Babes in Faerieland

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Babes in Faerieland

• aka: The Changeling

GM: GM: Jacqui Smith
Season: Summer 792 WK

Party

• Bleyze - played by Craig H (Party Leader)
• Aqualina - played by Keith (Scribe)
• Anyway - played by Kelsie (Mil Sci)
• Kishwa - played by Scott
• Thoron - played by Bill
• Caskette - played by Harry
• Ughbash - played by Adam
• Adam - played by Sean

Employer

Annadel and Wilheim Torrent

Mission

To recover a baby from the Spriggans and return their changeling

Plane

Tir-Na-Nog

Places Visited

Cottingley (small village in NE of Brastor)

Knockma Hill (location of portal - just outside Cottingley)

Falias - Faerie city in the forest Cruinen Darag - The Earth Tree

Morllyn Colle - Lake Eiddel Bethial Dwren - Castle in the lake

Esgad Monadh - Invisible mountain Lon Clanhiwl - Swamp area

Yyal Gaedd - Enchanted island in the swamp Llyn Tain - Lake of Fire

Luidd Abein - Blur Mountains - The home of the Spriggans

Forn Croddair - Spriggan Hive.

Murias - Faerie city by the lake

Major NPCs encountered

Jonnan Torrent - missing baby

Agata Whithie - wisewoman at Cottingley

Padrig - Brownie servant at Falias

Cystennin - Gorgeous Daenoe-Sidhe

King Finvarra - King of Falias

The Morrigan

Seamus O'Leary - Leprechaun guide and illusionist

Binnacle Jack - A dolphin at Morllyn Colle

Clioda Fairhair - Queen of the Lake

Daffyd - A herbalist in the swamp

Rhonwen - A water faerie

Havgen - Spriggan King

Wonald - Spriggan baby (changeling)

