Iron Ring in Threshold ====================== ** 1029/11/22 ** Tess chases after the woman and the four guys in leather armor, who are 50' ahead of him. Tess still has Heroism and Blur in effect. Seeing that Tess is catching up with them, in due course they stop and get ready to attack him. The woman is wearing chainmail under her brilliant blue cloak, carries a shield and sword, and has dark blue eyes. Tess attacks one of the thugs in leather armor, doing minor damage, as the wound mostly closes up immediately. The woman casts Dispel Magic, removing Tess' Blur and Heroism spells. The thugs move to flank Tess. One thug nicks Tess, the others miss. Tess takes out the guy he first wounded (a weaker guy), and a tougher guy. That leaves one tougher guy, one weaker guy, and the woman. The two remaining guys move to flank Tess again. Tess is hit twice and is lightly wounded. After the woman casts Unholy Blight on Tess, he is moderately wounded. The others are unaffected by the Unholy Blight. Tess takes down the stronger guy, and cleaves onto the weaker guy. The weaker guy flees and the woman surrenders. The adventurers and Stephan catch up to Tess. Tess had killed 3 thugs and knocked one down. The adventurer's Cleric, of the Church of Karameikos, gives first aid to the thug that wasn't dead yet. Tess tells the other adventurers who have just caught up with them to chase the other guy - they catch him and end up killing him with a spell, being unable to wound him with weapons. We return to the main part of town, handing the captive unconscious guy and the woman over to the guards. ** 1029/11/23-1029/11/26 ** Their trial is held several days later, in front of the Chief Magistrate. They are guilty of attacking us. We get to keep their equipment. It is found out at the trial that she has the holy symbol of Talitha tattooed on her chest. Some of the thugs were Wererats, which was why it was difficult to defeat them with weapons. The Wererats, yellow-robed mage, and cleric of Talitha all had tattoos of Iron Ring membership. The weaker guys talk and are not Iron Ring members. Golthar (the mage) was interested in some tapestry. Golthar wanted to use it to advance the Iron Ring. The weaker guys were just hired thugs. The woman, Jolenta, was sent here to assist Golthar hunt us down and retrieve the tapestry, and Golthar had a personal interest in hunting the party down. Some others there were hired thugs. ** 1029/11/27-1029/11/28 ** Tess teleports off to Sind then through the gateway to Serraine to get the loot identified by Tsaz. He pays 250gp for a Legend Lore on the ring of control constructs and also paid Tsaz 250gp for a Legend Lore on the tapestry. The result for Legend Lore on the ring was: "Adventurers rush, Where the cautious walk, An ambush is not sprung, The wielder lived for a time." This refers to us avoiding the ambush when we rushed through and attacked Golthar. Woman's equipment: ================== 1157.5gp longsword +1 2150.0gp chainmail +2 2076.5gp light wooden shield +2 3600.0gp 3x potion: magic vestment +4 750.0gp 2x potion: remove disease 1500.0gp 4x potion: cure serious wounds - Tess 150.0gp 1x potion: resist energy cold 10 500.0gp gold bracelet worth 500gp Mooks ===== 3465.0gp 3x shortswords +1 Troll: ====== 1155.0gp battleaxe +1 Mage: ===== 4000.0gp moderately magical ring of protection +2 AC 5000.0gp moderately magical ring - control constructs - constructed to control a series of constructs, can use it when wearing it - jade, not recent, style indicates it is quite old 5000.0gp concealed pouch with gems ======= 30504.0gp ======= Tess took down eight out of the thirteen enemies (Tess took down Golthar, the troll, two Wererats at the end, one hired thug at the end, one Wererat in the first battle, and two hired thugs in the first battle). The adventurers took down four of the weaker thugs and a Wererat. So Tess gets a share of 8/13 * 30,504 = 18,772gp => 12,272gp after the ring and potions of Cure Serious Wounds. The adventurer's share is 11,732gp worth. Stephan took down none, so gets no share. ** 1029/12/01-1029/12/02 ** Stephan recalls a room in Xitaqa with artwork and statues. Maybe the ring controls those statues? Tess teleports to Xitaqa, and sneaks around, up to the tower. The statues in the room where Tess fought Vlack do not respond to the ring. The artwork up above has been defaced by the goblins. One goblin died putting his shortsword through a painting. The paintings are magical. Two pink jackal-headed, stone sculptures are magical, and can't be teleported. The statues look old, and look like smug looking gnolls. The statues do respond to the ring. There is a room behind the dead goblin. There are six intact, though defaced, paintings, with a compartment you