So Many Planes

The adventurers have escaped being stranded in the astral plane. They move through the library, now in tatters, in silence. Rook seems especially off. As he moves through the library he seems to look for something but is unable to find anything, since the book have most of their knowledge and power removed by the arcane entity which they have just defeated.

The Evil Eye

Smallfang sensing something is wrong with Rook casts detect evil and sees that the eye that Rook has inserted into his eye socket, replacing his own, glows brightly evil and tendrils of evil now are spreading around it into the rest of Rook.

Something nags at Rook and he immediately leaves the keep. The others, now knowing the Eye of Falazure is making him evil, pursue but Rook takes form of aarakocra and takes to the sky. Katya quickly takes to the street weaving and dodging her way through the crowds eventually taking to the rooftops in pursuit. Smallfang strides right through the crowd and his intimidating demeanor parts the crowd in front of him, a wave a awe proceeds him. Hope and Lirath shrug and follow as best they can.

The City Library....or....If It Burns, We Burn It

Rook flies until he finds the city's public library. A large stone two story building in the middle of a large courtyard. He enters the library, a quiet sanctuary of learning. A few scribes attend to their duties while metal automatons go about their business of sorting and filing books upon the shelves. He shouts to the nearest scribe. "Where are the books regarding Venca?". The young boy stammers in fear and flees. But the boy is not fast enough for a magic missle. As the magic bolts hit him in the back he is flung to the floor dead. A female human scribe who witnessed Rook's cruelty tells Rook that they are restricted books and are locked away in the offices. Rook kills her with a fireball, setting fire to the bookshelves.

As the others finally arrive at the library they are blocked by a large stone slab which fills the doorway, thanks to Rook's illusion made real. Smallfang strides up to the library casting detect evil looking for Rook. He doesn't spot rook but sees a well dressed gentleman giving coins of silver and copper to poor children glows brightly evil. Smallfang, intolerant of evil, grabs the man and carries him along with him towards the library and then up upon the ledge of the second level. Looking down into the library through the windows he sees a large fireball flare up and begin to burn the bookshelves.

Hope casts disintegrate upon the stone slab blocking the door and walks through, followed by Lirath and Katya. They all soon begin to chase after Rook while Rook lobs firespell after firespell in his wake, the library now turning into a blaze. They chase Rook until he dives into the far office, after using his vision to see a hidden room below the office with books behind iron chains.

Rooklandia

Rook pulls back the rug in the middle of the room to expose the hidden door to the room below. Dropping down Rook looks for and finds the book regarding Vecna that he has come for. He then pulls from his satchel, the rod of security and gives it a twist. The runes that run its length align and glow with energy. Rook is transported into a lush world alive with people and vegetation. Mountains in the distance are bordered by a large ocean. Pasture land surrounds a large castle. People greet Rook with enthusiasm and love as he strides towards his castle.

Rook spends the next few months in this land catered and loved by the people of this land. They realize they live only at the whim of Rook. For as soon as he leaves, they will cease to exist. He earns the love and respect of a select few, especially Leroy the young boy who attends him, by giving them a name. He uses his time to learn and transcribe spell after spell into his own spellbook and reads the book he has taken from the library regarding Vecna learning all he can about the man who became a god. As well as taking care of and talking to his copper dragon's egg which he places upon the shore of this world's ocean, trying to incubate it.

A Dragon Is Born and The World Dies
2,000 XP

One day nearly at the end of his stay, Rook is by the ocean's shore and hears the egg begin to crack. With care he aids the young dragon from the egg and together the spend the last few days in this world, the dragon learning all he can from the world and from Rook. It is a quick learner and is not absolutely trusting of Rook's intentions.

Then when his days are done within the sanctuary world of the rod, Rook gathers the population with his courtyard. He tells them that they all have souls and will be taken, upon their deaths, to the Raven Queen. Most are enraptured, arms raised in praise to both Rook and The Raven Queen as the world around them quickly begins to dissolve. At the end many weep for the lives they no longer will have and among it all stands Rook impassively, with his boy companion, Leroy who looks up to him at the last moment with the unfinished question upon his lips, "Will I really...."

Then he is back in the hidden room with the young dragon.

The others are there lying in wait. It has only been moments that Rook has been gone. Not even a mere breath has occurred in his absence. They surround him and Smallfang is able to pounce and grab hold of him. But after talking they tell him they know something is wrong and they only wish to help him.

He convinces them that he is simply looking to return the eye to it's rightful owner.

With that they agree to travel with him to where Vecna, a great mage and now god, was last known to be. But first they must travel to his own plane of Eberron. They agree.

Into Eberron
5,000 XP (just 'cause it was so much fun)

Rook, a changling, hails from the world of Eberron. A world from a different plane within the material world. He is able to fashion a tuning fork, with the frequency of his world as an illusion and then when it is just right, Rook turns it real. When he strikes it, the hum is different to that of the last tuning fork he made and the world disappears in a glow of white. When the glow fades, they stand in the midst of a bustling city.

This world is drastically different from the world the others are familiar with. The city and its population is a mixture of technology and magic. The darkening sky of the approaching night is filled with the neon glow of lights and the arcane flashes of magic in the shops. They travel via a monorail train which hovers above a track of smooth rock. The populace of the train is a mixture of all races. None minding much the ratag look of the outworlders.

As the train moves through the city of Sharn, the train's passengers dwindle at each stop until there is only the most rough and disreputable collection of individuals. The announcements through the cabins of the train change in tone. The disembodied voice warns the passengers that this will be the last stop before entering the lower city. The warning repeats ominously and the group makes their way to the exit.

Lirath approaches one, who has many cybernetic implants. Lirath asks where one may obtain such a fabulous eye of technology such as his. The large man pulls back a mechanical arm which makes a whining whir increasing in pitch as it stores energy until at its peak the man unleashes it against Lirath's face. Nose crooked and bleeding, Lirath makes his apologies and the group exits the train.

The Super-8 Of Sharn

Rook, escorts the group to a building much like an inn but made entire of smooth stone and metal. Inside an unattended multi-barrelled weapon scans the room and the group goes to the counter to obtain rooms. They are given tags which must be prominently worn, lest the gattling gun take them for solicitors or loiterers.

They take shelter in their room while Smallfang pushes one of the large beds up against the door. This world is interesting but not very inviting.

In the morning, the group gathers in the center of the room and Rook again performs the planeshift spell and concentrates of the place where he has read that the worshipers of Vecan made their last stand, Tovag Baragu. They are transported back into the world of Faerun.

Tovag Baragu

They stand among a circle of towering towers of rock forming archways. The group moves about them and soon enough they discover runes running the length of the tall pillars of rock. After examining them and pushing arcane energy into them the group discovers that they can activate them. It would seem that they have not been in use for centuries if not for millenia. The grounds appear to have been the site of some ancient battle.

Perhaps the archways were a means of escape or a perhaps a trap.

They activate one portal at a time after which they deactivate them by disturbing the runes.
Smallfang takes lead entering each archway as it is activated.

In the one he enters a world under water. He finds and swims to the surface but has to race back to the portal when several sahuagin give chase. Another portal leads to a world filled with floating farmland tended by orcs. And one is a world filled with a world whose time is vastly faster than this world. Seasons, decades, centuries perhaps pass in a matter of moments.

The archway portals are a maze of planes. Which way to go?

