The World of Telvar

Stone Soules 1, Tram/DS/Evil Baddies 0.

This was the big one folks! We accomplished all our objectives! First I'll
create the short summary followed by a longer one for those hungry for detail.

Joel/Rangorn

For those who are eager for quick and not detailed:

THE STONE SOULES SHORT SUMMARY

Find the Path failed utterly (tiny chance of success). So we went with the
contingency plan of looking up with Protection from Possession. Raven
looked up and read something like: to the left are the unfit, to the right
the fit, to the center the chosen. That was a very rough translation-- but
it's fortunately academic now. Ask Sean for details.

inserted here:
Those I find unfit I place to my left.
Those I find fit, I place to my right.
The chosen may proceed forward.

While still under Prot. from Poss. Raven tried a dull purple fruit (picked
it off with his sword). He swelled to huge size and was indestructible for
a brief moment, then returned to normal (made System Shock at 1/2 chance),
or almost. Raven had gained a point of Constitution permanently! (and 6 hp
to boot!). We now suspect that when Ceydric recovers from the mental damage
he will gain a point of wisdom.

This next stuff was in several attempts:

Next we touched the seven walls with four people. The center of the room
became purple. We blew the horn (type 5 abjuration) and it made a horrible
wailing noise, but a pillar of initally purple and later black rose up out
of the center until it touched the ceiling. A stairwell of purple stairs
appeared around it. The stairs were surrounded by a gray swirly circle
thing which turned out to be an EVEN COLDER wall of force. The wall opened
for us when certain incense was lit and a religious pattern was followed
(Rangorn and thus I was out of the room for this detail, so sorry about
being unclear). The problem was that we had a limited number of sticks to
burn. Ceydric and Raven went down (with some other members) as they were
the ones who passed the "test" of the fruit and were the "chosen" in our
opinion. They went down the stairs for an indeterminate period of time
(stairs became black as they went down). The found a room below with a huge
slab (about 12 feet long) and a 4 foot high box with two upside down pyramid
insignias on it. The box was leaning against the 12 foot long slab. Above
the slab was an indistinct blackness. Ceydric looked in and quickly
determined that we had found the Dark Servant.

Ceydric and Raven had gained knowledge (mysteriously) of the name of the
place and the Dark Servant. Having passed everything else we were
confounded-- we tried to open the box as Ceydric fervently insisted the gems
would be very close to the DS. But nothing would open it.

In the meantime Rangorn and Mordrick found the dwarven heirloom axe--
(spectacular die rolls by Rangorn) in less than 15 minutes. We looked in
the altar room for any pyramid shaped key or something. Eli and Deirdre
cast spells on the runes on the top of the Temple and the belt of the
statue-- the runes were curses against everyone who brought light, goodness,
knowledge, etc. The belt told nothing relevant.

There was only enough incense left for one more go, so we went with bold and
stupid. Rangorn, Raven, Deirdre and Star went down the stairs the last
time. We tried -Knock- spelling the box, but it reflected the -Knock- back
at Deirdre. We then had a big argument about whether to speak the name of
the DS or blow the horn as a last resort. Speaking the name had little
effect but to make it stir slightly. We stopped. Another huge argument
ensued. Deirdre eventually decided to try chanting the name repeatedly.
Alas, Deirdre was annihilated and became Temple building material (by the
way all 3rd and 4th level clerical spells vanished when Alegra descended the
stairs-- and Eli started forgetting spells-- so they didn't go along again).
We had little choice but to try the horn, though Rangorn thought it would be
to our demise. The blowing of the horn opened a secret door, but knocked
everyone off their feet.

In tragic irony, only Rangorn failed his save and ripped open his robe. In
the intense cold he was finished in moments. Raven and Star pressed on
through the secret door and found a pyramid-shaped key and more incense--
subtle (sarcasm). He inserted it into the box and it opened revealing a bag
and a box. He took both and Rangorn's body and they raced up the stairs
just before time ran out on the incense. But he brought the extra out so
there was plenty of time to retrieve other things. Fortunately the deadly
poison trap (40 needles-- would have stunk) on the box was accidentally
tripped by the bag bumping over the side. We opened the box and discovered...

