Chaining the Dark Lord

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Chaining the Dark Lord

• aka: "Fairy Dangerous"

GM: Scott
Season: Spring 796 WK

Party

• Starflower, Mind Female Elf (Leader/Mil Sci)
• Hagan, Non-mage Male Human
• Anathea, Witch Female Human
• Glod, Earth Male Dwarf
• Aqualina, Water Female Human (Scribe)

Time on adventure

01/01/96 to 27/01/96 AP

Employer

Queen Arwin of the Emerald Islands

Mission

To rechain the Dark Lord

Plane

The Plane between Planes

The Shadow Planes of Dark, Life, Death, Time and Chaos

Places Visted

Emerald Islands

Kingsport Harbour

Widdishin

A devastated village

A village between planes.

Necropolis - a city on the Shadow Plane of Chaos

Major NPCs encountered

Queen Arwin of the Emerald Isles

Lady Rh'khay-el - a Daoene Sidhe from Avalon.

Shi'Kain of the Royal House of Durban

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsp9603.zip

"Fairy Dangerous" - Full Scribe Notes

I just had to go on adventure again however there wasn't much on offer this time. The one introduced by the Earth Mage and the Newfoundland dog peaked my curiosity, but the recommendation was for less experienced adventurers. The only other one that looked mildly interesting was an adventure in a place called the Emerald Isles. Hopefully it's warmer there than it is here. I really dislike winter. Just too cold for my tastes. The party employer for that mission wasn't due to meet with us till 8pm tomorrow but those that wanted to go were conducted to Meeting Room #13. Glod. A dwarf wearing soft leather and would have been carrying a battleaxe if Guild Security hadn't told him to leave it outside. He's an Earth Mage. Hargan. Large guy in plain leather porting a couple of crossbows and a valuable harp. He said he was a Rank 4 cook, rank 6 spy, and a rank 7 courtier. Even though he was a non-mage he had managed to learn how to DA since I saw him last. He also liked having extra strength. Guess I'd be making lots of Waters of Strength this time. Since I had last seen him he was missing an eye. Anathea. A 5'6" tall human female wearing white woollen clothing. She told us she was a non-pacted witch. An owl rode on her shoulder. Starflower. A tall female elf with long auburn hair and wearing a long green velvet dress. I knew this one well. She was a neuromancer and very deadly with twin tulwars which had earned her the title of 'Elven Shredder from Hell'. Finally me, Aqualina. Short (5'1") human female with long dark hair, just past my waist, light brown skin and currently wearing something warm. I'm an aquamancer and also swim well, play harp and prefer the dagger/maingauche combination in combat. It was soon decided that Starflower would be the party leader and military scientist and I'd be the scribe. Hargan then requested that I supply him with a Waters of Strength with his breakfast every morning. Glod cast Lesser Enchantment on each of us. After that meeting I went up to the library to look up the notes of the previous party who had been to the Emerald Islands. There I discovered Starflower had been one of them. 01/01/96 I just barely made it to the 8am meeting with the party employer. It was in Meeting Room 1 and someone had already laid out an extravagant breakfast. There was even some rather expensive elven wine that Hargan and Starflower were sampling. I was making sure I got my share of the strawberries when the representative from the Emerald Islands entered, a handsome man with coppery red hair. He introduced himself as the representative of Queen Arwin. King Llywellan was busy dealing to some rebellious barons in the south so the Queen had sent for another Guild party to deal with the problem of villagers disappearing in the north. Investigating parties discovered that even the buildings looked older. The villages are located in mountain valleys. All their astrologers had drawn blanks about what had happened. The ship to take us was in the harbour and we were to leave on the noon tide. He also mentioned that the island was to the north and it was in the grip of winter. Ice and snow lay in many places. I went up to the Water College and made two permanent Waters of Healing and grabbed the last Waters of Strength from stock. After gathering my gear I rushed down to the docks, pausing briefly to obtain a supply of chocolate and some coconuts. I also put a Resist Cold and a Waterbreathing spell on me before leaving. Finally we all assembled at the docks. The 'Sea Eagle' was moored in the middle of the harbour. The representative had arranged for a boat and crew to row us out. Once there we were piped aboard. After checking the amenities I went up on deck to watch the departure. That night we had dinner in the officer's wardroom followed by music and dancing. There was even some Pasifikan dance much to my initial surprise. It turned out that the Emerald Islands had recently begun trading with Pasifika. So I joined in. It took nine days to sail north up the coast towards the Emerald Isle and was very pleasant apart from no room to swim and being distinctly cool. I did find the warmest spot in the ship i.e. the herbarium. 