As winter drew to a close and as I completed a few tasks that had been taking my attention of late, my thoughts once again turned to my chosen craft of adventuring. I had not realized that the time had stretched to six months since I last ventured forth to attend a gathering. A gathering is planned for Therendry a bit later this month, but I was anxious to get back into the thick of things a bit earlier. I have long wished to broaden my horizons a bit and explore some distant lands and kingdoms, and for this reason I chose this past weekend to visit the lands of Aeran’Or that I have heard so much about. Herein lays my account of that gathering.
The trip from Exeter to Aeran’Or was fairly uneventful. I got lost a bit
on a few occasions, but I had figured on this happening and allowed for plenty
of time to complete the trip. I fell in with some others who were traveling
to the same place several miles south of the site. The gathering was to be held
in a trade city of the dwarves located in the Ironspar Mountains a bit south
of their stronghold of the Kor.
Night had fallen by the time we approached the trading city. We were met well
outside of the trade city by a representative of the dwarves. This person explained
that he was a member of the Fat Axe clan. I was later informed that all the
various leadership positions in the local dwarven governments were held by members
of the Fat Axes, and as such they enjoyed a fair amount of social distinction.
The dwarven representative explained that he had been tasked with meeting us
and explaining the dire situation that the trading town was in. At some point
in the past a mysterious portal had opened inside a building in the town. It
led to a place he termed the Abyssal Plane. The dwarves placed guards on the
portal, but they were unable to prevent a large force of Abyssal creatures from
issuing forth and occupying the entire town.
As things stood when we arrived, the entire trading town had been enclosed in
a huge dome of ice. Nothing was known of what was going on inside, thought it
was assumed the area was in the hands of the Abyssal creatures. The dwarves
had somehow managed to enclose the entire area inside a huge earthen circle
of power, and the remaining dwarven forces guarded that perimeter. Many members
of the Fat Axe clan had gone missing during the initial fighting, and the entire
clan of Stargazer dwarves had disappeared entirely, and was presumed to be in
the hands of the forces of the Abyss, or perhaps on the Abyssal Plane itself.
It was our assignment to break through the outlying defenses of the trading
town, somehow penetrate the ice dome surrounding the town, defeat the Abyssal
forces within the town itself, and finally to confront the portal to the Abyssal
Plane and determine some method to stop its operation. After we had done that,
then of course we could get a bed and sleep for the night. Given that our choices
were to assault the town, to turn around and go right back home, or sleep right
here on the side of the road in a ditch, we all enthusiastically pledged to
retake the trading town for the dwarves.
The dwarven representative provided us with an extremely crude map of the town
and surrounding areas. The map did us very little good. It was out of scale
and inaccurate. Several members of our group had previously visited this town
and it was far easier to rely on their memory. The dwarf also explained the
types and nature of the foes we were to fight, and this information was much
more helpful. I hope I get the spelling of these names somewhat close.
The areas outside of the ice dome were guarding by roaming bands of Longir and
Deep Trolls. The Longir were some sort of dwarf like race. They had the appearance
of dwarves with rusty copper colored skin. It seems that they had been encountered
before, and several people present were familiar with them. They called them
rust dwarves and dirty dwarves. The Longir were skilled in earth magics and
necromancy, and they used the Deep Trolls as slaves and troops.
Once inside the town we were likely to encounter the Thrak. These creatures
were black skinned humanoids with yellow streaks and no face. They had the ability
to wither limbs with their blows. They were reported to be vulnerable to alchemy,
and this in fact proved to be true.
A much tougher opponent we were likely to find was the Rannsuth. These were
large ogre shaped creatures with the head of a slug. These repulsive brutes
could spit out huge chunks of elemental ice as well as various different alchemical
effects. Lastly, should we approach the portal itself, we were told that we
would likely face blue winged monkey pigs, who served as guardians of the portal.
Other than the fact they were very formidable, our guide had no further information
on the powers of the blue winged monkey pigs.
So, with that cheerful and encouraging scouting report delivered, our guide
showed us to the border of their large earthen circle of power and recognized
as all in. We were told that the dwarves would be waiting right here to recognize
us back out after we had defeated the entire town of abyssal creatures.
Since this was my first visit to the lands of Aeran’Or I have no local
previous experience to draw on, but this struck me as the most bizarre beginning
of any sort of gathering I had ever attended. Never before had I been tasked
with defeating an entire town of extra planular elemental ice spitting limb
withering blue winged monkey pig portal guarding monstrosities just for the
privilege of finding a bed to sleep in. Nonetheless, everyone else took events
in perfect stride, so I fell in step and followed our party forward in search
of the ice dome.
At this point our assault force consisted of me and ten other people. There
was a group of adventurers who called themselves the Silverswords, and another
called the Golden Unicorns. Sir Krossus Blackhammer, who I recently read had
been knighted, took charge of the situation, and it was fairly apparent that
everyone was very used to him leading.
The road leading to the town and the ice dome was wide and well marked, so there
was little danger of getting lost. There were woods on one side of the road
and a swamp on the other, so that limited our movement somewhat. It didn’t
take long for us to run into opposition. The Longir and the Deep Trolls were
just as they were described to us.
The long running battle to the ice dome probably took the better part of an
hour. We made slow and steady headway throughout and were never in very much
danger. Once were moved in further we began to get attacked from in front and
behind, which tended to get us charging in opposite directions. Keeping together
as a group was our main focus, and we managed that without too many mishaps.
The town sat at the top of a ridgeline, and we had to climb up a hill to reach
the ice dome. At the crest of the ridge where the road met the ice there was
a spot that was supposed to have been weakened by previous attacks by the dwarves.
An elf named Spinner attacked the dome with blasts of elemental fire and in
short order the wall was breached. No sooner had the hole opened then one of
the large slug headed ogres rushed out and engaged us.
There were eleven of us and only one of it, but the road had narrowed at this
point making it difficult for us to bring out numbers to bear. The Rannsuth
stood in the gap in the wall and made a gurgling snotty noise in the back of
its throat, and then suddenly hauked up a big wad of glowing blue elemental
ice. I forgot who it was that caught it, but it froze them for two hundred daggers
blows worth of cold. Tyrra knows what that thing had been eating.
Luckily for us it didn’t seem to be able to do that very often. Perhaps
it had only a limited amount of elemental ice snot. But it was far from done.
We pushed forward with our attack and it rained down blows and spit other sorts
of snot all over us. One of the effects that both its blows and snot caused
was an acute sense of paranoia in the target. Luckily, it was the front line
fighters who suffered these effects, and they could be purified before they
could run off and do anything stupid.
After we defeated the snotty slug ogre, we were able to push into the town proper.
We had previously debated whether it would be best to push straight for the
portal building, or to attempt to clear the town of opposition first. We decided
on the latter strategy. It would be slower and more costly in terms of resources,
but it would make things a lot less chancy once we got to the portal.
