as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Wealday, 15 Arodus

Downstairs we did not find bright colors and spacious rooms. Is it any surprise that it got darker, and mustier, and .. well, what would you expect from rough hewn rock? We were descending into the mountain, and our level of caution went up correspondingly.

Qatana seemed to have a high energy level. She aggressively made her way to the front, and, glancing at Sparna, I acknowledged it was my turn to look after Qatana, and moved to the front as well. The stairway down, and the passage we found at the bottom were both narrow, allowing no more than one person to pass comfortably.

As I mentioned, the walls here were carved from rock, and were apt to be moist. Occasionally there would be active drips, and in the distance we could actually hear running water. The passage opened into a chamber with a door leading off to the north, and another door to the west. Opening the former, we found a corridor with a stream running through it, and a plank that might be big enough to cross it on the far shore. Opening the other, we observed pool of water plus a small waterfall from the southern wall. Intriguingly, a small dry shelf of land was on the far side of the pool, maybe 25 or 30 feet away, and there was a door there, along with a small cask or barrel.

Etayne surprised us by simply flying over to the other side, but when she tried to retrieve the plank, she found it was too heavy for her, even with her fly spell. Before we could come up with a plan B, we were inspired by the appearance of a troll on the opposite side. “What going on here?” said the troll in Giant. There was a pause, before Sparna loudly replied, “Prisoner transfer!” And he waved one of the raven figures we’d lifted from the ninjas. “Orders from Runecaster.”

The troll thought hard – really hard, because he was a troll and that didn’t come naturally to him – and finally concluded there was nothing going on here worth getting in trouble over. “No want trouble” he said, in fact, and easily picked up the plank and laid it across the stream.

Looking to the right we saw a room with a huge furnace on one side, and a huge pile of coal on the other. There were four trolls there altogether. Sparna got that dwarven-joker look on his face, and with as innocent a look as he could muster, called into the room, “Do you need more coal?” The troll replied quickly, loudly, and just a mite angrily, “NO MORE COAL!” I saw Sparna quietly smirk.

To the left, the door was locked. With the still suspicious trolls looking on, we pulled out the keys we got from upstairs, but none of them opened this lock. Radella sighed, bent over it for a bit, and suddenly the door slowly swung open.

The room was large, and nicely decorated in wood paneling and art. The ceiling here had to be 20′ high. We entered the dimly lit room, peering at the tapestries, before Ana called out, “it’s a trap!” Clinging to almost unnoticeable handholds on the walls, were six darkclad figures. A couple of them made a throwing motion, and there was a small flash and a big noise as each hit the floor. It appeared from their gestures that perhaps both Kali and Etayne had been close enough to be deafened by the blasts, hopefully temporarily.

With the attackers all being above us initially, arrows were the answer of choice. Ivan, as always, was firing arrows faster than anybody I’ve seen and making them stick too. One of those who’d dropped a thunderegg was among the first to die, at the end of Etayne’s spear. Once on the ground, these ninjas were neither well armored nor particularly hardy, and swords became the weapon of choice. Radella, Anavaru, Ivan and myself all racked up a kill in dispatching them.

However, not before they yelled for help from the trolls. And just when we thought we’d removed them as a problem … But trolls are large creatures. It turns out that the double doors leading into this room made a very nice bottleneck so that we didn’t have to deal with more than one at a time. Don’t get me wrong – the first troll totally destroyed the doors, but had less luck on the door frame. Still, for that strategy to work, we needed at least two of our party to engage them right at the door. That fell to myself first, and eventually Anavaru and Qatana (!).

Kali helped with another aqueous orb like she’d used on the earth elementals a few days ago. That made the troll a little helpless and at risk of drowning, but with others waiting behind it, it wouldn’t be particularly helpful to move the disabled troll around as she had with the earth elementals.

