The D&D Dynasty: The Path of Alzar the Mighty

[Abe Sargent]

This room is somewhat like an alchemist laboratory but the equipment looks very unfamiliar even to Alzar. Knives, scissors, surgical tools and such adorn the place, and there are a few metal tables, with one having a human male strapped to it. Near it stabs a large, horrible, grotesque creature on ten legs, with an unearthly had, masses a short tentacles, and an oily membrane with four, yellow, bulging eyes.



Alzar has never heard of, nor seen this monster before. He prepares by ordering Dryhik to Mist Ball it, and the true form of the Gingwatzim to attack it. Everybody else is ordered back.

Mist Ball. Failed. Gingwatzim is nearing it. It Magic Missiles the Gingwatzim for 14 damage. It has arrived.

Next turn, The Brain Collector wins and stabs it with its claws, and they go right through the Gingwatzim (can only be hurt by magic). It tries to hit the Brain Collector. It misses. The next turn, the Collector goes first. It starts to run. A Mist Ball flies in. It fails the save, takes 4 damage and it is blinded for 3 turns. Alzar orders everyone in, in case the Gingwatzim cannot finish the deal . It hits, and the Brain Collector loses 3 strength, and is now at -1 to hit and damage. It makes it saves and is not paralyzed.

Alzar’s dagger enters its head for 5 damage. Dryshik flies in and misses with its claws. The Gingwatzim misses. The Brain Collector swings.

The Brain Collector swings and misses. Alzar slaps it for 4. Estaish adds 4 and Aleigha adds 5. The men at arms hack at it for 4 damage. The Gingwatzim hits for another 3 strength -2 for it now. Made its save.

Alzar hits for 6. Aleigha doles out 8. A man at arms adds 3 and it dies.

XP – 200 each

They search the room and find:

100 gold gem
200 gold
Shield
Sword

[Abe Sargent]

They move back and take the last door from that small corridor. In enters into a large large room. There is a door to the right and another to the right-front. It is outfitted as a complete alchemistry laboratory with long wooden tables, a myriad of wood shelves, with glass and metal containers, pipes, flasks and such of numerous make, and purpose.

Suddenly, the doors shut magically, and cannot be opened, and a black mist begins to fill the chamber. Everyone except Alzar and Aleigha fall asleep. They begin to dream

Estaish dreams that he is running away from a tumbling boulder, and he awakens just before he would have been smashed.

The three men at arms dream of the boulder, that all plantlife will take over the world, and that he was captured by lizard folk, but released by a kind magic user. They all awaken. The doors are openab;le again.

The room reveals a ton of money in lab equipment, and if Alzar has a free bag of Holding or two, he could grab a ton of stuff for his own, but he does not. They go up, and it ascends to a trap door in the chapel that they must have missed. They return and open the other door, which opens into a corridor that goes forward or left along the wall to the lab. They go left and hit this door in front of them. Inside is a huge mound of treasure 10’ high by 10’ wide and by 40’ long. It’s huge! It appears to be a large part copper and silver though. Like normal, Alzar orders in Dryshik to investigate and sees nothing but coins. Alzar stabs it with his staff and it recoils like he just hit a slimy spongy monster for 5 damage. Suddenly, the mound of treasure begins to move. It looks like a giant worm of some sort, with armor out of treasure? Odd. Alzar orders everybody out, and they may return, but they are banged up, and the door is way smaller than the worm.

They are out and they go back and try the door the other way. The only thing of note in this room is a 10 foot deep sunken pit with a thin glass sphere floating in the middle of it, and inside is a large silver key. Alzar orders everyone back, and again, plunges his magical staff into it, and it smokes a little. He pulls it out, tears off a bit of cloth, and drops it, and it dissolves. Alzar grabs the chest from before and the empty ceramic flask, fills it, and then melts the lock off the chest, and they get the items, plus the second silver key. He refills the flask. The sphere is small, and Dryshik is easily able to gather it, drop it on the surface, and then bring the key to Alzar. It is identical to the other two they have.

They search, find nothing, and move to the next room. Inside is a pentagram surrounded by a circle in white paint. An amber colored candle burns at each point. There is a hunting horn of amber on the wall, and a movement in the darkness in the center of the pentagram. You can see a 10’ tall humanoid covered with dull grey scaly skin, a hairless gaunt body, and ivory fangs. Alzar studies the horn and takes it. He orders everyone to retreat, despite the pleadings of the creature within to help it, and it will give them its treasure.

The next room in this section has dusty shelves and the appearance of being empty. A search finds nothing.

[Abe Sargent]

Next to it is a room with the sound of yelping dogs coming from the door. Alzar skips it for now. They find another room with a 10’ wide pit and 6 ghouls! Alzar orders them to follow his instructions. They agree.

Whew. This pit leads to an underground cavern where the Land of the Ghouls is. Not too shabby. Alzar orders them back and they go to the worm room now. They open the other door on the other side, and see the worm. Alzar orders the ghouls in first. Then everyone else is ordered in.

The worm attacks first and misses a ghoul entirely (rolled a 5). The six ghouls can all attack at once, and do so. It takes ten. A dagger flies and hits for 4. Everyone is in and Alzar orders everybody to attack away from the head and jaws, except the ghouls. They win init. Aleigha hits for 7, the men at arms for 7 as well. The ghouls hit for 9. It eats a ghouls, it just crunches on it and eats it. 5 ghouls left. It wins init and crits a ghoul for 18 damage and it dies. 4 left. The ghouls deal 12 to it. Alzar adds 4 and kills it. They search the room and find:

50000 copper
10000 silver
3000 gold

A bunch of weapons and armor. They take up way too much space, so Alzar magic piles now, them and everything else found, drops the non-magical stuff, and keeps the magical stuff. Nothing in here was magic though.

They go the room with the barking and open it. Inside is a quartet of chained hell hounds. There is nothing else in the room, and Alzar orders the doors closed just as the first fireball is breathed. They just make it without taking any damage.

[Abe Sargent]

The go to the last room in the far corner from the entrance. The door opens, and inside, on the south wall, is a 10x10 silver gate on a wall that has a hallway on the other side. The gate has three large keyholes. In front of the gate is a giant lion made of amber.

As they move in, it animates and moves towards them. This is an Amber Golem. Alzar makes an INT roll at half INT. He orders one ghoul in to fight it and distract it, and pulls out +1 long swords for the men at arms. It will be impervious to Dryshik’s balls since it can’t see, doesn’t breathe, and is immune to poison.

The ghoul is killed and Alzar orders everybody in, carefully. Just as it pounces, Alzar fires off a Ray of Ondovir. It hits and the golem fails its save and is forced to sit there, pounced, for one round while everyone swings at it.

Damage dealt: 21 damage. They sheared off a lot of amber. One man at arms missed. Alzar draws the +3 staff of annoying ness during this.

Next round. Init rolled. Alzar swings and misses. Aleigha nails it for 4. The men at arms swing well (12, 11 and 12) but miss. The Lion attacks and kills a man at arms. Next round, They win init again Alzar nails it for 8, both Estaish and Aleigha miss, and both men at arms hit -0 one crit for 11 and the other for 4 and the golem is dead and breaks into a lot of amber, weighing just a few hundred coins, but worth 5000 gold.

XP -1000 each, inc soldiers

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar has three keys, and inserts them all. The gate whirs open and a magical portal appears beyond it. They enter. They arrive at a room and find a potion, sword, ring and mirror. Alzar follows the instructions on the scroll. The Ring is put around the hilt of the sword. The blade is coated with the potion. It is swung and hits a mirror. The world grows dim and disappears and reappears in a room with double doors to their rear, and doors to the right and left. The double doors won’t open. They open each door, and there is a path of air and one of fire. They choose the path of air. As they move, a familiar sound is heard and a Wyvern flies overhead, but it is not attacking. They hit another room, with two more doors, one into earth and the other into water. They take the muddy earth and several mud men animate and follow them, but they do not attack.

It opens into an antechamber and a stone giant tells them to prepare themselves. They then step forward, and open the door to Etienne D’Amberville’s tomb.

