» Realms Calendar / Campaign Timeline     » Amassed Loot     » Monster Roster     » Current Party Stats    

November 4, 2006

Keep thinking Flin...

Flin's Journal

Where to start, oh yea … when we found the zombie things … wait no, the ally. The group of us went to the dock ward to wait for bad guys. I think there was meant to be a plan, yet in hindsight there was none.

We found a junction that seemed dark enough to have some mischief, yet close enough to people to get some passers by. We all hid, and I don’t think I know where half of them were, yup that is the team work we have. After a while a drunk human came down our little road, this was just what we wanted. Quietly three shadows came out of no where and as I saw it, some Hin where earning a living.

Sadly, as they pulled daggers to convince the man that he did not really want his coins, my comrades decided to play ambush the ambush and started shooting the rouges. I did not join in until something odd happened, the rumors I heard were true... wererats. Two of the Halflings changed from in front of us, then proceeded to attack my friends. I attacked the one that had not changed and heard my little voice. See I have an inner voice, it can be a big help, but usually only points out obvious blunders. Right then the voice was saying ‘Flin you are not a fighter.’

The rouge I battled was no fighter either, but we gave it our best shot to make it look good. About that time a couple green hands reached out from the darkness of the alley and grabbed the human. The wererats turned and ran, rumors are not true, they are scared of some things.

We all took off into the ally to give chase; we found to zombie or ghoul or some-things taking the human. The dragon-thing attacked the one and told me to get the other, the other had the human and was running away with him. I gave chase down some more alleys then to a sewer grate. Strange, I would have thought the wererats controlled them, but now I know they fear these creatures.

About this time the flying light girl, I really need to learn their names, flew down next to me and we without talking agreed to go after the human. Down the grate we went. After some distance we came to where the path divided, left and right. We talked it over and decided to go opposite ways and come back if we find anything. She pulled a statue out and summoned her bird to travel with me. I like that bird, maybe she will give it to me.

Well, as I traveled off by myself, I did my best to calm Totem’s nerves, and to block out the inner voice. ‘Flin don’t go alone’. Well, I did have the voice, Totem and the bird, how could I be alone? I followed the path for some distance then one of the creatures jumped out from nowhere and attacked me. ‘Flin you are not a fighter.’ To late it was attacking me. I took the chance to fight it, and even used some of my tricks. Moments later the creature was on top of me and paralyzed me. Off the bird flew— great, it is a bird of cowardice.

The creature grabbed my body and dragged me back to his lair, and then I got the pleasure of watching and feeling everything as it began to eat me. ‘Flin, you are not a fighter’ was the only help I could find. I asked Totem for help, but he said he was trapped in my backpack. Typical. What is the use of having a friend that does his best to not exist?

As I began to think I was to watch my own bitter end my friends came to the rescue. They killed the creature and healed me enough to get me moving. I really need to learn their names. ‘Flin, they can fight, why don’t you let them fight next time?’

It was then we heard cries from down one of the passages out of the room we where in. After seeing the creatures hunger first hand I was eager to help. We went down the next tunnel, three of us where okay, the dragon guy had to crawl. Come to think of it, the zombies had to crawl too. Very strange, but then again, I don’t know much about them.

We came to another room when my voice said ‘Stay in the tunnel’ and I agreed. I let the rest of the group pass me. There were some humans chained up, very odd. One of them seemed dead but like it was on some cue or something it began to raise up and attack. The dragon guy got the chains loose on the three living humans. One human ran down a random tunnel, another went the way we told him to go and the last followed us after we killed the zombie. Zombies zero, us three.

We went back up the tunnels only to find the room I was dinner in was now in use again. Some zombies where eating the one human that ran the way we told him to go. I dowsed them with oil from light girl’s pack and was going to light them when she turned them with her holy symbol. Behind us we could hear the rest of our group being chased by more zombies. We helped them out of the tunnels and we began to run. Well... they began to run, I had some revenge on my mind. I borrowed two more bottles of oil from light girl and got ready.

‘Flin, you are not a fighter,’ shut up stupid voice, I have them trapped. I smashed the oil in the tunnel the creatures where coming from I waited until some of them were in the oil and I lit an arrow and shot it into the oil. Poof the flames lit up my foe. Revenge is sweet. ‘Flin you are not a fighter.’

I watched several burning zombies try to back out of the fire, I helped them by shooting arrows down the tunnel at them. It was the least I could do. It was too fun when I heard some noises behind me. ‘You forgot the two that the cleric chased away.’

I nocked another arrow, lit it and shot one of them catching him on fire, then pulled my sword. ‘Flin, you are not a fighter,’ if I could dig this voice out of my head with a rusty spoon right now I swear I would do it. How tough could it be, one is on fire and the other will be alone against me? As the one attacked me and the other put its flames out I realized I could be in trouble.

