Outwit and Outpace the Drow

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Hammer 8

Over the past several days the group has been harrying the Drow host by driving on ahead of it and trying to slow it down as best as they can. The party chose this path after discussing their options. Some forces such as Ellanzo and the Army of the Sword Coast wanted them to recon paths and clear obstacles to make their army move faster so they could get down in time to rendezvous with the other armies allied against the Drow. The army of Corymr lead by their King Azoun V, and the army of Myth Drannor led by the elven emissary of the Eladrin gods, Elladon asked that the group slow down the Drow forces so that they could catch up before the Drow were to make it to the location of Lolth's great ritual that would see the death of Riddick take place. This is the path they have taken over the last few days. There are many minor scrapes but their first real fight takes place under water (at least at the start), against a water drake and two water archons guarding a lesser known path that an army like the Drow would never think to use. Going this way saves them several leagues but it is fraught with dangers such as the water creatures. They get past them and then travel on for a while unhindered. At last coming up to a large cavern that the Drow would need to traverse, they surprise a group of Driders sent to guard the exit to the cavern. The guards put up a strong fight and wound Solomon several times. The battle wisdom of Hannibal is ever present and the holy warrior duo of Krux and Lucius press the enemy at both sides. Causing confusion amongst the enemy ranks Lief and his retinue of spirit companions. Jax proves invaluable once again controlling the fight by immobilizing the enemy at the right times.
Overcoming the Driders, the group aided by the Justicar and Landon set fire to the large mushrooms in the cavern, causing the entire area to be unusable for several days as the fires burn out. The group presses on, now days ahead of the Drow forces as they try and locate their friend Riddick and get to him before the Demon Queen of Spiders can.


Exp: 3685

The Final Test of Helm

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Hammer 5

The last test awaits the party, and as they move up the corridor, they see two doors that lead to the next room. The doors are side by side, one bathed in red light the other in blue. There are 10 people, 4 Drow and 6 members of the party. The doors would not allow an uneven amount of people to move through them so the party had the split up evenly: 5 went through the red door and 5 went through the blue. Inside the one large room they saw it was evenly split with a wall of force down the middle. One side was bathed in blue, the other red. What they found odd was that even though Brother Krux was on the red side of the room he was bathed in blue light, the opposite was true for Lucius he was on the blue side and was bathed in red. At the start of the combat two portals appeared in random spots along the force field, these were the only way to move from one side of the room to the other. In the middle of the room on top of a pillar was a large aspect of the Cleric of Helm. On the red side was a large aspect of the Warlord of Helm. The blue side was home to a large aspect of the Paladin of Helm! They engaged the party and combat was on! The party soon learned that the glowing people would take an ever increasing amount of damage if they did not switch rooms by the end of the round. The glow seemed to jump to different people at randomly. The portals also seemed to move randomly at times as well. Sensing that this might be their last opportunity to escape and take their booty, the Drow led by Rod Chewer bided their time until they were mostly together and one of the aspects as defeated. Eventually the Paladin of Helm fell in combat and the Drow sprang their trap! Landon was ordered to move over to the red side unbalancing it so that the Cleric of Helm entered combat and gave the party more to deal with. Not giving up, the Drow were chased from the room by a mad-as-hell Leif and an equally mad Solomon Kong! The Drow through up many dark clouds and escaped through the door that lead to the labyrinth locking it behind them. The party quickly dealt with Landon. Lucius sensing the good in him made diplomatic overtures to see if he would join them. Hannibal was doubtful, but Landon agreed and Lucius vouched for him. After a fast rest, the party, now armed with the map of the labyrinth chase after the Drow. Helm dictated that both map and key guaranteed passage without harm though the maze, but it was possible to leave it with just one or the other. It seems the labyrinth is filled with traps both foul and deadly. There are many wrong turns and pitfalls. Using the map they avoid these, but without a key they have many problems at the locked doors. It seems the Drow as well have problems without the map, they can bypass the doors, but have less luck against the traps. At the bottom of a pit they find Reethtar, and embedded on a wall of spikes they find Lionsroar. At the final door they see tracks that must be Rod Chewer, she must have escaped! Going out of the passage, they travel for 30 minutes or so getting to the regular Underdark. Up ahead they see a familiar outline, it is the Justicar! He was caught and restrained Rod Chewer to boot! The party allows Landon a choice to kill Rod Chewer which he does without hesitation. Lucius and Jax restrain him from desecrating the corpse as he really hated his former master. They take back the relics of Helm valued at near 240,000 gold. They hope to trade the relics to the church of Helm for magical healing of some sort.
The Justicar reports that the armies of the Sword Coast have entered the Underdark near Waterdeep. Their plan is to march down to Skullport and liberate it from Drow control and then move down to put pressure onEmerate Qushae's forces. While this is happening, the armies of the Dales and Cormyr are invading the Underdark to the East while Elladon (head of the Eladrin kind in Faerun) invade from Myth Drannor. The hope is to stop the Drow from completing the ritual, however they can't stop the Drow army from reaching the ancient site of power that they need to use before the armies can get there. That is up to the party. You discuss options with the Justicar before taking a well deserved rest.

