Traveller News Service Field Report
Brought to you by the Traveller's Aid Society

101/1120
-District 268/Squallia

Shocking developments on this otherwise quiet world on the Imperial border, as the quiet was shattered by a sudden outbreak of terrorist violence. The passenger shuttle Estride was destroyed miles above the downport in a thermonuclear fireball. At the same time, a coordinated attack by individuals claiming to represent Ine Givar, a known anti-Imperial organization, struck throughout the downport, while in space overhead, a drama of a different sort played out.

An estimated dozen terrorists struck throughout the downport, leaving six civilians dead and more than twenty wounded. Throughout the port, gunfire erupted as surprised security forces responded with unfortunate delay. In at least one case, heroic individuals stood off against the guerilla fighters, defending downed civilians at risk to their own lives.

After the conflict, all involved individuals were swept up by Imperial Marine security forces, including the aforementioned heroes. The clarity of thought and swiftness of action on the part of these men and women deserves recognition, and one only hopes the Imperial Ministry of Justice representative, Sir Eneri Shamara, will see it that way. For there is more of concern in the events that took place in orbit.

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Sources say that the Estride did not actually detonate, but was struck by three fission-fusion warhead missiles. The source of these missiles apparently was a still-unidentified Broadsword-class Mercenary Cruiser which sped away from Squallia highport as the conflict raged below. This ship, continuing to use the unlawful missiles, damaged Squallia highport, destroyed Squallia System Defense Boat's 3 and 5, and crippled the pursuing Patrol Cruiser Reaper. The total loss of life is expected to be in the hundreds. Reports have it that as soon as the criminal ship passed the Jump radius, it Jumped Rimward, an unlikely proposition until one digs deeper.

Other sources from the highport state that a Mercenary Cruiser matching the description was refitted with inflatable fuel tankage in its cargo bay, and was undergoing annual maintenance on its Jump drives. The expected fuel tankage would be sufficent to carry a typical Broadsword clear across the Collace Rift to Tarsus in two jumps, far outdistancing the news of this horrific event.

A small glimmer of hope remains that those responsible will be caught and brought to justice. The same sources have reported that this starship left before all maintenance was completed on its drive. Speaking anonymously, we have been told: "The condition the jump grid is in alone would give me pause before taking that ship out. They pulled out of here in a hurry, like they were on some timetable. But I wouldn't give that drive more than one, two good jumps before it goes totally on the fritz, and then its going to need a complete overhaul."

Slim hope, especially given that the only Imperial starship in the system is crippled, along with many of the ships in berth at both highport and downport, struck down by the EMP from the wave of nuclear blasts. But there is still hope, that these cowardly criminals will be hunted down and brought before the law.

From the field, and following the story as it develops:

-Jacen, TNS

---

September 20, 2003

From the torture chambers of the Marquis du Jarod:

The page took too long to load, even on my DSL, so I took out the first half of 2003 and put it into it's own page. Updates will continue here until the end of 2003, then I'll put all of 2003 into one page and start a new one for 2004.

Yes, I am somewhat anal retentive. Why do you ask?

---

September 20, 2003 (Shadowend game)

Sir Nathan reports from Shadowend:

The party emerges victorious from their battle with the half-troll giants. Moments later, they encounter an incarnation of the Hunt led by Lord Finvarra of the Gentle Folk, who utters fell threats and an ominous prediction after Gloriana fells his quarry, a white dire boar. He is accompanied by a number of members of his court, including a dwarfish character oddly familiar with Karinth, and a speaking donkey that begs for help from the de la Rosha, claiming to be Kajiko de la Rosha, his (presumed deceased) cousin. The Hunt also leaves behind one Vanmorten din Bringhamdonne Bruenheim Walternerverner, a gnomish rogue, and his canine steed.

A quiet night allows the party some rest, but breakfast is interrupted by ambushing ratmen. A successful ray of enfeeblement reduces Gloriana's strength to that of an ordinary human. After a brief chase through the undergrowth, several ratmen are subdued by Aiselle's summoned celestial lions, and the party finds themselves in front of a small step pyramid. The single entrance is barricaded with a portcullis, and crossbowmen take turns firing on the characters, while a second ray of enfeeblement drops the warmain's strength even further. Aiselle casts sunburst inside the pyramid, injuring several of the ratmen, but the great radius of the spell stretches to Gloriana and Vanmorten, rendering both of them blind just as a dozen draconic heads rear up from the adjacent Mere.

As of this point, the game is suspended indefinately due to DM exhaustion.

---

September 14, 2003 As I have mentioned on the list, I am auditing the menu bar to the left. If you want your email addressed linked to your name (so people can click on it to send email to you) you must email me and let me know you want your name linked.

If I do not get an email from you, I will not add a link to your email address, and by the same token, any linked email on the page will be removed unless I hear from the recipient as to whether he/she wants it left on or not. If I don't hear from you, I will assume that you either don't want it up or haven't realized I'm doing this. (Your name will not be removed unless you ask me to remove it.)

This is just site maintenance and has no bearing on the rest of the page.

More maintenance:

1. Fixed the link to EN World so instead of pointing to www.d20reviews.com, it now points to www.enworld.org, the proper address.
2. Fixed the Jamis Buck's RPG Generators link so it points to the correct site, not the now-defunct "d20reviews" site.
3. Replaced the bizarre wingdings footnote indicators with superscript numbers.
4. Shrunk the D&D logo slightly so the menu bar wouldn't take up so much space.

---

You can now be join list without the higgledy-piggledy authorization thingy. Just email me (the Marquis du Jarod) and tell me that you're interested in joining! You'll be added (hopefully) within an hour of the receipt of the message, though my milage varies slightly.

If you're not interested in joining, ignore this message... :)

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Your source for news in Amalthion! September 2, 2003 AMALTHION: As the most massive construction feat since the building of the city of Amalthion thirty years ago, assembly of the new Nobles' Section is now underway. With the help of a dwarven paladin of Banril named Vargus, the blueprints for the new, even more advanced sewer system have been drafted, and construction on the system is already underway. "We had no idea that this would move along so quickly." High Lord Estoru of House Skelstan said when asked to comment on the construction. "The Grand Duke had projected a five year project, but with the help of this outlander dwarf, it looks like we're going to be done in half that time!" Lord Estoru and Lord Cerlaw of House Percery have been chosen by the Grand Duke to oversee the construction of the foundations of the new Nobles' Section. He has also placed Lord Halcor of House Remnar and Lord Kinel of House Ranos in charge of drawing up preliminary blueprints for the construction of guild halls throughout the city. "We are putting our best work into this endevour," said Lord Halcor, "and we believe that the new Nobles' Section will be an even more wondrous and remarkable thing than the old section." None of the nobles would comment on the construction of a large stone and mortar wall along the eastern edge of the new Nobles' Section which would separate it from the current Peasants' Section. If rumors are true, the wall will be five to seven feet thick and twenty feet tall with towers every five hundred yards along its length. It is not known at this time as to how access to the new Nobles' Section will be restricted and to whom. PORTALAIN, Western Neriss: The city on the West Coast of Neriss has two new younger brothers now, as the towns of Shanta and Criess, each populated by over nine hundred humans and a large number of other peoples, have been officially founded by the Demlaar merchants. For fifteen years since its founding, Portalain seemed to sit dormant on the northern-most peninsula of the Bay of Nalêrÿn. With little word of the town's purpose or even its condition, it was assumed destroyed in the orc and goblin raids which occured more than a year ago. Instead, Portalain somehow avoided destruction and now plies its trade between Neriss and Demlaar Island. While nobles in Amalthion suggest that a merchant town this close to Amalthion might be a problem in the future, the Grand Duke has declared Portalain and its environs the property of the Demlaar merchants and has refused to sanction any kind of action against any town in the vicinity of the Bay of Nalêrÿn.

I'm going to post occasional news concerning my progress on the Seasons of Change campaign in the form of Amalthion news media reports. I hope you find it entertaining. I make no promise to keep these posts regular, consistent, believable or even predictable. I may even throw in loony humor now and then, so consider yourselves warned. -- Jarod.

---

August 30, 2003

August 23rd and 30th Awards
Experience	Awards	Countdown
3000 Each	Fourteenth Level!	ZERO!

The Cry for Amalthion campaign has come to a close. The past two sessions have set the stage however, for the new campaign which is currently titled "Seasons of Change." This campaign will probably begin some time next year.

In the final session, the group awoke from their slumber after defeating the rakshasa to find the city in a panic. While Ronand tended to the recovering Lord Estoru, James Krondor lept to the thieves' highway across the rooftops of Amalthion to discover that the entire town was surrounded by black-furred feline creatures. An army of over three hundred thousand faced the city of Amalthion with only open space between.

True to form, James sprinted the quarter-mile distance between the town and the feline creatures to parlay with their leader while the others tended to their individual duties within the town.

The leader of the feline tribes greeted James who told them that the rakshasa was finally dead. The spokesman for the tribes thanked James, but laid down an ultimatum of unprecidented proportions. From one year after that date, the river Antarion would be the demarkation line between human lands and the lands of the catalain, the black-furred felines. No human would be allowed to step on the east bank and live, though the west side of the river was free for humans to do with as they pleased. This announcement, referred to later as the Antarion Ultimatum, changed Amalthion forever, for on the east bank of the Antarion lay the whole of the Nobles' Section. Since the catalain army outnumbered all the citizens of Amalthion, let alone the fighting men of the city, the Grand Duke declared that the Ultimatum would be met and all human presence on the east bank would be removed. Lastly, the catalain told James to warn his people about a huge city to the south which they referred to only as "the city of the dead."

In addition to the move, the Grand Duke declared that he wanted to reduce the city's dependence on magic in two ways. One, he wanted to find a nonmagical method of communicating over vast distances and two, he wanted to develop new weapons which were not dependent on the use of magic for power. To this second task, he has left James Krondor to develop.

Finally, the Grand Duke is worried about the catalain warning about this "city of the dead." While he wants to know more about it, he dares not yet send people in that direction without knowing more about the surroundings of the continent. He has therefore dispatched groups of adventurers to explore the west side of the Antarion river and see how far the continent actually goes.

And so, the Cry for Amalthion campaign comes to an end with the promise of new adventures and new discoveries to come. So with this final note, I say not goodbye, but "see ye' around," for I'll be back in a year with a whole new adventure!

See you then, and keep checking out this page for details involving other games!

---

August 22, 2003 (Shadowend)

August 18th Awards
Experience	Awards
None Yet	None Yet

Stranded between the Hags Mere and the Shadowend, nearly 20 miles from their destination, the party elects to trek overland to the Temple. The hike is quickly interrupted, however, as two survivors of the Sarn party, Gloriana St.Just and Gimlek, trigger an ancient teleport circle and find themselves beside the party. They swiftly decide to assuage their grief at losing their regular companions by accompanying the party to slaughter cultist, and hike north.

A brief encounter with lizard men barely interrupts the midday halt, but the party comes across a fresh and obvious trail only an hour later. They follow it several miles, and barely sense the ambush before it is sprung. A fireball burns away underbrush to reveal five half-troll hill giants, and a lightning stroke singes them, but the party is devastated by the half-trolls's leader, a powerful spellcaster. A single casting of prismatic spray kills Robert J. de la Rosha and De' Arth, petrifies Gimlek and Klinge's mount Fahrd, and sends Aiselle's steed to a distant part of the Wyrld. Four invisible half-trolls complete the surprise, and the fight rages in earnest.

The half-troll's capacity for healing only slightly reduces the damage the party inflicts, but their sheer size and capacity to absorb damage make slaying them a difficult job. The half-troll's commander inadvertantly has the most success, accidently disintegrating one of his own, only to fall a moment later to a blast of Aiselle's spellfire. The half-trolls, ignorant of their commander's fate (and with an intelligence too low to understand it anyways), continue to fight.

---

August 20, 2003 (Cry for Amalthion)

August 17th Awards
Experience	Awards	Countdown
2550 Each	None yet	Two weeks to go...

The Amalthion party and the Grand Duke prepared themselves for the battle ahead. With James disguised as the Grand Duke, any assassin would have to choose his target and strike thus revealing himself and if he had struck the wrong Grand Duke, his assassination would have failed.

A few moments into the wait for the battle, Lord Estoru entered the Throne Room to see the two Grand Dukes and demanded to know what was going on. Through a series of well-timed and well-enunciated guestures, James and the Grand Duke pulled off a beautiful scam -- in case Lord Estoru was in fact the killer -- in which the Grand Duke would begin a sentence and James would end the sentence with an appropriate predicate. Lord Estoru was quite confused, and at one point both James and the Grand Duke rolled Critical successes in their play-acting. At this point, even the rest of the party became somewhat confused as to who was the real Grand Duke.

Lord Estoru became belligerent and demanded to know what was going on. He pulled out a rapier and was met by Phelps' new two-bladed sword. The rest of the party huddled around the two Grand Dukes while Mornamil watched from the back, waiting for the assassin to show his face.

