Matt Tumbledown Adventure

Scribe Notes

Scribe Notes: Session – Summer 806
GM: Jono Bean
Level: High
Title: The Great 'do the Titans bidding in the Dark Circle or die' adventure.
Exp given out so far

The Party:

Valentine Human - Warrior
Kishwa Human – Warrior, Healer
Lady Lizette Summers Human – Healer, Namer, Courtier
Toledo Steele Human – Warrior
Christopher Human – Warrior (Party Leader, secondary Mil Sci)
Mebh Human - Warrior, Air Mage, Ranger, Mil Sci (Party Mil Sci)
GoK Elf – Warrior, Celestial, Spy, Assassin (Party Scribe)

Loot from the Game

Link to external site hosting a 350K PDF file. Loot from the game.

Party Information

The party has been employed by 3 Titans, 3 Storm Giants, and 3 Inquisitors, from the Lunar Empire. They normaly live in Lunar City. They have come to 'look over' the Carzalan's before the Winter Games to be held in Lunar City. The Inquisitors think they are being hunted or followed by dark, evil beings not from this world.

The dark evil beings pursuing the Titans may be the Rat cult which frequents the sewers of Sanctuary. The Inquisitors cannot uncover many things about this cult and that is what makes them seem the likely ones.

The Rat cult worships the god Azyuna from a weird pantheon. Azyuna is the god of perception/deception. Vashanka is the god of war from this pantheon. The Rat worshipers are the dark, devious, Seducers of the light.

Day 1: 1st of Meadow

3pm after the Guild meeting. We meet as usual in a room with no windows, a blood stain on the wall and a smoky smell in the air, somewhere in the bowels of the guild. At least it's dry. We look each other up and down prior to getting down to business.

Richard, one of the party employers, is shown into the room. He is an Inquisitor (red amour, magic feet, and forks floating around his head). He speaks lunar and comes from the Lunar Empire. No one but Christopher knows this language and only at rank 3 (we later found out he also speaks Elven. Of course, he must have royal blood). Through the guild translator, he says we must go by horse back, we are already late. Apparently the employers will follow local laws so long as they can achieve the outcomes they are committed to while doing so, otherwise they don't mind breaking the laws.

We travel via some sort of magic on horse back to Regars Keep. It takes just 30 min to travel the 25 odd miles south, and arive some time around 4:00pm.

Upon arriving we meet the rest of our employment team. 3 Titans, 3 Storm Giants, and 2 more Inquisitors. They say, via a 'translation post', that to demonstrate that we are any good we must complete a series of small missions before we will be considered for the main event. We are to go through the defensive wall over two trenches out to a small stone hut just 400 yards past the wall and kill the occupants (greater undead by the sound of it).

As we prepare to charge out beyond the wall and sack the small stone hut we are accosted by arrows and blackfire. Several of the party are affected by the fear affects thus those that go berserk lead the charge. Our Party leader (now acting mil sci) blows his horn to rally everyone unfortunately this was also the agreed signal to open the wall once we were ready to leave. The wall opens and a host of undead minions pours through including an earth elemental and a dark Minotaur riding a chariot pulled by undead Boars.

We enter the fray. At this point we find out that the Namer does not have Banishment. Many heroic acts are required and are forth coming.
Valentine: "Do you have Banish?" Lisette "I'm not that kind of Namer" Party "...groan..." Lizette "I thought about getting it didn't think I'd need it"

The foe are vanquished except a small bug like crawler which comes from the bodies of some larger undead. These are invisible though seeable by rk20 witchsight. One jumps GoK and crawls up his arse. It makes itself at home there, causing interesting sensations and requiring a save vs. celestial special every pulse or be controlled. Kishwa is killed by the earth elemental treading on him. GoK tries to fly and is blown away by the air elemental, which was summoned by the titans to handle the earth elemental.

We regroup. Valentine is being healed by Lisette. The rest of us charge out to recover the body of our fallen comrade from a group of Skeletal Knights. Probably a bad move, but the adrenaline was flowing.

The storm Giant which has been in the combat with us gets to Kishwa's body first accosting 3 minions to reclaim our dead. The main charge is halfway between the wall and this combat when we are attacked by 3 Vampires. Valentine who is sprinting to the combat is maimed and then infected by one of the arse invaders. GoK is badly damaged and thus turns into a Vampire (a particularly evil affliction he carries). Unfortunately GoK the normally friendly Vampire is unusually affected by the dark circle. He is controlled and turned against the party.

Valentine on being arse invaded: "I turned the other cheek.", then: "Anything that can crawl up your arse is immune to fear."

Toledo Steele teleports in behind the Vampire's and makes a mighty blow with his great Sword. This Fells one Vampire outright and maims another. Mebh enters the fray from the other direction and connects with a mighty blow, Gok the Vampire goes down.

In short order the combat is over. We regroup behind the wall Kishwa's body was recovered less a few of his weapons including his beautiful elvish blades. GoK is healed and becomes an Elf again. At this point he approaches the Titans and explains the he is a Vampire. For some reason, they mallet him for 108 points of endurance damage. He wasn't expecting that. Gok dies.

During this combat period several party members are approached via dark voices in their heads and encouraged to join the enemy. Also we learn that foul, dark assassins not of this world are hunting the inquisitors.

