Joe can do it!

Present:

• Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie

• Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff

• INTRODUCING: Joe Manco (human fighter) - Shane

• Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin

• MARMALADING: Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris

• Slim Jim (human rogue) - Darryl

• Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian

• Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew

The crew were standing just outside the Toluene gates waiting for the slaver's wagon train to pass by and collect us. Well, everyone except for Elvis that is. Elvis had taken offence at all the rude names we had called him and packed in adventuring for the meantime. The upcoming trip to Draser may have been a small factor in his decision, but it was probably all the rude names!

Sophia was quite taken by Zara

Just after breakfast we spotted the wagon train rolling in from klibward, the general direction of Penstoke. There were nine or so wagons, four were loaded with extremely attractive female slaves, one held two males, one held a small silver barred cage containing a young girl, and three were general transport and supplies for all the guards. Monty the Goth, a big tough human fighter led the wagon train, with Robert and Zara as his lieutenants. Zara was a beautiful curvaceous Priestess of SOIXANTE-NEUF, dressed in curve-hugging black leathers and carrying a nasty looking whip. Robert was the typical grumpy second in charge fighter type who didn't say much.

"Do not free the slaves" yelled Monty, as he expounded the rules of our token "employment".

"Do not interact in any way with the girl", pointing at the silver cage on the back of the wagon.

"Do whatever I say, and always listen to Joe, he knows what to do" 

Joe turned out to be one of Monty's head guards [Shane's new character] and was put in nominal charge of our group. The VINGT-ET-UN temple had arranged for our passage to Draser, travelling undercover as guards on Monty's slave train. Once we arrived in Draser we were to investigate the disappearance of one Simone Fussell who had been investigating some cash-flow discrepancies at the Draser Casino. The last report had arrived some weeks ago, but nothing since.

So, off we went. The weather was actually pleasant for a change, and we made good time on the first two-day section, overland to Skulk. The country was open farmland, and we were off the main travel routes, not cross-country exactly, but on a series of back-country tracks. 

When questioned about the route, Monty just replied that this was the way we were going, and that he hadn't recalled asking us to navigate for him! 

Arriving at Skulk mid-afternoon of day two, we set up camp for the night, and moved off again in the morning. This time we were heading for Pulchrite. Another two days travel across the open farmland. Although the weather had turned, and a soaking drizzle fell for just about the whole two days. We had a miserable overnight camp beneath some eternally dripping trees and arrived at Pulchrite mid-afternoon the next day. We again set up camp outside of the town.

"Joe, first thing tomorrow, take that group into town and get our supplies" commanded Monty.

Dark shadowy figures
stalked Sophias dreams.

That night, Sophia was plagued by disturbing dreams. In her dream, she watched helplessly as female slaves were tortured and violated, and young children were sacrificed. "Help me" they cried pitifully as they were put to the knife by a dark and shadowy figure with a dimly glowing halo. Waking in a cold sweat, Sophia nervously discussed these dreams with Walton. 

"Don't be telling the others" Walton suggested, "It would only trouble them"

The next day Joe gathered us up and took us into the town with a list of supplies. Walton put his mystical bookkeeping and negotiating skills to good use, and we returned some hours later with everything on the list, and then some. Monty was also surprised to receive a handful of change from his coin bag.

"You should never give it all back" mumbled Slim, "You Mystic loser"

A hideously evil creature tormented the children

That night Sophia was again plagued by disturbing dreams. 

Female slaves screamed as evil creatures stalked them and violated them, 

Children were tortured and whimpered in fear as a hideous monster leered in front of them, saliva and juices dribbling down its face, and crooked teeth snapping for them. "Help me ..." echoed in Sophia's mind as she jerked into wakefulness, panicked and breathless.

"What the fringing heck?" wondered Sophia, "where are these evil images coming from?"

Quietly discussing the dreams with Walton, they decide that they had better talk to the slave girl in the silver cage, despite Monty's express instructions not to have any interactions with her. Ever!

That morning Monty told everyone that we would be staying here another night and moving on the following morning. "Have a good rest" he said, "the next few days travel will be tougher"

That evening, Sophia and Walton contrived to secretly talk to the slave girl. They determined that she was from Gazebo, where her parents had been killed and she had been sold into slavery. She also had been having bad dreams, about evil creatures, and an unknown Priestess who wanted her help.

"Could that be you?" Walton quietly asked Sophia later.

"I don't need no help!" responded Sophia, "Although these dreams are so bad, I can't even recover any magic points"

Perversely, that night Sophia's dreams were totally normal, consisting of dice rolling across the craps table and coming up seven every time. She awoke totally refreshed.

The terrain was more hilly

After a hearty breakfast, we broke camp and started off towards the Spoon River crossing, two days travel away. The terrain was becoming hilly, and Monty's prediction of tougher travel was born out. But the time quickly passed, there were no encounters, problems, or interruptions to the journey. 

We camped out on a small rise for the night, and Monty let everyone know that we would not be crossing the Spoon River by the main bridge, but rather we would be using an alternative crossing that he knew about.

"About a days travel upstream from the main bridge" he noted. 

"A much quieter and less busy crossing, only known to some"

"A smuggler crossing no doubt" muttered Ghandi, nodding his head knowingly. 

The next morning we woke to the sound of heavy rain pounding on the tents. Sophia's sleep had been blessedly peaceful again, and pretty soon we were dressed in the wet-weather gear and on our way. We diverted away from the path to the main river crossing and dropped down a ridge to the right. The Spoon River could be seen in the distance, wending its way across our path. As we dropped down off the hills, we lost sight of the river, and pretty soon it was just Monty leading us through the scrub and bush slopes that kept us heading in the right direction. The wagons snaked their way through the thickening bush, barely squeezing between the tress, as we followed some small trails that Monty seemed to be familiar with.

