1166

January

1- search out and destroy a large group of vulture lions, apparently the leftover minions of some powerful mage who was killed years ago. Teleport home.

2-8 - Training.

9 - Aertael attacked by undead, Itzaman temple attacked by lich masquerading as dead queen Esrella Trask.

10-12 - Tracking down of remaining undead, mostly skeletons and zombies, and physical cleanup of numerous destroyed undead and dead townspeople slain during the attack. On the last day, the group goes to Silver Eagle dungeon, to level 10.

13-18 - City cleanup completed.

19 - Group takes a month break.

Febuary

1-18 - Group taking a break.

22 - Jameson Rook hosts engagement party for him and detective Stanah Caskett. Hans Gruber attacks, takes hostages, attempts to steal family fortune. Group kills all of Gruber's minions, saves hostages, fortune not stolen, Rook reveals his true identify to the group (as the sole inheritor of two of Aertael's wealthy families). Gruber escapes.

23 - Teleport to Belveras. Head into wilderness. Conner, Hazor, Atalanta, Parswarm. See mobats.

24-26 - no encounter.

27 - attacked by carnivorous apes.

28 - Into Shadizar, Barathorn meets up with the group.

March

1 - Leave Shadizar, into Spider Swamp. Kill Mi-go, Atalanta keeps a baby one.

2 - Barathorn says a Cthulian name, group is attacked by 18 spectres and a tentacle beast.

3 - Search a hex in Spider Swamp, no encounter.

4 - Meet Edric Dayne, riding a merged pack of vulture lions! He is hunting a spider of some sort; they disturb some sort of epic spider being from the dawn of time. Group flees home.

Paraswarm's writeup of the event:

".....A few months ago, my friends visited Helghan, and explored the reputed spider area, again. There was apparently an epidemic plague of Melnibonean vulture-lions encroaching upon Helghan, and that was a potentially profitable thing for an experienced combat group to investigate.

......Our group battled vulture lions in the area several times, but then stopped seeing the creatures. I was called in at that point, and reluctantly left my comfortable life in Pendria. We eventually tracked down a gigantic vulture-lion construct; made up of at least a half dozen of the giant creatures. There was a man riding it like a steed, patrolling the forest.

......I made contact and introduced myself, and met Eadric Dane, a paladin from Folaria. He, too, was interested in the giant spider rumors in the area. However, he had learned more than we had. Eadric believed that there was just a single, enormous spider hiding in the area. He was trying to find out more, and had run into the vulture-lion plague. The hybrid creatures were little threat to Eadric, and he had managed to create his gigantic steed out of them. His purpose was to lure the big spider to the enormous creature, but had not had any luck thus far.

......We have a few decent divination powers scattered amongst our group. The issues with divination are always asking the right questions, and interpreting the results satisfactorily. Adding Eadric's knowledge with our scant intelligence, we were able to divine a possible, or even probable location for such a creature. Clues were in abundant evidence as we prepared, and closed in. There was little, if any animal life in evidence, as we proceeded. Finally, a half mile or so from the destination, we made final preparations.

.....We collectively decided that this might be a primordial spider, from the beginnings of such creatures on this world. As such, it could be staggeringly powerful, like a small demi-god or some such. While we had rendered everyone in the party immune to poison via clerical Heroes' Feast, such a spider might have god-like venom or hideously strong webs in its arsenal. It was decided that we'd make use of an illusionary trick, and not actually approach the area in person.

.....I prepared, and was able to cast a wizardly projected image spell upon each party member. With that spell, the recipient has a link with an illusion of themselves, which can be hundreds of yards away. The recipient can see through the eyes of the illusion, and even cast spells through the projected image. Should a giant spider attack the image, it would be trying to bite an illusion. The only drawback to the spell is that if one loses sight of the illusion, the spell ends. As a lure, we would march Eadric's potentially delicious and tempting mount out ahead of the images.

.....Things proceeded apace, and a very well prepared group of illusions advanced upon the area in question, and we didn't see much but trees and swamp muck, at first, safely viewing from afar. Then, in the area of the projected images, the very ground erupted! A gigantic arachnid limb ripped itself free from the swam muck, and struck our entire line of illusions, breaking most spells by blocking sight. An impossibly big spider raised itself from the muck, and it seized the vulture-lion construct in its fangs, instantly sucking the creature dry, like a rapidly deflated balloon!

