The party emerged from the tomb of the Twice-Crowned into a bowl-shaped, wooded area which clears near the entry to the tomb - the party is stinking, tired, bloodied and bandaged. Two of the party are carrying bags of holding which are overflowing with coinage - luckily, the coins dropping into the dirt all seem to be coppers.

Sitting before the party on a small rock was a tall middle-aged man, his bow across his knees, who stood when we exited the forsaken tomb of the twice-crowned, and raised his hand in greeting. The party (not the Hibernians) knew this man to be Chardas, the ranger who had acted as a guide from Portown to the Vinewood. Behind him were most of the party’s horses, and a large black steed you presume to be his. They were calmly feeding on grass he has placed at their feet, and surrounding vegetation. Some of the horses raised their heads as we appeared, looked on impassively, and continued feeding. Behind them the woods grew thicker and rose into hills. Homemade pikes were thrust into the ground about 20’ to the east and west of Chardas, bloodied Gnoll heads upon them. He explained that they followed him here, and found the horses before he did. “This” he said, motioning to the gnoll heads, “should warn them off”.

“Aesil sent us to find you” he said. “She wants me to bring you back safely to her - assuming, of course, she made sure I ask, you have the item?” Cathal grunted in response that the party had the item.

The party blinked in the now-blinding sunlight, and the druid seemed to breathe deeply and with delight of the fresh, sunny air. Chardas looked around, appeared concerned and restless, seeming to listen, and his brow wrinkled.

“It is not safe for long here. I am led to understand that you are in danger, and I believe there are those who seek what you have found within. No time to rest. We’re not going back the way you came, but we must make haste, for I am certain we are being followed….they were behind me until I reached these hills and Arndt and I split and went in separate directions. They may not be far behind.”

“The she-wizard gave me a letter for you…”

A party bearing the strange garb and accents of the Manuxet Coast ^{[The Manuxet Coast is #28 on the Osgoth map.]} , very far to the west? Interesting.

Chardas’ Journey to the Tomb#

Chardas: “I rode south with Arndt, Harald’s ranger. Our plan was to monitor the riders, and pass them and reach you before they did. A strange group, dressed in the odd garb of the Manuxet Coast (Osgoth Map #28A). We kept to the highlands above the hills to the east of the open plains. My hope was that they would blunder out onto the plains, which are swarming with landsharks. They seemed to realize this and kept to the hills.” \

“We passed them to the east and rode fast. We did not want to be near them at night, and near whatever is in that carriage, so we kept riding. When night fell I am certain that something - not riders - was behind us. Something disturbing. I no longer felt it before first light. We tried to rest at first light on high ground, where we could watch our rear, but became aware a large party of riders behind us. To make it worse, a band of Gnolls caught our scent and were trailing us.”

“When we reached the northern edge of the swamp, and these hills which jut into the swamp, Arndt and I split up. He rode west, towards the valley of Eventide where the tower of Thelonius Creel is. His plan was to skirt the northern edge of the swamp and use the swamp to hide his tracks, and then ride west to Creel. I rode south, using the river I crossed to hide my track, to where I know the tomb of the twice-crowned is, and saw that you had breached.”

“I have been waiting here since yesterday. The night passed uneventfully, thank Uller, but for the gnolls who found your horses before they found me - and I found them. But not the riders. Not yet.” Thunder rumbles and a light rain begins.

“I am nervous for Arndt’s well-being, particularly since I made it here and was not further harried by the riders. I fear they may have followed him, but our understanding is that these riders sought YOU, which is why I came here rather than Arndt. He is a fine Courser, but less experienced, which is why I sent him west.”

“So I’ll ride with you and show you the way. But I must then head north and try to find Arndt trail, and ensure that these riders did not catch him. If they did not, maybe we’ll all meet at creel’s tower, Uller willing.”

“The shortest route to the Eventide valley is directly through the swamp. It is a dangerous place but I will guide you to the tinker’s trail through the swamp - the horses should be able to ride this, and while it is no less dangerous, you will avoid being bogged in deep water or attacked from beneath. It is 2 days travel west through the swamp. When you reach an island which rises above the swamp, I recommend you rest there. It is defensible and dry.”

“When you reach the end of the tinker’s trail out of the swamp, follow the Acreham river west, through the hills, until you reach the Horned Lamb Inn, which is in the Eventide Valley. Nice enough place. From there I imagine you can be directed to Creel’s tower, which is a few miles north of the Inn, where the hills meet the moors.”