Therefore we advanced on the first building right in front of us, which happened
to be the tavern. At this point we began getting attacked by the Thrak. They
were pretty nimble and seemed to come at us in pairs most of the time. Every
time they struck flesh they shriveled a limb of their target. This became very
taxing on our earth casters, and was a source of great frustration to me. I
had nearly a dozen restore limb potions that I thought I would never get to
use, and they were all left with the rest of our excess baggage outside of town.
Both within the tavern and spread all around the town we found large blocks
of blue elemental ice. These caused considerable ice damage to anyone foolish
enough to touch them, and we came to learn that these were the source of the
Thrak we were fighting. From time to time one would emerge from the ice and
attack us. Sadly, we couldn’t find a way to destroy the ice blocks so we
were force to just ignore them.
After we cleared the tavern area we began to move about town going from building
to building clearing each in turn. All the while we were attacked by a steady
stream of Thrak and the occasional Snotty Slug Ogre. This continued for over
an hour before we decided it was time to attack the building with the portal.
Sir Krossus claimed to know which building it was, so we headed in that direction.
Sure enough, through the windows we could see the glowing portal to the Abyssal
Plane, as well as some Thrak and two large black tentacles. There was also a
large mound of something else in the back that was hard to make out. Unfortunately
the building was warded.
We spent quite a while on the porch of this building trying to determine what
to do. We didn’t have the resources or the time to destroy the ward, which
meant we needed the key. We searched all around the immediate area and found
nothing. We were still getting attacked from time to time by wandered Thrak
and Snotty Slug Ogres. At one point I was struck and forced to sit on my fanny
for a long while with nothing to do but stare out my useless shriveled legs.
The earth casters had been forced to conserve their dwindling spells.
I never did learn how we managed to get in the building. I finally got my legs
restored only to get struck by a Snotty Slug Ogre, at which point I was consumed
with irrational feelings that all these weird strangers I was with had lured
me to this cursed town to destroy me. I took off running and hid in the woods
for ten minutes until I finally managed to get control of myself. When I came
back I discovered that a ward key had been found and they had just gotten the
door open.
I thought that we were finally getting close to the end of this battle, but
I was soon to learn this wasn’t quite the case. Just inside the door were
the two monstrous black tentacles and they lashed out viciously as anyone who
approached the door. They dealt massive damage to anything they hit. There was
also a Thrak in there with them. Somewhere in the back by the portal a loud
booming voice mocked us and our efforts to enter. Every time the door would
open waves of immense cold could be felt pouring from the building.
We were at an impasse. No one felt confident in our ability to fight our way
past the tentacles. For a long time we tried bringing the ward down and up in
rapid succession, trying to toss in spells to neutralize the tentacles. This
met with only mixed results. We managed to destroy one of the tentacles with
several dragon’s breath spells, but after it disappeared back into the
ground, it or another just like it rose up and took its place a short time later.
If we tossed in spells or struck blows to damage the tentacles and then closed
the ward, they would start to get healed again by elemental ice blasts coming
from the rear by the portal.
This went on for around half an hour. Finally we could come up with no better
plan than to try to swarm the building. The only other alternative would be
to give up and fight our way back out of town. We all gathered up and got ready
and made a few plans, and then the word was given to drop the ward and rush
in.
The second we crossed the threshold we were all buffeted by a blast of intense
cold. It knocked nearly half the life out of me right away. Everyone pounced
on the two tentacles and beat them back from the door. I was one of the last
ones to push inside and once across the threshold I saw that nearly everyone
had pushed forward along the right hand wall and approached the portal. The
tentacles stood roughly in the center of the room, and in the back near the
portal I could now plainly see a huge pile of black pulsing ooze topped by an
enormous eyeball.
Clearly the black mound was what needed to be defeated. For the moment the tentacles
and the Thrak in the room were concentrated on the main group that was on the
right hand side of the room. I hoped that the eyeball was some sort of vulnerable
weak point, so I glided over behind the tentacles to the left side of the room.
I pulled my dagger from the back of my shield and launched it up at the eyeball
on the top of the mound. I managed to strike a solid blow, but to my great disappointment
I saw it was nearly unaffected.
By this time everyone else had started to strike frightful blows at the base
of the black mound, and in turn were suffering a terrible beating from the tentacles.
I started to circle back around to try to make it over towards the main group
when I found myself blocked by one of the tentacles. I looked over and to my
great discomfort I saw that there was nearly no one left standing in the initial
group that had pushed forward towards the black mound. Things were quite suddenly
looking very very bad.
In a panic I made of leap to try to get past the tentacle, but it lashed out
and swatted me onto the frozen floor. I lay there bleeding and freezing for
a time, and when I was aroused by one of the healers I saw that it was all over.
Both tentacles were no where to be seen. The broken bodies of the Thrak lay
over against a wall. The huge eyeball was rolling around in the middle of the
floor like a child’s toy and the black oozing mound was slowly beginning
to dissolve. Someone told me later that Sir Krossus had used some magic talisman
he carried to destroy the black mound.
There was not a great deal of cheering and rejoicing. The general feeling was
one of weary relief. By this point it was nearly four in the morning, and we
had been fighting pretty solid for the last four hours. Our foes seemed to be
defeated for now, and there was treasure strewn all about, but it was still
frightfully cold and the portal in the back of the building still remained open,
so everyone was in a hurry to collect the treasure and move on.
As soon as I gained my feet someone told me to hurry over to check out some
boxes for traps. I went over to the area around the slowly dissolving pile of
ooze, and found several small boxes strewn about the floor. Some had already
been emptied, and I set about checking the others for traps. I didn’t find
any traps, but I did find a small scrap of chainmail shoved under a bench which
I stuck in the general loot pile.
I saw one last box sitting behind the ooze pile and in front of the portal.
I knelt down beside it and saw that this one in fact had a trap attached to
it. It seemed that the trap was already tripped, but it was hard to see in the
dim light. The last of the treasure was being gathered and I had just heard
Krossus announce that we were leaving when another strong blast of elemental
ice pulsed through the building damaging us all.
I had only been given a bare amount of healing earlier, so I immediately collapsed
to the floor where I was kneeling behind the ooze pile. To my great misfortune
there was no one standing around me at that exact point in time, and no one
saw me fall because I was behind the pile of ooze. The blast of cold only served
to motivate everyone to follow Krossus’ order to leave with even more haste,
and in a few moments my slowly freezing corpse was the only thing left in the
building along with the portal to the plane of Abyss.
I must have lain there for a good while. What possessed Sir Krossus to do a
head count and to discover that the group was one short I’ll never know,
but sometimes you get those lucky breaks. When Krossus returned to the building
and found and lifed me, and was nearly frozen to the floor. At some point between
the time I fell and the time I was healed the portal had closed. The room no
longer felt so frigid. Regardless, I wasted no time in vacating the building
as quickly as my stiff limbs would carry me.
