The Wrath Of Wraiths

The group awakens in dark tunnel that is part of the secret passage within IceThorn castle.

It is disturbing for Orson, Redwald and Araxie as they cannot see. All they can hear is the rest of the group moving about and talking in whispers getting ready to move out. They hope for the best but plan for the worst.

H gives a very nervous Orson Goosecry a spare short sword. When this does not seem to alleviate the thin man's fears, H gives him his newly acquired magical ring. He tells Orson that if someone gets close to him, he can use the ring to bind them. Orson seems way but the ring helps calm his fears, if a little. To Redwald he pulls from his Heyward's Haversack, a shield and long sword. The man is definitely ready to move out and now bransishes the sword with more than a little skill. Vall takes the time to don his new armor which as he pulls it on, it seems to quiet his whole body and he no longer makes any sound.

Magic Items Corrupted

As they make their plans and ready themselves to move out, they realize that they have not seen their troll friend Jabir. Araxie calls out but there is no reply. Orson is more than a little disturbed that she is making so much noise. He cannot see anything. Vall hands him a torch and then uses a bit of magic to make the flame much brighter. Orson seems again a little more comfortable with this but he decides he will take up the rear. So as not to hinder anyone's eyesight, of course. Not for any other reason, such as cowardice.

As they move through the tunnel Araxie discovers she cannot see out of her right eye and begins to yell out, "I cannot see! I cannot see!". H covers her mouth but it is too late. He is sure that the wraiths or whatever they are have probably already heard. They have only moments to get ready. He drops down and pulls out his rife.

Vall notices from further back that Araxie seems to be agitated and yelling something but he hears nothing from her. He is able to hear the groans of complaint and horror at Araxie's outburst from those right beside him. Very quickly he deduces that his armor of stealth makes it so no one can hear him but he cannot hear anything beyond his immediate vicinity. The armor is not as good as he thought once.

The Wrath Of Wraiths
8,700 XP

Two Wraiths emerge and immediately blast them with ice storm. The daggers of ice shred into them and hail stones rain down on them. H, who was waiting for them fires his rifle but the amount of injury he was expecting does not happen to the specter. It would seem their incorporeal form resists much of the bullets damage. Vall's zombies and ghouls, who were leading the charge, are blasted to pieces leaving little behind.

The battle moves up towards the wraiths as the group tries to maim the wispy creatures. This close to the wraiths though proves dangerous. The wraiths, with a simple touch, seem to sap them of their life energy, leaving them injured and unable to completely heal. H remembers bullets created quite some time ago that he had charged with radiant energy. Firing these into the creatures seems to do much more damage than just the bullets alone.

The spectre that Vall fights turns to him with soulless eyes and he finds the creature so frightening that he cannot move. He watches as his friends around him take wound after grievous wound but cannot find it in his will to move against such a fiend.

Ondine's Final Fight

Suddenly, the undead form of Ondine then emerges from the corridor and he tells them that he senses that Vall, the pretty boy, has brought them the book they had been waiting for. He orders the wraiths to retrieve it and bring it to him. Oh and make sure you make his corpse ugly. I've always hated him and his perfect hair.

Ondine is then taken by surprise as he is shot by H. Angered he flies over to H and lands behind him. He leans down to put his foul hand right through H's back and grabs onto his heart. H fills the deatly chill creep through his body as his life energy is drawn out and into Ondine. Taelis sees this and pulls the damage into himself as H feels his life force return to him.

Taelis, though, now becomes so weakened that he retreats and barricades himself behind a barrior of magical energy. Ondine sees this and becomes incorporeal and moves through the stone wall to another chamber within the keep.

The frightened Vall has no way to fend off the specter as it moves towards him and damages him further while reaching into his pack and removing the spellbook that he had taken from the defeated mage, back on the road to this keep. Damn it. He didn't even remember that he had that book. The specter, book in hand, flies off to his master.

Araxie is surrounded by wraiths so Taelis charges her trident with radiant energy and in her barbarian rage she begins finishing off the wraiths.

These wraiths dispatched, the group rushes off and gives chase looking for Ondine.

They peek around a corner to see a room where Ondine is working on a magical circle in the middle of the room. The see Ondine take the book from the wraith and place it in the middle of the circle while he continues work on the circle.

H charges his bullets with fire damage and shoots the book away.

Araxie charges in and stabs repeatedly at Ondine, her radiantly charged trident ripping Ondine to shreds. "Let's see them bring him back this time!"

The wraith seeing his master now vanquished turns to fly away but is stopped by the arrival of Jabir coming through the door. He shrieks, grabs and bites the wraith. It bursts into a black cloud of vapor that quickly dissipates.

The group examines what Ondine was doing and from Taelis can determine, the circle which Ondine was working on is some sort of teleportation ritual portal. It's location is uncertain but it is far from here.

A New Recruit For The Order

Jabir tells them that he is tasked with watching the little one, Malak, and that the others, Mother and 2 brothers are outside. They are looking for these guys and they are probably going to eat them. The group persuades him once again, with promises of respect and honor as a soldier within The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger. But he must get his mother and his brothers away from the chain bridge. He should go to the main entrance and call them back inside, while the rest of them can make good their escape from the secret entrance. Jabir agrees and heads off.

Vall follows along to make sure he understands but ends up distracting them with a prestidigitation light show.

Waiting for Jabir to distract his fellow trolls, H uses a scroll of gaseous form to enter back into the keep. He enters an area he has not seen before. Here he sees a young troll bowling with a rounded skull. Further along he sees a natural pool that glows with an eerie green energy. He continues along and sees a room where the trolls have collected up treasure in the form of coins from the numerous dead they have attended to.

H returns to the others and tries to communicate his findings via gaseous shapes to varying degrees of success.

After not seeing the trolls being called inside they debate the merits of sending out Taelis to distract the trolls while the others escape. But before they can act on it they hear Jabir calling his family in. His mother goes in while the brothers argue to each other outside.

The Escape Plan
3,600 XP

As they try to sneak across the courtyard to the chain bridge they are spotted by the brothers but quick and creative teamwork creates a swirling black snow cube, with showers of light and the gaseous form of a humanoid emerging from it, right in front of the troll brothers. This causes the brothers to run for the shelter of the keep.

The group takes the opportunity and rushes across the bridge.

On the other side they find their wagons and animals. The donkey is long since frozen to death and the horses not much better but at least alive. They make camp creating a fire to cook donkey meat and tend to their wounds. Some of them will need more than a short rest to fix their damage so they decide to rest overnight. Orson tries to engage the group in betting, even though he has no money, and ends up taking a wager of 100 gold against being a part of Araxie's new crew on her promised ship. He says the next troll out of the Keep will be Jabir.

They wait and sure enough a troll exits to relieve it's bladder and it is not Jabir. Araxie slaps Orson on the back and welcomes him as the first of her crew.

H takes the watch and finds an area to watch over the bridge using his rifle and scope. As the night's cold air makes everyone take shelter in one form or another. H watches. Soon enough he sees a troll figure emerge and begin to cross the bridge. But the complete dark makes it hard for him to see which troll. He makes an executive decision. He fires. He shoots for the foot and hits his mark. The troll makes a startled shout and plummets down into the ravine out of sight.

The others wake and question H. H calls out "all clear". The others decide to fall back to sleep. Some of them hope it wasn't Jabir that was shot at. Regardless they all fall back to sleep quickly.

The Codex Potentia

Some time in the middle of the night, Taelis awakens after his necessary hours of sleep and decides to investigate the spellbook that Ondine was so eager to acquire. He opens the book and the pages are disturbingly like dried skin. The words written in a color ink very close to old, dried blood. The words are written in abysal but they swim before the elf's eyes. Soon he is able to decipher enough of the book that it would seem to contain a way to open a portal to within a level of Hell itself. Taelis starts to feel ill and closes the book. Perhaps he should relieve H of watch for a while. But as he rises he realizes that it is dawn already. Hours have passed in what he thought was minutes.

The morning greets them with sunshine and clear skies. They break camp and begin their journey back to Baldur's Gate. Araxie notices that she still is not feeling well. She has her proper eyesight back but now she feels exhausted. Something is wrong.

Once back in the city, Taelis bids the group a farewell and tells them he will return. He is heading back to his temple of academia. The rest of them enter The Order's keep to return the prisoners to Onthar.

The Reunion
1,000 XP

The reunion is a tearful one where Onthar thanks the group for the safe return of Stool, oh yes and Orson and Redwald of course. Through teary eyes he tells everyone assembled that he is retiring. Life is to short to not share the wonders of the world with someone you love. Yes, he loves Stool. Their love may not be understood by all but he and Stool will share the world and their time together.

Vall nods his head solemnly in approval. He understands forbidden love.

Before his departure, Onthar names his successor. He appoints Maddox as now leader of The Order of the Obsidian Dagger here in Baldur's Gate. Maddox stoicly agrees. He definitely has plans for The Order. It is Wonder Ales for everyone and then Onthar is off with Stool. Stool waves his goodbye and thanks to the group as they walk away, hand in myconid hand.

Maddox, tosses down his untouched Wonder Ale. Enough is enough. They will investigate this Wonder Ale, now that Onthar is out of the picture.

