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This is the 33rd and final session of the Avisarr 2019-2020 campaign!


The party wakes up in the forest the next morning. While they are rested they aren't quite refreshed. The battle and completion of the banishments was the culmination of months of crazy adventures, running hard from one challenge to the next and too many near death experiences to count.

Tykor is feeling much more himself with his memory being sharper than it has in years. Apparently having tied a piece of his soul to the partially completed banishment ritual almost 150 years ago was detrimental to his health. Now that the ritual is complete, there might be some recovery and better quality of life left for him.

He remembers that he has the ability to create a Teleportation Circle and knows the symbol outside of the Temple of Ynthar.

The party agrees to go to the Great Temple of Thandrimora (the last standing temple of Ynthar) with the four monks of Ynthar, return the body of Master Elodin for proper burial and update the rest of the masters on the completion of the banishment.

Master Ta'hana welcomes them back and while he is saddened to hear about the loss of Master Elodin, he is thrilled that the party has been successful in completing the banishment that the six Ynthar followers started so long ago. Ta'hana offer that they can stay at the temple for as long as they like to rest and recuperate or even to live if they were so inclined. The party takes them up on staying for several days and enjoy the fine food and good company while recovering from their ordeals.

Otep remembers how inclusive the monetary was and how the offer to train in the Ynthar faith was given to him when they were last here. After a couple days of staying at the temple and being welcomed in and treated as an equal, Otep approaches Ta'hana and asks if the offer to train here is still open.

Ta'hana welcomes him to the Way of the Three Paths and says that he will find a monk that would be up to the challenge of being his teacher for as long as he wants to stay. Later in the day, Ta'hana introduces him to Master Agoch, a dwarven paladin who is interested in exploring if they are the right fit for each other as master and student. He offers for Otep to go for a run with him and they spend the rest of the day running the grasslands outside of the temple and talking at length between runs. While a half orc and a dwarf might not be the most common of sights as companions, they both agree that they could grow from the relationship and Master Agoch will take on teaching Otep.

Otep tells the rest of the party that he will be staying here to learn the ways of Ynthar and not continuing on with them. Before saying their goodbyes, the party works to split up all fo the loot that they have gained over their adventures, both the recent items and the items that were found and used along the way. Some of the magic items are given to the four surviving monks that helped assault the banishment chamber and the rest are distributed throughout the party.

The party talks about the formerly haunted mansion outside of Freeport that they have earned outside and the possibility of keeping it or selling it. After some creative conversations they decide to keep it and have Boazman and his wife work it as caretakers with the proceeds getting split amongst the party whenever they want to pick up the earnings of the estate.

Lutheo says that this is also his time to say goodby to the rest of the party. He wants to find out what happened to his parents long ago. He hasn't seen them since they packed him and a few belongings onto a cart, sent him to the Grand Temple of Ynthar with an old monk named Ouren, and sneaked off into the dark on some secret mission. Now that he knows more of the history of Kitar and the Demon Wars, he suspects that their secret mission must have somehow been related to that. Maybe not directly, but something to do with Duthelm.

He will head to Waterford to see if he can learn anything from the people who were town officials at the time he was sent away, and then to wherever that information leads. He plans to also visit Myranor to let them know what the Knights of the Abyss in Duthelm are up to. Since one of the skulls that didn't get sucked into the banishment chamber is the skull of Harden the Crusader he will deliver that back to Myranor, home of Harden and proper resting place for the hero.

The temple of Ynthar will keep the other two skulls and give them proper rites and a resting place here since it is unsure which of the heroes the skulls belong to.

When they are ready to leave, Tykor teleports Akronos, Theren, Ceress and Nikos back to Freeport. They go to their mansion to insure that things are running smoothly with Boazman and his wife Rizzo. Boazman has been absorbed in the massive library but Rizzo has been the task master running the restoration of the property. She has been keeping the young wizards Santiago and Salazar busy as well as the hired hands that she was authorized to bring in.

While the estate, lands and contents could probably be sold for a sizable amount of gold it could also be kept and generate income from its lands. With some investment into the development of the lands for both farming and livestock it is estimated that the estate could be providing a handsome income of 500 gold per month within a year. The party decides that since Rizzo has a great head for estate management that they will make her the official manager, keep the estate and each collect their profits whenever they want to come to Freeport. They will always have an amazing place to stay and retire if they ever choose to slow down from their adventuring lives.

During this time, Akronos asks Santiago and Salazar if they would like to become his apprentices. The young wizard brothers eagerly agree and Akronos starts laying out the rules to their training, which the brothers grumble is starting to look like indentured service.

Nikos is eager to get back to Drakkel to attend the Wild Goose Chases that will be hosted by Lord Ashcroft using the recently purchase book that was written by Gustav Wilder. Tykor is ready to return to life back at the Inn of the Broken Staff and start implementing some of the changes to the Fall menu that he has been dreaming about. Sleeping in his own bed, listening to the best musicians in the land and sipping his own whiskey will be even more enjoyable after this late in life adventure and the knowledge that the banishment ritual that he started almost 150 years ago is finally completed.

Tykor casts one more Teleport Circle and he, Nikos, Theren and Ceress teleport to Drakkel. Akronos stays behind to spend the next couple months fixing up the estate, making sure Rizzo runs it the way the party would like and training his new apprentices.

After a little while at the Inn of the Broken Staff both Theren and Ceress grow restless with what calls to their future. Theren believes he has a welcome obligation to go to the forest and serve his Feymaster, Zoastra, that has been showing him the ways of being a warlock. Zoastra has been watching There on his mission ever since starting to provide Theren with warlock powers almost a month ago and is thrilled to be working with a strong student. Zoastra welcomes him to its service and has great plans for him, stating in the dense forests of Myria.

Ceress also has reasons to return to Myria, reason tied to a troubled past that he has barely hinted at with the other members of the party. They both agree to travel together, at least until they get to the forests of Myria and then they will see where their paths take them from there.

After a couple months and making sure that everything is in order with the estate, Akronos charters a ship with Santiago and Salazar to spend some time in Drakkel visiting with Tykor and Nikos, enjoying the fine music of the Inn of the Broken Staff and exploring his old merchant guild contacts and new prospects.

Akrons gets a home in Drakkel and continues training his apprentices with regular stints on merchant ships as sea wizards. Quite often he visits Tiykor at the Inn of the Broken Staff to buy him a brandy and talk mage-craft.



This brings to an end the Avisarr 2019 campaign. We ran 33 sessions in the course of a little over a year, traveled the far reaches of Khoras and had a lot of fun. Thank you David Roomes for creating Khoras, running me through this campaign over 20 years ago and inspiring me to be a better DM than I ever thought I could.

Sorry for the long lapse between posts. Life got crazy and other priorities distracted me from writing up the last session summaries.

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham

Tykor, very old half elven innkeeper that has forgotten he used to go by Illanor, an arch mage of the Conclave of Freedom - NPC
Nikos, friend of Tykor and entertainment manager for the Inn of the Broken Staff - NPC

Master Elodin and four monks from the Ynthar temple.


After taking a couple days to recover from defeating the tainted spirit of Nikova and setting up the tending of their prize mansion, the party meets up with master Elodin at the teleportation circle just to the west of Freeport.

Elodin teleports them to a location in the snowy timber Forest a short distance away from the ruins of the Conclave Defiant. This is where this epic adventure began months ago with the party as slaves on a digging expedition under the supervision of a Black Sorcerer and a Knight of the Abyss of Duthelm.

Eldon informs the party that the black sorcerer and his minions have not been seen for several weeks. They have cleared away most evidence of the dig and only the one entry slope that leads down to the ruins remains. None of the guards or slaves have been seen coming or going and no reinforcements have showed up. The book that shows the sealing runs of the banishment portal shows that 15 seals have been broken and are no longer working. The party fears that if 18 seals are broken then with 1/3 of the 54 seals failed, Draxorith will have a good chance of breaking out of the banishment.

The party and Ellen talk about what this means and speculate that the black sorcerer is trying to free Draxorith without alerting anyone else in the nation. Duthelm is a backstabbing nation and his discovery could quickly be taken away from him by guile, force or murder. If he can free Draxorith on his own, he will be the greatest force to be reckoned with in his nation but if it comes down to life or death, he will probably have an escape plan to get reinforcements to bring back with him.

This is why Elodin and his team of four monks have not assaulted the ruins yet. They do not want to risk the black sorcerer bringing the Duthelm army as well as more Black Sorcerer’s and Knights of the Abyss to the ruins. The assault must be quick and successful and result in the completion of the banishment ritual in one fell swoop or risk losing their only opportunity at success.

The party is concerned that there will be guards and alarms if they just march down the main ramp to assault the ruins. They devise a plan and have Elodin use Gaseous Form which Theren then turns invisible. They have Elodin go down the old chimney to the great hall that the ramp leads into and then he floats past the undead guards in there, under a door, down stairs into the basement level, through a few more rooms with guards both alive and undead and he finally finds a empty storage room. In the stairway he noticed that there was tendrils of green mist on the floor and the further he went into the ruins the thinker the tendrils got.

There in the storage room, he becomes substantial again and checks out the room in preparation for teleporting the party in the next day.

He then teleports out to the parties encampment and they rest for the evening to regain the few spells they just used, knowing that they will need every resource possible to survive the assault ahead.

The next morning they open the Snatch Pit, have several members of the large party get in and then Elodin teleports everyone into the storage room. There, they get the rest of the party out of the Snatch Pit and prepare for the assault. The assault party consists of Elodin and his four followers of Ynthar: Diego a half elf monk, Thorton a human monk, Aliston a human fighter and Jomar a half orc cleric.

Tykor and his assistant Nikos are with the party on the assault despite Tykors continued challenges with not knowing what is going on or what spells he is casting. He has gotten some of his appetite back for adventure and the party needs his head for the completion of the banishment ritual so they will risk having a senile arch mage in their assault party.

The party exit the storage room into the hall with the fighter types leading the way. From there they throw open the door to the large chamber and find that it still has a mix of undead and Duthelm guards. The party sets upon them quickly killing off several guards and zombies. The enemy forces sound the alarm and fight back but with the high level wizard support from both Elodin and Tykor the battle is wrapping up quickly. As the party advances into the room to meet the fresh soldiers and undead coming as reinforcements, the mists on the floor coalesce and form a large demon right in the midst of the party, behind the line of the fighters. It advances on Elodin and with huge fists pounds and rips at his unarmored flesh. Several other large and small demons form from the mist and the battle has become a challenge again. A couple of the Ynthar monks assist Elodin in taking out the demon assaulting him while the rest help the party kill the other demons, undead and guards.

The party takes a moment to heal up the substantial wounds received and start to talk about the next stage of the assault when another arm of the mist coalesces into another demon. They make short work of it but realize that they have to advance quickly towards their goal of the banishment gate.

They head out of this guard chamber and down the halls, deeper into the ruins. As they move down the hall they notice that the mist had gotten thinner behind them but the mist is getting thicker as they get closer to the banishment chamber. The fighters are leading the way but two demons materialize in the party’s midst and attack more vulnerable targets. A fierce battle dispatches the demons after some party members take more damage.

At the end of the hall they get to a door that they remember leads to a big conference room.

Braced for battle, they throw the door open and charge in, attacking the soldiers and undead guarding the far door. The party fans out and quickly dispatch those opponents in a bloody battle with several of the hero’s taking damage. They open the door to the next room and find their enemy to be ready for them and in large numbers, both demon, undead and soldiers. At the far side of the room are double doors, one ajar, being guarded by two soldiers and a man in black plate mail armor and a sense of command and evil about him.

The doorway between the rooms becomes a choke point of death. Akronos has created a storm in the next room that buffets the enemies and assaults them with lightening bolts.

While none in the party have fallen to the enemies attacks, most of the fighting crew have taken damage, some substantial and nearing death, some having to shift back for healing.

The wizards support the battle from behind but one of the larger tendrils of mist in the room coalesces into a huge demon, standing over eight feet tall and sporting an extra set of arms with large pincers on them. Its nearest target is Elodin and it reaches out with both pincers and rends his flesh, leaving him in an unconscious puddle of his own blood. With the huge demon came several small demons that hadn’t been encountered before. These pounce on the unconscious body of Elodin and proceed to disembowel him.

Several of the fighters break off from the frontal assault to engage the huge demon in their midsts and Akronos tries to heal Elodin before he slips beyond the ability of even magic to revive hime, but the damage is too severe and he can’t be revived. 

With the effort of almost the whole party focused on the huge demon they are able to bring it down but not before it seriously injures Otep and Ceress.

A couple of the monks are brought to unconscious and revived by Jomar and the party is starting to look pretty haggard, many of them running out of the tricks that give them an advantage in battle. The enemies are too great for them to defeat in one go and the options to retreat are limited without giving the enemy an unrecoverable advantage.

When the enemies are pushed back from their room, Theren closes the door to the large room with all the remaining enemies and throws the Snatch Pit on the ground behind him. He quietly tells the party to grab Elodin and get in the pit then yells out for the enemy to hear that they should teleport out and come back tomorrow to continue the assault.

Acting quickly, the party all get into the Snatch Pit with Elodins body and then close it up from the inside. They wait and watch through the one way viewing top of the pit and see the enemy come in and search the room as well as down the hall and all adjoining rooms.

Having escaped undetected for now, they rest and recuperate and plan their next move. The pit doesn’t have much time left in it today, but it will be enough for a short rest to regain some of their health and a few tricks to aid them in battle.

They check the book that has the link to the banishment ritual and find that one more rune has been deactivated. They are failing at a very fast rate and will probably have the seventeenth and eighteenth rune deactivated before morning at this rate. Even if they could leave without fear of the Duthelm army being summoned and come back by morning, it might be too late now that something is working at breakneck speeds to defeat the banishment.

Once they have recovered as much as they can, the party checks the room to make sure no enemies are in there. They come out of the pit and open the door to the large chamber beyond. The enemy are gathered in there but apparently not expecting the second assault so quickly. The defenders line up quickly as the fighters enter the room and it becomes a bloody battle with the enemy holding the line in the middle of the room while the Knight of the Abyss and two soldiers guards the double doors to the small entry room before the circular banishment chamber. 

The new plan is that while the rest of the party engages the enemies in battle, Akronos and Tykor will both be invisible and try to sneak into the banishment chamber with the skulls and complete the banishment. Akronos is holding onto Tykor so he doesn’t get lost and wander off since loosing a senile, invisible arch mage could go very bad. As Akronos leads Tykor into this final large room before the banishment chamber, Tykor tells him “this is the room where I broke my old staff” with a wistful sound to his voice.

The majority of the party are fighting on the line against the soldiers and demons or one rank back lending support to the fighters or harassing the enemies with spells. Theren casts a Web across many of the enemy but only a few of them fall victim to its sticky effect. The green tendrils of mist have greatly diminished from when they first entered the complex but they are still coalescing into more demons to defend the Duthelm forces.

Lutheo success in calling upon his faith to cause several of the demons to flee from him. Unfortunately this sends one of the larger demons running away from him and right toward the invisible Akronos and Tykor who have made it around the room and are in the back corner trying to figure out how to get past the Knight of the Abyss. The demon is on a course to run into the mages and Akrons takes quick action, pushing Tykor one direction while he goes the other way. While he has successfully kept them both invisible and a secret from the enemies, he has lost contact with the invisible and senile arch mage who is needed in the banishment chamber to complete the ancient ritual.

Otep has successfully killed the enemies that were opposing him and he advances on the Knight of the Abyss, Delmanakan. Delmanakan wields a flaming long sword in one hand a short sword in the other hand. While Otep is the toughest fighter the party has, Delmanakan is tougher. His hits with the flaming sword deal massive damage and on the occasion that Otep misses an attack against him, Delmanakan uses the same trick that Otep has been using and riposte and gets in a free, punishing attack.

Ceress rushes up to support Otep but they find that the battle strategy of Delmanakan and his elite soldiers are well practiced and they outflank their attackers, calling in reinforcements of other soldiers from the battle to make sure they have the upper hand.

Most of the Ynthar monks have been dropped or are barely hanging on to life with their cleric almost tapped out of power to help them.

Having lost Tykor, Akronos decides to use his Blink spell to travel to the astral plane and see if he can get past Delmanakan and his guards that way. What he discovers is that past the small chamber after the double doors is another set of double doors leading to the circular chamber with the banishment pit in it. In that room there are at least two creatures. One appears to be a smaller demon and the other a human, probably the Black Sorcerer that they haven’t seen since their imprisonment months ago. He appears to be franticly working on breaking the banishment gate before the party can get through the defenses.