There is an ornate mahogany casket in the center on a raised dais. There is a candelabra with burning amber candles, and a tapestry that depicts Etienne, founder of the Amber clan, assassinated by his son, who took over the group. Carved into the casket are the words – Burn the tapestry to break my curse. Alzar does so, and the lid opens, and a skeleton body begins to turn into a human one, as muscle, sinew, and skins are added. The man stretches and then gets out and thanks Alzar. They reappear in Castle Amber, and several of the D’Ambervilles here can be heard crying and shouting in the distance. Etienne changes the castle slightly, so that it snaps back toThorasia, while leaving behind those D’Amberville family that are from here. He also restored life to the dead man-at arms. The gold and items from the castle are gathering into chest and sacks carried by the three ghouls, three men at arms, the main crew, the bags of holding, and that vat turned to walking bank.

They emerge into the dawn, at the same time they left, and the Castle is behind them, but darkened. They walk down the hill, and Alzar gives each men at arms 350 gold as thanks, even though he doesn’t have to give them anything at all. He also gets back his magic swords. He has had his sight restored by the trip.

Shortly thereafter, they meet the group waiting for them farther down the hill, but everyone has seen the return of the Castle and thinks everything is alright, but Alzar just waits to speak with Cousette D’Amberville. An hour later, the ghouls have fled, and all of the things they recovered hidden. Cousette thanks them, and Alzar asks why, since her whole family is now in another land. She looks at him shyly and says, “Because you broke the curse on my father.”

With that, Cousette tells Alzar where his wagons and such are, and then she collects several things, and in an half hour, has been seen for the last time ever in Thorasia.

[Abe Sargent]

And with that ends Castle Amber.


(I changed many things. I removed the outdoor and towns, and reduced Stephen’s tomb, and reduced the rewards in several places ,like the antique jewelry and magic items the party gets for rescuing Stephen. Since I removed some of the danger, that only made sense to me. I also dropped the XP in a few places, but it still felt like a ton of XP was handed out here.)

[Abe Sargent]

XP – 2870 each, except for Alzar, who got 16220 into 17842

Current XP –

Alzar – 50,960 (Level 6)
Estaish – 10035 (Level 4)
Aleigha – 14450

Estaish now has 31 hp

Gold: 56500 after gifts and exchanges.


Gem – 100x3, 500, 10, 50; jewelry worth 1500 and 1400
2000 gold in a small case of gems
800 gold for a tiny human shaped figurine of onyx
5000 gold worth of Amber
12,000 crown jewel – chick was de-magic jarred when leaving the place.

Total Gold: 58000

Alzar gives 2000 each to his fighters.

Alicorn
Gold Dragon Skin and Scales


No more Javelin of Lightning, Wand of Secret Doors, Potion of Undead Control, Used charge on Belt, Alzar and Estaish used healing pots.

Magic Pile – “D’Antoigne” – Long Sword, +2, Int 9, Ego 11, Wil 22 AL N – Detects Magic, Finds Traps and Detects Sloping Passages; Potion of Control Plants, Snake Staff, Broom of Flying, Ear Ring, +1 shield, Scroll of Fireball, Locate Object, Special Effects, Ice Storm, Wall of Fire. +2 Bastard Sword, +1shield, Horn of Demon Dismissal – 2 charges.


Alzar grabs the +2 splint mail armor he paid for.

[Abe Sargent]

At level 6, Alzar will be adding a new level 3 spell to his roster. He’s also dropping ESP as a spell since he can use it once a week as an ability. He learns Special Effects - a fourth level artifice spell that will add a permanent sense to a room. You can give it a permanent smell, taste, feel, look or sound, and that can be anything you want it to be. Unlike illusion, this is a permanent effect.

Alzar is gaining Vampiric Touch and Empathic Control for ESP.

At level 7, in 60,000 XP, Alzar will have a serious power bump, the first of three such bumps. Gaining 4th level magic is where the fun begins. At level 8, he can use all of his fighter stuff again, and still gain XP. He’ll be able to use his axe, gain a -2 AC bump, and attack once every other round, get a higher THAC0 and deal a lot more damage with his axe mastery. At level 9, he will gain the ability to cast level 5 magic, and if he can find the Animate Dead spell, he can make and use zombies and skeletons.


He does some research into the powers of an Alicorn. He just is aware of its ability to help prevent he user from getting poisoned. In a week, he has also discovered:

It can be made into a bunch of healing potions.
Upon direct contact with any poison, it changes color for a bit.
If powdered alicorn is consumed – cure poison, disease
It’s actually a +7 save vs poison, not +6, sorry


There are rumors that certain spells cast on or in combination with an alicorn greatly increase their duration and/or power. There are numerous recipes for magic items, scrolls and potions that need an alicorn.


After a week of healing and research, Alzar converts 53000 gold into 50,000 gold worth of ten pieces of jewelry.

5,000 gold left
50,000 gold jewelry

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, I’m getting ready to begin my mega-Isle of Dread campaign. All modules are in, and everything looks ready to go. Here are the modules, in order:

U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
X1 Isle of Dread
UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave
X1 continues
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City
C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan
X1 Finishes
XSOLO Lathan’s Gold
M2 (or MSOLO2) Maze of the Riddling Minotaur
The Final Confrontation with the Big Bad

It’s possible I may add another one or two at the end as well. I might also move some modules here or there. Ready?

[Abe Sargent]

After a few days, Alzar is approached by a business associate of Cousette’s who had asked her to look into an issue in a town his son is the mayor of down river. They’ve been having a problem with a local haunted house and Alzar’s help would be greatly appreciated with that matter. Since he just took out and brought back Castle Amber, surely a little haunted house wouldn’t be too much of a bother? The man offers to pay Alzar 1000 gold, up front, just to check it out, and consider it.

Alzar takes the gold.

6000 gold left

The man sends them on a ship down river. The town is about four days south of Chonae. Alzar and fellows get on a ship, load the wagons, and begin to set sail for the town of Saltmarsh.

[Abe Sargent]

U1 – The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh





This was the first of the UK TSR branch modules, and designed for lower level characters, but I’ma make a change or two to bring it in to where we are playing it. It is designed to work with U2 and U3 in a trilogy, but I don’t own the back two, so I’m just going to roll this. It was rated the 27th best adventure of all time, so you get a chance to see another great adventure in place. The timing of this module, at this time, begins a long super-module-campaign thing I intend to do to link together several modules.

[Tellistto]

Present and Ready, Sir!

[Abe Sargent]

Awesome!

[hoopsguy]

Very much enjoying the ride, especially when Alzar gets to showcase his evil side.

[PurdueBrad]

I've read this all in the last two days and it is excellent Abe. Between this and a couple of the more RP-based WW games, I need to find people around here that are into RPGs so I can start to play.

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks all!!!

[mrkilla22]

Yes, very good stuff. I enjoy reading and following along on his adventures while I'm at work.

[Abe Sargent]

Glad you've got something to do during the day

[Abe Sargent]

The town of Saltmarsh has about 2000 people in it, making it much smaller than Regalsford, the first place Alzar bunked up for a while so long ago. The river here is flat and wide and slower and very deep – it can take ocean bound ships all the way up to Chonae to the north, and all the way south. This town specializes in fishing the river and makes a lot of money from the wealth of the river. There are also a few loggers here, cutting and timbering logs in the nearby forest. There are also some farms on the outskirts. The place is relatively quiet, all things considered.

The ship arrives, and Alzar, party, and things are dumped here. It leaves tomorrow for the rest of the journey down the River Storm. The Mermaid’s Gullet is the only major inn here, but there are a few smaller ones. They rest in the Gullet and get lodging for a few days. There is a town council, led by a mayor. Alzar has a meeting arranged with him the following day. For tonight, they relax and enjoy the small town, although it is a bit big for Aleigha.

The next day, the mayor’s assistant, a short woman of 30ish, brings Alzar to the mayor – Rogart Battenbridge, son of Valza Battenbridge, who hired Alzar. He brings in Alzar and tells him the issue. For decades, about four miles up the coast, there has been this old house. There were strange sightings and rumors of ghosts and the undead lurking about. No one went there. However, recently, the ghosts have gotten worse. People who walk near there claim to have increased sensations of unease, and strange lights have been seen there at night.

