Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for October 11, 2007; present characters included Ashkor (lizardfolk barbarian/battle sorcerer/dragon disciple/fighter), Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/scout/vigilante), Lady Aridarye Phylund Brokengulf (human aristocrat/harbinger/ranger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/ring sage/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), and Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor).

The Mercenaries hit the streets of Mintarn seeking information and regal clothing for the upcoming gala. Their inquiries again led them to the burned out Church of Blessed Deliverance. Outside the ruin a posted sign indicated the area off limits by order of the Tyrant. Using tremendous stealth, Aridarye slipped into the shadows and over to the ruins. Using magic, Aridarye was able to describe the interior to Iapetus. The group—except for the paladin, Taravin—attempted to follow Aridarye into the ruins, but Morak proved less than stealthy. Within moments, a single Blessed Angel appeared and ordered the dwarf off the premise. He apologized for the trespass and left with Taravin. The Blessed Angel then entered the ruins and appeared to look right over the party. She turned and disappeared. Spooked by her hellborn appearance, and unsure if she had actually seen them, the remaining Mercenaries quickly fled the building.

Later, the party was confronted in the middle of town by a pair of hobgoblin mercenaries, B’Kruss and V’Juss. The boisterous B’Kruss wasted no time in insulting and taunting the party into a series of competitions between himself and the group. The first consisted of a race from the market square up to the Toilway and back. Brave Morak volunteered for the race and mounted a borrowed horse. B’Kruss rode his own mount, a nasty dire boar named Gristlegape. The race was neck-and-neck throughout, with the hobgoblin warrior winning by a snout at the very end.

After the race, B’Kruss regaled the party with a tale of a time he lept a chasm to behead a deadly dragon. He then challenged the party to leap from roof to roof of a pair of three-story buildings. To make things interesting, they filled the alley below with debris and weapons. Again, Morak volunteered for the challenge. It was quite a sight when the stubby-legged dwarf and the hulking hobgoblin raced across the roof and jumped into the air. Unfortunately, they collided in mid-air and plunged into the junk below. Immediately, they tried—and failed—again. On the third try, Morak succeeded in the jump, and B’Kruss fell.

Not to be outdone, B’Kruss challenged the party to the Mindless Courage of the Dreadful Mauling. An area was cleared, and B’Kruss declared the challenge could be won by pinning Gristlegape for 18 seconds before B’Kruss could do so. Taravin was able to pin the beast in 36 seconds, while it took B’Kruss 42!

The hobgoblin and the party decided to try the jumping challenge again, which Morak again won. Then, they attempted to wrestle Gristlegape again. The result was B’Kruss gored into unconsciousness. With their victory secured, the party enjoyed the accolaides of the crowd and the amusement of the whole event.

In the days following the challenge, the team investigate the new temple of Bane under construction. They also visited the temple of Tempus where some of the party paid their respects to the god of war.

Eventually, the day of the gala arrived. A troll-pulled carriage picked up the party and took them to the event. The met a number of guests but found Lashonna was running late. In the meantime, the Omnious Fabler invited the guests to present their gifts to the Tyrant. This custom was completely unknown to the party, so they quickly threw together some of their trophies and delivered them with a convincing story that somehow amused the Tyrant.

After the presentation of gifts, the group was led to an outdoor stage. Now the Mercenaries have opportunity to mingle with the guests and enjoy the first of the gala’s festivities. What awaits?

Game summary for October 4, 2007; present characters included Ashkor (lizardfolk barbarian/battle sorcerer/dragon disciple/fighter), Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/scout/vigilante), Lady Aridarye Phylund Brokengulf (human aristocrat/harbinger/ranger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/ring sage/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), Stormwind Abthek (illumian soulknife), and Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor).

A few hours after defeating the spellweaver lich, the party heard a tremendous crash that shook the entire temple. As they went to investigate, they discovered all the Kyuss worms were gone. In addition, the preserved bodies had all begun to rot. They found the doorway they had yet to open was standing agape and any occupants gone.

Outside, the Mercenaries discovered the Spire of Long Shadows had toppled and shattered the obsidian ring. No longer did teeming worms surround the Spire. Anything that had survived the party’s temple raid had apparently fled through the opening before the party could get back to the surface. With nothing remaining for them here, the Mercenaries returned to Longsaddle via the magic of their dwarven priest, Beardfist.