After a short time, Qatana quietly moved away from the trolls, and strategically went searching for other potential enemies in the room, just in case we killed all the trolls, I guess. Being the guy in front had drawn a fair amount of blood from me, but glancing over my shoulder at one point, I was a bit surprised to see Qatana listening at and trying other doors in the room. “Noooo” I roared, and Sparna, now helping me with the trolls, looked at me, surprised. I nodded to my back, and as he saw Qatana opening a door, he grimaced and nodded at me.

But we were both engaged with the trolls at this point, and couldn’t step back without letting them in the room.

I think it was Kali who reminded us that it was not legend: trolls needed to be burned to prevent them from regenerating. Etayne obliged by bestowing alchemist fire upon our first kill, and Kali was able to throw some acid splashes too.

Qatana had cleverly uncovered a secret door, but then left Radella to find the ninja hidden behind it. How does she do that? Anyway, at that particular point, I happened to be troll-free so I rushed over to help. I managed to get a good blow in … only to have her disappear. Crap. Invisibility. She reappeared quickly, though, and surprised me as she cut me up – and apparently poisoned me (again). This time, though, Qatana quickly cast delay poison on me so the damage was minimal.

For the first time in several minutes, the dungeon was quiet.

We took inventory. The female ninja carried several useful items.

[300] vial (poison – stronger than the deathblade poison from before)
[301] masterwork dagger (Tien style, blue metal blade) poison residue
[302-304] shuriken, engraved with image of erupting volcano
earthfire, +1, flaming burst – DC15 reflex or catch on fire
[305] blowgun
[306] 10 darts
[307] 5 plain shuriken
[308] black body suit – MW, +2 AC, +5 stealth
[309] MW Thieves tools

Searching in the room with the coal bin, Ivan and Sparna found

[310] 42 gold armbands
[311] 100 amethyst in a bag

(How the trolls came into the possession of 42 armbands with no evidence of 42 arms is left as an exercise for the reader.)

Lastly, the monks that attacked us left

[312] 10 thunderstones
[313] 6 MW spears
[314] 6 amulets of finely polished bones, found to be +1 natural armor
[315] 4 nice jade raven statuettes

In the room where the ninja had been hidden, there was an ornamental screen [316] and a small leather trunk [317]. Inside the trunk we found

[318] ornate blowgun (jade and lapus lazuli)
[319] 300gp of Tien coins
[320] a scroll- decree to commandeer resources within 2 mi of Kjelsgaard
[321] disguise kit

While we’d been battling monks, ninjas, and trolls, Kali had shoved Lute into a safe room. Now that there was no immediate danger, Lute told us more of his story.

Lute was elected to the RimeRunners Guild council fairly recently, but Silverscore is a daunting political opponent. A young woman joined and was friends with Silverscore, but she died on an excursion (trading voyage to the south .. storm at sea, apparently). Kimindatsu was her name, and this happened within the last year.

Although grateful for our assistance, Lute decided, after having seen the type of people we were dealing with, that he might be better off on his own. I can’t say he might not be right. We escorted him to the cloakroom we’d originally hidden in, and left him with two fugitive bombs and one vanish potion.

Returning to the basement, we again saw ravens congregating on the roof. Left me with a bit of a creepy feeling. I really want to put an end to the aerial surveillance.

And perhaps that distraction left me a little less vigilant than normal, as the air crackled with electricity just before a bolt of electricity ran through our group, hitting most of us. I noticed a flash of red among black feathers again, overhead, and hit it quickly with an arrow.

But Ivan had been waiting for just such a moment, and in a flash he’d pulled out his arrow of Greater Magical Beast slaying, nocked it, and shot at the figure. He hit it square, and it paused for a moment before falling ungracefully from the roof to the ground before us. The ravens on the roof scattered haphazardly.

There was a magic band around its leg, which we later identified as a bird-sized ring of protection +1 [322]. It was bestowed, of course, upon Nihali. Nihali, for her part, remarked that the dead bird was “raven, but it’s wrong.”