THE 333 GEMS!!!!!!!!!! Around three gross was a quick estimate. THEY'RE
ALL THERE!

The bag held...

THE BOOK!!!!! The one the sage wanted to knock out Tellah!

We split into two groups-- one to hustle the gems back at high speed
(Warwick, Tristan, Mordrick, Alegra, Ludo, Eli, and the late Rangorn's body)
and the other to stay and deal with the shocktroopers. The group hustling
the gems survived intact after a nasty encounter with a nutso priest (just
showed up and started hurling spells at us on the first night). We killed
him and found a type 3 dagger, type 2 ring, and type 1 invisible item
(conjuration) which we guess was his holy symbol since none was visible on
him. Eli thinks it was a priest of Kord.

The party back at the Temple fended off the questions of a Realmish monk who
showed up, and then Realmish soldiers-- and returned the two Realmish
prisoners in good condition to the monk. The Realm eventually decided that
we were forgiven for Groorg's troops betrayal (50 of them turned and killed
many Realmish soldiers).

Rangorn was raised successfully and the gems were teleported back via
Menstat and are being held by Gring. Our arrival at the dwarven valley was
kept secret and our official "arrival" will be when the party heads back
together. Finally, the party (except Rangorn who will be fine when they
next see him at the dwarves') regrouped and informed the Realmish that we
would be leaving. We did.

Out of character: despite Rangorn's temporary death, I was thrilled to be a
part of the most successful adventure in Stone Soules' History!

And that was the hideously nerve-racking but disgustingly successful
conclusion to the epic quest.

I forgot to mention that while the other party remained at the temple, they
destroyed the horn and incense and threw the remains into the cold. The
place is pretty well sealed and the Dark Servant will remain at rest for
eternity!

Joel/Rangorn

P.S. I'll get the full details out tomorrow. Getting late and all that.
Next week will be a few fun details... YES!!!!!!!!!!

To answer some Warwick's questions: the horn is necessary to open the
stairwell down to the DS, and was left down in the stairwell and shut in.
So unless another one is created (from scratch) it is inaccessible. All the
robes were easily destroyed (most unintentionally) as was the incense
(burned). The DS is inaccessible, but it is still possible with a battery
of -Aid- spells to reach the tree and quickly pick it (though a system shock
roll at 1/2 penalty is required). Feel free- I wouldn't do it...

Menstat was contacted on Tristan's sixth scrying attempt and Tristan held up
the sign Warwick had prepared (in the dwarven vale by this time). In the
meantime Rangorn was raised. The next evening, Warwick surprised the crud
out of the suddenly appearing Menstat, who talked to everyone for a few
minutes. We handed him the gems to give to Gring and a message for (how do
you spell it) Aura-Maxis that we had found the sage's book to theoretically
destroy Tellah.

There is still a decent quantity of treasure in four chests hidden in our
secret cache in the nearby valley. I believe we have decided to take it
with us. We are about to depart the valley but have not yet done so.
Warwick is still with us, by the way (the whole group returned and is
reunited, excepting the recovering Rangorn). We have done little IDing of
items through even Detect Magic thus far-- most of it will be resolved in
Cromwell, I believe.

Moving at 12" the reduced party managed to cover the distance from the
Temple to the dwarves in 5 days, so at the expected 6" it should be
considerably longer, and weather may be a problem as it is late in the year
(but not disastrously slow).

One other note: excepting the travel time with the gems, the point from
where we left off last week to the recovery of the gems took only a small
amount over a single spell shift (evening of the same day).

Our official "arrival" back at the dwarven valley will be our next arrival,
hopefully to great fanfare.

One final note: If there were any doubts about Mordrick, leave them behind.
The first guard that saw us approach the dwarven settlement laid his sword
down honorably in front of Mordrick.

Joel/Rangorn

Posted by Joel Green at 02:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

All figures are 10 feet tall. They surround a 10' square column of purple.

