There and Back Again

The party alert the authorities to the arrival of a priest of Set in Zothay and they are commissioned to hunt him down. The blood on the dagger that Eluriel discovered at the scene of the murder proves to be his undoing as it leads to the magical detection of one of his minions drinking in the Three Plates. The minion is followed to a locked gate to the sewers for which he appears to have the key. The Temple of Athena are informed as they are responsible for the security of the sewers which are believed to contain many undead. Paladins of Athena are called in to guard the sewer entrances as the party are sent to ferret out the followers of Set. A secret underground temple is discovered in the sewers and the priest and his party are all captured or killed. The party also 'liberate' a vast horde of gold and jewels which may once have belonged to various citizens of Zothay. In order to avoid causing the authorites the administrative nightmare of trying to identify the original owners the party sportingly decide to keep it (though with a 10% donation to various temples).

The party's next mission is to recover the Horn of Athena believed to be in the Holy Cities of the Mycretians far to the west. A catch for the party is that the Temple of Athena wants them to follow the rules for Mycretian pilgrimages which threaten to severely curtail their normal approach to travel (think Panzer Division on a day trip to Belgium). The Temple has in addition cast auguries to determine the Goddess's favoured route for the party which entails passing through many small communities in each of which, the pilgrimage rules say, the pilgrims will have to perform a good deed.

The journey starts quietly enough passing through the ancient Elvish communities of Onhir and Anatal. In Halafic, however, civil unrest has led to Talgal, follower of Armadad Bog, taking over the town and the party (except Midge and Hanna) is arrested on trumped up charges. The adventurers go remarkably quietly, partly out of respect for the rules of the pilgrimage but also because they have already decided that their 'good deed' for this community will be to organise a mass jail break. Indeed as they are thrown in the communal jail they discover that Hanna is already there having broken in. In the early hours of the morning the party duly break out and head to the ruins across the river where the former leader of the community, Faltis, is hiding out. Faltis tells them that Talgal is planning to create a militia so he can attack the peaceful village of Valera which is situated downstream. In the ruins they also discover another temple of Hermes which contains a powerful magical bow which is claimed by Eluriel (or vice versa). The party then steal all the boats in the harbour and travel to Valera with Faltis and those of the prisoners and their families who wish to join them.

The party reach Valera and warn the village of the intention of Halafic to attacks them (a good deed) and Faltis, an excellent swordsman, offers to lead the defence if the village will take him in with his companions. Since Valera is on the coast the party could have taken a boat here but the Temple of Athena has decreed they should walk down the coast before doing so. They are thus camping out overnight when a they are attacked by about thirty orc raiders. Even with the limited amount of weapons and magic permitted by the pilgrimage the orcs are easily driven off with heavy losses and the party take some prisoners. These they deliver to the next village Colisth (another good deed).

The coast road then runs down to Renth but before they can get there the party find the road blocked by a group of jackalweres led by a jackal lord. The party talk the jackal lord into entering one on one combat with Solomon but the demented creature widely rumoured to have been created by unnatural magic badly beats up the jackal lord despite the latter's decision to cheat. The jackalwere then decide to move on to easier prey and the party continue to Renth. The village of Renth is so prosperous that the party after several attempts to force unwilling grannies to cross roads give up and execute their good deed obligations by making donations to the local temple.

The party now cross the Antillian Peninsula to Besgar a druidic village on the opposite coast. Here they find that the village is reliant on an ancient ruined Kelnorian tower to keep watch over the road approaching the village. They offer to repair it as a good deed and note also that much of the ruin lies beneath the surface (including a wand which they decide to pick up on the way back).

A second sea crossing takes them to Grindwell on the mouth of the Tethoir River whose harbour can only be approached with the aid of a local pilot. Here the party debate various civic improvements including dredging the area around the harbour and building a bridge across the wide rivermouth. In the end (for environmental reasons) they settle on providing the villagers with the knowledge of how to use the many alchemical ingredients they gather from the surrounding jungle to create healing potions.

The Temple of Athena has again decreed that the party need to walk rather than sail up the coast so the following night finds them camped in a rather bleak surroundings on the coast road with not even a a group of orc raiders to keep them warm at night. The next village Belitsward is happily beset by a curse so the party at least feel they have a challenge worthy of the name for their good deed. Trade is being scared off by the appearance of a phantom fleet outside the village's harbour. The party use their ingenuity and magical detection skills to determine that the phenomenon is harmless and most probably due to a temporal slip since the fleet is Kelnorian. They point out that the visual effect will be of immense interest to scholars and Mycretians and the villagers should see it as something to draw in visitors.

The party again travel northward up the coast to reach Dagonsharp a goblin village with a minority of gnolls and orcs. A not dissimilar phenomenon is afflicting this village: deep ominous music can frequently be heard offshore, preventing the superstitious goblins from leaving their harbour. The party use their magical skills to ascertain that this is again some sort of temporal slip although there is less corroborating evidence this time. The goblins are grateful because they now understand that the music is probably harmless whereas their overlords on the Antillean Peninsula don't (and hence haven't turned up to collect their tribute for a number of years). They show their gratitude in the only way that goblins can by not trying to steal all the party's possession. The party reflect that they have now been travelling for about three weeks and look forward to the challenges of the last stage of their journey: from Wortess on the coast down the ancient Cleft Road to the Holy Cities.

In Wortess the party find the inhabitants rather sullen and the halflings downtrodden. Midge attempts to relieve their lot with a magnificent gift to the local temple of The Maid. The party meet many other pilgrims going to the Holy Cities including the statuesque Henna who seeks out the company of the party.