Once in Longsaddle, the team took little time contacting Cymria and Malchor Harpell. They found the Harpells had discovered some new leads indicating Balakarde had gone to Mintarn to investigate the origin of the cult of the Ebon Triad. Utilizing Malchor’s mystic paintings once again, the Mercenaries transported to the church of Kelemvor in the center of Mintarn. Within minutes they were discussing the clues they had gathered with the high priest, Long Sleep Bradic Scytheswing. He told them what he could about the city, its ruler—Tyrant Tarnheel Embuirhan, and Lashonna, an elven noblewoman Balakarde had sought out.

The streets of Mintarn proved a bustling, exciting place filled with men, halfbreeds, goblinoids and more. All around the city seemed in preparation for some sort of festival. A nearby man was able to tell them about a gala and celebration coming in a week for Tyrant Tarnheel Embuirhan’s 20th year of rule. Banners, emblazoned with the symbol of Bane, and other decorations flapped in the wind everywhere one cared to look. This gala appeared to be a big event in Mintarn. After taking all this in, the group continued on toward Mistwall Manor, home of Lashonna. As they moved through the market, they witnessed a priest of Bane publicly hanging three accused members of the Ebon Triad. The crowd cheered and shouted “death to the Ebon Triad” as the bodies spasmed and jerked on the ends of their ropes. It seems justice is swift and harsh under the thumb of Tyrant Embuirhan!

An obstacle was found at Mistwall Manor. No one could see Lashonna for at least two months; however, Taravin was able to discover the noblewoman would be in attendance at the Tyrant’s personal gala. Someone with an invitation would certainly have opportunity to speak with her there. Armed with this knowledge, the team decided it was time to delve into Mintarn’s black market.

The search began at the seediest of Mintarn’s wealth of seedy establishments, an inn dubiously titled Medusa’s Bastard. Inside was a riot of drinking, gambling, womanizing and wanton disregard for propriety. All around stood men and women of questionable repute, from pirates, bandits, mercenaries, drunkards, whores, cutthroats, and even worse. The group sidled up to the bar and encountered a peg-legged half-orc wearing an eye patch and missing two fingers on his left hand. He introduced himself as the bartender, Lucky. Taravin paid for several rounds of drink with gold coin, which drew immediate attention from everyone in the establishment. After talking to Lucky for a minute, he agreed to get them in touch with a black market dealer in exchange for 50 gp. Aridarye slipped a pouch of coin to the brute, and he gave them instructions to go to room 7 upstairs in 10 minutes.

Upstairs, the Mercenaries met Szentarr Ravin and his two half-orc goons. The half-orcs were ugly masses of muscle, scar, tattoo, and tusk wearing breastplate armor and carrying gigantic greataxes. Stormwind winked at one of the half-orcs, and much to his horror, it smiled at him and showed a bit of lace under its armor. The future of this romance is yet to be seen. The goons allowed one person to come into the room with Szentarr. The choice was between Aridarye and Taravin, and the group opted to send in the smooth-tongued, not-so-by-the-book paladin.

Szentarr turned out to be a middle-aged dwarf with a bald head and a gray-speckled black beard braided down to his stomach and ending with a small skull. The skull could be from a halfling or a goblin. Szentarr did, indeed, have invitations, but he was not willing to simply sell them for just gold. He tasked Taravin with telling tales of the Mercenaries’ misadventures to make sure they were the kinds of people the Tyrant would enjoy having at his gala. Szentarr was particularly amused by the party’s involvement in the calamity in Waterdeep (a rival city). That alone likely would have gained them entrance. For a mere 500 gp per person, Szentarr handed over invitations for the group. Then, Taravin decided that selling some unholy weapons recovered from Kuluth-Mar would go a long way for funding their efforts to fight the great evil, Kyuss. For most paladins this would be unthinkable, but Taravin’s gray guard training allowed him to dabble in a bit of darkness for a greater good.

After the transaction with the dwarven merchant, Szentarr mentioned that he runs a large entertainment and goods procurement operation called the Deluxury. He invited the party to come by and let him earn back some of the gold he had traded for the unholy weapons.

Now the Mercenaries are armed with invitations to a high-class noble gala in a week. How will these adventurers fit in with the upper crust of Mintarn? What will they do in the seven days’ time between now and then?

Game summary for September 27, 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/ranger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), Stormwind Abthek (illumian soulknife), Syvarius Strongbow (moon elf archer-ranger), Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor), and Thoril Songsteel (human thug).

The Mercenaries set out further across the sea of worms after Lyrin dropped his wall of fire. They discovered a pair of locked doors, and so they knocked on them. After a few moments, they heard shuffling and creaking on the other side as well as mumbling and swords being drawn. Ashkor smashed through the doors and found himself face-to-face with a trio of Kyuss knights. They immediately began hacking away with their unholy swords and damaging his mind with their intelligence-draining eye-worms.

