1 Chillwind 508

The party leaves the city of Aldasar behind through the south gate and heads down the road toward Kalimsport, the “hub of the world.” The day is windy and, typical of the month, a bit chill. Alasir has the troops in formation around the wagon and Rilka and Mõrvar ride at the head of the procession.

People come into and out of the city along their path and largely have to go around their entourage as they take up most of the available space on the road. Toliver Yew doesn’t seem to mind. He’s beaming ear to ear as the procession makes its way through the city and down the road and only lets go of his grin when the people start to dwindle and the sun starts to go down.

The party makes a camp on the roadside, with Mahgnus’ efficient guidance, and watches are established by Alasir and Alfhild.

The night passes without incident.

3 Chillwind 508

The past day and night have passed much like the first, though Toliver’s mood is not as bright without the light of public attention to illuminate it. This day is particularly quiet, with little to no traffic on the road. However, one person of interest catches the party’s eye…

Meeting the entourage on the road from the opposite direction is a man on a heavy horse with chain barding. He bears a lance in the crook of one arm and a banner bearing two symbols in the other: a white star and a brass dragon. A heavy steel shield is slung on the side of the horse along with his saddle bags. He wears banded mail on his body and a scimitar at his side. His suit of armor includes a conical helm and a metal veil that is currently hanging off of his face. That face bears a neat beard and Southron features.

Mõrvar knows that the symbol of the brass dragon represents Azumazran, a good Southron deity. He also knows that based on the style of the man’s armor, and the metal veil, that he is probably Acheran. Acherans wear veils when they go into battle to symbolically blind themselves to the violence that they are about to do.

Surm knows that the symbol of the star indicates that he is most likely a cavalier/knight of the Order of the Star, an order whose members devote themselves to various religions.

The man pulls his horse over to the side of the road to allow your troupe to pass. As the entourage pulls up beside him, he calls out in Tradespeak, “May the Light of Wisdom shine upon you!”

Rilka nods at him as they pass and replies in turn, “And may your heart be filled with Courage.”

Mõrvar simply nods his head but keeps an alert presence as they pass.

As the troupe passes, he, too, watches warily as it goes by. Once he has room to traverse again, the knight returns to the road and starts continuing on his way.

5 Chillwind 508

In the middle of an early morning thunderstorm, you arrive at the gates of the city of Pylar-Holton. Pylar-Holton straddles the borders of Leilior and Ornis, with the town of Pylar on the Leilioran side and the town of Holton on the Ornish side.

Toliver Yew informs Surm that he has some business he’d like to attend to in the city.

Mõrvar and Surm discuss the possibility of moving around Pylar-Hollton, but as it fords a river, that makes things tricky—especially with a wagon. There will be gate fees at both Pylar and Hollton. Surm asks if Master Yew will be paying the gate fees for the escort and Yew responds, “We didn’t negotiate my paying of your travel expenses when we discussed our terms."

“Very well, Captain Rilka is not one to quibble over a few coppers," Surm says.

The gate guards inform them of the gate fees and shrugs apologetically. “Everything is high these days. Even taxes. Times are tough these days in the city.”

Once the gate fees are paid, the entourage makes it way into the town of Pylar. It’s a nice town, settled on the River Ornis. They see the pennants of the city depicting a white stag, rampant, on a green field, snapping in the storm winds. It’s raining pretty hard as the storm blows through.

Master Yew directs the procession toward a nice section of town, near the temple district. Once there, he asks for a halt in front of a particularly fine home with a circular drive. Here he disembarks from his wagon and tells them that he is heading inside. He should only be a short time and that the procession should wait. Thunder rolls and the rain falls down in a sheets.

Mõrvar tells Surm, "We are his escort, perhaps you and I should accompany him to this home. Never know were another impression or contact could be made.”

Surm calls out to Master Yew, “Master Yew, do you need escort inside?”

“I don’t anticipate any troubles, but it would be a nice front. Sure, maybe a small show of force would be appropriate,” Yew says.

Mõrvar dismounts as if there really is no question, and positions himself to escort Master Yew as if Mõrvar was his personal bodyguard. Surm dismounts to go, but looks to Rilka to see if she is coming. At Master Yew’s words, Rilka dismounts as well, moving to walk step-in-step with Surm.

Mõrvar, Surm, and Rilka all fall into step to escort Master Yew into the house. The four of them approach the house’s front door at the portico and Master Yew raps on the door. It is answered by a young woman in a maid’s outfit. Master Yew announces himself as “Master Toliver Yew and escort.”

The young woman curtsies and invites them all inside. They are directed to a small parlor off the main entrance where a sideboard with a decanter of brandy sits as well as a small tray of cheese and bread. Yew helps himself to the food and drink and takes a seat.

Soon after that, a tall thin man comes into room dressed in fine clothes. He has a large mole on the end of his nose. “Toliver, you’re soaked to the skin!” the man says, shaking hands with the Ornish merchant. “Have some more brandy to warm you up!” The man pours himself a glass and sits down across from Yew.

“Connall, it’s raining outside, of course I’m soaked,” Yew says with some gravity, but with a smile. He sips his drink. “This brandy is excellent by the way.”

And the two gentlemen begin a conversation as old friends, completely ignoring the three escorts in the room.

As the two catch up and reminisce, Yew manages to secure an exclusive contract to sell Connall’s silks at market in Aldasar. Finally, the two say their goodbyes and Yew, all smiles, heads back out to the horses.

By this time, the rain has let up and the sun is poking out from behind the clouds. It’s chilly, though, especially for those still wet from the rain.

The procession now heads to the Great Bridge and crosses the River Ornis into Hollton.

The gate into Hollton charges a tax of 3 copper per person, 8 copper per livestock. As they pass through, they are welcomed into Ornis. Master Yew has no business to conduct in Hollton, so they are free to pass through and continue on their way for the rest of the day.

7 Chillwind 508

It’s a windy day as they wend their way down the road and see, perched up on a nearby hill, shining in the noontime sun, [Tower Iosabail], one of the fabled Towers of Wizardry located throughout the continent, where wizards and sorcerers gather to ply their craft and learn new spells.

9 Chillwind 508

This morning on the road, they arrive at the gates of Glofthall. The pennants bearing the green field and golden boar’s head snap in the crisp breeze. The guards announce the gate fees of 2 copper per person and 3 copper for the livestock.

Surm manages to convince the guards that the wolf will be on its best behavior. It is treated as livestock.

Glofthall is a large town, pleasant enough, but they see a lot of its citizens eyeballing them as the procession makes its way through town—not in an unpleasant way, but in a gossipy way. Signs indicate that there is a pass that leads west through the nearby Slayt Mountains that leads to the town of Wycliff in Eacenia. Also, apparently the town is ruled by a Baroness whose hold is in the center of town on Baron’s Hill.

They pass through the town and arrive on the other side without a hitch and continue down the road.

10 Chillwind 508

It’s a moderate day, weather-wise, when they arrive at the gates of Laketon around noon. Laketon is just off of [[King’s Lake]], the second largest freshwater lake in the known world. The road passes through the town and they are asked to pay the tax (2 copper per person, 3 copper per livestock). Once again, Surm convinces the guards that the wolf is not a safety issue. The procession makes its way into Laketon, with the guards assured that the wolf will be well-handled. As they make their way through the winding streets, they can see that Laketon is a prosperous town and proud of its proximity to a natural attraction.

14 Chillwind 508

The morning is windy and a bit warmer than usual as they approach the great port city of Kalimsport. There is a long line of people waiting to get into the city. Laborers, merchants, entertainers, courtiers—people of every type vying to pass through the gates. To the west is the Sea of Jirra; its salty air is carried on the wind.

Eventually, the procession makes its way to the head of the line and to the North Gate. There you are met by City Watch soldiers in Kalimsport livery: A white field with a blue dolphin emblazoned on the front. While some of the Watch deal with Toliver Yew and his declarations concerning imports for sale, another address the party and their gate taxes. “5 copper per person, 1 silver piece each for your livestock. And 1 silver for the wolf as well,” a guard says, eyeing Ghost warily.

After paying their gate fees, the party finds itself in the city of Kalimsport. Kalimsport is a city like no other. It’s huge, its crowded, it’s bustling with life—and it’s a day before market faire—so crank it up a notch or three and you get the idea.

Traffic is thick in the streets with other wagons of merchants trying to get to the market district to set up for the faire. Visitors have come from miles around to see the faire and all the entertainments it provides. Speaking of entertainments, street performers are on every corner, juggling, singing, playing, trying to pry coppers from passersby. The noise is deafening and the stench is blinding. It takes forever to make their way through the streets as Master Yew’s wagon is slow on the best of days and glacial in this situation.

Alasir does a good job of ensuring the soldiery keep close to the wagon and keeps an eye out for any ne’er-do-wells that may have an eye on the merchant’s few goods he has left.

Eventually, the entourage makes its way to the city’s Southern Market District. Once there, Master Yew brings his wagon to a stop at a modest home with a small fountain out in front of it. As he disembarks from the wagon, he calls Surm over to him. “I suppose we need to settle up. That was 19 silver per day, right? Follow me.” And he starts heading toward the house with a large key ring in his hand.

Mõrvar dismounts and follows, checking his belongings to see if anything is missing. Now that he’s able to look, It does appear that in the crowded press of people on the way here that his sack with his soldier’s clothes got torn away from his gear somehow. He announces this fact to the group.

“Do you know where you last left it? I don’t know if I can track with all these people,” Savaric says.

“I’m sure it was ripped off in the crowd. Who ever made off with it is lucky I didn’t see them, or I would have detached another head from it’s shoulders,” Mõrvar says.

Mõrvar and Surm follow Master Yew to the house while the others wait behind. He takes his key and unlocks the large lock on the front door and lets them inside. He bids them to wait a moment while he lights the lamps, as there isn’t much light. He does so and then leads them into a sitting room.

The sitting room is simply furnished—it is nice, but not extravagant. He once again asks them to wait while he fetches their pay. He then brings them back a pouch full of silver coins. “Nineteen silver per day for thirteen days. Our bargain is complete,” he says, smiling. “My trip to Aldasar has been a very profitable enterprise indeed. Should I travel again, may I call upon you?”

Surm says, "Of course, and may we call on you as our guide to Kalimsport, we’ve never been this far South and it’s always good to have a local friend?”

“Certainly,” he says, “What sort of direction do you need?”

“Well, directions to the University of Kalimsport would be helpful. I am seeking a sage by the name of Mandreth Kerendal,” Surm says.

The merchant gives Surm the directions he seeks. The University is near the city center, sitting upon Sage Hill. The two men take their pay and exit the domicile toward their procession.

28 Transformation 508

The Lich has just Teleported away after a battle with the party on the grounds of Lord Cannach’s estate. The party is debating what to do next…

The debate is whether to track him to tonight or in the morning. And whether or not he teleported to his phylactery or not.

Rilka asks if there is anyway to keep him from casting Teleport again and the possibility of counterspelling it (by casting Teleport at the same time) comes up. So they discuss buying a Teleport scroll and using it against the Lich.

Mõrvar asks Surm about Ulfric, the son of Ulrich of Barth that was sacrificed, according to the folios they found. Apparently Mõrvar remembered their uncle Thormax talking about an Ulfric in regard to family history. Surm gives Mõrvar a blank stare and tries to keep his composure, as Surm was not discussing their findings in the folios with the other party members.

Then Surm comes upon the idea of shutting him up—keeping him from verbalizing the spell. They could buy a scroll of Silence and cast it near him to keep him in its spell effect, but disallow him from resisting it. In this way, he could not verbalize his spells to cast them. The trade-off is that anyone else in the area will not be able to cast spells either. At first they think about casting it on something on Mõrvar since he will be up in his face and will keep the Lich within the radius. Mõrvar doesn’t like that idea because he wants the ability to cast his spells.

They go and report to Lord Cannach the results of their battle and their future plans.

They decide to forgo taking watches with the guards as it will leave them fatigued the next day, so they leave that task to Lord Cannach’s house guards.

When they get a private moment, Surm takes Mõrvar aside and pops him upside the head. “I haven’t talked about that shit with the others! That was a private conversation! Don’t talk about shit I haven’t talked about with the others!” Mõrvar actually manages to look chagrined.

29 Transformation 508

Surm heads to the University to talk to Mother Olanan about some leads on some Silence scrolls. The others stay behind in case there is any danger at Lord Cannach’s estate.

Surm rides into the city, pays his gate taxes, and goes to the University. Once there, he walks to Mother Olanan’s cottage and raps on the door. “Enter,” she says from inside.

“Mother Olanan,” he says as he steps inside.

“Master Ulrich,” she says, looking up from her desk.

Surm takes a seat and catches her up on the events involving the Lich since their last meeting. “So he got away again. I don’t where he went, but I imagine he’ll be coming back,” he says as he sums up.

He also brings up the fact that Savaric’s arrows seemed to have no effect on him. Is this a power of the Lich or was that a spell?

“Ah,” the priestess says, “that could be amongst his powers because, like many undead, he could be impervious to piercing weapons. It could take, say, a bludgeoning weapon—and a magical one at that—to do him harm.”

“My first priority is Silence. I’m looking for a Silence spell to stop him from casting Teleport again, should we meet him combat for a fourth time,” Surm says.

“I see,” Mother Olanan says. “I take it you’re wanting this in the form of some sort of…”

“Scroll or wand,” Surm says, nodding, “preferably something in multiple scrolls or a wand with multiple charges since it lasts only a short time.”

“I take it time is of the essence,” she says.

“We’re hoping to track him today,” Surm says.

“Normally I would like to help you in this regard myself. I am a scriber of scrolls in my own right. However, I do not current have that spell in repertoire at this time, and therefore it would take me a day to have it available. That would delay you, which I do not wish to do. However, there are many shops in the marketplace which would be able to assist you in a more timely manner. I can recommend one that is a fair dealer, but they are a dealer. Abad and Lida’s Scriptorium.” The priestess/sage gives him directions to the shop—it lies in the University district.

Surm thanks her and bids her good day. He then leaves the University and heads for the Scriptorium.

The shop is marked out front with a traditional swinging sign that reads, in Tradespeak, “Abad & Lida’s Scriptorium”. However, there is also a stone obelisk with Acheran characters in front of the shop marking it as such. Surm heads inside and sees behind the counter a balding Southron man and a Southron woman behind the counter with him. People peruse glass cases with various scrolls in them. Behind the counter are pigeon-holes containing scrolls. There are books in cases around the room. There are fine quills on display.

“Welcome to the Scriptorium! How can I help you?” the man says as Surm walks in.

“Are you Abad?” Surm asks.

“I am,” the man says.

“Ah, I am in need of scrolls. I need Silence spells,” Surm says.

“I see. Let me check my inventory,” Abad says. Then he calls to the woman in a language that Surm doesn’t understand and the woman heads into the back room of the shop. After a few moments, she returns, nodding to Abad.

“We do have such items,” Abad says.

“Excellent! Do you have three?” Surm asks.

Abad turns to the woman. She nods.

“Only scrolls?” Surm asks.

“That is my merchandise. It is my specialty,” Abad says with a bow.

“Then I would like to purchase three of them,” Surm says.

“I see. Then that will be 450 gold pieces,” Abad says.

Surm pulls out his Rod of Wonder. "Perhaps you would be interested in purchasing this and will defer some of the cost. I know you deal primarily in scrolls, but you are in the city and do business with other merchants. This, my friend, is a Rod of Wonder. "

“May I examine it?” Abad asks.

“Please,” Surm says and hands it over. Abad looks the device over and hands it back, whistling.

“That’s quite an item,” Abad says.

“It’s quite an impressive item,” Surm agrees.

“Come to my office,” Abad says and leads Surm to the back of the shop.

The office has a desk and a couple chairs. Abad takes a seat and offers one to Surm.

“I usually don’t like to do this size of dealing at the public counter,” Abad says.

“I completely understand,” Surm says.

“This is quite an offer you’re making with this rod,” Abad says, “in light of that, I’m prepared to give you the scrolls and more than half the rod’s worth. To be sure, I stand to make quite a tidy profit on this rod. Never let it be said that Abad is an unfair dealer.”

“No, never. In fact I was given word from Mother Olanan that you were exactly the trustworthy sort,” Surm says.

“I have dealt with the University many times,” Abad says, nodding.

“You have that cash on hand?” Surm asks.

“I do,” Abad says, a little warily.

“Well, here’s my situation. I don’t want to carry that kind of cash out of the city by myself. So, I’m prepared, because I’m in a hurry, to accept this offer, but ask that you hold my pay-out. I’ll take the three scrolls and return for the cash,” Surm says.

“I am amenable to that,” Abad says.

“Do you need me to sign anything? I am Surm Ulrich, if you need a name. You probably don’t need anything signed since you’re holding the rod…” Surm says.

“No, I don’t need anything signed. I’ll just hold the rod,” Abad says.

“Very well. I will take the scrolls and return,” Surm says.

“Very good,” Abad says.

Surm collects the scrolls and says, “I will be back as soon as I can. Feel free to sell the rod if you wish.”

“I will start making inquiries,” Abad says.

“You go ahead and do whatever you’re doing,” Surm says. “And you can hold my platinum.”

Surm leaves the shop, crying out about how fair a dealer Abad is, telling all who will listen.

While he’s in the city, Surm heads over to where Toliver Yew’s tent was sent up in the marketplace. He sees Yew packing up his tent into his box wagon. Surm rushes over and says, “Master Yew!”

Yew looks up from his work and says, disappointed, “Oh. You’re a day late.”

“I am a day late and I bring bad news,” Surm says.

“This is frequent,” Yew says, obviously put out.

“It’s becoming that way,” Surm says. “Our dealings are not yet complete; we are still wrapping up our dealings with Lord Connach. However, I wanted to inform you as quickly as I could and to let you know that, while you are under no obligation to wait, should you decide to wait for your escort, we are prepared to knock another 20 silver per day off of the price. That brings it to 19 silver per day. As soon as I leave you, sir, we set out to track this enemy, and hopefully deal with him in finality. If you can’t wait, I understand, and our apologies.”

Yew mulls this over.

“Have you already sold all of your wares, sir?” Surm asks.

“Very nearly,” Yew says. “How long do you think this will take?”

“Unfortunately, this fellow is wily and is quite troublesome to track,” Surm says.

“He’s very troublesome to me, I can tell you,” Yew says.

“Well, if you decide to wait, I’m sure, well, I can’t make this promise, but, if you decide to wait, if we are more than three days, Captain Rilka will still escort you free of charge,” Surm says.

Yew seems pleased at this prospect. “I will wait,” he says.

“Very good, sir,” Surm says, and hops on his horse with a sense of urgency and speeds out of the city.

Meanwhile, at Lord Cannach’s estate, all is quiet. Surm makes it back and reports that he has retrieved the needed scrolls.

The party gathers at the site of their battle last night and put Savaric on the trail of the Lich. He finds a trail and he and Ghost begin to follow it, with the party following close behind on horseback.

He follows the trail through the fields outside the city. It follows a circuitous route back toward the city wall—not to a gate, but to an older part of the wall. It doesn’t appear to be very well patrolled. The smells of the city are particularly ripe here. It’s probably the “bad” part of town.

Savaric looks around the area outside the wall for signs of the Lich. He finds a bit of tattered cloth caught in the stones of the wall, like someone climbed the wall and it got snagged along the way. They speculate that the Lich climbed over the wall and walked to Lord Cannach’s from somewhere within the city. Mõrvar suggests that he may be hiding in a graveyard.

Surm suggests that Savaric use Ilona and climb the wall. Ilona says, “Yes! Yes! Why don’t you use me?” The wall is about 15 feet high and made of rough stone. It will take about a minute for him to climb it. They decide to have Savaric climb over the wall and attempt to pick up the trail on the other side. The sorcerers can Message to him to keep in contact in the process. Then the rest of the party can come around to the city gates and catch up with afterwards.

As Savaric is climbing up, Surm spots a helmet coming toward him on the catwalk. He Messages Savaric to stop climbing, that someone is coming. Savaric holds strong to the side of the wall as the guardsman passes, clearly bored and scraping the tip of his spear against the stone of the wall as he passes. Soon, the guard is out of sight and Surm Messages Savaric that all is clear. Savaric continues his climb up the wall.

When the ranger gets to the top of the wall, his ring makes him invisible. Then he examines the catwalk for signs of the Lich. He finds nothing. Looking down below, he sees a hovel, some piles of garbage, and beyond that a narrow, trash-ridden street. He climbs down the wall and starts looking around for a trail. He finds a very faint one. He finds a piece of garbage and marks his trail. Then he starts following the faint trail.

Surm Messages Savaric to get an update on what he’s found thus far. He tries to get a sense from Savaric where in the city he’s located, but nobody knows Aldasar that well. Surm suggests he figure out where he is and get back to them so that they can come into the city and find him. Savaric leaves the marked trail behind and looks for a landmark, or a sign, not trusting his diplomacy to ask for directions.

About two blocks away, Savaric sees the hanging sign of a tavern. Its scratched up and barely legible Tradespeak script says “The Dented Mug.” It also has, affixed to it, a dented pewter mug. He reports that he spots the tavern as a landmark. He’s told to sit tight outside the tavern and the others will meet him there.

Surm, Mõrvar, and Rilka head around to one of the city gates and pay their gate taxes to get in (along with the taxes on the horses) and make then make inquiries about The Dented Mug. One of the guards says, “You don’t want to go there, sir.”

“Well, unfortunately necessity dictates that I go,” Surm says.

The guard begrudgingly gives him directions. Surm thanks him for the directions and for the warning.

As the party follows the directions, they notice the quality of the city starting to decline. The streets are narrow and in disrepair. There are far fewer guard patrols noticeable. People keep to themselves and don’t make eye contact. They look at the party leading their horses through the narrow streets and then look away quickly so as not to draw attention to themselves. Surm averts his eyes while Mõrvar gives people dirty, nasty looks. But, eventually, the party does see the sign of The Dented Mug.

Meanwhile, Savaric hangs out outside the tavern. Inside the tavern is a lot of raucous laughter, what sounds like fighting, and loud music. Savaric fights off the temptation to go inside, but does look inside the windows. A couple of people are thrown out while he waits.

The party sees Savaric standing outside the tavern and they reunite. They head back to the pile of refuse and the marked trail. Surm casts Detect Magic to see if maybe the phylactery is hidden in the area. Savaric begins to follow the trail and gets as far as the street before losing it. There is just too many people that have gone through there and it is too difficult to get a distinct trail.

Rilka suggests that maybe someone saw the Lich—he is pretty distinctive with his blue, glowing eyes and such. They go back to where the trail starts and look about, noticing the hovel again. Surm wonders if someone lives there. He goes to the hovel and knocks on the frame of the curtain-down. An old, humpbacked woman pokes her head out and peers at them.

“Hello. I’m Surm Ulrich. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions,” Surm says, smiling.

She says nothing, but puts out her hand, expecting payment.

“Ah, of course, I don’t want to waste your time. You’re obviously busy,” Surm says, and drops a silver piece in her hand. The coin disappears and she asks, in a gravelly voice, “What do you want to know?”

“I was wondering if you noticed any strangers passing through your alley, or climbing the wall? Dressed in tattered black robes? Perhaps during the night? Perhaps with strange-looking, as if they glowed blue. Probably an intimidating fellow. Chill you to the bone,” Surm says.

She puts out her hand, hands him back the silver, and says, “No, no, I didn’t see anything. Go away.” And she shuts the curtain.

Surm pockets his silver and takes a gold and pokes his head into the curtain and says, “Good madam. It is of dire importance that we find this fellow and stop him from terrorizing others.”

“Only a fool seeks out Death,” she barks.

“Captain Rilka and Company is that fool,” Surm says. “And we seek out Death to put a stop to him.”

Surm leverages his fame of being associated with Captain Rilka and Company, and his particular affinity for Aldasar, as well as pulling out a second gold piece and tells her, “Captain Rilka and Company intends to destroy this creature so that it will terrorize Aldasar no more. But we need your help. In no way will it track back to you. I don’t know your name, nor do I want to.”

