Aaron Pavao's 2001-2002 Game

These are but the roughest of early notes. The map need serious cleaning and I randomly ship between past and present tense. I don't care.

Player	Character	Race and Class	Faith
Nick	Erich Lightbringer	Human male paladin	Heironeous, god of valor
Ben	Milo	Halfling male rogue
Kristin	Olivia	Human female priest	Pelor, god of the sun
Joe	Kalib	Elven male warrior	Kord, god of strength
Alan	Thaylis Adrabenderial	Elven male wizard	Boccob, god of knowledge
Michael	Jared	Human male priest	Fharlanghn, god of roads

August 12

January 14, 2001

Later today I'll arrive in Peneseth. The journey from the continent has been long, but soon the savage lands will lay open before me.

My name is Thaylis Adrabendarial, I originally hail from the ancient elven nation of An Tir. I found hints in forgotten texts hinting of civilized lands far across the easter sea. Elven lands. The stories are waved away as muddled stories, there are but savage lands to the east, but I believe there to be a glimmer of truth in the stories. There are secrets lost in those lands, and they call to me.

Several months ago, Master Gavaraen decided that my apprenticeship was complete, that I could learn no more without being tempered with experience, I saved up for equipment and passage to the savage conwith experience, I saved up for equipment and passage to the savage conwith experience, I saved up for equipment and passage to the savage conwith experience, I saved up for equipment and passage to the savage continent.

Various nations have tried to colonize the savage continent for hundreds of year, all of their efforts have met with disaster. A single outpost of Archipelaga, Peneseth, has survived. Built on a peninsula, the first duke built a massive wall across the entryway. The towns and forts beyond disappeared so quickly that no word of what happened returned. It's not known what lies beyond, but the worst is assumed. Paranoia and vigilance have kept the city safe.

So here I am sailing toward Peneseth on grimy human ship, equippred with the barest of supplies, and my spellbook.

I am hopeful. Boccob has blessed me on my search for knowledge. I've met four other passagers interested in exploring the depths of the continent. There is one other elf, Kalib, a swordsman and devote worshipper of Kord. He's almost a cliche, but he seems sincere, and I'd certainly like him by my side in a tight scrape. There is a halfing by the name of Milo, an explorer and jack of all trades. There are two humans. Erich Lightbringer is a warrior-priest of Heironeous. Olivia is a priestess of Pelor, a bit naive, but a good heart.

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Arrive in Peneseth by boat from Caladana. Only town to survive. On trip aquanted myself with several other travellers. They all appear to be seeking fortune or destiny, and may make good companions to explore the frontier. Inner city guarded by castle guard. Outer city guarded by locally managed sheriffs. Outer wall constantly guarded by militia. Need a writ of travel to go out and back through wall. Many travellers die, even on short trips. Returning after being gone for more than a handful of days is rare. Outer city run by an "outer circle". Braken of the Orc with a Gold Tooth Tavern is part of the circle.

At the Tavern, run into the dwarf Dowrax, one of the survivors of long recent expedition. We gamble with him, I win his map to Penton. Penton is one of the towns that disappeared, it was known for mining gold and adamantite. Also learned about dangerous goblinoids. Stay at Golden Face on floor.

August 13

In the morning sign up and get writs of travel. Part of the deal is we pay 10% of treasure gained on entrance. Purchase supplies

August 14

January 21, 2001

Head to gate. There is a bell mounted there. To be let back in, ring bell 3 times. We walk, the halfling (slow) rides on a pony.

We run into a rat man. We talk, it speaks strangely accented Draconic. I learn that it's name is Scarat, and it dislikes the city. It attafcks, we fight it. It's immune to our weapons. My spells have no effect. We get badly hurt. Kalib tackles it and the priest and paladin use their silver holy symbols to stab it to death. I claim it's rapier and nicely etched leather scabbard. We get a pouch of continental silver.

We camp.

August 15

We're battered, so we head back to town. En route, attacked by giant centipede. Kalib slays in one swipe. Get back to town, pay tax. Shares are 112 sp. I visit local temple of Boccob, tithe, visit the library. Find reports of area dangers include monstrous centipedes, giant rats, ogres, and bat swarms.

August 16

Head out. Eventless day.

August 17

Travel. Near end of day see keep walls in distance and the river swift. It is indeed swift. The land around the keep is completely dead. Buildings reduced to bare foundations. The keep's walls are 8' high, like a truncated pyramid. There are the remnants of foundation of a bridge, fortunately we're on right side.

Camp.