A large waterwheel powered the bridge span

Later that afternoon the rain lifted, and we could hear the rushing sounds of a river ahead. We popped out of the bush just upstream of an old two-span stone bridge that crossed the river at a narrow point. The far span was raised up at around forty-five degrees, so the bridge effectively stopped at mid-span, and we weren't crossing until the span was lowered down!

A complicated mechanical system at the hinge point on the far abutment was connected back to a three-story wooden house with a giant waterwheel. A faint trace of woodsmoke could be seen exiting the chimney.

At the upstream side of the house, a flight of stone steps climbed up from the riverbank path to a small deck. The wooden door there swung slowly in the breeze. 

Something was definitely amiss at the wheelhouse.

"Lower the bloody bridge" Monty yelled at the house. There was no reply.

"Bugger" Monty complained, "It's meant to be down"

"Joe" Monty instructed, "Take the group over there and find out what's going on"

The water was relatively shallow, unless you are a Gnome, so Walton hoisted Malcolm onto his shoulders and carefully wades out into the river. Slim gathered up Balder, who complained profusely, and followed Walton out into the water. 

Sophia doesn't like water, so she asked for a lift across too. Donk plucked Sophia off the bank, settled her over his shoulders, and strode out after Slim and Walton. From the far bank, Slim and Walton set down the Gnomes, and turned to watch Donk and Sophia crossing.

About halfway over, Donk stumbled, flailed around for a bit, and then just disappeared under the water. Sophia bobbed up, gurgling and flailing her arms about. It was a stroke of Luck, but she managed to catch hold of a small log that happened to be floating by, and she drifted slowly downstream until becoming wedged against a few rocks.

No sign of Donk though. [Jeff failed his Dexterity roll, then failed his Luck roll, and then failed his swimming roll. This left Donk in a precarious situation. Weighed down by his chain mail, that he had foolishly decided to wear during the river crossing, he had stumbled into a hole in the riverbed, and was unable to regain his feet] 

Donk was lying on the bottom of the riverbed, the weight of his armour and the flow of the river current holding him down. He could see the surface above him, trails of bubbles streaming out of the nooks and crannies of his chain mail and bursting up out of the water just above him. But nothing he tried had any effect. He was trapped, and his breath was rapidly running out.

Just as it seemed that Donk would open his mouth and fill his lungs with river water, an arm reached down from the surface, grabbed Donk by the hair, and hauled him up and out. Bursting through the surface of the water, Donk gasped in a great lungful od air, and looked up. Walton had a firm grip on Donk's hair and was looking down worriedly.

"Thought we'd lost you" Walton commented.

Donk staggered to the bank, while Walton splashed off to rescue Sophia from off the rocks where she was holding on tightly, and shivering fit to burst. 

"Praise to VINGT-ET-UN" she chattered, "That was Lucky"

After drying off, we turned out attention to the wheelhouse. Pairs of windows looked down at us, and the open door was just way too inviting.

"In you go" Joe suggested.

Balder cast a Protection from Normal Missiles on Donk, and then slipped behind him as the group advanced up the steps to the open door. The creak of the hinges could be heard over the splashing of the river behind us as Donk took the last of the steps and slipped into the doorway. Donk looked around the large open room at the front of the house, the wheel room he decided. It was immediately apparent that the bridge wasn't coming down any time soon! The room was empty of people, but bent and twisted hunks of metal and smashed cogs and gears were littered across the floor. The large metal axle that poked up through the floor from the waterwheel mechanism below, slowly turned. But the equipment that had probably connected it to the bridge mechanism had been torn loose, smashed, and strewn across the room, 

"Oh golly gosh" cried Balder in shock, "Someone done a wery vine job on that!"

"Looks like at least 2 to 3 days to get that going again" he concluded.

There were two other door openings off the far side of the room, so we moved on deeper into the house.

On the left the door led into a workshop. Tools hung from the walls, and an assortment of metal item and unknown mechanisms littered the benches. One wall held bookcases, filled with books.

"Oh golly gosh" whispered Balder, "I av died and gone to Heaven!"

But there were no exits from this workshop, and no people there either. We moved back to the second exit from the wheel room and entered a huge kitchen space. A stair on the far side of the room went both up, and down, and on the left-hand wall were two closed doors. On the right wall was a large stone fireplace, embers glowing red and a wisp of smoke rising up and disappearing up the chimney.

Odd footprints

"Look" noted Slim, "Blood on the floor, and lots of odd three-toed webbed footprints"

We tried the left-hand door first, but that just led to an empty washroom with tubs and a couple of showers.

"Look" noted Slim, "Puddles of warm water in the shower stalls"

The right-hand door led into a porch space, empty boot racks lined one wall, and an opening led out the back of the house to stairs that dropped to ground level.

"Look" noted Slim, "Five pairs of boots still tucked in here"

So, it was back to the kitchen and the stairs. Up, or down?

"Ssshhh" whispered Slim, "Did you hear that?"

A slight creaking in the floorboards above us indicated that something was up there.

"Let's go down and check the basement" said Walton loudly, with a big wink.
Walton pointed at Malcolm, and waved him over to the stairs leading up.

Malcolm crept up the stirs towards the creaking floor, while the rest of us clomped about noisily below. Reaching the top of the stairs, Macolm silently peered down the corridor there. All three doors along each side of the corridor were closed, and there was nothing to see. Listening at the first door, Malcolm heard nothing. Nothing on the other side of the door, and nothing from anywhere else on the floor. Figuring that opening any of the doors might be detrimental to his health, he crept back down the stairs are reported.

"Ssshhh" whispered Slim, "Did you hear that?"

The faint sound of a door opening and closing drifted down the stairs from above. Then the quiet patter of running feet sounded. Donk, Joe, Slim, and Malcolm charged up the staircase, thumping loudly on each tread and sounding out a battle cry. Well, Donk and Slim were yelling, Malcolm was as silent as a sneaky Gnome thief, and Joe was focussed on getting his feet onto each step without tripping and forgot to yell.

