Session 03 - Changing of the Guard

3rd of Marpenoth, 1371 DR
To be honest, I can’t stand to recount the full events of what happened on our trip with Jasper. I will recount, for the sake of posterity and my own memories, however that this is when we discovered the fate of all the senior members of the Three Hills Adventurin’ Company. All of ‘em were killed (horribly) by a Black Dragon.

The walk back to Diamond Lake was terribly quiet. Jasper has taken the death of Morgan particularly hard. When we got back, Jasper went straight to his room. The rest of us joined our companions in sleep, not wanting to wake them to share such dire news. It would wait til morning.

4th of Marpenoth, 1371 DR
The events of this day have left me feeling conflicted. Even though it felt too soon, I convinced everyone else to decide what was to become of the adventurin’ company. Luckily, everyone else seemed to want to get this business done and behind us. Our first order of business was to figure out what to do about Noraa.

Despite the fact that she had repeatedly done things to erode our trust in her (and then lied about these things), I gave her one last chance to redeem herself. She responded with hostility and more lies. So, we voted to eject her from the guild. In a bizarre turn, she left all her possessions behind when she stormed out of the guild house. No more than a minute later, we heard a scream from outside. Noraa’s father and her brothers had shown up and they killed her right outside our place!

Guilt plagues me. I don’t feel guilty for getting her kicked out of the guild. She brought that on herself. What I feel guilty about is the fact that, just before she left, she threatened me. At hearing that threat, my first thought was to find her father and tell him that Noraa and Morgan had been lovers, figurin’ that would be the final straw and that her father might finally rein her in – possibly even kill her. No sooner had that thought cross through my head than there was her father murdering her in broad daylight!

For most people, guilt over that kind of coincidence would just be misplaced grief. However, when my sorcerous powers first manifested, it was under similar circumstances of pressure and stress. Did I somehow cause Noraa’s father to appear and kill her? Have I that kind of power? To control other people’s minds? I’ll have to test this in more controlled (and safer) conditions.

Speaking of new powers, I have been working on a way to channel my Magic Missile spell into somethin’ more powerful. So far, I’ve only been able to pull that off a couple of times. However, I have discovered an entirely new power. I can now create a series of minor effects like the effects actors were capable of back in Waterdeep. While of limited use on an adventures, it is going to come in very handy while pulling pranks on people. Now if I can just figure out how to shape the Magic Missiles into armor like Carenthal does…

We reported the murder to the sheriff and brought him the body. Took care of some other administrative things in town as well. Hine brought us a new prospective member – an Elven woman named Sparrow. Then we went back and started restructurin’ the guild organization.

I have been elected as the new leader of the Three Hills Adventurin’ Company. While I chaff a bit at taking over so soon after Morgan’s death, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want the job. We voted to accept Sparrow into the guild and even made her our intelligence officer. Hine became our operations officer (assisted by Storn & Trogor), Dolgun is in change of logistics, and Eldron is in charge of security. We also invented a new role for Carenthal. We’re callin’ it J-1 (as in Jack-of-all-Trades) because Carenthal is so knowledgeable about such a wide variety of subjects.

Found out some interestin’ things about Jasper. I managed to catch his full name when I saw it on his journal (no I didn’t read his journal). Sparrow took that and got some good (if expensive) information. In short, Morgan saved Jasper’s life and honor, so Jasper swore his life to Morgan. Hearing that, I knocked on Jasper’s door and formally asked him to say on and help us. When I told him I was the new guild leader, he cut his own hand and mine (ouch!) and swore fealty to me.

I have to admit to being intimidated by that kind of loyalty.

Sparrow also discovered that the adventurers out of Waterdeep planned on going to the Whisperin’ Cairn on the morrow. Sparrow talked Igor into leadin’ the group to a different cairn, gaining us another day to explore the tomb.

5th of Marpenoth, 1371 DR
We finally made it back to the Whisperin’ Cairn. Discovered a passel of large wolf tracks that were big enough to not get obliterated by the rain, but there was no other sign of the animal. Once inside the cairn again, we thought we saw a large shape pass by the entrance, but when we went back we found nothing. Nervous as a young man on his first trip down the veiled hall, we went back into the lantern chamber.

One perilous rope climb later we were on a lower level through the hole under the green lantern. To the left was a room full of some sort of orange-brown mass crawlin’ with beetles. To the right were eight stone platforms (one with a dead body on it) and a threatenin’ statue holding a cylindrical greatclub.

We managed to recover the body (head smashed in wearing red-dyed leather armor with a yellow, eight-pointed start badge), but before we could examine it completely, a gigantic beetle the size of a draft horse scuttled up the stairs to the north! Although the thing did manage to spew some weak acid all over Eldron and Storn, we killed it quickly after that. I even managed to fire a bolt through its shell.

No sooner had we killed it than a second beetle crashed out of the orange mass and charged our flank. This one spewed acid all over Dolgun and before we could kill it, it was joined by a swarm of smaller beetles. Between Dolgun’s breath weapons (now he can breath ice out of his mouth as well as fire) and one of my alchemist fires, we managed to kill the giant beetle and its smaller cousins. Not wantin’ more surprises, Dolgun breathed fire all over the remaining beetles and the mass of orange organic…whatever. Although it created a cloud of acrid smoke, it also revealed three bodies which we recovered and looted.

Looks like three more guys in red, leather armor (complete with yellow, eight-pointed stars) died here. We recovered several potions and a magic pearl that will apparently allow Trogdor to cast more healing spells. That sounds like a good find to me!

The stairs led down into a largish roomful of five feet or so of water. As we began to explore it, a creature that appeared to be made of water attacked us. Carenthal identified it as a Water Elemental. After a quick exchange of weapons, Dolgun was getting pretty beat up, so I dug deep and killed it with a pair of Magic Missiles.

In a small side room, Dolgun discovered a Ghoul. Although the Undead creature tried to eat him, Dolgun’s shield and armor kept the thing at bay long enough for Trogdor to arrive. Now, up until this time, I’d not seen Trogdor do anythin’ other than heal people – and believe me, I’m not minimizing the importance of his healin’ spells. When he got within in sight of the Ghoul, however, he raised his holy symbol and called forth some kind of divine power, reducing the creature to a whirlin’ cloud of dust!

We collected some treasure (including the red lantern and a magic short sword now carried by Sparrow even though she seems to prefer spears) and climbed back up to the lantern room. After seein’ what would happen at each lantern station, we discovered that there was only the one more elevator down and a ledge above the blue lantern leadin’ to parts unknown.