Coira 32 1082

Grailen, Khadrous and Ktimene arrive at Torus Bridge.  Aeolus, Polybus, and Drealmes, attracted by the noise of Khadrous' touting Grailen's heroism, all investigate and join; Party forms.  Head north.

Camp by road that night; a stranger walks by and is invited in.  Despite telling Party nothing about himself even including name, they take him in and he tags along, so Meripides(A-3) joins. (goes by "Buddy" for now)

Pass through village of Proussos; noise attracts another recruit, and Divwaya(MU-1) joins.

Find a traveller being attacked by some animated plants; Party defeat and take traveller in, so Laertes(F-1) joins.

Grailen then has to chase his horse across the countryside.  Laertes in no shape to continue, so back to Proussos.

Party wake up to find some key possessions (Khadrous' horn, Meripides' crossbow, etc.) missing.  Horn soon found in a shop window; Ktimene distracts shopkeeper while Polybus steals horn back, Party then informed their other items are in shop also.  Meripides and Polybus investigate with Ktimene and Aeolus for backup; Meripides says or does a wrong thing and gets mugged; nobody notices (!) until he disappears.  Polybus soon finds him being beaten up by some thugs and wades in while Aeolus gets Party.  Ktimene killed and Meripides and Polybus badly hurt in resulting brawl as shopkeeper much tougher than expected.

Authorities arrive, everyone arrested except Aeolus.  Detect Lie from a local confirms Party's story, so they're let go but asked to leave town; they quickly comply.

Meripides exposed for who he really is and kept in jail; Meripides leaves, not by his own choice.

Meet two people out looking for adventurers and take them in: Adraste(F-1) and Korleos(F-1) join.

Ambushed on road by 6 Quitchi and 2 Grashi; Party wins though Polybus clobbered again.

Arrive Holtus, make contact with locals, get healed up, rest.

Enemy is crossing river somehow, Party (except Polybus, he's still a mess) leaves to find out where.  Get hopelessly lost in woods, then blunder right into a Turvitian's well-defended lair:

• Turvitian triggers a landslide: Aeolus, Drealmes, Laertes and Korleos killed when it lands on them;
• Divwaya blinds Turvitian with Light, then flees;
• Grailen, Adraste, and Khadrous (all that's left) manage to kill it but not without some nervous moments.
• Divwaya returns, Party search lair and find – among other things – a badly stuffed Knill the Turvitian had probably been using as a teddy bear.

Return to Holtus.

Into woods again.  Find 7 Knill looting party's dead from last visit; kill, but interference in this battle comes from 2 different (but friendly) directions: Cuthalion Adenedhel(R-1) and Pheradra Chime(R-1) both join.

Find enemy bridge, 4 Grashi defend; Adraste to -9 but Party wins.  Destroy bridge, return to Holtus to rest – again.

Into woods again to check destroyed bridge; meet 5 Grashi en route and get mushed: Adraste and Cuthalion killed. Grailen and others badly hurt.  Back to town again.

Idios(F-1) joins.  Into woods again, get accosted by an Elf just outside town; Party take him in as well, so Saeros (MU-1/T-1) joins.

Find track to enemy camp, sack out at intersection and watch.  A very out-of-place Dwarf goes by; Party challenge but let him go.

During night, movement on road attracts Pheradra; she instead finds a sleep-poisoned snare the hard way.  Saeros first, then Akastos try to rescue; poison on snare gets both of them too!  Polybus hauls them back to camp. (player note: when the 3rd person in a row rolled a 1 on their saving throw, the room exploded in laughter)

During night, sleepers awaken with bad headaches.

A Bigfoot stops by to reset its snare in early morning, Party kills it.

Sneak into a mine-riddled valley (and at last reach the adventure!); enter one mine and are met by 11 Knill and a Turvitian.  Party defeats these, then retreat back to forest.

Khadrous on watch notices someone familiar sneaking along road in early a.m.; intercepts, and Meripides rejoins. Khadrous quietly arranges with Meripides to kill Grailen; Meripides has other ideas.

Party stays put for day, in evening a Giant (!) wanders by heading toward town; Party heroically intercepts:

• Grailen charges and goes toe-to-toe with it, is amazingly lucky to survive;
• Saeros blinds it with a Light;
• Party beats on it until it flees; but its last parting shot does 52 h.p. damage to Meripides: Meripides killed;
• Not content with this, Party chase it through woods (it's still blind) and eventually catch and kill it;
• Party Clerics don't have enough cures to save everyone, so Divwaya dies during a frantic rush back to Holtus.

Town doesn't believe Party killed a Giant, so Party goes to recover its head; all they find is a hand, which they bring back to town and attempt to get stuffed and mounted.

Idios and Cassandra stay in town resting; rest of Party back to mines, find Grashi cooking Giant bits.  Sneaking up on Grashi goes wrong, so Party kills 4 and flees back to Holtus.  Rest for days.

Back into woods, meet 4 competent Grashi (Thf., Clr., 2 Ftrs.) guarding road.  Idios killed.  Party wins, then returns to Holtus once again.

Awaiting at Holtus is Mnastes(MU1/F1) who joins.

Several Khri-Halai attack overnight, Khadrous gets mushed then recovers suspiciously quickly due to a herb nobody knew he had.

Take a Khri-Halai captive (Shaza-hai), loot, and back to Holtus.

Khadrous charms captive, Party reach agreement for Shaza-hai to be a go-between to gain alliance with Khri-Halai.

A Dwarf interrupts proceedings and Party take him in, so Fjallarr Flat-toes(R-1) joins.

Cassandra buys and Saeros butchers a goat as a goodwill offering for the Khri-Halai; goat parts put in a bag.

