This mission has placed Sharif and me in strange company on a mysterious quest to rid the village of Hom of a curse placed by a gypsy witch (I spit in her mother’s milk). We were given a map of the Great Old Wood by the wizard Delon and told to make for the druids on the east side of the Wilde River to enlist their aid.

We accompany members of the Black Swan Company in the employ of Therion the Thaumaturge: Starla, a ranger; Milton, a half-elven illusionist-fighter; and Garshak, a half-orc fighter-assasisn. We have been joined by Dandaly, a cleric; Tristian, a half-elf thief-magic user; and Norion, a paladin who is possessed of considerable horsemanship matched only by his sense of honor. We are a mighty force indeed!

Day 1: We were ambushed by three gnolls in the night. We slaughtered them.

Day 2: Our party discovered a small, peaceful lake in the woods — too peaceful, it turned out. The whole place had been put to an enchanted sleep, including a young woodsman in a pavilion by the lake. The fix was simple enough — a water nymph made herself manifest to us and charmed Tristian into pouring a magic elixr into the lake, breaking the spell. It is fortunate for us that her intent for him was as benign as it was. Tristian prattled about her beauty all the next day.

Day 3: Ambushed by brigands. We slaughtered them, then doubled back with a prisoner to guide us to their camp. This we harried mercilessly; Norion, Milton and I charged the camp accompanied by phantasmal horsemen conjured by our illusionist while the rest of the party struck the camp from behind. Casualties: Garshak paralyzed by a trapped chest in the camp, Tristian mauled by a goat.

Charge!

Day 4: We ate mutton and set out for for the druids’ abode. We spent the afternoon listening for rumors in the the Wildwood Inn, a resting place in the forest just off the Old Wilderness Road. We camped by Quiet Lake. The paladin and I awoke to find our horses, wagon, and possessions stolen! We have been robbed by were rats. The filthy creatures had missed Garshak’s magic sword, and he made great use of it slaying one and grievously injuring another. Tristian charmed her, but botched the interrogation breaking the charm. She turned into a giant rat and fled our bonds just as dawn was breaking. We shall pursue them to their lair and slay them all!

Starla the ranger, Garshak the fighter, and Sharif with three Arab mercenaries stepped on the teleport tile first — and got trapped when one of the hobgoblins deactivated the tile!

After a vicious tussle, our heroes (hero, actually, for only Starla was left standing) prevailed.

The slain were the mercenaries Omar, Mahmoud, and Mehmed (two of the three “Mohammeds”); Garshak and Sharif were critically injured but stabilized.

Therion was very, very interested in the incredibly well preserved library and decided to lay claim to the ruins.

Our heroes head north after their first successful dungeon crawl to find new adventure in the northern widerness…

They have discovered a teleportation tile leading to a room with a huge switch, which Milton straightaway pulled and drained one of huge cisterns in the north section of the dungeon.

Our heroes tried to explore farther south in the underground edifice, but were turned back by three inpenetrable fire beetles. Let’s hope there’s nothing important through that door…

And, most significantly, Milton discovered another teleportation tile that leads to a gian room filled with books, a massive desk…and hobgoblins whose stasis is broken when someone teleports in.

The party wisely fell back to count what treasure they were able to haul out and bind thier wounds. But perhaps more noxious than the fire beetles and hobgoblins below is Therion’s steady and profanity-laden reminders that he’s paying them to do a job — explore that dungeon!

According to my notes, the party came back down with six volunteers from the caravan guard. They were ambushed by the orcs, but the party busted the ambush and killed the orcs. Tim was found and sent back to the caravan to recover.

Now they’re fighting their way down one side of the dungeon and have found a room at the end of a long corridor.  Three bags of silver coins occupy the room…as well as a mysteriously carved circle, traced with faintly glowing pentacles, lines and glyphs. Strange magic seems to be afoot!

What will our heroes do about this odd room?

Our fearless mercenaries are back on the job after two weeks of recovering in the relative safety of the caravan. While they were recovering, Therion the Thaumaturge negotiated a truce with the gnomes of Clan Iron Badger: a 500 gold piece weregeld for each of the five gnomes that the adventurers had slain earlier. This 2,500 g.p. debt weighs heavily on the adventurers’ minds…

During their first scouting mission after the fight with Clan Iron Badger, they found a clearing in the deepening woods with the ruins of what used to be a circular stone structure. Near the middle of it is a large, talking tree and a spiral staircase leading down into the ground. After quizzing the tree, our heroes discover that there is a great evil lurking below, and the tree’s role as a “guardian of the green wood” is to maintain the balance of good and evil in this wood. He has been at this spot for about a fortnight and observed the comings and goings of creatures, both four-footed and two.