A human servant to one of the Titans attempts to resurrect Kishwa and succeeds on the second attempt, but is unable to fix his arm.

The party take leave of the Titans and return to the guild to re-group. GoK is resurrected at the guild from the deadly blow from the Titans, GoK and Valentine have their posterior muscles tightened up.

Day 2: 2nd of Meadow

GoK seeking a solution to his uncontrollable Vampirism goes to the Gabrielite Church in Seagate to lie to his holy sword in order to convince it to fight the evil (in the dark circle) with him. Gabriel strikes him down dead. He wasn't expecting that. The party convinces the church to bring him back to life and give up a point of willpower each to do so the church agrees. The ritual is a success. GoK is alive.

GoK approaches the Sword and while it comes from the stone for him it also severs his soul from his body. GoK will die in 4 days unless his Vampiric affliction is shriven from him. He wasn't expecting that, either.(Just as he had embraced this evil thing and started to enjoy it).

http://xs60.xs.to/pics/05513/Shiven-Hills-Area.jpg

The party agree to sort the situation out. The sword refuses to be carried by GoK until he is no longer a Vampire. Lisette carries it. we return from the Church in Seagate to the Guild. We the take a Rune Portal from Seagate to Brandenburg (home of Grobbenbonk). We travel to the keep of Grobbenbonk Sabrina's Goblin rune mage and, apparently, liege lord of the Shriven Hills in Brandenburg.

He suggests we travel to the Shrivers, (second rune portal on the left) and asks us to collect the 75,000 sp they owe him in back taxes while we are there.

At 2pm in the afternoon we are at the Shrivers' gate. Its already been a long cold day.

Valentine knocks at the stone gate which is set between two large boulders and is an 8 foot high stone block. After several knocks, a voice says "Come in." It takes several of us and about 40 strength to open the stone, the party feels uneasy. Toledo Steel had noticed that some dark creature was following us so going in seems the best move. Upon entering we find ourselves in a stone hallway the ceiling is cavernous and slowly tapers to a point some hundreds of feet above us.

We walk a few paces and notice that the floor changes, it becomes cold iron and standing on it we cannot cast. We travel along a long corridor which twists and turns eventually finding ourselves standing in an area with a transparent wall which looks through to the door we came in. The hairs on the back of our necks stand up as we realise we where being watched as we entered.

An old man greets us, the party likes him immediately, all except Mebh who has a bad feeling about him. As GoK begins to explain his predicament, Valentine steps in and assumes the role of spokesperson. He does this well, and soon the old man is able to say 'Yes, of course we can help'.

We agree at 20,000sp as the fee for removing his Vampiric affliction. The party gives over this amount, 13800 from GoK in true-silver and gold, 3000 from Mebh, 1000 from Kishwa etc. The old man then checks that GoK is ok with pain as he leads him through a portcullis into a room with a stone table which has straps and little channels which drain off into buckets.

The receiving area is also walled off by portcullises the party is given a room with eight beds and shown an area where we can cook a meal and wash up etc. The floors every where are cold iron and the mages cannot even draw mana. The party realise at this point that they are exhausted. We assume this is because we have walked for 5 hours up a mountain in the freezing cold. We start preparing for sleep. GoK begins screaming, and this can be heard through the wall. Most of the party realise they will not be able to sleep, 'though Mebh is adamant that she will not sleep under any circumstances.

It is at this point that another old man enters and shortly notices how beautiful Lizette is. He requests that she come through the door to help his father with his ingrown toenails. Lizette being rather naive says to the party that she is sure our guests won't do anything bad to her and that they can be trusted. However Toledo insists upon escorting her. The old man declines this suggestion saying that it is not at all necessary and Lizette readily agrees. Christopher also suggests this is a bad idea. To Lizette's protests the old man leaves. It was perhaps at this point that it begins to dawn on some party members how dangerous the situation is which we are in.

GoK's screams persist until well into the night, until he finally goes hoarse somewhere near the end of the second watch. Mebh begins to see odd things, the party eventually insist that she sleep. Several members have begun to lose endurance because all our fatigue had been used up on the climb here. Mebh is the worst affected by tiredness because she chose not to rest.

Day 3: 3rd of Meadow

The Shriving process goes on through the night, in the morning the Shrivers informs GoK that not only the Vampirism has been shrived but also all his spells and skills also all his stats have been reduced to eight. The Shriver will return the non-agreed items if the party pay Grobbenbonk the 75,000 silvers which the shrivers owe in tax. GoK falls asleep exhausted and is carried out to the party on a stretcher. At some point during this the party narrowly avoids being knocked out by knockout gas and having all their possessions stolen by the Shrivers.

We regroup at the stone door to the shrivers lair and as we are deciding what to do we notice 3 goblins who offer to lead us around a group of Calimar under the bridge down the hill. We have to pay them enough to get them drunk for a week. We pay them 3 silvers which they agree to. At this point Mebh decides to summon a cloud to take us home. She does so and as we are leaving the sword lets GoK know that it did not really sever his silver cord, it lied about this to teach him a lesson.

On the way back to Grobbenbonk's place we are harassed a little by a Hipogriff, Mebh talks to avians and finds out it was sent by the Shrivers who are annoyed at our having gotten away with our equipment. Shortly after this it leaves.

