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©1998 by Matthew Strumpf and Mark Christopher

This page last updated Tuesday, 06-Sep-2005 12:29:00 EDT.

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

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• Volume 2, Number 4
• Volume 2, Number 5
• Volume 3, Number 1
• Volume 4, Number 1

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

 Kali Agni met with the Mayor to ask for permission to allow Lazia and Kaz Cronhad (Stupid Cow) into the town. Permission was not granted, but they were allowed to stay in a stable outside of town. Instead of going around the town, the two walked right down Main Street, causing much commotion.

 Ryork Dradei and Rasalon spent some time researching and deciding what to do about the old "Monster Squad". Since they are two of only four remaining members of that team, they decided to give up on the journey home and concentrate instead on setting up a new life here. With nothing else on offer they have stuck with the group cleaning up the manor house.

 The group received information about the mission from the Adventures Guild that they were originally planing to go on. The Guild had lost yet another group on that mission. So, even though the group had qualified in this test, they would not be allowed to move on to the other mission since it was upgraded to an expert level.

 Two new people joined the exploration recently, Shar-kras and Christopher Nole. Both are interested in helping to clear out the manor house, but no terms for compensation were ever discussed.

 Shar-kras is a member of the Adventures Guild, and that is probably how he found out about the manor house. He was seen watching the party for a day before wandering in to a meeting between the party and a Guild representative. With all the resent changes of party members, no one noticed when he joined.

 Christopher Nole is a child that wandered in to the manor after the party. He was spotted by Ryork Dradei, and someone paralyzed him to protect the party. They left the manor with the frozen body, and waited for the spell to wear off. Ryork and Christopher then had a conversation and it was decided, after the wounding of Kaz, that Christopher may be an asset. It was made clear that Christopher would get no special treatment due to his age and that he would have to pull his own weight.

 Not much exploration was done of the manor house. After resupplying at the newly opened Oswald's Multiversal Trading Post half the group explored the house, while others check out the cliffs below for secret passages. With no results on the cliffs, the group reassembled and fought off undead to save an elf princess. Providing her save transit home ended the days events.

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

 Looking for something to do, Christopher went to talk to Ryork, as he did the night before. After a story Christopher left to see who else he could bother, but most were occupied.

 Soon, Ryork caught up with Christopher and they went to get whoever was available to explore. They found Rassalon and Kaz. The four of them knew that they could not face the main entrance alone, so they decided to see what else was around the manor. They first did a detailed survey of the exterior of the manor and discovered a couple of buildings outside.

 They went to a gazebo first. Ryork entered the structure and was soon attacked by vines. He attacked back, but was having trouble. Kaz and Christopher stormed in with support while Rassalon prepared a spell. Soon, Kaz was also entangled, but Christopher seemed almost unaffected and he hit the vines now squeezing his new friend. Rassalon tried to burn the roots, but nothing seemed to happen at first. The battle continued and both Ryork and Kaz were injured by the pressure of the vines. Rassalon's next attempt seemed to work and the vines let go and the team escaped. Soon the whole gazebo was set ablaze. Kollos only wanted the manor house anyway.

 The team moved on around the manor and found the kitchens. This was a three room structure with a small root cellar. Rassalon, for no apparent reason, began to clean the place, while Kaz tore apart the kitchen. Ryork and Christopher spent their time a bit more constructively inventorying the cellar, for future sale.

 After leaving the Kitchens the team went to the back of the manor around one of the towers. The tower scared most of them. Christopher told them that people have entered the tower, but no one has ever returned. They moved on quickly.

 The group found the outhouse. They did not bother to explore it further, but it was noted incense would be a good plan.

 Following the path from the outhouse, the team moved inward to a courtyard. On one wall was a locked door. A knock spell by Rassalon gave the team two entrances to the manor. This back entrance was unguarded. There was not even a Jeeves to ask for your coat. It was thought that this less traveled part of the manor might hold long kept secrets and might be quite dangerous, but in actuality it was quite calm.

 After taking their time to insure that the hallway was safe, Rassalon opened a door, a short way down the hall. A body, killed by an arrow, fell out. Inside the room there was a battle going on, with arrows flying out of the room. The battle was not in the room but rather in a painting on the far wall. The room itself was just a bedroom, dotted with arrows from the painting. There was a portrait on the near wall. It had been hit by an arrow and was bleeding. Only Christopher chanced entering the room, ducking for cover behind the bed. After messing about he took the portrait out with him. No magic that they had could stop the bleeding so it was left.

 With a few turns and a secret door, or trap depending on how you look at it, they found a statue of a Griffin and three masks. No one was foolish enough to try one on. As they found out later from Oswald the masks improved certain abilities, but could not be taken off. The only way to take them off was with a remove curse spell. It was decided to keep the masks as they might be useful later.

 The team moved on to map out most of the halls in the East part of the manor. All the halls were relatively safe, but they all had different sounds in them. The halls soon were being called by their sounds. A convenient way to locate oneself. They found their way out the front doors, and of course went straight to Oswald's. They sold the statue to him, and turned back to the Manor.

 At the end of one hall they tried a room. Inside was a rocking chair and a fireplace. The fireplace burned with strange, changing colors. The Rocking chair was very comfortable and the singing heard when sitting in it was so peaceful. Ryork could not help but fall asleep. When he was awoke by Rassalon, Christopher was missing. He had been getting into trouble upstairs.

 Christopher had found a kid's room, with plenty of toys. When a doll attacked, he was in trouble. After several misses, he dropped his sword. The rest of the group arrived just in time. Rassalon started to fly around to help as Kaz attacked a teddy bear. Christopher leapt into a squad of toy solders to get his sword and was attacked by most of them. Ryork took on the doll that first attacked Christopher, but a fumble hit Christopher. This was not Christopher's day as he got hit by one toy after another. He swept his hand but instead of the solders falling, Ryork got blown across the room. Christopher charged out but was knocked down before he made it. Rassalon defended him as Kaz pulled him out. A fire ball by Rassalon took out most of the room. A few magic missiles, Kaz's strength and a final slash by Ryork defeats the doll that started the whole thing. After healing the injured a search began of the room. Rassalon left to get back to town, as Christopher and Ryork messed around with a piggy bank with a snake. Both were bit and grew drowsy and weak, but not before killing the snake. Hearing a problem on the babble fish, Rassalon headed back. Kaz carried the two to town. Rassalon got back there to late and so looked at the piggy bank, this time finding the money inside.

 All got back to town, but Christopher and Ryork would be out of commission for a couple of days. "Great!" thought Christopher, "I can hear more stories from Ryork while we are recovering."

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

The group returned to the inn for dinner and a show, and discussions for the next day. They had heard that there was now a bard in town, and thought it would be a nice diversion to be entertained by a story or a show. While waiting for the performance to begin, they started their planning. They decided to meet the following day an hour after dawn to go on to the manor. At that point, a woman with a "dulled colorful outfit" approached the group expressing an interest in accompanying them to the manor. She turned out to be the aforementioned bard, but it was no wonder that they didn't recognize her as such, considering Christopher asked her for a story and she said that her "voice was tired" and there would be no story that night. Christopher thought that Ryork's stories are more interesting anyhow, and he followed Ryork to his room. Kollos also returned to his room, leaving Kali and Whisper to play dice and Kaz to try (unsuccessfully) to pick a fight. The bard, whose name was Random and was a fairly attractive woman in her late teens, stayed in the common room and played chess with the mayor's aide.