The creatures attacked and paralyzed me for a moment, a moment they continued to slash me with their claws with. ‘Flin you are not a fighter’ Hmmm... the voice might be right on this one. The second I regained movement I pulled a feather from my cloak and held it between the two offenders. Their dead eyes seemed to notice this was not a normal attack, this made this so much better. The corner of my lips curled as I gave the command word and a great tree grew forth between my foes. In less than the blink of a Beholder’s eye the tree pushed them against the walls of the room and through. I was unable to avoid some damage too, but it was truly a sight to see. Moments later my friends returned having noticed that I had not followed. I can only imagine the sight, they entered the 20’ by 20’ room to find a great tree had grown fully sideways and was sticking out each side of the room. Lots of debris was on the floor and two feet sticking out from under the tree trunk. And to boot, I was laughing as loud as I could. My voice was right, I just had to learn how to listen.

After a long speech from the Gnome who I believe is named Roywyn or Wynny, they helped me out from under the tree and we headed up to town and to a cleric. I believe also that I am becoming more comfortable around them. The two days in quarantine made that easier. Soveliss is the dragon guy, provider of my ale and food, and some sort of thief too. Light girl is named Seren and she is funny. She did not like being held hostage by the clerics. Me, I had a blast. I had food and got to sleep all I wanted. Then when the clerics would come in to check on us I would create soap in my mouth and pretend I was turning into a monster. The first two times the clerics pulled holy symbols and tried to turn me. It seems their sense of humor was very short lived.

Eventually we were let go and offered some work from the city, who seemed happy we found out what their problem was, yet they did not want to pay us for what we did. No, they wanted to pay us for what they want us to do. We can get some in advance for equipment, so we got some stuff. And then we all agreed to have one night of rest before we went back into the sewers.

I suggested we go the Three Pearl place we saw earlier. Maybe my key has something to do with it? I know I need some ale to try to forget this day for sure.

Posted by Jim at 09:37 | Flin’s Journal

November 7, 2006

The Lurking Fihyr

Roywyn's Journal

Kythorn 9, Waterdeep

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.

Posted by Kristin at 23:58 | Roywyn’s Journal

November 12, 2006

Roywyn's a Genius

Soveliss's Journal

Well, we did discover what happened to the missing people a little sooner than I thought we would. Not long after we all were hidden around the intersection, a drunk human stumbled by. Just as he reached the center three shadowy forms emerged from the darkness. They were either Halflings or gnomes, and they were going to rob the guy. I figured we weren’t going to get much tonight so I shot one hoping to scare them off. I know I wasn’t the only one with that idea; another bolt came from the other side of this intersection and hit a different thief. That is when the thieves turned into wererats. The first thing through my mind was that these creatures were trying to increase their numbers. We all fought them until they sniffed the air and ran off. I looked around for the drunken human and watched green hands drag him into an ally.

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.

Posted by Fred at 15:37 | Soveliss’s Journal

November 14, 2006

Chasing Mysteries

Seren's Journal

We hadn’t settled down in our hiding places for very long, it seemed, before a drunken human came stumbling down the street. We watched him pass by, then, we saw three small shadows detach themselves from the walls behind him. The cloaked figures closed in as he lurched to a stop, noticed them, and merrily blessed the “little folk” in Tymora’s name. Unfortunately, the figures responded to the drunken cleric’s words by drawing daggers on him, at which point Soveliss and Roywyn shot two of them.

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.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————


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.

Posted by Kate at 00:10 | Seren’s Journal

November 16, 2006

Play Dead

Roywyn's Journal

Kythorn 9, Waterdeep

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...

Posted by Kristin at 23:07 | Roywyn’s Journal

November 18, 2006

I am not happy with myself.

Seren's Journal

We sat in the Three Pearls nightclub, looking around and listening to the acts. Soveliss ordered food... again. Roywyn’s bat told her to tell me that moths are attracted to my glowing skin, which was how he managed to eat one by mistake. I patted the bat on the head and told him to relax, but the little thing just chittered to itself until ‘Wyn took it off on a tour of the room, listening for tidbits of gossip.

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...

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

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?

Posted by Kate at 00:24 | Seren’s Journal

That old feeling again

Flin's Journal

I would like to explain how we bravely fought our way into their lair, but I would be a liar. We once again engaged the sewers in a game of hunt and seek. The only bad part was that we seem to have found the trap not the gold.

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.

Posted by Jim at 21:31 | Flin’s Journal

November 19, 2006

Wake Up Call

Soveliss's Journal

“Wake up Soveliss.” A hushed voice I vaguely recognize sounds so far away. I dream of the past few minutes over and over again, crawling through the sewers to help my friends. I can see myself again being surrounded by these ghouls and then from nowhere a ghast appears and hits me hard.

“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….

Posted by Fred at 07:58 | Soveliss’s Journal

November 26, 2006

Discombobulation and Debigification

Roywyn's Journal

Kythorn 9, 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.

Posted by Kristin at 22:39 | Roywyn’s Journal

November 27, 2006

How quickly things change

Flin's Journal

As my senses returned I looked around and found my comrades chained to the wall. We seemed to be in a room otherwise alone. The only light was a soft glow from Seren; the party looked desperate. As I got up to go help I realized that for some reason I too was chained to the wall. Seeing this as unacceptable I recovered a small blade I kept in my hair and began changing the situation.

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.

Posted by Jim at 15:05 | Flin’s Journal