With 10 pearls left for identify spells6 the party is now looking at a 2 day ride to The Friendly Arm. Menka cast cure light wounds on Kyril and Lycovyne and will heal Gonchar in the morning when the spells are again available.

The party slept for 4 hours without event. Menka planned to sleep through the second watch to get his spells back. Near dawn at the end of the second watch the party was attacked by 4 Minions of Set (hereafter referred to simply as minions). 2 failed initiative attempts later and the party was overrun.

• Menka cast sanctuary (and then chant at the earliest opportunity, initiative rolls not detailed)
• Gonchar gets hit hard for 12 hp
• minion misses Flint
• Flint attacks 2x - 1 miss, 1 natural 20 for 6 hp (dagger)
• Akradios attacks Flint’s opponent, misses
• Lycovyne attacks and misses
• Gonchar attacks and kills one minion
• Kyril attacks and misses
• Gonchar kills another minion
• Flint attacks and misses with a 17 (minions fight as 10th level fighters w/ -2 AC)
• more crappy initiative rolls
• Kyril gets hit for 10 points
• Gonchar, with pluses from chant, splits a minion in half, killing it
• Lycovyne attacks and hits for 12 points, staggered
• Arkadios hits (19+1 from chant), killing the remaining minion

The party attempted to rest yet again and actually succeeded. Menka cast 2 more cure light wounds on Gonchar. Seeing a caravan readying itself for departure the party (plus Maxtor who is now a 1st level magic user) quickly joined up and began the 2 day journey to the Arm. Once on the road a merchant and fellow traveler told the party that the Arm had been overrun by maenads, female disciples of Dionysus.

Indeed, during the journey, the caravan encountered a group of maenads. The caravan was heading east while the maenads are heading west. The party decided to separate from the caravan and follow the group of maenads in an attempt to glean their plans. Heading left into the woods, the party ran into a large group of centaurs who were rather vocally looking for women. In way over their heads the party determined to make a run for it when Melios appeared out of nowhere with a group of satyrs. Of course.

Father Hadrigan, I Presume#

Melios claimed to be the cause of the troubles at the Arm, to the surprise of no one present. For some reason the party decided to spend the night in the company of Melios and his mixed bag of demihuman companions.

As expected, chaos ensued. Menka offered to cast silence 15’ but the party demurred and instead stuffed cotton in their ears. Melios intervened and began a drunken retelling of Eastern Tales to Maxtor while the bacchanalia raged all around. The party was largely left to themselves, almost certainly due to the presence of Melios.

Arkadios and Lycovyne drew the first watch. During their watch a group of minions approached the party and were attacked by maenads and also by Melios. Melios’ drunken spellcasting killed not only the minions but also several of the maenads as well. Several maenads were also killed by the minions of Set.

The party was left to observe the previous battle, unmolested. Menka decided to try some of Melios' wine. As soon as he put the wineskin to his lips, the camp was attacked by another group of minions, this time in snake form.

• Menka cast protection from evil
• (Kyril is still carrying the Bag of Holding yet the minions seem to be after Maxtor)
• Lycovyne attacks with bow and arrow, kills
• (the minions now switch their attention to the rest of the party)
• Snake attacks Arkadios, misses
• Menka attacks a snake, rolls a 2, smashes self in the face with his flail
• Flint and a snake meet in battle and bounce off each other with the snake scoring a hit
• Flint makes his save vs. poison
• Snake attacks Menka, misses
• Kyril casts entangle and a snake becomes a minion
• Lycovyne attacks with a broken milk carton
• Arkadios attacks, hits for 6 points
• Melios gets hit, hard, falls, gets back up, shrieks in rage and a hoard of maenads come at his command and tear the apart the snake by Menka
• Gonchar kills a snake
• Third snake (Arkadios’ opponent) becomes a minion with a sword
• Arkadios wins speed factor and kills the remaining minion (3 total)

With the snakes gone, the bacchanalia resumed without missing beat. Melios got Menka liquored up while on watch and said, plainly, “We have to go - now. Who did you manage to piss off?” With that, Menka roused the rest of the party and all got on the road again to arrive at the Arm without incident. Bedraggled, unrested and beaten, but alive.

Bentley Mirrorshade welcomed Maxtor with open arms and offered the party rooms on the third floor to recuperate. The party made it through the night without incident and arose for breakfast in the morning. Bentley was grim about the death of Lord Baylor and asked us to meet with him in Guldar Heel’s tower at noon. The party agreed. Bentley also agreed to fence the 4 1,000,000,000 gp gems we discovered under Lord Baylor’s mansion and will keep us informed.

Guldar Heel’s Tower, Invited#

The party, somewhat refreshed though not entirely healed, met Bentley Mirrorshade at the Tower at noon as planned. Also present were Anu Sekhar, Guldar Heel and that dork Null Keyz. We told all present of our experiences at Baylor Mansion and the resulting dogged pursuit by the Minions of Set.

Anu Sekhar told us the minions were definitely after the flail. He further explained that the flail was created long ago for a Priest-King of Thoth. One Khamsa, ruler of Raurin, acquired the Flail and perverted it to the service of Set through the use of an item called the Circlet of the Adder. Khamsa was a bloated, toad-like king whose conceit soared to such excessive heights that he rejected Set, abolished the gods and declared his own divinity, invoking the rage of Set.