Returning to the basement, we continued our exploration – this time as a supportive group rather than simply as a couple of individuals unlocking and opening doors. I had the lead, trying to stay ahead of Qatana. We entered one room where we found what appeared to be a circle of protection drawn on the floor in chalk. I heard a noise from under the bed, and the strangest sight emerged.

Two giant (not giant-sized, but mpnstrously bigger than that) hands crawled out from under the bed. The nearest figure to them was Radella, so they moved to attack her. A bizarre engagement proceeded as a giant hand attempted to attack Radella. It was surprisingly strong and quick, and did draw blood, even without a weapon. The other hand behaved similarly, and had similar success, but it was when Anavaru struck one that it displayed a deplorable capability: upon successfully being cut by Ana’s sword, it emitted a viscous fluid like pus, and Anavaru fell away, wretching.

This added a new element to the battle. Each cut could render the attacker helpless. But they certainly weren’t going to fall over and die on their own, so I pressed on the attack. Unfortunately, during this encounter, the most I was able to do was be grabbed by a giant hand briefly before breaking free. The hands were eventually dealt with, but not without a surprising amount of damage to ourselves. Qatana was able to channel a fair amount of healing back to us.

We suspected this might be Silverscore’s room, but other than finding a surprising amount of research papers and notes, the room seemed a disappointment … until Radella fiddled with a decorative piece of the bed and found a compartment holding [324] 3 scrolls of magic circle against evil, and [325] a vial of powdered silver, roughly sufficient for 3 circles.

Etayne, for her part, took the opportunity to collect a sample of pus from what was left of the now motionless giant hands.

Looking at Qatana’s map, we had hoped this room might have an entrance, secret or otherwise, to the room behind the door in the room with the waterfall. Kali had summoned an earth elemental, and in its waning moments, it examined beyond the walls of this room. That revealed there was no entrance from this room, so we returned to the waterfall room.

There seeming to be no other way about it, Qatana tied a rope to her and waded through the pool. The water did not crest her head, and she came out near the door, where there was also a small barrel. There was room for one more before the door, so Radella made a similar journey.

The barrel, it seems, was a cask. And the cask held … apparently some fairly decent sake! And in discovering that, they found, of all things, a key hidden beneath the cask. A key which unlocked the door before them.

Qatana opened the door. Inside there was a chamber with a tiny well in the floor and a bunch of fungi growing on the ceiling and walls. When Etayne heard there was fungi, she literally flew across to inspect them. She said they were death hoods, known for dropping onto the heads of those underneath, and then killing them.

However, Etayne also revealed that this fungi was repelled by alcohol, so Qatana took some of the sake and spread it liberally around the room. The fungus reacted noticeably to that. Qatana also said her detect magic said there was something magic at the bottom of the small well.

We were stymied for a bit until Kali (by this time, most had come over) suggested an unseen servant might be able to retrieve it. At that same time, there was a burst of flame from the bottom of the well. When the unseen servant came to the top of the well, it brought with it … a sword. A sword that said, “I sense Amatatsu scions”.

Yes. It said that. We had, at last, found Suishen [328].

“The orc threw me away.”

As we all looked at it – it looked quite impressive! – Ivan picked up the sword and hefted it. “Who shall carry it?” he asked, looking at me. “It’s a commitment,” he warned. But I needed a better sword, there was no doubt, and there was also no doubt that a better sword was there before me.

As I took the sword from Ivan, I felt … a surge, I guess. The sword just seemed to thrum. And I heard a voice that I later learned nobody else heard: “So you, then, are the Amatatsu champion.” It was not a question, but had it been I can’t imagine any answer other than yes.

Whereas before I had struggled with how much I should concern myself with Qatana’s welfare, and what Shalelu would think if harm should befall her, I realized now my concerns were much larger. As the Amatatsu champion, I was responsible for the heir – for Ameiko, currently and hopefully only – first and foremost. But because of the line of succession, I was also responsible for each and every one of the scions, too. My responsibility had transformed from a concern and a duty, to an obligation. Despite Ameiko’s position as heir apparent, because of their positions as scions, my concern for Qatana and all of the others suddenly had increased tenfold.