We tell our predicament to Grobbenbonk who duly writes a notice of Taxs being paid and gives this to GoK. Now Grobbenbonk it turns out is a highly ranked rune mage and several of the party suspect because of the elaborate seal that the note might actually summon something bad rather than state that the taxes are paid.

Day 4: 4th of Meadow

As the party is having Breakfast with Grobbenbonk and his Ogre armsmen, GoK, in his weakened state, gets out the taxes letter intending to ask Grobbenbonk what it will really do. He accidentally breaks the seal. This summons in one of the 72 named Demons, along with some of his minions. He hadn't expected that. For some reason the party are discussing who it might be with Grobbenbonk without mentioning any names, Grobbenbonk says it begins with Bel and ends in eth. GoK wanting to be helpful asks "Is it Baal?" It is at this point the number of enemy arriving apparently double. They are through in the next room and a combat begins.

In the Military Scientist "time out", the party discuss how to extricate themselves from this rather nasty situation. There is a portal which we can escape though, Toledo Steele and Mebh think it best to hold the door while the party exit. GoK offers to go through the door closing it behind him and charge with his demon killing sword (he has no ranks in sword at the moment). Luckily the party does not ask this of him.

Gallantly Mebh and Toledo Steele hold the door evading, Lizette casts a fire counter on the pale white demon riding a fiery steed at the rear, Kishwa triggers a quickness, several other party members trigger some items provided by Grobbenbonk, Grobbenbonk exits via one of thirteen rune portal sticks.

Over several pulses we get out. Christopher cleverly puts up an ice wall between them and us buying us a few precious moments. There are 13 little sticks on the mantelpiece not all the party know which stick is the correct portal. Mebh is killed by the flames of a dragon and Toledo Steele goes down.

We are regrouping on a flat round stone slab somewhere underground maybe in the moutains. It is clearly a seldom used store room of Grobbenbonks, and one of his many exits by rune portal from his fort. There are several Ogre arms men, Grobbenbonk and us with our dead and wounded. We realise that Kishwa must have taken the wrong portal.

The fiery demons start to pour through the portal one at a time. We realise that Lizettes fire special counter will not stop the portal working, though for some reason Lizette does not know how to undo it. In the Mil Sci time out she remembers, once the portal has been sealed we are to face four 'fire devils' they are 8 feet tall and belch fire.

It looks bad for us Valentine is almost down GoK is cowering in the background Toledo Steele up but only just, Mabh is dead, and Kishwa is nowhere to be seen. As GoK is offering his Holy Sword to Valentine it says it can perhaps bring Mebh back from the dead. GoK waves it over her and touches her forehead with it. She is on -3 endurance. Valentine takes up the sword (which is reluctant to be welded by a non-elf but agrees on the possibility of killing deamons). The Sword says "Try not to do such a poor job as the rest of your race" Valentine "When I strike I over strength".

We are victorious.

We search for Kishwa at the 12 other portal destinations. Finally we find his legs and lower abdomen in the harbour after 7 hours of looking. It seems he was eaten by a shark and is no more, we do not have enough left to bring him back easily. It will take great skill to fix this, if we can.

We re-group at the guild. Sabrina is not happy, nor is Grobbenbonk, they want to bring us up on guild charges. We point out that he sent us to the Shrivers without telling us they where evil. He claims he did tell us and GoK says "You need to tell me things like that twice". Also if we had given the Shrivers Grobbenbonk's message, we would have been at the centre of it all when the demons arrived. Also, this would not have retrieved GoK's abilities, though it might have ended the Shrivers.

GoK pays Grobbenbonk 75,000sp for a proper letter of taxes being paid. Grobbenbonk writes this letter though he is still not very happy.

The Guild points out that the party has a demon uncontrolled in the north west of Brandenburg.
The employers turn up at the guild, wondering where the party is.

Day5: 5th of Meadow

We all agree to travel back to the shriver's lair with the writ from Grobbenbonk declaring the Taxes paid to retrieve GoK's life work and his natural talent. However, to do this we will need to return to Grobbenbonk's castle via rune portal and we realise we are likely to run into Beleth along the way. This is not so bad because the second thing we need to do is remove the demon and his minions from Brandenburg. Hopefully we can visit the shrivers first and the demons second but we feel it is unlikely.

As we are about to depart Logan appears from the Luna Empire with a potion that will bring Kishwa back to life. This is amazing because there were really just two legs and a tummy button left. While Logan is administering the potion, the Sorceress in Silver shows up in her silver carriage looking flustered, berates us for releasing a demon and says that we must go and get it or the Brandenburg nobility will want our heads. She mentions that it will keep returning until it sees GoK dead, and also that we should be careful of the goats?!? Our employers decide they would like to come with us to see us in action. Kishwa upon returning to the land of the living is preparing to leave and says "Oh – my armour...I suppose that is pretty much ruined?"

