The first place he heads is the Shrine to the goddess Amira, whom Farshid is in charge. Several locals are around, and Alzar finds a local initiate wearing the colors of Amira, goddess of the sand. Her holy symbol is a creature made of sand, with red eyes and blue fingers.

Farshid has just begun the daily intonations at the shrine. The initiate explains that from noon on the previous day through sun-up on this day, each week, Farshid is in quite meditation as he prays over the whole of Hamedh. Thus, no one saw him last night. The initiate heard about the rumors of murder, but it looks like the locals haven’t caught on yet.

Zarrin’s Tavern, The Stale Ale is just two blocks away. There is almost no one here. A barmaid quickly grabs Alzar and leads him to a seat. It seems that hire people have heard about Zarrin;s possible involvement and have not come in much today. Nobody wants to eat a murderer’s food. She takes his order, since it is about noon. He takes lunch, and while he does, he asks about Zarrin. She explains that last night is the only night each week Zarrin has off, and he usually spends time in quiet retreat, using it to regain his energy. She worked last night, and no one saw him leave his home, which is attached to the Stale Ale. Alzar secures lodging here for the night, before heading out for the night.

The next place is Singh’s apartment, which is a block over to the east. It is right above a theater, and Singh is a regular performer there. Nobody is here, but Alzar notes that the theater is closed for two days each week to set up the stage for the next five days. That closing coincides with the murder last night, and it won’t open up again until tonight. Alzar suspects Singh’s story will be similar – not anywhere people can vouch for him


All three suspects had no witnesses to corroborate location. Each was supposed to be here in this district, and then they appear all the way on the other side of town, in a local tavern just across from where a representative and noblewoman was killed. Very coincidental. This was planned by someone good.

Alzar moves back to the streets and looks for people to see what is up, and stop by local shops to attempt to overhear important conversations, but nothing happens. Alzar heads back to the Stale Ale for dinner, and then to the Theater of Mystic Celebration for an evening of fun.

The theater opens with a musical number by the owner of the establishment, Balmar. He plays the kamancheh for the audience and sings while he bows. While captivating the audience, Alzar’s attention is elsewhere, looking for clues. While his eyes glance about, he notices three workers moving through the mesmerized crowd. He pretends to pay deep deep attention to Balmar as his music crescendos. Meanwhile, he prepares.

As one of the people steps nearby him, he feels the telltale gentle ease of pressure that suggests a pickpocket. Immediately his hand snaps from his jellaba and snatches the hand of the man, with Alzar’s purse in his hand!

Alzar yells to everyone and the music stops. He tells everyone that the people here steal your money, so you’d better go now. Several others call out that they are missing an item, and many leave, while others stay and make loud demanding cries for their goods. Meanwhile, Alzar has a death grip on the man who stole his purse. He drops the arm and as the man turns to flee, Alzar casts Hold Person. He fails his save and is paralyzed.

Alzar secures the man and walks him to a back bench in the room and waits until Balmer profusely apologizes and berates the three stagehands who worked the crowd. He tells them that they know he does not approve of such measures at his shows, and he forces them to return what they stole. The other two leave the room, and the patrons fill out.

Then Belmar comes over to Alzar and apologizes for the theft. He refunds Alzar’s admission price and asks if there is anything he can do to make up for it. Alzar takes him up on his offer.

They head to his office and begin to talk. Belmar starts by telling Alzar who everyone is that works there. He founded the theater. Singh is a bard who works for him. They have an illusionist who uses pretty effects. A woman mage provides some other magic,. They have a trio of stagehands, and then a few animals, like a blink dog and some others. Their theater tends to be more magical and musical than acting, although like any troupe, they have local musicians that come in and perform, props, costumes, disguises, and more for acting and plays.

Balmar admits that he did not see Singh last night, Singh was tired and went to bed early. Alzar asks about the individuals in more detail. Noticing the interest Alzar has in the murders last night, he informs Alzar that he has been working behind the scenes against a local assassin’s guild that has taken up residence in Arjuna in the last six months. It appears that there was a splinter group that left the thieves guild after wanting to accept murder contracts, which the guild refused to take or sponsor. Several high profile murders have happened since then.

Alzar asks about Singh’s instrument. Did he break a string on it? Nope, it was fine. The last time there was an issue with the string, it was about three weeks ago when one of the stagehands broke it. Which one? The middle one in age, Wutari. Alzar asks about him. Wutari has been with them for over a year, and is fiercely loyal to Balmar.

What about the illusionist? Where was he last night? Perhaps he sent in illusions into the bar? No, he was here working on developing a new spell for the theater. The mage was helping him, and they were in a back study room, until early. Balmar saw them himself.

Hmmm…What about the disguises? Balmar agrees to take Alzar to the disguise room. They look through it. While decent, they aren’t an extensive amount of disguises, it would be virtually impossible to duplicate a person with the equipment here. What sort of things would you have to have to appear as three different people? Oh, a lot more than we have. I don’t think any of the other theaters or troupes in town would have it either – it’s expensive and specialized stuff.

That’s very interesting, thank you. Oh, which one is Wutari? The one you captured of course.

Of course. Give me some time with him, and that will be enough.

Alzar heads out and grabs Wutari and pulls him up to a table and ties him to it. About 30 minutes later, the spell runs out, and Wutari is freed. Alzar shushes him as he starts to babble.

“You stole my purse. I can turn you into the local guard. There were many witnesses and you were caught in the act. Would you like that Wutari? On yes, I know your name now.”

Wutari’s eyes widen just a bit, but not much. He is playing it cool. He refuses to speak.

Alzar continues. “This is a nasty little knife I have here. Why didn’t you take it? It’s quite valuable. It’s a magical one. Have you ever felt a magical before? No? Well the rumors are true. It hurts a lot more than normal steel”

He is still trying to be nonplussed, but some sweat broke out and his face twitched just one. That’s enough.

“All I want is the answer to a few questions, and that’s all. Then you can go, and I put my knife away. And I won’t go to the guard.” For the first time, Wutari makes eye contact.

“Now, before I begin, I am going to cast a spell.” Alzar stand up and casts Charm Person, but Wutari makes his save. “I can tell if you are lying to me. Trust me. You don’t want to know what happens then.”

“Besides,” he says as he moves over to the same side of the table as Wutari. “These aren’t hard questions.”

“Three weeks ago, you broke Singh’s tanbur. Do you remember that? Tell me the truth, was it an accident?”

“No.”

“Did you break a string?”

“No.”

“What happened?”

“I took the string and told people it was broken so it would be replaced.”

“Where is the string now?”


“I gave it to my girlfriend.”

“Who is that?”

“Leave her out of it. She asked me for a golden string as a token of our love. I took it, leave it at that.”

“Oh no, Wutari, it’s not that easy. You heard about the murder last night, right? The high profile death?” He nods. “You know that a golden tanbur string was found under the bed, right?” Another nod. “Well, Singh’s tanbur is not missing any, and it hasn’t since you took a string, three weeks ago.”

“It could be another golden string.”

“Know a lot of instruments with golden strings do you?” A pause. “I told you, I would not turn you into the guard for theft. Instead, I can turn you into the grand inquisitor. I;m sure she would love to know that you stole a string from a tanbur right before a nobleman is murdered and it’s in the same room.”

Wutari is now really looking concerned for the first time. “She still has it. I know she still has it. She has to still have it…”

“When is the last time you saw this keepsake?”

“Not since I gave it to her…”

“Why not, if it’s such a precious item?” Pause for emphasis. “All I want is a name. Your responsibility ends there. Besides, if you don’t give it to m, I can just ask someone else. I am sure you have been telling everybody here about your new love…”

“Her name is Vamiria.”

“And she is?”

“An assistant to the local representative from this district, Bakri.”

Now that’s an interesting development. Alzar releases Wutari and reports to Balmar. It seems that Vamiria asked Wutari to secure the gold string for her.

Alzar heads back to the Stale Ale for the evening. It’s several hours after summer. He spends the night and in the morning, heads out for more investigation, this time with a slightly different set of spells that emphasize detection and divination.


He investigates both Vamira and Bakri. It seems that Bakri and the slain noblewoman were politically aligned. He was hoping they were enemies and this would be a natural conclusion. However, things in reality often don’t match the simplicity in our minds.

Bakri’s major political agenda has included getting more rights to local merchants, and reduced taxes on them. The slain woman agreed, and wanted reduced taxes on the local temples and shrines as well. They were a minority on the council on these issues, and the mayor often chooses to listen to the majority on issues of economics.

Vamira is a local woman who has worked for Bakri for some time. Perhaps she is setting up Bakri for the fall. She might reveal that Bakri secretly secured these three items and was actually right by the deceased’s room at that time. She could produce a doctored ledger or something as evidence of a last night rendezvous or perhaps even a romantic tryst that went badly. Vamira is in the right place.

Perhaps Vamira working for Bakri is just a coincidence. She could be helping someone secure the string or she might have even sold it without knowing what or who is would be used for.

Alzar meets with Zarrin this morning, to continue his investigation. After Alzar explains who he is, they meet in his back office, and Zarrin shows Alzar something very damning. His jacket is missing a button. He has no idea when it went missing, but he is sure that the button at the scene of the crime is his.

Yesterday, some officials came by and accused him of the death, and he’s pretty scared, so he is looking for a way out. Alzar explains that someone stole the golden string at the scene of the murder, and e is confident that someone stole the button to. But who? How?

Unfortunately, Zarrin has no ideas right now, so Alzar and him go over everyone that works at the Stale Ale. He has a barkeeper, two serving boys and a barmaid who also cooks (as does he), a stableboy, and that’s it. The people who currently reside here include Alzar and four others. Two of which share a room, one who likes the gamble, and one who is a retired captain from the town guard.


What about the gambler? Perhaps he loses a lot of money and needed some? Actually he wins a lot. He is a professional gambler by trade and wins at card games. The two who share a room are a pair of friends. One is a hunter and the other does odd jobs here and there for money. He cut the wood for the inn a few times for some coin. The former captain, now retired, lost his house more than a year ago and now lives here in one of the larger rooms. He still pays on time.

Nothing too suspicious there. Alzar spends some time talking to the staff in more detail, but finds no major leads.

It’s time to find Vamira. That’s his major lead right now.

He heads out and finds the office of Bakri, and heads into the main entrance. He asks to speak with Vamira on business, but is told that she is not there right now. She is about an hour late to work, actually.

Alzar suspects something is up. He successfully Charms the desk worker and she tells her new friend Alzar all about Vamira.

She has worked for Bakri for more than a year and still fawns over him. She is always talking about how great Bakri is. But she recently began to date this person who works at the theater, and that is her new obsession. She talks about how in love she is with him. Alzar asks if he can wait in Vampiras office for her return, and it is agreed upon.

He spends the next thirty minutes quietly rifling through her things with the door closed. A few times he heard someone close and had to stop, which slowed down the process. She keeps financial records for Bakri’s time in office, many of which are sent to the mayor’s office for reimbursement. However, recently, Bakri has increased his expenditures – almost a 50% increase in the last 6 weeks. That’s pretty interesting.

Maybe Bakri is involved somehow. The expenditures appear to be normal ones, and spread out over several places. But the overall increase is there. Nothing else jumps out at Alzar.

He leaves and thanks the lady for her time.

It is after noon, and he grabs some food before moving on. He swings by the theater on the way to the shrine and finds out that Wutari has taken his things and run off. Him and Vamira probably ran off together. That does show that their feelings were mutual, and not just Vamira using him. He felt it was unlikely after hearing about how much Vamira talked up Wutari to her co-worker, and now that seems even more the case. She probably realized the string was the one who asked Wutari to procure for her.


Alzar arrives at the shrine and meets with the priest, Farshid. Farshid is a very old, amiable man, in his early 90s. He’s also quite scattered, could barely hold a conversation without meandering, and cast a spell randomly during their talk. Alzar then meets with an acolyte who tells him that Farshid has been getting progressively worse for years. It’s no act.

He spends a few hours investigating the local people who work at the shrine, but finds nothing of interest here either.

Alzar heads to bed after gambling with the local patron to see if anything jumps out, and nothing does.

On the third morning, news greets Alzar. The mayor has appointed a new representative. It is another woman, this time a cousin to Bakri. Is this just a coincidence or something more? A few mumblings are heard over breakfast, as people complain about her representing a district she doesn’t even live in. That’s not usual. The mayor has the right to appoint anyone, but this is a bit odd.

As Alzar begins his investigations, a letter arrives to him with an official seal of the city. He opens it up. It is an official meeting with Bakri later on today. That’s interesting.

Alzar spends most of the day getting ready for the meeting, heading to his estate, waiting for Bakri, and then being told that Bakri can take care of the order his own district. He has arrested Zarrin for the murder of his colleague. Therefore, Alzar can cease his investigations. He orders Alzar to collect his payment from the local official. Alzar arrives in his office an hour later and the official has authority to give him 100 gold for his services.

Alzar takes the gold.

100 gp

Clearly, Bakri is involved somehow, but taking the gold might get Alzar some time and space. He returns to the Pale Ale where things have grown into a wreck. Workers are very upset and the barkeeper has had to take over things. A few minutes before his arrival, it has just been announced that Zarrin will be killed tomorrow at noon for the murder.

Alzar moves to talk with the staff. After speaking with two, he runs into Falpir, the stableboy. After Alzar talks with him no longer than a minute, Falpir breaks down and cries. After a few minutes, he confesses to Alzar that he took Zarrin’s button. He was tricked by Rogan, a small gnome, into stealing the button for him after Rogan chided Falpir’s money. He said that Zarrin didn’t care about him and that one of his buttons was worth more than Falpir made in a year. He said that he valued Falpir highly, and would pay him the money worth for a button. So Falpir stole the button about two and a half weeks ago, and got the money. But now Zarrin is about to die, and Falpir knows he is innocent!


Who is Rogan? He is a student gnome who works at Bakri’s estate…


And there is your connection.

There is no question that Bakri is involved now.

Alzar wants to penetrate the defenses of Bakri’s estate. He wants to spring Zarrin, find evidence to use against Bakri, and perhaps shut this down himself. But he was there earlier today, and there is no way he can solo that place. If he had his former level of power he could devastate it, but without the extra weapons, backup, and more, Alzar just doesn’t see it happening much.

He retires early and then memorizes a new slate of spells. He would have preferred to hit the estate around midnight but his spells were a poor choice for infiltration. Instead, he has memorized a slate of magic more conducive to gaining entry. Alzar grabs a few magic items that might be helpful and moves out.



Alzar arrives at the estate shortly after four in the morning. Dawn is around 70 minutes from now, but Alzar is ready. Bakri’s estate consists of a a large curtained wall, with towers along the sides. Then is a stable building, a garden and some guardhouses, in addition to the keep that Bakri is inside. Alzar needs to penetrate the compound generally, and then the keep specifically.

And his way to do that is via a diversion. He grabs an orange magic jelly bean. He moves to the front gate and smashes the bean against the ground right in front of the gate, and heads back. The bean bursts and out explodes an ochre jelly. In a minute, a guard notices, and an alarm rings out. The jelly has moved a bit and they wait a few minutes, organizing themselves, and then pop out of the gate and begin to attack the jelly. As they do, no one is guarding the gate, and Alzar slips inside the now empty entrance.

Inside there is…just a servant girl moving about. She notices him but does not think him out of the ordinary and nods as if she knows him and keeps on. Perhaps she recognizes him from earlier today.

Alzar penetrates the wall and moves into the compound. He moves into the stables and here is no one here this late at night. He grabs a grey jelly bean, cracks it against the ground, and out pops a grey ooze. He quickly leaves and suddenly there is an eruption of noise from the animals in the stable frightened at the ooze’s arrival, and it moving to them.

