Legacy Generation 2: Set C
Nightscale Adventuring Guild (NAG),
Furosa's Adventures on Yarth
&
The Army of Xamithus (TAX),
Oerth NAG:
[Modules: The Sunless Citadel]
Alvar Drake was a human fighter who trained at a wizard school. His bunkmate was Boran the half-elf. The high wizard assigned them a quest to assist Clarmin (male human paladin), Jozan (female half-elf cleric), and Maldor (the rogue) who were serving justice by seeking out evil to destroy at the nearby Sunless Citadel.
During their journey, they stopped at the small town Oakhurst. The mayor told the group about a tree and its magical fruit. The group rescued a lady from goblins and developed a good reputation in the town. Alvar recruited Carmuck the bard. They went out to the Sunless Citadel and fought dire rats in the ruins. They destroyed the skeletons in the side room and rested. They explored the ruins and had to kill more dire rats and a water mephit.
Alvar Drake was finally able to cast the wizard spells he had been training for! The group continued exploring the Sunless Citadel and captured a kobold naped Nepo, who brought them to his leader Queen Yestrial (with 12 guards). She told them about Belak the evil druid with goblin servants and how they had stolen her pet dragon that she wanted back.
The group said they would get the pet dragon back. They fought more skeletons, goblins, more goblins, and hobgoblins before getting the baby dragon. They also found the remains of a dead adventuring party with the legendary longsword Shatterspike. Because the kobold queen and her guards were evil, the group had to slay them. They let the good kobolds live. They returned to Oakhurst and hired Smith and 2 farmers (Kiln and Darnin) to help them. Alvar journeyed to the wizard school with the baby dragon.
Alvar traded out loot and gave the baby dragon to the high wizard, who listened to the stories of the adventurers and declared he wanted the magic fruit from beneath the Sunless Citadel. On the way back, the group had to kill 5 bandits who ambushed them (but the 6th man surrendered to the group: Harker the rogue). Sadly, Darnin died so Alvar sent Kiln back to the farm with his body.
The group returned to the Sunless Citadel and fought/killed: dire rats, a troll dragonpriest, twig monsters, a bugbear, Belak the evil druid, a giant tree frog, and goblins. Alvar burned the evil tree after the group collected magic fruit. Everything came crashing down and the group had to run out to try to survive: Clarmin, Jozan, and Smith all died during the collapse of the ruins. Alvar, Harker, and Carmuck barely made it out alive. Their horses were stolen, but the group returned to Oakhurst as heroes.
They traded out loot, but there was a trap on an item that killed the gnome merchant. Alvar bought the shop; he hired Kiln to work the shop for 50% of the profits. The mayor wanted the evil tree saplings in the area all killed. Alvar made arrangements for the local druid to take care of it while he took his group to fight bandits. At the bandit hideout, they defeated the guards (with a half-orc barbarian) and freed a dwarf cleric of Moradin (named Jomlen). They had to stop more guards, a brown bear, and an evil female elf ranger.
Alvar found a muckdweller who became his sidekick. They returned to Oakhurst, where Alvar decided to allow Harker and Carmuck to live in his store’s upstairs quarters with the dwarf cleric. Alvar then travelled with his group back to report to the wizard tower.
The team had to kill more bandits before making it to the tower, where they discovered the place was in ruins. The burn marks formed a star, which reminded Alvar of a symbol he had studied. They journeyed to the nearby large city and spoke with the high wizard’s contact (Garlyn, who had an apprentice named Hadvar); they delivered the magic apples. Alvar told the justice temple’s leader (the paladin Vaerul) about the bandit base and agreed to let them use it. The group visited the lord’s keep, where Lord Sarp Redbeard befriended them and offered them rest for the night.
Eberron NAG:
Lejefyr’s father was the human ranger Semaj Meneny, who ended up in Droaam and seduced Alliw the female minotaur wizard – in his backpack was a deed to a parcel of land – which he left behind when the minotaur men ran him out of the region); Alliw married Brunt (who was mean and trained Semaj II as a barbarian and convinced Lejefyr to go work as a sailor on a ship run by the half-orc retired war cleric named Razut – he trained Lejefyr in the ways of Dol Dorn – but the ship was attacked by the magic-using pirate clan Vix and everyone but Lejefyr died). Lejefyr returned and learned magic from his mother. He felt ready to go out to claim his human father’s land, but first had to ask permission from the minotaur chief.
Lejefyr had been home for about a year. His bro left about a month ago. Lejefyr woke up naked in a room with a lizardfolk (female named Braza) and an orc (Granag) as part of a dangerous initiation to become a “shaman” for the Minotaur society in Droaam (to get respect and honor). He spoke with Braza for a bit and then people came in with body paint.
The minotaur war chief watched over the initiations, with a minotaur shaman by the cups. Lejefyr drank from the cup and fell down unconscious. He woke up (in a dream vision) on a piece of driftwood in the ocean – back when his sailing crew was killed by pirates. He jumped in the water to try to save a friend and his wounds opened up, causing him to go under the water, where a reef shark attacked him. He killed it and sunk down to the ocean floor to see a valley with his brother. He walked into an area that was a maze and had to fight people: 4 adventurers (might have been farmers/merchants). He saw his bro and the City of Sharn – “come find me” and a warforged was standing behind him. Lejefyr woke up and rose up out of the water back to the initiation room (the first to finish of the 3 initiates). The orc didn’t make it.
They congratulated Lejefyr and said it was the fastest that anyone had recovered from the lethal drug; those who survive must have divine intervention. Braza also survived, but took longer. The people running the initiation gave them both their stuff back and they followed them to a large gathering of people outside. The minotaur war chief then did the public ceremony declaring them shamans (and free people who only have to answer to the war chief and have the right to open up their own shops).
Lejefyr’s mother congratulated him and then went back to her tower. Braza and Lejefyr bonded and she told him where her druid circle was so he could get her when it was time to go adventuring. Lejefyr went to the war chief’s quarters and bonded with him; the war chief was a worshipper of Baphomet, but was okay with Lejefyr leaving to go find his brother (and even said he’d send one of his men to help).
Lejefyr met Derror “The Terror” the gnoll rogue (who was the one sent by the war chief to help in the quest). They went to the docks to use Lejefyr’s contacts to secure passage on a mercenary ship heading to “Breland” (which was somewhat near Sharn so they could take Lejefyr and his companions along). Lejefyr, Braza, and Derror planned to head out on the ship the next morning.
1380 DR / 600 CY
Oerth NAG: Background Info:
Background: Tamoachan (who was named after the place he was conceived) became an orphan when his mother and stepfather went to fight in the war and died; he was actually the half-gnome son of Elster Yarin (from Elster’s affair with Tencheka - the human lady from the jungle). Tamoachan was adopted by the noble Mistletoe family of Chendl, who treated him as their own and gave him a nice life.
Tamoachan recently impregnated the married queen of Chendl, the powerful fire genasi daughter of the leader of the Valley of the Mage, and she had insisted that no one could ever find out about their secret affair (because she was married); Tamoachan decided to use his rogue skills to head out adventuring.
[Modules: MSOL1]
Tamoachan went off into the mountains, where he was framed for murder (when he flirted with the wrong man’s wife) and put through a test to see if he would betray innocent people or try to help them (during which he fought 2 gnolls and 1 priest with a bodyguard). He passed the test after standing up to the servants of evil and was cleared of all criminal charges.
[Modules: MSOL2]
Tamoachan went to the island kingdom of Cathos, where he was hired to rescue Princess Lydora from a minotaur maze. He found out a half-human/minotaur, Lejefyr Meneny, had washed ashore and been taken prisoner (after claiming he was sent through a magical whirlpool in the sea that brought him here from the world of Eberron); Tamoachan asked the king to grant Lejefyr his freedom in exchange for helping him figure out the minotaur maze and rescuing the princess.
Tomoachan and Lejefyr got to know each other on their way to the maze; Lejefyr was a war cleric who had been on a quest to find and claim land from a deed left behind by his human father. At the maze, they fought many monsters (1 mummy, 1 boar, skeletons, 1 giant lizard, 2 minotaur skeletons, 1 flesh golem, 1 gargoyle, 1 zombie minotaur, 1 giant octopus, and 1 chimera), rescued the princess, and made it back out to the king. With their loot and reward, Tamoachan and Lejefyr were rich men.
Tamoachan brought Lejefyr with him to the City of Greyhawk; with their treasure, Tamoachan was able to use the bank to send the queen of Furyondy 105,000 gp that could be used to help raise his child – though his letter to the queen simply called it a donation to help the kingdom. Lejefyr asked around about powerful wizards and found out about Felicia Mordankainen; he sought out her advice about trying to return to Eberron.
Felicia couldn’t help Lejefyr find a way back to his homeworld, but she did give them an adventure hook by introducing them to Baron Althon - who hired them to find Stone Tooth, a legendary dwarf forge in the nearby hills. The baron offered to pay them 500 gp above market value for each magical weapon that they returned to him.
[Modules: UK5]
On the way to the mountains, they met Alvar Drake (the human fighter/wizard from the village of Oakhurst) who had just escaped a forest after having been captured by 2 rocs and fighting his way through monsters to escape. Not wanting to be out on his own anymore, Alvar decided to join up with Tamo and Lejefyr on their quest.
[Modules: Forge of Fury]
Together, the 3 of them arrived at the mining town of Blasingdell, where Alvar insisted on hiring an extra fighter, buying a wagon with mules, and hiring a guard for the wagon. When they left the town, they travelled 3 days until they got to Stone Tooth. They had to kill 4 orc scouts. At the door into the old dwarf base, Alvar used his magic to put 2 orcs to sleep and their hired fighter killed the sleeping monsters. Inside, at a rope bridge, they had to use ranged weapons to kill 2 more orcs guarding the other side; unfortunately, before dying, 1 of the orcs set the rope bridge on fire and destroyed it.
They continued through a secret side tunnel and killed 4 more orcs. They rescued 2 halfling commoners who were being held prisoner: Geradil and Courana. They took the 2 commoners out to stay with the wagon and promised they would bring them home (which was in the hills a few days travel away) soon. They killed 8 more orcs, 4 stirges, 2 wolves, and the ogre leader before resting with the halflings. They spent 6 days bringing the halflings home and returning to Stone Tooth.
When they went deeper into the old dwarf-mining base, they had to kill more intruders: 6 stirges, 17 troglodytes, 1 brown bear, and 1 giant white crocodile. They continued going deeper, where they killed 2 gricks and 1 gray ooze before encountering a powerful disguised roper that killed their hired fighter before they could finish it off. In the next section they bribed 3 duergar to leave them alone and tell them about the nearby dragon, but they had to kill 3 other duergar (who were crazy) working in the forge.
The group found the duergar leader Nimira and worked a deal to let them go fight the young black dragon down below, with promise of safe passage and the group keeping 75% of the loot (and the dragon’s dead body to make armor out of). The group rested with the duergar and convinced one of the warriors to join them.
The duergar lowered the group down to fight the dragon known as Nightscale. Lejefyr, Tamoachan, Alvar, and their new duergar ally valiantly stood against the acid-breathing beast – ultimately victorious, though the duergar was killed by Nightscale. Afterward, they split up the loot and celebrated with the duergar. They returned to Baron Althon and reported that the location now belonged to the duergar clan living there. They sold him the 4 magic weapons from the location and he thanked them for their business.
Tamoachan proposed that he, Alvar, and Lejefyr form a permanent party. They agreed and decided to call themselves the Nightscale Adventuring Guild (NAG) since their new armor would be made from the first dragon they killed together. Alvar pledged to Lejefyr that as he grew in magical power that he would try to find a way to return the half-minotaur to the world of Eberron. Lejefyr and Alvar ended up in a romantic relationship with each other.
It took a long time to have the dragonscale armor crafted for them, thus they spent months of down time in Greyhawk; Tamoachan cross-trained as a paladin, Lejefyr learned about the religions of Oerth, and Alvar asked Felicia Mordenkainen to give him access to magical tomes/scrolls. Tamoachan ended up seducing Felicia to help Alvar get access to more spells, but Tamoachan also got her pregnant. Tamoachan told Felicia he wasn’t ready to settle down and be a family man, but that he would eventually return; she said she understood, that he didn’t have to come back, and that the baby would have her last name. Once the group’s new armor was made, they decided to head out seeking more adventure…
[Modules: The Speaker in Dreams]
The Nightscale Adventuring Guild traveled to Alvar’s shop/home in Oakhurst, where he found out that a red half-dragon/half-duergar had recently come through the village and murdered the mayor and Alvar’s friends who were running his shop for him; apparently the half-dragon had been looking for Alvar. One of the locals lied to the villain and said Alvar had gone to participate in the festivals at the river town of Brindinford, so the red half-dragon had headed out that direction before causing too much destruction.
Alvar told Tamoachan and Lejefyr about his previous quest destroying evil at the Sunless Citadel and how he was now the only survivor from that mission. He also pointed out that the wizard school he had trained at had been destroyed, burned to a crisp in such a way as to lead him to believe that a powerful red dragon was the one who did it. Tamoachan and Lejefyr said they would help Alvar avenge the deaths of his friends.
They traveled to Brindinford, where they noticed the festivals were still going on. A disturbance was caused by 4 wererats and their 5 giant rats – but the group fought them and killed them, gaining the respect of the city guard. After the heroes arranged lodging at a nice inn, they noticed 2 people following them so they confronted them, intimidating them and finding out that they were both wererats sent from the town’s bell tower. They broke into the bell tower and killed the rest of the wererats (4 more with 10 large rats and 2 gargoyles). They returned to the inn and rested.
The next day, an oni blasted them with cone of cold from an alley and lured them into a trap - where 5 rogues, 1 cleric of Hextor, and 1 sorcerer all ambushed them in what became an extremely exciting battle that the group barely survived. They returned to the inn and rested after selling the loot. In their dreams, they were visited by “the speaker in dreams” (who was actually a mindflayer, who went to their inn and jumped out of the window when they woke up).
They fought the mindflayer as he tried to escape - with Lejefyr succeeding on a hold person spell, they killed the mindflayer. On his body, they discovered his notes and realized he was working with 2 more tiefling clerics, 3 hell hounds, an osyluth, and an imp in a plot to destroy the local temple of Pelor; thus the heroes recruited a cleric of Pelor to assist them and they killed all of the remaining threats to the city.
Baron Euphemes II thanked them for saving his town and asked them to look into another matter for him – people thought it odd that nobody from nearby Ossington came to the fair this year so he wanted them to travel 3 days to find out why. Since they were unable to locate the red half-dragon, they accepted the mission.
[Modules: The Standing Stone]
Tamoachan, Alvar, and Lejefyr were traveling through the forest, on the way to Ossington, when they saw a ghost horseman kill a commoner. They took the dead body to the nearest home – a farm with old man Tarbee and (the beautiful woman he called his daughter) Tanasha Lu. After the old man went to bed, Tamoachan told the group he was going to “get information from the girl about the village.” He and Tanasha went to the barn to “check on the donkey,” flirted with each other, and ended up making love several times.
The next morning the 3 members of the Nightscale Adventuring Guild continued on their way to Ossington. The first building they found was the Chapel of the 9 Gods (neutral gods: Ehlonna, Pelor, Wee Jas, Boccob, Fharlanghn, Obad-Hai, Olidammara, Nerull, and Vecna), which was attended by Henwen the female druid. In the cemetery, the group destroyed 8 shadows. They proceeded to the village center and met many of the locals, including Cuckoo the Bard and the town elder Murdows (who offered them an empty house to stay in since there was no inn).
The villagers said the ghost horsemen and the wild elves wouldn’t allow them to leave for supplies and that they were almost out of food. That day, elder Murdows was attacked by 2 elves and assassinated. The heroes were unable to stop the attack and the elves fled into the forest. After that, the group spoke with Dyson “the local sage” (secretly a powerful evil wizard) from the only tower in town. Dyson recommended that the group take Tully the fighter with them when they said they were going to go into the woods to investigate further. They found a warlord’s tomb where they destroyed 3 earth elementals and 8 wights before going down stairs and had to take out 2 more wights and their gravewight leader Warlord Seithnar (who had a magical frost-greatsword+1, a brooch of shielding, and chainmail+1). The group rested before heading out again.
In the forest, they encountered another battle: the wild elves Yellis, Zarn, Thilvara, several pixies, and some treant allies – who all refused to listen to diplomacy and attacked the group. The treant proved to be the most menacing opponent (who killed their new ally Tully), but NAG ultimately defeated them all. They needed to rest again, but continued on and found the resting place of the ghost horseman (whose skeletal remains had a holy symbol of Pelor) in a pond. They realized the ghost had been a good paladin, which confused them. Lejefyr suggested giving the dead paladin and his horse proper burials and that worked, putting the ghost horseman to eternal rest. The group camped.
The next day, they returned to the village and insisted on questioning Dyson, at which point they realized they had been tricked and he was the true villain of this area – manipulating the people for some purpose that he wouldn’t admit; Dyson was a much more powerful wizard than they had realized. Dyson called Henwen the evil druid, Cuckoo the bard, and several villagers to assist him – but the forces of evil fell to the Nightscale Adventuring Guild. The remaining villagers surrendered and admitted that they were humans and halflings created from awakened animals who had grown accustomed to their new lives. They pledged to live normal lives and not hurt anyone in the future.
On their way out of the area, the group stopped by the farm to talk with old man Tarbee and Tanasha. They got Tanasha to admit that she wasn’t really his daughter, which upset him. She said she wanted to leave with Tamoachan since she didn’t feel she belonged there anymore. The group said she could accompany them back to Brindinford. During the travel there, Tamoachan explained to her that he would pay for her a nice shop/house in Brindinford and get her setup as a shopkeeper for the Nightscale Adventuring Group.
In the river city, the group was able to sell the loot from their latest adventures (which got them over 100,000 gp) and buy a guildhall building with a shop, which they named Nightscale Adventurer’s Guildhall & Rare Item Shop. They hired several guards to work there and an assistant to help Tanasha run the place. They decided to take some down time, chasing down any leads on the villainous red half-dragon they had been looking for and searching for information about magically traveling to Eberron; they were unsuccessful in both tasks. During that time, Tanasha announced that she was pregnant with Tamoachan’s future child so the group left the remainder of their wealth with her at the guildhall. They had been recruited by the dwarf fighter champion hero known as Elkhorn to go off on another quest.
