On September 23rd in the year 605 the town of Whitestaff was the host to a gathering of adventurers. Lord Whitestaff had called the gathering in order to investigate the mysterious fires that had been observed in the air above the Whitestaff forest, and to attempt once again to rid the lands of Morbidus Bane. The gathering assumed a greater urgency when on the eve of the gathering a tremendous battle occurred between the forces of Morbidus Bane and Pyromorgis, which ended with the apparent triumph of Bane and the possible destruction of Pyromorgis.
Thus when the adventurers arrived in town on Friday evening they were greeted
by the remains of the previous night’s battle. The town had suffered only
a little damage, but there were tremendous piles of ash and bone strewn about.
The tomb of Morbidus Bane was warded and surrounded by a circle of protection.
Lord Whitestaff ordered everyone to avoid the area.
The first thing I found when I came in town was that the Angry Ogre tavern was
open, and this was a great relief to me. The last several gathers that I attended
all lacked tavern service for one reason or another. I can go without certain
amenities better than a lot of people, but I was growing weary of trying to
make war on evil without cessation on an empty stomach all the time.
Given the large amount of drama that occurred the previous evening, the first
night of the gathering was comparatively uneventful. Morbidus Bane seemed content
to stay sequestered in his warded tomb. There was no sign of Pyromorgis, though
there were a few attacks by shadowy dark infernals that may or may not have
been his minions. A few desultory zombies staggered out of the graveyard. All
these were handled in a relatively easy fashion.
One interesting event did occur shortly after everyone had arrived . We were
visited by a strange pair of beings. One of them announced that he was the Gamesmaster,
and that he was recruiting teams of sages to participate in his game of Sages
Quest. It was a game of trivia to be played by teams of three. The winning team
would receive as a prize the correct answers to three questions of their choosing.
I agreed to be on a team with Beryl and Seronia, and a few other teams were
signed up as well. The Gamesmaster announced that the game would take place
the next afternoon, and then he and his companion vanished off into the night.
Late in the evening a small group of some of the more experienced adventurers
left on a mission of a somewhat personal nature. Several months ago a well known
adventurer named Strider was killed by a vampire. This group contained several
of his friends. They managed to track down the vampire responsible for Strider’s
death. They battled their way through the vampire’s numerous minions and
staked her, thus achieving some long delayed revenge.
The next morning arrived, and the day started off quite pleasantly. The sky
was overcast and the oppressive heat that had so hampered several recent gathers
was not in evidence. I rose a little earlier than most and decided to spend
a little time exploring the area about town for anything interesting. I had
only just set out when I was joined by Seronia, who is also of the habit of
getting up early.
No sooner than we had met then we chanced upon a curious set of stairs leading into the ground. We decided to investigate and in short order we found ourselves standing in what appeared to be a sepulcher or tomb. The body of a long dead man lay in state before us. He held a gem on one hand, a horn of some sort under his arms, two gems on his eyes, and a small pile of gold upon his chest. I was of a mind to, ummm, investigate some of these items a little further, but Seronia was of the firm opinion that we should leave the body undisturbed. He felt it would be highly improper to disturb the remains on moral grounds, if nothing else.
I briefly attempted to change his mind, but I didn’t try very hard. There
were less than half a dozen gold coins, the gems looked pretty cheap, and I
didn’t really need a horn. Thus I saw very little to gain from robbing
the tomb, so I allowed myself to be convinced to leave the tomb undisturbed.
After we left the tomb we had only traveled a short distance when we encountered
what has to be the largest squirrel I have ever seen. It was nearly the size
of a large dog or bear, and when it sat up at our approach it looked me almost
eye to eye. The squirrel was busy rooting around beneath a pine tree and an
oak tree. It was pawing around amongst the acorns and pine cones, and every
once and a while it seemed to find one to his liking, and then he added it to
a small pile he was gathering in a nest at the base of one of the trees.
At first he took little concern at out approach. I tossed a couple of pine cones
around and the squirrel chased them. While he was thus distracted, Seronia took
the opportunity to investigate his nest. It appeared to contain nothing more
than ordinary acorns and pine cones, however.
The squirrel spotted Seronia poking around in his nest and he scampered back
over and scolded Seronia most harshly in squirrel talk. I thought for a moment
we were in danger of contracted a really bad case of super squirrel rabies.