We use the rune Portal to travel to Grobbenbonk's Castle. As we arrive, we can hear the demon in the distance. Before we know it, we are in a combat. We are facing Beleth, five fire devils (one of which is a namer), two devils riding hell hounds, one huge fire elemental and one hellhound. GoK lends his holy sword to Valentine. It says "Oh yes, I suppose, if demon killing is in the offing, I will be wielded by a lesser being like you." Valentine responds "Right. Rank 20 Strength of Stone...You realise I'm over strengthing, sword?" Sword "That's OK I'm unbreakable – go on shorty put your back into it"

The hellhound attacks immediately and the fire elemental gets closer. GoK triggers a quickness, Mebh prepares a soul sucking dagger for use on GoK, the rest of the party kills the hellhound. Lizette drinks a potion of Banishment.

Mebh stabs GoK with the dagger once Beleth is within range and GoK dies. Grobbenbonk pulls out a stick of banishment and approaches the fire elemental. The two devils on hellhounds charge Lizette and the rest of the party tries to protect her. Beleth moves to a position where it can catch us all in Dragonflames which is out of the fire special counter so that it can cast dragon flames upon us. Valentine to Lizette "Cast a Fire Special Counterspell under the thing that will kill us all." Lizette "maybe I could heal someone" Valentine to Lizette "Cast a Fire Special Counterspell under the thing that will kill us all." Lizette "Well, perhaps I could cast a counter spell on their namer" Valentine to Lizette "Cast a Fire Special Counterspell under the thing that will kill us all." Lizette "maybe I..." Valentine to Lizette "Cast a Fire Special Counterspell under the thing that will kill us all." Lizette "Ma..." Valentine "Do you have a death wish or something? Cast a Fire Special Counterspell under the thing that will kill us all."

Lizette decides to cast a fire counter spell under the demon and the spell fails to be cast. Somewhere around this point one of the Titans wanders across the battle field killing or maiming most of the enemy and several of the party. Valentine charges the demon and lands a killing blow with GoK's holy sword, because of this he is doomed to be killed by GoK. Valentine "Oh, really? I didn't need a doom to know that ".

The party employers are reasonably impressed with our performance and agree to wait five hours for us to visit the shrivers. We travel by cloud to the shriver's mountain, check out the statue of a dragon at the top and enter what we assume must be the main entrance to the shrivers lair. We are standing in front of a huge set of double doors and a monstrous portcullis.

We gain entry via a small door to one side. Inside we find we are standing on iron shod cobbles we cannot draw mana. We wander down the path for several hundred feet before coming to a huge lift. It is operated via a wheel which is ten feet across. When turned this wheel lowers or raises the lift very slowly. We surmise that the lift was designed for humans to lower very heavy loads up and down the shaft.

After 20 minutes we have traveled down 15 feet. We decide to return to the surface and approach the shrivers via the door we used previously. We know this other entrance personally and we are not even sure that the caverns we have just discovered belong to the shrivers.

When we reach the Shrivers door we come across the 3 goblins that we met last time. They mention that the shrivers are looking for an adventuring party form Seagate, this sounds bad.

We enter the lair via the door and travel the forty minute trip to the inner sanctum. One of the Shrivers greets us. We treat with him, Valentine doing most of the talking. An agreement is reached where by they will give GoK back all his faculties for the tax writ. We receive the faculties first. GoK is now fully recovered less the Vampirism and it has only cost him a total of 95,000sp.

They then talk with us about the possibility of Lizette joining them to do a healing which requires an extra healer there is something badly wrong with one of their number. Lizette is willing to go willingly. The party stop her. They then offer us some permanent abilities such as rank eight healer for Lizette and rank eight warrior for GoK. Lizette rubs her hands gleefully and says she will go, Mebh points out that the skills came from somebody and the shrivers would have stolen them. Lizette decides this is indeed evil and concedes the point.

The party seem to be mostly aware that this is another ploy by the shrivers to get our life force, those that aren't just think that even though they took all GoK's faculties against his will causing him extreme pain for many hours and draining him to weakness in every way,they are obviously good and honorable people now?!?

Luckily the members with good sense win out and we decline the invitation. The Shrivers then ask us to take a note to our guild requesting the aid of a guild party with two healers in it. We agree to carry this to the guild.

On the way out, the bound earth wall closes and knockout gas is pumped into the whole area. Kishwa has a tunneling and we are able to make a narrow escape less GoK's foot which is crunched off by the bound earth wall closing on it as he exits. Yes. Very trustworthy, those shrivers.

We deliver the message with a full report. We imagine the guild will send a party all right... HA!

We return to Grobbenbonk's castle hurriedly via wings. Once we arrive, we find the titans have gotten drunk with Grobbenbonk. Darts of seeking hit Valentine several times, 'though we do not know from where.

As we prepare to travel back to Regar's Keep we meet once again with Logan who seems pleased that we are all OK. He offers to give us rk20 greaters however to get them we will need to travel to the Lunar Empire with him via his portal. We do this.

Day6: 6th of Meadow

In Lunar City he has put on a feast in our honour. Apparently this is the way for us to become well known to the people here. If we fail or succeed we have been introduced to polite society and thus our names will be recognised. The feast is very good and starts at noon and lasts until late. We are given rk20 greaters which are made permanent. Also Valentine is provided a set of light 9pt metal amour, which happens to be guard armor and thus carries the insignia of Logans guard.

Day7: 7th of Meadow

Morning of the 7th we leave Lunar City at 9am and portal back to Tycho City and then back to the Guild.

