FreemanGames Campaign Journal

NAME: Kazmojen
CREATURE TYPE: Half-troll dwarf slaver
LOCATION: Unknown, formerly Malachite Fortress
STATUS: Unknown, possibly still active

The half-troll dwarf Kazmojen was the mastermind behind the summer dissappearances in Cauldron.  He ran a slave bazaar in the former dwarven stronghold, the Malachite Fortress.  He possibly worked for or with the Beholder who appeared in the battle with the Union of Justice.  His known minions included numerous hobgoblins, many skulks, lots of dark ones, a small single earth elemental of some kind, an ogre (deceased), one set of animated chains, and his pet Howler (deceased).  His body dissappeared while the Union of Justice cleaned out the dungeon, though they had already taken his weapons and armor.

NAME: Mimic
CREATURE TYPE: aberration
LOCATION: Unknown, formerly Jzadirune
STATUS: at large

This mimic guarded Keygan Ghelves rat familiar, Starbrow.  He nearly killed both The Hawk and Lucy, but DaVid negotiated a truce.  The mimic provided them with information about the slave operation of Kazmojen in the Malachite Fortress in exchanged for food.

NAME: Skulks
CREATURE TYPE: humanoids
LOCATION: formerly Jzadirune
STATUS: Deceased

The Union of Justice killed a majority if not all of the Skulk kidnappers who stole people from the streets of Cauldron throughout the summer.  Skulks have very good camoflague and prefer ambushes and hit and run tactics.  They also favor rapiers, light crossbows and thunderstones.

NAME: Darkcreepers
CREATURE TYPE: Dark Ones (humanoid)
LOCATION: formerly Jzadirune
STATUS: deceased

The Union of Justice also dispatched most of the darkcreepers who were involved in the kidnappings of Cauldron.  These small humaniods have goat legs and detest light.  They were able to cloak themselves in shadow and strike for vital areas like a skilled rogue.

NAME: Yuathyb
CREATURE TYPE: Darkstalker – Humanoid (Dark Ones)
LOCATION: Unknown, formerly Jzadirune
STATUS: Active

Yuathyb is the Darkstalker leader who directed the darkcreepers.  He fought the Union of Justice to a standstill using a fog cloud, before departing.  He seemed to be very familiar with Jzadirune and its operations and passages.  He was medium sized as opposed to small like the darkcreepers.  Nobody got a good look at Yuathyb the whole time. 

NAME: Grell
CREATURE TYPE: aberration
LOCATION: Jzadirune
STATUS: Deceased

The grell occupied the great hall, which the darkcreepers and skulks seemingly sealed off.  It is a large floating brain, with a beak and 10 paralyzing tentacles.  It nearly spelled doom for the Union of Justice, who all but Tom were paralyzed at some point or another.  It took the combined efforts of all of the heroes to bring down this floating menace.

NAME: Hobgoblins
CREATURE TYPE: Humanoid (Goblinoid)
LOCATION: Malachite Fortress
STATUS: Deceased

These soldiers worked for Kazmojen and were taken out quite easily for militant goblinoids due to the Union of Justice’s blitzkreig attack style.

NAME: Goblins
CREATURE TYPE: Humaniod (Goblinoid)
LOCATION: Malachite Fortress
STATUS: Deceased

These lowly goblins worked for the Hobgoblins and quickly surrendered to the Union of Justice.

NAME: Ogre
CREATURE TYPE: Ogre ?
LOCATION: Malachite Fortress
STATUS: Deceased

This Ogre confronted the heroes with a mass of animated chains and a greatclub.  He fought clumsily and seemed to be out of his element.  Tom Riddle and his panther Kree felled the massive opponent with ease.

NAME: Animated Chains
CREATURE TYPE: Construct (animated object)
LOCATION: Unknown (Formerly Malachite Fortress)
STATUS: Unknown

These chains fought with Tom and Kree until they decided discretion was the better part of valor and broke off combat to join the others.  Nobody knows what happened to them after that.