The adventurers gather dead firewood for the caravan, careful to be very respectful of the trees from which it came, and sally forth into the dungeon. There, in the dank and slimy dungeon, they find an ancient alchemist lab, complete with an itinerant fire beetle which Garshak quickly dispatches. They harvest the glowing sacs in the beetle in order to sell them at the next town they find.

In the next room is a beautiful thief called Nadja and a small hoard of copper. She tells them a tale of woe in which she foolishly decided to raid the dungeon alone, against the advice of the rest of her party. Now that our heroes have found her, she can guide them to a magical treasure that will help them escape the demonic presence she says is will trap them all down here.

Tim the Younger and Milton the Illusionist are skeptical, to say the least, but eventually the party agrees to follow her. As they pass the stairs that lead to the surface, the two make for the stairs. Nadja, horrified that even approaching the stairs will arouse the demonic presence, draws her scimitar and cuts Tim down as he pesters her by feigning stepping on the bottom step.

Convinced that she is sincere after daring to attack such a numerically superior party, they adventurers stanch Tim’s bleeding and follow her to a circular, water-filled cistern. After pressing a secret switch to raise the portcullis to a landing jutting out into the water, Nadja flees and three slimy tentacles and two eyes pop out of the water.

A desperate fight ensues. Grom is pulled in first and drowned; Milton casts phantasmal force and creates a tentacled monster to attack the real one that is menacing the party; however, the illusion breaks when he is yanked into the water by the monster.

Roy II dives in the water to attack the monster, freeing Milton, but is grabbed and eaten. Milton swims to the other side where the treacherous Nadja said a switch to drain the water was hidden, but to no avail!

Garshak is grabbed and pulled in the water, but escapes and makes for the landing. He throws the glowing fire-beetle sacs into the water to distract the monster. He then draws his two-handed sword and continues to fight the beast, landing wicked blows on  the thing’s eyes. He is grabbed yet again, but uses his great strength to escape sure death a second time.

Meanwhile, Milton has dived to the bottom and finds a mysterious foldbox that just keeps unfolding and unfolding as he opens it. He escapes with the wondrous box while the monster dines on poor Grom, and the two survivors head for the stairs. The wounded Tim and the copper coins they left at the foot of the stair are missing! So they make for the surface.

As they emerge from the dungeon, the caravan arrives. Therion, Hamza, and the two survivors inspect the foldbox and discover a fine longsword and dagger, a ring, and four spell scrolls. It is decided to rest, then go back down with six volunteers from Hamza’s guard force to find Tim, clear the dungeon and bring Therion back any arcane books or magic items they find.

What awaits them down below? Where are the wounded Tim and the copper pieces? And what of Nadia, the treacherous thief?

Our heroes will find out…

The Story So Far

Our anti-heroes (Grom and Garshak, two half-orc fighters; Roy II, a halfling assassin; Milton, a half-elven illusionist, and a human magic user now named Tim the Younger–he was formerly named Beatzza the Hut until the DM threatened the player…) are agents of the Black Swan mercenary company. They are serving Therion the Thaumaturgist as scouts and quartering party to a traveling adventure caravan. Hamza’s Heretics, a band of mercenaries from the far distant deserts, provide security for the caravan as it travels.

The road is proving hazardous; Milton was mauled to the brink of death by a mother mountain lion defending her two cubs. A week later, the party was almost wiped out by a band of gnomes flying the sigil of Clan Iron Badger.

After hostilities broke out, Tim cast ventriloquism on the gnomish leader and gave a false order to halt. Milton disrupted the formation with a phantasmal force whirlwind. The half-orcs and the assassin felled five of the gnomes, including their leader, before the gnomes’ archers laid waste to the party. Tim set a brush fire to cover their retreat, then he and Garshak dragged their wounded comrades to safety. The gnomes did the same, and are plotting their retribution.

Our party finds itself bloodied, bewildered and presumably at war with the whole of Clan Iron Badger. Their wounded are are recovering in the relative safety of the caravan, and Therion the Thaumaturgist contemplates what to do with his hapless scouts…

Clan Iron Badger attacks!

Cheers!