Despite being severely damaged, Lutheo finishes off his enemies in the main line and advances up to assist Otep and Ceress where a tight knot of battle is raging at the double doors with serious damage on both sides. Delmanakan slashes Ceress with another punishing blow from the flaming long sword and drops him into bleeding unconsciousness.

Tykor has wandered around the room, invisible for a little bit but then decides to join in the battle despite having been told by Akronos not to cast any spells since it would ruin his invisibility. He lashes out at Delmanakan with magical force but the knight is incredibly tough and continues fighting, dropping Lutheo with a wicked cut to his chest.

The battle finally culminates with all of the demons and soldiers killed off and Delmanakan fighting till the last, finally killed after being ganged up on by the remaining party members that are barely alive and conscious.

They quickly set about reviving Ceress, Lutheo and the fallen monks. They use up almost all of the last little reserves of their healing abilities and everyone is on the ragged edge of life with only a couple options to revive a companion if one should fall in the next battle. Knowing they can’t delay at all they move to advance into the banishment chamber. They find that the way into the banishment chamber is blocked by an invisible barrier, similar to what the Sumurak shield produces. They try several methods to get around it but fail each time. They hear chanting on the other side and the crackle of energy and know they have no time to waste.

Akronos asks Tykor if he can get them through the barrier. Tykor thinks about it and then he walks up and casts his favorite Disintegrate spell through the walking stick that he always has with him and it shatters whatever spell was preventing their passage.

The party is bottlenecked at the entry but they start to pour into the banishment chamber to try to kill the Black Sorcerer before he can break enough glyphs to unleash Draxorith.

This magnificent chamber in the farthest reaches of the underground ruins is adorned with the fine marble, silver inlay and intricate carvings in the stone. The forty foot wide chamber is built around a ten foot wide, extra-dimensional pit with swirling green mist and energy in it. Around the pit engraved in the floor is the symbol of Ynthar, a triangle inside of a triangle inside of a circle. Around the outer edge of the circle is a set of fifty four glyphs, divided into six sections of nine glyphs. The glyphs are glowing and fading in seemingly random patterns. Some of the glyphs are glowing red and some are glowing a sickly green color like the energy in the pit. The greenish mist churning in the pit and the the glyphs are the only illumination in the room.

The Black Sorcerer Kelvar stands at the far side of the room and is dragging one leg, his left arm blackened and shriveled, his hair is shock white, mouth drooping on the right side. Apparently the past months and the recent rush to disable the banishment symbols has taken a huge toll on him.

Kelvar has filled the banishment chamber with a Stinking Cloud and when the party breaks his wall of force he reaches out to Draxorith to bring more demons in through the few remaining tendrils of green mist snaking around the room. These are all of the smaller sized demons since Draxorith has apparently tapped most of his power on this plane for the earlier battles.

Theren hurtles a fireball into the room at the Black Sorcerer and while it does some damage to him, he seems to resist most of it and the little demons caught in the blast also appear to have a resistance to the fire.

Akronos summons up the energy of an eldritch blast to attack the sorcerer and then steps back around the corner out of retaliation sight. The sorcerer responds with hurtling a shattering boom to the tightly packed group bottlenecked outside of the banishment chamber and drops four of the Ynthar monks clustered at the doorway, leaving the last one standing struggling to prevent his companions from slipping past the point of no return. Fortunately for him, Akronos was wise and had retreated far enough into the previous room to avoids the blast.

Otep, Lutheo and Ceress rush into the room but Ceress is overcome with a retching sickness of the stinking cloud and is unable to act at first. Otep and Lutheo kill the first couple small demons they encounter but more are popping up delaying their ability to get to the far side of the room to kill Kelvar.

Tykor wanders into the room and seems to recognize it. He walks up to the closet point of the south facing triangle of the Ynthar symbol and calmly sits down cross legged at that point and starts meditating despite the battle still raging around him. Nikos comes and stands guard over him in case any of the small demons try to take advantage of the aged wizard that isn’t paying attention anything around him.

Theren taps into his meager remaining power and hurtles blasts of eldritch energy at Kelvar, getting through his defenses. Akronos, also nearly tapped out, adds to the damage done with his own eldritch blasts.

Ceress gets over his retching fit and sees his opportunity to charge the sorcerer. With the speed and agility of a warrior monk, he dashes forward, past the remaining demons and makes it to the sorcerer but not quick enough to also get in an attack before the sorcerer can take action.

Realizing that his attempts to free Draxorith didn’t have quite enough time and that remaining in the battle will almost definitely result in his death, Kelvar uses the last substantial reserve of arcane power that he has to Teleports out to safety. Little did he know but due to a scarred past, Ceress has trained to deal with magic users and take advantage of the weakness of their defenses when they cast spells close to him. Ceress lashes out with his long sword and scores a wicked hit on Kelvar, opening his side right as the teleport is taking effect.

The sorcerer is gone but some minor demons remain and the battle isn’t over. The extra dimensional pit still pulses with a sickly green energy and tendrils of mist are snaking out of it. The party sets about killing the last remaining demons but more keep popping up out of the mist. Akronos takes out the bag of holding and goes about the chamber, setting skulls of the long dead members of the Conclave of Freedom members at each point of the Ynthar symbol on the floor.

Once the fifth skull is in place and with Tykor still sitting at the sixth point, Akronos takes out the box that holds the green gem with the symbol of Ynthar etched into its surface. With hope that they have done everything to complete the banishment ritual and a quick prayer for Gaia to help them, Akronos throws the Avisarr gem into the pit.

As the gem passes into the extra dimensional space through the floor there is a whooshing of energy out of the pit that pushes everyone in the room back against the walls and then the energy starts rushing back into the pit. The last remaining green tendrils are sucked into the pit, some grabbing at ankles as they are dragged in.

Everyone scrambles to resist getting pulled in and with some effort, all are successful except for Tykor who apparently still wasn’t paying attention. He gets pulled over and scrambles for a hand hold as the energy drags him towards the pit. One of the remaining tendrils of mist grabs him around his ankle and is pulling him into the pit when Theren and Nikos leap to grab his outstretched hand and help slow his progress across the floor.

Once all of the tendrils of mist have been sucked into the pit it closes with a boom that reverberates through the chamber. The glow of the pit flairs and then fades out. The runes sputter and wink out one by one. The gate is closed, the center shaft is just solid stone flooring, the ritual is complete. The room is dark and silent except for the panting of the party members and the screams of Tykor. The party realize that his foot has been amputated at the ankle. The tendril had pulled his foot into the pit and was struggling to pull more of him in when the gate cut off, severing everything not in this dimension.

The party does a quick check and realize that everyone is still alive (aside from Elodin who died in what seems like so long ago now) although most are in ragged health and tapped out of spells and abilities. They use the last little bit of healing on Tykor to staunch the flow of blood. Addressing the amputated foot will have to come at a later date and they will just have to help him hobble out of the runes.

They search the chamber and realize that two of the five skulls were pulled into the banishment gate and are lost forever. They gather up the three last remaining skulls, do a quick search of the bodies gaining some nice magical items from the Knight of the Abyss and verify that there is no remaining magical signatures in the banishment room.

Knowing that the sorcerer could return at any moment if he survived the vicious hit from Ceress, possibly with reinforcements, they waste no time and hurry towards the exit. They encounter a few more undead on their way out, both the set of three that were forced to flee from Lutheo and three that were in the main entry hall that they skipped by using Elodins teleport.

The battles with these undead are quick given how much the party outnumber them but the risk of a lucky blow dropping a party members keeps them on their toes.

The party leaves the ruins and enter into the forests in the light of the early afternoon. They decide that they need to put as much distance between themselves and the ruins so they spend the whole day hiking south before finally collapsing as the sun sets. The make a cold camp with no fire out of an abundance of caution. They set up a guard schedule and each reflect on the events of the day.

This is where the session ended, with the banishment of the greater demon Draxorith completed, Elodin dead, Tykor feeling more lucid than before and everyone exhausted.

Next session: Wrapping up the campaign and each character thinking about what is next for them…

I'm sure that there will be plenty of opportunity for more entertainment with a senile arch mage following the party into the ruins of his old stronghold.

I look forward to the havoc that somewhat randomized spells up to 8th level can produce. Cast Feeblemind or Magic Missile in the final battle, we shall see...

When last we left our party they had ventured back into the mansion for one final battle to kill the remaining boss undead. They were engaged in a running assault with the undead appearing through walls at a distance and attacking them and then escaping again before they party could do much to them.

The party is on the second floor surrounding the balcony looking to the first floor. They haven't seen the undead and haven't been attacked or Telekinetically thrown for a short while. Then Otep feel the tugging attempt to fling him across the room but his strength is too great and he resists it. Still no signs of the ghosts for the party to react to and then Theren is assaulted and his strength isn't nearly enough to resist and he is flung across the balcony, into a far wall and dropped to the grand hall of the first floor. They spirit of whispering madness runs up to him and grabs him by the shoulders, damaging his flesh and giving him horrid visions on death and destruction in an avalanche of mud and debris. This combined assault is almost enough to kill him and Theren slumps to the floor, barely clinging to life and hoping that the undead won't realize that his isn't quite dead yet.

Up above, Akronos sees the assault bellow and fires off his scorching ray, damaging the undead attacking Theren. Lutheo encourages his hound steed to leap the railing and after a little bit of damage from an ungraceful landing they charge to Therens aid and greatly Smites the undead.  Otep vaults over the railing, sticks the landing and lends his mighty maul to the battle, but while some damage is done, the creature seems to be resistant to the brunt of the damage.

Akronos again punishes it with a barrage of his magic missiles, each one doing full damage to it. Theren takes the distraction of the undead standing over him to cast healing on himself and prevents his all too often sliding into unconsciousness. Ceress makes an impressive leap over the balcony and joins in the assault on the undead. Being surrounded, it gets in one final attack again before the parties assaults bring it down.

The ghost is way down a side hall and it tries to fling Lutheo into a wall. Lutheo is the one who has done the most damage with his smites and despite being a hard target the ghost gives it another attempt but Lutheo is stronger than his short stature implies and he resists the telekinetic attack. Lutheo, Otep and There rush down that hall but the ghost has once again passed through the walls to escape them.

Akronos, being the only one remaining upstairs takes the stairs down to the first floor to join the rest of the party. The ghost had gone through the walls and ceiling of the first floor to kill the straggling Akrons all alone upstairs and when it didn't find him there it came downstairs to attack him in the stair way. It does a vicious Withering Touch and almost kills him but having spent so much time trying to track him down it didn't have enough remaining movement to escape through a wall or floor.

The rest of the party rushes to Akronos aid and their combined attacks kill the ghost before it has a chance to escape through another wall or floor.

The evil spirit is finally vanquished and as its form dissipates into mists a wave of energy rushes over each member of the party pushing them back a step.

They have visions of a man with flowing hair and tailored clothing (Nikova) being plagued by the knowledge of his role during the end of the war.

Unfolding in their minds is a convoluted jumble of images and emotions, some of them familiar to them from stories they have heard, other are new and frightening insights. Visions of the banishment of Draxorith, a battle between men and ogres, crushing suffocation, swirling green mist, parades, sleepless nights, shame, guilt, bursts of anger, confusion and sorrow.

Images of what must have been Geldan, Kelandor, Hardin, Taramandan, Illanor and Nikova fill their heads.

These visions and emotions storm through their minds for what could be seconds or days. The swirling visions and memories form into a cobbled together history.

From this they gather the following:

Under Kelandor's direction, the Conclave worked for months to prepare a very powerful magical banishment trap within their hidden stronghold – a gateway to the darkness of the multi-verse... a doorway through which they would banish Draxorith back to his own realm... permanently. Without the focus provided by their dread lord, a fragmented Duthelm would surely fall.

This gateway, which was built as a great circular shaft in the largest chamber of their lowest level, was named the Conduit. The hall which housed this shaft was to be known as the Hall of Banishing. The construction of this magical trap was not made known to the general body politic of Kitar or the Rukemian Empire. No one outside of the conclave knew of its existence until after the war was ended.

The six leaders of the Conclave all followed the teachings of Ynthar and his teachings worked their way into the Conclave banishment. The nature of the banishing spell which had been prepared would separate Draxorith - body, mind and spirit, and then banish him once and for all. This was the only way that mere mortals could overcome a greater demons resistance and banish him. The symbol of Ynthar was adopted for the Banishing Ritual and Chamber since much Yntharian lore was used in the magical construction of the banishing spell and the Conduit. The holy symbol of Ynthar was inlaid in the floor of the Hall of Banishment with color tiles, the Conduit at its center. Each member of the conclave was responsible for creating three sets of three symbols to reinforce the banishment.

Such was the strength of the dweomer, that it's preparation required the very essence of the casters. Nikova spent much of his time working with the separation of mind, body and spirit to perfect the banishment. He knew that in addition to being at the site of the banishment and using their minds to cast the spell, each Conclave caster had to bind a part of their spirit into the ritual in order to insure success. As a result, each might suffer a shortened life span or other ill effects if the trap succeeded, but ridding the world of Draxorith was worth the cost.

When the Conduit was ready, the Conclave laid the trap and lured Draxorith and a small strike team of his forces to the location of their fortress. They trapped him in the banishment spell in the midst of the skirmish on the grounds above the conduit.

With precise timing, the six leaders of the Conclave took up positions in the Hall of Banishing and began casting the Banishing Spell while the fighting forces engaged Draxorith above. With their first syllables, Draxorith was bound to the spot above the Conduit. As the spell casters raised their voices and continued the spell, Draxorith lost his physical form and disintegrated into a thick, churning green mist.

A tug of war between something anchoring Draxorith in this world and the Banishing Spell ensued.

Eventually, Draxoriths physical and mental components, now nothing more than mist and energy, were sucked through the ground and into the Conduit where they remained floating, helplessly caught between dimensions.

As the spell ended and parts of Draxorith was banished from this world and the conduit sealed itself, brilliant light and peals of violent thunder cascaded through the area. Upon seeing their lord dispatched before their very eyes, the Duthelmian strike team fled in terror.

After the banishing, the Conclave members knew that their trap had only been partially successful. They knew that Draxorith was caught in the Conduit instead of fully banished, but they didn't know why. This was a precarious stalemate. In the days immediately following the battle, the Conclave forces cleaned up, dealt with the aftermath, and tried to figure out why the banishing spell had not completely worked.

Kelandor realized that the Knights of the Abyss and Black Sorcerers would stop at nothing to save their master. With magic divination, she could foresees the entire Duthelmian army marching on the Conclave Fortress, crushing it to gain access to the conduit and free their lord.

Knowing that the Conclave might not have any other option, she let the other members into her ace-up-the-sleeve for sealing off the site of the banishment; the volcano.

The fortress had originally been built at the foot of the dormant volcano, Mount Kir. A decision that Kelandor had insisted upon. She decided to locate the fortress here so that if ever there was a need, they could, with one mighty cooperative spell, trigger the volcano and completely obliterate the fortress.

The Conclave called upon the armies of the Rukemian Empire to reinforce the less than one hundred garrisoned at the fortress. If a few thousand troops could gain the Conclave a couple of weeks, it might allow them time to figure out what went wrong with the banishing and complete the spell. While the Conclave poured their attention and resources into trying to figure out why the banishment was only partially successful the first wave of several thousand Rukemian reinforcements march to join them.

The Duthelmian soldiers had also united quickly and launched another assault against the Conclave fortress with a Black Sorcerer and several Knights of the Abyss in the lead. This assault occurred right as the initial Rukemian forces arrived - much earlier than the Conclave members had anticipated. The Conclave had very little warning, hours at most, before the Duthelmian horde poured over the horizon and swept down into the valley.

The Rukemian forces rushed to defend the fortress but arrived after the initial Duthelm strike team had gained entry to the fortress and an epic battle with the Duthelmian forces ensued.

A Black Sorcerer and his Knights of the Abyss entered the fortress in the lead strike group. All six members of the Conclave and many of their elite forces battled in the fortress, killing many of the initial strike force. When they were backed up into the chambers before the Hall of Banishing, Kelandor invoked the emergency back up plan.

At Kelandor's command, five of the six leaders, leaving a small team of Rukemia's finest behind to guard the chamber, teleported to a small bluff over looking the fortress from a distance. Illanor, the sixth member stayed in the complex with their strongest defenders to battle to the last moment. The five on the bluff united their power for another cooperative spell - this one aimed at Mt. Kir.

Back in the fortress Illanor was being overwhelmed and feared that he hadn't bought enough time for the start of the cooperative spell. With a final breaking of his powerful staff in a massive retributive strike he killed the rest of the initial strike force, the remaining defenders and nearly killed himself as well. A contingency spell whisked him back to the rest of the Conclave where they saved him from an almost certain and painful death. Once revived, he too joined in on the spell to awaken Mt Kir.