“I don’t want it coming back here,” the woman says.

“Our intent, dear lady, is to destroy it. Its trail comes here. It will come back—unless you help us,” Surm says.

She takes the gold and says, “It comes and goes from east.”

“From the east. When’s the last time you saw it?” Surm asks.

“Last night,” she says.

“Leaving the city? Climbing over the wall?” Surm asks.

“Yes.”

“You didn’t see it return?” he asks.

“No,” she says.

Surm knows that east of their location is the religious district of the city. Mõrvar knows that east of there are some of the larger temples in the city as well as a large necropolis known as “Sadum’s Hill”.

Surm thanks the old woman and they step away from the hovel. Then they discuss their next move. They debate whether or not they want to head to the necropolis now or watch Lord Cannach’s. Do they think it will be better if the LIch knows that they are on his trail so he doesn’t head back to Lord Cannach’s. Surm suggests leaving a message on the wall letting the Lich know that they are on to his path that will make the Lich run to his phylactery to make sure that it is secure. This could also make sure that he doesn’t bother Lord Cannach as the Lich will know that the party is not there.

So Mõrvar writes him a note in Elven, “Followed your trail to here,” and draws a picture of a nut and signs it “Mõrvar Ulrich.” They then post this note to the wall and start heading toward the necropolis.

Along the way, they decide to stop off in the University district to recruit the help of Mother Olanan. She sees them in her cottage.

“Did you find the scrolls you were looking for,” she asks Surm.

“I did. I found the scrolls, but I’ve discovered that the Lich is actually in the city. We followed his trail back to the wall. And rumors say that he comes from the east. And we know that there is a necropolis to the east and we are going to go there,” Surm says.

“Ah yes, Sadum’s Hill,” Mother Olanan says.

“Yes. We have left a message for the Lich at the wall so that he will be alerted that we are on to him. Hopefully he will not go back to Lord Cannach’s and will, instead, check to see that his phylactery is safe,” Surm says .

“I see,” Mother Olanan.

“So we are going to hit the cemetery today. And we wanted to see if you would be able to lend a hand, as we are about to enter the realm of quite a few undead recruits,” Surm says.

“Oh, well,” the priestess says.

Rilka suggests that if she can’t get away herself, if there is another cleric she can recommend, that would be helpful as well. Mother Olanan says that it’s not that she can’t get away, it’s just that she is primarily a scholar, not a “field cleric” and, as such, the spells that she has on hand are not of a combat nature. However, she is ready and willing to help as she can. She does have the ability to the Turn Undead and to channel positive energy. Surm says that if she feels she is prepared to help, then they will be happy to have her. She asks to be allowed to get her things.

She goes to a cabinet and puts on a silver holy symbol, a ring, a cloak, grabs a staff, and a satchel and says, “Shall we?”

The party then proceeds toward Sadum’s Hill.

As they approach the gate to the necropolis, they can see large mausoleums, large tombstones, obelisks, edifices, some very old and some more recent, There is a ten-foot wall around the necropolis that looks to be locked at night. They start investigating the outer wall that corresponds to the direction facing the hovel to the west of the cemetery. Rilka finds a smear of ink on the outer wall. Surm does not Detect Magic emanating from the ink. The party speculates that the Lich may be trying to recreate his spellbook. Surm knows that if he were to purchase or steal the accoutrements he could write down the spells he has prepared to do just that.

Savaric finds a single, bony footprint near the wall. They go inside (leaving the horses outside) and start trying to find signs of the Lich on the other side of the wall. Savaric finds a trail of bony footprints. Mõrvar pulls out his dwarven warhammer. Surm points out what Mother Olanan said about bludgeoning weapons and the undead. Savaric follows the trail and the others follow him.

Rilka commands her horse to guard the other horses and Mõrvar does the same with his steed.

As Savaric follows the trail, they see people paying homage to others at gravesites and various trails and paths leading throughout the necropolis. Finally, the ranger leads them to a mausoleum. Once there, he also finds a slightly older second trail, leaving the mausoleum. Both trails are coming and going from the mausoleum, but the other one is definitely an older trail—probably two or three days old. Mõrvar believes that he planned to come here straight out of Leodin.

The party then debates whether or not they want to go in and get him or if they want to find his phylactery first. Mother Olanan confirms that they do not wish her to Turn him and make him flee—but perhaps they wish her to help handle any other undead that he has raised.

The mausoleum is a large box-shaped building with iron doors. Savaric starts checking the doors for traps. He finds no traps but does discover that the door is slightly ajar. He listens and hears nothing on the other side. Surm casts Silence from the one of the scrolls on the iron door. He slaps Savaric on the back and points to the door. Savaric opens the door.

A bar of sunlight falls into the room, but the half-orc has darkvision so he has a clear picture of the room anyway. There is a stone slab in the center of the room and standing at the slab is the Lich. Sitting on the slab is an open book. Also sitting on the slab are a series of quills and vials of ink. He says something—but no one can hear it as he is within the radius of the Silence spell.

Mõrvar moves forward with his hammer with a big smile on his face and attacks the Lich, smashing him twice. Surm moves out of the range of the Silence spell and then uses the Wand of Magic Missiles against the Lich. Mother Olanan moves forward and touches Mõrvar, giving him a Resistant Touch. The Lich then fills the area with negative energy, causing the Mother, Mõrvar, Rilka, and Savaric pain. Once again, Savaric is shaken by the presence of the Lich and is negatively affected by his fear of him. Rilka comes forward and attacks and hits him once, but then misses. Savaric waits outside with Edgefrost drawn.

Rilka swings again and hits once, then twice. Savaric continues to wait. Mõrvar attacks with his warhammer once again, and fells the Lich.

Savaric starts searching the room. Surm casts Detect Magic and starts looking about the room. Everyone can see that there were vases and other such vessels on pedestals around the room that have been violently knocked to the floor. Surm detects magic in the corner of the room. Investigating, he finds a loose stone in that area of the room. Looking for traps, he finds the corner of a piece of paper poking out from beneath the stone. Surm is a aware that there are spells that are magical symbols that, when gazed upon, trigger magical effects. Unfortunately, it not as easy as simply crumpling up the piece of paper and not looking at it to get rid of. It usually takes the expertise of a expert trapfinder to get rid of such things.

Surm warns everyone about the trap and steps out of the mausoleum. Mõrvar follows him, taking the nascent spellbook with him. Savaric follows, leaving Rilka alone with the trap.

Once outside, Mõrvar casts Read Magic on the spellbook to see how far the LIch got in completing his spell book. It appears he completed two spells, Create Undead and Eyebite. He had started a third, Magic Jar. Then he decides that he and Savaric should clean out the mausoleum before Rilka reveals the trap and possibly destroys it so they clear out the quills and inks and Savaric and Surm search the room. Amongst the inks and quills they find a vial with a clear liquid inside it and a piece of cured leather. They then leave Rilka alone with the trap.

Rilka casts Bless on herself and then flips the stone. She sees a magical sigil written on piece of paper and feels a pulse of magical energy burst through the room. And nothing else happens. Beneath the paper is a hole and within the hole is a tiny, metal box on a thin chain. It glows with a strange, purple-black luminesce about it. She picks it up and takes it to the others.

Surm looks to Mother Olanan for instruction on how to destroy the phylactery. She says that as far as she knows, there is no special way to destroy the thing, that they should be able to just smash the thing. So Surm suggests that they put it on the slab and have Mõrvar smash it with his hammer.

They set the phylactery on the slab and then Mõrvar pauses in thought. “Goodbye, Ulrich of Barth,” he says. Then, finally, he raises his hammer and brings it down on the tiny box. Then brings it down again. Then he brings it down a third time and the purple-black luminesce gathers and scatters and then dissipates. A foul wind blows through room. Mõrvar has a look of satisfaction on his face. Rilka says a prayer to Bruni and Mother Olanan says a prayer to Cereth. In the remains of the phylactery are two shredded scraps of paper. Mõrvar gathers them up and uses his Acid Splash to destroy them.

They opt to leave the Lich’s corpse in the mausoleum and leave. Mõrvar chops the head off the body. Mother Olanan asks if anyone requires if anyone requires healing, but no one takes her up on it. Surm asks the priestess if they are done. “If we destroyed phylactery, which we appeared to have done, then I believe we are done.”

“Finally? It’s done?” Surm says, incredulous, hardly believing it.

“Based on my knowledge of these creatures, yes,” Mother Olanan says.

“Then we’ll gather the broken pieces of the phylactery, Mõrvar has the head, we’ll take these to Lord Cannach and we’ll declare it done,” Surm says, triumphant.

They leave and shut the doors of the mausoleum.

“If it comes back after this, it’s a different lich,” Surm declares.

The party leaves the necropolis and head back toward the city center. They take Mother Olanan back to the University. As Surm turns to leave her, Mother Olanan tells him, “There’s a deeper story with this Lich, isn’t there? But it’s your story to tell, not my story to take. Should you ever want to tell it, you have an open ear with me.”

“I just don’t know the story yet. That’s what I’m hoping to find out. We have a collection of his writings we’re deciphering. We’ll investigate from there,” Surm says.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious, I wouldn’t be a scholar if I wasn’t a curious soul. But if in your travels you come back to Aldasar, feel free to call on me,” she says.

“I’m fairly certain I will be back,” Surm says.

Rilka thanks her for her help and gives a donation to the temple of Cereth.

They then head to Abad and Lida’s Scriptorium. Surm heads in with Rilka in tow.

“Ah, Master Ulrich,” Abad says as he heads in.

“Abad, I’m here to collect,” Surm says.

“Excellent,” Abad says, “Come with me.”

And they all head back into his office. Surm introduces Abad to “Captain” Rilka. Abad hands him a pouch with the agreed-upon funds of 570 platinum. Surm thanks the man and they head out.

The group then heads to the bad part of town and remove the note they posted on the wall. It’s already covered in garbage. Surm goes over to the old woman’s hovel and knocks on the frame again. She pokes her head out and he tells her thank you for her help, that “it is done.”

She looks wide-eyed and says, “You killed Death?”

“Well, he just looked like Death,” Surm says. He gives her five gold for her trouble.

She takes it and says, “I thank you.”

“I thank you for your assistance and your bravery,” he says.

And, finally, they head out of the city and to Lord Cannach’s estate.

At the estate, they are announced and the nobleman comes out to meet them. The party is all smiles and Surm announces that they come victorious.

“Victorious? This is fine news!” Lord Cannach says.

And Mõrvar produces the severed head of the Lich and Surm produces the smashed phylactery.

“So that should be it. If there is a Lich on your property, it is another Lich,” Surm says.

Lord Cannach chuckles at that and says, “This is definitely cause to celebrate. You seem hale and hearty. There seem to be casualties.”

“We caught him unawares. He did not expect to be caught in his lair again,” Surm says.

“Please come inside, rest. We simply await the return of the goods and the soldiery. Welcome back!” Lord Cannach says.

So the party heads inside the manor house and rests.

30 Transformation 508

Surm heads back into the city and goes to the University. He wants to employ a sage to look into Ulrich of Barth and any information he can get before he leaves in the next day.

The soldiery and the workers Lord Cannach employed to gather the goods from the Lich’s lair return on this day. When asked for a report, Alasir reports that all was quiet. Rilka and Surm report to him that the Lich has been found and destroyed and that they will be heading to Kalimsport. He takes this all in stride.

The party figures that the trip to Kalimsport will take about 13 days, so long as they stick to the road. That’s going at the speed of Toliver Yew’s wagon.

1 Chillwind 508

Lord Cannach has received all of his funds from his buyers, so all pay outs have been made. Surm shakes Lord Cannach’s hand and says that it’s been a pleasure. “Perhaps we’ll swing back by here when we return to Aldasar,” Surm says.

“Feel free to,” Lord Cannach says.

A runner is sent from the University that information is available from the sage. So, as they are going to have to go into the city to pick up Toliver Yew regardless, they all load up and head into Aldasar. The entire entourage heads to Master Yew’s tent. Surm heads to Master Yew and says, “We’re here. We’re done. I have to make one stop at the University and then we’re ready to go.”

Master Yew looks surprised. “Well!”

Surm introduces Captain Rilka. Yew goes a little wide-eyed and then says, “Yes. Well. I didn’t realize the troop was so big. Yes. Well. Good. So, you said you have to make a stop?”

Surm flags Mahgnus over. “This is my man, Mahgnus. He’ll be happy to assist you in any way until I return.”

Mahgnus nods curtly.

“Good. Good. I just have some last minute preparations and then I’ll be ready to go,” Master Yew says.

Then Surm and Mõrvar head to the University and meet with the sage that Surm hired.

“I have found some information that will be of interest to you,” the sage says.

“Excellent,” Surm says.

“You asked about Barth,” the sage says. “Very difficult finding references to Barth. The only references I found was to a village that no longer exists. It was located near the Slayt Mountains. It was a Duindir village. It lay to the north of modern Leilior at the northern end of the Slayt Mountains.”

“What became of this village?” Surm asks.

The sage shrugs, “It’s lost to time.”

“But it was just a village,” Surm says.

“Yes,” the sage says.

“Of no importance?” Surm asks.

“None that I could find,” the sage says. “However, the references I found were to an Ulrich of Barth. He was a notorious adventurer.”

“Notorious?” Surm asks.

“A hard man. A wizard. He traveled extensively. He apparently had several sons. It’s hard to say how many, but more than one, according to the tales. He sought infamy,” the sage says.

“Not fame? But specifically infamy?” Surm asks.

“Yes,” the sage says.

“Wizards,” Surm says, with disgust.

“He was active some 400 years ago,” the sage says. “Some tales say that he achieved immortality. That’s all I was able to find in such a short time.”

“Genealogy? Names of the sons?” Surm asks.

“Once again, in such a short time? No,” the sage says.

“I would like you to research this Ulrich of Barth. Specifically relations, family. We’d like to see the family tree and where they are,” Surm says.

“That would be interesting,” the sage says. “That could take some time.”

“Alright,” Surm says.

“I can work on that,” the sage says, confidently.

“Very well. I am leaving the city and heading south. But I will be this way again and then I will pay and see what you have learned,” Surm says.

“Very well,” the sage says. “That is acceptable.”

The two shake hands and Surm gets the man’s name, which is Levan Elhan.

Mõrvar puts out his hand as well.

Surm introduces himself and Mõrvar does as well. The sage raises an eyebrow at that.

“I suspect we’re related,” Surm says. “So I could tell you that some family currently resides in he north. Jossia.”

“Ah. That could make things more difficult,” Levan says.

“More difficult?” Surm asks.

“There are fewer family records in the Northron lands for me to access,” the sage says.

“Then is this even doable for you? Should I go north and seek a sage there?” Surm asks.

“I said, difficult, not impossible,” Levan says.

“Very well. We will swing through and see what you have found when next we come to Aldasar,” Surm says.

They take their leave of the sage and head back to the market district.

Master Yew’s preparations are complete. Alasir has the troops positioned around the wagon. Surm rides alongside the wagon while Rilka and Mõrvar ride point. And the procession heads out of Aldasar on the way south towards Kalimsport.

11 Transformation 508

The newly reunited entourage arrives back at Lord Cannach’s estate. There he arranges for the party’s horses to be well-cared for and for them all to be housed and cleaned up and rested after their battles. There is to be a celebration in honor of their defeat of the Lich. Dinner will be prepared and the villagers that are also staying with him will be in attendance to dine with their liberators.

At one point in the preparations, Lord Cannach takes Surm aside and asks him if they collected all of the treasure from the ruin or if a return trip is order…

Surm says, “We have returned with the most portable treasures found. There are still furnishings of an antique nature, tools and equipment for alchemical and magical creations, and a vast library of books we were not able to decipher. We have brought a sampling of books for appraisal to give you an idea of what remains. At your leisure, I would like to have your people appraise some gems, jewelry, and the books so we can agree on a valuation of what we have returned with. If our cursory appraisals match with your experts, then I have been given leave to make an offer for your consideration that I believe you will find profitable and will save time for Captain Rilka.”

“I have some people in mind to do that very thing. I’m sure we can come to an agreement," Lord Cannach says.

The two adjourn to one of the side rooms of the estate were the goods have been laid out to begin their negotiations and appraisals while dinner is being prepared.

Surm also suggests that Lord Cannach send a regiment to Leodin to secure the hamlet and mines. It is currently unoccupied making the storehouse easy pickings for scavengers. Lord Cannach reveals that he has already sent a contingent of soldiers to do just that.

In the course of the appraisals, the question of the worth of the folio comes up. The man that Lord Cannach has doing the appraising manages to break the cipher that they are written under and announces that it is written in High Acheran. He also advises Lord Cannach that the writings are "worthless, the ravings of a deranged mind. Whoever this Ulrich was, he was a sick individual and you would never be able to sell these parchments for any sort of profit.”

Surm keeps his composure at the mention of the Ulrich name and he notices no reaction from Lord Cannach.

After the negotiations for the treasure and appraisals are complete, Surm offers to take the “worthless” writings off of the nobleman’s hands as they may serve as inspiration for Surm’s re-telling of this tale. Also, if he has no objection, he would like to send some of their soldiers to retrieve a journal of similar writings that was left at the ruins that would complement the folio well. Lord Cannach has no objection to him taking the folio of the “odious” writings nor in Surm sending soldiers back to the ruins to retrieve the journal. He does take the bard aside and tells him, “A more suspicious man, a more paranoid man, than I would make more of the interesting coincidence of this villain’s name and that of my benefactor. I am not a paranoid man. I count it an interesting coincidence and nothing more. I doubt a conspiracy would be so…obvious…as that. Have no fears on that account, my good man.” And he shakes Surm’s hand vigorously and smiles.

“I appreciate your faith Lord Cannach. I assure you the name is coincidental, but, I will confess, that coincidence does drive me to attempt to make sense of his mad ramblings and shed some light on this mystery.”

Surm excuses himself and finds Mõrvar. He tells him about the folio and tells him to take four soldiers and go back and get the journal from the ruins.

Mõrvar tells Alasir to ready four of the troops to ride with him and informs the remaining six that their number one priority is to guard Surm. Mõrvar bids the others goodbye and makes ready to ride in haste back to Leodin. Savaric says he will ride with Mõrvar and makes ready to move. Alasir sends Einar, Sorcha, Garth, and Halvor to ride with Mõrvar and Savaric. The six of them leave Lord Cannach’s estate at a gallop. Lord Cannach’s soldiers probably have a four-hour head start on them.

Surm then updates Rilka on the what was found out about the folios and where Mõrvar and Savaric have gone. Rilka raises an eyebrow but says nothing.

After the dinner, but prior to the end of festivities, Surm asks Lord Cannach to join him in the parlor where the goods have been laid out, saying, “Let’s inspect our boon again, shall we?” The nobleman agrees…

Later, Surm comes to Rilka with the good news. We have been given a bonus for a job well done; in lieu of the 500 gold pieces, Lord Cannach has gifted us four magical items off the top, before the split: Savaric will receive the flaming bow, Mõrvar will receive the Rod of Wonder, I will receive the Cloak of Resistance, and you will receive the Amulet of Natural Armor."

He continues. “Lord Cannach says that he will need to wait for the sale of the items in order to cash them out. He simply does not have that much coin laying about. However he is agreeable to allowing our group to purchase from the remaining magical items before offering them to merchants in the city as I propose. He also appreciates our generosity in allowing him to lay claim to the furnishings in the lair. I waived our claim to the remaining furnishings in recognition of the cost of experts for appraisals, hauling things in and out of the city, the general hassle of collecting what’s left in the lair, and his generous gift.”

Rilka clasps Surm on the shoulder for an excellent job of negotiations. “It sounds like Lord Cannach was well pleased with our success.” She says she is interested in purchasing from the remaining magical items, as may be others in the group.

“Since half our party and guards have now departed the City, we’ll need to figure out where we’re going to stay or wait until they return. Will Lord Cannach let us stay in his keep? Set up an encampment on his grounds? I don’t want to tax his hospitality…”

Lord Cannach overhears Rilka’s concern and says that he is happy to let her and her group encamp on his estate until her other soldiers return. “It’s no trouble at all. It’s the least I can do after such a successful partnership. Besides, I have to wait and pay you until after the goods are sold anyway. You may has well stay.”

Surm asks Lord Cannach if he could recommend a trustworthy and reasonably priced sage to research an artifact for us. Surm produce the green obelisk and show it to Lord Cannach. “This we found on a our previous venture. I would like to get the writings deciphered. I believe it is an object from an ancient civilization known as the Aedonii.”

Lord Cannach seems very impressed with the obelisk and its origin. He says that he would love to hear the story of how Surm acquired such a find. As far as a sage, he doesn’t know many—doesn’t have much call for them in his business dealings. But he did run into one at a dinner party not too long ago. Eoin Clyne was his name. He has a post at the University at the center of the city. He seemed very learned on a great many things and a interesting dinner guest. Reasonably priced? He couldn’t say. But if he can’t translate your obelisk he may be able to direct you to someone who can.

“Am I able to enter the university to call upon this sage? If so, may I use your name as a referral?” Surm asks.

“You can enter the public forum of the university and ask the monitors for Master Clyne. They will fetch him for you. You may certainly use my name as a referral,” Lord Cannach says.

Surm then gives an accounting of Karak Tuvar and the mysterious chasms throughout the fortress. He plays up the web shooting terror shrouded in mystery from deep in the chasm, and their luck of stumbling on to the obelisk, “a less perceptive group would have missed it completely, and yet, one might say it wanted to be found. Was it a lucky glance or an alien power from the obelisk that drew Savaric’s eye? I hope a sage will help answer these questions.”

Lord Cannach seems to enjoy the tale.

12 Transformation 508

That morning, Surm discusses with Rilka as to whether they should invest into research on the obelisk or not. " The Aedonii are an ancient race, so who knows what secrets it may reveal. I also believe a sage will almost pay us to get to study this thing, " he says.

Rilka thinks that there could be many secrets to be found in the obelisk. “While we are in a city with sages, we should explore further,” she says.

Surm, Rilka, Alasir, and Tarben all leave Lord Cannach’s estate and head into the city to go to the University to visit with Master Clyne.

At the forum of the University, there are monitors wearing black robes fluttering about, fetching things for the sages and asking people if they can be of service. Surm flags one down. Rilka keeps watch if anyone is taking an undue interest in them or their artifact.

One of the monitors approaches and says, “How can help you, sir?”

Surm says, “I am looking for Master Clyne.”

“Very good, sir. What can I say this is regarding?”

“An ancient artifact.”

“Very good, sir. Who may I say is calling upon him?”

“Surm Ulrich.”

“Very good.”

“Sent by Lord Cannach.”

“Ah, very good, then.”

After about ten minutes, a gentleman in fine robes, handsome in a close-cropped beard, in his early 30s comes walking up and introduces himself as Master Clyne.

Surm shakes his hand and says, “I’m Surm Ulrich. Lord Cannach says you’re the man to talk to.”

“Ah, Lord Cannach. Throws a very nice dinner party. So, walk with me,” the sage says. He leads the way, walking through the grounds.

As they walk, Surm says, “I have an artifact that I need translated that is of Aedonii origin.”

“That’s very interesting, indeed,” Master Clyne says. “There’s not very many such artifacts floating around.”

“And yet, this is my second time coming across one,” Surm says.

“Indeed,” Clyne says, clearly surprised. “If I may ask, where did you find such an artifact?”

“In the abandoned fortress of Karak Tuvar in the Daggerspine Mountains,” Surm says.

“Karak Tuvar? That’s a dwarven name,” the sage says.

“Yes, I don’t believe it was part of their treasures. The fort had been befallen some sort of attack. A natural disaster. Many chasms had opened, shifting some of fortress’ foundations. In one of the chasms, we saw this obelisk sticking out. So it had been buried even before the dwarves had been there,” Surm says.

