Posts Tagged ‘Douag’

Curing Zombies at Crystal Shores

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022

Day #2-36 (Airday, 16th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): Herschel Gobinmyer awoke before dawn and starting “brewing” the magical potion that it was hoped would cure the zombie curse that was afflicting villagers in Crystal Shores. He filled the golden chalice with pure water, then lit two beeswax candles in the two gold candlesticks, one on either side of the chalice. Then, just as the sun was rising, he placed the Pendant of Winstone into the chalice. It was then a matter of waiting until sundown to see what transpired.

After different folks had been fed in different ways, depending upon their lodgings, two villagers went door to door, performing a “head count” of how many non-zombie people there were in the village. They then reported that information to Herschel at his home. Herschel was happy to see that no more zombies had been generated during the night. When party members Douag, Falafela, and Vandin had arrived at Herschel’s, he sent for Flenda and Gwenette, and for their father Vilan Deathmar. When all had arrived at Herschel’s, he put the question to them. “As you all should know by now, the instructions for using the Pendant of Winstone to effect a cure has limited uses. We do not know how many it will cure before it exhausts its magical cures. Therefore, we must decide upon a priority as to who gets cured first, and create a list for who else gets cured, in what order. This is not the easiest task in the world, but it must be done.”

Naturally, Flenda and Gwenette both wanted their mother to be at the top of the list. And naturally, everyone concurred, seeing as how the sisters had both risked their lives in order to find the cure! However, after much discussion, it was decided that Vox should take the first drink of the potion, as if he was cured they could then use his muscle to help corral other zombies. Also, it was the fact that Vox had also risked his life, and indeed, been gravely wounded, that put him at the top of the list. Herschel wrote out the list: Vox the Just; Vilanious Deathmar (mother of Flenda and Gwenette); Wider Veldar (village cleric); Melchar, Vinar, and Loftus Furrowbrow (the village tinker and his wife and young son); Sathe, Beefa, and Lido Lidorn (proprietor of the Inn of the Blushing Trout and his wife and daughter); Simius Soderman (the wife of the carpenter); Moosecavalli Wirth (proprietor of the Tavern of the Cracked Mug); two fishermen in the Cracked Mug; Cardon Dragone (the boat master); and finally six other villagers who were local farmers.

Herschel said, “I hope we don’t run out of cures before we run out of people to cure.” Everyone present at the meeting added an “Amen!” to that simple but profound statement.

Finally, sunset came, and Herschel noticed that the water in the chalice had changed to a dark burgundy color, much like wine. The potion was poured off into the small bottles that had been assembled, and it was found there were exactly 10 doses of potion available. “OK,” said Herschel. “Let’s go and visit Vox and see how it goes!” Then Herschel, followed by Falafela, Douag, and Vandin, headed over to Mylene Ackmard’s barn, where Vox was staying. Vox looked a little apprehensive just before he drank, but he said, “I’ll probably never get better without this, so I guess I’ll drink it!” Then he took the small bottle of the burgundy potion and gulped it down. “That actually tasted pretty good! it was a lot like wine, except it was saltier with a little metallic aftertaste,” said Vox. The party watched Vox intently, but after about five minutes, Vox expressed the notion that he was suddenly very sleepy. Then he lay down and was promptly asleep. “OK,” said Mylene. Let’s arrange the boxes to keep him safe and secure for the night.” Herschel said, “The directions said imbibers should be cured within one hour. Maybe we should wait before we administer any more doses?” But Flenda and Gwenette weren’t having any of the waiting game. They both wanted to cure their mother, and cure her now!

So the party then proceeded down the hill towards the Deathmar residence, where Vilanious Deathmar had been confined after she became a zombie. The party also had three of the forked sticks with the rope loops on them. Flenda and Gwenette both argued over who would get the privilege of serving the potion to their mother. Finally, their father said, “Girls, please! I will make it a fair game of chance.” With that, he picked up a few pebbles from the ground. He turned his back to his daughters, and then when he turned back around to face them, his right hand was clenched into a fist. Whichever of you can guess if the number of pebbles in my hand is odd or even can have the honor of serving the potion to your mother. Gwenette, you are younger, so you guess.” Gwenette guessed even, then Vilan opened his hand to reveal he had two pebbles, so Gwenette won the honor to serve her mother the potion.

Although the door to her house had several boards nailed over the doorway, Gwenette and Flenda pried them off with some of their father’s pry-bar type tools that were in the front yard. Their zombie mother had been attracted to the noise at the door, so when the door was pushed open, their mother walked outside, only to be immediately snared by loops from her husband Vilan, her daughter Flenda, and also by Jorgio. Gwenette then grabbed her mother’s head by the hair, then pulled her mother’s head back which forced her mother’s mouth skyward. Gwenette whispered to her mother, “Sorry, mom, I don’t want to hurt you, but this must be done!” Then, by the light of the torches held by Douag, Vandin, and Falafela, Gwenette poured the already opened bottle of the potion down her mother’s throat.

Gwenette held her mother’s head in the same position until it was clear that her mother had swallowed the potion. The loops were kept on Vilanious, and then after five minutes Vilanious’ formerly scowling face looked to be at peace, and then she closed her eyes, and her head drooped as if she were alseep. Everyone waited a couple of more minutes, and then Gwenette said, “OK, dad, help me carry her inside.” So Gwenette and Vilan carried Vilanious inside and laid her gently on her bed. Flenda followed them inside. Vilan motioned for the girls to follow him out, but Flenda said, “Sorry, but we’re staying here all night if we have to, just to watch over mom!” Then Gwenette got up and lit a couple of candles, and the sisters began their vigil over their mother.

The next stop was across the road, at the Church of Koassek where the cleric Wider Veldar had been confined. In a similar manner to the scene that had just played out at the Deathmar’s, the nailed boards were pried off the front of the church, Wider was lassoed with the rope loops on the forked sticks, and then he was forced to drink. After he passed out, he was placed in his bed, and the party re-nailed the boards on his door, just in case he wasn’t cured.

Then the party walked over to the home of the Furrowbrows. This would be a bit trickier, since there were three zombies inside the home. All six of the forked sticks were put to use, as by now more healthy villagers had joined in the procession. Two rope loops were put on to each zombie, and then they were made to drink the liquid. Since Melchar and his family were all gnomes, it was not too much of a problem to make them drink the potion. Someone in the crowd mentioned, “What do we do if not all of them are cured? What if one of them remains a zombie and attacks the others?” “Herschel answered, “That is a good question. I believe we should tie them up individually. Restrain their hands and feet, and tie them to different pieces of furniture. That should keep them from being able to attack each other. After all, none of the zombies has shown themselves to be smart enough to defeat even simple restraints. If and when they awake, cured, I’m sure they will call out for assistance!” So then the other villagers tied up the Furrowbrows as Herschel had recommended. Before heading to the next destination, Herschel asked Rivatha Kafar, the goat shepherd who lived next door, to keep an eye on the Furrowbrows. “I’ll do it!” said Rivatha, “just as soon as I can go home and bring back a lantern.”

Next, the party proceeded to the east, to the Inn of the Blushing Trout. Once again, there were three zombies to deal with, although these three were humans. Seeing as it was an inn, it was easy to lock up the three family members in three separate rooms after the cure had been applied to each of them. Finally, with one dose remaining, the party and other villagers proceeded to the lakeside cottage of the carpenter, Baduk Soderman. The Sodermans lived just north of Herschel’s cottage. Simius Soderman’s husband, Baduk, was given the honor of getting his wife to drink the potion. Then, after she was asleep, Baduk said he would watch over her for the night. That was agreeable to others, so then everyone retired from the Soderman’s house.

When the remaining members of the group gathered in the road in front of Herschel’s place, Herschel charged two villagers, Aslan Valkyie and his eldest son, with organizing a patrol, and to make the rounds of the village, just to keep an eye on things during the balance of the night. Herschel then said, “Let’s hope this really works, and that everyone is OK in the morning! As for me, I must retire as I must awake before sunrise tomorrow morning that I may start another batch of the potion!” Everyone said their good-nights, then went their separate ways. Falafela, Douag, Vandin, and Jorgio went back to their sleeping quarters in Mylene’s barn, where they took turns watching Vox during the night.

Day #2-37 (Waterday, 17th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): Early in the morning of 17th Dewsnap, Hershel Gobinmyer awoke and made his preparations to produce another batch of potion using the Pendant of Winstone and the golden chalice that had been brought back from the Tomb of Koban Hairfoot. Just after he lit the two beeswax candles and placed the pendant into the chalice that was filled with pure water, one of Aslan Valkyie’s sons, Zoan, reported the good news that all of the zombies that had been treated the previous day had been cured! Herschel was ecstatic. “My! That is wonderful news!” he exclaimed.

Although the cure was supposed to take only one hour per person, it seemed to take longer than that. Or, perhaps it had cured each of them after only one hour, but everyone who drank the potion must have slept for at least eight or ten hours afterwards. In the morning, Vox woke up and found he could stand with no difficulty at all. He was even able to release himself from the boxed-in area of Mylene’s barn in which he had been placed for safe-keeping. And in a rarity for Vox, he even offered to help Mylene with making breakfast for the folks staying at her barn. Vox peeled and diced some potatoes and sliced some bacon. Douag was watching all of this and said “Don’t overdo it, now! We don’t want you to have a relapse.”

Flenda and Gwenette were also overwhelmed with joy when their mother finally opened her eyes and spoke to them! Vilanious’s first words were, “What happened? I feel like I’ve been in a bad dream. it was like I was wandering in a thick fog, and couldn’t find my way home.” Her daughters then related the fact that Vilanious had become a zombie, and had been in that state for the last nine days. The mother then thought for a couple of minutes, and then said, “Then I guess you did find a cure, after all!?” Vilanious especially emphasized the word “did” when she spoke. Then the daughters both hugged and kissed their mother profusely. Then Flenda stayed with her mother while Gwenette went out to spread the good news.

All around the village there were cries of joy, as families were cured and reunited. Herschel made the rounds, saying, “Don’t get your hopes up too much, we have more people yet to cure!” When Wider Veldar, the cleric, awoke and found himself confined inside his church, he shouted for passers-by to let him out! Then after being released, he ran over to Hershel’s place and thanked the druid profusely. Herschel said, “You’re welcome, but you should save your real thanks for the brave adventurers who ventured forth and retrieved the Pendant of Winstone which then brewed a curative potion.” Wider said, “I will thank them, just as soon as I see them!” Then Wider went off to look for the party so he could thank them.

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Back at Crystal Shores

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022

This is more of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventures that were played in 2015-2016. Now the adventuring party is back in Crystal Shores, although Lightstep and Opalent have left the group under mysterious circumstances.

Day #2-35 (Spiritday, 15th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): The party awoke by 6:30 am after an uneventful night, ate their customary cold breakfast of hardtack and jerky, then made their preparations to depart for the last leg of their journey to Crystal Shores. The sisters, Flenda and Gwenette, were particularly excited to start because they were headed back to their home. The sisters once again saddled Vox’s horse, then helped him up into the saddle. The party made sure their fire was out before leaving camp, which was easy since the river was close at hand. Also, the day started out cool and clear, like the storm had flushed away the heat and humidity of the two previous days.

It took about two hours to journey the last five miles to Crystal Shores, and when the village came into sight, Flenda and Gwenette surged ahead of everyone else. Flenda almost forgot about her new fiancé, Jorgio, but then turned and motioned for him to catch up. Coming into town from the east, they passed by the home of the carpenter, Baduk Soderman. They noted, quite ominously, that the front door to the house had a couple of boards nailed over the doorway. But then they saw the elder druid, Herschel Gobinmyer, standing in front of his dwelling.

Flenda and Gwenette wanted to just say hello to Herschel and then continue on to their home, but Herschel made a hand gesture and asked them to stop for a moment. Said Herschel, “Girls, I’m afraid I have some bad news. Your mother has become a zombie. She turned on the morning of the day after you set off for Karnack’s castle, so she has been in that state for nine days now. Fortunately, though, your father is all right.” By then, the rest of the party had caught up and gathered around Herschel.

Herschel noted, “I see you have three fewer members in your party. Are they just lagging behind, or did some harm fall upon them?” Falafela said, “We didn’t have anyone killed, although some had severe injuries. Do you remember our dwarf friend Tureg? He was nearly killed in the tomb we went to, although he did survive. He told us at Karnack’s that he was giving up adventuring for a living. He plans to return to his home in Garzan. Also, on our way back here from Karnack’s, Opalent and Lightstep just seemed to wander off in the middle of the night. But, we did have success! Karnack told us about an artifact named the ‘Pendant of Winstone’ that was reputed to have been buried along with Koban Hairfoot in a tomb that was in the Anshar Forest. We did find that pendant, as well as a scroll that described its use. Although, we had to mark time for a day until Karnack could decipher the scroll for us. Here is what Karnack wrote down from the scroll.” At that, Falafela fished into her backpack and retrieved Karnack’s written instructions, then handed them to Herschel.

Herschel perused the instructions for the Pendant of Winstone for a moment, then said, “Do you have the Pendant? And the chalice?” At that, Flenda and Gwenette went and helped Vox down from his horse, then they rummaged through his backpack, producing the pendant and chalice. “What’s wrong with him? Can’t he walk?” asked Herschel. Vox said, “I was struck by a foul creature in the tomb. Karnack thinks it was a wight. I have lost my energy, and can barely stand without assistance, much less walk. I am really hoping that the pendant can cure me, as well as the zombies!” Herschel mused, “Hmmmmmm….”

Herschel continued, “I should let you know the situation around the village. As of this morning, we have 19 villagers who are currently zombies. I already told Flenda and Gwenette that their mother was among the zombified. The others are Simius Soderman, the carpenter’s wife. On your way into town just now, no doubt you saw that their abode was boarded up? We have basically tried to confine the zombies in whatever building they were in. Some others that were wandering around have been confined to my garden. No doubt you can see that I had to make the briars grow tall around the garden to serve as a wall?” The party noted that, indeed, the briars and brambles were about 10 feet tall all the way around the garden, although a second gate had been put at the side of Herschel’s cottage to provide an entry into the garden, as usually the garden had totally surrounded his cottage, with the gate by the road being the entry to his property.

Herschel then continued, “Alas, poor Wider Velder, our cleric, has also been stricken by the curse. Boatmaster Cardon Dragone has turned, and you of course remember your hosts from the Inn of the Blushing Trout, Sathe, Beefa, and Lido Lidorn, were all zombies before you left. Over at the Tavern of the Cracked Mug, the proprietor, Moosecavelli Wirth is a zombie, as are two fishermen. We discovered that the tinker, Melchar Furrowbrow, and his wife and son, Vinar and Loftus, are also zombies. There are six others who also are zombies. The last ones to turn did so two days ago. I am hoping we won’t have any more turn, as nobody else seems to have a sore throat or is coughing. I have also been having everyone drink from some barrels in which I conjure up some pure water. I am hoping this rainstorm that just passed through will have helped to flush away any residue from the tainted water coming from Mont du Plat.”

Flenda and Gwenette then spoke up. “We would like to go and see our parents, now.” Herschel then cautioned, “OK, go and see them, but do not approach her, and even though she may be your mother, she will attack you on sight! By the way, we have been having everyone who is not a zombie either sleep alone in a building, or else sleep in Mylene’s barn. Mylene has devised an interesting solution of using boxes, barrels, and crates to create individual sleeping compartments to ensure nobody would get attacked by any zombies while they slept.”

At that, the sisters, with Jorgio in tow, went off to find their father. Herschel invited the other four adventurers, Falafela, Douag, Vandin, and Vox, into his cottage for some spiced pumpkin ale. When all were seated within the cottage, Herschel mentioned how Mylene had fashioned some long forked sticks that could be used to herd the zombies. He also mentioned how the town blacksmith, Aslan Valkyie, fashioned some iron rings that he attached to the ends of the forks to hold a rope in a loop until it was dropped over the head of a zombie and then the rope could be pulled tight to further confine said zombie. Herschel said, “We use two or three of those forked sticks to control a zombie, then we moved them around until we could put them up in a safe place. I also had to use a couple of entangle spells to confine some roaming zombies, causing various plants to grow and twist themselves around zombie legs, until we could get the forked sticks on them.” The party then noted how they had seen one of the forked sticks leaning against the front of Herschel’s cottage, and they had all guessed that’s what its purpose was.