The forces of the Rukemian Empire were greatly outnumbered and on the verge of breaking, giving way to the forces of Duthelm and loosing the fortress to enemy hands.

The final syllables of the spell was completed by the conclave and then Mount Kir, the volcano which had lain inactive for so many years, erupted violently. A thunderous explosion was followed by a cloud of ash and heat that roared through the area, melting the snow covering the mountains. The resulting mudslides swept down the mountain and through the valley where the smaller Rukemian army was straining under the power of the Duthelmian forces.

A hasty double-retreat was begun, but it was too late. All soldiers present on both sides were swept away. Bodies tumbled in the mudslide, those not crushed by boulders and trees died of suffocation, buried under tons of mud and debris.

The fortress and battlefield were completely obliterated, buried under a hundred thousand tons of mud, downed trees and dead bodies from both sides. This disaster left no survivors on the surface. Everyone inside the fortress was either dead or died in the searing heat from the volcanic mudslide.

Kelandor had chosen this location for the fortress partially due to the exceptionally high mineral content in the earth and rock surrounding the area of the Snowy Timbers. It partially blocks magical energy, more so than normal rock and dirt. After the eruption, the magic blocking nature of the rock and mud proved to be even more effective than Kelandor had guessed. In the aftermath of the eruption, the Conclave found themselves unable to scan the remains for life or even the location of the ruins. No spell could penetrate the rock and scan for the ruins below. The issue of Draxorith would remain buried under thousands of tons of magic-blocking earth.

None of the Conclave members ever mentioned the horrible sin they had committed, both in leaving the Banishing spell uncompleted, and sacrificing the lives of thousands of men to seal away the threat. They knew that many on their side wouldn't understand that horrific choice they made and that if any follower of Draxorith knew that he wasn't fully banished, those followers could never be contained in their search for the banishment gate in an attempt to bring Draxorith back.

The Rukemian Empire hailed the Conclave members as heroes and praised them for successfully banishing the demon lord Draxorith and ending the war. Each accolade was at best bitter sweet for some members and for others it was a wracking reminder of what they had done.

Nikova kept in touch with the other members for a while. All six, especially the priests, would go on to spend their lives wracked with guilt, either running from their past or trying to atone for it.

The six masters never again spoke of the fortress or the banishment unfinished. Aside from Kelandor who stayed in Aridorn, healing the sick, the rest fled for distant corners of the world to live out their remaining years in disturbed peace, some to their home lands, others to lands that wouldn't recognize them.

After the war, Nikova was plagued by the nightmares of what he had seen, what he had caused. Like several of the Conclave, he tried to make up for it with good deeds but the nightmares would always return.

Having tied a piece of his spirit to the banishment haunted him, not just for concerns of what it would do to him, but what it would do to the others. 

He continued to dabble in these arts of the separation of the mind, body and spirit long after the banishment. He began to think of the link to the banishment gate as a "splinter under his skin". It's possible that he delved too deep in an attempt to dig that "demon splinter" out of him and that must have caused damage to the link between his mind, body and spirit.

At his death, the terrible secrets he carried combined with the weakened link between his mind, body and spirit and the constant picking at it caused him to split and become these haunting spirits, rising on the one year anniversary of his death, killing his family and everyone in his estate. The manifestation of his mind and body roamed the halls of his mansion, seeking release of their pain by sharing it with others through visions, howls and whispers of madness while his spirt just wanted to lash out at everything within its reach.

He has haunted it till this day, until he was finally freed of it with the death of the ghost of his spirit, the banshee of his mind and the soulless manifestation of his body.


The party awakens from the visions to find yourself in a darkened hallway, the constant sounds of the anguished wind in the house gone and they realize that the whispers that were in the winds had ended shortly before, probably with the death of the undead that caused whispers of madness in their minds.

They return to the main hall where that more corporal manifestation of Nikova was killed and they find his battered and broken body laying there showing both the signs of having been dead for 120 plus years and the beating that it took at the parties hands.

They check the finger and sure enough, it points to this as Nikova, the final member of the Conclave. They gather up the body into their bag of holding and search the rest of the mansion. They find no other undead, just an old mansion that has seen better days, but at least now it no longer feels haunted, cursed and evil.

The party goes outside and informs the waiting wizards, clerics and city soldiers that the mansion has been cleared. They use the Snatch Pit to check where the map indicates and find that it points to the Snowy Timbers at what they assume is where all of this trouble began, the ruins of the Conclave of Freedom and the partially successful banishment gate.

They spend the next couple hours cleaning up the mess, enrolling the apprentice wizards Santiago and Salazar into helping and preparing to return to town. After allowing Nikos/Illinor to say his fair wells to his old friend Nikova, they take his corpse to the small graveyard on the property and give it a proper burial, at least, all but the skull which they keep in their bag of holding.

Akronos pulls out the old communication scroll and sends a message to Boazman asking him to come and help manage the mansion that they have just gained by freeing it and the city of Freeport from the evil spirits that haunted it. It turns out, Boazman and his wife were hiding out here in Freeport so it will be easy for him to help.

They return to the city of Freeport and meet with General Thomas Harn, letting him know that they have freed the mansion of the evil spirits. They do no tell him that the spirt was that of Nikova so they don't taint the regions history of the man. They ask for help with taking over ownership of the mansion and Harn is more than happy to help out, recommending Telbot Davidson as a good resource of brokering dependable hired hands of all types and Katrinas Pantry for supplies for the crew that will be living and working there until the hopefully return of the party.

The next morning Akronos sends a message to Elodin and lets him know that they have secured the final skull and they make arrangements for Elodin to meet them the following day to teleport them to the ruins of the banishment gate for the final steps in completing the banishment that has been 150 years in the works.

This is where session #29 and the 6th and final skull quest ended. Next session, the return to the ruins of the Conclave of Freedom and the attempt to complete the banishment of the greater demon Draxorith...

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham
Tykor, very old half elven innkeeper that has forgotten he used to go by Illanor, an arch mage of the Conclave of Freedom - NPC
Nikos, friend of Tykor and entertainment manager for the Inn of the Broken Staff - NPC


After splitting the party and almost causing Otep and Lutheo to join the ranks of the grisly mansions defenders while Akronos, Theren and Ceress sat outside concentrating on first level spells to keep them immune from possession and then getting yanked into the mansion and almost losing Ceress to possession by the ghost, they decide that they need a new approach.

Akrons suggests that the party goes into town and hire some acolytes to concentrate on Protection From Evil for the five of them to all go in together as a team. This will require them to expose their plan to the town since word might get out. The party agrees, some reluctantly, to this new approach and they clean up some of the mess they have made outside of the mansion, board up the front door and head into Freeport.

The party gets four rooms at the Fair Wind Tavern in the High District. They send Theren and Lutheo to talk with General Thomas Harn since he is the one mentioned on the warning signs outside of the mansion. When they were in Freeport months (and levels) ago, Theren found out from talking with a solder in a tavern that the city has a deal for would be adventures that want to take on the mansion.

The office of General Tomas Harn is within the City Militia Hall on the North end of town. The Militia hall is a barracks, training ground, prison and offices and in a very organized six acres of perfectly manicured and maintained setting.

The main hall entrance has a huge clerks desk with many city guards coming and going. One of the clerks at the desk sees the party enter and calls out to them "excellent, are you looking to join the city or country militia?" he asks. Theren lets him know that they want to talk to General Harn about the mansion and they are granted an audience with him shortly after. 

General Harns office is a professional soldiers office. Sparse, clean and well organized. He is a brisk man. No nonsense and directly to the point.

He asks Theren and Lutheo "are you wanting to go into the mansion for the hopes of treasure, glory, earning the estate or just as an exciting way to die?" They explain to him that they are on a mission and need to clear the mansion of the ghosts but don't explain anything else of their mission.

Harn goes on to tell them that "We don't know why the spirit stays inside the property but one of my primary goals is that it never gets out to wreak havoc on the surrounding population.

Once or twice a decade a foolish party of adventurers will think they have a chance where everyone else has died before. It looks like you're the next group to sacrifice themselves. We don't like to attract the suicidal so we try to discourage attempts at clearing the mansion.

About 20 years ago one member of an adventuring party made it out alive. The other five members of his party died horrible deaths according to him. The spirit possessed some of them and turned them against the other party members. The spirit itself couldn't be harmed by normal weapons or many types of spells. It was a complete rout according to this poor soul.

Here's the deal that Freeport is willing to make. If you kill the spirit you can have the estate and anything you find in it but in order to have that deal you must leave with my office any valuables you have on you that won't help you with your battle. If and when you die the valuables will be sold off and the proceeds will de donated to the local orphanage. If by chance you survive you will be given your possessions back. Several guards will accompany you to the estate. After you've gone in and have been given enough time to die they will board it back up.

I'd rather have you join the militia or just not commit suicide on an attempt at the mansion, but you seem pretty determined to do this foolish thing so I won't waste either of our time trying to convince you otherwise."

They agree to the terms set forth and let him know that they would like to leave the next morning at 9:00. The general will have five solders join them to take care of boarding the mansion back up when they die inside.

Next, they search for some hirelings that can help with the Protection From Evil. In the High District of Freeport is the Freeport Conclave of Wizardry so they head there. It is set on a large estate with grand ground leading to the front doors. They knock on the mansions front doors and are soon greeted by a young man. They explain that they are looking to hire some wizards to help with a quest but the wizards will be in no danger since they will just stay outside. The young man asks them to wait there at the front door while he gets his master.

Soon, an old human wizard comes to the front door and introduces himself as Janog, one of the head masters of the school. When Theren and Lutheo explain that they want to pay some wizards to cast Protection from Evil and then wait outside of the haunted mansion concentrating on it, Janog explains that the Conclave of Wizardy is a small organization which serves as both a wizard's guild and a small magic school. It has less than thirty members who meet at this large estate. Members include young wizards in training, apprentices just starting out and a couple nobles who dabble in magic as a hobby. There are only a handful of spellcasters of any appreciable talent. The guild estate has a small library, a fine laboratory and an herb garden. Compared to other guilds, the Conclave is somewhat informal. There are no formal classes, but members pool magical knowledge and resources casually to help each other. There are no formal ranks or titles, merely regulars and some who come and go. He isn't sure if any of the member would be interested in such a job be there are two that he will talk to about it and send them to the Fair Wind Tavern if they are interested.

Theren and Lutheo decide to try the local churches next. While there are many churches in Freeport, the two largest and most likely to have spell caster would be the church of Semorjon or the church of Imarus. Semorjon is the god of the sea and his followers embrace the rough and often chaotic nature of the sea. They decide that having law and order abiding followers of Imarus might be better to trust with the job of maintaining concentration on a single spell for a full 10 minutes instead of the followers of Semorjon.

They go to the church of Imarus and talk with Civilar Kenton and explain their desire to rid the haunted mansion of the evil spirits that live there and their need of clerics to maintain Protection From Evil to protect them from possession. Kenton thinks this is a great idea and he will conscript some of his acolytes to assist them. They payment the party offers to the acolytes will apparently go to the church and it will compensate them out of it. Kenton will send the clerics he selects to meet with them at the Fair Wind Tavern later in the day.

Later that afternoon, two young men show up at the tavern and explain that they are Santiago and Salazar, brothers and wizards that are eager to join the adventure. They are a little disappointed that they will be required to sit outside and not join in on the main fun but as a start to their adventuring career they are willing to accept that as part of the deal. The party is a little concerned that the brothers might be too eager, but still agree to pay them for their services. Santiago and Salazar high five and quickly engage with Akronos on the greater arts of spell casting. Akronos teaches them Protection From Evil and agrees to give them a few more spells as part of their payment.

Four clerics show up a short while later and let the party know that they have been sent by the High Civilar Kenton to assist them. They are Hessen who is in charge of the group, Jaro, Gunthar and Lantro.

It is agreed that the party and their new hired crew will meet back at the inn the next morning to set out for another or the first attempt according to the parties story of it.

In accordance with the cities requirements for claiming the mansion as the prize if they actually survive and clear it out of the evil spirts, Akronos leaves his 22 gold with General Harn, Theren leaves 30 platinum, Lutheo leaves just about everything he had except for what he will use in battle and Ceress leaves all of his money. Otep doesn't leave anything with the city office and Theren has held back enough to pay for the hired help and their expenses at the tavern.

The next morning they head out and start their assault on the mansion, fresh, with back up and a new plan.

When they get to the mansion, they have the two eager wizards and 4 reluctant priest cast Protection from Evil on them with a Bless added in for good measure. They leave Tykor and Nikos outside with the guards and low level casters while the party goes in as a tight knit team. They search most of the first floor and finding nothing, head up to the second floor, believing this to be where the finger is currently pointing.




Up on the second floor, the party moves around the south of the central balcony that has a view down to the first floor grand hall. The spirit floats through a west wall and telekinetically grabs Otep and flings him across the hall, slamming into a wall at the top of the stairwell.

Lutheo, mounted on his ridding dog charges forward and attacks the wispy spirit. He hits twice, both times him imbibing his attack with the smite of his faith. The spirit first tries to posses Lutheo but is rebuffed by the Protection from Evil and then it recoils from his vicious attacks and flees down the hall and through a wall. Otep calls for Akronos to Haste him and he races back to find the spirit. 

The party pursues the ghost but can't find where it went. They search much of the second floor and end up finding stairs going up to the third-floor. The third floor is apparently the servants quarters with smaller and sparsely furnished rooms but no ghosts or other undead.

Having spent a good deal of time already the party decides to head back outside and update the waiting crew and get a refresher on the protection from evil spells.

They have determined that the finger must be pointing to the basement so they re-enter the mansion and head straight downstairs.

They walked down the wide stairway from the Butler's pantry off the dining room into a large open landing at the bottom of the stairs in the basement.

The finger is pointing straight ahead cross the open landing area into what appears to be the servant dining room.

Apparently, the ghost has organized his minions in an ambush for the party and they get attacked from all sides when they get to the dining area. Zombies with blue glowing eyes and the undead that whispers madness straight into the brain and the ghost that flings them across the room with telekinetic thrusts all attack.

Otep, Ceress and Lutheo have a field day with slaughtering zombies as they come. Theren throws a fireball into a grouping of zombies and provides timely support to party members, healing and assisting with damage. Lutheo has apparently become the favorite target of the ghost and the spirit that whispers madness. He's often flung across the room and into a wall or the target of the whispering madness in addition to zombie attacks.

Akronos unleashes a powerful crowd control spell of a raging storm with lightning bolts striking his foes, blocking off and delaying some of the assailants.

Lutheo uses the Sumerack shield to protect them from an onrush of undead until they can deal with the ones surrounding them.
Both Akronos and Theren figure out that they need to wait and attack the ghost or whispers of madness undead with ranged spells as they appear through walls but the distraction of zombies attacking them makes this difficult. It does identify to their enemies who can hurt them for a distance and they suffer extra attention from the ghost for this knowledge.

As the bodies of the zombies are piling up at the party's feet they are suffering serious injuries themselves. Each member of the team gets down to within daggers cut of death. After a massive raging battle, they have finally killed all the zombies but the ghost and whispering undead are still alive and attacking them with sniper like tactics floating through walls, assaulting from a distance and then disappearing back through walls.

The party deploys the snatch pit and start throwing zombie bodies in it in an attempt to get them all out of the building so they won't have to battle the same ones again the next day.

Theren frantically screams at them to get into the pit and he will get them out of the mansion. Each party member grabs one last zombie body and jumps into the pit on top of a pile of undead corpses. Theren zips up the pit and runs for his life, making an Expeditious Retreat. The spirit was hiding out of the room when Theren fled so it takes it a little while to track him down, but by that point Theren has a big enough lead that he makes it out of the mansion with the pit containing all of his companions and the 17 zombies that killed that day. 

The party decides that they need to rest and recover since they are all on the verge of death and tapped out of spells and abilities. They decide to go back to town where their inn keeper is preparing a large victory feast for them at Therens earlier request.

First they strip the bodies of any magic items and then ask Tykor if he can burn them with his great magic. He shrugs and is happy to give it a try, but instead he causes Theren to move very slowly for a while. They give up on asking Tykor for help and burn them the old fashioned way (after letting the wizards Santiago and Salazar strip them of resalable gear).

Otep and Ceress decide to stay behind and guard the mansion but the rest of the party and their hired underlings return to town. The two wizard brothers want to stay with the party as much as possible but the clerics return to their church and the guards check in with their captain.

That evening Theren, Akronos and Lutheo have a wonderful dinner and are joined by the wizards brothers, Nikos, Tykor and General Thomas Harn who is duly impressed that the party is still alive and has made progress instead of his first though which was the two had died and the rest escaped. That would have been an accomplishment compared to past attempts, but this is truly amazing.