The Library Of The Arcane Entity

The group stands around the magic pool of resurrection which has been fouled by some dark magic long ago. Rook decides he will use his magic, as strong as he is able to muster to try and dispel the magic that lies within it. Rook reaches into the weave and pulls at the magic within the pool. The sickly green glow from deep within the pool, which seems to arise from hundreds of feet down slowly fades. Soon enough the pool lies quiet and unremarkable. It now is only a shallow pool of only about a foot deep.

The Eye of Falazure In The Wrong Hands

As the group decides the course of their next action, Rook retreats slightly down the long hallway to look at his new treasure. It seems to call to him. He pulls it from his bag of holding and looks at it. It is a large black sphere, with only the hint of a orange glow in the shape of a oval iris surrounding a thin pupil, deep within.

The groups discussion is halted as some of them hear grunts and groans of pain from Rook's direction. They only see Rook's back as he is hunched over with his hands to his face. Smallfang approaches and turns Rook to face everyone. It is then the group can see what Rook is doing. He is clawing his own right eye out of its socket. He holds his eyeball still attached by the thin string of optical nerve still connecting the eye to its socket. They stare in horror as the sinew is snapped and the eye detaches. It is then they realize what Rook is doing. With his other hand Rook holds the Eye Of Falazure.

Smallfang tries to grab for the eye before Rook can do the unthinkable. But Rook is too fast. He slips the large orb, which shrinks as it approaches it's new home. With a pop, the Eye of Falazure has repleaced Rooks old eye. The group stands back as Rook acclimatizes to his new eye. It spins around in it's socket seeming to look in all directions. Rook's vision eventually, coalesces into a new type of vision. He can see with truevision as well as he can see through thin wood and rock walls. The x-ray vision is disturbing at first but he soon comes to enjoy it as he gazes at the group.

Rook also feels an ancient magic grow and begin to spread from the eye into his being. The eye grants him incredible magics. But as he feels the magic begin to spread through him, so does the influence spread to his mind. Rook might have been a little reckless before being tempered only by some moral vagueness of trying to to be evil. This moral compass is now gone.

Confused by the new events, the group flounders for only a bit until they realize they should return Tithe, one of the Order's clerics, back to Baldur's Gate and their keep. Abigail Alebottom, agrees to accompany them. Anywhere is better than here. She is keen to see what has become of the world.

As they make their way back, they soon realize that they have forgotten to take care of the horses and wagon that they used to get here. It will be a long walk back for some.

The Return Of Tithe To The Keep
1,000 XP

Finally, they arrive back in Baldur's Gate and as they enter the keep of the Order Of The Obsidian Dagger, they are met with cheers as they see the group return with the much beloved Tithe. It takes a bit of convincing from Hope, the bard, that the group really deserves a hero's welcome for this mission and soon the group is receiving hugs and slaps on the back. All except, Lirath, who many still fear and loath for his part in Tithe's abduction.

The group, wanting to maintain their status of returned heroes, decide to escort Tithe back to her quarters, before Lirath can make anymore ill thought out actions that may cause a disturbance. Once Tithe is back in her quarters, Hope closes the door and as the group stands in the hallway outside the clerics door. Hope decides to inscribe a glyph of warding upon Tithe's door so that no harm may come to her. But just as she is pulling at the weave to push magic into her newly inscribed glyph, the magic slips awkwardly from her and she feels herself change. She no longer hears or sees or feels quite the same.

The others see after the flash of light fades, instead of Hope standing at the door they see a small potted plant sitting on the stone tile of the floor. The group stares at each other in horror. That's right. Magic cast in the keep has been off, to say the least. Now what?

Rook with a sly smile casts speak in tongues to converse with Abigail, the half-orc. The magic cast goes awry and a blast hits everyone in the hallway, including the potted plant, that is Hope. The pot shatters and the plant lies shriveled and dead upon the stone tiles. It then transforms back into the unconscious form of Hope. Smallfang uses his god given power to heal her.

The group moves out of the keep into the courtyard in hopes of escaping the wild magic surges that occur within the keep. Again, Rook casts the spell again, and again he feels the spell slipping as he casts it. Rook feels the energy building up. It will cause him harm if he holds it, so he looks around and sees Lirath. Rook releases all of the energy, in the form of lightning, and casts it at Lirath. With bright flash of arc lightning and the sound of thunder, Lirath lies dead upon the ground.

When the dust settles and the smell of ozone in the air dissipates, Smallfang approaches Lirath's body and heals the elf.

Exploring The Library

Realizing that whatever has affected the weave of magic within the Order's keep has grown, the group questions a few of the Order's members and find that the problem had started off in the lower levels, where the library is housed. It started off with members seeing odd sights out of the corner of their eyes, the arcanic lights flickering and  disturbing sounds It progressed to the point where people went missing and now no one will venture into the library.

Rook sends an illusion of himself down into the library. He is able to see the library in shambles with many books tossed upon the floor. He hears voices and moves towards them. He is able to see with  his newly acquired eye through the thin walls of the library. Moving about the shelves of the next room are two fox-like creatures dressed in robes and wearing eyeglasses on the ends of their long noses. The two arcanaloths go methodically through the bookshelves seeming to be looking for knowledge and magic they can pilfer. They discuss their findings with each other until they look up and seemingly through the shelves and the walls to wear the illusion of Rook stands. Their conversation halts for only a moment and then they discuss the qualities of Rook's illusion. They think it is a fair illusion, not entirely without some skill. Passable.

Rook deems it time to return upstairs to the others and let them know what's going on.

Arcanaloths In The Library
2,000 XP

The group gathers together and decides that this disturbance in the weave cannot be left to grow as it has done in the past few weeks. More than a few of them discuss the problem of not being able to reliably cast spells down there but eventually the group descends the stairs into the library. The library is dark with sputtering arcanic lights and random tears in the fabric of the plane appear and disappear. Some tears large enough to fall through some small enough just to be able to see through. On the other side seems to be a dark, star and mist filled infinite sky.

Rook tells them the room where he has spotted the arcanaloths. They move into the room and as they move along the massive bookshelves, several of the group encounter the arcanoloths. Hope tried to talk to the aranaloths in hopes she can find out what is going on. Who are they? What are they doing here? Are they responsible for what is happening to the weave here?

Hope finds out that the arcanaloths have come, attracted by the large collection of knowledge and magic items housed here, when they sensed a tear through the plane which they could cross into. They seek to collect up the knowledge before it is sucked away. They are definitely not responsible for what is going on in their world.

An Odd Current

Katya, meanwhile is fascinated by the slight current of air which seems to be pulling in everything in a particular direction. She spends her time making observations by dropping various items of differing weight and making notes on the results. While she pulls a book of the shelf as a source of a piece of paper to observe, she sees that most of the books words and letters are being pulled off the page. Some of them in a jumbled mess along the sides of the pages. Eventually she discovers that all things, including the words on all of the books are being pulled in one particular direction....deeper into the library.

As Katya tells this to the group, Smallfang has Katya point out which direction everything is being pulled towards, and he strides in that direction. Coming to a pair of large doors, Smallfang whips them open and the current of air pulling everything increases dramatically. The group moves hesitantly through with Smallfang in the lead. The weave casters hang back trying to avoid using their magic.

The rooms architecture flows from that of the library into unfamiliar rough rock as the two planes begin to blend together.

The Shabti Librarians
7,800 XP

They are soon blocked by several stone statues. They are olive colored statues in the form of humans wearing loin cloths and wearing jewelry around their necks and arms. They tell the group that they may proceed if they intend to give all of their magic and knowledge to Azim, the All Knowing and All Seeking. The group is not so sure they are willing. So they, one by one, take on the statues. The statues retaliate and throw down their arm jewelry, which quickly transform into massive snakes which attack.