 The next morning, they met in front of the inn, and marched up to the estate. Ryork led the group in a tour of the manor grounds, pointing out areas of interest. What intrigued Kollos the most was the tower at the back of the estate, which seemed to exude fear. Kollos mentioned that he found it very educational. Whisper examined the outhouse in more detail, but only discovered that it has been in use recently. They decided to use the newly discovered back entrance to head into the manor.

 They explored the rear wing, which they hadn't completed the previous day. The first door they opened revealed a room full of tiny green frogs, but was dominated by the Mother of all Frogs, surrounded by the carcasses of three huge, headless rats. They decided that the room was too weird, and moved on. Boy, were they wrong.

 The next room was unnaturally cold, and turned out to be the armory. After some initial trepidation, Rassalon and Random inventoried the goods. Kali noted that she wanted one of the two suits of armor, that were standing on their own. Kaz took a great axe from the wall. Kali and Christopher looked into a closet off the armory, and found a huge tarp hanging off the walls. She went in, poked around, and left. Christopher stayed in a bit longer, at which point the tarp tightened, and tossed the child to the ceiling repeatedly, until Christopher maneuvered himself off.

 The next room up the hall was another unnaturally cold room, apparently a bedroom, with a wax figure of a woman on the bed. Kollos went to examine the figure, and felt a sudden overwhelming urge to kiss it, and did. When he recovered and realized what had happened, he violently removed the head of the figure.

 Across the hallway, Kali explored a bedroom where she heard choking noises coming from the fireplace, and went to investigate while Ryork covered her. She found a skeleton wedged in the chimney, and Ryork pulled it out. The only item of note was a ring in the mouth of the skeleton with the Rump family crest on it.

 They went out the other door of that bedroom which entered into a large hallway, echoing the pitter-patter of children's feet. Along the walls were hung more Rump family portraits. They opened the first door that they came across, to find a stone statue of a dwarf with a dagger protruding from its forehead. Also in the room was an seething, gurgling, blasphemous mass of unearthly, horrifying ooze [I think Mark read too many H. P. Lovecraft stories.-John], a pair of large beetles, and a skeleton of a snake hanging from the ceiling. They pulled the statue out, and slammed the door shut. Kaz pulled the dagger from it's forehead and handed it to Whisper.

 Our intrepid explorers moved on to the next door, where they found a relatively normal collection of mounted hunter's trophies; relatively meaning thatthe eyes were real and actually did follow the party around the room. The frogs were starting to look very appealing at this point.

 They decided to return to the ooze [really! It was blasphemous! -Mark] room. After the party dispatched the beetles and burned the ooze, Ryork and Christopher opened the other door in the room, where they found shrunken, jabbering heads completely covering the floor. Ryork poked at one of the heads that had rolled out, and it bit his blade. He stabbed it, but that merely allowed the head to eat its way up the blade. Taking a knife offered by Kollos, he slid the still jabbering head back onto the floor, and kicked it back into its room. They could see that there was a door at the other end of this room, but they couldn't get to it because of the heads. Rassalon solved that dilemma by flying to the other door and looking in. It appeared to be an embalming room, containing a dead figure on a table.

 At this point, the party decided that they should look for the stairs to the upper level of this wing. Looking at their map, they figured that there were only a few places they could be located.

 Going back to the first hall they entered, they entered a room with a beautiful chandelier. Hanging from the chandelier was the disemboweled body of a freshly-killed orc. A pair of rats were trying to get at it for lunch. The party bravely fought these rats, and after a hard-won victory, examined the corpse of the orc. Finding nothing of interest, they moved on.

 The adventurers went to the next room where they found a stone statue of the same woman as was the wax figure, and a large black puddle. They discovered that this creature had some acidic properties when Ryork stuck a bed sheet into the puddle and it dissolved. Kali carefully tried to step around the puddle, but it jumped at her. Ryork instructed Kaz to reach out with his great axe to allow Kali to grab it. He was just able to pull her out of its rubbery grip. Fortunately, she was unharmed, though she'll probably need new boots. Meanwhile, Rassalon grabbed some sheets to cover some gold dust he found in the puddle room, but only succeeded in covering himself in the dust. Seeing what was happening to Kali, the hobbit warned everyone that he was about to set off a fireball to kill the puddle. When everyone was out of the room, he cast it and ran. Well, "the door got into the hall long before it did." remarked Kollos. It took a total of three castings to kill the creature completely.

Now with the room clear, they went on into further difficulties. Checking out a former door in the blast room, they found it led to a closet. Ryork entered the closet and saw a small wax statue of the same woman, and yet another door. Kali and Christopher followed. Ryork opened the door and saw his reflection in a mirror and the statues eyes behind him glowed. Ripping his eyes away and slamming the door shut he left the closet and said to Kollos, "now I understand."

Kaz, meanwhile, fell under the statue's spell, and attempted to make love to the statue. Some unsuccessful attempts by Whisper and Rassalon were made to destroy the statue embraced by Kaz. Ryork commanded them to get out of the way, and cast a spell upon Kaz. Knowing that it would take a little while to kick in, Ryork turned to leave and Random asked him what Kaz was doing. Ryork replied, "he's having sex with it. What else does one do with a statue?" and continued on his way. Christopher, confused by this whole situation, caught up with Ryork, and said, "Ryork, we need to talk later." When he reached Kollos, Ryork mentioned that he thought it was time to deal with the frogs, as that's where it seemed the stairs would likely be. At this point, Kaz had fallen off of the statue in fits of uncontrollable laughter, and was dragged out of the room by Kali and Whisper.

 Kali suddenly thought that the trampoline may be a way up to the second floor. She took Christopher along to try it out. Unfortunately, such was not the case.

 Ryork and Kollos were debating about how to take out the Mother Frog, when the entire party appeared behind them. Christopher decided to chuck a rock at the thing, and conned Kali into standing in front of him as he did so. The frog shot out its tongue at Christopher, but missed. As the others entered the room to fight, the frog lashed out again and grabbed Kollos. Ryork was firing arrows as Kollos was dragged into the maw of the hideous beast. Kaz ran up and tried to open the mouth, but without success. Kali and Christopher both ran up to the attack, followed shortly by Random, who stuck her dagger in one of the creature's eyes. These attacks allowed Kollos to free himself, and he promptly healed his wounds. Soon, the Frog itself went down under the onslaught of the mighty heroes.

 Night was drawing near, and the party decided to get home before dark.

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

 Random was sent to talk to the mayor about the Rump family. She found out that the grandchildren of the original Rump, who was a Paladin, had resolved to turn from their fathers ways. She also found that the mayors family had been immune to the effects of the manor for the past eight generations.

 Rassalon went to the monastery but on the way he ran into Oswald. Oswald gave him a package that was sent to him from a King, whose daughter Rassalon had saved. The package's content was the hand of one of the King's ancestors.

 At the monastery's library, Rassalon read that there had been twenty-seven generations of Rump's; the architects were buried in the basement with the blueprints and that there were seven additions to the manor since it's construction.

 Ryork and Kollos went to the tower to investigate the fear it invoked. Christopher decided that he would follow them. They reached the tower and Christopher ran away. Kollos cast remove fear on Ryork and himself and they attempted to touch the tower. They failed and headed back to the inn where they found the group awaiting their arrival. They noticed two new faces sitting and talking to Rassalon.

 Ryork asked Rassalon who his friends were and what they were doing here. Rassalon replied that he ran into them on the way back from the monastery and asked if they were interested in exploring the manor with the group. After a short interrogation, it was decided that they were welcome and would be entitled to a share of whatever was found.

