By AWizardInDallas on 5/11/2008 4:58 PM

From the Private Journal of Duira Siannodel:
(Player Submitted Entry)

"Well we managed to kill all the forest trolls and burned them so they wouldn’t come back, and the Thorns who helped us were nice and as a thank-you, gave us four vials of barkskin potion.  Not exactly the nice crown I was wearing for awhile, but who’s counting?  Conveniently, the ridge above the area where we fought the trolls was also the gateway to Silvermote.  It didn’t look quite like Dad had described it in his diary, but close enough to recognize the standing stones.  The actual entry was a structure made of white stone with green veins running through it and a door with a big tree carved in it.  Funny thing about the door: there was no lock and no way to open it: no markings or anything, and yet it was obviously a mechanical door.  We were rather dumbfounded, especially since Saille and I are rather good at such things.  While we were contemplating the issue, one of the Petals came along, so I talked her out of the information we needed: one need only wait until nightfall and the moon letters would reveal themselves, though the Petal didn’t know what they said.  So, we hung out until nightfall, and there were the moon letters, in Common.  And, it was a riddle, of course.  Tsk.  Elves.  The riddle itself took us quite awhile to figure out (naturally, I was the one who finally did so: I am the more cunning of the Siannodel sisters, after all).  Unfortunately, the moon letters and the riddle they revealed did not demand that everyone give me their treasure and worship me in the manner to which I should be entitled.  Instead, it read:

I am the leafless tree grown in fearful earth
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By AWizardInDallas on 4/16/2008 9:52 PM

Ratlings have taken over the city of Sumberton.  Plague spreads outward from the city threatening the people of the valley with sickness and death.  Slaughtergarde is no more yet a demonic lord appears to have arisen in the abandoned halls of Castle Grievous to the west, in the guise of a red dragon.   This diabolical new lord seeks to collect all the souls of the valley, to become no less than a god.  Has the lord of Slaughtergarde himself returned? 

Also, the wolvens of Turlek are reportedly joining with him.  The Shining Citadel has been razed and the Luminous Order is shattered and no more.  Worst of all the fellowship has learned that the Valley of Obelisks intersects Oerth.  It does not belong to this world but exists as a mere extraplane.  The obelisks, erected long ago by Urmanz the Composer, somehow hold it in place. 

Who will fight these evils?  The elves of Shul Shennek have decided to leave the valley to its doom and flee to the Oerth.  They have suggested that destroying the main obelisk in Sumberton would destroy the valley and keep the demon lord from harvesting souls or wrecking havoc on Oerth when he is done with the valley.  Destroying the prime obelisk would also be a mercy killing for those who now suffer at the hands of plague and the valley's numerous enemies.  Kingless, leaderless none in the valley can alone decide.

No one knows, of those remaining, who will fight, who will lend aid, who will cower in fear and who will flee.  The elves of Shul Vaath have not been heard from while the dwarves of Kaurak Kholzil have vowed to help where once they sequestered themselves in their mountain craft halls.  Of the dwarves of Krokarr, whose blood has thinned of honor, it is uncertain.  The Ebon Cabal has split into two faction ... Read More »

By AWizardInDallas on 12/17/2007 12:11 AM

From the Personal Journal of Saille Siannodel (Player Entry!):

Having established that Tybalt would come with us, and that he’d recovered well enough to walk (and fight, when need be), we proceeded down the staired hallway toward, we presumed, the other fiery door. Indeed, it led where we suspected and the amulet bearing the eye opened the curtain of flame, allowing passage to the platform that moved upward to the room where the statue lay.   We did not, however, ride the platform, having already deduced where it led. Instead, we went onward past the fiery door and down a set of steps. At the bottom, the hall was shored up with posts. The water that flowed from the third armory where Tybalt had been held prisoner also flowed down the hallway and steps, its motion having carved out a rough pool at what was once the corner where the hallway turned. Around the corner, we were greeted by more posts, and a woman dressed in purple robes standing before four copper doors, who introduced herself as Lurazz. After a bit of conversation, it was decided she would come with us, though some of us (myself and Duira in particular) did not trust her. It seemed odd, after all, that one woman could have gotten in this far where it took all of us. Despite her assurances that she’d done it all by magic, Duira and I both felt it best to keep an eye on her. I also intended to keep her away from Jalis.

We spread out across the four copper doors and our companions in front opened the doors at the same time. On the other side, we found a very large chamber, perhaps 100 feet to the ceiling and 70 feet long, with alcoves at its corners and steps leading to a high platform at the far end.

Greeting us, however, was a large insectile creature, which soon emitted a large, poisonous yellow-green cloud, through which we could not see it. Duira, in an apparent attempt to ... Read More »

By AWizardInDallas on 12/5/2007 11:05 PM

Saille: 4th Level Monk/3rd Level Rogue (High Elven Ascetic Rogue)

From the Personal Journal of Saille Siannodel (Player Entry!):

"After much deliberation, we decided on some possible solutions to our conundrum:  Draupnir thought perhaps we could bring down one of the gnolls and hold it up before the eyes, thinking that perhaps the eyes were searching for their particular form.  Duira, however, produced a scroll, from which she summoned a shape of a gnoll with an amulet about its neck in the shape of a triple flail similar to the image that had been on the inner wooden fortification in the entrance above.  She had it move to each of the gates in turn.  While it was much easier than dragging a dead gnoll past the troll, and to each of the doors, it was also ineffective.

Finally, we decided that two of us would have to go through the flames.  Two of the platforms appeared to go up and two went down.  Almost arbitrarily, we chose to go through one of the ones that went up.  It was decided that Hilda should go, as they would need a fighter in the event they met someone on the other side of the flames.  My heart sank as they also decided to send Jalis, because it would mean I could not go through and save him if something ha ... Read More »

By AWizardInDallas on 12/5/2007 11:05 PM

The arrangements had been made and the fellowship would be meeting in the library of the Shining Citadel for teleport to the second sliver of Slaughtergarde.  From there they would activate the gate mechanism built by the bizarre former celestial-turned-dwarf composer and astrologist, Urmanz.  They decided to act on Captain Harrak's seeming belief that it would at last take them to the undiscovered third sliver of Slaughtergarde.  They would then use the Obsidian Fist to close forever a thus far unopened gate leading from hell to the mortal world.  The dwarves would at last fulfill their part in the prophesy whispered by ratlings several moons ago and overheard by Jalis.

An old somewhat decrepit wizard named Ulrich Vorp would be performing the teleport.  They were surprised to learn that he would be doing so from a scroll, though not that he would not be accompanying them, perhaps.  When questioned by Draupnir, Ulrich reassured him that his master had prepared the scroll himself.  Draupnir laughed that such an old wizard would still have a master?  In any case it appeared that the spell would be a simple sending and Ulrich asked them to join hands...

But the fellowship did not arrive at the third sliver of the Slaughtergarde.  They arrived instead in the midst of enemies in the sewers of Sumberton.  Something had gone terribly wrong and they were now surrounded by ratlings!  Before they could contemplate the apparent betrayal that had taken place, a figure spoke from a crumbling make-shift stone throne at the head of the hall.  The hard voice commanded that, "the Obsidian Fist must be taken from them!  Give us the fist.  Now!"  The fellowship was stunned to silence but took note of the commanding man in red dragon armor sitting atop the throne, his hard dark face, cur ... Read More »