Soon the room is quiet again, with only the sound of rushing air flowing deeper yet into the library.

They walk deeper into the library. They find themselves in a vast chamber with a large glowing orb floating in the middle. It is sucking all of the energy, knowledge and just about everything else into itself. Smallfang approaches it and inspects the object.

Smallfang sees a form, a human form, within. It looks to be Azim, the great grand nephew of the great mage Armakan Amun-Ra. The Order had some time ago sent a group to help Azim regain access to the Soul Spire, the tower of the assumed late-Armakan Amun Ra. Pieces of imagery flash through Smallfang's mind. He sees Azim being sent away from the Soul Spire by the not-dead-at-all Armakan. Azim blamed The Order and set out for revenge. He sold his soul to an old gnome woman who's magic shop appears whenever and wherever she wishes.

Azim and The Arcane Entity
2,900 XP

Smallfang now sees through Azim's eyes. He has acquired great power and knowledge but know faces death several times a day. He has sold his soul and assumed he would have a lifetime of being able to gain knowledge and power enough to fend of the old gnome woman but it would seem she now is trying to kill him constantly. "Accidents" constantly befall him and he is surrounded by chaos which threatens him at every move. In desperation, he peforms a spell ritual he is not prepared for and is turned into this arcane entity. It's only purpose, that of which was foremost in Azim's mind at the time of his death.

Acquire knowledge and power...and seek revenge on The Order.

The arcane entity releases barrage after barrage of magic missle-like attacks and tentacles of arcane energy. The group has to contend with it's power attacks as well as the growing rips in the fabric of this material plane. When the arcane entity is finally defeated and Azim's soul is released, assuredly to be claimed by the old gnome woman.

Now with the arcane entity defeated, the rifts begin to tear wide open. Each of the group begins to fall through the tears and begin falling through a dark star filled sky. As they oddly land upon a rocky ground, they are disoriented and have trouble finding which way is up. Moving is an odd combination of moving their limbs and willing themselves forward.

The Astral Plane and the Mysterious Starcallers

At one point everyone is pulled through and they witness several robed creatures floating towards the largest tear in the plane. Orbs of energy orbit around the creatures heads as they converge upon a tear. Lirath approaches one and attacks it. It shrugs off the attack as one would fend off an annoying insect. It hits back hard and tells Lirath to leave them to their work of healing the universe. The rest of the group leaves them alone.

But with the tears quickly being healed and closed off they decided they need to get back to their material plane. Hope and Lirath use dimension door to escape back into the library. Katya, Smallfang and Rook are soon trapped. That is until Rook produces an illusion of a tuning fork. He concentrates on the illusion. Forming the fork in just the right way that is is of the proper frequency for the world they were just pulled out of. When he believes it is just right, he forces it to become real.

With a quick strike against the heel of his hand, the fork rings true and he uses planeshift and they too are back in the library.

Behold My Greatness

The group catches their breath outside of IceThorn Castle.

They decide that moving through the castle seems like certain death, with several massive trolls inside as well as possibly a beholder. So they decide to follow where the few gazers had fled in retreat. Each find their way up the mountain side. Rook, in the form of an aarakocra. Smallfang atop his griffon. Hope casts fly upon herself and the cleric. Katya simply scales the side of the mountain as though simply strolling along a garden path.

Into The Mountain

Nearer the top of the mountain, Rook stops them where he had discovered the small hole that descends into the mountain. Much to small to fit any of the party, Rook sends his raven, Allan, down into the tunnel. The tunnel, smooth as glass and nearly perfectly circular, descends straight down several tens of feet, turns a few times until it finally descends straight down into a massive cavern.

Moving about the cavern, Allan sees several statues. Each is a creature poised in various states of horror, attack or surprise. There are several humans, a few elves but the vast majority of the creatures are dwarves. After all, this used to be a dwarven stronghold eons before. Many of the statues are moved together to form odd scenes, set together as a child would play with toy soldiers. This may be the beholders lair. Rook produces the illusion of a silver dragon and using his formidable skills transforms the illusion into a real dragon. It will only last a minute but if the beholder is there, the dragon is sure to attack it.

While they wait, the group moves over the mountain looking for more of the tunnels, as Smallfang had also discovered others. They finally discover near the mountains top, a massive tunnel over 15 feet across and glassy smooth all the way down which extends down into darkness.

Rook descends while Hope descends by rope. She looses grip and lands on Rook. Together they land at the bottom of the tunnel which turns horizontal for, again about 70 feet. Then descends straight down again. At the bottom is a pitch black large space. One by one the others arrive and they descend into the large cavern below. This cavern too has a few statues too. There are also hidden in the darkness several large cages. As the group moves about exploring, they discover the statue form of Lirath. They also discover that within the cages scattered about the vast cavern, are an odd assortment of rare creatures. A drakkon, a massive snake like creature whose head resembles a dragon. A massive dinosaur as well as smaller creatures such as cows and a collection of dozens of kittens.

As the group examines the ornately decorated cave, its floors and walls are finished with a glossy sheen and intricate patterns carved within, a voice comes from above. Alien and severe sounding. It asks who dares intrude upon its private realm. Its sanctuary. Creatures of such baser quality. They do not deserve to be witness to its greatness.

Thech The Beholder
13,600 XP

The voice comes from near the ceiling but the ceiling extends into the height of the mountain such that they cannot see the source of the voice. The battle begins and Hope is caught in a weave of magic that holds her and raises her into the air until she is eye to massive eye of the beholder.

Thetch, the beholder is angered at their intrusion and their audacity. To think they have, without permission or grovelling, they have entered its private chambers. Hope is hit again and again with damaging spells until she falls dying. Rook, casts greater invisibility upon himself and flies up into the air, making sure to stay out of the gaze of its main eye, as wherever the eye turns magic fails.

Katya and Smallfang, still upon the ground end up fighting the creatures released from their cages. Smallfang is finally able to frighten the drakkon enough that it flees down a tunnel, while Katya climbs upon and brutally claws the dinosaur until it lies dead upon the glassy floor of the cavern.

Meanwhile, Tithe, the cleric sees Lirath, standing across the room in statue form. She runs to him and casts a greater restoration and his flesh returns to normal. He is shocked and surprised at the situation but quickly comes to the realization of the battle and begins to cast damaging spells. Unfortunately, the first thing he saw was the stampeding kittens running towards him, their only thought is escape from the fierce creature which snacks upon their brethren. He kills kitten after fluffy kitten until there is only a mass of fur and gore upon the floor.

DM Note: Not nice Lirath. Not Nice.

Finally, Smallfang, flying upon his griffon, casts banishment upon the beholder and is able to hold his concentration long enough for the spell to take permanent effect. The beholder wont be returning anytime soon. They heal Hope and move about the cavern looking for loot. And loot there is.

DM Note: Totally screwed up on this one. First the beholder was looking in the wrong direction and not focused on the flying dragonborn. This would have negated ANY spell. Second, I didn't read the component costs of the spell. It would seem you would have needed to find or craft an item that was "distasteful to the creature". I should have made it so you would have to look for or make something after figuring out what that item was. But......poof.....beholder banished!

