Campaign Journals - The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl - Part 2

In celebration of Canada Day, here's the second installment of a snowy adventure from classic AD&D. Enjoy you hosers!


************************************************************************

The wind was merciless, and the world was white.

They had forgone the snow spiders above as they wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible. Morgul and Gint could see about 20 feet ahead, then everything melted into a wall of pure white chaos. It was disconcerting, and the wind was so loud that they couldn’t even hear if anything was coming.

It was a recipe for death.

They decided to hew to the east wall as they moved south towards the lair of whatever creature was revealed by Jaggenoth’s spell.

The steppes barbarian saw something odd in the snow ahead, there was what appeared to be a large bank of snow ahead of them, necessitating a diversion to the right. Gint’s eyes were being assailed by snow but he was convinced the bank of snow moved...

”Morgul, did you see that!” he shouted.

The justiciar squinted and saw what appeared to be movement in the bank of snow as well, it shifted forward in their direction...

Morgul and Gint reacted at the same time, Morgul shouted ”Helvete!” and his sword ignited in blue white flame, Gint’s scimitar sang out of its scabbard and he charged forward.

Zintar and Wend could only see as far as Morgul and Gint; they watched as Morgul’s sword lit up and then the two men disappeared into the white. No one behind them could see what they were seeing, and it looked like the men were swallowed up by the winter.

Morgul swung his sword down in an arc and scored a hit, it wasn’t snow, it was more gelatinous, it resisted more than snow but was not hard packed or solid. Morgul had never felt anything like it.

The sides of the thing looked charred from his sword, but the creature, which was split into two halves, did not die, instead the halves shivered for a few seconds... then moved forwards.

Gint took his scimitar to one of the two new creatures and hit it solidly... and it split into two again.

”Blood and thunder!” Gint roared, "die by my sword!"

There were now three of them, all slightly smaller, but three nonetheless.

One of the creatures attacked Morgul but the paladin managed to dodge. The other two went for Gint, he sidestepped one but in doing so lost his footing and fell into the waiting embrace of the other.

Gint roared as the creature enveloped his arm.

Morgul grabbed his mace and pulled it down two handed overhead, smashing one of the three things roundly. He had hoped a mace would damage it where a sword would not.

He spit in fury as it split in two again.

Gint had pulled away and ran from the creatures, they were far too slow to catch him, he turned, bellowed, "keep hitting them, they'll die by our steel soon enough” then swapped his scimitar for a bow and fired two shots. He, like Morgul, had hoped that a bowshot would not split the beast any further. Unfortunately, the arrow tore a hole through the beast that led it to tear along the trail of the arrow, splitting it in half again.

Now they were five.

One of the five attacked Morgul, attempting to overpower him to the ground, but the paladin stepped to the side at the last second and planted his sword into the thing.

It burst into flames and died.

Gint followed his lead and struck out at one of the smallest puddings, it split in two but both halves shuddered and collapsed.

They now knew what to do, keep hitting them until they were small enough to die.

Essern decided to cast a spell, the party muscle would take care of whatever they were fighting up ahead. He reached into his spell pouch, smudging his finger, then he drew a line under one eye with talc and under the other with powdered silver. Essern spoke the words, “Skrytý nic víc”.

Suddenly all of the members of his party, and several other “things” were traced by a faint purple smoke that only Essern could see.

Jaggenoth had moved forward to see what was happening and he saw Morgul kill one of the creatures, he saw another and landed a fierce blow with his bardiche, killing the thing.

There were two of them remaining, one surged up over Gint and directed its fury at the barbarian.

Carver had now moved forward, as every successive row of the marching order saw the one in front pull weapons and charge forward. Carver struck at the end of the beast that was attacking Gint, and it trembled and collapsed.

Zintar and Folix then made short work of the last with club and sword.

“We need to move!”, Morgul shouted at everyone, “we are drawing attention to ourselves…”

And with that a stone smashed into Gint from further west, sending him flying forward and into the snow.

“Hades and Hecate!”, Morgul turned but saw nothing but snow.

Another rock smashed to the ground not feet away from Lenides.

They were going to be crushed.

“Morgul!”, Essern shouted, “About 100 feet away, west, two of them!”

Essern saw the pair of giants outlined in a deep purple smoke that traced their outlines in relief against the snow.

Morgul turned and shouted, “Jaggenoth, Folix, Carver, with me!” and began to charge forward to the west, as he left view he shouted back “Phantasmist, guide us!”

Essern watched the smoking outlines of the four men as they charged forward, the giants likely couldn’t see the party clearly at this range, but they could fire off boulders and get lucky.

The party moved behind a large rock formation, blocking off the boulder fire from the giants. The giant’s then turned their attention to the four charging men.

“Straight ahead!” Essern howled at the men, unsure if the wind was tearing away his words.

The giant’s each picked up a large chunk of ice and hurled them forward. One clipped Jaggenoth’s shoulder, turning his body around and causing him to stumble. Another barely missed Folix.

The men reached the giants, by that time they were armed with gigantic battle axes, both charged the men as they charged the giants, and the party members split into two fronts, Carver and Jaggenoth went towards one and Folix and Morgul took the other.

The giant’s axe crashed down in a massive blow that shook the ground, but missed Morgul as he pulled to the right, and in one smooth motion he swung his flaming sword across the giant’s side, slashing a burning scar down its body as he passed.

The giant stopped and turned to respond to Morgul’s blow when Folix hit the creature with his longsword, slashing its lower back hard.

The second frost giant swung his axe sideways and down towards Carver, the fighter had just enough time to change his direction so that he managed to avoid a solid blow to the chest that would have split him in two, instead his left arm had an angry gash that spewed blood.

Jaggenoth had joined the fray with his bardiche to repay the giant in kind, when the giant turned to see how his blow had hurt Carver, Jaggenoth struck a telling blow against the giant, taking a huge chunk out of his left leg.

The giant snarled and growled.

Carver had recovered and charged forward with his broadsword, striking at the same leg that Jaggenoth had wounded.

The giant came toppling down.

It struck out with an axe blow from the ground, defiant even with a bloodied leg, but missed by inches. Carver and Jaggenoth were aggressive in their response, hacking away at the giant as it lay there.

Morgul and Folix were now playing cat and mouse with their giant. It roared at them and struck out towards Folix this time, but the ranger saw the blow coming and managed to slip in under it and deliver a painful sword strike to the giant’s side, blossoming blood on the snow underneath.

Morgul knew that every second was another nail in their coffin, if the other giants realized what they were doing they would respond in large numbers. It was now or never. He grabbed one of his magical javelins and let it loose. It flew at the giant and transformed into a bolt of lightning as it sang. The bolt hit the giant full in the chest and burned a hole through to the other side.

He crashed to the snow dead.

“Phantasmist!” Morgul shouted.

Essern replied, “Clear, come back!”

Morgul gathered everyone and they headed back to join the other party members. Gint was standing, shaky from the boulder blow, and gladly accepted healing from Morgul, who placed his hands on Gint’s chest and healed the damage the boulder had done.

"Do we hide the bodies?" Essern asked as they prepared to move on.

"No time for that", Morgul responded, though he did note just how fast Essern had asked about hiding bodies...

They pushed on north until Morgul saw what appeared to be a gigantic dome of snow covered ice.