Back to woods, send Shaza-hai in alone with bag of goat meat to negotiate with other Khri-Halai.

"Battle of the Bag of Goat": Grashi attack and kill Shaza-hai en route – they're hungry, and want the bag of goat.  Grailen and Fjallarr hear this and charge; rest of Party slowly follows.  Grailen killed before Party arrives; he is then used as both weapon and shield by one Grash.  Several bow-carrying Khri-Halai arrive during combat and help defeat Grashi, then take Party into shelter; meanwhile one Grashi runs off with the bag of goat! (See "The Ballad of Sir Grailen the Great")

Party forge loose alliance with Khri-Halai; decide that they are darned well going to get their bag of goat back no matter what, then charge into Grashi tunnels.  Soon find lots of Grashi including a chief-type; Party barely wins resulting battle.

During battle, Akastos is sent to Khri-Halai to ask for help; he instead flees the area completely: Akastos leaves; spends night in Holtus.

Party sacks out in a cave set aside for them by the Khri-Halai.

Akastos, in Holtus, warns villagers of Khadrous' "treachery", steals Grailen's horse and some of Party's treasury, and heads south "to recruit a new party".

Party sends an away team of Khadrous, Polybus, Cassandra, and Pheradra to clear out Grashi caves; find and kill some Quitchi doing the same thing, find some nice booty, then return and all leave to Holtus.

Khadrous arrested on arriving, released a few hours later, and the same K-P-C-P away team leaves to chase Akastos.

Akastos arrives at Proussos in evening, still isn't welcome but finds refuge with a couple of shady types; they form a proto-party of their own.

Chase group arrives in Proussos, learn Akastos went west; Cassandra buys horses for all (using party funds).

Cassandra has a quick look for likely recruits here and finds one: Tyaa(NtC-1) joins chase group.

Chase group catch and kill Akastos.  His two recruits seem worthwhile so chase group takes them in: Stilth Incan (A-1) and Korg(F-1) join.  Party notice Stilth's gray skin and secretive demeanour but do nothing... 

To a nearby village, spend night here.

Reunited Party back to caves.  Some changes here since last visit prompt a visit to Khri-Halai, who immediately recognize and expose Stilth for the Devil he is.  A massive fight erupts:

• Polybus attacks Stilth, Korg (charmed to Stilth) attacks and nearly kills Polybus;
• Saeros blinds Korg with a Light spell, meanwhile Fjallarr charges;
• Stilth charms Fjallarr but loses charm on Korg, who switches sides until Mnastes settles him down with Scare;
• Tyaa makes no friends at all when she cures Stilth;
• Khadrous charms Stilth and tells her to attack Tyaa, meanwhile Saeros attacks Stilth and Pheradra attacks Saeros;
• Khadrous tries to charm Fjallarr but fails, Fjallarr enraged;
• Stilth killed by combined efforts of Saeros and Polybus (with simultaneous backstrikes) and Cassandra. 

During all this, 6 bow-wielding Khri-Halai arrive, make sure Stilth is dead, and try to keep the peace otherwise.

Fights and arguments continue; an interrupted Tyaa spell surges as Slay Living on Khadrous, he survives.

Tyaa killed when Khri-Halai lose patience and open fire; Party flees except Korg (he's still scared) is left behind.

Mnastes sneaks back in and retrieves Stilth's head (but does nothing with it later). Party to forest camp.

Fjallarr goes herb-hunting and finds a Dwarf: Athelstan(WrC-1) joins.

Back to valley; try another cave, this one has a welcoming committee of Zombies.

A dozen skeletons animate in a large room; this combat gets very strange:

• Kirkos lights and throws a flask of oil, it doesn't break;
• Athelstan turns seven skeletons, they flee to a corner of the room;
• Khadrous and Kirkos race to fight their way through the front line to the flask, Kirkos wins and throws it into the turned skeletons, it doesn't break;
• Cassandra breaks the "turn" on the skeletons with a Scatterspray, they charge again and are easily defeated by Party (and the flask, though hit by Scatterspray, once again doesn't break!);
• During this, Kirkos gets the flask again and is tackled by Khadrous, flask finally breaks when thrown wildly across the room (nowhere near anybody);
• Khadrous and Kirkos get into a fistfight in the oil, Cassandra tries to cast a Ceremony-Marriage spell as a joke to marry them, but this is consecrated ground and it backfires badly, Cassandra and Pheradra instead bond with each other - in effect, an unintentional same-sex shotgun wedding! (See "The Ballad of Pheradra, Part 2")

A staff taken from captive proves evil, so is destroyed along with cursed sword.

Items taken from temple by Deianeira are now forcibly removed from her, shown as evil, and also destroyed. She becomes mindlessly inconsolable; Cassandra and Pheradra try to help, and soon learn she is also now quite evil.

Meanwhile, a soap opera breaks out elsewhere:

• Pandora chases Khadrous, he tries to charm her so he can tell her to chase Kirkos instead but overdoes it such that she is now more in love with Khadrous than ever, drama results;
• Pandora then misinterprets something, thinks Khadrous is in love with Kirkos, and dramatically declares she will not stand in their way - this the first Kirkos knows of any of this, so more drama;
• Pandora wanders off, rearranges gear such that Kirkos' gear is in Khadrous' room;
• Arguing all the way, Kirkos and Khadrous investigate, Pandora uses Audible Glamour to provide mood music
  once they reach Khadrous' room;
• A fight erupts until Kirkos puts the other two to sleep, arranges them in a compromising position, and leaves after jamming the door shut; (during this, Kirkos learns Pandora is in fact a man in women's clothing!);
• Pandora and Khadrous. wake up, they fight some more until Pandora casts Spook on Khadrous, the door's jammed so he runs half-naked out the (second-floor!) window and down the street.

