February 21st Session 11

February 21th Session 11
Diamond Lake
The group took some much-needed rest after very nearly meeting their deaths at the hands of some tough kidnappers. Most of the guys went to hang out at their favorite places and fell into routine. Septimius most spent his time alone following the death of his younger brother, Primus. The group pooled what little money they had to buy some pearls from Tidwoad, the jeweler, and struck a deal to purchase the elven armband that they suspected Drake sold without their knowledge. With some time off and the pearls Sandreus was able to identify several magic items the group had acquired. Sandreus identified a magical Circlet of Wisdom, Wands of Unseen Servant, Shatter and Ray of Enfeeblement, Cloak of Protection, Amulet of Natural Armor and a Pearl of Power. Each of the items was given to an appropriate character as they were identified.
After a week of lounging around the group received an invitation to have a casual dress dinner with Balabar Smenk in two days time at his mansion. They group dresses up in their finest except for Rollo who choose his fancy leather armor over his patched and dirty daily clothing. They arrived and were not stopped by the guards assigned to walk the perimeter. At the door the man with the white gloves, Mr. Felix, received them. They were escorted into the sitting room where they were given the choice of drinks they wanted and asked to wait as Mr. Smenk would be out shortly. Five minutes later Balabar Smenk arrived and introduced himself and exchanged polite pleasantries with the party. Several of the adventures wanted to know what Smenk wanted with them. Balabar explained, “All in good time, but lets have dinner first.” Dinner was severed in the dining room. They were first served soup and a salad. The next course was squab with potatoes and vegetables. Dessert was a rich chocolate cake-like delicacy.
After dinner Balabar invited all of his guest to the sitting room, offered them brandy and cigars, explained he would answer all of their questions they had and more. He explained that, yes Kellen and friends did work for him and was assigned to Filge to do “whatever he asked”. Also Balabar had the charges of murder dropped against the party. It was at this time Balabar explined he was in need of a favor for both him and the good of the town.
Some time ago Balabar was asked by Ragnolan Dourstone, another mine owner, to help supply food to some individuals who where living under the Dourstone mines. Balabar agreed and was invited to see the temple under the mine. What Smenk saw shock and scared him. There was a black pools of liquid being worshiped by some group of black cloaked creature the might have been bird like but he wasn’t sure. He was take to a man know only as the “faceless one”. Not that he could tell he wore a steel mask over his face and talked with a lisp. While in the temple and surrounding living quarters Smenk was able to acquire the green worm that the adventures now have in their possession. In an effort to try and get out of the deal he raised his prices and sent some questionable supplies. The next day the head of his mine foreman was in his bed when he awoke in the morning. If they could get into his room undetected then they could have killed him. What he proposed was the adventurers eliminate the cultists under the mine and he would give them 500gp and any supplies they might need. One more detail was that they were not to mention Balabar Smenks involvement with their mission. Smenk gave a detailed description of where to find the passageway to the elevator down to the temple.
The group planed and came up with a plan involving six members hiring on as workers and Septimius with most of the gear would be dimension door, by Allustan, to a safe location after Allustan scryed to make sure that no one else was around. Sandreus hid out in the outhouse and signaled with a cloth tied around his arm that all was clear. Septimus arrived and brought all of the weapons and armor that might have stopped mine foreman from hiring the adventures. The group equipped and made their way to the abandon passageway leading to the elevator. They took the elevator down and met two guards who …

