weapon is two, doubled is four, less three for Chaim Mail leaves one point of damage inflicted]

As Thomas sees Tu and Debbie arrive to back up Bear and Myrtle, he takes a step back, lays his weapon down on the ground, and surrenders. No one knows what to do, this has never happened to us before. Ouzo wants to kill him immediately, but Myrtle insists that he be handed over to the local REAL authorities. We tie him up pending further discussion.

Myrtle rushes off to assist Gillard, and winds up casting there Heal spells before she even regains consciousness, but still only on one hit point.

While the rest of us are discussing how to deal with a captive, Scuttle slips away to have a good search of the house. He rubs his hands together and chuckles as he sidles out of the Lounge.

Hanging on the wall of the Lounge is a painting, of a very familiar looking woman. The same woman who has been the subject of a number of paintings we have seen in the various houses of coven members.

"A teleport portal" states Tu, "This'll take us straight to the damn witches"
"A teleport portal" confirms Ouzo, "Who knows where it might take us"

Oliver's Detect Magic confirmed it was a magical painting, and that Thomas's Long Sword was also magical. Although nothing else was; apart from the usual compliment of items we were carrying.

Myrtle casts her final Heal spell on Gillard, but fails to bring her to full. Gillard remains one point down from full, on four hit points.

At this point both Myrtle, Oliver (and Debbie) are all at zero spells left, so a three hour rest and recovery session is taken. 

The other fighters head

Scuttle returned to the Lounge, covered in blood, and carrying a decapitated head. He also has a large pile of papers and letters recovered from somewhere in the house. Then he takes a bath.
Bear stands watch over the painting, but nothing comes through. Myrtle, and then Oliver, awake and are fully charged after their three hour resting.

Bear walks over to where he saw Thomas come through the back wall of the room, and gives it a tap.
"Secret door here somewhere" he says.

Sure enough, we find the secret door and the stairs down into the darkness below. A faint flickering light can be seen from below, Which is coming from a few guttering torches in scones around the walls of a small square room. There is a door on the far side, covered with strange symbols and radiating an unnatural chill.

But there are no traps apparently!

Ouzo steps up and slips his lockpick into the keyhole, "Snick"

The expected shrine to MALECHAI.
Oliver's Detect Magic reveals nothing magical except for the shrine itself.

So nothing to find, except for the door on the far side of the room.

Ouzo steps up and slips his lockpicks into the keyhole. They get stuck.
Scuttle steps up and slips his lockpicks in beside Ouzo's. They snap off.
Bear backs up and charges the door. He bounces back with a sore shoulder.
Tu backs up and charges the door. It shatters into pieces and smashes open.

Tu proudly struts into the room and looks around.
A dark armoury with weapon racks and cabinets of locked boxes.
"Lets try these" suggests Scuttle, holding up a ring of keys. "From that Thomas dude"
A small horde of gold (1000gp) and a tin box containing fourteen small vials.

Oliver's Detect Magic reveals one magical Short Sword and eight of the vials.

Tu heads back upstairs to stand watch over the magical painting, and after a thorough but unsuccessful search for any other secret doors, the rest of us join him in the Lounge.

Oliver examines all the bloodstained papers and extracts all the names mentioned. Some are familiar to us, but a few are not. And there are thirteen names, definitely the full compliment of the coven we are tracking down. Oliver lists them all down, and reads them out.

Yema Fail
Rose Gervan (Toluene city guard)
Hayley Price (Penstoke, this is her farmhouse)
Odette Wylie (Toluene city guard)
Lynley Inwood
Elizabeth Winchester (The Panma house owner)
Ruby Jeffrey (Toluene wizard - deceased)
Ophelia Treacle (Saucy Lake retreat - deceased)
Ingrid Barnett (The aged and supposed SOIXANTE-NEUF priestess from Penstoke)
Odette Pearson (The Innkeeper from Nitro)
Samuel Pearson (The Fireball mage from Nitro - deceased)
Barbara Comp (From Gazebo)

"That's only twelve" notes Myrtle
"Ah yes, well there is an issue with the thirteenth name" mumbles Oliver.