09/01/96 Finally arrived at Kingsport harbour. Once we disembarked, Glod did a ground kissing ceremony and we were conducted to a tavern. I was surprised to see Basalic's favourite beer, Bugmans, on sale. He had been complaining that it was difficult to get hold of so I talked to the barman about arranging a shipment for when we left. I discovered they had good quality vodka as well. Starflower had discovered that there were public baths in the town so a bit later on, we went to investigate. We frolicked in the public pool for a while. It was nice, deep and reasonably warm. An hour or so later Starflower suggested it would be a good idea to just relax in one of the private pools. So we did so. This pool was big enough for six and was warmer. It was so warm that I let myself slip under the water and just floated, completely relaxed. I had already put a Water Breathing on myself. I thought I only closed my eyes for a moment but the next thing I became aware of was being prodded awake by an attendant with a pole. It was closing time and the others had already left hours ago. So I clambered out of the pool, dried myself and dressed before allowing the attendant to escort me back to the tavern where we were staying. He explained that they had decided I was better left there. Starflower had already assured them I hadn't actually drowned even though it must have looked it. He smiled and said it wasn't the first time that had happened there. 10/09/96 I was feeling rather cheerful when I woke up the next morning when there was a knock on the door. It was Hargan bearing a tray of breakfast and a bottle of water. Didn't take long to figure out what he wanted with that so I cast a Waters of Strength on it. After breakfast the envoy returned with the news that a boat was waiting at the river to take us to the capital city of Widdishin. So much for returning to the bath house. The boat trip took most of the day. Nothing really eventful occurred although I was staring over the side of the boat and I would have sworn I saw something swim under the boat that looked more human than fish. The crewman I mentioned that to believed it probably was an Undine, some sort of water fey. We needed horses for the ride from the docks to the Palace and it didn't take the ostler long to find animals that suited each of us, even one that was used to being ridden bareback for me. Once there we were taken inside and shown to guest quarters, a block of six rooms with two bathrooms. Someone commented 'one for the watermage and the other for everyone else'. We had an hour to prepare ourselves for an audience with the Queen. A selection of clothes had been laid out for us so I selected one, a light blue dress. I think I'm going to have to do some clothes shopping after this job is complete. At the appointed time we were summoned to Queen Arwin's presence. She told us that, so far, four villages had been affected with the latest one being last night. As far as she knew there were no faerie mounds or magical areas nearby. Just then a messenger arrived with the results from the team that had investigated the first couple of villages. While the Queen spoke to him Hargan checked her aura and determined that her magical College was Fey. Come to think of it, she did look part Daoine Sidhe. When the messenger left, the Queen informed us that there seemed to be several types of magic involved i.e. necromancy, spider, greater summoner, dark fey, and wicca. That lead Hargan to comment 'Ah ha. So it's a summoned pacted dark undead spider'. The villages were three days away by horseback from the closest portal point and all that the astrologers could determine so far was that it had something to do with the thirteenth sign of the zodiac - a serpent. That led me to wonder if it had anything to do with the serpent cult of slavers I had encountered in West Carzala a while back. I remembered they had been nasty but that was about it. So the Queen called someone in to help enhance my memory recall. After a short while I was able to give the Queen the information she wanted, but I was also remembering things I would have rather remained forgotten. .2. The interview concluded a little while later which gave us four hours before dinner. Some of us spent the time in the castle library. In a short while I was surrounded by open books on local water life especially sentients. I also checked to see if there was anything about escaping from confinements just in case we got ourselves captured. All I could find referred me to the Bard's library. Meanwhile Starflower was studying maps. An hour before dinner, I put the books away and went to change into the ballgown that Sh'rel had made for me. It was the first time I had a chance to wear it and I wanted to show off. Dinner was delicious and the entertainment was very interesting. I was especially fascinated by the acrobats. As well as the Queen, the heads of the various Guilds such as the Druids (male mages) the Bandroi (female mages) the Fianna (the warriors) and the Bards were at the table so there were some rather interesting conversations. At one point I got buttonholed by the head of the Merchant Guild about what would be the best trade items to take to Pasifika. I also noticed that a few of the performers looked like Daoine Sidhe. 