Prince of Darkness

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Prince of Darkness
GM: Jon
Season: Spring 797 WK

Party

• Kel, Elf leader and military scientist.
• Pent, Halfling scribe and fighter.
• Merthac, Halfling but easy to wind up.
• Dunlan, Human alchemist who makes bad tasting potions.
• Sasha, Human good looking noble.
• Tso, Human philosopher from The Five Sisters.
• Ty Trident, Human knight and healer.

Time on adventure

1 Thaw 797 to 27 tHAW 797 WK

Employer

Aldred, Count of Karrack

Mission

Duke Branden has given the fiefdom of Ereworn to the Evil necromancer Saydar (Guild Member). The Earls of Cornumbria and Karrack (Aldred) have sent messages to King Durindar at Glissom. Alas he seems to be returning the messages unopened and has become a recluse in his own castle, only being seen by his Steward Kilnded. Our mission is to deliver the Count's message to King Durindar. We are to join the Kings guard temporarily over the time of their festival, as outsiders are hired so the regular guard can join in the celebrations.

Pay

120 gold sovereigns between the party.

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsp9705.zip

Scribe Notes

1st Thaw 797 WK

Kel spent today checking the guild library for references to the area we are travelling to. She found information on Glissom, King Durindar, The Mountains of Brack, The Prince of Darkness, Prince Fengil, Eltrandor

We then spent 1000 sp. on party equipment.

2nd Thaw 797 WK

Left the guild with horses and portaled to Brandenburg. Rode north to a town and stayed the night. Stayed in the local Inn. (15 sp. 1 cf.)

3rd Thaw 797 WK

Rode north through the forest passing wagons laden with food and wool until we reached a village called Pillaton. Stayed in another Inn. (8 sp.)

4th Thaw 797 WK

Rode for half a day to village of Ingham. Yet another Inn. (6 sp.)

5th Thaw 797 WK

Rode through farmland to Axebridge. The Inns are getting cheaper. (5 sp.)

6th Thaw 797 WK

Rode north towards Ashmore. We spotted and avoided a hungry bear. Later on the trail some hobgoblins, including an air mage, attempted to ambush us but we killed a whole lot of them and interrogated one. They were just pretending to be bandits. We recovered some coppers (147 cf.) to offset our expenses and continued on to town.

Ashmore does not have an Inn as it burnt down last year.

7th Thaw 797 WK

Rode through the forest to the river then across the ford and into a village. Stayed in an Inn owed by the widow Morde. (48 cf.) Inquired of the road ahead.

8th Thaw 797 WK

Rode through the next village then on to Glissom. Crossed with the ferry (8 cf.) run by Ned whose brother Hyden owns "The Silver Griffin", a reputable Inn. We negotiated for lodgings until the 14th (30 sp. 80 cf.) and went to the commons for dinner. (5sp.) Kel went upstairs to her room to rest.

Met Doron, local prince and heir to throne, who bought us drinks and wanted to hear adventuring stories. Doron told us of a suspicious package delivered to the castle a few days ago by an Azurian ship.

He also told us of his wandering in the Siren forest, which is inhabited by fey (fairies, nymphs, pixies), searching for the Ruins of Mimir. Generally you are safe from the fey if you don't stray from the path. In the north of the forest is a small village that used to deal extensively (many years ago) with the city of Nem (Now frozen in the lake). He then got drunk, went and picked a fight with a big peasant and had to be rescued by the guard.

9th Thaw 797 WK

Held morning conference on next step then went to see the steward Kilnded with regard to being the guards over the festival. He agreed to hire us for 50 sp. each for the one night (the 14th, also a full moon). Afterwards we found out that he is a Necromancer allied to The Prince of Darkness. We looked around the castle, so we could better protect it, and saw King Durindar on his throne. He wasn't moving and didn't look well, also he hadn't touched his food and seemed to have a lot of makeup in his room.

We went back and talked to Doron who said he personally wasn't very popular around town, especially with the local council. He also told us of a couple of notable personages around town.