“That must be it, we need to gain entry”, Morgul shouted above the raging wind.

Carver looked around until he found a decent sized boulder, he hefted it, wincing slightly as his wound was aggravated, but he held it up.

“Get ready”, the fighter said.

Morgul took his flaming sword and walked over beside the dome, and Carver began to run then launched his boulder at the dome. The dome cracked and shook as the boulder slammed into it. Morgul then took his flame tongue sword to the spot that had just been hit, and the dome cracked open, a large chuck of it shattering and falling to the ground.

The remorhaz, which had been sleeping, immediately awoke with a guttural growl.

Ahrn noted as the party poured into the dome, inside the floor was a slushy, wet mess, some source of heat created a permanent slippery surface and a haze of mist inside, that mist froze into a dome at the top, but inside it was soupy and wet.

Morgul and Gint charged with weapons drawn.

Folix Carver, Brother Naranjir and Jaggenoth formed a wall in front of the spell casters, weapons drawn.

Zintar, realizing that Gint and Morgul were rapidly approaching the beast, opted for a precision spell, and he drew four magic missiles out of his forehead and sent them smashing into the thing as it's front half began to rise from the ground. The creature reared up until half of its length was the air, its wings beating to pull it up, and it's back glowing cherry red.

Lenides had considered a fireball, but he was concerned with the integrity of the dome above his head so he opted for the surgical precision of a magic missile spell as well: four glowing purple spikes corkscrewed through the air, avoiding everything but their target, each one arrived at the beast... and fizzled on contact!

Gint was the first to strike with a scimitar blow to the belly, followed quickly with another from Morgul's flaming blade.

Essern and Wend followed up with missile fire, a crossbow bolt and a sling stone hit its belly, only the former doing any damage.

The remorhaz screeched, making it seem more insectoid than reptilian, then its head shot forward like a lightning stroke, a blur passed through the air and the beast's maw opened wide. It shot over the top of their protective circle and only Brother Naranjir managed to catch it; bracing his Lucerne hammer against the ground the beast's belly was torn a ragged gash as it passed.

The beast tore a chunk out of Ahrn's shoulder, almost removing his arm entirely, as it crashed into the snow.

The warlock screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground, his spell ruined, clutching at his bleeding shoulder.

Now it was in striking range, and Folix, Jaggenoth and Carver all targeted its head, Folix and Carver from either side, Jaggenoth from the front.

Folix hit the creature's head solidly with his longsword, tearing a vicious streak across its right eye. Carver lifted a boulder above his head and brought it crashing down on the monster's head and rewarding the fighter with a resounding crunch.

Jaggenoth then stepped into a massive sky to ground blow on the beasts snout, cutting open the top half of its muzzle and spraying blue blood over the slushy ground. The beast thrashed and moaned, twitching again and again, and it rolled over and died.

Carver turned to Jaggenoth, "You're the party priest, eh?"

Jaggenoth nodded.

"I may need to find religion", the fighter replied with a wide smile.

Carver then walked forward and took out his axe... and started hacking off the beast's head. While the fighter were decapitating the remorhaz, Jaggenoth healed Ahrn, who had lost considerable blood by that time. Lenides cast detect magic and found a small cache of items on a skeleton, specifically a sword and a ring, both of which the wemic grabbed and packed for later identification.

Carver lifted the head and they began the trek back to the top of the rift, Essern scanning ahead with his detect invisibility in place to help steer around any possible hostile creatures. Though the ascent was slow it was uneventful and they arrived back at their cave, tired but satisfied with their prize. They spent an hour discussing plans for the next day and it was now just after midnight and everyone agreed to a watch schedule and bedded down.

In the background Shoon could be heard mouthing legends and lore plucked from the lips of the long dead...

*****************************************

When Jaggenoth opened his eyes in the morning Shoon was still in a trance, muttering the words delivered to his mind by the spell. The priest looked around the cave and noticed that Essern, Wend and Lenides were gone.

Then he remembered the plan they had come up with the night before. Everyone agreed to bringing the Jarl tribute, but they also agreed that it would be too soon to arrive just after the Star Knight left, so they would wait. However, this would give their quarry a large head start, so Essern had suggested sneaking in to try and get into the underdark at the same time as the Star Knight. Essern suggested himself with an improved invisibility spell, Lenides polymorphing into something innocuous, and Wend shape shifting into a small animal. The three of them could recreate the route that they saw when they scryed on the Star Knight and slip through when they were given passage. They could track him at a distance and when the party came through they could send back one of them to retrieve them and catch up.

It was a bold plan, and a good idea, Morgul's only objection was that he could not accompany them.

The three adventurers set out at dawn into the freezing cold to avoid missing their quarry. Essern was invisible and followed Lenides and Wend who had both transformed into snow bats, a cluster of which had been flying around the cave when they entered.

When the men were gone the remaining party members either rested, healed or prayed and rememorized spells. They were waiting until the next morning to approach the Jarl.

[DM's note: giants are listed as 10+1-3 HD and low-average intelligence (from 5 to 10), and the detection of invisibility table gives a 5% chance to detect for INT scores of 8-10. So for any attempt to pass a giant there was a 50% chance that the giant was average intelligence (8-10), and if so there was a 5% chance of detection.]

Essern, Wend and Lenides arrived at the rift and descended to the first level, entering into a cave that had a strange faint greenish glow emanating from the icy walls. Essern had never seen anything like it before. The group went in and were faced with three branches to the cave, straight ahead (east), left (north) and right (south).

They went left.

After a bend in the corridor the men emerged into a large cave with four frost giants within. Three were playing dice and one was standing near the entrance and staring into the corridor.

Essern took a deep breath and slinked by the giant's right foot, without being noticed. Fortunately the howling winds drowned out his soft footsteps. He was horrified at the possibility of whisps of his breath tipping them off, but none seemed to notice.

Lenides and Wend flew through the air above their heads, unnoticed.

The men continued down a long corridor that emerged on a plateau further down the rift. They then went into another cave that led further into the rift. This led to three branches in the caves, the men took the middle branch and went for a short distance before seeing another giant.

He was standing at the entrance to the next cave, and they could see several giants beyond him. Essern gingerly picked his way past the giants legs and into the cave beyond. He recognized the cave from their scrying of the Star Knight, and he moved to the southernmost cave exit.

Mercifully none of the giants noted him.

The corridor led to a set of stairs taking them to the next level down.

Essern and his altered companions entered a large room filled with bas relief artwork on the walls, it told tales of giants slaying humans, dragons, anything that opposed them. Violence and cruelty was depicted, no doubt to intimidate unwanted visitors, and to celebrate the giants.

The room had four exits, two of them blocked with boulders.

Essern was sure that the correct entrance was the one to the west, but it was blocked by a boulder, so he went to the southernmost entrance and followed it to a cave filled with refuse and forgotten items. They went further to a larger room that ended in what appeared to be a cave in, amongst the rubble was the skeleton of a dead giant.

They decided to depart and return the way they came.

They ended up back in the main entrance chamber with the two exits blocked by boulders. However, no sooner had they entered the room than the boulder on the west side rolled back and a giant stepped through.

Essern bolted for the opening before the boulder was rolled back in place, while Lenides and Wend flew across the top.