 The two new arrivals were a pair of brother-and-sister elves. The male, who was the elder of the two, was named Koda Chrome and wore a colorful outfit. The female, named Rainbow, fancied herself good with a bow.

 At the inn, it was decided that the party would attempt to stay the night in the manor. Specifically, Kollos and Ryork would stay outside and observe the "evil" tower, while the rest would go into the manor itself.

 That evening, the party headed up. Using the babble-fish, Kollos was able to stay in touch with Rassalon. While Kollos and Ryork watched the tower, the rest set up a camp in the front hall. A few hours later (after they cooked dinner) Jeeves, the phantom butler, showed up and dropped a large squirrel in the middle of the hall. They decided to call in Ryork and Kollos. Christopher was amazed. He had never sensed such a strong presence before. Rassalon became to feed the squirrel legs of lamb as Christopher tried to wave everyone away from it. With the party not moving away, Christopher tried to push the squirrel way with his mind and was successful at first, but then was blasted to the wall. Rainbow shoot of an arrow that went clink as if it hit stone.

 It was now a full battle as the squirrel transformed into a demon. Ryork and Kollos had arrived just in time. Shots where fired, some effective and some reflected. Koda Chrome tried to calm the situation but only chilled himself out. The party moved outside and the demon followed. Rassalon turned into Captain Napalm again, and the party was ready to fight. Christopher was smashed into the bushes and Rassalon was swatted down from the sky. It was time to retreat.

 Down the road, Rassalon's body was found and Ryork's magic was just enough to bring him back to life. It was back to town to regroup.

 The group spent a few days recovering, and Ryork and Kollos went to talk to the Mayor. Plans were made to set up a camp outside of town and prepare for worst, just in case. Now they had more questions than they started with. No longer will they think of the manor as "cheap party tricks".

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

 Random had been on a trip to Neardive in order to find more information on the Manor. The party now had some questions that they could ask and that they wanted answered. Random brought back two leads. One was a diary of what he called a nutty mage. The mage and his party had explored the manor many years ago, however they left before clearing the entire manor. The other lead was a book dealing with the litch of the tower. Kollos and Ryork were interested in this instantly.

 After the sharing of news, the group went in to the manor. The only one who did not join them was Whisper. To head toward the back tower, the party would have to deal with the room with the chains. The same room that they turned away from before.

 The chains danced from a pit in the floor on one side of the room. The party walked against the wall in order to avoid them. There were three doors in one wall and one in another.

 The first door lead to a room. There was another door on the other side of the room. In the room was a chess set on a table and a headless corpse sitting on a chair over a chest. The chest contained skulls. Perhaps one of them was the corpse's. The chess set was a bit odd. All of the pieces were grotesque and tortured. Ryork instantly like it, and later took the pieces.

 Though the door in that room was a room with a three skulls on a shelf. In a closet off that room was executioner paraphernalia.

 The group moved on to the next door in the chain room. It just had a dead end hallway.

 The next door had a short hallway to a door. Christopher could sense fresh air beyond it. After they opened the door they found that it was not that fresh even though it was an open courtyard. The courtyard contained smelly plants and deformed status.

 When Kaz entered the hallway, he began to scream. He was making a great amount noise. He began to yell that he had become a female. While this was going on Koda Chrome slid down the hall and into the smelly plants. Christopher, who could not have left, was now gone.

 Christopher was gone, Koda had become a klutz, and Kaz was now a female. Rainbow and Kali waited in the chain room as Ryork and Kollos observed these events. It was decided that nothing could be done at the moment and so they should to go on. Kaz however was in no mood to continue and stayed in the hallway, screaming.

 Rassalon went into the next room. Inside were blood red draperies. The color leeched out onto the floor and followed him down the hallway. Rassalon and Ryork attempted to burn it, but that did nothing to the liquid. Koda Chrome tried to stall it, but fumbled badly. Everyone else ran back into the chains room, but the red ooze just followed them, right under the door. The dye had backed the entire party into a corner. Ryork jumped it easily. Kali tried the same thing and landed right in it. She turned a shade of red as she absorbed the liquid. Her normal color soon returned and no other effects were noticed by the party.

 Kali, Ryork and Koda Chrome went back to the courtyard to try to help Kaz, who was still screaming. Kaz was preparing to throw herself on her ax. Kali attempted to grab the ax and she was tossed into the smelly plants. This was another one who needed to wash.

 Kaz left the courtyard and headed for the exit to go see Oswald. Highly upset, Kaz forgot about the chains. She was caught by one on the way through and was dragged into the pit. The party waited to see what would happen. The chains came back out of the pit, but there was no Kaz. All that could be heard was horrible noises coming from the pit, including Kaz's roars. With a big thump, Kaz was thrown from the pit. She was unconscious, but still alive. When she finally came around, she said it was like the arena, "Good fight."

 Kali and Koda Chrome by this point were getting quite smelly. They left the mansion to bathe. On the way to the water, they saw Christopher returning from town. Kali and Koda did not stop, they smelled too much to talk.

 What was left of the party went through the last exit out of the chain room. They headed down this whining hallway.

 Ryork opened a door to a bedroom with very nice furnishings. There was a door at the other end. He opened that door and found small statuette. Kollos helped him drag it into the bedroom, and when they saw nothing left it there. By this time Christopher had returned to the party.

 Ryork took the lead again, entering the next room off this hall. When he examined the room for secret doors, he gets stuck in a spinning frenzy. Rainbow asked if he was okay. "This is not part of my daily routine," Ryork replied. Rainbow and Kollos grabbed him, and slowed him down to a stop. Eventually the effect ware off. Kollos asked if Ryork was okay. "Yes, thank you for asking," was Ryork's reply.

 They headed to another room further down the hall. A desk drew a great amount of attention from the group. While in this next room Kollos and Christopher went into a trance. Ryork shook Kollos out of it and asked if he was okay, then Ryork goes into same trance after checking out the desk. Everyone says they hear the same phrase repeated, "Buried under the bones." no one knew exactly what it meant.

 Thus far they had not made very much progress toward the tower, but the day was only half over. They still had more to explore that day.

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

 Our troops continued up the hallway. They found a room with a beautiful marble pool, surrounded by four statues of gorgeous nymphs astride dolphins, spouting water into the pool. There were folding screens against one wall, and our heroes were immediately suspicious. They took a close look at the pool, and saw hordes of jewelry and dozens of skeletal remains on the bottom. Their curiosity piqued, they threw a piece of beef jerky into the pool. Instantly, the whole pool boiled furiously until the had cooked a short while. They realized a bath would not be in their best interests and so decided that they weren't that dirty anyway. Rassalon animated four of the skeletons in the pool, and had them empty it of it's contents. They did further needless tests until they concluded that it was, indeed, a magical property of the pool itself that caused the boiling.

 They followed some different hallways, and came upon a door with an intricate lock holding it shut. Kollos told Kaz to kick it down, but the minotaur had other ideas. He grabbed one of Rassalon's skeletal servants, and smashed it into the door like a battering ram. Predictably, the skeleton was destroyed while only scratching the door. Kaz then kicked it in. The room they beheld had once been a huge bedroom, but it was now a wreck, presumably due to the gorilla-sized baboon that turned to face them. With typical tactical skill, the party charged the beast, but as it had no Visa or Mastercard (and the party doesn't accept American Express), they ended up killing it. They found a replacement skeleton for Rassalon in an overturned armoire, which he animated to replace Shemp.

