The Riverian Chronicles

Chapter 10 - "Endgame"

Capture of Sylune to Queen of the Demonweb Pits

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CALENDAR:

Leirn, Scori, Tari,	Prici, Aqui, Lequi, Jera,	Aves, Touri, Jema,	Canne, Verga, Fieth
(fall)	(winter)	(spring)	(summer)

Capture of Sylune(mini) (7-3-2;1), Tari 7-Prici 1 759, MA 06

Background and summary: Criminals Throy, Flasheart and Carrine have been sentenced by King Richard to find the evil Cleric Sylune and bring her in, dead or alive, at no personal profit. They round up Fulvin, draft some new recruits, and have relatively little trouble completing the mission and thus serving their sentence.

Starting members (from Against the Giants Again via retirement): Throy(F-9)
                           (from Volcano of the Giants): Carrine(T-12)
                           (from Circus at Verwood): Flasheart(T-7)
                           (from Zarim Infiltration): Fulvin(NrC-6/T-7)

Tar 6 759	Throy's year-and-a-day retirement ends. Fulvin arrives at Verwood. Company Bards gather some information indicating Waterdeep as a good place to start searching for Sylune.
Tar 7	All to Waterdeep; days of asking questions produces little, and Party are extremely lucky not to arouse suspicion.
Tar 16	Finally learn where Sylune spends her time while in town, and that she is not here now.
Tar 17	Inquiring at MU's guild about teleports produces recruits instead: Pnyum the Crafty(MU-7) and Phoenix(MU-7) both join.
Tar 19	Planeshift to Riveria, start walking to old Temple of Gruumsh complex.
Tar 22	Reach complex; find it abandoned above ground but still in use below, though unoccupied now. Wait.
Tar 23	Throy to Sachem, finds old friend Cpl. (now Sgt.) Brendig but he and all others clam up when Sylune is mentioned.
Tar 23	Vynri(R-5) joins via Throy's recruitment.
Tar 24	Flasheart and Phoenix to Sachem, learn of strange animals in woods. All return to complex.
Tar 25	Sylune and some friends planeshift into complex and are jumped by Party. Fulvin killed in resulting battle. Sylune captured alive.
Pri 1	Sylune turned over to Richard at Riveria, he declares various sentences complete on receipt of criminals' shares.
Pri 1	Carrine and Flasheart retire.
Pri 2	Fulvin raised at Riveria. Fulvin retires.

Surviving members: Throy(F-9), Carrine(T-12), Flasheart(T-7), Fulvin(NrC-6/T-7), Pnyum(MU-7), Phoenix(MU-7), Vynri(R-5)
New members: Pnyum, Phoenix, Vynri
Casualties: (Fulvin – raised)
Retirees: Fulvin, Carrine, Flasheart
Continuing parties (to Against the Drow I): Throy, Phoenix, Vynri
(to Coldwood Menace): Pnyum

56. Caves of Evil (11-5-2;11), Tari 5-Prici 26 759, FE-JN 06

Background and summary: The same magic items are turning up for sale over and over again in Waterdeep. The Party investigates and soon learns a forest east of the city is swallowing up any who venture there, but those people's possessions are finding their way back to market. So, thus forewarned, the Party wade into the forest and – after several false starts and many casualties – manage to break up and destroy a small Beholder-run syndicate operating there.

Starting members (from Dragonspear Castle III): Araglas(F-11), Throg(F-8), Tylara(F-9), Tovan(NrC-9), Leodran(R-7)
(from Danger at Drowsaptre, via retirement): Calion(F-7/T-8)

Tar 5 759	Over the previous month, Araglas and others have noticed items for sale that they know to have been sold before.Conventional investigation gets nowhere, so Tovan casts Commune; answers point to a forest east of town and something there called the Caves of Evil, also indicate agents within Waterdeep might be involved.
Tar 5 759	Recruit a wizard: Delifrand (Dell) Silverstaff(MU-8) joins.
Tar 7	Leave Waterdeep.
Tar 10	Reach Ardeep Forest. Wade in.
Tar 11	During night, capture a Leprechaun; conversation reveals he knows Darby (who is from here). Tylara flies him off and releases him.
	Deeper in forest, meet Leprechaun again and a few hundred of his friends; they drive Party back into a waiting huge Green Dragon: Throg killed and Tylara's flying broom destroyed in resulting brawl, but Dragon slain. Party flees.
	Planeshift to road outside Waterdeep, arrive in a farmer's fertilizer cart. To town, and baths.
	Throg raised by Tovan. Tylara makes arrangements for broom repair; costly, and will take a while.
Tar 13	Return to forest, search for Dragon's lair. Awful weather.
Tar 14	Find lair, disappointingly slim pickings. Back to Waterdeep.
Tar 15	Planeshift to Verwood, drop off treasure.
Tar 16	Return to forest and try again; Leprechauns block and put half of Party to sleep, rest gather sleepers up and run.
Tar 16	Fleeing Party stumble on to a couple of adventurers and take them in: Varis Whisperwind(NtC-7) and Seamus Thornbeard(WrC-7) join. Leave forest, on foot this time. Weather still awful.
Tar 17	Stumble on to and watch a one-sided jousting contest on a road; Party take pity on the loser and take him in, so Richesard Ironsword (Cvr-7) joins. Within minutes Seamus nicknames him Ritchie, and this would stick.
Tar 17	Arrive at village of Tucker's Bar in evening, decide for no particular reason it must be involved with Caves of Evil.
Tar 18	Lots of scouting, spying, and general investigation of a mostly-innocent Tucker's Bar turns up info on Kazka, a shady merchant who passes through sometimes. Meanwhile, curious locals start investigating Party.
Tar 19	Tylara finds a murdered body in a.m. so Party's entire attention diverted to this, end up days later tracking down an Elf many miles out of town, but she's innocent (all she did was loot the corpse later); all a complete waste of time and nothing whatsoever to do with Caves of Evil.
Tar 21	Return to Tucker's Bar in evening, find Kazka is now here.
Tar 22	Follow Kazka's caravan as it leaves town. Tovan casts another Commune and learns Kazka is an agent for whoever is behind the Caves of Evil enterprise, so Party plots to ambush caravan.
Tar 23	Spend entire day at soggy ambush point; caravan never shows up as it has broken down one village up the road.
Tar 24	Try ambush again. While waiting, Leodran disappears; he has been charmed and taken by a Dryad. Party cannot spare time to free him; a half-hearted try gets nowhere.
	Caravan arrives and Party clobber it, but Kazka (who Party want alive) goes to –11. Tovan tries Death's Door and fails, so he tries again (never a good idea) and fails spectacularly. Corpse explodes. (meanwhile a psyonic charm on Kazka gets transferred to Tovan, who spends the next several days feeding the Caves' Beholders every shred of information he can about the Party, its capabilities, possessions, etc., all the while operating as if still a Party member. Rest of Party never suspect a thing.)
	Surviving caravan guards paid off and sent on their way.
	Tylara and Araglas bail Leodran out by trading a captured Elf to the Dryad.
Tar 27	Party arrives back in Tucker's Bar to go up-river; distrusting locals won't help so Party stuck.
Tar 28	Leave Tucker's Bar.
Pri 2	Arrive at village of Farthing, hire a barge to go upstream.
Pri 2	Find a suspicious dock and go ashore here; it's the right place, so Party head inland.
Pri 4	Finally find some opposition: one lone Kobold scatters the Party until Calion kills it. Another one met a bit later is captured, then killed. (thanks to Tovan, the Beholders know where Party is and have been keeping their people clear; these Kobolds are merely a test to see if Tovan's information is accurate, and he passes with flying colours)
Pri 5	During night, Tylara killed while on watch. Leodran discovers this a few minutes later and is attacked himself; he raises an alarm and the killer (Joram, A-10) is tracked down by Calion and Leodran and killed. (Joram had been sent by the Beholders to kill and loot Leodran; they know Leodran's Helm of True Seeing will negate many of their traps and defenses, and want it for their own people. But Joram blows it by killing the wrong person, then belatedly tries to fix his error by attacking Leodran, and only gets killed for his trouble)
	Seamus casts Speak With Dead on Tylara; she declines resurrection. Varis throws Death Prayer on her, buries her, and Party carry on.
	Finally find Caves of Evil and charge a few Kobolds waiting within, but Kobolds have high-powered help. Calion goes behind lines to take out an enemy spellcaster and is taken out himself by Darine(T-12) who would go on to become a huge thorn in Party's side. Calion leaves, not by his own choice: captured and dragged off.
	Party back out, then try again and walk into an ambush. Varis killed by Darine, now sporting much of Calion's expensive gear. Seamus to –9. And during all this Tovan finally strikes, launching a few Flamestrikes into the fray before fleeing outside and joining up with (and curing) Darine.
	Determined to find Calion (via Seamus' psyonics they know he's alive), Party keep going and walk into another ambush. Leodran killed by poison, and Dell and Ritchie killed by hit-and-run attacks from Darine.
	Seamus dimension-doors to outside, finds Tovan here, and somehow manages to defeat him one-on-one, so Tovan captured.
	Araglas and Throg find a glyph (of Tovan's) on way out; with no other way to get rid of it, badly-injured Throg heroically dives through: Throg killed.
	Araglas and Seamus flee with Tovan, Leodran and Varis corpses; spend several very cold days escaping forest.
Pri 9	Summoned by Araglas, S'nel'be finds this tiny Party outside Waterdeep. Leodran and Varis raised by S'nel'be, who then leaves; neither he nor Seamus can un-charm Tovan despite many attempts.
Pri 10	Arrive Waterdeep.
Pri 13	Tovan un-charmed via some high-level spellwork from Tymora types.
Pri 16	Throg, Ritchie, Dell and Tylara(oops!) all revived via mass-retrieval wish at Waterdeep; same wish gets Calion and everyone's gear back to Party. (and Darine, in forest, swears a blue streak!).
Pri 16	Big argument over who pays for wish; Ritchie retires and leaves during this. Tylara gets her repaired broom.
Pri 17	Planeshift to Verwood, drop off treasure here.
Pri 18	Tylara knighted by King Richard.
Pri 19	Back to Caves (weather terrible yet again); reach previous point of furthest advance unopposed and plow on in.
	Various Golems slow Party down; Tovan nearly killed by an Assassin during this.
	Open a door; a Beholder waits on the other side, and Seamus killed by its death ray. Party retreats into forest.
	Seamus raised by Tovan.
Pri 21	Back to Caves and explore until the same Beholder gets in behind Party; Seamus killed by its death ray…again.
	Party engage Beholder and find it's in a vertical shaft; Throg jumps onto it and collapses; Araglas follows and goes down shaft with it – and finds there are two more waiting below. Rest of Party raggedly follow, meanwhile Araglas contacts distant Diora with instructions "wish us back if you haven't heard from me again in a week!" while somehow holding off Beholders…and Darine, who soon shows up.
	Party almost annihilated: Leodran disintegrated, Tylara petrified (and lucky not to shatter when she crash-lands; she was in flight at the time); Calion, Throg, Dell and Tovan all asleep or paralyzed, and Varis slowed, but Beholders just can't quite finish the job. Darine captured. Leodran becomes R-8 as he dies.
	Dell charms Darine later and overdoes it; she falls madly in love with him and happily tells him what she can about this place and its former occupants, so Darine(T-12) joins now though Party don't formally decide to take her in until a few days later.
	Explore until someone finds a book and gives it to Dell; he starts reading and cannot stop, a firefight breaks out when Darine leaps to his aid as others try to wrest book from him. Both are bound, and book destroyed; Dell uncursed later.
Pri 22	Explore again, find a massive hoard of coins (about 120,000 g.p. worth). Spend days transporting it in stages to Verwood.
Pri 27	Tylara restored by Dell via scroll. Start division of a mighty treasury.
Aqu 2	Dell almost killed by a Medallion of Strangulation from treasury but Tovan saves.