The Eye of Falazure

Among the gold, silver, silk, rare art pieces, an a rod of security, they find a smooth orb almost a foot across. It is dark Eye Of Falazure. A crystal orb said to have been the eye of the god dragon Falazure, sibling to Bahamut. Falazure is said to have been tricked out of his eye by a powerful mortal seeking to become a god. The eye Falazure exchanged for is said to have slowly made him made insane. Being the god of undeath and decay he is worshiped by shadow dragons and undead dragons.
but an orange glow emanates softy from within. The orange flair of a vertical pupil glows very slightly inside. After everyone carefully inspects it they believe it is the

The group now moves through the various tunnels and caves that have been carved out of the mountain by the beholder's disintegrate rays. They discover the cavern that Rook had left his illusionary dragon in. There are many more statues here. Many of them look ancient and weathered. They examine many until they discover one that does not look as old as the others. They have magically restore the creature back to life.

Abigail Alebottom
2,000 XP

The half-orc female that quickly comes to life with a warcry looks around in puzzlement. Between the groups explanations and Abigail's last memories, she figures out her predicament. Her clan had come to destroy the scourge that had been terrorizing their lands. Abigail, turning 17 years old had been allowed to join them. She was incredibly proud and stood side by side with her mother as they went into the monsters lair. Abigail, bearing the banners of her clan watched in horror as everyone was killed, destroyed or turned to stone. Finally, she was the only one left so she dropped her banner, picked up a battle axe and charged. That is the last thing she remembers.

The group quickly invites her along to leave with them. They find her a suitable weapon, after she admits that battle was not in her training. She is a proud tailor. She is the one who creates the colors of her clan, the banners and ceremonial costumes. She thanks them though with gifts of her own to give.

A Bronze Egg

Rook looks through the treasure they have newly acquired and hands her a substantial amount of wonderfully colored silks. This impresses her very much and she in return gives him a item she retrieves from her satchel. A large bronze egg. Is This a dragon's egg. She is unsure. It has been in her family for generations. But seeing as she is the last of her clan. She feels she can honor them best with her skills as a tailor and the silks will aid her in that.

Moving through this cavern they find other tunnels leading down as well as a couple of staircases, one going up the other going down but blocked by a massive slab of rock. This rock is a different color and texture from the surrounding mountain rock. But there is nothing anyone can find to open the passage or even with everyone pushing, can even budge it.

Sounds of Battle

The group makes camp by moving several statues making a makeshift barricade on one side of the cavern. They settle into the cramped space and set Rook's raven companion, Allan, to watch through the night. Several hours in the voice of Allan inside Rook's head awakens the changeling. Allan says he can hear the sounds of battle beyond the odd massive stone slab at the bottom of the staircase. Sounds of yells, grunts and metal clanging. Rook tells the raven to continue to monitor it but to let him sleep otherwise.

In the morning, Allan reports that the sounds went on for some time but eventually died out.

A Brittle Floor
4,600 XP

After everyone makes preparations, the group moves out. They choose the tunnel that leads down. At the bottom of the tunnel is a small cave about 40 feet around. As they cross it the floor beneath crumbles as if it was only thin slabs of rock made to look like floor.  Most of them plummet down. The rest watch as the ones in the water far below now fend off leech like creatures with long thick tentacles. The tentacles grab hold of Lirath and Hope. They are soon being pulled under the water towards what looks like a gaping maw lined with jagged and sharp teeth.

Spell after spell and several spears later, the creatures are defeated while Smallfang's griffon is used to swoop down and retrieve the near dying adventurers.

Signs Of A Viny Battle

After drying themselves off they continue down the tunnels until they arrive at a long corridor a couple hundred feet long. The walls are lined with hundreds of dwarves are turned to stone. These statues are ancient, their stone worn and eroded by time. As they approach the end of the tunnel they find themselves back in the dwarven carved castle. There are signs of battle here. Bodies of trolls lie scattered and torn apart. Many still with thorny vine growths holding the pieces of body lining the floors and walls.

The group follows the vines as they seem to grow thicker as they leave the castle down another circular tunnel. They follow until the vines become almost unpassable. Katya stops pulling and cutting the vines when she hears a groan from just ahead. A face turns to her. It is Jabir. He is being held in the middle of the tunnel by his vines which protrude from his body and cling to the walls of the tunnel. He is in pain. Massive damage can be seen all over his body. He speaks, with great effort, to the group. It would seem that he is still trying to be a hero. He has heard the trolls speak of killing off the intruders.

Lirath turns into ethereal form and flows through to the next cavern. There are several trolls here and many more dead ones. Bodies litter the floor as they have through the rest of the tunnels and castle. The remaining trolls yell out to Jabir. They don't want to kill him. He was their leader. If he walks away they will leave him be. They look to be reading for a charge. Jabir does not look like he can fend off another charge. Lirath returns to the group and tells them of what he saw.

The Song Of Jabir
5,000 XP

Hope approaches Jabir. She holds his bleeding and injured face in her hands. She tells him that he can still be a hero. Songs will be sung of his deeds. She will sing them herself, as she begins a song speaking of the noble troll who overcame so much to become what he always wanted to be. A Hero.

The song moves many to have damp eyes, if not outright tears. Jabirs gives a pained smile and then charges into the far cavern. The group waits with pained expressions. No one moves or speaks as they listen to the sounds of pain and death ahead. When all is silent they finally move in.

They can see all the trolls are dead, including Jabir. Jabir hangs lifelessly held only by his vines which spread out before him. He hangs arms held out from his body, messiah-like. His life given to save others.

The group moves solemnly onward.  At the end of the cavern, they find a massive stone slab. It is a different texture and color than the surrounding mountain rock. This is the stone slab that had blocked their path before. This is the other side of it.

Blocked By A Magic Stone Slab
1,000 XP

Again, they investigate the stone but cannot find anything to move it. Rook prestidigitates the dust and muck from the stone. The now cleaned stoned reveals words carved into it.

I've little strength, but mighty powers; 
I guard small hovels and great towers. 
But if perchance my master leaves, 
He must ensure he safeguards me

The group ponders this puzzle for a bit before they begin shouting command words at it. Finally, Lirath says the word "Key" in common and then when nothing happens he says the same word, this time in deep speech. The stone wall rises, disappearing into the recess above. The group moves through and moves about. It would seem they have been here already.

DM Note: That's what you get for going in through the hidden back door.

The Befouled Pool Of Restoration
DM Note: notice how I stopped using the word taint

Finally, they move back through IceThorn castle looking for the restoration pool. They eventually find it in a long wide corridor. This was obviously a revered part of the castle long long ago. The corridor is constructed to bring the occupants focus to the radiant pool at the end which is raised upon a dais.

The pool emits a magical glow. Long ago it probably radiated a healthy magical color. Now though is gives off a sickly green color that seems to churn the stomach just gazing upon it. The group debates how to handle this dangerous site.

But not before some of them attempt to collect some of its foul waters.

The Brain Behind The Army

Making their way up through the mountains towards IceThorn Castle, the group finds themselves eventually standing on the ancient courtyard ruins on the opposite side of the castle. One remaining chain, each of the links weighing several thousand pounds and almost 10 feet thick, is the only bridge to the other side.

As night settles swiftly, the cold mountain air fills with swirling snow so the group decides to make camp on this side of the chasm. Safely away from the troll filled castle on the far side. Rook takes time to cast mirage arcane upon a large swath of land so he can later contort the land as he sees fit. Katya climbs a tree near the end of the bridge and lays on the branch and watches for movement on the bridge or on the far side, though the blowing snow hampers her vision.

A Storm of Snow and Rocks
5,000 XP

When Rook is finished casting the spell he conjures a small shed to shelter him from the weather and steps inside. His peace is quickly broken by the frantic knocking on the door. Smallfang and Hope wish to enter as the freezing winds are quickly increasing outside and his shelter seems to be large enough to hold them as well. He lets them in, but conjures a door beside him, which he opens to the elements, walks out and conjures another shack, small enough for just him. Smallfang quickly closes the door and he, Hope and Rook's raven, Poe, remain inside.