August 18

Search town ruins, find nothing. Inside keep just as dead and empty. Search and find iron trap door. Move through what appears to have been a dungeon. Partially collapsed, revealing natural cavern. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 While examining cells, attacked by ghoul. Fortunately I'm immune to it's chilling touch. Erich slays it and heals me. 5 In last cell we find a thin wall. Milo uses a hammer to break through to another cell. 6 The cell holds a skeleton with a sack of silver.

7, 8 The natural cavern opens to a chasm with a river flowing below. A natural stone bridge runs across. 9 Beyond is more finished passageways. 10 has rags and mildewy smell.

11 Move on, run into four giant, red-eyed beetles. We slay them. There are small holes in the rubbled west wall. Milo climbs in and finds a small tunnel to the surface.

12 The northern half of this triangular room is depressed down to the river. Bars hold the northern walls up. There is a pile of robes and buckets. We're attacked by and slay two giant centipedes. Kalib cuts out their poison sacks.

We back up to the hallway and continue south. 13 Beyond the doorway, a wide, high hallway with pillars to the sides stretches south. Doors are staggered along the walls. 14 We take the door directly across, take a bending passage past the triangular room, and come to wide hallway with pillars down the middle. 15 Checking the door to east, we find another triangular room. We head north into a small junction.

16 Opening the door on the west wall, a group of five kobolds open fire with crossbows. We retreat. I charm one of them and talk to it. The kobold reveals in draconic that the rooms to the east and southeast hold their treasure. The room to the east holds a throne they took from above. The kobold remembers hearing something moving inside the throne while they moved it. We regroup, then attack the kobolds. I grab one of the crossbows.

17 To the north, we find a natural stone bridge over the chasm. A waterfall is audible to the west. 18 We head east to find the kobold's throne. Sure enough, at the north end is a battered wooden throne. As we approach the throne, the room is plunged into a darkness that swallows up our torchlight. A strange tentacled monster attacks Kalib. He cuts it down and we retreat from the magically darkened room. Kalib reenters to drag the throne out. Milo gives it a once over and find a secret compartment. Inside is a cache of silver. Milo reenters the darkess to recover the corpse. The creature looks like an octopus with a pointed head and some sort of membrane between the tentacles. We head back to the surface, put a heavy rock on the trap door, and call it a day.

February 3, 2001

August 19

We were still a bit sore, so we rested for another day.

August 20

We reenter the dungeon. This time we plan on looting the kobold's second "treasure room." 1, 7, 13, 14 We retrace our steps to the triangular room we only peered in before.. 15 I notice some odd looking holes in door. Milo suspect needles, perhaps poisoned, fire from the holes. Kalib blocks the holes with his shield and opens the door. Sure enough, needles fire out and are deflected by Kalib's shield.

19 As the Kalib opens the door wider, a volley of crossbow bolts strike the wall and Kalib. Kalib quickly closes the door. Beyond is a two story room. The door opens onto a balconey surrounding the room. Inside are bunch of irritated kobolds with crossbows, some on the far balcony, some on the lower level. Kalib reopens the door and we trade crossbow fire. Two kobolds fall, as does Milo. Kalib closes the door and we regroup. Erich and Kalib lead a charge in and we triumph over the kobolds. The kobolds have some treasure. On the lower level are an arch north and a door south.

20, 21 To the north we found a strange scorched room. It looked like a small hole had been blown in the northen end of the western wall. Inside, unscarred by the blast, was a strange symbol. Olivia identified it as the symbol of Kortoomak, a kobold diety.

20, 22 Further north we found another triangular room. In the middle stood a strange pillar. An eight foot cube carved with four foot long dragons, sixteen in total. It's fairly creepy, so we left it alone for the time being.

20, 19, 23 Heading south, we came to a cobweb filled room. In the middle some large links of chain were hooked to the floor. We moved very cautiously through, but nothing ill happened.

24 In a room beyond, we encountered a elven form slumped in a southwest corner. He appeared to be breathing, so we hailed him. He woke and began speaking Draconic, the same dialect as the wererat we encountered earlier. His name was Jelmar, and he didn't remember much, but he remembered Penton when it was still a village. While I'm suspicious that he's a wererat, we can't leave him behind. It would be immoral to leave an elf behind.

23, 25 We double back and check the east door out of the spiderweb room. We're surprised by a spear trap which wounds Kalid. Beyond are four zombies. Olivia holds them back with Pelor's power and we defeat them, but Kalib and Erich are injured. We retreat to the surface, around mid-afternoon. We rest until the next morning.

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