Fuinahiir (Session 19) - Sarimiere 31, 888 F.S.

Crucible of Thurn
We arrive at Fuinahiir after a five day travel via horse and cart from Kentigern Castle. The rental cost for usage of the library at the Crucible of Thurn is 100 cp per day. A fat half-elf at the entry to the mage's guild (named Jodus) takes Estenel's order for spell scrolls and leads Estenel to the library. After a day of research, Estenel comes up empty trying to find information that relates to a "fish's tail" and nearby mountains.


At the Inn
The party heads to the inn in Fuinahiir for the evening. Estenel prepares to entertain the guests of the inn, and performs horribly. Estenel sulks off the stage. A human named Gregory approaches Estenel and strikes up a conversation, asking questions concerning Hronn. Apparently Gregory is a mercenary who is looking for excitement, and wants to travel to Hronn with the party, claiming to want to "hunt". Gregory leaves the inn. Jollin tries to shadow him, and loses him.

In the night, Guillamette wakes up, hearing someone trying the knob on the door. She gets behind the door as it opens and a man comes inside. As a second individual is entering the room, Guillamette stabs the first man and then the second man. By the time the rest of the party wakes up and gets to Guillamette's room, there are two dead men lying at Guillamette's feet. Jollin hops out the window and looks for any other suspicious people outside. The innkeeper runs up to the room, we explain to him what happened (he doesn't recognize either of the men), and he runs off to get the town guard. Yukon draws pictures in the dirt, trying to ascertain the history of one of the dead men's boots. He finds out that the man wearing them traveled from 100 miles away, arrived in town just the prior day, and seems to work alone.


Back to the Crucible of Thurn
The next day, we head to the Crucible of Thurn to hire a mage to speak to one of the would-be thugs' corpse. Jodus informs us that Celdan is the mage in the guild that knows necromancy, and perform the services, but he's away from the guild at the moment. Yukon buys two powerstones at guild; Sophia buys some potions.

Celdan arrives back at the Cruicible. He meets the party at the constable's office to Speak with Dead on the two corpses. The party hires him to Speak with Dead on the two assailants. What we find out: 1) He was hired by Dalok to kill the party, 2) Dalok was hired by some priests, 3) Dalok was in town, 4) the thugs were targetting Estenel and Sophia in particular, and 5) they were supposed to meet Dalok in the alley outside the inn after the job was done.

Yukon and Estenel heads back to the Crucible to research. Yukon begins singing to himself. It annoys an anti-social NPC who goes off to get yet another anti-social NPC who casts silence on Yukon.

Jollin asks a cleaning woman at the inn if anyone by the name of Gregory has stayed in the inn. She points him to the room that he was staying in. Jollin enters the room, finds it unmade, and grabs the chamber pot in order to get some of Gregory's urine. (No, I am not making this up.) Jollin believes that Jollin and Dalok are one and the same. Yukon seekers the piss and finds the pisser on the road to the northeast. Jollin hops on his horse with only his bow and some arrows, and beats feet to try and catch up with the man seekered by Yukon. Yukon goes back to his wall-of-silence research.


Northeast of Fuinahiir
Jollin rides for an hour and catches up with a wagon. He asks the people riding in the wagon if they've seen anyone who matches Gregory's description. After riding for another hour (and not coming across anyone), Jollin turns back and comes across the path of the wagon again. Jollin stops and talks with the rider in the wagon again, but does not determine that he's lying when he says he's not seen anyone else all day. Jollin gives up and heads back to Fuinahiir.


Fopasado
We wait until the end of the week, pick up our magic items that we had commissioned, leave town, and travel to the port town northeast of Fuinahiir in order to buy passage to Fopasado on Hronn. Three days travelling by land to the port town, and three days on a ship to Fopasado. We get to Fopasado. Estenel casts seeker for Gregory, with the aid of the urine, and comes up with nothing.

We spot an Ice priest on board one of the two Black Dawn ships that are in port. They are loading slaves. Sophia strikes up a conversation with a fisherman on the dock to see if they know of an area that is known as "The Fish's Tail". Nada.

