Player Characters:
Adventure 1 (6/5/07):
The five young heroes are on their way from South Fort to Lortown to join in on the Day of Departure festivities. A great ship has been built (dubbed "Cormont's Hope") and will set sail in three weeks to try and make contact with the other great kingdoms of the land, which have been strangely silent over the past 200 years.
As the heroes reach Survivor's Crossing, a friendly inn located at the intersection of the roads between Aeltown and South Fort, they witness a handful of widgeloks - uncharacteristically covered in leaves and branches and other camo-style coverings - attacking the old elf Relepinn who runs the place. The PCs run to his help and manage to kill the attacking widgeloks, though one manages to flee into the heavy forest. They later pick up his trail, but it ends at a small bridge, showing that he likely jumped into the river to escape.
While talking to Relepinn, the PCs discover that there's more to the old elven innkeeper than they'd thought -- He was once a royal priest to the now-dead king of Cormont, and was entrusted long ago to be the keeper of a special item: a black key that is said to be one of two keys that can open the Hall of the Abyss. This hall was once a magical prison of sorts located in the heart of Cormont's royal palace. During the war, the dark wizard Dwunmir managed to get the other copy of the key.. No one knows exactly what he released from the hall, or what happened to his key after his death.
Needless to say, Relepinn is disturbed that the widgeloks know of the key and are trying to get it. He tells the PCs that it must be protected and that - if possible - they need to find out why the widgeloks are after it. The big problem, of course, is that he's a very old man and he has a daughter and does not want to leave his home. He does mention that, if they choose to, the PCs can venture into the Mistmoor swamps and seek out the She-Serpent. According to old tales, she was willing to swap truths for favors, and Relepinn says she may be able to shed more light on the situation.
Relepinn tells the PCs they are welcome to stay the night and fill up on food and drink while he discusses the situation with his daughter. They will make final decisions on the next course of action first thing in the morning. TO BE CONTINUED
Adventure 2 (6/19/07):
Montague and Lyns hang out by the fireplace, keeping watch over the inn while the others sleep. A strange chill overcomes them, and Lyns finds that he is unable to move -- Montague seems to be kept from freezing by staying close to the roaring fire. They hear smashing noises upstairs. Soon the magical chill disappears and they manage to run upstairs and see whassup. The other characters are awakened by the commotion.
They burst into Relepinn's bedroom and find that his throat's been slashed, and his daughter has been killed too. Their bedroom window is broken and a green, misty form can be seen drifting away into the night sky, heading toward the unused road to the ruins of Cormont. The PCs spot a widgelok running away from the inn, too, and quickly chase after him after Laidon zots him with his mind power! On the body of the widgelok, they find the black key. They track his steps and confirm that he came down the road from the ruins.
Now that Relepinn and his daughter are dead, the PCs grab whatever gold and useful items they can from the inn (including an old Cormont shield and, of course, the black key) and then head for Lortown.
They reach Lortown, which is a big festive place built within a forest -- there's lots of partying going on, since the Day of Departure is growing close. They find rooms at the Cadstone and do some drinkin' at a big, fancy pub along the shoreline called the Maiden's Alehouse. The next day, the PCs take care of some business, including prayer at their temples and writing up a report of what happened to Relepinn's place and handing it to the "township organizer," an old weathered, tough-lookin' elf named Palingar. They also seek info at the town's small library, where two things are discovered:
It is now the evening before the Day of Departure and the town is booming with excitement -- jugglers, fireworks, games, drinking, all sorts of craziness. Montague, HauBuHau, and Lyns decide to spend the night drinkin' and each make nice with a local slut and proceed to head back to their inn rooms to get it on medieval-style. Laidon and Enzo walk around the town center a bit instead and look for anything out of the ordinary. And they do!! They spot a mysterious dark figure in the crowd with glowing green eyes - and it disappears immediately. The other three spot green eyes in the windows of their inn rooms as well, and -- TO BE CONTINUED!
