I was thinking of getting a potion out when the world went funny - the whole place disappeared, and was replaced by a nightmarish swamp all around. I hoped it was an illusion, but I couldn't see more than a few feet - Flin scared the heck out of me when he appeared out of nowhere to pour a healing potion down my throat! I quickly followed it with one of my own, and began to follow 'Wyn up the hallway, flask of oil in hand. I threw the oil blindly at the sounds of the blood monster, knowing it was fighting with Soveliss. 'Wyn finished off the last ghoul and joined in, while I lit a torch and began to crawl around on the floor looking for oil to ignite.

When I found the pool of oil (and narrowly missed getting hit by the blood monster fighting in the middle of it), I set it alight with my torch and quickly backed away. Soveliss backed down, too, to drink a healing potion, so I took my opportunity to throw oil onto the thing, itself. 'Wyn kept singing and hitting it with her whip dagger, Soveliss charged back in, followed by the guards, and I found myself wondering where the lich was in all this mess? When I stepped up and hit it with my torch, whoosh! Up it went! And I found myself trading swings with it (thankfully, it missed).

'Wyn went on into the room, followed by her bat and Flin, and I heard her shouting at something. The blood monster exploded behind me - ew! - so I followed my friends into the room I had discovered the lich in. 'Wyn was sweeping her whip through a globe of darkness, shouting that "he has no legs" - the lich? And Flin was now looking as frosty as I felt. Ouch. He was pitching a grappling hook into the globe, fishing for something without success. A ray shot out from the darkness, hitting him, but he kept at it.

The guards were now in the doorway, looking confused, Soveliss was healing himself, and 'Wyn walked right into the globe of darkness to search for her prey. I took a quick look into the pit, but found only bones some twenty feet below. A garbage pit for the ghouls? Who knew? I then began to search the corner where I'd first seen the lich, convinced that there was a door to be found there. The guards began to enter the room...

...and a whip flew out of the magical darkness and wrapped itself around Flin's leg. With a yank, it pulled him off his feet and into the dark, and we soon heard much shouting between the halfling and the gnome! It would have been funny if it wasn't so serious - the two of them yelling "I got it!" while the lich stood by, invisible. I went back to searching the corner - it was only an alcove, but I was convinced there was something more - until I heard 'Wyn holler "Ow!", and a hand reached out from the dark to hit me. I slashed at it with my torch, missing, then chased into the dark for myself - and hit a wall.

Another ray hit me, and I could hear the guards shooting blindly into the dark (great, add to the danger!), so I followed the wall until I got out of the magical area of effect. I pulled my bow and watched for more rays, hoping to gauge their source and hit the lich that way - but 'Wyn and Flin solved the problem for me by finally finding and pulling it out. Once we could see it, we all attacked - shooting and hacking at it while Flin kept dragging to keep it off balance. 'Wyn hit it with her mace, Soveliss speared it with his rapier, and an arrow from me finally finished it off. Whew!

Imagine our surprise to find that it wasn't a lich at all, but a human we've never seen before, wearing a mask. What is this new mystery?

We thought Seren found a lich. The creature she did find certainly looked and acted like one— it’s skin was stretched and dry, and it cast magic spells and surrounded itself with undead, including another nasty blood hulk. I cast a spell to make the corridor into a nightmare terrain, which entangled the ghouls long enough for us to finish them off while Flin managed to get into the room with the lich-thing. Seren was enjoying catching the blood hulk on fire.

Once the hallway was clear of undead, we made our way into the room where we could hear Flin being attacked by the lich-thing. Except, we couldn’t see the assailant, as it was inside a globe of darkness. Bolts of energy were managing to hit Flin though, despite the fact that he kept moving. I attempted to trip the lich-thing by dragging my whip through the area, but I just didn’t manage to hit it, so I decided to try walking into the darkness and attack from there. After a few tries, I hit! I yanked for all I was worth, and dragged my captive in closer. My opponent was cleverer than I thought, and managed to entangle me in something at the same time, causing us to both go down in a heap. I only realized then that my captive was no taller than I, and (thankfully) no heavier. Damn it.

Now that we knew where each other was, Flin was able to use a grappling hook to catch the lich-thing; I managed to keep hold of Flin as we navigated out of the darkness, pulling the lich along behind us. Except, it turned out not to be a lich at all, but someone who had dressed himself in the skins of his victims. The consensus seems to be that he needs to be taken to jail by the Watch, though I’m of the opinion that we kill the abomination and use a spell to speak with dead if we need further information on his crimes.

Flin began to fuss with his manacles, while Roywyn sent her bat over to Soveliss, who woke up after it landed on him. I yanked on my restraints, too, which earned me a "Hush!" from Flin. He seemed to think I was making enough noise to get our captors' attention. I glared at him - until he actually got a manacle open! Huh! He soon had the other one loose, too, and went to work on 'Wyn's. She was concentrating on giving healing spells to her bat, who would transfer them to Soveliss. I wonder if Archimedes could? Of course, my bird could have been sold to a dozen other people, by now...

I realized that the mouse was still sitting by the door, listening intently, and asked the others if they'd noticed. Flin eyed it and said that yes, it did look like a mouse, but didn't seem too worried about the fact that the thing was just sitting there watching. He also somehow knew that someone was coming toward the door long before the rest of us could hear anything...! Everyone scattered to their restraints, trying to look chained up (easy for me), and I stopped glowing just before we heard a key rattling in the lock.

A robed figure entered with a torch held high, accompanied by two ghouls. He looked over all of us, while I yanked on my chains, hoping to distract him with my obviously-locked manacles. It worked too well; he muttered something about who to "deal with" first - then picked me! Out the door he went, while the ghouls unlocked me and carried me out of the room. He re-locked the cell door, and down the hall we went!

I waited quietly through several passages and halls before I decided to start struggling. Unfortunately, the ghoul was impervious to "surprise" and had a good grip. We soon ended up in a room some twenty-five feet square, with several tables that were covered in blood and surgical tools. There was a pile of what looked to be skin and bones in one corner, and if I was struggling before, I was really fighting now!