Lugh Lamfhada - King of Murias

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsu9201.zip

Scribe Notes

31/03/91 Today I was at the Guild meeting hoping for a rather lucrative adventure. So why did I pick this one? All they were offering was the best of their sheep and cows. I think it was because a baby had been stolen. That made me angry. Children and families are very important where I came from and for anyone to break up a family needs to be taught a very severe lesson. So I signed up. My fellow adventurers turned out to be: Ugh Bash. He's an orc. Surprisingly good looking for an orc but still an orc. He's got greenish skin, is well muscled and has pointed teeth. He said he tries to avoid fighting and he's a Dark Celestial mage. Caskette. A short (even shorter than I am), round human. Wears brown leathers. He's a Mind Mage and ranger. Thoron. He's a tall elf fighter dressed in olive. He rides horses, is stealthy, a ranger and spy. It's his first time out. Kishwa. Another fighter type - human this time. He's wearing leather with bits on it in brown and dark red colours. He's also slim with lots of muscles. He's a Beast Master (hope so - that's a rather vicious looking wolf with him), fighter and herbalist. Anyway. The other female in the party. She's slightly taller than I am (5'2"), has long red hair and is wearing dark brown leathers. She's also got a rosebud tattoo running down her face. She's a Lesser Summoner and prefer's to use knives. She asked whether any of us used sign language. Now that's an idea. Wonder if she'll teach me a bit? Adam. He's tall. He's very tall. He says he's short. He's a fire giant and he's carrying a very large, silvered, axe. He's an Earth Mage, a good fighter, and a beginner healer. Bleyse. This guy I've heard of (in fact everyone has) even though he's been away for some time. He's a Fire Mage with a reputation. He's the guy who gave the Fire College its bad name. He seems to be always finding new ways to blow himself up. Must remember not to stand too close. He's an tall elf (6'6") with scarlet hair and dressed in bright red. An obvious fire mage. He says he prefers not to fight and he's a vague healer. Aqualina. That's me. I'm short (5'1") and slim with dark skin and long black hair (slightly damp at the moment). I'm wearing a short, aquamarine skirt. I'm a Water Mage and can usually be found in that element. I'm also a navigator and am rather agile. The farmer couple introduced themselves as Annadel and Whilheim Torrent. They had had their first child, a beautiful boy named Jonnan. Just after his first birthday, on the night of the 16th of March, he disappeared. In his place was a hairy ugly child. They went to the wise woman of their village (Cottingley - somewhere near Brastor) who told them that the faeries had swapped their child for a faerie child - a changling. Their child was in Faerie and someone would have to go there to get him back. That's why they were here, to seek our help. They would provide transport, a horse and cart. Adam would walk alongside. He was a bit big for the cart. Bob, from Guild Security, was also present. Once the couple left us we had to settle on party leader and party scribe. I wanted the job of scribe. I needed the money. Unfortunately so did Anyway. Ugh Bash volunteered as well. Meanwhile Bleyse and Kishwa were competing for party leader. Bob stepped in before the arguments got too heated and handed out voting papers. We filled them in and handed them back. Anyway became scribe (oh, well - them's the breaks) and Bleyse as party leader. Bleyse had very good perception so he also became military leader. Bob brought out the Guild Contract and we all signed it. No extra clauses although Ugh Bash wanted to add one about wanting the couple's second child. I'd hate to imagine what for. Bob left to file it (or do whatever they do with it) while we made our preparations. I headed off to the library to read up on faeries. There was a lot of information there - most of it contradictory and not very helpful. Seems like that there are lots of Faerie lands. Anyway came in a little later on so we spent the next few hours reading. I decided to go for a wander around the shops for a bit before dinner time then looked into the Guild party for a couple of hours. Looked rather too crowded for my tastes so I went for an early night. 01/04/91 Up early for an agility workout and a five mile swim before breakfast. While crossing the courtyard I saw Bleyse, Anyway, and Kishwa staggering in. They looked rather the worse for wear. They must have been out all night. Got to breakfast and most of the others are there too. Thoron seemed rather happy this morning. He was banging the cups and making loud comments about the greasy food to Kishwa. Kishwa still looked a bit worse for wear. At nine we assembled in the courtyard. Some of the party have got horses but I decided to stay in the cart. Anyway decided to do the same and have her horse follow along behind. The weather was fine and I reckoned it'll stay like that for the next day as well, becoming cloudy on the third. Ugh Bash didn't believe me. The trip was fairly uneventful except for Bleyse throwing a couple of, small, light balls at Kishwa. I ducked, just in case. The farmer couple looked rather alarmed but Bleyse reassured them that there was no danger and started juggling some more of them. He dropped one. It landed on the ground and harmlessly vanished. I had a rather interesting conversation with Kishwa at one point. We were talking about dolphins and how easy they are to train. Kishwa reckoned they wouldn't be too much of a challenge. So I suggested orca. I think he liked the idea. The rest of the day went uneventfully. Accommodation had been arranged for us all the way to Brastor at farmer's houses. We reached the first one near nightfall. All of us were going to sleep in the barn but Anyway and I were offered the guest bedroom. We took it. The rest ended up in the hayloft except for Adam who stayed on the cart. Nothing happened during the night. 02/04/91 - 06/04/91 I was woken early in the morning by a rooster. Anyway was still asleep so I quietly wrote up this diary until she woke up. After breakfast we set off. Nothing much happened on the way to Brastor. I was right about the weather. It rained on the 5th. I asked Anyway about teaching me sign language and she agreed, saying she'd teach anyone who was interested. Adam took her up on the offer as well. .2. 