Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for June 7, 2007; present characters included Ashkor (lizardfolk barbarian/battle sorcerer/dragon disciple/fighter), Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/vigilante), Lady Aridarye Phylund Brokengulf (human aristocrat/harbinger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), and Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor).

The Mercenaries wasted no time after their rest in engaging the creature of the portal once they found their sending attempt to Delfen had failed. A blistering hail of magic missiles from the simian warmage brought a quick demise to the abyssal ghoul. Moving quickly, Ashkor and Aridarye entered the portal and the unknown.

As described by Pitamian, the room beyond held shrieking winds and swirling smoke. Unfortunately, it also held half a dozen belkers! The smoke creatures quickly assaulted the intruders, with one sending part of its gaseous body down Ashkor’s throat, where its claws then turned solid and deadly. Ashkor survived the attack, but not without taking some painful injuries. The belkers began materializing into solid form as the remaining Mercenaries moved through. In a short time, all of the evil elementals were slain.

Taravin and Morak forged ahead and found a large, open room with immaculate carvings and bas relief with ancient script. Oddly, two piles of blades, like barricades, occupied the room. The stoic dwarf soon discovered why, when he stepped on a pressure plate, and a hurricane blast of air threw him bodily into the spikes. Soon after, Taravin triggered another trap which filled the edges of the room with a poison gas; however, the gas also revealed a magical scene showing an ancient war between the Djen and the forces of Kossuth, god of fire. As this scene played out, a leader of the Djen stood boldly on the field holding up a solid scepter and some kind of emblem or seal. After the scene faded, Iapetus used comprehend languages to translate portions of the ancient script. From what he read, the Mercenaries believe they are in the tomb of a warlord named Icosiol.

The Mercenaries noticed tracks similar to what they expect Delfen would leave and followed them out the doors to the south. Shortly beyond the doors, Morak triggered a word of chaos trap, which left the entire party, except Lyrin, reeling and deafned for a short time. Within moments, Morak triggered another with the same results. Still following the tracks, the party found a two-tier room with a balcony all around. In the middle was a glistening black floor with four purple-glowing chandeliers above. In the very center floated a great, utterly black sphere. One of the Mercenaries recognized the pattern of the chandeliers, shaped like a wagon-wheel, as a match of their inactive talisman of the sphere. Could the globe in the center of the room be one of the fabled spheres of annihilation? Deciding they were not ready to mess with such destructive power, the party left it strictly alone.

With tracks to follow, the team moved up the balcony and into a corridor that plunged steeply into the depths. After following for a few hundred feet, the Mercenaries found themselves in a large room illuminated by larger versions of the chandeliers they had seen previously. Filling the room were numerous black spider webs made up of some whispy substance. Hanging in these webs, toward the center of the room, was a most odd and noisome creature. The green-carapaced spider introduced itself as the Walker Across the Threshold and asked their purpose.

As the party conversed, Walker Across the Threshold referred to a number of “people”, including Blackleg, Spitgob, Cornerweaver, Hungry Prince and Flycatcher. Despite their efforts and minutes of circular talking, the Mercenaries were unable to determine if all of these were one creature or half a dozen. The best they could discern is that all of them are “like” Walker Across the Threshold. They believe they have made a deal with several of the “people” to not be eaten, although it seems questionable if Hungry Prince is bound by the agreement, and if not, if Flycatcher would even let him eat the party. In return for not becoming dinner for the spider(s) and being allowed to pass through to the next chamber, the Mercenaries agreed to kill the Marquis of the River.

According to Walker Across the Threshold, the Marquis is a dead thing who walks with the dead and torments Blackleg, Spitgob, Cornerweaver, Hungry Prince, Flycatcher and Walker Across the Threshold. They all want him destroyed. The party is a bit unclear about what “torment” the Marquis has inflicted, but they decided to take the deal. After all, it was made clear that at least Blackleg, Cornerweaver, and Hungry Prince could hear what was going on, despite the party’s inability to see them. Discretion seemed the wisest choice.