He slips behind some bushes, and soon some more folks emerge from the keep, while other soldiers return from outside. He uses his Ring of Chameleon Power to blend in and is unobserved. They move into the stables and prepare to engage the grey ooze. The door to the keep closes behind them, but Alzar noticed that no one was inside. He grabs his vial of acid, moves to the door, but it is unlocked and he moves in under the cover of the commotion.

He recognizes where he is. The ground floor. This place looks like it has two stories, and perhaps a dungeon. Alzar wants to head down first. He retraces his steps along the corridor. As he does, a guard pops from around the end and sees him. Alzar casts Charm Person and charms him before he can retreat or call for help. He fails the save and is now a great friend of Alzar’s.

Alzar asks him where the prisoners are kept, and the guard agrees to show him. After two turns, with the guard leading the way, they pass by a pair of servants who don’t think anything is amiss. A door opens and then descend. All that is down here are old equipment, cold storage for things like a wine cellar, and the dungeon.

They enter the dungeon, and the two guards here look at the man who befriended Alzar. The man moves to introduce Alzar, but they are suspicious. A quick Sleep spell drops all three and he collects the keys and unlocks all of the jail cells. Inside are three people: Zarrin, and two he does not recognize, who agree to come with him. They grab items from the dead guards. If the guards had a uniform, they could grab those too, but they do not.

They head back up and arrive at the end of a long hallway on the east side of the keep. The guard Alzar had charmed chatted away in a lovely bit about the layout of the estate for Alzar, since it’s not a secret. Alzar arrives back at the door and sees there is still a commotion in the stables, apparently several steeds died, and bad things are about to happen. Alzar orders Zarrin and the other two out of the keep while he moves back in for more evidence.

As he does, he hears a sound and turns around. Here staring at him are a married couple, one a cleric and the other a mage. “Well well. We were going out to find out what was happening when we came across a thief.” “Hello thief”

“Not a thief, actually. I was hired to investigate the murder, and it led me here.”

“He knows too much, take him out.”

They begin to cast spells. Alzar grabs his final jelly bean and casts it at their feet, but misses and hits the wall right by them instead. Out pops a green slime. That’ll still work. Meanwhile, he is hit by a Charm Person and a Silence spell. He makes the Charm save but is silenced and cannot speak or cast spells. The green slime takes their full attention, and he moves away.

He pounds out of the keep and sees Zarrin and the others in cover. He gathers them inside of his silence 15’ radius spell and pushes them forward. They move out and approach the gate. While the silence helps, soon the group is seen and numerous people move in to attack. Alzar can’t use his Wand of Frost, it requires a word spoken to activate. He mentally orders Gilded Ears to come inside the gate to help with a diversion and she begins to howl and growl. Meanwhile, he runs in front and then yells out as if in pain, shouts out “Noooo!” loudly, and then turns into a Statue while pointing to the others to go to the gate. They do, and the others are confused as to what happened to Alzar. He and his items have turned to stone.

Meanwhile, Zarrin and the others have escaped. Several people poke the statue with a stick or spear, and nothing happens except their items break off. Alzar is now a stone statue. The mage and cleric have finished the green slime and emerge. It looks like he has been petrified. They order a message delivered to an ally with the Stone to Flesh spell in order to release Alzar so they can capture and torture him. A guard is on him in addition to those at the gate.

After a few hours, others come to look, including Bakri and some retainers.

“You came very close Alzar. Very close. But you did no uncover the truth after all. He smiles and heads back.”

After a half a day, when the guard is preoccupied and used to his statue, and he has fully absorbed everything around him, Alzar ends the spell and returns to his state. Within a second he casts Hold Person on the two guards at the gate and they are paralyzed. The guard for him grabs his sword and yells, but a Hypnotism spell forces him to drop his weapons and stay dazed.

In a minute Alzar has escaped from the keep and meets up with Gilded Ears and they move on.

He returns to the Stale Ale where he celebrated as the man who stood up to Bakri and won. The other two people are here with Zarrin and Alzar officially meets them. One is a thief who was captured by the guard while escaping from a failed con attempt. The other is a warrior who has powerful arms but a limited vocabulary. He was tortured for a few months by Bakri because their families were rivals. That torture involved damage to his vocal cords, which healing magic was unable to completely fix. He speaks in a low whisper.

His name is Pashtun, and he would like to accompany Alzar. Meanwhile, Alzar takes the thief, Pashtun, Zarrin, the people from the theater, to establish that the three are innocent. After hearing testimony from the boy about taking Zarrins button, and about the same happening elsewhere, the high judge agrees that they are innocent and clears them of charges. But there is not enough evidence to go after the powerful Bakri. Instead, all that will happen is his cousin resigns from his position and a new representative is appointed by the mayor. Alzar doesn’t like leaving an enemy behind, but it will do for now.

Alzar gains 1000XP for partial success.


End of L2. The Assassin’s Knot.

Pashtun, level 2 fighter, Neutral

HP: 23
THAC0: 19
XP: 5000 (level 3 at 8000)


Str: 14
Dex: 13
Con: 17
Int: 11
Wis: 10
Cha: 12

Proficiencies – Swords generally, specializes in Scimitar, can use Recurve Bow and Pike.

Alzar dresses him up in armor and equips him. With armor, he is at AC 4 (includes shield)

He also knows riding, riding specialization, swimming, survival, fire-building, healing, tracking, and weather knowledge.

He grew up in the badlands and knows that area well, including how to track, first aid, and how to read the weather. On Hamedh, some people are such experts on steeds that they can do amazing feats on them, like leap off a moving horse and land smoothly, jumping onto a moving horse, and firing a bow with more accuracy while riding.

He wants to follow Alzar and adventure with him, not necessarily out of a sense of loyalty to the person who freed him, but more to break himself out of his malaise. Pashtun can only speak a weak voice that resembles a harsh whisper, and it hurts him to do so.

Here is Alzar’s stuff right now:

Stuff:

5142 gp


Gems: Topaz – 100 gp ; Ruby – 500gpx2;


Jewelry: Emerald Headband – 300 gp ; Ivory Earrings – 120 gp ; Ruby Necklace – 750 gp


Objet d’arts: 4 Gold Rods, 85 gp each ; 4 Silver Plates, 100 gp each ; Silver Comb and Brush set – 100 gp
Ornate Perfume Bottle – 50 gp ; Rare Pottery – 500 gp ; Relics from Neconolis – 1000 gp total ;



Books and Library:

6000 gp library, generally
History of the Badlands Tribes (20 gp)
Encyclopedia of Local Plants (50 gp)
Diary of the Wizard, Zelligar
Meteorological Phenomena of Hamedh (75 gp)
Tribal History of this Duergar Clan
Yaghoub’s Journal
Three books of magical history
One book on history of tower and residents
Neconilis’s Book of Horrors
Surrisk’s notes on undead, necromancy, and a spell Undead Familiar
1000 gp library of 300 general purpose books from Dungeon in Desert


Laboratory:

6000 gp lab generally
500 gp equipment from Dungeon in Desert



Magic Items:

Proficient Staff
+1 Pesh-kabz, Short Bow, Dagger
Spear, +1, +2 vs Giants, +3 vs Orcs, Ogres

Potion of Extra-Healing; Levitation, Fire-Giant Strength, Neutralize Poison
Scroll of Protection from Magic
Wizard Spell Scroll: Create Spectral Wizard

Wand of Frost – 6 charges
Yaghoub’s Staff – Striking – 8 charges, Ring of Fire Protection when held

Medallion of Defense
Amulet of Neconilis x3
Ring of Protection +1, Chameleon Nature; Cantrips
Rock Jellaba
Scarab of Venom
Bracers of Protection: +1
Dusty Rose Ioun Stone - +1 AC
Magic Jelly Beans – 2 Grey, 2 Green, 2 Orange, 3 Yellow (G Cube), 3 White (Crystal Ooze), 3 Black
Boots of Varied Tracks

Incense of Enlightenment

Crucible of Melting ; Lens of Speed Reading


Unusual Items:

Brass Dragon Skin; Gold Flecked Ruby from Gold Dragon – 1000 gp;

Silver Knife, Spear
Crossbow, 50 bolts
Flask of Sleep Water
Multiple Vials of Poison

2 Divining Rods
Focus - Signet Ring


5 blank scroll pages, ready to be used
Many bottles of scroll ink
Wand, crafted ready to be enchanted

UK4. When a Star Falls





I am really excited to run this, it looks like a lot of fun. I have been trying to find the next adventure for Alzar. It’s hard to find something that would fit. I checked out B11 and B12 paired module set, which sound urban, but they aren’t. I wanted to shoehorn the trilogy of Sword of the Dale,s Spiderhaunt Woods, Return of Randal Morn, but they are in the Dales in the Forgotten Realms and feature characters and places and plots from there. It’s too hard to color Hamedhi. I was initially planning on running N3, Destiny of Kings, but I’ve put it off twice now and I’m not sure. I am also not feeling WG9 Gargoyle or The Silver Key.

But this? I love this. In fact, I am going to just quote the opening section in some detail. It’s that good. It looks like a blast to play out. So let’s send Alzar and Pashtun down the adventuring tunnel into this blast from 1984, and another in the UK line of modules (we ran three in the giant epic Isle of Dread campaign – UK1. Beyond the Crystal Cave, UK2. The Sentinel and UK3. The Gauntlet; ). We just ran UK5, Eye of the Serpent, although it was cut off a bit at the end by my BSOD. There are 7 modules in the series, and we are about to run the fifth one for this campaign. Frankly, I like it a lot. It has a lot of neat character. My favorite idea in the story thus far is capturing the castle where the evil big bad is, and then being forced to defend it shortly thereafter as an army wants to assault the big bad. I think that’s a nice flip of the script for an early 80s module.

Begin quote…


….of books and a shooting star

The Books of Prophecy are the well guarded treasure of the sages of the Towers of the Heavens. Those few who know of these ageless tomes speak of them with the hushed reverence commonly afforded to the ostentatious might of swords or wands.

The books are closed to the eyes of ordinary men since they deal not with the transient forces of arms or magic, but with destiny itself.

Each page is crammed with cryptic references to the fates of the great and the famous, written in an obscure script. In all of the world there is but one man who can read the pages of the close-written symbols; only one man who can fathom the weirdly coded prophecies.

This man is Shalfey, Elder Sage of the Tower of the Heavens. He inherited the unique power to read the books from the line of Elder Sages that came before him. For generations this line has been unbroken and, as is traditional, Shalfey has gathered a small college of lesser sages from whom to select his successor.

Like his forebears, Shalfey’s command of the books is limited. Although he is able to read them, their pages can be turned but one at a time, allowing him to glimpse only a short time into the future…and then only dimly. Yet such glimpses are rare and their sources are coveted. To protect the Books of Prophecy, and to account for their ability to see into the future, the sages make a great show of the study and practice of astrology. They have even come to use this uncertain art to tell the fortunes of those too humble to be mentioned in the books.

In an uncertain world, any precognition, however vague, can command a high price, and the sages have long offered their insights for sale. With the riches thus gathered from the great and the meek, the Tower of the Heavens was built; a secure refuge on a rocky island washed by the swirling waters of the River Keldir. This place is home, fortress and astrological observatory.

The tower is garrisoned by gnome mercenaries and for their personal protection, the sages have monk bodyguards. While the loyalty of mercenaries must be bought with gold, however the unquestioning loyalty of the order of the monks repays a prophecy granted to their brotherhood many years ago.

The origin of the Books of Prophecy has never been established. Some claim that they were written by a seer in ancient times; others that they were enscribed in the distinct future and sent into the past by powerful magics. Whatever the truth, recent events have shown the books to not only be bearers but also the instruments of destiny – the destiny of a certain shooting star…

The shooting star - omen of change, fell to earth in Therno Pass, destroying the lair of a tribe of derro. To these creatures, it was the instrument of sudden disaster, but to Shalfey, far away in his tower, it came as no surprise.

Only days before he had turned a page of the current Book of Prophecy to find blank parchment! Worse still, he found that the following pages could be turned easily, as could those of previously unopenable books. Shalfey has looked upon these books as the foundation of the tower’s prosperity, but to his horror, he found that every last page was blank! Every page that is, save the last page of the last volume. There, in clear words, the coming of the shooting star was foretold and the Elder Sage was instructed to plot its course, to find it and take it to a certain group of smiths, who in return would provide a second set of Books of Prophecy.

Unknown to Shalfey, it was the intention of whoever (or whatever) wrote the books that the shooting star should be cut by the smiths into a great flawless gem which, in future years, would serve some great, unknown purpose. To this end the smiths had been well prepared and the Elder Sage had been left with no choice but to play his role in which destiny had written for him…

(Normally I don’t give the whole plot in the first few paragraphs of a module in this dynasty, but that’s cool!) (I’m not giving it all away…)

A shooting star, Books of Destiny, a Tower of the Heavens, and so forth. Man, that s a fun set up to the adventure! There are so many ways I can do with that just from the preamble. For example, take the order of monks. What happened to secure their loyalty? How long ago was it? Did they dedicate themselves for a set amount of time? Is that time approaching? Will they deem their work over and move on? Are there modern members of the order who want to do more than guard books in a tower? Are there any other divisions? Did the Sage actually help the order or where they deceived? Are the stories told true, or just myths to secure the loyalty of the order? You get the idea. Lots of adventure potential with the order. And that’s just a few sentences in the preamble, a tiny detail out of the many given.

Three days later, Alzar leaves Arjuna for a few days to visit with an old herbalist, Indira, on the edge of the villages that surround the area. He takes his normal wagons and such with him, and this gives him an opportunity to see Pashtun in action, even if it’s just moving things from one place to another and traveling along it.

He arrives at the sleepy villa of Avonton, he arrives at the herbalist’s house, but she is not there today. They head to the tavern to sleep for the night. Alzar is told that Indira has left for an excursion to the nearby mire, a small region where a large brook hits a nearby river and a small marsh is there. It’s not that common for the area, as the rainfall is not great here and a desert is about six days ride away. She went there yet again to gather more rare herbs and such.

The mire is just a couple of hours away on horseback and so the next day Alzar and Pashtun move out down the road that leads there on horseback and leave everything else behind, save for Gilded Ears who jogs along beside them.

The mire is reached easily enough. Although bleak, has a stark beauty. It rises and dips like the waves of a frozen sea, with only the heavy gorse off the road as a contrast to the flowers and weeds of the area. Coming to the top of another rise, Alzar looks down into the hollow beyond. There, highlighted against the heath, lie four unmoving white-robed figures, enmeshed by a mass of pale clinging strands. They are about one hundred and twenty yards off the road.

Alzar makes a spellcraft proficiency. The strands at first looked like those from the common Web spell, but they are different somehow. Alzar dismounts and grabs his items and moves over, waving to Pashtun to join him. Alzar leads.

As he does, suddenly the web pulsates with energy, and then leaps at him. His magical staff is in hand and it whirls around at the magical web. He misses and the web begins to constrict, with Pashtun on the other side. He swings at the web with his non-magical scimitar and hits for half damage – just 2.

Alzar takes 1d6 damage automatically from the creature.

47/51

His staff connects for full damage – 4. Pashtun misses.

Alzar takes 4 more. They both miss. Alzar takes another 1. They both miss. He takes 3. Alzar hits for 4 damage. He takes 5. They hit for 7 total and the web stops constricting.