Things come to order once Cassandra shows up with news of Deianeira. Deianeira thrown in jail for safekeeping,
along with captive Cleric.

Local Artemis Cleric makes some inquiries, finds Deianeira's situation to be beyond her ability to fix.

Arrive at a small village (later found to be named Lelivil) in process of being raided. Chase and capture raiders; a rare combat that sees no deaths on either side!

Return to village. A big argument erupts over what to do with captives: some want to sell as slaves, some want to take back for trial, some want to kill outright, some want to turn them over to villagers; this gets nasty when Fightsky suddenly tries to kill one:

• Pheradra and Telemachos tackle Fightsky;
• Bellephoron and Kirkos get into a separate fight nearby;
• Cassandra tries to be diplomatic until Turin charges and attacks her;
• Aisha blinds Turin with Light, so he goes berserk (the "Whirling Dwarvish") and attacks anything he can;
• Fightsky bludgeoned into submission by various people while Cassandra pulls Pheradra away;
• Turin regains sanity long enough to try a cure on dying Fightsky, but Bellephoron interrupts and spell reverses
  into Cause Light Wounds, thus Fightsky killed;
• Kirkos (with potion) and Cassandra (with spell, her last one) cure captive that Fightsky almost killed;
• Arguments rage well into the night (meanwhile villagers start to have serious doubts about their rescuers).

Arrive Karnos. While most of Party is selling captives, Hathaldir and Turin report them to the local guard and make
themselves scarce, leading to a bizarre night:

• Town guards try to arrest Cassandra, Aisha (who was not accused!), and Kirkos but are bribed to go elsewhere

• During night, Turin and Hathaldir pay a bigger bribe so guards return to Party's inn during night; Kirkos arrested but Cassandra, Pheradra and Aisha flee;
• Telemachos (who is at this point the entire functioning Party!) now also realizes Party horses are missing; he tracks them down, sets up an impromptu spy network of local urchins, and returns to inn;
• Pheradra returns to town, finds Telemachos; they bribe Kirkos out of jail. Urchins find Hathaldir and Turin;
• Pheradra, Telemachos, and Kirkos find and capture Hathaldir and Turin; during this Aisha returns to town and somehow finds Party;
• Leaving Hathaldir and Turin bound, penniless, and naked, Party leave. Aisha tips off slavers; end result is Hathaldir and Turin leave to become slaves.
  

Party heads north, meet Bellephoron on road. Accusations fly, an argument ensues, Party leaves him behind.

Meet a couple of drunk Barbarians who look tough: Korland Keen-eyes(T-1) and Baldrin Halfhand(T-1) join.

Party hear about an archer looking for adventure and recruit him, so Perseus(F-1) joins.

Wet snow (!) overnight. Party find Krykos' camp and almost talk their way in, but a Detect Good from the resident Ares Cleric pulls Hanarr; so Party suddenly attack. This goes badly:

• Aisha tries to cast Fireball from a scroll and fails;
• Baldrin goes around building and into a window but finds too many enemies, comes out of window unconscious;
• Telemachos steals a horse, then burns the stables down;
• Kirkos puts lots of foes to sleep but there's still too many left, so Party get swarmed: Kolrand killed;
• Telemachos goes to Baldrin, cures him and wakes him but gets knocked out himself; Baldrin gets on horse and
  rides away (but is still below 0 h.p.);
• Everyone flees except Hanarr, who puts up a heroic but hopeless fight: Hanarr killed;
• Party see Telemachos captured (but alive), then leave area completely.

Late in day find missing horse and dead Baldrin; he got this far before bleeding to death.

Arrive at raided village again late in evening, get ambushed by another warband while villagers bar their doors.

Villagers refuse to have anything to do with Party until Khadrous charms the local barman and overdoes it; barman
does his best to seduce Khadrous, who does his best in return to gather information about the ambush party. Neither succeed, but Orestes' behaviour during this is enough for people to suspect he might be Hylax.

Khadrous and Kirkos independently start knocking on random doors; the only one that gets answered is by a young
girl, who wants back her uncle who Party took with them as a captive on their last visit (and sold into slavery - oops). She then tells Kirkos to get lost.

Party camp a mile or so east of village.

During night, someone tries to sneak past Party's camp, but Pheradra and Kirkos capture: it's the same girl Kirkos
talked to earlier, and she works for Krykos as a messenger!

Khadrous, Cassandra, Umwot, Eumaeus, Perseus, and Axmost take captive girl back to village; Khadrous manages to not only wake the entire village up but annoy the villagers enough that they form a mob. In trying to calm them down he then lets it be known he has lots of money, so led by the now-very-uncharmed barman the mob decides to kill him for it; he flees, but gets peppered by spears and other missiles for his trouble: Khadrous killed.

Meanwhile, during all this Eumaeus takes captive girl out of town, hides her in forest, and returns.

Villagers swarm and loot Khadrous before Umwot and Eumaeus can fight through to him. Retrieve corpse and leave. Barman makes a show of giving back Khadrous' horn, which he had looted.

Unknown to anyone else, Eumaeus takes captive girl, drops her off with barman, then returns to Party.

Party sacks out for day. Long argument over whether to go back to Torcha and raise Khadrous or carry on and try to rescue Telemachos; eventual decision is to attempt both.

Shortly after midnight, Cassandra and Aisha sneak into village and try to locate Khadrous' very expensive shortsword to pay for his raise. A few Detect Magics and a lot of good luck later, back they come with the sword; the barman had taken it also.