• Hadron
• Lord Rockwall
• Chang

Also Doron told us of The White Tower in the Siren forest which apparently contains a powerful weapon (sword he thinks) We decided to try and get a closer look at the King tomorrow, as we were worried about him.

10th Thaw 797 WK

We had another look around the castle grounds, looking for good spots to do our guarding from, and noticed that Kilnded had quite a lot of personal guards. He had six normal guards and two Guntan barbarians. Phon carried a great axe and a battle-axe, and Mut wielded a two handed sword and a crossbow. Duncan hunted and captured a pigeon then Sir Ty slipped in to have a look at King Durindar. King Durindar was not alive but instead had been turned into a zombie (Sir Ty has seen this before), all the food was rotten and the makeup was clearly there to make him seem alive for his annual address to the people.

This disturbed us and we felt that Kilnded (a necromancer remember) had turned King Durindar into a zombie to rule the kingdom. So we went to the prince (who should actually be the king now) and told him what we'd found. We then discussed the best way to reveal Kilnded for who he was.

11th Thaw 797 WK

We watched Kilnded carefully most of the day and observed that he seemed quite paranoid. At night he slept to midnight when he climbed up on his roof and performed some sort of strange ritual for two hours. Now we're really worried.

12th Thaw 797 WK

Kel decided we should go with prince Doron and investigate Lord Rockwall and Hadron, both council members, to see if they were in league with Kilnded. We went to Lord Rockwall's (a large manor house for lunch. Apparently Lord Rockwall had come to Glissom 12 years ago and Kilnded had been installed as steward only 10 years ago. Also Hadron (the Healer) had only been living with Lord Rockwall only the last few years. Having previously lived with Sordin. Hadron was very old, a human around 150 years old or more, and a little hard of hearing. Hadron is apparently a Seer, Alchemist and Healer (who can resurrect).

Sasha had little tour of the manor house and it seemed pretty normal. Discussions over lunch dealt with the Ruins of Mimir (also known as the City of Knowledge) that was in the forest. Also Hadron wanted to do a "Reading" on some one and would require a little blood for this. Kel went off with Hadron.

After lunch we chatted with Lord Rockwall who alluded to a mysterious adventuring past, he also showed us his axe collection and his magic chain armour of shattering. Sir Ty inquired about invested items that Lord Rockwall said he could make as well as some sort of experimental powder and potions. Generally seemed quite expensive though.

Meanwhile Hadron, in his seer capacity, was seeing all sorts of horrible visions with Kel. Merely by touching her arm he saw a vision of a huge head with big mandibles clipping off the top of someone's head and eating their brains (he says seers are MORE reliable than astrology). Hearing of this Kel decided this blood "seeing" might be a good idea. The results of this were more disturbing :

"There were three dark forces and one gray at work. We had to travel into the mountains to stop them, If we didn't darkness would befall and devastate the land."

She came back and Dunlan also had a reading (Hadron could only do two per day) and he got this :

"A very powerful Dark Force would be released if we do not stop it. There is one who plots you ill and a servant of the dark one who seeks to betray all."

After discussion we pretty much decided that the servant was Kilnded and we should do something about him. We went back to the Inn and Dunlan did an Astrology reading early in the evening, asking the question "When will the powerful dark force return to the land." and he found out the following :

"On the darkest night when the moon no longer shines, the prince of darkness will arise."

Sir Ty says the next new moon is two weeks after the festival, so we have two weeks and two days to do something.

Another further reading indicated that it mattered not whether Kilnded was present at this time or not. We decided we needed to check our Kilnded more thoroughly and perhaps have a chat to him. We went to the prince's house then popped over to see Kilnded. He didn't want to come with us so we had to subdue him and his bodyguard Mut. He had some suspicious stuff one him :

• Dagger of Death - no sheath
• Skull Ring - Rank 10 Necrosis.
• Amulet made from alligator's teeth. (Amulet of Luck)

Also Mut had the following :

• Potion of night vision.