NAME: Howler
CREATURE TYPE: magical beast
LOCATION: Malachite Fortress
STATUS: Deceased (2x)

This creature was the pet of Kazmojen and a particular thorn in the side of the Union of Justice during the battle in the slave bazaar.  DaVid dispatched the beast twice, quite enraging his owner, Kazmojen.

NAME: Pulverizer Automatons
CREATURE TYPE: Construct
LOCATION: Jzadirune
STATUS: Destroyed

These constructs were what the darkcreepers and skulks used to dig the tunnels throughout Jzadirune.  They were also fierce fighting machines, with slam attacks and cone of sonics.  They seemed unreliable, and at times would cease functioning.  Each contained a very expensive blue spinnel gem at its core.

NAME: Beholder
CREATURE TYPE: aberration
LOCATION: Unknown, formerly Malachite Fortress
STATUS: Unknown

This creature teleported into the battle in the slave bazaar, demanding custody of Terem, an orphan from Cauldron on the auction block.  He turned one of the hobgoblin guards to stone, and seemingly charmed Terrem, who then teleported away with the monstrosity.  It seemed that Kazmojen know the beholder, and did not argue with childs re-abduction.

NAME: Unnamed Durzagon
CREATURE TYPE: fiendish deurgar
LOCATION: Unknown, formerly Malachite Fortress
STATUS: Unknown

This vile durzagon was trying to buy the missing four orphans from Kazmojen when the Union of Justice crashed the slave bazaar.  Having evidently already bought three children, he tried to leave with them when The Hawk ended DaVid’s negotiations over buying the four the orphans.  The Hawk pursued the durzagon until he released the children, thus securing the main goal of the Union of Justice on this adventure.

NAME: raggamoffyn
CREATURE TYPE: contruct
LOCATION: Jazdirune
STATUS: Deceased

Two sets of Raggamoffyn inhabited Jzadirune.  These constructs appeared as animated rags who tried to grapple and possess people.  The Union of Justice encountered one already possessing a Skulk.

NAME: Last Laugh Thugs
CREATURE TYPE: human thugs
LOCATION: Cauldron
STATUS: Imprisoned

These three men were accosting Ruphus Laro in the street when DaVid, Tom Riddle and The Hawk interceded.  It was this event that set in motion the formation of the Union of Justice more than any other.  The three thugs turned out to be off-duty town guardsmen, who according to Pvt. Skylar Krewis, are serving hard time.

NAME: Mysterious Last Laugh female
CREATURE TYPE: human female
LOCATION: Cauldron rooftops
STATUS: Unknown

This mysterious woman shouted warnings at The Hawk, DaVid and Tom Riddle from the rooftop after they defeated the thugs who accosted Ruphus Laro.  She seemed to be speaking primarily at The Hawk.  She wore the typical last laugh harlequin makeup, leather armor, and a whip, the rest were concealed by her cloak.

NAME: Choker
CREATURE TYPE: aberration
LOCATION: Jzadirune
STATUS: Deceased

This creature laired below the stage in Jzadirune, it died rather quickly and without any trouble at the hands of The Hawk and Lucian (Luke). 

NAME: The Vanishing
CREATURE TYPE: magical curse
LOCATION: Jzadirune
STATUS: Still active

This magical curse is found on magic items that the Union of Justice found within Jzadirune.  Within the halls of Jzadirune, they learned that this curse is what drove the gnomes to abandon the complex, which was an enclave for magical studies and item creation.

 

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We left off last time in a store room with a lot of miscellaneous equipment. Hawk and Xiloscient decided to remain behind to guard the stairs back up to the bath house as well as to keep watch on Orek.

So the four of us (DaVid, Luke, Tom, and I) continued to search the dungeon by taking only right-hand turns like Hawk suggested. Eventually we came to a dead-end room and Luke found a secret trap door on the floor in the center of the room.

