The D&D Dynasty: The Path of Alzar the Mighty - Page 10

Abe Sargent · 05-21-2010, 12:07 AM

In Tangaroa, they have a few options. Alzar has decided to stop for a while and research a 4th level spell. It should give him 2000 XP and cost him 2300 gold. He has the books for it already.

Alzar’s Undead Expertise (Alteration, Necromancy, Artifice)

Level: 4
Casting Time: One Hour
Components: VSM
Duration: Permanent

At the time this spell is cast, the caster must have contact with an undead and a magical item. As a result of this spell, the undead and the magical item are mystically linked. For as long as the undead remains undestroyed, it can use this item, even if the item normally required things the undead does not have (such as intelligence, race or class based restrictions). No other creature, including the caster, can use the item until the undead is destroyed. The caster cannot use this spell on themselves, in case they are undead. No undead may have more than one Alzar’s Undead Expertise active at a time. The component for this spell is the sacrifice during casting of one magical item in addition to the magic item melded to the undead. Any item will do, from a potion to a cursed item to a scroll to a wand with one charge left.

2 months later, Alzar has gained 2200 XP.

Alzar – XP – 90,307- Level 8!

Alzar now can cast: 5/4/4/3

He currently memorizes:

Charm Person, Detect Magic, Sleep, Animate Dead Animals, Hypnotize, Ray of Ondovir, Ray of Enfeeblement, Blastbones, Empathic Control, Vampiric Touch, Searing Serpent, Skulltrap, Mordenkainen’s…Maidens, Greater Malison, and now Dire Charm and the Maidens twice.

Alzar gains 3 hp and now has 54 hp.

Abe Sargent · 05-21-2010, 01:02 AM

Alzar can now use all of his old warrior abilities and gain XP while using them. This means:

He can use his trusty +1 axe. That’s +4 to hit and +5 to damage with axe mastery, strength and its enchantment.

He can attack twice every other round.

His ac drops by two when fighting with just an axe and no shield, but he can use a shield, and if he manages to get a +2 or better shield, he could fight with it and the axe at the same time and increase his AC more.

His THAC0 rises significantly to a 14.

He can use warrior only magic items, like a Potion of Heroism.

When he fights with just an axe, he can use his other hand for drinking potions, throwing things (not attacking though, unless he wants to get major penalties with both axe and weapon thrown).

He also now gets only a -2 when fighting with a weapon he does not know how ot use, instead of -5 as a wizard.

He can wear armor but cannot cast spells when doing so, but he may want to put on a suit a plate mail from his bag of holding for a battle or something.

Abe Sargent · 05-21-2010, 01:20 AM

After two months, Alzar wants to get cracking with the next book – the level 5 one. He has spent one of the two months finishing it off and then the last month starting on the 6th level evil spells. He grabs the tome, having dropped 60 dispels on it. Has one worked?

Yes.

Level Five “Evil” Spells:

Animate Dead
Avoidance
Cloudkill
Domination
Magic Jar

Deathmaster’s Vial
Eyefire
Fiendform
Nystul’s Enveloping Darkness
Persona of Death
Vile Venom
Xult’s Magical Doom

Persona of Death is a necro spell and makes an undead zombie look like they are alive again, for a few hours. It can’t give them a mind or anything. A corpse looks sleeping. Eyefire, Cloudkill are evoc spells and not available. Xult’s Magical Doom is another way to protect books, maps and scrolls. It involves polymorphing, permanently, someone who messes with it. Vile Venom costs some weapons with poison. The Darkness makes a darkness that Alzar can see through, and that gives -2 to attack him in addition to darkness modifiers. Fiendform has a material component of 3000 crystal statuette, and turns the caster into a random powerful fiend that gains all of the powers thereof for a few rounds. Then the statuette is destroyed. Magic Jar is a classic necro spell that allows you to put your soul temporary in a vessel, and then try and jump into someone else’s body and control them, then jump back and keep it up, or turns to your normal body. Domination is a powerful enchantment charm that forces someone to do what you want. Unlike the second level spell Empathic Control, the person can be ordered to fight, it lasts for a long time, and no damage to the caster and the caster can do other things and doesn’t have to concentrate.

Here is the cool one he got:

Deathmaster's Vial
Level 5 Necromancy, Alchemy

Range: Touch
Duration: Special
Area of Effect: 1 or more vials
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 5
Saving Throw: None

This spell activates an evil fluid that has been sealed in a specially prepared vial. The activated concoction can be hurled as a grenadelike missile. A direct hit inflicts 2d8+3 points of rotting damage. A miss within 5 feet inflicts 1d4+1 points of rotting damage.

The casting activates one vial per 3 levels of the caster (round down, minimum of one), up to a total of five vials at 15th level. The vials must be used within two hours of exposure to direct sunlight, but they last for 2d10 days if kept in darkness. Exposing the liquid to the air after activation destroys it within a round. The vials radiate evil.

The material component of the spell is the base fluid, which is made from boiling the remains of a ghoul or ghast for 24 hours and adding various noxious substances worth about 300 gp. This yields enough liquid to fill 6 small vials (like those used to carry holy/unholy water).

Alzar learns Xult’s Magical Doom, Deathmaster’s Vial, Domination, Vile Venom, and Magic Jar. In the future, Alzar will be not automatically opening up spellbooks in case he runs across more trapped like Castanamir’s ,unless the caster appeared to be of low level.

After two months, Alzar has decided to sail a few weeks away to the island with the next slaver’s stronghold on it. That’s probably more time sensitive than the ruins on the island and investigating them.

5 days into the journey, they have bad weather and are blown off course by three days. It’s no longer the easy season to sail.

16 days later, they arrive at a medium sized island to the west and a bit north of the Isle of Dread. This is supposedly where the next foes are at. Alzar orders the ship to anchor a while away, and using his various scrying methods to see what’s up – in this case, the Crystal Ball. He can only search the area of the island he can just make out, but suddenly, it’s as if he’s there in the ball.

Abe Sargent · 05-21-2010, 01:32 AM

A2. Secret of the Slavers’ Stockade

This one is co-written by Tom Moldvay and Harold Johnson. Each of the A1—4 is written by someone else, which makes them a bit uneven in terms of tone and flavor. (and quality).

Travis · 05-21-2010, 12:40 PM

Should be fun seeing Alzar being able to utilize his entire arsenal now. Not that you'll probably have to rely on the axe all that much, but nice that you don't have to worry about ignoring it for XP purposes anymore.

Abe Sargent · 05-21-2010, 02:46 PM

We'll see, but I suspect he'll axe it up quite a lot for a while.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 01:21 AM

On the maps they took from the slave lord, this island was not even named. He sees a Hill Fort on the north side of the island, and orders the Sea Ghost to the southern side. A boat sends them ashore, and will wait for them in case of a speedy retreat.

For today, Alzar has swapped ESP for Empathic Control, because he suspects he may need it at least once, and perhaps twice.

Alzar searches the north side where the hill fort is. It is a combination of recent construction on top of the remains of a stone fortress weathered and worn. Alzar has Megala and Dryshik looking from a ridge above, looking down on the stockade.

The outer wall of the hill fort is an earth rampart topped by a wooden palisade. This then meats the curtain wall of the old fortress. There is a gatehouse behind that wall. The structure is one story except for a guardhouse one level up., and the gatehouse and curtain wall, which go up a lot, giving the soldiers there a good vantage point. The keep abuts the rampart in three places. There are outward and downward fitted spikes all around to discourage people climbing up, and patrols everywhere. Observation shows a lot of movement, and any attack or excursion would likely be quickly found

How to get in? There does not appear to be any secret entrances this time. The drawbridge is raised and the portcullis down. Maybe they could pretend to be slaves? Or slave purchasers? That last one would make no sense for a group without a boat ,here on an island. Fly over the wall? That’s pretty obvious.

Invisibly fly over the wall? Potion of Invis + Broom of flying should get the group over the wall unseen and then to a corner of the place from which they could start exploring. That’s not to bad, but they don’t have enough flying methods (just three) and all are too big for a teleport jar to have the fourth join.

The Rope of Climbing could get between the spikes of a palisade, but the people scaling the wall would have to cut them off, making their entry way really obvious. Alzar makes a mental inventory of his items, and then…ah yes….

Carum is handed the Diminution Stone, and he shrinks to somewhere around 18 inches tall. Carum is held in Alzar’s hand, and Brooms of Flying are given to Estaish and Aleigha. Dryshik and Megala are ordered one on each of Alzar’s shoulder, so they will be invisible as well.

They each drink a dose of the potion of 7 drinks. Alzar activates his Belt and they fly in. Alzar and them move in quietly, since the invisibility potion lasts for a while, and they can whisper to each other about where to go inside the keep.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 01:48 AM

There are basically three choices – Outer courtyard between curtain walls and gatehouse, the parade ground inside of the gatehouse, and the inner courtyard adjacent to that. There are hobgoblins around the place. In fact, there are a dozen hobgoblins in the inner courtyard and none in the outer one or parade ground.

They could also land on the gatehouse, guard tower, or curtain wall. Or stockade parapet. Alzar guesses that all they can do this landing is reduce their foe’s numbers as much as possible, and then leave. Alzar even hears the hobgoblins call out to each other every few moments to see if the other group is still there.

These are well trained foes. They will need some special encouragement to get crazy. Alzar decides to land in the parade ground just in front of some double doors and then open them up and go inside, and see what’s there.

They land smoothly in the parade ground. A few guards can see the ground, but only a couple have line of sight to the door. Alzar cracks the door and smells a stables inside. He slowly opens it, so as not to gain attention of others, and orders Aleigha and Estaish o stay here. In his Boots of Elvenkind, he walks without leaving footprints and places Carum on the floor behind two hobgoblins. Alzar cannot attack or else he becomes visible, but Carum can. He drops the stone with a spear in his hand, grows, and impales one of the hobgoblins for a sneak attack double damage for 11 and it dies. The other turns. Carum wins init and pierces it for 5 damage. It yells for help and stabs with a pitchfork and drops it. Carum hits and kills it. Did anyone hear it yell for help? Carum shrinks back down, and Alzar hold him inside his cloak. No one appears to be coming. Perfect. Alzar has Carum drop the stone and grow again. There are 6 oxen, 11 medium horses, and 2 light horses. Carum quickly moves about and undoes the various animals from their reins, so they are free to go anywhere. Alzar hands him a flask of oil and Carum throws oil all over the barn, and grabs a couple of torches . He lights the barn in several places, and the oil causes it to goup immediately. A smashes lantern adds its oil to the lames, and Carum grabs the stone,, shrinks, and Alzar and Carum, move out. The group flies above the keep and observes. The fire is quickly noticed, and fire gongs ring down. Animals have galloped out and oxen and horses are running frantically around the place. A score of hobgoblins are moving down, but the ones on the palisade are not among them. An ogre and a large 7’ tall grey humanoid Alzar does not recognize emerge and start ordering everyone around. Time to move in. Carum is handed to Estaish

Alzar lands on top of the building and across from the gatehouse and above the chaos. Estaish and Aleigha land on each side of the curtain wall. There are two hobgoblins that patrol this wall on each side of the guard house atop the curtain wall. The plan is for Aleigha and Estaish, to wait until the hobgoblins are at the same place passing each other, and then strike, killing both as quickly as possible, and then move to the guard house, enter, and kill whatever is in there, and they are inside. Hopefully, they can pull that off. Then Carum will be there to join them.

Alzar is readying a trick of his own. He is going to have Dryshik cast Wall of Fog to confuse them, and then start casting Skulltrap, Blastbones and using the missiles on the Necklace to kill as many of the creatures down there as possible. If he casts sleep, and then leaves ,that’s won’t do anything. Maybe he’ll use Dire Charm to turn someone on the ground into a berserk attacker. Whatever. The point is to kill as many as possible, while the other three kill an entire wall of people and try to inflict maximum damage.

With a battle plan in motion, it is time to execute. Alzar will wait until he sees the attack on the curtain wall, and then strike the chaos and bunches of hobgoblins below.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 02:24 AM

Aleigha is by herself. She has landed, and she turns into a werebear. This will give her the force to kill the hobgoblins by herself. She waits until they are together, and then uses her strength to try and heave them both off the front of the wall, into the ditch and such far below.

She manages to grab one each on her bear paws, can she push them over? Yes (She rolled 16 and 19 to hit, and then 14 and 12 to push.) The hogoblins are pushed off the higher curtain wall by a tremendous werebear. They scream as they fall. Each of them dies.

Estaish drops Carum just before he strikes, sword already drawn. He pauses a breath, and then a suddenly enlarged Carum and Estaish strike with surprise at each hobgoblin. Carum easily hits for 9 damage and a dead hobby. Estaish hits barely, with ambush, and deals 13 damage and kills the other, silently, dead in two strokes, and the men rush for the door.

# of hobgoblins dead: 6

Alzar immediately finishes casting Skulltrap and throws it into the chaos just as a Wall of Fog is dropped. He aims for that ogre he saw., barking out orders. 28 damage. Save for half though.

All of the hobgoblins in its 20 foot cube die. 11 dead. The ogre was in it too, and he takes death after failing his save. A few humans move out at that, and Alzar is suddenly getting some attention from a few nearby guards. The Wall of Fog prevents the people down there from seeing him. It’s high enough that the gatehouse and curtain wall are unable to see him too, and just a few guards along the rampant wall can.

# of hobgoblins dead: 17, Executioner is dead as well.

Est and Carum are in and two hobgoblins are in this side of the curtain wall, having just heard the screams from outside. They jump on them as quick as they can, and the hobs yell for help. Both are hit, one for 8 and one for 11 and both die. Aleigha crashes through the door and three hobbies are in here, and they choose to run, and hit Estaish and Carum. Both Est and Carum hit and 9 and 8 damage later two are killed and Aleigha runs up and kills the other one, but they screamed a lot.

# of hobgoblins dead: 22, Executioner is dead as well.

The tall humanoid is rallying troops and ordered them to find weapons to attack him with. Then, a blind man emerges and starts barking orders. The giant humanoid starts flying towards Alzar. In the meantime, Alzar cast his Shield Maidens to help against the arrows coming his way. None have hit him yet.

# of hobgoblins dead: 22, Executioner is dead as well.

There is no one on the second floor of the curtain wall, so they head to the ground floor. They enter the outer courtyard, and there is no one in here. They run to the other side where they saw a door before, and suspect a gate mechanism may be.

# of hobgoblins dead: 22, Executioner is dead as well.

With a flying giant coming his way, Alzar orders Dryshik to Mist Ball it. It fails and takes 4 damage and is blinded for 3 rounds. 15 more hobgoblins emerged from the gatehouse and Alzar turns back and casts Dire Charm on the one telling them what to do and barking out orders. If it can just work…Success (rolled a 6). The hobgoblin Kairn draws his two handed sword and suddenly attacks a nearby hobgoblin. He misses , but it causes some confusion easily.

# of hobgoblins dead: 22, Executioner is dead as well.

They open the winch room and inside are the winches used but they have locked on them, and cannot be used. They were hoping it would be that easy. Open the portcullis and lower the drawbridge, maybe break the mechanism and then run away when forced back. They start moving towards the gatehouse and across the outer courtyard when suddenly they feel a vibration, and something emerges to attack them – an ankheg!

# of hobgoblins dead: 22, Executioner is dead as well.

Alzar takes 5 damage from a couple of arrows from snipers on the rampart. He casts Blastbones and tosses it into the area and hopes to kill a few hobbies. 5 died. The charmed Kairn swings and hits, and deals 3 damage to a hobgoblin. He is hit three times for 13 damage.

49/54

# of hobgoblins dead: 27, Executioner is dead as well.

This is not what they expected to be fighting! Luckily, the won init. Estaish swings and rolls a 9. +2 for its AC and +2 for sword, but that’s not enough. Carum tries to pierces its belly. He hits for 7 damage to it. Aleigha tires to hit it She misses three times. It tries to bite Estaish and misses.

Ank – 7 hp

# of hobgoblins dead: 27, Executioner is dead as well.

Kairn hits and kills the wounded hobgoblin and then dies himself. Alzar launches a 3 HD fireball from his necklace while they are still bunched up and hits his target. All of the hobbies there die but one.

# of hobgoblins dead: 36, Executioner and Kairn are dead as well.

They lose init and the ankheg bites Estaish and he misses his combat. He takes 9 damage. Carum crits the belly for 7 damage. Aleigh hits three times for 7.

36/45 – Estaish
Ank took 21

Alzar moves to the giant before it is unblinded. It is hovering a few feet off the top of the building he is on. He casts Ray of Ondovir at it, and then runs up to it. He fails the save. Next turn, Alzar’s axe can try and bite deep into it. He takes 11 from arrows.

38/54

# of hobgoblins dead: 36, Executioner and Kairn are dead as well.

They win init. Carum misses. Aleigha hits but once for 2 damage. Estaish manages to try an awkward swing at -2. Success! 9 to the ankheg, and it screams a terrible death.

# of hobgoblins dead: 36, Executioner and Kairn are dead as well. Ankheg killed.

Alzar swings mightily with his axe at a quiet and silent creature and deals 15 due ot the ambush to it. He takes another 3.

35/54

As they move forward, group of hobgoblins turn around from the gatehouse to see what the noise as, they notice their guard beast dead and three people moving in. They sound the alarm that attacks are on the march and activate the fire entrance. The entrance from the outer to inner courtyard now has a bunch of fire in it. Arrow start firing into the courtyard, and Estaish and Aleigha move into and through the fire and into the parade grounds where the chaos Carum moves but stays on the edge, away from the entrance, and still in the outer courtyard.

The creature wins init and tries to charm Alzar. Failure. Alzar swings once with the axe, hits for 9, swings again with the axe, this for 7, and kills the ogre mage, which takes ogre mage upon his death. He takes 9 more. Dryshik Mist Balls the closest guard that has ht him a few times, and he fails and take s2 and is blinded for 5 rounds. Megala flies into him, attacks him, and he falls off the platform and dies.

# of hobgoblins dead: 37, Executioner, Blackthorn and Kairn are dead as well. Ankheg killed.

26/54

Estaish slices at a hobbie but misses. Aleigha misses as well. Many hobbies are moving to attack them. No one can touch either of them, due to good ac and invulnerability to normal weapons.

# of hobgoblins dead: 37, Executioner, Blackthorn and Kairn are dead as well. Ankheg killed.

With a large number of hobgoblins now attacking Est and Ale, he lobs another 3 HD fireball over and deals 13 damage to 11 more and they all die. He used another charge and flies up and calls it. Dryshik uses a final Mist Ball on another guard on the wall and it fails the save, and Megala and Dryshik combine to force it off the ledge and it dies with the fall + poison damage. Est and Ale took some fire damage from the Fireball too.

# of hobgoblins dead: 49, Executioner, Blackthorn and Kairn are dead as well. Ankheg killed.

34/41 – Aleigha
38/45 - Estaish

With the enemy dead near them, they back up through the flame, pick up Carum on his small form, and fly away.

They head back towards the boat, with a nice number of kills.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 02:58 AM

They land near the boat, and suddenly, a Fireball flies between everybody and goes off!

Carum – 25/48
Aleigha – 28/41
Estaish – 32/45
Alzar – 22/54

They turn around and two mages were waiting for their arrival. One is the invoker from the ship, and the other one is the tall man illusionist from the smuggling house. Actually, Alzar now can see through that illusion and see that the illusionist is actually a female that looks a lot like the invoker.

They fly down and everybody charges them. Both of their foes cast defensive spells. The illusionist is now under a Mirror Image and the Invoker under a Stoneskin. Alzar takes the turn to cast another pair of maidens.

Alzar and crew win init. Alzar summons a Searing Serpent behind the magi. The fighters arrive. Dryshik tries to gate in more mephits. Success finally. Two ice mephitis emerge, and Dryshik tells them to attack these mages. Megala misses the stoneskinned invoker. The illusionist casts Blur, and her AC drops two. The invoker flings a bunch of magic missiles at Alzar for 12 damage.

10/54

They win init. Alzar quaffs an extra healing pot knowing what might likely be coming next. He gains 16. He charges in while doing that. The ice mephitis both breathe ice shards on the illusionist and her 6 mirror images. One destroys an illusion but the other hits her for 2 damage. Alzar has ordered the fighters to concentrate on the invoker, so one hits for a stoneskin – 7 left. The serpent attacks the invoker and takes off another skin. Megala and Dryshik are ordered to fly by and both miss. The invoker tries to finish off Alzar with a lightning bolt. It’s 24 with a save for 12. The bolt went through Estaish and he makes the save, and Alzar…rolled a 1. The Illusionist tries to blind Aleigha and…she fails the save and is blinded.

2/54
20/45

Alzar flies up (charge on Belt still working) and away. Two more images of the illusionst fall off from ice mephits’ shard balls. Dry and Meg miss. The maidens are close enough and start swinging, away from Alzar. One hits a skin. Three more skins are destroyed by the fighters, and our invoker has 3 left. 3 skins and 3 images. The illusionist casts Stoneskin and now has 7 of those. The invoker can’t get to Alzar and so turns her attention to the fighters and casts Melf’s Acid Arrow at Carum for 8 damage.

17/48 - Carum

Carum is now at 13/48 from another hit of the acid. The illusionist casts Phantasmal Killer on Carum and…he just makes the save, rolling exactly what he needed. The Invoker wants to drop an Ice Storm on her enemies, but her and her sister would get caught up, and stoneskin and mirror image would not protect from that, plus the ice mephits would be unharmed. Instead she reaches out and touches Est for 11 electrical damage from a shocking grasp. Dry and Megs miss. Two more icy blasts take out two more images on the illusionist. One of the three summoned creatures hits for another skin. 2 left. Carum and Est both grab healing pots and quaff them. Blind Aleigha misses. Alzar gets on the range of his spells, and tries to charm person the illusion is, but fails.

16/45
21/48

Mag and Dry take a skin. One Maiden takes off the last skin. Seeing their chance, the fighters attack the now open invoker, and yet, only Carum hits for 7. The ice mephitis fly by and try to damage the illusionist and hit an image. 2 images left. Seeing Carum hits the Invoker, Alzar casts Ray of Ondovir and she fails her save. She tries to cast Shocking Grasp and has none. The illusionist casts her only damage dealing spell, Flame Arrow, and flings it at Estaish for 1 piercing damage and 9 fire damage –p no chance of save.

6/45

A polymorph spell is cast and the invoker turns into a griffon and starts to fly away. The illusionist turns herself invisible. Alzar flies in and uses the Dust of Appearance. They can make her out. She’s a bit away. Megala and Dry fly after her and one hits, taking the final image. The ice mephitis take off a skin – 6 left. Carum throws his spear and hits a skin. Est loads a bolt and misses. Aleigha can’t see.

The invoker is gone and the illusionist, knowing that she can be seen, turns and casts Chromatic Orb. She throws it at the wounded Alzar, but misses him thoroughly. She rolled a 5. A bolt would have hit, but misses due to her blur. A sling misses. Alzar flies in and vamp touches her, which goes through the skins for 7 damage. All four imps returns miss. The serpent is gone and the maidens are moving up.

9/54

The invoker flies back seeing her sister on trouble, and the sister tries to climb on her back. Success. They get once chance this round to stop her. She loses three skins to imps and a maiden. Est and Carum miss. Alzar is right there and…swings his axe and eats another skin. The sister flies away. Alzar makes a quick decision and flies after them, despite his damaged body.

With one axe in hand, he can use potions, and he quaffs another draught of the Invis potion himself and then lifts off, Dryshik and Megala on his shoulder.

Without knowing they are being pursued, they fly back to the castle, and it is still in chaos. The fire is done its course, and the stone gatehouse above the stables is sturdy still. The number of people is lessened. They land at the rear upper guardhouse. Alzar will basically get once shot to take out the illusionist before he needs to flee. His only spells left are ESP, Detect Magic, Greater Malison, Hypnotize, and Animate Dead Animals.

He draws the Wand of Paralyzation from it’s place and readies it. He uses it, and the illusionist makes the save! The invoker in griffon form, however, does not. With Axe in hand, Dryshik and Megala fly off to harass the illusionist. The defensive spells have gone.

The illusionist calls for help and casts slow on Alzar. It works. He slashes the invoker for 8 damage. The imps miss the illusionist. Two hobgoblins emerge from the guardhouse.

Alzar loses init auto but his imps win. They miss. The illusionist casts Sleep but it doesn’t work. Alzar hits for 11 on the invoker. The hobgoblins, and three more have arrived.

The illusionist moves herself in front of her sister. Alzar misses two hobgoblin blades. He casts Hypnotism and all five drop their weapons and move to the side. One imp hits and takes off the last skin from the illusionist. With the guards dead, and herself without any defenses and any spells, and her sister about to die, the illusionist decides to run into the guardhouse. Alzar finishes off the invoker, and she dies and changes back to human form. Alzar slashes and kills the hypnotized hobbies, and cast Detect Magic.

The only things that glow are her dagger and an amulet. He grabs both since he doesn’t have time for a full search and more noises be heard. He has enough juice to get him past the battlements and back home.