Since the party had arrived in town after sunrise, it was too late to start brewing a healing portion using the pendant and chalice, so the four guests chatted some more with Herschel. Falafela said, “After we brew a potion, I think it would too risky to try to pour it down the throats of the zombies without risking getting bitten. Does anyone in the village have any small bottles we could pour the potion into from the chalice?” Herschel said, that’s a very good question. I do believe the goatherd, Rivatha Kafar, has small bottles as you suggest. He sometimes sells some goat’s milk in small bottles, and of course, he always wants the bottles returned so he can use them again and again. We shall go over and ask him.”

Leaving Vox behind to rest in Herschel’s cottage, the others walked over to Rivatha’s home. Rivatha lived immediately behind the home of the Deathmars, and Vilan Deathmar, who had been standing in front of his home talking with his daughters and with Jorgio, came over to talk to the others as they were about to pass on by. “Thanks to all of you for finding a cure! I sure hope it works! Life has had lots of surprises lately, what with many villagers becoming zombies, even my dear wife (Vilan had to supress tears when he mentioned his wife), and then I find my eldest daughter wants to take a husband. I have given my approval for the union, although I want Vilanious to also give permission.” Herschel raised an eyebrow and a slight smile came upon his lips. “Ah, so Flenda is getting married. May I guess it is to this young man standing by her side?” Herschel indicated Jorgio as he spoke. “I thought something was up, what with the way those two were casting sly glances at each other!” Then, after a few more pleasantries, the party moved on.

When they came to Rivatha’s home, they knocked on the door and were pleased that a normal, unaffected human answered the door. It was Rivatha’s wife, Niccius. She invited the party in, but asked them all to please wipe their feet on the door mat, as most of the village was still muddy from yesterday’s strong rain. Inside the home, Herschel detailed the plan to create a healing potion, and that they would need to use some small bottles to make it easier to give individual doses to the zombies. Niccius said she would be glad to contribute in any way she could, and would get to washing and boiling the bottles straightaways.

After that, plans were made for Herschel to start the potion at sunrise of the next day. The bottles were all taken to Herschel’s by Rivatha later in the day. The other party members of Vandin, Douag, and Falafela, returned with Herschel to his house. They fetched Vox, helped him to mount Horse, then led Vox and Horse to Mylene Ackmard’s barn. Mylene’s face really lit up when she saw the horse that Vox was riding, but then she said, “Oh, darn! Why is it that when we finally get a horse in town that it’s not a draught horse?” After an exchange of greetings, Mylene was glad to stable Vox’s horse, and gave him a good feed of some oats after unsaddling him and giving him a rubdown and a thorough brushing. It was arranged for the party to stay in a corner of the stable, on the ground floor, instead of their old sleeping spot upstairs, as Vox was in no condition to climb ladders.

Once everything was planned out for the morrow, the party ate a good meal that Mylene prepared for them. While Jorgio had eaten a hearty dinner at Flenda’s home, with Flenda doing most of the cooking (although she had Jorgio peel some potatoes and carrots), Jorgio joined his companions at Mylene’s when it came time to go to sleep.

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Return Journey to Crystal Shores

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022

(This is more of the adventures of Douag, Falafela, Lightstep, Opalent, Vandin, and Vox using the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition rules.)

Day #2-32 (Waterday, 12th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): The party of Douag, Falafela, Flenda and Gwenette Deathmar, Jorgio, Lightstep, Opalent, Vandin Lakesplitter, and Vox the Just awoke shortly after sunrise, which was around 5:20 am. They ate a solemn breakfast of cold cereal and milk, and then they all went to see Karnack after they had eaten their fill, as word was passed to them during breakfast that Karnack had translated the scroll from Koban Hairfoot’s tomb. While Tureg joined the others for breakfast, he told them at that time that he was going to leave the adventuring life, and would somehow return to his home village of Garzan, which was next to the Burntface Volcano. Tureg then repaired to his own quarters and did not join the others when they went to see Karnack.

“Good morning!” said Karnack when the party had arrived. Standing next to Karnack was the ranger, Clayton. “Excellent news! We have determined what the scroll has to say. You all remember this, no doubt?” As he said that, Karnack passed the original scroll to the party members, or at least Clayton took the scroll from Karnack and showed it to the party members. Here is what that scroll looked like:

The scroll that was recovered from the Tomb of Koban Hairfoot

After every party member had refreshed their memory of the scroll, Karnack read them the translation:

“Behold the wondrous power of the Pendant of Winstone. It holds the cure to many diseases if only it is used properly.

To fully effect a cure you must use the Pendant with a pure gold chalice of a high value. It must not be adulturated with any base metals although it may be adorned with jewels of high value.

To use the Pendant fill the chalice with pure water. Then dip the Pendant into the chalice and leave it there from sunrise to sundown all the while keeping pure beeswax candles burning on either side of the chalice.

After sundown, the elixer is ready for consumption. Allow each of the afflicted to take one mouthful only of the elixer from the chalice and to swallow the elixir. The imbiber will be cured within one hour. They should not be active during the curing period but should rest easy.

Beware that the Pendant of Winstone cannot perform unlimited cures. When it reaches its limit of cures its stone will turn from glossy jet black to a dull gray.”

Karnack then looked up. “That appears to be all there is to it. Lightstep, you retrieved two candles from the tomb. Do you know if they are beeswax candles?” Falafela answered, “Actually, I carried the candlesticks and candles. I do not know if they are beeswax or not.” Karnack then continued, “OK, we will have to ensure you take a goodly supply of beeswax candles with you.”

The party then thanked Karnack profusely. The sisters Flenda and Gwenette, in particular, went up to Karnack and hugged and kissed him, which embarrassed Karnack just a bit. Then, the party said their goodbyes to Karnack and Clayton. Clayton said, “Have a safe trip. Make sure to keep the Braztook Hills on your left. Head due south until you reach the east-west road between Fenshaft and Ganzir-Galad, then veer to the southwest and make for the Alder Thicket. Good luck!” The party then also thanked Clayton again for his assistance in retrieving the Pendant of Winstone from the Tomb of Koban Hairfoot.

Most of the party’s backpacks were already packed for traveling, although they of necessity went to the mess hall and topped off their supply of iron rations (hard biscuits and jerky) for traveling. The party did pay for this food, although they had been fed for free during their stay at the castle. The party also purchased some more torches, even though they might not need them in the near future. The party then went to say their good-byes to Tureg, and then they assisted Vox to mount his horse, which one of the stable boys had obediantly saddled and fetched from the stable. The stable boy also gave a quick lesson in how to saddle the horse, and how to arrange the bit and bridle, then by 9 o’clock, they were on their way out of the castle.

Fortunately, the light riding horse that was purchased for Vox was quite tame, and it easily followed along with the other travellers who were all afoot. The party met the north-south road than ran south from Bridgefields after a few miles, then followed that road for about another five miles before turning towards the southwest. After about 15 miles of total travel for the day, the party camped near the road that ran to the west towards Ganzir-Galad. It had been a pleasant day of travel, with temperatures in the low 70s and with low humidity.

The party figured they weren’t in much danger, so they only posted one guard at a time. The watch order was set as: Falafela, Vandin, Douag, Lightstep, Opalent, Flenda, Jorgio, Gwenette, and Vox. Vox tied his horse to a nearby tree. Other folks gathered up some tall grass and brought it over for the horse to eat. Gwenette asked, “Hey, Vox! What’s this horse’s name?” Vox answered, “I didn’t think to ask. I guess I’ll just call him “Horse.” Since the horse was a gelding, that seemed good enough. Finally, when it got dark after 6:30 pm, most of the party slept except for the guard on duty.

Day #2-33 (Earthday, 13th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): Sometime after midnight, Flenda awoke. She thought to herself, “It seems like someone should have woke me before now to stand my guard shift.” She quietly got up and tried to look around, but the moon had already set, and the scattered clouds were obscuring some of the starlight. After Flenda accustomed her eyes to the dark for a minute or two, she quietly walked around the campsite, looking for Opalent, who was to have stood the watch before Flenda and who should have waken Flenda to stand the next watch. Flenda then walked around the camp, loudly whispering, “Opalent! Where are you!?” After circling the camp three times without receiving a response, Flenda then woke everyone else in camp. A quick head count revealed that not only was Opalent missing, but so was Lightstep! Douag quickly and gruffly said, “I woke Lightstep to serve the next watch, then I fell asleep! I don’t know what happened!” Flenda suddenly realized that Lightstep was carrying the Pendant of Winstone and the golden chalice, both of which were needed to effect the cure for the zombie curse that was afflicting her home village of Crystal Shores! Flenda blurted out, “We have to find them! They’ve taken the pendant and the chalice! We need those to help my friends in my village!” Gwenette said, “Light some torches, let’s see what we can find.”

The party did light two torches, and the first thing they noticed was that both the Pendant of Winstone and the golden chalice had been left right in the middle of their camp, and had not been taken away. The Necklace of Harbinge was not there, though, so presumably it was still around Lightstep’s neck. Flenda and Gwenette and Falafela circled the camp, looking for footprints in the dewy grass. They found the party’s footsteps coming from the northeast, but the only other footprints they found that led away from camp went straight to the road between Ganzir-Galad and Fenshaft. Jorgio said, “I’ll bet they didn’t go toward Fenshaft. Don’t you remember Tureg saying it was populated by goblins!?” The party agreed that Lightstep and Opalent must have headed off towards Ganzir-Galad, at least for a while, but they didn’t feel they had any time to track them down. As there was no evidence of any other tracks, the party concluded that the missing duo were not missing due to any foul play, but had just left of their own free will.

Since it was still a couple of hours before dawn, the party settled back down and tried to get as much more rest as they could, but hardly anyone could really get to sleep, as they all were wondering just what the heck had happened to Lightstep and Opalent.

Finally, the sun arose around quarter after five (of course, these times are all estimates, as nobody back then was wearing a watch!), and the party awoke and hastily ate some hardtack and jerky. Jorgio said, “I’ll be glad to get back to civilization where I can eat some real food!” There were several grunts of approval from the others. After the quick meal, Flenda and Gwenette helped Vox get his horse saddled, then they helped him mount his horse, then the party resumed their travel towards Crystal Shores.

The party crossed the road that ran between Ganzir-Galad and Fenshaft, then continued on towards the southwest, keeping the Braztook Hills near to their left. As the party crossed the road, Flenda and Gwenette scouted the road for about a quarter-mile in each direction. Flenda went towards the west, towards Ganzir-Galad, and Gwenette scouted towards Fenshaft, towards the east. After they were done scouting, they hurried to rejoin the party. Gwenette said, “Opalent and Lightstep did not head towards Fenshaft, or at least if they did, they did not follow the road.” Flenda then spoke,saying, “I found both of their tracks heading down the road towards Ganzir-Galad. A couple of times their tracks veered off the road but then came back on to the road a few yards farther down. I guess they had their reasons for leaving us, but it would have been nice of them to have said good-bye!”

As the party trudged on towards the southwest, the temperature kept getting warmer, and the humidity increased sharply. All were dripping in sweat, and of neccessity took more breaks than usual. Fortunately for them, too, was the fact that it was still spring, and so all of the little streams and rivulets that they encountered were full of fresh water. Finally, they left the Braztook Hills behind and headed straight for the Alder Thicket. Although it was only about four o’clock in the afternoon when they reached the edge of the thicket, they decided to camp on the edge of that jungle, rather than try to cover any more distance that day. Flenda and Gwenette made a bit of protest, as they still wanted to press on while there was daylight remaining, as they wanted to get home as soon as possible. They even begged for the others to give them the Pendant of Winstone and the golden chalice to carry so they could hurry ahead, but the others talked them out of that idea, saying it was important to stay together right now because they couldn’t be sure what would be encountered not only in Crystal Shores, but also in Mont du Plat when they passed through that latter village.

The party settled into camp, Flenda and Gwenette helped Vox to dismount his horse, then the sisters unsaddled “Horse,” as that was the horse’s name. Then they pulled up some long grass and gave Horse a thorough rubdown. Horse enjoyed that immensely. Vox was a little alarmed when the girls took the tether off Horse and let him wander a bit, so he could graze. Horse also rolled around in the grass after eating, then he came back to the party and was re-tethered to a tree. The party set the night’s watch order as: Falafela, Vandin, Douag, Flenda, Jorgio, Gwenette, and Vox. The rest of the night passed uneventfully.

Day #2-34 (Fireday, 14th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): Soon after the party awoke the next morning, while everyone was eating their customary hardtack and jerky, Jorgio stood to make an announcement. He made a gesture for Flenda to join him, and so she rose and stood by his side. Jorgio looked very solemn, “Ladies and gentlemen, I just wanted you all to know that Flenda has consented to be my bride! We plan to marry as soon as we can get her parents’ permission.” Flenda, who didn’t embarrass easily, felt her cheeks flush at the announcment. Everyone else, except Vox, who still coudn’t stand on his own, got up and congratulated the couple. Flenda then added, “He asked me when we were watching over the cyclops, while we were waiting for you all to make a reappearance. At first I told him I’d have to think about it, just to leave him hanging for a while. But I couldn’t wait more than 10 minutes before I said yes!” Gwenette then went out of camp and picked some wildflowers for Flenda’s hair, fashioning the flower stems to make a sort of tiara. Gwenette then helped weave the stems into Flenda’s hair.

For a moment, the sisters Flenda and Gwenette forgot about their hurry to return home, as they shared some sisterly hugs. Then Douag spoke, “Ladies! Don’t forget we still have a ways to travel. We should be on our way. I think it is going to storm today.” Indeed, the morning was humid and still, and what sky could be seen to the west was filled with dark, towering clouds. So Flenda and Gwenette saddled Vox’s horse, and while Flenda and Vandin were helping Vox mount Horse, Gwenette fed Horse the roots of some lacy plants she had pulled up at the same time she was gathering flowers.

The party pushed on into the jungle of Alder Thicket. They had made about 10 miles by around 3 p.m, when the clouds loosed a terrific thunderstorm upon them. About 10 minutes before the rain fell, the wind had picked up considerably, waving even large trees in its breeze. The party had just passed through Mont du Plat about the time the wind starting blowing, and they had crossed over to the south side of the south branch of the River Bushkill. They had not seen anything moving in the humid heat of Mont du Plat as they passed through, and they hadn’t been in any mood to investigate matters in that ville. When the rain came, a couple of party members wanted to return to Mont du Plat to seek shelter, but the others, particularly Flenda and Gwenette, ruled that out. Flenda said, “We have to get home first! Besides, who knows how many zombies may be hiding inside some of the buildings in Mont du Plat!?”

So the party continued marching alongside the river, but after another 10 minutes the rain came down so hard that nobody could see for more than a few feet in front of them. Vandin held his shield over his head for shelter until his arms were going numb from holding the shield in that unnatural position. Vandin yelled over the fury of the storm, “We need to stop for a while and wait this out!” So the party sheltered under some large trees that held off some of the hardest rain. Flenda and Gwenette helped Vox to dismount, then the girls were both trying to calm Horse, as he was getting spooked by the lightning flashes and the boom of the following thunder.

Finally, after an hour or so, the storm subsided as quickly as it had come on. As the storm left, so did the high humidity, for which everyone was thankful. The river was rushing much faster than before, heading towards Crystal Shores. Falafela said, “You know, if we had a boat, we would probably be in Crystal Shores in 15 minutes, the way the water is rushing so fast!” Douag countered, “Or else we’d all be drowned when the boat flipped when it hit a submerged rock!” The party then tried to shake off as much water as they could before continuing on, but after they had marched only another couple of miles, they were all feeling chilled.

