The Black Pearl

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Summary

GM: Chris Caulfield
Session: Winter 809 WK
Night: Tuesdays, starting 9 June
Location: Onehunga at Chez Ellis
Level: Low-Med
Party:

  1. Mario (6'1" PB 20 PS slim) - Dashing and Charming Human Gentleman (Technically a Mind Mage) played by Dean
  2. Valery (5'6" PB 15 PS 16) - Female Human Single! (Wicca) played by Hannah
  3. Tari (6'4" PB 21 PS 16) - Really Hot Elven Female (Earth Mage) played by Michelle
  4. Vapour (6'3" PB Unreal PS 26) - Oiled Hotness (Male Human) (Himbo) played by Neil
  5. Aposta Perdido (6'2" PB 15 PS 24) - Buff Male Human Despido Lutador (Trans: Bare-Hand Fighter?) played by Stephen
  6. Pretty Flower (6'0 PB12 PS worse) - Grumpy Male Elf (Namer) played by William

Employer

  • A Borderlay Vintner: Xavier Beauchamp

Pay

  • some bottles of the vintage you recover to a reasonable amount - aka Guild rates

Mission
The vineyard is having difficulty accessing its 799 vintage and since the loss of more workers would cause embarrassment and financial hardship (never mind the gossip) some hardy adventurers are required to discover what's happening in the depths of the Borderlay Mountains.

Scribe Notes

Chapter 1: Buff Bods and Booze

Delivered by Windwhistle to Xavier Beauchamp in Seagate, Carzala.

Cousin, trouble in lower levels, 5 lost, delivery at risk, engage adventurers by fastest ship.

W'ansday 26th Vintage 809wk

Junior guild security members (with purses enlarged) gather six adventurers from various Seagate locations, five days before the guild meeting to fulfill an urgent commission.

Valery and Pretty Flower are the first to arrive, Pretty Flower occupying the corner with his personal cloud of in-sociability. Mario and Vapour arrive next, glancing up from polishing their own images long enough to appreciate Valery. Tari enters out of breath but still with Elven dignity and sits closest to Pretty Flower. Last to arrive is Aposta, an old friend of Vapour, who arrives completely naked. Aposta's explanation of his quest for purity in combat is lost on the others who are more concerned with finding somewhere else to look. A loin cloth is quickly acquired for Aposta and introductions commence more normally.

Pleasantries completed, the employer is shown in. Xavier is a distinguished human wine merchant currently about business in Seagate. His family in Borderlay has had a little trouble in the old cellars where previous vintages are stored. Five workers sent in to sort it out have not returned. The party are required to promptly and discretely enter the cellar, resolve any issues, and ensure that normal dispatch of The Black Pearl, the family Cognac, can be completed in time and their reputation remain unsullied.

Xavier has organised fast transport to Zumalar but it leaves tonight, in half an hour.

The party scatters to gather equipment and meets back outside the guild where a large odd looking ship is parked. Princess Isil Eth has agreed to give us passage to Zumalar on The Princess Blade as she has business up that way.

Once the blade is up to cruising speed, Aposta and Vapour resume their previously interrupted drinking session, Mario tries to educate them about wine, Valery wonders if she joined the wrong ship, Tari talks to the Elven crew who don't understand the humans either. Several hours pass, Valery's suggestion that we might need cover names is taken up with enthusiasm by some, resulting in new adventuring names:

  • Vapour - Buff Man or Buffy for short
  • Aposta - Statuesque or Stat or Esky for short
  • Mario - Casanova or Casaaaa!
  • Valery - Slasher

Tari and Pretty Flower just glare.

Th'rsday 27th Vintage 809wk

The day dawns and the ship is high in the storm clouds being gently rocked while avoiding the snow flurries. Vapour leads morning exercises on the deck, Valery engages in some weapons practice.

We land in the harbour of Zumalar about 11am. The weather is stormy, misty, overcast and snowing. Isil Eth has gifted us some tailored ermine winter coats which we all wear as we hit town. The snow storms make flying impractical so Valery and Tari purchase some horses from Motley's Tavern & Stables, and we ride north.

Once out of town, Aposta strips off his new coat and wearing just the loin cloth, runs beside the horses for a couple of hours. Vapour takes off his coat, armour, and shirt and runs too. Riding that morning is accompanied by much shaking of heads.

We reach the Swampy Knoll Inn just before dusk after having travelled about 25miles and take 2 rooms. The innkeep is an Ogre named Harold. Several Dwarves are also there for the night including Artemus of the Superstition Mts who is shouting drinks to anyone who will toast his birthday.

A lot of beer and Dwarven drinking songs later we retire, standard watches are started.

Frysday 28th Vintage 809wk

More riding through the snowstorm, the weather improves slightly, we can occasionally see 500 yards! Meet a couple of other groups including some guards who are patrolling for bandits and wolves. Pushing a fairly hard pace, we travel some 40 miles through the storms and make it to the Singing Goddess Inn just after dark.

This place is a bit busier, a couple of small mercenary groups, swamp prospectors (a couple of whom are looking for a gem in a ruined church within the swamp - or heard that one had been found), and more Dwarves but none of them are shouting drinks. The Innkeeper here is Angeline DuForay, a female human who deals with customers with her special manners.

Chapter 2: Howling Snow, Warm Inns

Reapsday 29th Vintage 809wk

Another day of snowstorm and high winds

Coming to a small village we see a man being burned on a bonfire while the locals celebrate. Pretty Flower is pleased the local humans are maintaining the proper rites, the rest of the party object to ritual burnings and lower lances for a charge. On closing we see that the sacrifice is just an effigy and abort the charge. The party splits into those who join in the half naked dancing around the bonfire, those who like to watch, and Pretty Flower who tries to explain they are doing it all wrong.

After lunch we move on, enjoying the bitter cold and wind until half a dozen miles before Vallon, the town we plan to stop at. There are a couple of old huts where a bridge crosses a large stream, Aposta tells everyone there are shady types waiting to ambush us there. Just in case it is not wishful thinking on Aposta's part, most of the party go unseen and sneak forward while Aposta and Valery ride into the ambush. Trip ropes, ice, and crossbow bolts cause some damage, Slasher protects the rest of the party by catching crossbow bolts in her torso, two bandits are killed and the other two are taken prisoner. Tari heals Valery while Vapour and Aposta dig some shallow graves for the corpses.

The bandits claim to be working alone and appear to be diseased, half-starved, and needing a bath even more than Pretty Flower.