When asked about the surrounding area: “The Upper valley is a strange place. Lots of sheep herders there. Some miners in the hills. Farmers. Some villages. Reclusive folk there, mostly. You hear of strange objects and jewelry, and even stranger magical devices coming from there. Odd in a place that remote, and where mostly sheepherders and farmers live. (he looks at the druid) Lots of greenery there, bucolic. But weird.”

When asked about Creel: “I do not know him. A wizard. Said to be powerful, but odd. You’d have to ask Aesil, she knows him. She was muttering something about him always trying to find a way to reverse death, and it being a waste of time. I’d have to agree. Death takes everyone. Some manage to put it off longer than others.”

We heard voices - real voices - Hibernian voices - specifically, a belch…

Sharon Curley’s Up The Pole#

burp “whoops sorry”

“Oh fer feck’s sake O’Tuck we’re tryin to sneak up here, so we are.”

A man seemed to melt out of the woods shaking his head, and stood on a rock about 50’ feet distant. He had a bow in one hand but held his hands out wide and bowed. “Now let’s relax Mr. Chardas” he said, smiling. “And a thousand greetings to you, my good delvers who appear to have visited the resting place of the Twice-Crowned King and lived to tell the tale! And buy the drinks, I expect! The animals told me the truth! Someone DID go in and now here they are out again, like!”

Chardas was already up and had trained his bow in the direction of the burp and this man who emerged from the woods. He then lowered his bow and sat down on the rock shaking his head, cursing ‘for the sake of fucking Uller, now THIS one, ugh…’

“Ah come now, Mr. Chardas, there are few finer pathfinders than you in the land, except for maybe yours truly, it must be said.” He turned to the party, smiling broadly.

“Gentlemen. Ye look like a stout assembly of men and I’m certain you can collectively do great and terrible damage, in fact I’ve no doubt as you’ve been in THERE and out again.”

“BUT, let me say this with all friendly candor: my men are the finest bowmen in the land, as good as your man Chardas here. And I assure you that if we see even one of you start castin one of your wee spells, or take up a bow, or a crossbow, or a sword or an axe and start a donnybrook, you’ll each be feathered with four dozen arrows before you get a start on. And then you may do some woe to me an mine, of this I have no doubt, but you look like a bunch of fellas who’ve already taken a few good hits, and I promise you if you start with some violence it’ll be returned in kind.”

The party saw that the woods behind and around him were not empty. There were at least a couple dozen shadowy, hooded figures with nocked arrows in a wide semicircle around the party, and at least one huge, hulking figure who hung back in the shadowy trees.

“Let me introduce myself - my name is Ronan MacHood, and I am here to redistribute some of your newfound wealth to those who need it the most - the poor.”

A sort of strained parley took place between Cathal, Seamus, Tim and the leader of this unwashed hoarde, a man named Ronin. They’d heard of him before. He’d been ejected from Hibernia in retaliation for all his good deeds and somehow made his way out here beyond the Vinewood. There were several dozen of Ronin’s followers hidden in the forest, bows drawn.

From the sidelines Menka, who answered to a much higher authority than this bunch of eejits, continued to shellack them with insults, including all their random sisters and mothers, each one of questionable lineage, flipping them off the whole time. Kyril, not particularly interested in parleying either, came up with an excellent idea which would likely have killed them all and solved several problems simultaneously, but we decided Cathal would be upset with such a solution and forebore to execute the lot of them on the spot. More’s the pity.

In the end we dumped a pile of all of our silver and copper on the ground and told them all to fuck off with it. Somewhere around 25,000 pieces. Menka will be building a church soon and clearing the surrounding area. Ronin had moved himself to the top of that list if said edifice is constructed this side of the Vinewood.

Having thus divested ourselves of all of our small coin (and freed up some space in our various interdimensional satchels) we mounted up again and rode through the wooded hills to the west. Chardas would lead us to the swamp but then must take his leave of the party. Manka asked Chardas how he had become acquainted with Aesil. The ranger said he and Aesil had ridden together on a few adventures. “She pays well and I need the money.”

We road west through the heavily forested hills and Chardas told us that black dragons were known to haunt the swamps, while a green dragon named Escamos guarded his hoard in the Tower of Thard, far to the south of the swamp.