Well, ok, maybe with Qatana it only doubled, because I have been convinced for some time now that she was poised to die about every 15 steps.

I am not a religious person, but I have to believe this is almost what a revelation must feel like. I have new responsibilities. While I don’t disagree with that conclusion, I could also feel that strongly pushed from the sword. It was like being in the room with a very persuasive person. Suishen had been hidden, and disconnected, for a very long time, and the full force of its perceived destiny was now manifest.

As I held Suishen, I came to understand some of its capabilities.

neutral good
+2 defending, flaming katana (1d8+2)
confers endure elements by possessing it
3/day: airwalk, daylight, resist energy (cold), see invisible
darkvision

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Toilday, 14 Arodus

Since we had a number of short duration (~3hr) “rope tricks” at our disposal, we spent the night in another plane (well, four of them for a total of 12 hrs) in the cloakroom, setting guards to peer into the room and give us advance notice of any possible detection. Thus we knew that we were still being searched for, as two of the ninjas did enter during the night and looked around.  The lack of a hanging rope with these rope tricks was blessed indeed.

Other than that breath-holding moment, the night was uneventful.

Wealday, 15 Arodus

Exiting the cloakroom, we attempted to go stealthily toward the alchemy lab at the other end of the building.  The ninjas are so good at hiding in shadows that even moving, slowly, stealthily, and carefully, we walked past two of them before they sprang upon us. They may not have seen us in the cloakroom, but they clearly never believed we left.

The ninjas are quick, well-armed, and virtuosos with poison.  But what they are not, is well-armored.  Although there were eight of them, there were also eight of us.  Nine, if you include the celestial leopard that Kali conjured up to help us.

Being close to several of them when they emerged, I found myself the target of several accurate but not particularly deadly attacks. Although each individual attack was nowhere near lethal, I could see them adding up quickly if I wasn’t careful.  Qatana’s channel of positive energy was particularly timely.  As each ninja found themselves engaged in melee, they also found themselves falling down in a puddle of blood.  As I said, neither well-armored nor particularly robust.

There were still six standing, although few uninjured, when one gave a whistle, undoubtedly a signal for additional help.  As the ninjas began to drop like flies under the swords of our fighters, 6 thugs emerged from a doorway below us. I stepped up to the nearest, but missed.

Kali greased one thug’s weapon, but they were still proving remarkably tough to take down. Swords were doing the job faster than arrows, but we were reminded that they could dish out blows as well.  Still, I was embarrassed to find that I could not lay a blow to them. Fortunately our other fighters were much more successful, and the thugs lay on the ground bleeding out.

We were now free to search the many rooms on this lower floor.  There was nothing spectacular here, just several small rooms that appeared to have been used by the ninjas and the thugs.  In general, we found some higher quality stuff in the ninja’s room, which was also much neater. There we found

[288] 8 fugitive granades
[289] 8 potions

There was an altar here to Yaezhing, upon which we found ~500gp of gems.

In the room used by the thugs, we found an obvious trap door. Opening it yielded a coarse yell in some language: “Enough coal! No more! Close door!”.  Sparna was able to translate it for us.

Radella searched some foot lockers, and we added to our salvage operation:

[290] jade bracelet
[291] ebony antique fan
[292] IOU for Rimerunners, worth 80gp

Another room was cold, with carcasses in it – clearly a room for preserving food.  Two rooms appeared to be recently quarried; it wasn’t clear what that was about.  Each thug and each ninja had little jade raven statuettes … the ninja ones being of higher quality. And of course the ninjas had decent bows.

[293] 6 jade ravens (lower quality)
[294] 8 jade ravens (higher quality)
[295] 8 MW short bows

We realized we had never checked the werebear’s room, so we went back to check it out. We did find some stuff worth keeping there:

[296] under a small oak stauette of a warrior, a ring of keys

There was also a bag of about 40 Chellish gold coins.

