Ah, the beautiful murk-filled swamplands of Exeter. They’re not much to look at, and always extremely dangerous to adventure in, but yet for some reason I keep coming back. I think it has to do with the fact that I have a lot of friends in the area, and a great deal of respect for Lord Exeter himself. Actually, that is now Baron Exeter, but that is a tale for a little later in the story.
To begin with, as always, I suppose that I should talk about getting into town.
I got into town fairly late Friday night, probably around 11:00 or so, and was
informed that the gathering had not yet began. I spent some time finding a cabin
and setting my gear up. I was staying with Anya Featherfall, the legal scribe
of Therendry and a fellow member of the Ducal court, as well as Sox, the two
weapon fighting darkstrider wolven, Kaz, the young wild elf who is a tribemate
of Lady Kes, and of course my good friend Keno, who is back to using a polearm
and as deadly as ever. Also, we later allowed Boo, the dark elf, to come stay
with us, as she had no place else to go.
The rumor abounding in town when the gathering began was that there had been
many golems sighted nearby, but their actions were seemingly random. Sometimes
they would destroy local villages, and at other times they would just walk through
peacefully.
Well, not long after the beginning of the gathering, the golems started coming
into the tavern. They were mostly flesh golems, though Caliphar thought that
there was an earth elemental mixed in with them as well and he berserked against
it. Whenever we killed the golems, spirits seemed to escape from them. It didn’t
take us long to realize that the golems contained the trapped spirits of people
from the surrounding towns whose bodies had been being found without spirits
in them.
Somehow, the golems were eventually tracked back to their lair, which was on
the outskirts of town. The lair was an encampment, with so many golems that
there was no way that the small force that was sent to investigate could deal
with them. Thus, the expeditionary party was forced to withdraw.
Meanwhile, I was helping out Kes in finding a caster for a spirit forge for
Xander, her apprentice. Loremar eventually agreed to do it, though it’s
a funny thing with Loremar. He follows the ways of peace, yet he casts some
of the bloodier, more violent formals I have ever seen. Of course, then again,
I haven’t seen many casters besides me who cast benign formals. Many people
seem to feel that inflicting pain helps to strengthen the magical energies,
which I honestly don’t have any idea of the relative truth of.
Well, of course before getting the formal cast, Kes had to make sure that she
had the permission of Guildmistress Sugar, which required Xander having to pay
the guild fee. Personally, I think it’s a very good move on the guildmistress’s
part to actually start enforcing the guild fee charges. Too often, guilds have
failed because they don’t have the ability to acquire needed resources.
Charging for the use of guild resources helps solve that problem.
Before moving on to other events of the evening, I do have to take some time
to discuss the tavern for the gathering. This was the best tavern I have had
the privilege of eating from in some time. Sir Jokarius and Loxy did an amazing
job, even though they were shorthanded without Rin, and I kept coming back for
one good meal after another. I am going to become a fat adventurer at the rate
I was eating. I would come into the tavern not feeling especially hungry, but
I would see the food, look at how good it was, and decide to have some. They
had fried peppers and mushrooms over rice, which was amazing. They also had
ice cream, which is a rare treat for adventurers. And a plentiful supply of
cheese sandwiches cooked on a grill kept me satisfied all weekend long. I can’t
say good enough things about the tavern.
After the formal got cast on Xander, Boo informed Lord Exeter that she needed
a force to go to the plane of nightmare to find a book or something along those
lines. Lord Exeter turned it over to his dream plane expert, Anthony Darkforge,
who organized the town to go on the adventure.
It was quite an adventure, too. We ran into maybe the single most powerful creature
I have ever seen, some type of nightmare elemental. It made Zemos look small
by comparison. It phased over fifty effects we threw at it. I thought to myself,
“Wow, this type of creature could only exist in Exeter.” It could
spellstrike death or imprison at will. It swung for a lightning storm of magic
damage naturally. Thankfully for us, Anthony was transformed and was a vastly
superior fighter, so we held our own, but we weren’t making any progress.
