Middlemarch

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Middlemarch
GM: Paul S
Season: Summer 800 WK

Party

• Scratch, E&E(?) Human Male
• The Lady Hope De Winter, Necromancer Human Female
• Glynn, Air Elf Male
• Grendel, Mind Human Male
• Silverfoam, Namer Elf Male
• Michael, Solar Celestial Human Male
• Fizzgig, E&E Hobbit Male
• Phaeton, Solar Celestial Human Male (Scribe)
• Callas, Earth Female Human

Time on adventure

1st Meadow to 22nd Meadow 800 WK

Employer

Ignatius Knobnose

Mission

To rescue a kobold ‘deity’ from a stronghold of goblins

Plane

Greyhawk/Ethereal/Elemental Air

Places Visited

City of Greyhawk (on Greyhawk)

Djinni stronghold (plane of Air)

The Twist - a middlemarch

Ganlion Hill in Brastor

Major NPCs encountered

Lorefakir

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsu0002.zip

Scribe Notes

This adventure seemed to be the most interesting of what was offered. The employer was a gnomish gentleman by the name of Ignatius Knobnose. I knew him to be an associate of the Archmage Lawfakir on the Plane of Greyhawk. Apparently some gnomish treasure had gone missing and we were asked to help track it and retrieve it. We could have what we wanted except a special item of the gnomes. He didn't say who had taken it but, when pressed, admitted the entities in question were large, winged, and reptilian. Also I had recently discovered I was on the Dark Circle's hit list and was wanting to either go on an adventure against them or, go offplane. Looks like its going to be the latter. So, upon reaching the meeting hall, I discovered my fellow adventurers were: Scratch - a 5'4" personage with a hump and can be very unnoticeable. I think he's an E&E but he has several unique talents and spells, such as glitterdust and spirit sight. He's a diplomat, thief, acrobat, and can stick to any surface. Michael - a merchant adventurer. Well dressed in a green/silver outfit topped by a purple sash. He's a human, a merchant prince and another Solar Celestial. Hope de'Winter - Another diplomat and spy. She's a young 5' tall human female in a white dress and, dare I admit it, cute. A necromancer and ranger. Glynn - a 6'8" elf wearing ornate leather with sheathed tulwar and dagger. He's an airmage and I had adventured with him on the previous outing. Grendel - I had adventured with him several times. He's a 5'9" mindmage, with several watermage spells. 5'9" tall, waist length hair, leather armour and mis-matched eyes. He's pacted to a water deity. Silverfoam - Well known elven namer, military scientist and dilettante. He's also a troubadour and philosopher. A 6' tall elf carrying a staff and wearing blood-red samurai armour and a stylish hat. Fizzgig - a 3'7" plain looking male hobbit, bristling with weapons. He's an E&E, spy, thief, merchant. Can disarm wards and make lucky charms - at a price. Phaeton - 5'3" male human wearing white robes and a rainbow cloak. I'm a Master Healer, Solar Celestial mage, and philosopher in magic. I'm pacted to a healer god and many of my spells specifically target the undead/unholy. Ignatius told us that we had two days to prepare before we went to Greyhawk. So all the party, including me, went down to the Water College to place our orders for Waters of Healing and Strength. I also got accosted by Brigetta's adventuring party to put StarWings on them all. 3rd Meadow '800 WK Two days later, we were led towards Dead End Alley. Ignatius handed out jade bracelets to everyone except Scratch and me. Since we had been here before, the ones we had, just reappeared. So we entered the alley. As we did it got very foggy. A tentacled entity was waiting in the shadows as we passed. Before we could stop him, Silverfoam DAed it. The creature treated that as a hostile act and attacked, knocking him out. After distracting it with a handful of copper coins, we hurried on, conveying the unconscious body of Silverfoam with us. Shortly we arrived at Lorefakir's house and Ignatius knocked at the door. A dwarven servant let us in, who began eying up Hope. He then led us to a waiting area as Lorefakir was extremely busy at the moment. Far in the distance, we could hear muffled swearing. As we progressed down the corridor, a purple glowing eye materialized behind Scratch and followed him, obviously keeping him under observation. I revived Silverfoam and we were served tea and biscuits. When we asked about how long Lorefakir was going to be, we were told that it could be a while. Apparently the last Seagate party had managed to do something that had caused Lorefakir to be shut out of his own library. We