The previous occupant was a mage of sinister reputation, and most believe that the dead man may be haunting the joint, or that his creations or evils have gotten the best of the place. The house is unwholesome to the eye and long abandoned. In fact, despite the fact that all of the land inland is great farming land, no one grows anything there.

Alzar agrees to check it out today, and grabs Estaish, Aleigha, and a few horses and heads out.

[Abe Sargent]

The house stands on the cliff top 70 feet above river level and 80 feet or so from the edge of said cliff. There is a stone wall just a bit higher than Alzar’s head, and has partially collapses revealing an old well, and probably what was once a garden. An old stone cobbleway leads through a beaten but still working gate to the front door. There is fallen plaster, a chimney on top looking collapsed, and numerous evidences of rodent and insect infestations. There are a few holes in the roof which appear to penetrate into the house. Alzar orders everyone to be careful.

The front door is old, but serviceable, and they open it. There is a musty, dirty entrance beyond, with a corridor to the left and front and right. There are also stairs leading up. There is plenty of natural light here from the ceiling. A chimney is collapsed. There are the chirps of mice and rats, and ants moving into and out of the entry way and back outside through a hole in the wall. A search finds nothing

There is nothing else in here of note, and they choose to go right (random). There is a corridor with two doors on the right. The first one opens into a large living area with a few bits of broken furniture and broken plaster. They search and hidden in the chimney in a small leather pouch holding a 120 gold amethyst.

They take the door to the next room from this one. The is much more fallen plaster in here than elsewhere, and it covers the floor. Another search is enacted and finds nothing.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar decides to head back and try the other wing. There is a door in front, and one on each side. They start with the left door. This opens into a room that was once a library. There are a few bookshelves here and there, but they are mostly broken. There is a pile of 14 books in a corner. Alzar orders a search. Notjhing else is here, but he found these texts:

The Magical Properties of Gemstones
The Magical Properties of Herbs and Flowers
The Metaphysics of Mathematics

150 gold each, and all by major named mages that Alzar can identify.

They try the right door and enter a large study or writing room with a desk, broken windows, and damp rot in several places. There is a pedestal desk and broken chair. A search turns up a central drawer on the desk still locked. Just a bit of acid does the trick, since it is already damaged through disuse . There are documents, very old, that appears to be receipts and accounts. There is a vial in here as well with a rose coloured liquid.

They head back and open the door at the end of the corridor and reveal a very large living space, larger than any other room they’ve yet to see. There are old shredded carpets, a few broken shelves, a fireplace that appears to still be operational, and a door to the north that leads to a small paved patio, long since broken. They search and find a trap door under a rug. As they lift he trap door, they hear a voice from above telling them “Welcome fools, Welcome to your death!” and then some laughing. They shut the door and explore the rest of the first level. They take the last corridor

It has a door on the left, which is an old dining room with nothing much here but a rusted candelabra, and beaten chairs and a table. A search finds nothing, and they hear a few rats in the walls, but nothing else. The right door just after it has a stuffed and faded pair of armchairs, but torn or cut with the stuffing pulled out, and largely intact frames. There is also a shattered table. The dampness is less here – the windows are still intact, but show age. A search finds a large spider in the chimney, easily killed by weapons. In the chimney is a ring. There is a room at the end of the corridor and it leads to a kitchen area. It is dirty and damp, with patches of grey mould and a few cobwebs around. A few rusted iron utensils and a pot are found when the place is searched. Out of the sink come a few giant centipedes, but they are not attacking, just fleeing.

[Abe Sargent]

They open a door to the pantry and it has a damp and decay smell and stairs leading down into a basement. As they search the room and approach the stairs, they hear the cries of screaming and pain and torment from below. They find nothing else, and return to the main foyer to go up the stairs. They are worn, dilapidated, and creak loudly, but are serviceable enough, except for one split into two pieces.

They arrive in a corridor with a much damper, mustier odor than below. They can go right down a corridor with three doors or left to one with two and a branching corridor to the right. Right, and the first door. What was once a nice master bedroom now stands dirty, decayed, and mildewy. There are a pair of old, cracked, leather boots in a small bin, and a old, torn and ragged cloak still on a peg by the door. There is a yellow mold to the right, and Alzar kills it with an application of oil and fire, and then the dampness prevents the fire from continuing.

The next room may have been a fine guest bedroom, but is now as decayed as the rest of the house. Large beetles the size of a hand are eating the bedspread, but fly out through an open ceiling when they get close. A search turns up nothing. The final room is a dirty bedroom with worn floorboards that creak significantly. There is some rubbish in the fireplace, and more worn and old and broken and disused furniture. A search turns up a worthless chunk of crystal and a valuable chunk of feldspar – 50 gold. There are also some more rat noises from the walls in this area.

[Abe Sargent]

They head back and go into the first of two doors on the left. This is a fourth decaying bedroom with a set of boards on the floor that looks very unsafe. There is already a hole in the floor and roof. Alzar orders Megala and Dryshik to fly around, but they find nothing.

The final room on this side is locked. Now that’s interesting. A flask of acid takes it out, and it looks like a recent lock. Inside is a dirty, unused bedroom with a man bound and gagged and clad only in undergarments and devoid of any other items, clothes or equipment. Alzar reaches down and ungags him, and he thanks Alzar profusely. He says his name is Ned Shakeshaft and that he was a thief from a nearby town who entered this house at night last night, trying to find treasure that may have belonged to the previous owner, and was summarily knocked out and brought up here, tied and gagged.

Like he normally does, Alzar uses ESP t see the truth. Ned makes his save, and Alzar keeps him talking.

Ned fails. Ned is his real name, and he actually is a thief. Verified.

Round three – Ned makes save

Round four – Ned fails. He did come here last night, but he was not attacked, but tied up for some other reason

Round Five – Ned nails his save

Round Six – Ned fails. He was plated here by a local merchant to attack Alzar when the time is right, and kill him.

Well now, that’s rather interesting, n’est pas?

Alzar smiles at him with his new found knowledge. He pulls out his potion of poison, that has already has a bit used on the dagger. He shows it to Ned.

“Do you know what this is? No? It’s a poison potion. Someone may have made it to kill an adventurer that got too curious, or maybe they failed to make a regular potion – that happens sometimes. Perhaps they wanted a deadly poison for some nefarious purpose. Just a drop is all that it takes to kill someone. Just one drop.”

Alzar picks up the gag.

“All I have to do is pour a bit of this onto this rag, shove it back into your mouth, and leave you here.”

He then unstoppers the vial.

“Would you like that Ned? Would you like to be poisoned here, right now? After all, poison is the method of assassins, is it not?”

Ned rolls a die to see if he buys it or not. There is a local in the town who is employed by the Temple of Elemental Evil. When he heard that Alzar was coming here, he hired Ned to kill Alzar after pretending to be a prisoner. Alzar asks how much he was paid – 500 gold. Where is the gold? I get it after I kill you. That was not a smart deal. I assume your equipment is nearby? Ned glances at the fireplace. Megala flies into it and finds a dagger with an application of poison to it. Alzar laughs.

Now that is truly funny. I see fate has a sense of humor Ned. Would you like to be poisoned by your own blade? Alzar investigates the poison. (He makes his roll). I would have expected more than Carrion Crawler venom from you, Ned. That would just paralyze, not kill. Is that so you could make your way with me later, Ned?

Alzar puts the gag back in Ned’s mouth, they search the room and find nothing, shut the door and leave this wing. They head to the right corridor and find two doors. The first is yet another old bedroom. They had a lot of large bedrooms. The mattress is torn and stuffing is coming out, and mould is over the walls and floor. A search finds a pouch with 4 diamonds, 25 gold each, in the mattress that had not been found yet.

[Abe Sargent]

They hit the next room and it is a storage room, although very large indeed, Inside are an oak chest under an intact window, and numerous shelves, and old bits of mops, brooms, and supplies. A search turns up nothing but a few old rattered clothes in the chest.

There is an open area at the back and they head out to check it out. Suddenly, a flock of Stirges see food from outside and fly through an open window and a collapsed corner of the building.

22 Stirges fly in, and Alzar orders everyone back and grabs a skull and casts Skulltrap. Unfortunately, he is caught in the blast and takes 23.