The Wonder Ale Inspection

The group travels down through the lower city to the commercial district and to the house of the Grayslicers. Maddox has learned that the Grayslicers have suffered a fire in their bakery some months ago but soon afterwards changed to selling the Ale created from an old family recipe. Since then they have done tremendously well and are now rebuilding their home and business.

The group enters the home, having to push through a long line of customers after passing a large waiting group assembled outside along the sides of the channel. The channel here is used by many businesses to move their trade goods in the city and out to the docks.

Inside they find a harried young girl, Lily who is serving customers. Araxie jumps over the counter to help herself to several flagons full of Wonder Ale straight from the tap. Little Lily about to protest is cut short by the toss of a gold coin, which she quickly pockets.

Maddox strides right through to the back after inquiring where he may find the owner of the establishment. Lily tells him that father and mother, that is Aldebrand and Parnella, are in the back mixing a batch of Wonder Ale. When he enters the back he sees the older couple, two very rotund people, counting coins and bagging gold. They protest but Maddox, using his new found title and power cuts them short.  They will show him and the others where and how Wonder Ale is made.

After some arguing and failed attempts at negotiation, Aldebrand is forced by the threat of death against him and his family. He relents. He tells the others to follow him. A soon as he exits the building he turns to the assembled crowd and loudly pleads their assistance. "The Order is here to take control of Wonder Ale. Will you allow this?! Will you let the corrupt Order take this from you as well?"

The large crowd becomes agitated and begins shouting at the group and throwing their flagons at them. They press in but are held at bay by the fierceness of Maddox and his wolf. He tries to shout words of consilation and wisdom but they are not headed. He places Aldebrand upon the wolf and tells him to direct them to where the Wonder Ale is made.

As this is happening, Araxie and Vall are inside and little Lily pleads with them to protect her father. He is a good man. They were simply doing what they were told, which is to not ever talk about the making of Wonder Ale. The goblins said no one would understand. Yes, goblins are gross but these one are nice, mostly. Well, the one named snugs is nice and the mother is quite smart, for a goblin. Araxie and Vall tell them that their father will be alright, though Araxie's words are a little unconvincing as she has little talent for talking to children.

After moving up and down the streets of Baldur's Gate, Maddox begins to suspect that Aldebrand Grayslicer is leading them around  in a while pig run. He is not going to show them where the Wonder Ale is brewed. Maddox returns him to his home and places guards around the Grayslicer abode, especially in the alley where they have discovered a sewer grate which has been rigged with a hook to hold the gate up and a pulley system within.

Fixing Broken Things

After returning to The Order's keep they attend some basic housekeeping they now have time for. They inspect their odd magical finds only to discover that some of their mage scholars are convinced that they had been true magical items but that have become warped due to some magical taint. Have they been somewhere where they might have come into contact with a source of magic that has become corrupted perhaps?

They think back to the odd magical pool with the sickly green glow back in IceThorn castle.

Can they be fixed? The scholars shrug and suggest praying really hard to their patron deity. Maddox has already tried remove curse but this simply broke the current curse of both Vall and Araxie but their items, both ring and armor, remained cursed. They would suffer the curse if they donned the items once more. Maddox goes off to his shrine to his god and prays on behalf of Vall.

Soon the armor is as it once was intended. As he shakes the armor it gives of no sound whatsoever. He hands it back to Vall.

Maddox then tells Araxie that her ship has already been commissioned and is nearing completion of it's retrofitting. They have taken The Order's only ship currently docked here in Baldur's Gate, The ship, formerly known as the Mirasandra, awaits a new name and a crew. The retrofitting was to make the ship capable of flight. It has taken the mages 4 tireless and sleepless days but they think they have it figured out. This was not a slight task. H offers to oversee the finishing touches to the ship, he will make sure it is supplied with goods and weapons, as he is able. This simply leaves the crew.

Into The Sewers

The next morning, the guards tasked with watching the Grayslicer home return. There was no suspicious activity. Jensen believed he heard noise from the sewer grate but when they looked there was nothing. The apologize and move off to find a bed and rest.

In the meantime, Taelis has returned back to his temple outside Baldur's Gate. He carries with him both a sample of Wonder Ale and the spellbook he has tried to decipher. He goes to seek advice and scholarly wisdom from his fellows in the temple.

Back in Baldur's Gate the group decides to investigate the sewers below the Grayslicer estate on their own. Vall descends down the ladder once the sewer grate is opened. Below he enters a dry storm sewer. The smell of sewage grows stronger as he walks along towards the sounds of rushing water. He soon comes to a river of slime and filth that flows along a channel in front of him. There are thin walkways along each side of the channel. He walks along the closest one until he comes to a large pit that collects sewage from several pipes and the channel he has walked beside.

Soon, Maddox's wolf pads up beside Vall and the wolf's ears prick up with the sounds of goblin noises and voices. Vall and the wolf hurry back down the channel in the direction they came from. Jumping across to the far side they hide themselves along a darkend wall and Vall uses his disguise skill to camouflage themselves. Soon they see three goblins walking along, each rolling a large barrel in front of them. they are complaining that one of them, Frics didn't deliver the Ale like he was supposed to last night.

They continue along the path that Vall had taken when he first descended into the sewers and past the grate where Maddox stands above. Using his connected senses with his wolf's Maddox follows where the goblins are going while walking above the goblins in the streets. He soon finds himself standing in front of the local whore house, the Whet Stone.

He returns to the grate behind the Grayslicer's and descends when the goblins have passed and returned the way they came. He soon meets up with his wolf and Valll.

Can Maddox let his indignation against Wonder Ale go for now or will he and Vall follow the goblins on their own towards....who knows what they will find in the sewers of Baldur's Gate.

The Day Of The Dead

The group awakens the next day in the icy cold room where the trolls have been storing dozens upon dozens of dead bodies. Some suspect they are being kept for revival into zombies. Vall decides to commandeer a few of the bodies for his own zombie hoard. He performs the required ritual and raises forty zombies and three ghouls. The zombies room begins to get quite crowded so he has the zombies pack themselves like cord wood along one wall.

While the zombies move stiffly around organizing themselves the group debates what their next action will be. Vall uses a bit of illusion and disguises himself as one of the guards and steps out into the main entrance hall. There he sees dozens of men moving about. More than one rushes excitedly about and approach a large barrel-chested man standing shirtless in the bitter cold of the room. Behind him is a robed figure but Vall is able to catch the glint of a metal mask the figure is wearing over his face. This is very much like the metal masks that he has heard some of The Order talk of near the time of the Splitting Of The Order. The guard tells them something that Vall can just barely catch.

Vall suspects that the faction of defectors forom The Order, calling themselves, The Order Of Wend, have discovered that either the guard watch contingency and/or the prisoners have gone missing. He quietly returns to the room to tell the others. The prisoners are told to take cover which they do under the dead bodies. The group decides to use the zombie hoard that Vall has amassed to cover their exit of the room. Vall sends them out and spreads them in a circle which they can slip into the center of.

This massive exodus of zombies out of the cold room doesn't go unnoticed by the large shirtless man. He orders that the guards send the zombies to where they should be and calls for someone to find out who is responsible for making so many zombies at once. This is not the way it should be done.

As the guards approach they grab and try to man-handle the zombies but the zombies resist. They are confused but persist. One guard though figures it out. He shouts back to his leader, "Aion, these are not our zombies!"

Zombie On Zombie Action
9, 000 XP

From that moment on there is no more subterfuge. It is all out battle.

Vall stands in the middle of his zombie army and uses them to attack the guards and uses his own spells to scorch the surrounding guards.
Taelis moves out to stand among the group to boost their attacks and puts up a Wall Of Radiant Fire to protect them against more guards coming in. It crosses the room and keeps most of the guards on the opposite side from them.
Araxie begins her barbarian rage and strides out into the middle of the fray.
H, already in the middle of the zombie circle no longer hesitates, worry his gun blasts will alert the army within the ancient keep. It would seem they know they're here.

H watches as Aion, the shirtless, puffs out his chest and breaths out a swirl of cold misty breath and strides right through the wall of radiant fire without any damage at all. H tries to surprise him by reaching out through the wall of zombies in front of him and grabs at Aion. But Aion is stronger. He instead grabs H and brings his greatsword down on H.

Araxie rushes towards Aion and throws her iron net, shouts the command word and the net turns into a cage, capturing the large man inside. H shoots at Aion several times. Seeing that the man obviously can withstand a lot of damage, H shoots at the greatsword, making Aion drop it.

Aion calls for his guards.

The guards dutifully rush to his aid. Crossing through the wall of radiant fire they are terribly damaged but they run over to the cage and begin hammering away at it with their swords. Soon enough the cage collapses back into a net and they now have to deal with Aion and more guards.

They guards are able to chew through zombies but for the most part the group is protected by the massive amounts of zombies still coming out of the room. This though is now matched with the sounds of more zombies and guards approaching from both the north and south entrances.

New Zombies, Now with Ooze!

Brynn runs to the southern entrance to block  2 guards and several zombies, 3 of which look fresh and drip with liquid that glows a sickly green hue. She blasts them back but soon they are rising up again to continue to approach.

As H is able to fend of and eventually kill Aion, Araxie runs to the southern entrance to help Brynn fend off the new set of zombies that have approached. Brynn's wound where one of the dripping zombies touched her has quickly begun to fester and turn black. The black spreads up her arm towards her neck. Soon Araxie bears a similar wound from these dripping zombies.

