Battles in the Dark

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Battles in the Dark
GM: Jono Bean
Season: Autumn 800 WK
Night: Someday
Level:

Party

• Silken Human, Female E & E Mage
• Blitzkrieg Human, Male Namer Mage
• Bleyze Elven, Male Fire Mage
• Dramus* Elven, Male Necromancer
• Braegon Human, Male Earth Mage
• Jaundice Elven, Female Fire Mage
• Kern (scribe) Elven, Male Earth Mage
• Razor** Human, Male Fighter
• Turf*** Elven, Male Namer Mage

* Dramis departed early on
** Razor joined us once in Reiger’s Keep
*** Turf joined us post the keep and for the rest

Employer

TBC

Mission

Hired to do a job

Pay

the Friends we made along the way

Original scribe notes

Media:Snau0002.zip

Essential equipment for a sojourn in the Dark Circle (DC)

Courtesy of the SAG, Duke of Carzala and the Church of the Western Kingdom.

Since the Dark circle counts as a dangerous environ the cautious adventurer should have all or at least some of the following essential items.

Waters of Strength (4) – Rank 20

Greater Enchantment Necklaces (2) – Rank 19, two diamond studded necklaces (matching earrings as well for those fashion conscious individuals, quite exquisite – Ed)

Healing Potions – As many as you can carry. We did manage to avail ourselves of extra services and got 2 Heal all damage Potions and 14 excellent 20 points.

A potion of Rank 20 Necrogeny

Mind Cloak Potions (2) – Rank 3

With all these items and more of your own choosing you may have a small chance (akin to a snowballs summer vacation in a local solar flares hangout) of surviving the DC, but before you leave Seagate make sure your estates are in order.

Scribe Notes

1st April 00

Organising for the trials and tribulations ahead WWe all met up in Guild meeting room 66, which I thought a bit suspicious until I saw Silken and Blitzkrieg sitting there discussing some court gossip over whom had done what to whom and why. The stuff of their daily lives but far above myself, a merely working class adventurer who fought day to day to stay ahead of the rabble of society.

II introduced to Blitzkrieg and exchanged pleasantries with Silken (whom I had met on a brief trip to OZ) and took a seat and undertook the same duties with the other party members that followed me in shortly afterwards.

A SAG functionary, a toady little man named Smithe who absolutely fawned over Silken (understandable really, being so beatific and all - Ed) came in and discussed with us the terms and conditions of the mission which was to raise the siege in the dwarven superstition mountains and bring the dwarves back into Seagate.

Both Silken and Blitzkrieg were acknowledged for their devout practices (which ones were not specified – Ed) & high standing with the church, Dramis was noted as being a vassal of the Duke, Bleyze and Jaundice for their fiery reputations and myself for my martial prowess.

2nd April 00, Continued Organising and planning

After undertaking the tedious work of gathering supplies we decided we were ready to depart Seagate. Upon hearing of this news the Church representatives decided they wouldn’t have us just leaving like normal party’s, as with the Dark Circle they needed some open show of opposition and power.

3rd April 00, Time to depart this fair city of light

The day dawned a dull and overcast, there was a large parade through town with us the focus of the fanfare, Silken was positively radiant and looked supremely angelic with even a hint of wings behind her (I always thought she was a busy little bee –Ed), Blitzkrieg on the other had looked the part of Samuelite’s hardened enforcer in his dark robes and a whopping huge Scythe in his hand.

The rest of us were basking in their reflected glory and enjoyed the occasion tremendously and once the parade finished outside of town, away from prying eyes we all slipped of to our pre-arranged rendezvous with some other guild lackeys who held our trappings of war and retribution.

We quickly gathered our supplies and departed Seagate via a secret portal to Dramis’s estates in Brastor to the south. We emerged in his estate’s main house and once we had seen to our mounts feeding and safety we adjourned to Dramis’s safe tower for an evenings repast before the horrors of the coming days. We were interrupted by a knock at the tower door which turned out to be a servant of Dramis’s who begged for his master to take him and several other lackey’s in from the dark and stormy night.