From there we proceeded back to the alchemy lab, making sure that Etayne would retain her composure in the face of sucn an interesting room.  There was, of course, the intriguing “corpse under glass”. Looking it over carefully, we saw that its skin seemed to be writhing, as though something was underneath it.  As it beat feebly on the glass, it spoke – “Let me out” – this time in Infernal, said somebody.  We also found

[298] ointment: can be used either as stoneflesh, or as stone to flesh
[299] magic ring of counterspells (empty)

Etayne made a point of inspecting papers and research notes. Most were in common, but a few were in Giant.

Next was a room that was barred (on our side) from entry. Going inside, we found a 5’x10′ cell with a very pungent smell and a dead body with rats. But there was a (barely) live body here as well.  Lute, he said he was named, and he’d been here for maybe 3 weeks.  He gratefully came along with us.

While we were cleaning out the cell 🙂 Etayne found some mention in the notes about Infernal wasps that apparently could take over a body. Whoever was in the glass container was probably no longer really there, and breaking it would prove disastrous for us and maybe others in the building.   She also noticed that many if not all of the plants growing here were of the nightshade family and thus poisonous.  She hypothesized that this may be the source of the poisons we’d been encountering.

As we left, Etayne grabbed what research she could.

Leaving this level, we went downstairs.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Moonday, 13 Arodus

Knowing now that we were going to assault Ravenscrag, and knowing, too, that it was supposed to be difficult to approach, we discussed strategy. We dismissed Fly as being straightforward but impractical; being able to Fly is not the same as being able to Fly well, and, not knowing the precise geography of the region, it was possible the duration of a spell like that might not be long enough for us to reach our goal.

Clearly we would not be doing this in broad daylight either, and while I have better than average eyesight at twilight, I’m as blind as anyone in utter darkness.

We came to the conclusion that we needed a) Dark Vision; b) some form of protection against falling: Feather Fall, Levitate, or Fly; c) Spider Climb – as we’d decided to assault the position by simply climbing up, as it would likely be unexpected and the spell lasted a fairly long time; and d) good, old fashioned silk rope for when the spells ran out, failed, or simply weren’t what we needed.

Spreading out a bit around town, we purchased 7 Dark vision potions (@ 150gp each), 8 Spider Climb potions (@ 150gp each), 300′ of silk rope (@ 10gp per 50′), an additional 150′ with knots in it to make it easier to hold on to [really, 135′ with the knots) (@ the same rate) and lastly, two grappling hooks (@ 1gp each). We spent a total of 2342gp, which would have left us broke if the RimeRunners Guild had not financed our trip 🙂

I myself picked up 4 travel rations @ 5sp each. I already had 3, and that would give me a week’s worth of sustenance. Just in case, we’re gone that long. Eventually, this ring on my finger will make that unnecessary but it takes a while for the magic to work.

Having returned to the caravan for the evening, we set a guard, per usual, and planned to start our journey in the morning. The watches were set up to be:

1st) Qatana and Etayne
2nd) myself and Sparna
3rd) Radella and Anavaru
4th) Ivan and Kali

But it was as the watch was changing that there was a loud thunk from Ameiko’s wagon. A quick inspection showed an arrow sticking out of the side of it. The arrow tip was coated with what Etayne identified as death blade – a deadly poison. And of course, there was a note attached.

“It was fulish of you to attak a sleping dragun.
Return whut wuz stolin.
Abandun your hopless quest now or those u luv will be distroyed!”

So, really, it wasn’t that misspelled. But at the same time, it was SO cliché it might as well have been. Really? We are protectors of the Regent princess and having read that, we’ll say, “Oh my! I had no idea it was so dangerous! My word, I guess we’ll have to go home now?” What I wouldn’t give for just a wee bit of light so that I could send the arrow back to its sender with a new note attached: “Surrender now and you may yet have a fair trial.”

For some definitions of “fair”.

I believe Ivan retrieved the arrow for later reuse.