Estoru was dealt with quickly and brutally by Phelps, though Ronand offered to resurrect him later (if Lord Estoru so desired -- you can't ressurect someone who doesn't want to be brought back.)

Then, in a swift and brutal attack, Jack (Mornamil's sidekick) pulled out a knife and attacked the Grand Duke. The party reeled for a moment, then turned on Jack and more or less in unison, killed him.

Jack's body melted away to reveal the rakshasa who muttered as he died, "now you must deal with my master..."

Next: The wrap up!

---

August 19, 2003 (Shadowend)

August 11th Awards
Experience	Awards
1500 Each	Promise of the Dawn

Callaway and Aiselle converted to 3.5. Less complaining than expected.

The party arrived in Shalanholt, and soon received requests to meet Earl Belintime and Dame Selene, the joint rulers of Shalanholt. The two explained that the rising power of the Cult of the Rat Mother was threatening Shalanholt, and they hoped the party would assist them by directly attacking the Temple of the Rat. Another party had been sent to Sarn on a covert mission of infiltration and assasination, to sow as much mayhem among the goblinoid tribes as possible.

Later that night, Kirinth de la Rosha and Robert J. de la Rosha were summoned back to the governors' hall and introduced to De'arth, a fuah runic smith who would aid the party in bypassing traps and other mechanical & magical devices the rat cultists might have erected.

The party removed themselves to the hamlet of Two Oaks the next morning, and prepared to embark into the Shadowend. An unexplained bout of sleep found them awakening in a clearing, hard on the edge of the Hags Mere, and in the presence of the Knight of Ivory. The Knight explained he had been granted a boon by Ashara, the goddess of hope, and challenged Klinge to single combat. The outcome of the duel was swiftly apparent, and the Knight yielded victory to the weapon master and dawn herald. Klinge's reward was the sword "Promise of the Dawn", a powerful brilliant energy weapon.

---

August 12, 2003 (Shadowend)

August 11th Awards
Experience	Awards
None	None

Earl Belintime, Dame Selene, and the Knight of Ivory failed to make an appearance, as no actual gaming took place. Time was instead spent converting characters to 3.5e (Robert J. made out moderately well, Klinge was essentially unchanged, and Kirinth opined he was "hosed"). Also, those present were made superficially acquainted with a new character (whose name escapes me), a fuah runesmith with a fondness for women of the coin. The DM forsees some interesting times in Shalanholt, should Crombie and the fuah get drunk together.

Next Week The Dame, the Earl, the Knight of Ivory, and Aiselle "gets hosed" in the 3.5 conversion.

---

August 11, 2003 (Cry for Amalthion)

August 9th Awards
Experience	Awards	Countdown
3,999 each?	A very nice rapier A ring, an amulet and a pair of bracers	Three weeks to go...

After the vicious, yet short-lived battle last time, the party picked up with Mornamil calling on Kaedrathi for support. As Romè wandered off in the body of the large creature, Kaedrathi appeared and transported herself and Mornamil back to Amalthion to warn the Grand Duke of the strange striped creature's new assassination attempt.

The rest of the party ventured back to the small town nearby to buy a teleportation circle back to Amalthion. Only a few hours behind their allies, Ronand, James, Vargus, Travon and Phelps arrived in Amalthion just as Mornamil was meeting with the Grand Duke.

The Grand Duke allowed Mornamil to tell his entire story, then summoned a somewhat scatterbrained servant called Dyurin. Dyurin listened to Mornamil's story and then returned to his quarters to do some research on the creature that Mornamil had described. Meanwhile, the Grand Duke went to meet with the rest of the party in another room. Mornamil, invisible, followed him out.

The Grand Duke met with the others who confirmed Mornamil's story. Mornamil entered the room and hid in a corner as the Grand Duke laid out a plan to misdirect the enemy by disguising James and the Grand Duke as each other. This was until Dyurin returned and declared that he had determined not only the type of creature that the party now faced, but it's most important weakness.

Dyurin explained that it was a rakshasa, an evil creature from another plane which was vulnerable to holy crossbow bolts. Unfortunately, the creature could also read minds, and would therefore be a formidable enemy despite the weakness. The Grand Duke formulated a new plan in which James would, using Mornamil's hat of disguise, appear exactly as the Grand Duke. Using magic items to sheild their minds, the Grand Duke and James would appear identical, and the enemy would not be able to determine which was which.

Finally, Ronand began blessing crossbow bolts in anticipation of the battle to come.

Meanwhile, several black felines stared down into the mine, watching Romè's summoned fire elemental wander back and forth over its new desmenes.

Next week: The battle against the prime villian! Everything comes together in the biggest, bloodiest battle since Phelps clove through five orcs in one swing! Well, not quite that bloody, but with only three weeks to go, I'm looking for something really cool... Okay, I'm blabbering on at this point, so I'll shut up now...

---

August 5, 2003

August 4th Awards
Experience	Awards
2,000	None

Once more into the Shadowend, my friend!

The Shadowend party ended the Dragon's Egg campaign sans egg, but with large (in techspeak, "buttloads") of loot. The fighter/weapon master Klinge made out the worst, escaping with little more than a moderately enchanted sword and a single other magical item.

After a short vacation, and the expenditure of large amounts of cash, the party caught wind of rumors concerning the expansion of the Temple of the Rat Mother, an alliance between the Temple and the so-called Spider Queen, and a possible alliance between the Temple and the Three Sisters of Brindish, a covey of hags in control of a significant goblin-ogre-giant-human force. Overwhelmed with guilt at their contribution to the rise of the Temple (specifically, the sale of 29 +1 evil shortswords to the Temple), and swayed by the impassioned hints of the Shalanholt ruling class, the party heads towards Shalanholt.

Late on the second day of travel (a damp, icky, humid, and drizzling day), they cross paths chest of gold and an elderly woman claiming ownership. The spirit of charity slows the party long enough for several of the woman's simulacrums to exchange places with Kirinth, Klinge, and Robert J., while Dalin and Aiselle resists the attack and Crombie/Thistle and Callaway are safely ensconced inside the magical "not-quite-a-mansion" chest. Aiselle's use of the Mask of the White God quickly reveals the elderly woman as a greenhag and Kirinth, Klinge, and Robert J. as her simulacrums, but she stalls long enough to bring Callaway from his studies, and the three of them engage in a not-quite-epic spell battle with the sorcerous greenhag and three of her simulacrums.

The rest of the party, meanwhile, find themselves trapped in a forcecage and fighting two identical greenhags. One is slain, and dissolves into ice and snow, while the other makes good her escape via dimension door.

Forcing the greenhag and one of her simulacrum to flee, Dalin, Aiselle, Callaway, and Thistle/Crombie pursue them deeper into the caverns. Underwater attacks slow but do not stop the quartet, and the melee reaches a finale in a large cavern with the sudden appearance (and equally sudden disappearance) of a powerful frost giant, who nearly kills one of the party members before disappearing untouched.

True seeing reveals hidden passages and the forcecage, and the party is reunited. Despite oracular advice, the party ventures down one of the side passages, engages in a brief melee with a simulacrum (who escapes) and three hill giants (who do not). The party finds the rest of the complex deserted, with treasure removed and, upon their return to the first cavern, their portable home in a box stolen.

Dissatisfied, but without any means of following, the party continues to Shalanholt.

NEXT WEEK Shalanholt, Dame Selene, and Earl Belintime; and The Ivory Knight.

---

August 3, 2003

July Awards
Experience	Awards	Countdown
		Four Weeks to Go...

After Mornamil and the striped creature agreed to meet outside, the entire party exited the cavern and returned to the crater which comprised the bulk of the outdoor mine. Meanwhile, Romé, bored of sitting around, created a moat with an island in the center upon which he summoned a huge fire elemental. The deal he made with the elemental was that once the caves were cleared out, the elemental could have them.

The party exited the cave and moved to join the others when the ground erupted, and a huge creature resembling a gargoyle emerged. It began to attack the party, though the group surrounded it and began to pound away on it.

Just then, a mysterious figure appeared and moved in to attack James. Mornamil turned to realize that it was Lord Arum himself, one of the lords of Amalthion who had opposed the expansion of the city. Lord Arum began to attack James, though Mornamil, still hidden by his invisibility spell, placed his crossbow at Arum's neck and told him to stand down.

Arum knocked the crossbow aside and attacked James, then retreated when Mornamil shot him. Meanwhile, the large creature which they all fought suddenly became frighful and both James and Romé's elemental ran from it in fear. The rest of the group continued to pound away on it, though the creature's stony hide seemed far too thick to penetrate. Vargus showed up at about this point and began engaging the creature with his axe of throwing & returning at a range.

Finally, Romé threw himself into the moat he had created and cast Magic Jar. He was able to see the auras of creatures in the area, and moved toward the most powerful, which was the creature everyone was engaged in. He also witnessed another aura, most likely someone hidden behind an invisibility spell, up near the trail leading into the crater.

Romé possessed the large creature and broke off the fight, though Jack, in his lack of intelligence, continued to battle the beast. Romé finally picked up Jack and started moving toward the position he had last seen the other powerful aura muttering "I'm coming, master."

Vargus, on his Griffon steed, stirred up dust and dirt, temporarily revealing the position of the invisible creature which had been taunting the party. The creature, realizing that he had been noticed, retreated and disappeared again.

Meanwhile, Mornamil cast Hold Person on Arum who had begun crying and screaming "I'm sorry, master, I'm trying!" James continued to run away from the beast, though he could not quite scale the wall of the crater.

Next week: What the heck?

---

August 1, 2003

Jarod, who has been severely delinquent in updating the Gamers' site writes:

July Awards
Experience	Awards	Countdown
1250 each?	Very little so far...	Five Weeks to Go...

A while ago, the party descended into the mine, some with the inent on finding a missing cleric and paladin, others to uncover the truth behind the actions of the nobles in Amalthion.

After the last update, the party explored another cavern in the mine, discovering another room, protected by a persistent blade barrier with a large throne set into one wall. Ronand, using an antimagic sphere to circumvent the blade barrier, got the party through. As the party examined the room, an invisible enemy began attacking them, finally being revealed by glimses revealed by the antimagic sphere to be an elf-like creature. The elf disappeared again and vanished from the room.

Upon further examination, the party discovered a secret door behind the throne. Inside, they discovered another cage, containing another woman who begged them to free her. Cautious due to their last encounter with a caged woman, they finally released her, but kept her under constant watch. Afraid that James' advances might have a similar effect to the last woman's transformation, Mornamil altered her appearance to look somewhat homely so James would be disinterested in this newcomer.

Mornamil then delved into the final cavern in the mine, followed by everyone except James and Ronand, the latter of whom had burned out all his spells had had to rest for a night. Within these caves, the party (at this point accompanied by Romé Tr'mur) discovered a huge room with an illusory wall. Finally passing through the wall, they discovered another room which featured a large altar to Wyrnyr, the lawful evil god of war.

The party was then attacked by an unseen opponent who taunted them through the use of numerous cantrips. Romé attempted to kill their attacker by casting both cloudkill and Evard's black tentacles into a corner in which they suspected the enemy was hiding, but to no avail. Finally, Cinathoran shouted "Something's wrong! Everyone out!"

The party evacuated, though Mornamil peeked back in through the door in time to see the elf that they had fought before, standing in front of the altar. The elf turned, saw Mornamil and cast a Quickened dimension door to escape. Mornamil, now enraged by his attacker, pulled a broadsword out of the altar and smashed it, taking several sacrificial knives from the scene.

As they emerged from below, the party was surrounded by more than one hundred feline warriors, all armed with javelins, spears and bows. Two representatives descended from the lip of the crater to speak to the party. One cast tongues on the other, who revealed that they had been watching the party for some time. They told the group that they were massing for an attack on Amalthion, but they would give the group three days to destroy an enemy that they refered to as "he-who-comes-from-beyond." Mornamil, speaking for the party, agreed.

Regrouping again and picking up James and Ronand the party began searching the altar room in earnest while Mornamil sent his familliar, Shadow along with Vargus to Amalthion to enlist Kaedrathi's aid. Those who stayed, discovered another secret passage which lead into a long, narrow room which bore a portal at one end.

Being the intrepid adventurer he is, James immediately lept through the portal and began examining the octagonal room which he found beyond. There didn't seem to be any exit, and when he attempted to move back through the portal, he was stymied by the fact that it seemed to be a one-way door.

The did discover that any object placed halfway into the portal was free to travel back through. Only objects which traveled completely through were trapped on the other side. James therefore unraveled a rope and re-wound the cords around his finger as though to make said finger a part of the rope. The rest of the party kept the rope taut while James carefully slid through, finger-first.