Surviving members: Araglas(F-11), Throg(F-8), Tylara(F-9), Tovan(NrC-9), Calion(F-8/T-8), Dell(MU-8), Varis(NtC-7), Ritchie(Cvr-7), Darine(T-12)
New members: Dell, Seamus, Varis, Ritchie, Darine
Casualties: Seamus, Leodran(twice each, revived once each); (Throg[twice], Tylara[twice], Varis, Dell, Ritchie – all revived each time)
Retirees: Ritchie (to Revenge of the Gith, eventually)
Continuing parties (to Against the Drow I): Araglas, Throg, Tovan, Varis
(to To Sink A Red-Hulled Ship): Calion, Tylara, Dell, Darine

To Sink A Red-Hulled Ship (mini) (4-0-0;0), Aqui 11-18 759, NO 06

Background and summary: The Party are hired to prevent the arrival at Waterdeep of a particular ship. They sink it.

Starting members (from Caves of Evil): Tylara(F-9), Calion(F-8/T-8), Dell(MU-8), Darine(T-12)

Aqu 11 759	While hanging around Waterdeep waiting for Calion to train, Darine hears of a potentially lucrative and relatively easy task: a ship is on its way to town and some shady types want it not to arrive…and will pay 20,000 g.p. to whoever stops it.
Aqu 12	Everyone investigates, learn ship carries two passengers who may intend to eventually destabilize Waterdeep. (at least, that's what Party is told. Reality is that said passengers are a potential threat to some local political interests; a large bounty is put on preventing their arrival, but nobody local dares touch the job due to likely repercussions. So, some foreign suckers are lured in…)
	Also learn key targets may be disguised and discerning innocents from targets may be impossible.
	Calion finishes training (to F-8/T-8).
Aqu 14	Finish investigating, decide to take job on; realize others have also taken same job on, thus are in a race.
Aqu 15	Contact hiring group, a guild of assassins and low-lifes backed by city power-brokers, and get info: target ship has a distinctive red hull, among other identifiers, and there must be no survivors as targets could be disguised as anyone. (they aren't, but guild wants no witnesses) Party hires own ship.
Aqu 16	Leave Waterdeep.
Aqu 17	Find red-hulled ship. Calion swims under it (with lots of magical help) and drills several holes in hull, then rips rudder off. Dell fireballs ship from air. Darine lands on ship, backstrikes some random officer, and dives overboard; Calion has to rescue. Dell chucks a few more fireballs in as ship founders.
Aqu 17	Ship sinks; Party find survivors in water and slay (and loot, in some cases), then leave.
Aqu 18	Arrive Waterdeep, report (guild uses psyonics to verify), get paid. Dell, Darine and Calion all retire.

Note: actions during this adventure caused the alignments of all four characters to become significantly more Evil.

Surviving members: Tylara(F-9), Calion(F-8/T-8), Dell(MU-8), Darine(T-12)
New members: none
Casualties: none
Retirees: Dell, Darine, Calion
Continuing party (to Return To Dafan): Tylara

57. Leshendra's Treasure Map (7-0-0;0), Tari 6-13 759, AL-MA 06

Background and summary: Leshendra recently pulled a treasure map from a Deck of Many Things; now, she rounds up a party to help her follow it. After a few hazardous encounters, back they come with a treasure of questionable worth.

Starting members (from Circus at Verwood): Leshendra(T-11), Munin(R-8), Marlu(MU-9/WrC-2), Rohn(F-8), Thistle(MU-6/T-7), Trilby(NtC-9),
Ketall(F-4)

Tar 6 759	Leave Verwood via planeshift to Culavera, as map seems to relate to somewhere on Windward Isle.
Tar 7	Thinking them a threat, Thistle fireballs 4 harmless wild turkeys in forest.
Tar 8	Find crystal staff in tree after sunset, but it's only useful at sunset so have to wait.
Tar 11	Reach "canyon of doom" shown on map. Awful weather.
Tar 12	Easily plow through a huge Earth Elemental and a couple of annoying Galeb Duhrs while in canyon. A Xorn attacks in evening and proves more bothersome, but Party defeats. Weather still awful.
Tar 13	Into valley with lots more turkeys; hidden among turkeys are several Cockatrices, and Party lucky nobody gets stoned when they attack.
Tar 13	Find treasure with little difficulty; it consists of a small box containing only a gold nugget, a piece of string, and a pinecone, along with a bit of soil. Return to Verwood via planeshift.

Surviving members: Leshendra(T-11), Munin(R-8), Marlu(MU-9/WrC-3), Rohn(F-9), Thistle(MU-6/T-7), Trilby(NtC-9), Ketall(F-5)
New members: none
Casualties: none
Retirees: none
Continuing parties (to Loki's Revenge): Leshendra, Munin, Rohn, Thistle
(to Coldwood Menace): Marlu, Ketall, Trilby

58. Loki's Revenge (a.k.a. Down the Drain) (10-0-0;3), Tari 14- 759, MA-JN 06

Background and summary: Loki exacts some painful revenge on those who, during the Asgeir's Saga adventures, undid some of His work. In typically chaotic fashion, however, some of the characters He picks on are completely innocent. Afterward, the "reward" proves more dangerous than the adventure.