At some point, Anthony reached an agreement with the dream elemental that they
would both stay out of the fight, and then we were able to advance to the library,
albeit minus our biggest fighter. Well, we got hit by two types of creatures,
both undead. The first type of creatures swung for eight dagger blows of drain
damage. The second type of creatures swung for a magic missile worth of nausea
damage. Seeing how bad the situation was, I stepped up onto the line, and Leviathan
backpacked me. I was appreciative of his help, because I got drained a lot.
The nausea didn’t bother me so much because the protection aura helped
me out, but the drains were hitting full, so I had to be very defensive.
With Caliphar on my right, I finally managed to break through the right side
of the enemy line, and at the same time the left side of our line broke through
the left side of the line. We chased down the few remaining undead, and as we
did so, Boo and Beryl slipped into one of the buildings, which I assume was
the library that Boo was looking for. Lord Exeter was very unhappy because they
had left the group without letting him know, but I think the situation was resolved.
With the library discovered, we headed back to the plane of Tyrra, and the sun
was coming up. That being the case, I decided it was time to head to bed. It
was unseasonably cold for May at night, but I managed to get to sleep okay.
However, I really should start considering bringing heavy blankets at some point,
considering how many cold gatherings in a row I have been to.
I didn’t get much sleep, and when I awoke it was probably 10:00 or so.
I went to the tavern, finding no one else awake when I did so. However, when
I passed Silvercord cabin, I thought that I heard Cleo waking up. I had thought
of ordering some food when I got to the tavern, but the kitchen staff was not
awake yet either. Duncan soon came in looking for coffee, but of course there
was none with the tavern not yet open.
As such, Duncan and I decided to do some exploration. The area of town where
most of the adventurers were staying was the area of town that had been labeled
C Camp. From there, we walked down the road to the area of town labeled A Camp.
Apparently some adventurers must have been staying there, too, because we found
a warded cabin. More interestingly, though, we found a trail, and so we decided
to follow it.
The trail led down to the water, and it was a beautiful morning right on the
water. I am not familiar enough with Exeter geography to know the name of the
body of water we were standing on, but I suppose I could research it or ask
Lord Exeter at some point. Duncan and I walked along the docks, which were unfortunately
covered in goose poop, and as we did so all the geese ran away. I guessed that
they considered us as invading their territory.
With the shoreline sufficiently explored, Duncan and I walked backed up to A
Camp, and then from there we walked up and down the trails a bit. He did very
well, too, finding several valuable items along the trails. I guess that Duncan’s
eyes for these kinds of things are keener than mine, for I saw no such items.
When we went back to the tavern, breakfast was ready, and so I ordered one of
Sir Jokarius’ famous omelet’s, complete with cheese and tomatoes.
It was very, very good.
Not long into the morning, Viscountess Kiera Zobrist of the Earth Guilds of
Therendry showed up in town. I was happy to see her, and even happier to see
that she has now learned the skill of wielding a sword. Now the next thing we
have to teach her is how to wield it effectively in the slaying of monsters,
and then before you know it she’ll be up on the front lines slaying monsters
alongside myself and any other fighter/scholars I manage to train.
Eventually, we received a report that the Council of Freedom for Therendry,
Christopher Smalley’s old group that was trying to overthrow Lyonesse,
was in town. Thus, Lord Exeter led a group out to meet them. Included in the
group were Dame Parthynia and Viscountess Kiera, as well as a number of others.
When we got to the encampments for the CFT, we spent a long time trying to convince
them that the matter with Christopher Smalley had been resolved peacefully.
We had to convince them that Smalley was not captured, but willingly came to
Theren City. Of course, these particular CFT members were fairly hard to deal
with, largely because they were convinced that Dame Parthynia could telepathically
control their minds. In fact, one of them fell to the ground after she supposedly
fried his brain. It was all nonsense, of course, but the fellow was a good actor.