The next day they gather up their hirelings and head back to the mansion to find Otep and Ceress well rested and ready to go at the last remaining haunts in the mansion.

After getting Protection from Evil they leave the hirelings outside, enter and check the finger and start hunting down the remaining undead. They check the basement but they aren't there. The check the first floor and don't them them there either. On the second floor the finger is still pointing to the west, across the open foyer to the first floor below. The party splits into two groups with Otep, Theren and Lutheo going south around the balcony and Akronos and Ceress going north.

The spirit emerges through a wall and attacks Lutheo, flinging him over the balcony, slamming him into a pillar and plummeting down to the first floor. The undead causing the whispering madness attacks as well and then flees through the walls. The chase is on with the spell casters holding spells and attacking the spirits when they come out of the walls but sometimes the spirits emerge further away in the darkness of the deserted mansion and are hard to spot before they attack.

The hunt and counter hunt is on and this is where session #28 ends.

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham
Tykor, very old half elven innkeeper that has forgotten he used to go by Illanor, an arch mage of the Conclave of Freedom - NPC
Nikos, friend of Tykor and entertainment manager for the Inn of the Broken Staff - NPC


The party decides to burn the ten bodies that they dragged out of the mansion and then rest until the next morning to make another attempt on it.

The next morning, after much debate, the party decides that they should split the party (always a good idea) and have Otep, Lutheo and his ridding dog Cato go in by themselves while Akronos, Theron and Ceress support them by sitting outside while maintaining concentration on the Protection from Evil and Silent spells cast on them.

The plan is that Otep and Lutheo you will go in and retrieve any bodies they kill and bring them out for permanent destruction. If they need assistance they will use hand signals, assuming they are fighting within view of the front door like in the entry way or main hall again.

Otep and Lutheo go into the mansion buffed by the other party members and they start exploring.

The find blood and gore upon the floor of the entryway and main hall where they battled, killed and left many zombie bodies but none of those bodies are still there.

They explore much of the first level of the mansion but don't find any enemies.

They decide to venture upstairs, separated off from the rest of the party and under their silence spell. Instead of taking the grand staircase to the second floor, they go back through the dining room to the servants staircase that they had seen two days prior on the first venture into the mansion.

When they get to the top of the staircase they find two zombies in the small room housing the stairs on the second floor.

They make short work of those two zombies, deploy the snatch pit, roll the bodies into it and pick it back up. So far, everything is going according to plan.

They open the one door leading out of that room and venture into the hallway. There are multiple doors in this hallway and they pick the one across the hall from the stairs, open it and enter. This appears to be a nicely appointed bedroom that happens to have two more zombies with glowing blue eyes. They quickly engage them in combat but before they can finish them off more zombies have come out of other rooms off the hallway and joined in the combat, cutting off their easy retreat.

After cutting down the first two zombies, Otep turns to fight the zombies coming from the hall while Lutheo and his massive dog work on rolling the two dead ones into the snatch pit.

The wispy apparition joins in the combat from the hallway, using its powers to sling Lutheo backwards across the bedroom, silently slamming into the far wall. It then slipped out of view before Lutheo and Otep could retaliate.

Lutheo and Otep push their way into the hallway battling the zombies, dropping a couple more but more have come from rooms further away to join the battle. Even worse, the apparition is joined by whatever has been causing the whispers of madness that torments their minds, despite the silence they have around them. Apparently it is directly effecting their minds and the lack of sound hasn't protected them from this attack.

Being outnumbered and already hurting, Lutheo uses his Sumerac shield to protect him and Otep from more zombies attacking, with just one caught in the force field with them. Unfortunately, it doesn't protect him from the telekinetic attacks and he is again thrown backwards by the apparitions force, slamming him to the other side of the force field. Otep is struck by the whispers of madness and suffers a feeling of suffocating and crushing death and he turns on Lutheo and viciously attacks him before regaining control of himself.

The battle has quickly turned on our intrepid heroes as they have become badly wounded and are still outnumbered by zombies, the apparition and cause of the disturbing whispers in their minds.

They fight a hasty retreat, barely hanging on to life as they scramble back down the stairs and out of the house.

Theren has been waited right at the front door and lends some healing as they come barreling out of the house. Otep and Lutheo stop a little ways outside the house, panting for breath, still bleeding badly with the rest of the party still near the front door.

The party starts to asks them what happened but then the force grabs Theren who was closest to the from door and it hurls him back into the house, slamming him up against a wall in the great hall.

Both Otep and Lutheo are still badly hurt despite a little healing but Ceress rushes in to rescue Theren. Unfortunately, the evil spirit floats over and attacks Ceress, possessing him. Theren casts Protection from Evil on Ceress to help with future saving saves agains the possession, but it doesn't immediately break him out of it. Ceress reaches out and attacks Theren, withering his skin where he hits him and then the possessed Ceress runs deeper into the mansion, headed up the grand stairs.

Akronos, Otep and Tykor followed by Nikos come into the mansion to help retrieve the possessed Ceress. Tykor gets excited with all of the activity and hurls off a spell, targeting Otep who is just ahead of him. Otep resists the spell, not knowing what it is or that he just resisted being polymorphed in to a rhinoceros.

Akronos hears the footsteps of more zombies coming from a back passage and lobs a fireball down there, whipping out two and greatly injuring the third.

Otep chases the possessed Ceress up the stairs and starts hitting him with his maul, trying to knock him unconscious instead of killing him. Theren works to head off the possessed Ceress by using his arachnid cape and climbing up the walls to the second story balcony.

Tykor is getting into the spirit of helping out and casts a wall of force at the top of the stairs, blocking Ceress's retreat, but since it is invisible and Ceress is at a full run he slams into it with full force, knocking him on his ass.

The one zombie that survived Akronos's fireball makes it to the grand hall and the only targets are Tykor and Nikos. It runs up and slashes Tykor with its sword but misses him with its raking claw attack. Before Nikos can respond to protect his friend, Tykor response with a single word and a green line of glowing energy stretches out from his hand and vaporizes the zombie leaving little flakes of ash floating where it was. Tykor reaches out and catches one ash flake then brings it to his tongue, tastes it and shrugs.

Otep finally beats Ceress unconscious and the ghost leaves the limp body then floats through the nearest wall, escaping further attacks.

Otep hauls the 350 pound, unconscious saurian up and starts moving down the stairs to get him out of the mansion. Akronos provides some healing so the Ceress can run on his own and the whole party retreats from the mansion once again.

When they are all outside they shut the front doors and move far away from the mansion to recover and lick their wounds.

They pull the four bodies out of the snatch pit, make sure that none of them are the sixth member of the conclave that they are looking for and then check them for magic items. Some of these bodies were past adventures that died long ago trying to free the mansion from the haunting spirits and they still have some magic items. The party realize that they hadn't checked the ten other bodies that they recovered so they check them and discover some additional magic items that survived the bonfire. The collection consists of a magical rope, bracers, a small metal tube and three potions.

This is where the session ends. Splitting the party almost caused two members to joining the ranks of the grisly mansions defenders. They have seen what an addled arch mage can do when excited and they almost lost Ceress to the possession of the ghost. All in all, it was a wild session.

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham
Tykor, very old half elven innkeeper that has forgotten he used to go by Illanor, an arch mage of the Conclave of Freedom - NPC
Nikos, friend of Tykor and entertainment manager for the Inn of the Broken Staff - NPC

After the battle in the entryway, the party had dragged five of the zombie bodies out of the mansion before boarding it back up and recovering from their wounds. They drag three of the bodies outside the estate's perimeter 100 feet past the entry gate to the grounds. Two of these bodies they burned to ash and any remaining bones were pulverized by Otep. The third is stripped of gear but otherwise untouched. They leave two bodies inside the estate perimeter. One burnt and pulverized, the other without gear but untouched. 

The party takes turns on guard duty that night, with the camp set up just outside the entry gate and two sentries on either side, watching the two piles of bodies. They keep a close eye on the zombie remains to see if they regenerate over night.

By the next morning, they find that the bodies have not regenerated and this gives them some comfort that they won't be fighting the same ones in the house that they killed the day before.

That morning while preparing for their assault on the mansion, Akronos gets a Sending from Master Elodin. He lets them know that "The gate is failing faster. Need to hurry. 12 of 54 unlocked. Current rate of failure is one rune every three days but increasing." They can't just talk a month to pick off the undead in the house, but they still have a little bit of time.

They put together an elaborate plan on how to test the house and the moaning apparition. They want to trap it in Lutheos Sumerak shield and prevent it from escaping so they can deal with it once and for all.

The plan is to break open a window to the right of the front door and lure the apparition to attack them there, like it did when they were here months ago.

They have Otep pull the boards off the window, break out the glass (that they are sure they broke out months ago) and once again tear down the curtains inside. The party stands back with Lutheo and Otep near the window but nothing comes to attack them. Finally Otep and Lutheo enter through the window and find that they are in a very nice dining room that is covered in a layer of dust.

They also discover that there was one of the zombies with glowing blue eyes and a long sword standing in the room. It didn't attack when they broke the window, but now that they are in the room it attacks them. They make short work of it and wait a moment to see if anything else comes to attack them. When nothing does, Otep explores further into the mansion, with Lutheo reluctantly trailing behind him for a few moment.

The rest of the party outside calls to Otep wanting him to hold to the plan of waiting outside to lure the apparition but he continues to explore. He finds what look like they might be servant stairs going both up and down but he resists them. Back towards the entry way he finds a door that leads from the dining room to the main hall way and takes a few steps in. He can see the remains of the undead that they killed the day before but there is no sign of the apparition. He finally heads back out to join a frustrated party. Tensions are growing high and the lack of the enemy following the parties plans is not helping with party cohesion.

They decide that they will have to do their back up plan and enter through the front door and slowly advance as a group and work to clear out the mansion. They tell Nikos and Tykor to wait outside until they call for them through a message spell. Nikos happily agrees and pulls two folding chairs out of his backpack for them to sit in while the party has their fun.

The party advances in, crossing over the rough terrain left by one of Akronos spells in the entry way. They have a silence spell on them in the hopes that it will protect them from the wails of the apparition. Lutheo and Akrons also have light spells.

Scattered throughout the entry way and into the grand hall are bodies of the undead that they defeated the day before. The party moves fully into the entry hall as a group. When they get to the far side of the hall, several zombies with glowing eyes come out from around corners, under the stairs and rooms beyond the hall to attack them. To the parties horror, the undead that they had defeated the day before rise up off of the floor to join in the attack, sealing the retreat out the front door. These zombies still show signs of the battle from the day before, but they have obviously also recovered partially from it.

Otep and Theren take up the battle with the fresh zombies at the front of the party while Lutheo moves to the back to defend their flank. Akronos takes damage from zombies that attacked from behind and instead of staying surrounded, he moves up the grand stair case to escape the silence spell and be able to sling spells in from the sides.

Seeing Lutheo surrounded by almost a dozen zombies, Theren drops his concentration on the Silence spell so he can cast a fireball, wiping out many of the injured zombies swarming Lutheo. Right after that, the howling aspiration appears and starts wailing. With the silence gone, Otep, Theren and Akronos all take damage from this floating specter assailing their minds.

A zombie comes out from under the stairs and attacks Akrons who backs up the stairs. Ceress comes to his rescue and engages the zombie in combat and eventually kills it.

At different points through out the battle each member of the party has disturbing visions, followed with either wracking psychic pain or whispers of madness. The visions are: suffocation, restriction, crushing death and destruction; men in uniforms, ogres in heavy armor and saurians in a frenzy of killing; a vaguely familiar body, torn, bloody and broken suddenly appearing at your feet on a mountain top; swords and spears reaving bodies, rocks and fallen trees crushing people; visions of mud and blood blinding vision and stealing breath.; weight upon the chest, every exhale loosing ground to the weight that prevents the next breath from being full; of powerful men standing on a mountain top watching the death and destruction of thousands.


Seeing that the parties back up plan has failed and they are taking heavy damages, Otep calls for the party to retreat and leads the way out of the house. The rest of the party fails to follow him, determined to win this battle. Otep misses much of the battle while leading the retreat and then realizing that the rest of the party failed to follow him, then rejoining them for the final moments.

The battle is tense with the moaning spirit assailing their minds and something else whispering madness in their brains but Lutheo uses a Misty Step to get right between the spirit and another zombie that seems to have held back from the attack. He appears in the air a little off the ground so he can uses his Sumerak shield to create a sphere encircling them so they can't escape. He then attacks the spirt that has taken some damage from Theren and Akrons by magical attacks. He unleashes all of his holly power through mighty Smites and destroys the spirit before it gets a chance to escape from him. The zombie in the Sumerak shield turns and phases through a wall, escaping what would have probably been a similar fate if it had stuck around to go toe to toe with the mighty halfling.

A wispy apparition has floated into the battle and Lutheo is ripped from his feat and slammed upwards. Fortunately for him, his shield sphere kept him for being tossed two storied up into the high ceiling above and then dropped back to the floor, but it was still a very unpleasant surprise.

The battle is thinning out, but the characters are all damaged and running out of fight left in their arms and minds. While pulling back, knowing that there are still zombies with glowing eyes and what ever the whips of an aspiration is, Theren gets picked up by an invisible force and slammed across the entry hall, crumpling into an unconscious and bleeding mound.

Otep has rejoined the party and they finishe off the last of the zombies that are attacking them and beat a hasty retreat with a barely revived Theren.

Ceres and Otep grab several zombies that had fallen in the final retreating battle in the entry way and drag them out of the mansion. After a little healing, the party tries to drag as many out of the house as possible. The rough terrain in the entry way is slowing down their progress.

Akronos starts to cast a long spell to help with the bodies, but it takes longer than the party had for the task at hand.

Two more zombie come and attack them while they are grabbing bodies and then the whispers of madness are heard and Otep is struck motionless for a moment. When he recovers the party decides that the 10 bodies they have dragged out will have to be enough for now since they are all badly wounded and can't stand any more damage without possibly having to leave a member behind, unconscious in the mansion.

This is where the session ends. The party has killed many of the zombies and drag lots of them outside. They know that something is making the ones left inside regenerate or be reanimated. Things in this mansion are tough and bent on sucking the life out of them. It will take an amazing effort by this group to be able to defeat the evil that is within...

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham
Tykor, very old half elven innkeeper that has forgotten he used to go by Illanor, an arch mage of the Conclave of Freedom - NPC
Nikos, friend of Tykor and entertainment manager for the Inn of the Broken Staff - NPC

The party has just teleported to just outside the city of Freeport. They decide that they will skirt around the city and avoid talking to anyone. They won't visit the offices of General Tomas Harn to take the city up on the deal of cleaning the haunted mansion earns it, but only if they inform the city in advance. They figure it would be better to clear it without anyone knowing they are doing it and then fake cleaning it later to claim it.

They get to the mansion around three in the afternoon. It has been rebounded up since their attempt on it several months ago. They pry the boards from the front door and with some prepared spells, they head in. Otep, Lutheo and Ceress lead the way with Theren and Akronos at the rear. Nikos and Tykor stay outside waiting for the party to give them the all clear to follow them in (despite the parties urging them to join and help).

Battle is joined before Otep has even had a chance to make it across the entry hall. Several very tough zombies with glowing blue eyes, come in and there is a pounding fight that rages for many rounds. Some of the zombies are dressed in various types of armor and cary swords, staves or other weapons and some look like they may have been a maid, butler or other house staff and attack with their clawed hands.

Ceress is struck with fear and can't proceed in much further at the start of the battle, but he soon gets over it. Akronos launches spells from the back ranks, creating with one of his destructive spells rough terrain for the zombies to cross over to get to the party. Theren throws several fireballs at groups of the zombies, once catching Lutheo at the edge of the blast.

The wailing apparition appears early in the battle and lets out her blood curtailing screams, damaging all close by that hear her. Akronos, Tykor and Nikos all back up outside to get out of her range, with Tykor and Nikos chatting about how it sounds like it is going for the battle inside and what they look forward to most when they get back to the Inn of the Broken Staff.

At one point, the whispering madness effects Theren and he draws his rapier and takes a swing at Otep, but misses him. At another point, the madness gets inside Otep's head and he spends the next several moments in the deep despair of what he heard, missing out on the battle raging around him.

Still fighting in the entry hall, the party finally whittles down the zombies. They wailing spirit retreats as they do damage it it with a fireball and other spells. The party is badly battered and spent and decide that they need to retreat and heal up. Otep explores the main room and discovers that it has an open ceiling to the second floor but he doesn't see any more undead right away.

Ceress and Otep take to dragging a few of the zombie bodies out of the building to see if they regenerate over night. When Otep goes back in for a sixth body two more zombies attack him with a third coming towards him.

The party makes a hasty retreat and close the front door and the board it up again.

