Ard

The Box

2007-11-05T07:28:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention something.

We found a strange box. At first, we thought it converted mundane items into gems. When we placed a hand in the box, nothing happened. But when we placed an item in the box, it was replaced with a gem (a small topaz). Eventually, I realized that the gems must have been stored in the box, for at some point we put in a mundane item and received back not a gem but one of the first mundane items we had placed in the box.

It is some sort of extra-dimensional storage device. Quite handy--just by placing your hand in the box and thinking of the item, it appears in your hand. Weedon is enjoying playing with the box; I am glad he has something to pass the time on the ship while we explore the tower.

The Tower--Second Visit

2007-11-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

Returning to the tower, we were able to bypass the 'wave' trap quite easily (in fact, the lit candle does not melt at all--nice magic, indeed!) and continue our exploration where we left off.

In a corridor, which we thought to be a dead end, a secret door was discovered. (Ravenna does much more than just talk--her talents are proving quite useful in our little journey.) Beyond the door lay a secret library. Before we could investigate the contents more thoroughly, skeletons attacked us. Now, we had already heard Katalla's tale of the undead kobolds, but this was something very different. I know others of my faith would scoff at me for saying this, but these skeletons were not mindless. In fact, it appeared they were reading books when we happened upon them! Curiouser and curiouser....

We battled the skeletons, and with Fharlanghn's blessing and the magical mace I smote two of them myself. With the powerful swords of Aesa and Enzo, Ravenna's many skills, and the powerful magic of Ciris, we defeated the skeletons.

And in the library itself, Aesa found three very interesting items: a map and two traveller's journals! Surely Fharlanghn himself has pointed my journey in this direction.

Revenge of the Snake Things

2007-11-03T18:53:00.001-07:00

In the middle of the night, we were awakened by an awful sound. From the hold, it sounded like the moaning of the damned! Worse, it was accompanied by an even more wretched smell.

Investigating cautiously, hands covering our noses in a vain attempt to ward off the evil odors, we quickly realized the problem. The snake things devoured by the kobolds had made them all very sick. Relieved that it was nothing more serious than a little case of food poisoning, we were dismayed to realize that our rowers were incapacitated. The ship will go nowhere until they are well! I actually began to feel sorry for them. Strange as they are, they have kept their bargains with us (so far).

Still, the smell is most foul! I can not wait to get back to the tower--at least it does not smell like kobold sick!

Katalla's Tale

2007-11-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

When we returned to the ship, we were in for a surprise. Apparently, while we explored the tower, some of the dead kobolds rose up and attacked! Katalla managed to defend the children (and herself). She was grateful to have my mace at her side.

We gave the bodies of the snake things to the kobolds for food. The nasty little yippers tore into them immediately.

Later, when no one else was around, Ciris asked me to try on the ring he had acquired from Kreon. The mage asked me if anything unusual happened. I lied and said nothing happened. But, in truth, the ring talked to me! Ciris had told me (and only me) that the ring had talked to him, saying it was disappointed to be on the finger of a mage once again. I promised to show the ring something interesting--the strange shadow braziers in the tower. This seemed to intrigue the ring, but it would speak no more.

Brazier, Brazier, Burning Bright

2007-11-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

One of the last things we did in the tower, before we returned to the ship, involved a massive room. This room is so large, we could not see across to the other side. In the corner of the room was some sort of large urn or brazier. Eventually, I lit it with the lighting-device I had taken from the candle niche.

When lit, a strange sort of, something shot out of the brazier. Was it light? Or shadow? It's as if my brain does not wish to remember! Whatever it was, it seemed to shoot toward the center of the room. I think. The snake poison was still making me woozy, for I can not recall exactly.

In another corner, we found another brazier. I think we are all wondering the same thing--are there four braziers? And, if so, what happens when we light all of them at once?

No time to find out now. We must return to the ship and rest.

A Candle in the Dark

2007-11-03T18:32:00.001-07:00

Continuing to explore the tower, we came across a most ingenious trap. A wave of darkness caused much grief, until we discovered something just beyond the trap: a small niche, with a candle and some sort of device to light it. Once we lit the candle, the wave of darkness ceased its harm. I kept the lighting device, for who knows when such a device might be useful.