[Modules: XL1 Quest for the Heartstone]
With Elkhorn, the group traveled to the kingdom of Sterich (a.k.a. Ghyr), where the widowed Queen Leahra asked the group to go find the stolen magical heartstone that used to belong to her husband. Her high priest gave the group a ring of spell storing (which Lejefyr accepted), 2 scrolls of greater restoration, and 2 scrolls of raise dead; they were directed to the mountains, where the master thief Dahnakriss was expected to have the stone).
In the journey, the group defeated: 12 ghouls, 12 troglodytes, 1 water elemental, 24 hobgoblins, 1 hobgoblin warlord, 3 trolls, and 6 dire wolves. At the mountain, they faced: 2 manticores, 1 young white dragon (that killed Elkhorn the dwarf fighter, but had a decent treasure hoard with a Staff of Healing), 2 chimera, 6 hook horrors, 2 basilisks, 6 gargoyles, 1 black pudding, and 3 gray-green oozes. When they spotted a lake with 6 hydra monsters up ahead, they used a raise dead scroll to bring Elkhorn back to life.
The group barely survived fighting the hydras, even though the monsters only surfaced 1 at a time. Elkhorn, being the brave fighter he was, died two more times and the group was unable to bring him back again. The master thief Darnakriss flooded the next part of the lair while the heroes were adventuring, causing them to get washed out to an icy lake with the thief’s journal, which detailed more info about the place and his escapades. In escaping the freezing water, the group had to kill a roper that was trying to drown them.
The group discovered a magically operated elevator that took them to a level where they had to kill: 3 frost giants, 3 gray oozes, 1 black pudding, 3 giant spiders, 24 stirges, and 6 flesh-bone-wood golems. They made it to the lair of the evil wizard Tharadodus and killed him; he had a magical poison dagger+1, a Wand of Paralysis, a Ring of Protection+1, and an Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location, a scroll of teleport, and more.
They decided to use the scroll of teleport to go hire more adventurers to join them. They recruited: Lady Mercion the human cleric, Ringlerun the human sorcerer, Sheriff Figgen the halfling fighter, Lady Molliver the human rogue, Hawkler the human ranger, Lord Deeth the human fighter, and Valkeer the half-giant fighter. That brought the Nightscale Adventuring Guild to 10 active members, including Alvar, Lejefyr, and Tamoachan. With all of their extra magical loot, they were able to equip the group with even better gear than they already had. The new NAG contingent entered the lair to finish the mission.
The NAG 10 fought a giant zombie crocodile. They found the lair of the master thief Dahnakriss with his 4 iron golem guards – it was a difficult battle (with traps) in which 5 of them died (Lady Mercion, Ringlerun, Sheriff Figgen, Lady Molliver, and Hawkler) – but the rest of the heroes (Alvar, Lejefyr, Tamoachan, Deeth, and Valkeer) were ultimately victorious. The loot included a flying carpet, a Ring of Invisibility, a Displacer Cloak, lots of gems, the heartstone they had been seeking, and much more.
The group rested inside, but when they were leaving they saw a group of villains attacking the human paladin Strongheart, the human fighter Bowmarc, and their elf ally “Paralay” (Melf I). They helped the 2 heroes battle: Grimsword the evil human knight, Zargash the half-elf cleric, Kelek the sorcerer, Warduke the fighter, Lady Skylla the human warlock, Zorgar the barbarian, Drex the human fighter, and Zarak the half-orc assassin. Kelek teleported himself and Warduke away after the rest of their team was killed off. Lejefyr, Strongheart, Deeth, and Valkeer were killed by the villains; Paralay, Tamoachan, and Alvar were the only survivors of the epic confrontation.
Paralay brought Alvar, Tamoachan, and the dead bodies of Strongheart and Lejefyr to an elf druid in the area, who willingly reincarnated the 2 fallen heroes in exchange for 5,000 gp. Strongheart regenerated as a human, but Lejefyr was reincarnated as an elf. Alvar told Lejefyr that he couldn’t stand losing him and suggested that they get engaged. Lejefyr agreed to the proposal, emphasizing his love for Alvar.
They returned to the queen of Sterich. She thanked them for returning the heartstone. The group noticed that Strongheart was flirting with the queen and that Paralay was offering to stay behind to advise the royal court (saying that he thought his son owned an old castle in the nearby Keoland region); Tamoachan guessed that within a year’s time, Strongheart would end up marrying Queen Leahra.
Tamoachan was starting to feel like a third wheel as they made their way to Bristol (the capitol of the Valley of the Mage) to sell/trade their loot and have the gnomes create more armor/cloaks out of their dead white dragon parts. They decided to spend some down time enjoying their wealth and recruiting more people for their guild. Lejefyr bought a belt of sex change so he could become a woman and have a child with Alvar. Alvar liked the idea of raising a family in the Valley of the Mage.
The Nightscale Adventuring Guild was enjoying their down time in the Valley of the Mage; Lejefyr was pregnant with Alvar’s child (which would be born as a half-elf). They had recruited a new division of their guild, which they named after the white dragonscale armor they had made: The Whitescale Division (TWD). They recruited 7 people to TWD and geared them out, explaining that the gear was worth at least 400,000 gp so they expected the group to work for them until they made them a profit of at least 500,000 gp.
They gave the 7 members of TWD nicknames: “Flamelord” (the fire genasi son of Kanith and Nox, a wizard), “Charmer” (the elf rogue), Erystel II (the son of Dalma and Erystel I) refused a nickname, “Frostfell” the human fighter who chose to use the magical frost-greatsword, “Shatterspike” the human fighter who ended up using the longsword of that name, “Feybeast” the elf fighter, and “Bones” the human fighter).
[Modules: Living Greyhawk (LG): River of Blood]
Felicia Mordenkainen magically messaged them, asking for help investigating a string of murders in the City of Greyhawk so they sent TWD to do the job, with Flamelord in charge of the group. TWD arrived in the city and questioned the locals, which led them to a house with a wererat and his 2 associates, who fought them and had to be killed. They uncovered some notes and books that led them to a bloody cavern with 6 xvart warriors that attacked them; they eventually found the xvart leader – an evil druid with 3 xvart clerics and a prisoner (the commoner Dena Pakiss, whom they rescued).
They brought Dena home and rested after telling the guards what they had found. Felicia Mordenkainen congratulated them and thanked them for solving the murders. She told them of a gnome ally who needed some help, and gave them a letter from Bodri Glitterfoot, asking them to come to his home in Highfolk, near the Vesve Forest.
[Modules: LG: A Gnome’s Affair]
At Highfolk, Bodri explained that his grandson had been kidnapped and the local evles were in danger from monstrous humanoids. Tanal Moonsteel asked them to find clues of his missing wares and offered a reward if they found them. They went north into Vesve Forest, where they had to kill 17 gnolls who had poisoned a giant talking owl named Velira; they healed her. They rested afterward.
Continuing on the next day, the group took out 14 gnoll warriors, 1 gnoll druid, and a wolf. They rescued Bodri’s grandson Wentland and found out about a ranger meeting taking place in Verbeeg Hill. They pressed on, met with the rangers of the area to convince them to stop being racist, and returned to Highfolk victorious. Tanal Moonsteel rewarded them with a magical elven mithral shirt +1.
[Modules: LG: Festival Knight]
Still in Highfolk, the members of TWD attended at the Festival of Fallen Knights (honoring those who died in the war against Iuz’s evil forces). There was a massive bonfire, lots of partying, and a visit to the Temple of Rao. The famous werewolf hunter Altrigan Werebane was in attendance. They also met Eldubrais Feylight the illusionist (bard/wizard), who said he had items stolen from him by a goblin wizard named Noblish. The group tracked down the goblin wizard and found out the thief was actually a man named Markun, who they hunted down and found out was a werewolf mage/agent of Iuz. They had to kill 2 wererats, 6 bandits, and the werewolf Markun. They returned Eldubrais’ stolen items and he thanked them.
[Modules: LG: A Snake in the Grass]
The group stopped a bandit attack on a caravan (killing all 8 bandits) and was tasked by the elf Melindril to investigate the situation. They ended up discovering a secret gambling den (the “Bobcat Lair”) with rogues who were holding the man Relmar prisoner. They negotiated his release. On their way out, Melindril’s henchman Lirdan and 4 hired thugs ambushed them – attempting to kill Relmar. The group saved Relmar and killed the ambushers, after which Relmar revealed that Melindril was a dangerous spy operating in the region.
The group brought the evidence against Melindril to the authorities, who asked them to execute the spy. The group agreed, went to his house, and eliminated him (a rogue sorcerer, with his 3 guards). As a result, they were congratulated as heroes of Highfolk. The group’s wizard friend Eldubrais said he had a contact who needed some help in the Bandit Kingdom so they traveled there…
[Modules: LG: The Package]
In the Bandit Kingdom, Gaiyle Markhalla (the human wizard/rogue, ally of Eldubrais) hired TWD to go behind enemy lines, intercept an evil man named Nandris Leshite, capture him, and bring him back to her for justice. She gave them a map of an area controlled by Iuz’s forces and suggested an ambush spot for when his caravan would be coming through.
TWD purchased a teleport scroll and Flamelord used it to get them to the ambush site. The group failed to hide from a group of 30 marauding orcs, which meant they had to kill them. The battle alerted Nandris’ caravan and he fled from the scene. The group had to rest, but then they followed the tracks left behind - to an encampment with Nandris and 8 fighters defending him. The group had to kill the 8 fighters in order to take Nandris prisoner, but they succeeded. TWD returned their prisoner to Gaiyle, who paid them their reward. The group decided to rest for a week. Flamelord had been flirting with Gaiyle and spent the week sleeping with her at her place.
[Modules: LG: Fortress]
Gaiyle Markhalla asked TWD to help her cause trouble for the forces of Iuz while also collecting some treasure. The group agreed and followed her directions, heading off to assault an evil fortress. On the way, the group killed 6 orcs. At the keep, they had to take out: Irunio the human fighter/rogue/sorcerer, Lerkin the human cleric of Iuz, 2 goblin druids riding worgs, and 3 orc barbarians. TWD retrieved the loot and, in the dungeon of the fortress, they rescued 4 captured humans. They returned to Gaiyle and celebrated their success. In love with Flamelord, Gaiyle asked if she could start traveling with TWD and he said yes.
[Modules: LG: Exposing Kyuss: The Hunt is On]
The group journeyed to The County of Urnst, where they heard rumors of an undead cult that needed to be found and destroyed. Following the suggestions of the locals, the group ended up at the nobles’ cemetery of Radigast City. They were looking for Smady Ontem, the assistant caretaker of the cemetery, to question him since it was believed he had something to do with the recent incursion of undead. Instead, they found 1 evil sorcerer and 4 gargoyles that they had to destroy.
Continuing down into the cellar, TWD was attacked by hoards of undead that they destroyed: 10 zombies, 6 ghouls, and 3 ghasts. After that, the group found an altar to Kyuss and the undead Smady (a “Son of Kyuss”); they destroyed him and the evil altar. The group stayed at the Whistling Kitty Inn and rested. Countess Belissica sent a note saying that she was impressed by the group’s actions and thanked them for being heroes in her city.
The group spent some down time enjoying their fame in Radigast City. Gaiyle realized she was pregnant and told Flamelord, who insisted they return to the Valley of the Mage to get married. They used their money to buy a teleport scroll there, where Flamelord’s parents were happy to host a wedding ceremony for him and his bride. Gaiyle stayed behind at the palace to have their child while Flamelord continued his adventures with TWD.
[Modules: UK4: When a Star Falls]
TWD went into the mountains, chasing after the location of a falling star’s crash site. On the way through the mountains, they were attacked by an evil monk/shade, a giant raven, and a shadow mastiff that they had to kill. They met with the half-elf druid-wizard Derwyth, who had 2 pet giant eagles and told them about the area and the location of a nearby evil derro base that had captured human slaves inside. He also told them about the monk tower deeper in the mountains.
The falling star had damaged the derro lair. The group had to kill 20 derro and 1 lamia in order to save the human slaves. They brought the slaves back to the Valley of the Mage, where they could start new lives since their village had been destroyed by the derro; TWD donated a portion of their loot for this purpose.
Going back into the mountains, the group made friends with a group of barbarian human hunters. They arrived at the monk tower and discovered that it had been taken over by the evil human Piyarz. The group had to kill Piyarz’s 25 gnome guards, 3 human monks, and 1 stone guardian, before they finally were able to finish him off. They rescued the remaining human sage Shalfey, who was relieved to have the forces of evil vanquished from the tower. He gave the group full access to the library and allowed them to each pick a magic item from the treasury there (which was awesome).
Shalfey sent the group to take out the lair/forge of some evil deep gnomes, where they had to kill: 40 goblins, 6 giant lizards, and 7 deep gnomes on giant lizards. After that, the 2 young red dragons who powered the forge came up and fought the group (Grisdelfawr and Pyrofenix): the group almost killed the first dragon, but then the dragons downed 6 of the 7 group members with their fire-breaths. Flamelord managed to get away while the dragons killed the rest of his group.
Alone, back in the mountains, Flamelord wept for the loss of his friends and he felt ashamed that he had run away. He used his flying carpet to fly away in shame and start a secret new life. In time, Shalfey realized the group had not returned to him and he went back to Derwyth, who returned to the Valley of the Mage to let them know that it appeared the group had met their demise at the deep gnome lair.
The original Nightscale Adventuring Guild of Tamoachan, Lejefyr, and Alvar met up with Erystel I and went to the lair. Together, the 4 of them killed the 2 red dragons and the 2 alien juggernaut machines. They recovered TWD’s gear and the loot from the hoard of the red dragons. The dragons had already eaten the group, so they assumed that Flamelord had perished with the others. They were able to use the bodies of the dragons to have 6 suits of red dragon scalemail created.
[XSOLO1: Lathan’s Gold]
Months later, Flamelord had been using the alias Burnblade and ended up in Hardby. He was hired by the elf fighter/wizard Lathan Lancehand (who needed help getting back his kidnapped fiancé Alandah, who had been taken by the evil Baron Ludwig von Hendriks). Lathan asked Burnblade to accompany him to to bring the 1,000 gp ransom to Fort Hendriks, but first they had to go adventuring to get the 1,000 gp ransom. They heard about a burning mountain in the Sea of Dread that was said to have treasure so Lathan borrowed 750 gp to finance an expedition there.
Burnblade suggested that instead of using the 750 gp to hire a ship and crew to get there, that they instead use the money to buy a teleport scroll. They went to a wizard’s shop and convinced the wizard the sell them 1 teleport scroll, but Lathan attempted to take 2 scrolls. The wizard chided him, taking back the 2nd scroll. Lathan knew they would need a second scroll to return so he begged Burnblade to break in at night and steal the 2nd scroll for them to use. Burnblade waited until it got dark, quietly broke the lock, and stealthed his way through the shop. He got not only the extra teleport scroll, but the entire case of scrolls that were for sale.
They teleported to the island and managed to get enough gold to be worth at least 1,000 gp – but the volcano on the island erupted and they had to quickly teleport out. Lathan teleported them to Fort Hendriks. They called out to the evil baron and his guards showed up, taking them inside with the gold. They handed over the gold and expected the baron to give them his fiancé, but the baron ordered his men to kill them and take their gear. Burnblade and Lathan had to kill the guards and the baron. They rescued Alandah and freed the servants from the control of the baron.
With the baron’s vault, the group was able to return to Hardby and pay off Lathan’s debts. They also apologized to the wizard that they had stolen from and paid him 5,000 gp to bribe him not to report them to the authorities. Lathan and Alandah said they were going to get married and live at the fort, which they would call Fort Lancehand. They invited Burnblade to work for them, but he couldn’t stay with them; they reminded him too much of the happiness he had with his wife and the life he ran away from in shame.
[Modules: XSOLO2: Thunderdelve Mountain]
Back in Hardby, Burnblade found work when he was hired by the dwarf fighter Delfi Ironboot to help him in his quest at Thunderdelve Mountain – to reclaim the lost home of the nearby mountain dwarf clan. Legends told that the home was lost when flame serpents attacked, thus making Burnblade the fire genasi a good ally to help Delfi take on the ruins of the location.
Delfi explained that the location of the entry to the ruins of the old dwarf base had been taken over by a group of human thieves. They made their way there and captured the thief guarding the entrance. They explored inside, fighting 3 shadows and 4 large red worms. The red worms killed Delfi, but Burnblade finished them off.
Burnblade retrieved the legendary sentient Mithril Hammer of Vitroin +3 [with an extra 1d8 fire damage], which spoke to him: “Even though you be not dwarf, you have the honor of a dwarf. I have read your mind. If there be a fire serpent here, then take me and let us slay it!” Burnblade agreed with the hammer and decided to go slay the beast. After much exploring (and fighting off undead monsters), he finally found the salamander and entered deadly combat, barely surviving as the victor. Unfortunately, the monster was bound to the lair and the place began to collapse around Burnblade. He used his last teleport scroll to return to safety in Hardby, where he traded out his loot/gear.
With his new magic platemail armor concealing his identity, he decided to go by the alias of Hammerflame and pretend to be an eldritch knight from far away lands. He journeyed to Greyhawk and tried to convince Felicia Mordenkainen to sell him a belt of fire giant’s strength for 35,000 gp (which was what he had left), but she wanted at least 50,000 gp for it so he couldn’t buy it yet.
[Modules: WGR2: Treasures of Greyhawk]
Felicia suggested some potential adventures for Hammerflame to go on that could get him the rest of the money that he needed. First she sent him into the mountains toward the Tower of Ramise, where a random human fighter named Rowan Darkwood challenged him to an honorable duel for a wager of 100 gp. Hammerflame lost the fight, paid Rowan the 100 gp, and earned his respect. They camped together and Rowan joined Hammerflame in his quest.
At the Tower of Ramise, the gnome illusionist Raynald Shortfellow greeted them and welcomed them in. Inside was a female sphinx who accepted 1,000 gp in exchange for answering a question for each of them. Rowan asked the identity of the man who had killed his brother (a night watchman in Greyhawk) and stolen the family’s magic dagger Bladestar. The sphinx answered that it was Bey Wyvernthorn. Rowan begged Hammerflame to ask for the location of the murderer so he wasted his question on that. Afterward, Rowan attacked the sphinx, initiating combat with her and the gnome guard; Hammerflame reluctantly helped his new companion defeat them, but Rowan was killed along with the enemies.
Leaving alone (with the loot from Rowan and the gnome wizard), Hammerflame decided to go avenge the death of Rowan’s brother since that could lead him to more magic items to sell. He immediately went to the location the sphinx had told him and killed the murderer, his 5 bandit guards, and the ghost of a powerful half-elf assassin. As a result, Hammerflame obtained the sentient dagger +2 known as Bladestar.