The night begins to pass with only the sounds of howling winds and snow buffeting around them. But it does not last. They are all awakened by the sounds of crashing rock within the courtyard and instantly the shack that Hope and Smallfang are in disintegrates in a shower of splinters as a large boulder comes crashing through. Thankfully they are quick enough to avoid most of the rock.

Laying down across her large tree branch, Katya is knocked off her perch by another rock. She sees it flying out of the blowing snow, from the direction of the far side of the chasm, in time to avoid the worst of the damage.

Rook immediately conjure a forest of trees to provide cover. As the forest grows up around him he grabs onto a tree growing up out of the ground beside him, stepping onto a branch which lifts him high into the night sky, as he blends himself into the trunk. He looks from his vantage point across the chasm but can see nothing but blowing snow. He sends his raven, Poe, up into the night sky and across the chasm to scout for the enemy.

Smallfang runs to the chain bridge and runs across the underside, using his ring of spiderclimbing. He sends his griffon into the air and uses it to scout across the chasm. Katya runs across the bridge in one swift movement, passing Smallfang below her. She arrives at the ruins of the courtyard in front of the IceThorn castle. She can just make out, through the blinding snow, the figures of trolls moving into the castle through the front entrance.

Rook takes the form of an arrokokra and flies across the chasm to the far side.

Hope, alone now on the opposite side of the chasm from the castle decides she better stick with the group and makes her way slowly across the bridge. By the time she gets to the other side the others have lined up along the mountainside beside the entrance way to the castle. A large tunnel has been excavated through the rubble that had previously blocked the entrance.

Coaxing Trolls Out Of Hiding

Catya decides to move stealthily through the tunnel to see what the trolls on the other side are doing. She is able to walk stooped through the tunnel, keeping to the shadows. Near the end of the tunnel she sees 4 trolls each holding a massive boulder and talking about bashing any creatures that come through. Katya quietly retreats back through the tunnel. Haflway back she decides to make the sounds of a cat. Rook outside the tunnel, sees what Katya is doing and decides to produce the illusion of a cat inside the tunnel. Hopefully they can lure the trolls outside where they can be attacked.

Katya sees the large face of a troll peer into the tunnel. Its mouth turns to a mischievous grin. "I hates cats", and he throws the boulder he is holding. It barrels through the tunnel and Katya doesn't have much room to evade but she is able to avoid the worst of it. She decides this is not the right strategy. Katya retreats out of the tunnel.

Meanwhile the others begin to explore the not-so-secret entrance on the far side of the courtyard. Lirath, a late show to the expedition, turns into ethereal form and moves through the castle. He spots several trolls in various rooms and hallways. He comes back to report to the others.

Hope, deciding she can try and persuade the trolls to come out from the protection of the castle. She walks through the tunnel until she can see the trolls. She gestures repeatedly at the trolls finally getting their attention when she mimics the gesture of eating. Rook produces an image of a leg of meat in Hopes hands. As she gestures the trolls begin to crawl through the tunnel while Hope retreats always keeping some distance between her and the trolls. As she begins to step out of the tunnel the others turn their attention to Hope's attempt at drawing out the trolls.

They dont think this is a good idea.

The Return Of The Gazers
400 XP

Katya runs, blindingly fast, and rushes towards Hope. Just as the trolls hand shoots out to grab at Hope, Katya grabs her by Hope's cloak and pulls her to safety. Right behind Katya is Smallfang who lops off the arm of the troll. There is a bellow of pain and anger.

Soon the spheroid shapes that had harassed the group upon the last time they were here begin to descend down out of the blowing snow. They shoot beams of magic at the group. One of the beams hits Hope and it instills a fear so dread that she begins to run. She runs towards the secret entrance and continues to run.

While they deal with these odd creatures, Rook racks his memory for information on these odd creatures. If his memory is correct, Rook believes these are creatures born of a beholder. Born may not be the correct word. He tells the others that these creatures are brought into existence when a beholder dreams. Sometimes these dreams warp reality until the beholder's dreams of himself are made real, creating tiny versions of himself.

This means there is a beholder behind all of this.

Some of these creatures, sensing they are being overpowered, retreat back into the sky. Smallfang mounts his griffon in an attempt to give chase but the blowing snow makes it difficult. He eventually comes across several holes dug into the sides of the mountain. Very spherical holes about the shape of the creatures that were attacking them. He peers down one of the tubes but after a number of feet it turns sharply and he cannot see further in.

He returns to the ground to tell the others.

Lirath, meanwhile, has gone to see if he can help Hope who has fled into the castle. He turns into ethereal form and moves through the secret entrance.

Finding Two Prisoners
2,000 XP

Hope running through the secret entrance and eventually finds herself in a long hallway. She moves down until she approaches a door, her fear slowly dissipating. She opens the door and finds Tithe, the kidnapped cleric. As Hope approaches Tithe, she notices a deformed creature laying in a cot on the other side of the room. Hope prepares to attack but Tithe stops her. This is Jabir and he is the reason she is still alive. He has been keeping her safe. He refuses to aid Thech unless Tithe is unharmed. It would seem Jabir still holds on to the dream that he too can someday become a hero.

Hope uses that and tries to convince Jabir that she can help him. She can get him inducted into the Order Of The Obsidian Dagger. He need only to prove himself by helping them get out of the castle with Tithe. Jabir seems conflicted.

It would seem that Lirath, unseen to the group, is messing with Jabir's mind and trying to convince him of just the opposite.

Hope's charming ability eventually wins out. Jabir agrees to help them all escape. Jabir, using his numerous vines that are growing out of his body to grab on to walls and ceiling to pull himself along, with more than a little difficulty, towards the door. He opens the door and stands in the hallway.

Voices of other trolls are raised in surprise and they see Jabir, who obviously does not come out of his room very often. They question Jabir with a mixture of concern, reverence and shock. Jabir talks to them while gesturing to Hope and Tithe that they should use his body as cover and move down the hallway towards the secret entrance. He continues to distract the other trolls as the group moves down the hall.

Thech Makes AnAppearance  (Sort of )

Suddenly there is another voice in the hallway. This voice is sharp and quite alien sounding. This must be Thech. It is reprimanding Jabir for being out of his room. It then changes its voice to a mockery of a stern parental voice, telling Jabir he must return to his quarters and that he is not well. Jabir begins to mutter excuses but the group can tell it is not going well.

Hope conjures a portal and pulls Tithe through with her, escaping to the outside of the castle standing beside the others. The light from the portal though alerts Thech and as Lirath begins to pull the weave with his psionic mind the finds the magic is gone.



Lirath's last thoughts are, "Oh....right.", before another ray of magic is blasted towards him. He cannot move as he feels the entirety of his body turning to stone.

The group outside waits for everyone to be accounted for before making their plans.

They continue to wait.

Jabir's Army Retreats

The group of adventurers continue to fight the trolls.

Smallfang's Near Death Experience

30,000 XP

Smallfang leaps across onto the back of one of the trolls, who is climbing up the wall towards the soldiers on top. He plunges the sword into the troll as he lands. He attempts to stab the troll again but as the troll climbs several thorny vines shoot out from its skin and wrap around the dragonborn. He is quickly entangled and unable to move. The troll uses its advantage to repeatedly pummel Smallfang to the point where he is dropped unconscious.