The Black Idol: Southern Side; Jet Black
This figure is wearing armor made of fluted, runneled, and winged plates.
The mail is made of downwards pointing triangles. Some sort of cape hangs
over the shoulders with scalloped edges near the knees. It holds a huge,
wavy-bladed two-handed sword. The helmet has no openings, and it covered with
strange projections and spiny ridges, much like the armor.

The Green Idol: Eastern Side; Deep Dark Green
This figure has a broad chest and wide shoulders. It wears a flowing
cloak that has sleeves that hang over the hands. A high collar goes from
cheek to cheek, and a tight cap is on its head. The figure is wearing a mask
of an old man. A staff leans against the right shoulder, lightly grasped.

The Red Idol: Northern Side; Dark, Intense Carmine
This figure wears high boots, hose, a doublet-like garment, and
gauntlets. These look strangely familiar, but are clearly of some foreign or
ancient style. The figure wears a long hood, drawn tightly around a faceless
face. The figure holds an axe with the blade on the ground and the hands
resting on its handle. The axe has a short handle, but the blade is long and
has many angles and an end spike that rests on the floor.

The Blue Idol: Western Side; Deep Indigo
This figure wears a garment with many pleats. It wears a girdle
with strange runes upon it. A broad cowl largely hides a blank surface
where a face should be. The arms are held so the hands meet at the center
of the chest (with elbows out to each side). The arms and hands are entirely
hidden by the robe, but must be holding the strangely convoluted and filigreed
stick (Scepter?).

Disturbingly, I have this level of detail on almost anything in the temple
you choose to examine in detail...

The Upside Down Pyramids in the octagonal room are two stepped affairs,
a pair of trapezoids stacked atop each other. Only the outline imples the
separation of the two levels, as the entire thing is nothing put a
silhouette. The bottom of the shape (top of the pyramid) is flattened rather
than pointed.

Edwin

Posted by Joel Green at 02:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Before this, his result was "The Four Brothers approach the sign of the
Hawk." The Four Brothers is a meteor shower and the Hawk a constellation.
At that moment the Bird Man Tchoh-Meh was approaching to talk to us about
asking them to do a third-party Know Alignment.
The hostile nature of the four brothers was emphasized by the astrology
readings. The fact that this was "unhappy" for our fate in the "cornucopia"
relates that obviously our chances of reaping the cornucopia of wealth are
small at this point and that the FB might be making it smaller....

The box which contained the wand was found in the Trapezoidal Room, the only
item of apparent value in it. The wand was made of Crystal and glowed.

Oh yes, and I forgot to mention in the summary that Mordrick had originally
requested for a third party to cast -Know Alignment- not trusting us fully
yet. We sent the -Runner- requesting the aaracokra to send someone to cast
it. Tchoh-Meh informed us that none of them were capable of casting the spell.

Totally unrelated, but Ludo found a very weird feather somewhere in the
temple when he was searching it. He was going to show it to Eli and Alegra,
but I never got around to it.

We don't know exactly what the gems look like. The accounts of them being
"mined from the darkest depths" or something like that is all we have to go
on. The fact that they were mined indicates they really are literal gems
though.

The reason Ceydric touched the fruit was in the hope that they were the
gems. When it backfired, we decided that the fruit was NOT the gems-- if
they are we might as well go home, as we can't afford to get more people
mentally blasted. Nevertheless some people suggested that the fruit trees
grew from the gems hidden underneath. Rangorn and Eli have not yet checked
the floors there. Unfortunately Ludo and Mordrick cannot safely go down
there and help, as they would have a much better chance.

Certainly the 166 fruits is suspicious, although it may have nothing to do
with the gems-- rather with some other aspect of the Temple. The actual
tree was not touched either, only one apple. One further idea was to "pick"
the fruit in the big horn or perhaps one of the smaller horns. Sorry about
the mistakes with the iron boxes, by the way...

Joel/Rangorn

Posted by Joel Green at 02:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks for the promotion, Kyle!