With their deal made, the party began ascending the stairs to the blue metal doors above. What will lie beyond, and just who is the Marquis of the River?

Game summary for May 31, 2007; present characters included Ashkor (lizardfolk barbarian/battle sorcerer/dragon disciple/fighter), Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/vigilante), Lady Aridarye (human aristocrat/harbinger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), Pitamian Kalal (human yang monk), and Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor).

With the smoking warzone of Waterdeep behind them, the Mercenaries fled at full speed back to Lyrin’s home town of Daggerford and the only lead they have. Upon arrival, they discovered Delfen “Yellowknife” Ondabar’s tower had been destroyed by a terrible black dragon. Following information gathered from the townsfolk, the Mercenaries learned that Yellowknife had been excavating the Whispering Cairn to the North, and the dragon had flown off to find him. With all haste, the team rode out to the cairn and were ambushed by the dragon.

As she swooped in, she shrieked out “Dragotha take you! The wizard is mine!” Then, the dragon unleashed her poisonous, burning acid breath, catching over half the party in the blast. The dragon seemed to recognize Lyrin and accused him of killing her brood, so she charged and bit him. The devastating injury forced Lyrin to retreat while his brave companions engaged the dragon. The battle was short and brutal, with the dragon inflicting grievous injury to a number of the Mercenaries while suffering staggering blows herself. In the end, however, Lyrin brought down the beast with a well-timed lesser sonic orb.

The team then moved into the Cairn and found Delfen had uncovered a section that was collapsed the last time members of the group were here. Down the exposed hallway, the team found a shimmering, reflective black portal. They attempted to move through but found themselves barred from entry by some sort of blind, undead creature from the Outer Planes. Although unable to communicate in a language it seemed to understand, Iapetus was able to use comprehend languages to understand it. The best they could do was have Aridarye speak to it in Infernal, which it did not understand but made it believe she was an erinyes devil. With some impressive attempts at Intimidate, Aridarye was able to convince it to let her pass, but it promised to eat the souls of her companions.

The team decided that was unacceptable. Brute force seemed to fail as the creature rebuked attempt after attempt to get by. From its shadowy portal, it could lash out quickly and from surprising angles, allowing it to hit vulnerable spots with ease. Ashkor decided to bull rush the monster and was likewise repulsed. However, he believed the creature was lodged in the portal somehow and that it was held there by something rather than being so strong he just couldn’t move it. With this in mind, Pitamian attempted to tumble past and succeeded.

On the other side, Pit found he could still see the creature in a portal identical to the side he came through. The room he was in shrieked with wailing and blowing winds and smokes. As he stood there, twelve menacing eyes appeared in the swirling smoke above, and he quickly tumbled back through to the other side. At this point, Lyrin unleashed a magic missile, which seemed to damage the creature but not destroy it.

Thinking of their recent troubles in Waterdeep, the Mercenaries opted to make camp and destroy the beast once they were ready to go through, lest the destruction of this beast let something worse come out.

A hate-filled wail, carried on the voices of thousands of wights, tears through the air, jolting the party with its unholy resonance. The freshly anointed Apostle of Kyuss surges and undulates its bulk up onto the stone stands of the coliseum and heaves itself through the back wall with a stone-shattering crash. In an instant, wights are pouring through the opening, down the arena steps and over the railing down to the arena floor. As one, the Mercenaries flee down the gaping Abyss in the arena floor left by the ulgurstasta’s emergence.

Within the darkness, the party finds themselves in the domed room that previously held the sleeping monster. Through the double-doors, the team discovers the podium holding the Apostolic Scrolls still stands and no light surrounds them. They are easily snatched up and stuffed into a sack. Roars of rage come from behind the group as wights crowd around the hole in the dome and fume over the height. The party further realizes the depth of Waterdeep’s troubles as they hear one of them intelligently shout, “find rope!”

