Excerpt from the Journal of Merolen Amakiir, Father of Valon

… I feel almost lost, Though I am sure that Valon has felt that way for the past 35 years. It is a long time to hold a memory so close, but I fear he may never forgive himself. 35 years… amazing. It has been that long since I lost my eldest son. It seems like just yesterday. I suppose it must seem sooner for Valon. He knew what he had done, but he had no control.

The hunting party had come across a Drow in the woods. He had been raising the dead from the last major battle inside the Dreadwood, and at that point had a sizable force for our small hunting party to combat. We fought mercilessly and without hesitation. I know both my sons fought well, as together they had destroyed at least a dozen of the walking dead by themselves. But that damnable Wizard had other tricks up his sleeve.

Before anyone could stop him, he took control of Valon and forced him to kill his brother. We subdued Valon quickly, but the wizard managed to escape before we could deal with him.

When Valon came to he realized what he had done. Though we were not upset with him, he was furious that he had fallen under the spell. Valon said that he fought with all his might against the wizard’s spell, but could not control himself.

Valon has lived with that failure for 35 years now. This morning I received a poem in his handwriting:

With heavy heart I leave this place,
No longer able to feel at peace.
I hope one day I may earn my grace,
And my mind’s memory of the day will cease.
How long I am gone I do not know,
I may never again see this wood,
And as I turn my back to go,
I do not think I ever should.
With me I take my curse and sword.
And begin with my disheartened pace.
I ask a small request of my lord,
Never once to me give chase.

Now I fear I have lost both my sons. I hope that the Gods favor Valon…

…A messenger from the Temple of Ehlonna came to me today. Someone has stolen The Cursed Sword. I don’t understand. Could Valon have taken it? He went missing as well. I hope for his sake he didn’t take it. The Sword is more trouble than it is worth. It does make a person powerful for a little while, but eventually they are driven insane by it. It is so strange that he should disappear along with a cursed sword…

Character sheet: Valon [Elven Bard]

The Sword of Illiven

Long ago this sword was wielded by Illiven, a great defender of the Elves. At the time the sword was mundane, but Illiven refused stubbornly to use a more powerful weapon. As Illiven continued to grow in power, Corellon Larethian took notice to Illiven and blessed him, giving the sword extraordinary powers. With the help of the sword, Illiven’s power grew even more.

Many tried to take the sword, believing that they could control its amazing power if they could wrest it from Illiven’s hands. However they found that the sword was cursed as well as blessed. Those who tried to use it found that it was no better than a weaker magic sword. After Illiven’s death, the sword was eventually lost in battle and the secrets of its true power lost to all but the gods.

The sword was found again, ironically by gray elves. It was passed down over time, and many discoveries were made about it, though its origins were still unknown. The gray elves found that if a warrior was powerful enough, he could put some of his own soul into the sword and the sword would become more powerful. However, problems were also found with the sword. Anyone who used the sword had strange things happen to him. A tattoo of an elf using the sword would appear on their skin. The wielder’s hair would change color and length. Often the wielder would become possessive of the item, refusing to even sleep without it. It was also very common for an owner to refuse to use any type of weapon other than the sword. It was not uncommon for a user to be weakened by the sword instead of strengthened. More powerful warriors who used the sword were driven insane.

Unfortunately, none had any idea as to how powerful the sword really was. After encountering the curses placed upon it to discourage use, the elves resolved to only use the sword in emergencies. The sword was to be kept in a shrine to Ehlonna unless it was needed.

When Valon first took up the sword, it was a +1 longsword. To others, it looks like a stick with a few leaves on it.

When Valon reached 5th level, the sword’s magic provided “sure striking.” To others, the leafy stick appeared to blossom, and often attracted a bee or two.

When Valon reached 7th level, the longsword became +2 (with sure striking). To others, it now bears fruit in addition to leaves and blossoms, which attracts more bees. Sure to be an annoyance, the sword now hums Flight of the Bumblebee so that only Valon can hear it.

When Valon reached 11th level, the longsword added the “chaotic” special ability. This of course angers the bees, some of which now are really big bees (not to be confused with Bigby).

I’ve been traveling for days since the last town, hopefully i’ll find another soon...I need to stop to make some money for food....The travel has not been very hard thus far I hope it continues to be this easy. I do miss home, but at the same time I am glad I left it behind. I felt it was time for me to leave the place, and the farther away I get, the better I feel. I know I cannot continue to wander forever. I must find a way to make up for my brother’s death, as foolish as it sounds. Maybe someday I’ll be able to go home and look into my father’s eyes and know that I have been forgiven...

Well, my quiet adventure has changed...I’m not sure if it is for better or for worse...

I was traveling down the path today and a huge spider dropped on top of me before I could react. I surely would’ve been the spider’s lunch, but fortunatly an axe-wielding dwarf appeared from nowhere and killed the spider before it could do to much damage to me. I think the spider bit me, but I still felt ok, other than he nagging pain of the bite wound. Along with the dwarf (introduced to me as Ghelt) were 3 others, a strange Halfling they called Trap (I think it was because of his ability to be caught in them) a gnome named Fafnir and an elf named Drusilia.

Fafnir and Drusilia immediatly asked my about my sword, calling it a stick. I don’t understand why, it looks like a sword to me, and it always has before. They even went as far as to make me slash into the spider corpse to prove to them my weapon could cut.

As we argued the other two party members wandered off and were attacked by more spiders and humanoidish creatures. They looked like a mix between goblins and spiders. Ghelt and Trap both looked to be in pretty bad shape when we got to them, Trap on the ground and Ghelt was tring to fight off two of the goblin-spider creatures and a spider. Fafnir tried to put the creatures attacking trap to sleep, but only managed to get one and Trap. I began singing an Elvish warsong I had learned at home and tried to aid Trap. I killed one of the spiders that was attacking Trap, and saw that the dwarf had been caught up in webbing and was being dragged off by one of the goblin-spiders. I caught up to the creature and killed it before it could get away with Ghelt.

After we dispatched the rest of the creatures, I lit the webs that filled the trees overhead on fire, removing the homes of the creatures we had just dispatched from the forest.