# of hobgoblins dead: 54 Executioner, Blackthorn and Kairn are dead as well. Ankheg killed. Invoker killed.

XP – 1250 each

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 03:45 AM

He inspects the dagger, and cannot figure out what it is but the Amulet? It is an Amulet of Finding, and it has a twin. The wearer can see what the other wearer sees, and vice versa. He dons it and concentrates. He can see through the illusionist’s eyes. She is talking to someone, a female, of great authority in some caves. Alzar covers his up with a sack and studies the surroundings from the Amulet, and then takes it off and moves to the Crystal Ball. On the way back to the boat, he spends ten minutes surveying the room where the illusionist was.

They arrive back at the boat and Alzar orders them to sail away a few days, and then sail back. That should give them a week of rest time. The illusionist took off the Amulet after a few hours, and Alzar leaves his in the bag. The dagger was just a +1 dagger.

+1 dagger
Amulet of Finding

Alzar’s scrying shows that there are still a bunch of hobgoblins running around the hill fort. They may have killed 54 hobgoblins, but there are at least 100 left. Who knows how many more are in the caverns. Alzar tells Aleigha to stay out of werebear form. They may have loaded up with wolfsbane to attack any more werebears attacking them.

Alzar has moved to a much more combat heavy set of spells for today. The Ring of Spell Storing now has Sleepx2 and Ray of Ondovir in it. He is memorizing Sleep, Hypnotize, Charmx2, Detect Magic, ESP, Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Ondovir, Empathic Control, Blastbones, Skulltrapx2, Dispel Magic, Vamp Touch, Shield-Maidens, Dimension Doorx2.

The plan is simple. No invis, and no flying by Alzar. The two fly in with Carum.

Carum is given the Gloves of Fire Resistance and Alzar will now be wearing the Gauntlets of Ogre Power, which will set his strength at 18/00. As a result, Alzar will get +3 to hit and +6 to damage. That means he will be +7 to hit and +10 to damage. He is turned into a tank of death. He will not be resistant to fire anymore, but oh well.

Then plan is simple. Estaish and Aleigha are going to drop a cask of oil on top of each of the gatehouses where archers and a pair o’ballista are. Then fire is set and the hobbies and weapons will burn. That will keep people from claiming that space as a place to fight from. They will land in the fire (immune to normal fires all three), and then fire weapons, and wreak havoc on the yard. Meanwhile, Alzar will Dimension Door in and start launching Skulltraps and try to kill some more hobgoblins. No doubt they have increased the guards, which should increase their density for range spells like skulltraps.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 04:29 AM

They initiate the plan. The ten hobgoblins on top of the gatehouse die and are on fire. There are a lot more guards along the walls. The three fighters grab weapons and get ready for combat.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 10

Alzar Dimension Doors to the back of the south gatehouse and opens the door. Inside are 16 hobgoblins, resting, working, and looking out. His skull flies in and wipes them out. Dryshik drops another Wall of Fog, this time in front of the gatehouse, so that people can be directly in front and see up, and blocking sight from the guards along the ramparts. Alzar cannot be seen. He just doored in, and then opened a door and walked inside, and no one knows where he is.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 26

The fighters note that there are not as many people charging them as they thought there would be. Carum and Aleigha are on top of the right one, and Estaish on top of the left one. Carum decides to open the trap door and see what’s below – about ten hobgoblins. Est does for his and sees 5. Man, if they had been able to carry more than one cask of oil each….

# of hobs killed, take 2: 26

Alzar takes the obvious trapdoor down and enters a hallway with no one in the moment in it, but noise buzzing. Alzar casts his Shield Maidens, and moves and opens a door, to the kitchens.

Three hand axes fly at him from three people behind a table. All miss. A tall man with dark skin kicks a cask at Alzar and he evades, and he charges in. This is the blind man he saw organizing the defense earlier.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 26

Aleigha throws a few ballista bolts and misses wildly. Carum slings and misses. Estaish kills a hobby with a crossbow bolt. The roof is still burning, and it is hard to make them out in the fog and smoke and flames in addition to the normal angle on the sniper roon.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 27

Alzar draws his axe. 8 hobgoblins enter the room, and he casts Sleep from his ring (which is much faster). 6 fall asleep. The blind man arrives, and the men who throw hand axes have turned into wereboars and charged as well. Megala attacks a Hobby for 1 damage and…it fails. 7 asleep now.

Est crits a hob over on the curtain wall firing at him for 8 damage. Dead hob. Carum hits another for 3 damage.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 28

Alzar just wins init. He swipes his axe at the third wereboar for 14 damage. His maidens attack the same target for no damage (immune) Alzar orders their target to change to the warrior for next round. Megala tries to claw a hob, rolls a 17, and deals 2 damage and…it fails its save. 8 asleep. Everybody misses Alzar One wereboar would have hit, and now can hit starting next round.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 28

Carum kills the hob with another sling for 4 damage. Est misses.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 29

They win init. Alzar takes 6 from that wereboar. The fighter drops his sword. The other two would have hit him, and missed, so now they can hit too. Alzar attacks twice. He hits and kills the one wereboar and attacks the next one. It is critically hit for 5 on the roll, doubles to 10, and then 11 added for 21 damage. RAR! The fighters miss, and Megala misses.

48/54

# of hobs killed, take 2: 29, Wereboars – 1

Est hits one for 3 damage. A miracle shot nails Carum for 2 damage.

46/48

Alzar wins init, misses the wereboar in front of him. The maidens miss the fighter. They roll 12, 5, and 5. The 12 and 5 are from wereboars. The first wereboar has a THAC0 of 15. Alzar’s AC is normally a 7 with is Bracers, -2 for his Cloak. That’s -2 for wielding his axe and -2 for the Maidens, so he currently has an AC of 1, which is a miss.

Let’s just do a few rounds of Alzar. They win init and one wereboar hits for 7. 41/54. Alzar swings twice and misses, and then hits and kills the injured one. The maidens and Megala miss.

Alzar wins init and nails the last wereboar for 15. It makes its morale check. One maiden crits the fighter for 8. The boar hits Alzar for 5.

41/54

They win init and Alzar takes 4 from the boar. He kills the wereboar with a hit for 12 (his minimum) and then turns on eh fighter for 16. One maiden adds 3. 27 damage for the fighter.

37/54

Alzar casts Vamp Touch and deals 11 to the fighter. 38. Megala crits him for 2 damage and…he falls asleep. Alzar kills him and the hobgoblisn in here.

48/54

# of hobs killed, take 2: 37, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed

Rewind:

Both archers miss. Est kills the wound hob and Carum nails one for 4 damage. They miss. The fire is starting to burn out. Carum hits and kills the wounded hob.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 39, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed

Alzar takes the obviously magic sword and a few items from Icar that could be magic, like his rings, and armor, and such.

Est misses, and Carum nails one for 1 damage.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 37, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed

Alzar finds several casks of oil in the kitchen and rolls them up the stairs and back into the guard house – easily to do when you have the strength of an ogre – will take two turns.

Est and Carum miss. The fire will be out next turn, but smoke lingers. They each hit. Carum deals 3 and Est 6 and kills one.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 38, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed

Alzar opens the back door to the gatehouse which overlooks the inner courtyard, with about 25 goblins in it and kicks a cask of oil down and tosses a torch he grabbed from the guardroom.

10 hobs die, others run for cover.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 48, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed

The trap doors are flipped open and hobgoblins start pouring out onto the roofs. Aleigha kills one. They are moving out and Est and Carum grab sword and spear and move to fight them. Est is on a roof by himself and Carum and Aleigha are together.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 49, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed

Knowing people may come upstairs to take his location, Alzar drops and breaks the other cask inside the guard room, on the stairs and landing, and lights and readies a torch and hands it to Megala to drop if people start coming up in large numbers.

Est misses. Carum an Aleigha combine to kill a hob. 6 are attacking Estaish. He takes 4 damage, More than 10 are out and trying to attack Carum and Aleigha. That’s too many, and they back up and grabs the brooms, Carum shrinks, and they fly of to meet up with Alzar in the guard house.

Aleigha will take 6 from two arrows as they fly.

41/45 – Estaish
35/41 – Aleigha
46/48 - Carum
48/54 – Alzar

# of hobs killed, take 2: 50, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed

The inner courtyard has cleared and three more hobgoblins bit it. Someone is organizing the rest in the parade grounds. He can’t who from this far out. He goes down and hears company, so he retreats and waits.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 53, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed

The fighters arrive and enter the guard room and Alzar sends them to the other side. Up the stairs come 15 orcs led by two officers, and obviously, this shows either people from below attacking them or a more concentrated effort to kill them. Alzar orders the torch dropped from Megala, which only catches about 12 of them on fire and kills them. I roll and they do not notice the oil in the middle of battle. The rest make it through unscathed and with no line of retreat, move to attack.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 50, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed, Orcs – 12

They win init and the orcs charge Alzar, the closest one to them and swing. They all miss – cloak. Alzar hacks one into pieces 3 left, and they are the two officers. The fighters arrive this turn, the maidens are gone.

Alzar mises, and then drops his axe (rolled a 3 and then a 1) Carum drops his spear. Est misses and only Aleigha manages to hit an orc for 8 damage and killed him leaving just the two officers. One hits Aleigha for a crit 8.

27/41

Est and Ale swing and miss. The orc leaders crit Carum for 10. Alzar deals 15 to one and Carum misses.

36/48

Alzar swings once, and drops his axe. Carum kills the orc leader with 7 more damage deals and Est deals 9 to the other. He hit Alzar for 4. Alzar grabs his axe and drops it again/

44/54

They win init and Est, Ale and Car hit twice for 13 damage and the other leader is killed. That was four fumbles and two crits against in that small little scuffle.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 50, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed, Orcs – 16

They are relatively healthy, and decide to press on. They jump down to the inner courtyard aided by the rope of climbing and take no damage. There are no hobgoblins here and it gets them out of side of the snipers from the walls. Snipers have taken position on top of the gatehouse again.

Xp -750 each

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 11:18 AM

They kick in the double doors and enter the entrance corridor to the rear part of the keep. There are doors right and left. They go left. This is an empty room with an exit to a section of the house normally cut off from traffic. There is not a lot of footsteps in the dust. Alzar shuts the door and they search the area, but find nothing. He opens the door to the next section, and there is a hallway with four doors on the right, and three on the left. And again, few footprints.

The first door on the right enters a collapsed room with rafters and the building roof exposed. They move around and find some snakes in the corner, poisonous ones . Alzar moves in and kills them.

They search the room and find nothing. The next door on the right in an abandoned storeroom and there are rows of dusty boxes and creates and as they examine the place, one flies off a pile and crashs at Alzar’s feet and a spooky voice tells them to Begone, for you disturb its rest. He tries to control the spirit, and feels nothing. There is no undead here.

A search reveals nothing and the next room reveals a dusty bed, chest of drawers and night stand, with a luminous figure in the fireplace that tells them to leave and disappears. The rooms has nothing in it, and the final room on the right is an old abandoned armory with empty weapon racks, and again a search turns up nothing.

They enter the last room on the left and there is a long wooden table and high backed chairs covered with dust and cobwebs. They search and find nothing. The next room is an abandoned kitchen with a large fireplace, cupboards, and such. As they enter a ceramic plate flies by and smashes against the wall. A knife is next but it bounces off Estaish’s great armor. On the north wall beside the door is a message in blood ”behold the harbinger of your fate.”There is a knife impaling a hobgoblin hand below it.

The final room has an abandoned bedchamber with the remains of a strangled hobgoblin dangling from the ceiling by a sash cord. It’s been here for a few weeks and the room smells like it. They search and find nothing.

Alzar needs to think. They searched everywhere in this section of the fort and found nothing, but someone is here. It’s obviously not a hobgobglin nor a friend of theirs. On the other hand, the ydon;t have time right now.

Why haven’t the orcs or hobgoblins or someone invaded this area? They must have seen them enter the double doors and then here. Alzar listens with the Ear Ring and there is no sound in the next room, the empty one. They enter it cautiously.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 11:51 AM

He uses the Ear Ring on the next door and hears a lot of people out in the hallway. They are obviously preparing an ambush to meet him. He hears someone bark orders. He tells the fighters what he saw. He guesses there are a lot of people in the hallway and ready to attack them. He will grab a skull, fling open the door, Skulltrap the hallway, and hopefully clear it out and then either close the door if they didn’t, or have everyone move in if they did.

He flings open the door and throws out the skull. There are about 30 hobgoblins in here and they fire a bunch of arrows at him All miss (cloak). The skull triggers and everyone in the hallway takes 26, or save for half. 28 die, and two are wounded badly. Alzar orders everyone into the hallway.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 78, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed, Orcs – 16

The two left turn to run. Megala claws one for 1 damage and it falls asleep. A +2 throwing dagger bites into the other for 10 damage and kills it.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 80, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed, Orcs – 16

They search the weapons and see nothing obviously magical in weapons or armor and move on. Alzar opens the double doors back again and sees no one in the courtyard. He doesn’t want to leave enemies at his back, so they emerge and move into the parade grounds. The goblins have been pulled off the walls, but some fire arrows from the gatehouse. He orders everyone to open the door on the bunkhouse. There is no one in there and they head up stairs. There is no one in here. They leave by opening a door to the barracks. There appears to be tons of cots for hobgoblins in here, but they were pulled for the ambush and to replace those dead. No one is in here. They kick open a door to the wall walk and attack the three hobs here. They die easily to spear and dagger and bolt and sword.

They move back, open a door to the captains room, but he is not here anymore. A search finds a set of keys.

They move back into the barracks and three hobgoblins have moved to here from the left wall and they are surprised. Alzar decapitates one and swords kill the other two before Carum gets a chance to spear one.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 86, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed, Orcs – 16

Alzar pops up through a trap door and enter the eastern guardhouse. In here is the captain of the guard and 12 hobgoblins who have flipped over some tables and pallets in the past few minutes and now fire bows. They are lucky with their shots, but Alzar doesn’t take any damage. He emerges and casts sleep and 5 fall asleep. The three fighters come up. Alzar’s group wins init. He charges with his axe and swings and hits a hob for death. 6 down. They others grab weapons and close. The hobs grab swords and swing. One hits Aleigha for 5 damage.

30/41 – Aleigha

They win init and have four good rolls 15 against Aleigha, 17 vs Alzar, 18 vs Aleigha and 18 vs Carum. They have THAC0 19. Carum has a -1 AC and they miss him. They other are all hit. Aleigha takes 7 and Alzar 6. Alzar attacks twice, rolls a 5 and hits an AC2 with that, so he kills a hob. Then he fumbles his axe again. Est kills another for 7. Aleigha hits for 4 and just wounds one. Carum hits that one and kills it off. Three dead.

23/41
39/54 – Alzar

Alzar orders everyone to aims for their leader and hews into him for 19 damage – his max. Carum spears the leader as well for 7. Aleigha adds 8 and he dies. The remaining frwe hobs try to scramble and are chased down and killed.

# of hobs killed, take 2: 98, Wereboars – 3, Icar, Gorbin Stalworth killed, Orcs – 16

XP – 100 each

They have killed everyone in the gatehouse, since they were all brought together for that one big ambush. They take some weapons and such. A search finds:

Silver and coral necklace of 1100 gp
Gold belt buckle – 500 gp

They find nothing else of value in the gatehouse and the parapets are clear.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 01:33 PM

Alzar orders everyone down and they head to the curtain wall and check it. It’s been completly abandoned. They head back and the keys fit the locks and they open the portcullis and drop the drawbridge for a later escape if needed. Alzar also find a giant barrel of marbles – thousands of them in there. He grabs them and moves them outside to claim later if possible.

They double check the burnt stables and nothing.

Now that Alzar has verified that there are no more enemies to their rear, they move forward. They reopen the double door, and no one is here. They recheck the abandoned section to make sure no one is behind them, and then move into the next room. This appears to have once been a study, that has been converted to general space with tables, hangars, and such. A search finds a jewel.

Left or right? Left should take them into a smaller space. They enter a hallway and it bens, with a door on the left and more down the hallway. The left door in locked but unlockable by the keys they found. This is a storeroom with extra weapons, supplies, arrows, and such. There are food, water, linen, pots and pans, and more. There is a small locked chest in the back and Alzar fails to pick it. They take it.

(just 250 silver in it)

They turn right and take the right door and it opens to a bunkroom. It held more soldiers, but they are all out or gone. A search finds a belt pouch of marbles that could be scattered behind done to hinder pursuit. Nothing else is there. They take the left door and arrive in a rec room with tables, chairs, and a throwing knife game on the wall. Nothing special or of interest is found here. They next room is the officers quarters, and again vacant. They search and find nothing. The last room is a latrine.

Having left behind the east wing guard chambers and wings, they open the right hand door in the old study and enter an odd hallway.

There is a strait corridor more than 100 feet long, lit by torches and such. The opposite door opens and three mummies move towards them. Alzar tires to control them, and they aren’t mummies. He orders everyone to stay still, and in a moment, they punch and kill three more hobgoblins. They probably thought that since weapons weren;t going to work, maybe scaring them would. Nope.

They advance and get close to a mirror and out spring more hobgoblins spring out from behind the mirror and sling stones at Alzar (who is usually in front in these places) and miss.

Alzar advances and carves a hobby. 5 left. Carum’s spear flies in and kills another. 4 left. Three grab short swords and the fourth keeps using his sling. Slingboy misses. A short sword clangs off Est’s armor. Alzar wins init the next round, steps past the hobs, and hits the slinger for 12 and then 19 and kills her. Est and Aleigha kill two more and Carum’s normal spear deals 7 and kills a third. All dead.

XP – 75 each

They search and grab stuff for the magic pile, and move on. This room is a hobgoblin barracks, and everyone just attacked them. They search and find:

150 gold amethyst
Silver Chalice worth 500 gold
80 gold

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 03:15 PM

They move into the next hallway. They find a pit trap, already sprung, and easily leap over. They arrive at a door and open. It was a storeroom. There are a few barrels of grease in here, but the rest is empty or worthless. Another room along the corridor is a storeroom too, and it is locked but opened with the keys. Bolts of cloth, iron tools, and iron pots. They have a good value in sum (about 2k) but are way too bulky to take.

They open a door to a well room with a variety of barrels of water and a metal well. There is nothing in here at all. They continue and arrive at an odd sight.

This is a long terraced room with a narrow passage running through with raised stone platforms set in a series of steps. There appears to be a door on the other side. On the steps are dozens of humans staring blankly ahead and are chained by their necks to the wall, but are not struggling at all. There are scraps of clothing on the floor and cloaks and blankets on the walls.

They start searching and in a few seconds, they start feeling uneasy. There is something going on with this room. They keep searching and Alzar says skip it, and starts throwing cloaks into the Bag of Holding for a later magic pile check. They start moving, and suddenly, they feel afraid. They have cleared cloak from half the room or so. They keep pushing on, and the effect intensifies. Alzar and Carum are fine, but Aleigha and Estaish have to leave the room for a bit.

They keep grabbing cloak and are getting to the end. The fear changes into paralyzation and Alzar is immune while Carum fails his save and is paralyzed. There are just a few cloaks left, so Alzar grabs one, and then the next one flies off the wall and attacks!

It’s a cloaker!

Alzar’s axe is out. The cloaker wins init due to surprise and misses Alzar. He slashes and hits it for 13 damage. Alzar wins init and slashes it twice for 33 damage. It dies.

XP – 1400 for just Alzar

They finish searching the room and those afraid have returned and those stunned have been unstunned, but the slaves re not moving, Alzar uses the keys to undo the braces, so that if they come out of it sometime, they can leave freely.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 03:45 PM

They enter the hallway and door to left is taken. This is a large furnace with an orc and two other orcs pounding away at items. They look up, see Alzar and his party, and then look back down and continue smithing. Well, odd a bit. Alzar takes the door ot the next room where the family of the smith is, and playing with some cards. They leave the room before and move back to the hallway.

The left room is another storeroom, with bones filled with a large assortment of goods. A search finds nothing. The next room is an orc barracks and they were all killed in the attack so there is no one here. A search finds nothing.

They next room is on the right and in here are orc officer quarters, and they were also killed. A search finds nothing in here either except for a ivory weapon.

Ivory dagger – 30 gold

The next room is the guest bedroom. Holed up in here are two weird looking guards and a human. They are hiding and waiting for the trouble to blow over, but it didn’t , It’s obvious that the human is a trader, and most likely in slaves. The two guards are mutated people that have tails, claws, and more, and can’t speak. They jump over and into Alzar and his party, and the merchant draws an axe on them.

Time for battle. They win init and miss Alzar a lot. His axe does not, and kills a guard. The others arrive. They win init and the guard misses twice and the warrior hits Alzar, which turns into a miss. Alzar’s axe bites into the guard just once out of two times, for 17 damage. Estaish hits the creature for 8 more and it falls. Aleigha’s ruby blades slides into the merchant for 8 damage. Alzar nails the merchant for 12. Est and Carum add 17 and he dies. They search the room and find:

600 gp
20 pp
5 amethyst 50 gp each
Papers that say the slave route has another stop somewhere in the Sea of Dread, but the location has been damaged and cannot be read. Alzar identifies a wand on the guy.

Wand of Opening (12 charges) – acts as a Knock spell

XP - 250 to group

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 04:24 PM

The next room was Executioner’s quarters, and they have not been reassigned since his died in the first assault. A search finds nothing but a huge compound bow that only a character of 18 strength can use. The next room are servants quarters, and some guzaks are huddled in a corner, with no weapons of any kind. Alzar orders them to leave, and they do. There is nothing in the room.

They arrive back at the kitchen and thecorpses of the wereboars and Icar are still here. A more thorough search is ordered and nothing additional is found. The next door reveals a cook’s quarters, and the female orc is still hiding under the bed. Alzar ties her up and gags her, so that she cannot inform anybody that they are still in and where they are. They also find the wereboar’s quarters with a large boar here. Its on a chain, and they lead it around while searching the chamber, find nothing of value, and return it and lock the door.

They find a larder with nothing of value. The second to last door is a storeroom, and stairs going down. The final door appears to be someone’s quarters, and there is a simple bed in the northwest, and wine, chess board and carved wooden chest. There is a door on the south wall with a lock on it. The furniture is bolted and the chess board has raised grid on it – probably the room of the blind officer. They search and find nothing. Alzar tries the closet door and a curse comes through, demanding its release. Alzar grabs the gauntlets of dexterity and succeeds, barely, at picking the lock. The door opens and Alzar makes an INT roll at 50%. He makes it (rolled a 3) and sees the body of a medusa and avoids her glare and shuts the door. A perfect guard for a blind man.

She does not push on the door or anything, so she is probably chained in there. Alzar orders everyone to stay out, closes his eyes, switches to the ogre strength gauntlets and opens the door and uses Blind Fighting to sense his opponent.

He wins inti and axes her for 19 damage. She misses him. He wins init and kills her easily. He waits, and hears and senses nothigjn else, orders Megala in and looks through his yes – nothing.

400 to Alzar only.
.
There is an iron chest on the floor. Inside is:

2000 gp
10 jet pieces 100 gp each
10 matches silver and opal bracelets – 200 each
There is a locked small brass coffer and Alzar takes it out and tries to pick the lock, but its quite complex. Failure.

(Inside is Potion of Undead Control, and Pot of Diminution, Cleric scroll with Cure Serious, Purify Food and Drink, Feign Death, Cure Light Wounds, Resurrection and Wind Walk; Ring of Warmth and Quaal’s Feather Token. )

There are also directions to the specialist quarters downstairs and where the secret doors are to the treasure in that room.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 04:52 PM

They head back to the door and head down. There is a door in front of them, and a corridor that heads to the left. The door opens and they see about 12 goblins eating at a table with their back to them, but as Alzar steps in, they suddenly grab hidden crossbows and spin! They were preparing an ambush of a different kind, but none of the bolts hit Alzar. They grab clubs and charge the group. A Hypnotism spell forces 7 of them to drop their clubs and fall down. The rest are easily killed, but Alzar took 4 from a club.

47/54 (gained life from the regen of his gem on the belt).

They search and find nothing but:

Large Brass Key
20 gp
Ivory – 75 gp

There is a man in a cell in here and the door swings open, and the man runs past them and starts gulping the food from the table. They move on.

The corridor is dusty and cobwebby above, and slopes down.

Suddenly, the axe flies from Alzar grip and hits the wall, and other metallic objects are being similarly pulled from him. He manages to wrest it free with his strength, and carries the armor from Estaish and Carum so that they can get past.

The corridor turns left and there is a door on the right. It opens easily into a small hallway that leads to a deserted room with a wooden table. A search shows a concealed door that simply has a winch to lower a stone block in the hallway in front of the magnetic trap in order to keep their own people from getting caught in it. Alzar turns it off.

They continue on and enter a corridor with a ghastly white shape hovering above the floor. As they get near, it appears to be someone webbed, and a clicking can be heard nearby. A web falls on Alzar, who is immune. He slips through the web and throws a dagger at one of the giant spiders above. It hits for 10 damage. It recoils and backs into a corner in the corridor. The fighters have arrived. Alzar grabs a +1 dagger and they move to the next round.