The lizardmen were carrying tridents

Arriving at the upper level, Donk saw two odd looking lizard creatures, standing upright on two hind legs, at the end of the corridor. They had a ladder leaning up the wall, and there was an open trapdoor above them. They were climbing onto the ladder and heading up into some attic space above. Donk hesitated at the first door, wondering about the possibility that enemies might emerge behind them if they all rushed forward, and Slim pushed past and raced towards the climbing lizard creatures. 

Slim dived forward, just as the ladder was being pulled up through the trapdoor from above and grabbed the ladder firmly by the bottom rung. The creatures let the ladder go and slammed the trapdoor doom with a sold thud. Donk, Joe, and Malcolm checked all the six rooms that opened off the corridor, but nothing of interest was found. Except for a dead human body in the last room!

"Bloody tridents" stated Slim, "Those things were carrying tridents"

Donk and Slim placed the ladder below the trapdoor and Donk climbed up and gave a shove. The trapdoor gave only slightly, there was something very heavy up on top.

Suddenly, there was a lot of croaking noises from above, guttural shouting and screams. Donk quickly retreated back to the floor, and looking up noticed a few drops of greenish-yellow liquid seeping down around the trapdoor.

"Malcolm" Donk asked, "Can you sneak a look in through an attic window?"

Malcolm quickly clambered out one of the bedroom windows and climbed up the outside of the house to the attic level. Peering through one of the upper windows, Malcom saw two dead lizard creatures collapsed next to the trapdoor location. A large storage box was sitting over the trapdoor, and a greyish figure in a flapping cloak was crouched over them. It leant down and ripped off an arm and started to eat. Then another of the greyish creatures drifted out of the darkness of the attic and joined the first. They both looked hungry, and nasty as.

"We definitely don't want to be going up there" Malcolm reported after he clambered back in through the bedroom window.

Balder cast a Lock spell. There was a satisfying "snick" sound, and we all retreated back to the kitchen and prepared to explore the basement down below.

The basement looked to primarily be a store, there were crates and barrels stacked around the place, In one of the far corners away from the stairs, a ring of stacked crates hid an opening in the floor. A deep pit dripped about ten metres to some form of tunnel leading off below. Chips and shards of rock could be seen by the light of our torches. This was definitely a "man-made" shaft dug up into the basement from below. And quite recently by the look of it. There was a damp moist smell to the air, but no draft, and no noise. Slim piled up a stack of boxes that could be easily tipped into the hole, and we turned our attention to a large and sturdy wooden door, the only other exit from the basement.

This was a very solid metal reinforced door, with a solid steel locking bar in place between two metal brackets bolted firmly into the stone walls of the basement. Malcolm checked for traps and finding nothing he waved for Donk to come forwards and open it up. Donk grabbed the locking bar with his hands, took a deep breath, and prepared to heave it up and out of the way. But it was cold. Colder than the rest of the room. Colder than Donk expected it to be. Donk let the bar go.

"UM" Donk stated, "Icy cold!" 

Sophia cast a Detect Undead spell and confirmed that there were indeed undead on the other side of the door.

"Let's not go through there" Sophia suggested.

"Ya think?" confirmed Slim sarcastically.

Having explored all of the easily accessible locations in the house, locked off the creepy creatures in the attic, and rigged a trap beside the basement pit, we retreated back over the raised bridge to report to Monty. Malcolm took a rope, leapt off the raised end of the bridge span, deftly tumbled to a halt on the lowered span, and tied off the ropes. We all managed to clamber, or be lowered, down the rope over the river, to the bridge. 

Help us they cried.

Monty set a double guard that night and we all tumbled into our beds. Sophia was hoping to regain some of her magic points, but her disturbing dreams stated up again. This time she dreamt of young girls, drowned beneath still waters, wrapped in weeds, and with their eyes turned glassy white.

"Help us" they cried.

The next morning, Monty tasked Joe to lead us back across the river to escort Samuel, Monty's repairman. He was going to fix up the bridge mechanism so we could lower the raised span and get the wagons across.

"Two days" Monty yelled after us as we hauled ourselves back up the ropes and onto the raised bridge, "Two days!"

Samuel immediately got to work on the broken mechanism in the wheel room, Donk watching over him in case anything came into the house from the river, or down from the locked attic. The rest of the party descended into the basement, planning to explore the underground tunnel and see where it might have started from. Lowering a Light down on a rope, they determined that the passage below led off away from the river. 

"I ain't going down there" argued Slim, "You do it Joe"

"I ain't going down there" replied Joe, "I need to keep an eye on things up here for Monty"

"I'll friggin do it, ya yellow bellied puss buckets" volunteered Malcolm.

He was lowered into the pit, ten metres down, where we watched him untie his rope and scuttle off into the darkness along the tunnel. He was back in about ten minutes, refastened his rope, and climbed up the pit wall faster than Slim could haul the rope up.

"Lots of those webbed footprints" he reported, "The tunnel goes about two-hundred metres with twists and turns, and then dips down into water. I ain't no swimmer, so that's as far as I went"

They set a Light stone at the bottom of the pit, set up a watch rotation at the top of the pit, and up in the wheel room, and settled in for the two-day repair duration. While Walton and Balder were on watch at the pit latter that day, noises were heard from below. A gurgling whisper of sound, and the patter of feet. Balder quickly rushed off to wake and alert the others, and Walton cautiously watched the bottom of the pit. The noises grew slightly louder, and then a green scaled arm reached into the light from the tunnel and grabbed for the Light stone.

Sleep went Walton's spell, and the green arm slumped to the ground. But it quickly got dragged backwards out of sight. Some more gurgling noises and the Light stone went out. Fearing the worst, Walton turned to see Balder rushing back into the room. He raced over to the pit and stood beside Walton, peering down into the dark pit.