Vandin and Falafela both chimed in about the same time. “The next clearing we come across, we should make camp and try to get a fire going.” “Yeah, we also should camp because it will be dark by the time we get to Crystal Shores, and since we’re not sure what to expect, I wouldn’t want to walk into a situation where the entire village was full of wandering zombies in the dark, and we’d all be exhausted and maybe too tired to fight them off!” So, despite the pleas and tears of Flenda and Gwenette, the party made camp another mile along the trail. Although the ground was thoroughly soaked, some party members, directed by Falafela, gathered up some moss and small logs to make places to sit that were off the ground. Then everyone except Vox gathered some logs for a fire. Then the battle axe of Douag was employed as a woodsman’s axe, splittling logs for a fire. Although it took some doing, with Falafela directing others as to how to find dry logs that had been under various forms of cover, eventually a fair amount of firewood was cut and stacked. Then Falafela, using her former forester skills (before she turned to thieving), kindled a fire. She did admit to cheating by first lighting one of their pitch-impregnated wooden torches, but that torch did a wonderful job of getting some kindling going, then larger and larger sticks, and then logs, until at last a quite warm and satisfying fire was built.

The sisters Flenda and Gwenette then turned their attention to Horse, rubbing him down as best they could. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much available to feed Horse as there was no grass or grain in the area of the camp, seeing as how it was in the middle of a jungle, and he eschewed the leaves that were offered him. Gwenette said, “Well, it probably won’t hurt Horse too much to go hungry for a night.” Vox then asked, “How do you two know so much about horses?” Flenda answered, “Do you remember when we met up with Jenn Jise and some other fellows on our way to Karnack’s? Do you remember us saying that our father used to ride with those rascals? Well, as young girls we got to attend to various horses. Although we don’t own any horses now ourselves, we are quite at home among them!” Gwenette added, “Yeah. Flenda, I think we need to acquire a couple of horses for ourselves, as all of this walking about is for the birds! Why should we walk when we could ride!” She said that last sentence with a wink of her eye, while gesturing towards Horse. “Wait a minute!” said Vox. “I paid for that horse, fair and square. He’s mine! You’ll have to teach me how to care for him, assuming I get cured, of course.” Gwenette quickly put Vox’s mind at ease. “Oh, don’t worry, we’re not going to take your horse. We should get our own horses, though. We also need to get some draft horses for Mylene, so she can start a caravan service to our village.”

Then sunset came, and the party settled in for their last night before they would finally arrive back in Crystal Shores. They decided that since they were about midway between both Crystal Shores and Mont du Plat, they had better have two guards awake at all times. So they set the watch order as: Falafela and Vandin, then Douag and Vox, then Flenda and Jorgio, and finally Gwenette and Falafala (again). They also improvised a barrier of branches and brambles around their camp, just to make it harder for anyone or anything to be able to sneak in unnoticed. Then they all got as much rest as they could.

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Back at Karnack’s Castle

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022

Although the following post was part of an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign way back in 2015-2016, your friendly Dungeon Master somehow stopped posting updates after the “Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – part 4” post. So here is more of that adventure, even if it is posted six years after when these events were played out!

Day #2-30 (Spiritday, 10th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): After making it back to Karnack’s castle after having gone through the harrowing experience in the underground tomb of Koban Hairfoot, after the wounded were tended to and the scroll that possibly described how to use the Pendant of Winstone was forwarded to Karnack, the party all fell into a deep, restful sleep. In fact, while they had arrived back at the castle around noon, they were all asleep by 1:00 pm, and they all slept until well after dark.

Dungeon Master’s interlude:

Experience Points: The party racked up a fair amount of Experience Points (XP) on the adventure to the Tomb of Koban Hairfoot. They retrieved the Necklace of Harbinge, which was worth 350 Gold Pieces (GP), also the Pendant of Winstone, worth 700 GP, a fine golden chalice worth 300 GP, and two gold candlesticks, worth 20 GP each (or 40 GP total. They also found a scroll that yielded an explanation of how to use the Pendant of Winstone, that scroll was worth 100 GP. They also recovered a book that described a workout regimen that was worth 5 GP. So, treasure recovered accounted for 1,495 GP, or 1,495 XP.

As far as defeating monsters, the party was able to fool the cyclops both on their way in to and out of the dungeon. The cyclops had a total XP value of 4,832 XP; however, since they didn’t totally defeat it, the party will be awarded 10% of the value of the cyclops for each time they fooled it, in other words, they earned 483 XP x 2 = 966 XP. There were 5 undead skeletons that were destroyed in the room with Reedus’ coffin; those skeletons were worth a total of 100 XP. There was also the wight (Reedus, himself?) that was finally destroyed by Koban Hairfoot; 640 XP are awarded to the party for that wight. There were also 6 skeletal monks that were encountered but that the party did not need to fight; 30 XP were given for that encounter, especially as the party treated the skeletal monks with reverence and did not attack them (nor did the monks attack the party). There was also the matter of Lightstep praying over the bones of Koban Hairfoot; that was worth 50 XP. So, the total XP awarded for “monsters” was 1,786.

Total XP earned was thus 1,495 + 1,786 = 3,281 XP. There were of course some odd divisions of the XP. Flenda and Jorgio, for example, only shared in the XP from fooling the cyclops both times. They did not encounter anything in the dungeon itself, so did not earn any XP for anything else. Tureg was near-mortally wounded by the skeletons in the room with Reedus’ coffin, so Tureg only earned XP up to that point. Vox had earned some XP (226 XP, actually) up to the point of when he was struck by the wight. When he was struck, he lost those XP and also his previously earned 309 XP. So then Vox went to 0 XP, and could not earn any more XP.

When all of the calculating was done, here is how the XP were awarded (remember that Player Characters (Douag, Falafela, Lightstep, Opalent, Vandin, (Vox)) got full shares, while Non-Player Characters (Clayton, Flenda, Gwenette, Jorgio, Tureg) only received half shares. PC XP: Douag (515 XP, includes a 10% bonus for his 16 Strength); Falafela (469 XP); Lightstep (515 XP, includes a 10% bonus for excellent play of a cleric, what with praying over Koban Hairfoot and over slain foes); Opalent (469 XP); Vandin (469 XP). NPC XP: Clayton (234 XP); Flenda (63 XP); Jorgio (63 XP); Gwenette (234 XP); Tureg (67 XP).

The PC (PCs are bold) & NPC XP now stands at: Clayton 2,485 (Clayton is a Level 2 Ranger); Lightstep 1,120; Vandin 1,045; Falafela 1,035; Opalent 1,035; Douag 515; Tureg 338; Gwenette 295; Flenda 137; Jorgio 124; Pangborn 31; Vox 0.

(We now return you to your regular narrative.)

When the party awoke, the first thing the halfling cleric Lightstep did was to pray for new spells. He in fact prayed for three cure iight wounds spells, and when he had received the spells from his deity, he cast them upon the dwarven fighter Vandin Lakesplitter, then upon the human fighter Vox the Just, then upon the dwarven fighter Douag. The three spells cured all of the wounds of those three vailant fighters, except that Vox was still overcome by extreme fatigue.

Then the above party members, along with their companions Falafela, Flenda, Gwenette, and Jorgio, were escorted to the mess hall for a quick bite to eat that consisted of re-heated lamb stew, with strong brew to cleanse the palates of those who choose to partake of such beverages. Vox, it should be noted, still needed assistance to be able to walk. The near mortally wounded dwarven fighter Tureg was left to continue his rest, as he had not yet regained conciousness. After the quick meal, the party was ushered to Karnack’s chamber in the northeast castle tower.

When the party were all seated before Karnack, he spoke. “Clayton tells me you had success in finding the Pendant of Winstone. Excellent! He also tells me you ran into a very foul creature that struck yon Vox a damaging blow, and that the bones of Koban Hairfoot himself came back to life to slay the creature! What an adventure that must have been! Please, tell me more about what transpired at the tomb of Koban Hairfoot.”

Everyone tried to respond at once, then Karnack held up his hand and calmly stated, “Please! One at a time!” After each person had given a short report of what they had experienced in the dungeon, Karnack asked, “Clayton also told me about the library you found, and that it had an abundance of books and tomes. Would any of you like to stay on and lead an expedition to recover all of those books and bring them to this castle?” While several party members were shaking their heads “no” to Karnack’s request, Gwenette spoke up and said, “While I understand how books are quite important to your work as a sage, you must understand that my first loyalty is to my family and my village. I would like to return to my village as quickly as is possible, as I feel my parents are in grave danger from the zombie curse that has befallen them!” Karnack said, “Very well said. I indeed understand.” He did not bring up the subject of the books again after that.

Karnack then mentioned Vox again. “I understand that Vox is too weak to walk. Could someone please describe that foul creature you encountered that struck Vox? And Vox, how did you feel when it struck you?” Lightfoot answered, “The creature was human sized, mostly just a skeleton covered with the disingrated rags of clothes he must have once worn. It also had some bits of flesh still attached to his bones in places.” Vox described that it felt like “an overpowering tingling sensation that caused a moment’s paralysis” when he was struck by the creature. After pondering the matter for a moment, Karnack said, “Hmmmm, I wonder if it was a wight that struck poor Vox. Vox, if it was a wight, and it struck you twice, you are exceedingly lucky to still be alive! You should count your blessings, my boy!”

Karnack then asked the question, “How do you all plan to transport him back to Crystal Shores?” as he pointed at Vox. Some party members suggested that Vox should obtain a horse. Lightstep asked Karnack if he could spare one of the horses from the castle for Vox, but Karnack replied, “I cannot spare any of the horses from my guards, or even any of the work horses. However, I could send an agent to the nearby village of Bridgefields and purchase a horse for Vox. I believe we could get him a light riding horse, a basic saddle, with appropriate tack, for about 40 gold pieces.” So Vox handed over some of his money to Karnack, to make the horse buy happen on the morrow.

Karnack then mentioned how neither he nor his scribes had as of yet been able to decipher the unknown runes on the scroll, but that they had been working on it all day long. Karnack said, “We first need to deteermine what language it is written in, and then we may be able to translate it. As it is now getting very late, my scribes and I will soon retire for the night, but will make a fresh start in the morning. Although you all have been sleeping most of the day, you should all try to get some more rest for the balance of the night.” After that, Karnack dismissed them back to their quarters.

Day #2-31 (Airday, 11th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): It was probably around 3:00 am on 11th Dewsnap before the last party member fell asleep. Tureg, they were told, had still not regained conciousness during their brief meeting with Karnack late in the evening of 10th Dewsnap.

The party all awoke near to 9 o’clock in the morning. They had an exceedingly filling breakfast of hotcakes with bacon, using some honey as a sweetener for the hotcakes. Mostly the party just hung around the castle, although Lightstep and Opalent did go for a short walk outside the castle just after lunch. Falafela also visited the craft room and spoke some more with Makurrh, the tinker at the castle.

Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, Vox’s new horse arrived from Bridgefields. It was a bay horse, mostly dark brown with black lower legs and mane and tail. It also had a short white stripe on its forehead. It came with a small saddle, and with reins and a bridle and bit. It was stabled in the castle, although Vox was taken to meet the horse and to feed it some carrots.

Shortly thereafter, Tureg awoke from his coma. He sat up and looked around. He appeared to be confused. After a moment, he weakly spoke to the nurse who was attending to him, “Where am I? How did I get here?” The nurse answered, “You went adventuring with some friends. You were gravely injured in battle, and your friends brought your here yesterday morning. You are in the castle of Karnack the Sage.” Tureg then stated, flatly, “I am very thirsty, and a little hungry. May I please have something to eat and drink?” He then laid back down, although he kept his eyes open. The nurse briefly left the room and asked someone outside the room to bring Tureg some hot soup from the kitchen. The nurse then told Tureg, “I sent for some soup. Just wait a couple of moments.” Tureg then gave a little sigh, and closed his eyes, although he did not fall asleep. In a few moments, some hot chicken noodle soup arrived, and the nurse helped him eat.

Just after supper time, Karnack summoned the party (sans Tureg) to his chambers. Karnack sounded cheerful. “I have some good news! We have determined the language on the scroll. It is a derivative of a language that was once used by a vanished race who once lived in the Ghinor area. We believe we will now be able to decipher the scroll, although we have not yet completed that task.” The party’s faces all brightened upon hearing that news, especially those of Flenda and Gwenette. Flenda said, “Karnack, do you have any idea of how long it might take to finish translating the scroll?” Karnack answered, “We are hoping to complete it this evening, but it might not be until tomorrow sometime. I don’t believe it will take us any longer than that.”

Karnack then related, “I have some more good news. Your colleague Tureg has regained conciousness. He was able to eat some soup around supper time.” The party then departed, with Lightstep leading the procession towards Tureg’s chamber. When Lightstep arrived at Tureg’s bedside, Lightstep cast a cure light wounds spell, and it healed the 5 damage points that had been afflicting Tureg.

After sunset, the party had a light snack in the mess hall, then retired for the evening.

(to be continued)

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The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – Part 4

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2016

Day #2-29 (Fireday, 9th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): After battling the evil creature and then finding the Pendant of Winstone in a chamber that adjoined the evil creature’s bedchamber, Lightstep lit the two candles on the altar in that adjoining chamber, and said some prayers. Lightstep then carefully wrapped the Pendant and the chalice in cloth and placed them in his backpack. Gwenette asked him if he was going to take the candlesticks, but Lightstep said to leave them to burn down. By now, Clayton had poked his head into that room (through the 4’ high door), and hearing that exchange of words, said, “I think you should take the candles and candlesticks with us. If they will be needed for whatever ceremony is needed to use that pendant, well, we don’t want to have to come back for them!” Lightstep pondered that statement for a moment, then agreed that he should take the candlesticks also. Since Lightstep’s pack was sort of full, he gave the candlesticks to the halfling thief Falafela, to carry in her backpack.

There now ensued a lively discussion of how to leave the dungeon. Vox couldn’t stand on his feet without assistance, and especially needed help with walking. The party were also going to have to retrieve the body of Tureg, the dwarf, who had fallen in combat vs. some skeletons in the burial chamber of Reedus, and the party was also going to have to return the bones of Koban Hairfoot to his burial chamber in the level above the party’s current level. Some of the party thought of using the bed to carry Tureg’s body, but that idea went by the wayside as the bed was sort of heavy all by itself, and since it had held the body of the evil creature that had attacked them, they really didn’t want any part of the bed. They also considered breaking the doors off the wardrobe and using them as an improvised litter, but decided that the doors didn’t look sturdy enough. So finally they decided to use the table as a litter, after first breaking off its four legs. Fortunately the tabletop was not too heavy.

The party then left the bedchamber. Clayton led the way with a torch (and his sword drawn in case of any more attacks), then came Opalent and Gwenette, who were helping the energy-drained human fighter Vox the Just to walk. Then came Lightstep and Douag carrying the table with the bones of Koban Hairfoot upon it, Lightstep in the lead. Lightstep rested the table on the top of his backpack to help with carrying it, as he was only 3’1” tall (Douag was an even 4’ tall). Vandin Lakesplitter (dwarven fighter) and Falafela brought up the rear, Falafela carrying a torch. Vandin was very seriously wounded, and was doing all he could to just walk by himself.

After leaving the chamber, the party turned left after 10 feet, then turned right after another 10 feet, then passed through the shattered door to Reedus’ burial chamber. They needed to retrieve Tureg’s body from the black obsidian coffin of Reedus that they had left Tureg in, to keep his body safe from any vermin. When Clayton moved the lid off the coffin, he exclaimed, “Tureg’s arms are not in the same position that I left them! I left his arms crossed over his stomach, and now his hands are up by his head!” Clayton then checked for a pulse, and detected a faint beating of Tureg’s heart! Vandin then prodded Tureg with the butt-end of his war hammer, and shouted at Tureg to try to wake him up. Tureg gave out a slight, very quiet moan, and moved his head ever so slightly. That proved to everyone that he was indeed still alive!

