Post by Dead Greyhawk on Jul 27, 2010 6:33:47 GMT -5
Here's what I wrote. Feel free to ask questions of Pawnis/Dell, who is relatively forthcoming.
The loss of the rest of the Company of the Blue Sun was a great shock. Dell, Adrienne, and Winthrop knew not what to do, and Antonus clearly suffered from his death and resurrection. For days they camped at the shrunken door, uncertain what to do. They argued about immediately searching for the Company, but Antonus was ill-equipped for such an effort. Before they came to a firm decision, the small gate became smaller and closed. Apparently for good. The remainder of the Company of the Blue Sun retreated to the Hall.
The fight against the giants and the undead pouring out of Sterich occupied much of his energies, magical and physical. Even Antonus, restored to life, seemed subtly changed for his experiences. The recovery of the others lost in the Abyss became a focus of Winthrop, Dell, and Antonus’s efforts. Unfortunately, they made little progress, and the fight against Tharizdun went worse and worse. As expected, Keoland collapsed through infighting for the crown. The Yeomanry was besieged on three sides, and no aid flowed to it. Winthrop, Dell, and Antonus’s firepower became essential to the defense of the Yeomanry, with the three mages pouring death and destruction on humanoids, giantkind, undead, and worse that came in through Sterich. Days turned into weeks, weeks to months.
The absence of the Great Druid was keenly felt. The land turned against all within it. The forest dwellers and creatures that might have aided in the defense hid from the invaders. Worse yet, strangely deformed and twisted creatures, mockeries of their true selves, began to appear. Trees with poisoned thorns, toxic wheat, and gargantuan meldings of creatures were reported throughout the land.
The drudgery of backing the Freemen in battle weighed on Winthrop. While he tried to see how his time was well spent, he was very annoyed with how this had all come about. It was in response to summoning from Melodius Starson that things began to change. The Company of the Blue Sun went to Loftwick at Starson’s request, expecting to get more direction to aid more of the remaining forces of the nation. Instead, Winthrop was faced with a corpse, the corpse of Cathmandius.
Melodius Starson tells a gruesome tale of how a train of decayed walking dead, more skeleton than zombie, carried the corpse of Cathmandius into the front lines of battle near Hole and stood unmoving as they were destroyed. The troops arrayed against the giantkind had long remembered Cathmandius’s charge through their line and into the hole in the Crystalmists. Cathmandius’s corpse was still clad in the skull armor that marked him as a Hextorite, and an enterprising captain had it shipped back to Loftwick.
The Seven-fold Church summoned Melodius and Melodius summoned the Company of the Blue Sun for one reason: Cathmandius’s soul refused to speak to anyone but them! With sufficient support from the combined acolytes of the Seven-fold Church, Adrienne called back Cathmandius’s soul from the hells it inhabited. Amidst its screams of agony and wails of despair, it answered Adrienne’s questions. Cathmandius had been in search of the Sphere of Power of the Archmage Martek, destroyer of the Bakluni, invoker of devastation. Martek’s sphere was able to change the course of time itself and warp space in directions unimaginable. Cathmandius told of how Martek’s tomb was located in the middle of a great sea of glass, seared sand from the Rain of Colorless Fire, between three dark pillars of crystal that rose above it. Only with the right key could the tomb be opened, one of the magical gemstones Martek had bestowed on the Suloise emperors, known as pharaohs. Cathmandius related how he died alone, his men slain, beset on the shimmering glass. Demons and dark elves had slain him, but Malphas, appearing to reap his soul, consumed all that stood on the battlefield. Cathmandius’s long planning won out as his soulless body was gathered up by his dead men, who under his last command carried it back to the Yeomanry. “Raven! You must go to the Archmage’s tomb, plunder it for the Sphere of Power, and turn back time!” screeched Cathmandius in dolor. “Do so else Tharizdun unknits us all!”
No one knew what to think. Cathmandius, for his many faults, had been an unlikely ally and steadfast in battle. His cry for Raven to lead the Company to victory was like an icepick into Winthrop’s heart. Distressed, he and the others returned to the Hall to argue and think.
Days of fruitless argument went by, with Winthrop arguing for revenge and surprisingly Antonus arguing for more caution. Finally, Adrienne broke the balance. She communed with Lydia.
Lydia was frighteningly clear. Cathmandius was both right and wrong. Hextor believes that might makes right, but Lydia knows that all tools are merely means to an end. Martek’s tomb was her priestess’s destination, but because it was a doorway for the Company. Lydia’s voice scoured her mind. “These places are of the destroyer of men, the protector of his own, the wise fool,” shrieked the besieged goddess. “Find where he hides in his death and the greater evil that threatens even us can be defeated with the recovery of your company.”
