Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 80 - The Ghost Tower

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 7 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 7) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 6)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 6)]

Date/Time

Reaping 14 (morning) - Goodmonth 10 (midday)

The party spends the next three weeks around Trigol, preparing for the next stage of their adventures. As the date of the double full moons approach, the party departs town on the carpet, Skeef eagle in tow. Their destination is the rugged southern shore of the Nyr Dyr and the Ghost Tower. And there they  intend to finally rid themselves of the midnight opal, and perhaps rid themselves of the constant trouble it has brought. 

Their travel was wet and cold, but otherwise uneventful. Arriving at their destination in the evening, they see high on a promontory over the Nyr Dyv a ruined square keep. Though the walls still stand, they are pieced by numerous gaps, and the four corner towers are tumbled down onto themselves. And from their flying perch, they see the central keep or tower has likewise collapsed into a pile of rubble. After confirming that there are no foes about, the party lands and sets up camp for the night inside the confines of the keep. 

Next day, they begin to explore the ruins. Approaching the SE corner tower, they find a door still stands leading from the courtyard into the tower. The door is of an odd, untarnished metal. But barred by a terribly rusted lock. Solcha knocks this open, and then pushes open the door. Inside a spiral metal staircase, in remarkably good shape, leads down into darkness. Reaching bottom, they proceed along a long 20' wide corridor. Along one wall is an inscription, written in massive letters: "NOT TO BE BELIEVED. Passing carefully through one room, they explore another that leads off the corridor. It contains a strange set of desiccated membrane-covered wings, pinned up and hanging from the ceiling.  Beyond this further down the passage, they enter a room in which the ceiling has partly collapsed. As they attempt to move through, a beastly creatures springs atop one rubble pile. It has the face of a man, body of a lion, and wings of a bat. And with  drooling rumble says only "man flesh!" before firing spikes from it's tail. Spells and swords take it down, but not before it peppers the party with piecing. Behind the rubble pile they find the remains of previous victims, and a small smattering of treasure: a scroll case, two potions and a suit of unrusted chainmail.  

GAINS

Potion of Flying

Potion of Water Breathing

MU Scroll - Rope Trick

Chainmail +2 (elf sized) 

KILLS/VICTORIES

Manticore 

LOSSES

none

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 79 - Depths and Death

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 7 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 7) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Richfest 3 (morning) - Reaping 14 (morning) 

The party spends the next day in rest and recovery under the protection of Willowrose and the treants, who are getting ready to move the forest back to it's original position. That night, under the Midsummer Eve moon, Skeef and the two initiates of Obad-hai, Ban and Malichi, harvest their mistletoe. Next morning, as the party prepares to leave, they decide to go check out this cave/cleft and lava flow where Duncan said the trolls originated. They are concerned that something else could emerge and wreck more havoc. They find the rock face easily, a hours flight south of the current location of the forest.  It is a narrow cleft in the stone, half filled with a now solid lava flow.  There is just enough room to squeeze in, so the party decide to delve a little to see what lies beyond, and perhaps find out where the trolls had come from. It proves to be no simple cave however; 8 hours of descending through the narrow passage and the party finally emerges into a wider tunnel of terraces, flowstone, strange rock formations, all lit by a faint mauve radiance from the lichen growing on the walls. Skeef questions a blind cave salamander, who can provide little information except that two and four legged creatures do pass this way at times. The party is wary of going too much further, but Solcha does send a wizard eye to scout ahead. At the edge of its range, she spies a pair of humanoids with pitch-black skin and white hair, standing guard and watching the passage. She recognizes these as drow, the dreaded dark demon worshiping elves of the Underdark.  Her eye  also spies another 10 drow resting in a side passage. This looks like too much to just blunder into, so the party quietly retreats back up the passage. Once they've gone a fair distance, Skeef blocks of the passage with stone shape to protect their rest tonight and the surface world in general from further excursions from the Underdark. 

