Chapter Nine - Portal-Travelling in the Footsteps of a Ancient Cult

Session was held 29th of January 2011 at the Altar of Games

It had been slightly over a week ago when Melkor the Wise got his hands on the Cultes Netherenes, eccentric tome that together with ponderous research in the libaryvaults of Oghma's Temple revealed much to the wizard. With a bombastic display of prestidigitation he shared his mad scheme to the rest of the fellowship, and the acceptance was mixed. Scepticism was quaranteed as he announced that they would travel to a volcano via ancient portal in order to obtain the Cube of Tybor, an mysterious aertifact which significance was unknown. After supressing all the laughter of disbelief they gathered their ranks and rallied to the Twilight Hall, a Temple of Deneir in Berdusk that also hold the unspoken headquarters of Those Who Harp, the Harpers.

Later on, they arrived to the Twilight Hall where cleric Danius Lumbertide received them and listened to their request. Mister Lumbertides stance was indifferent to their cause, but then Melkor saw his old friend among the people of the temple. General Almatheus Ochrefield served in the army of Darnon twenty years ago until he was exiled as the wave of terror engulfed the kingdom, and he knew Melkor well and promoted their cause to Lumbertide. And when they revealed that Arius had the right for the crown of Darnon, the cleric rushed the party to a rendezvous with High Lady Cylyria Dragonbreast, the leader of the Twilight Hall branch. High Lady Dragonbreast promised their support in the quest for the Cube of Tybor in order to liberate Darnon, and they gave Melkor the missing pieces of the puzzle.

And so, the mad scheme goes like this: First of all, after equipping themselves with rations and new magic items received via late adventure's loot they would ride the western bank of river Reaming to the north, where they would cross the river Reaching and stop to Scornubel. This would take five days. After well slept night in the already familiar city, they would ride to north, passing the Trielta Hills from west until they would reach the treeborder of the Forest of Wyrms. From there they would continue on foot, until the Ossuary of Wyrmwood, old site of Cult of the Dragon, now possibly forlorned. From there they would found the portal to the Smoking Mountains in the Empire of Unther far far away in east, where they would seek the extinct volcano known as the Cauldron of the Wyrm. And inside that Hell on Earth they should find Harafalg the Giant in whose possession the Cube of Tybor is. As simple as that.

Nice plans, and now the practice
After receiving futher guidance in form of cartography, our heroes returned to Dancing Tulip to prepare for the upcoming journey. Two days later, 11th of July 1372DR they launched the expedition according to the plans. From their newly acquired friends Hashim and Lot followed them on their journey, as Cidela Pepperpath stayed in Berdusk due her own whims. On the third day of journey, in halfway to Scornubel, severe rainfall hindered their movement into fraction. As they pushed through the grey curtain, three malicius trolls surrounded and jumped on them. A horrendous fight occured against these tough skinned humpbacks, as they regenerated even the most ghastliest cuts. Eventually, after building a pyre over every trollish carcass our heroes managed to take a breather. They even came across with small trollnest which provided them with minor loot.

Soon they were on their way again, all away to the river Reaching where they were suppose to take a ferry across. But the ferryman apologized and instructed them to meet Baron Von Schuberg, a nobleman willing to charge the ferryservices personally. Infuriated they rode to Barons vineyard estate, where they were received on a sunny patio. The opulent baron, Konarld Von Schuberg boasted to our humble heroes how gruelling his work in eminent position in the United Merchants was, and how he needed a time off from it with his family and riches at this summer-estate. Eventually Arius got pissed of and gave the baron the finger, plunging the afternoon into gore-filled slaughter. After liquidating practically everyone except the servants, our vigilantes let the poor peasants working in the vineyard to plunder the estate, while the ferryman took them to the opposite bank.

The magnificent band soon reached Scornubel where they found themselves from the Jumping Jugs tavern, once again. They relaxed for a while until a familiar face crept in. It was Mordiggian, main usurer of the United Merchants/Murderers. He questioned the PCs from the murder of Baron Von Schuberg who held a high title in the ranks of United Merchants and demanded them to solve the murder and also to eliminate the resistance once and for all, or they would face the deadly charges from the bloody assault. The merrymakers promised to bring forth the killers but after well rested night in the tavern they slipped out of the city, and doing so they burned their bridges to Scornubel for awhile.