As we descended through the forested hills we saw water and vegetation as far as the eye could see in the distance. At the foot of these hills a track lead north and we followed it. We were looking for a tinker’s trail and Chardas had warned us to never travel the swamps at night. We sought a hill that arose from the swamp and we would stop there, seeking a river running to the north and west. Chardas planned to follow this river west.

The Army Displaced In Time#

As we climbed just such a hill we encountered and surprised a small, odd army. They were archaically dressed, with strange features. Not exactly fish-folk, but some subhuman hybrid with bulging, fish-like eyes, webbed hands and feet, scales on skin, wide, flappy lips, all different. 6 of these humanoids were armed with hand-weapons (axes, swords, lethal-looking shepherd’s crooks), two were bowmen.

Their leader was a tall, pale, cavernously thin albino, strangely dressed. He was flanked by two huge, heavily muscled, hulking fish-men.

Seeing them for the enemy they were, we rode our mounts into their midst!

• initiative win
• Tim whipped out a fish fry fireball, doing 39 points of damage
• one bowman died, the rest looked pretty well charred
• Chardas drilled one in the chest with an arrow
• Cathal whacked off, er, whacked one from horseback
• Seamus jumped down and hit one for 4 points
• Menka brained one for horseback, killing it
• Seamus got whacked for 7 points of damage
• Kyril cast Wall of Fire
• The Wall was created, and we heard chanting on the other side
• initiative loss
• everyone but Menka needed to make a save vs. magic (?)
• Lycovyne made his saving throw!
• everyone in the party was hit by vertigo, even those who had saved
• Menka and Cathal were not affected, though the knight had to roll for his horse
• for those effected, reality seemed to have split asunder, giving them a -4 to dice rolls for attacks, damage and saves (?)
• Menka got bludgeoned for 10 points, then hit back for 8 points
• Seamus nailed his opponent for 16 points, even partially blind
• Cathal killed that same opponent
• Gonchar ran forward on foot
• initiative win
• Menka nailed his opponent again from horseback for 8 points - still not dead
• Cathal hit that same guy for 14 points, killing him
  • “That one counts as mine!!!” – Menka
• Lycovyne gained 10 xp for using “lucidity” in a sentence, then lost 10 xp for quoting Queensryche on the topic
• Gonchar took 4 points of damage running through the Wall of Fire
• Cathal applied first aid to Seamus and Menka - Seamus gained no points, while Menka gained 3
• When Gonchar burst through the Wall of Fire he saw the remains of the archaic squad running away on horseback
• Kyril quaffed a Potion of Fire Breath, shape changed into a falcon and leapt into the air, trying to chase down the fleeing fish folk before they had a chance to raise an alarm
• The rest of the party waited for the Wall of Fire to drop, then rode forward in the direction the falcon had flown. We found a charred mess in the woods a few hundred feet ahead. 4 smoking fish folk corpses and a 6'4" tall skinny fish man up to his waist in ground and with a tree growing out of his corpse.
• 8 fish folk corpses in archaic armor, ?? hp

Kyril had breathed fire down upon them, and seeing that there was a survivor, he landed and changed back into an elvish druid. He then used his Staff to animate a nearby tree into a treant. Druid and treant then entered battle with the remaining enemy, a spellcaster. The spellcaster’s attempts to cast were foiled by the repeated battering he received from Kyril’s sap-filled ally. The druid did well in winning initiative but failed to score a single staff strike. Treebeard whooped the spellcaster’s ass, though.

• fish folk archaic army loot!
  • flail adorned with tentacles, nasty looking piece of work
  • festooned with spiked tentacles - a very evil weapon
  • Menka stuffed it in his backpack
  • The skinny tree-infested corpse had a scroll on its person. It seemed clerical, but Menka could not read it. The cleric stuffed this into his backpack for review later with his superiors.

Cathal applied some first aid to Kyril, getting him back 4 points.

Having had no chance to rest, we were low on hit points, spells and just about everything else. Except alcohol. Unwilling to rest this close to the swamp, we formed a marching order and moved forward into the swamp.

We descended into the swamp and proceeded west along a rough trial through the fens. Along the trail a few miles in we found our way blocked by some species of razor plant. Kyril drank a Potion of Plant Control and asked it not to eat us, but please DO eat the ones who are following us.