07/04/91 Arrived Brastor late afternoon and stopped at the Laughing Ploughman Inn. We were about to have dinner when Caskette announced it was his birthday today. He's 23. The landlord went to tell his wife to make a special cake. Someone, I think it was Anyway, produced a copy of Alphonse's recipe book (He's a Seagate chef and hobbit. Most adventurers like to eat at Alphonses) and asked the landlord to cook us a special dinner consisting of Creme de menthe, French onion soup, roast sheep and Baked Alaska. He looked dubious but agreed. What he came back with was rather interesting. Bleyse reckoned we should celebrate Caskette's birthday in the proper adventurer's style and reckoned we should sample Brastor's nightlife. However we were feeling rather tired from our long journey so Kishwa brewed up a restorative. I wasn't sure about going out partying. Should I let the party go without me - leaving me alone in a strange place, or go with them and experience goodness knows what. (I've heard about some of the strange things that happen in towns). I decided to go. Bleyse led us to an area of Brastor with lots of red lights around. I was making sure I could find my way back if necessary. We ended up at a place called the Scarlet Bumpkin. There were two large guys guarding the door but they let us in. It was rather dim inside but we did see a large room with a stage in the middle surrounded by several tables. There was a bar to one side. There was a fire lit on the stage and dancing around it were several young girls wearing rather little. Looked like some sort of pagan ritual dance. We found a large table near the stage. Bleyse bought a rather large drink of elven spirits for Caskette. Meanwhile Kishwa found a bottle of 'some rather good stuff' - so he said. He offered me some. Vodka he called it. I took a cautious sip. Wasn't too bad. Kishwa gave me some more. He later told me I had six glasses full. The rest of the evening was a bit of a blur. I remembered Thoron asking for Bugman's brew but the bartender hadn't heard of it. The ladies on the stage were still dancing and also removing their clothing at the same time. The guys seemed rather interested. Bleyse bought Caskette a rather interesting drink consisting of several different coloured layers. Some rather odd pieces of clothing ended up on our table. Also one of the ladies seemed to be rather interested in Caskette. Thoron was having a conversation with another one. Not sure what happened next but Caskette was on stage dancing as well. Bleyse and the others were cheering him on and wanted me to join in. I don't remember much else but have a vague recollection of Ugh Bash helping me get back to the inn (for some strange reason I couldn't walk properly) and I was trying to tell him which direction it was in. Also, somehow, my hair was damp again. 08/04/91 I woke up rather later than usual with a headache and feeling rather lousy as well. Kishwa fixed the headache but I still felt rather unwell. I spent most of the day lying in the wagon, trying to ignore the movement. Later on it rained. It was a rather cold rain so I cast Protection from Cold on myself and just let the rain hit me. That felt much better. 09/04/91 Not much happened that day. We arrived at the farmhouse for the night. Anyway and I were set up in the spare bedroom while the others were out of the barn. This place was a cattle farm so we had beef for dinner (a change from the usual mutton). Bleyse instructed us in a couple of things we needed to remember. If he said 'Geronimo' we were to cover our eyes. That meant he was about to create a blinding flash of light. Also if we were talking to someone and one of us said 'And another point' then we were to attack the other person with whatever we had. It was getting close to dusk when Anyway said she wanted to go sheep riding and have races. Sheep riding? This I had to see. Not for me though. I have enough trouble riding anything with legs. Give me a dolphin any time. I just hope that we don't get into any trouble. We headed out to a place a few fields away and Anyway cast a spell. A short time later three sheep arrived. Caskette & Bleyse wanted to have a go as well. I just balanced myself on top of a fencepost and watched. It was first a case of catch your sheep. Anyway had no difficulty but Bleyse and Caskette had to chase theirs. Caskette managed to catch his but the one Bleyse was after got away. So he attempted to get Anyway off her one. He finally stunned her sheep (and blinded us for a short while - no one said Geronimo) by creating a flash of light. So both of them had a go at getting Caskette off the one he had. Anyway succeeded and did several fast laps of the field on the sheep. I remarked to Kishwa that I should introduce this lot to dolphin riding. That would be a lot easier. By now the farmer and his wife had arrived, attracted by the noise and the flash of light. They were rather bemused about where the sheep had come from. He said something to his wife about getting the bull and they could try riding that. It was getting dark by now and Anyway (still on the sheep) trotted up and dismounted. We left the sheep in the field and went back to the house. 10/04/91 We arrived in the village of Cottingley about lunch time. Kishwa was showing off his horsemanship skills. Meanwhile I was eying up the river and the millpond near the village. The water certainly looked inviting. We stopped at the inn and had lunch, then went to see Agata Whithie, the wisewoman. She showed us the changeling. It was an ugly, hairy, baby with sharp teeth. Anyway managed to determine that it was a spriggan from the plane of Tir-nan-og. The wise woman told us that it ate most foods but it didn't seem to matter if it wasn't fed. We were to take it back with us. Ugh Bash waved his iron dagger near it. It didn't like it. Faeries don't like iron. Fair enough - neither do mages. It stuffs up our spells. The portal to Faerie Land was in Knockma Hill and would open at midnight on the 15th at the new moon. Strange lights and sounds had been seen and heard on that hill from time to time over the last few centuries. Agata also told us that we should not eat meat that was killed in Faerie Land and that the faeries are to be respected but not to be trusted. However they are known to be fair in their dealings with mortals. We decided to stock up on lots of rations including meat for the wolf. We finally arrived at the Torrent farm and had roast lamb for dinner. 11/04/91 We went to examine the hill. We found that it is a smooth, rounded, hill and that there is a cave in it which goes in fairly deep. Agata said that the portal is close to the entrance. While looking around we found an old rusty sword and a belt buckle. Further searching revealed several other rusty metal objects. We come to the conclusion that the portal doesn't allow iron to pass through. Bleyse and Kishwa decided to ride back to Brastor to conduct further research. I decided to go to the river and spend the afternoon relaxing. I also cast Waterproofing on my clothes and other perishables - just in case. The only thing I found in the river was small fish.