Next morning, the party continues back towards the surface. Just as they sense sunlight ahead, Goro at the head of the line is surprised to find the entrance webbed shut.  A quick search for giant spiders ensues; none are found. But they do hear a chuckle, and they see a man suddenly appear on the opposite side of the web. It is Polistera the wizard, back again! He once more offers them their lives in exchange for the Midnight Opal. The party answers with violence. And is quickly in a very tight spot. Magic just bounces off the wizard, but he cuts down Solcha, Chanee and Baqua with a cone of cold. With just Goro and Skeef still standing, the half orc bursts through the web thanks to his ring of free action. He then turns to lay into Polistera with his sword, while Skeef transforms to a giant skunk and sprays the wizard. This causes him to make a flying retreat, while Skeef pursues as a giant eagle. Goro turns to grab the opal for safe keeping, and is then attacked by some invisible foe. Skeef chases off Polistera and then he and Goro finish off the unseen attacker. And then they immediately pile everyone onto the carpet and fly at full speed to the town of Trigol to get assistance for their deceased friends. 

The next week are spent in the care of the priests of Heironeous, followed by some training and other upkeep as they party prepares to head off to the Ghost Tower to deal with the Midnight Opal once and for all.   

GAINS

none

KILLS/VICTORIES

Invisible Stalker 

LOSSES

Solcha

Chanee

Baqua 

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 78 - The Grand Alliance

 DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 7 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 7) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Richfest 1 (mid-day) - Richfest 3 (morning) 

While Duncan heads back through the woods to gather his folk for the coming confrontation with the trolls, the party settles down to rest for the evening and into the night under the watchful eye of Willowrose and the treants. They awake under the stars, memorize spells and prepare to intercept the troll warparties; the trees of the forest had passed word to Willowrose confirming that the foul humanoids continued to move through the night to some unknown final destination, Based on the information, the party was able to plot an intercept course so they and their firbolg and treant allies could catch them as dawn broke.  

The party, half dozen giants and ten of Willowrose folk head out under the light of a waxing Luna,  and are successful in catching the first band of trolls unaware and in the flank as the sun rose. As the party's battle line advances, the firbolgs charge into the trolls, the treants animate the trees to grab and hold the creatures, and the party follows with supporting magic and (carefully controlled) fire to make sure the trolls stay dead.They repeat this with a second band of trolls, the creatures being to dumb to come to each others aid even  with the sound of battle ringing through the forest. But having defeated this second band, they receive a nasty surprise when Eydral the troll shaman/chieftainess catches them in an ambush. Alas, even though some of the now battered firbolgs have to fall out of the line, the tried and true combination of giant/trees/magic & fire is too much for even the wily Eydral. And certainly was for the final band of trolls they hunt down nearby. They burn (carefully) all the bodies, loot Eydral of a mass of strange, uncouth jewelry, and then return to Willowroses court and the firbolg clan to celebrate their collective victory. 

GAINS

Strange, uncouth jewelry (17000gp) 

KILLS/VICTORIES

Eydral + 33 Trolls

LOSSES

none

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 77 - Trolls?!? Why Does it Always Have to be Trolls!

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 7 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 7) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Wealsun 28 (morning) to Richfest 1 (mid-day) 

The party rises with the sun and heads towards the rambling margins of Buran Wood. There Skeef uses a speak with plants to ask the trees why they are moving. And the answer he receives is "we answer the call of the Lady of the Forest". Skeef tries to get more details on who or what the Lady is, but the trees aren't very clear; she seems to look both human and not-human. The druid asks the trees where they can find the Lady, and are pointed in the vague direction of the centre of the wood. The trees also say they have sent word to the Lady of the party, but there is no indication of how long that communication will take. 