"Better stand back" he instructed, "This is a perfect opportunity for my Fireball"

"Oh bugger" Balder complained, "That's a shame"

[The Fireball spell failed to ignite. Jamie had failed his Arcane 3 roll (rolled higher than his skill using the D20), expended the 3 magic points, but with no effect]

The rest of the able party members crowded into the basement, ready to defend the top of the pit with their lives. The croaking noises of many lizardman voices echoed up from the bottom of the pit, and Balder leant over the edge again. 

Slim was caught in the fire

"BOOM" succeeded his second Fireball attempt.

A mighty gout of flame blasted up the pit and into the basement. Flames washed across the wooden ceiling and billowed back down the walls in a swirling maelstrom of fire. Slim and Joe were both caught in the backdraft, suffering immediate fire damage. Joe was slightly singed, but Slim took some serious burns around the face. 

"Second time lucky" beamed Balder.

"You idiot" Slim huffed, his eyebrows singed off and smoke rising off his leather armour.

"The ceiling" yelled Sophia, noticing the flames establish themselves on the wooden ceiling, which was the floor of the kitchen above. "The whole house will go up" she screamed.

"Water" yelled Walton.

Recalling that she was able to create water, albeit in smallish quantities, Sophia began a series of Create Water spells centred on the flaming ceiling. After multiple successful spells, she had the fire out, the blackened and charred flooring gently steaming, and water everywhere.

A couple of Cures for Slim, and things settled back down. There were no lizardmen bodies down at the bottom of the pit, but neither was there any more noise. They had taken their dead and retreated.

Sophia took a clerical wafer and slumped into an enforced magic-point recovery rest. She would be out for ten hours. The guard watches were reconfigured and reestablished, but nothing else exciting occurred, until Samuel reported that his repairs were complete. The bridge span was lowered, and the wagons were all rolled across. Once everybody was across, Samuel disabled the wheelhouse mechanism, effectively locking the bridge span down, and we continued on the trip.

The next portion of the journey would take us overland to Able, near the headwaters of the Oxfam River, somewhere up in the Able Pass. Monty figured this would be a six-seven-day stage, with a slight detour around the town of Emanter Phile.

"We don't want to go too near that place!" Monty noted.

Monty's cross-country path seemed to be serving us well. They had been no major encounters, apart from the creatures at the river crossing. But no raids or attacks. That's got to be a good thing right?

Over the next few days Sophia was troubled every night by the dreams and messages that were building in intensity. Discussing the situation with Walton again, they decided they had better talk to the slave-girl in the silver cage again. Given the repeated requests for help from young girls in the dreams, they figured that she must be involved somehow. So, they repeated the actions that had worked so successfully last time. 

But I guess VINGT-ET-UN had other plans, and just after starting a conversation with the slave-girl, a guard walked around the end of the wagon and caught them mid-conversation. Monty was summoned, and pretty soon the whole guard crew and our party were standing around a full-noise yell fest.

"What was the one rule?" screamed Monty in a rage.

"Ah, there were three rules" pointed out Balder quietly.

"What was the one rule ... about the friggin girl?" screamed Monty, saliva flying.

"Joe, grab that Gnome, gag him, and toss him in the slave wagon with the other men" yelled Monty.

Things were going downhill fast, and we weren't even halfway yet. Sophia used her charm, appeal, and good looks to Persuade Monty that perhaps the slave wagon was a bit much for poor Balder, "After all, he was the one who saved everyone from the Lizardmen, and that let us get over the bridge"

[Ian was successful with his roll against his Persuade skill. Persuade is a skill based on a combination of all those factors that might be used to influence a decision. Monty's decision was influenced, he calmed down, and concluded that the slave wagon wasn't probably the best after all]

"Perhaps the slave wagon is a bit much" recanted Monty, "Joe, three lashes for the Gnome!"

"And don't interact with the friggin girl" yelled Monty, "Or it'll be you (pointing at Walton) in the slave wagon."

Walton and Sophia decided that talking to the slave-girl perhaps wasn't such a good idea and backed off that plan. The dreams continued, Sophia not getting a good rest and night, getting more and more exhausted and haggard. The messages during the dreams were getting clearer though. And she started having waking dreams, during the day. A voice in her head. Not heard by anyone else.

"Help me" had diversified into "Let me out" and "I can't go to Draser" and "Help me"

It was definitely the slave-girl.

"She ain't no girl" noted Slim, "She might look like one, but she ain't"

Sophia is gagged by Zara

Sophia decided that she would need to discuss the situation with Zara, but that didn't work out too well! Zara got Joe to gag Sophia with one of those anti-magic devices. "Just in case you are unduly influenced and try to cast spells" she said. "You can move around like normal, just no spells. Or talking"

"Gumph buuh slgggh" replied Sophia angrily.

A days later, the wagon train was winding through some low hills, and we heard and saw a large combat occurring on top of a rise in the distance. Clouds of dust were billowing up, and the clash and clang of steel echoed down the hillside towards us. Stopping to observe, Monty called out for Joe.

"Joe, send that group up there to see what's going on"

Joe gathered us together, removed Sophia's gag, and sent us forward to see what was going on. We moved up a little way, then decided to send Malcolm forward to scout out the battle site. Malcolm stepped behind a blade of grass and disappeared. A few branches rustled ahead of us. Some minutes later, Malcolm returned to report that a great battle had occurred. The bodies of Gnomes and Orc's littered the ground, cut down by great sword blows. Some bloody Orc tracks led off towards the hills, and a mounted horseman was perusing.

"One horseman?" queried Walton.

"Yup" confirmed Malcom.

"How many bodies again" asked Slim.

"Dozens" confirmed Malcolm.

"Wow" Joe stammered, "Who the heck is that horseman?"

Monty decided that we would ignore the battle and move on to a good defensible campsite.

"The enemy of our enemies is a friend, right?" he figured.

