South Haven Academy for Girls

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Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: South Haven Academy for Girls
GM: William
Season: Autumn 826 WK

Party

• Arnaud de Montfort Esq -
• Clarissa d'Ornay
• Tussock Mustardseed
• Dellith
• Hoo
• Albion

Employer

Mistress High Treason, deputy governess of the Southaven finishing school for girls in Artzdorf

Mission

escort and supervise some hundred ladies on their second annual tournament to be held in an approximately thirty mile square region some two days from the school

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsp0001.zip

Scribe Notes

1st Thaw, Spring 801, Chaste moon

Seagate, city of beggars, guild meeting.

We have been hired by Mistress High Treason, a tall dark skinned elf, covered tastefully in tattoos and a one sugar kind of girl, deputy governess of the Southaven finishing school for girls in Artzdorf, a region known for its fine horses. Lady Liessa Redwood is the Governess since the school changed management and curriculum two years ago, with needlepoint and music being mixed in between combat lessons and motivating rewards such as being allowed to be unchaste once they pass basic herbalism.

Our mission is to escort and supervise some hundred ladies on their second annual tournament to be held in an approximately thirty mile square region some two days from the school. We will be paid according to how well we perform our assigned duties with confiscated items previously taken from the girls. Corruption is acceptable within reason of course to allow flexibility of the rules, so we may be able to make a small amount of money from bribes.

Last years winners were Artimus house and of the seventy five students there were one hundred and seventy five deaths only five of which were permanent. A lady Stylacroias, will be observing and has preserve dead abilities, we will be provided with free healing and all reasonable expenses covered. Tussock took the party out to a nice afternoon tea followed by dinner where Dellith and myself exchanged demonic true names in the time honoured way of writing them in beer on the table.

2nd Thaw

Rising early and training hard the party leaves at lunch time via a celestial college portal opened by mistress High Treason into the webway / warp / grey misty place. On the way through we were advised not to investigate anything and so left the spiders, goblin mages and such alone. We arrived near the school and get introduced to the girls, who were ready and packed for the march to the tornament site. The school itself is wonderfully laid out with elementally constructed stepped pyramids and ziggarats which are evidently very conjusive to the learning process and are maintained by the spiteful sisters of perpetual dissonance, a religious group.

With some language difficulties Faith gathered the prefects, the clever orcs of the Salamakari house did offer a magical slave necklace which allows the wearer to comprehend what was being said, it also required a MA18 greater curse removal to get off. Tussock forbade us to wear it as falling for such an obvious practical joke would erode our standing with the girls, once confiscated and it was clear we hadn’t fallen for the joke the girls started to speak common. Hoo and Albion managed to shuffle the school records in their unsuccessful quest for the girls personal details, philosophy not being any of our strong points. They did find a scroll on swimming in lava or brining oil.

The spiteful sisters are an unusual cloistered religious group who make seeming random sounds with gongs and such, they are unpacted, uncolleged and have no notable skills. They supervise disciplining of the girls with lines or vespers and let us know that the main trouble makers were the orcs of salamakari house until mistress high treason defeated them all in single combat, currently Demencia of morgana house is the main problem. Tussock decides that anyone causing problems will get a right royal cloistering and orders the party not to overrule each other as it will weaken our standing amongst the girls.

3rd Thaw

We travel on fast horses provided by the school and setup camp about half way to the combat site with the costal cities lights shining like beacons. Fifty minutes after camping so no wards could be active we sneak about the camp and check the preparedness of the girls watches. I must say there is a lot of lace and frilly bits around under all the armour. Tussock left notes saying “your dead – pay closer watch” here and there and threw a few stones at the girls. Most were better at camping than the average guild party with some even setting up decoy tents with traps in them.

4th Thaw

After a restful night we awoke to discover that about ten of the girls had gone missing. Rightly guessing they had gone to the nearest pub, Tussock, Faith and co flew off and brought them back chastened and subdued after eating what remained of their breakfasts, sapping those that resisted and shooing away the men, including a knight betrothed to one of the girls, much to Albion’s disappointment. Tussock let the girls know that any more running off in future will be punished by being sent home for the spiteful sisters to deal with. We camp with the girls, sending the defenders out at midnight.