11/01/96 When I woke up that morning the weather had turned nasty with a snow blizzard outside. Definitely we wouldn't be able to travel today. Hargan turned up for his daily Waters of Strength and Starflower suggested that I borrow one of her spare +2 daggers to use instead of my +1. The Druids and the Bandroi had determined that the next village is due to be attacked in a week. While the others did their own investigations and practises I headed off to the Bards in order to see if I could get any tips off them in case we did find ourselves captured. I ended up learning some basic contortions and escape techniques. I soon discovered I was only scratching the tip of the subject but I was getting such a thrill out of learning the stunts that I resolved to learn more when we had finished the mission. Mid-afternoon a messenger arrived with the news that Starflower wanted all of us at the Fianna's training area for group weapons practise. In order to help combat the snow glare we would encounter in the mountains we were presented with special glasses, just like the 'sunglasses' the orcs had obtained while we were in Britannia. They wanted these back when we returned. So we did our practises until late when many of us had dinner invitations. I had been invited to go out with a group of Bards that evening. Don't know where the others were but I ended up at a place that had a bar and an indoor pool. The other bards had provided appropriate clothing. Over the pool was a pole and patrons would take turns to sit on the pole and try to knock the current champion off, using a soft club, into the water below. So I had a go and managed to knock my opponent off then face two more challengers before being knocked off myself. The party then went outside and I was quickly shown how to make snowballs and convinced to take part in a snowball fight. I was having so much fun I wasn't aware it was past midnight by the time I was escorted back to my room. 12/01/96 The blizzard had broken so it was decided we would leave as soon as possible. So I cast Waterproofings on much of our equipment then we obtained some Protections versus Magical Fire that would last for 12 days. We then went through the palace portal and ended up at a military encampment near the mountains. There we picked up the equipment that Hargan had arranged for us. They had provided us with sets of leather armour and boots that had fur on the inside to help keep us warm. Much appreciated especially considering that this place was in the grip of winter and it was even colder than Seagate. And I usually go adventuring at this time to escape winter. Riding and pack horses were also provided. Mine had a saddle as these mountain horses were used to that. Before we left we had some refreshments in the local inn. Starflower wanted to know more about my earlier adventure with the fey so I gave her the edited highlights. Then she noticed someone else in the inn react rather oddly when I mentioned Tir-Na-Nog. Glod managed to get a quick aura check off before the person left and discovered that it was another Daoine Sidhe. The trail headed off towards the mountain peaks. Nothing unusual occurred and we managed to reach the first waystation before nightfall. Starflower organised the watches and put me on second between Anathea and Glod. Hargan took the last one. Anathea's owl was able to stay awake all through the night, sleeping on Anathea's special saddle (designed for owls to roost on) during the day. 13/01/96 We had used some of the stacked wood during the night and were preparing to replace it when it was noted that someone, or something already had. We concluded that it was brownies so I left a half-coconut full of milk as a thank you. The only tracks about were large cat tracks which we determined belonged to a snow white siberian tiger. It had walked all round the way-station for some time and none of us had seen or heard it. Curious too that the horses hadn't been alarmed (or eaten for that matter). After tidying the place up we set off again. Hargan shot a couple of squirrels for lunch after which we continued heading uphill. Finally we reached the position of the second way station. No hut this time, but there were a couple of caves. Also close by was a thermal pool which I took advantage of before dinner. 14/01/96 Again there were cat tracks all around the place. Hargan had caught a glimpse of it during his watch. Could it have been the same cat? I did three hours of purification in the pool before breakfast. .3. While I was soaking myself in the thermal pool, after casting Hargan's Waters of Strength, followed by a Resist Cold and Waterbreathing on myself, I watched Starflower scout around looking for more tufts of snow tiger hair. When she finally found some she got Glod and Hargan to check its aura. What they found was that the tiger was actually a sentient creature. Probably faery according to Starflower. 