The plant cleared out of the way and we rode on. Around 5 miles later we found a dead stag in the middle of the track. The beast had massive bites taken out of it, though there was still quite a bit left. Gonchar was hungry. As we skirted the mangled quadrupedal corpse we found ourselves beset by massive bluebottle flies, with bodies the size of cats. Apparently they were drawn to Cathal’s wounds. We slew the paladin and dumped his body on the side of the road. While the flies tucked in, we bolted.

Actually, the nasty bugs attacked the party.

• initiative loss
• the bug bugging Cathal missed
• Cathal whacked it for 11 points with his mailed fist and it flew away
• One of the bugs became interested in Menka - the cleric batted it with his shield and it buggered off
• Lycovyne ignited his sword and the bluebottle flies scattered

We kept riding and in time approached what appeared to be a mound or hill rising out of the swamp in front of the track. It was of a slight grade and flat at the top in an 80’ diameter circle, elevated above the wet muck of the swamp-trail.

At the top, there were a jumble of large fallen standing stones, with a single standing stone jutting forth from the ground like an unkempt tooth some 15 feet from the southern edge. These stones showed signs of long weathering, and clearly had ancient carvings of some kind, suggestions of indecipherable writings and strange shapes. Cathal detected the faintest whiff of magic and evil among the jumble of stones.

A Glabrezu Awakens#

Kyril cast stone shape and pitched a stone tent around the stones, which stones then began to groan and shriek in pain. An opening appeared in the northern side of the stone tent. A 9’ tall creature appeared in a blinding flash of light!

• initiative win
• Menka cast resist fire on himself
• Lycovyne cast a lightning bolt at the creature, doing 34 points of damage
• Tim cast hold monster, only to have it fizzle out as the creature resisted it
• Cathal missed it with a 16
• Gonchar hit it with a 19 for 15 points
• Lycovyne got hit for 14 points (how??)
• Lycovyne and Flint them made saves vs. fear
• initiative win
• Tim zapped through its resistance with magic missiles for 16 points
• Cathal double-nailed the demon for 32 points of damage, knocking it down
• It told the knight “we will meet again” as it disappeared into the ether
• Type III demon, 80 hp

The stone shaped tent still stood. Cathal applied first aid to Gonchar and Lycovyne, healing the latter for 3 points. Kyril had some cure light wounds spells to kill and healed Menka for 7 points and Lycovyne twice for 14 points. Menka cured Seamus’ lighter wounds as well, getting him back 8.

From the top of the hill, visible far to the south the party saw an impossibly tall, needle-like tower off in the distance across the swamp. Longer examination revealed open air between the lower and upper half of the tower, although it was hard to see. The party also thought it could see a large winged creature alight from the tower and fly in the other direction, away from us.

The Fourth Watch Visitor#

We camped at the top of this hill. Lycovyne and Tim took the first watch, which was quiet. Flint and Seamus on the second watch heard something crunching through the leaves and undergrowth in the woods some distance off, but it passed us by. All was quiet during Gonchar and Cathal’s watch.

Menka and Kyril received an interstellar visitor, nattily dressed and surrounded by a cloud of clove-stench smoke. The interstellar satyr set forth as follows:

He applauded the party for dispatching the ’twice-crowned king’, “the natural outcome of a long history of hubris, arrogance and the insolence of one whose own vain certainty of his own gloriousness was his ultimate undoing. DO be careful who you make agreements with.”

He also advised the party that “I come to warn you that in the southern sands from whence our exalted seeker of knowledge, the good Father Menka does hail, the sunken temple of Thoth in Andril will rise from beneath the sands within the fortnight. When it last sunk beneath the sand, undesirable interlopers had delved into its deepest recesses and obtained i.e. STOLEN two manuscripts from the hidden library of Thoth FAR beneath the sands. These manuscripts are VERY dangerous and can be used to achieve ends exceedingly contrary to our mutual shared goals, namely prevention of the visitation of EXTREME chaos upon this particular prime material plane.”

“It is my understanding that these volumes lie in the upper reaches of the undertemple, where the chaotic thieves beholden to their elder, eldritch deities fell beneath the teeth of those who can travel between angles and between the centuries THEMselves. As I am certain Father Menka would agree, THESE volumes should go back upon the shelves, past and beneath the hall of the immortals, and upon the shelves of the sacred library of HE who you worship, and under the watchful eye of his guardians and guardianSHIP.”

We heard a chorus of chilling howls far off in the distance. Then in a whiff of clove-scented smoke, he was gone. Dawn cracked.

