Journal Entry 15

Journal Session 15

Having defeated the orc chieftain Gorshak and broken the Siege of Draig Durrok – Barrack, a plain-spoken dwarven Fighter, powerful wielder of the hammers favored by that strong and dour race; Marik, a reptilian dragonborn Warlock, heir to an ancient and proud lineage, but inescapably bound to a pact granting him supernatural powers; Jaeran, an elven Cleric upon whom the gods have granted a measure of divine power as a reward for his faith; Luke, a cloaked half-elf Wizard of mysterious origins and arcane might; Syxia, a tiefling Rogue, dark daughter of a cursed bloodline, her ancestors given to the infernal worship of fiends; and Ur-Kadar, dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon, a holy warrior dedicated to upholding the tenets of his faith and protecting the weak with his battle axe – set out on a quest, and headed toward the Fen of Forgotten Souls in search of the first piece of the legendary staff of Angronomir the Wizard, an ancient hero from the days of old.

The party heeded the wise advice they had been given by the dwarf Torin as they made their way to the Fens. Traveling through a landscape best described as a desolate wilderness far from civilization or the nearest settlement, they had several encounters with small groups of orcs, a couple of ogres and a pitiful band of goblins – all defeated foes, fleeing the battle of Draig Durrok – and they arrived in the environs of the Fens in a little less than a week. Luke’s proven skill with natural surroundings, aided by his keen perception, revealed a little-used path leading into the dead, bayou-like bog. The sun was setting and the Fens were getting dark when the party spotted a light from a small campfire approximately 200 yards off the path. Her adventurous curiosity piqued, Syxia volunteered to investigate the fire (and who or what made it). Keenly interested in preserving both her expensive stockings and her scandalously short embroidered skirt from any danger or damage, she was much too careful about her clothes, and ended up making a great deal of noise “trying to be careful.” Her companions could only shake their heads in resignation at her girlish foolishness. She ended up stumbling into the area and was startled to see an old hag stirring a cauldron. The hag looked up, but seemed to take no notice of the devil-girl, and went back to her business of stirring the cauldron. Holding her breath, Syxia retraced her steps back to the group and embarrassed, told her friends what had happened and what she saw. She was proud to announce that no harm whatsoever came to her clothes. Exasperated, the party decided to make a formal introduction, as the old swamp-woman knew they were there.

The party carefully advanced to a small clearing in which was situated a humble shack; the old woman and her cauldron were as Syxia had reported. The hag eventually looked up at them, but said nothing. After the party made proper introductions, she croaked that she was Gwrach, Hag of the Mist. She asked why they had entered the Fens, and Barrack stated that they had come in search of a valuable item. The hag pressed the dwarven warrior, and asked him “to be specific, as there are many valuable items in this swamp.” Tiring of the hag’s evasive response, he explained that they had traveled to the Fens in order to retrieve a fragment of a valuable magical staff, a mystical relic of the ancient world. The hag spat that “He must have sent you, as he sent the others.” When asked who “He” was, she maintained that she could not (or would not) speak his name and the withered old crone gave very elusive answers each time the part tried to elicit an answer from her. She did state that she indeed knew where the item was hidden in the trackless mire of the great swamp; she even stated that she would help the party if they proved their mettle. It was at this time that the party noticed that the huge tree near the hag’s hovel began to move and sway, and that a series of vines and brambles behind them began to move as well. She told them that she had a riddle for them, and that there was no need to shed blood. Her riddle was this:

Four siblings are they
Two sets of eternal twins
The directions their lives travel are opposite
Yet they will intersect twice in the cycle
For set one, they older they get
The more they turn into the other
For the other set, as they follow their path
They more they stay the same.
Who are they?

She told them that she needed the answer in short order and that they only had so much time. The party members – other than Syxia, who sank down in front of the fire, knowing that she might be more of a hindrance than a help to the others – began thinking and several ideas came to the fore. There was the possibility of day/night, light/dark, good/evil – however, nothing seemed to fit exactly. Time was running out when Jaeran mentioned that it could be the directions North/South, East/West. While this possible solution was initially passed over, the party returned to it after they ruled out all other possibilities. With time nearly expired, the elven cleric shouted out these as the answer. The hag looked up and says “You have done well.” She then told them that they would also have to agree to return an item to her should they find it in the same place as the piece of the broken staff. The party found these terms agreeable, so the old hag told them that they should find a small ring in the same area as the staff. She then gave the heroes detailed instructions on how to safely navigate the swamp and find the resting place of the items. She also gave them unsolicited advice to “flee the frogmen.” When questioned about the bullywugs, she merely repeated her cryptic warning. The party spent the night in the hag’s clearing, and then set out in the morning.