34/51 hp

250 XP

As the creature dies, it pulsates and emanates a strong psychic energy that absorbs Alzar and Pashtun minds. A telepathic mind shock hammers them as a barrage of memories flows from the web. Many are instantly lost, leaving like a dream. But some were particularly important to the memory holder, and are easier to remember for Alzar and Pashtun. These memories include:

Our master calls and is afraid and we must find the shooting star or die

Guards everywhere no better defended tower makes our master sfe

You will not mistake it the black rock, seared by great heat, dull and seemingly worthless, only it can help

Ground trembled and mountains and a great iron dragon never sleeping

Hard beds and plain walks and ornamentation is naught but a distraction

The sun shines on green dales in the pass where hunters never go hungry

Daily ritual yet again questions constantly

Wild beast men in the mountains

Master I am afraid. Trust me and believe but it moves I shall fall to the chasm

Fair is the day but fairer the jewels of evening

A scream in the night sword in rage devil men

Never far away with shifty eyes, always watching me, never trusting shadow

One last good meal before we part

Do you never covet gold?

Too late, lost in the maze, retuned but gone

Make haste to Indira’s home in Avonton but harm no living thing

Trust given in doubt honors the giver

The walls are closing in the ceiling falls

Go seek for Indira, the watcher, and give her the bestiary


Additionally, Alzar and Pashtun gain complete information about the location of the Tower of the Heavens, the nearby locations, and some things inside it.

They bend down to search the four bodies of the dead men, and Alzar now knows they are an order of monks. They wear white clothes. Nothing much in on them save for weapons, rations, and other minor items. But there is one item of value:

Illustrated Bestiary (250 gp)

They were en route to trade this book to Indira for knowledge. Alzar could just take the book now, and leave. It’s very valuable. He opens it and he cannot read it. But he can cast Comprehend Languages later to do so.

Alzar and Pashtun grab the bodies of the four men and go back to the village. He’d like to look for Indira first, but he needs information. He casts a quick Detect Magic, but none of their items detect as such. He does grab some strands from the web creature for later research.

They stay another night and in morning, Alzar casts the newly memorized Comprehend Languages on the book. He spends an hour with the book until he finds a section on the creature they fought – a memory web. It latches itself to creatures and attacks them psychically. Then they absorb the memories of victims for sustenance. If one is killed before it can fully digest recent meals, it releases those memories in a telepathic explosion that sentient creatures nearby can feel and remember.

After leading up, the duo heads out again for Indira and hope to find her out in the mire. After five hours, two great eagles descend from the sky as their close. They soar about them and one communicates telepathically with Alzar, telling him that they can follow the eagles in peace, or else leave the mire. Alzar nods forward and the eagle leads him off the road Pashtun is following the other in the same way.

After a half hour of wandering deep into the mire, the ground begins to rise and they arrive at a group of trees in the wetlands. The eagles depart after telling them to wait. Alzar dismounts and begins to feed his horse and Gilded Ears. “A friend of animals is a friend to me…” Alzar turns and sees one of the smallest trees change into an older woman who smiles at him.

Indira introduces herself and leads the pair to her home away from home. As they sit down, a pair of grey langur monkeys set down dishes and utensils and serve them food. Food is eastern quickly and Indira asks them, directly, why they are her.

Alzar explains what happened, what they saw, and what they found. She tells them that the mission of that group of monks must have been to discover the location of a recent fallen star. She often spends time charting the sky, and it fell a few days journey away, in the foothills of the mountains. She can give him exact location and information, and will trade that for the book Alzar showed her, if they are interested in picking up the monks journey.

She tells Alzar that the head of the Tower of the Heavens is an Elder Sage named Shalfey, someone she has met a few times. On the other hand, if he prefers, he can pay her 500 gp, twice what the book is worth, and keep it.

“What language is it written it?” “An ancient Hamedhi tongue that is common in old books, ruins, and other places. Some still write in it today in order to keep the information hidden.” Alzar agrees because he likes the book, and trades her 500 gp of value (not with him, but in the saddlebags)

-500 gp

Indira retires for a half an hour and calculates and jots down the exact location of the downed meteor. It went down in Therno Pass. There is a strange race of humanoids that live there, hide under rocks by day, and launch savage attacks at night against locals.

Alzar and Pashtun grab the map she drew and directions and heads back out. The make it back to Avonton just an hour after nightfall and retire for the night. In the morning, they are healed by a nice local cleric at a small shrine for a modest fee of just 25 gp, and head out.

After reviewing their notes, it seems like Therno Pass should be four days away by wagon train. Alzar and Pashtun rest and then headed out the next day with a loaded set of supplies, including feed, water, and various adventuring gear in the wagons.

As they set out on their journey, the day ebbs quickly by. Near the end of the day, a large howl can be heard from the other side of the hill, and they stop to see. After a few seconds, a nasty looking hyena-like creature rounds the hill. Is it? It is. This is a lycanthrope. A werehyena. As it rushes down the path to them, about two hundred yards away, two men run across the hill two, firing arrows at it from their short bows as they rush in. The creature is moving quickly. Alzar decides to get involved and leaps off the horse and grabs his weapon. He stands right in the werehyena’s path with his magic staff at his side. The creature sees him and turns and goes left. In a flash, Alzar’s hand grabs a silver knife and flings it at the creature but misses. Another knife misses but the men hit it once with an arrow. Alzar casts Continual Light at its eyes and it makes the save. No go.

Alzar jumps back on the horse and gallops off, catching back up with the creature. He gallops to its right and turns and cuts it off and it turns left to head back to the hill, but now the two men have mostly caught up to it and another silver tipped arrow bites into it. Pashtun has almost arrived and the creature is caught, snapping at the men and moves to them. Another arrow dices into its chest and it falls, and dies.

They have slain the werehyena. The men stop and gather their arrows from the creature and introduce themselves as hunters. They came across this creature last night and have been tracking it. They thank him for corralling it, and then they begin to skin it. Alzar returns and the caravan moves on for another pair of hours before stopping for the evening. At the end of the night, nothing more has happened, and they move off the next day

The second day is pretty quiet and passes smoothly. The second night does not.

Around midnight, while Pashtun has watch, Gilded Ears senses something out in the local trees and perks up. A howl erupts through the night and scares people, but Pashtun makes his save and does not flee. Soon a few creatures emerge from the woods and attack, one a large shadowy mastiff, one a human and the last a huge raven. (The UK Series is heavy on running creatures from the 1st Edition Monster Manual II and Fiend Folio. Many creatures were not reprinted in a major 2nd edition source, and we are facing that now, but its alright. I grabbed my MMII and we are good to go – for the record, they include a Shade and a Shadow Mastiff)

Forewarned by his familiar, Alzar is up. He senses the presence of an extraplanar presence and tries to control the dog and fails. (Recent creatures in this tome include Crystal Ooze, Shade, Derro, Dao, Shadow Mastiff, Muckdweller, Phantom, Huge Raven, Vilstrak, and many others)

The mastiff snaps at Pashtun, misses, and blends into the shadow and can’t be seen. Alzar orders Pashtun to focus on the Raven. He’s not sure if normal weapons will hit the other to creatures.

The Shade is a 6th level monk from the Tower of the Heavens who was sent to hunt them down. He recognizes the person and the clothes as belonging to another monk in the order. Not all are good loyal little guardians it seems. Alzar makes his Netherworld Knowledge proficiency check. This is a Shade. A powerful person can undergo a process to merge their soul or essence with shadowstuff, and they become more powerful as shadows grow. He summons Shadow Images, like Mirror Images, and there are 5 of the things made, now six images, one the real monk, are around.

A Shade is undying save from violent death via accident or battle or spell. A Shade can still gain experience, and use the abilities of its class and race. In bright light, a Shade looks like a regular person, with a darkened complexion. They can also Shadow Walk back to the Demi-Plane of Shadow.

Turning into a Shade is a long and involved process and Alzar doesn’t know anyone that actually knows it back on Thorasia. Perhaps it is known here on Hamedh. That would be powerful information.

Because of the light from the campfires and the shadows it casts, the Shade is more powerful than at any other time. Alzar grabs the bucket of water and spends a turn putting out the fire. Meanwhile, Pashtun is hit for 4 damage by the Shade. The mastiff tries to bite Alzar and misses.

Now the night is in and the Shade, still strong, is weakened. The shadow images have fallen away and dissipated. Alzar will not be casting Continual Light. Shades have an innate magic resistance as well, but its not that high, so he might get a spell in. He doubts any of his stuff will work thought. No Charm or Hold or Sleep is likely to work. Hmm… He decides to handle this warrior style and grabs the magic weapons right by him. One round wasted gathering up weapons. He is attacked, hit, and takes 6 damage from the Mastiff. Meanwhile, Pashtun has hit the raven and killed it. One less foe to worry about.

45/51

They win init and the monk/shade stabs Alzar again for 7 damage with a Khukuri. That’s more damage than a blade that small would normally do. With blind-fighting, Alzar stabs out with his magic spear to hit the monk/shade and hits for 5 damage. (It’s easier to hit when fighting as a level 7 fighter). Meanwhile Pashtun gets two attacks this round with his normal scimitar against the Mastiff, but he misses both times. It’s hard to hit in the darkness without blind-fighting training.

The monk orders the dog and himself to concentrate on Alzar, sensing he is the stronger target. Alzar spears it for 5 damage and takes 10 back from two hits. Pashtun misses.

28/51

Alzar regains init and misses the shade. It hits for 6 and the Mastiff misses but fades back into the night and Pashtun can’t keep his weapon on point. They lose init and the Shade misses, the Mastiff bites for 4 damage, and Alzar spears the shade for 3 damage while Pashtun finally lands a blow for another 4.

18/51

The Shade uses this turn to shadow walk away and leaves this plane for the Shadow one. Because this is Hamedh, it will take a little longer, and Alzar has a chance to spear him but misses. The Shadow Mastiff also flees into the night and a few minutes later, they have left.

The fire is relit and they heal up and then head out the next day.

50 XP for Huge Raven

The next day is pretty quiet. With the use of Healing proficiencies as first aid, and Alzar’s fast healing trait, they are doing well, and at the end of the day, all is quiet.

The night passes uneventfully. He feared another Shade attack, but it appears that the Shade is gone for now.


Day four arrives and they near the pass that was mentioned. The Tower of the Heavens is up in these foothills as well, although not that close to here.

They decide to camp for the night and approach the place of the meteor in the morning, with a fresh day. No issues are encountered either.

The following morning, Alzar has 27/51 hp.

About a mile away they can see the landing area. Sparse trees have been denuded of leaves and those close to the area have been blasted and pushed away from the landing zone. They move in to a large rocky crater in the center. The crater is nearly 100’ feet across and about half as deep. The explosion which caused it must have been enormous. Rock has been thrown in all directions but much has slid back into the crater from the slopes above. In the very bottom of the crater, a deep hole has been excavated.

It appears that someone excavated a hole into the crater from below, and took the fallen star. Gilded Ears leaps down to explore under some rocks and such. The hole is about 20 feet deep and there is a dead human here, with a broken pick next to him. No other signs of life are here and the hole heads down.

Alzar and Pashtun set up the wagons and such a good distance from the crater and Gilded Ears will remain for now as a scout. They head down after gathering and exchanging equipment. As they do, they see a deadfall of rock that killed five small humanoids. Derro. These are evil nasty highly magical creatures that have been raiding others. They must have found the rock first. Alzar searches and finds broken equipment and armor but

22 pp

The excavation has not been filled out, or fixed or braced, it was just a quick natural hole to get the stone. So the tunnel here is very windy and damp and more of a gentle slope in order to keep things stable. Both of them have a Continually Lit stone out to provide light.

They slide down into a larger open chamber and there are a sextet of Derros here working at a collapsed section of the tunnel and a leader. They see Alzar and turns around and shout out. Alzar casts Sleep and drops three. The other four grab crossbows and begin to wind them. They shout for help.

An arrow from Pashtun’s bow slices into a Derro for 5 damage. They mostly miss and scratch Pashtun;s armor. Alzar has his knives out and is throwing them and missing. Noise can be heard deeper down the shaft and soon another group of six Derro plus another leader arrive.

Alzar casts Hold Person and paralyzes two with crossbows. They set up and fire back, since they have numbers, they see no need to advance ot Melee range. One of the leaders barks to a regular Derro to begin waking the sleeping Derro. Meanwhile Alzar takes 2 damage from a bolt and Pashtun 4.

25/51 Alzar
19/23 Pashtun

2 paralyzed, 3 sleeping
7 Derro
2 leaders

Alzar casts Continual Light on the one about to help and it fails the save and is blinded. Pashtun hits the wounded Derro again for 4 damage with his bow. They hit each of them once again for 4 damage each.

21/51
15/23

Alzar casts Hypnotism and three drop their weapons and stop attacking. Pashtun misses

Their leaders call a retreat and leave under the cover of crossbows.

Alzar and Pashtun follow and slay the sleeping, paralyzed, blinded and hypnotized Derro, leaving behind one for a prisoner.

9 Derro finished off – 900 XP

Alzar hears some digging in the tunnel and they move. A quick glance shows that they are building fortifications quickly here to hold the line. As they do, 6 more Derro have arrived, two with a lot of power. One grabs a potion and drinks it and shrinks in size. The other grabs the small one and puts him in a sling and begins to twirl it. Huh.

Alzar warns Pashtun and the diminished Derro is flung past their position and comes back to normal size and casts Shadow Magic, which is basically a specialized Magic Missile like spell that fires six missiles to random targets. By being away from the battle, the only targets here are Alzar,Pashtun and the captured Derro. Alzar takes two, Pashtun three, and the Derro one. Save for half damage is allowed for each missile.

15/51 Alzar
10/23 Pashtun

Alzar orders Pashtun to go after the guy who flanked them while he holds up the hallway, where an advance is occurring. They have 7 warriors, 2 leaders and 2 savant students, one of which is behind them. The Savant in the back casts Charm Person on Alzar but it fails. Meanwhile, Alzar grabs the Wand of Frost and puts in three charges for the powerful Cone of Cold. Everything in front of him takes 27 damage or save vs half. That’s enough to kill every Derro unless it makes its save.

Now they have two warriors, one leader and both savants.

The final leader calls another retreat. Meanwhile Pashtun attacks and misses the Savant behind them. Alzar casts Skeletal Hands to chase down the wounded Derro. The Derro in the back casts Anti-Magic Shell to keep himself save from any magic Alzar might fling his way. A crossbow bolt hits Alzar for 4 damage from the retreating Derro.

11/51


Alzar orders the hands to pursue and attack the wounded Derro and turns and faces the one behind him. His staff is out and he moves in. The savant student swings a shiny scimitar at Alzar and misses. Pashtun;s scimitar swings twice, connects once for 7 damage and wounds it. Alzar misses. It keeps initiative and smashes and connects with Alzar for 6 damage. Alzar misses, and quaffs his potion of extra healing to gain 21 hp back. Meanwhile Pashtun hits for 5 more damage.

The Derro misses, and both Alzar and Pashtaun stab it for 11 damage and it falls.

Meanwhile the Skeletal hands dropped a wounded Derro but were destroyed.

Alzar orders Pashtun to follow and leads into the rest of the tunnel. After a short bit, they arrive at slave pens, and then a temple. Here the remaining Derro are tended to wounded and they grab their weapons and attack. A bolt hits Alzar in the front for 5 damage.

21/51


They move in on the other Savant and in two round finish it and the leader soon follows. No one else was injured, they were rattled too much to hit. A quick search turns up no other Derro in the complex.

XP – 2100

Used: Potion of Extra-Healing, 3 charges on Wand of Frost (just three left)

Alzar frees the slaves while he orders Pashtun to gather all of their items together in a big pile in the chapel here. There are just 6 slaves here, and they grab food from a local storage room. They inform Alzar about the dead chief’s room some undead there, and a destroyed route to an evil Lamia to the left.

Alzar investigates the chief’s room and feels the fundamental pull of undead power. He enters it cautiously, there have been some rock slides and some hit and slew people in here. Three are now animated and look like zombies. Alzar tries to control them and does. He fails his Necrology check and sees them as normal zombies.