28/51

The Stirges all die and Alzar animates 6 corpses and leaves 16 for later, and has 6 animal skeletons now.

A search of this back part finds nothing. They head back down, and then take the secret door down (that’s always the plan)

[Abe Sargent]

This is a room unlike anything else seen. Down here is a huge room, with lighted torches, a bunch of bunks and cots for tons of people, chairs, a large table, and comfortable fireplace. There are two doors out in the back. There are even shelves and casks of foodstuff all nice and neat. This room shows none of the wear of the rest of the house. Doors, or search?

They search. As they do, they find a secret door in the wall to the north wing of the house.

Just as Estaish is pointing out the secret door he found, suddenly the groups feels a spell wash over. Alzar and Estaish are slowed and move at half speed, Aleigha is fine. Bursting out of the two doors in the back come 12 soldiers and behind them, a mage with 7 images around him. Arrows fly and Alzar is crit’ed for 4 and takes another 5 for 9 damage total.

19/51

Alzar orders the normal speed animal skeletons to the battle front lines and Dryshik to maneuver and breathe on the tall male mage. The balls hits an illusion and one of the images disappears. Estaish and Alzar will take the last action this round, Aleigha draws her sword. The mage casts a spell that ignites all of the 10 arrows now flying towards them, and Alzar is down to 7/51, Aleigha to 19/28, and Estaish to 22/32. Alzar casts Sleep and 5 fall asleep. Estaish draws his sword and moves, slowly, forward. Their archers have now been based by the animal skeletons and Aleigha.

Aleigha slays an archer for 12 damage off a crit. 6 left. One animal skeleton pecks for 2 damage on one. Their mage casts Paralyzation, a powerful 4th level version of Hold Person. Aleigha is paralyzed, and Alzar is immune and Estaish makes his save. Dryshik kills another image. 5 left. Two animal skeletons are killed. Estaish swings and hits a soldier for 4 damage. Alzar casts Vampiric Touch and drains 11 from a warrior, killing her.

18/51

They win init and focus on Estaish and Alzar for 10 on Estaish and 5 on Alzar.

13/51
12/32

Their mage casts a spell and Alzar is now Blinded as per the Blindness spell. Happens a lot recently. Megala flies in and hits an image. 4 left. Estaish swings his sword right at a warrior and drops his staff. An animal skeleton pecks the wounded soldier for 3 and kills him. 5 soldiers left. Alzar casts Hypnotism, and it works on two soldiers, who are ordered to drop their weapons and sit down. 3 left.

The three soldiers swing and miss everyone. The mage, noticing that Alzar can cast spells while blinded and get up in front and take a lot of hits, is worried about him still, so he casts Phantasmal Killer at him, one of his most powerful spell. Luckily for Alzar, his +1 amulet to those sorts of effects just allows him to make his save. Estaish misses. Dryshik Mist Balls another image – 3 left. The skeletons miss. Alzar casts Charm on a warrior and he makes his save.

The animal skeletons crit a warrior for 2 damage. The soldiers hit Alzar for 7 damage. The mage casts Chromatic Orb, summons a blue orb to his hand, and throws it at Alzar. It misses and disappears. Alzar summons a searing serpent. Megala and Dryshik miss the mage. Estaish kills a wounded soldier.

6/51


The two soldiers left are told to focus on and kill both remaining animal skeletons. The mage tries a Sleep spell, none of Alzar’s team fall, and nods his head like he expected that. Megala hits the mage and not an image, but instead of dealing him any damage, a skin from a Stoneskin peels off. Alzar nails a guard for 7 damage. The Searing Serpent crits an image and kills it. 2 images left.

With just one guard left, and facing two imp-type creatures, a summoned creature, and two combatants still on their feet, and out of real spells, the mage casts a spell and disappears. Alzar orders Megala and Dryshik to the two exits in the back to cover them, but the mage secretly heads up the stairs and leaves.

The final guard is easily captured and tied up.

XP – 300 each

[Abe Sargent]

They add the weapons and armor from the guards to their magic pile. A search turns up another secret door in the bottom corner, cattie corner from the base of the stairs. They push into the door on the left in the back section. This is clearly the quarters of a person senior to those outside. The place is clean and tidy, the furnishings are nice, there are candles and so forth . There is a table with a small wooden box and a bullseye lantern on top. They start searching and find:

3 flasks of oil
A tinderbox with flint and steel
8 candles
Some books: a volume of erotic poetry, illustrated, worth 10 gold; a naval almanac listing tide times for the River Storm in this area (10 gold); a volume concerning mesmerism and lists effects. (50 gold)

They find a box under a loose flagstone. It is locked. They pocket it:

(Locked, trapped with needle trap, 11 pp and three potions of healing, another of speed.)

The next door at the back of the big common room is open. The door to the room is barred – from this side, and can easily be raised. Alzar orders everyone back and the bar is raised, and the door opened. It is very dark, but some torchlight bleeds through. Light reveals dingy and dirt- ness in here. Alzar begins to sense something familiar. He moves in with a torch and inside are 6 skeletons, moving to…follow Alzar’s every command now that they’ve been controlled.

These have 4 hp each. They search and both Aleigha and Estaish find a secret door at the back, which is quickly opened. It moves to reveal a clutter of old and broken glass and earthware, and some copper pots in there that appear to be intact. This may have been an old laboratory, nice and secure and hidden in the back. As they enter, they see that a bench runs the entire length of the floor and jars of powders and liquids and pieces of chemical apparatus are here. There is an L shape table in here, and a rich chair, with a skeleton figure. It wears a robe, embroidered with mystical symbols, and starting to fade.

The book sitting open at the table is:

Ye Secret of Ye Philosopher’s Stone – 500 gold – it outlines the process to actually make a Philosopher’s Stone.

There is a golden skull, full size – 750 gold; gold apple 150 gold; rose – 150 gold; a small set of five discs value 50 gold in total. They begin to search. They find 47 gold in a belt pouch. There is a stone in the skeletons hands, and at first, they think it might be a Philisopher’s Stone, but Alzar’s Alchemy check tells them its not. It is added to the magic pile bag by skeletons. , Suspecting there could be many things, they search three times for 30 minutes. They find a secret drawer with a spellbook inside, but it is damage by time and only about 5 or 6 spells are legible, and Alzar will need Read Magic for later

[Abe Sargent]

They return to the big room and go to the secret door to the right and enter a wine cellar, with steps back up to the pantry. At the bottom of the stairs are a human corpse clad in plate mail with a long sword and shield by its legs. His belt purse is cut and the things taken. As Alzar investigates the corpse, a group of 11 rot grubs emerge from the corpse and attack him, trying to burrow into his flesh.



Four hit him, and begin to burrow in. Alzar orders everyone back, casts blastbones on a small bones on his belt after pulling it off, and the tosses it on the corpse where the other rot grubs are trying to jump off. And it destroys them. The rot grubs are under his skin and moving towards his heart. He tells Aleigha to Cure Disease him, and she does. They die, and Alzar will live.

A search of the man puts the items and weapons and armor into the magic pile, and they find a 250 gold emerald in his boot.

[Abe Sargent]

They head back and take the second secret door out, and immediately take several stairs down. This is roughhewn rock and some natural and some artificial passages. They arrive at a large natural cavern with a green slime that falls down on a leading skeleton and attacks (and deals no damage). The whole thing is lit up after some oil. The skeleton does die from the fire, unfortunately.

5 skeletons left

A search finds nothing. They continue and arrive at another natural cavern with nothing of interest here, even after a search. They continue, and the caverns and caves are obviously descending into another cavern.

This is also a natural cavern with stacked casks and boxes and bolts of cloth. Around a corner from the other end of the cavern, snarling can be heard. They check and see five gnolls chained up and working on expanding the cavern with picks. Alzar orders them to stop, but they cannot speak Typic, but look violently at him. He would normally just fee them and let them go, but they are being unruly, so he skips them. The bolts of cloth are silk, and worth about 100 gold each. Alzar has them added to a bag of holding. A search finds brandy, weapons, unworked leather, and more. There is nothing of significant value though.