It was a smugglers hole and inside we found a lot of extra equipment. There were:

• Four vials of alchemist fire
• Three thunderstones
• One Thieves Kit
• One Healers Kit
• One Artisans Kit

Tom got very excited about finding the thunderstones. Luke wasn’t as happy. Apparently in a previous adventure, Tom loved to throw thunderstones at doorways as soon as Luke was going through. The four of us split the alchemist fires. Luke took the Thieves and Artisans Kits and DaVid took the healers kit.

As we continued to search the dungeon, we came across two goblins waiting for us in a small room with a ledge. Cree (Tom’s pet panther) and Luke quickly killed them. We searched the bodies and found some gold. The small room was actually an archer’s perch overlooking a large cavern.

Because Tom can see in the dark, he described the large cavern as having about ten pallets that wargs or wolves would use to sleep on.

Continuing the search of the dungeon, we came across a steep ramp going down about ten feet. Because this looked like the next ‘level’ of the dungeon we opted to finish searching the current level first, taking right-hand turns.

As we opened a door to a room, a goblin attacked us. It tried to flee but Tom pounded him hard and he went down in a crumpled heap. I used my silk rope to tie him up and we took the unconscious goblin back to Hawk to be interrogated.

Looking through the room (which was quite smelly), we saw animal and fish carcasses hanging from chains. It was really quite disgusting. In fact it smelled to bad in this room that the stench made my eyes water!

Next we came to a circular room with a fountain on the wall. A large dwarven head statue with a grin was spitting out water into the basin. This room connected to the long hallway that we were in initially. At the end of this hallway was a decapitated head of a large dwarven statue. This looked like it belonged to the statue that we saw back in the desecrated temple. Tom rolled the head down the hall and put it back inside the temple for us to clean up later.

As we continued to search rooms in the dungeon, we came to one room with three goblins. One of the goblins was a shaman and tried to put us all to sleep but failed. They all attacked Tom, who was in the doorway. I ran up to aid Tom in his battle.

The shaman cast a scorching ray at Tom which hurt him. DaVid and Luke healed Tom as the battle commenced. The shaman fired off another scorching ray at Luke but DaVid used a healing wand on Luke to heal him.

I finally joined in on the battle and together Tom and I killed the other two goblins. The shaman then drank a potion and disappeared. Tom and I tried to hit him where we last saw him but were unsuccessful. As that happened, a door to the room banged open and we were attacked by three more goblins (one of which was another shaman).

The shaman began to cast another spell and I hit him but it didn’t seem to disrupt what he was doing. He cast a burning hands spell at all of us which didn’t harm any of us. As the battle continued, he cast another burning hands which hurt Luke badly and Luke fell to the ground unconscious.

DaVid swooped in and healed a very appreciated Luke. Luke then quaffed a potion of healing and looked much better. The invisible goblin went visible when he attacked us again, but he blundered as Tom and I slew him when he moved.

At the same time, the other goblin began casting another spell and then everything went dark.

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I woke up with DaVid shaking me violently. It turns out that the goblin shaman cast a sleep spell which affected me. After I fell asleep the others dispatched the remaining two goblins.

After the battle we searched the bodies and found some gold as well as two potions labeled in goblin. DaVid procured these potions.

As we were searching Cree, who was guarding the door to the room began to growl and we heard sounds of something approaching us. It was a pack of wolves. Cree was at the door and as such blocked them from getting us. In fact, Cree did a great job fending off the wolves and killing some.

Tom summoned a wolf to help with the fight and then lept out into the hallway and helped Cree fight off the wolves. When an opening appeared, I jumped into the hallway as well. We were gaining the upper hand on the wolves when something happened behind Tom.

In the room behind Tom, something polymorphed into a large dire wolf. Knowing that this was a very dangerous foe, I attempted to tumble into the room to help Tom. Sadly a I tumbled into the room, the dire wolf struck me with its powerful paw and pinned me to the floor. I was hurt pretty bad.

The others finished off the rest of the wolves (there were nine total) and then began to try to hurt the large dire wolf. It appeared to be immune to damage as when people hit it, there didn’t appear to be any damage. I also noticed that nothing happened when I tried to use a stunning fist attack against the beast.

