An Account of Cromlech Tor - Sygmar's Tale

[Philotomy]

Not much time for a post...but we played last night...and Grim fell into a pit...

[Mythmere]

Not much time for a post...but we played last night...and Grim fell into a pit...

Grim's a pit magnet.

[GelatinousCube]

Neato!

I dig the presentation bigtime.

[Grim]

Terrax,
It has been some time since I found time to write, much has happened. A fortuitous turn of events has transpired since our last expedition. We have made the acquaintance of a dwarf. Quite a curious fellow indeed. We learned that he had escaped the clutches of some dastardly bandits and escaped from the Tor. Apparently the Tor's magic had no hold on him and he did not die like the captives we tried to take with us for questioning some weeks ago. He was quite set on revenge against the hooligans and provided us with a map of their territory on the first level of the donjon. It was not territory that was familiar to us and we were quite elated to know that there was more than one entrance to the place which we could utilize. The newfound portal was even thought to be unknown to the inhabitants which was also to our advantage. A reconnassance was agreed upon. The dwarf, Angor, would lead us through his secret passage to the hidden door which he had escaped through and we would try to ambush the bandits or at least steal their treasure, which Angor assured us he had reason to believe was quite a large amount. Angor's promise proved to be true, the passage was well secreted indeed and we passed through an earthy passage filled with the roots of the trees above us. The secret door was there as well. We entered into a small chamber, a lamp was set there. Immediately we heard footsteps in the hallway beyond. Everyone pressed against the walls and waited to surprise the enemy ... moments later we had a prisoner and were headed back to town. Many events then transpired but the long and short of it is that we learned the true purpose of the bandits presence in the donjon. It seems they are interlopers as well. Sent by a foreign power to destabilize the area, they had happened upon a third (!) entrance to the Tor. This intelligence proved a great boon and the wizards worked his weirding charms over the captive and we soon had a double agent who didn't know he was a double agent. We learned some of the ways of the bandits and we also learned that they didn't know of us other than by reputation. I must confess the Thunderbird may frown on some of the actions we then took part in. The wizard had an infallible plan and we used it. In the end several of the poor louts fell to our arrows and the rest were in our service wholeheartedly. Our numbers growing rapidly, we were emboldened to then set an ambush upon the bandits leader, Red Bill.

Red Bill. A dreadful soul and creator of unlife, I am certain we did the right thing by dispatching him. He had drowned a dozen men and brought them to un-life through the power of his evil sword which I have written to you about separately. I shall not sleep well until we see it's powers nullied. I digress, I am sure you want to know the circumstances under which we ambushed that red devil and overcame his forces.

It was known to us that Red Bill was expecting reinforcements and that he intended to double cross them and slay them all so he would not have to reveal the donjon to them and share the treasure he had found since he was in the service of Pyong the Sea King. We learned where Bill was going to lay his ambush, and we laid an ambush on his ambush! It was a grand victory! Wethimyr's spell brought down the lout without a fight and the mere sight of set his zombies in full retreat. The rest of his men were slain handily by our archers well placed shots. Red Bill was taken alive, though in a magical sleep brought on by our capable wizard. We questioned him for some time and unfortunately he was too evil to be left alive. We did not learn the location of his treasure. But, we did learn more about the bandits area of the Tor and that they had encountered goblins therein, something we had only seen in some of the wall carvings in some passages of the place which did not have that other strange style which I am unable to describe except that it baffles the eye in some way, appearing to weave the stone like ribbons).

Again I digress. You must know by now that our numbers had quite tripled by that time and our men were well outfitted after we depleted the local stocks of arms and armor. I am quite certain they will soon pave the streets of that town with the gold we have spent there.

It was this hearty band then that entered the Tor yet again. We recovered Red Bill's treasure and were a goodly amount indeed though we may have wakened some dreadful beast with that hole where he had secreted it. Bless that dwarf how funny he looked at the end of that rope when we fished that treasure out of there, bless him indeed! The Thunderbird must have been pleased when he learned of the coming tithe from my share of the cache, for he protected me soon after when we entered the goblins territory and I was set upon by a terrible monstrosity that had been loosed upon us. We had already repelled three waves of apes when this creature appeared. It was three times the size of the others and entire body was ghostly white. What a rage it had in his eyes when it appeared. A retreat was called so we could defend against it in the last chamber, I was throwing down oil to cover our retreat when the creature entered the room and charged at me with terrifying speed. I did not have time to light the oil but it still proved helpful, the creature slipped upon the oil as he tried to attack me. He was quickly struck down by myself and our Swordsman, Pale. Quite cautioned by the size and ferocity of this creature we decided it best to retreat for a time. We have not yet returned there but I will write to you as soon as I am able to learn more about the Tor or the sword.

May the Thunderbird's wing shelter you from the storm, always.
Boris Farlock




P.S. You still owe me 5 sovereigns from that card game in Thraxx you S.O.B..