Once outside I saw that the town appeared to be clear of opposition. The huge
dome of ice no longer encased the town. The blocks of elemental ice that the
Thrak were emerging from were nowhere to be seen. For the next few hours I believe
we were the only eleven people in the entire trading town.
All that remained was the treasure distribution. This consisted of the normal
sort of things that are found, and the scrap of chainmail which turned out to
be magical. Krossus laid claim to the big fat rolly polly eyeball from the mound
of ooze. The normal items and gold and components were quickly sorted out and
distributed, and a deck of cards was brought out in order to draw for the chainmail.
I drew the queen of spades, which turned out to be the winning draw.
By now it was drawing close to five in the morning. We declared the trading
town to be liberated, and went off in search of a bunk and some sleep. This
makes a good point to draw my tale to a close for now. When I have the time,
I’ll take up the tale again to describe what we learned the next day in
regards to the Abyssal Plane and the mystery of the missing dwarf clans.
When I had finally gathered up all of my belongings and gotten my bunk in order,
it was close to five in the morning. I secured my cabin as best I could, but
I really wasn’t expecting much trouble. For one thing, the town was completely
deserted except for myself and the ten other adventurers. Even if I had reason
to suspect any of them, I knew they were all just as exhausted as I was. Despite
the fact we were no longer encased within an ice dome, the area was still quite
cold. All anyone wanted to do was get into a warm bunk and hopefully get a little
sleep.
As it turns out, a little sleep is exactly what I got. The cold made things
a bit uncomfortable, but my bunk was a much greater source of discomfort. I
had never before slept in a dwarven settlement, so I don’t know if this
is a cultural thing or not, but not a single bed in the entire town had so much
as a pillow or pad or mattress on it. My three choices for sleeping surfaces
were bare wood, bare metal springs, or the floor.
In the end I chose the springs and I regretted the decision almost immediately.
The wires and coils dug into my back unmercifully. I kept trying to stick more
layers of blankets below me, but that only resulted in me getting cold. I tossed
and turned all night long trying desperately to get comfortable. When the first
pale and feeble rays of the morning sun found me in the morning I was still
trying to get to sleep. I finally gave it up as a lost cause around 9:30 in
the morning and just decided to get up. My back was killing me. I resolved that
I would sleep on a floor covered in gravel before I spent another night in that
dwarvish torture device.
I showered and shaved and got dressed in my heavier shirt to try to ward off
the brisk morning air. I looked around town and saw that it was still quite
deserted. I went over to the building that previously held the portal to the
Abyssal Plane and cautiously peaked inside. The oppressive chill was no longer
hanging in the air as it was the night before. The portal was still quite gone,
and the large pile of black oozing goo was also no longer there. In the spot
where it had stood were now several smooth and slimy holes leading far into
the ground. It was as if some acid or caustic substance and melted away the
floor and drained away.
I stay well clear of the holes, but I rooted around the rest of the building
to see if maybe in the morning light I might find something we missed the previous
evening. My search turned up a handful of odd coins, but nothing of any real
significance. I went ahead and left the building and went in search of some
food.
I knew where the tavern was from our assault on the town the previous evening.
When I arrived I was disappointed by unsurprised to find it still completely
deserted and bare of anything I would judge to be edible. The only food I had
with me was a handful of apples, and so one of those and a cup of water served
for my breakfast that morning.
I still couldn’t see anyone moving around town, so I decided to do some
exploring both as a way to keep warm and as a way to get a feel for the lay
of the land. It turns out that the town was not particularly large. It was little
more than an outpost, really, which makes sense given it’s purpose as a
trading post. I found a building which held an intact celestial circle of power.
There was some debate the previous evening over whether or not the Abyssal creatures
would have destroyed it. There was also supposed to be an earth circle in town,
but if it was there I never found it.
The town sat on top of a low rise. From one side of the town the land fell away
sharply down to a swampy area bordering on a large lake. There were several
run down and abandoned buildings at the bottom of the hill next to the swamp,
and a long well maintained road leading off through the swamp along one side
of the lake. It was along this road that we had advanced on the town the night
before.
I circled the town and explored a short ways into the woods on the outskirts.
I found nothing of real interest. Either the large earth circle the dwarves
had placed around the town had been removed, or I never ventured out far enough
to meet it. After around an hour I came back into town and finally saw some
other people moving around.
I couldn’t see any of the adventurers up yet, but I saw small groups of
dwarves cautiously moving about and checking out the buildings. I assumed these
to be the previous inhabitants returning to their homes and shops. Two dwarves
stood out of the rest. They moved around quite boldly and boisterously, and
I saw them approach several warded cabins and bang on the door. I’m not
certain what their business was, but it was pretty obvious they were having
no luck interesting the sleeping adventurers in it.
I made a trip to the tavern again and was most grateful to find that someone
there had made some coffee. There was no food still, but the coffee was most
welcome on that cold morning. I walked outside and stood by a fountain to drink
it, and noticed that the two dwarves I had seen earlier were now striding purposefully
towards me.
They didn’t look too suspicious, but nonetheless I looked around to see
where I was. The fountain I was standing beside stood only a short distance
away from one of the cabins that I knew the Golden Unicorns were sleeping in.
I judged that if anything should happen, I would probably be able to get of
a cry for help. Of course, that assumed that the Unicorns weren’t sound
sleepers...
In any event, I need not have worried. The two dwarfs approached and proclaimed
themselves to be miners selling their wares. I asked them their clan, and one
said he was from the Stonecleavers, and the other said he was from the Blackmane
clan. If I remembered correctly, Sir Krossus was also from the Stonecleaver
clan, so I guessed these two were fairly trustworthy.
They showed my some chunks of raw silver ore and asked if I was interested in
buying them. I examined the two shiny chunks of rock closely and judged them
to be worth around 5 silver each. I offered to buy one for that sum, but they
pressed me to buy both. After a moment’s pause I agreed, and passed over
a single gold for both pieces of ore. I wasn’t entirely certain what I
would possibly need silver ore for, but I was painfully aware I was all alone
in a foreign kingdom surrounded by strangers I knew next to nothing about. If
my single gold piece could purchase me a little goodwill from the local inhabitants,
then I saw it as money well spent.
The Stonecleaver and Blackmane closed the deal and bid me farewell. I took the
silver ore back to my cabin to store it away. I took a few extra minutes to
swap around some gear and to rearrange my cabin security, and when I emerged
again I finally began to see some signs of life coming from some of the adventurers
cabins.
I went back over to the tavern to refill my coffee cup. A few people were around
and I asked them who I should see about getting the scrap of chainmail I had
received the night before identified. Everyone told me to take it to Sir Krossus,
and that he would take care of it. I got used to hearing that answer a lot over
the course of the next day.