 At that point, they decided to head back over to Oswald's for assistance. They decided to have him identify several items, and decurse Kaz and Koda. That done, they valiantly headed to the inn.

 The next morning, despite being perplexed by the continued absence of other three stooges, the group decided they had sufficient strength to continue on in the manor. In fact, Kaz was chomping at the yoke to go back into the pit and tackle the ogre that had caused him (at the time her) great harm. The problem, of course, was the magical chains that would grab and throw down anyone who got too close to them. The result would be a temporary disorientation that could prove fatal. After some intense study (lasting about 2.5 minutes) Kaz jumped in. Landing with only minor injuries, he spotted his quarry quickly. Koda and Rainbow jumped in after him to back him up. He didn't need the help. With the reckless abandon for which he has become famed, Kaz attacked. The ogre, who had taken Kaz by surprise in their first encounter, was not so lucky this time. The orge was dispatched quickly and attention centered on dealing with the chains.

Rassalon had an idea that he thought might be crazy enough to work. Of course, he always thought that so naturally everyone was skeptical. As many times as an idea worked, that was how many times one backfired. Having relieved himself of all magical items (just in case), Rassalon prepared a spell he was sure would work, maybe. With a silent prayer, that everyone was saying as well, Rassalon cast a spell designed to halt all magical processes (at least that was what the manual said). It worked. The chains went limp. Random then made two fortuitous suggestions. The first was to tie a rope off to use to get in and out of the pit. The second was to tie the chains off in such a manner as to keep the majority of the pit area clear. Both suggestions would come in handy.

 While the group was preparing and descending into the pit, the three members already there began to explore. When the entire group arrived they all met up and began to explore in a more organized manner. After some time in the area they came across what appeared to be a coffin built into the floor. Rassalon sent the Marks brothers (his four skeletons) in to open the lid. Many members of the group stayed well back during this operation. As they began exploring the chamber they were set upon by a vampire (obviously, one of the more upstanding members of the Rump family.) A fierce battle insued.

The vampire opened up by attacking the largest member of the party, Kaz. Staggared and weakened, Kaz struck back but did only marginal damage. Wheerling at Random's desprite cries for help, as she shot past him into the coffin chamber, Rassalon launched a furious barrage of magic missles into the foul creature and began backpedalling to stay out of range. The attack attracted the attention of the vampire. Deciding that the power of the smallest member was greater than that of the largest, the undead lord began to persue the diminunative powerhouse. Another volly of missles flung out and found their marks but didn't even slow the creature down ask Kaz made another ineffectual attack and was slammed down for his trouble. By this point, most of the rest of the group engaged the creature from beyond the grave, except Random. Realizing she had little that could effect the vampire, she began to dig out the dirt from his coffin. By spreading the dirt around, the vampire would be unable to rest and replenish his power (she hoped.)

 Kollos began sending off a series of spells as Koda called upon his diety to slip up the vampire. The resulting oil slick would lead to later mayhem but only served to trip up Kaz's attempted attack. Rainbow came up behind Rassalon and he threw his quiver to her which contained several magical arrows he had purchased some time ago. As the vampire closed on Rassalon, the hin began to become completely defensive, making desperate attempts to avoid the draining touch. He only partially succeeded as he was not drained of any strength by the hit that finally connected, but was knocked unconscience by the crippling blow. The vampire now turned his attention to Kollos, who possessed equal or greater power to that of the hobbit. But Kollos was too quick for him as he deftly avoided any contact and managed to hurt the vampire enough to turn it immaterial. Christopher was staying as far away from the invisible cloud as he could, sensing where it was through his abilities. Where Rassalon had landed, Koda had made his way to and searched him to see if he had any healing potions which could restore him. He found one but thought better of using it when he could still lay hands upon his fallen comrade. Rassalon awoke to find himself in the hallway where the initial attacks had come from. Gazing down the hall, he saw a mess of confusion.

Kollos was now making his way to the hall in order to compare notes with the others. Rassalon saw what Random was doing for the first time and ordered the skeletons to destroy the coffin. The skeletons instead turned upon their former master. This confirmed that the vampire was still around and able to fight. After dispatching the skeletons, with bone shattering precision, Kollos and Rassalon decided they had to get everyone out of there. Everyone left through the entrance to the hall, and right through the vampire cloud. All but Christopher. He refused to go into the hall while the vampire was blocking it. Kollos took a stab at hitting the cloud without being able to see it. His efforts forced the vampire to shift his position, and Christopher slipped through. That was when Rassalon let loose with two fireballs the either destroyed or drove off the threat. Kollos, being Kollos, went back down to the chamber, searched for any sign of the vampire, and yelled, "your a pathetic example of your race." Rassalon only rolled his eyes.

 Weakened by their fight and running low on the mana that powers their magic, the party decided to leave as quickly as possible. Returning to the hole they learned that the spell effect of turning the magic off was only temporary. Powerful magic was at work here, more powerful than they had yet realized. Random's suggestions had saved them a fight to get out, when they were already weakened. They returned to town and decided to rest until they had all recovered fully from their injuries. They would return, maybe.

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

 Our intrepid band (or was that Lexington) gathered early that morning to determine where to go next. Several members of the Terrible Ten were unavailable, having been detained in transit. This presented a small problem for the remaining group. In order to acquire information about their new home, the six members who got the earlier flight went to Oswald's, their travel agent, to obtain trip-tics or maps of the planet. While their a debate insued as to the next course of action. Several alternative plans of attack, parry, and defense were discussed. During the debate, Kaz decided that having some wooden stakes (for vampires) would be good. Boy was he wrong.

 While chopping down some trees Kaz ran headlong into Lug. Lug was the size of a troll with the features of a dark elf. Lug wanted to play, and Kaz obliged. The party was dragged (in some cases, kicking and screaming) into the melee. After a fight of several hours, the majority of the party lay unconscience. With no more moving toys to play with, Lug wandered off. Rassalon healed up his comrades and they went back into town to heal. After some time healing, Kaz decided he liked (??!!??!?!) playing with Lug. Unable to hold him back (Oh yeah, lets see you try) they bid him farewell, and wrote him off. Now the party had lost even more of its fighting strength. Battered and bruised, they began to debate the wisdom of proceeding as they had been.

 Late the next day, a ship crashed into the new island. Several people were brought into town, most claiming that there was no land here before. They were even more confused when they were told that they were probably right. At that point, one of the survivors caught the attention of the group. He appeared to be some kind of humanoid like rat, and he had more books than any of them had seen to date. He might have been a good replacement for Kaz if it were not for the fact that he could not even lift his own books. However, he was now the closest thing that the group had to a local contact.

 The group was changing character. They may need to learn a new way to fight to meet the new mix. The way that they had dealt with Lug may not work anymore, not that it was ever that good.

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

 At that point an item of great concern happened to the group, Kollos came down the stairs, smiling. Now they knew they were in a lot of trouble. Kollos sat with Ryork and got caught up on recent events. Koda and Rassalon joined the group and Koda expressed an interest in going to Oswald's. Totally surprising and shocking almost everyone, Kollos said he would accompany Koda. After spending some time there, they returned and Kollos and Ryork (no surprise to anyone) went back. During this time, Kali had met with a group designated AMA. Amazon Mutual Assurance was an organization dedicated to the retrieval of stolen articles. They offered Kali a sum of money if she would help retrieve the items stolen from several ships in the area. Kali agreed and decided to present the venture to the group as a whole. When everyone was gathered, Kali explained what was involved to some degree and asked if the group was willing to assist her on the mission. She received grudging consent from everyone but was informed that Ryork had one more thing to do before the group left the island in pursuit of the allegedly pilfered items.