can see out of through eyeholes into the main room, and a secret door into the stairwell. Footsteps are in the dust behind the paintings. The paintings all appear to be trapped in the same manner - injures and stuns you - a sonic attack. ** 1029/12/03 ** Tess memorizes a teleport location in Threshold. T'saz teleports into the inn in Threshold and meets Stephan. Tsaz and Tess then greater teleport to Xitaqa. And we check out the room. Tsaz casts Legend Lore on the statues: "Ancient crafters midst gulleys, still we guard the holy places." - which is where Xitaqa is. They were probably made by clerics. The statues are an early kind of golem, not that powerful as golems go. Tsaz is happy to pay 8,000gp for the two statues and the ring. Gnolls in Foam River Valley =========================== We head north following the tapestry and the scroll from the high priestess: "I, Basitqet, high priestess, do command your return to Hutaaka. The stars have changed and our power wanes. Strange creatures harry us from the mountains and our people grow restless. We are stretched too thin. Bring the treasures of the temples and the people of the lowlands to feed the one. The sacred tapestries and your silver needles show the path." ** 1029/12/04-1029/12/06 ** The valley in the direction the river takes has lots of Gnolls and is called the Foam Fire Valley. Tess and Stephan head north from Threshold towards the Foam Fire Valley. After one day of travel, cutting overland, they get to the Foam Fire River. The next two days of traveling along the river are uneventful. On third day, when stopped for night and making camp, Stephan calls Tess over to the campfire. There's rocks here - they look like old cobblestones. ** 1029/12/07 ** On the fourth day, it appears there was a road heading alongside the river. Smoke ahead and to the west on the 4th day. A large flock of black crows caw loudly in the area. There are torn fragments of bedrolls, a broken spearshaft, a few pots and pans, and a smoking campfire. There is a humanoid bone in the campfire - maybe elf? No heads. A mist forms in the river valley as we head uptrail. Stephan using Tess' Hat of Disguise to appear as a Gnoll, Tess disguises himself as a Goblin. We smell long dead creatures up ahead. As we approach, the look tall and spindly, 12' tall. Tess and Stephan back off, for Stephan to hide. It turns out that they are human heads on pikes. Up ahead there is wailing. In the fog near Tess are whole bodies, gnoll-like, on 6 foot long wooden spears (no metal tip). The Gnolls died within the last couple of months. Tess continues sneaking towards the wailing. There is a large hole in the ground. The wailing is not coming from the hole - the hole is 3 foot tall - something has scrambled in and out more than a few times. The wailing pauses for breath with more wailing. A gnoll is moving in the mist. The gnoll is just listening to the wailing. Tess moves around the gnoll towards the wailing. Low Gnollish voices near the wailing are chanting prayers for spirits of the departed - right near where the wailing is. Tess disguises himself as a Gnoll with Alter Self. There are five gnolls, four of them around a bald gnoll howling in the middle. The four other gnolls look like they have been killed and resurrected recently - pale fur, pale skin, and so forth - they look quite ill. The four gnolls are chanting a prayer, the other one is wailing. They look alarmed at seeing Tess. Tess in Gnollish to one of them waggling eyebrows: "I come from afar to pay respects to the dead, I was not expecting this." The wailing is one paying little attention. Two other gnolls gesture Tess away. Other gnolls: "This land is sacred to Death's Head, remove yourself or die. You are in sacred death grounds. Leave our lands lest the shaman be offended and mark you for death." Tess apologizes and leaves. He is told by another Gnoll, "You must do the proper protocols, you must wait to be contacted before coming on our land, then the chieftain may speak to you. Our lands are the valley, come to the edge of the valley, meet our scouts there." Tess is escorted from Gnollish territory. He explains that he can travel faster magically, and teleports away before his Alter Self spell runs out. Tess tried to teleport back to Stephan, but appeared in an area of heavy fog (teleport off target to a similar area.) Tess teleports again and doesn't find Stephan. There are pine trees here. Tess must be north. Tess teleports again to try and find Stephan. Tess arrives in mountainous terrain again, and taking a guess from the unfamiliar pine trees, thinks he is no longer in Karameikos. Tess sends a message over the communicator to Thora, asking her to contact Stephan and tell him Tess teleported off target.