Two visions were provided. In the first, she saw a tower full of immobile people frozen in place. Within one of the rooms was an alcove with a small hole in its roof. Glittering light streamed down from this hole into another hole in the floor. The light pooled and flowed like a liquid where it struck the floor. Adjacent to the streaming light was another small alcove with an empty, open hourglass sitting in it. “Such is the time,” screeched Lydia.
She saw a strange place where solid ground gave way. Huge chunks of rock floated off towards the center of a swirling storm. The howling wind and cracking thunder of the storm was deafening. The glowing clouds were a huge whirlpool of red lightning and vicious winds that spun down into blackness. A platform of giant crystals floated in the center of the storm. All around the island the whirlpool spun faster and faster before racing down into the chaos. “Such is the place,” cried Lydia. “Brave fools may succeed where cowardly sages fear to tread!”
The Company agreed to chance the recovery of the others and possibly the world. They bankrupted the treasury to make scrolls, spellbooks, and potions, create summonable chests, and otherwise prepare themselves for the dangerous trip. Dell and Adrienne spent long hours in conversation with Melodius Starson trying to link what information they had with the little lore available on the Abyss. When all was said and done, Melodius had drawn upon the full extent of his lore, and Dell and Adrienne left clutching a bag with four items in it: a single knucklebone, a mummified large spider corpse, four grey-silver cubes, and a golden pine cone.
The trip over the Crystalmists was harrying. The three mages flew through the mountains, avoiding gryphons, rocs, and dragons, plus other less wholesome things, protecting each other from harm. A surprising amount of magic was used to dissuade flying beasts from fighting them. Once the Sea of Dust was reached, Winthrop collected Adrienne, who was the most essential to the plan since she was the only one who could cast any of the revivifying magics, by teleportation. On the Sea of Dust, they traveled exclusively at night, summoning a secure shelter to preserve them in the heat of the day, and Adrienne remained cloaked in invisibility.
Disaster nearly set upon them when dark elves ambushed the Company on the far side of the Sea of Dust, amidst a ruined city. Dell was struck down by poison, and it was only the quick intercession of Adrienne, who, invisible, had remained unnoticed by the dark elves, that saved the day. Balls of fire and bolts of lightning, combined with judicious uses of slow and flight, decimated the dark elves and their bugbear minions. The suddenly unparalyzed Dell and the appearance of Adrienne led to the quick deaths of two of the spellcasters, and the battle shifted dramatically. Even so, the Company fled the scene.
Antonus scouted for the Company and, from high above was able to see enough of the landscape to construct a crude map for Adrienne, upon which she divined the location of the magical gemstone described by Cathmandius. When the Company followed her direction, they were surprised to find it was an oasis. The sheik of the desert tribe camped amid the ruins on the oasis was amenable to massive bribes. The three wizards gave a massive bribe and false names and then toured the oasis, speaking with the locals, with little difficulty. Winthrop even went so far as to buy books and other items through the bazaar, much to Dell’s annoyance. Antonus again made a detailed map for Adrienne to divine over.
To no one’s surprise, the gemstone was hidden under the ground. It took several days to uncover that a secret door was hidden in a monument in the oasis, and that this led to an underground temple. The worshipers in the temple were clearly evil, with animated dead and a pit to hell in the temple itself, but they were not the main goal of the Company. Invisible, flying, and polymorphed, with wards and detection spells layered on, the Company navigated glyphs of warding, traps, and secret doors until they found, at the end of a pit-filled corridor what they were looking for: a large gemstone secreted in a hidden library.
It was there that a great Efreet, instantly recognized by Dell as the same that had been released from the Halls of Beoll-dur, came upon them. Adrienne’s wards held off his magics, but the room itself was scorched and burnt from the harsh balls and pillars of fire the Efreet used. Knowing that discretion was the better part of valor, Winthrop teleported them all back to a campsite used days earlier as the Efreet howled its rage.
Feeling close to success, the Company headed back onto the burning glass, protected by Adrienne’s magics. A long search finally located the three dark black crystal spires described by Cathmandius. Antonus struck one of the pillars with his staff, and they entered the tomb of Martek.
Within, they found a great battle had recently taken place between warriors and thieves. A holy warrior, indicated as trustworthy by alignment, told how the battle was egged on by a dark elf who had recently arrived. The thieves were those that had attempted to enter the tomb of Martek for plunder, while he and his brethren had come to beseech aid against the Malatath, the undead army of the Efreet, from the Archmage’s spirit. After dispatching the dark elf, the holy warriors, Dinalas Percivilis the Pure, and the sole surviving thief, Bandik, were convinced to accompany them to the tomb. Much to everyone’s frustration, it became clear that the doors to the tomb were locked and that three gemstones, not one, are needed to open the tomb.
