19th session: The Genie in the bottle

10th moon, 1st day, year 4553
Using his ring of change self, Nalfein enters Laketown to scout and find the sage. His first stop is at the Wet Fish Inn, where he bribes a local to tell him about John Ghutol. Apparently the local merchant does not know of this sage, but he directs him to Master Ryghlar, *the* sage in Laketown. He lives in a tower-house on the island furthest from land. Nalfein quickly heads over to the island, only to be turned away by the sage's majordomo. He is however told to return the next day.

10th moon, 2nd day, year 4553
Nalfein returns to Master Ryghlar's place, and this time, he is in luck. Master Ryghlar meets with him, and informs him that Ghutol died 250 years ago. But Master Ryghlar does know of the scrolls, and proposes a deal. He knows of a genie, and if the brothers can deliver said genie to Master Ryghlar, he will tell them all they need to know of the Scrolls. In order to find the genie, the T'orghs must head to the Dragon Mountains and use magic to enter a special underground dungeon. There they will have to find 8 keys to open a portal, which in turn will lead them to the genie. Nalfein accepts on behalf of the brothers, and return to camp.

10th moon, 4th day, year 4553
After two days of walking in the mountains, the brothers and their pet goblin are surprised and attacked by two ettins. Although Tawri almost blinks his ass out over a ledge, the giants prove to be fairly easily dealt with. Later the same day, they find the secret magical entrance and get teleported inside the dungeon.

The dungeon appears very large, and in the first room that they enter, they find a chest. As Tagar wants to open it, it morphs and bites him. While that could arguably be somewhat expected, the fact that the walls were suddenly alive as well certainly did surprise the brothers. The fight against the living wall and the mimic is a tough one, but in the end, the two monsters are dead and the brothers are already fairly exhausted but they have their first key.

But deciding not to let the dungeon dictate their pace, they head further in. The next room has the key on a keychain in the middle of a long narrow room, complete with autoclosing walls. Tagar shows off his speed and jumping skills, and manages to get the key unharmed.

The brothers move on, into an empty room. Suddenly they find themselves trapped in the mindscape of an intellect devourer which stalks them in an imaginary forest, while attempting to sow division and distrust. Tagar ends by downing Tawri, but manages to shake the spell and turn around the fight with two perfect hits in a row. They now have 3 keys, and decide to rest here.

10th moon, 3rd day, year 4553
After a good night's sleep, the brothers continue on their quest for keys. They find a small statuette in the next room, which they have to remove from a pressure plate releasing poison to bring it along. The removing doesn't go too well, and Nalfein and Tagar get poisoned. But noone dies, and they continue to the next room they can find, which turns out to have nothing, but some odd markings which they can not decipher on the floor.

Next they find an alchemy lab, and Tawri attempts to make some water breathing potions, but without a positive result.

Then they find a room full of gems, gold and magic, but it turns out to be nothing but an illusion designed to trigger a curse. The imp guarding the room tries to kill them, but fails.

After the imp follows a junk-room, where some mustard goos attack the brothers. They kill off the weird monsters with some difficult and now have yet another key.

After the goos, the brothers discover a room that looks mostly like an ancient temple. With some luck, the brothers manage to defeat the two mummies that guard the room. And while there is no key in the room, there is (amongst others) a Pelor-decorated magic longsword which disappears from the hand of Tagar when he is struck unconscious, only to reappear seemingly out of nowhere later on, when Tawri searches for it.

10th moon, 4th day, year 4553
After a good night's they find a library and the brothers spend the day identifying items and finding 6 rare books. It turns out that the longsword Tagar has acquired is a holy avenger. He decides to keep it, citing that it suits him doing Asmodeus' will with a Pelor-blessed weapon. Nalfein and Tawri approve. The six books are:

Thoran Blackwater's Most Intriguing Life and Death
Fairie Fauna
Navigating the City of Brass
Lighting A Fire In A Snow Blizzard, A Treatize On Arcane Cold And Fire Magics
Jeffroz Ranzibel, A True Death
The True Story of the Lightbringer

10th moon, 5th day, year 4553
The T'orghs continue their exploration of the dungeon complex. They head towards the last room, which is a small ruin submerged in water. The 7th key is at the bottom, protected by a vampiric manta ray, which attack them while Tagar is using a combination of water walk and levitate to get to the key. Tagar gets drained before the brothers kill the beast. The 8th key is in the clay statue they found in a previous room, and after "freeing" the key, they head back to the portal room.