As these things tend to, it unfortunately wound up in violence after the CFT
jumped us. We won the fight pretty easily, though, in part thanks to Duncan’s
fabulous work waylaying the CFT members. We didn’t kill them, though. Instead,
we put them in a wagon bound for Theren City. Unfortunately, some of them chose
to die, and so not all of them made it to Theren City.
Around this time, I got to know one of the younger adventurers in town, an adventurer
in her first gathering named Jola. I think I got that name right, though I have
a penchant for getting names wrong, so I apologize if I am off on the name.
I asked her what her profession was, and she told me that she was a healer,
so I asked if she had considered joining the Healer’s Guild. I don’t
know if she ever got a chance to speak to Guildmistress Sugar about doing so,
but I hope she did. The Guild makes an excellent place for younger healers to
learn their craft. In fact, in some ways Jola reminded me of a young Sugar.
The thing that has made Sugar impressive over time is the fact that she is timely
with her spells. She doesn’t use them until she needs to. Jola seems to
have the same thing going for her. She waits until she needs to use a healing
spell, and then she uses it. As a younger adventurer, that’s very important,
because if you try to constantly heal everyone, you will run out of healing
spells very quickly, and you won’t have them when you need them.
One thing that amazes me these days is how much more advanced the starting adventurers
are than they were back in my day. Back when I started adventuring, I only knew
three cure light spells and a single cure wounds spell. Jola, by contrast, can
cast all the way up to a shield magic spell. That’s a pretty amazing difference,
if you ask me.
The other big news of the morning was that Dame Parthynia told me that she had
reached an agreement with the Viscountess, and we were combining the Ducal Court
and her team (the team formerly known as TAK) into one entity under the Duke.
It makes a fairly formidable team, too, with Dame Parthynia, Viscountess Kiera,
Ruindel, Anthony Darkforge, Anya, Lord Exeter, and myself as members. I assume
that the new team will still be known as the Ducal Court, though I am not certain.
One of the fundamental rules of adventuring, as I believe Viscount Silvercord
is planning on writing in his document on the rules of adventuring as soon as
gets to writing it, is that meals will always be interrupted by something. And
so it was that my lunch was interrupted by an undead biata showing up in the
tavern. Under Lord Exeter’s orders, many of us went to try to kill it,
but it was, like everything else in Exeter, absurdly powerful, and so we ended
up in a stalemate. It told us that it wanted to make a deal with us, and Lord
Exeter informed it that we could not, and we would have to kill it. It rifted
out, and we healed those who had fallen beneath its blows.
Around this time, Viscount Silvercord asked me if he could have a copy of all
the tomes in my library, The Great Library of Navin Weuntzel. I asked him why,
and he told me that he was trying to create the greatest library in all of Evendarr,
which I believe will be called the Library of Goldhaven. I informed him that
all of my tomes are always free to copy for anyone who wants to, and he thanked
me and invited me to come to the Goldhaven library after it opened.
While I was still in the tavern, Sugar and Spice asked me if I could do a favor
for them. They had a note that they wanted me to hold onto, and to give to Leviathan
and Pendulum when they came looking for it. However, getting the note was supposed
to be a challenge. I was supposed to make it difficult for them to find me,
and then to ask them a lot of silly questions when they did find me.
Well, I was headed with Jola to my cabin because I intended to give her some
potions to supplement her healing supply. However, people warned me that Leviathan
and Pendulum were coming down the road, and so Jola and I ducked out the other
side of the tavern to avoid the two mystics.
It didn’t work, though. We darted down a side trail, emerged onto another
road, and of course saw Leviathan and Pendulum right in front of us. I tried
to duck back down the trail, but they had spotted me, and I couldn’t get
away.
The conversation went something like this:
“You have something we want.”
“Oh? What would that be?”
“A piece of paper.”
“What piece of paper?”
“The one you have.”
“I have lots of pieces of paper. Which specific one are you looking for?”
