Tayleen's Bones

Party at the start:
Mace Blackstar (Mike D.; Human Fighter)
Wilbered The Silent (Bob S; Human Cleric)
Castor Bean (NPC; Human Bard)
Trygvie (NPC; Elven Wizard)
Kane (Al G.; Human Monk)
Zuran (NPC; Human Fighter)

Note:  This was the second session done with 1st edition rules --- albeit, 1st edition with a large number of houserules.  There are still a few kinks to be ironed out, but, all in all, I am pleased with the edition change.

The session started with the party in a small, irregularly shaped cave.  A large iron door, marked with the eagle, hawk and sword signs of Teyr and Muir (and further defaced with orc and goblin grafitti) was mounted in the north wall.  The cave also contained a large pool of murky water that the party gave a wide berth, having bad memories of pools and their nasty inhabitants from their adventure in the dungeon outside of Feldspar.

After listening to the door and hearing nothing, Castor the Bard took out his lock picks and opened the lock -- as easy as you please.  The iron door creaked open, revealing a rough hewn passage leading north.  A fresh breeze blew in their faces.  Mace and Zuran took the lead and the rest of the party followed.  The passage ended in a "T" intersection and dim light, like daylight, could be seen around the eastern passage.

Mace and Zuran stepped up to investigate and saw that the eastern passage led through a deep defile that apparently led hundreds of feet up to the surface --- a few dim rays of sunlight made it down the shaft to illuminate the passage they were in.  Upon the floor was a litter of a few bones, some scraps of cloth, sticks, leaves, mud and other rubbish.  A few coins glinted in the mess.  Suspecting a trap, Mace bent down to pick up a stone to hurl at the litter, but just as he did so, Zuran shouted a warning; he had noticed some small grey lumps on the wall of the passage, unfurling batlike wings and dropping soundlessly down towards the party.

These flying creatures had batlike wings and long and pointed needle-like snouts.  "Stirges!" shouted Wilbered.  The red eyes of the stirges gleamed as they plunged towards the party.  Mace hit the first one with his sword, shearing it in two, and the second stirge failed to pierce his armor but the third creature smacked into Zuran, piercing his flesh and knocking him to the floor.

Wilbered stepped forward and becan to cast a cure spell on the unconscious Zuran as Mace and Kane fought the remaining stirges.  Within a few rounds, the stirges all lay dead and Zuran had regained consciousness.  A brief search of the litter on the floor turned up a few gold and silver coins as well as a very tattered and dirty parchment with some notes and maps upon it.  Upon the parchment was written:

Since they had come to the Tombs in hope of placing Tayleen's remains in a safe resting place, the finding of this parchment represented a very lucky break for them.  The passage to the east of their current position, with a large cave and pit and passage that apparently led to the second level, was clearly marked on this map.  Another portion of the map apparently detailed parts of the "second level" and showed a passage leading to "The Tomb of Alaric the Brave."

They turned around and started following the passage to the east, intending to proceed to the pit that supposedly led to the second level.  The passage narrowed and led them into a high cielinged cavern without stalactites and stalacmites.  In the south part of the cave was a cliff leading up while in the north part of the cave was a pit leading down.  The party approached the pit and Kane stepped forward, peering into the pit.  The floor was covered with loose earth and a few small skeletons that looked like they had once been giant rats.  A large hole could be seen, leading further into the dark.  Using his uncanny martial artist skills, Kane jumped into the pit and landed on his feet, as graceful as a cat, as Mace and Zuran covered him with missile weapons from above and Trygvie took up a defensive position with his magic missile wand.  Castor the Bard attempted to climb, using the rough surface of the wall of the pit for hand and footholds, but the crumbly wall gave way and he fell to the bottom with a loud thump (DMs note: failed climb check!).  Wishing to help his companion, Wilbered grabbed the edge of the pit, swung his feet down and dropped the rest of the distance, landing clumsily (but without damage).