They activate the portal and find themselves in a fungal forest underground. Soon after arriving to this mysterious place, they are attacked by a beetle the size of a small elephant, but it is quickly dispatched. Size does not always matter, apparently.

As they venture further into the fungal forest, they run into a large number of Fungi men. There is a standoff, and the brothers convince the fungi men to lead them out of the forest. As they exit it several hours later, they are told that there be drow to the north-west and dwarves to the south east. The T'orghs decide to stay away from the drows - for now - and head east along the border of the forest.

As they get tired, they get to a river. They levitate and get dragged across, and then camp for some much needed sleep. During the night, Belos goes off on his own when he sees some fluorescent shrooms in the river - and almost drowns.

10th moon, 6th day, year 4553
The brothers continue east, where they find the ruins of an ancient elven city that mysteriously disappeared about 1500 years ago, in the year 2987. They enter the ruins, only to run into almost 20 elven wights. A battle for their lives start, and while they manage to kill the foul beats, Belos has been drained dry and is in a coma, and the rest of the brothers do not feel much better. They retreat back to their last camping spot, where they rest up.

10th moon, 7th day, year 4553
When Belos doesn't awaken the next morning, the brothers are worried.

10th moon, 11th day, year 4553
After more days of hiding invisibly, the T'orghs have had the chance to examine their new acquisitions. In Thoran Blackwater's Most Intriguing Life and Death, they find notes on a ritual that can help those who have been drained. If it doesn't kill them first. Deciding that Belos would want that, Nalfein and Tawri perform the ritual and Belos awakens, although still very weakened. They decide to wait some more.

10th moon, 14th day, year 4553
Not knowing what to do, Nalfein uses Divination and is told: The Genie is guarded by those who can not see, fear not the water, least the Genie you will not see.

The brothers head north, and after dealing with some spiders bigger than horses, they arrive where the river enters the cavern, a waterfall on the northern wall. They get the idea to levitate up and enter the hole where the water flows from. Inside, they stumble over a grey-purple-ish dragon. After some negociation and such, the brothers pay the dragon with the gems their father had given them for the sage. The dragon, which calls itself Xixiral, informs them that the genie is down south, near where the river hits the south wall.

So they head south.

10th moon, 17th day, year 4553
After heading south for 3 days and searching along the southern wall, the dark elf brothers find a cave with grimlocks. And after utterly destroying most of a patrol, they succeed in making an alliance with the grimlocks, which apparently have been living under the genie's figurative iron boot.

They enter the efreet's cave and face it. Soon they are fighting in an inferno of flames and fireballs, and just manage to bring the evil creature down and trap it in a bottle.

10th moon, 18th day, year 4553
After a good night's rest in the efreet's cave, they leave and head south-east, to the dwarves, which turn out to be duergar with a mining facility. Tawri tries to spy on them, and gets caught. The brothers strike a deal with the triplet leaders of the colony. Bring back the head of Zakris Darkmantle, leader of Darkfort, the drow enclave at the opposite end of the cavern. They also learn that a mindflayer has often been spotted in the ruins to the north, where the brothers almost met their end.

10th moon, 23rd day, year 4553
As they approach Darkfort, the T'orgh brothers run into a basilisk, which they readily dispatch, then an umberhulk that confuses Belos so much that Tagar has to knock him out cold.

10th moon, 24th day, year 4553
The brothers arrive at Darkfort. Belos does some magic and explains where Zakris is. He also explains that he is talking to someone from Menzo, and they are talking about a revolution, a plot to take down the city. He also mentions that Darkmantle warns his guest about House Mizzrym.

