In the Stone Soules tradition, we met in the Blue Star Inn at Teft, on March 15, 2172. One interesting thing to note: Derek of the Knife was there. The next day we set off for Lendore Isle. After a six day boat ride, we arrived in the harbor of Barnacus.

We spent most of the first day touring Barnacus, exploring the various markets and shops, practically covering the entire part of the city on the western bank of the river. A few interesting shops, including for global Telvar interest, Warner's Bows. Warner had a cheap little number with a mere 16,000 gp on display.

Although Barnacus was colorful, it became clear that getting worthwhile information would be too expensive to comprehend, or far too unreliable (read: setup).

So we headed out the east gate, planning to head two days east to Garroten. We left town a half-hour before the gates closed.

Now, this being Lendore Isle, one expects a few random encounters out in the wilderness. But I figured, hey, we're on a public road, on the civilized southern part of the island. Maybe we'd run into something a day or two out into the wilderness, but we would just have a little travelling lull between towns.

Wrongo.

About FORTY MINUTES outside of Barnacus, CAPITOL OF THE KEYSTONE KINGDOM, and one of the most ancient cities of the New World, we were jumped by bandits.

Whee.

Random arrow fire rakes the party from both sides of the road, from archers hidden by the cornfields. The thief Anwvyn dropped to the dirt. The dwarf Grison charged into the cornstalks, Darellon following close behind. Drew scanned the cornstalks for people to shoot. The druid Quentin dropped down to heal the stable-zero Anwvyn. Unfortunately another barrage of arrows dropped Quentin neatly in a pile on top of Anwvyn. To make matters worse, a big guy in banded mail wielding a bastard sword burst out of the stalks straight at Drew.

Grison burst on top of a bandit in the process of drawing a sword, and skewered him. Seeing that the bandit was dead, and unaware that two party members were down and under heavy assault, Darellon went hunting for more bandits.

Meanwhile, the bastard swordsman sliced up Drew, wounding him. Drew sprinted back and shot down an archer through the bushes, still conscious through sheer strength. Fortunately for everyone, the cleric of Sylban, Solban, threw a command "die" spell on the bandit, who obediently dropped and was sliced up by the cleric.

Grison helped sweep the area clean, though one bandit who tried to backstab him got away. Meanwhile Darellon gave quite a long chase to two bandits who had run away. He burst into a small area to find the archer nocked, and another sword wielding bandit in front of him.

This is where we learn the difference between Darellon and Rangorn of yesteryear.

The nocked arrow missed, and Darellon badly injured the first bandit, who ran away. Unfortunately for his companion, the archer was still in the process of dropping his bow. The bow was split in half, along with his armor, chest, etc.

Seeing no more targets, Darellon turned around and strolled back to the party. Heading back he surprised another bandit, who he sliced apart, and then dodged a backstab (from the same bandit who had earlier escaped Grison) and cleaved him up. He then walked back to the party.

Interesting bit about that encounter: the only people not injured were the two front line fighters, Darellon and Grisson. Everyone else except Solban got knocked near zero.

Fortunately, with a few healing kit uses and Cure Light Wounds spells, the party was patched up enough to retrieve the loot. That included some gold, significant numbers of weapons, some repairable banded mail and interestingly, two vials of holy water.

Not bad for our first encounter.

We got back to town, sold the goods for a modest profit of about 30 gold pieces, and Darellon exchanged chain mail for the restored banded mail, while Grison exchanged his small helm for the recovered great helm.

Also, we found a silver dagger, a silvered short sword, perhaps 10 silver bolts and arrows, a couple crossbows, a long composite bow, studded leather armor, 2 bastard swords, 2 short swords, and some other useful mundane items.

The holy water gets entered as the first "party resource" that we will draw upon in future missions.

Well, three days later we set out on take 2-- the trip to Garroten. This went smoothly with one notable exception. On the early morning of the third day, rain soaked everyone. Upon rising for the morning, we discovered that our camp was at most forty minutes outside of Garroten. Arrrgh.

We explored Garroten, including the tavern and a few shops. We discovered that the Lord Mayor, who lives in a castle on a hill near town, is female. Finally, we set up an appointment with her, hoping perhaps for employment opportunities.

That concluded our first adventure. Hope everyone likes following the aimless wanderings of the Lendore group, and we're definitely open to questions, comments, or any other fun stuff about Telvar.

Overall, more successful than we'd hoped! Now, if we could only get a purpose... or a name...

We were ushered in by a lady-in-waiting to see the Lord Mayor of Garroten. She offered us two broad options for service:

Destroy the bandit groups to the southeast.

Clear the ruined area that used to be the settlement between Garroten and Restenford.

We were told it was inhabited by "undead." We decided that the bandit stuff would have too many repercussions for the moment, so we headed up toward the ruins. CAUTIOUSLY. The plan was to assess the danger carefully-- basically we can only handle smaller numbers of skeletons and zombies. Anything above that was too much.

We then learned that the previous party that had adventured there had killed a wraith. Uggh. Maybe there weren't anymore?

On our first night out of Garroten, the party got attacked by three stirges! On watch was the druid Quentin and the woodsman Darellon. One dove at Quentin, knocking him nearly unconscious and bleeding him badly. Darellon turned and sliced the thing off his arm, leaving it a splashing mess of blood.

One dove at the dwarf Grison, who was still getting up. He started taking major damage until the ranger Drew shot the thing off his arm. Darellon started making loud noises at this point, trying to get the stirges to strike at him, which had some success-- he deflected a number of blows. He has still, by the way, taken no damage whatsoever.

One more dove at the thief Anwyvn, who was dropped unconscious once again. Finally the last one was killed by a thrown hammer and crossbow bolt combination.

A funny little corollary came the next morning. Grison decided to poke at one of the dead stirges, when a giant centipede leaped out at him and would have killed him had he not squashed it. I love Lendore Isle.

After we spent half of the next day healing up, we marched off again. A day or two later we arrived near the edge of a horrid looking forest. It looked clearly unnatural, full of stinging insects, dying trees, and, we later discovered, LOTS of black locusts.

First we had a little _Speak with Animals_ episode. Quentin attempted to talk what must be the dumbest squirrel ever-- totally unable to answer even the simplest of questions. Eventually we deciphered that two two-legged people had traveled the road recently. The woodsman and ranger checked it out and discovered that in fact a half-dozen people had come through.

We camped out for the night and marched in to the closest entrance during the day. After about an hour, we began hearing locusts EVERYWHERE. Darellon blocked one that flew at him, and Anwvyn scored his first kill by shooting it with his crossbow.

We then decided it was getting hideously dangerous to continue with the possibility of getting swarmed by locusts. We turned and marched out. As we neared the edge of the forest, a brown snake blocked our path. A _Speak with Animals_ revealed that the snake wanted to "kill, kill." Quentin convinced it to go away, and we walked out unhindered.

The next morning we set off along the road toward Restenford, hoping to find some other entrance into the forest. Sure enough, about an hour in we discovered a trail leading off into the forest. We decided to track, but were unable to read anything on the hard rock of the trail. So we headed down the trail a bit in the hopes of finding softer terrain.

About 15 minutes in, we discovered a... skeleton! Lying on the ground. Darellon surprised it.

Darellon poked about with his falchion and revealed a small pouch of coins (3 electrum and 2 silver) on the skeleton. Darellon continued to sift, when finally Anwvyn got impatient and scooped up the coins-- only to have the presumed dead skeleton suddenly rise up and try to hit him with the battleaxe it had. It missed and Darellon smashed it to pieces.

In a gutsy and believing that the skeleton was finally dead (a turning attempt by the cleric Soldan had no affect) Darellon rummaged through the remains and uncovered a shiny dagger. No one is quite sure what metal it is-- it detected as non-magical, disappointingly. But we suspect it is still quite valuable for a dagger.

We retreated back out when Soldan revealed that his turning ability was at least partially suppressed.

But being gutsy folk, we tried again the next morning. We walked down for almost an hour before the giant spider webbed everyone except Quentin.

Quentin threw an _Entangle_ at the spider-- meaning that basically all of our characters were trapped (though Grison soon got free).

The spider was held fast while Grison and Darellon tried to break free. Grison was much more successful and had a longer weapon. Darellon chucked two daggers at it, damaging one dagger but missing both times.

Grison speared at it, damaging it severely, but nearly destroying his spear in the process (TWO critical fumbles). The spear was a piece of crap by the end of it, but the spider was able to escape the second _Entangle_ and ran away. Grison's 30 damage to it, plus the repeated entangles saved all of us there.

