Ches 25
Ches 25, 1370:
High = 35, Low = 15
Moderate precipitation (2" slush) starting @ 10:20am
Wind gusting to 10 mph from the sea.
Cloudy.
"Lin" Rineireirael sent word to the party party that he had
information for them and that they should meet with him at the
Blue Dolphin early in the morning.
When they met with Lin, the party learned that his contacts in the
heartlands and elsewhere had reported back to him about
Arcturagana and that he had followed up by consulting with the
Heralds. What he learned boied down to the following:
The Year of the Wandering Wyvern (1022 DR): Arcturagana
Neverweal was born near Arabel (in Cormyr) to Kholir Maerla
Neverweal. Her father, Kholir was a frontier patrol captain for
the city. Her mother, Maerla was a retired ranger who ran a
small crossroad inn in Kholir's patrol area that she co-owned
with her uncle Ederric Gormarros.
Year of the Comforting Hand (1031 DR): Family moves to
Tyrluk with father's promotion & reasignment to Storm Horns
patrol.
Year of Falling Stars (1035 DR): Father killed on patrol.
Year of the Haunted Haven (1039 DR): Becomes apprenticed
as Ranger to Marriel Firestature of Eagle Peak
Year of the Lion's Heart (1040 DR): Mother killed by
thieves, becomes patron of Seekers Home for Lost Children in
Scornubel
Year of the Reaching Beacon (1042 DR): Named "Friend
Defender of the Reaching Woods" by forest elves of the Woods
Year of Singing Shards (1044 DR): Begins relationship
with Menlil Relreirnil
Year of the Singing Mushrooms (1045 DR): dumped by Menlil
who travels to High Forest to avoid "awkwardness", she
disappears, presumed to follow
Year of the Vitriolic Sage (1047 DR): Seekers Home for
Lost Children burns to ground, no survivors, signs that children
were killed in advance of the fire
Year of the Laughing Dead (1056 DR): small orphanage in
Everlund destroyed in vampire attack, child vampires terrorize
city for weeks.
Year of the Stranger (1064 DR): Menlil found brutally
murdered in Hillsfar, beautiful woman in white sought in
investigation
Year of the Lover's Eyes (1109 DR): Merirornar
Lirrilinalili, a moon elf ranger in Neverwinter Wood tells of
being stalked by a woman in white in a case of mistaken
identity. A month later he dies with several other adventurers
fighting a rash of child vampires in Neverwinter. The last of
the vampire children is eliminated four weeks later, the cause
is never found.
Year of the Lost Lady (1241 DR): Survivor reports of
"White Vampire" in service to Dread William - party of
adventurers that escaped his territory with 50% losses,
survivors die in unsolved murders over next 6 years, woman in
white sought in one investigation (in Rashamen)
Year of the Cold Soul (1281 DR): The Sundabar Seven
report that Merasi Aellenlir, their moon elf ranger is being
stalked by "some crazy vampire chick". 4 weeks later they leave
Sundabar and are later seen at an outpost along Aunaroch getting
provisions. They are never seen again.
Year of the Shattered Lance (1292 DR): First report in
the North of the Aunauroch legend of "The Night Children" - a
band of demon children who haunt the dunes by night.
Year of the Creeping Fang (1305 DR): Zhentarim make some
sort of treaty with Dread William, The White Woman represents
his interests
Year of the Wandering Maiden (1337 DR): Outbreaks of
child vampires on different months in Westgate, Arrabar, and
Shaarmid
After talking to Lin, the party decides they need a relaxing day
in Undermountain. The following party members head in (9gp
entrance fee covered by Staric): Darius, Dexter, Deringa, Staric,
Maanamere, Ag, Henkles, Tristan, Steve.
| Marching Order |
|---|
| Henkles | Ag |
| Steve | Tristan |
| Darius |
| Dexter |
| Staric | Deringa |
| Maanamere |
|
|---|
The party decided to follow up on the strange dreams Henkles keeps
having and headed in the direction that he seems to think
Nine-fingered Dethun went. Along the known path, they paused to
explore a side chamber that they had previously skipped. Inside
they saw 6 carrion crawlers gnawing on some remains. The party
stepped in to engage them, at which point they discovered a
seventh carrion crawler on the wall above the entrance. Steve and
Tristan were paralyzed by that one, but the party prevailed, then
searched the room (found nothing) and sat around until they
recovered (about an hour). Later they realized that they had two
Cure Paralysis Potions.