Starting members (from Leshendra's Treasure Map): Leshendra(T-11), Munin(R-8), Rohn(F-9), Thistle(MU-6/T-7)
(from Circus at Verwood): He'is(F-10), Diora(WrC-9), Mrikle(I-10), Pearl(MU-9), Schurra(NtC-7), Lanefan(F-9)

Tar 14 759	During night, lots of characters have very vivid dreams, mostly to do with regrettable actions during adventuring, either by themselves or by some other character whose role in dream is to tell this character to take their place...or something like that.
	Party wake up in a 20'x20' underground room with one exit. Secret doors lead to a multi-dimensional maze that always ends up back in the same room. Comparing notes between characters leads to correct conclusion this is something to do with Asgeir's Saga, as that's all these people (or those who are being replaced) have in common.
	Obvious exit leads to a round room with 2 small frightened children in it. Schurra takes these in. Keep going.
	Munin loses 6 points of Wisdom to a stone Minotaur.
	Meet a skeleton; Munin loses 3 points of Intelligence.
	Meet 2 more small children, but these are Vampires: Leshendra and Lanefan lose levels (to T-9 and F-7). Lots of paranoia sets in regarding the other two children, but they're normal.
	Meet a little old lady (simulacrum of Asgeir as if 104 years old) in a rocking chair. Mrikle telekinesis-es her in her chair ahead of Party as they go.
	Leshendra loses 11 points of Strength to a Roper. Munin aged 6 years by Asgeir-clone, who then ages the Roper horribly and thus gets much younger, more powerful, etc. He'is and others then carve her to pieces. Sack out.
Tar 15	Meet a screamin' Demon. Munin and Lanefan each lose 1 point of Charisma, but Demon doesn't last long; however, this is just the warm-up act, only a projection of the real thing.
Tar 16	Meet the real Demon. Rohn killed by its psyonics, and it puts up a good fight otherwise before dying. Stairs here lead to outside, and Party find themselves right where Stairway To Heaven's invisible staircase began.
	The two children morph into Loki minions and fix all the drainings except Munin's age (they can't fix this) and Rohn's death (he has no spirit left, so their attempted resurrection has to fail). So they try a plan B: they go to Loki's realm and steal a spare spirit that happens to be hanging around, stuff it in a 3"-long golden spike, get Loki to quickly bless it with Rohn's knowledge (or a reasonable facsimile), return, and jam it into Rohn. This works, so Rohn revived but with some guy named Ingvar stuck in his head as well – along with a bit of Loki.
	Minions hand everyone each a pair of dice; people roll: o Leshendra disintegrated to ash in a blaze of fire with all possessions; o Schurra and Diora each gain 2 points Dexterity; o He'is loses all gems and coin, thus He'is killed when his Drow gem disappears (he also gains immunity to fire); o Thistle blinded but becomes highly psyonic (blindness easily cured later); o All Pearl's magic items get one notch better at whatever they do; o Munin loses half his h.p. permanently but gains 4 points Strength; o Mrikle loses 6 points Charisma; o Rohn loses 3 points of Constitution.
Tar 17	Planeshift to Verwood except Thistle, Pearl, Munin and Lanefan all left behind.
Tar 17	Thistle fireballs some passing geese. A small band of wandering Orcs come to investigate; Thistle offers them geese to eat and also tosses her dice on the ground for them; this counts as a second roll so she loses a level, thus back to MU-7/T-7 (was T-8).
Tar 18	Rest of Party planeshift to Verwood.
	He'is raised then Healed by Trilby, with lots of magical aid.
	Thistle retires to rest. Mrikle retires to sulk. Schurra retires for no particular reason.
Tar 23	Leshendra revived via wish at Mirabar. Munin later gets a wish to undo his dice effects as well, and Rohn does likewise to restore some of his lost Con.

Surviving members: Leshendra(T-11), Munin(R-9), Rohn(F-9), Thistle(MU-7/T-7), He'is(F-10), Diora(WrC-9), Mrikle(I-10), Pearl(MU-10),
Schurra(NtC-8), Lanefan(F-9)
New members: none
Casualties: (Rohn, Leshendra, Thistle – all revived)
Retirees: Thistle, Mrikle; Pearl(to Attack of the Bones); Schurra(to Revenge of the Gith)
Continuing party (to Coldwood Menace): Leshendra, Munin, Rohn, He'is, Diora, Lanefan

59. Coldwood Menace (A Few Ungood Githi) (13-0-0;0), Aqui 1-18 759, JL-SE 06

Background and summary: For the last year or so, the usual adventuring expeditions into the western Coldwood have each disappeared without a trace. Meanwhile, the woods' normal occupants – Gnolls, Bugbears, Goblins, and the like – have been leaving the forest in droves. Asgeir of Mirabar, freshly back from a long Gith-and-Hobgoblin-slaying mission in the arctic, contacts her old rescuers and asks them to investigate; they do, only to find some Githi and Hobgoblins that had thawed out much sooner than most and come south to set up operations here. Among other things, they have created a gate to a much different prehistoric plane and drawn in a large number of dangerous creatures; many of these are now roaming free in Coldwood and need to be dealt with. So, the Party wade in and – in their usual spectacular manner – take care of business both in the forest and beneath it.

Once the adventure is done, Marlu's growing evil-ness finally proves too much for Nashanna, who hatches a successful plot to fix Marlu once and for all; as a side effect, she causes headaches for not-so-nice Rohn in the process.

Starting members (from Loki's Revenge): Leshendra(T-11), Munin(R-9), Rohn(F-9), He'is(F-10), Diora(WrC-9), Lanefan(F-9)
                           (from Leshendra's Treasure Map): Marlu(MU-9/WrC-3), Trilby(NtC-9), Ketall(F-5)
                           (from Into the Abyss, via retirement): Nashanna(NtC-9)
                           (from Circus At Verwood): Myra(B-8)
                           (from Capture of Sylune): Pnyum(MU-7)