The party then loaded Tureg onto the table along with Koban, and proceeded out the near door of the chamber, marching in the same order as noted above. They turned right at the main hallway, went about 40 feet, turned left, went another 90 feet or so, passing by the room on their left that they had earlier inspected that had three skeletons on the floor as well as a toppled podium and a burned book. They had no time for any more inspections now, though. After proceeding down a long hallway of 110 to 120 feet, they reached the right turn at the stairs to the upper level.

At this point, the stairs were narrower than the hallway, and in any event, the door they had to pass through at the top of the stairs was too narrow to carry anyone on the table, so the party had to shuttle people and bodies up the stairs one-by-one. Clayton led the way with the torch, then Opalent and Gwenette both helped Vox up the stairs. Then Opalent and Gwenette went back downstairs to bring up the table, turning it on end to get it through the door under the small waterfall. Then Lightstep and Douag carried up Tureg, and then Koban’s remains, and finally Vandin and Falafela ascended the stairs. The party left the door to the lower level open, to make it easier for anyone else to find the stairway down.

After leaving the “waterfall” room, the party turned right (having no choice in the decision as to which way to go), traveled about 40 feet, then made a quick left-right jog, then went another 40 feet, passing over the iron grate in the floor. They then turned left into the crypt room of Koban Hairfoot, about 30 minutes after leaving the tomb room of Reedus. They were sort of surprised to see the glass case that had covered Koban was still intact. Clayton said, “I guess Koban was able to lift the glass enough to slip himself out of the bottom to join us!” The party then reverently replaced the remains of Koban Hairfoot under his glass case, including his broken mace. Lightstep then said more prayers over Koban.

After leaving Koban, it only took another few minutes to reach the stairs to the surface. At about this time, the party’s two torches were flickering and were close to extinguishing themselves, so they lit a new torch, but only one torch (provided by Opalent). Clayton reckoned it must be getting close to midnight by now. “OK,” said Clayton, “we need to figure out how to get past that cyclops on the surface!” Nobody had a solid plan, although several ideas were tossed out to the group. Someone said, “Maybe we should see if the cyclops is still up there in the mausoleum?” They all agreed that it needed to be someone with infravision, so that left out the humans Clayton, Gwenette, or Vox (not to mention that Vox was too weak to ascend the stairs by himself). So, believing the halfling thief Falafela to have the best infravision, it was decided to have her take a peek, after others opened the lid of the tomb. The party had, of course, wisely decided to close the lid to the false coffin above when they descended into the dungeon. They had worked a lever at the bottom of the stairs to close the lid, and Opalent had wedged her dagger in the latch mechanism to keep it from possibly locking them in.

Falafela said, “Shine the torch up the stairs so I can see where Opalent’s dagger is at, then take the torch back down the hallway so no light shines up the stairs. Then have someone open the lid about a foot or so. Clayton and the others then retreated about 60 feet back up the hallway while leaving the legless tabletop with Tureg upon it close to the bottom of the stairs. When Falafela was in position with her hand upon the dagger, she whispered towards the bottom of the stairs, “OK, open the lid!” Vandin and Opalent worked the lever, and when the lid was opened about a foot, Falafela looked into the above-ground mausoleum. She saw the cyclops! He was sleeping in the far corner to the left of Falafela’s position. Falafela whispered down the stairs, “close the lid again,” and while Opalent and Vandin worked the lever to close the lid, Falafela stuck the dagger back in the latch to keep the latch from engaging. Then Falafela crept back down the stairs.

Falafela motioned Opalent and Vandin back down the hall to where the others were waiting with the torch. “Yes,” said Falafela, “the cyclops is sleeping in the mausoleum, about 40’ feet away in the left corner. He is sleeping on his left side, facing away from us. There now ensued much more discussion about how to get past the cyclops. Occasionally, someone had to remind everyone to not all try to talk at once, and to keep their voices quiet so as to not alert the cyclops to their presence.

Day #2-30 (Spiritday, 10th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): At some time during the discussion about how to get past the cyclops, midnight passed. One of the ideas was to lift the lid and shoot arrows at the cyclops, but that plan was nixed as the only competent bowman was Clayton, and he, being human, lacked infravision. It was also feared that shooting arrows might amount to only pinpricks to the cyclops, and might enrage him so that he would just hide behind one of the marble columns in the mausoleum or perhaps wait just outside the door to the exterior, making it impossible to ever leave. It was also suggested that someone from the party could sneak out of the dungeon and blind the cyclops by plunging a sword into the cyclops’ eye. But then a voice said, “But who will be the ‘someone’?” Nobody volunteered to be that “someone”! A dissenting voice, perhaps Opalent or Falafela, said, “Isn’t it sort of cruel to maim that cyclops? After all, he hasn’t caused any harm to any of us.” Someone quietly stated, “At least not yet!” A consensus was reached that trying to blind the cyclops also wouldn’t work, because he could just crawl out of the door and wait for the party to try to leave.

Another idea that was presented was to put together a mock skeleton from bones in the dungeon, and set them on fire after opening the lid, and try to scare the cyclops away. The plan went so far as having Falafela, Opalent, and Douag go back down the hallway (with the torch) to one of the barracks rooms off the side of the hallway and gather up a set of bones, including a rib cage and a skull. The other party members were not exactly thrilled to be left sitting in the dark during the short time the bones were being gathered. Of course, Lightstep didn’t care one way or another as to the discussion, as he had fallen asleep. But then as folks were getting ready to tie the bones to Opalent’s 10-foot pole, someone said, “You know, if this doesn’t scare away the cyclops, then he’s just going to be waiting for us!” So, this plan was discarded along with the other plans that had been discussed.

Clayton stated, “It’s too bad we didn’t think to arrange any way to signal Flenda and Jorgio, so they could arrange another diversion to draw the cyclops away from the mausoleum so we could make a break for it. Of course, how could we signal them without the cyclops knowing it? I suppose we could lift the lid a little and I could shoot a flaming arrow through the door to the outside, but what if the bowstring awoke the cyclops? Another problem we have is that we need to get the cyclops far enough away so that we can drag our wounded into the woods to our left, which will be about 150 yards away. One thing we have going for us is that it is another moonless night, so the darkness can hide us somewhat once we all get outside. I wonder how much starlight there is, and what the cloud cover is? Hmmmm….”

It didn’t take too much more discussion to decide that someone would have to sneak past the sleeping cyclops and then try to contact Flenda and Jorgio, whom, it was presumed, were still watching the mausoleum from somewhere outside. It was Flenda and Jorgio who had made an excellent diversion to draw the cyclops away from the mausoleum so that the rest of the party could find a way into the dungeon beneath the mausoleum. Falafela was selected for the hazardous duty of sneaking past the cyclops, as, after all, she was the group’s “thief” and so should be the best at sneaking about in the dark. But before she left, the party finalized the rest of their plan. The plan was for Falafela, once she found Flenda and Jorgio, to have them come down and stir up the cyclops’ goat herd. They would make coyote howls and try to get the goats to moving about and making noise. When the party inside the mausoleum heard the coyote yells, they were to try to wake up the cyclops enough so that he would go outside to investigate. Then, when one person from the party in the mausoleum noticed the cyclops was far enough away, they would hurriedly usher everyone else up the stairs, then go outside and make for the woods to their left as fast as they could go.

Finally, when all was set, Douag and Clayton worked the lever to raise the lid enough for Falafela to exit the coffin-stairs. Falafela very carefully and quietly put forth first one leg, and then the other, onto the floor of the mausoleum. She hesitated for a second to ensure the cyclops hadn’t changed position, then she hurriedly tiptoed towards the door to the outside. When she had safely made it to the outside, she briefly paused for a deep breath, relieved to be free of the stale air in the dungeon beneath the mausoleum. Opalent stayed at the head of the stairs to watch the cyclops, and to let the rest of the party know when the cyclops departed.

Falafela quickly made her way to the southwest, across the clearing that surrounded the mausoleum. She headed for the bluff upon which Flenda and Jorgio had lit their signal fire to attract the cyclops the previous late afternoon. Fortunately, although there was no moonlight, there was only about 10% cloud cover, so there was enough starlight to navigate by. When Falafela was atop the bluff, she started whispering, “Flenda! Jorgio! Where are you?” When that didn’t attract her companions, she picked up two rocks and started banging them together in a rhythmic manner. Tap tap tap! Tap tap tap! went the rocks as Falafela moved about the bluff, listening intently after each series of taps. Finally, after a couple of minutes, Jorgio spoke out from the darkness, “Stop banging those rocks together!” After a quick exchange of hellos with Falafela, Jorgio went off into the darkness to fetch Flenda.

When Jorgio and Flenda rejoined Falafela atop the bluff, Falafela explained the group’s plan. She said they needed to create a disturbance among the cyclops’ herd of goats in order to wake him up and have him leave the mausoleum to see what was molesting his goats. They would also have to draw him to the bluff, or at least far enough away from the mausoleum so that the rest of the party would be able to reach the safety of the woods on the far side of the mausoleum. Flenda said, “I can make excellent coyote calls!” Jorgio chimed in with, “I think we should also light a fire. Even if the cyclops doesn’t pursue us far enough, if he sees another fire he’ll have to come and investigate it.” Presciently, Flenda and Jorgio had gathered more wood for another fire, after the cyclops had extinguished their previous bonfire the previous afternoon.

While Jorgio was kindling the new fire, Falafela explained the party’s plan to meet along the north bank of the stream, about a hundred yards into the woods on the other, eastern side of the mausoleum. When the fire was burning strong enough, the trio descended the bluff and re-entered the clearing. They carefully stole their way towards the sleeping cyclops in the mausoleum, and when about 50 yards from there, they started prodding goats with their feet or with sticks. That served to get some goats on their feet and bleating a little. Then Flenda let out with the most wondrous and horrific imitation of a coyote howl that either Falafela or Jorgio had ever heard! Suddenly, most of the goat herd was awake and ready to flee! The three adventurers started shooing the goats towards the bluff to the west, Flenda in the rear and Falafela and Jorgio on the flanks, to keep the goats moving in the desired direction. Flenda occasionally let out with another blood-curdling howl, and spurred the goats to moving faster and to making more noise.

All this while, about 30 minutes worth, Opalent had maintained her vigil over the sleeping cyclops. Opalent could hear the commotion outside, but the cyclops was still sound asleep. Not particularly desirous of going over and kicking the cyclops in the back to wake him, Opalent used one of the bones the party had gathered for a possible decoy, and threw it at the recumbent cyclops. The cyclops merely shrugged it off and continued his slumber. Opalent went down the stairs to get another, bigger bone. She also ordered the lid be raised all the way to give her room for more arm swing for more velocity for the next throw. Although Opalent had to throw the bone to the side of the marble column that was between her and the cyclops, she made an excellent throw that firmly struck the cyclops right in the middle of his back. The cyclops brought his right arm around to scratch his back where the bone had hit him. Then the cyclops suddenly woke up! He sat up, then turned and looked right at where Opalent had thrown the bone from the pseudo coffin! But Opalent had quickly retreated down the stairs to the level below and so was not seen.

After a few seconds of trying to clear his head and trying to figure out what had touched him, the cyclops finally heard the commotion outside with his goat herd. He gathered up his huge eight-foot long club and crawled outside. Opalent heard the cyclops crawl out the door, then she arose to the top of the stairs again. Opalent then climbed out of the coffin and crossed the floor to the door to the outside. She could see the cyclops marching across the clearing towards the right, directly away from the mausoleum. When the cyclops was at least 50 yards away, Opalent hurried back to the stairs and whispered as loud as she could, “Let’s go now! The cyclops is moving away!” Gwenette then helped Vox most of the way up the stairs, and then Opalent joined in to help him climb out of the coffin-stairs. Then Gwenette went back down the stairs and helped carry the table to the surface, then went back to help with Tureg. Somebody did have the good sense to wake Lightstep, else he might have been left behind. The party left the burning torch at the bottom of the stairs, and didn’t take time to close the lid to the coffin they had just emerged from.

Then the party loaded the unconscious Tureg on the tabletop, and were able to easily carry it horizontally through the wide door of the mausoleum to the outside. The party then turned left and moved out for the woods. While they were moving as fast as they could, it was only at the pace of a brisk walk. They bunched up into a tight group, and moved so as to put the mausoleum building between them and the cyclops, should that giant creature decide to look back. Everyone could breathe a sigh of relief when they all finally reached the woods. Clayton quickly took a head count to ensure everyone was present and accounted for. Then, as they were about 50 yards north of the stream, they angled their way into the woods towards the stream. There was much stumbling about in the woods, as nobody dared light a torch where the cyclops could see it.

They finally made it to the stream, and then proceeded a few more paces to the east until Clayton reckoned they had made it about 100 yards into the woods. As could be expected, it was pitch dark in the woods with the leafy canopy blocking out all starlight from above. Clayton ordered the group to stay put while he reconnoitered back towards the clearing. A few moments later, he reappeared and said, “We are about 100 yards inside the woods. The cyclops should not be able to see us here. As long as we don’t make any loud noise we should be OK. We’ll just have to wait for the others to join us. Try to get some rest, I will watch our back trail.”

After being pursued by the cyclops across the clearing, Falafela, Jorgio, and Flenda gained the relative safety of the bluff. They moved past the bonfire and struck out into the woods. They crossed to the south bank of the stream in order to get farther into the woods, and then they moved to their left, keeping the stream to their left. They did have to find a way down the cliff to the side of the waterfall, but then they found the traveling wasn’t too bad if they stayed just inside the fringe of the woods on the opposite side of the stream from the cyclops. As they made their way through the woods, nobody spoke unless it was to ensure their companions were still with them, and that they weren’t straying too far from the stream.

After about 90 minutes of hard travel through the dark woods, the trio reached the others. After crossing the stream, and getting wet and a bit chilled in the 50-something degree air, everyone was back together. Clayton spoke and said, “We should be safe to light a couple of torches now, else it will be nearly impossible to travel through the forest at night. We will have to alternate who is carrying Tureg and who is helping Vox to walk. And Vandin, are you able to walk yourself?” Vandin grunted that he would be able to manage carrying his own weight. Opalent and Douag were the first torchbearers, Falafela supplying Opalent with a torch. Clayton reckoned it was probably about 1:30 in the morning when they set out.

After a very hard forced march of three miles, always keeping the stream within earshot on their right, they finally reached the main trail. It had taken about 6 hours to cover 3 miles. That was about twice the time it had taken them to cover that same territory the day before, except during the previous day they were in the daylight and were not encumbered with wounded members of their party. At the intersection of the stream and the trail, they all rested for 30 minutes and ate some of their jerky and hardtack. The eight conscious party members ate a total of 4 days worth of those “iron” rations, then refilled their waterskins before resuming their march around 8 am. At least they didn’t need torches any more, as enough light was filtering through from above so that they could see the trail. It did seem like it was overcast above the trees, though.

The party followed the winding trail for another three miles, leaving the stream far behind them. Finally, when some party members were just about at the limit of their endurance, they emerged from the woods. To their relief, they did see the woodcutting party from Karnack’s castle, along with the 5 cavalrymen as their escort. The woodcutters had almost given up hope of seeing the party emerge from the woods, and had just loaded their two wagons with cut firewood. The wagons were quickly unloaded, and then the party members clambered aboard, trying to use whatever they could for padding for their more seriously wounded members of Tureg, Vox, and Vandin. On the way back to Karnack’s castle, most of the party fell asleep and so didn’t feel the jolts when the unsprung wagons hit bumps in the trail.

Eventually, the party all made it back to Karnack’s castle where they were helped to their bedchambers. The wounded members Tureg, Vandin, Vox, and Douag were given excellent aid and had their wounds washed and bandaged by several women at the castle who specialized in healing wounds. Word was sent to Karnack that the party had success in finding the Pendant of Winstone, and then the party all fell fast asleep. Lightstep did make sure that the scroll he had found with a drawing of the Pendant upon it was forwarded to Karnack, so Karnack could make an early start in trying to decipher what its strange runes said.

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The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – Part 3

Saturday, June 25th, 2016

This is a continuation of The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – Part 1, and The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – Part 2.