5th Thaw

We unleash the attackers at dawn then move camp to a grassy knoll located centrally with Hoo making some of the tents pink and protecting the area from floods, storms and pestilence with a wave of a hand. It turns out by co-incidence to be high mana pagan ground, divination shows it to be the avatar manifestation or death site of some out of favour god. The Morgana house sun themselves and read romance books while the Artenus and Salamakari houses run about looking for the flag.

Investigation of the free flowing combat shows that when they said “dead” they mean that the girls have rules by which they know when one has lost and so would be “dead” if the combat was real. Deaths are called permanent only when a girl actually dies, needs preservation and is sent home for resurrection.

A group of bandits encounter the Artenus house much to their dismay and those that don’t flee quickly become used as zombiees. Tussock follows the survivors out of the area to make sure they don’t return, we also spot some large winged reptile about ten miles away but don’t investigate. That night our Healer turns up, she is here to preserve dead and confirms the agreed upon death system. We all breathe a sigh of relief that we havn’t been hired by a group of complete lunatics.

6th-8th Thaw ( Full Chaste Moon on 7th )

We enjoy watching the girls play fight as we settle into orgainised watches, Little occurs apart from the morgana house having to move camp several times to flee regrettable backfire effects.

9th Thaw

In the morning the attackers sieze the flag which is hidden in a forest cave, brave party members enter and find a huge hydra under the control of Salamakari house beastmasters who have all seven heads in man-catchers. The attckers become the defenders, needing to hold the flag for a day and decide to fortify the cave using the hydra with its fear attack, hasitly errected walls and all the girls of Artenis, Salamakari and Morgana houses protecting the flag which if left planted in a pile of rubbish at the back of the cave.

Late at night the Bodesa house turns up and attacks the cave barricades with bows and javelins, they make little headway and are easily seen off, then the clever girls of the Ziambarg house arrive with mantlets, build walls around the outside of the cave then throw burning herbs into the cave mouth.

The defenders fortification turns into a trap as the herbs are repulsive to sentients and they are all killed as they exit the cave coughing.

Clarissa and Dellith fearing the hydra may have got out of control, charge elegantly into the cave to check for any genuinely injured girls. They discover the mistress of central harmonics, a fluttering petal had been hiding under the rubbish and touching the flag all the time, the attackers had in fact never controlled the flag.

With the majority of the girls in the attacking teams killed and not becoming alive in time to retake the flag the defenders win. We discuss the battle with the girls, with our management scientist, Faith doing the marking. It seems the plan to entice the attackers to use the cave as a defence and then turn it into a trap was thought up by a Bodesa lady.

10th-11th Thaw

We give the defenders in the siege a two day head start to fortify the shell keep and only allow one death per girl for this event. Investigation of the ruins finds a large supply of goods which would be sufficient for a group of about thirty bandits, we take these but allow the girls to choose what the will need for the siege defence so they can be marked on logistics. Somewhat worried by the bandits myself and Faith do aerial patrols every day and keep a sharp eye out for trouble. The defenders build a dome of rock over the entire fortress with arrow slits and only one small entrance which they have spiked rollers able to roll down to kill attackers.

12th Thaw

The attackers Artenis, Salamakari and Morgana and Bodesa get busy chopping down trees and such and build a siege tower, battering rams and other conventional siege equipment.

13th Thaw

There is a disturbance in the girls camp and we find that three girls are missing Illian from artemus house, calotta (the necromancer) and gravetcha (the fire mage) of morgana house. They appear to have been abducted and flown off as riding after them with locate looses them very quickly as they go beyond range. The next morning the party powers up and leaving the healer in charge of the girls we chase down the miscreants flying down to and east along the coast nearly a hundred miles to a forty foot long ship which they are on. Adee spots about sixteen humans on board with three elves and an orc.

Closing with the ship we realise that Hoo, our primary fighter has been left behind and being poor flyers we are unable to powerup with combat spells prior to landing. Without a military scientist we follow the order to attack them as best we can, however with seventeen enemies on deck and lots of rigging only Clarissa and Dellith carrying Albion and Faith have space to land. Myself and Tussock fly past and only manage to land sometime later, Tussock by crashing into the deck and myself crashing into the water nearby.