Pri 759	During various dealings at Mirabar through month, assorted people hear various rumours of odd goings-on of late in western Coldwood.
Pri 759	Meanwhile, Nashanna arrives at Verwood looking for people to deal with the same thing, but they're all in Mirabar, so she meets them there.
Pri 25	Everyone's done training, buying wishes, etc., so start investigating Coldwood problem.
Aqu 1	With limited information, Party gathers in Mirabar.
Aqu 3	Planeshift to old mine site where Lanefan was rescued at end of Asgeir's Saga D, and head north into forest.
	Find a huge strange-looking creature and slay it; it's a Tyrannosaur (nobody knows this) and has no business being here; Party conclude it is alien but have no idea how it got here, or why. Cold weather.
	Find some local Gnolls; He'is talks with them and gets some information; Party leave them alive (!) afterwards.
Aqu 4	Notice some other very alien creatures in forest, and avoid; also notice there are no normal animals, birds, etc.
Aqu 5	Party find and capture a 7'-tall bipedal ant; Rohn's truth-read gives loads of info. but he also realizes his psyonics aren't working fully, perhaps due to interference from massive psyonic use around here (several thousand ants, all psyonically linked and all relatively nearby, have a lot to do with this). Lots of snow.
	A massive scaly worm erupts from ground and swallows Myra; Party soon slay but start some fires in process.
	Trilby casts Speak With Plants on a tree; this and the fires draw attention of a local Ent – Silverbranch – who soon arrives. Once fires are out, he provides lots more info; for one thing, he knows the Githi for what they are.
Aqu 6	Arrive at Gith base, another old strip mine. Scout, then planeshift to Verwood for the night.
Aqu 7	Return to mine in heavy snow; pick an entrance, and wade in. Githi, Hobgoblins, and ants soon respond: o Party exposed to balefire, a long-lost Githi magic, for first time; o Nashanna and Trilby collapse various parts of mine complex, by sheer luck prevent bulk of enemy forces from quickly reaching Party, but the few dozen that do prove a handful; o Party take down a Githi MU-17 and F-17 without ever fully realizing just how powerful each was; o Myra goes one-on-one with a powerful Hobgoblin Cleric and is lucky to survive; o Party planeshift out to Verwood with an enormous hoard of loot just before main enemy force can arrive.
Aqu 7	Later that day, various Party members are scryed; much paranoia results.
Aqu 8	Nashanna sacrifices a Very Evil Mace and unknowingly gets cursed: all rolls for anything at –3 for a day.
	Silverbranch slain late at night; Rohn gets a psyonic distress call as he dies.
	Rohn shuts down Pnyum's psyonics at his request.
Aqu 9	Return to complex one at a time via tapestry; get discovered immediately, so another major brawl happens on same site as last one. Again, Party lucky not to lose anyone (Myra survives a square-on balefire hit, among other things), and they establish a beachhead and explore from there.
Aqu 9	A 2-headed Dragon, its pet Mind Flayer, and one last powerful Githi (I-16/F-14) provide a stiff challenge. Much discussion after on how to shut down the enormous inter-planar gate they were guarding.
Aqu 10	Explore and loot complex, rounding up a number of Hobgoblin captives in process.
Aqu 11	More exploring. Captives taken to Mirabar via planeshift.
Aqu 11	Right at midnight, Dakiell(F-8) appears in midst of Party, says "I have been sent, to thank you" in an odd voice, then keels over dead.
Aqu 12	Dakiell raised by Nashanna.
	Finish exploring. Collapse cavern holding gate.
	Try to leave, but Dakiell's arrival has put Party one over their travel capacity, so only half of Party can go. Marlu, Lanefan, Munin, Trilby and Nashanna stay put; rest to Verwood.
	Once at Verwood, Diora asks S'nel'be for help; he takes her to Dafan and back, she then tapestries to mine and takes Marlu etc. to Dafan, where S'nel'be waits to take them home. Unintended side-effect of this is to briefly put Lanefan back on a Dafan he thought destroyed, but S'nel'be insists it is Dafan; Lanefan isn't so sure, and he would follow this up later (see Return To Dafan).
Aqu 13	Leaving Lanefan, Myra, Trilby and Leshendra behind, Party back to Coldwood.
Aqu 13	Find Silverbranch's corpse; Nashanna raises it.
Aqu 14	Nashanna Commune, to find dragon-like creature that killed Silverbranch. Party start pursuit.
Aqu 18	Finally catch and kill creature, return to Verwood.

That's the adventure, but lots happens afterwards:

Aqu 19	Start treasury division. An argument breaks out over who will pay Ketall, and how much; he's Marlu's hench, so Party think she should pay him, but Marlu says he helped everyone so Party should pay. Resolves days later as a bit of both, but resentment remains.
Aqu 20	Pnyum's psyonics re-started by Rohn.
Leq 2	Marlu is a Tapoketa Cleric, Nashanna is to Banyatok; between this and Marlu's arguing, Nashanna thinks it's time to do something, so she enlists Myra's long-distance advice, then casts Commune. Answers are barely useful, but she acts on them anyway. Meanwhile, much of Party is busy training
Leq 4	By now having gained Trilby's approval, Nashanna leaves for Baldur's Gate. Meanwhile, Marlu to Mirabar.
Leq 7	Marlu gets a wish cast at Mirabar giving her access to a high-level psyonic and detection defense spell.
Leq 11	Nashanna arrives Baldur's Gate.
Leq 12	Nashanna buys a Helm of Alignment Change, starts back for Verwood. Against the Drow party arrives Verwood so castle is now teeming with characters.
Leq 20	Marlu arrives Verwood.
Leq 25	Nashanna arrives Verwood, enlists Munin into plot, and leaves for Linithe. S'nel'be and Rohn each realize something is afoot; S'nel'be Commune determines what, and he gets advice on how to ensure Marlu's safety during such.
Leq 26	S'nel'be convinces Rohn to contact Nashanna; she returns to Verwood. S'nel'be gives approval for plot and passes on what he has learned; she makes sure Helm is blessed by Banyatok as a result.
Leq 26	Rohn confronts Nashanna and gets her to tell plot details; she does, then pays Rohn 30,000 g.p. to shut him up.
Leq 27	Munin puts Helm on Marlu's head at breakfast in castle's great hall. Marlu becomes NrC and is converted to Banyatok on the spot; she also becomes NG. Ketall attacks Munin but is quickly told to stand down by Marlu.
Leq 27	Nashanna then tells all of payment to Rohn; much grumbling follows. Nashanna departs for the plains.
Leq 28	Trilby, He'is, and Marlu leave to join Against the Drow party, all are fed up with Rohn. Nashanna retires. Pnyum retires to study books taken from Gith
Jer 5	By now, it is obvious Rohn will still be in Party when it sets out again, so Munin retires.

Surviving members: Leshendra(T-11), Munin(R-9), Rohn(F-9), He'is(F-10), Diora(WrC-10), Lanefan(F-10), Marlu(MU-9/NrC-3), Trilby(NtC-10),
                     Ketall(F-5), Nashanna(NtC-9), Myra(B-10), Pnyum(MU-7), Dakiell(F-8)
New members: none
Casualties: none
Retirees: Pnyum, Nashanna, Munin (all to Revenge of the Gith, not by their own choice)
Continuing parties (to Attack of the Bones): Leshendra, Rohn, Diora, Myra, Dakiell
                           (to Against the Drow II: Zakarith City): Trilby, He'is, Marlu, Ketall
                           (to Return To Dafan): Lanefan

60. Attack of the Bones (11-3-3;0), Jera 6-28 759, OC-NO 06

Background and summary: Waves of undead are attacking Luskan every new moon. The town is sort-of able to defend itself but cannot spare enough force to do much more, so via Diora the Party is called in to help. The locals have been blaming the problem on a legendary being named Vyggdi, but Party soon find Vyggdi to be a long-held fabrication and the real cause to be somewhat worse: Azurphax, a Dracolich, in unholy alliance with Hel. Party kills Azurphax and new moons become much more peaceful in the north.

Starting members (from Coldwood Menace): Leshendra(T-11), Rohn(F-9), Diora(WrC-10), Myra(B-10), Dakiell(F-8)
(from Against the Drow I: Road To the Underdark): Araglas(F-11), Throg(F-9)
(from Loki's Revenge): Pearl(MU-10)

Leq 28 759	An Arctic Elf – Mialee – shows up at Verwood looking for Denae, not seen in ages.
Leq 28 759	Luskan is hit by waves of undead, second new moon in a row this has happened; Diora calls for help. Party agree but then wait for days at castle while Diora tries and fails to get more info up north; she spends the next several nights helping destroy undead.
Jer 2	A job-seeker hanging around castle is taken in: Yuriel Darklight(F-7/NrC-7) joins.
Jer 3	Rockheart shows up at castle with a few cartloads of beer, everyone parties till they drop.
Jer 5	As it now looks as if Party might be going to where Denae was last seen, Mialee Frostreaver(MU-8) joins.
Jer 6	All to Luskan, size up situation. Diora Commune (at last) gives useful info.
Jer 6	A local Cleric is sent along to help out: Magnus Malulfson(NrC-8) joins, he's not very bright but eager to help.
Jer 7	Leave Luskan.
Jer 9	Meet 4 mammoth-riding Frost Giants ("thunder on the tundra") and kill; Diora Speak With Dead on one reveals they and Party are on same side as undead are a nuisance to Giants too. Party change course and head for Giant village of Jakhuutsfell.
Jer 12	Arrive Jakhuutsfell, Myra and Araglas talk Party's way in (Giants were expecting Araglas via their own Commune).
Jer 13	Conveniently not mentioning their killing of the Giants' scouts, leave Jakhuutsfell with an escort of 6 Frost Giants.
Jer 13	Another Commune from Diora, then Diora and Leshendra to Verwood and Waterdeep for supplies. Party now know they are up against a Dracolich named Azurphax.
Jer 14	Shoppers return to Party. Party pass within sight of gate to Niflheim that Denae's group went into in Highway To Hel; Giants leave at this point, having taken Party as far as they are willing to.
Jer 15	Find Azurphax's hideaway and wade in. Leshendra blows an easy trap and gets fried.
	Meet 4 lycanthropes in Human form, easily defeated but Magnus infected; he doesn't know it, yet.
	Mialee loses a point of Con. due to a spell failure.
	A significant Hel Cleric (NrC-11) and a pair of Medusae cause enough delay that Azurphax can blast a few fireballs at Party; Party flees and, after some discussion, retreats all the way to Verwood
Jer 16	Lots of pre-casts by retired Verwood types, then Party back to Azurphax's caves.
	Rohn loses a level he had just bumped in to (so back to F-9) via Azurphax's breath. Pearl (to MU-9) and Mialee (to MU-6) soon follow. Myra, who by all rights should have been drained, keeps her levels; an immunity from a long-ago magic surge at last is put to the test. Azurphax slain.
	Diora casts Death Prayer on remains of Azurphax and crumbles them to dust.
	Explore, find little treasure; convinced there must be more, Party stay put.
	Mialee wishes for a golem and gets one (!), so now has a pet Stone Golem.
Jer 17	More exploring, then sack out for days until Diora can cast another Commune.
Jer 20	Commune reveals there really is no more treasure here, nor anything else to do, so grumbling Party goes home.
Jer 26	Rohn, Pearl and Mialee all get levels restored at Riveria.
Jer 28	All to Luskan for next undead invasion; all that appear are a few leftover stragglers from last month, easy pickings.
Jer 28	Magnus' lycanthropy kicks in and he attacks Party; they manage to fix problem without killing him.
Ave 1	Party returns to Verwood for an extended break.