Marching the prisoners ahead of us we carry on to Vallon, drop the bandits with the gate guards (Mario negotiates a bounty) and settle into an inn, the Innocent Swine. Our story is retold several times with embellishments which greatly impresses some of the locals and earns us free drinks. Valery retires early to rest up her remaining injuries, all of the lads get lucky with local girls, Pretty Flower drinks in the corner spooking some of the locals, and Tari chats up some travelling Elves but we're too busy getting laid to notice if she did too.

Sunday 30th Vintage 809wk - Beerfest!

Another day in the howling ice and snow. We expect more howling as we pass through the Lupine Woods but are disappointingly lacking targets.

On the other side we come to a Borderlay border tower, Tor DeMello, where the guards ask us the usual questions and let us stay the night at the attached inn, Flying Bull. We do our best to help them celebrate Beerfest, several kegs of cheap beer are finished off, Vapour and Aposta get private tours of the tower with the local guards (the female ones).

Chapter 3: Demonics and Dragons

Moonday - Samhain

Breakfast, sparring, bleeding, hang-overs, shopping at the Weaponsmiths', and then finally hitting the road again. Pretty Flower berates Valery for spilling her blood on the snow on Samhain.

Early afternoon we hear howling in the distance, as we come out of a gully we realise the howling is closer than we thought. The wolves seem to be surrounding a small homestead nestled amongst the trees a couple of hundred yards off the road, Tari tells us the wolves are talking about the fresh 'string-meat' they'll be having soon and her falcon confirms that a man is holding them at bay outside his house.

Preparing weapons and battle plans at the canter, we charge in. Valery protects the house with magic, Aposta plants a crossbow bolt in the nearest wolf, then he and Vapour lower lances to hit the first wolf. Aposta shatters his lance on the wolf then pulls to a neat stop beyond, Vapour take first kill leaving his lance embedded in the wolf as he vaults through the air. One of the wolves cast Slow, Valery identifies which one and engages it, Pretty Flower assists by blocking its magic. Tari and Mario leap from the horses to high ground and quickly turn the tide of battle with their powerful spells. Vapour having shrugged off the Dire Wolf's magic casually draws his blade, feints right then decapitates the wolf to his left. Aposta (probably hungover) slowly hits the wolves while they scratch and bite him. Pretty Flower works several more magics whose effects are too powerful to see. Valery and Mario's wolf slay the Direwolf and it corpse vanishes in a flash of blackfire. The farmer steps out from his doorway to slay the two wolves caught in Tari's hands. Aposta finally kills one wolf just before Mario and Vapour step in to save him from the second.

Tari and Pretty Flower check the party over after the fight. Everyone that was bitten is infected, Vapour's arm is badly slashed and it will take weeks before he can use both arms in his work outs, and Valery is cursed to die and go to hell on the next full moon.

Pretty Flower: Rabid Humans! I knew it!

Pretty Flower spends a couple of hours concentrating then lifts the curse. Tari cures all the infections, heals Valery, binds Vapour's in a sling, and berates Aposta for not accepting any healing - 'has to finish skinning the wolves before they freeze'. Mario works on training his new wolf.

Meanwhile the farmer, Xavier DeClerc, thanks us for saving his family and introduces himself and his three daughters (Vapour briefly perks up until he sees they are all under-age). Xavier invites us to stay the night and join him in Samhain celebrations.

Eating, drinking, and dancing follows.

Nearing mid-night, Valery decides to bind the wolf as her new familiar. She starts the ritual while Aposta keeps an eye on the wolf and Mario keeps both eyes on Valery... (1 hour later) ... 'Ooops!'

The powerful forces of Samhain at midnight tear the ritual beyond Valery's control, the wolf is not bound, and after exhaustive checking by Mario (a trainee Healer) Valery seems to be unhurt, then we feel a gust of wind from above, looking up we see a 120' long Black Dragon hovering over us... 'WHY HAVE YOU SUMMONED ME?'

Following our pre-arranged battle plan for when Valery accidentally summons a dragon, Xavier and most of the party start to quietly seek cover. Aposta and Mario attempt to buy some time with pleasantries, Valery's eyes glaze over as she appears to be having a mind-speech like conversation with the Dragon. Pretty Flower names the Dragon as Angramarzan.

A few seconds later the dragon departs and Valery comes out of her trance.

She tells us that she needs to acquire some expensive 'Golden Incense' and perform a ritual dance around a bonfire tomorrow night.

Oddly Xavier doesn't seem too bothered by the appearance of the dragon, then he tells us of the last dragon he met and how his company killed it. Either he is a retired soldier and dragon slayer, or he's a Troubadour with balls of steel. Naturally we boast about our previous dragon encounters too but not wanting to out-boast our host nobody claims to have killed any.

Duesday 1st Frost 809wk

Setting out early, we ride on to Borderlay arriving just before lunch. The gate guards are a bit wary about Mario's 'hunting dog' but let us in after he pays a 'peace bond' for the dog. Pretty Flower says we'll need an alchemical supplier for the incense, we make our way through town and find an appropriate vendor fairly quickly. After some astute bargaining we raise the price to 1,100sp, Valery offers a Dwarven Potion in trade and Mario loans her coin for the difference.

After a quick lunch we leave town heading north. Once well clear of the town we find a good spot for dragon summoning, set up camp and start gathering wood for the bonfire.

As midnight approaches, Valery takes some medicinal mushrooms and powders to put her in a higher state of mind then starts dancing and chanting around the fire as she burns the incense.

Angramarzan turns up again as she finishes, communes silently with Valery and then departs. Valery seems a little detached from our reality so we decide to drop her out of standard watches and keep any eye on her through the rest of the night. Valery struggles to communicate with Vapour (the ethereal prince), Aposta (the bronzed Adonis), Tari (the tree), and Pretty Flower (the rose bush), but eventually settles down riding her little brown pony (Mario). Mario manfully plays his role without objecting until they are joined by a golden mongoose and a black rabbit (named Bergerac).

Chapter 4: Wine Snobbery

W'nsday 2nd Frost 809wk

In the morning the black rabbit is not to be seen and the golden mongoose is happily draping itself across Valery's shoulders and accepting titbits of breakfast.

We barely get started when we pass an icy pond and Pretty Flower leaps from his horse spouting something in rapid Elven, shortly afterward he is naked and diving into the pond. Tari explains that he is gathering some rare plants. Vapour takes his clothes off in support of Pretty Flower but doesn't go as far as diving in, pausing instead to pose and check his form in the ice at the edge of the pond.

Once the herbs are gathered and everyone is dry and dressed again we carry on North, Vapour warning us that a big storm will hit 24 minutes before midday.