Clarissa and Dellith gracefully throw pirate slavers left and right and smite them with painful looking blows while Albion hides and regularly heals them with powerful magic. Faith climbs the rigging, leaping into close with nearby pirates and killing them with the butter knife of doom as Tussock performs the vertical assault dive manuver into massed troops. I attach a wall of bones to the ships hull which spins it about and then rips a large section of hull off as the situation begins to look very grim to try and let the party escape.

Despite these heroics, numbers count and the pirates backed up by an orc with a flaming two handed sword and an evil binder force the party to surrender. Tussock leaps overboard and begins walking home across the water. Meanwhile I swim under the ship and force my way through the breach in the ship which has been sealed with bound water and hide in the hold. Albion follows me however falls unconcious and the first I notice of him is when he is dragged off by sailors who discover him.

Later that day I sneak into the cell, Illian, Calotta and Gravetcha and Faith are manacled to the wall, while Albion, Clarissa and Dellith are unconscious and have had their hands bound with unpickable bound iron bands. I attempt to pick the locks of the manacles but fail miserably, however Faith doesn’t. I revive Albion with two healing potions.

Discussing their plight it appears that they are bound to become “personal” slaves and sold in the Lunar empire, evidently we are worth seven thousand gold each as the slaver turned down an offer of eight thousand silver each. Faith removes everyone's hands from the bound iron using a fiendish plan involving dislocating their thumbs and little fingers and getting them to slide their hands out, I cringe just looking. Dellith and Faith then manage between them to open the door and after a relatively easy fight in which the binder dies very horribly we take the ship, although the orc Varnok and elves flee attempting to burn it and the surrendering crew as they leave.

Gravetcha heroically puts out the fire however the ship is badly damaged and we are unable to give pursuit to Varnok and the elves who have our items, rightfully instead choosing to quickly get the ship to shore so the sailors are not drowned. Brilliant navigation allows us to run the sinking ship aground and evacuate without loss of life, recovering eighteen hundred pennies in gems from the ship before it sinks. Exausted the party manages to reunite and sleep the night on the coast.

14th -18th Thaw

The siege ends with the fluttering petal and ziambarg ladies managing to defend successfully against all attacks, by the end of this time some heavy spring rains had set in so the girls and party moved into the rock dome, this also gave us some security from possible bandits in the area.

19th- 20th Thaw

The girls and party rest for two days and discuss what the girls have learn’t, We tighten security about the camp to stop any repeat of the abduction.

21st –25th Thaw ( New Seed moon on 21st)

We run the take the hill event which is a very muddy affair after lots of rain, most of the fighting ends up on foot as the horses find it too difficult. Artenus House wins this event with flying colours despite being dismounted

25th – 27th Thaw

Two days rest for party and girls with much cleaning of equipment and clothes needed.

28th Thaw – 2nd Seed

Run secret orders, some bandits spotted during the second day but these are easy scared off. The fluttering petals draw with Artenis house in these events. Rachel shows outstanding leadership.

2nd – 17th Seed

Party decides to extend the events, hopefully we will get payed extra for this. We run the girls through some standard guild exercises and run some events to show how to avoid the common pitfalls we as adventurers have fallen into such as ambushes, attacking as flyers and defense against flyers and such.

18th Seed

We finish marking the girls and then drop them off at shool and leave with heavy drinking on the way back

Appendix A – War Rules for young ladies

1. Young ladies are asked to call/ask for surrender as appropriate. This is after all a game and we would like to avoid too many fatal accidents.
2. Excessive use of servants/retainers will be frowned upon. This is a test of your abilities young ladies, not that of your parents, liege lords, finances or empire.
3. Likewise the summoning/calling of any powers, gods, daemons, things of the warp or anything else that makes reality go soft and runny is forbidden.
4. Indiscriminate use of terrain destroying magics will result in a reprimand. You are young ladies and will behave as is expected. Tactical use of such weapons is permitted.
5. Likewise depopulation or culling of an area will result in a warning and a note to your parents.
6. All transformed entities are to be returned to original form at the end of the field trip.
7. If unable to attend because you are not feeling well please inform me.