As the ghouls tried to shackle me to a table, I managed to break free. I ran for the door, bitten but not paralyzed, thank Shaundakul. The robed man tried to grab me as I dashed by, missed, and I got a good look at a human man - and he was NOT undead of any kind. I yanked the door open, glad he hadn't locked it behind him, and took off down the hall screaming, and flying to try and make it harder for the ghouls to swipe at me. Because you know they were hot on my heels...

Down the hall I flew, right into Flin and Soveliss. I was glad they'd gotten out of the cell, but now I was bringing trouble back with me! From out of nowhere, Flin cast a handful of caltrops across the floor, and I flew over their heads to land next to 'Wyn. She was singing her creepy song, which the ghouls ignored, so she switched to an inspiring one for us, instead.

I was working my way down the hall, trying to find a door out (especially a secret one!), when I heard Soveliss shouting at us all to run. Flin was paralyzed, 'Wyn was dragging him away from the fight, and Soveliss was trying to block the ghouls - and more attackers arriving every moment. Soveliss caught up with us fast when we ran past our former cell and hit a doorway at the end of the hall.

Luckily, Flin's paralysis wore off and he quickly got the door open. A short hallway opened out into a storeroom full of barrels and boxes, which Soveliss rapidly stacked in front of the door. I began searching the walls for some way out, while Flin started opening boxes - and jackpot! He found our gear! I was as happy to get my stuff back as I was to find a secret door in one wall. Of course, throwing on your armor while the enemy is bashing on the door is no fun... and poor 'Wyn and Flin's familiars were on the wrong side of the barricade!

Having no rogue to check for me, I simply opened the secret door, not surprised at all to hear a *click* and get hit by an arrow that burned when it hit me. Since it didn't knock me out, I shrugged it off and started up the staircase inside. The others followed, and Flin opened the next door for me. This one opened into a large room full of tables, chairs, and seedy-looking people who grabbed for the weapons at their belts!

I shouted out that we just wanted to get out of there, and Flin told the lot that he'd brought "his" dragon along, while 'Wyn sang her eerie song from just out of sight; I glowed, backlighting Soveliss as he stepped into the doorway. It seemed to shake some of the strangers, but most of them still stepped up to attack, while one ran out another door. Great - gone for reinforcements!

I stood in the doorway and killed an attacker with a single well-aimed shot. Soveliss and Flin were locked in combat, while 'Wyn stood back, singing and shooting together. Soveliss killed his first attacker, but more moved in, and I killed another with my bow before heading his way - he looked bad! Three of the four left suddenly broke and ran, which gave me a chance to heal Soveliss, while 'Wyn tripped the last guy with her whip. Soveliss held a dagger to the human's throat, telling him not to move... that didn't end well.

We took a few minutes to heal as best we could (and Flin searched the bodies in the room), then we followed the fleeing men. This new set of steps ended at a chamber about twenty-five feet across, with no obvious exits, but four arched alcoves in the walls and an engraved symbol in the floor. A single open eye: they must be Agents of the Eye. A thieves' guild... wonderful. And we just crashed their party!

(About this time we discovered that 'Wyn's bat was hiding in Flin's pocket with his mouse, which occasioned much joy. Neither familiar was willing to explain how it got there!)

The arches showed blank walls, but when I walked closer (avoiding the Eye), I found a portal in one. In fact, 'Wyn cast a spell and discovered that each held a portal; we only had to choose. While Soveliss held a drawn bow on the empty staircase, we walked from one to the next. I quickly sensed that one was malfunctioning, but the other two led to a grove of trees and a large dwarven-made stone hall. My first "hit" led to an alleyway, which I decided must be in Waterdeep, and jumped through to find out.

The rest followed me quickly, and we were relieved to find that we were, indeed, back on the streets of Waterdeep. Flin told 'Wyn to mark the portal (she drew a big chalk eyeball), and we talked over what to do next. The others had discovered more prisoners being held while I was being carted off by the ghouls and their master, so our first impulse was to try and save them. Unfortunately, we knew that it would do no one any good for us to disappear without a trace! Luckily, we quickly found some city guards to report to.

After a quick talk, and a run through the marketplace nearby in the vain hope of finding a spell to temporarily reduce Soveliss' size, we ended up back at the portal, with four volunteers from the Guard to help.

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The portal was still active, so Roywyn sang a song to boost our morale as the group stepped through. The portal room was empty, and we headed down the stairs to the thieves' guild room. Also empty - so through the secret door and down the steps into the storage room; the door was still barricaded. We quietly pulled the boxes away from the door, while Flin fiddled with the secret door behind us.

We listened at the door a moment, then Soveliss quietly opened it and peered out. Nothing! So off we went down the hall, looking for signs of life or unlife. Instead, we ended up at the hallway with the cells that the others said were recently full of human prisoners. Flin got one of the two doors open, peered inside, then stepped inside. Bang! He was hit by something, and paralyzed - and so we knew that the enemy had had enough time to escape, leaving a trap for us do-gooders.

Soveliss and I ran into the room, trying to help Flin. I landed a good blow with my sword, then heard a commotion out in the hall. Apparently, the cell across the hall also had undead lying in wait. Soveliss killed one undead, I hit the next, while hearing two of the guards fighting undead in the hallway while 'Wyn used her whip. Soveliss hit, then I killed an undead, and headed out to the hall to help.

One guard was hurt badly, and another was holding a lantern at the junction between halls, looking away from us and saying, "What is that??" Soveliss was quickly there, shouting, but I decided to help the two guards in the hall finish off the last of the ghouls. 'Wyn ran down, too, healing the hurt guard as she passed and apologizing for shooting him by mistake. There was an awful, bloated, pale horror of a thing that may once have been human descending upon the party, and I heard a chorus of disgusted cries as it splashed foul fluids on everyone nearby each time it was hit.

Flin shook off his paralysis and began to collect the heads of the undead, while the two guards and I finished off the last ghoul from the cells. I then shot at the bloated thing from a safe distance - but it still splattered Soveliss and the others who were close with blood and gore. All I wanted to do was burn it, purify with fire! After another shot, and watching a brave guard step in and stab it even though he knew he'd get sprayed, I dashed down the hall to get distance and take off overhead.