On our return to the Guild it is 5am on a cold crisp morning. We are informed that Regar's Keep is under attack and are offered various power up spells before it's 'Once more unto the breach, dear friends'. All, that is, except for Kishwa and Mabh. Kishwa suggests he will arrive 60 seconds after us once the GoK affect has diminished. Mabh is rather more polite about her absence.

We portal to Regar's Keep to find it under attack by about 40 Orcs, 8 Mages of various descriptions, 2 Skeletal Knights, an Ice Queen and her military commander who leads from the front. However on our side are the not insubstantial forces protecting Regar's Keep, consisting of 30 or so highly trained members of the soldiery. Parts of the portcullis have been turned to ice and broken through. The gate is likewise compromised, and the enemy have stormed into the keep.

We wade in, Lizette begins attempting to banish the Ice Queen by taking a Banishment potion. The rest of us charge. In the first pulse GoK is TK Raged (single target) across the battle field taking massive damage and lands surrounded by enemy troops. The rest of us take up positions along side the defenders of Regar's Keep. Lizette fails in several attempts to banish the Ice Queen. The rest of us are taking heavy damage. In his extremity, GoK manages to land on his feet heals himself with an acorn from the tree of life and begins scything the opponents in front of him, until he struck from behind, severely wounding his secondary arm.

He cannot get out, He cannot get out, They are coming!

Christopher casts a cone of cold across the battle field managing to do minimum damage (2pts) to GoK at the far end of his effect. The military leader type is laying into the good guys with a massive flail made of the spines of virgins. He is cutting an apalling swathe through the battlefield, destroying several men with every attack.

He has aimed squarely for Lizette, presuming our inept namer as the most dangerous opponent on the field. Valentine charges across the field interposing himself between him and Lizette (she is very good looking). Lizette is struck for 40pts of damage which she manages to convert into massive will power loss. It is at this point (on one point of will power) that she agrees to join the dark forces and is thus Geas'ed.

The forces of Regar's Keep manage to release the oil from above the portcullis. This devastates the enemy killing the Ice Queen and several mages along with many Orcs. There are however 2 Skeletal Knights, the military leader and 4 or 5 mages still to contend with. What's more, an ice elemental appears.

GoK triggers a one use gold brick item protecting him from 120pts of damage for 36 pulses just prior to being TK raged (single target) back across the battle field and landing near Toledo Steel who as usual is holding his own. Somehow Lizette recovers and manages to banish the Ice elemental, but courageous Valentine goes down protecting her. Then on her second attempt Lizette banishes the wolf headed hero with the highly magical whip.

The enemy begin to flee as Toledo Steel and GoK destroy the Skeletal Knights and 2 of the mages. GoK attempts to fly after them to really teach them a lesson but falls foul of the Whirlwind Vortex Ward placed above the keep and returns to earth. Lizette heals Valentine who is unconscious then goes to check on the other injured people from both our side and those of the keep.

We help secure the keep and return to Seagate, where we have our death curses removed and find that Lady Summers has been Doomed.

Day8: 8th of Meadow

We train for fifteen days while Lizette learns Banishment.

Day 23: 23rd of Meadow

The party employers have finally decided that we are worthy adventurers and given us the main quest. They have located some evil demon worshippers beneath Sanctuary. These demon worshippers have managed to conceal the identity of the demon to whom they have sold their souls, and that suggests that they have specific defenses against the Inquisitors. We are to go to Sanctuary, uncover their lair and invite them to dinner.

Before we leave Mebh visits the church and finds out some interesting things about the evil beings we hunt.

The dark evil beings pursuing the Titans may be the Rat cult which frequents the sewers of Sanctuary. The Rat cult worships the god Azyuna from a weird pantheon. Azyuna is the god of perception/deception. Vashanka is the god of war from this pantheon. The Rat worshipers are dark, devious, seducers of the light.

Myth has it that there were ten brothers, nine of these followed Azyuna and did unimaginable bad things. The tenth brother is Vashanka who opposes the nine and Azyuna who lead them astray.

The church will buy a report we produce containing any new information.

Once we have boarded the ship we are shown to quarters (a small suite of rooms guarded by Octen and Pearce). We are met by the head percer Charles, who informs us of a ritual in which the captain (Orgust) will receive us and gift us with the sash of the ship. Charles provides us with fine wine which we are to present to the captain to honour his accepting of us.

We leave from Seagate on the huge seven masted Junk called 'The East Winds of Tycho', for Sanctuary early on the morn of the 23rd.

Our formal meeting goes well they seem to be respectful of our abilities. The captain of the guard Gungadin communicates with Mebh (our military scientist) and suggests that when the ship is attacked (as their seer has said we surly will be) we should organise ourselves as a sepriate unit as we will contribute best this way because this is what we are used to.

The guard captain mentions the "Trials of The Trident" in passing and on returning to our quarters we request the presence of the seer to explain. The seer turns out to be a dewarve who is never-the-less quite helpful. He explains the trials are nine and undertaken by Lunar Empire heroes to prove their honour. The nine conquests must be completed with a trident. The first few are: 1, undead sea cerpent. 2, A Merman who has the power to posses. 3, A Karaken singing Phil MacKraken. If at any stage a conquest defeats the hero then it must be doubly completed (2 of the particular enemy at a time).