Another argument over who is to take Khadrous to Torcha ends when Pheradra volunteers, so she leaves. Orestes again draws suspicion during this and is now (correctly) assumed by all to be Pandora/Hylax in a different guise.

Everyone else carries on toward Krykos' camp, and find recent tracks showing someone is ahead of them.

Get close to camp, set up ambush on trail from west.

That night, Aisha and Eumaeus sneak ahead and scout Krykos' camp; find place on high alert and see girl from village talking to Krykos.

A returning raiding group passes Party's camp; Party captures one and slays rest. Captive gives some useful info.

That evening, Aisha sneaks right into camp but is spotted and has to flee.

During night, someone runs past Party's camp; they chase and capture. It's the village girl again; after she doesn't
answer a few questions, Eumaeus runs her through.

Eumaeus' horse disappears during night.

Girl's corpse buried in morning. Party try to move around to east of Krykos' camp. An odd animated tree clobbers Umwot a few times en route.

Find a trail heading south and follow; this leads to a couple of skulls on stakes with warnings from someone named Kalarel, so Party reverse course and take up station on track leading east from Krykos'.

A small Dwarven caravan passes by Party's camp. Kirkos puts most to sleep, but the few that remain are a handful.

Party wins, but one dwarf survives and is last seen glaring from woods. Wagons set afire.

Meanwhile, Pheradra arrives at Torcha with corpse of Khadrous after fending off one attempted robbery en route.

Khadrous fails raise, rises as a Wraith instead and is destroyed after casting Cleric loses a level. Pheradra leaves.

Rescue two prisoners from caravan. Both seem worthwhile, so Thimbus Stoutwhistle(MU-1) and Okoraytl(F-1) join. Rest deep in forest for a few days.

A gigantic snake coils around Okoraytl from above: Okoraytl killed before Party can slay snake.

Set up camp at a watch point on the west trail. A small group passes by later, and Kirkos and Thimbus sneak closer but are noticed and attacked. Things get strange:

• Kirkos and Thimbus attacked, Thimbus tries to cast a sleep spell in combat and is interrupted, resulting in a wild magic surge: an enemy starts radiating a strong aura of being marked for a very messy death that will affect all around;
• Everyone tries to flee but marked foe (who for now thinks everything's fine) chases Kirkos;
• Marked foe put to sleep, then a few other stray enemies, meanwhile Party finds Kirkos and Thimbus;
• Marked foe charges Party, gets run through by Eumaeus' lance but does not stop (!), continues fighting with lance through him until hoisted off ground by it - and doesn't care much about other wounds;
• Party tie up foe then lower him to ground and behead him; he does not die, and head sticks right back on! They then set him on fire, and leave, but fire burns through ropes … and clothes ...;
• While looting other enemies in forest, now-naked burnt man arrives; Party re-bind and fearfully haul him along.

Party moves camp, then a long discussion (argument) on how to use "Naked Burning Man" as a weapon against Krykos.

More planning; Cassandra and Perseus take trail-watch duties for the day.

Pheradra returns in evening having bumped to R-2 during trip. Aisha and Thimbus scout Krykos' camp and take out a guard, but someone interrupts and Aisha chases into woods. Thimbus gets hopelessly lost.

Aisha eventually returns to Party but still no Thimbus, so Pheradra and Aisha go searching. Thimbus returns to Party on his own, then Aisha, but now no Pheradra, so Aisha and Thimbus search and find her dragging herself through woods; she had entered Krykos' camp trying to pick up Thimbus' trail, been shot to pieces for her trouble, and was nearly dead when found.

Party finally decide to invade camp en masse; with one exception this proves a resounding success. The exception is that a magic surge makes Krykos' already-very-nasty sword vorpal for a while; when he hits Umwot with it, off comes his head, so Umwot killed.

A dozen or so non-combatants remain in camp. Accountius, the resident bookkeeper, becomes their spokesman.

During conversation, Orestes annoys Pheradra enough that she turns on him; a 5-way brawl results involving them,
Eumaeus, Perseus, and Axmost. Cassandra cools everyone down after a few bruises are delivered all round. Realize one "non-combatant" is in fact Kaita, Krykos' Necromancer wife; Axmost runs her through.

Loot camp and prepare to leave.

Arrive Torcha, spend half a month training and dividing treasury.

Demeter temple most annoyed about Khadrous-as-wraith and demand future favours from Party as compensation.

Meet a group of toughs on road; one thing leads to another until an all-out battle erupts. Party wins.

Leader type has a letter instructing him "find two in a cage, one black, one white; and bring them to the temple at Farkos"; Party have no idea what this means but as Ares' symbol is on the letter they assume it is not good.

Just up road, find latest victims of toughs: 6 disguised militiamen, all dead.

A 7th victim had dragged himself clear of the scene, scrawled a note on a rock: …", and died; with him is a small cage containing two mice: one black, one white.

Party correctly interpret the "Z" as Zeus' symbol, so turn around for Torcha where there is a large Zeus temple.

Party watches a high-level magic fight take place across a rainy valley…lots of lightning bolts and fireballs.

At inn that night, meet remains of one side of battle; meanwhile half of Party get very drunk.

Encounter a sky-high wall of darkness and silence across road and valley during day. Several people stuck waiting for it to clear including Sir Cavendish, a knight; and his trusty squire Farley. Fjallarr wants to go through but the mice will have none if it, so Memnon, Dolos, and Cavendish go through and find a much bigger lineup on the other side; here, it looks like a wall of flame.

After much experimenting, Memnon just tells everyone to disbelieve it, whereupon it vanishes.

Someone mentions Party is on a quest, so Cavendish(Cvr) and Farley(Cvr) join by riding ahead and clearing the road.