The loss of the rest of the Company of the Blue Sun was a great shock. Dell, Adrienne, and Winthrop knew not what to do, and Antonus clearly suffered from his death and resurrection. For days they camped at the shrunken door, uncertain what to do. They argued about immediately searching for the Company, but Antonus was ill-equipped for such an effort. Before they came to a firm decision, the small gate became smaller and closed. Apparently for good. The remainder of the Company of the Blue Sun retreated to the Hall.
The fight against the giants and the undead pouring out of Sterich occupied much of his energies, magical and physical. Even Antonus, restored to life, seemed subtly changed for his experiences. The recovery of the others lost in the Abyss became a focus of Winthrop, Dell, and Antonus’s efforts. Unfortunately, they made little progress, and the fight against Tharizdun went worse and worse. As expected, Keoland collapsed through infighting for the crown. The Yeomanry was besieged on three sides, and no aid flowed to it. Winthrop, Dell, and Antonus’s firepower became essential to the defense of the Yeomanry, with the three mages pouring death and destruction on humanoids, giantkind, undead, and worse that came in through Sterich. Days turned into weeks, weeks to months.
The absence of the Great Druid was keenly felt. The land turned against all within it. The forest dwellers and creatures that might have aided in the defense hid from the invaders. Worse yet, strangely deformed and twisted creatures, mockeries of their true selves, began to appear. Trees with poisoned thorns, toxic wheat, and gargantuan meldings of creatures were reported throughout the land.
The drudgery of backing the Freemen in battle weighed on Winthrop. While he tried to see how his time was well spent, he was very annoyed with how this had all come about. It was in response to summoning from Melodius Starson that things began to change. The Company of the Blue Sun went to Loftwick at Starson’s request, expecting to get more direction to aid more of the remaining forces of the nation. Instead, Winthrop was faced with a corpse, the corpse of Cathmandius.
Melodius Starson tells a gruesome tale of how a train of decayed walking dead, more skeleton than zombie, carried the corpse of Cathmandius into the front lines of battle near Hole and stood unmoving as they were destroyed. The troops arrayed against the giantkind had long remembered Cathmandius’s charge through their line and into the hole in the Crystalmists. Cathmandius’s corpse was still clad in the skull armor that marked him as a Hextorite, and an enterprising captain had it shipped back to Loftwick.
The Seven-fold Church summoned Melodius and Melodius summoned the Company of the Blue Sun for one reason: Cathmandius’s soul refused to speak to anyone but them! With sufficient support from the combined acolytes of the Seven-fold Church, Adrienne called back Cathmandius’s soul from the hells it inhabited. Amidst its screams of agony and wails of despair, it answered Adrienne’s questions. Cathmandius had been in search of the Sphere of Power of the Archmage Martek, destroyer of the Bakluni, invoker of devastation. Martek’s sphere was able to change the course of time itself and warp space in directions unimaginable. Cathmandius told of how Martek’s tomb was located in the middle of a great sea of glass, seared sand from the Rain of Colorless Fire, between three dark pillars of crystal that rose above it. Only with the right key could the tomb be opened, one of the magical gemstones Martek had bestowed on the Suloise emperors, known as pharaohs. Cathmandius related how he died alone, his men slain, beset on the shimmering glass. Demons and dark elves had slain him, but Malphas, appearing to reap his soul, consumed all that stood on the battlefield. Cathmandius’s long planning won out as his soulless body was gathered up by his dead men, who under his last command carried it back to the Yeomanry. “Raven! You must go to the Archmage’s tomb, plunder it for the Sphere of Power, and turn back time!” screeched Cathmandius in dolor. “Do so else Tharizdun unknits us all!”
No one knew what to think. Cathmandius, for his many faults, had been an unlikely ally and steadfast in battle. His cry for Raven to lead the Company to victory was like an icepick into Winthrop’s heart. Distressed, he and the others returned to the Hall to argue and think.
Days of fruitless argument went by, with Winthrop arguing for revenge and surprisingly Antonus arguing for more caution. Finally, Adrienne broke the balance. She communed with Lydia.
Lydia was frighteningly clear. Cathmandius was both right and wrong. Hextor believes that might makes right, but Lydia knows that all tools are merely means to an end. Martek’s tomb was her priestess’s destination, but because it was a doorway for the Company. Lydia’s voice scoured her mind. “These places are of the destroyer of men, the protector of his own, the wise fool,” shrieked the besieged goddess. “Find where he hides in his death and the greater evil that threatens even us can be defeated with the recovery of your company.”