Castor's bad landing must have disturbed one of the dungeon's residents.  As Castor was climbing to his feet, brushing the dirt off of his clothes and cursing his foul luck, a huge insect with clacking mandibles burst from it's hidden burrow in the soft soil at the bottom of the pit and bit at the hapless bard.  Mace and Zuran fired their missiles and Trygvie activated his wand, wounding the insect.  Kane leapt forward and scored a critical hit, cracking the chitinous exoskeleton of the insect.  Mortally wounded, it spewed an acidic goo over the bard who was caught in it's mandibles.  As the insect attempted to retreat into it's burrow in order to get away,  the group finished it off as Wilbered applied more healing magic to the unlucky bard.

Searching the pit, they found a few weapons, including an interesting looking throwing axe that Kane appropriated, as well as some large chunks of malachite.  Wilbered lit a torch, tied a rope around his waist and lowered himself into the hole that led further down into the ground, hoping to find the entry to Alaric's Tomb, as Mace played out the rope, ready to pull the priest back up if he fell.  The sloping tunnel was fairly easy to navigate -- Wilbered climbed down into a small cavern followed by Kane and then the rest of the group.

Once everyone was in the small cavern, they took a look around.  On the northeast side of the cave was a cliff leading upwards to an enterance high above the cave floor.  Another exit led to the south.  Otherwise the cave was empty.

The players consulted the map they had found and discovered some discrepancies.  The cliff and the exit to the south were both marked, but according to the map there should have also been a narrow tunnel with a couple of switchbacks leading east to the "Tomb of Alaric."  The exit to the south supposedly led to "purple mist."  They peered down the tunnel to the south but saw only a rough underground tunnel -- no mist, purple or otherwise.

Suspecting a secret enterance, they began to tap and pound the eastern wall.  After examining the wall carefully, Trygvie finally simply managed to step through.  Wilbered tried to follow but just smashed his nose against the solid seeming wall.  Trygvie stepped back out, stateing that the wall was a very clever seeming illusion.  After many attempts and many bruised noses and foreheads, the whole party managed to pass through the wall into the narrow hallway beyond.

They proceeded single file down the narrow tunnel to a rough set of stairs that led down to a small, grotto-like cave.  Although the walls appeared blank and featureless, several of the characters "felt safe" and "comfortable" here.  Again they investigated the wall marked on the map as leading on to the tombs but which in reality appeared as blank stone.  The bard managed to break through and found himself in a small square room.  Four white pillars carved with runes held up the roof and a large silver font full of water was built into one wall.  A door in the northwest wall and an exit to the southwest completed the room.  They had found the tomb of Alaric at last.

After everyone else had made their way through the wall (again, through a series of bumped foreheads and bruised noses), the group gathered in the room of the pillars and then made their way through the exit to the southwest.  Their torches illuminated a hall with eight stone sarcophagi, seven of which were carved with effigies of knights in armor with swords, shields, axes and other weapons.  The eighth stone sarcophagus was blank.  Each sarcophagus excepting the eighth was carved with the name of the hero laid to rest within and a large stone altar, carved with the upward thrust sword (the symbol of Muir) stood at the end of the hall.  Based on the clues found upon the scroll, the players concluded that the eighth sarcophagus was for the remains of Tayleen.  While two of his companions opened the coffin, Wilbered said a prayer and gently laid Tayleen's bones, which he had carried all the way from Feldspar, to rest.

Suddenly the transparent form of a man in armor rose up before them and said, "I am Alaric the Brave and I thank you for returning the bones of our comrade Tayleen to us."  The players spoke with Alaric for a while and agreed to leave Tayleen's holy sword, currently carried by Zuran, in the coffin with her bones.  Alaric's ghost directed them to open a sarcophagus belonging to "Erich the Brave" and take the sword contained therein in its place, telling them that Erich's sword was a powerful weapon in fighting giants.  With great respect, the players did so.  They questioned Alaric about the whereabouts of Cirdis but the paladin said that he had died over a hundred years ago and thus was woefully uniformed about current events.  When they mentioned the toad god Tsathogga, however, Alaric said that a temple dedicated to that horrid god had been established on the fifth level of the dungeon... the frog god's followers also infested the lake outside the tombs. 