Day #2-29 (Fireday, 9th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): As we left our intrepid adventurers last time, they had descended to the 2nd level of the Tomb of Koban Hairfoot, and after briefly investigating a rectangular chamber with three skeletons laying about in disarray, they had then proceeded onward. They had come to another door to their left, and Vandin Lakesplitter had forced the door open with a few pushes from his shoulder….

Immediately after forcing the door open, Vandin (carrying a torch along with his shield and hammer), and Tureg, another dwarven fighter (armed with a sword and also carrying a shield) discovered there were some more skeletons in this room, but the skeletons were animated and were coming to attack! Vandin swung his hammer and shattered one skeleton into fragments, but another skeleton felled Tureg with a mighty claw. The halfling cleric Lightstep then entered the room and tried to fend off other skeletons with his small shield and with his hammer, while the halfling thief Falafela snuck into the room in Lightstep’s wake and attempted to drag Tureg out of the room. It was fortunate for the adventurers that the room just inside the door was not very wide, as it kept the skeletons superior numbers from being able to flank the party.

Vandin then swung his hammer and took off a skeleton’s arm at its shoulder, but with its other arm it struck Vandin, doing 4 hit points of damage (out of Vandin’s 6 total hit points). After Falafela dragged Tureg out of the room, Vandin and Lightstep were able to back out of the room and pull the door closed behind them, thus gaining a respite from the attacking skeletons. The party did not hear any sound coming from inside the room, so Lightstep cast a Cure Light Wounds spell on Vandin, but it only cured 1 HP of damage. Then Lightstep cast his only remaining Cure Light Wounds spell, and it fully healed Vandin.

After briefly discussing tactics, the party decided they would only open the door a little so only one skeleton at a time could approach them through the narrowed opening. While Lightstep took Vandin’s torch, Vandin opened the door just enough for a skeleton to start to come through. Whack! A mighty blow from Vandin’s hammer felled that skeleton, and also the next skeleton to come through right on the heels of the first skeleton. But while Vandin was watching that 2nd skeleton fall to the ground to make sure it wouldn’t try to strike him on the way down, another skeleton came through the door and struck Vandin for 5 HP of damage! Opalent then cast her Magic Missile spell at that skeleton. While the spell did 3 points of damage, it did not “kill” the already-undead skeleton. Douag then pushed Vandin out of the way, but before Douag could bring his battleaxe to bear, the skeleton ripped at Douag, striking twice and inflicting 5 hit points of damage. Douag was still in fair shape, though, as he had 11 hit points before being wounded. After a bit more battling, Douag finally chopped the skeleton in half with his axe, and then made sure it was not moving any more after striking it a few more times as it lay at his feet.

The party then waited for several seconds to see if any more skeletons were coming out of the room to do battle, and when none appeared, they made more plans. Lightstep stayed in the hallway with one torch to watch over the wounded Tureg, and the human ranger Clayton also stayed on guard in the hallway outside the room. The other party members cautiously looked into the room, led by human fighter Vox the Just, who kicked the skeleton bones out of the doorway. The room looked like a carbon copy of Koban Hairfoot’s crypt from the level above, as this room was also octagonal in shape, about 30 feet across from one wall to its opposite wall. But this room did not have painted murals on the walls; instead, it had what looked like burn marks and bloodstains on the walls and the floor. And instead of a glass-encased skeleton of Koban Hairfoot resting on a marble table, there was a black obsidian coffin lying on a dark obsidian table. Embossed into the top of the coffin was a symbol of an unknown deity, as well as the word “Reedus.” The party also noticed there were the bones from five skeletons on the floor, although they could only account for killing four of the foul creatures. They knew that Vandin had killed three of the skeletons, and Douag had put down another. Then Lightstep said, “I think I took out one of those infernal creatures while I was shielding Tureg.”

Falafela wanted to inspect the coffin before anyone tried to open its lid, but as she was only 2’8” tall, she had Opalent lift her up for a closer look-see. Falafela and Opalent inspected the coffin carefully, but could detect no sort of trick or trap. While Vandin then also inspected the coffin for any sort of stonework traps, the party had to light two new torches (Vox and Opalent dug into their torch supplies). That also marked they had been in the dungeon for about four hours. Finally, while holding their breath to see what might leap out of the coffin at them, the party opened the lid. They were relieved to not find a body, or a skeleton, or anything else that might have assaulted them. And while the party did not find the Pendant of Winstone, they did find an old, dusty black cloak that was trimmed in gold. It appeared to have been someone’s burial cloak. It did seem weird that it was dusty, although the rest of the room wasn’t very dusty. Opalent picked up the cloak with her 10’ pole. Opalent then searched two of the walls for any secret passages, but found none.

At this time, Clayton poked his head in the room and announced that he thought Tureg was dead, as Clayton could not detect a pulse. While the party was ready to push on and keep searching for the Pendant of Winstone, they didn’t want to just leave Tureg’s body lying about. Vandin, in particular, didn’t want any rats to eat Tureg! Other party members reminded Vandin that they had not seen any vermin (except the skeletons) in the dungeon, but Vandin was adamant. Clayton said, “We could leave Tureg’s body in this coffin until we come back to retrieve him.” A couple of folks thought that was sort of gruesome, as the coffin looked sort of evil, but Clayton then said, “Well, he’s already dead. It couldn’t hurt him any more.” So, the party lifted Tureg, along with all of his possessions (except his torches which Opalent added to her backpack), and placed him in the coffin, and then closed the lid.

The party then piled the skeleton bones around the walls of the room, and then Lightstep took off his backpack and carefully unwrapped the vial of the clear liquid he had found some time ago. He sprinkled about half of the vial on the bones, while saying a few religious words. He probably had about two fluid ounces of the clear fluid remaining in the vial after that. The party then went to the other door of the room that was down a 35’ hallway from the foot of the coffin. As the hinges were on the inside, Vox tried to pull that door open, but failed. He then whacked at the door once with his sword, but as the door was of solid wood with iron reinforcing bands (as was the other door to the room), he quickly decided that it would indeed be futile to keep striking at the door with his sword. Vox figured he would only lose the edge of his blade if he kept slashing at the door. Vandin then came forward, and even in his weakened condition, he only had to strike the door twice with his hammer before busting it open. The party wasn’t worried about making noise at this point, seeing as they had made a lot of noise while fighting the skeletons.

The party now proceeded in the order: Lightstep in front (with a torch), then Vox and Gwenette (another human fighter) in the 2nd rank, then Falafala and Vandin, then Douag and Opalent, and Clayton brought up the rear with another torch. After passing through the shattered door, they saw they had to go to either the right or the left. They went to the right. After about 30 feet, they saw another iron grating in the floor, much like the floor grating from the level above. Just beyond the grate, the hallway turned right, and they could see it led back to the other door of the room they had just exited. Down that hall towards the other door, the hall also turned off to the left, but they decided not to go that way for now. Instead, they went to the left.

After proceeding just more than 10 feet, the hall turned 90 degrees to the right. (By the way, the party were all still creeped out by the skulls that were embedded into the stonework in the floor, and by the streaks of rust and/or blood all over the walls.) About 10 feet past that right turn was an end wall with a wooden door in it. Lightstep just wanted to quickly open the door to see what was on the other side, but Gwenette held him back. Vox then opened the door, which opened easily. Vox stepped through the door, closely followed by Lightstep and Gwenette. There were only three items to be seen in this 20’ x 30’ room: a 4’ x 6’ wooden table with one chair in the center of the room, an old wooden wardrobe, with its two doors open, in the far right corner of the room, and an old dust-covered bed in the far left corner of the room.

After having only a few seconds to look around the room, suddenly a ghastly figure arose from the dusty bedcovers and attacked! It was clearly undead, and while it was partially a skeleton, it still had some fleshy parts on its body. Unfortunately for Vox, he was the closest to the thing, and Vox was quickly struck twice for a total of 7 hit points of damage. Having only 3 HP left, he fell back somewhat. Gwenette and Lightstep then tried to hit the thing, Gwenette with her short sword, and Lightstep with his hammer, but they could not connect as they were more interested in keeping the thing from hitting them. Gwenette, in particular, had to parry the foul creature’s attacks with her sword as she did not carry a shield.

Suddenly, at the back of the party out in the hall was a commotion. Clayton had forgotten to keep looking back from the way that they had come, as he, like the rest of the party, were trying to see what was transpiring inside the room. Before the rear party members could do anything about it, a skeleton clad in a gold and gem-studded robe and wearing a similar crown, pushed its way past the party members. It was the skeleton of Koban Hairfoot, come back to life! Koban rushed to confront the evil being that was battling with Gwenette and Lightstep, pushing them out of the way. Then Koban and his opponent stood toe-to-toe, raining blows upon each other! Koban was wielding his broken mace, and was inflicting terrible damage to his foe, but could not avoid receiving serious blows in return. Finally, the evil being was vanquished, breaking into several pieces as it hit the floor with a thud. Unfortunately for Koban, though, he too was finished. Koban pivoted, looking at the party with the empty eye sockets of his skull, then fell prostrate upon the stone floor. As he fell, he dropped his broken mace and reached out with his right hand and pointed to the wardrobe in the corner.

After the party paused for a moment to take in what had just transpired, Gwenette and Falafela inspected the wardrobe. They looked inside, but all that there was to see were a few tattered old garments that appeared to have no value. Falafela was wondering if the wardrobe was a teleportation device, and started to climb inside, but just to be on the safe side, she kept one foot outside the wardrobe and had Opalent hold on to her. While this was transpiring, Lightstep sprinkled the last of what he was now convinced was Holy Water on the bones of Koban and Koban’s foe, and when the little bit of water touched the bones of Koban’s opponent, some small wisps of smoke arose from those bones. Clayton was now also watching back down the hallway for anyone/anything else that might approach, and Vox was lying on the floor, feeling as if all of his energy had left him. It was also time to light two new torches, marking five hours of dungeon time for the intrepid party.

Opalent then looked around the wardrobe, and finally when she moved it a few inches away from the wall she found a hidden door behind it! The door was only about 4’ high, but Lightstep cautiously opened the door (after the wardrobe had been moved farther away from the wall) and went through, along with a torch. Douag and Gwenette then followed him in. They saw a sort of U-shaped room, about 20 feet across and 30 feet long. At the “U” end of the room, which was to their left, was a small white marble altar. Atop the altar were two gold candlesticks with unburned white candles in them, along with a gleaming gold chalice, and next to the chalice was a bit of jewelry that looked exactly as the Pendant of Winstone had been described to them when they were all back at Karnack’s castle! It was round, about 4 inches in diameter, with a sort of “tab” protruding off one side, and with a 2” diameter black gem in its center. Around its rim, were gold “bubbles.”

Lightstep approached the altar, lit both candles with his torch, and soon was immersed in prayers. After about 10 minutes of prayer, he then reached up and retrieved the Pendant of Winstone and the gold chalice, and wrapped them in cloth and placed them in his backpack. Gwenette said, “Aren’t you going to take the candlesticks?” Lightstep answered, “No. We will leave them to burn down.”

(to be continued)

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The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – Part 2

Thursday, April 28th, 2016

Read The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – Part 1 for a refresher of how the adventurers came to be where they are now.

(This adventure is one of a series of adventures of some folks playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, using the 1st Edition rules.) Play was suspended in this adventure just before Christmas 2015. It has taken about four months before play was resumed. It seems some of the adventurers or else the dungeon master were all variously sick over the winter and early spring. But finally everyone was healthy and available to play again! When play was suspended, the party was in the dungeon beneath the tomb of Koban Hairfoot. They are all searching for the Pendant of Winstone, a powerful, magical artifact that may be able to cure the villagers of Crystal Shores from their turning into zombies. The party has found the Necklace of Harbinge, and have retrieved it from around the neck of the long dead cleric, Koban Hairfoot. The party had found an underground library just as play was suspended last. Now, to continue….

Day #2-29 (Fireday, 9th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): The party spent some time searching the books in the library, more than an hour, in fact. They had Tureg, Douag, Opalent, Lightstep, Gwenette, and Falafela searching through the many books on the shelves, with Vandin holding a torch in the center of the room so folks would have some light. Vox was standing guard in the hallway outside the library with another torch, and Clayton was staying out of everyone’s way. The dwarves Douag and Tureg and the halfling Lightstep, due to their shortness in height, had to limit themselves to searching through books on the lower shelves or to books and papers that were on the floor, but the halfling Falafela stood on one of the two chairs in the room so she could reach higher shelves. The party had to be careful handling most of the books, as most of the books were quite ancient and fragile.

After about 50 minutes of searching, just after two new torches were lit to replace the others that were about to expire, Opalent chanced to find a rolled up scroll behind a couple of books she had just pulled off the shelf. Opalent gave an exclamation of joy and interest, and showed the others what she had found, as when unrolled the scroll seemed to have something to do with the Pendant of Winstone. The scroll had a drawing of what the Pendant had been described as looking like by Karnack when they were all at Karnack’s castle; however, nobody could read the language that was written on the scroll. Opalent carefully rolled up the scroll again and placed it in her backpack for safekeeping. Then the party continued searching. Clayton remarked that it would be quite useful if someday all of the books in this library could be conveyed to Karnack’s castle, although this was not the expedition to accomplish that at this time. After another 20 minutes of searching, Lightstep found an interesting book. It seemed to be a manual containing a workout regimen that could be followed to increase an individual’s strength, agility, and endurance. Although nobody could read the language the workout book was written in, there were plenty of illustrations that made it clear what it was about. Lightstep stashed that book in his backpack. At that, the party felt they had found all that they could for now, and decided to move on with their exploration of the dungeon. Their marching order was Tureg and Vandin in the front row, followed by Falafela and Lightstep, then Gwenette and Opalent, Clayton and Douag, and then Vox brought up the rear. Vandin and Vox each had a torch.

The party then retraced their steps. They took the hallway going left from the library for about 30 feet, turned left, went another 80 to 90 feet, turned right, then went straight for another 70 to 80 feet, passing one of the entrances to Koban Hairfoot’s actual tomb. When they got to the end of this passage, they would have to go either to their right or to their left. They had already come from the left, so they decided to go to the right. They also noticed that at the intersection of the hallways there was an iron grate in the floor. The iron grate seemed to be set solidly into the floor stones, so did not seem like a passage to a different level. They found a small rock to drop through the grate, but they could not hear it hit bottom. They decided to bypass the grate for now and continue on their way.

Upon starting down the right-hand passage, it only went a little more than 10 feet before it branched to the right and left. The party took the passage to the right. After a little more than 50 feet, the hallway turned left, then after 20 feet it opened into a circular chamber that was about 60 feet in diameter. Religious frescoes (somewhat faded) were painted on the walls, and there were a number of shelves that held humanoid skulls upon them. There was also what looked like a marble altar on the far side of the room. What alarmed the party, though, were six skeletal monks wearing tattered brown robes that were standing on guard holding ceremonial scythes, three on each side of the room. The party watched the skeletons carefully to see if they would attack, but they appeared quite lifeless. Finally, Falafela borrowed Vandin’s torch and approached the altar to search for traps. The other members of the party spread out to guard the skeletons in case they were to come to life and try to attack Falafela or anyone else.

After several minutes of examination at the altar, Falafela was satisfied that there were no traps around the altar. In particular, she had been looking for a trap door under the altar. Also, when she got close to the altar, she could see it was made of polished obsidian instead of marble. It had a smooth slab top, with two solid legs, one on each side. Douag then suggested that someone should lie down on the altar to see what happened, and Tureg said to Douag, “You go first, buddy!” Falafela then returned to the party and stated, “I was really scared!” Although some party members were suggesting the party should attack the skeletons before they came to life, Falafela said that the party should instead treat the dead clerics with respect. As the rest of the party had barely ventured into the chamber, Vox asked, “Should we all enter the room and check it out?” Douag said to check out the skeletal monks to see if they had anything of value.

