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.

8th Meadow

Scratch had been having trouble with one of his instant travel spells during the night so Silverfoam divinated him. Once the results were in, Scratch wanted to know just what a strange entity had done to make him feel strange on a previous mission. "It took a look at your soul" - Silverfoam "That was pretty good, being able to find it" - Fizzgig "Yeah. I don't usually take it with me" - Scratch Then when Fizzgig mentioned he had an amulet he had obtained from a certain balrog prince, Scratch retreated to the other side of the campsite. This caused Fizzgig to comment that he now had a 'Protection from Scratch' amulet. A while later we were walking down the road and were passing bunches of happy, healthy peasants. At least half the party were suspicious of this so, several DAs were thrown out. We found out that they were contented because they were attuned to Life and Death. Further probing showed that this was because of Silvanius, a deity associated with nature. A short while later we encountered a short humanoid sitting on a treestump, a gorble. He wanted payment to guide us to the inn. I thought he meant the coin that we were given so I gave it to him. Unfortunately it wasn't, he wanted silver but he pocketed it anyway. Uh oh! Silverfoam offered something called choco-lat, a combination of chocolate and chili. The gorble tried it. I'm sure I saw steam rising from his ears. Fairly soon it and Silverfoam were swapping all sorts of consumables. At one point, it appeared that Silverfoam was transforming into a male dryad - assuming there is such a thing. Anyway after sampling various elven wines, the gorble fell unconscious and Fizzgig was able to check it's purse and retrieve the coin I had given it. That purse was bigger on the inside than the outside and held quite a lot of coinage, however we left it alone. Once it recovered, we were led off through a forest until we reached an old mossy circle of standing stones. We prudently decided not to touch it but we were led three times around it. At the end of the third orbit, we found ourselves near the road to Brasta. It was late afternoon. Several halflings and gnomes were working in the fields. Soon after that we reached a 15ft diameter oak tree. Attached to the oak tree was an inn, which several members of the party were sure that hadn't been there the last time they had been here. I suspect the inn is slightly displaced from the human reality. Ignatius was there waiting for us and he led us up to our rooms which were waiting for us. Once there he told us the real reason we were employed. <<<WARNING. This section of the scribe notes has been put under a security seal and left with Ignatius. It may only be opened, in the presence of Guild Security, at the completion of our mission, or at the next Guild meeting which ever comes first >>> Ignatius took out a black gem and told us that we could not reveal what we were about to find out. When we agreed to this, a compulsion was laid upon us. Basically we were to break in to a goblin stronghold of the Crooked Fang Clan and steal their prisoner, known as 'The Kobold' or Kurtulmak (I think). They intend to kill him at a certain time, the new moon of the next month. That places it at the 12th of Heat. He was the life prisoner of the gnomes but they keep him in such a way that he's not really aware he's a prisoner. Besides they want him alive. Apparently the kobolds worship him as a god and if he was killed, they'll probably start worshipping someone else. His hiding place had been secret but a large hobgoblin had found it. The goblin stronghold was located somewhere south of Brasta and, as well as the goblins, we could expect to find lesser undead. The goblins also stole several objects including large gem-like objects. There were several ways of getting there such as astral, ethereal, along the roads, or through the Shadowplanes. The roads are probably crawling with undead. After discussion it was decided to go via the Ethereal Plane. <<< END SECURITY SEAL >>> During the night, Grendel put up a Mind Speech but also got many of the local inhabitants which annoyed them greatly. I suspect that, because they are fey folk, that they have negative magical resistance. 9th Meadow After some Potions of Etherealness were handed out we were to drink one each then walk widdershins around the tree six times, to fix the location in our minds. During our circuits we were pelted with fruit and there were several chants of 'Go home mindmage'. Absentmindedly I picked some of the fruit up and put it in my pocket. Apparently I missed Fizzgig's warning last night, probably because I was in my room studying, that eating fey fruit is not such a good idea. To all adventurers, please take note of this. After the sixth orbit we found ourselves in a misty area and could move in any direction we wanted. This was the Border Ethereal, a part of the Ethereal that co-exists with the Prime Material and Elemental Planes. The Border Ethereal of each plane are connected to each other via the Deep Ethereal. Both