.....One or two of us still had functional images in the shadow of the spider, and launched spells. These spells did virtually nothing to a creature of such huge size. This creature was the size of a small city, and it turned out that our actual bodies were less than a hundred yards from its legs! We quickly decided to flee, and arranged for everyone to teleport away!

.....There was some consternation over the encounter, but ultimately we decided that the creature had clearly dwelled in the forest for a very long time, and was unlikely to be turned loose to ravage the world just because a few tiny beings disturbed it. I was asked to scry the creature, but I was unwilling to just turn loose a clairvoyance spell on a creature of that magnitude. Conceivably, it could either yank a viewer through the link, or alternately travel the link itself. I certainly would not be doing Attellaria a favor, if I inadvertently dumped a creature that size upon Aertael!

5-11 - Training.

12 - Go to Silver Eagle dungeon. Find tombs of elves, apparently they were investigating Stafarin, were captured, souls were taken, bodies entombed, except for Barilir, who was found about 1116 wandering around Aertael, and was taken in by the Bahamut temple. They were: Thiriel, a fighter; Eldris, a magic-user; Arien, a fighter; Barilir, a fighter; Zandir, a fighter, and Beralis, a paladin. This group was from the Bahamut temple, and was called the Platinum Claw. Attempts were made to speak with dead, but all that was heard was anguished screaming.

They also found a petrified fighter named Januarius, and restored her and took her back to Aertael.

13 - Conner, Hazor, Atalanta, Paraswarm teleport to City of Ice.

14 - Travel to Deadwood, stay night.

15 - No encounter, into mountains.

16 - find tomb of an ancient Tharnian king Muiredach Tirech), take loot, flee.

17 - Hazor, Conner, Atty, Paraswarm, Barathorn, Runequest, Aristeus teleport to Frost Giant's Castle. Fight behirs. Joined by Catnip O'Toole.

Paraswarm's writeup of the day:

.....We started our patrol by teleporting in near the ruins of the old Frost Giant Keep, formerly held by the ancient Ash-Giantess witch Kethlen. We headed towards the border, and it was an uneventful day. However, I was greatly enjoying the sun, and cool wind through my hair. I have a great affinity for the open plains, and I could do this forever!

.....When evening came, I had my usual cautions about open campfires. I created my usual little pocket haven, and invited all folks in. I would stay outside, keeping watch all night, and consulting my spell books. Shortly after dusk, a half-dozen behir closed in upon our camp. This was a bit alarming, on the borders of the Duchy of Ice!

.....An adult behir is a huge, forty-foot long reptile, with 12 legs and a long, flexible crocodile-like head and a snake-like neck. This monster can bite, constrict, and worse, fire a lightning bolt. It can move as fast as a heavy warhorse, and can climb like a spider monkey. Occasionally, such a monster can swallow a man whole. Obviously, these are not the sort of creatures we want hunting prospectors and farmers in the Duchy!

.....I wanted to ascertain if these things had been sent, and were being watched from afar, so I sank back into a reverie and tried to extend my senses. While doing this, I advanced upon the behirs. I drew a pair of daggers, and took the fight to the reptiles. I was joined by Hazor and Delhawk, and others emerged from my pocket-camp, and tossed missiles and spells. The behirs were overwhelmed!

.....I did not observe any untoward scrying signs, and must assume that these monsters were yet another natural menace to people in the area. We did find some human remains in the belly of one of the beasts, along with some mostly dissolved normal gear, and a single magic-user scroll of unusual potence.

18 - Teleport to Throne of the Gods, get an item for those new to it. Rescue some steam elementals are are rewarded.

Paraswarm's writeup:

....We continued our patrol the next day, and came upon a mostly opaque cloud of steam several hundred feet in diameter. We could see smudgy, large figures within the cloud. No offensive action happened, and diviners in our party could detect no evil. I advanced upon the cloud, and was met by several tall figures. I can only assume that they were quasi-elementals from the plane of Steam.

.....I used my newfound Animal Telepathy power, and bid them, “greetings.” I introduced myself as Paraswarm. Hopefully politely, I asked whatever they might be doing out in this chilly southern wilderness, and if I might be of some help. While not overtly hostile, these creatures were pretty distraught. As creatures of moisture, positive energy and steam, this cool tundra in the sun was not terribly hospitable to them.

.....I tried to communicate encouragingly with them, and I think they began to trust me. It was clear that their presence on the borders of the kingdom wasn't desirable to either party. Miserable elementals aren't going to be friendly to explorers or prospectors, and frankly, people tend to attack first and let the Gods sort things out, when encountering monsters in the wilderness.