15/04/91

All our preparations were complete. We had stocked up on provisions and Bleyse had obtained horses from the village for those of us (including me) who hadn't brought one. Now I had to figure out exactly what to do with it. Also Kishwa brought back some bronze daggers. I accepted one. Ugh Bash did an astrology reading after sundown. What he got was: Two Kings opposed Two babies exchanged Of seelie and unseelie folk Of mortal and immortal kind A quest glorious A land fair, yet perilous To a forest free To its tallest tree To castle deep And mountain steep To verdant mire And lake of fire To caverns old Come heros bold "Drink your reward" Says Faerie Lord Heed his will Or be unchanged still. Just before midnight we headed up to the hill. I was carrying the changeling (no one else wanted to). We waited just outside the cave, Just before midnight the whole cave started to glow, as if we were looking into a lighted room. We could see trees on the other side. Adam stepped through first. Nothing nasty happened to him so we followed. We found ourselves outside an identical looking hill. We quickly discovered that any iron we had had remained behind. Kishwa's crossbow was now useless. It was dusk (or was it dawn) and the stars were out. The star patterns looked like nothing I was familiar with. It looked like we were in a forest. There were quite a few different types of fruit trees about. The fruit hanging from them looked delicious. I couldn't sense any water nearby. .3. 16/04/91 (I think) I wanted to check out a banana tree (bananas in this forest???) but Bleyse wanted everyone to stay together. Just as we were doing so, Thoron noticed a large, brightly coloured, hairy spider on him. He knocked it off but it reappeared again. At that moment Anyway saw one crawling up her leg. It didn't take long before we all had spiders on us. I felt it was safer not to move in case it had a rather nasty bite. While we were attempting to deal with these spiders (they were all over the place by now) we heard someone giggling. Then the spiders disappeared. Must have been a faerie playing tricks. Someone identified the faerie as a pixie. We mounted up on the horses (I got some help from Kishwa) and headed north. After about thirty minutes we found a path running NE/SW. We continued NE and, after a short while, entered a clearing. There's a large oak tree here. It looked like a good place to stop and rest so we decided to do so. I could hear a stream nearby. Adam examined the oak tree looking for mistletoe. He didn't find any but someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was a lady dressed in leaves. She told us she's a sylvan and she lives in the oak tree. Like a dryad. She also offered to get Adam some mistletoe. He agreed and soon she's back with some. Anyway discovers that Sylvan was the dryad's Generic True Name. Meanwhile the sylvan told us that there is a city far away to the west where the faerie King lives. We should ask him what we should do with the spriggan. She doesn't like them - they're nasty (I'm beginning to agree with her. It nearly took my finger off again.) She doesn't know how far away the city is. Ugh Bash and Anyway took a dislike to the dryad. Anyway reckoned she's a dumb bint. Ugh Bash wanted to know what will happen if he hurts her tree. She said it would hurt her too. He decided to do it anyway and suddenly found himself held in the grip of a hand coming straight out of the ground. Anyway tried to threaten the dryad to let Ugh Bash down and found herself in a hand as well. Bleyse reckoned that we're going to have to camp here now as it will take a few hours for those hands to let go. Kishwa and I went to get some water. We found the stream nearby. It's got a large pool in it as well. The water was very clear and inviting. According to Kishwa it was rather sweet as well. Just then we spotted a tiny female on the other side of the pool. She swam over to join us. She wanted to know if we want to go for a swim in her pool. I was all for the idea but Kishwa wasn't. He said that this creature is a nymph and they can be very dangerous. He's encountered them before. If I went in there something bad might happen to me. I thought of going anyway but then I remembered the string puppet incident and decided, reluctantly, not to. The nymph was rather disappointed. When we got back Kishwa told Bleyse what we found. So he told me I was not to swim in any strange pools. He also told Kishwa and Thoron to make sure I didn't. We managed to get some rest. A few hours later the sky got lighter and the sun came up. The hands have released Anyway and Ugh Bash so Bleyse decided we should move on. The path continued NW. After about ten minutes, we found another clearing. In it was a rough circle of fifty or so toadstools. Each toadstool was red with white dots on top. A path went west. Kishwa described it as a faerie ring. We followed that path for a while. Nothing happened for a while until the horses at the front stopped. Anyway slipped off her horse and landed on the ground. When she got up she was covered on mud. Mud??? There wasn't any on the path. We soon determined that this section of the path was an illusion covering a large mud puddle. The pixie strikes again. Anyway used a clean cantrip to get rid of the mud then we cautiously went around the puddle and continued on our way. We encountered another faerie ring that afternoon. Ugh Bash created an area of darkness nearby and stepped into it. Then he was making strange noises from within. From what we can figure out it seemed like he was being bothered by a pixie. Meanwhile Adam stepped into the circle and started to shrink. He leapt out. He's still a head taller than Bleyse. We found out, via DA, that he'll revert back to his normal size when we get back to Alusia. Also his ears have become slightly pointed. Was he turning into an elf? Bleyse stepped in and nothing happened. Anyway sent her cat in. She started talking to it. We found we could understand what the cat was saying. The cat has also got slightly bigger. Bleyse picked up the cat and carried it out. We can still understand it. It became a faerie cat. Kishwa decided to step in and see just what would happen if he stayed there. He has become rather more handsome. Ugh