Alzar forces them to grab all of the items from this room, including keys, weapons and other items and armor to the temple. After an hour, most of the items are here, and Alzar casts Detect Magic.

They find:

Magic Scimitar
Magic Shield
Magic Wand
Magic Ring
Magic Potion

Gold Armbands, 500 gp
98 pp
120 gp
Rock Crystal Bottle Stopper – 75 gp
Silver Dagger with Ivory Handle – 250 go
Gold Studded Leather Armor – 500 gp
Ruby Pendant – 900 gp
Silver Belt Buckle – 100 gp
Ivory and Jet Ram’s Head Amulet – 550 gp



In a locked chest, opened with the key from the “zombie” is the meteorite. It is roughly spherical, grey metallic, weighs about 10 pounds, and does not detect as magical.

Some of the items they found on dead Derro and such.

Alzar does not want to dig to the Lamia’s chamber and free/expose/attack it. It’s way too powerful for now.

They head out and the slaves agree to come with them since they have protection. They can find a route out from the Tower of the Heavens .


After moving stuff to the wagons, including foodstuffs and more, they move to follow the path up the pass. They are going to head up the pass and then cross over the Tower, about five days away.

They go nowhere and rest close by on the first night. The second day sees a nice breeze blow down and then an unusual sight looms up above.

A gigantic beaver dam has been built here. It has stopped up most of the stream that goes along the path and stretches hundreds of feet to close things off. This barrier of mud, logs and branches is twice the height of a man and blocks the pass completely.

With the wagons, they can’t poke a hole in it and let the water through. Gilded Ears nips up the wall and looks around – there is a large body of water there, and a huge beaver ducks down under the water. There is too much water in this makeshift lake to safely drain it and it is too long to ford. The lake is about 500 feet long. The beavers here basically carved it in the pass itself. There is a village on the far side of the lake with about a dozen buildings in all.


This dam and village has to have been here for a while, but they blocked a major pass in doing so. Alzar shouts across the lake and in a few minutes a few hunters swim out to meet him. They have a camp and have been here for a few years. 7 women, 10 men and 15 children live there and they swim and hunt the local area.

Alzar tells him that they need to head up the pass but there is no other way the hunters know to get wagons up there since the beavers built their dam about a decade ago. The hunters agree to take the free slaves into their camp and let them live here. Meanwhile, they will use canoes to ferry Alzar and Pashtun and some supplies to the far shore. But even horses are too big for their passage. To be fair, the water is not that deep. At the edge of the lake, there is a ridge tight on the shore right above the dam. Alzar gets his people to work building a ramp up the dam and after ten hours, the work is basically done. Alzar takes two horses and leaves behind the zombies in his personal wagons as a trap, and Gilded Ears comes with him.

They head over and make their riding proficiency rolls and the horses make it to the far path and are out of the lake region and heading up the pass further.

Two quiet days pass, but on the third, a cave bear emerges from a long nap and sees Alzar’s familiar as dinner. Alzar and Pashtun force it away and it retreats.

Alzar has indentified all of the magic items by now:

+1 Scimitar, handed to Pashtun
+1 Shield, handed to Pashtun
Wand of Metal and Mineral Detection – 43 charges
Ring of Quick Action
Potion of Diminution

When worn, the Ring will always allow the wearer to win init, even if the group rolls low and attacks last.

Alzar puts it on, and the miscibility roll is made. However, the first item he ever put on, the Bracers, don’t work with it on. He pulls off the Bracers and everything works fine. He pulls off the Ring, adds the Bracers back, and then puts on the Ring again and the same things happen. Then he adds the Boots of a Varied Tracks and they do not work, but everything else does, so it works.


They head off and two days later the pass has hit its peak and headed back down. Meanwhile a large river comes down the foothills and hits their pass. The combination of their stream and that river make a wide and deep area of the pass, and on it is an island. They have arrived at the Tower of the Heavens.

They make for a ferry to the island. Hadley a ferryman here greets them as they arrive. He is a monk and tells them that there had been a coup. An assistant to Shalfey named Piyarz has launched a coup, claimed Shalfey is dead and named himself Elder Sage. The mercenaries and monks are now following him. But in reality, Shalfey is not dead, he sent a message to Hadley to tell him that he was locked inside his apartments and defending himself and the Books of Destiny against Piyarz. He asks Alzar and Pashtun for aid in invading the Tower of the Heavens and ousting Piyarz.

He recommends pretending to be seeing knowledge from the sages, arriving at the barbican and waiting until entrance into the tower is granted, and then getting in that way. This should secure them entrance without fighting their way in, and making things a lot more difficult. Wealthy people arrive regularly to inquire for aid and to pay for it, and Alzar and company look eligible. Alzar and Pashtun drop their steeds in the stables here cared for by Hadley, and he ferries them to the island to on the east side, which has a barbican. The west island is the main Tower, and only a walkway on the second floor allows entrance to the Tower. There are no entrances on the ground level of the tower.


They arrive at the barbican and Hadley introduces them to the local gnome guards. Alzar says that he is here to request an audience with the Sages about planar transport back home to his own alternate prime material plane (when in doubt, use a lie that is the truth. He does want to return home, so there was no lie told, in case any magical detection is about).

They are welcomed into the barbican and taken to a hostel behind it four humans wait on them as the gnome mercenaries are all around. They are led to private room of the main room, and there is food served for them in a kitchen and dining area. They stay the night.

Five hours after dawn the following day, Alzar and Peshtun are summoned by the sages of the Tower of the Heavens, and six gnomes and two monks escort them upstairs to the barbican. (Alzar;s spell list for today swaps out Locate Object for Death Armor)This level has some of the barracks and defenses of this structure. The doors open and they walk across a walkway 40 feet above the river and just 7 feet wide, with a small set of rails about three feet high. Double doors open and a dozen mercenaries are arranged here in a row.

This fine room has no furniture. Its stone flagged floor and the handles of the brass paneled doors are very worn by a long period of use. After a few minutes, they are led forward past a set of double doors into a large room with curtains and tapestries along all of the walls. This sombre room is lit by the dancing flames of braziers. The curtains are red, and the ceiling blackened while the marble floor is worn by centuries of use.

The 12 guards arrange themselves along the walls. A sage enters the room and is flanked by two monks. He casts a spell on himself (Alzar makes his spellcraft check - it was Non-Detection). He then asks Alzar what their business is here. He explains that he was flung here from his home plane of Thorasia, and he would like to know the way back. The cost of this is 3000 gp. Alzar grabs the requisite money, counts it out, and places it into a satin bag provided by a monk. He places it on the ground and an unseen servant comes out and grabs it and takes it back.

The sage retreats behind the curtain in front of Alzar and will return with the answer. Alzar and Peshtun wait for about 30 minutes. There is no furniture in this chamber. Upon his return, the sage pulls out a scroll with fresh ink on it. I have your answer.

“The path to own’s home is through strength of will.”

Alzar looks at him. “That is not an answer.”

“Nevertheless, it is the answer that fate has in store for you. I cannot give any other.”

Alzar asks for his money back then, since that was not an answer to the question. He is refused. So Alzar presses. Could he pay more for a more specific answer? That gets the sage’s attention.

How about 1000 more gp for a more detailed answer. He agrees to try the Fates again and takes Alzar’s money. Meanwhile, Alzar starts to plan with Pashtun. As suspected, the sage returns with another obviously fake answer, but Alzar thanks him profusely and asks for the scroll. The sage reaches out to hand it to him when Alzar slams a white and black magic jelly bean onto the ground and out pop a Crystal Ooze and a Black Pudding.

The soldiers are surprised but no more than the two monks and the sage. They move to the threat and Pashtun drops to the ground and moves out of the way while Alzar moves diagonally out of the way. Several people track them while others move into engage the creatures. A Crystal Ooze is just annoying, but a black pudding will split when attacked with a non-magical slashing weapon. Just like Pashtun did with his nonmagical scimitar, although it was damaged in the fall.

Now there are two puddings and an ooze. Pashtun drops his weapon and rolls to a corner away from the gnomes who are now more focused than ever. Missile weapons fly out and Alzar uses his Ring of Chameleon Power to slip behind the curtain.

In here is a small pathway that ends at a locked door. A minute later, the remnants of the acid lock drops and he moves down some stairs. Meanwhile, more than 30 gnomes have moved into the large chamber, being barked orders by the leader and the Sage. The ooze creatures have really pushed out and Pashtun is guarded by four gnome guards with weapons out and ready to attack. He has surrendered.

Alzar arrives on the next level. No general alarm or anything has rung, which seriously surprises him.

A door opens at the base of the stairs and he is in a short hallway. He heads left and hits a dead end and a door. It pens into a small dorm with no one here. It’s probably monks that leave here from the lack of decorations or comfort. The other way leads into a large library. There are 10 robed figures that are working at tall desks or standing with arms folded. No sound comes from the room and as Alzar enters, no sound can be heard. Silence spell on the room. His Ring works and he blends into the background.


There are three doors on one side and one on the other. As Alzar moves to one side, even though he is making no noise and cannot be easily seen, one of the people here manages to notice him (he rolled poorly) and runs over and hits a big button on a center table and the silence spell drops. He shouts a warning to others. They turn on him.

Alzar wins initiative always and casts Sleep. 5 scribes fall asleep, one is up and five monks are unharmed and move in. Three monks close, two move to the fallen and the sage casts Light at Alzar’s eyes, but he makes the save.

Alzar casts Hold Person on the monks moving to the sleeping folks and paralyzes both of them plus the last sage is in the blast area and paralyzed too. Alzar is attacked several times and takes 8 damage from two hits.

28/51

Three monks to him. He casts Hypnotism and all three and two fail their save and the third moves to run. He gets hit with an attack of opportunity by Alzar and takes 6 damage from his staff and Alzar adds in three charges and kills him.

Used – 3 charges from Staff of Striking. Alzar moves out and slays all of those entranced by his spells.

XP – 800 – solo

Alzar casts Skeletal Hands and checks the three doors and they enter into small bedrooms, each a bright color and two match two sages in their rooms clothing and another matches the bright color of the one upstairs. He skips the rooms right now and moves to the other door. (He knows those rooms belong to those sages from the memories in his head.)

This is the scholar’s hall. The room before him is large and lavishly decorated and elegantly furnished. There are four dark robed figures and a raven waiting for Alzar to enter, behind some tables. Alzar identifies the center figure as Piyarz. The others are just monks. He calls out and asks for parlay. He has the meteorite and wants to trade for information. Piyarz refuses to even answer and casts a spell. Four magic missiles dart into Alzar for 15 damage.

13/51

That just made me mad . Alzar reads the Scroll of Protection from Magic and then moves into the room. The raven has gone invisible and Alzar can see it (low level illusions, including invisibility, don’t work on him.) It’s not a raven, but an imp. A sleep spell bounces off his protection The imp can’t touch him either, it’s a magical creature. Its tries its Suggestion spell and fails and a Magic Missile flies into him and fails. Meanwhile, Alzar spends those turns casting Continual Light at the eyes of a monk but it fails to blind him and casting the unusual Death Armor, memorized just for today.

The monks move up while the hands begin to attack the sage. They hit him for two damage while the sage tries to come up with a plan that will work The monks attack Alzar and one hits him for 3 damage and takes 6 back. The monks have to hit with their hands, and thus Alzar’s Death Armor works quite well against them.

Meanwhile, he rushes to the Sage’s side and grabs his staff and swings. He hits for 3 damage. Alzar wins init and misses. The hands hit for 4 damage. The Sage misses Alzar with his knife. The imp casts another spell and it fails. Alzar takes 4 and deals 8 to a monk.

6/51

The monks back off. Alzar smashes Piyarz for 6 damage and he moves to retreat. The hands miss. The imp, monks and sage move to the door on the far wall. Alzar grabs his Wand of Ice and uses a charge to put a Wall of Ice behind them. The Hands hit Piyzarz for 2 damage and his orders the monks to attack the hands.

Alzar spends the turn coating his staff in poison with his Scarab. The monks kill a hand and Piyarz grab a scroll and casts Mirror Image. The next turn, Alzar swings with his staff at a wounded monk and kills it when he fails the poison save. The monks kill the other hands.

Alzar spends the turn coating his staff again and the sage orders an attack on Alzar but the monks instead run around him and back toward the library and flee. The sage and the imp move on Alzar.

Alzar can see through the Mirror Image (level 1 illusion spell) and stabs with his staff, hits Piyarz who fails his save and dies violently to poison. The imp fades away, released to his own realm.

XP – 1000 solo

After battle, Alzar moves to the door on the right and opens it into Piyzarz’ room. Hovering above a large coffer in this black bedroom is a creature that Alzar recognizes quite a bit. It’s a spectator! He had one guarding his treasure room in his complex back on Thorasia.

He greets the Spectator warmly and is greeted back. He inquires to the creature’s health and it is quite happy guarding.

“What are you guarding in here?”

“Why, I am guarding the things in the coffer.”

“Just the items inside the coffer or the coffer itself?”

“Just the items.”

“So I could open the coffer lid, but not touch anything, and we’d be okay.”

“Of course!”

Alzar opens the coffer and inside are about a dozen books a bag, two caskets, and a mace.

The rest of the room has a bed, chair, desk, table, and more. A quick search ensues.


“What are the conditions of your guardianship?”

“I am to guard the items in this coffer for 101 years.”

“And who gave it to you?”

“Piyarz.”

“And if Piyarz dies, what then”

“My contract does not specify one way or the other.”

Alzar grabs the sage’s body and drags it in. After thinking for a few minutes, the Spectator sighs and portals back to his home plane of Mechanus.

Alzar will come back later for stuff.

The Wall of Ice is still blocking the other path, so he grabs piyarz’s body and heads back up the stairs to the room.

In here the sage is questioning Pashtun with gnomes as he tries to find out where Alzar went.

Alzar drops into the room with Piyarz’ body and drops it down. Piyarz is dead, and he lied to you gnomes. Shalfey was never dead, just trapped in his chambers. This sage lied to you too. Arrest him and get more information from the Elder Sage.

They don’t know what to do. The Sage orders them to kill Alzar for killing Piyarz, yet there is no clear chain of command that leads to the Sage. They move out to secret both Alzar and the sage and the two monks in the room and head out to check.

They find the many dead, but they also puncture the Wall of Ice and head into the chamber of Shalfey, who is freed by the gnomes. Alzar and Pashtun are released and healed as an apology. The elder sage banishes the last sage, and then allows Alzar to take the items of the slain ones he finished. He does and returns with the gold they took from him as well.

Meanwhile, Alzar produces the Falling Star for him. He tells what happened with both himself and the monks. Shalfey hears him, and tells him the remaining bit of the prophecy from the Books of Destiny. They are to get another set of books from creatures that want the Star.

After doing research, he believe he knows where to go. There is a group of xenophobic svirfneblin about 27 miles away in the foothills and up the river. They are nasty little buggers, but he believes that is where the other set of Books lie.

Alzar agrees to porter the Star to them in exchange for a powerful item of Shalfey’s choice.