"Even the simplest of tasks become complicated by consistent bad rolling."
-Zack Hubert after the hapless bunny of power had successfully resisted the
THIRD polymorph attempt

Will the Stone Soules ever make any progress in this place? Is the barrage
of Auguries too integral a part of our earlier success? You make the call in...

THE STONE SOULES SUMMARY

Before beginning the adventure a long list of goals was proposed. Most of
the minor and simple ones were achieved (albeit with great difficulty).

Eli EVENTUALLY managed to polymorph four rabbits into mules to drag Groorg's
body outside to the nearby valley where we had prepared for the original
assault on the temple. There we learned one important piece of information
through -Speak with Dead-: that "the treasure room" was hidden in the 333
dimples room. We cut off his head and took it back to the Temple with his
equipment.

Teldral the dwarf's real name is Mordrick Ironhand. He is an immensely
strong and hardy dwarf. He also speaks Common decently well, far better
than we had guessed, and so understood many of our conversations about him.
After he consented to allowing Alegra and Alegra only to cast -Know
Alignment- on him (and promising never to reveal what she had learned),
Alegra found the result acceptable. Warwick dropped his objections after a
few questions under -Detect Lie- and -Detect Evil- (all done outside of the
non-divination zone) and Mordrick joined the party formally.

His skill in finding traps is in many cases better than Ludo's, and he has
such a high life total that he quickly became an invaluable member. His
claims of being name-level were confirmed by the spells and by his success
during the searches.

Warwick came up with a plan to get the person with the gems out in a hurry
should we recover them. Tristan the druid would scry on Menstat, who has
devices that would warn him of the attempt. When he returned the scry,
Tristan would be wearing a sign asking him to teleport him back to Cromwell
with the gems.

Alegra and Xavier attempted astrology readings-- the results were involving
the constellation Cornucopia and a few others. One I remember was roughly
(don't quote me on this) "The Cornucopia is unhappy."

Xavier later decided to check if our fears of a hostile force approaching
the Temple were true, and tried another series of observations. The results
were:

"Hostile approach from the north. The number 4 is important."

We decided that meant that the feared Realmish shocktroopers were coming to
find out why Groorg's men had suddenly deserted (upon the death of their
leader). The number 4 could mean one or both of two things:

1) They will be arriving in 4 days.
2) There are 4 of them.

Another rule for the Stone Soules page:

4) 1 shocktrooper is bad. 4 shocktroopers is just ugly.

After a heated debate, we decided not to flee immediately and continue the
search in the hopes of quickly finding the treasure. The problem was, if we
left we would never have another opportunity to explore the temple before it
was cleared (or worse the shocktroopers freed the Dark Servant by design or
accident).

Next we explored the dimple room and found a door that quickly revolved
around, 90 degrees at a time, using a VERY well-hidden latch. Mordrick and
Ludo were fed Lucky Days before the search which probably helped
significantly in our "success."

The first 90 degree turn put us in a small room with stuff that might once
have been worth quite a lot but was now only a handful of gold pieces. The
next 90 degree turn was actually into a room that spanned 180 degrees. (So
there are only three rooms accessible by this secret door-- the dimple room,
"treasure" room, and the dark room). The dark room was hideously resistant
to any light. Candles were found to work best. Ludo and Mordrick were able
to search for traps though they sensed hideous evil. When Warwick went in
and checked out the floor, he claimed to have seen a "vision" of something
and that he needed to examine it more to understand fully. Alarm bells went
off when he strongly refused to leave the room with Ceydric. He finally
consented under strong pressure. The feeling left him somewhat, and
eventually Alegra cast a -Remove Curse- on him. So it was scary, but there
still appear to be no adverse effects.

Most notably in the room was a portal on the floor. When we opened it, it
blasted out unbelievable cold damage and we quickly shut it. We tried
various ways to explore it, involving rings of warmth, resist cold, and
weather control spells, all to little effect. The problem with the
temperature control was that it was a stationary field. If it moved along
with Alegra, this whole would have been a LOT easier. The other things just
seemed to do very little. And regardless this cold was not quite like
natural cold, because of how it chilled so evenly and to the bone.