Michael and I discovered that we had achieved a sense of direction, much like a Ranger, except it was aligned with the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Radiance. Glynn also had a similar sense except his was pointing towards the Elemental Plane of Air. Just then we noticed that Hope had vanished. Had she not come through with us, had she wandered off and was somewhere nearby in the Border Ethereal, or had she taken a right turn to reality and was now in the Deep Ethereal. All she would have done to achieve that was to will it so. If that was the case we had no means of tracking her. We waited. After a short while she had still not appeared and she was not showing up on locates. The third possibility was beginning to be the much more likely one. While we waited, I pulled a piece of fruit out of my pocket and absentmindedly nibbled on it. Just as I began to feel strange, I realised what it was and dropped it. It looked like an apple but, since I was appearing to change into a crab, it must have been a crabapple. Fortunately Scratch was able to return me to my original form by having me consume a mandrake. However it had a rather unfortunate side effect which I won't go into but, at least Hope wasn't here to make comments. I may need to undergo emergency surgery. After enduring Fizzgig's lecture, I ditched all the remaining fruit which Scratch decided to acquire. He's welcome to them. Some of the other varieties also had odd properties. For instance, the cherries and the pineapples were explosive. Thank goodness I didn't eat one of those. We decided to go Deep in the hope of locating Hope. It was like stepping into a rolling bank of mist then we found ourselves standing by a shimmering turquoise curtain, the vaporous curtain to the Prime Material. Around us it looked like we were in the middle of a thick soup so we couldn't see very far. Another attempt was made to locate Hope but that too failed. Fizzgig managed to create some sort of telescope out of the surrounding Ethereal Matter and used it to see Hope near a silvery brown curtain. I presume that was the entrance to one of the Demi- Planes but I have no idea which one. Scratch thought he knew. He believed it was a place where devas are created. It'll take a while to get there. So it was decided to try to summon Hope back. Scratch used the telescope to concentrate an amount of charm and send it off in that direction. However, what he attracted was not Hope, but a love-sick Kua-toan. Silverfoam had to banish it back to the Elemental Plane of Water. We headed off in the direction where we believed Hope was. It was heavy going and after a while many in the party were getting tetchy. Michael was muttering comments about irresponsible females and how they all seem to be like that. Privately I was agreeing with him. Finally we had to stop and rest as we were just too tired to continue. << Hope's Adventure >> She had gone through the shimmering curtain and found herself on a beach. There was no Border Ethereal around this demiplane. Alabaster white statues, some broken, were scattered about. She decided not to stay but retreated back into the Deep Ethereal and wandered for a while before reaching a blue curtain. After going through this, she left the Border Ethereal and found herself in the Elemental Plane of Air. All around her was the sapphire blue colour of a summer's day, broken only by flecks of other matter floating about in this infinite expanse. It was then she realised she was falling. After quite a while, she passed a large rock which was covered in buildings. It was also surrounded by a shell of ballistae bolts, all pointing outwards, and all just floating motionless there, ready to launch. Something then caught her and conveyed her to this rock. There she met the caliph of the local Djinni, Abdul, and after having dinner, ended up in his harem. She also received his signet ring. .3. Finally we reached the demiplane Scratch was thinking of which was called the Boundless, according to the aura of the curtain. Silverfoam divinated the curtain and discovered that an entity had entered then exited. We figured that must have been Hope. She still didn't show up on a locate so we created another of those telescopes and saw Hope dressed in a a semi-transparent outfit lounging on a set of large cushions. A rather large muscular gentleman, wearing nothing but trousers in an arabic style and a large scimitar was in the background. Through a keyhole shaped window, the sky was a bright sky blue. She was either on the Elemental Plane of Air or an alternate Prime Material. "We're either going to be employed by the houri or the dey" - Silverfoam Various means of tracking Hope were put forward and rejected. Finally the idea was put forward of setting a Phantasm on her and following it. This we did. Those of us that could see it observed that it was sucking ethereal matter into itself which caused it to take on some sort of material form. Suddenly it turned and attacked us and, unfortunately, I was the target. My Mind Counter failed to stop it so I teleported five feet