Bash DAed him and reckoned that Kishwa has turned into a Daoine Sidhe. I think that is a type of faerie folk. Caskette also stepped in and he started to shrink as well. Now he is 4'7" tall. I considered stepping in there myself but decided not to take the risk. We continued west and found somewhere to camp. There is a stream nearby. I wanted to get in it but, after noting the way Thoron was holding his weapon and watching me, decided I better not. I didn't feel in a very good mood after that. Bleyse wanted me to make the fire. I told him I didn't really know how. He proceeded to teach me how to build a camp fire. I would have thought that was his speciality. That's usually mens work where I come from as well. A little later on Ugh Bash had to deal with a candy striped snake crawling up his leg. We decided to sleep in pools of darkness. Should keep most things out. 17/04/91 Once we had broken camp Anyway managed to persuade her cat to climb a nearby tree and tell us what it saw. More trees. Not a sign of anything that could be a city. Maybe the city is in the trees. While we contemplated what we were going to do next Anyway started playing her flute. Nice. After a short while it seemed that we could hear more, harmonious, music. Bleyse asked Anyway to stop playing. We could still hear music, coming from behind some bushes nearby. Caskette went to have a look. When he didn't return the rest of us went to have a look. What we saw looked rather interesting. There was a large collection of tiny, winged, faeries. They were dancing from flower to flower. Some were playing tiny flutes, harps, horns and other similar instruments. Others were carrying tiny spears and bows. As they danced from flower to flower, the flowers changed colour. We watched in fascination. But when it came time to leave, Ugh Bash, Anyway, Caskette and Adam refused. They looked entranced. Someone tried to distract them with sound but that didn't work. It had to be some sort of hypnotism associated with their dance. I tried to create a fog to cover them but the fog came behind me. Then I tried to create a wind to blow them away and mess up the dance. But that didn't work either. The wind blew away from me in the other direction. Cursed backfires! I shouldn't be casting when I'm not in the water. Then I felt a slight prick in my arm. One of the faeries must have shot at me. For some reason I felt rather scared and headed back for the camp. While I was catching my breath there was a flash of light from that area and soon the others arrived back. It turned out that Kishwa had realized what was happening, put a bag over his head, found Bleyse (who had got entranced as well), put a bag over his head so he recovered enough to let off a light flash, getting rid of the little faeries. Ugh Bash was looking rather strange. He was giving me some very lustful looks. I'm a good girl. I don't believe in taking advantage of that sort of thing. He ran at me, his intent obvious. I managed to duck behind a tree. When I finally got the nerve to come out Ugh Bash had been knocked unconscious by Anyway. Bleyse was working on him. He said Ugh Bash had been affected by some sort of love poison. He may be able to fix it. Half an hour later he managed to do so. Whew! Thank goodness! We continued on. Nothing happened all morning. Maybe that pixie had gone away. We stopped for lunch. After lunch we continued on. Just then Caskette and Anyway's horses (they're in the front) suddenly reared up. Caskette managed to hang on but Anyway fell off. It turned out that we have run into an invisible nettle patch and this section of the path is an illusion. Anyway had landed in the middle of it. Also Thoron's foot started itching, even though he wasn't near the nettles. That pixie must be back. Evening came without further incident. We camped. Thoron, Kishwa and I went to fetch the water. This time we found a pool with a spring. This pool had another small creature in it. It jumped on Kishwa's hand and he felt cold. It did the same thing to me even though I had a Cold Protection on. This didn't make sense. When we got back Bleyse had got the fire going. He was talking to something in the fire. If he went in the fire I was going to argue that I could go swimming. However he didn't. Instead he created a Wall of Fire and the small Beoteine (fire faerie) jumped into it. The Beoteine later told us that we were days away from the city of Falias. He advised us that we needed to see the Faerie King about the spriggan. He also told us that the King played a very good game of chess and has an eye for the ladies. Bleyse asked the Beoteine if there was a faster way to get us and the horses to Falias. The sprite said that he would see what he could do then disappeared. In the middle of the night there was a strange odour coming from Caskette. It's that pixie again. Caskette managed to locate the pixie and mental attack it. It became a blur and left at speed. 18/04/91 It was dawn and we were just about to leave camp when we heard the sound of bells. Bleyse put up a fire wall and we waited. Nothing happened for a while except the bells got louder. Kishwa reckoned they were harness bells. Soon a whole host of faeries on horses entered the clearing. Mostly white horses. Bleyse dropped the fire wall. There was a man with golden armour and black robes wearing a crown, a veiled woman in white, and a woman in black armour riding a white horse. Kishwa rapidly came to the conclusion that this was the Faerie King's entourage. Since the guy was wearing a crown I agreed with him. Just then everyone except Kishwa and myself fell over. I was rather concerned until I heard Caskette faintly snoring. I felt magic impact. After a short while one of the faeries got down off his horse and lightly touched me. Sleep overcame me. .4. When I woke up I found myself lying on a comfortable bed with a sheet covering me. I found that I was wearing an ankle length shimmering green robe. Nice. The rest of the party were still asleep except for Kishwa, who was rummaging around in a pile of clothing and equipment, and Caskette. Caskette started waking everyone else up. I got up and gathered up all my gear. The only exit from this room was a spiral staircase. I could sense water somewhere down stairs. Also