Greyhame Game Expedition 87

A real-world two-part expedition, but interrupted in-game only by a pause in media res back at the camp outside the dungeon ...

The roster for 25 and 29 March:

Sten (halfling)

with Henry (magic-user), Tal (thief), and Foz (free goblin)

Nigel (16 year old boy-wonder magic-user)

Shoopie (dwarf)

with Zanatos (cleric)

Clark (paladin)

Tomu (dwarf) and Erbin (fighter)

and a small army of hirelings and dogs

At the Black Dragon's Meed Inn & Tavern back in town, a strange party arrives: a goblin, obviously the leader, introduced himself as Drang, his female Elf companion as Stormy, and the chief of his five-ogre entourage as Barduk; the four ogre-servants carried for their goblin-master a chest, obviously heavy, from which Drang counted out several thousand gold for a year's stay at the inn.

He then turned to the adventurers gathered in the tavern common room--Henry and Sten were holding a reunion of old friends with Nigel, Shoopie, and Zanatos--and the goblin Drang offered a further "obscene amount" of gold if these obvious ne'er-do-wells and adventurers would seek out a zone for him, lost of old under the Greyhame Mountain. A treasure map was offered--actually a letter and an account from the chronicles of the Brondings, which together suggested the location of the lost item--and a precise amount was agreed upon.

Thus offered compensation, the party acquired what they needed in town, and then set out for the Greyhame Mountain. Their clues led them into the Glimmervaults, those ancient caverns whose ceilings glimmer in the dark as if with the night's stars. Certain among the party had adventured in the 'Vaults previously (some so long ago as to have been in a previous incarnation of the dungeon, in a previous campaign!). Armed with their own map, they oriented themselves and then struck out into unexplored areas.

The caverns extended for a good way to the south and east; in a certain portion, the cave ceiling seemed to vanish into the night sky, though under constellations strangely distorted; and further on was discovered a great lake of dark waters glittering under stars. Another cave was found filled with a herd of giant pallid cave-locusts, while in one section stone doors were held closed by great iron bars warning with inscriptions of "the pollution of death is barred inside these halls."

While standing on the shore of the dark lake, the party was attacked by huge whited salamanders that swarmed out of the waters like slimy crocodiles; two of the dogs were slain here, but the foul creatures were driven back into the waters by a liberal application of flaming lamp oil. It was about this time that the party elected to return to their camp outside, uncertain of their prospects further in the dungeon without a little extra muscle.

The extra muscle came in the form of Clark, Tomu, and Erbin, whose players joined us on the 29th; and with their reinforcement, the party returned into the darkness.

Under a starry sky, the party discovered a secret cache of treasure in a stone tree; but were surprised from behind by a group of about a dozen corpses shambling toward them, corpses covered in growths of wispy grey mold, whitecap mushrooms, and other fungal growths. These did not turn away from Zanatos' holy symbol and prayers, but Clark was able to cause them to fight each other by the use of his ring of fungus control. But while the party argued as to what to do with the discovered treasure, they were interrupted again from behind by the snuffling and crunching of cave bears enjoying the surprise feast of fungal zombies.

----

"Yeah, we fucking killed those bears!" Nigel interjects into the midst of this accounting by the carousing characters.

"With the help of my ring of animal control," Shoopie adds; "But you should slow down on that beer, boy."

"Who are you calling boy? I'm a man! I'm sixteen--that's the age of majority!"

"Until you can grow one of these," Shoopie replies, tugging at his beard, "I'm afraid you're no man."

----

Continuing the account, the party found themselves in a cavern filled with stalagmites and stalactites; fortunately, Clark happened to look behind and witness one of the stalagmites shuffling and shifting just a little closer to the party. Alerting his fellows, he then advanced to investigate, followed cautiously by Sten ... and stepping within range, Clark found himself suddenly faced with an explosion of whipping tendrils from the weird stalagmite. Several latched onto him with glue-like secretions and then Clark found himself being dragged onward into the darkness and the suddenly revealed maw of stony teeth gaping from the stalagmite's side.

So began a desperate battle in the dark; as the party moved to Clark's aid, they found themselves accosted by two others of the stalagmite-horrors, the tendrils of which dragged a number of characters into the threat of crunching maws. Tomu and Erbin were two such caught, while Shoopie and Sten also found themselves struggling against the in-reeling tendrils. Each round in the grip of the tendrils while in melee range, the monsters were able to crush their victims in their jaws, and Erbin faced the swift death of his hireling, and then his own terrible death. Arakh the orc, Nigel's companion from adventure of old, also found death here, and Clark himself was brought low by too many rounds in the stony grip of his foe.

Nigel cast a lightning bolt spell to no effect, but Henry's fireball softened up two of the creatures, while Zanatos' cure spells helped bolster Clark long enough to heal himself further by laying hands on himself. Once the first of the three creatures was slain, though, its body oozing a foul yellow ichor, the party was able to combine efforts, and their various magical strength and swords were able to cut down the last two stony pillars of death.

At this point, much thought was given as to whether to retreat, but the call of sweet lucre proved irresistible, and the party moved deeper into the dungeon. Discovering halls of worked stone, decorated with imagery of Elves dancing under stars and trees of oak and firs, the party entered cautiously and discovered a number of fallen bodies, apparently killed of old by their own hands. These proved, as suspected, to be undead, which arose and drew swords of shadow from the empty scabbards at their sides.

And the danger of encounters with the undead was remembered here under pillars like stone trees, as Nigel and Zanatos both suffered the loss of life energy when struck by the cold shadowed swords. But the undead horrors were finally destroyed ...

----

At this point, the account is interrupted again as the carousing characters break into old reminiscences. "Yeah, seems like we might have to make another trip to Rix's dungeon, to bathe in the healing waters there," Shoopie declares.

"Rix!" Nigel says. "I still haven't forgiven you all for murdering Rix!"

"Forgiven us for that--what about all the other stuff we've done to you?" Sten pipes up from behind the bar. He has to stand on a barstool to see over the top, while he continuously pours his best stock of wine for himself and proceeds to guzzle it down. "Like when Xanthos paid for your 'lovely' wife to be raised from the dead?"

"Yeah, or when we sold you off to the Goblin King for a night?" Shoopie adds. Grinning evilly from behind his beard, he reaches out making a pinching motion with his fingers. "Beautiful boy!" he adds in a nasally imitation of the Goblin King's crooning.

"I will rip your head off and shit in the hole if you say that again," Nigel responds, totally dead pan, getting his fingers ready to cast fireball.

----

Anyway, hauling out all the treasure they'd acquired from halls of the dead, the party found themselves obstructed by the appearance of a gang of creatures, black-skinned, gangly-armed, and with greasy white hair. With hooked noses sniffing, they shuffled out of the darkness, ready to rend with outstretched claws.

A short round of combat established for certain the nature of these creatures, as the wounds cut by the adventurers' swords rapidly began to heal. Only Shoopie's sword versus regenerating creatures and Sten's flaming sword caused lasting wounds. But the punishment dished out by the party proved too much for the trolls, lasting or not; and in the end only one of the creatures escaped into the darkness, leaving its fellows on the cavern floor, covered in oil and set fire until burned to death by the characters.

So ended this expedition into the Glimmervaults--wildly successful if the amount of booze bought and drunk on the night of their return is any indication; and yet Drang remains at the inn, not entirely satisfied with the outcome of the expedition ...

The Three Crowns

Kord, half-orc fighter/cleric of Kord the god of strength, was seeking a means of advancing beyond the limit of cleric level 4 set for half-orcs. His god sent him a dream-quest: find the Black Crown of the Getae and make yourself their priest-king, and I will reward you with greater power.

Seeking out the aid of Axxl the Mask, one of the local sages in the Greyhame Game (and paying him a fair amount of gold for the sage's work and time), Kord is told something of the lore of the Three Crowns ... The short of it is:

The White Crown is hid in the Mouth of the River ...
the Black Crown is held by the Old Man Under-Mountain ...
and the Red Crown was lost, but has been seen again, on the brow of Veiteric, chief among the Getae ...

------

When the Brondings came down out of the north to seize their kingdom from the Chaotic princes and barbarians who had squabbled since time immemorial, Brond was at their head, and on his brow there shone the White Crown of the Brondings.

Brond it was who fell in love with a naiad queen on the banks of the Coldwater River, and it was there, later, that he was ambushed by the Getae under the falls. Rather than surrender his sword, he broke it against a rock, and was slain there; but the naiads took the sword at their queen's behest, and reforged it in secret, and gave it to Brond's son, Gram, for vengeance. And so the Brokenbrand Falls had got their name.

Roland blowing his horn Olifant at the battle of Roncevaux after failing
to break his unbreakable sword Durendal; but it may as well be Brond,
having broken his sword ...

Then the Brondings warred against the Getae of the forest and their Elfin masters; and they drove back the Elves to the eastern reaches of the Dwimmerholt, and overmastered the tribes of the Getae.

Ever had the Getae been led by two kings, the War-King and Priest-King; now the Brondings renewed that custom, but they gave to the Getae two crowns, the Red Crown for the War-King, and the Black Crown for the Priest-King, and the two crowns of the Getae were bound by powerful oaths and ancient magic so that those who wore them were sworn forever to serve the wearer of the White Crown (the rightful king of the Brondings).

