FreemanGames Campaign Journal

Drakthar’s Demise

For every adventure (turn, turn, turn)

There is a purpose (turn, turn, turn)

And a chance for the Union of Justice to prove their courage!

A chance to question a dwarf named Orack

Who guarded the cave door; provoked our attack

We bravely subdued the Master of the Bath

Then down to the dungeon, foul Drakthar to track!

Search every cavern (learn, learn, learn)

For clues to his purpose (learn, learn, learn)

And vanquish his minions and goblins!

After many encounters with goblins and wargs

Looking for vampires, looking for fogs

Along came a dire wolf, immune to our missiles

Til he encountered the magic of Riddle

The wolf turned to gas (turn, turn, turn)

Drakthar the Fog? (turn, turn, turn)

He turned tail and fled from the Union!

But he did return, as a bugbear

That he was Drakthar we soon were aware

Upon Luke the Rogue he vented his ire

But he was no match for Noke’s fists of fire

He turned light to darkness (turn, turn, turn)

And ran off all gaseous (turn, turn, turn)

His next plan: to turn Noke against us

So we moved on, not knowing the scheme

Til in rat-battle, Noke turned on the team

Our raging monk-fighter, we had to subdue

This time we knew what we must do

Said DaVid to Drakthar: “Turn, Turn, Turn!”

Your evil to good! “Turn, Turn, Turn!”

Again he turned tail and fled from the Union!

It was now off, his coffin to find,

Instead we found a chest treasure-lined

Much later the rogue stood up and said

Behold a door, and Drakthar’s deathbed!

DaVid blessed the coffin (turn, turn, turn)

He could never return (turn, turn, turn)

Drakthar went poof! for the last time!

For every adventure (turn, turn, turn)

There is a purpose (turn, turn, turn)

And a chance for the Union of Justice to prove their courage!

The last few weeks have been a blur. I decided to train with my master Remo Williams about an alternative fighting style that focuses on a devastating strike instead of a flurry of blows. This training was really intense but certainly feel as if I’m competent now in this new style of fighting.

My companions were also quite busy. We met weekly to discuss the progress of our new secret base. We managed to install a very strong secret stone door on the exit, partly with the help ofDaVid’s magic spells. Hawk was busy training a new pet hawk he found in the forest and he also helped clean up the base. I’m not sure what Xiloscient was doing but I think it involved trying to get some money from her parents.

The first week that we met in the tavern, we were met by Oryston Pike, a woman that the companions rescued from an earlier adventure. It turns out that she has a wealthy father and can get us potions and scrollsfor a 25% discount as well as a 5% discount on other items – although it will take some time to get the items.

We also learned some rumors about Krylscor Endercolt. Apparently he started a little adventuring group of his own and recruited a halfling by the name of Maple, a former mercenary, and a former town guardsman.

During the next two weeks the companions continued to clean up the base and made plans about us having our own rooms and what to use it for. During my training with MasterRemo, he mentioned that the high priest Sarcem Delasharn should be returning from Sasserine with a special letter for him from his home monastery. But it seems that Sarcem is overdue in his return and was expected back a month ago. Some people in the church are a little concerned about this.

During one of the weekly meetings in the tavern, I was able to get DaVid to cast a permanent continual light spell on the whistle that I carry around my neck. Now I can have an easily-accessible light-source when I’m in the dark instead of relying on others. We also all had to chip-in 50 gold each to help pay for the renovations in the temple, but I hear that it is almost all restored.

A strange thing happened on the third day of the third week of my training with Master Remo. I was minding my own business working on my stances and ki focus when Master Remo (who had been in a solid meditation for about twelve hours) burst from his meditation chambers and came straight at me. At first I thought it was a test, but then I noticed that his eyes were that of a crazed madman.

From his appearance it seemed that he was out to kill me. He launched a clumsy and seemingly untrained attack which allowed me to dodge him and knock him to the groundunconscious . When he finally woke up, he claims that he didn’t remember doing any of that and I haven’t seen any odd behavior from him since them. From now on I’m going to be careful around him.