We decided that was plenty (it only takes about three disasters to discourage us). So we headed out for Restenford (cursing the name of the Lord Mayor of Garroten for the suicide quest).

There was one more tense moment when we spotted four gnolls on a hill high up. We walked on through the obvious ambush point. Suddenly an arrow whizzed by about 80 yards away. We assume (hope) that they were just marking territory for us. We marched on quickly and left them behind.

Of course, once again we slept about 15 minutes outside of Restenford having no idea it was there.

We trekked in on the next day, refilled some arrows and food supplies and ordered a new spear at Falco's-- the local weaponry/inn area. Unfortunately Grison is using Soldan's spear for now.

A few things of interest to general Telvarians: there is a very large Phaulkonian compound in town. In addition, there is a powerful druid in residence, who spoke at great length with Quentin. There is NO actual place that sells weapons, though there is an armory and fletcher.

Quentin came back with important information. The druid was interested in helping Quentin, and gave his opinion on several things. He stated that the Garroten mayor and the town itself is far more corrupt than Restenford. He genuinely respects the Baron of Restenford. Also in town was an interesting, but drunk, mage named Peltar.

We visited the Baron, who appears to be an ex-adventurer. He seemed genuinely hopeful that we could help Restenford and was quite courteous. He gave us several options:

Damage the gnoll groups that raid to the west. This seemed, he admitted, probably very difficult for us.

Damage the bandit raiders to the north.

He did have a few comments on the undead area. Apparently the last adventuring party reported that two or three BEHOLDERS are in there. Ha ha. What fun. Apparently the undead were smashed, and yet they've returned again, just a few years later. So who really knows what is going on in there?

We decided on the bandits, for several reasons. If we encounter a group we can destroy, great. Treasure, experience, and a small reward. If we can't destroy it, we can give the Baron helpful recon information and return with some guards. Either way, we hope this will prove to be a big boost to our current situation. Food is not yet low, but gold is almost gone-- our net party coffer is now something like 15 gp.

We still do have to sell that dagger when we find someone who can properly appraise it, although Darellon has determined that it is definitely not steel or silver or anything like that. So we still have some items of value left as a buffer.

We traveled through the orchards to the north up to Bald Hill. After we climbed to the top, we stopped to survey the area. The Zerbil mountains are visible from there. We've now stopped to discuss our options.

Total damage taken:

1) Drew-- 17

2) Quentin-- 11

3) Grison-- 10

4) Anwvyn-- 8

5) Soldan-- 2

6) Darellon-- 0

Congratulations, everyone, on the lack of casualties, and lets keep it this way!

Setting off from Bald Hill, the party traveled north for one day and set up camp.

That evening we had an unsuccessful discussion with a bunny rabbit.

During the third watch, Drew's, the party was attacked by stealthy and difficult to spot fungus beetles. They dragged Anwvyn away before we even knew what was happening. Quickly we followed the beetle through the glass, Grison and Darellon trailing along with Drew. The clerics were slower to follow and missed most of what happened.

We saw Anwvyn trapped under the beetle, who was about 6 feet long. Anwvyn was clearly unconscious, if not dead for all we knew. When Grison approached, the beetle reacted, spraying acid all over Grison and dropping him paralyzed to the ground. The sonic boom that followed deafened Darellon temporarily. At this point we were unsure what to do, given the difficulty Drew was having in shooting the beetle. So we circled away from it, only to discover another one.

Finally we spotted a 3.5' hole in the ground which the beetles were living in. Unfortunately it was far too late for poor Anwvyn, who was lost to the digestive juices of the fungus down there.

We thought about blocking the hole, but then realized that there were at least a dozen such holes and clearly more around. So we simply marched away from that area as fast as possible, cutting our losses.

The next day we surprised a group of five armed men. Some people thought we should parlay.

Darellon assumed they were bandits, and reacted appropriately. With a wild yell Darellon charged straight at one of the archers. He missed, but Drew dropped him as he ran. Grison felled another one with his spear. The third archer was quickly skewered. That left a man in banded mail with a falchion and a man in banded and shield with a short sword. Darellon turned and dropped the falchion man dead in one hit (he was a 2nd level fighter!).

Grison turned to attack the short sword wielder, who swung and dropped Grison to the ground with a single hit. Gulp.

Darellon attacked and missed, while Drew started shooting. Soldan threw a Command spell at him-- to which he responded...

...by laughing. Uh oh. Drew took the hint and switched to silver arrows. Darellon meanwhile took a major hit, but was still standing when the short sword man, clearly a specialist, clocked him again and knocked him to the ground. Darellon's unhittable streak was over.

At that moment the _Entangle_ spell by Quentin went off, trapping the man in the plants. Drew continued pummeling him with arrows. After taking more damage than would have dropped anyone in the party, he started breaking free of the entangling vines. Drew blasted him again, and a startling event occurred-- his banded mail exploded and the man was revealed as a wereboar!

Queasy feeling confirmed.

The wereboar started ripping through the _Entangle_ at a horrifying rate toward the frantic Drew, who continued pumping him full of arrows. While it was clear he was being hurt badly, it was also clear that Drew would not likely kill him before he escaped.

Quentin went into hyper-mode, throwing two more _Entangles_. The first one was resisted, but the second one caught the wereboar and halted him temporarily. Drew shot his last silver arrow, and the wereboar fell over.

Everyone was saved afterwards-- fortunately the Entangle went away fast enough to save the ensnared and unconscious Darellon and Grison.

We divided up the treasure, including some weapons, bows, exploded banded mail, a dwarven battleaxe, and what turned out to be a low magic sword (the short sword the wereboar was using) Hooeee! First magic item! We also found around 100 gp and a gem.

A _Detect Evil_ revealed nothing on any of the weapons we checked, so we hope it isn't cursed.

We returned to town and paid salvage tax (the gem was appraised at 50 gp). We then picked up a new spear for Grison at Falco's. So no one has damaged weaponry.

Darellon kept the falchion, which was slightly substandard but a useful backup. We also kept a few more silvered weapons.

The current party cash went to about 65 gp-- so we are in fine shape now for many weeks.

Then we talked to the Baron, who gave us an official procedure for capturing bandits. We should try to demand their surrender and attack them only if attacked (sigh). We were given armbands to wear identifying us as deputies of the Baron. In exchange we will receive a salvage tax reduction and an occasional reward for exceptional service. Our first priority has become actually capturing some of them.

Grison had the exploded banded mail pieces resized and fit to him-- so he is now in dwarven banded mail. Darellon also scooped up a large shield.

Finally, on a weird note, the dwarf at Falco's (is that Falco himself? I don't remember) said that the ancient dwarven battleaxe was cursed. The markings on it do look threatening-- but it didn't detect as magical, so we were left with faint uneasiness. Judging that nothing cursed happened to Grison later, we think it's ok so far.

While in town we picked up two new party members: Morgan (played by Alan, an elven fighter specialized in long sword), and Ethan (played by Kyle, an ugly human woodsman specialized in... harpoon).

We set out again a few days later. We traveled back to the same area to check on the small cache of stuff we had left behind from lack of carrying room earlier (including the falchion fighter's damaged banded mail). Unfortunately we were caught by surprise by the well-planned 10-bandit ambush that awaited us by the cairn we had erected.

In fact, in a twisted turn, four of the bandits were actually the cairn for the previous bandit group as cover.

Darellon charged that way, followed by the whole party in sequence.

It was a desperate run (reminiscent, perhaps of Gettysburg) as 10 bandits shot at us for over a minute as we charged. But there was one critical difference-- none of us dropped (though Quentin came close).

Grison sprinted ahead at the last minute and ran straight into the long sword specialist waiting for him. Grison swung missed, and was clobbered into the ground. Gulp. Does this seem a tad familiar?

Drew sprinted ahead and shot down one of the archers. One of the two crossbowmen was having major trouble not breaking his quarrels, which was helpful.

Every shot at Darellon was a total failure-- in fact the volleys were fairly pitiful in general.

The fast moving Morgan charged and skewered a bowman as the party advanced.

At last the party closed on top of the long sword man. Ethan and Darellon reached him first. Ethan missed, but Darellon mauled him, holding him at bay. The man then struck back and dropped Ethan to the ground. Darellon called for help, and clocked him again-- still he stood.

In the meantime, the unlucky crossbowman actually managed to shoot and kill one of his own men. Waving his thanks Morgan turned his attention back to Darellon and the long sword man.