With healing all around, they devise a plan to check to see if the zombies will regenerate over night while the party rests and regains their abilities before starting the assault the next day.

Of the five bodies recovered they take three bodies outside the estate's perimeter, about 100 feet past the entry gate to the main grounds. Two of these bodies are burned to ash, any remaining bones are pulverized by Otep. The third is stripped of gear but otherwise untouched. The other two  bodies are left inside the estate perimeter, one burnt and pulverized, the other without gear but untouched. 

The party rotates sleep and watch, camping between the two groups of remains with two sentries on either side close to the bodies. They make sure that their sentries able to see bodies and easily able to wake sleepers if anything happens. They watch through the night in shifts to see if any of the captured remains regenerate but when the sun rises in the morning they see that the dead are still dead with no signs of regenerating.

This is where the session ends. Next session, the party will once again assault the mansion and hope to clear it out. If they don't, they can always join Nikos and Tykor back at the Inn of the Broken Staff and retire from this crazy adventuring life, at least until the demon Draxorith breaks lose and wreaks havoc on the world...

After the discovery that the skull probably resides in the urn on the fireplace mantle at the Inn of the Broken Staff, the party talk about options to get it.


- Theren says "What if, bear with me here, we simply meet with the owner and explain (divulging as little information as possible) what we need.  We could offer to pay for it.

This eliminates the need to burglarize the joint as well as reducing the possibility that we end up hurting innocent people during the heist.

Suggest the group consider this approach.  Theren offers to seek the owner out.  We will have the proceeds from the sale of the pirate ship, although our quest is true and paying may not be necessary.  The owner may not even be aware there is a skull somewhere near his fireplace."


- Otep says that "he would be amenable, with certain reservations.

He'd not be willing to pay a huge amount.  It's something that needs to be done, and I'm not sure how the owner benefits from having the skull. 

Otep would suggest that the owner be isolated in a discussion with us.  And that we pressure him if he doesn't agree to give it to us outright, or sell it for a small sum.  Needs to be isolated so that the threat is felt fully.  In his best interest to sell for small sum, than for us to ruin the establishment and kill him.

Otep feels the end justifies the means.  Skull is certainly needed, and it's in everyone's best interest.  Including the current "owner"."


- Ceress, as usual, will go along with the what ever the group plans.


- Akronos chimes in with "Theren, I am so pleased you are adapting to Drakellian ways so quickly! 

Otep, I applaud your willingness to try open communication and offering reasonable gold for the skull.

Gents, I would like a solution where we can attain the skull, be good with the Broken Staff Inn, and escape without ill-will nor being hunted.  I fear if we kidnapped the owner and offered a price he or she may say no for whatever reason.  I'd hate for us to have to kill them.

I have a plan... let's steal the skull but leave behind a story written by Theren saying why we took the skull plus 150 platinum.  This would be a great opportunity to turn an ordinary theft into a fantastical story which will become famous at The Broken Staff Inn.  150 platinum to symbolize the 150 years since the demon war (and because it is a good price).  Theren could write about how we have collected all the other skulls and imply we already got the one from the apparitions.  It would be an epic tale!  In the story say we are fighting the Black Sorcerers and Hand of the Abyss to save the world and prevent another demon war.  Theren could even say he would return to The Broken Staff Inn to tell the rest of the story after we save the world... and sign it as the "Secret Bard" or some-such.  Instead of a theft it could be declared a set of heroes finishing the most important quest in 150 years and generously gifting 150 platinum to the prestigious Broken Staff Inn.

What do you think gentlemen?"


- Otep responds back with "No.  150 platinum???  Too much.  That's like, more than 100 gold!

1)  Talk to owner first.  Ask for it for free.  He should be paying US, since we've been doing all the work to save humanity!  Does HE want demons walking around Drakell?

2)  If talk doesn't work, then tell him we'll offer him 100 gold.  NOT platinum.  I'm not agreeing to paying so much.

3)  If that doesn't work....THEN we kill him.  I mean, after explaining how it's more in his best interest to get 100 gold rather than to die.  Unreasonable, ungrateful human."


- Lutheo says "In all of what follows, this is a given: We will leave town with that skull.

That said, I'm torn.

On one hand, I'm keen on being open and honest, especially with people who have not done evil (at least, not that we have seen). And the people at the Braided Scarf have done no evil that we have seen. Their "no magic" rule and their magic detection field show how much they value honesty and fairness. Perhaps this extends only to their musical contests, but I'll bet not.

If honesty works, I greatly prefer that.

On the other hand, I'm also keen on avoiding bloodshed, especially with people who have not done evil. If openness and honesty fail, our interest in the skull will surely draw attention and raise suspicions. I don't see a way to advance our mission without bloodshed.

For my part, I am willing to pay for that skull with whatever money I have. I don't begrudge any of you who would do differently, because money buys support of one kind or another, and I suspect we will need all the support we can get soon enough.

I quite favor the kind of outcome we were able to achieve in Aridorn, at the Basiliarch of Imarus. A bit of noise and commotion, and perhaps a bit of future trouble if they ever figure out that their relic is gone. But all in all, relatively quiet.

So maybe we can devise some way to break into the Braided Scarf at a moment when it is empty or nearly so, and retrieve the skull with as little fuss as possible.

That's not nearly as honest as I would prefer, of course. But it has the potential to limit bloodshed. A tradeoff like that might leave me sleeping fitfully for a few nights, but sleep I will. (Depending on whether any lycanthropes bite me. Ugh!)

So my preference is to steal the skull as quietly as we can.

That said, whatever we decide, I will do whatever I have to do to ensure that we attain that skull."


- Theren responds with "...and you call yourself Lawful Good?

If the caper goes awry Theren is worried we will have to spill innocent blood.

I too am willing to offer up my entire share of the ship as payment if necessary to avoid that."


- Lutheo quips "As it happens, I do not ;-)

Yes, I have the same worry. If open negotiation raises attention and suspicions, that leads to bloodshed. If stealthy theft fails, that leads to bloodshed.

Which is more likely to fail?

I can't say.

Akronos, can your gizmo predict the outcomes of negotiations and capers, or only weather?"


- Theren "I think I have a way to finesse the "negotiation" (without magic)

Not guaranteed, but I think that if I can get an audience with the owner, I have a credible appeal lined up that won't give up too much information unless he is willing to work with us and is likely to help him understand that working with us is in his best interest."


- Akronos says "Lutheo, my Druidcraft can only predict weather.

As Lutheo and Theren said, I would be willing to contribute my share of the ship sale towards the bloodless purchase of the skull.

Any method that does not require bloodshed of otherwise innocent people is my preference.  Theren, as a bard if you have an idea that could pull on their heart-strings or otherwise persuade them... I'm all for it."



The party takes time over that night to sleep on the options and the next morning Theren convinces the party that he has a strategy that should work well for getting the skull if he can talk with the manager. He goes to the Inn of the Broken Staff with Lutheo right at opening the next day and talks to Nikos, the manager who they had talked to the night before.

He says that he has a story that he wants to tell him but he wants Nikos to have someone there that can cast Zone of Truth to know that Theren is telling the truth. After some conversation he convinces Nikos that it is worth his time and he agrees to meet with them the following day at 2:00, before the Inn opens for business. Nikos will have a friend present that can do the Zone of Truth.

The next morning, the party checks out the progress on sprucing up the captured pirate ship and it is looking much better. Akronos goes to talk to his guild about the sale of their ship.

He meets with Murta the ship buyer for the Merchant Guild of House Qaigen. Murta lets him know that the guild would pay 4,000 gold for it to someone from the public but since his is a guild member they will pay 5,000. Akronos takes the deal and receives a Drakkellian letter of credit that they can take to one of the local banks.

Theren and Lutheo return to the Inn of the Broken Staff at 2 o'clock to meet with Nikolas. Nikolas lets them in and they take a table on the far side of the inn, in the corner to the east of the fireplace. Nikos is trim and clean cut. He wears his black wavy hair combed back and short. He has a neatly trimmed beard and mustache, his clothing is of the finest cut representing the most modern trims and he has on some of the most styling shoes that they have ever seen.

Aside the crew that is preparing for the days business there are two other people on the main floor. There is an old man reading a book in one of the chairs by the fireplace and a younger man sitting further away who Nikos tells them will be performing the zone of truth.

Theren tells Nikos that he wanted to offer him a favor and ask for one in return. He encouraged him to get a zone of truth so that he could trust everything he was about to tell him.

Theren warns him that he would share as much information as he would like, but that he might want to go slowly because the information could jeopardize his safety. He lets him know that the party is on a quest trying to save the world. They believed he has on his mantle one of the items we need for our quest.

There have been multiple attempts on the parties lives in the last 2 months, and that those pursuing us would stop at nothing to get that artifact. We are offering to take it off his hands and that is in his best interests and in ours.

Through out all of this Nikos is interested but not too worried about it. When Theren starts to tell him that it is linked to the Demon Wars from 150 years ago, Nikos shows signs of concern. He sighs and mumbles that he can tell that this won't end well.

Theren shows him the magical finger and encouraged him to allow Theren to find what it is pointing towards. He writes the word "skull" on a slip of paper and folds it up and tells Nikos that if Theren finds what hew was looking for, Nikos could open to confirm but that Theren didn't want to tell him straight away because if he couldn't find it, then it would be more dangerous for Nikos if he knew what the party was looking for.

Nikos encourages them to abandon the quest but see that Theren and Lutheo are set on this. The Zone of Truth shows that they believe their quest is real and just. He finally gives in, mumbling that the outcome isn't going to be good.

Theren gets up and dangles the finger at the end of the chain. It swivels and points west of him, towards the fireplace. He walks over and the finger sways gently at the end of the chain. As he gets closer, instead of pointing north towards the fireplace mantel, it starts to swing to the south. Nikos continues to mumble that this is no good. Theren walks between the fireplace and the table with the old man reading the book and he realizes that the finger is pointing to the old man.

It dawns on Theren that this skull is still living, that before him is one of the original Conclave of Freedom members, now very, very old.

He asks the old man and Nikos if he can sit down and talk with him. The old man happily sets his book aside and invites him to join at his favorite table. Nikos and Lutheo join them. Nikos introduces him as Tykor, the owner of the Inn of the Broken Staff. Tykor is dressed very sharp for an old man. Slacks, stylish dress shoes, fine cut shirt, jacket and silk scarf, with a brass topped walking stick by his side.

Theren tells him that they are looking for one of the Conclave of Freedom members but Nikos tells him that he doesn't know who they are. Theren holds up the finger on the chain and it points right to Tykor. Recognition comes over Tykor and he looks closely at the finger and say "Ah, Gelden my friend. Apparently you were right, it was your fault that they found us." The waitress catches his eye as she is walking by and he asks Susie for another whiskey and then he apparently forgets all about Gelden, the finger and the previous conversation they were having. When Susie brings him his whiskey, he tries to pay her for it but she reminds him that he doesn't need to pay since he is the owner. When she continues to refuse to take payment, he tells her that she must at least take his tip and he slides her a full gold Drakkellian coin.

The group talks for a while and it becomes clear that Tykor was known as Illanor long ago. After the Demon War, he left the Rukemian Empire and came to Drakkell, leaving the name of Illanor behind and taking on the name of Tykor. He met a wonderful human woman named Ezra and fell in love.

Ezra was a great musician, amazing with the harp, the flute and violin. He talks at length about her. He says that she would play off of a split musical score, also known as a broken staff. Her skills were amazing, playing a double melody at once, she was the inspiration for opening The Broken Staff. They made this into the best place for musicians to play and get inspiration. She passed away long ago and her ashes remain on the mantle to this day.

Apparently Illanor has been playing at being Tykor for so long that most of the time he doesn't remember that he was Illanor. For the most part, he just wants a warm fire, a comfortable chair and a nice glass of whiskey. Once when asked about Illanor he said that he had heard of him and doesn't think very highly of him. Thinks he was a wizard too powerful for his own good, that he thought he knew everything and really didn't know anything. Wizards are risky companions he says.

Often he will just forget what they were talking about and start talking about musicians, the Inn, whiskey and other good food and drink. "I think we should bring back the Shepards Pie now that the weather is getting cooler" or "Nikos, is it too early in the session to start serving pumpkin soup? That pumpkin soup that Devonte makes with a thick slab of bread would be prefect right now."

Theren asks if Tykor will join them on one last quest and he is willing to do that. After much back and forth with Nikos, he tells the party that he needs a day to think about it before he lets his friend risk his life leaving for some crazy adventure. He points out that Tykor is still a very powerful wizard, he just doesn't remember that most of the time. Every now and then they will find a pile of ash in the Inn and they just hope that it was a robber or chair or something else that doesn't matter if it was disintegrated instead of something worse. Travel could get complicated with Tykor in his current condition.

He tells them to come back tomorrow and he will have an answer for them.

Theren and Lutheo agree and leave to rejoin the party and tell them what they discovered. The party agrees that it would be best to relocate where they are staying from the Merchant District to the Guild District. They pack up their things from the Cracked Mug and get a room at The Stone Lady, just a short distance away from the Inn of the Broken Staff. They have dinner that night at the Pig and Thistle tavern and Theren spends the whole evening and night in the Plaza of Mallugar with the magical finger, making sure that Tykor is still in the inn and that Nikos hasn't whisked him away to protect him.

The next day the party goes back and talks with Nikos and Tykor. At one point during the conversation, Tykor sees the finger pointing to him and he proclaims "Ah, Gelden my friend. Apparently you were right, it was your fault that they found us." He then reaches out and takes the finger and chain and puts the chain around his neck. The finder points directly to his chest the whole time he wears it. He orders a round of whiskey for the whole party and goes through the process of trying to pay for it when it arrives and ends up overly tipping his employe, Susie again.

Nikos tells the party that they will help with this quest but he needs time to train up a new front of house manager. Logan is a great kitchen manager but he can't run both sides at the same time. We will need a month to train up a new manager. The party stresses the urgency of their mission and try to take Tykor with Nikos catching up but he won't have that. After much back and forth, the agree on only two days before they all must leave.

Nikos is protective of Tykor and refers to him as his Reshie which translates from Sylvan roughly as uncle or teacher. He has served him for over 130 years and won't let anything happen to him. He always knows where his Reshie is and won't let him out of his sight.

Nikos asks how long they will be gone and they party debates this. They hope to have the quest completed in the next few weeks.

Nikos will want to be back before a month is over. Reshie shouldn't be gone long and if Nikos say Tykor has to come home, then he has to come home. Also, Nikos has heard that Lord Ashcroft has purchased a rare book of the complete Wild Goose Chases written by Gustav Wilder. Lord Ashcroft will be hosting some epic parties based on the Wild Goose Chases. Nikos loves good music, dance and flirting with woman and that is why being at the Broken Staff is the best life that he can imagine. It is always a party here with the best musicians and a parade of new woman to woo every night. Lord Ashcrofts party will be amazing and he wouldn't want to miss such an epic event as the Wild Goose Chases! Rumor has it that Lord Ashcroft paid 475 gold for the book at an auction just about a month ago.


The party has Akronos contact Master Elodin through a Sending to see how things are going and inform him of finding Illanor alive. Master Elodin is amazed that he is still alive and reasons it must be due to the half elven blood that he has in him. Elodin is saddened to hear that Illanors memory has abandoned him. He agrees to contact a mage that he knows at the Drakkell school of sorcery and see if he can get them teleported to their next destination, Freeport. After a little while he lets them know that he will owe the wizard Dezi for performing the teleport but it has been arranged for two days hence.

The party decides to spend this time and their new found money finding out if Drakkell, the city where anything can be had for a price, has some magic items they can purchase.

Akronos goes back to his guild for advise on where to purchase the magic items and is informed that House Landry would be the best source. They also recommend that the party higher one of the fabled negotiators know as a sword tongue. House Qaigen has several that they employ and they recommend using the sword tongue Luzon due to his deep understanding of the value of magic items and the business of buying and selling them.

Over the next two days, the party sells off some of the items they have acquired during their adventures, splits up the proceeds and buy new items.

They return to The Inn of the Broken Staff at the appointed time two days later and meet up with Nikos and Tykor. Nikos is still very sharply dressed, this time with very styling traveling boots that he just purchase for the occasion at Jerome's Taught and Tanned Leather Shop. He has a small backpack ready and adds to it the small box from the mantle. Tykor is dressed mostly as he always has been, slacks, dress shirt, vest, scarf and jacket. He takes the worn mandolin from the mantle and reverently slings it over his shoulder and with walking stick in hand is ready to venture out.

The party realizes that Tykor is pretty slow at walking so they hire a carriage to take them to meet with the wizards who will teleport them to Freeport. The teleportation circle goes smoothly and they arrive at the designated location to the west of the city.