Finally the group asked Alaric if he could shed some light on the Bard's affliction (the bard had been losing points of CON for several days and typical restoration spells had done nothing to solve this).  The ghostly Paladin asked, "What has he got in his pockets?"  They investigated and found two large gemstones -- the two stones that Castor had pried from the eye sockets of the statue of the snake god idol in the Temple of the Snake.  "He has incurred the wrath of the evil God Yth," Alaric said.  "You must return to the temple and replace the stones --- there is no other way to remove the curse."  The group was unhappy that the greed of the bard had gotten them into this mess but decided to go return the stones rather than watch him waste away and die.

They had been beaten down fairly severely thus far and decided that some rest might be in order.  Alaric asked them to rest in the "vestibule" and indicated the small cave through whivh they had entered.  He promised them they would be safe there.

The party went and bedded down in the small cave and enjoyed eight hours of uninterrupted rest.  In the morning they prepared their spells and set out.  They exited the vestibule through the narrow tunnel and crawled out the cave into the pit where they had defeated the giant insect on the level above.  There they began to climb out of the pit.  The Bard and Kane went first.  The bard climbed to the top of the cliff and suddenly shrieked in pain.  The party looked around  but couldn't see what had struck him.  The bard crawled back down into the pit in order to get away from whatever was attacking him but he kept feeling cold touches draining his strength.  Wilbered noticed that the Bard cast two shadows rather than one from the light of Mace's magic sword as he cast a healing spell upon the stricken bard.  As the bard grew weaker and weaker, those few characters who could see this shadowy creature attacked it with magic weapons.  Suddenly it faded away, leaving the bard weak and shaking and the rest of the party fairly paranoid.

They climbed out of the pit with the aid of ropes and proceeded down the hall to the place where they had met the stirges the day before.  They then continued on through the iron door, past the pool and up the stairs.  Here they found that the pit trap that guarded the stairs had been reset -- so the monk leapt across the pit and made the trap "safe" by pulling the lever into the "up" position.  They passed through the secret door and out the enterance to the outside.  Here a glyph discharged, startling Mace but doing no real damage other than irritating him a bit.

After consulting their map of the valley, the whole group proceeded south along the edge of the lake without stopping at the shrines where they had met with Omidahl, the priest of Teyr, a few days before.  Through the fog they saw that the path they intended to follow led right by a stockade fort.  The fence surrounded a low hill and a small wooden tower with slit-like windows stood atop the hills.  As they drew closer, a loud gong clanged from within the tower.  The party advanced and suddenly a dozen frogmen leapt over the stockade wall and advanced with spears at the ready.  Trygvie unleashed his mighty fireball, instantly killing most of the frogmen and the remainder jumped back into the fort.

The party elected to run right past the fort and continue of their way, but suddenly a hail of spears flew over the wall at the party, wounding several members.  As they passed around the fort, an arrow or bolt fired right through the party's ranks made an unearthly screaming sound.  Kane and Zuran fell upon the ground, apparently stunned by the magical effect of the missile.  A gate in the wall opened and two armored humans strode forth as many more frogmen leapt over the wall.  The players recognized the leader of the group as Cirdis, an old enemy of theirs who had stolen a valuable sculpture of the Toad God from them back in Feldspar.  Cirdis cast Spiritual Hammer on Trygvie and Trygvie was thereafter too busy getting the tar beaten out of him by a magical disembodied hammer to do much else.  Wilbered cast a Silence spell on Cirdis, effectively preventing any further spellcasting on his part.  Cirdis and the frogmen had apparently underestimated the party; after a brief but fierce fight, Cirdis, his companion and the frogmen all lay dead.

The adventure ended here.

character/player:	class/level:	XP at start:	Base XP award:	bonus:	XP at end:
Mace (Mike D.)	human FTR 7th	77,430	2128	212	79,208
Wilbered (Bob S.)	human CL 6th	51,581	2128	212	53.409
Castor (NPC)	human Bard 6th	28,882	1064		29,713
Trygvie (NPC)	Elven MU 6th	50,187	1064	212	51.294
Kane (Al G.)	Human Monk 5th	42,459	2128		44,121
Zuran (NPC)	Human Fighter 3rd	6,000	1064		6,598