Gabe3e

2 - 7 Nightal, 1357DR
[Game of September 26th, 2003]

*2 Nightal, Evening*

Lyta starts talking to herself. “Yeees?” she asks the nothingness.
“Alright, but I won’t go alone. We will seek you out.” Lyta decides to discuss
the conversation with Jaran.

“I got the message again…” She tells Lyta. “He wants to meet us outside in
twenty minutes.”

“He?”

“Actually, it was a woman.”

“So who is it?”

“I don’t know.”

“You didn’t ask?!”

“No… At any rate, she wants to meet us outside in twenty miniutes. I told her
I wouldn’t go alone.” They decide to talk with the others and formulate a
defensive plan for complying with the request.

“I’ve been sent a message from somebody who will tell us what to do next,” Lyta
explains. “She will give us some money and information.”

“Who said this?” G’Kar asks.

“I don’t know… I forgot to ask.”

The party decides to go to meet her and begin making preparations against
betrayal.

“Should I cast zone of truth?” Kalcryx asks.

“Sure… but then we would have to tell the truth,” Jaran says.

“But we should do that anyway…” Connor says.

“Yes… we should…” Jaran agrees.

“Detect evil would be good.” Lyta suggests.

G’Kar casts prayer and Kalcryx casts detect evil. Jaran casts polymorph self.
[Connor pretends to cast something… peer pressure… ;)] They go outside. It
is dark. Kalcryx pulls out a coin of continual light.

A few minutes go by. There is a spinetingling, chilly breeze, sending the
leaves about them into whispered rustling. Ten minutes pass.

Jaran sends Mori to wander about. Connor skulks off into the woods as well.

Five minutes pass. The leaves whisper

“Connor, is that you?” Lyta asks. [”I don’t know… is it me?”] Connor
concentrates harder on his skulking.

Five minutes more pass.

“Eh, she’s not going to show up,” Jaran says, idly experimenting with her
polymorph spell. She becomes moon elf colored,

Kalcryx asks if everything is well within the keep. The answer comes back
affirmative.

Kalcryx and G’Kar cure their wounds.

The wind kicks up again.

Ten minutes more pass. Mori reports nothing of interest.

“Somehow I feel she wanted to meet me by myself…” Lyta mumbles. The party
retreats into the keep, leaving Lyta behind outside.

Jaran sends her cat in to explore the mage quarters, then turns herself into a
spider and walks back out. G’Kar patrols the keep to see for himself that all
is well. He finds no one in the temple.

Lyta feels cold.

The cat hears a strange rustling noise in Lyta’s room. Jaran sneaks back into
the keep to check out Lyta’s room. She meets G’Kar at the door, which is
locked.

Jaran attempts to crawl under the door, but is blocked. She crawls back out and
casts dispel magic, then tries to crawl under the door again, and again is
blocked.

“Why is this door locked?”

“I don’t know. And I can’t get under it.” Jaran uses her thiefly skills and
discovers the door is not actually locked, but magically barred somehow.

Jaran hears a sigh and some page rustling.

Lyta decides to go back inside. Jaran sends her cat to gather the others.
G’Kar tries to dispel magic, but also fails. He tries to break the door down
and fails. The others wander down.

Kalcryx also tries his shoulder against the door, feels it give way a bit, but
not enough. He tries his hand at dispelling it. Then Lyta tries.

Kalcryx hurls himself against the door. It shatters! But it is held in place.
He tries to dispel it again… it crumbles to the ground.

Jaran goes inside. Inside there is someone in a voluminous purple cloak
spinning away. There is a loud sigh. “Maybe next time when you can follow
instructions, girly,” she says, stepping through the wall.

Kalcryx looks around the room with his gem of seeing, but sees nothing. G’Kar
checks the solidity of the wall and finds it is… solid.

Jaran looks around and sees that books are open on the table, open to a spell
that is incomprehensible. Lyta explains that it is a vortex spell.

“What instructions were you supposed to follow?” Jaran asks.

“I did what I was supposed to do… Obviously I won’t listen to voices in my
head anymore.”

“Probably a good idea.”

Jaran decides to go scry on Velvet. She is in bed, wearing silky, velvety
nightclothes. “Stop that!” she cries and the images goes black. Jaran
reflects, trying to decide if Velvet could be the unwanted visitor.

The night goes by otherwise uneventfully…

*3 Nightal*

G’Kar performs his service to Clangeddin. Torred Stonegrinder actually shows
up.

Kalcryx prepares to cure Torred’s son. Jaran, with Torred’s help, scrys on the
boy. She’s an image of a dwarf sitting. “Is this your son?” she asks, and he
answers that it is.

Everyone prepares for departure. G’Kar casts augury, asking if the
teleportation will be successful. Clangeddin says “No.” The party decides to
wait and retry.

G’Kar casts augury again, and announces “Great Clangeddin has given us his
blessing.”

They appear in the sick dwarf’s bedroom. He looks… surprised. Jaran pushes
his father forward.

“G’Kar, will you heal my son?” Torred asks. G’Kar examines the younger dwarf,
and determines that it is mummy rot.

“My trusted friend, who is a great priest himself, and a half dwarf, will remove
this curse,” G’Kar explains. Torred seems skeptical but accepts the treatment.

Kalcryx casts a remove curse spell and the sick dwarf seems to regain health
with each passing second.

“Thank you, War Prince,” he says. G’Kar and the dwarves exchange boistrous
dwarven pleasantries for a few minutes.

“We should get going…” Jaran announces.

Torred’s son stands next to G’Kar. “Are we ready to go?” he asks. The party
looks at eachother, and decide to accept him. They learn that the dwarf is
named Reawal Stonegrinder.

Flanna coughs politely, unable to contain her enthusiasm to reach Zazzespur.
G’Kar explains to Reawal where they are going and why, but he seems hesitant to
climb into portable hole.

“Get in the hole, boy,” Torred commands. Reawal complies.

G’Kar then asks Clangeddin for advice. Clangeddin answers, “Aye.” And they
teleport to Stormaxe.

G’Kar announces himself at the gates, and introduces the two new dwarves with
me.

“You need a key, G’Kar!” the dwarf yells, and the doors are flung wide.

Kalcryx checks in with the priest of Moradin about his armour. G’Kar sends
Torred and Reawal to the best pub, while he and Jaran visit the temple of
Clangeddin.

It is quiet, sparsely populated with priests. G’Kar hails a priest and begins
to question him.

“Where is everyone?” he asks.

“Doing clangeddin’s service,” he is answered.

“Where?”

“Out in the battlefields.”

“Against the humans? With the elves?”

“I do not know the details.”

“Who is in charge here?”

“I am in charge here!”

“Are there any high priests?”

“No, they are out spreading the glory of Clangeddin’s word.”

The younger dwarf does not know any details of the battle plans, so G’Kar
decides to speak with someone else, perhaps the priests of Moradin, or some
other town elder.

“You say you can scry someone you don’t know?” G’Kar asks, wanting to know if
she could find the high priests of Clangeddin.

“I’ve met the priests of Clangeddin,” she explains rather flatly.

They go to the temple of Moradin.

“All hail!” G’Kar says as he enters the temple.

G’Kar asks after the location of the high priests of Clangeddin.

“Did they tell you where your priests went?” the priest asks. G’Kar tries to
explain that they did not or could not reveal the details. “Then you are
probably not meant to know. I should not have to lecture you on the hierarchy
of your church.”

Jaran and G’Kar decide that it is not worth arguing with the dwarves.

The party prepares to teleport to Zazzespur. Clangeddin approves their
departure.

They arrive in the middle of a crowded street in Zazzespur. Lyta and G’Kar walk
to some place slightly less conspicuous and release the occupants of the bag.

The party requests an audience with Sir Lucas, the paladin of Mystra. They wait
for an hour, and eventually a wizardly looking man they’ve never seen before
appears, and demands, “Show me the marks.”

“I’ve been hired, I have no marks!” Lyta protests.

“Oh, that’s right…” he mumbles, then ducks back inside. More time passes.

He pulls out a scroll and studies it, comparing it to Lyta and Connor, then he
hands them each a fat money bag filled with 500gp.

“Keep doing what you’re doing, that’s what I was told, and come back if you have
more good news to report…

Where is Lucas?
Out on business.

Who are you?
Randall Skyseeker

Flanna runs off to the library…

two years before Flanna was born: Battle of the river rising between Sembia and
the cult of the dragon, some fall-out and some migration into Tethyr the year of
Flanna’s birth.

Lyta picks up some guy at a bar. He is a mageling of sorts, and explains to her
that Sir Zonas is his teacher.

*4 Nightal*

After eating breakfast, a fight breaks out at the bar between two men. One man
pushes the other into Connor, and the victim begins to grope at his money pouch.
Connor yells out, “Get your hands off my money bag!” and prepares to punch the
guy.

One of the would-be thieves bolts, but the other continues to stumble about,
pawing at the money pouch. Connor knocks the man’s legs out from under
him, and he falls to the floor, gasping. He tries to roll away, but Connor
falls on him, punching him in the face.

“Two hits,” Connor brags. “I hit you, you hit the floor.”

Jaran casts Maximillian’s earthen grasp on the fleeing thief. As he steps out
into the streets, a hand comes from the ground and holds him fast. He tries to
free himself, but fails. Jaran considers putting him in manacles, but decides
against it.

Inside, Connor

“You ameteurs can get killed doing this crap. Find another line of work,” Lyta
admonishes.

“Yes ma’am,” he says as he walks out.

As he passes Jaran, she whispers, “Next time, pick a better mark.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The man caught in the earthen fist frees himself, and as he does so, a chain and
a heart-shaped pendant falls from inside his tunic. He tucks it back inside
quickly, but not before Jaran spots it and becomes curious.

She stops him and asks about the pendant. “What pendant?” He denies all
existence of it and tries to walk away into the crowd.

Jaran follows him. He goes about three blocks and enters a building. Jaran
circles the building, examining it for any signs. It is a locksmith’s shop.

She decides to let it go, and goes to prepare to scry on Zonas.

An image appears in the mirror, Zonas casting a spell. He grumbles, “Now is not
the time, Jaran!” and the area around him explodes into fire.

Jaran then decides on the thief with the heart-shaped pendant. He is in some
kind of dark room, lit with torches, kneeling and pulling out cash from various
parts of his money. “This is all I’ve got today,” he says. Who he is speaking
to is unseen.

Jaran tries and fails to scry on another thief, then turns her attention to “the
Baron”, also failing, and then to the black-robed mage, and finally she
succeeds. The mage is pushing someone face first into a bucket of water.
Around him is the sound of cruel laughter.

Next, Jaran peeks in on Sir Lucas, who is in the process of sticking a sword
into a man in black platemail. He shoves another sword into the man, and he
falls. He calls out, “I could use some healing!”

She spends some minutes searching for news of the priests of Clangeddin. She
fails once, but manages to bring one image. She sees a priest in plate throwing
two hammers, behind him is a line of dwarves similarly equipped.

She seeks out Jarl and fails, and then Kouraf the summoner. He is in the snow,
walking with someone wearing dark red robes. He looks toward the sensor and
says, “Not right now.” and the image goes black.

“Everyone looks really busy,” Jaran summarizes.

They teleport back to the keep. Lyta goes straight to her room with fiere
instructions not to be disturbed.