Vandin retrieved his torch from Falafela, and he and Falafela and Opalent then approached the altar. The other six party members each watched one of the six skeletal monks. Opalent retrieved the scroll that described the Pendant of Winstone from her backpack and placed it on the altar, but nothing happened. Then Lightstep approached the altar and took the Necklace of Harbinge from around his neck and placed it on the altar. Similarly to the scroll, nothing happened. Lightstep and Opalent then took back the scroll and necklace and secured them among their possessions once again. Vandin then examined the altar, looking for any irregularities in the stone floor around the altar, but he could detect nothing out of the ordinary.

Opalent then suggested tapping the skeletons with her 10-foot pole, but Vandin suggested smashing the altar instead, and then a general argument ensued. Finally Lightstep cooled everyone down, and suggested leaving the chamber and continuing their explorations. Before leaving, though, Lightstep said some respectful words to the long-dead skeletal clerics. “Rest well, noble warriors, may you continue your eternal vigil forevermore.” The group resumed their marching order of Tureg and Vandin, Falafela and Lightstep, Gwenette and Opalent, Clayton and Douag, and Vox. Vandin and Vox still carried the torches.

The party then returned to the three-way hallway junction near the floor grate, but this time they took the other passage they had not yet explored. After taking that passage, it immediately turned right, went about 50 feet, then turned left. Another 15 feet, and it seemed to veer to the right and left. The party could hear water running, sort of like a running stream of water over rocks. Vandin searched the entrance to this new junction for floor traps, finding none, and then they all took the left-side hallway. They could see a small waterfall of sorts. There was a 6-foot wide recess in the central wall on their right, and water was coming out of a narrow slit in the 10-foot high ceiling. The water then trickled down cobblestones on the vertical wall surface, collecting in a small pool at the bottom. There must have been small drain for the water at the bottom, as it did not overflow the pool. The party also noticed several tubular iron bars across the top of the pool. At about this time the party had to light two more new torches, marking that they had been in the dungeon around three hours so far.

While Opalent was searching around the pool of water in the floor for secret passages, other party members discovered that they were in a sort of octagonal chamber that was about 40 by 50 feet, except the center of the room had a large column that effectively reduced the room to a circular hallway. They could walk around the central wall with the waterfall and return to the room’s entrance. Opalent didn’t find any secret doors, and then Vandin also failed at detecting any sliding stonework doors. By now, they had been in the dungeon about three and a half hours. The party were getting ready to leave this area when Opalent decided to check one more time for any secret doors. She tried pressing on rocks under the waterfall as high as she could reach (which was close to 8 feet high as she is 6’1” tall), when all of a sudden a rock she was pushing on depressed with an audible click. Then Vandin helped Opalent push against the wall, and a secret door was revealed! Vandin held his shield over his head to protect his torch from the waterfall, and he exclaimed, “There are stairs leading down!”

The party descended the stairs in their accustomed marching order. At the bottom of the stairs, the hallway turned 90 degrees to the left. When everyone made it to the bottom, they all felt creeped out. While the stonework of the walls was of much the same construction as the upper level, these walls (and the floor) were covered with numerous streaks of iron rust and what looked to be dried blood. In addition, there were many humanoid skulls inset with the floor stones! It was also eerily quiet, with no dust or cobwebs. Everyone could feel the hair stand up on the backs of their necks. Lightstep asked, quietly, “Does anyone else feel a chill run down their spine?” Tureg answered, “Yes!”

The party started down a long, straight hallway. After about 40 yards, the hallway turned 90 degrees to the right. It then went straight for another 30 yards, although there was a side hallway to the right about 30 feet down the hall. They could see that this side hall led into a chamber, and that the former door to that chamber had been charred to cinders. Looking into the room, it was about 20 feet deep and 30 feet wide, with three charred skeletons on the floor. One of the skeletons was pointing to a charred, broken podium that was lying on its side. There was also a broken Circle of Protection on the floor, as well as a burned book. The book appeared like the fire had started inside it and burned its way out through the cover.

Falafela carefully examined the broken Circle of Protection, and then the charred podium, but found nothing of interest. Opalent wanted to examine the burned book, but Lightstep tried to talk her out of that action. Douag said that Opalent should examine the book, but when all was said and done, Opalent decided to leave the book alone. They all then left the room and continued on down the dark hallway. They turned the 90-degree corner to their right, went another 30 feet, then the hallway widened to 20 feet wide for 30 feet. There was also a recessed door on their left. Vandin checked that door, and was able to open it with several pushes of his shoulder….

This is where play had to be suspended. What lies behind the door? What other surprises lie in wait for our intrepid party of adventurers? Stay tuned for future adventure postings!

(to be continued)

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The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot: Part 1

Sunday, January 17th, 2016

DM note: This is a longer post than usual, as it gets back into what Dungeons & Dragons players and characters live for, a “Dungeon Crawl” where the characters go down into an underground labyrinth in search of treasure.

Day #2-29 (Fireday, 9th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): The party awoke the next morning in Karnack’s castle and found the weather had cleared with bright blue skies and with only a few scattered clouds; however, after their heavy drinking of the previous evening, Vandin had a minor hangover and Douag was nursing a major hangover. Fortunately for him, Vox had no after-effects of his drinking. By around 8:00 am, they were all at breakfast, eating hotcakes with syrup, and sausage links. Falafela mentioned how she really enjoyed the hot breakfasts, as she was getting really tired of eating hardtack along the trail. Around 9:00 am they were all summoned to see Karnack in his tower. When all of the party (including Douag) were assembled, Karnack addressed them. “The past day and a half, my scribes and I have been very busy indeed. We have scoured through all of my books and tomes, and I believe we have found something that may aid you in your quest.”

Karnack continued, “Decades, if not a century or more ago, the cleric Koban Hairfoot was a great and powerful healer in the region. He grew up from humble beginnings to become an ardent warrior of his holy faith. Koban survived many adventures with several groups of adventurers and his fame and fortune grew, as did his skill in the clerical arts. Koban specialized in the creation of healing mixtures and made a habit of curing plague victims, as his own parents succumbed to disease when he was very young. Many villagers owed their lives to Koban’s tireless pursuit to finding healing methods to diseases that afflicted the land. Koban’s quest to cure disease finally led him to his demise in a remote part of the Anshar Forest. There, among his comrades, Koban fell at an old dungeon complex. Out of respect the local gentry helped build his crypt to honor his memory. In the years that have passed, most folks of the region have forgotten the location of the crypt.”

“It is known that Koban found the Necklace of Harbinge, indeed, he was reportedly buried with it. That necklace is a gold, crescent shaped device with opals and turquoises, on a gold chain. It can be used with a gold chalice of high value to create a potion that can cure many diseases. But, Koban was looking for another, even more powerful artifact, the Pendant of Winstone. The pendant is gold, mostly round with a sort of handle on one side, and a large jet-black jewel in its center. Reputedly, the pendant must also be used with a gold chalice of high value.”

“Bring ye back those artifacts, and we may be able to devise a cure for the villagers of Crystal Shores!”

“I will send 5 of my cavalry with you as an escort. Two of them will carry crossbows. They will escort you as far as the entrance to the forest. I will also send my ranger, Clayton, to guide you through the forest to the tomb.” Karnack motioned to a tall woodsy looking fellow wearing brown with a deep green cloak who was standing behind him. “He has visited the site of Koban’s crypt in the past, although not for a few years. And, to save you all walking, I will send two wagons with teamsters to drive them. They will take you to the entrance to the forest, but cannot go farther because the trail into the woods is only wide enough for foot travel. They will also take a few woodcutters with them and will return to the castle with loads of wood. They will return to the same location the following morning, along with the cavalry, and can provide transportation back to the castle.”

Before the party left Karnack’s presence, Opalent presented him with a gold ring (with one of the small opals from Bella Dora) that Opalent made in the craft shop. Karnack thanked her for the gift.

It was finally around 10:00 am when the party had checked their gear and were all set to go. Between them, they had 25 person-days worth of rations (mostly hardtack and jerky, with a bit of dried fruit) and a whopping 31 torches. They loaded into the wagons and were on their way. The teamsters drove their teams west along the cart trail that followed the south shore of Bridgefield Creek. Around three miles from the castle, the cart path crossed over to the north (left) bank across a small wooden bridge. It should be noted that the creek averaged about three feet deep, with a few shallower places and a few places where the depth reached as much as 6 to 10 feet. The creek flowed towards the east, towards the village of Bridgefields. The party tried to glean any information they could from the teamsters and woodcutters, but they didn’t know much about the interior of the Anshar Forest. They said they only went as far into the forest as they needed in order to haul out enough timber to load their wagons. The cavalry escort, for the most part, were too far away to speak with, as they were scouting ahead and on the flanks of the wagons.

After about a 45-minute wagon ride, during which Vandin had napped almost the entire way and Douag was moaning with his hangover every time his wagon hit a bump (the wagons were basically buckboards with sides, but without any sort of springs). When the party dismounted at the entrance to the forest, the guards repeated that they would be back with the wagons the following morning. Then Clayton spoke to the group. “We will start out walking on a good trail. It will wind around a bit, and after a few miles it will reach the shore of the Bridgefield Creek. We will then follow the north bank of that stream to the west for another three miles or so. That second three miles will be much harder hiking as there isn’t any permanent trail to follow. Make sure you keep close together, and make a minimum of noise. We will take a lunch break when we reach the creek.”

By 11:00 am the party entered the forest. The trail started mostly south, but once made a sharp turn to the right to loop around an obstruction and seemed to be heading back north for a quarter-mile or so, then made another left turn to head back to the southwest. Falafela was especially keeping track of the windings of the trail, and periodically looked back to see what the trail looked like heading the other direction. When the party had penetrated about a mile into the woods, a large pack of birds (they looked like finches) took noisy flight. Clayton wasn’t sure if the party had spooked them, or if something else was the cause. He halted the party, motioned for silence, and directed them to rest to the side, just off the trail. He then went and scouted ahead, alone. After about 5 minutes he came back and said, “I believe it was us who startled the birds. The only thing I worry about is that it of course could have alerted others to our presence.”

After about two miles into the forest, where the trail turned from mostly southwest to mostly south, the party could hear what sounded like a horn trumpeting far to the south of them. Could it have been a bugle? An animal sound? Clayton mentioned that sometimes the deep woods played tricks with sound, and not to worry about the sound. This part of the woods was very dense, and it was difficult to see the sky at all. Also, it was rather dark as no sunlight could penetrate through the canopy of leaves above. Although it was still mid-spring, the southerly clime meant the trees filled out with leaves early, and there were a number of evergreen coniferous trees about. If one left the trail, there was a surprising amount of undergrowth, in spite of the low light conditions. Although it had rained steadily two days ago, the ground was barely damp.

Finally, after three miles and about one and a half hours of walking, the party reached the creek. Clayton encouraged everyone to remove their backpacks, rest, and drink as much water as they could, then to refill their water skins. He also mentioned that they would be near the stream all the rest of the way to the tomb, so water should not be a problem. The party also ate, and rested for a full 30 minutes. Then, they hoisted their backpacks once again, and proceeded on their way. At the rest stop, Falafela made sure to mark the trail they would need to use to return the way they had come. It was also noted that the trail crossed the creek at their resting place, and the creek was quite fordable at that place as it was only one foot deep. The water was clear and cold, and quite refreshing to drink.

It took another three hours to cover the three miles or so to the edge of the clearing where the tomb of Koban Hairfoot was located. It was now mid-afternoon, probably around 4:00 pm. The clearing was about 300 yards in diameter, with the creek along the south part of the clearing. The crypt itself was north of the creek, and just about in the center of the clearing. There were a couple of low, gentle rolling hills in the clearing, and on the far side of the clearing was a granite cliff about 50 feet high, with the creek tumbling down the cliff in a waterfall, then into a wider area to make a pond about 50 yards south of the crypt.

Clayton cautioned everyone to silence, and to stay out of sight of the clearing. He said, “This is strange, there is a herd of goats here, maybe 50 or a hundred of them. They were not here when I reconnoitered this area a few years ago. You all stay back in the woods while I do some scouting. Clayton was about to walk to the north through the woods, but Falafela joined him. The duo worked their way to the north of the crypt while staying under cover of the woods, noting that the wind was out of the south so that they were downwind of anybody or anything in the clearing, and that being downwind they shouldn’t spook the goats. That’s when they saw the cyclops! He was fully 20 feet tall, carrying a massive club that looked like a small tree trunk (it was probably 8 feet long). The only garment the cyclops was wearing was a fur loincloth. The duo waited a few minutes, didn’t see any other creatures other than the cyclops and his goats, then silently made their way back to the others of the party.

“Well, we have a quandary on our hands!” related Clayton. There is a 20-foot tall cyclops in the field on the other side of the crypt!” That sparked a bit of a discussion, so much so that Clayton wanted everyone to move farther back into the forest so they wouldn’t attract any unwanted attention from the cyclops. Gwenette stayed at the forest’s edge and kept an eye on the clearing in case anything came their way. The party discussed various methods to deal with the cyclops, including using Clayton’s and Vox’s bows to shoot it with arrows, at which time Vox mentioned that he had never even shot his bow at anything! Clayton remarked that he wished he would have had time to take Vox target shooting and then hunting. Clayton also reminded the party that a cyclops could usually throw a 40-pound rock quite a ways, perhaps as far as 50 yards! One good thing, Clayton noted, was that such creatures usually lived solitary lives so there probably wouldn’t be any other creatures to have to deal with. Vandin took the opportunity of the discussion to take another nap. By now, the long hike and the element of nearby danger had cleared Douag’s head and he took an active part in the discussion.

One of the options discussed were to go and try to steal a couple of goats to get the cyclops to chase, but that idea was shot down with a reminder of the cyclops’ rock-throwing prowess. Finally, it was thought a diversionary fire might draw the cyclops off in the opposite direction, but who would set the fire(s)? Flenda and Jorgio then volunteered for that hazardous duty. Everyone else figured that maybe Flenda and Jorgio would want to do that so they could be alone, as everyone had noticed how the two had been spending as much time as possible in the near company of the other. Flenda had even insisted on walking closest to Jorgio during the hike into the woods.

Between the two of them, Flenda and Jorgio possessed eight torches and enough food for a day or so. Flenda also mentioned they could probably catch a squirrel or a rabbit (or even a goat, chimed in Jorgio) to supplement their rations. They did not own a tinderbox, though, and to avoid them having to search for some flint (of which there was good chance to find some atop the granite cliff, although there was a chance of being spotted by the cyclops before they got a fire going), Vox loaned them his tinderbox. So off they went, as it was now around 4:30 pm, meaning there was less than two hours of daylight left. Clayton reminded everyone that it would be a moonless night, with only starlight to provide natural illumination. And while the dwarves, elves, and halflings all had infravision, it was of limited range meaning a cyclops could be almost upon them before they would sense his heat signature in the dark! At this point all of the party members made sure their water skins were full from the creek.

It took Flenda and Jorgio about 45 minutes to work their way around the south edge of the clearing. They first had to cross the stream, and then they went a hundred or so yards into the woods to make less of a chance of their scent being carried to the goats. They eventually made their way to the top of the cliff to the west of the clearing and saw that the cyclops was seated on a rock, watching his flock, looking quite contented. They then spent about 15 minutes gathering as much brush as they could, and getting it close to the edge of the cliff. Then, about an hour  before sunset, they started a small fire back from the cliff with their torch, and then carried that fire on two sticks to the brush they had gathered. Within a few minutes, the bright yellow flames of the brush were standing out against the dark background of the forest on top of the cliff. At first, the cyclops just gazed with his mono-vision at the flames, but when the human duo of Flenda and Jorgio began to jump up and down, yelling and swinging their arms to attract attention, the monster stood up, and then began to walk in the direction of the cliff.

Flenda and Jorgio knew the cyclops probably wouldn’t directly climb the cliff, but would go to either side of the cliff to gain altitude. When he went to the north side of the cliff, the human pair swiftly ran to the south, going deeper into the woods. Flenda  told Jorgio, “That cyclops will have to crawl to move quickly through the woods, otherwise his head will be up in the branches!” But Jorgio answered, “But what if the cyclops just breaks off the treetops and throws them at us…?”

