Session 08 - "I was just look'n for a little tang"

11th of Marpenoth, 1371 DR
By the time we’d returned to the guild hall, Jasper had set up room assignments. He said it was high time we moved outta the barracks and started actin’ like the leaders of the guild. No one had any major problems with their rooms. Jasper put me in Morgan’s old room because I’m the guild leader.

I gotta admit, I don’t know if I can live up to that title. Most of the time I feel like I’m leadin’ these folks through sheer force of will. The rest of the time, it’s like herdin’ cats! I just don’t know what I should be doin’ to really be a leader. Jasper seems to want me to be a military leader, but I don’t know if I can manage that. I’ve never been in the military and (to be completely honest) after dealin’ with my pa and brothers all those years – well, I just don’t wanna be like that.

Somewhere, I need to find my own leadership style and hope everyone can live with it.

12th of Marpenoth, 1371 DR
Hine brought home a prostitute. A dim-witted, self-centered Damaran whore who was obviously manipulatin’ Hine for her own benefit. Heh. I call her dim-witted, but Hine’s just as stupid. The idiot took Morgan’s horse (which later turned out to be Jasper’s horse) into town to “get some ‘tang” as he put it. Somehow he got emotionally attached to this Damaran after one bedroom tumble and she convinced him to “rescue” her from her fate. He carried her out the window of the Emporium, in broad daylight, and rode off with her on Jasper’s horse with the Emporium’s Half-Ogre bouncer in hot pursuit. And where do ya think Hine rode to? The guild house, of course!

Obviously, I was dead set against Hine keepin’ the whore here. I mean, really. We let Hine keep a filty, Damaran whore here and the next thing ya know, we become the Three Hills Adventurin’ Company and Whore House as every abused prostitute flocks to our door seekin’ solace. I wasn’t about to let that happen to the guild that I had so recently taken over. No sir!

Hine ended up takin’ the girl to his mother so she could be indoctrinated into the Cult of the Final Passage. (I can’t imagine that’s gonna work out, but at least she’s not here.) Then he went back to the Emporium to talk to Zalamandra. He basically bought the girl from Zalamndra (for a ridiculous sum) and she confiscated Jasper’s horse! Dolgun and I had to go to the Emporium to buy the horse back from her!

This town sucks.

In the midst of all this, a new person showed up to join our guild. His name is Justice (if you can believe that) and he’s a Cleric of Tyr. Seems kinda hard to think we could go wrong with another Cleric in the guild, so we welcomed him in as a probationary member. We’ll see how he does when we return ta the Whisperin’ Cairn.

We met with Allustan about that green worm we found at the observatory. He told us the thing is some sort of necromantic anomaly. It wasn’t Undead, but it is able to make somethin’ else Undead…or make an Undead stronger…I’m not real sure. A lot of what Allustan said went way over my head. I’m gonna have to get Carenthal to go talk to our old mentor. Carenthal’ll understand the complicated arcane stuff better than me. What I did understand, however, is what Allustan said about the center of the worm appearances bein’ the Dourstone mine.

This information gels with the letter from Smenk to Filge. Allustan was fairly concerned and his concern now has me concerned. Seems like we should look into activities in the mine sooner rather than later. Hopefully it’ll wait until after we get back from the Whisperin’ Cairn. (Allustan is very keen ta get a rubbin’ on this Zoseil – the Wind Duke this tomb was apparently built for. Even offered us 500 gold to get one.)

So we went back to the Whisperin’ Cairn (hopefully for the last time). We quickly found ourselves back in the room with the narrow beam and the iron spheres. No matter where they looked, Sparrow and Valcrist couldn’t find a way to disable the triggerin’ mechanism on the beam’s trap. So, we decided to go down, around, and back up to the (now) open iron door. Before we could carry out our plan, though, we got ambushed by another pair of Gricks! This pair seemed more robust that the previous Gricks we’d killed, but we were still able to deal with them. Sparrow managed to slice one open while it was grapplin’ with Justice. I killed the other one with a barrage of Magic Missiles. Sparrow got pretty torn up durin’ the fight and required a lot of healin’.