We find a track that is being used by the Black Dawn to haul slaves to the dock. We track inland a mile and set up camp near the track, awaiting a wagon to come by. Six days later, a wagon comes down the track. The entourage consists of seven wolfen, two horses, a wagon, and unknown contents in the wagon. The party hides and springs upon the wagon. Combat ensues. We whack the wolfen. The wagon is full of slaves: several humans and four goblins. We broker a deal with the slaves to have them continue to pose as slaves so that we can infiltrate the ice coven. Estenel sings a most compelling sonata that soothes the humans and goblins; they go along with the idea, given the agreement that they go free when all is said and done.

Disk in Hand (Session 18) - Sarimiere 11, 888 F.S.

Ergant
After a seven day trip via ship, the party arrives in Ergant. We visit Eng in his shop. He pays us 50 gold for the disk and deciphers the writings on it while enchanting Jollin's bow. Eng believes the writings are riddles that provide clues to where the next disk is located. Written in Sidhe, it says:

(1st side of disk): Hidden away from magic's sway, deep underground is where it is found.

(2nd side of disk): To the fish's tail you will sail, on the highest peak you will seek.

We ask Eng to perform some additional research services for us to find out if there are any recorded no-mana zones on the Isle of Souls and Arnur Yecho. Sophia buys an additional enchantment on her sword.

Estenel researches locations of known no-mana zones. He finds out about: Moorlun's Spire and the Garuisgich Insulate.

We set sail for Futanmoth's castle. En route, Eng pings us: he doesn't have a lot of information on Arnur Yecho regarding no-mana zones. The Isle of Souls is quite the opposite: it's a highly magical island.


Kentigern Castle
We enter the castle and gain an audience with Duke Futanmoth. We brief him on the disk and that we are having it researched. He says that with springtime coming, Hronn will be thawing out and he will need our services back on Hronn so that we can help him continue his campaign against the snowflakes.

In the near term, there are some bandits in the area that he would like us to deal with. We agree. Estenel asks the Duke about the two individuals that wanted to speak with us. He says that they headed back up to Hronn and that they would find us. No details were given as to what they wanted or who they represent. Their names are Todd and Zodd.

The duke gives us a wagon and a couple horses. We play the part of a caravan, head south from Kentigern, and await the bandits to attack us.


South of Kentigern Castle
Heading south, we spot a dozen riders on the plains, about 100 yards off the road. They are heading on an intercept route. 30 yards in front of us, on the road, the riders stop their horses and block the road. One of the men yells out, "The wagon is now ours." He says his name is Brand. A short exchange of words between Brand and Sophia, and Jollin looses his bow on the leader. We charge the bandits. There is a mage in their rear.

As the battle unfolds, the party holds its own in the face of being outnumbered. Estenel charges the mage in the rear in an attempt to neutralize him. Just as Estenel reaches the mage, Estenel is stopped cold with Terror. Jollin puts on a dazzling display of archery ineptitude.

The tide turns in the party's favor (with the help of Sophia necking any unlucky sot that happened to get within arm's reach of her), and the mage begins to run. Jollin finally figures out how to use his bow and sticks the mage in the back from 70 yards. After hitting the ground and standing back up, the mage takes another arrow from Jollin the Not-Quite-As-Bad-Out-of-Combat-as-He-is-in-Combat. The mage drops unconscious. We gather up the bodies, kill the mage, and take the brigands back to Lord Futanmoth. He pays us a bounty for the raiders and sell the weapons we looted from them.


Fuinahiir
We depart Lord Futanmoth's company and head across land to Fuinahiir to buy scrolls and get weapons enchanted. On Sarimiere 31, we arrive in Fuinahiir.

Back to the Temple (Session 17) - Pasiphiel 26, 888 F.S.

Throggi
The party rests up for a month for battle wounds to heal. Duke Futanmoth pings Sophia, telling her that the party needs to get back to the Duke's land because there is a group of people there that are persistent in asking to meet with the party. The duke doesn't know who they are, what they're wearing, or why they want to speak with us. I think the duke needs to pay more attention to dealings in his duchy. Sophia asks the duke to send a ship to pick us up. He balks at the idea. Sophia tells the duke that we are in the middle of dealing with an issue here near Throggi, and after we're done with that, we'll head to the duke's land.