They move out after resting for two days and Detecting Magic. Alzar acquired:

+1 yataghan
Folding Boat
Potion of Extra Healingx2, White Dragon Control,
Bracers of Defense: Ac 7
Ring of Warmth
Mage Scrolls – Summon Shadow, Erase, Dispel Magic
2650 gp
1050 pp
11 books on the nature of demi-humans – 250 gp
Book - Creation of the Shade
Pair of Diamond Earrings – 2000 gp
Platinum Belt – 1500 gp
Emerald Bead Necklace – 500 gp
Coral Carved Horse Statuette – 550 gp


Four spellbooks – Piyarz, Lurg, Porro and Cipolla – They have already have been dispelled by the sages and monks and Shalfey for Alzar


Piyarz – Detect Magic, Find Familiar, Light, Magic Missile, Read Magic, Sleep, Baltar’s Lightening, Magic Mouth, Locate Object, Tongues, Rary;s Mnemonic Enhancer

Lurg – Detect Illusion, Detect Magic, Emrikol’s Question, Identify, Phantasmal Force, Read Magic, Wizard Mark, Non-Detection, Illusionary Script

Porro – Change Self, Color Spray, Dancing Lights, Find Familiar, Detect Magic, Identify, Light, Read Magic, Wizard Mark, Hypnotic Pattern, Misdirection, Knock

Cipolla – Detect Magic, Read Magic, Sand Jambiya, Tensor’s Floating Disk, Wall of Fog, Invisibility, Ventriloquism


Baltar’s Lightening
Level 2, Alteration

Target – 1 container of not more than 200/coins per level
Duration – 1 hour/level
Components – VSM
Range - Touch
Casting Time - 2


This spell is cast upon a container that cannot weight more than 200 coins per level and may not hold more than that at any time during the spell, or the spell will immediately end. That container’s weight is halved for the duration of the spell. The material component is a feather, which is consumed in the process.

Emrikol’s Question is a 1st level charm spell that forces someone to answer one question asked immediately and briefly if they know the answer and if they fail the save, and if they understand the question.


This is a local spell that was made by people in Hamedh, and Alzar memorizes it. He also learns Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer, Emrikol’s Question, and Knock

During his few days here, Alzar levels up to level 5. His new spells will be Dispel Magic and Lesser Rhabdomancy for now. He would normally lose his class abilities being so far away from the workshop and library, but the Tower works and is close enough. They even send out two people o check on his things at the base of that dam.

Alzar swaps the Bracers of Defense for the Protection ones and gives them to Pashtun. These Bracers work with the new ensemble without any further issues, although his Boots still won’t work, but they keep everything else working, so they are worn.

Alzar’s new AC with the Bracers is 7. He chooses not to add the Ring of Protection +1 to keep things real.


They head out to find the Svirfnebli enclosure nearby in the early morning. These deep gnomes are very mean and cruel, but they don’t bother anyone out here, and no one has bothered them either.

The day passes by quietly and they head up the river and arrive at a side passage. They travel down it for an hour and close to their destination. They are moving up a valley and nearing the end of it.

As they do, a warbling war cry echoes across the valley and a squad of 20 hairy, small naked humanoids bursts from behind a mountain spur and charge down. They are gibberlings. Alzar decides to deal with them as a fighter and spends a turn putting on armor. He wants to save his magic for later. Pashtun dismounts and moves to the front while Gilded Ears moves back away from the gibberlings.

They collide and Alzar will miss this turn finishing up changing. Then the carving begins. Both Alzar and Pashtun deal minimum damage (4 for Pashtun, 5 for Alzar) above that of the hp each gibberling has (4 hp) so every hit kills one. These are maddened and they will fight to a swift death. With specialization, they both attack 3/2 times. They are naked with AC of 10. Alzar needs a 2 to hit one and Pashtun needs a 7. The gibberlings need a 19 to crack Pashtun’s armor and a 17 to do so to Alzar’s. They do 1d4 with clubs.

I’ll fast sim this with random.org

41/51 Alzar
20/23 Pashtun

Dead gibberlings

Pashtun gets 100 XP


Alzar remains in combat ready clothes and armor and they move into the valley and see a small village in front. As they do, another score of gibberlings leading a duo of large subterranean lizards moves out to meet them. Again, they are maddened and charge. Another random.org battle occurs


33/51 Alzar
11/23 Pashtun

Pashtun gets 225 XP

They move past the quiet village and there are pens with a group of six more lizards tied down and they leave them there. A small bridge crosses the creek and they arrive at the other side, in front of an entrance to a cave. They move into the cave and quickly draw out continual light rocks. The halls of these people are very grand and highly functional, rather than ornate. The corridor is at least 15 feet tall, and it corves and winds up at a door made of iron.

The door is unlocked, and swings open. It reveals an empty hall with two doors past it. The walls, ceiling and floor have a metallic sheen to the, and is highly polished. In the centre of the room is an oval, metallic dome, about five feet across.

Alzar moves in first and as he does, the dome lifts and moves. It is a machine or construct of some kind. It rotates and out blasts a jet of steam and some darts fly out. Alzar takes 7 damage and orders in Pashtun behind him. His axe rings out against the armor and does not penetrate. Pashtun’s also.

26/51

Alzar wins init due to his ring and hacks twice. Once he cracks it for 9 damage. Pashtun;s double swing cant keep it down. The enemy spins and launches a steam blast and darts. It hits Alzar for 4 damage and Pashtun for 4 as well.

22/51
7/23

Alzar carves it for 6 damage and he orders Pashtun to retreat and he does. The machine misses Alzar. Alzar hits once for 8 damage and misses. He takes 5 damage from some darts.

17/51

He misses, and Pashtun fires at it with his bow. The machine hits for 6 damage with a blast of steam but misses with darts

11/51

Alzar misses, the machine missies, and Pashtun hits for 2 damage.

Alzar hits for 8 damage and the machine is destroyed.


Pashtun gains 500 XP

That was a nasty little construct. A quick search turns up nothing too unusual.

One door opens into a set of stores with food, fuel, and raw materials (like coal, oil, iron ingots, wheat, wine, etc).

The other door is locked and it takes two vials of acid to eat through it. The corridor past soon opens into ahuge inner hall. The hall is grand but plain, with air filled by vapour from a stream that crossed is. Barring a bridge over the creek are a group of five machines like the ones Alzar and Pashtun just fought, but bigger. Four are eight feet and the middle one is twelve feet. Nasty. They puff steam and remain where they are.

In a few moments, several kagu-svirfnebli arrive and more arrive after shouting follows. One knows Arjuni and shouts to Alzar “Peace! Do you come for trade for war?”

Alzar says trade, and then several of the small grey humanoids move up. Alzar says that he has a fallen star for them and they nod their heads. The time is come.

A long time ago, a magical shield was built here, and a plate to the side said that whatever was inside the shield was to be traded for a magical star which would be turned into the most beautiful gem the world has ever known. Alzar holds the star up to them.

They escort him and Pashtun to the shield. They head forward and into a gigantic workshop, which had some of the constructs being worked on. Alzar’s queries about them is waved away. They leave it and land in a long corridor and turn right, and open an metal door.

Here is a small circular chamber, with a pulsating magic shield of an unknown sort. Alzar steps forward with the stone, and the shield drops. It leaves behind 20 books, bound by leather. Each weighs 10 pounds. Pashtun and Alzar gather the books and secure them. Then Alzar hands the svirfneblin their shooting star. They then escort Alzar and Pashtun back to the inner hall where the stream and the set of five machines were, but they were pulled out. In a few minutes the people have left and the doors lock closed by two bars. Their complex is now shut out from Alzar. A few minutes later, while securing the books, a large explosion shakes the area, and steam seeps from the door for a bit and then ends. Nothing else happens. Alzar moves to the door and looks at the bar on the other side. He wants through. He tries the door and it won’t budge. He tries moving it with a magical spear or something, but it is too heavy. The door won’t open.

So Alzar quaffs a potion of Fire Giant Strength. In less than 10 seconds, that door is broken in half. He heads back and moves toward the workshop. It looks like they set things to blow up behind Alzar and retreated. As Alzar opens the door to the workshop, a gust of hot, humid air blasts him with a deafening sound following. There are destroyed machine parts and some working in odd order. Several move toward him and he backs off and shuts the door.

He moves to the other doors. The first one opens into pens with more subterranean lizards, and they are tied up. The other opens into the dormitory of the creatures. It is quite large but rather stark with 17 alcoves with a small iron framed bed in each. Near the end is a locked door which Alzar obliterates with his fist and opens, revealing a small closet. In addition to random clothes, there are six boxes labeled in an own unknown language. Alzar grabs the boxes and moves out.

They arrive back in the main room and then from there to the entry room. Alzar secures the six boxes, all locked, to investigate later. As they move to level the complex, something flies overhead. Holy crap!

There are a pair of red dragons circling the valley.

Hmm, the old Alzar might have had some very different approaches to a pair of red dragons than the current iteration.

Or maybe not.... ;)

There is a thin loud freezing cry as one talks to the other. Their heads move from side to side, scanning the valley for something. They are younger, but a mated pair, which is unusual for reds, assuming they have the same habits on Hamedh as they would on Thorasia.

Alzar’s strength potion should last another hour or so. His staff has fire resistant properties for defending against the fire breath, and he has two extra healing potions to bring his hp to a fighting chance. Can he take on two younger dragons? Pashtun would be roasted alive, so Alzar would need to solo them. He does a quick check of his inventory. Nothing jumps out at him.

He leaves behind anything that he wont need – vials of acid, magic jelly beans, and everything else. He quaffs both potions and rises to full health. He heads back to the Bracers and the Ioun Stone which will give him an AC of 6.

He keeps his rings on and moves out. He has a trick in case things don;t work. He can mentally turn into a statue and wait for days until they get bored and then transfer right back.

Let’s see!

With his staff, fighting as a mage, Alzar needs a 14 to hit these and will deal 1d6+10 from his strength. They have just 30 hp. They breathe fire, and have three attacks.

Alzar moves out and they seen him despite his Ring of Chameleon Powers and they swoop down. One breathes fire on him and he takes 5 damage while the other lands. Then she breathes as he runs up to her and the male lands.

41/51

Alzar’s staff is out and he swings and…misses. She breathes and the male hits him for 4 damage with a claw.

32/51

Alzar swings and this and puts three charges into it and hits the dragon for 20 damage. He jumps back in surprise and leaps off the ground breathes for 5 more damage while she attacks and bites for 6.

21/51

Alzar swings and…..misses. She breathes and he misses.

16/51

Alzar hits and smashes the female for 15 damage. She flies up as well and the two soar up and away and disappear.

Alzar casts Lesser Rhadomancy and uses his diving rod to follow them

Ten minutes later he finds their cave, a hidden cavern with no other entrance, about twenty feet wide, and cannot be seen from below. He moves in.

The two dragons see him and charge in. The last breath hits him for 5 damage. His staff is out and he wins init.

11/51

He swings and…cracks the female for 13 damage. Not enough to drop her. She roars and flies past Alzar,batting him to the ground as she does. The male flies over him and they are out of their cave.

Leaving behind their treasure.

Alzar waits a few minutes to see if they return and then moves over. He skips the coins, which are too heavy to take back, and casts Detect magic on the pile.

He takes back:

+1 heavy crossbow
+1 club
Helmet of Underwater Action
28100 gp in assorted jewelry


The Helmet allows him to see 5 times further underwater, and creates a globe of air, allowing wearer to breathe underwater.

Almost got them!

Tell

True true!

They manage to make it home without being hit by any dragons along the way, and in the morning, they arrive back at the Tower of the Heavens, swapping the Elder Sage the new set of Books of Destiny, which did not detect as magical, by the way, for an item chosen by him as needed for them.
Pashtun gained +2 chainmail armor and Alzar was given

Pearl of Power, 2nd level

This allows him to regain and cast again any 2nd level spell once per day.

Alzar opens the boxes safely in here and inside were:

Destroyed and burned out Ioun stone
Potion of Heroism
Potion of Poison
Cleric Scroll – Prayer
Wizard Scroll – Strength, Fire Shield
Keoghtom's Ointment – 3 applications left



The Ointment will pull out poisons and diseases and such from a person upon application.




Alzar spends a few days here gathering, identifying and packing before heading back out.



Pashtun is now AC 0


End of UK4. When a Star Falls

That was a fun adventure! Alright, let’s pack it up and move on back home.

Twelve days later, Alzar celebrates his 2nd year anniversary on Hamedh. While he is getting stronger here, he can also feel his life on Thorasia getting further and further away.

He celebrates his new level by learning Riding, Specialization as taught by Pashtun. He has been learning for a month or so, and now officially has the proficiency.

A few days later they arrive in Arjuna with their things intact. The hunters did a good job of guarding his things. They were very happy with his destruction of the Derro outpost and the end of raids there, plus his releasing the escaped slaves there as well, who quickly became important members of the community. They really made sure his stuff was okay.


Alzar arranges with the local priest to Resurrect Yaghoub and heads to Watershead for a few days until the priest can arrive to perform the spell. Alzar paid him 5000 gp in Arjuna and now waits…

A day later, a very exhausted Yaghoub greets him and they spend a week trading stories about the badlands and desert there and the old kingdom of Neconolis. Sure, Alzar raided his stuff, but he also ressed the guy and paid for it. My books and old stuff is worth my life! He has his more valuable stuff elsewhere.

He trades the man back his staff for a chance to look at his spellbook and copy one spell that he likes. Alzar sees and takes one of his favorite spells. Vampiric Touch. He will begin memorizing it instead of Lesser Rhabomancy.

After 40 days have passed, Alzar has cast Dispel Magic on the book from Neconolis 40 times, which means he has likely destroyed any wards it has. He cracks it and begins to study the book. He learns:

Animate Dead
Summon Shadow
Protection from Good
Wizard Lock
Ghoul Touch
Bewilder

Bewilder – Charm spell. 3rd level spell. For one round per level, the target (failed save) cannot cast spells, and loses their action for one round (fighting, spell casting – spell is gone). They have to roll INT check to take any action at all. Affects 1 creature per level of caster in 20’ radius.


Now he is beginning to feel a little more comfortable.

Nice spellbook, that one!

It's been a while since he got a good number of spells, so he was due I think

Alzar on Hamedh
7th level Fighter (Myrmidon), 5th level Path Mage (Fivefold Mage)

Lawful Evil
Human

Str: 17
Dex: 12
Con: 10
Wis: 15
Int: 21
Cha: 17

Hit Points: 51
THACO: 14 as Fighter, 19 as Mage
AC: 10
Total XP: 22100
Age 56, Body - 22

Race Abilities:

None Taken

Class Abilities (Cannot use as Fivefold Mage without losing XP gain):

Specialization
Leadership (Alzar can command the tactics, strategy, logistics and more that a large force requires)
3 attacks every 2 rounds


Non-Weapon Proficiencies:

Myrmidon Bonus:

Tactical History 14
Fire-Building 16

Riding 11
Swimming 12
Reading/Writing 15
Survival 14
Blind Fighting
Etiquette 13
Endurance
Heraldry 14
Hunting 10
Fishing 14
Weather Knowledge 10
Orienteering 15

As a Necromancer/Fivefold Mage

Necrology 17
Netherworld Knowledge 14
Herbalism 14
Alchemy 15
Poison Use 11
Ancient Languages 10
Spellcraft 12
Ancient History – 14
Bookbinding – 16
Papermaking - 16
Sage Knowledge: Outer Planes, Inner Planes – 13
Divining: 15
Genie Lore: 16
Riding, Specialization: 10

Languages – Thorasian - Typic, Sis’sharr, UnderTypic, Kuo-Toa; Hamedhi - Arjuni


Traits:

Empathy
Fast Healer
Precise Memory
Obscure Knowledge


Weapon Proficiencies:

Bonus Kit Specialization:

Battle Axe

Battle Axe
One Handed Weapon Style x2 (-2 AC when using one weapon in combat)
Crossbow
Battle Axe Weapon Mastery
Spear
Dagger

Total with normal battle axe - +3 to hit, +3 to damage, -2 to AC. An additional +1 with the axe and +1 damage for strength


Staff – Can only use this as a Necromancer, +1


Class Ability:

1). Alzar can control undead as an evil Priest of the same level, and this ability extends to extra planar beings which are considered undead with the same hit dice for this purpose.
2). One Extra Spell/Level is Gained, must be Path.
3). Fivefold Mages reduce the spell level by one when researching spells in The Path.
4). Chance to Learn spell in The Path increased by +15%
5). Saving Throw of Targets when targeted by spells from The Path at -1.
6). No more than one spell per level can be from the group: Abjuration, Alteration, Alchemy and Geometry barring a highly unusual and temporary circumstance.
7). Fivefold Mage must invest a focus item as the method through which magic is cast. (Alzar’s Father’s Ring)
8). Must have a lab and library and workbench with 1,000 gp value per level, and an upkeep of 50 gp/level/month
9). They can store spells like an Artificer, but cannot begin to do so until level 6
10). Fivefold Mages have a chance to identify a magical item by spending a turn peering at it closely and examining it - chance is their level times 5.
11). Fivefold Mages never suffer from a negative reaction penalty due to controlling or animating undead.