Over the fight I flew, getting swatted hard and covered with blood and fluid, landed on the other side from my companions and smashed a flask of oil at the thing's feet. 'Wyn was now holding the lantern so we could see, and singing to keep our spirits up, but as soon as she saw me smash the oil, her bat came flying by with a lit candle in his claws. The thing swung at him and missed, down went the candle, and *whoosh* up in flames!

The fight continued, so I backed down the hall, shooting arrows into the flaming monster. On my second shot it exploded, spattering everywhere. At least it was gone! 'Wyn quickly cast a spell to clean all of us up (although I fear whatever diseases it must have been carrying; another two days in the Temple of Helm are probably a better alternative - even I can see that!). Flin pulled out a wand and started healing people; when he got to me, I danced with him for thanks! Soveliss was calling me the "killer of undead", perhaps Shaundakul is pleased with me, again? Only time will tell!

We decided to search some more for the prisoners, though with little hope. The next door we opened led to the experiment room I'd almost been trapped in. It was empty, and Flin took some of the surgical instruments. 'Wyn wanted to burn the pile of skin and organs, but the guards wanted to leave it for evidence, so we did. We then checked the rest of the doors in the passage, finding a kitchen, a sleeping room, and then...

A dark room, forty feet across and long, with a hole in the floor at the far end. Soveliss had opened the door, and Soveliss felt the gaze of several sets of eyes! He quickly closed the door and warned the rest of us that six ghouls were on the way. Sure enough, a room full of ghouls quickly burst out and followed him down the hall. 'Wyn cast a spell that knocked most of them off their feet, and Soveliss, too. I decided to fly over the fight and attack from the other side, since it worked well enough in the last hallway battle. Unfortunately, once I landed inside the dark room, I could see that it was still occupied!

Another of the awful bloated fleshy humanoids stood in the far corner; behind it, I saw a thin, gaunt, robed figure, with dry cracked skin and evil eyes, watching me. They stood in front of yet another door. Since neither of them moved, and I doubted my ability to fight them alone, I turned and shot a ghoul in the hallway twice. It died, leaving five more before my friends could reach me to help. Of course, the lich then hit me in the back with a spell! And it spoke, telling the bloated thing to attack.

Ow! I hope help comes soon!

After he left with Seren Flin finished freeing us and we quietly left the room we were in. There was another door opposite us and as we entered it we saw four humans also chained to walls. As Flin attempted to free them Roywyn said trouble was coming. Everything then happened very fast. First I was attempting to hold off the ghouls so everyone else can get away, Then Seren came flying overhead and we all ran. Following this hall as far down as it went we came to another room. I started to barricade the door while Flin looked around. Thankfully he found our gear as Seren found a secret exit. Up some stairs we went. I heard Flin say something about bringing his Dragon as I reached the top, and that’s when I noticed several humans sitting around a couple of tables.

The battle was quick and we followed on up some stairs to another room. This one had four alcoves in it that apparently were portals to other places. Everyone jumped into one and I followed and founded myself in an ally. Turns out we were still in Waterdeep. As quickly as possible we found some local guards and explained the situation and that there were still people down there we couldn’t get out. Four of them volunteered to go back with us and attempt to save who we can. Back down we went carefully and slowly, through the portal and down the stairs into the lowest room. We unbarricaded the door and ventured forward. It was very quiet except for the constant squeaking of Pratt. We first went to the room we found the humans in. They were gone, but a small surprise was left behind, Ghouls. I don’t know how many there were, but it was over soon enough. Then from farther down this blood-filled thing came at us. It was awful, every time we hurt it; it sprayed us with more and more blood. Thankfully Roywyn was able to clean us up afterwards.

We explored more and founded only what they left behind, surgical tools, empty beds and foot lockers, an empty kitchen, and another room full of ghouls….

Assuming we’d have time to find a solution to Soveliss’s bigness at a later time, we took four of the Watch with us and headed back down through the portal to the thieves guild (which was now bereft of bodies) and through to the sewers. The creatures so keen to break through our barricaded door were nowhere to be seen, so we made our way to the cell where we had found the ghouls’ hostages. They were not inside, but Flin did find some ghouls instead!

I was having trouble keeping track during the ensuing battle, not only because it came from two fronts (our old cell having been filled with ghouls as well), or the additional tall people to fight around, but also because Pratt seemed to be screaming a lot. I don’t think anyone else could hear him, but the constant squeals of “Look out!” and “There’s another!” was distracting. I actually ended up shooting one of the humans! I quickly made my way over to heal him and apologize. Meanwhile, Pratt was screaming that something big was coming, and sure enough, something big was. Before I caught sight of it, I could see that the hulking undead had a disgusting reaction to Soveliss’s attacks: it was gushing gallons of blood all over the poor dragon-elf.

I made my way behind that battle, as I realized no one was watching down the hall during the chaos. Seren fluttered by, having apparently run out of ghouls to slay, and asked for a light—she was going to drop oil on the bloated, bloody thing. I gave Pratt a lit candle (he seems to do better when he has a task to focus on) and he flapped along behind Seren, dropping the candle at just the right moment. The creature burned for a while, and I think that would have done it in, but Seren decided to hasten things more and stab at it. It exploded, showering gore over her, Soveliss, and a few of the Watch. At least it wasn’t getting back up.

I cast a minor spell to clean them up, and we headed down the hall from which the blood hulk had arrived. We found a room filled with surgical tables and the smell of death and decay—and a pile of human skins. Seren and Pratt recognized the room as the one the necromancer had dragged her off to earlier. He was nowhere to be found, the coward.

The other end of the hall seemed to provide some more activity though. Six ghouls appeared from a doorway. Seren of course could fly over them and into the room, and I could tell something interesting was going on in there, but first we needed to dispatch the ghouls. I keep knocking them down with spells, and once my comrades dispatch the prone creatures, we’ll have a look at whatever Seren found....