The heroes’ first day of slogging through the seemingly endless bog proved uneventful (aside from the bursting gas bubbles which spewed noxious vapors into the humid air and the buzzing clouds of stinging insects), but the next morning brought new challenges. Luke, Marik and Jaeran all awoke from fitful slumber to find their bodies uncontrollably twitching and shaking. Calling upon his studies of sickness and healing, Jaeran determined that the three of them had come down with a wasting disease known as the swamp shakes. Should the disease worsen, each of them would find his movement slowed and his effectiveness in combat greatly diminished. The group could only plunge deeper into the trackless wetlands, the bodies of their sicken companions at less than full health, ravaged as they were by great thirst and rising fevers. They continued ever deeper into the swamp, following Gwrach’s directions. Syxia was complaining about anything and everything, including how gross and disgusting the Fens were (and how she must have been tricked into coming, as she never would have agreed to undertake the quest had she known how “dirty and gross” the terrain would be) and made clear her desire to search every square foot of the vast expanse of muck and mire – that seemed to continue to the horizon in every direction – for hidden treasure, since she was stuck in the godforsaken place. Much to the relief of her traveling companions, a menacing stare from Barrack finally silenced her for good (for the time being, anyway).

As the sun rose high above the cypress groves, the party came to an open area that had two pools of water with a small land bridge between them. The right pool was black in color and occasionally bubbles, not unlike most of the reeking, brackish fens through which the companions had already journeyed. The pool to the left side was a sickly green in color and smelled exceptionally foul. Jaeran surveyed the area, but could find nothing out of the ordinary except a patch of dangerous daggerthrorn briars on the opposite side of the pools. As Barrack, Jaeran and Ur-Kadar began to make their way over the land bridge, a large black pudding erupted from the pool on the right and engulfed the three of them. Meanwhile, in the forested area behind them, a new threat emerged. A plant-like creature seemingly made of a tangled mass of vines lashed out at Marik. Syxia and Luke took up positions, and combat was enjoined. Ur-Kadar shook off the black pudding and rushed to engage the greenwise vine. Barrack’s hammer smashed away at the black pudding, but he recoiled as his powerful attacks merely created a black pudding spawn. The party quickly realized that more melee attacks would only serve to create more spawn and so they turned their attention toward magical attacks. Jaeran was unable to free himself from the acidic ooze for some time, during which the acidic secretions of the black pudding inflicted significant damage. Ur-Kadar swung mighty blows with his axe, but ended up getting wrapped up in the vines. Just as the party was gaining the upper hand, a blast of electrical energy exploded, and a new enemy appeared from the north. Ur-Kadar managed to finish off the greenwise vine and freed himself, allowing Marik to teleport nearer to the vine horror spellfiend. Unfortunately, the warlock found himself snared in the briar from which the vine horror spellfiend had emerged. Jaeran finally managed to free himself from the black pudding, and the party finally dealt with the pudding and its spawn, allowing Ur-Kadar to charge forward and attack the vine horror. While the horror’s blasts were potent, it stood no chance in melee combat and quickly succumbed. The fight with the black pudding clearly left Jaeran significantly weaker, so the party took a brief rest before carrying on into the gathering mists.

The group’s travels took them to an area that had much firmer ground than what they had left behind in the misty marshes; the area in which they found themselves also had much more vegetation. While this made for easier going, a new challenge soon emerged. As the party was moving through an area of lush vegetation, Luke suddenly spotted a bullywug hop high over him. Known for their territorial behavior, it was a surprise to the party that the frog-like creature did not attack. Within a few seconds, the party noticed at least a dozen or more of the frogmen jumping and running towards them, only to stream around the heroes and continue on with their terror-stricken flight. With a deafening roar and the felling of several small trees, the reason for their retreat instantly became clear as a huge fang drake thundered from the dense vegetation, bellowing a territorial, earth-shaking challenge.

The massive reptile lunged forward, and used its massive jaws to snatch a bullywug – with the briefest of shakes from the mighty jaws of the drake, the miserable creature was torn in half. The meaning of the hag-witch’s warning suddenly dawned on the party. It was also painfully clear that the party had no hope whatsoever of outrunning either the bullywugs or the fang drake. From a rustling nearby, they also noticed that a swarm of small needlefang drakes seized the opportunity and dragged down a bullywug, which was quickly devoured by the swarming beasts. Having experienced combat against swarms, the heroes recognized that the best plan of attack would be to focus blast attacks on the swarm while allowing the defenders to focus on the fang drake. The fang drake bit and held Ur-Kadar in its massive jaws while Barrack pounded away with his hammer, hitting home with blow after furious blow. Luke and Marik fired away at the needlefang swarm and inflicted significant damage. Syxia rushed forward between the legs of the great beast, and knifed it with a deep slash - but the beast barely noticed. With a quickness belying its massive bulk, the fang drake twisted in a circle and used is tail to send Syxia, Barrack and Ur-Kadar flying several feet; all three ended up lying flat on the ground. At the same time, the needlefang swarm was destroyed without it inflicting too much damage. But the huge fang drake proved to be a much more dangerous adversary. The beast unleashed a frightening roar that stunned all but the elf cleric.