The boulder was rolled back and they were sealed into the next room. There were two giants here, both with gigantic axes and large shields. They were in the middle of a fierce argument, from what Lenides could gather (he spoke some frost giant) the giant that just left was their superior and had berated the giants for inattention, now each was blaming the other for the dressing down.

He passed by as quickly as he could.

As soon as they turned the corner the men heard the noise of many up ahead of them. Essern slowed down to avoid detection, but he need not have bothered, there were so many giants in the room that there was too much ambient noise for him to be heard. Still, he hewed to the shadows by the wall as he made his way forward.

Then he saw the Star Knight and his stunning Jaguar Queen. She stood beside the gleaming knight, surrounded by eight muscular jaguars that eyed the giants with cool, unblinking eyes. Standing around but not in front of the jaguar queen were five bodyguards, all women, and all fierce looking. Essern noted disparate details about the jaguar queen: she stood beside him, not behind him, she spoke often, sometimes responding to questions directed to the Star Knight, but most of all she exuded confidence and power.

Whomever she was, she did not appear diminished next to the Star Knight's fantastic presence.

The frog men were there, four blue, four red and two green, Wend noted that some of them carried weapons, maces, swords and such, and all had a curious metal object twined around their arms that looked like a snake.

Finally, there were at least 30 Garudin, the bird men of Bhavisyavani, all armed with javelins and swords. The Star Knight must have recruited them when he visited the city.

On the Jarl's side there were perhaps 40 giants in the room, and beside the raised floor with the Jarl's throne sat three large wolves. With all these creatures in the room Essern was not as concerned with being noticed by the wolves, but to remain on the safe side he kept as much distance between himself and the wolves as possible.

Within minutes the procession began to move, the Jarl and three of his largest, most powerful lieutenants led the way, along with two more giants Essern could only assume were shamans, from the ragged furs they wore, their bone jewelry (a necklace of yeti skulls adored their necks) and the staves they walked with, each the trunk of a tree that had been stripped of bark, sanded and polished, and covered with runes.

They walked down a corridor hidden by tapestries to a large circular door. The door was about 20 feet in diameter and covered with strange symbols none of the men recognized.

The shamans began to chant and wave their staves in a pattern that appeared random but was actually meant to mimic the trials of a long dead legendary frost giant hero that none of the men had heard of.

After the shamans finished their prayers three frost giants grabbed small handles on the door and pushed with all their strength, the door moved inward slowly until it had moved about five feet forward, then the giants heaved sideways and the door rolled to the right into the stone of the caves.

There was no way that a regular human or group of humans could have moved that door.

The Star Knight's expedition began to march forward and Essern, Lenides and Wend passed through with it.

When the whole expedition was through the men stole off to the side and let the procession continue without them. As they watched the Star Knight and his troops march away they heard a huge crashing sound as the massive stone door was pulled back into place, sealing them in...

Middle of day 2 of gaming


A day had passed and the group waited impatiently for Shoon’s spell to complete. The warlock had been muttering the words of the long dead for hours upon hours, he had fallen asleep at one point and kept speaking, then he woke, still droning the words.


“We need to get through soon, the longer they are in the greater their lead”, Gint was impatient, his trackers instinct knew that the longer they waited the worse it would be.


Zintar grasped the barbarian on the shoulder, “We have means of scrying upon them if needed, what we wait for is more important, if we can determine where the meteor is located we could beat him to it.”


The barbarian grunted and gnawed on iron rations, if he waited much longer he would go hunting for something fresh.


Finally, Shoon’s body convulsed, his eyes went wide and he gasped for air.


The spell was finished.


Morgul waited a moment for him to gain his bearings, then he leaned in to the warlock, “What did you learn?”


Shoon smiled and recited words that were now burning in his mind, he felt almost a compulsion to utter them, like he had to get them out of his head.


“Past the watching eyes,
If you’re clever, without a fight,
Past the horrors in the dark,
That destroy your mind’s pure light.

You’re not there yet, but don’t hurry,
Past the sentinels, claw and beak,
No respite, but still, no worry,
Cross the water for what you seek.

Then go east, leave the main road,
And keep going by and by,
Your first cave will be filled with grass,
That’s as tall as a man is high.

The next stop that will bar your way,
Is a cavern wide and deep,
Spires of stone and gossamer ground,
Deadly, black and steep.

Once you have passed these, in peace or in pieces,
Once you have made it this far,
White masks of blindness will soon surround you,
In the home of the bright fallen star.”

Morgul cocked his head to the side.


Shoon looked strangely aware, “I’m not sure how clear that is, but I’ll assume it will make sense as we move on.”


Brother Naranjir wrote down the words for future reference in case Shoon forgot them, or he was lost to the party…


Ahrn stepped in for a moment, “I don’t want to impose too much after that, but we found a sword and a ring, and we would like to know what we are dealing with before going in.”


Shoon nodded, he was tired, and hungry, but the spell would be easy enough to cast.


He assembled his components, a small white pearl, an owl feather and a miniature carp, all were placed in a cup, he filled that cup with wine and began the spell, chanting the words “Feltárja nekem” over and over again. As he spoke the words the pearl, fish and feather began to dissolve into the wine, and Shoon kept repeating the words for ten minutes.


Then he took up the infusion and drank it down.


He then grasped the sword in his hand and concentrated.


Six seconds went by… nothing.


Another six seconds… nothing.


Then… Shoon recoiled slightly and spoke in a hoarse voice, “This sword hurts ogres and ettins.”


Another six seconds… nothing.

Another six seconds… nothing.


Then nothing again.


Six more seconds… nothing.


Finally, in the last six seconds of the spell, “This sword kills giants.”


Shoon let go of the sword and it clanked to the ground.


The party had some discussion and the sword was set aside until they could decide what to do with it.


“Can you cast that again?”, Ahrn asked.


Shoon had indeed memorized the spell twice, anticipating the possibility of finding artifacts in the caves.


He repeated the process and asked questions again, but this time the answer came immediately:


“This ring contains powerful wishes.”


Ahrn’s eyes widened, he had heard of rings of wishes before, and had heard many tales of greedy thieves who managed to get themselves killed with ill worded wishes. This was powerful magic, the most powerful magic he knew of, the power to change the warp and weft of reality to your bidding.


“We must be very careful using that, never without discussion beforehand, a badly worded casting and we could all be killed.”


“We can throw it back if you are that concerned”, Gint responded, “you sound like a scared barbarian mother sending their child out hunting.”


The barbarian had come a long way, he meant what he said about throwing it away, but Gint was becoming more comfortable with magic, and he was only halfheartedly recommending it now.


Jaggenoth held out his hand, “If no one objects, I will keep this for now.”


No one did, they already trusted Jaggenoth to be the party healer and to prioritize their lives over other uses for his magic, given that his god was a god of death, this trust was exceptional.


Morgul walked over and took the giant slaying sword in hand, he knew where they were going, and how useful this would be if things went south…


He walked over to the remorhaz head and plunged the sword up to the hilt into one of its eye sockets.


Zintar laughed out loud, “Its dead Morgul, I assure you, that is entirely unnecessary.”


The paladin smiled, “When we see the Jarl, if things are going badly and he is unsure of our tribute, I will offer him the sword, I’m sure he would want to destroy it, or even better he might have plans to use it against a rival, whatever the case, it gives us extra leverage when negotiating.”