February 7th, Session 10

February 7th Session 10
Diamond Lake
The group enjoying some hard-earned time off was hanging out at all their favorite places. Perfectus brothers, Tiberius and Appius at the garrison, Rollo and the new bouncer Crag at The Feral Dog and Sandreus III at the Able Carter Inn. One night while finishing his last set a grizzled miner, named Gulmber Hunder, came into the inn looking for Sandreus and friends for a special job. He needed the group to meet at Tilgast estate as soon as possible. Within an hour Sandreus had the group gathered up and heading for the Tilgast manor. The were greeted by Hunder at the door and shown to the waiting room. It was then that they met Gelch Tilgast and Terris Culvert. They were told the Culverts two sons and two of their friends left for a night on the town eight hours earlier and no one could find them. They had been to The Hungry Gar, Lazare’s House, The Spinning Giant and possibly The Feral Dog. The last place they had been seen was at The Spinning Giant.
The group headed out to The Spinning Giant. The bartender, Nimiscent, remembered the boys and said “Primmith served ‘em”. Asking Primmith about the boys and giving her a gold piece she recalled that the four foppish boys had been in the bar, but had left after one round and that a miner and his friends had left with them. Primmith didn’t remember his name, but she pointed to a soldier and said he might know the miner. The soldier, Jerch Molownt, after receiving a free beer from the party told the group the miners name was Thurbiss Callahorn and that Jerch and some soldier stopped Thurbiss from beating his up his girlfriend over at The Hungry Gar.
Next stop The Hungry Gar. Upon arrival they noticed that the light were still on, but the door was locked. They knock and the cook came out asking if they were the cleric from the temple. He explained that one of the waitresses, L’weeze, had been beaten up and left unconscious out back by the garbage. The cook had sent one of the bus boys to get a healer to help her. Appius healed the girl and asked who did this to her. Initially, she was reluctant to say, but with some proper diplomacy they were able to find out her ex-boyfriend Thurbiss asked her about a group of boys eating dinner. L’weeze refused to help him figuring he was up to no good. Thurbiss waited until closing then beat her up and took all her money including the 5 gp tip from the boys. She also told the party that the Thurbiss and his gang have a shack were they usually stay hang out.
A rather large, but run-down L-shaped shed. A single, smashed rear window is boarded up. The rotting wooden walls seem to have been insulated with a combination of mud, dried grass and rags. The roof looks suspect; a canvass sheet stretched across a hole that might either serve as a chimney or has just rotted through. Crag decided not to wait around and charged the door. He busted right through, but in doing so released a flock of stirges. The battle was over quickly, but Sandreus has been bitten and was feeling a little weak. While exploring the shed Tiberius discovered several green piece of a silk shirt that had been cut off with some kind of knife. Deciding to follow the green shirted trail they ended up at a nice manor.
Check the front and back doors they discovered neither was trapped, but both were locked. Tiberius was able to unlock the back door, so the party crept into the house using the light from a bull’s-eye lantern. They entered the kitchen, dining door and living room and found nobody. There was a door leading to the back of the house. They opened the door revealing a long hallway with two doors. One went to the bathroom, the other lead to the bedroom. In the bedroom they found an old man asleep in his bed. They woke him up and questioned him about Thurbiss and the boys. The old man admitted that they had been there and asked him to write a letter for them. He also recalled that they said that they were heading to Dead Hole, an abandon mine.
Standing outside Dead Hole the group could see nothing as the mine curved slowly to the left. Tiberius snuck ahead and investigated the mine. The rest of the party “quietly” moved into the mine. Crag and Tiberius discovered that the far wall about 100 feet into the mine was a fake wall and that there was a moaning sound coming from the other side. Tiberius snuck all the way to the “wall” as the rest of the adventures tried to quietly approach. Tiberius heard some whispers and some movement and then nothing. Tiberius pulled down the heavy canvas to reveal a large room with 5 armed men and 4 tied up boys.
Tiberius fired at Thurbiss and moved back towards the party. Thurbiss charged up and severally wounded Primus nearly dropping him. Gulgh changed up and critically hit and dropped Septimius in one hit. Primus stayed in combat after receiving a healing spell and began working on Thurbiss. The next attack Gulgh critically hit Crag and dropped him. Brakk used his Glaive and Thurbuss used his Longsword to continue to beat drop Primus. Sherkel tumbled behind Sandreus and sneak attacked him dropping him. Unfortunately Sherkel paid a dear price as Appius finished him off. The ranged warriors of Rollo and Tiberius worked on taking down Gulgh as Gerzy fired on Rollo and Tiberius. Eventually the continued assault of Thurbiss and Brakk was to much for Primus and he fell unconscious from too many wound and died. Appius was in the wrong position even though Gulgh had fallen he did his best against Thurbiss and Brakk. From out of nowhere came a warrior, a spellcaster and Tirra a friend of Sandreus III fron the Feral Dog. The warrior Auric rushed forward to engage Thurbiss and Brakk. Khellek used his healing ability to help stabilize Appius, Crag, and Septimius. Auric engaged Thurbiss and Brakk the battle inflicted heavy damage to both sides until both Thurbiss and Auric both fell. The combined forces of Rollo and Tiberius finally dropped Gerzy. Tirra stepped up and engaged Brakk again lots of damage, but in the end Tirra emerged victorious. Khellek help Auric back to his feet. The heroes claimed the Mithral Chain Shirt and the four boys as their victory price and left the battered and beaten group with the rest of the treasure. The battle might have been a victory, but the loss of Primus weighed heavily on the party especially his brother Septimius.