This caused an uproar in the castle and they sent the captain of the guard to ask us to look for Kilnded. He also said he had sent for Lord Rockwall to come to investigate the incident. We searched Kilnded's room for clues as to his disappearance (and for evidence of his complicity with the dark forces) and found:

• A copper rod with a gray blob on the end. Gold detection!
• A pouch of gold coins. (150 gs.)
• Phial of Lithon potion.
• Potion of night vision.
• Potion of strength.
• Keys. (To the royal treasury!)

We then left the castle and went back to our Inn to wait for Lord Rockwall. After investigation we found that Kilnded had had a number of magic's upon him recently.

• Detect Undead.
• Ventriloquism - a necromancy spell cast 10 weeks ago.
• Strength of Stone.
• Mind Speech.

We left a note at the north gate for Lord Rockwall telling him to meet us at the prince's house. He came (at around three in the morning) and there was a lady called Dawn (actually a Mind mage) with him. We told him everything we had found out and they went up to the castle to have a look. They returned and Lord Rockwall said that he would call together the council and convince them to go and look at King Durindar, as he was a zombie. They also said that they were worried about The Fire of Balor, otherwise known as the Sacred Hearth Fire, as it is said that Glissom cannot fall will it still burns in the Kings tower. I kept watch as Dunlan did another astrology reading and everyone else slept. Dunlan asked :"Will Dawn betray us on our quest." and he found out the following :

"Moon, Reversed temperance, Death, Reversed chariot, Reversed king of pentangles, Two of cups, Queen of swords, Ten of swords."

He had no idea what this meant.

13th Thaw 797 WK

With Dawn assisting we interrogated Kilnded and found out all about his evil plot. He has made a deal with Prince Fengil to assist him in releasing Balor. On the evening of the Festival the legendary Hawks of Balor will swoop down upon the Kings tower and take the kings body and the Sacred Hearth Fire to Prince Fengil. Prince Fengil would then use the fire to melt the magical ice that is imprisoning Balor that Crocell created. Prince Fengil is currently occupying the temple of Balor on the northern side of Lake Nimmur that covers the frozen city of Nem. Kilnded's job is to cast a spell to put out all the fires to allow the Hawks of Balor to approach unseen. Since he liked Dawn so much Kilnded offered to marry her and make her his queen thus keeping her safe when Balor returned. Kilnded found an ancient invocation that allowed him to summon Balor to pact with him. As a result of this pact he learnt the following spells :

• Call Master - Normal. This is bad enough.
• Darkness
• Darkvision
• Eclipse the moon - Creates a localised Solar Eclipse. This also makes a large area of fear.
• Extinguish Light - Turns off all lights in a large area.
• Javelin of Darkness - Creates a magical Javelin. This will blind the target if they fail a MR.
• Shadow Fall - Creates twilight for a 1-mile radius.
• Shadow Form
• Shadowed Self - Turns into a shadow and travels like that. Reduces the caster's life force.
• Summon and Control Dark creatures
• Travel Home - ?
• Ventriloquism
• Wall of Darkness

He also told us that he used Chang to "Take care of people." for him. He can't summon Prince Fengil but can send him a message via his loyal follower Baz. Prince Fengil is a greater undead (Wight) and is a celestial dark mage. He is at least a hundred years old. When questioned on the number of Hawks of Balor, Kilnded said there were a score or so of them. We sent the captain of the guard to arrest Baz. for complicity in Kilnded's treachery but he had escaped and ridden north - towards where Prince Fengil is.

Members of the council entered the Kings chambers and found him dead (undead). Upon returning they pronounced that Doron would be crowned shortly after the festival. Meanwhile we discussed defending the Kings tower from the Hawks of Balor. The council refused to let us move the Sacred Hearth Fire so we discussed walling up the top entrance, to the tower which would force the Hawks to approach through the balcony to the Kings chambers, where we could ambush them. We looked at the Sacred Hearth Fire and it rests on a magical 3 foot round copper pan and seems to be magical fire.