On my way over to the tavern I remember seeing a rather disheveled and bleary
eyed Sir Krossus sitting at a table in front of one of the larger cabins. Perhaps
even dwarven backs were not immune to the backbreaking bunks. I went ahead and
poured a second cup of coffee to take with me in hopes it might lubricate the
coming conversation and perhaps make it a bit more pleasant.
I approached the table and sat down and joined the conversation. Krossus wasn’t
interested in the coffee, but someone else snapped it up the second I placed
it on the table. I was about to bring up the matter of the chainmail when a
rather odd appearing lady approached. She was human in proportions, but her
skin was very pale and she had gold patterns intertwining about her face. I
believe she said that she was Alexandra Monet, Archwizardess of the Arcane Academy
of Science. She was apparently familiar to everyone present other than myself,
because they elicited no surprise at her appearance.
She said that she was looking for Spinner Grandafleur. She needed to speak to
him concerning some tasks he would need to complete as part of a wizard’s
test of some sort. I said that I had seen Spinner in the tavern a bit earlier
when I was getting coffee. Krossus sent someone off to get him.
While they were waiting, Alexandra spoke to Sir Krossus about some of the things
that had been going on in Aeran’Or recently. I had trouble following the
conversation since I wasn’t intimately familiar with recent local history.
After a short time Spinner show up and Alexandra presented him with a task.
Spinner took out pen and paper and began to take notes as Alexandra spoke. She
said that recently an unknown tribe of fishmen had moved into the swamps that
bordered on this town. They stood upright and were a pale sickly green color.
Their skin was covered in slime, and they had a big fat pot belly. It was to
be Spinner’s task to seek out these fishmen and obtain a specimen for study.
He was then to learn what he could about them, what they were capable of, and
what their intentions were.
When she had finished giving out her assignment she returned to her conversation
with Sir Krossus. She was explaining what the names were of all the various
enemies and powers that were currently operating in Aeran’Or. Before Spinner
could leave on his quest, Sir Krossus drafted him to write down all the names
Alexandra was saying, because he could remember them all. There was some sort
of Dream Lord which I think was the current major antagonist. He had some kind
of destruction elemental as an ally, and there was a creature of reason whose
aid Krossus hoped to enlist in their fight against the other two. Alexandra
also explained that the black mound of goo from the previous night had dissolved
its way through the floor and seeped down into some previously unknown tunnels
beneath the town. She said that later on we would probably be tasked with exploring
those tunnels.
When she was finally done and had left I asked Sir Krossus what I should do
to get my chainmail identified. He said I need to ask Alexandra. So I turned
around and followed her back to some kind of guild building and caught up with
her on the porch. I asked if she could have the item identified, and she did
some kind of hocus pocus right on the spot and told me it could cast cure spells
and magic armor spells. I thanked her for her help and donated a gold piece
for her trouble. Somehow I got the impression she wasn’t overly impressed
with my tip. Oh well.
I looked across town and I saw that Spinner and a group of the other Silverswords
were on the path heading down the hill towards the swamp. I decided I would
tag along with them to see about these fish people. By the time I caught up
with them they were already fighting with the Oke-E-Oi. This was the term that
Taestiv gave them on account of the weird noise they made. I never heard them
called anything different and the name sort of stuck.
When I reached their side they had already killed a few of the fishmen, and
Spinner had just finished stabilizing the one he had chosen to be his specimen.
He picked this one up and began to carry it back towards town. The other fishmen
kept calling him to bring their companion back. They tried to fight their way
to his side, but the other Silverswords managed to keep them back.
When they reached the foot of the hill leading back up into town, Eek-e-ok’s
attack became so fierce that Spinner was forced to drop his specimen and help
fight them off. Since I wasn’t doing much else in the way of helping I
went ahead and picked up the specimen and carried him the rest of the way up
the hill. When I got to the top I laid the fishman down and went back to see
how the Silverswords were doing.
They came up the hill shortly and Spinner took his specimen back. No sooner
had he done so than the Oke-E-Ois came racing back up the hill. It seems they
had briefly broken off pursuit, and now they had returned with one of their
shaman. With the shaman behind them pelting everyone with spells the fight got
pretty dicey all of a sudden.
As I stood there trying to figure out what my next move should be I heard a
pounding sound behind me. I turned around to see Sir Krossus barreling down
the hill towards our group. He rolled up and began pelting fishmen with spells
of his own, and before you could blink the battle was over. Spinner looked things
over and decided that the shaman would make a far superior specimen to study,
so he rather unceremoniously gutted the fishman he and I had carried all the
way from the swamp and tossed it back down the hill. I couldn’t help but
feel sorry for the slimy little potbellied fish.
Alexandra approached us along the same path that Sir Krossus had taken, though
at a far slower pace. She began to consult with Spinner concerning how to study
his new found specimen. I went ahead and took my leave at this point. I had
nothing really to contribute to the process of interrogating (grilling?) A fish.
I spent a little while socializing with some of the other adventures and meeting
the new arrivals. The local dwarves could be seen bustling about town now and
a certain sense of normalcy appeared to be returning. Some other adventurers
began to arrive. I spoke briefly with Ash the mystic woodelf, who I happen to
already know at least by name, since I had heard people confuse Ashe Blackfist
with him before.
After a while I looked over to where Spinner had been talking with the Oke-E-Oi
shaman, and I was somewhat surprised to see that all the Silverswords were now
walking back into the swamp with him. I asked what was going on, and it was
explained to me that Spinner and the Oke-E-Oi shaman had worked out some sort
of exchange program. Since the Silverswords had taken the Oke-E-Oi and studied
him, the shaman felt it was only fair that the Oke-E-Oi tribe should get someone
to study themselves. Apparently the idea made perfect sense to the Silverswords,
and Haddukul Chilox had volunteered to travel to the fishmen’s secret cave
lair and to be studied.
The concept struck me as complete and total madness, especially considering
that not an hour earlier the Silverswords had been slaying fishmen. They seemed
to be not in the least bit concerned, however. Since I had nothing else to do
at the moment, and I was curious to see how this was going to turn out, I decided
to see if I could follow this group.
The Oke-E-Oi shaman led them down the road a good ways. I followed from a distance
off to the side in the trees. I kept expecting some sort of ambush to spring
out and attack the Silverswords, but nothing of the sort occurred. After a time
the fishman and Haddukul turned off from the road and went off into some trees
beside a stream. I suppose that is where the secret Oke-E-Oi lair was, because
neither returned and after a time the remaining Silverswords walked back to
town.
When I returned to town I met up with the Golden Unicorns who were in conversation
with one of the local dwarfs. He was explaining that he found a weird cave full
of slimy floating brains with tentacles and bird beaks. He said they attacked
anything that approached, and he was seeking help in getting rid of them. The
unicorns invited me to come along, and I accepted.
