AD&D

Dear Diary….ship’s log
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Dear Diary….ship’s log

So this is called a ship’s log I guess. The earlier pages should prove interesting when there’s better light…and more headspace.

Physically, I am…fine. After a fashion. The ship goes up and down, and the moons are obscured by clouds, but the breeze is refreshing for once, not bone-chilling. Clothes help, I’m sure.

Heiron is patrolling the far end of the deck. I see him as he passes in and out of the light of the torch, avoiding the hastily thrown up pile of dead bodies.

The light isn’t the greatest, but I need to clear my head. And for that, I need to start at the beginning:

We had dinner with that wizard type in the back room of the Welcome Wench. I think his name us Bondril Lastindin, but Lydia says that’s not quite right.

Keom and Ronhass couldn’t come, since the dragons were being fussy or something and wouldn’t take their naps, but all things considered I think we’re all very glad they weren’t there.

I can barely remember the food, though Raven remarked how amazing it was. I do remember the man smoked a pipe…and the room was covered with these horrible, smelly candles…like my subconscious needling me with the weight of my failures until it’s all I can remember.

This Lastindin or whatever his name was said he was very interested in our exploration of the Temple…specifically our discovery of the prince of Furiundy. He kept asking about that, coming back to how such a great warrior could be kidnapped from his very palace…

And now, in hindsight — I hope Lydia got a good look at him, because I think we’ll want to find him when this is all over. If he’s in the business of drugging and kidnapping powerful and important or otherwise interesting people, that’s a business I want to close.

Suffice to say, when I woke up, it was dark…and I couldn’t move my arms – or legs. The wooden walls were so close even I couldn’t roll over, and it sounds like the others fared worse.

Continue reading →

Dear diary….Season 6: MANUSCRIPT INCOMPLETE
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Dear diary….Season 6: MANUSCRIPT INCOMPLETE

Safely “home” from Mitrik.

Keom and Ronhass are living in the woods, though, because the dragon eggs hatched. They…are smaller than I feared…the dragons, that is. Ronhass seems a bit in shock — he says they refuse to go to sleep unless he is present somehow, usually singing to them. Ezekiel and Raven went around to the shepherds making sure we would have plenty to feed them…good thing we didn’t spend all of our money in town!

I did buy my own personal bag-of-holding, to keep my junk and back-up gear in. You never know when you might need to take off at a moment’s notice and spend weeks in the woods.

Master Osler says some wizard guy has arrived in town and seems anxious to speak with us. We’re having dinner with him tonight, so we’ll see what it’s all about. I know we’re famous and stuff now, but it still feels funny to me…

Spent the afternoon organizing our chest of junk. Is Ezekiel really ever going to do anything with this bundle of harpy feathers?

*[end of manuscript]*

Found in the belongings of my friend and loyal customer Elwyn the Ranger. No one in town has seen any of their party since last night. In investigating their belongings, I found their beds had not been slept in.

It’s not at all unusual for them to set out for other parts on short notice, or even to be absent for days on end…but they are usually very good about communicating with me or my staff, especially when we need to take care of their animals, and they are famous for their “setting out” breakfasts. Elwyn’s pet weasel had almost chewed his way through the door of their room, which only adds to my unease.

A will, also found in Elwyn’s belongings, divides his wealth among myself, Master Elmo the constable’s son, and an innkeeper in some place called Orlane (after a sizeable legacy for his man-at-arms). Despite the inn’s need to renovate the stable, I hope nothing terrible has happened to them.

I suppose I am getting paranoid in my old age.

–Master Ostler, owner and keeper of the Welcome Wench

Find the previous entry here.

Read the next entry here.

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Dear Diary….cleaning up and cashing in

When the fire died down, we could examine the gold throne – which was the only thing left in the room. Turns out the seat is all weird and…bowl-like, like for a giant “elephant”-shaped thing to sit in. So we broke it up into pieces, because at least the gold will be worth something (maybe Mikael will forge himself a new grove-chair).

We circled the walls to make sure we hadn’t missed anything, and checked out a place on the far side of the pillars-and-throne room that Ezekiel noticed while he was running around hyper. It’s a huge rectangle of dirt with a border of stone where you can walk.