Vall's zombie army is soon greatly reduced to just a handful of zombies and still his ghouls. They finish off the remaining guards. While Araxie becomes a zombie killing machine moving from zombie to zombie disemboweling them with her trident.

The entrance hall goes quiet and all that remains is the adventurers and a smattering of zombies under Vall's control. They return to the room and check in on the prisoners. Orson calls out a muffled cry for assistance as he is covered in an avalanche of bodies which he cannot escape from. Araxie moves to him and with one arm grabs him and pulls him free. She walks away without trying to disguise her disgust. Stool asks if they are going home now. Orson tells them that of course they must return them back to Baldur's Gate. He tries to convince them all the while they scavenge what was their fallen comrades bodies for loot.

DM Note:

• Araxie finds a ring which gives her good luck (aka +1 to saving throws) which she pierces through her ear
• Vall finds armor like his own but it is completely silent. (No roll needed)
• H finds a ring of rough iron with a glowing ember inside which gives him the ability to restrain someone from a distance.

An Odd Ally

The group is wounded and out of many of their powers. The would like to not encounter anything or anyone until they have properly rested. They debate while resting at least an hour. Not long after they hear large footstep upon the stones out in the main room. They peek out to see the large troll, Jabir, enter the room.

Jabir loudly whispers for the group to see if they are still there. Seeing their friendly troll companion they exit the room.

Jabir explains to them that whatever agreement they had with his mother, his brothers are no longer abiding by it. It has either expired or is just no longer convenient. He tells them that some are outside awaiting their exit.

H appeals to Jabirs naivety and offers Jabir a position within The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger, that is if he helps them. It is an odd offer to make especially since H does, himself, not belong to The Order. But promises of wonderful weapons and respect quickly convince the troll. He will show them a secret way out.

The Secret Passage

He leads them through the feast hall, littered with food and drink and past rooms with bedrolls upon the floor to a section of the keep with a collapsed wall. Rubble blocks the way but the strong troll makes quick work of moving boulders until a passage way into a further area is made.

On the other side are unfinished natural tunnels through the mountain. They move through darkness for quite sometime having to be careful to avoid falling into thick cracks in the stone floors. They eventually come to an opening back into the keep. Jabir whispers, quite loudly, that they should be quiet as they are approaching where Ondine usually is.

An eerie glow emanates from down a passageway and grows stronger. A glowing spectral figure smoothly slides forward approaching Jabir, while the others hide further back. The figure speaks in a voice only the undead have and challenges Jabir, why he is here.

Jabir mumbles and stutters until he comes up with the lie that he is playing a game with his brothers of hiding and searching. The spectral figure slide back a little further but keeps watch of the troll. Jabir retreats back to where the others are.

The group decides it would be better to rest before possibly encountering Ondine and his undead protectors.   They retreat further back down the tunnels to rest and don their new found magical items.

They hope that upon waking that they will be better able to face either trolls or the undead leader of this keep. That is as long as no one finds them here in the tunnel.

An Old Friend Is New Again

After surviving the attack by the small group knights, scouts and a mage the group moves the bodies and rifles through their belongings. They find the usual weapons, armor and coin. Vall pulls out of the cloak of the dead mage, a spellbook written in abysal. He tries to read the spells but they are incomprehensible to him and make his head hurt. He tucks it away for later inspection.

They also find 5 packs each with a set of winter gear including fur cloaks and boots and a map showing the path they are on as well as markings for two different locations within the mountain peaks. Beside the dead groups encampment they find a wagon with a harnessed donkey which is loaded beyond capacity with supplies. Dried goods, vegetables and other supplies are in sacks, crates and barrels. All of it strapped down to the overburdened wagon.

DM Note: Poor donkey. How the hell is he going to be able to pull this back up the mountain to the keep.

The sun will set soon behind the mountains and the autumn air already has a chilly bite to it, so the group decides to head back to Baldur's Gate to rest before setting out again. They set back now accompanied by the donkey and his wagon.

Why Are You Back!

Once back in Baldur's Gate they meet Onthar Frume, dressed in his night clothes, who admonishes them for returning so soon.

"Did I not impress upon you the importance of the mission? That lives are at stake?"

They assure Onthar that they have indeed been pursuing their mission and have discovered a map which they show him. Onthar tells them one of the markings is of an ancient dwarven keep. Icethorn Castle. Long since abandoned centuries ago. The other marking is an old symbol warning the travelers of dangers at this location. What dangers it does not indicate.

He admits to their good work and calls for Wonder Ale in celebration. Soon a servant is present with six flagons marked with the Wonder Ale trademark, a cartoon dragon. H declines and downs his own rye which he drinks in great quantity. Araxie drinks H's flagon of Wonder Ale.

Once done his rye, H proclaims he is off to find the closest whorehouse and a real drink. He invites the rest of them to join him. They shrug and follow along. Onthar simply walks away as he calls for another Wonder Ale.

This Calls For Wonder Ale (oh and whores)

The group heads off down the road following H who walks with purpose. The streets are quiet and lit only by the occasional warm light emanating from a window. They finally arrive at The Whet Stone. Music and revelry waft out from the building. As they enter the first thing they see is a poster on a pillar in front of them proclaiming the virtues of Wonder Ale.

Immediately, a young woman, who is haggard and sweaty, approaches them and asks how many Wonder Ales they need. H tells her he needs whiskey. She takes a moment to brush a stray lock of hair out of face and looks at him curiously. No, she tells him, how many Wonder Ales. Araxie tells her 5. The woman immediately hurries away and is seen being beckoned by several others asking for more Wonder Ale.

Vall scans the room for an attractive man and finds one at a gaming table. He puts his persuasive skills to use and soon his companion is asking him to stay and lend him good luck at the game.

H sets off to look for the most attractive women in the room and spies a couple off in the back talking to each other. He has to push his way past a scrawny woman who wears too much makeup and a female dwarf with a mangy beard. He introduces himself to the two woman and asks for their services. He doesn't impress them that much and they tell him that they are taking a break and chatting. They gesture to the scrawny woman and dwarf who will more than gladly be willing to help. H shakes his head as well as his coin purse. This convinces them and they head off to a room upstairs.

Araxie is at the table alone when the barmaid returns with the 5 Wonder Ales. She asks for money and is paid well by Araxie. The barmaid, flushes with excitement and walks away backwards staring at the impressive figure of Captain Araxie. Araxie drinks all 5 Wonder Ales and calls for more.


A Noise In The Alley. A Barrel Left Behind.

Taeilis decides to explore the city. He has never been in Baldur's Gate and wanders the lonely darkened streets. As he returns back near the Whet Stone he approaches a dark alley behind the whorehouse and stops as he hears the rolling of something large upon the cobblestones. When he moves towards the sound the rolling stops and is replaced by the sounds of many footsteps running away. When he reaches the spot where the sounds had come from he finds a large barrel still rolling slightly but no one around. Investigating he finds that the barrel is at the rear entrance to the Whet Stone and on the opposite side of the alley, a large grate. Large enough perhaps for a barrel to have been pushed through.

Taeilis tries to upend the barrel but finds it too heavy to lift alone. Instead he takes a dagger and stabs it into the side of the barrel. It takes a couple of tries but finally a small trickle is let out of the barrel and he collects it in an empty water skin. Saving it for later investigation. He then returns to inside the Whet Stone.

The morning is harsh awakening for some. Araxie peels her face off of the table at which she sat the night before. She reaches out to one of the many flagons in front of her looking for any remnants of Wonder Ale. Flagon after flagon is empty so she grabs one and heads off to behind the bar to find a refill.

Vall awakens beside a large barrel-chested man with thick locks of black chest hair snoring beside him. The room is in a state of destruction. End tables overturned. Plants and their pots smashed upon the floor and sheets flung everywhere but the bed. Vall takes time to freshen up before making his way downstairs.

I Only Take What I Earn

H is awakened by the smell of bacon and fresh bread wafting up from the kitchen below. He is naked save for one boot dangling off the bed. He groggily rises and reaches for his coin purse. H notes that it is much to light. Grabbing his belt with its holsters and guns he marches off downstairs. Walking oddly down the stairs in his one boot. He finds Araxie who barely gives his naked body a glance as he begins interrogating her asking if she's seen the woman who robbed him. Araxie shrugs and returns to drinking.

H finally finds her after banging on the door and surprising an old couple getting ready for the day (and perhaps giving a small thrill to the elderly woman who watches as a tall, thin naked man wearing a gun belt) and a boot inquires if they've seen the woman who robbed him. He tries to remember her name but describes her well enough that the old man points out her room and tells H that her name is Pippa.

He interrupts her with her current customer, a young nervous man, but it makes no difference. She says she took what she earned. He enjoyed it. He should man up and live with it. After realizing the losing battle he is in, H retreats calmly to a room of his own...and proceeds to have a quiet tantrum in private.

In the morning the group heads back to The Order's keep to inspect the wagon that they had brought back with them the day before. They find it still in the courtyard where they had left it. Two young soldiers are looking over the goods when the adventurers approach. The young soldiers ask what they are doing with such an abundance of goods from the westerly villages. This probably represents a whole years worth of goods for an entire village. What they would need in order to survive the winter.