We found a door, with a strange rune on it. The rune was in the shape of a flame, though for a moment the plumes of flame reminded me of the tentacled-horror who assaulted us on the ship! Beyond were drow beds. We reseted a few minutes to recover from the wave of darkness and then pressed on. Much to our surprise, we were attacked by a snake-like creature. As I darted around the beast to close the other door in the room, another appeared. The bite was not so bad, but its poison made me woozy. Luckily, we managed to dispatch the snakes, aided much by a mighty blow from Enzo. And raise Fharlanghn for Kreon's antitoxin, which Ravenna gave me! It helped staunch the poison's ill effects.

Not too badly injured, we marched on. This time, the very shadows attacked us! Its touch did not do damage, per se, but seemed to drain our very strength. Ciris suffered the most weakening from the shadow-beast. We could not kill the beast, but managed to fight it to some sort of stand-off. We decided to flee the tower and recover, rather than risk a renewed attack.

The ShadowGate

2007-10-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

Entering the tower, we found evidence that it was some sort of military outpost. There was strange writing in several place. It was some form of elvish, but those in our group who know the elven tongue could not read this script. Ciris could make out a few words, and deduced that the tower was called "The ShadowGate."

In the first true room we entered, we found wine bottles with more of this strange writing on them. We also found furniture with odd spider web designs. A drow outpost perhaps? I think this made us all nervous. Kreon had warned us repeatedly about to wickedness of the dark elves. The next room was some sort of barracks. Ravenna searched around and believed that whoever left the place did so hastily. And it was not too long ago, for there was not much dust on the few things left behind. Another barracks contained hammocks of unusual design--they looked like spider webs. All signs point to drow--I hope none remain!

The last room was very different. A round room (the others all contained straight walls, not curved), some sort of circle was etched on the floor. There was also strange writing, but different from the other writing. After all of Kreon's talk about the evil drow, not much could have made me more nervous. But Casis deciphering the script and realizing that the room has some connection to a demon prince (dare I even write the name down?!) has filled me with trepidation.

I do not like this place.

But we need to find some information. Any information. Something to point us in a direction. And if we can't have that, we need to find a place to resupply our ship so we can journey elsewhere for clues.

We will explore more of the tower shortly. But then we must return to the ship so Katalla does not leave without us.

Demogorgon. That's the name of the demon prince. I can not resist the urge to document my journey fully. I only hope that merely writing down the name does not bring ill fortune upon our brave little group.

The Tower

2007-10-08T14:25:00.000-07:00

We found a large tower rising up out of the water. A very large tower--perhaps a thousand feet across? We circled it in the boat and found two landing spots, on opposite sides of the tower.

The tower is made of some black material. Of course, it may just look black in the sunless world. There is even a small jetty by one of the landing areas (the first one we found). There is an opening in the side of the tower, flanked by two statues. The statues look like a very stylized representation of humans, but the figures have six fingers on each hand. Odd. I guess they do not depict surface-dwelling humans.

We discussed what to do. Leave or explore the tower? Our biggest concern was, naturally, the kobolds. We can not trust them, yet we must if we are to explore the tower. We can not take the children with us, yet we can not trust the kobolds with their safety. And even if they do not harm the children, they could just start rowing away!

Katalla volunteered to stay behind with the children. She has my mace for protection (apparently, she brought no weapons of her own; I let her keep it for I had obtained a magical mace from the bugbear slain during the fight on deck). We kept the lock on the hold to protect the foodstuffs and gear, and then bribed Dreck to keep the kobolds in line. The greed in his face was obvious as he stared at the 20 silver pieces we gave him. We promised him more upon our return, if the boat and humans were well taken care of.

Nervous at leaving the (relative) safety of the boat, we nonetheless set off. We told Katalla that we would return in three hours times as this is just a brief scouting mission. If we can not return in three hours, Fharlanghn help us!

A Sign

2007-10-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

Last (night?) while on watch, Ciris saw something. Flashes of light off in the distance. Different colors, he said. I think green, then red, then green again, but I can't remember. Then, someone (I think Katalla, but I was sleeping and don't know who saw it first) saw something fly overhead. Something very large. It seemed to come from the direction of the light flashes, flew over the ship, and continued away in the opposite direction.

Since it was time to start rowing, we decided to row toward the flashes of light. It is the only thing we have seen off in the distance, and none of us knows the route Kreon was planning to take.

While some of our group helped with the rowing, some of us tried our hand at fishing. Whedan "taught" Enzo and myself how to fish. We did catch several fish--disgusting things with bulbous white eyes. We gave some to the kobolds right away as a reward for keeping their end of the bargain. They ate the fish (raw!) right away.

