May 15, 2004
The party descended into the lower level of the temple and split into two groups; one group consisted of Romé and Irafan who moved down the left-hand corridor, while the other group consisted of Ronand and Phelps, who ventured down a right-hand corridor. James eventually finished cleaning his weapon and followed Ronand and Phelps.
Romé and Irafan found a long hallway with open doorways on one side and a massive set of double-doors on the other. Each open door on the right side of the hallway entered a 15x15 room in which sat a bed and a desk. In the first such room, Irafan discovered a journal detailing the city's fall and the war in the west.
Ronand, Phelps and James meanwhile, moved down the other side of the hall to discover that windows all along the outer perimeter allowed moonlight to shine in. They ventured down the hall to discover the mess hall where the clerics of the temple once ate their meals. Further down the hall stood the library, full of tattered and ancient books.
Romé and Irafan discovered zombies in several of the rooms, and determined that each of the rooms were the chambers of the priests of the temple. A wraith passed them by, and over the next few minutes, Romé summoned both a Dretch (a kind of demon) and a Bearded Devil to serve him.
Ordering the bearded devil to force the massive double-doors open, Romé discovered that the doors were magically sealed. Irafan attempted to overcome the seal with a knock spell, but failed. The doors stood fast.
James, Phelps and Ronand meanwhile, met up with several other undead, and ultimately killed them. Ronand cast Undeath to Death, thus destroying a large number of skeletons and zombies, and the rest were slowly picked apart by James and slashed to pieces by Phelps.
The trio then rounded the corner and discovered a pair of massive double-doors. James pulled out a large amount of his gunpowder and told Ronand to find the rest of the party. Ronand took to the air via his Celestial Armor and flew down the corridor to find Romé and Irafan.
The two spellcasters were still attempting to get the door open when Ronand caught up to them. Using his own idea, he cast an antimagic field on the door allowing Romé to lift the latch and pull it open enough to enter.
Phelps tore a door off of its hinges across the hall and used it to shield he and James from the blast of the gunpowder which James set off using his mithril flintlock, Dawn. The blast cracked the doors slightly, allowing them entry.
Calling in to Romé, Irafan heard the necromancer call out "Come on in, it's safe."
The party entered through their two doors to see that it was not safe. A master vampire and five vampire spawn stood across the room before an altar upon which Vivacé was tied.
The vampire challenged James to a duel and the two fought while the rest of the party stayed out of their way. James diarmed the vampire, but the creature would not take defeat easily. He pulled out a mace and attempted to attack James, but the duelist was too quick for him, and took away the weapon.
Now enraged, the vampire threw out all honorable rules and leapt on James attempting to bite his neck. The rest of the party, save for Romé, leapt in to help.
The necromancer left while the battle was being fought, after having noticed a high balcony above the altar upon which a shadowy figure was standing. Romé left the room, heading for the library. Irafan followed.
Phelps, not knowing what to do while James and the vampire fought, noticed a massive white metal sword driven into the altar. He attempted to pull it out, but was suddenly paralyzed by a hold person spell. Ronand quickly freed him from it, and the fighter became reluctant to touch the sword again until Vivacé called to him to pull the sword out.
Ronand cast a daylight spell on the room, illuminating the lich on the balcony above. He cast flame strike on the lich twice, finally destroying it. He then cast searing light on the vampire, which made the beast quite upset.
James freed himself of the vampire and now stood, significantly weakened by the creature's bite. Vivacé called to Phelps again to pull the sword from the altar, and the fighter complied. As the sword came free, a tremendous burst of positive energy blasted through the room and through the city, destroying the undead which had not already fallen to the party's weapons.
The weapon began to speak to Phelps, telling him that its name was Shadowreaver, and it needed to return to Cærlon where it belonged. Phelps swore to the sword that he would personally see it returned to the main continent.
The city of the dead now ultimately decimated, James sent word to Captain Morden who returned to secure the city until the Grand Duke's troops could come upriver to establish a garrison in the former city of the dead.
Meanwhile, across the continent in the north, another party of adventurers explored the Tower of Adamant.