We reach a local inn (the Golden Sheath)in the middle of the vineyards just as the storm hits. The inn is quite old and fancy, probably being off the main road it doesn't get burned down as often as most. We settle in for lunch, drinks, boasting and singing with the locals while the storm rages outside. They inform us we are only a few miles from Aboundanse, if the storm stops when Vapour predicts then we'd have time to ride on to the Chateau this afternoon. Mario, deep in wine-snobbery with the locals, declares that we will stay here tonight and carry on in the morning.

The storm clears exactly when Vapour predicts, so he, Aposta and Pretty Flower join the locals in some Wolf Hunting. Tari elects to stay by the warm fire, Valery heads for an early bed after her two short nights and Mario offers to keep watch for her. The hunting is successful, Vapour and Aposta's kills are eclipsed by the ruthless savagery of Le Fleur Noir who casually dips his lance through the eye of one then vaults onto the back of another which soon vanishes in the cloud of blood raised by his knives.

On return the story of our battle is retold several times, Pretty Flower eventually escapes the centre of attention to wash the blood off but declines Giselle's massage which Tari says is pleasant. Happy to step in a cover for a team mate, Aposta takes the massage. Wine and heroic songs fill the evening. There is a minstel in the Tavern named Lorraine Vanderzee who composes the Lay of Vapour the Vanquisher.

Th'rsday 3rd Frost 809wk

The locals have Wolf Skin cloaks as gifts for the hunters (and Mario), Aposta is the only one to appreciate and wear the matching wolf-skull hood. The weather seems to be more settled but vapour feels another front will arrive in 2 days time bringing more snow and storms.

We reach Aboundanse a short time later, patrolling guards direct us on to Chateau Sartoris. The 'Chateau' would be called a castle in most places but Borderlay is not supposed to have castles or soldiers. When we cross the light bridge over the decorative stream to the 20' high wolf proof fence we are met by local Foresters, after checking our letter from Xavier Beauchamp we are taken to meet with their captain in the foresters hut, a 30'x30'x60' stone tower built into Colline de lumière Hill.

Stefan (6'8" buff Aladarian) is Captain of the 60 Foresters, Herjolf 'The Axe' (6'6" wielding a Great Axe) is his second in command.

They fill us in on some more detail.
The cellars are 11 levels of old Limestone caves. The entrance level is the 5th from the top, the three upper levels (1-3) are used for short term storage of product, the middle levels (4-6) are used for medium term storage and barrel production and the 5 levels below that (7-11) are used for longer term storage including the 100 year cognac.
The lower levels are where the first 5 people (2 then 3 sent to look) went missing. They then led a squad in to check out what was going on, they didn't make it past the 8th level from the top before being driven back by magic and fear, 2 died of heart attacks. At that point Gerrard Sartoris (grandson of the lord, currently responsible for the cellars) decided to hire us instead of risking any more of his men.

We question and divine a couple of those affected that afternoon and a couple more the next morning.

  • Some reported stepping on something that broke and released/triggered noxious vapours (Rk 10+ Necro).
  • Some were affected by Fear and Mass Fear (Necro & Celestial Rk 10+)
  • And by Hand of Death (Necro)

It sounds like we're going to be dealing with undead and may need magic or silvered weapons for those that don't have them. There are major gates for the levels (upper, middle and lower) that are magical and each level has minor gates requiring keys to pass. When the subject of undead and demonics came up Stefan had a thought and started issuing some specialised weapons to the 'foresters' and from the 'foresters' well stocked armoury loans us some magic swords and daggers.

Frysday 4th Frost 809wk

Final questioning and preparations before we go in.

Chapter 5: 99 barrels of wine on the wall...

We get 20 torches (20lbs) to put in brackets as we go past, 30 lbs of food and water (in case we're in there a while), and a broom (for Aposta's cunning plan to sweep clear the magical caltrops that the guards stepped on). Tari casts SoS on everyone except Aposta.

Around the lake and 300' up the path we reach the entrance. Vapour casts Vapour Breathing on himself, Tari and Pretty Flower, then we go in.

Level 7 (5th from top) people working, high ceilings, huge halls, workshops, long corridors with lots of side passages (some filled with stuff others leading to other rooms/passages), at least 1000' deep into the hills.

Level 6 few people, more storage, huge wine barrels. Gate to lower floors is magical wrought iron/silver, requires keys, members of Sartoris family, and knowing your wines. Our escort is stopping here, they'll lock the gate behind us and wait until we return.

Level 5 more storage, more huge wine barrels. Ground is dusty apart from fairly clear tracks of lost of people walking in and running out 1-2 weeks ago. With Aposta sweeping a clear path at the front we follow the tracks observing that they split up to search this floor and most came back walking. We leave torches every 1-200 feet and use 14 by the time we get to the gate. A silver and iron bound door bars the way to the next level and is easily opened with the keys we were given.

Level 4 (Bugs) More massive corridors and store rooms, several over-large insect shells/casings. We leave a couple of torches about 500' apart but keep the last 3 to carry with us. We find the first side passages where explorers fled back from and explore the left one.

While checking ahead for minds, Mario summons a dozen evil wizard eyes which watch us from the walls. We quickly stamp them out but don't know if anyone or anything was watching.

Following the sound of dripping water we find a half barrel used to collect the fresh water drip in a domed cavern (about 50' radius, 100' high). The water is not so fresh any more thanks to the corpse hanging above the barrel. The corpse is cocooned in spider webs, a false ceiling of webs is about 60' up. We lower the body and check it out, looks like one of the original five by the time since death. Valery fires the webs above us and 100+ one-foot long spiders drop on us. We smash, crush, burn, and stab lots of them, lots more flee back up the walls out of sight. Aposta is bitten, the venom is reasonably nasty until Tari stops it. Pretty Flower works up some possible anti-venoms.

Mario triggers an explosive noxious vapours (burning most of us) and tires himself sending a torch up to the roof to see where all of the spiders went, there's no sigh of them but several air vents, cracks and crevasses they could have crawled into. DAs reveal the spiders are bigger than normal due to some sort of environmental magic, these ones are not very old and have been affected by it since hatching. We capture a live spider for later divination, get the set of keys off the corpse, and carry on.

The door to the next level is similar to the one to this level.

Level 3 (Plants) More of the same until Aposta finds a magical-trap-seed-pod by stepping on it, this causes mass fear - technically, actually it just made Mario scared of Aposta but a parade ground shout snapped him out of it fairly promptly. There are several pods on the ground together that cause fear, noxious gas, or hand-of-death when they're broken. We gather them up then check out the Death-Vine that's spread over the ceiling above us. It starts retreating (TMR 1) towards an air vent in the corner when we expose it to fire light, we DA and Tari talks to it as it flees. We learn it likes darkness and came from or fed on or was created by something in 'the well'.