Felicia Mordenkainen happily traded out the belt of fire giant strength for Bladestar and several of the other items Hammerflame had picked up. Selling the rest of his extra loot and adding it to his previous total, Hammerflame ended up with a total of 56,000 gp. He sent 55,000 of it back to the Valley of the Mage as an anonymous donation to his family.
A merchant in Greyhawk hired Hammerflame to investigate a strange man named Dorian Gallamar who was selling weird magic items. Hammerflame spoke with Dorian and followed him to his ship, the Starfarer. There, a mindflayer, 4 aliens, and the merchant attacked Hammerflame – who led combat with a fireball that took out everyone but the mindflayer. Hammerflame resisted the mindflayers mind blast attacks and beat him to death with the Mithril Hammer of Vitroin. He recovered a map to a nearby cave, where there was some sort of alien slaver plan being put in place.
Hammerflame rested and went to Felicia Mordenkainen to sell her the Starfarer and tell her about the cave. She checked out the ship, said it was a magical ship but she wasn’t sure how to use it, and paid 50,000 gp for it. She also sent 3 fighters to go with Hammerflame to stop the aliens in the nearby cave. They fought 2 umber hulks and rested. They continued, taking out another 4 umber hulks – but the 3 fighters died in the battle.
Alone again, Hammerflame rested and assaulted the place one more time. He killed 5 more aliens and their old master. He found the spelljamming helm that controlled the Starfarer and allowed it to travel to other worlds. He gave it to Felicia, who in turn suggested another location he could go to get magical treasure – from a map found on 2 caravan merchants who seemed to have killed one another.
Following the treasure map, Hammerflame ended up at a secret tomb of a female gnome in Cairn Hills, near the shoreline of Nyr Dyv. Inside he easily killed some undead guardians in the tomb, but there was a clay golem that almost killed him. He rested and found a shroud encrusted with gems worth 100,000 gp. He returned to the city and sold the shroud. He was then able to send another anonymous donation to his family – this time of 160,000 gp.
[Return of the 8]
Felicia called Hammerflame to meet with her, Rayvon the human cleric of Pelor, and the 2 half-giant fighters Morn and Jorn. She wanted them to work together to go rescue a famous wizard from a nalfeshnee demon that had taken over a castle. Hammerflame argued that he worked alone now because everyone he had adventured with had died along the way. The others said they were willing to die in the name of doing good so they teleported out as a team of 4.
Hammerflame, Rayvon, Morn, and Jorn had to kill many monsters:1 fire elemental, 13 shadows, 1 stone guardian, 1 bebelith, 14 sons of Kyuss, 600 stirges, 1 verme, 1 iron golem, 2 mages, 1 flesh golem, 6 orcs, 1 evil cleric with a quasit, 1 archmage, 1 half-ogre, 1 ghost, and 1 stone golem. Morn and Jorn died along the way, but the group liberated the Greyhawk wizard Grimslade who decided to tag along for a share of the loot/reward.
They took on another stone golem, 1 crypt thing, 1 nimbus, 1 lightning elemental, and then the mind-controlled wizard Jallarzi - who they were there to rescue. They had to knock her out and tie her up. They entered the chamber of the nalfeshnee demon; it killed Grimslade and Rayvon, but Hammerflame won the day – killing the demon with the Mithril Hammer of Vitroin.
Jallarzi regained her senses and returned with Hammerflame to Greyhawk; he could have taken over 500,000 gp worth of loot but felt he should return it to the owners since they were alive and powerful wizards. As a reward he only accepted boots of elvenkind and the friendship of the Circle of 8.
Yarth: [Sagard 1: The Ice Dragon]
The young barbarian warrior Sagard from Ratik left his people to go out into the mountains on his test of manhood, to prove himself. On his own, he killed a mountain lion. Glanda showed up, saying she too was doing the ritual, and she hoped to get the heart of the ice dragon as her trophy to impress the tribal council. Glanda’s ex-boy friend showed up and Sagard fought him for the honor to date her, but she was just using him to make her ex jealous. Sagard realized this and left them both to sort out their own issues.
Stumbling upon 2 slavers with a caged woman, Sagard killed the 2 men and rescued her. She turned out to be a valkyrie and awarded him with a magic sword. He ventured to the local sage, a Frusti berserker, who had a map to the lair of the ice dragon. On the way there, he killed 2 Tehnite fighters and 1 huge furred snake.
At the ice lair, Sagard killed: 15 bats, 4 kobolds, 1 ice golem, 1 arctic snow tiger, 1 yeti, 4 guards, and a machine called “the ice dragon” (which turned out to be old technology left behind by an ancient culture). He rescued 6 Teknikans. When he returned to his people with all of his trophies and the gem known as “the heart of the ice dragon,” they not only said he was a true warrior, they offered him the chieftainship. He thanked them, but said he wanted to go out into the world.
[Sagard 2: The Green Hydra]
Sagard left his tribe with a group of men who were going to trade in the nearby city Suthorp. They were ambushed by a team of evil Hukka warriors; Sagard was the only survivor. He took the Hukka canoe to sneak down the river to avoid being killed by the other Hukka men in the area. Sagard had to kill a crocodile. He avoided a swamp hag who tried to lure him into a trap.
At night, he had to fight off 4 owlbears. He ended up sleeping in the ruins of an ancient temple, where he had dream visions that sent him on a quest to defeat the green hydra of the Slith Islands. The ancient spirits gave him a golden chalice called Ambroth that, once a day, could create a full heal potion. When he arrived in Suthorp, the merchant Chaga attempted to rob him so he had to fight off the 5 guards; Sagard allowed Chaga to keep his life in exchange for 1,500 gp. On the way out, he had to kill 3 more thieves.
At the Inn of the Merry Wench an old dying man gave Sagard a scroll and said for him to get it to Ketza Kota. A Slith assassin killed the old man; Sagard killed the assassin. In finding Ketza Kota, Sagard had to fight a smoke demon. Ketza Kota turned out to be a beautiful woman, who told Sagard the story of the green hydra (who was being held in a tomb by the Slith who were using paralysis arrows to keep it at bay – but the Slith had been corrupted by the magic that created the constant paralysis arrows).
Ketza Kota gave Sagard magic chainmail of damage reduction and wished him luck. He paid pirates to transport him to the volcanic Slith Island; on the way, he had to defend himself from 2 pirate thugs that tried to kill him. On the island, he stole a cultists robe to disguise himself and went inside. Inside, Sagard killed: 10 fire bats, 4 elite Slith guards, 6 regular Slith guards, 1 succubus, 1 demon, and the 7-headed green hydra. He escaped and fought a muck demon outside. Eventually, he made his way back to the mainland with 1,000 gp worth of loot.
[Sagard 3: The Crimson Sea]
While vacationing with Ketza Kota (and hiding from Slith assassins on an island), Sagard ran off after a thief who tried to steal his magic sword; He ended up fighting 2 men – who turned out to be slavers; while Sagard was distracted, the rest of the slaver crew kidnapped Ketza Kota.
Sagard rushed to the slave market in hopes of finding her. He fought 2 guards and released 29 slaves. As a group, Sagard and the slaves had to battle 44 guards who rushed into the area; Sagard and 15 of the slaves survived. They told him that Sultoon Jazeer had placed an order for several young women with the slaver Salamar Rabfahd (of the ship Midnight Reaper). Sagard and his freed slaves decided to go try to take that ship (since they needed to escape and he wanted to find Ketza Kota). Once they boarded the ship, Salamar revealed that Ketza Kota had already been given to Jazeer. Sagard killed Salamar and took command of the ship, getting the captain’s magic cutlass. Some of the slavers jumped ship; the others were killed by the freed slaves. They sailed the seas with 2 goals: (1) search for Ketza Kota and (2) find a new home for the slaves.
The crew made port on the Island of Gold, where beautiful women came and danced with them; they turned out to be monsters that killed some of the men. After that, 5 water genasi marauders riding giant fish attacked the ship and the crew had to kill them. The crew made port on Isle of Hope, where they met 7 women who asked them to kill Sardonus the dragon. Mowanna, the female leader, went with Sagard and his men. They defeated the dragon.
The natives had a huge feast in honor of the dragon slayers; Sagard got Mowanna pregnant after some drunk celebrations. The group spent several days resting on the island; Mowanna gave Sagard a dragonscale-shield crafted from the dead body of Sardonus. The slave crewmembers decided they wanted to live there, but agreed to take Sagard to Hitaxia so he could rescue Ketza Kota.
After his new friends dropped him in the Hitaxian port city Tabu-Bel-Abu, Sagard told them to keep the ship and they sailed away to be with their new native women of the Isle of Hope. Sagard hired a guide boy who directed him to an old man, who helped by giving him a giant riding bat so he could fly into the palace and kill Sultoon Jazeer. At the palace, Jazeer had a lamp that controlled a genie and ordered it to fight Sagard; Sagard grabbed the lamp and got control of the genie. Sagard sent the genie to kill Jazeer, who was running away.
Sagard rescued Ketza Kota and climbed out with her. He put her on the giant bat, but a Slith assassin had tracked them down and tried to kill them. Sagard sent Ketza Kota flying off on the bat while he killed the assassin; she went off into the night, riding to safety. Sagard got 2,000 gp of treasure out of it and saw that the genie had been slain after taking out Jazeer and many of the palace guards.
[Sagard 4: The Fire Demon]
Before he could find out where Ketza Kota went, Sagard had to run from multiple Slith assassins that came after him. He decided he had to leave; on the road he killed 7 wererats that threatened him. He made his way to a slave market and used his money to buy the 30 slaves there. Sagard also bought spears, gear, and food for them. He decided he and his new army would go into the jungle searching for treasure.
Sagard paid the former slaves to help guarantee their loyalty; he found out one of them was a woman with a fake beard/disguise. Her name was Uruthu and she said she was the princess of the Momboddo Empire; she had olive-colored skin and crimson eyes. As a group, they killed 15 Kodokii with glider suits; 9 of the former slaves were killed. Sagard killed the 2 merchants who betrayed them. He killed a giant python, impressing 10 jungle Halfling warriors who agreed to join his forces. River crocodiles killed 5 more of the freed slaves.
A giant queen bee and 19 of her soldiers attacked the group; they lost 4 more freed slaves and 2 halflings to them. Salt plants killed another freed slave and 3 more Halflings. Eventually, they found the Lost City of Sanda-Uul where they had to fight the evil sorcerer Ushad-I and his 45 zombies. They interrupted his ritual to summon a demon. At the end of the battle, Sagard’s team won; Sagard, Uruthu, and 2 of the jungle halflings survived. Sagard retrieved the sorcerer’s pendant and used it to free the spirits of the lost people of Sanda-Uul.
Sagard received the crown jewels of Sanda-Uul (which were worth 5,750 gp). The fire demon showed up, but Uruthu realized they could destroy the sorcerer’s pendant to banish the fiend; the plan worked. Uruthu invited Sagard to accompany her south to her empire, where she was set to become the queen (Momboddo was ruled by women). She explained that if Sagard wished to be her king, he wouldn’t have to worry about having any responsibilities – other than providing a future heir.
1381 DR / 601 CY
Yarth:
Sagard’s children were born.
Oerth NAG:
At the Valley of the Mage: Nox realized the anonymous donations must have been coming from his son Fyro, that he was alive. He discussed the possibility with his daughter, Queen Furosa of Furyondy, who agreed and was jealous; she wanted to go off having secret adventures like her brother. She used her influence to meet with the members of NAG (her secret lover Tamoachan, Lejefyr, and Alvar) and asked them if they could let her put on a mask and secretly join the new division that she heard they were forming, but they told her that they had just sent out The Redscale Division (TRD) with the 3 black half-dragon/lizardfolk sons of Aulicus and Grauk: Aulicus II, Grauk II, and Voshk – all fighters wearing the new red dragonscale armor. Accompanying them was a bullywug cleric, the son of Zenfis (Zenfis II, wearing platemail+1 that had been painted red with symbols of Semuanya on it).
Furosa asked about the mixed green-black half-dragon brother (the rogue named Emrald) and Macer’s 2 red dragonborn daughters who were still around the Valley of the Mage (Raxane the sorcerer and Espoa the death cleric). NAG told her that they had all finished their training and would make for fine adventurers, but that Emrald and Raxane had just had a son (a mixed green/black/red dragonborn) and that it was possible Espoa was evil. Furosa didn’t care about that; she offered to have Emrald and Raxane’s baby brought to her palace to be raised alongside her son Belvor V, by the best caretakers in Furyondy, if only she could go off adventuring for a while. NAG suggested they first see how successful TRD was, but that they did have the 3 white dragonscale suits of armor available and could potentially form a new version of NAG: The White Division (TWD2).
The Redscale Division of Aulicus II, Grauk II, Voshk, and Zenfis II had accepted magical gear and membership in NAG. They understood that until their debt for the gear was paid off, they would be splitting their loot with the main partners of NAG.
[Modules: B11 The King’s Festival]
TRD accepted a quest to go stop some orc raiders. They followed the tracks to a cave, where they killed 6 orcs and 1 kobold. They rested, went deeper into the cave, and fought 8 orcs with their bugbear buddy. They rested again before taking on 2 orc lieutenants with a giant spider. They rested some more and went into the orc chief’s throne room to kill him, his orc wizard, and the other 3 orc lieutenants. It was a tough battle, but they survived thanks to the healing powers of Zenfis II. They took their loot, rescued Aralic the priest, and let the orc women and children go free.
They brought Aralic back to safety and he told them about the secret 2nd layer of the dungeon with the vile cleric Petrides and his undead. TRD returned and cleared out the next layer of the cave dungeon, which had 10 skeletons, a ghoul, a thoul, 2 zombies, and the evil cleric Petrides.
[Modules: B12]
In the loot, TRD found a stolen letter addressed to the wizard Kavorquian. When they returned to town and asked Aralic about it, he told them where the wizard lived so they took it there, hoping to get a reward or at least another quest. It took them about a day to ride out to the wizard’s home, where they found magical protection runes on the door. There, a butler greeted them and invited them inside. He asked for their names and retrieved his master – who turned out to be Kavorquian’s adopted son Kaerin Penhaligon, the human cleric.
Kaerin thanked them for the letter, expressed dire need of help, and then offered them an adventure – explaining that his father had been murdered and there were lots of monsters and thieves down in the basement beneath the house. The group accepted the quest and agreed to return his magic sword and the stolen tiara; in exchange, he said they could keep any other loot from the invaders.
TRD went down and killed: a flesh golem, 2 shadows, 2 fire beetles, a swarm of rats, 2 thieves, 3 phase spiders, 3 zombies, 1 gargoyle, 1 green slime, more rats, 4 more zombies, and 1 rust monster before resting. They returned, taking on 1 crystal golem. They had to rest afterward, but they put the destroyed body parts in their portable hole. They finished clearing the place out by killing an evil adventuring party with a dwarf fighter, elf cleric, and human wizard.
When they hauled their loot out and returned to Kaerin, they found out that he had been attacked by thieves and the servants were killed. The group rested after returning his items to him. They escorted Kaerin to the safety of the big city, where the cleric said he would be off to romance a beautiful woman by giving her the valuable tiara. He thanked them again. They had the royal court wizard Spugnoir teleport them to the City of Greyhawk, where they traded out their loot.
[Modules: B10 Night’s Dark Terror]
Looking for work, TRD accepted a mission to defend Fort Sukiskyn in the Shield Lands that was about to be raided by a huge army of monsters. They joined the defenses there, helping take out: 2 goblin clans for a total of 90 goblins, 13 dire wolves, and 5 vampire bats. Some of the fort’s horses were stolen so TRD and a human ranger followed the tracks and took out the bandits.
TRD went on the offensive in the Shield Lands, taking out the lairs of several monsters: 5 hobgoblins, 10 wolves, 3 vampire bats, 18 giant rats, 12 stirges, 12 large snakes, 6 evil pixes, 2 gargoyles, 22 orcs, 8 duergar, 12 skeletons, 5 shadows, 1 zombie, 2 gray oozes, 3 thouls, 30 goblins, the goblin king, and 2 werewolves.
They found out one of the leaders (Sir Stephan Kelvin) had been kidnapped so they went to rescue him, taking on: 12 baboons, 15 more goblins, 2 gelatinous cubes, 3 phase spiders, 1 minotaur, 2 gargoyles, and the other goblin king. They rescued Sir Stephan Kelvin. On their way back to the fort, they were attacked by a large group of bandits/slavers, but they took them out and rescued 20 slaves.
TRD agreed to take the slaves back to Greyhawk so they could start new lives there and even donated 1,000 gp to each of them to help them, but they said they were done with the fort in the Shield Lands and wished the people staying good luck. When they returned to Greyhawk, the former slaves were very happy with the wealth given to them.
[Modules: C3: The Lost Island of Castanamir]
One of the rescued slaves told the group about the legend of the lost island of the wizard Castanamir so they looked up what they could at the library in Greyhawk and found out more about the wizard; Castanamir had been a powerful wizard from the goblin wars long ago. They found enough clues to find his old home in Hardby, which had a magic portal. They hired a wizard to activate the portal for them and go with them, hoping to loot the island for treasure since Castamir should be long dead.
At the island, they fought and killed: 2 flesh golems, 2 leprechauns, 2 thieves, 15 hobgoblins, 20 giant rats, 2 berserkers, 2 ogres, 6 dopplegangers, 2 lizardfolk, a wizard’s simulacrum, 1 giant wolverine, 2 hippogriffs, 1 evil mage, and 2 iron golems. They found lots of treasure and magic items, which they shared with the hired wizard. They used the portal from the island to return to Hardby. They told the wizard he could keep the island, for they were satisfied with the loot.
[Modules: C4: To Find a King]
The group traded out loot and then went into the marsh to kill a druid who had turned to evil. When they arrived, they found not only the evil druid, but also an old black dragon. In battle, both Zenfis II and Aulicus II died – but Grauk II and Voshk finished off their foes. They found the dragon’s treasure and put it (along with the dead bodies) in the portable hole. They returned to Hardby and paid to be teleported back to the Valley of the Mage.
At home, they had funerals for their lost brother and the son of Zenfis. They used the wealth they had accumulated to pay for 4 suits of black scalemail to be made from the remains of the dragon – with instructions to give them to NAG, along with the gear from the fallen adventurers.