When the rest of the party noticed the cyclops heading toward the cliff, they moved fast. They quickly crossed the 150 yards of open ground to the crypt, trying at all times to keep the crypt between them and the cyclops so that if the cyclops would turn around, he wouldn’t see them. The crypt itself was made of rough-hewn gray granite blocks, fitted together. The building was about 110 feet wide across its entrance, and a bit longer than that in its depth. At its tallest point, a granite domed roof, it was 25 feet high. At its front, facing the pond in the creek to the south, were several wide granite steps leading up to its entrance. The entrance had two black wooden doors, reinforced with iron bands, each door measuring 8 feet tall and four feet wide, making an 8 foot by 8 foot aperture. The doors had evidently been barred and locked from the outside, but they had been forced open from the outside previous to the adventurers’ arrival. The party was slightly out of breath when they reached the crypt, and then one by one they turned the corner of the building and crept into the dim entrance, watching to ensure the cyclops did not see them.

Once they were all within, Gwenette stood watch in the shadow inside the doors, watching to see if the cyclops was headed back their way. Inside the tomb, they noticed a strong body odor, most likely from the cyclops’ bedding. In the southeast corner inside the crypt was much debris, mostly old rags and some dirt and branches. There were also a number of animal (and possibly humanoid?) bones littering the interior, and some animal flesh, apparently the remains of a recent dinner. “At least the cyclops didn’t ‘do his business’ inside the place where he slept!” said one of the party, possibly Tureg. Besides the debris, the floor was made of white marble with gold veins in it. There were four rough granite pillars holding up the ceiling, and in the northwest and northeast corners of the interior were two circular staircases that went up about 15 feet to an observation deck across the back of the interior. But the main feature of the interior, in the middle of the floor, was a carved marble crypt that resembled a sleeping person on a padded bed, and the bed was suspended on the wings of eagles on all four sides. Around that feature was a red pentagram inlaid into the floor. And, at either side of the pseudo-coffin were two white marble angels, one on each side of the coffin. The angels faced the entrance door, and were in a battle-ready crouch, each holding a marble sword in its hand.

Although it was a little dark inside the building, there was enough of the setting sun to the southwest to illuminate the inside enough for the party to see these features. Quickly the party examined every part of the inside. The marble coffin seemed to be of a single piece of marble, and nobody was able to open it in any manner. Lightstep sensed an aura of some sort emanating from the coffin. Finally, Opalent noticed that one of the angels could be rotated. Then Lightstep verified that the other angel’s arm could move. Opalent turned the angel to the right of the crypt to have it face the marble coffin, then raised its arm. Lightstep then raised the arm of the angel to the left, then rotated it to face the coffin. After that, a loud “click” was heard, like that of a latch being released. Vandin and others were then able to raise the lid.

Some of the characters, particularly Vandin, were ready to grab for the Pendant of Winstone and be on their way, but lo! There was no body inside. Instead, what was presented to the party was a solid white mass of cobwebs! Vandin borrowed Opalent’s 10-foot pole and whisked away the cobwebs as quickly as he could. Then they all saw stairs leading down into a black void. Lightstep and Opalent lit torches, and then Vandin and Lightstep led the way, single file, down the stairs. While this was going on, the ranger Clayton was reminding others that Koban had found a dungeon below ground at this feature, and he was believed to have been buried in the lower reaches of that dungeon. Finally, when all the others had made it down, Gwenette brought up the rear.

The party speculated about what the cyclops would do when he returned and saw the lid to the marble coffin open. They also saw a large lever protruding from the floor at the bottom of the stairs. They quickly surmised that the lever would close the lid, but not wanting to chance possibly locking themselves in, possibly for all of eternity, Opalent used her dagger to wedge the lid so it would not close all of the way while Vandin and Douag worked the lever to close the lid. The party then proceeded down the hallway from the stairs. Inside the hallway, the walls were also of rough-hewn granite, about 10 feet wide with a 10-foot tall ceiling. At random places on the walls were iron sconces, sans torches. The iron of the sconces had surface rust, but were not rusted too badly seeing as they had been installed at least 100 years before. There was not much evidence of moisture.

The party only went about 40 feet when the corridor turned 90 degrees to the left, then back to the right. Although, if they were to have gone straight after the left, they could see 20 feet in front of them what looked like a solid wall of cobwebs. Lightstep used his torch to burn away the webs, and inside they found a circular chamber of 30 feet diameter. They noted that the dust on the floor had not been disturbed, and around the walls, frescoes had been painted many years ago, portraying ordinary life around the area, probably from 100 years or so ago. Some of the areas of the frescoes had peeled off. Douag and Opalent checked for stonework traps and for secret doors, respectively, but detected nothing. The party then went back to the hallway and took the other passage that was formerly to their right, although now it was to their left.

After heading in their new direction for 20 (human-sized) paces or so, the hallway once again branched. Ninety-degrees to the left was another hallway, while if they went straight ahead they could see a right corridor about at the extremity of the light from their torch. They decided to take the left passageway. About 25 paces down that passage was an anomaly in the floor. Right in the middle of the hallway, one of the paving blocks was raised about 3 inches above the normal floor height. Nobody wanted to walk on that stone, lest it prove to be a trap. The party members checked for stonework traps; none were detected. But not wanting to tempt the fates, all party members stepped around the raised block.

About 50 feet past the raised block, there was a side corridor to the right. That side corridor went about 30 feet, turned right, and then had a wooden door another 10 feet down the hall. The other corridor, in the direction the party had been heading, turned left, then back to the right after 20 feet, then went straight as far as they could see with their torchlight. So, the party decided to investigate the right hallway.

When the party came to the door, Vandin tested it, found it unlocked, and pushed it open. It opened surprisingly easy, in spite of no hinge lubrication for decades. Inside was a room about 40 feet long and 30 feet wide. Along the far wall were wooden racks full of wooden weapons, apparently once used for training purposes. Along the long wall to the right, many bones were fastened upon the wall, and in the center of the wall was a large skeleton, apparently of an ogre. The ogre skeleton was fastened to the wall intact, and there appeared to be writing on the wall around the skeleton. Although none could read the words that were written, they did point to various parts of the ogre’s bones, like they were part of training regimen, instructing trainees as to the best places to strike an ogre. Opalent moved in for a closer look at the writing, but as she quickly approached the skeleton, its skull suddenly dropped from its upright position so that its jaw rested on its sternum! This caused a moment’s consternation until Opalent figured it must have just been the air she moved that had caused the movement of the skull. The party did a thorough look-around of the “training room,” then departed.

After leaving the training room, the party resumed their original direction of travel, away from the raised stone in the hallway floor. The party’s marching order at this time was Vandin & Vox in the front, followed by Gwenette and Lightstep, then Falafela and Opalent, then Clayton and Tureg, and Douag was the rear-guard. Lightstep and Opalent were carrying lit torches. After several left-right 90-degree bends in the corridor, they came to a dead end at a wooden door. With a little bit of effort, Vox was able to push the door open. Inside the door was a room about 30 feet long and 20 feet wide, and it looked to have once been an armory. There were overturned empty weapon racks, with some old, rusted, broken weapons strewn about (such as broken sword blades and broken spear shafts), and a large wooden chest against the wall in the back of the room. As the party moved into the room, they noticed two full skeletons on the floor, mixed in with the debris. Vandin wasn’t taking any chances with the skeletons — he immediately set upon the skeletons and crushed their skulls with his hammer. Lightstep then prayed for the souls of the departed, whomever those skeletons may have been in their previous lives.

Falafela then went to the large wooden chest and checked it for traps, but didn’t find any. Not taking any chances, though, Vox then borrowed Opalent’s 10-foot pole and used it to open the lid of the unlocked chest. A quick observation showed the interior of the chest was empty. Vox and Lightstep then made a closer examination of the chest, and determined it had no false bottom or other secret storage areas. Vandin then kicked the chest in disgust. Opalent then examined the floor under the skeletons and the right side wall for secret passages, but found none. By this time the party’s two lit torches were about half-burned, meaning they had been in the dungeon about 30 minutes.

The party then retraced their steps, using the same marching order as above, until they once again came to the raised stone in the floor. Vox really, really wanted to step on that raised block to see what would happen, but several party members vociferously talked him out of that action. Vandin did a close examination for any stonework traps, and being satisfied that there were no traps, the party pushed on, once again carefully avoiding stepping on that raised stone.

About 10 (human-sized) paces past the raised block, the party re-entered the passageway to the surface. But instead of heading right towards the surface, they instead took the left passage, towards the unknown. About 30 feet or so, the hallway branched to the right, and they took that passage. After another 50 feet, the hallway split to the left and to the right. After 10 feet in either direction, there were closed wooden doors. Falafela was brought forward to check the door on the left, but didn’t find any traps. Vandin tried to open the door, but it was stuck, so he applied his hammer to it, and the door popped open. Someone towards the rear of the party commented, “If there is anyone or anything else around, they now definitely know we’re here!” Inside the room were several broken bunk beds, and some broken clay pots. The party did not spend much time in this room. The torches were about 2/3 burned by now, so the party had been in the dungeon about 40 minutes.

Falafela then returned to the hallway and went to the door on the right. She once again searched for any traps, and once again found none. Vox tried to open the door, but it was stuck. He put his shoulder to it, but still could not budge it. Vandin then brought forth his hammer and smashed the door open. (After all, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like it should be smashed with your hammer, n’est-pas?) Inside the room, the party saw more broken bunk beds on their sides, but also piles of loose bones. Some of the bones were wrapped in cloth, and the tattered cloth appeared to have been sliced by edged weapons. One of the piles of bones had an old rusted broken sword blade embedded in it. It did appear that a battle had taken place in this room, many years, perhaps even a century, ago. When the party looked closer at the bones, they found four humanoid skulls. Douag speculated that this room must have been a barracks or a guardroom, and it looked like the guards and been attacked and slain. There were also four intact, closed footlockers present.

The party then determined what was in the four footlockers. Vox checked the first one — it was empty. Falafela next checked one, and it was also empty. Opalent checked the third, although she was warned not to lest she trigger a trap, but it was merely an empty footlocker. Falafela then checked the last footlocker, and it, like the others, was devoid of contents. Lightstep said, “It looks like someone else has already cleaned out this place.” It should be noted that while in the room, Vandin did not feel compelled to smash any of the skulls.

So they all went back to the main passage, Vandin and Vox once again in the lead, and turned right to continue in their original direction. After 30 feet, the corridor turned 90 degrees to the left. After another 60 feet, the corridor branched to the right, and five feet into that branch was a closed wooden door. The party also noticed that if they would have gone straight, there appeared to be another passage diverging to the right not too far down the hall. But since the party was trying to be systematic about their explorations, they decided they must first see what there was to see behind this door. Of course Falafela did the obligatory search for traps, and when none were found, Vandin took his turn at trying the door. He was able to open it by degrees by putting his shoulder to it, but it squeaked and squawked ferociously all the while he was forcing it open.

Inside the door, the party proceeded about 30 feet when the hall widened into an octagonal chamber that was about 30 feet across from one parallel wall to its opposite wall. In the center of the room appeared the final resting place of Koban Hairfoot. Upon a marble table with the words “Koban Hairfoot” etched in its sides was a glass coffin, or at least a glass covering over the bones of Koban Hairfoot. Surprisingly, there was not too much dust on the top of the glass. Koban himself, or at least his skeleton, as all that was left of him was bones, was wearing a crown and a gold and jewel encrusted surcoat. Next to his body was his silver holy symbol, and a broken footman’s mace. It was at this time that the two torches were nearly burned to extinguishment, so the party lit two new torches (supplied by Vox and Gwenette). This marked about 60 minutes they had been below-ground.

When the new torches had been lit, the party noticed the murals in five of the angular walls of the chamber. From left to right, the murals depicted these scenes: 1) a young cleric watching what looked like cultists killing a family, perhaps the cleric’s family; 2) a cleric (presumably the same cleric) with an adventuring party; 3) that same cleric and his party posing with a slain green dragon; 4) the cleric healing peasants; and 5) that same cleric meeting his demise from electrical lightning bolts. Then four of the party, Vox, Clayton, Gwenette, and Opalent, lifted the glass covering off of Koban’s tomb and gently set it upon the floor. The party then examined Koban more closely, and inside his surcoat they found what looked like the Necklace of Harbinge, one of the artifacts that Karnack had mentioned had been buried with Koban. It was in the shape of a crescent moon, with a number of small opals and turquoises embedded in it, and was attached to a golden chain. Lightstep took the Necklace and placed it around his own neck for safekeeping. No other possessions of Koban were disturbed, and then Lightstep prayed most reverently over Koban for several minutes. When Lightstep had finished, he directed the party to replace the glass lid.

While all of the above was taking place, Tureg was watching their back-trail down the corridor. And Douag said he recognized the murals as being the story of Koban’s life. And since there was a door on the left side of Koban’s burial chamber (relative to the other door from which they had entered), Vox tried the door. As the hinges were on his side of the door, Vox pulled the door towards him. The door squeaked only a little, and opened with relatively little effort. Outside the door, which was set back about five feet from the main hallway, were passages going to the left and to the right, although the right passage turned to its left after a short distance. The party reckoned that the left passage led back to the hallway outside the other door to Koban’s chamber, so they proceeded to the right. At about this time Opalent made the observation that “Vox is learning to pray!” Lightstep answered with “Praying for wealth is not praying!” Vox then said, “I just want to find the Pendant and get out of this place!”

After the initial left turn of the hallway just after they left Koban’s chamber, the hall went straight for 90 or a hundred feet, then turned right. After another 30 feet, the hallway dead-ended, although there was a door on the right-side wall at the dead-end. Naturally, Falafela checked for hidden traps, and finding none moved back so Vandin could open the door. He had to put his shoulder into it, but with a moderate amount of squeaking the door opened. After a short passage inside the door was a sort of diamond shaped room, roughly 20 feet deep and 30 feet wide. It was quite apparently a library, as bookshelves lined all the walls inside the room, and the shelves were filled with old books. In the center of the room was a 4-foot square wooden table with two chairs. There were also some books and loose papers scattered about on the floor.

While Vox stood guard in the hallway outside the room, Opalent speculated that there might be a book here that could explain how to use the Necklace of Harbinge or the Pendant of Winstone! Lightstep cast a Detect Magic spell, but detected no magical auras. Opalent wanted to check the bookcases for secret passages that might lie behind them. And Vox leaned into the room and offered the suggestion to check the books and papers on the floor.

(to be continued)

— The Dungeon Master

DM note: What lies ahead for our intrepid party? Will they find the Pendant of Winstone? Will they all return to the surface alive? Check back in the future for more adventures!

Read The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – Part 2

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A Day of Rest at Karnack’s Castle

Sunday, January 17th, 2016

Day #2-28 (Earthday, 8th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC) After a good night’s sleep at Karnack’s castle, the party awoke well refreshed. After a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and biscuits, they were free to wander around inside the castle or even to go outside. They were told there was good fishing in Bridgefield Creek about a quarter-mile north of the castle, in spite of the fact it was still drizzling after an all night rain. Nobody went fishing or hunting, though, everyone was too tired from their 60-mile trek to the castle. Falafela managed to make her way to the craft shop inside the southwest corner of the castle. There she befriended Makurrh, the main craftsman/tinker for the castle. Together they discussed things mechanical, including various types of locks. Falafela asked if there were any locks she could practice picking, and Makurrh provided a couple of locks from the workbenches. He also mentioned “It would be bad form for a guest to actually practice picking any locks on actual doors within the castle, though, methinks! One would certainly not want to get caught performing that mischief!” Falafela also put in a little practice time trying to climb the inner stone walls of the castle.

