From the diary of Feldon Quickhand

DAY 1 : ARIDDAY 12, 595 CY

Ref's notes: This adventure began with only four players: Bela, Feldon, Dreyma and Theo - the original members of The Tribe.

I believe we owe our lives and futures to two friends named Trixie and Bell. There we were, standing in line at Smiling Jack Sampson’s Emporium waiting for a chance at a job and escape from the city. Trixie and Bell, some friends we made on the beach at Iguana Shores, had come to warn us that Balthazar Rhett’s Rat Patrol was headed towards us. We took the high road. By this, I mean we climbed and hid on a roof until the rat patrol had passed and then headed back down to Smiling Jack’s to earn our escape.

Every morning at eight bells, Smiling Jack hires down-on-their-luck people to do some odd jobs. Because of the rat patrol we thought we had missed our chance, until a sharp eye spotted a crumpled piece of paper on the floor. Apparently someone named Hrodel needed professional salvage operators and was willing to pay. That was our ticket to freedom. Smiling Jack was willing to help us escape the city for the low price of 25 gold pieces per person. I quickly paid it and he told us the plan.

Being a pig didn’t seem that much different from normal. There are a few more legs and I could smell mushrooms somewhere, but it was tolerable. Smiling Jack walked us right out of town on leashes. The guards didn’t suspect a thing. As a matter of fact, Smiling Jack just kept walking us, even when we passed the turn-off to Galehaven.

At that point our educated warrior, Dreyma-pig, asked the question, “Where are you taking us.” The answer involved a lot of math, mostly sale prices of pigs. Come to find out, the other pigs with us were once people too and this was his regular scam. The Tribe quickly broke free and returned to its quest to find Galehaven while the other pigs horribly killed Smiling Jack and then wandered off to wander in the wilderness.

DAY 2: ARIDDAY 13, 595 CY

If there were more educated pigs in the world we would have been in trouble. Using our people- knowledge, we managed to convey through writing, tricks, attempted speech and a little luck that we were all, “Sooooooome pig!” The village diviner came to our rescue and managed to changes us back to our normal forms. The diviner’s name happened to be Hrodel - the very same employer we sought. The gods were mocking us - some profesional salvagers we were.

Hrodel’s uncle Kai had once been married but his wife had died. After her death uncle Kai took up adventuring with a passion. Through her divinations, Hrodel learned of many of the dangerous chances that her uncle Kai had taken. His last will and testament stated his one wish was when he died he wanted to be placed in rest next to his wife. Hrodel asked us to find the remains of Uncle Kai and bring them back from the pedestal of wooden sticks that they seemed to be resting on somewhere underground.

DAY 3: ARIDDAY 14, 595 CY

We threw open the door to the underground passage and boldly fell into the hole. When Hrodel asked for experienced individuals she missed the mark by a good bit. The Tribe, with the help of our spell casters, managed to stumble down the passage until we met a waterfall. After those introductions we began an arduous climb down a rope ladder with Theo and Dreyma promptly falling from the top of the ladder into a lake. With two mighty gnomes, Bella nd Feldon, and a lot of swimming, they were fished back to the shore.

The wily and stone cunning dwarf managed to spot a passage down the side of a cliff. It was another rope ladder! With unparalleled teamwork the Tribe descended the rope and then into a hole with handholds cut into the side. This exited into a passage that went in two directions.

What has long slithery tentacles, sharp as razors teeth, a single glowing eye, and skin as hard as the stone around you? Come to find out -- nothing. When the Tribe’s scout came running back in fear describing the fearsome beast, we knew we had to fight our hardest or die in the caves. With mighty spells crashing and the ring of weapons being drawn we engaged the fearsome beast. Missiles born of magic crashed into it. It was not even fazed. Blades of keen steel rebounded from its hide. Arrows could not penetrate the rocky exterior. What could this creature be? It was a rock dressed as a tentacled monster. The Tribe was once again polymorphed, this time into the proverbial sheep.

The next few hours would be a test of life and limb as we navigated the most treacherous parts. Bridges that were so slippery we had to rope across, ledges so thin they should have broken under our weight and piles of debris so high we had to climb down them. Finally, we exited into a large room where we detected some semblance of life.