Exp. Gained: 3850

Helm's Answer

PROLOGUE:

The room before you fills with a white light and your minds are taken to another place. You feel that you are looking back in history to an epic location now only known by those versed in history of a faraway plane of existence known as Greyhawk.
A you follow a group of adventurer's garbed in strange but somewhat familiar dress. You seemed to have remembered seeing them before perhaps in a painting or in a book. They trudge through a swamp and end up at a small hill with several entrances. After observing them for several of their days, you now know them by the sound of their voice, appearance and name. They are:

Sonny Dawnbreaker, the Paladin of a strange god called Heironious
Feanor, an Elven Wizard/Ranger/Druid
Rax Frost, the Wizard
Oakbranch, a somewhat crazed Druid
Mr. Pink, a Thief of great renown

Wither they are there for riches or fame you feel the party has journeyed together for many adventures and are true friends. From their conversations you hear that this is the rumored resting place of an ancient archwizard turned Lich named Acererak. He is described as a creature of surpassing evil. The group enters the tomb and encounters many obstacles, over coming all of them. You yourselves see traps and puzzles that appear so devious that passing through them seems all but impossible. But this group must be lucky, or destined for something greater and they manage to get though the tomb and head into the final room. As they close into the final room, Leif almost has a stroke as the pain in his head intensifies and he screams and drops to his knees. Jax seems to recognize some of the runes on the wall as the somewhat crazed runes from the Garden of Graves in the Faewild. A wild encounter in the last room is overcome, and the jeweled skull of Acererak is discovered! The 5 friends surround the skull and ponder their next move. Rashly, Oakenbranch touches Acererak's skull and it animates! The skull rises in the air and before anyone can act it smotes Feanor dead! The remaining players crush the skull and end the undead life of Acererak! They pile the loot in bags of holding (along with Feanor's body) and leave the tomb.
Time flies by quickly now, hours become days, days become months, until finally many years have passed. The tomb is now inhabited by small rodents and other mean creatures. A rat scurrying by is zapped by some magical energy and a shade arises out of the long dead ashes of the skull. The spirit of Acererak arises, held together by nothing more than its will during the many long years, until it finally gathered enough strength to form an essence once more. It summons its long dormant magic and calls on its infernal allies for strength it was promised. First things first the evil demi-lich thinks, as it sacrifices some animals and breaks long hidden magical gems as part of the ritual. A fiery demon is summoned from the Abyss. Acererak commands it: "You are to slay every son of Rax Frost's bloodline on the eve of their 30th birthday, and enslave their souls. I will feast on his descendants and torment their souls for eternity". Acererak continues, "Mr. Pink is of elven decent and may be among the living. You will find him, and lay this curse upon him. The curse will change his luck to be forever bad, and will eventually make him penniless and destitute. Feanor died in my halls, so I will not curse him, however I will make something especially nasty for the paladin of Heironious. I now call upon my god Vecna to curse the paladin's family! They will love and care about serving their god more than other duties even to family. They will die friendless and scorned by their children. Finally, for the Druid Oakbranch, his line is to be cursed by insanity that will lead to self-destruction. I will send part of my essence into his bloodline to be tainted by me forever! As long as the taint exists I cannot be wholly destroyed! Muh Hah hah!
Your vision fades out, the Drow that are with you look at you all oddly. Rodchewer speaks, "What an odd vision, did everyone else see it too?" The party members look at each other and without a word continue onward.