Immune to starvation

Pashtun decides to spend a few days out in the badlands with his former people and Alzar returns to regather some things and organize himself in the city of Arjuna. Two days have passed since he returned.



MV1. Midnight on Dagger Alley



One of the final solo adventures that TSR made, this 1984 module uses a Magic Viewer, or a piece of red plastic, to read the texts. I prefer it to the invisible pen because it doesn’t mark up the stuff, and it remains hidden information after you’ve played it through once or twice.

This is really cool. It has a really big map of a district of the city you are in. You have this huge, double-sized map pull-out maps disguised in red, for the rooftop, dungeon, street and upper levels of a section of the city, laid out on a grid. (If you use something, like a monster attacking, roll for a potential wandering monster to face – 1 in 6 chance of facing one.). You just have 8 pages of the book however (and the first three are the cover and rules), and the general reviews of the module have been – great ideas, but way too short for your money.

There are also three different quests you can do. I’ll do one, and perhaps I’ll add one or the other to the list. So three quests for fun. That’s not bad replayability!

On his third day back, Alzar encounters an interesting puzzle in one of his books. It is a poem, and it discusses collecting a set of magical ingredients all after sundown and before dawn the next day. It will enhance their value considerably.

The poem reads:

From the bottom of a grave, a handful of earth
From the hand of a knave, a tankard of mirth
Sweat of a mare, feather and mud
Tooth of a bear, leather and blood
Pieces of gold, copper and electrum
Riches of oil, silver and platinum
Bring a rat’s tail with ring for finger bone
Wing of bat, sail, and sparkling gemstone
Find leaf, bark and root of same tree
Reward the favor and see what will be

Alzar decides to head out tonight and gather the materials as the night falls.

Here in Arjuna it is foggy as the evening rolls in and the sun has fully set. He is in the same district that is run by Bakri.

Alzar crawls out onto the roof of a local inn to get a glimpse of the city and his area of town.

He begins at U5, on the rooftop map. The ground is 20 feet beneath him. He moves north and after a few moments, there is a ledge down. Alzar finishes exploring the roof and in the corner is a scroll tied to a branch with some sort of code written on it. He decides to secure it and heads down.

He moves south a bit and heads to the roof of a nearby building. On here are a trio of giant bats that flap to Alzar. His staff smashes one and the other two fly off and leave him with a dead bat on the roof. He grabs the wing of a dead bat. Back down to the road he goes, and he heads north, and then continues at a crossroad.

As Alzar crawls up the next entry a piece of roofing breaks and he falls! He drops to the Upper Level, at Q8.

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Alzar falls into a small room underneath the roof, and there is a door to the rear. This room is the living area of a shoemaker who runs a shop downstairs. Thinking Alzar is a thief, he moves to attack! Alzar grabs his staff as the merchant grabs his club, and Alzar cracks him easily for 2 damage. Then everybody misses each other for a while before the merchant is slain by Alzar.

A search of the room ends in disaster as Alzar falls into a pit trap for 3 damage! He crawls out easily but leaves the room behind.

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Outside of the room is the upper level of houses and such, but other buildings open into this level as well. Alzar moves to the so8uthern building in front of him he was on top of earlier and opens the door. Inside is another merchant, and this one beckons him to sit down. She looks badly wounded. She saw some men of Bakri’s abduct the daughter of a local noble, and was beaten for it. She saw them head here somewhere with the daughter, but who knows where they could be now.

Alzar adds it to his list of things to look for, just in case he runs into them. The next door opens into a small room with a door on the other side, and a sleeping fighter. He chooses not to pick its pockets or fight and opens the door and moves into the building. Back here is a large steel chest and dimly lit with candles smoking. He opens the chest and its hit by a trap for 4 damage from a dart. Inside is…

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Magical Shoes he cannot identify but clearly magical.

He takes the shoes. There are two more door here and he opens up one to a Sleeping elf, whom Alzar also skips. The other opens to a sleeping merchant and another door. That door opens to an irate wondering monster, which is…

An elf

He rises and moves to attack Alzar for disturbing him. Alzar retreats and flees from this building. He moves north and finds two more buildings with sleeping people and a third empty. The last building in the west section of the upper level opens to a broken ceiling, and in here are a group of 5 Stirges. They fly in to attack.

Alzar slays one and takes 3 damage from one. He hits another and badly wounds it and it flies away, and the others follow. Alzar takes 2 from the one attached, and then kills it too. Back in here is a small wooden chest. It is locked so Alzar uses acid on it and it dissolves. It also dissolved ad broke a trap mechanism as well. In here are

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10 pp
10 gp
10 cp
10 ep
10 sp
10 bp
Gem – 250 gp

He moves east to inspect the buildings out there. As he does, a group of rats peel at him, and he slices one with a knife. Then he takes five damage after missing with his staff and hits one the next turn for death. He takes another 2 before killing two more and pushing them away. Then he cuts off the tails of the dead rats and moves on.


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The first building on the east side is reached and opens into nothing. The next has a ceiling fall trap that hit Alzar for 5 damage. He also runs into some sleeping folks.

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The fifth building however, is locked. He uses a vial of acid and breaks in. In this small 15 by 10 room, tied to a chair and bound, is a young woman, about 20 years of age. Alzar unties her and says he is here to help. She agrees to come with him and she is the daughter of a local noble of some reputation but little money.


He has her stand back when he opens the fifth and final door up here. Another trap triggers and a spear juts into him for 3 damage. Nothing in here.

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He chooses to drop down to the ground level at U25, just ten feet from the ground. His released prisoner follows. She tells him that her father and guards would likely be at the gate to the inner distract, where many wealthy and the noble live. She knows this area and tells him how to get to that gate. Alzar begins to move along the streets. They pass by several doors and shops before they run right into a poisonous snake that has crawled out of a nearby grate. The woman is back as Alzar engages the creature.

Alzar smashes and misses. The snake does too. Alzar misses again, it hits for 2, Alzar makes the poison save. Then he crushes sit for 7 damage and slays it. Dead snake.

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They continue on the street. Then they hit the wall at the back and turn west and follow a rear alley there. They pass a fish market, now closed for the night. They also pass by a closed smithy, and a stables. As they continue and close to the gate, from the room of a nearby hovel leaps a giant rat. It bites Alzar on the way down for 5 damage. Alzar casts Vampiric Touch on it and gains 18 life while it dies.

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A few moments later they arrive at the gate, and as expected, there are a large retinue of guards here from her father’s house. Her father is notified and arrives in fifteen minutes and shakes Alzar’s hands. He was an opponent of Bakri’s for years, and now that the scandal that accompanied Alzar revealing some of the dirty laundry of Bakri has passed, he is moving again, and capturing her was a first step. He hands Alzar a letter as a thank you and heads off.

Alzar opens the letter and inside is a deed for a property in Arjuna that was recently assessed at 950 gp.

He heads back onto the street level. So far, he has been really unsuccessful. He hopes to penetrate and find the right stuff.

Alzar decides to head down a nearby grate to D2 on the dungeon level. Perhaps there will be easily found items down here. As a soon as he arrives, a huge spider moves out from around a bend to the west and moves in to attack him. He backs away and decides to face this as a warrior. His axe is out and he hacks it easily enough. He doles out 12 damage with his maximum power hit, and it dies in one smash.

Rar!

He moves out to the dungeon and glances around. He heads west and sees a large grate that has been built into the tunnel to keep out anything, or anyone, nasty from this area getting the wealthier district to the north. Makes sense.

He takes the leftmost tunnel south and follows it for some ways, and arrives at some more bars at the far end, again blocking things. He backs up and notices a door he misses. It’s concealed by rock to the east. Alzar pushes the old door open and inside a family of wild boar nest, and the parents move to the opening and move towards him. He slams the door on them (the room looked small) and heads back.

The eastward moving tunnel soon hits a door on the left and right, while continuing. He opens the door and in here is the remains of an old tree. It was killed some time ago. He is able to get an old leaf, bark and roots from it here in this room.

The other door opens onto a large corridor that heads south. He slides down and moves, the corridor widens. Some fungus call this home, and as he nears them, a shrieking noise can be hear – shriekers. He moves over and slays them and waits to see if any heard the noise.

A small cave bear moves toward the fungus from up ahead. Alzar pauses and waits, using his Ring of Chameleon Power to hide. It arrives, and then he leaps out to kill it, with axe leading. It roars and engages Alzar, who misses it. A paw hits him for 3 damage but it otherwise misses. Alzar attacks twice and smashes it once for 6 damage and once for 5. It attacks him and hits twice for 4 damage. Then he finishes it with a cut to its head. Afterwards, he skins it, gets its blood and teeth, and moves on.



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There is a small door to the west that he opens. In here is a silver chest in the far wall. Alzar casts Skeletal Hands to help him.. They head over to the chest and open it and take a trap. They gather the contents and bring them to Alzar (and he misses a pit trap un the room by doing so). Inside is….


Potions of Invisibility and an unknown one (Infravision)

He heads back to the room and other creatures has heard the commotion and is there – several large centipedes, about two feet big each. They back off as Alzar approaches and bends south to follow the continuing corridor. It ends at a door, and Alzar opens it onto a rear corridor that stretches east to west. It heads west and he hits a door to the right and opens it into a small empty chamber. He returns and as he moves east, he runs into a wererat in the sewer, who is in his half-rat/half human form. He sees Alzar and squints and grins, shaking his weapons off as he does.

Alzar casts Charm Person and he made the save so the spell fails. The Wererat swings at him and misses. Then Alzar casts Hold Person and he fails the save and is paralyze.d. Alzar slices his neck and slays him. On the body was

74 gp
Oil Flask

Alzar opens another door moving back north a few feet later and this is an old treasure storage vault. A pair of thieves are guarding it. They heard his battle with the wererat and were gathering up the things in here. There is a door on the far side. A quick Sleep spell drops them both and he slays them

In here is:

250 gp
25 pp
1 gem – 125 gp

Alzar moves to the far door and opens it with has Skeletal hands. There is a small corridor her that goes east He follows it and it ends at a long north south corridor. Heading back south, he winds up in the same corridor as before . Two doors off this area reveals that this part of the dungeon are old crypts or mausoleums . He pulls out dirt from both. He also grabs mud in the walls on the way back north. This area is wet and damp. He passes a third door but the Hands spell has juuust disappeared. A Vial of acid destroys the lock and he opens it.

As he walks in, a ceiling deadfall trap hits him for 7 damage. As he extricates himself, a small group of rats move out. He pulls himself out and back into the corridor and they don’t follow him.

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He heads north and then hits a door and the passages bends back west. The door opens into a large chamber, the back of which has another chest. He opens it, takes a pincer trap for 2 damage, and finds..


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An unknown cloak by itself. It is even magical? He takes it.

He returns to the corridor and heads west and arrives back at the place he started. He crawls back to the streets and moves to the stables he saw earlier. He heads it and scrapes the sweat off one of the mares and stores it in a small vial in his backpack full of various and sundry items.


This time he heads south. He passes a tailor shop on the right and knocks. After a few minutes, a sleepy lady opens the door. He asks if she has any sails and offers to pay double their price. No, but I could make some in an hour. Alzar pays her five times their normal price to make them and will return later.

Alzar passes a small earth Gen moving north clearly on route to some determined destination and not looking to talk to him as all. Then he arrives at a local inn, the Gooseneck Inn. He opens the door and heads in.


It’s quite late and most of the patrons have left. Only four or five are still here. Alzar moves to an old drunken lady in the corner and asks for her to give him her tankard. She sleepily looks at him and hands it to him and it drops a GP on the deck to pay for it.

There is a mascot here, the head and body of a stuffed goose. Alzar orders some food, and as he waits for it, (with the staff gone), he swipes a feather from the body.

He grabs the food and heads out, eating it on the way. All he needs is a ring and return to pick up the sail.

As he leaves, he encounters a light horse that broke free of its stable and is now afraid. He moves at Alzar panicky, and Alzar makes a Riding check to control it and it works. He lets him go gently and ties him to a local post, and then moves on south. He arrives at a large path east and takes it. Again, he passes closed stores and quiet houses. A pair of townsguardmen pass on the left on patrol.

A tattoo place on the left passes by. Alzar sees a glint in the light and bends down. There, in the street, is a shiny silver ring. He adds it to his backpack and returns to grab the sail. After he does, he steals over to the nearby Goosedown and grabs a late room for the night and heads out in the morning.

Alzar gains 500 XP for his adventure, quest, and 250 XP for kills and such.

He gained:

Potions of Levitation and Infravision
Cloak of Poisonousness (Cursed)
Sandals of Speed – Make Alzar go 1.5x as fast when walking or running – no other benefit
35 pp
400 total in gp
Deed worth 950 gp



End of MV1. Dagger on Midnight Alley

It’s hard to find the next module to run. Alzar tends to be too powerful for modules for levels 1-3 but too weak for ones 4-6. Modules are usually designed for a group of characters in that level range. He blew through something like B1, so its hard to find something.

There are a few modules in the 1-4 range, like L1, Secret of Bone Hill, U2 and U3 (which don’t fit the plane at all, and are sequels to U1 which I ran to jumpstart the Isle of Dread mega-campaign earlier), B10-12 and N3. Destiny of Kings. Maybe I could run the boring Silver Key, just because.

What I need is for Alzar to gain strength without mass leveling. Before, around this time we had a mephit familiar and a homunculus. We also had undead animal skeletons among other controlled undead or other-planar stuff. Then add in Aleigha, Estaish, and we had some muscle. Soon we would add Carum as the Isle campaign was underway, as well as Maerie, more controlled creatures, and a more powerful spell selection.

Most of the next level adventures are in the 5+ range, and typically are from two series of modules – the I line and the X line. We only did four X modules before, X1 – Isle of Dread, X2 Castle Amber, Fire on Something Mountain and the War Rafts of Kron. I also did one of the Is in the underdeep campaign, Tomb of the Lizard King. They are meant for people in the later single digits, so you see numbers like 5-8 or 6-9 on the cover (and sometimes even 8-10). The lowest level X or I is Quagmire, which is rated 4-10, and that’s a pretty wide spread. I have a mega adventure with X4. X5 and I3, 4, and 5 together in one giant arc out in the desert. But for now, I need an adventure.

I honestly held off on L1, because I thought it might empower Alzar overly much, but that’s what we need. There are not a lot of henchmen characters running around that seem like good additions to the party like Derek Densleigh, Aleigha, or Estaish appeared. I had to create Pashtun all on my own to give him something.


So, with that, let’s move to…

L1. The Secret of Bone Hill



This 1981 adventure is the direct prequel to L2, which we ran earlier. It takes place on an island, and L3, written in 1979 was published late in the 90s as part of a special anniversary collection for D&D. A fourth one was also released by the author, to add another entry to this series, set on an island in the land of Oerth. (Greyhawk).