Allindel Forest
The party heads back into the jungle, making our way to the temple. Three days into our travel, we come across a party of six orcs. We drop down, waiting to see if the orcs pass by. They hear the party (which isn't being all that sneaky). Yukon creates a pecari and has it run off, hoping to pull the orcs off of us. Great idea. But it doesn't work. The orcs get dangerously close to Gaufridus, so we jump up (having the drop on them), and engage. The party prevails. Yukon and Estenel heal up the party.

We continue on to the temple. Two days later, we arrive back at the orc outpost where we fought the orcs a month prior. Jollin and Yukon skirt the outpost and head up to the temple. Yukon creates a parrot and sends it into the temple to scout within the temple, hoping to find the disk. A few minutes later, the parrot comes back with a disc in its beak... it's a dinner plate.

Jollin heads back to the rest of the part, Estenel gives him the ability to speak and understand Orcish. Jollin heads back to where Yukon is hunkered down. He then casts an illusion disguise of an orc on Jollin. Jollin heads to the temple and begins walking around the temple, looking for an entrance to the interior of the temple. Jollin bs's his way into the main entrance into the temple interior.


Jollin Inside the Sidhe Temple
Jollin enters a main chamber with several orcs and an altar. He espies the orc leader that he almost skewered with an arrow a month ago, who is talking about the damned party of humans who have been harrassing the orcs. Jollin activates the seal-seeker ring and gets a beacon on the seal. He gets the feeling that the seal is down and toward the front of the temple. Jollin walks back out and meets up with Yukon. They rest for a bit, then Yukon casts Hawk Flight and Ethereal Body on Jollin, who then flies through the earth, down into a subterranean chamber, and sees the orc leader chanting in front of a table that is holding one of the discs. Jollin flies back out (still ethereal).


Jollin and Yukon Inside the Sidhe Temple
Estenel walks up to where Yukon and Jollin are hidden and lends strength to Yukon so that he can cast hawk flight and ethereal body on himself and Jollin. Yukon puts a seeker on Jollin so that he can follow him through the earth. They fly through the earth and back into the chamber where the head orc is still chanting. Jollin starts talking trash in an attempt to distract him away from the disc. While the orc is distracted, Yukon drops the ethereal body, grabs the disc, and teleports out of the temple... except that he misses his target. Jollin flies back to Estenel. They look at each other, wondering where Yukon is.


Back to Throggi
Estenel pings Yukon. He's lost. Jollin realizes that he's still wearing the disc-seeker ring and relays through Estenel that he is 10 miles east of the temple. Alarm horns are heard blowing from the temple. The party (sans Yukon) starts hoofing it to Throggi. Yukon tries another teleport, and makes it to Throggi. While the party makes its way back to Throggi, Yukon arranges for a ship to take us north. He finds a captain going to Ergant. We buy passage on the ship and plan to present the Sidhe disc to Eng once we arrive in Ergant.

Orc Fight (still) (Session 16) - Faniele 21, 888 F.S.

Still Fighting Orcs in the Allindel Forest

The fight continues with the orcs. Sophia continues to watch the fray from on far then decides to enter the fight. The battle doesn't go the best for the party: Estenel, Guillamette, Sophia, Gaufridus, and Henri are unconscious. Ecran's arm and hand are chopped burger. Estenel's limbs aren't much better. While waiting for party members to wake up, Jollin kills all but three of the orcs.

We heal up over the course of two hours. Estenel mind-searches one of the orcs, who has very little for useful information other than the temple is a one-hour hike from where we are and that there are approximately 80 orcs at the temple.

Jollin heads off to scout the temple. Meanwhile, several orcs from the temple arrive at the battle site, survey the dead, and then begin to fan out, searching for survivors. After a few minutes, one of the orcs spots us and blows a horn. Sophia and Guilamette take the mule and begin to head to Throggi. Estenel and Ecran hide in the foliage. Yukon grabs Henri, casts flight, and sets Henri down in a tree. He lures the orcs toward him and begins lobbing fireballs down at the orcs. Several orcs run by Estenel's and Ecran's hiding spot.