Farley gallops back to Party with a large half-skeletal bird in hot pursuit; Party help him kill it but not before it puts
Fjallarr and Dolos in stasis with its tail. Cavendish, farther ahead, battles three to a draw; he also stasised. Back to way-station.

Memnon takes mice from stasised Fjallarr and cannot later give them back when asked.

A snooty Cleric at way-station shows interest when told of birds and manages (against odds!) to destasis everyone by next morning.

Nikos(NrC-1) joins in a.m.; he seems to know what Party is doing and why, much to their concern.

During lunch, Cavendish (who has still been riding ahead) returns with a recruit: Maia(Cvr-1) joins.

Cavendish warns of dangers in Praetos, then offers to ride ahead and advise Zeus temple of Party's approach.

4. Nakki-Nakk (13-8-5;12), Hriva 5-Tuila 6 1083, September-November 2008

Background and summary: Zeus Clerics in Praetos ask the Party's help with investigating the centuries-old murder of Emperor Praeta IX, after whom the city is named. These sleuth-y Clerics have come to realize that someone named Nakki-Nakk was most likely involved at the time, but whether as a conspirator to murder or as defender of the Empire is unclear; so the Party are sent to Nakki-Nakk's last known home to seek evidence of any involvement on either side.

Starting members (from Two Blind Mice: Fjallarr(R-2), Memnon(F-2), Drosi(MU-1), Dolos(F-1), Nikos(NrC-1)

During night, a gibbering blob of goo drives everyone insane except Fjallarr and Memnon; they kill it.

During day, lots of searching for Nakki-Nakk's home proves fruitless, so back to Turvitian cave.

A secret door leads to a left-right passage; Party attacked by Quitchi (right) and Knill (left) once inside:

• Party splits in three: two go for the Quitchi, two go for the Knill, two stay in the middle;
• Nikos and Dolos go for the Knill and - though they get bogged down - do just fine;
• One (1) Knill slips behind N+D and single-handedly takes out both Drosi and Hurdy!;
• Fjallarr and Memnon take the Quitchi and get mushed: Memnon killed and Fjallarr almost;
• Dolos and Nikos rescue Fjallarr, Nikos gets minor divine intervention to cast Death's Door and save his life;
• Dolos tries to pass Nikos a healing potion and damages him with it instead when he fumbles;
• Every Party member at or below 0 h.p. except Nikos by the time things come to order; potion saves Fjallarr.

Wake up Hurdy, gather the fallen and leave. Not quite enough healing to go around, so Fjallarr goes on a frantic herb hunt that - while producing an extremely rare find - comes up with nothing that can cure. Rest.

Drosi dies during night from his wounds. Dolos bumps (to F-2) during night. Return to Praetos.

Wade back in, take out some leftover Knill and Quitchi; 4 very young Quitchi glom on to Dolos as new father but are soon left behind.

8 drunk but armoured Grashi provide a good workout for the front line: Fjallarr and Memnon hold the line for 32 rounds (!) while back-liners on both sides are reduced to throwing furniture at each other as all other options have been exhausted.

A strange regenerating dog proves more than Party can handle, so they leave it behind. Retreat and sack out.

Two Quitchi and a Monk manage to drive Party back, so try another passage.

A Turvitian and a Tegrashi fall rather easily, though Memnon poisoned by the Tegrashi and has to call in a favour from Cupid (see Two Blind Mice) to fix.

Find and release some prisoners; one of these - Sir Rhodnë - wants to lead all to fame and glory once he can find his armour. Party retreat outside for a few days rest.

Sir Rhodnë leaves, with only a helmet and sword to his name, to escort other rescuees back to town.

Strange fog overnight, and oddly behaving empty suits of armour that vanish when struck.

Regenerating dog cannot guard its treasure from telekinesis.

Find Grashi quarters; Nikos sacrifices all the shoes.

A dancing hypnotizing skeleton proves deadly: Fjallarr and Nikos killed; rest of Party barely survives. Retreat.

Return to complex. Something attacks Rhodnë and flees; he chases to no avail.

Try Quitchi-Monk area again; this time a tentacle hauls Dolos into pool where a giant crab awaits. Hurdy dives in after him; both eventually drown: Hurdy and Dolos killed. Meanwhile Fjallarr and Memnon manage to defeat Monk and with him the legendary Lucky the Quitch. (Lucky is well-named, as he really is lucky: +5 on absolutely everything – stats, hit dice, saves, damage, etc. – not bad for an otherwise-ordinary Quitch!)

Retreat and sack out for a few days rest.

Party send Sir Rhodnë in to deal with regenerating dog; Memnon thinks it's an illusion and disbelieves. It vanishes.

A strange banquet hall fails to feed Memnon (though he goes through all the motions anyway).

A dancing skeleton gently ushers Party out of its room, then falls apart; Party telekinese bits of it out and smash them one by one.

Party disturb a Dragon and run for their lives.

During night, a message reaches Party: they are in danger and should head for village of Kerata; they do in morning.

To Zeus temple here; meet head of main Praetos temple who tells Party Praetos is unsafe due to various agencies who have various interests in Party's mission. He also brings recruits: Gallarr(R-1), Sviorr(WrC-1/T-1) and Raphosa(NrC-2) join.

Back toward complex; bandits in hills prove troublesome, Party forced to sack out.

During night, a Turvitian finds Party's camp but is easily defeated.

Finally healthy, Party re-enter complex. Zombie room - now nicely re-set - proves deadly again: Sviorr killed by a Zombie. Drosi shrinks portcullis during this and it falls on him.

Bury Sviorr's remains in a small mountain of copper coins found nearby; a fine Dwarvish end.