It’s a nice module, and looks the part of an early module, with a lot of setting (such as maps of towns and shops and such) and details, (and virtually every NPC has a class and level) but a weaker plot that allows the GM to flesh it out. It resembles modules such as T1 The Village of Hommlet and N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God. This one will require a bit more work to make it work with the location of Arjuna and Hamedh, but it’s quite doable.

Alzar hears about some issues that a farflung town has been having with undead raids from local ruins. They seem to be pretty organized. He decides to investigate. However, it’s a bit further away than the towns nearby Arjuna that are well protected. He’ll have to cross into some dangerous territory.

So Alzar gathers up a few things. He unloads horses and oxen for the trip and grabs six wagons. These include his library, his laboratory/workshop, and his home wagon, plus an extra wagon with extra items he owns, and two more for supplies and the others. He also hires nine people to manage the wagon train, because he’ll need more.

He has researched the three “zombies” he controlled and they are really Coffer Corpses. They are undead that were created when the body did not get a proper burial. They have three interesting abilities – a death grip, an illusionary death, and some basic immunities and resistances to different types of weapons (some non-magical weapons do full damage, some half, and some none.) These are not just three cannon fodder zombies, but really interesting creatures he controls. He has them inside of his wagon to guard it.

So Alzar, Pashtun, Gilded Ears, and the eight hirelings move out after three days of preparations. He purchased a large amount of food and water, just in case. He also has extra steeds, tools, ropes, and more. He spent 175 gp getting everything up and running. Everything he owns is coming with him.

They are heading to a town more than two weeks away and could run into any number of things along the route. However, it is along a major road. Before he leaves, Alzar gets a message from Marilla. One of her acolytes is being sent to a temple near the town he is heading to, and he agrees to take him along as an escort. The acolyte is Samir, a level 2 priest.

Their destination is the quiet village of Phraya, roughly 16 days away. It’s a small hamlet, with a small amount of services, like smith, armorer, weapon-maker, millers, and while it has a few places, like a market and such, it does not have an inn at all. The last one burnt about a year ago, and no others were built yet. There are a pair of taverns, but they have no place to stay. The town also features a tower held by a pair of local mages, a small keep with descendants of the old Emir that has lived there, but their power diminished quite some time ago.

Because the place is missing an inn, Alzar made sure to stock things like bedrolls, blankets, tarps, and other camping necessities.


(As an FYI, at level 5, Alzar’s control chart for undead looks like this: Can automatically control skeletons, zombies. 4 or better for ghoul, 7 for shadow, 10 for wight, 13 for ghast, 16 for wraith, 19 for mummy, 20 for spectre. You roll a 1d20 to resolve, so some are a lot harder to control than others. Unlike evil priests, Alzar may not attempt to turn a paladin).

The caravan gets underway. Alzar talks with Samir for the first two days to get a chance to know him. He just recently got enough knowledge and skills to head out, and he will be joining an interfaith temple that is near Phraya, about a half day’s ride away at the center of a small set of forest called Ash Woods.

After four days have passed with relative quiet, the caravan moves past the last village that is near Arjuna and sort of protected by her shadow. Now they are heading south along a major road. The group passes a lot of travelers, such as merchants and more. Late on day five, they catch up to a group of travelling troubadours and on the 5th evening they spend the night together. Both are going in the same direction for the next two days, so for safety, they travel together.

On day 6, the large group of combined caravans hits its first snag. As the rain begins to hit in early fall, it has muddied the area. One of Alzar’s horses breaks its leg. As Samir comes over to heal it, the massive pain cries of the horse attract the attention of some local predators.


A gentle noise can be made out from beyond a copse of trees. But in a few seconds, a trio of displacer beasts arrive and move towards the horse. Alzar shouts at Samir to grab the saddlebags from the horse and he does. The beasts will arrive in about thirty seconds. Samir grabs the things on the horse and its cries get louder and louder.

Alzar orders everyone to back away from the horse and let it be the meal. They do, and the beasts tear into it and eat it while the caravans move on.

On the morning of day 8, the troubadours take a separate road and Alzar’s caravan continues to the south. The mountains are still in the distance, but slowly shrinking in size as they parallel them. They’ll grow again soon enough.

Later that day, a local water hole is spotted and they head over. As they do, a group of 8 men leap out from small brush and rocks to ambush the caravan and take its things, but a Sleep spell that drops 4 of them scares the others and they run off, but not before another is paralyzed by a Hold Person. The bodies had no gold, and Alzar gave the items to others in the caravan. They resupply their water reserves here extensively, and spend the night by the water hole.

As day 9 is underway, a cloud of dust can be seen off the horizon. Within thirty minutes the cloud has really picked up in size and scope and is heading their way. Everyone stops and gets inside wagons and secures steeds and items on top of the wagons and then heads in. For hours, windstorms beat down the area, blowing in sand and dust from the nearby desert about 100 miles away, but close enough to be used in this storm. The entire day is wasted just holing up, and then getting out and verifying everything is here. A few small items went missing, but nothing too valuable.

The next day passes fine, but on night 10, as the late watch is on a few hours after midnight, a quartet of Nasnas notice the encampment and move in. These are creatures that look like half a person – half a face, torso, with just one leg and arm, plus a wing to help them move. (Another entry from the Al-Qadim Monstrous Compendium – check out the real mythic creature - Nasnas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

They are mentioned in the bestiary Alzar was reading. They are created by an obscure process that requires the brewing of a potion with the priest or mage’s blood as a major component. Then it is added to fruit, and the fruit is cut in half, and one half is fed to a women, who then becomes pregnant with a Nasnas. Two halves of a fruit can make two Nasnas. They mature quickly and are a bit insane, but very obedient. There are also some free Nasnas, which must include these. They cannot talk, but they make odd gargling cries.

The group swings down to attack and push, and an alarm is shouted. Alzar emerges from a few minutes later and notices them. By the time he is able to respond, one of his men has been stabbed by a nasty curved and serrated blade in the hand of a Nasnas, and Samir is moving over now to heal him. Alzar orders his people to move to iron or steel weapons only. Just iron or magical weapons will harm them.

He tries Sleep, but it fails. He wasn’t sure if it would work or not. Two recognize him as a magic user and cry out to the others, and they all move towards him, swooping down to attack and land at him. He is hit once for 7 damage. That was a strong hit, they are quite powerful creatures.

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He grabs his proficient staff and swings and hits for 4 damage. He is hit twice for 17. Then one is hit by an iron crossbow bolt from one of his men.

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Alzar casts Vampiric Touch and kills one after draining 13 hp from it. One other hits him for 6 damage. The wounded one is smashed by Samir’s magical gada and dies. Two down.

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Alzar stabs out and misses. They choose to retreat and fly out and away and leave the place.


570 XP (Split three ways, not the normal two)

The bodies have nothing of value on them, just odd bits of bone and such. Alzar cuts off various parts of them for study later.

Over the next day, Samir heals him and within a day he is fully healed.

On day 12, they come across the dead corpse of a giant, now fetid, elephant. It has been eaten by something with large claws, and then left here. Elephants are valuable steeds and used only by the elite. Alzar didn’t even grab any when supplying – they take too much water and food for his taste. A quick search uncovers:

Gem-laced elephant bridle – 1550 gp



Two more peaceful days roll by as quiet follows. Then a man is dozing during midday lunch on day 14 when from under the ground burrows a large beetle. It grabs him and slices him nearly in half, killing him instantly, and then burrows back underground with his body before anyone even notices. In about twenty seconds, the man was killed and pulled under.

After about a minute, someone notices and calls out. A quick inspection is ordered, and Alzar considers chasing him. But instead, they load up the caravan and move out with alacrity. No more attacks happen.


That is the last major incident that occurs on the road south.

As the 18th day begins, they approach the Ash Woods, far on the outskirts of the area that includes the town of Phraya, the nearby ruins, and a variety of other locations as well. Alzar agrees to escort Samir to his temple, so they head off the road and move through the woods. Here are many animals, squirrels, birds, and more singing and chirping. Plant life is lush for this time of year once they enter an area close to the temple. Samir tells him that the temple keeps life going. Bushes of green berries are thick here. Soon a green knoll can be seen ahead, and on top is a small egg-shaped building that has a remarkable yellow stone wall.

The dense animal life increases as they near the knoll. The path remains wide, but the area around it thickens with healthy bush. Then they begin up the grassy knoll, which is clear of trees, just flowers and bushes. In a few moments, they have arrived at the temple.

Samir opens the door and calls out. Inside are six windows of a one-way glass-steel that enables people to see out, but not in. The distinctive sheen Alzar saw as yellow stone was actually this effect. The temple has two levels, and they have entered on the worship level. Above are the quarters for the staff. Several people begin to move down the stairs. Alzar, Pashtun, and a few of his men who came are brought to various tables around the worship area. While it features a dais, lectern, the rest of the area is a fireplace, some tables and chairs, and none of the normal pews or benches anything. It almost looks like a dining room with a speaking platform to one side.

Several clerics arrive and split up among the people Alzar brought and then introduce themselves to Samir after he gives them his letter of introduction. They offer to begin a service, and an old women steps to the lectern and asks for everyone to begin. Priests take out various instruments at the tables and a holy chant begins as they move them around and toss them. A prayer is spoke, “Oh Master of Lots, bring the Divine Intervention on our behalf, and enable us to peer into Your Guidance and Your Pattern!”

The devices are fortune telling instruments. The clerics try to read them, and then toss them again and make more measures. The objects sparkle and seem to shift magically as things occur, so the same result cannot occur more than once. After three intonations and three castings, the service ends.

Alzar introduces himself to the high priestess and they talk for a bit. This knoll is supposed to tie into old magic in Hamedh that exists on certain lines or places. The shape of the temple enables the priests to investigate that energy and explore predictions of the future. Various faiths send priests here to assist in the investigations, and Samir is the newest one.

They also offer various services to local travelers. They can heal or cast priestly magic. Like many temples, they are always interested in special items that they can use; they have purchased items from other travelers or explorers before.

The priests here know a bit about Phraya. Sometimes locals will come by. It’s about a day travel from here, and they have no lodging, so not that many people visit. There’s a small shrine there that performs local cleric services for their community.

The Phraya area has a large number of smaller places around it – Bald Hill, Bone Hill, Dead Forest, Guardian Peak, Lark Hill, High Top, Low Point, Pebble Hills, Spring Glade, Tri-top, Kelmani Woods, the orchards, and Reddy Forest. All of these areas are around the town of Phraya. The trouble has been coming from Bone Hill and the surrounding Dead Forest. Most of the names here are very ambitious. The forests are more like small woods, Guardian “Peak” just happens to be the largest hill in the area, and High Top is a small hill with delusions of grandeur. Some of the areas are relatively safe, and there are ruins is a few places, including Bone Hill. There are some bandits active, but not a lot, and they seem to strike near Bald Hill. It is named because its top is denuded of plantlife and just has exposed rock.


The road to Phraya passes near Bald Hill, and several attacks in the last few months have occurred along it. The road south hits a small river as it winds south and that river goes right past both Bald Hill, the orchards, and Phraya.

Forewarned, Alzar decides to do some pruning. Today he wants to head to Bald Hill – the likely spot for bandits, and then head in and investigate. If he can eliminate one of the threats in the area, he can make it a bit safer to travel and explore later.

They return to the road and move south, hitting a river about two hours later and the Bald Hill area shortly after that. He can see it long in the distance before they head toward it. A nice fat caravan like this will hopefully prove a juicy target for any raiders or bandits watching. As they move towards it, Alzar spots a few nice ambush places, and prepares himself.

In an half hour, they have arrived at a place along the road where the river has closed on the right hand side and leaves little maneuvering space there. Meanwhile, Bald Hill is tight along the road and is quite steep here. There are some minor covers there – rocks and trees. Then some in front. An ideal ambush spot.

As expected, a figure steps out from above and hails them to stop. Meanwhile, people fade into view in the front and above/left, with bows in hand. There are fifteen in all, and they look like a mixture of humans and orcs. A quick Sleep spell drops four in front, away from the leader. Then a female half-orc right beside the one shouting casts a spell at Alzar. It works, and Alzar has been silenced. They smile and ask if anyone else would like to resist. No one moves. They shout orders to the ones in front to begin waking the sleeping quartet. Alzar nods at Pashtun towards them, and he moves out and challenges the three still awake there to force them away. Gilded Ears is silently ordered to join Pashtun and is leaping in as well to nip at them. Pashtun waves at the men, and two grab crossbows and move to attack the e three

Suddenly seeing themselves targeted, the three waking in front change up to take out the charging Pashtun, jackal, and missile attacks. Meanwhile, the man in charge orders three more his men to head in and support the front while Alzar unhooks his axe and moves up towards the spellcaster, the leader, and their three supporters. (Initially 7 in front, 8 on hill. Four sleeping in front, three dispatched to help them leaves 5 on hill and 6 in front)

The shaman casts Hold Person at Alzar and he makes his save. He will arrive in two turns. Other caravan men have grabbed weapons for firing. The leader orders his men to ignore Alzar and fire at the caravaners. Pashtun arrives next turn for battle.

The shaman casts Cause Light Wounds at Alzar and he takes 8 damage. The Leader tosses a trombash at him and hits for 3. Pashtun and his people arrive and begin to battle the six in front. Alzar orders the people in back to concentrate on helping Pashtun with signals and then moves to the people in front.

(We’ll fast sim the battle in front with random.org but slaw it with Alzar).

Alzar deems the half orc shaman his primary threat and his axe swings as her. He misses her. She casts Cause again and he takes 8, and the leader and his bowmen miss. Alzar’s second turn gets two axe attacks. He cracks her chainmail armor once for 10 damage. She grabs her club and the leader hits him once for 9 damage. That’s a powerful hit, empowered by something. That’s a lot more damage than a simple yataghan can do.

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Alzar’s axe slices the shaman for another 11 damage. She pulls back while the leader hits for 8 damage and a bowman hits for 3.

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Alzar grabs the potion of Heroism and quaffs it as he swings twice. He gains 20 temporary hp, and his level rises several fold, increasing his ability to hit quite a bit. He cannot reach the cleric anymore, so he turns to the leader, with his chain mail, shield, and yataghan. Alzar hits twice, enabled by the potion, and deals out 16 damage. The leader hits back for 8 and a bowman hits for 6. The priest moved to a sling to fire at him.

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Alzar wins init, and smashes the leader for 6. He pulls out and quaffs a healing potion and heals 10 damage. The others miss. Alzar closes on the leader and hits once from two attacks, and doles out 8 damage. The leader misses, but Alzar takes 7 from an arrow and a slingstone.

9/71



Alzar swings one, hits, and slaws the leader when he hits for 11 damage. Seeing their leader fall, the others move back. Alzar throws his axe at the priest, hits her and she dies as she pulls away.

Meanwhile…

Pashtun and his company have killed three of the bandits, and Gilded Ears was damaged so much she fled.

Gilded Ears – 5 hp left
Pashtun – 10/23

The six remaining solders move off. Alzar orders them to follow, and they grab horses to catch the bandits who are on foot. After a quick half an hour chase, the bandits surrender, and they will be turned into the local authorities nearby.

Alzar finds their lair, a cave in Bald Hill proper. On the bodies and in the lair they find:

+1 Medium Shield
+2 Chainmail
Girdle of Ogre Strength
+1 Chainmail
+1 Sling
Wizard Scroll – Dimension Door
Potion – Gaseous Form

624 gp
71 pp
156 ep


Alzar identifies some with his class power and the rest over the next few days with Identify spells.