the curtains over the large window were drawn. I pulled them open. Light streamed into the room. When I looked out it looked like we were in a forest. I might have known that Falias was made out of trees. Bridges connected the trees. We were inside one of the trees. Just then the tree shook. Ugh Bash was sticking his dagger into the wall. A short person came on the room and told him to stop it as he was hurting the tree. Adam told us he was a brownie. The brownie said he was Padrig. He said that breakfast was being served in the room upstairs. Our horses were in the stables downstairs. Kishwa asked him whether or not there was any coffee. Padrig looked rather puzzled. He had never heard of the stuff. Kishwa told him to go and get a bag of brown beans from his saddlebag. I was rather taken with the material in the robe. Ugh Bash wanted to see if he could cut it. He tried his sword, knife and even his teeth. No luck. That stuff is tough. I decided to see if we can keep them. Breakfast was delicious. Lots of fruit. Kishwa offered me some of his coffee. I tried some but I didn't really like it - even though it is better than the usual Guild brew. I decided to stick to the honeyed fruit drinks. After breakfast I followed my nose downstairs again. Two flights down was the bathroom. It was divided into male and female areas. After doing what needed to be done, my attention turned to the large pool in the room. So I cast Water Breathing on myself and immersed myself in it. Anyway arrived a little later on. She asked for a Water Breathing as well so she could join me. We stayed under the water for an hour or so discussing various topics, in both spoken and sign language. She seemed to be enjoying herself. I reckoned she should come to the next Water College party. When we got back the others were lounging around in the top room. I decided to go out in the balcony and lie in the sun for a while. As I did so one of those little faeries arrived and began to dance on my nose. I nearly went cross-eyed watching her. Meanwhile Kishwa was polishing and checking his equipment. Anyway was berating him for still working when the opportunity was here to have a holiday. I quite agreed with her. Bleyse also informed us we had an audience with the Faerie King at noon. Ugh Bash had disappeared for a while but then he came back up looking rather annoyed. It turned out he had attempted to create a pool of darkness to lie in, backfired and turned himself deaf. He summoned the brownie who then fetched an elf to examine Ugh Bash. To complicate things he couldn't read Common nor had he been learning signing from Anyway. Fortunately Kishwa could write Orcish. Ugh Bash was going on about getting his problem fixed - right now. Kishwa pointed out that it would take six hours and our meeting with the King took priority. We got ourselves ready for our audience. Soon, what was the most gorgeous looking person I had seen, stepped into the room. His name was Cystennin and he was to conduct us to Kink Finvarra. What a guy! Handsomest person I had ever seen. All I could do was stare. For some strange reason, Ugh Bash ran off. Kishwa and Bleyse went to fetch him but they didn’t have much luck. Cystennin had to go and help. When we arrived, King Finvarra was holding court. He was seated on a throne under a silken panoply, on a mound covered with flowers. Faerie folk surrounded him. With him were his queen and the lady in the black armour. She was introduced as the Morrigan. Finvarra wanted to know what we were doing here. Bleyse explained about the problem with the spriggan and that we were sent to get the original child back. King Finvarra explained that the child had been kidnapped by the King of the Spriggans and was destined to be eaten at the Feast of Beltane - about two weeks away. The only way we would be able to get the child back without incurring the wrath of the Evil Faeries was to distract the Spriggan King with something better. Finvarra thought for a bit then suddenly exclaimed that he had an idea. What would convince the Spriggan King to give up the child was to be presented with some special Faerie Wine. We were to go on a quest to get the ingredients: a bowl of Elemental Earth, filled with Elemental Water, add some special herbs, plus some Elemental Fire and Air. This must be one heck of a drink. Finvarra then asked us if we accepted this Quest. It had been a long time since they had been entertained by one. We thought about it and Bleyse accepted on behalf of all of us. He asked us to step forward and receive his blessing. We did so (except for Ugh Bash. He was rather adamant about it even after it was explained) and found that we could now understand the faerie language. It seemed like a dialect of elvish. We had to have a guide on this quest so Finvarra introduced us to a leprechaun called Seamus O'Leary. Anyway and Adam looked rather alarmed at this addition to our group. Anyway said something about that we would have to seal our pockets. The King announced that there would be a feast that night in celebration of the Quest. When we got back Ugh Bash wanted to see the elf that had diagnosed his problem and get it fixed. So the elf arrived and Ugh Bash was taken away. Meanwhile Kishwa and Cystennin had gone off somewhere. Kishwa wanted to place a bet on us completing the quest. I went to have another bath. Later on we found that new clothing had been laid on the beds by the brownie butler. Mine was a blue evening dress, cut low at the top and slit up to the thigh. When I came back, after putting it on, Thoron whistled in appreciation. I quite liked it too. Anyway's outfit was a green off-the-shoulder number, designed to show off her tattoo (I had already seen that it ran down the length of her body and down one leg). The guys looked rather dashing in their new clothes. Except Ugh Bash and Adam who wouldn't wear theirs. Dinner was delicious. Adam was complaining there wasn't any meat. Thoron and I suggested to Seamus to make Adam believe that the nut loaf was a meat loaf (Seamus is an illusionist). After dinner was dancing. To my delight Cystennin asked me to dance. I felt a bit clumsy at first but soon caught on. We danced the night away. Many of the other party members also had faerie companions.