Brother Naranjir added, “And if it goes too far south…”


Morgul was beginning to think that Brother Naranjir was as keen a tactician as he was.


Morgul walked over to the side cave that branched off of their main cave with Essern beside him. The giant spiders were there, as well as Vacanga. The spiders gave off a considerable amount of heat in this closed space, so much so that their cave was actually warm when they entered, and the main cave was tolerably warm despite the cold wind coming in from the outside.


They led out Vacanga and Carver hefted the remorhaz head on to the back of the giant lizard, and then proceeded to hold it in place while Morgul secured it with ropes.


With the head in place on the giant lizard, the group mounted giant spiders, short Lenides, Essern and Wend, and headed for the rift, a half hour away.


Today was different than the day they had arrived, there was no storm, so they could see across the snow for miles, and the sky was mercifully overcast, so the glare was minimal. Unfortunately it also made them more visible. The snow spiders were white, the party was dressed in skins that were white as well, and Vacanga was covered in white furs across his top, so they were somewhat blended into the snow, but Morgul was not happy with their exposure. He drove them on as fast as he felt they could safely travel.


Morgul was grateful for the claws on Vacanga’s webbed feet, the webbing spread out his feet like snowshoes, and the claws helped when they hit ice. The Giant lizard was keeping up with the snow spiders and they made good time. The necklace was working perfectly, keeping the giant lizard moving.


They found a path that led down to the first level of the rift, and they approached an open cave.


Moments after they had started to move in a pair of frost giants appeared in the cave mouth, both hefting significantly large boulders.


When the first giant saw the severed remorhaz head it laughed.


“Look Kivsel, the little Misen have killed old Vonyasa!”


The second giant also laughed, a cold, sharp, joyless sound.


“Why have you brought us this, little Misen!”


Morgul spoke up, his voice booming and confident, “We offer this kill as tribute to the Jarl.”


Jaggenoth shifted on his giant spider, Ahrn reached down into his component pouch, Carver’s hand drifted back towards his sword…


The giants conferred for several moments and then nodded, “Come now little Misen, if the Jarl finds you amusing you will live, otherwise I will behead each of you and roast you for dinner.”


Then the two giants laughed again together, their booming voices threatening to make the icicles shatter and crash to the ground.


Somehow Morgul hadn’t expected them to be so jocular.


The men were marched in to see the Jarl under heavy guard, the caverns were giant sized so more than large enough for the snow spiders and Vacanga, and the party made an impressive caravan. They arrived in his hall to a collection of 40 frost giants, three fire giants, a cluster of ogres and a number of stone giants.


This made Morgul concerned, if this went sour they would die in short order.


He prepared for the meeting with the Jarl.


The Jarl was tall and powerful, he had a ruddy, worn visage, and his exposed arms, neck and even face had a spiderweb of scars. He had seen many campaigns, and had great victories over humanity. His lady sat beside him, also battle scarred and powerful, she watched and listened, pausing sometimes to whisper in the Jarl's ear.


Carver sweat despite the cold, he was fighting his instinct to pull out a weapon. So were Folix and Gint. The cooler heads of the party were in the underdark, Morgul thought to himself, he was leading the scrappers.


The party was halted about 50 feet from the Jarl and Morgul dismounted and was led forward by two large giants.


He was stopped 20' from the throne.


The Jarl's lady spoke first.


"Word of my Jarl's exploits have brought him tribute from other giants, gnolls, even ogres, but Misen twice in a days span, your name is now feared far and wide!"


Morgul smiled and nodded.


“Indeed, the great Jarl is known for his ferocity and his power, we humbly submit the head of this beast, from your own rift floor, as tribute to honor the Jarl."


The Jarl stood tall in front of his throne.


"Is this a threat? Did you do something you thought we could not?"


Morgul hadn't anticipated that response, the frost giants were violent and cruel, competitive and aggressive, and the Jarl had assumed some offense was intended. He had to think fast.


"Mighty Jarl, I meant no disrespect, the lair of the beast was littered with the bones of my brethren, I saw no giant bones there. I assumed that the creature lived by your leave, you knew where it was and it would be a foil to pesky soldiers and dragons who moved through the rift."


The Jarl sat and looked at his lady, she smiled at him.


The Jarl looked at Morgul, "It is so, the beast served a purpose and it was there at my leave, but others will stake the place, the worm was there as many of the winter beasts roam the rift floor, it is a feast for the mighty."


Morgul wasn't sure if this was good or bad, but the Jarl was less obviously angry, so he took it as a win.


"Your tribute is accepted knight, what is your request?"


Morgul looked at the Jarl and held his gaze while talking, "Yesterday a group of men and women flew through here to the caves that lead downwards to the realm of the underdark. Those men have done harm to my House, to men who served with me, they are to be punished."


This wasn't the whole of Morgul's motivation, but it was true, and they all accepted that part of this mission was to punish the Star Knight for his perfidy. Morgul himself was angered at the Star Knight, and the burn of his simmering righteous rage gave an edge to his voice that had his own party convinced.


The frost giants, who fed on stories of bloody revenge like wild dogs sucking marrow, began to shout and laugh with ragged abandon.


Ahrn nervously fingered a pinch of powdered diamond, noiselessly mouthing a single word he would say thirty three times to cast the spell, "Erőfal". Folix read his lips and he prepared to shield his employer if the giants attacked.


After several moments the Jarl spoke above the din.


"The Star Knight acted above me, he had the air of a man who did not fear my hand. You do not fear him in your mission, do you?"


"No I do not", Morgul replied quickly.


"But you fear me."


Morgul smiled again, "I fear that you and your men could keep us from our righteous mission, that is my only fear in seeking vengeance for my brothers."


The Jarl now laughed mightily and the icicles above threatened to fall to the ground.


"I'll tell you what little Misen, I like you, and I want you to bring me the head of the Star Knight and that queen of his, they did not fear me, so they do deserve to be punished."


Morgul knew then that he had him, the Jarl hated the Star Knight for his arrogance in the face of the Jarl’s power, Morgul and the party would be his proxies in this.


“To see him brought low by Misen, that will be my reward!”


The Jarl took a long drink from a flagon given to him by another giant. Morgul was also offered the flagon.


“You will drink, Misen, drink to our agreement.”


Morgul considered pressing the point, but decided against it.


With a quick backwards look at Jaggenoth, he grabbed the oversized flagon with both hands and took a long draught. It was a beer for sure, but heady and strong unlike anything he had ever drank before. His head swam for several seconds, and he felt a rush. Then it subsided.


“You have been generous with us, oh Jarl, may I ask why?”


“Revenge fills my heart with ice", the Jarl responded, and he took another drink.


All but the stone giants laughed at that.


The answer of revenge was only partially true, he did relish the idea of one group of humans hunting another, bloody vengeance was indeed compelling. But the Jarl was also hoping that the two groups would clash, and whatever survived would return this way weakened, hopefully laden with some loot, and he and his giants would crush them. He had contemplated a battle with these humans, but if they did have powerful magic, or got lucky, the Star Knight would return to them wounded.


No, the Jarl thought, let them squabble, we will take what we want from the survivors and put the rest in chains.


Morgul spoke again, “Mighty Jarl, I have another tribute for you, in thanks for your assistance and encouragement.”