This is where the session ends. The party has decided to continue on with their quest instead of giving up adventuring and retiring to buy their own inn. They have one of the original Conclave members with them and four skulls. They are headed back through Freeport to the haunted mansion of Nikova.

Next session, assault on the haunted mansion of Nikova!

Session #22 - The Drakkellian Alliance

The session starts right after surviving the pirate attack and capturing the pirate ship.

The party licks their wounds, heal the wounded and lock up the surviving pirate captain, ships mage and long surviving deckhand in the hold of the Sea Had.  They search the pirate ship for treasure and come up with a total of 2875. A later, more thorough search finds another 150 gold that was cleverly hidden. They give Captain Lantro of the Sea Hag 875 of the gold for the damages to his ship and to give to the loved ones of the crew that were lost. He promises to deliver the funds as well as pay tribute to the sea god in request for a good watery rest.

The spend the rest of the day and the next morning returning both ships to sea worthy condition with spare sales and rigging that each ship carried, just in case of fireballs on the open ocean. This is the Pirate Isles after all.

The next day they set sail with Captain Lantro and three of his crew on the Sea Hag and four of his crew manning the pirate ship. Theren, Lutheo and Ceress sail on the pirate ship helping out and Otep, Akronos and Lutheo magical stead Cato remain on the Sea Hag, each taking turns watching the prisoners.

It takes them three more days to sail across the Sea of Chaos and make port in Drakkell. Aside from some sightings of sails on the horizon there are no other encounters before making it in to port.

The party discusses it and decide to turn the pirate crew into the authorities in Drakkell for what ever bounty they might be able to collect. They will also sell the pirate ship and give a portion of the sales to Captain Lantro and his crew.

While sailing into Drakkell, they hear stories about the impressive city from the ships captain and some of his crew that have been to Drakkell as well as from Akronos who grew up there.

The Drakkellian Alliance is a political and economic unification between a number of wealthy guilds, cities and towns in the central south coastal region of Ithria. At the heart of this great alliance are five massive cities: Drakkel, Vogue, Ithell, Penketh and Grimstone. Drakkell is the largest city and leads the Alliance.

Politically, the realm is ruled by an alliance of guilds. Each guild is a business organization with its own leaders, employees, rulers, ships, guards and caravans. The guild houses fund their own private armies, spies, assassins and so forth which give them a great deal of influence throughout the nation and beyond.

The guilds are scattered throughout the nation. Some guilds are located entirely within Drakkell while others maintain their headquarters elsewhere. Regardless of their geographic location, all guilds have at least a token presence in the city of Drakkell. Those located outside Drakkell often run their own small city, little more than a village, which is home to its employees, warehouses, support businesses and more. Most guild houses specialize in a particular commodity and may have subdivisions within it each specializing in a particular facet of the business. Some guilds specialize in security, protecting the caravans of other guild houses and lending out warriors. Fantastic rivalries often flare up between guild houses. Alliances are forged, betrayed and made again in an endlessly corrupt game of politics and business as guilds struggle for status and position against each other.

Through out the nation there is an active and almost cutthroat business environment. All manner of monetary transactions are legal and encouraged. Prostitution, gambling, drugs, slavery and protection rackets are all legal, common, organized and of high quality, as long as you can afford the bill. The citizenry is a melting pot. All races can be found there. It is assumed that everyone is there to buy or sell and so everyone is welcome.

The city of Drakkell is a large, wealthy and powerful city that holds much political and military power in the south. It is one of the five major cities that, along with towns and a group of economic guilds, form an economic alliance. Situated at the mouth of the Merchant's Highway river and several trade roads, it is a major trade center. It's booming economy has made it a beacon of civilization. Drakkell is the largest of all the cities that form the Drakkellian Alliance and serves as the national capital.

The Drakkellian Alliance is widely known for its festivals, games, gambling and entertainment. This reputation is especially true for the capital city of Drakkell that is seen as a city of sin and debauchery by many. The locals see it as good clean fun.

Drakkell differs from most other cities in Ithria. For one thing, it is a very clean city. The city maintains a brigade of workers whose sole function is to keep the streets clean and make repairs as necessary. This band of about 200 commoners is paid by the city officials and takes great pride in their work. They are protected by the city guard and enjoy certain privileges about town.

Drakkell has a refined air about it. Unlike the posh civility and blatant snobbery of Vogue, Drakkell maintains order because it's good for business. There are beggars, pickpockets and such in Drakkel, but the city keeps a close eye on them. They are simply the lowest tier in a complex economic tapestry. There is another saying in Drakkel: "Poverty must exist so that the nobles may enjoy their wealth".

Often called the "City of Coffers" and the "City of Coins", Drakkell is an opulent city with luxurious trappings on every wall and door, a spectacle of riches around every corner. There is a saying - "Drakkell wears its wealth on the outside". This undoubtedly refers to the architecture. Every building is adorned with columns, bas relief, sculptures, marble, gold leaf and other expensive touches. Between buildings, one will find statues, parks, gardens, cobblestone walkways, reflecting pools, sculpted shrubbery, fountains and elaborate gateways. It is quite obvious that this city has been methodically planned out and unashamedly crafted for one specific goal - to boast its wealth. And at this, the city planners have succeeded.

The Great Bazaar is the largest and oldest continually active market center west of the empire. In fact, the market existed before the city itself did. It's a grand spectacle... Goods and services from all nations, cultures, anything that could ever be imagined can be found in abundance here. Vendors enjoy a reduced trade fee, to encourage the growth of new businesses. People from all the lands, even savages, can set up shop here as long as they've got something to sell. The Bazaar is open all hours of the day and every day of the year. Political upheavals and wars throughout history have not been able to stop it or even slow down the thousands of people who continually flock here. The Bazaar never, ever closes. It has been and will always be. The Bazaar is a circular area with three tiers, each inner tier being set 3 meters lower than the next. This gives the market a bowl shaped appearance and allows everyone to see the entire market place no matter where they stand. Flanking the Great Bazaar are a number of side markets. The side markets are smaller than the bazaar and each is focused on a specific commodity.

The party hear some of the common sayings in Drakkell that further illustrate the true nature of the city : Secrets don't keep long in Drakkel;; The blood of Drakkell is coin; Coins have ears as well as mouths; Some people will tell you there is more to life than money. These people haven't been to Drakkel.


Once the Sea Hag docked in Drakkell the party disembarked and found Holik the junior harbor master. They tell him that they have captured some pirates at sea and wanted to know where to take them to turn them in.

The harbor master instructed them to take the pirates to the city guard house three blocks away.

Up to this point, the pirates had been gagged, tied with their hands behind their back and naked in the Sea Hags cell in the bottom of the boat.

The party gave each of the pirates their trousers back to wear for the walk through the city but nothing else. Walking through the city, the party got to experience how busy and crowded Drakkell streets are, especially down by the docks. The activity on the streets during this mid day afternoon was high. Carts pulled by horses vie for space with merchants, ships porters and street vendors.

After walking a block through this busy hustle and bustle of the city traffic the pirate mage stumbled and fell against a passing wagon. As he slid down on it he hooked the gag on a piece of wood and took it out of his mouth, receiving a nasty scratch on his cheek in the process. Spitting the sock out of him mouth that the gag held in place he started to cast a spell.

Theren responded quickly and tried to Charm him but unfortunately, that failed. Before anyone else in the party could react, the mage disappeared in a cloud of silvery mist. Otep runs over and attacks the space that he last saw the mage in, just in case he was invisible but still in the same spot, not realizing that the mage used Misty Step to get away from the party and then start running down the street towards an ally way.

Lutheo see that the deckhand is backing up and looking around so he grabs him and tries to drag him towards the captain to prevent them from both scattering.

Akronos moves up to the pirate captain and lets him know that if he tries to run that Akronos will light him on fire before before he can take two steps. Ceress contacts his falcon familiar and looks though its eyes to scan the street but doesn't see the shirtless mage from its vantage point.

Theren chases after the mage and throws a Mind Spike at him, hoping that if the mage fails his saving through that Theren will be able to track him no matter what he does to escape, but the mage saved against the spell and only took minor damage. Ceress joins in the chase with his falcon searching from above but they loose him after he turns down the alley.

While Ceress and Theren are chasing the mage, Otep helps Lutheo by punching the deckhand and knocking him silly. Instead of waiting for Theren and Ceress to return and giving the captain and deckhand a chance to escape, the party decides to take them to the city guard and turn them in.

The captain of the guard checks over the pirate captain for distinguishing marks but couldn't identify him until the party showed him the pirates ship. He identifies him as Captain Bema and offers the party a 500 gold reward to capturing him. No reward for the shipmate, but they will gladly execute him along side the captain. The party almost accepts the reward but them Akronos remembers that Drakkellian bartering is considered an art form. Drakkellians don't respect you if you can't barter well. He tells the captain of the guard that Bema is worth 600 gold and they could sell him to the criminal city of Asylum for at least that much. The guard curses that Akronos must be a local based on pushing for more of a reward and he doesn't think it would go well for the party to try that in Asylum but in the end he gives in and pays 550 for the pirate and his shipmate.


The party returns to the docs and tracks down the junior harbormaster. They tell him that they want to seller the captured pirates ship and ask who the best buyers in town would be.

The harbormaster tells them that they would probably have the best luck selling it to one of the builds and Akronos realizes that his guild that he was a member of before leaving the city would be the best place to start.

Akronos ask him how much they should expect to get for the ship and the junior harbormaster tells them that he is not sure on the value of a used ship of this size and configuration but believes a new ship like this would have cost 10,000 gold.  Given the blood on the decks and signs of recent fire damage he thinks they would be lucky to get half that amount for the ship in its current condition.

Theren offers up and pays the harbormaster a couple hundred gold as thanks for the advice, a sum that Akronos's and others in the party balk at. Akronos then asks Holik if he can help them prepare the ship for sale. Clean up the blood from the battle and the signs of fire damage. Holik offers to coordinate that for 10 gold pieces which Akronos willingly pays.

Akronos tells the party he will meet them at the Cracked Mug tavern after talking with his guild. He goes and meets with his guild and pays up for the next six months of general membership as well as a sales license good for the next two weeks.

Akronos tells them that he has a ship that he would like to sell to the guild and they set an appointment in two days to meet with the guild procurement officer.

He then joins the party for dinner at the Cracked Mug. The Cracked Mug is a nice family run inn that is famous for their venison pies. Being the first time they have been in a civilized town in weeks and it being Akronos's home town, he teats the party to a feast. Otep tries Thundermead, a strongly flavored brew made from fermented honey and spices and an unusually powerful intoxicating effect but it's too sweet for his tastes.

There is an excellent musician playing that night at the Cracked Mug and Theren asks their server about him. The server tells them that his has a silver mandolin pin from the Inn of the Broken Staff, testifying to the high quality of his skill since those are very hard to earn.

That evening in their rooms, the party checks the finger and it points across town to the south east.

The next day they hire a carriage to take them to the south side of town to triangulate the location of the fifth skull.

The carriage takes them along the Long Walk Road and over the river and into the southern side of Drakkell.

They go to the preserve and think that being in the wide open green spaces there would be a good place to discreetly check the finger but find that the preserve is an expensive zoo of exotic animals and they don't want to pay the price to get in.

In the University District they find a little alleyway and quickly check the finger there. It points to the east so they head to the Murdock Square which might be where the finger pointing intersection is and check the finger again.

This time it's pointed directly north of them. After walking around the building at the north end of the square, they realize that the finger is pointing to that building. There is a sign above the door that says The Inn of the Broken Staff.

The Inn of the Broken Staff apparently isn't open for morning or lunch service so they wait in the courtyard for them to open.

Just before the Broken Staff opens at 3 o'clock, a line has already formed to get it. They cue up with other patrons and start a conversation with one of them. He tells the party that the Broken Staff is THE location for the greatest musicians in town, in the entire Drakkellian Alliance. The food and drink are also amazing but the music can't be beat.

There is a club of sorts of Pinned musicians. To earn your Silver Mandolin is very difficult and is a sign of exceptional talent. A pinned musician gets paid top price to perform anywhere else in town and will often attract a noble patron. They also get in to the Broken Staff for free as long as they give at least one performance that night.

When they make it to the door, a large human takes their entry fee of five silver each. Quite a high door fee, but apparently worth it by the number of people paying it. The doorman Sid is huge for a human and rather hairy too. He is dressed impeccably in a button down shirt and jacket but his chest and arm hair won't be so easily contained. He looks like he might be more comfortable with Bugbears instead of the wealthy merchants of Drakkell but his manners are impeccable.

He informs them that they look a little road weary and like this might be their first time at the Broken Staff so he'll explain some house rules to them. They are to be respectful during performances and keep noises to a minimal. Show respect for all musicians, Pinned or daring novice alike. Do not interfere or enhance anyone's performance magically or in any other way. Any use of magic will light up for all to see and magic items will glow at all times within the Broken Staff.

The party enters and is immediately greeted by the smells of an apple wood fire, fresh baked bread and spiced meats. The hustle and bustle of the inn has already started and many seats are filling up fast. They grab a table in the south west corner, directly left of the entry door and against the far wall.

The main floor is large with a stage in the center of the east wall, the bar opposite it on the west wall, a huge fireplace on the north wall across from the entry door on the south wall. There is a door to the kitchens behind the bar and stairs leading to a second level just south of the stage. There ceiling above the stage is open to the second and third floors so the acoustic of the music will be heard by everyone on each floor. There are many instruments hung on the walls throughout the building, most of them looking like they were used up and are no longer serviceable, but probably have a lot of stories behind them.

Shortly after the party enters there is a duo that goes up and plays on the stage on the east wall of the main floor, one singing a haunting melody and the other on the violin joining in with the song on key refrains.

After they finish there is much applause for them before they play a second song. After the second upbeat song has finished they depart the stage to join a table with two others waiting for them. The party signals the waitress and buys the musicians a drink.

A little while later an old woman goes up and plays the mandolin with such mournfully anguish it brings tears to many patrons eyes.

In between songs, Ceress discreetly checks the finger and finds it pointing north across the common room. Ceress and Theren decide to go upstairs to check out the whole layout of the property. While walking up the stairs, Ceress checks the finger quickly again and finds it still pointing north across the common room but most likely crossing the previous direction near the fireplace at the center of the north wall. They explore the second and third stories and just find more seating up there around the balcony. They return back downstairs to rejoin the party.

They decide that a good strategy would be to rent one of the rooms here in the inn and explore more in the dead of night. They ask their server about renting a room and she apologizes to them and tells him that none are available. She suggests staying at the Starving Bard Inn just down the street. Unlike the Broken Staff, they have a lot of rooms and it shouldn't be hard to get one there. The party persists and she lets them know that there's only three rooms here and they are always rented out. They continue to push, asking if there is any price they can pay and she offers to bring over the manager to talk to them so she can get back to work waiting on other customers.

A little while later a very sharp dressed man comes over and introduces himself and Nikos, the manager of the Broken Staff. He is trim and clean cut. He wears his black curly hair combed back and short. He has a neatly trimmed beard and mustache and is clothing is of the finest cut representing the most modern trims.

Nikos assures them that there are only three rooms at the inn and all are taken. The owner has one, he has one as the front of house manager and the back of house manager has one. The title of "inn" and the three "rooms for rent" are really just for tax codes as well as for how it flows off the tongue. Inn of the Broken Staff sounds better than Tavern of the Broken Staff and the tax on taverns is higher on their liquor sales but inns have higher taxes on their room rentals so when the business was established over 100 years ago, the owner chose to make it an "inn". The tax collectors have since closed that loophole but this property is grandfathered in, partially since many of the ruling merchant families love coming here for the entertainment. No one has rooms here aside from the owner and two managers. Even the night guards don't have rooms here.

The party thanks the manager for the considerations and they enjoy another performance.

After the next performance ends, Akronos gets up and walks across the main floor to warm himself by the fireplace. While he is there, he checks out what is on the mantle. Hanging above the mantle is a broken walking staff as well as a piece of musical sheet, torn from top to bottom. In the center of the mantle is a ceramic vase with a lid on it, an old but well loved mandolin sits on the left side and a small wooden box of some dense and exotic wood sits on the right side. Akronos checks out the urn and sees that there is a plaque on it that reads "Our beloved has started the next journey".

He returns to the rest of the party and tells them what he has found with the urn and plaque. After a short while they leave the Broken Staff.

Once outside, Theren goes around to the back of the building and uses the powers of his spider cloak to walk up the back of the building and along the roof. He verifies that there doesn't seem to be hidden rooms in the building based on the layout he had seen in the upstairs and then he checks out the chimney. There is a rain cap on it limiting the space to squeeze into the chimney. He reruns to the party and on the long walk back to the Cracked Mug they talk about strategy. Lutheo is small enough to fit into the chimney and they could give him resistance to heat but there are complications to that plan.