A dagger flies out and misses, clanking against the wall. A crossbow bolt hits the wounded spider for 6. Carum’s sling hits for 4 and kills it. The other jumps on top of Alzar and misses (cloak) but would have done double damage.

The spider goes first and tries to skewer Alzar but misses. The fighters kill it after dealing 39 with a hit by every one of them

XP 215 each

The corpse is cut down and searched and they find a Ring and add it to the magic pile.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 05:11 PM

A door to the right is in front of them and it appears to be a deserted storeroom with chests, bundles and crates of various goods. They search and find bales of linen, tin pots and pans, dishes, and such. They find nothing else.

The next door appears to be an abandoned storeroom. There are piles of trade goods with a significant amount of dust and debris in the room. Suddenly, there is a hair raised scream, and a figure appears in the corner, of a dying human. There is the clank of chains as the human struggles against the chains that bind him to the wall. This is an undead, a phantom that replays the final minutes of its life over and over again. It manages to break free from its chains and charges forward, kicks open the door, overcomes his guards and grabs a sword, and runs through several doors and stairs, until coming to a door he cannot open. As he struggles to hack through the locked door, a pack of guards arrive and pull him into this room, on this spot, and a group of wolves arrive and devour him.

Having been seen, the phantom disappears and the room is normal, and they search, but find nothing. Back to the corridor they head. As they walk, Alzar triggers a pit trap and falls into a pit 20’ down but with 4 feet of water, so he takes no damage. There is a ledge the others can use to cross it and his Rope of Climbing easily gets him out. He will begin rapping on the floor ahead of him now. They reach a door and as they open it, a trap is triggered and a bunch of logs begin rolling down the corridor towards them. Alzar grabs the rope still out, and it jumps up and creates handing handholds on it above them, and they jump up and hold on, above the hallway. The logs smash through the door and fake wall, and then roll over the pit trap on the ledges and end at the wall behind them. They drop down, grab the rope, and move on.

The corridor bends to the left and the entire corridor walls – ceiling and floor is a grillwork with 1’x1’ spaces. Whenever someone takes the time to mess with the floors, you know something is about to go wrong. A closer look shows a viscous liquid that covers the grillwork. Alzar puts his torch to it and it lights up, and the entire grillwork is on fire. They wait patiently for about ten minutes for it to burn out and the grillwork to cool down. The grillwork will take a while to cross, and Alzar bets there is something else in there besides the oil they burnt. Lava plumes or a monster of some sort or acid or something. It’s about 60 feet long or so. Alzar has the Rope of Climbing stretch it’s whole 50’ feet long and secure itself to the wall. Alzar tries poking the air and the holes with a staff, but nothing happens. It’s five feet to the rope, then one can use the rope to get the rest of way then five feet to the end. Alzar goes first and gets to the rope easily, and suddenly some blue humanoids teleport in and attack Alzar (and miss) and jump into the holes and disappear. Alzar jumps back and recalls the rope. Now that he knows what the issue is.

He grabs three of the logs from the trap and lashes them together with the Rope of Climbing. He gets a big run and throws them down and slides across the grille work easily. He makes it across in one round without any problems. Because he is so strong, it might have helped, so he throws the log back and attaches a regular rope to the end. They will jump/slide and he will pull with his strength, and the two together should get the others across, and it does. No problems.

There are three doors on the right, two on the left, and then the corridor bends. They find several storerooms and search and find nothing but food like honey and cheese. The fourth room they search has casks and such, plus a table and more. They search and find a secret door that bypasses the grille on the way back. The final room is another storeroom and nothing more can be found in it.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 05:32 PM

The corridor ends at a door. An Ear Ring reveals sounds of minor shuffling and that’s like – like the people in there are trying to keep quiet. Alzar kicks open the door after warning everyone and reveals a room with 15 orcs with short bows hiding behind kicked up torture devices, and two bugbears to their left, and four worgs that are released and now charging towards them. The welcoming committee is here.

Alzar launches his final Sleep – from the ring. 7 goblins fall asleep. 9 arrows fly in and miss Alzar. The bugbears move forward wielding wicked looking morning stars. Alzar moves forward to stay in the line of sight of the goblins and worgs while the three fighters move in and move towards the bugbears.

Battle begins. Alzar’s axe bites into the 2nd worg for 15 damage. Est misses, Ale hits a bugbear for 7. Carum hits the same one for 5. The worgs miss Alzar. He takes 6 from arrows. One bugbear hits Est for 4 damage.

48/54
37/45

Alzar hits the injured worg for death. Est kills the injured bugbear and the others miss. Alzar takes 7 from a worg bite. The arrows miss. The bugbear misses. Alzar’s second axe swing bites a worg for 15.

41/54

The worgs attack and one hits Alzar for 4. Arrows hit hit for 2 as well.The bugbear hits Estaish for 6. Alzar kills the wounded worg. Only Ale hits the bugbear for 4.

35/54
31/45 – Estaish

Alzar wounds a worg for 16. Est and Carum hit for 15 and kill the bugbear. Alzar is bit for 8 and takes 2 from an orcish arrow. Alzar swings again and kills the wounded worg.

25/54

Morale check and they make it. Arrows at Alzar miss, the worg misses. Alzar axes the worg 19 damage and it dies. The fighters charge the orcs position.

They break, but daggers, swords and spear easily bring down the other 7.

XP – 300 each

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 06:45 PM

A search of the torture chamber finds a pair of tortured humans in the corner, who tell Alzar they came in from the south wall. There are no obvious doors out, but there are some cells in here. They find two secret doors south, one in a cell room and the other in the base of the room. The one on the cell appears to be wizard locked. Alzar uses the Wand to open it.

They enter a room lit by a ruddy glow with the air alive with the aroma of wild herbs and rotting flesh. There are crates ,bookshelves, and more in here, with a table and cabinet piled high with books, clay crocks, canisters and jars and such.

A search finds alchemical and lab equipment worth 2000 gp
Three flasks of potions (Giant Strength, Levitation, Healing)
Five Pellets in a small box (Flash Pellets)
1500 gp worth of alchemical books

There is a corridor on the other side, and they follow it to an end but a door here is easily opened. They emerge into a bedroom with an aged human sitting by a table and pouring a yellow flask into a glass cylinder. He looks up, and then continues. “I’m not going to stop you or get in your way.”

Alzar asks where they are, and the alchemist says the specialist quarters ,where the specialists of the stockade stay and sleep. Alzar offers money to the alchemist to switch to his side and help him. “I’m not going to help or hinder you, I’m staying out of everybody’s way.”

They exit and enter a hallway with many doors on the sides. This is the area marked on the map from the captain’s chest. Alzar recognizes it. They enter the next room and find this is locked. Alzar manages to pick it, and they open it to find a man with a crossbow aimed at his chest and demanding to know his business. Alzar sees no point in lying and says he intends to shut this place down. He offers the man money to help. He agrees. There are some werewolves down here that are used as the shock troops, and they will be used on anyone, even loyal staff like himself.

He is Carlstar Wiorfether, a 3rd level fighter, neutral, with a crossbow, military pick, and silver dagger, but just 15 hp. He is employed as the engineer of the area. Alzar offers him 1000 gold to escort them and show them the various areas, and he agrees, but he will only fight in self defense. The engineer grabs his things and has 500 gp and a potion of Curing lycanthropy. Alzar grabs his books on siegecraft and defenses and pockets them, as a token of thanks. His ESP spell proved Carlstar intends to keep his side of the bargain.

He points to a door and tells them it is a scribes quarters. He is totally loyal to Markeesa. Alzar grabs his throwing dagger, opens the door and flings it at the man sitting quietly at a table. It hits for 10 damage and the scribe dies. They find papers showing how profitable the operation is, and how widespread. Slave peddlers and purchasers are given code words. Outside of Valia, other nations have all banned slavery, so the outposts are outside their purview in these islands off the coast. A search turns up:

Keychain
100 ivory pipe.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 07:19 PM

The next room to the left are the bugbear leaders. There are two in the torture room stationed there, so the are dead, and the other two are likely in there. Alzar orders ranged weapons and throws open the door and they see two bugbears, one sitting on his bed and the other the other sharpening her bastard sword on a chair by a table. Alzar flings his dagger at one and…hits for 9 damage. A bolt silences that one after it takes 6. A magic spear is flung and misses the other, and the third bugbear gets up, shouts for help, and moves towards them.

Battle begins. They win init and Alzar deals 17 and kills the bugbear.

They move to defend, in case others investigate the shout. A door nearby opens and then another. Carlstar tells them the werewolves are nearby and Aleigha growls while still human. Two hobgoblins and three werewolves arrive. The werewolves can smell Aleigha and jump in front of the hobgoblins. Alzar jumps in front, and they win init. All five miss him. He moves to the side and wings an axe for the max – 19. One werewolves falters, but remains standing. Est bolts a hob for 2. Carum retrieves his magic spear. Aleigha moves to the front with Alzar. Werewolves and werebears are archenemies.

Alzar trust Aleigha to hit the one he just hit and he moves to the next werewolf and nails it for 13. Aleigha easily hits and kills the one he hit earlier. Est bolts a hob for 1 more. Carum’s long spear lances out and hits the third werewolf for 5 damage. The wolf and hobbies attack. The wolf attacks Aleigha, no question. It misses one and hits the other time for 3 damage. The hobs hit Alzar for 3. He swings his axe again and kills the werewolf Carum injured for 16 damage. The two hobs start to run and they are eaily cut down.

20/41 - Aleigha

XP – 500 each

They search the three rooms open and move down and shut the door to the corridor beyond so any more noise won’t attract attention. One of these rooms was the ogre mage’s and hasn’t been cleaned out since his death in the first assault on the stockade. A journal shows that Blackthorn was quietly organizing a resistance against Markessa for her damaging the trade by her experiments and inability to manage an operation this big. The werewolves were among the people he counted as allies in this conflict.
They find 300 gold

They open the secret door and head to a secret chamber. There is just a small corridor down the path, way too small for a humanoid, but a track is there. Alzar sends in Megala and Dryshik and they reveal six large chests, two metal coffers and a small locked mahogany box are stacked in the room on a metal cart. They throw the rope pulling the cart to Alzar, and they just fit and get pulled down the track to the party.

The first chest is unlocked and has just copper pieces in it (6000)
The second chest is locked. Alzar fails to open it. They skip it for now.
The third chest is locked. Alzar fails – skip it.
The fourth is unlocked and has 9000 sp
The fifth is unlocked and has 3000 pp in it. There is a small poison gas trap that triggers and everybody else leaves for 10 minutes until it clears.
The 6th one is locked. No lock pick here either.
The first coffer is opened. Inside is a ruby worth 2000 gp, 10 tourmaline worth 100, 6 aquamarines worth 400 each, a scroll,
The second coffer is locked. It appears to be wizard locked.
The wooden case is locked. Alzar cannot pick it.

The case will be pocketed and opened later, same with the coffer added to a Bag of Holding.

Alzar acids the chests unable to be locked and inside are:

13000 gp
7000 ep
Oil
Scroll
Uncut 8 Sapphires worth 250, Ruby worth 500 – value can be 4 by gem cutter

They leave the area and enter a hallway.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 07:49 PM

Carlstar tells them that one door leads to a laboratory that often has Markessa in it. Another door leads into more bedrooms, including those of a sister pair of mages, but one died and the other left, and just one bedroom is still occupied back there. He points to the cells, and the dining room and latrines - all off this passageway. Alzar suggests attacking Markessa in the lab. Carlstar points out there they are double doors on the other side she could flee through. Alzar pulls out the Crystal ball, because he’s seen this room before, and looks into it. Markessa is working at a bench just 20 feet in front of the door. There are orc guards and two owlbears in a cage that could be released. Still, the distance between Markessa and them means they could easily catch her.

The plan is this – Alzar throws open the door with axe in hand and charges Markessa and swings. Carum and Aleigha move to the center of the room and attack the orcs. Estaish runs in and backs up Alzar. Alzar and Estaish keep Markessa behind the desk and keep her from running to the main door, and Ale and Car keep her from leaving via the double doors in the back.

Sounds like a plan.

With axe in hand, Alzar flings open the door and charges Markessa. Est right behind, and Carum and Aleigha take up positions. 11 goblins grab arrows and Alzar is at Markessa in a moment. Battle ensues.

Alzar wins init but she gets to go first anyway due to a magic item she has. She misses Alzar. Alzar’s axe rolls a 6. Plus her AC of 1 is 7. Add +3 for str, and +3 for axe mastery and +1 for the +1 axe and it’s a 14 – exactly Alzar’s THAC0. She takes 18 damage and winces. Est swings and crits her for 15 damage. Carum kills an orc with his spear for 6 damage. Aleigha misses another. A Mist Ball flies in and she makes her save. Markessa attacks again for a miss on Alzar (rolled a 3). Arrows fly in and no one is hit

They win Init. Markessa grabs a flask and throws it down and makes a cloud of smoke. Alzar orders Est and him to stand beside each other and together they stand across the space between the desk and wall, preventing her from leaving that way. The owlbears are released. Carum takes 7 from three arrows. Carum spears an orc for just 4 and he survives. Aleigha misses. Alzar uses Blind-Fighting to sense Markessa. He senses her moving down and around the desk, and can attack with a -4. He rolls a 12. -4 to 8. +1 for her AC is a 9. Then add the bonuses and he hits her for 16 and she dies.

29/48 - Carum

With their leader dead, the orcs flee out the double doors The owlbears move forward. A growling from the hallway beyond can be heard as two worgs move into the room. A dagger bites into an owlbear for 12 damage. A bolt from Est hits it for 5 more damage. Aleigha and Carum move forward. Alzar and Est move forward as well.

The owlbears win init and attack Aleigha for 17 damage after three hits, a crit, and another hit from the fourth one. She changes into a werebear instinctively to avoid more damage. Carum misses the wounded owlbear. Aleigha hits twice for 6 damage and kills the owlbear. Alzar and Est are here as are the worgs.

3/41 – Aleigha.

Aleigha deals 3 to an owlbear. Alzar drops his axe. Est adds 11 and Carum misses. Aleigha takes no damage from an owlbear and it looks confused. The worgs try to hit her as well and miss. They move around her to attack others next turn.

Aleigha bites the damaged owlbear for 8 damage. Carum drops his spear, Est misses. The owlbear keeps attacking Aleigha. Stupid. One worg tries to bite into Estaish but can’t penetrate his armor. Alzar swings at the worg in front of him. He rolls just a 3, but that hits. 18 damage to a worg. He can swing again and kills it.

They go first, barely, and Alzar is attacked and missed. The owlbear misses Aleigha. Alzar nails the worg for 16, Est misses, Carum misses and Aleigha deals 5 to the owlbear.

The worg runs and Crum throws his spear since its handy. It hits for 7 and kills it. Alzar crits the owlbear for max damage 27. It is bisected. They search the lab and find:

XP – 1000 each

Leather armor.
Short Sword
5000 gp worth of alchemical equipment
Pair of adamantite claws worth 200 gp
Electrum bracers – 560 gp
Neckguard of electrum - 1400gp

Aleigha quaffs a pot of healing.

11/41

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 08:22 PM

They head back and check the rooms where the magi were. Two are empty. The final one was the room of the ogre they killed on the first assault. There is nothing else of interest in here.

The dining room is completely free of people, and the kitchens next to it. The chef believes they are mercenaries and early for their meals and to come back later. Alzar decides to do just that.

They enter the chambers of a female hobgoblin witchdoctor. They have not met her, but they search the room. They find

3 pieces of jade 60 gp
Necklace of garnet and electrum 1300 gp

As they finish, the witchdoctor arrives back, by herself, and sees 5 adventurers, and decides to run. A Mist Ball flies at her and she fails the save and falls down. Alzar ties her up and takes her back into her chamber. She is a priestess of Mahte, goddess of pain and pleasure. He waits until she can see again, tells her who he is, and that Markessa is already dead. He intends to take out this place, and free the slaves here, and there is no one who will stop him. She will remain tied up here and they will come back for her if they aren’t killed. Alzar shuts the door behind him and exits.

They move down the corridor and find a door with two bugbears flanking it. Thinking Alzar and crew are mercenaries, they have not attacked. He attacks with his axe and gains surprise. He crits, so that is 2x damage from the surprise and x2 from the crit. He rolled jus t a3, but that’s still 23 damage and a dead bugbear. Est attacks the other for 11 and Carum adds another crit for 15 and she dies. They search the bodies and find nothing.

The door opens and reveals a bed chamber where a female human looks exactly like Markessa. Alzar asks if she is the real Markessa or a doppelganger or illusion or something. This can’t be the real Markessa, the first one had more powerful magic, knowledge and weapons, This one has just a dagger. He casts Charm Person as she casts Shield. She fails the save and becomes Alzar’s good friend.

She is another person who was magically altered b experiments to look like Markessa and then brainwashed to believe she was, but a part of her has always known otherwise. She shows them the valuables in this room:

2 polar bear rugs – 180 gp each
4 pairs of fancy slippers 150 gp each

There are two secret doors they open and the charmed mage will accompany them, in the back. Alzar opens a secret door and they enter the exercise room of a burly fighter. He is tall, slender, muscular, and n padded armor and shield and working out on the quintain.

The fighter was magically altered to be very strong, and brainwashed to fall in love with Markessa, but instead has fallen in love with the double. She tells him they are leaving, and he goes to his room, gathers his weapons and armor, and comes with them.

Bodyguard – platemail armor + shield, 18/59 str so +2, +3 in battle. Fights with battle axe. 21 hp, AC 0,

They move to a room that is dirty and foul smelling. There is a angry Taurian in here. This is the special guard of Markessa’s. The double commands him to stay silent and move back, and he does. They open a secret door and enter Markessa’s Spell Room. The room have bins and shelves filled with materials necessary for spell research and experimentation. There are white candles that lit when they entered, and do not appear to be burning the wick. There is a pentagram with an amulet in the middle. Alzar uses the Ring of Telekinesis to pick it up and brings it to him.

They find a spellbook, and Alzar does not open it anymore, as per his previous rules.

The stuff in here is worth 1300 gold, but is quite heavy.

They move into her quarters with a luxurious bed chamber, costly furniture, expensive tapestries. And such. They find a wall safe and Alzar can’t unlock it. He damages it with acid – his last dose. Inside the damaged lock are valuables, and a poison dart trap but the needle was in the lock and damaged from the acid. They find another spellbook in it too.

There is a Wand on her dresser.
3000 gp value of furnishings
Gold and ruby necklace worth 1400
600 gp gold earrings
50 pp
3 Sapphire – 150

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 08:41 PM

There is an escape tunnel from there that leads to a cave with 8 Døkkálfar, a very rare underground race of humanoids quite powerful and evil. The leader introduces herself to Alzar in Typic and asks where the slaves are she ordered. Alzar uses his innate ability to ESP once a week, and determines that this fighter/cleric is impatient for her lack of service, but word of Markessa’s death has not been heard here yet, and with Markessa’s double, they obviously think she has come to give them an update. If Markessa were not here, the Døkkálfar would likely attack and interrogate Alzar and his group, they are that upset and arrogant.

Alzar grabs a skull and starts talking about how the slaves will not be coming right now because – casts Skulltrap and flings the skull. He catches them unprepared. All 8 are in the blast. 21 damage to everyone, unless they make their save and then 10 taken. The leader dies. The guard leader just takes damage. All of the guards die from it. So 7 out of 8 die. The leader runs for the back exit. Alzar grabs a dagger, and Carum throws his spear which is handy. Carum spears him for 7 damage. The dagger kills him.

They search the Døkkálfar corpses and find exactly what Alzar suspected. He has never encountered them before. Their armor and weapons are very powerful, and yet if exposed to light, they will decay and be destroyed. They also do not radiate as magical. He gains:

Døkkálfar Armor and Weapons:

+3 chain, +2 mace, +2 chain, +1 shield, +1 dagger, +2 short sword, +1 chainx6, +1 short swordx612 poisoned javelins

They have nothing else on them. He puts them in a Bag of Holding and will not pull them out unless underground.

XP – 500 each

This tunnel is the exit, so they turn around. They pass a tunnel on the right and take it. There are two kennels of worgs behind a portcullis. A search uncovers a secret door. They enter a giant goblin and orc barracks This is on the other side of the lab from the double doors. They have all fled. A search turns up nothing. They follow the tunnel and pass a guard post – now empty. They enter a room with a lot of cheesecloth suits of hobgoblin size. There are many clay crockery pots, now empty, but with the residue of honey. The next chamber has the large number of beehives, so they leave and return to the slave area, having explored this entire level except for them.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 09:01 PM

These are the slave pens. The slaves are locked up, and no overseers can be seen anymore, so they must have gotten a message. There are about 20 listless and apathetic slaves in one room. There are 21 more in another. The third large cell has an entrance to their area. These are the mutated and strange creatures made by magic and twisted in various ways. Some have claws, tails, missing limbs, and special abilities.

They head down into the tunnels and are greeted by many of the creatures down here. They ask if Alzar is the Messenger of Light who will take them to the world of light and away from these tunnels, and he agrees to do so, right now. The 61 mutated creatures gather their things and begin a pilgrimage. The false Markessa and bodyguard go with them, up to the top floor.

They head back and begin to free more slaves . They find chambers with:

3 bald women
5 qwith, one of which is pregnant
6 men, and one pot bellied and looks fat and well fed
8 children
6 strong and able bodied women
3badly beaten men
7 men and one claims to be a leader from the north and will pay a handsome reward
2 very powerful and nasty looking men
7 women and children
6 sis’sharr
3 dvergr, tied up
8 children
4 middle aged men
10 pretty teenage girls, early to mid teens, dressed well
6 men and women, old
3 men and women, and badly beaten
1 man in the center of the cell, studying and meditating
4 barbarians

Total – 92 slaves, plus the 41 lethargic ones here and those above that are still lethargic.

Alzar swings by the witchdoctor’s room, takes her armor and morning star, and loosens her bonds. She is free to go or stay.

They head back and grab 12 more slaves from the cloaker room. Alzar pays Carlstar 1000 gp as per the agreement.

He moves and talks with the false Markessa and her bodyguard. They cannot take both the slaves and the mutated one son the ship, there is not enough room. But the slavers will come back to try and find out what happened, and its best that the mutated not be here when they do. He will take the slaves and drop them off 8 days away at a settlement on the coast, and then sail back and pick up Markessa, her bodyguard and the mutated.

17 days later, they return and pick them up. Alzar knows a place to take them, and they agree to follow his lead.

23 days later, after some storms and fighting off some griffons, they arrive at Tangaroa.

There is an island in between the village islands with nothing on it. It seems like a good, out of the way place to set up shop and build a future. The natives will help them and teach them the skills needed to survive here.

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 10:38 PM

4725 XP for non-Alzar
6525 for Alzar + 10%

Alzar – 97,485 (Level 8)
Estaish – 42,591 (Level 6) – Now with 45 HP
Aleigha – 40,085 (Level 6) – Now has 41 HP.
Carum – 31,865 (Level 5) – Now has 48 HP.

Carum is that close to level 6, but ah well.

The below numbers reflect the 1000 gp given to Carlstar and 2500 gold to the ship captain and sailors and 4500 given to the three fighters. Alzar got the coins changed over in that town they stopped in for one day. He paid 2k for the service. He got some of the bigger and expensive stuff changed over too.

Gold - 30195

10 tourmaline worth 100, 6 aquamarines worth 400 each
Uncut 8 Sapphires worth 250, Ruby worth 500 – value can be 4 by gem cutter
4 pairs of fancy slippers 150 gp each
Ivory – 75 gp
3 pieces of jade 60 gp
Necklace of garnet and electrum 1300 gp
5 amethyst 50 gp each
Silver and coral necklace of 1100 gp
Gold belt buckle – 500 gp
Gold and ruby necklace worth 1400
600 gp gold earrings
3 Sapphire – 150
5000 gp worth of alchemical equipment
Pair of adamantite claws worth 2000 gp
Electrum bracers – 560 gp
Neckguard of electrum - 1400gp
100 ivory pipe.
10 jet pieces 100 gp each
10 matches silver and opal bracelets – 200 each
150 gold amethyst
A search finds alchemical and lab equipment worth 2000 gp
1500 gp worth of alchemical books
Ivory dagger – 30 gold
Silver Chalice worth 500 gold
Amulet of Finding
Wand of Opening – 11 charges left
Potion of Undead Control; Diminution,
Cleric scroll with Cure Serious, Purify Food and Drink, Feign Death, Cure Light Wounds, Resurrection and Wind Walk
Ring of Warmth
Quaal’s Feather Token.
Three flasks of potions (Giant Strength, Levitation, Healing)
Five Pellets in a small box (Flash Pellets)
Potion of Longevity
Potion of White Dragon Control
Philter of Love
Ring of Water Walking

Wooden case has a jar with an amulet suspended in an ochre colored liquid. A check shows this to be an ochre jelly, and the amulet is non magical. Opening the jar probably released the ochre jelly – a clever little trap.