Appendix B – Events

Each event will last one week with the event lasting five days with two recovery days in between. Once “killed” the girl is out of the event for the duration. 1. Capture the flag of a golden hawk on a blue field and hold for one day, agressors Artenis, Salamakari and Morgana. 2. Siege warfare about the castle ruins, fluttering petal and ziambarg to defend 3. Capture the hill, all teams vs all teams 4. Secret orders, girls have these and we have not been informed

Appendix C – Teams

Morgana house

Eighteen hot young sorceresses with a taste for black lace, armed with staffs and bows, being “looked after” by Hoo, lucky man. Our sole eligible bachelor is on a quest to discover “who loves hoo the most”. Motto Embrace the darkness in your quest for further power

• Symbol <Unknown>
• Leader Stephanie ( wiccan )
• Other members Jane aka Darkwing( mind ), Daphnie aka Gravika ( fire ), Helena ( namer ), Demencia ( worrying ), Callotta ( necromancer )

Fluttering Petal

A group of five lunar empire or possibly five sisters ladies, dressed in beautiful printed silks who Tussock has the pleasure of sharing tea with. They wear no armour

Motto In stick figures meaning something like heaven lasts long, what is the secret to its durability.

• Symbol Red flower on black
• Leader Empress of Southern

Artenis House

A group of twenty eight very civilised ladies from the Bowcourt and Borderlay regions, they speak lalange and I am dutifully looking after them. Previous winners from last year they specialise in mounted combat. Motto Superior weapons and armour have a geometric effect on the outcome of battle

Symbol Golden sword and spear on blue

Leader Rachel

Other Members Tiffiny is Count Debomor’s daughter and Karen is a barons daughter, the others are knights daughters

Zambarg house

Twenty two thin pale ladies in spiked “gothic” plate armour and sharp pointy weapons. They are off planar from a world where everyone lives in giant power gathering cities which move between planes plundering and bringing devastation. Guarded by Clarissa.

• Motto <None cannot have blood, souls or deamons in it>
• Symbol Red wiccan wheel on purple
• Leader Mara aka Jadewing (air)

Salamakari House

A group of thirteen off planar orc women who are into deviousness and trickery and are being observed by the loverly Dellith.

• Motto Orc roar
• Symbol Yellow eye and macehead on red
• Leader Bakarenas , meaning the sound a head makes when crushed by a mace

Other Members Holly also known as Eats eyeballs. Two members look like halflings but are GTN flesh shapers with main magical ability adaptablity, they also have created a flesh golem.

Bodesa House

A group of twenty eight ladies from Aquila who speak Folkspach and are being attended to by Albion Motto War is war , destruction is destruction

• Symbol Spiked black wheel on green
• Leader <Unknown>
• Other Members < Unknown>

Dark Secrets of the South Haven Academy for Girls

From Memory, What actually occurred, Never written down in fact so no naughty distribution especially to powers of light, Xanadu or worse yet Liessa. Known to some of the party but not all.

13th Thaw

Party is captured by slavers. Arnaud attempts to free them and fails but manages to revive Albion, they decide that summoning Sallos is a good idea. Sallos is summoned by Arnaud and learns of the hundred girls with no-one guarding them. Faith is resurrected, party is freed where possible then Sallos leaves after magelocking us in the room, he kills the binder. We eventually free ourselves after the orc Varnak tells us that Sallos intends making the girls his harem and then sail after Tussock by using locate, unfortunately we have no navigator and so run the ship aground to our financial dismay.

14th Thaw

Party splits up with Albion, Faith and the luscious Clarissa going to look on the girls while myself and Tussock go to town and buy some healing herbs and spare weapons for the party,

I sell the gems for 1800 silver pennies. Dellith and Hoo return Illian, Calotta and Gravetcha to the school. Albion, Faith and Clarissa find all the girls missing and a large inn on the high mana pagan ground. Inside is a barkeeper who displays magical ability to make beer and wine and a barwench. They tell them that Sallos has taken them to his summer palace through the third door and has left rooms for them in the inn. They insist on going through the door and so enter the seventh plane where they are met by a man in servants robes, the gatekeeper who takes their vital statistics, status = alive, planned means of escape = none and get directions to the summer palace. Hell is pleasantly warm They leave the tower the gate was in through a huge door and then travel to the feasting hall where they have been told to meet Sallos on the way bumping into a large deamon called Drakmatch who is keen on taking Albion away to burn him for a thousand years.