January 31st Session 9

January 31st Session 9
Diamond Lake
Having laid the bones of Alastor Land with the recovered remains of his family the adventurers were ready to head back to the Whispering Cairn and see if Alastor upheld his end of the bargain. If all went as it was suppose to then Alastor had opened the door to the final tomb. Off went Primus and Septimius Perfectus, Rollo Mojo, Crag Skullbugger, Appius, Sandreus III, Slyver and Tiberius. The made it easily up to and through the face and was only slowed down by the Iron Ball trap. They looked across the wooden beam and gained their first look at the True Tomb. They lower themselves down onto the balls and walked across and climbed up the wall on the other side. Upon enter the room’s outer ring they saw two Wind Warriors exit from the pillar of wind in the center of room. The warriors caught the group flat-footed and flew over the darkened pit banging their swords together and wracking the party with a sonic blast that left all but Tiberius and Rollo sorely injured. Crag in a berserker rage and Septimus with his great flail stepped up to send the wind warriors back to their home plane. The battle was fierce as the Crag and Septimus both concentrated their attacks upon the wind warrior on the right. Although the wind warrior in front of Crag swung wildly the damaged wind warrior extracted a heavy price upon Septimius. The next round the fighter and barbarian made their attack and decided to step back and let another one of the fighters step up and inflict some damage. Although both Rollo and Tiberius pelted the damaged warrior with ranged attacks he and his fellow wind warrior were able to launch more sonic blast from their swords. This time the group was not as lucky as Appius, Primus and Sandreus fell from the damage and lay dying on the outer ring. Septimius passed his healing potion to Crag who was nearly unconscious from his wounds, although Septimius was severally wounded himself he stepped up and engaged the severally wounded wind warrior hitting with all his remaining strength. Crag after having drunk the healing potion stepped back into the combat and finally finished off the damaged wind warrior. Luck remained with the barbarian and fighter as the last remain wind warrior missed his intended target. Meanwhile Slyver was somehow able to save Appius as his life teetered on the brink of death. Slyver was also able to stabilize both Sandreus and Primus as well. It was then that the immortals were with our brave adventurers first Septimus severely wounded the last wind warrior and sensing victory Crag swung his axe and dropped the wind warrior with a powerful attack. Gathering up their three fallen comrade the group decided it would be best to make camp just past the Wind Face. The group was able to revive the comrades enough that they could all head back to rest for an extra day of healing before heading back into the final tomb.

The following day the adventures again enter the True Tomb. They examine the wind murals and decided to investigate the pillar of air. Final Appius and Slyver stepped into the pillar of wind and were blown up into the True Tomb. When the rest of the party arrived they began to investigate the room when the bas-relief animated and asked the group to “Speak my name”. After a couple of bad guess they finally spoke the name of Zosiel. The sarcophagus lit up in a bright blue light and a seam appeared. The warriors bravely stepped up and removed the lid revealing a Circlet, a damaged pewter box and two black horns with red tips. They gathered their treasure and decided to head back to town.
They first stop was Allustan who told them he would have some information about their strange red metal the next day and to come and see him in the morning. Sandreus decided to go and sing at the Able Carter Inn, Rollo and Crag decided to go to the Feral Dog. The rest of the party went to their lodgings at the garrison. Early in the evening Sheriff Cubbin, Deputy Jamis, eight men in heavy armor and two men in robes arrested Sandreus at the Able Carter. Shortly after their visit to the Able Carter the posse arrested Kioska at the emporium after a brief altercation. Next stop was the Feral Dog to arrest Crag and Rollo. Although there was no physical harm inflicted on either side the posse were able to take Rollo and Crag into justice at the constable’s office. For the rest of the night the four men were interrogated about their involvement in the murder of Kullen and his band of thugs. Although the sheriff seemed to know all the details he continued to ask for information. In the morning a man, wearing white gloves, arrived and upset Sheriff Cubbin, Cubbin was yelling at the man but in the end he released the four detainees. While in jail Cubbin and Rollo worked out a blackmail scheme to make some quick money off of Balabar Smenk. The rest of the party arrived at Allustan’s and discovered three of their brethren were missing. Investigating the Able Carter they discovered Sandreus was arrested, but all his stuff was still in his room. They grabbed the pewter box and went back to Allustan and opened it in front of him. What they found in the box was a talisman of the spheres. While investigating their new discovery the rest of the group arrived and explained how they were arrested during the night and question. They explained how a man with white gloves who works for Balabar Smenk convinced the Sheriff to release them.