could still hear him, muttering curses at the name of Turf. Fizzgig was also a locksmith so he offered to have a look. I followed, out of idle curiosity. Most of the rest of the party followed except for Scratch, Hope and Michael. Michael preferred to wait out of the way while Scratch decided he was going out. Not sure exactly what happened to Hope. We found Lorefakir at the end of a corridor facing a solid steel door with no visible lock. Wards were detected all around. Lorefakir did something to deactivate them so we could pass safely and Fizzgig tried one of his door opening spells. It worked and the door swung open. On the other side was some steps leading down and several ibis head motifs, the symbol of Thoth, a god of knowledge. Lorefakir stepped through but ran into a ward which impeded his progress. More cursing followed. We could go through but it was obvious he couldn't. So Silverfoam started divinating the area. A sofa was provided so he could divinate in comfort. He later concluded the ward was similar to Turf's exclusion ritual. Out in the street, Scratch was desperately attempting to avoid the local children. Seems there's something odd about them. Finally he takes to the roof and notices a large dwarf who seems to be gathering taxes from the locals. So Scratch went in the direction the dwarf came from. Meanwhile Glynn, Fizzgig and I had reached the bottom of the steps and could see the library. Nearby was a table with a lamp sitting on it. Beyond were library shelves full of books which stretched seemingly into infinity - and probably did as this library was transfinite. I had used this library before and was aware of it's hazards so decided to stay right where I was. However Glynn and Fizzgig wandered into the stacks. Fizzgig soon returned but there was no sign of Glynn. We waited for a while but still no sign. So Fizzgig went to find Lorefakir. He came back a little while later and consulted the Table of Contents while using the Lamp of Illumination. Glynn was still wandering about and had found himself facing three images, a river, books, and a dagger. He chose the books and found himself facing a shelf of books with a compulsion to remove some. After he did, he felt older and was back facing images of a river and dagger. He touched the dagger. As we watched, Glynn staggered out of the shadows, looking a lot older. An empathy check confirmed this. Fizzgig told him "you're going to sit on the steps and be quiet now". He then disappeared between the shelves, returned carrying a hat, and took it up to Lorefakir. Now Lorefakir had the solution to his problem, he was able to enter the library and find out how to fix Glynn's problem. Glynn was told to find the river glyph. After some experimentation he discovered that proceeding upstream de-aged him. Scratch was getting hungry by now but he decided to bypass the Stone Parrot Inn and try the second best one in town. After some discussion with the cook and trying some rather exotic foods, he ended up with a thousand year old egg. Glynn had returned and Grendel was interested in finding out more about Water magics. So he entered the library. He found himself at the shore of an ocean that was lined with gems. He entered the water but then discovered bits of him were dropping off as gems. So he gathered up as many as he could identify and retrieve. During the process he gained a hump. Several hundred metres away, Scratch's hump suddenly vanished. He headed straight back to Lorefakir's place to find out what was going on. He wanted his hump back. Grendel managed to make his way back to where we were waiting. It seemed to us that our memories were changing and Grendel had always had that hump. Finally we all got back together. Lorefakir performed rituals that would give us twenty point enchantments for the duration of our employment. After this Ignatius took us to a place that could do a hump transplant between Grendel and Scratch. The place looked and smelt like a butcher's shop rather than a healer's clinic. The place was filthy and rats scurried all over the place outside. Some of them were rather large and had suckered feet. Most of us decided to wait outside while the 'surgery' took place. However I was called inside and warned by Scratch to be careful as high ranked people around here tend to be 'collected'. The procedure was to use some sort of guillotine to quickly remove the hump off Grendel and then transfer it back to Scratch by Scratch having to swallow it. So Grendel was strapped down. I was quite sure I was going to have to do reconstructive healing on him after