Akronos offers that he could stand outside of the north wall and cast his Blink spell. When he is Ethereal he could pass through the wall and enter the inn. When he comes back to this plane he can grab the urn from the mantle and then when he is ethereal again he can simply pass through the wall again and step out with the prize of the remains of the fifth member of the Conclave of Freedom.

This is where session #22 ends.

The last session ended with the pirates advancing on the Sea Hag and catching up. The enemy ship fired their ballista with the goal of fouling the Sea Hags sails and rigging, doing damage and causing it to slow down some.

Theren tells the rest of the party that he is going invisible and jumping over the side with a float to hamper the pursuing pirates. He does as promised and is gone over the side of the ship.

As the pursuing pirate ship gets within range of Theren he casts an impressive fireball on the front of the ship, engulfing sails, rigging and six of the ships crew that were manning the ballista at the front.

The rest of the party is preparing as the pirate ship advances on them when Theren, now visible in the water and almost even with the ships midst throws another fireball at them. This spell fizzles out and doesn't explode on the ship as Theren was hoping in his attempt to catch the other sails on fire.

Lutheo drops his Moonbeam on the replacement crew of the ballista and later moves it to the main deck. Akronos who has been making great use of his Blink spell to avoid drawing fire drops his Cloud of Daggers on the ballista crew and leaves it there, disabling it.

The pirate ship pulls along side of the Sea Hag and some of its crew throw grappling hooks to lash the two ships together while others rain arrows down on them.

Battle rages as pirate raiders jump onto the Sea Hag with supporting fire from their archers. Lutheo and Otep fight shoulder to shoulder with the Sea Hag crew, mowing down the raiding pirates, but unfortunately the crew from the Sea Hag aren't nearly as capable fighters and many of them fall in battle.

A thunderous blast is unleashed on Otep, Lutheo and their crew from someone unseen on the other ship.

Once Theren has swam back to the ships he casts another Fireball on the back deck, greatly damaging the pirate captain and remaining crew there that Akrons has been harassing with Eldritch Blasts. The captain retreats out of sight and Theren uses the abilities of the Arachnid cloak that he claimed in the last session to walk up the back side of the ship and onto the deck.

The party is suffering badly from more spells from the pirate ship and the swarm of enemies. Most of the Sea Hags crew has died in the battle, the Sumerak Shield has been employed, Otep has been hasted and both sides are down to the last dregs of fighting ability when Theren drops another fireball on the pirate mage that has been posing as a crossbow archer all this time, greatly damaging the mage and taking out many of the remaining archers.

The pirate mage realizes that the end is near for his side so he casts a fireball onto the deck of the sea hag killing several crew members, scorching Lutheo and Otep and damaging one of the pirates in the blast. He then runs and dives off of the ship in a desperate attempt to escape.

While Otep and Lutheo finish off the last of the pirate crew, Theren throws spells at the mage swimming alongside the ship. The mage does something and doesn't seem to be effected by the spells. He swims to the back of the ship and tries to hide from Theren. Ceress has jumped overboard and is swimming to catch up to and kill the mage when the mage casts Misty Step to appear on the back of the Sea Hags main deck where he realizes that Captain Lantron and another crew member are. Realizing his defeat, he surrenders.

Otep and Theren search the pirate ship for its captain and find him in his quarters with one crew, both badly injured. The captain has a heavy crossbow on the table between him and the door and he offers to surrender peacefully if they promise not to killing him. Lutheo won't take his offer to surrender so he launches at the captain, who raises the crossbow and take a shot but misses Otep. Otep slams into him, knocking him unconscious.

Akronos has been working to revive as many of the Sea Hag crew as possible and then set about putting out any remaining fires. Three crew had lived through the battle and four more were unconscious and bleeding out on the deck of the ship but were able to be saved.

The party searches the pirates and ship and find a magical rod on the wizard. Despite Otep and a couple others great desire to kill the captured pirate captain, mage and last living crew member, they decide to lock them in the cells in the bottom of the Sea Hag and turn them in to the Drakkellian Alliance authorities for the bounty on pirates.

This is where Session 21 ends. The party and crew of the Sea Hag are exhausted, beat up, on a damage ship but they have defeated the pirates and captured their ship.

Session #20 Summary

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham
Q'Tahna, NPC, a Myrian ranger guild from the Nengeli tribe

At the end of the last session, the party had just killed three forvalaka/wereleopards and recovered the skull of the fourth member of the original Conclave of Freedom. They have rebuilt their flying contraption and had just lifted off to head out to the ocean and summon their boat to take them out of Myria.

While in the air, the party realizes that the sickness that Lutheo experienced in the night is probably the early onset symptoms of the lycanthropy curse. They need to get him healed before the next full moon which is 19 days away. Akronos remembers that U'gita back in the Gethyan village is a strong healer and might be able to help.

They navigate the rickety flying contraption towards U'gita and Nu'takies village and set down in a clearing far enough out that the won't be seen flying in. They hike the rest of the way in and are warmly greeted by the villagers who didn't expect to see them return this soon.

They explain to U'gita through the translation of Nu'takie that that they killed three forvalaka. U'gita and Nu'takie are impressed and thankful. They show him the deformed head of the Myrian that was cursed with the forvalaka disease and he examines in closely, doing everything aside from licking it to test it.

They explain that Lutheo has a curse and ask if U'gita can help him. U'gita examines the little warrior and declares that he can help Lutheo with the aid for Ox'oh'lae but that it will need to be tomorrow when Ox'oh'lae can grant him that power.

When the party gets some free time, they go into the snatch pit and check the gem and map to see where it now highlights. When the gem is placed next to the map, a small dot appears now in Drakkel. Akronos is thrilled since this is his home town. The party checks the finger as well and it points in that direction. They now know their next destination.

The party is happy to stay the night with the friendly Gethyan tribesman and Theren treats the village to the story of the forvalaka battle, enhanced by his impressive powers of illusions, complete with sounds and smells. While he doesn't speak their language and they don't speak his, it is not necessary when showing them the bravery, risks and epic battle they party endured. He even gives Q'tahna an increased role in the battle, boosting his reputation with the local tribe. Q'tahna is honored to have the slight variation in the story to include him going into the shrine to battle the forvalaka.

Q'tahna then asks Theren to show the battle with the Horaxx swarm and Theren obliges him, once again embellishing the story, this time with a much larger swam that what they were really attacked by. As a finale, Q'tahna takes out two of the Horaxx corpses he kept from the battle and shows it to the tribes men. They are all properly impressed.

That evening, Akronos asks Nu'takie for another spell and Nu'takie is happy to provide it to him. The service Akronos has done of ridding the jungle of those forvalaka is more than worth it.

The next morning, U'gita summons the party and talks to them, not needing a translation this time since he has been blessed with the power of Tongues from his god.

He explains that through a complicated ritual and the power of Ox'oh'lae he can cure the little warrior Lutheo of the evil curse. He proceeds to paint Lutheo with tribal war paint on his face, place a necklace of bones around his neck and feathers in his hair, all while chanting to Ox'oh'lae for his blessing and power to heal the little one. This goes on for a couple minutes of complicated ritual and Akronos and Theren get the impression that U'gita is doing it more for his own entertainment and to mess with Lutheo in a teasing, brotherly way than out of any necessity.

U'gita caps the ritual off with thumping Lutheo between the eyes with a stick he carries that is capped with a monkeys skull. The impact is hard and leaves a welt and Lutheo seeing stars but he does start to feel better almost immediately, feeling like his fever is receding.

U'gita tells him that he should leave the tribal pain on his face, the bones around his neck and feathers in his hair for at least a week, and a month would be safer.

U'gita then explains that he has created a magical item that gives him the ability of speech with others, but only if he has the right, very specific component. If Lutheo is willing to give U'gita his tongue to add to the little leather pouch that U'gita wears around his neck, U'gita would be able to speak the languages that Lutheo speaks without the need of casting a new spell each time. U'gita isn't yet powerful enough to regenerate Lutheo's tongue, but U'gita is sure he will someday find someone that could. Lutheo politely declines the request, and knowing it was a long shot since most of the tongues so far have been collected through battle, U'gita isn't too disappointed.

The party decides to stay one more night in the village so that Lutheo can get his first good nights sleep and finally regain his powers.

That evening, U'gita talks with Theren about Ox'oh'lae and the Forest of Waiting and the powers of the shadows. He shows him his pest skeleton monkey that he keeps in a pouch at his side and how he can animate it and use it kind of like his brother Nu'take has a bat for a familiar. Nu'take is not amused by the comparison. U'gita explains that asking Ox'oh'lae for the power to animate a skeleton is not an evil act in itself and that Ox'oh'lae provide a spirit from the Forest of Waiting to assist, but this should never be abused and an animation should always be dismissed instead of binding that spirit to this world for any length of time.

During this time, Theren works on his flying contraption, incorporating the tribal children to help with gathering new materials. He thinks that his improvements will help them complete the last leg of their journey to the coast and he has Akronos send a message to Kenton back at the island city of Haven to commission Captain Lantro of the Sea Hag to come and pick them up. 

The next morning they say fair-wells to U'gita, Nu'take and the rest of their tribe and once again head to a clearing, use their snatch pit and hid from the village children that followed them. When all of the children have left, they come out of the snatch pit and get onto their newly engineered flying contraption. They secure the Desjani stone to it and slowly uncover it.

When the contraption is just 10 feet off the ground, things start to go bad. There is a snapping of lines and one of the support posts comes loose from the top cross beams. The whole contraption twists with the top cross beams and the Desjani stone pulling skyward while the lower section with the party sitting on it hinges down towards the ground. Each member makes a split second decision, some of them jumping off, some of them scrambling up to try to cover the stone. With the force of people jumping off it causes the lower section to swivel and break off of the top section before anyone can get in reach of the stone to cover it. The party and lower section of the contraption crash to the ground while the upper section with the Desjani stone rocket skyward, shedding more of its covering in the rushing air. Soon, it has flown so high that the party can't even see it since this stone was strong enough to lift six grown men (averaged out with a halfling and a saurian) and now it is only weighed down with a little bit of bamboo and rope.

The party decides that bartering for a large canoe and taking the river to the coast is the next best plan. U'gita is happy to provide them with the canoe and they give him and the tribe all the rest of the trade goods that they had brought to Myria with them.

They spend the next three days and nights traversing the river ways to the coast. With the aid of Akronos's Tiny Hut spell at night and Q'tahna guiding them during the day, they make it to the ocean without any significant encounters.

When they get to the ocean they see that The Sea Hag hasn't arrived to pick them up yet.

They can see that up the coast a little ways is the encampment of the Kalimurian military. They go to them an explain that the Phoenix Four flying ship was attacked by huge bats with Myrians of the Amaputu flying on the backs of them. They used darkness to bring the ship down and the crash killed almost all of the crew. The only surviving crew members where quickly killed by the followup attack on the ground.

Commander Blake is saddened to hear the news that Captain Jenkins, the crew and the Phoenix Four were all lost, but they figured that was probably the case when the ship hadn't returned before sunset which would have grounded the ship in the jungle with no sunlight to power the Desjani stones.

Blake thanks them for the information and assures them that the Phoenix Five will be even better than the Phoenix Four and they will somehow find a way to prevent the wickedness of magic from bringing it down. Maybe Dresilite crystals that prevent magic can be incorporated in the new design.

Not long after they party leaves the Kalimurian encampment they see the sails of of the Sea Hag on the horizon. As promised, and in expectation of pay, Captain Lantro has returned to pick them up. He is surprised that they are early but happy for the easy pay.

The party pays Q'tahna, including the bonus for every party member coming out of the jungle alive. Q'tahna thanks the party and wishes them well, but will not journey with them back to Haven and instead plans on enjoying and helping his reputation grow with the tales of his slaying of forvalaka and Horaxx.

The sailing back to Haven on the Pirate Island of Nadzam is uneventful. The party pays Captain Lantro and he pays his crew who quickly head to the taverns to spend their meager wealth.

The party sets out to find Kenton and asks him to teleport them to Drakkell but he laughs at them and tells them that he isn't a wizard and there is no wizard on the island powerful enough to perform such a spell. They are going to have to sail there, through the Pirate Islands.

They decide to track down Captain Lantro and charter him to take them there since he is the only captain in these waters that they know and that is better than starting with a new and unknown captain and ship.

Lantro agrees to take them there for another 250 gold and the party sets out the next morning. The water of the Pirate Islands is clear and inviting but Lantro warns them, the name of the islands is well earned and they should concentrate on making good time.

Sure enough, on the morning of the second day, a pirate ship comes out to intercept them from behind one of the neighboring island. It is sleeker and faster than the Sea Hag and quickly catches up with them.

This is where session #20 ends. The party is heading towards Drakkel in the great Drakkellian Alliance.

Session #19

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham
Q'Tahna, NPC, a Myrian ranger guild from the Nengeli tribe

The last session ended with the party in the crypt of the ancient ancient Myrian pyramid after their battle with two Forvalaka outside. That battle ended with them dropping one quickly and the second running out of sight over the top of the pyramid.

They have explored two chambers and found both to have stacks of bones in a crazy patterns. The party has three touches burning to insure that the party members that don't have dark vision can still see and function in these pitch black catacombs.

In the third and norther chamber that they enter, the discover that a ramp slopes downward going east out of that last room for 25 feet, then turns south for another 25 feet decent before entering a 25x25 room. In that room there is a section of the room that has the floor broken out on the south side. Theren casts invisibility on Otep to insure their toughest fighter will have the drop on any opponents they come up on.

There is a 15 foot drop into a natural cavern below. The landing area below is about 40 by 30 before it slopes down to the west and opens up into a huge cavern opening. Otep jumps down but lands poorly and hurts himself in the fall. Not being deterred, he picks himself up and continues into the cavern.

Theren takes out his rope and sits on the edge of the drop off and helps Lutheo safely climb down. Ceress follows him with the ease of a trained monk.

With Otep well into the cavern and Lutheo and Ceress following, Akronos gets ready to descend down the rope that Theren is holding for him. At that moment, they get rushed from behind by two Forvalaka. They both attack Theren and with their powerful claws they drop him in one quick rush. Being unconscious, Theren looses concentration on his invisibility spell and Otep become visible again.

Akronos dislikes remaining up on the ledge with the two killer Forvalakas so he uses Misty Step to quickly catch up the rest of the party that is still alive.  In the darkness Otep and Ceress rush back to the aid of the fallen and abandoned Theren and climbs back up the rock face to fight the Forvalakas.  Akronos curses one of the Forvalakas to think that Enemies Abound, intending to have it attack the other Forvalaka since he does not see where Ceress and Otep went and believes only the Forvalakas are still up on the ledge.

As Otep and Ceress battle on the ledge, Ceress recognizes both of these as the Forvalakas that attacked them outside on the pyramid. Apparently they left one for dead but didn't make sure he wasn't able to get back up and its partner must have revived it to come and attack the party from behind.

Meanwhile another Forvalaka comes out of the shadows from deep within the cave and viciously attacks Akronos, bringing him close to death in just two clawed attacks.  Lutheo bravely engages and tries to take the attention by stabbing the Forvalaka powerfully.

Up on the ledge, the two Forvalaka trade blows with Ceress and Otep. The Forvalaka drop Ceress and then Otep drops one of the Forvalaka, leaving a one on one battle.

Down in the cave the Forvalaka makes short work of Akronos, shredding his unarmored, book-learned body in short time despite Lutheo's distracting attacks.

As both Otep and Lutheo start to run out of tricks, the battle slows down to a grinding slug fest, but eventually one and then the other Forvalaka are dispatched. During that finale of the battle, Akronos, Theren and Ceress all stabilize in their slow progress of bleeding out. Lutheo uses his powers to heal them enough to regain consciousness and the party sets about licking their wounds.

They bring all of the bodies back up into the hallway and insure that each one is fully dead, not just unconscious. Theren creates an illusion that the passage has suffered a cave in to deter any enemies from venturing in and finding them resting. They search the bodies of the dead and find four potions and one magical cloak on them.

After they have completed a short rest and are feeling much better from their beating they decide to explore the large cavern, at least a little bit to see if they can find the skull of the conclave member easily before retreating.

They cautiously enter the cave, much more strategically than last time. The enter as a group and find that there are are lots of bones littering the floor and three rock pillars in the center of the cavern extending to the ceiling. Some of the bones still have remains on them. Some appear to be human but most are animals from the jungle. The stench is bad down here.

To the right and down a ways is a large stone shelf with imagery etched along the edge of it. On the shelf is a dust covered corpse, splayed out in a ritualistic fashion. It has obviously been abused or tortured to death. The dust and bones debris on the floor around it shows that nothing has walked within reach of the stone shelf in a very, very long time.

