Please note that most of these summaries are based on adventures that are available for download on the internet. These summaries may contain spoilers about the content of those adventures.
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Session 19 Jon/Mar |
The Treasure of the Black Veils (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| Lady Brenna punishes Ulfgar for his greed by holding back his wages, but does not confiscate Tholgrim Whitebeard's ring. Marcus investigates the history of the ring, and learns that it was crafted thousands of years ago in Wyrd, before the Witchking came to power, and was lost thousands of years ago when Tholgrim's dwarves mined too far into the earth and disturbed something powerful, which woke and killed Tholgrim and his miners. While Cinder, Eadric, Rafe and Theo are absent, Lady Brenna learns the secret of locating Mollie Tinker's hidden treasure in Ramshorn Abbey and sends her other four adventurers to Kevland to fetch Mollie's treasure hoard, including her famous black veil, before the secret becomes too widely known. Brenna's adventurers travel quickly to Fiore on the northwestern edge of Lake Rhipe, arriving after ten days, where they obtain directions to the ruins of Ramshorn Abbey and are warned to avoid a three-headed giant that lives in the fens. The adventurers go to the ruins, arriving after a full day's travel late in the afternoon. Inside, they are ambushed by two invisible balls of electricity, then attacked by a gruesome zombie made of the parts of several people sewn together, and finally confronted by a powerful sorcerer, part-man, part-snake. After a lengthy battle in which both Jonyn and Ulfgar are poisoned, the snakeman's magics are exhausted and he flees into the fens. The adventurers hastily explore the remainder of the ruins, finding Mollie's hidden hoard and taking everything from it, and start back towards Fiore that night. Halfway through the night they have to stop and rest. While Marcus and Taliriana sleep, Jonyn and Ulfgar see a large shape that could be a three-headed giant off in the distance. In the morning, Taliriana opens a hidden space so that they can all hide safely and Jonyn and Ulfgar can rest undisturbed. After they have slept, the adventurers finish their journey back to Fiore, arriving shortly after nightfall. They return to the ruins in a few days, after Ulfgar has recovered from being poisoned, but the snakeman has not returned. The adventurers return to Manderley Hall, arriving shortly before the last day of the year. Summer 1394 AUC | |
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Session 20 Cin/Ead |
Start at the End part one (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| Marcus arranges for the adventurers to celebrate the arrival of the new year in Merin, where he is joined by Lady Mara. Rafe and Theo leave on the first day of the new year, their period of service at an end. Several weeks later, Lady Brenna sends her adventurers to Navyn to seek out the treasure hoard of a young wyrm that has recently appeared nearby. At Navyn, Gitano Mirandola tells them that the small wyrm has been seen seizing sheep from the high fields of Gross Fell, in the hills north of Navyn, and gives them directions to that village. At Gross Fell, they learn that the wyrm is thought to live on a hill near the ruins of the tower of Elizar Branded-Hand, a pagan sorcerer who reputedly sleeps under the hill. The adventurers travel to the ruins, where they determine that the wyrm lives inside a cave mouth beneath the remains of the tower. They set an ambush, but the wyrm doesn't come out that day or the next. On the morning of the third day, the adventurers see the wyrm in the distance swooping on a sheep. It turns invisible as it returns towards the cave, and Taliriana uses magic to see that it dives into a stream that emerges from the hill and swims to its lair that way. They decide then to enter the cave and confront the wyrm. Inside, they are attacked by two large snakes that guard the wyrm's lair, killing both of them before the wyrm emerges to give battle. It hurls lightning from its mouth, exhales poisonous miasma, and threatens to eat them if they do not flee. However, the adventurers are ultimately victorious, killing the wyrm. They find its lair, which contains a small treasure hoard and a mound of debris that blocks a passage into what appear to be the crypts beneath Elizar's tower. When they clear a path through the debris, the adventurers are rapidly attacked in turn by a shambling mound of plants, another zombie made up of the parts of different people sewn together, and two ghostly villagers who warn them to flee. The adventurers overcome each threat, one after the other. Summer to Late Summer 1395 AUC | |
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Session 21 Ead |
Start at the End part two (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| Regrouping after the ghosts terrified some of the group into fleeing, the adventurers crawl through small tunnels to reach what is clearly the basements beneath the ruined tower. They are ambushed in one room by two arcane hounds, which are invisible until Cinder summons two fire elementals that shed light upon the situation. The adventurers battle four earth elementals guarding a narrow bridge across a tar pit, destroying two and driving the others away into the rocks, and find a detailed statue of a bearded man with an arcane mark on the palm of his left hand. Across the tar pit, the corridor continues on, but Taliriana and Cinder's spells stop working. The corridor ends with a locked iron-bound door on which the cross of Gatanades has been carved. Taliriana is unable to approach the door, and finds it difficult even to look at it. Marcus unlocks the door, behind which they find a small room occupied by a man who resembles the statue. They close the door again and argue about what to do until the man opens the door. Jonyn strikes the man with his axe, but it has little effect. In desperation, the adventurers force the door close so that Marcus can lock it again. They return to Gross Fell, where the villagers are pleased that the wyrm has been killed, and warn the villagers that Elizar Branded-Hand is trapped beneath the hill and should not be let out. They repeat this warning at Navyn, where they also ask the church authorities to send someone there to investigate and make sure Elizar cannot escape. However, the church officials they speak to do not seem to view the trapped Elizar as a great danger. The adventurers return to Manderley Hall. Late Summer 1395 AUC | |