GoK is very keen to accept the quest however Mebh the military scientist forbids it. The dewarve accusers GoK of being a coward and then begins making chicken sounds, GoK points out that it is the dewarve who sounds like a chicken.

The dewarve informs us that the ship will be attacked shortly and we should take our places on the ships deck. He has foreseen a location in which most of the party will be destroyed and suggests that this is where we should be when the attack happens.

He leads us to a spot and proceeds to mark an X in 3 places. On one GoK will be eviscerated, On another Valentine will have his primary arm removed, and on the third Lizette will be killed.

We power up in preparation for the combat and take our places.

We are surprised as the enemy come from left and right. To the left 20 or so minions appear on the winds and land on the deck. The ships solders seem able to engage and handle them. To the right a bunch of Saurime with vests made of the skulls of pigmies, they are all surrounded by stormy rain and have no feet.

Mebh and Toledo Steele wade in most of the party is restricted due to our position. more appear on the deck above and below us.

GoK moves to the left and engages two of the minions who flew in. Lizette DA's one of the Sashimi to get 'counter spell to banish' and gets no answer. Christopher prepares to take the one above us.

The party is all facing outwards in a large circle. The mega hex space in the middle is suddenly filled with a water spout and then several of the Sashimi leap over us into the area. Valentine destroys one by getting an endurance hit on its vest. Their 6 mages are all casting and the party is hard pressed to keep the spell affects from going off.

A water elemental wielding a giant beer stein appears in the space where the water spout is. The party scatters somewhat, Lizette casts banish which is resisted while Christopher engages the elemental dealing out damage and surviving over 4 or 5 pulses. Toledo Steele engages 3 of their casters including the leader. Mebh leaps to the lower deck and engages several opponents including a caster. Valentine moves to protect Lizette (he really must like her) and takes a spec grev which removes his primary arm. GoK disables his two weak opponents and leaps up to engage the caster above just in the nick of time.

Lizette seems to have some kind of addiction to waters of healing which slows down her actions much in this combat although this may be explained by the fact she keeps taking referred damage, it appears than when we first attack the damage is generally refered to Lizette. As the most dangerous party member they have targeted her. On several occasions party members take massive damage and it is at this point that the sash given by the captain is destroyed leaving the PC unharmed.

Lizette manages to banish the elemental much to Christopher's delight, and then puts a counter spell under the leader. As this counter spell lands all of the lesser minions disappear and the party is able to clean up the last of the casters. Valentine offers surrender and is laughed at by a Saurime with a death wish.

As we are catching our breath the ships crew are looking on impressed and the dewarve says the next wave will occur in 30 seconds. The party quickly prepares but the dewarve is wrong again.

Day 24: 24rd of Meadow

The journey was uneventful and on the final day the dewarve came to us to say we would be leaving. He asked us if we wanted advice and like the suckers we are we agreed. He suggested that we fly to the south of Sanctuary land on the road and walk into town. This way we will draw less attention to ourselves, but we'll be ambushed on the road because they already know we are coming. Its good to have a soothsayer on your side. Its probably even better to know the enemy has one on theirs!!!

We dutifully fly in and land at the appointed place and lo a mile down the track there is an obvious ambush site. We briefly discussed sneaking around or taking their flanks before doing the unexpected. We charged enmass into the killing zone. Archers appeared over the rise to the left and right of us and the skeletons rose out of the ground to engage us. Kishwa proved that the killing zone had been well set up and was murderously cut down by the lethal bowfire from the orc archers in the forest. Kishwa dead, GoK and Valentine engaged with multiple skeltons, Mebh was in a counterspelled area facing still more skeltons and more murderous fire was poring in from our flanks. The ambushers didn't realise how dire their predicament was. Never give a guild party no way out!

The party could clearly see the necromancer on the road ahead safely behind a veritable wall of skeletons, while the skeletons could be cut down over time the archers would murder the party. Toledo Steele blinked out and appeared behind the necromancer and viscously hacked him down from behind, as the necromancer reeled stunned from the blow a troll appeared over the rise to the left behind Toledo Steele and five tough fighters with a pet wolf appeared on the right. Another hit and the necromancer went down and the shout went up "You can see how the battle is going flee now or we will cut you all down". The orcs understood this and retreated into the trees and Toledo Steele turned to face the incoming fighters.

The fighters say they are bounty hunters from Sanctuary hunting for the necromancer we have just cut down. They are to late he's our prize and we are not giving him up. There is a price on his head from Rable, apparently he stole a map from the palace.

At around 3pm we enter town from the north west and head to some healers we know of. They fix up Kishwa. We head to the Inn. The party stays at the Inn keeping low and GoK scouts out town.

Day 25: 25th of Meadow

GoK returns at midnight with new information. The next day we assist the healers by getting there two apprentices back from inside an area of town known as the Maze, by paying a debt they owe and save them from the slavers. We leave the Maze in a hurry. We are unclear who had the apprentances.

We hire a new Inn room for a couple of hours and wait to see who is following us.
Once we decide it is clear we move from place to place in town slowly moving back to our Inn.

Recap of info learned in town is:

• The Necro that was captured outside of town had a couple rank 13 weapons on him.
  