Chapter 6: Spiders and Ghouls

Our stomachs declare it lunch time, while we're eating Tari hears what she thinks is someone speaking Drow from further ahead.

We discuss lighting as we need some light for the humans to see but we don't want to highlight ourselves in torch light. Aposta volunteers to walk 50' ahead with the torch and a broom pretending to be a regular worker while the rest of the party follows just outside the pool of light. This works perfectly as we are not ambushed by an army of Drow.

A couple of turns and a couple of hundred yards later the corridor ahead is blocked by spider webs. Burning away the first layers reveals some sort of magical-spider-web-wall, Mario, Tari, and Valery have a nap while Pretty Flower spends a couple of hours divining it. It is a spell of the Spider/Weavings college that is mid-ranked and lasts days, he can counter it or we can cut through it.

We prepare for a fight with the dozens of spiders (including 3 sentients, one that doesn't seem like a spider) that Mario can sense on the other side, then the front rank cuts and burns the wall away.

  • 80 x 1-3' 'Giant' Spiders with poisonous bites
  • 6 x 5' Spiders with face melting spit
  • 2 x 12' Spiders casting magical webs and inflicting heinous damage in melee (up to 50-60 per pulse)
  • 2 x wall walking Ghouls
  • 1 Drow that likes to watch

We start off well but the steady doses of poison take their toll, Pretty Flower reduces the impact of their magic, most of the smaller spiders are dealt to fairly efficiently then the ghouls step out of the walls and one of the big spiders leaps into the middle of us, the wounds are mounting up, Vapour takes time out to fix his face makeup, the medium sized spiders leap in too, Aposta and Valery gradually work through them then the other big spider leaps in and beats Aposta into unconsciousness, Valery kills the last spitting spider then goes down too. Things are looking a bit grim until Mario vaults onto the back of the biggest spider and paralyses it with a precision strike, Vapour walks onto the back of the other and starts butchering it from above, Tari finishes off her Ghoul and heads into the mosh pit to apply some healing, Aposta rises again to deliver the killing blow to the last big spider, Mario leaps off his defeated spider to slay the Ghoul Pretty Flower had been holding off, and the fight was over. The Drow must have wandered off towards the end of the fight.

Nobody dead, almost everybody hurt to some degree, significant damage to Vapour's face, damaged clothes and armour, mounds of dead spiders and spider goo, and one paralysed sentient spider to question.

Chapter 7: Deadly Elven Vapours

Pretty Flower does some Alchemy with a poison sack and creates a (painfull) cure for the poison that is slowly killing Aposta.

Tari questions the living spider to death then Valery takes over. We learn:

  • the rest of the nest will capture us and feed on us until we die the most painful death...
  • the nest is on the lowest level, there are up to 10 other big spiders (who will suck our life juices..) and lots of small ones
  • the Drow and the well are on the same level and may be close together
  • the spiders came from elsewhere and got bigger after drinking from the well there is a portal that leads to their original home
  • the Drow come through a tunnel from their home, there may be lots of them

We rest and recover enough to stay standing, 'skin' the carapaces from some spiders and start dragging ourselves back up to the mid-levels. We pick up the corpse we found on level 4 and add it to the pile we're dragging upstairs.

Not immediately recognising us under the layers of spider gloop, webs, dirt and soot, the guards at the gate to the mid levels challenge us but eventually lower their crossbows and rouse Stefan from his game of dice.

We drop scary tidbits of the story to Stefan as we make our way back to the surface. Once we've scraped off the gloop, bathed and dressed in clean clothes, we tell the full story over dinner. Gerrard Sartoris comes to hear the debriefing and brings three healers to tend our wounds. Collette tends to Vapour, regrowing the missing half of his face, Ninon tends to Aposta, and Jean-Eugene pays special attention to Valery.

Since the issues are bigger and more dangerous than originally suspected, Gerrard offers to pay us an extra 5,000sp each. And will have their Water Mage prepare 3 rk 10 Waters of Healing each by morning.

Pretty Flower has a cunning plan to destroy the spiders which requires barrels of fertiliser and mash, but not mixed together! yet...

Gerrard seems interested in Tari much to Ninon's disgust and contrary to party bets may be having some success thawing the ice. After dinner, drinks, singing and dancing, we retire to further ministrations from the healers.

Reapsday 5th Frost 809wk

Gerrard comes to see us off in the morning, the spells we cast in his presence will last lots longer. By 9am the spells are cast and we head in. We are let through the gate to the lower levels by 11am and quickly make out way through the next two levels.

We find some fine spider webs with detection magic on them, we guess that they report our movements, to our surprise DA reveals that Shi-Maria is the spider that the webs report to. Realising that we have been walking through these already we discard sneaky plans and head straight in.

Level 1 Midday, we have about half an hour until the Vapour Breathing wears off and we can no longer do Pretty Flower's special alchemy (and survive). There is a strong smell of spider crap and gloop, Vapour leads us to the strongest source. We find that the ends of a couple of the storage tunnels now lead into a large natural looking cavern that is covered in spider webs and occupied by two large groups of spiders. We sneak close to the biggest group, mix the barrels and stand well clear as the deadly vapours start to fill the cavern. It seems to be doing the job killing the spiders but it's not spreading fare enough to reach both groups. Aposta volunteers himself and Vapour to lead a suicidal charge into the other group of spiders to deliver the last barrels of gas, while Mario is talking them out of it Vapour has a cunning plan and casts Wind Whistle. The gas quickly spreads to fill the entire cavern, we throw in the remaining barrels to ensure it is strong enough then wait. With only a few minutes left of safe breathing Pretty Flower and Mario confirm that all of the spiders are dead, we flee back to level 2 closing the gate behind us.

Allowing an hour or so for the vapours to clear, we have lunch then head back down. Hacking and burning our way through the webs and corpses we explore the cavern. We find a tunnel leading elsewhere, a backfired rune portal, and lots of dead spiders. Pretty Flower sits down to divinate the magic portal pool.

The portal is the result of a backfired rune portal ritual, the controlling rune circle is at the other end of the portal. The portal is permanent but is only active 7 days either side of a high holiday. The mage that created the portal is Urstagen and it is linked to his life somehow, it will probably stop working when he dies. Unless you carry about 12,000sp worth of high quality gems with you to absorb the bad magic any sentient passing through the portal will be drained most of their lifeforce (95% of all stats). Animals about half their lifeforce. The other end of the portal is a long way south-east, probably somewhere on the big peninsular south-east of Hindia.

While Pretty Flower spends his 3 hours gazing into the pool, Valery plays cards with the dead spiders. Their home is several miles from the other end of the portal, the first of them came through by accident, the others followed and they set up their new nest here. The Drow are guardians of a crypt and have been guarding it since about the war of tears. They're probably undead. At least one of them is a Necromancer. Their bit is elsewhere on this level and they are near the well.