3495xp to Darius, Dexter, Deringa, Staric, Maanamere, Ag, Henkles,
Tristan, and Steve for carrion crawlers.
A little while later, the party came across a pit trap in a
corridor (without falling in). It was a pivoting section of floor
that dropped anyone walking across it 25' into a 15' deep pool of
water. Someone cast Fly on Henkles and he went down to check it
out. While shining a Con Light button under the water, he
discovered 9 giant leeches living in the pool. Steve demonstrated
that a Lightning Bolt cast into water acts as a fireball
spell in terms of area of effect, also that giant leeches don't
have very many hit dice.
585xp to Darius, Dexter, Deringa, Staric, Maanamere, Ag, Henkles,
Tristan, and Steve for giant leeches
After the leeches were dealt with, Henkles examined the bottom of
the pool and found a skeleton at the bottom with a bracelet made
from 21 Toals.
After passing through a chamber with two ettin skeletons
(non-animated), the party was heading into another room when
Henkles (who could still fly), suddenly yelled "There he goes!"
and took off running down the corridor.
The party took off after him, chasing him through several chambers
and around several turns, running through a room with a black
pudding in the corner on the way. Eventually Henkles, who was
apparently completely unaware of anything in the room, ran into a
crowd of Lizard Men. He made it more than half way through the
confused group before he crashed directly into one of them.
Fortunately, this was enough to bring him back to his senses. The
party wasn't too far behind him by then and they managed to win
the inevitable melee quickly with a Color Spray, a
Web and a helping of the usual violence.
910xp to Darius, Dexter, Deringa, Staric, Maanamere, Ag, Henkles,
Tristan, and Steve for 14 lizard men
The party managed to search the lizard men, collecting 161gp,
80pp, and a heap of stone axes before the black pudding caught up
with them. The party made use of the stone axes and some Magic
Missiles to dispatch the hapless blob.
2000xp to Darius, Dexter, Deringa, Staric, Maanamere, Ag, Henkles,
Tristan, and Steve for a nasty pudding.
The party started of to the northeast, as that was the way that
Henkles inexplicably believed that Dethun went, but Dexter
immediately spotted a magical trap just outside the lizard men's
chamber. Examination revealed that it was a sharply defined
10'x10' area where gravity was reversed and there were nasty
spikes on the ceiling. Once the party new where the borders were,
it seemed likely that they would be able to get around the
corner without falling on the ceiling.
(11/14/10 game)
The party was able to get around the trap without mishap. From
there they followed Henkles instincts to cross-shaped room with
something in the center coered by a tarp. The walls were
decorated with random colored tiles of orange, red, blue, purple
and shades in between. The object turned out to be a round sofa.
The party searched in vain for loose change.
While they were searching the westernmost wall for secret doors,
Henkles touched the wall and suddenly lost touch with the present
again. He quickly tapped five red tiles in the wall, which opened
a secret door leading to a descending stairway. Henkles took off
down the stairs.
Ag ran after Henkles with the rest of the party following. On the
second in a series of landings, Ag fell into a 40' deep pit trap
and found some sort of giant mechanical crab creature at the
bottom, which he was able to avoid by climbing quickly. After
that Tristan went with Ag with a Find Traps running, so
they spotted the second pit trap, directly below the first one
where the stairs wound back around. That one was spiked shut.
Down at the bottom of the stairs they found Henkles, still
hallucinating, quite agitated and occasionally pounding on the air
where the stairs opened into a 30'x30' room. He seemed to think
there was a brrier there and was impatient for it to go away.