The Flail has a counterpart, a crown - the Circlet of the Adder. Separate they are powerful. Together they are indomitable. Anu invoked the Flail’s sacred nature to Thoth and believes that if the Circlet is destroyed the Flail’s usefulness to Set and his foul followers will dissipate.

If Set were to get his hands on both the Flail and the Crown, well, we’d all be in a great deal of trouble. Either the Crown or the Flail or both should be destroyed to prevent this from happening. Anu Sekhar and Guldar Heel both say there are almost certainly other, unknown abilities of the Flail and it will take time to figure it out. The Flail stayed with the party, to be wielded by Menka, praise Thoth!

To destroy the Circlet, we must be teleported to a temple many, many leagues away in the Sea of Dust, in a sort of stealth operation. Is this the same operation Guldar Heel and Anu Sekhar just attempted?

“I’m too old for this stuff anymore, this fight belongs to your generation” - Guldar Heel, still recovering from the wounds of his recent battle with the armies of Set. He and Anu Sekhar are both old men.

Guldar Heel agrees to train Lycovyne as a magic user if he dedicates himself to the destruction of the Circlet. He and Anu Sekhar will retain the flail and attempt to discern its secrets which will draw some the attention away from us, toward them, in theory.

Under Guldar Heel’s tutelage Lycovyne writes burning hands and flaming sphincter into his spellbook.

Guldar Heel and the lads will teleport us there and back but we have to do it their way. Guldar will try to get us as close to the temple as possible. No problem, it’s a desert - there will be plenty of water and shelter if he misses by a few miles.

To the Sea of Dust, Teleported#

We pack up a few supplies and get ready to depart. Did we rest completely??

• 20 full, 12 empty water skins
• 1 key
• Lycovyne got yet another potion of plant control ^{[I mean, really - is it possible to have too many *potions of plant control*?]}
• ring of mind shielding

The teleportation would take place on the 3rd floor of Guldar Heel’s tower. It is an elaborate ritual involving candles made of blue crystal and northern Scottish boom-boom poured over glacial ice. In the desert at the other end there will be a human-sized mirror. It must remain intact for us to get back. If we have to march a significant distance to this temple keeping the mirror secure is gonna be difficult.

Upon returning the password to use is “Farthis” and oh - please do ring the bell before entering the tower to avoid getting clobbered by the golem. Got all that?

Guldar Heel took out the necessary spell components, began gesticulating and mumbling syllables both sacred and arcane and created a surreal mirror and said, simply “Walk through the mirror.”

The party was immediately teleported to a bus station in Passaic, NJ. \footnote{Lycovyne spent a half copper on the attentions of a slovenly female bus station broad and contracted a social disease involving creeping ulcerations of the skin…}

A red error icon began flashing in the lower right corner of everyone’s awareness.

The party was then immediately teleported into the middle of a desert, 1000s of miles away. It was oppressively hot, the party crushed by the sun. The return mirror was visible and available. The party decided to bury the mirror as well as possible. Menka studied the mirror carefully so he could cast locate object (note range: 1100 yards at 5th level) on the way back.

Desert Plains#

The party began to march across the desert (in which direction? why?). After a couple grueling miles of walking the party was approached by a man on horseback. Plaxtus, the horseman. “You are not from here” is all he said, then rode off.

Sunburned and dehydrated the party came upon an oasis. 30-40 people were present, of lighter complexion than Plaxtus the horseman. They were friendly and helped the newcomers to the water. The party was approached by a tall, broad man who began speaking in the common tongue.

“Welcome to the plains of Raurin! I am Sarim.”

The party asked Sarim if he knew the location of the temple, providing the description given by Anu Sekhar. Sarim paled visibly and did not wish to speak of that accursed place. We convinced him to show us the way and he pointed southeast to a structure faintly visible in the distance.

“Travel only at night, when Ra sleeps. Farewell.” With that he walked away.

It is much cooler at night, making travel less onerous. 4 miles into the journey the sand receded and was replaced by an ice-like glass - a plastic surface, more easily traversed than the desert behind. The party was able to increase their pace considerably by simply “skating”. A quarter mile or so and we hit a rocky plain. Another quarter mile and the rocky plain descended 1,000 feet into a large canyon with the appearance of a huge, dry lake bed. From the summit, the dry lake bed looked like a giant claw. After a long descent, the land leveled off into barren surface broken only by large fissures.

A few miles ahead we can see what appears to be a structure in a cliff in the distance. Details were difficult to discern. Once the sun came up Menka started casting light/reversed to keep the party from being cooked by the sun. Running out of the spell, the party braved the last few miles in the sun the hard way.

The party proceeded toward the structure built into the cliffs ahead, the details still obscured by distance and the blurring, warping effect the raw heat created in the air.

Very suddenly the party was set upon by 5 creatures who emerged from the sand. 6 feet tall humanoids with 4 arms and insectavoid heads. Insectavoids. Two bore strange poleaxes with leaf- shaped blades on either end while the other three wielded belts criss-crossing their “chests” in which triangular, blade-like crystals are held, matching the crystal each held in one hand. Their antennae twitching, they seemed to be fidgeting with an emotion that could only be interpreted as hungry excitement, focused noticeably on Kyril and Lycovyne.

“Gentlemen - roll for initiative.” – DM