Please stay tuned for the Tower of Adamant and updates on the progress of the game. They will be listed on a separate page, but will be linked from the main Gamers site.
Thank you all for playing, and I will see you in subsequent adventures!
-the Marquis du Jarod
May 8, 2004
Phelps brought his 15 pound keg of gunpowder to the main gate of the city in time to see the doors begin to close, with Vivacé inside. He immediately began digging a hole in order to shape the charge for maximum blast in the direction of the massive doors.
Meanwhile in the temple district, James watched as Lord Rothay's flesh slowly boiled off of him leaving an animated corpse. He paused for a moment, then moved into the hallway to collect his rapier. The three guards who were patrolling the hall, now skeletons, gave him little trouble as he tumbled past them, and stole his rapier back. He then climbed out the window and began hopping rooftops in the direction of the temple of Hyliiea, the goddess of kindness.
Romé and Ronand met up in the temple district courtyard and noticed that the zombies did not advance upon them unless they were within ten feet or so of the undead creatures. Other undead however, including a spectre, were more bold, attacking outright. Romé cast Enlarge Person on Ronand, and the now 12 foot tall cleric began bashing all the creatures who stood in his path.
Irafan, having attempted to follow Phelps back to the encampment, now returned to the city to find the gates closed. Flying high over the antimagic field produced by the walls of the town, he reentered the city and saw Phelps on the ground outside the door. Vivacé was nowhere in sight.
It was about this time that Phelps' gunpowder went off.
Once the door was obliterated, Phelps and Irafan entered the city. Before venturing on to the temple district, they dragged a zombie out of the main gate to see whether or not the zombie would fall apart when brought outside. It did not. They then moved with all haste toward the temple district, Irafan suddenly aware that they were being watched by a shadowy figure.
Romé was the first into the temple, casting passwall in order to circumvent the locked gate. He climbed a staircase and entered a large chapel full of pews where a large, broken statue of a woman stood on the other side of the room. Numerous skeletons wandered through the chapel, and Romé noticed a shadowy curtain of a being phase through the wall. A wraith.
Irafan and Phelps caught up to the rest of the group and the party entered the chapel to see what Romé saw. The skeletons attacked immediately, but were unable to match the party's fighting prowess. James disarmed and destroyed several skeletons, one of which fell prey to a double-barrelled blast from Dusk, James' adamantite flintlock pistol, while Phelps dealt with several others. Romé controlled the wraith and told it to go about its business but to not attack him. He then moved across the room to the far wall.
Ronand meanwhile had turned several of the skeletons who were now attempting to climb the far wall of the chapel. The wraith, now under Romé's control and confused by the situation, began to attack its allies. Irafan dealt with a number of the beasts and through the party's expertise, the skeletons were destroyed.
As the party moved forward to deal with the wraith, Romé commanded it to take him to its master. The wraith phased through the wall next to the statue.
Examination of the statue revealed a silver cup, once held by the statue, and a set of stairs leading down into the lower part of the temple. The party descended the stairs as James fell behind to clean and reload his gun.
Next time: Endgame. The Final Chapter!
May 1, 2004
As the sun rose over the city, the party awoke to find Irafan, the Loremaster, returned from Amalthion. Moments later, they heard a knocking at the door to their boarded-up inn. A group of guards, lead by Balad, the captain of the city's civil guard, stood outside.
Captain Balad asked the group to hand over their weapons and accompany him to the Temple District where they would be questioned as to their activities the night before. Several party members inquired as to whether the guards had seen any trouble during the night, but they seemed confused and changed the subject without answering. Ronand, being a cleric, was permitted to keep his weapon and his holy symbol. James was asked to hand over his rapier, but was allowed to keep his firearms as the guards did not recognize the weapons. James claimed them to be his own holy symbols. Ronand shrugged and said, "he is of another faith."
Ronand became somewhat agitated by the fact that Anysia was missing when the sun rose. Not only did he fail to find her near the inn, but she seemed to have disappeared altogether. Her regular place of employment had not seen her since the day before.