Surviving members: Leshendra(T-11), Rohn(F-10), Diora(WrC-10), Myra(B-10), Dakiell(F-8), Araglas(F-11), Throg(F-9), Pearl(MU-10),
Yuriel(F-7/NrC-7), Mialee(MU-8), Magnus(MrC-8)
New members: Yuriel, Mialee, Magnus
Casualties: none
Retirees: Dakiell, Magnus
Continuing parties (to Return To Dafan): Diora, Pearl
(to Revenge of the Gith): Leshendra, Rohn, Myra, Araglas, Throg, Yuriel, Mialee

Return To Dafan (mini) (5-1-0;0), Aves 4-13 759, NO 06

Background and summary: By sheer accident, Lanefan recently found himself back on what the locals claimed was his old world of Dafan, courtesy of a Diora planeshift. So he rounds up some other expatriate Dafanites and has Diora take them back to investigate; they find it is the same world…and isn't…

Starting members (from Attack of the Bones): Diora(WrC-10), Pearl(MU-10)
(from Coldwood Menace): Lanefan(F-10)
(from To Sink A Red-Hulled Ship): Tylara(F-9)

Aqu 12 759	Planeshift en route home from Coldwood Menace puts Lanefan on "Dafan"; he doesn't believe it, but alerts such ex-Dafanites as he can find over the next few months while making plans to investigate.
Ave 3	With everyone relevant finally out of the field for a while, all gather at Verwood. Alcavron(F-7/T-7) joins.
Ave 4	Diora planeshifts all to "Dafan", arrive near site of Crater of the Demons adventure.
Ave 5	During night, Alcavron's astronomy skills lead him to conclude this is the right world, except its moon is missing.
	Diora has trouble getting spells in morning, eventually learns she is probably praying to Luthien here.
	Party travel for days to get to Elves; realize it is very late summer here.
Ave 10	Reach Savola, town on border of Elven land Glantri ruled by 'Sheh, an ex-running mate of Alcavron.
Ave 10	Meet Anniki and Oozzoo, descendants of old adventuring companions of same names. Learn 'Sheh disappeared a century or so ago. Soon get enough evidence to prove this is a version of Dafan kicked about 200 years into the future, so start referring to it as NewDafan. (and start asking lots and lots of questions)
Ave 11	Lanefan learns old friend Kaija is still alive; sends a message to her. Also hears tell of various other old Dafanites, all Elves except one Gnome. Tylara learns old nemesis Valashi (a human) is still alive.
Ave 11	Much confusion trying to sort out dates etc.; it seems a few centuries have passed here in what was 6 subjective years to those on Riveria, but experiments show time is running consistently now between the two worlds.
Ave 12	All back to Riveria. Diora's Commune gets a few useful answers. All to NewDafan again and compare notes with Elves. Nobody seems to entirely know what happened during/after the cataclysm or where the two centuries have gone; but Kaija supposedly has answers so Lanefan, Tylara and Alcavron retire from the Riveria game to wait for her to show up and give them.
Ave 13	Diora and Pearl back to Riveria. Pearl tries to retire but events would soon prevent this.

Surviving members: Diora(WrC-10), Pearl(MU-10), Lanefan(F-10), Tylara(F-9), Alcavron(F-7/T-7)
New members: Alcavron
Casualties: none
Retirees: Lanefan, Tylara, Alcavron (all stay on NewDafan)
Continuing party (to Revenge of the Gith): Diora now, Pearl later

61. Revenge of the Gith (21-1-1;5), Touri 17-Jema 13 759, DE 06-JA 07

Background and summary: Richesard Ironsword, a Cavalier briefly known by Araglas and Throg while down south, shows up at Verwood with a request for the Company: to intervene in and stop a bloody feud between two minor barons, one of whom is Ritchie's liege lord. Failing to realize Ritchie is acting against his will, a Party forms and heads south only to walk straight into a Gith ambush. Meanwhile, Verwood Keep gets reduced to swiss cheese by Githi balefire in a separate attack; the Githi take a few captives as well. Party track Githi to an arctic stronghold and invade; they manage to rescue some people and get out just in time to avoid being in the middle of a divine war, as Mielikki and Banyatok put one over on Azak'hri and set the Hobgoblin cause back by centuries.

After returning to Verwood, a few people spend a few days clearing out one last small Giant enclave in southeast Riveria, then several people train and everyone retires.

Starting members (from Attack of the Bones): Leshendra(T-11), Rohn(F-10), Myra(B-10), Araglas(F-11), Throg(F-9), Yuriel(F-7/NrC-7), Mialee(MU-8)
                           (from Return To Dafan): Diora(WrC-10)
                           (from Caves of Evil): Ritchie(Cvr-7)
                           (from Loki's Revenge): Schurra(NtC-7)