Two visions were provided. In the first, she saw a tower full of immobile people frozen in place. Within one of the rooms was an alcove with a small hole in its roof. Glittering light streamed down from this hole into another hole in the floor. The light pooled and flowed like a liquid where it struck the floor. Adjacent to the streaming light was another small alcove with an empty, open hourglass sitting in it. “Such is the time,” screeched Lydia.
She saw a strange place where solid ground gave way. Huge chunks of rock floated off towards the center of a swirling storm. The howling wind and cracking thunder of the storm was deafening. The glowing clouds were a huge whirlpool of red lightning and vicious winds that spun down into blackness. A platform of giant crystals floated in the center of the storm. All around the island the whirlpool spun faster and faster before racing down into the chaos. “Such is the place,” cried Lydia. “Brave fools may succeed where cowardly sages fear to tread!”
The Company agreed to chance the recovery of the others and possibly the world. They bankrupted the treasury to make scrolls, spellbooks, and potions, create summonable chests, and otherwise prepare themselves for the dangerous trip. Dell and Adrienne spent long hours in conversation with Melodius Starson trying to link what information they had with the little lore available on the Abyss. When all was said and done, Melodius had drawn upon the full extent of his lore, and Dell and Adrienne left clutching a bag with four items in it: a single knucklebone, a mummified large spider corpse, four grey-silver cubes, and a golden pine cone.
The trip over the Crystalmists was harrying. The three mages flew through the mountains, avoiding gryphons, rocs, and dragons, plus other less wholesome things, protecting each other from harm. A surprising amount of magic was used to dissuade flying beasts from fighting them. Once the Sea of Dust was reached, Winthrop collected Adrienne, who was the most essential to the plan since she was the only one who could cast any of the revivifying magics, by teleportation. On the Sea of Dust, they traveled exclusively at night, summoning a secure shelter to preserve them in the heat of the day, and Adrienne remained cloaked in invisibility.
Disaster nearly set upon them when dark elves ambushed the Company on the far side of the Sea of Dust, amidst a ruined city. Dell was struck down by poison, and it was only the quick intercession of Adrienne, who, invisible, had remained unnoticed by the dark elves, that saved the day. Balls of fire and bolts of lightning, combined with judicious uses of slow and flight, decimated the dark elves and their bugbear minions. The suddenly unparalyzed Dell and the appearance of Adrienne led to the quick deaths of two of the spellcasters, and the battle shifted dramatically. Even so, the Company fled the scene.
Antonus scouted for the Company and, from high above was able to see enough of the landscape to construct a crude map for Adrienne, upon which she divined the location of the magical gemstone described by Cathmandius. When the Company followed her direction, they were surprised to find it was an oasis. The sheik of the desert tribe camped amid the ruins on the oasis was amenable to massive bribes. The three wizards gave a massive bribe and false names and then toured the oasis, speaking with the locals, with little difficulty. Winthrop even went so far as to buy books and other items through the bazaar, much to Dell’s annoyance. Antonus again made a detailed map for Adrienne to divine over.
To no one’s surprise, the gemstone was hidden under the ground. It took several days to uncover that a secret door was hidden in a monument in the oasis, and that this led to an underground temple. The worshipers in the temple were clearly evil, with animated dead and a pit to hell in the temple itself, but they were not the main goal of the Company. Invisible, flying, and polymorphed, with wards and detection spells layered on, the Company navigated glyphs of warding, traps, and secret doors until they found, at the end of a pit-filled corridor what they were looking for: a large gemstone secreted in a hidden library.
It was there that a great Efreet, instantly recognized by Dell as the same that had been released from the Halls of Beoll-dur, came upon them. Adrienne’s wards held off his magics, but the room itself was scorched and burnt from the harsh balls and pillars of fire the Efreet used. Knowing that discretion was the better part of valor, Winthrop teleported them all back to a campsite used days earlier as the Efreet howled its rage.
Feeling close to success, the Company headed back onto the burning glass, protected by Adrienne’s magics. A long search finally located the three dark black crystal spires described by Cathmandius. Antonus struck one of the pillars with his staff, and they entered the tomb of Martek.
Within, they found a great battle had recently taken place between warriors and thieves. A holy warrior, indicated as trustworthy by alignment, told how the battle was egged on by a dark elf who had recently arrived. The thieves were those that had attempted to enter the tomb of Martek for plunder, while he and his brethren had come to beseech aid against the Malatath, the undead army of the Efreet, from the Archmage’s spirit. After dispatching the dark elf, the holy warriors, Dinalas Percivilis the Pure, and the sole surviving thief, Bandik, were convinced to accompany them to the tomb. Much to everyone’s frustration, it became clear that the doors to the tomb were locked and that three gemstones, not one, are needed to open the tomb.