Luckily for us Seronia was equal to the occasion, and he used a small amount
of forest magic in the form of a charm animal spell, and soon he and Nutkin
were the best of buddies.
Nutkin was so impressed with his newfound friend that he decided to give Seronia
a gift. He went back to scratching around underneath the oak tree, and presently
returned with a nice big fat acorn and presented it to Seronia. Seronia seemed
to me to be somewhat less than impressed with Nutkin’s generosity, but
upon closer examination, he discovered that the acorn appeared to have come
from a 100 year old oak, and was imbued with the powers of formal magics.
A short time later Algorian came upon Seronia and I out in the woods seeming
to be playing a game of fetch with an overgrown grey squirrel. At first he thought
that we had lost our minds, but he thought a little differently when he saw
the small pile of formal magic components that Nutkin had fetched for us. Sadly,
about this time Nutkin came back and performed what can best be described as
a squirrelly shrug of his shoulders. We surmised that this meant that there
were no more goodies to be found. While we debated about what to do next, Nutkin
gave a twitch of his tail and disappeared off into the woods.
Seronia and I headed back to town to sort out our newfound squirrel loot. After
we had gotten the components all straightened out we decided to set out again
in a different direction. We headed down the path that led towards the cabins
where many of the other folk were staying. Up ahead we spotted a single bone
troll scratching at the door of Seronia’s cabin that also housed Adrafae,
Keno, Angus and Lemmie. The cabin was warded, and the troll seemed to be trying
to pester the sleepy occupants in an attempt to get them to come out.
This was obviously not the brightest troll in the forest. Seronia and Algorian
trotted down the path to take on the troll. I circled around behind the cabin
hoping to sneak up behind the troll. That proved to be completely unnecessary,
as the troll barely had time to turn around before he was hacked to pieces by
Algorian. However, I spotted something at the rear of the cabin, so I quietly
retreated to the front of the cabin and told Seronia what I had found.
Seronia advised that we should wait until the now wakeful occupants of the cabin
had a chance to come out and join us, and then we would circle around the cabin
and deal with that I had found. In short order our group assembled and we went
around the back of the cabin and observed the backside of a man sticking out
from underneath the structure. Someone had crawled underneath the cabin and
was rummaging around in the leaves.
After we had cleared our throats a number of times and made our presence known
in a few other ways the man crawl back out and spoke to us. He was a short skinny
guy with very badly fitting glasses. He had a rather large, gangly, and fuzzy
looking insect clutched in his pincer like grip. He explained that he was a
sage who specialized in the research of bugs, and that he found the local varieties
to be highly fascinating. He went on to explain that he would be willing to
offer valuable rewards to anyone who would find interesting bugs and bring them
to him. Once everyone was assured that he wasn’t up to anything nefarious
under the cabin, they consented to let him go on his way and agreed to bring
him any bugs they found.
After this we all returned to the tavern, and by this time most of the town
was finally up and about. The porch was full of adventurers sitting about chatting
and waiting for their breakfast orders to be filled. A rather rustic looking
person approached from the road out of town and asked me if I knew where he
might find someone named Beryl. Judging by his attire and the strong smell of
hay and potatoes coming from him, I suspected this was the potato farmer who
has left messages on the fae tree regarding some papers he had found. I led
him to Beryl who was inside eating, and my suspicions were confirmed.
The farmer explained that he had found the papers under a building all wrapped
in leather. There were two parchment pages covered in coded script. Beryl negotiated
with the farmer and quickly arrived at a mutually agreeable price for the purchase
of the paper. Unfortunately she had not thought to bring any money with her,
and so she directed her good friend Andris to pay the man, which he did.
The code itself was a rather simple single substitution cipher, and it didn’t
take very long at all to decode the message. A bunch of giant spiders chose
this time to try to snack on some adventurers, and had it not been for those
interruption the paper would have been decoded in practically the time it takes
me now to pen these few paragraphs. The message spoke of some powerful yet cursed
item that was buried. The second page had an odd sort of map on it with an X
in the center, presumably marking the burial spot. There were no landmarks on
the map, however. There were just a few dots spread around that were labeled
with either one or two letters.
Beryl decided to take the map back to the Ivy Hind guild building where she
had a larger map of the area in an attempt to see if anything matched up with
the code map. I followed along to see the result. The Ivy Hind guild has a peculiar
magical map in their possession that shows the areas surrounding Whitestaff.