Jollin observes some sort of ritual being performed by the orcs at the temple. He draws a bead on what appears to be their leader, trying to stick an arrow in his eye. His shot goes wide; Jollin beats feet out of the area and outruns the orcs.

The orcs head back to the temple. Estenel and Ecran begin hobbling toward Throggi. Yukon creates a flying mount and hauls himself and Henri toward Throggi as well. Jollin is still catching his breath. Yukon gets back to Throggi, dumps Henri at the inn. Estenel is able to contact Yukon (after trying for three days) and directs Yukon to his location. Yukon flies to him and begins to haul Estenel and Ecran back to Throggi. Estenel pings Jollin; he's half way back to Throggi. In the end, the entire party makes it back to Throggi and drink themselves into oblivion.

Estenel restores the various crippled limbs of the party. Meanwhile, we strike up a conversation with a local in the inn. He warns us that the Allindel Forest is filled with orcs. He is unaware of anything within the forest; he stays out of it... because it's full of orcs. Sophia seeks an audience with the mayor of Throggi to discuss the situation with the nearby orcs. We wait in Throggi for a month, waiting for people with crippled limbs to heal. We plan to head back to the temple and scout it out.

The Sidhe Ritual Site (Session 15) - Faniele 21, 888 F.S.

Chasing Orcs in the Allindel Forest

Estenel and Yukon rest up at the combat site, preparing to heal party members. Sophia and Jollen head off after the fleeing orcs. Sophia follows their tracks for an hour. Estenel heals Tiamat; Henri is healed and awakened.

Sophia and Jollen catch up with the orcs (as evidenced by an arrow narrowly missing them... that, and the gutteral grunts coming from the bush). A fight begins. Jollen takes a dirt nap. Sophia continues the fight, putting down two of them. The two remaining orcs are archers and are holed up in a tree. Sophia is stumped. She decides to climb the tree and go after the orc. Believe it or not, it works out. Sophia takes care of the one orc that was up the tree shooting at her. The location of the last remaining orc is unknown. We'll just assume he scarpered off.


To the Temple (we think)
Sophia arrives back at our camp, towing an unconscious Jollen. Estenel mind-searches the unconscious orc at the camp and learns that an ancient temple is located two hours to the east, which is where his orc tribe lives, and has lived for several years. This is the direction to which the orcs were originally fleeing. We track back to the location where Sophia and Jollen retired the last few orcs. The one remaining orc is still up a tree, and there are eight new orcs standing at the base of the tree. While 70 yards out from the orcs, Estenel sings the Sonata du Hush-Hush. Yukon then moves quietly. We sneak up on the orcs' position. Estenel and Ecran step on the same branch. At 30 yards out, ranged combat begins. Ranks close, and toe-to-toe fighting begins. Henri get bludgeoned into next week.

More next week.

Looking for Seals (Session 14) - Emmanir 29, 888 F.S.

Schnorking
Estenel meets with Ybilaron to see if he knows of a place called Careethay and Zoohoodu Island. He knows that Careethay is the volcano on the north end of the island. Zoohoodu Island is to the west of Hronn. Not much trade with that island comes through Schnorking; the island trades more with Arnur Soghal.

We rent the mage’s guild in Schnorking for 1 gold piece a day, which gives us all-access to their archives. However, Estenel is not able to find any information of any detail concerning the seals.

During the weekly ping from Futanmoth's advisor that says their researchers know of a man named Eng in Ergant who is a Sidhe expert; he may know more of these seals. He also says that the armies on Hronn have pulled back from their confrontation due to winter setting in.

While in Schnorking, we run into the ship captain that had brought us to Hronn initially. We secure passage on his ship to Ergant.

[Five days later, we arrive in Ergant.]