straight up while Silverfoam dealt to it. Once we healed up, I had the idea of trying again but using my mathematical and navigational skills to determine the direction relative to Glynn's and my North sense. So we did. Silverfoam determined that a Binder Special Counter would slow down the matter accumulation. Soon I was able to determine that we were heading towards the Elemental Plane of Air. Finally we reached the azure coloured curtain. When the phantasm contacted the curtain, it dissipated. "The winds around here would probably have an opinion" - Scratch to Glynn when Glynn suggested casting a Flying spell on us. After going through into the Border Ethereal and into the Elemental Plane itself, we discovered we were falling. Fortunately it didn't take us long to agree on which way was down. I had previously explained that, in theory, it was possible not to fall by consciously deciding that no direction was 'down' but it was obviously much harder than that. Guess people are too used to the concept of falling to perceive of anything else. Glynn's suggestion of a featherfall spell of vetoed on the grounds it would limit our ability to manoeuvre. Not very much impeded our journey. At one point Grendel grazed a vacuum bubble. Glynn tried asking a flock of birds we encountered but none of them had seen anything. There was the earth pocket, with buildings including a large citadel on it, surrounded by spears, all facing outward. We also observed a large glowing hook, the business end of a Summon Elemental Ritual. Elementals were flocking around it like moths to a flame. Finally we were heading towards some cloud banks. Just then we spotted a very large bird. Lighting was flicking around it and we could hear the boom of thunder as it flew. It was correctly identified as a thunderbird. With it was a large flock of ravens. As they turned in our direction, Silverfoam cast Air Counters on us all. The ravens swooped on us and we had to manoeuver to avoid them. It was soon apparent that we were being herded back to the earth pocket. A voice called out inviting us to dinner. A short time later, we were intercepted by a small flotilla of flying carpets, with pilots, and invited to come aboard. After zig-zagging through the defence sphere we landed at, what we discovered as a djinni citadel. This was ruled by Ibi Padishar Harif the Third. After landing we met the vizier and were assigned to quarters to freshen up before dinner. At dinner we noticed the Pahisha and a marid at the head of the table. We were about a third down. The marid was enveloped in a column of water and Scratch recognised him as one he had met before. This was the one who Corel had been working for. However, the Pahisha announced that there was one among them that deserved their honour and a toast was made to Scratch. It turned out that a previous party that Scratch had been in had been asked to destroy a powerful efreeti. However Scratch had managed to sic him on to a powerful drow mage in the Greyhawk Underdark. The mage destroyed the efreet which pleased the djinni greatly. The marid was also looking for Corel and asked for news. Apparently Corel had a contract with the marid but had reneged on it. As proof he showed us Corel's testicles on a string. Also he told us that Corel had been selling the names of Guild adventurers to demons. Guild Security will be very interested in that bit of news. The Pahisha offered to help us find Hope by sending messages throughout his realm. He estimated that would take a couple of days for the replies to come back. During that time the following things happened. Glynn decided to learn a lightning bolt spell. To do this, it involved climbing up the top of a metal tower, read the spell from the underside of the thunderbird (which had all the Air College inscribed under its wing) and being hit by lightning so he was immersed in the spell. Thank goodness it wasn't whirlwind vortex. Somehow he survived the experience. Grendel spoke to the marid about learning more water magic. So a deal was struck. Grendel would receive instruction in return for three months service in the marid's harem. He agreed to this so they briefly went to the marid's palace in the Elemental Plane of Water to formalise the contract and make the necessary arrangements including the preparations for Grendel's new role. We discovered that the djinni had a prophecy about a Great Healer who could raise the dead who would come among them and help them in their war against the efreeti. The healer would also be the Son of Lugh. I didn't really want to be involved in a jihad so I decided to keep quiet about my abilities. Unfortunately they found out. Either someone let it slip or the djinni used divination techniques. In any case I was put in a situation where I had to attempt to raise dead djinni, currently in gaseous form. Fortunately it worked. Unfortunately I was then hailed as the Great Prophet. I was rather concerned about the consequences of this but at least I was allowed to leave to continue adventuring. I would return later. Honour, and my conscience, demanded it.