A Mission from God

Date: Saturday March 23rd, 2002

Adventure: Ex Libris (Dungeon #29)
Adventuring Band: The Winter Wolves

The Players:
Serena Hon (human, female, wu-jen 5/ ninja 2- Nigel)
Garet Jax (human, male cleric 2/ magic user 5)

Adventure Details
Several weeks have passed since the Winter Wolves assassinated the Salvelord in Talon's gate. In that time they learn that the dragon lairs in a mesa to the north of town. They also learn that there is an ancient keep, called Bard's Keep, somewhere to the east. Although it is the middle of winter Serena and Garet decide to check it out.

It takes them a week to reach the old keep and it is indeed a ruin, with no sign of life. They rest up for the evening and then begin to explore the upper ruin. Soon they discover an old altar room, formerly dedicated to Oghma, the Skeltic god of Bards, which has become a mockery of its former self. Nearly a score of corpses are sitting facing an altar while an undead creature appears to be giving some sort of sermon. Of course they attack.

Serena's fists can do nothing to the creature but by use of flaming spheres and magic missiles they defeat the undead creatures (four huecuva) and search the room, but they turn up little of interest. Unfortunately Serena is afflicted with a terminal disease in the fight and has only days to live.

Continuing further into the ruin they see a processional of undead approaching carrying a divan. Not being one to wait Garet lightning bolts them, killing all the creatures.

The soon discover a room with stairs leading down then backtrack and find a former priest quarters, where more huecava attack. The creatures are slain but low on spells, and lacking magic weapons, the two adventurers decide to return to Talon's Gate.

Unfortunately Serena's condition grows worse and even though Garet tries to slow poison and dispel magic on her he awakes one morning to find her dead!

"You awake to find Serena cold and lifeless, she looks pretty dead to you?"
Trev: "How dead, 95%?"
DM: "No, you don't get percentages, she's either 100% dead or not dead at all."
Trev: "Which is it then?"
DM: "100%"

It was kind of funny. Even funnier when he took her to the "dragon temple" to get her raised.
Evil Cleric:"Excellent, another offering to the dragon is it? "
Trev: "No actually I was hoping that you'd be able to raise her."
Evil Cleric: "What do you think I am, a Source priest?, get out!"

So Garet booked passage on a pirate ship and got dropped off down the coast from a Druthnian city. Entering the town he headed stright for the nearest church and a chat with the head cleric to see about raising Serena.

Cleric: "It is usual in cases like this to undertake some sort of service for the Church."
Garet: "How about a 1,000gp donation?"
Cleric "Excellent, the poor appreciate your generosity my son. Now, as I was saying, it is customary in cases like this to undertake a service on behalf of the church. Do you agree?"
Garet: mumble...mumble...mumble. Do I have any choice."
Cleric: "No."
Garet: "I suppose so... what sort of mission?"
Cleric: "Well, there is an ancient sword that was stolen by devils and taken to hell, I was thinking you two could travel to hell and recover it."
Trev: "WHAT!"
Cleric: "Just kidding, actually there is an ancient tome that I'd like recovered from an ancient keep..."

So once Serena has been returned to her former self (and both characters have accepted a quest spell) they head back to Bard's Keep to search for an ancient tome called the Demonicus. On the way they encounter a hill giant but the large humanoids didn't stand a chance and fell to a volley of lightning bolts, magic missiles and melf's acid arrows.

Reaching the keep they explore the (now empty) upper ruins before descending a staircase into the nexus room of the dungeons. Little do they know that there is no escape until they figure out how to control the rooms of the dungeon...

Adventure 11: Saturday: A Mission From God Continued - Ex Libris (Dungeon 29)

Date: Friday March 29th, 2002

Serena Hon (human, female, wu-jen 5/ ninja 2- Nigel)
Garet Jax (human, male cleric 2/ magic user 5- Trev)
Brazen (elf, male ranger- bow specialist- Dale)

Serena & Garet are stuck in the dungeons beneath Bard Keep, they quickly realise that something is wrong as they cannot get back to the room where they began (the Nexus Room). Reading the book that they found they learn that the keep somehow moves an that they must learn how to operate it so decide to explore the rest of the keep.

For several hours they wander around, finding many more books. Opening one up they release a guardian devil (an abashai) which attacks. However they eventually figure out (after searching the robes of a dead priest & finding a journal) that there are a number of gold plates which together make a book which will allow them to control the library, so they start to search each room for books, releasing several traps in the process. Eventually Brzen (elven ranger) turns up as he has tracked them to the keep.