Find a carving on underside of coffin lid - IRAMLI - experimenting shows that saying this either opens portcullis or prevents it from falling, but as portcullis is destroyed now anyway this is of limited use.

"Coffin" leads to a staircase and shaft; looks like a dead end, so explore elsewhere.

Open a door in bottom of crab pool; resulting flood leaves 3 inches of water everywhere and lots of sore people.

Find a Rust Monster; Party immensely lucky to only lose a few weapons.

Nowhere obvious left to explore, Party starts looking for not-so-obvious and finds a tiny secret passage; at end of passage is a tough little Quitch guarding a half-nuts lady who claims to be Nakki-Nakk's wife, or consort, or something. Party takes her along for a while, then puts her back where found as she is more liability than help.

Check out shaft below "coffin", find an exit, then retreat and sack out once more.

Down shaft and explore, soon find an underground lake with a little hut on the beach; hut holds a busy little man who has no time for Party.

A small boat arrives bearing a very lost Elf; Party take her in, thus Althaire(T-1) joins.

More exploring and several small battles; an Owlbear almost kills Gallarr.

Bash through a wall (actually a secret door) into a room full of Khri-Halai; a standoff combat sees Gallarr captured before Party retreats and leaves to rest. During this, a spell failure generates a Mirror Image effect on everyone involved; much confusion, but it soon wears off.

Back to Khri-Halai area, now empty; all they find is a note in Common telling Party Gallarr is a prisoner.

Find another banquet hall similar to the one upstairs, except this one has a mural on wall showing what looks like members of this Party getting spells cast at them. Some paranoia sets in, but Party still go through the motions of eating a meal even though there is no food.

Find another Dragon, except this time it's real: Drosi and Darius killed when it breathes on them, but Party wins. Drosi raised shortly after by Raphosa, from a scroll she had. Sack out. A folding boat provides hours of fun.

Enter another crypt, on seeing its main occupant Fjallarr and Memnon flee in terror; Memnon runs to lake with Raphosa chasing and ends up finding wolves and Neanderthals, so Raphosa captured and Memnon killed. Drosi following turns around and reports to Party.

Hearing this report from a nearby room, Khri-Halai call out "you need this more than we do" and release Gallarr.

Party charge around to Neanderthals; wolves cause great trouble until Drosi telekineses one into the air and drops it, but Party still a mess (Althaire unconscious, Gallarr at -8) until Memnon suddenly gets up (!) in Neanderthals' camp and starts clobbering people on a whim.

Memnon frees Raphosa, then collapses dead. Raphosa cures up Gallarr and Althaire; meanwhile Drosi has another wolf in the air, he throws it at the Neanderthals and scores a direct hit. They surrender. Fjallarr takes them in as henches. Sack out.

On reflection, Raphosa is sure Memnon was briefly possessed by either Apollo or Hercules.

Try crypt again; haul out and destroy lots of lesser undead but main occupant sends everyone fleeing except Fjallarr, who is nearly killed instead. Another Neanderthal lost.

One last attempt on crypt proves successful other than loss of 3 more Neanderthals; main occupant destroyed. Make sure crypt is safe, then sack out.

During night, a couple of very lost Elves - Sinotia and Elrindel - show up having just washed ashore on the lake. After some discussion, Party take them in, then leave complex and return to Kerata.

Debrief session with Zeus temple boss, then a break for treasury and training.

5. Enter Magraine (7-2-2;1), Tuila 19-31 1083, November-December 2008.

Background and summary: The Party are given a specially commissioned scroll and asked to journey to the Barrakos Hills to use it to bring back to life one General Magraine, the greatest military mind Decast has ever known.

Starting members (from Nakki-Nakk): Fjallarr(R-3), Drosi(MU-2), Gallarr(R-1), Raphosa(NrC-2), Althaire(T-1)

Marine ghouls attack boat during night; messy, but all survive.

Land near village of Salt Falls, scout, then head inland.

To small village of Katha, easily find Magraine temple.

That night, Althaire scouts and gets some useful information.

Party given a tour of (some of) Temple by a volunteer.

Althaire later tries to sneak in using Robe of Blending but is given away by rain dripping off her; fast retreat.

Talseros talks Party's way back to "corpse" room; Party eventually have to take out two guards and charm another, but all survive.

Find real Magraine corpse, along with that of assassin who killed her; Raphosa reads scroll and revives both. (oops) Nausicaa puts whole area under fog while Magraine slaughters assassin; she then demands lots of answers to lots of questions, but is eventually persuaded to leave with Party.

Arrive at Krykos' old camp. Naked Burning Man has made it out of pond and has harsh words for Party, who ignore him and carry on.

Eumaeus and Kirkos go one way, everyone else goes another; Pheradra and Perseus lead Party back to E+K, and an argument follows:

• Entire Party argue about how to approach suspected Ares temple;
• Thimbus steps back and casts Sleep, gets everyone except Aisha;
• Aisha rearranges everyone's gear and puts Eumaeus and Orestes in a compromising position;
• Thimbus feeds a Love Potion to Eumaeus while Aisha hides;
• Eumaeus wakes up and falls madly in love with first person he sees: Orestes!
• Orestes wakes up and feeds a Love Potion to sleeping Cassandra, then wakes her;
• Cassandra also falls madly in love with Orestes on waking, and Pheradra is furious.

Rest of day and most of night is lost in soap opera, though Pheradra and Perseus do scout ahead and find ruins.

Camp that night is a mess; net result is Orestes, Eumaeus, and Cassandra sleep together after Pheradra throws Cassandra out of their tent. Cassandra also charms Eumaeus, for good measure.

"My name is Sir Keegan. Whoever finds this: please avenge me."