They pass through the orgy room which is filled with strange exotic foods, drinks and women, a true Symbarites paradise. They meet Selter who is Sallos’s second in command and the lord of discontent who is a near ideal physical being, he discusses reincarnation with Clarissa and how this is like truancy. Tussock, Hoo, Dellith and myself turn up and discuss what to do, Tussock comes up with a plan to travel to Calder and meet a greater summoner who can then summon Sallos so we can discuss getting them back. I chat to the bartender , he is a lost soul and ex michaline knight called Sir John who was taken by Sallos in my previous mission in Brandenburg and lets me know that most souls are trapped within Sallos’s dark sword, he prefers being a barman. We leave for the coast with the last of our flight spells.

15th – 18th Thaw

We travel by boat to Calder which costs one thousand silver pennies, Tussock meets with some Shirvers she knows and arranges for us to travel to the greater summoner. Both myself and Hoo get working girls, oh those Calder girls.

19th –25th Thaw

We spend a week travelling through alligator infested swamp to the greater summoners tower With grobindonk the goblin and his two charming ogre guards during which time he tells us lots of interesting facts about various deamons, evidently Astaroth is not a paticularly nice one. We meet the greater summoner, Morgor and his charming winged wife in a magnificent tower built over a series of fumeroles in a high mana zone. He seems to find it funny our plan of exchanging the girls for something else as there is little Sallos would prefer to 111 young girls. He agrees to summon him in return for a favour from Tussock.

26th Thaw

The time of the moon being correct Sallos is summoned wearing a sheet and holding a goblet and forced into the triangle. After much haggling with Tussock during which I am ordered to be quiet and Dellith covers her ears and hums loudly and agreement is struck. I am to go to hell with Sallos for three weeks and Faith will be returned, Albion will stay three weeks, Clarissa one week. The girls will be returned instead of being thrown into a burning pit of fire as the genius Rachel of Artemus house has come up with the idea and all the girls agreed that they will marry off planar nobles, set up by Sallos using his love powers rather than ugly merchants, and encourage his worship as the state religion. Sallos will become a god.

Evidently we should have no trouble with the church of light letting Liessa know what occurred as she is an applestate, which is evidently a sworn enemy of the church. The girls will be returned in three weeks to the inn where the wargames were being held. He lets us know that the high level party of Morgan, Vachan and Blitscrieg has been captured in the 9th plane by the deamons there. I Get the True names of Ipos and Raum from the greater summoner to bribe Dellith to keep her silence.

27th Thaw – 3rd Seed

I leave for hell with the deamon Artok and Faith is expelled. Holiday in Hell, Clarissa leaves after active week, Faith, Tussock, Hoo and Dellith travel back via portals then wait for us to return

3rd –17th Seed

Holiday in Hell continues for myself and Albion, although I don’t mix with his crowd, we return on the 17th with the young ladies, overall a successful mission, no permanent deaths, the girls certainly learnt a lot and got very good marranges into the bargain.

19th Seed – 26th Seed ( New Hare mon on 19th)

Travel back to seagate on board ship and then decide to move on to red rock in the isles of adventure where divination shows the orc Varnak and his elves to be hiding out.

26th Seed

We travel via portal to Balode’s ancient elven battleship where we hire a ship to take us to red rock. It should take four days and will cost five hundred pennies. After enjoying a quick drink session we leave, unfortunately an hour out hoo backfires a ritual and the ship appears to turn to stone and be sinking. We evacuate to the pleasure ship by wings although Tussock and Faith stay behind as it is evidently only appearing to sink, this is little consolation for the crew however who over the next two days are nearly mad with fright before the ritual wears off. The party enjoys the comforts of Ballodes boat. Elven Ship of Balode’s

28th Seed

A new ship is arranged before word gets out about us and we leave once again for the isles of Adventure.