While the party was taken to the temple district, Romé headed for the home of the noble to whom he had spoken before. Lord Rothay admitted the charismatic wizard and the two struck up a conversation in which Romé reiterated his warnings of the "evil" Venis Tr'Mur. Lord Rothay, feeling that it was an adequate threat to inform the governing council, asked Romé to accompany him to the temple district.
Upon arriving in the temple district, the party was ushered into the Town Hall, a large, impressive building somewhere near the foot of the high tower overlooking the city.
An attendant at the town hall named Ghakel asked the party numerous questions as to their origin, purpose in town and why they were in a boarded up inn in the center of town. James told Ghakel that the party had woken up in the morning and seen that the inn had been boarded up the night before. As there was no one in the inn but the party, Ghakel was unwilling to buy the story at face-value.
A while later, Romé turned up with Lord Rothay. Irafan, under the effects of an invisibility spell, left in search of information at the library in the Temple of Treylynn. Phelps was permitted to leave in order to report to Captain Morden, and Vivacé accompanied him to the camp.
Ronand, meanwhile, went to the temple of Liah to pray. He was well received, considering that Liah is the daughter of his god, Banril. Once finished, he returned to the town hall to rally with his allies.
Irafen, in the library at the Temple of Treylynn, began to look up information on the temple. He discovered that it was founded long ago by a priest named Sefoho. He returned to the party to inform them of this information, then summoned a phantom steed to fly out and check on Phelps and Vivacé's progress.
Phelps and Vivacé meanwhile, returned from the camp after reporting to Captain Morden. Phelps, armed with a keg of gun powder, waited patiently until sundown just out of sight of the main gate.
Vivacé, on the other hand, ran to the gates in time to be ushered inside by the guards.
As the sun set, Phelps approached the now closed main gates to the city and placed the keg of gunpowder next to the gate.
Next time: Is Vivacé alright? Does Irafan know that flying too close to the 100 foot wall will cancel out his phantom steed? Will Ronand find Anysia? Will Phelps make his reflex save? Stay tuned.
April 24, 2004
Continuing from the last game, James and Phelps in the street and Romé, Ronand and Vivacé in the Royal Decree above, witnessed a hoarde of undead massing on the inn. Most were apparently zombies and skeletons, though some other creatures of the night were milling about as well.
James immediately leapt into battle attempting to engage as many foes as possible. Numerous zombies and another zombie-like creature advanced on him until Phelps entered the battle wielding a door torn from a nearby building. Many of the creatures in the street turned to fight the enemies on the ground as the rest of the undead began filing into the inn.
Upstairs, Romé, Ronand and Vivacé had their hands full with Anysia who Romé commanded to fly. Flailing her arms like a bird made her almost impossible for Ronand to tie up, but he attempted to do so anyway, at least until he failed his grapple check and the zombie-girl leapt out of the window. Ronand went with her, grappling her on the way down, slowed by a feather fall spell.
Vivacé left the room, presumably to enter the fight downstairs, leaving Romé alone in the state room upstairs. The necromancer remained in the room for a while longer before venturing outside to see what help or hindrance he could lend to the fight.
In the street, James and Phelps continued to slay undead, and discovered that most of the creatures were relatively easy to kill in one or two strokes. Phelps destroyed several zombies by cleaving through them, though the skeletons proved slightly harder to kill. James continued to weave expertly in and out of combat until most of the weaker creatures were decimated.
Upon reaching the ground, Ronand lent his weight to the fight as Anysia, still under Romé's command continued to attempt to fly despite being face-down in the street. Through the use of his mace of disruption, the cleric of Banril dealt lethal blows to several creatures before turning his attention toward another threat which James and Phelps now faced.
Another creature, different from the others now approached and attacked. It latched onto Phelps and attempted to drain him, revealing its true nature as a vampire spawn. Phelps grappled with the creature until James and Ronand entered combat and began to drive the creature away. Ronand cast Sunbeam and severely pissed the vampire spawn off. Finally, Phelps and James cut it down to size and finished it off.