 That night Ryork and Kollos approached the manor house tower again. With few exceptions, everyone seemed to have followed them there. Ryork shot an arrow with a message through the window in the tower asking for an audience. It was granted, but not the way he had hoped. Everyone there was teleported into the tower. Upon meeting the master of the tower, Ryork and Kollos entered into a binding agreement with the lych. The Skaven jumped in on the agreement, signing his name to it, before anyone could stop him. The three had agreed to send items of magic to the lych in exchange for knowledge. This made the majority of the others very nervous about the trio. Ryork and Kollos were very upset at being bound to this stranger in their midst.

 The next morning, the group gathered at the docks. They met for the first time with their new companion, an amazon, and their `employer'. When they were all aboard the ship there were some hushed whispers in back between Kali and their employer. The other woman waved a hand and all of the members for the group became slightly dizzy and light-headed. The magic users among them realized that some enchantment had been placed upon them but remained silent. Arriving at the new island, the group divided tasks and made arrangements for their stay. A new adventure had begun.

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

Over the course of the meal, several tidbits of information came out about the quest they were supposed to be going on. Apparently, a metal barge was moving through the water at great speeds without the use of sails or oars. There were loud noises coming from this craft and it would attack, plunder and sink the most valuable ship in the water. The vessel would also attack and sink any ships protecting the cargo ship and they would leave no survivors. Some of the attacks had taken place just off shore, and thus had been witnessed from there. A magic-user of tremendous power flew above the ship and protected it from magical attacks. Ryork and Kollos both said that this wizard was of a power level equal or greater than that of the wizards who had trained each of them. Ryork mentioned that he wanted to see a map of the North Sea, which was were all of the attacks occurred. Christopher asked why, when the ship always went south after each attack. Everyone looked at the young lad and asked if there was anything else he needed to tell them. It was then that the group learned about the ships unknown propulsion system and which ships it would pick to attack. Ryork found out that the city was also offering a reward for stopping the attacks. He got everyone in on the deal as a way of making the perils involved worth the effort to the group.

 The group came to a decision (rare for them) to interview the people who had witnessed the attacks. Unfortunately, they were located far out from where the group was located. The group hired a guide and went about the business of preparing to leave. During this time they also decided that it was worthwhile to try and increase their standing in the adventurers guild. They were in on the ground floor, so to speak, of the new foundation of the guild. It seems they were to receive money every month from the guild, which would be placed in special accounts that each of them could draw on if needed. They decided it was time to up their status from beginners to intermediates. Heck, they certainly had been through enough since they qualified to join. Ryork made the arrangements and soon the members of the group who were there were somewhere else.

 Standing on the side of a mountain, they met the member of the guild who presented them with their challenge. He showed them a dragon's tooth. Then he pointed to an opening in the side of the mountain. He said the group's task was simple, get another tooth and give it to him. [Sure, easy as pie, just walk up to a dragon and ask him nicely for a tooth. No problem.] So they ventured off into the tunnel, Koda and Rainbow leading the way. As they ventured down the twisting and turning cavern, they found it to be a tight squeeze for most of them. After some time, they came to a fork in the tunnel. There were a few minutes of indecision, and then they split up. One group went down to the left and soon came to a dead end. The cavern closed to a tiny slit. They made a few attempts to widen it, but quickly gave up and went to catch up with the other group. The other contingent moved down the right hand corridor. Shortly after the split the walls on either side had a smooth outcropping, running the length of the tunnel. At this point Koda and Rainbow were well ahead of everyone, Rassalon was some distance behind them and ahead of the others, and the rest of the group was very near the split. Rassalon began systematically searching every twenty or thirty feet to see if there were any controls. There weren't. The remainder of the group began a slow, searching stride down the tunnel. Trying to figure out what, if anything, was the significance of the benches along the walls. Ryork and Kollos hoped up on the benches and began walking down the corridor.

 Koda and Rainbow were well ahead of everyone else when they heard the rumbling. They both turned to run, as the large round stone hit him very hard from behind. Rassalon saw it next. Having anticipated that something would be coming down the hall anyway, and having a very small frame to begin with, he was able to swoop under the rock quickly and sustain no injury. He immediately called back through the babble fish to Kollos with one word, "duck." Kollos and Ryork dove for cover and then everyone else did as well, sustaining only minor injuries. Ryork checked on the entrance way and found that there was no sign of the huge boulder, which should have been blocking the entrance completely. That was when Rassalon caught up to the hapless elves.

 Rainbow was recovering from the shock and Koda was lying very still. Rassalon used his magic to bring them both to a healthy status, then sent word to the others that the two were hurt and in need of help. Rassalon decided to move on and see if he could prevent any more rocks from rolling into them. Moving out of range of his fish, Rassalon found that there was an area that went straight up to where several spheres rested. He moved past them to a door. It lead to another door which lead to a corridor. The corridor was lit from over head and he soon came to a rope of velvet that hung from two brass stands across his path. flying over it he came upon a ghost that stood by a box with a slit in the top. As he approached, the ghost held out its hand and said, "Tickets?" Rassalon had none and began to look around the area. He found a small hole in the wall and began a series of tests. He decided to wait for everyone else to show up.

 They were making their way to him at that moment. They approached the downed elves and, having found them to have sufficiently recovered, continued on to the climb and the rock launching site. The large rocks were sufficiently well balanced that they could be spun with the slightest touch. There were four boulders in the launch bay. The group continued to move on and caught up with Rassalon, who summarized what he had discovered to that point. Ryork tested the one item Rassalon did not want to try without the others there to back him up. Ryork lifted his adventurer's card and the ghost pointed to the slot where Rassalon stood. Ryork nodded and Rassalon put his card into the slot. His card came out and a ticket with it. Several minutes of entry and exit passed and everyone had tickets. They handed their tickets to the ghost and he tore them in half, put one half in the box and gave the other back. Rassalon decided to hang back in case the group needed a bail out. So the group went through the closed door behind the ticket taker.

 They entered a large darkened room. There were rows and rows of chairs which contained various undead creatures. They were all recoiling in horror at the sight on the large wall at the end of the room. There was a picture of a priest of some sort with a holy symbol pointed out to the audience. [Undead slasher films?] There was a small door down next to the screen. Ryork approached it and signaled that they should let Rassalon know that he should come forward. Antheus poked his head out and Rassalon entered. Together again they went to the door.

 Ryork pushed open the door and found that it was jamming on a book. He picked up the book and read the title, "The Journal of Dr. Jones." It easily open to a page. It read "The penitent man kneels before God." Ryork fell flat on the ground and moved into the mist covered room, hearing the sounds of slicing blades above him. He signaled the group, and moved through the room. Kollos and then Christopher followed. On the other side of the room the came to a corridor that narrowed quickly. Beyond that there was a deep chasm. Looking through the book they found the passage about taking a leap of faith. [Ryork and Kollos; A leap of faith?] Ryork closed his eyes and took a step out into the chasm, and found the path across. Kollos called back for the others to cross and meet with them on the other side. There was a door just past the path. They opened the door and looked into a huge chamber filled with the skeletons of dragons, and lots of adventurers. 156 adventurers were counted in the chamber. Antheus stayed by the door to provide an escape route for the group and everyone else mingled. Rassalon flew up to the high ceiling and began a systematic (does he know any other way) search of the area. For several minutes, the group mixed with the others milling about. All of the skulls had been picked clean of dragon teeth. Ryork was very thoughtful for a few moments when all hell broke loose.