The images around the edge of the shelf are not the typical Myrian glyphs, they are definitely foreign. These are old, but maybe not as old as the temple. They are images of sacrifices by the full moon. Images of torture, burning, freezing, and summoning demonic creatures to nibble at the flesh of the victims being scarified.

After checking the magical finger again they find that it is definitely pointing to these remains. They must be one of the lost conclave members, either Taramandan or Illanor. Akrons focuses and discovers that the remains do glow with the same magical energy that they have found in the other conclave members remains as well as the banishment pit and the Avisarr gem stone.

They take the head off of the body and decide that since they have what they have come for, there is no need to search the rest of the cavern and see what is in there or risk their lives if they find anything else that wants to fight them given their exhausted abilities.

After they died, the Forvalaka reverted the the human forms that they were before they contracted this wereleopard lycanthropy, apparently Myrians infected with the curse of lycanthropy. Their heads are a little deformed from living for years with lycanthropy. Theren decides to cut one off to give to Q'tahna as a souvenir of his encounter with the dreaded Forvalaka.

They quickly leave the tomb and reenter the light of day. They start heading through the jungle back towards their flying contraption and encounter Q'tahna waiting for them. Q'tahna is trilled to see that they survived the the tomb and is appalled but still pleased to have the head of a dreaded Forvalaka.

Q'tahna leads the party back to the clearing where they stashed the flying contraption but they find that the little Felchkun monkeys have scavenged parts off of the contraption. Fortunately, Theren had stashed the Dasjani stone in their bag of holding and he sets about rebuilding a smaller and less stable version of their flying contraption.

That evening, Lutheo develops a fever and tosses and turns all night long. He didn't get hardly any rest and the next morning so he is exhausted and looking haggard. The party realizes that he was one of the few that was bitten by the Forvalaka during the battle and that he must be feeling some of the effects of that bite.

After a shaky false start that almost ended in disaster, they get the balance right on the new contraption and slowly lift into the air...

This is where Session #19 ended. The party has recovered the skull of a fourth member of the Conclave of Freedom and they are starting to precariously fly over the jungle, heading back towards the ocean where they hope to get their hired ship to pick them up.

Session #18

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham
Q'Tahna, NPC, a Myrian ranger guild from the Nengeli tribe


The session picks up right after the party survived the attack by the small Horaxx swarm.

They decide to take a short rest in the Snatch Pit and recover. They had used it earlier that morning when slipping away from U'gitas tribe but there is still some time left to use it since they didn't travel for 3 hours to get where they currently are.

Q'tahna collects several of the Horaxx as proof that he survived a Horaxx attack, telling the party that these will increase his status in the community.

After their short rest, the party tries to hike with the flying contraption carried by several of them, but the jungle makes it hard to manage it and travel is very slow. They decide to spend a night here in the jungle under the protection of Akronos new spell, Tiny Hut. This gives them protection form the elements and more importantly, it keeps all of the jungle creatures out of the small protective sphere that it casts over the party.

The next morning they decide to take to the air again and this time they shoot up to higher altitudes to find favorable winds for traveling in the direction they want to go. Both Akronos and Theren use their mage hand to push the contraption along and they move in the right direction, despite the wind wanting to push the away. After another hour of travel, they see the ruins of an ancient temple rising up through the forest ahead. Knowing that the wind would be pushing their floating ride south without their intervention, they fly over the ruins by a mile and drift back towards it before descending to just above the tree tops.

They judge their speed by watching the treetops whip past them below. The winds are stronger at this level than they were at 1,000 feet elevation and even with two mage hands pushing their contraption to slow it down, they are moving a at the equivalent of a  fast jog. They hope to land the contraption on the top of the step pyramid that is sticking above the forest floor but realize that they are moving too fast. They try to slow even further by dragging a rope in the forest canopy but only end up tangling the contraption in the tree tops. Fortunately they didn't damage it, tip it over or dislodge any of the party from their precarious seats.

They decide to abandon the plan of landing on the temple and instead find a clearing about a mile away to land the contraption in. It is a hard landing but not as bad as their first one, so no damage was done. They hide the contraption for future use in their get away and set off on foot the last mile to the ancient Amaputu ruins dedicated to one of the jungle gods and then left to be retaken by the jungle.

As they approach, they see the marking stones indicating they are crossing the boundary to the sacred site and later they find a rock outcropping lined with skulls and bones. Soon, the temple looms up out of the forest in front of them. It is a massive four sided step pyramid with a ten foot wide row of steps leading up the center of it. Off of the stairs the temple is gigantic steps traveling five feet deep then five feet up then then next step five feet deep until it reaches the top, almost 100 feet above the forest floor. The forest has been reclaiming the area with trees and bushes growing all over the temple.

The party head up the stairs but when they are about halfway up, they are attacked. A creature best described as a bipedal leopard, the Forvalaka, springs out of the underbrush and bolts towards the party, catching most of them by surprise. It rushes to Ceress who gets in an attack at it before it takes several swipes at him. His new found skills with magic help him spring a magical shield into effect just in time to avert getting clawed up. The were leopard then bolts away from the party and back into the dense growth on the sides of the temple.

Lutheo channels his divinity and caused vines to spring into action, ensnaring the Forvalaka, preventing it from running further away from the party. Otep charges it and with the boost of speed from his magical maul, he catches up to it and unleashes punishing blows on it.

Akronos taps into his strongest magic and gives Otep magical Haste. Ceress sprints over and joins Otep in the battle while the Forvalaka is pinned down and can't escape their punishing blows. Lutheo runs to join them but the Forvalaka is just outside of his range to run and get in an attack.

Q'tahna calls for "Ox'oh'lae protect me and take my enemies!" as he positions himself between the combat and Akronos and Theren back up on the steep stairs.

While all of the strong fighters are engaging the Forvalaka down on the side of the step pyramid, another one springs from hiding and charges Akronos and Theren. It attacks Akronos and does some serious damage to him before it sprints back up the side of the pyramid, scaling the steep sides with ease.

Theren fires a Eldritch Blast at the retreating Forvalaka that just attacked Akronos while the fighters of the party drop the original Forvalaka. Seeing the first Forvalaka fall so quickly under the focused pressure of the party, the second Forvalaka sprints over the top of the pyramid and out of sight.

Otep uses his enhanced speed to chase after the second Forvalaka but by the time he gets to the top of the pyramid the creature is nowhere to be seen.

The rest of the party run to join Otep at the top of the pyramid and while they can't find the Forvalaka that disappeared, they do find that there are stairs going done the back side of the pyramid. They cautiously go down those stairs and discover that half way down there is an opening leading inside.

The party prepare to head in but Q'tahna tells them that he won't go into the temple. It is cursed and it is bad enough to walk on the temple, he won't go inside and risk becoming cursed.

The rest of the party enter and Theren creates magical light for the ones that don't have good vision in the dark. Fifteen feet inside, the passage narrows and slopes downward. Ceress notices that there is debris in the joint between the floor and the wall on each side. The size of the debris increases as they continue in further and he realizes that it is small bones, meticulously organize by increasing size as it goes further into the shrine.

When they get to the bottom of the ramp the enter a room twenty-five feet on a side, with a narrow passage leading out in each direction. When they explore the first two of these then find that they have narrow hallways leading to similar sized rooms, but each of these rooms is filled with bones, organized in crazy patterns. Some are artistic stacks of leg bones interspersed with skulls and then leg bones again to create a rounded tower of bones. Others are just piles upon piles of bones, decades of bones collected and piled up.

The party starts to head down the third narrow hallway and this is where session #18 ends.

This session was the first where the game went digital to avoid the spread of the Coronavirus! The game won't be stopped!

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham
Q'Tahna, NPC, a Myrian ranger guild from the Nengeli tribe

The party is in the Gethyan village that Q'tahna brought them to. U'gita and his brother Nu'Takie are intrigued with the outsiders and have ofterd them shelter. The Gethyan lack of love for the Amaputu tribe that now wants to kill the party helped in that decision.

U'gita is the leader of his village, one of about 200 villages in the Gethyan tribe. He wears a necklace of bone around his neck. His head is plucked bald in all but the back portion which is a long black braid. He is the villages holy man in addition to its leader. He is a worshiper of the Myrian god Ox'oh'lae.

Nu'takie is U'gitas brother and the villages shaman. Nu'takies head is bald in all but a topknot that he wears in a long ponytail. His front teeth are filed to points. He has a string of bones at his side with runes written all over them.

That afternoon, Akronos gets a Sending from Master Ta'hana, the Myrian master monk of Ynthar.  He says "Another glyph has failed. Activity is staying hidden. Haven't seen Black Sorcerer but know he is working here. What is your progress?"

Akronos replies with: "We are in Myria, nearing 4th skull. With Gethyan tribe. Travel through the jungle is slow but we are getting close."

Theren has a brilliant plan to build a contraption of seats under a framework that would hold the Dasjani stone, the floating rock that they scavenged from the wrecked sky ship. His thoughts are that they can have little Lutheo on the top, covering and uncovering the Dasjani stone to control the amount of lift it gives, while the rest of the party rides on the seats below. Akronos would then use his spell of Mage Hand to push the contraption along in their desired direction. As long as there are no complications, they should be able to make good time flying over the jungle this way and avoid many of the challenges of traveling on foot.

Theren sets about looking for sturdy building material in the jungle and finds a great section of bamboo that will be both strong and light weight. He spends the next several days perfecting his flying contraption, making sure that it will support the weight of the party and be sturdy enough to hold the Dasjani stone in place. The village children are fascinated by the project and Theren takes breaks to entertain them with illusions of tiny dragons flying as he practices his abilities to craft distractions out of thin air.

Akronos spends a full day with Nu'takie trading spells. Most Myrian shamans are reluctant to trade spells with competing shamans that live in the neighboring villages and even less so for trading with a shaman from another tribe. The opportunity for Nu'takie to get spells from the outside world is too good for him to pass up and he and Akronos each expand their spell books, or in Nu'takies case, his string of bones with runes on them.

That night, the party tests the finger and it points to the north east. They ask Nu'takie what lies in that direction.

He tells them: "Several days journey in that direction is the jungle of death, the D'loc Aloc.

In the time of my fathers, fathers, fathers, father there was a demon man-tiger that haunted one of the Amaputu shrines on the edge of their territory there. It would posses tribe members, taking them back to its lair to slowly devour them. Sometimes it would curse a man to have terrible nightmares anytime he closed his eyes. Death became favorable to sleeping for those cursed. The Amaputu tribe in the area tried to kill it and lost many leaders and warriors. It was immune to almost all of their attacks. Outsiders came to our land and hunted it, but they too died. Then one day the demon tiger disappeared.

Several years of peace followed until the Forvalaka (for-vul-ah-kuh) showed up. The forvalaka shifts between Myrian, black leopards and a half-man, half leopard form. The forvalaka are predators which feed on anything but love the taste of humans most. They drink the blood of their prey, and when possible, eat the internal organs, especially the heart and liver. The beasts have speed and agility greater than even a leopard and normal weapons do not harm it. It is said that even some magic can not harm it.

In all of the Gethyan tribe there is probably 50 villages with about 200 souls each. From all of those villages, the Gethyan people might have amongst us one shaman, holy man or warrior of similar skill that can change forms or control the weather or greater acts, two who could cast balls of fire and lightning bolts in the same day, four who could cast a single ball of fire in a day, eight who could make themselves and others in their party invisible, thirty who could make darkness so pure that it would make Dasjani stones plummet to the ground and 12 or 13 souls per village who have the first skills in magic, the gods or fighting.

Several generation ago, one of the tribes, the Buriska, gathered several of their stronger warriors, shaman and holy men to take on the forvalaka. The Buriska didn't risk the tribal leaders but had the second strongest from each village join in the assault. It was a massacre. Many of the Buriska warriors couldn't damage it at all. It killed most of them and only a few survived to tell of the horrors. It took the Buriska tribe decades to recover, something the Gethyan helped with but we were eventually betrayed by the Buriska.

The Amaputu say this is the curse for trespassing on one of their sacred temples. I do not know if this is the truth but the area does seem to be cursed and we avoid it, never hunting in the area the forvalaka hunt and roam, never getting close to give them a taste of Myrian flesh."


The party discuss this and they decide that they should avoid this area if at all possible. If the finger is pointing to that area, they will figure out what to do when they get there.

After several days of working on the flying bamboo contraption, they finally have something that looks like it will work. They have tested it out and it supports the parties weight. They say their farewells to U'gita, Nu'takie and the village and carry the contraption out of the village to a clearing a little ways away. Many of the village children follow them since they have been so enamored by Theren and the contraption he made. To lose the kids so they don't see them fly off, and worse, don't seen the forbidden use of the Dasjani stone, they have Ceress use the Combat Shroud to hide them, then they go into the Snatch Pit with the contraption and seal it up from the inside. They wait almost half an hour for the children to leave before reemerging. They have taken the Dasjani stone out of the bag of holding and tied it to the framing of their contraption before opening the pit. They cover it up so the sun won't touch it and carry the contraption out of the pit.

Lutheo climbs on top and the rest of the party take their assigned seats. Q'tahna is uncomfortable with this use of the Dasjani stone, but he has spent many year living outside of Myria with the sailers of the Pirate Isles so he isn't as tied to the old superstitions.

Lutheo uncovers a small portion of the concentrated Dasjani stone and the contraption is quickly lifted off the ground. Given that just six of these concentrated stones carried a small ship and a crew of 16, this one is more than powerful enough to lift the whole party. Lutheo covers the stone a little bit before the party gets too high and they settle in at an altitude of about 200 feet above the tree tops, probably 300 feet off the ground.

One factor that they didn't take into account when they had Akronos check the weather and see that the skies were clear with plenty of sunshine is what the wind would be like. It is a very windy day and the floating contraption gets pushed along with the wind. It blows the party to the north by northwest, not the north east that they need to go. Akronos tries to influence their direction with his Mage Hand but it isn't nearly strong enough to push them in the right direction. At best, it makes the course more northern than north by northwest.

After a rocking and adrenaline filled flight the party decides it is best to set down on the ground. They have Lutheo slowly cover the stone to descend but the wind is still pushing them along. As they spot a clearing in the jungle ahead they cover more of the stone and drop below the tree line where the wind isn't as strong. The landing is bumpy and almost tips the contraption over which would have exposed the Dasjani stone to the sun and sent them rocketing back into the air. Akronos quickly casts Earthen Grasp to hold the contraption tight to the ground but unfortunately that also damaged it.

They all get off after properly covering the stone on all sides. Theren and Akronos set about repairing the contraption through Akronos Mending spell. This takes them a while to repair all the damage done while the rest of the party stays wary of what might be lurking in the jungle waiting to attack them.

After they finish the repairs to the contraption the party starts talking about what to do next. Before they can settle on a plan, a buzzing sound is heard. Q'tahna screams in a voice almost too high pitched to come from the man, "Horaxx!"

The Horaxx are a bizarre and deadly cross between a dragonfly and the poisonous stinger of a scorpion. They measure about a foot long and are incredibly quick in flight.

Otep advances out in front of the party to take the brunt of the initial wave of attack. The huge insects swarm in, stinging Otep, Akronos and Theren repeatedly. Akronos succumbs to the stings poison and realizes the deadly impact that it has on him. He is weakened, his constitution is sapped and with it his life force is depleted.

Q'tahna moves behind Lutheo and Ceress to take shelter from what he knows to fear. A small swarm of several dozen Horaxx can be deadly but a large swarm of hundreds of them have been known to wipe out entire villages.

The party is successful at killing many of the winged terrors attacking them but they are replaced by more and more flying in. They realize that they will quickly be over powered and reduced to helpless meals writhing on the ground if they don't take shelter quickly.

All in the party except for Theren are successful in gathering around Lutheo. Lutheo uses the power of the Sumerak shield to protect the party with only a handful of Horaxx trapped inside of the impenetrable shield with them. Otep, Ceress and Q'tahna set about killing the few Horaxx that are inside the protective sphere.

Theren becomes invisible to escape the Horaxx attacking him and runs to join the rest of the party in Lutheo's protection sphere. Well timed use of bringing the protection down and then back up lets him in while keeping the Horaxx out.

Since creatures and items can't pass through the Sumerak sphere ten feet around Lutheo, but spells can, the spell casters in the party set to killing off the Horaxx buzzing around the outside of the protection. Since the shield only lasts for one minute and a couple rounds have already passed, they work fast and furious to kill off the remaining Horaxx. Fortunately for the party, it was a very small swarm of Horaxx and they dispatch all of them before the shield fails.

This is where the session ended. The party has just survived a small Horaxx swarm.