The Ossuary of Wyrmwood

The adventure continued and they spurred their steeds towards the Trielta Hills. After three long days of thunderous gallop they reached the treeborder of the Forest of Wyrms. Lot the squire promised to take the steeds to the town of Triel, where he would caress them meanwhile the heroes would plunder some volcanos. And so they diverged and our fellowship seasoned with the swordmanship of Hashim penetrated the ancient forest. Carefully following the maps given by Harpers they managed to avoid any encounters with the terrible dragons nesting in those woods. Eventually they discovered the site which was the entrance to the Ossuary, or once were as now it resembled more like a hole in the ground. Anyhow, they descended down to the abandoned upper levels, and advanced carefully, witnessing signs of battle and decay everywhere. Eventually they found a pristine door, which served as a entrance to lower levels that Harpers never managed to cleanse. Well crafted iron door featured a prominent dragonhead made of gold, and the dragonhead spoke to the party. It riddled our heroes and as they solved the magical gatekeepers silly rhymes they managed to pass it.

Once again they walked through countless of corridors and chambers, abandoned yet untouched by gruesome battle. Once again, a door featuring a dragonhead idol blocked their way. This time it didn't show any signs of opening and Douglas the trapexpert managed to find a trap from it, yet he didn't have the skills to discharge it. And so came Jared, the servant of the Morninglord and with quick words he conjured a hole in the wall besides the door, revealing the corridor behind the trapped door. Unluckily for him, he also eradicated the containers holding the acid that was supposed to splash out from the dragons mouth if the trap would have been triggered. Jared was able to withstand the corrosive backlash.

And so they entered to the final chamber of the ossuary. It was a huge vault, holding a small underground lake within. And against this lake rose a steep cliff, starting ascending from the doorway. And on the top of the cliff was a circural structure, roughly ten feet in diameter, acting like a window to strange realms. As they closed in to the portal they saw it displaying reddish mountaintops of the faraway empire of Unther. As Melkor begun to study the apparatus in order to achieve a safe journey, others kept guard, and not in vain, as a unknown force of soldiers showed up in the doorway.

The small regiment begun asceding the cliff, and a leader of these bloodhounds shouted the final warnings to our heroes, Consisting of Kothians, Skoggarrim and Darnonese soldiers, they were in a perfect form for Melkor to cast his fireball on them, and so did the wizard. Struck down by the blaze and offguard, Douglas rushed to the regiment to cleave out these mercenaries with his forbidding sneak attack. Oh how he wished that he wouldn't been so hasty, as from nowhere charged a man clad in black fullplate. This man, a Skull Rider, Knight of the Order of the Black Cliff wielded a bastard sword spewing forth ice and frost. Battle against these bounty hunters was fierce, as they even had a mage behind their ranks. The Skull Rider, the antagonist, fought hard, as his servitude to the Bitter Lord gave him powers unimaginable, but as good guys so often do, our heroes crushed the force ment to be the lash of the king in his hunt for the stray heir. Upon dying, the skull rider cursed our heroes and declared that his father, captain Irongrave would avenge his death.

Fatigued by this grim feuding, our glorious band of adventurers caught a breath as they gazed in to the portal that show'd them volcanic vistas of high black mountains spewing forth thick black collums of smoke.

Somewhere there was the Cauldron of the Wyrm, and a giant, sitting on the Cube of Tybor.

Chapter Eight - The Journey towards Berdusk continueth!

Session was held 7th of January 2011ad at the Altar of Games

Onwards to Berdusk!

After demolishing the cruel plans of the Bitter Lords Cult our brave fellowship had to escort the rescued captives to near village Borhus. While on the move, it soon became obvious that girl called Cidela Pepperpath would like travel to Berdusk with them, and they didn't mind. But they did mind a bit when Hashim, the redeemed Kothian Mercenary also expressed his will to join their ranks. And to top this all, the young squire Lot was serious about serving as a squire to our young prince. And so with the help from their newly joined mates, this merry band of partisans of ours dropped the rescued commoners to Borhus and continued towards northwest. The journey to Berdusk in their quest for the Cube of Tybor was 'bout to continue!