... To be continued

 

Rescue in Brian

Present:

• Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
• Elvis Ghenna (elf bard) - Shane
• Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie
• Slim Jim (human rogue) - Darryl
• Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew
• MARMALADE: Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris

• 

  The Golden Compass

  Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff
• Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin
• NPC child Colin
• NPC child Amelia

By Walton

Our party was exploring old mining tunnels under the town of Brian. We had just robbed he tomb of the dwarf miner and had stolen his magical golden Compass.

But this tomb was a side diversion (we were good at being diverted). The main reason we were in Brian was to rescue the mother of two children Amelia and Colin. She was Jermaine, priestess of Aquamarina (Goddess of Water) and was being held captive in the jail of Brian. The town had been overrun by gnolls who were working with a man with Draser livery and a harlequin priestess of Mr Quail, god of Trickery and Mischief.

To avoid the awkward shaft back the way we came, there was a new passage out of the tomb complex. Ignoring the protesting Slim, who wanted to go back, we walked about a hundred paces, and the passage then turned left. 

With dead reckoning, we guessed we were beneath the vicinity of where the Mr Quail priestess had gone. There was a ladder up here. Sophia went for a listen, but she heard only silence. No-one was brave enough to look - we didn't want to meet the harlequin.

The passage continued - an equal distance, but then it just stopped at a blank wall.

"I vill be handling dees," chirped Balder.

And he strode forth, fumbled with the wall, and promptly vanished with a loud magical pop.

It was standard party policy to blindly follow in these circumstances. (If anyone ever wanted an effective party-killer, just make a magic TP that teleports the toucher into lava; the whole party will blindly (and enthusiastically) follow ... and die.)

We all followed and ended up in the cellar of the Brian tavern the Magic Seagull. It was after midnight so no gnoll activity above. This teleport was like the other one in that it would only teleport six people before needing to cool down. We were in no rush, so we just did it slowly and eventually got the whole group through.

So, we all regrouped back to where the Brian tunnels began, in a hill a stone's throw outside the town. Sophia and I were getting low on magical power, and we needed to recharge, so we both took a holy wafer and went to sleep. 

Gold seam

To wile away the eleven hours it took us to recharge, Balder consumed a gem and casts an Identify spell on the magic Compass. Its ability was to give the attuned wearer improved power to detect gold seams [ something like +2 on a Mining skill roll ]

Also, Balder and Slim took compass down a side passage and hid it. Their worry was that it was a unique item and hence would be trackable, in theory.

When we were all awake again, we all went back under Brian again, and made our way back to beneath the Corpulent Jester inn. This inn was next to the next to the cell block with the two gnoll guards outside. 

Ghandi scampered up the ladder and through the trapdoor. Twenty minutes passed and he never came back. Oh dear.

Slim, our second-best sneaker, followed. He came back within the minute and hissed down the trapdoor.

"Ghandi is dead!"

Sophia and I raced up the ladder. The trapdoor opened into a bar area of the inn proper. It looked like this inn had been abandoned since the gnolls invaded. Lucky for us, the trapdoor to the tunnels below was very well concealed and camouflaged. 

There was a bedroom off the inn's common room, and this is where we found Ghandi's body. But he was not dead, but just unconscious. He has been poisoned or ensorcelled.

The effect didn't last too long, and Ghandi came around, right as rain. He was "looting" the bedroom and the wardrobe was trapped. There was a long-dead emaciated corpse under the bed too. 

We had managed to keep our noise down in here. A shout would bring the gnolls from their guard post at the jail next door.

Slim went for an explore too, while the more observant of our group searched the wall which adjoined the jail cell area.

As Slim ascended the stairs (this part of the building was two storey), half-way up, he noticed a line of iron filings on the stair. He carefully stepped over it and got to the top. There was a gloomy hallway with doors off it; the whole level felt cold. He thought he saw shadowy movement from the corner of his eye, so he wisely didn't hang around, and carefully joined us back down in the warm (and did not touch the iron filings on the way down).

While Slim was gone, we indeed DID find a secret door under the stairs. Why this was here, I had no idea, but we certainly took advantage of it!

As I could now cast second level spells with reasonable efficacy, the plan was to have a Silence 5m radius on the back wall of the cell block. That way, the 5m ring of silence would not encompass the two gnoll guards guarding the jail's outside door, and that way the cell occupants, and US, would not need to worry about being noisy.

This was achieved by me leaning out the back window of the tavern's common area and casting the spell on the ground behind the cell block. With the Silence in effect, it was easy to go through the secret door. Ghandi and Slim picked the locks of the three cells and we beckoned all three women out. The presence of the two children allayed any fear the mother might have had.

The spell lasted 10 minutes which was enough time for the lock-picking to go ahead.

RETCON

The three ladies all had spell-caster gags - locked gags to stop any spells [ with the new FSS system, the traditional  "WG grape spell-clearing" no longer works, so these gags were the logical result of the new magic system ].  The three women were Jermaine, the children's mum and Aquamarina priestess, Jemma an Aquamarina mystic and friend of Jermaine, and Esme a wizard who had been captured afterwards by the gnolls. 

With the three freed women in tow, we went back down to the tunnels, Slim hurriedly recovered the hidden compass, and then we hurriedly left Brian, heading for Toluene. If the gnolls pursued, we saw no sign of this. But looking at it from their point of view, the guards would have entered the cell block the next morning, only to find the three cell doors closed and locked (Ghandi relocked them all), and the women gone. We left no other trace.

The trip back to Toluene took nine days - five nights in the mountains and four across farmland, but we were very careful about choosing good campsites [ judicious use of Luck to ensure that we did not fail any Wilderness Survival rolls when selecting campsites ]. There was one night with some kobold trouble, but we are now a large scary party - especially with Jermaine, Jemma and Esme, and the kobolds soon realized they were out-gunned and fled.

