The World of Telvar

First, it was necessary to gather the members of the party. Most were
available, but in order to make it on time, Alegra and Raven had some
interesting experiences

Raven led patrols around Tan-El during 2186 to protect the workers and
increase the safety zone for the low-level parties, including Rage
Against Injustice (a Korian party), hired on bounty to clear Tan-El. This
arrangement worked out fine, until a very nasty encounter.

On patrol were Raven, Rangorn's two woodsmen henchman Luke and Han, and
three elves from Sairt. A banshee beetle, the most feared monster in
Tan-El, jumped out in front of the party and screamed.

All but Han and one elf collapsed. Han sent the elf for help, and began
checking the bodies. Though Raven hung on to life for some time, all the
rest
appeared to be dead, and Han began to feed them
to the banshee beetle one at a time, hoping that Theo and Star and Ludo
could arrive in time to save Raven. Unfortunately, the creature had made it
to
Luke
and no one had yet showed up, so Han poured the Elixir of Life to save
Raven, and dragged him, stunned, back towards the Tan-El workers. He met
Theo
and Ludo along the way, but they would not risk tracking down the beetle
in case it could scream again (by know nearly 5 minutes had passed and
previous
experience with the monsters revealed nothing of their abilities to recharge
this special attack).

Raven was saved, but he took massive permanent damage, including 7 hp,
and 2 comeliness points, reducing to 37 hp and a comeliness of 5.

Rangorn was still in the Tunnel with the Daring Dozen at the time, so Han
decided to have Luke reincarnated (he was unraiseable) and he came back
as an eagle! Another Phaulkonian eagle. Meanwhile, Rangorn had a nasty
shock waiting for him when he returned from the trip.

Alegra, meanwhile, had to travel to the Realm, to the distant land of
Hochland 200 miles off the Realmish coast, to train to 9th level.
Leaving Tan-El in mid-2186, she traveled to Carse to buy the weird suit
of armor the Defenders had noted ten years earlier, a "Sharpskin suit." The
merchant stated that "he couldn't reveal what it's made out of, but lots of
them had to die to make it." The armor is AC 6/6, acts like leather for
thieving abilities,
mountain climbing, etc. It is dimly magical and unaligned and probably made
from the
carcass of some weird black creature. Taking a boat from Carse to Teft,
she hit a bad storm, but saved the ship from capsizing through her
Phaulkonian ability to reduce winds. A few days later a huge but
friendly whale appeared.

Alegra was Teleported with Eli to Melbonia, where Skylltor Teleport
without Errored her to Saib, a bustling slum of a city in the near Realm
(comparisons were drawn to Calcutta). At extreme expense, Alegra hired
professional bodyguards (referred to her by Skylltor) until a fast
passenger boat was ready for her. The passenger boat trip was short, but
another storm rose, and the ship was once again saved by Alegra.

She landed in Hochland, where for the first time in her life, Alegra was
treated with respect. The place was quite beautiful, and as the launching
point for the great New World missionary activities of the Phaulkonian hero
Hoch, showed great respect for Phaulkonians of all kinds. Alegra trained to
9th level and gained 3 hp to stand at 40. She worked with Grand Matriarch
Mariah, the highest level human Phaulkonian cleric. Along with the High
Priests of Teft, Hoch-Och, and a Cloud Giant High Priest, Alegra joins the
ranks as one of four High Priest-level Phaulkonians who report to Mariah.
Mariah reports to the leaders of the Temple of the Sky in the Adventuring
Reserve (with its elite Storm Giant guards and extensive temple complex).

Since she had been refunded her money for the boat trip, Alegra was able to
go
back for free, but she needed guards and decided to pick up her dozen elite
guard
followers, called The Seasons. They sailed back to Saib. On the way they
hit ANOTHER storm, this one quite bad. However, Alegra threw her new
spell, Summon Weather, and made it sunny again. A few days later,
several crewmembers disappeared and the captain assured everyone that
everything was ok. He said to Alegra, and only to Alegra, "Evil devil
priestess ray." Completely baffled, Alegra asked, "Is there something I
can do to help?" The man said, "No, no, it is fine. Thank you!" (Alegra
was
somewhat disadvantaged being a Human speaker with only one slot, without her
native Human speaking henchman around to help, but she made it okay back to
Saib).

Once again, Alegra had saved the day and was given a full refund.

With her guards, Alegra traveled on horseback through the Realm, got
harrassed at the Latt border by a Drake outpost, passed briefly through
the Moors and the Dim Forest, and finally emerged into Cromwell.