After a gaff with the beam trap (which saw Dolgun battered by three or four iron spheres and knocked off the beam), we all made it through the door into an entirely new section of the cairn. The circular room had intricate bas-reliefs on the walls in four sections:

1. Djinni at peace and then being attacked by fire monsters (Efreeti?).
2. A rod or staff created from seven parts.
3. The final battle between the Djinni and the Efreeti.
4. A rod or staff shattered into seven parts and the parts scattered.

There were also four bridges (2 broken) leading to a central area which was a roarin’ “tube” of wind. As soon as Sparrow moved up to the air tube, a trio of “creatures” appeared as if from out of thin air! They looked like shinnin’ suits of plate armor filled with swirlin’ currents of air. Each of these monsters also carried a pair of longswords of an archaic design. In the blink of an eye, the three monsters al stabbed Sparrow and she went down screamin’ in pain.

The things were fast and deadly effective with those swords. Hine, Storn, and Valcrist managed to kill one all by themselves. The other two kept the rest of busy for several tense moments. I did get to try out my new spell (I call it Persistent Blade), though. It doesn’t hit has hard as my Magic Missiles, but it served to distract and flank our assailants, so I think it was valuable. Justice struck the killin’ blow on both of the remainin’ wind creatures (provin’ his value to the guild in my mind), but we all played a role in their destruction, especially Dolgun with his fire and ice breath).

After much healin’ (Sparrow was miraculously still alive), we rode the current of air up to Zoseil’s tomb. There was a brief argument with Justice. He didn’t think it was appropriate – us breaking into the tomb and takin’ these ancient possessions. I explained ta him that if tomb raidin’ was distasteful to him, then membership in out guild probably wouldn’t be his cup of tea. He stopped talkin’ and helped us raid the tomb.

I got the rubbin’ Allustan wanted. We also found another animated bas-relief that apparently showed the demise of Zosiel at the hands of some demon that used a strange, black, metal loop to conjure a globe of darkness that utterly destroyed the Dhinni. Inside the sarcophagus were a pair of black-tipped red horns (the demon’s one would assume), the metal loop, and a magical amulet that apparently helps priests focus their power.

We were all set to start collectin’ Seeker remains when we got ambushed in the lantern chamber again! Another one of Nergal’s lieutenants (a female Cleric of Nerul named Mina [Mozar’s wife]) along with eight Gray Dwarves, a pair of archers, four Monks from the Long Death monastery, and her two personal bodyguards. It looked bad.

The fight that followed a brief but fruitless attempt at parley, was the toughest fight we have ever been in. There were just so many of ‘em and they managed to pin us under the blue lantern right away! The fight was long and I don’t think I have the energy to recount the thing blow-for-blow. I do want to mention a few things, however.

Hine almost redeemed himself. His bow was nearly singin’ and he killed most of them Gray Dwarves himself. Dolgun, Justice, and Storn did an amazing job of holding our line and not letting the Monks through to those of us in the back. Trogdor was instrumental in keeping us all alive – exhausting his spell energy and then skillfully using the wand to keep those guys in the front on their feet. Sparrow and Valcrist teamed up several times to bring down targets from afar with their bows.

I played a fairly critical role as well, if I do say so myself. Twice I stopped Mina from completing a spell by blasting her with Magic Missiles at just the right time. I even managed to get a kill with my crossbow. I am not pleased with how my new Blast of Force spell worked. I just couldn’t seem to land a blow! The only person I managed to hit was a fleeing archer. Now, granted, when I finally did hit someone it worked exactly as I thought it would. Knocked the guy right off his feet. Still, I was very disappointed how poor my accuracy was. I am gonna need to take target practice more often.

In the end, we were victorious. All the bandits were dead or captured. And, although Sparrow was nearly killed again, we all escaped with our lives. One thing’s for sure, with gold we’ll get sellin’ their gear and the reward we’ll get form the garrison we’re gonna be wealthier very soon. That should make up for the relatively disappointing haul from the main tomb of the Whisperin’ Cairn.