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Session 22 Ead/Cin |
The White Boar of Kilfay part one (modified version of AD&D adventure from Dungeon issue 32) |
| Lady Brenna sends her adventurers to the lands of the Petkenaks to obtain the Boon of the Kingstone of Talvli so that they can use the Boon to locate her missing friend, Arene Cilarelis. Conn, the King of the Talvli, has promised that whoever brings him the body of White Boar that killed his son Muirish in Spring 1394 AUC will receive the Boon. The adventurers travel west for a month to visit Miles Bashere at Gokstad, who tells them more about recent local developments. The adventurers travel west from Gokstad along the upper reaches of the Linn River for three weeks, staying at the free houses that aren't affiliated with any clan or tribe. At the free house on the edge of the territory of the Talvli, Breen the housekeeper tells them how the Elves of Kilfay helped the soldiers of the Talvli kill a Goblin warbard a few days before the White Boar appeared, and gives them directions to the place where Muirish and an Elf lord were killed by the Boar, on the edge of the Elf forest of Kilfay. At that place, the adventurers are accosted by a group of Kilfay Elves, who insist on blindfolding them and taking away their weapons before letting them enter Kilfay. The adventurers are taken to meet Gain, the Lord of Kilfay, and his advisor, a living tree called Limblithe. Gain promises that they can try and find the White Boar in the Darkwood, a sacred place where the Elves will not go but where the Boar lairs. In return, the adventurers promise him the head of the Boar. Gain's crows guide them to the edge of the Darkwood. Inside, they find a tree hung with bodies, a large crater created by an intense fire, and are attacked by a monstrous hybrid of owl and bear. They follow the paths in the Darkwood, destroying a group of large spiders that had set their webs across one path, and find a second exit from the Darkwood guarded by more of Gain's crows. Retracing their steps, the adventurers find an area of shadow where the path crosses a river. While they are crossing, they are ambushed by two trolls. The trolls unblock the river so that it briefly becomes a torrent, then try and knock the adventurers on their side into the river with massive blows of their clubs. Eadric is knocked in, and is swept downstream into a magical net. The net also captures Taliriana when she flies down to try and free Eadric. By the time they have freed themselves, the others have cut down both trolls. Autumn to Late Autumn 1395 AUC | |
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Session 23 Ead/Cin |
The White Boar of Kilfay part two (modified version of AD&D adventure from Dungeon issue 32) |
| Brenna's adventurers rest for an hour before continuing on into the Darkwood. They find a small lake with two islands, one natural and one artificial, each with a small keep. The adventurers search the smaller keep on the natural island first, finding it deserted. They then search the larger, more modern keep on the artificial island. Inside the larger keep there are several buildings, including an observatory tower, a laboratory filled with the bodies of long-starved monstrous hybrids and a partially-dissected human, and a well-made house with an extension made entirely of adamantine. Inside the locked house they find an attractive and well-endowed elf woman, who cowers when they surprise her and appears to speak only Wemben, the Petkenak language that none of them are fluent in. Inside the adamantine room they find a large, monstrous creature floating in a large glass container filled with some kind of fluid. Eventually, Cinder realises that the woman is a local Petkenak who has been transformed by magic into the form of an elf. With difficulty, the adventurers establish that the woman's name is Yara, that the sorcerer who lived in the keep was named Shivnar, and that he was killed by the White Boar. They rest overnight in the house, and when they wake they discover boar tracks all around the house. The adventurers search out the White Boar, which is a huge beast over eighteen feet long. They chase it outside the keep and into the forest, following it back to the castle grounds, where they trap it inside the inner keep. The White Boar proves to be immune to Cinder's magics, and Jonyn cuts its head off with one mighty blow when it tries to force its way past him and back out the inner gate. The adventurers spend the next day building a sled to drag the massive carcass back, while Taliriana studies the remains of Shivnar's books of magic and learns a spell that will let her shrink cannons to a fraction of their original size! The spell has the added benefit of shrinking the White Boar's body to a manageable size. The adventurers leave the Darkwood with Yara and the Boar's shrunken body. They give the Boar's head to Gain, the Lord of Kilfay, after Taliriana breaks her spell, and do the same with the Boar's body when they reach the hall of King Conn of the Talvli. Conn uses the Boon of the Kingstone to locate Arene Cilarelis, who is alive but trapped in ice at the castle of Zilrus the sorcerer, west of Bethra, on the edge of western Mercania. The adventurers begin the long journey back to Manderley Hall, taking Yara with them until they decide what to do with her. Late Autumn to Early Winter 1395 AUC | |
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Session 24 Ead/Cin |