Following the trees' directions, the party hops aboard the carpet of flying (and Skeef turns into his usual giant eagle) and flys a search pattern over the forest heading south-west. But the thick canopy of the ancient wood stymies their search. Nightfall finds them setting up camp just inside the forest under a bluff next to a stream; they'd discovered the trees would move around impassible obstacles so this would be a safe place to rest. Except for the band of trolls that emerg out of the deepening twilight. These tear viciously into the party, bring Chanee to near death and batters the rest of the party badly. Three of the trolls are slain, and two succumb to fear and flee into the night. The party is just cleaning their blades and burning bits of troll when someone else emerges from the darkness; a trio of humans dressed in clothing of woodland hues. They cautiously introduce themselves as Rhune, his sister Tanree and cousin Kinren, saying they are travelers who got trapped when the wood moved over them. They probe the party as to their intentions and question them about their fight with the trolls. When they seem satisfied, the three alter themselves into the form of shortish-giants, and bade the party follow them to the rest of their clan. There the clan leader Duncan can answer their questions.  

The party agrees, and follows the trio through the still moving trees to a temporary camping site on the verge of a small lake. There Chanee receives aid for his hurts, and the rest of the party gets the story of the moving wood. The giants have lived peacefully in Buran Wood for years uncounted, sharing it with the treants who also live here. But about a week go, a ravanging band of trolls, lead by a viciously cunning shaman named Eydral, appeared suddenly in the wood. The giants fought them, but were getting overwhelmed by the regenerating trolls. And so turned to fire; which immediately brought out the wrath of the treants and their queen Willowrose. Fire being anathema to these guardians of the wood, she decided the best thing to do is move the wood. And so Buran Wood became mobile. But the trolls are still there, and the giants are still fighting them, though they are now much depleted in numbers. 

The party convinces Duncan to lead them to Willowrose so they can mend the rift between the two and allow all to turn their attention on the trolls.  He agrees, and next morning leads the party through the shambling  trees to a clearing near the centre of the wood. There they find the slim Willowrose, who looks like a cross between a willow tree and and dryad, with her court. First thing the party does is inform her the wood is about to overrun the human village of Dunsinane; Willowrose immediately halts the moving trees. They then convince the treats to join with the party and the giants to fight the trolls. Willowrose however is adamant that use of fire must be very strictly controlled; no combat using fire inside the wood and any other use very carefully controlled. Both the party and the giants agree, and start to plan how to best deal with the trolls. Willowrose tells them her trees say the trolls have left the cave where they've been holed up for the last few days; the movement of the trees has now left them outside the forest canopy. The foul beasts are heading north east through the woods, moving in hunting bands towards some unknown destination. Although there is a roadside inn that has just been brought inside the verges of the forest ... 

GAINS

none

KILLS/VICTORIES

3 Trolls

LOSSES

Chanee (temp) 

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 76 - To The Woods!

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 7 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 7) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Wealsun 14 (morning) to Wealsun 28 (morning) 

The party rolls Asflag up in the carpet and head off to the College of Wizardry and Thaumaturgistry and a meeting with their employers, leaving Baqua invisible outside with a silenced pebble in case things got out of hand. The conference went off the rails quickly, Mirim accusing the party of not completing the terms of their contract; it seems she had been keeping a close magical eye on them and noted several potentially dangerous creatures the party did not dispose of. And then accusations started to fly about the 'side' deals; although Endoc seemed content. In the end, the party under duress opted to forgo their contract payment and get out of town since Miran and Tullintot seemed intent on getting the carpet and spellbooks and just making their lives difficult in general.  

Quietly burying Asflag outside the city walla, the party uses their new flying transportation to head south towards Trigol, a trading hub on the border between the County and the Kingdom of Nyrond. There they settled in the train and rest, and Goro is able to make contact with the local temple of Heironeous and arrange for Skeef's leg to be un-withered.  And then Skeef reminds everyone he needs to harvest some mistletoe, and told them of an old oak forest halfway back to Radigast City where he needs to be by Midsummers Eve. And so once more they head out on the carpet of flying and in a few days find themselves in village of Dunsianae just north of Buran Wood. 

Settling in at "The Ancient Dog" to wait the few days until Midsummer, they soon note a pair of robed figures tucked in the shadows next to the hearth. They appear to be watching the party, so Chanee strides over and turns on his paladin charm. The two are convinced to join the party at their table, and immediately introduce themselves to Skeef as Ban and Malichi, initiates of Obad-hai. It seems they too have come to Buran Wood to harvest mistletoe. But have noted something troubling: the wood is moving! It is ambling north towards the village, slowly but surely, and will likely overrun Dunsinane within 3 days. The locals haven't noticed yet; they tend to shun Buran Wood and their fields don't extend that far south. 