Opalent was also working in the craft room, making jewelry, asking other jewelers for any techniques they would share. She was also interested in purchasing any gems that may have had special qualities. “Alas,” was the answer from Bella Dora, “I believe our gems are just of the ordinary sort.” Bella also added that, “We don’t have a lot of gems here, just a few rubies and opals, and one small topaz. We do have a little silver and gold that can be fashioned into rings and bracelets, though.” Bella did show Opalent how to make a simple jeweled ring. Vandin hung out at the blacksmith’s, talking about forges and smithing. Vandin was particularly amused by a story from the smith about a party of adventurers who found a staff and then angered the wizard amongst them. Lightstep spent time praying, especially as he was worrying about the villagers of Crystal Shores and about the evil ring the party had found. Towards the evening, Vandin, Vox and Douag started to drink a little too much ale. After nightfall, the party all retired to their quarters for the night.

— The Dungeon Master

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Journey to Karnack’s Castle: The Third Day

Saturday, January 16th, 2016

DM note: at last the party arrived at Karnack’s castle, although not without a bit of night-time excitement!

Day #2-27 (Waterday, 7th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC) By this time, around midnight, Lightstep was getting too tired to stay awake. He decided to wake Flenda to stand his watch. He also said he had been unable to sleep due to worrying about the evil ring they were carrying to Karnack’s castle. In the meantime, Falafela stayed on the hill to keep an eye on the other camp with the campfire. At this time, Vandin was snoring, although not loudly, and it sounded like he was saying “stones stones stones” during his exhalations. When Flenda and Tureg then took over the watch, they were informed about the horse snorting nearby. While Tureg stayed in his party’s camp, Flenda went to the top of the hill to observe the other camp. By this time, even the starlight had winked out as the sky had totally clouded over, and the wind picked up a little as it seemed a weather front was starting to pass through. After Flenda had attuned her eyes to the dark and had watched the campfire from a distance, she silently crawled on her belly like a reptile through the knee-high grass towards that other, mysterious, camp.

Around 3 am, Tureg woke the next watch pair of Gwenette and Jorgio. Tureg informed the duo that Flenda was on the hill watching another camp, and cautioned them to keep their voices low. Gwenette climbed the low hill, but although she moved back and forth on her side of the hillcrest, she could not locate her sister. Finally, Gwenette noticed, even in the almost total darkness, what looked like some bent grass leading towards the other camp. Gwenette also looked towards the campfire, and she thought she saw her sister sitting around that fire with several other people. So, Gwenette did what was reasonable for the daughter of barbarians to do — she too crawled towards the other camp. As Gwenette got close to the other camp, she could hear her sister’s voice, and could recognize the Karzulun language. So, when Gwenette had made it within about 20 feet of the camp without being detected (she was downwind of the horses), she finally stood up and said, “Flenda, you shouldn’t go sneaking off like that! You had us all worried!”

Then the four Karzuluns, led by Jen Jise, all stood up and welcomed Gwenette. They said, “Damn! Your father did a good job teaching you two to move silently. We never heard either of you coming!” So the girls sat and enjoyed the warmth of the fire, while telling their long-lost friends of their recent adventures. The girls mentioned how they had been captured by orcs, and got a ribbing about that from the Karzuluns. The girls mentioned how they had been careless to go berry and herb picking away from their village without taking any weapons. The tale continued with the story of their rescue by their friends on the other side of the hill. The raiders were finally impressed when Flenda displayed the two orc ears she had taken as a trophy from Losnoth! Finally, when it started getting lighter in the east (there would be no sunrise as it was totally overcast), the girls decided they should go back to their own camp, and they invited the Karzuluns to come along. So, the two girls and the four men and the men’s four horses all walked quite casually towards the girls’ camp.

By this time, the entire camp of adventurers was wide awake, and had lookouts posted on the hill, so they saw the others approaching them. They weren’t sure if they were about to be betrayed, so they had their weapons at the ready. But Flenda hailed the party, saying, “You’re not going to believe this, but we found some old friends of our parents! Our father used to ride with these rascals!” So then when the two parties met, introductions were given all around. Jen Jise mentioned (using the common language) that if this group was good enough to rescue Flenda and Gwenette from a nest of orcs, then they were worth keeping company with. After a quick bite of food (the Karzuluns had their own food in their saddlebags), the party departed towards Karnack’s castle to the north. The Karzuluns walked their horses alongside the others, asking questions about the particular quest the group was on. The Karzuluns mentioned they would only accompany the party to the castle, but they would not enter the castle as they (the Karzuluns) were usually not on good terms with other people. Although the main party had traveled many miles in the past two days, they quickened their step with the freshening northeast breeze bringing promise of a spring rain.

Finally, the group arrived at Karnack’s castle around 10 am, passing by fenced gardens and pastures with goats, sheep, and cattle. The Karzuluns then said their farewells, mounted their horses and rode back to the south. Approaching the castle from the south, the group could see a wall made of gray fitted stone that was about 80 yards wide and about 20 feet high, with crenellations atop the walls. There were also two towers, one on either side of the main gate, the towers being about 30 feet high. The main gate itself was made of two heavy wooden doors with iron reinforcement, each of which measured 10 feet tall and eight feet wide. The castle itself was also atop a hill that was about 20 feet taller than the surrounding countryside, and a somewhat steep switchback road led up to the gate. At the castle gate, a guard who was above the gate hailed the party. “Halt! Who goes there?” Lightstep and Opalent did most of the speaking, mentioning they had come to see Karnack, and that they had been sent by Herschel Gobinmyer of the village of Crystal Shores. The guard said, “Hold your places.” There was about a 10 minute delay as another guard took a message to Karnack. Finally, the gates opened, and the guard said, “Enter!”

Inside the castle courtyard, the group could see a stable to their right, and past the stable was a partially enclosed building with much firewood. To the left was a privy, and also a row of two-story wooden buildings nestled up against the inside castle wall on the side. To the far left was a keep with a large square tower on top, with the top of the tower at least 50 feet above the ground. To the far right was another inner wall, with a smaller tower that measured about 40 feet high at the far corner. Directly across the courtyard, about 75 yards away, was another wall, and quite noticeably, atop that wall was a large crossbow that could fire more than one bolt at once, and that crossbow was manned by guards and was aimed right at the party! There were also a number of small carts in various locations in the courtyard, and various civilians going about their tasks. The party, which numbered nine, also noticed that there were nine guards around them in the courtyard. The guards were all clad in scale mail, carrying large gray shields emblazoned with a black diagonal band. The guards were all also armed with sheathed long swords and wore small iron helmets.

A lieutenant of the guard spoke. “Karnack will see two of you at this time. Please follow me.” With that, the guard turned on his heel and Lightstep and Opalent followed him, followed by another guard. The lieutenant led into the base of the eastern tower, then inside the wall towards the east. Then the wall turned north. After more than 50 yards in this new direction, the group passed through a wall into a barracks, then ascended a circular stairway to Karnack’s tower. Karnack, a human of about 60 years, stood about 5’5” tall, weighed probably 150 pounds, sported a fu manchu moustache, and was bald except for a light-gray turban that was secured in its front with a red feather through a gold medallion. He also was wearing a long medium-gray robe with some brocaded decorations woven into it (sort of like a paisley pattern).

After introductions, Karnack bid Lightstep and Opalent be seated on two padded chairs that were of a dark wood with red velvet on the seats, and the two guards retreated to the stairway, where they remained at attention. Karnack then sat down behind his desk. Karnack spoke, “I understand you were sent here by Herschel Gobinmyer?” Lightstep answered, “Yes. He wrote out this letter to you.” With that, Lightstep removed the rolled scroll of gray parchment from his ivory scroll tube and handed it to Karnack. Karnack, after examining Herschel’s seal that had been impressed into the sealing wax, then broke the seal and began to read Karnack’s letter:

Spiritday, the 5th of Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC

The olde village of Crystal Shores

My Dearest Olde Friende Karnack,

A couple of weeks ago, the village of Crystal Shores was beset upon by a strange pestilence. A number of the villagers developed sore throats, then began to cough frequently, then some of them “turned” into a sort of mindless creature who then attacked other villagers, apparently in an attempt to bite those other villagers! Two of the villagers “turned” and had to be killed to prevent them harming others. Others then burned their bodies in an attempt to prevent the spread of the pestilence, although I had wanted to examine the bodies to see if I could detect any reason for the malady.

These strange happenings began about a month ago when a traveling cleric passed through our village, and then shortly thereafter, four more men, three fighters and one magician, passed through Crystal Shores, seemingly in pursuit of the cleric. We never saw any of those individuals again. At about the same time as those individuals passed through, two of our village’s young maidens, Flenda and Gwenette Deathmar (daughters of Vilan and Vilanious) disappeared. At the time, we sort of wondered what had happened, but nobody from the village wanted to go searching for the girls, believing that they would show up of their own accord, as, after all, they both are quite the free spirit.

In any event, about two weeks after they disappeared, the girls came back to the village, escorted by a party of adventurers who had rescued the girls from some orcs who held the girls captive at the old ruins of Losnoth, which is about 15 miles due south of Crystal Shores. The girls related their story of how they had gone off berry picking in the jungle to the southeast of the village and had been surprised and surrounded by the orcs, even though it was in the daytime. As it was, just as the orcs were about to sacrifice Flenda on an altar in the interior of the Losnoth ruins, the party of adventurers who stand before you now were in the vicinity and heard Flenda’s scream. The party then came to her aid, slaying the nine orcs at the interrupted sacrifice without loss to themselves (although one of the dwarves in their party was gravely wounded). Flenda then directed the party to where her sister Gwenette was held captive, and the party slew several more sleeping orcs. As a bonus, the party also freed two gentlemen, names of Fredo and Jorgio, although Fredo has recently been killed at Mont du Plat.

When the party returned the girls to the village, they related all of the above to me. While the sisters returned to their parents home, the other adventurers stayed the night at our local inn, only to find the innkeeper, his wife, and daughter had turned into “zombies” (for want of a better word) overnight. The party managed to capture the folks from the inn rather than killing them, then came to me straightaways to relate what had happened.

Now, I had been developing a theory that something had poisoned the local water supply from the lake and river, and that that something had started poisoning the water shortly after the cleric and his pursuers had passed through Crystal Shores. I state this because I have not developed any of the signs of the illness, but then again I do not drink the local lake water. I collect rainwater, and also make spiced pumpkin ale from my large pumpkin patch, and eat mostly vegetables from my own garden. There are several other villagers who do not as of yet show any signs of sickness either, and they seem to also drink more of other beverages than lake water. For example, we have a local goatherd where he and his family mostly drink goat’s milk and eat the meat from their goats they have slaughtered themselves–none of them are sick. However, several fishermen and others who are routinely near the lake have fallen to the sickness.

Now, although I only briefly spoke with the traveling cleric on his way through our village, he said he was on his way to the ruins at Mont du Plat as he had heard there was a valuable artifact somewhere in the ruins. He planned to retrieve that artifact and return it to his church so they could convert it into money or some such plan. However, it seems that the cleric’s pursuers somehow knew the cleric was going to Mont du Plat to find some valuable relic, so they no doubt had plans to relieve him of that valuable bauble.

So, back to the party who stand before you. They were entreated to travel to Mont du Plat to see what they could find. What they found were several more zombies in the dungeon of the old ruins there, and the party had to slay those zombies, although losing two of their party in the battles. I formerly mentioned Fredo; they also lost the dwarf Persis. The party believes that four of the zombies they killed were the pursuers, as three of those zombies were clad in armor, and the fourth was dressed as a mage. They also found the body of the dead cleric, and that cleric’s backpack and diary. The diary mentions how the cleric found the ring in the ruins; I have enclosed that diary for your perusal.

But the most disturbing thing the party found was that the cleric’s arm had been severed, apparently in a fight with his pursuers, and his arm had fallen down the underground well. The party then recovered the arm from the well, and, on the ring finger of the hand of the dead cleric, was the ring the adventurers will now present to you. I pray you DO NOT TOUCH THE RING! It does appear the ring has the power to convert ordinary persons into zombies, and it seems that while the ring was in the well, its evil was able to be transmitted through the water to our downstream village. It should also be noted that us villagers have noticed the fish were so lethargic that they could easily be caught by hand, and some of the forest animals, such as deer and even wolves, have been seen acting queerly where they would just wander somewhat aimlessly. That ring does radiate a powerful aura of evil, so beware!

I have consulted my books of lore, but could find no reference to such a ring. I pray you can find information about the ring, and of even more importance, I am dearly hoping you can discern a method with which I can restore the sick villagers back to their former health. Please help us! If you can, we will be eternally in your debt.

As always, your most obedient servant,

Herschel Gobinmyer

Karnack mostly read it aloud, relating the party’s story of how they rescued some human captives from orcs at Losnoth, then after returning two young maidens to their village of Crystal Shores discovered that villagers were getting sick from some mysterious malady. The village druid, Herschel, had been unable to determine the cause or to devise a cure. Then the party visited Mont du Plat and found the evil ring that had apparently been polluting the water that flowed downstream to Crystal Shores. Karnack read, “… the ring the adventurers will now present to you. I pray you DO NOT TOUCH THE RING! Hmmm,” Karnack continued, “let me see the ring.” With that, Lightstep very carefully opened the bone scroll tube, and gently dropped the ring in its wrapping onto Karnack’s desk. Karnack then used a couple of wooden picks, much like chopsticks, to open the wrapping. He beheld the ring with its numerous small skulls for the first time, and let out a low whistle. He then finished reading aloud the letter from Herschel.

Charnalite ring

The ring that was found at Mont du Plat.

“It does appear we have a quandary,” said Karnack. “I have learned of such mischievous magics in the past, but do not directly recall such a ring. I must consult my tomes to see if I can discern any information about it. In the mean time, you and your companions are all my guests.” Karnack then spoke to the guards at the stairway. “Lieutenant, return these two guests to their companions, and make sure they are all well fed. Arrange baths for them, if they wish. Also provide them lodging in the west wall.” Just before Lightstep and Opalent left (leaving the ring and the bone scroll tube with Karnack), Karnack mentioned that it would most likely take him at least a day to find the information, even with the help of his scribes.

Lightstep and Opalent then retraced their steps to the courtyard, along with their guards, and then were ushered, along with their companions, to one of the larger wooden buildings inside the west wall of the castle. This building was the castle’s civilian mess hall. It had four eight-foot long wooden tables with wooden benches on two sides of each table. The dinnerware was ceramic, with the flatware being of beaten iron. Just about the time the party entered the building, the skies finally opened, and it began to rain a hard, steady, cold rain. The party was treated to the best meal they had enjoyed in a while, enjoying rabbit stew with carrots, onions, and potatoes, and fresh baked bread. There was plenty of salt and pepper for seasoning, too. Fresh cow’s milk was supplied to wash it all down.

While enjoying his meal, Vandin espied another dwarf sitting at another table. Since the other dwarf appeared to be a fighter, Vandin approached the other dwarf with a friendly greeting. Vandin was taken aback momentarily, however, when the other dwarf responded in a less than cordial manner, saying something that sounded like “go pluck yourself!” After a moment’s hesitation, Vandin asked if the other dwarf would like to join the group, promising an equal share of any treasure gained. With that, the other dwarf revealed his name as Douag (pronounced “doo-agg”), and agreed to join. Vandin then regaled Douag with tales of slaying five orcs in a row at Losnoth as they kept coming through a door one at a time. And then Flenda impressed Douag even more by showing him the two orc ears she had taken as a trophy!

After the meal, the party rested and was shown to where they would be quartered for the night inside the western wall of the castle (to get there they had to enter the ground level of the western tower beside the main gate, then travel inside the wall). Wooden walls had been erected to create separate rooms along the inside wall, with wooden doors for each room. On the floor in the rooms were mattresses stuffed with hay or moss, and there were plenty of woolen blankets. Some civilian servants asked if anyone wanted to bathe, and also offered to wash clothes for anyone who desired such. Plain gray robes were offered for anyone who decided to partake of bathing or clothes-washing. Lightstep wanted to find out what was in the vial of clear fluid he had procured from Mont du Plat, so he decided to take a small sip. He decided it tasted like plain, ordinary water, although he still wasn’t sure was it was. Eventually, the party all retired for the night in the rooms assigned to them.

— The Dungeon Master

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