The conversation went on like that for a while, with me trying to stall them
and verbally dance around while they wanted me to get to the point. Finally,
after harassing them for a few minutes, I did turn over the paper, and it was
apparently the final clue they needed, so they went off to find Sugar and Spice,
while Jola and I continued on to my cabin.
After I got done giving Jola the potions, Kes found me and asked if I wanted
to come scouting with her, Xander, and Kaz. I agreed to come along, and so we
went around the perimeter of the town on a scouting mission. We checked out
the golem camp from the night before, and the golems had re-arranged themselves
into a defensive position. The army of golems was large, probably between 300-400,
and more seemed to be being produced all the time. We thought of trying to sneak
into the camp, but there was no way to do so, and so we continued on our way.
As we did so, we ran into Furio, the biata. He told us that there were two undead
biata. One of them was the new Hand of Darkness for Zimmerman, and the other
one was the undead biata that had been around town. Apparently, the undead biata
that was around town did not want to be undead, and he had the spirit bottle
for the Hand of Darkness. It seemed like a major dilemma, since Lord Exeter
had ruled that we could not negotiate with undead, but I pointed out that we
could help undead towards their own destruction, which is what we were doing.
Then, after the undead biata was no longer undead, we could negotiate for the
spirit bottle.
Well, that was about as far as I was able to be involved in the negotiations.
After that, it got taken over by others, and so I went back to the tavern and
got myself yet more food. As I was hanging around the tavern, two walking pillars
of fire came in looking for Sir Kyth. I remembered having fought the fire creatures
that were attempting to kill Kyth way back in the day, and so as soon as they
left I bolted out the door looking for Kyth, trying to find him before they
did. I managed to find him a minute or so before they did, and so I warned him
of the impending doom that was rapidly approaching. Thankfully, though, these
ones weren’t nearly as tough as the original versions, and we dispatched
them easily.
Somehow, Kyth endeed up turning into a portal to another part of Tyrra, and
so we went there to go fight some more fire creatures. These ones were also
fairly easily dispatched. We ended up finding two stones, and we brought them
back to Exeter with us. I went with Algorian to identify them, and it turned
out that while both had very powerful effects, both had serious drawbacks. One
of the gems was a spirit bottle for someone, though we did not know who. The
other one belonged to the plane of fire and they would be upset without it,
so it had to be returned.
When we came back to Sir Kyth, we found out that the spirit bottle belonged
to his brother. We weren’t sure how to get the spirit out of it. I thought
of using a DFM, but Kyth wanted to try a resurrection instead. And so, with
Viscountess Zobrist, Sir Kyth, and I looking on, Guildmistress Sugar attempted
to resurrect the spirit. She did so successfully, and Sir Kyth’s brother
re-formed in front of us. He was a dark elf, which was something of a surprise
to the Viscountess, since she did not know that Kyth came from a vornae family.
I left to go change my equipment as night was coming, and the Viscountess and
Guildmistress left soon after in order to give Sir Kyth and his brother time
to reminisce.
Before night fell, though, we had one other strange incident. Sir Jokarius walked
up to a group of people as we were discussing something. Then, I got bored and
wandered off to the tavern for some food, and Sir Jokarius was there, too! I
verified that the Sir Jokarius in the tavern was the real Sir Jokarius, and
then I went back to deal with the doppelganger. By the time I got back, though,
Tovolia had already attacked the doppelganger, and I helped him finish it off.
Apparently, there were grey-skinned humanoid creatures that were capable of
imitating the form of anyone they saw. These doppelgangers could be extremely
dangerous, and I urge people to be very careful around Exeter.
After night fell, Leviathan and Pendulum asked me to help them get Pendulum
a spirit forge, and I agreed to cast it for them. Of course, I first had to
verify permission from Guildmistress Sugar, but once that was accomplished,
it was an easy formal casting. You see, Pendulum had discovered that using a
mace wasn’t effective against most Exeter monsters, because there were
never magic maces floating around, and most monsters in Exeter required magic
to hit. He figured that by learning to use a long sword, it would be easier
for him to acquire a magic weapon, and I figure that he is probably right. That
aside, I was extremely happy to help out Pendulum and Leviathan, because they
are good friends of mine.