Knowing we needed a lookout I asked Totem to go and keep a look out under the door. After some arguing he actually climbed out of my hair and went over and did it. I don't know who was surprised more, Seren for seeing a mouse climb out of my hair, or me for Totem deciding to help out a little.

I quickly got myself free and began working on Roywyn's chains. It seemed to the three of us that were conscious that Soveliss needed some attention soon. As soon as she had one free hand she gave a spell to her bat to give to our Dragon friend. It took some time to get her last manacle off but I did and moved over to help Soveliss next, for he was the only one who was able to fight these creatures. It was too late, Totem saw torch light coming and hid.

Roywyn and I pretended to still be chained when two undead creatures entered the room with a mage. He rambled about something, I was not actually paying attention. What seemed more important was that Roywyn had gotten it into her mind to perform some incredible act of bravery/stupidity to save us. All I remember saying to her is 'No'.

The undead followed a command to take Seren to some sacrifice, I pleaded with them to take me instead, to no avail. I too wanted to attack them and save her, but knew the foolishness of that attack. Soon as they left I freed my Dragon friend and we set out to find Seren. We did find another room with some humans chained up and I was trying to free them when we heard Seren scream.

We ran off to save her. Somewhere I got stunned by their accursed powers. I found myself being dragged down a hall, again. We did find a room, of storage type, which we where able to block the door and prepare for defending it. This became easier when I found our gear in a corner. Seren found a secret door and we escaped upwards to find a room full of relaxing rogues. I was the first to the top of the steps. It seemed a little over a dozen humans stood up and drew weapons to attack me. Seeing the circumstances I whispered behind me the situation. Seren began to glow behind me and when added to the song of doom that Roywyn set an eerie scene. As the first humans began to come at me I introduced them to "My Dragon". Soveliss's appearance was right on time.

The battle was violent but short and most of our foes ran from the battle. We then escaped through a portal to a shopping square in Waterdeep.

...I’m not sure if I passed out or it just got too dark to see. When I became aware and able to move again, I found myself manacled to a wall in a room with a single door, all of my equipment gone. My friends were all in the same room, all chained as well. Flin, not one to sit still, immediately began to work on his manacles with some tool that was overlooked by our captors; once he got his off, he released me (while Pratt had flapped over to the dragon-elf to provide a healing spell) and was unlocking Soveliss, when we heard footsteps outside the door. We quickly arranged ourselves to appear as if still manacled, but the robed figure and two ghoul assistants were interested in the still-really-chained Seren. They grabbed her and as I was debating some sort of suicidal attack on the enemy, Flin, Soveliss and Pratt all said “No!” in my direction at the same time. Instead, I sent Pratt with her, hidden between her wings.

As soon as they were gone we broke out of the cell and were on our way to where we thought Seren was being taken, when we heard sobbing from a room across the hall. We went into find four bedraggled humans and were trying to free them from their manacles when we heard a scream, and I felt Pratt letting me know that he and Seren were on their way back towards us— quickly. Moments later, she came into view, with the original kidnappers and a few additional humans on her tail. We found that fighting them without weapons was not working well, so I grabbed the now-paralyzed Flin and we all ran off in a direction that looked safer than where we were.

We were lucky! As we were barricading ourselves in a room filled with random supplies, Flin found all of our equipment! Seren also found a well-hidden door as our would-be captors began to bang on the barricaded door. We quickly scrambled through, saw another door, and opened it, only to see a room full of tables, chairs, and angry men with weapons.

For some reason, we were able to coordinate our attack this time; I sang a tune designed to strike fear into their hearts, while Flin introduced his dragon, at which point Soveliss struck an intimidating pose, and Seren added some ominous backlighting with a glow from behind the dragon-elf. Half of them ran or looked shaken (and at least one soiled himself from the sound of it). We easily dispatched the few that weren’t smart enough to run.

We left the room the same way the fleeing men had gone. We went up some steps, and found ourselves in a chamber with four arches, and a symbol of a single open eye engraved on the floor. I recognized the symbol as being that of the Agents of the Eye and realized we had just “infiltrated” Zanathar’s Thieves Guild. Oops.

Well, while I did that, Seren had sensed that one of the arches contained a portal; I said I could cast a spell to see where it went, rather than us all just piling through and hoping it would be safe. After I cast the spell, I noticed that each of the other arches also contained a portal. One was apparently malfunctioning and best avoided. Another appeared to be a long hallway of dwarven design. The third would land us in a grove of trees, and the fourth, an alleyway. Before we could discuss our options, Seren hopped through the one to the alley, so we followed.

Thankfully, we were still in Waterdeep, though now we were in the north side of the marketplace in the Castle Ward. We decided we’d need some more help to get the shackled people out of that area of the sewers that was crawling with undead, so we sought out the Watch and got four people willing to go back down with us. I’m also asking for some sort of magic ring or amulet we can use to provide “debigification” for Soveliss, in case we find ourselves in areas where he has to crawl again.

“Soveliss wake up.” I hear the voice again this time more urgent. I fight the undead as best as I could, at least draw their attention away from my paralyzed friends. I’m hoping the paralysis wears off soon. Then everything goes dark and my dream starts over. I want to desperately to change the events, but I am unable to.

“Soveliss wake up.” I hear it again and as I start to regain consciousness I can feel the chains that bind me….

Once again, for the countless time this, we have found ourselves in a small room fighting creatures that give paralysis to us with the touch of their hands. This time the ol'Dragon-Elf couldn't hold them off. And for once, I was the last to fall. There are more details I believe, but for now I am being dragged down a secret tunnel and I am probably going to be eaten, again. Trust me that is not an experience anyone should know, let alone twice. Then their is that annoying voice in my head 'Flin, why didn't you buy something to fight the paralysis?' Stupid voice.

I was enjoying the music and comedy acts when the food arrived, which prompted us to ask about what alcohol was available, too. Soveliss and Flin decided to try "dragon bitters" - stingy Flin wasn't sharing so I called him on it, then bought the table a round. He was quite cheerful in short order! 'Wyn came back to tell us that she hadn't heard much, but learned that many famous bards got their start on this stage. I quickly encouraged her to go on, too!