Oliver Smith (Wizard adventurer)

"I told you" crows Scuttle, "Black as the ace of spades"

"And this letter from a few days ago" reads Oliver.

"It's too late, they are onto us now. Come immediately to the final place in the Oble Hills and we will attempt to complete the summoning"

"Unsigned" Oliver concludes.

"The painting will take us there" states Tu, "We should go through immediately"
"The painting will not take us there" states Ouzo, "We need to find the location of those three unknown coven women, Yema and Lynley. One of them will be in the Oble Hills and we can go straight there overland"
"We must report all this to REAL" states Myrtle.
"Can I have the magic Short Sword?" asks Scuttle.

Myrtle heads off into Penstoke to report to the REAL priest and bring him back to view the evidence. As we have found in every town, they can't believe that the well respected and kind Prices' were involved in anything so sinister, until they were in the basement Shrine and confronted with MALECHAI's very presence.

I can't deal with Thomas though" the priest states, "You'll have to deal with him"

And then he hurries off to send dispatches and make cleansing preparations.

We make some attempt to clean up the mess we had made. The bodies were buried out in the farm, blood and bloodstains were washed and removed, furniture straightedged and replaced. Scuttle even fed the two dogs in the cages on the veranda.

Myrtle casts some Animal Friendship spells on the two warhorses in the stables (our warhorses now) and we decide that we will travel overland to Toluene with Thomas under guard, and hand him to the REAL authorities there.

"The pope will know what to do with him!" confirms Myrtle.

We prepare to depart the next morning after a good rest, some decent food from the farmhouse kitchen, and getting everyone healed back to their full hit points.

That night, Oliver "receives" a strange dream.

The glowing dream witch

He is looking down from high in the sky at the town of Grezbo. He swoops down towards the town graveyard where a glowing witch is reading her book and pointing towards the hills. Her black cat sits on a tombstone nearby, watching with glowing eyes. There is a strong pull from the distant Oble Ranges and he streaks in that direction. The land blurs below him, the Hymer Saddle road a constant on the rushing landscape below. Very soon a dark circle looms ahead and he swoops down and into the mouth of a black cave. "Your destiny awaits" echoes a deep voice in his mind. "Together we will summon the Being and you will rule us all"
A strange figure looms into view from the darkness.

Oliver jerks awake. 

"Holy Crap" he exclaims.

Just a Song at Penstoke

 

Present: Myrtle [Andrew], Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Dexter [Jamie], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris], Tu [Shane], and Gillard [Kevin]. Full house.

Myrtle's Diary

We had safely arrived in the big town Gazebo. Those of us who needed it, trained. There was actually a proper Wizards' Guild here; not a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, or a suspicious corner of a pub where "they get a bit handsy", so Oliver could train.

Gazebo had armourers here too, so both Tu and Bear checked-in their stolen suits of splint mail, to get them refitted for their own bodies. This would take 14 days. So, we left the Malechais to rot over that time. I am not sure if this is a good idea. Well, as the elves say "C'est la vie. J'agite mes parties intimes vers tes tantes."

Since Oliver now had the Identify spell, after his training, he set to work on bunch of sundry stolen magical gear:

• 

  Glasses of the Magi

  Glasses of the Magi - allows the wearer to read Elvish, Dwarf, and Gnome. Scuttle claimed this.
• Blue sword - this long-sword glows near undead and evil. It is +1 OV vs undead, but counts as "magic" for other cases. Tu got this.
• Heavy Crossbow of Speed -  Normal 3d4 damage, but with a faster load (one shot every 2nd round). Bear claimed this.
• Magic Shield - +1 DV. Dexter got this.
• Bag of Holding - Capacity is 100kg or 1 cubic metre (whichever is lesser). Oliver claimed this.
• Hairclip of Beauty - APP+1. I claimed this.
• Ring of Protection - +1 on saves. Scuttle claimed this.