[Philotomy]

I continue to marvel at your party's luck. That albino ape was a 4HD monster that got the drop on a single 2nd level PC all by his lonesome, and it failed to even *hit* before you guys took it out. Then there's Wethimyr and his "hireling problem." Single combat with a hireling, the wizard is hit and down to 2 hp, loses initiative, *and the hireling rolls a 1 and loses his weapon.* The wizard *melee attacks* and rolls a natural 20 (or was it just a hit + maximum damage on the dice -- either way, same result). Unbelievable.

The only real drawback was the (now uncharmed) owner of the house you've been staying at making off with 500gp of stashed treasure and a mule.

[DuBeers]

Man, if I wouldn't have been "on call" this weekend I would have been there! I am so jealous ...

[Mythmere]

It's not luck. It's that my plans are all infallible.

[Philotomy]

Just got back from a session. I made a couple of mistakes as DM that worked very much in the PCs favor. I rolled really crappy on a lightning bolt, then neglected to do the (full) bounce in the heat of the moment. I also forgot about some special powers a monster should have had. I'm out of the groove! Too much work and not enough gaming! I've lost my edge!



It won't happen again, though. Next time, I'll be in "fighting trim..."

(Hey, at least the dwarf fell in a pit, though.)

[Grim]

With the Wizard preoccupied with overseeing construction of his country home, the rest of our stalwart band made yet another foray into the newfound section of the dungeon we had recently located. Boris had created a couple scrolls for healing but otherwise we were low on magic in the wizards absence. Five of us entered through the secret tunnel the dwarf had shown us. Once again we noticed the landscape of the dungeon had changed while we were away. Upon entering we narrowly avoid a Fey magical trap of some sort which triggered when we opened the first door. Glittering snowflakes fluttered down before us but noone was harmed by them. Deciding to first check the dead end hallway where we knew a large pool was located we noticed that much of the area was coated in a noxious slime. As we approached the pool it began to ripple. Immediately our archers opened fire, shooting into the depths. The pool exploded upward and we were faced with a frightening worm-like creature with deadly claws. The dwarf was brought low by the beast but slew the fowl thing. The cleric managed to revive him with a prayer. Dredging the pool with a grappling hooked revealed many partially devoured corpses but nothing of value. We followed the slime trail and it led us to the stairwell which we knew led down to the dry well and the strangely carved door which the dwarf had figured out how to open on our last expedition. We descended the stairs and evaluated the doorway. Determining it seemed safe we passed through. Strangely, the dwarfs senses told him that we were now at least ten-thousand feet below ground. We surmised that the doorway must be a gate of some sort. The passages in that place were great circular tunnels which seemed to be melted through the rock. Cautiously we endeavored to map some of the area. We found an archway carved with the countenance of a horrific demon, beyond which there were stairs leading down. We decided to avoid that portal and try some nearby passages. Nearby we located a heavy wooden door with a lock. As we evaluated the methods of opening it we were attacked by another of the worm creatures and it was quickly overcome. We decided to break the stone around the lock as quickly as possible before more creatures came. We defeated the lock and opened the door revealing a torture chamber with another room beyond. Various torture device were stored on the walls of the room and hanging from the ceiling on chains were many skeletons. Oddly, they were swaying about although no wind or other force seemed to act upon them. Deciding not to take any chances the Cleric showed his holy symbol and the movement ceased. In the middle of the room, one of the skeletons had remnants of clothing still about it, including a pouch which had spilled some gems onto the floor. We utilized the ten foot pole and retrieved a good cache of the precious stones. We decided to retreat before our luck changed. As we headed for the exit the walls of the tunnels began to glow and creatures began to emerge through the glowing spaces. They were similar to the worm-like creatures we had encounter but they were smaller and there were more of them. We emerged into the well room with creatures hot on our tails. Luckily, this was a choke point and only two could enter the room at a time. The creatures created a darkness around us and we tried to back up while avoiding the well. A flask of oil was smashed into the darkness and the cleric kicked a torch after it. The sound of fire and wails of agony erupted from the darkness as well as several of the creatures. The melee was fierce. The cleric fumbled his weapon into the well but then managed to get behind one of the creatures and push him onto the blade of one of our fighting men, skewing it. We had the upper hand and only one creature was left but it teleported, vanishing before our eyes. We could not located it and decided to explore more of the dungeon. A large new area was mapped and encountered more of the strange tribal humans. We managed to ambush them by luring them to a pit trap our dwarf had found by accident. Their wizard slew one of our men with a lightning bolt but in the end we were victorious and recovered some treasure. We decided we had had enough and exited the dungeon but found slime around the exit. This was the first time we knew of a creature from inside the dungeon being able to leave it. We quickly hid our treasure and began tracking the beast. It was making a beeline for the main entrance of the dungeon. We quickly closed upon it and the dwarf began firing arrows at it while the rest of us charged through mist. It telported into the mist to escape us but we managed to surprise it and finally slew it. We decapitated the beast and took the trophy with us. We then returned to our cache and then back to town. The cleric commissioned a drawing of the creatures head which would be sent to Thraxx for evaluation though we were fairly certain it was some sort of demon. The dwarf came to the realization that the magical traps we had found were meant to keep the creatures in the dungeon and that we had inadvertantly freed the creatures to some degree. At present this is cause for great concern and we will have to find some way to contain the foul things ...