They also find three other adventurers who came to loot the place but are now trapped and decide to join forces. Two of the newcomers fall prey to various traps but eventually the party manage to assemble the whole book and put it together, thus stopping the random movements of the library. They decide to keep the book and the keep and use it as their base. Unfortunately they've found no sign of the Demonicus so once more scour the various libraries for clues. They eventually find what they are looking for, a magical sigil, inscribed on a block of strange stone in a magical experimentation lab. Unfortunately they cannot figure out how to open the magical seal. "Let me try" says Kendrake, the only survivor of the other adventuring band, and he somehow opens the portal and recovers the book. "Give it to me" commands Serena. "What, this book?" replies Kendrake, "I don't think so. Thaks for figuring out how to operate the library, I couldn't have managed it without you...goodbye."
"Stop him" yells Garet, but too late the adventurer disappears with the book!

Adventure 12: Saturday: Onwards and...onwards

Date: Saturday April 6th, 2002

Serena Hon (human, female, wu-jen 5/ ninja 2- Nigel)
Garet Jax (human, male cleric 2/ magic user 5- Trev)
Piskie (human, female, thief 5- John)

Serena, Garet & Brazen return to the town of Sudenport and visit the local Church where they are greeted by Father Sebastian. The father is dismayed by the news that they found, but then lost, the book and that it has fallen into unknown hands. He can only assume that it has something to do with the Cult of Orcus, who are dedicated to restoring Orcus to the prime material plane. The priest has also learned that there are said to be 3 original copies of the Demonicus in existence and that somehow if all three are put together then the followers of the Chaos Lord will be able to summon him back to the world. He knows not of the location of the other two books but sends word to the archbishop immediately. He releases the Winter Wolves from the quest that he'd placed upon them. However he makes them sign a document stating that they still owe a service to the Church and that they will agree to whatever task the Church decides that they should undertake, when it sees fit.

Mission accomplished (sort of) Serena and Garet head to a local tavern to find Piskie who has been lying low over the past few weeks. Garet announces that he needs to spend several weeks training and researching new spells so Serena and Piskie agree to leave town and hide out in a smaller village as Piskie is very on edge in town. Something about trying to keep a low profile, a diamond heist, angry nobles...

Six weeks pass, the only event of note occurs near the end of that tie when Serena is summoned to see a local merchant who is affiliated with her families business. He has a message for her which basically says, "What's the hold up? The statuette is not recovered, get on with it!" Which is very direct and impolite, obviously her family aren't happy with her progress.

As soon as Garet is ready the three adventures (Garet, Piskie & Serena) head back to Bard Keep, from there they plan to attack the dragon's lair (the dragon which had been helping the pirates) as they'd learned it's location while in Talon's Gate several weeks earlier. The third night out though they are attacked by eight ogres and are almost overrun. Piskie falls just before the last ogres break and flee, taking her body with them, but quick thinking from Garet- he casts a light spell on her back thus illuminating the ogre carrying her, then magic missiles the beast, killing it- saves her. They get to her just in time. The rest of the journey is uneventful. They reach Bard Keep and spend a couple of days cleaning out the garden room of hostile vegetation before planting their own garden.

Once sufficiently rested they continue their journey reaching the mesa where the dragon lives some five days later. They scout out the hill but only find one entrance, a stout door which turns out to be barred from within. In the process of opening it they alert the gnoll guards who attack. A fierce fight ensures but the gnolls are driven off or killed. The adventurers don't have time to rest as they start taking arrow fire from further up the corridor, so they attack. Eventually the force their way into a large cavern and more gnolls are killed. Suddenly the gnolls fall back and a large, powerful gnoll steps forward in a parley.

"You fight well, me let you live" it says in broken common. Soon a parley is arranged and the gnolls agree to let the adventurers pass in return for some coin. The gnolls then lead the party into the centre of the mesa. The mesa is hollow, with a large lake taking up most of it, the lake opens to the sky. Several large cave openings can be seen across the lake, high up on the caverns wall. A raft is tied to the shore. "We bring gifts for dragon, leave on raft," Says Gurak the Gnoll leader.

So now the party has a problem. How to get across the lake, scale the cliff and get to the dragon...

Adventure 13: Of Dragons and Death

Date: Thursday April 18th, 2002

Serena Hon (human, female, wu-jen 5/ ninja 2- Nigel)
Garet Jax (human, male cleric 2/ magic user 5- Trev)
Piskie (human, female, thief 5- John)
Brazen(elf, male, ranger 5, Dale)
Song Do Hon ( Bushi 4, Ninja 2)

Adventure Details:
Brazen & Song Do rejoined the party as they tried to come up with a plan to get across the lake to the dragons lair. Eventually Brazen tired of the conversation and decided to "row the raft across the lake." "Come back here elf!" yelled Garet, thus alerting the dragon the presence of intruders. As Brazen returned to shore, the dragon made its appearance, so Brazen ran back down the corridor with Garet not far behind. The others decided to stay and fight...