Days pass…

It is unusually quiet.

Connor goes camping and gets in touch with nature and his god.

Lyta, Kalcryx and G’Kar pen scrolls. Jaran copies spells. Flanna twiddles her
thumbs or something.

The third night passes uneventfully.

*7 Nightal*

In the morning, Connor goes outside and does his exercises while the mages study
spells and the priests do their prayers. From the corner of his eye, he sees a
man standing in front of the portcullis. He is waving his arms around, in the
manner of spellcasting, and there is the sound of stone moving.

As he turns his head, the man, black robed and armed with two swords, points his
arms straight out toward the portcullis. The area around the keep fills in with
stone, the portcullis sealed off.

Connor crawls through the brush toward him, observing what he can. The man then
flies up above the keep, waiting on top of the hill.

Inside the keep, the wards signal an alarm.

Kalcryx, seeing the new rock wall, tries to dispel the magic. A thirty by
thirty cube of stone disappears before the portcullis.

Flanna and Jaran wander upstairs.

“Why are the warning bells ringing?” Jaran asks.

“The front of the keep has been covered with stone. It seems we are under
attack.”

Jaran casts fly on Kalcryx, explaining that he should go see what is happening.

Lyta runs upstairs and sees the party at the top of the stairs. “Is he back?”
she asks, and then casts cat’s grace on herself.

G’Kar, hearing the bells, stops his service and encourages Torred and Reawal to
join him in aiding the others.

Outside, Connor sees the stone disappear. He decides to shoot at the evil mage.
The arrow homes in on him, but it breaks on an invisible barrier in front of
him. Connor tries to move silently, and realizes, as the mage smirks, that they
have just made eye contact. The air around him begins to combust.

Kalcryx casts silence on a coin and looks around. He sees Connor, looking
stunned, trying to hide behind what once was a bush.

Jaran sneaks outside and sees nothing but Kalcryx floating. Lyta casts
Hornung’s baneful deflector and sneaks toward the outside.

G’Kar moves out and casts recitation. The dwarves ready themselves for battle,
but find nothing to attack.

Connor yells out, “He’s above the keep!” He drops his bow, and runs, drawing his
sword.

The opponant flies up above the portcullis and begins to spellcast again,
filling the area in the portcullis with stone once more and trapping Flanna,
Paul, the elves and all the servants inside. It is dark. Flanna, still
invisible, pulls out a glowing coin and surveys the situation. She says the
worst curse word of all the curse words she knows. [”Miiicrosooooft…” hehe]

Kalcryx flies up and claws at the opponant, stripping off layers of stoneskin.
Jaran smacks off a layer as well. Lyta tries to cast magic missile, but wild
surges instead. She summons a rust monster, which lands plop on Kalcryx. It is
big.

His shield turns into powder.

G’Kar orders the dwarves to attack the mage, and tries to dispel the stonewall.
He fails.

Torred throws his off-hand axe toward the mage, and misses. Reawal throws two
axes, and also misses.

Connor picks up a rock and chucks it at the opponant mage, hoping to knock off a
layer of skin, and succeeding. The mage laughs his ass off, then realizes that
he is an area of silence. He backs off about thirty feet and then casts dispel
magic. Kalcryx falls. He can think of nothing better to do, but chuck his coin
of silence and read a scroll of recall. He appears in the temple of Mystra in
Port Kir.

The rust monster crashes into the ground.

Jaran casts dispel magic on the mage, but fails.

Lyta casts alternate reality.

Instead of summoning the monster, she casts magic missile, as intended. Five
missiles hit the mage, knocking five layers of stoneskin from him.

G’Kar fails to dispel, the dwarves throw hammers, Connor chucks a rock, the mage
laughs and dispels Kalcryx’s fly, Kalcryx falls and he chucks the coin and casts
dispel magic on the mage. He fails.

Jaran casts featherfall on Kalcryx.

G’Kar chucks his hammer at the mage. He causes the final layer of stoneskin to
slough off, then throws his hammer again, smacking the mage soundly. Behind
him, the dwarves fling their axes at him, managing to hit him once.

Connor reclaims his bow.

The chain lightning comes. The mage flies away over the keep and casts chain
lightening on Connor. It jumps from Connor to Kalcryx, to Torred, to Reawal, to
G’Kar, to Lyta, to Jaran, to him, toward Jaran, and then grounds.

As Kalcryx flutters toward the ground, he attempts one last time to cast dispel
magic, and once again fails. He lands.

Jaran moves and reads a dispel magic scroll. Nothing happens. Lyta uses her
wand to try to dispel his magic as well. Instead, she… starts falling…
upwards… She has reversed gravity.

G’Kar throws his hammer again and again, wounding him tremendously. Torred and
Reawal both throw axes and miss. Connor shoots two, very special, arrows at him
and shoots very well. The mage goes limp, and disappears. The second arrow
goes through empty arrow. Jaran determines the spell was dimension door.

Kalcryx puts on his pegleg. Jaran casts a web under Lyta to cushion her
eventual fall. Lyta does a weird backflip and then begins falling with normal
gravity toward Jaran’s web. She casts featherfall on herself and floats back
down at a reasonable place.

G’Kar grumbles about mages and begins to cure his dwarven companions. Kalcryx
heals Connor.

Jaran tries to dispel the rock wall, and fails. Inside, Flanna plays chess with
the beholder.

As Lyta drifts to the ground, she points to where the dimension door let out.
Connor shoulders his bow and starts running where Lyta indicated. G’Kar
administers more healing and then runs after Connor.

As she drifts down, Lyta sees the opponant mage fly up out of the trees and cast
magic missiles toward her. They deflect off the shield created by Hornung’s
Baneful deflector. Fortunately, though one comes close to Kalcryx, no one else
is hit by them.

Kalcryx casts seeking sword and hobbles in the opponant mage’s direction. Jaran
tries one last time to dispel the stone wall. And fails one last time. Then
she runs toward the mage herself.

Lyta casts icy sphere on the mage. He cringes a little.

G’Kar drinks a fly potion and catches up with the mage.

Connor, having seen an icy sphere and the movement of G’Kar, can look through
the trees and just barely make out the mage floating above the trees. He
continues moving through the wood, putting his sword and drinking a potion.

The mage seems to cast sunfire, catching G’Kar within the burning sphere.
Fortunately, G’Kar is mostly protected by a ring of fire resistance. The mage
flies right up to G’Kar, who can now see that his opponant is once again
stony-skinned.

Kalcryx knocks off three layers of stoneskin with his seeking sword.

Jaran casts fly on Kalcryx, warning him against being dispelled again.

Lyta casts magic missile at the opponant mage again. Five missiles streak out,
all impacting on his shield.

G’Kar attacks and knocks off another layer of stoneskin.

Connor, seeing the magic missiles bounce off the invisible shield, moves to the
opposite side and fires. His arrows take off two more levels of stoneskin.

The opponant mage begins to chant and his hand begins to glow black. He reaches
out to touch G’Kar and drains some of his life. Kalcryx flies up closer and
claws at him, flaking off four layers of stoneskin.

Jaran runs under the opponant mage and casts magic missile. Her missiles knock
the last of the layers of stony skin off him, and damage him as well.

Lyta casts acid bolt. G’Kar drinks a heal portion. Connor moves directly under
the mage and fires upward, hitting twice.

The mage pulls out his sword and dagger and proceeds to attack G’Kar. He shoves
the dagger into G’Kar, and G’Kar feels burning poison seeping into him.

“Don’t you wish I had kept casting spells, dwarf?” He growls.

Kalcryx attacks his back, hitting with his claws despite the shield interposed
between them.

Jaran assesses the mage’s health, and sticks some poisoned crossbow bolts into
his body.

Lyta ponders casting dispel magic, but decides she will dispel the magic of
G’Kar and Kalcryx, as well. She instead casts choke.

G’Kar drops down five feet and reads a curative scroll.

Connor shoots more arrows.

The opponant mage moves a bit and drinks a potion. Kalcryx attacks again,
clawing.

Jaran casts lance of disruption. Lyta tries to dispel magic, but… does not.

G’Kar drops another five feet and throws his hammer at the mage. Connor takes
two more shots, missing both times.

The mage casts dispel magic, causing G’Kar and Kalcryx to drop.

Kalcryx drinks a potion of fire breathing and blows flames and lightning at the
mage as he falls away.

Jaran casts a weak icy sphere, knocking him unconscious. Lyta conjures a wall
of ice above him. He falls forty feet. G’Kar takes a few parting potshots,
crushing his skull, as does Connor. G’Kar and Kalcryx slam into the ground.

The proceed to loot the mage, finding two rings, a cloak, a medallion in the
shape of a shield, a set of gauntlets, two black pearls, a longsword, a dagger,
a potion, and three scrolls- bigby’s forceful hand, teleport, reincarnation.

G’Kar cures himself. After several minutes of looting, a piece of skull and
hair move up off the ground and disappear. Jaran casts detect invisbility and
sees a man in leather, covered in potions, flying away. Jaran attacks him with
acid bolts. The man seems extremely hurt. Connor watches where the bolts
impact and aims at it, seeming to hit twice. Kalcryx runs past Jaran and casts
flamestrike. Lyta casts fireball.

At this point, the man disappears from view. Jaran turns herself into a bird
and chases after while Connor tracks the blood trail. It stops suddenly.

They give up and decide to try to raise the mage… They fail; his body is too
damaged.

Lyta tries to dispel the stone wall. She surges and fills the area with music.
She tries again and successfully dispels a big chunk of it, enough for air to
circulate within the keep again.

Entry #6 (30 Uktar 1357DR): An Electrifying Experience
Our first encounter with the spell Chain Lightning had dire consequences. We were all within close proximity of each other, so the master of the keep we had just retaken was able to hit—and drop—multiple members of the party. I altered reality so that Connor’s previous critical miss on this mage would indeed make contact on this mage, interrupting his concentration so that he could not bring this terrifying spell upon my group. My first words after doing this: “EVERYBODY SPREAD OUT!!!”

1. the DM likes to experiment. do not be alarmed if the DM decides to try out
   different things from sesion to session

2. Comments/suggestions are always welcome, even regarding the house rules.
3. Please, give the DM evil ideas.
4. this is Dungeons and Dragons v3.5.
5. players must be explicit about their actions. “I would have…” does not
   cut it. if play progresses too quickly and you do not have a chance to
   state your actions, call for a break and make sure the DM hears what
   you’d like your character to do. inconsequential things like shopping,
   visiting the relatives, etc may be acted out in retrospect, provided they
   do not have an impact on the current situation (”oh, btw, now that the
   hordes of undead are here, i forgot to mention that my character stopped
   by the temple to buy holy water 3 days ago” is not acceptable).

6. All speech during the game that is not explicitly “Out of character”,
   “Player to Player”, or “Player to DM” will be interpreted by the DM as
   in-character. Be prepared to deal with confused/angry/paranoid townspeople.

7. At all times, hitpoints should be stated in qualitative terms.
8. Dead or unconscious players cannot volunteer any information, save common sense or public character knowledge, ie “Joe would not want you to ressurect him as a lich”.
9. Please try to avoid metagaming, especially in character. All character knowledge should reflect the setting and time, not the rulebooks. Ie, “Hi, I’m Bob the 2nd level paladin” is not something you’d say in character. Additionally,
   as per the hitpoint rule, I would appreciate descripted and qualitative dialogue in regards to rules and statistics.