A plan was hatched to explore it involving Alegra putting a weather control
at the bottom and Ceydric flying down the tunnel and exploring while
literally his dozen aids were drained. The result was hideously costly and
later turned out to be unfortunate...

Ceydric (with 117 hp!) flew down and, taking continuous damage, explored.
About 300 feet down, the tunnel became horizontal rather than vertical.
There was 4-way intersection. When Ceydric passed through this a voice
spoke "Look up and see your fate." (a booming and brassy voice). Ceydric
responded, "I don't think so," and took a left. Here was a trapezoidal room
filled with books, armor, shields, weapons, urns, and jars.

Going to the right at the intersection, Ceydric saw a hexagonal room with a
few bushes, growing what appeared to be fruit. Bizarrely, the fruit
appeared normal while the bushes had a crystalline structure. The bushes
began light in color at the top and darker until they matched the obsidian
floor at the bottom. Racing against time, Ceydric went into the third room,
an octagonal room with 7 panels and designs.

He made it upstairs just barely alive due to the long flight back up. The
valiant Ceydric had done a costly reconnaissance, losing one of his ring
fingers to frostbite.

We decided that it was simply too costly to make these runs. It was also
becoming likely that the gems were hidden down there. We began to search
for a safer way down, either by "shutting off" the cold or finding a magic
robe of warmth or something.

There were also two secret doors leading to an area in back of the altar
room. The total findings in the rooms were 7 dark robes, 2 iron boxes
(magical-needed knock to open them), and 37 large balls of incense (magical).

Eli had been doing a lot of numerology with the number 333, and had come up
with several pyramid formations. In addition, the number 333 is 3x3x37-- an
interesting and useful tidbit.

The robes have been tried on by Theo (the guinea pig), Ceydric, Rangorn,
Raven, and Warwick. They did indeed block the cold completely, without any
senstation of accompanying warmth. Weird.

Past the cloak rooms were two vestries, where the dark priests adorned
themselves before performing black rites. There was a large tan mold in
one of them, which attacked Ludo and Mordrick intially, then stopped and
just sank down. Eli cast multiple attack spells at it, including magic
missile, LIMM, and Wall of Ice. No effect noted. It never again moved
though, and Ludo and Mordrick did a search. That was where we found 5 jet
black spheres (magical).

The first group down into the cold pit was Ceydric, Rangorn, Raven, and
Theo. Only Ceydric carried his sword, as the robes tend to make movement
and combat awkward. You cannot fire a bow in them. You cannoth carry
anything except in your hands, and they have only two small eyeslits, a
fairly large breathing hole, and a pointed top.

We all heard the voice as we passed, and understandably none of us dared
look up. We turned left and tried to simply collect stuff from the room
without looking closely at it. Unfortunately as Raven touched the first
book to knock it into the sack, a shadowy beast rose out of it. We turned
to run, but it was nearly as fast as us. It became clear we could never
make it up the ladder in time, and Ceydric turned to fight it. On its first
hit it tore open gaping holes in the robes and cold rushed in. Ceydric
ignored it and fought it off, and it finally retreated from damage. Ceydric
did his best to cover up the holes, buying enough time to lower a new robe
to him. After this we decided to have all the spare robes in a pile at the
base of the ladder.

Rangorn stayed up the second trip, and the three armed themselves with magic
weapons. The ethereal being reappeared when Raven touched the book again.
It is outer-planar; Theo's sword really trashed it. Unfortunately Theo's
cloak was shredded in the encounter and Raven's was torn partially. Theo
nearly died trying to get another one on before the cold finished him.

Theo returned upstairs, and Ceydricchecked out the stuff in the trapezoidal
room while Raven searched the walls for secret doors. It was all junk,
Ceydric quickly realized, though he sent one shield up just in case it was
an illusion. Sahrak's -Detect Illusion- indicated it was not. It really
was a decoy of some kind. Of course we haven't checked all the equipment
there. In addition, Ceydric sent up an urn which has still remained
unopened thus far.