Toilday, 14 Arodus

We left for Ravenscrag. As expected, it was just the eight of us: Ameiko, Sandru, Shalelu, Koya and the rest of the crew would wait for our return. We made no secret of our leaving, so if eyes were watching, it would become apparent where we were heading. But we saw no eyes, even though we were looking for them – including eyes from the skies.

We were arranged with myself and Anavaru in the lead, riding our … mounts …, then Etayne and Kali, Ivan and Qatana, and guarding the rear were Sparna and Radella. We travelled without incident into the foothills, although we noticed that in the valleys between hills it was not uncommon for the ground to be moist almost to the point of boggy.

As the path took us through a particularly wet area, the areas on both side of the path almost looked like very shallow pools with an obvious water surface. And even as I was wondering if anything other than floating plants enjoyed this humid, wet environment, my question was answered for me. A smooth .. arm, or maybe extension, rose out of the water and tried to grab Etayne. Another tried to snag Ivan. Neither one was able to latch on, but we all immediately came alert and drew our weapons.

Radella attacked the creature slowly rising from the water before it could attack, and struck it smartly with her arrow.

And it split. There were now two. Oh drowbreath. I’d heard of these creatures but never met one. They could not be killed with edged weapons; they simply divided in two and provided a new foe with all the same danger as the original one. I glanced at my armament. Dagger. Great sword. Bow and arrow. Longsword. What I wouldn’t give for a quarterstaff about now. I was going to be useless in this battle.

Kasimir snorted below me. Had he read my thoughts? Perhaps I did have a weapon after all. “Do not bite, Kasimir,” I said softly. “They will not taste good and may even do you harm. But kick with your hooves as hard as you can.” I moved us closer to Etayne and attempted to help her avoid the clumsy goo-arm that emerged from the glistening jelly.

For her part, Etayne scorched the creature with a Burning Hands spell. It seemed to almost recoil from that, but that would still not be enough to dissuade it from considering us a form of dinner. Qatana used her “sound bomb” to injure the three jellies (yes, in addition to the one that had split there was another.) The one closest to Radella seemed to grab her, and its grip appeared to be burning. Acid?

Radella was able to break its grasp and step back. But she two was realizing she needed a special weapon to attack this creature. Fortunately for us, the jellies were clumsy. But as Radella could attest, if they ever did get a grab, they were painful and strong. And with that, one tried to grab Etayne and succeeded.

Radella pulled out a wand and used it to send a scorching ray at the one that had attacked her. Sparna had a heavy blunt morningstar at ready, and was able to further damage the one by Radella. I looked at the one holding Etayne, and did a quick calculation. It had been burnt twice and hurt by the sonic blast. It was clearly injured by these things and was oozing a liquid in a manner that suggested bleeding. If I could strike it hard enough, even with an edged weapon, could I kill it before it divided? I didn’t like the thought of Etayne being pulled into the water, so I took the chance and did indeed land a hefty blow to it with my great sword, whereupon it lost its shape and basically sloshed flat to the ground. I heaved a sigh; I had been right, and Etayne was free.

With this new knowledge, we began to use our edged weapons, which could deliver substantially more damage than hitting it with our fists, intelligently; that is to say, only when the creature looked close to death already. And in a short time, the three – no, make that four – jellies were puddles. (It turns out that the spikes on Sparna’s morningstar were enough to, sometimes, cause the jellies to split. But fortunately, they were so weak that it did not prove a danger.)

Qatana healed all – I realized I wasn’t even injured! – and we were able to continue. However, we’d now used up some of our spells when we’d been hoping to have our full complement when we arrived. Well, couldn’t be helped.

We in the lead were asked to keep an eye out for tracks that left the trail .. perhaps avoiding obstacles like jelly-filled ponds. There are some other tracks on this trail, so we are not the only ones to use it.

By the end of the day, we reached Ravenscrag. It appeared to be a building – maybe a house – nestled in the valley between two peaks against the skyline. A long, wooden construct led to, I presume, the front door of the building .. and a volley of arrows or worse, I imagine. The front door was not to be our mode of entry.