The group then followed marks on the ground to a small ravine, which we climbed down. Fafnir, Trap and Ghelt made it down with little trouble, though Ghelt had a scary moment or two, Dursilia needed help getting down, and I made it down into the ravine with little trouble.

Once we were into the ravine it continued into a small area of caves which were filled with our spiderish friends. Into battle we jumped once again. I know I got hit pretty hard by something and Drusilia had to drag me away from the battle. She cast a healing spell of some sort on me and I felt a little better.
She seems to be a capable fighter, but she seemed to be unable to do anything today. I heard her mention something about a curse...I’ll have to ask her about it.

Anyway, we must have fought through more than a half dozen more creatures before we came to a large open area. There was a hole in the wall high above us and we could see a spiderlike creature unlike any of the others we had fought. It used magic to protect itself and attacked us from its hole. We were forced to fight it at range, but one of Trap’s arrows manged to slay it. We found three elf or man-sized coccons and cut them open. Aparently this is what we were looking for, as everyone seemed very relieved. We also found a chest that Trap unlocked and opened (getting stabbed by a poisoned needle TWICE).

Ghelt seemed insitant that we leave to help someone else we had found in the woods. I really would like to rest, but she said he was not in good shape so we needed to get back to him as soon as possible....

...We managed to get out of the ravine pretty easiliy, though the getting the weakest out was a little trouble. We found the person that Ghelt was so insistant on returning to. I understand why, as he was in the same shape as the rest of his company. We used my tent to make a sort of sled to return them to town with.

The return to town (a place called Smallville, and small it is) was uneventful, but once in town Drusilia was called upon to help an old widow who was terrified of “Evil Spirits” in her home.

I am completely convinced that Trap had taken some kind of STUPID pills before we collected ourselves to help the widow.

The Widows house was infested by stirges, not evil spirits. Drusilia instructed Trap to accompany the widow outside and keep her safe. Trap decided to go take the widow outside and come back inside to “help” (spelled H-I-N-D-E-R) the party. As we fought the stirges Trap managed to only shoot (yes SHOOT, with a bow, INDOORS) Fafnir in the rear and stab himself, though the stirges seemed to have quite a taste for him.

After cleaning up the 20’x20’ house, We returned to our homes (and inn) for rest.

Well, its been several days since I bothered to write anything down.

It is rather dull in this town, I have been performing for the tavern customers, and earning quite a bit for a town like this, not that the money is important, but I need to pay for a room somehow.

The party is setting out tomorrow morning, and while I have been invited, my heart pulls in other directions, too. I enjoy the company of them and wish to stay, but I believe that Corellon Larethian has other plans for me. I shall set out with them, but I am unsure whether or not I will return with them.

Well, so far the adventure has gone downhill, for me at least.

We left Smallville yesterday morning, and had a rather uneventful day. We followed our map towards the Barrier Peaks, and as we got closer to them we came upon a small farmhouse, which had beeen looted. We searched the house for clues, hoping that we would be able to find the victims of the attack.

While searching the area we found blood that was still wet all over the place , and recent footprints, some of small humanoids and some of large humanoids.

We spent the night at the house and set off along the path of foot prints the next morning.

Here begins Valon and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

We followed the path to a cave which had skulls on a pole posted outside the enterance. We entered the cave and began through a tiny passage I heard Trap fall and a clanging from out ahead of us.

We retreated out of the cave and set up an ambush for anyone coming out. After a few minutes, Trap got hit by an arrow from the ledge. We dealt with the goblin on the ledge above, and headed back down the passage, with me leading the way. I came upon an ogre and tried to slip past it, letting Ghelt, who was behind me, deal with it (she is a more powerful fighter, after all.) Unfortunately the ogre kept up with me and I got hit by him. HARD. I laid on the ground barely consious, hoping that I would still be help to everyone else, a Goblin hit me, though and I fell unconsious.

I awoke with Drusilia above me and I could still hear sounds of a fight . I got up and followed the sounds. I attempted to shoot an arrow, but the string of my bow broke, and the arrow ended up hitting Fafnir, who seemed to have multiplied into 6 Fafnirs. I promtly gave up on trying to help as I was proving useless as the creature Trap had when I first saw him. The party has now finished clearing out the caves, and we are now set to travel further into the mountains.

It has once again been a few days since I have written. The party seems intent on this map. Trap is convinced that we will find the Heart of Nerull. I think we will find... Well, something worse. We have met up with another adventurer, An Elven ranger named Four Feather. Her hunting and tracking skills should prove invaluable to the party, if she is wiser than what I have overheard from party members...Something about Bears.....

Our travels have been mostly uneventful, but I doubt that they will remain that for long. I hear haunting music at night, wolf cries and today we came across an Orc totem. I hope that we can travel through the Barrier Peaks with minimal trouble...

The last 2 weeks have been quite filled for me. I returned Four Feather’s body to the druids in Smallville, who ensured that she would have a proper burial. I spent the night in Smallville giving a small musical show to the regulars at the tavern.

I left town the next day, and made good time across the plains near the mountains. I managed to get a into the mountains before I had to stop and camp.

I had a strange dream that night in which I was standing before an altar. There was a strange... thing... standing behind it, chanting a prayer to some dark deity, who I have yet to identify. He spotted me watching, and reached for me, as if trying to call me closer. From the floor stood 4 skeletons, an elf, a dwarf, a gnome, and a Halfling. They began to shamble towards me, and I drew the Cursed Sword. I took up a defensive stance waiting for one of those skeletons to attack. As they attacked, I easily dodged their blows, and landed hit of my own, but as the skeleton’s fell, instead of crumbling to dust, it took on a form of the companions I had a just few days before.

Terrified that the dream could be a terrible omen, I postponed my journey to meet them, and traveled instead to the Dwarven fortress, hoping that I would eventually receive word from Drusilia and the others. It seems that I cannot stay out of trouble, though, and was greeted by a gruff Dwarf at the gates. I’ve been told of a Dwarf’s tendency to be distrustful, but this Dwarf most certainly took the award for suspicious. Granted, I suppose the situation he was in attributed to his unwelcoming demeanor.