Morgan turned and missed the man, who whirled and dropped Morgan. But Darellon would not give up his advantage and slammed him again, dropping him to a stable-zero on the ground. Darellon then turned to look for other targets.

All six bandits remaining broke and ran.

The clerics worked frantically and brought Morgan and Ethan back to health. They let the bandit slip to a state of bleeding unconsciousness before they could help him-- but he survived, albeit delirious. His first response was, "Butterfly." Hmm.

We picked up more gold, weapons, and armor, including what turned out to be a low magic silver ring! Item #2!

We traveled back to town and are about to deal with the salvage tax, having sent the prisoner bandit into the castle for confinement and interrogation.

Overall, an extremely successful game session with one tragic moment. But our party has become extremely specialized-- 2 front line warriors, 2 2nd row warriors, 1 archer, a cleric, and a druid. In the future we may diversify, but for now the bandits will fall beneath our steel.

And now we have two magic items. Of course we can't afford to identify them, but we can probably test out the sword pretty easily. We're not sure about the ring yet.

Thanks to Kyle for joining us this weekend and lending us his wisdom and experience!

The party quickly paid salvage tax on the items we found, including giving up the magic ring, stored its remaining items in the castle, and set out to catch the bandits. We approached the cairn cautiously and discovered that two different groups, one of 6 and one of 7 had passed by it and dug up the bodies, despite the _Ceremony_ cast by Soldan. We followed the fading old tracks of the six that we routed two days earlier.

Tracing this for two days, we reached an area which had clearly hosted a battle between the bandits and something else-- perhaps insectoid, such as the beetles. We followed the single trail leading north from it.

We traveled for a few hours before running into a far better ambush than before. 11 men, many with longbows, one a crossbow, and some flail users. Darellon turned to run and the party backpedaled away from the ridge with some of the longbowmen on it. The thought was to escape the range of the bowmen and fight a more even battle. It didn't work out that way...

As we got out of short range, a _Hold Person_ spell hit Darellon and Ethan, who froze instantly, while Quentin escaped its effect. Things suddenly looked incredibly bad. And they were.

Grison pushed Darellon over and Quentin knocked down Ethan, while the rest of the party hit the dirt. So Quentin and Grison were up in front together in the grass, while Soldan, Morgan, and Drew were in the back together. Soldan peeked up for a moment and got shot at, taking minor damage. But it was enough of a look to prove that the flail people and longbowmen were advancing really slowly.

A desperate plan began to form. Grison was only somewhat injured from the initial volleys, so he planted Darellon's large shield in front of him and drew a volley of shots. As soon as the volley fired, missing him repeatedly, Quentin threw an _Entangle_ catching 5 men. Meanwhile Grison skewered one that had been missed before he could reach the dwarf. But they were being pressed quickly. Drew rose and started firing, shooting down one before getting bogged into a long series of misses with the people on the ridge. Quentin was shot and dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Morgan slew several as well, with a combination of long sword, followed by a salvaged longbow from a body. The archers in the entangled area continued firing at Grison, who slowly continued to weaken. Grison took down one with his throwing hammer, but it was too late-- he was fatally shot moments later.

Drew finally dropped the longbowman on the hill, and was free to concentrate on the local battle.

Worse still, there were still perhaps four men left in the entangled area, two with longbows, and to compound things two men with flails were approaching. Worst of all, one of them appeared to be in heavy armor, though a cloak obscured it from view. Concluding that was the mysterious cleric, Drew shot but to no avail. The cleric revealed himself with the command, "Die!" which Drew obediently did.

It was a desperate moment. Soldan rose out of the grass and threw a command at the cleric-- who dropped! Given that he was wearing FULL PLATE ARMOR that was VERY GOOD! For his heroism Soldan was repayed with a horrendous barrage which dropped him to the ground in bad shape.

At the moment, Morgan was the ONLY one standing. He had dropped the cleric's escort, and sliced his throat open while he was commanded.

Then began a low quality archery contest, as Morgan attempted to drop the men in the _Entangle_ before it ended. Finally Drew reemerged from his catatonic state and shot one longbowman. Unfortunately, Drew was dropped unconscious right after. That left Morgan alone once again.

Fortunately, at that moment Ethan and Darellon were able to move! Ethan was unentangled and moved to quickly skewer the last flail man before the entangle ended moments later. Finally, Morgan shot the last man while nearly down his knees himself. Darellon rose and immediately everyone rushed off to heal people.

Darellon was able to save Drew, and Morgan saved Quentin, but unfortunately Ethan was unable to save Soldan.

We were in poor shape. Ethan and Darellon were uninjured, Morgan was BARELY standing, and the other two living party members were incapacitated. Suddenly there was a loud drumming sound from over the ridge. Morgan went to investigate, and neatly dodged an arrow from the battlements of some small stone structure below.

It appeared that there was a single bandit still remaining and putting up an annoying effort. Deciding that if reinforcements were to arrive we would all be dead, we gambled-- Ethan, Darellon, and Morgan attempted to storm the small fort.

The plan, which was executed perfectly, was for Ethan and Darellon to draw fire while Morgan split-fired and shot the man from the roof. Unfortunately Morgan was unable to penetrate the battlement defenses. Ethan and Darellon charged to the wide wooden door. Darellon slammed into it hard, but it did not give. Unfortunately, he then heard a cranking sound. Instinctively the two backed up-- right into the range of the ballista.

Poor Ethan was blown apart by the force of the shot. Darellon cried out and smashed down the door-- facing another smaller wooden door. He crashed through that and charged straight at the flail man who had come down the stairs to meet him. Darellon missed and was hit for minor damage. He then dodged two arrows from the bowman behind. Darellon chopped up the flail man and charged up the stairs after the fleeing bowman. Darellon caught him at the top of the stairs. Ick.

Morgan entered afterward. Darellon smashed down a particularly tough lock, and discovered a room with four prisoners, two barely alive, from a merchant caravan led by the merchant Thaddius. We collected a cart from the nearby corral, and 6 horses. We loaded as much as we could possibly carry, perhaps 2000 pounds, into the cart and saddlebags along with the four reviving people. Then we set off for Restenford.

It was an uneventful journey other than a botched meeting with some elves, thanks to Darellon's overeagerness. Five days later we stumbled into Restenford.

Quentin healed up the first night, thanks to the druid Almax, who received a 200 gp donation, the best we could do.

The party then cashed in everything it had found, and became FILTHY RICH (for a first level party). In the end we had 2000 gp in ready cash, plus a set of full plate valued at 3000 gp!

And some magic items. A gold bracelet, silver pin, a belt, 11 magic crossbow quarrels, a potion, and a scroll. We gave the silver pin to the church of Phaulkon to dispose of since it was an unholy symbol. There was also some holy water, which we kept. The quarrels were paid in salvage tax.

The scroll turned out to be of Dimension Door. While Drew rested for 35 days, we decided to spend some of our newfound wealth and construct a house! A modest dwelling for about 350 gp, on the eastern end of Restenford-- this was done during May 2172. It can hold 8 people comfortably, and has some storage, though it is sparsely furnished.

We received rewards and credits from the baron and other grateful citizens for returning stolen goods from the storeroom.

We then headed to Barnacus by caravan-- uneventfully. We sold the full plate for 1350 gp sage credit and 1500 gp. We then let Ogman the Sage identify the items we had found. Interesting stuff:

• Short sword +1, +2 vs. metal-armored people!
• Bracelet of defense AC 9 (oh well)
• Potion of Gaseous Form
• Belt of Levitation (12 charges)

Not bad for one adventure!

On our way back into Restenford we picked up Celeste (human cleric of Phaulkon, sling user, 6 hp, played by Sean), and the yet to be named half orc fighter (short sword specialist, 10 hp, played by Alex).

The short sword has been assigned to the half-orc for obvious reasons!

We also paid to upgrade everyone's armor-- we are a party of people in banded mail except for Quentin, who now wears scaled leather armor.

A grim and tough adventure, but the rewards...!

To begin, we made our little purchases and set off north once again, a fully banded mail party with the exception of Quentin.

In the afternoon of the second day, we spotted a trio of armed people. Darellon, wearing the badge, hailed them, but they didn't respond. Ignoring them, we continued.

Two nights out, we set up camp again. During the second watch, Darellon and Morgan were the only ones awake when a fight for our survival began.

Before we could react, four huge creatures bounded from the sides at the helpless party. Morgan was able to tell with infravision that the humanoids were about 9 feet tall and had a violet-bluish skin tint. (Yes, I know-- ogre magi? Oh dear...)