 The massive doors on one side of the chamber opened, and in flew a huge ancient dragon. It landed in the middle of the chamber as everyone ran. Then things happened very quickly. While everyone else ran away from the creature as it landed, Ryork charged up to it and leaped upon its neck. This was when the dragon began to make a noise. It grew louder and louder. Several members of the group tried to close in to help him, but he waved them off. Ryork whispered something into the dragon's ear. Rassalon flew up to try and get out of range. Kollos also backed off. The dragon began to sizzle. Everyone else in the room started to charge at the dying beast. Then the dragon exploded, with Ryork still on top of it! When the dust settled, all 156 other adventurers lay dead or dying. Koda, so recently recovered, was fused into his now useless armor and lay dying again. Rassalon was just out of range of the blast and dropped to the stricken Koda as quickly as he could. Kollos appeared to be uninjured and the rest of the group had only minor cuts and scrapes. Christopher was also caught in the blast, but his abilities saved him from serious harm. He stood staring at the spot that Ryork had been. Ryork, sat atop the skeleton of the dragon, untouched!

 The group gathered items that survived, dragon bone, teeth and other things. They left the chamber and were transported back to the official. Time marches on.

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

After being hired to recover some valuables that had recently been stolen by pirates, and incidentally to stop the pirates from further depredations, the group proceeded to gather information concerning their foe. Boy were they in trouble. Basically some sort of metal war barge was attacking ships at sea, leaving no survivors. The wizard who seemed to be in charge of this contraption was described by Ryork and Kollos as being more powerful than their own teachers. From the reports they were able to get, the barge disappeared up a river into the Great Sinking Plain , a huge swamp. During the course of their first night in the city, several people received a strange visitor. A small imp-like creature popped in and began informing the group that Kollos' father was a powerful demon. This put several people on guard against Kollos. Their confusion mounting as they tried to discover how powerful he was. The answer "not very" did not seem to satisfy them.  They set off into the swamp to attempt a reconnaissance of the area, and hired a guide, Jaques.

The journey into the swamp was relatively uneventful, except for the hell cobras, and one rather hungry alligator. Millicent proved to be one of the more valuable members of the group , defeating a hell cobra bare handed, and suffering a near fatal wound fighting the alligator, unfortunately caused by Rainbow's sword. Fortunately, the sword blow killed the alligator and Rassalon was able to save Millicent. Koda made a decision about Millicent. He stated, "She sees it, she hugs it, she kills it. I'm not going out with her." Everyone got a chuckle out of that. The next day, as they continued their journey, they spotted a strange creature flying overhead. Following the creatures path, they encountered a path of destruction. Rassalon and Christopher decided to fly back along the path to trace what sort of creatures did the damage. They soon wished the hadn't. Flying back along the path they soon spotted three large humanoid creatures moving quickly in a straight line, unheeding of any obstacles.

Both flyers decided that keeping an eye on these creatures would be a good idea, but it was not to be. When they reached a certain point, they disappeared. Rassalon and Christopher swooped down to the area, but could find no sign of where the creatures had gone. As they returned to the group, the creatures reappeared and began returning the way they had come, which was leading them back towards the party. Several members of the group decided to engage the creatures. During the ensuing fight, Christopher was captured. After several hours of searching, the group gave up on trying to find him. They could only hope that he was safe.

It took the group over a month in the swamp lands to reach their destination, a series of keeps that used to denote the border between two of the old powers. The group took up camp on the shore of a lake. In the lake there were two of the old keeps, which were all on hills on dry land before the plain began to sink. Now they were islands in the middle of the lake. During their observation, they noticed that the closer of the two keeps was dark during the night. This suggested it might be empty and, once there, they could better observe what was going on in the other keep. Playing it cautiously, several members set about building a boat to cross the water and get to the keep. After a late night discussion, it was decided that the group would not simply sale across. Rassalon would cast flying spells on all the members of the group, they would take off from the deck and fly around to the shore. This would take place during the early dawn hours, in order to reduce visibility, just in case the keep was occupied. Heck, the way the group's luck had been going, there was probably an army of powerful wizards. But nobody said life was a rose garden. The next morning, they set off on the water.

Following their plan to the letter (something for which our group is not particularly known) they approached the keep in their little boat. As the boat approached the dock, each member of the party had the fly spell cast upon them in turn and they all took off from the deck. Just as the last of them was leaving the deck and flying along in the early morning hours they looked back toward the boat. Several giant tentacles had come out of the water as a giant squid crushed and sunk the boat. The plan had actually worked, though not exactly the way they figured. Most of the members of the group made rather clumsy landings (Rassalon made a note to give everyone flying lessons) and had to pull themselves up in order to look around. The island was in fact deserted, so they approached the keep and began a search for any information that might be contained within. Both Rassalon and Kollos found spellbooks and scrolls which they promptly tucked away. The group decided to assault the other fort (which had lights and movement at it) the next day by flying over to the other island.

The second strange thing that happened during the night was the appearance of the barge. The huge ship left the other island and headed downstream towards open water. Probably to pillage again. Lastly, a few of the members of the party began hearing a call for help, from CHRISTOPHER!!! He was apparently on the other island, and he was in trouble. The rescue was going to be mounted that night. They decided to fly over the water at a low altitude and try to sneak into the other keep. By now I'm sure we all know how good they are at stealth.

It was determined that half the group should remain behind for the purpose of guarding the camp. It was agreed that the people who went over would act as a scouting party and would not engage the opposing forces if they could help it. Rassalon cast flight spells on several members of the group took off for the other island. They landed at the shoreline by a thicket of trees, well away from the main gatehouse to the compound. Kollos decided to make himself invisible and move off in a different direction. As the group approached the wall, however, a bright light enveloped Rassalon. Quickly he moved back into the forest, hoping to draw attention away from the others. Koda leaped up hoping to grab the wall a little way up and was surprised to find himself at the top of the wall. Silhouetted for a moment, he would have been in big trouble had any of the guards turned to notice him. He quickly climbed down into the compound. Random was more stealthy and slipped in quietly.  The guards were focusing their attention on Rassalon. One of the towers fired off a balista of spears and narrowly missed the tiny darting figure. Unfortunately for them, Rassalon didn't miss with his fireball. The top of the tower was engulfed in an explosion which eliminated resistance. Rassalon didn't wait for the other tower facing him to get off another shot, it too was engulfed in flames. So much for subtlety.

While this tremendous battle (which lasted all of 2 minutes) was happening, Kollos took advantage of the confusion to slip in the front entrance. He made his way to the guardhouse and up the stairs. There he saw several dozen solders getting ready to do battle. He called to Rassalon who was now getting to the top of the wall. "Can you see the guardhouse from were you are," asked Kollos. "Sure," said Rassalon. "HIT IT," said Kollos. BOOM!!!! The top of the guardhouse followed the tops of the towers. Meantime, Random and Koda were scouting out the territory. They found a stable with strange animals inside. Random decided that this was the wrong door to open and it was best to simply let them be. As there didn't seem to be any more guards attacking, the group focused its efforts on a huge tower in the center of the compound. It was surrounded by another wall and within that wall were carnivorous plants set up in such a way that nothing could get through. Unless, of course, you had the flying flame throwing weed wacker known as Rassalon. Two fireballs cleared a path to the front door of the tower. Now came the tough part.