Soon after defeating the vampire spawn, James and Phelps entered the inn and began to kill off more of the weaker creatures as they advanced up the stairs. They met up with Vivacé on the third floor to discover that she was cut off from escape by two skeletal creatures which battered away at her with axe and sword. While she wasn't going down, the girl seemed to be just barely holding her own against the creatures.
James, the first up the stairs, leapt over the undead surrounding Vivacé and began to attack one of them from behind. The creature now turned to face James while Vivacé continued to batter both it and its ally with proficient unarmed strikes. Phelps, advanced up the stairs toward them, cleaving through numerous creatures which stood in his path.
Romé, venturing down from the fifth floor also lent his magical talents the the battle, but wisely stayed back where the enemy couldn't see or touch him.
The enemy was finally defeated, though in its last violent action, it exploded in a ball of fire and bone. Phelps, Vivacé and James were in the blast radius, though only Phelps and Vivacé were hit, though James managed to evade the blast.
The battle seemed won until a loud moaning sound was heard somewhere on the second floor. Romé traced the sound to a room where one whole wall seemed alive and moving.
Vitalized by their encounter with the skeletons and zombies, the party attacked. Phelps and James rushed in and engaged the curtain only to find that it was a large and powerful wraith. The creature struck out at them, striking James and draining him of several points of Constitution. Romé attempted to assist through conjuring several creatures to fight, though they seemed ineffective against the incorporeal undead.
The wraith moved out into the main room where Ronand and Vivacé engaged it. James and Phelps came down from above and Romé, thinking that his summoned creatures would deal with the enemy, retreated upstairs. The wraith began attacking James, Ronand and Vivacé until Phelps moved in and, leaping up on top of the bar, began to attack the wraith from above.
Despite its incorporeality, its high dexterity and its natural armor class, the party ultimately defeated the creature, sending its blackened soul back to the abyss, though in the process, James and Vivacé took heavy damage. While James was helped with a few healing spells cast by Ronand, Vivacé seemed to handle her own wounds herself. Though she didn't look wounded, she did appear damaged, and Ronand witnessed her cast a variation of the make whole spell upon herself. Logging this information for later use, the cleric turned back toward patching up the party.
Though the battle is over, the night is still young and the howls and moans of a metropolis of undead echo throughout the city. What other horrors are in store?
Stay tuned for the next update!
April 17, 2004 -- Note: This is a long one...
A few days up the river after the giant spider incident, Ronand, the cleric of Banril, arrived via Vargus, the Dwarven Paladin and his mount, the gryphon. Irafen, for reasons unknown, left with Vargus to return to Amalthion (Steven had to drop out temporarily). The party continued up river until a tower, presumably within the City of the Dead could be seen in the distance.
The first two days after arriving were spent making fortifications and preperations for the journey from the bank of the river to the city itself. Romé wandered up river to see if he could discern more of the city while three rangers who accompanied the party went to scout out the side of the river upon which the City had been reported.
Once preparations were finalized, the party set out toward the City, lead by Idari, one of the rangers. They came out of the forest into a large open area where an enormous 100 foot high wall could be seen. The wall was made of four-by eight foot granite blocks with a strange kind of gold-and-silver colored stone every few blocks. Romé, invisible approached the wall, but suddenly became visible about 100 feet from it. James, seeing this occur, suddenly realized that there might be some kind of magic-negating effect in the area, and used his magic rapier to test the theory. It was true. For 100 feet outward from the wall, all magical effects were negated as though by an antimagic field.
Vivacé, who had until this point been rather quiet, suddenly spaced out, then told the party that she thought it was a material called Dwarven Grimstone, a substance that dwarves had created long ago to fortify their fortresses against magical seige. Grimstone apparently has a cumulative antimagic effect, so the more of it you put in a location, the larger the field becomes.
Circumventing the field, the party rounded the city's walls until they came to what appeared to be the front gate -- or at least some kind of main gate. Looking inside, the party could see a bustling metropolis, hardly worthy of the ominous monicker, "City of the Dead."
A pair of everburning torches at the gate told the party that the antimagic effect did not extend into the city, and they approached cautiously. Entering the city, they broke into two groups, and while Phelps and James went shopping for indigenous garb, Romé, Vivacé and Ronand went in search of a cleric.