Markessa’s high level spellbook – Lightning Bolt

Markessa’s low level spellbook – Magic Missile, Protection from Good, Read Magic, Detect Magic, Shocking Grasp, Scare, Wizard Lock and Darkness, 15’ radius

Magic Pile: +1 dagger, Ring of Fire Resist, +1 broadsword, +1 scimitar, Periapt of Proof vs Poison +2, Sling of Seeking +2. Cloak of Protection +2. Ring of Infravision. Scroll – Continual Darkness, Paralyzation, Shadow Door. Scroll – Atonement, Oil of Etherealness. +1 studded leather, protection from normal missiles (-1 per die from magical ones too). +1 Short Sword of Speed. Amulet of Protection from Good, 3x daily. Wand of Magic Missiles – 12 charges left. +2 chainmail, +1 morning star

Døkkálfar Armor and Weapons:

+3 chain, +2 mace, +2 chain, +1 shield, +1 dagger, +2 short sword, +1 chainx6, +1 short swordx6, 12 poisoned javelins

Used 2 Charges on Belt, 4 Invisibility Drink. Used both 3 HD Fireball. Used Extra Healing Pot. Healing x2, Dust of Appearance. Use charge of Paralyzation. Used Charge of Wand of Opening, Aleigha’s pot of healing.

Alzar gives the pot of healing from this adventure to Aleigha. The Sling of Seeking gives +2 to both to hit and damage, and missiles are considered +1 for determining if they hit. Quaal’s Feather Token is an odd item that be used once, and then is used up. This is a Finger Token, so it gives a one-shot, perfect teleport to any place the user can see (even in a scrying device, such as a Crystal Ball).

Alzar hands the Sling to Carum as well as the Ring of Infravision

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 10:56 PM

After another two month, Alzar has completed 40 Dispels on one of the three books not destroyed by fire in Castanamir’s library. It’s a book at random and it has…

This is not one of Castanamir’s spell books, but instead it is the Transcendental Impenetrabilities. It is a famous spellbook, of which there are several copies, by the mage Leomund. It includes the spells: Leomund’s Tiny Hut, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Globe of Invulnerability and Prismatic Sphere.

Not much there, and Alzar doesn’t bother to learn the Hut. He goes back through and learns a few spells he skipped before – Conjure Spell Component, Leomund’s Trap, Minor Globe of Invulnerability.

Now that they are back in Tangaroa, they have a few options. Explore one of those ruins, or try to find the other slave place. There are a lot of small islands in the Sea of Dread, and they would need to really scour the area around the Isle of Dread all the way back to the mainland to try and find it. Since that would take a while, Alzar thinks they should go ahead and start,

Abe Sargent · 05-22-2010, 11:39 PM

XSOLO. Lathan’s Gold

This is one of the solo adventures. They are basically Choose your Own Adventure or Lone Wolf, but with the D&D rules. This one introduces new rules like how to quickly end a combat, but we will be doing a regular D&D combat and exploration and such for all of the areas in it. We will be using the mechanics of Lathan’s Gold, but not the plot or the main characters. The main plot has Lathan, the ship captain who owns his own ship and is betrothed to this hot princess but she is captured for ransom for 1000 gold, but Lathan doesn’t have that money (despite owning a boat) so he borrows 750 gold to equip himself and enable himself to get the money and get the princess. Stupid. Why not borrow the last 250 gold? Or sell an item or two for it?

There are a lot of plot holes in modules sometimes. Why did the pirates in Isle of Dread wear metal armor during the day in camp when not expecting combat in the hot of the tropics, and wear metal armor on pirate raids, in boats? Why did the people in the Taboo Island temple wall up the back section in order to keep monsters and creatures away, and it worked, when they only things down there were crocodiles, two giant crabs a giant oyster and two kopru, and there were no stairs down, just a pit trap in one place and a collapsed floor – neither of which had been triggered at the time? How does Mantru have a splinter group with more than 40 people, when the village only has 7 houses? They aren’t even longhouses. Maybe they left due to a lack of shelter. Why did a fire giant send only two out of five hobgoblin armies to attack a strong fort? There are numerous examples of monsters too big to fit in the corridor, or poor designs (like this stockade just now, which has the only way you can get to the back half, and the stairs down, through someone’s office. WTF? Or the keep’s design where the private bedchamber of the lord goes through the armory? WTF? Or Castle Caldwell’s stupid design which lacks many things in a castle, like throne room, private quarters, and other essentials . In the dungeons of the stockade, the only way from the torture room and that section of the castle was through the secret lab and the alchemist’s chamber, or through a huge tract of tunnels that meanders through beehives and a chasm you have to walk along the wall, and so forth. Why would you make that design? ) I can understand a mage caught unawares having tool spells like Detect Magic and Read Magic instead of combat spells, but what about one heading for combat? I came across a dragon that had memorized levitate and I laughed at that spell being memorized.

Anyway, Lathan’s Gold will be Alzar’s Quest since he owns the ship and so forth. We will be sailing around and looking to find some goodies.

I expect this will lead into:

MSOLO2, X8, A3, and eventually I1 and C1 back in the Isle of Dread. As you can see, I keep adding modules to our super Isle of Dread campaign, but I think they all work. X8 is being added since it takes place on a small island in the Sea of Dread. How could I not include that as well? I keep pushing back I1 and C1 because I saw how hard they are, especially I1. I think C1 could be run anytime now, but other modules have higher important in the storyline than look, here’s a shrine.

Oh, did you see how the Gauntlets of Ogre Power are really powerful. No wonder I was surprised to see them in a low level module. I cheated. I rolled twice to see if I got the 10% chance they became another item, and nope. As a reminder, whenever a spell appears in a scroll or a named item appears, there is a 10% chance it’s a random spell from the Wizard’s Spell Compendium or item from the Encyclopedia Magica. I roll a d10 to figure out what kind of spell it is 1-4 common, 5-7 uncommon, 8-9 rare, 0 very rare, with adjustments made for the class and situation. Alchemy spells are more likely to be in an alchemist’s spellbook, no matter the rarity.

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 05:29 PM

We begin with 30 days of rations, having stocked up in Tangaroa. Instead of starting on the shore in a big city, we are starting in V40, off the coast of the Isle of Dread.

The thing has a variety of entries – V are voyages in the open ocean, and come with these rules:

Order of events. Follow this sequence for each voyage entry you read:

1. Read the entry you have chosen. Before going on to the next entry, allow your character and his party to study and change any spells that they wish. Note any spell changes on your character sheet. If you want, you may record any distinguishing features about this location in your ship’s log.
2. Check to see if your party encounters a wandering monster. Roll 1d6. If you roll a 6, you encounter a monster. Go to Table 1 and roll ld8. If your party encounters no monsters, skip to step 4.
3. Go to the interaction sequence to resolve the wandering monster encounter.
4. If you have a navigator aboard, skip to step 5. If you have no navigator aboard, you must check to see if your party becomes lost. Roll ld6. On a roll of 1, your party becomes lost. If you do not roll a 1, skip to step
5. Check to see if your current sea entry tells you where to go if you become lost. If it doesn’t, decide which direction in which you want to try to go. If you go north, subtract 9 from your current sea entry
number and go to the new sea entry. If you go south, subtract 10 from your current sea entry number and go to the new sea entry. If you go east or west, stay at your current sea entry.
5. Choose your next sea or land entry from the choices given in your current sea entry. If you are drifting, subtract 10 from your current sea entry number and go to the new sea entry.
6. Go to your Expedition Record Sheet. Unless an entry directs otherwise, subtract 1 day from the Days Remaining column. You should also subtract 1 ration per party member from the Rations column.
7. As long as you are reading voyage (V) entries, repeat this process. Go back to step 1.

We do have a navigator.

There are also T entries for Trade Routes, C for coastal, number numbers for encounters, U for Urban, S for Specularum, which is replaced by the coastal city of Kathetia, and E for Island Exploration.

We can go north, east or west. We go west. To V30. No monsters. We are still north of the Isle of Dread. West to V20 has a reef, so we head north to V32. Monster.

A ship of 25 buccaneers sails into us and they have the wind and we cannot escape. They grapple us and begin to board. A sleep spell handles just 3 of them prior to their grapple and 4 more after. 7 are down. Dryshik Wall of Fogs the Sea Ghost where they are trying to board us, and that slows them down a lot. Meanwhile, the fighters (in no armor obviously) move in and start slicing. One takes 8 from Aleigha and dies. 8 down.

Several swing and miss, but one hits Carum for 2. A Hyptotism spell takes out 6 more. Carum kills another. 15 down. With the Wall of Fog inhibiting them, they begin to back into their ship, and Alzar and group go over on their grapples and fight the rest there. Alzar goes first, as usual. His axe kills a pirate. They all miss him.

The next round they win init and Alzar takes 11 from three hits. He then axes one, then a second. Est and Aleigha kill one each as well. 5 left. Alzar cleaves another. Est just nicks one for 4. Ale kills it. Carum hits for 8 and kills a third. 2 left. They jump overboard. They sleepers are killed and the hypnotized are captured. It looks like this vessel was recently on the losing side of a battle and its badly damaged from the rear and the other side. They find 5 days rations. Since they are close to Tangaroa, they sail 3 days back and it’s all quiet. They drop off the injured ship for later, and restock to 30 rations and head back out.

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 06:07 PM

They sail back to the same place, V32. We are getting close to an island to the north. We sail north to V33. No monsters. This is supposedly Spider Isle. We can land or keep sailing. I choose to land. I turn to E6.

We encounter a wandering monster on Spider isle – a Cyclops. A 54 hp giant with one eye. It sees us land and starts throwing boulders. One misses Alzar (cloak). He is bout 150 feet away and it will take two rounds of running to get to him. A rock crashes into Aleigha and she takes 9. Another rock nails Alzar for 17. The Cyclops picks up a giant club and battle ensues.

Alzar crits it for 23 damage. Aleigha hits for 7. It crushes Estaish for 9 damage. It wins init and misses Est. Alzar swings twice, hits once for 18 damage. Est misses, Ale misses, Carum crits it for 5 damage. They in init and Alzar kills it.

XP – 1000 each

A search reveals 1875 gold. We choose to explore the island. We turn to E21. We harvest 3 rations from the fruit on the island. An ancient building surrounded by eight standing and crumbling pillars is in the center of the island, and the roof of it is shaped like a spider. This is the Lost Temple of the Aranea.

+3 rations

They head down to investigate. The temple is just a few rooms, all abandoned. The rest have been destroyed, and numerous searches find nothing more. They leave and return to the Sea Ghost.

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 06:31 PM

We head west to V23. Quiet. We head west again. To V13. Quiet. There are reefs to the west and an island to the south tentatively identified as Skeleton Key. We go south, quiet. V12. More reefs to the west. We disembark to E8.

We do not encounter any hostility upon our arrival. We move to explore the key – E23. 2 rations from the fruit here as well. There are thousands of bones littering the ground near the center of the key. This is the site of a major battle more than a hundred years ago, as the remnants of the Taurians that fled from the destruction of their homeland in Hithtris settled here, and were attacked in one great assault.

+2 rations

As they search the battlefield, they find the ruins of the old fort that was once here. They uncover a large plug in the ground and lift it up, and the darkness stretches below them for a long time. Alzar drops a torch and it falls more than 150 feet. There appears to be some sort of tunnel down there. They tie three ropes together and descend, Alzar first.

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 06:34 PM

M2 (aka MSOLO2). Maze of the Riddling Minotaur

I haven’t ever read or played this one, I just picked it up from eBay and will play it through along with everything else. This is one of the solo modules that used a magic pen to reveal things, and that’s just a cute little kitschy 80’s vibe. I’ll be playing this one straight.

This series was originally released as M1 and M2, and then they released the Master set for D&D and released the new modules as M1-5. Obviously that caused problems, so many sites named this two part series as MSOLO1 and MSOLO2 just like BSOLO and XSOLO and XS2.

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 06:52 PM

The tunnels are strange to Alzar. They feel different magically, and perhaps spells will work differently in here. The rope is dropped and no one else descends. Alzar sends Megala up to investigate but the seal is placed back on before he can get there!

With no other options, Alzar picks up the dropped torch and looks around. There are exits from this small room in all four directions. With no real way to choose, he goes left. The corridor branches but he sees another room ahead so he keeps going.

He enters the intersection and sees a Taurian made of shiny black obsidian. It turns, raises its axe, and then intones a riddle:

“You may see across my width
Though my beginning and end may be leagues apart
I am forever moving
But you will always see me in the same spot.
What am I?”

My rule for this is if I can guess it, Alzar can too. The sky is my early answer. You can see across it, its beginning and end are far apart, it moves but always is in the same place. Let’s go with that.

The answer is a river. The bullman-golem moves to attack.

Alzar wins init and cuts into it for 14 damage. It swings an axe back and misses automatically. Alzar wins init. He crits it for 25 damage and kills it. A quick investigation shows nothing but obsidian. Alzar can go forward, backward, left or right. He sees a room to his left and walks to it, passing a corridor to the right He can only see about 20 feet with a grey mist settling in the maze.

XP - 1200

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 07:20 PM

This passageway ends in broken glass and debris. There is the corpse of a taurian, decayed, but still here, and it moves towards him – zombie-taurian. He tries to control it. Success, automatically. There is nothing else here, and he will start leading with the zombie-taurian.

Zombie-Taurian, HP 19 hp, THAC0 – 18, AC – 6, 1d8, always attacks last

XP – 100

He takes the passageway to the right, now left, and enters another room, with just one exit. There is a large pile of shattered obsidian here and the message on the wall saying – seek the riddler of steel and gold.

He continues and gets back to the starting room from the forward entrance. They turn the other way and enter a room with another obsidian taurian.

“A warrior amongst flowers
He bears a thrusting sword
He uses it whenever he must
To defend his golden horde
What is he?

My guess is a bee. Sting is a sword. Golden horde is honey. It’s correct, and the golem moves aside. All directions are options, and he goes right. He winds up in a room with a smashed golem. A search finds nothing. There are two other exits, and one goes back ot the starting room, so he presses on.

The tunnel turns 90’, and then passes another tunnel, Alzar skips for now. It hits two tunnels to the right and the second one is the last one. Alzar takes the first. He winds up in a circular room, south of the starting room. There is a broken sword in here. Alzar leans over to inspect it, and then picks it up. It is a valuable sword at one time, and was snapped clean in half by a mighty blow.

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 08:05 PM

He continues back to the starting room. He returns and takes the other left passage. There is another golem here:

Hard as glass
And just as clear
I am found in the north lands
Where warmth I do not fear
What am I?

Seems pretty obvious its ice. That’s right. Alzar can go forward or left. He goes forward. It arrives in a room with a thick layer of dust but nothing else. He then arrives in a room with the statue of a tiger. Carved of amber. Alzar chooses to investigate it. It has not animated yet, so Alzar moves past it and it does not animate. Must be a poor copy of that one golem he encountered in Castle Amber.

He arrives back in the first room he moved to after leaving the starting room. Alzar has been marking the rooms he has been in with a copper piece each time. He goes forward from this room and after passing by a room elsewhere, the tunnel curls into a room the ends this passage. There is a table with a vial on it, that says “For Those that Rush Towards Their Doom.”

Alzar picks up the vial and tries to identify it. He pockets it for later since he cannot. He returns to the room and goes back to the starting room.

Instead of this constant spinning around the starting room, he decides to commit to a direction and explore it all. He goes forward, skips past the golem with the bee question, and then heads forward. He sees three right tunnels in quick succession and checks them all. The mid one just hits a room and that’s it so he enters. There is a human skeleton and a collapsed shrine. Alzar investigates more. He takes the 1000g gold statuette of a taurian and takes it.

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 08:24 PM

He backs up and takes the first tunnel, which hits a room with a dry foundation and the words – looks for gold and steel carved into the bottom. He continues down the only other entrance and arrives in another room. He hears the clank of chains and a growl. They arrive and see a large lion on a chain of metal links. He pounces on the taurian zombie in front of it, and Alzar moves up for support. It just misses and the zombie misses too. Alzar drops his axe.

The next round, the lion claws at the zombie twice for 5 damage. It nails the lion for 5 back. Alzar adds two hits for death.

-5 hp for zombie
XP – 250

They continue on and arrive at a room with a basin carved of pure white marble and set into the north wall. There are broken flasks in here and the water has a spring. Alzar drinks the water, and its normal. He finds two empty flasks that are not broken with the holy symbol of Harkangi on them, and fills them, and gains two flasks of holy water.

He can go left or right. Left. He takes a right branch and enters another room. There is a large fountain of black stone in here. The green water that fills it smells of chlorine. Alzar goes right.

The corridor ends with a large pile of coins and a sleeping, small, green dragon. Alzar tries to attack the creature. He gets one free hit in. He deals 12 damage. It awakens and flies up, but it has no breathe weapons. This is just a creature that looks like a dragon, but isn’t a true one. Alzar wins init, pierces the AC3 scales for 16 damage and kills it. Without knowing exactly what kind of creature it is, he treats it like a regular dragon, and skins it, and takes the scales and vials of blood.

The room has a modest amount of treasure, which he collects in a bag of holding

XP – 150

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 08:40 PM

He heads out and goes right and the tunnel ends at a room. There is a ladder here, and Alzar climbs up to a small trap door and opens it. There is a giant scorpion in a room up here. Alzar grabs his axe and moves in. It wins init and snips twice and tails once Alzar, but auto misses. His axe bites deeply for 18 damage. It wins init and Alzar takes 8 and makes a poison save. He kills the scorpion with his second attack for 13. There is nothing up here, Alzar searched twice.

XP – 400

He leaves this section and goes right and then right again. The zombie taurian falls into a pit trap and took 2 damage. It easily climbs back out. The tunnel ends at a dead end, with nothing here. Hew returns to sections he has done, and then moves in the same direction as before. He finds a room to the side by itself. The zombie takes 4.

-6 for zombie for these two recent traps.

There is nothing else in the room and Alzar moves forward and then right. This passage opens into a circular room with a large bell in the center, but without a clapper, so to ring it, you’d have to hit it with something. Alzar skips ringing it. Alzar grabs a couple of rooms off the main corridor. One has a natural spring, and he searches and finds a silver ring. The next one has a large copper statue of a taurian that looks angry. Alzar investigates and it’s a two side statues with another head on the other sid,e but nothing happens, so they move on.

They pass a broken bones room, and then enter one with a another zombie taurian. Alzar controls it and adds it to his team. This one only has 9 hp but an AC of 5. They arrive at a passage with a pale green gas, and Alzar is immune. They arrive at a room that ends a tunnel, and there is a trap here. Alzar and the zombies are teleported west several squares. It’s to a corridor he’s been in before, so he just backtracks until he gets to where he wants to be. They find the body of an adventurer missing her sword and in badly damaged chain mail. Her body was pierced by many blades, and there is a parchment in her hand that says to seek the guard of gold and steel.

They arrive at a room with glowing fungus, and Alzar moves forward. It’s not harmful, just pretty. Left to another room . There is a pool of clear water at this intersection, and in the center is a white granite pillar, topped by a statue of a three headed winged humanoid. It tells Alzar to stop and not enter but he does and nothing happens. Alzar goes forward and arrives at another intersection where a statue in chiseled quartz shows a man in robes wearing a headdress. Alzar examines and finds nothing. He presses on.

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 08:53 PM

This corridor ends in a small square room where a table sits on the far wall. A silver chalice is on the table. Alzar investigates and it is not of very good workmanship, and the gems are pasted glass. It looks like a trap, so he leaves it. They return and hit another room. They arrive at a intersection with a sign pointing in one direction and saying that nothing lives there. He takes it. The passage ends in a small circular room and there is another zombie minotaur here with 12 hp and AC5. He adds it to his force. Nothing else can be found here.

He heads up from the intersection. There is a large pool of water covering all of the floor except for one spot on either side. Alzar investigates and the water is only a few inches deep. He walks through, all is normal, and they move on. They pass a circular chamber with a broken remnants of several different statues. There is a grey spiral staircase going up to a trap door and Alzar takes it.

It reveals a small, well furnished cell, with an iron door leading out. There is sobbing from the curtained bed. Alzar waits and listens, and hears the low hissing of snakes. The obvious thing is a medusa, so Alzar closes his eyes and moves forward, and addresses the person behind the bed, but the hissing shows she is attacking so Alzar and the medusa fight it out. Megala provides eyes.

She wins init and misses auto, Alzar slides his axe into her shoulder for 17 damage. He wins init and crits her for 13 damage. She dies. He searches and finds a small chest with 100 50 gp gems.

XP – 1000

The door out is locked on the other side and barred, and Alzar can’t get it open so he descends again. He heads forward and arrives at a room with a fountain in the center of a large open area. Alzar skips it and goes forward to a dead-end at a cave in. There is nothing here. He returns and takes a forking passage to another obsidian taurian golem room.

Sees without sight
Flies without feathers
Darkness is his
Favorite weather
What is he?

The moon? No, how about a bat? Yeah, that looks like it. Alzar guesses bat. Yup. They head left and arrive at a dead end room off the main tunnel. It’s another cave in dead end. He returns to the tunnels and finds the next room, a three way intersection. There are piles of rotted wood, once carved and painted and now decomposing. He sifts through them and finds nothing and the tunnel out takes a 180 bend and moves to another room. This section is behind the previous section, so it may go on for a while back here. There is a wild boar in here. The zombies and it engage. It misses a zombie. It is hit twice for 5 damage. It hits the wounded zombie for 5, and it is barely standing. The three zombies attack back and one hits for 8. The boar is reeling too. It misses. One zombie nails it for 5 damage and it dies. There is nothing on interest here and they continue.

XP – 50

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 09:12 PM

There is a foundation here with a deep green liquid. Alzar investigates it, and it has no odor, and he pushes the staff in and nothing happens, so he moves on. He is definitely behind the other section now. There is another room with a large statue of a Cyclops with a fiery gem in its eye socket. Alzar moves to investigate. It’s not a gem, but a living rock statue, with AC4, and 35 hp. Alzar hafts his axe and orders the zombies back. Alzar wins init and misses the statue. It misses him, and its shooting lava from its eye. The fiery gem was apparently just the lava inside showing. The Cyclops wins init and misses. Alzar can swing twice and…Two hits for 35. The statue dies but Alzar took 6 from the lava splash.

XP – 750

Nothing else is in here. The tunnel bends and twists before arriving at a three way intersection. This is another minotaur golem and the riddle is:

I have legs but walk not
A strong back but work not
Two good arms but reach not
A seat but sit and tarry not
What am I

The final one gives it away, and chair. Correct. He continues to a room empty of anything but a message written in charcoal that says steel and gold guard the great treasure. He returns and takes the third tunnel out of the statue room. A short and small circular room juts off the main passage and in it is a tall stone statue of a screaming man. Alzar investigates. Alzar makes a save vs spells. A wave of fears rushes over him, and then leaves. He investigates and finds a 100 gp onyx

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 09:29 PM

He continues along the main path and enters an odd place:

This is a circular room whose walls are covered with primitive and almost unreadable writing. Alzar’s ancient languages ability helps It tells the story of the last days of the Taurians on Skeleton Key.

“I am Kandros, leader-chief of the bull-headed people in service to Camulos, God of Conflict and Strife. For years many we have been in service to Him and came here to restore the glory of our people after the weak nations gained strength only but grouping together. Though we slay many, ultimately we had to flee our homeland of Hithtris and chose this small island out of the way from which to reforge an empire. This was for many years and as our power grew again, so did our pride. Despite not having the strength of old, we yearned to again sail the seas and terrorize the people, which we did. This revealed our continued presence to the nations of man, and again did they seek to slay us. They regathered a navy of a size not before seen and the ocean was dark with the sails of their ships. The man people arrive and the were lead by the sword-leader Cathos. He led the coalition and drove our people from their homes, and they fled to our fort – out last bastion against the combined strength of the humans. Many of our kind fled to the mazes and tunnels below to prepare another welcome for the humans, in the temple of Camulos below. Then the human horde struck against our mighty keep and wave and wave of men broke against our strong fortifications, but they wore us down and broke into the keep. They overran us and slew our soldiers, our women, and our children. Some of us escaped to the holy mazes below, and were able to keep their existence a secret from the rest of the world. That was months ago. In that time, our people have been unable to emerge with the human outposts on the Key above us. We have lacked for food, but water is plenty, so we did not starve immediately. Over time, one by one we have fallen, and now I am the only one left. I am the last of our people. But I will not die in vain like so many of my kin. I will ensure that Cathos and his descendants feel my rage for eternity. Nothing I can do could bring justice or even vengeance. Spite will have to be enough.”

There are bones on the floor and a scorched and almost complete skeleton of a huge taurian. It’s missing its head. They continue and arrive at another side dead-end room and check it out. This is the wrecked wooden remains of more minotaur statues. However, as Alzar approaches, they animate and are four unarmed, damaged wood golems. He orders the zombies back, these guys can only be hit by magic. Alzar wins init and destroys one with an axe. They all miss. He wins init and rolls a 3. +7 for their AC is 10. +4 for mastery + bonus, and that’s a hit, and he kills it. One hits him for 4 damage. His backswing kills another golem. He wins init and kills the fourth.

