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.