Romé charmed an alleyway beggar and asked him to take them to the nearest temple. The man lead them to a temple of Hyleiia, the Goddess of Kindness. While Ronand and Vivacé entered, Romé stood outside, offering "blessings" to the people who came to the door. His blessings tended to be more along the lines of enchantments and mind-altering spells, though the people didn't seem to notice.
Meanwhile inside, Ronand and Vivacé approached a priest and asked to see the temple's bishop (or equivalent.) The priest brought back a man who identified himself as the temple's high priest. He invited Ronand and Vivacé into a meeting room in the rectory and sent his priest to bring Romé inside as well.
The high priest answered several of Ronand's questions and revealed that the Church of Banril had been, to his best knowledge, destroyed years ago by an invading army from the south. The war, which he claimed was still raging in the west, had already claimed half of the coast, and the high priest looked confused when Ronand explained that the party was from Amalthion and that some of them had come from across the sea.
After a while, the priest told Ronand and Vivacé that he was to conduct a mass at noon, and that the two of them were welcome to attend. Romé, hearing this, left quietly to find a tavern nearby.
James and Phelps located a clothier's shop and the two of them bought some new clothing, then went in search of a bow for Phelps, all the while looking for information on the city, its inhabitants and just general chatter from the townsfolk.
Romé slipped into a tavern, possessed a barmaid and approached a patron. When the patron asked for whisky, Romé went to the kitchen and asked the innkeeper for dwarven whisky, a potent 201-proof (go fig) liquor which will hammer a dwarf to the wall and cause most humans' livers to experience out-of-body travel.
Serving the dwarven whisky to the patron, Romé watched in amazement as the alcohol took effect before the patron finished it, and his unconscious body hit the table with a thud. Taking his change purse and depositing it upon his own table (where his body lay quietly "dead"), then left the tavern and headed for the Temple of Hyleiia where a congregation was massing at noon. Entering, he disrobed, streaked up the aisle and knelt in front of the high priest, then left the woman's body. She looked up, shocked at her own action just as the priest reached down and touched her forehead, blessing her.
Ronand came forward then to wrap her clothes around her, and took her with him as he left. He offered her a holy symbol of Banril and easily converted her to his faith. The girl, Anysia, then followed him back to the marketplace to meet with the others.
After meeting up, the party exchanged information. Ronand then cast Status on James, Romé, Anysia and Vivacé. To his surprise, the spell failed as he attempted to cast it upon Vivacé. Checking the girl's pulse, he found nothing. Shocked, he called the group together and suggested they get a room at a nearby inn to discuss what was going on.
James rented a pair of staterooms at the Royal Decree, a fine inn in the area. They then sat Anysia down with a mistle (prayerbook) to read and went into the other room to speak to the rest of the party.
Vivacé told the group that she couldn't exactly explain what was going on, but that she had a direct, telepathic link with someone in Amalthion. She explained further to James, but asked that he not tell anyone. While the rest of the group was still curious, James seemed satisfied, at least for the moment, and the issue was dropped. The party agreed to go out and search for more information, and Ronand remained behind with Anysia to act as anchor for the group.
James and Phelps left, and with map in hand, headed for the east side of the city while Romé and Vivacé headed north toward the more noble-style houses. Finding a dapper chap headed home, they followed him and knocked on his door. The lord's majordomo answered and Romé, in perfect grace, asked to see the lord of the manor. The majordomo allowed him in and lead him to the lord's chambers where he was writing a letter.
Romé told the lord that he was from the south, and told him of a very dangerous follower of Samuris named Venis who might have sinister designs in the area. The lord thanked him for the inforamtion, and offered the two of them tea. They sat down to talk for a spell...
James and Phelps headed for a walled in area which people were referring to as "the temple district." While closed off by thirty-foot-high walls, the temple district was closed to apparently everyone. As James and Phelps watched the horizon's shadow slowly climb up the side of the high tower inside the temple walls, Phelps experienced a shiver of dread down his spine.