10. Your alignment is your own business. You are only required to share it with the DM.
11. Players may keep track of their own hitpoints. However, in the event of
    a conflict the DM’s count will take precedence (unless you can justify why
    yours is right). The DM keeps track of how much damage and how much healing
    you have received per adventure.
12. Please pay attention to encumberence.
13. The DM reserves the right to glance at your character sheet from time to time, both out of curiosity and sadism.
14. Rolling up new characters is as follows: 32 point point-buy system.
15. Know your character information/bonuses.
16. Passing notes to the DM is encouraged.
17. If the DM passes you a note, you are not allowed to share the note with others unless the DM explicitly states so. You are, however, free to share in character whatever information you received.
18. Things may happen regardless of whether or not the players are paying attention. Bathroom leave, however, holds certain sanctuary benefits.
19. the DM’s girlfriend is not exempt from character death, provided he does not have to sleep on the couch the following night.
20. the DM reserves the right to ask the players to switch seats. in particular, the DM may ask the players to sit in order of initiative (clockwise or counterclockwise or whatever) to make the DM’s life a bit easier.
21. Spell components must be available and at hand for certain spells to function. In particular, expensive, rare or exotic components will be paid attention to.
22. After initiative is rolled, all conversation must be acted out on your turn. You are not allowed to share tactical information or volunteer any ideas to party members when it is not your turn. Similarly, if the characters cannot hear each other, the players should be thoughtful of that and not allow themselves to converse with other players. This may seem frustrating at first but, trust me, eventually it will enhance your enjoyment of roleplaying(and it pleases the DM).
23. Please avoid using “Player to Player” speech as a way to get away with communicating information between players. Saying “player to player: do you want me to run over to where you’re getting mugged?” doesn’t make it right :)
24. If the DM asks you for your character sheet, you cannot refuse.
25. You must have a completed and approved spell description before you can commit game days to spell research.

On some occasion long ago in our travels through the land of elves and humans, we came across a magic helmet of unknown properties. The mage-elves attempted to identify it to no avail. We took it to the mages most advanced in their art, and yet it was even beyond the ability of these wizards to know what the helmet actually did. One thing was for certain, and as certain as the dwarves mine the earth and make marvelous works of stone, metal and gems, it was indeed of the most powerful magic.

Months went by and after yet one more attempt to divine the helm’s secrets failed, Kalcryx, frustrated and curious, stole away in secret and donned helmet. We did not know what he had done, but he began exhibiting unusual behavior. For example, when Jaran cast a spell to temporarily restore his missing leg, he threw his peg-leg over his shoulder. Jaran had scolded him and thrust it back in his hand, but Kalcryx seemed uninterested in keeping it. Now this puzzled me because I know Master Kalcryx, High Priest of Helm better than that. I began watching him more closely and then a suspicion came over me which made the sturdy rock foundation I was born on seem to shake and falter (much like being out to sea). After praying to Clangeddin for a divination spell which would help me to know a person’s heart better, I cast it and gazed fixedly on Kalcryx. He looked at me, clearly annoyed, and spat, “What are you looking at?!”. And that’s when I saw it: an aura of evil around him!

Somehow we found out that he had donned the mysterious helmet in secret. I even tried to get him to put it back on to see if the effects would be reversed, but to know avail. But then later, we discovered that the magical aura the helm had once possessed was no longer present. Fearing that the spell could not be reversed easily, I then set out to try to restore my comrade-in-arms to his original state. I visited a high-priest of Moradin (I would have gone to a church of Clangeddin had there been one in the city which we were visting, but my church is not that well known, something I intend to change in the near future) and asked him what he could offer to help return my friend back to normal. In our discussion, we determined that he may be rejected from Helm’s church. The priest offered a scroll to me, penned in magical Dwarvish which read “Atonement” near the wax seal of Moradin. “If your friend is truly sorry for his actions, this may reverse the effects of the magical helmet.”

It was the best and only solution I was offered, outside direct confrontation in battle–a thought I did not relish greatly, and certainly an option viewed as a last resort.

We stayed at an Inn in a small village near Fortenbury, and I kept a watchful eye on my now-evil friend. Fortunately, human ale is weak, much like drinking pint after pint of flavored water, so I kept my wits about me and watched. Since I planned to sleep on the floor of the pub, I was there the entire night.

Kalcryx had spent most of the evening with two scantily clad elvish women (something I’d never seen him do normally–in fact I can’t remember a time I’d ever seen him engaging in any sort of mating ritual). They left to go back to his room at some point in the evening, and I stayed, drinking the beer-flavored-water the humans seems to like and watching the pub.

About two o’clock in the morning, Kalcryx came down the inn’s creaky stairs (bah, a dwarven inn would be made of stone–how elvish of the humans) and left through the pub’s front entrance. I followed him, and stopped him in the alley way.

“Friend Kalcryx, where be ye headed on such a fine night?” I asked, looking at him unblinkingly and sternly. “Down to the temple of Helm,” he said, matter-of-factly. “I volunteered for watch duty this morning.”

“Hrm,” I said, stroking my long, silver beard idly. “And what will you be doing on this watch?”

“Patrolling, mainly.”

“Will there be killing involved?” I pressed closer for this.

“Well, let’s see, if I’m attacked, then probably yes. Why, feel like you’ll miss out?”

“No–just, er, I want you to promise me that you won’t kill anyone tonight. I can’t explain much more than that, but if my friendship has ever meant anything to you at all, you will comply with my request.”

He just stared back (down, really), a half smile smudged on his huge face. He scratched his nose with a claw, and then said, “G’Kar, you annoy me. I have work to do,” and with that, he walked off.

The next thing I knew, I was pounding on Jaran’s door, and found myself face to face (really face to chest) with a bleary eyed, unamused half-drow. “What’s going on G’Kar?”

“We all know that Kalcryx has changed for the worse since he donned the Helmet, yes? Oh stop looking at me like that–he’s gone off to make rounds for the Helmite church, and I am afraid he will get himself into trouble. I want to use this on him,” and I pulled out the scroll of atonement I obtained from the church of Moradin. “You see, if he kills, and he does so dishonorably, Helm will ban him from his church. I believe if I can catch him before he does anything rash, and get him to honestly repent for donning the helmet in the first place, we can reverse its effects. We need to accost him now!”

Jaran instantly snapped out of her grogginess, just as if a magical bellows had caused flame to spring forth out of cold, quiet stone. She was in action, and we were already going down the hall to seek Delen and Connor.

We went to the temple of Helm to learn Kalcryx’s planned route, but his route was so large that he could be anywhere in the city. Once we exited the Helmite temple, Jaran performed in her usual way (she has never admitted to having thiefly ways, but I figured it out from a long time of fighting along side her, watching her pick locks, disable traps, move in a utterly silent way and inflict grievous wounds from behind an unsuspecting opponent). She vanished into the night to seek out where Kalcryx might be.

We finally met up with Jaran, who had located Kalcryx. Apparently there had been some sort of altercation between the priest and a different thief, and they had just returned from the prison where they had deposited said thief. But my fears were abated when I was told that he acted in self-defense. Had he acted in a dishonorable way, it would be one more deed too many–this could cause the atonement to fail. If I could but convince him that donning the cursed helm has led him astray from his god, if I could make him but feel genuine remorse… It was in Clangeddin’s hands at this point.

“I was just trying to wake up some of the mages around here,” said Kalcryx, “and buy a scroll. But none of them seem to want to come out of their houses. I was going to trade this for a scroll before I got attacked by that thief, ” and he held out a handsome gem. I wondered if it had been cut by a dwarven diamond-smith, it’s angles were so precise.

I eyed my old friend suspiciously. “Why searchth thee for scrolls at such a late hour, particularly when you are in the charge of the church of Helm to patrol the streets?”

He shrugged, “I dunno. I wanted to buy a scroll.”

“This does not sound like the honorable warrior and priest I have come to know over the time we have campaigned together. Surely, does this not sound strange?”

“No. I don’t see anything wrong here.” Kalcryx’s expression was blank, save for a slight upturn of his lip. His eyes were shining in a way which reminded me of a crafty dwarven child playing a practical joke on a friend.

“Then I submit to you, Kalcryx of Helm, that you have fallen from your ways as a priest and have run afoul of Helm’s honor! Do you wish to be expelled from your church?! You will no longer be able to cast the spells of Helm!”

“Oh.”

“Does this not fill you with remorse and regret?!”

“Yeah, I suppose it does,” he looked anything but convincing to me. Jaran took the opportunity to hand Kalcryx the Lifebringer. If there was one truly honorable and noble weapon in the world, this was it. “Take it.”

At that point I noticed Kalcryx casting a spell. The power of Clangeddin allowed me to divinate that he was trying to dispell the magic of the mysterious Lifebringer!

I wasn’t sure if it worked, but I brandished my Dwarventhrower and shouted, “let us do battle then! If you are still normal in every respect, the Lifebringer will work for you–but I daresay it will not on this day…ah! It speaks to you–what does it tell you!?”

“The Lifebringer says that it’s quite happy to be back with me,” Kalcryx smirked.

“Why then did you attempt to dispell it’s magic?!”

Kalcryx had no answer. There was a terrible lull, a tension filled silence which surrounded us while we stared at each other. I noticed that the smirk had faded from his face. “Do you truly wish to have Helm grant you more spells on the morrow?” I pressed.

He thought about it, then looked down at me, “I wish Helm would grant me more spells.”

With that, I pulled out the scroll the dwarven priest of Moradin had sold me. The symbols were in dwarvish, but they shimmered in the way magical scrolls do. Minutes passed as I read, parts of the scroll crumbling away magically into powder.

A drop of moisture hit my hand, and I held my shield over the scroll as it began to rain, lightly at first. With each passing stanza, the rain increased in volume. Soon Jaran was holding her cloak over me, deflecting most of the downpour.

Then, I noticed something strange. The rain, which had been coming down hard, began to look wrong. I blinked my eyes, but sure enough, each raindrop’s fall was slowing. I paused from my magical reading and saw the crumbling bits of parchment slowing their drift to the street. Jaran and Kalcryx stood unmoving, the noise of the rain began to fade, and all became utterly still. I was as if I had cast Clangeddin’s Withdrawl, but I cannot cast two spells at once!

Then a shimmering light came forth and I shielded my eyes, for strong it was. When I could focus, my mind was dazzled and my heart sent beating fast. And then a figure emerged from the light.

The figure was massive, standing head and shoulders above the buildings around us. It’s head was covered in an ornate helmet, and body armor so massive that I could outfit an entire troop of the High Priest’s warrior dwarves. Then the figure spoke and the ground seemed to shake with the depth of his voice.

“THIS WILL NOT WORK. HE HAS COMMITTED NO MISDEEDS. THERE IS NOTHING TO ATONE FOR.”

I stood agape looking at the figure, and realized that I was addressing Helm himself! Great Dwarf, here I was conversing with such a great and noble being, and yet my own god failed to give me audience, only occasionally communicating to me in dreams, and then only in visions!

“But–surely, is it not a crime for him to be excommunicated from the church of Helm? Perhaps his crime is the change of heart he has had. Please, he is my friend, and surely one of your greatest followers! You cannot turn away from him, for he needs you now!”