[Modules: C5 The Bane of Llywelyn]
Grauk II and Voshk continued adventuring when Zenfis I told them about research that had uncovered the burial tomb of an ancient king. The powerful cleric joined them on their journey; they encountered 8 satyrs that danced and sang with them in the forest. They uncovered the old tomb (which was actually the burial mounds of many nobles from long ago) and fought/killed: 8 gargoyles, 1 nightmare, 1 ghost, 1 vampire, 10 drow, 8 ghouls, 18 zombies, 24 skeletons, 1 gorgon, 1 galeb duhr, and 2 wraiths.
The tunnel led to another base, where they killed: 1 flesh golem, 3 salamanders, 1 djinni, 4 fire drakes, 8 piercers, and a green slaad. They finally found the inner mausoleum of the ancient king, which had an army of undead inside that they had to destroy (24 skeletons, 24 zombies, 20 ghouls, 3 wights, and 3 ghasts). After that, they took on 2 stone golems, 1 iron golem, and an evil adventuring party.
They secured the loot from the place and made their way home, to trade in the Valley of the Mage. They thanked Zenfis I for his help, but said he should return home to his temple in Greyhawk. He understood and said he would pray to Semuanya for them. The brothers both took holy symbols from him as gifts.
[Modules: C6: Official RPGA]
Grauk II and Voshk accept a mission to act as guards for a cleric of Pelor named Sarkai who was taking an important relic to a temple. Much to the cleric’s surprise, instead of going the route he wanted, they used their money to pay a gnome wizard to teleport them to their destination. They made their profit and avoided enemies along the way.
[Modules: CA1 Swords of the Undercity]
The elf Kamal sold Grauk II and Voshk a stolen book that he said could be taken to a wizard and sold for even more money. Instead of journeying to the wizard Kamal suggested, they took it to Nox and sold it to him so he could give it to Kanith as a gift. Nox then hired them to take out an evil wizard and some undead that had invaded the area. They easily accomplished this goal and collected their payment.
[Modules: CA2 Swords of Deceit]
Nox had another mission for them; he hired Grauk II and Voshk to go find the hero Hammerflame and convince him to come speak with him. The brothers journeyed to Hardby, where they found out that Hammerflame was working a case, looking for 2 famous sellswords who had gone missing while investigating an illegal gambling ring. When the brothers approached Hammerflame, he was reluctant to work with them, but gave them the benefit of the doubt since they were friends he had grown up with.
Hammerflame (Fyro) explained that his leads suggested the lost mercenaries were kidnapped by the rat king of the sewers, which meant they would all have to be magically shrunk down to go in and find them. Grauk II and Voshk found that to be exciting. The 3 of them went in, killed the rat army, took out the king, and saved the mercenaries. The 2 mercenaries (who called themselves Tallman and Greymouse) worked with them to take out all of the people running the illegal gambling ring.
Fyro, Grauk II, and Voshk made a good team so Fyro told the brothers about an offer from Felicia Mordenkainen to go adventure at the legendary Firestorm Peak – a lair supposedly full of monsters and treasure – but he didn’t want to go there without a cleric since he was worried that the brothers could get killed on the mission. They called him arrogant since he wasn’t concerned about himself. They put out a search for an experienced adventuring cleric and interviewed several people. They chose the half-elf, Tula Meraly, who told them about her adventures…
[Modules: The Jade Hare and The Knight of Newts]
Tula Meraly used to travel with an elf wizard (Lacesso the Quick) and 3 human barbarians (the Dunstill brothers). With her healing, the wizard’s magic, and the brute strength of the barbarian trio they had started to think they were invincible. In their 1st adventure they defeated 10 goblins, a hobgoblin, 2 yellow molds, a warlock, and a gargoyle in order to return an idol of a jade hare to a village. In their second quest they cleared out a den of evil that contained: 4 evil dwarves, 4 lizardfolk, 1 giant spider, 2 crocodiles, 4 carrion crawlers, 1 green slime, 4 giant toads, 1 water elemental, and a newtfolk knight.
[Modules: Assault on Raven Run and Quest for the Silver Sword]
Their 3rd quest went just as well, with them clearing another monster lair: 20 goblins, 1 kobold, 3 skeletons, 2 giant rats, 4 wolves, 1 giant spider, 3 hobgoblins, and the thief who had stolen the scepter of truth. They returned the stolen scepter for a large reward. At that point, Tula had explained to her group that she thought they were taking on challenges too easy for them, but the wizard assured her that it was important to them to continue gaining treasure. Their next mission required them to kill: 4 giant rats, 1 animated suit of armor, 1 giant spider, 3 zombies, 1 ghoul, 1 spitting beetle, 1 green slime, a bunch of rats, 1 gelatinous cube, 1 wererat, and 1 ice golem – for a village of elves that paid them well.
[Modules: UK6: All that Glitters]
Encouraging her group to take on more of a challenge, Tula got them to travel to the jungle looking for treasure. They found plenty, but along the way, they had to slay: 1 hydra, 1 fire giant, 2 hell hounds, 1 invisible stalker, 1 hellcat, 1 gelatinous cube, 1 shadow demon, 1 smoke mephit, 30 zombies, 1 bearded devil, 1 spined devil, 30 lemures, an evil cleric with his 2 sisters, 30 more zombies, 23 skeletons, 16 ghouls, 4 ghasts, 8 evil acolytes, lots of snakes, 4 mummies, and 1 drelb. Unfortunately, the 3 barbarians were killed on the quest – but the wizard was happy because they had all of the loot from the tomb of Teaxoctl. He and Tula were rich. On their way out of the jungle, the natives were going to attack them for taking the valuables, but Tula gave them the magical decanter of endless water.
[Modules: UK7 Dark Clouds Gather]
Tula and Lacesso hired 3 fighters to accompany them on their adventures. They went to a human village near the mountains that had captured an aaracokra and was going to burn him at the stake as a demon. Tula intervened, saving the man. They had to flee the village and, in the wilderness, killed: 1 ogre, 15 bugbears, 5 trolls, and 8 ogres. Sadly, the 3 new fighters all died in combat. They returned the aaracokra to his people. Lacesso referred to the dead fighters as “meatshields” and said not to worry, that they could always just hire more. His insensitivity worried Tula so she said they should part ways. He became angry, but teleported her back to Hardby and went off to hire more “meatshields.”
[Modules: The Gates of Firestorm Peak]
Thus Tula had arrived ready to adventure with NAG: TRD. Grauk II, Voshk, and Fyro accepted her into the group and provided her with a suit of red dragon scalemail+1 for her armor. They met with Felicia Mordenkainen to discuss Firestorm Peak, where her wizard friend Nigel had gone to and disappeared. Felicia was hoping they would be able to rescue Nigel and she said they could keep whatever treasure they found along the way. She gave them 2 teleport scrolls so they could get there and back.
Fyro teleported them to the mountainous area marked on the map. A group of evil duergar already in the area attacked them. To clear out the place, they had to kill: 26 duergar, 3 giant skeletons, 1 crypt thing, 4 wraiths, 4 giant scorpions, 20 large bats, 12 carrion crawlers, 56 more duergar, 30 goblins, 5 duergar clerics, 12 steeder-riding duergar, 1 duergar archpriest, 1 duergar knight, and an efreeti – before the rest of the duergar living there surrendered to them.
The group delved further, spending weeks killing: 24 large spiders, 3 gibbering mouthers with 30 gibberlings, an army of 150 gibberlings, 1 deepspawn, a greater gibbering mouther, 40 mutant trolls, the troll queen, 30 fungal zombies, 25 myconids, the myconid king, 4 wystes, 1 Far Realmsian neh-thalggu, Dharculus the tentacle-lord, Straygate the djinni, 5 meenlocks, and a bloodsipper. Along the way, they found Nigel’s adventuring companions turned into aberrations and living walls. They also found parts to the magic portal in the mountain called the Worldgate.
They found Nigel, but he revealed that he was a minion of the evil wizard Madreus and sounded the alarm. The group soon found themselves in an epic battle with the wizard Nigel, the archmage/alienist Madreus (with robes of the archmagi), 15 duergar guards, 2 gibberlings, 2 myconids, and 3 mutant trolls. In the end, everyone died except for Fyro. He was in tears watching his fallen friends, but he destroyed the strange alien altar/portal device so it could never be used again.
Fyro teleported back to Felicia Mordenkainen to give her the bad news about Nigel and the quest. He bought more teleport scrolls from her and brought the dead bodies of his team to the Valley of the Mage with the loot, which he felt should be shared with the Bogwalker family. Funerals were held for Grauk II, Voshk, and Tula. People celebrated Fyro as a hero, but he didn’t feel like one. He was glad to be back with his wife and child, but he never stopped blaming himself for the deaths of so many of his adventuring companions; he felt cursed.
The return of Fyro just made his sister, Queen Furosa, want to adventure all the more; she had been training as a paladin with one of Furyondy’s best Knights of Heironeous as her mentor. The married couple Emrald Bogwalker and Raxane Macer Bogwalker had been living in the palace at the capitol of Furyondy with their baby growing up with Furosa’s son, but the queen was unable to convince them and Raxane’s sister Espoa (the death cleric) to form an adventuring party as per her plan. NAG would need someone else to help with their adventuring.
[Modules: Heart of Nightfang Spire]
At the Valley of the Mage: Fyro was visited by some special guests with a special request. Alvar, Lejefyr (no longer using the belt of sex change), and Tamoachan – Nightscale Adventurer’s Guild (NAG) – finally had a lead on their case: they found out the vampire Lord Gulthias (the man responsible for the tree at the Sunless Citadel) had been seen hunting people near a ravine known as the Defile. Since a black dragon had been spotted in the same area, they wanted back up. They asked to temporarily leave Levara (Alvar and Lejefyr’s half-elf baby girl) there with Manith (Fyro and Gaiyle’s fire genasi son); they also wanted Fyro to adventure with them.
NAG didn’t care about the “curse” Fyro believed in; they wanted vengeance. Understanding that her husband needed adventure, Gaiyle said it was ok for Fyro to go again – as long as he came back soon. She took care of the children while Fyro was officially promoted to the main division of NAG. The team reviewed strategy: both Alvar and Fyro were fighter-wizards, Lejefyr was a war cleric, and Tamoachan was a rogue-paladin.
When NAG arrived at the Defile, they realized the overhanging cliffs on both sides blocked direct sunlight from hitting the monster base inside – Nightfang Spire. They went down into the ravine and cleared out the monsters: 1 mooncalf (that had already killed the black dragon), 9 wights, 9 vampire spawn, 6 shadows, 1 shadow mastiff, 9 spectres, 1 monk mummy, 1 vampiric gibbering mouther, 48 girallons, 9 mohrg, 1 vrock demon, 1 red half-dragon flesh golem, 2 flesh golems, 8 zombies, 1 elder fire elemental, 1 tombstone golem, 100 zombies, 100 skeletons, 2 night hags, Redbone the wight assassin, and Lord Gulthias the vampire (who was in a huge room with the disembodied beating heart of the ancient red dragon Ashardalon). They destroyed the heart.
Impressed that all 4 of them survived, Fyro offered to help Alvar, Lejefyr, and Tamoachan continue their quest to find the mysterious red half-dragon/dwarf that had killed Alvar’s previous friends. The notes and items left behind by the vampire lord gave them some clues to track down the villain.
[Modules: Deep Horizon]
First, they looked into the origin of some strange sculptures from the lair. A sage told them the items were made by a supposedly extinct race called the desmodu, monstrous batfolk who supposedly perished in a war with the drow about 300 years ago. Divination magic, however, suggested that the items were only about 3 months old and genuine. The group wanted to see if it was possible the desmodus were still alive and if they knew more about the operations of the red half-dragon/dwarf or anything else Gulthias and his people might have told them so they had the sage determine where they should go search in the Underdark.
Tamoachan, Lejefyr, Alvar, and Fyro made their way into the Underdark. After a couple of weeks in the dark caverns (dealing with random encounters), the group were ambushed by 6 desmodus; NAG tied up the enemies and rescued a prisoner (that the raiders happened to be carrying), the desmodu Viday. Viday answered NAG’s questions, explaining about his people and how the ruined drow city of Chael-Rekshaar was now controlled by a trio of beholders who used the desmodus as slaves. With Viday’s help, NAG was able to sneak into the city. They killed: 2 chuuls, 4 trolls, 1 mind flayer, 2 kuo-toa, the 3 beholders, 5 mercenaries, 8 salamanders, 1 vrock, 4 dire sharks, 1 iron maiden mohrg, 1 kraken, 4 hell hounds, 9 noble salamanders, 1 noble salamander wizard lord, 3 efreet, and 2 greater fire elementals. In doing so, they liberated the desmodu people. Sadly, Lejefyr died along the way and none of the desmodus knew anything about Gulthias, a red half-dragon/dwarf, or the ancient red dragon Ashardalon.
[Modules: Lord of the Iron Fortress]
The only other clue the group had pointed to a place called The Iron Fortress of Zandikar, but they weren’t sure where it was located. Knowing they would need a healer on their journey, NAG (Fyro, Tamoachan, and Alvar) went to the City of Greyhawk and asked Zanfis I to help them. He not only agreed to do so, but he also brought along 4 troglodyte barbarians who wanted a chance to get rich off of treasure.
The mission ending up taking them on a trail that led to the gate-town of Rigus, front door to the Plane of Acheron. There, the investigation revealed references to the Iron Fortress of Zandikar as being located on the layer of Acheron known as Avalas. Once on Acheron, they encountered many foes and setup a base of operations to make their assault on the Iron Fortress. They killed: 1 drow, 10 spectres, 4 adult blue dragons, 4 fire giants, 6 hell hounds, 1 green slaad, 1 death slaad, and a fomorian hive (with their queen). Along the way, the 4 troglodyte barbarians died.
Fyro’s childhood friend Snurreson (the son of the fire giant King Snurre) had been travelling through the area and helped him gather info on their enemies before stepping aside and going home. The red half-dragon/duergar turned out to be Imperagon, who was trying to re-forge the Blade of Fiery Might (which was a legendary ancient weapon used by the efreet). He had taken the spirits of the greatest forge-masters of history and imprisoned them in iron golems, enslaving them to toil endlessly in his own forge. He wanted the Blade of Fiery Might repaired so he could lead an army to carve out a new kingdom for himself on Oerth and thus he had formed alliances with drow, mind flayers, and many others.
The group found out from a drow spy that it took so long for them to get all of the information and fight through the enemies, that Imperagon’s slaves were just finishing fixing the Blade of Fiery Might as they prepared their final assault against the Iron Fortress. That meant they couldn’t pause or rest, or else Imperagon would have the blade to use against them.
To stop Imperagon, they had to destroy/kill: 1 blade golem, 8 steel predators, 1 dust mephit torturer, 2 mind flayers, 1 shield guardian, 1 oni, the duergar monk Devastra (Imperagon’s personal bodyguard), 2 azer overseers, 1 bladeling slavemaster, 2 dragonnes, 3 fire elementals, Ignitius, 2 greater fire elementals, 1 elder fire elemental, 1 greater blade golem, the rakshasa sorcerer Zharunkumar, a hellcat, Zalatian the fallen archon, Lydzin the pit fiend, and Imperagon. At the end of the final battle, Fyro (thanks to his fire resistance along the way) was the only one left alive – standing there crying as he used the Mithril Hammer of Vitroin to finish off Imperagon.
After the battle, the gnome slave cook Teewit came out from the back and fed Fyro a nice meal. Fyro claimed the Blade of Fiery Might as his new weapon to make sure it wouldn’t fall into the hands of evil forces. He also gathered the dead bodies of Tamoachan, Alvar, and Zenfis to bring them back to the Valley of the Mage for proper burial ceremonies. Teewit helped Fyro free all of the slaves, but the little gnome said he didn’t know where to go. Fyro brought him back to the Valley of the Mage with him and paid him to be a cook at the embassy.
The Blade of Fiery Might turned out to be an evil sentient artifact with a strong desire to conquer lands and have its wielder rule over a great empire. The only reason Fyro was able to resist the influence of the weapon was because he was also still attuned to the sentient Mithril Hammer of Vitroin (which protected him from the evil mind of the Blade of Fiery Might). When Fyro’s parents, Nox and Kanith, saw him with the Blade of Fiery Might, they announced that they would be retiring the live in the City of Brass; it was Fyro’s turn to rule over the Valley of the Mage and he had truly proven himself a capable leader.
Fyro told his wife that they would raise little Levara along with their son and treat her like their own child. She agreed that it was the right thing to do. Fyro split up all of the loot from their quests (except for his own personal gear), kept 50% for the Valley of the Mage, and donated 50% to Furyondy (where his sister Furosa was queen and could use the resources to defend her kingdom).
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
[Modules: N4: Treasure Hunt]
One day while Queen Furosa was out in the fields training with her paladin mentor, the 2 of them were attacked by slavers. When the knight fought back, the raiders killed him and took the queen hostage. She was crying as they chained her up in a wagon and rode away with her; Furosa realized she wasn’t as eager for danger and excitement as she had thought. The slavers blindfolded her and journeyed to the river, to sail to the seas on one of their slaver ships, to take her to their secret island hideout.
While at sea, Furosa was dressed in rags like the other slaves and thrown into a galley with them. She got to know her fellow slaves, not telling them that she was the queen of Furyondy. There were humans (Keestake the old man, Melisana Ventris the daughter of a noble merchant, Pretos Rabin the sailor, Mara Caftenor the jeweler’s assistant, Demin Dart the navigator), an elf (Alhellarra Quey the gambler), a half-elf (Lythandra Highport the armorsmith’s apprentice), and a gnome (Gofus Lighthook the fisherman). That made 9 of them being transported to be sold or held for ransom.
Pirates attacked the slaver ship, it was broken apart, and the slavehold crashed into a small island. Melisana’s chains broke free enough for her to be able to grab the keys and unlock the shackles around everyone – but Lythandra had been killed when her head hit the ship during the crash. Furosa and the other remaining 7 slaves escaped to the beach.
The slaver Hafkris the half-orc washed ashore nearby on the beach with his sword, dagger, crossbow, and spear. All the slaves had were some pieces of wood to use as clubs, but they decided to rush him with Furosa leading the charge. She missed, but Pretos struck hard [with a natural 20] and downed him. He declared the slaver’s studded leather armor and sword for himself. Furosa took the spear, Melisana claimed the crossbow with 10 bolts, and Gofus grabbed the dagger.
They searched the wreckage and found a navigational chart, the captain’s log (written in thieve’s cant), and a spellbook with 1st level spells in it. With the strong freezing winds in the area, the group decided to scout out some shelter – maybe a cave or something – hopefully before nightfall.