The cave and the bird brains were much as they had been described in appearance.
The dwarf had warned us that they could paralyze with a single touch. What he
had either not known or neglected to mention was that they could zap people
with healthy doses of lightning.
I approached the fight feeling more than a little apprehensive. The only time
I have visited the earth circle was after a town battle with a group of creatures
that could paralyze. The Golden Unicorns seemed insufficiently concerned to
me, but I pressed on with them since there wasn’t much else to do.
As it turns out the Unicorns confidence was pretty well founded. They were a
bit more skilled than I had first realized, and they were obviously quite practiced
at working together as a team. More than once I felt a bit like a fifth wheel
and that perhaps I was mostly getting in the way.
The bird brains were found in various caverns and rooms within the cave, and
we methodically moved forward cleaning them out as we went. When we searched
the ones we killed, we generally found odds and ends of silver and gold, but
we also turned up quite a number of scrolls. All the ones I found were lightning
in nature. When we finally reached the rear of the caves we found what appeared
to have once been a scroll workshop. It was now in ruins, but this perhaps explained
why we found so many scrolls.
After this we returned to town and reported what we found to the local dwarfs.
I took my leave from the Unicorns and began to wander about town some. A short
time later I found myself faced with another new sort of menace I had not previously
encountered in all my travels.
I was standing near the Death Heads Mercantile Guilds cabin when a strange creature
burrowed up from the ground a short distance from me. It was dwarflike in appearance,
but it held a weapon in one hand and the other hand had been replace by some
sort of huge digger claw. It’s skin was all mottled and blotchy. When it
emerged from the ground and the sun struck it, it began to smoke and smolder
and burn.
When it saw me and some others it immediately attacked. It’s swings were
pretty powerful on its own, but we soon discovered it was able to infect us
with a disease with each blow as well. Two of them had popped up out of the
ground, and after a short fight we managed to defeat both of them. As their
bodies lay on the ground in the sun they continued to smolder and burn.
Sir Krossus grabbed one of the bodies and told us to bring the second one with
him to the celestial circle. He intended to try to identify them. After he left
these corrupted dwarfs began popping up all over town. It was madness for a
little while, and it didn’t take long before nearly everyone in town was
diseased. The healers finally gave up trying to cure everyone, and told us to
just suck it up until the attack finally let up.
Eventually the attack ceased and everyone managed to get cured. Sir Krossus
returned and explained that these dwarves were in fact all Fat Axes. Presumably
these dwarves were the Fat Axes that disappeared during the initial assault
against the forces of the Abyss, and they had been somehow corrupted. Sir Krossus
ordered us to stop killing them, and should we defeat one we were to get them
out of the sun and carry them to the earth guild house for treatment.
We all agreed to do this, but as it turned out no more corrupted dwarves attacked
us for some time. Everyone hung out in a group just in case, and around this
time a few more adventurers arrived in town. I recognized Kymri who I had met
briefly around a year ago. At that time I believe he was a Gorbe, but at the
moment he was quite human. A bearded gypsy named Zook also showed up around
this time along with a lady whose name I never learned.
A short time later Sir Krossus returned and began to gather everyone up for
a battle. He explained that he had learned the location of a cave complex where
these corrupted dwarfs were coming from, and that we were going to go clear
it out. Everyone formed up and traveled to the caves, which were only a short
distance away. The entrance turned out to be no more than about two feet high.
I’m not sure, but I believe this was part of the cave system that was uncovered
by the melting black gooey slime mound.
When we arrived at the cave we started to get attacked once more by the corrupted
dwarves. A rough battle formation was arranged and people began to hustle inside
the cave. I was one of the last ones to enter. I recall seeing Kymri stand there
looking at the cave, and thinking I bet he wished he had shown up just a little
bit later and missed this particular battle. Kymri isn’t exactly built
for crawling around in tunnels.
Nonetheless he gamely crawled in right after I did. Given the way the cavern
was laid out I ended up not participating at all in the battle that followed.
The vanguard were just about the only ones who fought since the tunnels were
only wide enough at most points for a single person to crawl through. From time
to time it opened up into sizable rooms, but by the time I was able to enter
the fight was always over. There was a long uncomfortable pause at one point
when the attack got stymied trying to fight its way into a particularly well
defended room.
When we finally managed to force our way into that room I emerged from the tunnel
just in time to see Taestiv Chilox and Sir Krossus fighting with Hadukkel. Hadukkel
had somehow managed to get himself corrupted like the rest of the Fat Axe dwarves.
Once they managed to beat the tar out of him they called me over to get me to
waylay him after he was healed by one of the healers. Ironically, the only blow
I struck that entire fight was when I bounced the pummel of my sword against
Hadukkel’s pumpkin head.
There was only one more room after this one to clear out, and now that we had
some open space to work in it didn’t take very long at all. To our delight
we discovered a back way out of the cave so were did not have to reverse navigate
our way back through all the twisting tunnels. Various piles of treasure were
found, including a suspicious looking box hanging above a doorway. Ash was asked
to make certain it was not trapped, and it turns out it was not. We gathered
up all the treasure and the bodies of the defeated corrupted Fat Axes and made
our way back out the rear tunnel to the surface. The corrupted Fat Axes were
deposited at the healers guild, and the treasure was passed out amongst all
the adventurers.
At some point someone learned a method by which the corrupted dwarfs could be
healed. I don’t recall the exact sequence, but it required some combination
of life, cure disease, awaken, and dispel magic spell. Whatever the cure was,
Sir Krossus correctly administered it to Hadukkel. Haddukel claimed to not recall
how he ended up in the cave. His last memory was of being with the fishmen,
and encountering some black oily pool of ooze and getting drawn in.
It was now getting late in the afternoon, and our thoughts turned from slaying
to eating. In my next journal I’ll describe the birthday feast for Hadukkel
Chilox, and bring this tale to where it concludes on the frigid plane of the
Abyss.
By the time we had completed the process of clearing out the cave of corrupted
Fat Axes, it was getting close to four in the afternoon. I heard it mentioned
that there was going to be some sort of stew or chili in the tavern, and so
I followed the crowd that was slowly filtering over in that direction. The rumors
of chili turned out to be well founded, and there were various other things
to eat as well.
As I settled in I realized that this was in fact the 200th Birthday Party for
Haddukel which I had heard mentioned previously. Had I known a little earlier
I might have thought to bring a gift of some sort. As it was, all I was able
to give him that day was a nice big fat knot on the back of his head from waylaying
him earlier. A saw a few people pass some gifts to Hadukkel, but I didn’t
get a chance to see what they were.
Pretty soon the entire group of gathered adventurers was in the tavern. Some
bottles of spirits from I believe Zook began to be passed around, but I wasn’t
in the mood for that sort of thing myself. I think Taestiv and some others were
trying to poison Hadukkel just to see him try to resist it. I was getting pretty
used to seeing the Chilox dwarves do weird things.