Things were not looking good. It pinned me to the ground and I felt a lot less healthy and was hurting really bad. Things were not looking good for me. DaVid was hurling magic missiles while Tom used a magical weapon and they were beginning to hurt the dire wolf.

Suddenly, as it looked like we might be able to take down the dire wolf, it dissipated into a cloud of gas and began to wander off.

Continuing the adventures of Noke Arrier, monk of St. Cuthbert:

We were all inside Orek’s bath house. Orek was tied up & gagged on the floor, unconscious, after we beat him to a pulp when he tried to attack Luke earlier (as the result of a misunderstanding ove something Xiloscient said).

Luke found & opened a secret door in the back of the place with some stairs leading down. We decided that we would investigate where these stairs led (presumably the goblin lair). However we couldn’t take Orek with us and we didn’t want anyone to disturb our adventure.

So we initially thought that we would put a ‘closed’ sign out front. DaVid found some parchment in Orek’s office and was about to make a ‘closed’ sign. However Tom pointed out that there isn’t normally a close sign so we abandoned the idea and simply locked the front door.

With that settled we all began to head downstairs with Hawk in the lead carrying a magical torch. When we got to the bottom of the stairs we saw a long hallway with a lot of filthy writing on the wall written in blood and excrement. This looked like goblin work.

Tom was very excited about scouting ahead and convinced Hawk to extinguish his torch. It seems that Tom can see in the dark. While we all huddled around in darkness on the stairs, Tom scouted ahead. He didn’t find any goblins or other dangers.

We decided that we would be better off with light and Hawk lit his torch again. With the light on, we began to walk along the dungeon taking only right turns so we wouldn’t get lost. The first room was came to was a large chamber with some dwarven artwork.

Hawk tumbled through the door first but didn’t do a very good job. Tom tumbled through next and showed Hawk how it is done. I tumbled through next and showed Tom how it is done. DaVid strutted through, followed by Xiloscient.

The chamber looked like a defiled dwarven shrine. There was a large headless statue in the back of the room and more filth everywhere. Hawk investigated a brazier at the back of the room and saw that it was filled with excrement.

We searched around the room but didn’t find anything. As we were leaving Hawk was attacked by a goblin at the doorway we originally entered through.

At this point, chaos ensued. We all spilled out into the hallway. I made it up to the front and saw goblins all over the place. They were all lined up trying to pin us down. Hawk began to pick some off with his deadly arrows and Xiloscient (who was also singing a song of courage) used a crossbow to kill them too. I pounded away at them with my fists. Tom and his panther ducked into a side room and engaged some goblins there. DaVid conjured a magical staff in front of me that attacked the goblins too. Hawk also threw some alchemist fire into the mix of goblins and hurt them. That was fun to see!

(goblins attack!)

The fight went on like this for a while and we slowly pushed our way forward. We were making progress and beating back the goblins. Eventually we were able to clear an opening and Tom jumped in front of me at the front-line of combat. He told me that he was going to go straight and that I should dive into the other room to the right that had at least two other goblins attacking from the doorway.As I tumbled into the room I briefly saw two goblins lunge at me with their swords and then everything went black.

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Later I woke up and saw DaVid standing over me with a wand. He casted a spell on me and used the wand a few more times to heal me up. I almost died. It was very scary!

The goblins were all gone and DaVid told me what happened.

When I tumbled into the room, two goblins laid in ambush on either side of the doorway. One of them hit me very hard in a vital area and managed to rend me unconscious, nearly dead. I laid in a pool of my own blood while Hawk turned invisible, entered the room, and killed one of the goblins with his bow. DaVid moved up and tried to heal me but one of the goblins distracted him. After that, fortunately, the goblin ran away.

We regrouped and took stock of the situation. sixteen goblins lay dead strewn about. We collected their ears. The room I tumbled into (and nearly died in) looked like an abandoned dwarven barracks. Hawk began to toss the earless goblin bodies onto all of the beds. Tom then came behind him and arranged them neatly to look as if they were sleeping.