Uncertain what other traps and dangers lay in this portion of the complex, the Mercenaries work their way back the route they originally took to find this area. It takes quite a bit of time but seems free of wight presence. After a while, the team crosses through the coenoby and up into the arena understructure. The area appears abandoned now, but pools of fresh blood prove the wights have already visited. You recall from lore that those slain at a wight’s hand are cursed to rise as a slave wight under the control of their slayers in less than a minute.

The party finds the route leading up into the arena but decides that is the last place to go. Instead, they roam about a bit until they discover a tunnel leading in the direction of Prendergast’s manor. Taking that path, the party soon finds themselves in the home of the director of the Field of Triumph. The place is in shambles. On a balcony above, a female voice roars in rage and utters what sounds like a command word. The railing blossoms as flame rushes through, over and around it. A trio of wights staggers out of the fire, and one topples from the balcony to land lifeless at your feet. The burned flesh makes you retch as smoke stings your eyes.

Like a ghost, the figure of Aridarye emerges from the swirling smoke above. Her hair is singed, tears streak her face, and barely-contained rage shudders through her body. She still wears a stunning, and revealing, evening gown that is oddly intact despite her disheveled appearance. A mithral buckler adorns her left arm, and she clutches a red-tipped wand in her left hand. In her right, one of the finest rapiers you’ve ever seen. At some point, she has fastened a potion belt and dagger around her slender waist.

Recognition dawns across her angry features, and she rushes down the stairs to your group. In almost a whisper through clenched teeth, tears rolling down her cheeks, Aridarye tells you how she rushed to the manor when the wights appeared to get to her eight-year-old son, Urtos III. She was too late. The noblewoman barely escaped with her life, and her now-undead son slipped off into the growing throng of wights. After barricading herself in her quarters and arming herself, Aridarye emerged with a vengeance and has slain a number of the wights.

She begs you to help her out of the city. There is nothing left for her here. Her son is dead, her husband has become an abomination, and the authorities of Waterdeep will no doubt want to question her about her involvement in this catastrophe. All she has left in life is vengeance. As long as you oppose Kyuss, she swears her assistance and abilities.

Still unsure about Aridarye and her future, the party agrees to allow her to accompany them out of the city—beyond that is a conversation for another time. Out in the streets, chaos has come to the City of Splendors. Undead run rampant, groups of the Town Watch fight valiantly against them, various spellcasters from around the city hurl spells of mage fire and scalding acid upon the hordes. The Apostle of Kyuss is nowhere to be seen, but fragments snatched from passersby indicate a gigantic worm crashed through the streets and into the sewers. The guardsmen who pursued soon returned as shambling undead dripping green worms.

On the flight from the city, the Mercenaries stop at the home of Dagsumn the sage. A notice posted on the door causes them to pause in their tracks. It reads, “Notice: Reward of 1,000 gp for information leading to an arrest and prosecution of the murder(s) of Dagsumn and Kyrss Wands.” With no guards without, the team decides to snoop around. The place has been searched, probably by the killer(s) but also by the watch. Pools of blood reveal where the bodies finally fell, but scorch marks around the premise indicate they did not go down without a fight. Wedged in a corner of two walls, the team discovers a clue unnoticed by the watch—a single saw-like bladed disc. Also, beneath an upturned table, the party finds the following unfinished note attached to a sealed bundle of papers:

“My dear friend Delfen—What your adventurers have stumbled into sickens me to my soul. Every new leaf I turn reveals an even darker secret. Here are my notes. You must take them to our one-time master—although I fear that even he may be ill-equipped for what writhes in all of our futures. Until then…”

With the sounds of the battle approaching, the team scrambles out of the manor and manages to go over the wall of Waterdeep to flee into the countryside. Behind them lay several of their allies, their contact in the city, two escaped foes, and numerous unanswered questions. Ahead lies the road to Daggerford and their long-time confidant, Delfen. Will he help the party contact his former master? What secrets can he reveal? And what of the beautiful and dangerous noblewoman? Is the enemy of mine enemy truly a friend?