XP – 250

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 09:55 PM

Nothing else is in here. A cave in and it looks recent, and there is a carrion crawler munching on some mushrooms. It moves to attack alzar, all 8 tentacles miss, it attacks again and cannot paralyze him, and attacks a third time, no paralysis, and just leaves him and his zombies alone and he moves on. He takes a side corridor and it is another cave in with fallen rocks and timbers. He sees some harmless snakes and move son

This is a 4 way intersection with a pool with grey stones in the middle, filled with clear blue water. Alzar skips it and goes left. Empty except for the bodies of two wild boars. The other way, right, has the ruins of a trophy room. There are heads of wild creatures in various stages of decay. A pair of decaying deer heads start talking to themselves about Alzar’s sudden appearance. Alzar asks the way out, and they don’t know, very few people pass by in the past hundred years or so. He continues on. He arrives in a corridor guard by a well made rock crystal statue carved into the shape of a sis’sharr. It starts to move and Alzar orders the zombies to attack it. It kills the wounded zombie. The other two swing and one hits for 5 damage. It hits twice for 6 damage on a zombie, and Alzar orders them back and grabs his axe and moves in. Alzar wins init and misses it (rolled a 2). It misses him back. He hits once for 13. It dies.

XP – 150

Alzar has just two zombies left one has taken 6.

He walks down a long passageway which finally terminates at a circular room. There is a dais with a cool blue light. On the lowest step is a another creature identical to the one just beaten Alzar moves forward. He wins init and deals 13. It shatters. Alzar investigates and it does nothing, just looks pretty, so he goes back and takes a side tunnel

XP – 150

A side room has several skeletons on the floor of a chamber with a yellow fungus. Alzar moves in and investigates. He uses an Oil Flask to kill the yellow mold. He searches and finds nothing of value and continues. He arrives at a golem room:

My head more high than any cloud
My roots more deep than any tree
My size more great than any beast
I stand proud for all to see
What am I

My guess is a mountain. True! They pass a side passage to a room with glints of gold among the remains of ruined and old rope. He investigates. There is a rat pack here with many members, and Blastbones kills them all and Alzar animates 8 of them.

8 animal skeletons
Jeweled Helm – 3000 gp

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 10:22 PM

The tunnel enters a room that is barren except for a ladder down in the middle. Alzar decides to go down. He is on the western end of a long thin sand bar on an underground pool. There is a chest on the island with him, but a crocodile slithers out of the pool. Alzar is here by himself and Megala and Dryshik, so he moves forward, axe ready, and it moves to attack. Alzar wins init and rolls a 10 and slashes the crock for 14 damage. It misses. Alzar wins init and cleaves it for 13 and kills it. The chest is opened and reveals 2000 gp and 3 100 gp gems. He checks the water and finds nothing in there and climbs back up.

XP - 150

The corridor begins to fill with an inky black smoke, and Alzar pushes ahead. It does not affect him. The corridor goes for a while and bends a few times, and arrives at a four way taurian obsidian room. The new riddle is:

It goes bare in winter
And fully clothed in summer
It is the most colorful
In fall but not spring
What is it

An easy one - a tree. The next room has a large wooden chest wrapped with copper bands. Alzar looks at it and it is unlocked, and discover a silver pile with a bottle on top in a snake skin, and it’s labelled.

3000 sp
Potion of Invulnerability

He finds a blank room with a tapestry of a hunt and nothing else. A cave in that hides nothing. A billowing gas ignored. A fountain with black water spitting from it. And a ugly creature on top. It animates and attacks - a gargoyle. This is a job for magic axe. It wins init and misses Alzar. He swings and doles out 17 damage to it. It dies. There is nothing else in the room.

XP – 210

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 10:39 PM

The next room to the left has another zombie taurian and Alzar adds it to his collection. 9 hp for this one. A large pool covers the floor except for a one foot ledge on one side. Alzar investigates, finds nothing, and sends animal skeletons along the ledge. Nothing happens. The zombie taurians are not able ot make it across, so he orders the wounded one into the water to swim across but a giant octopus lance out and kills it. The other two are left here. They pass a trap where a dart deals 2 damage to Alzar, and the find a small shrine in a dead end room with a statue of a winged man. It’s actually terra cotta under investigation. He tips it and inside the hollow statue is a scroll, and it’s a simple Protection from Lycanthropes. They arrive in a passage with a large chest on the wall. Alzar investigates by rapping it with his staff, nothing, so he moves in and touches it, and takes 5 damage from electrification. The chest is empty. They arrive at another golem room:

Inside a great blue dome
Lives a shy young maiden
She blushes in the morning and in the evening
And is not seen at all at night
Who is she?

This one is much harder. The sun? That’s the only thing I can think of, so we go with that. Correct. They take a corridor that ends in a one way room with a ladder going up, and Alzar takes it and flips a trap door. He appears to be in a small tower and suddenly hears the song of a harpy. He is immune and moves up. He wins init against her and deals 17 damage to her. She dies. He follows by searching, finds nothing and returns.

XP - 250

They pass by a room with a bronze statue, took 4 damage from a room dripping acid, pass an empty room, and then find a room with rotted tapestries and an old wooden chest. It opens, music starts playing, Alzar grabs the music box and it explodes and deals 8 damage to Alzar and destroys the cloth items in the chest. There are 100 50 gp gems in it. They find a dead end passage and then another golem room with the following puzzle:

A home of wood in a wooded place
Built not by hand
High above the earthen ground
It holds its pale blue gems
What is it?

No obvious clue. Hmmm. Alzar can’t figure it out – it’s a nest. He orders the undead back and fights the golem himself. It wins init and misses him. He hits it for 12 damage. It wins init and hits for 7. Alzar gets two swings and just one hits for 19 damage. He wins init and hits for 17 and breaks the golem.

XP – 750

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 10:58 PM

They pass a cave in, another large fountain, and enter another golem room:

My father’s the king
Tis fortunate since
I’ll rule after him,
But I’m not the prince
Who am I?

Princess. Yup. There are stairs here leading up and Alzar takes them. There is nothing up here but an old rotted bedroom, which multiple searches showing nothing. Alzar returns and moves on. They pass a statue of a taurian cleric. Alzar investigates and discovers it is clockwork, and he breaks it and then moves to a room with stairs up. It’s an old laboratory with a half made minotaur golem on the table. There is still some lab equipment here but it was made for Taurians not Humans, and little of it sis of use, other than a breaker of powered diamonds worth 500 gp.

There are no exits, and he heads back down. They pass wet walls, a chest, picked by Alzar, with an ochre jelly in a glass jug, they pass yet another fountain, and then a ladder down. Alzar takes it and arrives in a cavern, very hot, that is the home for a flame salamander.

It wins init and Alzar takes 5 from the heat. It misses Alzar does not and 12 damage is dealt from the edge of his axe. It wins and misses. Alzar hits twice for 31 damage. It is dead. There is nothing else down here.

XP - 1000

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 11:14 PM

They pass a cave-in, a rubble and debris ridden room, and then another Zombie Taurian now controlled with 14 hp, and a statue of a huge fighting man with a tremendous two-handed weapon, but non-magical. Finally they end in another riddle room:

When whole I have
A hole in my center
I go many miles
While travelling in circles.
What am I?

Another obvious one – wheel. Left to a shrine with a golden statute of a kneeling taurian. Alzar takes it and takes 7 damage from a bolt from the heavens. Alzar dodges a dart trap in another room, and then find another pool of water, a dead end, and then a circular room with a deep evil glow, ad hovering about a pool is a taurian skull, who tells Alzar it is the spirit of all of the fallen taurians down here, This is an undead that can only be hit by magical weapons, and energy drains. Alzar moves back and flings a throwing dagger at it, since his command ability won’t work here in its locus of power. The dagger deals 12 damage to it. It moves towards Alzar much more rapidly and he orders the zombie to get in its way and it stupidly does. The spirit moves around the race it protects and Alzar draws two more daggers. He flings one and misses, and then the other and hits for 11. He is out of magic daggers. The spirit is again closing.

He really doesn’t have an answer in his spells, unless Ray of Ondovir will work on it. He casts the Ray and the spirit makes a save and rolls a 9, it fails. It will just move forward next turn. Alzar grabs his axe. Alzar swings and hits for 13 damage. The turn after that arrives and it wins init and misses. Alzar now has two swings and needs to put this thing down. He rolls a 13 and hits for 16 damage. Still not dead. He rolls a 7. +3 for mastery, +3 for str, +1 for magic, THAC0 of 14 exactly for an AC0 spirit. It takes 14 and dies.

XP – 2000

Abe Sargent · 05-23-2010, 11:47 PM

He heads right and finds two taurian skeletons and an urn with 2000 cp and 200 gp in it.

Taurian Skeleton – AC7,HP 7 or 8, 1d6 damage

They return and go forward. They pass a statue of a warrioress with a shield and spear, and then find rotting clothes and some moisture that has seeped in from above, then the corridor ends at a trap door. Alzar goes up.

This is a stuffy dark room with a stale room and a thick layer of dust. Suddenly, taurian shaped body, preserved very well with a mummified process, moves forward. Alzar tries to control this mummy, wearing robes of gold and steel. He needs a 10 or higher on a d20. He rolls a 12 and it is now his.

Taurian Mummy – AC3, Hp32, D1-12+ rot, THAC0 16.

In here is the following treasure:

6000pp
14 1000g gems
10 pieces of jewelry worth 1200 each
Amulet of Protection vs Crystal Ball and ESP
Shield +2
Scroll – Curse (The mummy told him it will curse you if you cast Read Magic on it)

And there is a door here to the outside. Alzar exits and he is about a mile away from where he started. He hides the mummy in some brush and gets the captain to bring all of the sailors on the island, and then takes the mummy and the 8 animal skeletons and returns them to his cabin, behind that tapestry that hides his undead. He leaves the large zombie and skeletons. It appears that they lingering magic of the maze causes the seal to re-establish itself after one person enters.

He has completed the adventure successfully

Abe Sargent · 05-24-2010, 12:14 AM

9691 XP after 10% bonus. +1000 each for adventures prior to this one in Lathan’s Gold. Carum leels up to level 6 and now has58 hp.

Alzar – 108,276 (Level 8)
Estaish – 43,691 (Level 6) – Now with 45 HP
Aleigha – 41,085 (Level 6) – Now has 41 HP.
Carum – 32,865 (Level 6) – Now has 58 HP.

Items:

1000g gold statuette of a taurian
1000g golden statute of a kneeling taurian
2 flasks of holy water
6000 copper
6000 pp
100x9 gems
50 gemsx200
Silver Ring – 300
100 gp onyx
Jeweled Helm – 3000 gp
2200 gp
3000 sp
Potion of Invulnerability
Scroll - Protection from Lycanthropes
Breaker of powered diamonds worth 500 gp
14 1000g gems
10 pieces of jewelry worth 1200 each
Amulet of Protection vs Crystal Ball and ESP
Shield +2
Scroll – Curse (The mummy told him it will curse you if you cast Read Magic on it)

Ochre jelly in a glass jug.

Pocket Dragon – skins, scales, teeth, blood, horns

Magic Pile: Potion of Speed

Alzar hands the +2 shield to Carum and takes his +1 one back. His ac drops to -2.

They load up the ship and move out.

Abe Sargent · 05-25-2010, 12:05 AM

XSOLO. Lathan’s Gold

They are back to V12. Just one day passed. There is a reef to the south and west. North. Quiet. North. Quiet. North, Quiet. V14. North to V15, quiet. East is a island. They go east. Quiet. V25, Insect Island, according to some scraps on a paper the captain has.

They disembark (E4). No monsters. They explore the island. E19. 2 rations found. Some of the ship’s rations are infested with worms – 10%. They lost 3 rations. There is nothing here. They spend another day on the shore picking rations and get 4 more. A monster attacks us though

2 medusas are moving towards us. Are they seen before they attack? No. One member of the crew is petrified, and the shout goes out. Alzar sends Megala and Dryshik to investigate and as soon as he sees what’s up, he has Dryshik Wall of Fog them off. That will prevent them from petrifying anybody else.

Alzar runs in and closes his eyes. He orders everybody else back, as he sees through his flyers, and then casts the Maidens. He gets to the Wall just as they are emerging. Alzar wins init and nails one for 17. They miss him. They win init and one hits him for 2 damage and he makes the save. He kills the wounded one, and then hits again for 19 damage on the other. He wins init and cleaves the final one for death.

XP – 1000 for just Alzar

They aren’t able to get the stone crewman to the ship because it’s too heavy for the boat.

+6 rations
-3 rations
-1 crew

05-21-2010, 12:07 AM	#451
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	In Tangaroa, they have a few options. Alzar has decided to stop for a while and research a 4th level spell. It should give him 2000 XP and cost him 2300 gold. He has the books for it already. Alzar’s Undead Expertise (Alteration, Necromancy, Artifice) Level: 4 Casting Time: One Hour Components: VSM Duration: Permanent At the time this spell is cast, the caster must have contact with an undead and a magical item. As a result of this spell, the undead and the magical item are mystically linked. For as long as the undead remains undestroyed, it can use this item, even if the item normally required things the undead does not have (such as intelligence, race or class based restrictions). No other creature, including the caster, can use the item until the undead is destroyed. The caster cannot use this spell on themselves, in case they are undead. No undead may have more than one Alzar’s Undead Expertise active at a time. The component for this spell is the sacrifice during casting of one magical item in addition to the magic item melded to the undead. Any item will do, from a potion to a cursed item to a scroll to a wand with one charge left. 2 months later, Alzar has gained 2200 XP. Alzar – XP – 90,307- Level 8! Alzar now can cast: 5/4/4/3 He currently memorizes: Charm Person, Detect Magic, Sleep, Animate Dead Animals, Hypnotize, Ray of Ondovir, Ray of Enfeeblement, Blastbones, Empathic Control, Vampiric Touch, Searing Serpent, Skulltrap, Mordenkainen’s…Maidens, Greater Malison, and now Dire Charm and the Maidens twice. Alzar gains 3 hp and now has 54 hp. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 05-21-2010 at 12:07 AM.

05-21-2010, 01:02 AM	#452
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Alzar can now use all of his old warrior abilities and gain XP while using them. This means: He can use his trusty +1 axe. That’s +4 to hit and +5 to damage with axe mastery, strength and its enchantment. He can attack twice every other round. His ac drops by two when fighting with just an axe and no shield, but he can use a shield, and if he manages to get a +2 or better shield, he could fight with it and the axe at the same time and increase his AC more. His THAC0 rises significantly to a 14. He can use warrior only magic items, like a Potion of Heroism. When he fights with just an axe, he can use his other hand for drinking potions, throwing things (not attacking though, unless he wants to get major penalties with both axe and weapon thrown). He also now gets only a -2 when fighting with a weapon he does not know how ot use, instead of -5 as a wizard. He can wear armor but cannot cast spells when doing so, but he may want to put on a suit a plate mail from his bag of holding for a battle or something. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-21-2010, 01:20 AM	#453
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	After two months, Alzar wants to get cracking with the next book – the level 5 one. He has spent one of the two months finishing it off and then the last month starting on the 6th level evil spells. He grabs the tome, having dropped 60 dispels on it. Has one worked? Yes. Level Five “Evil” Spells: Animate Dead Avoidance Cloudkill Domination Magic Jar Deathmaster’s Vial Eyefire Fiendform Nystul’s Enveloping Darkness Persona of Death Vile Venom Xult’s Magical Doom Persona of Death is a necro spell and makes an undead zombie look like they are alive again, for a few hours. It can’t give them a mind or anything. A corpse looks sleeping. Eyefire, Cloudkill are evoc spells and not available. Xult’s Magical Doom is another way to protect books, maps and scrolls. It involves polymorphing, permanently, someone who messes with it. Vile Venom costs some weapons with poison. The Darkness makes a darkness that Alzar can see through, and that gives -2 to attack him in addition to darkness modifiers. Fiendform has a material component of 3000 crystal statuette, and turns the caster into a random powerful fiend that gains all of the powers thereof for a few rounds. Then the statuette is destroyed. Magic Jar is a classic necro spell that allows you to put your soul temporary in a vessel, and then try and jump into someone else’s body and control them, then jump back and keep it up, or turns to your normal body. Domination is a powerful enchantment charm that forces someone to do what you want. Unlike the second level spell Empathic Control, the person can be ordered to fight, it lasts for a long time, and no damage to the caster and the caster can do other things and doesn’t have to concentrate. Here is the cool one he got: Deathmaster's Vial Level 5 Necromancy, Alchemy Range: Touch Duration: Special Area of Effect: 1 or more vials Components: V, S, M Casting Time: 5 Saving Throw: None This spell activates an evil fluid that has been sealed in a specially prepared vial. The activated concoction can be hurled as a grenadelike missile. A direct hit inflicts 2d8+3 points of rotting damage. A miss within 5 feet inflicts 1d4+1 points of rotting damage. The casting activates one vial per 3 levels of the caster (round down, minimum of one), up to a total of five vials at 15th level. The vials must be used within two hours of exposure to direct sunlight, but they last for 2d10 days if kept in darkness. Exposing the liquid to the air after activation destroys it within a round. The vials radiate evil. The material component of the spell is the base fluid, which is made from boiling the remains of a ghoul or ghast for 24 hours and adding various noxious substances worth about 300 gp. This yields enough liquid to fill 6 small vials (like those used to carry holy/unholy water). Alzar learns Xult’s Magical Doom, Deathmaster’s Vial, Domination, Vile Venom, and Magic Jar. In the future, Alzar will be not automatically opening up spellbooks in case he runs across more trapped like Castanamir’s ,unless the caster appeared to be of low level. After two months, Alzar has decided to sail a few weeks away to the island with the next slaver’s stronghold on it. That’s probably more time sensitive than the ruins on the island and investigating them. 5 days into the journey, they have bad weather and are blown off course by three days. It’s no longer the easy season to sail. 16 days later, they arrive at a medium sized island to the west and a bit north of the Isle of Dread. This is supposedly where the next foes are at. Alzar orders the ship to anchor a while away, and using his various scrying methods to see what’s up – in this case, the Crystal Ball. He can only search the area of the island he can just make out, but suddenly, it’s as if he’s there in the ball. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-21-2010, 01:32 AM	#454
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	A2. Secret of the Slavers’ Stockade This one is co-written by Tom Moldvay and Harold Johnson. Each of the A1—4 is written by someone else, which makes them a bit uneven in terms of tone and flavor. (and quality). __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 05-21-2010 at 01:32 AM.

05-21-2010, 12:40 PM	#455
Travis Pro Rookie Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Canada eh	Should be fun seeing Alzar being able to utilize his entire arsenal now. Not that you'll probably have to rely on the axe all that much, but nice that you don't have to worry about ignoring it for XP purposes anymore. __________________ "I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it." - Rogers Hornsby