The tests of Helm

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Hammer 3

Several hours have passed as the group has moved from test to test. Sometimes a challenge of skill, intellect or intuition, the party has worked well with the Drow so far. Rodchewer and Hannibal have butted heads a few times, but she has held her troops together the same has Hannibal. The party is lead to a small dining area and are given their late day meal. They are told to rest and that the test would conclude the next day. Both Hannibal and Leif and approached by separate Drow to try some "exotic" love making, only Leif decides to take a chance with Lionsrage, a strikingly tall and muscular Drow. Hannibal rebuffs the advances of Rodchewer, to her dismay.
The next day they are led to a room with a floor that consists of almost nothing but very small cracks that lead across to the exit. Below the cracks are pools of what appears to be lava, which at times seems to burst upward! They notice ropes hanging from the ceiling about 50 feet up and some odd looking material laying by the entrance to the room. The group seems to work long and hard on this puzzle and come up with s solution! They use the materials to ride the wave of hot air from the lava blasts up to the ropes. Once hanging on ropes, a magical bridge appears over the lava and on to the exit. They find a chest with some gold and gems on the other side. Also inside is a magical artifact! It seems to take an interest in Leif and attaches itself to Leif's cloak as a pin or broach.
The next test finds the party in a large glade with a Sphinx in the middle. He says, "Creatures, I am the mouth of Helm. Defeat me in a timely manner and I will answer one question for the each of you, or grant you a boon. I have the knowledge of Helm and a portion of his power. If your combat runs long then you will lose 1 boon per turn for both your group and the Drow. Once you are out of rounds I will take one life per round!" Combat starts! The Sphinx is able to confuse several people a round at will with clever riddles while he fights them as well. The Sphinx is also able to animate statues with his spirit, leaving all damage behind. The party figures this out quickly and starts to break statues before the Sphinx can get to them. Eventually the party starts to run out of turns and almost everyone loses their question/boon except for Jax and Rodchewer. Jax ponders his question for a few minutes and decides to ask Helm why his family line is cursed and what does it have to do with him now? There is a shimmer in the air as he asks his question and then it leaves, the answer to be brought to him later when Helm returns it.
The party is told there is one more test before the final test of Helm. They are to go into the void to travel to the final test, but to traverse the void 16 tests of skill must be completed, covering all the skills that the party has developed over the time they have been together. They get through more or less intact, although Leif does seem to take quite a bit of random damage from failed skill checks during this puzzle. The group moves out of the void and into the final room!