Enzo and I did have a chance to capture a large wing (perhaps from companion to the creature who flew overhead a few hours before?), but Enzo thought we should not risk our only net to catch such a "prize." While I was disappointed that we would not get to examine the large wing floating in the water, I feel Enzo's decision was very wise. There may be more to that fighter-boy than I first thought!

Later, when I was rowing, others kept fishing. We at least will have some "fresh meat" for the kobolds.

And then we spotted something. The sign led us to something, but we're not sure what.

Death in the Endless Night

2007-10-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

"Some journey" is right.

Last night (or was it day? you can't tell down here), Kreon was killed. We were sailing along, when suddenly, three monsters appeared on the deck of the ship. They were man-sized, but had disgusting gray skin, strange bulbous eyes, and several tentacles dangling from their chins. It was easy to recognize an illithid from Kreon's descriptions, even though I had never seen one before.

I don't know exactly what happened; somehow they stunned us and much time passed. When I regained my sense, Kreon was dead. Two of the illithids were gone and the third one was dead. But a large fur-covered beast was also present. This bugbear (I later learned that's what it was) attacked us. Working together, we were able to defeat the monster. Although Aesa did take some severe damage, Fharlanghn's blessing were able to prevent her death. Whedan even joined in the attack, using his father's dagger. (Though he did not strike the foul beast, he did try; Enzo gave the lad much praise for his efforts.)

There was also a large fist made of fire, circling the boat. It eventually dissipated. Ciris somehow knew that it was not Kreon's magic. With the illithids all dead, we have no idea who formed the fist.

After the bugbear was dispatched, we examined his body and the illithid body. Both were wearing a strange amulet (which Ciris said was not magical). I wonder what the amulet means? It looks like a diamond placed in front of triangle, so that the top of the diamond overlays the bottom of the triangle.

Then we had to deal with the kobolds. We don't trust them, but one of them does speak the common tongue, so we were able to come to an agreement with them. (Really, I guess the agreement is with him--we call him Dreck--but as long as he cows the other kobolds, we have no complaints.) We agreed to share the good food with them, if they would keep rowing. We also agreed to help with the rowing.

The kobolds keep insisting on fresh meat. Though it sickened us, we immediately gave them the body of the bugbear. They devoured it very quickly.

We searched the ship's hold, really just to inventory our supplies. We managed to take a lock off a chest (well, Ravenna managed it) and use it to lock the hold so the kobolds don't steal the food or other supplies.

The kobolds will row hard, and we will help (just two of us at a time). We will keep moving across the Sunless Sea. We don't even know where we're going (not that one needs a destination; the journey itself is reward enough!) but we have food to last only one week.

Teleportation Blues

2007-10-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

A high ranking member of the Order named Kreon will be leading us to our hideout.

He cast a powerful spell (some sort of teleportation) and we were whisked away, ending up in some large underground cavern. The spell made me nauseous; I really didn't like it. Then Kreon took us to a very odd boat waiting on the shores of what he called the "Sunless Sea."

It is a strange little boat. Kreon said that it was "liberated" from a race called Drow. These evil beings are elves who live underground; they delight in tormenting and enslaving other races.

It is a strange little group on the boat. Kreon has brought along his two children (Whedan and Kassie)....and then there are the kobolds. Nasty little yippers, Kreon keeps them in line through powerful magic. All they do is row and sleep.

There is also a woman, who appears to be sleeping, in a large glass box in the hold. Whedan said her name was Artera.

Finally, there are the six....well, I don't really know what to call us. Refugees, I guess? There is Katalla (a potter), Ciris (an arcanist like Kreon, only not as powerful), Ravenna (who likes to chat and is a bit of a pack rat), Enzo (who constantly practices fighting moves), Aesa (an intimidating women from the northern barbarian tribes), and me. Six humans, sailing across the Sunless Sea with enslaved kobolds providing the muscle for rowing.

This is turning out to be some journey!

Another Journey Begins

2007-10-08T12:07:00.001-07:00

What a strange request--hide underground (for who knows how long) to avert a war? Huh?

That's what The Order wants us to do. Twelve complete strangers, chosen through vague divinations. One of us is, according to some Hextoran prophecy, the "chosen one." And while the "chosen one" lives, the forces of evil will not invade our lands.

Well, it's the least we can do.

Besides, this journey should prove very interesting, indeed!