05-21-2010, 02:46 PM	#456
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	We'll see, but I suspect he'll axe it up quite a lot for a while. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 01:21 AM	#457
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	On the maps they took from the slave lord, this island was not even named. He sees a Hill Fort on the north side of the island, and orders the Sea Ghost to the southern side. A boat sends them ashore, and will wait for them in case of a speedy retreat. For today, Alzar has swapped ESP for Empathic Control, because he suspects he may need it at least once, and perhaps twice. Alzar searches the north side where the hill fort is. It is a combination of recent construction on top of the remains of a stone fortress weathered and worn. Alzar has Megala and Dryshik looking from a ridge above, looking down on the stockade. The outer wall of the hill fort is an earth rampart topped by a wooden palisade. This then meats the curtain wall of the old fortress. There is a gatehouse behind that wall. The structure is one story except for a guardhouse one level up., and the gatehouse and curtain wall, which go up a lot, giving the soldiers there a good vantage point. The keep abuts the rampart in three places. There are outward and downward fitted spikes all around to discourage people climbing up, and patrols everywhere. Observation shows a lot of movement, and any attack or excursion would likely be quickly found How to get in? There does not appear to be any secret entrances this time. The drawbridge is raised and the portcullis down. Maybe they could pretend to be slaves? Or slave purchasers? That last one would make no sense for a group without a boat ,here on an island. Fly over the wall? That’s pretty obvious. Invisibly fly over the wall? Potion of Invis + Broom of flying should get the group over the wall unseen and then to a corner of the place from which they could start exploring. That’s not to bad, but they don’t have enough flying methods (just three) and all are too big for a teleport jar to have the fourth join. The Rope of Climbing could get between the spikes of a palisade, but the people scaling the wall would have to cut them off, making their entry way really obvious. Alzar makes a mental inventory of his items, and then…ah yes…. Carum is handed the Diminution Stone, and he shrinks to somewhere around 18 inches tall. Carum is held in Alzar’s hand, and Brooms of Flying are given to Estaish and Aleigha. Dryshik and Megala are ordered one on each of Alzar’s shoulder, so they will be invisible as well. They each drink a dose of the potion of 7 drinks. Alzar activates his Belt and they fly in. Alzar and them move in quietly, since the invisibility potion lasts for a while, and they can whisper to each other about where to go inside the keep. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 01:48 AM	#458
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	There are basically three choices – Outer courtyard between curtain walls and gatehouse, the parade ground inside of the gatehouse, and the inner courtyard adjacent to that. There are hobgoblins around the place. In fact, there are a dozen hobgoblins in the inner courtyard and none in the outer one or parade ground. They could also land on the gatehouse, guard tower, or curtain wall. Or stockade parapet. Alzar guesses that all they can do this landing is reduce their foe’s numbers as much as possible, and then leave. Alzar even hears the hobgoblins call out to each other every few moments to see if the other group is still there. These are well trained foes. They will need some special encouragement to get crazy. Alzar decides to land in the parade ground just in front of some double doors and then open them up and go inside, and see what’s there. They land smoothly in the parade ground. A few guards can see the ground, but only a couple have line of sight to the door. Alzar cracks the door and smells a stables inside. He slowly opens it, so as not to gain attention of others, and orders Aleigha and Estaish o stay here. In his Boots of Elvenkind, he walks without leaving footprints and places Carum on the floor behind two hobgoblins. Alzar cannot attack or else he becomes visible, but Carum can. He drops the stone with a spear in his hand, grows, and impales one of the hobgoblins for a sneak attack double damage for 11 and it dies. The other turns. Carum wins init and pierces it for 5 damage. It yells for help and stabs with a pitchfork and drops it. Carum hits and kills it. Did anyone hear it yell for help? Carum shrinks back down, and Alzar hold him inside his cloak. No one appears to be coming. Perfect. Alzar has Carum drop the stone and grow again. There are 6 oxen, 11 medium horses, and 2 light horses. Carum quickly moves about and undoes the various animals from their reins, so they are free to go anywhere. Alzar hands him a flask of oil and Carum throws oil all over the barn, and grabs a couple of torches . He lights the barn in several places, and the oil causes it to goup immediately. A smashes lantern adds its oil to the lames, and Carum grabs the stone,, shrinks, and Alzar and Carum, move out. The group flies above the keep and observes. The fire is quickly noticed, and fire gongs ring down. Animals have galloped out and oxen and horses are running frantically around the place. A score of hobgoblins are moving down, but the ones on the palisade are not among them. An ogre and a large 7’ tall grey humanoid Alzar does not recognize emerge and start ordering everyone around. Time to move in. Carum is handed to Estaish Alzar lands on top of the building and across from the gatehouse and above the chaos. Estaish and Aleigha land on each side of the curtain wall. There are two hobgoblins that patrol this wall on each side of the guard house atop the curtain wall. The plan is for Aleigha and Estaish, to wait until the hobgoblins are at the same place passing each other, and then strike, killing both as quickly as possible, and then move to the guard house, enter, and kill whatever is in there, and they are inside. Hopefully, they can pull that off. Then Carum will be there to join them. Alzar is readying a trick of his own. He is going to have Dryshik cast Wall of Fog to confuse them, and then start casting Skulltrap, Blastbones and using the missiles on the Necklace to kill as many of the creatures down there as possible. If he casts sleep, and then leaves ,that’s won’t do anything. Maybe he’ll use Dire Charm to turn someone on the ground into a berserk attacker. Whatever. The point is to kill as many as possible, while the other three kill an entire wall of people and try to inflict maximum damage. With a battle plan in motion, it is time to execute. Alzar will wait until he sees the attack on the curtain wall, and then strike the chaos and bunches of hobgoblins below. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 02:24 AM	#459
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Aleigha is by herself. She has landed, and she turns into a werebear. This will give her the force to kill the hobgoblins by herself. She waits until they are together, and then uses her strength to try and heave them both off the front of the wall, into the ditch and such far below. She manages to grab one each on her bear paws, can she push them over? Yes (She rolled 16 and 19 to hit, and then 14 and 12 to push.) The hogoblins are pushed off the higher curtain wall by a tremendous werebear. They scream as they fall. Each of them dies. Estaish drops Carum just before he strikes, sword already drawn. He pauses a breath, and then a suddenly enlarged Carum and Estaish strike with surprise at each hobgoblin. Carum easily hits for 9 damage and a dead hobby. Estaish hits barely, with ambush, and deals 13 damage and kills the other, silently, dead in two strokes, and the men rush for the door. # of hobgoblins dead: 6 Alzar immediately finishes casting Skulltrap and throws it into the chaos just as a Wall of Fog is dropped. He aims for that ogre he saw., barking out orders. 28 damage. Save for half though. All of the hobgoblins in its 20 foot cube die. 11 dead. The ogre was in it too, and he takes death after failing his save. A few humans move out at that, and Alzar is suddenly getting some attention from a few nearby guards. The Wall of Fog prevents the people down there from seeing him. It’s high enough that the gatehouse and curtain wall are unable to see him too, and just a few guards along the rampant wall can. # of hobgoblins dead: 17, Executioner is dead as well. Est and Carum are in and two hobgoblins are in this side of the curtain wall, having just heard the screams from outside. They jump on them as quick as they can, and the hobs yell for help. Both are hit, one for 8 and one for 11 and both die. Aleigha crashes through the door and three hobbies are in here, and they choose to run, and hit Estaish and Carum. Both Est and Carum hit and 9 and 8 damage later two are killed and Aleigha runs up and kills the other one, but they screamed a lot. # of hobgoblins dead: 22, Executioner is dead as well. The tall humanoid is rallying troops and ordered them to find weapons to attack him with. Then, a blind man emerges and starts barking orders. The giant humanoid starts flying towards Alzar. In the meantime, Alzar cast his Shield Maidens to help against the arrows coming his way. None have hit him yet. # of hobgoblins dead: 22, Executioner is dead as well. There is no one on the second floor of the curtain wall, so they head to the ground floor. They enter the outer courtyard, and there is no one in here. They run to the other side where they saw a door before, and suspect a gate mechanism may be. # of hobgoblins dead: 22, Executioner is dead as well. With a flying giant coming his way, Alzar orders Dryshik to Mist Ball it. It fails and takes 4 damage and is blinded for 3 rounds. 15 more hobgoblins emerged from the gatehouse and Alzar turns back and casts Dire Charm on the one telling them what to do and barking out orders. If it can just work…Success (rolled a 6). The hobgoblin Kairn draws his two handed sword and suddenly attacks a nearby hobgoblin. He misses , but it causes some confusion easily. # of hobgoblins dead: 22, Executioner is dead as well. They open the winch room and inside are the winches used but they have locked on them, and cannot be used. They were hoping it would be that easy. Open the portcullis and lower the drawbridge, maybe break the mechanism and then run away when forced back. They start moving towards the gatehouse and across the outer courtyard when suddenly they feel a vibration, and something emerges to attack them – an ankheg! # of hobgoblins dead: 22, Executioner is dead as well. Alzar takes 5 damage from a couple of arrows from snipers on the rampart. He casts Blastbones and tosses it into the area and hopes to kill a few hobbies. 5 died. The charmed Kairn swings and hits, and deals 3 damage to a hobgoblin. He is hit three times for 13 damage. 49/54 # of hobgoblins dead: 27, Executioner is dead as well. This is not what they expected to be fighting! Luckily, the won init. Estaish swings and rolls a 9. +2 for its AC and +2 for sword, but that’s not enough. Carum tries to pierces its belly. He hits for 7 damage to it. Aleigha tires to hit it She misses three times. It tries to bite Estaish and misses. Ank – 7 hp # of hobgoblins dead: 27, Executioner is dead as well. Kairn hits and kills the wounded hobgoblin and then dies himself. Alzar launches a 3 HD fireball from his necklace while they are still bunched up and hits his target. All of the hobbies there die but one. # of hobgoblins dead: 36, Executioner and Kairn are dead as well. They lose init and the ankheg bites Estaish and he misses his combat. He takes 9 damage. Carum crits the belly for 7 damage. Aleigh hits three times for 7. 36/45 – Estaish Ank took 21 Alzar moves to the giant before it is unblinded. It is hovering a few feet off the top of the building he is on. He casts Ray of Ondovir at it, and then runs up to it. He fails the save. Next turn, Alzar’s axe can try and bite deep into it. He takes 11 from arrows. 38/54 # of hobgoblins dead: 36, Executioner and Kairn are dead as well. They win init. Carum misses. Aleigha hits but once for 2 damage. Estaish manages to try an awkward swing at -2. Success! 9 to the ankheg, and it screams a terrible death. # of hobgoblins dead: 36, Executioner and Kairn are dead as well. Ankheg killed. Alzar swings mightily with his axe at a quiet and silent creature and deals 15 due ot the ambush to it. He takes another 3. 35/54 As they move forward, group of hobgoblins turn around from the gatehouse to see what the noise as, they notice their guard beast dead and three people moving in. They sound the alarm that attacks are on the march and activate the fire entrance. The entrance from the outer to inner courtyard now has a bunch of fire in it. Arrow start firing into the courtyard, and Estaish and Aleigha move into and through the fire and into the parade grounds where the chaos Carum moves but stays on the edge, away from the entrance, and still in the outer courtyard. The creature wins init and tries to charm Alzar. Failure. Alzar swings once with the axe, hits for 9, swings again with the axe, this for 7, and kills the ogre mage, which takes ogre mage upon his death. He takes 9 more. Dryshik Mist Balls the closest guard that has ht him a few times, and he fails and take s2 and is blinded for 5 rounds. Megala flies into him, attacks him, and he falls off the platform and dies. # of hobgoblins dead: 37, Executioner, Blackthorn and Kairn are dead as well. Ankheg killed. 26/54 Estaish slices at a hobbie but misses. Aleigha misses as well. Many hobbies are moving to attack them. No one can touch either of them, due to good ac and invulnerability to normal weapons. # of hobgoblins dead: 37, Executioner, Blackthorn and Kairn are dead as well. Ankheg killed. With a large number of hobgoblins now attacking Est and Ale, he lobs another 3 HD fireball over and deals 13 damage to 11 more and they all die. He used another charge and flies up and calls it. Dryshik uses a final Mist Ball on another guard on the wall and it fails the save, and Megala and Dryshik combine to force it off the ledge and it dies with the fall + poison damage. Est and Ale took some fire damage from the Fireball too. # of hobgoblins dead: 49, Executioner, Blackthorn and Kairn are dead as well. Ankheg killed. 34/41 – Aleigha 38/45 - Estaish With the enemy dead near them, they back up through the flame, pick up Carum on his small form, and fly away. They head back towards the boat, with a nice number of kills. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 02:58 AM	#460
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	They land near the boat, and suddenly, a Fireball flies between everybody and goes off! Carum – 25/48 Aleigha – 28/41 Estaish – 32/45 Alzar – 22/54 They turn around and two mages were waiting for their arrival. One is the invoker from the ship, and the other one is the tall man illusionist from the smuggling house. Actually, Alzar now can see through that illusion and see that the illusionist is actually a female that looks a lot like the invoker. They fly down and everybody charges them. Both of their foes cast defensive spells. The illusionist is now under a Mirror Image and the Invoker under a Stoneskin. Alzar takes the turn to cast another pair of maidens. Alzar and crew win init. Alzar summons a Searing Serpent behind the magi. The fighters arrive. Dryshik tries to gate in more mephits. Success finally. Two ice mephitis emerge, and Dryshik tells them to attack these mages. Megala misses the stoneskinned invoker. The illusionist casts Blur, and her AC drops two. The invoker flings a bunch of magic missiles at Alzar for 12 damage. 10/54 They win init. Alzar quaffs an extra healing pot knowing what might likely be coming next. He gains 16. He charges in while doing that. The ice mephitis both breathe ice shards on the illusionist and her 6 mirror images. One destroys an illusion but the other hits her for 2 damage. Alzar has ordered the fighters to concentrate on the invoker, so one hits for a stoneskin – 7 left. The serpent attacks the invoker and takes off another skin. Megala and Dryshik are ordered to fly by and both miss. The invoker tries to finish off Alzar with a lightning bolt. It’s 24 with a save for 12. The bolt went through Estaish and he makes the save, and Alzar…rolled a 1. The Illusionist tries to blind Aleigha and…she fails the save and is blinded. 2/54 20/45 Alzar flies up (charge on Belt still working) and away. Two more images of the illusionst fall off from ice mephits’ shard balls. Dry and Meg miss. The maidens are close enough and start swinging, away from Alzar. One hits a skin. Three more skins are destroyed by the fighters, and our invoker has 3 left. 3 skins and 3 images. The illusionist casts Stoneskin and now has 7 of those. The invoker can’t get to Alzar and so turns her attention to the fighters and casts Melf’s Acid Arrow at Carum for 8 damage. 17/48 - Carum Carum is now at 13/48 from another hit of the acid. The illusionist casts Phantasmal Killer on Carum and…he just makes the save, rolling exactly what he needed. The Invoker wants to drop an Ice Storm on her enemies, but her and her sister would get caught up, and stoneskin and mirror image would not protect from that, plus the ice mephits would be unharmed. Instead she reaches out and touches Est for 11 electrical damage from a shocking grasp. Dry and Megs miss. Two more icy blasts take out two more images on the illusionist. One of the three summoned creatures hits for another skin. 2 left. Carum and Est both grab healing pots and quaff them. Blind Aleigha misses. Alzar gets on the range of his spells, and tries to charm person the illusion is, but fails. 16/45 21/48 Mag and Dry take a skin. One Maiden takes off the last skin. Seeing their chance, the fighters attack the now open invoker, and yet, only Carum hits for 7. The ice mephitis fly by and try to damage the illusionist and hit an image. 2 images left. Seeing Carum hits the Invoker, Alzar casts Ray of Ondovir and she fails her save. She tries to cast Shocking Grasp and has none. The illusionist casts her only damage dealing spell, Flame Arrow, and flings it at Estaish for 1 piercing damage and 9 fire damage –p no chance of save. 6/45 A polymorph spell is cast and the invoker turns into a griffon and starts to fly away. The illusionist turns herself invisible. Alzar flies in and uses the Dust of Appearance. They can make her out. She’s a bit away. Megala and Dry fly after her and one hits, taking the final image. The ice mephitis take off a skin – 6 left. Carum throws his spear and hits a skin. Est loads a bolt and misses. Aleigha can’t see. The invoker is gone and the illusionist, knowing that she can be seen, turns and casts Chromatic Orb. She throws it at the wounded Alzar, but misses him thoroughly. She rolled a 5. A bolt would have hit, but misses due to her blur. A sling misses. Alzar flies in and vamp touches her, which goes through the skins for 7 damage. All four imps returns miss. The serpent is gone and the maidens are moving up. 9/54 The invoker flies back seeing her sister on trouble, and the sister tries to climb on her back. Success. They get once chance this round to stop her. She loses three skins to imps and a maiden. Est and Carum miss. Alzar is right there and…swings his axe and eats another skin. The sister flies away. Alzar makes a quick decision and flies after them, despite his damaged body. With one axe in hand, he can use potions, and he quaffs another draught of the Invis potion himself and then lifts off, Dryshik and Megala on his shoulder. Without knowing they are being pursued, they fly back to the castle, and it is still in chaos. The fire is done its course, and the stone gatehouse above the stables is sturdy still. The number of people is lessened. They land at the rear upper guardhouse. Alzar will basically get once shot to take out the illusionist before he needs to flee. His only spells left are ESP, Detect Magic, Greater Malison, Hypnotize, and Animate Dead Animals. He draws the Wand of Paralyzation from it’s place and readies it. He uses it, and the illusionist makes the save! The invoker in griffon form, however, does not. With Axe in hand, Dryshik and Megala fly off to harass the illusionist. The defensive spells have gone. The illusionist calls for help and casts slow on Alzar. It works. He slashes the invoker for 8 damage. The imps miss the illusionist. Two hobgoblins emerge from the guardhouse. Alzar loses init auto but his imps win. They miss. The illusionist casts Sleep but it doesn’t work. Alzar hits for 11 on the invoker. The hobgoblins, and three more have arrived. The illusionist moves herself in front of her sister. Alzar misses two hobgoblin blades. He casts Hypnotism and all five drop their weapons and move to the side. One imp hits and takes off the last skin from the illusionist. With the guards dead, and herself without any defenses and any spells, and her sister about to die, the illusionist decides to run into the guardhouse. Alzar finishes off the invoker, and she dies and changes back to human form. Alzar slashes and kills the hypnotized hobbies, and cast Detect Magic. The only things that glow are her dagger and an amulet. He grabs both since he doesn’t have time for a full search and more noises be heard. He has enough juice to get him past the battlements and back home. # of hobgoblins dead: 54 Executioner, Blackthorn and Kairn are dead as well. Ankheg killed. Invoker killed. XP – 1250 each __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 03:45 AM	#461
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	He inspects the dagger, and cannot figure out what it is but the Amulet? It is an Amulet of Finding, and it has a twin. The wearer can see what the other wearer sees, and vice versa. He dons it and concentrates. He can see through the illusionist’s eyes. She is talking to someone, a female, of great authority in some caves. Alzar covers his up with a sack and studies the surroundings from the Amulet, and then takes it off and moves to the Crystal Ball. On the way back to the boat, he spends ten minutes surveying the room where the illusionist was. They arrive back at the boat and Alzar orders them to sail away a few days, and then sail back. That should give them a week of rest time. The illusionist took off the Amulet after a few hours, and Alzar leaves his in the bag. The dagger was just a +1 dagger. +1 dagger Amulet of Finding Alzar’s scrying shows that there are still a bunch of hobgoblins running around the hill fort. They may have killed 54 hobgoblins, but there are at least 100 left. Who knows how many more are in the caverns. Alzar tells Aleigha to stay out of werebear form. They may have loaded up with wolfsbane to attack any more werebears attacking them. Alzar has moved to a much more combat heavy set of spells for today. The Ring of Spell Storing now has Sleepx2 and Ray of Ondovir in it. He is memorizing Sleep, Hypnotize, Charmx2, Detect Magic, ESP, Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Ondovir, Empathic Control, Blastbones, Skulltrapx2, Dispel Magic, Vamp Touch, Shield-Maidens, Dimension Doorx2. The plan is simple. No invis, and no flying by Alzar. The two fly in with Carum. Carum is given the Gloves of Fire Resistance and Alzar will now be wearing the Gauntlets of Ogre Power, which will set his strength at 18/00. As a result, Alzar will get +3 to hit and +6 to damage. That means he will be +7 to hit and +10 to damage. He is turned into a tank of death. He will not be resistant to fire anymore, but oh well. Then plan is simple. Estaish and Aleigha are going to drop a cask of oil on top of each of the gatehouses where archers and a pair o’ballista are. Then fire is set and the hobbies and weapons will burn. That will keep people from claiming that space as a place to fight from. They will land in the fire (immune to normal fires all three), and then fire weapons, and wreak havoc on the yard. Meanwhile, Alzar will Dimension Door in and start launching Skulltraps and try to kill some more hobgoblins. No doubt they have increased the guards, which should increase their density for range spells like skulltraps. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 04:29 AM	#462
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	They initiate the plan. The ten hobgoblins on top of the gatehouse die and are on fire. There are a lot more guards along the walls. The three fighters grab weapons and get ready for combat. # of hobs killed, take 2: 10 Alzar Dimension Doors to the back of the south gatehouse and opens the door. Inside are 16 hobgoblins, resting, working, and looking out. His skull flies in and wipes them out. Dryshik drops another Wall of Fog, this time in front of the gatehouse, so that people can be directly in front and see up, and blocking sight from the guards along the ramparts. Alzar cannot be seen. He just doored in, and then opened a door and walked inside, and no one knows where he is. # of hobs killed, take 2: 26 The fighters note that there are not as many people charging them as they thought there would be. Carum and Aleigha are on top of the right one, and Estaish on top of the left one. Carum decides to open the trap door and see what’s below – about ten hobgoblins. Est does for his and sees 5. Man, if they had been able to carry more than one cask of oil each…. # of hobs killed, take 2: 26 Alzar takes the obvious trapdoor down and enters a hallway with no one in the moment in it, but noise buzzing. Alzar casts his Shield Maidens, and moves and opens a door, to the kitchens. Three hand axes fly at him from three people behind a table. All miss. A tall man with dark skin kicks a cask at Alzar and he evades, and he charges in. This is the blind man he saw organizing the defense earlier. # of hobs killed, take 2: 26 Aleigha throws a few ballista bolts and misses wildly. Carum slings and misses. Estaish kills a hobby with a crossbow bolt. The roof is still burning, and it is hard to make them out in the fog and smoke and flames in addition to the normal angle on the sniper roon. # of hobs killed, take 2: 27 Alzar draws his axe. 8 hobgoblins enter the room, and he casts Sleep from his ring (which is much faster). 6 fall asleep. The blind man arrives, and the men who throw hand axes have turned into wereboars and charged as well. Megala attacks a Hobby for 1 damage and…it fails. 7 asleep now. Est crits a hob over on the curtain wall firing at him for 8 damage. Dead hob. Carum hits another for 3 damage. # of hobs killed, take 2: 28 Alzar just wins init. He swipes his axe at the third wereboar for 14 damage. His maidens attack the same target for no damage (immune) Alzar orders their target to change to the warrior for next round. Megala tries to claw a hob, rolls a 17, and deals 2 damage and…it fails its save. 8 asleep. Everybody misses Alzar One wereboar would have hit, and now can hit starting next round. # of hobs killed, take 2: 28 Carum kills the hob with another sling for 4 damage. Est misses. # of hobs killed, take 2: 29 They win init. Alzar takes 6 from that wereboar. The fighter drops his sword. The other two would have hit him, and missed, so now they can hit too. Alzar attacks twice. He hits and kills the one wereboar and attacks the next one. It is critically hit for 5 on the roll, doubles to 10, and then 11 added for 21 damage. RAR! The fighters miss, and Megala misses. 48/54 # of hobs killed, take 2: 29, Wereboars – 1 Est hits one for 3 damage. A miracle shot nails Carum for 2 damage. 46/48 Alzar wins init, misses the wereboar in front of him. The maidens miss the fighter. They roll 12, 5, and 5. The 12 and 5 are from wereboars. The first wereboar has a THAC0 of 15. Alzar’s AC is normally a 7 with is Bracers, -2 for his Cloak. That’s -2 for wielding his axe and -2 for the Maidens, so he currently has an AC of 1, which is a miss. Let’s just do a few rounds of Alzar. They win init and one wereboar hits for 7. 41/54. Alzar swings twice and misses, and then hits and kills the injured one. The maidens and Megala miss. Alzar wins init and nails the last wereboar for 15. It makes its morale check. One maiden crits the fighter for 8. The boar hits Alzar for 5. 41/54 They win init and Alzar takes 4 from the boar. He kills the wereboar with a hit for 12 (his minimum) and then turns on eh fighter for 16. One maiden adds 3. 27 damage for the fighter. 37/54 Alzar casts Vamp Touch and deals 11 to the fighter. 38. Megala crits him for 2 damage and…he falls asleep. Alzar kills him and the hobgoblisn in here. 48/54 # of hobs killed, take 2: 37, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed Rewind: Both archers miss. Est kills the wound hob and Carum nails one for 4 damage. They miss. The fire is starting to burn out. Carum hits and kills the wounded hob. # of hobs killed, take 2: 39, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed Alzar takes the obviously magic sword and a few items from Icar that could be magic, like his rings, and armor, and such. Est misses, and Carum nails one for 1 damage. # of hobs killed, take 2: 37, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed Alzar finds several casks of oil in the kitchen and rolls them up the stairs and back into the guard house – easily to do when you have the strength of an ogre – will take two turns. Est and Carum miss. The fire will be out next turn, but smoke lingers. They each hit. Carum deals 3 and Est 6 and kills one. # of hobs killed, take 2: 38, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed Alzar opens the back door to the gatehouse which overlooks the inner courtyard, with about 25 goblins in it and kicks a cask of oil down and tosses a torch he grabbed from the guardroom. 10 hobs die, others run for cover. # of hobs killed, take 2: 48, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed The trap doors are flipped open and hobgoblins start pouring out onto the roofs. Aleigha kills one. They are moving out and Est and Carum grab sword and spear and move to fight them. Est is on a roof by himself and Carum and Aleigha are together. # of hobs killed, take 2: 49, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed Knowing people may come upstairs to take his location, Alzar drops and breaks the other cask inside the guard room, on the stairs and landing, and lights and readies a torch and hands it to Megala to drop if people start coming up in large numbers. Est misses. Carum an Aleigha combine to kill a hob. 6 are attacking Estaish. He takes 4 damage, More than 10 are out and trying to attack Carum and Aleigha. That’s too many, and they back up and grabs the brooms, Carum shrinks, and they fly of to meet up with Alzar in the guard house. Aleigha will take 6 from two arrows as they fly. 41/45 – Estaish 35/41 – Aleigha 46/48 - Carum 48/54 – Alzar # of hobs killed, take 2: 50, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed The inner courtyard has cleared and three more hobgoblins bit it. Someone is organizing the rest in the parade grounds. He can’t who from this far out. He goes down and hears company, so he retreats and waits. # of hobs killed, take 2: 53, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed The fighters arrive and enter the guard room and Alzar sends them to the other side. Up the stairs come 15 orcs led by two officers, and obviously, this shows either people from below attacking them or a more concentrated effort to kill them. Alzar orders the torch dropped from Megala, which only catches about 12 of them on fire and kills them. I roll and they do not notice the oil in the middle of battle. The rest make it through unscathed and with no line of retreat, move to attack. # of hobs killed, take 2: 50, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed, Orcs – 12 They win init and the orcs charge Alzar, the closest one to them and swing. They all miss – cloak. Alzar hacks one into pieces 3 left, and they are the two officers. The fighters arrive this turn, the maidens are gone. Alzar mises, and then drops his axe (rolled a 3 and then a 1) Carum drops his spear. Est misses and only Aleigha manages to hit an orc for 8 damage and killed him leaving just the two officers. One hits Aleigha for a crit 8. 27/41 Est and Ale swing and miss. The orc leaders crit Carum for 10. Alzar deals 15 to one and Carum misses. 36/48 Alzar swings once, and drops his axe. Carum kills the orc leader with 7 more damage deals and Est deals 9 to the other. He hit Alzar for 4. Alzar grabs his axe and drops it again/ 44/54 They win init and Est, Ale and Car hit twice for 13 damage and the other leader is killed. That was four fumbles and two crits against in that small little scuffle. # of hobs killed, take 2: 50, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed, Orcs – 16 They are relatively healthy, and decide to press on. They jump down to the inner courtyard aided by the rope of climbing and take no damage. There are no hobgoblins here and it gets them out of side of the snipers from the walls. Snipers have taken position on top of the gatehouse again. Xp -750 each __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 11:18 AM	#463