Catya runs and leaps and runs across the wall from one tower down to the wall where another of the mutated trolls has made it to the top of one of the towers. The troll uses one of its massive hands to sweep several of the soldiers off of the tower to their deaths. Catya runs up the leg of the troll and begins to claw her way through its thick hide trying to kill it. Unfortunately, the trolls regeneration makes the attacks less effective than Catya would have hoped for.

Rook meanwhile casts phantasmal killer upon the troll who is attacking Smallfang. The troll sees within its mind it most horrible nightmare and drops Smallfang, jumps down to the ground and begins running away at a furious pace. 

With the aid of Catya, Smallfang regains his feet and is able to heal from some of his injuries.He looks for his sword and finds it still stuck into the back of the troll who is fleeing towards the forest. It has a great lead on the group. Smallfang yells out, "My sword! Hazirawn !". Smallfang and Rook give chase.

Catya stays and is able to finish off the remaining troll. She then follows where the others gave chase to the other troll. Rook uses his mirage arcane spell that was cast to erect ice walls in front of and around the escaping troll. Once caught up the group hacks and slashes the beast until it lies dead. They set fire to the trolls remains in hopes that it does not regenerate and rise again.

Making their way back to the city they come across Hope who is now just rising to her feet, recovering from Rook's magic. She quickly looks around, ready to cast spells against the attacking trolls, only to be told that they have all been defeated...for the moment.

An Airship Belongs In The Air
2,500 XP

Meanwhile, Lirath, who had almost died fighting the trolls attacking the east gate, saved only by Tithe Tuen, the cleric, makes his way back to the others. He tells of the attack on the opposite side of the city. They discuss the oddity of trolls making a coordinated attack and the absence of aid from the airship, the Flying Dragon. Realizing that the airship had given no warnings and made no attacks, they all look up only to see the airship listing awkwardly towards one side as a large swirling mass of wind rise up out of the hold, fling sailors overboard and rise up into the clouds high above the city.

As the airship begins its uncontrolled descent into the highly populated city, Lirath sees a figure jump over the ships railings and jump to the ground. Lirath recognizes the distant figure to be the former Captain MacKenzie, the one that they presumed dead back near IceThorn Castle. From that height, any unaided creature would certainly be dead. But Lirath and Smallfang makes no assumption. After all, the fall down into the depths of the chasm had obviously not killed him. Smallfang and Lirath run to where MacKenzie should have landed.

Meanwhile, Catya turns to Hope and tells her to get her up to the ship. Hope casts flying upon the tabaxi and Catya makes her way upon the airship. Its deck tilted horribly as they stare down into the wide eyes of hundreds of horrified citizens watching their certain death. Catya, from her ceaseless observations and note-taking of the operations of the airship, is able to right the ship just in time and land it onto the waters of the nearby Sea of Swords at the mouth of the Chionthar River. It no longer flies as the air elemental and the arcane mechanisms, that utilized the elemental's powers, are now gone or destroyed.

The Capture Of The Former Captain MacKenzie
1,000 XP

Smallfang and Lirath have pursued and finally captured MacKenzie in the crowded streets of Baldur's Gate. They strip him and walk him all the way to the Order Of The Obsidian Dagger's stronghold. All the way they encourage the gathering crowd to throw insults and rot at the humiliated figure of MacKenzie. Finally, they arrive at the keep and put MacKenzie in it's prison.

As the group moves about within the keep, they hear of the loss of one of the Order's clerics. When Hope asks who it was, they find it was Tithe Tuen, the cleric who had saved Lirath from certain death. When some of the others from the Order find out Lirath is there, they accost the elf and blame him for the abduction of Tithe. When tempers begin to flare, Lirath begins to cast spells upon some of the Order's clerics and stealthily makes his way to safety. But something is wrong with the magic here within the keep. 

Hope meanwhile, talks to the other clerics and finds that one of the trolls retreated from the battle but not before grabbing Tithe and taking her with it. The troll was last seen running for the mountains east of the city. Towards what is now known to be the location of IceThorn castle. Hope begins to sing and play a tribute to the bravery and courage of Tithe. Soon most of the keep is spellbound in awe and sorry listening to the song that Hope weaves. As tears are wiped away most of the keep disperses as everyone continues about their work. 

Some of the Order's members approach Smallfang and tell of the magic within the keep becoming more and more erratic. In fact no clerics or scholars dare to enter the library beneath the keep. Arcane lamps refuse to stay lit and strange sounds and creatures have been experienced. Something is seriously wrong and its influence is growing.

Smallfang reassures them and notes this as a priority. But for now, they all feel that time is of the essence if they are to be able to save and retrieve Tithe from the trolls.  They gather supplies and cold weather gear and prepare to head out. Smallfang goes out into the courtyard of the keep to begin his ritual of find steed. Soon a great griffon lands on the ground beside Smallfang, who unfortunately begins to laugh uncontrollably for the next hour. 

As the group moves out, Smallfang upon his griffon and the rest within a horse drawn wagon, Smallfang continues to laugh uncontrollably. 

They really have to look into what's wrong with the magic weave in and around the Order's keep.

A Poor Ambush
4,000 XP

As they travel closer to the mountains the ground turns into rolling foothills. They keep to the path while Smallfang and Rook's raven providing scouting ahead. Soon though a large boulder crashes into the wagon and the group springs into action. Rook yells that his raven has spotted a large troll on the far side of a hill who is throwing boulders. 

It is over in the blink of an eye, as each within the party descends upon the creature. Hope casts hold monster upon the creature and while it is unable to move each of the rest of the group hacks, slashes and claws the beast until it lies dead at their feet.

They look at each other proudly, dust their hands and continue on their way.

That was easy. Too easy? Nah. They are just that good.

Jabir's Army

The group makes their way through a small passageway hidden in the side of the mountain. This eventually takes them into a small room within the IceThorn Castle. The room, as is the castle, ancient. The rock walls pitted and crumbing. The secret passageway, long since exposed as the wooden barrier has rotted away.

They exit the room and stand in a long dark corridor. They move down the corridor, passing a couple of closed doors on either side of the hallway. They finally approach a pair of massive oak iron reinforced doors at the end of the corridor. The group pauses as Maddox and Smallfang take time to cast their find steed spells. Maddox summons his dire wolf while Smallfang summons a giant spider.

Together the group pushes open the large doors.

Hate Speech

The corridor that was once silent is now filled with the grunts and howlings of a language that none of them understands, except for Katya. She quietly tells them that they are hearing a warlike speech. Someone is invoking the name of Jabir to rally the group to attack Baldur's Gate, the home of the hated Order Of The Obisidian Dagger. They will make the city pay for the insult done to his older brother Jabir.

Smallfang, using his ring of spiderclimbing, climbs along the wall then ceiling of the hallway leading to the group of trolls. He sends his giant spider along the opposite hallway. Together they emerge into a vast chamber within the castle. In total darkness they see dozens of trolls, many of them mutated horribly. Some have two heads. Some have one massive arm. Some have vine growing in and out their entire bodies.

At the front of the group standing on a raised dais, there is a smaller, younger troll. He is the one speaking to the group. Smallfang instructs his spider to move closer to the front, in order to see better. Through the eyes of the giant spider, Smallfang can see a creature behind that of the young troll. It hovers behind and always keeps itself partially hidden behind columns or broken pieces of wall. But it seems to be the one feeding the troll with the words to speak.

At the foot of the dais, laying in a makeshift stretcher, lies the body of a near dead troll. This must be Jabir. The group has heard from the exploits of the others, the story of Jabir (but perhaps not his death). The troll once helped members of The Order, when they had been trying to rescue other members of The Order who had been taken hostage. Jabir aided them with promises given to him, which would see him a member of The Order. He could finally become the hero he had always wanted to be. Unfortunately, it didn't end that way.