'Of course it's furry' replied Hargan. Since I was in the water it seemed an ideal opportunity to do a Waters of Vision in an effort to find out what we would find in the village. What I saw was the centre of a deserted village. Everything was still. The village looked incredibly old. A summoning circle inside a pentagram had been inscribed in the square. Inside was a body surrounded by a pool of blood. Just then something horrible and demonic looking stared at me straight out of the vision. On instinct, I savagely attacked it. Just then I lost consciousness and slipped beneath the surface of the pool. Hargan had to haul me out. When I finally woke up and calmed down I described to the others what I had seen. It looked like a cross between a lion, a goat, and an orc. For some strange reason though I had the suspicion I had seen one of those before. Starflower said we really needed a Namer to deal to it. "Don't worry." replied Hargan. "I can DA it". "I think we need more than that" Starflower replied icily. "You mean Namers can do other things?" replied Hargan innocently. We set off again. It was mid afternoon when we topped a rise and saw the small village below us. There was no sign of life. When we entered the village the place looked incredibly old, just like in my vision. I soon realized this was the same village I had scryed. My ocular detected nothing that was magically trapped, warded or cursed. The last magic to impact on the one of the buildings was 'Spell of Ages'. No College was associated with it. Glod headed towards the inn which he identified by its sign, 'The Drunken Griffin'. The rest of us were speculating whether the aging effect would have affected the drinks there and made them more valuable. Just then a group of six orcs, mounted on warboars burst from cover and fired arrows at us before charging. As Hargan dragged me towards the inn I was attacked by one of the boars. Starflower and Glod were covering our retreat. But as we entered the inn a shape materialised from out of a dark corner. To my horror I recognised it as the taniwha I had seen in my vision. Next thing I knew I was cowering under a table in the opposite corner. While the battle raged outside the 'thing' headed towards the door. I collected my wits and put a Spectral Weapon on my dagger then attacked the fiend with both dagger and maingauche. I got hit by the tail and covered in some blue gunk which was poisonous however we managed to vanquish the thing (and the orcs) with no losses although Starflower had been hit by a magical curse which lowered her magical aptitude. I downed one of my permanent Waters of Healing to neutralise the poison. Later, I heard that Starflower had almost single-handedly taken down the six orcs and their mounts, then turned on the monster, which was when she was hurt, by its tongue. But it was Hargan who killed it with an arrow, moments after Starflower had dealt it a mighty blow, crushing its chest. She praised me for my part in the combat which made me feel better about being scared. Actually Starflower was the only one who wasn't terrified by the evil beast. The creature turned out to be a long-lived sentient summonable with a generic true name of 'Hound of Tindalous'. Now I knew where I had seen one before, several adventures ago, on Glorantha. We then found the body buried under the snow in the town square. It turned out to be a Daenoe-Sidhe and his heart had been torn out. Besides the usual spells the body had Enchanted Sleep cast on it followed by Summon Hound then Bind Hound. The Hound originated on the plane of Yuggoth although that wasn't its home plane. From what we could figure out, this creature inhabited the 'angles of time'. It was a natural time traveller and naturally magical, being able to create gates, summon/bind baatezu (a type of demon), Asgoth's curse, and Powder of Ibnghasy. Anathea found out all this through her tarot cards, which proved to be a useful method of divination. The orcs were wearing medallions with spiders on them and their leader also had a very familiar snake medallion. The leader had fought well according to Starflower and his (rather spiky) armour, shield and sword were of good quality. The spider medallions were used to locate each other while the snake medallion is used for communication. The Hound had been summoned at least 2 to 3 days ago. While we were having dinner Starflower fished out a piece of Hound-hair from the stew. Hargan looked very innocent, and said something about "the hair of the dog that bit you". We then decided to take the body out of the village so Starflower could perform a proper elvish funeral. I also wanted to sing a waiata. However, when we got outside the village, four white eagles swooped down. They shaped-changed into Daoine-Sidhe, and thanked us for bringing the body out of the village. There was some sort of magical barrier that was preventing them from entering. They then picked up the body and left. As soon as they had gone, Starflower called out to someone I couldn't see. She explained later that she had noted that the tiger tracks were all around the village, but not in it. Given that the Seelie Daoine Sidhe were blocked from entered the village, that they were able to shape-change, and that the tiger was a long-lived sentient, she had concluded that the tiger was also a Seelie Daoine Sidhe. From her end of the conversation that followed, (apparently it was mind-speaking her - why am I not surprised at this?) I gathered that the tiger was a Daoine Sidhe, that he was following us, but he was not there to help us. He has his own agenda it seems. .4. We then investigated the village, starting with the inn's cellar. After all, if the drinks had been aged 100 years, some of them could be rather valuable. Some like the peach brandy and the apple cider turned out to be very nice so some of the bottles ended up in our packs. The labels were thin bronze plaques and magical. None of their auras were very revealing though. Dinner was roast boar. Unfortunately we didn't have any camembert sauce to go with it but it was delicious none the less.