Leaving the guys to their bitters, we went looking for a manager. We were pointed toward a pudgy human man, who chatted with 'Wyn for a bit, then told her to go on up. I sat back down with my party while she headed for the stage and began to sing for the crowd. When they threw things, I was mad! I ran up and found out that the crowd was throwing money, though, which couldn't be bad, so I waited while she sang two more songs, then collected the coppers while she took her bows.

Flin then ran up and began to dance before the next act. He was hauled offstage while being pelted with a few coins. And, when he sat back down at the table, his drink tipped itself over into his lap! He burst out laughing, and took a fresh beer over to a table nearby, where a well-dressed stranger sat laughing. I wondered what that was about, but was afraid to ask. We ended up wandering back to our inn for the night, Flin pretending to stagger drunkenly, and turning various unnatural colors for the amusement of passerby.

Once back at the inn, I stopped to check the message board; seeing nothing new, I went to bed. In the morning, we prepared to search the sewers properly -'Wyn even thought to ask the guards for a map. They gave us a letter to take to the plumbers' guild, who gave us a copy (and we promised to "update" it for them!). After a quick perusal, we decided to start our search by climbing down the sewer grate nearest the Three Pearls nightclub.

'Wyn had chalk with her, and used it to mark our way. We were soon back at the "oak tree chamber", which boggled Soveliss - he hadn't seen it, before! Flin giggled madly over that story, while we reminded him that we needed intact ghoul heads to claim the reward money. We reached the smaller tunnels without incident, and back to the chamber with tunnels that had scuttling noises... which were louder this time! I pulled my sword and waved it to warn the others as something came down the tunnel at us.

A six-legged hairless ratlike thing came into view, causing me to raise my sword - except 'Wyn then tried to speak to it, so I held back to see what it would do. I don't know if it listened to her, or to Flin's threats to "Stop or I'll shoot!" but it turned back and ran away from us. Flin shot an arrow after it, and I ran after, trying to see where it would lead us. We ended up in one of the rooms with eight exits, and poles (no victims chained up, this time). 'Wyn marked which exit was "ours", and we followed the rat-thing into another.

It didn't go far up the passage before turning into a tunnel that looked very unlike the rest of the construction down here. Many new-burrowed passages could be seen up ahead, as well. I peered down one or two and caught sight of lots of flashing teeth, and heard a lot of hissing and rustling! We backed off, marking the new warrens on the map for someone else to worry about. The others were dismantling the poles and chains, and I searched the entrance to each tunnel for any clues as to what's been happening down here.

'Wyn and I heard it at almost the same time - but no time to warn the others as a monstrous looking thing crawled down one of the tunnels and into the chamber, a ball of flesh that looked sort of like a brain on tentacles, with a big mouth, and many many eyes all over it! We attacked without a second thought! Soveliss hit it first, so it charged at him, while a second thing followed it into the room. I charged that one with my sword, missing, and 'Wyn cast a bright light at it, but it bit me.

I don't know what happened, but to my great shame, a panic came over me that I could not fight. I screamed, dropped my sword, and ran for my life.

Thank Shaundakul that no one was killed - I'd have felt responsible forever. I mastered my fear, eventually, and made my way back to the chamber to find that Soveliss killed both the things, and saved my sword, too. Apparently, he was the only one not struck by fear when the things struck out! Warily, we prepared to search for the source of the flesh-balls...

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I walked up the tunnel, glowing brightly for the others, watching for more of the strange balls of flesh. When I reached a fork in the tunnel, the right-hand branch showed some disturbance, so I turned that way. Another fork in the tunnel some hundred feet away, and no sign of anything at all passing through either. Hmmm... a secret entrance that we missed? We searched all the way back to the first fork with no luck, and finally gave up.

Someone mentioned hearing noises from other tunnels in the room with the posts, so we decided to follow up on that next. Before we set out, something invisible moved my wings! I quickly pulled my sword, slicing through the air around me in a vain search for the culprit. Probably because the culprit was looking innocently around while Soveliss pointed at him! After giving Flin the eye, I began to look and listen at the two tunnels noises had come from.

One curved away to the left, the other curved off to the right. We argued over various ways to check both, then sent the bat up the left-hand tunnel while I started up the right-hand one. We quickly reached another T junction, so I pulled out the map to see where we were. To the right from the T was a sewer grate to the surface - good! Straight ahead was another of the junction rooms, with two exits. For the sake of Soveliss' back, we headed for the junction room and its higher ceilings.

The room had the two exits shown on the map, plus two more posts with manacles. They were soon torn down, and Soveliss stretched while I noted on the map all the junction rooms that had been altered to hold prisoners. Then, while looking into the tunnel across the room, I heard movement! I waved to the others, who quickly had their bows out, and Roywyn began a quiet song. We're getting better at getting ready for a fight...

This time, the movement stopped before we could see the source, and something began to tap upon the stone walls. Fearing it was a code to call more trouble down on us, I charged into the tunnel, sword drawn! The passage curved, but I ran until I saw an undead crawling in the low tunnel, away from us! I shouted to the others, and Soveliss responded that it must be a trap, and I hollered back "Not if it's dead!" which sounded good but now I had to back it up.

In that time, the undead had stopped backing away from me, and now I traded blows with it before flattening myself to the wall so the others could shoot past me and hit it. Flin got in the lethal shot, and I quickly took the head off and into a haversack for later. I then clambered over the body to check further up the tunnel, while Flin and 'Wyn dragged the remains down the tunnel so Soveliss could pass. 'Wyn kept muttering about getting a spell that will make him small enough for all these three-foot-high tunnels!

The bat came along with me - it must have forgiven me the moth incident. We found another junction room, thirty feet across, and several more posts with two more people. I dimmed down and looked at the map quickly, marking both the new posts and the nearest grate to get the people out by. Then, I moved a little closer, glowing brighter to find out if the people were live, dead, or undead. One stirred as I neared - it was undead! As it lunged at me, I found out that it was NOT chained up, this time! Here came the second, also unchained!