I immediately realized something was wrong when his first words to me were, “Can you use that weapon?” as he eyed the sword I carried. I found out later that the fortress was under siege from below - Dark Dwarves called Duergar. A little over a week I spent helping the dwarves fight. I can see that as the Elves, the Dwarves have an evil breed that will stop at nothing to destroy their brethren.

I received a message from Drusilia early one morning:

I sent her back a message as quickly as I could:

Been fighting Dwarves of the deep.
Fortunate Elves need little sleep.
Unsure I can get all that dust.
Reply. Will do what I must.

I spent another day fighting that day, though it seemed to be getting to a lull. I asked around about Arun-tosa and Barraktor, but got nothing but discouragement. The Dwarves say that the places are cursed, though they gave me directions, calling me a fool for wishing to travel there. They appreciate my loyalty to my friends, though, and I hope that I will be able to catch them in time.

That night my strange dreams returned. This time however, it was my sword that was on an altar, and it was being blessed by Corellon Larethian. He blessed it and motioned for me to pick it up. When I did, it felt as though my sword was ripping part of my being from me. I woke up almost immediately, and found I was holding my sword, and it felt more powerful than it did before.

I met a human while I was spending my time with the Dwarves. He calls himself Markus. He says he is a wandering sorcerer, and he seems to know some about magical arts.

I have told him a little about what the party is doing and he seems interested in tagging along. I am sure that they will appreciate the help.

I received another message from Drusilia before we set out this morning:

Forget dust; just bring you!
Arun-tosa map proved true.
Arrived via southern mine.
Checking big structures first a shrine.
Comrades’ brains already mush...
Please rush!

I returned a message as quickly as I could, and we set off towards Arun-tosa.

Asked for advice.
Got nothing nice.
Dwarves say Arun-tosa is BAD.
Traveling to, purely mad.
The journey is hard.
But traveling there, this Elven bard.

I have learned much from the Dwarves during my short stay with them. I hope it goes to good use...

And I hope that I don’t reach the party too late...

Nothing like a gigantic fall to wake one up....

The Dwarves were nice enough to offer free teleportation to Arun-tosa, though now I see why. We teleported far, far above the city. Fortunately I managed to keep my wits about me and did cast Feather Fall on Markus and myself. I suppose that will make an amusing tavern story....hmmm....The Tale of the Featherweight Elf...

Unfortunately, we were quite alone when we landed, other than the undead, who had quite a “welcoming party” for us. Markus and I ran for safety...which seemed to be a large “WE ARE HERE” sign in the sky. We met up with the party, who immediately thought Markus was chasing me. They all were ready to attack Markus, though I assured them he would be a help. A halfling fighter, Korin, who joined the party just before I left before didn’t back down, however, and I was forced to stop him using my musical ability. While it is quite potent, I do not care to use it in the fashion that I did. I know all too well what it is like to not be in control of my own body, and I do not have any intention of forcing that on others, unless there is a dire need.

We all decided it would be best to travel back toward the spot where Markus and I landed. Our “welcoming party” had caught up with us however, and we were forced to fight back through them. Thank goodness that Drusilia could destroy many of the creatures with her show of faith alone, which left few for us to fight.

We finally arrived at a tower with doors that were barred by magical runes. Fafnir, who had polymorphed into a small dragon, flew to the top of the tower and returned very quickly, saying that a lich was coming out onto the balcony. Indeed, it was a lich. Drusilia tried to force the creature away by channeling her deity’s power, but the lich seemed quite unimpressed. Markus decided that a lightning bolt would be the best way to force the lich away, but he was gravely mistaken. The lich cast a fireball into the center of the party, killing Markus outright and severely injuring several of the party. Almost the whole party scattered, realizing there was nothing we could do to fight this evil creature. Korin, however, ran up the wall and leaped on the lich. I was unable to see what happened next, but whatever did the brave halfling gave all of us time to escape...

Well, we managed to avoid the lich after Korin’s apparent sacrifice. Drusilia healed up the rest of the party using a relic they found after I left. It is a blessed sword made by the followers of Pelor for paladins to use against the undead. Because it channels positive energy, it can heal someone living. It does look very odd, though, stabbing a companion and making them feel better....

Our group traveled away from the lich’s tower and to the last tower in the outskirts of town. This tower was 40 feet tall and all its windows had been bricked shut. Someone apparently didn’t like sunlight. We argued with Fafnir about going in and against his advice we opened the door. There were 3 coffins inside. I think I know why the windows were bricked now.

We entered the building and dragged the coffins out and opened them. Oddly enough, they were empty. Ghelt and Drusilia headed upstairs, while Fafnir and I opted to stay downstairs. Soon we heard the sounds of an arguement upstairs. Fafnir and I headed up and found two adverturers shackled to the wall. We freed them with a little work and they insisted on searching the tower for their equipment. We found it all on the top floor.

As we were getting ready to come back down, two creatures came up from below. They attacked me and the half-human, and I don’t know if it was just me, but I felt much weaker. Drusilia managed to kill both of them, and we made our way out of the tower and out of town.

For some reason the tower burnt down as we left, and we realized that that half human set it on fire. I swear, the only smart wizard I have met in my travels is Fafnir....

We traveled into the cliffs above the city to rest for the rest of the day and through the night, but the residents of the area felt the need to make a visit during the night. Shadow forms attacked us, and I don’t know how everyone else was feeling, but I felt less healthy after they touched me.

We managed to rest a bit more, and we headed back into the city, this time to the tower in the center of the city. We entered the tower without much trouble, and found the floor not only covered in bones, but a couple feet deep. Inside there were skeletal snakes that that popped up from the bones and attacked us. For some reason, Drusilia couldn’t turn them so we had to kill them by force of arms.

After we had dealt with the skeletal snakes, we headed across the room, and up the stairs on the other side...

We entered another room, this time with a taller ceiling. Inside were two stitched together monstrosities. We (meaning Ghelt) dealt with them as quickly as possible, though we found that they seemed to be immune to magic, and had an extreme strength. After healing ourselves (it is still unnerving watching Drusilia stab people to heal them), headed up the stairs yet again, only to be attacked by a pair of wraiths. Drusilia destroyed them both, and we continued up to an extremely tall room.