Ergant
Jollen schleps about the port and finds where Eng might be. He finds out that Eng lives in his magic shop near the colliseum. We meet with Eng and explain why we are interested in finding more about the seals. He agrees to research them in depth, for a fee of 500 cp. Jollen and Sophia haggle with Eng over the prices for his enchanting. Given that it will take Eng a few days to perform the research, we decide to travel about the city of Ergant.


Eng's Shop, one month later
We head back to Eng's shop, where he tells us of his finding on the 13 seals. Costuhshee is the Prince of Frost Giants, who would try to turn the world into an arctic wasteland. The Sidhe, 2800 years ago, created the seals to banish Costuhshee from this world. The seals were hidden to ensure that Costuhshee is never released. Other than that, he doesn't learn anything additionally regarding the seals. We ask him to continue researching the seal locations. We come back to his shop in two days; he believes that he may have found some information as to where one of the seals may be located: near the southern tip of the mainland, in the Wildlands, within an area where there has been found evidence of ancient rituals being performed by the Sidhe.

In order to save travel time, Eng suggests an alternate method that we might want to consider using: the Sidhe Towers. He knows that they all don't work. After researching them some more, Eng determines that the tower that is close to Ergant is not connected to the tower that is on the far south end of the mainland.

Eng gives us a description of the location where the Sidhe rituals had been performed. Eng gives Sophia a ring that is attuned to the material from which the seals are made (we gave Eng some of the pieces of the broken seal that we found in Ididerac's citadel, which enabled him to make a special Seeker ring).

Sophia stocks up on picks and shovels and such, for digging in order to find the seal, which we believe is buried. We hire a ship for passage to the southern town of Throggi, which is near the ritual site. Thirty days from when we arrived in Ergant, we show up in Throggi.


Throggi and Allindel Forest
We head into the Allindel Forest. It's about a five-day journey through the forest to where the ritual site is located. Traveling through the forest, we happen upon a party of orcs. They don't look very happy to see us. Combat ensues. In the end, the party prevails and the remaining orcs flee. Henri, Tiamut, and Jollen are seriously injured. A plan is made whereby Estenel and Yukon will stay with the injured to continue healing them while the rest of the party pursues the orcs.

Ididerac's Citadel Cont'd. (Session 13) - Emmanir 24, 888 F.S.

Ididerac’s citadel
Sophia and Tiamut show up out of nowhere, fresh as a daisy. While we discuss our options at this point, four goblins come running down the stairs toward us. Sophia skewers one of them. Ididerac and the ogre are behind them, also coming down the stairs. One of the goblins opens a door in the bailey; two seconds later, a large white snake slithers into the bailey with us (nice). More combat ensues. Estenel hangs onto consciousness by a thread, due in no small part to Sophia’s valiant efforts of throwing herself in harm’s way. A series of critical successes by the party and critical failures by the bad guys swings the combat in our favor. Ididerac is killed; the goblins are slain. The man who, earlier in the combat, ran off to inform Ididerac and his thugs of our presence, is now also dead.

Now that all foes (except for the mage, which is still missing) are dead or unconscious, the party begins to search the citadel for the mage. Yukon draws some pretty pictures in the dirt and Sophia is now able to see invisible objects. Estenel, being completely spent, retires to the kitchen and starts rummaging for ale.

We ransack the citadel. Noteworthy items that were found:

• Written military orders that command Lord Higgins to head south.


• Paperwork that describes how to activate the ice/snow stones. (One of these stones was used by Degarn to create the blizzard in the area around his keep. It was the stone that was in the statue next to the shocky sword.)


• A message from Lady Deepweather Cardia: the final shipment of stones from the ice palace are en route to Ididerac’s citadel. “The forge” is now up and running and pumping out more of them. Meet with Frosttouch Jorval if they need more stones. (There are also 12 of these ice stones in the package.)


• 4000 silver pieces


• Several Odoru (reindeer). We now have transportation.

After a bit, the ogre wakes up and wants to know if he is free to go. He’s basically a hired thug, commanding a detachment of wolfen, and is/was in the employ of Ididerac. He informs us that the mage that took flight is Frosttouch Jorval. We now have an idea that Lady Deepweather is most likely a cardinal within the Ice Queen’s clerical hierarchy.