Mornamil, hidden by his invsibility spell was the next through. He was shocked to find -- through his Belt of Dwarven Kind -- that he was more than ten miles beneath the surface of the earth. He explored the room fully and discovered a hole in the ceiling covered by an illusion which made it appear as part of the rock. He slipped through the hole and climbed up to a room above to discover the elf that they had fought before, sitting on a couch, sipping wine. Mornamil crept up on the elf and drove his rapier into the enemy's chest, suddenly becoming visible.

After a short conversation, the elf suddenly kicked Mornamil back and stood. He changed form, claiming to be revealing his true self, into a feline creature similar to the cats that the party has encountered before, only white with black stripes. He then became invisible (as did Mornamil) and the two began blind fighting. Finally, the creature suggested taking the fight to a wider arena -- the mine outside. Mornamil agreed and the creature vanished, again casting dimension door.

---

July 9, 2003

July 9th Awards
Experience	Awards
1440 each

In this week's installment, the party continued to search the room in which they encountered the feline creatures last week. James, meanwhile, discovered a large, heavy metal ball in the chamber below.

Finding nothing of interest in the other room, the party hauled James out of the hole and examined his find. It appeared to be a metal ball which opened (with some finagling by Cinathoran) to reveal a black interior. James touched the inside and discovered that the black material seemed to eat away at his fingers.

After some experimentation, the party determined that the ball was something like a Sphere of Annihilation, though far more controlled. Any object placed into the sphere was permenently destroyed.

After locating this object, Ronand cast Water Breathing and Freedom of Movement on Phelps and James. The duo swam down the 90 foot depth of the the pool in the center of the room to discover a channel connecting to another room. In this next room, they discovered a cage in which a woman was being held prisoner.

While James spoke to the woman, Phelps thoroughly examined the new room and discovered a back exit to the outside. The woman, calling herself Cassandra, asked James to free her from the cage. James continually flirted with her until she finally demanded a set of thieves tools, which James then acquired from Cinathoran. Cassandra freed herself and while James and Phelps swam back to the rest of the party, Cassandra walked around to the entrance to the mine.

James retrieved Cassandra to introduce her to the group. When he entered the room with the woman in tow, she muttered something under her breath, then immediately attacked the group, changing into a strange, three-tentacled plant creature.

The party responded to the threat instantly, and though the creature was very difficult to hit, the numerous hits it actually made on the party didn't seem to do much damage. Finally, it spit out a grey blob which landed in one corner. The blob attacked Phelp, disolving half of his two-bladed sword.

Despite the creature's hit-and-run tactics, the party was able to defeat it with minimal damage, but Phelps took one hit which left behind a residue of some kind.

More next week!

---

---

June 29, 2003

---

June 29th Awards
Experience	Awards
1400 each

Over the last two weeks, the party has gone upriver a few days from Amalthion to a small mining town. It is from this town that the strange platinum metal has apparently been coming.

Upon their arrival in town, James almost immediately found himself employed at the Gold Coin Tavern, one of the only two pubs in town. Entertaining the clientelle, James performed a combination of song and dance to, in his own words, "Fill the tavern to the rafters."

Meanwhile, the rest of the party began asking around town for information. Phelps encountered a dark cloaked figure whom he followed to a kiosk dedicated to Eryseydyn, the Goddess of Luck. Meanwhile, Mornamil continued his investigation into the mysterious and unsanctioned assassinations in the mining town, discovering that one of the victims was a fisherman who had witnessed the loading of crates onto the Hovering Blue.

The new cleric, Ronand and the paladin Travon, both worshipers of Banril, the God of Protection, independently discovered that another cleric and paladin of the same faith disappeared in the forest several days before. The two finally met up and agreed to venture into the woods in hope of finding their brethren. Ronand also heard word of the same missing fisherman that Mornamil was investigating.

A new character, Romé, entered the party for a time, asking about Venis Tr'Mur, the elven cleric of Samuris who converted Ralph the Expendable Guard many adventures ago. Romé, in his search for Venis, was lead to the mining town where the elf was allegedly seen.

Phelps and Ronand finally came to similar, yet independent conclusions regarding the missing fisherman and found the man's living domicile. Phelps paid the landlord to gain access to the room, and realizing that he wasn't alone, sent the man away. On his way down the stairs, the landlord met up with Ronand whom he lead back to the room. Meanwhile, Phelps caught sight of a well concealed interloper in the room. As the interloper left, Ronand caught sight of him and he and Phelps ultimately cornered him. The cloaked figure pulled back his hood to reveal his identity. The aterfey, Cinathoran.

In the following week's adventure, the party (now slightly altered due to the fluctuation of availability of players), began the trek along the trail toward the mines which seemed to be the source of all the mysteries that surrounded the party. Not far along the trail, the party found a fifteen foot tall gate with two huge stone pillars on either side. It seemed to be the gate to a massive fence which stretched off for a very long way. It seemed to be of dwarven make.

Vargus, the dwarven paladin of Shiff Fireforge, flew over the fence on his griphon mount while James climbed a tree and simply leapt over the fence. Phelps and Ronand, now accompanied by Jack, a large fighter whom Mornamil recruited, used numerous tactics to attempt to open the gate. Cinathoran, despite his ability with thieving skills, was unable to open the lock, and the door would simply not budge. Phelps finally climbed over the gate, discovering that the force that held it shut did not prevent it from being breeched at the top. Ronand tried to blast a hole in the fence, though it remained in tact. However, his attempt did blast a hole in the ground which he and Jack began to dig out in order to pass the fence.

Finally moving past the barrier, the party continued on to discover a large strip mine ahead. Entering one mine shaft, the party split into two groups, one of which discovered an iron grate which lead more than eighty feet down into a bare room into which James climbed. The other half of the party met up with some resistance in the form of three feline creatures who attacked with claws and bites. One of them was a spellcaster who did a significant amount of damage.

The party finally triumphed over the cats and rejoined the other half. Next week, someone will hopefully have enough rope to pull James out of the hole.

---

June 14, 2003

The Gamers Group welcomes Lord Kevin, our newest acquisition, who plays an as yet unnamed cleric of Banril in the Saturday game.

June 14th Awards
Experience	Awards
1000 each

The party hopped on board the Hovering Blue which set sail upriver toward points unknown. James and Phelps boarded the boat, and Vargus followed behind on his griffin. Stopping at several locations on the way up river, the boat picked up a cleric of Banril who has yet to introduce himself to the party.

Finally arriving at their destination, the party disembarked and began to explore the town. After a near run-in with one of the local tavern owners, James performed a song-and-dance number that knocked the socks off of the tavern's patrons. With the prowess of a gleeman, he filled the room to bristling numbers and earned himself a part time job performing in the inn and a seat in a clandestine game of poker in the back room.

Meanwhile, Phelps wandered around town looking for information regarding the crates filled with strange platinum. He determined that crates were indeed being loaded, but all he found was that a fisherman who had seen the crates had disappeared without a trace. Tracking the vanished fisherman's last few days, Phelps discovered that he had been living in an apartment across the street from the Gold Coin Tavern, where James now earned his ale with amazing antics of acrobatic alliteration.

The unnamed cleric did a great deal of investigative work as well, looking into the origin of the crates which he saw being loaded onto the ship. His line of questioning brought him to the same conclusions as Phelps' did, and after he spoke to the same fisherman who had lead Phelps to an apartment across from the tavern, he sprinted toward the location in fear of nasty things happening.

Phelps bribed the landlord of the inn to let him into the locked room which had been rented by the vanished fisherman. Once inside, he felt a presence, as though someone else was in the room, though he could neither see nor hear any one nearby. He instructed the innkeeper to leave and disallow access to anyone else, then began searching the room.

Wandering up the stairs, the cleric met the innkeeper whom he managed to convince that something shady was going on upstairs. The innkeeper lead the cleric to the room just as Phelps noticed something move out of the corner of his eye. A dark shape slipped out through the door into the corridor which the Cleric and the innkeeper were just walking up.

Phelps bull-rushed the interloper, but failed to smash him into the wall. A small hand-crossbow in the stranger's hand pointed at the cleric for a moment, but then slipped beneath the cloak as the strange black-clad individual pulled his caul back to reveal the face of an aterfey. He looked to the cleric and to the fighter and introduced himself as Cinathoran, agent of the Temple of Eryseydyn.

MORE NEXT WEEK!

---

May 24, 2003

May 24th Awards
Experience	Awards
1300	Several glowing spheres

Picking up where they left off last time, the party continued their interrogation of the crew of the Water Nymph. It was discovered that the ships, Water Nymph, Red Tide and the Hovering Blue had been transporting contraband downriver from a "temple" several miles upstream. The "contraband" they were transporting consisted of several crates of what appeared to be platinum but which began to heat up when not exposed to a light source. The crewmember identified this material as "sun-gold."

While part of the group interrogated the crew, Phelps walked to the bow of the ship to where a set of double doors lay chained with a large padlock. Cutting through the chain, Phelps threw the doors open to reveal a huge doglike creature.

Combat ensued while Elgo and two new characters, Quelog, a gnomish illusionist (played by Adrian marking his first appearance in almost two months) and Vargus, a dwarven paladin (played by Adam who makes his debut with the Gamers Group this week), arrived to help out.

Ultimately, the dog was defeated after repeated slashings, dicings and stabbings by Elgo's Magnificent Snowball (I.E. Otiluke's Freezing Sphere) which took it out completely. Once it was dead, the party found expended glow-spheres in a box in the corner of the room.

While the battle was going on, Mornamil met up with Yugen, a representative of the Assassin's guild. In exchange for information regarding the attempted assassination of the Grand Duke, Yugen asked Mornamil to check out a temple down river to see why people were being "taken out" without the assassin's guild's approval.

Next week, The Hovering Blue...

---

May 3, 2003

This is a 2 week update as Jarod has been a lazy bum and only just updated.

May 3rd & 10th Awards
Experience	Awards
1250 (the 3rd) and 2000 (the 10th)	A Crate full of Weird Platinum

The party's investigations lead them last week to the docks in the Nobles Quarters where they discovered that the dockmaster was away, and an assistant was filling in for him. Finding the dockmaster's house, the party stormed inside to discover that the dockmaster had been held hostage by forces unknown. Said forces were forced into the ground by six feet and the dockmaster was freed from his captivity only to tell the party that the only thing stolen from him was a number of shipping manifests.

Meanwhile, Travon discovered that cargoes were being brought up the river from an unknown destination. This information cross referenced with what the rest of the party saw and heard lead to the conclusion that three ships, the Water Nymph, the Red Tide and the Hovering Blue were the three most likely ships to be carrying contraband.

As Agnar presented the Grand Duke with a magnificent sword, he and Elgo (who accompanied him) heard the Grand Duke give audience to the captain of the Red Tide who suggested that the taxes on goods brought down river were too high. This prompted the dwarf to check out the ship.

The rest of the party met up at the Red Tide and boarded it, though they met strong resistance as they did. Ultimately, the one to do the most damage was Elgo whose spell backfired nearly killing him.

During the most recent game, James, Travon and Phelps decided that while Agnar and company were searching the Red Tide, they would hop across the dock to the Water Nymph and check it out. Meeting with similar resistance, though this time with the Dockmaster on their side, the party boarded the Water Nymph and began to search the boat.

The only bizarre thing they found was a crate full of what appeared to be bars of platinum and a single ball of light which seemed to radiate sunlight. When Phelps removed the ball of light from the case of platinum bars, the bars caused their crate to smoulder until Travon placed another glowing ball in the box with the bars.

Finally, the party decided to regroup and wait for the results of the search of the Red Tide before they continued.

---

April 26, 2003

April 26th Awards
Experience	Awards
1500	1 Rapier 1 Broadsword

The Cry for Amalthion party continued their exploits after speaking to Lord Halcor today. Agnar, not wanting to get involved in the political machinations of the nobles, returned to his forge where he began work on a masterpiece falchion which is to be a gift to the Grand Duke. Elgo, taking up temporary residence nearby, began work on a new spell which may or may not cause more problems for the party.

Meanwhile, Travon began visiting local merchants to seek information that might be useful in figuring out what was going on. She found out that most of the peasants belive that the expansion of the city would cause problems for the peasants while some few merchants thought that the expansion would allow them to expand their businesses into the new area.

Battousai and Phelps lead their own investigation, checking out areas including the docks where they discovered that the dockmaster was "on vacation." Seeing that the assistant dockmaster who was filling in for his "vacationing" employee wasn't being exactly truthful about his employer's whereabouts, Battousai and Phelps went to the dockmaster's domicile to see if they could speak to him personally.

Upon arriving at the dockmaster's house, the two intrepid investigators rounded the house, and while Phelps surreptitiously and silently opened the back door, Battousai burst into the house from the front surprising two fighters.

Combat ensued, and while one fighter, who wielded a broadsword, showed extreme dexterity and a high armor class, the other, wielding a rapier, showed an extreme ability to dole out damage. Within a few rounds of combat, Phelps found himself severely beaten, though his oppoent had taken an equivalent amount of damage. Moments later, Travon, who happened to be walking by outside, burst in to assist in the fight.