Ezekiel used magic to tell us there was something mushroom-shaped down there, and Tressarian smelled something magical in the very middle…but we all smelled a trap, so Mikael’s going to request some spell to control the plants or calm the plants or keep them off our backs or something so we can get to the magic thing. We’re coming back tomorrow anyway so Lydia can use her detection abilities on the pillars and silver throne (she should be able to get more information than Tres can, since she’s a specialist).

We loaded up some candelabra that Ezekiel noticed earlier and really wanted for some reason, and confirmed that the big purple throne in the pillar room is magical somehow (that’s the room that’s so big, with all the pillars shaped like ugly mushrooms. I guess we’ll have something else to investigate eventually).

**

Nice surprise when we got back to the inn. A minstrel was there from the Grand Duchy of Geoffe! and he sang Hrvstllygg Tymll very nicely. He also says a ranger (I bet that’s Master!) was patrolling near Ertulli, and discovered the smoking bodies of goblins! Someone has been clearing out…we’ll have to see if it’s someone good, or the Mage of the Valley moving even further out. Continue reading →

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Dear Diary….OH like mushrooms actually worship her!?

Alert: DEFINITELY contains SPOILERS for the adventure “The Temple of Elemental Evil”

Lydia decided on the side of boldness and valor and whatever, and went into the room.

I stood guard, pushing the curtain with my back so I could see both sides (thankfully it wasn’t another flesh-eating purple fungus).

Directly in front of me sat a silver throne – glinting with gems, but mostly in shadow. Ezekiel stood off to the side, his shield trying to blind me, while he spun hither and thither and waved his mace. The others were scattered around the steps of the throne, with Raven and Heiron closest to the corner by me.

Ezekiel yelled, “There’s something invisible in the corner!” and banged his mace on the floor.

Someone (we think it was the mace!) growled, “Hu kyam!”

(I don’t know what else it did, but that’s all I saw.)

Lydia was rubbing a silver coin on the ground. Mikael waved his hand in the air. Ezekiel rushed toward the corner.

And then things got…really weird. Raven jerked around, yelping, and something shook the floor with an incredible thump/bang.

Well, from the way Raven’s body was…squishing…I lined up a shot. My first two arrows disappeared, and while there were no satisfying bellows of pain, I think they nailed something.

Ezekiel was vibrating again, like he did way back when, and then–

Then Mikael got his spell to work. We saw a huge, bulbous shape – out-lined and high-lighted with the glow of faery fire – stretching out tentacles of some kind to whack at Raven…but that’s the best I can get at describing it. The pictures on the Temple walls hardly do it justice…the thing was hideous. Continue reading →

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Dear Diary….playing with the runes…

Ezekiel wanted to experiment with the magic stones, and the portal runes.

Raven wanted to experiment with the potions of diminution, to see if we could squeeze the giants through Lydia’s portal.

Ezekiel won the argument (for now) but we’re still waiting to see if that was for the best…

He and Raven headed down the hall from the giants’ room to where there’s a circle-rune (Node of Air, I think, but my notes are kinda disorganized), and while they played around with it, I stood watch over the corridor (Ezekiel took the smoky quartz – which we assume matches Air – but gave me the other two stones for safe-keeping).

He started with setting the stone carefully on the edge of the rune circle…but nothing seemed to happen…even after he waited the time it usually takes to teleport with one of the runes. Finally, he just held the stone and stepped into the portal – while Raven held his other hand.

And that’s when they vanished. Continue reading →

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Dear Diary….a new giant experience

Nothing of interest in the dracolisk…or in his cave. He looks kinda undernourished, but the others didn’t want to wait for me to skin it.

[detailed, sprawling map that runs over several pages]

*Raven found a claw. Elmo thinks it’s a lizard claw.

**Well, now I’ve seen it all most of it something. We were coming up on a tee in one of the passages, when these two lumps of rock peeled themselves off the wall and swiped at us with their claws.

Heiron and Mikael took them out – and it’s true, when you see them in a different context, they look like big lizards…but they’re still the exact color of the stone, and it’s kinda disorienting.