Darellon and Morgan yelled an alert and then stood back to back, each taking one of the (now to be called) ogres. As the others attempted to wake up, the two unengaged ones fell upon the defenseless risers. As Celeste tried to rise, she was clubbed down, and played dead for a moment. Drew was smashed repeatedly and beaten the ground moments before he could stand.

Finally Quentin rose, and was bludgeoned out of consciousness.

The ogre attacking Morgan was frustrated by his defenses and squirminess. Morgan dodged in and out of range, swiping the ogre and wounding him badly, opening a bleeding wound.

Darellon fared worse and took a sizable hit. In anger he swung back... and the falchion shattered, pieces smashing both of the combatants. Darellon pulled out his backup, only to take another hit. He growled away the pain and struck back, inflicting massive damage on the ogre. Finally, the ogre swung and connected solidly, opening a wound. Darellon swayed and finally sank down to the ground, bleeding.

It was a desperate moment. Felix had just arisen to be faced by an uninjured ogre. He saw no other option, and madly closed, slashing the monster with his magic short sword. He then ripped again before the beast could react and dropped the surprised ogre to the ground. He then ran straight at the other ogre.

Unfortunately, moments earlier, Celeste had bolted to get out of melee combat range, in order to provide spell cover. The ogre had dropped its club, and hurled a huge boulder. The boulder caught her square in the chest, tearing her body apart with force and leaving her ruined on the ground.

Enraged, Felix charged and wounded the ogre badly. The ogre retaliated by smacking him hard in the head, sending him reeling. Despite being disoriented, Felix swung again with amazing success, laying this second ogre flat.

Morgan finished off his ogre, who had failed even to touch the elusive elf, and stepped over the body of Darellon. He ripped open the final ogre, who was barely alive from Darellon's parting shot, and he dropped.

Felix ran to save Darellon, as Celeste was clearly dead, while Drew was at stable consciousness, and Morgan ran to Quentin. Quentin was saved, but unfortunately Felix was unable to patch up Darellon fully, and he bled to death.

The party recovered 250 gp, some gems, and no items of note off of the vicious attackers. Felix and Morgan each helped one of the others as they began the four day journey back.

On the third day, our old friends in the trio appeared, to rob the party. They lifted the 200 gold and most devastatingly the magic sword that had served us so well. On the third evening, a group of a dozen giant rats crept up to the campsite of the helpless group. Forewarned by Quentin's animals, the party was able to stumble a couple dozen feet away, but the rats kept following. So they hatched a plan.

Morgan shot at the rats, attracting their attack, while Felix lit the oil flask to cause a small fire wall that forced the rats around it. They split roughly in half and Morgan and Felix each faced off against six. Morgan was bitten once, but Felix was unhurt and together they slew the dozen. The final day was uneventful.

The party returned to town, and Quentin was healed in exchange for the Gaseous Form potion. In addition, Drew was able to recover in two weeks, which seemed unlikely considering the poor condition he had stumbled back in. Many thought he would suffer severely as a result of the cold rain on the rat night. Fortunately, there was no damage to Drew, and Quentin sustained a minor permanent weakness (loss of some strength).

The party is about to be joined by the two newest members. These two are cousins from Latt, both Nevronian, from the same tribe. I don't know the name of Sean's character (human (northener) woodsman, 18 hp, falchion specialist-- played by Sean), but joining him is the middle-aged Tyveris (human (northerner) cleric of Nevron, 10 hp, hammer user-- played by Joel).

So that was the near-end of the party. But we came out of it still partially intact. I'm glad about Darellon's heroic end, and sorry to see Celeste meet the fate that few Phaulkonian clerics can afford. But we did defeat a group of monsters that seemed totally fatal, and without the horrid losses we could have sustained. Though we lost the sword and the potion, we can count ourselves lucky.

After waiting for about a month for Quentin and Drew to finish their service to the druids, the remaining four members of the party, Drew, Quentin, Felix, and Morgan set off for Benct with hopes of recruiting new party members. The found a caravan and set off.

About two days out (halfway in between Benct and Restenford), a scraggly man approached the caravan. He claimed to have to friends hiding in a tree about fifteen minutes away with a bear trying to kill them. The guards refused to go, and the party suspected it might be a trap. Going with their instincts that the man seemed to be telling the truth, the party followed him.

He led them up through the forest, to where a bear was indeed slashing at a tree, though no one was visible in it. Drew suggested that Quentin approach with the levitation belt in case of danger to himself and try to calm the bear down. As he was halfway through doing that, four crossbow bolts whipped out from four directions, one hitting Drew and the other Quentin.

Deja vu.

The party turned and ran away as quickly as possible. But it was not quickly enough. Quentin and Drew both started taking damage from the poison in the bolts.

Luckily Quentin was able to shirk the poison quickly enough to remain standing. Drew also threw off the effects, though he took severe damage.

The party turned to head generally toward the caravan now, at top speed. But it wasn't long before they ran into the second ambush.

Sigh.

This one totally failed, as they traditionally do with us. One crossbow bolt hit Morgan, who yanked it out immediately. Another bandit yelled something like, "Greetings from the Green Diamond!" and promptly missed Drew. (That, by the way, is the name of the bandit group we slaughtered earlier) Quentin hit the dirt. Felix sprinted ahead and ripped one of the crossbowmen apart. Drew shot the other man in front. That left a broadsword wielder and a crossbowman.

The broadsword man somehow managed to sneak up behind Quentin's position and started hacking at him, fortunately missing. Felix whirled, sprinted, and crashed into the man with his shield, forcing himself between them and injuring him in the process. Morgan was charging as well, and hit the broadsword man. The crossbowman, meanwhile, shot down Drew and started drawing a two-handed sword.

Quentin rose up and began casting Entangle. The man switched to drawing a dagger, and had it out just as the spell hit him.

Meanwhile, Felix had gotten slashed up by the broadsword man, and Morgan pressed the attack, felling him. The final man through the dagger at Felix, missing badly. In response, Felix charged... and ran into the Entangle. The man drew out his two-handed sword and slashed at Felix, missing by inches. Meanwhile Morgan shot him full of arrows and he finally dropped.

We recovered quite a bit of money, some random weapons, and what we later found out was magical: a broadsword, medium shield, and a necklace.

The party, beaten but alive and standing (Quentin healed Drew), went back to the bear. We quickly discovered it had been chained and that there was a bag of food in the tree. We tossed it some rations, and Quentin spoke to it, calming it down. Finally, we cut down the rations, unleashed it, and set it free.

Then we followed the tracks a little ways and found some abandoned packs with worthless stuff which we destroyed.

We then rejoined the caravan and continued to Benct. In Benct, we picked up two new Northerners, Tyveris, cleric of Nevron, and Gaston, a warrior (both are from the same tribe-- Tyveris is played by Joel, and Gaston by Sean). Gaston has two dogs, one a guard dog and one a hunting dog. Tyveris is a bit bulky (fat) and jovial, but sensitive to remarks about his face, which contains a broken nose and a faint imprint of a hammer.

Traveling around Benct was quite interesting, and we met a few shady characters, including the barkeep and the pawnshop broker. The barkeep even had a weird mission for us-- go to the last room upstairs and clear the ghosts out of it and get treasure from the pirate's spirit. Apparently, the law has decreed that since 13 people died in there in the space of two weeks, he can no longer rent out the room. Sensible ordinance.

We resisted the temptation and instead headed back to Restenford. There Morgan and Quentin trained to 2nd level!

We gave up the sword in salvage tax, but identified the other two items in Barnacus. The shield is a Shield of the Worms (medium shield +1, resists poison as well). The necklace is a Necklace of Goblins-- it allows the wearer to speak Goblin and a few other languages, but Goblin as a native speaker.

We returned and the Baron had a new mission for us from a Major of the Petethalian Navy. We accepted, but here is a brief outline:

One of the small islands in between here and Sark contained a temple to the god of thieves. It was attacked by pirates in June and mostly destroyed. The pirates were basically annihilated as well, and the navy cleared out the remaining pirates. But they want someone outside of the navy to encourage the "withdrawal" of the remaining people living on the island by any means possible. Our job is to encourage them to leave, bribe them away, scare them away, or kill them. For additional fun, there are skeletons that just pop up on the beaches, but they are generally easy to escape.

Reward: 2000 gp.

An interesting mission.

When we last left, our party had just accepted a mission to investigate the isle and remove the living inhabitants by whatever means necessary. We planned a bribe of transport away with money thrown in for extra encouragement.