“Well. What makes you think the artifact is Aedonii?” Clyne asks.

“The writing on it,” Surm says.

“It has script?” Clyne aks.

“Yes,” Surm says.

“Well, unfortunately, I am not versed in Aedonii script. However, I can tell you who is,” the sage says.

“That sounds like the information I need,” Surm says.

The name that Clyne provides is Mandreth Kerendal. He is with the University of Kalimsport. According to Clyne, he is the foremost expert on Aedonii script.

“Thank you, sir. What do I owe you for your time?” Surm asks.

“Ah, it is nothing,” Clyne says.

Then Surm, Rilka and the soldiers make their way out of the University.

13 Transformation 508

Surm, Alasir, and a couple of soldiers head to the marketplace looking for someone that is going to be heading to Kalimsport that may need protection along the way. Surm finds a merchant that is heading back home to Kalimsport. His name is Toliver Yew. He has a tent erected in the marketplace. Nearby is a box wagon. Surm and his entourage approach.

Yew is a short, pudgy man who sells a variety of brass items: lamps, trinkets, statuettes, etc. Surm makes his approach and introduces himself an asks him if he is heading back to Kalimsport soon and if he’s in need of an escort.

Yew gives Surm an appraising look and asks, “Who told you that?”

“Gentleman on the street, when I was asking around. Said you was heading back.”

“Well, I am,” Yew says, grudgingly.

“Well, will you be in need of escort on the dangerous journey all the way back to Kalimsport. I assume with a fortune from your all your recently-sold wares,” Surm says.

“Who told you about my fortune?” Yew asks, instantly suspicious.

“I’m assuming you did business well is all. No one told me,” Surm says.

“Well, yes, I did well. I’m a good salesman,” Yew says, chest swelling.

“Yes, I could tell when I walked up,” Surm says reassuringly.

“Well, I could use some guards. And I have heard your name bandied about,” Yew says. “What do you charge?” he asks, a hard look in his eye.

Surm does some quick calculations and comes up with a figure. “59 silver pieces per day. And for that, you get trained guards and expertise. Captain Rilka. Master Hunter Savaric. And Mõrvar, the White Death.”

“59 silver per day?” Yew says. “Alright. Done. I leave on the 20th of Transformation.”

“Do you want us to meet you outside the city gates or do you want us to meet you here and escort you through the city?” Surm asks.

“Escort through the city,” Yew says. “I want to be seen with the great Captain Rilka.”

“Excellent. You have hired well, sir. You will be the envy of all the other caravans headed south,” Surm says. Then he and soldiers take their leave.

When they get back to Lord Cannach’s estate, Surm takes Mahgnus aside and arranges to pay the soldiery.

14 Transformation 508

After an uneventful three-day ride from the outskirts of Aldasar, Mõrvar, Savaric, and the four soldiers arrive in Leodin in the morning. When they arrive in Leodin, they see the soldiers bearing the livery of Lord Cannach gathered around something near the center of the hamlet.

Mõrvar dismounts and instructs the soldiers to wait. He asks Savaric to do the same. He then makes his way to the gathering.

Lord Cannach’s soldiers are all dismounted and gathered around what appears to be one of their own. He appears to be dead and frozen in place, standing, with a look of horror on his face. Another of the soldiers is shaking his head in dismay.

“What happened here?” Mõrvar asks. He notices that the soldier shaking his head has pissed himself.

One of his comrades steps forward, a sergeant by the look of the stripe on his tabard. “We fanned out when we arrived early this morning, searching for any signs of interlopers. Rhudiard here,” he indicates the frozen man, “went to check out those houses.” He points to a line of houses. “He apparently encountered who he thought was an old man in rags coming out of one. He went to intercept him and ask him what he thought he was doing here when the man accosted him, yelling at him in the Court Tongue. Fortunately, working for a lord we’ve all picked some up and were able to understand him. He was yelling ‘Who robbed me? Who dared to accost my sanctuary?’ Well, Rhudiard was just standing there, shaking in his boots, but he managed to tell him it was Captain Rilka and the bard, Surm Ulrich. This seemed to anger the man further as he screamed ‘You dare mock my name!’ and then he slapped Rhudiard. Then he was stuck like this. Cilin here,” he indicates the man that’s pissed himself, “tried to come and separate the two but he got within yards of the old man and turn around and ran.”

Cilin, just shakes his head and says, “I…I didn’t know what else to do. I…just couldn’t face him. His eyes…those glowing eyes…”

“The man in rags just turned around and ran into the woods. The rest of us were trying to see if there was anything we could do for Rhudiard,” the sergeant says.

“What language did he speak?” Mõrvar asks.

The sergeant says that he spoke in High Acheran. It’s been the language of the royal courts since the days of the Acheran Empire.

Savaric dismounts and heads toward the group, ordering the soldiers to stay on alert. Once he gets to the group, he asks how long ago this happened and what direction the “old man” headed.

Mõrvar tells Savaric to track him—but do not engage. According to Lord Cannach’s soldiers, the man in rags headed almost due north. They came in from the northeast corner of the village. Mõrvar knows that High Acheran is the courtly language of the Southron nation of Achera, which used to have an empire that stretched almost all the way to Jossia. Savaric starts to track, taking his wolf Ghost with him. However, he advises Mõrvar that they will need the rest of their party. “I don’t have any magic arrows and I don’t think I can track this guy forever without being unnoticed. If he headed due north he won’t immediately danger anyone in the area. Giving us time to gather the group,” he says.

He finds a trail to follow and starts following it into the surrounding woods.

Mõrvar sends two of the soldiers, Garth and Halvor, back to Lord Cannach’s, to report to Surm that the Lich is back. They start riding back to Aldasar as fast as they can. He then has the other two soldiers, Einar and Sorcha, coordinate with Lord Cannach’s sergeant to set up a camp and form a defensive perimeter around the village. He then catches up with Savaric.

Mõrvar informs Savaric that he has the soldiers setting up a defensive perimeter because engaging with the Lich will just get them killed. “Also, this is a sensitive situation. Surm and I have recently learned this Lich is an Ulrich…..relations, I don’t know, but I must find out.” He, like Savaric, goes about trying to be stealthy in the woods.

Savaric says, “I understand you would want to look for answers on this matter, but we already killed him once. I don’t think he will be interested in a family reunion. Our best hope is that we can keep him away from any other villages until Surm figures out how to keep this guy down. As is, our only hope is to figure out where he is, where he is going, and take him down. Until then we are all in danger.”

“Don’t need to engage him unless I do. Twice I have faced him, twice I have bested him. Perhaps he will be more inclined to talk first this time. He isn’t a mindless undead, he’s intelligent,” Mõrvar says.

“This is a bad idea, we don’t even speak his language. He isn’t going to work with us, he is only going to be interested in killing us. Again, I don’t have magic arrows so this isn’t going to work in our favor. We need to retreat and regroup,” Savaric says.

“You have Edgefrost and we aren’t losing his trail,” Mõrvar says. “We can’t afford to lose him. Go back if you wish, but I’m not going to let him get away. I’m sure we will have to kill him again, but we are a week away from Surm and Rilka at the earliest. If we regroup, hell be better prepared. If I can learn anything from him before we kill him, it could help.”

Savaric then hears movement ahead of him, about a hundred feet from his current position.

Speaking in a hushed tone, Savaric says, “Quiet , Mõrvar, there is something up ahead.” He quietly draws Edgefrost as he asks Ilona to grant him invisibility. He also commands Ghost to hide.

Ilona giggles with delight and is happy to make Savaric invisible. Ghost hides in a nearby thicket. Mõrvar tries to hide.

Savaric then sees someone in black moving a hundred feet ahead, moving away from him. Mõrvar casts Message at Savaric and whispers “You sure there is something out here? I don’t hear or see anyone. I think I we need to hustle to catch up. We have a general direction. We are wasting our time and we are going to lose him.”

Savaric whispers back, “No, I see someone up head. We should silently track him. There is no way we can get the drop on him from this far back and he may hear us if you travel too close.”

The person in black has moved fifteen feet further away at this point.

Mõrvar Messages to Savaric, "Where is he? Should I keep moving or stay here? Is it him or someone just catching our attention?”

Savaric whispers, “No I don’t know, you should stay here while I try to catch up with them to make sure, just come closer to keep me in range of our link. Hopefully from back here they wont detect you.”

Savaric moves forward a bit faster, closing the gap between he and the man in black a bit. Mõrvar sneaks a bit closer in the direction he last saw Savaric and whispers his intention to do so to Savaric.

Savaric sees the form stop and turn around, facing in Mõrvar’s direction. Mõrvar now sees the form as well, about a hundred and five feet ahead of him. It turns and stares in his general direction—but not directly at his hiding place. It has baleful, glowing blue orbs for eyes and a deathly gaunt face. He is dressed in tattered black robes. He calls out something in a language neither of them understand—the only word they understand is “Ulrich”.

Mõrvar whispers to Savaric, “Stop and hold still…I see him.” He then uses the Message spell to speak to the figure first in Elven, then in Abyssal, then Leilioran, then Josslac, then Urkhani, and then Tradespeak in hopes of communicating with him. He asks him, “What is your full name?”

Then he whispers to Savaric, "Close in very carefully to just outside of his negative energy range which I think is 30 feet. Move to behind him so that if comes to attack me, you can come from the other side and be out of his spell direction. If he attacks me, attack him.”

When Mõrvar speaks in Elven, the figure responds—in High Elven. “I am called Ulrich of Barth, by those that dare utter my name.”

Mõrvar has never heard of Barth. He whispers to the figure once again, in Elven. "Why are you here? What are you looking for? What is your purpose? Answer me Ulrich of Barth, for I am not to be trifled with.”

The Lich responds, “You are insolent, mortal. I answer to no man. I am the stuff of nightmares, whelp.”

In the meantime, Savaric sneaks up behind Ulrich just outside of the thirty-foot range. As far as Savaric can tell, Ulrich has not heard him—he certainly hasn’t acknowledge his presence.

Mõrvar then casts Vanish and moves stealthily thirty feet to left of his current position. He Messages Savaric where he is and that they may be getting close to attacking him, but to stand by and wait for him to order the attack. He notices the Lich’s eyes flick over in that direction, but settle back where he had been.

He then Messages the Lich once again, in a calm and confident voice. "Ulrich of Barth, you know not who you even speak to. What exactly makes you think I am even mortal? You are an intelligent being; surely you know that even you can be destroyed, so why tempt fate? It is in your best interest to appease me and answer my questions. It isn’t wise to be hostile to an unknown entity whose abilities are beyond your comprehension. So, tell me, Why are you here? What are you looking for? What is your purpose?”

The Lich guffaws: “You use the simplest of spells to communicate with me and hide like a squirrel in the woods and expect me treat you with the respect of an equal?” He laughs. “An unknown entity whose abilities are beyond my comprehension? You are a fool with delusions of grandeur.”

Mõrvar then Messages again with a degree of cockiness: “It appears to me you were attempting to stealthily make your way through the woods I didn’t know that an all powerful immortal would need to be so careful. This squirrel has cracked your nut twice now. Your negative energy, walls of fire, fire elemental, Zombies and Ghouls have not come close to stopping me. Perhaps I made a mistake, I thought you were intelligent. It seems after facing me now on two different occasions you would have learned it is not you that should be feared. I don’t need more than simple spells to deal with you. My patience is growing short. I will give you one last chance before I turn your corpse into my nut to do with as I please. I only give you what little patience I have because you call yourself Ulrich, and I find that most interesting. I know that name very well, but not because of you. If you want to continue insulting me, then don’t say you haven’t been warned when you face my wrath yet again. So, for the last time, you can amuse me and answer my questions and satisfy my curiosity or you deal with me toe to toe. Remember, it isn’t me who attempts to hide like a coward behind a wall of fire. Now then, Why are you here? what are you looking for? what is your purpose?”

The Lich says. “By your words, I have puzzled you out. You must be one of the thieves and murderers who came to my sanctuary. Are you Captain Rilka or are you this Surm Ulrich I’ve heard about? Why would I reveal myself to criminals?”

Mõrvar whispers, “No thief came to your sanctuary, and I am neither of them yet in a way, I am both of them. Let us learn about each other.”

The Lich looks over at Mõrvar’s position, crying “No thief?!?!” He is clearly enraged.

Meanwhile, Ilona tells Savaric that he is about to become visible again. “Should I reapply the spell?” she asks.

The searing rays of fire come flying out of the Lich’s hand and hit Mõrvar’s position, striking him hard and true. Mõrvar casts Vanish and moves to the right.

Savaric attempts to overrun the Lich and knock him over. He manages to overrun him, but not knock him over. As he runs by, the Lich attempts to touch him, but misses. Mõrvar then casts Bull Strength on himself. The Lich then gestures toward Savaric and he and his gear morph and meld into a dire rat. He scurries away from the scene of the fight with the sound of Ilona in his mind saying, “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…”

Mõrvar casts True Strike and makes his way stealthily toward the Lich. The Lich is looking around and he says in High Elven, “Come out little squirrel!” He continues to look around.

Mõrvar attacks with Deathblow twice, dealing a great deal of damage. The powerful attack seems to shake the Lich up a bit. “I am no squirrel, I am Mõrvar Ulrich, twin son of Death!” he declares. Mõrvar hits him again for a great deal of damage and intimidates him again, keeping him in a shaken state. Then the Lich casts a spell defensively—five magic missiles spring forth and do minimal damage to Mõrvar. Mõrvar heroically goes next and attacks, yelling, “You will bow to me!” He attacks and hits the Lich again, continuing to keep it in a shaken state. The Lich casts defensively again. Beams of fire spring out from the Lich’s fingers and strike Mõrvar, doing a modicum of damage as Mõrvar manages to bypass some of the flames.

The Lich then attempts to touch Mõrvar and misses. Mõrvar then attempts attack him, misses, attacks again, and hits, felling him once again. He decapitates the Lich.

Savaric, still a dire rat, comes out of hiding. Mõrvar approaches Ghost and attempts to get Ghost to follow him, but is unsuccessful. Mõrvar shrugs and says, “Come on, Savaric.” He grabs the Lich’s corpse by the leg and starts dragging it out of the woods and into the village.

Mõrvar meets the perimeter guards, who are wide-eyed. He finds Lord Connach’s sergeant. He tells him, “Sergeant, I suggest you clean that place out while you have the chance because I don’t know how long this fucker’s going to stay dead.” He goes to his soldiers and says, “You guys, we’re here to secure the journal.” He throws the body up on Savaric’s horse.

“Yes, sir,” respond the soldiers and they mount up.

“Let’s get there, let’s get it cleaned out, and let’s get the fuck out of there before nightfall,” he tells the soldiers. They start heading toward the mine and the Lich’s sanctuary.

They go to the mining camp, then into the mines and then into the sanctuary. Mõrvar has the soldiers fire arrows across the entryways in case the traps have reset themselves—they have not. Mõrvar nudges Savaric-Rat and asks him to see if he can track the Lich and see if he rematerialized here in the lair and if he came from inside here. Savaric has a hard time tracking on the stone floor of the sanctuary—but they do find a lead-lined open panel along one wall in the pentagram room.

Mõrvar goes back to the mining camp and searches through ashes of the Lich’s previous body and finds nothing but ashes. Savaric searches as well and finds nothing.

Mõrvar, Savaric, and the soldiers head by to Leodin. He goes to the Sergeant and once again urges he and his men to head out, telling him that he will vouch for them if they head out. “I will not be here to save you if the Lich returns,” he says.

“You will vouch for us with Lord Cannach?” the sergeant asks.

“I will,” Mõrvar says.

The sergeant gives the order for the soldiers to mount up and move out. The load up the paralyzed man onto the back of a horse.

So Mõrvar and his soldiers and Lord Cannach’s soldiers all start heading back to Aldasar. Along the way, Mõrvar starts trying to peruse the notes in an attempt to decipher them. Despite all of his efforts, he cannot decode the notes.

Mõrvar also takes the Lich’s body and ties behind his horse and drags it behind them. He is carrying Savaric-Rat as he rides.

15 Transformation 508

Mõrvar and the sergeant’s troupe meet the group the Lord Cannach sent to collect the goods from the Lich’s sanctuary en route to Loudin. Mõrvar holds up the LIch’s head and announces that they need to turn back, that the village is not safe. The sergeant says, “Yes, it is not safe.” The gatherers turn their carts around and they start heading back to Lord Cannach’s.

17 Transformation 508

In the morning, Garth and Halvor come riding at breakneck speed up to the estate. Rilka and Alasir go out to meet them. “Master Mõrvar asked us to come meet with his brother,” Garth says. Surm comes and Halvor reports that “The Lich is back.”

“The Lich is back?” Rilka says, incredulous.

“The Lich is back. Apparently there was an attack on one of Lord Cannach’s soldiers,” Garth says.

“We were told to ride at top speed to report,” Halvor says.

Rilka realizes that Lich’s are the masters of life and death that have rejuvenative powers, but how those powers work, she is unsure.

“Where are Mõrvar and Savaric and the other two guards?” Surm asks.

Garth says, “They sent us to make report. Apparently the Lich went into the woods. Savaric went to follow-up.”

“Follow-up?” Surm asks.

“On where the Lich had gone,” Halvor says.

“Following the Lich?” Surm asks.

“I believe so?” Garth says. “We were sent to make report. We’re not sure what happened after that.”

Rilka begins cursing in several different languages.

“When we got to the village, Lord Cannach’s soldiers were surrounding one of their own. The soldier had been paralyzed by who they had assumed to be an old man rummaging through the village. But the old man was speaking what they called ‘The Court Tongue’ and struck the soldier and he was paralyzed,” Halvor says.

“Is he alive?” Surm asks.

“We’re not sure,” Garth says. “He’s frozen in place.”

Surm knows that the paralysis could be a spell or a spell-like effect and that the man may not necessarily be dead. It may not necessarily be permanent.

Rilka tells Surm to get ready to talk to Lord Cannach and Alasir and to get the soldiery ready.

Surm goes to find Lord Cannach. He finds the jovial nobleman who greats him heartily. “Surm! Good to see you!”

“Yes, Lord Connach,” Surm says.

“Have the men already returned with your journal?” Lord Cannach asks.

“No, some of the men came back early to make report,” Surm says. “It would seem that the Lich has reappeared. And it would seem that upon his reappearance back at the hamlet, he has already accosted one of your men. But I’m told that Mõrvar and Master Hunter Savaric are trailing it.”

Surm can tell that Lord Cannach is trying to keep his composure. Surm reassures the nobleman that they will be going into the city to do research to find a definitive way to keep the Lich down and that they will stay on-task until this issue is resolved. Two of their men are already on it, at great peril to themselves. They are seeking sagely advice on how to definitively destroy this creature, since apparently removing its head and burning its body is not definitive. They will not leave this task undone.

“We honor our contacts, sir,” Rilka says.

Lord Connach takes a deep breath, nods, places his hand on Surm’s shoulder and says, “What do you need from me?”

“Right now, all we need to do is research,” Surm says.

“We’re worried about our companions, we’re worried about your men,” Rilka says.

“As am I,” Lord Connach says.

“Anything that can come back from being decapitated and ashes, we need more information about,” Rilka says. “So if your resources can help us get this information quickly, that would be very helpful.”

“Well, this is outside my usual circles of influence,” the nobleman says.

“My initial thought was to return to the University. Master Clyne. He referred me to someone with the obelisk. Maybe he knows of someone in this area,” Surm says. “And we might purchase some of those magic items now on credit, before you’ve sold everything else, before everything is sold, as some of those things may be useful against the Lich.”

“Very well,” Lord Cannach says.

Surm has Garth and Halvor report to Mahgnus to get their pay. And then he and Rilka head into the city to go to the University to meet with Master Clyne. They pass through the forum, bypassing the monitors, who attempt to stop them, but Surm waves by them and they go straight to Clyne’s office. They knock on the door and hear a voice say “Enter!” They then go inside.

They see Master Clyne at a desk look up and blink at them owlishly, like he’s been reading for a long time, and he sees them and says, “Oh, Master Ulrich.”

“In all urgency, I need the foremost, most knowledgeable person on Liches in Aldasar today. Right now,” Surm says.

“Liches, you say?” Clyne says.

“Yes,” Surm says.

“Specifically, how to make them stay dead,” Rilka says.

“Yes, because apparently cutting off their head and burning the body doesn’t do it,” Surm says.

“Here on this campus, one of the Masters on the campus is also a priestess of Cereth. Her name is Fiona Olanan,” Clyne says.

“Can you get us there immediately?” Surm asks.

“I can walk you there,” Clyne says.

“How much do I owe you for your time,”

“Well, this appears to be an emergency,” Master Clyne says.

“It is, but this is twice that I’ve come to you and you’ve sent me to other sages. I assume you have some sort of finder’s fee or something,” Surm says.

“A full fee would not be applicable for such a service, but if you wanted to pay me a gold, I would be satisfied,” the sage says.

Surm pays him the fee.

“I thank you,” Clyne says and leads them to another building on the campus.

He takes them to a small building and knocks on the door. A female voice calls, “Enter!” Clyne pokes his head in and says, “Mother, do you have a moment?” The others get the impression that ‘Mother’ is her religious title. She is probably a Prioress, meaning that if she were not also a sage, she would probably run her own church. She says, “Yes, come in.”

Master Clyne opens the door and says, “These guests have an emergency that I thought you might be able to help with.”

“By all means, come in,” Mother Olanan says. Master Clyne excuses himself and Surm and Rilka thank him as he makes his way out.

Mother Olanan is a thin woman of middle years. Her hair is pulled back in a severe bun. She is wearing white robes, trimmed in gray.

“What can I do for you?” she asks.

Surm tells the story of Leodin, of how they found the Lich and how they thought they destroyed but it has apparently returned and how they are now looking for a way to definitively destroy the foul creature.

Mother Olanan leans forward on her desk and says, “A Lich is a foul creature indeed. They have done foul deeds to achieve their form of immortality. For each Lich these acts of depravity are different. And these acts have probably driven them insane. But for all of them, on act is always the same. It has probably created a phylactery that houses its soul. And when its body is destroyed, it recreates it. The only way to truly destroy him is to find its phylactery and destroy it.”

“What would it look like?” Surm asks. “Would it radiate magic?”

“It would,” Mother Olanan says.

Surm and Rilka discuss the various items they found and whether they radiated magic or not to see if anything they found could be such an item.

“How long does it usually take?” Rilka asks.

“Anywhere from one to ten days,” the priestess says.

“What would it look like?” Surm asks again.

“It could take many forms,” Mother Olanan says, “It could be a small box, a gem, a ring.”

“Where would the body recreate itself?” Surm asks.

“Near the phylactery,” Mother Olanan says.

“Then we must not have found it,” Surm says, “Because if he recreated himself near the hamlet, then its somewhere around there.”

“He’d want to keep an eye on that,” Rilka says.

“I’d assume so,” Surm says. “But I don’t know. Is it something he’d want to keep near?”

“It’s something he’d want to keep safe,” the priestess says.

“But’s not something he’d necessarily have to keep near,” Surm says. “So whenever he died, he’d be recreated wherever it is.”

“Can it be destroyed in the traditional way? Does anything special have to be done? If it’s a gem, can we take a hammer and crush it?” Surm asks.

“I don’t believe so. It’s simply a magical container. It has scripts of paper inside,” Mother Olanan says.

“So how can it be a gemstone?” Surm asks.

“It’s part of the ritual that creates it,” the priestess says.

“It will radiate magic just like anything else radiates magic?” Rilka asks.

“I believe so,” Mother Olanan says.

“Will it radiate evil?” Rilka asks.

“I believe so,” Mother Olanan says.

“I might be able to find it that way,” Rilka says.

“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Surm asks.

“Avoid its touch,” Mother Olanan says.

“What was reported to us from some of the guards was that another guard was paralyzed,” Surm says.

“That’s from its touch,” the priestess says.