Chapter 8: Our enemies flee before us

A few more questions confirm that Shi-Maria is here somewhere and there is another nest. While trying to find out where thy learned their magic and what colleges they know, we discover that one of the spiders used to be human. We ask a few more questions and Pretty Flower opens the ex-human spiders' head and starts to divinate the content. We learn that some of the spiders (the ones with bigger heads and eyes) have always been spiders and most of the are followers of or pacted to Malthus, they have been capturing mages (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, but no Orcs or Goblins) and using necromancy to put their souls into spider bodies and bind them into service.

Following our 5 hours of rituals and questions, we finally leave, exploring the tunnel behind the trapdoor. It leads us back to one of the main corridors, we explore further and find a nest in an oddly shaped oval room with 8 humanoids trussed up for dinner. DA reveals that a ritual of soul transfer/binding into the spider eggs is taking place. We haul the bodies out, burn the eggs and webs and Pretty Flower counterspells the ritual. Three of the corpses should be resurrectable, all of them look foreign, probably from somewhere near Hindia.

Leaving the bodies to pick up on our way out we continue exploring and find another large cavern that has a very strong spider smell. Sneaking up we see the first bit if the cavern has been cleared of webs and there is a big spider (with a big head, presumably one of the pacted ones) suspended on a web. He greets us, introduces himself as Jorogumo and asks to negotiate terms. If we stop killing them and give them free passage back to the portal, they offer to leave taking nothing that they did not bring with them. Since our job is to clear the place and we're under no obligation to exterminate them all we agree and give them until the following morning to clear out. They tell us where the undead Drow are and claim to have no alliance, the two groups had no interest in each other.

We pick up the corpses of the Hindians, load them on the handcart and make our way back up to the gate to level 6.

It is about 8pm when we get back to the surface and there is a heavy snowstorm (Vapour assures us he predicted it but didn't cause it). Gerrard has sent a couple of palanquins for the 'ladies' with half a dozen strong men to carry each one and almost as many holding ropes to anchor them against the wind.

After a delightful walk through the howling wind, snow, and darkness, we get back to the barracks. Jean-Eugene and Ninon are still here and start work on the three resurrectable corpses, Collette has returned to the manor (something to do with being insulted when Vapour forgot her name after their night of love) but is summoned back to help.

Vapour intercepts Babette, Colleen Collette on her return and tries to beg forgiveness, he is not having much success (despite helpful jibes from Mario and Aposta), then he gifts her a priceless Objet D'Art (a statuette of Vapour), this touches her deeply and she accepts Vapour's formal courtship, provided that her father approves, not wanting to wait she sends for her father to be brought through the snowstorm to meet Vapour.

Dinner is had and our story told, Gerrard sits with Tari again and they are served the best portions of dinner.

Collette's father arrives and meets with Vapour who is supported by his best men, her father approves of the wealthy hero, a strapping young man. He is keen to announce the betrothal on the spot, but Vapour does not wish to deny Collette the period of formal courtship that she deserves.

Drinking, dancing, and celebration follow.

Sunday 6th Frost 809wk

After breakfast the three Hindians are well enough to talk, one of Gerrard's men translates. We find out they are not Hindian, but from that region, they were attacked by spiders and don't remember anything after that. They are happy to cast some magic to help us in our mission.

  • Vurldamort - Air Mage
  • Mortanga - Water Mage
  • Astrogen - Ice Mage

Mario asks Gerrard if he can give us a short duration Greater Enchantment which he agrees to and will throw in some Enchant Armour too.

Going back in and heading to the bottom at a fast pace, we find no sign of the spiders, they even took their dead and cleared their webs. They didn't even forget any valuable gems or items.

Heading over to where they told us the Drow Temple is we find an area that has been carved and shaped with great skill. Lifelike battle scenes and portraits of Elves, Vanyarami, and Drow are carved into the walls. We descend into the area ready for battle and are greeted by two of the undead who (looking at Tari and Pretty Flower) welcome us as the messengers indicating it is time for the awakening.

They have been guarding their master since before the war of tears waiting for the sign. Apparently us turning up with some Elves and killing some spiders was it.

See, It's not our fault! Not that anyone will care, we'll get the blame anyway.

We are shown in to the central area where a winged elf is on a reclined throne and surrounded by a big magical glow. According to Tari we have about half an hour until he finishes waking up. Deciding not to try and kill his 24 undead guardians and stop the awakening, we check out the Well while we wait.

It is in a separate chamber, the well has a ghostly glow as we approach, the liquid inside is all swirling, spectral, and magical. It is something to do with the spirits or life essence of Elves and its effects are not easily predictable. Mario foresees Vapour turning into mist then reforming but looking slightly different. Pretty Flower wants to divine it but we don't have time before the awakening.

Back in the main chamber, the glow is bigger and brighter, Mario warns there will be some sort of TK Rage when it finishes so we stand against the walls except for Valery who waits around the corner so there is someone left alive to report back.

The bang at the end isn't as bad as we feared but being against the wall saved a few bruises. The Vanyarami floats up from his throne and starts talking to the head undead in what we guess to be Ancient Elven. After a while he turns to us and speaks in modern Elven. He is Lord Chancellor Astronoyimi of Heroic Silver Sky clan and wishes to thank us for awakening him. Based on a prophecy he had himself interred until the time when he would be needed. Many of his loyal followers gave up their own lives so he could achieve this. We try to explain how the world has changed in the last 30+ millennia but possibly just add to the confusion.

Astronoyimi then drifts over to us, has his undead release his personal guard from the walls (19 of the portraits of Vanyarami warriors become a lot more lifelike), and then releases his undead guards to go wherever Elven dead spirits go.

We ask about the well, Astronoyimi says we may each have one drink from the well as thanks for our help. Taking us there he carefully draws each of us a drink in a silver flask. Then he drains or releases the rest of the power from the well.

The Vanyarami start arming themselves and packing up the temple, taking everything that looked interesting or valuable. 12 of the Vanyarami appear to be armed and armoured like serious fighters. The other 7 seem more mage-like with lighter weapons and armour.

When they are finished Astronoyimi leads us to a set of double doors that were magically sealed, he says these will lead us to the surface.

Chapter 9: Look who we found

One last thing before facing the new world, the ex-Lord High Condescending Muckety-muck gets out a many sided crystal ball and tries talking to a whole bunch of people from his day. Unsurprisingly to us most of them don't answer, but he does get one response from a green man (a dragon?) who will come meet him.