The agile fighter was ultimately defeated by Travon, though as he fell, a new enemy descended the stairs from the second floor to take on the party. His unarmed attack was brutal, taking Phelps down to the point where he had to back off and drink a potion in order to continue fighting. Travon and Battousai meanwhile laid the beatdown on the new enemy, ultimately setting the stage for Phelps' return. Once the fighter was back in action, he stepped in to double-crit the enemy taking him down to -43 hit points in a single attack.

Searching the house, the party discovered the original dockmaster tied and gagged in the room upstairs. They also discovered a number of shipping manifests written in Common, elven and dwarven. The dockmaster revealed that a large number of the manifests were missing.

Next week: What hath the shipping manifests beheld?

---

April 25, 2003

April 14th Awards
Experience	Awards

The Dragon's Egg party travelled to the Citadel of Light to assist in the defense of the forces of good. All piling into the chest of extradimensional space, the party was carried by Callaway as he teleported to the Citadel.

The party was immediately attacked, as they teleported directly into the fray. Callaway teleported again out of reach of the enemy and into a small group of friendlies who were quite happy for the help.

Numerous attacks and spells were made and cast, ultimately killing most of the simpler enemies such as goblins and worgs. Aiselle managed to take out a large number of enemies with a blade barrier although one particularly ugly ogre seemed to ignore the spell completely, and had the audacity to throw not only enemies but obstructing friendlies into the range of the spell.

Ultimately, the ogre was whittled down to a manageable state and defeated, though at a great cost to the party. Once he fell, the giant who had attacked the city before appeared along with another humanoid figure whom the giant identified as "the One." After a conversation with Klinge von Gerechtechiet, the giant and "the One" left, giving the forces of light 24 hours to leave the area.

Invited inside, the party was told by the Mother Superior a story of theft and betrayal by one of the Ember Hand, a group sworn to protect the Citadel of Light. "The One" wanted an item for which he was told he had to pass a test to acquire. When he refused to take the test, he was refused the item, and took it badly.

Next time: The party shall face the test to retrieve the item!

---

April 21, 2003

April 19th Awards
Experience	Awards
1225 Each

The Cry for Amalthion party sulked home the night after the attack on Lord Halcor's mansion, some members going off to get food and sleep, others going off for booze.

The morning brought a herald from Lord Halcor's manor to each of the members of the party, including Elgo who was not exactly present during the battle. The herald asked each of the members of the party to come to House Remnar again to meet with Lord Halcor. Each in turn agreed, though James -- hung over from the night before -- was visited by Lord Halcor himself who asked him to join the lord in his study.

Once the party was assembled, they entered Lord Halcor's study to find that the Grand Duke was awaiting them with a single bodyguard at his right and Lord Halcor to his left, the lord accompanied by his own bodyguard. Welcoming everyone, the Grand Duke explained that his intelligence agents had discovered that one of the other lords was behind the attack, but not which lord was responsible.

He asked the party's help in tracking down the perpetrator since he doesn't know who to trust, and doesn't want to rely on his own people, mainly because they would be recognized. The party, being more or less free agents in Amalthion, could move more freely than any of the Grand Duke's agents could.

After the Grand Duke explained matters, the party separated for a while to do some business in town. Mornamil visited Kædrathi's shop in the Nobles' Section and acquired several items for which he had been searching while Travon went back to her temple to check on her sources for information. James sat in Lord Halcor's study until, still affected by the hangover from the night before, he fell asleep.

Battousai returned to his monastery to discover that the city of Amalthion had put a kind of trade embargo on the ships entering Amalthion, though he was unable to discover why. Meanwhile, Elgo experimented with his new spell Teleportation which caused him and Agnar to reappear in Lord Halcor's study. James continued to snore in the corner, unaware of the intrusion.

Somewhat annoyed at the human wizard's wanton display of superfluous eldritch relocation, Agnar stormed out of Lord Halcor's manor and returned to his forge where he knelt down and prayed to Shiff Fireforge (See gods page) for assistance.

Agnar asked his god eleven questions which are listed and answered here.

Next week: Whodunnit?

---

April 15, 2003

April 13th Awards
Experience	Awards
At least 1000 per character	Brand new Super Veritech VF-1A's and VF-1S's!

In this weeks episode of ROBOTECH:

While Orange Squadron was on morning patrol, they experienced all the same hallucinations as each other time during the week, but could now clearly hear the radio messages from Macross ace, Wraith. In the meantime, the doctor was having a similar experience.  He was somehow able to see briefly through the eyes of his old professor, Dr. Emil Lang.

While everyone was regrouping to work on new ideas of how to deal with the ongoing illness, Hacker discovered that the new AI that she and the doctor had constructed had done some minor repair/upgrades to itself.  It was currently accessing Global Defense Networks language database to work on it's very own project!  Strange gibberish was scrolling by on the screen, and the AI was trying desperately to decrypt it.  Hacker even lent some ideas and ran a seperate subroutine to help it out.

Finally, the party was able to brainstorm and come up with a plan for a modification of a Cat's Eye sensor dish to generate a large EM field of appropriate frequency to counteract the area's EM radiation (possibly the cause of the ships ailment).

Upon activation of the new EM "shield", some of the crew (particularly those in engineering) experienced overwhelming symptoms, and were stunned.  In the first seconds after the field activation, the Eisenhower was under attack. 6 fighter pods, 4 battle pods, and one veritech fighter (later identified as Wraith) mysteriously appeared. Between Wraith, the ships destroid defenses, and Orange squadron, under the command of Blackdog, the enemy was dealt with in only seconds.

During a celebration that night, Captain Emerson made the announcement that Orange Squadron had been given transfers to one of the new ARMD space platforms (4 or 5). In addition, they were given replacement mecha appropriate to their new duty stations and MOS... the brand new Super Veritechs!

The only catch, they were later told in private, is that they were to complete a top secret mission to assure the safe reinstatment of the "new" Robotech Defense Force, assigned to the first line of defense versus offworld threats. It seems that the terrorists from last months sessions have captured a prototype submersible aircraft carrier loaded with Robotech mecha.  With this equipment, they were able to seize ARMD 1 and 2, which were running on small technical repair crews during a refit.  With the codes and equipment obtained on ARMD 1 and 2, the terrorists have been able to render inoperative the automated systems onboard the almost completley automated ARMD 4 and 5.  Only 3 remains operational as an effective defender.

Will Orange squadron be able to infiltrate the mercenary regime, and restore the RDF defenses?  Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of ROBOTECH!

---

April 13, 2003

Some facts below may be slightly askew, as the Marquis du Jarod is not of sound mind lately... Or was ever.

April 12th Awards
Experience	Awards
1000 Each	None Yet

In the Cry for Amalthion game this Saturday, the party put on their Sunday best and followed the throng of nobles into Lord Halcor's manor for the party and the meeting. (Lord Halcor is James' employer and one of the five most powerful lords in the city)

James Krondor, Agnar, Mornamil, Phelps and Travon entered the party, James with two dates and Agnar, Phelps and Travon as guests while Mornamil was invited by old friend Kaedrathi who, as a fairly well-to-do merchant in the nobles's section, had been invited to the meeting.

The Grand Duke and the high nobles filed in first, a sign that they had business to attend to before the official meeting, followed by the lesser nobles, the guilds, the temples and finally the merchants. All in all, there were over forty guests including the party, and Lord Halcor's audience chamber was, while not packed, quite full.

Click here for a list of and description of the nobles and other guests.

Before the meeting began, each of the greater nobles of Amalthion presented Lord Halcor with a gift. Lord Enmon of House Cerase presented Halcor with a magnificent fencing rapier which, to Mornamil's eyes glowed with the presence of magic, but did not, to Travon's paladin eyes, glow with evil. Lord Estoru of House Skelstan graced Lord Halcor with an incredible chalice of gold and platinum, encrusted with jewels. Lord Arum of House Lyeed gave as a gift a beautiful, exotic plant which he claimed was from the deepest woods of Neriss. Finally, Lord Cerlaw of House Percery had a group of servants wheel in his gift -- a jet black feline creature which looked like a cross between a panther and either a human or large monkey.

The gifts offered and received, the Grand Duke announced that the meeting would begin, and he and the five nobles began to discuss the expansion of Amalthion into the forests, plains and farms to the east, building the city around the Grand Duke's palace so that palace would become the center of Amalthion.

Agnar offered his own gift, a large mug of Dwarven ale, to the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke accepted the gift, though he signalled a small cadre of guards to quietly lead the dwarf out the door.

Lord Enmon and Lord Estoru both supported the decision to expand the city while Lord Arum and Lord Cerlaw opposed the plan. The Grand Duke acted as mediator, and Lord Halcor abstained from throwing himself into the argument.

Halfway through the meeting, Mornamil saw a dark figure appear behind the Grand Duke's chair. Crying out, he warned the Grand Duke of the assailant, and the Duke launched himself forward to avoid his own assassination.

Agnar, who was guided out the door by the guards only moments before, felt that his ousting was without reason, and took the hinges off of the large, stone doors which lead into Lord Halcor's audience chamber. As combat began, one large stone door fell inward startling the guards.

Through the windows then came six assailants who immediately attacked either the armed party members (Only Phelps, whose double-bladed sword was too large to sneak in was without a weapon) or the alarmed nobles whose bodyguards lead them quickly toward the exits.

Travon tossed Phelps a longsword, as the paladin's weapons had not been confiscated at the door. Mornamil cast hold person on the Grand Duke's assailant, then walked over, examined the assassin with a grin, and drove a dagger into his throat. Meanwhile, James, Phelps and Travon began fighting off the assailants who had leapt in through the windows.

Agnar, who had just re-entered after taking the door off of its hinges, leapt over a banquet table and charged one of the few attackers who had actually made it as far as the nobles' chairs, apparently in an attempt to get to the Grand Duke. He and James made quick work of these assassins while Travon, Agnar and Phelps dealt with the others. Mornamil also took out another attacker, again casting hold person and coup de grace'ing him with a rapier.

Ultimately, the party was successful in destroying the attackers, though the peaceful meeting was called off, and Lord Halcor was forced to increase security for the evening.

Next week: A meeting with Lord Halcor!

---

April 7, 2003

Archbishop Tim sent the following message to the perpetrators of the Spanish Inquisition:

April 6th Awards
Experience	Awards
Unknown	Nightmares about ghost ships and glowing brains

After nine months aboard the USS Eisenhower, the electromagnetic radiation from the explosion of the SDF-1 has finally begun to fade, and perhaps too late.  The crew has contracted a mysterious illness, and has been experiencing frightening hallucinations.

Representatives from the Global Defense Network have been sent to monitor the situation on board, and to assess the performance of the crew at work.  Rumor has it, that they are considering transferring crew from here to one of the new ARMD space platforms.

The Doctor has been working steadilly at finding a cause and cure, and even sobered up for the occassion.  During his studies of the crew, he was told by one of the GDN representatives on board that ARMD 1 and 2 had both experienced similar symptoms to what has afflicted this crew.  The Doc's work would have run much smoother, perhaps, if he had not been experiencing even worse symptoms than the rest of the crew, including an apparition which harassed him constantly whenever he started to focus.  Through constant self-medication to try to stay focused (and block out the hallucinations), Doc began to have terrifying dreams about being alone with a dying man on the bridge of a large ship that was going to crash. After several MRI's on various crew members, it was found that the entire crew had abnormal brain and nervous system activity.  Each person had high brain functions around the motor center, and throughout the spine.  Pilots and Engineers all had even more activity and more intense symptoms.  The Doctor, it seems was totally off the chart. In frustration, and fearing that he might somehow be the cause of the sickness, he had Multitool set up some specialized equipment from engineering and taught him how to perform Electro-shock-therapy.  When the equipment was ready, half of the crew showed up to watch the doctor get zapped.  They would wish they had never thought of going.

Once the current started to flow, all went as the doctor said it should.  After about 2 seconds, the doctor's eyes flew open, changed to all white, then all black. He sat up, and a hole exploded in the adjacent wall.  Many that had come to watch, ran in terror, others just stood in awe. The doctor, however, felt more than alive now.  He could sense all life around him.  He could sense the functions of the very ship itself.

With the aid of Hacker, and Multitool, the doctor utilized some mecha parts and his lab computer to create a more advanced system capable of limited AI capability.  With the routine running, they found that the frequency of the radiation in the area was identical to that of the power protoculture matrix inside of the Robotech mecha.

The search for a cure is still to be found...

---

April 5, 2003

The Marquis du Jarod, lost in Ravenloft, was given these directions to escape:

April 5th Awards
Experience	Awards
1250 each	One bound-and-gagged halfling

The Sewers of Amalthion adventure over, and the lich destroyed, the Saturday party returned to town for some R&R. For a full week, the group rested, regaining lost hit points and dropping by the local guilds and temples for necessary restoration and equipment.