“Is that temporary? Is he dead? How can we help him?” Surm asks.

“He is likely alive,” Mother Olanan says.

“Will the paralysis wear off?” Surm asks.

“It will not wear off, but it can be removed through magic,” Mother Olanan says.

“Do you know someone who can remove it?” Surm asks.

“I could such a thing given time to prepare,” she says.

“It will take three days to get there and three days to bring him back here,” Surm says.

“That would be time enough,” Mother Olanan says.

“Well, if you could prepare, that would be greatly appreciated. And I’m sure Lord Cannach would greatly appreciate it as well, as it is one of his men. So what do we owe you for your time thus far?” Surm asks.

“What you are doing is a service, but I, too have to provide services. My time is worth 3 gold,” the priestess says.

Surm pays her and thanks her.

“If the Lich has already reformed a body and we destroy the phylactery, does that still kill him?” Surm asks.

“No,” the priestess says.

“His soul will just go back to his body,” Surm says. “Will he know his phylactery has been destroyed?”

“He may,” Mother Olanan says.

“So he’ll just make another,” Surm says.

“He may, but the steps involved will be very difficult and costly for him,” Mother Olanan says.

“But he would be eager to do that, wouldn’t he?” Surm asks.

“He would be eager,” the priestess agrees.

“So destroying it is not enough; we have to make sure that he’s dead and then destroy it,” Surm says.

“They are difficult,” the priestess says.

“So I’m learning,” Surm says.

“So this man of Lord Cannach’s,” Mother Olanan says, “he’s being returned?”

“I’ll have to go get him,” Surm says.

“Come for me here and I will be ready,” the priestess says.

Rilka and Surm make their exit and head back to Lord Cannach’s estate. They report to the nobleman what they learned from the sage/priestess. They also tell him that she has agreed to dispel whatever foul enchantment has befallen his man. They will leave in the morning for Leodin.

Surm and Rilka exchange some magic items and Surm takes the rod of wonder into the city and sells it. Then they come back and purchase from the magic items collected on the quest. They are able to pay in cash instead of on credit.

18 Transformation 508

As preparations are being made for Rilka and Surm and the soldiers to head to Leodin, a great mass of riders approach Lord Cannach’s estate. It is the workers Lord Cannach sent, his soldiers lead by the sergeant, the remainder of the party’s soldiery, and Mõrvar, dragging something behind his horse and carrying a dire rat and a severed head.

Lord Cannach, Surm, Rilka, and Alasir go out to meet them. Rilka hugs Mõrvar and then punches him. “He came back. And so they know that we killed him, I drug his ass back,” Mõrvar says proudly.

“Where’s Savaric?” Rilka asks.

Mõrvar looks at the dire rat. “Savaric and all his items was turned into the rat. He knows who he is. He’s just a rat. No sooner than Savaric entered the battle, it happened.”

Rilka starts cursing.

Mõrvar turns to Lord Cannach. “I hope you don’t hold your men accountable for not following your orders, but I don’t think they would have survived if they had. I ordered them to come back with me. I do not think they would have been safe. in fact, one of your men has been paralyzed.”

“We have someone coming for that,” Rilka says.

“I hope Mother Olana is ready today,” Surm says.

Lord Cannach says, “I thank you for keeping the safety of my men in mind.”

“I think that was the point of our job to begin with. Protect your assets,” Mõrvar says.

Mõrvar reveals that he believes the spell cast on Savaric was Baleful Polymorph. Surm believes that it’s going to require a Break Enchantment to remove the spell.

Mõrvar tells Lord Cannach that he wanted to bring proof that he brought the bastard down. Surm says that their research has revealed that destroying the body isn’t going to work, that they’re going to have to destroy something called his phylactery that’s housing his soul and reconstituting his body.

Lord Cannach says that as far as bringing back the body, “The word of your troupe is still golden with me.”

Plans are made to burn the drug body of the Lich.

The party’s first plan of action is to fetch Mother Olanan and bring her to Lord Cannach’s estate. Perhaps she knows of someone that can cast Break Enchantment. Surm is going to need to cancel, or at least postpone, the job he arranged with Toliver Yew.

Surm takes Alasir and two guards with him to see the Ornish salesman. Rilka goes to fetch Mother Olanan.

Meanwhile Mõrvar stays behind at the Lord’s estate. He arranges to get cleaned up and get his clothes cleaned. The Lord’s staff end up putting the Savaric-Rat in one of the Lord’s kennels, as it is a disease-ridden creature. Mõrvar lets them.

Rilka heads to the University and ignores the monitors in the forum. She goes straight to the Mother’s cottage and knocks on the door. A voice calls “Enter!” and she opens the door slowly and sticks her head in.

“Mother,” Rilka says.

“Yes,” the priestess says.

“Our friends have returned and they have brought the gentleman that was paralyzed,” Rilka says.

“So soon?” Mother Olanan says.

“Yes, they ran into trouble, and our friends almost immediately came back so they weren’t that far behind. They are at Lord Cannach’s estate. We were hoping you could come and examine him,” Rilka says.

“Yes, of course,” the Mother says.

“Our other companion was turned into a dire rat,” Rilka says. “Some sort of Baleful Polymorph spell. Do you know of someone we can hire to come and change our friend out of this horrible shape?”

“So he was transmuted?” Mother Olanan says.

“Yes,” Rilka says.

“I may know someone who can help,” the priestess says.

“Well, we’re hoping to get our friend transformed back before taking care of this Lich and his phylactery once and for all,” Rilka says, “So time is very much of the essence.”

“I see,” Mother Olanan says. “There is a wizard by the name Ianes Redstaff.”

“Is he here at the University?” Rilka asks.

“No, he’s in the University district, but he’s not part of the University,” the priestess says.

“Well, I need to see him. May I escort you back. And perhaps we can stop at Master Redstaff’s along the way?” Rilka asks.

“Very well,” Mother Olanan says. She collects a satchel and settles it across her shoulders and walks with Rilka to her horse and two set off. Along the way, Mother Olanan says, “That is a Northron symbol, is it not?”

“Yes, I am a cleric of Bruni,” Rilka says.

“Courage, is it not?”

“That is one of his domains. Protection as well.”

“Um. A worthy domain.”

“I believe so.”

“That, too, is something Cereth would share.”

The two discuss theology a bit while they ride through the streets until they come to a ramshackle house with a sign out front that reads, in Tradespeak, “Ianes Redstaff, Wizard”.

“Do you know Master Redstaff?” Rilka asks.

“We are…acquaintances,” the priestess says.

Rilka knocks on the door. After a moment, the door opens and a man with long frizzy hair and a frizzy mustache and goggles stands there and says, “Yes, yes, yes!” in a slightly irritated voice.

“Master Redstaff?” Rilka asks.

“Yes,” the man says.

“I am Captain Rilka Lazarsdottir. I was hoping to find you. Mother Olanan said that you might be the wizard I’m looking for,” Rilka says. “One of our companions has fallen under a baleful transformation spell. He has been turned into a dire rat. That needs to be remedied as soon as possible. We’re actually going back there now. I’m bringing the Mother. We’re going back to Lord Cannach’s estate.”

“Lord Cannach?” Redstaff says.

“Yes, he’s the man who hired us. We’re taking care of a bit of a Lich problem,” Rilka says.

“Lord Cannach? Well. Huh.”

“Will you at least come back and examine our friend and see if there is anything you can do to help him?” Rilka asks. “He should not be a dire rat. I understand that we need someone that can cast Break Enchantment at a fairly high level. Would that be something that you might be able to do?”

He strokes his mustache. “I will help.” He goes back inside for a moment.

The Mother stands there and shakes her head. “Your mention of the lord probably did it.”

“Good. I don’t care why he comes. I need my friend not to be a dire rat,” Rilka says.

“Master Redstaff is a bit, mercenary, in his practices,” Mother Olanan says.

“Ah, so not so much on helping those in need,” Rilka says.

After a moment, the door opens and he’s got a battered wizard’s hat on his head, red battered robes, and he’s still wearing his goggles. He shuts and locks his door, drops his key in his pocket, and says. “Let’s go.” So the three of them head to Lord Cannach’s estate.

Meanwhile, Surm heads to the marketplace with the soldiers in tow. He heads to Master Yew’s tent and approaches the merchant. “Master Yew, sad news. Circumstances have arisen out our control and the last job we did was not as complete as we thought. Apparently Liches return quite frequently. However, we are going to complete the task we were hired to do for Lord Cannach, but it may interfere with your timeframe on leaving. I don’t know how set in stone your timeframe on leaving is and I cannot say on guarantee how long this will take. I am hoping we can get back by the 28th. If things go smoothly, I am hoping that we can put a final end to this creature. Because of the embarrassment this causes us and the inconvenience this causes you, then I will knock 20 silver off per day. You will still be escorted out of the city and into Kalimsport by Captain Rilka and Company. If you cannot wait, I understand. My apologies.”

Yew seems to mull this over, and then says, “Done!”

“We fully intend to find you here the 28th. If we are not back the 28th, apologies, but I will come and see if you did stay and we will honor our deal. If not, perhaps we will look you up in Kalimsport and we will regale you with tales and have a time of camaraderie. Good day, sir.”

The two groups arrive back at Lord Cannach’s estate at roughly the same time. Mõrvar has gotten cleaned up and is presentable. Lord Cannach comes out to meet his new guests.

Rilka takes Surm aside and warns him that Redstaff has been referred to as “mercenary.” She doesn’t know what he’s going to charge for his services.

Surm observes the wizard looking around, and gets the impression that he is mentally putting a price tag on everything that he sees.

Rilka channels energy to cure Mõrvar and Surm casts Cure Light Wounds on him.

The Mother says to Rilka, “Show me to the stricken man.”

Rilka goes with her to the parlor.

Redstaff claps his hands together and says, “Yeah! Show me the rat!” Surm gives him a cold look.

Surm takes Rilka aside and wants her to make it clear to Lord Cannach and Mother Olanan how much concern they have for his man. And then he says, “I go with, Redstick was it?”

“Staff. Redstaff,” the wizard says, clearly agitated.

Rilka, Lord Cannach, and Mother Olanan go into the parlor where the soldier is standing, frozen in time. The priestess goes forward and starts examining him. She steps back and says, “He’s alive.”

“Thank the gods,” Rilka says.

Lord Cannach sighs with relief.

Mother Olanan asks the two of them to stand back. She then casts a spell and suddenly the man starts moving again. He cries out, and says, “It was terrible!”

“Very glad you’re safe,” Rilka says.

“Come, Mother, let me speak with you a moment,” Lord Cannach says. And the two step aside to speak.

Rilka helps the soldier sit down and asks if she can perform a healing on him. He says she may. So she channels energy and heals him. He feels better. She sits and chats with the soldier as Lord Connach and the Mother speak privately. Rilka gets the soldier a drink of water, which he takes almost greedily.

Meanwhile, at the kennel, Surm asks Mõrvar why Savaric is in the kennel. Mõrvar says it was funny and that the nobleman’s staff insisted. Surm turns to the wizard and asks if he has a first name and that his name is Surm Ulrich. He says his name is Ianes. “So Ianes Redstuff, what do you think?”

Mõrvar lets Savaric out of the kennel.

The wizard gives Surm a side-eye, but says, “Well, he’s definitely a rat.”

“Yeah, of the dire nature. Formerly a half-orc. So can we fix that?” Surm asks, slightly perturbed.

“That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?” Mõrvar says.

“Yeah, I can do that,” Redstaff says.

“Well, let’s do it,” Surm says.

“Well…” Redstaff says, clapping his hands together and scrunching up his face, “…my services don’t come free. So there’s a bit of business talk we have get cleared up first.”

“Let’s talk,” Surm says.

“Let’s talk,” Redstaff says. “Now Baleful Polymorph is how this occurred, at least, that’s how it was described to me, by your other half-breed woman.” Mõrvar gives him a dirty look at that description. The wizard continues. “This was done by a pretty powerful spellcaster.”

“This was done by a Lich,” Surm says.

“A Lich?” Redstaff says.

“Yeah,” Surm and Mõrvar say.

Redstaff says, “So we’re talking, this is probably going to cost about 805 gold.”

Surm says, “I was watching you as we were walking through the estate and on the estate so I know that you’re recognizing where you are and who you’re assisting right now, so, how about we cut that price down to 400 gold and we get you a better introduction to Lord Cannach than ‘hello, goodbye’ and maybe, if you’re successful and impressive, will get you on the lord’s shortlist for his magical needs. That’s half your asking price but maybe a very influential patron.”

Redstaff says, “Six hundred and your fancy introduction.”

“Alright, but that’s the final price and you do till its done,” Surm says. “If this enchantment survives your breaking, you’ll keep trying until it doesn’t, at no extra charge.”

“And I’ll stay with you till it’s done,” Mõrvar says.

“Alright, clear out of the way,” Redstaff says, and he rubs his hands together.

He stands before Savaric-Rat and makes some gestures and says some mystical words and suddenly Savaric stands before them. In his mind, Savaric hears Ilona says, “Oh thank goodness.”

Surm summons Mahgnus and he fetches 60 platinum for Redstaff. Surm pats Savaric on the back and says, “I’m glad you’re back.”

Surm escorts Redstaff to the parlor and Savaric and Mõrvar follow. In parlor, Rilka is chatting the soldier, Rhudiard. Surm goes up to him and says, “Welcome back, soldier.” Rhudiard says, “Thank you.” When he sees Mõrvar he says, “Thank you, sir, for bringing me back.”

Rilka says, “Rhudiard was conscious the entire time.”

Mõrvar puts his hand out and says, “You’re welcome.” Rhudiard takes it.

Surm introduces the wizard to Lord Cannach. “Savaric has returned to us courtesy of Master Ianes Redstuff. Lord Cannach, Wizard Extraordinaire.” Redstaff bows with a flourish and doffs his hat.

Lord Cannach says, “Thank you, Sir Wizard, for your services.”

Redstaff says, “All in a day’s work, Lord Cannach. If ever you need the services of a mystical nature, you may call upon me in the University District. My card.” And he produces a card with a flourish of his sleeve, which Lord Cannach takes.

Mother Olanan shakes her head with disapproval.

Mother Olanan says, “Well, if that is all I have work to get back to at the University.”

“Would you like me to escort you back?” Rilka asks.

“If you would,” the priestess says.

The wizard says, “I understand you have a Lich problem.” His pronouncement is met with an awkward silence.

Lord Cannach says, “Had. Had a Lich problem.”

Mõrvar grins.

The wizards says, “Well, as I said, if you ever have a problem of a mystical nature, fell free to call upon me.” He turns to Rilka. “May I get an escort back to the city?”

Rilka nods.

Before leaving, and out of sight of Lord Cannach, Rilka welcomes Savaric back and then punches him. Then she leaves with the priestess and the wizard.

Surm excuses himself and he and Mõrvar head to their tent at the encampment on the lord’s property. Surm kicks everyone out of the tent so that it is just he and his brother inside. He asks Mõrvar for the journal. Mõrvar hands him the journal and then Surm slaps him with the journal. “What the fuck are you going after the Lich for? Damn!” he cries. “Did it occur to you that you may die? Did it occur to you that you may get Savaric killed or turned into a rat?”

“This Lich is going to find out that not even he can escape death,” Mõrvar says.

“That was extremely stupid,” Surm says. “And unnecessary.”

“We stopped him,” Mõrvar says.

“You came back looking like shit,” Surm says. “Which tells me you got close to getting killed.”

“But I didn’t,” Mõrvar says.

“But if you had, what would have come of Savaric? He would be a rat in the woods, we’d have no way of knowing,” Surm says.

“He’s resourceful, I’m sure he could have figured it out,” Mõrvar says.

“Yes, I’m sure he could have survived as a rat in the woods,” Surm says.

“I’m sure he could have figured out a way to communicate,” Mõrvar says.

“If he could get to us,” Surm says. “I’m sure he scurry back into the hamlet without the soldiers cutting him down. ‘Oh a dire rat! He’s full of disease!’ You think he’s going to be able to sit there and wait on us to come back?”

“We cannot control everything,” Mõrvar says.

“You can control what you do!” Surm says.

“Yes, and I killed him,” Mõrvar says.

“Or you could have just done what you were there to do and come back and said the Lich is back and as a group we could have gone to get him,” Surm says.

“We wouldn’t have necessarily known where he was,” Mõrvar says. “We tracked him.”

“Which you shouldn’t have done,” Surm says.

“Savaric attacked him, he attacked Savaric, I attacked him,” Mõrvar says.

“Which would have never happened if you hadn’t have chased him down,” Surm says.

“We wouldn’t have known where he went,” Mõrvar says. “It would’ve have been another week before we’d have gotten back. How much more prepared would he have been for us? How many ghouls?”

Surm sits down with the journal and tries to decipher the notes. He tosses the folios at Mõrvar for him to look at.

Later, Surm speaks with Lord Cannach and purchases the Headband of Vast Intelligence on credit. He also tells him that if he wants to send workers to the Lich’s lair to withdraw the goods, that their troupe will escort them their in the morning.

Savaric goes into the city and buys some magical arrows. Rilka returns from escorting the wizard and priestess.

Both Surm and Mõrvar contemplate how long a wizard can retain his spells without a book. Apparently, he can retain it until he casts it. They check to see if Lord Cannach has already sold the spellbook and it turns out that he has.

19 Transformation 508

The troupe, some of Lord Cannach’s soldiers, and a group of workers head out from the estate toward Leodin in the morning. Along the way, Surm works on translating the folio and the notes.

Mõrvar warns Alasir that the Lich cannot be affected by any of the soldiers that do not have magical weapons—which is the majority of them. And he also warns them not to get touched by the Lich. Alasir nods, taking the warning seriously.

Mõrvar greets the sergeant of Lord Cannach’s men and the sergeant says that he hopes they don’t run into the same trouble as last time. Mõrvar chooses to ride point. Rilka keeps her eyes peeled and makes the rounds through the entourage. Ghost trots on the outskirts of the entourage. Surm casts Magic Missile into the Ring of Counterspells.

25 Transformation 508

The entourage arrives in the hamlet of Leodin.

Over the course of the journey, Surm has manage to translate much of the notes and the folios. The “journal” is primarily notes on anatomy, how organs react to various stimuli. It appears that he was into vivisection. The sidebars are various rants about how the voices won’t be quiet, how he’s going to get revenge on so-and-so, “they’ll see—they’ll all see!”, etc.

The folio is a bit scattershot with more rantings and ravings. various diatribes about people that slighted him in some fashion, pontifications about his impending godhood and his conquering of the North and then his sweep of south and his march on Asdari. Once he gets used to the style, Surm can make sense of the folio. There are two main sections. One is plans for the building of the sanctuary. The second is the means of a ritual—known as the Ritual of Becoming or the Ceremony of Endless Night.

In Mõrvar’s opinion, this Ulrich is the one that has caused their “taint”, he is the reason for the life that they have had, he is the reason their family outcast them, he is the reason they were forsaken by Aeth.

The ritual has three main parts: Part the First is the body, Part the Second is the soul, and Part the Third is the phylactery. Then one performs the Ceremony of Endless Night.

Surm looks for details on the phylactery. It is a sealed metal box containing strips of parchment. There is a drawing of the box. Surm shares the details of the phylactery, but nothing else of the papers.

The first part of the ritual involved summoning a heresy devil. According to his notes, the price the devil imposed upon him was sacrifice of one his sons—which he paid. His son was named Ulfric. The sacrifice was to summon a warmonger devil to unleash on a temple to Azumazran. The process he went through to prepare his soul for transference into the phylactery was journeying to a magical pool, desecrating it, drinking from it, and letting the now-corrupted waters flood his soul. According to his notes, the nightmares began after that…

Surm seems to recall their Uncle Thormax mentioning an Ulfric when talking family history

The second part of the ritual was preparing his body for transformation. He had spend a lot of money on exotic herbs and such for the elixir. Then he had to prepare the herbs of unlife which are grown in the corpse of a person of noble birth slain by his own hand seeded by his own blood under the light of the full moon. Then he had to make the water of unlife by soaking the corpse of a good-aligned person, once again murdered by his own hand, in unholy water, for seven days and adding this water to the elixir. Finally he had to make a torch of souls by binding the soul of a good-aligned person to a black sapphire worth a 1000 gold pieces and this gemstone would be used to heat the elixir during the main ceremony.

Then the phylactery is made.

During the main ceremony, which must be performed on desecrated ground, the phylactery must be placed on an altar. Then the soul must be prepared for its journey by whatever method suggested by the heresy devil. Then the elixir of life is prepared and heated by the torch of souls and drank.

This is only the beginning.

While the body is being wracked with the pains of its impending death—and hopefully, undeath—the potential Lich must complete the ritual that will place his soul within the phylactery. If he fails, then all his preparations are for naught.

Both Surm and Mõrvar are disgusted by the lengths the Lich went to in order to achieve its ends and do not share this with the rest of the group.

At Leodin, the group head for the central market hall and search it out for any signs of disturbance. They also fan out and search out the village. It does appear that some of the homes have been ransacked. The storehouse seems to be fine. Surm checks the food stores for any signs of discoloration, but doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. He calls over the sergeant and tells him that it is suspicious that the houses were broken into but the food was not, so as a safety measure, it would probably be best if no one ate the food. The sergeant says, “Very well,” and passes the word along to the rest of the entourage.

Rilka isn’t really seeing a pattern in the ransacking of the homes—she’s not seeing a lot of stuff missing, just a lot of things pawed through.

They decide to head into the forest. They order Alasir to have the soldiers set up a perimeter at the village and then the four of them start tracking into the forest. Savaric follows the trail left by he and Mõrvar over a week before. Surm casts Detect Magic along the way in hopes of finding the phylactery, thinking that perhaps the Lich has hidden the device in the forest.

Savaric manages to find his way to site of the previous battle. There are burn marks on the trees and signs of battle. Surm detects no magic in the area. Savaric tries to find another trail leading to the northeast. Savaric follows the trail for about a quarter mile and comes to a spring. In the spring are some flat stones. One has been overturned. Surm still detects no magic. Where the stone was, there is a square indention that is now filling up with water.

The party theorizes that after he was killed, the Lich materialized with his phylactery in the sanctuary, took it with him when he left, hid it in the forest in the spring, returned to Leodin, harassed the soldiers, and was heading back to collect it when Mõrvar and Savaric came upon him and Mõrvar killed him a second time. Savaric looks around for another trail and finds two—one heading back toward the hamlet of Leodin, another toward Aldasar. The trail to the hamlet is about a week old. The trail to Aldasar is about two days old. Now they believe that the Lich as rematerialized again and gone back to Leodin first, ransacked the homes, and then headed to Aldasar—and he has a head-start on them.

Mõrvar wants to ride hard for Aldasar and find the Lich. The party discusses what to do next—leave the soldiery and pursue the Lich? Split up and track him while looking for the phylactery? They finally settle on riding as fast as they can back to Lord Cannach’s in anticipation of the Lich attacking the nobleman’s estate. They explain the situation to Alasir and have their soldiers sit tight in Leodin. “May Bruni bless you and the entire group,” Rilka says.

“I will not disappoint,” Alasir says.

Surm goes to Mahgnus and says, “If we’re all dead when you get back to Aldasar, I guess split up the group funds amongst the men and yourself.”

“Oh, don’t talk like that, sir,” Mahgnus says.

And the four of them take off back to Aldasar.

28 Transformation 508

The party arrives at Lord Cannach’s estate late in the afternoon. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Lord Cannach comes out and looks concerned.

“What news?” he asks.

“Well, based on the Lich’s trail, we were afraid he was coming back this way,” Surm says. “So we got back here as fast as we could. We left our men with yours, cleaning out the mine.”

“We’re glad to see you’re safe,” Rilka says.

“We were afraid, that based on encountering your men earlier, and their liveries, that the Lich may come to Aldasar,” Surm says.