Astronoyimi then removes a light gold chain from the doors and drops it to the ground, then warns us that there is now water on the other side of the doors (I guess things change in 30,000 years). He and some of his mages do some ice magics and make a tunnel through the water before he opens the doors.

As we enter the ice tunnel Mario acquires the abandoned gold chain. Astronoyimi comes through last, summons up some sort of dark-sphere elemental, sets it to close the way we came in and guard the place, then he re-seals the doors with a spell.

The ice tunnel emerges on the picnic island in the middle of the Sartoris lake, we settle in to wait as this green guy will be over an hour. Vapour walks over to the guards on the shore and warns them not to worry about any winged elves they see on the island, nor any visiting dragons, we have it all in hand. Pretty Flower and Valery divine the flasks of well water that they were given (and that Vapour and Aposta have already drunk). The water is made from the life essence of elves, it will grant a purification like skill that will make us stronger or something. The Vanyarami guards all stand at attention in a precise formation to cover all possible approaches. Aposta 'accidentally' stands in their way, baiting them, and assessing them to be about equivalent to mid-level guild fighters - with wings. They treat his intrusions as we would treat the antics of a clever puppy.

Shortly the green man, a large green (or jade) dragon turns up and then transforms into a really old looking elf. He introduces himself as Lord Yo and obviously knows lots about the guild.

Lord Yo and Astronoyimi chat privately for a while, Astronyimi seems to get very worked up about some of the stuff that went on while he was hiding in his cellar.

When they are finished, Lord Yo wishes us well, climbs into a tea cup he pulled out of his sleeve, and flies off. Astronoyimi informs us he will be flying straight to Eidolon and no longer requires our company, then off they fly. We consider trying to race ahead of them and warn the elves, but in the end decide its an elven problem for elves to deal with.

Rowing back to the main shore we send word to Captain Stefan that we're outside then settle in back at the barracks for some drinks and food and drinks...

We are invited to the château for dinner that night, baths are expected and fancy clothes are provided. Even Pretty Flower bathes (supposed to do it at least once a year) and there is some surprise that Aposta can do up buttons.

The château is huge and over the top. Redundant stairs, more fireplaces than people, more rooms than people. The entire family turns out to check us out and hear about the temple, the Vanyarami, the Dragon, and to marry off every single girl in the room it seems. Formal dinner, formal dancing, informal propositions, formal propositions, attempted entrapments, if Vapour wasn't already engaged (despite his best efforts to alienate his future in-laws) he would have been engaged again several times.

We organise for troops foresters to join us tomorrow for a room by room sweep of the lower levels to make sure it is all clear, then head back to the barracks for the after dinner party and more drinks.

Moonday 7th Frost 809wk

We clear level 5, 4, and 3. Not a spider, not a web, not even the death creeper though we do find another 20 pods.

After such a hard days work we definitely need a few drinks. Just to mix things up Aposta challenges Herjolf the Axe to face him in Axe Sparring, half an hour later with neither dead yet, they clear the way for Vapour and others to do some sparring too. Herjolf and Stefan call an end to the bouts when the combatants start getting drunk too.

Tomorrow, after we've cleared the last two levels, we decide to hunt down the dread black rabbit that's been worrying cattle. Valery and her new best friend Chay (anti-social ranger type) decide to start hunting tonight, by the time they head out their hunting party is reduced to 2 as everyone else is pissed or shagging. They go anyway and return a few hours later sans-bunny.

Duesday 8th Frost 809wk

Much to our disappointment level 2 and 1 are also spotless. Where the entrance to the temple was is a wall of solid darkness, the Sartoris get some brickies in to seal over it just in case.

We get back to the surface in time for drinks and a late lunch, and start planning our bunny hunt.

Chapter 10: I'm looking for a wabbit

We gather up extra hiking and camping gear and food for several days then head into the mountains.

A few arduous hours later Odell and Chay lead us to the crofters hut where Odell found the recently dead cows. The croft looks fairly normal, the cows were bought into a sheltered enclosure for the night and all 6 were killed a few hours after sunset last night. The bite marks on their necks seem to match the size of a rabbit, we guess that he leapt on their backs, ripped their throats out, and sucked up all their blood. Given there's no sign of a rabbit shaped beach ball full of cow blood, we're fairly sure that this is the work of Bergerac the demonic bunny.

There are several sets of tracks, the crofter headed out in one direction in no apparent hurry, the rabbit headed off in another and when we follow his tracks we see he meets up with some wolves. We can hear some wolves off in that direction, Tari reports that they are gossiping about hunting.

We follow the tracks of the crofter to where a recent avalanche covers them. Vapour and Aposta head across the treacherous snow to see if the tracks continue on the other side, Aposta falls through the snow several times but is saved by Vapour. The tracks do not continue, indicating the crofter is most likely caught in the avalanche.

While Aposta brushes off the snow, dirt and blood from his falls, Vapour flies Valery to the base of the avalanche to look for the Crofters' spirit.

An hour later Valery reports finding a spirit, but not of the crofter. This is a fire mage hero who died about 200 years ago. Bored of sitting in the snow waiting, Vapour casts flying on Aposta and they ferry everyone down. Pretty Flower starts muttering about the wisdom of sitting at the bottom of a gully surrounded by avalanche prone hills. Valery tells us about the dead guy and lets slip that he was buried with his possessions, Vapour and Aposta immediately take up spades and start digging. Valery states that she will not let us loot the grave, not let her magic be used for such purposes, claims ownership of the grave because her magic found it, threatens to attack if anyone digs anything but snow, ... Nobody pays too much attention, then when Aposta and Vapour hit worked stone and start clearing around it she takes up her Glaive and attacks them both. The digging stops at that point as Aposta and Vapour square off against Valery, Valery evades, Aposta attempts a knockout, then Tari ends the fight by catching Valery and Aposta in hands of earth. Aposta cuts his way out, trades some abuse with Valery then he and Vapour resume digging out the tomb.

Pretty Flower, realising that he was being too subtle now starts carefully (and quietly) explaining that we are arguing, shouting, and clashing steel while standing in low ground in avalanche country and this is a particularly dangerous thing to do.

Deciding it's time for some leadership, Mario declares we are to carry on digging to find the crofter but are not to attempt to open the tomb without his permission.

20 minutes later, Vapour finds the body of the crofter, meanwhile the others have been deciphering the runes on the tomb.

Here lies Arnot La-Rayfiles, Lord High Herald of the Grand Duke of Aquila. Died Summer 599wk. And lots of other stuff we couldn't read.

There is no sign of anything unusual in the death of the crofter, it looks like he was crushed by the avalanche. While that may have been deliberately triggered, we have no way of telling.