14th (Day of the Glissom Festival) Thaw 797 WK

In the morning Hadron came into town to look at the Kings body. He said the King had been dead for around two years. He also knew something of the legends of the Hawks of Balor. Since we were defending the kingdom we looked over the royal treasury with Doron in search of useful magic stuff. We found :

1. Null Plate, -3 Ranks off any spell that impacts the wearer.
2. Sever Blade, Magical Hand and half with 10% SC of Grievous and 30% SC of Endurance blows.
3. Rod of Red Ruin, 5 Charges of ranged damage.
4. Scroll, Rank 5 Spell.
5. Potion of Strength, Adds a few point to your strength for a little while.
6. Two Handed Sword, Magic and +1 DM.
7. Scale Armour, Magic and +1 AP.
8. Potion of Flogiston, Summon and Control Fire Elemental. Same as Lord Rockwall's Lithon Potion.
9. Ankh of Osyris, Melds into Breastbone then gives an instant resurrection if you die then is used up. Can be removed by a rank 10 Healer.
10. Crown of Truth, 75% chance of seeing through illusions. If the wearer touches an illusion it is destroyed.
11. Hard Leather, Magical 8 AP hard leather with -0 AG modifier due to Rank 10 Armour-smithing. Size 6.

Also there was : • 25,000 silver pennies • 8,000 gold shillings • 9,450 silver pennies in jewellery Lord Rockwall lent Dunlan his "Volcanic Axe" which flames and does +5 DM. In preparing for the attack from the Hawks of Balor Lord Rockwall walled up the top entrance to the Kings tower. We also put a scarecrow with the Kings clothes on the throne and prepared to guard the King chambers. I stood watch on the Balcony and shortly after nightfall seven Hawks of Balor attacked. They seemed to be golem like and we destroyed (they puffed into lots a little shadows) six of them but one got away. Nothing further happened that night and we were paid our money (350 sp.) in the morning.

15th Thaw 797 WK

We rested and recovered from our fight. Hadron did another reading on Kel and it wasn't nearly as bad this time. There were only two dark forces now and they definitely had suffered a setback.

Also we examined the copper plate that the scared hearth flame sits on and found the copper disk was magical and created by Aim and is demonically resistant to fire. Actually if you could fashion a trap from the copper disk it is strong enough to hold Aim himself.

The council offered us either 10,000 sp. or one of the magic items from the treasury (Not the Crown, Sever Blade or the Null Plate) to go north and sort out Prince Fengil. We choose the magic hard leather.

16th Thaw 797 WK

We left and rode north all day to a small village. As we were heroes a local family put us up. Heard about Sara, a local wise woman who knows about herbs and curing boils.

17th Thaw 797 WK

Next morning we rode north to the village Silver that is across the Felice river from the Siren forest. Next morning we will have to take the ferry then follow the path into the forest.

We stayed in The Silver Stag Inn. (15 sp.)

We chatted to a local in the commons about the forest. He said it was full of Elves who hassle travellers. They don't attack them but tend to do things like shoot their hats off with arrows, and try to tempt people to chase them off the path. The White Tower is a short way in the forest on a side path. Also he had heard of golden apples that if you eat one a day you will live forever. Also apparently there was an ancient king of the elves buried in the woods somewhere.

North of the Siren forest there is a Dragon in the mountains as well as the Frost giants etc.

18th Thaw 797 WK

Next morning we crossed the ferry (1sp), and saw a path off into Siren forest after a logged area. A short way along the path we saw The White Tower with a side path leading to it.

The tower had an open archway and an internal stairway. As you climb the stairs the tower and all in it shrink (unnoticeably) until you reach the top room. If you step into the top room the tower expands back to full height and any entities in the tower remain one twelfth in height (Major curse MA 20). We were being watched by at least two elves that didn't want to talk to us.

Sasha lassoed the chest that was in the top room and we hauled it down. Inside the chest was a nice two-handed sword. We discovered this was silvered, magic and named "The Last Word". Any person wielding the sword will act last in the pulse (after magic) even if quickened but you will ALWAYS hit.

As we were leaving the elves in the forest threw darts at us attempting to knock off our hats and hit in the center of our shields. They only seemed to be taunting us.

We travelled further down the path and came across some nymphs frolicking in a pond. They threw us an apple each and said if we ate an apple a day we would not aging in any way (EVEN magical aging). However to reach the apple tree in the center of the pond we would have to cross the pond and this would make us old (but the apples would protect us). Thus as long as we ate an apple a day we would be young but as soon as we stopped we would become very old.

We tried to get some more apples but the nymphs turned into Hags and chased us off.

Further down the path there was a barrow off to the side.

Tso went over and looked around it, we think this is where the elvish king was buried. Unfortunately he rose up and created a huge, thick (can't see your hand in front of your face) mist that smelt terrible. He then put down an Agony spell and some sort of fear thing.

We ran away and only got drained a little.

About half a dozen miles further down the track we saw the Village of Mimir with a black Knight just this side of it. Sir Ty challenged him to single combat and asked his name. He said he was Baz so we subdued him.

It turned out that he had arrived at the village a couple of days before and was torturing the villagers to find out where the passage through the mountains started. We stayed the night and were put up for free.

19th Thaw 797 WK

After we woke up we found we were much less agile and dexterous and much more intelligent and wilful. Investigation revealed that this was caused by the water in the well in the center of the village and this was magic. We found out that the effect was temporary and only lasted one day. We waited one day for it to wear off (except Kel who went back and drank the water the next day).

While we were waiting for the effect to subside we talked to the locals about the Ruins of Mimir and they told us about the sage from Eltrandor who came here fifty years ago with the Centurion Drajan. Apparently he went missing in the temple to Mimir (in the Ruins of Mimir). All that was found by the Centurion Drajan was some bloody parchment.

Tso and Sasha decrypted this and came up with the following.

We decided to go and investigate tomorrow (strangely Kel did not object).

20th Thaw 797 WK

Today we went to temple of Mimir in the Ruins of Mimir in the middle of the Siren forest. The temple was an open square with ruins and edifices all around. In the middle of the temple was a seventy-five foot round pit that was fifty feet deep. There was a spiral staircase around the outside and a huge (eighty foot tall) stone pillar (actually a worn statue) in its center.

Down we went and knelt at the bottom and bid Mimir enter.

A stone block in the side of the pit slid aside and revealed a dark corridor sloping away from us. About fifty feet down there was an open iron gate into a room.

We went into the room and two figures wrapped in rags entered from side rooms. The one from the left was carrying a dish with white powder (Fog) in it. The one from the right had a dish with black powder (Poison) in it. Both carried short-swords and moved towards the altar in the center of the room. A brief fight ensued and we all got blinded by the fog and poisoned. Sir Ty, Tso and myself got one mummy and Kel (indirectly) got the other.

There was a secret door that opens behind the altar when you put white powder in the left depression on the altar and black powder in the right. On the other side was a skeleton of a man with the top of his skull snipped off (remember Hadron's reading with Kel about the big insect that eats people's brains).

Kel to Tso : What if triggering that trap summons a demon and it kills us all. Then you'll be embarrassed.

The skeleton was lying on top of a pressure plate that closes the secret door once you step off it. It had two scroll cases :

• One had instructions on opening the secret door from the last room.
• The other had the solution to the riddle at the bottom of the pit (see above).

We assumed that through the next door was a big bug demon which was forty feet long and eight feet high with nasty claws and huge mandibles.

Unfortunately we were right. It was named Necrophobius.

Fortunately we had set a trap for big bug things.

Unfortunately it got out of our trap by turning into a shadow then back again outside.

Fortunately we had a plan for this and hid in our own trap whilst shooting at it.

Unfortunately it had very thick skin and we could barely hurt it.

Fortunately Sir Ty got rid of it before it could eat too many of us.

The next room was twice as big as the one we were in. It had eight pillars that were carved to represent various intellectual pursuits. If you touched the columns a voice would speak and impart strange knowledge to you. You could only touch one column and they did different things.

Apparently there is something you have to do to activate them first ?

• Dance, +5% Defence as long as you are not evading.
• Music, Teaches an instrument. Can charm animals.
• Poetry, Can perfectly memorise any verse.
• Philosophy, Makes you more sceptical. +10% vs. Fright and Mind control.
• Navigator, A free navigator or ranger rank.
• Rhetoric, Bardic voice but cannot convince others to go into danger.
• Painting, Skilled at painting. You can locate off the likeness.
• Animal Training, A free rank in beast mastery.

At the other end of the room was a corridor exiting it that had a strange side corridor in it. The side corridor had two shallow grooves cut in the floor which were flowing with blood (Yuck). These ultimately ended in a face that was crying blood.

Sasha touched one and it spoke to here in an incomprehensible babble. We were all disappointed. We left that room and headed down the corridor towards the grooves of blood. We thought they were magical and Kel thought they proberly were poisoned as well. Sir Ty looked down the holes they ran into and started to feel as if he was choking. We pulled him back. It appeared that looking at or down the holes subjected you to some form of Mental Attack ! Kel covered the grooves and holes and we continued past the blood corridor to a door.

Through the door was a demon face on the wall which briefly tried to make the front people go mad then it faded away (spooky) and there was nothing in the room.

So we went back down the blood and grooved side corridor towards the bleeding face. There was a magic area down there with a beautiful girl standing in a side alcove (don't believe it for a second - remember the hags). Dunlan was very brave and discovered the magic is a mild form of mental control that made you a little drowsy and believe everything around you is benevolent.

We went back for a closer look and got attacked by two succubi that TK raged and Phantasmed us then stabbed Sasha and myself with poisoned daggers. Sasha died, Kel was badly hurt and I was poisoned and had to be saved by Sir Ty. At the end of the fight they ran away and we retreated to the surface to recover. While down there we saw a strange vase in a side room that we think one or more of the succubi live in (they seem to be able to walk through walls and are as fast as me). We bought Sasha back to life with one of those fantastic potions Hadron gave us.

We went back to the village to rest and recover.

That night the succubi talked to Kel's mind and told her that Shader had summoned them. along with the Necrophobius but due to our efforts they were released now. They got Kel to draw a map of the underground area and said they wouldn't bother us if we wouldn't bother them. One of them said her name was Bodorward.

21st Thaw 797 WK

Next morning we met a score of elves lead by Lirasal and Misopha (who was wearing a crown made of silver) who wanted their sword back (The Last Word). The one we had picked up from The White Tower. We apologised and gave it back. They agreed to guide us through the forest to the tunnel to the lake.

They told us we would need to enter the temple make our way through the maze then enter the totem of darkness. The warned us to not enter the room with Balor's head.

They told us that Prince Fengil is a greater undead skilled in dark celestial magic with hundreds of years of training. He has a handful of human priest/assassins working with him. They also said that the temple of knowledge was something of a local joke (we didn't get it) and was used by the demon Shader to obtain sacrifices. There was knowledge to be gained there but it all came with a twist or payment.

They said the undead in the barrow beside the forest path was King Quicksilver who died of disease and wanted to die in single combat so was rather unhappy.

They didn't regard our Balor quest important (and wouldn't help) and said as long as the sacred hearth fire burned and the local king could use it to defend themselves Balor would not rise. We told them that the king was dead without a direct heir and the next in line (prince Doron) didn't know how to use the flame. This worried them a little and they said they might go and teach Doron how to use the flame.

22nd Thaw 797 WK

We went back to the underground temple and went through it to where we met the succubi (who had left). We then went and examined the side room with a vase (lidded) in it. There was also another ceramic vase with its lid off beside it.

It turns out that both of these are spirit traps that can trap insubstantial creatures (once). The closed one had a wraith in it and also rattled - something else inside. We took the open vase (possibly for Prince Fengil).

The next odd room (will they ever stop?) had seven skeletons and nine chests on the roof and a deep pit in the floor. If you walked into the room you "fell" upwards towards the ceiling. In the chests were three rings of walking on air with 23 charges between them.

Further along was an altar room with a seven-pound bronze cursed helmet and a copper box in it. If you put the helmet on you cannot take if off, until someone removes the curse, and you might be able to understand all spoken tongues (or you might understand none and be unable to speak) - 18 MA curse. The copper box had a strange folding card in it :