[Philotomy]

This is Grim's post, above, just broken up. (My eyes were getting lost trying to read that imposing block of text!)

With the Wizard preoccupied with overseeing construction of his country home, the rest of our stalwart band made yet another foray into the newfound section of the dungeon we had recently located.

Boris had created a couple scrolls for healing but otherwise we were low on magic in the wizards absence. Five of us entered through the secret tunnel the dwarf had shown us. Once again we noticed the landscape of the dungeon had changed while we were away. Upon entering we narrowly avoid a Fey magical trap of some sort which triggered when we opened the first door. Glittering snowflakes fluttered down before us but noone was harmed by them. Deciding to first check the dead end hallway where we knew a large pool was located we noticed that much of the area was coated in a noxious slime. As we approached the pool it began to ripple. Immediately our archers opened fire, shooting into the depths. The pool exploded upward and we were faced with a frightening worm-like creature with deadly claws. The dwarf was brought low by the beast but slew the foul thing. The cleric managed to revive him with a prayer.

Dredging the pool with a grappling hook revealed many partially devoured corpses but nothing of value. We followed the slime trail and it led us to the stairwell which we knew led down to the dry well and the strangely carved door which the dwarf had figured out how to open on our last expedition. We descended the stairs and evaluated the doorway. Determining it seemed safe we passed through. Strangely, the dwarfs senses told him that we were now at least ten-thousand feet below ground. We surmised that the doorway must be a gate of some sort. The passages in that place were great circular tunnels which seemed to be melted through the rock. Cautiously we endeavored to map some of the area.

We found an archway carved with the countenance of a horrific demon, beyond which there were stairs leading down. We decided to avoid that portal and try some nearby passages. Nearby we located a heavy wooden door with a lock. As we evaluated the methods of opening it we were attacked by another of the worm creatures and it was quickly overcome. We decided to break the stone around the lock as quickly as possible before more creatures came. We defeated the lock and opened the door revealing a torture chamber with another room beyond. Various torture device were stored on the walls of the room and hanging from the ceiling on chains were many skeletons. Oddly, they were swaying about although no wind or other force seemed to act upon them. Deciding not to take any chances the Cleric showed his holy symbol and the movement ceased.

In the middle of the room, one of the skeletons had remnants of clothing still about it, including a pouch which had spilled some gems onto the floor. We utilized the ten foot pole and retrieved a good cache of the precious stones. We decided to retreat before our luck changed. As we headed for the exit the walls of the tunnels began to glow and creatures began to emerge through the glowing spaces. They were similar to the worm-like creatures we had encounter but they were smaller and there were more of them. We emerged into the well room with creatures hot on our tails.

Luckily, this was a choke point and only two could enter the room at a time. The creatures created a darkness around us and we tried to back up while avoiding the well. A flask of oil was smashed into the darkness and the cleric kicked a torch after it. The sound of fire and wails of agony erupted from the darkness as well as several of the creatures. The melee was fierce. The cleric fumbled his weapon into the well but then managed to get behind one of the creatures and push him onto the blade of one of our fighting men, skewing it. We had the upper hand and only one creature was left but it teleported, vanishing before our eyes. We could not located it and decided to explore more of the dungeon.

A large new area was mapped and encountered more of the strange tribal humans. We managed to ambush them by luring them to a pit trap our dwarf had found by accident. Their wizard slew one of our men with a lightning bolt but in the end we were victorious and recovered some treasure. We decided we had had enough and exited the dungeon but found slime around the exit. This was the first time we knew of a creature from inside the dungeon being able to leave it. We quickly hid our treasure and began tracking the beast. It was making a beeline for the main entrance of the dungeon. We quickly closed upon it and the dwarf began firing arrows at it while the rest of us charged through mist. It telported into the mist to escape us but we managed to surprise it and finally slew it. We decapitated the beast and took the trophy with us. We then returned to our cache and then back to town. The cleric commissioned a drawing of the creature's head which would be sent to Thraxx for evaluation though we were fairly certain it was some sort of demon.

The dwarf came to the realization that the magical traps we had found were meant to keep the creatures in the dungeon and that we had inadvertantly freed the creatures to some degree. At present this is cause for great concern and we will have to find some way to contain the foul things.