Tari dispels the hands to release Valery, Aposta and Vapour start ferrying everyone up out of the gully except Valery who insists on climbing the 130' icy cliff. Remarkably Valery makes it up alive, meanwhile Aposta flies the crofters corpse back to the barracks to leave with the healers.

We're all warming up again with hot drinks when Audrieu, another forester bursts in. He has just come from another croft about one mile away, the people and cattle there have been killed within the past couple of hours.

Aposta takes all of the heavy gear and flies ahead so the others can move as fast as possible, after getting lost extensive scouting of the area, he lands soon after the ground party gets there.

The cattle were killed much as before, the people (2 kids, parents and a grandparent) were ritually sacrificed in some sort of summoning ritual and are no longer resurrectable. There are rabbit and wolf tracks, and what looks like two-legged wolves. It looks like the summoning (an ancient invocation) of Zagan (the Winged King) worked and was only completed about 15 minutes ago. Valery warns us that the demon is an illusionist, appears as a winged bull and is associated with blood magic. Tari and Pretty Flower start checking for illusions and find that the forester is an illusion. At that point his eyes glow red, he laughs and then vanishes into smoke.

Following the clear trail and expecting a trap or ambush of some kind we go about a hundred yards and find the trail leads into a cave. Carefully DAing and checking for traps we head in, Mario cannot detect anyone waiting for us. Eventually we get to a large inner chamber where there was a recent fire and traces of magic. A portal to hell was opened and the tracks indicate that Bergerac and his wolves went through.

There is writing on the wall that looks like it is a message that was left for us:

There was a young witch named Valery,
Who listened to her beau named Mario,
Given a choice between gold and darkey,
She chose the golden goose a la lothario,
And will soon find her neck in a noose

After reading we realise it is a Doom that has just been placed on Valery.

We rest for a bit while Pretty Flower divines the doom to see what we can do about it, he reports that the only way to lift it (apart from powerful curse removal) is to kill Bergerac the demon-bunny that placed it.

Not having much more in the way of leads to follow and not being keen to camp here we decide to head back to the original croft for the rest of the night. It now being 2 or 3 in the morning we should get there a couple of hours before dawn.

Mario checks before we exit the cave and reports that there are about a dozen minds that seem to be lurking in ambush, most of them are animals (probably wolves), some are sentient animal-ish (the two-legged wolves?), and one is obsessed with revenge which is presumably our favourite bunny.

We step back inside the cave a bit and discuss tactics.

Chapter 11: Dire Findings

While we argue over who gets to be the sacrificial lamb to trigger the ambush and lead them back inside, Tari and Valery report that the wolves are talking about leaving for some fresh meat elsewhere. Valery runs to the cave mouth and starts taunting the wolves to no great effect.

We all move to the cave mouth and Vapour heads out to scout around, 50' out a dire wolf and a couple of wolves leap out of the snow and cast TK Rage. Vapour shrugs it off, the rest of us are thrown back against the cliff face. As per the plan, Vapour retreats back to us while we provide missile fire as cover. The wolves make a token lunge at Vapour and then fall back to the woods.

We assume they're trying to lure us into the open and hold our ground. Valery makes everyone unseen, then Vapour and Aposta fly out to scout where the wolves have gone. There is no sign of them anywhere we can see.

Deciding that chasing wolves into the forest at night is a bad plan, we move to the back of the cavern where most of us rest while Tari summons the wolves back to us. Over the next two hours all we get are a bunch of wolf puppies.

W'nsday 9th Frost 809wk

After breakfast, purification, and re-casting of spells, we let the pups free and follow them back to their den. Questioning a couple of the wolves there we find out there is a pack of Dire Wolves in the mountains, they make the normal wolves come with them on their raids and are killing any humans they find in the mountains. The wolves don't know where the Dire Wolves den is, they seem to move around a lot. And they work with or for some people (humans, Elves, halflings).

Vapour tells us there will be no more snow for the next 5 or 6 days so now should be as good a time as any to try tracking the dire wolves back to their den. Before we head out, Aposta flies back to the croft to let Shay and Odell know what we're up to, there he finds the croft burned down, signs of a recent fight and no obvious survivors. Heading back to gather the others, Vapour flies us all to the croft where we search properly. It looks like they were attacked by about 30 wolves, Shay and Odell are both dead and partially eaten, they managed to kill half a dozen wolves before falling, the pack then headed up into the mountains no more than half an hour ago.

Tari sends her falcon in the direction they went, after a while it spots them entering caves in an exposed ridge. Watching for a while, Tari estimates over 100 wolves (most of them probably Dire Wolves) and several humanoids.

This is probably too much for us to take on our own so we gather the remains of Chay and Odell and fly back to the Chateau.

We brief Stefan and suggest that they evacuate any remaining crofters and that since we know where they are we could mount an attack in force but we would need over 100 fighting men. Stefan consults with Lord Gustav, they will not commit all of their men but believe that they should be able to gather enough men by involving the other estates. Valery consults her cards to see how the attack will go and sees us being killed by Necrosis, TK Rage, invisible beings tearing men limb from limb and the like.

Moving on to plan B, we suggest they escalate this to their Count and do everything they can to enhance their defences.

Lord Gustav thanks us for our help and asks if we will deliver 5 flasks of their Cognac on our way south.

Th'rsday 10th Frost 809wk

After several farewells, we mount up and ride south.

Reapsday 12th Frost 809wk

We make our first delivery for Baron Henri de Mûre at Armagnac, we are invited to stay for the night before we press on.

Moonday 14th Frost 809wk

We make our second delivery for ___ at Tenarèze and are invited to stay for the night.

Th'rsday 17th Frost 809wk

We make our third delivery for Count Philippe at Saint-Michel and are invited to stay for the night.

Sunday 20th Frost 809wk

We make our fourth delivery for Baron Sebastien de Malvallet at Coeur-de-Fer and are invited to stay for the night.

W'nsday 23th Frost 809wk

We make our final delivery for Baron Hugh D'Amberville at Newcastle, his Chamberlain Jubert marks us as adventurers and suggests we visit with the chaplain a member of our guild. Broc invites us to stay a couple of days and offers to portal us back to Seagate on Frysday.

Chapter 12: Home again, home again

Frysday 25th Frost 809wk

Tari's Diaries

Part 1

I find these male humans very strange. My previous dealings with humans and my time away living amongst them had shown me that the human called Mario was an unusual specimen. He spends most of his time on trying to find himself a woman and will go for anything that is breathing, not that I have seen him around anybody who doesn't breathe yet.