Exp. gained: 3980

The Judgement of Helm

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Hammer 2

The party is hot on the trail of the Drow army that has captured Riddick. They come upon the end of the trail which has appeared to end at an underground lake. Undaunted, Jax casts a water breathing spell and they continue on. When they come up on the other side of the lake, they are ambushed by some Drow archers and warriors. After several rounds of combat they overcome their attackers. Smiling as he dies, one of the Drow says there is a nice surpise ahead of you complements of the House Tab'bar. As they travel, they are in fairly continual contact with several key figures, Ellanzo, the Justicar, and Etzheeth. Both the Justicar and Etzeeth are heading toward the group to rendezvous and join forces. They are coming from different directions so the likely hood of meeting up with one or the other is fairly good. Both are experts in traveling the Underdark.
They next come to large cave with stream running through it. On the other side of the stream is an odd looking Drow waving a vary large sword over his head as if he is challenging the group. Melee ensues and as the group gets closer they see that this Drow looks to have been once a living member of Riddick's lost House! He is wearing what was fine armor, now tattered and torn. The weapon he is wielding is exquisitely fine, and has sigils of Riddick's house as well. Once the party is in the room, a trap is sprung! Out of the water and around rocks come many other undead, following the lead of their wight captain. All were members of House Tab'bar, some appear to be little more than youths, some are aged women and men. Loth was merciless in her slaughter of Riddick's house. Luckily Jax was well prepared to fight minions, and makes short work of them. Hannibal, Lucius, and Krux destroy the wight captain and take his sword as a weregild for Riddick.
A large waterfall needs to be traversed, in which a water sprite lives, as party members shimmy down the rope to the bottom, she plays with them to try and get them to fall on the rocks below. Luckily Jax has a feather-fall spell ready to catch anyone that falls.
They continue the chase... A few hours down the road they come to a fork where the drow forces split. A small force went off the right, the rest to the left. The party decides to purse the smaller force, and after a couple of hours they come to a long lost temple. The last communication with the Justicar had him a couple hours behind the party. He warns them that they are entering a part of the Underdark that was ravaged by the spell plague years ago. As the party approaches the temple, the Drow can be seen coming out with a large sack. The Drow spot the party and head back into the temple. The party gives chase and engages them in combat in the main hall of the Temple. According to Leif this was a temple dedicated to Helm, the Vigilant One, the Great Guard and the Watcher. He has long been seen as deity who impartially judges those that deserve so.
Part way though the fight the image of Helm appears! He speaks through a huge avatar: "Interlopers, Agents of Good and Evil! You have defiled my temple!" The image before the party has them quaking and some go prostrate. All fighting ceases... "You will now suffer my wrath", Helm speaks. He continues, "I curse you to pass the test of Helm! Pass or become my servants in the afterlife to serve me until the world is unmade". Leif and Jax, both learned in the ways of religion, know that the Test of Helm is a curse given to two fighting people or groups that upset Helm for some reason. Most fail to pass the test since co-operation and trust is required to pass the test. Helm bellows: "The first test is combat!" and with that he attacks both the party and Drow. Rising up from the floor are four pillars, after several rounds they find the trick is to figure out how each pillar is aligned and then have the correct person stand on each pillar. This weakens the Aspect, and eventually they defeat it.
The surviving Drow are composed of 3 females, Rod Chewer (the leader), Reethtar, and Lion's rage. The male is introduced as Landon. The females berate Landon and beat him constantly when they are angry, which is often. It seems your new mates are a rough bunch.