Game summary for May 24, 2007; present characters included Ashkor (lizardfolk battle sorcerer/dragon disciple/fighter), Eol Seregon (half-elf hexblade), Evo Shandor (human fighter/rogue), Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/vigilante), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), and Pitamian Kalal (human yang monk).

The Mercenaries used some of their hard won gold to purchase a variety of potions and oils, many tailored to fight against cold-immune, fire-vulnerable creatures. They then returned to the coenoby to await the beast match. At the appointed time, they marched into the arena to the cheers of the ground, legion’s fire shield surrounding them all in a shroud of flames. A hush fell over the crowd as Madtooth was raised up into the arena, and the crowd went wild. Much to the party’s surprise and dismay, Madtooth was decidedly not a frost salamander. Instead, they gazed upon a massive toad-like aberration known as a froghemoth. Its tentacles swirled about as the 5-ton terror unleashed a series of booming “roar-ribbits”!

Madtooth chose Evo as the most tasty-seeming morsel and charged him, snatching him up in a tentacle. The Mercenaries quickly found their fire effects were having little or no effect upon the monster. Electricity, however, seemed to slow the creature down. Alas, that was little comfort for roguish Evo as he was swallowed by the beast. With flailing tentacles, the froghemoth snatched and grappled most of the party and succeeded in gulping down the monk, Pitamian, and hexblade, Eol Seregon. Evo fought valiantly but succumbed to the deadly stomach of the froghemoth. Pitamian also fought violently within the beast and succeeded in killing it from the inside-out. The Mercenaries returned to the coenoby to the cheers of the crowd.

The Mercenaries awaited their next match with defending champions, Auric’s Warband. They made numerous plans to counter the golems and mop up the games quickly. As the fight began, the crowd was split in their support of the two teams. Most of the Mercenaries had quaffed potions of fly and zipped about the arena. Shortly after the fight began, Prendergast walked out onto his balcony wide-eyed and crazy-looking. He laughed maniacally as the center of the arena surged upward and sand and dirt sprayed about. The ulgurstasta was free!

The crowd fell into stunned silence as the towering maggot-worm rose from the hole it had created. Prendergast screamed and yelled about the coming of the Age of Worms and indicated the creature should kill the champions of the arena. At the pinnicle of its rise from the gaping maw of the understructure, thousands of thin tendrils shot out about the ulgurstasta forming a slashing, stinging cloud of pain and destruction in a 40-foot radius. People screamed and chaos erupted. The Mercenaries and Auric turned on the Apostle of Kyuss immediately, and it quickly swallowed both Eol Seregon and Auric. The party blasted the creature with spells and arrows and seemed to have it in bad shape. Suddenly, it vomited forth a slime-dripping corpse, that of Auric. As his body hit the ground, it erupted with green worms and staggered to its feet as a newly risen spawn of Kyuss! At the same moment, the temperature in the arena plummeted and the wounds on the Apostle disappeared entirely. A horrid wailing arose as the souls of all those slain in the arena manifested and floated upward. As they rose, they brought with them a necromantic cataclysm that drained the very life energy from those around them. Although weakened, the Mercenaries survived the drain. The thousands and thousands of spectators were not so fortunate. Horrific awe settled over the party as the entire crowd dropped dead in an instant, their life force snuffed out by the abominable power of Kyuss.

As the enormity of the event they just witnessed settled upon them, a transformation swept over Prendergast. His features aged and withered as he transformed into an undead creature of tremendous power. Unholy energy burned within his eye sockets as he shouted out praises to his new creator and master, Kyuss. Within moments, a flaming black horse from the netherworld (a nightmare) appeared and he rode away on the creature, fading into ethereal nothingness.