It turns out that the I had been somehow mind controlled by Drakthar and was commanded to try to kill all of my companions.  Fortunately they were able to knock me out and subdue me.  The next thing I remember was being woken up by some elves that I vaguely recognized as Luke’s friends.  My companions had just slain Drakthar by finding his coffin and casting some sort of holy spell on it in order to prevent him from returning to it.

Once Drakthar was slain, the mind control on me ended.  I still remember everything that happened even though I wasn’t able to do anything about it.  We found a pretty large cache of treasure nearDarkthar’s coffin and they had dispatched a spellcaster while I was knocked out too.

Now that we had destroyed Drakthar, we decided to continue to explore the caverns.  We explored areas that we had not seen before and we came across some more goblingraffiti.  Hawk cast a spell which allowed him to read it and it was just more writing about Drakthar – nothing interesting.

We looked around some more and looked through doors but didn’t really find anything.  In one room we found a large fountain with adwarven head spewing water with the ceiling covered in a glowing painting of hammers.  There were also three cots in the room which suggested that some people had been camping in there.

As we continued to search down a cavern, we heard some voices down around a corner – about a half dozen voices.  Tom and Hawk decided that they would sneak ahead and check it out.  As theysnuck down the corridor, they ran into the group.  It was a dwarf and six half-orcs.  At first we tried to get them to surrender but they attacked us anyway.

Tom and Cree attacked and Hawk took one out with his deadly arrows.  I ran up to assist against the half-orcs who were all wielding deadly-looking halberds.  Two of them swung at Cree and hit him really hard.  Cree went down and Tom got really angry.  Another one swung at me and then everything went black.

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I woke up with DaVid standing over me but I was still really hurt – I couldn’t feel my legs.  I saw a half-orc still nearby within striking distance of me so I pretended to be dead so he wouldn’t swing at me again.  The other companions continued to kill the half-orcs and the Dwarf must have run away because I didn’t hear him.  DaVid used his wonderful healing wand on me and I was able to get up now.

As the last of the half-orcs were being dispatched, Hawk ran off after the retreating dwarf and I think he ended up killing the dwarf.  We regrouped and healed up.  We noticed that we were at the ‘end’ of the cavern and it was actually an exit into the woods.

We discussed our options and decided that since we cleaned out this fairly large lair that we would try to take it over as a base.  Hawk, Tom, and I remained at the exit to the forest to keep guard while the others went to town to take care of business.  I think that they were also going to turn in all of the goblin ears that we’ve been collecting for the reward.

It was also decided that we would hire some laborers to help clean up the dungeon and also to hire some stonemasons to construct a secret stone door exiting the dungeon to the forest here.  We will also put on a sturdy lock.  In addition to that we also decided that we would restore & clean up the temple in the upper levels.

After a good night’s rest all of us exited the rope trick spell that DaVid had cast earlier. Most of the party had spells to memorize. Because I don’t cast spells, I stood watch down the hallway.

During that hour, my mind started to go foggy and I was really confused.

We all came up with a strategy to go back to the throne room and try to kill that undead animated chair from before. Tom, Cree, Hawk, Luke, and Xiloscient all dashed into the throne room. As they left the hallway it got dark because Hawk was the only one with a light.

As this was happening, I suddenly had a compulsion that I should try to kill all of my party members as efficiently as possible. They were now my enemies and I was a follower of Drakthar and his minions.

I would have attacked DaVid since he was next to me, but I am horrible at fighting in the dark so I headed down the hallway towards the light and where I can ambush my former companions. As I headed down the hallway I saw Xiloscient being attacked by a Spirit-Wolf Goblin and a Warg. Luke was nearby. Tom and Cree were attacking an animated chair in the throne room and there were two half-elven-looking figured laying on the ground in the throne room too. I didn’t see Hawk.

The Spirit-Wolf Goblin and Warg swung at Xiloscient who tried to run away past me. I took a shot at her (but missed) as she went by. I heard her shout down the hall to DaVid I just tried to attack her. I may have to go deal with them first.

One of the dead-looking half-elves somehow rose up into the air and went down the ladder on the other side of the throne room. Tom and Cree were attacking the animated chair. Luke ran up to where I was and attacked the Warg. The Warg retaliated and tripped Luke. I took this opportunity to attack Luke since he was right in front of me and hit him really hard. He stopped moving. Tom and Cree killed the animated chair.