Morgul walked to the remorhaz head and slowly, deliberately, removed the giant slayer, and held it by its blade, offering it up to one of the guards.


“Do not touch it’s blade, it will harm you.”


The Jarl’s lady looked on the sword with widening eyes, she studied its blade, its metal, the symbols carved on the hilt, and she nodded.


“That is a giant slaying sword”, the Jarl’s lady spoke as it was taken up to him.


The Jarl looked like he was a young boy who had just made his first kill.


He pointed at the ground and waved over two of his guards, the sword was tossed to the floor and then the two giants took turns smashing it with their gigantic axes. After the 7th or 8th blow the sword snapped, and the room cheered.


The Jarl spoke to his lady and she nodded, she then walked to a chest behind the Jarl’s throne and took out a scroll case. She handed it to the Jarl, who handed it to a giant, who took it to Morgul.


“For you on your journey, you have earned passage for your group, this map might help you catch the Star Knight before he gets too far.”


Morgul nodded, the scroll case had a crude map inside with odd symbols, he assumed it was a map to the underdark.


After a few minutes of preparation, the party was escorted to the round door and given entry by the Jarl’s men.


As the door rolled closed behind them, Folix heard the frost giants laughing.



*******************************************************************************************************


When the door closed, everyone’s eyes adjusted to the difference in light. The frost giants’ lair was lit by an eerie greenish glow wherever the ice was prevalent, everywhere else relied on “torches” made up of caged fire beetles. The whiteness of the snow and ice tended to catch every stray beam of light and reflect it, so it always felt well lit, if not bright.


Here it was different.


The first thing that Morgul noted was the size of the “corridor” they were in, it snaked down at 40’ wide for about 150’ then broadened out slowly and eventually opened into a vast cave that stretched forward and disappeared into the blackness.


“I can’t see the sides or the end, I can just see the floor and the ceiling, it must be huge”, Jaggenoth stood for a moment in awe of the sheer scope of the cavern, they were underground and it was obviously large.


The cave then developed a steep downslope, Carver estimated about 45 degrees or so down, and there was a well-worn path, sometimes with worked stairs, that snaked down the middle of the cavern as it descended. The spiders fortunately handled it easily.


There were lichens and mosses, plus some errant mushrooms, some of which glowed slightly, giving off an eerie phosphorescence that gave the cave a slightly purple hue. Flitting hordes of fire beetles crawled and flew around the area, providing a dull, reddish glow that swung unevenly through the cavern, lighting various small skittering creatures and surprisingly a large number of flying insects as it passed.


Jaggenoth reached out and touched one.


The insects avoided the party almost entirely, as did the hordes of giant bats that periodically swooped overhead.


The path was somewhat treacherous as they descended, and not just due to the angle and the moisture; rivulets of water sometimes made the ground slippery and threatened to send one party member careening into another and starting an avalanche. It was also dangerous due to the features of the cave, faults, spurs, splits that made the worn path twist and turn, and rubble across the path that had not been cleared (and in some cases rubble that obviously had). There were crevasses, thankfully they were easily seen and dealt with as the main path skirted them, but there were also huge columns that stretched floor to ceiling and potentially hid attackers… they were all approached with caution.


After one such column Morgul called a halt with a raised, closed fist. A broad smile crossed his face, then a chuckle.


“I can see your boot prints in the moss, phantasmist.”


Essern laughed and there was a flicker, then a smudge in the air, then he appeared beside the paladin standing on the moss.


“I have been with you for a few hundred feet”, he paused, drank from his wineskin, and asked, “Do you know my boot prints?”


Morgul smiled, “Better to know if it’s you so I don’t run you through before asking, eh”?


Essern offered Morgul a drink, which he took.


“Where is the Star Knight”, he asked?


“Wend follows him in the form of a bat, he is about a day ahead of us. Lenides and I came back to find you.”


With that the Wemic appeared from out of the darkness further down the path. His polymorph had ran out a long time back, and he was proceeding cautiously. Lenides, like Zintar, had infravision, the rest of the party did not, so it gave him a slight advantage over the humans in the party, but not much. Ahrn found the low light provided by the beatles and the plants to be distracting, something between proper light and no light at all, it vexed his senses.


“We must move aggressively if we are to catch up”, Jaggenoth looked into the darkness, he found it particularly unsettling that his vision ended about 50 feet ahead.


Essern mounted his giant spider, Lenides walked without one.


“We have explored a bit, if you move to the side far enough you will hit the wall of this cavern, and periodically you will find smaller side caves, and even large branching corridors that take you off this main path”, Essern offered.


“I have a map, albeit a crude one”, Morgul held forth the map and Essern briefly studied it.


“Combined with what Shoon learned, we may have the ability to get past the Star Knight, perhaps take a side cavern and loop around”, Morgul was planning the war, not the battle.


The men pressed on and downwards for what felt like hours, then the cave began to level out and became larger and taller, or at least it seemed so, as the top of the cave was enshrouded in darkness. It sounded different however, suggesting a much larger space.


Essern spoke to Ahrn as they rode, “We have taken the measure of this main “corridor”, it is the primary artery of this series of caverns and connecting areas. The Star Knight went straight forward as we are. Lenides and I went out to the sides quite far, even though you can’t see it from here the cavern is quite wide, we estimated about a half mile across, and the ceiling is hundreds of feet up. This cave is immense.”


The party continued forward, Essern filling them in on what they had found so far.


***********************************************************************************************************


Essern and Lenides had turned back after Lenides transformed back into wemic form, and went back to the party.


Wend pursued the Star Knight’s expedition to ensure they were on the same path, adopting the form of a bat. The party was not hard to follow, they were large and obvious, but Wend held back as far as he could just to be safe. At one point he heard explosions and other unidentified noises for about ten, fifteen minutes, and then he came upon dozens and dozens of corpses, only a few of which were from the Star Knight’s expedition (all garudin).


The rest were gargoyles, all he could assume was that the Star Knight’s party had slain them.


They travelled for several hours after that and then the Star Knight’s group stopped up ahead.


Two of the garudin were flying carrying a third between them, the third looked unconscious or perhaps dead.


The bird men touched down and set their companion on the ground, then the first of the two flying garudin slapped the third several times, until he sat up, disoriented but fine.


The garudin spoke in a high pitched common, “We were flying up ahead and we met with… resistance”.


The bird-man pointed to a barbed dart, clearly smeared with poison, that stuck out of the downed garudin’s leg.


“We attack!”, one of the garudin shouted.


The Star Knight looked at him sternly, “We do not, we approach as a group, they attacked you as you were only three, and they felt they had an advantage. If we all confront them there will be a different outcome.”


The garudin looked at the ground and returned to the troops.


The expedition had been flying on small metal discs that projected an energy field, they all began to move forward on these discs, with the Star Knight and his coiled black dragon at the lead.


The procession reached a juncture in the caves where a choice of left or right was needed, the juncture was small and twisted, and provided excellent cover for potential snipers.


The Star Knight’s suit hummed and beeped, and he smiled.


“We wish to pass, what is the price of passage?”


There was no response.


“You have taken out one of my men, I know you are there, in the darkness, I ask again, what is the price of passage?”


A disembodied voice assailed them from somewhere off to the right, “What if the price is death?”