The group looks around at each other with guilty expressions. Perhaps they should return the goods to the villages. After dismissing the soldiers, the group debates the merits of keeping such a hoard and decides to leave instructions that it be returned to the villages (or at least its monetary value). But not before removing what they want. So they proceed to unload the entire cart and find some of what they want.

The Broken Dwarven Bridge
6,800 XP

That done they load up and move along using the now empty cart and donkey as well as H's wagon. After a days worth of travel following the lead of Vall, the group learns that they have passed what would have been a fork in the road and a possible decision. But when Araxie grabs the map out of Vall's hands she finds that they are already committed to the mountain pass they are on. So they press on.

Don't Look Down. Or is it look down...I can't remember.

Soon the group is travelling through blowing snow and bone chilling winds. Out of the swirling winds they see a large crevasse in front of them. Joining the side they are on to the next peak is a massive chain, with links the size of Orcus, himself. The bridge looks drarven made and probably had two chains in order to make a proper bridge. That time has long since passed and only the single chain remains. Someone has take the time and effort to lay boards across some of the links in order to make crossing easier. Halfway along the chain someone has setup a small wooden hut which sits upon a single link.

 As they make their way across, a voice greets them from within the small hut at the center of the chain. The words are faint as the wind whips across the valley and any movement along the bridge is hard to see with the swirling snow. After returning the greeting, H is able to place the voice, a fellow employee from back in the company he had left, Honeywell Weaponsmith and Armorer, Floyd Cullen.

Floyd who is an older surly man who never earned his Letter, The honor of marking a weapon of his making with his own trademark. It would seem he was promised the possibility though with the retrieval of H. The company wants the opportunity to interrogate him as to whether he has given over trade secrets to The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger. Rumors have it that he is working for them now.

H protests but refuses to lay down arms. Floyd Cullen decides diplomacy is over. He quickly grabs Taelis and holds a long dagger to his neck and hides behind the elf, lest H is able to see even a fraction of him and fire off a shot. But Taelis uses misty step and moves behind his would be hostage taker.

Shots are fired weapons are drawn and Floyd tosses his long dagger into the air where it begins attacking on its own. Floyd blows a distinct whistle and two hawkfoxes dive out of the air and attack the group. One of the hawkfoxes knock Brynn, the half-elf, off of the bridge and she is saved from a certain plummet to her death by Araxie's quick reflexes and strong grasp.

After taking care of the two hawkfoxes the group concentrates on overcoming Floyd and soon enough he is wounded to the point he begs off, claiming he was only sent here to collect H. He has no quarrel with the others. H feeling magnanimous allows Floyd to leave without killing him. Floyd passes each of the party on his way off of the bridge and he gives them each a pained apology.

Brynn grins widely and accepts his apology and offers her hand. Hesitantly Floyd takes her hand and shakes it...only to have Brynn use shocking grasp and he jerks, spasms and is dead. Quickly she lays him down on the bridge so his body can be picked over before it falls out of reach. H shrugs.

DM Note: Floyd literally had one hit point left. He really thought he had escaped a painful death. Until Brynn.

Brynn quickly scavenges the body and finds two pistols which she hands over to H for perusal. She then pulls out the scabbard for the dancing dagger that was used to inflict much damage to the group. Just as she pulls it out, the dagger which had been hovering above shoots into the scabbard. The group investigates it but can only come up with the fact that it probably needs attuning and a command word. H quickly inspects the scabbard to look for an initial to see who's handy work this is but cannot find one.

While some of the group are pouring over the body of Floyd, Taelis moves onward along the chain to the other side.

Icethorn Castle
5,500 XP

As Taelis approaches the other side of the bridge he hears a guard call out from behind the curtain of blowing snow. "Is that you Floyd?"

Taelis, unable to tell a lie says nothing. H hears this though and attempts an impersonation of the man he has heard speak only a few words moments ago. The guard seems hesitant and asks what all the shooting was for. H scrambles for a reason but can only come up with a piss poor excuse. The guards launch several spears towards Taelis and one guard charges through the blinding snow, appearing right before Taelis as he stabs the spear directly into the elf's midsection.

As the rest of the group rushes up they see, through a constantly shifting curtain of blowing snow, a mountainside terrace which is littered with dozens of bodies frozen and scattered among the ruins of a castle which extends further into the mountain. The bodies are recognizable as some of the defectors from The Order.

H drops to the ground and scans the mountainside ruin through the scope of his rifle, looking for the soldiers through the blowing snow. Taelis uses wave of force to blast the soldier who is impaling him upon a spear and throws him several feet back. His body thumps into the snow and lies there unmoving. Araxie uses a spell to dump several gallons of water on another soldier who begins to freeze in the mountain snow storm. H finishes him off with a fiery bullet to the chest. Brynn and Vall take on another soldier but the last soldier sees the futility of his fight and runs towards the entrance to of the castle within the mountain. He is cut down, his body dropping into the snow but not before his yells have been heard from within the keep.

Trolls Is So Stupid

Soon the group hears the pounding of very large footsteps coming from within. Out of the darkened entrance emerges a massive troll. He squeezes out of the keeps large double doors and then stands, scanning the mountain courtyard. He frowns as he looks at the body of the fallen soldier in the snow before him. "What's goin' on?"

The group assures him that this is just a misunderstanding and that they are they are sorry for disturbing the troll. The troll frowns and calls to someone else inside the keep. He glowers at the group before returning inside. The adventurers are not sure if the troll believed them.

Vall, strides over to a location in the courtyard where the amount of bodies from a past battle is heavy. He stands among them performing motions and mutter incantations until several of the bodies, including the ones just killed a few moments ago, rise at his command.

The bodies from whatever battle occurred prior to the group arriving are frozen solid. Their bodies creak and bones snap as they stand and begin to move about, icicles stick at odd angles on their extremities. Vall marches them up to the keep, the group following close behind. Vall uses illusion to give one of the dead soldiers a voice while he puppets their mouths awkwardly.

Their are two trolls inside the entrance way. One of them was the one that had come out to investigate. The other is dragging corpses off into another room. The recent battle it would seem had continued into the keep. Vall has the soldier speak, 'You see. No problems. We're not really dead. Just a misunderstanding'.

The trolls buy it.

But Ondine Is Dead

The trolls allow them to stay in the entrance hall. It is a large dwarven built keep but from the looks of it, it has been in disrepair for centuries. Broken columns, cracked walls and rubble litter t Brynn befriends the troll named Jabir and from her conversation with Jabir they party learns that:

• the trolls are not the only ones inhabiting the keep. An uneasy alliance has been formed with the band of humans who have split from The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger, the ones calling themselves The Order Of Wend. 
• The trolls have been promised power and control of these lands once Ondine has completed his task. 

"But Ondine is dead" exclaims H.
"Yeah, he's dead." answers Jabir confused.
"So he is dead.", H even more confused.
"That's what I said. Ondine is dead."
"But he's here?"
"Yeah." Jabir shakes his head.

• The trolls hate the humans and one of the trolls, Jabir, lets it slip that mother says that they will kill the humans once Ondine has fulfilled his promise. The party is comprised of non-humans except for H, but he is wearing his dragon mask.
• The humans keep mostly to the feast hall and, by the way, the zombies are in the wrong place. They are supposed to be in the feast hall helping out.
• This takes the group aback a little as they are surprised that the trolls do not seem to be surprised or bothered by the small band of zombies accompanying the group.
• In fact it is perhaps because of the zombies that the trolls mistook the group as part of the Order Of Wend.
• The trolls answer to no one beside Ondine and, of course, Mother.

The group asks if they can talk to Mother. Jabir agrees but will not accompany them, as he is supposed to be helping with the task of moving the dead bodies into a side room for later use.

Brynn tells her new found friend that, not to worry, she will be back and she will help with moving the bodies. Jabir excitedly tells his brother Hoodah, to save 12 bodies for his new friend Brynn to move! Jabir opens the stone doors and allows the group to move through, zombies and all. Brynn looks back at Jabir and Jabir apologizes as he closes the door behind them, "Sorry, humans don't like the breezes"

Mother Knows Best

The group moves through a dark hallway lit by a light spell attached to one of the zombies heads as well as a torch imbued with a magical boost. The group passes a couple of hallways that branch off. One gives off a large amount of aura when Vall uses detect magic. The other hallway is filled with the noise of revelry and the odd sounds of rolling and thumping. The group passes.

Finally they arrive at a point where there is a door on each side of the corridor. They knock on one.

The large stone door opens a crack and the party sees far above them a large eye looking down upon them. The female troll yells at them to extinguish the torch at the same time slams the door shut. The group complies by Vall diminishing the torch to half a normal flame. They try again.

The meet Mother. The tell her they were sent by Jabir and inform her that they too hate the humans and would be more than happy to come to an arrangement by which they rid the troublesome pests from the keep. They find out that:

• Somewhere in the keep is Ondine who is busy with some sort of magical work
• The Order Of Wend keeps to themselves mostly in the Feast Hall and they only answer to Ondine himself.
• The humans have been busy preparing for more of The Order Of Obsidian Dagger to arrive. For which they have been getting the trolls to store the bodies in a side room. 
• When the group asks where they can stay and rest, Mother says they can stay where ever they want. Just not her room. She suggests:
•  the room where they store the bodies
• the radiance pool, but they would have to put up with the noise of bowling for a bit
• and not Ondine's area in the throne room.