Agnar spent the week crafting masterwork armor from the flesh of the demons which emerged when the lich's phylactery was destroyed, and earned himself some money. Battousai (formerly Wu Tang) did good deeds around town while James gambled away a small portion of his earnings.

Toward the later part of the week, the Peasants' section began to become agitated. Word had spread that for the first time since the founding of Amalthion, all five major noble houses as well as several minor noble houses, were meeting in the same place at the same time, and it is said amongst peasants that when all five major noble houses agree on something, the peasants are the ones who will ultimately pay the price, so the town is in a relative uproar.

Still staying at Nod's Inn, the party watched the hustle and bustle outside, now and again marveling at the fact that the inn spontaneously caught fire every now and then, though not catastrophically, and that Amedi Vak, whom everyone saw die in battle a while back, is again walking around.

Three days before the scheduled meeting of the five major houses, James received a message from his master, Lord Halcor, informing him of the meeting and inviting him and up to ten of his guests. Meanwhile, Mornamil was visited by fellow sorcerer Kaedrathi Amastacia, who had received an invitation to the same meeting, and who needed a companion for the party.

Down the hall, and at the same time, the absentminded wizard, Elgo, received a similar visit from Sylan Vaunt, the head of the Arcane Spellcasters' Guild. Apparently, the Guild was allowed to send an emissary, and Vaunt chose Elgo since he has a great deal of contempt for the nobles and their arrogance.

The invitations received, the party began to prepare for the... Uh... Party.

Until, that is, Mornamil noticed a small group of people he recognized from the thieves' guild chatting surreptitiously behind the inn. He approached and discovered that they were four thieves, three humans and a halfling, who were planning on sneaking into the nobles' homes when the focus was on the meeting. This was, Mornamil discovered, an act that was not authorized by the Thieves' Guild.

Combat began when one of the thieves finally noticed Mornamil's presence and moved away to lob arrows at him. The rest of the party engaged the thieves in one way or another, and even Elgo got involved, spitting out a cloud of black smoke to immobilize at least one of the enemy.

Finally, the three human enemies were killed, and Mornamil took the prisoner hostage, much to the dismay of Travon, a local paladin of Banril. Taking the prisoner inside, Mornamil consulted Nod who, with a look of shock, pronounced that the halfling was his nephew and demanded that he be brought inside. He thanked the party for not killing the halfling and then shut the door to his room, with only himself, the halfling and Mornamil inside.

What happens next happens Saturday...

---

March 29, 2003

The Marquis du Jarod scrounged enough cash to send a telegram to Mythrandil containing the following message:

March 29th Awards
Experience	Awards
1,500	Demon-Hide Armor (Crafted by Agnar)

The Cry for Amalthion party again descended into the sewers to end the sewer adventure by destroying the lich's phylactery. However, upon destroying the device, a bright flash of light exploded in the sewers and three lights shot off in three different directions. One light struck a wall, and a six-armed demon appeared and attacked the party.

The creature was quick and agile, but posed little problem for the party despite its two scimitars, shortsword, two daggers and a bizarre exotic weapon which resembled a punching dagger with two curved blades instead of a crossguard.

As the party was cleaning up after defeating this first demon, a group of orcs came running down the tunnel. Upon seeing them, Agnar cast holy fire in their exact position, reducing them to ash. However, the creature from which the orcs were running proved slightly more powerful. A large demon resembling a huge wolf with gigantic lobster claws on its back burst into the area and began attacking the group, attempting to take out the cleric before engaging the others.

This creature too, was finally put down, and with his demise, the Sewer Adventure has ended.

Once these creatures were dealt with, the party retreated to town to rest up for a week. Agnar spent his entire week making armor not only for party members but to sell in Amalthion. He made a fairly good deal of money doing this.

Coming next week: Political Intrigue!

---

Marquis du Jarod reports on the Location of Saturday's Game:

I haven't received confirmation from Jon as to whether or not we are allowed to use the clubhouse at Edgewood Heights, but if in fact we are not allowed to use it, we can always return to Collectables Unlimited.

If you need directions to Edgewood Heights, contact the Marquis du Jarod

---

March 27, 2003

Archbiship Tim received the following transmission from deep space:

So far in the Robotech game:

March 23rd Awards
Experience	Awards
Unknown	Unknown

On the day of celebration for the maiden voyage of the SDF-1, Orange squadron was sent on a recon mission to scout out a possible terrorist base in soviet territory run by a group of extremists called the Terrestrials, who believe that the activation of the alien technology has and will yet draw aliens to earth. The mission was to survey the region occupied by the Terrestrials, drop missile payloads on any sign of a base, and then return immediately to report on what was seen.

Approaching the target zone, orange squadron began encountering heavy resistance in the form of long range missile barrages. Dealing with the missiles quickly, they got closer to the target zone, to discovery two Spartan units¹, and a Raidar-X².

At first glance, the mecha appeared to be friendly, as they increased their attacks on the young pilots, Rocks³, the group's trainer and squadron leader, mentioned the theft of some of the prototypes from Macross island not too long ago. At least now, they knew where it had gone.

Before the Raidar-X had a chance to fill the skies with anti-aircraft fire, Hacker⁴ and Blackdog⁵ dropped a large cluster of missiles into it, slagging it in its tracks. Now the Spartan units, having lost their range advantage began firing madly at the planes that they knew they probably could not hit, did discover one of combat's oldest tactics... spray and pray. With enough firepower dumped into an area, anything can be hit.

The squadrons new doctor, sent 200 miles behind the group in a Commanchero⁶ for emergency extractions from the target zone encountered one of the missile barrages as it missed the fighters in the squad. He quickly set down, and ran for cover, as his chopper was blown to bits (but not before grabbing his six pack from the back seat).

While the pilots of Orange squadron were busy finishing off the stolen Mecha (being very lucky that the thieves had little knowledge or training with the Robotech Mecha), the enemy was waiting for their trump card to reinforce them. and just after they were eliminated in a perfect critical strike by Hacker firing a long burst from her gunpod directly into the fresh supply of missiles of one of the Spartans (roll of 20!), one of the prototype Veritech fighters showed up, still bearing the RDF symbol on it, but no squadron markings.

Waiting until fired upon, Orange squadron made short work of the outnumbered prototype. By this point, Hacker was out of missiles, Blackdog had lost both arms and half of her main body, and Rocks had taken alot of damage to his plane as well. It was now that the emergency call from base was heard, ordering all forces to return to defend the base from the incoming alien attacks.

On the way back, many groups of alien mecha were encountered, and the group's engineer, Multitool⁷, armed with a special control center to allow him in-flight analysis and minimal repair and modification capabilities, had his hands quite full fighting off glitches, overloads and shutdowns of various systems on the badly damaged planes.

Eventually, the right engine in Rocks' fighter locked up, and began to overload from the extreme system damage sustained. Unable to reduce speed below Mach 4, Rocks aimed the craft upward with the intention of ejecting at maximum altitude when the Veritech stalled.

In a daring rescue maneuver, Hacker followed Rocks' plane in a power climb to the Veritech's surface ceiling of 60 miles. As the plane achieved stall at the top, Hacker switched quickly to battloid mode, and grabbed on. Within a few seconds, the pilot's compartment had been detached and mounted onto Hackers plane. Almost home. The group then monitored very disturbing communications from the SDF-1, and seeing the swarms of gigantic alien ships descending into the atmosphere, Orange squadron raced home.

While trying to deal with the danger of a reactor shutdown, Multitool noticed that one of Blackdog's rudders had locked up, and was never able to deal with the problem. Seeing an officer's battlepod leading a pair of light artillery pods toward base, Blackdog kicked the throttle, and punched out, sending her fighter into the backs of the unsuspecting alien ships.

Wraith, a local hero who kept rescuing the group on their trip home, called for help, screaming that his fighter had gone out of control. Unfortunately Orange squadron was in no condition to do anything to help. And as if things were not bad enough, the SDF-1 was apparently overwhelmed by the alien invaders, ultimately exploding and destroying all of Macross island, most of the aliens, most of the RDF defenders, and almost all of the surrounding sea vessels.

With the doctor having been abandoned in Soviet territory, and two of the three Veritechs in Orange squadron destroyed, everyone gathered on the only large mass left in the area, the now badly damaged USS Eisenhower.

With strong electromagnetic radiation in the area making sensors and any communications other than laser useless, the loss of the SDF-1, and many confused soldiers and terrified civilians surrounded by equally disattatched alien presence hiding in the ocean's depths, the weeks to come are going to be quite the adventure.

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Footnotes:
1. Spartans: Long range missile pods with legs.
2. Raidar-X: Anti aircraft robot with extremely refined sensory equipment that was likely relaying firing information to the Spartans.
3. "Rocks" is played by Lord Josh
4. "Hacker" is played by Count Steven
5. "Blackdog" is played by the Marquis du Jarod
6. Comanchero: Helicopter.
7. "Multitool" is played by Viscount Rob

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March 22, 2003

The Marquis du Jarod was handed the following message by an ætherial hand:

March 22nd Awards
Experience	Awards
1500 each	1 Sword 1 Belt 1 Periapt

The Cry for Amalthion party returned to the city on Saturday to identify a large number of items which Mornamil has had in his possession. A number of potions and scrolls were identified, as well as two necklaces, a periapt, a belt of Dwarven kind, a Ring of Minor Sonic Resistance, and a cloak of sheilding (vs. magic missles).

Additionally, the little tin box that the undead spellcaster was identified by Wu Tang (with an Arcane Knowledge check of 32) as a lich's phylactery. Knowing that the box needed to be destroyed, the party took it to the wizened gnome Renny Stimpletaget, the master of the Loremasters' Guild.

Stimpletaget instructed the party to take the box back to the place where the lich's body was destroyed, recite an incantation and destroy the box with a magic weapon. He also revealed that the lich was Argoth the Luminescent, one of an order of ancient spellcasters who followed an enigmatic wizard named Krælin Dúrel. Argoth was the least powerful of their cadre.

Armed with this knowledge and healed to full health by Agnar's divine power, the party descended into the sewers once again in order to destroy the lich forever.

Upon entering the area of the last battle, a number of Bone Reapers, a wrothknoghri and two shrouded wraiths of some kind attacked the party. Argoth, Wu Tang and Phelps moved in to take them on at close range while Mornamil stood back and began trading long-distance spells with the wrothknogrhi who stood close enough to be a problem, but far enough back to keep from being hit.

The numerous undead discovered how broken the Blade Barrier spell is when Agnar cast two of them, one at four feet (which he, at 3'7" could easily walk under) and another at 6 inches from the ground. These two barriers allowed Phelps and Wu Tang to bull-rush their oppoenents backward into the affected area which caused 22d6 points of damage to the bone reapers.

Finally, after Mornamil fired off numerous magic missles at the wrothknoghri, Agnar placed an iron wall behind it. The wall tipped the wrong way, and the wrothknoghri was unaffected. The second iron wall however, placed upon the first, but just slightly over the edge on the wrothknoghri's side, put the creature in danger. In perhaps the first scenerio of this kind in the history of the Gamers Group, a creature took more damage by succeeding in his save than in failing as the wrothknoghri leapt out of the way of the iron wall into the twin blade barriers, where he took more than 70 points of damage. This was more than enough to kill him.

The game ended before the lich's phylactery was destroyed, but there will be more to come next week.

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March 20, 2003

Lord Josh, upon pulling the rip-cord, was shocked to find not a parachute, but this message:

March 10th Awards
Experience	Awards
1000	2000gp 9 gems 1 Potion 1 Necklace

The Dragon's Egg party took up where they left off last week. Unable to dismiss the horizontal blade barrier, Aiselle realized that there was a problem in crossing the affected area. Both Klinge and Callaway were in flight, and so could cross the foot-high barrier without a problem, but the rest of the party was stuck.

Ultimately, half of the party crossed the barrier in flight and discovered a group of goblins and an ogre on the other side. Klinge managed to wrap his rope around the ogre's head, then the other end to his horse in an attempt to pull the ogre into the blade barrier. A goblin figured out what he was doing and cut the rope.

The blade barrier was finally dispelled by an enemy spellcaster allowing Robert J. (Bobo) and Grount (this week played by Viscount Rob) to engage the enemy. Bobo enaged the ogre immediately, taking him out, then entered the room to take on the contents. Meanwhile, Callaway switched places with a goblin and noticed that the ogre and goblins were accompanied by a giant and several kobolds.

Engaging the giant, Robert J. managed to take him down in one attack, though only because Callaway and Gwaylar had been using magic non-stop to weaken and damage the enemy. The kobolds proved little more than mop-up and two goblins were taken prisoner.