“Sir there are dark forces at work tonight and we saw several dark shapes near your manor graveyard”, to wit Dramis replied “That’s perfectly normal you know – I am a Necromancer they are simply some of my creatures that I control"”

”No sir they are not yours anymore and there are many more than normal, so please may we enter your tower of safety kind sir?” Dramis bade them enter and signalled for us to come and aid him in investigating the foul rumours of his loss of control. “This can’t happen to me in my own home, I’m lord of the manor here and king of my domain”

Silken told him “Pipe down and get real, you’re an adventurer, made rich upon the blood, sweat and toil of others and an exploiter of the working class. This makes you a self important dictatorial tyrant with delusions of grandeur, act like the evil Necromantic conjurer that you are and start doing what we are here for which is to deal to the evil influence of the Dark Circle and Rashak the impotent ”

This tirade had the desired effect and his backbone straightened and became less stooped and he moved outside with the rest of us to do to the dark forces. It turned out that there were about 60 skeletons & zombies in military formation controlled by 2 night gaunt's and a death knight. Being the prepared party that we were, we quickly undertook actions as per our pre arranged battle plans.

Spells to assist us went off as planned and then we took the fight to the undead, I lobbed a few grenades’, methane followed by a Greek fire grenado. This had the desired affect of igniting the methane cloud causing much destruction in the front ranks of the undead. Blitz at this point ran through the front ranks and proceeded to wreak mayhem in their rear.

Silken at the same time had located the evil death knight and was dealing to him using some of her personal Holy water (made even more holy by her tender touch – Ed), and she had the desired effect as when she dealt him a good splatter he disappeared and the remaining Skeletons and Zombies dropped back down to the earth – lifeless so to speak.

Concurrently Bleyze and I after some dazzling pyrotechnics from Jaundice - she breathed fire into the undead front ranks and destroyed around 20 in one instantaneous fireball, we jumped up to the roof of the manor and pursued the 2 departing night gaunt’s. I slew mine in one foul blow and Bleyze destroyed his utterly in a blaze of fire.

After some searching we made the undead ‘safe’ again and retired to the tower to finish our interrupted evening repast and sample some of Dramis’s fine cheese selection before retiring for a brief sleep prior to the grueling day we perceive to be ahead. We decided to undertake a bit of experimentation to see if the rumors about unusual necromantic effects were true. They were so we slept until morning.

4th April 00, The day of the ambush and death.

We left the tower after powering up with all the necessary spells and proceeded on foot towards the last known position of the death knight. We tried to avoid a large pool of water caused by the rain and then saw the ambush that was almost upon us from a near hill, we tunneled into the steep slippery hill and dealt with some undead but during the fight we had a death.

‘Kern was defending the rear of the party as per pre arranged plans and the party was struck with evil spells, most of the party failed to save and suffered some fright effects.

Kern was berserk and valiantly took on 2 of the undead while the rest of the party either cowered in the rear of the tunnel or were dealing with the front undead leaving Kern some 15 feet from the nearest person.

The enemy employed evil magic and caused the ground to disappear under his feet, he fell down the slippery slope and was stunned by the fall. While stunned 3 undead and a Night Gaunt set him upon, they cut off his left hand in a lucky blow and though he fought back well he was seriously injured.

He slew the Night Gaunt with a single blow of his weapon but then a swarm of dark bats came at him and rent him into pieces instantly.

The others tried to save him and Blitzkrieg charged down and killed others but was unable to do so in time.

The next moment saw Lady Silken in close with the surviving undead beating then with her own inimitable style along with Blitzkrieg.

“I’m sick of punching this undead, I’ll strangle it” - as Silken said this she strangled the night gaunt.

The undead then broke and the party tried to recover Kern’s body and various parts as another of his hands get cut off.