Next we continued into the next room that was connected to the barracks. This looked like an abandoned storeroom with crates and cages. We we entered the room, some goblins who were on the other side attacked us.

We quickly began to dispatch them when a different-looking goblin rode up on a warg. As it approached, it dismounted and let the warg come at us first. This goblin was dressed in nice armor that had a wolfs head on it and was wielding two quality-looking swords.

(a goblin riding a warg approaches us)

In a flurry of motion, Tom’s pet panther lunged at the warg, grabbed onto it, and raked. It then bit and clawed. Tom followed-up and smashed the warg to death. Tom and Xiloscient fired arrows and crossbows at the lone well-dressed goblin who charged at Tom and yelled a battle cry to Drakthar.His exuberance was short lived as Tom’s pet panther reared up bit his head off and he fell lifeless to the floor.

We retrieved the goblin ears, and searched the bodies. We saved the good-looking equipment from the dead well-dressed goblin. I offered to carry his studded leather armor in my pack. Hawk found a store room filled with supplies. There were some disguise kits, a ton of oil-filled vials, and some other things.

At this point we all caught our breath and were deciding what to do next.

Alec,

You have asked that I record the statement of one Tom Riddle as to his actions and behaviors during the past few days. He has told me quite a fanciful tale, laced with intrigue and excitement!

He said it all started with the goblin graffiti, which you will remember had plagued the city for quite some time. He and his friends, the “Union of Justice” (which you no doubt know is lead by that vigilante, the Hawk – Tom seems quite impressionable at this age; are you sure you want him hanging around with such a bad influence?) were investigating the graffiti. Towards that end, they set a trap, and captured or killed several of the goblins. Unfortunately, nothing useful was gained. Therefore, they came to speak to me. I used the Star of Justice to aid them, and while the divinations meant nothing to me, it seemed to lead them to Orak’s bath house, with which you are no doubt familiar. Once there, they were assaulted by were-rats outside. (I took the liberty of speaking with the town guards; while it has been recorded that there was some sort of altercation outside the bath house on the night in question, no one could tell me if the bodies delivered to the morgue were infected with lycanthropy.) After dispatching the were-rats, the group forcibly entered the bath house, whereupon they found Orak with some goblins. Tom was nice enough to record a statement on this encounter himself:

(Evidently, someone said something about Orak being under some sort of magical control, and Tom tried to show that in the picture. To me it looks like Orak is having a bad hair day.) After killing the goblins, Orak proceeded to assault one of the members of the Union of Justice (someone Tom calls Luke; he couldn’t remember his full name), and for this reason the group proceeded to beat Orak senseless. (I have not had time to speak with Orak, I highly suggest that you go talk to him.) Luke pointed out a secret door; after tying Orak securely with rope, the group proceeded down the stairs hidden behind the door. The stairs led to an underground complex, which, by Tom’s accounting, was quite filthy. The group found what sounds like a desecrated temple to Moradin; while leaving the temple Tom says they were attacked by “hundreds” of goblins. Evidently, beyond this point, they were fighting goblins in an almost continuous stream, including goblins that apparently rode wolves as people ride horses. While I am skeptical of this claim (mounted warriors underground?!), I cannot completely discount it, as hobgoblins especially are known to have high martial prowess. From Tom’s description, however, it does not sound like he had encountered any hobgoblins. He was nice enough to include another account:

(Evidently, the Hawk carries a torch of continual flame on his head to provide light, undoubtably because he can’t see in the dark.)

At this point, Tom was quite tired, and frankly, so was I. So I have ceased questioning him for tonight; tomorrow we will complete this endeavour, and I will send you the rest of the story.

St. Cuthbert be with you,

Jenya

This evening today we headed over to Orak’s bathhouse.  The bathhouse is located just south of crater lake on Lava Avenue.  It is a thick-walled building with only one visible entrance of iron doors.  Based on our knowledge, we knew that it is open from noon to midnight every day and it costs 1 silver for a bath (including towel) and one more silver for some soap.  No weapons or armor are allowed inside either.