Candles of Fear

We had some magical consumables too:

• 3 Candles of Fear - The one who lights the candle is immune but all others need to save vs magic or flee in terror
• Invisible powder: nine doses. Each dose lasts (6+D6*10 ) minutes divided by 3, or 20-40 mins.

Also, during the 14 days:

• Ouzo was hauled off to the Thieves' Guild for a courtesy call. When he returned, he told us that they had pointed-out to him our Wanted Posters. There was a bunch of magical posters going around that magically cycled through the portraits of each member of our group. The "dead or alive" reward figure was increasing almost daily. It was now over 10,000 gp. This was put out by Hayley Price, the Malechai witch from Penstoke. 
• While Ouzo was there, he got us a more secure dwelling - an apartment in a quiet part of the town.
• Not that this "secure dwelling" prevented the local REAL agent, High Priestess Katey Haslip, from contacting me. I accompanied her guards to the REAL temple. She was pleased to tell me that using my report to the REALs (from Panma), a REAL Tactical team had been dispatched from (the High Priest in) Toluene to the Saucy Crater. And they cleansed it. No need for us to return there now!

When Gazebo time was completed, Bear and Tu went to collect their new suits of split mail. This was a bit of a gamble; Bear's armourer completed his task, but the dullard that Tu had chosen stuffed up. No refunds!  Good bye 1000gp.

So, now we needed to decide where to next. The only loose end was Hayley Price's farm cottage in Penstoke, so we headed off toward there - three day's trip.

First day's travel in drizzle was uneventful. We spent that night in a barn.

The next day, someone spotted a cloud of ravens. So we all hid behind a hedge row and hoped they hadn't spotted us.

Cloud of Ravens

That night was spent in another barn. Throughout that day, Dexter was behaving more and more cat like. He vanished early on that night, and went off to explore - with other cats! I guess this proved his internal feline was finally emerging. A were-cat he, indeed.

While Dexter was away, during Second watch (Myrtle, Oliver, Scuttle), five ghouls, obviously attracted by Oliver's foul Boline knife, arrived in skulking splendour. Everyone was awoken in time.

Oliver did manage to command them with his Boline knife, but it was too late by then. We had all already engaged with them (and fighting breaks that command-link). 

Dexter returns from a night
with his feline friends

Bear got hit and was frozen by ghoul venom. Gillard and I got hit and we were both dropped (just hp). Luckily, someone had a healing potion which brought me up.

Dexter returned from his cat friends after the fight, in human form, but coughing up fur-balls. He still had bits of extra fur on his neck.

We arrived at the outskirts of Penstoke the next day, just before dark and staked out Hayley Price's farm with the magic telescope.

Hayley Price's farm

After dark, I sent Scuttle in to do some hidden reconnaissance. There were three stocky farm hands staying in the outer farm buildings, and in the cottage itself was Hayley's husband Gregory and Gregory's butt-boy lick-spittle. They also had two war-horses, and three war dogs.

We had a good secluded hidey-hole. So rather than go in that night, the plan was to spend an entire day just observing the farm. The telescope was ideal for this job.

Not much happened during the day. The "farm-hands" took the warhorses out to the fields. And let the three war-dogs run around. (These dogs were not out during the night.)

Price Dogs

This night, we plan to go in: 

1. Ouzo and Scuttle will reconnoitre invisible (using the Invisibility powder).
2. If they can get inside, they will open the curtains. I will cast the Silence 15' radius spell, and I need line-of-sight. It is cast on an area (120m range, and lasts 6 rounds).
3. The Noisy fighters will then go in. Splint mail is particularly noisy.
4. Fight the farm-hands.
5. If all goes well, we can then concentrate on the farm-house proper and take on Gregory and his sycophant.

There is another option. In theory, we do not need to break in. If we can provide proof of a Malechai shrine, the Toluene REALs can cleanse the place.

Myrtle Rust