It also has small figurines which show the locations of the Baron’s forces,
Rawlings’ forces, as well as a few others. It was through the use of this
map that the Baron is often able to learn when and where we are about to be
attacked. Beryl compared her code map to the Whitestaff map, but we weren’t
able to spot any correlation. So Beryl put away the code map for later use and
we returned to the tavern.
Things were relatively peaceful for a short time. Then a group of large hulking
armored creatures showed up and began attacking people. There was only two or
three of them, but they were pretty formidable, and they caught a couple of
people by surprise near the tavern. Luckily there was enough people about that
they were beaten off without any serious injury among the adventurers. We were
attacked two or three times by these beasts, and then I saw no more of them.
Once I learned that the hulking monsters were no longer out and about, and that
it was relatively safe for me to go exploring once more, I set out to explore
the opposite end of town. I was poking around some of the outlying buildings
when I spotted a small creature that looked to be extra-planular. Discretion
being the better part of valor, I called over a few more adventurers before
I approached the creature.
As it turned out my caution proved unnecessary. The creature was from one of
the fire planes, and he was completely out of sorts here on Tyrra. He told a
story of being summoned by a wizard in a tower. Shortly afterwards the wizard
died, and now he was trapped on Tyrra, which he found to be uncomfortably cold.
He was trying to warm himself by a smoldering outdoor forge when we found him.
He pleaded with us to help him get warm by building up the fire. The woods were
quite close by, so I, Sathen Gor, Taylon, Kajah, Scar, and Livilin spread out
and collected piles of wood and stacked them on the fire. In no time at all
we had built up the blaze to an impressive size. The fire creature seemed quite
satisfied with our efforts. In return for our help, he drew a map for me to
the tower where he said he was summoned. He thought we might be interested in
investigating it. I pocketed the map and decided to investigate it further at
a later time.
I noticed at this time that a crowd was gathering at the tavern, and I then
saw that the Gamesmaster had returned. It was time to play his game of Sage
Quest. We gathered the various teams together and the Gamesmaster explained
the rules. It was a board game of trivia where the players had to move around
a board collecting tokens and answering questions about magic, history, the
planes, and so forth. My team consisted of myself, Seronia, Beryl, and Algorian.
Adrafae, Keno, Lemmie and Angus formed one of the other teams. A third team
was lead by Pyroxia and contained Sathen Gor, and the last team was composed
of Baldur and Faruunth.
Once the game started I saw I was way out of my league. Most of the questions
involved historical events that preceded my adventuring career by several years,
or formal magic details about which I have absolutely no familiarity, or abstract
theories regarding the various elemental planes. There was one potluck category
which contained an occasional question about traps which I knew, but those questions
invariably went to one of the other teams.
Our team still did quite well. Between Seronia and Algorian we were able to
answer tons of questions correctly, but we had abysmal luck in getting good
dice rolls to allow us to land on and collect the tokens that we needed. Our
one bit of luck was that we landed on one of the special tokens that awarded
out team a magical spider as a prize.
As the game wore on it came down to a contest between out team and Pyroxia’s
team. The players began to get weary, and we had gone through all the trivia
questions once and were starting over again with the same questions. By common
consent the teams began aiding each other with hints in an attempt to bring
the game to a conclusion. Shortly afterwards the game was won by Pyroxia’s
team, which I believe by that point consisted solely of Pyroxia. Presumably
she was able to get answers to questions as her prize, but I never learned what
questions she asked.
After the game I spent some time scouting around in the woods. The tavern was
rather chilly and I needed to move around some in order to warm up. I wasn’t
able to find any monsters or nefarious creatures, but I was able to find a cantrip
tome lying under a bush. When I returned to town I saw that everyone was gathered
around two strange looking newcomers.
Both had very dark brown skin and black circles around their eyes. One wore
a woven basket hat on his head, and the other was dressed in long black robes.
They left shortly after I arrived, but I was told that this was the Vitamancer
who had posted on the fae tree some months earlier looking for aid. He had given
everyone a list of items to collect. It read like a scavengers hunt list. As
best as I can recall, these were the items he asked for.
3 white rocks
3 black rocks
10 separate and unique insects
10 separate and unique leaves
a vial of tree sap
a blue or white flower, the larger the better
Blood from a human
Blood from a Gorbe
There may have been other items as well. I collected the six rocks and a few
of the insects. Others spread out and found the other items. I believe we had
the entire list filled in around twenty minutes or so, minus the tree sap. Andris
had gone out looking for the tree sap, and before he returned Baron Mithrilmist
and Lord Whitestaff gathered us all up to march to a battle.