Testing showed there was no barrier. Someone touched Henkles and
he came back to his senses.
The ceiling of the 30'x30' room was 60' above the floor and
apparently painted blue. The walls were covered with a mural
depicting an underground landscape with small limestone caves and
large worm-like creatures burrowing about up to a height of about
30', where the ground level was depicted. The upper half of the
walls continued with a sea-scape complete with coral reefs and
colorful fish swimming around. Directly above a door in the south
(opposite) wall was a depiction of an entrance through the coral
reef into some hidden grotto.
Hanging from the ceiling on hundreds of slender chains were copper
fish, ranging from 3" to 12" in size. The lowest hung down to
just above what would be the sea floor in the mural. The highest
were near the ceiling. About 3 dozen of the lowest fish had
elaborate-looking keys hanging from hooks in their bellies. The
south door was apparently made of polished brass. There was no
doorknob, just a keyhole that proved to be precisely made and
elaborate. To the right of the door, just below shoulder height,
was a large black button set into a shallow depression in the
wall.
Henkles used his Jumping Ring to bounce up and snag one of the
keys. The party tried it in the lock for the south door but it
didn't fit. At that point Tristan noticed that the fish with keys
and the chains leading from them were mechanically trapped.
Henkles pocketed the key and they abandonned their piscine
inquiries for the time being in favor of pushing the big button.
The floor started to rise slowly and the party all fled into the
north alcove.
The floor rose past the alcove ceiling and then some and stopped.
The party waited for it to come back down. Maanamere drew
graffiti on the raised wall to pass the time. After about 10
minutes the floor slowly lowered itself back to it's starting
point. The party went back into the room, hit the button again,
and rode the floor up to 30' height where they searched and found
secret doors in the east and west walls that opened by pressing
the eye of the correct fish. Taking Henkles lead, the party
headed through the east door.
Beyond the door was a large grate covering a very large drain and
a corridor sloping upwards. The corridor "T"ed and the party
turned north into a large chamber with a 10'x10'x10' pit blocking
the other exits. At the bottom of the pit were some silver pieces
and some loose bits of armor & weponry. Henkles, under the
influence of a Fly spell headed into the pit and discovered
that it was full of Gelatinous Cube. The party killed the Cube by
repeated brute force and spent the next two hours scooping it out
of the pit to get to the silver & armor. 38sp and a +1 shield
that needs a handle were recovered. The shield bears a red dragon
painted on a blue background.
650xp to Darius, Dexter, Deringa, Staric, Maanamere, Ag, Henkles,
Tristan, and Steve for the Cube
There followed a room with two short wrought iron fences running
across it. ag successfully determined that the trick was to jump
over the first fence and go through the openning in the second
(North) fence.
The next room Henkles led them to had doors every 10' and
thousands of crossbow bolts pointing at the floor through holes in
the ceiling. Ag assured everyone that the floor was safe, but the
party was still nervous for some reason. Henkles led them through
a door in the opposite wall and down some stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs was a room out of Henkles's
nightmares. A man with nine fingers was hanging by the neck from
a balcony and five men were milling about down below. The hanged
man looked up at the party and looked angry and then everyone in
the room attacked the party. In the mean time, Ag detected that
the third step from the bottom was trapped. The party killed all
of the "men" in the room, some of whom were wearing very old City
Watch armor. After that they tied them all up, just to be sure.
They looted some weapons from the bodies.
590xp to Darius, Dexter, Deringa, Staric, Maanamere, Ag, Henkles,
Tristan, and Steve for defeating the Curst
After that the party decided it was time to leave. On the way out
they re-covered the circular couch.
When they got to the Yawning Portal, the party spotted Relask
Radon of the Silent Travellers at the bar. Vague threats were
exchanged and the Star Chaser was casually mentioned. An attempt
was made to get Relask drunk, which failed. Eventually everyone
went home.