The party sets out that night to examine to edges of  the wood, and confirm the story told by the two young druids. They mark the edge of the wood with a stake and then head back to the inn, intending to follow-up in the morning to see just how far the wood has moved.

GAINS

Skeef's Leg

KILLS/VICTORIES

none

LOSSES

none

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 75 - The Wizards End

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Wealsun 12 (morning) to Wealsun 14 (morning) 

The party takes one last scan of the bedchamber and decides it is time to head back down to the laboratory to figure out what to do with whatever pulsed and swirled above the pentagram. But as they head for the stairs, Solcha notes a strange crunching sounds emanating from her backpack. Opening it up, she is horrified to find a pair of the big green worms crewing up her spell book! One is quickly squished, but the other escapes to the sounds of muttered sweary elfish.   

One back in the laboratory, they decide to remove Asflag (assuming that is who it is) from the swirling ashen cloud, hoping that will close the gate or portal. A complex collection of rope is used to brace around the pillars at the edge of the room. Solcha lassos the legs as they pass by, and the whole party heaves and pulls the body out of the cloud. Horrified, they see the upper half of the body is partly skeletal, defleshed, torn and bleeding and diseased. Equally horrifying is the view through the 'hole' left in the cloud; a gloomy dull grey landscape emanating waves of ennui. As the party turns to see what can be done to help/pump information from Asflag, a cloud of green-grey spores shoot out of the cloud causing all the hack and cough. This is shortly followed of a trio of strange creatures, like man-size storks with wickly long and sharp beaks, and human like hands.   Battle ensures, and the party takes much hurt before the three vile things are destroyed. 

Turning to Asflag, they try to question the wizard. But being short of tongue and missing part of his brain, communication is difficult and degenerates into grunts and pointing. Solcha use a potion of ESP to pry into what little grey matter is left. She learns the wizard had been trying to entrap the Oniodaemon from the glooms of Hades, but something went wrong and he was himself pulled partly into the Lower Plane. Asked how to close the gate, his response was a bit confusing and garbled, but they party surmised either someone has to go though  the cloud and close the gate from the other side; or they had to 'reverse' the pentagram on the floor.  They opted for the second, and the party started work under Solcha's supervision, shifting the diamond powder forming the pentagram into the mirror image of that protective device.  Chanee, refusing to even touch such an evil thing, dispatches the dying Asflag and stuffs the body back in the hole, hoping that will block it while the party works. That work takes painstaking hours to shift the grains perfectly one by one. Nearly complete, it is interrupted by another strange creature that pushes Asflags body out of the way and bursts  out of the grey haze; round with five wicked clawed arms, three legs and a beetle like head. It grabs Skeef with all five claws and nearly kills the druid with one blow; luckily the blades and magic of the rest of the party destroy it before it destroys Skeef. 

Successfully completing the mirror pentagram, the party watches the cloud quickly fade and disappear. And then they sweep up the diamond dust, hoping the gate does not come back. Which luckily for them, it does not. They also gather up the dead wizard, wishing to speak with dead with him later. 

They leave the tower, going over the wall (on which they note the flickering electrical protection is now weaker than before) and head for a new inn, "The Tall Queen", to try shaking any wizardly attentions. There Skeef and Solcha examine the spellbook, and the thief opens the three locks on the lead bound tome. This releases an enchantment that withers Skeef's left leg, a ray that drains Baqua's strength, and an umber hulk that tries to kill them all. Everyone survives, and they settle in to rest so they can memorize new spells in the morning. 

In the morning, Goro speaks with Asflag and learns the crystal ball and carpet of flying are actually his; it would appear the two College wizards had lied about their ownership. He also extracted the command word ("command word") for the carpet of flying before letting the wizard return to his final rest. However, when Solcha goes looking for the crystal ball, she finds it is missing. A locate object from Goro points them to the College of Wizardry and Thaumaturgistry; it seems the gnome Endoc obtained the object of his desire afterall. 