Ash pulled out some dice and began to show some people how to play a game with
them. I had just walked over to take a look at this when a vision in red silk
sashayed into tavern. This person was a bit taller than myself, wore a tiara
of twinkling red and white stones, brandished a wand that was similarly bejeweled,
and wore some sort of red silk dress that she filled out to the point of bursting.
Given the amount of facial hair this lady sported I was tempted to call her
a dwarf, but her manner of speaking and sparkling jewelry suggested that perhaps
she was fae. Her facial features were rather striking, and I’ll just leave
it at that.
She surveyed the room and when she spotted Hadukkel she swished her way over
to him. I made myself scarce at that point and stepped outside. My belly was
full and the late afternoon sun shone full on me where I had sat at the base
of a tree, and so I leaned back and I believe I fell asleep there for a short
time. I woke up a little later when I heard people calling for everyone to come
inside the tavern.
The Birthday Faerie was trying to get everyone gathered up for some sort of
game or contest. She started to separate people into two teams, but then reconsidered
and separated everyone into teams of two. By the time she got done and got everyone
outside she had about five teams. She explained the contest, and it was essentially
a race. The first half of the race was a wheelbarrow race where one person holds
up the legs of the other who then runs forward on their hands. At the halfway
point both people on the team were to drop down and finish the race doing a
crab walk.
When the race started the wheel immediately fell off one of the wheelbarrows,
and a second team dropped out almost immediately as well. That left Spinner
and Ash as one team, the two Chilox dwarves as the second, and Firefox and another
Unicorn as the third. Firefox had the wheelbarrow action down pat, and he sped
out to an early lead. Unfortunately, he wheeled forward so quickly he ended
up outpacing his partner that was trying to hold up his legs, resulting in his
pants being pulled almost entirely off. This forced the Golden Unicorns to pause
while Firefox adjusted his trousers, and this let the Chilox team take the lead.
Once they got in front no one was able to catch them, and the two dwarves were
declared the winners.
After the excitement of the race died down people started spreading out and
going about their own business. I knew it was going to be dark soon, so I headed
over to my cabin to change into some warmer clothes. I had planned to put away
the short sword that I had been using all day since we took the trip into the
tight tunnels and pull out my much better long sword for the rest of the night.
But after I got all the belts and pouches and shirts off I heard something outside
moving around.
Nearly every one of the adventurers who were at the gather was staying in one
of two different cabins. The Silverswords were all staying in one large cabin,
along with Sir Krossus and some of the others, and the Golden Unicorns were
all in a second large cabin. Since at the time we chose cabins I wasn’t
all that familiar with any of the people present, I had chosen a small cabin
by myself way over on the other side of the town. When I peeked out my front
door and saw half a dozen deep trolls milling around practically on my front
porch I really started to regret that particular decision.
As quietly as I could I pulled my heavy shirt on and grabbed my shield and short
sword. My better long sword was unfortunately stored away in a somewhat inconvenient
spot that I don’t think I could have gotten to without making a lot of
noise. I peeked outside the front door once more and saw that the deep trolls
still had not heard me, and to my immense relief they all walk around behind
a nearby building. Once the coast was clear I bolted out of the cabin and headed
back to the occupied side of town.
I was a little surprised to see that there were very few people around at this
point. I saw Firefox standing behind the tavern talking to a dwarf so I headed
over to see what was up. Foxfire explained that most of the Golden Unicorns
were occupied at the moment in their cabin casting a formal magic ceremony to
create a sword. He didn’t know where Krossus or Zook or Kymri or any of
the other Silverswords were. The dwarf was explaining that he had discovered
a new cave filled with the slimy tentacled floating bird brains that we had
fought earlier. As we were deciding what to do about that, another dwarf approached
and said that the town had been invaded by a band of deep trolls, and that he
needed help driving them off. This didn’t exactly come as a surprise to
me.
Firefox and I left the two dwarfs and instructed them to prioritize between
themselves which emergency needed our attention first. We went off in two different
directions to try to scrounge up anyone that we could. A few minutes later we
had managed to gather up most of the Golden Unicorns along with Kymri and Zook.
The decision was made to attack the deep trolls first and secure the town, and
then to investigate the cave of bird brains.
We headed back over to my cabin and found the trolls right where I had left
them. By this time there were almost ten of them, and we could see some others
hurrying out of the woods to reinforce them. We all dove in and started hacking
left in right. We might a sorry mess out of them in a hurry. The Unicorns ground
them up like a well oiled machine, and anytime one of them would get an upper
hand it would get gassed by Kymri. I spent a little time trying to sneak up
and waylay them, but it practically had to race to the trolls to get a swing
in before one of the others had chopped it to bits.
Well, to me it looked like things were well in hand. I could see a few more
troll reinforcements approaching, but the fight looked about over to me. I knew
we were going to immediately head over to the bird beak cave after this, so
I decided that since I was already standing on the porch of my cabin I should
probably take this opportunity to finish getting my gear swapped around. I went
inside and dug out my good long sword, and then I started rooting around under
my bed for some potions. I knew the bird beaks could paralyze people, so I wanted
to make sure I brought my unparalyze potions which I don’t normally carry.
Just as I was finishing up it occurred to me that I didn’t hear as many
non-troll voices as I should. In fact, the only familiar voice I was hearing
was Firefox’s, and it was beginning to sound even more shrill than normal,
if that is possible for a hobling. I heard him rapidly call out several incants
and activate several magic items in rapid succession, and from that I figured
that things had apparently gone very bad when I wasn’t paying attention.
I crawled out from under my bed just as Firefox began healing other people,
and I heard several people cheering Firefox and exclaiming how he had just saved
the day. I felt kind of stupid at that point like I had let some people down,
especially when they all started saying “Where is Duncan!? Oh my gosh,
they’ve killed Duncan! Everyone look around for Duncan!” There was
nothing else for me to do other than come out of my cabin and sheepishly explain
that I was fine.
So thanks to Firefox’s heroics the deep troll menace was defeated. Next
we headed over to the cave of the bird beaks. Our group was quite a bit smaller
now, and mainly consisted of the Golden Unicorns, Zook, and me. The cave was
another one of those two foot tall crawling affairs, but we lined up in battle
order and rushed inside.
Once again I came up in the rear. The entrance way was low and went in for about
six feet before opening into an irregular room. When I came in I found one of
the unicorns lying paralyzed at the end of the tunnel leading into the room.
I quickly poured one of my unparalyze potions down his throat and we both scrambled
to our feet. At that point I saw things didn’t look so great. Both Mateas
and Firefox were imprisoned, and one of the bird beaks was screeching for us
to leave. Before I could figure out what to do one of the other unicorns said
“Sure, we’re leaving”, and the we beat a hasty retreat back out
the tunnel dragging along the two imprisoned people.