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March 19, 2003

March 10th Awards
Experience	Awards
Unknown	Unknown

In Sunday night's Robotech game, Orange squadron approached their final target, running into a pair of Spartans (missle-firing mecha) and a Raidar X (antiaircraft). The Spartans fired a large number of missles at the party, but our heroes managaed to shoot most of them down. Doc avoided death by landing his Comanchero and walking away with an armload of beer and adult magazines, and letting the vehicle go up in smoke. Between Black Dog and Hacker, the three destroids were destroyed, though on the return to base, another Veritech fighter showed up and attacked, and shot down Rox (the commander). Both of Black Dog's Veritech's arms were shot off, but Orange Squadron survived. An emergency call was then received from base. They were under attack.

Rox ordered Orange Squadron to report back to base and report to Captain Roy Folker for instructions.

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March 15, 2003

The marquis du Jarod's giant zepplin of strangeness dragged the following message through they sky:

March 10th Awards
Experience	Awards
2000 per character	Numerous items

The Cry for Amalthion party continued their sewer adventure today, much to the dismay of the undead upon whose buttocks were loosed the dogs of war. Venis Tr'Mur made a guest appearance, though only for a short time. Four more scythe-wielding skeleton-like creatures emerged as the group explored further in the tunnels, accompanied by a scimitar-wielding skeleton whom Agnar turned and who began trying to dig through solid stone to get away from the dwarf.

Meanwhile, the group opened up their usual can of whoop-ass on the scythe-wielders, ultimately destroying them and suffering the effects of the Bone Storm ability (which causes the skeletons to explode when killed).

As the last of the scythe-wielders died, he actually spoke to James, saying "Death comes!" Moments later, two wrothknoghri entered from side doors and began casting spells and another undead creature of unknown type and origin appeared on a bridge to the south. While the wrothknoghri proved little trouble for the group to beat, the third creature began casting spells upon the party, ultimately Charming James and killing Brazen. Still, the party managed to beat the creature down until he stopped moving and discovered several potentially magic items on him including a periapt, two bracers, a small metal box and a cloak.

While the battle against this creature went on, Brazen and Phelps discovered another creature, some kind of black-robed wraith, hiding in a corner. When they attacked the creature, they appeared to be damaging it, but it didn't fight back. Ultimately, it slipped back thorugh the wall to disappear. No one knows why.

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March 13, 2003

Lord Josh's pidgeon returned from the distant lands with the following message tied to its beak:

March 10th Awards
Experience	Awards
1060 per character	A periapt, a potion and a strange ring plus 6000 gold pieces

The Monday night Dragon's Egg party continued from where they left off last week. Entering a large (40x40 foot) room, they discovered a pair of worgs and a worg mother as well as a huge half wolf, half dragon creature. A small demon-like biped with wings was also present, but teleported out when combat began.

The wolf/dragon creature had a mean breath weapon, but proved to be no match for the team from the Well of Swords, and was ultimately destroyed by the party's gnomish illusionist whose Evard's Black Tentacles beat the creature down and dropped it 90 feet to its death. The two worgs were little more than fodder for the party's spellcasters, though the mother worg, who had both a disintigrate ray and a blight ability, proved a challenge for the party. She too, was finally destroyed, and the party was relieved to have survived another combat.

Meanwhile, Klinge, the elf who stood guard at the portal to the town, noticed a small, well organized platoon of kobolds approaching. He engaged them, keeping them busy long enough for the rest of the group to rush in and cut them down.

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March 10, 2003

March 9th Awards
Experience	Awards
Unknown	Unknown

The Sunday night Robotech game has begun. It is only a few years after the Robotech Fortress crash-landed on Macross Island, and all the world's governments have joined hands to rebuild the ruined fortress in fear of the aliens' return to reclaim their Robotechnology.

Orange Squadron, a newbie group of Veritech pilots and several backup group members, were assigned to investigate an alleged terrorist base near the border of the Eastern Bloc Soviet Independent State (EBSIS), and if such an installation existed, destroy it with extreme prejudice, being careful not to be caught by the EBSIS government.

Orange Squadron approached the reported location of the terrorist camp to suddenly see two Soviet MiG (Mikoyan-Gurevich) 25 Foxbats possibly engaged in combat with an RDF (Robotech Defense Force) Falcon. The trio approached and, upon reaching Orange Squadron's position, broke off and attacked.

Salina , (callsign "Hacker") shot down a MiG in the first round of combat, and the second MiG was destroyed a moment later as Tatiana Gloval (callsign "Blackdog") performed a daring maneuver, converting to Guardian mode, spinning and firing at the MiG, destroying it, then spinning around to convert to fighter mode within a split second. Thanks to the group's electrical engineer, Hachi Ku (callsign "Multitool"), Blackdog didn't crash and was able to attempt a daring mid-air grapple in Battaloid mode against the Falcon.

The grapple failed, and Hacker attempted to shoot the Falcon down, though the plane's pilot proved too slick for Orange Squadron's guns. The falcon escaped as a group of Comanchero helicopters flew in from RDF base camp to support the group.

More on this game next week!

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March 8, 2003

March 3rd Awards
Experience	Awards
1800 per Character	Tiny shards of bone

The Marquis du Jarod's space probe received the following message from the crab nebula...

First of all, the A Cry for Amalthion party welcomes back Wu Tang, the monk and Phelps the Fighter, played by Jon. No newcomer to the group, Jon has played Phelps the Fighter in numerous incarnations throughout his experience with D&D. The group also welcomed back Keira, who for a day took up the mantle of Enquabannasaugh du Trelmorphianne lin Dræliscatraulette, the gnomish rogue.

In the Saturday game, the party more or less split up into two groups, one of which descended into a lower level to lay seige to an adamantite door while the other group followed a rat-man around a corner to a dead end. Brazen discovered that the rat-man's footprints disappeared into the wall, and informed the rest of the group of his discovery.

Meanwhile, Matthias, now in possession of a cloak of etherealness, slipped through the adamantite door to discover an empty 15x15 foot room beyond.

The party ascended back into the sewers where they met up with a large party of non-threatening rat-men who took the party back to their lair where they explained that they had been plagued by undead for a while now, and couldn't stand up to the creatures. They begged the party's help in killing the creatures, though they offered nothing in return for this help. The party agreed, and were lead to an area that the rat-men knew was frequented by the undead.

Upon entering the area, the party discovered two more of the exploding skeletons whom they attacked relentlessly. As they fought, another two skeletons entered and attacked. Brazen was almost killed, but luckily, Agnar the dwarven cleric saw fit to heal the half-elf of her wounds. Finally, the party managed to bring the skeleton-like creatures down, though all but two exploded as they died. Of the two that didn't, the first simply fell over and lay still, while the second was literally vaporized by Agnar's Searing Light spell.

After combat had ended, Wu Tang the curious monk approached the one skeleton body that was left, and discovered a small bone-like cage within its rib cage. Tearing it out of the creature, he discovered that this tiny bone-like cage was actually the artifact that caused the skeletons to explode when they died. The skeleton and the bone-like cage exploded, and wounded the party further.

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March 6, 2003

March 3rd Awards
Experience	Awards
340 per Character	Small mw Full Plate & 3 gems

Lord Josh loosed a pigeon with this message tied to its leg:

The Dragon's Egg party, one stronger with the addition of a gnome runesmith with illusory powers (played by Nathan) met a number of major characters in town; an unkempt moulder dwarf whom Robert insulted, a cleric of Aur, fed up with healing foolish adventurers, a strange wizard with unnatural affections toward inanimate objects, and gnome who thinks he is Napoleon...

The party also killed a group of powerful worgs and a few kobolds. The giant also showed his face, though he left the instant combat began...

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March 1, 2003

March 1st Awards
Experience	Awards
1800 per Character	No rewards as of end of game

The Marquis du Jarod's tax return was replaced by mobsters with the following message:

The Cry for Amalthion party again descended into the sewers beneath the city on Saturday. After noticing a furry creature running away, James pursued the beast, which turned out to be a rat-man, and threw a dagger at it, wounding it slightly. The rat-man, frightened out of his mind already, couldn't deal with the situation and merely lay on the ground, praying that James didn't move in for the kill. James attempted to assure the rat-man that the party was no threat, but unfortunately his diplomacy check resulted in a 1, which was the beginning of a streak of bad luck for the duelist, ending in a grand total of 10 critical misses in the 3 hour game. A single natural 20 (on a knowledge check) failed to balance out the win/lose ratio for this character.

Meanwhile, Agnar discovered a skeleton-like creature in a side room and proptly began to hand the creature its own pelvic bone. The skeletonish monster was more or less unable to harm the dwarf, but exploded upon its own destruction in a blast of bone fragments which managed to wound Agnar.

The rest of the party faced another of the skeleton-like creatures and found it much more difficult to damage. A third creature joined his boney comrades and advanced on the party, but was blown up by Agnar before it could close the distance. Finally, a wight-like monster appeared and began casting spells, beginning with magic missle and running the gamut through fireball and lightning bolt to other defensive spells that the party may or may not have recognized.

James' natural 20 on his knowledge check revealed the wight-like creature to be a wrothknoghri, the undead product of a failed experiment to create a creature which was immune to all elements.

Finally, the party defeated the creatures and began to search the area. Agnar discovered a grating in the room where he had originally faced the first skeleton, beneath which was a 50 ft. deep hole of rough hewn stone leading down into darkness. Climbing down, Agnar discovered a large metal door in a rough hewn 15 x 15 room. As any good dwarven cleric would do, he stopped there to rest. The remainder of the party upstairs may or may not go back to town for healing and equpiment upgrades next week.

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February 27, 2003

Lord Josh handed the Marquis du Jarod this important service announcement:

This Monday saw the start of the Dragons Egg campain. The party now consists of Robert, Aiselle, Grount (TJs new character), Callaway, and a character new to the group, Klinge, played by Tim. The party, at the behest of a strangely polite red dragon, find themselves relocated to a strange, distant town of which none of them has ever heard. Thay are met by some helpful archers who are promptly blown up good by a kobold sorcerer. Many lessons were learned by both groups. Robert learned not to get surrounded by rogues with rune burst weapons; the enemy learned to bring bigger swords when fighting Grount the untouchable; Aiselle learned shocking rocks the size of Buicks hurt. Fun was had by all. Next week: What are the mysterious holes the enemy fled through, and what is a rune burst weapon? And where can I find a throwing, returning, thunder shock rock the size of a Buick?

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February 22, 2003

February 22nd Awards
Experience	Awards
1250 per Character	One satchel of 5 Masterwork Slingstones

The Cry for Amalthion party descended today into the sewers of Amalthion, where they discovered a small mob of undead. Thinking that the creatures were simple zombies, the party attacked en masse, attempting to smite their evil before they could shamble through the sewers to the exit.

The leader of the creatures unfortunately turned out to be a mohrg, a former mass murderer whose crimes went unatoned for. The creature proved a powerful and formidable foe while backed by a pair of zombie-like creatures and a handful of zombie-like minions, but once its followers were gone, the mohrg discovered that it alone could not withstand the party's awesome combat capability.

As per my plans, I am announcing above the amount of experience and rewards that the party received as of the game's conclusion. I will have little to no control over this with other peoples' games unless the send me the information.

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February 19, 2003

The Shadowend Three Kings of Woe game has come to a conclusion with the destruction of Magagon, the firey demon to whom Valderian sold his soul for power. The party, which was booking for the exit last week, turned on Magagon and opened up a can of whoop-ass on him, striking him repeatedly and doing incredible damage to him before finally downing the monster within four rounds. Mr. E (who now has a name), Aiselle and Kirinth managed to do some phenomenal damage in single and combination attacks, killing Magagon before Bobo had a chance to power up and enter the melee.

In a once-in-a-lifetime event, Oricant himself (See "Shadowend" campaign setting), god of light, appeared, thanking the party for foiling Magagon's plans and killing the demon. He bestowed upon each member of the party gifts of magical power.

Beginning Monday February 24th, Josh's game begins. Updates on that game will continue as they happen. So far, the party involved doesn't look like it's going to change, though there may be the addition of a few new characters as NPCs... We'll have to see...

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February 15, 2003

In a continuation of last Saturday's A Cry for Amalthion game, the party repeated attempts to find and bludgeon the invisible wizard who harried them from afar. While Aerathorne shifted from Crinosphynx to Dire Wolf form, Jonathan charged about the room attempting to locate the wizard by tripping over him. Finally, the wizard was brought down by Glendower's second alchemist's fire arrow which caused him to resemble the Colonel's extra crispy spicy seasoned chicken fingers.

Upon the wizard, Aerathorne found a bag, with which he left the room (shifting into Fly form) to check it for dangerous contents. He returned a moment later and the party approached the last of the doors left unopened.

Beyond the door was a large, silver colored serpentine creature somewhat resembling a dragon. The party immediately began attacking it with various techniques as Aerathorne shifted into a megaraptor for added combat ability. The creature managed to do significant damage to the party, though even its incredible attack bonuses were not enough to destroy the party. The silvery creature was finally downed, though it seemed to melt into mercury and flow throughout the room.

Both Matthias (who suddenly appeared when Stephen was fried by a Maximized fireball) and James stood in the silvery goop too long and took two points of CON damage.