After a bit of negotiating they are granted a 24 hour guarantee that the trolls will not interfere in any fight with the humans. They thank her and leave her be.

They decide to check out the room across the hallway before retreating back to the room the 2 trolls were collecting the bodies in. As they crack the door open the waft of warm air, and something else, wafts through the air to them and they hear, telepathically, the screams of a young voice pleading not to eat him.

Stools Return

When they fully enter the room they discover the prisoners. There are two humans strung upside down and a small junior myconid who is screaming, via telepathy inducing spores he releases. They cut down the humans and release the myconid.

One human is Orson Goosecry, chancellor for The Order of Obsidian Dagger. He is a thin gangly man. He has been tortured and ill abused. His hostage takers have been trying to find out where The Order Of Obsidian Dagger has been keeping their money. (as is Onthar Frume current leader of The Order).

The other human has been tortured and beaten to near death. He is frail and barely conscious. Orson tells the group that this is Redwald Spellgaze. He is a First Lieutenant in The Order. They were tricked and betrayed by their friend and superior Aion Tallhelm. 

The young myconid, a mushroom looking creature standing barely knee high squeals with delight as he is rescued. He immediately rushes to and hugs Araxie's leg. Araxie doesn't know this creature but already they are on their way to becoming fast friends. He tells them that his name is Stool. He is the best friend of Onthar Frume. In fact, Onthar had him created from another myconid named Stool, using a cutting and a lot of magic. It seemed Onthar had missed the other Stool so much that he spent considerable resources trying to re-create his best friend.

The large group then moved back through the corridors and returned back to the entrance room and told the two trolls that they could now stop their toils as Brynn would take over hauling the bodies. They excitedly leave, "to not play bowling but to do other chores."

Sleeping With The Dead

The group makes room for themselves in a side room with bodies haphazardly piled everywhere while Brynn hauls the remaining corpses from the main room. As they rummage through the room and bodies they come across an odd clay jar and a necklace which they discover is a necklace of adaptation. Vall uses the opportunity to raise an even larger undead army using the multitude of bodies around him. 

Eventually everyone finds the time to sleep and are awakened the next morning with the sounds of activity in the main room. The Order Of Wend is moving around.

It will only be moments before they realize that some of their men are missing.

The Splitting Of The Order

The group descends to the water below after their battle in the skies with the Dred Pirate Cortez.

They hope to use the debris raining down from their battle and use the cantrip mending to repair their ship. They spend the better portion of the day and stand back to admire their work. It is capable but they have only completed a fraction of the repairs necessary.

They debate about how to best repair the rest of the ship as well as remove the massive amount of water they have been taking on in their bilge since coming to a rest on the seas. But sleep is a more pressing necessity so they take their positions in the ship and try to find rest.

Captain Araxie first must kick out Sang Yu from her bed. Sang Yu complains that it smells horrible in the quarters below. She complains very loudly all the way out of the captain's quarters, along the deck and then to the bunks below.

Lithonnites In The Night
2,800 XP

Sleep has not come to some before their is a sound from outer hull and Araxie notices her ship list in the waters from a change in weight. Soon enough everyone is up as they see long thick tentacles reaching over the railings. They grab for Captain Araxie on one side of the ship and Maddox's wolf companion on the other.  As they begin their battle, the creatures reveal themselves as large crustacean-like creatures. Looking more like boulders or oversized barnacles, the creatures are very resistance to the groups attacks.

It is not until Creed pushes one of the creatures over and sees it's soft underbelly that they find an easier way to kill these creatures. Soon enough they are either dead or thrown off the ship. It is not until they creatures are disposed of that the group sees the further damage these creatures did to their ship.

The next day the group begins their debate anew. What to do with the now extra damage. The eladrin high sorcerer, Taeilis suggests that he can teleport them to his temple which is very close to Baldur's gate, given enough time and gold. It will take him about 5 hours.

The others use this time to scour the ship to remove anything of worth before abandoning their ship. Araxie moves through the crew bunks to find only odds and ends as well as more than few copper pieces.

Rebirth
3,600 XP

Maddox moves through the minting and forging area and finally to the galley. The galley is in a horrible state. Tam, Maddox's ward, does not keep a clean kitchen. He has been cooking for everyone for the past few days but these duties, it seems, does not include cleaning up afterwards. The smell of rot is strong. Moving further forward he approaches a curtained off area. Moving the curtain aside, the smell of rot becomes overpowering. Piles of dead fish and other refuse is piled high.

Maddox stares in horror at the filth. It is then that he notices it move.

He retreats to the upper deck to get Creed. Together they return to the filth pile. It moves again and when Maddox puts he sword into the pile, a large naga rears out of the pile.

It is not as large as the mind control naga that they had encountered in the village but it is definitely related. It lunges at Maddox and attaches it needle lined maw around Maddox's head. Together Maddox and Creed battle the naga but when the worm-like creature breathes out a stinking foul cloud, both Maddox and Creed can hear both the naga and Tam in their heads. They are told to surrender themselves to "the one." They are also commanded to kill anyone who is not of "the one".

Maddox moves back down the length of the hold and first encounters Sang Yu. She at first seems puzzled by his demeanor but her look changes quickly when he slashes down his sword on her killing her instantly. He then moves to his groomsmen. It takes and extra swing for the old man but he too falls under Maddox's sword.

When Creed finally breaks the mind control he sees the naga again for the enemy it is and attacks and kills the naga. The mind control thus broken, Maddox looks down at the carnage he has wrought and screams for a diamond. He holds his old friend, his groomsmen for years and calls for a diamond for a resurrection spell.

No one has one.

Graveyard of ships

Meanwhile, Kame who is swimming in the sea, calls out to Araxie to follow him down to the bottom of the water. She immediately jumps in and swims down following the turtle. Below them is a collection of broken and sunken ships littering the sea bed. Kame doesn't stop there or go in any of them but continues down a small hole in the floor of the sea. They swim into darkness and then the tunnel turns up. They both emerge into a air filled cavern. Araxie climbs out and moves cautiously down a path. From what she can see and hear this system of tunnels probably holds more than a few caves and tunnels. There is a smattering of gold pieces that trails off down one of the tunnels.

Fearing that whatever lies ahead will take more than her and a turtle she returns to the surface. Excited to tell the others she climbs aboard and begins telling them of what she and Kame have found but it falls on deaf ears as she sees the dead bodies.

Maddox tells Taeilis to get back to working on the teleportation circle. They need to get out of here.

A Temple Robbery?

Once the teleportation circle is completed they step through to a temple. It is full of activity of young eladrin students practicing magic. Taeilis tries to get them out of the temple quickly and quietly but Araxie will have none of it. She complains loudly that she is owed the money for a new airship.

She doesn't quite know how much but she shouts out an amount, 50,000 gp.
She continues to harass Taeilis until he finally relents. He ushers them down a series of corridors until he comes to a large circular metal door. The temples treasure room. He uses misty step and enters the room. He procures a large bag of holding and stuffs enough emeralds and gold pieces to make up the cost of a new airship.

How this will go over with the temple is not quite clear but they leave before questions can be asked.

Finally, they arrive back in Baldur's Gate.

Onthar Frume's Wonder Ale

As they enter into the city they pass through what is normally a heavily guarded gate. The lone guard is doing a poor job of scrutinizing people as he finally sees Maddox and Araxie, both high ranking officers of The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger.

Once they tell him that they have been away for some months, they learn that there has been some difficulties for both the Order and the city in general, after the assassination of the previous leader of the Order, Ondine. He explains that Onthar probably would be better to explain.

Once inside the city walls, they notice that there are much fewer Order soldiers as there normally would be. People seem to be in good spirits regardless, if a little bit more rowdy. Creed passes an odd advertisement poster on a wall that catches his eye.

On the poster is the likeness of Onthar Frume's smiling face as he holds a wooden flagon of frothy drink. On the flagon is a smiling cartoon dragon with it's thumbs up. In large red writing at the top of the poster is the words "Wonder Ale" and below Onthar's image are the words, "Onthar Says, "Have one right now!"

Odd, but they continue on.

They approach the lower city's keep and they can immediately tell that something dire has occurred. The large towers of the keep are damaged and burned. As they get closer they can see parts of the keep's walls are damaged and burned as well. Inside the keeps walls they enter a side entrance to a less damaged area and fine a sparsely furnished large room with Onthar at the far end dealing with administrative tasks.



Reporting The Death Of Stool
2,000 XP (for completing the mission)

After informing Onthar of their mission, the deaths of the fugitives as well as Stool, the Emperor and his fire monks, possible prisoners and their various encounters they listen to Onthar as he fills them in on what has happened in the city while they were away.

The Splitting Of The Order

After Ondine's assassination by the fugitives the group was in pursuit of, the Order was split into those who followed the philosophies and practices of Ondine and those who were loyal to Onthar.

Onthar represented the old school Order. The oaths and the discipline.
Those who followed Ondine valued power and the money it brought.