Estenel mind-searches the unconscious female mage. He finds out that:

• Her name is Romfinia; she is from Zoohoodu Island. The port on Hronn that she uses to get to and from Zoohoodu is Fopasado.


• She is in the employ of the Ice Queen; her superior is Frosttouch Garrin (formerly Stormbrother Garrin).


• She has come here to deliver a seal to Ididerac. The seal holds a demon which was destroyed (the seal, that is; not the demon) in the basement of this citadel. Sophia and Flick head into the basement and confirm this, observing broken pottery that contains runes. Several of the pieces of this seal are gathered up and taken with us.


• The demon that will be released by the breaking of these seals is named Costuhshee (this jives with the name that we gleaned from the blue bald guy back when we were trying to find the temple that ended up having demon dogs in it).


• The demon is not here yet, but will be after all seals are broken. There are 13 seals in total; four of them have been broken so far; the other nine have not been located yet.


• Two minions of the Ice Queen (Frosttouch Jorval and Frosttouch Garrin) are researching the location of the remaining seals.


• Jorval is the mage that we encountered in Ididerac’s citadel, fried Sir Dapifir, then tucked tail and skeedaddled before we finished the fight with Ididerac.


• Garrin is on Zoohoodu Island. That is the home of Jorval as well.


• The more seals that are broken, the stronger the demon gets.


• There is no time limit from when the first seal is broken to when the last seal is broken with regards to allowing or denying the demon access to this plane.


• If and when the demon is released, he will appear on this world at a location named Careethay.


• Romfinia does not know where the other seals are, and does not know if anyone else knows for sure yet where they are.


• The Ice Queen is locating and delivering the seals to the Ice Coven (read: “snowflakes”) in exchange for “pleasantries”.


• Breaking of the seals requires a ritual. The snowflakes know this ritual; it does not require anything special... just do the ritual. Anybody who knows this ritual can properly break the seals.


• The seals are 1-foot diameter disks with runes inscribed on them. All seals are made of the same material.


• The seals are believed to be Sidhe artifacts.


• Ididerac sent his troops south to engage Lord Futanmoth’s garrison.

Lake of Orb
We allow the ogre to go free. We then leave Ididerac’s citadel, taking the Odoru with us as well as a small non-descript item from the unconscious female mage so that we can track her later. The party heads to the Lake of Orb to discuss recent events with the water sprite, Gidnia. The information we give her confirms her suspicions. She gives Estenel a grand gift: Elidil. This is a sword which, when drawn, continually drips holy water along its blade.

Gidnia introduces us to a friend of hers, Jolin, who accompanies the party as we head back to Schnorking.

Ididerac's Citadel (Session 12) - Emmanir 20, 888 F.S.

Heading north to Ididerac’s citadel
It’s a three-day travel to the citadel. On the second day, it begins to snow. Estenel contacts Gidnia to confirm that Emirin’s message is legitimate (it is). She instructs us to stop by her lake after we’re done at the citadel. About a half-day’s travel from the citadel, it is snowing so hard that visibility is cut to 20 feet.


Ididerac’s citadel
We make our way to the door of the keep. There are two guards flanking the door to the keep. Eminir sneaks up and waylays one of the guards. Flick arrows the other guard. One of the guards knocks on the door. Moments later, both guards are unconscious or dead. A few seconds later, the door opens. Flick skewers the man opening the door, who then screams, but no sound is made as Estenel silences the area.

We make our way into the outer baily. There are three men inside, including Ididerac. Melee begins. We engage two men-at-arms and Ididerac. A couple rounds into the fight, a curtain opens on the second floor overlooking the bailey and two crossbowmen take shots at us. A few rounds after that, two minotaurs jump down from the upper floor, knocking Ecran and Taverius to the floor. More combat. A few seconds later, a woman appears, and commands Taverius to drop his weapon. We then notice that there is a man pulling ropes to open up the curtain above us, and that the man is the messenger from Laendersberg that was travelling with us and Lady Laenders back to Laendersberg when we got ambushed. He was the one who ran off during that ambush. Cheeky bastard.