15/01/96

The night passed without incident. Glod managed to get slightly soused on the wines. Meanwhile Anathea decided to try some divinations. The first was "Where are the slavers?" "On an island near a line The slavers wait, manipulating time." That matched with the map that we had found on the slavers ship showing their island base near the equator. I suspected it was halfway to Pasifika from Carzala. That put it uncomfortably close to Calamari territory. I explained that to the others. The next question was: "Where is the next village to be attacked?". "North and East, up and up The next village is higher than thou..." According to the map there was a village of sorts northeast of our present location higher in the mountains. Starflower decided to improvise a divination using a strand of her hair, her powerstone ring, the map and her sense danger talent. Using the hair and the ring as a pendulum she let it swing over the map while going into a trance. Soon the ring settled into a pattern which had it swinging between the village Anathea had picked out and a peak which was the highest in the range. Meanwhile I was amusing myself by drawing a pentagram around Starflower and surrounding it with Pasifikan symbols. Just then Starflower jerked out of her trance with the news that some magic had hit her. Glod checked her aura for 'last magic to impact' and got the answer 'Seeker finder'. We also noticed that Hargan had been hypnotised by the swinging crystal on the ring. Starflower snapped him out of it. Hargan reported he had seen a swirling, glowing, globe that shifted through all the colours except brass and bronze. So, just in case, we started collecting bronze and brass implements, such as pokers, in case they would be useful against whatever power was behind all this. We slogged off through the snow and headed up the mountain range. By lunch time we were above the tree line. Mid afternoon and the cold was starting to get to me. I just had to risk a Resist Cold spell even though there was all this snow around that was making it harder to cast. So I cast the spell and felt something go wrong. I didn't want to try again but Hargan wanted one as well so I did. This time it worked. By now the clouds were rolling in and we hurried to find shelter before the storm hit. As it got darker I noticed that the others were giving me odd looks. A short while later I saw that my hand was surrounded by a faint glow of rapidly changing scintillating colours just like the globe that Hargan reported seeing. I also started to feel rather hot. Soon we found a snow cave and settled in, just before the storm hit. I was getting so hot that I had to remove all my outer clothing. As I did the glow got brighter as it seemed to be emanating from my bare skin. Anathea divinated me and came to the conclusion that the Resist Cold was working, but there was an Alter Temperature component that was making my body react as if I was in a hot day on Pasifika. The glow was the mana reacting with the cold. She had no idea how long this was going to last. Hargan touched me and concluded I was slightly warmer than usual. 16/01/96 I was still glowing when we woke up. The storm had been raging all night, but morning dawned as a brilliant fine day. Starflower insisted I should cover up in an attempt to hide the glow but it was just too uncomfortable. All I could bear to wear was my two piece swimsuit. So I tossed the Sash of Defense on as well. I did clip a cloak on, just in case I got caught out in the open when whatever it was wore off. Just then Glod noticed that a symbol had been 'burnt' into the snow. It was a skull over a snake symbol surrounded by eight arrows radiating out at all compass points. Another of those Chaos Stars. Looks like the opposition knows we're coming. Hargan threw some snow at the symbol which melted. We then tried covering it with lots of snow. That hid it for a while but it melted through after a few minutes. Hargan checked its aura to determine how far away the person who created it was at the time of casting. The answer was 100 miles. According to the map, the distance to the highest peak was somewhere between 80-120 miles. Starflower had insisted that we ditch the snake and spider medallions back at the village (I had tossed one in the well). However we discovered Glod had one in his pocket. Hargan had hidden it in there. Starflower was not amused. So we hid it under a large rock nearby. We rode off. We must have looked a very odd sight. There was the rest of the party wrapped up warmly against the cold, then there was me, faintly glowing and dressed as if I was on a beach on Pasifika during summer. Starflower was very