The World of Telvar

We decided that information for the Petethal mission would be key, and didn’t want to blunder into another bandit operation without knowing ahead of time. So we talked to the weird old sage there, and learned about the X. There was once a tower there, occupied by a group of ogres led by a hill giant. A party of rangers sacked the place in 2166, and discovered a magical door on the floor of the tower. They determined that Knock and Dispel Magic wouldn’t help, and that only a Chime of Opening or the command word could open the door, and the command word had long since been lost.

This was obviously quite disappointing, so we figured we would ask the rangers in Depwood if they had anything to do. The other alternative would be to head up to Carse and farther north, to get a boat to the orc island during the off-season.

We also spent some time in the traditional Blue Star Inn, and exchanged tales with other adventurers.

Leaving Teft, we immediately encountered the ever-lovely Petethalian road system, during the height of the rainy season. We went with a huge caravan, and arrived uneventfully in Depwood, and stayed there through the New Year in a ranger cabin under Drew’s vouching. Quentin wrote the scroll, and we attended the ranger New Years party.

Unfortunately, the rangers had little for us to do: 1) take out a dangerous bear in Southern Dunador, 3 weeks in the wrong direction, or 2) Kill a hive of giant ants, which was almost certainly too much for us.

We decided to head up to Carse to do the orc mission, but also wanted to make a quick sidetrip to the X, since it was only a week and a half out of our way.

Saying our goodbyes to Drew, we headed up the road, and then turned off at the appropriate point. We began trekking through the muddy rainy forest, thoroughly miserable, but convinced that we were “roughing it.”

Then we actually had an encounter.

Balinor, Felix, Donald, Kodo, and Kain all froze immediately, held by some sort of clerical affect. Morgan was blinded. Quentin and Alduin were unaffected. Alduin vanished into the underbrush, hiding, while Quentin learned from his bobcat Chester that there were a number of really big dogs coming this way. Quentin began frantically casting Dispel Magic to free the party members.

But the spell could not be completed before three wolves, about 5’ tall at the shoulder, bounded into the clearing at Quentin. Alduin threw himself in front of one, which missed, and he slashed back at it, slightly injuring it. However, Quentin was hit by one the wolves, and his spell fizzled.

Morgan roared and slashed at one of the wolves, injuring it and holding it at bay. Quentin stepped back and cast an Entangle, nailing three of the wolves, of which there were now six. In the middle of the spell Quentin went blind from another Light. One wolf jumped at Kodo and began trying to kill him, while the others began circling. Two wolves were near Morgan, one snagged, the other only partially hindered. He slashed again, and by luck struck the same wolf, further injuring it. Quentin threw another Entangle, and this time all were at least partially caught. Quentin also discovered that he could move freely about his own Entangle.

Alduin took cover farther back in the Entangle, but was snagged by the second one. Morgan slashed a third time, totally pasting the same wolf, and dropping it. However, another one of the wolves clearly cast a spell, curing the wolf enough for it to stagger out of the Entangle and into the forest. About this time, everyone realized that they were Worgs.

The situation looked grim, but the Entangles had managed to bring the whole thing to a temporary stalemate. The bobcat, meanwhile, had understandably taken refuge in a tree.

Then a mass Dispel Magic took out both Entangles, the Light spells blinding Morgan and Quentin, freed Felix, and temporarily nailed a whole bunch of our items. The situation looked grim: Felix, an injured Morgan, Alduin, and an injured Quentin versus five uninjured Worgs. Clearly it would be ugly on both sides. Realizing this, the Worgs fled.

We healed up that night, and pressed on, hoping that this time we wouldn’t be so badly pressed.

Apparently the Worgs realized that we were difficult prey, and didn’t attack us again. Then three giant ticks jumped the front of the party. Morgan slew his, and Balinor ran up and blasted Felix’s. Kodo was less fortunate and the third latched onto him. He struggled with it, trying to pull it off his leg. He popped it off, but he couldn’t seem to kill it, fighting with it. Suddenly it latched onto his head, and he began yelling and yanking it. Finally he flung it away, and the laughing Felix, Morgan, and Balinor turned into a pile of ichor.

Quentin was gasping too much to heal him, so Kain did it, vaguely disturbed.

The party marched on for several days. Suddenly, they reached the X, or so it appeared.

There was a “C” shaped little ruin of stone, an elaborate pile of rocks one might say. We discovered some ruins of wooden structures which were on the order of ten years old. We dug up the grass inside the ruin, and discovered the high magic door in the floor that the rangers were talking about. We tried to tug it open, but to no avail. Realizing that we had the same problem, we sighed but enjoyed the touristy stop and moved on.

Three days out from the ruin, something really bizarre happened.

Quentin suddenly began talking to one of the trees, turned to the party with an alarmed look, and said “The Lord of Pondscum is going to kill us all.”

Suddenly the ground snapped up into a bizarre humanoid shape, made out of algae and goo. It appeared next to the unlucky Kain, who was hit solidly and fell over. Oh well, so much for the new cleric.

Meanwhile, one of the trees came up from behind Donald and grabbed him, striking him for major damage and wounding him. Donald gasped for help, but no one could do anything. Alduin swung at the branch with his longsword, but missed.

Felix swung confidently at the algae monster with the magic short sword—and it passed right through the creature. Uh oh.

Quentin stepped back and threw a Cure Light at Kain, saving him and bring Kain back into consciousness. Kain got up and scrambled back.