At Hoch-Och, on High Holy Day, plans were made and astrology results were
revealed. Both Lanoi and Warwick receive signs from Phaulkon.

Partial success was virtually assured. The time to attack was at 5 AM on
February 14, 2187 -- this was the time when the Brothers constellation would
be dipping below the horizon.

Buck missed most of the ceremony do to a happenin' New Years party that
the Ring of Berber just HAD to go to. He meant well though.

The party had gathered: Brenard, Cloud giant, was to provide the
transport, and be invisible and flying as the attack began. Warwick was
to be airwalking (with the Windsocks), hasted, and invisible. Buck was
invisible and ready to divebomb one of the two brothers. Raven and Alegra
were
hidden in the snow some distance away ready to fire bows (Alegra would use
Rainbow, a 5th level spell that makes her an excellent archer). Mordrick was
to be hiding in the snow, drink an Invisibility potion, and backstab a giant.
Eli
would be flying and invisible, ready to throw a Slow spell. Buck landing
on a giant would trigger the attack. Leon, flying reconnaissance, would
let us know when they were getting close, and also try to snag things out
of their hands and disrupt spells or effects.

The plan was to do this when they went out for water, since the cave
complex/temple of Vaprack that they inhabited did not have an internal
source.
A waterhold nearby was an easy target for our planning as an ambush spot. We
suspected that servants would get it normally, but Phaulkon had indicated
there
was something special about this time.

"The weather will be your greatest benefit and greatest challenge."

We headed over on the Cloud Giant's castle, with Lanoi and Tristan there
as healing support. During the night 9 days before, the castle flew over
spot
and Alegra used the Windsocks to know the weather for the morning 9 days
later.
Alegra determined that it would be extremely cold the morning of the 14th,
immediately following a prolonged 9-day blizzard. By 2AM that morning, the
storm would have cleared out, causing the temperature to plunge to a frigid
-34
degrees F. (Astrology had indicated that 34 was an important number.) The
water hole would be frozen solid.

The party set up and prepared for the moment. Lots of Endure Cold spells
protected the group, and winter wolf cloaks protected Alegra, Mordrick, Raven
and others as they hid beneath the snow , ready to pop up for attacks.

At about 5 AM, four bugbears with barrels came out into the cold.
They banged futilely against the frozen pond, and returned inside.
Moments, later, out came the Brothers, one in blue and the other in black
armor. Both were weird looking, and both suits had helmets.

They reached the pond and looked annoyed. Black began to cut a hole in
the ice with his huge sword.

At that moment, Buck fell out of the sky.

Buck slammed into the Black-armored giant with tremendous force, but merely
bounced off the weird armor. Not even knocked down, Black stood up and
looked
for enemies, popping his helmet down and weird gem goggles appearing in front
of his eyes.

Warwick shot the Black for tremendous damage. Black launched into the air
after Warwick, who fired again for devastating damage.

Raven and Alegra popped up and began shooting. Raven missed Blue, but
Alegra consistently shot Black.

Blue charged toward Raven, who fired desperately and missed, but then
Mordrick reached him and backstabbed him with the indestructible short
sword of quickness +3, doing tremendous damage and five wounds. The
giant whirled around and slashed Mordrick, inflicting equally tremendous
damage to the dwarf and stunning him. Eli finished his Slow and threw it
at Black, chasing Warwick, who continued to fire but was missing. Buck
was slowly reforming naked in the snow.

Suddenly, Black _blinked_ and was in front of Warwick. He slashed him for
tremendous damage, and Warwick fell back with three wounds. Hasted, he
dashed back out of range and shot him again, hoping that it was some sort
of one shot ability.

Eli cast a LIMM at Black, whose Brooch of Shielding stopped virtually all
the damage, but then was used up, at least. Alegra continued firing to
devastating effect.

Blue went to finish off Mordrick, but suddenly Brenard the cloud giant
appeared behind him and slashed him for big damage. Wanting to finish
off the most dangerous opponent, Blue slashed at Mordrick. Being so
incredibly tough, Mordrick staggered around for a few seconds before the
nine wounds overtook him and he bled to death.

Raven fired desperately, missing again with a second +4 arrow. Warwick
continued to miss as well. Eli began pulling out a scroll of Magic
Missiles. Black tried to drink a potion (the potions were built into their
elaborate skull helmets). Leon the giant eagle made a grab for it, but the
giant obviously saw him (due to the goggles that each suit had) and the snout
of the skull also deflected his dive, and he missed.