The rest of the group moved in quickly, with Syvarius laying down a steady rain of arrows. Lyrin attempted to use ionize on the creatures and found them unaffected by the electrical magic. Taravin marched in with his glowing holy sword, Lightbringer, and drew the attacks from several of the knights. Their eye-mouths dripped drool as they longed to rend the flesh of the paladin. In the end, the team rather easily dispatched the trio.

Afterward, the party went to investigate another room and discovered a spellweaver lich! In no time, hostilities erupted. The Mercenaries soon discovered the lich’s apparently frail body was stronger than steel and resisted their weapon attacks. In addition to this resistance, the lich’s innate aura of fear proved too terrifying for Ashkor and Syvarius, driving both into a blind panic away from the room. The rest of the team pressured the lich and backed it against a wall. However, it surprised everyone when it isolated a small portion of the party within using a wall of force.

Things looked bleak for Aridarye and Stormwind, trapped as they were with a lich protected by displacement. Fortunately, Lyrin’s knowledge of all things arcane provided an answer, and he disintegrated the wall of force. With the barrier removed, Iapetus’ silence spell hampered spellcasting from the lich. This allowed the party to batter the creature with melee attacks, but they discovered its damage reduction and displacement were tremendously effective. The party tried to grapple the lich but ended up with Stormwind paralyzed and the undead sorcerer moving about freely. The lich then positioned itself near Morak (and far from Iapetus) and unleashed a prismatic spray!

The rainbow of energy flooded the room, catching those within. Fortunately, Syvarius and Ashkor were safe (having fled earlier), Morak was behind the lich, and Lyrin was out in the hallway beyond harm’s way. The others were not as fortunate. Scathing acid tore into Stormwind and flames whipped about Taravin. Iapetus took the full force of a yellow ray and its electrical blast. Aridarye was bathed in a green ray and succumbed to a lethal poison instantly. An insidious violet ray caught Thoril full on, and he disappeared. Unknown to the party at the time, he was transported into the Plane of Negative Energy where he met an almost immediate and truly excruciating death.

After seeing this blast, Lyrin sealed his allies in the room with the lich using a blade barrier. Of course, it sealed the lich in as well. The lich then jockeyed around the room with the survivors a bit and ended up far from Iapetus and his globe of silence once again. It unleashed a chain lightning at the giant, but he evaded the blast. All of his allies took the brunt of the secondary bolts, however.

Taravin, Morak and Iapetus moved to pin the lich into the corner and prevent it from casting. They succeeded in driving it back, but it reached out and paralyzed Iapetus with its horrific touch. As he fell to the ground, the lich attempted to slip past. The paladin slapped the monster with the full force of his lay on hands, filling the undead with positive energy. Having just taken a brutal hit from one of Lyrin’s hunter missiles, the lich was in bad shape. It continued to try to move, but a raging Morak Beardfist chopped it down with his magical battlehammer.

In the aftermath, a new vision filled their minds. Then the Mercenaries took everything of value while Morak restored Aridarye to life. The fleeing party members were brought back, and the team holed up in the slain lich’s lair to nurse their wounds. Where shall they go from here? Are there additional dangers lurking beneath the Spire of Long Shadows?

Game summary for September 13, 2007; present characters included Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/vigilante), Lady Aridarye Phylund Brokengulf (human aristocrat/harbinger/ranger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), Stormwind Abthek (illumian soulknife), Syvarius Strongbow (moon elf archer-ranger), Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor), and Thoril Songsteel (human thug).

The Mercenaries decided to explore the water chamber before going through the unopened doors. They heard noises within, so Lyrin cast two walls of fire along a walkway going over the worm-filled water. Stormwind and Syvarius had moved out onto the bridge when one of the walls of fire was suddenly dispelled. A pair of wormcallers attacked, dropping a flame strike on Stormwind. The soulknife illumian ran for cover while Lyrin launched a fireball at one of the wormcallers. Unfortunately, something seemed to absorb the energy leaving the undead menace unscathed.

With an explosion of water and worms, a gigantic Kyuss worm (an overworm) burst from the water and swallowed Syvarius. While the bulk of the party fell back into the main chamber and used spells to boost their abilities, Syvarius transformed into gold dragon form and tore his way free of the overworm’s stomach. He then began to cling to the worm’s hide. Iapetus and Aridarye used spells such as invisibility, good hope and haste to boost their allies, and Morak used a combination of spells such as bless, mass resist energy, and reach cure critical wounds to aid friends and harass enemies. All the while, the wormcallers blasted away with empowered rays of slashing darkness, and the overworm flooded Stormwind’s mind with horrid images of Kyuss and worms.

