Princess Bride in the Black Tower

From DQWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Princess Bride in the Black Tower

  • aka The Return of the Princess Bride

GM: William
Season: Summer 797 WK

Party
Time on adventure
01/04/96 to 11/06/96 AP
Employer
Jacob Carlyle - The Traveller
Mission
To seek and return a princess from the Black Tower of the Illimari
Planes
Jann/Illimar
(with stops on: Malthria, Gran Brutan, Relateth, Alerus, Rloth, Morak, and Malac)
Places visited
Amath - Jann
Rasalteth - Jann
Major NPCs encountered
The Grand Vizier at Rasalteth
Greatspear - an Illimarian elf
A Mountain Man who collected mages
Myrene - captured E&E mage - from Jelmarre
A spideroid seer
Slandeshi - an Illimarian
Prince Millideta of the Illimar
Princess Farzana of the Jann
Original Scribe Notes
Media:Snsu9702.zip

Adventure Summary

Hired by the Traveller, Jacob Carlyle, to go and rescue a Jann princess that had been forced into an unsuitable marriage with an Illimari prince. The Jann believe all the Illimari have been driven insane because of their captivity from the Calimari.

03/04/96

After preparations, started ‘hellriding’ (dimension-hopping) towards the plane of the Jann. On Gran Butan we were attacked by something called ‘ornithopters’ and people wielding strange pikes.

On Relateth, encountered the remains of a battle between humans and amphibian Doomprophets.

10/04/96

After many worlds later, we reached Jann and spent the night in the city of of Amath.

11/04/96

Lost PJ.

12/04/96

Discovered the Mayor’s Magician had PJ thinking he was a demon familiar. PJ escaped. Decided to leave.

15/04/96

Arrived in the capital city of Rasalteth and spoke with the Grand Vizier. They would open a portal to Illimar tomorrow. Described inhabitants of that plane as psychopathic maniacs and most are mages.

16/04/96

Prepared for the trip.

17/04/96

At midnight the portal was opened and we went through. Had a vision about being a solar warrior fighting an evil sorcerer in a zuggurat. Managed to defeat him.

22/04/96

Awoke and found myself on a boat with a badly injured chest.

23/04/96

Encountered a Mountain Man. I was captured and was taken to his lair where he had a collection of mages - one of each type.

27/04/96

Rest of the party finally turned up. Stark convinced mountain man to ‘loan him his Earth Mage’. He also told us we needed to see a seer who could tell us where the Prince’s tower would appear. It travels around and appears at random spots.

28/04/96

Flew to the next mountain range where the seer was. Took refuge from s storm in a cave.

29/04/96

Found the seer who would tell us where the palace was if one of us would stay with her - as the meal. The seer was a spider-woman. She’d settle for a bandersnatch so an attempt was made to summon one. Got an Illimarian , Slandeshi, instead.

He told us that the palace’s movements are controlled by the Price and it remains in one spot for as long as that area can support the inhabitants. Last place it was, was the Eastern Desert. Decided to go there.

Reached the desert. Couldn’t find the castle. Sand has a major curse on it. Headed back for the mountains.

30/04/96

Attacked by a hydra. Defeated it, then headed south.

01/05/96

Encountered a sylph. She didn’t know where the palace but her sister might. She lived in a lake, three days away. Headed off in that direction. Late that evening we heard the tower arrive.

02/05/96

Flew towards the tower and landed a few miles away. Managed to sneak inside and spent the night in a storeroom.

03/05/96

Somehow, one of our party shapechanged into a cat creature and started rampaging up the tower. We followed. While in pursuit, we were captured. Two of the party were changed into stone statues, the rest were put in cells.

04/05/96

The remainder of the party managed to see the Princess, after the Illimari ascertained their story was true. Couldn’t convince her to leave. Instead, party reconfined, separated, and tortured.

04/06/96

Guild rescue party arrives. Party rescued and had to pay ransom for items.