Tou 17 759	Ritchie shows up at Verwood to enlist Company aid in an escalating dispute between Jaretch, his liege lord, and Orvik, a neighbouring baron. Araglas notices Ritchie is a bit glazed over, but assumes it to be either his normal state (he's not very bright to begin with) or stress from the situation. (in fact, Ritchie is a psyonically-controlled Githi puppet these days and is here on their orders)
Tou 17 759	Party forms and sets off; some by boat, some by tapestry
Tou	During boat trip, Yuriel and Myra notice Ritchie acting a little odd but think nothing of it.
Jem 6	Party re-gathers near Waterdeep, head inland on foot.
Jem 10	Arrive at Jaretch's lands; get ambushed by Githi in a small forest. Ritchie killed but Githi otherwise fare poorly with supposedly-deadly initial onslaught (e.g. Myra survives 7 balefire hits), and Githi soon fall
Jem 10	Discussion with Jaretch, later Orvik, is just starting to get places when Rohn receives a psyonic distress call from Pnyum at Verwood: the Keep is under attack. Leaving Myra, Mialee and Yuriel behind, rest planeshift to Verwood.
Jem 11	Just after midnight, Party arrive Verwood and join up with S'nel'be, Pearl, Tamarrik, Illyrah, Christophe, and a few staff and soldiery types, all outside Keep to north having fled via S'nel'be planeshift. Githi press their attack; Tamarrik and Illyrah killed, also staffers, but Githi defeated. S'nel'be and Pearl join this Party, while Christophe stays at Verwood
	Searching hole-riddled Keep reveals Dakiell and Thistle dead, killed in their sleep never knowing what hit them; also all staff and guards are dead except Sgt. Peters (Minor's replacement as seneschal) and one soldier.
	Further search shows Munin and Pnyum are missing. Speak With Deads on some Gith corpses, and a S'nel'be Commune, get some worrying information: Gith are thawing in numbers as Banyatok and Mielikki's watch on the icecap has failed – again; and Munin is a Gith captive. Pnyum's fate is less certain.
	Rohn contacts Atlas; mention of Gith gets him worried, he starts flying across the seas to see what's going on.
	Diora retrieves Myra, Mialee and Yuriel.
	Gith corpses have some loot; of note is an evil ring of unknown use. Leshendra and others want to try it out but Yuriel will have none of it, and when all are distracted elsewhere Yuriel sacrifices ring. A big argument follows (including Araglas to Yuriel: "you're not greedy enough to be in this party!"), so he walks out: Yuriel retires.
	S'nel'be determines surviving soldier is charmed to something; everyone becomes extremely paranoid.
	Chiron(F-9) joins, having seen the fireworks from a distance and come to investigate.
	Next day, Rohn contacts Nashanna and learns Banyatok is missing again. Lots of people to Mirabar's Mielikki temple, also confer with Asgeir and other high-powered wizards. Mielikki types then throw Commune, as does Diora; learn Party's involvement in all this is somewhat accidental, so Party decides to just go after Munin.
	Back at Verwood, a Gnome shows up driving a cart carrying another Gnome in a box; she has been sent to drop off the boxed Gnome. On release, this Gnome immediately decides he's known everyone for years and then starts hugging his weapons; Rohn's psyonics determine he really is insane but for some reason Party take him in anyway: Broken(F-8) joins.
	By various means, learn Githi are at an old city called Keriak and Munin is in a particular structure there.
Jem 12	Atlas' cloud arrives during night, Party fly up to meet it, thus Atlas joins. Fly north; easily find Keriak, arrive by dawn but Party spellcasters need sleep and pray-study time, so cloud flies around aimlessly for hours.
	See a huge army heading south toward Keriak, determine these to be Hobgoblins.
	Using Atlas and Chiron as troop carriers, all fly in and survey Keriak. Find a hole in roof of target structure; long discussion on how to defeat hole's defenses ends when Broken dives through, he is lucky to survive resulting fall.
	One Gith (and his little pet dog) is all that defends entry room; easily killed. Schurra takes dog in.
	Led by insane Broken, Party starts frantically exploring structure; 6 more Githi fall to Party's stupendous firepower. (these are just the prison guards; most Gith in city are busy finishing work on thawing out about 10,000 others of their race, Party leaves those for Hobgoblins to deal with)
	Find and rescue Munin, along with 2 Hobgoblin prisoners; Munin joins; a side trip to find Munin's gear, then retreat to cloud.
	Mialee and Araglas fly down and establish contact with Hobgoblin commander; return rescuees (one was a high-powered Azak'hri Cleric), and set up psyonic communications.
	After dark, Hobgoblins attack and annihilate Githi.
	As soon as battle ends, nearby lake water starts rising extremely fast; Atlas gets suspicious and starts cloud flying south. Lake then freezes more quickly than it has any right to, trapping entire Hobgoblin army in ice.
	A titanic battle erupts (probably between divine minions, or worse) above Keriak and lake.
	Rohn contacts Nashanna and learns Banyatok is back functioning and had "disappeared" by Her own choice. (it then becomes clear this whole operation was designed to trick Azak'hri; She fell for it, putting many of Her most powerful Hobgoblins in that army, supposedly to take revenge on the Githi, and so focused was She on this it never occurred to Her that Her army was also a target)
Jem 13	Arrive Verwood during night; Atlas leaves, not to be seen again. Party spend days dividing treasure.
Jem 19	S'nel'be Commune gives little useful info re Pnyum. By now, he knows surviving soldier is not charmed any more.
	A ring in treasure holds a wish; this is used to revive all slain in castle attack, thus Dakiell, Illyrah, Thistle and Tamarrik all revived along with various soldiers, staff, etc. S'nel'be then retires to train (to WrC-11).
	Diora Commune determines Pnyum will probably get back on his own, given time. (he is in fact with Wowbagger, having ended up there by mistake, and is perfectly safe…he just has to wait for a gate to open to a useful part of the Riverian world, and walk through)
	Leshendra starts investigating her treasure from Leshendra's Treasure Map; several days later determines it to be mostly symbolic, though planting the nugget opens up a small gold mine just to west of Keep.
Jem 20	Reports still show a small group of Giants hiding in Leithorn, so an away team of Araglas, Throg, Broken, Chiron, Munin and Schurra goes to deal with this. (conveniently, most need just a few ExP to bump)
Jem 23	Arrive Leithorn, start scouting, find camp easily.
Jem 26	Camp and Giants gone, most of team have bumped, so return Verwood.
Can 3	Arrive Verwood; various people start training.
Can 15	Training done, all retire.

Surviving members: Leshendra(T-12), Rohn(F-10), Myra(B-10), Araglas(F-12), Throg(F-10), Yuriel(F-7/NrC-7), Mialee(MU-8), Diora(WrC-10),
Schurra(NtC-8), S'nel'be(WrC-11), Pearl(MU-10), Tamarrik(MU-7), Dakiell(F-8), Illyrah(R-7), Chiron(F-10), Munin(R-9),
Broken(F-7), Christophe(B-6), Thistle(T-6/MU-5), Pnyum(MU-7), Atlas(Titan)
New members: Atlas(from Volcano of the Giants); S'nel'be(from War of the Giants – West); Broken
Casualties: Ritchie; (Dakiell, Thistle, Tamarrik, Illyrah – all revived)
Retirees: Yuriel, Atlas, S'nel'be; then all
Continuing party: none.

62. Against the Drow I: Road to the Underdark (14-7-4;8), Aqui 7-21 and Lequi 7-11 759, JL-SE 06

Background and summary: Varis' temple in Waterdeep, thinking him much more powerful than he really is, casually ask him to deal with a possible Drow problem they've heard rumours of, several hundred miles inland. Varis, well aware his abilities have probably been overestimated, rounds up his Party and some new recruits and off they go. Several tries and many casualties later, they make only minor net progress before giving up and returning home.

Starting members (from Caves of Evil): Araglas(F-11), Throg(F-8), Tovan(NrC-9), Varis(NtC-7)
(from Capture of Sylune): Throy(F-9), Phoenix(MU-7), Vynri(R-5)

Aqu 4 759	A Monk arrives at Verwood looking for adventure and Party take her in, so Lin Quang(Mk-7) joins
Aqu 6	To Waterdeep, meet up with Throy, Phoenix, and Vynri.
	Varis called to local Rillifane temple, casually told "There's a Drow problem in the mountains, see to it, will you?"; for various reasons, Rillifane types think Varis is about 10 levels higher than he is thus such a mission should be relatively trivial.
	Kattenalas (Katten) Silverquill(I-6/T-6) joins.
Aqu 7	Phoenix hires a hench: Porter(F-3/T-4) joins. (she is in fact a spy sent by Waterdeep interests to keep tabs on Party for possible later use, but she ends up dying too soon for anything to ever come of this)
	Rillifane types show Party a local teleport circle, Party to mountains far southeast of city.
	Teleport missed by 100 miles or so, have to cross a small snowy realm to reach target, so set off.
Aqu 8	Reach a small village; Tovan cures a few sick locals.
Aqu 9	Reach Carna, principal town of realm, and meet Czar Corvallen, local ruler.
Aqu 10	Party becomes ever more paranoid as strange carvings appear in doors, suspicious-looking people follow them, etc. while they travel. (this is Corvallen's work; he's a shady sort, and wants to keep Party focused on Drow so they won't investigate him instead – this works, but barely)
Aqu 11	Meet Pavro, a local guide recommended by Corvallen: Pavro(R-15) joins. Pavro is actually here keeping a distant eye on Corvallen, but agrees to help Party – to a point. Party then get held up by bad weather for days.
Aqu 16	Into mountains in deep snow, jumped and mauled by 13 Yeti: Vynri, Porter and Varis all killed before Party can even react, then Yeti slain posthaste.
Aqu 17	Leaving Throy, Lin, Araglas and Pavro behind, Party to Verwood.
	Vynri raised at Verwood. Party to Waterdeep.
	Varis raised at Waterdeep by Rillifane types, now becoming suspicious of their "high-powered Cleric"'s ability.
	Katten stays with Varis, rest return to away team.
	Throy uses his brick to set up a little stone cottage; late in evening cottage leaps 2' in the air having been struck from below by a surfacing Earth Dragon. Party frantically planeshift out just before Dragon (with a mushed-in nose) can breathe on them. Spend night on Tymora's plane.
Aqu 18	Travel around gathering people up, full Party back to mountains by nightfall. Tovan Commune.
Aqu 19	Earth Dragon (still with bent nose) shows up again and is easily defeated.
	Pavro leaves, having brought Party as far as she's willing to go.
	A couple of Frost Giants provide good sport.
	Find a suspicious and magical entrance into a suspicious and magical hill; Throy walks in, a Demon shows up and a deep booming starts far underground. Demon soon killed.
	Into passage, find a cavern, Piercers attack and some Drow join in; Party win, then retreat outside.
Aqu 20	Phoenix to Verwood to learn spells, everyone else back underground. Throy and Araglas carefully explore cavern and find waiting Drow, also an odd lump of rock not there yesterday. Lots of planning, and all to Verwood.
Aqu 20	Tapestry to cavern in an all-out assault; goes wrong immediately as lump of rock is a Roper. Lin's strength to –14 so Lin killed; Throg down to Str. 5, Tovan to 6, but Party take the cavern again…and again retreat.
Aqu 21	All to Verwood, some train: Throg to F-9, Varis to NtC-8, Vynri to R-6. People's strength slowly returns.
Aqu 28	Lin raised at Verwood. Lin retires immediately; this adventuring is just too dangerous.
Leq 2	A wandering Dwarf shows up; he reminds Party of Seamus so is immediately taken in: Rockheart Ironfist(WrC-7) joins.
Leq 7	Phoenix hires another hench, this time out of EC: Arac(MU-5) joins after bouncing around Alpha group for ages.
	Back to mountains, find same suspicious entrance; so Rockheart walks through, resulting Demon easily slain.
	Yet another assault on cavern, against the same Roper (revived by Drow) and some underdark friends, goes well; this time, Party actually stay here afterwards
Leq 8	Explore deeper underground, find evidence of Drow construction; walk miles to gain very little distance.
Leq 9	Find a door; some Drow await behind. Arac killed by an Assassin who had been following Party for some time. Take one Drow captive, and Phoenix manages to charm it on the first try.(!)
Leq 10	Field-test a brooch, it is a Scarab of Insanity, long brawl with each other but all survive. Captive breaks charm.
Leq 11	Phoenix re-charms captive.
	A hidden Black Dragon guards path. Varis, Vynri, Rockheart and Drow captive killed; rest of Party a mess.
	Explore Dragon's somewhat barren lair, find a captive; Party takes him in, so Sven(T-7; a.k.a. Flash) joins.
	Planeshift to Verwood. Tovan Commune once here.
Leq 12	Start treasury division and break so Throy can train (to F-10). Vynri declines raise.
Leq 26	Araglas has a wish cast at Mirabar for a Dimension-Door device.
Leq 27	Varis fails resurrection at Linithe; has already reincarnated as a wolf.
Leq 28	Rockheart resurrected at Waterdeep. See end of Coldwood Menace for other events around now at Verwood.