The nobles had received word that Rawlings’ bone troll armies were attacking
Whitestaff from three separate directions. They decided to split everyone into
three groups and for each group to meet one of the attacks. Baron Mithrilmist
led the first group, Lord Whitestaff the second, and Keno was placed in charge
of the third group. I was placed in the group led by Keno, and after a brief
moment to get organized we headed out to intercept our group of trolls.
My groups consisted of Seronia, Adrafae, Keno, Lemmie, Angus, Beryl and me.
I felt pretty confident that we should be able to handle things. We arrived
at the end of town to find a bunch of scruffy bone trolls milling around and
wrecking things. Pretty soon the swords were swinging and the stone bolts were
flying and the gas glob were popping all over the place. I didn’t have
too much luck sneaking behind the trolls, so my contribution to the battle was
mostly along the lines are wearing out trolls making them chase me. I got caught
by one of them and beat to the ground quite painfully, but Seronia was soon
there to put me back together again. Other than my mishap and a rather embarrassing
slip and fall by Angus, I don’t believe any of us was ever in much trouble
throughout the entire fight.
After we defeated our group of trolls we met up with the other two groups who
were similarly victorious. A great deal of discussion occurred between the different
groups regarding which group performed the best and which group performed the
worst. Unsurprisingly, no consensus was reached. The local populace began to
emerge from the houses and buildings that they had barricaded themselves inside,
and they gave thanks to the Baron for saving them.
A box of treasure was found by someone and given to the baron. The one interesting
item it contained was a rainbow colored suit of armor. Despite its somewhat
fruity appearance it was discovered to be only wearable by a dwarf or a person
skilled in mining. I have no idea why someone would craft dwarven mining armor
that even a colorblind fae would consider gaudy, but there it was. The item
went to Angus who was the only dwarf present, and he didn’t seem overly
concerned about the armor’s somewhat fruity appearance. He donned it immediately
with great gusto.
When we returned to the tavern we learned that the Vitamancer had returned in
our absence. He collected all the items that we had gathered for him and left.
Nobody I spoke to claimed to have any idea why he wanted all the items, and
he didn’t seem to leave any reward. For now he remains a mystery, but I
suspect he’ll pop up again one of these days.
As the afternoon drew to a close and night began to fall, people gathered up
in the tavern to observe and participate in the auction that had been previously
advertised. The guilds were auctioning off a powerful formal casting of earth
magic and one of celestial magic, along with the associated components. Marcus
Gunnar arrived in town shortly before the auction with a sizable box of gold,
and he was clearly the person to beat. I watched the auction only briefly before
the sums of money began to make my head spin. I later learned that Marcus had
won both auctions with a combined bid of around 530 pieces of gold.
No sooner had the auction completed than the doors to the tavern flew open and
veritable horde of fire elementals appeared. Thus began a battle that started
deceptively easy and in the end turned out to be one of the most difficult of
the entire weekend. The elementals individually weren’t particularly powerful.
It took only a few moments for most of them to get cut down, and for people
to rush forward to finish off the stragglers. But that is where things went
bad.
The surviving fire elementals retreated to the door of the tavern. A number
of adventurers circled around the tavern in order to try to attack them from
the rear. I was one of these. The moment we set foot on the porch and reached
for the door we were set upon by a second group of fire elementals emerging
from the tree line. We scattered, and then these elementals were in turn attacked
by the adventurers fighting their way out of the tavern. But then another group
emerged from the trees. And another.
There seemed to be no end to the elementals. If we could only have managed to
have gotten everyone regrouped into one spot I expect we would not have had
any trouble. But there always seemed to be two or three people who were dropped
behind the lines. People would sally forth and rescue the fallen, only to have
one or two of their numbers dropped in the process.
Baron Mithrilmist ordered everyone to retreat back into the tavern. Unfortunately
for me that was the very moment that I got dropped right beside a bush. I must
have spent several minutes lying there bleeding, because when I was finally
given a life spell it was only with great effort that my spirit as able to maintain
it’s tenuous grip upon my physical form and return to me.
By this time things were well in hand. There were only a few elementals left,
and no more were emerging from the woods. People finished off the last ones
and returned to the tavern for some rest and dinner. About this time I noticed
someone who I had not seen arrive earlier.