It must have been 80 or 90 feet tall. There were creatures shooting bolts and hurling rocks at us from above, from a balcony that ran around the top ten or so feet in the room. I headed straight for the stairs, followed by most of the group. When we reached the top, we found that our attackers were nowhere in sight. We could see a ladder that led up to a trap door, though. I prodded the door with Ghelt’s greatsword, and found a large amont of resistance to the prodding. Fafnir turned the door invisible, and we could see a bar across the door. Climbed the ladder, and it fell away from the wall and towards the long fall from the balcony. Ghelt managed to catch him, and Pockets scrambled up the ladder and back onto the balcony. Pockets opened the door, and we began to argue who should go up. Two spawn of the master started to come down to attack us, but Drusilia managed to destroy both of them. Fafnir sent an illusion of Ghelt up, then Pockets pulled a cat (!?!?) from his person and sent it up. Neither had any effect. Ghelt jumped through the trap door (using Fafnir’s ring of jumping) and Drusilia followed up the ladder as quickly as possible. Drusilia got quite a suprise when she got up the ladder, as Ghelt began to attack her! She dropped back through the small trapdoor, and Aramil scrambled up the ladder, shouting something about creating a diversion. He did, and we heard his two halves hit the floor a couple seconds later.

Pockets tossed up a small bag filled with marbles and a couple flasks of alchemist’s fire, though they seemed to have no effect either. Pockets then tossed a small object up through the hole, and the trapdoor was covered by a mass of tangling strands. Drusilia and I cut through them, and I tried to stop Ghelt from attacking us by fascinating her. It failed miserably, and the Vampire grabbed me before I could drop back down. Corellon Larethian and Pelor seem to have had other plans as Drusilia was able to get the Vampire to retreat from us, and Ghelt shook off the vampire’s control.

We freed a celestial named Aramis from the room we managed to clear, and he helped to heal the party and revive Aramil. He also told us a great deal about the Heart and how we need to destroy it. It ends up that we will have to fight that damnable vampire again. I pray that we can destroy him this time.

No person should take the will of others away completely, and those who do should not be allowed to live, or unlive as the case may be.

We rested a short bit in the tower, but we were urged to leave as soon as possible from the tower by Aramis. He told us to look for a creature named Urkel in the catacombs that are in the north part of town. The party had a short discussion about our disorganization, and decided that having a party leader of sorts would not be a bad idea. I suggested that Ghelt be the leader of the party, though she did not seem to be interested in the task. Dursilia then suggested that I be the leader of the party. No one else seemed to have a problem with the arrangement, so I agreed.

We headed down to the first floor of the tower, and began digging through the bone littered floor in search of….well, anything. We managed to find a trapped trap door in the floor and Pockets easily disarmed the trap and opened the door. Fafnir headed down first, followed by the rest of the party…odd that Fafnir went first…he never wanted to before. We found ourselves in a long stone corridor that headed north and south. Since we were told to head north, we tried to follow the corridor to the north as best as we could. We were attacked by 5 wraiths, which Drusilia had no trouble turning 3 of them, then Fafnir and Ghelt each killed one. I know that we did not win the quick battle with out injury though, as I had been touched and weakened by one of them and I believe Drusilia had been as well, as she did not look as healty as a few minutes before. A few voiced concerns about our ability to continue traveling in the catacombs, but I still felt that we should try to continue on. We did, but were then ambushed by 2 wights and 4 more wraiths we escaped that encounter, but I felt that it was not such a good idea to travel all the way to the north through the catacombs. We headed back to the ladder where we entered, getting ambushed once more by yet more wraiths. We survived and made it back to where we started, with Aramis.

Aramis offered a little more information on Urkel. He said that Arkon had once controlled Urkel, but Urkel had broken from Arkon’s control. We were also told that Urkel was once a humanoid like us, but he no longer is. I remember hearing stories about how our gods are not able to interfere directly with the happenings of the world. I wonder if the angel is not able to interfere, either. It would explain why he couldn’t give us better information. A fter a few minutes, Aramil began to feel like we were being watched, and urged us to leave.

We headed to the north above ground, and found an ancient magic shop. Fafnir found an old iron box, which was filled with a few gems, some coins and a mysterious earring. Fafnir put it on but could not determine what the earring did. I took a look at it and found an inscription of the word cirsus. After putting it on and saying cirsus, I found that the earring was actually a miniature set of thieves’ tools. I gave the earring to Pockets as he was obviously the person who would benefit the most from it.

We continued north, and Drusilia spotted a house that had a sun carved crudely over it. The house was empty, but there was a hole in the back room that dropped fifty or sixty feet to a stone passageway. Fafnir seemed eager to return to the Catacombs, and as much as I would like to, I fell that the party as a whole needs to rest. I do not know if Fafnir realizes this, or if he just has a death wish. Drusilia has been turning the dead away from us all day, she must be exhausted.

We traveled further north and came upon a small weapons shop. I used a detect magic spell on the house and detected something magical, but we were attacked by skeletal bats. Ghjelt was paralyzed by one, but otherwise we managed to make it through relatively unscathed. I returned to the counter and found 3 magical crossbow bolts, which all had a lightning motif carved into them. I believe that they are Bolts of Lightning. I gave the bolts to Fafnir, since I did take the earring that he had found. We are going to continue towards the edge of town, though it is getting towards night fall, and it looks as if the weather is not going to be very friendly…

We rested a short bit in the tower, but we were urged to leave as soon as possible from the tower by Aramis. He told us to look for a creature named Urkel in the catacombs that are in the north part of town. The party had a short discussion about our disorganization, and decided that having a party leader of sorts would not be a bad idea. I suggested that Ghelt be the leader of the party, though she did not seem to be interested in the task. Drusilia then suggested that I be the leader of the party. No one else seemed to have a problem with the arrangement, so I agreed.