• The Necro often works for lord of the underworld, and they pay him in items and are connected with the Cults.
  
• The markings on the belt and weapons are the mark of an black listed guild member 'Blackrod'.
  
• We understand the 'Blue Diamond and/or Blackrod' are working to take over or influance the Rat Cult.
  
• A couple of the spy street people tell GoK that some people are seeking information about the group.

Day 26: 26th of Meadow

The party make use of the Shrivers and get some small problems fixed with a couple of party members. Mabh gets a new cloak and Steele some stone bread. Late in the day the party invite Tempist to come talk to them on top of there Inn. He does. he warns the party that they Necro has a treasure others are after and that he doesn't want the Priests or Cults to get the treasure, as things may go poorly.

Later some Mages turn up.

The party decides our pet Necro will be delivered to the Mages who promise not to kill him. We discuss for some time how to get from the shrivers to the mages with out attracting too much attention. After taking a rune portal to Brandenburg to power up we decide to travel via the sewers out to sea and make our way up the river to the mages tower.

We use skin changes to get through the grill down into the sewers and counter spells on the other side. we are literally swimming in shit; luckily we have water breathing items???

As we enter the main trunk Sewer we come across a Kraken picking off some of the homeless sods who live down here for dinner. We attack, as we cut off limbs they turn into ice elementals of some description. However in short order Toledo Steele jumps onto the beasties back and slays it with a save or die item.

A 40 foot alligator grabs Lizette from the path beside the sewer water and drags her under she would have been dead in pulses however Mebh dives in and strikes the beast with her fist and GoK manages an endurance blow with his Main Gauche. The alligator is killed and a sword is found in its guts.

Several women seem to need our help we charge over to find out they are Succubae. GoK is seduced briefly. the party quickly destroys them.

We proceed down the Sewer and find our way out to sea. We travel underwater on a mage current cast by Valentine our non blast fire mage. As we proceed up the river we hear a ruckus a board a ship, including the screams of a woman. Valentine being a gallant lad and being in the clutches of a mind bending set of giant Bollix (a magic item which makes one unable to control ones self around women and as a side effect protects against some magic) charges. The party is of the opinion that if a party member charges we charge too. We charge.

We climb up a ladder and quickly sap several guards who are drunk and asleep. Heading down towards the screams we encounter 3 or 4 sailor types having their way with a slave girl. We quickly dispatch them and GoK's sword begin to glow yellow. Mebh charges the daemon with GoK quickly abreast. However two endurance blows sees it dead before the rest of the party arrive.

We release the rest of the slaves and discover most of them were taken illegally from Brandenburg where they have rewards on their safe return. We promise to return them to safety once we have finished our other tasks.

In short order we reach the mages tower. It is roughly 60 feet across and maybe 4 stories high with a decrepit looking staircase running around the outside. Mabh charges up the stair and it is OK, the party follow. We are met and escorted to the Purple Mage. He is please to receive our pet Necro and negotiates a very nice reward for our services.

The mages guild is now friendly and helpful, they make bathes food and some fire amour available. However they also want us to move along quickly as we are wanted by many.

Day 27: 27th Meadow

It is 6am. We are on the edge of town because, of the sashes we received from the imperial ship we are unable to drink any liquids, (there is a side effect of 50% MR buff to water collage spells). We heal our ftg as much as possible no one is fully healed. We prepare the best we can wanting to attack the rat cult at dawn. The Mages have provided us with the location.

We head into The Maze and head towards the vulgar unicorn. Valentine hears a woman scream and cannot resist charging off to save her. GoK grabs him by the collar and once Valentine has ascertained that the ruckus is being made by a bunch of prostitutes having a turf war drags him off. Quite a role reversal this - GoK being responsible and Valentine being compulsive.

Eventually we find the vulgar unicorn, several tuff looking types try to accost us but we look menacing and tell them to move or else (we are in a hurry). They do. We head west down an ally prevent Valentine from having a dalliance with a Revenant and find the warehouse we are looking for.

The door is on the far side and is guarded by 2 warrior type's which we dispatch in the first pulse before suspicion is razed. We are all acting together where one goes there is back up, and trust. Also we are quickened and have the higher IV.

The door is forced and another warrior is crushed behind it, we all have double strength, and +15 on END (not to mention max rk shadow form). Upon forcing entry we are confronted by 5 tuff looking warriors we are in a receiving chamber designed specifically to contain an attacking force it has two entrances and from behind cover mages a distance off can cast through these two doorways into the party. There is not room for the whole party to in the entrance so our toughest warriors who entered first intend to bash the enemy back and create a bit more room.

Mebh and Toledo Steele take the left hand door, GoK sees an opportunity to swing around the door frame ahead and takes up a position with his back to the wall surrounded by an ice elemental and 3 warriors, the mages are in the second rank. Valentine charges into the front of the troop directly in front so they are effectively being attacked by GoK from one side and Valentine from the other.

The party seems to be doing OK. In pulse 3 the entire party is inside, GoK strikes the ice elemental and fails to resist, he is frozen solid. Toledo Steele blinks across the chamber to attack the mages. Skeletons arise from the floor in close with everyone still in the entry chamber. Two more ice elementals appear most party members are stripped of ftg and we cannot drink potions. The party is making a lot of resistance against E&E, Mind, Ice, and Necro.