There was creepy little stranger in the tavern wrapped in a brown cloak and
bent over what looked like chips of bone or stone or teeth. He appeared to be
telling fortunes or divining the future or some other such hocus pocus. I saw
that he spent some time with the Baron. I had overheard the Baron earlier speaking
about Rawlings, so I suspected I knew what this was about. The Baron knew that
we would soon be facing his arch nemesis Rawlings at some point, and there was
some mystery regarding the method that needed be used to kill him. Use the right
method and he would be permanently destroyed. Use the wrong method and he would
be made more powerful, and the Baron would in turn be destroyed. Quite obviously
the Baron had a keen interest in learning the correct method.
We knew that later on in the evening we would almost certainly going to be fighting
the Rawlings and his forces, and that we might have to fight Pyro/Protomorgis
as well. The battle against the fire elementals had drained the town of spells
to a certain degree, and there was a great deal of concern over the relative
lack of life spells remaining. To alleviate this problem, Lord Buttons who was
in town overseeing the auction agree to imbue several adventurers with life
spells. I was one of the ones chosen to receive one, and this was a peculiar
and new experience for me.
Since things seemed to be calm for the moment I decided that now would be a
good time to investigate the map I had received earlier in the day from the
little fire creature. I asked around to see if anyone else wanted to come, and
I was joined by Beryl, Caliphar and Taylon. The map lead us to a tower that
was a fair distance from town to the northwest, so we hurried along to make
certain we didn’t miss much in our absence.
As it turned out, it was extremely fortunate that I chose that particular moment
and direction to set off to explore the tower. Right after we left town we found
Kajah lying dead at the side of the road in front of a house with a large bone
troll standing over her. We killed the troll and administered a life spell to
Kajah in time to keep her here among the living.
Kajah had left town and either went with or pursued the strange fortune telling
guy to this house. She found the troll guarding the house and knowing that she
had little chance of defeating it in combat she decide to marshal all of her
considerable mental skills to confound and confuse the troll and thereby trick
it into letting her pass. Personally, I think she would have had a better chance
of beating it in combat with a wet noodle and a sponge than she would have of
tricking it. As it was, the troll apparently possessed a towering intellect,
for her attempts at subterfuge led to her being in the condition in which we
found her.
Once we had revived Kajah we decided to look in the house. Inside we found the
belongings of the fortune teller lying across a chair with a knife stabbed in
them. On the table before them was the fortune teller’s bone chips and
a letter. The letter indicated that the fortune teller was in league with Rawlings
and was tasked with tricking Baron Mithrilmist into choosing the wrong method
to kill him. But was this a bluff? A double bluff? Who knew.
Obviously it was imperative to get the note back to the baron. Oddly enough,
despite having traveled out of town in search of this note and getting killed
trying to retrieve it, Kajah seemed to have little interest in it. She decided
to take it back into town to the baron, but then got distracted by the troll
who she wanted to provide first aid to because she had enjoyed talking to him
so much. Then she was convinced to go back to town, and then she decided she
wanted to come with us to the tower. We decided that the simplest thing to do
was to send the note back to town with Taylon, and then have him join us again
on our trip to the tower.
Eventually all of us made it to the mysterious tower that was shown on our map.
The entrance to the tower was guarded by a strange golem type statue. It was
carved to look like a warrior with two swords and the ugliest sort of hat you
can imagine. When we would move to enter the tower the golem would move forward
to block our way. Luckily the golem was extremely slow and it was a simple matter
to get one person to distract it and have another person rush past.
Once inside we were confronted with our next obstacle. A dragon statue guarded
the stairs leading up. It would spit fire at anyone who approached. Oddly enough
the dragon was wearing the exact same garish hat that the golem had worn. Getting
past the dragon was a matter of waiting until it had spit fire and rushing past
before it could shoot the next blast.
We climbed the stairs and reach a long dark hallway guarded by more mechanical
golems wearing ugly hats. These golems swung swords and large blocks of stone
forming a deadly sort of obstacle course. Due to the odd way the corridor was
shaped and the lack of light in the corridor, it wasn’t possible for anyone
in the corridor to see the statues. They had to be guided by others who stood
outside the corridor and who a better angle with the light.