At this time Cree came up to where Luke was and I tried to attack Cree but missed. I don’t think that Cree saw me. Tom came running past me and I took a swing at him as he went by. This startled him and he whirled around to face me. He told me to stop and hit me in a way that hurt differently than normal attacks.

Now Cree was on the other side of me and both Cree and Tom began to try to hit me. I continued to attack Tom and landed a solid hit. He told me to stop attacking or he would kill me. I was compelled to try to kill them and Tom was an immediate threat. I tried to hit Tom again but missed.

By this time, the warg was dead and the Spirit-Wolf Goblin was further away. My master, Drakthar, appeared in his dire-wolf form somewhere in the throne room and attacked Cree. Tom hurt me pretty bad just a moment ago so Iattempted to tumble away to get a better position and possibly aid master Drakthar against my foes. I wasn’t able to tumble away.

Drakthar then polymorphed into his normal self and continued to attack Cree. He hit Cree really hard. Tom looked as if he remembered something and shouted that I’ve beenpossessed by Drakthar. He then took a big swing at me and everything went dark.

Xiloscient, DaVid, Luke, and I all made it out of the magical darkness and proceeded to retreat away from the darkness and the tentacled dark mentals which resided inside. Luke was busily trying to open a locked door at the other end of the cavern. Fortunatley he got it open and we all spilled into the next room. We recognized this room from earlier. It also appeared that the darkmentals were not following us.

Luke wanted to run off back to the bath house to get some reinforcements. Before he left he handed me a silver magical dagger and Hawk’s silverkukri. DaVid insisted that we go as quickly as possible back to where we last saw Hawk and Tom before we got split up.

The three of us ran the cavern passageway back the way we came. As we reached the same spot where we were before, we were ambushed by twowargs and two S.W. goblins. This did not look good for us and I thought that we were outmatched. They closed in on us, attacking. The goblins andwargs managed to flank both DaVdi and I. One of the wargs tripped Xiloscient.

Once Xiloscient was down, they all surrounded me and attacked. DaVid cast a spell which summed a magical staff, but I was overwhelmedbby my attackers. As one of the goblins stabbed me, I succumbed to my wounds and everything went black.

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I woke up to see that Luke, Hawk, Tom, and Cree were all in the cavern with us. There were two warg corpses and one goblin corpse. DaVid, Hawk, and Tom were healing me with their wands. I had been inches from my life.

It was amazing to see that Luke, Hawk, and Tom were all back with us. I didn’t know what happened. Things were happening so fast that no one really had time to explained what happened. From seeing the corpses I surmised that they arrived and helped dispatch the goblins andwargs. There was a sense of urgency from Tom that we need to go somewhere.

Luke ran off back to the bath house and Hawk decided to remain here in a hidden corner to ambush anything that may come upon us. DaVid, Xiloscient, Cree, and I followed Tom down a passageway and we all healed up along the way byusing our very handy healing wands.

We arrived in a chamber and Tom explained to us that there was a throne room nearby with hundreds of rats and a living throne. Tom cast some sort of spell on himself and me which is supposed to make us invisible to the rats. Heexplained that this will allow us to move past the rats unimpeded so that we can attack the living throne thing. DaVid, Xiloscient, and Cree will take care of the rats. As we all prepared for this strategy I gave my alchemist fire to DaVid to use on the rats.

The plan didn’t execute as well as I thought it would. The rats drove Xiloscient and DaVid back into the waiting room as Tom and I rushed into the throne room. Tom can see in the dark but I cannot. I had been relaying on DaVids magical light source to light the way. So when DaVid was driven back I couldn’t see a thing and was unable to help Tom. He tried to hand me something but it was too dark to see.

So I used my flaming fist ability to shed some light on the situation and take the object that Tom was trying to hand me. It was asunrod. At the same time I also attacked the living throne thing.

As I was about to light the sunrod, DaVid, Cree, and Xiloscient came into room. With DaVid came light. He thrust out his holy symbol and tried to turn away the undead throne. It seemed to work! The throne turned around and ran off, going down into a pit across the room.

We were about to chase it when we decided that we should rest up instead. Hawk and Luke returned and DaVid cast his fancy ‘Rope Trick’ spell which will allow us some much-needed rest.