Finally, a secret door was discovered by Jonathan who stepped through to find another, older door beyond. Aerathorne entered the hallway, shifted into Grey Render form and bashed the door in, only to find an iron grating beyond which lay the sewers of Amalthion.

Next week, the Sewers of Amalthion segment of the ACFA game begins!

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Errata:

In the Shadowend game, it was Kinth and Mr. E. (rather than Aiselle) who stayed behind to combat the demon, while the rest of the party evacuated. Dalin stayed behind to heal Crombie. (Errata reported by Châtelain Rob)

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PLEASE NOTE: Tere will be no game on Sunday night (Feb 16th.) Evil will be fought and killed the following Sunday.

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Another anomalous update:

I'm revamping the page so that the links on the menu take the reader to a separate page which tells something of the player. These pages will, if the player wishes, have email links. Those who do not want email links are not required to have them. This is an ongoing process and will be done a few pages at a time, most likely in the order that they appear in the left margin menu. If your name appears there and you have a brief biography that you would like included, please send it to the Marquis du Jarod as soon as possible.

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February 12, 2003

The Sunday game fizzled and turned into a jawjack session, so not much happened.

The Shadowend game however, saw the end of King Aun and the opening of a portal to another plane through which stepped a number of lemures, melted candle-wax demons. The party dispatched these creatures with little trouble, though the lemures were followed closely by Magagon, the demon to whom Valaderian sold his soul.

Kinth Qi Zhong and Aiselle stayed behind to combat the demon while the rest of the party ran for the exit, lead by Kirinth de la Rosha who picked up King Aun's crown. The game was called at that point and will resume next Monday.

Additionally, Lord Nathan has put up an ad in Collectables Unlimited which references this site. Other gamers who operate in the Concord area are welcome to send their game updates to the Marquis du Jarod for inclusion in this site. Keep in mind, I do very little editing short of deleting cusses, so make sure to spell-check your update before sending it in, and include your name and the name of the campaign setting. Entries which do not contain this information will not be posted.

Any gamers who want to join the Gamers Mailing List should please note the Mailing List Information which can also be found in the menu on the left.

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February 9, 2003

On Saturday, the Cry for Amalthion party finished clearing out the treasure chest which they found on the second floor of the House of Constructs. They discovered sevearal potions, several scrolls, several weapons, a ring and a chainmail shirt. Mornamil inspected the items and discovered that they were magical...

After some confusion -- caused by the game master's inability to properly describe a feature of the cell in which the party found the stairs to the third floor -- an elevator to the basement was found. In pairs, the entire party descended to the basement and, in a huge room full of cages and cells, found eight people of varying genders, races and classes locked up. Aerathorne, in his Grey Render form, quite alarmed several of the prisoners, though Amedi and Aust began freeing the others, asking what had happened. The only one who had seen anything, a gnomish girl, said that she had been captured by "strangely dressed men" and that the prisoners formerly dragged out of each cell returned to drag other prisoners out of other cells.

The party then began checking doors and subsequently unlocking them to discover a large construct in one room. Most of the party filed into the room to take a swing at the construct, though several members hung back to try to figure out the scrolls found on the second floor with the help of a formerly imprisoned wizard.

The construct was finally defeated, though an apparently invisible wizard is now loose in the large room. He has been discovered, though not found, and he is still at large.

Due to time constraints, the final battle was postponed until next week...

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Update at a Random Interval:

Rather interesting note: Several people told me that the marble background annoyed them. I therefore took it out and left the whole page as "lite-swirl" except the menu bar on the side which is still a kind of papyrus kind of thing.

Too many people have told me that the page with frames was either unnecessary or annoying, and thus I am not going to implement it as a permanent entity. This page will be the exclusive gamers page, although there may be severe alterations (without frames, and certainly without Java) which may or may not annoy some people. Complaints can be sent to the Marquis du Jarod or posted on Lord Nathan's new forums page which can be found here. Please post in the appropriate forum, as Cry for Amalthion topics should not wind up in the Shadowend forum.

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February 6, 2003

The Monday campaign continued amidst the chaos of eight players as Robh made a guest appearance to play Dalin, Kirinth's clerical sidekick. The party descended into the main throne room of King Aur to discover a relatively stupid looking undead guy holding a baby in his arms. Kinth Qi Zhong immediately ran up, ignoring his surroundings and snatched the baby from King Stupid. He then ran at top speed out of the throne room with the king (if King Stupid is actually King Aur) hot on his heels. Bobo, Dalin and Aiselle made attempts to trip the king as he ran past, but to no avail. The king pursued Kinth out into the hallway where the party began beating on him until he fell over.

More happened, but I can't remember what at this point.

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February 3, 2003

In the Sunday game, the crew (now down to Rubic, Dirk, Ellendria, Buri Tayi and X. Adour) explored the door to the left of the door where the gelatinous cube was found when we last played on January 13th. Beyond that door was a huge cavernous room with a ceiling too high to see and a set of stairs leading upward a la the stairs toward the bridge of Khazad-dûm in Fellowship of the Ring.

Rubic flew up to see what he could see while Buri Tayi and X Adour hung around on the floor. Rubic sent a telepathic message back to the group to tell us that there were some rather large baddies in the area.

Battle was joined against the baddies, a shadowy humanoid shape and a large creature which looked like a winged troll made of fire. There were two additional enemies, one of which was a group of five fifteen foot square spiders and the other was a complete unknown. Dirk charged forth to smite his shadowy foes while Rubic hung back and lobbed crossbow bolts at the enemies. X Adour and Buri Tayi stood on the floor firing holy arrows at the things until Ellendria entered the room and cast Daylight and Sunburst at the creatures, killing the shadowy humanoid thing.

Finally, Rubic called for a retreat strategic withdrawl, and the group returned to the room where we fought Duran (also on January 13th) to regroup and catch our breath.

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Also check out the Gamers Page with Frames!

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February 1, 2003

The Marquis du Jarod was arrested and charged with:

In one of the most hectic games to date, the party encountered, attacked and fought a pair of clay golems. The two golems were unable to gain an advantage in the beginning of the battle, and their only saving graces were their immunity to magic and piercing and slashing weapons and their good damage reduction. However, despite these factors, the party was able to bring the golems down. The newest member of the party, Arathorne Silverwing (a druid/shifter) transformed into a Grey Render to do battle, and Amedi cast both Divine Power and Divine Might, granting him incredible bonuses and size advantages.

After the golems were destroyed, Artemus (our new paladin) opened one door, exposing himself and the druid to a poison gas cloud while Amedi (still 12 feet tall) bull-rushed the other door. In Artemus' room, the party found a large, raised granite platform upon which sat a chest. Amedi, in the other room, discovered an evil-looking altar.

In the room with the granite platform, half of the party went berserk trying to open the device. James and Artemus attacked the lock, though were unable to damage it in the slightest. Finally, Mornamil picked the lock and opened the chest (barely avoiding the magic trap) to reveal...

Tune in next week to find out what's in the box!

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January 29, 2002

The Marquis du Jarod has been working on a Gamers Page with Frames which may (or may not) make accessing the information a bit easier.

There are those among you who read this page with browsers which do not support frames, although from what I understand, most of those people do not read the page on a regular basis, so I do not see any other impediment to its access. I would like some feedback from everybody who reads the page, whether they are involved in a game or not. If you could find it in your heart to Email Me and let me know what you think of the site with frames, whether you like it, don't like it, or see room for improvement, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

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Also please note that the Monday game for 1/27 was canceled due to numerous factors. No updates for Monday either.

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Also please note that the Sunday game for 1/26 was canceled due to numerous factors. No update for Sunday. Sorry.

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January 26, 2003

Saturday's game saw another new player, Matt, who is playing a monk who bears the temporary name Wu Tang.

This week, the party returned to the House of Constructs with a new monk and without Amedi Vak and Aust. Mornamil was also absent, though with the addition of Wu Tang, the party was well within the necessary power level for the campaign. The house was still somewhat empty as the party ascended the stairs and explored the upper level of the house. In one room, James discovered several stylish outfits, one of which he tried on. The clothing immediately attempted to take over his mind, though he was quick enough to rip the clothing off and kill it before it could do further harm. In the room, he also discovered a sack which contained a cat-like mask.

Mule and Que'quay discovered another room with two large pillars set five feet apart. When he walked between them, he was repeatedly struck by spinning blades from a hidden trap. Mule broke the trap, effectively disabling it, then went on to check a nearby chest. The chest contained a bug-necklace and a ring.

Que'quay tried the mask on and felt more balanced and stable. He heard a word bouncing around in the back of his head, and without thinking, said it, thus completeing the verbal activation of the mask and turning himself into a cat.

Upon exploring further, the party ran afoul of four more constructs, all of which turned out to be silver once they were killed. The party now faces a single pair of double doors behind which may lie the answer to all the riddles.

Or maybe just another room.

One last note: Sad though it may be, Mule was cut down in battle and killed. He shall be forever remembered.

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January 22,2003

Sir Nathan declared the following deductions on his 1040:

Amanda introduced her new character Ina (rogue 10/paladin1*) and Ina's adopted father Kegan (dwarf cleric 10).  The party discovered the lower level of King Aun's barrow, and ran into 1) a cone of cold trap, 2) 4 barrowdead warriors (not spellstitched), and 3) Valedurean, King Aun's seneschal and undead sorcerer lackey.

Valedurean cast haste and improved invisibility on himself and a barrowdead. The party retaliated with flame strike and holy smite.

The (invisible) barrowdead got in a few whacks.

Mith walled off the three visible barrowdead (and the door on the other side of the room) with a wall of force spell.

The visible barrowdead bounced off the invisible wall.

Aiselle cast invisibility purge on herself and exposed Valedurean and the barrowdead.

Valedurean, already at 1/3rd hit points after little more than 2 rounds, and feeling pretty vulnerable, retaliated with two castings of Menioth's darkfire.

Amanda's new character Ina & Rob's character Mith went dead.  Bobo went down.  Dalin the Backup Cleric counter-retaliated with another flamestrike. Valedurean, pretty well dried out after 3000 years, became a charcoal briquet.  The nameless barrowdead warrior fell down after a few blows from Kirinth.

Aiselle gave Bobo another Heal spell.  He felt better.

Now, the party is waiting to see how long it'll take for the wall of force to fall (roughly 10 minutes...but since it's invisible, how will they know?)

*Forgotten in the commotion yesterday, but...paladins of Catil can't be rogues.  It's pretty iffy for Catil to have paladins at all, and he certainly would frown upon them multiclassing as rogues.  Runic smiths, yes. Fighters...yes.  Rogues, no.  (also, monks, rangers, bards, druids, sorcerers, wizards, and barbarians no).  Clerics, yes.  Paladins of Cyriana can multiclass as fighters, bards, and clerics.

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January 19, 2003

First and foremost, welcome Forrest, a new player who has joined the game with James, the human rogue/fighter/duelist.

Also, you might notice the marquee above mentions reformatting issues. The only real changes to the page are only visible if you view the source (View --> Source in IE). These changes won't really reflect on the page itself, however Josh found an interesting issue with IE that I'd like to address: If part of the page displays with gibberish, right click anywhere on the page itself and select "Encoding" from the dropdown menu. From there, make sure that the current selection is "Western European (Windows)" and not one of the other options. I have not heard of anyone else having this problem, though I did check the code on the page, and it is not faulty. I do not know why IE does this, but following these instructions should solve the problem.

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The Saturday game consisted of the following players: Amedi Vak, the human cleric (played by Nathan) Aust, the elven rogue (played by Nathan as a cohort) Brazen, the half-elven ranger (played by Réjane) James, the human rogue/fighter/duelist (played by Forrest) Matthias, the human fighter (played by Adrien) Mornamil, the half-elven rogue/sorcerer (played by Brad) Mule, the half-orc fighter (played by Josh as a cohort) Que'qwy, the gnomish sorcerer (played by Josh)

Experience: 900 xp per player. Treasure: None yet.

In the Saturday game, the party continued into the "House of Constructs," now joined by James the human rogue/fighter/duelist, Mule the half-orc fighter and Que'qwy (kwee' kway) the gnomish sorcerer.

Both Brazen and Mornamil began checking doors while the rest of the party hung back to either watch over the still-unconscious Rishk or to observe from a distance.

Upon opening one door, Brazen discovered two human-looking figures who, after she slammed the door and ran, pursued. Meanwhile, Mornamil found two similar figures in a room at the other end of the hall. The four figures emerged from their rooms and flanked (tactically, though not insofar as game mechanics are concerned) the party, attacking from two directions.

Amedi cast his array of enhancements upon himself and grew to the size of a twelve foot giant, then unloaded a can of whoop-ass on the enemies. Ultimately, the four bad guys were defeated, and their clothing and skin melted away like mist to reveal silverish suits of armor.