Surviving members: Araglas(F-11), Throy(F-10), Throg(F-9), Tovan(NrC-9), Phoenix(MU-7), Katten(I-6/T-6), Rockheart(WrC-7), Lin(Mk-7),
Sven(T-7), Pavro(R-15)
New members: Katten, Porter, Lin, Pavro, Rockheart, Arac, Flash
Casualties: Varis, Vynri(twice each; revived once each); Porter, Arac; (Rockheart, Lin – revived)
Retirees: Pavro, Lin
Continuing parties (to Against the Drow II: Zakarith City): Throy, Phoenix, Tovan, Katten, Rockheart, Flash
(to Attack of the Bones): Araglas, Throg

63. Against the Drow II: Zakarith City (12-2-2;1), Jera 7 759, OC-NO 06

Background and summary: With new recruits and new resolve, the Party return to the Underdark and try to finish what they started. With relative ease they reach and sneak through Zakarith city and take down a Drow temple there; only to find themselves somewhere very else with no immediate way of returning home.

Starting members (from Against the Drow I): Throy(F-10), Tovan(NrC-9), Phoenix(MU-7), Katten(I-6/T-6), Rockheart(WrC-7), Sven(T-7)
(from Coldwood Menace): He'is(F-10), Marlu(MU-9/NrC-3), Trilby(NtC-10), Ketall(F-5)

Leq 24 759	A pair of Monks arrive at Verwood and sign up: Moonshadow(Mk-7) and Purity(Mk-7) join. Party spend several days gaining information on what they have to do once in Zakarith.
Jer 7	Return via tapestry and planeshift to Dragon's cavern; 3 vastly-outgunned Drow pin Party down here and cause considerable damage before falling.
	Throy finds out the hard way a ring of free action he just bought is cursed, but no lasting harm done; Tovan fixes.
	Meet a Drow who wants to talk; this is Zakata, and for a spell or magic item per person she offers to guide Party through Zakarith to where they want to go. Amazingly, Party don't kill her; even more amazingly, they take her up on her offer and buy themselves a guide.
	Ignoring any number of temptations to cause trouble, Party sneak through Zakarith to Llolth temple.
	Backed by a Trilby-summoned Fire Elemental (16 HD, 145 h.p., lots of damage on any hit), Party try a frontal assault: o He'is spends most of combat paralyzed and is lucky to survive; 3 opponents are killed or distracted at different times just when they were about to run him through; o Ketall fumbles and throws his magic sword into a pool; the pool is acid, and Marlu almost killed when sword blows up right next to her shortly after; o resident Clerics summon a Demon that is almost a match for Party's Elemental but it doesn't last long; Elemental then dispelled o a web of acid causes some grief and leaves Purity and Moonshadow cut off facing Tiereza, who runs the place; vastly outgunned, they somehow hang on long enough for Party to win through and slay.
	Katten and Phoenix explore altar and find the Egg of Phyrexia (the reason Party is here) and a tiny spider.
	Phoenix levitates spider out; it becomes gigantic and attacks, and Purity killed.
	Party take Egg, whereupon a large mocking Llolth face appears above what appears to be a pool; Party now realizes what various "walk into the face of danger" clues they've received have been on about, so after some discussion (and without bothering to explore and loot rest of temple) they walk toward the face, fall into the "pool" (in fact it is a planar gate) and find themselves somewhere very different…

Surviving members: Throy(F-10), Tovan(NrC-10), Phoenix(MU-7), Katten(I-6/T-6), Rockheart(WrC-7), Sven(T-7), He'is(F-10), Marlu(MU-9/NrC-4),
Trilby(NtC-10), Moonshadow(Mk-7), Ketall(F-5)
New members: Moonshadow, Purity
Casualties: Purity(revived later, sort of)
Retirees: none
Continuing party (to Against the Drow III: Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits):Throy, Tovan, Phoenix, Katten, Rockheart, Sven, He'is, Marlu, Trilby,
Moonshadow, Ketall

64. Against the Drow III: Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits (15-3-0;14), Jera ?-Jema 22 759, NO 06-JN 07

Background and summary: The Party end up in a part of Llolth's realm – the "Demonweb Pits" – and have to find a way out. Eventually, after one or two meetings with Llolth herself, a battle with Her champion, and many casualties, the Party does manage to get out…to Wowbagger's, of all places…and then has to wait half a year to get back to Riveria. After this, everyone retires. Incidentally, this is the first and only Riverian adventure where characters find themselves able to instantly train in the field as they bump.

Starting members (from Against the Drow II: Zakarith City): Throy(F-10), Tovan(NrC-10), Phoenix(MU-7), Katten(I-6/T-6),
Rockheart(WrC-7), Sven(T-7), He'is(F-10), Marlu(MU-9/NrC-4), Trilby(NtC-10), Moonshadow(Mk-7), Ketall(F-5)

Note that the dating here is subjective to the characters. Time in fact passes at all sorts of different rates during this adventure.