The Star Knight shook his head, “This is a doorway, what will open it?”


More silence, then from ahead somewhere, “Overlanders have been poking their way around here for centuries, some for trade, some for conquest.”


The Star Knight became animated at that comment, “We are here for knowledge, the great city of the drow has some of the most knowledgeable scholars in the world, I would speak to them, and discover my answers.”


There was silence.


Then, “A tribute must be paid by all who pass here, none enter the underdark without our leave.”


The Star Knight raised his right hand and his jaguar queen moved forward on her disc, four lean leopards sat in a circle around her. She reached over with a small chest for the Star Knight.


He took the chest and opened it, revealing four perfect emeralds, each the size of a fist, each had multiple facets and were approximately spherical in shape. They were utterly unique, and worth immense amounts of gold. The Star Knight used his suit’s power to lower the chest to the ground about 100 feet away from them.


“Will this be sufficient?”


The small chest was suddenly enveloped with darkness and disappeared, the darkness ebbed after several heartbeats and the chest was gone.


“The tribute is sufficient, prepare to pay on the way back as well.”


And with this, there was silence, absolute and complete.


The Star Knight waved his men forward, and Wend flew back towards Lenides and Essern.


*********************************************************************************************************


Wend eventually reached the party approaching from the south, he transformed back into human form and spent a few minutes catching them up. They all agreed to press forward now as fast as they could, as their gap with the Star Knight could be growing.


About 2 hours after the caverns had levelled out, Gint, who was at the front of the party on his snow spider alongside Morgul and Vacanga, noticed something over to the side in a small pool. There was what appeared to be a dead gargoyle. The beast had been badly burned. Wend recounted finding them after the Star Knight had passed through these caves.


Soon they began to see many dead gargoyles, first one or two, then many more. Morgul estimated almost thirty. Many were crushed, others were burned, a few were cut up, decapitated, etc.


Lenides spotted a dead garudin as well.


“The Star Knight doesn’t take prisoners, eh?” said Carver.


Ahrn reached into his robes and took out a slender wand tipped with a small amethyst, he held it up and whispered the words, “Keress az ellenségeimet”.


The wand pulsed, the amethyst glowing for a moment, and it tugged in Ahrn’s hand, pointing to the northeast.


Ahrn smiled.


He turned to Folix and nodded, Folix moved his snow spider beside the conjuror.


“Jaggenoth”, Ahrn called out, “we go hunting priest, I would have you with me.”


Jaggenoth moved over on his snow spider and leaned towards Ahrn.


“What do you hunt?”, the priest asked.


“I do not know for sure, but I have several suspicions, where there are corpses there are often scavengers, I think there may be something out there worth ensorcelling for a time.”


Jaggenoth had seen Ahrn charm a number of different monsters before, it was always a bit nerve wracking as you were never sure when the charm would break, but Ahrn was eminently practical about it and did not keep them around for too long.


The priest and the ranger rode along with the conjuror in the general direction his wand indicated, Jaggenoth beside him and Folix in front.


Normally Ahrn would rely on the ranger’s keen sense to keep them safe, but here where it was so dark and alien, he decided to be more cautious.


“Jaggenoth, light up the cavern in front of us.”


The priest nodded and said a quick prayer to Rudra, and a globe of light blazed into existence in front of them, making the underdark bright as day.


Up ahead of them four figures appeared in the light, each stood as tall as a man and had the figure of a man, but they were coal black and insubstantial. They stood frozen as the light outlined them with precision.


“Shadows”, Ahrn nodded, “perfect.”


He turned to Jaggenoth, “I will try my spell, but it may or may not work, if it doesn’t, I’m counting on you to deal with those things.”


Jaggenoth smiled and nodded, “I am ready”.


Ahrn judged the distance and the conjuror touched his ear and pointed at the shadows, he spoke the words, “Szavam törvény” twice over and closed his eyes…


Two of the shadows slowly began to move towards the conjuror, two of them bolted towards them at full speed, flattening themselves and flying across the ground towards the three men.


When the two had sufficiently separated themselves from the group Jaggenoth held up his holy symbol, the bow of Rudra, and prayed in his name…


The two charging shadows exploded into nothingness.


Ahrn smiled as the remaining two shadows began to circle him, flattening out then growing up to full size, until they stood to either side of the conjuror.


Jaggenoth laughed, “Keep control of your pets conjuror”, and he pulled off back to the party.


The whole group continued forward, but now Ahrn had the advantage of two shadows doing his bidding. He sent them up ahead to scout and look for hostile creatures, the shadows were invisible in the darkness and reported back regularly to the conjuror to inform him about potential foes.


Eventually they came back with reports of drow, around 30, hidden in the darkness, around 200 feet ahead.


Ahrn called the shadows back, and he took a position of prominence in the marching order, the only single rider in the group, and Lenides walked beside him.


The shadows flitted around him as well, circling constantly.


Ahrn took out a small bag and a candle, he opened the bag, held it out with one hand, and waved the candle back and forth in front of him four times, then placed the candle in the bag, closed it up, and spoke the words "Izom, ín és a csont , tedd, amit parancsolok , majd hazamegy”


He then began to ride forward slowly.


After a minute or so they were getting quite close to the checkpoint, when three creatures emerged from the darkness, each was nine feet long and sleek black in color, giant boring beetles with huge, wicked mandibles. They took up a place in front of Ahrn.


Ahrn smiled, that would do nicely.


The procession reached around the same point that the Star Knight had when they were challenged.


“Stop, no further”, a voice boomed from the distant darkness of the cave.


Ahrn held up his hand and the procession stopped.


The party had brought along several items to bribe and pay off guards and checkpoints. Ahrn had argued quite convincingly that any sophisticated underground society would have trade and commerce, and since the drow were sophisticated, as well as greedy, power hungry and aggressive, they would no doubt run the underground economy. There would be many rare things that the drow could not find in their homeland, and many things that could only be found there. That, combined with slavery (something that Moonsal’s fellow wizard had suggested to them was quite common) and trade with the local races would make for a meaningful economy.


This suggested that trade missions were not uncommon either. They had eventually settled on that as their cover, Ahrn was to be a rich and powerful warlock that was going to the city of the drow on behalf of their House, Ynris, to establish trade relations of some kind. The party were to play mercenaries and retainers, and Lenides was their “shaman” brought along to provide divine favor.


“We crave passage to go to the great city of the drow, we are envoys from the overcity of Bhavisyavani, and we come to establish trade relations with the masters of the underdark.”


The shadows flitted around the conjuror, as the nine foot long boring beetles shuffled through the moss and dirt around him.


I am Ahrn Lockyer, Warlock of House Ynris in the city of Bhavisyavani, grant us passage, we are happy to pay tribute.”


There was silence.


Ahrn took out a small boiled egg and a handful of seeds. He held them in his hands and spoke the words, “Egy ünnep a barátaimnak”, and pointed at a large, flat topped boulder a few feet away from him.


On top of the boulder appeared a sumptuous feast, Ahrn had drawn on his past few months living in Bhavisyavani, the spell allowed him to reproduce anything he had eaten, and the city of prophecy had some of the most unique and delicious food in the world. The smell alone made his stomach, and the stomachs of all of his party, growl in anticipation.