While exploring, they found a group of 8 goblins battling 5 orcs in the ravine. They observed until only 2 orcs and 3 goblins remained alive, Keestake started going crazy – screaming and running. The group decided to fight the monsters once they were noticed. The goblins killed Keestake, but the rest of the slaves survived after finishing off the monsters. They equipped the spears, daggers, and battleaxes.
The group wandered around some more and found what looked like an abandoned sea goddess temple that they hoped to use for shelter. Inside, they found and destroyed a ghoul – but it was a serious group effort. At night, Melisana volunteered for first watch and was cleaning up the altar to the goddess when she appeared in spirit form and spoke to her, thanking her for her work at the temple. Melisana woke up the others and the sea goddess thanked them for killing the orcs, who killed her human worshippers. She warned them that she would use her powers to flood the island after another day to cleanse it of evil and that they should leave before then. Melisana asked to become a priest for her and she granted the woman knowledge of her ways.
The next day the group found an h-shaped manor with an orc guard that they easily killed. They also surprised and killed a goblin scout. They found a dagger +1, which Gofus claimed since he had some gnomish magic/wizard training. The group took on a dangerous battle with 5 orcs: Mara and Demin were killed, but the rest survived (Furosa the paladin, Melisana the cleric, Pretos the fighter, Alhellarra the rogue, and Gofus the wizard).
A group of 8 goblins attacked them, but they defeated the group without any more losses. In the house they also found a wand of magic detection and a javelin of lightning. A secret passage in the library went down into some catacombs. There, they found and deactivated a crossbow trap (which got them a 2nd crossbow). They explored and found 2 zombies that they killed (that had good gear/loot in the crypt).
They also found a hidden cavern with a small galley ship. Pretos was able to teach them how to use the sails and oars and get the ship out to sea, becoming their defacto ship’s captain because of his sailing experience. Once the ship made it out to sea, Melisana promised the team that if they could get her back to her father, he would give them a reward of at least 2,000 gp. Pretos decided to romance her and she brought him into the captain’s cabin for some special alone time.
Realizing what was going on, Furosa smiled; she decided she enjoyed adventuring and wouldn’t mind if it took a while for her to get back to the capitol of Furyondy. The next day, the ship encountered a strange magical swirl of water that sucked the ship down into a whirlpool – they were submerged for a moment, but then they resurfaced with huge waves of water; what they didn’t know was that they had been transported to another world (the world known as Yarth).
Oerth TAX: Background info:
Grespo Gundigoot was born the tiefling child of the human Garsa Gundigoot (from her affair with a mysterious man named Esposach when he came through Hommlet). She was the wife of the owner of the Welcome Wench Inn and already had 2 daughters from her marriage to her husband. While pregnant, she became ill and suspected she was going to lose the baby so she made a warlock pact with a fiendish idol that had been found on the battlefield of Emridy Meadows. Her new fiend master transformed her dying baby in her womb into a healthy tiefling for her. After the baby’s birth, she named him Grespo Gundigoot; Garsa took Grespo and his 2 sisters and left Hommlet (as well as her husband) since she didn’t think the tiefling would be treated well in the small village. They moved to Verbobonc, where Grespo was able to attend the fighter academy.
After coming of age, Grespo found out about his mother’s warlock pact and the fiendish idol. He was drawn to it and when she died, he kept it as a momento to remember her by. At his mother’s funeral, his sisters Brada (the life cleric) and Ansa (the rogue) told him about his true father Esposach and how they had heard bards tell stories of his adventures and involvement in the Greyhawk Wars. They said that Grespo supposedly had a weretiger half-brother named Xamithus who was a famous barbarian competitor in a gladiatorial arena in the Duchy of Urnst.
[Modules: 3E Adventure Game Module]
Grespo, Brada, and Ansa travelled through the Gnarley Woods on their way to cross the river and meet with a trade caravan destined to end up in the Duchy of Urnst so they could find Xamithus and unite the half-brothers. While in the woods they assisted an elf druid named Coryl (who worshipped Bahamut) rescue Alabern the unicorn from a tribe of goblins and they cleared out some monsters in a mine. They bid goodbye to Coryl, who said he was going on his way to the Bahamut temple for his official initiation into their order.
The Gundigoot siblings had a peaceful journey to the Duchy of Urnst, where they found Xamithus signing autographs after one of his arena fights. They introduced themselves and said they wanted to spend time getting to know him since he was family. Xamithus was polite, but told them that his heart was one of a warrior and that he was about to single-handedly go on a quest into the Mines of Madness to retrieve the Forever Stone (which was said to make its owner immortal). They offered to join him on the quest, which he accepted as long as they understood that the stone would be his; they decided they would equally split any other loot they found.
[Modules: Mines of Madness]
Much of the area formerly known as The Great Kingdom had been in ruins since the destruction wrecked from the Greyhawk Wars, but within the mountains along the coast was the legendary site of the infamous Mines of Madness. The group used the money Xamithus had from his victories in the arena to purchase some healing potions and hire a wizard to journey with them (Ansa insisted on this since none of them had any arcane magic knowledge and their quest involved a place created by an old wizard). Their hired human wizard was named Siete Bloodcloak; he used a scroll to teleport them since he wasn’t powerful enough to know the spell yet.
When they reached the outside of the Mines of Madness, there was an outhouse with an everburning torch of green flame. When Ansa approached the small building, a purple worm burst out of the ground and ate the outhouse. She used her stellar dexterity to roll out of the way of the beast before it went back to tunneling under the ground. Once inside the actual mines, the group battled and killed 4 cockatrices (that petrified the wizard Siete Bloodcloak) and 15 skeletons (from which they attained a diamond pickaxe).
They continued exploring, killed a gelatinous cube, and tunneled their way into a sealed room with moaning sounds coming out of it; inside was a portal to an evil realm – out came 4 zombie pigfolk and 2 exploding deathstalkers (that blew up when they got near Ansa – destroying the portal). Ansa died in the explosion with the monsters. The rest of the group hauled out her dead body, buried her, and rested.
They explored more tunnels and found 2 hungry goblin fighters who had been hiding in the shadows: Hug Hug and his brother Bug Hug. Xamithus thought they were willing to follow him so he let them join the group; they gave them the gold swords from the zombie pigfolk. The group found a mineshaft lift, but it broke on them, causing the group to fall down the shaft. Bug was knocked unconscious and had to be healed by Brada. Below, they found a yellow mold creature that almost killed both goblin brothers. They found Orcspotter (an elven shortsword+1 that glowed when orcs were within 100’ of it).
They rested and climbed out of the shaft. They explored more, killed 1 mimic, went to the bottom level, took damage from a lightning-trapped door, and suffered from a reverse gravity trap (though they found magic chainmail). They rested. They continued. Bug Hug was killed by 2 rust monsters. The group dealt with several traps, one of which polymorphed Hug Hug into 50 electrum coins. After that, the survivors (Grespo, Xamithus, and Brada) fell for a trap that locked them in a room and demanded one of them become a sacrifice to a blood-stained obsidian altar in order for the other 2 to be able to leave.
Brada was willing to give up her life, but Grespo offered another solution. He pulled out his mother’s fiendish idol and made a warlock pact with the creature it communed with – promising his service in exchange for assistance. A fallen angel deva teleported in and allowed himself to be sacrificed, leaving behind his radiant mace (which Grespo started using).
In the next cavern, the group defeated an iron golem and rested. The group faced the purple worm and it killed/ate Brada before the half-brothers were able to kill it. They rested again. They finally found the crypt of the mad wizard with the forever stone – but he was now a crypt thing who demanded a sacrifice in exchange for the stone; neither brother wanted to die so the crypt thing freed the young green dragon he had in stasis to fight them; the dragon almost killed Grespo with its poison breath, but Xamithus cut off the dragon’s head.
The crypt thing declared them heroes and let them take the Forever Stone (which actually just keeps someone from aging, though if he or she parted with it all of those years would catch up with the person). They also hauled out the green dragon’s body to have trophy armor made from it. They made their way to a coastal town and took downtime while the armor was crafted for them; they sold/traded their extra loot/gear. A local wizard told them it would take a wish spell to fix Hug Hug so the goblin remained a pile of electrum coins. They were able to hire someone to de-petrify Siete Bloodcloak.
[Modules: Slumbering Tsar and Bard Gate]
Grespo’s warlock patron, who still hadn’t identified himself, wanted them to go travel across the sea to the old continent of “the wilderlands” and get him treasure from the ruins of the Orcus-worshipping city of Tsar; he insisted that he would be more specific about what he wanted when the group was close to finding it. Grespo felt compelled to do as his master wished so he convinced his brother and Siete that it would be glorious battle with great opportunity for treasure. They used the rest of their money to buy a book with ancient lore and a sea captain’s map from long ago (since people no longer travelled across the "ocean of monsters").
With the lore they had obtained, Siete was able to use their last teleport scroll to get them close to the area known as “the desolation.” They ended up on the edge of civilization (outside of a city named Bard’s Gate), at a town called The Camp. When they arrived, they spotted a hanging man on a noose in the center of town and a lich. They sprung into action, attacking the undead wizard; the lich killed Siete Bloodcloak with power word kill and the half-brothers destroyed the undead wizard’s body.
The people in the town looked at them strangely. The half-elf hermit monk Simon walked over and explained that the lich was known as the Usurer and was the town leader. They convinced Simon to show them where the lich had lived so they could destroy its phylactery before it had a chance to re-spawn. They broke into the house and stole 55,000 gp worth of treasure, but could not find the phylactery.
Simon said they had earned his respect and he would join them on their quest, but that they had better leave town before the lich reformed and got his revenge. He also pointed out that there were 2 more undead in the city, so they destroyed them: 1 undying hanged man and 1 ghast. When Grespo said he hoped this quenched the village of evil, Simon chuckled and pointed out that the temple in the city was to an old death god.
They went and killed the hobgoblin death cleric and his 2 acolytes at the temple. Simon told them that the area they wanted to quest in was full of undead and monsters and suggested they hire the local mercenary group or at least some ranger scouts before heading out.
Grespo and Xamithus figured they had enough money to hire all of the mercenaries and scouts so they ended up with an army consisting of: Skeribar the human ranger with Redtooth his wolf companion, 7 additional trained wolves, 7 more human rangers, Clantock the half-orc fighter/rogue mercenary leader, and 12 additional half-orc warriors. Xamithus took charge, insisting they call the group “The Army of Xamithus” (TAX).
They entered the area known as “the desolation” where, centuries ago, The Army of Light fought against the Army of Orcus and left the land devastated. They rangers called the first section the “Ashen Waste” and had to keep constant watch for signs of acid rain, which would require the entire group to stop and huddle under protective layers of cloth. As they traveled, they slaughtered: a dread wraith, a manticore, several ghasts, 5 wandering demons, a barbed whirl of searing wind, will-o-wisps, wraiths, ghouls, and a fallen paladin (who had an interesting old journal about the war) before they took refuge in a tomb. Along the way, they lost all of the wolves and 4 of the rangers.
Inside the tomb, they cleared out: 4 azers, 4 rasts, and a powerful shape-changing sorcerer before they rested; the last ranger and 4 of the mercenaries died in battle. They broke through to the inner tomb, destroyed an elder black pudding ooze, and found the sleeping aasimar war cleric Argos; before the aasimar could wake up, the mercenaries attacked and killed him. Grespo realized that guy might have been on their side so he took some time to speak strategy with war leader Xamithus. They killed 7 more ghasts to secure the location.
In need of food, the group journeyed into the small magically protected jungle oasis of the Ashen Waste. They encountered 2 dire tigers, but instead of fighting them, Xamithus was able to befriend them and convince them to adventure with him; he named them Tooth and Claw. The tigers were able to warn him of the monstrous trees and help the group avoid them. At the center of the oasis, at the clean springs, lived 3 druids: the human Niva with a pet displacer beast, the human Jeraldus with a pet falcon, and the orc Scront with a giant beetle.
Originally, the druids said the group could rest there but that they wouldn’t help the group with their mission, however during the night Xamithus seduced Niva and convinced her to come with him (using his charm and playing up the fact that her ranger friends had all died for this cause). As per the agreement, the group had to leave the grove after eating breakfast in the morning. Thus the group consisted of Grespo, Xamithus with his 2 dire tigers, Simon, Niva with her displacer beast, and the 9 half-orc mercenaries.
Outside of the “chaos rift ravine.” The group fought a shadow, 2 demons, an elder black pudding, and a chaos beast as they made their way around the large unnatural ravine. A pair of intelligent troll brothers operated a shop in this area hoping that adventurers would wander this way. The group rested there at night; the trolls told them about a powerful abyssal basilisk and a blue half-dragon basilisk that lived down below, which caused Xamithus to want the group to go slay the beasts.
When they got below, they battled: 2 ettercaps, the abyssal basilisk, the blue half-dragon basilisk, a stone golem, and a derro sorcerer; they killed all of the monsters, but both dire tigers and 1 mercenary were petrified. The survivors were Grespo, Xamithus, Simon, Niva, and Clantock (the mercenary leader). They took the loot and rested in a cave. Clantock, recognizing how little damage Xamithus kept taking during battle, suggested that for the sake of survival their leader should turn them all into weretigers. Grespo and Niva were reluctant, but ultimately others agreed that if was a good plan. They all became lycanthropes and Xamithus started teaching them how to control their abilities.
They climbed out of the ravine and continued along the western frontier, into the “Boiling Lands” – which was covered in a foul stench. Here they found and killed wandering mudmen, ghouls, elementals, and a 2-headed basilisk (that split into 2 basilisks once it was heavily damaged). Simon was petrified. During the battle, Clantock broke the Simon statue to grab and use his magic items.
They found a tower to rest in, but they first had to clear out: 10 mudmen, 3 ooze mephits, a centipede swarm, 7 ankhegs, an ethereal marauder, 8 ghouls, and the ghost of Bashar the dwarf warrior. After they rested, they finished off: a greater barghest, 2 more ghouls, a doppleganger, and a plague spirit before they rested again. They went out and discovered a minefield of boiling geysers. They killed 4 mudmen, 4 steam mephitis, an ooze, 11 slime crawlers, and a soul eater as they progressed across the area.
Without a chance to rest, they came into the “Dead Fields.” Sleeping in the open was dangerous, but they decided to risk it and lucked out with no random encounters happening. During the day, a swarm of gore beetles attacked them. As they continued across the fields, they also killed: an undead calling itself the Bone Lord, a battlehulk construct, 38 zombies, a clay golem, and 3 vrock demons. Worn out, they found a small fortification of friendly dwarves who were out searching for the bones of their dead ancestor. They rested under the protection of the clan leader Gorrak (war cleric of Moradin) and his 8 men.
Before sunrise, undead began assaulting the location and the group had to help the dwarves defend the place against – wave 1:t-rex skeleton with 100 human skeletons; wave 2: 50 human skeletons and 31 dwarf zombies; wave 3: 1 vampire spawn with 2 wights; wave 4: 5 vampire spawn with 2 wights and King Kroma the dwarf cleric lich of Orcus. When the dust settled, it was just Grespo, Xamithus, Niva, and Gorrak left alive.
Unfortunately, it was at that moment that the Usurer (who had been magically scrying on them) chose to teleport in for vengeance; it took him this long because he had to get a new spellbook and a new crystal ball. He brought with him his hired help, Finnelaus the elf barbarian from The Camp. The Usurer started off with power word kill on Gorrak to make sure the dwarf cleric couldn’t heal them. The heroes focused everything they had left and destroyed the lich body; Feinnelaus surrendered to them, offering to be their slave if they let him live. Xamithus told Finnelaus he wouldn’t be a slave, but he was going to be turned into a weretiger and if he didn’t follow orders he would be killed.
They destroyed Kroma’s phylactery, which was in his left eye socket. Moradin sent down cleansing holy fire that blessed the magic flail in his possession. Xamithus claimed Kroma’s Battlecrown of Protection +2. The group switched out their gear and rested.
Grespo, Xamithus, Niva, and Finnelaus continued; they made their way into the crossroads of the wasteland, where the extra-planar being called the “Dweller at the Crossroads” appeared at night and told them that he could grant 1 mortal 1 wish per night. Grespo pulled out the 50 electrum coins and wished to return Hug Hug the goblin to them in his normal mortal form. The Dweller at the Crossroads tried to come up with a way to twist the wish in some way, but couldn’t come up with one so he gave them back pathetic little Hug Hug.
Xamithus insisted they wait around another day so he could get a wish as well. That caused them to battle 10 ghouls and 1 chimera. As much as he enjoyed his weretiger powers, he also wanted to be cured of the curse attached to them; he had always been told that a natural-born lycanthrope needed a wish spell to cure the condition so he used his wish for just that. The Dweller at the Crossroads used the opportunity to twist the wish by reincarnating Xamithus randomly; he ended up as a human, thus the twist didn’t really end up hurting them. Seeing her lover give up his weretiger abilities, Niva used her druid spells to cure the rest of the group as well; from that day on, none of them were weretigers.
Niva and Finnelaus both thought the wishing was dangerous, but Hug Hug wanted a go at it. They stuck around one more day and he wished that, in addition to his fighter training, that he would instantly have the intellectual power and knowledge of a wizard experienced enough to cast fireball. The Dweller at the Crossroads chuckled to himself as he granted the wish – providing Hug Hug with what he wanted, but so that he knew only that one spell.
Grespo, who kept all of the group’s bags of holding in his backpack with the extra loot, pulled out the spellbooks that used to belong to the Usurer and told Hug Hug to start studying them so he could learn the spells one at a time until he knew them all. Niva cautioned that they should continue; they had been lucky thus far, but she had a bad feeling about this creature and the wishes. Next, they killed: a pyrohydra and an ancient black dragon.
The group was almost to Tsar. They rested. Xamithus got Niva pregnant (though they wouldn’t realize this for awhile). In Grespo’s dreams, his patron gave him visions and explained that the actual temple, which held the item he wanted, was apparently now hiding away in a displaced dimension and they needed to collect 9 statuettes to arrange in a ritual to force the missing temple of Orcus to return. He empowered Grespo with visuals of the items, the knowledge of their locations, and the specifics of the ritual.
Grespo, Xamithus, Niva, Finnelaus, and Hug Hug arrived at the black fortress of the Tsar, the Temple-City of Orcus. Grespo explained everything from his dream visions so the entire group would know what to look for and how to help him with his quest from his patron. Hug Hug thought it was a bad idea, but Xamithus told him to focus on learning how to scry and teleport so they could eliminate the Usurer before he ambushed them again.