The war was quick but brutal. The followers of Ondine, calling themselves the Order Of Wend, retreating into the mountains but not before capturing several prisoners, some quite important. Orson Goosecry, was the chancellor for the Order and thus knew where the Order's money was kept and how to retrieve it. Anyone else who seemed to know is either on the other side or dead. The Order has no money. There is also a very important individual that needs to be rescued.

Onthar pauses in his oration to call for drinks. A young soldier brings a large platter containing wooden flagons emblazoned on the side with the image of a cartoon dragon giving the thumbs up. Wonder Ale.

Onthar tells them of the miracle story that is Wonder Ale. A small family has re-energized the economy of Baldur's Gate with their amazing drink. A whole industry has been built up to support the drink. Flagon makers, street market vendors, poster makers and distributors. They will begin to export this wonderful drink across Faerun soon. Besides, allowing his face and endorsement, earns the Order a percentage and that is dearly needed at this time. The endorsement is heartily and easily given anyway.

Each of the group takes a drink and finds it the most pleasant and pleasing drink they have ever tasted. It takes a bit of convincing but finally Maddox gives in, despite his paladin beliefs, and he too questions his life long abstinence from alcohol.

A Dangerous Road
10,00 XP

The group then splits going it's various ways as a new group is formed from within the Order for the rescue mission.

H, the newly contracted researcher into firearms and munitions, is selected as is Vall, a warlock.

The new group leaves Baldur's Gate immediately and sets off towards the mountains. It is not long before H pulls his two-horse drawn cart off the road and examines the road ahead. He had noted a whiff of smoke on the wind and senses someone is up ahead.

The others disembark from the wagon, and soon arrows are flying. The group takes cover and tries to determine where the attacks are coming from.

The battle is fierce with many coming close to death.
H uses his red dragon mask to ignite his bullets to great effect as the enemy realizes it is hard to take cover from his newly invented firearm. This does not help him though, when he is banished to a hellish plane. That is until Vall distracts the mage enough for the mage to loose the spell and H pops back to this plane.

DM Note: Best Line Of The Night goes to Araxie "I don't have time for dead people."


With the enemies finally defeated the group assess their damage and prepares to move on.

Abandon Ship

The group returns to the Emperor bringing with them the food, tainted with the Mind Control Naga's eggs. They hold audience with the Emperor but get an uneasy feeling so they make a quick exit to their airship. Very quickly they are surrounded by the Emperor's monks but the group manages to blast their way out and are soon on the way back home, towards Baldur's Gate. They hope.

Using a map that Araxie found in a secret compartment in the desk within the captain's quarters of her ship, She manages, with some help from the others,  to plot a course that will bring them back to The Order back in Baldur's Gate. The journey will be long but they have an airship and gold enough to make it fly.

The days pass and each in the group finds activities to pass the time. Kame, the turtle, approaches Maddox one day to say he is concerned for Maddox's young ward. The boy, Tam, seems distant and speaks often of missing the "oneness" that he had experienced back in the village when several of the group became infected by the Mind Control Naga. Maddox promises to spend time with the boy. Training and focus will bring the boy around again. Soon enough, Tam's mood turns around and the group is treated to breakfast made by Tam every morning. Tam and Kame have longs talks in the netting by the bow every day.

The days pass peacefully until one day they notice a spot approaching them from direction of the sun. Hiding in the sunlight makes it hard for them to discern who or what is approaching. It could be the Emperor's army coming to exact some sort of revenge or control. Soon enough it is clear that it is a massive airship. Easily twice the size of the groups own ship. It overtakes them easily.

As it pulls along side they see a crew of dozens of goblins manning cannons. All pointed directly at their own ship. A goblin fires a bolt trailing a rope across the distance between the two ships hitting the main mast and soon a goblin slides across the rope. Landing at the base of the mainmast, the goblin begins to announce, in a loud and nasely voice, the arrival of the Dred Pirate Cortez. The scourge of the clouds, The claimer of vessels, The owner of the skies.

A handsome blonde man slides across the rope to land beside the goblin and gives the adventurers a choice of disembarking from and surrender their ship or die and the ship becomes the property of the Dred Pirate Cortez anyway.

The group answers with battle.

The battle is long and hard. Goblins fire cannons which rip apart the ship. It takes Captain Araxie all she has to control it while the others fend off a never ending stream of goblins.

Eventually, the group begins to gain the upper hand and takes the offensive. They swing their ship behind and begin to pursue the pirate ship. Most of the crew run aboard the pirate ship and clear away the remnants of the goblin crew. While Maddox confronts the pirate captain after chasing him through the ship.

Finally, cornered the Dred Pirate Cortez seems to have lost all his previous bravado. He holds his hands up towards Maddox and pleads for Maddox to wait. You see, he is not really the Dred Pirate Cortez. He's actually, Alex Swiller. He has just inherited the title and position from the previous Dred Pirate Cortez.

It's the ship and the name that put fear into people. Captain's don't surrender their ships to Alex Swiller.  They will surrender to the Dred Pirate Cortez. His name is legendary and has been for almost a century. He doesn't even know who the original Dred Pirate Cortez. He begins to back away towards the railing as he tells his story. How the previous captain stays on for a bit while they hire a new crew. All the while the old captain calling Alex, Dred Pirate Cortez. Alex has always felt goblins are less likely to mutiny so he chose goblins.

The group begins to tell Alex to stop walking towards the edge of the ship. That's when he tells them that it has been wonderful that they let him monologue for so long. Long enough for his goblin shaman in the engine to complete the ritual that will blow the ship apart. The Dred Pirate Cortez vaults over the railing and plummets down towards the sea.

The group runs to the edge and looks down to see the Dred Pirate falling and turn back to face them and then gives them a rude gesture as he smiles. Creed immediately sends out a Fireball which engulfs the pirate. They watch as a burning, screaming, Dred Pirate Cortez disappears below the clouds.

The group looks at each other and remember something about the ship being blow apart. Then they begin to run towards their ship.

Many can make it across the distance between the ships, either with magic or flying. Vadania has no such skills and is stopped at the railing and looks towards the hole in the back of her ship and her waiting friends. They throw out a rope and Vadania takes a running leap off of the pirate ship which has now begin to glow and swell, orange-red glowing energy beginning to show through the ever widening gaps between the planks.

As the pirate ship begins to blow apart in a fiery explosion, Vadania is able to just grab the end of the rope and hold on. The others quickly begin to reel her back up into the ship.

They stand their, once again in their own now very damaged ship watching the sky and it's rain of fiery debris descend down towards the sea.

DM note:  Level up everybody!

The Village That Became A Funeral Pyre

The adventurers are still in the subterranean cave which now has a gargantuan corpse of a mind naga in the middle of the cavern. It's fleshy corpse spreading out on the cavern floor. The group tries to awaken several of the townspeople who had initially come down here to protect their god but now mindlessly stand there staring blankly.

Maddox tries several times to use his healing paladin powers. Lay on Hands and Lesser Restoration seem to bring the townspeople back but only so far. The healed move dazedly about, confused and unable to speak. Only Sarkosh and Tam, Maddox's squire, are healed enough to come round eventually to speak, if a little confused.

Waking Up From The Dream

Tam speaks of waking from a wonderful dream in which he felt love and togetherness. He says he has never felt a belonging that strong. He looks at his mentor, Maddox sadly and then looks away.

The group is finally able move out of the cavern and up a ladder that was found hidden away in a corner of a small cave. Leading the townsfolk, tethered together with rope, they emerge into a rough earthen basement below a house in the village. They emerge back into the village with the sun setting over the mountains in the distance. They decide to think freshly on their situation in the morning when they are healed.

Araxie follows Nogan to his small tent, where he says he has a still for making his alcohol. If they are going to produce enough alcohol to heal the entire village they will have to get working.

The Incurable Disease

In the morning, Maddox tries every magical healing at his disposal. Each of the townspeople he tries to remove the mindworm affliction from, just becomes more ambulatory but little more than a mindless wanderer. Creed, the Dragon Blade, has seen the seemingly protective effects of alcohol that kept both Araxie and the town drunk, Nogan, from being infected by the mind naga's eggs. He leaves to find Araxie and how much alcohol they have produced.

Araxie awakens and the genasi, looks to find that the amount of alcohol produced during the night is meager at best. She decides that it probably isn't enough to really help anyone. So she decides to drink some of it. When Creed finds her there is not much alcohol left. Taking the meager amount he heads off to heal some villagers.

Pouring enough alcohol into several villagers, in order to induce the villagers to vomit up the worms and eggs seems to make the villagers slightly more aware but they still do not respond to questions. Maddox who is tired and sweaty from his healing exertions, comes over to one of the villagers who have expelled their worms. Holding his hands over one of their eyes and then removing it quickly he notices that their pupils do not respond to light.

Maddox, turns to the others and tells them, with a disappointed look on his face,  he believes the infection has permanently damaged their brains. Barring the healing spell, Greater Restoration, the villagers cannot be healed.

Funerals Are For The Living
3,000 XP ("Saving The Village")

After much debate, it is decided to collect all of the villagers into a house and set it a flame. A funeral pyre to honor their deaths, for truly they are already dead.

The gruesome task takes the group most of the day. During that time they notice that some of the healed villagers cannot be found. They assume that they must have wandered off. Surely, they will not survive long. Already these villagers here, are looking worse. Their skin hangs heavily off their bones. They have not eaten or drank for a couple of days. Soon enough the villagers are crowded into five houses close together.