Ceydric next examined the bushes and made a count of the number of fruits.
The total number was 166, 1 less than half of 333. In addition they were
grouped by numbers like 37 and 3 and 9 (Ceydric made an exact count-- I just
forgot the exact stats).

On the next trip Ceydric and Rangorn went down. Rangorn searched all three
rooms for secret doors. He found none in the first two. As soon as he
touched the wall physically in the third (octogonal room with 7 panels) the
floor glowed and a ring of purple appeared of about 20' diameter. Rangorn
and Ceydric dashed out of the room and stood near the doorway, but seconds
later the light just disappeared. Rangorn was feeling in a experimental
mood and touched the next panel (they rotate long and short sides). The
same thing happened.

One of the iron boxes was opened upstairs, revealing a wand (magical).
Finally there seemed no option but to check out the fruit. Ceydric and
Warwick went down (Warwick seemed fine) and approached one of the bushes.
There were three types of fruit. Ceydric touched one of the "green apples"
with one finger. No effect. Two. No effect. He put his whole hand around it.

...For a moment Ceydric gained the wisdom of the gods, the cleverness of
eternity...

and then fell unconscious in Warwick's arms. Ceydric had sustained mental
damage, which will take days to recover through normal healing only, and is
now operating at only half-strength. When Ceydric explained what had
happened to Warwick, his response was, "I wanna try some of that!"

We are struck by the seven robes, and seven panels coincidence. Some members
have theorized that the seven high priests could invoke dark rituals if they
all touched the panels at the same moment. Another theory is that the seven
panels were a safeguard against any single priest stealing the gems, and
that if we touched all walls at the same time the ring would encase the
gems. This is of course hideously risky to test.

Most of us agree that the voice at the four-way is in fact the Dark Servant.
None of us dare look up-- things will be "not happy."

Another theory on the gem location is that the bushes are not in fact the
gems but have grown out of them and that the gems are actually buried
underneath the bush. Unfortunately the robes only fit people above 5'6" or
so safely, so we've been hesistant to bring Eli, Sahrak, Ludo, or Mordrick
down. Furthermore Alegra, Xavier, Star, and Tristan all fear being smitten
upon touching the robes-- certainly justified. So if we still had all seven
robes intact we could try to have Rangorn, Raven, Deirdre, Ceydric, Theo,
Warwick, and a seventh person all touch the walls and see what happened. On
the other hand if one person can touch more than one panel (ie. at a corner)
then only four people would be necessary. We still have 4 fully intact
robes and one robe that is ok for awhile. Eli tried to -Repair- one of the
really damaged ones, and it began to work, then abruptly unraveled completely.

What should we do next? We have one more day to leave safely before we
expect the Shocktroopers.

End of log.

Out of character: We quit at 4 AM frustrated and worried. The party is now
debating what to do. Everything seems to lead to some reward, but at
hideous risk for the risk-taker. Zack is understandably unwilling to have
Ceydric continue being the guinea pig, and most of the other people want to
continue, but not do the risky stuff. We can stop now and be satisfied with
a modest haul, and the success of killing Groorg and retrieving the mithril
key without any loss of life.

But this is our best chance to recover a huge treasure. And there are still
some places left that have not been tinkered with, though we think we've
mapped the floor out fully. Groorg told us (when dead) that his followers
were struck dead upon touching things in the altar room. So this seems
unwise. Then there is the six sarcophogi room (six sarcophogi and one more
in another room, 7 coffins-- supports our suspicion about the 7 wall
panels). And finally the cistern with the tentacle thing.

Sorry about the huge length of this summary, but we are really up against
the wall here and I thought detail was very important for those observing.
Kyle is not alone in being frustrated-- we are all still in debate.

Thus ends Episode 2 of the Stone Soules, "The Stone Soules vs. the Dark
Servant." Watch them defy death and danger with reckless abandon in Episode 3!

Joel D. Green

"Life is full of little surprises."
-Pandora

Posted by Joel Green at 02:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Joel will probably be writing the summary soon, but here are some brief
"teasers" for the game:

1. It's amazing how little can be accomplished from about 9 hours of effort.
2. Non-divinable areas are no fun.
3. Shocktroopers are no fun.
4. Cold environments, that even the most powerful of clerics of the weather
God couldn't deal with, are no fun.
5. Puzzles that make no sense to an outside observer are no fun.
6. I think it all boils down to the fact that evil isn't really any fun.