Sitting in the room with Anysia, Ronand began tutoring her in the ways of Banril. Looking out the window, he saw the sun slowly sink in the horizon and the last light disappear from the top of the high tower of the temple. Immediately, Anysia stood and began to decay before Ronand's eyes. Her flesh began to drip, one arm fell off and she began to shuffle about the room.
Romé and Vivacé experienced a similar horror: The lord to whom they spoke began to undergo the same transformation, his flesh dripping off of his bones and an eye falling from its socket and bouncing across the floor.
Phelps and James turned as the light disappeared from the tower, to see two guards approaching. As they watched, the guards' flesh boiled and dripped from their bones leaving only skeletons behind.
Horrified, Ronand began to attempt to deal with the zombie without damaging her for fear of harming the girl she had once been. He attempted to cast speak with dead, though the spell failed, for it cannot be cast on an undead creature. He then attempted to hold her at bay, and looked out the window.
Romé and Vivacé backed away from the rapidly decomposing lord and ultimately teleported back to their room at the inn. They appeared to see a zombie shuffling aimlessly around the room and Ronand staring out of the window at the street below.
James charged one of the now skeletal guards and leapt over his head, attempting to disarm him on the way by. He failed, though neither of the two undead could touch him. Phelps charged one of the skeletons and dealt a great deal of damage, though it failed to fell the creature. The two then bolted away, in the direction of the inn.
As James and Phelps arrived back at the Royal Decree, and as Ronand, Vivacé and Romé stared out the window at the street below, they all witnessed a huge mass of undead, slowly converging on the Royal Decree's doors.
Next week: Battle for Life Amongst Hoardes of Undead!
April 10, 2004
James Krondor was awoken early in the morning by Lord Halcor's personal assistant, Marcus Demcor, and asked to accompany Halcor to the Grand Duke's office. Meanwhile, Irafen of the Loremasters' Guild was asked by Sylan Vaunt to accompany him to the same locale. Ronand, the Cleric of Banril, also received word that the Grand Duke wished to see him. Romé Tr'mur, the necromancer, was approached by the headmaster of his school, the elderly Elechron, and asked to accompany the old man to the Grand Duke's chambers. Sir Phelps, the swordsman and now knight to Lord Enmon was also invited.
The group arrived more or less at the same time to find the Grand Duke, a curly haired-man and red haired girl whom they recognized as Aviccio Allegro, the bard, and his apprentice, Vivacé. Also there was Captain Morden, an associate of James'.
The Grand Duke explained that it was time to send a party to discover the threat that the City of the Dead of which the catalain spoke posed to the city of Amalthion. He intended to send James, Ronand, Phelps, Romé and Irafen along with a traveling party of close to one hundred soldiers, porters and assistants, up the Antarion River to the location of the City of the Dead. Included were ten light cavalry soldiers, ten infantry soldiers, ten fusiliers, three scouts and several officers.
The group prepared and set off on their journey with James arranging for a mode of travel and Romé grumbling about taking half of Amalthion's military on the trip. Two mistrunner ships were requisitioned as was a barge for carrying additional supplies. Ronand was asked to stay behind for unknown reasons.
The trip went well at first, and despite seeing some rather strange creatures on the catalain side of the river, the party was neither attacked nor harried until they stopped along the west side of the river to make camp for a night, excersize the animals and allow the travel-weary men stretch their legs.
That night however, the party awoke to screams of horror and discovered that a colossal spider had attacked the camp. Over forty feet from stem to stern, the spider was eating man and horse alike and the people on the shore were panicking readily.
James and Phelps immediately engaged the massive beast in melee while Irafen began backing them up with magic. From the edge of the riverboat, the fusiliers, under the command of Captain Morden, began firing at the spider, doing significant damage and distracting it from its other targets.
Ultimately, the spider was destroyed, and the party discovered eleven platinum coins and three gems on its person (bound up in the sticky webbing around its spinnerettes). Romé's scorpion appeared, but was dispelled by Irafen, who recognized it as a summoned creature.
The party returned to the ships and began moving up river again, most agreeing that the next stop was going to have to be their ultimate destination.
Next week: To the City!