Adventure 3 (7/3/07):
The PCs wake up in a Temple of Ysot. Turns out they all slipped into some sort of weird magical coma after they all spotted the green eyes. The priests took them in and watched over them. When the PCs wake up, they get their equipment back, and are introduced to the captain of the town guard, Berida, a tough elven warrior woman wearing the standard cloak of the guard: green with a falcon on the back. She shows them the bodies of two widgeloks that were stopped while trying to sneak into the temple while the PCs were sleeping. The widgeloks were heavily clothed, obviously trying to be disguised, and are much more physically fit than most widgeloks.
Berida questions the PCs - they tell her everything except what the key does - and she mentions that one of her scouting parties discovered a strange cavern in the swamp. The PCs want to visit this cavern, thinking it may lead to the She-Serpent, so they arrange a meeting first thing in the morning where the scout Bensarim will take them there.
The group spends the rest of the day buying things at the general store (Alabar's Shop), the weapons shop (The Wolves Den), getting rooms at the Copper Gypsy (bartender: Gamarsh), and Laidon speaks with the owner of the Singing Cauldron and purchases a mysterious backpack that can grow wings and allow him to fly for limited amounts of time.
The next day they meet up with Bensarim and a mute elf tracker named Cotmacom -- these two are going to lead them into the swamp. Captain Berida says she wants the PCs to report back to her with everything they find out within a week. The group sets out along the shoreline, heading toward the heart of the swamp.
Bensarim finally reaches the edge of a large, jagged bowl-like cavern opening and Laidon uses his wings to fly down and inspect. There are numerous tunnels veering off in every direction, and there's an intense paranoid fear in there. Lots of snakes watching them. Laidon calls out for the She-Serpent, saying they want to exchange a favor for information.
That evening they camp out on the rocky shore, and while they're on watch, a frightening snake-creature approaches Montague and Enzo and whispers to them: Bring the mute elf and his scout friend into my tunnels and cut off their heads, and then I will give you the information that you seek. Montague and Enzo don't know what to do - they pray to Usor for guidance and his response is "Sometimes evil must be done for the greater good."
Keeping this a secret from the two Lortowners, the PCs decide to head back to the pit and try to kill them -- they feel it's something they must do. Lyns isn't sure it's a great idea, but before they have much time to debate the issue, Enzo kills Bensarim and they toss his body into the caverns below (where he bounces off into one of the side tunnels). Montague then finishes off the mute elf by chopping off his head while his back is turned to him, right after the elf just saved his life from a snake (nice, Matt :P hehe) and the PCs finally decide to descend into the lair of the She-Serpent.
They get to the bottom, find the other body, and soon the She-Serpent confronts them, rising from the jagged rocks and revealing her hideously nasty self -- dripping fangs, milky vacant eyes, reptilian flesh, etc. She takes the two heads and feasts on them, savoring every minute of it. Then she tells the PCs: "The dark wizard Dwunmir has returned and is building a new army in the ruins of Cormont.. His only weakness - his ONE downfall - is kept in a very safe place.. A well-protected HALL..." And before she leaves, she turns back to the PCs and adds: "There is an artifact of old called the Lantern of Sallavria.. It houses the star of Sallavria.. The lantern is said to be hidden along an old trail in the Dorlyn Forest... You must find it before Dwunmir discovers its existence!"
After she finally slithers off down a tunnel, the PCs head back up their ropes -- some snakes of various sizes try to fuxt with 'em, but they fight 'em off, and soon they're back at the top. And now they have to decide whether they want to travel around Lortown, or head into town and tell Captain Berida what happened.. TO BE CONTINUED!
Adventure 4 (7/17/07):
The group decides that Montague will head back to Lortown to report what's happened (minus the part about the PCs killing the two dudes) while the others begin trekking north along the shoreline, heading toward the Dorlyn Forest. Montague says he will try to buy (or steal) a horse and then catch up to them when he can.
After a few days, the four PCs reach the shoreline and discover a large beach, where the remains of an old fishing village now sit. They find the skeleton of a long-dead elf, plus there's a half-circle rock wall separating the village from the edge of the woods. In the middle of this mysterious rock wall (on the woodland side) they find a magical door marked in an old elven language: "Water Bridge." They can't figure out how to open the door, though, so they move on. During the night, they also see lights coming from one of the far-off islands, though there's no way to tell if those lights are a city or a campfire or what.