The game featured:
1. Fun with Numerology! The mathematics! The supposition!
2. Fun with Astrology! The terror! The suspense!
3. Fun with Speak with Dead! The humor! The cunning!

fun fun fun fun fun...

This game was sponsored by the word FRUSTRATION...

Kyle

Posted by Joel Green at 02:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a very brief summary. Since we didn't do a whole lot that requires
much description, it will be pretty easy:

1. Searched the areas of the temple where Groorg's men went. Found lots of
interesting items and most importantly the Mithril Key. Rangorn would
probably want us to detail his daring escapades fighting wolves here, but we
won't.

2. Rescued an adventurer dwarf, recently captured. Later we found his
chain mail of weightlessness (along with another suit that we found). Lots
of other cool treasure.

3. Rescued two Realmish privates who had been tortured. We healed them.
They were from the anti-Drake, anti-Cromwell side, but we didn't really care.

4. Explored the catacombs below the temple where the "glowy things" were.
The halfling-size prints clued us in that they may be will-o-wisps, and we
later encountered two of them. We tried to track their treasure down, since
two will-o-wisps could very well be hiding over the gems. With that much
cash, perhaps even will-o-wisps could share.

The catacombs contained lots of burial niches and sarcophagi. Some had been
cleaned out by Groorg's men. Some had been left alone. A gelatinous cube
tried to eat Ceydric. We killed it. A tentacled monster from a pool tried
to grab Ceydric. We got him loose.

Later, we went back to where a sarcophagus had been pried open and fought a
weak mummy. It was destroyed but nothing interesting was found in its
sarcophagus (though we should check out his mace for magic since it still
looked in good shape).

A room full of six sarcophagi was left intact, along with other burial
niches. Another potential place for the gems. Last place we want to look
but might have to: Under/around the Altar. Could "suck."

Kyle/Alegra

One of the prisoners we just rescued was Teldral the Dwarf, a fighter of
low level that was interested in watching the workings of our party.
During the encounter with the mummy, he did relatively little, passing
a couple of items between members and not much more. The following email
is entirely related to a discussion between Eli (the only person able to
speak dwarven) and Teldral.

After speaking with Teldral for around an hour or so, Eli returns to the
party with Teldral close behind and shares the following information.

"Hmm...how to best present this material. It seems that Teldral would
like to help us, the Stone Soules, but the degree to which he helps is
dependent upon our reaction to him. He is not comfortable with the
current arrangement, that is, following the party around and getting into
dangerous situations without sharing reward or motivation. If it is
decided by the party that we do not wish Teldral to assist us, he would
prefer to be left behind with the other prisoners as opposed to
endangering himself needlessly. He would leave with no hard feelings
towards the party, and would have only lost 4 magic items and 12k gold."

"Teldral is intelligent enough to pick out that we are searching for
something, based no doubt on our careful scrutinization of every stone
and block we have come upon since our arrival here. Therefore, he
presents option 2 as a means of benefitting all those concerned. He has
some skill as a thief, combining this with his dwarven knowledge and
proficiency in engineering, he is a very capable person for finding
secret compartments in this complex(more so than Ludo in dealing with
stonework secrets). He could agree to a short term contract of
assisting the party in locating 'the treasure' for the fee of the return
of all his equipment and a pre-arranged sum of gold. His equipment
includes that which we have already returned to him AND 3 potions
(healing, heroism, invulnerability) and a ring of protection. The amount
of money would have to at least match the amount lost but with the
perceived danger he would prefer something on the order of 20k."