During their trek to the southern Reaching Woods they met Zolgar Tuohivirsta and his sons Garzol and Spigot. Old man Zolgar warned the heroic delegate from the great Border Bulwark and also from any attemps to circumvent it via the southern Woods. He warned that the southern Reaching Woods was haunted by the dead builders of the wretched bulwark, buried into the forestry soil. Our heroes weren't frightened at all but instead promised to clear the way for the people of Darnon. Tuohivirsta pronounced the hidden path to be a perfect smuggling route of food and weapons for the Darnonese, once purged from its haunting menace.

After departing Tuohivirsta's camp our fellowship proceed on their expedition, and manouvered directly to north after receiving a visual contact with the notorious bulwark. Even Melkor was astonished from the sheer size of it. As the dusk fell on Darnon they reached the Woods, but were forced to march on as they saw distant torchlights coming towards them along the bulwark. Escaping the possible guard patrol, they moved to the forest with haste. Quite hazardous thing to do in night, especially after receiving warnigs about the restless dead. But they weren't afraid, much. Soon they discovered something intresting. The bulwark ended to the tree line, but a high wall of straight-cut stone continued. As they wall rose to the tree-tops seemingly seamless, Melkor "spellcrafted" it to be a wall of stone, cast permanent by a powerful wizard. They continued to move alongside the wall until it ended to the edge of a dark gorge. Our heroes decided to ascend into the gorge, thereby passing the wall. They were quite sure that the ominous gorge was THE haunted pass and thus plunged in. The bottom was littered with bones and remains of the builders of the Bulwark, a mass grave showing the true state of the kingdom. And soon they found themselves in trouble. From the gorges wall a horrendous creature charged forth, a monstrous crossbreed of foul dirt and remnants of the deceased. Immune to Melkors powerful magicks the creature was almost equally invulnerable to steel, but with the help of the new cohorts they managed to smash the abomination back to plain dirt. From a shattered stone carving inside the monster's so called head, Melkor found the same symbol previously featured in the chapter seven.

They continued until the dawn and managed to break free from the Reaching Woods, finally gazing the free and lush plains of Berdusk. They decided to camp under a old oak for the rest of the new day. June 26th they continued towards Berdusk, resting the following night in Donilla Fellkrepplings farmstead inn. After a plentiful breakfast they ventrued to Berdusk in a full vigor. Douglas, an old berduskian provided them lodging from the Dancing Tulip tavern, and after dropping their gear there they launched towards the local temple of Oghma, a place of guaranteed knowledge. Douglas even discovered an old map of the city from his sleeve, making the orienteering even easier. Meanwhile Cidela Pepperpath promised to show Hashim the city, as she had been in the city before, and Lot decided to nurse the tired steeds in Hollybull's Stables and teach Hero some new tricks.

A priest called Eter Glomshaft guided gladly as our seekers of forgotten lore descended to the temples underground libraries. There, after ponderous hours of research they finally discover a manuscript, written by brother Androgas over two hundred years ago, called "Nature of Shadows" wherein a sidenote of an index revealed hidden secrets. To learn from the Cube of Tybor they should get their hands on the "Cultes Netherenes", a esoteric scripture that priest Glomshaft knew to be in the posession of Berduskian lord Lullicius Ebonmar. And to Ebonmar Manor they strode, and settled a audience with the Lord for tomorrow.

Errands for Lord Ebonmar

After late brunch our party conjured themselves to Ebonmar Manor. Lords butler, mister Partanc guided them upstairs to a fabulous lounge, where Lord Ebonmar lied on a divan sipping top grade wine. The obese hedonist questioned our party about their goals and was slightly enthusiastic 'bout their desire to view his precious Cultes Netherenes. He suggested a pact wherein the adventurers would bring him two rare manuscripts that he would designate in order to do some research on the esoteric tome. Our proud posse agreed and begun pursuing the first book immediately.