We headed down to the first floor of the tower, and began digging through the bone littered floor in search of….well, anything. We managed to find a trapped trap door in the floor and Pockets easily disarmed the trap and opened the door. Fafnir headed down first, followed by the rest of the party…odd that Fafnir went first…he never wanted to before. We found ourselves in a long stone corridor that headed north and south. Since we were told to head north, we tried to follow the corridor to the north as best as we could. We were attacked by 5 wraiths, which Drusilia had no trouble turning 3 of them, then Fafnir and Ghelt each killed one. I know that we did not win the quick battle with out injury though, as I had been touched and weakened by one of them and I believe Drusilia had been as well, as she did not look as healty as a few minutes before. A few voiced concerns about our ability to continue traveling in the catacombs, but I still felt that we should try to continue on. We did, but were then ambushed by 2 wights and 4 more wraiths we escaped that encounter, but I felt that it was not such a good idea to travel all the way to the north through the catacombs. We headed back to the ladder where we entered, getting ambushed once more by yet more wraiths. We survived and made it back to where we started, with Aramis.

Aramis offered a little more information on Urkel. He said that Arkon had once controlled Urkel, but Urkel had broken from Arkon’s control. We were also told that Urkel was once a humanoid like us, but he no longer is. I remember hearing stories about how our gods are not able to interfere directly with the happenings of the world. I wonder if the angel is not able to interfere, either. It would explain why he couldn’t give us better information. A fter a few minutes, Aramil began to feel like we were being watched, and urged us to leave.

We headed to the north above ground, and found an ancient magic shop. Fafnir found an old iron box, which was filled with a few gems, some coins and a mysterious earring. Fafnir put it on but could not determine what the earring did. I took a look at it and found an inscription of the word cirsus. After putting it on and saying cirsus, I found that the earring was actually a miniature set of thieves’ tools. I gave the earring to Pockets as he was obviously the person who would benefit the most from it.

We continued north, and Drusilia spotted a house that had a sun carved crudely over it. The house was empty, but there was a hole in the back room that dropped fifty or sixty feet to a stone passageway. Fafnir seemed eager to return to the Catacombs, and as much as I would like to, I fell that the party as a whole needs to rest. I do not know if Fafnir realizes this, or if he just has a death wish. Drusilia has been turning the dead away from us all day, she must be exhausted.

We traveled further north and came upon a small weapons shop. I used a detect magic spell on the house and detected something magical, but we were attacked by skeletal bats. Ghelt was paralyzed by one, but otherwise we managed to make it through relatively unscathed. I returned to the counter and found 3 magical crossbow bolts, which all had a lightning motif carved into them. I believe that they are Bolts of Lightning. I gave the bolts to Fafnir, since I did take the earring that he had found. We are going to continue towards the edge of town, though it is getting towards night fall, and it looks as if the weather is not going to be very friendly…

It did indeed start to rain and we all felt the need to get to shelter. We headed east a bit to a small tavern, but upon entering found that there was a little too much noise inside to get a peaceful nights rest. The noise did have a very intriguing sound to it though… maybe I could reproduce it for others to listen to. Drusilia forced the creatures away for a short while, and we determined that we should leave and find a better place to stay.

We decided to return to the ruined house with the sun symbol on it, and to venture into the catacombs. As a group we jumped into the 60 ft. deep shaft, and I cast feather fall. We landed safely at the bottom in a passageway that headed East and West. Drusilia noticed a small sun carved into the wall towards the east, and our group headed that way. The hall rounded a corner and led to a larger room, with a ghoul in it.

This particular ghoul was the Urkel that we were looking for. He offered us refuge for the night and we gladly took him up on it.

I had another strange dream tonight. I was sitting in a peaceful glade and Amroth was with me. He said to me “I am with you brother, so long as you have the sword, you shall be fighting by my side. You are blessed by Corellon Larethian to have it, and should you honor it, it shall protect you...”

I pray that this vision is not some demon playing in my mind.

After I woke from the dream, I spoke with Urkel about the history of Aurn-tosa. He explained that Arkon was the last of the city-founding mages who had driven off the Dwarves of Barraktor.

Urkel is a servant of Pelor who arrived 25 years ago to fight the undead here. He was unsuccessful in his quest and was unfortunately turned into a ghoul. By no small feat of willpower, though, he maintained his grasp on reality and his faith in Pelor, and was able to help others who came to this cursed city.

He gave Drusilia the weapon and holy symbol that he had used as Pelor’s servant, and several spell scrolls that he had prepared. Both were of outstanding quality, and he explained that the holy symbol could cast a spell called holy smite.

He gave me a map of the catacombs, complete with all the information we were going to need to get in and out of them.

He then told Drusilia that he had completed his quest and wished to go and meet Pelor face to face. I am certain that Drusilia did not wish to kill him, but did grant his request reluctantly.

After collecting Urkel’s dusted remains, Drusilia placed them in a bag with her wooden holy symbol, and began deciding who to restore health to. She then reopened the bag of Urkel dust and found that it had been transformed into diamond dust, so she took time to restore the health of the whole party.
We then headed across town back to the tower of vampires. Pockets found the trapdoor that the map said should lead to the catacombs, but he didn’t let me know that it had been trapped, so I managed to find the traps…

The first was a gas that sprayed out when the trapdoor was opened. I found it suddenly very hard to move, but then shook the feeling off. Below the trapdoor was darkness that even an everburning torch could not dispel, so Drusilia used a light spell to cut through it, revealing a short 10 foot ladder. Looking back, a 10 foot ladder over a 60 foot drop does have TRAP written all over it, but I stepped onto the ladder and immediately fell 60 ft. to the ground below. Thank Corellon Larethian for feather fall…

The party then sent Aramil (!?!?) next to support me should I be attacked. I would have been much more comfortable with Ghelt or Drusilia…

Of course, while the rest of the party argued about how to get down, Aramil and I were attacked. Fafnir then decided to mention that he had feather fall memorized as well, and the party fell down the hole to help Aramil and me below.

Drusilia landed on top of Aramil (definitely helping him) as I jumped out of the way of the rest of the falling party. Drusilia then leaped to her feet and turned the two creatures to dust with her new holy symbol.

We then headed down the hall only to be attacked by tons of dire rats.
I found that sonic damage works wonderfully against rats (though it does create quite a mess) and I managed to destroy a hallway-full of them. Drusilia handled another hallway-full with a well placed holy smite from that new symbol of hers, and Ghelt cleaned up the few that were not killed by our spells.

We continued following our map to the Vampire’s lair. we found it without much trouble, unless you count the traps that Arimil set off onto the party. we came to a passage with three doors to choos from, one to the left, one to the right and one straight ahead.