Most of the night was spent fighting off ridiculously powerful chaos elementals,
and then we got word that two armies were advancing on town. One of them was
the golem army, and the other was the army led by the Hand of Darkness and made
up of undead. We decided to ride out and meet the undead army first. I personally
rode my Blackstone Charger, Lightning, and sent him off once we encountered
the undead army.
Before we engaged, Danrick gave me a speech about the fact that he appreciated
that I like to fight, but for the battle they were short of big healers outside
of Cleo, and they really needed me as a healer more than a fighter. I agreed
with him, and so I agreed to backpack Keno and Lord Exeter throughout the fight.
Well, the backpacking Lord Exeter thing didn’t work out well. You see,
His Excellency Count Lyonesse flanked left and got dropped away from our line.
Lord Exeter went out to save him, and got dropped as well. The line began collapsing
in on itself, and Keno was the lynchpin holding the line together. If he went
down, the entire line would have collapsed. So, I didn’t really have a
choice, I had to hold my position behind Keno or everyone would have died.
Thankfully, the display of fighting that Keno put on was nothing short of amazing.
He held down the entire center of our line, and even though he was fighting
four on one and had no room to maneuver, he still managed to destroy the monsters.
Then, he and Danrick jumped on one of the big monsters, and slayed it until
it died. Afterwards, Keno and I joined Danrick and Cleo in chasing down another
one of the giant undead monstrosities, and we chased it all over the area until
Leviathan finally managed to blow it up with some destroy undead spells as it
emerged from the wood line.
After the undead had been dispatched, Count Lyonesse chose that moment on the
battlefield to promote Lord Exeter to Baron Exeter, with territory still to
be defined. It was a well deserved promotion, given that Lord Exeter has been
one of the most competent nobles around for a long time.
Newly appointed Baron Exeter then ordered us back to town, and we found that
the golem army (or at least a piece of it) had arrived and stationed itself
in the tavern. It was made up of armor golems, crystal golems, and obsidian
golems. In other words, it was a nasty combination of ridiculously powerful
golems. While Count Lyonesse took most of the town around to one door, the other
door was held down by Danrick, Cleo, Baron Exeter, Loremar, Keno, and myself.
It was pretty much just a door battle, and eventually the golems managed to
drop Danrick and drag him to the center of the room. We surged forward, but
we were being hit from too many angles. I asked Cleo to backpack Keno for a
while, and I pulled my sword and slid over to defend our left flank. Xander
came over to help me, and eventually we cleared the left flank.
Around the same time, Keno made it to the center of the room, dispatched the
final few golems, and Cleo found and healed Danrick. With all the golems beaten,
and the golem maker captured and her focus confiscated, it seemed like the golem
problem had been dealt with in Exeter. I did not know if the spirits were able
to resurrect or not, but I sure hope that they were able to.
After the golem battle was finished, Kes was nice enough to help out Sir Jokarius
in the tavern for a while since Loxy had gone to bed by that point. I got a
sandwich and some ice cream, and many people decided to order pasta salad. In
fact, I think Sir Kyth ate three bowls of the stuff. I admit that the pasta
salad was excellent, but I don’t think I could have eaten as much as Kyth
ate.
I sat around talking to Kyth, Leviathan, Sugar, and Spice some, and then I headed
off to bed. I talked to Keno a while, and then went to sleep. Thankfully, when
I awoke the next morning, there were no immediate problems in Exeter, and so
I left town, intending to stop by Theren City on my way back to Haven. I can’t
even remember the last time I saw my house in Springshire, but that is besides
the point, I suppose. At any rate, that brings me to the conclusion of my tale.
And that’s how Danrick killed all the monsters.