Valentine fights his way to GoK only to be frozen by the ice elemental, GoK is getting a save every pulse against Ice to defrost but fails twice. Mebh and Kishwa were forced to drop their swords when the Skeletons appeared, they are trying to protect Lady Lizette and have dispatched most of the skeletons unarmed. Lady Lizette (our most powerful party member) has cast banishment on herself.

GoK finally recovers from being ice just after Valentine has gone down. Lady Lizette heals Valentine and together GoK and Valentine take out the ice mage and other fighters, Lady Lizette banishes the Ice elemental.

Meanwhile Mebh and Kishwa are pined down by the two ice elementals in their area though both have recovered their swords.

Toledo Steele has engaged the fire mage across the room only to realise it is a fire elemental in disguise. As he defeats it an earth elemental appears along with many hands of earth which now separate the party members.

Toledo Steele blinks back to Mebh and Kishwa. The earth elemental, which appears to be quickened, destroys many hands of earth as it travels 7 Hexes and smashes Toledo Steele for 32END. Toledo Steele who had no ftg is still up. Mean while Lady Lizette (our most powerful party member) has banished the two ice elementals. Our three warriors in this area engage the earth elemental. GoK leaps over the hands of earth to engage the Mages at the back of the room where Toledo Steele destroyed the fire elemental and Valentine attempts the same but is briefly trapped by a hands of earth.

Lady Lizette banishes the earth elemental. More are now pouring down the stairs where GoK has engaged a powerful mage on the bottom step. The mage is evading and the party has no blast magic's so hit we must. Mebh joins GoK and together they defeat the mage. Mean while 8 tuff warriors and 2 excrementals have appeared in the same area to the left of the stair. The rest of the party have engaged this group. Valentine has 17pts of willpower removed, and Lady Lizette is briefly controlled.

Toledo Steele, Valentine and Kishwa engage the warriors and excrementals. Once our most powerful party member recovers she banishes one the excrementals the other is defeated by Valentine.

GoK for some reason followed by Lizette (our most vulnerable party member) charge up the stairs. This is where the tuff guys are; two ice elementals, a fire elemental, two Drow assassins (with what seems like 35Ag an Ogre his orc mates, 5 arches (behind the stair) and a partridge in a pear tree.

GoK is evading and most miss (they are not quickened) however the ice elementals freeze him when he fails to resist. He is successful at the end of the pulse and as he returns to the flesh Lady Lizette drags him back down the stair. One of the assassins follows.

Mebh decides to cast a force 9 wind storm, as we are strong this is a good move though likely decimates The Maze in sanctuary. Toledo Steele blinks up the stair and engages and kills the fire elemental before being frozen. Another excremental and a water elemental have appeared from the stair down to the basement, which Christopher Valentine and Kishwa have engaged. Mebh is engaged with the assassin at the foot of the stair.

GoK makes another foray upstairs only to be fall down when he tries a leap; Lady Lizette banishes the two ice elementals up top.

Toledo Steele decides to blink away to avoid being smashed as he is ice. He makes his MD check, and because he cannot see, finds himself in a dark chamber. there are some figures ahead of him sitting around a table.

GoK who is caught in a hand of earth casts Shadow walking to travel back up the stair. As he appears above the toughest opponents leap down and end up in a heap around Mebh. GoK leaps down after them leaving the top level clear of dangerous enemy (a few Orcs never hurt anyone.

Mebh and GoK destroy the first Assassin. The second assassin travels 11 hexes to engage and put down Lady Lizette however Valentine dives in front of it, takes the blow and goes down. Lady Lizette banishes the ice elemental near Mebh, then the excremental attacking Christopher, then heals Valentine. Kishwa and Christopher finally take out the water elemental.
.

GoK travels half TMR and strikes the second assassin, which is about to finish off Valentine, from behind. It recovers from stun and strikes Valentine 2x for 2 spec griev's the second of which is an 11 and kills Valentine instantly. Lady Lizette uses her will power item and sacrifices 4 points of permanent will power to prevent the calamity, (after all she is very cute and Valentine was leaping heroically in front her).

The assassin makes some noises about giving up, however GoK with battle rage in his blood slays him with one blow.

Meanwhile... Toledo Steele has ascertained that he is at the back of the chamber below and is listening to the cult leader giving orders to his minions. Toledo Steele is placed behind him and so is able to sneak up and attack from behind. In two blows the evil cult leader is dead, not recovering from stun after the first. bit of luck that random blink. At the same moment the party come bursting down the stair and defeat the rest of the fleeing cultists.

We spend 15 minutes looting the main bad guys. As we leave GoK uses true silver peaces to buy a quick and seemless exit from sanctury. The party moves quickly to the ship the liberated earlier. We sail out of Sanctuary, rejoin the Titans triumphant.

Day 28: 28th Meadow

We sail all day.

Day 29: 28th Meadow

We arrive back in Seagate 29 meadow, recieve the usual guild de-brief and removal of death curses. The party sell the ship from Sanctuary to provide funds for a new start at life for the slaves from the sale ship. One of the slave girls turns out to be the sister of Lizette. Treasure from the adventure.