Thoril snorted a dose of the powdery magical ogre piss the party took from the trolls days before. He surged with power, doubling height, gaining tremendous strength and going into an absolute rage. He advanced out onto the bridge and was soon waist deep in the overworm’s mouth! This did not deter the raging thug, as he pumped his sword arm vigorously, piercing and electrocuting with his lightning sword. Lyrin discovered his ionize had no effect upon the wormcallers, but his maximized hunter missile blasted a hole right through one.

Flipping his bastard sword over in mid-stride, Taravin charged down the side of the bridge and leaped out over the worms toward the overworm. With a triumphant shout, he plunged his blade to the hilt in a truly devastating blow. The worm writhed in agony and gnashed its razored teeth into Thoril, still clutched in its mouth. Iapetus ran out and jumped on the overworm as well and began poking away with Stalker desperately trying to slay the beast. Syvarius continued to bite chunks out of the overworm with his draconic teeth, turning his golden muzzle into a fearsome blood-slicked mask.

Frustrated Lyrin hit one wormcaller with disintegrate and caused it to turn to dust. Its ancient armor plunged into the worm-infested waters. Meanwhile, Morak was dispelling the air walk from the other wormcaller, and it crashed into the bridge and met its final death. Aridarye attempted to use encourage failure on the overworm, but it seemed unaffected. Then, the dwarven battlepriest unleashed a flame strike on the back of the overworm, killing it. As it sank into the water, Syvarius flew his allies to the safety of the walkway.

The roaring flames of Lyrin’s wall of fire drowns out the sound of the worms swarming in the water. Ahead, the pathway ends and crumbles into the water. What lies across the gap? Do more overworms lurk beneath the water’s surface?

Game summary for September 6, 2007; present characters included Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/vigilante), Lady Aridarye Phylund Brokengulf (human aristocrat/harbinger/ranger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), Syvarius Strongbow (moon elf archer-ranger), Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor), Thoril Songsteel (human thug), and Zebaum Whitefeather (wood elf druidic avenger/ranger).

Syvarius tied together several ropes, and he, Thoril and Morak went down into the central hole in the ziggurat. Approximately sixty feet down, they discovered a cave opening and entered. Soon, the entire party was brought down into the cave. After exploring for a bit, they were attacked by a pair of worm nagas who struck Taravin and Thoril dumb with feeblemind. Despite this, the party was able to descimate the nagas with deadly sword blows and burning spells. In no time, the worm nagas lay dead. Further exploration of the cave revealed nothing of interest, so Syvarius was sent on to scout.

The central hole went down around five hundred feet into darkness. At the bottom was a man-made chamber covered with teeming Kyuss worms. Syvarius returned to the surface to report to the party. While Morak used heal on Thoril, Lyrin unleashed every fireball he had into the hole in a catastrophic conflagration of fiery destruction. They then waited until Morak could heal Taravin.

At the bottom of the hole, the team found the worms destroyed by Lyrin’s rain of fire. To one side, they could see closed double doors down a hallway. To the other a chamber filled with perfectly preserved corpses lying head-to-toe in neat rows. Ahead seemed to be the undulating waves of lapping water. The Mercenaries opted to investigate the corpses and found fifty in the room. A faint necromantic aura radiated in the chamber. In the room next door lay another fifty bodies, but these were decayed to a skeletal state. A hallway from this room lead to more double doors and a side passage.

The group went to the side passage and discovered the floor had given way into the water; however, the surface of the liquid writhed with Kyuss worms. Lyrin blasted them with electricity, but in moments the worms had been replaced. The Mercenaries opted to leave the water alone and went back to the first set of double doors they had found. They opened the doors and found a temple dedicated to the Wormgod. Instead of an altar, a black-stoned fountain rested in the middle bubbling with clear blue water. Several of the party realized there was no water within but instead it bubbled with Kyuss worms! Syvarius, searching the room, seemed overcome by the fountain and dove face first within, slurping away at the worms. Taravin grabbed his ankles and wrenched him from the fountain, but Zebaum took his place. Within moments, both men were able to regain their senses and spit out all the worms.

After a moment of discussion, the Mercenaries decided they should investigate the other double doors. What horrors await behind them?