Jera 7 759	Party arrive in the Abyss (but don't know it); find themselves in endless twisty corridors with misty walls and ceilings, and writhing spirits in the floors.
Jera 7 759	Purity raised by Tovan but he gets a Demon spirit instead; Demon takes over Purity's body and tags along, but has only partial Monk abilities and no memories of Purity's previous existence.
Jer 8	Start exploring corridors, find a door; behind it are 24 Trolls. Phoenix and Marlu do over 1000 total points of damage via each casting a fireball, unfortunately about 65 of it is to Ketall, so Ketall killed.
	Find a Cleric with 5 captives; correctly deduce captives are real enemy (though Purity attacks Cleric anyway) and kill, Party takes Cleric in: Trose(NrC-10) joins. It soon becomes clear he's as lost as the Party is.
	During this, Throy panics and flees into mist; efforts to recover him are futile, he floats at random with no idea where he is or was or even which way is up. He lets out a rope with grapnel in hopes of snagging onto something; hours later he does, and is hauled in by 3 Drow; he throws one into mist but cannot defeat the other two, so Throy killed.
	Party meet and kill a Drider, Sven steals its sword but gets caught by He'is; arguments follow.
	Kill 4 Drow, throw heads and corpses into mist. Later, find a headless Drow corpse in different corridor; this tells Party that mist can eventually spit things out.
Jer 9	4 Demons (plus summoned friends) in a room cause trouble; the Egg of Phyrexia starts vibrating at combat's end and Party find themselves in a different corridor.
	Find site of Throy's death; mundane gear, but no Throy.
	Rockheart does 60 points damage in one swing to a clone of himself; the 20 Ogres with it are a pushover.
	Meet a pair of Drow; kill one but one escapes, both are carrying bits of Throy's gear.
	4 more Demons hiding in water cause lots of problems – He'is flees into mist but uses a teleportation device (risky!) to get back where he started – but die. Egg vibrates again after this, takes Party to another corridor.
	A room with 3 mice starts generating Demons. Trose killed and Party getting clobbered, so Purity finally strikes as well. Rockheart killed but Party wins…barely. Purity subdued and captured. Egg takes Party to yet another corridor, where they sack out.
Jer 10	Marlu notices Banyatok is not answering prayers in a.m. (see Revenge of the Gith; Party here don't realize how quickly time is flying past on Riveria, where it is already Jema)
	Explore, find an arch gate leading to a forest, but Purity cannot pass through so Moonshadow kills Purity. Corpse passes gate just fine.
	Forest full of nasty critters; Party's predations here soon attract attention of local Elves, who take them in: o this place, realm and world is known as Caer Sidi; o Lord Alfric is the local ruler, controlling an outer defense keep against Llolth's invaders; o Llolth has been slowly taking this world over for centuries.
	Alfric learns Party's goal is to stymie Llolth, he gives them some handy magic items to help. Meanwhile, Sven is busy trying to pick up Alfric's wife, but she is over double his level in Thief and embarrasses him mightily.
Jer 11	Clerics can recover spells normally here, so Purity and Rockheart raised by Trilby; the right Purity shows up this time. Trose and Ketall both decline raise, so are buried in keep's grounds. Party stay put for day.
Jer 12	Trilby Commune gets enough information for Party to realize they are probably stuck here (cannot go home); he does not think to ask the date, so Party carry on thinking it is still Jera.
Jer 12	Rockheart takes first Phoenix, then Purity on in drinking contests; all three pass out.
Jer 13	Escorted to gate by Alfric, then back into misty corridors.
	Find another arch gate with a Frost Giant looking through. Phoenix, perhaps still hungover, fumbles with his wand of lightning and blows himself up: Phoenix killed. Giant doesn't last 2 rounds.
	Return to Caer Sidi; Alfric hasn't even got back to his keep yet when Party is in view behind him!
	Phoenix raised by Trilby.
Jer 14	Back into corridors again, soon meet a small but very powerful band of Drow and a huge Drider; Moonshadow and Purity get cut off from Party and clobbered by spells: Moonshadow killed and Purity barely survives.
Jer 14	Return Caer Sidi again (this time, Alfric made it back to his keep first, but only just); Moonshadow raised by a very busy Trilby.
Jer 15	Into corridors yet again. This time, find Throy's naked mangled corpse lying in a corridor.
	Bypass a few more arches, then enter one that leads to a room (with lots of spiders and passages…). Here find and rescue a Dwarf, Elf, and Gnome who have been living on the run for years; the Gnome sticks around, so Partly(T-9/I-9) joins. She functions mostly as Thief from here on; she has no spellbook and can't learn much of use from Katten.
	Return to Caer Sidi, drop off Dwarf and Elf.
Jer 16	Into corridors for last time. Find and rescue Trinax the Questor, and steer him to the right plane.
	Find a big imposing door and barge through to somewhere very different; start killing everything found here.
	Sven killed by a pair of Ropers.
	Return to entrance; door gone but a new small passage has appeared, this seems much less oppressive than everywhere else here – and spells work properly – so it becomes Party's base: the "happy place". Party soon also discover that sleeping here after having bumped a level sees you trained by morning.
	Sven raised by Tovan. Party rests a few days.
Jer 18	More exploring, more combats. He'is loses a level (to F-10) to a Succubus.
Jer 18	Back at happy place, Phoenix casts Summon Monsters and gets some uncontrolled Demons, which Party kill.
Jer 19	Meet an image of Llolth and a bunch of real Demons; learn they must defeat Her champion to leave.
	Moonshadow activates psyonics during this and gets blasted by 6 Demons; 2 succeed: Moonshadow killed.
	Retreat to happy place. Tovan Commune; little help. Trilby Commune not much better.
	Another foray, then return. Purity and Rockheart throw a Llolth statue down a bottomless pit and manage only to curse themselves: all saves at –2 from here on.
	Phoenix tries Summon Monsters again and gets a bigger Demon; Party kill it, then contemplate killing Phoenix.
Jer 20	Spell failure at one point teleports Party all over complex; soon regroup and are lucky all are safe.
	Big brawl in a Llolth temple. Tovan killed. Purity almost taken out by a Marlu lightning bolt. Retreat.
	Tovan raised by Trilby.
Jer 21	Explore, find a Banshee, Katten killed.
Jer 22	Exploring every last possible passage, Party take out some Demons and rescue a prisoner they were guarding: Yamarashi(MU-18, Ki-rin) joins.
	Marlu fireballs a webbed-up room and kills 5 prisoners (4 Elves and a Human) she never saw…oops.
	Return to happy place; Yamarashi becomes popular when he generates a barrel of sake for Rockheart.
Jer 23	Find and quickly slay a Sea Hag; she guards a portal to Hades. Purity looks into portal and dives in; she lasts about a minute once there, so Purity killed. More battles, then battered Party retreat and sack out for 2 days.
Jer 25	Explore everything they can find, then make way to Llolth's lair; meet champion and some Drow companions: o Drow companions last just long enough to get in the way, then fall; o champion teleports to Yamarashi and Trilby and attacks, disrupts spells from both; o Yamarashi killed by champion in 1 round; o lots of chasing around as champion tries to pick his targets, but Party stays mostly together and foils plan; o spells failing everywhere – Tovan summons a Demon and Trilby summons a huge anvil over champion's head; it lands for 42 points damage; o Tovan killed by Demon and champion; Trilby almost follows but He'is saves; o champion retreats to cure self, returns, and quickly dies.
	Llolth image appears, thanks Party for killing both champion and Yamarashi, then shows Party the way out after marking each of their souls to return to Her realm on death…
	Party loot room then walk through lavender portals to a snowy forest; here meet Constable Morgan who escorts to Wowbagger's hold. Meet Pnyum, here as a result of Revenge of the Gith events; learn months have passed and date is now about Jema 22. Then learn they have to stay here about 6 more months until a gate to Riveria is available; somehow, all retain their sanity despite Wowbagger's best attempts.
	In his more lucid moments, Wowbagger helps identify lots of magic items over the next few months.
	Meet Shauna; learn she has been here for years and is now based here quasi-permanently, not entirely by her own choice.
	Various people self-train the old-fashioned way while here.
Tar 9 760	Finally gate to Riveria with Pnyum, land in Tsauraninni, planeshift to Verwood. Trilby and Rockheart each cast Commune (Trilby several times over the next few months) during division of a mountainous treasury.
Tar 18	He'is restored (to F-11) at Riveria.
Tar 19	Throy resurrected at Riveria. Throy retires.
Tar 20	Katten resurrected at Riveria.
Pri 8	Purity revived via wish at Waterdeep.
Pri 11	Moonshadow revived via two wishes at Waterdeep.
Pri 11	More Communes reveal Llolth's death mark is nigh unremoveable.
Pri 24	Trilby sacrifices a very nasty book from treasury and becomes blessed: Yamarashi resurrected due to this.
Pri 25	Trilby begins work on setting up his own temple at Buckford; also starts research on how to get Yamarashi back to his own world (he is not natively Riverian).
Pri 25	All retire.

Surviving members: Tovan(NrC-10), Phoenix(MU-9), Rockheart(WrC-9), Sven(T-9), He'is(F-11), Trilby(NtC-10), Marlu(MU-10/NrC-4), Throy(F-10),
Partly(I-9/T-10), Katten(I-7/T-6), Yamarashi(MU-18), Moonshadow(Mk-8)
New members: Trose, Partly, Yamarashi
Casualties: Ketall, Trose; ([Moonshadow, Tovan, Purity – twice each], Throy, Rockheart, Sven, Phoenix, Katten, Yamarashi – all revived each time)
Retirees: all
Continuing party: none.

And thus end (for now?) the Chronicles of Riveria.