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	They kick in the double doors and enter the entrance corridor to the rear part of the keep. There are doors right and left. They go left. This is an empty room with an exit to a section of the house normally cut off from traffic. There is not a lot of footsteps in the dust. Alzar shuts the door and they search the area, but find nothing. He opens the door to the next section, and there is a hallway with four doors on the right, and three on the left. And again, few footprints. The first door on the right enters a collapsed room with rafters and the building roof exposed. They move around and find some snakes in the corner, poisonous ones . Alzar moves in and kills them. They search the room and find nothing. The next door on the right in an abandoned storeroom and there are rows of dusty boxes and creates and as they examine the place, one flies off a pile and crashs at Alzar’s feet and a spooky voice tells them to Begone, for you disturb its rest. He tries to control the spirit, and feels nothing. There is no undead here. A search reveals nothing and the next room reveals a dusty bed, chest of drawers and night stand, with a luminous figure in the fireplace that tells them to leave and disappears. The rooms has nothing in it, and the final room on the right is an old abandoned armory with empty weapon racks, and again a search turns up nothing. They enter the last room on the left and there is a long wooden table and high backed chairs covered with dust and cobwebs. They search and find nothing. The next room is an abandoned kitchen with a large fireplace, cupboards, and such. As they enter a ceramic plate flies by and smashes against the wall. A knife is next but it bounces off Estaish’s great armor. On the north wall beside the door is a message in blood ”behold the harbinger of your fate.”There is a knife impaling a hobgoblin hand below it. The final room has an abandoned bedchamber with the remains of a strangled hobgoblin dangling from the ceiling by a sash cord. It’s been here for a few weeks and the room smells like it. They search and find nothing. Alzar needs to think. They searched everywhere in this section of the fort and found nothing, but someone is here. It’s obviously not a hobgobglin nor a friend of theirs. On the other hand, the ydon;t have time right now. Why haven’t the orcs or hobgoblins or someone invaded this area? They must have seen them enter the double doors and then here. Alzar listens with the Ear Ring and there is no sound in the next room, the empty one. They enter it cautiously. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 11:51 AM	#464
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	He uses the Ear Ring on the next door and hears a lot of people out in the hallway. They are obviously preparing an ambush to meet him. He hears someone bark orders. He tells the fighters what he saw. He guesses there are a lot of people in the hallway and ready to attack them. He will grab a skull, fling open the door, Skulltrap the hallway, and hopefully clear it out and then either close the door if they didn’t, or have everyone move in if they did. He flings open the door and throws out the skull. There are about 30 hobgoblins in here and they fire a bunch of arrows at him All miss (cloak). The skull triggers and everyone in the hallway takes 26, or save for half. 28 die, and two are wounded badly. Alzar orders everyone into the hallway. # of hobs killed, take 2: 78, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed, Orcs – 16 The two left turn to run. Megala claws one for 1 damage and it falls asleep. A +2 throwing dagger bites into the other for 10 damage and kills it. # of hobs killed, take 2: 80, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed, Orcs – 16 They search the weapons and see nothing obviously magical in weapons or armor and move on. Alzar opens the double doors back again and sees no one in the courtyard. He doesn’t want to leave enemies at his back, so they emerge and move into the parade grounds. The goblins have been pulled off the walls, but some fire arrows from the gatehouse. He orders everyone to open the door on the bunkhouse. There is no one in there and they head up stairs. There is no one in here. They leave by opening a door to the barracks. There appears to be tons of cots for hobgoblins in here, but they were pulled for the ambush and to replace those dead. No one is in here. They kick open a door to the wall walk and attack the three hobs here. They die easily to spear and dagger and bolt and sword. They move back, open a door to the captains room, but he is not here anymore. A search finds a set of keys. They move back into the barracks and three hobgoblins have moved to here from the left wall and they are surprised. Alzar decapitates one and swords kill the other two before Carum gets a chance to spear one. # of hobs killed, take 2: 86, Wereboars – 3, Icar killed, Orcs – 16 Alzar pops up through a trap door and enter the eastern guardhouse. In here is the captain of the guard and 12 hobgoblins who have flipped over some tables and pallets in the past few minutes and now fire bows. They are lucky with their shots, but Alzar doesn’t take any damage. He emerges and casts sleep and 5 fall asleep. The three fighters come up. Alzar’s group wins init. He charges with his axe and swings and hits a hob for death. 6 down. They others grab weapons and close. The hobs grab swords and swing. One hits Aleigha for 5 damage. 30/41 – Aleigha They win init and have four good rolls 15 against Aleigha, 17 vs Alzar, 18 vs Aleigha and 18 vs Carum. They have THAC0 19. Carum has a -1 AC and they miss him. They other are all hit. Aleigha takes 7 and Alzar 6. Alzar attacks twice, rolls a 5 and hits an AC2 with that, so he kills a hob. Then he fumbles his axe again. Est kills another for 7. Aleigha hits for 4 and just wounds one. Carum hits that one and kills it off. Three dead. 23/41 39/54 – Alzar Alzar orders everyone to aims for their leader and hews into him for 19 damage – his max. Carum spears the leader as well for 7. Aleigha adds 8 and he dies. The remaining frwe hobs try to scramble and are chased down and killed. # of hobs killed, take 2: 98, Wereboars – 3, Icar, Gorbin Stalworth killed, Orcs – 16 XP – 100 each They have killed everyone in the gatehouse, since they were all brought together for that one big ambush. They take some weapons and such. A search finds: Silver and coral necklace of 1100 gp Gold belt buckle – 500 gp They find nothing else of value in the gatehouse and the parapets are clear. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 01:33 PM	#465
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Alzar orders everyone down and they head to the curtain wall and check it. It’s been completly abandoned. They head back and the keys fit the locks and they open the portcullis and drop the drawbridge for a later escape if needed. Alzar also find a giant barrel of marbles – thousands of them in there. He grabs them and moves them outside to claim later if possible. They double check the burnt stables and nothing. Now that Alzar has verified that there are no more enemies to their rear, they move forward. They reopen the double door, and no one is here. They recheck the abandoned section to make sure no one is behind them, and then move into the next room. This appears to have once been a study, that has been converted to general space with tables, hangars, and such. A search finds a jewel. Left or right? Left should take them into a smaller space. They enter a hallway and it bens, with a door on the left and more down the hallway. The left door in locked but unlockable by the keys they found. This is a storeroom with extra weapons, supplies, arrows, and such. There are food, water, linen, pots and pans, and more. There is a small locked chest in the back and Alzar fails to pick it. They take it. (just 250 silver in it) They turn right and take the right door and it opens to a bunkroom. It held more soldiers, but they are all out or gone. A search finds a belt pouch of marbles that could be scattered behind done to hinder pursuit. Nothing else is there. They take the left door and arrive in a rec room with tables, chairs, and a throwing knife game on the wall. Nothing special or of interest is found here. They next room is the officers quarters, and again vacant. They search and find nothing. The last room is a latrine. Having left behind the east wing guard chambers and wings, they open the right hand door in the old study and enter an odd hallway. There is a strait corridor more than 100 feet long, lit by torches and such. The opposite door opens and three mummies move towards them. Alzar tires to control them, and they aren’t mummies. He orders everyone to stay still, and in a moment, they punch and kill three more hobgoblins. They probably thought that since weapons weren;t going to work, maybe scaring them would. Nope. They advance and get close to a mirror and out spring more hobgoblins spring out from behind the mirror and sling stones at Alzar (who is usually in front in these places) and miss. Alzar advances and carves a hobby. 5 left. Carum’s spear flies in and kills another. 4 left. Three grab short swords and the fourth keeps using his sling. Slingboy misses. A short sword clangs off Est’s armor. Alzar wins init the next round, steps past the hobs, and hits the slinger for 12 and then 19 and kills her. Est and Aleigha kill two more and Carum’s normal spear deals 7 and kills a third. All dead. XP – 75 each They search and grab stuff for the magic pile, and move on. This room is a hobgoblin barracks, and everyone just attacked them. They search and find: 150 gold amethyst Silver Chalice worth 500 gold 80 gold __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 03:15 PM	#466
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	They move into the next hallway. They find a pit trap, already sprung, and easily leap over. They arrive at a door and open. It was a storeroom. There are a few barrels of grease in here, but the rest is empty or worthless. Another room along the corridor is a storeroom too, and it is locked but opened with the keys. Bolts of cloth, iron tools, and iron pots. They have a good value in sum (about 2k) but are way too bulky to take. They open a door to a well room with a variety of barrels of water and a metal well. There is nothing in here at all. They continue and arrive at an odd sight. This is a long terraced room with a narrow passage running through with raised stone platforms set in a series of steps. There appears to be a door on the other side. On the steps are dozens of humans staring blankly ahead and are chained by their necks to the wall, but are not struggling at all. There are scraps of clothing on the floor and cloaks and blankets on the walls. They start searching and in a few seconds, they start feeling uneasy. There is something going on with this room. They keep searching and Alzar says skip it, and starts throwing cloaks into the Bag of Holding for a later magic pile check. They start moving, and suddenly, they feel afraid. They have cleared cloak from half the room or so. They keep pushing on, and the effect intensifies. Alzar and Carum are fine, but Aleigha and Estaish have to leave the room for a bit. They keep grabbing cloak and are getting to the end. The fear changes into paralyzation and Alzar is immune while Carum fails his save and is paralyzed. There are just a few cloaks left, so Alzar grabs one, and then the next one flies off the wall and attacks! It’s a cloaker! Alzar’s axe is out. The cloaker wins init due to surprise and misses Alzar. He slashes and hits it for 13 damage. Alzar wins init and slashes it twice for 33 damage. It dies. XP – 1400 for just Alzar They finish searching the room and those afraid have returned and those stunned have been unstunned, but the slaves re not moving, Alzar uses the keys to undo the braces, so that if they come out of it sometime, they can leave freely. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 03:45 PM	#467
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	They enter the hallway and door to left is taken. This is a large furnace with an orc and two other orcs pounding away at items. They look up, see Alzar and his party, and then look back down and continue smithing. Well, odd a bit. Alzar takes the door ot the next room where the family of the smith is, and playing with some cards. They leave the room before and move back to the hallway. The left room is another storeroom, with bones filled with a large assortment of goods. A search finds nothing. The next room is an orc barracks and they were all killed in the attack so there is no one here. A search finds nothing. They next room is on the right and in here are orc officer quarters, and they were also killed. A search finds nothing in here either except for a ivory weapon. Ivory dagger – 30 gold The next room is the guest bedroom. Holed up in here are two weird looking guards and a human. They are hiding and waiting for the trouble to blow over, but it didn’t , It’s obvious that the human is a trader, and most likely in slaves. The two guards are mutated people that have tails, claws, and more, and can’t speak. They jump over and into Alzar and his party, and the merchant draws an axe on them. Time for battle. They win init and miss Alzar a lot. His axe does not, and kills a guard. The others arrive. They win init and the guard misses twice and the warrior hits Alzar, which turns into a miss. Alzar’s axe bites into the guard just once out of two times, for 17 damage. Estaish hits the creature for 8 more and it falls. Aleigha’s ruby blades slides into the merchant for 8 damage. Alzar nails the merchant for 12. Est and Carum add 17 and he dies. They search the room and find: 600 gp 20 pp 5 amethyst 50 gp each Papers that say the slave route has another stop somewhere in the Sea of Dread, but the location has been damaged and cannot be read. Alzar identifies a wand on the guy. Wand of Opening (12 charges) – acts as a Knock spell XP - 250 to group __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 04:24 PM	#468
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	The next room was Executioner’s quarters, and they have not been reassigned since his died in the first assault. A search finds nothing but a huge compound bow that only a character of 18 strength can use. The next room are servants quarters, and some guzaks are huddled in a corner, with no weapons of any kind. Alzar orders them to leave, and they do. There is nothing in the room. They arrive back at the kitchen and thecorpses of the wereboars and Icar are still here. A more thorough search is ordered and nothing additional is found. The next door reveals a cook’s quarters, and the female orc is still hiding under the bed. Alzar ties her up and gags her, so that she cannot inform anybody that they are still in and where they are. They also find the wereboar’s quarters with a large boar here. Its on a chain, and they lead it around while searching the chamber, find nothing of value, and return it and lock the door. They find a larder with nothing of value. The second to last door is a storeroom, and stairs going down. The final door appears to be someone’s quarters, and there is a simple bed in the northwest, and wine, chess board and carved wooden chest. There is a door on the south wall with a lock on it. The furniture is bolted and the chess board has raised grid on it – probably the room of the blind officer. They search and find nothing. Alzar tries the closet door and a curse comes through, demanding its release. Alzar grabs the gauntlets of dexterity and succeeds, barely, at picking the lock. The door opens and Alzar makes an INT roll at 50%. He makes it (rolled a 3) and sees the body of a medusa and avoids her glare and shuts the door. A perfect guard for a blind man. She does not push on the door or anything, so she is probably chained in there. Alzar orders everyone to stay out, closes his eyes, switches to the ogre strength gauntlets and opens the door and uses Blind Fighting to sense his opponent. He wins inti and axes her for 19 damage. She misses him. He wins init and kills her easily. He waits, and hears and senses nothigjn else, orders Megala in and looks through his yes – nothing. 400 to Alzar only. . There is an iron chest on the floor. Inside is: 2000 gp 10 jet pieces 100 gp each 10 matches silver and opal bracelets – 200 each There is a locked small brass coffer and Alzar takes it out and tries to pick the lock, but its quite complex. Failure. (Inside is Potion of Undead Control, and Pot of Diminution, Cleric scroll with Cure Serious, Purify Food and Drink, Feign Death, Cure Light Wounds, Resurrection and Wind Walk; Ring of Warmth and Quaal’s Feather Token. ) There are also directions to the specialist quarters downstairs and where the secret doors are to the treasure in that room. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 04:52 PM	#469
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	They head back to the door and head down. There is a door in front of them, and a corridor that heads to the left. The door opens and they see about 12 goblins eating at a table with their back to them, but as Alzar steps in, they suddenly grab hidden crossbows and spin! They were preparing an ambush of a different kind, but none of the bolts hit Alzar. They grab clubs and charge the group. A Hypnotism spell forces 7 of them to drop their clubs and fall down. The rest are easily killed, but Alzar took 4 from a club. 47/54 (gained life from the regen of his gem on the belt). They search and find nothing but: Large Brass Key 20 gp Ivory – 75 gp There is a man in a cell in here and the door swings open, and the man runs past them and starts gulping the food from the table. They move on. The corridor is dusty and cobwebby above, and slopes down. Suddenly, the axe flies from Alzar grip and hits the wall, and other metallic objects are being similarly pulled from him. He manages to wrest it free with his strength, and carries the armor from Estaish and Carum so that they can get past. The corridor turns left and there is a door on the right. It opens easily into a small hallway that leads to a deserted room with a wooden table. A search shows a concealed door that simply has a winch to lower a stone block in the hallway in front of the magnetic trap in order to keep their own people from getting caught in it. Alzar turns it off. They continue on and enter a corridor with a ghastly white shape hovering above the floor. As they get near, it appears to be someone webbed, and a clicking can be heard nearby. A web falls on Alzar, who is immune. He slips through the web and throws a dagger at one of the giant spiders above. It hits for 10 damage. It recoils and backs into a corner in the corridor. The fighters have arrived. Alzar grabs a +1 dagger and they move to the next round. A dagger flies out and misses, clanking against the wall. A crossbow bolt hits the wounded spider for 6. Carum’s sling hits for 4 and kills it. The other jumps on top of Alzar and misses (cloak) but would have done double damage. The spider goes first and tries to skewer Alzar but misses. The fighters kill it after dealing 39 with a hit by every one of them XP 215 each The corpse is cut down and searched and they find a Ring and add it to the magic pile. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 05:11 PM	#470
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	A door to the right is in front of them and it appears to be a deserted storeroom with chests, bundles and crates of various goods. They search and find bales of linen, tin pots and pans, dishes, and such. They find nothing else. The next door appears to be an abandoned storeroom. There are piles of trade goods with a significant amount of dust and debris in the room. Suddenly, there is a hair raised scream, and a figure appears in the corner, of a dying human. There is the clank of chains as the human struggles against the chains that bind him to the wall. This is an undead, a phantom that replays the final minutes of its life over and over again. It manages to break free from its chains and charges forward, kicks open the door, overcomes his guards and grabs a sword, and runs through several doors and stairs, until coming to a door he cannot open. As he struggles to hack through the locked door, a pack of guards arrive and pull him into this room, on this spot, and a group of wolves arrive and devour him. Having been seen, the phantom disappears and the room is normal, and they search, but find nothing. Back to the corridor they head. As they walk, Alzar triggers a pit trap and falls into a pit 20’ down but with 4 feet of water, so he takes no damage. There is a ledge the others can use to cross it and his Rope of Climbing easily gets him out. He will begin rapping on the floor ahead of him now. They reach a door and as they open it, a trap is triggered and a bunch of logs begin rolling down the corridor towards them. Alzar grabs the rope still out, and it jumps up and creates handing handholds on it above them, and they jump up and hold on, above the hallway. The logs smash through the door and fake wall, and then roll over the pit trap on the ledges and end at the wall behind them. They drop down, grab the rope, and move on. The corridor bends to the left and the entire corridor walls – ceiling and floor is a grillwork with 1’x1’ spaces. Whenever someone takes the time to mess with the floors, you know something is about to go wrong. A closer look shows a viscous liquid that covers the grillwork. Alzar puts his torch to it and it lights up, and the entire grillwork is on fire. They wait patiently for about ten minutes for it to burn out and the grillwork to cool down. The grillwork will take a while to cross, and Alzar bets there is something else in there besides the oil they burnt. Lava plumes or a monster of some sort or acid or something. It’s about 60 feet long or so. Alzar has the Rope of Climbing stretch it’s whole 50’ feet long and secure itself to the wall. Alzar tries poking the air and the holes with a staff, but nothing happens. It’s five feet to the rope, then one can use the rope to get the rest of way then five feet to the end. Alzar goes first and gets to the rope easily, and suddenly some blue humanoids teleport in and attack Alzar (and miss) and jump into the holes and disappear. Alzar jumps back and recalls the rope. Now that he knows what the issue is. He grabs three of the logs from the trap and lashes them together with the Rope of Climbing. He gets a big run and throws them down and slides across the grille work easily. He makes it across in one round without any problems. Because he is so strong, it might have helped, so he throws the log back and attaches a regular rope to the end. They will jump/slide and he will pull with his strength, and the two together should get the others across, and it does. No problems. There are three doors on the right, two on the left, and then the corridor bends. They find several storerooms and search and find nothing but food like honey and cheese. The fourth room they search has casks and such, plus a table and more. They search and find a secret door that bypasses the grille on the way back. The final room is another storeroom and nothing more can be found in it. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 05:32 PM	#471
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	The corridor ends at a door. An Ear Ring reveals sounds of minor shuffling and that’s like – like the people in there are trying to keep quiet. Alzar kicks open the door after warning everyone and reveals a room with 15 orcs with short bows hiding behind kicked up torture devices, and two bugbears to their left, and four worgs that are released and now charging towards them. The welcoming committee is here. Alzar launches his final Sleep – from the ring. 7 goblins fall asleep. 9 arrows fly in and miss Alzar. The bugbears move forward wielding wicked looking morning stars. Alzar moves forward to stay in the line of sight of the goblins and worgs while the three fighters move in and move towards the bugbears. Battle begins. Alzar’s axe bites into the 2nd worg for 15 damage. Est misses, Ale hits a bugbear for 7. Carum hits the same one for 5. The worgs miss Alzar. He takes 6 from arrows. One bugbear hits Est for 4 damage. 48/54 37/45 Alzar hits the injured worg for death. Est kills the injured bugbear and the others miss. Alzar takes 7 from a worg bite. The arrows miss. The bugbear misses. Alzar’s second axe swing bites a worg for 15. 41/54 The worgs attack and one hits Alzar for 4. Arrows hit hit for 2 as well.The bugbear hits Estaish for 6. Alzar kills the wounded worg. Only Ale hits the bugbear for 4. 35/54 31/45 – Estaish Alzar wounds a worg for 16. Est and Carum hit for 15 and kill the bugbear. Alzar is bit for 8 and takes 2 from an orcish arrow. Alzar swings again and kills the wounded worg. 25/54 Morale check and they make it. Arrows at Alzar miss, the worg misses. Alzar axes the worg 19 damage and it dies. The fighters charge the orcs position. They break, but daggers, swords and spear easily bring down the other 7. XP – 300 each __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 06:45 PM	#472
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	A search of the torture chamber finds a pair of tortured humans in the corner, who tell Alzar they came in from the south wall. There are no obvious doors out, but there are some cells in here. They find two secret doors south, one in a cell room and the other in the base of the room. The one on the cell appears to be wizard locked. Alzar uses the Wand to open it. They enter a room lit by a ruddy glow with the air alive with the aroma of wild herbs and rotting flesh. There are crates ,bookshelves, and more in here, with a table and cabinet piled high with books, clay crocks, canisters and jars and such. A search finds alchemical and lab equipment worth 2000 gp Three flasks of potions (Giant Strength, Levitation, Healing) Five Pellets in a small box (Flash Pellets) 1500 gp worth of alchemical books There is a corridor on the other side, and they follow it to an end but a door here is easily opened. They emerge into a bedroom with an aged human sitting by a table and pouring a yellow flask into a glass cylinder. He looks up, and then continues. “I’m not going to stop you or get in your way.” Alzar asks where they are, and the alchemist says the specialist quarters ,where the specialists of the stockade stay and sleep. Alzar offers money to the alchemist to switch to his side and help him. “I’m not going to help or hinder you, I’m staying out of everybody’s way.” They exit and enter a hallway with many doors on the sides. This is the area marked on the map from the captain’s chest. Alzar recognizes it. They enter the next room and find this is locked. Alzar manages to pick it, and they open it to find a man with a crossbow aimed at his chest and demanding to know his business. Alzar sees no point in lying and says he intends to shut this place down. He offers the man money to help. He agrees. There are some werewolves down here that are used as the shock troops, and they will be used on anyone, even loyal staff like himself. He is Carlstar Wiorfether, a 3rd level fighter, neutral, with a crossbow, military pick, and silver dagger, but just 15 hp. He is employed as the engineer of the area. Alzar offers him 1000 gold to escort them and show them the various areas, and he agrees, but he will only fight in self defense. The engineer grabs his things and has 500 gp and a potion of Curing lycanthropy. Alzar grabs his books on siegecraft and defenses and pockets them, as a token of thanks. His ESP spell proved Carlstar intends to keep his side of the bargain. He points to a door and tells them it is a scribes quarters. He is totally loyal to Markeesa. Alzar grabs his throwing dagger, opens the door and flings it at the man sitting quietly at a table. It hits for 10 damage and the scribe dies. They find papers showing how profitable the operation is, and how widespread. Slave peddlers and purchasers are given code words. Outside of Valia, other nations have all banned slavery, so the outposts are outside their purview in these islands off the coast. A search turns up: Keychain 100 ivory pipe. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 07:19 PM	#473
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	The next room to the left are the bugbear leaders. There are two in the torture room stationed there, so the are dead, and the other two are likely in there. Alzar orders ranged weapons and throws open the door and they see two bugbears, one sitting on his bed and the other the other sharpening her bastard sword on a chair by a table. Alzar flings his dagger at one and…hits for 9 damage. A bolt silences that one after it takes 6. A magic spear is flung and misses the other, and the third bugbear gets up, shouts for help, and moves towards them. Battle begins. They win init and Alzar deals 17 and kills the bugbear. They move to defend, in case others investigate the shout. A door nearby opens and then another. Carlstar tells them the werewolves are nearby and Aleigha growls while still human. Two hobgoblins and three werewolves arrive. The werewolves can smell Aleigha and jump in front of the hobgoblins. Alzar jumps in front, and they win init. All five miss him. He moves to the side and wings an axe for the max – 19. One werewolves falters, but remains standing. Est bolts a hob for 2. Carum retrieves his magic spear. Aleigha moves to the front with Alzar. Werewolves and werebears are archenemies. Alzar trust Aleigha to hit the one he just hit and he moves to the next werewolf and nails it for 13. Aleigha easily hits and kills the one he hit earlier. Est bolts a hob for 1 more. Carum’s long spear lances out and hits the third werewolf for 5 damage. The wolf and hobbies attack. The wolf attacks Aleigha, no question. It misses one and hits the other time for 3 damage. The hobs hit Alzar for 3. He swings his axe again and kills the werewolf Carum injured for 16 damage. The two hobs start to run and they are eaily cut down. 20/41 - Aleigha XP – 500 each They search the three rooms open and move down and shut the door to the corridor beyond so any more noise won’t attract attention. One of these rooms was the ogre mage’s and hasn’t been cleaned out since his death in the first assault on the stockade. A journal shows that Blackthorn was quietly organizing a resistance against Markessa for her damaging the trade by her experiments and inability to manage an operation this big. The werewolves were among the people he counted as allies in this conflict. They find 300 gold They open the secret door and head to a secret chamber. There is just a small corridor down the path, way too small for a humanoid, but a track is there. Alzar sends in Megala and Dryshik and they reveal six large chests, two metal coffers and a small locked mahogany box are stacked in the room on a metal cart. They throw the rope pulling the cart to Alzar, and they just fit and get pulled down the track to the party. The first chest is unlocked and has just copper pieces in it (6000) The second chest is locked. Alzar fails to open it. They skip it for now. The third chest is locked. Alzar fails – skip it. The fourth is unlocked and has 9000 sp The fifth is unlocked and has 3000 pp in it. There is a small poison gas trap that triggers and everybody else leaves for 10 minutes until it clears. The 6th one is locked. No lock pick here either. The first coffer is opened. Inside is a ruby worth 2000 gp, 10 tourmaline worth 100, 6 aquamarines worth 400 each, a scroll, The second coffer is locked. It appears to be wizard locked. The wooden case is locked. Alzar cannot pick it. The case will be pocketed and opened later, same with the coffer added to a Bag of Holding. Alzar acids the chests unable to be locked and inside are: 13000 gp 7000 ep Oil Scroll Uncut 8 Sapphires worth 250, Ruby worth 500 – value can be 4 by gem cutter They leave the area and enter a hallway. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 07:49 PM	#474