Ahrn handed a small bag filled with platinum pieces to Folix, who placed the bag beside the food and opened it for the contents to be seen.


Ahrn cleared his throat and Folix took a piece of fine cheese and ate it, he then sipped from a goblet of wine and set it down, returning to his snow spider.


“We are civilized like you in Bhavisyavani, we know the sensual pleasures, and I’m sure you don’t get overworld food out here that often. Please accept this as a gift. The coins are meant as tribute, if it is sufficient let us pass.”


There was silence, then a roasted bird that was sitting in the middle of the hoard of food lifted into the air and disappeared into the darkness.


Several heartbeats passed and then Ahrn heard words from the black.


“You may pass.”


Ahrn sent the boring beetles first, he was confident they would give the giant insects some room, and they marched forward unmolested.


After they were a few hundred feet past the checkpoint Ahrn sent back one of the shadows to see if they were being followed. It reported back in about 10 minutes that they were indeed being followed by several drow, but only a handful, the main group had stayed behind.


Ahrn sent the boring beetles back the way they came, when the spell wore off they might run into the drow and be hungry enough to attack them.


The party continued, with Wend transforming into a bat again and heading forward a bit to scout.


The group stopped a half hour or so later to eat, the smell of the food from their previous stop had driven them all mad with hunger. They ate rations in silence, Ahrn promising to cast the spell again later when he could rememorize it.


His shadows stood silently as they ate.


The group pressed forwards, they had decided to keep moving until they caught up with the Star Knight, as he had a significant lead already, this meant no breaking for the night, no rememorization of spells either.


Another hour passed when the group entered a portion of the main passage where the bioluminescence shifted towards a shade of blue rather than violet, for whatever reason this impacted visibility negatively, restricting what they could see.


The cave was filled with a veritable forest of stalagmites, black with flecks of silver, there were thousands of them all around. Ahrn looked up and could not see the ceiling, but to his knowledge these things were formed by deposits dripping from above.


Morgul held up his hand in a fist, and everyone stopped.


Gint turned to the paladin and spoke, “this is the perfect place for an ambush, isn’t it.”


Morgul nodded, he was thinking the same thing.


Ahrn sent his shadows ahead to scout, between them and Wend he was hopeful they would not be taken unawares.


The group marched forward into the forest of stalagmites, slowly winding their way amongst them.


Then there was a faint hissing, and Jaggenoth looked up just in time to see a small sphere fly into their path.


“Incoming!” he shouted, then the sphere exploded into a magnificent fire.


The fireball ripped through them, it’s epicenter was actually a distance ahead of them, but its sphere encompassed the whole party. Everyone in the party was caught by the fireball, and everyone was damaged by it.


Two of the giant spiders collapsed, burnt to death.


Then, almost as soon as the fire had expanded, it collapsed, and everyone looked around.


No one was dead, but everyone was shocked. Shoon in particular looked in bad shape, but at least his familiar was still alive.


Then, there was a soft “twang” sound and small bolts flew at the party from many directions, Carver, Lenides, Ahrn, Folix, Gint, Brother Naranjir, Jaggenoth and Morgul all had bolts sent in their direction.


Brother Naranjir and Jaggenoth fell to the bolts, asleep. They collapsed on their giant spiders. Everyone else was either missed or managed to fight off the poison.


Morgul and Gint suddenly found themselves outlined with a bright blue fire that made them eminently visible in the dark chamber.


No one saw anything as of yet.


“Charge, take the fight to them!” Morgul shouted.


Morgul spurred on Vacanga and turned him to the right, some of the bolts had come from that direction. He detected for evil to home in on his target’s location.


Gint dismounted and ran into the darkness.


Carver dismounted and charged to the side, as did Zintar, Lenides and Folix. Essern reached for spell components, as did Ahrn (while shouting to the shadows to surround him).


Wend moved his giant spider over and took up a spot beside Brother Naranjir, and prepared to defend him.


Morgul charged through the dark on Vacanga, the faerie fire outlining him and making him look like some sort of avenging god. He ran down the drow who had targeted him, he then turned Vacanga around and threw a javelin at the soldier, pinning him to the ground.


The drow seethed as he reached for a poison bolt for his hand crossbow, but it was too late, Vacanga rode over and Morgul slashed with his sword and the drow stopped moving.


Carver also charged forward but could not see his quarry; the drow sprung on Carver with a dagger in one hand and a sword in the other, he thrust and missed with the dagger and hit with the sword. Carver twisted his body but maintained his ground and managed to hit the drow on the temple with his sword, spraying his blood into the air.


Shoon took out a small piece of tortoise shell and held up the shell in front of his eyes and spoke the words, “Héj Vas!” three times.


Lenides roared and spotted one of the drow with his infravision, he fired off four magic missiles at the shadowy figure… and they all dissipated on contact.


“They shed magic, weapons only!” Lenides shouted.


Gint charged into the blackness, he carried his scimitar high as he ran. He then found himself rising into the air against his wishes.



Folix dove into the darkness with an axe in both hands, he did not find the drow, the drow found him, striking him from the left flank before he could act. This left the drow close however, and Folix followed up with two axe blows, the first hit and the second missed.


Ahrn polymorphed into a bird and flew out of the immediate area, his last command to his shadows was to attack the drow and they moved towards them.


Essern and Zintar disappeared from view.


Carver’s drow circled him and spit, “Overlander, your carcass will feed my lizards.”


Carver, sword in hand, dove forward and tackled the drow, a move his opponent had not expected, and the fighter smashed him into a large stalagmite, then lifted him above his head and looked over at a drow that was attacking Wend and Brother Naranjir and threw the drow he was holding into him.


His girdle of giant strength was an impressive item.


Both went down, and Wend capitalized on this, smashing the one that Carver had wounded, his hammer cracking open his skull


Morgul turned Vacanga and charged towards one of the drow that was levitating Gint, he was the only one not attacking so he was easy to spot. The man maintained the levitation on Gint until the last possible moment, then he dropped the barbarian and took out his hand crossbow, shooting at Morgul, but the bolt bounced off his armor.


Vacanga ran down the drow, and then bit him, Morgul putting in the finishing blow with a swing from his mace.


Zintar had cast invisibility on himself, and he quickly moved toward Jaggenoth, while Essern circled towards the back of the group.


A drow leapt from the shadows to attack the sleeping Jaggenoth, but Zintar was in place, and when the drow stepped past him he smashed him on the back of the head with his great club. This broke the invisibility, but the drow was disoriented and Zintar followed up with a second blow that crushed his spine, killing him.


The drow Carver had bowled over was getting back on his feet to face Wend, another drow had arrived and was facing Carver with a sword and dagger combination.


Wend transformed and when the drow was back on his feet he was facing several hundred pounds of black bear. The drow took out a mace and made a swing but Wend was faster and smashed him with two claw attacks, both of which hit, and Wend pulled in the drow and began to crush him.


Carver was impressed at his speed and skill, all of the drow were proving to be formidable combatants. Carver was circling his opponent when the drow redoubled his attacks, he fended off a sword strike only to be nicked by the dagger. He pulled back for a few moments while the drow repositioned, then he pressed hard, he swung his broadsword and slashed the drow across the shoulder, then brought back the blade for a thrust that left him open but caught the dark elf in the lower stomach, running him through.


He slid off the blade and died.