Attempting to enter the city through the black gates, the group defeated: 119 siege undead, 2 marrow knights, and the iron tower construct called Dokkalfoer. They locked themselves into the defeated tower and rested. The sunken gates set in a murky pool, but someone had left behind a rowboat; the group used it to cross. In doing so, they had to kill the living bog monster, 5 bog mummies, and a mummy lord. They needed to rest again so they stopped in some abandoned quarters (that turned out to have a bonesucker monster that put up a good fight before they destroyed it).
Behind the gates, they found/destroyed a massive battlehulk. They rested again. Hug Hug learned the scrying spell. The next day, he found out the Usurer had a secret room beneath his house with his phylactery in it. Since Hug was not yet powerful enough to learn teleport, he started focusing on spells like magic missile, burning hands, and sleep.
The Usurer was also scrying on them so he realized he needed to speed up his game; he just wished they hadn’t taken all of his money and decimated his town. A group of do-gooders came to The Camp so the Usurer attempted to deceive them by telling them that a group of evil weretigers were trying to join the cult of Orcus and that he could teleport the heroes to them to stop them. The adventurers saw through his scheme and returned to Bard’s Gate, telling others the tale of the lying lich.
Past the black gates Grespo, Xamithus, Niva, Finnelaus, and Hug saw the fortress Kirash Durgaut and its Tower of Weeping Sores. To get through this section, they had to get through multiple traps and destroyed: 80 skeletons, 55 zombies, 15 siege undead, 1 wight, 1 cave leech, an iron golem, 4 ghosts, 5 spectres, and a flailing dreadnaught. They stopped in a chapel of Orcus, destroyed the altar, and rested.
At the armory the erinyes fiend fighter/rogue Lascer happened to be there (on a jaunt from the 9 Hells); he was attempting to steal the magic weapons left behind when the group came in. Xamithus cut off his head and the group took the magic items. They found some comfortable quarters that had been used by the army’s elite commanders and decided it would be nice to spend time resting for a week or so – allowing Hug Hug to learn more spells and for them to have a break from the constant combat.
Hiding in a secret side room, the succubus Sadie waited until Grespo was alone and lured him in with sweet whispers. Lonely, and finding the tiefling man very attractive, she used her charm powers to seduce him and they made love over and over until he was worn out. Once he was asleep, she tied him up and sucked the life out of him. The rest of the group wondered where Grespo had disappeared to, but they couldn’t find the secret door and thus his death remained a mystery to them.
Xamithus assumed his half-brother had gone off on a secret task for his evil fiend patron and told the group that it was time to move on; he said they knew how to get whatever treasure was hidden in the displaced temple and now, if Grespo didn’t return, they wouldn’t have to hand it over to some powerful evil being. Niva and Finnelaus pointed out that Grespo had the bags of holding with the gold and the extra loot, but Xamithus assured them he believed they would find even greater treasure in the days ahead.
The Usurer had been watching through his crystal ball and teleported in, to the secret room. He thanked Sadie for giving him something good to watch all day and struck a deal with her. He told her she was undoubtedly pregnant now and would need a more civilized place to raise her future child; thus, in exchange for providing a new life for her, he just wanted his money back from the the bag of holding on Grespo’s dead body. She said she was keeping the rest of the loot, but agreed to the deal and moved to The Camp, where she converted the old temple of Orcus into a brothel/home/temple of Malcanthet. She was able to sell the rest of Grespo’s gear in Bard’s Gate to provide a life of luxury for herself; she also hired a small army of guards. She designed a symbol for her guards – a shield with a heart on it.
Xamithus, Niva, Finnelaus, and Hug continued destroying undead: a flailing dreadnought, 4 marrow knights, 32 siege undead, 3 giant skeletons, 4 advanced siege undead, and 6 zombies. When they rested in some elite soldier barracks, they found 11 severed human fingers with valuable rings hidden under an old mattress. Glad to see non-undead remains of a person, Hug suggested Niva use her druid spells to reincarnate the people and add more support to their team. Xamithus congratulated the wizard for his clever thought and told his lover to do it.
A naked gnome body for the war cleric Drotter Lancer of long ago, formerly a human, regenerated from the finger bone and reclaimed his ring. He thanked the group for returning his stolen property, but told them that the other dead men from his battalion would probably prefer to stay in the afterlife; Niva kept the extra fingers in a pouch, just in case they were in dire need of help in the future.
The group explained the situation to Drotter and he said that he couldn’t believe it had taken so long for heroes to come here to clear out the undead army; he would be happy to help the group if they could provide him with clothing, armor, and weapons. Niva pointed out that the warlock ran off with all of their extra gear. Hug offered his magic armor and weapons since he planned to spend most battles standing in the back casting his spells. That night Hug tried scrying on Grespo, but couldn’t – which led him to assume his friend was either dead or on another plane.
The next day, the group destroyed: a ghost cleric of Orcus, the undead General Myrac host body (which provided Drotter with some amazing gear), the Seneschal (iron devil), and 7 sour grubs. They also got the 1st of the 9 statues needed for the ritual to bring back the Orcus temple and now had clear access to the inside of the old city. An unnatural evil pall rested in the air over the city – blurring anything more than 500’ away, darkening the sky, and causing everything to detect as evil. In addition to the undead and demons, the city also contained gnolls, morlocks, hobgoblins, ogres, and trolls.
1382 DR / 602 CY
Yarth: [Modules: N3 Destiny of Kings]
Sailing in strange seas that didn’t match anything they had ever seen before: Furosa, Pretos, Melisana, Alhelldarra, and Gofus were in dire need of food so they stopped at the first island nation they came to. The royal adviser welcomed them, fed them, and asked for their help (because they were outsiders and he couldn’t trust any of the people there). The king (Halfred) recently died when shot by an arrow during a deer hunting excursion; it was said to be an accident, but the advisor suspected the king’s brother Lord Edrin wanted to take the thrown. Prince Edmund was out alone on a religious pilgrimage and an easy target to be killed, if indeed his uncle was a villain.
The group agreed to help. They went across the island in search of Prince Edmund after the advisor showed them a painting of the young man, let them borrow fresh warhorses, gave them a map, and 200 gp. On the road, they encountered a group of 15 bandits who downed Melisana and killed Pretos, Alhellarra, and Gofus; fighting alone, Furosa realized she had to surrender since there were still 9 bandits standing. She begged them not to kill her and Melisana; one of the bandits pointed out that since they weren’t putting up a fight anymore, the women would make good slaves.
The bandits took all of their stuff, tied them up, and brought them to their encampment in the woods. The bandit leader said he was going to sell them off as slaves, but 20 hobgoblins attacked the bandits; 5 of the hobgoblins were killed before they took out all of the bandits. The hobgoblins took all of the loot, including Furosa and Melisana.
The hobgoblins visited with the merchant/thief Harkin and arranged to sell the women, horses, and loot to Duke Aimar of Griffon Castle. Harkin escorted the hobgoblins and slaves there; on the way, Harkin bragged to the hobgoblins that Prince Edmund had already been captured and was a prisoner there. Duke Aimar was waiting for Lord Edrin to show up to kill the prince.
When they arrived, 10 solders were on the wall and 10 on the ground in the courtyard. When Duke Aimar and his half-elf mistress Riannon were negotiating with the hobgoblins, Melisana yelled out that she heard the hobgoblins were going to come back at night with an army of goblins to assault the place now that they had seen the inside. Her bluff worked and the duke ordered his men to fight the hobgoblins while he and his mistress ran inside for cover.
During the courtyard battle, Furosa and Melisana broke free from the ropes but they had nowhere to go so they hid some daggers within their ragged clothing; only 5 of the guards died by the time all of the hobgoblins were killed. Duke Aimar came back out and explained that he and Riannon were wizards and the women would be put in the prison tower with Prince Edmund until Lord Edrin arrived and decided what to do with them.
Left alone in the locked prison room of the castle tower with the prince (who had been beaten), the women explained that they were there to rescue him and showed him the daggers. Melisana used her healing spells to get Edmund back to full health. He said he was a trained fighter, with some experience. Furosa suggested they wait until nightfall, use the daggers to break the bolt on the door, try to climb down the outside wall without being seen by the guards, and hide in the nearby forest.
When they broke the door’s lock, a nearby guard ran over to see what was happening. They quickly killed him, before he could call for others. Prince Edmund took the guard’s belt and sword; he gave the crossbow to Melisana.
The castle wall was about 50’ high, but they decided it was worth taking the risk trying to climb down. Their plan worked and they were soon outside. Unfortunately, 2 of the guards spotted them running to the woods and fired their crossbows at the fleeing prisoners; Melisana and Furosa were both hurt, but they made it to the cover of the trees.
They were certain Duke Aimar would send men to search for them so they had to hurry or hide in the dark. Aimar and 5 of his men were soon nearby; the wizard used a fireball to set the woods aflame as he yelled out that the prince had better surrender to him. His guards carried torches that they were using to also burn down the forest.
Battle ensued: they did some damage to Duke Aimar, but his 5 guards brutally killed Melisana, cutting her head off. Aimar insisted the prince and Furosa surrender so he could give them to Lord Edrin the next day, who would surely want the satisfaction of killing them himself. They threw down their weapons.
Duke Aimar and his men brought them back to the castle and locked them in the food storage room behind the kitchen, with several guards on post in the kitchen in case they tried to break out again. That night Prince Edmund started crying, saying he was sure they would be killed the next day. Furosa tried to comfort him and one thing led to another – with them giving into their passions (and thus Furosa getting pregnant with twins).
The next day, another adventuring party (the Heroes of Dunador) sent by the king’s advisor stormed the castle trying to rescue the prince. Aimar left Riannon guarding the prisoners while he went to join his guards. In a deadly battle Bromley Falco the gnome wizard, Astrid Fyn the human war cleric, Cameron Gaunt the human ranger, Owen Glendower the half-elf war cleric, Horsa Hengist the dwarf fighter, and Kersana Ringlo killed all but 2 of the guards and [got the duke down 1 hp remaining] before they were all killed.
Bragging about his victory, Duke Aimar opened the door to the kitchen storage room and told the prince he now had all of the magic items of the slain Heroes of Dunador. Enraged, Prince Edmund lunged at the duke, punching him, knocking him unconscious. Furosa and Edmund grabbed knives from the kitchen and fought Riannon with the 2 remaining guards. They killed the 2 guards, but then Riannon sliced up Edmund, causing him to fall to the ground bleeding. She did the same to Furosa.
Always mindful of profit - Riannon stabilized Furosa and Edmund; she tied them back up and waited for Lord Edrin to arrive. She sold Furosa to him as a slave and accepted payment for Edmund, allowing the evil Lord to kill the prince. She took her money (and the magical loot from the adventurers) and flew away on her pet griffon.
Furosa woke up as a slave prisoner of Lord Edrin, who was riding back with his men to take over the kingdom now that he was the only remaining heir to the throne. Because she was beautiful (and he was an evil man who couldn’t easily get a wife on his own), King Edrin offered Furosa a chance to be his new wife as long as she promised to remain subservient and locked away in his tower. It was either that or death, so she accepted her fate.
King Edrin had a huge ceremony for his wedding with Furosa after executing the advisors and servants that he felt might have been loyal to his brother and nephew. Within a couple of months, Furosa was showing as pregnant and Edrin assumed it was with his child. When she gave birth to twins (1 boy he named Edrin II and 1 girl she named after Melisana), Edrin assumed they were his children even though they had bright blue eyes like Edmund. Furosa knew the truth.
Now that she wasn’t pregnant, Furosa wanted to escape from King Edrin. She hated that she had to leave her children behind, but she knew they would be well provided for and live as royalty. She just hoped that they wouldn’t grow up to be evil. She convinced one of the servants to help her escape to the woods, explaining that she had taken an oath of vengeance and would return when she was strong enough to kill the evil king and his men.
[Modules: N2 The Forest Oracle]
On the run in the woods, Furosa met Alain the human fighter, Shard the elf fighter, Fazil the elf rogue, and Mozz the human druid who were on a mission to find the high druids of the deep wood in order to end the blight that had been killing the crops of the local farmers. Eager to join an adventuring party (and help the farmers of her new kingdom), Furosa agreed to help them but said they would have to promise to keep her identity a secret. They gave her a cloak and a sword.
On their journey, they were ambushed by 7 brigands. The group killed 6 of them and the last 1 offered to surrender and show them the bandit lair. The group went there, where it was a trap and they had to fight another 7 bandits with the bandit leader. They killed all of the bandits, but Fazil and Mozz were killed in the attack. That left just Furosa, Alain, and Shard to finish the mission. They rested at the camp, where they found the bandit’s gold and gems.
As they journeyed, they went through a mountain tunnel in hopes that it would speed them to their destination. Inside, they destroyed 5 skeletons. They met Thisvynn Talus the crazed dwarf fighter with a wooden club, who said there were orcs nearby that he had been using guerilla warfare tactics against. Furosa used the paladin lay on hands ability to calm the dwarf, who led them to a cavern with a magic sword and bracers of defense.
They took out 4 orcs. The group rested before finding the remaining 17 orcs and killing 7 of them; Shard and Thisvynn both died in battle. The remaining 10 orcs told Furosa and Alain to surrender so that Alain could become their wood-cutting slave to fuel their fires and they could take on Furosa as a sex slave. Alain said he wouldn’t let them violate Furosa; he yelled for her to run away while he held off the orcs. Reluctantly, but needing to survive, Furosa fled back into the cavern passages as the orcs killed Alain (after he took out one more of them).
Running as fast as she could, Furosa was glad to find a group of good adventurers at the mouth of the mountain cave: 3 humans (Conrad the fighter, Teketank the wizard, Hinfrette the wizard), 1 dwarf (Blint Brokenshaft the fighter), and 1 halfling (Fromo Freefinger the rogue). She told them about the orcs coming after her and they said they were there to kill monsters.
They prepared for when the 9 orcs came out of the cave. The orcs killed Blint and Fromo. When there was only 1 orc left, 5 more joined the melee from the forest (where they had been out getting firewood). The orcs killed Conrad. In the end, only Furosa and the 2 wizards survived, though Teketank was badly wounded.
The group buried the bodies of their fallen allies, rested in the forest, and Furosa told the wizards about her recently acquired mission to find the high druids and try to end the blight. The wizards agreed that they should finish the task, but advised the use of stealth as they continued. They found the treasure the orc clan was guarding: lots of gold, a longsword+1, and a potion of levitation.
When they got to the mountain valley with the inner forest, they had to kill 2 worgs that charged at them. They rested again. They found the ruins of Castle Karn, thought the high druids might be inside, and explored. They found 2 human girls locked in a shed: Eva and Fiona, who told them that goblins ran the place but the little green monsters were out somewhere. The 2 girls showed them the path to the forest oracle, the leader of the high druids.
A druid in white greeted the group and told them they would have to leave their weapons behind to have an audience with the high druid so they did. The forest oracle agreed to save the crops and he returned the weapons to the group when they left; 2 of the druids (each with a staff of healing) decided to join the party because they said on their way out they would find and kill the goblins.
There were 20 regular goblins and 1 goblin boss; the monsters killed Teketank, Hinfrette, and the 2 druids before they were finished off by Furosa. Furosa returned the bodies of her allies to the circle of druids and rested at their place.
Alone on her way out of the valley, Furosa found Madam Riva the wizard and her traveling caravan (who looked like gypsies). Riva asked for Furosa to help them retrieve a stolen pegasus from an ogre. Furosa said she couldn’t fight the ogre alone and that Riva would need to help her with 3 of her best rogues (one of whom was Rinaldo, who had a magic scimitar). They made their way to the ogre’s cave, killed the flesh golem guarding the entrance, killed the ogre, and rescued the pegasus.
That night, back at the gypsy caravan, Rinaldo romanced Furosa and she gave into his wants – for she needed to relax after everything she had recently been through. She decided to continue living with Rinaldo in his wagon in the caravan and travel with them; during their journeys, they bought matching rings of protection to symbolize their commitment to one another and spent the rest of their money on some magic studded leather for Rinaldo.
Oerth TAX:
[Modules: Slumbering Tsar and Bard Gate Part 2]
With such a complex, living city before them, the group hesitated and had a discussion. Hug still wasn’t powerful enough to learn teleport, but it would only be 20 miles back to The Camp for them to destroy the Usurer and remove him as a threat for once and for all. The journey would also give them a chance to head to Bard’s Gate to sell loot and hire more people to help with their mission. The group agreed to the plan with the understanding that future treasure would be split between just the 5 of them and any new people would be contract workers.
It took them a couple of weeks to get back to The Camp; they killed 12 wandering demons and lots of undead along the way. Sadie the succubus spotted their arrival and used her shape change ability to turn herself into a human; she told them she had converted the old temple building into a brothel. Finnelaus said he might come visit her, but Drotter discouraged the elf barbarian from such pursuits. They found the Usurer and destroyed his body again. They re-stole his wealth, but could not get to the room 100’ below his house. Hug said it would require a teleport.
They spent a week traveling the road to Bard’s Gate. At the large city, they were able to purchase 5 teleport scrolls and a portable hole. Hug teleported them back to The Camp. They killed the Usurer again. This time Hug was able to teleport the group down to the hidden room he had seen from his scrying; unfortunately, there was no air and he had to quickly teleport them back to Bard’s Gate. There, the group bought magic scrolls to deal with the lack of air in the sealed room. They teleported back, got the hoard (worth 100,000 gp) and destroyed the phylactery. After all of that, they used the last teleport scroll to end their day in Bard’s Gate.
In the city, they stayed at the Felled Ogre Inn. Finnelaus turned out to be an alcoholic and, now that drinks were available, was getting drunk all the time. Drotter took a liking to Sylnry, the female gnome who cleaned the room there, and told her all about his past life and their current adventures. She seemed friendly to him, but when he kept hitting on her, she had to explain she wasn’t looking for anything serious.
Hug didn’t like being treated as “a lowly goblin” in the large city so he killed himself, leaving a note asking Niva to reincarnate him with “a more respectable” body. He regenerated as a human. Niva suggested he choose a new name for himself, but he couldn’t come up with one so she renamed him Hugh Firebolt.