After a few more days walking north along the shoreline, they find another smaller beach/fishing village, and it's pretty much the same thing -- same type of rock wall with a magical door saying "Water Bridge." This time the PCs camp out in front of the magical door, between it and the forest, and to their surprise, in the middle of the night, a group of short, humanoid creatures appears at the edge of the woods. The PCs cautiously enter the woods to see what/who they are, and they find some tracks of webbed feet.. The creatures don't seem to be looking for a fight, and neither are the PCs. So they back off and move their camp, and then about two hours later, a group of four short humanoids runs from the woods to the rock wall door -- the first one to reach it raises a hand and mutters something, the magic door opens, they run through, and then it returns to normal.
The journey continues... The PCs reach "the nipple" (you can see it on the map - it pokes out close to the islands) and see an old lighthouse and shack nestled at the corner of some high cliffs that drop down into the raging sea. They find the place has been unused for what looks like years, and the corpse of an old man is standing atop the lighthouse, resting against the railing, as if he died looking out over the sea. Enzo goes up to the corpse to check it out, and much to his shock, the old man turns to him, grabs him, and with a fearsome skeletal face says: HE KNOWS YOU HAVE IT! HE'S WATCHING YOU! HE'S WAITING, AND SOON HE WILL ACT! As soon as these words are spoken, Enzo snaps out of a trancelike state - none of the other PCs heard this happen or saw the corpse move at all. Enzo continues to search the old man, and finds a set of 3 keys in his coat pocket.
They use these keys to get into a secret trapdoor in his shack, and there they find a magic staff that's marked with wavy designs of different lengths. Laidon dicks around with it and quickly figures out that when he presses down on one of the wavy designs, it disappears forever and causes the end of the staff to erupt with a booming burst of wind, sort of like an air cannon. The bigger the wavy design pressed down on, the more powerful the burst.
The group continues on... Finally, after about two weeks of travelling, they reach the large lake that marks the beginning of the Dorlyn Forest. At this point they decide to start leaving a trail of arrows (they use sticks and logs and such to make 'em) for Montague to follow, because they can no longer follow the coastline if they're going to head into the massive, ancient forest.
While makng their way through the heavy, dense, tree-root-crazy forest, the PCs find themselves ensnared by some giant tree roots and encounter a gnome! He sees that they are not there to destroy the forest and therefore releases the trees and introduces himself as Flinger, the Guardian of the Greenreach Valley 12. He protects this area of the forest. They tell him what they're looking for (the lantern) and he tells them he can take them to the Lantern Trail, though he has no idea what the Lantern of Sallavria is.. He also tells them of the gnome city, Tinkerton, that's located at the halfway point of the looping Lantern Trail that goes through the forest - in the old days, humans and elves would use the trail to trade with the gnomes, but they haven't been doing that since the war ended 200 years ago. He also warns the PCs of the centaurs that dwell in the land located in the middle of the trail's loop. Apparently centaurs are nasty and have a long-time hatred for anything with two legs. The only reason the gnomes are safe is because their portions of the forest are too dense and hard to get through for the centaurs to bother hunting them down. But the centaurs keep an eye on the trail, so the PCs are warned.
Flinger takes them to where the trail is -- which is a well-worn (though now slightly overgrown) ten-foot-wide path stretching from east to west, lined with many magical glowing lanterns on either side. Then he wishes them luck and says farewell. The PCs rest a bit and try to figure out what to do -- how are they going to find one magical lantern among so many? Laidon receives a vision from the goddess Agom. She says that the lantern's power is that it nullifies all magic that its light touches.
So the four PCs start heading down the trail.. Eventually they see that some of the lanterns aren't glowing, and by process of elimination, they figure out which one is the Lantern of Sallavria. They take it, and just then they start hearing noises coming from the centaur side of the path... Sounds like creatures are on the move! TO BE CONTINUED!
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