The great figure paused, then extended his great hand. “I CANNOT LET YOU WASTE THIS OPPORTUNITY. THAT IS WHY I AM HERE.” I noticed a scroll pinched between two massive gloved fingers. I noted that had he wanted to, he could smite me where I stood, with just one of those fingers. I took the scroll, which filled my hand, and looked at the seal. “Will I be able to read this scroll?”

“NO. THIS IS FOR YOUR MAGE. YOU MUST RESTORE MY CHILD TO HIS RIGHTFUL FORM.”

In his other hand, he held what looked like a miniature helmet (but which I realized was larger than my own head). I recognized it to be the magic helmet which had caused Kalcryx to become not himself. Helm squeezed his hand and crushed the helmet into dust.

I looked down again at the scroll, and then back up at the larger-than-life warrior.

“Oh Great Helm, you are a fair and just god…”

And with a no warning, time resumed for me, water droplets, which were suspended in mid-drop, hit the now muddy streets. The sound of the rain was almost deafening. Jaran took a small step backward in spite of herself, as she realized I was no longer holding the scroll I was reading, but a different, larger scroll still rolled up bearing a seal. I turned to her.

“You MUST read this. I have it on extremely good authority that it will restore our misguided friend,” and with that, I shoved it into her hand.

“What’s on the scroll?” Kalcryx looked startled. “I thought you were reading something else?”

Jaran faced him. “It is a scroll which contains mage magic, and will grant a wish of any proportion to the reader.”

Kalcryx shrugged. “So? I don’t need a wish. And I can’t think of a reason why you would want to read it either.”

“Kalcryx, do you want me to restore you back to the way you were before you donned the magical helmet? I want to make sure you understand what I’m about to do.” Jaran told him.

“Just read it Jaran!” G’Kar shouted.

“What’s all the urgency, dwarf?” Kalcryx now looked a little nervous, his hand going into his pocket.

G’Kar faced Kalcryx, “the scroll comes from Helm himself! I have seen him!”

Kalcryx just laughed, then suddenly pulled out a scroll of his own and without anyone
being able to stop him, he vanished.

“An invisibility spell! Jaran, waste no more time!”

With that, she broke the seal on the scroll and read aloud in a language I could not understand. Then she added at the end in Common, “I wish Kalcryx to be restored to his state from right before he put on the helm.”

There was a pause. Then in a flash of light, Kalcryx reappeared, this time with his peg leg. “All hail friends, ” he said, then looking around, “where am I?”

“My good friend, it is a long story, one best told whilst drinking dwarven ale and smoking a fat pipe of fine tobacco.”

We headed back to the tavern, and agreed to try to get a good nights sleep. As I lay down on the wooden floor, wishing for something harder like good solid stone under my head, my mind drifted, and I pictured the massive and great Helm standing over me. I have seen faith waver before in my time, and I have seen magic take loyal followers away from Clangeddin. But I must admit I’ve never seen a god come back to rescue one of his own.

In addition to doing my nightly worship and prayer to Clangeddin, I also prayed to Helm to watch over our friend. Great Helm, I thank thee!

1 - 2 Nightal, 1357DR
[Game of September 19th, 2003]

1st Nightal

The party discusses for long hours. The octagonal room darkens as a cloud
passes overhead, blotting out the sun temporarily. At length, Jaran addresses
the elves, Siluref and Rilaneth. “Would you be willing to take us to speak to
your leaders?”

“I do not think they will let you into the elven forest city,” Siluref replies.
Jaran proposes that the meeting occur at a neutral location, so that the home
city will not be revealed.

“Perhaps. Where do you propose?”

“Uh… Here?”

“And how are we supposed to get people to come here?”

“I could either send them a message if you could aid me in scrying…”

“Good luck,” the elf interrupts. “Your divinations will not penetrate the
forest city.”

The party learns that messages are carried by scouts. Jaran proposes to release
the two elves and have them carry the message to their people themselves.

“We shall certainly try. There is no guarantee that we’ll be heard,” the elf
answers.

“Do you need any supplies?” Flanna asks.
“Our weapons.”

“We’ll certainly return your weapons and the bodies of your comrades so that you
might prepare them as is your custom. Is there a place we can teleport you to,
to speed you on your journey?” Jaran steps in.

“No, we’d rather run.”

“How many days journey is it to get there?”
“Many.”

“On horseback?”
“Less than a cycle of the moon.”

“Longer than a ride?”
“About two rides.”

“Is there anything that we need to do make it easier for you to contact us?”
“Don’t protect yourselves from scrying.”

The elves gather their dead and wander into the sunset.

“Ah,” Jaran says to herself happily. “They left the wolf carcasses.”

Night comes and the party beds down. G’Kar tosses and turns constantly,
dreaming strange dreams. Otherwise the night passes uneventfully.

2nd Nightal

Over breakfast, G’Kar seems unusually terse and distracted, as if he was deep
within his own thoughts. Suddenly, he announces, “I had a dream last night that
I do not understand.”

“You weren’t dreaming of your wife again?” Jaran jibes gently.

“No… No, I dreamed that I saw Clangeddin, the tall dwarven god, fighting, and
an elven man… god… I do not know which, they’re all pretty big to me, but
they hit Clangeddin with a staff just the right way and knocked him off the
mountain. And that is my dream. I do not know what this means, but maybe it
has something to do with this political stuff.”

“Perhaps the alliance with the elves will not be to the dwarves’ benefit in the
end,” Flanna suggests.

Someone asks what kind of elf it was, but G’Kar says that he cannot say, they
all look the same. The party denigrates him for his lack of ability to
distinguish elves. After much badgering, he states that it certainly wasn’t a
drow.

Kalcryx vaguely remembers an elven god who favors the staff. Rero Rillo
something.

“You mean Rillifane Rallathil?” Lyta exclaims in consternation.

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Kalcryx assents.

“It sounds like the elves will turn on the dwarves,” Lyta suggests before
wandering out to scribe some scrolls.

After breakfast, Jaran decides to try her skill at scrying. First she tries to
see a black-robed mage. The mage appears before her, flanked by men in
platemail. They walk by a fountain, a fountain with a whale at its center, and
then take a side street.

She then turns her attention to the deathbard, who appears sitting on a cart.
He is surrounded by a few men, one of whom taps him on the shoulder and begins
to look around anxiously.

The Baron is next, but she fails and the mirror turns black. She fails also to
find any image of the man who escaped in the last battle, the man who claimed
the keep as his.

Next she seeks Lord Corvis. He is restrained, stretched out in a darkened room,
seeming to be in pain. Jaran hears the crack of the whip.

Sylvia cannot be found, nor can Jarl or Kouraf, the Wizard of Mosstone.

She turns next to Velvet, who is lying in bed. She sighs, looks up towards the
ceiling and says, “That’s not very nice, Jaran.” And the mirror fades.

“Velvet…” Jaran says. “Velvet saw, and cancelled my mirror spell. I think
someone with the bard saw me, but the bard did not… So we only have to worry
about Velvet.”

The party discusses plans. They decide to seek out the bard and his small
caravan, and make appropriate preparations. Lyta, Connor, the new helmlings,
Flanna, and Kalcryx climb down into the portable hole, while G’Kar and Jaran
teleport.

They arrive in a lightly forested area. To the east there is a some forest and
a lake. To the east there is a cliff. Ahead of them, to the north, wagon
trails lead off the road.

The party is let out of the bag and told to keep quiet. Lyta drinks a fly potion
and hides in among the branches up above, while Kalcryx scopes out the path of
the wagon with his spyglass. G’Kar, the helmling fighter, and Connor following,
he advances down the road. Two carts are near the shore, parked up to their
carriages in the water.

Connor pulls out his sword for all to see its blue shining blade.

There is a swoosh of something turning through the air and something smacks into
a tree near G’Kar, sending a shower of splinters to the ground. A booming
voice, deep and gruff, cries out “Back off, bandits! We have a mage.” This is
followed by the faint melodic sound of spellcasting. Jaran determines it is a
shield spell. Flanna casts invisibility on herself and floats into the trees
while Jaran sneaks along the ground beneath her. Jaran looks around, seeing the
carts, the horses, and the water. Behind her, there is a rustling.

G’Kar casts defensive harmony. Lyta moves and scopes out the area then casts
spectral hand. Kalcryx casts detect evil and orders the helmlings to stay out
of trouble. Connor raises his sword and whispers to G’Kar, “Strength of one?”

Something about warning shot arrows…

The gruff voice cries out, “This is your last warning!” His cautionary threat
is punctuated by a second handaxe whistling through the trees.

The cleric helmling casts bless. A bolt of acid streaks toward Connor.

Kalcryx can see a small dust cloud on the path to the north.

Jaran investigates the rustling behind her. She sneaks south and looks for
hidden people. Seeing no one, she draws her Bast sword and keeps an eye out.
Shortly she sees an elven man in leather armour move from tree to tree, an arrow
trained north toward the path.

Lyta moves closer to the treeline and summons a vortex to appear. Kalcryx,
detecting evil, sees a single aura of evil in the area. He steps toward the
lake, yelling out, “Give us the bard, and we’ll leave you alone.” As he moves,
the bard comes into view. He is hiding behind a cart with another, less
identifiable figure.

Connor advances on the men in the cart, drawing his swords and screaming out
a fierce battlecry. Meanwhile, the fighter helmling joins Kalcryx, his arrow
trained on the cart.

There is a guttural scream followed by the sound of metal on metal, then the
sound of a half-elf screaming in pain. There is a spray of blood from behind
the cart.

The cleric helmling also joins Kalcryx, positioning himself on the opposite
side.

A head peeks up from behind the cart, a grinning human bard. “Go to hell!” he
yells, targetting a fireball at Kalcryx’s feet. A half-sphere of fire erupts in
the woods, and the two helmlings fall.

The bard flies up and into the trees to the north.

Flanna flies over and checks for life on the fighter helmling. He is dead.

Jaran embeds the elf near her in an uberthick web, informing him, “Our quarrel
is not with you.” The elf puts his bow away and pulls out two swords, slowly
cutting his way out.

Another elf peeks out from the underbrush and knocks an arrow back, sending it
toward G’Kar. He more or less ignores it and moves toward the bard, sending his
thrower on before him. The bard drops. Or rather, since he’s flying, he hangs
limply in the air.

On the path, Lyta’s vortex materializes. Lyta looks down, and sees an elf
trying to be real sneaky. She moves and screams out, “There’s one over here!”

Kalcryx goes to the cleric. He is dead. Kalcryx raises him. The cleric heals
himself and stands.

Connor backs off a pace from his unseen opponant. “We’ve come for the bard, not
for you,” he screams, crossing his swords in a defensive manner before him.

The gruff voice screams, “Never surrender, elf!” and advances, revealing
himself. He is a dwarf, in dwarven plate, a handaxe in each hand. He is
somewhat older than G’Kar.

Connor swings at the dwarf’s legs, but the dwarf does not lose his footing, and
instead pummels Connor with his sword.

Flanna flies to Connor’s side, yelling out as gruffly as she can, “In the name
of Clangeddin and Moradin and all that is good, knock this off! We are not your
enemies!” Or at least, that’s what she’s trying to say. What she actually says
is “In the name of Clangeddin and Moradin, knock my beer barrels over! The ale
is spoiled!”