It became apparent that both giants had drunk potions and were healing
rapidly. Raven shot Blue, who closed angrily with the elven archer and
swung the killing blow.

But he missed.

Brenard stabbed him, and together with Raven they managed to keep him
staggering near unconsciousness. The potion continued to heal him though.

Alegra held her bow during her effective split-fire movement and ran at Blue,
hoping to get a spell off. Black, meanwhile, _blinked_ again and appeared in
front of Warwick, who had time to think "Shit" before he died horribly in
mid-air.
Fortunately, his head didn't fall off, and the Windsocks caused him to float
gently to earth. Due to Alegra's imbueing of Warwick with a couple of _Cure
Light Wounds_, she was immediately aware of his death).

Eli blanched but threw Magic Missiles, hammering the rapidly healing
Black. The giant turned around and sped toward the retreating Eli.

Alegra had finally closed with Blue, and in desperation, threw a _Command_
spell:
"Die!" in Cloud Giant.

IT WORKED.

The giant fell over, and Brenard killed him where he fell. In rage, Black
attempted to eliminate Eli, whose _Ray of Enfeeblement_ was unsuccessful.
Alegra fired her last arrow before dropping the Rainbow. Eli was leading the
giant back toward the party, and was preparing to Teleport away to the
castle. Alegra attempted to distract Black's vision of Eli with a
_Precipitation_, but the optical abilities of his armor caused the plan to
fail.

Buck, fully reformed, threw a +2 throwing axe at the creature but missed,
and picked up his bastard sword.

The giant came streaking toward the party, and Raven pounded it with arrows,
but then Alegra stepped up to it once again, as a last-ditch effort, and
yelled
"Die!"

Some days, even cloud giants can't make saving throws.

Buck finished off the fallen Black, who had also downed a Potion of
Superheroism on his way in.

Mordrick and Warwick were dead, but everyone else was in fact uninjured.
Everyone was carted away to the castle, where Alegra _Raised_ Mordrick and
Warwick successfully. Between a _Speak with Dead_ on the Brothers,
interrogation of the bugbear and noblink slaves, and Mordrick's
unbelievable ability to detect and remove traps, the party had little
difficulty in regaining all of the treasure.

There was a huge assortment, which I may leave to Mark to list for us:

The highlights were the Brothers gear-two suits of powerful cloud giant
full plate, one of land dragon, the other of behir. One was immune to
blunt weapons, while the other granted lightning protection. The two
swords were a sword of sharpness, which can decapitate people, and a
sword of discernment, which allows the user to tell who is the most
powerful opponent (that they can detect) and will stun that character.

There were a number of religious items belonging to Nevronians, Malatans,
Chelseans, etc. A lot Realmish gear was found. The slaves were freed
and told to go.

The huge sabretooth tiger was charmed and freed by Tristan. A large Stone
Golem had been set on "autokill" mode in one of the rooms, but the control
necklace was recovered. Buck and Eli used the necklace to destroy the Fire
Mastiffs. When the party left, the Stone Golem was set on autokill by Buck.
This should be quite interesting when the trolls come to reclaim this shrine
of Vaprack (god of trolls and ogres). The trolls can't kill it, and the
golem can't
effectively finish off the trolls. It should be good fun and interesting to
have "full-time" combat happening in the temple until a new necklace can be
made. Because it would limit Vaprack's power to this very remote region,
Phaulkon did not want the party to either deconsecrate the temple (since it
would allow Vaprack to move the temple) or desecrate the temple (because it
would undoubtedly result in the annihilation of one of Phaulkon's important
servants). A successful mission resulted in Lanoi training for 4th level, and
improved relations for Tan-El and Cromwell with other countries, hopefully
involving the recognition Tan-El by Wunka (the near Realm), and possibly
others.

The cloud giant Brenard picked his favorite armor and sword (land dragon, and
sharpness), and the other pair was given to Alegra for a cloud giant follower
that she will pick up (behir and discernment). Eli received some items of
interest, including the _Disintegrate_ scroll. Raven gained some arrows,
Mordrick got the double dose potion of superheroism and other stuff, and
Warwick received many items of value and the illusionist spellbook, which he
gave to Al Hoch.

Hope you enjoyed the adventure! Stay tuned for more!

Joel/Mordrick
Kyle/Alegra
Mark/Warwick/Buck/Lanoi/Tristan