He dons the Girdle of Ogre Strength, but it causes him to begin to float as if gravity stopped working. He pulls off the boots and all of the items work together nicely, but the Ring of Chameleon Power is not working with anything else. No more boots of varied tracks, and he has to leave on the Ring but it won’t work. If he wants to use the Ring, he must pull off the Girdle and put on the Boots. (As per funky magic miscibility rules on Hamedh)

Like Gauntlets, the Girdle grants Alzar 18/100 strength. In battle, he now does +3/+6 damage. However, they can only be used by a warrior, rogue, or priest. In other words, Alzar cannot wear them unless he wants to fight as a fighter (And thus skip learning experience). He swaps the boots back on right now to head back to fighter mage hood.

He casts Vampiric Touch on a sleeping bandit to heal up (he was going to kill them anyway).

They rest on Bald Hill that night, and then the following day make their way past various orchards and into town after daybreak. Alzar moves down the road and sees more than 30 houses, as well as the keep of the local Emir on a small hill to the northeast. There is a bridge here that crosses the modest river, and on the other side is about a third of the town. They pass the burnt out husk of an old inn. A few places advertise as a fletcher/bowyer, a brewery, a general store, and more. An armorer, cobbler, smither, follow before they arrive at a tavern. Alzar and his group secure the wagons and head in and he orders refreshment for them and talks with the tavernkeeper.


The woman greets him and they discuss the town for a while. There have continued to be occasional undead attacks from Bone Hill and the Dead Forest. But there hasn’t been one for at least ten days. People who stay in the area are directed out of town – you aren’t allowed to stay outside in town at night. There are some campsites up on the Kelman Hills, right by Reddy Forests, Low Point, High Top, Lark Hill and Garden Peak. Others are camping up there too, and Alzar’s crew will need to do so as well.

Alzar gets the lay of the land. There is a mage tower with a married couple and several apprentices here locally. She is a rhadomere and he is of an unknown specialization. She also tells him about another tavern in town, and a local abbey with a small cleric population that heal, as well as several homes. On the other side of the river across the bridge are where the homes are for fishers, people who work the orchards, and such. A town like this doesn’t have a lot of people but likes to gossip. Within a few minutes, Alzar has the basic rundown of all of the major players in the area. He stays for minor updates too.



Then he heads out to the abbey. After a payment of 100 gold, he is fully healed – he pays for Pashtun too.

The next place he visits are the homes. On in particular strikes his fancy and he knocks on an old door of wood. The rock house is roughly put together, but very well made. A few seconds later, an attractive young woman answers the door. Alzar asks if Fahd is home. She steps aside and Alzar looks into the eyes of a veteran of many battles. There is a look a man gets that other veterans know, and Alzar knows it well. A man of roughly 40 offers the chair across from him on the table, but does not rise.

Fahd looks Alzar thoughtfully as Alzar tells him that he came from the tavern and heard about Fahd. He needs good soldiers to hire for exploring Bone Hill. Fahd tells Alzar his price is 300 gp a week, plus expenses. If he dies, Alzar has to bring him back to the abbey to be raised. Alzar knows a professional when he sees one (both are Myrmidon kit soldiers, which are professional soldiers, such as mercenaries. Alzar was the leader of a mercenary army for quite some time, as a reminder)

“Alright, it’s a deal, but I may only need you for the week. I hope to have everything settled now. Here’s 300 gp.”

Fahd has been hired:

Fahd
Neutral, 4th level Fighter, Myrmidon Kit
HP – 31
THAC0 – 16
STR: 16, DEX: 13, CON: 15, INT: 12, WIS: 11, CHA: 9
AC: 3
XP : 12000

Fights with Shield, +1 chainmail, +1 khanda (1d8, 1d10+1 vs giants)
41 years old


Fahd agrees to meet them later at camp that night and begins to pack and gather his things.

The next place Alzar intends to head is the mage tower. He knocks on the door and introduces himself. After meeting a trio of apprentices and the married couple, he begins the business of trading. Four hours later, he has traded for these spells:


Level 2 – Unpickable Lock
Level 4 – Charm Monster
Level 5 – Conjure Water Elemental, Greater Rhabdomancy

As the night ends, he swings by a tavern on the way to the campsite and grabs food for everyone. An hour and a half later they leave the road and enter the Kelman Hills area. This is a section of hills off the road. The Reddy Forest is in the front of the Hills and goes up it about halfway up before petering off. In the Hills are four “peaks” – Lark Hill, Guardian Peak, High Top and Low Point. In between the four peaks, and just outside of the Forest are a trio of campsites that people use. Several are being used right now.

Alzar’s men and the wagons arrive – the trails here are quite good – they were widened and strengthened over the last year when the inn burnt down. The Kelman Hills area of the town of Phraya is typically calm and quiet. The hills are all grass covered, with bushes and rock outcroppings every 50 to 300 feet or so. A few small stands from the forest continue and the leafy plants are quite tall.

All three campsites are being taken, each is about 500 feet or so from each other. He heads to the one that only has two people by it. They introduce themselves as a pair of merchants that were travelling by and hoped to get past Phraya today but were caught in the wind. They find and bargain for large purchases from farmers, woodsman and others for their boss, who will come later to gather and pay.

They bind up everything and Fahd arrives just before dinner is served. The three fighters (Alzar, Pashtun, Fahd) go over details such as watch, battle calls and what various motions mean, and so forth. That way, they know immediately what to do if something happens, and how to signal each other.

Night has fallen and about an hour into the full night, a cry and howl can be heard and soon the voices of many people strike at the three camps simultaneously. 20 gnolls are attacking the area!

Pashtun is on watch and he has a loud pot by him he clangs when danger is seen. Out pop Fahd and Alzar and they move to the gnolls attacking their camp. This attack is so early Alzar wasn’t even asleep yet. He orders the normal men to move into the wagons where possible and Gilded Ears spots a gnoll hidden by Alzar and he jumps away from it as it prepares to spring.

Alzar drops sand and intones a Sleep spell to hit the gnolls on him. Two fall. As they do, a trio of dire wolves attacks camp from another angle, having flanked while his group was concentrated on the 7 gnolls on his camp. 5 gnolls and 3 wolves to handle.


Battle is enjoined and weapons swing. Alzar casts Hold Person and freezes the gnoll right by him. Fahd and Pashtun hit once for 7 damage. Fahd takes 4 back from a wicked looking mace head on the end of a sword like club, called a shishpar.

Alzar casts Continual Light and blind a 4th gnoll. With four down, one calls a retreat. Meanwhile a dire wolf cuts into Alzar twice for 8 damage before retreating off.

43/51 - Alzar
27/31 – Fahd

Alzar orders his men to kill the sleeping, paralyzed and blinded gnolls while him, Fahd and Pashtun head to the other camps where battle is engaged.

120 XP for the three of them.

Alzar arrives at the next campsite. Here four people are fighting, one already dead at their feet. Alzar casts Hypnotism, and four of the six gnolls drop their weapons. Meanwhile, he orders Pashtun and Fahd to intercept the wolves. They cannot arrive for a few minutes. One of those fighting is a female half-orc who swings her tulwar and smashes dead a wounded wolf.

Gilded Ears is ordered to follow the retreating gnolls to see where they go. One of the humans here leaps down and gathers the dropped weapons quickly and takes them from the gnolls, in order to keep them unarmed. Within a moment they call a retreat as well and begin to move off. Two gnolls die retreating.

Alzar orders all people surviving and up to head to the final campfire. Here are two people fighting. Three gnolls are sleeping, put to sleep by a mage here, who cast invisibility and is hiding but sneaking around behind the gnolls (Alzar can see through low level illusions due to his very high intelligence). A elven looking male has slain a dire wolf but is under pressure. Alzar’s arrival relieves him, and Alzar casts Vampiric Touch as he nears another wolf and kills it, but heals himself.

With two wolves down and three gnolls sleeping, the last of the group orders a retreat, but they are in bad straits. The female half orc, the man from the first fire followed, and the mage is behind them. As they retreat he stabs out with his dagger from invisible and slays a wounded gnoll. The elvish man has dropped his weapon and grabbed his bow and an arrow stabs the wolf. Fahd and Pashtun are moving to cut them off and within a minute, this whole group has been slain.

XP divided 75 each to Fahd, Pashtun and Alzar

Gilded Ears is noticed by the fleeing dire wolves and chased and cannot pursue. The remaining gnolls and wolves have left. Alzar gathers everybody together and they will all spend the rest of the night at one fire, just in case.


Among the campfire is:


Locinda, female half-orc, level 3 fighter
Tolvar, male human, level 3 mage
Martin, male elf, level 2 ranger
Volcifar, male human, level 3 thief


They spend the evening with the other merchants and such. There is apparently a nearby gnoll camp which Alzar wants to check out the next day, and these four want to go with him.

The following morning, the civilians head back to Phraya while Alzar, Pashtun, Fahd and these four go to the gnoll camp. They want to investigate the raid last night. They are moving to the Pebble Hills, which is on the other side of the river, behind Phraya. There are three bridges to this area, and the seven of them cross one right at the foot of the Kelman Hills and Reddy Forest.

On the other side are the Pebble hills, with a tri-top group of peaks to the south. There are some woods here too, confusingly named the Kelman Woods, which are not on the Kelman Hills. There is a small glade on the Pebble Hills called Spring Glade, and that is where the gnoll village is.

A few hours later they arrive, but the village has been quickly abandoned. It looks like they left it last night as soon as they returned. After losing more than half of their fighting strength and fearing a reprisal, they must have booked it out here. Well, with them gone, Alzar lets them be and moves back to deal with Bone Hill. Martin wants to follow the gnolls and put them down, because he cannot let evil scum like that live. Martin leaves the group.


It’s nearing night, and they agree to camp here and spend some time checking to see if the gnolls left anything of value behind. They didn’t and night passes smoothly.

At night, Alzar gets the basic stories from the three new people with him

Locinda – a mercenary looking for work. She is new to the area, and just arrived to Phraya two days ago. If she was unable to find it here with someone like the Emir, she was going to head north to Arjuna. She’s from a small tribe of orc/humans who live and hunt together in the mountains to the east about ten days journey away.

Tolvar is a Conjurer who was adventuring with his group when disaster struck, and the rest died. H has been down on his luck ever since and looking for an opportunity to get involved. He is the son of a minor mage and has left home years ago when apprenticed and never returned.


Volcifar – A professional thief from Arjuna, and has been working his trade for some time here and there, picking up some money. He makes most of his money from making and setting traps for people who want extra protection – often wealthy people.

Alzar offers to hire Locinda, and they work out a deal. He mentions he wants to explore Bone Hill. She will work for 100 gp a week starting out. It’s one of her first deals. Tolvar just wants to join up so he can be protected in a large group again and is clearly looking to Alzar to mentor him. Volcifar offers to come with them to Bone Hill to check things out, but after that, it’s anybody;s guess

(Yes, Fahd, Martin, Locinda, Volcifar and Tolvar are ALL in the module and available as hirelings or henchmen. The only named I changed was Fahd, who was originally Felix.)

The following day the six of them move out to the Dead Forest, and from there to Bone Hill and explore the ruins there.


Locinda
Lawful Neutral, 3rd level Fighter
HP – 24
THAC0 – 18
STR: 17, DEX: 14, CON: 13, INT: 14, WIS: 9, CHA: 8
AC: 5
XP: 6500

Fights with Shield, chainmail, +1 khanda (1d8, 1d10+1 vs giants) too
25 years old

Tolvar
Neutral, 3rd level Conjurer
HP – 10
THAC0 – 20
STR: 13, DEX: 14, CON: 10, INT: 16, WIS: 14, CHA:10
AC: 6
XP: 7500

Fights with dagger, bracers of Defense AC:7 and Ring of Protection +1
20 years old

Volcifar
Lawful Evil, 3rd level Thief
HP – 16
THAC0 – 19
STR: 14, DEX: 17, CON: 13, INT: 16, WIS: 10, CHA:11
AC: 6
XP: 3500

Fights with Dagger of Venom or +2 Sling of Seeking, and Ring of Protection +1 and Ring of Spell Storing – Dispel Magic and Mask Alignment. This Ring, unlike others, cannot be charged with any spell other than Dispel Magic and Mask Alignment (reverse of Know Alignment).
29 years old


Because he is expecting trouble today, Alzar learns Hold Undead and Vampiric Touch at 3rd level.

The Dead Forest is called that because no large animals seem to live here, and its’ very quiet. There are bugs and some worms, but it is not lifeless. The plants are fine, and do not appear to be poorly impacted by anything. Bone Hill is in front, and it rises to a height of more than 1400 feet and is the highest point in the area by far. Atop it at the ruins of an old structure that might be a castle. The hill itself is rocky and boulder-strewn. After much of the day passes, they have reached the top of the Hill.

Plant cover dissolves within 3000 feet of the ruins, but the Bone Hill is quite flat on top.

As they approach, Volcifar and Gilded Ears break off to slip in closer. After a few minute they return. There are a large number of bugbears guarding the place. About 6 adult males, 5 adult females, and at least 7 or 8 children. It appears that the castle ruins are their home. The group begins planning. Alzar coats both Fahd and Locinda’s weapons with poison from his Scarab. Then they move in.

The castle has collapsed in a variety of places, and its largely exposed. They begin a pincer movement from two sides, and each one is led by a mage and two fighters. Both Alzar and Tolvar lead off by casting Sleep and soon five bugbears are sleeping. The alarm is shouting and bugbears beginning moving to the center of the castle area. Alzar is leading Pashtun and the thief while Tolvar is leading the two mercenaries.

Tolvar jumps up and casts Burning Hands and ignites two bugbears for 12 damage each. They were both females and they die. Alzar’s Hold Person stops two more bugbears, one child and one woman. Then battle is met.

Fast sim

Two rounds later, the bugbears are in a nice fighting retreat and Alzar’s side have suffered very little when the whoosing sound of a Fireball is heard and smashes among the group. Everyone is hit save for Tolvar, who has gone invisible and snuck away. One of the bugbears is hit and dies. Everyone takes 18 or save for half.

Alzar notes the spellcaster coming in from behind a door to assist the bugbears. Joining him are a paur of bugbear shaman, and one casts Cause Light Wounds on Alzar for 8 damage.

Alzar is down to:

22/51

He casts Continual Light at the mage but he makes the save. Alzar mentally orders Gilded Ears to come in from her position outside the ruins and behind the mage to help. Alzar orders himself and Fahd to charge the spellcasters, as the others stay behind, wounded, to deal with the bugbear remnants.

Magic Missiles stab out from the mage and hit Alzar three times for 15 damage. He casts Vampiric Touch on a shaman who is guarding the mage and deals 14 and drains it. The shaman casts Cure Light Wounds on itself and heals 10. Fahd misses.

21/51
13/31 – Fahd

Alzar wins init because of his ring and casts one of his last spells. Using the Pearl of Power to recall the Continual Light he again tries to blind the mage. This time is works and he is blinded. A shaman drops Silence on Alzar and he makes the save and is okay. The other casts Cause Light Wounds on him for 8. Fahd hits the wounded shaman for 5 damage. The mage roars and orders a retreat.

The bugbears in the back are all defeated and now the party moves to support Alzar. He orders fire concentrated on the blinded mage, who is being led by the shaman. Alzar just knows Hold Undead, Detect Magic and Charm Person. Gilded Ears pops up from behind them and nips at the mage to slow them down. A stone from the sling of seeking hits him for 4 damage. But the mage is assisted by the shamen through a corridor. Alzar pursues and grabs a magic jelly bean. This corridor is broken and open to the sky but there is just one way for about twenty feet. He flings his grey one and it breaks into a grey ooze in front of them and forces them to stop and deal with it. That gives him and his group time to close.

In one turn they have killed the blinded mage. Alzar absorbs another Cause Light Wounds. But that;s it. The shamen have been killed.

13/51

200 XP for each person