Jaran casts magic missile at the bard. It bounces off his shield. An elf near
him propels himself off a branch and grabs him, pulling him to the ground behind
the tree.

G’Kar moves and flanks the dwarf. “In the name of Clangeddin Silverbeard, I
command you to stand down!”

Another elf starts hacking.

Lyta’s vortex wanders back to the path. Kalcryx casts flamestrike on the elf
and the bard as the elf was about to administer a healing potion. Ouch.

Connor splashes deeper into the water, “We got what we came for… We have no
quarrel with you.”

The dwarf laughs. “You little elven girl. You think Clangeddin would tell me
to surrender? The guard of war telling me to surrender?” He drinks a potion
and laughs again. His skin hardens into stone. Connor flanks him, hitting
twice with the scimitar. Two layers of stone slough off of him.

The cleric helmling moves behind Connor, casting a healing spell on Connor.
Connor looks decidedly healthier.

Flanna casts ward away. Woo.

Jaran walks over to the elf near the bard charcoal. “Here, you might need this.
Our quarrel is not with you.” And hands him a potion of healing. He drinks his
own potion and moves away from her, toward the vortex and the cliff.

G’Kar asks Connor to stand down, then lectures the dwarf some more. Connor
steps back a few feet, saying “Flanna, move back!” He then drinks a mild
healing potion.

Lyta tries to send the vortex after the elf. It moves south along the path.
Kalcryx tries to raise the fighter helmling. He will not be raised.

The cleric helmling draws his flail and tries to look menacing.

Kalcryx feels a familiar feeling. He has been stabbed in the back! An elfish
man in leather armour appears behind him.

Flanna casts spark shower on the dwarf. Doug freaks out. =) Oh, the irony.

Jaran makes sure the bard is dead. He is dead. Really, really dead.

G’Kar growls at Flanna, and tries to talk to the dwarf some more. “We mean you
no harm. We were only after the bard, please stand down.”

“What? My mother told me that Clangeddin is a resolute warrior, who never backs
down from danger, and refuses to surrender even when all seems loss. But, you
know… that bastard can’t pay me if he’s dead.” He holsters his weapons and
claps G’Kar on the shoulder. “Good fight. My name is Torred Stonegrinder.”

“Can you call off the others?” G’Kar asks.

Lyta sends her spectral hand after the elfish fellow, harming him with shocking
grasp. “A knife in the back is never rewarded,” she admonishes. Kalcryx then
attacks with claws and shield.

Connor circles around the new allies, running to Kalcryx’s side. He smacks the
backstabber with the hilt of his swords until he falls. The cleric helmling
runs over.

Flanna, smiling somewhat sheepishly, profers a healing potion to the dwarf, who
takes and drinks it.

Jaran runs back south, to the webbed elf. “If you put away your weapons, I
shall dispel the web.”

The elf inside sheaths his weapons and starts pawing at the web. “Don’t come
any closer!” he warns.

G’Kar questions the dwarf as to the purpose of his alliance with the bard, was
it just to transport the cargo? “Yeah, straight out of Murran. Hey!” He yells
at Lyta, peeking in the cart. “Don’t touch that! I still have money to make.”
He looks at Flanna, “So what about that ale?” Flanna looks even more sheepish.

“How much were you getting paid?”

“Well, in coin, only 500. But they’re going to arrange for something I need.”

Kalcryx’s mind is filled with the image of a sickly looking dwarvish man.

“Some kind of curative?” Kalcryx asks.

“Yeah, for my son.”

“They say he needs this strange mixture of troll liver, dragons blood, and an
eyelash from a paladin. That’s what the clerics said.”

“What clerics?”

“The black clad ones.”

“Do you know who they follow?”

“Some human gods. Not very nice people.”

“What is your son’s affliction?” Kalcryx asks.

“Some kind of skin rot,” the dwarf answers.

“How about if we give you 700 coin for this lot, and we’ll cure your son.”
G’Kar offers. The dwarf doesn’t seem excited. He could make much more selling
the goods himself.

“Where were you taking it?”

“Some kind of fortress to the south.”

“I could take the whole lot to Velen now, and we could sell it together and
split the profits. It would be a lot faster and then we could go help out your
son within the next day or two.” Jaran suggests.

There is much discussion.

“How about you don’t pay us at all, and the four of us just split the carts…
These elves and me.”

“You don’t want them tracking you down.”

There is much more discussion. The joys of Bane and Clangeddin.

“I’m willing to cure your son and pay you two hundred extra gold,” Kalcryx offers
again.

The elves were hired similarly, and given the same offer. Kalcryx extends his
offer of 700 gold to them as well. The dwarf and the elves will not accept such
a small amount of gold, and insist upon being paid per item. Kalcryx and Jaran
go to inspect the carts and appraise the items.

The first cart is filled with 50 brand new masterwork longswords, each worth
about 150gp. The second cart is filled with chainmail of similar value.

“I’m going to detect magic,” Jaran announces. She finds a large blob of faint
evocation aura lining a secret compartment. “As far as I can tell none of
these are magical, but they are of fine quality. I can offer 1500 to each of
you.”

The dwarf asks what they will be paid for the potions. Jaran feigns
ignorance, asking the nature and location of the items, but the dwarf is not very
informative.

“For unidentified magical potions, I cannot offer a price.”

“Then we’ll split them four ways.”

Lyta finesses the dwarf.

“How about this,” the dwarf says, frowning. “We each get fifteen hundred, and
you come and cure my son.”

Privately, the party discusses hiring them to watch the keep. In the end,
Jaran’s mistrust of them prevails. Just as the party decides against it, behind
them, one of the elves whispers to the dwarf.

“Not a bad idea,” the dwarf says loudly. “Free room and board.”

The party is somewhat stunned.

“To watch our keep? For room and board?” G’Kar asks.

“And… ten gold a month?”

Deal.

“So… where are we?”

“Well, the priests said they diverted the cart out of Murran… and we picked it
up there… and we’re about three days out of… What’s that town called?” The
dwarf trails off.

“Something about a berry?” the elf guesses.

“Fortenberry.”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

*doom*

The party prepares for departure and teleports to Velen. They sell crap, and
then teleport back to the keep.

Kalcryx lectures the cleric.

G’Kar gossips with the dwarf. The dwarf is vaguely aware of the war, and is not
particularly attached to any side. G’Kar invites him to a service in the morning.

Entrance Level

Upper Level

Lower Level

30 Uktar - 1 Nightal, 1357DR
[Game of September 12th, 2003]

[Log follows]

Moonfest

Explore the magic handkerchief…

They find three barrels of mead, a desk, horse feed, 100lbs of dry rations, a
small altar to bane, and a mess of other things.

They clear out the hole, search the desk, and destroy the altar. Kalcryx
protects the keep with some glyphs, and a summoned beholder. G’Kar also creates
some protective glyphs.

They then decide to ask the gods for guidance. “Will teleporting to Stormaxe be
a safe move for the party?”

The gods reply, “Yes.”

Kalcryx, Lyta and Connor climb into the portable hole while Jaran prepares her
teleportation spell. She casts it, and within seconds, she and G’Kar are
outside the city gates of Stormaxe. G’Kar approaches the gates and announces
himself. Meanwhile, Jaran opens up the portable hole and frees the others.

The gates swing open. “Welcome G’Kar and friends.” The noise and heat of the
forges meets them with full strength.

G’Kar heads straight away to the Temple of Clangeddin.

… stuff

G’Kar is greeted by some guy… He gets manhugged. Jaran casts comprehend
languages and listens in on their conversation.

She hears G’Kar telling the man the tale of the high old priest. He pulls out
the flaming hammer and presents it to the man.

“It is not our weapon, but it is close enough that we’ll send it up north,” the
man says, going on to explain that they will put it in the care of an acolyte
they are about to send out in the world.

G’Kar also asks after a way to avoid being affected by fear spells. They
suggest that he pray to Clangeddin if a prophylactic usage of remove fear
doesn’t help.

“Has Clangeddin stopped speaking to you?” G’Kar admits that he has not heard
from Clangeddin in a long time. They discuss a few things, and the priest
offers him atonement for his failings in combat.

He learns further news of an on-going campaign. “Very well. We’ve taken
several human armies in the last several months,” the dwarf tells him. They
have been fighting alongside ‘the elves.’ The war seems to be going their way.

G’Kar then goes off to visit the family.

Kalcryx pokes around, inquiring after a means to get his suit of mithril plate
enchanted. He takes it to the priest of Moradin who made it, who agrees to
enchant it. Connor follows on Kalcryx’s heels, asking after enchanting his
elven chain. The dwarf agrees to try.

Kalcryx requests that protective magic, cold resistance, and some sort of
hasting, be imbued into his armour. The dwarf asks for $40,000, 50% up front.

Connor decides that he cannot afford the enhancements he wants.

Kalcryx seeks out Jaran to beg for a loan. She cannot loan him enough money, so
he goes back to the dwarf and asks about prices for lesser enchantments.
Kalcryx hands over some green dragon scales and asks for acid resistance
instead.

Zip to Velen.

Kalcryx’s building is all finished, and the helmlings are farming the
surrounding lands. He meets with Johan, and inquires into the general
happenings.

“We have had some new men show up, seeking Kalcryx of Helm, who will be eager to
meet you. We have some crops growing, and we have been sending ment o join the
patrol around the city. We seem to be on pretty good terms with the city
guard.”

Kalcryx hands him a scroll with plans for the stone construction. He suggests
they look into fundraising. Johan suggests that maybe they could get some
funding from the main temple in Zazzespur.

Kalcryx compliments them on the construction, and explains that he’ll be staying
for dinner and will leave in the morning.

Jaran and Lyta seek out a mirror and some land. Jaran goes on next to warn
Galleon and the Waukeenar about their ships being taken over by the banites.
Then she buys a ten foot ladder and fire breathing potions. Lyta looks into
daggers.

Connor buys new clothes.

Jaran realizes that her decoy pouch has been stolen.

G’Kar checks up on his temple. It should be done in a couple weeks. G’Kar buys
all the workers a round of ale.

Over dinner, Kalcryx recruits volunteers for keeping the keep. 20 or so
volunteer to join him. He pulls two aside specifically to replace James and
William.

Jaran and Lyta spend the evening identifying. Then Jaran scries out Flanna and
the helmlings, then teleports her a note with instructions.

Elsewhere in Tethyr…

Flanna, William and James make it to Port Kir. They ask after the boat. No
news. They sell crap. The end.

Flanna suddenly has a note in her lap. She is instructed to sell all the
horses, unless she’d like to continue on the way to Zazzespur.

1 Nightal

In the morning, G’Kar casts augury and asks if they would make it safely. The
gods answer, “No.”

He asks again if they will make it there safely if Lyta casts the spell. This
time the gods answer in the affirmative. They teleport to Port Kir.

The party is reunited!

They teleport back to Velen.

G’Kar runs to the temple of mystra and buys scrolls he ordered from the
Mystrans.

Flanna drops in on Delgonar, but he hasn’t been home in weeks. She seeks out
Amelia and asks if he’s been around. (No). Does he normally disappear like
this? (No.) Huh.

They wander back to the Kalcryx’s fort and talk to the dwarf.

“I found your stone, and I uh, told my father, and he said ‘Go find this man.
Maybe he can help with teh strange business we had in the Fallen Valley.’ So I
came. Maybe when all these fighters are trained, you can help my father. Sin
ce your stone said you wanted to do good deeds, and spread law around the
land…” The dwarf says.