They leave and move to the other passage out and it is severely sloping, and Alzar pulls out the Rope of Climbing to secure everyone. The skeletons are fine – they weigh little. They arrive safely at another natural cavern with more cloth and casks here. A search finds two more bolts of silk at 100 gold each. The 10 casks of brandy in each room are taken and worth 50 gold each.

The passage continues and enters a cave which opens directly out into the river. Pulled up onto the sloping cave is a small boat, maybe large enough for 6 or 8 people. It has oars, a mast and a furled sail. They continue to search, and find nothing.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar totals up their findings:



Gold - 102

Amethyst – 120 gold, Emerald – 250 gold, Diamond – 25goldx4
7 bolts of silk – 100 gold each
10 small casks of brandy – 50 gold each

Golden skull, full size – 750 gold; gold apple 150 gold; gold rose – 150 gold; a small set of five gold discs value 50 gold in total.




Books:

Ye Secret of Ye Philosopher’s Stone – 500 gold
Concerning Mesmerism and Lists of Effects – 50 gold
The Magical Properties of Gemstones - 150
The Magical Properties of Herbs and Flowers - 150
The Metaphysics of Mathematics - 150



Spellbook: Affect Normal Fires, Find Familiar, Conjure Spell Component, Fools Gold and Animate Dead


16 stirge corpses left.


He has 5 skeletons.


Magic Pile: Pot of Neutralize Poison, Ring of Pro +1, Plate mail +1, Cursed Luckstone -1, 3x pot of healing, 1x pot of speed

[Abe Sargent]

They arrive back at Saltmarsh, and the only local cleric gladly cures Alzar’s blindness as a thank you and reward. It appears that the men and mage were there as smugglers, and they were using the house’s reputation as a place of horror and hauntings to stay there, enchanting it with odd light shows at night and those screams and cries.

They are thanked, and for a few days, rest and heal up, and then the mayor comes back to them for a follow up mission, for 500 gold each.

Although the land-based operation of these smugglers has been squashed, there must be a major vessel on the River Storm or the sea beyond that is conveying the contraband and at large. They might seek vengeance, they might set up another post – who knows.

500 gold per person, and he will have some local guardsmen patrol at night, looking at the River for signs of a ship moving in to the house. A small fishing vessel will be put at Alzar’s disposal and they will wait at night, ready to attack and hit the ship. They will be out on the water, away, “Fishing” each night, and then when the signal comes from the shore that the right ship has arrived, they will take a small boat to that ship and try to board it, and capture or eliminate those on board.

Two weeks pass, before finally, one night, a passing seaworthy vessel slows, and then the shoreman sees it trying to signal the shore. He drops a pebble into the teleport jar he is keeping, and Alzar and his group see it, and move off. The skeletons are quietly in the wagons ashore, as are the16 animal skeletons – guarding the three wagons.

They approach from the river side, not the shore side, figuring that gives them a smaller chance of being noticed. The rowboat gently meets the ship, and Alzar’s Rope of Climbing makes a good, knotted, climbing rope that will keep the ship and boat moored to each other. They begin to rise, when suddenly, a passing patrol notices the boat, looks over the side, sees a group of people, and shouts out an alarm.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar dashes up the rope onto the deck and suddenly, sailors begin to pour out of the hull and onto the deck.

Alzar casts Sleep and 7 fall asleep. An arrow flies down from an archer in the crow’s nest and Alzar orders her to be Mist Balled. She takes 5 damage and is blinded for 2 rounds. Several more powerful men emerge and start swinging swords, and suddenly, Alzar takes 15 damage from magic darts that pour into his back from someone coming out of the other deck. A mage likely. Aleigha and Estaish are on board. Alzar moves to fight the mage, and Aleigha and Estaish are sent to the four people at the end of the deck looking for a fight.


36/51

Aleigha and Estaish use this round to close. The mage casts Web on the area around Alzar, but he slides right through it (Ring of Free Action). Alzar reciprocates with a Charm Person spell, but it does not even affect the mage. Megala claws the blind archer but misses.

The next round, Estaish takes 5 and then adds 4 more from two hits. The female mage sees Alzar still coming, smiles, and casts lightning bolt – Alzar takes 28 damage with a save for half an the save…it failed. Alzar arrives and casts Vampiric Touch. She takes 14. Aleigha kills the last chump looking one for the group. Alzar orders Dryshik back down here to Mist Ball the mage next turn. Megala swings and claws the blinded check for 3 damage and kills her.

23/32
22/51

Alzar wins init and hopes, casting Ray of Ondovir on the mage. She fails her save. She tries to cast Lightning Bolt again this turn, but unforutantely, she actually has another memorized and casts it again. It only half hits Alzar, since she has to cst it at the same angle as before, and Alzar takes 14 after another failed save. Dryshik Mist Balls her, but she makes her save. Megala flies down. Both Estaish and Aleigha miss. One of the captains drops his swor,d and another skewers Aleigha for a crit for 13 damage.

8/51
15/28

Alzar wins init and is dying, and without a Vampiric Touch lifeline, he needs to save himself, so he jumps overboard. Megala flies down and misses the mage. Estaish nails a swordsman for 10 damage. He takes 7 and Aleigha takes 6. The mage leans over, cannot find Alzar, and instead casts a spell to protect her (Stoneskin).

9/28
8/51
16/32


Alzar sees her turn away from the water through Dryshik, and emerges. He uses the Belt of Flying, and while he is flying back up, grabs his Wand. He aims a cone of paralyzation at the fighters, and two fails their save. Aleigha also fails her save. Estaish stabs out and hits the non-frozen one for 4 damage. Dryshik breathes his final Mist Ball at the mage and she fails her save, and a skin is destroyed. She takes no damage, but she is still blinded for 3 rounds. Megala swings at her and misses badly.

The man still swinging nails Estaish for 6 damage.

10/32

Alzar swings a dagger at the mage and hits her, peeling off a second skin (5 skins left). Megala hits for another. (4 left) and Dryshik is ordered to gate in more mephitis. He fails. Estaish nails the one left for 9 damage, and that guy hits back for 6. Estaish yells to Alzar for help and retreats (no healing pot).

4/32

Alzar tosses Estaish a pot of invisibility and flies in front of Estaish while he drinks it and disappears. He casts Hypnotism and the man fails his save. He is asked to drop his weapon and sit down, and does so. Megala and Dryshik both try to claw the blind mage, and neither can hit. She will be unblended next turn. For now, she stabs out and tries to hit one of the flying creatures, but misses.

She comes too, sees that everyone is asleep or dead, Alzar and the impish creatures still around, and casts Polymorph Other, turns into a griffon, and flies away. Alzar lets her go as he focuses on the boat. They kill the sleepers and paralyzed ones, and ask the captain to hold out his hands while he is tied up.

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, they have just killed or driven off all of the bad guys at once, so instead of having them go room by room with those descriptions, I’ll just tell you what they found.

On corpses:

200 gp gem, 100 gp gem
Gold necklace – 60 gpx3
Earings – 50 gp setx2
Gold ring – 75 gp, another 50 gp
Gold bracelet – 75 gp

Keys


They find provisions in the galley stores of meat, beans, flour, ale, salt and such. There are sails, sailcloth, ropes, extra wood, nails, tar, and other accoutrements of ship sailing.

They find the corpses of 7 Sis’sharr in a room down here, recently killed. As they enter, a small pseudodragon flies over and away, fleeing from the party.

1000 ep in a chest in this room.

The mage’s quarters had silver bowl, carafe and goblet worth 400 gp as a set. They find a scroll with one spell on it.

They find a document in the captain’s room required more weapons from the smugglers contact. The captain has two pots in his desk, under lock, and labeled. There are sea charts on here, and one points out their destination for either smuggling or acquiring items. An island right by location where, supposedly, is the Isle of Dread! More notes show that the items are contraband because of their connection with several evil areas in the south islands in the sea, and that they are being sold to bandits and orc tribes in the local area, instead of the town and such.

The next level of the Sea Ghost has the crew’s quarters and cargo hold. They find 90 more bolts of silk, and 304 casks: 81contain brandy, 219 fine wine, 3 scented soaps, and one salt. They are worth 50 each for the alcohol, 100 each for the soaps, and 10 for the salt.