The center door seemed the obvious place to assault and we opened the door and charged through. Unfortunately, our opponents had prepared for us and we charged into an ambush!

Many Wraiths dropped onto Arimil and I from the ceiling, touching us and draining away our health. Attackers came from behind us, cutting off any kind of retreat. Things became even more grim when the Vampire appeared, exclusicvely attacking Drusilia. Through Fafnir’s Magic Missles, Drusilia’s Searing Light some teamwork, and a huge amount of luck, we managed to drive them damned Vampire away.

We immediatly began searching the throne room for the vampire’s coffin. We tried an iron door, thinking the heavy door would be used to protect a vampire’s coffin, but as Pockets found out, it was not the case. Iron bars slammed down from the doorway, trapping Pockets in the small room, and an earth elemental appeared. We managed to use ranged weapons and spells, and some poking through the bars, but we managed to kill the elemental and set Pockets free.

We tried the other (wooden) door in the room, and stepped though to find a huge coffin with a vampire inside. We took off his armor and staked him, and Drusilia destroyed his body. We split amongst the party as many of his possessions as we could, despite Ghelt’s protests.

We also checked the rest of the small area we were in, killing several resting Vampire Spawn and finding an old tome for Fafnir to inspect.

As weak as the party was we decided to head to see the “Damned Angel” as Ghelt called it. When we arrived in the center tower, however. the angel was gone. Ghelt was overjoyed at this. We decided to rest here for a short bit and continue on while it is still light.

I hope we can find a way to restore our health soon, as the party is almost all looking terrible...

Finally! We’re out of the City of the Dead!

After our short break in the massive tower in the City, we made our way to the temple. Drusilia, Ghelt and Fafnir had all been there before, but the rest of us had yet to travel there.

We entered the temple and immediatley went into the basement, where we stopped before a seal marked with a visige of Nerull. Drusilia said the seal would steal health from whoever crossed it, so rather than walking across it. I used Mage Hand to send the small key across the seal and into the door. On its way across, the key began to glow, to the point that Drusilia was complaining about the brightness from her Detect Magic spell, then the light faded. Drusilia walked across the seal, and anounced that she didn’t get hurt.

We then came upon three corridors side-by-side with an inscription in the split:

The bold shall be crushed The righteous thwarted The sinister flayed The path best known Is never as it seems

I puzzled about it a bit, and figured that the bold would go straight, that Righteous had a base of right, so the right passage was for righteous. And Drusilia pointed out that sinister also means left. I wondered if we would be immune to effects from a hall that didn’t describe us, so I went down the sinister tunnel, followed by Aramil. Winds started through the passage, and we were nicked by small grains of sand, hence being “flayed.” So, either I was wrong or Aramil is evil (neither is really beyond reason).

Ghelt and Fafnir solved the puzzle, though, realizing that the passage we had just come through was the one we would know best. They went back to the seal and dissappeared, and the rest of the party quickly followed suit.

We teleported to a large room with two altars, one that was surrounded by treasure and a moat of disgusting green goo, and one at the far end of the room that was fountaining blood onto a small black object. The Heart!

Four mummies barred the way, though Drusilia was able to make short work of them. Then, the Lich, Arkon, showed up with several henchmen, and the now distorted body of the halfling Korin. Drusilia used her holy symbol to blind several of the henchmen, and I took off sprinting for the heart. I managed to grab it and started to sprint back. The lich roared in rage and motioned his slaves to attack me. Ghelt managed to block their path, hacking them down as they tried to pass.

Aramis suddenly appeared, attacking the lich with righteous fury. The duel only lasted a few seconds, the lich cast what seemed like 10 spells, then Aramis shreding the lich with his silver greatsword. When the lich died, the power that held Arun-Tosa togather corroded within a few seconds, and the room began to shake itself down around us.

Aramis opened a portal, which we crawled our way through. It teleported us back to the town of Smallville, a blessing for the weary adventurers we were. Aramis restored our health, and we set off back to Smallville for a few days rest before we head to the Temple of the Void to destroy the heart.

I had to gave my cloak to Drusilia, who had fallen into the slimy green moat, and as a result had had most of her clothing eaten away, along with some of her skin (ouch). Fafnir seemed only interested in waving gold pieces at her the rest of the day.

For now we are back to a quiet town, hopefully it will stay that way for a few days, even if we are here....

Of course I would be wrong. Our stay in town was restful for about half the day. I had gone to trade stories with the performers in the carnival, and was just getting to enjoy myself, then I heard people all over the place yelling “Timone.” When I inquired, I was told that Carla Durpin’s son had gone missing, and Drusilia Silverwood was offering 10 gold pieces for the person who could find him. I’ll have to remind Drusilia that 10 gold pieces is a heck of a lot of money for a normal person.

Not long after Drusilia and Ghelt found me and we headed off in search of the boy.
While we were searching we heard a scream, which we ran to. We found a woman (I was told her name was Mrs. Pasten) screaming about the basement eating her husband. We went into the basement, and found a pool of blood, but no Mr. Pasten. The walls didn’t even look like they had been disturbed. Ghelt did notice some minor disturbance, however. Thank goodness for Dwarves. We headed out of town to talk to the Druids, who were aware of the creature, and also willing to help, though they didn’t have any additional information.

We went to Fafnir’s House to see if he had any idea how to deal with the monster, but we only found more mystery. Aramil had apparently found a new familiar, with a toad that would not leave him alone. Drusilia cast a spell that allowed her to speak with the toad, and we found that the toad was Pockets! He had been turned to a toad by an old woman at the Carnival. I am sure it was for good reason.

About then we heard the guard alert whistle, and knowing that something was going on we headed towrds the tavern, where the whistle was comming from. A servant girl had been killed by our monster. Drusilia attemted to speak with her through a spell, but did not recieve any new information.

We then traveled to the carnival, hoping to get Pockets returned to his Elven self, and maybe getting more information. We found an old fortune teller, Zorlla, and convinced her to return Pockets to normal. Pockets took off nearly as soon as he had been transformed back, though I guess I can’t blame him.

Ghelt asked Zorlla abvout the monster beneath the town, and Zorlla looked in her crystal ball and began to tell us what she saw.