December 5th Session 1

December 5th Session 1
Abandon Farm: 10 miles outside of Diamond Lake
As prearranged by the Perfectus brothers several member of the Diamond Lake community, who should some promise as hardy souls and the itch to try the adventuring life, began arriving at an abandon mine office. First to arrive was Septimius, a large sword-wielding warrior, as it was his plan to start adventuring to try to make some money. Second to arrive was a nature man and his wolf from the Bronzewood Lodge. He answered to the name of Kioska and his wolf was called Frylock. Kioska claimed he was invited by a dwarf named Crag. Shortly after three more member of the new group arrived from Diamond Lake. Agustus, a cleric of Ixion stationed at the Chapel of Thor, Sandreus II a man with a thousand different singing voices, and Drake a tough local kid with a knack for getting people to give him money. After introduction were complete Septimius’s younger brother, Primus, arrived. The next to last to arrive was Rollo Mojo a man with an unusual talent to fire a force from his to hands. Last came the only non-human of the new group a fierce dwarf named Crag.

Only ten minutes away was a cairn known as the Whispering Cairn. The name came from the unusual whistling sound that could be heard inside of the cairn. The band of adventures ready to strike it rich set forth inside the cairn. After exploring a few rooms and not finding much the group encountered a group of three wolves. The wolves came up from behind when the group was examining a mosaic on a wall of an alcove. Luckily the bard heard something coming from behind and alerted the party. Crag looking for a chance to swing his large blade charge forward stepping in front of Rollo and Sandreus. The brothers were the next to charge into combat to engage the wolves. The group quickly dispatched the two smaller wolves, but the larger wolf backed up over a pile of stones beneath the cave-in. Septimius crawled forward to engage the wolf followed shortly by Crag and Primus. The three eventually defeated the wolf with some mild injures. The group decided to head back to the lodging for the night to rest and heal up to reconvene again the next morning to explore further into the cairn.

The next day fully healed the group pushed on further into the cairn. They arrived in a huge room with seven alcoves and a huge sarcophagus in the center of the room. They proceeded to explore the alcove and see what they might discover. There were several lanterns of different colors hanging in each of the alcoves. They quickly deduced that the color scheme match the colors of the rainbow Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. They didn’t find anything interesting until they explored the blue alcove and noticed that they could see the top of the alcove. Upon further exploration they found a tunnel leading further into the cairn about 50 feet above the alcove. The group decided to explore the tunnel. They quickly encounter a face that flashed several colors and began blowing a strong wind back out the tunnel. They two brothers became fascinated by the flashing colors and stood continuing to watch as the wind steadily continued to blow. The warlock closest to the face dropped to ground to try and avoid the wind. The thief and cleric were the first to the edge. Looking behind them they saw several of the members of the group tumbling towards them. Agustus choice to take his chance and make a leap for the chain hanging about 8 feet in front of him. Drake decided to tie himself to the rope and try and grab the first person to come rolling by him. Agustus made a leap for the chain and caught hold of the chain, but or only a moment before he lost his grip and plummeted 50 feet to the ground land hard. Septimius have regained his senses was just able to stop himself from tumbling off the edge. The bard Sandreus grabbed Primus who had also come to his senses and tied him off to himself. Kioska and Crag decided to get to the edge before it was to late. Second to jump was Septimius who caught and held onto the chain. Septimius was followed by Kioska and Crag who were also able to grab hold of the chain without following. Unfortunately down below Agustus took his last shallow breath and left the land of the living. Above Drake helped Sandreus and Primus stop from rolling off the edge and make the leap safely to the chain. All that left in the tunnel was Rollo was beginning to tumble dangerous toward the cliff edge. At the edge Drake helped Rollo to stop rolling and make a leap for the chain. Drake missed the chain and began falling to his death. As Drake was falling Primus tried to catch him as he passed although Primus couldn’t catch Rollo he did help him by slowing his fall. Rollo landed hard but luckily he survived the fall and was stabilized by Kioska who was to lend assistant to Rollo quickly.

The group gathered the fallen comrade and took him back to town. Septimius took the responsibility to take Agustus to the temple and explain how he had fallen to his death. The rest of the group agreed to go back to the cairn in a couple of days and continue to explore the cairn.

Illustration of Appius Umbrius Laurentius

Art by Greg Poloynis

Crag and his friend Fallon

Art by Greg Poloynis

Crag Skullbugger Illustration #1

Art by Greg Poloynis