15,480 total for silk and other items.

They enter the Bosun’s cabin and find a locked chest with just some grubby clothes and 200 silver. They find a secret door and enter a room with a prisoner, a man captured by the smugglers, and chained. He is still asleep, and Alzar gently wakes him and then casts ESP.

The prisoner was a spy for a large town at the mouth of the River Storm by the sea, and was employed by the town guard there to sneak aboard the ship as a new crewman and find out what was happening. He was caught and jailed, for later interrogation most likely. Alzar confirms his story and undoes the chains. He thanks them, grabs some of the grubby clothes from the Bosun’s room to clothe himself, and heads up to get some air. They will join them when they are done.

The mate’s cabin has a few books of note – Principles of Navigation and Legal Distinction in Letters of Marque, and they are worth 10 gold each.

A locked box holds 500 silver, and is opened by key.

Knowing a secret room is behind the first room of identical size, they search until they find another. In here are a bunch of weapons – morning stars, broad swords, small shields (10 each), and 20 javelins.

None will detect as magical later. They will later gather the non-magical weapons and armor from those dead and add them to this room’s weapon storage. Alzar also adds the silk and casks from his bag of holding to the cargo hold.

Alzar uses Blastbones to clear out a bunch of rats.

[Abe Sargent]

XP Total from both adventures: 700 each, 770 for Alzar

Gold from this one: 550 total, and 500 gold each to Alzar, Aleigha and Estaish


Silver bowl, carafe and goblet worth 400 gp as a set
200 gp gem, 100 gp gem
Gold necklace – 60 gpx3
Earings – 50 gp setx2
Gold ring – 75 gp, another 50 gp
Gold bracelet – 75 gp




Used Wand of Paralyzation charge, Pot of Invisibility, charge on Belt of Flying


Magic Pile: +1 broadsword, +1 long sword, Scroll of Gust of Wind, Pot of Cure Disease, Neutralize Poison

[Abe Sargent]

They get the ship sailed back to Saltmarsh about 10 miles away, and the spy leaves to go back and report.

Alzar has gained the Sea Ghost.

The man they captured was the captain, and he tells a lot about the shipping, but he does not know everything. They were taking a contingent of Sis’sharr to a secret location as part of another deal, and then the Sis’sharr became unruly when they discovered that they were instead being abducted as slave labor, and revolted and had to be killed by the mage. The spy and the Sis’sharr would have brought a nice price at the destination, in the south isles. The captain knows the seas and operation, but he does not know the players, although he does know that his mage, Ketah, and the one from the house, Lastia, are two of the major players. Another reason why they were smuggling, instead of just trading, was slavery is illegal in this part of the world, and a third reason was they wanted their destination to be kept secret from the mainland.


For the next three weeks, Alzar gets the Sea Ghost remodeled back at Chonae. He takes the old mage room, but it is quite spacey, and converts it into his traveling library and lab. He adds a small cask of purple moss, and spreads the rest in the sea cave at the house. Aleigha and Estaish are given the Bosun and Mate’s quarters on the third level, and the secret room with the prisoner is used for the storage of their most valuable possessions from their wagons. Their personal effects are put in their room. Alzar has locks added to the doors.

Alzar memorizes some ESP spells (and of course Dispel Magic, one a day to hit a spellbook) and uses them to hire a new crew. Captain Regash Whitemound was a respected captain who lost his ship to a storm recently, and Alzar hires him. They also hire a Bosun, Mate and some sailors, all recommended by Regash, and turn out to be fine men and women after a quick ESP. They convert the quarters used by the sis’sharr to the new Mate and Bosun quarters (they will share it). The captain will get the old captain’s quarters. They buy some new foods to make the long journey, stock with more supplies. Alzar spends 1000 gold to get everything in working order and hired. He sold their wagons and horses to make the money. They can always go back.

They grab the boat from the sea cave, giving them two row boats. Originally the ship had two, but one was left there for the use of those in the house.

Alzar sneaks his skeletons and animal skeletons into the back of his room, and covers them with a curtain.

21 animal skeletons, 5 skeletons are there.


He successfully memorizes Animate Dead from the spellbook found.

They still have some space in the cargo hold, so Alzar purchases some basic trade goods. 10 crates of tools, and 5 crates of local foods not normally found elsewhere, plus a crate of seeds to grow them.

Total cost – 1000 gold

Since they have a trade ship anyway, they might as well swing by the places in the south and see what will sell. Plus, there are tariffs of 25% in the local towns and cities on the River Storm, and Alzar doesn’t want to lose that much gold if he doesn’t have too.

[Abe Sargent]

During the two weeks down the River Storm, and then out to sea, Alzar has cast Dispel Magic every day once, and is now ready, after 40 Dispels, to look at the 4th level evil tome:

4th Level “Evil” Spells:

Contagion
Enervation
Fear
Phantasmal Killer
Bestow Curse

Delayed Magic Missile
Putrefaction
Ray of Oblivion
Rain of Terror
Greater Malison
Merald’s Murderous Mist
Disfigure


Fear, Phantasm Killer, Delayed Magic Missile and Rain of Terror are not allowed for Alzar because of banned schools. Bestow Curse is the reverse of Remove Curse.

Disfigure turns a targets Charisma to one after scarring, giving them boils and pock marks, etc, if they fail a save. Permanent.
Putrefaction will spoil all food, water, and holy water in a 20 yard cube, no save for any of it.
Ray of Oblivion will cause a spellcaster to forget a random spell they know
Greater Malison is not a save, and enemies get -2 to their saves for a combat
Contagion is a disease, Enervation is a temporary Energy Drain


Alzar learns:

Ray of Oblivion
Greater Malison
Bestow Curse (and can be cast in reverse form)
Contagion
Putrefaction
Disfigure

[Abe Sargent]

X1. The Isle of Dread




This is easily one o the single most interesting and influential modules of all time. It is the third and final one of Tom Moldvay’s major hits, and scored a spot at 16 on the Top 30 list, and I’m not sure if that was a miss by a few spots, since this is so good. Because it was packed and included with the Expert Rules box, it had a very wide distribution, and is a great example of wilderness campaigns, a great setting, and more. I am giving it the plot of U1 in order to get Alzar there with a ship, but you could do that in many ways. A few years ago, they made a giant 12 episode of Isle of Dread called Savage Tide, but it only spent about 5 of those chapters in and about the island. It changed the monsters and characters into third edition, and also added a module to the island – The Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan. I will be doing likewise, and also adding several others in and around the island.

[Abe Sargent]

Sample journal page from the scrolls, assembled back into a journal.





Here is another raving note:

[Travis]

Very cool roving base of operations. Given your "screening" ability to hire a crew for the ship, this seems like it could very well be the perfect setup for you during Alzar's adventuring days. Maybe not quite the calmest foundation for a labratory, but a heck of a lot more versatile than a wagon.

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, the Sea Ghost is going to be his fora while, so might as well enjoy it.

[Abe Sargent]

After a few weeks at sea, with little encounters, they are approaching the archipelago where the Isle of Dread supposedly is. The weather has been nice, it’s the calm time of year, but sailing has been slower as well. Few monsters have been seen, and they have been at a distance or ignored the boat. The rats on the ship have been mostly killed by Dryshik, who likes to spy everywhere and on everyone, and report back to Alzar what he saw.

They near the south isles and many islands are on the map, but many more are simply missing from the area. It is not well explored. As we get closer, there is a decision Alzar needs to make. He can make for the Isle of Dread, find a spot to land, and resupply and move out. Alternatively, Alzar can sail to the place on the charts from the previous captain, pointing out their destination at a long and narrow island, no more than 20 miles wide at its widest point, but more than 100 miles long, and curvy. It is 90 miles east of the Isle of Dread and could be a nice place to explore and see what is going on there.

After some conversations with Capt. Whitemound, they decide to check out the supposed smuggling spot on this long island. It will be three more days to reach, and then sailing along it until they hit the spot.

Nothing stops or slows them, and within 3 days, they are at the island, and two more sees them sighting a small village. Maybe 500 people live there, with a modest docks. It is one day away from the smuggling spot, so Alzar orders the Capt. to land, and they have arrived at Sybar.