Toluene, Brian and Draser

When we got back to Toluene, we had a large list of things to do:

• We said our goodbyes to Jermaine, Jemma, Esme, and the children. 
• I told the Toluene authorities about the gnoll take-over of Brian. As explained in a previous diary entry, Brian was on the borders of the Noah-Basen Confederacy, the Duchy of Draser, the "lakeside protectorate" of Mamba, and Hackerton. But, like the little red hen, all four groups were perfectly happy to participate in the largesse of Brian's gold mines, but as soon as there is any trouble or work to be done in Brian's defence, it is all someone else's problem. Nevertheless, the Toluene council mumbled about doing something. 
• I also wrote a Gnome Post to Hackerton - they are "lawful pedantic" there, so maybe it will strike a chord about laws being broken. Mamba is a small town so its standing garrison is probably too small to afford any soldiers. And Draser wouldn't care a toss. Brian's gold is not flowing much these days, anyway.
• We visited Dimble and updated him about the verbena planting. He was quite happy, and actually paid us. Praise be to Vingt-et-Un! Dimble had some more gifts for "his good gnome friends" Ghandi and Balder. He gave them each a magical necklace (that will improve one skill by 1). But the side-effect was they were magically stuck. 
• We send a message to Druids' Grove about Igbot's death.

Amy Fazarkerley,
Toluene 21 priestess

Sophia and I went to the Vingt-et-Un temple, and paid our tithes, and updated the High Priestess Amy Fazarkerley of all our recent exploits. She was glad for the information. Also, she had some work for us. We needed to go to Draser city to find lady called Simone Fussell. Simone (human) had been sent to Draser for "important investigative temple work", but she had gone silent, and so Amy was worried. (Draser city had no 21 temple - only a shrine). If we took this job - we would need to convince our group - Amy would arrange for us positions as guards on a slave caravan that was about to pass through Toluene in the next few days, en route to Draser. This would give us cover and an excuse to get into Draser.

Draser is not a nice place. It is predominantly human and they are very bigotted (long story). Draser hosts the infamous "Running of the Elves", an annual celebration where (mainly) elves, and criminals have to run the gauntlet through the rough part of town. Those who make it through the other end, are freed. 

Sophia and I (both half-elves, so not so much at risk) were, of course, happy to do the work for Vingt-et-Un. When a representative of your god commands you to jump, you say "how high". But there was the matter of the rest of the party - we needed to get them on board. 

Ugly scarred Elvis, the only elf in our group, (understandably) refused, but he was leaving us anyway; he never got much chance to play his Jewish harp on the road, so was leaving to pursue his bard career.

Balder and Ghandi were also not too keen - another popular Draser sport is Gnome Tossing - so this was understandable. 

Lucky there were no halflings in the group. Draser has two sports for halflings: "Angry Halflings" fired with catapults, plus the famous "Draser Halfling Kebab". We didn't have any dwarfs either: "Draser Ten Pin Dwarf Bowling" would not be appreciated.  

Slim wanted to go off on a wild goose chase to sell the golden compass for "millions of gold pieces". We soon out-voted this wild idea, but he had his heart set on the compass as a future nest egg, and he was worried that some gangster demon or mafia lord would steal it, so we agreed to escort him to hide it. It was buried a day's walk out of town.

Monty's Caravan

  

The caravan arrived in a couple of days. It was run by Monty the Goth, who was a grizzled no-nonsense fighter chap with one eye. He had 15 guards already which we would be joining. The slave caravan had 6 wagons. Three of the wagons held 18 human and half-elf slave girls - all attractive. One wagon had a large cage with silver bars which contained a solitary young girl. This was a "special" bespoke order, and Monty wouldn't say any more, except to "stay away from her".

Monty gave Sophia, Ghandi, Balder and me "kobold livery". This was a small embroidered kobold that was to be sewn onto the wearer's garment. In Draser city grounds, all non-humans must wear kobold livery, else they will be arrested on sight.

I asked Monty if we would travel down the main road: Puck, Trillery, Xyster, Okle, but he said no, we were to go cross country, even though it would be slower. This whole area (including Toluene) is pro-slavery, so there is no problem on the legality front.

Balder the Brave

• Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie

• Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff

• LATE: Elvis Ghenna (elf bard) - Shane

• Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin

• Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris

• Slim Jim (human rogue) - Darryl

• Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian

• Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew

Balder peers into the gloom

They had decided that it was to be a stealth mission, sneaking into the town of Brian via the old mines and underground tunnel, to rescue the kids' mother from the cells. Cousin Malcolm and the Priestess Sophia were to undertake the actual risky stuff, and I, Balder, was to enable it all using my Invisibility spell. I had offered my Fireball, as yet untested, but they felt that it would be too conspicuous. Pretty sure it would be spectacular though!

They figured that 2am would be the ideal time, the Gnolls having had some few hours to carouse through the evening, and then be thinking about rest and sleep.

As my internal chronometer ticked over to 1am, I signalled to the others that it was time and that we should be off. Casting a simple Torch spell onto the head of my staff, I peered out into the mines, trying to remember which tunnel we needed to use.

"This way" noted Walton confidentially, leading us off down one of the mine tunnels.

Leaving Elvis, Slim, and the kids at the mine entrance, the rest of the party trudged off after Walton and Donk, through the mines, along the old escape tunnel, and held our final briefing just before the tunnel's hidden door into the cellar of the old Brian Inn. Walton reemphasized the strategy again. I was to cast the Invisibility on Cousin Malcolm and Sophia, they would slip up the ladder into the Inn, stealthily make their way around the town wall past all the Gnoll guards to the location of the cells, where Cousin Malcolm would unlock the doors, release the kids' mother, and then they would sneak her back here. Simple.

Cousin Malcolm, Sophia, and I moved forward to the cellar door, and I cast my spells.

"Pop" went Cousin Malcolm, disappearing from sight.
"Pop" went Sophia, also disappearing.
"Ten minutes" I reminded them, as faint footstep noises crossed the cellar and scuffed up the ladder.

Then I retreated back to join the others and waited ....

... and waited ...

... and waited ...