Taylon went through the corridor first and managed to make it to the other side
quite easily with the help of our instructions. In a similar manner I, Beryl
and Kajah made our way through. When it came time for Caliphar to cross the
corridor, he judged it insufficiently dangerous for his taste. He forbid all
of us at the end of the corridor from giving him any advise and instead navigated
his way through the corridor totally blind and without aid. Using only the sound
of the swinging blades and crush stones to guide him he scampered through the
corridor with nary a scratch.
At last we had reached the highest room in the tower and we stood before its
door. The door was once again guarded by yet another hat wearing golem. When
we approached, the golem asked us a riddle. The riddle went something along
these lines.
My father is a cobbler who never makes shoes
My sister is a tart, but never a floose.
And I, it is known from the very start
Shine in you eye if I am in your heart.
We guessed the riddle right away. I’ll leave the riddle unanswered here
to allow anyone who enjoys these sort of things to ponder it for a while. I’ll
be willing to provide the answer to anyone who asks, though. Once we answered
the riddle properly the door swung open and we were able to enter the room.
We found a magical circle inscribed in the floor that contained several items.
A handful were quickly identified as formal magical components and were apparently
meant to be used in some sort of failed ritual. In the center of the circle
was a skull that could only be the remains of the hapless wizard. Perched squarely
on top of the skull was the hideous looking hat that we had seen carved on all
the statues throughout the tower.
We were joined at this time by the small fire creature that have originally
given us the map. He explained that there was a ladder leading up the back of
the tower and that he had taken that shortcut to meet us here. We discovered
that the hat was magical, and the fire creature was able to identify the effects
for us. It came as no surprise to learn that the hat needed to be worn openly
in order for the magic to take effect. We held a drawing to determine who would
receive that hat. Beryl declined to participate. She said she already had a
hat that she preferred. I drew to winning coin and won the hat. The others split
the components between them and Kajah laid claim to the wizard’s skull
for good measure.
Once we were through in the tower we left via the ladder that the fire creature
had used. The fire creature remained at the tower and announced he was going
to set up shop there. I’ve a strong feeling we haven’t seen the last
of him. We went down the ladder and headed back to town and arrived without
further incident.
I entered the tavern and saw that in the back corner Baron Mithrilmist was participating
in yet another séance or fortune telling or magic ritual of some sort.
There was an old crone sitting at a table with a glowing crystal ball in front
of here. At her left hand was a bowl of water with strange floating blue lights.
Baron Mithrilmist was seated in front of her across the table, and standing
at his shoulder was a pale and wispy shade. The Baron asked the shade various
questions. I didn’t hear either the questions or the answers, but after
a time the shade dissipated and the séance was over.
At this point we received word from some source that Pyromorgis had been sighted.
At least, I think it was Pyromorgis. I’ve since gotten a little confused.
Other people have said that it was Protomorgis that we fought, and I know some
people believe that both creatures are one in the same. In any event, I’ll
refer to the creature as Pyromorgis from this point further.
Everyone readied themselves and marched out to an isolated part of town where
we were told that we could find the creature. When we arrived there we were
beset by the shadowy dark infernals that serve as his minions. We slowly pushed
into the area fighting these creatures until the cry went up that Pyromorgis
had been sighted. He strode forth out of a building and stood waiting for us
at the top of the ramp leading to the porch. His appearance had changed since
we had last seen him. He now had six glowing eyes much like Moribidus Bane.
The battle became fairly stationary at this point. Pyromorgis commanded the
porch of the building he stood before. We all formed a rough semi-circle around
the front of the building with Pyromorgis in the center. Adrafae and Raistlin
planted themselves at the bottom of the ramp in front of Pyromorgis and began
a steady barrage of ice bolts and stone bolts. Two steps behind them Caliphar
planted himself sideways so that he could direct a magic storm either towards
Pyromorgis or towards the rear of our lines.
Pyromorgis never made any serious attempt to move forward. He stood his ground
on the porch and used it as a defensive position. Various fighters kept trying
to dart in and hit him, but he was giving as good as he was getting in that
game. The magic storm and stone bolt spells were wearing him down a little,
but the ice bolts were doing no harm. When he wasn’t being pressed by the
fighters he was launching fusillades of elemental time, dragons breath and arcane
imprisons. He was also using the dragon’s breaths to heal himself from
time to time.
The dark infernals harried our rear and flanks, but we kept our formation pretty
well and beat them off without much trouble. Quite often an infernal would rift
in right in front of Pyromorgis and use its body to intercept the spells coming
at him. The infernal would not typically last long before the ice bolts would
kill it. Things continued like this for several minutes without either side
gaining any advantage.
