Nightal 17

Nightal 17, 1369:
    High = 18, Low = 10
    Moderate precipitation (up to 3/4" rain or 2" snow) starting @ 2:20am
    Wind gusting to 50 mph from the north.
    Partly cloudy most of the day.

    Around 2:00 am, while he was keeping 2nd watch alone, Henkles
    spotted a childish face at the window.  He shouted an alarm
    immediately, which was good because it was his last act of free
    will for a while.  The face at the window used a gaze attack to
    charm Henkles before everyone else arrived.

    When the rest of the party did arrive, Henkles tried to tell
    everyone he was mistaken, but nobody believed him.  Dexter used
    his detect undead ability and confirmed that there was
    something undead hiding in the bushes just outside the window.  He
    tried turning it, but failed.  Narthan used Detect Charm on
    Henkles to confirm everyone's suspicions and Dexter cast Faerie
    Fire on the thing in the bushes.  Once everyone could tell
    where the creature was, many Magic Missiles and an Acid
    Arrow were cast at it and Denyae managed to hit it with an
    arrow despite the tricky angle.  The creature, which they
    determined was either a street urchin or a poor halfling in life,
    rushed the window and burst into gaseous form.  They lost track of
    it after that.

    Ursula cast Transfer Charm on Henkles to switch the small
    vampire's charm over to her.  Watch was resumed and everyone went
    back to bed.

    In the morning, Cassie, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Jan, Mrap-M'rap,
    Narthan, Stalker, and Steve announced that they had "errands" to
    attend to and headed out, while Ursula began ordering Henkles
    around to keep him busy.  Outside, the party noticed a bedraggled
    woman by the sea wall, apparently trying to teach the seagulls to
    sing.  Dexter tried to convince the "lady", who called herself
    Missy, to seek shelter from the cold, but she was adamant about
    trying to teach the gulls and would not budge.  Dexter eventually
    gave up, but as an afterthought he used his know alignment
    ability to determine that her alignment was NE.  After that, they
    made their way across the City through the snow to the warehouse
    that Stalker and Dusty had checked out on the 12th.

    When they got there, they cast Invisibility and Fly
    on Stalker and sent him in through the slightly open central
    skylight to look around.  He saw a few workers moving boxes and
    two guards at the large door on Tower Trail and reported back.

    The party sent Stalker back in to open the south rear door, which
    he did.  Dexter used his detect undead ability to determine
    that there was a large groub of undead in the basement almost
    directly beneath them.  Then they knocked over some boxes down the
    aisle opposite them to lure some people into an ambush.
    Apparently all six of the people on the first floor headed over to
    investigate, two coming down the main aisle and the others
    slipping between boxes to go from aisle to aisle.  A fight broke
    out as soon as the party was spotted by the lead two.  One of the
    two sailors who came down the aisle was knocked out with Dexter's
    sleep gas.

    Stalker spotted someone leaping across the aisles from shelf to
    shelf and attempted to backstab him as he was getting into
    position to fire his crossbow at the party.  Stalker failed his
    attack and lost his invisibility in the process.

    The party started taking fire from the shelves above them,
    including some daggers being thrown by a half-orc woman almost
    directly above them.  They returned fire and wounded her, causing
    her to back up into the stacks.

    At that point the rear of the party (Steve and Cassie) was
    attacked by a huge, bald man wielding two chains, one of them a
    massive anchor chain.  Cassie cast Ray of Enfeeblement on
    him, causing him to drop his heavy chain and look terrified, then
    Steve stunned him with Color Spray.  They slit his throat
    as soon as they could.

    Dexter was then hit with a blowgun dart which he could feel was
    poisoned.  Darius cast Slow Poison on him.

    Stalker decided to simplify his fight with the crossbowman by
    knocking them both off the shelf.  He somehow ended up holding the
    crossbowman or being held onto by him, so Stalker flew to where
    Narthan could strike the crossbowman.  At this point Mrap-M'rap
    reported that flying creatures were incoming.  The party mages
    were soon set apon by a swarm of ornithopters - undead bat
    skeletons with parchment wings and poisoned metal claws.  Cassie
    was scratched enough to be poisoned.  Narthan? cast
    Invisibility to Undead on Darius, causing the ornithopters
    to focus on Cassie, who drank an Invulnerability Potion and spent
    the rest of the combat casually swatting the things into
    splinters.  Dexter turned three of them.