More combat. Dapifir chops down one minotaur. The balcony overlooking the bailey now has six men standing upon it; three in the front row who are throwing spears and three in the second row who are handing more spears to the front row. Taverius knocks out Ididerac. Yukon keeps one of the minotaurs incapacitated by chain-stunning him. Estenel gets into a pinch in melee. Emirin attempts to intervene and inadvertently impales himself on the foe's spear. Taverius guts the woman who had commanded him earlier, knocking her out.

Flick makes his way up the stairs to where the goblins retreated and finds the “real” Ididerac upstairs (the one we thought we knocked out was an imposter). He is upstairs with a mage, an ogre, and three goblins.

We muck around in the bailey, determining what to do next and awakening Ecran and Taverius, when the mage in the upper floor comes out to the balcony and throws a lightning bolt at Dapifer, who dies on the spot. At that point, we hear feet running down the stairs.

Temple of the Mages (Session 11) - Emmanir 20, 888 F.S.

At the Temple of the Mages
Sophia keeps the dogs at bay. Flick goes invisible, enters the building, and begins scouting the interior. The entry room is actually a 70-foot long hallway with seven doors leading off of it. He follows his seeker to a door, picks the lock on the door cleanly, and slips behind the door, leading to a bedroom. There are various effects within the room: bed, table, quill, parchment, and a chest. Sophia, having befriended the two dogs, leads them into the kitchen, gives them a bowl of food, then closes the door behind them.

All of us enter the building and help in the search of the place. We find that the table in the bedroom, which appears to be light enough to move, doesn’t budge. The same goes for the idol of a succubus that is sitting on the table. Long story made short: the idol is the trigger to open a secret door. We open the secret door, which leads down a set of stairs. There is drunken bad singing coming from down the stairs. Flick goes invisible and down the stairs and finds four of the bald blue skinned guys. Two of them are drinking and singing in a room; two more are passed out in the room. There is a second door leading out of this room; Flick’s seeker is still pointing beyond the second door. Flick opens the second door, but cannot open it fully because there is another dog sleeping on the other side of it.

Flick and Sophia go invisible, sneak into the room, and assassinate the four blue guys. Written on the bottom of one of the feet of each of the blue guys are “Huh”, “Bob”, “Zed”, and “Andy”. Estenel puts up a wall of silence across the door leading out of this room. Flick opens the second door silently and assassinates the dog sleeping on the other side of the door. Flick continues down the hallway that is beyond the second door. The hallway goes for 30 feet, then ends in yet another door. Down the hallway is yet another dog that sees Flick (who is now visible) and charges at him. Flick beats feet back to the room that we’re in (where the blue guys were) to lure the dog back behind the wall of silence. Combat ensues. During the battle, Guillemete gets stung by the spiked tail of the dog. She is now poisoned and feels not too swell, but is able to walk.

Continuing through the passageways, Estenel creates walls of silence ahead of us and we continue to search down the hallways. At this time, Flick is down to four fatigue, and so is Estenel. But, we continue ahead. Through yet another door, we find a 12 yd. x 10 yd. room. In the middle of it is a very large lizard (like the one that we encountered at the barn). Combat. We put the lizard down.

There is a second door leading out of this room. Guillemete opens this second door. A large man with an axe greets her when she opens the door. Sophia flays him.

Beyond the door that had the axe guy behind it is a 50-foot long hallway that tees at the end, and has a door at the end of the hallway. The seeker points to beyond the door. Sophia kicks the door in. It is a 20’ x 10’ room. There are two men in the room. Sophia guts one of the men. There is now one guy left. The one guy left begins to cast fireball. The good guys try to skewer him, and fail.

We make our way into a larger room and kill another mage. In the end, there is one mage left alive, who yields to us. He is the guy who was lobbing fireballs at us from the top of the barn. There is a sword sheathed in crackling lightning that is sitting on an altar. Apparently, there was a ritual that was about to be performed. The mage refers to the dead mage as the one who is a part of this ice queen cult as being the one who wanted to attack us in order to take prisoners. Aldonis is the name of the dead mage. The runes on the lightning sword are a tribute to the ice queen. The dogs are a gift from Zorrow. The mage that we have apprehended was working for Zapafado. Aldonis is the name of the guy who owns this temple. Zaranar is the name of the mage we are questioning, who is spilling all of the information he knows. Bascially, he’s a mercenary mage, and is now asking for his release. He says that there are prisoners being held in this complex.