this. Outside, the rats were closing in around the rest of the party. So Michael created a Ring of Light. It started to fade away as if the mana was being sucked out of it. Somewhere a bell started ringing. The rest of the party dived into the building except Michael and Fizzgig. Not even the rats were game to go in there. Then there was the sound of approaching heavy footsteps and a squad of local guardsmen arrived to arrest Michael on the charge on using unlicensed magic within the city walls. Unnoticed, Fizzgig faded into the background. They were rather surprised when Michael didn't resist. By now the operation had been completed and Scratch had his hump back, although it felt a bit different. The guards wanted to know our Colleges and we would have to sign a writ and register as mages. Hope was going to be a problem though. She told them she was a white necromancer but the guards were very suspicious and wanted to take us all away for 'further questioning'. Fortunately Lorefakir's house was on the way and we manage to get Lorefakir to vouch for nearly all of us. The guards let us go. Now that we had our enchantments, we headed back to Dead End Alley and, after avoiding the tentacled entity, we were back in Alusia. I immediately insisted that we head back to my clinic so I could examine Grendel and Scratch. Everyone seemed normal except that Grendel had picked up a Cerebral Parasite. They're ethereal creatures that are attracted to mind activity, especially mind mages, and basically suck out their minds. Fortunately the cure was simple. I created a Wall of Light and got Grendel to walk through it a few times. Fizzgig had turned up again and we noticed that one of those large rats with suckered feet had followed him home. Scratch called it 'a pack rat'. After some discussion Fizzgig called it 'Swag'. Finally we prepared to follow the trail of the treasure, east towards the Sea of Grass. .2. 6th Meadow We had spent the last few days preparing. Scratch had managed to obtain 14 Rank 6 Trollskins (BC 89%) from Dido which were passed out - two each. Silverfoam obtained an old cart and a horse to pull it. In case there were Dark Circle spies on the gates we left, disguised as travelling players. Also we went north, intending to swing to the east the next day. Ignatius told us he would meet us at an inn near the Brasta area in two or three days as he had other business to attend to. If we had difficulty we should look for a lightning blasted oak tree. He handed us a special coin and told us that would help us find the inn. Those that wanted them had witchsights on. With those we noticed we had travelling companions. A boggle was sitting on the horse and three more, plus a Killmoulis. They, and virtually all the fey folk, are abandoning the area as the Dark Circle advances, hitching rides with unsuspecting travellers. The pixies and brownies were the first to leave. Silverfoam suggested there was a mansion up north that was highly suited to their needs. It would be interesting to see how Silkin handles unexpected house guests. We travelled for the rest of the day and camped the night. Watch order was: 1. Phaeton/Michael 2. Glynn/Scratch 3. Fizzgig/Hope 4. Silverfoam/Grendel I tried an astrology reading to discover what we were likely to find on our journey and received one word - Danger. 7th Meadow The cart was left with the brownies and they continued north while, after ditching the mummers outfits, we walked eastish. The marching order from the front was: Scratch/Grendel, Glynn/Fizzgig, Phaeton/Silverfoam, and Hope/Michael. Silverfoam started drawing a map. As we progressed, the area seemed to be getting darker. Silverfoam DAed a nearby flower, a fuschia, and discovered that it had only been in the influence of the Dark Circle for the last two days. Meanwhile I checked another plant and detected a faint magical aura, presumably caused by the Circle. The primary College involved was Namer. At the end of the day we estimated we were halfway to the inn. As we settled down, I cast Witchsights on all those who needed them, including Swag. Glynn was taking to an entity, later established to be a Summer Sprite, when it suddenly fell over and died. A patch of grass sprang up where it fell. Also it seemed to be getting colder. So, as more of them turned up, we left in a hurry. Curious though, the cold seemed to follow us. Once the stars came out, I noticed that they appeared brighter and clearer. Well that seemed to be one advantage to the Circle but it is probably the only one and the disadvantages far outweigh it. It's going to have to go.