Menka, Kyril and Cathal applied a large amount of healing spells and abilities to the party. That plus the full night’s rest replenished our hit points and spells. Back to full health, at last!

Onward to the Horne’d Lamb Inn#

Mounting up and riding west, we encountered a cute little squirrel and gave it a wide berth. As we rode on the swamp began to thin. Unfortunately, the trees were literally crawling with large spiders.

• initiative win
• Kyril said “I got this” and tried an animal summoning, which failed, as the spiders had far too many hit dice to be summoned (8 HD spiders!)
• Cathal hit a spider for 19 points
• Lycovyne hit one for 17
• Seamus popped a spider for 9 points
• Gonchar splattered spider guts everywhere with a natural 20
• Menka chipped a nail
• Tim zapped 2 with magic missiles, killing both
• The beasties missed Menka
• intiative win
• Cathal hit one for 15 points
• Gonchar hit one for 20 points
• Menka flailed one for 6 points
• All the spiders missed
• initiative win
• Cathal killed one
• Gonchar killed the last spider
• 6 giant spiders, 22 HP each

Remarkably we survived the encounter without taking any damage. We searched the area, finding several web-wrapped bundles hanging in the trees. One radiated a faint magic. We cut down the bundle and found within a very, very dead human male. He held a flaming amoeba holy symbol, which Menka grabbed. The cleric also grabbed the corpse’s purse.

• spider victim loot!
  • flaming amoeba symbol
  • purse

We finally made it through the swamp and rode into a much drier, hilly area and came upon a river flowing northwest. The Akerham River, we hoped. We followed the river northwest, out of the hills, riding through fields with farms in the distance. One farmer we hailed was indeed not friendly, and stared at us impassively and then turned and entered a barn, saying naught. Perhaps this is the Valley of Eventide? We continued through farmland for 6 more miles and saw tidy little inn on the shore of the river. Approaching at a walk we saw a sign hanging above the door depicting a lamb with 7 eyes, naming the place The Horne’d Lamb.

We dismounted, tied up our mounts and doled out some oats to the horses. Entering the Inn, Cathal detected evil, somewhere. We approached the bar and were greeted by Teos Cole, the bartender and owner. Relieved to find a couple good pints, we bought a round of drinks for the bar. The tavern stood right on the water; boats were pulled up alongside, probably belonging to punters drinking within.

Cathal chatted with Teos for a while and learned that the bartender had a serious problem on his hands. Abigail and her party had been through very recently: a large mounted group (“15 or 20 horses, with a carriage”) stopped in the early evening two nights ago, just before dark, and requested only lamb stew and water. They paid with strange coinage, with odd runes upon them, but paid “in gold worth far more than what we charge for stew”.

Teos said this group were oddly dressed, as if they stepped out of the last century, like actors in a play from olden times. Their leader called himself Mr. Phipps, and would not say his first name. He was a tall, severe-looking man who carried what appeared to be a Shepard’s staff, but black, and seemingly adorned with sharp edges. He asked for the whereabouts of the tower of ‘his friend’ Thelonius Creel. “I did not like this man, and told him I did not know, but he then spoke with one of the shepherd folks drinking here and I think he got his answer.”

The riders ate their lamb and drank their water, and after dark fell, they were joined by a small darkhaired woman with disturbing eyes. She did not eat, but spoke with Tatiana, our waitress, for some time. The riders did not stay here, but left after dark, and after they left “I was glad to see them and that woman go.”

He said that Tatiana fell ill yesterday, and she kept to her room, and would not come out - “we put her in an unused guestroom, if she caught a plague from this group, we must keep her separate, I cannot have my girls all fall ill.” Her sister who also works here, Tara, is most upset.

It was pretty clear to the party that Tatiana had been bitten by Abigail and was now transforming into one of Abigail’s slaves. Tim had access to a scroll of Limited Wish and we thought we could remove the vampiric curse from Tatiana with it. And if it didn’t work, well, the results would be grim indeed. We did not tell Teos that latter part, but Cathal did convince the good bartender to let us try to dispel the evil now resident in the young woman.

The bartender assented. Menka said a prayer for Tim to help his roll for the Limited Wish. Tim cast the spell and it worked! The vampiric curse was lifted from Tatiana MacBride and she began to come back to her senses. Menka cast cure light wounds on her and she wept openly and fell into the arms of her sister.

Cathal told the bartender the good news and Teos was delighted!

end