I shrieked lots, also trusting the bat to let the others know I'd walked into Soveliss' trap after all. I ran for the passage to the nearest sewer grate - and ran into more undead crawling in! I held up my holy symbol and turned the ones ahead and behind me... then turned back to the junction room, knowing the others were on their way. I ended up killing the second undead and bagging its head, while hearing the others fighting and shouting in the tunnel about their own kill.

Unfortunately, Flin arrived in the junction room at the same time as yet more undead. We were being overwhelmed! I tried another turning, and it had no effect at all. 'Wyn came singing and fighting into the room, while I warned Flin that more undead would probably come down the tunnel behind me when my first turn wore off. Then, I was fighting again. Badly. 'Wyn was having a hard time, too, so I tried to turn yet again, and - nothing!

As I ranted at Shaundakul - what have I done to anger him? One of the undead finally managed to paralyze me. While the others fought, the ghoul dragged me off to a corner, obviously planning to eat me alive. The others noticed, and came to my rescue, I don't know why. I am so discouraged by my failures as a cleric and a fighter...

Soveliss' immunity to paralysis came in handy, as 'Wyn was struck down and, although some undead were killed, more arrived every minute. Even the stinky undead lizard folk reappeared - through a secret door, no less! The battle continued long enough that Soveliss began to look really beat up, and I actually came unparalyzed. I quickly held up my holy symbol for one last try at scaring the things off...

...I should have known better.

By the time everything was over, we were all dragged off through the secret door, either paralyzed or unconscious. We woke up chained to poles, our gear missing, and wondering what will happen next?

We wandered around looking for signs of more fihyr, or evidence of where they came from; perhaps they don’t come from anywhere. We had heard sounds from one of the other tunnels leading away from the octagon room, so we headed in that direction. Seren is very good at finding her way around down here (and is a great light source as well!), though when we’d come to a fork in the tunnels, I’d send Pratt up the opposite one to make sure we weren’t missing anything important.

We found ourselves in another “junction” room with two posts. We continued to hear scrabbling in other tunnels. Seren and Flin went ahead to check one out while I stayed behind, singing a sound to provide courage (and waiting for Soveliss to catch up with us in the smaller tunnels). Pratt came back to tell me that Seren and Flin had slain another, lone ghoul, so I went to help Flin move the body out of a rather small tunnel (and retrieve the head), while Pratt again flew off, this time to keep up with Seren.

Soveliss had just caught up with us when Pratt came screaming back to us— Seren had found another junction room with four posts, and there were bodies slumped again two of them. Flin suspected a trap; Soveliss and I agreed when we heard sounds of combat ahead— we got there quickly and found Seren fighting the two undead that had pretended to be shackled. Worse, Flin found another in a tunnel coming off of that junction room. I handed my everburning torch to Pratt, and then began to sing and shoot bolts into the attacking ghouls. As Soveliss arrived to help us, four more ghouls did as well; I found myself fighting two at a time! I thought we were doing well until one of the smarter, smellier ghasts arrived. I attacked it with a rather potent healing spell, which obviously hurt it, but the sheer number of undead was too much for us. I saw each of my friends either slumped unconscious on the floor, or paralyzed by the touch of the ghouls— and then I was hit myself. Unable to move, we were dragged helplessly away down a tunnel, the undead led by a robed figure...

The creatures howled with pain, and their cloaks fell away to reveal furry snouts and long tails - wererats! Two of them leaped toward where 'Wyn and Soveliss' arrows came from, while the third jumped at the drunk. There were daggers waving and teeth flashing; I shot at the third wererat and caught sight of Flin sneaking around the edges of the fight to get in a good position to attack, and then the drunk collapsed in the middle of the street. Next, I was ducking away from a crossbolt - the wererats carried more than just daggers!

'Wyn suddenly started to convulse - then changed into a large white wererat, herself! The other three turned to attack her, so I shot one, causing it to convulse and change shape. Flin attacked it next. At least 'Wyn was fighting against the other wererats and not us, but I saw Soveliss get bitten and stabbed and wondered how many of us would need a trip to a temple, soon. I kept shooting the rats when I could, while the others were in the thick of it.

All three of the wererats suddenly disappeared into the shadows - and we realized that no one had kept an eye on the human when he began screaming. We caught sight of clawed hands as he was dragged into the shadows, and we all took off after! I flew up high and glowed as brightly as I could, illuminating two greenish humanoid figures running down an alley with the human cleric over one shoulder. The others caught up quickly, but were sickened by the smell of the things up close. The lizard-folk looked to be animated dead!

One of the undead stopped to fight, while the other ran off with his human captive. I followed, pulling out my holy symbol, but couldn't fly fast enough to get ahead and cast a turning. Flin was following, too, and was able to keep up with it, so I followed as fast as I could until I caught up with Flin standing over an open sewer grate. Hoping that 'Wyn and Soveliss were handling the other creature all right, we descended into the unknown.

Thirty feet below the city streets, and we were in a large tunnel. Hearing movement ahead, we ran, only to hear stone grinding - we ran faster, hoping to catch the thing before it lost itself in a maze of intersections. When we reached the area we thought the sound originated from, there was nothing to see - luckily, I spotted an irregularity in the wall, and Flin soon had it checked and open. The new passage was half the height of the first, but we were able to walk upright, so Flin wedged the secret door open, and I left my old holy symbol stuck in the wall stones, in case 'Wyn and Soveliss made it this far.

We followed the new passage until it ended at a sewer, with a path extending to the left and the right. There was no sign of our quarry, so Flin turned left, I turned right, and activated my bird, telling it to go with Flin but fly to me if he ran into anything. Off to the right I went, pondering what to call the bird and watching for the lizard-person or his victim.

I ran out of tunnel to follow, first. My pathway above the sewer's flow ended at an intersection of tunnels, and the pathways across the water showed no sign of anything wading over to reach them. I was looking at a ladder which led up to a grate, and listening to the sounds of music in the streets above, and had just decided to call the raven Archimedes, when I heard steps running up from behind. I readied an arrow and waited to see who was coming...

...the good news was that 'Wyn and Soveliss had finished off their opponent and caught up with me. The bad news was that Archimedes was flying along just ahead of them! They asked me where Flin was, and I told them about sending him off with my bird. I told Archimedes his name, asked him to lead us to Flin, and we were off.