jumpy and paranoid but started to settle down around lunch time. During the morning I felt a voice in my mind. It was a female voice, but unlike Starflower's, it had with a very distinct purr - just like Sh'rel at her most sultry. She commented on my glow saying it was interesting and wanted to know if I could teach it to her. I had to apologise and admit it was an accident. Her reply was "We'll have to look into that" before communication was cut. It had to be the 'snow tiger'. Once we stopped for lunch I was amusing myself by covering my bare skin with snow and watching it melt off. When Glod and Hargan saw what I was doing they decided to bury me in snow. Fairly soon I was covered in it with only my head showing. It just felt like I was immersed in cool water and was rather pleasant. I was expecting the glow to wear off that afternoon, assuming I had tripled the spell, but it was still going by the time we reached a cave that evening. Since I had the light, Glod and I went in to check it out. The floor was covered with white fur and it was obvious this was where the 'snow tiger' had waited out the previous night's storm. Night passed with no visitors and no more Chaos Stars. 17/01/96 Hargan wanted his Waters of Strength. Five attempts later I managed to create one. By now we're all starting to come to the conclusion that Hargan is getting addicted to Waters of Strength. Nothing unusual happened all day. That evening Starflower suggested I try my Counterspells in order to get rid of my glow. When I finally got the General Counter going it didn't shift it. So I tried the Special Counter but something went horribly wrong. Anathea did another divination and discovered that the 'curse' was now a major one with an MA rating of 25 and would last at least a month. Starflower gave up in disgust. No way could her curse removal move that. During all of this we discovered that we were in a high mana zone. 18/01/96 Again I backfired making Hargan's Waters of Strength draining quite a bit of my fatigue. By the time I got one done I needed to take one of Anathea's restoratives then get healed by Starflower in order to travel. I also gave Hargan the permanent one, just in case he needed one and I couldn't make it. Late that afternoon we topped a rise and could see the monastery/village below us. Even with my enhanced perception I could only see the buildings within the surrounding wall. The only signs of life was rising smoke from fires. We continued on down the path which led through the bottom of a crevasse. The impression was that even an old lady with a broom could defend this path from attack. Finally we rounded a corner and could see the village again. The gate was open and we could see figures on the wall. As we approached we were hailed by a gentleman wearing a light grey tunic and sporting a symbol of two crossed pitchforks. Starflower told him that we were on a mission from the Queen and that we had news. We had to see the person in charge as soon as possible. The person informed us that the village was ruled by a committee which led Hargan to make the muttered comment "At last. Civilisation". As we passed under the gate we all felt a tingling. We noticed it was rather warmer in the village than outside. There were quite a few villagers in here and several of them were giving us curious glances. I also noticed that I was getting some rather surprised double-takes and stares. We were shown to a bath house where we could freshen up while the committee were made aware of our arrival. I changed into my pearl white two piece, jumped into the bath and cast a Water Breathing on myself before throwing a short white cotton dress over the swimsuit and the sash. I also hid a dagger under the dress - just in case the attack arrived. All of the rest of our gear, including armour and weapons were transported to sleeping quarters, much to Starflower's annoyance. Shortly we were conveyed to the presence of the ruling committee. Starflower explained our mission and warned them that, according to our divinations, that they were under threat by the slavers. She managed to pick up one member, using telepathy, and got the distinct impression that they knew who we were talking about, and that he had been defeated before. Just then there was a loud GOONNNGGGGG! sound and the sky was lit by flashes of light. All the committee had gone into a trance. When I rushed to the nearest window we could see flashes of light bouncing off an invisible, hemispherical, shell that surrounded the entire village. Glod was able to determine that the flashes were spells impacting against a defensive screen, spells such as Hellfire and others that we weren't