[Abe Sargent]

UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave





This is the first of the UK series of modules. I have quite a lot of them. It’s not bad, and should be a nice little diversion from the main plotline. It is the series by the TSR UK offices after their well received U1-3 series.

[Abe Sargent]

They stop off at Sybar briefly, a fishing village, and then continue on to the spot marked on the map, and sail into the harbor. A quick check shows that it’s been abandoned for a couple of weeks at least. Likely, they got word that someone was coming and/or the gig was up. Without an obvious lead, Alzar and his familiars berth, check the area, but find nothing in the houses. They grab the anchor, and head back to Sybar for now.

Sybar is led by the local cleric of Tangaroa, Goddess of the Sea, Wind and Water. There is a local shrine to her here. Sybar is an unknown village, off the beaten path, but local ships sailing in the area stop here occasionally. The natives look like the natives of The Hook Isles, with their darker skin and open faces. They warmly great the sailors and people. Alzar orders a few days stay here so people can get a bit of arrest after a lot of time abroad the Sea Ghost.

There is no inn here, since there is not a lot of traffic. There are some huts that have no one currently living in them, and they are provided as guest quarters for a price. They have not seen the Sea Ghost before, which is a bit unusual, because they get the same three merchantmen over and over again, and have not seen a new vessel in some time.

This area of the island is relatively quiet and tame, but after about ten miles in each direction, the island turns very nasty, very quickly. They are on the north coast of the island. Other than fishing, the main crop here is olives, grown just inland from the village, plus a handful of flocks of goats. There only other major food in the area is breadfruit, which grows on local trees without aid, and is harvested when it ripens, and the climate is such that they are ripening all year around.

They have some breadfruit, cooked, as part of their meal here, and Alzar thinks it is delicious, and squirrels away a few of its seeds.

[Abe Sargent]

There is some modest elevation on the island as the land turns to low rolling hills. At night, over a central dinner than many of the Sybar citizens come too, a local bard tells the story of a local legend, where two people, one a local south islander brown skinned person and another a swarthy olive skinned one from Chance found each other near Sybar, and established an estate a few miles from here, where they loved together in happiness and love. They created a magical garden as a symbol of their love. It was enchanted by their magic into one of the greatest sights you could see. Then the local lady died after a long life, and her wizard husband placed new enchantments on the garden to protect her and it from the outside world, and to preserve what they had. And to this day, the garden lays untouched, just a few miles away from Sybar. Everybody in Sybar holds the garden as sacred and in reverence.

Alzar mentions that he would like to see it. One of them agrees to take him, Estaish and Aleigha tomorrow to the garden so that they can see it for themselves.

In the morning, their guide mentions that a young couple from their village ran away to visit the garden, a few years ago, and were never heard from again, so be careful.

The hike here takes about an hour and a half. The garden is on top of a small hill, and in the shape of a giant ellipse, about half a mile long and about a third of a mile wide. There is a very large wall, about 20 feet tall, around the whole thing (Alzar can see from the sky by his flyers), and there appears to be an invisible wall on top of the wall, because Megala and Dryshik cannot fly into the garden, they hit something that prevents them from doing so.

They check along the whole garden, and find it similarly shielded and walled in from above. They fly around and fail to find any sign of an entrance or exit, or any flaws in the walls. Looks airtight! Alzar orders them to fly up high and get another look, and as they do, Megala sees something odd over to the size, and quick fly down finds an old cave opening at the base of a hill two hills away from the garden. Just a cave? Or something more?

Alzar thanks the guide and tells her she can go back home, but they’d like to spend a bit of time here looking over and thinking about the garden. She agrees and moves off. Alzar tells Estaish and Aleigha what he saw through Megala and they agree to see what’s there. They grab torches and light them (Bag of Holding)

[Abe Sargent]

They enter the small natural cave and the tunnel quickly widens to well over 10 feet across, and after a hundred feet or so of a gentle curve to the right, enters a cavern 40 feet across and 25 feet high at its tallest bit. While this does appear to be a natural cave, it is not a limestone cave that has been around for centuries and centuries. It appears to be one carved out by a river or lake underground. There are some animal tracks in this cavern, but nothing is found, even after a search. The cavern has two exits, a low natural smaller tunnel to the right and a much larger one forward and across from the entrance. They take the small one.

The tunnel quickly bends sharply and after 50 feet or so arrives sat a smaller, rounder cavern. It slopes down a bit and the rock is slippery and jagged. The floor is flat and bare, the walls are black and smooth and rise about 40 feet. This cave is not natural, unlike the rest of the place. Any step in here echoes and echoes. Inlaid on the floor in a white alabaster is the rune for “Ask.”

Alzar asks a question, how to enter the garden, just on a whim, but there is no answer. Ah well, worth a try. A search finds nothing and they return and take the large path out. They arrive at a decent sized cavern, with two smaller tunnels to the left and right and a major one going forward-right-ish. As they walk in, sand and rocks from the cavern fly out and start pelting Alzar and his fighters. Alzar looks around, sees nothing, and tries a gamble. He tries to reach out and control whatever is moving things around. It failed, but he could tell there was something there. The rocks and sand stop moving, and the presence moves off, scared a bit by Alzar’s power and command over their kind (it was a few poltergeists).

XP – 100 for Alzar

They go left after a quick search. The tunnel slopes down, does a 180 and ends at a small slightly wider and much taller room. There is a clearly visible patch of something slimy and ochre colored here, and Alzar orders everyone back for a second. He pulls out the Oil Flask, tosses it on the moving slowly creature, and it dies.

XP – 200 for Alzar

They search and find nothing, head back to the cavern and go right. It actually 270’s into a curl and enters in another small, barely larger than the tunnel end room. In there is a dead corpse, looks to be of a fighter. They search and find:

22 gold
150 gold gem
Jeweled Gold Amulet - worth 230 gold
Boots, sword and dagger, helmet, armor – all taken for magic pile later

[Abe Sargent]

They move forward and the tunnel wraps one way, then another, and finally, after some time, arrives at a large natural cavern – the largest once they’ve seen by far - maybe 50 or 60 feet long and wide, and 50 tall. There is a large pool of mud in the middle and right wall, but unmuddy tracks all around the left side. The mud appears to be fed by a stream coming from a tunnel beyond it. They search the room outside of the mud, and find a few dried mud mounds and beneath them are the bodies of two adventurers. They find:

26 gp
Gold Ring – 30 gp
Dagger, Short Sword, Chain Mail, Shield
Boots
400 gold gem

How did these adventurers die under mud? Looks like something is up with the mud. Alzar takes his staff and pushes it into the mud, and suddenly 6 mud shapes, vaguely humanoid, start to rise from the mud. Alzar prepares a Blastbones, since they are all packed together at one end. Before he does, a few start hurling mud and Estaish is nailed. He is slowed, as per the spell. Alzar finishes the spell, tosses the bone, and it triggers, doling out 5 damage. One dies. More clumps of mud fly in, and Aleigha and Alzar are both hit. Alzar orders Dryshik to Mist Ball one, but it is immune to poison or blinding.

Alzar throws his dagger at one and misses. Estaish and Aleigha are moving to where the mudmen are. They are pelted again with mud, and slow even more. Eventually, they will be so caked with mud that they will be unable to move. – and that may be what happened with those adventurers!

More mud flies, and Alzar is hit twice more, and now moves very little. Estaish stabs out, slowly, but still manages to kill one. Aleigha would normally have hit, but she is moving too slowly and the mudman manages to dodge. Alzar throws his +1 dagger hoping to nail one. Success, and he deals 3 damage and kills one. One mudman launches itself at Estaish and merges with him. Estaish is completely immobilized by the extra mud.

Aleigha is missed by a launching mudman. She manages to hit and kill another. Alzar is moving towards the battle. The next round, Aleigha is completely immobilized by two more hits. Alzar has arrived. The next round, Alzar is pelted with mud, then staffs a mudman for 7 damage and kills it – one left. It lunches itself, misses, and Alzar kills it as it reforms. They spend a half hour getting off the mud in the creek, and are wet, but un muddied.