After letting Solcha salivate over her new (sadly somewhat worm-eaten) spellbooks for a bit, the party prepared to head out to the College and discuss payment for a successful job from their employers ... 

GAINS

3 gems [3x 100gp]

Diamond Dust (15000gp)  

2 Spell Books

KILLS/VICTORIES

1 Bookworm

3 Diakk

1 Deghordaemon

12 Umber Hulk 

LOSSES

Full use of Skeef's left leg 

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 74 - The Upper Tower

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Wealsun 9 (early morning) to Wealsun 12 (morning) 

The party returns to the The Unicorn & Tankard and settles in to rest, recover spells and heal up. Having taken quite a battering , the healing part took a few days. They also are accosted by the three wizards who hired them, who interrogate the party about the state of the job, including their individual "side quests". The scoundrel Tullintot takes to opportunity to charm Goro into making sure the party turns over the spellbooks when found.  

On the third day, the party returns to Asflags tower to rescue their petrified companion. They climb the wall, enter the towers servant entrance, and move swiftly through the entrance hall with the brass snake chandeliers, and back to the landing on the second floor. Where thankfully Chanee still stands, Goro and Skeef open up with a barrage of dispel magic. But alas none are successful on the paladin. So the party retraces steps, heads to another inn (to avoid the attention of their wizardly employers) to rest up and memorize more spells. And once more return; and this time is successful in bringing the paladin back to flesh and dispelling the petrification trap on the door as well. And the charm person on Goro. 

Beyond the door is Asflags circular library, stuffed with long curved lines of shelves loaded with books, scrolls, and tablets. The party proceeds carefully using find traps and detect magic to wend their way safely towards the centre, where lies two large tombs that appear to be spell books. Both are trapped, so Solcha carefully slips them into sack to investigate latter. Goro likewise wipes clear a shelf of volumes on the lower plane; for research purposes of course. 

Having looted the library, they head up the stairs to the next floor. This passage is interrupted when Solcha notes a strange green worm crawling up Goro's leg. She flicks it free with her sword, and the critter wiggles away like greased lighting. Vermeology complete, they reach the top of the stairs and enter the wizards laboratory. At the center, above a pentagram of silvery powder,  swirls a vaporous mass of dark ashen grey. Out of which stick a a pair of legs. Asflag, or part of him, presumably. Chanee helpfully informs the party that this thing is Evil. The party concurs. Solcha checks the pentagram, and a quick glance suggests it is intact. Feeling confident they can leave this thing in their rear, they party proceeds to the trap door in the ceiling which leads into Asflags bedchamber. They see right away the carpet of flying, crystal ball, and a chest. Which they pop open to find a fortune of gems, gold and platinum. But looting is interrupted when an octet of gargoyles burst through the (curiously unseen from outside) windows and attack. The battle turns in their favor by a tried combination of spells from Solcha, blades from Goro, Chanee and Baqua, and a stink cloud from Skeef (who transforms into a giant skunk). 

GAINS

carpet of flying [6x9]

crystal ball

400pp

1100gp 

Black Opal (1000 gp) Black Pearl (500 gp) Black Star Sapphire (1000 gp) 2 Bloodstone (50 gp) Bright

Green Emerald (5000 gp) Carnelian (50 gp) Citrine (50 gp) Deep Blue Spinel (500 gp) Emerald (1000

gp) Eye Agate (10 gp) Freshwater Pearl (10 gp) Golden Yellow Topaz (500 gp) 2 x Iolite (50 gp) 2

Jade (100 gp) Jasper (50 gp) Jet (100 gp) Lapis Lazuli (10 gp) 3 x Moonstone (50 gp) Obsidian (10 gp)

 2 x Star Rose Quartz (50 gp) Zircon (50 gp). [10490gp total gems] 

KILLS/VICTORIES

4 gargoyles 

LOSSES

None