The party set sail in October. We consisted of the ranger Drew and druid Quentin, original party members. Also, there was the elven fighter Morgan, the handsome half-orc fighter Felix, the northerner fighter Gaston, and his cousin the Nevronian cleric Tyveris.

We arrived uneventfully. We were transported at high tide in a longboat to the only accessible point, a small beach a few hundred feet wide. This was the beach where the attacks on the major's men had occurred previously, though not immediately upon landing. We suited up and decided on a course. We marched very slowly, hoping that only the fighters in the front would be subjected to immediate attack.

Unfortunately, we badly guessed their attack form. As we traveled about 30 feet up the edge of the beach, suddenly there were multiple sand spouts and we were set upon by 12 skeletons equipped with short swords, scimitars, and long swords. They appeared everywhere inside and outside our formation, and struck while we stood there surprised.

Felix dropped to the ground from sword thrusts. That left Morgan eclipsed by skeletons, but doing incredibly well at dodging stabs. Quentin stabbed at one with his scimitar, while Drew wielded a staff. Gaston moved to get the ocean to his back and faced off against three.

It looked very bad.

Drew toppled one with holy water, but was unused to the staff and its fighting style. Gaston fell a few moments later, pressed by the skeletons. Tyveris whipped out his holy symbol and began turning.

Morgan continued to single-handedly destroy the upper half of the skeletons, remaining untouched against remarkable numbers. Quentin slashed furiously and injured one. Finally, Tyveris managed to drop two of the skeletons into the sand with turning. Moments later, the rest sank from around Morgan, and we quickly backed up, pausing to heal Gaston.

We decided that perhaps we should rethink this. At that moment, a lone and gaunt-looking mule wandered down from the rocks, across the sand right to Felix. We were confused.

Quentin spoke with it, and we learned that it had seen "smelly people up there." (Not many, it said). We watched its path, and Quentin asked it if it had ever seen the white things. No, came the reply. Confused, we asked the mule to lead us up. It did so. We were promptly mobbed again.

This time about 14 skeletons came at us. Unfortunately, Tyveris was having a terrible time turning them away, and he did not succeed until very late in the battle.

This time the surprise was not so devastating, and Felix and Morgan remained unscathed. Gaston fell over injured again after a few moments. In the initial attack, one of the skeletons caused a wound in the concentrating Tyveris. Out of spells, he called for Quentin, who thanks to a well-timed smash by Morgan and Felix, was able to sprint to Tyveris. He cured him just as his first turning attempt failed.

In this battle, Drew proved his worth with the staff and smashed apart three skeletons. Quentin began a slow duel with several of them, defeating one. Felix and Morgan carved up the front, using the apparently unterrified and unnoticed mule for cover. The skeletons did not attack the mule.

Eventually, some of them sank into ground, but Quentin suffered a mortal blow and fell in the closing moments. Fortunately, Tyveris reached him, but it meant that both Quentin and the fallen Gaston were out of the action for the rest of the adventure.

We signaled the boat and returned back to the ship and discussed our options with the major. We decided that the four of us would try a central route straight up the middle, where the major claimed he had run into only 7 to 9 skeletons. First, we noticed that the bones of the dead skeletons remained, so were believe they are at least temporarily ineffective. We tried to head up the middle, back to back. The strategy did work in that they only appeared around us. 9 of them. Tyveris turned them all way in the initial attack.

We decided that we needed them dead but could only face a few at a time. Tyveris turned only 4 of the 9 this time and we fought them. In the closing moments, Felix suffered a major hit and a wound, but was bolstered by Tyveris, who had also suffered injuries. Together with Drew, Felix and Morgan slaughtered the five skeletons.

We retreated and healed Felix back up. Then we went at the other four. Unfortunately, Tyveris fell in the battle, but was saved by Drew. The party retreated back to the ship, and, out of options sailed away.

Well, we lost no one, and gained some information (Drew's valiant disbelieve attempt proved beyond a doubt that they were real). We will be given first shot at it next year with a smaller reward (1500 gp). It was frustrating, but not a total failure. And everyone lived.

There was one more interesting encounter. (out of character-- I rolled a 1 on the d20 for sea voyage). We were woken up in the middle of the night, peeked out of the cabin and couldn't help noticing the large sea lizard thing attacking the marines. Drew and Morgan shot at it, but the arrows bounced off uselessly. A formation of seven marines struck at it, barely scratching it. The thing gulped down one marine and disappeared. Moments, later, the 20 marines met the second attack, inflicting some damage and losing another man. In a third attack, the lizard ate one more man, and the attempted ballista attack missed.

Then came the interesting part. The beast surged up on the side of the ship, 4 feet in front of the ballista man. (He rolled a 20) He kicked it, and launched the ballista at a 4 foot range right through the thing's neck, causing it incredible pain. Unfortunately, the valiant sailor was then eaten and the thing disappeared under the waves for good.

There was a funeral held for the sailors of the Eagle 13 who had died.

We returned to Restenford. Drew went to Barnacus, trained to 2nd level, and returned in time for the rainy season to begin. We plan to work through the winter and attempt the island again in March.

The party spent a soggy and miserable winter in Restenford. Money was spent, Gaston learned why not to gamble (he blew it off in a hurry), Tyveris drank quite a few cheap drinks, Felix swung his weapon around randomly, Morgan slept in every day, and Quentin worked for the druids.

We set out on March 19th and arrived at Abbey Isle on March 30th. We landed at the point on the beach, and Tyveris tried a _Detect Evil_ in the hopes of spotting the skeletons on the beach. It clearly failed. I do have reason to believe that the 9 we killed earlier have actually stayed dead though.

We decided that charging up the middle would be our only option. So we charged... and had about six of the strangest combats. We were barely scratched-- Tyveris took 2 damage, Quentin took 2, Drew took 4. We used one cure spell. We killed about 50 skeletons.

We also managed to break virtually every weapon. Felix's short sword went flying out of his hand-- but the shredded grip remained in his hand. Gaston threw his bastard sword blade quite a distance. He also sent his replacement hammer sailing toward Tyveris, then damaged it. He finally blew up a "serviceable" scimitar scooped up from a skeleton. Quentin damaged his scimitar as well. What fun.

We proceeded up past the beach. Quentin's bird reported a person observing us from a few hundred feet ahead, and sneaking away from us. Since they knew we were coming, we decided to go with the peaceful solution.

We traveled up the rocky ground toward the compound. When we were about 50 feet from it, some voices finally responded to our hails. We told them that we wanted to help them off the island. Unfortunately, it appears that some of them, at least, didn't want to leave. We could hear them arguing about an attack on us, but figured it was a bluff. They demanded our surrender. We started backing up.

That was when two Light spells, a Hold Person, a Web, and a Charm Person hit us at the same time. The charm failed on Quentin, the Hold caught Drew and Morgan, but Tyveris resisted. The Light spells hit Morgan and Felix, while the Web hit everyone but Gaston.

That was when we realized that our strategy had been, in hindsight, a poor one.

We surrendered summarily, especially when one man, who was a wizard, whispered something about not resisting and we might survive this.

They decided to use us as bargaining chips for getting a few of their men off of the island. Their demands were: 1) transport for three men so that they could contact allies and restore the island to its former glory, and 2) that all but one of the "Pirate" (Petethalian navy) ships withdraw. Two men escorted Tyveris back to the beach while the others were dragged into a prison room in the compound.

The compound, by the way, was a ruined temple. The whole thing had collapsed in the pirate attack, leaving just a ground floor, and a trapdoor leading to a basement with about 10 rooms, where the entire group, which consisted of 10 people, stayed.

Tyveris spent a long time convincing the two guards with him that he would need to be free to a) get past the two skeletons we had _Turned_ and left alone, and b) signal the ship.

They eventually did so, with a loaded poisoned bolt pointed at him while he did so. He signaled and rejoined Major Ursa. The major refused all of the conditions, and asked Tyveris for ideas. He suggested a storming of the island, because otherwise all of his friends were dead. The major refused, and Tyveris and he slept on it that night, having been given 72 hours to respond.

But something else happened that night.

At 3 AM, the mage who spoken the cryptic words earlier entered the prison. He was an adventurer named Odeon who had come to purchase spells and had been trapped when the pirates attacked. He wanted off quite badly and was willing to free the imprisoned group to help him escape. Picking up a few weapons (a short sword for Felix, a scimitar for Quentin, and some other non-proficient weapons for everyone else), and some leaves for Quentin, they made their way quietly out of the compound. They snuck down the rocks toward the beach.