When it end came it came in a rush as it often did. The infernal acting as Pyromorgis’
shield got taken down and several fighters all leapt forward at the same time
to attack. Pyromorgis beat several of them down almost immediately, but everyone
saw this was the make or break moment and poured spells and swords into every
gap. Though he took a terrible toll on the fighters in front of him, Pyromorgis
was unable to withstand the pressure for very long and collapsed into a smoldering
heap. His destruction for all intents and purposes ended the battle. It was
only a small matter at that point to pick up the fallen and to finish off the
remaining infernals.
We all came back to the tavern in good spirits. The last time we had faced Pyromorgis
at the pillar of molten ice he had beaten us all quite handily. We savored the
sweet feeling of revenge. Since Morbidus Bane still seemed content to stay in
the comfort of his tomb, the only remaining business at hand was the destruction
of Rawlings. Everyone settled down to wait for that moment to come.
Sadly, it was quite a long wait. After the initial euphoria of beating Pyromorgis
began to fade, many eyelids got droopy and many yawns could be seen among the
adventurers. Some placed their heads down on tables and tried to catch a little
nap. I crawled under a table and used one of my bags for a pillow and got almost
a half hour nap myself. People had just begun to give up and creep off to bed
when word finally arrived that Rawlings’ forces had been located.
Before we set out Baron Mithrilmist gathered everyone up and let us know what
to expect. In addition to Rawlings we were going to be facing dark unicorns,
greater undead, and a small force of his bone troll warriors. He stressed to
us that above all else no one was to deliver a killing blow to Rawlings except
for Baron Mithrilmist. It remained to be seen whether he had correctly divined
the proper method for performing the killing blow.
When we arrived at the site where Rawlings was at we found his forces to be
exactly as described. There were a handful of bone trolls milling around, and
a like amount of greater undead gleaming in the light from a campfire. Two jet
black unicorns were charging here and there. And then there was Rawlings himself.
I had never seen the man before now, but what I saw could hardly be described
as a man. It walked upright, but it closely resembled the unicorns. His skin
was a dark shade of black, his hands and feet were now hooves, and a black horn
grew from the middle of his forehead.
We wasted no time and waded straight into battle. I wanted no part of Rawlings.
He was way out of my league. I figured the greater undead would also prove to
be a bit more of a challenge than I was ready for. I didn’t know what to
expect of the unicorns. While I was standing there deciding what to do next
I saw Caliphar circle around behind Rawlings force and take on one of the unicorn.
Two quick flashes of horn and a death spell later, and Caliphar lay lifeless
on the ground. That ended any thoughts in my mind of going after any horse meat.
For the moment at least our forces faced Rawlings’ in a fairly straight
line. Caliphar lay fairly far back from Rawlings line, and after his death the
unicorn paid him no more attention. I thought that there would be no better
time than now to use the life spell that I had been imbued with earlier in the
evening. I crept around the end of the battle line and eased up to Caliphar’s
body as quietly as a could. To my great relief no one at all even glanced in
our direction. I cast the incant for the life spell, saw that Caliphar was back
on his feet, and ran like a girl back for our side of the line.
Things got progressively harder from there. I enjoyed some early success in
the battle backstabbing and waylaying bone trolls, but as the battle wore on
our two line dissolved into one great big massive swirling melee. It was much
harder to operate in that environment. It seemed like every time I turned around
there was a greater undead bearing down on me or a chaos spewing unicorn knocking
me down.
At one point I spun around to see a dark shape backing towards me as it fended
off several of our fighters. I instinctively made a stab at it only to realize
that it was Rawlings himself. He turned around and all I got out was an “Oh
sh..” before everything went dark. The next thing I knew I was flat on
my back on the other side of the battlefield with a healer standing over me
telling me to get up.
After Rawlings had dropped me someone had grabbed my body and drug it back out
of the way. Unfortunately, they left my weapons lying where I fell. Thus I was
now standing on one side of the battle with only a shred of health and Rawlings
entire force between me and my sword and dagger. I have never felt quite so
naked before in all my adventuring career.
There was nothing for me to do other than try to get my sword back. I worked
my way around the edge of the battle trying my best not to attract attention.