For a time, then, there was peace in the land; and several generations knew war only as they went to seek it in foreign realms, for gold or for glory. ... But Chaos has a way of worming into the hearts of men, and corrupting the Order they have built when they think their cherished kingdoms are secure ...

So it was that the last of the Brondings, Durand-King, fell for and wedded a serpent in the guise of a woman, and her influence poisoned the realm. The tribe of Galad, scions of a knight who had served loyally under Brond and who were led now by his great-great grandson Aldanus, denounced the queen as a serpent; but Durand refused to listen, and he named the sons of Galad wolves and traitors to be hunted down. Armies were raised; the tower of the Galad tribe was reduced and taken, and the tribe was hunted down and destroyed root and branch.

But of old, the Galad tribe had been the keepers of the Crowns of the Getae, situated as they were between the Bronding kingdom and the forest realms of the Getae; and so they had their revenge. The Black Crown they secreted deep in the caverns below the Glimmervaults, entrusted to an elusive earth-spirit known only as the Old Man Under-Mountain. And with the Red Crown, the last surviving nephew of Aldanus, one Aldaric, raised the tribes of the Getae in rebellion against Durand-King.

So a great battle was fought in the depths of the Dwimmerholt--Aldaric Galad, nephew of Aldanus, wore the Red Crown of War; but he was cut down in battle, and the Crown was lost in the confusion that ensued. ... And for a long time it was lost or thought destroyed; but there are rumors now that a certain chieftain of the Getae, Veiteric hight, wears a band of red gold upon his brow, and that his glance cows all who look on him, and that his word is law among the forest tribes ...

As for the White Crown, it was taken from Durand-King after his victory in the Dwimmerholt, taken by a council of his own knights. They had stood by their king when Aldanus Galad first denounced him, but after the extermination of that gallant tribe, they came around to see Durand-King as the tyrant and wolf that he was. So they ambushed him one day while he hunted, and took the White Crown from his brow, though they left him his life--to their demise in the end.

Still, the Crown they took to the naiads of the Brokenbrand Falls, to secret away as they would, until one worthy of the Bronding kingship should come again and claim it. Legends say that the naiads hid the White Crown in the Mouth of the River--though that makes little sense when the mouth of the Coldwater lies so many hundreds of leagues to the west, pouring into Ocean ...

So that is the tale of the Three Crowns, so far as it goes; it touches upon much of the history of the realms, but not all of the history is needed to understand their significance.

Amrohir's Tale -- the Goblin King and the missing Elf-princess

In my last post about the 22nd Greyhame Game, I mentioned the Elf Amrohir who was a guest of the usurper Morholt, and who was on a quest to seek out the missing Elf-princess Amaltheia. The party was invited to an audience in the castle by Morholt, who then allowed Amrohir to state his case with the hope that the characters might aid in seeking out Amaltheia.

It was poorly a considered move from Morholt and Amrohir, as the characters listened to them and then immediately decided that they distrusted the usurper and the Elf, and if they were to seek out Amaltheia, that they would be on her side. Nevertheless, their attention was not on the Elf-woman yet--they're rather more concerned with the fact that the stars are singing and that the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves are stirring up the trouble with the stars ...

Still, I wanted to provide more details about the situation than I did during play (I'm pretty terrible at the NPC infodump at the table, I'm afraid). So here is the tale, as told by Amrohir:

------

"Some time ago--many, many years ago, as mortals count them, in fact--the Goblin King and his servants and allies were destroyed by the Elves in a battle in the forested depths of the Dwimmerholt. The wolves and werewolves were slain or driven away, the spiders were slaughtered, and those goblins who were not killed were captured and enslaved once more--mostly sent to toil in the mines and deep places, hard labor that would break their spirits and their bodies.

"It was thought that the Goblin King had been slain--his entourage was certainly destroyed, and the body of a goblin in his panoply was one of those recovered from the field. We Elves, naturally, crucified the body and carried it before us as a sign to others what would come of rebellion, and we broke the enchantments in the armor and displayed it before our armies as we returned to the courts of the forest in triumph.

"Of the Goblin King's bodyguard, only his shieldbearer had survived, a pathetic creature that called itself Mirk. He was such a crooked and pathetic thing that it seemed even the bearing of a shield must be difficult, and yet he was cunning with the twisted magic of the goblins, and knew something of lore and of poetry. And it was because of his quick wit and wry humor that Danur, Captain of the Elfin bowmen, took Mirk for himself to be a slave in his own household, rather than one of those sent to eternal toil in the mines.

"This decision was to be the cause of much evil, as I'm sure you have guessed.

"In Danur's household, Mirk quickly became a favorite and was made the chief slave. He always carried out his tasks intelligently, and though he had a tongue that was quick with criticism for his fellows, he was equally obsequious before his master. He was given much freedom as the years wore on--and ultimately used this freedom for evil. In secret, he read the books of power in Danur's possession, and cut his own runes on wands to develop his powers. And Danur wielded for himself a Ring into which had been bound the ancient spirit Calirath, and Mirk seduced her with promises of freedom. And lastly, working only on the nights of the new moon was all was most in darkness, Mirk forged for himself a Spear, and poured into it all the poison of his malice and his long simmering hatred.

"And when the Spear was finished at last, Mirk was ready. He caught and betrayed Danur while they were out hunting, and Calirath did nothing to save her master, but allowed the goblin slave to drive the Spear into Danur's heart. Then she bore up Mirk and returned with him to their dead master's household, and while all slept, Mirk stole the Name and the Shadow of Danohir, son of Danur.

"Then, wearing the face of Danohir, Mirk took his final revenge. That same night, he visited the Elf-princess Amaltheia, who was betrothed to marry Danohir, and Mirk seduced her, and left her with a goblin child growing in her womb. And after that, he, with the help of Calirath, and leading many freed goblin slaves, made an escape through the darks of the Dwimmerholt, out to Anduril Rock, there to renew the old alliance with the wolves.

"So it was that Goblin King has returned, and calls himself Danohir the Mirk, and he dwells in the Howling Tower with his misbegotten servants--no longer slaves of the Elves, they are his slaves now, and who knows what evil they are stirring up in their dungeons.

"But as for Amaltheia, she did not know the truth of her rape until the child was born nine months hence; she had thought only that her betrothed had come to her that night, and been murdered the next day, and much was her confusion when the child was born to her with a goblin's crooked features. She was much amazed, and much grieved too--into a swoon she fell, and when she awoke again, a terror had entered her that the child would be destroyed, and she as well, and so she got up in the night from her bed of labor, and taking the child in secret, she and it were spirited away by the night winds.

"I fear that some enchantment has affected her mind, or that some lingering spell of the Goblin King has poisoned her spirit. She must be found, and returned to her people! And so I, and many others of the Elfin courts of the Dwimmerholt, have gone forth seeking high and low and looking into the secret places of the world to find her. Myself, I have come to seek into the Glimmervaults--for though others think it is too well-known among Elves, and too near the evils of the Goblin King, I think perhaps she has strayed there in her terror, and dwells now in the deeps somewhere, lonely and afraid.

"I hope that you all may aid me in discovering her, thus to return Amaltheia to her people and to her own wits. And do not think that you will go unrewarded for it! We Elves can be a very generous people for those who prove themselves our Friends."

--such is the story that Amrohir told to Morholt, and later to the characters as they listened, and the details of it have spread around town as well--

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 20

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults ...
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower ...
and the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...
while the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...


12 February's roster:
Kord (half-orc fighter /cleric )
with Gram and Thaddeus (normal men)
and Saint One and Saint Two (St. Bernards)
Ham (cleric )
Aethelwulf (paladin 3)
with Hauka (snake-killing weasel)
Little Bob (traveling-man )
with Rolf Rolfson (normal man)
and Marlo and Panzer (dogs)

and later,
Blackleaf (Elf 2)
with Johann Haybaler (normal man)
Koko (woman-ape 2)


Before getting to the adventure proper, the townsfolk of Brakeridge threw a big celebration for the heroes that saved their children from the horrors of the goblin-dungeons beneath the Howling Tower. Everyone was allowed to "carouse" for experience without ill effects, the villagers slaughtered swine and oxen and roasted them in a great barbecue and shared out mead and beer in abundance; and even Morholt, usurper though he is, had to admit the heroism of the adventurers and sent gifts for them. Kord, Ham, and Aethelwulf each received a shield painted with heroic deeds to hang at their shrines; Little Bob, Koko, and Blackleaf each received a silver torc; and even Baby-Face received a letter of pardon forgiving him for the insult to Morrow Morholtson way back on the first adventure.

In town, Kord paid 1500 gold to build a granary on the second plot of land he purchased beside his new church to his god Kord (Chaotic Good god of strength). The church, meanwhile, is finished though rather spare in furniture.

Kord bought the two St. Bernards available in town and then took Aethelwulf under his wing and led him off to the Howling Tower, promising wealth but otherwise being rather cryptic about everything.

Attrition on the way out included a broken shield, axe, and javelin, lost during a brief skirmish with orcs. Then they arrived at the Tower and observed three baboons hanging out on the steps that lead up to the door into the tower, chattering and picking lice off of each other. Rather than go through them, Kord led Aethelwulf around to the north slope of the ridge and showed him a hole in the ground and said, "I hope you're not claustrophobic, 'cause we're going in there!"

They sent the weasel Hauka in first and then everyone else followed, Aethelwulf carrying his lit lantern ahead of him as he squirmed after his weasel through the narrow earthen tunnel.

After bending back and forth for a ways, the tunnels opened into a wider chamber--but it was little relief, because an insectoid horror surged up out of the darkness and attacked Hauka the weasel with writhing tentacles. The tentacles struck and Hauka's muscles seized and locked up, and then the insect-thing began to drag the paralyzed weasel away into the darkness.

Aethelwulf and Kord's dogs attempted to kill the horror before it could escape with Hauka, but they weren't quick enough in the confined space, and the horror disappeared down a side-tunnel, weasel in tow. Kord directed the party to the main tunnel and with a little more caution, they continued downwards.

Eventually, the tunnel opened into an area of worked stone with burial niches along the wall--Little-Bob (who was totally along with the party the whole time and definitely didn't just show up out of the blue) recognized the area on his map, and Kord showed the other two a secret door that they had missed on earlier expeditions. But he cautioned them not to bring any light into the corridor beyond, because the shadows created would animate and attack.

Everyone entered the short corridor beyond in total darkness; then Kord went ahead, and the others could hear him picking things up, moving them around, and he started to hand back sacks filled with treasure. Ultimately, they gathered three sacks filled with coin and a variety of other treasures including an incense box and incense, silver armbands, a painted canopic jar, etc. These they hauled back up through the earthen tunnel they had entered to begin with, all without dealing with any other monsters, and made their way back to town with only another brief skirmish against orcs.

Back in town, they divided their loot (not a small haul) and Aethelwulf paid a thousand gold for a fine liturgy of the Good cult in order to restore himself to Paladinhood.

The party, now joined by Blackleaf and Koko, then decided to venture to the Glimmervaults to collect the last nine orc heads required in their quest for a wish from Jaer the Windlord.

The journey to the Glimmervaults was uneventful. Faced with the choice between the western entrance through the natural grotto or the eastern entrance of worked stone fronted with heads and limbs on pikes, the party opted for the latter--reasoning that they were more likely to find orcs that way.

And lo! they immediately ran into a group of six orcs guarding the entrance just inside. These put up a brief fight, just long enough that one of their number could escape down the eastern corridor to warn his fellows. Meanwhile, the party took their time cutting off heads before they gave chase, and by the time they pursued the last guard, he had delivered his message about invaders and called on a number of other orcs and large lumbering creatures the party quickly identified as ogres.

Retreating down the corridor a bit, the party filled a 10'x10' square with oil and then lit the pool on fire when the orcs and company charged them. Both ogres and about half the orcs made it through, the other half were driven back, but most took damage from the flames. A general melee ensued; Blackleaf slept one ogre, making it easy prey, and then the other ogre and orcs quickly fell to the party's massed attacks.

They gathered the heads of the dead orcs into a bloody sack and then made their way back to town, triumphant and ready to seek out Jaer to deliver the orc heads to him for some magic.

Kord and Ham both caroused on their return, and held their liquor well. Everyone else, meanwhile, is a little gunshy about carousing after some of the mishaps they've seen.

------

Remembrance for the Fallen:
Hauka and Wilmerand (weasels), Blade and Boar (dogs), Hubert the Peacock and Lysimmachus (normal men), a nameless mastiff, Livy (normal man), Orkie (orc mastiff), Fang (boarhound), Droopy and Snoopy (mastiffs), Dream Destroyer (ghost hound), Arrow (pack dog), Freyja (normal woman), a nameless cur, Hot Dog and Cross (mastiffs), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boarhound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)

and for those Enchanted Away:
Dol (fyrdman hireling)

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 18

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults;
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself;
while the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...


29 January's roster:
Aethelwulf (paladin 3)
with Hauka (snake-killing weasel)
Baby-Face (thief 5)
with Frida and Hubert the Peacock (normal mercenaries)
and Whesker and Wilmerand (weasels) and St. Bb (a st. bernard)
Lead (cleric 4)
with Astia (normal woman) and Sparkly the Mule
Blackleaf (Elf 2)
with Johann Haybaler (normal man)
Koko (woman-ape 1)


Lead the cleric was eager to get back to the Glimmervaults to kill orcs and take more heads for Jaer the Windlord, a powerful creature of air who dwells with the eagles at the summit of Greyhame Mountain. In the past, Jaer has promised a powerful wish for a group who would rid the mountain of the orcs that are always hunting and torturing his friends, the eagles, and Saul-style, set the price for this wish at fifty orc heads brought to him on his mountain. (On an earlier expedition, the party gathered a mere 31)

Before setting out, they had several items to attend to.

First, Baby-Face acquired a sending bone and a bottle of Laurantha's mead from the local procurer of oddments. He used the sending bone to send a message to Jaer, asking whether the wish was for the group entire, or one wish for every individual, and the spirit arose from the bone and whisked away on the wind toward the mountains. On its return, the sending took on an imitation of Jaer's visage: One wish! it declared. But one wish for the company--even my powers are limited.

Meanwhile, Aethelwulf had a couple of things he wanted to do. First, because the party would not be following through with the rescue of children kidnapped by the goblins on this expedition, he sought out the captain of the guard, Cairn, Knight-Captain of "the Citadel" (the watchtower in town), and implored him to guard the town's children better against goblin kidnappers. "If all the children are taken away, Morholt won't have any populace left within his realm," Aethelwulf pointed out.

But Cairn basically just shrugged him off--"We guard the town. It's the fools in the country who can't keep their children safe. And what, a dozen farmers' nits carried away? Good riddance."

After this ineffectual audience, Aethelfwulf went to pray at his small shrine to Adonai, god of justice, in the market square. There, he found Aldir, Blackleaf's blacksmith-squeeze, who has been more aloof with Blackleaf in the past week, while going on about how he wants to be Good and a hero, like Aethefulwulf. So at the shrine of Adonai, Aldir got a little more instruction in the mysteries of Good from Aethelwulf.

Finally, we were ready to adventure. The party gathered rations and supplies and set out from town. The trek to the Glimmervaults proved easy, with but a single broken axe when Baby-Face was cutting firewood.

Looking up a the two entrances into the Glimmervaults--a western grotto that leads into a natural cave system, and a built-stone entrance to the east with spears and impaled heads placed out before it--looking up at these entrances, and then down at the maps drawn by their some-time companion Little Bob, the characters were paralyzed by confusion. This was a moment of great amusement for me, the referee, as the players pored over their actual artefact of play, unable to make sense of the three maps. It was a perfect moment of a kind of 1:1 identification between the characters and the players, of actually poring over a map in confusion as to what it means, where to go?

Finally, they elected to enter the grotto and explore an unexplored side-corridor just to the west inside the entrance. In they went, and were immediately surprised by a roar and with Lead getting swiped by the claws of a huge bear. A short melee followed, short because the bear was overwhelmed by the party's numbers. It put up a good fight--damaged Aethelwulf's hawk-shield and mauled both him and Lead (mauled Lead because the man was still wearing his old green-slime-burned plate armor from the first session!), but ultimately it was put down by two simultaneous critical hits.

Aethelfwulf turned out to be proficient at skinning animals, and so he proceeded to remove the bear's pelt, which was mostly undamaged other than the melee-mangled head. This would prove to be their only real treasure for the session.

When the bear was skinned, the party continued southeast through a series of large irregular caves, deeper into the Glimmervaults, seeking a great chasm on the first of Little Bob's maps. Entering into a chamber with stairs leading up to a flowstone formation, they searched for secret doors and found one--but heard the noise of moving things from the other side. Fearing undead, they cracked the door open and balanced a flask of holy water above, to drop on anything passing beneath--but the noise turned out to be a group of orcs passing by.

Lead insulted them and their mothers, and the orcs shot back with a lame retort and then charged through the door. The holy water didn't do much--but the "army" facing them were too much, and two orcs went down on the first round, and the other two were shot down as they attempted to flee. The party hacked off their heads and then moved on.

They found a chamber with statues, their faces all knocked off by chisel and hammer, and with an iron plaque on the west wall reading in part, The tribe of Galad is destroyed root and branch; let jackals crush the bones of his heirs, let their spirits never rest. This place is accursed.

The party poked through a number of tombs in the vicinity of this room, and in one chamber with three tombs, they disturbed a colony of yellow mold within the tomb. Blackleaf, Hubert the Peacock, Frida, Wilmerand, and Whesker all failed their initial save and began to wheeze as their throats filled up with spores. The rest of the party then frantically tried to help clear their breathing with heimlich maneuvers, forcing them to gag and throw up, or even an dagger-tracheotomy for Frida! Out of all those affected, only Hubert the Peacock ended up dying.

Continuing on, the party ultimately emerged through another secret door to a passage just west of the large chasm they'd seen on the map. They skirted it along its western ledge, noting a broken bridge that would lead to a door on the east wall if still intact; but ignoring that, they headed northwest into another series of chambers, including a set of rooms with scummy wells, and an orc armory. Along the way they encountered a further six orcs, but these were slept by Blackleaf and killed without incident. The party looted the armory of spears, mail, and shields, and then headed back to town (out the way they'd come) because we were running out of time.

Back in town after another easy journey (only one more broken axe for attrition), everybody caroused. Baby-Face caroused especially hard, racking up a tab in excess of 4000 gold and landing him in debt to the thieves' guild by some 3000 gold! Aethelfwulf drunkenly bought a slave-woman, one Hastia, and awoke hung over and no longer a paladin until he frees her and atones for his crime against Goodness. Koko, meanwhile, had a religious experience, and is now of Good alignment herself!

------

Remembrance for the Fallen:
Hubert the Peacock and Lysimmachus (normal man), a nameless mastiff, Livy (normal man), Orkie (orc mastiff), Fang (boarhound), Droopy and Snoopy (mastiffs), Dream Destroyer (ghost hound), Arrow (pack dog), Freyja (normal woman), a nameless cur, Hot Dog and Cross (mastiffs), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boarhound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)

and for those Enchanted Away:
Dol (fyrdman hireling)

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 13

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults;
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...

...

and Jaer the Windlord is said to look down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...


5 December's roster:
Aethulwulf (paladin 2)
Little Bob (traveling-man 4)
Finbar (half-Elf druid 3)
Baby-Face (thief 4)
Lead (cleric 3)
Aria (Elf 1)
Koko (woman-ape 1)
and a veritable army of dogs and hirelings


With seven players, set-up took a good hour of crosstalk, dog-buying, and hireling-hiring. Baby-Face snapped up a unicorn horn and a Ring of Unseen Servant, as well as buying a couple dogs; his party alone was himself and seven hirelings/dogs. Lead hired the other available hireling, Aethelwulf acquired two of the dogs, and Aria nabbed the lone orc mastiff for sale.

Recalling the offer by Jaer the Windlord of a wish for the party if they could clear the Glimmervaults of the nuisance of orcs, the party naturally elected to head there.

On the way out, my dice indicated an attrition encounter of undead on the second night, and the party was able to drive them off using two flasks of holy water, one week of rations (got burned on the fire while driving the udead off), a use of turn undead by Lead, and Baby-Face took 6 damage, promptly healed by the cleric.

Nothing else accosted them, so as they drew near the northern entrances to the Glimmervaults, the party found a secluded copse in which to secret the wagon and horses they had acquired in town, guarded by one of Finbar's wolf friends and the hireling Freyja.

The entrances to the Glimmervaults are two: to the west, a stone grotto recessed into the slope of the hill at the back of which yawns a cave entrance; and to the east, a higher opening flanked by spears and spikes driven into the ground and onto which the heads of various humanoids--humans, Elves, and a surprising number of orcs--have been impaled. The party briefly considered taking some of the heads to inflate their "kills" in their report to Jaer, until they recalled that Kaaraak the eagle accompanies Aria, and that he might snitch. So instead, Baby-Face took but one moldering head and six functional spears.

They then entered into the eastern entrance and headed immediately east at the first "T", as that way was least explored by previous expeditions. Going east, they stumbled almost immediately into a chamber containing six orc guards only sleepily guarding; nevertheless, the size of the party made enough noise to alert the six, and those awake wakened their companions. They got one round of hurled missiles off at the party's advancing dogs, and then, seeing the number of intruders, took off to the east calling, Intruders! Intruders!

The party sicced their dogs and weasels on these six and also advanced right behind in pursuit. Three of the dogs dragged orcs down by their ankles and then savaged them to death, but the other three managed to get all the way into a large eastern chamber filled with fifteen orcs. The orcs had been in varying degrees of repose, but alerted by the shouting, they were all waking each other up and arming themselves. The party charged directly in, dogs out front, and just started cutting orcs down.

Despite old school combats being much quicker and smoother than Pathfinder or 5E combats, this was still a slog, given that there were seven players, most of them commanding several dogs or hirelings. I believe this is where one (or maybe two?) dog was killed, but I didn't scribble it in my notes, alas.

Altogether, the party overwhelmed the poor orcs (I should note, by the way, just to stave off any "orc baby" nonsense, that these were all adult male orc warriors--this whole outpost is a warparty outpost); after twelve of the eighteen had fallen, the remaining six orcs threw down their weapons and offered surrender, but the players' blood was up, and, ignoring the pleas of Aethulwulf for mercy for the orcs, the six surrendering orcs were cut down. All the orc heads were then gathered for presentation to Jaer, and the party discovered 200 gold scattered throughout the room.

Continuing south-east, the party decided not to investigate the corridor that smelled of shit, but elected to go south, which ultimately turned around to the west. They passed a chamber in which a beheaded orc was impaled on a spear and set up against the wall, and then heard chanting from a chamber further along. Finbar, using speak with animals asked one of the weasels to go check it out sneakily, but alas! the weasel did not do a good job of sneaking and quickly humped its way back to the party before the orcs in the chamber could attack it.

There was some dithering as to whether to oil the hallway and lure the orcs out into an inferno, or just to attack, but ultimately the party just charged on in. In this chamber, they found a great orc-captain leading a ritual sacrifice to Agrol Orc-Father, a great wooden idol crudely carved with a terrible grimace, its feet piled with heaps of skulls and broken weapons.

But with a grimace, draped in snakeskins, and
surrounded by skulls, broken spears and bent swords

There were nine other orcs accompanying this captain, and they were in wait for the party, and hurled missiles at them as the party's army poured into the chamber. A general melee then ensued. Much like the last battle, the dogs made short work of a number of orcs. Koko the woman-ape crushed one orc's face, but then, overeager, forced her way through the melee to the orc chief's side to attack him, and was herself cut down. But the orcs were overwhelmed; and in the chaos of the fight, Aethelwulf the paladin managed to work his way around and thrust his own sword through the orc chief's breast, silencing his battle cries forever.

From the orc chief were looted a large shield decorated with a red hawk and a waterfall sword (both likely magical), as well as three gems appraised by Aria to be worth 200 gold each. The party cut off and collected the orc heads, and then tore down the idol and dragged it bodily out of the dungeon. Having slain everything they encountered on the way in, there were no encounters on the way out, and outside, after hacking off the huge head of the idol with axes, they set the great idol alight in a huge bonfire.

They then returned to the copse, loaded their wagon with sacks of orc heads (thirty-two, plus the wooden idol's head), and made their way back to Brakeridge. On the return trip, a storm blew up on the first night, destroying a spear, ruining a week of rations, and blasting Lead for 8 damage (two dice). Then, slogging through the rain and the mud, poor Freyja was bitten by a viper on the last day, and succumbed to her wound.

At last returning to town, the party sold what they could, and agreed to spend the 300 gold Lailith asks of those seeking for a companion to be raised from the dead, and so Koko was returned to life, albeit at -1 intelligence from the lingering effects of the wound. Then Finbar and Baby-Face caroused, spreading the tales of their daring. Baby-Face in his drunken exuberance promised to adopt Hilda, a 10-year-old orphan girl hanging around the Black Dragon's Meed, and now she won't leave his side as he goes through town, she telling everyone how grateful she is to finally have someone to look after her again.

------

Remembrance for the Fallen
Freyja (normal woman), Nameless Dog (1 hp cur), Hot Dog (mastiff), Cross (mastiff), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boar hound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)

And for those Enchanted Away
Dol (fyrdman hireling)

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 8

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults;
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...

...

and Jaer the Windlord is said to look down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...


today's roster:
Aethulfwulf (fighter 1)
Kord (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1)
with Dog 1 (a mastiff)
Little Bob (traveling-man 1)
with Marlo (a cur), Panzer (orc-mastiff), and Orion II (lion dog)
Rendorsheeg (Elf 2)

plus, a party of Elf tourists led by Elrohir and including the other Elves Cymbria, Hylen, and Alanora, further followed by a couple of charmed humans and a group of six goblin slaves packing the Elves' things for them


While Aethulwulf's player put his character together, Kord looked around town for local work and managed to get a gig laboring with the construction at the new Shrine of St. Ursula the Bear. He made 6 gold (must have been doing some heavy lifting!), bit his chaotic tongue at the lawful imagery, and put his wages toward his debt with the thieves' guild.

At that point I still only had the two players; I gave them "the pitch" (orcs in the glimmervaults, etc), but added that a party of Elves had come into town a week ago and were loitering around, looking for people willing to escort them into the Glimmervaults. They were on a pilgrimage to look upon the Ancient Stars that glimmer beneath the earth, but having heard of the troubles with the orcs, they wanted some extra muscle in their party.

Kord enthusiastically agreed to join the Elves, hoping for 60 gold for the job; the Elves responded, no, we were thinking something more along the lines of 50 gold per person. That sold the rest of the party, which now included Little Bob. Before setting out, Little Bob and Kord bought the three dogs for sale, which included an orc mastiff, a huge blue-black beast of a dog trained to murder orcs.

Thus outfitted, the party accompanied the Elves through the wilderness toward the caverns of the Glimmervaults. Fortunately, because the Elves were excellent woodsmen and passed quietly through the world, they needed roll no wilderness encounters; so they arrived at the entrances to the Glimmervaults on the north slope of a spur of the Greyhame Mountain. To the east is a worked entrance surrounded by heads impaled on spikes (including humans, Elves, and many orcs); to the west, a stone grotto that descends deeper into the slope before becoming a cold cavemouth into the underworld.

The Elves led the party to the grotto and into the caverns beyond. They then basically led the party on a long walk/tour ever to the southeast through a series of natural caverns, passing through a large number of chambers, but almost always in the same direction, south east, south east, etc. Along the way, they pointed out some interesting features, or stopped to sing or make obeisance to their own idols.

First, pointing to a formation of flowstone in one of the first few chambers, the Elves remarked on how the Galad tribe used to rule the surrounding lands as loyal vassals of the Bronding Kings, and how their dead are buried in the stone there behind; the last time Elrohir and his companions came through, the Galad tribe were not yet at their end, for the Bronding Kingdom had not yet fallen apart.

An example of flowstone

Continuing on, the party shortly came upon a large stalactite-stalagmite column carved to resemble a man coming down from above, reaching out to the image of a woman below, while the ceiling of the cave around them glittered with stones in the shapes of constellations. Here, the Elves stopped for a time and sang an ancient song in an old Elvish dialect little remembered now; and as they sang, their noise attracted the attention of some orcs and wolves! (This was also the moment when Rendorsheeg's player showed up, so I guess Rendorsheeg kind of stumbled out of the shadows at that point, out of breath from running ahead of the orcs)

Six orcs and six wolves came down the corridors from the northwest, back whence the party had come; they were armed and ready for combat, and gave a warshout as they charged into melee. What followed was a short combat in which the dogs showed their value by mauling the orcs, while the party stayed behind throwing and shooting missiles at the orcs. Two wolves and an orc went down in the first round; in the second, the party got initiative and took out two more orcs. At that point, the orcs and wolves failed morale and turned to flee, and two more orcs went down, pulled down by the vicious dogs.

Searching the bodies produced a mere 16 gp, but Kord managed to find and claim for himself a golden torc on the biggest orc before anyone else could get it.

Continuing on from there, the party went south-east, and ultimately ended up (in the second "level" of the Glimmervaults) in a vast room with two stalactite-stalagmite columns, the larger of which was carved to represent the World-Tree; and its stone "branches" above seemed not to meet the stone ceiling, but to spread into the night sky, as some kind of magic made the ceiling seem in fact to be open to the stars (strangely, for the party had entered the caves during the day). Moreover, there were two sets of double doors, one to east, one to the north, both of which were set with heavy metal bars. These doors were both marked, "These halls are polluted with the miasma of death; Galad has sealed these doors," or some such. Elrohir remarked that behind them lay an ancient shrine dedicated to Astora, Goddess-Queen of Elves, but that the halls were polluted with death in ancient times, and abandoned by the deathless Elves who do not care to look upon death.

Like this, except the tree is a flowing stalagmite, and in its
roots are carved images of Elves and other animals

The party searched ineffectually while the Elves sang their star-songs, and then everyone continued south-east. In the next chamber, they surprised a pair of many-legged insectoid horrors with tentacle-faces, both engrossed in a feast of two dead orcs; on these the party sicced their dogs, and also cast missiles at them, and rather quickly dispatched them, with Aethulfwulf pretty well killing one with a strong cast of a javelin.

Further yet, the Elves led the party into yet another large chamber, this one opening onto a large underground lake, preternaturally still in the windless deeps. The glassy water reflected the ceiling perfectly, and because of this, it seemed as if they had walked to the edge of the world and looked into a field of stars, as the ceiling, again, seemed to be filled with the stars of the night sky. The Elves began to sing a weird and ancient song in memory of the stars, and into this eerie serenity, Rendorsheeg flicked a rock into the lake, and the ripples destroyed the symmetry of the lake's mirror. The Elves gave him reproving glances, but continued their song.

Not colored like this, but the reflection on the water is a good
example of the glassy mirror of the lake reflecting the stars

Rendorsheeg, ever the one for foolhardy antics, then decided to throw poor Orion II into the water. He picked the dog up and kind of tossed him into the water, causing quite a splash and a bunch of thrashing and whining as the dog landed in the cold water; then Orion II disappeared beneath the surface, pulled down by something pale beneath the water. The Elves gave Rendorsheeg the evil eye, and as Little Bob fumed at his companion, Rendorsheeg sheepishly gave the traveling-man 50 gold in recompense.

There was another "shoreline" on the north side of the lake, on which was banked a black boat; the party briefly considered a scheme to haul it across, but when they heard that the Elves were done with their song and moving on, they followed them instead.

The Elves then led the party mostly south (through the third "level" of the Glimmervaults). They went quickly and without wandering monsters, and ultimately stepped out into sunlight once again, on the southern slope of the spur off the Greyhame Mountain. Elrohir and his companions intended to return west and north, back to town, and offered to pay the characters the second half of their fee, to which the party agreed. Then, as the Elves continued on their way, the party returned back through the caves they had just traversed to the large cavern with the World Tree and the sealed doors.

Inspecting the eastern of the doors, they determined that they could spend a turn to pry off the iron bar that sealed the door; Kord did this, and opened the door onto an east-leading corridor that further opened onto a long pillared hall. On the floor of that hall lay three desiccated corpses, which had clearly lain among the pillars for a long time. Rendorsheeg tossed a torch at one, afraid of evil fungus and spores, but nothing happened--until they stepped into the room, of course, at which point the corpses arose, and the air in the room became noticeably colder.

These corpses reached to their waists as if drawing swords, but drew only blades of shadow, and then advanced across the hall. Kord attempted to turn them, but as he held up his holy symbol and said a prayer to the good gods, the corpses only continued advancing, implacably and silently. Seeing this, the party turned tail and fled back into the hall beyond; and then decided to call it a day, and returned to town.

I don't want to deal with any more of that supernatural shit! Little Bob declared, already in a foul temper after losing a dog to the things in the water, and mindful of the terrible keening spirit in the Howling Tower.

On the way back they suffered a brief skirmish with orcs that broke one shield, a spear, expended 12 ammunition, and in the confusion left behind a backpack with one week's rations (a wilderness attrition encounter).

Back in town, Kord discovered that the torc he had grabbed was worth 400 gold, and refusing to share it with the party, he used the reward to pay off his debt to the thieves' guild in full.

Meanwhile, Rendorsheeg drank himself to full wine-madness while regaling the guests of the Black Dragon's Meed with tales of the adventure, and ultimately got himself into some trouble with the law. He doesn't remember what happened, but he is now jailed in the dungeon of Oakridge Castle (the castle of local lord Morholt), with a debt of 4000 gold, which must be paid before he is released. One gets the impression that he might have said some unwise things to an already touchy son of Morholt ...

------

Remembrance for the Fallen
Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boar hound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)

the Grey Pilgrims

'... "These are High-Elves! They spoke the name of Elbereth!" said Frodo in amazement. Few of that fairest folk are ever seen in the Shire. Not many now remain in Middle-Earth, east of the Great Sea. This is indeed a strange chance!"

'The hobbits sat in shadow by the wayside. Before long the Elves came down the lane towards the valley. They passed slowly, and the hobbits could see the starlight glimmering on their hair and in their eyes. They bore no lights, yet as they walked a shimmer, like the light of the moon above the rim of the hills before it rises, seemed to fall about their feet. They were now silent [having ceased their song of Elbereth], and as the last Elf passed he turned and looked toward the hobbits and laughed.

'"Hail, Frodo!" he cried. "You are abroad late. Or are you perhaps lost?" Then he called to the others, and all the company stopped and gathered round. ...'

(J.R.R. Tolkien, "Three is Company," The Fellowship of the Ring, 1955, pg 109, Ballantine Books)

This Elf turns out to be Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod, and he and his companions are members of a Wandering Company, those who sometimes come into the Shire during spring or autumn, but "'For tonight we go to the woods on the hills above Woodhall. ...'" (p. 110)

(It is curious to me to know that Gildor, being of the House of Finrod, is in fact a Grey Elf, one of the Noldor who went to see the light of the trees in Valinor, yet who returned to Middle-Earth in company of Feanor, their chief, to seek the Silmarils--and who slaughtered the Sea-Elves to take their ships in order to return! As Gildor later says to Frodo, the Elves do indeed carry their own burdens and sorrows separate from the other races of Middle-Earth)

------

In my Encounters on the Road table, one of the entries is that of Elf-Pilgrims, with whom characters may carouse (spending money and gaining experience per carousing), like Frodo and the hobbits do at Woodhall, but with the possible consequence that they pass on with the Elves, forgetting their place in the mortal world for a time in preference for the wonders of the Elves.

Two weeks ago, as the players in my regular (non-Greyhame) game traveled from their home city to the halfling land of Hopshire, they twice encountered Elf-Pilgrims (due to the vagaries of the dice). The first encounter went off without any consequences, but during the second, one of the characters failed and nearly joined the Elf-Pilgrims on their way to the Glimmervaults to look at the Stars that gleam within those caverns (hence the name)--Ronald the magic-user was so entranced by their verses in praise of the ancient Stars, the Stars that gleamed above when the Elves first stepped forth in the morning of the world, before even the Sun and the Moon were set into the heavens, that he intended to join the Elves making their way there.

Alas (?) his friends got wind of his plan and got him so stinking drunk that he was too hung over to join the Elves on the next leg of their journey, and he got over their charm as he nursed his hangover.

Obviously, these pilgrims will figure in the Greyhame game before long, as the destination of their pilgrimage is the caverns of the Glimmervaults.

In this case, a troupe of four Elfin queens and their guard have happened upon a sleeping adventurer
(William Frank Calderon, How Four Queens Found Lancelot Sleeping, 1908)

All of which is to say in a longwinded way, I was thinking of developing a table for encounters with Elf-Pilgrims or Wandering Companies, so here it is:

Where are they headed?
1) to the Glimmervaults (or some other place where the Elves can gaze upon the ancient Stars down from whence they stepped in the morning of the world); a character who carouses with them and fails his save against drunkenness will be enchanted by their vision of the Stars and accompany them, a journey which will take from 3 to 18 months before he returns to play

2) to the Grey Havens and the ships that sail away across the star-strewn Sea, out of the mortal world to halls of everlasting ease; a character may save at +2 against poison to avoid the consequences of carousing with these Elves, but a failure means that she will travel with them to the nearest ocean port and thence pass out of the world forever--once gone across the Sea, only a wish could bring her back

3) to nowhere in particular--the Elves are a Wandering Company who wend through wood and dale, carousing in the hidden vales beneath the starlight; characters who carouse with them gain the effects of carousing, but are also healed as if they had rested for 2-12 days--as indeed they have! for the Elfin feast, though it seemed to last but a night, has lasted nigh a fortnight (and advance the calendar accordingly). The Elves have all vanished and continued on to the next valley by the time the characters waken, leaving memories of starlit draughts and the apples of Avalon

4) to the Isle of Avalon (or somewhere likewise suitable), bearing the bier of a mortal warrior of such renown (or so beloved by a King or Queen of Elves) that he is to be brought back to the Sunny Isle to wait in deathly sleep for the day of his awakening. Carousing with those among this company, one hears epics of both the hero himself, and of elder days and ancient heroes, and such stirring deed-songs fill the heart with courage such that one receives experience equal to 100 times one's level above the normal carousing benefit

5) not a pilgrimage per se, but a company of Wood-Elves, wary of strangers--an Elf-banquet of the sort that got the dwarves into trouble in the Mirkwood (in The Hobbit). Attempting to carouse with these Elves, a character will wander away from the party and get lost--as an individual, they will suffer 1-6 attrition dice, and if any dice remain that would cause damage, the character is instead imprisoned by the Prince of the Wood-Elves in his secret palace-dungeon until such time as she is rescued or ransomed (1000 gp/level for a ransom as a baseline)--(that, or they're just imprisoned on failing a save against paralysis)

6) to the dressing of the idols of Astora and Anglamorath at a clear lake deep in the forests of the Dwimmerholt (Anglamorath-Astora is a dual goddess of Chaos worshiped primarily by the Elves; Astora is the Elf-Queen of Stars, the First Elf, and she is joined in worship to Anglamorath the Black Dragon, the Dark Behind the Stars, Whose Wings are the Night); carousing with these Elves one must save rather against spells as they attempt to charm and enslave the characters for a year and a day, after which they will be free to return to the mortal world


Who is among the Company?
1) Adrasteia, a Lamia (not the weird lion-type, a real Lamia who is a serpent wearing the guise of a maiden); she is accompanied by two charmed slaves, Archidamus (Fighter 3ish with a shield, spear, mail armor, and a lion cloak of courage, +1 AC, +1 morale to hirelings) and Musa (Fighter 3ish with a shield, scepter/mace +2, and mail armor)

2) Ponderous, a hugely tall pine Treant (+2 HD); unlike most Treants, he is not vulnerable to fire due to the flaky scales of his bark and the great height of his limbs--but at the same time, he receives only one attack because of his great height, and is treated as a "giant" for attacks against dwarves and halflings

3) the Elf-woman Thranduila and her halfling companion Otho Skopper (they seem a rather Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pair); Thranduila is laconic and interested in wine and handsome fighting-men, while Otho is exuberant, often derisive, and interested in wine and pipeweed. Their motives are mercenary, such that they might be enticed away with promise of loot or gold to do some other deed, rather than continue on with the pilgrimage--maybe

4) the Goblin Blinx, chief slave (2 HD, one first level spell) over 3-18 other (normal) goblins; Blinx himself harbors a slow simmering hatred for his Elfin masters (simmered over several centuries), and is subtly eager to seek aid from mortals for his own manumission, whether that involves an exchange of coin or bloodshed; he would even be happy to instigate a goblin rebellion if he could get support outside the few goblin-slaves among the party

5) Morla of the Mists, a high level magic-user, presumably female; she is always somewhat obscured by a mist that seems to billow up from the hems of her dark, heavy cloak. Her perambulations with the Elves never takes her too far away from her dwelling in the Myrkr Fen. Why she travels with the Elves is obscure, but being a high level magic-user and some-time sage, she can answer sage-type questions for a significant offering of gp, including the identification of magic items

6) Ceor (or Ceora if female?) a mortal overcome by the burden of his or her deeds while adventuring; perhaps he cared too deeply about the plight of some orc children, only to have his spirit crushed by his comrades' murderous intent; perhaps she carried the burden of a supremely evil artefact to the pits of Hell to see it destroyed, and the toll has crushed all joy in her mortal life; either way, he or she accompanies the Elves in hopes of a finding a way out of the mortal realm and all its suffering ...


The Elves carry with them a thing of Interest ... what is it?
1) a Hunting Horn that once per week can summon 1-3 Fey Hounds (3 HD, AC 6, THAC0 17, d2-12, gaze of fear all in melee save against paralysis or unable to act for the round, 2 consecutive saves immune; look aside, +2 to save, -2 "to hit"; close eyes/look away, no need to save, but -4 "to hit"); possessed by the leader of the pilgrimage, who will not part with it lightly (but will entertain reasonable offers of gold or deeds)

2) a Ring of the Elf-Friend (protection +1, and +2 on saves against charm and sleep), granted to any one character who acts the most graciously with the Elves (speaking Elvish with them, sharing poetry, naming constellations, etc.). Naturally, the +2 bonus applies on the carousing save as well

3) the Mead of Poetry (one character determined at random during carousing gains +1 CHA, has a knack for poetry, regardless of player ability; and they may further, once per year, utter a doom which may be a geas or quest spell, or any kind of curse, quest, doom, etc. that a bard might utter in literature--think of the Icelandic skalds in particular, e.g. Egil Skallagrimsson)

4) a Philtre--on a failed save against carousing, one character determined at random is in love with one of the Elves on the pilgrimage (this does not necessitate joining the pilgrimage, but does entail other effects ...); on a successful save against carousing, the same character has instead filched the Philtre, and may use it as a love potion as they will ...

5) an Idol, either a Lawful, Clannish, or Good Idol taken in a raid; OR a Chaotic, Natural, or Arcane Idol representing the Elves' cult. Returning the former to the proper cult would provide a large experience reward, while seizing the latter would surely result in a statue worth 600 to 3600 gold (3d6 times 20) and commensurate experience

6) an Elfin Lap-Dog, a creature bred for companionship rather than war or hunting (HD 1, AC 6, THAC0 19, d1-6); and it wears a collar with soothing bells forged in Avalon (+1 to all saves for those within 30' of it, if the dog is adventuring for some reason); spending a week in its presence "back home" grants such ease of mind that one curse is removed, OR a painful love/memory/etc. may be forgotten for that week, OR all wounds and diseases are cured, even if the HP total is more than can be healed in such a time (not all at once, choose out of the three!). Removing the collar destroys the magic, alas (why would you do that Isolde??), but the dog will live for 2-20 years, being somewhat Elfin in nature

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 5

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults;
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...

...

and Kaaraak the Eagle speaks to the Elves in the party of the Eyries of the Eagles ...

tonight's roster:
Eden Littlethorpe (halfling druid 1, name pronounced "e-DEN"; also, brother of Enzo Littlethorpe of Galtshire, an as yet little known halfling artist who's greatest work so far is an intriguing image of the lizardman eye-licking ritual of homage)
Foz (free goblin 1, has been to the Glimmervaults once before)
with Proz (a boar hound dressed in armor)
Okuda (bushi 1, bushi being from the Oriental Adventures book)
with Shield (another boar hound pet in armor)
Roland (dwarf cleric 1, got a spell at first level because of AD&D)


As noted above, the party acquired two dogs while also acquiring equipment (Eden and Roland needing to equip themselves as newly minted characters).

They decided to head for the Glimmervaults, because Foz had been there before (and had acquired a musty old map, apparently, from some other adventurers from years before, which indicated the presence of great treasure behind a "fire tornado of doom" as the map seemed to indicate).

Nothing molested them on the way there; there are two entrances to the Glimmervaults, an eastern entrance higher on the slope, with myriad humanoid heads on spears outside the doorway--and Foz spied rather more heads than before, many of the new ones being orc heads; and a western entrance through a natural stone grotto that leads into a kind of cave network.

There was some confusion as to which entrance the party was using, some electing for orcs, others saying the western entrance, and because I started describing the cave features, that's where the party ultimately ended up. They passed through several chambers and corridors already familiar to Foz (behind a secret door in a flowstone formation), and went to check doors left unchecked on that previous expedition.

In the room with the several defaced statues and the plaque on the wall reading a curse, "Galad's tribe is destroyed root and branch ... may this place be accursed," the party was surprised by ... a wandering troupe of cave locusts. These semi-docile creatures were startled by a thrown rock and started leaping every which way in their panic, and one struck Roland, but his stolid dwarfness allowed him to just shove off the large locust without injury. Beyond that, the creatures simply retreated back up the corridors.

This, but giant-sized ... like labrador dog sized

Continuing on, the party first opened an eastern door, which led into a semi-long east-zagging corridor with two southern doors and a dead end to the south east.

Behind the first door, the party found three sarcophagi, labeled ALDARES, GALADON, and BALEARES. Inside the first sarcophagus (ALDARES), which they had to unseal by prying plaster away with a dagger, the group found a gold torc, a ring, and a nice chain of office. When they opened the second tomb, however, marked GALADON, they got only a glimpse of a gold deathmask, inlaid with wonderful jewelry, before a second horde of locusts burst through the door, creaking and sawing and making a great din. Because of the danger from their leaping all around and running into things, the party fled back into the corridor and further along.

The next door opened onto another tomb, this one labeled HORUS, a great sarcophagus dominating the room's center and decorated with carvings on every side, all of battles against phalanxes of spearmen, war elephants, and chariots. Inside, the group found a pair of scrimshawed elephant tusks with further images of battle.

This is the Tomb of Maria Theresa of Austria and her husband,
Francis I Holy Roman Emperor; this image doesn't really do justice to the grandiosity
of the thing, which as I recall depicts a naval battle on one side
(on my sojourn in the Imperial Crypts); anyway, Horus' sarcophagus is like this

In another tomb leading off the chamber with the defaced statues, the party also discovered walls depicting a gathering of semi-barbarous Getae under their kings, one crowned with red, the other with black; while on the other wall was a bas-relief of Brondr, first Bronding King, being acclaimed by being lifted on a shield by the people, wearing a white crown.

In the dead end corridor, the party found a secret door leading back out into a cave system; Foz, sticking his head out first, saw a half a dozen figures passing by in darkness beyond, and quickly hushed the party and dimmed their light; after some conversation and waiting by the party, the figures passed silently on into the darkness north, and the way was clear. Down the stairs on the other side of the door, the party discovered an ancient stalactite/stalagmite column carved to show an Elfin male descending from a ceiling glinting with reflections like stars down toward a human female.

Several side passages included one to the south that leads to the second level of the Glimmervaults; and one to the east that breathes a colder air than even the cave is naturally heir to.

But, D&D character that he is, Foz eyed the glimmering ceiling and took up a rope, and climbed the column Mulan-style.

Especially when you have an 87% climb skill as a thief,
+10% because the referee likes your idea

From the top of the column, he managed to pry out from the ceiling several of what were indeed ultimately gemstones, cut to reflect light and seem like stars. With these pieces of loot in hand, Foz suggested a return to town, and the party agreed--they seemed to have gathered enough loot.

On the way back, they stopped to pick up the elephant tusks (they'd left them behind as fragile things, meaning to return to pick them up), and listening to the door from that tomb, they heard a horrible skittering of insectile legs. Out of an abundance of prudence, the party waited; listened again; heard nothing, and found the corridor beyond empty. But at the next door, to the statue-room, they heard the same creepy skittering. This time they braced the door as they waited, and briefly felt pressure from inside attempting to get out; but this subsided, and the party retreated to another tomb to wait. When they returned back that way, heading again for the entrance/exit, the source of the weird skittering was gone.

Beyond that, the way back out and back to town was free and clear (again, no wilderness encounters, alas).

The party did manage to find a merchant especially interested in artefacts from the Glimmervaults. He bought the tusks and a signet ring for far more than their market value, and furthermore offered a bounty, collectible by anyone, for rubbings or drawings of the battle-tomb of Horus, some hundred to several thousand gold, depending on the quality of the product returned. His name is Kors Langbard (he's also a little bit racist against short people like halflings, goblins, dwarves, etc).

Lastly, the party must needs go carousing! At the newly established local drinking hole, the Black Dragon's Meed, Roland spent exorbitantly and hit on a woman at the bar, only to find too late that she was in fact a witch--fortunately for Roland, the hex she attempted to curse him with failed to affect him. Eden got into a bit of a scuffle with the law, and ended up having to pay a small fine for attempting to free a tree from the confines of downtown back to its true home in the woods; and poor Foz, well, he fell in love with a brief romantic dalliance--one Rosy Nettlebrer, a halfling woman already engaged to an upstanding halfling from Hopshire.


And thus ends a prudent adventure, well rewarded for caution.

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 3

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults;
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...


tonight's roster:
Baby Face (thief 2) with dogs and hireling:
Jimmy the Snitch (NPC lion dog)
Thin-Faced Tim (NPC armored mastiff)
and Barth (NPC normal man, plate armored, everyone kept calling him "Barf")
Harambe (man-ape 1)
Unga Dunga (halfling 1) with the other war dogs and hireling:
Marmaduke (NPC lion dog)
Cletus the Brutalizer (NPC armored mastiff, 2 hp--clearly the runt of the litter, sold unfairly as a war dog)
and Valana (NPC normal woman, mail armor, hp 1)
Lead (cleric 2)
Aria (elf 1)
Blackleaf (elf 1, a reference to Jack Chick's wonderful/awful tracts--I mean, they're awful, but in a funny way)
and Rendorsheeg (elf 1, I'm sure I spelled the Russian name wrong, showed up at the last minute)
plus the pack animals Sparkly (Lead's mule, a sparkly d12) and Ramses the Great (Unga Dunga's camel)

All the elves happen to have 1 hp, which amuses me beyond reason.


The player of Baby Face the thief showed up before everyone else, and he bought the dragon tooth that was available in town, spending 200 gp bartering for it.

Then everyone filtered in over the course of an hour or so. A couple characters were rolled (Harambe and Aria), and dogs were bought (by Unga Dunga and Baby Face--they also hired the two hirelings).

Before heading out to the dungeon, Baby Face planted his new dragon tooth on a hill near town, hoping for a new follower; alas, when the earth-born warrior sprang out of the earth, fully armed in plate armor and with a spear, he reacted violently (with a "2" reactions roll) and attacked Baby Face immediately. The party spent two rounds attacking together before they could kill him, and when all was over, his plate armor was too badly mangled by a war dog to be salvaged--but he had a shield and a spear to be looted.

Disappointed by 200 gp spent on a berserk earthborn warrior, the party considered which dungeon entrance to approach and decided on the Glimmervaults (like the last party). Nothing molested them over 3 days in the wilderness, and they arrived to the same two entrances, one to the east set with heads on pikes outside, the other, 200 feet to the west, entering a stone grotto to a cool cavern.

This party elected the eastern entrance, reasoning that orcs were sissies who were trying to scare people off with a scary display. The entrance led south into the hillside about thirty feet and opened west, southwest, and southeast into different corridors/chambers. Orcish muttering was heard to the west and southeast, so the party headed southwest.

They found a door that also had orcish muttering behind it; opening it, they found an orcish guard post with 6 orc guards. Rendorsheeg cast ventriloquism on an orc head taken from the entrance and commanded the orcs within to surrender, which they did summarily. Baby Face wanted to slit all their throats, but was admonished by the party to slit one throat to encourage "talking". He did so, and the orcs pointed to a southwestern door as the direction to their chief and his treasure.

Information well in hand, the party foolhardily decided to kill all their prisoners before taking any precautions to tie them up, and created a small scale riot after killing a second prisoner, as the last four living orcs fought against their imminent doom. They were ultimately subdued (slain), but not before drubbing Baby Face some for his murderous proclivities.

Heading through the southwest door, the party found a corridor to the north and a door to the south. Through the southern door they entered a kind of audience chamber with a great dais and a stone throne, with a shaft in the ceiling that let some light in from above and two more doors, one on the north wall, one on the south. Inspection revealed nothing more than the orcish decorations already present (more heads on spikes, etc.), but listening to the northern door resulted in the hearing of orcish voices taunting something that sounded like a bird.

The party burst into the room and found the orc chief and his bodyguards tormenting a disheveled eagle shackled to a poorly made post. A melee ensued, rather quickly resolved when Blackleaf slept five of the six orc bodyguards, while the last bodyguard and the chief were quickly slain. The chief orc was wearing a helm winged with hawk's wings and carried 6 low value gems; the 6 bodyguards each carried a wineskin of good wine (25 gp each!).

Each of the Elfin party members approached the eagle, talking to it in Elvish, giving it rations, promising it aid; through Rendorsheeg's attempt at conversation in Elvish (the eagle's answers badly accented through its beak) they learned that his name is Kaaraak, and that he serves Jaer the Windlord on the mountain above, and that Kaaraak was captured by the orcs and thence tormented due to an ancient feud between orcs and eagles. Aria the Elf promised to nurse Kaaraak back to health, and thereby gained his friendship (as he stepped onto her shoulder).

Kaaraak responded to Elvish, ignored Common and Ape, and snapped
at Orcish and Goblin; Aria the Elf eventually won him over

There was nothing else of interest in the room, other than a ring of three keys on the orc chief's belt. The first of these was used when the southern door in the throne room proved locked, and it opened onto a treasury full of silver, a scroll, a potion (which when sipped seemed to be a potion of ESP), and four more barrels of wine. The wine was strapped to the pack animals, two barrels per mule/camel.

Next, the party explored the nearest north-leading corridor and found another locked door; this opened with another key onto a room full of shackled prisoners looked after by a single orc guard. The orc immediately surrendered; but when Aria asked the eagle if the orc was familiar, and Kaaraak replied yes, he was part of the hunting party, she began to torture him. Well, he didn't appreciate that, and initiative was rolled. Combat ensued; the worst of it was merely that Aria broke her shield rather than taking a hit from the orc's fist, and then he was slain.

As to the prisoners, they included 11 humans and 9 orcs; the humans included merchants Anath and his wife Ilera; Eric and two other mercenaries under his leadership; Johann, Amish-bearded leader of 4 other farmers; and Torin, a squire who was more concerned with returning to the naiads of the Brokenbrand Falls than returning to town. The party equipped the mercenaries with looted equipment and gave the safety of the other prisoners over into their hands (and they all returned to town safely ...).

As for the 9 orcs, they were all either from a rival orc tribe (the Yellow Hands, as opposed to the Black Tooths), or seen as "traitors" who had backed another would-be chief who had been defeated. The Chaotic part of the party convinced Lead (who is Chaotic Good, and so opposed to slavery) that they would take the orcs back to town to take part in a halfway house work program, but actually just meant to sell them into slavery.

It was getting late (for the players, not the characters), so we decided to end the session, and the characters made their way back to town without being molested (my wandering monster rolls cooperated not). Unga Dunga distracted Lead with drink while the orc prisoners were sold as slaves (orcs make poor slaves, but they still made 5 gp per orc, i.e. 45 gp). All the wine and other loot was sold. Some carousing followed, but the only "mishap" was that Baby Face the thief had a religious experience and now professes himself as Evil as well as Chaotic (altogether not unsurprising given his earlier actions, and yet honestly rolled).

We shall see what the addition of Evil brings to this campaign.

On a note of local color, a new inn is under construction in the local town (Brakeridge is the town). It's base drinking room will be ready by the next session (whenever I manage to get that organized), and then drink will readily flow thereafter, I should hope. Until then ...

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 2

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults;
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads.


This time around we had three players and three NPC hirelings/pets:

Foz (free goblin 1, a fragile creature with 1 hp)
"Hap" Hama (NPC, Foz's hireling, a normal woman, plate armor, 1 hp)
Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1, also with 1 hp)
Bear (NPC mastiff, armored, a 2HD monster with 11 hp)
and, showing up just as the party reached the dungeon entrances,
Athelstan (hardy yeoman 2) with his hireling,
Johanna (NPC normal woman, plate armor, 1 hp)


The group included two "old hand" players who've played in my games over the years, and so questions about mercenaries for hire and war dogs to buy were asked in town while buying equipment; the potential dogs this week included an orc mastiff, bred and trained to fight orcs, but at 75 gp it was too expensive, and the party opted instead for the normal mastiff (still a good buy for first level characters!). They also hired Hama in town because she was already equipped with plate armor (though leery at the prospect of accompanying a goblin and a half-orc, she accepted their offered rate of 7 gp per week, a little above what she would have personally asked for).

Foz and Tore didn't debate long on which of the three entrances to go for--the Glimmervaults populated with orcs seemed the "safest" for low hp first level characters, so to the Glimmervaults they went (also, rumors of glimmering "stars" on the cave ceilings, be they magic stars or possibly diamonds ... that, and Foz's player vaguely remembered the Glimmervaults from when I ran it years ago, before this restocking/redrawing).

Nothing molested them on their way out to the mountain, and when they arrived at the dungeon, they found two possible entrances into the hillside beneath which lay the vaults; to the east, a cave entrance, clearly trafficked, with several spears and poles outside bearing human, elf, and orc heads; and to the west about 200 feet a grotto of rock sank into the hillside with a quieter cave entrance piercing the slope.

It was at the point of approaching the western entrance in the grotto that Athelstan appeared, Johanna following behind him. Happy for the extra hp, the party put Athelstan in front (coming from sturdy peasant stock, he has 11 hp at level 2).

Heading into the cave entrance at the bottom of the grotto, the party entered into and explored a series of large irregular caverns, thick with stalactites and stalagmites. In the second chamber, they smelled a musty wet-dog smell, but saw no life; in the third they found two sets of steps carved into the stone, one heading down and to the south, the other up and to the east, probably to the upper caverns nearer the "front door" with the spiked heads.

At the back of the cavern, however, the party saw a formation of flowstone that caught their attention, and upon searching it, Foz found a secret door hidden within (being a goblin, he can discover secret doors like an Elf, on a 1 or 2 on a d6). This door opened into a long pillared hall with a corridor leading from both the east and west walls; the end of the hall opened into a room with a statue of a woman pouring water over a carved figure in funerary wrappings (and a door on the south wall, which they ignored). A search of the statue found a basin of scummy water with something green, slimy, and caustic in the pool, but nothing more.

Thus flowstone--but with a door secreted somewhere within

Exploring first to the west, the party found a common burial room with stacks of bones and burial niches in the walls, a search through which discovered 3 silvered death masks. They also found an empty tomb. That was the end of that section, so they turned east.

The eastern corridor branched first to the north, which opened into a tomb with a great bronze sarcophagus, inscribed with the name GALAD, and depicting battles between knights and orcs. While inspecting this sarcophagus, I finally rolled wandering monsters, and 3 orcs came walking down the corridor, neither party being surprised. The characters pushed Tore to the front to speak orcish to his half-fellows, and he gave them a cursory greeting. They demanded to know, "What are you doing in the territory of the Blacktooth Tribe?" to which Tore responded with the signal to attack.

This fight was short and deadly for the orcs--in the first round, Bear tore into one orc with a vengeance, while Tore brained his fellow; then Tore proceeded to stove the last orc's forehead in with a critical hit with his mace the next round. The bodies were looted for a paltry 10 gp, then deposited down the corridor in the common bone room.

Back at the GALAD sarcophagus, the party opened it up and found a gold death mask on the man's remains. They looted that, then proceeded down the corridor and found another room off a southern branch of the main corridor. This room contained five statues of knights, their faces broken off, each labeled with a name: GALAD; ALDARES; ALDANUS; HORUS; HONORUS. And on the west wall, an iron plaque inscribed with a curse: "The tribe of Galad is destroyed root and branch ... this place is accursed." (there's more in the middle, but Foz didn't record it all)

Somewhat spooked by the promise of a curse, the party traipsed back to the chamber with the statue of the woman washing the body and opened the door to the south. It opened into a room with a scummy well in the center, and iron grille work along the north wall that contained a large amount of silver ewers, bowls, candlesticks, etc. Alas, the party did not check the ceiling, and while Foz was checking the grille for traps, a colony of green slime dropped onto him from above.

Beware the green slime on the ceiling!

At 1 hp, Foz was knocked unconscious (and next to dead) when Tore applied a torch to the slime and dealt damage to both it and hapless Foz, no matter that he tried to only affect the slime. With the goblin unconscious and dying at his feet, Tore began to strip the armor off the goblin, hoping to strip the slime off with it; luckily, the slime came off--unluckily, it came off on and attached to Tore's arm. Turning to Athelstan, Tore proffered his arm, and Athelstan tried to burn only the slime--and rolled a 1 on the d6 to successfully harm only the slime, killing it with a lucky roll of max damage with the torch.

With a fallen companion on their hands, the party decided to quickly force the doors of the grille, loot the silver, and let that be the end. But of course, on their way out, the wandering monster roll indicated an encounter. I rolled it up--6 giant cave crickets, insouciant and feasting on lichens and molds. The party skirted around the large insects, emerged back into daylight, and scurried their way home.

Back in town, everyone agreed to carouse after splitting the loot. Athelstan leveled up to third level with a high roll; Foz rolled within his funds and made his save; but poor Tore rolled beyond his means and was forced to borrow 139 gp from the thieves' guild to make ends meet. The last thing he asked me as we ended the session was whether he could do a dirty deed on behalf of the guild to make things "right" between them--well, I'll just have to come up with something for next time, and let him decide what it's worth to have his debt "forgotten"!