“That’s troubling,” Lord Cannach says, “though we’ve had no trouble thus far. With sending some of my soldiers to Leodin, I do have a reduced contingent here.”

“Well, unless your soldiers are magically armed, they won’t be much help. They need magical weapons to strike this creature,” Surm says.

Mõrvar says, “He may be out there right now, watching.”

“Let’s start making a plan, then. Our only hope is that he comes here, otherwise we have no trail,” Surm says, “And we just left the only one we had.”

The party and Lord Cannach then gather and start making plans. First of all, they have the peasants working his lands gathered up and moved to the manor house. Lord Cannach says that he has seven soldiers at his disposal, but they do not have magical weapons. They may be able to be used as eyes on the ground. Surm believes, based on his writings, that he will definitely come after them. What they’ve done to him will be considered a personal affront. This leads to the idea of trying to bait him into coming, using themselves as bait. Finally, they decide to camp outside the barn on Lord Cannach’s property, with Savaric and Mõrvar hiding in the darkness, ready to ambush. Rilka and Surm will be laughing and having a good time at the Lich’s expense, trying to lure him in. One of the soldiers will be dressed in Mõrvar’s clothes, sitting around the fire, ready to run when the attack comes. Rhudiard volunteers for this duty. Surm also has his crossbow ready with a tanglebolt loaded and ready to fly.

Everyone gets into position and the waiting begins. Finally, later that night, they all hear a voice call out speaking in High Elven, say “Hello squirrel.” Savaric can tell that the voice came from about 100 feet away. He casts Gravity Bow. Mõrvar hears the voice about 60’ away. He casts Vanish and moves 10 feet back and five feet to the right. Surm casts Dancing Lights around where Mõrvar was. Rilka casts Bless.

Rilka starts heading in the direction of the voice. Mõrvar casts Bull Strength on himself and sneaks toward the voice, still invisible from the Vanish. Surm readies his crossbow and tells Rhudiard to head for the house. The voice calls out again in the same language, saying “Captain Rilka, Surm Ulrich, come face me!” Savaric has Ilona make him invisible and he stealthily moves closer to the voice. Rhudiard heads double-time toward the house.

Mõrvar waits for Rilka to pass him so that he can see in the light of her falchion to attack. Surm holds his attack as well, as he doesn’t have a target. Rilka holds her move and attack and calls out, “So you’re looking for Captain Rilka, are you?” The figure steps forward into the range of Savaric’s and Rilka’s darkvision. The sight of the Lich causes Savaric to be shaken. He says to Rilka, “Which one are you?” And Rilka says, “Does anyone understand this guy? All he says is ‘blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…’” Surm discerns the direction that the voice is coming from and moves his dancing lights there. As soon as he’s in the light, Surm fires his crossbow and hits the LIch with a tanglebolt. Rilka moves forward. Mõrvar moves forward stealthily and attacks. “Hello, nut!” he cries as he attacks. Rhudiard exits stage left. Savaric fires two arrows at once and then fires again and again. The arrows bounce harmlessly off the Lich.

Rilka attacks the Lich twice with her Falchion and hits both times. The Lich then channels negative energy, but Rilka and Mõrvar manage to resist some of the damage. Savaric tries to command Ghost to attack and commands his bow to activate its flame power. Ghost, however, is uncooperative. Mõrvar attacks again, twice, and hits twice. Rilka notices that Mõrvar’s attacks are not as effective as they should be. Surm drops his crossbow and pulls out his Wand of Magic Missiles and casts it at the Lich. The Lich is hit with five Magic Missiles.

Rilka hits the Lich with her Falchion twice. The Lich attempts to cast a spell through the entanglement of the tanglebolt and manages it. Then he tries to cast defensively. And the Lich disappears.

Mõrvar casts Light on his greatsword. Rilka stabs the air around her to see if he just went invisible. Rilka uses her armor to fly around and look around and try and see him. She doesn’t see him. The others discuss the fact that undead can be more vulnerable to different types of weapons, slashing vs. bludgeoning or what-have-you. The Lich doesn’t seem to be bothered by piercing and Mõrvar’s slashing weapon didn’t seem to be as effective. The party then settles in to debate their next move.

5 Transformation 508

It is late afternoon, on to evening, and the party has sent half the soldiery back to Aldasar with the surviving villagers to report back to Lord Cannach. The party spends this night resting with their porters and set watches.

Mõrvar brings up the possibility of allying themselves with the Lich, siccing him on villages, and then going and “saving them” from him. The rest of the party shoots him down.

The night passes without incident.

6 Transformation 508

The party prepares their spells for the day, packs up camp, and checks the market hall to see if the Lich has re-materialized—he has not. They then make the five-mile trek to the mines.

Savaric lets Burask borrow an iron masterwork battle axe. Kortash receives a greataxe from Rilka.

They find themselves in a small mining camp near a tunnel in the side of a mountain. Savaric begins searching out the camp for a map, signs of a survivors, signs of a Lich, or anything of interest. He finds a waterproof scroll case with a map inside. It shows hand-drawn diagrams of tunnels. He also finds recent tracks leading into the tunnel from the camp. They’re unusual because there are tracks leading into the tunnel, but there are no tracks leading into the camp. This gets the party to wondering why the Lich would have teleported into the mining camp instead of into the mines or the ruins.

The map does show the point where the ruins were found. They decide to follow the tracks to make sure that they go to the ruins and not some other destination or an ambush. Savaric and his wolf, Ghost, begin to follow the tracks with Rilka and Mõrvar following behind. Surm and Alasir will follow, followed by the porters and then Sorcha and Tarben. Two of the soldiers, Einar and Garth, are assigned to guard the horses.

Ghost picks up a trail—a foul, rotting, stench—and Savaric follows. The rest of the party follows them. Between Rilka’s glowing sword, Mõrvar’s casting of light, and Surm’s casting of dancing lights, the party is able to see. The trail seems to be corresponding to the path to the ruins. They come to the place where the map marks the entrance to the ruins and there is a fissure in the wall. It looks as if they were mining and their work opened up an entryway into a structure.

There is a soft, eldritch green glow coming out of a room. Savaric looks for traps in the entryway and finds none. As he gets closer, he can see that the room is octagonal in shape. The baseboards of the room are made of skulls and they are glowing in this pale green light. There are three arched doorways in the room, one to the left, one to the right, and one straight ahead. The walls are smooth stone, but painted black.

Savaric enters the room, searches it, and the archways, and peers down the archways. He finds no traps. The east and west archways open up into corridors that lead to archways at their end. The archway to the north opens up into an oddly-shaped throne room. It, too, is lit by the skull-baseboards. Sitting on the throne, with his hand on his fist, looking unperturbed at Savaric, is the Lich.

Savaric turns around and runs back into the room, screaming, “I found the Lich!” Rilka goes in. Mõrvar casts bull strength on himself and heads in. Surm heads in, casting mage armor on his brother. Suddenly, the doorway to the throne room is filled with a shimmering violet curtain of fire. Savaric is slightly burned by the heat of the fire. Rilka and Surm identify it as a Wall of Fire spell.

Savaric moves out of the heat of the fire. The party then gathers and tries to make a different plan of action. Mõrvar flattens himself against the wall of mine out of line of sight from the throne room. Then they think of shooting arrows, imbued with Arcane Strike blindly through the Wall of Fire. Another consideration is throwing flaming lamp oil in the room to distraction him from his concentration on the spell. Yet another consideration is abandoning the Lich in his throne room and exploring the other corridors. They also consider pelting the fire with cold damage to put a section of it out. Surm has his frost spells and there is also the cold damage from Edgefrost. This is the plan they decide on. Savaric will “attack” the fire with Edgefrost while Rilka and Mõrvar stand ready to run through the gap. Surm will be ready to cast his spell on the fire. Savaric will send Ghost in to trip the Lich.

Surm uses the wand and casts mage armor on his party members. Everyone readies themselves for the assault. Mõrvar casts Bull Strength again. Savaric moves toward the wall, taking damage from the heat, and shoves Edgefrost into the wall. Surm begins casting his Snowball spells. The wall comes down in the section in the entryway.

Ghost goes in. As soon as Ghost crosses the threshold, the party hears a gong. Suddenly appearing in the room before the throne room is a huge fire elemental. It nearly encompasses nearly the whole room.

Ghost attempts to trip the Lich, but fails. Savaric attacks the fire elemental, but misses. Mõrvar makes his way to the Lich’s throne room. The elemental swings at him as he goes by—and hits him hard, but he manages not to catch on fire. Rilka moves in and to the left, flanking the elemental with Savaric. Surm casts Snowball against the elemental and hits him with it. The fire elemental attacks Savaric and hits him, but Savaric does not catch on fire. With his second attack, he scrapes the side of the wall of the chamber, doing himself some damage.

Rilka then attacks the elemental, missing once, and then missing again. Savaric attacks once and misses, but attacks again and hits. The Lich attempts to cast a spell and Ghost takes the opportunity to bite the Lich and knock him prone. The Lich still manages to cast the spell and three searing beams of fire shoot out, one attacking Ghost and two attacking Mõrvar. The one attacking Ghost misses, as does one of the beams attacking Mõrvar. But one hits him and does damage. Mõrvar attacks the Lich while he’s down on the floor, hitting him hard with Deathblow. He hits him hard again as well. Ghost bites at the Lich again. The fire elemental then attacks Rilka and hits, and Rilka heroically avoids catching on fire. Surm casts his Snowball and misses.

Ghost attacks the Lich again and bites him and trips him. Mõrvar attacks the Lich again and hits, hard. The Lich falls. Mõrvar beheads him. Rilka attacks the fire elemental, hitting it once with her falchion. The fire elemental attacks Rilka and hits her twice. She manages not to catch on fire. Savaric attacks the fire elemental with Edgefrost, hitting it twice. The elemental dissipates.

They decide that they want to drag the body of the Lich out of the ruins and burn it. They drag it out into the mine camp and Surm searches the body. He’s wearing some unremarkable black robes (that are not in disrepair). Upon further inspection, there are some intricate embroidery upon them. He’s wearing a fine cloak. He has an intricate gold headband with purple and blue gemstones set within it. He’s wearing an amulet that looks like animal scales. Tucked into his robes are a couple of vials. He was also wearing a masterwork dagger. He’s also carrying two onyxes—one large, one small—and a crystal.

Surm casts Detect Magic over the Lich and all of his possession. He detects magic on the amulet, the cloak, the robes, the headband, and the two vials. He discovers that the robes are the Robes of Bones. Someone who dons the robe can detach embroidered undead creatures attached to the robes. They cannot control the creatures (unless they already have that ability). The cloak is a Cloak of Resistance +2. He is unable to figure out the properties of the amulet, nor is able to determine the aura of its school. He is also unable to determine the properties of the headband, but does determine that its magical school is transmutation. The first vial is a potion of displacement. The second is a potion of invisibility.

Rilka channels the positive energy of her god and heals the party.

Once the body is stripped of possessions, they put it on a pyre and burn it.

They return to the sanctuary and Savaric searches the throne room and finds nothing of interest. He then returns to the entry chamber where they fought the fire elemental and searches the corridor to the right. He finds no trap. Looking down the corridor, he can see a doorway at the end of the corridor. He passes through the doorway to search the corridor and hears a gong sound. Savaric gets burned as flames suddenly fill up the doorway. He continues down the corridor, searching for traps, and finds one. There is a panel that fills the corridor that, if stepped on, will trigger…something. They chalk-mark the trap to warn themselves against stepping on the panel. Then Savaric jumps over the panel. Ghost jumps over the panel. Mõrvar jumps across the panel. Alasir jumps across. Surm heroically makes across the panel. The porters, then Sorcha, and finally Tarben make it across. Savaric then checks the doorway across the way for traps. He finds none.

The arched doorway leads into another octagonal room. There are two more arched doorways leading out of the room. Savaric checks those doorways for traps. Savaric finds a magical trap in one of the doorways. The party discusses their next course of action, as they can’t disable a magical trap. Everyone gets into a position around the octagonal room and Rilka prepares to wave a dagger through the threshold of the doorway to set off the trap.

Rilka places the dagger through the threshold and a column of fire descends, catching both Rilka and Tarben in its wake. Tarben manages to dodge some of it, but Rilka takes the brunt. Mõrvar looks through the other doorway and sees another octagonal room. It appears to be an alchemical lab. There’s another doorway on the other side of the room. Rilka looks through her doorway and sees an assortment of racks with various magical accoutrements—candles, incense, chalks, wands, etc. It, too, is an octagonal room and has another doorway on its opposite side.

Savaric checks Mõrvar’s doorway for traps, but finds none. Still, the party suspects that it is, indeed trapped.

Savaric moves into the room with the magical accoutrements and searches it for traps, but finds none. He does discover that amongst the magical accoutrements there are some uncharged wands, awaiting charging with magics. But there are some that are probably magicked. Surm walks around the room casting Detect Magic and discovers that, indeed, four of the wands are magical. He cannot determine what the first two wands do, but the third one is a wand of flaming sphere. It has 15 charges left. The fourth wand he is unable to determine as well.

Mõrvar looks into the next room, which is another octagonal room. There is not a door leading out of it. And sitting in the center of the otherwise empty room is a chest. Savaric searches the doorway for traps and finds none. He still suspects that it is trapped. Savaric shoots an arrow at the chest. A gong sounds and suddenly appearing in the room that they are in is a beautiful warrior with wings stained black, a flaming composite long bow, and a rope coiled at its side.

Savaric fires his bow at the new enemy, hitting it hard with arrows. Mõrvar attacks with Deathblow and hits it hard. He attacks again, attempting to intimidate the warrior, but fails in both respects. Rilka attacks, hitting the warrior, but then misses. The warrior turns and fires at Rilka, but misses. It fires at Savaric and hits him with a flaming arrow. It then fires at Mõrvar and misses him. Ghost nips at his heels and misses. Surm heads out the door and takes up a position where he can cast a spell. He casts Admonishing Ray, but unfortunately misses his target. The soldiery then take up positions and attack. Alasir is looking a bit green about the gills—sickened from second thoughts about this fight.

Ghost attacks the warrior and misses. Rilka attacks twice and misses twice. Mõrvar attacks and connects for serious damage. The warrior falls. Mõrvar decapitates the creature.

They search the creature’s body. It has a masterwork longsword, a flaming masterwork composite longbow, and a 50’ length of rope. Surm casts Detect Magic on all of it and does discern that it all magical. Surm identifies the sword as a +1 longsword, the bow is a + 1 flaming composite longbow set to a +5 strength, and the rope is magical, but Surm cannot discern its properties without identifying the creature. Savaric asks to borrow the bow for now. The party says that he can, but if he breaks it, he’s bought it.

They enter the room with the chest. Savaric searches the room and finds nothing out of sorts. He searches the chest and discovers that the chest is locked and magically trapped. The trap is on the lock. The party tries to figure out a way to spring the trap without being near the chest. They decide to have Savaric shoot an arrow in the lock from the doorway. On the third try, Savaric makes the shot.

Once the arrow gets in place, all around the room, arcs of electricity erupt around the room for about thirty seconds. Surm casts Mage Hand and jiggles the arrow. The trap doesn’t go off again. He calls an “all clear”. They all go inside and Surm tries and tries, but can’t seem to get the lock to open. Mõrvar takes the crowbar and attempts to pry the chest open. After numerous failed attempts, he finally opens the chest.

Inside the chest is an assortment of platinum, gold, and silver, some jewelry, some onyx (some large, some small), two rings, and a rod. Surm casts Detect Magic on all of it. He detects magic on the two rings and the rod. He discerns that one of the rings is a ring with evocation magic on it. He cannot determine anything else. They count out the coins, finding 500 platinum, 475 gold, 225 silver. There is about 5 lbs. of jewelry. There are 25 large onyx, and 25 small onyx. Mõrvar appraises the onyx: he thinks the smaller onyx are worth between 25 gp and 75 gp each; the larger onyx he appraises at 100 gp each.

The party then heads back to the alchemical lab. Surm positions everyone around the octagonal room and Savaric will shoot through the doorway to hopefully set off any traps. Mõrvar warns him not to damage any of the lab in case they want to take any of it back with them. Savaric fires and a column of flame descends down into the doorway, catching Mõrvar and Rilka. Mõrvar managed to dodge, but once again, Rilka took the brunt of it.

Savaric and Surm work on trying to heal Rilka’s wounds, but to no avail. They then work on Mõrvar and manage to fix him up. They then try to work on Tarben, but don’t do much good. Rilka casts Cure Light Wounds on herself. Surm casts Cure Light Wounds on Rilka.

The party exits the sanctuary and the mine and camps for the night, resting up to return for the next day.

7 Transformation 508

Rilka starts the day by channeling positive energy for the party for more healing for the party before they re-enter the sanctuary. They return to the alchemist lab. Savaric searches it out. He finds nothing of interest other than the various pipes, bottles, and tubes that comprise the lab. Surm casts Detect Magic around the room, but detects no magic. Savaric finds no trap in the next doorway, which leads to an octagonal room lit by the glow of the skull baseboard (much like all the other rooms). In the center of the room is a gold pentagram with ancient sigils around it set into the floor. There are various magical accoutrements such as braziers, incense, candles, and holy water decanters set about the room. Everyone takes up positions around the walls in the alchemical lab and Savaric shoots an arrow through the doorway into the opposite wall into the pentagram room. The arrow ‘plinks’ on the opposite wall and nothing happens.

Surm reveals that pentagrams are primarily used for summoning of outsiders, used to hold creatures; if it is set into the floor it is probably a powerful summoning circle. Savaric enters the room and begins searching it. He finds no traps and nothing other than what is obvious. Surm casts Detect Magic in the room and detects magic on the pentagram. He doesn’t believe that’s normal for a pentagram. Savaric searches the pentagram area and finds a magical trap on the pentagram. Surm writes “Trap” in chalk to mark the trap for Lord Cannach and they move on to the other half of the sanctuary.

They return to the central “hub” room and Savaric shoots and arrow as far as he can down the corridor. The doorway fills with a pale green mist and a gong sounds. The arrow travels down the hallway and goes through another arched doorway at the end of the hall. They do not hear another gong. Eventually, the mist dissipates. Savaric leads the way down the corridor, looking for traps. Halfway down the hall, he finds a plate trap in the hallway. Surm marks it with chalk and they all jump over the plate—except for Kortash. He lands squarely on the plate and is wracked in pain as a electric arcs jump through his body. Rilka channels energy for the group and heals everyone in an effort to help.

They continue down the hall and find themselves in an octagonal room. There are two arched doorways leading out of the room. Savaric searches the room and finds nothing of interest other than the doorways. Surm positions everyone so that if the doors are trapped in flames (as what happened before), no one will be trapped in it. Savaric shoots an arrow through the northerly doorway and a column of flame descends. He shoots through the southerly door and another column of flame descends.

Both doorways lead into octagonal rooms with arched doorways leading to further rooms. Savaric enters the northerly door and searches that room. This room contains a desk, a small bookcase, a luxurious rug, two comfy chairs, a sideboard with an empty decanter setting upon it. On the desk is a burnt-down candle in an ornate candle holder. Savaric finds a secret compartment in the desk. Inside it he finds a series of folios. They appear to have writing, but it is encrypted. Mõrvar attempts to determine what language it is written in, but fails. Surm cannot either. They take the folios.

Rilka examines the rug. It looks well-made, but well-used and ancient. Savaric takes the candleholder and Mõrvar appraise it. He thinks it’s worth 75 gold. He appraises the rug as being worth 150 gold. Surm casts Detect Magic on the room and detects none. Looking into the next room, they see another octagonal room lined with bookshelves filled with books. Surm exits the study and Savaric fires an into the floor of the library and nothing happens.

Savaric enters the room and searches. He finds a wide variety of books and he finds a secret compartment. Surm comes in and casts Detect Magic in the room. He detects no magic in the room. Savaric then checks the compartment for traps. He finds none. Inside the compartment is a book—a wizard’s spellbook.

They all then begin perusing the books trying to determine what kind of books they are. They find books written in High Elven and High Dwarven on a variety of topics: poetry, history, etc. They also find a number of books written in languages they don’t understand. Mõrvar appraises the books they understand at being worth 250 gold pieces apiece. They recognize 50 books. There are 450 books that they do not. That means the books they recognize are worth 12,500 gp.

They then backtrack and head to the southerly room. It is lit by the pale glow of the skull baseboard. There is a long stone table in the center of the room covered in bloodstains and other marks. There are chains and leather straps on the side of the table designed to hold down victims. There is a cabinet on the wall. There is a small table near the central table/bed with notes on it. The notes are written in a similar encryption as the folio. There are also anatomical diagrams on the notes. There is another arched doorway out of the room.

Savaric searches the room. He finds surgical tools in the cabinet on the wall. Other than that, he finds nothing more than what was initially seen. The arched doorway leads to another octagonal room lit by the pale skull baseboard, but he can see just fine with his darkvision. There is no door leading out of the next room. There are five sets of chains on the walls. There are blood stains on the floor.

Surm leaves the surgical room. Everyone takes up positions. Savaric shoots an arrow into the room with the wall chains. Nothing happens. He goes into the room and searches it, but finds nothing of interest.

They return to the library and collect five books as a sampling of what was found to show Lord Cannach. They then exit the sanctuary.

They then return to the hamlet, gather some food, and then start heading back to Aldasar.

10 Transformation 508

Surm tries to identify the magical items again along the way back to Aldasar. He identifies the Lich’s headband as a headband of vast intelligence +2. The amulet is an amulet of natural armor +1. One of the wands is a wand of hold portal with 30 charges. The other wand is a wand of magic missile with 20 charges. The final wand is a wand of scorching ray with 10 charges. Each have a caster level of 12. He also identifies the rope as belonging to an Erinyes, a type of devil. The rope is used to entwine around people and only they can use it. One of the rings is a ring of counterspells. The other ring eludes, but he discovers that the rod is a rod of wonder.

Riding toward Aldasar, the party meets the rest of their soldiery along with Lord Cannach and a few of his personal guards. He rides up to the party and says. “How goes it? I had reports of a Lich in the village. I was dispatching more men to combat it.”

“The Lich is slain,” Surm says.

“Slain? That is good news indeed!” the nobleman says.

“Took his head and burned the body,” Rilka says and Surm confirms.

“We cleared out its hidey-hole. The ruins were basically a structure it was staying in, using as a base,” Surm says.

“Well. That is definitely good news. Reason to celebrate,” Lord Cannach says.

“Yes,” Rilka agrees.

“A celebration is in order,” Surm says.

“I take it the rest of your villagers made it back okay?” Rilka asks.

“Yes,” Lord Cannach says.

“Good,” Rilka says.

“Yes, they are staying temporarily at my estate,” Lord Cannach.

Everyone turns around and starts heading back to Lord Cannach’s estate for a celebratory feast and to begin negotiating the cash out of the treasure found in the sanctuary.

Along the way, while they camp, they have some heated discussions about their future plans. Savaric wants bigger payouts and Mõrvar wants to create a base of operations. Rilka and Surm are more interested in working and building a reputation. Mõrvar has designs on uniting the North. Surm wants to negotiate on his own with Lord Cannach on their payout and makes it clear that the other’s interference will hurt the negotiations.

30 Starfall 508

The party has spent the past three weeks in Aldasar retraining skills and professions. Savaric has become a Horizon Walker and released Victor into the wilds. He now has a new companion, a wolf named Ghost. Rilka has a new magic belt and new look. Mõrvar has reforged his greatsword into a magic weapon and retrained some of his skills, including his unarmed strikes under the former Shandorian monk Rohin Devasi. Surm has trained under the bard Kyril Oberon and managed to get a reference to the nobleman Lord Cannach Ma’leod, who may have a job for the troupe.

Lord Cannach owns lands right outside Aldasar and near the Slayt Mountains. Surm performed at the birthday celebration of another minor noblewoman where Cannach was in attendance. The nobleman was impressed with Surm’s tales of Captain Rilka and her troupe. He wanted to meet her and thought he might be able to do business with her and wanted Surm to set up a meeting. Surm brought the idea to the rest of the party and they all agreed that the idea held promise. So a meeting was set up and the party headed out to Lord Cannach’s estate.