Donk is like a wall all by himself

After maybe fifteen minutes I heard noises from the cellar. Peering between Donks legs I spotted Cousin Malcolm and Sophia dropping down the ladder and crossing the cellar towards us. They didn't look to be in any hurry, and in fact they stopped halfway across the cellar and Sophia cast a spell. It looked like a Detect Magic, and then she cast a Torch spell, and carefully studied the cellar wall in the soft glow from the Torch.

Turns out there were some magical Dwarfish runes carved into the wall of the cellar, and a creepy feeling of being watched had alerted Sophia to their presence. Weird!

Anyhow, as anticipated, the rescue mission hadn't quite gone to plan. There were a number of Gnoll guards patrolling the top of the town walls, and two small squads consisting of a Gnoll and a leached Wolf patrolling around the central stockade. Plus, two alert Gnoll guards stationed at the door of the cells! Which only had one set of barred windows, right next to the door, and the guards.

"Too challenging" stated Sophia, "and we are all out of magic points!"

We dejectedly trudged back to mine entrance to rest up for the day. Once we arrived there and reported to Elvis and Slim, I took one of my recharge grapes and dropped into restorative sleep.

Waking about nine hours later, I found that my magic points had still not fully recharged, and nor had Walton's, or Elvis's. We decided to rest again, while the others explored a bit more of the mines to see if there was another path to the town. That led directly to the cells, Slim hoped!

I took another of my grapes, and again dropped into restorative sleep.

Exactly ten hours later I woke, magic points fully restored, and itching for some excitement. Walton explained that we would have another run at the cells, but this time with a distraction to lure away the guards outside the cells.

"Fireball?" I asked hopefully. 
"Nope" replied Walton, "too conspicuous".
"I can burn something!" suggested Red eagerly.
"Nope" replied Walton, "too dangerous".
"I'm going to have a crack at it sometime!" I muttered quietly to myself.

Due to the extended magic recovery duration, this run was going to be slightly later that yesterday. If it took us an hour again to get to the cellar, that it would be a 3am start. Maybe the guards would be gone then? Ha!

And off we all went again, except for Elvis, Slim, and the kids. Same trip up the tunnels, same plan, with a little diversion thrown in to get past the guards at the prison.

"Pop" went Cousin Malcolm, disappearing from sight.
"Pop" went Sophia, also disappearing.
"Ten minutes" I reminded them, as faint footstep noises crossed the cellar and scuffed up the ladder.

Then I retreated back to join the others and waited ....

... and waited ...

... and waited ...

"Yawn"
It was so boring just standing there behind Donk.
"Hadn't Sophia said something about magic runes on the wall of the cellar?" I wondered.
"Those sound really cool. I could just have a quick look while waiting" I mused.
"The others will be back shortly; I can just meet them in the cellar" I figured.

Three runes were carved into the wall

Moving forward into the cellar, I could definitely feel the sense of being observed that Cousin Malcom had mentioned. It was emanating from the wall on the right, between the secret entrance to the tunnel and the ladder up to the inside of the Inn. Sure enough, there were three runes carved into the wall there. They were low down, about my height, so easy to see and to explore.

Tracing the runes with my finger I noticed that the central one was surrounded by a faint joint in the stone. Does it move? Giving it a light push, there was a detectible movement as the block of stone on which it was carved slipped slightly back into the wall. Wow, cool. Maybe it would move a lot? So I gave it a decent shove. The whole stone block slid back with a click, and a panel of the wall silently swung open to reveal a level tunnel leading off into the darkness. A stale musty smell wafted out in a puff as the secret door swung open. Wow, cool. Surely this would lead us to the prison, and we could just get the prisoners out without even going into the Gnoll infested town! Hopefully Cousin Malcolm would be back soon and we could just head off down this way.

Sure enough, just then the trapdoor swung up and the sounds up climbing rattled on the ladder. Still invisible. That's good I thought, no desperate action could have been required on their trip.

And sure enough, no desperate action had been required. All lights were out at the other Inn, but still the roving patrols on the walls and around the central palisade with two alert guards on duty at the prison. Sophia managed to get a look into the prison, through the barred windows beside the guards, and there were three separate locked cells inside there. Too tricky they decided.

Mistress Quail was spotted

They even spotted two humans who were wandering about the town as if they owned the place. A burly male fighter in black chain mail, and a weirdly dressed women in a red and black patchwork costume, with a hat thing with two read and black dangling tails. 

Sophia reckoned she would be a Priestess of Mister Quail. 

Mmmm, suspicious, humans working with the Gnolls to subdue a whole town. To dig for something ...

Everyone was pretty excited about my discovery of the door leading to another tunnel though, so we planned the exploration and set off. Red as the muscle in case of encounters, me for leadership and magical support, Cousin Malcom for sneaking, and Sophia for ... um, ... maybe her sneaking skills too.

Activating the Torch spall on my staff, we moved cautiously forward. The tunnel was pretty spacious, obviously hand carved through the rock by superior Dwarven craftsmen. Well, when I say spacious, Cousin Malcom and I found it spacious, Red could just fit his bulk in by turning slightly sideways, and Sophia had to duck a little. So, single file, and spacious for us Gnomes anyway. Red led; he was good at discovering problems and I let him take the point position.

After about fifty metres, the tunnel opened up into a small square chamber, a ladder running up the left-hand wall, and a closed door on the far side. Given the distance we had come from the cellar, I figured we were probably directly under the barracks building.  No way we should test out the ladder and go up there, so Red strode across the chamber and stood in front of the door. As he reached out for the big doorknob, he hesitated, and looking back at Cousin Malcom, asked about the possibility of traps.

"No traps here" stated Cousin Malcolm confidently, after activating his Detect Traps spell.

Red opened up the door and squeezed into the tunnel. He led us on for another 40 metres where it opened up into another chamber, with a ladder up, but no other exits. I figured we were probably directly under the second Inn building. The prison was attached to the end of that building so somewhere over on our left by about thirty meters should be the cells. Unfortunately, in that direction was just the carved stone wall of the chamber. Maybe there is another hidden door?