Realizing that they were in a tough spot indeed, the cleric attempted to buy the party some time by commanding the fang drake to run away. His divine-powered attack on the unintelligent beast was successful, and the drake turned and lumbered off into the gloom of the gathering dusk. The party reacted quickly and sought to take cover, should the beast return. Sehanine shined on them as the stupid beast was distracted and elected to pursue other prey that would not fight back so fiercely. They were thankful for their luck and pressed on. As darkness crept across the land and finally set in, they found a nice area, both raised and dry, to camp and settled in for the night.

The first two watches passed uneventfully, and Jaeran and Ur-Kadar took the final watch. Less than an hour before dawn, Ur-Kadar noticed Jaeran suddenly stand up and begin walking away from the camp. He tried to talk with him, but Jaeran just stared blankly ahead as he walked. Ur-Kadar quickly roused Barrack and then headed off after his compatriot. It looked to the paladin as though Jaeran was being pulled directly into a nearby pond. Sensing he must act quickly, Ur-Kadar tackled the cleric as he approached the edge of the water. Ur-Kadar’s shouts for help roused the rest of the group and they readied themselves for action. Without warning, the party came under swift assault from all sides by four dread zombies, a zombie hulk and an undead spirit with telekinetic powers, which they recognized as a poltergeist. The party could not have known that the site they had so carefully chosen for their campsite was a burial mound dating from an older, pre-human settlement. The poltergeist stayed away from the party and attacked from a distance. They also recognized that they were dealing with at least one will-o-wisp. Jaeran, by then recovered, raced back to the camp and called upon the divine light of Pelor to destroy the undead. He was able to inflict significant damage on three zombies and the zombie hulk.

The massive, rotting hulk was able to dish out terrible damage with its fist, so the party elected to concentrate on destroying it. Luke also used color spray to inflict even more radiant damage. A second will-o-wisp appeared, and pulled Luke close to the zombie hulk and it unleashed a flurry of blows, knocking the wind out of the wizard and blasting him to his knees. To add insult to injury, the bloodied wizard then had his life force drained by the will-o-wisp. The divine powers of Jaeran and Ur-Kadar combined with the efforts of the rest of the party to turn the tide, and the zombies and poltergeist were eventually destroyed while the crafty will-o-wisps flittered off in search of other victims as dawn broke over the campsite. The party rested a bit, broke camp and then continued on with their quest. They recognized that they were very close to the end of their journey, as the range of mountains that ringed the great swamp was drawing ever nearer.

The trail the group was following ended in a large fog bank that had settled in along the edge of the swamp and a series of steep cliffs. The party hesitated before proceeding. As they begin to form a plan, a high pitched roar echoed through the mists, and the fog begins to break, granting the party extended vision. They saw a large four-headed swamp hydra emerge from a large cave and advance towards them. They thought that this surely must be the guardian they expected to meet. With incredible quickness, the hydra’s heads let fly several acid streams that hit the party. They had to decide whether to flee or engage the beast, but this party has yet to retreat. The two defenders charged forth across the difficult, swampy terrain and made their way toward the beast. Syxia decided to veer left through the mist in an effort to gain surprise. Unfortunately, her terrified screams told her companions that she had landed in a morass of quicksand – the damsel was in distress and needed rescuing. Jaeran attempted to aid in pulling out the sinking girl only to land himself in the deadly quicksand. Marik was forced to detour and help his fellow party members, and with his assistance, they managed to safely extract themselves from the clinging and deadly obstacle.

As Ur-Kadar and Barrack bravely slashed and hammered at the hydra, the multi-headed beast spat acid in all directions and occasionally landed a bite attack on its adversaries. True to his nature (and his history against reptilian creatures), Ur-Kadar attacked with a superhuman fury, landing two critical hits that managed to sever one of the hydra’s heads. Much to their surprise, two new heads sprang from the bloodied stump and swiftly attacked. To make matters worse, the severed head, now many feet away from the hydra’s main body, continued to spit steaming gouts of acid. With several shouts, Barrack directed Syxia, Marik and Luke to put down the severed heads while he, Ur-Kadar and Jaeran focused on the hydra itself. Ur-Kadar continued to unleash massive strikes in an almost trance-like state while Barrack’s hammer thudded home, resulting in yet another severed head. Now facing a six-headed monster, Jaeran consecrated the ground around them and focused his efforts on keeping the melee combatants alive. The party left little to chance, and threw all of their energy into defeating the aberration. It requires a great expenditure of resources, but the party eventually killed the monster.