1st Blossom

We arrive in Freeport a wonderful unwalled town of about two thousand pirates and adventurers in a small bay surrounded by jungle where we make up a list of missing items we wish to recover and attempt to locate them.

• Black Hand and a Half ( Clarissa ) – Out of Range
• Axe ( Dellith ) – Out of Range
• Main-Gauche – Out of Range
• Two Gold Rings ( Faith ) – In town
• Butterknife of Doom ( Faith ) – In town
• Fluffy Little Slippers ( Faith ) – In town

Gathering of information states that a Lord Hagar who is a celestial mage runs the town and gets a take of everything and location pinpoints faith’s items are somewhere inside his walled compound.

Myself and Dellith stroll past and check for wards on the walls while pretending to be lovers on a stroll so the guards don’t shoot us with crossbow bolts on suspicion. We decide to purchase a boat and plan from the harbour where we can discuss matters in private. Faith and Tussock sneak in undetectable, the inside of the compound is palacial with Lord Hagar asleep surrounded by his harem in his second floor apartment, guarded by a large devil and human guards. Faiths rings are on Lord Hagar, the Butterknife of doom is on a mercenary downstairs and Faiths boots are in a bootrack downstairs, all these are recovered as are many of the trinkets the Concubines wear.

We get back together and depart in the longboat and when well away from town cast flight, abandon the longboat after throwing the oars and such overboard and fly back to the guild via the portal near balode’s pleasure boat.

2nd – 9th Blossom ( Full Hare moon on 3rd)

We wait one week and train so that faith can increase the range of her locate and following Delliths good example I grab a battle axe instead of using a tulwar which is a bit of a ladies weapon after all.

10th Blossom

We pay homage at the temple of Seir and learn from him that Baras an elf has Clarissa’s hand and a half and Sorchar has delliths axe, having stolen it from Charles who originally stole it. Dellith leaves us at this point as she does not wish to have anything to do with deamons and she is replaced by a lady called Nendil who has decided to join us. Seir then transports us in a twinkling of his eye like ice riding a silver stallion with griffin wings to a very hot city in the southern continent where he says the pirates are bound.

<Not in Scribe Notes but included for completness> Seir lets me know where I can get the ITN’s of all the archangels, Tussock offers her services to help get them along with some others Seir would like. Albion is transported away to Hell where Renove <decency shroud>.

We arrive in the temple of Seir in the city of Rocar surrounded by thirty worshippers who hail us as saviors. Their city has a population about the same size as Seagate is being besieged by hundreds of reptile men and regrettably all the leaders who used to deal with them were killed by some evil fire mage who indiscriminately slaughtered them recently with a giant fire elemental. We meet their military leaders in their tactical sandpit, where they let us know that the city is in dire straights and may well fall as the gates are sundered, a huge bone construction ramp has been constructed over the walls and the city is being bombared by alchemical fire bombs. Tussock has a cunning plan to talk to the lizardmen and see if a peaceful solution can be found.

We get two flags, one white (peace) and another one from one of the old noble houses, leave the city and approach the waiting army, they have a huge crossbow to fire the alchemical fire and numerous hydra. After wading through the muddy dead ground and suffering with good grace a few crossbow bolts being fired at us, we noticed that one which was currently stuck through Clarissa had a message carved upon it, which says they are willing to talk.

The lizards let us know they are here to harvest all the humans and make them into zombiees for a battle against a rival tribe, and as tribute to a great one in a nearby lake. They are willing to stop the attack if we can find for them a burial ground with between one and ten thousand dead they can use instead, we agree and in return they agree to suspend attacks for seven days to let us do so.

We re-enter the city and after passing the afternoon in recreational activities meet the sage Garon, he lets us know that a large burial ground does exist some two hundred miles inland to the north east in a ruined city in the jungle. Evidently the history goes that it was a city of necromancers who worshipped one of the dark lords known as the lord of the dragons, they were wiped out a couple of hundred years ago after the rest of the world united against them.

That afternoon a ritual looking into the area shows a plinth surrounded by eight skeletons and Clarissa gains a creeping senility backfire. We decide to leave in the morning and so celibrate with the city dwellers who are very pleased with the week long grace and chance of not becoming zombiees, free beer and women abound.

