The World of Telvar

Morris, Quentin's other crow, was convinced to stay with Lynore and return the party only if a large war party was headed our way.

Alduin snuck up trail and discovered a small ruined village in a circular cluster at the top. It was nestled in a bowl shaped valley, and strangely the church in the center looked restored.

Alduin circled around the village, noting two guards at the entrance to it.

Meanwhile, Narahn and Lynore saw a party of seven people head down the trail. Leading them was a woman in banded mail with two bastard swords, tracking. There was an unarmored older man wearing travelling clothes on a horse. There was also a man with banded mail and great helm, with a strange insignia on his shield, the runic letter, W.

Lynore overheard things like "Well, they came to this point and turned around." Or, "Probably some idiots from the Northlands." The dreaded "Hey, one of them scrambled up this tree!" alarmed Lynore (in the tree). Lynore held very still, and they didn't seem to notice him.

Then the tracker spotted Narahn in the bushes. He broke and ran, and was chased by five of the people. Lynore sent Morris back during the confusion. It should be noted that the warbird was definitely around.

Narahn evaded his pursuers and ran back to the party, though not before the party had tromped up there, done some tracking, and gotten generally confused. The tracks of the pursuers were quite clear, but we lost Narahn's tracks easily.

Lynore watched the other party decide to head back up the trail, and he waited for awhile, then returned to the party.

We decided to camp the night, and it was uneventful.

We trekked up the trail again in the morning, though we immediately noticed that the warbird was circling over us. Balinor waved at it, and looked digusted.

We reached the top, dodging another trip wire that Alduin had spotted while scouting out the village, and noted to our surprise that there were no guards, and in fact no tracks where they were standing. Getting extremely concerned, we headed into the village.

In one of the buildings, we found a lone human. He claimed he was a prospector and occasionally carted stuff up the road. Bizarrely, he was the man who was unarmored in the war party that came down the previous day.

We thought there might be a bandit group nearby, and he was acting to keep us from killing him or something. We didn't know.

He warned us to leave, that a sphinx lived near and loved harrassing travelers with illusions and taking their money. We thought back to the bugbear encounter, and realized that the cat shaped prints around the bag, that disappeared a few feet out, could certainly indicate a sphinx.

Donald informed us that sphinxes are immortal and quite powerful, though quite variable.

We set up camp in the partially restored blockhouse with the man's mules and horse feed. There was no sign of the cart that had gone up the trail.

We verified that the tracks chasing Narahn were still there, then night fell and we went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, the bell on the church (which we discovered was attached to the trip wire) rang about 50 times. Balinor and Alduin, who were on watch, raced to the old man, but he wasn't there. Alduin spotted him with infravision, leading his three animals down the trail out the opposite end of the valley (not the one we came in). Alduin followed him, then was spotted about 15 feet from the man. The prospector shot him with a crossbow, nearly killing him. Alduin escaped and returned to the party. Quentin used the healing kit to patch him up.

Meanwhile, Morgan had discovered a message in blood (been there, seen that-- see Nbod's Room, Adventure #14). It said something like "Leave desecrators" (been there, seen that-- see Hafney Hill, Adventure #21).

Unimpressed, we went back to sleep.

The next morning, we were all alive. We decided to explore a bit further. The old man was not in his room, and we followed the tracks to the place where Alduin had been shot. There were at least multiple fake trails, and a total of seven led out from the spot. We were unable to follow any successfully, though we determined two were definitely fake.

We searched for secret doors in the church and blockhouse, but found none. Finally, we noted the well in the center of the village.

We couldn't see much, so we lowered a continual light bead down on a rope. There was clearly a very strongly rushing river down there. About 45 feet down, the well opened into some underground corridor of water.

Though we were being cautious, it seemed impossible to tell what was down there except by lowering someone down. Lynore volunteered bravely and was lowered down slowly by Kodo and Felix (in great Ludo tradition). He immediately spotted the handholds on the side leading down the well.

The roar of the water made it impossible to hear him as he neared the river area. Suddenly, there was a horrible jerk on the rope. The two fighters quickly pulled Lynore up, but he had been shot by four crossbow bolts, and killed instantly.

Angry at the world, the party brought the body back to the blockhouse. What had happened at the end there? Cassian rememorized a Speak with Dead that day and talked to poor Lynore.

Only one question was allowed, but it was a willing subject, so Lynore spoke for the full minute allotted.

"What did you see down the well?"

Lynore talked about how the handholds became a ladder, and there was a long platform against the wall, with at least six men holding crossbows. There were lit torches, and a path leading out of the area.

We buried Lynore and waited until midnight, allowing Cassian to regain Dispel Magic. We decided to storm the well with a clever attack.

At 2 AM, the party crept to the well. Felix, Balinor, and Morgan each drank half a potion of flying (we had 1 and a half left), and the Potion of Climbing was left with Kodo. (In case it isn't clear, anyone-- even a swimmer-- who falls into the river is lost forever)

Felix led, Balinor next, then Morgan. Donald threw a Sleep spell down there, miraculously caught all eight people with the crossbows. Death descended on them in the form of Felix, Balinor, and Morgan (six-segment kill fest). For Lynore!