Suddenly, a huge spiny many-legged beast jumped at Drew from behind. Drew clubbed it, but its pincers sank into him. Moments later he jerked spasmodically and fell over. Meanwhile, Gaston sliced at it with his dagger. The mage had sprinted away and sent a _Lightning Bolt_ (I think) at it, but it appeared to have little effect.

Quentin slashed but missed. Morgan pumped it full of arrows, doing some significant damage, but it appeared invincible. It jumped at Gaston, who slashed valiantly at it, but was hit and jerked in the throes of poison and fell over. Felix continued ripping at it, inflicting massive damage with his short sword. Angrily, it turned at him. It slashed at him, brutally damaging him, but Felix swung and dropped the beast with a massive hit. Seconds later, he sighed, jerked, and fell over. Quentin cast a cure spell on Drew, but it appeared to have little effect. Promising Odeon fifty gold pieces, Quentin, Morgan, and Odeon dragged the bodies down the rocks to the beach. Moments later, a horde of giant rats came at them from behind. Odeon dropped Felix and threw a _Web_ spell at them, freezing them in their tracks.

The problem of the two skeletons remained. Without Tyveris to turn, they would have to fight. That pitted Quentin and Morgan without their good weapons and without armor against them. They tried to sneak around the spot, but to no avail. The two skeletons popped up. Morgan destroyed his quickly, and Quentin hurt his as well. Morgan turned to help Quentin, but was too late to prevent the shot dropping Quentin to the ground. He sliced up the skeleton and stabilized Quentin.

They continued down the beach and signaled as dawn approached. The boat came with a angry and relieved Tyveris, who attended to them on the boat.

Drew actually recovered while on the beach (the cure spell had made the difference). Felix and Gaston had stabilized, but they were comatose. They needed a _Remove Paralysis_ spell cast on them, which was available at the Nevronian church in Carse two days away. Odeon got his 50 gp, and agreed for 100 gp more to tell us and the major all about the status of the Isle, and the people who lived there. We'll post all that information in a later report. The highlights were: there are three dangerous people on the island, Ozymandius, Ogmund, and Bayleaf. Ozymandius is a cleric capable of casting Create Food and Water, which is how they survived the winter. He has declared himself High One following the death of the actual High One. Ogmund is a stupid but brawny fighter hired to train the guards. He has become captain since the death of the High One. Bayleaf is the only non-human, an elf fighter/mage who is there mainly for the money, rather than loyalty to the religion or Ozymandius. If Ozymandius dies, obviously they have lost, because they have no food then. There are also four clerics of varying skills, and three guards. The thing we fought used to be a pet of the High One.

Meanwhile, we set sail for Carse. Tyveris negotiated and paid for two _Remove Paralysis_ spells (for 250 gp total) cast on the Gaston and Felix. Quentin recovered and is working for the druids there. Felix was fine in a few days. Gaston was up and about, but has suffered major permanent health loss. He still wants revenge though.

The party, excepting Quentin, has volunteered to be part of the strike force that finishes this mess. Our reward is shot, but hey, we're alive, and we want to kill them, which we may get the opportunity to do. The major himself is a hammer specialist and a veteran warrior. Several marines will be coming with us also.

So far, the main plan we've roughed out is to wait for a sentry to emerge and take him out (Command spell will do this nicely if necessary). They have two options: they can assume the sentry died from something on the island, or that something else happened and they had better look for him. If they send a search party, we've hit gold. Wherever Ozymandius is, we hit them. If he dies, we've won.

Dissidence is quite high. It appears that only Ogmund and Ozymandius REALLY want to stay there. Bayleaf is staying only because of the money-- if we can lure him away, we might have them.

It's going to be interesting. We certainly do not have the sheer power levels that they do. One plan is if we can somehow get Morgan down into the basement at night, he can sneak up on and kill Ozymandius. If it fails, he is quite obviously a dead man.

If there is only one sentry he can be taken out quietly by a Command. If there is more than one, we need surprise to do it.

Finally, as a general Telvar note (our characters don't know all of this) the reason Major Ursa is willing to risk his marines is that the political situation "changed" in Sark 14 days earlier. Thanks to a spectacularly successful plan by Dunstill and Illic (I hope I spelled it right), the Far World Navy vanished and Sark is in utter chaos.

At any rate, I believe the party is unanimous in its sentiment:

Let's get em, boys.

We discussed many plans, and eventually settled on the conservative plan:

Take down a sentry

Take down the search party, hopefully dramatically reducing the number of people remaining

Storm the area in the middle of the night.

Part 3) was certainly a desperate option. Hopefully, instead of holing up they would attack us, which would allow us to meet them on our terms outside.

As planned, we landed at 2 AM with eight marines and the major in tow, though Quentin was still at Carse for the duration of the isle adventure.

We marched up the beach and into the copse of trees a few hundred feet up the hill. We set up camp and waited until morning.

When morning arrived, Morgan took up a forward scouting post. He warned us when the first sentry came... and we sprinted out of the bushes at the scout!

Seeing three crazed lunatics, one beginning a spell, the cleric/scout surrendered. We bound and gagged him, and hauled him off to camp. A few hours later, another cleric scout emerged, who fell similarly quickly (none of this even involved a spell!).

Then Morgan got bopped on the head by a seashell from his hidden location. He discovered a scroll tube in the bushes. Upon opening it, it made a decently loud bang, easily heard within a hundred feet. Inside was a message:

Bayleaf was offering to leave the island for 500 gp. Yes!

Morgan took our response back, and Bayleaf (who has unbelievable stealth abilities, probably a combination of being a wizard and an elf) agreed to meet us on the beach when the boat arrived.

Bayleaf must have encouraged another foray with false information, because the next morning, three warriors in banded mail came tromping down the hill. We failed to surprise them, and one shot Drew badly, though he still stood. Crossbow shots came from the marines, lightly damaging two of them. The third, a huge fighter with sword and shield, who we correctly identified as Ogmund, fell to a _Command_. Upon attempting to tie him up, Tyveris screwed up the knot and Ogmund reared up and quick-drew his weapon... only to get knocked down by another _Command_. Tyveris also botched this knot really badly, but fortunately Gaston was able to secure it before Ogmund awoke. Ogmund started beating his head on the ground and crying out about not being taken alive... until the major bonked him on the head.

We shipped the five prisoners out on the ship that morning. There were no further forays that day, and we settled down to wait.

Unfortunately, that evening things took an ugly turn. A beaten up sailor stumbled into camp, saying that Ozymandius and the remaining three men had given a false signal, lured the longboat to shore, and boarded it, _Holding_ several men and dropping them into the water.

We arrived in time to save one more, so three of the original six were still alive. What had happened to the longboat was anyone's guess.

In the morning, the truth was revealed. The drowned bodies of Ozymandius and his men were found on the beach. They had crashed the longboat trying to cruise past the reefs at night.

Bayleaf appeared from thin air. We then made a complex series of deals, but managed to get our magic shield back. In addition, though we traded away the scroll of Dimension Door, we were able to get Leather Armor +1, and a healing potion. We retrieved our equipment from the ruins, and actually salvaged quite a bit of stuff, little of it directly valuable to us. In addition to the 1000 gp reward, we still got about 1200 gp worth of salvage back after taxes. Furthermore, we obtained a scroll of Light, a scroll of Bless x2, and two Continual Light orb things. Our home is going to look really spiffy now, with Continual light orbs lighting it up (they're really not combat things, but pretty house items), plus some weird lawn statues-- we're still undecided on which ones. Tyveris is absolutely disgusted with the statues of the Grim Reaper and Medusa-- bad taste for a cleric of Nevron, he thinks.

Felix, however, may have other ideas. This remains undecided (we'll deal with it later!).

In addition, the Petethalian navy recently became much more flush with funds after Sark decided to fund their navy rather than create a new one. So we got a bonus 500 gp.

Also, in true Stone Soules tradition, we found 5 devil-worshipping books (non-magical). We burned 'em. We also found some general religious manuals for Hindus, which we gave to the Navy for 200 gp credit.

Finally, upon returning home, we settled some accounts. We identified the leather armor as +1. We purchased higher quality weapons.

Tyveris and Felix trained to 2nd level!

Tyveris gained 2 hp and is at 12 hp max. Felix, has just become the party tank. He gained 14 hp! Now his maximum is 24 hp, passing even the durable Darellon's total!

Overall, a very successful adventure. While we could have done more, it's not clear it could have turned out much less violently than it did.

When we last left, our party had just accepted a mission to investigate the isle and remove the living inhabitants by whatever means necessary. We planned a bribe of transport away with money thrown in for extra encouragement.