11th Blossom

Before the morning has even had the decency of dawning we set off by flight making about 150 miles and landing in a clearing spotted by Adee which turns out to be a road made of skulls, human skulls, lots and lots of human skulls. Esp shows several hungry minds prowling the area and a decreeasing number of other minds about as they die, we get attacked by a flock of five hideously ugly wyverns which we dispose of with ease, collecting their valuable body parts and resting before continuing the journey.

Tussock decides to do a cook up of wyvern steaks and as expected being carnivorous, poisonous, carrion eaters they smell disgusting, I guess halflings must have tougher stomachs than dwarves and she actually managed to eat some. We continue flying after lunch and come upon a region of dead ground about a hundred yards across, which after crash landing on reveals itself as having had scarring terrain cast upon it. A skeleton in the middle holds a tablet which tussock takes for deciphering.

Continuing onward once again we land on a stepped pyramid in the middle of a ruined city in the jungle, an altar upon it has a top coating of adult hobbit blood amoungst many other layers. Carvings of a multi-headed dragon cover its sides with chilling descriptions of how to perform some ritual requiring three sacrifices.

Tussock finds a block of stone half way down the pyramid which she claims is able to be removed and proceeds to spend the rest of the day attempting and failing to remove it while the rest of us attempt getting some sleep. After resting we search the base of the pyramid and find more carving depicting the history of the city which follows; The great dragon lead his followers to this land and setup a modern necromantic society with elves as the leaders followed by subjugation of the surrounding humans in many glorious battles.

Albion sneaks about and finds some inquisitive, slightly frightened hobbits in the surronding forest armed with small bows and spears watching us. Adee then does a scout around the area and spots their village nearby with about 232 halflings and 24 zombiees, they live in holes in the ground. We all wander off to the village to meet them, and after showing our friendly intentions learn that they were people of the pits in the destroyed city and when the lords were overthrown they gained their liberty, checking their auras show no signs of pacting.

We visit their pub which has very strong beverages, where they tell us that there is a huge graveyard nearby but only few herbs to make permanent zombiees, Bune the dragon duke is the deamon that was worshipped here and their priests do the odd sacrifice to placate him and keep him away. I swap the ITN of Bune for Valefor, god of halflings with their priests over a few beers.

12th - 13th Blossom=

Rest and discussion with halflings and some trading for some ancient elven wizards knucklebones which are evidently useful for astrology. We then travel back to Rocar and let the lizards know we have found a suitable graveyard, they will be ready to march with us in three days so we train, party hard and enjoy ourselves being heros of the moment.

14th – 16th Blossom

Apart from the drinking and wenching we send the wyvern skins to the tanner, get our armour repaired as needed and generally re-equip. There are four temples in the city, the god of Harvest, the god of Death , the city god and Seir. We visit the temple of Seir to let him know we have succeeded and receive our rewards being showered with gifts. We once again were offered a binder imp however our leader Tussock says no as she has had bad dealings with imps in the past, one summoned a dark sphere which did considerable destruction.

16th – 20th Blossom

Travel with lizardmen back to skull road where we fly on ahead to warn the hobbits, looting the temple before they arrive is also high on the priority list.

21st Blossom

While I apply gold leaf to the runes on the altar, Tussock manages to drill a hole in through the stone block and albion turns to gas and enters, unfortunately this is where things start to go really bad for us as he trips a TK rage ward and many of us are hurtled off the pyramid, five greater undead within the pyramid are awakened as well.

First two unarmoured mummies exit and attack us with rank twenty darkness, meteor storms, blackfire, swords of darkness, webs and shadow forms, however after a pretty damn gruesome fight we manage to defeat them both somehow.

At which point Albion who up to this point was healing us felt a sense of completion from within the temple as the three within finish something and dark clouds began to form, hopefully just one of those “vampire can now go out during the day” spells and not a invocation of Bune which also requires three invokers or sacrifices or some such.