Exp. gained: 2850

The hunted and the hunters

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Hammer 1

The party barely rested from a tough fight with the Umber Hulks and Mind Flayers push forward into the ancient shrine of Silvanus, now being corrupted by the Squat man and his followers. The next room holds little to surprise the group, some brutes and lurkers. They fight their enemies with precision and take them down with little effort. A long passage is discovered and the party marches down it. Riddick is in front and rounds the corner to see a large room about 30 feet away. He spies some Driders and other creatures. About this time Leif perceives a tremor, very slight, but it feels like a large creature or many small creatures moving underneath him or around him somehow.
They make their into the hall and combat starts! Inside the room at the opposite end is a large portal that leads to what appears to be the Underdark. Also in the room is the Squat man himself! After a few rounds of fighting the group seems at a disadvantage, but Hannibal's rally has them reposition themselves to better take advantage of their numbers. Just a mere moment later all lights in the room go out for an instant and them come back very, very dim. In the portal an image of Loth appears, both beautiful and terrible. The Squat man yells "Mistress! See me here to triumph over thy enemies!" "Yes, my slave", she answers, "but you are both wrong and right. Right that Riddick's blood will be delivered to me, but not by you. Your sloppy work in Waterdeep has jeopardized my emissaries there and now they are in peril. I hear by charge you to escape back to the city and warn my people there. Have everyone rendezvous at the meeting place. Slay these pathetic creatures, they are vermin! Until you do my bidding you will never enter my realms again." The squat man responds "But if I do not carry the day against these enemies who will?" Lolth laughs and says "Fool! My true servants will return carrying my prize, but I will grant you this boon". She points and a fell light leaps from her finger into the Squat man. His head drops for a moment and then he renews the fight with vigor!
They party seems to take the upper hand after several more rounds. With a gasp the bloodied Squat man invokes Lolth's blessing. His skin seems to crack and fall off, he grows to a 12 foot high demon! Using some kind of evil power he draws a web of power surrounding himself and Hannibal, encasing them in a deadly dome! As the rest of the party battles the dwindling forces, a life and death struggle between Hannibal and demon can be seem through the smokey force cage. Back and forth the demon and Hannibal swing their weapons each dealing wounds. Hannibal is bloodied several times only to inspire himself to continue the fight. Finally, Hannibal delivers what must be a mortal wound. The sword pierces the demons heart. The demon not done, grabs Hannibal's wrists which are shoving the weapon into the demon. The fire from the demon's contact burns Hannibal but he continues to hold the blade. What was the Squat man pulls Hannibal closer, even though that means the sword is driven further into it. Once the sword hilt touches the demon's chest Hannibal finds him so close he is almost face to face with the creature. The demon whispers "Oh Mistress, I have failed you. Take my soul and destroy this Dragonborn so he may join me in the Abyss." With that the demon explodes, killing Hannibal in the process.
The group wearied by their fight with the Driders are struck dumb by the fall of their captain and leader. With renewed effort they slay the rest of the enemy and take in their situation. Not much later they realize that the tremors they heard were many footsteps coming down into the temple. Soon the room is flooded with a Drow army! Riddick knowing the odds are very poor invokes the Rod of the Sentinel to send a distress message to Brolgar. The party weakened by many fights and no rest puts up a gallant fight before they are beaten down and captured. They are tied up and tortured by the Drow. A few minutes later when the room is secured, none other than Emerate Qushae enters the room! "Ah you have done well General" he says to a warrior near him. "Take Riddick and be careful he comes to no harm. Slay the rest." With that Riddick is taken and put on a wagon, bound hand and foot, eyes covered as well. The Drow General moves down the line of captives and slits their throats one by one....

Prologue:

Brolgar and Diovanni have entered Waterdeep and are debriefing his father Ellanzo when the distress call comes in. With little time wasted, Ellanzo gathers a force such as he can and has a wizard create a temporary portal to the rod's location. They come upon a rear guard of Drow most of which are looting the dead bodies of our group. Ellanzo has his forces unleash on the Drow in which most are slain. The rest are driven back into the portal where the Drow try to close it on the other side. Ellanzo orders his wizards to hold it open for as long as they can while he brings the bodies back to Waterdeep. Helping him are Brolgar and Diovanni, who are saddened by their friends' death.
Ellanzo has each party member brought back to life in a very fast manner. He explains that he has also been in communication with Elladon, head of the church of the Seldarine in Faerun. Lolth and the Emerate cannot be allowed to complete the ritual. The group is to go back now and chase the Drow and to either hinder them or regain Riddick anyway they can. He will be in contact with them to explain further. As a boon to aid them on this very important mission, he will supply them with either a +3 weapon or armor of the type of their choosing from the armory of the Lords of Waterdeep; each bound and woven with magical spells to aid those that serve this city. Since you are down one member, he will also send a member of his household with you, Lucius Daybreaker. He is known to Leif and Jax. Lucius was an orphan and was brought into Ellanzo's household and raised as a step brother to Diovanni.
Time is running short as Ellanzo leads you back through the portal to the broken temple. As you enter the room where you died, his wizards are working hard to keep the portal open while you were recovered. Breaking a rod of day light Hannibal yells and jumps through the portal followed by the rest of the party. On the other side are a small group of Drow wizards and their Drider guards. The party makes short work of them, and clears out the room. It looks as if the hunted are now the hunters!