The party set sail in October. We consisted of the ranger Drew and druid Quentin, original party members. Also, there was the elven fighter Morgan, the handsome half-orc fighter Felix, the northerner fighter Gaston, and his cousin the Nevronian cleric Tyveris.

We arrived uneventfully. We were transported at high tide in a longboat to the only accessible point, a small beach a few hundred feet wide. This was the beach where the attacks on the major's men had occurred previously, though not immediately upon landing. We suited up and decided on a course. We marched very slowly, hoping that only the fighters in the front would be subjected to immediate attack.

Unfortunately, we badly guessed their attack form. As we traveled about 30 feet up the edge of the beach, suddenly there were multiple sand spouts and we were set upon by 12 skeletons equipped with short swords, scimitars, and long swords. They appeared everywhere inside and outside our formation, and struck while we stood there surprised.

Felix dropped to the ground from sword thrusts. That left Morgan eclipsed by skeletons, but doing incredibly well at dodging stabs. Quentin stabbed at one with his scimitar, while Drew wielded a staff. Gaston moved to get the ocean to his back and faced off against three.

It looked very bad.

Drew toppled one with holy water, but was unused to the staff and its fighting style. Gaston fell a few moments later, pressed by the skeletons. Tyveris whipped out his holy symbol and began turning.

Morgan continued to single-handedly destroy the upper half of the skeletons, remaining untouched against remarkable numbers. Quentin slashed furiously and injured one. Finally, Tyveris managed to drop two of the skeletons into the sand with turning. Moments later, the rest sank from around Morgan, and we quickly backed up, pausing to heal Gaston.

We decided that perhaps we should rethink this. At that moment, a lone and gaunt-looking mule wandered down from the rocks, across the sand right to Felix. We were confused.

Quentin spoke with it, and we learned that it had seen "smelly people up there." (Not many, it said). We watched its path, and Quentin asked it if it had ever seen the white things. No, came the reply. Confused, we asked the mule to lead us up. It did so. We were promptly mobbed again.

This time about 14 skeletons came at us. Unfortunately, Tyveris was having a terrible time turning them away, and he did not succeed until very late in the battle.

This time the surprise was not so devastating, and Felix and Morgan remained unscathed. Gaston fell over injured again after a few moments. In the initial attack, one of the skeletons caused a wound in the concentrating Tyveris. Out of spells, he called for Quentin, who thanks to a well-timed smash by Morgan and Felix, was able to sprint to Tyveris. He cured him just as his first turning attempt failed.

In this battle, Drew proved his worth with the staff and smashed apart three skeletons. Quentin began a slow duel with several of them, defeating one. Felix and Morgan carved up the front, using the apparently unterrified and unnoticed mule for cover. The skeletons did not attack the mule.

Eventually, some of them sank into ground, but Quentin suffered a mortal blow and fell in the closing moments. Fortunately, Tyveris reached him, but it meant that both Quentin and the fallen Gaston were out of the action for the rest of the adventure.

We signaled the boat and returned back to the ship and discussed our options with the major. We decided that the four of us would try a central route straight up the middle, where the major claimed he had run into only 7 to 9 skeletons. First, we noticed that the bones of the dead skeletons remained, so were believe they are at least temporarily ineffective. We tried to head up the middle, back to back. The strategy did work in that they only appeared around us. 9 of them. Tyveris turned them all way in the initial attack.

We decided that we needed them dead but could only face a few at a time. Tyveris turned only 4 of the 9 this time and we fought them. In the closing moments, Felix suffered a major hit and a wound, but was bolstered by Tyveris, who had also suffered injuries. Together with Drew, Felix and Morgan slaughtered the five skeletons.

We retreated and healed Felix back up. Then we went at the other four. Unfortunately, Tyveris fell in the battle, but was saved by Drew. The party retreated back to the ship, and, out of options sailed away.

Well, we lost no one, and gained some information (Drew's valiant disbelieve attempt proved beyond a doubt that they were real). We will be given first shot at it next year with a smaller reward (1500 gp). It was frustrating, but not a total failure. And everyone lived.

There was one more interesting encounter. (out of character-- I rolled a 1 on the d20 for sea voyage). We were woken up in the middle of the night, peeked out of the cabin and couldn't help noticing the large sea lizard thing attacking the marines. Drew and Morgan shot at it, but the arrows bounced off uselessly. A formation of seven marines struck at it, barely scratching it. The thing gulped down one marine and disappeared. Moments, later, the 20 marines met the second attack, inflicting some damage and losing another man. In a third attack, the lizard ate one more man, and the attempted ballista attack missed.

Then came the interesting part. The beast surged up on the side of the ship, 4 feet in front of the ballista man. (He rolled a 20) He kicked it, and launched the ballista at a 4 foot range right through the thing's neck, causing it incredible pain. Unfortunately, the valiant sailor was then eaten and the thing disappeared under the waves for good.

There was a funeral held for the sailors of the Eagle 13 who had died.

We returned to Restenford. Drew went to Barnacus, trained to 2nd level, and returned in time for the rainy season to begin. We plan to work through the winter and attempt the island again in March.

The party spent a soggy and miserable winter in Restenford. Money was spent, Gaston learned why not to gamble (he blew it off in a hurry), Tyveris drank quite a few cheap drinks, Felix swung his weapon around randomly, Morgan slept in every day, and Quentin worked for the druids.

We set out on March 19th and arrived at Abbey Isle on March 30th. We landed at the point on the beach, and Tyveris tried a _Detect Evil_ in the hopes of spotting the skeletons on the beach. It clearly failed. I do have reason to believe that the 9 we killed earlier have actually stayed dead though.

We decided that charging up the middle would be our only option. So we charged... and had about six of the strangest combats. We were barely scratched-- Tyveris took 2 damage, Quentin took 2, Drew took 4. We used one cure spell. We killed about 50 skeletons.

We also managed to break virtually every weapon. Felix's short sword went flying out of his hand-- but the shredded grip remained in his hand. Gaston threw his bastard sword blade quite a distance. He also sent his replacement hammer sailing toward Tyveris, then damaged it. He finally blew up a "serviceable" scimitar scooped up from a skeleton. Quentin damaged his scimitar as well. What fun.

We proceeded up past the beach. Quentin's bird reported a person observing us from a few hundred feet ahead, and sneaking away from us. Since they knew we were coming, we decided to go with the peaceful solution.

We traveled up the rocky ground toward the compound. When we were about 50 feet from it, some voices finally responded to our hails. We told them that we wanted to help them off the island. Unfortunately, it appears that some of them, at least, didn't want to leave. We could hear them arguing about an attack on us, but figured it was a bluff. They demanded our surrender. We started backing up.

That was when two Light spells, a Hold Person, a Web, and a Charm Person hit us at the same time. The charm failed on Quentin, the Hold caught Drew and Morgan, but Tyveris resisted. The Light spells hit Morgan and Felix, while the Web hit everyone but Gaston.

That was when we realized that our strategy had been, in hindsight, a poor one.

We surrendered summarily, especially when one man, who was a wizard, whispered something about not resisting and we might survive this.

They decided to use us as bargaining chips for getting a few of their men off of the island. Their demands were: 1) transport for three men so that they could contact allies and restore the island to its former glory, and 2) that all but one of the "Pirate" (Petethalian navy) ships withdraw. Two men escorted Tyveris back to the beach while the others were dragged into a prison room in the compound.

The compound, by the way, was a ruined temple. The whole thing had collapsed in the pirate attack, leaving just a ground floor, and a trapdoor leading to a basement with about 10 rooms, where the entire group, which consisted of 10 people, stayed.

Tyveris spent a long time convincing the two guards with him that he would need to be free to a) get past the two skeletons we had _Turned_ and left alone, and b) signal the ship.

They eventually did so, with a loaded poisoned bolt pointed at him while he did so. He signaled and rejoined Major Ursa. The major refused all of the conditions, and asked Tyveris for ideas. He suggested a storming of the island, because otherwise all of his friends were dead. The major refused, and Tyveris and he slept on it that night, having been given 72 hours to respond.

But something else happened that night.

At 3 AM, the mage who spoken the cryptic words earlier entered the prison. He was an adventurer named Odeon who had come to purchase spells and had been trapped when the pirates attacked. He wanted off quite badly and was willing to free the imprisoned group to help him escape. Picking up a few weapons (a short sword for Felix, a scimitar for Quentin, and some other non-proficient weapons for everyone else), and some leaves for Quentin, they made their way quietly out of the compound. They snuck down the rocks toward the beach.