Lord Cannach Ma’leod’s estate lies just outside the city of Aldasar, nestled in amongst several other estates belonging to other minor nobles. The manor house is a fine, two-story structure lying in the middle of fields of wheat and sorghum as well as an orchard. A narrow cobbled road leads up to the house from the main road out of the city.

As they approach the house, they can hear the sounds of dogs barking. When they get closer, you can see that Lord Cannach has a kennel. An older man is out feeding what look to be three wolf-hounds. The hounds begin to growl as they get closer to the manor and the man turns and says, “Good morning. You must Captain Rilka’s band. You are expected. Just give me a moment to finish here and I will let you inside.”

True to his word, the man finishes up with the dogs and lets them into the house. He directs them to a small parlor and invites them to sample the wine—it’s from Lord Cannach’s own vineyard. He says that he will fetch Lord Cannach and bids them to be comfortable while they wait.

Savaric enjoys the wine, careful not to spill or wrinkle his uniform. Surm avoids the wine and just sips water while he waits. He eyes the parlor with an eye to identify pieces as art for conversation value. He notes that all of the pieces in the room are expensive, but not ostentatious and are bought with an eye to comfort. Mõrvar assesses the exits of the room and looks to see if there are any weapons on display (there are none). Rilka sits calmly and sips her water. Savaric notes that the wine is pleasant and slightly fruity.

After about 10 minutes, Lord Cannach comes in the room. He is a handsome man in his early thirties with sandy blonde hair and close-cropped beard. He is dressed well, but not flashy. He wears a masterwork dagger on his belt.

“Welcome to my home. Surm, I hope you are doing well. This must be the Captain you’ve been telling me about.” He turns to Rilka. “I enjoyed hearing about the escapades of your troupe. Such strength and daring. I do hope we can do business.”

He sits in one of the chairs and motions for them all to sit.

Savaric happily takes a seat; complimenting the wine. Mõrvar sits. Rilka sits down directly across from the nobleman. She nods. “Thank you taking the time to see us. Your reputation speaks well of you. I look forward to possibly doing business with you..” She then makes formal introductions for the rest of the group. As she does, she tries to get a sense if he is bothered by her race or gender. She gets no sense that Lord Cannach is discomfited with speaking to her.

“To the business, then,” he says. “I have a decent parcel of land near the Slayt Mountains. I have a small mining community there that I have a man overseeing. I recently received a dispatch that a ruin has been discovered inside the mine. Not to put too fine a point on it—I don’t wish to send any of my miners into this ruin; I don’t know what’s in there. I suspect that it’s a Duindir ruin.”

Savaric knows that Duindir is a term associated with Leilior, but he’s not sure how. Surm knows that the Duindir were one of the ancient races that make up Leilioran stock. They were associated with the Slayt Mountains.

Lord Cannach continues. “So, frankly, I wish to hire more adventuresome types to explore these ruins.”

Surm says, “That’s wise. Leave it to the professionals.”

“Are you just wanting it mapped out? The depths of it plumbed? What are you hoping to find?” Rilka asks.

“Well, there may be treasures, which I would like safely removed,” Lord Cannach says.

“And brought to you, I assume,” Rilka says.

“Yes,” says Lord Cannach.

“So just for clarification, because the mine is on your lands, and the ruins are in your mine, you’re laying claim to the treasures in the ruins,” Surm says.

“That’s right,” Lord Cannach says. “Now, I would be willing to share treasures found as part of your price or if you have another price that your looking at, or there may not be treasures. That’s the risk.”

Rilka looks at Surm and Surm asks Lord Cannach, “How would you be willing to share treasure, assuming there is some?”

Lord Cannach says, “I would be willing to share fifty percent of the treasure with your troupe.”

“Is that including coin and the worth of whatever objects we may find?” Rilka asks.

“Yes,” Lord Cannach says.

“Is there a town or a base or operations we can work out of nearby?” Surm asks.

“There is a small community. A hamlet,” Lord Cannach says.

“A hamlet that will be able to support a troupe?” Surm asks.

“I believe you said you had seventeen in your troupe?” Lord Cannach. “How do you mean ‘support’?”

“Food. Housing. Do you know how big these ruins are?” Surm asks.

“No,” Lord Cannach says.

“So we have no idea how long we’ll be exploring these ruins,” Surm says. “So during that time we’ll be camped and I assume the hamlet will be a place where we can resupply. I have no idea how far the hamlet is from the mine…”

“It’s five miles from the mine,” Lord Cannach says. “It would probably be able to support you in a basic fashion. Food, water, housing.”

“Assuming we are able to find treasure, how will the shares be broken down?” Rilka asks. “What will be our ability to keep items if we desired to keep them?”

“Do you have a proposal?” Lord Cannach asks.

Savaric says that he likes the idea of appraising all of the items and purchasing each item at its value.

Surm says that he would think that would whatever artifacts were found would be appraised and their value be split as shares.

Lord Cannach says that he would be amenable to that.

Everything would need to be brought back and an agent would need to be selected that both parties would be agreeable to in order to appraise the goods.

“Was the ruin a ruin of a structure or of a city?” Surm asks.

“I’m not sure. I told my men to stay away from it,” Lord Cannach says.

“Is this just a cursory survey of the ruin or is this a clean out of the ruin?” Surm asks.

“Clean out,” Lord Cannach says.

Surm proposes that along with the fifty percent of the potential treasure that they would need 500 gold plus expenses plus food and water while at the hamlet.

After a moment’s pause, the nobleman says, “That’s fair. When do you plan on setting out.”

“We’ll need a day to supply and then we can head out,” Surm says.

“Do we need a letter or will you be sending someone with us?” Rilka says.

“I’ll send a letter with you recommending you to my man down there named Anghus Norren. He’ll know of our arrangement concerning the hamlet,” Lord Cannach says.

“Does he run the hamlet or the mining community or both?” Surm asks.

“Both. He runs both operations. He is my Reeve. The hamlet is called Leodin,” the nobleman says.

Lord Cannach stands. “Pleasure doing business with you. Hopefully there will not be too many hardships on you doing this. I wish you good journey. And hopefully we can both profit from this.”

Everyone else stands and there are handshakes all around. The nobleman exits the room and the man who escorted everyone in appears to escort them out. The party leaves the estate and heads back into Aldasar.

The party spends the rest of the day buying supplies for potential ruins and mine exploration and making preparations, including paying the soldiery.

Rilka consults with Savaric about the types of creatures that live deep in the Slayt Mountains. He tells her that they could run into kobolds, goblins, maybe even orcs. If you go deep enough, you could run into the Underdark with Drow, Duergar, Dark Creepers, and other such creepers. There are also dragonkind.

1 Transformation 508

The troupe leaves Aldasar for Leodin. There is no road to Leodin, so travel is cross-country over the plains of Leilior. The day is pleasant and passes without incident.

2 Transformation 508

Another day of travel over the plains. Up on a hill is sighted a shrine to the god Hathras, Lord of the Winds, patron of travelers. Rilka identifies the god for the others and provides the insight that people provide some bit of gear as sacrifice at these shrines to aid travelers. Savaric spots movement at the shrine and points it out to everyone else. Savaric wants to check it out, but the others are not as interested.

So the rest of the troupe ride on and Savaric rides up at an angle to the shrine. Savaric approaches the man on the horseback. The shrine is open to the sky. The symbol of Hathras, a bisected disc of blue and white hangs on the frame. The man is placing something in a box inside the shrine. He turns and sees Savaric and says in Tradespeak, “Don’t hurt me! I have nothing! I have nothing!”

“Don’t be alarmed,” Savaric says. “I just saw you from afar and wanted to see that everything was okay.”

“I have no weapons!” the man declares.

“Okay,” Savaric says. “That’s why you’re here. Are you okay?”

The man thinks for a moment and says, “Yes.”

The man has his hands up and starts backing up.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I just wanted to see that you weren’t in danger…” Savaric says.

He turns around and starts running, yelling, “Orcs! Orcs!”

Meanwhile, Mõrvar, Surm, and Rilka hear someone yelling, “Orcs! Orcs!” They look up to see Savaric looking confused at the top of the hill and a man running away from the shrine. Savaric returns to the rest of the group and they continue on toward Leodin.

5 Transformation 508

Based on the directions given to them by Lord Cannach, they should reach Leodin by noontime. As they are traveling through the wooded foothills, Savaric hears panting and quickly-moving footsteps out of the woods. It is probably a running man.

“Someone is coming,” he says.

The soldiers circle up at Alasir’s command and Mõrvar stands menacingly with his greatsword. Rilka and Savaric stand ready. Surm stands surrounded by soldiers.

Breaking out of the woods is a man in fine clothes that have seen better days. It looks as if he’s been running in the woods for hours. You see a blood stain on his clothing. He comes up short and says, in Tradespeak, “Turn back! It’s horrible!”

“What’s going on, sir?” Rilka says. She sees a dagger and an empty rapier sheath on his belt.

Mõrvar puts up a hand and says, “Calm yourself and explain.”

The man says, “We let it out! It killed them all! We didn’t know!” He covers his face with his hands. “We didn’t know!”

“Who are you? Where are you from?” Surm asks.

“I’m Anghus Norren. I’m the Reeve of the hamlet of Leodin,” the man says.

Rilka tells Alasir to let him approach. Mõrvar lets him approach.

“We were just coming your way. Your lord has hired us to explore the ruins that were discovered,” Rilka says. Surm produces the letter from Lord Cannach. Anghus takes the letter.

“You may be too late,” Anghus says.

“Well according to Lord Cannach, he instructed the ruins not to be explored, that why he was sending us. What happened?” Surm asks.

“We didn’t explore them. We followed his orders. But in finding them, we think we let something out,” Anghus says.

“Can you be more specific? What do you think you let out? What happened?” Surm asks. “Tell your story, man!”

“It happened last night. The screams started. And then there was fire from some sort of sorcerer. But no sorcerer like I’ve ever seen. He looked like Death. He had blue glowing orbs for eyes. His skin was withered, almost to the bone,” Anghus says.

Surm and Mõrvar are thinking along the lines of a Lich. A Lich tends to be a spellcaster that has defeated death and become undead. They are very old and powerful.

“Did someone witness him come out of the ruins?” Surm asks.

“Yes, I did,” Anghus says. “I saw him come out of the mines.”

“It killed them all? Did anyone flee? Did anyone put up a fight?” Surm asks.

“Some men put up a fight and they fell,” Anghus says. “I was lucky to get away with my life.”

“So you don’t know if others got away,” Surm says.

“I suppose it’s possible,” Anghus says, dubiously.

“How many people are we looking to account for?” Surm asks.

“Thirty-six,” Anghus says.

“Men, women, and children?” Rilka asks.

“And this is the entire population?” Surm asks.

“Yes,” Anghus says. “Plus me.”

“How far are we from Leodin?” Surm asks.

“About a mile,” Anghus says.

“So this all just went down?” Surm asks.

“Last night. I ran and I hid. And I ran,” Anghus says.

“Did you see where it went? What it did?” Surm says.

“It came out and through up a wall of fire. It threw fire, more fire, fire into buildings…” Anghus says.

“Alright Anghus, I guess we’re heading back into Leodin,” Surm says. “I’d appreciate it if you’d head back in there with us since you’re from there and can be kind of a guide, but I understand if you don’t want to. But I don’t know if you want to continue running across the plains of Leilior.”

“I’ll go,” Anghus says.

“Is it hills and woods all the way up to the hamlet?” Surm asks.

“Yes, for the most part,” Anghus says.

Rilka offers to let Anghus up on her horse with her. He accepts.

Rilka and Mõrvar confer and let the party know that their safe bet concerning hurting undead is using magic weapons, that there are a variety of things that harm them, depending on the type.

The troupe goes back to where they found Anghus and Savaric and Ghost go forward ahead of the troupe 100 feet, dismounted and stealthy, Savaric taking his magic arrows with him. They try to follow the path that Anghus took back to the hamlet with the troupe following.

As Savaric makes his way, he comes upon the top of a hill and can see down into a cleared out valley where the hamlet is. He can smell smoke and burnt meat. He sees smoldering remains of some of the houses. He can see a large market hall near the center of the town and milling about in front of the market hall are about ten people. He and Ghost stealthily backtrack their way to the troupe and Savaric reports what he saw.

Savaric thinks that there is something wrong with the people milling about. Surm says that its strange that they’re hanging around, that maybe the Lich is gone. Rilka theorizes that perhaps the Lich is in the market hall and using the townspeople as guards. Surm proposes to check out the outlying buildings for survivors, leaving the troupe in the treeline. Rilka agrees. Surm recruits Savaric to go with him to look for survivors. Savaric commands Ghost to defend Anghus and Ghost positions himself near the nervous Reeve. Surm and Savaric head down out of the treeline into the hamlet.

Surm pokes his head into houses and announces “Hey! Anybody here? We’re here to help!” in a low voice, looking for survivors. Savaric does the same on the other side of the street. In some of the houses, there is burn damage. In one of the houses that Surm pokes his head in, he sees a small bed and he spots the mattress rise and lower once. He stealthily makes his way into the house and lower his way down into the doorway and looks down under the bed. He sees a small form staring back him. It gasps and backs up toward the wall.

“Okay. I’m here to help. Anghus Norren sent me. He ran the mines. Remember him?” Surm says. The form nods slowly. “Well, I have him outside. I’ll take you to him. There’s a big group of us. You’ll be safe. You can’t stay under the bed forever. We’ve got some food. Aren’t you hungry?”

The form edges sideways out of the foot of the bed, watching Surm the whole time. Finally, the form emerges from the foot of the bed and Surm can see that it’s a little girl, about six years old.

“Are you ready?” Surm asks.

She watches Surm and comes forward. Surm sticks his hand out. She comes forward slowly and cautiously and takes his hand. He makes his way out as cautiously as he can, leading the little girl out.

Rilka spots Surm leading the little girl out of the house. She orders the soldiers to be ready. Surm makes his way back up and takes the girl up to Anghus. Savaric finishes his houses and makes is way up as well.

The girl looks around wide-eyed, takes in Rilka and Savaric and goes even more wide-eyed. Anghus informs everyone that her name is Hellyne Borwyn. Anghus asks her if her parents are down there in Leilioran, which Rilka translates. Hellyne shakes her head and says that the ghost man took them away.

Rilka says, “This changes our tactics a little bit. We’re not taking a six year old onto a battlefield.” She sighs, “So we don’t know if the Lich can just enthrall people?”

“If he’s a spellcaster, he can,” Surm says.

“So we don’t know if those are zombies down there, they could just be enthralled,” Rilka says.

“They could be in some way,” Surm says. “I’d have to look up every spell to know how, but…”

“No, if they’re enthralled in some way, not just dead, is there a way you can break that?” Rilka asks.

“There’s ways to break it, I don’t know if I can. I don’t have Dispel Magic,” Surm says.

“If he was dead, would that break it?” Rilka asks.

“If they were enthralled and he was dead, it would break the spell,” Surm says.

“I don’t know how much time we want to spend here versus taking people back to the city. I don’t know if we want to scout out the hamlet for more survivors hiding and take people back before we go to the mines if the Lich is not found here. Otherwise we’re going off of our rations for everybody to survive. I don’t know what’s left that can be scavenged,” Surm says.

Anghus says, “There are some stores in the market place.”

“I feel like we need to get this hamlet under some kind of control before we decide anything. If he does have them enthralled then he is using them for a purpose then its three days to get here and I’m sure they’re not feeding themselves or anything…” Rilka says.

“Well, they’ve only been in this condition since last night,” Surm points out. “And when we were scouting out the houses, there were no bodies.”

Rilka asks Savaric if the people in front of the market hall were injured and he says that he didn’t get close enough to tell. Rilka says that they have to get closer. Surm suggests picking a house to station troops and Anghus and the girl in that’s safe to use as a base of operations. So the troupe moves down out of the treeline and positions itself around one of the empty houses and the non-combatants go inside and hunker down, surrounded by soldiers and the party.

As Surm and Savaric make their way down, they see the crowd in front of the market hall start to wander toward the houses. Savaric wants to take a shot, but Rilka says no. Surm has the troops position themselves in a line along the road to wait for the crowd. Then he and Savaric climb up on roofs of the nearby houses to get a look at the oncoming crowd and see if they are indeed undead.

Surm sees people with extensive burns, bloodstained clothing, and very blank stares. Savaric sees a figure emerge from the market hall. The figure has long, silver white hair. It has blue glowing orbs for eyes. Savaric points the figure out to Surm. Surm sends a Message to Mõrvar that the ten people are indeed undead and that the Lich has emerged from the market hall. “Unless we’re ready to engage the Lich, we’d best hide and not engage the zombies,” Mõrvar passes the message on to Rilka and says, “Let’s take it on. I’m ready.”

Meanwhile, the ten undead are slowly making their way toward the road.

Rilka, Surm, and Mõrvar discuss plans on how to take on the zombies. Surm keeps pointing out that if they take on the zombies, that that will alert the Lich. Mõrvar wants to take the fight to the Lich.

Suddenly, a voice calls out in a language none of the party understands. The undead crowd turn around and start heading back toward the market hall. Surm Messages Mõrvar “Good hiding!” Mõrvar tells Rilka that the group is going back. Rilka wants everyone to come back and Mõrvar Messages Surm to that effect. Surm suggests that Savaric go back but that he stay and keep an eye in case the Lich comes back out. Savaric stealthily climbs down and comes down.

Rilka wonders if the zombies will revert to corpses once the Lich dies. Surm, who has an Animate Dead scroll, disavows her of that notion, informing her that the zombies would wander about attacking anything that moved or would follow the Lich’s final order if the Lich died, but they would still be zombies.

Then the party decides to talk strategy. They ask Anghus about the structure. The market hall is like a big barn. There’s a loft and a single-wide back door. There are sliding doors to the loft that are usually locked. There is access to the roof from the loft that is usually barred. First they discuss the possibility of roof access. That idea is scrapped in favor of running in invisibly. Then they come up with the idea of a diversion to draw the Lich out. Then Mõrvar can bull rush him back into the market hall and the rest can rush in invisibly. Savaric can fire upon the Lich as well from a distance. For the distraction, they can have a soldier ride out on horseback to lead the zombies around the building.

Alasir is updated on the plan. Once the party is inside the building, the troops are to take up position on the road and be ready to take down the zombies once they come back around from the distraction. Take them down rather than let them mass back up again.

Alfhild volunteers to be the distraction rider. Surm casts Mage Armor on Mõrvar and Rilka. Alfhild takes off on her horse. Mõrvar casts Bull Strength. The zombies begin following her around the corner. Ilona makes Savaric invisible. Surm casts his Invisibility spells. Then the Lich emerges from the market hall.

Savaric fires multiple shots from his position, some with magical arrows, some without. He hits him with the magic arrows. Then Mõrvar bull rushes the Lich back into the market hall, pushing him twenty feet into the room. Surm runs in and sees Mõrvar push the Lich into the room and also sees two zombies in the room. He also sees six other creatures in the room. They look like withered corpses—he can identify them as ghouls. Surm yells for Mõrvar to “Drag him out!” and casts Grease to disrupt the footing of the ghouls. Two of the ghouls fall, a third does not. Rilka gets inside the hall and channels positive energy to harm the undead.

Rilka then attacks one of the ghouls and fells it in the first hit. She then attacks one of the prone ones, dispatching it as well. One of the ghouls attacks Rilka with two claws and a bite and misses. Another three attack Mõrvar and miss him. Surm then casts Grease again, this time centered on the area around Mõrvar and the Lich. Mõrvar keeps his footing, as does the Lich, but a ghoul and a zombie fall. The zombies attempt to get back up. Mõrvar takes the opportunity to hit one of the zombies as it rises and knocks it back down. The other zombie rises and attacks Mõrvar, but misses. The Lich fills the room with a burst of negative energy, damaging everyone in the room. Mõrvar attacks the Lich with his magic sword, Deathblow. The Lich is intimidated by Mõrvar’s mighty blow and is shaken. Savaric comes into the hall and shuts the door and bars it.

Mõrvar critically hits the Lich with Deathblow. Then the Lich is intimidated again attempts to flee. He does not fall on the grease. Then Mõrvar fumbles with his attack of opportunity as the Lich tries to get away. He is now standing under the loft. Surm notices that there are corpses lined up under the loft as well. The ghouls attack Mõrvar and miss. The ghoul on Rilka attacks and misses. And then one attacks Surm and claws him once. Rilka hits her ghoul with a mighty blow and fells it. The zombie slams Mõrvar hard. Then the Lich utters a word and disappears.

Surm recognizes the spell as a Teleport. Surm and Rilka curse under their breath. Surm casts Magic Missile defensively against the ghoul in front of him. The ghoul is staggering about. Savaric shoots the ghoul that is staggered, felling it with two arrows. He then turns his attention to the ghoul next to Mõrvar. He fires on it and fells it as well.

Rilka takes a step and attacks the prone zombie. She hits it hard and takes it out. Mõrvar moves out of combat, backing away from the ghoul. The ghoul swipes at him and misses. He manage to keep his footing in the Grease spell and moves away. The ghoul moves and falls in the Grease spell. Savaric fires on the now-prone ghoul and kills it.

Mõrvar and Rilka stand in front of the door and prepare to open it. Savaric positions himself in front of the door so that he can fire out of it when the doors open. They open the doors and see six fallen zombies in the courtyard. Four of the zombies are still fighting with the guards surrounding them in small squads.

Savaric runs through Rilka and out the door and fires at one of the zombies. It begins to stagger on its feet. Then Sorcha gets slammed by a zombie. Then a zombie falls. And another. And another. And the final zombie falls.

Everyone gathers outside in the courtyard with the soldiery. Rilka channels positive energy for healing. The party then discusses whether they want to go into the ruins now to chase down the Lich while he’s down. Rilka wants to search the village and look for more survivors. Surm agrees and suggests everyone pair up in groups of four to search. Rilka suggests that the two soldiers continue to stay with the Reeve and the little girl, just in case. Then Surm adjusts his parties to groups of three.

They search out the rest of the houses and find no survivors or bodies. In the loft are the corpses of four men, four women, and four children. With the ten zombies and the undead they fought in market hall, they believe that there are five villagers unaccounted for. They bring out Anghus to identify the bodies found in the loft. He has a hard time keeping his composure, but he manages it. Surm tells him that he can only account for 32 of the 37 of the hamlet.

Discussing the situation with the party, Surm asks what they are going to do: charge in or rest up and recharge, and thus give the Lich an opportunity to do the same. Part of the problem is that they have to go through the mines, and the ruins, which they have to search, and then he’s going to rest up. Rilka wants to do something with these bodies so that the Lich can’t raise them. Surm is adamant about burning them. The Reeve will make note of the names for the records.

Savaric, in the meantime, finds six sets of tracks leading out of the hamlet. One set was Anghus’ trail leading out. The others was a pair of people, another pair of people, and a single person. Savaric takes a couple of soldiers and follows the single trail while Rilka takes a couple of soldiers and follows a double trail and Surm takes a four of the soldiers and follows the other double trail.

Rilka follows her trail and sees two figures trying to hide themselves in some foliage. “Hello, villagers,” she says.

A man and a woman emerge from the brush. “You’re not going to kill us are you?” the man asks.

“No,” Rilka says. “I’m here to take you back to Anghus. Your lord sent us to check out the mines. Obviously something bad came out of it. We chased it off. We’re trying to get it back together. So far we have a young girl named Hellyne. And Anghus. And now you two.”

The woman says, “It’s dead?”

“No, we chased it off. We think it went back into the mines. Tomorrow we will kill it,” Rilka says.

“We will come with you,” The man says.