A creature seldom seen passes through earth as we do through air. Beneath Smallville are tunnels throughout, with its lair in the center. Its sole purpose is to feed. Light is its enemy, and light prevents it from attacking.

Drusilia seemed impressed and asked about the Temple of the Void. Zorlla’s reply was just as cryptic:

Shrouded in mists... many entrances... not all open at the same time. The next entrance will be to the south, at the highest peak in the Hellfurnaces, in 14 days.

Then out of curiosity, Drusilia asked about her own fortune. I can only describe the reply as grim:

You will be the bringer of destruction to the world. Darkness will spread from your wake. Choose well when the time comes.

We returned to Fafnir’s to find Arimil and Pockets in a heap on the floor. Fingers told Fafnir that they must have been doing some strange mating ritual. Fafnir asked if I knew anythng about it, but fortunately, I did not.

We traveled back to the carnival to see if we could find some items for trade. Boy did we! I found a new, and nicer Mithrial Shirt, and a magic vest that should offer extra protection to someone exposed to disease, weather and other sundry things that can make one’s life not so pleasant.

Ghelt immediatly went back to work to find the creature, beginning to dig in her father’s garden. Fafnir and Drusilia convinced her that we shuld try to use other tunnels that ran under the town. They suggested returning to the Everston Estate, and using tunnels they had found in an adventure there.

I agreed, as that sounded like a faster method then digging a hole big enough for us to travel through.
As we were arguring, we heard yet another scream, this time from towards Fafnir’s house. When we arrived, we found that the floorboards had been torn up, and Aramil was missing. Jacob, Aramil’s toad familiar, was not missing however, and Drusilia spoke to him. She learned that Aramil was still alive, and that he had been taken below the town.

We hurried to the Everston Estate and under it as quickly as possible. We passed through a temple of Nerull, and I could hear a whispering, loud, as if someone were standing next to me.

Feed me. Feed me and I can give you endless power...

Drusilia must have seen me concentrating to ignore it, because she asked if I was alright. I told her I was, though I am unsure if she believed me or not.

After we left the temple the whisper faded once again, and it became easier to ignore it.

We came to a great underground lake. and Fafnir cast Spider Climb in Ghelt so she could walk across the ceiling and retrieve a raft that they believed was on the other side. She brought a raft back, fortunately, and we headed across.

We traveled through the caverns to a great rift, which Pockets headed down into. He called up that something was coming after him, and I lept into the pit, casting Feather Fall on my way down. when I landed I was face to face with a great black glob, for lack of a better term, I attacked it with my sword, but it only seemed to be split into many globs by my attacks. It reached out and touched me, and my clothing an armor disolved off my body. Drusilia manage to kill it with one of her spells, and Pockets lent me a cloak, so I had some clothing. We climbed up out of the cavern, and headed back the way we had come, certain that this way not the way we intended to go.

We returned across the lake, making a small detour into the ceiling; we were looking for other passages that led up, the direction that Jacob seemed to be indicating. The passage we found was a feed in to the cavern that had been blocked off.

It appears now that we will be following Ghelt’s idea for finding Aramil. Oh, well. Guess nothing is ever easy with us...

We returned to town, and I bought myself some clothing as quickly as possible. After I was clothed again, I took the Rod of Absorbtion that I had collected and traveled to the carnival to trade it in for some (hopefully better) armor. I found some magical mithrial armor and a magical mithrial shield, which I traded the rod for. I know the armor and shield will make it a little more difficult to cast spells, but the protection is well worth the sacrifice.

We then returned to the Everston Estate, after we realized that Jacob was still looking in the direction that Aramil had been taken. Drusilia, Ghelt and Fafnir realized that there was another tunnel that we had neglected to check. We traveled back to the estate, and down into the catacombs, this time to a deadend. Drusilia explained to us that the temple had been under attack, and that the tunnel had been collapsed so that the Duergar attackers could not easily attack.

Ghelt went to work trying to clear a crawlspace through the tunnel, and Drusilia began to check out a door blocked by a seal of Pelor. She touched her holy symbol to it, and there was a bright flash of light. When my eyes cleared, poor Drusilia’s holy symbol looked as if it had been left in a fire for a few days! Fafnir realized that the door was guarded by a disintigrate spell, and anyone who touched it would be fried!

A long string of Dwarven curses got my attention, and we realized ghelt had broken through. Not to another side, but through the floor! We quickly caught up with her and found ourselves in a chamber filled with webs and cocoons. We were attacked by several large spiders, and easily dispatched them. Drusilia cast a Daylight spell and a skulking white creature on the other side of the room yelp in fear and scurried away from us as quickly as possible. We gave chase, leaving Pockets to cut the victims in the cocoons free.

After a few seconds, we heard Pockets yell for help, I thought that we must have missed a few spiders. Fafnir and Ghelt rushed back to help, and Drusilia and I heard them yelling for help. We realized the there was a BAD THING attacking them and hurried back.

Fafnir and Ghelt were trapped in a Web and Drusilia tried walking through it and got stuck. I began hacking at it as best I could, and I made good progress, and managed to free Drusilia, before my sword got caught in a web. I lost my balance trying to pull the sword free and got stuck myself. Drusilia moved forward, and her light spell lit up the chamber that had been enveloped by an inky black Darkness.

To my horror we were facing a Drider, and outcast from the Drow Society, cursed to have the torso head and arms of a dark elf and the abdomen and legs of a spider. It disappeared soon after Drusilia lit up the room appering to attack, then dissappearing again. Fortunately, Drusilia managed to kill it with a well placed Flame Strike.

We searched its body and found a letter instructing Kalanaar (the Drider) to steal the heart and to contact the agents of Durll, who apparently is an old nemesis of our party(?).

We then started of through the tunnels, after the white creature...

Today started out well enough. The morning was beautiful, the sun was shining, and nothing was currently eating the party. When we got back to town after leaving the Dim Forest it was apparent that the carnival was packing up and preparing to leave town. There are those who are convinced that the creature that lurked beneath the quiet little town of Smallville is linked to the carnival. It is possible that the creature was just another minion of Durll, the same as the drider Kalanaar. I suppose only time will tell. Pockets suggested that word should be sent to the next town on the carnival’s itinerary.