Exp. Gained: 3425

No Rest for the Weary

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Nightal 30

Our brave band of adventurers are called into Ellanzo's office at Castle Waterdeep sometime after midnight. Still tired from the fight with the demon and the disposal, they are briefed by Sgt. York. York tells them that their intel has the Squat man and his syndicate ready to make a big move tonight on several locations. Our group is given on uptown bar to stake out. The bar is located in the Noble's District and is a very fine establishment. Inside Leif and Hannibal stake out the place, it is filled mostly with college kids throwing around a lot of gold buying drinks and gambling. Outside, Solomon Kong tries to hide behind the beer cart but fails and moves down the block a bit. Also out of the way are Jax, Riddick, and Brother Krux. Krux still appears out of place with his new armor. It is very fancy and has many sigils embedded into it.
Around 2:00 am a party of kidnappers detonate a bomb from inside the bar killing most of the people! They knock out and hog tie two of the wealthy college kids and try to make off with them. Of course our group tries to stop them and does even after a few of the kidnappers appear to be unaffected by immobilization effects. They spare the leader of the bandits (at least most of him that Solomon did not crush), and he tells them that the Squat man has sent out all teams to do a massive score and to cause some instability to Ellanzo's new rule of Waterdeep. They are told some generic details where the camp is, it is at an old temple dedicated to the god of nature, Silvanus. Sgt. York gets some phantom steeps summoned for the party and they are off! Luckily between Jax and Leif they know enough about the surrounding area and especially with Leif making some good nature checks they find the ruined temple with little effort.
At the ruined temple, they see many low level thugs and in the back a leader and his wizard companion. The party attempts to stealth as far into the woods as possible to get close to the temple before the fight starts. About half way there they are finally spotted and the combat starts. Everyone seems to be fairly adapt at killing off the weaker thugs and then they concentrate on the leaders. The enemy wizard makes the fatal mistake of force moving Solomon dropping him down a deep well. Solomon reaches out and lashes onto the wizard dragging him down with him! Needless to say that is the worse day the wizard has ever had. After the combat they search and find that the pool still has a small amount of magic left in it. In the old days, followers of Sivanus would stand in the pool and utter a word of prayer to Silvanus, a traveler's chant. This chant would wash off some of the weariness of the road and leave the pilgrims refreshed. Not only does Leif recall the prayer, but does so well with the chant as the last energies of the pool leave, Silvanus' aspect is summoned by Leif's prayer! At that moment Leif converts to the worship of Silvanus and the aspect presents Leif with a power weapon from his new god. A magical totem woven with spells of protection and nature.
After searching around Riddick discovers a hidden door that leads to a circular stone staircase that does down about 60 feet. At the bottom of this landing is a set of double doors. On the way down Riddick was able to diffuse several nasty traps to the relief of the party.
Peeking through the doors they see a large Umberhulk in an odd shaped chamber. In one end of the chamber an odd well is in the floor and is uncovered. The group rushes in to fight the umberhulk. A few moments later another umberhulk craws out of the old well, and a mindflayer comes out from around the corner! The umberhulk were brutes, and they were able to scare Riddick a bit for part of the fight, but the fight was not in doubt once Jax was able to blow the mindflayer down the old well with a nicely placed Thunder Wave spell. The party is sensing the Squat man is close! They catch their breaths for a few minutes and heal up a bit. At this point they have been up for almost 24 hours, and have been non-stop for the last 12 or so. Onward!


Exp Awarded: 2325


- P.S. ~~ Hannibal ~~

The Invulnerable Coat of Arn is capable of communicating with you with emotions. It feels that is should leave very soon, but is pressuring you to complete this one last task with it. The Coat gives you the sensation that many valiant deeds are in front of you and they you are one of the best wearers to come along in many a lifetimes. Still there are warriors in the multi-verse that need to coat now more than you do, so it must leave you very soon.