The brothers dimension door their way in, and find themselves facing Zakris Darkmantle, an expert warrior and a dark elf vampire. After a short but brutal fight, Zakris slays Tawri just before the vampire is forced to turn to mist and flee and he himself is slain by the brothers. Seconds later, they dimension door back out, with the body of Tawri and the head of Zakris...

13th session: Two deaths and the destruction of House Tuin

7th moon, 11th day, year 4553

After talking with R'azz, the brothers learn that cousin Ry'jak, a failed cleric turned fighter has been acting suspiciously and meeting in secreet with noble sons of other Houses. The T'orghs decide that he probably is the spy and set new plans in motion in order to get a confirmation thereof. Talking to their father, High Priest Venar, they are allowed to sacrifize 600 sets of weapon (stolen from the orcs) and armor to flush out the spy. They get the weapons and the armors moved to an old warehouse.

7th moon, 12th day, year 4553

Disguised as orcs (using change self), Nalfein and Glazmar pull a fast one on cousin, and make him think that those weapons are meant for a sizable mercenary force coming to bolster the T'orgh forces. Then they hang back and wait for him to make his move.

7th moon, 13th day, year 4553

A couple of hours after midnight, Ry'jak leaves the palace and heads down to Scumtown. The 5 brothers follow him under the cover of invisibility and darkness, and when he enters the Red Devil, an Inn of ill repute, Glazmar and Ukerin follow. There he meets with Crantyk, the elderboy of House Xiltyn and tells him of the weapons. Crantyk pays him, and leaves, and Ry'jak goes back to the palace as well.

The brothers quickly return to the palace and tell Father, what they have learned. He is pleased, but informs them that the spy will have to wait. House Tuin will most likely soon attack, and he has a job for his sons.

As you all know, one doesn't have to destroy another house to destroy them. Provoking them to attack and repelling them, is more than enough. House Tuin will come at us with all that they have, and we will stop them. Your older brothers and I will defend us all against the concerted magical assault they will launch. Meanwhile, you will sneak out and take out 3 of their spellcasters to ensure a stallmate. Once rebuffed they will either leave and be destroyed by the other houses or risk a head on assault on the palace with all the defences intact. At this point, it will just be a matter of how the House of Tuin dies.

The spellcasters will be spread out in the area surrounding our palace, in a pattern to enhance their magical assault. Probably on rooftops, in appartments or other places out of sight. They will probably be protected by some sort of guards or traps. In order to find them, you need to use locate object to find this pendant, which all spellcasters of House Tuin wear. All of their most powerful spellcasters will be at the center of the pattern, so if you find a place with multiple pendants, move on to another.

He then hands them 3 scrolls of Locate Object and the Tuin Pendant.

7th moon, 15th day, year 4553

After waiting around a couple of days, things finally pick up pace, and the Tuin family and army make their move. As soon as the attack start, Nalfein is alerted by his uncle, and the brothers move out and start magically tracking down spellcasters.

They find the first in a courtyard, surrounded by dark elf guards and an ogre. A long battle starts, with darkness spells flying left and right. Raheem is held by the cleric's magic and so is Glazmar. In the end, the a repeated barrage of lightning bolts kill the cleric while Tagar and Nalfein deal with the ogre and the dark elves.

The brothers recoup their breath and move on to the next target, which turns out to be on a rooftop nearby. The T'orghs all levitate up, but fail to surprise the wizard standing up there. He quickly launches a fireball, knocking both Raheem and Ukerin unconscious, which causes them to plummel to the ground and die. Meanwhile, Glazram manages to land a hold person on the wizard, and as Tagar is about to cut his throat, they find out that the mage is protected by stoneskin and that he has a pet troll which was hiding. The battle continues, but blinded by the dark elf magic, the regenerating beast is no match for the dark elf brothers, and they manage to beat their way through the stoneskin and the troll before the hold person spell expires.