Two armoured mummies then come out of the temple and something else starts casting phantasm and mental attacks on party members from within the darkness. We only just manage to leg it with:

• Faith blind feeling her way out
• Clarissa stunned and dragged out by Tussock
• Nendil unconscious and carried by Hoo while Adee stops her dying
• Myself enfeebled, unconcious and controlled to walk by Albion

We regroup about half a mile away to decide what to do, possibly returning better prepared once we have recovered.

Whats Hot

• Gyser
• Silvered Weapons
• Ranged weapons so they don’t drain you
• Ranged empathy from our mind mage
• Fluffy toys
• Female halfling Suicide Troopers
• The powers of darkness especially Sallos, Renove, Seir and maybe Bune if he doesn’t eat us
• Campfires
• Being able to run fast
• Adee

Whats Not

• Dehydrate, causes instant mummification, ie nothing
• Non silvered weapons including saps
• Trying to hit their vitals, they keep them in jars so forget it
• Phantasm and mental attack from their mind mage
• Doing less damage than they drain
• Rank twenty darkness
• Rank twenty spells cast by them
• Backfires from us
• Being stunned or feared
• The oposition being unstunnable
• Investeds that fail to work
• The powers of light, curse them all
• Dehydrate and gyser vs devils

The storm builds up and rains on us, which is as useful an attack on water mages as dehydrate is to mummies, I feel that mummies and water mages really don’t get each other at all. We heal up partially then visit the hobbit village and unfortunately there has been a massacre, all the mages and leaders are dead and some have been taken as sacrifices by the mummies for a ritual of theirs. Faith and myself sneaked up to the temple and found the entrance closed up again with a stone block and crystal of visioning showed the mummies involved in a ritual involving a pentagram, black candles and sacrificial victims. Unable to help we decided to leg it once again that is until exactly midnight when their ritual finished with a deep roar. A devil chased us down at this point and after a short and nasty fight we defeated it, recovering its deamon crafted greatsword.

We flew back to Rocar where we got healed, picked up our loot and had a grateful and very generous Seir return us to Seagate. The stolen weapons he will arrange to return over the next few months as well.

All in all a highly sucessful mission, we saved the city full of people from death, got plenty of loot and helped out Seir. Devil we knew

The party

• Tussock, An attractive halfling lady, voted party leader due to her outstanding qualities, virtue and moral strength of character, she also promised generous electoral donations. She

is well respected by guild security who attend her every move with a friendly comradare born of long standing association.

• Faith, An attractive elven lady and envoy from a far away land where the elves are of halfling stature but of course of finer build. Appreciative of local cuisine and multilingual she has been voted as management scientist to the group.
• Arnaud de Montfort Esq, Scribe and Deamon Worshipper.
• Albion, A flower of elven manhood and active member of Seagates flourishing gaybriolite community. Soft spoken with a monastic upbringing he is keen on rooting out moral

depravity wherever he can find it.

• Nendil, The pirate killer
• Dellith, A poised and beautiful alumna of the academy. Respected for her outstanding literary works and an example for others to closely follow.
• Clarissa, A quiet demure elfen lady of breeding, beautiful and mysterious she is covered in intricate tattoo’s of slightly different design than Mistress High Treason’s.
• Adee, Tussock’s pet bird, the most intelligent member of the party, a protective spirit and speaker of dooms.
• Havoc, Dellith’s pet bird, the least intelligent member of the party, potential orc food.
• Hoo, A mighty lepracaun sorcerer shapechanger who turns into a human from time to time when necessary, such as to chase his dog which often steals his shoes. A very tough diciplinarian and teacher of

the ‘la mort battement’ teaching method normally reserved for bards.

Michaelines wear red
Gabrielites wear blue
Urielites are mean
But no-one is as mean as Hoo

The Missions 1. South Haven Academy for Girls 2. Recovering Aunty Faiths slippers and butterknife 3. Good works for Seir

Notables Met 1. Mistress High Treason ( Party employer ) 2. Lord Sallos ( of Hell – Secret meeting ) 3. Grobinblonk the goblin shriver ( Secret meeting ) 4. Morgor the Greater summoner ( Secret meeting ) 5. Lord Seir ( Openly in Seagate Temple of Seir ) 6. Lord Renove ( of Hell – Secret meeting)