We release the prisoners being held here: Sir Dapfeir (from Fopasado) and Quentis. Quentis was trying to talk his brother out of working for Adonis, and was taken prisoner in return for his efforts. We spend a few hours ransacking the place. Yukon creates a brute to grab the lightning sword. It frosts the snot out of him and he dissipates. The sword no longer glows. We find a couple of spell books in the complex as well: Death Touch, Rooted Feet, Pestilence, Paralyze Limb, Total Paralysis, and Wither Limb are in one book; Analyze Magic, Shocking Touch, Climbing, Fireball, Stench, and Air Golem are in the other. We pack up our findings and leave the complex, and head to Schnorking. Opening the chest we found in the bedroom reveals 20 gold coins and a scroll of Breathe Fire. Flick searches through the library in the complex and finds a book on Invocations to Aural.


Leaving the Temple
There is a large cat sitting outside the complex. Its name is Emirin and begins talking telepathically to Estenel. It is speaking for Gidnia, the water sprite. She says that Ididerac is alone in his castle; his forces have been sent south to engage Futenmoth’s forces. Zaranar and Sir Eudes Dapfeir are coming with us to deal with Ididerac.

Blue Man Group (Session 10) - Emmanir 19, 888 F.S.

Heading to Schnorking
We leave the beach and start heading east toward Schnorking. Along the road to Schnorking, we meet a lizardman dressed up as Santa Claus. He hails us, and hands each of us an item:

Sophia receives a sword

Yukon receives staff

Flick receives a spoon

Estenel receives a vial

The Santa-lizard then says that he must hurry off because he has many gifts to distribute.

Odd little lizard.


Ambush at the Barn
We continue our travel toward Schnorking. After a while, we come upon a man standing by the road. He is waving to us and is dressed in commoner’s clothing. As we approach him, he asks us for help to heal his family, who had been attacked by wolfen. We accompany him to his farm. The farm house is burned to the ground; the barn is still standing. We get close to the barn, when the human yells, “NOW!” The human takes off flying for the barn. The barn doors burst open, and a 20-foot long monitor lizard runs toward us. There are several small blue naked humanoid creatures near the barn, holding ropes that opened the barn door. Combat ensues. A few seconds into combat, another human appears who is standing on the barn; he is casting a spell. Then, several of the small naked humanoid critters grab random items (barn boards, sticks, rocks) and begin to run into battle.

During the fight, Ecran and Tavarius go unconscious. The two mages (the one on the barn and the one who lured us into this trap) fly away. One of the blue naked goblin-ish creatures begins drink Tavarius’ blood.

The remaining blue guy pleads for his life. He offers to go after the mages, being how he sees them as cowards for flying off. He says that he will show us where they live.

The little blue guy says that Costuhshee is his master and that he will be coming soon. He also said that he and his troupe were sent here to trap to people. He says that the mages work for some ice queen. Costuhshee can’t get here until the gate is finished, which is located to the north near the active volcano. Apparently, the ice queen has agreed to finish some road for Costuhshee. The blue guy says that once Costuhshee gets here, they’ll be able to kill the ice queen, too.


At the Temple of the Mages
The blue guy agrees to lead us to the temple where the mages live. We make camp for the night on the way to find the temple where the mages reside. During the night, the blue guy wriggles free of his bonds and leaps away. The next morning, Flick seekers one of the mages that had fled from the fight and we make chase after him. The seeker leads us to a house built into a hill. Inside the house, behind the closed front door, there is the sound of growling. We decide to send Sophia ahead and try to calm the dogs. Flick picks the lock on the front door. Sophia goes inside the front door and successfully calms the dogs inside the front room. Sophia, after seeing the dogs, has no desire to be in this house.