Nihali did a little discreet reconnaissance for us, and we decided to use the spider climb to quietly climb up the crag but about 100 feet west of the building. As we came over the crest, we would find a dell, or maybe a courtyard, with a small river running through it and a small pond, that we hoped might afford us a quieter and more secretive way into the building. Nihali reported there were many ravens roosting on top of a small tower that appeared to overlook this courtyard; that might eventually be a problem but we’d deal with it if it came up.

The mission, we decided so as to maintain focus, was to rescue Ulf and kill Silverscore. If other opportunities arose, we were to make sure we stayed focused on those two objectives before going off on other interesting endeavors.

The Spider Climb worked wonderfully, and we were able to not only climb up, but enter the glade and get close to the house without being noticed. From behind the single door that we could see, we heard the sounds of food being prepared – it would seem this door led to the kitchen.

Qatana suggested we hastily use what was left of our spider climb to enter from the second floor, not the first. Qatana, Radella, and Ivan climbed up to what appeared to be giant arrow slits with shutters over them. They were braced from the inside, but not very well, and they were able to unshutter one of them and climb inside. There seeemed to be nobody around. The rest of us quietly followed their lead.

It appeared that not too far from us was a dining area, perhaps of an important figure because it looked down upon a much larger dining area.

The ceiling here was very high; probably close to 40′. It was relatively well lit by light from below and the occasional torch.

Quietly, we searched this floor. We found one room which seemed to be an armory; Ivan found a magic arrow [270] in among all the ordinary ones. I guess, to him, it just glows and it’s obvious, ut it looked like any of the other dozens stored here to me.

Another room contained cloaks and cold-weather clothing. Beneath some furs and bales of raw wool, Kali found rolls of scrolls. Not magical ones, but just written words – a diary, or journal. Reading further, she announced excitedly that it seems to have been written by Snorri Stoneye!

She scanned it. It was rambling, half mad. He referenced how his Eye had shown him the future and the past, and how a great beast would be unleashed. A special cache he had made upstairs in the fireplace flue would be of great help in defeating this beast. He wrote he was going on a long sea voyage to retrieve an artifact that would let him survive the coming catastrophe.

Kali kept this [271] to read it further, later.

Looking down a stairwell we could see what looked like maybe a lab at the base. In fact, it appeared there was a baby in a glass tank or case.

A door near the stairway demanded to be inspected, so Radella and Qatana checked it carefully and opened it. Unfortunately, inside was a large, hairy almost bearish man, who had been sleeping moments before but awoke and yelled “Intruders!”

Kali got a chance to glitterdust him before Qatana, to our amazement, cast Hold Person on him, and he was held like in a web? Radella took that opportunity to see how much blood was in his body (when she was done, the correct answer was “none”.)

But the noise was enough; there were sounds of alarm from above.

Kali was expecting the flock of birds at any moment. They were already making noises. Looking at the ceiling, it appeared there might be sufficient openings to allow them access from the outside. Kali called up 3 air elementals with the idea that they could probably keep the birds busy and out of our hair. (Literally).

And indeed, “a large number” of bird quickly entered the room, and we began to attack the group with arrows and, when they moved close enough, with swords. Kali told the air elementals, “go up and kill any birds you may find.” The birds quickly dispersed, with the remaining ones flying up the stairs (presumably there was no door up there.)

The elementals blew past us, pursuing the birds. We went up the stairs more slowly and carefully, and carefully looked over the edge of the landing.

There were no ravens here. But instead, there appeared to be a number (eventually we found six) ninja tengus, which, coincidentally, had a bird like appearance. The elementals had chased off or killed the ravens, and then turned their attention to these black-dressed creatures, and were already wearing them down. It was difficult, apparently, to injure a strong gust of wind.

The rest of us came up the stairs and deployed. I pulled out my great sword; now this was a battle I knew how to win! From across the room, a ninja pulled out a blowgun and fired a dart at me. The inconsequential barb stuck in my shoulder as, between parries, I reached over, pulled it out, and threw it to the ground. Ninjas and their little toys!