All thoughts of planning went out the window with the arrival of the reptile. Both Serena and Song Do lept into the water as the dragon breathed a stream of chlorine gas down the corridor, Piskie also dodged out of the way and lept onto the dragon's head, burying her sword to the hilt in its head as she did so. Serena trod water, but Song Do sank like a stone (he was wearing chain mail armour!... He hurriedly ditched his (magical) armour and watched it disappear into the depths as both he and Serena tried to stay afloat. The dragon flew up, shaking Piskie off in the process. Serena and Song Do swam out to the raft while Piskie headed for shore.

The dragon came back and breathed on the raft, killing Serena and all but killing Song Do (-9). It then flew off having been lightning bolted by Garet. Piskie used the interlude to save Song Do, get the raft back to shore and retreat back into the gnoll lair.

Brazen checked the exit for an escape route and saw that the dragon was perched on a rock outcropping high above the entrance to the gnoll cave so escape that way seemed unlikely. The party were paranoid that the gnolls were going to attack but they didn't so they tried to come up with an escape plan which utilised the gnolls (non-existent) secret tunnel. Another plan foiled!

Eventually Piskie aided by a fly spell decided to investigate the dragon's horde while the dragon was occupied waiting for the pary to emerge from the gnolls caves. She entered the lair but soon set off a magic mouth and fled, with the dragon in hot pursuit as it flew back to guard its treasure. Brazen and Garet used this diversion to flee the gnolls lair as quicjly as possible. They were soon joined by Piskie.

The party decided to head to a nearby forest to try and enlist the help of elves. Brazen soon made cntact with the elves and were given sanctuary for a few days. During this time elven clerics raised Serena but the party were indebted to the elves.

Fully rested they headed back to the mesa to take on Vesciant once more (the elves had told them of the dragons name.). This time their plan revolved around Song Do using a fly spell to fly into the mesa and taunt the dragon until it attacked. The others were to blast it with spells and arrows and thus kill it. Simple! Well in theory at least.

The dragon did duly appear but only after it had bitten Song Do (using invisibility to get behind him unawares). Then all hell broke loose and it breathed on the warrior then dived into the water as it was blasted by lightning bolts and magic missiles. Song Do was left floating unconscious above the water once more. Brazen fired an arrow with a rope attached into Song Do's backpack (and Song Do) and then hauled him back to safety. The plan wasn't working out!

Brazen revived Song Do with a potion of extra healing and the warrior rejoined the fight. Garet and Serena had both injured the dragon with their spells so the creature flew off to safety and tried a new tactic. It went and grabbed a large boulder from a nearby cliff and then flying out of spell range it dropped it on the party, narrowly missing Piskie. Song Do grabbed Serena and with the aid of the fly spell went to engage the dragon in hand to hand combat. Unfortunately the wounded dragon was having none of it, it made a pass at maximum range for its breathe weapon and engulfed both of them. Song Do heroically protected his sister from the worst of the blast but was killed. He crashed into the ground but Serena survived, although she was badly wounded.

The dragon made another bombing run at Piskie but the nimble thief once more managed to dodge the boulder then stood out in the open taunting the dragon which dove down to finish her off. Garet and Brazen were both waiting and spell and arrow finished the beast. It crashed at Piskie's feet.

The surviving members of the Winter Wolves then headed off to loot the dragon's lair.

A few days later, with the aid of the elves they had recovered most of the loot, and had Song Do brought back to life. As repayment the elves asked for half of the treasure as payment and Serena readily agreed. Garet wasn't happy, especially when he realised that he got none of the treasure as he had been hired by Serena and she was sticking to the contract! That made for some fun role-playing (arguments).

Garet: "What do you mean I don't get any treasure?"
Serena: "You signed a contract, here is your reward, 600 gp."
"What! Is that it...?"
"Yep."

Famous Quotes/ Most stupid ideas of the night:

"I row across the lake" (Brazen.)

"I leap into the lake" (Serena & the armour encumbered Song Do!).

Brazen: "I take the potion of flying."
"Why?"
"I was born to fly."

"I fly after the dragon" (Song Do). He did so while carrying Serena and on about half hit points. The dragon moved about 30" per round, they managed 6". It got within breathe range and that was that.

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This page was last updated on

Monday, 22 April 2002