The shield vanishes when taken off wall. Down some stairs wait a few Knill, Party defeat these despite much fumbling. Retreat. Another long night.

Back to ruins; two Knill fire and flee, Party pursues into a badly-executed ambush, but enemy are not the problem:

• A tough Khri-Halai and 4 Knill provide opposition but Khri-Halai soon put to sleep, later killed;
• Same sleep catches Party front line, but Bellephoron and Perseus carry on to engage Knill;
• Orestes and Kirkos get into a fight behind the lines after Orestes Colour Sprays Aisha and Desati;
• Kirkos leads Orestes to rest of Party, this causes Cassandra's love potion effect to wear off, she joins fight;
• Eumaeus charges Kirkos and joins fight, meanwhile sleeping enemies start to awaken;
• Thimbus puts entire Party to sleep to stop brawl but neatly misses both remaining Knill (!);
• Knill fail to slit throats and awaken some people in process; Thimbus also wakes people up, one is Cassandra: Cassandra kills Orestes to prove her love to Pheradra;
• Last Knill tries to surrender but there's a line-up to run it through.

Loot includes a very strange suit of armour with veins, flowing blood, etc.

Lots more Knill try to attack soon after but door slammed in their face and jammed shut, Party leaves.

Retreat to entrance and plug it, then sack out.

During night, Party's rest disturbed by easily-slain Zombies, then again later by collapse of entry plug onto stairs below; Party flee when a pair of Ghouls appear. Sack out in woods for days.

Still before dawn, Party realize there's a stranger sitting by their campfire: Creon(T-1) joins.

Discussions and arguments while resting lead to creation of a party charter of conduct - amazingly, everyone signs.

Perseus is elected Party leader.

Back into complex - efforts to evade recurring glyph on entry see Creon take just as much damage falling from a wall. Eumaeus then sets off glyph anyway, so two are incurable before even getting inside.

Find a Knill mining operation and take out miners; during this more Knill cut Party off from behind - these are soon dealt with via Sleep but Knill boss shows up and immediately takes down Eumaeus and Perseus, outgunned Party barely win, then loot and once again leave.

Rested Party try again, this time discovering an Ochre Jelly and a bunch of huge rats: Desati and Pheradra killed as Party had no quick answer to the Jelly.

Long argument over fate of journal and notes Desati had been keeping ends when they are thrown into acid.

Decide to return to town.

Arrive at Krykos' old camp, now occupied by "Nimbus" (previously known as Naked Burning Man); he is gaining a following. Party thrown out on sight.

Arrive at Shadowhaunt, spend night watching for movement; a couple of Shadows convince Party to back off.

Lay ambush for whoever has been leaving tracks around; in late afternoon someone comes out of temple and gets clobbered by Party - they realize it is Telemachos just in time to not kill him, and patch him up. He gets nearly killed again by Bellephoron a moment later when Party realize he is not himself; an argument later, he is taken out of temple area whereupon he returns to his senses. Thus, Telemachos rejoins - but not for long.

Decision is to take him back to Torcha for safekeeping, so leave on forced march.

During first takedown of Telemachos, Kirkos put he and half of Party to sleep. This violates the new Party charter, thus most of trip is lost in argument.

Arrive Torcha - again. Telemachos leaves and stays with Athena temple.

Cassandra puts up a poster to recruit a new Cleric as none of the locals will touch this Party now.

A recruit arrives in very early morning, booming on Party's door. Some questioning finds him to be vaguely worthwhile, so Party takes him in: Bashwell "Bashy" Topham-Krykera(NrC-2) joins. Leave town.

Wade back in and explore. Bellephoron finds lots of pit traps the hard way, even though each time someone else had passed by first and missed them.

Lizards clobber Party and slow Cassandra via poison, so retreat and sack out.

Cassandra recovers during night, so more exploring.

A large blue slimy thing in a pool causes trouble and almost kills Aisha.

Find some Zombies: Eumaeus killed. Party retreats to rest.

Rest disturbed late in evening by a talking Ghost who (literally) just wants to play games; Party flee.

Arrive at ruins again after Aisha stops by Nimbus' camp to deliver tea. Bellephoron finds the same shield on the same wall that Eumaeus found a month and a half ago; it again disappears when taken down. Telemachos seems fine.

Wade in to complex, soon meet Ghost again and this time destroy it after it ages (not by much) a few people. Lots of skeletons pop out of lots of coffins in a hall; a long fumble-filled battle takes care of these.

While exploring shortly after, skeletons appear again; Creon and Aisha begin passionately kissing while everyone else fights and Bashwell gets killed.

On seeing this, Aisha prays at a nearby altar and skeletons suddenly stop and retreat. Party retreats too, to rest.

Try another direction and meet undead version of Sir Keegan, one-time commander of the place. He questions Party, then tells of what lies below and gives Perseus a sword.

Meanwhile Creon, Thimbus, and Aisha all get in each other's way trying to loot altars.

Armed with new information, head down stairs and meet a bunch of Khri-Halai (at least, that's what they look like); their pet spider poisons Telemachos and nearly kills Perseus, so retreat outside after winning battle.

Party took a prisoner while inside, Cassandra charms it now, it gives lots of useful information. It gets very annoyed when referred to as Khri-Halai; it calls itself a "Hagalen" or Hobgoblin and claims to serve a deity called Halai'zek who none here have heard of.

Frantic herb-hunting through woods over next few days manages to save Telemachos.

Back into complex; Party talk to prisoner again at top of stairs and kill him, then Creon sneaks ahead and walks right into a Hagalen ambush including a wizard and a very tough warrior; when the dust settles Bellephoron, Pheradra (to -66) and Cassandra (to -50) are all dead along with the Hagalen.