For Jabir

Listening, to the speach, Katya hears that Jabir he was cruelly killed trying to join the group who had promised him a hero's redemption. Finding his body mangled and dying his family brought him back to the castle and immersed him in the healing fountain. Unfortunately, the fountain had been tainted hundreds of years ago, which had lead to the abandoning of the castle. Jabir was revived but because of the twisted nature of the fountain, he came back horribly mutated.

After his failed attempt at revenge, Jabir's body returned to the castle weeks later, having been dragged back by the vines growing through his body. After putting Jabir's body back into the pool of water again, he was revived but is little more than a lump of flesh and vine now. The trolls are to take up arms and show the Order the suffering that Jabir endured.

Smallfang retreats back to the group.
He calls back his spider. The spider is spotted crawling along with ceiling and is attacked by a massive thrown boulder. Smallfangs mental link is severed as the spider dies.

Lirath uses Smallfangs spiderclimbing ring to approach the large group of trolls unnoticed and casts a spell to mind control one of the trolls into attacking his neighbors. There is a tremendous cacophony as the group of adventurers hide further back down the corridor.
The sounds abruptly stop and there is complete silence.

A Quick Retreat

There is then a different voice in a different language, which Katya quickly tells the group is telling the trolls that they should spread out and find the intruders. The group quickly retreats back to the secret entrance. Lirath hangs back for just long enough to re-cast the spell which made one of the trolls attack his fellow trolls. But as he loses the power, he feels the spell unravel and the spell has no effect. He is puzzled and more than a little annoyed.

DM Note: No...it wasn't a counterspell. Counterspell does not work on psionics. I know. Trust me.

The group retreats to just outside the mountainside castle. Back out in the perpetual snowstorm, they try to hail the ship, The Flying Dragon. Eventually they fire off an arrow imbued with daylight.
While they wait, they hear the movement of rocks near the castle's collapsed entrance. They concluded that it must be the trolls digging themselves out.

Eventually, two of the ship's crew are dispatched and appear at the far end of the chain bridge. The group crosses, with Lirath again almost falling to his death. Finally they have the ship retrieve them and climbing aboard they debate their possibilities.

They decide that they'd much rather fight the hoard of trolls on their grounds, rather in the troll's lair. So they decide to lay waste to as much of the castle as possible with the ship's cannons. The night is filled with the sounds of explosion and gunpowder smoke as the cannons fire repeatedly at the castle until the ancient entrance way of the castle is unrecognizable. This will not kill off all of the trolls but it will buy them time.

They return to Baldur's Gate.

Preparing For The Seige

Back at the city, the group disperses and each prepares for the coming war in their own way.
Lirath seeks out magical stores within the city in hopes of finding healing potions. He finds that magical stores have become quite rare within the the city for some time now. He eventually settles upon the Order Of The Obisidian Dagger's keep. The mages within, who are contacted out by the Mage's guild to aid the Order, tell Lirath that it will cost him...dearly.

Hearing that they are forcing a hero of Baldur's Gate to pay exorbitant prices for supplies, Hope steps in and uses her bard's skills to eventually, gather a number of healing potions for Lirath.

Maddox and Smallfang use their time organizing the existing forces of Baldur's Gate. Watches are setup. Signal fires and fires for aiding watching the distant forest edge are built. They also teleport to the Netir Vale and emplore Zacheus Rainglove, the current leader of the entire Order Of Obsidian Dagger, to send as many men and woman to fight for Baldur's Gate. They begin sending soldiers at a steady rate.

A week passes and sees the groups efforts begin to take shape.

On a bright late summer afternoon, as the group is moving about the western outer city trying to evacuate all of the residents to inside the city walls, they hear a cry far off at the outer edge of the settlement.

Troll Sighting

The watchtowers begin to ring the warning bells and they light their signal fires. As each neighboring watch tower sees the signal fire they light theirs in turn. As the others are busy trying to usher people to safety, Lirath, who has stayed further behind, notices that the signal fire at the opposite end of the city was lit at nearly the same time as the signal fire here on the western gate.

It is the trolls. At both gates.

Lirath, runs to the other side of the city to aid the gate there, leaving the rest of the group to manage the trolls at this gate.

DM Note: I think this counts as breaking the "don't split the party" rule

The Death (and ressurection) of Lirath

As Lirath approaches the eastern gate, he is met with chaos. The soldiers there are trying to fight off a group of 4 trolls and failing. The trolls break through and begin slaughtering any who stand in their way. Lirath runs up and begins to cast a mind control spell but is smashed to a pulp under the massive fists of two trolls. He falls unconscious and is dying.

Luckily, the group had decided to call out as many clerics as they could from the Order's keep. One of the clerics rushes to the aid of Lirath and revives him. He awakens and is able to summon all of his psionic powers to overcome the trolls.

The Flood

Meanwhile, back at the western gate, the group ushers civilians as fast as they can, while Rook, an illusionist wizard, begins the ritual to cast mirage arcane. Rook transforms almost the entire outer city into a vast lake, hoping to drown the trolls, or at least convince them they're drowning. Trying to buy time to get the city's citizen through the city gates and into the relative safety of the city, Rook also conjures the image of a long wooden dock under the feet of the line of people trying to get into the city. Unfortunately, many of the citizens fall into the illusionist's lake and begin struggling. The group quickly begins to aid people to get to the dock where they can stand.

Meanwhile, the trolls have approached close enough for the group to see them. Some of them charge along the massive dock, some are using the dock to swim and crawl along. As they approach they kill the people who are in their way.

Katya, Rook and Smallfang are all along the dock when the trolls arrive. Hope, the bard, assists from atop the watchtower. As the trolls progress, the group sees the trolls are trying to gain access to the city. Trying to slow them down, Rook transforms the dock into a covered bridge, with the end facing the trolls, closed, save for a small door for the people. As the group ushers the citizens through the covered bridge, they together try to hold back the trolls from atop the bridge's roof.

The Freeze

Hope, seeing the group needing help. Jumps from the parapet of the watchtower to the covered bridge below. The leaps is impressive as is the landing. As she tumbles to her feet she sees the trolls in the water and leaps into the lake below. Just as she is about to surface, Rook decides to trap the trolls by turning the water to ice. It works but Hope is trapped as well. Seeing this, Rook jumps down to the ice and sees the frozen form of Hope a few feet below, trapped within the ice.

Rook tries to help by transforming the bard into an arctic weasel. This at least helps with the crushing pressure of the ice but as he watches the weasel scratch at the ice, uselessly, he realizes that Hope will perish soon if not retrieved from the ice. So he causes the land underneath the ice to raise up and as the ice disperses, the form of Hope back in human form appears.

As the group catches their breath, thinking the trolls are defeated, there is the sound of ice cracking and along spots on either side of the dock/bridge there appears massive cracks with vines pushing out from beneath.

The mutated trolls are emerging.

The group looks at each other and Rook winks at them. He has a plan.

Jabir's Revenge

The Order is receiving more frequent reports of troll sightings at various places around the city walls of Baldur's Gate. Guards stationed at the gates have witnessed trolls at just past dusk, late at night or very early morning, running from the nearby forests and battering the walls and gates of the city. There has been a couple of reports of people being taken from the walls and killed by the trolls.

The trolls now seem to bear some sort of sigil painted on themselves in yellow and green paint.
(A stylized and dyslexic "J" along with a circle with a dot in the middle).
Some soldiers have reported that the trolls have now taken to yelling a war cry upon attacking. One soldier reports the war cry as "Jay bird" while another argues that it was "Jawbone".
Neither makes sense.