familiar with but appeared quite lethal. The attack had begun. .5. I was watching out a window and could see the inhabitants clustered in groups. They all looked like they were in a trance. Using my Clearsight, I could just see strands of energy emanating from each group reinforcing the shield. The only ones not taking part were the guards. They seemed unconcerned but I prepared for combat, just in case. Somehow I got the feeling that the guards were more interested in watching me than planning for a fight. Starflower cast a Limited Precognition spell and discovered that two hours later we would be in conference with the Council. When we asked we found that it had happened several times before and that the shield always held. It only has to fail once. Glod and Hargan were able to determine that all the spells being hurled against the shield were being focused through the same thing - probably the warpstone. The attack stopped after an hour but I was still wary in case there was a resumption. Anathea and I fed the council restoratives and Waters of Healing. I also supplied Hargan with a Waters of Strength. The council still had to rest from the attack so we were shown back to guest quarters by the two guards. A short time later, it was time for dinner, even though the sun was higher in the sky than it should have been. We were really surprised when Glod read the food's aura and discovered it came from Avalon. The only Avalon I had heard of was a faerie plane. I just hoped that eating food from there wasn't going to do strange things like we had been warned could have happened with Tir-Na-Nog food. After dinner we were conducted, by two different guards, to another section of the council chambers. This room was lined with books. I noticed that some of them were written in the same language that was on the sunken city of Pasifika. The council told us that this place was on all planes. The attack came from Alushia, from a being that had been imprisoned there. Just then, the Siberian Snow Tiger walked right out of the wall. Some of the council started wearing an 'Oh no not her again' look. As she walked over she smoothly shape changed into human form. In that form, she had long black hair with a white streak, cat shaped emerald eyes, and a body hugging white suit that looked like tiger skin. She moved just like a cat and her body oozed sensuality. Her voice also had a sensual purr to it. She introduced herself as Lady Rh'khay-el, a guardian inhabitant of Avalon and also a member of the royal family. The Royal family were partially to blame for the present situation. Long before Penjarre one of them had been consorting with powers from the lower planes and an offspring was produced. They believed in giving him the benefit of the doubt for a while but his actions (destroying a village to summon a demon) got him banished to Alushia with bonds that shouldn't have come free. And this was the second time. The first one was during Penjarre and it had taken quite a bit of power to put him back. They weren't sure what had caused it this time but it had something to do with the snake cult. That led us to suggest that their warpstone was responsible. She agreed saying that it focuses, channels and changes mana. There were no warpstones on any of the faerie planes, and for good reason. Such stones could warp the faerie folk themselves, being mana creatures as they are. Our mission was to help restrain the Dark One. To do this we had to travel to Alushia's shadow planes and retrieve certain items secreted there. She explained that each shadow plane only represented one aspect of the total plane of Alushia. We had to retrieve one item each. Hargan - the Gloves of Laran, Anathea - the Talisman of Obsidian, Me - The Feathered Cloak of the Ocean, Glod - the Hammer of Beltor, Starflower - The Circlet of Tiranth. We would be plane-hopping from this village, returning here from each shadow plane. We were also warned to be careful what we picked up. The items together would strengthen the bonds and maybe even slow down the slavers. Resealing the bonds will strip the items of most of their powers. It may be possible to keep them afterwards. Also some on the shadow planes my be able to help us, others could be agents of the Dark One. After the meeting, Lady Rh'khay-el took each of us aside and conducted a ritual that would enable us to find our item. When it was my turn I asked her if it would be a good idea to remove my glowing Resist Cold. She agreed and did a very fast Remove Curse ritual. I then succeeded in doing another Resist Cold. The spell was behaving a bit differently from normal so she then divinated me to see what it was