While restocking supplies for the next leg of our epic quest I sought out the advice of the old woman Zorlla, seeress of the carnival. She was quite helpful and even provided a means to expedite our journey to the Hellfurnaces mountain range in the form of a silver egg. Her only instructions were to crack the egg and its mystical energy would sweep us to the place where we were most needed to be upon the winds of the ether. After rejoining the group an eerily strange fog bank rolled into and through Smallville, disappearing as quickly as it appeared, taking the carnival along with it without leaving a trace that they were ever even here.

During one of the party’s typical spirited discussions in which nothing was being resolved I strangely found myself compelled to crack the silver egg. In a brief moment we found ourselves standing on the brink of a volcano overlooking the hot and desolate mountainous landscape of the Hellfurnaces, the plumes of dark smoke rising from a least a dozen massive volcanoes. The lip that we were standing on looked down into the open maw of an active volcano and the churning pool of magma could be seen far below. The only ways away from the volcanic crater was by means of either a rocky path leading down the outside of the mountain that quickly turned out of sight, or by entering the crater directly. A small cave entrance could be seen in the side of the crater approximately thirty feet down from the edge that we were standing on. Of all the places that we needed to be the most! It didn’t take long to decide which way to go, what with the huge red dragon that seemed to be descending upon us at a rather nasty pace. I looked to Fafnir to try and determine if perhaps he was playing one of his little tricks on the party once again. The look on the gnome’s face was enough to convince me that the dragon was a real enough threat. Pockets quickly drove a piton, from his apparently never ending stock, into the rock. With a rope securely tied in place the screaming, suicidal mass of undercooked flesh that was the party leapt into the volcano. With the aid of feather fall, a little skill, and a wagon full of luck we escaped into the opening of the rock face below. We fled down a narrow passage before the dragon could reach us. The heat within this place is oppressive and it’s hard to breathe.

It didn’t take us long to find our way down a vertical shaft that appears to be a lava flow tube. Hopefully the volcano won’t decide to occupy these tunnels at the same time as us. It was at this point that the party found itself in a cavern with two exits in either direction and pools of hot magma scattered about. In typical party solidarity we chose to split up. With Drusilia, Ghelt and myself going the correct direction and the stubborn, possibly insane members going the other we moved off.

I’m not sure what really happened after that moment. I vaguely recall that somewhere down the passage that we were following we encountered something that my mind refuses to even contemplate... something dark, ancient and evil ... something familiar... something calling to me.…

Well here we are again running for our lives. With mind flayers behind us and duergar ahead of us it looks like we have attracted all kinds of attention down here in the underdark.

It all started out innocent enough with the group wanting to explore some of the other passages with the hope of finding a way around the city of fire creatures that we saw to the south. Of course things couldn’t be easy. Aramil tried to kill the climbdog that we picked up from the carnival. The dog’s wounds healed almost instantly, curious. Ghelt in a rage sliced into Aramil so hard we thought that this could possibly be the end of him. But she seemed to reign in her anger and Aramil lives on to continue his foolish ways. So we went north and took the left passage since we already new that the right led to the outside. I was more than tempted to head towards the fresh air, open sky and the dangers that awaited rather than head deeper into the earth. But deeper we went with Pockets insisting on scouting farther ahead of the group. The passage that we followed seemed to have seen extensive travel. We travelled for what seemed like an eternity before we came to a cavern with three choices of egress. We followed the passage that seemed to have the most travel, which lead us to a cavern overgrown with large violet mushrooms. When we tried to cross the cavern the mushrooms let out the most ear piercing shrieks that lasted for a least fifteen seconds. Obviously this was some type of early warning system for whatever lay ahead. With what can only be described as a moment of divine revelation, the group’s collective intelligence seemed to actually go up and we turned back the way we came.

We retraced our steps back to the cavern and decided to try another path. This one lead to another similar cavern. Unfortunately this one was inhabited by a very large and apparently hungry stalagmite which fired out sticky strands and began reeling in party members. After a fierce battle we overcame this newest obstacle. In its stony maw we found a jade figure of a humanoid with a squid-like head. We quickly continued our journey down another passageway.

This one lead us to a great chasm. Looking into the chasm we could see the river of molten rock sluggishly flowing below us and an opening in the rock face across from us. The only discernable way across was by means of a not too safe looking rope bridge. Pockets moved with a fluid grace across the bridge to the other side while Aramil did the epileptic dance of a puppet with half its strings cut on the bridge, nearly falling over the side several times to a most uncomfortable demise, before making his way back to our side. Wisely, no one else decided to make the attempt to cross as we watched Pockets disappear through the other opening and waited for the screaming to commence.

The party decided that sitting in this narrow passage overlooking the fiery gorge would be a good place to rest as Fafnir wanted to prepare a few spells. It didn’t take long for trouble to find us though as the party was hit by a volley of crossbow bolts from the direction we had travelled. We saw a group of thin, scraggly, grey-skinned duergar reloading their crossbows in the passageway. As Drusilia fired an arrow of detonation down the passage Aramil decided that firing an arrow through the party in a tight confined space would also be a good idea. After the deafening roar of the fireball filled the passageway where the duergar were they wisely pulled back, carrying off their wounded.

It was decided that being on this side of the bridge was a bad idea and through the use of a fly spell Fafnir cast on Ghelt, we were each carried across the churning chasm of toasty death to the other side. Why we didn’t do this sooner so that the party could stay together I doubt I’ll ever know. It was down this other passage that we found Pockets on a ledge overlooking a vast underground stone city. In amongst the buildings we could see humanoids with squid-like heads floating between the buildings. In another brilliant spark of intellectual mayhem the dog ran down into the city at Pocket’s urging and soon came back being followed by two mind flayers. Pockets in his infinite wisdom decided to fire two crossbow bolts at the dog thus revealing our location to the mind flayers.

Thus we are now running. Fortunately Ghelt was able to collapse the tunnel behind us hopefully delaying pursuit. When we reached the chasm we were once again met with a hail of crossbow bolts from the far side. Fafnir easily took care of the problem and in the form of a bronze dragon flew us over to the other side. His usefulness to this party is exemplary. So now we run surely continuing to make friends wherever we go.