Blitzkrieg lazed around and only managed to kill 2 greater undead that pulse and silken told him to stop slacking around and get on with the business.

The party continues on the undead keep dying and the body tries to join the wall of bones and Blitz stops him from doing so. The undead start to flee after a bitter series of ripostes from the party and we slowly whittles them away. Blitzkrieg carries my limp body on his broad shoulders halting my drift to the evil bones.

Silken takes care of the undead blanket of bats from the evil undead who tried to get away by TK’ing it out of the hands. “Silken steals blankets for the lord, while Blitzkrieg kicks butt for the lord.” Lord Samuelite that is.

We end up with the blanket and then the party looks over Kern and discerns that he isn’t dead but statised in some way, during their inspection something happens and he actually dies, then a deep dark huge shape is drawn from the blanket and it goes into Kern's body, they stand back and he rises and appears ok except he is now inhabited by Shade and dark elemental force from the nether world.

5th April 00

We return to Seagate and return everyone to normal and lose Dramas due to illness and gain Turf the fighter who has recently returned from an overseas sojourn. The party is summoned by the Duke of Carzala and told that Reigars keep is under heavy attack and we are requested to aid them in repulsing the evil horde.

The party goes on down and gets set in, a large combat ensues with a number of beholders, giant snakes, evil eyes, death knights and a horde of skeleton’s (some 300). The battle doesn’t quite go to plan, the party is dealt to with all of us damaged in one way or another so we decide to flee back to Seagate. We leave on firelight and have to pass through a horde of bats. This hurts us even more, and even lady darks aid with her shield of purity doesn’t save us all that much, she ends up with broken bones and we all gain yet more injuries.

We return to Seagate and inform the duke of the situation and he says we have 2 hours before the keep falls and he needs us back there, we undertake several miracles and heal ourselves up to a reasonable level.

We return to the keep and land in the thick of the fight (thanks to Blitzkrieg’s fabulous directions) and we start laying about the place – we were looking for the additional reinforcements of 2 titans that were supposed to be here by now along with a stout adventurer named Razor.

The fight is long and hard with Bleyze killing the giant snake almost single handedly (using the unusual technique of jumping in it’s mouth), Kern destroys the evil death knight’s using his mace, Silken uses all her abilities and destroys heaps of minions, Turf laid about killing skeletons and the party in general killed lots of the bad guys.

The evil gelatinous cube catches me and as it’s destroyed by Braegons damage spell I am sucked through to where the cube was summoned and once there I fall over and act dead and wait for the party to return and get me. It turns out that the spot is an evil place of power

6th April 00

We depart from the high point, using the titans wet visually teleport across plains heading home to Seagate.

7th April 00

We cross a high mana zone and get a letter from an Owl that is for the guild. It’s a warning from the big juju Kraken! We rest a while , having bad dreams and then travel onto the keep. Reigar's keep is saved and we depart.

8th April 00

We leave there and get back to Seagate; we sleep in the church.

In the morning a few church knights come to visit and Blitzkrieg and he gets rid of them.

We wonder how to proceed and someone suggests the oracle in Argons watch and so we get on the flying ship of the lunar ambassador.

9th April 00

We fly on down and find once we are there that the area is infested with Gargoyles and Drow.

We decide to take no crap from these idiots and so we fly onto the watch dropping TK and Agony grenades.

We have a fight and it goes well for a few pulses but we are soon stretched to our limits and then through foul and evil magic they manage to turn Turf against us to devastating effect. We decide to leave and proceed down to the cave where the Oracle is reputed to dwell we do so with the evil turncoat Turf following causing more death and mayhem for poor Bleyze.

We get into the cave and a darkness descends and in the inky black atmosphere they evil ones come and take our jewel, lady dark from us and together they disappear. A bonus appears from all the mayhem around us and Turf is rendered incapable of further action by the abilities of the Oracle who hates violence in her antechamber. However poor Razor makes an unfortunate wind correction trying to enter the cave and splats into the wall with nasty equipment complications.