Kalcryx sends the dwarf and some others to go reconnoiter in Fortenberry.

While they are readying themselves for teleportation back to the keep, there is
a commotion in the bay. The navy seems to be firing on some Waukeenar ships.

They decide not to get involved, and teleport back to the keep.

“How was your trip?” they are asked by a floating eyeball.

The party splits up to different rooms within the keep, while Connor goes out to
scout around with Jaran’s cat. Connor spots a man approaching, accompanied by
elves and two wolves about a mile from the keep. He begins casting spells,
turning his skin to stone, forming a shield before him, and conjuring duplicate
images of himself. The elves pull out pouches, sprinkle some powder on
themselves, and disappear.

Connor quickly scrabbles a note and gives it to Mori to take to Jaran. Both
hightail it back to the keep.

Natasha communicates similar information to Lyta.

Jaran, Lyta, and Connor gather in a main hall. Flanna runs upstairs to get
G’Kar and Kalcryx.

A voice shouts from outside, “You are in my keep! Come out now, and I won’t
have to kill you.” The man is wrapped in a blackish cloak, a sword ready at his
side, another sheathed in his belt. He is a man of later age, with a whitish
goatee.

Jaran calls out, “What law lets you hold reign in this keep?”

He answers, “My law.”

“And who might you be?” Jaran shouts, as Kalcryx casts detect evil.

“I am the Lord of these lands. Now come out before I have to come and get you.”
There is the sound of spellcasting.

“State your name first!” Jaran shouts. Kalcryx hisses “They’re evil!”

“Are ye followers of Bane, or of Myrkul? Or perhaps a more noble following?”
G’Kar asks.

“I follow my blade. And pretty soon my blade will follow your neck! You’re
trying my patience, come out now or suffer the consequences. Open the
portcullis!”

Jaran tries to dispel magic on the man. She fails. Flanna runs up, realizes
there are 8 of the bastards, and casts spectral hand. One of the wolves begins
to growl.

Lyta tries to summon a vortex.

Three arrows zing in through the portcullis, one hits Flanna and another the
spectral hand. Flanna falls.

Kalcryx runs to the cleric watching in the arrow slit and tells him that
Flanna’s been hit, try not to die. Then he reads a flamestrike scroll and takes
out three of the images, and one of the wolves.

The cleric helps Flanna with a cure light wounds spell. She feels crappy, but
regains consciousness.

Some arrows fly in toward G’Kar [”cuz hey, why not”]. He gets nailed. He
conjures some sorta rock storm, and the other magical images wink out. The rain
of rocks strips the stoneskin from the lord of the keep.

Connor chugs a cure light wounds potion. Apparently he had been hit with
arrows. On the otherside of the portcullis, big baddie quaffs a potion. His
skin hardens again and then he floats very close to the keep.

“What’s going on? Do you need some water? Some food?” The beholder asks.

“People are attacking, just be prepared to bite ‘em.”

“I’ll stay in here.”

The other helmite takes out his bow and fires two arrows into nothingness. Rah.

The wolf, snarling and growling, charges the portcullis, snaps at it, whams his
head against it, growls some more.

Arrows fly toward G’Kar. [”Woah…”] Two arrows make it through the
portcullis, both impaling him.

Jaran attempts to catch the invisible archers in a thirty foot cube of dispelled
magic. An elf appears.

Flanna targets the elf and hits it with two little magic missiles at it then
rolls out of the way.

Lyta’s vortex appears behind the elf. It rolls through him, causing him to
writhe and squirm, and then rolls on toward Lord Baddie.

Kalcryx draws his bow and takes two shots at the squirming elf, hitting with
both arrows.

Three more arrows come in, all missing.

The helmite priest decides to heal Flanna some more. Yay.

Three more arrows come in, one hits Connor, the other two miss.

G’Kar casts defensive harmony on himself, Connor, Kalcryx and Jaran. He then
goes to the priest and requests healing, but then decides that he’s better off
healing himself.

Connor starts stabbing the direwolf, and downs it.

Lyta sees the human run past the arrow slit back down the path he approached on.
He casts a lightning bolt just in front of the elf, which shoots through Connor
and the beholder.

The beholder zaps Lord Baddie. He is hurt. =)

The helmite now has a clear shot to Lord Baddie, shooting twice and missing both
times.

The elf begins to scratch himself. He pulls out an arrow and scratches himself,
he tries to knock it back but has to scratch himself. Eventually he shoots
three arrows toward Connor, hitting. The elf then moves off to one side,
disappearing from view.

Jaran conjures an ice storm, hurting Lord Baddie. Shortly afterward, Flanna
surrounds him with flames.

Lyta moves so that she can see Lord Baddie, then casts acid bolt on him. She
coats him in acid and he screams obscenities in pain.

Two arrows come straight through to Connor, missing.

Kalcryx reads another flamestrike scroll. Lord Baddie burns.

The helmite priest heals G’Kar.

Three more arrows come through the portcullis. Two clean misses, and one
bounces off Connor’s armour.

G’Kar moves to the portcullis and, just barely within the range of the spell,
reads a slay living scroll. He screams and burns, clutching at his heart.

Connor runs, hides, and heals himself.

Lord Baddie quaffs a potion, and floats forward. He looks pretty good.

The beholder zaps him, doing nothing. He appears to be in the globe of
invulnerability.

The helmite smacks him with an arrow, knocking some stone off.

The itchy elf moves in toward the arrow slit and slings three arrows into the
room beyond.

Jaran yells out, “Try to dispell that globe!” then moves to see the elf. He
looks gnarly. She chucks some magic missiles at him, and drops him.

Lyta uses the staff of air and casts cloudkill. He burns.

Jaran is assaulted by arrows. One goes through the cloak, the other hits her.

Kalcryx raises the portcullis, and urges the fighters out.

The priest retreats to Flanna’s side. “I’m out of healing!”

Three arrows come in, missing G’Kar. G’Kar, seeing no opponants, casts
recitation. He then moves to Kalcryx’s side. Connor also joins Kalcryx in the
small room.

Lord Baddie flies from the deadly cloud, and pulls a small black pearl type
thing from his clothing and tosses it through the arrow slit. It hits G’Kar in
the side and explodes into a force blast similar to a magic missile. Connor,
G’Kar and Kalcryx are smooshed up against the wall.

Jaran casts acid bolt on Lord Baddie. Flanna moves in front of the cleric and
casts shield, walling them off in the stairwell.

Lyta casts magic missile at Lord Baddie, realizing too late that he had a
shield.

Jaran is targetted by more arrows, suffering a hit from one. And yet more.

G’Kar heals himself and moves out. Connor moves out and starts hacking at Lord
Baddie. He slips and falls, but swipes at him from the ground, causing the last
layer of stone skin to cascade down. Lord Baddie backs up five feet, and casts
a spell. “I told you to give up peacefully or I would kill you.” He casts
lightning bolt on Connor. It arcs to G’Kar, Kalc, Lyta, Flanna, Cleric helmite,
Jaran… etc, etc

Jaran administers a healing potion to Flanna, who wakes up and drinks another
cure potion.

Lyta casts alternate reality, making Connor hit instead of slip and fall on his
ass.

Lord Baddie pulls out a sword and dagger and starts hacking away at Connor.

Jaran guesses where the archers are and casts an ice storm, hitting two of the
archers.

Flanna feels unsafe and decides to move. The cleric follows her. “Where are we
going?!” “Somewhere safer!”

“CHAIN LIGHTNING!” Lyta screams out, running halfway up the stairs after Flanna.

G’Kar is hit by arrows.

Kalcryx drops his bow and claws at Lord Baddie, shredding his flesh. Kalcryx is
hit by an arrow. Connor is targetted as well.

G’Kar advances on Lord Baddie and almost flanks him. Connor heals himself.
Lord Baddie pulls out a scroll and says, “I’ll be back,” and disappears.

Jaran drops an icy sphere where she hopes the archers are. Connor and Kalcryx
discuss faerie fire briefly.

Lyta casts detect invisibility, moves down the stairs and looks out, but sees no
elven archers.

Meanwhile, outside, G’Kar, Connor, and Kalcryx are beset with one arrow each.
Kalcryx uses his gem, and sees two of them. “Use faerie fire,” he says,
pointing them out.

Three more arrows come in, missing Kalcryx. Three more arrows come in, missing.

G’Kar pulls out a faerie fire scroll and reads it, causing two elves to
appear. G’Kar and Connor move forward and engage the elves.

Jaran casts see invisibility, and shouts out “Elves, your fairweather ally has
abandoned you! Drop your weapons! Stop fighting and we’ll talk!”

Flanna, hearing this, wanders downstairs and casts magic missile at one of the
elves. Lyta does the same. Kalcryx peers around with the gem

“Cease fire and heal them and we’ll talk about it,” Elf C yells.

Elf A trains an arrow on Connor and tells him, “Heal him and I’ll drop my bow.”
G’Kar drops Elf A, then spins around. “No go. Show yourself!”

“We can’t, you idiot! We’re invisible!” And three arrows come toward him, one
hitting him.

Connor looks into the distance where Kalcryx is pointing and starts tracking the
invisible elf.

Jaran sends Mori to go hiss at Connor, then she charges toward G’Kar, pulling
out a healing potion as she does so. “This is a healing potion! Stop
fighting!”

Flanna follows Jaran’s lead. “This is also a curative!”

The elves shimmer into existence.

Lyta holds her hands out toward the elf, saying “Drop your bow, or I will
shoot.”

Kalcryx heals himself.

Elf C retreats and holds his bow low. “Drop your spell and I’ll drop my
bow.” Lyta attacks him, and he falls to the ground unconscious.

“Why on earth would we want to heal these people?” G’Kar asks, giving Elf B a
cure light.

Connor goes to the side of Elf C and watches him die. Jaran and Flanna
administer healing potions. Kalcryx shackles them. There’s a mild struggle.
Kalcryx tries to soothe them, but fails.

“Why should we trust you?”

“The dwarf is insensible in the heat of battle you should ignore his hot words.
We know that you have struck some sort of alliance with these Amnites. He has
obviously deserted you when the battle became thick…”

“And…?” the elf asked.

“Well, if you cannot depend on your allies, perhaps we can make some kind of
arrangement.”

“What position are we in to negotiate?” the elf asks.

“Well maybe you should just listen to what she has to say?” G’Kar growls.

“Let’s move into the keep. It’s cold out here,” Kalcryx says. He walks into
the keep, telling the beholder not to attack the elves.

Kalcryx strips them of their weapons and warns them about the glyphs. Flanna
washes the blood off of them while Kalcryx heals them.

“Who was your ally?” Flanna asks.

“He wouldn’t tell us his name.”

“Why have you fallen in league with the amnites?” Jaran? Kalcryx? asks.

“They offered to help.”

“To help with what?”

“Killing the humans.”

“What have the humans done?”

“Invaded our home land.”

“The banites will do worse. Once they have taken over the humans’ land, they
will invade yours.” Jaran says

(something)

“Have you tried talking to the leader of the humans? They might be willing to
help restore the forests…”

“We have all the allies we need.”

“Allies that leave you?”

“No better than dwarves who attack you after you surrendered.”

“That was not surrendering,” G’Kar grumbles.