19/04/91

Seamus arrived mid morning. He led us to a clearing where some white horses were standing. Quite a few faeries, including King Finvarra and the Morrigan were standing around. Finvarra told us that these were faerie horses. They would be able to get us to our destinations much faster than the horses we had. Our horses would be well looked after in our absence. We mounted our horses (I needed assistance from Kishwa - again). Seamus was on Bleyse's horse. Once we were ready The Morrigan raised her sword and proclaimed 'Let the Quest begin'. At that we were off. Seamus and Bleyse were in front and we followed. Fortunately these horses needed hardly any guidance from us. Everything blurred as we picked up speed. To my horror it seemed that we were going to crash into the trees, then we started going through them. I couldn't look. I just shut my eyes and hung on. We arrived at our destination. It was the tallest tree I had ever seen. We dismounted (I had to be prised off the horse) and approached the tree. On the way we were greeted by a short old man. He told us that the Elemental Earth we wanted was in the tree. All we had to do was to find our way in, get it, and find our way back again. A clue was in a riddle. "What is lesser than a mouse and has more windows than a house?" No one had an answer to that so we examined the tree. After a short while we found a spider design on the bark. That gave Thoron an answer to the riddle - a spider. Now all we had to do was to figure out how to open the door. Several people tried looking for hidden mechanisms with no success. I had a wild idea. What would happen if a real spider crawled over the design. I suggested that to Anyway. She summoned a spider. I carefully, and gingerly, picked it up and placed it near the design. When it crawled over the design it glowed. Eight triangular sections opened outwards from the centre. Strange kind of door... Inside the door we found ourselves in a room with archways on each side. Adam started casting. Earth college counter-spells, he said. This place is some kind of place of power for him. Then he yelped. One spell had worked only too well and now he couldn't use mana to cast any more. Bleyse said the mana level is extremely high in here, and Adam had burnt out something inside him that helps us do magic. I hope it's not permanent. Ugh Bash soon found that one archway was real and the other was an illusion. We went through the real one. Bleyse created a flickering light on the edge of his dagger so I asked him for one on the end of mine - just in case. The next room was identical to the first except there didn't appear to be any openings. Ugh Bash managed to determine that the far wall was an illusion. I tried poking my dagger through it but it seemed rather solid. Kishwa tried to walk through it and banged his nose. It turned out that the illusionary wall was hiding a very real, closed, door. Caskette opened it and we went through. By now we could tell that we were going around the inside of the tree. There was a door at the far end. Scratching sounds could be heard from the other side. The door was carefully opened and giant spiders rushed us. I backed off. I couldn't think of anything I could do against them. Thoron and Kishwa went in to attack. Anyway tried casting a spell. She didn't look happy. Whatever it was it didn't work. Bleyse wanted to cast something but Adam wouldn't let him saying he could hurt the tree. Adam relented after a while so I prepared a Create Water spell - just in case Bleyse started a fire. We soon managed to defeat two of the spiders before Caskette was able to close the door. Kishwa had killed one with his sword, but the second one bit him before Bleyse blew it up with a blast of flame. He overdid it, and now Bleyse can't cast either. Kishwa is poisoned. How are we going to get out of here? .5. There were more spiders coming. Caskette and Adam struggled with the door. Anyway tried to cast a spell but backfired. Now she couldn't move. At all. Paralysed from the neck down. Fortunately the door was closed. The spiders could be heard moving beyond it. I decided to check the inner walls of the rooms we passed through in to see if there is an illusionary area. Meanwhile Ugh Bash had picked up Anyway and is doing some rather mean things, such as propping her against a wall upside down. Bully. Wonder how he'd like that being done to him. Bleyse has managed to stabilise Kishwa's condition with an amulet. In the next room back my dagger suddenly disappeared into a wall that abruptly wasn't there. I called the others. Adam was carrying Anyway. They wouldn't believe that it wasn't a wall to start with. Turned out there was a door there. Caskette opened it. At that point my dagger went out. The area is plunged into darkness until Bleyse lit Kishwa's torch. I ended up carrying it. The next room had a door to the right and a wall to the left. Both turned out to be illusions. The actual door was to the left and the wall is to the right. I bet whoever set this up was laughing. The torch went out again so Bleyse relit it. We carried on, working our way from room to room. In one room we could hear the sound of spiders beyond the door. No way were we going in there, unless we had to. Fortunately we didn't. A few rooms later Caskette opened a door and we saw a gigantic spider in the room. Ugh Bash said that it's generic true name was F***ing Big Spider. We decided to backtrack to a door we hadn't checked but found that the door wasn't real. We had to go through the spider. Oh great! When we got there Kishwa walked right up to it. You brave fool. I feared the worst until, to our utter surprise, he walked right through it. It's not real. We continued on. Ugh Bash told us that the Tree's name was Cruimen Darag. That was the name of that little guy who met us outside. Well... he did say that he was the Tree. We found that we were going back to the outer ring of rooms. Ugh Bash muttered something about using his axe. There was one door that Caskette couldn't open so Ugh Bash shouldered him aside and had a go. He opened it, not a problem. The next room had an archway to the right. We went through that and found a room with no exits. This is getting ridiculous. The talk about axes got louder. Bleyse then stepped through the middle of the inner wall. It's another confounded illusion. A little later on Adam slumped against the wall. He said he was tired. He had tried to cast a spell. That burnout must be temporary. We decided to stop. Bleyse created boiling water in the pot and Kishwa brewed up a restorative drink. Adam started making strange sounds. He then said that the Tree won't hinder us but it won't help us either. The bowl of Elemental Earth is in the center and we don't have to go up or down. Thank goodness for that. At that moment the little man appeared. He said that the Tree can cure Anyway but it will take six hours. Standard curse removal. It could be done here but it would be better in the center. Since Adam was tired Kishwa took over carrying Anyway. We carried on going deeper and deeper in the Tree. We encountered some snakes. They were illusions so we went around them. So were the scorpions a few rooms later. We also found out that the answer to the riddle is a spider-web. The map to this place did look rather like one. We finally reached the fifth level, hoping that there were no more. But a giant scorpion is encountered. Bleyse walked straight through it. Another darned illusion. I was getting rather fed up by now. As was the rest of the party. The path worked it's way all the way back to Level Two. So near - and yet so far. This was getting ridiculous. By now the talk of using axes on the tree had spread to nearly everyone. Even Adam. It must be his Fire Giant background coming through. We finally work our way back to Level 5. As we came into the room something came into it from the left. Oh No! Giant Scorpion! And it's real. Kishwa dropped Anyway so I dragged her out of the way. Adam smashed into the scorpion with his axe. Bleyse stabbed it. Adam hit it again and Thoron's arrow hit it between the eyes. The scorpion crumpled. There's another angry one behind it. It suddenly stopped then moved, rather clumsily, towards us. After a short while it laid down. Bleyse hit it with dragonflames leaving only ash. There were no other exits in this room so we had to backtrack to Level 4 and go through the other door. Ugh Bash said that the Generic True Name was Scorpius Gigantus. We continued on. In another room was another forest of snakes. More illusions. Then we found a door in the inner wall. Hopefully it was the door to the central area. But when it was opened it was another segment shaped room. Oh not another level - how many more? Adam reckoned that the floor was strange. It felt of Earth. We concentrated and the illusion disappeared. This was the central room. Thank goodness and little fishes. Cruimen Darag appeared. We asked him for the Earth Cup. He stood in the center of the room and gestured. The ground rose up in an eight-fingered pattern. Within it a bowl shaped object appeared. Bleyse took the bowl. It is chalice sized and heavy. The surface felt like stone, but it looked like earth. Ugh Bash said it was Bound Earth. Cruimen Darag then touched the floor and a circle appeared. We were told to put Anyway inside the circle and he started the curse removal ritual. While we waited we rested. Next is the lake containing the Elemental Water. That is going to be fun. .6. Cruimen Darag offered us food while we waited. We were hungry so we accepted. Lots of fruit started appearing on the walls - all sorts of fruit. Quite nice and juicy. Then was even "bread-fruit" to eat with it. Some red liquid then started flowing out of a hole into a basin molded into the wall. Kishwa tried some. When I asked him what it was he said it was red wine. I decided not to try it, and instead drunk some water from another basin. Kishwa said that what he really wanted was a nice thick juicy steak. To his utter surprise one appeared on the wall. That night I was having strange dreams. I seemed to be dreaming of trees a lot. Willow trees, palm trees... 20/04/91 Got woken up by Ugh Bash shaking me. Anyway is already up and about. The curse removal must have worked. Breakfast had already been produced consisting of eggplant, baconleaves and breadfruit. I expressed a longing for coconut milk. Cruimen Darag had never heard of coconuts so I tried to describe one. What I got, looked like a coconut, but what was inside was not exactly coconut milk. I wasn't complaining. He had managed to come up with chocolate milk instead. Yum. I suppose it was Kishwa's fault for mentioning cocoa... Anyway decided to resign as party scribe. I had lost to her by one vote so I offered to take over. Great! I need the money. I tried to purify but failed. Bleyse asked if we were going to have to work our way back out of the Tree but Cruimen Darag just smiled and waved his hand. A whole series of concentric archways appeared, forming a tunnel back to the outside. We could see daylight. Guess we missed a few on the way. When we got out it was a bright, sunlit day. The Morrigan was waiting outside. She asked us if we had been successful. We told her we had been. "Then let the quest continue," she proclaimed and disappeared. Seamus was asleep, until Anyway kicked him. He was rather annoyed until he smelt the contents of the bottle Kishwa had opened. Whiskey. Seamus told us we had been in the tree for a day. Our next stop is a large lake. It will take several hours to get there. We needed to travel in a NNW direction in the forest for an hour then cross some plains. The lake is called Morllyn Coole. I still needed Kishwa's help getting on the horse. Give me a dolphin any day. We get through the forest and cross rolling plains then encounter some hills. I was very glad that the horses were going around the hills, not through them. The trees were bad enough. As we proceeded the hills turned back into plains. We had to pass through a branch of another huge forest as well. When the sun went down Bleyse called a halt. He asked us if we want to stop here for the night or continue on. The lake is still another two hours away. We continued on. It was about 10pm by the time we arrived by the lake. Seamus pointed out some twinkling lights due north over the lake. It is another faerie city, called Murias, about 50-60 kilometres away. Bleyse wondered if we should go there and rest but decided not to as it would be wasting time. We camped by the lake. Once the camp was set up I wandered down to the lake shore to get some water. Anyway followed. It looked very nice with the water lapping in the moonlight. Anyway suggested that I summon something and talk to it. Seemed a reasonable idea so I did. The only species I could think of was freshwater eel. We had to wait a little while before it arrived. It tried to nibble my toes so I knelt down in the water and tickled it. We found out that the ruler is known as the Queen of the Lake and she lives in the castle below. The eel has never been there. It also said that there are dolphins and merrows (merfolk) in the lake. Now that was interesting. Bleyse had also came down to the lake shore and was listening. Once we had finished I thanked the eel, gave it some food, and sent it off. Standard watches were set. A while later we were woken up rather abruptly. There was a strange looking ugly thing in the middle of the camp. It had been skewered by a crossbow bolt. Some of our equipment was scattered about. When Adam explained that he had shot it Seamus called him "the exterminator". He said that the creature was a bogle, and that they are vermin. Bad faeries. Ugh Bash started skinning the thing. Bleyse then incinerated what was left. The rest of us decided no way we were going to go near it. It smelt dreadful.