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January 15, 2003

On Monday, the group confronting the Three Kings of Woe barged deeper into the third barrow with Kinth Qi Zhong leading the way, kicking in doors. The party faced another group of skeletons imbued with prismatic fields (See January 1, 2003 entry for more details) which caused damage to melee attackers.

The skeletons attacked the party, attempting to flank the group by utilizting the architecture of the barrow. Unfortunately for the barrow warriors, the group was far too strong, smart and quick to be taken by surprise.

More later (I didn't quite retain the whole evening's events perfectly, so if anyone has further input as to what happened that night, email me and I'll <insert> it after this line.)

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January 13, 2003

The party in the Sunday game (sans Qælan, Ha Zing and Therios Plem) continued their battle against Duran, the evil guy who, now surrounded by a Wall of Force cast Darkness to confuse the party, then disappeared.

Rubic the [adjective] Dwarven Cleric managed to shed some light on the party with his glowing sword of light, though Duran was long gone by then. The party then ventured into another hallway which lead to a fifteen-foot-wide corridor with a door at the other end. The party (almost all of whom are flying at this point) cruised down the corridor (which was decorated with splashes of pastels and bright colors) to the door, through which Ellendria in ghost-form poked first her hand, then her head.

Unfortunately, there was a large gelatinous cube on the other side of the door, and Ellendria was immediately paralyzed. Buri Tayi managed to pull her back through the door despite her ghost-form spell, and the party slipped back to the hallway to regroup. Ellendria, now paralyzed, is still mobile since her flying ability is activated by will power and not by physical movement.

The Sunday party is: Buri Tayi, Monk of the Way of the Ambiguous Somethingorother; (Played by Jarod) Dirk, Barbarian and champion of small furry creatures; (Played by Robh) Ellendria, weilder of magics and Incantrix of some goddess (Played by Steven) Ha Zing brother-in-arms and sempai to Buri Tayi; (Played by Josh) Qælan, Bard and storyteller to kings of old; (Played by Tim) Rubic, the Dwarven Cleric; (Played by Bill) Therios Plem, Cleric and follower of Ha Zing (Played by Josh as a cohort) and X. Adour, treasure-finder and friend and ally of Buri Tayi (Played by Jarod as a cohort).

Next, X. Adour attempted to check the door for traps, and failed to notice the cunningly hidden set of horizontal wires which, when he attempted to open the door by tying a rope to the knob, walking back fifteen feet and pulling, resulted in the popping off of the knob and a set of horizontal wires (one group set at 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. feet, the other set at 6 inches, 18 inches, 36 inches and so forth) to swing together like a waffle iron, pinning the party.

Caught between the wires, Buri Tayi, Dirk, Rubic and X. Adour took a great deal of damage and were pinned in the center of the room until Dirk, managing to get free, used his keen, Vorpal axe to free the group from the rest of the wires. Unfortunately, since he cut the wires on one side only, and since the trap was still in effect, the entire group was flung to the far wall by the remaining wires, taking more damage.

At last, the group got out of the trap and regrouped again. This time, X. Adour used his head, tied a knot in the rope, inserted it into the hole where the doorknob had been and splashed some water on it to cause the knot to expand slightly. He then walked out of the room through the door on the other end and opened the door.

This caused the entire fifteen by fifteen wall upon which the door was situated to slide upward exposing the enire corridor to the menacing (albeit lethargic) presence of the gelatinous cube.

At this point, Buri Tayi and X. Adour engaged the cube with long-range attacks until Dirk pulled out his Barbarian Sword and ran into battle berserking. He struck the cube several times, ultimately downing it despite the fact that it was not subject to critical hits. Dirk then turned to look for other opponents (as the sword's one drawback is that any living thing in line-of-sight is considered an enemy). X. Adour, having seen the barbarian's vengeance wreaked before, simply closed the door behind which they were standing, cutting Dirk's line-of-sight off from the party.

Dirk calmed down, and the party explored the room in which the cube had been sitting.

Found in the room were a set of articulated black plate mail (which went to Rubic), a ring of water walking (to Ellendria), a Circlet of Minor Blasting (which Buri Tayi now wears), a glass vial full of liquid, two wands, and a couple of other things that I wrote down but left on a PostIt® note pad attached to Buri Tayi's character sheet...

The game concluded for the evening with the spellcasters resting, and the fighters keeping watch to avoid having another cube sneak up on them in the middle of the night.

(One last note: Since Tim is currently running a game, I have moved his name up from the Fly-by-Nighters to the Nobles Cast. Somebody please nag him to send me an update as to what's happening in the Saturday Night Game so I can post it on the site!)

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January 12, 2003

A new addition to the Gamers Group: Réjane, who now plays the ranger Brazen in the Cry for Amalthion game on Saturdays.

Saturday's game consisted of further exploration of the house in which the party was lead to by Mornamil's friend Rishk. The house (pictured at right) held few creatures, although Rishk ran afoul of another pile of vehement laundry. It seemed to take control of him, and he began to attack the party.

Luckily, Brazen and Mornamil managed to beat the halfling down without killing him, and Matthias struck the killing blow, annihilating the aggressive attire.

Mornamil and Brazen then left Matthias to watch over the freed but heavily wounded halfling (who was struck several times by Brazen's longsword of wounding) while they went to search the house. Mornamil realized that the house was three stories high, and yet no sign of stairs or elevator had been found in the previous search, so the duo began examining each room for signs of hidden passages.

Brazen found in the cages to the south side of the house what looked like a trap door which didn't quite meet the walls of the cage. Searching the room extensively (taking 20) they discovered a cunningly hidden wall panel with a sliding ring behind it. Brazen pulled the ring causing the entire "trapdoor" to descend while a stairway slid down from above.

Next week: Explorations of the upstairs!

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January 9, 2003

No game today: Just dropping a note to let everyone know that the Cry for Amalthion campaign setting site has been updated with a few corrections and to reflect the party's ending of the goblin threat and the leave-taking of Venis and of Kædrathi.

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January 8, 2003

A vile darkness was driven back to the Abyss when Sir Nathan shouted:

The dramatis personæ of the Monday Game are:

Aiselle Silverbranch, student of the Mazed Path, spellfire adept, and cleric of the Riddling God;
Alexa Forestblade, woodswalker and warrior;
Robert J. "Bobo" De La Rosha, reformed rogue and paladin of the Lord of Kings;
Crombie, spider-walking barbarian bridge troll warrior;
Dalin Heraldsman, Proclaimer of Cyriana and sworn man of Kirinth Delarosha.
Kinth Qi Zhong, master of the Thundering Fist;
Kirinth Delarosha, paladin and warrior of the Divine Herald;
Mithriak Faerilven, wizard of power;

Worn from their battle with the malebranche fiend and the spell-enhanced barrow warriors of King Aun, the party rested briefly in the great hall.  They were no longer bothered by the ill crimson radiance that lit the chamber, and confident that the malebranche would this time remain a corpse.  Mithriak scribed another entry into his journal, while those injured in the battle tendered themselves to the care of Aiselle and Dalin.

The missplaced scent of sausages and muffins at last roused the curiosity of Kinth, Crombie, Alexa, and Kirinth, who followed the odor through the lower right-hand door and into a short hall.  A narrow set of stairs led upwards, clearly to the balcony door, and another door stood before them.  Kinth led the way through the latter door, and suspicious of the savory scents, vaulted through a second door and into a well-appointed kitchen, easily avoiding the club-wielding cook hidden behind the door.  Provoked by her attack, Kinth Qi Zhong unleashed the power of the Thundering Fists, overwhelming his opponent and leaving her unconcious on the floor.

Curious about the existence of a living person in the barrow of the dead, Aiselle swiftly stabilized her wounds.  Kirinth's keen eyes notices a concealed amulet around her neck, and pulling it free, was surprised to see the holy symbol of Aela, the goddess of life and steadfast opponent of the undead.  Another application of healing magics roused her to wakefulness, though Kirinth patiently underwent the forceful application of holy water and a turning attempt as Derra Whitehand (as she was called) determined for herself the party was mortal and not fiendish masqueraders.  She explained to the party her existence as a cook and companion to Tiera, King Aun's current "Queen", and Sill, the "opener of doors" in her former adventuring party and now Tiera's lady's maid.

"Sill," she said carefully, "is na' so right anymore.  She ha' had an hard time of it here, w'out the protection of the King or my goddess-granted powers.  I ha' done wha' I can, but she's na' so right in the head anymore.  She's a victim, tha', and does na' deserve to die here on the bounds of Hell.  Treat with her gently."

She also informed the party that, for the first time in the history of the Kings of Woe, Aun had successfully fathered a child on his "Queen".  The birth of this child, nearly 3 hours ago, freed Aun from his curse.  With an heir, he was no longer bound to return to the fiendish realms after a mere twelve hours, but could remain in the Wyrld and retain his deathly powers, using them to restablish his kingdom of evil.  She had no knowledge of the nature of the child, though she suspected it could not be wholly untouched by evil, having had remained in Tiera's womb for nearly 12 months before being born.

Derra warned the party that to reach the rest of the barrow would mean passing "Screaming Jynna", and refused escort out of the barrow, answering that she would wait for Tiera and Sill before leaving.

Kinth, Kirinth, Bobo, Alexa, and Crombie pushed forward, followed by the remainder of their companions, and found themselves in a nightmarish garden overgrown with thorny hedges and scarlet flowers.  A walk on the garden wall revealed a view of a fiendish realm and an abyssal planar barrier, things only Mith was tempted to explore.  The twisting garden paths soon revealed Screaming Jynna, the banshee spirit of King Aun's sister and unwilling consort, and her horrific aura struck deep into the souls of Kinth, Bobo, and Alexa.  Kinth attacked without heed for himself, and Jynna's retaliatory shriek stopped Alexa's heart in a second, and briefly stunned her other opponents.

The swift arrival of Crombie and a sphere of silence enraged her, but the party's powerful attacks did her damage, and she disappeared into the hedgeways.  Aiselle, who had swiftly deduced her true spirit and approached her, accepting the blow of her malevolent aura while presenting Jynna with the heart of her one true love.  After nearly two thousand years of tormented existence, Screaming Jynna passed to her heavenly reward.

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January 7, 2003

When the police raided the Marquis du Jarod's apartment looking for contraband, they found the following:

Sunday's game saw the party leave the caverns below where they faced the dracolisk and return to the upper level from which they had dropped several weeks ago.

Following the hallway from which they were unceremoniously dumped, the group found a room full of ogres whom Ha Zing attacked relentlessly with his d20 fists while Dirk engaged the big green uglies on the other side of the room with his keen vorpal axe, felling at least one in a single blow. Meanwhile, Ellendria spiked the entire group of ogres with a chain lightning spell, causing them severe head trauma.

The rest of the party hung back somewhat and discovered a human cleric standing in an alcove opposite the ogres. The cleric was no amateur and caused the party a great deal of trouble before he was finally downed. He was not as yet identified as the session was ended at this point.

More to come later.

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January 3, 2003

Tattooed on the upper lip of the Marquis du Jarod's prize-winning blue sheep was the following:

There was no game on Saturday due to the weather. Despite this bar to our weekly episode of gaming, Sir Adrian and the Marquis du Jarod actually showed up at Collectables Unlimited and jawjacked for about 45 minutes before realizing that no one was going to show for the game, let alone to open the shop.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Though in the future, if there's really bad weather, the Marquis du Jarod may call off Saturday games. Before heading out to the game, check the site, and if the game has been cancelled, there will hopefully be a scrolling marquee at the top of the page to indicate it's cancellation.

Other than that, nothing new.

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January 1, 2003

Happy New Year, everybody.

Sir Nathan, after slaying the Great Chartreuse Dragon of Bad Segues had this to say:

Monday's game began, remained, and concluded in the (empty) great hall of King Aun's Barrow.  The party, having previously put the subdual smackdown on a 20-foot tall malebranche fiend, was stumped as to how to kill it and finally abandoned the effort.  Before they could penetrate any deeper into the barrow, however, ten magically fortified barrow warriors entered the hall and attacked, utilizing prismatic auras that inflicted damage on melee attackers, low-powered fireballs, magic missiles, and spider climb.  The spell powers of the barrow warriors were made all the more dangerous by the quickening of several of them.  Aiselle successfully turned three, and the party managed to slay the rest, just in time to confront the malebranche again.  A few hefty blows and Bobo's holy weapon finally finished off the furious fiend. Mith gets a special mention for reducing slightly more than half the barrow warriors to slightly more than half their hit points with a very successful chain lightning spell, overwhelming spell penetration, and a high save DC.  TJ gets a special mention for finally SHOWING UP after a year-and-a-half absence.

What terrors next await our intrepid adventurers?  How much damage can TJ's monk really take?  What the hell happened to the throne?  And why do they smell baking bread and sausage?

Tune in Next Week, for another thrilling episode of "As The Wheel of Pain Turns!"

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These entries are from the year 2003 only. 2002 updates are linked below.

Concord Gamers Group 2002 Updates