Nest of Corruption (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| Brenna's adventurers return to Vestad with Yara. They visit Miles Bashere at Gokstad, then continue on to northern Vestad to visit Derrin Goslaren. While they travel, Marcus teaches Yara Low Bacchile and learns Wemben from her. The adventurers find Derrin living with his wife, Sabarinah Goslaren, in the village of Oseberg. They leave Yara with Derrin, who promises to escort her back to her family in the northwestern lands of the Petkenaks in the spring, and begin to travel southeast along the edge of the Nenian Mountains and back towards Manderley Hall. One evening, in the village of Brindinford, Jonyn leaves the inn where they are staying to walk a young woman back to her home in the nearby woods. The other adventurers eventually notice Jonyn's absence, and grow worried when they realise he has left his axe behind. They follow his trail into the woods, where they meet a peasant girl who claims to know nothing about Jonyn. Taliriana uses magic to reveal the woman's strikingly beautiful true form, and Marcus seriously injures her with his holy sword before she flees using magic. They continue to follow Jonyn's trail to an abandoned tower, where Jonyn is waiting with two pale, gaunt men and their two shadow hounds for the woman to return. The adventurers battle the men and the dogs, and Jonyn realises he was tricked by magic when one of the men weakens him with a touch. After killing all four, Cinder sends four balls of fire into the tower to weaken any inhabitants before they enter. Inside, they find a horned man with cloven hooves, unharmed by the fire. The man challenges them to fight, but is swiftly defeated and killed. Within the tower, the adventurers find a trapdoor that opens into a basement filled with snakes. After incinerating the snakes, they explore the basement and find another room. In the room, they fight a snake-headed man wearing a blindfold and a woman with a human head and snakes for hair. They kill both, but not before Eadric has looked at the woman and been turned to stone. Taliriana uses her shrinking spell to make Eadric small and portable, and they bundle his stone body in cushions before storing him in Marcus' backpack. The adventurers return to Brindinford without seeing the first woman again. They travel on to Cerradyn, where a holy man restores Eadric to flesh and blood after Taliriana restores him to normal size, and then finish their journey back to Manderley Hall. Early Winter to Late Winter 1395 AUC | |
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Session 25 Ead/Cin |
Hunter's Moon (modified version of Dragon Warriors adventure) |
| Brenna's adventurers see out the winter at Manderley Hall before setting out for Bethra in western Mercania to find the castle of Zilrus the sorcerer and free Brenna's friend, Arene Cilarelis.They travel to Wesland, where Captain Karla Roodsdottir is waiting to take them through the Glaive and across the Mistral Sea on The Faithful Lady. After a brief stop at the refugee-crowded city of Malgwyn to sell a cargo of food at great profit, The Faithful Lady sails through the southern part of the Glaive and into the Mistral Sea. South of Wyrd, a powerful storm damages The Faithful Lady, breaking the main mast. The next morning, the damaged ship reaches a fir-covered island. Captain Karla finds a sheltered bay for the ship to anchor while the crew repair the damage and rig a jurymast. There is a ruined citadel only three miles along the coast from the bay, and Brenna's adventurers set out to explore the citadel and make sure nobody will attack The Faithful Lady from there. They reach the citadel's outer wall after an hour, and talk with an old blind man at the remains of the main gate. The man tells them the history of the citadel and its founder, Lord Karvala, a servant of "the Great Gods" who sleeps within the Black Obelisk in the central plaza. In gratitude, Marcus gives the gatekeeper a gift of food. The gatekeeper gratefully accepts, but passes away as soon as he eats a portion, turning into a large black dog in death. Within the walls, there are many signs of ancient battles and fires. A ghostly woman tries to lure the adventurers into a ruined tower, but they destroy her and find a cache with a black drum and gold chalice hidden in the tower. The Black Obelisk is smaller than the one in Navyn but covered in ancient Qemor Hieroglyphs. A nearby temple is also covered with hieroglyphs, but it is guarded by a large brass statue of a bull-headed man with a greataxe. The statue traps Jonyn in a magical maze and proves very difficult for the others to harm. Marcus and Ulfgar get past it and into the temple's basement, where they find rooms dedicated to a snake-handed woman descending from a gibbous moon and guarded by skeletal warriors. The brass statue pursues them, and Ulfgar discovers a snake-handed woman when he jumps into a magic circle hoping that it will teleport him to safety. The snake-handed woman poisons Ulfgar, who overestimates his resistance to her venom and dies. Marcus frees the woman from the magic circle by rubbing away a part of it, and the statue kills the woman once it finishes destroying the skeletons. It then enters the magic maze and kills Jonyn. The others eventually manage to destroy the statue using Taliriana's cannon. They recover the two bodies and finish exploring the basement of the temple, where they find a passage that leads to a rising spiral staircase that ends in darkness. Marcus' holy sword gives them light, and they pass through the darkness into the home of Lord Karvala. They talk with Karvala, who is a powerful sorcerer trapped in his room by "the Great Gods" until the eternal night of the gibbous moon passes and he can leave his tower. Karvala tells them that they cannot leave without teaching him a new thing each, and he is very interested when Cinder and Marcus mention the True Faith. When they tell him that Jonyn knows the most about the True Faith, Karvala brings both of the dead men back to life. Early Spring 1395 AUC |