    Meanwhile, Stalker discovered that he wasn't the only person
    flying around above the fight when he spotted a flying half-orc
    woman trying to hide in shadows near the ceiling.  When she
    realized she had been spotted, she cast Ray of Fatigue on
    Stalker and flew off to the second floor.  Stalker gave chase.

    Next, a horde of goblin skeletons, to which someone had been
    grafting experimental (and apparently unsuccessful) wings,
    attacked from down the main aisle.  Dexter turned nine of them.
    Steve and Narthan used one of the chains that the huge sailor was
    attacking with to run down the aisle and clothesline the rest,
    finishing them quickly.

    Stalker got to the second level and discovered the woman leaving
    in wraithform from a bedroom where she had set a hasty
    fire.  He chose to put out the fire rather than pursue her down
    into the basement.
        3470xp to Cassie, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Jan, Mrap-M'rap,
            Narthan, Stalker, and Steve for sailors and skeletons
        
    Mrap-M'rap reported that the half-orc woman who had been throwing
    daggers was still hiding among the boxes nearby, but the party
    paused to cast some healing spells and a Slow Poison on
    Cassie.  The unconscious sailor was tied up.  Then Narthan and
    Stalker squeezed in to the stacks to fight the half-orc.  She
    managed to get in a surprise attack and do some damage, but they
    were able to kill her.
    

It is worth noting that this battle has historical significance to the game. It is believed to be the first battle against NPCs during which it took the players longer to kill the NPCs than it took me to create them.

    Narthan picked up the half-orc woman's magic scimitar, which
    immediately began swearing at him telepathically in hobgoblin,
    gnoll, and (oddly) pixie.  He discovered that he could now
    understand those languages and could even read the name of the
    scimitar, Buggerer, which was written on the side of the blade in
    Hobgoblin.  The scimitar was crudely made, but of the finest
    metals.  It glows red for 15', and provides light in the infrared
    spectrum for 45'.  Narthan learned that it was a +0 to hit/+1
    damage weapon that was +1/+2 vs. <1HD humanoids, +2/+3 vs. humans,
    dwarves & gnomes, +3/+4 vs. elves & faerie-kin.  He also learned
    that it had the purpose of slaying faerie-folk.  Dexter determined
    that its alignment was CE.  Narthan held on to it for now.
        1400xp to Narthan and Stalker for Gulthae Oakstature

    At the same time Narthan and Stalker were doing that, the rest of
    the party headed down the stairs into the basement where they were
    surprised to discover no undead.  They did discover two minotox
    skeletons that were obviously being prepared for transformation -
    steel plates were still being attached.  Cassie smashed them to
    bits while the rest of the party searched the basement.  In
    addition to the large vat, they found a large work bench where
    work was obviously in process, several smaller preperation areas
    for man-sized skeletons and, in the corner, a privy next to an
    open sewer grating.  Mrap-M'rap was sent into the sewer to
    investigate.  Darius learned some interesting new Tressym phrases
    as a result.

    A detailed examination of the work area revealed this set of
    instructions:
    

Simmer @ 200°, stiring 5 minutes out of 30 until highsun, add tbsp. cats claw & pinch of maca to surface after each mixing; flense, drain and cube infants; dice mugwort; grate mandrake while invoking Bhaal and Nyárlothtðg. Raise temp to 300°, add mugwort, mandrake, all of infants except skin and blood Stir 5 of every 15 minutes, adding 1 oz. infants blood and 6 corpse beetles each time Begin soaking cockatrice feathers in mummy dust-gorgon's blood mixture at 5 bells, also add jar of wolfberries while reciting consecration to Helm backwards. Miss a word and you'll be drinking this paste.

    All of the materials mentioned in the instructions appeared to be
    present on the work bench, including a large glass jar filled with
    hundreds of some sort of beetle.