But what I have found is extremely vexing and I am unsure how to deal with it. The other male humans in our party are extremely unusual in their manner. One that goes by the name of Vapour is extremely vain and at present I have not seen anything that would justify that pretence. He spends so much time preening himself, flexing his muscles with Apostle and talking himself up as an almost god, that he hasn't actually realised that Mario has been successful in finding a bed mate (human not that I think an Elf would go there) and what he himself is talking is just hot air.

Then there is Apostle, the strange man that turned up naked to our meeting, rambling on about pure fighting styles and with Vapour being his sponsor he can only have things that Vapour allows. Why he chose Vapour other than as a flexing and drinking mate I don't know, as he keeps forgetting this and the fact he has warm clothes for Apostle and lets him run basically naked in snow storms. However, we are lucky it is cold and snowing so that there isn't as many bandits out and about to think that Apostle is a slave or worse an easy target causing us all to be in unnecessary danger. Two days it took for Vapour to realise and relinquish the clothes he had for Apostle that we shouldn't be as much of a target anymore.

The other concern I have is that Vapour keeps referring to Apostle by a different name, a name I know from around the guild but this naked, drinking, supposedly attractive man cannot be the great mil sci he has been referred too. I will have to keep an eye on this to ensure that nothing is done to tarnish his name by Vapour and Apostle's doing hence why I do not refer to his name in my diaries in case all goes well and this is the only reference to the concern.

Further Observations of Humans

Reference Stuff

Calendar

Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
Waning 26 Seagate Fly/Sail North 27 Zumalar Ride North Swampy Knoll 28 Ride North Singing Goddess 29 Ride North, Bandits Innocent Swine, Vallon 30 Beerfest Ride North, Cross into Borderlay Flying Bull, Tor DeMello
Winter: Frost (7) 809wk
Samhain Wolves, Dragon Summoning I homestead 1 Guild Meeting Borderlay, Dragon Summoning II camp 2 Storm, Wolf Hunt Golden Sheaf 3 Intro & briefing. Chateau Sartoris 4 Cellars: Spiders, Plant, Ghouls 5 Cellars: Spiders gassed, deal struck. 6 Temple, Vanyarami, Astonoyimi
7 Room sweep Lvl 5-3 8 Room sweep Lvl 2,1
Hunting Bergerac
9 10 Ride south 11 12 Armagnac 13
14 Tenarèze 15 16 17 Saint-Michel 18 19 20 Coeur-de-Fer
21 22 23 Newcourt 24 25 Portal from Newcourt to Seagate. 26 27

People

  • Lorraine Vanderzee - a Bard of Borderlay, author of The Lay of Vapour the Vanquisher.
  • Bergerac, The Black Bunny. Blood drinking, Demon summoning familiar. Hates Valery for rejecting him.
  • Philippe, The Golden Mongoose. Valery's new familiar.
  • Angramarzan - large black dragon summoned by Valery.
  • Zagan - was summoned by and assisted Bergerac.

Entities

  • Shi-Maria. A Spider denizen of the lower cellars
  • Jorogumo. A large 20ft Spider denizen of the lower cellars. Pacted to Malthus

Sartoris Estate

Family
Lord Gustav
Head of the family
Gerrard Sartoris
Male human 6'1" PB 21, E&E of reasonable ability, in charge of Cellars, Gransdon of Lord Gustav. Romantically interested in Tari.
Chay Sartoris
Cousin to Gerrard, anti-social ranger, interested in and scared of Valery.
Oustman Sartoris
Cousin to Gerrard, philosopher, knows all experienced nothing.
Foresters
Stefan
6'8" buff Aladarian. Captain of the 60 Foresters.
Herjolf 'The Axe'
6'6" wielding a Great Axe, second in command.
  • Odell
  • Audrieu
Others
Collette Beaumont
Human femle, 5'2" Blonde PB 20, late 20's, Rk 10 Healer. Lives in the Chateau and works for the family. Being formally courted by Vapour.
Ninon De L'close
Human femle, 6'1" Raven-Haired PB 23, Rk 7 Healer. Lives in the Chateau and works for the family. Thought she was in line to be Mrs Gerrard Sartoris.
Jean-Eugene
Male human, PB 20, Rk 8 Healer. Lives in the Chateau and works for the family. Tari observes he is some kind of addict, showed signs of withdrawal.

Places

Buffs

  • Almond Oil
  • Olive Oil
  • Goose Grease (Rose Scented)
  • Vapour's Secret Blend (all of the above - but don't tell him we know)
  • Pavoni Family Wine (from Mario, full name Mario Valentino Pavoni)
  • Dwarven Ale (Valery)
  • Strength of Stone Rk 12 (Tari)
  • Flying Rk 6 (Vapour)
  • Walk Unseen (Tari & Valery)
  • Vapour Breathing Rk 3 (Vapour)

Mil Sci

Marching Order Catwalk Sequence
Vapour    Aposta Perdido
Mario     Valery
Tari      Pretty Flower
Watches Preening Order
  1. Vapour & Pretty Flower
  2. Aposta Perdido & Valery
  3. Mario & Tari

Loot

  • Gifts of Ermine Winter Coats
  • Golden Mongoose (Valery)
From the swamp herbalist
  • 2 potions of endurance/vanity for Vapour lasting 2 weeks each.
Peasant Bandits
  • 4 Heavy Crossbows
  • 4 Battle Axes
  • 3 Hand Axes
  • 200sp bounty
Wolves
  • Wolfskins traded for 4 Wolfskin cloaks (with optional skull hoods).
On Loan from Foresters
  • Flamme de Lumière - Aposta Returned
  • Hand & a Half (Shadow-Blade) - Vapour Returned
  • Dagger (Shadow-Blade) - Vapour Returned
  • Dagger (Ice) - Mario Returned
  • Dagger (Shadow) - Pretty Flower Returned
  • 3 x Rk 10 Waters of Healing each (for use or return)
From the Caves
  • 160' Spider Silk Rope (3 lbs)
  • 12 death-vine pods (5 Noxious vapours, 5 Fear, 2 Hand of Death)
  • Another 20 pods, type TBA
  • 2 x 12' Carapace - can be made into plate armour AP7 Wt4
  • 3 x 5' Carapace - can be made into Large Round or Kite Shields
  • 10 x 3' Carapace - can be made into Small Round Shields
  • Chain of Binding (used to bind the main doors of the Vanyarami Tomb)
Well Water
Skill of Épuration

Gossip

Smartest Nominations
  • Pretty Flower - Highly successful Fumigating Spiders plan
  • Vapour - Wind Whistle to spread the vapours around the cavern
Bravest Nominations
  • Vapour - Fighting on when his looks were in peril
  • Tari - Seducing our human employer to secure our bonus and some E&E enhancements

Quotes

Mario: If Vapour stops that can only mean one thing
Aposta: He found a mirror?