.....It turned out that these creatures were part of one of the endless elemental disputes in those realms, and had been ejected from their home plane, by an enemy, and left to perish in the wastes of Southern Pendria. I thought about that for a minute, then asked them if I could help them go back home.

.....The Steam elementals seemed to confer, then affirmed their trust in me. One might call them naive and simple, but I was grateful for their assent! I explained that it would take me a couple of hours to prepare. However, I'd first spend a few minutes making them more comfortable. As a follower of Frey, I love being in the glorious sun, and bask in it. However, I recognized that the sun was hurting these elementals, so I tried to spare them, as I know Frey would have done. I cast a Control Weather spell, and caused a haze of clouds to appear overhead, and I increased the humidity level. The relief these creatures felt was palpable.

.....I then studied a Plane Shift spell. Luckily, research from those who came before me was applicable, here. The Archmage Alterein had communicated to me the necessary requirements to access the Steam plane some years ago. Upon concluding my studying, I cast a resist steam spell upon myself, then gathered the elementals together. With us touching, I cast the Plane Shift spell, and sent them back!

.....A few minutes later, a small extra-planar gate opened, and a steamy hand dropped a dozen magical spheres through to us. These were magical war weapons, made at a ridiculous power level, 45th level! A third were reverse-gravity weapons, a third were positive material bombs, and a third were extremely potent anti-magic weapons!

.....I was just trying to help these poor creatures, and also see to the security of the Duchy of Ice. I certainly wasn't expecting anything in return! Someone very potent in the Steam plane seemed very appreciative!

19 - Paraswarm's writeup:

We came upon an obviously artificially made entrance into a hillside. Sharp eyes in the party identified human remains around the entrance, possibly as many as a hundred decayed bodies. We did some forensic investigating, and determined the cause of death to be crushing damage, in all cases. Body-wide, crushing damage. These remains were perhaps as much as a century old. Fortunately in the cool tundra, bodies and such decay very slowly.

.....I and others divined further, and learned that a pair of these victims had explored the tunnel, and happened upon a robed human-sized figure on a bench inside the hill. Somehow, magically, these two had been magically stripped of all of their clothing and gear, then teleported several hundred feet in the air outside the hillside. Screaming, they had plummeted helplessly to a crushing death on the plain!

.....Well, we started plotting furiously, and preparing. We quickly posited that this seemed to be the work of an undead monster known as a “Crypt Thing,” albeit with far greater magical power. Our working knowledge of such creatures acknowledged the teleporting powers, but nothing about possession-stripping ability. We spent quite a while discussing this. I was a viable choice to go in, because even if I were completely stripped of items, I have natural wings. I would not be plummeting to my death. On the other hand, it would not be terribly good for some undead opponent to suddenly have possession of all of my magic items!

.....We never got to engage the Crypt Thing. Suddenly in our midst, a highly magic-radiating human female teleported into our midst. She announced dramatically, “I'm a member of the Attellaria Wizards Council! You've got a bad spider problem at the Balder Temple, that you should investigate, right now! It's much like the one you have, now!” She gestured, and a horde of giant spiders appeared all around us! Most of the 30 or so spiders were man-sized, a half dozen or so were 20 feet in diameter.

.....Fortunately for us, the spiders had picked a particularly bad time to attack. We were battle ready, preparing to fight the Crypt Thing. Everyone in the party had been rendered poison immune, and some of us were sped or hasted. I have met every member of the Wizards Council, and this woman was unfamiliar. I opted to engage her, with a simultaneous teleport to close proximity, and I brought up my forcecube spell against living things, around us.

......I expected to have to endure some awful spider attack, but instead, my spell snipped off some tenuous magical connection to the “lady.” She disintegrated into hundreds of tiny orange garden spiders, all trapped in the cube with me. Hopefully, this also cut off any distant scrying on the site, as well!

.....Connor and Fertini unloaded with multiple explosive effects, and laid waste to numerous unengaged spiders in the open field. I filled my cube with a prepared lightning bolt, destroying all of the little orange spiders, as well as a gigantic one nearby. A few of our party members were partially ensnared in spit-out spider webs, and one was completely ensnared. Fortunately, the fully ensnared mage Aristaeus was able to mentally, magically fly, and got himself above the fray, out of spider reach!

.....Slowed down on foot by my forcecube spell, I started pulling throwing stars, and methodically started executing man-sized spiders. My halfling friend Atty used a tumbling maneuver to evade a quartet of spiders in front of me, opening up a large corridor. I launched another lighting bolt, wiping out the spiders in that area.