We experience a momentary period of disorientation at the unexpected loss of one of our stalwarts, but I bring out one of my special rocks of converging paths and use it, but alas to no avail as they have already passed beyond our reach. We enter the cavern of the Oracle and hold discussions with the lady on many topics. She gives me a staff to aid our fight as she can’t use it. We use some special items of Turf’s and establish where Lady dark has gone and how we can get her back to us and the proper path. Using this information we bid the Oracle adieu and we make haste to the site we can get our lady back. This plan and it'’ expected outcome all works swimmingly and we soon deal to the kidnapper and recover our lost treasure.

10th April 00

We return hence to Seagate only to find that other machinations of Evil have been visited on those close to us. Blitzkriegs wife has been kidnapped and his daughter (we are astonished as much as he at this revelation that he has and can breed) is distraught. We are further informed of the implications of what will happen politically should she remain in evil hands and how the civil war in the realm would progress. Poor Blitzkrieg, on top of all this we find that his manservant ‘Running water’ has also been lost to the evil ones along with some rather valuable items, we console him with a pint or two.

We restock and consider the problems at hand, we decide that based on this new information and the problems that we need to visit the Oracle again to find the best course of action. We visit the Oracle, in-flight accidents (or rather landing accidents) reduce the party by two when both myself and Razor land at once bumping each other causing near fatal consequences. Luckily the party had the wit to consult the oracle who gave us a selection of scrolls, 2 of which healed us up completely and totally.

11th April 00

To the problem at hand, we consulted the oracle and she gave us some sage advice which we took under consideration and then formulated our plan of action and cunning. We knew that the evil wife would try to get the daughter back and use her court connections to get help to do so knowing that we would be protecting the baby girl.

So we got to the chancellor first using Blitzkriegs and Silken’s influence and discussed what would happen and how we’d like him to play along with the lady when she turns up to ask for his help. We then leave without spies at court being any the wiser and deploy in the summer palace. We only had to wait a number of hours when we detected a large contingent of people heading our way, it was the kings rapiers (elite fighters – some 50 or so), numerous court flunkies, the 3 evil tax collectors, the chancellor, the lady and some ladies in waiting(one of whom we knew to be an evil spy of some sort) and many men at arms.

The result was as planned when she came to us and asked for the child (accompanied by many others), Blitzkrieg asked his wife to speak privately. She using some evil items resisted and then realised that the chancellor had been pre-warned and tried to flee but we trapped her and en-prison her into our special cage after a brief and short melee with a possessed guard and an evil lady of hers. The chancellor bid us farewell and he would sort some issues out now that he was free of the subterfuge and he realised that some of his court needed ‘cleansing’ – on the kings behalf obviously!

12th April 00

We left and then travelled on down to the Shapers retreat whence we knew he could be of assistance in aiding us to rid the lady of the evil and corruptive influences. We had Lady Kirstens sister , the lady Catherine accompany us as she had to be killed by someone who truly loves her.

We completed the plan exactly as we planned it, we killed her and got the body back from the lands of the dead and she was back with her beloved Blitzkrieg. We thanked the Shaper and got a few items off him to aid in our continuing struggles against the Dark Circle and evil in general then left for the guild with the ladies in tow.

13th April 00

We safely delivered the ladies to the guild and they are to remain until a suitable escort has been gathered and a guild party hired to ensure the security of the ladies.

14th April 00

The End!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Good luck those who will accompany the ladies up north, there are a lot of people who will pay dearly for the demise of the ladies both foreign and local, beware of the court factions as well. Trust is earned and not a given!! Beware the hand of death and the crimson witch – from a strange dream last night. The gnarled Oak, River of Horses and the Hill of brown??? should all be avoided. Oh and if in dire emergency say the following ‘ tnowsz li eidabehta ar socsluy te osruohnob sl yeremevx af ahdogc” and then most of your prayers will be answered.)