By the time we got to the entrance to the bath house, it was about 9 or 10pm at night.  As we approached the entrance, a few of us noticed a medium-sized hooded person looking at us from the rooftop of a nearby building.  Because of this, Tom and Hawk decided to hide nearby and see if they can spot the person on the rooftop again.

At the same time, DaVid, Luke, Xiloscient, and I began to head inside.  As we were about to enter, Xiloscient remembered that we weren’t supposed to have weapons or armor, so she removed her weapons and gave them to Luke to watch after.  DaVid did the same thing.  Being a monk, I didn’t have any weapons or armor to remove.

So now Luke remained outside with the collection of armor and weapons while the three of us went inside.  As we entered, Orak Stonehaven, a red-bearded dwarf weaning an eyepatch set with a red ruby and a mace on his belt approached us and greeted us.  He recognized DaVid and led us to a section of the bath house while we talked with him.

We asked him about the goblins and wanted to know if he knew where their lair was.  He told us, “I don’t know anything about the goblins and their lair is not here.”  Because we knew from the divination of the Star of Justice mace that he would lie to us, the goblins must be coming from this bathhouse.

At the same time, outside, Tom caught a glimpse of the hooded figure on the rooftop and sent his panther to attack it.  At this point three more figures arrived from all sides and attacked the party members outside.  They all turned out to be wererats.

One shot Hawk with a crossbow and then charged and attacked him with it’s rapier.  Hawk did a ninja-move, turning invisible, and took out the wererat with his bow.  Tom joined his panther on the roof and engaged in battle with the wererat on the roof.

Another wererat from the south attacked Luke.  I was on my way outside of the bathhouse by this time and saw what was going on.  I alerted Xiloscient and DaVid and joined in the battle.  Luke and I fought the wererat together.  DaVid came outside and fired a scorching ray at the same wererat but missed.  Xiloscient emerged from the bath house and began to sing a song of courage.

There was another wererat closing from the north that Hawk attacked (while still invisible).  DaVid took this one out with his magic missile.  Tom and his panther continued to battle with the wererat on the roof.  The panther was able to grapple with the wererat, limiting its movement.

Hawk appeared from nowhere, fired his bow, and killed the wererat that Luke and I were fighting.  With another magic missile, DaVid killed the wererat that Tom and his pet panther were battling with on the roof.

As we finished up the fight, three patrons from the bath house watched from the doorway.  Hawk wisely explained to them that wererats travel in packs of six.  Since we dispatched only four there are two more still about.  This spooked the patrons and they vacated the area.  The door to the bath house was then closed from the inside.

We all searched the bodies and found some gold but nothing else of interest.  We noticed that they changed back into humanoid form when they died.  Some of the party members were suspicious about getting attacked when we went to the bath house and wanted to go back inside to question Orak some more.

Some guards appeared and wanted to know about the dead bodies.  Hawk, who is a wanted criminal, snuck off and hid while the guards were around.  We explained the situation and the guards left to dispose of the bodies.

After the guards left, we found the door to the bath house locked.  We knocked but no one opened the door.  It took Luke some time, but he was able to pick the lock.

We entered and saw Orak with two goblins.  They weren’t in the bath house before.  Upon seeing us, Orak exclaimed that he was under attack by the goblins and killed one in front of him.  I ran forward and slew the remaining goblin.

Hawk entered, drew his bow on Orak and ordered him to drop his mace.  The others came in and approached Orak too.  Xiloscient asked that we not kill Orak – right away.  This seemed to alarm Orak and he looked like he was about to defend himself from us.

DaVid, who knew Orak, tried to calm him (and everyone else) down.  DaVid suggested that Orak might be under control of someone else.  Luke attempted to move away from Orak, who immediately attacked him.

Tom and I joined into the fray and were able to subdue Orak with our fists.  Once he was down we tied him up.  I searched the two goblins, found some gold, and collected their ears.

Luke found a locked secret door in the back of the bath house and was able to pick the lock.  Once we opened the door, we saw a set of stairs leading down.  We are trying to decide what to do next.