The group cautiously entered the front door (after all, they didn't want to attract any attention) and found themselves in a fairly large entryway that led to a curving corridor. They began to walk down the corridor and noticed several incomplete wards on the walls. Random was the first to realize that this must be a dimensional nexus. Each of the wards allowed for transportation to another realm. Random stated, "We are so done." She decided to keep watch on the entry way while the others searched for Christopher. They decided to try going upstairs first. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, they came to a door. Opening the door slightly they saw the same creatures that had occupied the stables. They decided to agree with Random's earlier decision and leave the creatures alone.

Upon returning to the entryway, the group found that about a half dozen guards appeared as if from out of nowhere and began to attack. Rassalon, who by this point was really perturbed (hey, wouldn't you be?) let loose with a lightning bolt which cut down half of the guards and magnetized one to the door. The leader of the guards screamed out, "It's the little one, get him."

"Get this," said Rasslon and another bolt duplicated the feat of the first. Two guards where now helplessly suspended by their armor to the door. Kollos asked to be allowed to question them alone. The others agreed. They left the room for a few minutes and when they returned, one guard was dead and the other was blind. The group quickly interrogated the remaining guard, who seemed quite eager to share all of his information with them. He said the barge would be gone for several days and that the treasure was someplace in the building, but he didn't know where. The group let the poor slob go and continued their search for Christopher.

They found him a short time later coming up from the lower levels. He had begun pelting them with small rocks and was obviously quite disturbed by his experiences. He seemed to avoid Kollos as he left the tower, ignoring everyone. The group decided they would pick him up later. Finding the stairway, they headed down the stairs. Upon reaching the bottom, they found themselves to be in real trouble. They found a huge round chamber with a round structure loaded with doors in the middle of the room. When they opened one of the doors they saw only blackness inside. Koda entered and became very disoriented. Fire demons attacked! One of the demons went after Koda calling him by name. Kollos also had one of the fearsome creatures focus on him, but for a different reason. The creature asked why Kollos was with these beings. Kollos responded, "Because I choose to be." The Fire Demon said, "You've chosen the wrong side, little brother." Kollos replied, "I choose my own side." The battle was very one sided and our team fell back. Rassalon called out for everyone to gather around him. When they were all there, Rassalon pulled a rabbit out of his hat. To put some distance between them and the demons, he call upon the power of the elven hand he had been given many months before to transport them away. The hand glowed and then they found themselves back with Random and Christopher, both of whom were standing over the hacked up remains of a Fire Demon.

While the rest of the adventurers had been exploring the underside of the tower, Random decided to take some actions against the wards on the walls. She began to disfigure them in any way she could think of. She paused only momentarily as Christopher appeared and, after draping a cloak over him, continued in her work. She worked quickly but then heard a disturbing sound. One of the dreaded fire demons was teleporting into that very chamber. Random reacted quickly. Drawing her dagger that had special powers against magic using beings, she held it in the place that the demon was porting into. As it solidified, it let out a terrible scream of pain. She had managed to pierce its heart, killing it almost instantly. Random withdrew her knife and stabbed it several more times. She then checked and found that the creature was dead, after which she continued to stab it repeatedly. Soon, there was nothing but a mass of flesh that was almost unrecognizable. Shortly thereafter, the two sections of the group joined up and decided to withdraw to a safe distance. Both Rassalon and Christopher needed to rest. Rassalon's mana was now at a low ebb. He had expended a great deal of it in all of the fighting that was going on. They high tailed it back to the city that had hired them because they felt that they needed more firepower to deal with the minions of the Shade.

In town, the group split into several sections. Many of the members of the group where researching Kollos' origins. They kept trying to determine what he was and how powerful he might be. They even looked him up in a book of deities that Koda had with him. They didn't find him, much to their relief. Christopher established a rapport with Jaques, who had turned out to be a very powerful priest that had gone along to aid the group. He warned Christopher about Kollos, saying that Kollos would someday be very dangerous to those who are with him. As if this group wasn't already dangerous enough to themselves! Kollos, Ryork and Random went to Oswald's and requested help in the form of a weapon that could be used against something like the Shade. Oswald gave them a box with something inside that he said was on loan for dealing with the problem, but must be returned. Ryork gave his word that it would be returned and they left with the item of power. When they got back to the inn, they filled in Rassalon on their plans (he had been exhausted from all of the flight spells he had cast to get them back to town) and began to prepare for their next assault on the keep. This time it wouldn't be so easy (like last time was?!) so they would need to be prepared. They decided to make an attack on the barge itself and try to wipe out the shade, who appeared to be the being in charge of everything. They were hoping that an ambush would succeed in taking the barge by surprise. Hey, maybe this time the plan will work.

Ryork had decided that Random would wield the weapon of power that they had borrowed. She was to sneak up on the Shade and touch it with the crystal of pure light. It was hoped that this would weaken the Shade enough to beat it. Rassalon would get the entire group airborne and hang back with the Skathen, using whatever spells were appropriate against the barge. The remainder of the group would attack the crew and provide cover for Ryork and Random. They waited for most of a day before they caught sight of the barge. The Shade was perched atop a chair at the back of the ship. The group went into action. Ryork and Kollos cast spells which put sticking clouds over each of the hatches, clouds that could confuse and incapacitate. Thus, the majority of the crew was trapped below decks, unable to come out and fight. The few who had been on deck were attacked immediately by the other members of the team. Ryork directly challenged the shade. The battle was fierce. Several times it looked like members of the party were going to go down, only to be brought back up. Christopher managed to sneak into the control room and began to discern how the controls worked. When he thought he knew enough, he began to fiddle with the controls, and the barge began to close up. While the battle had been raging, fire demons began to attack. When the shade finally fell, they were all that stood between the group and capturing the barge. As the barge was folding up, Ryork entered the control room. They had driven the shade from its host body and he wanted to see if he could save the barge. He couldn't. Everyone abandoned the barge as Kollos and Ryork fought a fire demon for possession of it. "The Bag!!" Ryork called out to Kollos. They tried to get the barge into the lych bag, but the fire demon piffled with the barge before they could, darn it.

Everyone was exhausted. The group decided they needed to rest for the night before trying to assault the keep again. The night was rather uneventful, though many members of the group where nervous about the fire demons coming back during the night. The next morning they made their plans for the final assault. They were hoping they could find the captured loot and get it out before they came under attack. The problem was, where was it? They had searched out most of the areas during their previous raid and discovered nothing. Now they needed to move quickly and still perform a comprehensive search.

The group headed back to the keep. Not seeing anyone, they started looking around for the treasure. Kollos found a stairway leading down and followed it to the bottom, then followed a secret door disguised as a footlocker, and went down those stairs. Meantime, fire demons attacked the entire outpost. Others were coming down the stairs, but the fire demons came down as well, chasing (temporarily) the others out. Kollos, sensing the demons coming, hid himself in the pile of treasures. The demons toasted the room (as they did with all the rooms above), but he survived, and got everyone else. They all barracaded the entrance and while the fire demons tried to get in, they created a gate back to Oriz. Working feverishly, they threw all the treasure through, jumped through themselves, and dispelled the gate before the demons could get through.