XP – 150 each

[Abe Sargent]

They cave heads up a bit and along a stream and hits a section with a pool in it, just a few feet wide and deep. The floor has an irregularity here. They find some uncut stones in the pool, currently worth 10x2, 15, 20, 25 and 40, and could have those values increased by ten times if properly cut.

The tunnel bends and arrives at the largest chamber yet. This is a majestic chamber, and the flames of the torches flickering against the wall cause a myriad of multi-colored lights from this crystal cave. There is a waterfall that causes drops of water to shine, and a pool in the center of the room, from which the stream flows into the mud. There is another stream to the west that takes the rest of the water, and it appears to have not carved much, just a small 6 inch high hole in the wall. Megala flies down and sees nothing down it.

The pool is only about 8 inches deep at its deepest. There appears to be something behind the waterfall – a cavern extension, perhaps? There is also the hint of lilting music in the chamber as well, but as Dryshik flies up, it gets softer, but louder as they near the waterfall. They enter the pool, push through the waterfall, and enter a chamber, carved by man, not by nature. It bears a pretty mosaic of birds and trees, and a long stone couch and table. The crystal cave from here is even more beautiful and breathtaking. There is an alcove here, with nothing else. As they search the area, Dryshik enters the alcove and is teleported above. Alzar can see through him the garden. These portals…

Alzar and the group go into the portal and have arrived in the garden.

[Abe Sargent]

Dryshik tries to fly up but cannot. Neither can Megala. It appears that flying has been stopped in here.

They find themselves standing inside of a 20 foot diameter ring of large toadstools, and standing in a small grassy clearing in the woodland. Seated on the toadstools are five small diminutive figures with grins on their faces. One of the leprechauns suddenly polymorphs Alzar’s staff into a parasol, and they all laugh. Alzar nods his head in greeting. He suggest that they polymorph Aleigha’s sword, and they try, but fail, and he chuckles at them, and then they join along. His staff is restored, and they welcome him They are glad for more people to play with. They tell Alzar that the garden has many different areas that are the home of various creatures, and this is their woods. To the north and east are the satyrs, and to the south are the dryads. They are near the wall, perhaps a few hundred feet from it. They are in the middle of a stream that runs from the area, and it goes all around. Alzar asks them if there is anyone else in their woods, and they tell him no, but the Green Man will come through and tidy the woods up.

They walk to the stream and it’s really a river, about 8 feet deep and very colorful fish and plants all along the bank. The leprechauns tell them that it winds forever in this area of the garden, in and out of circles, and has no beginning and no end. The leprechauns tells then that this is the border of their woods, so come back if you want! The dryads will charm people and turn some into slaves, so be careful!

There are bridges north and east, and nothing to the south. As they walk along the river they begin to notice a large shape in it. Before long, they can make out the serpentine shape, it may be a dragon-uish creature, but it’s like none they’ve ever seen. It stays in the river and swims away after a moment of eye contact.

[Abe Sargent]

They leave behind the river after crossing a bridge each and follow a path into a place where the beautiful trees open up. The whole garden thus far has been a beautiful spectacle of color, beauty, and life. They soon hear the sound of panpipes and lyres being played, and four satyrs can be seen on a small clearing, on stools made from rocks.

They are very upset that Alzar and his group are here, in their wood and disturbing them. He apologizes, and says they are new here, and wondered about the lay of the land. In order to get rid of him, they tell him the truth – To the east are a meadow for the centaurs, southwest are dryads and they should go there and say hello, to the west are the leprechauns, and to the north is a rocky outcrop with some natives there. They look at Aleigha for a bit, but she is not beautiful enough for them to try and entrance, so they are told to move on. They return to the river and follow it north until it turns back west. Soon they hit a trail that skirts the meadow in the center of the garden, and see one path to the rocks, and another into a denser wood.

Alzar chooses the rocks, and then follow the trail north. This is a rocky outcrop and there are some grasses and heather, with ravines and rocks. The path follows up a rocky hill. They see a cave , and as they approach, they hear a roar and out fly a pair of firedrakes, ready to attack.

They both breathe, but Alzar and company only take 2 hp from each attack due to their fire resistance.

28/32
24/28
47/51

A throwing dagger stabs into one for 5 damage. They swoop down. They attack first, and one crits Estaish for 10 damage with its claws.

18/32

They all miss. A Mist Ball flies in and the drake fails its save, takes 3 damage and is blinded for 2 rounds. They win and the non-blinded one tears into Alzar for 7 damage. He hits back for 4 damage, Estaish drops his sword and Aleigha misses

40/51


Alzar smashes again for 4, and Aleigha hits for 4 and this one is down. The blinded one stabs out and manages to hit Alzar for 3.

37/51

It is no longer blinded, and bites but misses. Estaish and Aleigha both hit for 11 damage and it dies as well.

XP – 300 each

After they die, Alzar orders the pyrophoric blood cleaned off. They move into the cave and search. There are three gems worth 120, 50 and 40. There are also two firedrake eggs here, very warm.

[Abe Sargent]

They leave. The follow the path back to the woods and into the deeper woods, and move along the path. They see a few bears, but they do not attack the party, and move off. They continue on the path and leave behind the deeper woods.

The path emerges at a stream, that appears to flow into a big pond in the middle of the garden. They can see a giant meadow on the other side of the pond, and the stream has a bridge and roads that continue. There appear to be structures up ahead, and a large fountain a few hundred feet up the stream.

While here, they head up to the fountain. It has several statues, and waters comes out, and makes the stream that flows into the pond. The water is clear and clean. On the base of the statues it says “Fountain All Heal.”Alzar decides to test it (since he is the one least likely to take damage from a poison). He leans down and drinks a bit from the fountain.

All of Alzar’s wounds heal, and his lost XP from that one energy drain attack long ago are restored! (That was 2500 XP now back). However, the water has another effect, and it attempts to charm Alzar. He rolls and makes it easily, and is unaffected by the water’s charms, but he knows it is dangerous and they move on.

Alzar gains 2500 XP – 51/51 again

[Abe Sargent]

They continue on the path, and it forks and goes to more woods and the structures. Alzar chooses to head to the woods along the wall. As they do so, there are many fruit and berry trees, and they ignore them. They come across nothing here, and the path leaves the woods behind. It continues along the wall and passes a steep bank on the right, which has a path that goes up to it. At the base of the bank is an opening, and they go to explore it. There are beams supporting a wooden lintel with dog-rose and a nice cozy feel. The open room has tables, chairs, jars, alembics, tomes, and more and it is quite brimming with items. As they enter, they see a tall green skinned man, with a fur shirt and shorts and moccasins. The Green Man is upset that they killed the firedrakes, but he can see that they were attacked first. He is also upset at Alzar’s demeanor, and kicks them out of his place. They continue along the path and re-enter new woods.

Shortly along the path, Alzar and company arrive at a place where the path bisects a grove of gnarled oaks. There is large amounts of mistletoes around these gnarled giants of the wood. As they move forward, they see a large tree overshadowing the path, and in its roots is a sheathed sword with a gem encrusted hilt.

As they get nearer, suddenly, two large branches from the oak jumps off and try to hit Alzar. He is surprised, and they get a chance to hit him. One misses and the other hits, and begins to exude a powerful poison that paralyzes and lignifies. He makes his save vs poison this round, but it pinned by the large branches. Both Estaish and Aleigha manage to kill the other one that misses by dealing15 damage to it off a crit by one of them. The next round, Alzar makes the save, and the branch is missed by both Aleigha and Estaish. The next round, Estaish hits for 3 damage. Alzar makes his save, Aleigha drops her sword, Estaish for 10 damage. Alzar makes the save, Estaish hits for 7 and kills the branch.

XP – 100 each

The oak is denuded, and then chop it down in order to get to eh sword. They find:

Black-Opal Pendant on a gold chain – 1250 gold in a leather pouch
Sword, +1, Neutral Evil, Ego 2, Personality 16, Detect Good


They continue on and enter an area where a Treant, approaches them, and asks them to leave his area, because they damaged a tree. Alzar agrees, and they continue on and out of the woods entirely. They cross a bank and see a cave. Curious, again they investigate. Just inside is a large grotto with a pond inside. There are two giant frogs that leap out and attack. These are not too large, and they are killed in one round.

XP – 50 each

They search and find a shield.