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Carlstar tells them that one door leads to a laboratory that often has Markessa in it. Another door leads into more bedrooms, including those of a sister pair of mages, but one died and the other left, and just one bedroom is still occupied back there. He points to the cells, and the dining room and latrines - all off this passageway. Alzar suggests attacking Markessa in the lab. Carlstar points out there they are double doors on the other side she could flee through. Alzar pulls out the Crystal ball, because he’s seen this room before, and looks into it. Markessa is working at a bench just 20 feet in front of the door. There are orc guards and two owlbears in a cage that could be released. Still, the distance between Markessa and them means they could easily catch her. The plan is this – Alzar throws open the door with axe in hand and charges Markessa and swings. Carum and Aleigha move to the center of the room and attack the orcs. Estaish runs in and backs up Alzar. Alzar and Estaish keep Markessa behind the desk and keep her from running to the main door, and Ale and Car keep her from leaving via the double doors in the back. Sounds like a plan. With axe in hand, Alzar flings open the door and charges Markessa. Est right behind, and Carum and Aleigha take up positions. 11 goblins grab arrows and Alzar is at Markessa in a moment. Battle ensues. Alzar wins init but she gets to go first anyway due to a magic item she has. She misses Alzar. Alzar’s axe rolls a 6. Plus her AC of 1 is 7. Add +3 for str, and +3 for axe mastery and +1 for the +1 axe and it’s a 14 – exactly Alzar’s THAC0. She takes 18 damage and winces. Est swings and crits her for 15 damage. Carum kills an orc with his spear for 6 damage. Aleigha misses another. A Mist Ball flies in and she makes her save. Markessa attacks again for a miss on Alzar (rolled a 3). Arrows fly in and no one is hit They win Init. Markessa grabs a flask and throws it down and makes a cloud of smoke. Alzar orders Est and him to stand beside each other and together they stand across the space between the desk and wall, preventing her from leaving that way. The owlbears are released. Carum takes 7 from three arrows. Carum spears an orc for just 4 and he survives. Aleigha misses. Alzar uses Blind-Fighting to sense Markessa. He senses her moving down and around the desk, and can attack with a -4. He rolls a 12. -4 to 8. +1 for her AC is a 9. Then add the bonuses and he hits her for 16 and she dies. 29/48 - Carum With their leader dead, the orcs flee out the double doors The owlbears move forward. A growling from the hallway beyond can be heard as two worgs move into the room. A dagger bites into an owlbear for 12 damage. A bolt from Est hits it for 5 more damage. Aleigha and Carum move forward. Alzar and Est move forward as well. The owlbears win init and attack Aleigha for 17 damage after three hits, a crit, and another hit from the fourth one. She changes into a werebear instinctively to avoid more damage. Carum misses the wounded owlbear. Aleigha hits twice for 6 damage and kills the owlbear. Alzar and Est are here as are the worgs. 3/41 – Aleigha. Aleigha deals 3 to an owlbear. Alzar drops his axe. Est adds 11 and Carum misses. Aleigha takes no damage from an owlbear and it looks confused. The worgs try to hit her as well and miss. They move around her to attack others next turn. Aleigha bites the damaged owlbear for 8 damage. Carum drops his spear, Est misses. The owlbear keeps attacking Aleigha. Stupid. One worg tries to bite into Estaish but can’t penetrate his armor. Alzar swings at the worg in front of him. He rolls just a 3, but that hits. 18 damage to a worg. He can swing again and kills it. They go first, barely, and Alzar is attacked and missed. The owlbear misses Aleigha. Alzar nails the worg for 16, Est misses, Carum misses and Aleigha deals 5 to the owlbear. The worg runs and Crum throws his spear since its handy. It hits for 7 and kills it. Alzar crits the owlbear for max damage 27. It is bisected. They search the lab and find: XP – 1000 each Leather armor. Short Sword 5000 gp worth of alchemical equipment Pair of adamantite claws worth 200 gp Electrum bracers – 560 gp Neckguard of electrum - 1400gp Aleigha quaffs a pot of healing. 11/41 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 08:22 PM	#475
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	They head back and check the rooms where the magi were. Two are empty. The final one was the room of the ogre they killed on the first assault. There is nothing else of interest in here. The dining room is completely free of people, and the kitchens next to it. The chef believes they are mercenaries and early for their meals and to come back later. Alzar decides to do just that. They enter the chambers of a female hobgoblin witchdoctor. They have not met her, but they search the room. They find 3 pieces of jade 60 gp Necklace of garnet and electrum 1300 gp As they finish, the witchdoctor arrives back, by herself, and sees 5 adventurers, and decides to run. A Mist Ball flies at her and she fails the save and falls down. Alzar ties her up and takes her back into her chamber. She is a priestess of Mahte, goddess of pain and pleasure. He waits until she can see again, tells her who he is, and that Markessa is already dead. He intends to take out this place, and free the slaves here, and there is no one who will stop him. She will remain tied up here and they will come back for her if they aren’t killed. Alzar shuts the door behind him and exits. They move down the corridor and find a door with two bugbears flanking it. Thinking Alzar and crew are mercenaries, they have not attacked. He attacks with his axe and gains surprise. He crits, so that is 2x damage from the surprise and x2 from the crit. He rolled jus t a3, but that’s still 23 damage and a dead bugbear. Est attacks the other for 11 and Carum adds another crit for 15 and she dies. They search the bodies and find nothing. The door opens and reveals a bed chamber where a female human looks exactly like Markessa. Alzar asks if she is the real Markessa or a doppelganger or illusion or something. This can’t be the real Markessa, the first one had more powerful magic, knowledge and weapons, This one has just a dagger. He casts Charm Person as she casts Shield. She fails the save and becomes Alzar’s good friend. She is another person who was magically altered b experiments to look like Markessa and then brainwashed to believe she was, but a part of her has always known otherwise. She shows them the valuables in this room: 2 polar bear rugs – 180 gp each 4 pairs of fancy slippers 150 gp each There are two secret doors they open and the charmed mage will accompany them, in the back. Alzar opens a secret door and they enter the exercise room of a burly fighter. He is tall, slender, muscular, and n padded armor and shield and working out on the quintain. The fighter was magically altered to be very strong, and brainwashed to fall in love with Markessa, but instead has fallen in love with the double. She tells him they are leaving, and he goes to his room, gathers his weapons and armor, and comes with them. Bodyguard – platemail armor + shield, 18/59 str so +2, +3 in battle. Fights with battle axe. 21 hp, AC 0, They move to a room that is dirty and foul smelling. There is a angry Taurian in here. This is the special guard of Markessa’s. The double commands him to stay silent and move back, and he does. They open a secret door and enter Markessa’s Spell Room. The room have bins and shelves filled with materials necessary for spell research and experimentation. There are white candles that lit when they entered, and do not appear to be burning the wick. There is a pentagram with an amulet in the middle. Alzar uses the Ring of Telekinesis to pick it up and brings it to him. They find a spellbook, and Alzar does not open it anymore, as per his previous rules. The stuff in here is worth 1300 gold, but is quite heavy. They move into her quarters with a luxurious bed chamber, costly furniture, expensive tapestries. And such. They find a wall safe and Alzar can’t unlock it. He damages it with acid – his last dose. Inside the damaged lock are valuables, and a poison dart trap but the needle was in the lock and damaged from the acid. They find another spellbook in it too. There is a Wand on her dresser. 3000 gp value of furnishings Gold and ruby necklace worth 1400 600 gp gold earrings 50 pp 3 Sapphire – 150 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 08:41 PM	#476
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	There is an escape tunnel from there that leads to a cave with 8 Døkkálfar, a very rare underground race of humanoids quite powerful and evil. The leader introduces herself to Alzar in Typic and asks where the slaves are she ordered. Alzar uses his innate ability to ESP once a week, and determines that this fighter/cleric is impatient for her lack of service, but word of Markessa’s death has not been heard here yet, and with Markessa’s double, they obviously think she has come to give them an update. If Markessa were not here, the Døkkálfar would likely attack and interrogate Alzar and his group, they are that upset and arrogant. Alzar grabs a skull and starts talking about how the slaves will not be coming right now because – casts Skulltrap and flings the skull. He catches them unprepared. All 8 are in the blast. 21 damage to everyone, unless they make their save and then 10 taken. The leader dies. The guard leader just takes damage. All of the guards die from it. So 7 out of 8 die. The leader runs for the back exit. Alzar grabs a dagger, and Carum throws his spear which is handy. Carum spears him for 7 damage. The dagger kills him. They search the Døkkálfar corpses and find exactly what Alzar suspected. He has never encountered them before. Their armor and weapons are very powerful, and yet if exposed to light, they will decay and be destroyed. They also do not radiate as magical. He gains: Døkkálfar Armor and Weapons: +3 chain, +2 mace, +2 chain, +1 shield, +1 dagger, +2 short sword, +1 chainx6, +1 short swordx612 poisoned javelins They have nothing else on them. He puts them in a Bag of Holding and will not pull them out unless underground. XP – 500 each This tunnel is the exit, so they turn around. They pass a tunnel on the right and take it. There are two kennels of worgs behind a portcullis. A search uncovers a secret door. They enter a giant goblin and orc barracks This is on the other side of the lab from the double doors. They have all fled. A search turns up nothing. They follow the tunnel and pass a guard post – now empty. They enter a room with a lot of cheesecloth suits of hobgoblin size. There are many clay crockery pots, now empty, but with the residue of honey. The next chamber has the large number of beehives, so they leave and return to the slave area, having explored this entire level except for them. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 09:01 PM	#477
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	These are the slave pens. The slaves are locked up, and no overseers can be seen anymore, so they must have gotten a message. There are about 20 listless and apathetic slaves in one room. There are 21 more in another. The third large cell has an entrance to their area. These are the mutated and strange creatures made by magic and twisted in various ways. Some have claws, tails, missing limbs, and special abilities. They head down into the tunnels and are greeted by many of the creatures down here. They ask if Alzar is the Messenger of Light who will take them to the world of light and away from these tunnels, and he agrees to do so, right now. The 61 mutated creatures gather their things and begin a pilgrimage. The false Markessa and bodyguard go with them, up to the top floor. They head back and begin to free more slaves . They find chambers with: 3 bald women 5 qwith, one of which is pregnant 6 men, and one pot bellied and looks fat and well fed 8 children 6 strong and able bodied women 3badly beaten men 7 men and one claims to be a leader from the north and will pay a handsome reward 2 very powerful and nasty looking men 7 women and children 6 sis’sharr 3 dvergr, tied up 8 children 4 middle aged men 10 pretty teenage girls, early to mid teens, dressed well 6 men and women, old 3 men and women, and badly beaten 1 man in the center of the cell, studying and meditating 4 barbarians Total – 92 slaves, plus the 41 lethargic ones here and those above that are still lethargic. Alzar swings by the witchdoctor’s room, takes her armor and morning star, and loosens her bonds. She is free to go or stay. They head back and grab 12 more slaves from the cloaker room. Alzar pays Carlstar 1000 gp as per the agreement. He moves and talks with the false Markessa and her bodyguard. They cannot take both the slaves and the mutated one son the ship, there is not enough room. But the slavers will come back to try and find out what happened, and its best that the mutated not be here when they do. He will take the slaves and drop them off 8 days away at a settlement on the coast, and then sail back and pick up Markessa, her bodyguard and the mutated. 17 days later, they return and pick them up. Alzar knows a place to take them, and they agree to follow his lead. 23 days later, after some storms and fighting off some griffons, they arrive at Tangaroa. There is an island in between the village islands with nothing on it. It seems like a good, out of the way place to set up shop and build a future. The natives will help them and teach them the skills needed to survive here. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 10:38 PM	#478
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	4725 XP for non-Alzar 6525 for Alzar + 10% Alzar – 97,485 (Level 8) Estaish – 42,591 (Level 6) – Now with 45 HP Aleigha – 40,085 (Level 6) – Now has 41 HP. Carum – 31,865 (Level 5) – Now has 48 HP. Carum is that close to level 6, but ah well. The below numbers reflect the 1000 gp given to Carlstar and 2500 gold to the ship captain and sailors and 4500 given to the three fighters. Alzar got the coins changed over in that town they stopped in for one day. He paid 2k for the service. He got some of the bigger and expensive stuff changed over too. Gold - 30195 10 tourmaline worth 100, 6 aquamarines worth 400 each Uncut 8 Sapphires worth 250, Ruby worth 500 – value can be 4 by gem cutter 4 pairs of fancy slippers 150 gp each Ivory – 75 gp 3 pieces of jade 60 gp Necklace of garnet and electrum 1300 gp 5 amethyst 50 gp each Silver and coral necklace of 1100 gp Gold belt buckle – 500 gp Gold and ruby necklace worth 1400 600 gp gold earrings 3 Sapphire – 150 5000 gp worth of alchemical equipment Pair of adamantite claws worth 2000 gp Electrum bracers – 560 gp Neckguard of electrum - 1400gp 100 ivory pipe. 10 jet pieces 100 gp each 10 matches silver and opal bracelets – 200 each 150 gold amethyst A search finds alchemical and lab equipment worth 2000 gp 1500 gp worth of alchemical books Ivory dagger – 30 gold Silver Chalice worth 500 gold Amulet of Finding Wand of Opening – 11 charges left Potion of Undead Control; Diminution, Cleric scroll with Cure Serious, Purify Food and Drink, Feign Death, Cure Light Wounds, Resurrection and Wind Walk Ring of Warmth Quaal’s Feather Token. Three flasks of potions (Giant Strength, Levitation, Healing) Five Pellets in a small box (Flash Pellets) Potion of Longevity Potion of White Dragon Control Philter of Love Ring of Water Walking Wooden case has a jar with an amulet suspended in an ochre colored liquid. A check shows this to be an ochre jelly, and the amulet is non magical. Opening the jar probably released the ochre jelly – a clever little trap. Markessa’s high level spellbook – Lightning Bolt Markessa’s low level spellbook – Magic Missile, Protection from Good, Read Magic, Detect Magic, Shocking Grasp, Scare, Wizard Lock and Darkness, 15’ radius Magic Pile: +1 dagger, Ring of Fire Resist, +1 broadsword, +1 scimitar, Periapt of Proof vs Poison +2, Sling of Seeking +2. Cloak of Protection +2. Ring of Infravision. Scroll – Continual Darkness, Paralyzation, Shadow Door. Scroll – Atonement, Oil of Etherealness. +1 studded leather, protection from normal missiles (-1 per die from magical ones too). +1 Short Sword of Speed. Amulet of Protection from Good, 3x daily. Wand of Magic Missiles – 12 charges left. +2 chainmail, +1 morning star Døkkálfar Armor and Weapons: +3 chain, +2 mace, +2 chain, +1 shield, +1 dagger, +2 short sword, +1 chainx6, +1 short swordx6, 12 poisoned javelins Used 2 Charges on Belt, 4 Invisibility Drink. Used both 3 HD Fireball. Used Extra Healing Pot. Healing x2, Dust of Appearance. Use charge of Paralyzation. Used Charge of Wand of Opening, Aleigha’s pot of healing. Alzar gives the pot of healing from this adventure to Aleigha. The Sling of Seeking gives +2 to both to hit and damage, and missiles are considered +1 for determining if they hit. Quaal’s Feather Token is an odd item that be used once, and then is used up. This is a Finger Token, so it gives a one-shot, perfect teleport to any place the user can see (even in a scrying device, such as a Crystal Ball). Alzar hands the Sling to Carum as well as the Ring of Infravision __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 10:56 PM	#479
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	After another two month, Alzar has completed 40 Dispels on one of the three books not destroyed by fire in Castanamir’s library. It’s a book at random and it has… This is not one of Castanamir’s spell books, but instead it is the Transcendental Impenetrabilities. It is a famous spellbook, of which there are several copies, by the mage Leomund. It includes the spells: Leomund’s Tiny Hut, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Globe of Invulnerability and Prismatic Sphere. Not much there, and Alzar doesn’t bother to learn the Hut. He goes back through and learns a few spells he skipped before – Conjure Spell Component, Leomund’s Trap, Minor Globe of Invulnerability. Now that they are back in Tangaroa, they have a few options. Explore one of those ruins, or try to find the other slave place. There are a lot of small islands in the Sea of Dread, and they would need to really scour the area around the Isle of Dread all the way back to the mainland to try and find it. Since that would take a while, Alzar thinks they should go ahead and start, __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-22-2010, 11:39 PM	#480
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	XSOLO. Lathan’s Gold This is one of the solo adventures. They are basically Choose your Own Adventure or Lone Wolf, but with the D&D rules. This one introduces new rules like how to quickly end a combat, but we will be doing a regular D&D combat and exploration and such for all of the areas in it. We will be using the mechanics of Lathan’s Gold, but not the plot or the main characters. The main plot has Lathan, the ship captain who owns his own ship and is betrothed to this hot princess but she is captured for ransom for 1000 gold, but Lathan doesn’t have that money (despite owning a boat) so he borrows 750 gold to equip himself and enable himself to get the money and get the princess. Stupid. Why not borrow the last 250 gold? Or sell an item or two for it? There are a lot of plot holes in modules sometimes. Why did the pirates in Isle of Dread wear metal armor during the day in camp when not expecting combat in the hot of the tropics, and wear metal armor on pirate raids, in boats? Why did the people in the Taboo Island temple wall up the back section in order to keep monsters and creatures away, and it worked, when they only things down there were crocodiles, two giant crabs a giant oyster and two kopru, and there were no stairs down, just a pit trap in one place and a collapsed floor – neither of which had been triggered at the time? How does Mantru have a splinter group with more than 40 people, when the village only has 7 houses? They aren’t even longhouses. Maybe they left due to a lack of shelter. Why did a fire giant send only two out of five hobgoblin armies to attack a strong fort? There are numerous examples of monsters too big to fit in the corridor, or poor designs (like this stockade just now, which has the only way you can get to the back half, and the stairs down, through someone’s office. WTF? Or the keep’s design where the private bedchamber of the lord goes through the armory? WTF? Or Castle Caldwell’s stupid design which lacks many things in a castle, like throne room, private quarters, and other essentials . In the dungeons of the stockade, the only way from the torture room and that section of the castle was through the secret lab and the alchemist’s chamber, or through a huge tract of tunnels that meanders through beehives and a chasm you have to walk along the wall, and so forth. Why would you make that design? ) I can understand a mage caught unawares having tool spells like Detect Magic and Read Magic instead of combat spells, but what about one heading for combat? I came across a dragon that had memorized levitate and I laughed at that spell being memorized. Anyway, Lathan’s Gold will be Alzar’s Quest since he owns the ship and so forth. We will be sailing around and looking to find some goodies. I expect this will lead into: MSOLO2, X8, A3, and eventually I1 and C1 back in the Isle of Dread. As you can see, I keep adding modules to our super Isle of Dread campaign, but I think they all work. X8 is being added since it takes place on a small island in the Sea of Dread. How could I not include that as well? I keep pushing back I1 and C1 because I saw how hard they are, especially I1. I think C1 could be run anytime now, but other modules have higher important in the storyline than look, here’s a shrine. Oh, did you see how the Gauntlets of Ogre Power are really powerful. No wonder I was surprised to see them in a low level module. I cheated. I rolled twice to see if I got the 10% chance they became another item, and nope. As a reminder, whenever a spell appears in a scroll or a named item appears, there is a 10% chance it’s a random spell from the Wizard’s Spell Compendium or item from the Encyclopedia Magica. I roll a d10 to figure out what kind of spell it is 1-4 common, 5-7 uncommon, 8-9 rare, 0 very rare, with adjustments made for the class and situation. Alchemy spells are more likely to be in an alchemist’s spellbook, no matter the rarity. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-23-2010, 05:29 PM	#481
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	We begin with 30 days of rations, having stocked up in Tangaroa. Instead of starting on the shore in a big city, we are starting in V40, off the coast of the Isle of Dread. The thing has a variety of entries – V are voyages in the open ocean, and come with these rules: Order of events. Follow this sequence for each voyage entry you read: 1. Read the entry you have chosen. Before going on to the next entry, allow your character and his party to study and change any spells that they wish. Note any spell changes on your character sheet. If you want, you may record any distinguishing features about this location in your ship’s log. 2. Check to see if your party encounters a wandering monster. Roll 1d6. If you roll a 6, you encounter a monster. Go to Table 1 and roll ld8. If your party encounters no monsters, skip to step 4. 3. Go to the interaction sequence to resolve the wandering monster encounter. 4. If you have a navigator aboard, skip to step 5. If you have no navigator aboard, you must check to see if your party becomes lost. Roll ld6. On a roll of 1, your party becomes lost. If you do not roll a 1, skip to step 5. Check to see if your current sea entry tells you where to go if you become lost. If it doesn’t, decide which direction in which you want to try to go. If you go north, subtract 9 from your current sea entry number and go to the new sea entry. If you go south, subtract 10 from your current sea entry number and go to the new sea entry. If you go east or west, stay at your current sea entry. 5. Choose your next sea or land entry from the choices given in your current sea entry. If you are drifting, subtract 10 from your current sea entry number and go to the new sea entry. 6. Go to your Expedition Record Sheet. Unless an entry directs otherwise, subtract 1 day from the Days Remaining column. You should also subtract 1 ration per party member from the Rations column. 7. As long as you are reading voyage (V) entries, repeat this process. Go back to step 1. We do have a navigator. There are also T entries for Trade Routes, C for coastal, number numbers for encounters, U for Urban, S for Specularum, which is replaced by the coastal city of Kathetia, and E for Island Exploration. We can go north, east or west. We go west. To V30. No monsters. We are still north of the Isle of Dread. West to V20 has a reef, so we head north to V32. Monster. A ship of 25 buccaneers sails into us and they have the wind and we cannot escape. They grapple us and begin to board. A sleep spell handles just 3 of them prior to their grapple and 4 more after. 7 are down. Dryshik Wall of Fogs the Sea Ghost where they are trying to board us, and that slows them down a lot. Meanwhile, the fighters (in no armor obviously) move in and start slicing. One takes 8 from Aleigha and dies. 8 down. Several swing and miss, but one hits Carum for 2. A Hyptotism spell takes out 6 more. Carum kills another. 15 down. With the Wall of Fog inhibiting them, they begin to back into their ship, and Alzar and group go over on their grapples and fight the rest there. Alzar goes first, as usual. His axe kills a pirate. They all miss him. The next round they win init and Alzar takes 11 from three hits. He then axes one, then a second. Est and Aleigha kill one each as well. 5 left. Alzar cleaves another. Est just nicks one for 4. Ale kills it. Carum hits for 8 and kills a third. 2 left. They jump overboard. They sleepers are killed and the hypnotized are captured. It looks like this vessel was recently on the losing side of a battle and its badly damaged from the rear and the other side. They find 5 days rations. Since they are close to Tangaroa, they sail 3 days back and it’s all quiet. They drop off the injured ship for later, and restock to 30 rations and head back out. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-23-2010, 06:07 PM	#482
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	They sail back to the same place, V32. We are getting close to an island to the north. We sail north to V33. No monsters. This is supposedly Spider Isle. We can land or keep sailing. I choose to land. I turn to E6. We encounter a wandering monster on Spider isle – a Cyclops. A 54 hp giant with one eye. It sees us land and starts throwing boulders. One misses Alzar (cloak). He is bout 150 feet away and it will take two rounds of running to get to him. A rock crashes into Aleigha and she takes 9. Another rock nails Alzar for 17. The Cyclops picks up a giant club and battle ensues. Alzar crits it for 23 damage. Aleigha hits for 7. It crushes Estaish for 9 damage. It wins init and misses Est. Alzar swings twice, hits once for 18 damage. Est misses, Ale misses, Carum crits it for 5 damage. They in init and Alzar kills it. XP – 1000 each A search reveals 1875 gold. We choose to explore the island. We turn to E21. We harvest 3 rations from the fruit on the island. An ancient building surrounded by eight standing and crumbling pillars is in the center of the island, and the roof of it is shaped like a spider. This is the Lost Temple of the Aranea. +3 rations They head down to investigate. The temple is just a few rooms, all abandoned. The rest have been destroyed, and numerous searches find nothing more. They leave and return to the Sea Ghost. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-23-2010, 06:31 PM	#483
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	We head west to V23. Quiet. We head west again. To V13. Quiet. There are reefs to the west and an island to the south tentatively identified as Skeleton Key. We go south, quiet. V12. More reefs to the west. We disembark to E8. We do not encounter any hostility upon our arrival. We move to explore the key – E23. 2 rations from the fruit here as well. There are thousands of bones littering the ground near the center of the key. This is the site of a major battle more than a hundred years ago, as the remnants of the Taurians that fled from the destruction of their homeland in Hithtris settled here, and were attacked in one great assault. +2 rations As they search the battlefield, they find the ruins of the old fort that was once here. They uncover a large plug in the ground and lift it up, and the darkness stretches below them for a long time. Alzar drops a torch and it falls more than 150 feet. There appears to be some sort of tunnel down there. They tie three ropes together and descend, Alzar first. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-23-2010, 06:34 PM	#484
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	M2 (aka MSOLO2). Maze of the Riddling Minotaur I haven’t ever read or played this one, I just picked it up from eBay and will play it through along with everything else. This is one of the solo modules that used a magic pen to reveal things, and that’s just a cute little kitschy 80’s vibe. I’ll be playing this one straight. This series was originally released as M1 and M2, and then they released the Master set for D&D and released the new modules as M1-5. Obviously that caused problems, so many sites named this two part series as MSOLO1 and MSOLO2 just like BSOLO and XSOLO and XS2. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

05-23-2010, 06:52 PM	#485
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	The tunnels are strange to Alzar. They feel different magically, and perhaps spells will work differently in here. The rope is dropped and no one else descends. Alzar sends Megala up to investigate but the seal is placed back on before he can get there! With no other options, Alzar picks up the dropped torch and looks around. There are exits from this small room in all four directions. With no real way to choose, he goes left. The corridor branches but he sees another room ahead so he keeps going. He enters the intersection and sees a Taurian made of shiny black obsidian. It turns, raises its axe, and then intones a riddle: “You may see across my width Though my beginning and end may be leagues apart I am forever moving But you will always see me in the same spot. What am I?” My rule for this is if I can guess it, Alzar can too. The sky is my early answer. You can see across it, its beginning and end are far apart, it moves but always is in the same place. Let’s go with that. The answer is a river. The bullman-golem moves to attack. Alzar wins init and cuts into it for 14 damage. It swings an axe back and misses automatically. Alzar wins init. He crits it for 25 damage and kills it. A quick investigation shows nothing but obsidian. Alzar can go forward, backward, left or right. He sees a room to his left and walks to it, passing a corridor to the right He can only see about 20 feet with a grey mist settling in the maze. XP - 1200 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent