The Enchanter's Box
Summary
Adventure: The Enchanter's Box
GM: Reid
Season: Spring 791 WK
- Party
- Gustav, Human warrior, big guy tanked up in plate mail. Obvious choice for party leader.
- Silverstone, Human, amateur mind-mage. Quiet type.
- Caskette, Short, round human. He's another mind-mage, and eats a lot faster than he moves.
- Kelovar, Handsome elven shadow mage, but I won't hold that against him - seems lots more sensible than Whisper.
- Dramus, Skinny elf in black robes, likes playing with skulls - so he has to be a necromancer but I gather he isn't a vampire like Dilvish. Can't see his face.
- Quasar, Another celestial mage, but a star mage, and human. He likes to live inside dark blobs.
- Adam. Huge white-haired fire giant. My kind of person, except that he's a stick-in-the-mud (earth mage).
- Flamis, Me. I burn things. I'm a fire mage, you see, and I've got blonde hair, and people say I'm cute - but only when they don't think I'm listening. I might burn them... And I can fly real good!
- Time on adventure
- 1/1/91 to 10/1/91
- Employer
- Herkum
- Mission
- Deliver a box of cash to Kenrik at the Inn of the Laughing Gnome
- Original Scribe Notes
- Media: Snsp9101.zip
Scribe Notes
December 31st 1990 They didn't tell us what this adventure would be about. Only that it wouldn't be too difficult. That got me curious, so I went along to find out what was going on. The party introduced themselves to eachother. Gustave got elected party leader, and I said I'd be scribe (Basalic keeps telling me to keep a diary, anyhow). Then, in came Herkum, the head of the guild council. A very important person. Anyhow, he told that he had this simple delivery type mission for us. All we had to do was to get these 50,000 silver pieces (in SILVER - heavy) to this person called Kenrik at the Inn of the Laughing Gnome in a place called Dunkirk, about 200 miles north-east of here. He would give us a wooden box, which we would bring back to the guild. Without opening it. Dangerous. Herkum told us that this Kenrik person would only be there for only two days, but that wouldn't be a problem because he'd get the Lord of the Bats to give us shadow-wings so we could fly up there. Then he gave us two things. A map with a landing spot marked. Thirty miles from Dunkirk! That'll be a hike, but can't scare the natives... The other thing was a ring with curious geometric patterns on it, by which Kenrik would be able to identify us. The guild would provide anything else we might need, within reason. Herkum left, and we set to arguing about how to approach the problem. We figured it might be best to fly at night, so we wouldn't be seen, and decide to leave at 2am in the morning, over Caskette's vigorous objections. He don't like flying at night, 'cos he don't see too well in the dark, and he said he had "some preparations to make". I reckon he wants to party tonight. We booked the shadow wings, and then went to see the guild Earth mage to arrange for a "strength of stone" spell to be cast on the giant just before the shadow wings. So he can get to carry all that silver. Caskette had snagged the ring, but after I whispered to Gustave about my necklace, he made him give it to me. So I've got the ring, tucked into my magic purse. Then I went to the fire college, and used the big bonfire there to do a protection against magical fire spell. Which worked first time. I think I'm getting better at this sort of thing. It'll last a week, so we might be back by the time it wears off. Then I got some sleep, before seeing the New Year in, at the big party in the common room. By half past one everyone was gathered together. Quasar had been star-gazing, and had an astrology reading for us. Didn't make any sense, but then, they never do. It read: "The Kraken dies in the desert sun. Pandelon takes home his prey. The winged unicorn has his fun, And goes on his snowy way." We were all ready to go, except we couldn't find the necromancer, until Kelovar remembered that he had tripped over a body on the way in. Apparently Dramus had been skulling, really got into the spirit of things, and was now dead drunk. Of course, the Lord of the Bats refused to cast wings on him in that condition, and when I offered to do a fire-flight on the drunken elf, Gustave didn't think that was a good idea either. He'd probably end up flying into a tree at a hundred and twenty miles an hour, and find out what being a corpse really feels like. So Gustave had to get a "strength of stone" too, so the giant could carry the elf, and we'd just have to split the silver among the rest of us. I suggested that Dramus might be a bit more sober after three hours at a thousand feet up, and that we could stop, and I could cast a fire-flight on him then. But it wasn't enough. After some calculation we realised that we couldn't carry the elf and the silver. I was going to have to stay put, and fire-flight us up there tomorrow. Gustave quickly copied the map for me, and the others prepared to leave. Then we realised that Caskette wasn't in the room, so that was that. I'd have to find the lazy lump, and either get him off the ground right away, or fly him up tomorrow. Oh, joy. My head aches already at the thought of all that spell-casting. 1 January 1991 Predictably, Caskette decided to stay put, and to use fire-flight in the morning (my infravision doesn't work through the fire-corona, and if I can't see, I can't fly). I woke at six-thirty, had a hot meal, and purified. Then I went to the library, and made a map of the route north-east, taking note of suitable landing-places. One thing, the fire-corona should keep us warm. Imagine flying at a thousand feet on shadow-wings, in the dead of winter. Brrr... I found the necromancer eating breakfast, and told him to go to the fire-college, and wait for me by the big fire. Caskette was still asleep, and insisted on feeding his face before we left. I took the opportunity to pack a few things I'd left out last night, since we weren't carrying any of that confounded silver, such as my tarp. Good thing as it turned out. It was ten o'clock before we took off. Caskette didn't look even slightly stung by the fire-flight going on. I must be getting better. The two of them played loop-the-loop, while I cast it on myself. I think I've made a pair of converts there! We shot up to a thousand feet and headed north. Forty minutes later, and Dramus managed to crash-land which is pretty hard with fire-flight, which sort of lands you on your feet, but apparently he'd managed to break both his legs last time he flew with shadow-wings. Is he accident-prone, or what? After a hot meal, and a fire, I felt ready to cast again, but missed a couple of times, and knew I'd have to rest soon. Sure enough, I fell asleep as soon as we landed. I woke some hours later, to find Caskette had put up my tarp over me, and that he had built a fire ready to prepare some dinner. But it was nearly sunset, and when I pointed out that there was just enough daylight left to fly to our destination, they agreed that we'd better take off again. So we did. Twenty minutes later, we were flew over a road heading north-north-east, with the forest on either side. Looking awfully like the one on the map, but too far north. Opps... We flew back, and landed at the cross-roads. It still wasn't the right place, but they ought to find us here. It was getting COLD!!!! We built a fire from what wood we could find, ate, and then tried to get some sleep, huddling together in our sleeping sacks and cloaks to prevent ourselves from freezing to death. I picked the only hot spot, right on top of the embers, 'cos I was still heat-proofed. At nine o'clock I heard shouting, and woke to find that the others had arrived, with another tarp, and blankets! Back to sleep, and woke next morning feeling much better. Dramus had found a novel use for one of his necromantic spells; warping a wet log inside out, so that it would burn. I like that. 2 January 1991 After breakfast the two elves took off at a fine pace to the next village to get some horses, while the rest of us trudged along at Caskette's best walking speed - dead slow. Caskette's got a cold too. The elves came back after an hour or so, riding two palfreys, and leading a third. It got the baggage, including the dratted silver, I got to lead it, Caskette got to ride, and things got much faster. A few miles past the second village, I heard Quasar yell my name. "Flamis, watch out!". I turned just in time to duck, as a disembodied skull whizzed through the air, straight over my head. It shot towards Silverstone, and took a chomp out of his neck. He did a runner, obviously badly scared, as the thing started back again. I tried to prepare a spell of dragon-flames, but before I could cast it, the skull was heading for me, and I had no choice but to evade, taking a swipe at it with my quarterstaff and missing. Brave Gustave drew his sword, and as I tried to get out of the path of the flying skull, so I'd have a chance to cast at it, he attacked it, but missed. Quasar flung up a column of starlight around it, but the skull flew up, and out, heading back for us. Kelovar called out, "It's a non-sentient undead!". I continued to back off, as it went for Gustave. He swung his sword, but missed, as the skull bit at his neck. Then he went berserk, chasing it into the forest, where it disappeared among the trees before I could cast again. Swear! And the skull-bites turned out to be infected. It was past dark when we got to where we were going. The village of Dunkirk was altogether too quiet, just a few lights shining here and there among the homes. Nobody was outside as we crossed the town square toward a lighted building, which we assumed to be the Inn of the Laughing Gnome. What's more, the big double doors at the front of the Inn were locked. Gustave knocked on the doors, and a man's voice called out "Who's there?". Gustave answered that we were a band of travellers looking for somewhere to stay the night. The man opened the doors to let us in, and then closed and barred them behind us. As he showed us to the stable, Gustave asked him if a person called Kenrick was staying here, but the gateman hadn't heard of him. After stabling the horses we entered the common room (all except Adam, who being a giant, was too big for the doorway), and Gustave made the necessary arrangements with Carlan, the innkeeper. Forty silvers for bed and board seemed a bit steep, but far cheaper than another night in the open in this weather. He explained that we'd have to sleep in a dormitory upstairs, since they're expecting a number of merchants for a mead festival. Their mead didn't taste half bad, either. There were only five people in the common room, a party of three chatting quietly, and a pair drinking noisily. I had already taken the ring from my purse and put it on my finger, and I knew that my job was to find out which, if any, of these people, might be Kenrick. I wandered over to the first group. They were locals, come to the Inn for dinner. Hadn't heard of Kenrick. Gave me a funny look when I asked them if anything strange had been going on hereabouts. One of the two drinkers was getting very drunk. He was a local, but the man he was sitting with was a traveler. When I asked him about Kenrick, I got the distinct impression that he knew who I was talking about. He wanted to know why I wanted to know, and I explained that we had some money for Kenrick, and had something to collect from him. He didn't seem impressed. I found out later that Kelovar had read the man's aura - he wasn't Kenrick, but knew of him. Before dinner we went outside, and gathered our gear, and at least some of the silver, and stowed it upstairs. Adam would stay in the stable overnight, while the rest of us did watches down there. We came down, to find our dinner being served. A tasty stew. And mead or ale. Silverstone got distinctly tiddly, and had to go outside. I don't think he's had beer before. Dramus and Casket got into an argument about feet and stones, and how tall they were. I tried to explain and even got my measuring string from my toolkit to show Dramus how long a foot is, but he wouldn't believe me, insisting that his overlong elven clodhoppers were each a foot long, instead of a good sixteen inches. That he said, made him about five feet tall. Shorter than me! Idiot! I gave up in the face of his stupidity and went upstairs, to sit in front of the fire, and do a flame sight ritual. I might just get to see into the future. As I looked into the flickering flames, I saw the party, searching and investigating, though for what and where I couldn't tell. Strange, the visions are usually much clearer. I went downstairs to tell Gustave. He told me how the innkeeper had asked about us, whether we were mercenaries, since we went about armed. They had told the innkeeper about the problem we had had on the road here by way of explanation, and asked after Kenrick. The innkeeper didn't know Kenrick, but said that he could have been on a carriage which had been involved in some kind of incident on the way here. The carriage was in the stable, and the driver, someone called Park, was staying somewhere in the village. I remembered two carriages out in the stable, and Gustave and I went out to investigate. I wanted a piece of carriage to burn in a flame sight ritual. We found Dramus outside chasing around the courtyard, apparently after an unseen Quasar. Idiots! Don't they know about not doing magic where the common people might catch you at it! We left them to sort things out, while we looked over the carriages. There wasn't much to see. One looked more recently used than the other, so I collected a fitting from that one, then the other. Both were unlocked, but empty. I took the piece of carriage upstairs and again performed the ritual. In the flames I saw a vision of people fighting, and looting. I couldn't make out the box in the confusion, but... I went straight down and spoke to Gustav, who was by now on watch in the stable. Then I went to bed, close by the fire. 3 January 1991 Woke at six and purified for two hours. The others were asleep when I finished except Quasar who came up from being on watch, but they weren't asleep for long. Quasar discovered that some kind person, (probably Dramus) had put horse dung inside the toes of his boots. He complained loudly, waking everybody, then tried a cleaning cantrip. Which cleaned the boots alright, but didn't get rid of the dung. Reasoning that the stuff would burn, I unlaced the boots, took them over to the fire, and tried pyrogenesis on the dung. It worked on one, but not on the other. And the smell! In the end, Gustave told him to wash them out, and leave them in front of the fire. Which he did. The rest of us went down to breakfast, and began to discuss the problem. Dramus tried healing Silverstone, then Caskette. Gustave had a serious talk to Quasar and Dramus, and I threatened to burn them if they didn't behave. They act just like my next older brothers. We figured that the bandits (or whatever) who done over Kenrick's coach must have opened the dratted box, and let out the nasty whatsit that we weren't supposed to be capable of doing anything about. Well, we're gonna have to now. Or else these villagers are in heap big trouble! The innkeeper came over, and asked Gustave to come with him. They went outside, and when they came back, Gustave told us that he'd been talking to one Tristan, head of the local militia. Gustave got us all together out in the courtyard (so the giant could join in), and told us that they had been thinking that we was the bandits. Indeed! Then he said that several of the villagers had been attacked by these "flaming heads" as they called them - and some of these attacks happened BEFORE the carriage was attacked. So much for that theory. When we went back inside the traveller was there - turned out that he was Kenrick's driver, William. He and his carriage had been hired by Kenrick at Midshire. He described Kenrick as a noble, fine-looking fellow, about thirty years of age; of fair complexion, with short, dark hair and a neat beard, well-built and well-dressed; carrying rapier and dagger. William offered to show us the place where the carriage, after about half an hour, giving us time to get organised. Silverstone had the bright idea of making a net to catch the skull-thing, so I went to the store, but they didn't have any net, so I bought some twine and a handful of lead weights. Gonna havta figure out how to turn this into a net. Can't be too hard... William led us to a spot not far from where we were attacked by the flying skull. On the way he explained what happened to him. How a skull had shot out of the woods towards the carriage as they travelled at dusk. He had called a warning, then halted the horses, and ran for it, hiding behind a tree, as several humanoid figures (it was too dark to see them clearly) ransacked the carriage. When he went back they had taken everything - even worthless things. And they made no noise that he could hear. We carefully looked around the site, but there wasn't much to find. Caskette found some marks where William had been hiding, behind a tree, but I couldn't see a thing. He must be a really good ranger. William pointed out where the bandits had gone into the forest, and then since there wasn't much more he could do to help, he went back to the village. Caskette and Gustave tried to find signs of the bandits' passing, but it wasn't easy. It had snowed since, and there was little to track them by, except the odd crushed bit of undergrowth. I amused myself collecting wood, figuring I'd need a fire sooner or later. It was more sooner than later when Caskette and Gustav gave up, saying they'd lost the trail. Adam tried talking to the trees, but they didn't know anything much. Kelovar tried to cast something, but the spell back-fired, giving him some kind of phobia, according to Dramus. So I started fire-building, after suggesting to Gustav that I scout ahead with a fire-flight. He didn't like the idea to start with, but after they all figured out that tree-climbing was likely to get someone killed, flying sounded a whole lot better. Not that I achieved much. I cast, then flew up, and then along the direction that Gustave and Caskette had been rangering. Nothing. Except trees and more trees for miles. A few farms to the west, the odd clearing, but mostly trees. I couldn't spot anything in any of the clearings either. So I gave up and flew back. Dramus had a suggestion. He proposed doing a ritual, which would summon and hopefully bind one of the skull-things. So maybe it might tell us something useful. But we'd have to sit inside this big star in circle thing he called a pentagram, for two hours. And it mightn't work, and then the thing would attack us. I figure I might as well as do a bit of ritualising of my own so I got Caskette to go get some of the undergrowthy stuff that he reckoned had been trod on. It took him half an hour, but he got me two bits. Dramus started doing his ritual, and I started on flame-sight. First bit. Vision of being squashed by many pairs of feet. Second bit. Vision of being squished by enormous splayed hoof. Very useful, I must say. Still, Casket seemed pleased. Means they really came this way. Oh well. Dramus finished his ritual. He stood up, and warned us that something might be coming, and that we'd better get ready. A minute and a half later a skull came shooting out of the trees, heading straight for us. Oops, I thought, he's not got that thing under control. Kelovar called out something unintelligible, as I stood in the fire and prepared to cast dragon-flames. It didn't stop. I cast. Blammo! I felt the spell double-effect. The skull flared like dragon's breath, then crumbled into ash. Dramus was furious. Seemed he did have it under control, after all. I think I goofed. Oh, well, at least I had the ashes to flame sight on, I thought, as we walked back to the village. The village healer woman turned up after dinner, and took each victim in turn to another room. She charged heaps, and she couldn't do anything for Kelovar. Whatever he got himself scared of, he's still scared of. Meanwhile, I asked William which coach was his. I had got the right one. So I went out to the stable, and gave it a good going over. Nothing much, a few threads and stuff, not enough to use for flame sight. I told Adam about the healer, and suggested she might know where to find some of those herbs he wanted. Turned out, she did. In her own garden. At least they weren't quite so expensive. Then, I went upstairs, and tried to flame sight the ash. Absolutely nothing. Both times. I figure the most significant thing that happened to this stuff recently was me burning it. Ever tried seeing flames against flames?