A quick inspection of the large cave reveals a locked, steel door in the rear of the place. Syxia examined it, determined that there were no traps and then successfully picked the lock. To their surprise, instead of leading to a treasure vault or temple room, the door simply opened to a metal ladder that led down in stygian darkness. After descending nearly 100 feet, the ladder ended and the party found themselves in a large underground cavern (see map above). They recognized that they were on a ledge, 20’ high above a cavern below, which looked to be divided into three passages. The middle passage was clearly visible and contained a large 20’ pit filled with a mass of hissing, deadly snakes. Guarding the rear of the passage was a medium-sized stone statue. The party also noticed a faint light coming from the back corner of the cavern. As the party made plans to descend from the small ledge, a large snake-like beast with a humanoid face, known to Luke as a naga, appeared in the center passage and hurled a blast that exploded in a clap of thunder. Several party members were dazed and damaged by the electrical impulse.

They quickly rebounded and decided to descend the ledge quickly rather than sit back and be target practice for the naga. Syxia deftly tumbled down to the cavern floor, and the others quickly climbed down – with the exception of Ur-Kadar, who stumbled and fell, landing with a terrific thud. Luke was about to descend when the naga hit him with a ray that immobilized him. Luke, who had previously created a poisonous cloud of cloying, noxious fumes, was content to merely sustain it. Barrack moved forward to engage the statue in a combat, and the foes engaged for an extended period, neither yielding to the other, both as tough as stone. Jaeran rushed toward the left passage, only to find it guarded by a large swarm of tangler snakes. He was quickly engulfed, and his panicked shrieks announced to his companions that he was entangled and unable to get away. Ur-Kadar and Marik came to his rescue while Syxia’s curious nature got the better of her (again), and led her to explore the right passageway. Syxia found that her passage was guarded by a similar swarm of snakes. Not wanting to meet Jaeran’s fate, she slowly back-peddled out of the passageway. Meanwhile, back on the ledge, Luke continued to bear the wrath of the naga, who continued to target him mercilessly with its word of pain. The wizard’s agonized sobs echoed across the cavern as he twisted under the wicked magic of the snake creature.

Ur-Kadar and Marik freed Jaeran from the snakes entangling him and dealt with the first swarm of snakes. Barrack was still engaged with the statue, but was slowly trying to fight his way toward the naga, who continued to torture the agonized Luke. Syxia engaged the second swarm and was making good progress in destroying it as Jaeran slipped by in an attempt to make a run at the naga. However, the naga again targeted and hit Luke with its baleful magical attacks, rendering the wizard unconscious. Ur-Kadar, sensing Luke’s plight, was able to utter healing words as he attacked and so helped the wizard. Luke, prone and recovering consciousness, was able to maintain his spells and heroically struggled on despite his grievous wounds. Jaeran finally turned the corner of the right passage and engaged the naga only to have vile acid sprayed in his face at point-blank range. Meanwhile, Barrack’s hammer finally destroyed the statue and he raced forward to engage the naga, which was then forced to focus on melee combat which was revealed to be its weakness. Ur-Kadar and Marik finished off the snake swarm and also rushed to engage the naga. The reptilian beast slaps Ur-Kadar, toppling him into the snake pit, where he took damage from both the fall and the deadly vipers in the pit. However, by then surrounded and forced to engage in melee combat, the naga had no chance and was finally laid low by the heroes. The party quickly pulled Ur-Kadar out of the pit and inspected the cavern.

They found a very small altar of sorts near a gleaming portal toward the back of the cavern. Piled upon the altar were 300 gleaming golden coins, a ring (presumably belonging to Gwrach), a periapt of recovery +2 and a suit of chainmail +2. Luke also noticed that on top of the gleaming portal, fixed in a metal holder, was an aged piece of wood. As he approached the portal to pull the broken staff fragment from its holder, he peered into the magical passage to another place. Beyond the portal, he saw a small room, perhaps 10’x 20’, that looked very simple. As he loosened the fragment of the staff, he saw a ghastly looking man, with long black hair now partly silvered by time, turn the corner into the room. His eyes went wild with rage as he recognized that Luke was reaching for the staff. The unknown man yelled "No!" as he outstretched his hand just as Luke pulled the staff to his chest and closed the portal.