Loot - carefully - and leave. Bodies buried in forest well clear of ruins. Head for town.

Plow back in; meet a few Hagalen but Aisha and Thimbus stealthily deal with these until one catches on and charges, easy pickings when it runs into entire waiting Party.

A couple of Hagalen fell down their well when put to sleep; Telemachos tries to fish them out but catches a Ghoul instead; and the Ghoul is (was) Orestes! It doesn't last long; nor does another reeled in shortly after.

A Hagalen archer starts shooting at Party during this but is also easily taken out and captured; meanwhile Creon takes parts of Orestes for later use but is seen by several people. An argument breaks out until Kirkos puts everyone to sleep; Cassandra and Rhiannon are woken first while the Thieves are being searched in their sleep, but the parts are never found.

Retreat upstairs and sack out.

More exploring. At one point Pheidon gets trapped behind a portcullis with 4 Hagalen for company; Sleep spells solve this easily, then Pheidon goes exploring on his own and sets various things on fire by the time rest of Party can join him.

Creon and Takki almost start their own fight during this but Cassandra intervenes. Creon then disappears; returns later, meanwhile everyone gets paranoid about their possessions.

Some unusually vicious bedbugs cause a problem; one starts burrowing into Pheidon, he quaffs a Potion of Gaseous Form (which gets rid of the bug), then goes exploring into the darkness and becomes hopelessly lost as he cannot see. Eventually, potion wears off leaving him in an unknown (but empty) passageway.

Rest of Party give up waiting for him after a while, start exploring, and soon find him. Leave Hagalen captive in a corner, and Cassandra and Perseus have to break up another budding Creon-Takki fight.

A huge statue waits behind a door, Party take care of this; meanwhile Takki sneaks around behind it.

Party soon find out where Takki went; he found some more statues that trapped him in a shimmering forcefield, the inside of which is filling fast with water. Party attack statues, except Aisha who starts searching the fallen huge statue, and Creon who sneaks back and kills Party's Hagalen captive.

Water inside forcefield starts a whirlpool, slamming Takki against the statues until Takki killed; meanwhile Aisha finds a small compartment in fallen statue but cannot open it. Creon returns and distracts Aisha by kissing her; compartment immediately forgotten by both while most of rest of Party try to bash through to Takki.

Rhiannon notices Creon's stealthy return, goes to check on now-dead captive, puts two and two together, comes back and reveals his actions to all (and belts him upside the head for good measure).

Eventually bring down forcefield (and cause a fine flood) by destroying statues, then pry Creon and Aisha apart. Compartment in big statue contains a now-useless lever. Party retreat somewhat and sack out.

Back downstairs, a 4-man ambush causes little trouble except Kirkos' sleep nearly puts Karlina down the well.

Explore. Telemachos finds a Gelatinous Cube the hard way; it manages to swallow Pheidon and Cassandra before everyone else carves it to bits, but all survive.

During this battle, a bored Creon starts kissing Myiore but is caught in the act by Aisha; Aisha and Myiore bond (a bit) while Creon kisses his way through the Party's women - until slapped by Rhiannon.

Defeat a couple of putrid corpses that throw bits of themselves as missile weapons; Myiore takes notes. Retreat and sack out.

Find a room full of half-eaten body parts; some start moving and attack, Party wins. During this, Karlina notices an odd-looking little creature scuttle away down some nearby stairs. Paranoia mounts.

Party then turns around and spends rest of day exploring nooks and crannies of complex with a fine-tooth comb, finding little of note. Pheidon and Kirkos manage to disable two somewhat-dangerous dragon statues.

Down stairs found yesterday, doors below lead straight into a major battle:

• Karlina charges in, first gets clubbed senseless then is put further to sleep by Party;
• Creon charges around a corner and runs into a Vampire (!); several more soon arrive, but fortunately these are not the level-draining kind (and there is much relief!);
• The little creature Karlina saw yesterday turns out to be a small animated (and badly built) clay man, it attacks;
• Pheidon steps forward to cover Karlina and is attacked by a creature shrouded in darkness - and the clay man;
• Behind all of this stands a Cleric; Party's artillery open up on him until he disappears;
• Vampires cause all kinds of trouble at the back, meanwhile Pheidon heroically holds the front line and Rhiannon gets caught behind enemy lines while trying to protect the fallen Creon;
• Pheidon killed, meanwhile enemy Cleric (now cured) appears again and starts casting spells, soon interrupted;
• Everything comes to order except outmatched Aisha is holding off the little dark creature while the staggering Cleric tries to fight on nearby, when a huge hot creature appears out of nowhere and asks the first person it sees (Rhiannon, fortunately) for orders! She tells it to kill the Cleric, then the dark thing; it gleefully and messily (Cleric to about -70 h.p.) obliges. It then asks for payment; when Party can't produce what it wants it just takes the dead (including Pheidon, and most of his gear) and vanishes. Thimbus realizes large creature was an Efreet, and guesses it was summoned by interruption of enemy Cleric's spell.

Battered Party retreats to rest. A quick conversation with Sir Keegan reveals Party still has more to do here.

Wade back in, explore room where yesterday's battle occurred. Pouring holy water into a blood fountain causes red mist but stops flow.

Thimbus lowers some things down central pit (thus warning occupants below of trouble coming…).

All down pit on ropes and chains, straight into another major battle. Karlina almost killed, several others below zero h.p., but - amazingly - all survive.

A partly-open rift to the underworld dominates one wall; Aisha closes it one segment before Thimbus can open it.

Loot and leave, find Keegan's corpse now resting peacefully. Sack out.