Rilka introduces herself and the soldiers. The man and the woman are Tolan and Livia. Rilka places them in the middle of the formation and they march back to the hamlet. Rilka gets them hooked back up with the girl and Anghus.

Surm follows his trail and spots a couple of sleeping forms in a natural overhang. As they approach, he calls out, “Hello in the shelter!”

The forms stir, and one says, “Who’s there?”

“I am Surm Ulrich, sent by Lord Cannach to investigate the mines. I encountered Anghus Norren on the way here and he awaits your return to the village.”

“We can’t go back there!” one of the people, a man, says.

“The Lich has fled,” Surm says, reasonably. “Under our mighty show of strength.”

The people come out of the overhang, a couple. “Very well, we will return.”

Surm tells them how safe they are, much safer than wandering through the woods. And he leads them back to Leodin.

Meanwhile, Savaric follows his trail with Ghost and two of the soldiers and he comes to the end of the trail and he sees no other sign.

“Hello? We were sent by Lord Cannach. There were some problems with the mines. If you’re out there, We’re here to help.”

A face emerges from the foliage. A man says, “Lord Cannach sent you?”

“That’s right! We ran into Anghus Norren. We heard what happened to the hamlet. We’ve dealt with the Lich momentarily. It’s fled from the battle for now. So we were looking for survivors,” Savaric says.

“Alright, let’s go,” the man says and steps out from the brush. “I’m Kando.”

Everyone converges back on the hamlet with their survivors. Mõrvar has been watching the village in case the Lich returned. It has not. He also makes sure all the bodies get burned.

The party has a group meeting away from the villagers. Surm thinks they need to take the villagers back to Aldasar. Savaric asks how they’re doing on food. Surm reminds them that they can use the stores here in the hamlet for food. Surm and Rilka are afraid these villagers are just going to be targets for the Lich if he returns. Surm thinks he’s going to return. Rilka suggests sending a small group of soldiers with the villagers while the party stays behind and puts pressure on the Lich. Surm agrees, saying that that what he was going to suggest.

They will send five guards, with Mahgnus and the seven villagers, back to report to Lord Cannach. They will equip the leaving party with enough food to cover them for their journey. Alfhild will lead the soldiery contingent, made up of Halvor, Jerrik, Leif, and Sigrid. Mahgnus is given orders to report how things were found and how the party rounded up all of the survivors. Surm allows them to use his horse so that they can all have horses to ride.

27 Longday 508

The party is still in Karak Tuvar and have just defeated a cloaker and collected its treasure. They have retrieved the journal that they have came for and are debating whether or not to explore the rest of the complex. They decide that they do want to explore.

They backtrack and take one of the corridors to an area that they have not explored yet. Savaric leads the way looking for traps and Mõrvar unsticks any doors along the way with the crowbar.

In one of the rooms, they encounter murals depicting dwarves fighting against Drow—the dark-skinned, evil elves of the Underdark.

After encountering several empty rooms and other empty corridors, they finally come upon something different. As Savaric is searching one of the hallways, an incorporeal dwarf with glowing red eyes appears in the corridor before him. It distorts itself and starts coming at the ranger. Savaric draws Edgefrost and goes to meet the apparition. Victor retreats from the spirit.

The wraith attacks Savaric and misses. Savaric attempts to overrun the wraith and the spirit takes the opportunity to attack the ranger, hitting him with negative energy. Savaric makes it past the wraith, setting Mõrvar up to flank the spirit. Mõrvar attacks the wraith, doing a respectable amount of damage. Savaric attacks the wraith as well, doing a modicum of damage. Rilka channels the energy of her deity to harm the undead. Surm casts Magic Missile against the wraith, doing respectable damage. The wraith then attacks Mõrvar, reaching out and touching him, making him feeling the chilling touch of negative energy.

Rilka once again channels positive energy and damages the wraith. Savaric attacks the wraith with Edgefrost and hits. The wraith then hits Mõrvar once again with negative energy. Mõrvar then returns the favor by hitting the wraith. Surm casts Magic Missile again and dissipates the wraith. “Surm the Wraith Slayer!” Surm crows.

They speculate about the nature of wraiths. Mõrvar reveals that they are creatures born of evil and darkness that drain life force and are shadows of their former lives. Rilka adds that they could roam and that they could become, through an unholy transformation, a Dread Wraith. Mõrvar is concerned that whatever created the wraith is here and that they are unprepared to handle it, that they need more healing. So Rilka channels more positive energy and heals the party slightly. Mõrvar drinks the Cure Moderate Wounds potion as well. Then he drinks two Cure Light Wounds potions. Then they continue down the hall.

The hall opens up into a room with a mosaic of painted stones on the ceiling. There is another doorway leading out of the room. Savaric searches the room and finds a loose floor tile. Beneath it, he finds a chest. He finds no traps associated with it and so Mõrvar helps him haul it up. Savaric checks the chest for traps and finds none, but the chest is locked. Surm steps forward to pick the lock, but checks it for traps himself first. He finds none. Surm uses his tools to open the lock, hears a click, and suddenly an acid arrow appears and launches itself at Surm. Fortunately, it misses him. Surm opens the chest, finding it full of coins and gemstones.

The doorway leads into another room with a chasm and two more doorways. Savaric searches the room on this side of the chasm and finds nothing of interest. The door on this side not trapped and is unlocked. Suddenly he hears a shriek and an incorporeal dwarf appears in the room. Surm screams “Ah! It’s another wraith dwarf!”

The wraith attacks Mõrvar and misses. Mõrvar swings at the wraith and connects, doing a substantial amount of damage. Surm casts Magic Missile at the wraith doing decent amount of damage. Savaric critically hits the wraith. Mõrvar hits the wraith and the wraith dissipates.

Savaric sneakily opens the door. It opens into a corridor. Savaric follows the corridor, searching, finding nothing of interest, until it curves up into a door. He searches the door and finds no trap, but the door is slightly askew and stuck. Mõrvar comes forward and unsticks it. It opens up into a room they’ve been in before: there is a mural of priests of Skondir placing blessings upon various dwarves and two Morlock bodies lie on the floor.

They backtrack and go back to the room with the chasm and decide to cross it. Mõrvar ties a rope to his body and jumps across. Or tries to—he falls through the chasm and everyone holds the rope. He misses the edge and smacks the edge of the chasm, cursing, and the rest of the party haul him up. He tries again this time makes it.

Mõrvar checks the door on the other side and finds that it is stuck. He calls for someone to come over to other side with him. Rilka reluctantly jumps—and misses. She catches the rope, but smacks against the side of the chasm. She curses and uses the rope the climb across. She readies her sword and Mõrvar forces open the door. It opens into a room with a door and several doorways. There is also an old forge with old tools laying scattered about.

Surm jumps across the chasm, as does Savaric. The porters are left behind. Savaric and Surm search the room. Mõrvar puts the rope away. Savaric checks the door. Nothing of interest is found. The door is not trapped and it is unlocked. The doorways open into corridors that connect to each other. Savaric and Surm search the corridors for secret doors and find none. They do find a pile of debris, but nothing else of interest. The door opens into a corridor that connects to the others. This frustrates Mõrvar to no end—he’s certain that there’s a secret door here, but none is found.

They all jump back across the chasm and make their way out of Karak Tuvar.

It’s afternoon when they emerge and the encampment is gathered around something that can’t be seen by the party. Alasir is saying, “Einar. Alfhild. Why don’t you drag this thing out of camp.”

“What is it?” Mõrvar asks.

Everyone turns and Alasir says, “Oh! Sir. It’s a troll.”

Alfhild and Einar start dragging the corpse out of camp. Mõrvar follows to make sure it doesn’t get back up. The party assess the soldiery to make sure they’re alright. It looks like Garth has taken quite a beating. Rilka goes to Garth and casts Cure Light Wounds. He thanks her.

Mõrvar commends Alfhild and Einar on defeating the beast. Einar says that they were fortunate enough to get it surrounded. Mõrvar says, “Now let’s burn this bastard.” And they burn the body and Mõrvar sticks around to make sure the body burns.

Mahgnus and Alasir come up to Surm. Alasir says that there is nothing more than the troll attack to report and Mahgnus confirms what Alasir says. Surm says, “Very good.”

The party decides to continue to camp here and leave the following day.

They open the chest and find that it has 98 gold pieces, 18 silver pieces, and 90 copper pieces. It also has an aquamarine, two pieces of ivory, a piece of jade, a saltwater pearl, a sard, a topaz, and a zircon.

Mõrvar spends his time at camp appraising the various gemstones that they collected in the outpost.

Rilka tries to get a sense of how happy the soldiery are—but doesn’t really succeed.

After appraising the gemstones, Mõrvar moves on to the items.

Surm plans the party’s route back to Aldasar to meet with Kragar Stoneanvil to return the journal. He also pays Mahgnus to distribute pay to the soldiery. Surm also casts Detect Magic on the longsword and chainmail to try to discern its properties. He determines that the longsword is +1 and the chainmail is +2.

1 Starfall 508

The party arrives in Rosemeedt around noon. The steward of Rosemeedt welcomes the troupe back to the settlement as a way of checking in. The troupe pitches a camp at the settlement, but takes a high-end meal in the hall, courtesy of Surm. They get cleaned up and Mõrvar tries to improve his relations with the soldiery. Then he goes out to find female companionship. He finds a willing lady, but later finds that she requires three gold pieces for her services. He tries to renegotiate and she finds new companionship.

Meanwhile, at the hall, everyone is in high spirits. Rilka sits next to Kortash. The soldiery is pleased with their meal. All is right in the world.

5 Starfall 508

Surm tells the troops that he is happy to meet his contractual obligation to pay them at every city along the way. Otherwise, he will pay them when they arrive in Aldasar. Alasir discusses the matter with the soldiery and passes word through Mahgnus that they are fine with waiting to get paid in Aldasar.

That morning, the arrives at a point outside the gates of the city of Braith in Leilior. A crowd has gathered, circled around facing something. Mõrvar rides forward to see what’s going on. Rilka follows him. They can see over people’s heads as they are on horseback.

They see a man with livery depicting three hawks. They also see a man dressed in black with a large greatsword. There is also a bound man on his knees, with his head hung down. Rilka asks a nearby man what is going on. The man looks at her kind of warily and says, “The execution of a thief.”

“What did this man steal?” Mõrvar asks.

“Silver. From the lord’s home,” the man says.

Rilka asks about the man with the three hawks. “That’s Lord Colbyn,” the man says.

Mõrvar has heard of Lord Colbyn. He owns lands outside he city of Braith. He is known to be a vassal of the Lord Mayor of Braith and has a reputation as a harsh man.

“How much silver is worth an execution is worth an execution?” Mõrvar asks.

The man shrugs, “I don’t know how much was stolen. It’s worth a man’s life.”

The man in the livery proclaims, “This man has been found guilty of theft. Of his betters. It is not the first time this man has tried to steal from me. Let all those know that would steal from Lord Colbyn be met with swift and harsh justice.”

The man in black puts his foot on the back of the bound fellow. The rest of the troupe has now arrived and is drawing looks from the crowd. The man in the livery looks at the troupe and quickly says. “Master Executioner. Please carry out this sentence.”

The man in black takes his greatsword and brings it down on the man’s neck and decapitates him.

There are gasps in the crowd. Some people catcall, “No thieves!” “Justice for Colbyn!”

The man in the livery turns toward the crowd and says, “This crowd needs to disperse! There’s nothing more to see here.” He looks warily at Rilka and Mõrvar as he says this. Mõrvar smirks and turns and moseys back to the troupe along with Rilka. Both can feel the lord’s eyes on their backs as they ride away.

They report what they saw to Surm when they get back to Surm. The troupe continues on toward the gates of Braith. Rilka turns and looks to see if the lord is still staring, but he has apparently moved on.

After a lengthy discussion of whether or not the troupe would enter the city, they decide to stop as food vendor and see if would sell the troupe his food while the troupe camps outside of Braith. So Surm approaches a man with food in his wagon.

“Excuse me, good sir,” Surm says.

“Yes, what can I do for you,” the man says.

“I was wondering if you would come and sell my group some fresh food before you enter the city,” Surm says.

“Well, I was taking this load to the Scarlet Charger, an inn. I guess if you are willing to buy some food, I’d be willing to sell it to you,” the man says.

“I’d be willing to buy some food for seventeen people,” Surm says.

“Oh my,” the man says, surprised.

“I don’t know how much food you have,” Surm says.

“Well, that will probably take care of my load,” the man says. “I can sell this to you for five silver.”

“Are you are a cook?” Surm asks.

“No, I just sell the goods,” the man says.

“Do you have the means to cook all of this?” Surm asks.

“Not with me, no,” the man says.

“Not with you, but do you have the means?” Surm asks.

“At home, sure,” the man says.

“Well, could you go get it? How long would that take you? And how much would that trouble cost you?” Surm asks.

“For 5 copper?”

“Alright sir. Go get your stuff, come back, and cook my army up a meal. I’ll pay you,” Surm says.

“What’s your name, sir?” Mõrvar asks.

“Selwyn,” the man says.

Surm gives Selwyn 10 silver so that he can leave his cart there and he can go home and get his gear and come back and be quick.

The troupe encamps outside the city gates. They can see some movement by the city militia out on the city gates, watching them.

After about half an hour, Selwyn comes back with his gear and with his wife. They set up and start cooking. Mõrvar chats with them and the troops while they cook. Rilka watches the campsite.

The food is eventually prepared. Kalia (Selwyn’s wife) and Selwyn serve it up. Mõrvar chats up the couple. Selwyn mentions that he has a farm on Lady Balyn’s land. She’s a good mistress—she only takes what is her due and they take the rest to market. After the meal, Selwyn and Kalia pack up their gear and start to head back home. Mõrvar tells them that if they ever need anything and they are around, don’t hesitate to ask.

After their meal, they pick and move on.

6 Starfall 508

Around midday, the troupe can see the gates of the city of Skeene. After a lengthy discussion, the party decides to bypass Skeene and move on.

7 Starfall 508

The troupe bypasses the city of Kivley.

8 Starfall 508

The troupe arrives outside the city of Aldasar around midday. The party discusses how they want to handle the time off for the troops. Surm calls Mahgnus and Alasir forward and informs them that while they are staying in the city, the troops will be on duty, but room and board will be paid and Alasir will be setting up a rotation of when the troops will be on duty and off. At night, everyone will be reporting back. Everyone’s behavior while off-duty will be reflecting on the group. There needs to be a buddy system and the troops will want the party to know if they get into trouble. Alasir has no problem with the orders.

The troupe approaches the gates and are asked by the guards at the gate who is in charge of the troupe. Surm dismounts and walks up to Rilka’s horse and says “Captain Rilka is in charge.” He says, “Very well,” and then announces the various gate taxes and fees and asks if they have anything to declare as far as the selling of wares. Rilka says that they are looking for a place to stay and if he has any recommendations. He says that they could find an inn with a common room. He says that there is Umbergrow and Waigh’s or Uilliam’s Resting Place. They pay the gate taxes and head inside.

Aldasar is the capital of Leilior, with many sights to see. It has a very busy marketplace and the streets are crowded. The troupe heads toward Uilliam’s Resting Place to meet with Kragar Stoneanvil.

Uilliam’s is a comfortable, modest, inn in the market district. The troops wait outside while the main party heads inside.

The inn doesn’t seem as busy as the last time they were in. There are still patrons, but it seems more subdued. Surm goes to the innkeep to arrange lodging for the seventeen members of their party. The inn has seven rooms and two suites, which each hold four. The rooms will hold two, if pressed. They don’t normally make their common room available for lodging. They take the two suites and six rooms. Surm manages to talk the innkeep into charging the troupe half-price for the rooms as they’ll be staying there for an extended amount of time and stabling their horses. Alasir makes the room assignments for the troops. Surm then gives Mahgnus funds to pay the troops.

While the party is conducting their business at the front desk, Savaric notices a dwarf standing at a table trying to get their attention. Surm notices that it is Kragar Stoneanvil, waving frantically at them.

Surm goes to meet Kragar. The dwarf smiles at the Northron. “So, you’re back from the North?”

“We are back from the North,” Surm says.

“Excellent, excellent. Were you able to find the outpost?” Kragar asks.

“We were able to find the outpost,” Surm says.

Rilka looks about for eavesdroppers, but doesn’t notice any.

“So, were you able to find the journal?” Kragar asks.

“We were,” Surm says.

“Excellent! That is good news indeed,” Kragar says, clearly pleased.

“Are we conducting business here?” Surm asks.

“I have a room. It looks like you just purchased rooms here…” Kragar says.

“I think our rooms will be too small,” Surm says.

“Well, yes, we can go to my room. I have a suite,” Kragar says.

As Kragar heads to his room, Surm flags down Mahgnus and has him fetch the journal and the other items with the seal of Karak Tuvar and the symbol of Skondir. Rilka and the others follow as well.

Kragar’s room is very neat. As he chats with Surm and the others, he unlocks a footlocker. “I hope the journey was not too arduous. Obviously it was not too much to handle as you were successful.”

“Do you know what caused all of the earthquakes around Karak Tuvar?” Rilka asks.

“No, I don’t actually. I’m hoping the journal will shed some light on that,” Kragar says.

Surm tells him about the various things they encountered in the ruins. Kragar is particularly disturbed about the wraiths, as they have not moved on to The Maker. “They have now,” Surm says.

Mahgnus arrives and knocks on the door. Surm takes the items and thanks Mahgnus, who excuses himself and leaves.

“This is more than a journal,” Kragar says.

“Oh, we found more than a journal,” Surm says, “But I didn’t know if you’d be interested in what we found.” He hands the dwarf the journal.

“Thank you,” Kragar says and hands Surm a small pouch with fifty platinum inside.

Surm shows him the gold and silver cups with the seals of Karak Tuvar. He also shows the dwarf the symbols of Skondir and the candelabra with the symbol of Skondir. By Rilka’s estimation, the dwarf is looking at the items with a cool expression on his face. By Surm’s estimation, he is only playing it cool and is very interested in them.

“These are all very interesting pieces,” Kragar says.

“I thought you might like them. They’re very dwarfy,” Surm says.

“Yes, very dwarfy,” Kragar agrees.

“That’s why I’m offering them to you before they hit the streets,” Surm says.

To Rilka, he doesn’t seem worried. Surm thinks he still trying to play it cool.

“I appreciate that,” Kragar says.

“I’m going to check on Mahgnus. Why don’t you peruse these things. I’ll be back in a moment,” Surm and Mõrvar exit the room and leave Rilka and Savaric with the dwarf.

Once outside, Surm quickly asks Mõrvar how much the dwarven items were worth. Mõrvar gives him his estimates, but he’s not sure how much the gold cup is worth.

Meanwhile, Kragar is looking over the goods. Mõrvar and Surm return.

“I would be interested in these pieces,” Kragar says. “For the lot, I’d be willing to spend 75 platinum.”

Surm does some figuring in his head, and says “I was thinking more along the line of 90.”

“90? Ouch,” Kragar says.

The two negotiate and Surm sticks to his guns about the 90 platinum and Kragar finally relents and pays the 90 platinum.

“Enjoy your dwarven antiquities,” Surm says.

“Thank you, I will,” Kragar says. “Obviously The Maker smiles upon you. You were very successful.”

Hands are shaken all around and everyone leaves the dwarf’s suite.

The party regroups at their own table in the common room, towards the back of the room, to talk business. They pull Alasir into the conversation as well. Rilka checks out the patrons of the common room to try to ascertain why business is so slow, but doesn’t notice anything obvious. Surm goes to ask the innkeep if there’s a private meeting room they can use. He also mentions that things are kind of mellow around here since the last time they were in—is there a reason business is so slow? There is no meeting room and there’s a scarcity of luxury items which is driving up prices—including liquor and tobacco—which is driving away business.

The party discusses the distribution of masterwork and magical weapons and armor acquired in Karak Tuvar. After the items are claimed by the party, other items are offered to the soldiery, with the offer that if they take it’s theirs if they turn in what they already have to be sold. Alasir will distribute the weapons and armor offered.

They also discuss the distribution of the other items found in the outpost, including the possibility of keeping the Aedonii obelisk. They also discuss the distribution of personal shares and retraining plans while they are in the city. They will be staying in Aldasar for approximately twenty days.

26 Longday 508

The night passed without incident and the party awakens refreshed in the chamber of Karak Tuvar in which they camped.

Rilka and Mõrvar work on unsticking the doors while Savaric watches the open door. Surm watches the porters. Eventually, the doors are unstuck and they elect to go through the southern door, which opens into a corridor. In the corridor is another chasm to cross, indicating some sort of seismic shift.

Mõrvar theorizes that the earthquakes may have been caused by some unleashing of great power within the structures. Looking at the multiple chasms that they have encountered, he thinks that either there were multiple earthquakes or the cause of the earthquake was within the settlement. Savaric mentions that the Daggerspine is known to have earthquakes.

They all go to jump over the chasm. Mõrvar, Sum, and Savaric make it across. Next come the porters. Kortash jumps and makes it, but his brother, Burask, nearly misses, and catches the edge with his hands. The others help him scramble up. Rilka jumps and makes it.

The party then comes up to a pile of debris they must climb to move on. Everyone eventually makes their way over the pile, some scratching their armor on the debris in the process. They continue down the corridor.

This corridor is very long and ends at a turn to the north. There is another chasm near the corner. The party secures a rope around them to help in case of falling. Mõrvar makes it across, then Savaric tries. He misses the other side of the chasm, but manages to catch the rope and scramble across. The others then make it across as well.

They head up the corridor, finding no doors or traps, but do find more scratched in demonic faces on the wall. They move on.

This corridor leads up to a door and has another corridor that moves off of it which also ends in a door. Both are askew from their foundations and are not trapped. They work on unsticking them; Savaric in the side corridor and Mõrvar at the end of the long corridor.

After Savaric forces open the door, a Morlock screams and throws himself at the doorway, narrowly missing the ranger. Two are in the doorway, ready to attack Savaric.

Meanwhile, at the end of the long corridor, Mõrvar opens into a large room with murals depicting dwarves mourning their dead. Mõrvar hears the cry of the Morlock attacking Savaric and turns to head that way to help. Surm casts dancing lights into the room to light it up.

One of the Morlocks hits Savaric with a club, while the other tries to bite and misses. Savaric overruns through the doorway, knocking both the Morlocks prone in his wake. This opens up the possibility of Rilka attacking. She swings her falchion at the prone Morlocks. She hits the Morlock mightily with her blade.

The Morlocks rise to attack. Rilka takes the opportunity to attack one of the Morlocks again, felling him with her falchion. Savaric swings at the other and hits. The Morlock then tries to bite Rilka, but fails. Rilka then attacks the Morlock, decapitating him. Mõrvar turns around and heads back to the door at the end of the corridor. He reports the slaughter to his brother.

Savaric then goes and gets Mõrvar and Surm to help search the room that he and Rilka have discovered. The room has murals depicting dwarves in various scenes of family life. Savaric and Surm search the room, finding nothing but the obvious pile of treasure distributed in the various piles of Morlock filth in the room. In amongst the filth, they find thirty gold pieces, 120 silver, a malachite, a piece of pyrite, a sard, a silver comb with an ornate handle, a masterwork heavy wooden shield, two scrolls, and a wand with a suit of armor etched upon it.

Surm casts detect magic on the pile and finds that the scrolls and the wand emanate magic. Surm deciphers one of the scrolls to determine that it is a scroll of Erase. He tries to decipher the other scroll, but fails. He identifies the wand as having conjuration properties, and then ascertains that this is a wand of Mage Armor.

Surm checks the one other door out of this room and determines that it is untrapped, not askew, and unlocked. They decide to go back up to the room where they left Mõrvar. Savaric searches that room and finds nothing of interest. Surm searches as well, but more thoroughly. Nothing of interest is found, but from the archway in the north of the room, movement is heard—bone scraping the stone ceiling. Surm ascertains that it must be the bone tail of a cloaker.