    Mrap-M'rap returned and reported that someone was crawling away
    through the sewers.  Jan, Darius and Steve followed Mrap-M'rap in
    pursuit of the escapee.  Mrap-M'rap was able to move faster in the
    sewers and caught up with the fleeing man.  He attempted to
    distract him by taking a swipe at him, but eneded up killing the
    guy in single combat in two rounds.  The party recovered 3
    Man-Sized sleep gas from Aurora's, 4sp, 1gp, and 4 toals from the
    body and decided to leave it for the rats.  They crawled back to
    the warehouse.
        65xp to Mrap-M'rap for Arreth "Gomer" Eredoask

    The party beheaded the bodies of the people they had killed to
    reduce the chances that divination magics could be used on them
    and shoved them in the sewers, keeping the heads.  They collected
    44sp, 7ep, 42gp, and 25 toals from the bodies before dumping them.
    They made a point of leaving the instructons on the workbench to
    make it clear what had been going on in the warehouse to anyone
    investigating.  Narthan identified the following magic weapons
    among the dead and captured, which the party collected:
        2 Light Crossbows, +1
        A Knife, +1
        A Scimitar, +1
        7 Barbed Darts for a blowgun, +1, Urd's Teeth Poison
        "Buggerer", the Scimitar (mentioned previously)

    Cassie cast Charm Person on the surviving sailor and he
    became quite compliant.  The party questioned him somewhat and
    learned that the Endurance was due back within a few weeks,
    although the sailor didn't know what the ship was doing.  He
    mentioned something really bad existing on ship for a while, which
    disappeared around the time of the undead attack on Fair Winds
    that left the cave bear drained of two hit dice.  He confirmed
    that Rabairnil was on the Endurance.

    The party then headed up to the upper floor for a more thorough
    search of the living areas.  There were 3 bedrooms, one of them
    for two people, and five cots in an open area near them, each with
    a sea chest containing clothing.  There were also dice and cards
    near the cots.  The bedroom which (presumably) Gorsurrs had set
    fire to before fleeing had a mirror (1') over the headboard, a
    knife under the pillow, assorted papers (burnt) and writing
    implements, and a bookshelf that was divided between nautical
    manuals and books on necromancy, but no spell books.  A chest in
    that room held thieves picks and tools, clothing, and a Scroll
    (MU) 2) Death Recall 3) Delay Death.  The other single bedroom
    held nothing remarkable.  The third bedroom had 2 cots, 2 small
    sea chests with changes of clothes and spell books, a lantern, 3
    oil and flint on a small table with ink, quill, and paper.  The
    party looted everything of value.

    Before departing the warehouse, the party poured holy water into
    the large vat.  Then they sealed off the sewer grating and tossed
    the bottle of beetles down the privy before sealing it off as
    well.  Cassie tried to Dispell Darius's monster footprints
    before they left, but failed.

    As the party made their way back through the city, they passed a
    guard patrol, at which point the "charmed" sailor ducked down an
    alley.  The party sent Mrap-M'rap after him, but he eventually
    ducked into a building and Mrap-M'rap lost him.

    When the party got back to Fair Winds, the party found Missy still
    in front of the house, now lying on her back on the sea wall
    slowly flapping her arms.  When questioned, she said the gulls
    were teaching her to fly now.

    The party hoped to dispose of the heads by dumping them in the
    ocean, so Jan went out shopping for some "chicken wire" fencing to
    wrap them in.  While he was in a shop that sold such things, he
    was aqpproached by a rather striking woman with pale skin and very
    long black hair, dressed all in black including a black cloak
    lined with black fur and black leather gloves that apparently went
    up to her elbows.  Her only jewelry was a platinum necklace with a
    fanged skull pendant.  Jan noticed that she had glowing red eyes
    just before he turned and ran all the way home.

    The party got in touch with Dusty and retained him to watch for
    the return of the Endurance, giving him instructions to send word
    immediately if it returns but to remain and observe it himself.

    Some of the Theriaca the party obtained during their work at the
    Spinner Estate was given to Cassie,
    and Dexter while the Slow Poison spells were still in
    effect.  With some assistance from Darius, both were able to make
    their second saving throws vs. Poison.

    Dexter fed the heads to the bear.