doing. Apparently it was creating a narrow zone of warm air around me. My immediate thought was that cats were going to love me - and I'd have to ensure I didn't get too crowded with cold adventurers, especially their feet. 19/01/96 The next morning we prepared to enter the first shadow plane - the Shadow Plane of Darkness. Somewhere there was Anathea's amulet. .6. I spent a lot of time in the pool. As well as the usual Waters of Strength for Hargan, Anathea wanted a Waters of Healing in exchange for a Restorative so I used the pool to put a Waterbreathing on myself before creating the permanent potion. Then I did Hargan's potion. I was considering another Resist Cold but decided to use the kraken skin armour instead. When we finally assembled, we were handed, on loan, Amulets of Luck made of some curiously shaped spiral teeth (+4 DEF, +5 MR). Glod said they were the teeth of mana-drakes, from the Plane of Kal-cien. Their inherent magic was that they were easy to enchant. We were shown to the portal and stepped through. After a few moments of disorientation we found ourselves in a very dark place. Fortunately I had an Invested Firelight in one hand so I triggered it. The resulting glow was rather muted than normal but at least we could now see. What we were in was a rather rough cut tunnel and it smelt like a sewer. We soon discovered it was a sewer. There were some doors in the wall and Anathea indicated one of them, the same door that Starflower believed to be the most dangerous. The door in question was given a good going over before we even thought of opening it. For some strange reason, it glowed black through the ocular. Glod and Hargan quickly determined that the spell effect was Darkfire and it wasn't dangerous. So Starflower opened it. I had my dagger at the ready but nothing leapt out to attack us. Anathea's directions led us through a maze of tunnels and doors. I managed to get a large splinter in my finger from one door so I pulled it out. It hurt really bad, and Starflower thought it might be infected so she put some sort of herbal solution on the wound. That stung!. It also didn't taste good when I resumed sucking at it. After a while we reached a door that glowed purple. The nature of the magic in the ward was entrapment. College: Spider. That suggested a web so I began preparing myself to be wrapped up, just as the Bards had taught me. It would be triggered by the door being opened. Fortunately another door, leading in about the same direction, wasn't warded so we went through that instead. The next door we encountered was also warded, and this time there was no alternative route. Hargan tried knocking a hole in the wall but that had no effect. The bricks refused to budge. So Anathea tried to burn the door down with Ignite Flammables. Her first attempt set the tinder in her tinderbox on fire. Fortunately we were able to get it out of her pack before the rest of it was set alight. Her next attempt on the door caused a small flame to appear on the door but the flame didn't catch. Starflower then tried using telekinesis to open the door. It worked but Anathea, Hargan, and myself were enveloped in a sticky web which was covered with a poisonous, black, substance. Thanks to my training, I was able to wriggle free while Hargan broke his way out. We then helped Anathea out. After healing the damage and poison we continued on. A few more doors (nonwarded) and I nearly stepped into a hidden cesspool. That was one patch of water I definitely didn't want to swim in. The next door, Hargan decided to kick in and we passed through without incident. When I scanned the next door with the ocular there was a loud explosion and we were enveloped in a ball of fire. Again we had to stop to heal people up. Glod checked the aura of the floor, door, and walls and couldn't detect any more wards so we continued on. By now we were all expecting trouble so I partly shoved the firelight rod down the front of my armour and had both the dagger and maingauche out. More doors later and we reached a deadend and started backtracking. But all the other doors we explored also ended up in dead end rooms. I managed to find a poison needle in a door by the simple method of being stuck with it. While Starflower started a Neutralise Poison I created a Waters of Healing to get rid of it. Glod leaned against the wall. As he did, we heard a grinding sound deeper in the maze. We investigated and discovered that a secret door had opened. We proceeded into a room with another wooden door at the end. Hargan enthusiastically kicked it in and splinters flew everywhere. This was the first door that wasn't made of ironwood. Pine according to Glod.