"Teldral has also made it clear that he is interested in joining the
Stone Soules for the duration which they plan to adventure (somewhere
around 10 years), if several terms could be agreed to. He would ask that
all his equipment be returned to him, however, if he were to join he
would use the potions to the party's benefit whenever possible. He would
also like a decently large personal allotment of wealth, as he is used to
living well. He is aware of the 6-month core membership system and the
triumverate of leaders, but has made it clear that any suicidal mission
he will abort before forcing himself to die just because the vote was
against him. I would like to take the moment to point out that Teldral
is not fully aware of our adventuring style (very cautious) and thus I
think this final note irrelevant, but for completeness it is mentioned
here. It was at this point, that Teldral confided in me the truth of his
background and which I think the party will consider him to be a very
useful addition indeed."

"His name is not Teldral. It is X (Edwin has it at home and couldn't
remember it at the time of this writing). He has been adventuring for 60
years and is an influential member of the dwarven political community,
serving as arbiter and dignitary between the clans. He is a warrior of
prestige among the dwarven peoples, an honor that is equivalent to that
bestowed upon a human warrior when they have earned their name (7-9th
level). He is also skilled as a master thief, enabling him to adventure
alone, succesfully clearing many ruins in these dwarven hills and through
his ingenuity single-handedly defeating a tribe of hill giants. Were
he to be accepted among our ranks, he could easily learn more of our
common language to communicate with us all. It is his mixture of
talents that he would bring to the Stone Soules but he requires a few
things of us."

"The individual allotment is an important thing for him, and I believe,
an important thing for each of us. Xavier and Alegra have plans for the
telescope, which, although the party's initial outlay of tremendous
amounts of money grants each member partial ownership, the workings of
the telescope will be entirely left to those two in retirement. Thus,
they will need a personal share to build the structures to house the
scope and to start the community there. Theo has shown interest in
building a structure and joining Faranyn in Middle with some position of
leadership among the barony guard. I would like to build a residence at
the Ziggurat; Raven seek his original form. We all have personal goals
that shouldn't be funded by the party, thus it seems that Teldral's
request for a personal allotment is something each of us desires anyway."

"The second request from Teldral is perhaps more difficult. In order to
help locate what we are looking for, he requires some details on the form
of the treasure. We all know this is Type-2 classified information by
the Cromwellian government and thus the decision for its disbursement is
partially in the hands of Warwick, as the official representative of said
government. To what extent Teldral may be informed is still a party
decision however, we are in the field and not within the political reins
of Cromwell. The success of our mission could depend on the assistance
of this dwarf and what detail we give to him. I would ask that the party
invest some trust within the dwarf, a hero among his peoples, so that our
own quest does not fail. He has offered to place his life in line with
what we know to be very hideous traps, I believe he deserves to know for
what reason his life is at risk and to what he stands to gain. It would
be nice to also give him the details for why we are pressed for time, and
why, if a Realmish Shock Troop appears, that they aren't necessarily a
friend. Teldral has assured me his only allegiance is to the dwarven
people, and thus has no ties to Cromwell or the Realm, but confusion at a
moment of crisis could endanger the success of our mission. This is
something we should perhaps discuss more without the presence of Teldral
(he is standing by Eli at the moment)."

"What are people's feelings towards the offers he has made?"

More detail was presented at dinner last night (as well as several
questions I haven't addressed here answered), but this is all I have time
for at the moment. Mark and Joey's input through email is very important
here as we do not wish to waste the first hour of the mega-game session
discussing party politics. I have been told Kyle might be at dinner
tonight so he can present his ideas then. At the moment, the polling is
as follows:

Eli-Greatest proponent of Teldral's admission, seeks all Type-2
information revealed to T

Ceydric-Agrees that Teldral should be allowed to join, but that only VERY
basic information be revealed (enough that the treasure can be found, but
nothing more)

Raven-Believes Teldral to be what he claims to be, and thus would like to
see him join the party. Says he will keep an eye on his activities for
awhile.

Rangorn-Agrees with Raven, "He is a dwarf..."

Xavier-More of a hardliner like Ceydric, believing in the control of
government in this situation (yes, he is a worshipper of a CG religion :) )

Theo-"Yeah, sure, whatever." Edwin can extrapolate here.

That is the initial opinions, correct me if you are represented incorrectly.

Cheers,

-Zack Hubert-

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