Lullicius Ebonmar desired a rare manuscript known as Crepusculum Archaicus, altought he clarified that the one here in Berdusk was much younger edition of that pre-historic scripture. The edition in Berdusk was more commonly known as the Ferrum-version and in the possession of noble known as Argold Nathmagan. Like roaring thunder thet rolled to Nathmagan Estate, only to find something crooked going on. There a band of bruisers were collecting a debt from the old man Nathmagan, but by doing so they crossed our commendable bunch of vigilantes. But something went horribly wrong as the whole estate turned into a blazing pyre! After rescuing the servants and the old couple Nathmagan our brave fire brigade found out there weren't much to do in order to obtain the book from the inferno. Gutted and crushed, they returned to Dancing Tulip to sank their sorrow when Melkor had a sudden strike of ingenuity. They rushed back to the burned down estate and began searching, moonless night hiding them from the curious. After three hours of rapid clearing they found it, a book made from iron pages! The Ferrum version! They carried the metallic monolith to lord Ebonmar who only scarcely obfuscated his excitement.

Lord Ebonmar, as enthusiastic as he were, soon gathered his thoughts and revealed the identity of the second book in demand. What he wanted was a book only known as M.D.S, a rare peculiarity only known by few. The lecherous hedonist once again knew the exact location of the item in question, he explained how he had desired it for years but the current owner just declined to sell it every single time he tried to arrange a bargain. But now Ebonmar decided to take the book even by force, sending our brave party to the residence of sorceress known as Sulphuress, the owner M.D.S. Sulphuress'es residence was a tiny hut surrounded by high walls. Our fellowship of bookfinders invaded the surrounding streets by night, darkness concealing their methods of crossing the wall. But they couldn't even imagine that once inside the high wall, the rustic old hut was no more. Now they saw through the illusion concealing the true nature of the sorceresses habitat, and befuddled as they were they tried to guess the height of the tower rising in front of them. But then a pack of lions, guards summoned by the Sulphuress attacked them, resulting in fierce combat, in which the brave posse proved to be triumphant. Horridly wounded by the feline beasts, they retreated back to the Dancing Tulip only to try again in the following night.

Refreshed and ready for futher action, they returned to Sulphuress's Tower next evening. It became apparent that the tower had no conventional means of entrance. The only way to enter seemed to be a balcony 40ft high from the ground. Douglas the thief proved his skills with the grappling hook, on soon they soared via a knotted rope all the way to the balcony. There they found a door to round chamber, devoid of any life but still showing signs of everyday living. A spiral staircase took them a floor higher to a burned down room that once were a sorceress's workchamber. In the middle of the chamber was a stone statue facing a charred incantation markings and symbols in the floor. Alongside the walls were carbonized remains of bookshelves, barely holding the ashes of the disintegrated books. After closer examination the statue appeared to be the sorceress herself, petrified during conjuration gone awry. Then Melkor set his eyes on the only surviving book, it's binding made from the softest & peachiest leather imaginable, and in it's cover the letters M.D.S. They opened the tome carefully, because it quite certainly posessed some magical properties as it survived the Sulphuress cataclysm of "mis-spelling". On the first full page of the scripture was a peculiar image, magical symbol of some sort. Before futher conclusions were made the symbol began spewing forth strange mist that suddenly erupted into a dragonic creature attacking the fellowship rabidly! The monster was Scalamagdrion (from FR Magic of Faerun), strange multidimensional dragon bound to certain book. Battle was nothing less than epic, as the spell turning abilities of the pandimensional beast made it invunerable to Melkors potent magicks. But needless to say, our brilliant adventurers left the tower as victors.

Later, as Lullicius Ebonmar greedfully grasped the book written by Marquis De Sade, who in this ghastly tome narrated some of the most heinous acts of violent lechery done to another humanoid beings, he promised Melkor the access to Cultes Netherenes on the following day. Bruised but relieved, the party returned to Dancing Tulip to count their loot, which was plentiful this time, and once there each one of them ordered a full pint of fresh ale. And after the first, they ordered a second as the next morning was forming to be a "hero-morning", but Melkor was restless, he couldn't wait to get his hands on that tome that had better to pay off all this trouble!