There is no time for mourning, and the 3 brothers left standing move on to the last target, which they find in an apartment. They levitate up and surprise two wizards who have occupied a goblin place. The fight is swift and brutal, but the 3 brothers walk away from it relatively unharmed.

They return to Father, who is very very pleased. They have done honor to House T'orgh, and he offers to ressurect Ukerin while he declares that Raheem is not fit to live. Unfortunately is is not either the will of Asmodeus that Ukerin lives (failed ress check with 1% on a 98). So just 3 days after his birthday, Ukerin is no more.

Posted with Blogsy

1st session: All glory to House T'orgh

3rd Moon, 7th day, year 4553
All glory to Asmodeus! The T'orgh brothers (well half-brothers to be honest) have just finished their training, and have been summoned to meet with their father, High Priest Venar of House T'orgh. The High Priest wants to test the young ones, so he orders an ogre brought in, for them to fight. The fight goes reasonably well they think, except that the Ogre does manage to severely wound Nargar (the fighter). High Priest Venar seems underwhelmed, but decides that there is a matter they can attend.

They are to travel nine days to the north, to the edge of the Silent Forest, and pay a visit to the goblin tribe of the Broken Spears, and their chief, Farlang. For some reason, the tribe has been raiding human settlements beyond the forest, something which had been strictly forbidden by High Priest Venar. The T'orghs are to stop him. Whether he lives or dies does not matter to the High Priest, as long as the raiding stops.


3rd Moon, 8th day, year 4553
After having gotten all the provisions they need, the T'orghs head out into the Silent Forest.

3rd Moon, 10th day, year 4553
The T'orgh brothers run into a brown bear. Luckily for them, it is busy trying to get some honey off a tree, and doesn't notice them. The wisely avoid it.

3rd Moon, 12th day, year 4553
The T'orghs stumble over a corpse in rotting clothes. As they search it, two snakes attack them. They manage to kill the snakes, and then realize to their horror that it was yellow Eye-snakes, and the two bites that Raheem (the ranger) took could both have been lethal! But they do find an old map. The corpse's map

3rd Moon, 14th day, year 4553
At night, while they rest, Taluzik (fighter/cleric) is alerted by some loud eating noises coming from nearby bushes. He wakes the others, and while they don their armor, the noises stop, and a dog-sized beetle peak its head through the bushes. There is a stare-down, and the beetle leaves once again, along with the other beetles, and the brothers can go back to sleep.

3rd Moon, 15th day, year 4553
As it is getting late, the T'orghs suddenly hear the howling of wolves. They are about to be attacked. Nalfein (the priest) climbs into a tree, and the rest take defensive formation on the ground, as 5 wolves come out of the forest and assault them. The fight is brutal, and Nargar goes down, wolf at his throat. The healers can't quite get to him in time, and he quickly bleeds out.

After taking the customary 5 minutes to mourn for their brother, the T'orghs continue their journey. Targar, their older brother, soon catches up with them.

3rd Moon, 17th day, year 4553
In the wee hours of the morning, while Nalfein is on guard-duty, he suddenly spots a humanoid which jumps and devours a wild boar further in the wood. He wakes the others. After the creature is done with the swine, it catches their scent, and charges them almost on all four. As the creature comes close, they can see it is an undead creature, a ghoul. Both Nalfein and Taluzik try to command the foul creature, but apparently they are still too weak in their faith in the Lord of Light. It assaults Taluzik but can't quite manage to penetrate his armor and then Targar (another fighter) rips it to shreds with his two weapons.

After finishing their rest, the T'orghs move on and come to the goblin village. A goblin patrol try to stop them, but are cowed by the menace in the dark elves' eyes. They are quickly lead to Farlang, in his underground lair. There he explains that he had to raid the humans, as the goblin water-supply had been poisoned by an evil witch in the forest.

 Farlang

Farlang is told in no uncertain terms, that if he ever does it again, he will find himself dead along with the rest of the tribe. For now, however, a sacrifice by fire of his three best warriors and three most beautiful women in their childbearing years will do for now.

The ritual is conducted under the watchful eye of the T'orghs..