But then my body shuddered involuntarily, and I stumbled a bit. I felt a bit weaker. Glancing at the dart on the ground, the tip looked a little discolored. Had it been poisoned?

I shook again, and started to sweat a little. The ninja I was battling sensed a weakness and lunged at me. But I got a second solid hit with my great sword, and this opponent did not split into two ninjas. Although, with that second blow, I did come close to splitting him in two 🙂

And my vision got a little blurry, and my feet got a little heavy. There was still battle going on around me but it was harder and harder to focus. “I think,” I said a little unsteadily, “I think the dart was poisoned.” As I dropped to one knee, Etayne glanced at the dart and at me and shook her head worriedly. Somebody put their magic cloak on me, and Etayne mumbled a bit and urged me to “resist the poison”.

I felt very weak and was now kneeling on the floor. Everybody’s voice sounded like it was at the far end of the tunnel. Is this what it was like to die? One voice said “scroll!” and another said “not yet! might still be ok!” but as even my vision started to cloud over, I heard a voice chanting something, and suddenly I felt fine again! I looked up in time to see a scroll turn to dust before I suddenly felt nauseous again. Still?

The cloak was placed on me again and Etayne was doing something …

And several seconds passed. I felt .. no worse. I didn’t feel 100%, but at least I didn’t feel any worse. I looked up at my friends. Etayne heaved a sigh of relief. “It either is done, or he has overcome it,” she pronounced. “How do you feel?”

“A little sick,” I replied, “but I’ll get by.”

“You’ll feel better after a couple of days,” she said. “The worst is past. You should feel lucky; you’re one of the few to survive death blade.”

I felt proud. And angry. And lethal. And grateful. And ANGRY. But, looking around me, all the tengus were dead. Kali actually gave a slight chuckle.

“I did SUCH a good job on that!” she exclaimed. “I told the elementals to go after the birds … and these tengus look like big birds! They’d already engaged half of them when we came up the stairs! I did not expect that, but it worked out great!!”

Nevertheless, I was still angry. I supposed it’s hard to be brought to the brink of death and NOT feel angry about it. It’s not a pleasant journey.

We took inventory. From the ninjas themselves:

[272] 6 potions (blur)
[273] 6 potions (disguise self)
[274] whinnes poison
[275] death blade poison – I did not hear how much of
both poisons were left
[276] leather armor (6) – I’ve decided to take one of these,
if it fits, because I dislike being attacked in the night
and having to fight with no armor
[277] blowgun (6) specially constructed for corvids. I’m not sure
if I could operate it properly.
[278] masterwork wakizashi (6)
[279] dagger (18)
[280] climber’s kit (6)
[281] 50′ silk rope (6)
[282] masterwork ninja outfit – dark, tight fitting, +2 to stealth

From the footlockers in this room:
[283] ornate jade raven set with precious stones
[284] garments of fine workmanship (~200 gp)

Off to one side, near an opening in the wall to the outside, was what appeared to be a nest. Within the nest we found several disgusting things like teeth, but also

[285] onyx and ivory necklaces
[286] kit for creating bird messages

Remembering Snorri’s journal, we searched two fireplaces and in the flue of one we found his great treasure that would help him survive the end of the world: [287] boots of winterland.

Feeling a bit annoyed at the ninjas yet, I pulled one tooth from each of them and left them in the nest. But Kali managed to one-up me. She wanted to put a poisoned dart in the nest so that if the bird came back – we figured it was Silverscore’s familiar – it would impale itself on it and die.

So it was arranged. Using one in this manner left Sparna and Radella with the only two remaining death blade darts.

There was a trapdoor to the roof, but all we found up there were some cages and evidence that yes, there probably HAD been a messaging system here, but the elementals had taken care of the bird portion of that system. It needed no further destruction 🙂

Now of course, below us, somewhere, there is still Ulf and maybe Silverscore. So as we reminded ourselves, our mission is not yet complete …