The Order deems this problem to be a priority.

The Retirement Of Araxie

The next morning they head out to the docks of the city to board the Flying Dragon, which they will take to the mountains to the east, where previous members of the Order reported dealings with trolls, as well as the traitorous faction of the Order well over a year ago.

At the docks, they find the Order's airship, the Flying Dragon, manned by only a skeleton crew. They are told that since Captain Araxie last set down, she has been off at one of the taverns. The crew waited awhile but when she didn't return to set sail for further excursions, to pirate the skies, most of her crew followed her lead and left to frequent the many taverns in the city.

The group orders that what crew is here go into the city, find and recall all of the crew. They set sail tomorrow on an important mission. Maddox and Smallfang know where Captain Araxie is. They head off to the Whet Stone.

At the whorehouse, the Whet Stone they see the waitress, Annabelle Brightknocker, and ask her if they've seen Araxie. Annabelle hurriedly gestures to the back of the tavern under the stairs and says, "where she always is."

In the back, they find the Araxie sitting at a table covered in empty glasses. She looks up at them with absolutely no recognition.

Maddox and Smallfang introduce themselves to their old friend Araxie. They are needing her to aid them in a mission. Araxie scoffs. They agree to pay her. She pauses and then adds the cost of her bar tab. They agree. She doubles it. They, again, agree.

The three of them leave the Whet Stone and head off towards the Order's keep.  Back at the keep, they assemble as many clerics, mages and wizards as they can. After much experimentation and examination, it is concluded that the magic affecting Araxie is a arcanic blood oath. The only way to remove it is to have the caster reverse the curse. They all turn to each other and inquire but no one knows the caster.

They then decide to make Araxie as comfortable as possible. She has served the Order well. She has easily earned them the most revenue during the past year and has made the Order flush again bringing them back from the brink of financial collapse. They set her in a comfortable (well...padded really) room and give her drink to appease her temper. And there they leave her.

They return to the ship the next day hoping the crew has returned.

The Flying Dragon Takes To The Skies Once More

Back at the ship, the deck is bustling with activity as the crew, now almost fully assembled, is readying the ship for departure. Phillipe, the first mate, directs the party to the captain's quarters. When they enter the large and well furnished quarters. There at the large desk is Captain MacKenzie, feet upon the desk. He welcomes them in with a smug look on his face.

He tells them that he would be glad to captain their ship and let bygones be bygones, for a price. The group tells him that they would rather make Phillipe captain. MacKenzie tells them that Phillipe is a good sailor but not captain material yet. The group relents but Maddox forces MacKenzie to take the Oath of the Order Of The Obsidian Dagger. Thus preventing him from doing anything that would harm the others. He eagerly agrees and begins the oath. Deshanie catches him crossing his fingers behind his back and makes him begin again.

Once the preparations have been made, the ship is unmoored and  takes to the sky. Captain MacKenzie is having obvious troubles keeping his tongue and action on the lawful good side. He stutters and halts his speech with great effort as he tries not to give in to his baser instincts. They travel swiftly towards the mountains east of the city. They travel until nightfall and must, for safety, reduce their speed. The next morning, they begin their search through the many mountainous passes, looking for the distinctive chain bridge they were told about.

Around midday, a lookout calls out that he has spotted a bridge. They slow and lower the ship until they see a small stone bridge. This is not the bridge they had heard about from the others. Captain MacKenzie begins a rant which he has to quickly curtail. In frustration, he spins the ships wheel recklessly. All aboard scramble to hold on. Some of the party barely move as if they're feet are glued to the deck, others like Lirath Mindlasher, the newly arrived high elf,  are not so surefooted. Lirath tumbles towards to rails, then over top of the rails, and fails to grab hold of anything.

Falling over 60 feet to the snow covered mountainside below, Lirath casts a spell and which turns him into a spectral form hoping to minimize the damage from the fall. Everyone on board watches as the spectral form of the Lirath hits the ground below in a plume of snow. He slowly raises his arm and then slowly raises his thumb into the air. He still lives.

The crew is scrambled to throw ropes over and descend to rescue Lirath. Captain MacKenzie is the first over the rails and begins to descend the rope, perhaps out of guilt. Lirath is alive and well enough to see MacKenzie, the reason for her fall, and she casts a spell. MacKenzie becomes paralyzed and plummets silently down into the chasm, hundreds of feet down. They all watch as his immobile body descends the depths until the snowy air obscures his certain death.

As they pull Lirath back aboard the airship, Lirath apologizes. He meant only to teach Captain MacKenzie a lesson in humility. Didn't realize the airship was over a deep gorge. Who knew?

A New Captain

Now they debate as to who will captain the ship. The Order members to do not have enough experience and they soon come to the conclusion that Phillipe will be captain. He nervously accepts. As he shout orders to the crew he is constantly checking with the Order members as to what he should do, where he should head. He immediately seems very indecisive. (this is what MacKenzie meant about not captain material)

They approach what they think are the ruins they are looking for. Through the blowing snow the ruins of a great castle appears. It is carved into the side of the mountain. It is connected to the opposite side of a deep gorge by a massive chain. The links themselves are about ten feet long and at least five feet wide. Boards have been placed along it's length to aid in crossing but they have long since begun to rot.

As they try to investigate from aboard the ship, multiple spells are shot across the ship. The ship is maneuvered and all the cannons facing the mountain are fired. The entrance to the ancient ruins is completely destroyed. Whatever was in there will have to find another way out.
Phillipe says he will set down as far as he can away from the ruins and drop off the party.
The group is worried he will take off on them so they cast spells on him to track him.

Back To Castle IceThorn
7,300 XP

They look across the massive chain bridge and begin to cross. The howling winds and blowing snow make crossing treacherous. As they approach the far end, more spells are shot towards the group. Lirath is hit once more. This time he is caught within the grasp of a telekenesis spell and tossed off the bridge. He again plummets down into the massive chasm below. Barely surviving the fall, he lies injured and out of sight of the others.

Healing himself with, surprisingly unbroken, potions of healing, he struggles to his feet and looks up from the bottom of the gorge. It's a long way back up. Better get to it. He starts to climb.

Meanwhile, still on the chain bridge, the others try and make it to the other side but rays of spell attacks try and grab and freeze the group. Katya makes it across the fastest and encounters a two headed troll. He is war painted with a dyslexic J and a circle with a central dot in the middle. The troll grunts as he attacks without question and is soon joined by two other two-headed trolls.

The spell attacks continue but now as the creatures get closer they can be seen through the blowing snow. They are small spherical creatures that fly through the air. They have small eye stalks from which the spells emanate. The battle continues as the trolls take massive amounts of damage and continue to attack. Smallfang's magical blade soon aids Maddox in taking down the trolls. While Katya leaps up to grab the small flying creatures and tears them apart with her claws.

As the battle nears its conclusion, Lirath finally emerges at the edge of the cliff, having climbed up the precarious gorge from 200 feet below. As he climbs and stands up, she stands face to face with one of the flying spell casting creatures. Just as it is about to cast the spell to push Lirath back down into the gorge, to what must be certain death, Lirath is able to attack t.he creature and kill it.

DM Note: You're lucky Lirath, that you convinced the universe to allow you an action, otherwise you'd have a record fast death

When all the enemies have been slain, the group stands among the ancient frozen battle ground and wonders what to do. The main entrance to the mountainside castle has been obliterated by the cannon fire from their ship.

There must be another way in.