Mõrvar moves in, accompanied by Rilka. Surm hovers at the archway with his crossbow. When Mõrvar gets to the archway, the party hears a moan come from the room. Burask, Surm, and Savaric run in panic from cloaker. Mõrvar and the cloaker face off. The cloaker attempts to bite Mõrvar, but misses. Mõrvar critically hits the cloaker and does a substantial amount of damage. Mõrvar then attacks again and hits, doing a fair amount of damage. The cloaker attacks and misses again. Rilka drops her falchion and picks up Surm’s crossbow. She fires over Mõrvar’s shoulder and hits the cloaker for a modicum of damage. The cloaker bites Mõrvar hard. Savaric runs back into the room, as does Surm. Rilka drops the crossbow and picks up her falchion. Mõrvar critically hits the cloaker for massive damage. The creature falls and then Mõrvar runs it through.

“It bit me!” Mõrvar calls out indignantly.

Savaric looks into the arched doorway. In the next room is a group of desiccated corpses and some other unidentified objects. He also sees movement on the ceiling—it looks like two more cloakers are up there. Savaric goes to shoot, but before he can fire, the cloakers moan. However, Mõrvar and Savaric manage to keep their composure and not vomit in the face of the infrasonic moan. Savaric fires two arrows into a cloaker and moves into the room. Mõrvar moves in and attacks, but misses. Rilka moves into the room and attacks a cloaker, but misses. Mõrvar attacks again and misses. A cloaker then bites Savaric. The other cloaker misses Mõrvar. Savaric fires at his cloaker, felling it with several arrows in its hide. Surm casts Magic Missile at the remaining cloaker, doing a respectable amount of damage. The cloaker bites at Mõrvar but misses. Surm casts another Magic Missile at the cloaker, felling the creature. Mõrvar walks over and runs it through.

Surm and Savaric search through the room, finding nothing but what is obvious in the center of the room, which is filth, desiccated bodies, and loot. There is also a door at the north end of the room. Surm searches it and determines that it is not trapped and it is not askew.

The loot in the center of the room is comprised of 39 gold pieces, 150 silver pieces, an agate, an azurite, a citrine, a fresh-water pearl, a hematite, a lapis lazulie, a malachite, a peridot, a zircon, a masterwork greatsword, two vials, and a scroll.

Surm casts Read Magic on the scroll. It is a scroll of Elemental Aura. One of the vials contains oil of arcane mark. The other contains a potion of reduce person. Surm then casts Detect Magic on the greatsword, but does not detect magic on it.

Rilka goes down into the previous room and checks out the arched doorway to the south and sees that it leads to a short corridor blocked by a chasm. There is a door on the other side of the chasm.

They decide to go back around to the door in which they fought the Morlocks and take the northern door. There they find a room that connects to the corridor with the chasm that Rilka found. In it is a statue of Skondir and murals depicting that god bestowing blessings upon various dwarves. Savaric searches the room and finds nothing unusual. In addition to the door leading to the chasm, there is a door to the north and a door to the south. Savaric checks the door to the north and finds no traps or locks. It opens into a corridor that leads into the room before the cloaker room and also jags toward another door. Savaric checks the southern door and finds that it opens into a long corridor.

They decide to take the northern door from the cloaker room. It leads to a corridor that ends in a door and has another corridor branch off of it. Savaric checks the door while Rilka watches the corridor. The corridor is secured while the door is cleared. Savaric opens the door onto a small room. There is a small circle of upright stones in the center of the room. There are cracks/chasms in the floor, walls, and ceiling of the room. There are also five man-sized crab-like creatures that have taken notice of Savaric in the room. They start crab-walking toward the ranger in the doorway.

Rilka casts Bless. Mõrvar waits for Savaric to move. Surm casts Mage Armor on Mõrvar. A crab-creature attacks Savaric and misses with two claws. Savaric moves back down the hall. Rilka follows. Mõrvar moves back as well, executing a plan to catch the crabs in a bottleneck. Surm moves back down the hall out of the way. The crabs start moving down the hall and one attacks Rilka—which misses mightily with two pinchers.

Mõrvar attacks and hits the crab hard. It falls. Surm casts Magic Missile at the next crab. Rilka waits for the next crab to approach, as does Savaric. It does so and Rilka attacks—it falls.

Savaric fires on the next crab with multiple arrows, missing with some, hitting with others. Rilka attacks and kills it. Mõrvar moves up and attacks the next one, blocking the path. Rilka starts cleaning her falchions. Mõrvar kills the crab and steps up to the final creature coming his way. It attacks and misses. It attacks again and misses. Mõrvar then attacks and hits it critically. It wobbles on its legs, staggered. It then tries one last attack, misses, and falls. Then Mõrvar finishes it off.

Everyone climbs over crab bodies to check out the room. The room has a series a stones covered in dwarven runes in the center of room. Savaric recovers his arrows while Surm deciphers the High Dwarven runes as calling upon the protection of Skondir. Surm and Savaric search the room and find nothing of interest other than the cracks in the floors and the ceiling. Mõrvar asks Rilka if this could be the source of the seismic activity in the ruins. She thinks that this was the source of some seismic activity, but whether it was the source of the all the seismic activity, she couldn’t say.

Mõrvar casts light on a pebble and throws it down into one of the cracks. About a 100 feet down, a filament shoots out from the wall and catches it and sucks it in. It got sucked into a hole in the chasm wall. They decide to leave the room and close the door after speculating on the fate of the dwarves of Karak Tuvar.

The party then take the corridor that Rilka was watching and discover that it leads up into the initial room of Karak Tuvar—the entry room with the mosaic seal of the settlement. They decide to exit the dungeon and recuperate a bit in their camp before going back in to explore some more.

Once in camp, Surm checks in Mahgnus to see how camp has been. Camp has been largely uneventful. Alasir has been keeping guards on rotation. It’s been quiet and they have been just awaiting the party’s return. Surm lets him know that they will be camping this evening, but then they will be going back in in the morning because they have yet to find the journal that they are looking for.

Surm also checks in with Alasir to make sure everything is ship shape and to see if there is anything he has to report that Mahgnus didn’t. There is nothing more to report. The porters unload the party’s loot and the party prepares to relax for the evening.

27 Longday 508

Everyone awakens refreshed and ready for the new day. Surm attempts to decipher the scroll of Cat’s Grace, but cannot. Surm decides to take in the bag of Foaming Powder, just in case.

Concerning the standing stones calling upon the protection of Skondir, Mõrvar speculates that they were most likely erected by priests of Skondir to enact a major communion with that deity.

After discussing their game plan, the party returns to Karak Tuvar and begins exploring once again. They return to one of the rooms that they hadn’t yet explored.

Savaric searches the room and finds nothing of interest. Rilka guards the arched doorway. Looking through the arched doorway, they see another room with a large slate hanging on the north wall. Stone benches line the floor facing the slate. There are three more doors exiting that room. They go into the classroom.

Savaric searches the room, but finds nothing of interest. The doors are not trapped. One is askew but none of them are locked. Savaric sneakily opens one of the doors. He sees a large room with an alcove on the east wall with a balcony. Up on the balcony are two Morlocks. On the floor, near a pile of loot and crap are three more Morlocks. They don’t appear to have noticed Savaric at this time.

Ilona whispers to Savaric that she can help him. Savaric tells the others what he sees. They discuss what they want to do. Savaric sends Victor in. Then Savaric moves in and fires into the balcony. Then Mõrvar charges in. Rilka follows soon after.

Savaric slays a Morlock with two arrows from his bow. Mõrvar attacks one of the Morlocks on the ground while Rilka attacks one of his companions. Surm casts Ray of Frost on the remaining Morlock in the balcony, but misses it. Mõrvar fells his Morlock and carries through his attack to another Morlock, but swings wildly past him. Rilka attacks her Morlock, destroying him, and then attacks the remaining Morlock on the ground, doing a respectable amount of damage to him. The Morlock on the balcony leaps down and rushes Savaric, but misses. The other Morlock attacks Rilka and misses. Savaric draws Edgefrost and attacks the Morlock, hitting him with cold damage. Rilka finishes off her Morlock with a critical hit. Surm casts Ray of Frost again at the Morlock Savaric is fighting and hits it for a modicum of damage. The Morlock misses Savaric with a bite. Mõrvar then attacks the remaining Morlock and finishes it off.

Surm and Savaric search the room, finding only a stash of stuff in amongst the filth in the center of the room. In amongst the filth they find 225 gold pieces, 800 silver pieces, 70 copper pieces, an agate, a hematite, some ivory, a jasper, a rose quartz, a saltwater pearl, a topaz, a carved ivory scroll case containing 3 scrolls, a gold cup with the seal of Karak Tuvar, a silver comb with a gold handle, a silver cup with the seal of Karak Tuvar, a silver hand mirror, a silver holy symbol of Skondir, and a leather-bound book with the seal of Karak Tuvar on the front—the journal that the party has been looking for.

Mõrvar casts Read Magic on the scrolls. They are a scroll of Command, a scroll of Detect Magic, and a scroll of Enlarge Person. Surm attempts to decipher them and can decipher them all but the third one.

The party then decide to start checking out places that they have not already been, so they begin back-tracking and checking out errant hallways and doors. Along they way they have to unstick askew doors and search empty rooms. They find no traps along the way.

Along the way, Mõrvar busts open a door and the party hears the low moan of a cloaker. Surm and the porters flee the scene. Rilka calls out to let her by, but holds her action. Mõrvar tries to bull rush the cloaker, but fails. Savaric fires on the cloaker. with whistling arrows, through Rilka and Mõrvar. He misses with one, but hits with the other. Then the cloaker envelopes Mõrvar and then attempts, but fails, to bite him. Rilka then moves forward and attacks the cloaker and misses twice.

The cloaker attempts to bite Mõrvar again, but can’t penetrate his Mage Armor. Savaric fires on the cloaker and does damage to both the cloaker and to Mõrvar. Mõrvar touches the cloaker, casting Chill Touch on it. Rilka holds off on her attack.

Mõrvar drains another point of strength from the cloaker while Savaric holds off on his attack. Rilka holds off. Surm runs back, no longer under the affect of the cloaker’s moan. The cloaker misses Mõrvar again.

The cloaker bites Mõrvar, finally. Mõrvar drains another point of strength from the cloaker. Savaric and Rilka continue to hold off. Surm tells Savaric to touch the cloaker with Edgefrost to do the cold damage while Surm cast Ray of Frost—Mõrvar is unaffected by the cold damage due to his undead heritage. Savaric touches the cold sword to the cloaker as directed.

Surm casts Color Spray from a scroll at the cloaker. A vivid cone of clashing colors emerges and stuns the cloaker, causing it to drop Mõrvar. Mõrvar attacks the cloaker and fells it. He then runs the creature through. He then kicks it and spits on it. “I told you I’d kill you if you bit me,” he says.

There are corpses of past adventurers in the center of the floor, as well as loot, including two masterwork longswords, a suit a chainmail, a vial, and a scroll.

Surm casts Detect Magic on the items and determines that one of the swords, the suit of chainmail, the vial, and the scroll are magic. The scroll is a scroll of Draconic Reservoir. The vial is a potion of Shield of Faith.

There are also 217 gold pieces, 113 silver pieces, 57 copper pieces.

Mõrvar searches the room and finds nothing else but filth. Savaric searches the room and finds nothing else of interest.

25 Longday 508

The party is still within the abandoned dwarven outpost of Karak Tuvar. They are in a chamber with murals depicting dwarves going to battle against goblins and orcs. Mõrvar is guarding a door in the eastern part of the chamber. Rilka is guarding an arched doorway in the southern part of the chamber. Surm and Savaric search the room and find nothing of interest. There is a door in the western part of the chamber and they have entered through a door in the northwestern portion of the chamber.

Savaric checks the western door for traps and finds none, and discovers that it is unlocked. Savaric cautiously opens the door and peers inside. It appears to open into a short corridor connecting to a door they have encountered before, confirming their suspicions. Savaric searches the corridor for secret doors or corridors and finds none.

Savaric then scouts down the corridor that Rilka is guarding. It, too, connects to a chamber where the party has already been. Rilka asks Mõrvar if he has heard anything from beyond the door he’s guarding and he responds that he’s heard nothing. Savaric checks the door for traps and finds nothing, but does find that the door is a bit off-kilter.

Mõrvar takes the crowbar and heroically forces open the stuck door. The party then passes through the door with the two porters, Burask and Kortash, in tow.

Savaric enters an oddly-shaped room. There are more doors in the room, as well as an archway. There is filth covering the floor and a stench in the room. There are murals on the walls depicting dwarves in solemn contemplation. Savaric and Surm notice something glinting off the light of Mõrvar’s Light spell in the filth. Rilka goes to guard the archway. The rest of the party moves toward the filth, Surm hanging back, ready to shoot with his crossbow.

Leaping from the filth, are a group of Morlocks. One leaps at Mõrvar and misses. Another leaps at Savaric and misses. There are four in total. Rilka moves in and attacks one of the Morlocks, felling it in one stroke. She attacks another, doing massing damage. Surm fires on one of Morlocks on Mõrvar, hitting it critically, nicking an artery and making it bleed. Savaric shoots the Morlock on him with two arrows and fells him. Then he fires on one of the Morlocks on Mõrvar. That Morlock falls. That leaves one Morlock left for Mõrvar. He hits the Morlock, and causes it to stagger.

The Morlock makes a break for it. Mõrvar swings at it, but misses. Rilka strikes it on its way out and kills it, and Surm finishes it off with a Ray of Frost. Mõrvar finishes the others off.

Savaric searches the room and the filth to see what he can find. Rilka guards the archway. Mõrvar and Surm guard he area. Amongst the filth, Savaric finds rotted humanoid corpses and gear. He also finds 96 gold pieces, 320 silver pieces, and 1100 copper pieces. He also finds an aquamarine, a freshwater pearl, a hematite, a piece of ivory, a piece of pyrite, two rose quartzes, a saltwater pearl, two sards, a sardonyx, a tigereye, three pieces of turquoise, a decorated silver plate, a gold and silver hand mirror, a gold holy symbol of Skondir, a gold mask, an ivory drinking horn with copper ends, a silver candelabra with the holy symbol of Skondir etched upon it, a silver hand mirror, and a scroll.

Surm casts Detect Magic on the items and only detects magic on the scroll. He deciphers the scroll and determines that it is a Scroll of Burning Gaze.

Once the loot is gathered, Savaric scouts through the arched doorway. The next room is dominated by a large statue of Skondir. There is another door exiting the room. Savaric searches the room and the statue and finds nothing of interest and the door is trap-free and unlocked. He stealthily opens the door. It opens up into a hallway. The party follows it, with Savaric checking for traps. Savaric finds none and the hall ends at a door. He checks the door for traps, and finds none, but does note that the door is askew. Mõrvar is brought forward to force the door open, but fails to budge it. Everyone tries to move it, but eventually it is finally moved by Mõrvar on a subsequent attempt.

The door opens up into a large room with a geometric pattern painted upon the ceiling. Savaric searches the room, and finds nothing of interest. There are several doors leading out of the room. Savaric checks one of the doors for traps—he finds no traps, but does determine that it is stuck. He also determines the same for another door.

Rilka opens one of the doors on the third try. Savaric goes through the door to scout ahead. It opens into a corridor. There is a collapsed stairwell resulting in a deep hole off to the side. There is a also a door off of the corridor. Savaric stares down the hole—he can see sixty feet down and can tell that the hole keeps going. He checks out the door, finding no traps and that it is unlocked. He stealthily opens the door into a largish room. In the center of the room is a dry fountain. Around the fountain, at its base, are four statues of dwarves in various states of battle-readiness. Around the fountain, are desiccated corpses.

Descending from the ceiling, as they enter the room, is a large stingray-like creature with a toothy maw and glaring red eyes. It has a long tail of segmented bone. Rilka moves forward quickly and attacks, doing a great deal of damage. Surm casts Mage Armor on Mõrvar. The creature then emits an infrasonic moan. Savaric is panicked, dropping his items and fleeing from the creature. Mõrvar attacks the creature for massive damage, felling the aberration. Savaric is retrieved.

Rilka guards the open doorway while Mõrvar guards one of the doors. Savaric identifies the creature as being a Cloaker. Savaric searches the room and finds nothing secret. However, inside the fountain, he finds a pile of treasure. The porters begin collecting it. They find 99 gold pieces, 243 silver pieces, 423 copper pieces, a piece of amber, a freshwater pearl, a piece of ivory, a milky quartz, a rhodochrosite, a topaz, a masterwork long spear, and a masterwork warhammer. Surm detects no magic on any of the items.

Rilka checks the open doorway and finds that it leads into a room full of more doors, but that one of the new arched doorways is actually one of the doorways they’ve encountered before, so the dungeon is starting to circle back on itself in some fashion. Savaric checks one of the doors for traps and finds that it is trap free and unlocked, but that it is off-kilter. He searches the room and finds nothing of interest. He searches another door and finds no traps and that it is unlocked. He opens it stealthily and finds that it opens into a corridor that turns. He also sees a chasm that opened up near the turn that is probably nearly 3 to 4 feet wide. He goes and peers 60 feet down and sees no bottom. Savaric searches the corridor for secret doors and finds none.

They return to the large chamber and check the door that Mõrvar has been guarding. Savaric finds no traps on it, and finds that it is unlocked. Savaric opens the door into a corridor that turns. He can see where another chasm has opened up at the turn.

The party then goes to another of the stuck doors and try to unstick it. They each take turns at it and eventually Savaric forces it open. The door opens into a corridor. It travels along until they encounter a pile of debris that must be climbed. Savaric scouts ahead, climbs the debris, and finds a door at the end of the corridor connecting to a part of the outpost that has already been explored. The ranger returns to the rest of the party.

The party continues to explore, opening stuck doors, traversing down long corridors, and finding empty rooms. None of the doors appear to be locked, but some are off of their foundations and stuck, evidence of a seismic event of some sort. Savaric continues to find no secret doors or stashes.

As they make their way down one of the long corridors into another room, Savaric and Rilka hear a moan. Savaric is nauseated by the infrasonic attack, falling prone and sick. Descending from the ceiling is another Cloaker. Rilka attacks the creature with her falchion. She misses with her first hit, but hits critically with her second hit. The Cloaker then attempts to engulf Rilka in its ray-like wings, but misses her. Surm moves into the room and casts Admonishing Ray at the creature, but it misses and hits the wall. Mõrvar charges in with his greatsword and attacks, hitting the creature mightily. Rilka attacks again, felling the creature.

Surm starts to search the room and notes that there is an antechamber to the room. He calls for someone to accompany him to the antechamber. Rilka and he scan the antechamber and see nothing of interest, but do hear a pair of moans and see a set of Cloakers descend from the ceiling of the chamber. Surm is panicked and drops his weapon and flees from the scene.

Mõrvar charges into the antechamber and attacks—but misses. Rilka attacks and hits twice with her falchion. A Cloaker engulfs Mõrvar and tries to bite him, but misses him. The other Cloaker also engulfs Rilka but fails to bite her. Savaric sends Victor in to attack one of the Cloakers. Then he casts Summon Nature’s Ally to bring forth a Small Fire Elemental to combat the Cloakers. Victor bites the Cloaker, injecting poison into the creature.

The Cloaker on Rilka bites her, while Mõrvar is missed. Victor bites his Cloaker and the Elemental misses his. Mõrvar breaks free of his Cloaker and attacks mightily. Rilka fails to break away from the Cloaker. Savaric fires at Rilka’s Cloaker. First he misses, then he hits. It sags against Rilka, slain. He then redirects his remaining shot against the other Cloaker and misses.

The Elemental misses the Cloaker again. The Cloaker moans again, Everyone manages to fight off the effects of the infrasonic attack—except for the Elemental, which doubles over in nausea. Rilka moves out from beneath the dead Cloaker and strikes out at the live one. She hits it strongly and it falls.

Now that the Cloakers have fallen, Surm returns. The party can see the remains of desiccated corpses and various treasures on the floor. Savaric re-searches the room that Surm searched before and then searches the antechamber with the treasures. The antechamber has murals depicting dwarves going to battle against duregar—evil dwarves from deep beneath the earth.

On the floor, there is 96 gold pieces 558 silver pieces, 148 copper, a malachite, a pyrite, a tigereye, a masterwork chain shirt, a masterwork heavy crossbow, a masterwork long spear, a masterwork longsword, a vial with a liquid inside, and a scroll. Surm casts Detect Magic on the items. He detects magic on the vial and on the scroll. The scroll is of Prestidigitation. He samples the vial and determines that it is a potion of Goodberry.

Rilka looks down a corridor and sees another collapsed stairway. Savaric is brought to the lead and the party takes the corridor. Surm collects his dropped weapon before they leave the room.

The corridor leads to more doors which are not trapped, but are askew. Mõrvar manages to unstick the doors. These lead to more empty rooms and corridors with more non-trapped doors that are often off-kilter in their frames that have to be forced open. Savaric searches the rooms and corridors for secret doors and stashes and finds none.

Down one long corridor is another narrow chasm, beyond which are more doors. Another turn off of the corridor leads to a corridor that has already been explored. Rilka and Savaric discuss the dungeon design and decide that the corridor beyond the chasm will probably lead to someplace they have not been so far. So they decide to leap over the chasm and continue on.

Each party member, including the porters, take their turn to leap over the chasm. Surm stands ready with a Feather Fall spell in case something goes awry. Everyone makes across without incident.

More rooms and corridors await the party on the other side of the chasm. None of the doors are trapped, but some are off-kilter and have to be forced open. Savaric once again searches the rooms and corridors for secret doors and stashes and finds none.

One long corridor has yet another narrow chasm crossing it. Burask points toward the chasm and says, “What’s that?” Now that he points it out, Rilka sees a green gemstone wedged in the side of the chasm about five feet down. Mõrvar and Rilka grab Savaric’s ankles as he dangles down the chasm and grabs the gemstone. Now that he’s down there pulling it out, he discovers that it is less of a gemstone than a foot-long green obelisk with glyphs etched along the sides. He manages to pull it out of the earth and haul it up. They pull Savaric up with his prize.

Examining the glyphs, it doesn’t appear to be written in any language they know. Surm believes that it is probably an ancient text and that it may be one of the scripts of The Aedonii. Surm detects magic on the obelisk and detects no magic upon it.

They all leap over the chasm and continue down the corridor. Mõrvar and Savaric continue down an extremely long corridor to a door that is a off-kilter. Mõrvar opens the door and sees a Cloaker descending from the ceiling. He shuts the door and covers his ears. Savaric runs back down the extremely long corridor to get the others.

Meanwhile, Mõrvar prepares to cast True Strike in case the door starts to open. Indeed, the door starts to open and the warrior casts his spell. He sees the creature’s segmented tail is wrapped around the door’s knob and it’s leering maw is coming toward him, but it misses. Mõrvar attacks and hits, doing a respectable amount of damage. Then Mõrvar attacks again, but misses. The creature attacks Mõrvar, but misses. Mõrvar attacks again, but misses, but the creature misses as well. The creature attacks again, but takes a bite out of Mõrvar. Mõrvar attacks, but misses. The creature attacks and bites Mõrvar again.

Meanwhile, Savaric makes it to the rest of the group and reports what’s happening. They all jump over the chasm and start running down the long corridor toward Mõrvar.

Mõrvar attacks and strikes the creature again, but the creature is still standing. The creature bites Mõrvar again. The Cloaker bites at Mõrvar again and misses. Mõrvar attacks the creature again and misses. Then Mõrvar attacks again and hits for mighty damage, felling the creature. He issues a victory yell that echoes down the hall.

When the others catch up, they gut the Cloaker to make sure that Channeling Positive Energy doesn’t have any effect on it and then Rilka does so to heal Mõrvar’s injuries.

In the room, they see more murals of dwarves going to battle against duregar. There are desiccated corpses. There are also several more doors into and out of the room. They decide to set up camp in the room and to continue exploring the next day…