Gint hit the ground and quickly regained his feet as the levitation hadn't moved him far.


Lenides shifted to his staff and engaged a drow that was moving in for an attack with his short sword. Lenides attacked with his claws and followed up with a staff strike. Only the staff hit successfully.


Ahrn's shadows moved in to attack one of the drow and Shoon watched as he vainly attempted to defend himself against their strength draining touch.


He went down under a flurry of blows.


Morgul found the leader of the drow facing him, the denizen of the underdark whispered and motioned his hands and suddenly there were 4 of him standing in front of the paladin.


Morgul had seen this trick before and knew just what to do, he charged Vacanga straight into the multiple images, the beast was more than large enough to run through all four of the images when he charged, and in doing so he knocked over the real one.


The warrior glared at Morgul with a hate fueled stare as the paladin turned Vacanga around again to face him. Morgul had Vacanga charge the drow again, but this time he lunged from Vacanga's back with mace in hand and tackled his opponent. The two men rolled out of the attack and found their feet, the drow with sword and dagger in hand and Morgul with his mace.


The next few moments were a blur of violence. The drow lunged forward with a strike that glanced off Morgul's armor and a dagger slash that nicked his arm as he passed. The drow turned to block with his buckler but Morgul delivered a full force two handed blow with his mace that almost shattered his arm.


The drow stepped back and cast darkness on Morgul, enveloping him in blackness. The paladin focused and located the drow with his detect evil, but rather than rush in he shammed, standing as if he couldn't tell where the drow had gone.


Morgul felt the drow's presence as he moved around to stab the paladin in the back. Morgul waited until the underworld elf was directly behind him and he spun around with his mace, smashing into his opponent’s chest with unexpected ferocity.


The drow stumbled back several feet and cursed, "Kiaulė!" and he redoubled his attack, raining a flurry of blows on Morgul with his sword; the paladin blocked, dodged and redirected the attacks, frustrating his opponent's assault. The drow became enraged and started slashing wildly, and Morgul saw his opening, a parry, a feint and the paladin brought up the mace in a sideways blow that shattered the drow warrior's jaw and spun his head around, cracking his neck.


He collapsed, dead.


Morgul stood, wreathed in flames, over the dead elf’s body, blood dripping from his mace.


Folix had wounded his man and his man had wounded him, both were fast on their feet, and both were wielding two weapons, the drow a sword and a dagger, and Folix two hand axes. They circled at a distance, taking each other’s measure. The drow moved his weapons around as he circled, twirling his sword in one hand while flipping the dagger between fingers in his other.


He was showing off and trying to intimidate Folix, but the ranger did not take the bait.


Then the drow hurled his dagger at Folix, caching him completely unaware. The dagger sliced open his thigh, and Folix snarled in pain. The drow charged Folix as soon as the dagger left his hand, and hoped to take Folix while he was focused on his wound.


Folix was not distracted, however, the wound focused his fury instead, as the drow charged forwards Folix stood his ground and when the drow was getting close Folix dove down feet first and slid through his legs, turned over and sprang up, two axes in hand. The first he brought down hard and sank into the drow’s back, the second he swung around and imbedded in his side.


The drow shook convulsively then died.


Gint finally made it close enough to attack one of the drow, a lithe fighter with a sword and buckler. Gint swung his scimitar and the drow ducked under it. He then struck at Gint while he was recovering the sword swing, slashing him on the cheek.


Gint snarled and swung again, this time downwards, and the drow shifted at the last second again, Gint's scimitar hit dirt and the drow swung his sword wide and took a chunk out of Gint's shoulder.


He then slid back and waited.


Gint knew he was being baited, but now he just wanted blood.


The barbarian roared and charged forward, enraged, and the drow met his steel with steel as the two men circled each other and moved around the area. Gint’s sheer power began to overwhelm the drow, and he managed to slice open the dark elf’s side, a plume of blood spraying into the air.


The drow stumbled and cursed.


Gint did not wait for him to recover, instead he kicked him to the ground and ran him through.


Dead.


Shoon had moved his snow spider ahead to get out of the general melee, this was not his forte, and he did not want to find out if he could survive a few rounds with the underdark elves. As he moved away from the main combat area a bolt fired at him from the dark.


It bounced harmlessly off of him.


Ahrn’s two shadows swarmed the drow who had just fired a crossbow bolt, each one draining his life force with every blow.


The drow went down screaming.



The last of the drow patrol turned and bolted, he moved quickly, trusting his cloak and boots to cover his exit. It was entirely possible no one had even seen him, he had been maneuvering around to attack from the rear of the party and had stayed in the shadows. He ran quickly and found a large stalagmite to hide behind, quickly turning to see if he was being pursued. He would report back to his superiors about the failure of his commander, whose body had been broken by the paladin, and he would move to fill the vacuum created by his death. Satisfied that no one was following, the drow turned from the stalagmite to flee to the north, he could easily outpace the overlanders and find help.


He had made it no more than a few steps when a gladius blade shot out of his chest, glistening in his still hot blood. The drow tried to speak but his voice was strangled, and he collapsed dead.


Essern became visible and wiped his blade on the drow’s shirt.


Morgul rode up to Essern on Vacanga, still outlined in blazing fire, “That’s the last of them, so at least we know they won’t be alerting anyone to our progress.”


Essern smiled, “If you kill the drow that put the fire around you, will it stay forever? It is impressive, you look like a god of fire.”


Morgul looked himself over and laughed, then shouted.


“We leave now!”


Brother Naranjir woke, Jaggenoth was still out.


Carver protested loudly, “We need to search the bodies, we might find something we need.”


Morgul, the wispy fire surrounding him beginning to fade, replied, “We leave now, we have wounded, and if we are caught by another patrol we may not get so lucky.”


A small red and silver bird landed on Morgul’s shoulder and cawed loudly.


Essern pointed at the bird, “Our conjuror returns, and agrees with Morgul, we ride!”


Everyone agreed.


The party lost two snow spiders, but they had two “extras” who were pulling Lenides’ snow sled, but without it they only carried supplies. The supplies were quickly redistributed and as Jaggenoth woke up when they were doing so he quickly took the opportunity to heal several of the most wounded.


The men also retrieved weapons and took quick stock of their items after having been hit by a fireball, Zintar and Morgul lost potions of healing, Lenides lost a scroll with Detect Evil, Tongues, Confusion, Fear and a Potion of clairvoyance, Ahrn lost his wand of negation and a scroll with Magic Mouth, Charm Monster, Jaggenoth lost a potion of invulnerability, Gint a potion of human control, Wend a scroll with weather summoning, and Folix lost his two arrows of frost giant slaying.


The whole group moved ahead before anything hostile caught up with them.


Zintar rode up beside Morgul, “We should stop soon, rememorize spells, rest, we can find a nearby cave.”


Morgul shook his head, “No, our only hope down here is to get ahead of that damnable Star Knight, and that won’t happen if we stop. No, we must press forward as hard as we can and somehow get past him or we have lost.”


Morgul turned to the whole party.


“We press on, pass the Star Knight, and get to the meteor before he does. Has anyone concerns?”


None spoke up.


“Then let’s ride, death be at our side and not at our backs, and victory be in our grasp, not beyond it.”


And with that the party pressed on into the ever present darkness.


End of entry.