Running my hands over the wall on that side of the chamber I noticed a minute roughness and the hint of a door there. After some careful prodding, another hidden door swung open to reveal a dark tunnel leading on towards the prison and the cells. Perfect ...

But the tunnel just kept going, right past where the prison was expected to be, and on to probably the other side of the town. This wasn't going to help us get into the prison ...

The tunnel stopped at a 1.5m diameter well shaft that extended up to the surface above, we could see stars glittering up there, and down about 3m to water below. On the left of the shaft, ninety degrees around from our tunnel, another tunnel led off to the side. It was going to be a tricky manoeuvre to cross the well shaft to the next section of tunnel. But not to worry, I knew Spider Climb!

After casting the Spider Climb spell on Cousin Malcolm, he shimmied around the corner with a torch, and explored the next section of the tunnel. His quiet commentary drifted back to us for a few minutes.

"Same size as the rest of tunnels, so pretty spacious"
"Maybe ten meters along here to what seems like a dead end"
"This end wall is as smooth as"

"No signs of a hidde ...."

His commentary cut off in mid-sentence, no exclamation, no gaps, no noises, just gone.

I cast Spider Climb on Red, and he squeezed himself around the well shaft and into the other tunnel, his huge sword held out in front of him; in case of silent enemies, he stated.

Once on the other side, he threw back his rope and pulled Sophia and I across too.

"While I can still climb" he said, "I'll pop back and report to the others"

[Chris was heading home. He was also planning to be away on vacation for a few weeks, so we extracted his character from any possible hazards ahead and sent him back to the others who were waiting safely at the secret entrance to the Inn cellar]

Still no sign of Cousin Malcolm, so I began looking for any sort of door mechanism. Low down towards the floor there was some kind of rough patch on the smooth end wall. As soon as my fingers brushed across the centre of the patch, POP, magically teleported to yet another room.

Cousin Malcolm was there, the idiot, just looking at the Dwarven runes carved all over the walls. There was one exit from this room, not counting the wall where we had arrived. Casting Detect Magic, Sophia noted that the wall where we arrived was actually magical, and she was able to POP back out through the wall. And back in again. She left a note there for the others so they would know to follow us in!

The three of us decided to explore further, and we peered through the other exit into another man-made chamber, again carved out of the rock and covered in Dwarven runs. An opening led away on the far side of the chamber, and sitting in the middle of the chamber was a large stone sarcophagus, its lid partly off and tipped down to the floor. Tracks from some large creature with claws, talons, and some form of dragged tail, were scattered across the floor, and led in and out of the far opening. A pile of dried (but still warmish) faeces sat on the floor near the exit. Ewww

Sophia cast a Detect Magic and reported that something magical was in the sarcophagus.

A dwarven skeleton lay inside

Malcolm scuttled up the sarcophagus lid and peered into the sarcophagus. 

"Some old dead Dwarf" he exclaimed, "Wearing armour, with a big ole axe, and a gold compass thing"

"Don't touch anything" I yelled, as he reached forward, and he quickly scuttled back down.

We followed the footprints through the opening, around a curving tunnel, and into another, larger, chamber. This room had two closed sarcophagi, and a pile of rock where one of the side walls had collapsed into the room. A dark system of old natural caves loomed menacingly on the other side of the pile of rock. It was pretty obvious to me that some ancient creature had found its way into this tunnel system from the caves/mines beyond and disturbed the first sarcophagus that we had found. No doubt it was still out there somewhere, and we would find it in due course.

In the meantime, Sophia cast another Detect Magic and reported that the two seals on the sarcophagi were magical. These magical seals consisted of a continuous band of some form of metal that spanned across the joint of the sarcophagi lids, holding them closed, and keeping whatever was inside them, in.

"Don't touch those" Sophia commanded, as Cousin Malcolm reached towards them.

Not willing to brave the unexplored caves, we retreated back into the first room with the open sarcophagus. It was time to make sure that nothing bad was lingering here.

Detect Evil and Detect Traps were cast. Both negative, fortunately.

A strange golden compass was retrieved

Sophia carefully reached for the golden compass, cautiously touched it lightly, then lifted it out of the sarcophagus when nothing happened and slipped it carefully into her backpack. Cousin Malcolm climbed up the sarcophagus lid again and laid his hand on the shaft of the huge axe.

"I couldn't even use this baby" he noted with a grin, then jumped backwards with a shriek.

The Dwarven skeleton rolled over, tugged slightly on the axe, and then crumbled to dust.

Cousin Malcolm peered back over the side of the sarcophagus, and then retrieved the axe.

Deciding that we had done all we could without the rest of the party, we prepared to head back through the magical door and join up with the others. Sophia went through first, that I touched the wall in the triggering location, but nothing happened. Cousin Malcolm had a go, nothing! Sophia was out, and just us two Gnomes left behind in the caverns with the sarcophagi. Bloody typical.

We poked and prodded at the wall to no avail.

And then Sophia appeared again. Cousin Malcom nearly shat himself when she appeared right over him. She said it was the golden compass that was the problem, so she had left it outside in the tunnel. But there must have been something else, because we still couldn't leave, and nor could she!

So, now we were all stuck on the caves side of the magic door, the rest of the party somewhere on the other side. We tried for quite a while to get back through, but eventually decided that we would just rest there and hopefully the others would arrive at some point. I was pretty confident they would. And I didn't really want to head out into the caves where that old monster might be lurking.

Leaving Cousin Malcolm to watch over us, Sophia and I dossed down to natural rest and spell recovery.

"Don't wake us unless it's really urgent" I told Cousin Malcolm before curling up in the corner of the room next to Sophia and closing my eyes....

[The knickers incident occurred during Balder's rest, so he didn't witness this. Perhaps a separate post will be required that covers this particular incident, so everyone can share the mirth]

The mighty dwarven axe