There was no risk of anyone hearing us due to the rushing water.

Meanwhile, Cassian was climbing down the side (with her ring of featherfall on just in case), followed by Narahn and Alduin. Kodo was the last one to head down. As Kodo prepared to climb down after Alduin, someone emerged from the side and backstabbed him brutally. Kodo was dropped to the ground at stable consciousness. He took a dying action and swung at the assassin, delaying him long enough for Alduin to shout for help. Felix swooped back up, followed by Balinor and Morgan. Felix emerged from the well and dodged a backstab from the assassin who had managed to blow surprise. The assassin bolted so quickly that even sprinting Balinor could not have caught him. Felix immediately knelt down to pour an extra-healing potion down Kodo's throat. With an amazingly quick onset time and astounding curative rolls, Kodo was dazed but nearly at full health. However, he took minor (no game affect at all) strength loss. But he was shaky and could not do anything strenuous for 15 minutes.

Felix was forced to continue tending him for about a minute and a half, but the assassin had not actually left. Unknowing, Morgan and Balinor headed down, to a sudden scene of anarchy.

Someone in the Defenders had put out the final torch to conceal the attack. However, the continual light bead that was pulled out glowed much farther, setting off an immediate alarm through the corridor. The people that had been tracking us were coming at us!

Morgan and Balinor had not yet arrived, and Quentin valiantly stepped forward to block the man with the great helm and scimitar. They both swung, but Quentin staggered back with big damage and a strange rotting wound on his arm. Cassian threw a Hold Person, catching a few of the people coming up, but missing the tracker woman with the bastard swords.

Alduin managed a powerful backstab on the great helm man, but was taken down by a back attack from one of the other fighters. He lay on the floor, slowly bleeding to death. Cassian's Command spell on the great helm man failed.

Donald threw his other Sleep spell, catching about 8 more people down the corridor. He whipped out the Wand of Paralysis and fired, but it had no effect on the great helm man (referred to from now on as "Dark Helmet").

Narahn shot the woman, but was taken down suddenly when a Command spell was uttered by Dark Helmet (had to be some mid-level split class fighter/cleric, since he proved to be a double specialist in his weapon).

Morgan arrived then and dove between Quentin and Dark Helmet. Cassian cast a Cure Light Wounds on Quentin, and patched up the wound, but the rotting continued, slowly eating Quentin away.

Balinor arrived, but was held at bay by the woman.

Donald cast a Web spell, nailing all the Sleeping and Held people, plus two others, though both were able to move through. Balinor flew over the woman to engage a man with a short sword.

Back above, Felix dodged an assassination shot again, and Kodo downed half of the Climbing Potion and scaled down the side while Felix flew down to help the beleaguered party.

Balinor closed with the short sword man, and smashed him brutally three times, caving in his head. Balinor turned to fight another man with a flickering longsword. Unfortunately, the man was clearly quite skilled and slashed Balinor. Worse still, the sword was powerfully magical.

Balinor managed to avoid being stunned, but took big damage and a wound, and flew away back to the woman.

Meanwhile, Dark Helmet had missed Morgan repeatedly (surprise), but incredibly, actually managed to HIT Morgan, once, for some damage. Morgan repeatedly clocked him.

Narahn woke up again, and really nailed Dark Helmet with a nasty bowshot. Felix saw Balinor fleeing back, and engaged the longsword man. Felix injured him, but was eventually nailed by the weapon, though the stun effect appeared to have dissipated.

About this time Morgan had dropped Dark Helmet, and turned to engage the woman. Morgan drew an attack, which of course missed, and then Balinor flew down, smashed her twice, and flew back up. Though they were evenly matched in skill, Morgan was better at parrying and defeated her with Balinor's help. He then went to help Felix. Quentin cast a Cure Serious Wounds on Balinor, and Cassian cast an Aid on Felix, closing his wound from the long sword man.

Morgan inserted himself in front of Felix, and engaged the man, but missed. Morgan decided to fall back and shoot his bow, while Balinor engaged. Balinor swept down on him, but was held at bay by the longsword and plastered again. He fell back, but the longsword man (Luke Skywalker because of the glowing sword) dropped the weapon and pulled out a potion. Quentin cast Cure Light Wounds on Balinor, and Cassian was moving toward the webbed Alduin, who was being cut free by Kodo and his machete.

The man downed the potion, looked at Morgan and the longsword, and spoke. "No matter what, I'll get it back." Then he vanished and his equipment dropped to the floor.

Probably a potion of gaseous form.

A Death's Door hit Alduin, and Quentin healed himself of the magical disease with Cassian's help. Cassian moved to help Alduin...

...to be continued next time...

Joel/Balinor
Log Supplement XI: Permanent Damage Galore

Additional collapses this game: Alduin, Lynore, Kodo.

Permanent damage totals:

* 14 hp
* 5 constitution points
* 1.15 strength points
* 3 comeliness points
* 1 frailty

Let's keep the damage rolling!

Joel