Upon their return to the city, they were able to return a great deal of the treasures to the people they were taken from. Despite this, there was a large amount of treasure left over. That, along with the promised rewards from the various factions, provided a huge nest egg for the party. Rassalon began inventorying their gains. Money would no longer be a problem, they seemed to have plenty. Ryork purchased an estate and a ship. The decision was reached that they needed a year of rest to build up their strength again. Several of them decided to study and Koda bought a house of worship (a local bar). They all felt that the rest would do them good. It didn't quite work out that way, but that will be our next story. When next we meet our heroes...

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

A lot has happened to this band over the last year and a half. Over the next nine months, the party rested, practiced, and studied. Each building his or her strengths and knowledge. They were kidnapped and sent on a mission they had volunteered for before even going to Tegil Manor, to rescue the good King Despot. Many of them didn't even remember what the mission was and were understandably angry at the intrusion in their lives. However, they emerged with Despot and returned him to his throne. In gratitude, Despot granted them all titles as Defenders of the Realm and even proposed to Random. She immediately ran from the King, and he eventually turned his attentions elsewhere. Random began studying under Rassalon to learn magic, but eventually disobeyed him and started dabbling in wild magic. Thereafter, Rassalon and the group in general would have little to do with her (would you?).

Upon their emergence from the catacombs where the King had been held, the party went on to try and restore Ryork and Koda to their proper bodies. They had been switched in the attempt of saving the King from the magical sleep he was in. After some bartering and some internal strife, they were restored to their rightful places.

Ryork had made the decision to explore the world and map it out. He had also built an excellent ship, the Agamemnon and with Kollos, they began an import-export company.

Part of the King's reward for rescuing him was the giving of ships to all of the members of the group. This made Ryork think of expanding the shipping fleet and providing more money's to the group. Rassalon talked with a community of wizards who helped him install communications globes in all of the ships and at each office in each city they set up in. Rassalon decided to take a leave of absence to work on making the shipping consortium a success. He also wanted to get back to his neglected studies.

It was a time of great changes for the group. Rassalon left to work on the shipping and Kollos left for reasons of his own. At that point two new people were invited to join, Clay Riverwall and Hunter. They joined the group as guides for a monster hunt. Ryork extended an invitation to them to join the group and they excepted (thereby proving they were crazy).

The group, now calling themselves the Lost Souls, was commissioned by the State of Darokin to contact several leaders of the various Kingdoms. Apparently, someone called the Master had begun growing an army and was beginning to move on the civilized areas with hoards of demihuman beings. The major powers were concerned and wanted to form a united front to deal with the threat.

The groups part was to act as emissaries to the various nations and to convince them to join the coalition. Ryork was fascinated by the chance to both explore the world and make contacts throughout it. He accepted and the party set off. On route, they rested at a Hin homestead. This house became base camp for a number of missions in the woods to the north. The party had found a tower that was believed to be owned by an Ogre Mage allied with the Master. The group blasted their way in and made some headway before having to teleport back. The teleportation was only partly successful as it brought the group onto Kollos' ship. Returning once more to the tunnels under what was a tower, this time with Kollos, they succeded in defeating the Orge Mage and rescuing a general of one of the Kings. But the cost was high in this battle. Hunter gave his life in the effort. Clay sent word back to Hunter's people that he had earned a name.

After killing the ogre mage, the group had a large discussion as to where to go. Ryork wanted to go north, as there was evidence of a lost civilization of a lost race in that direction, which fascinated him. Kollos favored going west, as that is where the Master was last known to be, and Kollos wanted to learn as much as possible about him, to determine his threat level. Some others wanted to continue on the mission of going along the coast to warn the nations of the Master's imminent approach. In the end, the group decided to head north, and send ships of the Consortium to warn the rest of the nations.

Koda and Rainbow both left to pursue their own dreams. Kollos left the group stating that he had matters of his own to take care of, and that they wouldn't wait. He stated that he would return as soon as he was able, as this "Master" intrigued him.

It was not long before a stranger appeared that seemed to have goals in common with the group. (convenient, eh?) Jik Morninglory, emissary from the Draconic Council, joined the Lost Souls. The group now headed north to find this lost race, who Jik claimed called themselves the Hutaaken. Jik also explained that he was to enlist their aid against the "blight" coming from the east. When the others didn't share his urgency about fighting the Master, he realized that they didn't really know anything about him. He explained what he knew; that the master wasn't just a warlord, but someone who wanted to wipe out all life.

The party headed north, and soon came across a city of Gnomes. They went in and were well-treated, and in fact Jik was able to enlist their support against the Master. Christopher did what he could to entertain them with stories. Unfortunately, the Gnomes had never heard anything concerning any lost race in the area.

The party spent weeks looking for the aptly-named "lost valley," when finally, around the campfire one night, the vision of a Hutaaken appeared, advising the group to make offerings to the god, Pflarr, to gain entrance to the Hutaaken realm. Most of the group offered trinkets of knowledge, but Ryork, who has no use for gods and their ilk, had a conversation with Pflarr instead. Apparently amused by this, Pflarr let him in as well.

The group discovered that the entire Hutaaken civilization was hidden by Pflarr magically, and shortly had a meeting with the high priests. Jik made his presentation to them, and grudgingly got their support. They sent a young priest named Japhorex along with them. The group was told of a prophecy of a legendary sword, the Blue Steel Blade, which would unite the tribes of the badlands (mostly orcs, goblins, and such) into a mighty army. It was apparently the purpose of the Hutaakens to use this army against the Master.

The party spent another week or two heading towards the badlands, and soon got yet another member: a rather annoying man named Shardin Dalain crept up to the group one evening. He seemed to be some sort of monk, and talked like Christopher and he of a like kind. Ultimately, it was Japhorex saying that he knew him that allowed Shardin to be allowed to stay with the group. The party was then back on its way to the badlands, and soon learned why it was so named. On their first night of camping on its periphery, they encountered a small group of very skittish humanoids (goblins, perhaps) who made no move to harm them. Soon, however, a pair of trolls stormed out of the rocks and attacked the tribe. The Lost Souls bravely defeated the beasts, and the next morning encountered (thankfully) a Dwarven outpost. They spoke of the Master and were re-supplied for the journey into the badlands. They also learned a bit of what to expect (all bad, naturally). They were soon on their way again.

They were wandering around the hills, and Japhorex was often asking for divine help, and finally, they found a cave that no one, save Clay, could see inside. Sure enough, he found and was able to wield the Blue Steel Blade, making him the center around which the tribes would gather (according to prophecy, anyway). Not knowing how to go about this ("that's the problem with prophecies; they don't come with instructions," said Jik regarding), they opted to follow a border road, hoping to find a shaman or small group to first test the effect of the blade.

Fate was smiling upon them (for once) and they came across a solitary, old Goblin, whose name roughly translated to mean "Garbage Dump." When shown the blade, his eyes widened and he asked us to wait while he went to get the elders. A few days later, he came back with an army. The group was put through a variety of tests, and seems to have passed. The very large goblin leader, Grazzikk, leaded the army and the Lost Souls to the main city of the badlands. As news spread, more and more tribes descended upon the land around the city, to see how events would play out and choose sides.

After a week or so of waiting and showing the blade, we were finally ready to attack. While the main army assaulted the walls and the main gates, the party went in a previously-found secret entrance. They had learned that the ruler of this city (and nominal ruler of most of the tribes), King Thar, was a vampire. The group, as is their fashion, went directly to confront him. Many of the party got pretty beat up fighting the creatures they found therein, but were able to drive the vampire into insubstantiality, and as such, to retreat.

At this point, the party does not know where the vampire retreated to, and is in the process of searching the castle.