“Why do you fight with these people, who are enemies of my allies, when the rest
of your people fight alongside us?” the elf asks G’Kar. The party is shocked.

“It is true. My people are actively engaged in a campaign against the humans,”
G’Kar says solemnly. The party continues to be shocked.

“Did you talk to them about it?!” Jaran demands.

“There’s not much to say… They think it is good and just and holy.” G’Kar
explains. The party discusses this for some time before Jaran picks up with the
elves again.

“When has an elf been driven by dwarven logic, anyway?”

“Times change.”

“So maybe it is time to make some bargains with the humans in your lands now.”

“That’s what we’re doing… the dwarven way.”

“Our allies don’t care about empty forest. They care about the port cities,
and trade routes.”

“Forests contain valuable wood for ships, cities… they’ll want farmland.”
Jaran says. The elf assures her that they will fight.

“You’ll be weakened from the battle.”

“How long will you keep us prisoner?”

“I will send word to our superiors,” Jaran answers, explaining that they might
want to negotiate.

“We’ve talked with them in the past. They just continue invading and burning
and cutting. They weren’t like this a few years ago… fifty to a hundred
years ago…”

“Humans lead short lives. Perhaps you should keep better contact with them,
and their children…”

[end game because it was late, pick up with conversation next time]

27-30 Uktar, 1357DR
[Game of September 5th, 2003]

1 Year Anniversary Game!

[Log follows]

Lyta spends hours pouring over magical items, trying to determine what their magical auras hold.

Jaran lets out the ex-prisoners from the Banites’ jail.

Jaran and Connor scout the surrounding area. Around the keep is wooded. The path leads downhill for a while, then opens into grasslands. Takes about an hour along the path. Path leads north into the grasslands. Kalcryx, using the last hour of his depleting fly enchantment, rockets above the keep to get an aerial view. The keep lies North and East of Velen and close to the border of Amn.

We look for a place within the Banite keep to rest. We spend the night in the Deathstalker’s room, with the smell of ash and burned flesh permeating the air.

Jaran: “What do we want to do tomorrow. I’ll have to prepare my spells if we are going to seek out Flanna and the Helmites, or leave a message in Zazuspur.”
Kalc: “Memorize battle spells. We’ll have to check out that red glow within the Dreadmaster’s private chamber, and we may need to fight.”

The party beds down among the burnt remains of the deathstalker’s bedroom.

Kalc plans to ask his god during the night for guidance.
Kalc: “How strong a force should we use to occupy this keep?”
Helm: “Enough to keep back the baron’s forces.”

The next morning…

We look at the “no-no” wall, and the gem of seeing shows no wall there. The cooridor behind the wall bends 10′ in. Jaran looks at the fake wall, and with Kalcryx’s word that it is merely illusion, it disappears from her view as she disbelieves. She searches the area for traps. She finds some kind of discharge trap upon the door.

Kalc: “If you think it’s electrical, I might be able to take it.”
People back away, and as Kalc touches the door, lightning courses around his body. It tickles. Jaran looks for more traps. Finding none, she pulls out her tools and tries to unlock it. The lock thwarts her. Handing off her tools to Kalcryx, Kalc tries. The lock slips open with a well oiled snick.

Jaran pushes upon the door. It opens into a room with a large tressel table in the center. A glowing torch illuminates each corner (each smokeless). Upon the table rests a large map, little tokens lined upon it in some unknown order. Papers are scattered about the room.

Jaran continues her search traps. Still finding nothing, she approaches the map cautiously. It appears to be an overview of the border region, with Amn to the north and Tethyr to the south. The tokens form a stream snaking down the tradeway from Murran down to Mosstone, more tokens on the sea, leaving around Athkatla and the bay area.

Jaran copies the map, noting the locations of the tokens.
Jaran: “Perhaps these are Amnite troop movements. They all seem to be of the same type.”
Kalcryx nods. Connor begins to try to make sense of the confusing piles of paper and correspondence.

Lyta mumbles something to herself. Connor gives her a strange look, and she responds: “I thought I heard a person but I actually heard a voice within my head.”
It said: “By now you have killed the guards. I know where to go from here. A bit of info for a service. Are you interested?”

Jaran: “Was it male?”
Lyta: “No. It was female. I didn’t recognize the voice.”
Jaran: “It could have been a sending. A magical sending is restricted to 25 words, and your message falls just short of that length…”

“I have a funny feeling that someone is watching me,” says Connor.
“Do we want to take them up on this offer?” asks Jaran. Kalc, “yes. I don’t see why not.” Jaran writes down “Yes” and shows it around to the scrying person, hoping it is the mysterious woman.

They wait a bit for a response. When nothing happens, they return their attention to the letters. The papers have seals impressed with the open hand of Bane. We piece together the following orders:

“Ships are scheduled to leave Murran on Moonfest to meet with the Athkatlan fleet for an assault on Velen early Nightal.
[Murran is northeast of Velen]
Several Waukeenar trade vessels have been confiscated in Athkatla and will be used as a decoy. Reinforcements for the occupation of Fortenbery are scheduled to arrive by way of Brost. Once Brost is ours, arrange for your mages to provide more magical assaults on Fortenberry, as the population morale has been increasing, and underground resistance movements have been formed. Arrange for a team to be sent to Brost as well for an early demoralizition attack. That town should have fallen months ago. Perhaps you can arrange for your elven alliances to set up a trap.”

Correspondance:
Those damn Sunites who have taken up arms against The Will of Bane shall be destroyed. You are to pay special attention to their priest and followers and incarcerate any you find. They will be sent to the Imperceptor.

The Council wants riativen to fall by Ches (month 3). Take this up with your superiors in Mosstone. If need be tell them to divert troops from Mosstone into the Wealdath.

Several more caravans will be sent towards Mosstone in the next few days. Continue your work scouting the way with the decoy caravans. The next few shipments contain valuable arms and armor. I will be arriving in the next few days to evaluate your progress. I want to see for myself this summoning you claim to have accomplished.
[This refers to the Balor(s) found within the Dreadmaster’s room, hopefully]
The baron himself told me he wants to see your work. If it is not to satisfaction I will have your head on a pike.

Leonore Shadowgrin
Highpriestess of Bane
Murran, Amn.

“So, that red glowing room is looking scary, huh?” Lyta asks.
Nothing else of interest in the room. Also on that level are the pantry, servant qtrs, mage’s rooms. We head up to the Dreadmaster’s room to investigate the red glow.

We discuss options for polymorph shapes to allow jaran to look around in the room.
Ooze? Spider? Fly?
Connor draws his defender and readies it. Jaran casts poly self and turns into a large fly. She crawls under the door. The room is mostly filled with a pentagram. The whole thing glows red. In the center is a circle. The room is filled with the glow. Laying on the floor at each of the five corners of the pentagram are various stashes of apparently magical things: scrolls, a scimitar, a strange broom, as well as a lot of gold scattered around. In the very middle of the circle, there’s this large red gem. It’s large and expensive. There are runes running between each stash, forming the edge of the
pentagram.

No other doors lead out of the room.

Jaran flies back under the door and turns back into her natural form. She fills everyone in on what is on the other side of the door. Searching the door, Jaran finds some kind of trap upon the door, a kind of trigger. She jams something in to prevent the trigger from releasing. Kalc opens the door. The red glow spills out into the hallway. Using the gem of seeing, K peers into the room, hunting for any hidden of invisible foes.

Kalc: “Do we want to try to break the pentagram?”
Jaran: “I’m worried that if we break the pentagram if we might leave the thing summoned here and merely loose the creature of it’s restrictions.
Jaran: “Perhaps I could try casting det magic?”
Jaran casts. Strong conjuration on the whole room. the glow of the items shows as well.
Kalc casts det evil, but sees nothing.
G’kar looks for a rock. Finding one, he tosses it into the circle.

Upon closer examination, the runes are written in magical script. Lyta pulls out her wand of wonder to try to read the runes. Everyone else backs away, in case her magic should break free of her control. Her spell succeeds, and the runes read:

[There are 4 ident phrases. Two are mirrored]
“Bind the fire and darkness to me. Reach into the depths of the abyss and
find me a servant. Serve me through evil and magic. Cage me a beast to
call me master.”
[Demons are from the abyss, and are chaotic in nature]

Kalc: “Lets destroy the summoning circle”
Jaran tries dispel it. The glow ceases.

Kalc walks into the room, into the middle of the circle. Jaran moves in and grabs her broom and the scimitar.
Connor: “Is your det magic continuous?”
Jaran: “Yes, it lasts for a little while…” She looks around a bit more.
Within the stashes she sees:
magcal darts 3 - str evoc
4 scrolls - str necro
case of crossbow bolts - str evoc
suit of plate - mod to str abj
2 scrolls - mod trans
pair of handaxes - faint evoc
scimitar - str evoc, mod trans
Connor grabs some gold. Kalc grabs the plate. G’kar grabs the scroll tubes. Kalc tries to wrap up the red gem in a cloak. Everyone else leaves the room and takes up watch upon the stairs leading towards the chamber.

Before Kalcryx can leave the circle, the glow returns. Kalc tries to move out of the circle. He steps over them and moves to the door.
Kalc: “We should dispel again and then destroy the runes.”

Then the ground begins to shake. Kalc leaves quickly, closing the door on the way out.
Kalc: “Let’s get out of here.”

A deep piercing scream emerges from the room, like an angry animal. Lyta runs down the stairs and into guard room to throw the switch for the portcullis. G’kar hears a highpitched scream and a throaty roar. It sounds like stone rubbing against stone. “That sounds dangerous.” G’kar dashes down the stairs and calls up to his god for assistance in battle.

More stone on stone rumbling. It sounds like something erupting out of the ground. Jaran flees the keep
and polymorphs some wings on herself. A third stone on stone sound erupts. The stone door is blown towards kalc but he narrowly dodges it. He hears three deep concussive flaps. Kalc moves into the doorway of the portcullis, and casts recitation.
Lyta turns from the levers of the portcullis and runs out of the keep, hiding within the forest edge.
G’kar moves next to Kalcryx, blocking the exit out, and casts str of one.

The ground shakes with powerful footsteps. It’s wings unfold as it emerges from the “narrow” 5′ wide stairs. It’s a large humanoid creature, it’s red body wreathed in flames. Two giant batlike wings extend from it’s shoulders. It’s long claws drip with ichor, and clenched in one hand is a long whip dancing with fire.

The towering humanoid with deep, dark red skin moves into the center of the entry hall. The whip circles around and descends upon Connor. Connor brings his sword up and strikes the whip away. The beast roars. Kalcryx steps into entry hall, skirting the fiery beast and drawing his Lifebringer. It strikes true, sinking deep. The lifebringer surges with holy power.

Connor moves in with his Defender at half power, singing through the air. The sword hits but bounces off. “My sword is not powerful enough to strike it at this enchantment!” He adjusts the sword’s defensive ability, and strikes again, cleaving into the beast’s tough hide. He tries to hit with the +1 longsword, but as expected it bounces off, useless.

Lyta emerges from the edge of the forest and steps onto the path leading into the keep. She points at the head of the beast and casts magic missile. The missiles home in, impact and dissipate harmlessly. Lyta curses.