Balinor came up from behind and smashed the pondscum creature with Maiden Basher, but to no effect. Getting desperate, Morgan yelled, “Thunderstruck!” and slammed the creature with a major hit, lightning coursing through it.

It appeared to heal the creature.

Uggh.

It turned and slammed Balinor, who switched to his new torches and lit two of them. Felix whipped out a torch as well. The creature slammed Balinor again, but he went at the thing with a torch in each hand.

The one that hit was just snuffed out. It wasn’t clear whether the creature was injured or not.

Um.

Felix realized the torch wouldn’t help and slashed at the tree grabbing Donald, who fell to the ground unconscious.

Quentin had been yelling at the trees to stop, but to no avail. The willows were just nuts, and the other tree seemed apologetic, but said that it was enthralled and couldn’t stop. Kain scrambled over and saved Donald with a magnificent Cure Light.

Balinor dropped his torches and redrew his hammers, attempting to back up and reach Felix and grab the +2 dagger. It was not to be.

Some sort of very powerful effect hit the entire party. Alduin began shrieking incoherently. Balinor stood stock still, unaware of his surroundings. Morgan went berserk and began attacking something, anything in range. He charged at the tree assaulting Donald, torch in hand. Felix’s expression went blank and his weapons lolled to his side while he began sucking his thumb.

Some sort of confusion effect. In short, only four party members were even coherent.

Quentin, growing completely incensed, threw a Dispel Magic, but it didn’t seem to remove the effect. He tried everything, including Slow Poison, but it had no affect. The creature was advancing toward Balinor, and Quentin desperately threw an Entangle—which worked. The creature attempted to catch itself, curling up into a weird ball and stopping in place.

Morgan ran at the tree and started hacking madly, but fairly ineffectively. The tree smashed him, and would have killed him if Kodo hadn’t jumped in the way. Morgan would have pressed the attack, but the quick thinking Kain Commanded him to “Die,” and he did, falling unconscious. Kain dragged Morgan away from the area. The tree suddenly grabbed Donald again, wrapping a branch around his neck and hoisting him up like a noose. Thinking quickly, Kodo slashed the branch with his axes, cutting Donald free. Kain healed Donald and ran back, dragging a disoriented Donald with him.

Felix had wandered off a bit after being told to stay by Kodo and Kain. Balinor was now shrieking at the spiders that were all over him.

Donald whipped out a rope and tied Morgan’s arms back, and then sat on him.

Alduin had meanwhile fallen unconscious.

Balinor was running from the dragon trying to eat him, and went screaming off into the woods. Since he was sprinting, he kept tripping and falling, which actually made his progress slower. Kodo tried to tackle him, but missed.

Quentin was the only person who could actually do something productive, so he began building a serious fire around the still stuck algae creature, hoping it might be injured. He continued to try to call off the trees, who had momentarily stopped attacking.

Kodo caught up to Balinor and tried to overbear him. Balinor swung at the dragon, pasting Kodo and knocking him back. Kodo roared and smacked Balinor on the head, stunning him momentarily. Balinor declared that he was here to see the king, and that Kodo shouldn’t try to stop him, that the mission was of the utmost urgency. Kodo finished the job with a solid blow, knocking out his older brother.

Quentin threw a Neutralize Poison at the creature, which had no effect, and then lit the fire. It definitely injured the creature. The algae monster was apparently hurt by heat, and not by flame (exactly the opposite of a black pudding). However the thing put out the fire almost immediately but expanding and dropping blobs of algae on the fire.

Balinor woke up groggy, but was in decent shape and returned to the party with Kodo. The rest of the party had been trying to escape, but two trees were blocking their path.

It was clear that the thing was about to break free. Quentin ran to the party and led them away from the swamp. Balinor and Kodo scooped up Alduin and lugged him along, just slightly faster than the algae creature could chase us.

Alduin stirred and began waking up. Balinor and Kodo put him down and they broke out into a full run, and left the creature behind. They noticed the creature snap back out of shape, become nearly invisible, and disappear into the ground. Then the creature popped up out of the ground again, right in front of Alduin. Alduin was pasted and knocked down, but saved by Quentin. We ran on and Quentin summoned a bunch of toads, around 250 of them, who swarmed toward the algae monster and slowed it down enough to let us escape.

We kept running, and suddenly encountered a hedge. It appeared to stretch as far as we could see in either direction, which wasn’t particularly far. Kodo whipped out his machete, but the hedge protested in treant—“Don’t hurt me, I end 200 feet that way!”

We turned and ran that way, and spotted a large rocky dry area. We ran up to it… and big ugly appeared again in front of us. It missed, and we ran onto the rocks, toads blocking it all the way.

We breathed a collective sigh of relief, then ducked when a branch hit Morgan in the head. We headed off the other side and onto drier land.

We returned to Teft uneventfully, and Kodo trained to 3rd level gaining 6 hp to move to 36. Alduin was 60 XP short of 4th level.

We have decided that before we head to the island, this creature has to die. Quentin found it repulsive (it even attacked a druid!). It appears to be good friends with Limgut party or something—annihilate all sentient life, etc. So with the aid of Heat Metal spells and Hold Plants, the party will return to kill it next time!

The dagger +2 and Maiden Basher have had their official names inscribed on the handles. The dagger+2 is now called “Mindwaster” for it’s role in killing the grey philosopher. Centuries hence, some adventurer is going to be VERY confused!

Joel/Balinor