Once was all got back outside and got our heads screwed back on straight we
realized we had messed up royally. Things weren’t quite as bad as they
first seemed. Had we just had the presence of mind to dispel the two imprisons
and press the attack we would almost certainly have been in the clear. We held
a long discussion about whether to cut our losses and just leave, or invest
more resources in making another assault. I voted to leave, but in the end I
think pride more than anything convinced us to make another go at it.
This time we were much more careful. We piled protectives onto the first line
fighters so that they could break into the room without getting paralyzed. We
worked out our sequence and strategy and once again charged into the cave. When
I popped through the tunnel and out into the cave this time it was a far different
scene that greeted me. Bird brains and bird brain parts were flying everywhere
and nobody was down or paralyzed. After this it was just a short time before
the cave was clear and we were on our way back out.
It was about dusk at this point, and as we came back into town we saw some of
the other folks standing out in the field in front of the cabins. We walked
over and began explaining what had been going on lately, so by chance it turned
out that almost everyone was standing out in a small group all together. Suddenly
about thirty feet away a large crowd of weird looking fire bugs and beetles
and whatnot rift in and started to advance towards us. One of them kept calling
out to Sir Krossus to turn over a certain magic talisman that he had, which
he of course refused to do.
Everyone formed up in a semblance of a battle line to meet the oncoming monsters.
As I typically do, I moved to the back of the group until I realized that our
line was roughly half the length of the rifting bug line. I quickly repositioned
myself up front to try to offer a little bit of screening for the healers that
were in the back. I had a feeling I was about to take a horrible beating.
However, just as we were all about to engage I spotted the cabin door behind
the bug line open up and Taestiv, Haddukel and some of the other Silverswords
appear. They started to run over to attack the bugs from the rear. Sadly, dwarves
do not make particular good sneakers, so I started to scream and yell and stamp
my feet in hopes of masking their approach as long as I could. The two bugs
in front of me stared at me like I was crazy, which suited me just fine. A moment
later they got stomped into beetle paste by the dwarven avalanche than landed
on their backs.
After that little bit of high drama things settled down a little bit. We started
getting attacked periodically by the burrowing corrupted creatures, but this
time instead of them being dwarves they were either trolls or barbarians. They
never attacked in any significant numbers, but for the rest of the night that
made it chancy to be out and about on your own.
For a time people concentrated on fighting the digger creatures, but after a
while it got to be more or less a nuisance. Everyone was getting diseased again,
and so people began to head back to their warded cabins if they didn’t
have anything else to do. I spent much of the next couple of hours crouched
in the tree line at the edge of town hiding from diggers and just keeping an
eye on things. When I saw someone fighting and got an opportunity I would creep
up and try to stab one of the diggers in the back.
This tactic didn’t work out so great for me. Unfortunately what happened
on a number of occasions was that somebody would spot me sneaking up behind
the bad guy and assumed that I was another digger creature. They would call
out a warning that someone else was approaching, at which point the digger creature
would turn around and beat the snot out of me. It wasn’t too bad as long
as we were fighting a small enough group, but I resolved to not try this tactic
against a large number of enemies and risk getting dropped behind a line.
At one point a large portion of our group went off to fight some sort of barbarian
menace. I’m not sure what the story was with that. I was out in the field
when I spotted one of the Oke-E-Ois approaching. It came up and asked to speak
to Spinner, who happened to be off fighting the barbarians. I had a fair idea
where that battle was taking place so I went and found them and explained to
Spinner that he was being requested back in town.
Eventually the Oke-E-Oi explained that a good portion of his tribe had become
corrupted just like the dwarves and trolls and barbarians. He asked our assistance
in getting them cured. The Oke-E-Oi head shaman would be able to cure them if
we could just defeat them and stabilize them. He said if some of the Oke-E-Ois
had to be killed, then that was understandable but regrettable, and that we
should toss those bodies back in the swamp. A bunch of the Silverswords stepped
up and volunteered to help.
So over the course of a single day we had gone from fighting against the fishmen,
to exchanging study specimens with the fishmen, to now helping out the fishmen
recover from some sort of corruption. It seems that diplomatic relations in
Aeran’Or change at blinding speed.
I came along to see if I could help out. If nothing else I could waylay a few
of them and bind the wounds of the others. I’m not sure that everyone quite
understood the purpose of this fight since I saw a great many fish bodies get
tossed in the swamp. I did what I could to stabilize as many of them as I could
after they got stabbed by the others. I was still feeling a little guilty about
some of the fish people we had killed earlier.
After I time of fighting on the shores of the swamp we could find no more corrupted
Oke-E-Ois. The fishman we had met earlier seemed satisfied with our help and
even offered us a little treasure. We thanked him for this and made our way
back into town.
When we got back we found out that almost everyone else had left on another
trip. Everybody except me retired to their warded cabins to wait for the other
half of the adventurers to return or for something else to happen. I went back
to lurking in the tree line, and after a while I even crept back to my cabin
and took a short nap.
This was a difficult part of the gathering for me. For around the next three
hours I couldn’t find anything meaningful to do. The corrupted digger creatures
were still roaming about so the people that were still around were all in their
wards. It was now quite dark and getting quite cold again. I tried to keep an
eye on things so that I wouldn’t get left out when the next big thing came
along, but that was a long time in coming.
I learned later that during this time most of the adventuring group was off
consulting some kind of barbarian wise woman or crone. Throughout the gathering
various people were visited with weird dreams where they were instructed to
kill Sir Krossus or steal some item from him. This all related to some sort
of ongoing conflict with a dream elemental creature. So far I had not been bothered
with any such dreams, but at the same time I had barely gotten a moment’s
worth of decent sleep either.
Sir Krossus and the others were looking for some kind of relief from these dreams.
From what I was able to gather, the barbarian crone instructed them to bring
her a wyvern stinger, which she then used to perform some sort of ceremony.
She then said those that were present could protect themselves from the dream
visions in one of two ways. A circle could be drawn around the bed of the sleeper
using either crushed gems or crushed precious metal ore totaling a gold piece.
The sleeper could also wrap an acorn in a piece or fur and place that under
their pillow for protection. By one of those weird sorts of coincidences, dwarven
traders had earlier in the day been selling gold and silver ore, as well as
fur pelts. When everyone came back I helped Zook scrounge up some acorns.
I was beginning to think that nothing more was going to occur during this gathering
when Sir Krossus told us all to gather up for one last battle. Unfortunately,
there weren’t a whole lot of us left to gather up. Several people had either
gone to bed already or left town. There was probably about a dozen of us left
at this point. Sir Krossus informed us that we were going to make an assault
on the Abyssal Plane itself.
Sir Krossus had somehow learned the location on the Abyssal Plane of some kind
a stronghold where the missing Stargazer Clan of dwarves were being held. He
had also learned of some method of traveling to that plane without using the
portal. The Arch Wizardess Alexandra showed up and it turned out that she was
going to be the method of transport.