There was a small hut about ten yards from where I could see my dagger and sword
lying in the dirt surrounding by people fighting. I made a quick dash from the
tree line to the back of the hut and worked my way around the back to the corner
of the building. As I stood there waiting for a chance to make a dash for my
sword I heard a sound behind me. I spun around to see the leering face of a
death knight as he came around the back of the hut and rattled over towards
me. This time I had plenty of time to say the entire phrase that I had not been
able to complete when I faced Rawlings. I took off and ran straight for my weapons,
which were thankfully finally in the clear. I grabbed them and kept on running,
and finally I was back in business.
I looked around and I saw that several people had Rawlings on the ropes. Earlier
on he had one of the black unicorn helping him with healing spells, but now
he was on his own and being pressed backwards by a determined group of people.
I stayed near this group because they were slightly separate from the rest of
the bad guys and clearly Rawlings had far more important things on his mind
besides swatting my narrow behind. I even managed to get a swing or two in myself
as a small measure of revenge. The swords were taking their toll, and suddenly
Rawlings clutch his chest and fell over in a heap.
The cry went up for Baron Mithrilmist, who happened to be at the other side
of the battle at that moment. I looked around and saw that both black unicorns
were now dead, and all that remained of Rawlings force were a few undead and
a rather unhappy looking troll. In a few moments Baron Mithrilmist was by Rawlings’
side and no opposition remained at all.
The moment of truth had arrived. Everyone backed up and gave the Baron and Rawlings
a wide birth. Baron Mithrilmist delivered the killing blow to Rawlings, and
I believe he used a unicorn horn to do it. It was hard to see from where I was
standing. Everyone held their breath for a moment, but then let it out in a
sigh of relief when Rawlings was judged to be quite dead and the Baron remained
convincingly alive.
The Baron and a few others stood watch over Rawlings body to make certain that
it dissipated and reformed, thus proving Rawlings had met his final death. In
the mean time some people began searching the local buildings for anything of
value. A few people emerged from a hut carrying a large locked strongbox. I
figured they must have found all the treasure by now, but I decided to take
a peak inside the hut anyway. To my surprise I found they had neglected to notice
a small brown diary lying on a bed. I opened in and saw that this was the personal
diary of Rawlings.
Clearly this was something that Baron Mithrilmist would need to see. But when
I tried to make my way over to him where he stood guard over Rawlings’
body, I couldn’t seem to get his attention away from the other nobles and
squires and such that were in conversation with him. So, I figured I would just
give it to him once we got back to the tavern. In the meantime I decided I might
as well read the thing in case he left a message about where more treasure was
hidden or something.
I sat down by the campfire and started reading. The diary began with the events
at the beginning of this year. At the time Rawlings wrote that he and his forces
were in pretty bad shape. But he found some way to make contact with beings
from other planes and was able to bargain his way into being given the bone
trolls as allies. Later on he saw he was being used by these extraplanular forces,
so he instead began to make deals with the fae, which is what eventual lead
to him being turned into a sort of unicorn creature.
The book detailed all sorts of depraved deals and acts that Rawlings committed
in his thirst for power and above all else his hatred for Baron Mithrilmist.
The last several entries revealed that he was working on an elaborate plan to
trick Baron Mithrilmist into killing him with an iron sword, and somehow this
was going to make Rawlings nearly invincible. Obviously that plan had failed,
and Baron Mithrilmist correctly divined the proper way in which to rid the world
of Rawlings.
After I finished the diary I went back to the tavern and found the baron presiding
of the final treasure divvy. I gave him the book and settled in to see what
sort of riches we had found. Part of Rawlings’ horde was a handful of trinkets
and gems, and I was tasked with determining their value. I took particular satisfaction
in that, since it was the first time I had ever been able to use that particular
skill at a gathering.
Other than the gems, the treasure was mostly just the standard assortment of
money, items, and a few formal magic components. There was one magical sword,
though. It was named “Barbarian’s Blade”, and it was clearly
intended for someone of that race. The sword was crafted using only earth magic,
and thus it had no damage aura. It was however silver, indestructible, and it
had several useful spell effects. Since Faruunth was that only barbarian still
in attendance, and since he had no magic sword, the baron made the decision
to award the blade to him, to which no one present had any objection.
And that is the way things ended on that particular gathering. Morbidus Bane
still remains at large. Pyromorgis or Protomorgis may or may not be destroyed.
Rawlings, however, is almost certainly gone for good. It is my understanding
that no one resurrected as a result of being killed by monsters during the entire
event, so all things considered I would call our work a success.