Full Scribe Notes

Credited to Basalic and Flamis 31/03/96 We were sitting in the Guild meeting chamber listening to offers of employment, when a man stood up wearing bright clothing and a floppy hat with a feather in it. There was something about him which seemed familiar, but neither of us could place him. He announced himself as Jacob Carlyle, representing the servants of a certain princess who had apparently been forced into an unsuitable marriage. They wanted her rescued and were prepared to pay with their services. Flamis thought it was really romantic, and before I realised it, I was being dragged off to meeting room twelve. An officer from Guild Security was there holding a small and very scruffy urchin child. He explained that the boy was in fact PJ de Bourgenac, a noble fighter, who was under a curse which caused him to look like this for the first two weeks the observer was with him. To make matters worse, he suffers from an uncontrollable shape-change to centaur form which occurs at midnight. Also in the room were: Stark: Once purely a fighter, now a Namer, dressed in heavy plate armour, and carrying an awesome assortment of weaponry. Icarone: A Solar Celestial mage, and also a useful man in a fight. Anathea: A young woman dressed in white, who announced herself as a Witch. She carried no weapons, preferring to use her magic. She is life-aspected and does not like killing. She was wearing a sentient amulet she introduced as Obsidia. Flamis: My wife, and a fire mage. She was wearing red as usual, and proceeded to explain all about her Doom as the Consort of the Eternal Champion. The employer looked at her most curiously at that point. She also depends mainly on her magic, but carries a quarterstaff, and has quite a collection of useful items. Basalic: That's me. I'm a good keen bloke, a farmer and an Earth mage. Mind you, I'm quite handy with a broadsword, and I've finally got my hands on a permanently magical sword of ice. We elected PJ as party leader. PJ has led parties successfully before, and he'll be okay. Flamis and I agreed to share the duties of scribe, and Stark was selected as Military Scientist, mainly because he has rank 8 in it. By questioning the employer, we found out that the reason the Princess Farzana's servants wanted her "rescued" is because they consider her husband, the Prince Millideta, to be quite mad. In fact, their people, the Jann, believe that all the prince's race, the Illimari, have been driven insane by their captivity under the Calamar. At that statement the entire party reacted. No-one likes the Calamar except possibly other Calamar, and we'd all rather hoped not to have signed up for an adventure involving them. Furthermore, the employer admitted that an earlier guild party had been employed by the Calamar to stop the wedding. They had failed, on purpose. The marriage had obvious political ramifications, forging an alliance between the Jann and the Illimari against the Calamar. We were all having second thoughts, and that was before we were told that the princess's one true love was in fact, none other than Engleton, who had been leader of that party. By now it was obvious that we would be going off plane, and the employer revealed how he intended to take us there, by a method he called "hell-riding". He explained that this was like driving a rapier through the planes like a stack of paper until you reached the right one. Sounded delightful, but at least it would be an excuse to get the horses out of the stable. But Flamis stared at the employer with sudden recognition. "I know you. You're the Traveller," she said. Then I remembered. This was the chap we met on Zentradia in the middle of that valley. He said that he was a traveller between the planes. This must be how he does it. We offered a pony from our stables for Anathea, but Stark had just purchased a set of jousting plate. Talk about a tin can crossed with a lead weight! Nothing would hold him short of a war-horse, and none were available for love nor money, so we got him a draught-horse. Stark asked the party if we could take out a couple of days so he could add some true names to his list. Ones like Calamari, Illimari, and Jann. It sounded sensible, so the rest of us spent two days organising ourselves. I searched the library for relevant information, and was able to have word with Engleton. Flamis did her divinatory things. It sounds odd that a Fire Mage should be so good at searching out the future, but there's no doubt about her skills. She performed a Flamesight ritual first. In the flames she saw the party running a hall of mirrors, some of which distorted our reflections as we fled. Next she looked in the crystal of vision, and saw the party standing before a tall mountain, with fortifications built into it. The party turn to each other and begin to argue. The mountain vanishes, and still the argument goes on. Finally she performed her ritual of Conversing with Other Selves, asking these three questions and getting the following answers: What effects will it have on the Balance if the Princess Farzana is taken from her husband? If the Actoris is not destroyed then can the great battle occur. What are the Princess's current feelings towards her husband Prince Millideta? Overhead her dimmed light falters. How may we find the Princess Farzana? Her gaze reflected in blood Times of sorrow are upon us The red swan falls from the sky It dies In the bowels of chaos It transmogrifies Flamis went to the library to see if she could find out more about the Actoris. All she found was scribbled in a margin in an ancient book of prophecy. Beside it was written "When the Ring of Kings the pale hand adorns... destruction and doom falls." Apparently the Actoris is this Ring of Kings. When she told me about all of this I began to wonder what we had got ourselves into. While we were waiting we met the Princess's servants. The Jann are tall, brown-skinned and humanoid in form. And not a one spoke a word of common. 