......In short order, all spiders were wiped out, and I don't think anyone in our party was more inconvenienced than having to clean some sticky web-mess off of their clothes and gear! The debate was then on, about whether to attack the Crypt thing first, or to go to the Balder Temple immediately, given the threat.

.....Frankly, I felt like the Balder Temple would take care of itself. Who there was going to let a bunch of giant spiders in? It turned out to be moot. The Crypt Thing decided discretion was the better part, and vacated the premises while we were blasting giant spiders. We teleported to the Balder Temple in Aertael, and our Shintapoorean monk friend Yuan Shu told us that someone had tried to gain access, claiming to be from the Wizards Council. Yuan Shu had refused admittance, claiming that the visitor had failed a “good faith” test.

20 - Paraswarm, Atty, Hazor, Runequest, Conner, Barathorn decide to take a month off.

21-28 - rest time

April

1-19 - rest time

20 - Group receives a not from Lady Trask. They go to Rygall's Swamp, discover a tunnel which leads to some sort of demon temple. Fight many creatures, mostly giants and such. When presented with a balrog in true form which they must defeat to find a powerful magic item (and ancient Elven stone of power), Hazor shatters the chain binding the demon, and it escapes into the world. The group prepares to use the Stone, and are interrupted by Eliste, the Grey Lord, and Bright Lotus! There is some explaining to the group that this Stone is an item far beyond their power to use (or defend), and a round of bargaining to try to get the group to trade the Stone to each of the elven elders for various rewards. The group chooses Eliste, who departs; Bright Lotus seems calm, but the Grey Lord is visibly angry. The group teleports home, and discovers a rift in space near the temple of Balder, where Kandrelion fought to the death some months back. This rift leads to a plane of pure magic. Some minor creatures from that plane have passed through the rift, killing a couple of city guards and townspeople; the group slays them. A much more powerful creature enters, who tells them its name is Baron Werdebras, and negotiates with the group, trading with them for some magical items. A discussion with the Windwalker begins, over whether the rift should be blocked up somehow.

November

19 - The gate under the sea is opened, and thousands of earth elementals begin to pour through. The King of Attellaria, armed with the Crown, Orb and Scepter of Lawful Good, leads a strike force to destroy it. He brings with him his personal elite bodyguard platoon; also present is a cadre of adventurers from the Temple of Balder in Aertael; a large group of adventurers from various towns in the country; and a cadre from Finarfin Castle.

The king uses the Regalia to destroy the gate, but the effect of joining them together and breaking the gate results in an explosion that kills all around the gate. Lost in the explosion, or killed by the elemental barons and unraiseable, are Celowyn, Galadien, and Thane. From Finarfin, Jem, Doethond, Hoisi. These people were inside there globe when it was destroyed, and apparently are lost and beyond resurrection: Mormar Gultan, Semloh, Thane, Airlaen, several of the king's bodyguard.

Slain by elemental barons while defending the Temple of the Ruby Golem, members of the wizard's council: Eethelia and Inarili.

The southern coast was protected by roughly half of the entire Attellarian army, numbering about 50,000 soldiers. They were aided by the Black Company, which assembled the entire 15,000 members on the coast for the battle. All of the members of the Wizard's council were either at the undersea battle, defending the tomb of the scroll, along the coast or protecting the crown princess; details are sketchy. The troops along the coast had a number of siege engines that fired elemental air bombs, and the Company had prepared a huge number of acidic traps and catapult missiles. In addition, a large number of adventurer types had been bribed or convinced to join the fight, from Attellaria and elsewhere; members of Eliste's cadre were seen along the coast, in addition to brigades from Tharia, Koth and Kax.

Despite all this, losses were heavy. The majority of all of the armies were not leveled types, and stood little chance against the elementals, most of which were standard eight hit dice monsters. The siege engines, traps and barriers slaughtered thousands, as did the high level defenders, but the barriers eventually were swarmed over, and when fighting became hand to hand, the elementals took a heavy toll.

The Attellarian army along the coast lost about thirty thousand troops. Losses among the other groups numbered about ten thousand. There were no doubt numerous deaths among the adventurers and soldiers of fortune. With the quantities of dead, with many bodies torn to bits, and massive destruction along the coast, it wasn't possible to make an accurate accounting; the dead were burned in vast pyres, then buried in mass graves, and covered over by mounds of earth.

The towns of the coast are now long burial mounds, blessed by the priests of Odin, sanctified so the dead cannot be disturbed.