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We followed Archimedes down the tunnel until it ended at a T, and the raven didn't know where Flin had been taken. Soveliss found blood, though, and I was able to track it to the left. We followed the trail until it ended, and looked around. Although the pathway continued, a smaller side tunnel could be seen about seven feet above us. Soveliss pulled himself up for a look, and found claw marks on the rim, so Roywyn and I asked for a boost up. We could walk upright, but Soveliss had to crawl; the new tunnel was only about three feet high.

'Wyn and I went ahead until we hit another T junction, and this time I found a trail to the right. We walked up the passage until we heard the sounds of tearing and the gnashing of teeth - then, we ran! The tunnel opened out into a round chamber with six exits radiating outward. In the chamber, one of the undead things was tearing at and eating from something lying on the ground. I charged in, sword held high! The thing stood up and turned toward us, biting at me. I swung my sword at it and missed, and it bit me again, paralyzing me where I stood!

'Wyn, thank Shaundakul, shot it to death. She then went to the body, which did turn out to be Flin, and rummaged through his pack. She healed him with her wand, and he started moving - and screaming! Poor Flin. He then healed himself some more with his own wand, and I finally relaxed from my own paralysis and listened at all the exits. Several had chittering noises coming from them, but not moving toward us so I didn't go in. 'Wyn, on the other hand, heard a scream come from one, so we followed the sound.

The tunnel sloped downward, and Flin now could hear someone crying, so we ran. 'Wyn sang a magical song, and Soveliss followed up behind as fast as he could crawl. The tunnel soon opened out into another room, bigger, with eight passages outward. I stopped at the entrance, looking at four figures chained to posts in the middle of the floor. One was sobbing and shielding her eyes from my glow. When 'Wyn whispered to them, the sobbing woman began screaming for help!

I stepped inside, glowing brightly, and circled the group while 'Wyn checked their bonds, and Flin held a drawn bow on them. Soveliss finally crawled out of the tunnel and began to unlock the manacles, I saw that one of the humans was dead, and asked the others to tell us what had happened. Before they could answer, the dead man convulsed, and stood up as a ghast! The screaming began again, much louder! Soveliss had one man unlocked, who stumbled off up a random tunnel past 'Wyn who was yelling at him to stop while shooting her crossbow.

Soveliss bravely continued to unlock the living humans, and the creature lunged at me. I hit it with my greatsword, and it clawed me. Again, I was paralyzed. The second human was running for a tunnel, 'Wyn killed the ghast, and grabbed ahold of me while yelling at the humans to follow us. The two still in the room did so; the female telling us she wasn't sure how many people were in the sewers, or how long they'd been there. We could hear something crawling toward the room, and headed back up the tunnel. Soveliss insisted on going last - not from his size, but because he says he's immune to paralysis. How I envied him then!

Flin dragged me up the tunnel, while the human woman held up Soveliss and 'Wyn until she threatened to put a bat in her hair. The other human was long gone ahead - but then we heard him scream! We raced for the room with six exits, only to find three more ghasts eating the remains of the man. Unparalyzed, I waved my holy symbol at them - with no effect. Flin grabbed several of my oil flasks and threw them, instead, and I could hear 'Wyn singing from down the tunnel.

My second turning spell worked, and the ghasts fled even as Flin set one on fire. Finally, the rest of our party arrived, and we continued on our way out - we wanted to get one survivor out, at least! Soveliss did make sure that the dead human didn't return by chopping off his head, first. Flin stayed behind while we escaped, using flasks of oil to block the path. When the rest of us reached the main tunnel, 'Wyn and I turned back to get him. We were running down the tunnel when there was a terrific crash!

Dust and stone rained down from the walls and ceiling, I fell down and got right back up, wondering why I heard wood splintering. When we got back to the six-exit room, we found a huge tree trunk sideways, and a pair of halfling feet sticking out from underneath! The feet were wiggling and giggling - Flin had gauged his spell very carefully not to be crushed, and the ghasts were no more!

We each grabbed a foot and pulled Flin free, and I healed him some while I was at it. He was very pleased with himself! I was glad to catch up with Soveliss and the human woman on their way to the surface; we all ended up back in an alley, looking out onto a main street, and hearing the sound of music. It was barely midnight! We went looking for a temple, and some guards, talking to Miranda, the human woman, on the way.

We walked past a large and brightly lit building that seemed to be hosting a festival, and ran into a guard troop. They heard us out, and wanted us to fill out a report, but agreed to take us to a temple, first. They took us to a temple of Helm, whose clerics were willing to cure us of anything nasty we'd caught from the ghasts - for a lot of money - or watch us for a few days to be sure we were healthy. Ack! I had no interest in being caught inside for days, but the others agreed to it!

Miranda got sick, but the clerics did their best to heal her, and the rest of us talked over our adventures and filled out the report for the guards. I got tired of the place in a few hours and spent the rest of the time bouncing off the walls and ceiling... and yelling "I told you so" at 'Wyn when she tried to leave and they wouldn't let her. She acted surprised about it! I guess her bat was in need of "counseling" over some sin it had committed... and Flin was practicing being sick. Finally, after two days, they cleared us to leave. I must admit to being less than gracious in my thanks.

The city watch had read our report of the goings-on under the dock wards, and asked us to go back to find out why ghouls and ghasts were acting in an intelligent manner. They offered us 2000 gold pieces to find the source! 'Wyn and Soveliss bargained for a 50 gp reward for every undead head we returned with, too. I asked about healing - as I have no desire to be stuck in the Temple of Helm for two days ever again. Finally, we headed back to the Dripping Dagger for real rest, and talk over how to proceed.

The Fest Hall night club had caught our eye before, being so close to the disappearances. When evening fell, we decided to start our search by getting in line for the festivities. It was a long line, and an entrance fee to get in! It was a large single story wooden building, and one big room inside. There was a raised central stage and benches all around it. Bards were performing onstage while folks sat and watched while eating and drinking, and there were lots of bouncers. We made our way to a table and settled in to observe.