They make sure that Nogan is present before they light the houses on fire. When he arrives he is already quite drunk but his demeanor is somber and quiet. He knows what the group is doing is the right thing to do.

Araxie and Creed each pick a house and magically set their fires. Araxie with her new found armor producing a fireball which quickly consumes the house in flames. Creed walks into the middle of the house and envelops himself in flames. As he emerges from the house the flames are already consuming the house, smoke trailing behind Creed as he walks.

One by one the houses are lit on fire. Maddox gives a prayer for the villagers as the rest of the group bows their heads with the paladin. Nogan offers up a toast and each of the group drink from his offered cup. As they each take a small sip they grimace at the taste except for Araxie who takes a large swig. Tam smells the foul liquid and shakes his head before passing on the cup without drinking. Maddox does not force the boy to drink.

They spend the night watching the houses burn. The ashes float up into the star filled sky. Each of them spends the night with Nogan who simply passes out in the middle of the street.

A New Airship

The next morning, the group has decided to take one of the airships. They offer to take Nogan along with them. The old drunk refuses. He was born here in the village. This is where he will stay.

Creed flies off to retrieve the crab-like apparatus which is normally used to load the ships at their docks, but has been recently used to kill several villagers. He enters the large barrel-like housing and stares at near a dozen different levers. After a bit of trial and error he gets the machine walking along. Araxie and Valdania join him inside.

Maddox, Tam, Sang-Yu and the turtle Kame make their own way up the side of the cliffs to the docks, Maddox riding his dire wolf companion.

Maybe We Should Read The Manual

After realizing that they have not perhaps, practiced driving the machine quite enough, the group inside the crab-like apparatus find themselves tumbling off the narrow steps that climb the side of the cliffs. As they plummet off the side, Valdania tumbles through the inside and grabs onto a lever. A loud rumbling sound begins and they no longer feel like they are falling.

Creed, offers to go outside and find what's going on. He climbs out to the top and then...flies away.

Inside Valdania and Araxie look at the confusing jumble of levers and with great hesitation, begin pulling and pushing them. After finding the on/off switch for the external lights, they eventually find themselves piloting the device up and over to the top of the cliffs. When they land, Creed simply says that he knew they'd be alright.

At the top of the cliffs they see two of the village's airships. After loading all the valuables from one airship to the airship they are taking, the group moves through the ship examining their newly acquired mode of transportation. In the hold they see the massive block of ice containing an incredible amount of fish. All of the fish, no doubt, are infected with the Mind Naga's eggs.

Araxie acquaints herself with the rigging and the helm. She notices several golden sigils along the deck's railing as well as the boat's wheel. Maddox and Creed find below a crucible, sigil molds and a chest of gold coins. It doesn't take them long to deduce that this is the source of the golden sigils found all over the ship.

This Is The Only Way To Travel

Araxie begins shouting orders to raise the main sail and the rest of the group begin moving about doing just so. Soon the main sail is fully open and fills with a wind that wasn't there before. A large symbol, similar to the golden sigils around the ship adorns the sail writ large. The boat strains at the ropes holding it to the docks. Finally someone notices that they are still moored and releases the boat.

With a rush the boat flies off into the skies, through and then above the clouds. Everyone is exhilarated. Tam runs to the bow of the ship and gives a loud holler. Araxie grins from ear to ear. She has missed this. Missed it a lot.

Maddox and Creed move about the captains quarters and find a shelving unit filled with maps. There is a map currently on the large desk at one end of the room. Creed is able to get a rough course bearing on how to get back to the Emperor's palace. He goes topside to tell Araxie. She quickly course corrects and the ship responds smoothly and quickly.

A Toubled Maddox

Soon the group begins to relax and each finds their own place to be on the ship. Tam talks with Kame most of the time. The old turtle seemingly trying to counsel the slightly troubled boy. Maddox notices but he is troubled. He is worried that all that seems fine cannot be. The village seemed friendly and good but that was not the case. He is worried because his woman companion from the palace, seems friendly and good. Is it not so?

He moves to the captains quarters where he knows she is. He inscribes that ritual circle necessary for Zone of Truth and then knocks on the door. "Tell me you are good. Tell me that you wont betray me.", he demands.

Sang-Yu looks confused and then concerned. This is not like Maddox to question himself or those around him. "Of course not. You are mine.", she replies. Maddox lets the breath out that he didn't realize he was holding. "Ok". He closes the door on her and leaves, as she her mouth was opening with questions of her own.

As night falls they pass over the mountains into the valley of the Empire. Dotted below them are many small villages, the mountains forming a protective ring around the valley. Tam, who has been using the seeing glass at the prow of the ship, calls for Maddox. When Maddox approaches and looks through the metal tube, he sees a village below in the middle of some sort of festival. Several naked villagers, bound hands to feet are being ushered along towards a massive construction of a wicker man at the center of the village. Along the way other villagers toss stones and clumps of dirt at the prisoners yelling at them.

Maddox turns to the others, we must help them.

Any Landing You Can Walk Away From

Araxie begins to land the ship at full speed. What she hasn't acquired yet in airship piloting skills she makes up for with enthusiasm. Soon they are on the ground after making a large furrow in the ground with their keel.

Plans are made, dismissed and readdressed.

Finally they decide to use the ships weapons as well as stealth to enter the village and free the prisoners. Maddox and Creed disembark while Araxie floats the ship up and slowly towards the village. After coming close enough, Valdania activates the two forward spellguns. A thick magical fog rolls into towards the village quickly enveloping half of the village in a fog 10 feet high.

The Festival Of Kasai
8,150 XP

As Maddox and Creed move quietly through the village they soon run up against a fire monk who questions their arrival. The pair pose as visitors intrigued by the village's festival. They are told that it is their festival of Kasai, their fire god. They will be sacrificing these earth monks that they have captured, in Kasai's honor.

Creed, who looks intriguingly like a fire demon of sorts, conjures a flame within his hands and declares he his Kasai, himself. The act is convincing enough for the monk who prostrates himself on the ground. Maddox and Creed move quickly to free the bound prisoners and pull them back to safety between the buildings.

The disappearance of the prisoners is soon discovered and the monks spread out to look for them. Maddox and his spirit dire wolf begin attacking. Creed still uses his deceptive role as the villages diety to get the drop on the fire monks. As more of the village discovers they are under attack, many rush to the center of the village to where there is a huge construction of a wicker man.

Many of the villagers begin climbing inside the wooden statue of a humanoid, occupying is legs, torso arms and head. Someone sets is a flame and as it begins to burn the Kasai Man comes to life. The burning villagers providing their life energy to power the monstrosity. It lumbers down the street towards the group of attackers.

Soon the street is filled with this Kasai Man as it uses its arms to batter the group as it continually tries to stomp on them with its massive burning feet. Maddox and Creed are able to dodge out of the way but Maddox's wolf, Gray, is pulled into the burning mass of villagers inside of one of the feet. He lashes and bites but is unable to do much other than struggle to get out.

Back on the ship Araxie and Valdania have armed the balistas that are on the ship and begin to fire upon the only thing they can see which is the towering, flaming figure of the wooden monstrosity that is obviously attacking their commrades. Bolt after bolt is fired until one hits directly into the things torso and it collapses into a burning heap, the few villages still alive inside, begin to scream as they finally feel the tortuous flames consume them.

The fog slowly begins to disperse as they look around them.

Well, that's two villages they've destroyed now. What's next.

They Say Wine Is Good For You.

The group finds themselves split.

Maddox has moved back through the earthen tunnels to emerge back above the burned out building, in which they had discovered their now dead and burned quarry. As he emerges from the tunnel he stares around him. Surrounding the entire building is, what he supposes is the entire village. Over two hundred villagers stare at him, faces calm and placid.

Become One With Us
650 XP

"Join us. Become one with us.", they all say in unison. The small boy that had so recently badgered Maddox with a multitude of questions and seemed so full of exuberance, walks calmly through the crowd to stand in front of the paladin. He is quiet and calm. He explains to Maddox that he should put down his wandering ways and settle in the village. Here they know only peace and happiness. No one is lonely, angry, sad. They are as one.

The Slime And The Dark

Below Maddox, Gamma and Araxie are moving further through the earthen tunnels. They soon come to an area in which the tunnels become more solid rock. A larger cavern opens up in front of them as they look down the slope to the floor, several feet below them. The floor seems unnaturally slick. Gamma steps quickly and lightly, using his monk skills. As he steps down on to the floor below he finds himself standing in slick mucous up to his ankles. He moves quietly and smoothly through the cavern until he finds yet another larger cavern in which the mucous-like substance becomes less thick and barely covers the floor. He notices a figure moving through the far side of the cavern. As Gamma slinks back under cover, he recognizes the figure as Bhaga, the villager they had spoken to in the village above. He is carry something in his arms, cradled in front of him.

Araxie, standing alone in the dark waiting for Gamma, realizes that Maddox, Sarkosh and the turtle, Kame have somehow been separated from her and Gamma. She waits until she can wait in the horrible dark no more. She yells out for Gamma as loud as she can.