Suddenly, a huge spiny many-legged beast jumped at Drew from behind. Drew clubbed it, but its pincers sank into him. Moments later he jerked spasmodically and fell over. Meanwhile, Gaston sliced at it with his dagger. The mage had sprinted away and sent a _Lightning Bolt_ (I think) at it, but it appeared to have little effect.

Quentin slashed but missed. Morgan pumped it full of arrows, doing some significant damage, but it appeared invincible. It jumped at Gaston, who slashed valiantly at it, but was hit and jerked in the throes of poison and fell over. Felix continued ripping at it, inflicting massive damage with his short sword. Angrily, it turned at him. It slashed at him, brutally damaging him, but Felix swung and dropped the beast with a massive hit. Seconds later, he sighed, jerked, and fell over. Quentin cast a cure spell on Drew, but it appeared to have little effect. Promising Odeon fifty gold pieces, Quentin, Morgan, and Odeon dragged the bodies down the rocks to the beach. Moments later, a horde of giant rats came at them from behind. Odeon dropped Felix and threw a _Web_ spell at them, freezing them in their tracks.

The problem of the two skeletons remained. Without Tyveris to turn, they would have to fight. That pitted Quentin and Morgan without their good weapons and without armor against them. They tried to sneak around the spot, but to no avail. The two skeletons popped up. Morgan destroyed his quickly, and Quentin hurt his as well. Morgan turned to help Quentin, but was too late to prevent the shot dropping Quentin to the ground. He sliced up the skeleton and stabilized Quentin.

They continued down the beach and signaled as dawn approached. The boat came with a angry and relieved Tyveris, who attended to them on the boat.

Drew actually recovered while on the beach (the cure spell had made the difference). Felix and Gaston had stabilized, but they were comatose. They needed a _Remove Paralysis_ spell cast on them, which was available at the Nevronian church in Carse two days away. Odeon got his 50 gp, and agreed for 100 gp more to tell us and the major all about the status of the Isle, and the people who lived there. We'll post all that information in a later report. The highlights were: there are three dangerous people on the island, Ozymandius, Ogmund, and Bayleaf. Ozymandius is a cleric capable of casting Create Food and Water, which is how they survived the winter. He has declared himself High One following the death of the actual High One. Ogmund is a stupid but brawny fighter hired to train the guards. He has become captain since the death of the High One. Bayleaf is the only non-human, an elf fighter/mage who is there mainly for the money, rather than loyalty to the religion or Ozymandius. If Ozymandius dies, obviously they have lost, because they have no food then. There are also four clerics of varying skills, and three guards. The thing we fought used to be a pet of the High One.

Meanwhile, we set sail for Carse. Tyveris negotiated and paid for two _Remove Paralysis_ spells (for 250 gp total) cast on the Gaston and Felix. Quentin recovered and is working for the druids there. Felix was fine in a few days. Gaston was up and about, but has suffered major permanent health loss. He still wants revenge though.

The party, excepting Quentin, has volunteered to be part of the strike force that finishes this mess. Our reward is shot, but hey, we're alive, and we want to kill them, which we may get the opportunity to do. The major himself is a hammer specialist and a veteran warrior. Several marines will be coming with us also.

So far, the main plan we've roughed out is to wait for a sentry to emerge and take him out (Command spell will do this nicely if necessary). They have two options: they can assume the sentry died from something on the island, or that something else happened and they had better look for him. If they send a search party, we've hit gold. Wherever Ozymandius is, we hit them. If he dies, we've won.

Dissidence is quite high. It appears that only Ogmund and Ozymandius REALLY want to stay there. Bayleaf is staying only because of the money-- if we can lure him away, we might have them.

It's going to be interesting. We certainly do not have the sheer power levels that they do. One plan is if we can somehow get Morgan down into the basement at night, he can sneak up on and kill Ozymandius. If it fails, he is quite obviously a dead man.

If there is only one sentry he can be taken out quietly by a Command. If there is more than one, we need surprise to do it.

Finally, as a general Telvar note (our characters don't know all of this) the reason Major Ursa is willing to risk his marines is that the political situation "changed" in Sark 14 days earlier. Thanks to a spectacularly successful plan by Dunstill and Illic (I hope I spelled it right), the Far World Navy vanished and Sark is in utter chaos.

At any rate, I believe the party is unanimous in its sentiment:

Let's get em, boys.

We discussed many plans, and eventually settled on the conservative plan:

Take down a sentry

Take down the search party, hopefully dramatically reducing the number of people remaining

Storm the area in the middle of the night.

Part 3) was certainly a desperate option. Hopefully, instead of holing up they would attack us, which would allow us to meet them on our terms outside.

As planned, we landed at 2 AM with eight marines and the major in tow, though Quentin was still at Carse for the duration of the isle adventure.

We marched up the beach and into the copse of trees a few hundred feet up the hill. We set up camp and waited until morning.

When morning arrived, Morgan took up a forward scouting post. He warned us when the first sentry came... and we sprinted out of the bushes at the scout!

Seeing three crazed lunatics, one beginning a spell, the cleric/scout surrendered. We bound and gagged him, and hauled him off to camp. A few hours later, another cleric scout emerged, who fell similarly quickly (none of this even involved a spell!).

Then Morgan got bopped on the head by a seashell from his hidden location. He discovered a scroll tube in the bushes. Upon opening it, it made a decently loud bang, easily heard within a hundred feet. Inside was a message:

Bayleaf was offering to leave the island for 500 gp. Yes!

Morgan took our response back, and Bayleaf (who has unbelievable stealth abilities, probably a combination of being a wizard and an elf) agreed to meet us on the beach when the boat arrived.

Bayleaf must have encouraged another foray with false information, because the next morning, three warriors in banded mail came tromping down the hill. We failed to surprise them, and one shot Drew badly, though he still stood. Crossbow shots came from the marines, lightly damaging two of them. The third, a huge fighter with sword and shield, who we correctly identified as Ogmund, fell to a _Command_. Upon attempting to tie him up, Tyveris screwed up the knot and Ogmund reared up and quick-drew his weapon... only to get knocked down by another _Command_. Tyveris also botched this knot really badly, but fortunately Gaston was able to secure it before Ogmund awoke. Ogmund started beating his head on the ground and crying out about not being taken alive... until the major bonked him on the head.

We shipped the five prisoners out on the ship that morning. There were no further forays that day, and we settled down to wait.

Unfortunately, that evening things took an ugly turn. A beaten up sailor stumbled into camp, saying that Ozymandius and the remaining three men had given a false signal, lured the longboat to shore, and boarded it, _Holding_ several men and dropping them into the water.

We arrived in time to save one more, so three of the original six were still alive. What had happened to the longboat was anyone's guess.

In the morning, the truth was revealed. The drowned bodies of Ozymandius and his men were found on the beach. They had crashed the longboat trying to cruise past the reefs at night.

Bayleaf appeared from thin air. We then made a complex series of deals, but managed to get our magic shield back. In addition, though we traded away the scroll of Dimension Door, we were able to get Leather Armor +1, and a healing potion. We retrieved our equipment from the ruins, and actually salvaged quite a bit of stuff, little of it directly valuable to us. In addition to the 1000 gp reward, we still got about 1200 gp worth of salvage back after taxes. Furthermore, we obtained a scroll of Light, a scroll of Bless x2, and two Continual Light orb things. Our home is going to look really spiffy now, with Continual light orbs lighting it up (they're really not combat things, but pretty house items), plus some weird lawn statues-- we're still undecided on which ones. Tyveris is absolutely disgusted with the statues of the Grim Reaper and Medusa-- bad taste for a cleric of Nevron, he thinks.

Felix, however, may have other ideas. This remains undecided (we'll deal with it later!).

In addition, the Petethalian navy recently became much more flush with funds after Sark decided to fund their navy rather than create a new one. So we got a bonus 500 gp.

Also, in true Stone Soules tradition, we found 5 devil-worshipping books (non-magical). We burned 'em. We also found some general religious manuals for Hindus, which we gave to the Navy for 200 gp credit.

Finally, upon returning home, we settled some accounts. We identified the leather armor as +1. We purchased higher quality weapons.

Tyveris and Felix trained to 2nd level!

Tyveris gained 2 hp and is at 12 hp max. Felix, has just become the party tank. He gained 14 hp! Now his maximum is 24 hp, passing even the durable Darellon's total!

Overall, a very successful adventure. While we could have done more, it's not clear it could have turned out much less violently than it did.