I ran after him and noticed my new companions doing the same. That’s when I saw the creatures up close. The stench coming off their rotting flesh was enough to make me sick, and one turned to fight us, while the other took the human and ran. Rather intelligent for something that’s supposed to be the walking dead. I fought with it as Flin and Seren went after the one carrying the now passed-out human. While Roywyn stayed to help me deal with this eyesore. The fight lasted longer then I had hoped, and when it finally stopped moving Flin and Seren were nowhere to be found. Roywyn and I followed the ally and came to an open sewer grate. Up ahead was the sound of people enjoying themselves, which lead me to believe the undead creature hadn’t gone that way.

We climbed down into the sewers and I had to crawl to get to where a side passage appeared to be open. It had Seren’s old holy symbol sitting there, so we followed that passage. Finally we came to an area I could stand up in, but left or right, I didn’t know. I flipped a coin and right we went. After a short while a bird that looked very much like the one Seren had bought flew past us. Running, both Roywyn and I soon bumped into Seren. She quickly explained the bird was with Flin and told to return to her if there was any trouble. So we all ran back the way we had come and past. It was clear someone was there, because we had to jump over two spots of caltrops.

Seren looked around and found some fresh blood. Following the trail we came to a small opening a few feet off the floor. I had Seren and Roywyn go first and I crawled again down this passage following their lead. Finally we entered a circular room in which one of these creatures was eating Flin. We all fought and eventually took it down. Flin was healed and after a bit the paralysis wore off. That was when screams were heard down one of the other passages. Again I crawled and eventually came to a large room with four humans chained to posts. One was already dead and as I tried to free the others he changed and became one of the creatures that we were fighting. I freed the rest who all took off, and eventually one of my companions killed this one. We hurried back the way we came, and had a small encounter at the circular room we found Flin in.

Almost out I noticed Flin wasn’t following us. Seren and Roywyn went back after him while I led the one human out of the sewers. Shortly after all three of them came out of the sewers and we all went to the town guard. After explaining everything to them, we stayed at the local church for a few days to make sure we weren’t infected. Shortly after being released, we again talked to the guard who hired us to go back down and deal with the problem. Not exactly what I want to do, but if that will make us work better as I team, then I’m all for it, besides, I could use a few more coins to improve my armor and weapons.

We spent the day getting supplies and that night at a club. It was okay, but I thought we could have made better use of our time. In the morning we made a quick stop to get a map of the sewers, Roywyn’s a genius. We followed our footsteps back to the large room the humans were held captive in. We found a small infestation of some very strange rats, but decided to just leave them alone. That was when these two brains-like creatures came out of nowhere. We all attacked at first, but shortly I noticed Seren and Flin were gone. One of these abominations fell and that’s when Roywyn also fled, all three left their weapons. I killed the last and gathered up my companions’ belongings and waited for them to return. Shortly after they did; now we decide which way to go from here.

I listened for rumors as I mingled with some of the patrons of the 3 Pearls Festhall. Nothing I heard was terribly useful or even new— unless you count the one about the city guard having hired adventurers to eliminate whatever was causing the disappearances. I also learned that this festhall is where many “famous” bards supposedly got their start. I wanted to put that to the test myself, but I wasn’t sure I could get Pratt to stop fretting and acting nervous. I did get permission from the proprietor of the festhall to sing a few songs, and Seren agreed to keep the fruit bat occupied while I did so.

The crowd seemed to like two of the songs I performed— the two that were more lament than cheerful— they threw about 40 coins at me. Flin must have seen that, as he ran up to where I’d just performed and did some unusual dancing (unusual in part because no one was playing any particular music at the time!) and I saw some coins flung his direction as well.

Now, all of this took place in the span of a few minutes, an hour at most. When I got back to the table that Soveliss had kept for us, I noticed my bat was sulking a bit, and his fur appeared to have some unusual tint to it. I am not sure if the tint was related to the sulking, as Seren didn’t mention anything about it. I have a cousin whose familiar was always changing colors— maybe it’s normal. The sulking is barely a step up from his previous nervousness though.

We eventually decided it would be best to turn in, so we headed back to the Dripping Dagger and to our rooms.

The night was blissfully uneventful. After breakfast, we gathered a few things from the markets (I bought as many scrolls as I could afford), and we were about to head to the sewers when it occurred to me that we could do our job much better if we had a map. A quick detour to visit the Watch provided us with a note, which we, in turn, took to the guild that maintains the sewers, and they were very cooperative, providing us with the most up-to-date map they had. Map in hand, we continued on to the sewers, and once inside, started to make our way to the octagon room where we had found the four humans chained.

As we wended our way through the tunnels, Seren glowing and leading the way, and I marking the walls with chalk, we came upon a six-legged rat-like creature. I had seen one of these “osquips” as a wizard’s familiar once, and assumed it was friendly— I attempted to talk to it while Flin (luckily) did not hit it with an arrow. It did not respond to me, but turned its back on us and scurried away. We followed it right to the octagon room and into a tunnel (all of us that is, except for Soveliss, who took much longer to navigate the small tunnels). We saw the creature scurry into an even smaller tunnel, and went to see where it had gone— but once we got to its nest (for that must have been all a 2’ wide tunnel could be!), we could see the osquip’s eyes glowing in the light shed by Seren, and a warning hiss— followed by similar sounds from small openings all around us! We took that opportunity to leave it, and its many cousins, alone.

Returning back to the octagonal area, we met up with Soveliss. Before we could decide on a direction to go, this abomination— all eyes and teeth and tentacles coming out of what looked like a pulsing brain— appeared from out of a side tunnel. Worse, it was followed by an identical creature, and both were determined to harm us! We all got into positions to attack them, and were doing so, when Seren and Flin dropped their weapons and ran out of the room! I was able to help Soveliss defeat one before I too had the urge to flee, and found myself running (in terror) into Flin moments later. Fortunately, Soveliss seemed immune to the creatures’ (what Seren calls “fihyrs”) fear attacks and was able to slay the second one. We are all back in the octagonal room, and after we catch our collective breath, will attempt to check the tunnel from which the fihyrs emerged.