Gamma, who is in the next cavern, hears Araxie's call. Her call is then somewhat echoed above him in an odd resonance. He looks above him to see several strands of thick mucous stretched across the cavern from wall to wall, criss-crossing in an odd looking web. The strands reverberate with Araxie's voice giving her echo a strand other-worldly sound. Gamma sees Bhaga look around and hurries out of the cavern through an opening in the cavern on the far side. Gamma decides to check back with Araxie.

As Gamma returns to Araxie, he finds an slightly angry genasi staring at him. She scolds him for making her wait here in the dark for so long. Gamma explains what he say in the cavern ahead. Araxie asks him if he's noticed that the others have disappeared.

Escape Rather Than Death

Back in the village, Maddox staring at the villagers surrounding him, decides that while he can perhaps make it through the villagers, he would end up killing too many of them. This does not sit well with the Paladin. He casts Command upon as many as he can to flee but something is blocking his spell on them and only one turns and leaves.  He tries to cast again, telling them to kneel before him. A few of the villagers, awkwardly and resisting all the way down, kneel and prostrate themselves. He begins to back away towards the house and the tunnels.

At this, the village seems to move all at once, converging on Maddox and trying to use sheer numbers to bring down the paladin. He easily fends most of them off but some of the villagers bear weapons. One villager, a large barrel-chested man, drags a huge sword beside him. He swings at Maddox. Maddox is able to deflect most of the awkward attacks, the man clearly not trained in sword fighting. Maddox maneuvers around the wreckage of the burned house and, grabbing the rope still dangling down the shaft, is finally able to push the sword-wielding villager over the tunnels mouth. The villager doesn't scream, flail or make any sound as he plunges down the 40 foot shaft.

Maddox jumps down the shaft, using the rope to slow his descent near the bottom. Once on firm ground once more he lets go of the rope and sees the crumpled body of the villager at his feet, the sword laying on the ground. Maddox picks up the sword and moves through the tunnels looking for his companions. He spends several stressful minutes moving through tunnels only to find dead-ends and backtracking. He really should have paid more attention to the tunnels' layout when he was down here. Finally, he come across Araxie who directs him back to the slime cavern where the meet back with Gamma.

Worship  At The Feet Of Okina Hebi
7,600 XP

Gamma shows them through the caverns ahead. They finally come to the cavern with the echoing mucous strands above them. Gamma points in the direction in which Bhaga had moved through. They move to follow.

They enter a vast cavern. The groups dark vision extends only a part way into the vast darkness. But they hear a voice, the voice of Bhaga, up ahead. He welcomes them and hopes they have come to worship at the feet of Okina Hebi. Okina Hebi will show them the beauty of oneness with her. The group asks, what if they do not want to join, can they just leave?

Bhaga tells them that soon the world will be one. Those that are not of the one, will be of the others. The others can only bring discord, violence and seek to destroy the one. They must not be allowed to remain. Gamma exclaims it's not his fault he can't eat anything. That he doesn't even have a brain to infect. Bhaga reiterates, the world will soon be as one. Nothing else will remain. Maddox asks what will they have to do.

A large portion of what they thought was cavern wall, begins to move. With a slick, sucking, mucousy sound, the wall slowly descends until it moves along the floor and rises above them. Before them rears a massive worm like creature. It's back covered in rocks and dirt and it's mouth opening showing a mass of tentacles, each with its own mouth emerging from it. It moves until it is directly behind Bhaga, it's mouth rising to tower above the dwarfed human.

The group hears a voice, whispering and reverberating everywhere. The voice is coming from inside their heads. In an alien sounding voice, they hear, "Join me. Become one. I will bring a world of peace, joy and contentment. No more struggles seeking power or wealth. We will be as one."

Bhaga explains that other's of Okina Hebi's kind have failed to thrive in the empire. Their offspring devouring and depleting the lands nutrients until even they died. Okina Hebi, being the smartest and wisest had found another way. He made an arrangement with Bhaga. If Bhaga would take care of Okina Hebi's eggs and find a suitable place for incubating and growing them, then Okina Hebi would bring the village prosperity and happiness. Bhaga used the villagers themselves to grow the eggs in. In return, Okina Hebi brought peace and belonging to the entire village.

Bhaga says they shall bring that peace to the world. In the holds of their ships are food stuffs they will offer across the world spreading the oneness of Okina Hebi to all.

If You Are Not Of The One, Then You Are Of The Other

Maddox's sense of fiends suddenly flares, as their one time ally, Sarkosh, emerges from the edge of their darkvision, blade in hand. Blades begin to swing.

Araxie rushes at Bhaga, trident extended. Bhaga raises a mesh net that he was holding and throws it towards the rushing genasi. As the net falls over Araxie it transforms into a steel cage. Araxie begins to strike at the bars of her cage. Gamma running at an unnatural speed is able to move behind the large worm like creature and begins to pummel it with his stone fists.

Okina Hebi turns around to bite at the stone golem, catching Gamma within its mouth. The sound of stone crushing and cracking echos through the cavern. Maddox fends off Sarkosh and sends his dire wolf to attack the naga monstrousity. Araxie is finally able to break through the bars of her cage and the cage collapses back into a mesh net upon the ground. She runs at Okina Hebi and pierces it with her trident over and over. Maddox begins to hack at the monster with his new found massive bastard sword. Large hunks of slimy flesh are hacked off splattering to the ground.

Okina Hebi whirls around again to catch Gamma once again within its mouth tentacles and crushes the stone golem until cracked and crushed Gamma falls to the floor dying. As the others continue to hack away at the monster, Okina Hebi then catches Maddox's dire wolf companion within it's tentacles mouth and begins to swallow it.

The group notices the sound of approaching footsteps. Several off them. They come from the direction the group took from the area of the burned out house. The villagers are catching up to them.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Maddox rushes to the side of Gamma and begins to grab as much stone material that has fallen from Gamma and performs the lay on hands magic that he has now more practiced with on the stone golem's form. The stone golem awakens from the brink of death and uses his own magic to heal himself more, stands and returns to pummeling the monster. His final punch moving through the naga's form until the hideous monster falls to the floor, it's massive body spreading out upon the cavern floor.

Where's It's Treasure!?

Araxie excitedly begins cutting into the monster pulling out massive amounts of slime, guts and unknown organs desperately in search of anything exciting. Maddox notices that both Bhaga and the tiefling, Sarkosh, as well as the group of villagers who had just entered the cavern, stand dazed and unmoving. Gamma moves around the cavern looking, for threat or treasure. Maddox experiments with different spells until a spell of lesser restoration is able to revive Sarkosh and several villagers back to their normal selves. The villagers are confused and have many questions but the group has other priorities.

Araxie turns to the others, now filthy and slime coated, and angrily exclaims there's nothing in here!

Gamma suggests she move through the cavern, perhaps there will be something useful somewhere, not inside the monster they just killed. She moves through the cavern until across a 20 foot chasm they see a multitude of dead bodies heaped in a corner, their weapons, coins and other belongings left to accumulate upon the cavern floor. They easily jump across and begin investigating the refuse pile. Gamma approaches a large wooden chest and cautiously moves around it looking for traps or other dangers. Seeing none he slowly opens the chest. He hears the sound of something piercing a bladder of some sort and braces himself when a puff of gas emerges from within the chest. He waits, then shrugs. Must be poison gas. Oh well, that's nothing to him and opens the chest fully to find treasures within.

The villagers, no longer in need of valuables have simply left them here with the bodies of several of the Emperor's monks. The group now spends much time pouring over new found trinkets, weapons and magical items. They test out new weapons, discern the magic of odd items. Finally they divvy the loot and move back through the cavern's many areas.

In one of the cavern's offshoots they discover a ladder leading back to the surface of the village. It emerges into a basement of a small home. The group, aiding the villagers as best they can, move up into the house and find it empty. They discuss what their next action should be. Maddox decides to go back to the burned out house to see what has become of the rest of the villagers.

Finding The Cure
1,000 XP

He finds most of the villagers still standing here. They are unresponsive without the connection to Okina Hebi. There is also a large barrel contraption standing in the middle of one group of villagers who are now laying on the ground dead, several of them crushed or cut in two.

The barrel stands easily 30 feet tall and about 20 feet around. Attached to it are four crab-like legs and two crab-like arms with large claws at the end. Standing, leaning against the machine is the old scrawny drunk, Nogan. He begins to slur his explanations. He saw what the villagers were going to do to the paladin, so he decided to help. He had always wanted to drive the machine, usually used for loading the ships but Walla brothers never let him. They said he wouldn't be able to drive it.

"Who just drove it, yah?!", he yells as he looks down at the bodies. It is then that it hits him that he has murdered several of his own villagers. Tears stream down as he says their names and unashamedly cries. He looks to Maddox and says that he had to do it, didn't he?

Maddox leaves him to his grief. He has the rest of the village to try and save. He begins to do the mental calculations of how many he can heal with his spells before he must rest and how many days it would take to heal the entire village. He goes to find the others.

Gamma, who has followed along, brought with him some of Araxie's wine she had. Curious as to what might happen, he pours some down the throat of the nearest villager. The villager coughs, sputters and then keels over vomiting upon the ground. The vomit is comprised almost entirely of small white worm-like creatures that wriggle and wither and shrink before Gamma's eyes. He repeats his experiment another time with another villager with the same results.

He turns to the others and smiles. Tada!