The group spent over a month in Bard’s Gate: (1) they sold the extra loot they had; (2) they started spreading word that they were recruiting an army to destroy undead; (3) Niva realized she was pregnant; (4) Xamithus insisted he and Niva get married, which they did at a local temple; (5) Hugh joined the wizard’s guild, which gave him access to wizards to recruit to join them; (6) Drotter got to know many of the clerics at the local temples so he could recruit healers for their army; (7) Finnelaus’ drunken escapades got him repeatedly arrested for most of the month; and (8) they bought a tavern and converted it so that the first floor was the meeting hall of The Army of Xamithus (TAX) and the upstairs had the living quarters for their officers.
Niva agreed to stay behind living at the new TAX HQ running their offices and continuing to recruit people to send out to help them. In total, they recruited 100 contract-based employees (for 500 gp each): 20 rangers from the Longhunters organization, 10 wizards from the guild Hugh joined, 10 bards from the bard’s college, 10 clerics from the temples, and 50 fighters. The plan was to divide the army into 5 units (each with 20 people: 4 rangers, 2 wizards, 2 bards, 2 clerics, and 10 fighters) to speed up the process of clearing out the undead and monsters of Tsar. Xamithus was the general with Hugh, Drotter, and Finnelaus as his unit captains.
Xamithus realized he needed 2 more captains so they offered equity partnership to 2 more people in exchange for their role as unit leaders: the noble human paladin Lady Jenette Holycraft and the mercenary elf wizard Velior. Velior insisted on a contract being drawn up with official copies for the all of the owners of TAX. They negotiated so that all loot would be divided into 10 shares with each of the 7 partners/owners getting a share, an 8th share being used to give bonuses to all of the contract employees, and the 9th and 10th share being reinvested in the company. Everyone agreed to those terms and signed the papers, which were filed with the city.
The Army of Xamithus was ready to head out into the wasteland. When they passed through The Camp, they saw that Sadie the harlot was now running the place and had established the “Heartshielders” as a standing army for her growing village; Hugh joked that she seemed nervous that someone might try to kill her like they did the former lich leader. They also noticed that she was pregnant, but had 6 new women there at her pleasure palace; they didn’t realize that all of those women were succubi in disguise.
Continuing toward Tsar, the men and women of TAX were high-spirited and eager to accomplish their goal. They spent a year in a hard-pressed campaign in which they defeated 1,000s of enemies (demons, undead, monsters, and their allies).
Over 9 months later, back in Bard’s Gate, the forces of Orcus were secretly working against the TAX HQ and burned the place down; they believed they had killed Niva and her baby girl Xamara, but the druid was able to secretly escape with her child and flee toward Tsar. When Xamithus heard the reports and believed his family dead, he became enraged (which caused him to make some mistakes on the battlefield that cost many of their soldiers to die).
1383 DR / 603 CY
Yarth: [Modules: The Silver Key]
Madam Riva thought the caravan could make money entertaining the human soldiers of the Honshar army that had been fighting a war with the nearby orc armies. When they arrived, they were surprised to be visited by the female warmage leader of the army: General Otasura; she who told them that Lord Herpein was recently ambushed by orcs and the army’s powerful magic item the Ca’ega, which augmented magical power, had been stolen in transit.
General Otasura had found out the gypsies all spoke orcish from their travels. She needed to stay with her main army, but she was willing to pay the gypsies a reward if they would infiltrate the orcs, rescue Lord Herpein, and retrieve the Ca’ega. For the mission, Otasura would polymorph the gypsies into orcs. Furosa suggested that instead, the warmage turn them into half-orcs; her logic was that it would be impossible for them to perfectly act like orcs, but that they could reasonably behave like half-orcs. Otasura agreed and offered them orc equipment that had been retrieved from the battlefield.
The warmage turned Furosa, Rinaldo, Riva, 2 gypsy tempest clerics, and 4 additional gypsy rogues into powerful half-orcs. They took their new equipment and clothing and allowed themselves to be teleported to a ruined estate behind enemy lines. There, they quickly went outside and found an orc encampment in an orchard. The 20 orc warriors with their chief Red Tusk and 5 giant lizards had 20 human chained slaves and a tied up half-orc woman that they were torturing.
Madam Riva suggested they would have to pretend they were ok with the atrocity in order to join the orc caravan and infiltrate their forces for the mission, but Furosa refused to sit back quietly watching a good person be tortured; she charged into battle against the orc leader while yelling for the others to rescue the woman who was in danger (who was named Catena).
They defeated the orcs and lizards, but 2 of the rogues died; Madam Riva yelled at Furosa, blaming her for their deaths. Rinaldo told them to calm down; they were acting like angry orcs. Catena thanked them for rescuing her and the 20 human slaves. Furosa told them to head back to the south, where they would be safe, and to take the weapons and equipment from the slaughtered orcs.
Furosa, Riva, Rinaldo, the 2 gypsy clerics, and the 2 extra rogues continued going deeper into monster territory. Their next challenge came 2 days later, down the road, when 7 ogres and their 2 trolls allies decided they wanted to try to eat the group. In an epic showdown, everyone died except for Furosa (who finished the trolls off with burning hands – a fire genasi ability).
Alone again with another dead adventuring party, Furosa was heart-broken and considered abandoning the mission – but she didn’t because she didn’t want her friends’ deaths to have been for nothing. She realized she would have to be stealthy from that point out so she took Riva’s ring of invisibility and switched out her platemail for the magic studded leather that Rinaldo had been wearing. She rested and continued traveling.
On the final approach to the orc city of Krimba-Hai, Furosa sneaked past an orc patrol and made her way into the city invisibly. The city had an orc population of about 4,000. She turned visible behind a tavern and went in to ask some questions of the locals. Some of the men took interest with her and flirted with her so it was easy for her to find out that anything powerful and valuable would have been taken to the main temple in the city. She also found out that Lord Herpein was a traitor and thus decided she didn’t need to rescue him anymore.
She went to the temple, met the orc underpriest Karak Ngyl, and seduced him so she could get access to the inner temple [he ended up impregnating her, but she didn’t know that yet]. He let her stay in his personal quarters and treated her well. From that position, she was able to steal the Ca’ega, turn invisible, and make it back to the human fortress without being caught.
At the fort, Furosa found out (from Lord Sterling) that General Otasura had been killed by enemy forces while out on a mission. Furosa went ahead and gave Lord Sterling the Ca’ega and explained everything that happened. Lord Sterling said that without the Ca’ega, the orcs would surely retreat and have to come up with a new battle plan. He also mentioned that, unfortunately, there was no one there powerful enough to turn her back into her old self. Furosa said that was fine.
Lord Sterling arranged for the Honsharian government to grant Furosa a rich parcel of farmland with an estate (from the land forfeited by Herpein because of his betrayal). He explained that the land, with its paid servants, would give her a profit of about 16 gp per month (on average, after the 30% taxes and wages paid).
Living on her new estate, Furosa got to know the servants and they liked her because she treated them kindly. After a while, she realized she was pregnant again and decided to live on the farm long enough to have her baby and spend a month with him (he was ¾ orc and she decided to name him Rin, after her lost lover Rinaldo). She told the servants she was an adventurer, not a farmer; she couldn’t stay, but she made sure they would take good care of her son and keep up the estate for him to run once he got old enough. She left Rinaldo’s 2 magic scimitars and ring of protection +1 for her son to inherit.
[Modules: I7: Baltron’s Beacon]
Furosa went to a nearby town to see if there were any quests to be had and found a notice posted in the tavern, from a wizard named Demetrios. She went to his tower to visit with him and found that an experienced adventuring party was already there finding out about the mission. They included Karis Sunpriest the human cleric, Rayche Firebrand the human fighter, Krondar Hammerhand the dwarf fighter, Deric Blackstone the human ranger, Nicolus Mysticus the human wizard, Lintra Silverleaf the half-elf fighter/wizard, Slu Tippy the halfling rogue, and Alberich Delversson the gnome fighter/illusionist.
Furosa listened in as Demetrios explained that he needed them to secure magical ingrediants to create something to put out the evil “black flame” from the nearby swamp, where the wizard Baltron had perished. Baltron’s evil apprentice was now in charge of his tower with a glowing light that was being worshipped by the local lizardfolk. The adventuring party said Furosa could join them, but she would only be getting 10% of the loot and reward. She said she was fine with that.
Once they got to the swamp, an army of 40 lizardfolk tried to stop them, but the group’s wizard and cleric of light all fireballed the monsters to death. Furosa was impressed with the group’s strategies and hoped that, for once, an adventuring party she was with might survive its quest. They killed 20 bandits, an evil wizard, and an evil cleric. After that, they encountered an evil knight and his sphinx companion; they were more of a challenge, but also fell at the hands of the group.
They went to try to rest in an old swamp keep, but instead they had to battle/kill: 3 trolls, 1 evil knight, and 1 mage. When they tried to continue on, to the tower, they found the lizard king in their way with 460 more lizardfolk and a gold dragon that had been corrupted by evil. Lintra Silverleaf yelled to spread out and focus on the dragon first. Her party’s fighters and cleric surrounded the dragon so Furosa went after the lizard king. Furosa intimidated the remaining lizardfolk after she beheaded the lizard king and the team of Lintra and Alberich finished off the gold dragon (the rest of the party was dead). Even though the remaining lizardfolk vastly outnumbered the 3 heroes, they were intimidated/scared/demoralized and ran off into the swamp.
Furosa, Lintra, and Alberich dragged the dead bodies of their fallen allies into a room at the tower, locked themselves in, and rested for the night. Furosa renegotiated her share of the loot since there were only 3 of them left to finish the mission; the others agreed they should each get 33% of the total loot. While they were resting, Alberich and Lintra started teaching Furosa about wizardry.
The next morning they went down into the chamber beneath the place and found 10 ogres huddled together in a cavern so they started blasting them with fireballs before rushing in. The plan worked and they easily killed the ogres. Continuing on, they found a room with 4 petrified statues in what was obviously a magical trap. They found a wand of wonder, a greater ring of spell storing (with 2 spells that could de-petrify people), and other treasure.
They went back to the statues and returned 2 of them to normal: Andar the human ranger and his centaur warrior friend Caerron. The 2 of them had been turned to stone over 100 years ago and wanted vengeance against the evil cult. The group bolted themselves into a room and rested.
Furosa, Lintra, Alberich, Andar, and Caerron continued clearing out the place. They killed: 1 vampire mist, 1 stone golem, 1 invisible stalker, 3 mummies, 1 ghoul, 12 skeletons, 1 vrock demon, and 1 vitrioli. They rested before continuing into the altar room of the black flame cult. When they entered the altar room with the burning magical flame, they accidentally set off warning chimes that summoned a balor demon. The demon killed Andar and Caerron, but was destroyed by Furosa. They rested.
Furosa, Lintra, and Alberich destroyed the altar and caved in the room. They managed to make their way out of the swamp and to the old wizard’s house, where they explained what had happened. He was planning to make a potion to put out the everburning evil flame, but he reasoned that they did well collapsing the area. He thanked them for their work.
Oerth TAX: [Slumbering Tsar and Bard Gate Part 3]
Niva made it to The Camp, where Sadie the succubus recognized the druid as the aunt of her tiefling child; she invited Niva inside the brothel for sanctuary, where she had an incubus charm the druid. Sadie took the human baby Xamara and let her incubus suck out the life of Niva. Sadie told the incubus he would be in charge of the brothel because she knew she couldn’t raise Xamara near Xamithus and his army. She fled with the 2 baby cousins with plans to raise them both as her own children.
Throughout their campaign, TAX destroyed over 600 lower-level enemies, about 200 mid-level threats, and 40 high-level foes (including: King Thraestos the storm giant ghast, Gerrant of Gilboath the paladin ghost, Vrrius the cleric of Orcus, Aruug the half-fiend/gnoll ranger, Keiliar the gnoll sorcerer, Ferrin the bonewright, Tatak the morlock barbarian, Vermer the mercenary leader, the giant bog turtle, multiple dragons, Lady Lughnasa the hag sorcerer, Bishop Wolfred the cleric of Orcus, Crampion the bugbear fighter/cleric, Janiroy the rakshasa cleric, Vlad Alimar the half-elf vampire fighter/rogue, Lady Turkaen the vampire shadow rogue, Plaguebone the vrock wizard, and Matriarch Alm’Iqra the harpy fighter/rogue).
Along the way, they rescued Kendrall Darkhart the half-drow assassin (who had been in a magic trap in a treasury full of valuables) and Shilarra Veral the half-elf merchant (who had been a tortured prisoner of an imp after her caravan was destroyed). Kendrall joined the army and Shilarra fell in love the man who rescued her – Xamithus. Still grieving over his dead wife, Xamithus accepted the love of Shilarra (who realized she had dormant sorcerer powers that developed as she helped with the war).
Death and destruction overwhelmed their forces again and again, until it was just Xamithus, Drotter, Kendrall, and Shilarra left standing in Tsar with the 9 statues – ready to see what would happen when the final one was put into place and the old temple of Orcus returned; the rest of their army was dead, but the city had been cleared of danger – until they completed the ritual and the massive Temple of Orcus shifted back into place in the world. The place was a 900’ tall representation of Orcus sitting on a throne with his wand, carved into the moutain - full of monsters. Shilarra thought she might be pregnant and Kendrall argued that they already had more treasure/loot than any group of people would ever need. Dispirited, Xamithus and Drotter agreed to take their surviving companions back to the city.
They returned to Bard’s Gate and used their gold to buy a nice estate in the noble district. Kendrall offered to stay there as the head of the estate’s guard to protect Shilarra, who turned out to be with child. Xamithus and Drotter attempted to use the rest of their money to hire more soldiers, but they found out that the citizens of Bard’s Gate were no longer very willing to help them. Word of the vengeance of the cult of Orcus and the destruction of the previous army had spread.
In their free time, Drotter trained Xamithus as a cleric so he would have the ability to heal himself during future battles. Shilarra and Xamithus decided to get married before the baby was born; Drotter performed the ceremony with Kendrall as best man. In time, Shilarra gave birth to the new baby. The group was mostly enjoying their lives as nobles of Bard’s Gate.
1384 DR / 604 CY
Yarth: [Modules: I9: Day of Al’Akbar]
While celebrating at the tavern, Furosa told Lintra and Alberich the story about who she really was and how she wanted to overthrow the evil King Eldren of Dunador. She asked them to help her and said she wanted to use her share of the loot to hire more adventurers to come with them. Alberich pointed out that since Furosa was now a half-orc, the people there probably wouldn’t believe who she was; she wouldn’t be able to rule as queen. She said she didn’t care; her children could rule some day with someone standing in as the royal stewart in the meantime.
Lintra went and found adventurers to help them: Kerrin the human cleric, Darrfy the half-elf druid, Captain Thumparr the human fighter, Reider Ritter the human paladin, Kheithfan the half-elf ranger, Horace “The Profound” the human wizard, Tarik El-Fissa the elf rogue, and Cho-Ji the human monk. They said they would do the mission if, in exchange, Furosa’s group would then help them to overthrow the evil desert sultan Al’Akbar. They all agreed to the deal and Horace used a scroll to teleport them to Dunador.
Lord Edrin had Riannon as his new mistress; his castle was now guarded by an ancient green dragon (from the nearby forest) and 200 men (some of them equipped with the magic loot that they had acquired from taking out Furosa’s allies in the past). Furosa told her group to make sure they didn’t kill any innocent servants – or her twin fire genasi children Eldrin II and Melisana.
The green dragon and the guards (using crossbows) killed all of the invading party except for the 2 paladins (Furosa and Lord Rieder Ritter); the paladin duo finished off the dragon and killed the evil king. Riannon flew away on her griffon when she saw that her side had lost (again). The guards dropped their weapons and rejoiced in celebration, for they were happy that their evil overlord had been killed. Furosa arranged for Lord Ritter to become the new acting stewart to guard the kingdom and watch over her children. She assured him she would gather together a new adventuring party to complete the paladin’s previous mission (and gear them up with the items from their fallen allies).
Before she left, Furosa gave her 45,000 gp to the kingdom’s vault and arranged for some of the royal servants to send for her other son (living on the farming estate, so he could grow up with his half-siblings there at the protected castle). Lord Ritter said he would commission armor to be made from the dead green dragon and do his best to convince the children to become paladins; Furosa said to let them decide what they wanted to become as they grew up.
Furosa journeyed to the nearest major city and hired the half-elf Fairburne brothers: Roland the wizard/cleric and Gavin the rogue/fighter (who agreed to work for gear and an equal share of any loot found). They helped her trade out loot to fully equip themselves as a powerful party. They were willing to help Furosa with the quest to take out the desert despot Al’Akbar; Roland also agreed to help Furosa complete her wizard training.
Furosa, Roland, and Gavin used their new brooms of flying and journeyed to the desert of Arir, looking for the lair of the evil sultan. In the desert, they killed 1 purple worm and Malfort the adult blue dragon. The half-elf brothers insisted they take Malfort’s body, saying he was old enough that 2 sets of fullplate should be craftable from the remains. Humoring her party, Furosa allowed them to return to the big city and arrange to have the armor made.
Rather than wait around, Furosa insisted they return to their quest. They sped back through the desert and arrived at the city of Khaibar, where they asked around about the evil sultan. As a result of that: 3 assassins attacked them (including the assassin/wizard known as “Mad Dog”) along with an oni. They killed the assassins and cashed out the gear/loot from them – though Furosa kept Mad Dog’s spellbook since it had up through 7th level spells in it.
They rested at the Mint Tea Parlor Tavern, where they met and hired Ibrahim Ul’Tabarzi (a.k.a. “The Black Bear”) the human barbarian to join their adventuring party and kill the sultan. The next day, the 4 of them went and cleared out the sultan’s palace, killing: the fighter champion Farouk Pasha (who had a rod of rulership – which “The Black Bear” was happy to take from him), all of the guards, a rakshasa, and the sultan (Al’Farzikh). In doing so, they liberated the 12 women in the harem’s lounge and attained over 200,000 gp in loot.
They released the women to be free; one of them (Alia) seduced Roland, one of them (Ziza) seduced Gavin, and one of them (Dena) seduced Ibrahim. The women convinced the men to marry them and take them back to “civilization” with them. Thus the party, with the 3 new wives, returned to the big city and spent some of their loot enjoying downtime. Months later, when all 3 women ended up pregnant, Furosa offered to let them go live at her farming estate and raise the children there. The half-elf brothers picked up their blue dragon platemail and the group used teleport scrolls to get around.
Furosa sent her 54,000 gp to her children back at Castle Dunador. She gave the farming estate to her adventuring party. They invested their money in the palace (108,000 gp from the half-elf brothers and 34,000 gp from Ibrahim – since he spent the rest of his money getting more gear) – hiring guards, building fortified walls around the place to turn it into an armed keep, etc.