The cave was huge even by gnome standards. A mushroom forest had the look of a salad gone wrong. There was a large bonfire with weirdly dancing shapes and a glowing cave with a pool area. As we descended to the cavern’s floor, both the sounds of chanting and the sight of glittering distracted us. Of course we ignored the chanting and went straight for the glittering.

Having had a bad experience with tentacles it was amazing that the fearless scout did not run like a rabbit when the lifeless rotting tentacled head came into view. It was driven onto a wooden construct along with a strange pair of goggles, a gloved hand, some candles and some trinkets to ward off evil spirits. The fearless scout, Feldon (that's me), removed the stylish goggles and headed to inspect the glimmering throne. Braving the traps he removed five large gems from the throne and scampered back to the rest of the Tribe who were watching the cavern.

Ref's Notes: Feldon later gave the Goggles of Far Seeing to his buddy Bella, who models the eyewear as if she were constantly strutting down a medieval runway.

The figures around the fire were huge and coming right at us! The goggles appeared to magically enhance sight such that the cavern could be surveyed with impunity! In the area of the mushrooms was a large bug. It had spears embedded in its side and was augmented with writing warning of death and fear. In the center area was a large bonfire with some lizard kin loading a wagon and bustling about. In the glowing cave area there were large pink pools of water.

It was agreed that two of the Tribe would negotiate with the lizard kin that was chanting and the other lizard kin that was dousing the pedestal hut by the lake with some kind of liquid. As they approached the hut a gnome stepped out to stop them. Using the ancient language of the dragons, a negotiation was started. “We want to return the body to his family,” we said. “Die filthy surface dwellers!” they said. Negotiations became a bit more aggressive at that point.

The gnome pulled his mouth open to reveal a full set of tentacles and then promptly made his escape (that was both gross and really weird). The chanter started chanting and the non-chanter was trying to light the hut on fire! After some weapons negotiations while the hut was burning we saved the casket with the body, killed both lizard kin and scared the tentacle faced boy away.

Hurray!

The mouth in the ceiling was horrific. It had large tusks covered by some slime like material. It was dark and could easily swallow a horse or elephant. Where could you hide or run from something that size? So we climbed up into it and used our magic keys to open the door in the back and then entered into a disgusting pulsating room. The elven ghosts agreed to serve us as they served their missing master. The drink was superb, tasting both of citrus and a hint of mint. The food left something to be desired – a steaming plate of human brains. We skipped the second course and instead we borrowed the magic and treasure that was lying around and climbed back down to the cavern and headed out the way we came in.

The running battle that ensued is a thing of legend. Fighting on the ledges and bridges, in the tunnels and tubes, across the water and ropes -- it was fierce. The troglodytes, with the help of the tentacle boy, chased us all the way back to the surface. We delivered our cargo and collected the massive reward.

In societies of the past and future, leaders, politicians, elders, statesman, kings, and emperors are often chosen for their wisdom. This wisdom is gained through trial, experience, reflection and thought. Reminiscing on our adventure, we, the mighty members of The Tribe, learned three immutable ideas that can be applied to any future situation. The first is; humans cannot see in the dark. No matter how much they strain their eyes nor wish it to happen it will not be possible. The second idea is that certain gnomes cannot climb and should not climb. If I had to evaluate their skills versus that of a rock I would have to rate the rock higher in skills related to scaling vertical surfaces. And finally, if a tower was compromised of all the deeds of the Tribe, teamwork would be the foundation that anchored the tower.

- End

Ref's Notes: We finished this adventure in one sitting. The players decided they would make Galehaven their new temporary home - it was a lot better than Iguana Shores, afterall. They spent roughly the next two weeks moving in to new homes, building an alchemist lab and visiting with Hrodel about the contents of Uncle Kai's notes that were in his personal journal. It seems that Uncle Kai was investigating something wicked that threatened Galehaven. The notes were unclear and Hrodel wanted to visit with her father, Kai's brother, to see if he could help interpret them. One thing was clear, Uncle Kai was next headed to the town of Iron Lake (Diamond Lake) to investigate some trouble there. The word "whispers" was written in these notes many times, but it was not clear what that meant. Hrodel asked the players to travel to Iron Lake when they were ready and see if they couldn't figure out what Uncle Kai was on to - and what could he have meant when he wrote the word "whispers" in his notes.

LINKS


Galehaven

Trixie & Belle

Hrodel