Sir Krossus started to explain some complicated method by which we would go
to the celestial circle in town and from there rift to another circle and then
rift to the Abyssal Plane and then go to the stronghold and so on and so on.
Some suggested that we could skip some of the rifting and circles if we did
it another way. None of this made any sense to me, but after several minutes
of arguing and discussing they eventually decided that it was possible to draw
a circle right where we were standing and have Alexandra rift us directly to
the stronghold on the Abyssal Plane. A few moments later that was exact where
we stood.
The stronghold was really nothing more than a large sized ice covered building.
Before we left we had all gotten planar asylum, which meant we didn’t suffer
from the cold this time. When we arrived Alexandra created a new circle of power
on the spot we were standing. The plan was to assault the building, rescue the
Stargazer dwarves, bring them back to the protection of this circle, and then
leave.
The building had several doors, but after a short discussion the decision was
made to all rush in through a single door. The door was thrown open and we all
poured inside. The building was separated into roughly three rooms by large
sheets of ice. I could see several of the Thrak and Snotty Slug Ogres attacking
our forces, and in the middle of the building were all the Stargazer dwarfs
laying around some sort of weird device.
I left the Snot Slugs and Thrak to the others. I figured the dwarfs were the
main objective, and the sooner we got them out the sooner we would have the
upper hand. The dwarves appeared to be unharmed and alive, but we couldn’t
wake them up. Each of them was attached to the device in the middle of them
by a blue tube that was stuck in their thighs.
I thought the best thing to do was to cut the tube and haul them out. I asked
one of the healers to watch me as it did it in case the whole thing exploded
in my face or something similar. Zook stopped me and explained he thought it
was a bad idea. But after a short discussion we couldn’t see any other
good options, so we cut the first dwarf free from the tube.
The device didn’t explode and the dwarf didn’t die, so we figured
this was probably the way to go. I picked up the dwarf and looked around to
see how things were going. I could hear people fighting over on the other side
of the building behind one of the ice sheets. The area I was standing in was
pretty clear, but when I drug the dwarf over to the doorway leading out to the
circle I saw that there was now a force of Thrak outside keeping us in.
If that dwarf had been awake I know he would be hating me. I must have picked
him up and dropped him half a dozen time. I kept looking for an opening to carry
him out the door. Before I could make my move some Thrak or Slug would rush
into the room and I’d have to drop him and pull my sword. After we defeated
the enemy I would pick him back up, only to be forced to drop him again a moment
later.
After five minutes of this I realized I wasn’t going to get him out the
door we came in. I looked around and saw that there was another door open on
the other side of the building. I could take the dwarf out the back and go around
the long way to the circle. The advantage was that I didn’t see anything
blocking that door. The down side was that I ran the chance of getting jumped
outside where I wouldn’t have much in the way of backup.
I decided to go ahead and chance it. Zook came along with me and we crept out
the back door. I found that carrying an unconscious dwarf makes nearly as much
noise as a conscious dwarf makes. We crept around the back of the building and
headed for the corner nearest the earth circle where Alexandra was waiting.
When we got there I saw a clear path to the circle and hurried into it as quickly
as I could and dropped the dwarf one final time at Alexandra’s feet.
Having ensured the safety of the dwarf, I turned my attention back to the fight
that was still going on. When I looked over to the door I discovered that now
it was completely clear of opposition. Well, at least I wouldn’t be forced
to walk all the way back around the building to get back in. I could still hear
sounds of fighting coming from inside.
I went back in and found the battle winding down. Everyone was picking up treasure
and dwarves and moving towards the door. I moved around one of the ice sheets
into the far side of the building, and I saw Sir Krossus talking to some creature
that was standing inside a circle of power. Sir Krossus turned to me and said
it was time to go and he started to leave. I was momentarily tempted to spend
a moment or two more making sure that no treasure had been overlooked, but I
was mindful of how the last battle with the Abyssal creatures ended for me and
decided to leave post haste.
We all left the building and squeezed inside the circle of power where Alexandra
was waiting for us. Once we were all accounted for, Alexandra rifted us back
to town to the very spot from which we left. Sir Krossus and some of the others
started hauling the Stargazer dwarves off to see if they could be roused. A
handful of us were left in charge of getting the treasure sorted out.
Included in the treasure were around two dozen small white gems. They appeared
to be identical, but Ash and I spent a long time examining each one carefully
to make sure none of them were exceptional in any way. In addition to the gems
there were the usual assortment of gasses, potions, scrolls and money. There
were around half a dozen of us at the table and it took us around twenty minutes
to get everything sorted out.
While we in the middle of this someone come up asking us if anyone had an intoxicant
they could spare. It seems they were able to find a way to awaken the Stargazer
dwarves, and the first thing they asked for was a drink. After we got the treasure
all squared away I walked down to the celestial circle where the dwarves were
at, but I didn’t get a chance to learn much. Everyone was tired and had
started to drift off towards their cabins.
That was the last event of any real significance that I am aware of. The Fat
Axe dwarf who had originally met us on the road Friday evening showed back up
and spent a time talking to Sir Krossus. He offered some thanks for all the
hard work that the adventurers had done to reclaim the town and defeat the forces
of the Abyss. All things considered, I thought the thanks was a tad bit weak
and a little late in coming, but I wasn’t going to make an issue out of
it.
The Fat Axe wanted to know what had been learned about the Oke-E-Ois that were
now living in the swamps bordering the town. He didn’t know if they were
hostile or friendly or what their intentions were. Sir Krossus didn’t have
much information on them. Taestiv and Haddukel and Spinner had spent the most
time dealing with the fishmen, but those three had left the gathering on other
business prior to our assault on the Abyssal plane.
After that talk drifted back towards theorizing about the various minions and
powers that were at work in the lands, and what their plans might be. I certainly
had nothing to add to the conversation by this point, so I took my leave and
drifted off to bed. I hoped that I might manage a better night’s sleep
this time. I had dug out a small portable cot that I carry with me to gatherings
for emergencies. It was very small and narrow, but it was better than what I
had endured the previous night.
Thus ends my tale regarding for first adventures in the lands of Aeran’Or.
I think I was pretty successful in my quest to broaden my horizons. Once it
was all over it occurred to me that over the course of the entire weekend the
deep trolls were the only monster I fought that I had seen prior to that weekend.
I met and worked with a great number of people I had never seen before. Kymri
was the only person there that I had met previously. I got to see several different
styles and strategies in fighting, and hopefully I’ll be able to put all
this new experience to good use soon. I’m not sure when I’ll be able
to make it back north to the land of Aeran’Or again, but I’ll certainly
take the opportunity if it presents itself. I’ll just have to remember
to make sure I pack a mattress or cot.