The group lived at the farming estate (now called Fairburne Keep) for over 6 months; they waited for the babies to be born before they went off adventuring again. Roland and Alia had a quarter-elf boy they named Roland Fairburne II. Gavin and Ziza had a quarter-elf girl they named Gavina Fairburne. Ibrahim and Dena had a human girl they named Shuza Ul’Tabarzi.
[Modules: I3-5: Desert of Desolation]
Ibrahim heard news of various tombs and ruins in the desert that had evil soldiers, cultists, slavers, monsters, elementals, undead, and treasure so the group went out to cleanse the areas of evil. Most of the locations were far too easy for the group to get through and not much of a challenge at all. In the end, they had to go on an inter-planar journey to the tomb of the archmage Martek in the “Black Abyss” to return the 5 “Star Gems” that belonged there; they returned Martek from the dead, who then killed the evil djinn lord Khalitharius. For their reward: Furosa took a wand of fireballs, Roland took a shield +3, Gavin took a ring of protection +3, and Ibrahim took 42,500 gp worth of platinum and gems.
They returned to Fairburne Keep, where Ibrahim gave their wives the 42,500 gp to spend on whatever they wanted. They women happily bought the nicest furniture and decorations available. Seeing the happiness of her teammates and their families made Furosa feel lonely inside. She decided to go off on her own; she hunted down the griffon-riding wizard/rogue Rhiannon and killed her, taking back the loot that had had been stolen long ago. With the profit from selling that gear, Furosa hired a team of wizard/sages to research how to send her back to Oerth.
In time, Furosa’s research team discovered a strange old magic portal that operated with blood magic and only allowed a person to travel through naked, but they were sure it would take her to where she was born. Furosa donated her gear to the army fighting the orcs. She didn’t want to put her children in danger by bringing them along with her (in case there was some sort of magical accident or her sages had been wrong) so she said goodbye to them and her friends. The sage team used her blood to operate the portal and hoped it would send her home…
Oerth NAG:
Naked and disoriented from the strange teleport, Furosa appeared in the capitol city of the Valley of the Mage. Unfortunately, no one there knew about her new half-orc body. The guards thought she was a crazy person, a dangerous imposter, and attacked her when she continued to assert that she was Furosa Bolari-Furyondy-Dunador. To get away from the guards and find something useful to protect herself, Furosa ran into a magic shop; inside she found a mind flayer with a mind-controlled mage.
The evil psionicist ordered the wizard to attack Furosa. She tumbled behind a counter, grabbed 2 magic longswords, and killed the mage in self-defense (after he had pummeled her with magic missiles). She resisted the mind attacks from the mind flayer, but he yelled out that he was going to eat her brain. She managed to cut off his head right as the guards barged in and saw her naked body bathed in blood.
Furosa managed to defend herself against 20 guards before a powerful elf druid came in and finished her off with lightning spells. Only after Furosa was dead did her brother Fyro arrive. He demanded to know what had happened and why they hadn’t just knocked her out. The guards tried to say she was just some crazy half-orc and that she had killed a bunch of them. Not sure if it really was his sister or not, but feeling bad about the situation, Fyro asked the druid to reincarnate her. Furosa’s body regenerated as a mountain dwarf. She chuckled when she looked at her brother and thought about the situation.
Furosa was able to convince her brother that it was her; they were twins and had plenty of secret signs to communicate with each other and special knowledge that only they knew about one another. Once she had been given proper clothing, Furosa asked her brother to take her to King Elster Aben so she could be reunited with him at the Chendl palace and resume her role as queen of Furyondy. They held huge celebrations in honor of her return and had new portaits made showing her new dwarven face. King Aben loved her and was glad she was back to raise little Prince Belvor V.
Oerth TAX with NAG: [Slumbering Tsar and Bard Gate Part 4]
Xamithus and Drotter thought they might have to give up on their goal when some strangers showed up with news. Fyro Bolari, the fire genasi fighter/wizard wielder of the Blade of Fiery Might and leader of the Valley of the Mage, along with Furyondy's Queen Furosa Bolari-Furyondy-Dunador, the dwarf paladin/wizard wielder of the Mithril Hammer of Vitroin (which her brother had gifted to her), arrived at the Xamithus Estate with news: their father had been an adventuring companion of Xamithus’ father and they had heard about TAX’s goals so they had travelled all this way via a teleport; they wanted to help. Fyro added that his fire giant friend Prince Snurreson was waiting outside the city with 3 other fire giants who all enjoyed the glory of battle, as long as they got equal shares of whatever loot would be found inside.
Xamithus asked why the leaders of far away lands would abandon their people for this quest. Furosa explained that her kingdom was holding together fine and she was looking for knowledge of the world of Yarth, which she hoped she could find in “the old continent of the wilderlands.” Fyro revealed his desire to establish new political allies on this side of the world and admitted his curiosity about whatever powerful relics might be inside the long-displaced temple of undeath. They all agreed to split the loot equally.
Soon Xamithus the barbarian-cleric, Drotter the cleric, Furosa the paladin-wizard, Fyro the fighter-wizard, Prince Snurreson, and the other 3 fire giant fighter-barbarians trekked out to Tsar. For strategy’s sake, Fyro pointed out to everyone that the fire giants were all immune to fire and that he himself was resistant to the element. He also pointed out that he had some gate scrolls that could be used to bring in more of his army from the Valley of the Mage or more fire giant allies, if needed.
On the way there, the new members of the team were surprised to meet the Dweller at the Crossroads and find out that they could each request a wish. Drotter warned them to be careful, but the group ended up spending 6 nights there. Not wanting to tempt the outsider to trick them, they simply asked for enchancements to their equipment. Fyro and Furosa both had their magic shields enhanced. Knowing they would be fighting undead, all 4 fire giants had necrotic resistance added to their armor. Drotter came up with an idea and had them stay another night; he used his wish to permanently send the Dweller of the Crossroads to the Abyss (not realizing that would allow it to empower demons that could later come after the team).
Their first challenge was killing an adult blue dragon that had come down into Tsar; they easily completed this task; unfortunately, during the battle all of the items that had been enhanced by the Dweller at the Crossroads were destroyed (from vulnerability to lightning, which the Dweller had also added to the items). Fyro teleported the dead dragon’s body back to the Valley of the Mage to have his gnomes craft it into armor, but he quickly returned with new armor and shields for the team.
For about 4 months, they faced battle after battle (sometimes being almost completely defeated – but with the wizards able to teleport them out to safety/to rest and come back – even having to resurrect Xamithus and Prince Snurreson), defeating over 750 lower-challenge enemies, over 100 mid-range foes, and 42 high-level masters of evil (including: the Lord of the Time Flayers, King Kush of the demon assassins, a massive gibbering mouther, a gibbering orb lich, Deathcrafter the shadowdancer, a gargantuan gelatinous cube, Bickerstaff the human lich, the Protean Keeper, Sir Fortengray the human vampire fighter, Sir Elzerakab the mummy cleric of Orcus, General Nimrob the corrupted planetar paladin, the giant Warlord Chervenka, Barak’Kara Mor the advanced balor demon, Aagash “The Broken” demonic wizard, several uber-orog clerics of Orcus, General Sonechard the uber-demon, an elemental earth dragon, and the final confrontation with Garagor “The Sleeper” ancient unholy corroded gold dragon empowered by the spirit of Orcus).
It ended with just Xamithus and Furosa standing. They resurrected Fyro and Prince Snurreson again, but they let the rest of the team rest in peace now that the quest was over. Their victory was only possible because of their amazing weapons and armor; Xamithus had been using the Hammer of Mordecai’s Doom (which ended up being cursed and leading to his death, causing the need to have him resurrected). After it was de-cursed, the weapon became the Hammer of the Three Gods (Tyr, Moradin, and a faceless deity) – which was the rightful weapon of the ruler of the city before it was overtaken by evil long ago.
They had over 4.5 million gp worth of loot, which divided out to about 1,125,000 gp each. Prince Snurreson said his wealth would allow him to make sure no one else could challenge his claim to his father’s throne. Fyro told the others he was going to reinvest the money in the defenses of the Valley of the Mage. Furosa was delighted because she could return to Furyondy and use the money and magic items to help defend her husband’s lands from evil; she also assumed she could pay sages to eventually find a way to get to Yarth to meet back up with her other children there.
As for Xamithus, he intended to use the Hammer of the Three Gods to allow him to claim Tsar and the region. He wanted to use the money to try to setup a patrol to clear out any more wandering monsters and to try to rebuild the city. He also had Shilarra, pregnant, back in Bard’s Gate. Fyro and Furosa said for him to call on them if he ever needed their help again and he told them to do the same. They teleported him back to Bard’s Gate before going home themselves.
Shilarra was happy to see Xamithus again. The officials at Bard’s Gate allowed Xamithus to pay enormous amounts of his money and fill out paperwork to claim the dead to the city of Tsar and the region around it; he spread the word that the forces of Orcus there had been defeated and began travelling to recruit soldiers and builders to guard and start rebuilding a civilized city. He also recruited more druids to come work at restoring the land to its natural state.
Clerics of Tyr explained to Xamithus that Tsar used to be St. Harul’s Hold – a religious city led by the Mordecai (who used to wield the Hammer of the Three Gods). The churches were willing to help reestablish a presence there and rebuild the city; they said they would acknowledge Xamithus as the patriarch of New St. Harul’s Hold; he agreed to rename Tsar as they wished, but he decided to call the region Xamithus.
Secretly, Fyro (influenced by the evil sentient Blade of Fiery Might) went to the new leader of the Valley of the Mage’s city New Rel Astra: “The Ghostlord” (the druid-lich that had helped Fyro’s father Kanith secure the area). From the ruins of Tsar, Fyro had recovered the ashes of Amnu-Paket (the powerful oni warlord who had built an evil empire in the past and ruled over the Tu Chai Palace). The Ghostlord helped Fyro use a combination of reincarnation and wish to bring Amnu-Paket back as a human lich; to manipulate Amnu-Paket into working for them, Fyro secured the new lich’s phylactery with Ghostlord. Fyro explained that Amnu-Paket’s mission would be to return to the wilderlands region and forge a new empire while secretly being funded by and reporting back to Fyro and Ghostlord.
NAG & TAX [Modules: Bastion of Broken Souls]
Weeks after Fyro returned home, one of the bards that NAG had sent out looking for info about Asharadalon returned with a lead on the ancient red dragon; knowing that attaining vengeance for NAG would also lead to more treasure and power, Fyro couldn’t resist fulfilling the original mission of NAG. He used two magical sending messages to contact Snurreson and Xamithus. Through the servants, Furosa heard they were preparing to take on Ashardalon and insisted on joining them, much to the displeasure of her husband (who wanted her to just stay home and spend time with the family).
When Xamithus, Fyro, Furosa, and Snurreson met at the embassy in Bristol they were shocked that Cathezar (a marilith elite assassin) attacked them; they killed her after a fight that actually challenged them. Nurn the psionicist death slaad appeared, saying he had been tracking Cathezar, and offered to ally with the group against the Abyssal Demon Lord Aameul; he explained that he had overheard her mention something about the Bastion of Unborn Souls being tied to Ashardalon (though he did not mention that Aameul was actually one aspect of Demogorgon).
Nurn took them back to Cathezar’s abode on Oerth – an underground lair. There, the group killed: 2 nalfeshnee demons and 2 animated demon chains. They also found info about getting to the Church of the Elements. At the elemental stone site, they were able to find out that Ashardalon had replaced his heart with a demon-heart, but that it was giving out so he was looking for a new workaround.
The group followed up on the lead from the bard, going to the Guild of Sleep. There, they took out 4 iron golems, 3 corrupt nobles, 3 dire tigers, and the “Dreamer Prime” (who turned out to be a night hag); before she died, she told them that the Bastion of Unborn Souls was a font of pre-incarnate souls in which spirits in the multiverse originate; with Ashardalon’s ancient power, he was hoping to somehow use the Bastion of Unborn Souls to prolong his life (without having to resort to lichdom or some other form of undeath).
Nurn took them to a female solar named Eco who would be able to give them more info. Eco and the planetar Bramam were both trapped there and said their duty demanded they stay for now; the group demanded answers, but the celestial beings told them that it was forbidden to give out information about the Bastion of Unborn Souls because of the Ban of the Unborn (a pact made long ago by the diety Desayeus, which obviously someone must have broken in order for Ashardalon to have the info).
Additionally, Eco and Brammam had imprisoned Desayeus, who they said could only be freed if Eco died. That was all Fyro had to hear in order to strike them and begin combat; Furosa was upset (realizing the Blade of Fiery Might had triumphed over her brother and turned him to evil). They all fought until the celestials were slain. The death slaad died in combat. The loot included a minor artifact: Eco’s dancing vorpal greatsword +3 (which Snurreson happily claimed as his own).
The 2 lillend guardians of Desayeus challenged the group so they killed them and intimidated Desayeus (who had been stripped of his divine power long ago). Desayeus said the other gods had banned against him after he had found the font of pre-incarnate souls, though he was sure it wasn’t the only such artifact in the multiverse, and put much of his power into what he called the Soul Totem. He said all that was left was a fragment of his Soul Totem, but that it would allow him to enter the Bastion of Unborn Souls.
Again, Fyro and Snurreson quickly went on the attack while Furosa and Xamithus backed them up; they killed the titan wizard Desayeus and took what was left of the Soul Totem – though the battle wore them down; Desayeus had called down meteor swarms before going down.
After resting, the group was able to use the Soul Totem to plane-shift within miles of the Bastion of Broken Souls on the Positive Energy Plane. A balor and an adult red dragon worked together to weaken the group on their way to their destination. The group was determined to see this through though, so they killed 1 advanced retriever, 1 hezrou, 4 glabrezou, 1 nalfeshness, a half-dragon/kobold, a half-dragon/ettin, an advanced chimera, and a half-dragon/dire bear. Snurreson died during the combat.
Fyro, Furosa, and Xamithus found that they all had to attune to the font of positive energy once inside; they killed 4 soulslipper creatures that had invaded in hopes of eating souls. Inside the forest of crystal trees was a half-dragon satyr gardener/druid named Oyalui (who preferred talking to fighting). Oyalui explained that while he was an obedient son to his dragon father Ashardalon, that he had been stolen from his fey mother long ago. Xamithus convinced Oyalui to join them.
They continued, killing 6 vrocks, 2 glabrezu, Bulphalthus the balor, and Tamion the balor; in the battle both Oyalui and Xamithus perished. Fyro and Furosa continued on, taking out Myra the human cleric of Tiamat, 2 soulmarauders, 2 more vrocks, and 2 crystal screamers. They found the remains of a dead adventurer, a half-orc cleric of Pelor, who had powerful gear (including Dragonhammer – the holy dragonbane greatsword+3). They knew they couldn’t rest there without risking losing their souls so they plane-shifted back to the Valley of the Mage.
[Modules: Bastion of the Broken Souls Part 2]
Furosa had the servants send Xamithus’ weapon and gear back to his wife and child. While Fyro and Furosa were resting, the servants insisted that the ambassador from the Momboddo Empire [which was actually from the planet Yarth] was very upset that Fyro had missed his appointment with him; since the servants were concerned, and because Fyro assumed this man could help with the mission, he had them send him in to meet them. Fyro asked the man to explain his accomplishments as a powerful barbarian. He told them that he was Sagard.
Sagard’s young son was with him; he said that he and his wife, Queen Uruthu had 2 children but that the daughter had stayed behind to be guarded while he and his son went off as official ambassadors of the empire. That allowed Sagard to continue adventuring and, he revealed, he didn’t want his son growing up where the boy would always feel inferior to his sister. But since he was just a child, Sagard was doing diplomatic missions with the goal of training his son along the way.
Fyro offered Sagard the weapon Dragonhammer (and several other magic items from the loot they had collected) if he would go with them to help slay Ashardalon. Furosa told the ambassador that he didn’t have to help them with their quest, but of course the barbarian wanted to take part in it. Sagard left his son there playing with Fyro’s children and wife.
Thus Fyro, Furosa, and Sagard plane-shifted to the Positive Energy Plane. On the way back into the Bastion of Unborn Souls, they fought and killed a nalfeshnee demon. Inside, they made their way to the core section and battled the fiendish ancient red dragon Ashardalon and his daughter, the half-dragon/kobold bard Pemoka; Sagard was the first to die, followed by Pemoka, Furosa, and then Ashardalon. Fyro thought that he was standing as the supreme victor when a half-dragon/balor demon crawled out of Ashardalon’s dead body – for the demon-heart had literally been a demon.
Fyro and the demon battled back and forth; when Fyro was out of spells, but realized both he and his opponent were close to death, he knew that taking the killing blow on the balor would cause a huge fiery explosion. Even with his natural fire resistance, it would finish him off along with the balor. Fyro gritted his teeth and sacrificed himself to destroy his enemy. No one there was left alive at the end of the battle.
Epilogue for Oerth’s Generation 2:
After Fyro’s death: Ghostlord, no longer feeling a need to continue Fyro’s plan of expansion, called back Amnu-Paket and promised the lich his freedom if he would take the undead army from New Rel Astra and retake the old kingdom in old Rel Astra and Rauxes. As such, the followers of Nerull evacuated the Valley of the Mage and entered into war to reclaim their old homes. Ghostlord became the ruler of that region and allowed Amnu-Paket to go free, off to fight his own battles in the wilderlands.
In the Valley of the Mage: Gaiyle took over leadership of the Valley of the Mage when her husband never returned; she and the servants raised her fire genasi son Manith, her adopted half-elf daughter Levara, and Sagard’s human son Sagardson. Tamoachan’s wife Tanasha, who was raising her mostly-human/quarter-gnome son Tamoachan II, helped out with the kids.
At Furyondy’s capitol city Chendl: King Elster Aben suffered horrible sadness when Furosa never returned. He raised her fire genasi child Belvor V (never realizing he wasn’t the biological father of the child), with the help of Raxane Macer-Bogwalker and her husband Emrald Bogwalker (whose mixed green/black/red dragonborn child Aulic became best friends with Prince Belvor V).
In the City of Greyhawk: Felicia Mordenkainen raised her (and Tamoachan’s) mostly human/quarter-gnome son Ernst Mordenkainen.
Back at Bard’s Gate: Xamithus’ Shilarra raised their child Xamithus II. The daughter Xamithus thought was dead, Xamira, was given to an orphanage and raised with the name Jen after Sadie died. Grespo and Sadie’s tiefling boy Guy also grew up at the orphanage.
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