03/04/96 It was the third of April when we left. PJ had changed into a centaur. Much more noble-looking. We had cast the usual preparatory spells. I wasn't sure that we'd be needing the Armour of Earth and Protection versus Magical Fire, but as it turned out Flamis was right. I cast Speak to Animals so that I could talk to Sod, and as we began to gallop across the meadow he told me that he could see a black road stretching out in front of us. Suddenly we were riding through forest. The name of the plane came up as Malthria. The scene changed again and again every few moments. Then we were moving through a burnt-out forest. Too much fire magic? As we rode around a hill there was a whirring sound. Anathea called out that we were about to be attacked by ornithopters, and before we could ask "What's an ornithopter?" they were on us. Giant metallic birds firing some kind of grenados. Explosions went off to the left and the right. We rode for our lives, hoping to find ourselves elsewhere very soon. We rounded and were confronted by four men wielding what looked like pikes, but they shot beams of red fire. Stark triggered a Wall of Bones around three of them, while Flamis cast a Dragonflames at the other, who only looked a bit singed. In the process she managed to fall off Flamefoot and was picked up bodily by Stark. Then Stark's horse was shot out from under him by the ornithopter. The Wall of Bones disintegrated from the inside out. We charged and the melee began. I walloped one on the way through, then wheeled around and came back for another whack. The guy didn't have a chance to react. The ornithopter disappeared to the north, probably fetching reinforcements. Two pikemen confronted Stark, knocking him stunned. One left the other to finish off Stark, who wasn't so easily finished off, and charged the riderless horse, Flamefoot. Leaving Flamefoot stunned he attacked Flamis, and struck Flamis a glancing blow, not enough to put her off casting. Next moment he was dead, burnt to a crisp in a second by her spell. And then it was all over. We checked the pikes, but they were not magical. Very strange. Of course we'd never heard of the plane which was called Gran Brutan. I healed Flamefoot with a spell, and we mounted up and rode on. .2. A few paces further on, and the scene changed. We were in a desert, rolling sands under a bright blue sky. Stark spotted a snake, and discovered that it's plane of origin, this plane, was called Relateth. As we rode over a dune we found a scene of battle. Red pennants were fallen about the bodies which were of two kinds; human and amphibian, killed by sword and spear. The amphibians were called Doomprophets. In some of their bodies were arrows with a magic on them of slaying Doomprophets. We found one survivor, a human, whom Anathea and I were able to heal. He told us that he was from the city of Tarenth, and that an evil sorcerer had summoned the doomprophets to attack their city. Flamis had been examining the tracks and had determined that the two groups had met apparently at random, that there had been three human survivors and one elf, and that they had headed back to the city. The red banners turned out to be magical, the nature of the magic being inspiration, cast by a Greater Summoner. Can't say I've ever heard of that one. Having done our bit, Stark picking up a banner, we rode on. We rode for hours, passed through several planes, when we came to a jungle world that called Alerus. Jacob said there was a city nearby, which sounded just like what we needed. Then we heard screams, and a drumming sound. We ran to investigate, but when we got there all we found was a collection of perforated bodies, two of which were not as dead as the others. They had been attacked by a giant headless zombie warrior, with a necromantic version of Diamond Javelin called Spectral Warrior, and they had all fallen over in seconds! It had then stomped off into the jungle, looking for its killer. After we did what we could for them, we rode on, and indeed found ourselves outside a city, after crossing planes yet again. The plane was called Rloth, and we found out as we went to enter the city that a civil war was in progress. A very civil war it seemed. We were asked as we entered whether we were for the King or the Duke. Since the blue arm bands of the King were rather more numerous than the yellow arm bands of the Duke, we elected to be of the King, and were sent to a Inn called the Fox and Hound where all the arm bands were blue. The Innkeeper was very nosy, and Flamis was worried that the Inn might be attacked in the night, but nothing happened. We travelled the black road again, passing through several worlds, until at evening we found ourselves in a forest on a world called Morak. After we set up camp, a two-foot tall figure came marching through. The golem simply looked at us, not responding to any of our attempts at communication. Then, it walked on. Fearing that it would report our presence to its masters, Stark and PJ chased after it, and secured it. Flamis wasn't so sure that this was a good idea, and it seemed like she may have been right, when Stark and Icarone, on second watch, heard the sound of people on Fireflight roaring overhead. As we broke camp, there were explosions, and then an almighty wrenching sound as a tree fell over. Behind we saw four figures all self-immolated. Flamis released the golem in the vain hope that that might placate them. But still they came, and we leapt onto our horses and galloped for it. As we ran for it across the blasted forest, they shot at us, in the back. Fortunately those of us who were shot managed to hold onto our horses, and then the scene shifted. To a dark place of constant rain called Malace. Flamis spotted a heat source in the distance, but as we rode we smelled sulphur. This was a bad scene, and though we were tired and in pain, we hell-rode on. To a much more pleasant place, called Terif, where we found untended fields and an old half-ruined farmhouse. We camped here, and slept well into the next day. 10/04/96 Some days, and many worlds later we reached Jann. We found ourselves in hill country, near a city. Jacob didn't know which city it was, so we rode up to the gates and asked. The city was called Amath, and the place where we needed to go was Rasalteth, three days away. It was full of nine-foot tall brown-skinned humanoids who patted us on the head far too often. Apparently we're cute, especially Flamis. It seems the Jann have Lesser Enchantment as a racial talent. We found an inn to spend the night. Dinner was distinctly spicy and Flamis demanded to know the recipe. There was only wine and coffee to wash it down, no beer. 11/04/96 Next day we went shopping. Flamis and I took Jacob which made it much easier. She bought some of the local spices, a recipe scroll, and some local clothing, a brief embroidered top and full filmy trousers, which although made for young Jann looked very good on her. There was also perfumes, and toys for Emrys. When I reminded her that we'd be coming back this way, she said that we should shop when we could, because you never knew what might happen. Female logic, no doubt. But I could tell that she was enjoying herself. That evening there was no sign of PJ when we went to the stable to look in on our noble centauroid leader. We searched for him, into the evening, and got Jacob to ask the city watch if they had seen him, but it was no use.

12/04/96

Retrieved from ‘https://dq-nz.org/dqwiki/index.php?title=Princess_Bride_in_the_Black_Tower&oldid=109153’