They must have used the grotto just beyond as a lair, because there was a big pile of money there. Elmo pointed out the claw probably came from one of them…maybe they shed them like people shed excess fingernail?

[more map]

#Magic portal rune for Fire Node

**

Well, new experience for me…

We were exploring a side-room when we heard heavy footsteps approaching. Ezekiel went up to investigate, and discovered a huge figure – the exact color of stone! – filling up the entire passageway…a stone giant! Continue reading →

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Dear Diary….Ezekiel can scry now; and earth-creatures are ugly

I understand now why Sir Rufus and Master Bern built a tower and fort with their dragon treasure. Dragons collect a lot of treasure!

Maybe these black dragons had more than we expected because there were two of them…or maybe the Earth Node has received more treasure in general, so they had more to capture.

Either way. Lydia came out of the portal to check out the situation – then went back to her room. Ezekiel and Raven cradled the two dragon eggs (where are they going to keep those, I wonder!), and in a few minutes the pile of coins started flowing down through the floor! Apparently Lydia had to get Keom and Ronhass to hold the mirror facing the floor, so the treasure would fall to the ground…but obviously it worked. It got plugged up once or twice with a larger item – there was a suit of scale mail, especially, that tried to go through while turned the wrong way – but we got it unstuck and shoved the whole hoard onto Lydia’s floor. Continue reading →

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Dear Diary….ok dragons are actually dangerous

While we finished cleaning up the dragon remains, and piled its treasure into our various receptacles (including the little chest that shrinks and grows, which Heiron is carrying and I had completely forgotten about), Ezekiel got a hold of Lydia and jumped through the portal to “just ask Father Yra one thing.”

Heiron killed a dun pudding while we waited, and when Ezekiel finally came back, he and Mikael decided we should go confront the giants to see if they had any slaves we should rescue (Tressarian said something about “stab stab extinguish” but we told him to shush so we could be sneaky…er). Also, Ezekiel said he thought he could send them “home” using his mace or something (it sounded kinda technical, and also like he wasn’t sure what he was doing, so I kinda only half-listened).

According to the map, Mikael and Ezekiel figured the northern corridor probably hooked up with where we wanted to be, so we took that route. On the way, we passed a magic portal rune in the shape of an O (Water, maybe? I’m so bad at this game) – and a room with a row of fire pits.

Tres and I went down the row, putting out the fires, until the last one in the line… There, as we stuck Tressarian into the flames, a big red, horned, fiery figure appeared, growling something about “watch where you put that”! (Ez tells me it was an “efreet”.) Continue reading →

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Dear Diary….the dragon/demon battle we’ve been waiting for

Another morning in the Fire Node. Not too bad a haul, though it didn’t start out great.

We found two bows, which we assume is from the party of girls we mentioned earlier. Though both bows radiate a faint aura of magic, one of them is pretty flimsy and covered with the scorched remains of feathers…might have looked impressive on the wall of some Greyhawk bar before it got burned. The other one has blades stuck all over it – like, coming off the front of the handle, and not even useful blades, either! Even the ends by the bow-string narrow to blades…I’m not sure how you’re supposed to draw the bow to tension! Continue reading →

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Dear Diary….dragon disappointment

This morning we patched ourselves up and headed back into the Fire Node…no playing with demons this time.

[sketch of map]

We started exploring the southern corridors, not finding much of anything…until Tressarian and I were scanning an empty room for magic and stuff, and a loud scraping noise came down the corridor from the main hallway.

Ezekiel and Mikael took Heiron with them to investigate, and we heard a huge, vibrating voice talking with them.

The rest of us gathered around the doorway, in preparation, and sure enough moments later a blast of hot air (and flickers of flame) shot out past us.

Raven flashed forward with his daggers out, and by the time Tressarian and I got up there, he and Heiron (with his sword Scather) had finished the job.

A red, spiky dragon head lay mangled and blocking the hallway. I thought they were supposed to be the scariest ones, but thanks to our rings of fire protection, it was still a pretty lame dragon fight. Continue reading →