Then, as if the all of the death and destruction already wrought were insufficient, the corpses of the crowd began to move! Over ten thousand bodies animated as wights in a single instant! True fear then took root in the hearts of the Mercenaries as they realized the battle was lost and getting out of the city was now the only real option. They looked about at the wights that gazed with their hate-filled eyes back upon them. Then the Mercenaries’ eyes turned to the gaping hole left by the ulgurstasta. They gave one last glance back at the worm beast and whispered a prayer for Eol’s soul. The maggot monster quivered again and began spewing forth a worm covered corpse of a certain half-elf hexblade. At that, the Mercenaries put their first steps toward the only visible escape, for flying away with all the souls of the dead swirling and flitting about above seemed a bad idea. Can the Mercenaries fight free, and what will remain of the City of Splendors?

Game summary for May 17, 2007; present characters included Ashkor (lizardfolk battle sorcerer/dragon disciple/fighter), Eol Seregon (half-elf hexblade), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), and Pitamian Kalal (human yang monk).

After picking up another pair of gladiators, Pitamian Kalal and Ashkor, the Mercenaries slipped back into the coenoby and waited for their next arena fight. They found they were up against the dwarven maulers, Pitch Blade. The group stood across from the dwarves watching them closely. One carried a large maul, another (the female) toted a strange crossbow loaded with razor disks, and two held flaming bastard swords. When the games began, the dwarves charged.

The female ran out to the side and fired spinning disks at several party members. Much to their dismay, the blades appeared to be poisoned with a disabling venom attacking their Dexterity. The flaming-blade dwarves revealed an ability to fly and moved at astounding speed across the arena to attack Eol and Ashkor. The hammer-wielding dwarf flew up into the air and began unleashing curses.

The first few rounds absolutely belonged to Pitch Blade as the Mercenaries suffered injury after injury. Despair gripped the Mercenaries as they felt outclassed and overpowered by the vicious dwarven warriors. However, Lyrin hit upon a combination of spell effects that could punch through the hammer cleric’s spell resistance. Eol unleashed curses and hideous laughter to fantastic effect, and Morak proved he is a master healer. Things began to turn around for the Mercenaries when one of the dwarves was disqualified for killing Ashkor after he surrendered. Soon after, Lyrin hit the crossbow woman and the cleric with a nasty lightning bolt, killing her and forcing the priest to surrender.

Although the last flaming-sword dwarf loomed over paralyzed Pitamian, he opted to try and eliminate the rest of the party. However, in a short time, the Mercenaries regrouped and beat the dwarf unconscious. With the crowd cheering wildly, Phylund came forward and accepted the victory purse and trophy for his team.

Once back within the coenoby, Eol requested an audience with Aridarye. He was escorted to see her, and she met him with a small group of armed guards. Eol suspected Prendergast had wanted Pitch Blade to play assassins in the arena, and Aridarye revealed Captain Okoral is the manager of the team. She also made it clear she would expect Okoral to cheat and slip additional magical aid to his dwarves. Eol admitted he believed this may have happened due to the sheer power the dwarves possessed. Aridarye warned that Okoral was not a good sport and would likely move against them in the near future. While Eol met with Aridarye, the Mercenaries got Ashkor a raise dead spell.

The Mercenaries huddled up in their rooms and discussed the future. They decided they needed to be better prepared for future battles and had Aridarye slip them out of the arena again. On the way out, one of the guards whispered a message from Aridarye. It appears Prendergast has arranged for the Mercenaries to fight in the beast battle tomorrow. He has lined them up against Madtooth the Hungry, an enormous frost salamander captured some time ago. Some of the guards hope the thing gets killed off because they have so much trouble keeping ice packed around its cage to keep it cold. Traditionally, the previous year’s champions fight the beast battle, but Prendergast seems determined for the Mercenaries to fight the salamander.

Now outside the arena, the Mercenaries seek items of an arcane or divine nature to aid them in their coming matches.