G’kar casts silverbeard, his beard crackling as it turns into shining silver, and remains holding his position by the door. Jaran moves out of the forest to join Lyta, flies up 5 feet to clear the heads of her comrades fighting in melee, and casts lance of disruption at the demon’s head. The rippling air seems to hurt the creature. The demon steps back, raising his hands. Suddenly G’kars silverbeard reverts to normal, and Kalcryx’s leg disappears. Kalcryx, unfazed, pulls out his peg leg and sockets it on.

Connor moves up to engage it again, swinging his Defender. The sword bites deep twice more. Lyta moves off to the side and casts ice storm, but the pummeling ice doesn’t seem to have an effect on the demon. G’kar throws his hammer, which whips past, reappearing back in his hand, then going out again to strike. Jaran casts acid bolt, but the bolts dissipate. She lands back upon the ground.

The demon looks pissed, drops the whip, and goes in to punch the dwarf. The first fist smacks him, and he takes a strong blow. G’kar looks up at the creature in fear. He’s big and scary. The second blow descends and smacks even harder.

Kalc pegs over to the demon. The lifebringer misses. Connor steps forward, smacking it hard once but missing on the return strike. Lyta moves in and casts lightning bolt, but it has no effect. G’kar drops and cowers, hiding beneath his shield. Jaran moves in, sees the dwarf cowering, and tries to dispel. It
fails to defeat the demon’s spell. There’s a high pitched scream. Three pillars of stone erupt behind him,
and another one pops out. Eek

The first demon sways on it’s feet. Kalc tries to take down the grievously wounded demon, but his sword gets deflected by the hardened hide. Connor swings, misses, and with his followup strikes the bastard. The demon finally collapses upon the ground.

Lyta tries to dispel g’kars fear. Hers also fizzles.

The new demon swings his whip at Kalcryx, and snaps around him and drags him close to the demon’s body. Flames lick around him, but his magical ring keeps a lot of the heat at bay. Jaran looks at the close melee, and decides to just try a magic missile. It fails to get through the resistance. Kalc, with arms bound by the whip, opens his mouth and breathes electricity upon the demon, but it just washes over the creature’s skin. Kalcryx struggles, his muscles bulging, and wriggles free of the constricting whip. Connor, laughing maniacally, covered in tenari blood. His sword hits on the first strike.

Lyta casts alternate reality on her dispel magic. Nothing happens, and her dispel still fails. G’kar cowers away from the scary corpse. Shaking off a bit of the fear, he heals himself.

The new demon drops the whip and swings with fists at Kalc and Connor. His fists swing wild. Jaran, seeing her offensive spells have little effect, moves in and casts improved invis on Connor. He disappears from view. Kalc swings his lifebringer and hits very hard. Connor whirls his longsword expertly, drawing a large wound across the creature. His second attack goes wild with the fury of his attack, and he falls upon the ground. Lyta casts acid bolt, but it fizzles against the creature’s resistance.

G’kar quaffs the invisibility potion.
The beast looks right at Connor’s invisible prone body, but it’s fists pound down upon the ground around him. Jaran flings two bolts of acid, which hit, searing into it’s hide. Kalc tries to dispel g’kar’s fear. It fails again. Connor stands and readies his sword, calling upon his sword to defend
him wholly.

Lyta targets Kalcryx with the wand of wonder, and tries to alter reality. The magic explodes out of her control. Lyta is polymorphed into a living stalactite, which spears into the ground. G’kar, seeing the object of his fear, the demon, dead next to him, tries to dispel his own fear. But again, it fails. The new demon’s fists fly back and forth, hitting nothing.

Jaran to Lyta: “Why the hell did you polymorph into a stalactite?!”
Jaran uses her frost wand and a storm of falling ice pummels the demon fiercely.
Lyta the stalactite drags with scraping stone towards the keep at a dreadfully slow pace.

Kalcryx tries to dispel g’kar again, and once again fails.
Connor blenders with his sword and flaming bits of demon fly. More screeching stone as pillars burst from the ground, and a third demon pops out of the ground. Jaran tries another ice storm, but this one seems to do nothing upon the wounded creature.

Kalc dispels magic, finally removing g’kar’s fear and returning lyta to her own form. Then he backs out of the flanking balors. Connor also backs away a bit, and attacks with his sword yet again. The second wounded balor is destroyed, and he focuses his fury upon the third demon, slicing into it. A scream of pain shakes the foundation. Lyta tries tossing another lightning bolt, which fails to do damage. G’kar, now in a foaming rage, brings his hammer to bear against the final demon. The demon sways with the power of the flying hammer. The demon…looks at g’kar.

Jaran throws a melf’s acid arrow at it, and the acid strikes and burns. Kalc stabs with the lifebringer, wounding it. Connor whirls his sword, missing, then striking true and biting deep. The demon stays up.Lyta steps into the path of the doorway, and casts lance of disruption straight through, but the disruptive air swarms around it. G’kar’s hammer flies, strikes the demon, and then the hammer falls to the ground. G’kar, seeing his hammer fall, pulls out the flaming hammer. The balor punches at g’kar, striking the ground then pummeling the dwarf into the ground.

Jaran’s acid continues to sear, and the demon falls beneath the continuing corrosion.
We probably just pissed off the Abyss. Woohoo. Friends in Hell!

The bodies continue to burn. Jaran tries dousing the demons with water, but it does nothing.

We head into the summoning room to see what damage occurred and let the bodies burn out. We collect the rest of the stuff in the room. The gold is quickly gathered in a large sack, weapons bundled and scrolls examined and stored. The stashes seem to be some kind of offering to the demon to appease it.

We get buttloads of experience. Lyta gains in power. Lyta settles down to ident, while Jaran copies more spells.

The next day:
After much discussion about the pros and cons of choosing different forms, Jaran polymorphs Kalcryx back to his unmaimed, two-legged form. We teleport some notes to the paladin’s desk in Zazuspur, with copies of the correspondence and a rough detail of the probable troop movements shown in the Banite map.

8 hrs later, Jaran hears a familiar male voice within her head:

[Zonas to Jaran]
Good work. Keep doing what you’re doing. If you find more information, teleport again to this room. is there anything you need teleported to you?

Her response:
Need magic mirror scroll and heal. Remove fear because of dreadmasters and balors. Could use military backup to hold keep on Amn border. Flanna coming.

A few mins later, Connor feels uneasy. After a little while goes by, Jaran notices something from the corner of her eye. A lid sticking out of the ground. She looks in the scroll tube:
Inside is a note: “One thing at a time”
And a scroll: magic mirror

With most of the day left, Lyta and Jaran find quiet areas of the keep and identify more of the magical equipment.

As they settle down for the night, Jaran cloaks everyone in invisibility. They wait for more Banites to approach.

Another day:

Morning comes, with the sounds of horses approaching. The horses stop, and a female voice rings out: “Open the portcullis!” The woman calling is in black plate and is shrouded with the symbol of Bane. She is skinny and somewhat older (40s). Four armored men in full plate accompany her, with closed faced helmets, and large battleaxes. Walking next to the woman are an elf in ceremonial platemail and a human in scale armor with a shield.

Kalc pulls his bow and takes aim through the arrow slit. With the attack, his invis fails. The shot goes wild, breaking against the arrowslit. Another arrow is nocked and this one makes it through the narrow hole and hits the old Banite woman. Connor follows suit, draws his bow and hits once. Then the bowstring snaps. Jaran casts icy sphere through the arrow slit upon the approaching group. Ice crackles, the horses fall. They all take damage. Jaran and Connor break their invisibility.

The Banite woman screams: “What the hell?” She gets off her horse. The human in scale gets off his horse and draws a longbow. Lyta also casts icy sphere on the crowd. The searing ice seems particularly powerful. The four men in full plate fall to the ground. Lyta appears.

G’kar pulls out flamestrike and casts it upon the woman. The woman rolls a bit off her horse, and the flame just flows off her skin.

The elf takes a potion, and rolls off his horse.

Kalc draws his bow and once again the arrow ricochets off the wall. Connor, looking at his broken bow string, runs over to Kalcryx’s hidey hole, asking: “Can I have a bowstring?” And pulls one out of Kalc’s pouch.

Jaran drops another icy sphere upon the close crowd, then takes cover against the wall. The woman quaffs a potion. She dashes to the side of the keep, away from the icy spheres. The man in scale also quaffs a potion, looks slightly better, then dashes to the opposite side of the keep, drawing his bow.

Lyta moves up to the arrow slit, seeing the scaled man through it, and fans her hands of burning flame through the narrow slit. Flames envelop him, and his skin chars.

G’kar peers through the slit, trying to find the woman. G’kar throws the switches, opening the portcullis, then moves to the opening doorway.

The elf quaffs a potion and disappears. Kalc pulls out a scroll of faerie fire and centers it where the elf stood. The area is limned in dancing fire, but no forms appear. Then kalc moves out of the guard room and outside to engage the scale man.

Connor sidesteps and waits for foes to approach.

Jaran casts acid bolt at the man in scale, and he falls dead to the ground, writhing in pain as the acid eats away at him. The woman casts and a black shockwave rolls over connor, g and jaran. Nothing seems to happen.

Lyta casts see invis and cautiously moves out of the keep, looking for the elf. “Kalc, he’s behind her!” pointing towards the forest line.

G’kar throws his hammer at the old woman and it smacks resoundedly.
Lyta sees the elf quaff a potion as he circles behind kalc.
Kalc goes and attacks the woman with the sign of bane upon her breast, drawing his lifebringer along the way. The sword misses.

Connor runs out of the keep screaming a wild battlecry. He circles around the Banite and draws both swords, scimitar and longsword flashing in the sun. The Defender spears into her breast. The second, third and fourth attack blend into her flesh.

Jaran, seeing the woman weaken, dashes from the keep and directs a lance of disruption at her, and the woman crumples to the ground.

Lyta targets the invisible elf and acid homes in on him. G’kar turns, and tries just throwing the hammer in the direction of where he thinks the elf might by. The hammer glances off something with a metallic clang. Lyta sees the elf move and draw a bow. He unloads 3 arrows upon g’kar. One arrow sinks deep into G’kar’s thigh. A fourth arrow hits Lyta, and a fifth at kalcryx, also hitting. The final arrow he points at G’kar again, and again misses. A hail of arrows flies everywhere. Kalc uses the gem of seeing, and points out the location of the elf.

Connor, looking around the empty field, spins his defender in front of him in a defensive shield.

Jaran tries to dispel the wiley elf, but the enchantment is too strong for the weakness of the dispel.Lyta draws her staff of air and casts a lightning bolt at the elf. She sees the electricity jolt the elf’s body, and then she moves around the keep for cover from arrows. G’kar moves to where he can aim for the invisible elf, and the dwarven thrower smashes into him, and the elf’s skull caves in.

We loot the bodies,
elf:
ceremonial plate
buckler - faint ill
3 potions - two of strong evoc, mod trans
potion belt
15 arrows in quiver - 12 faint evoc, 3 mod evoc
longbow, mw - faint evoc
longsword, mw

human:
scalemail
shield
potion in potion belt - mod trans
broadsword, mw
longbow, mw

woman:
platemail, mw - faint ill
two potions in belt - mod trans, mod trans
3 scrolls: word recall, heal, flamestrike
footman’s flail, mw - light evoc

500gp
ornate handkerchief - faint trans

4 platemail guys:
4 suits ornate full plate, mw
4 mw two-handed battleaxes
no bodies…creepy.