The party join a group of more than thirty pilgrims who are travelling down the Cleft Road. On reaching Sursa Gales the party investigate an ancient tower with no apparent entrance which stands in the middle of the village. Although the interior of the tower has been filled with rubble the party use their magical skills to gain entry and find a secret basement which holds two glowing gems and a manuscript detailing how to make an artificial life-form (a lion) powered by one of the gems.

The next village is Befalls which the pilgrims make a slight detour to reach due to its reputation of serving some of the finest mutton in the Wilderlands. Of late, however, the flocks of the local shepherds have been raided by Hill Giants who have become adept at stealthy thievery. The party make contact with the Hill Giants and are taken to their king. Narin notices that the local topography is rich in iron ore and so a 'rocks for sheep' deal is hammered out which is pleasing to all parties.

The party next come to a small toll on the road run by Arras Castle. The soldiers manning the toll explain that they charge a fee to provide for the upkeep of the keep whose garrison ensures safe passage for pilgrims on this stretch of the road. The main danger is the groups of raiding lizardmen which the garrison have found it difficult to control. The party agree to help and are shown a place in the nearby riverbank where the lizardmen come ashore. While Henna and Hanna stay on the banks of the river the rest of the party swim into its depths only to encounter a group of hostile lizardmen. Noticing the disturbance in the water Henna and Hanna decide to swim to the party's rescue only to arrive too late (to save the remnants of the lizardmen). The party now discover that the entrance to the lizardmen's lair is via a portcullis underwater and that Henna goes an an attractive shade of blue when underwater.

Restraining the 'kick the portcullis in' faction in the party the sneakier element slip past the guards on the riverbank and find a secret entrance to the lair. The party squeeze down a narrow tunnel and end up surprising the lizardman high priest in his room. As some members of the party seek to rescue any prisoners the more warlike members move through the complex until they find a big enough door that is worth kicking down. Sure enough behind the door are the lizardmen king, the royal guard and about fifty of his thralls. Softened up by a fireball the lizardmen fall like wheat before the scythe as Narin's whirling axe travels up the hall with only the royal guard putting up much resistance. As an afterthought the party take the crown from the dead king and annoint an arbitary survivor of the carnage as ruler with some free helpful advice on future policies towards nearby human communities. Somewhere along the road one of the party vaguely remembers that the lizardmen were given the chance to negotiate or surrender or something so everyone agrees (apart from Henna who didn't give an opinion because she had her head in her hands at the time) that the Mycretian pilgrammage is still on track.

The next community along along the road is the small fishing village of Alas where a translucent bridge is said to appear at certain phases of the moon. Such phenomena are a routine occurrence to the party these days and they investigate it in their usual masterly fashion ending up 10,000 years in the past with a drunk from Alas. The positive thinkers in the party then try to work out how to exploit the situation both financially and in terms of altering history. Happily there are only a couple of minor villages in the vicinity and so little opportunity for chaos ensues. On the advice of Henna Narin builds an altar to Hermes and the god advises returning over the bridge in the opposite direction the following night which returns the party to their own time.

The party's next stop is Kod'l which is the last village before the long dangerous pass over the mountains. Travellers normally join a caravan for protection and since the last one was robbed the party sign on as caravan guards for the trip taking care of some rather large stone giants on the way. In Ferech Idu the party seek out their respective temples to be confirmed as Champions of their gods. From now on they will be recognisable to the Champions of other (possibly evil) gods.

'At first it was fun; I was flying through the air and I knew I wasn't going to fall because it was as if invisible hands were holding me. Then I saw an old building in the desert and the invisible people must have known I wanted to go and explore it because they took me down and in through one of the windows. The stairways were blocked with sand but again it was as if the invisible people could read my thoughts because they pulled me through it into a secret room which I explored. When I got tired I didn't want to sleep on the sand so I slept on a stone slab in one corner. My bed was about four feet off the ground so I slipped my hands through some chains to make sure I didn't fall off.'

'It was then that my nightmares begun although I knew it was real not a dream. First of all a snake slithered through the ceiling. Not only am I terrified of snakes you could tell it wasn't a natural snake because it looked directly at me with its nasty eyes before slithering back. Then the ceiling began to glow red as if a portal to hell was opening. A strange demonic creature poked its head through the ceiling and looked at me before going back. It was quiet for a while but I sensed something else more hideous still was going to come through the portal. Whatever it was was invisible for a time but I could tell something was there. Suddenly it materialised in the middle of the room into a monstrous vaguely humanoid shape. It immediately began conjuring the sand into mini-sandstorms by waving its hands round frantically. Then it summoned other demons from the portal who were still more scary as their faces were like people I had seen in the caravan but they were all grim and horrible as if they were about to kill someone. They joined in the weird ritual dancing round the room waving weapons until all the sand in the room was whirring around. I thought they were going to sacrifice me or something but then I was so scared I must have fainted and woke up back here.'

On arriving at Shealoh the party queue in an orderly fashion to enter the underground caverns of the Mycretians having deposited their magical possessions with Hanna who is last seen conscientiously getting them valued for insurance purposes. Suddenly a captain of the Viridian guard holds a knife to Henna's throat and tells the party to drop their weapons while revealing himself to be a champion of the god Natch Ur. Things look bleak as the party are also ringed by an elite squad of 200 heavily armed soldiers. Midge communicates telepathically with Henna and the party take her advice to remain calm and let events unfold. The captain is clearly a magic user and as soon as the party drops their weapons tries to destroy them with a spell. The spell fails as do others aimed at nearby Mycretians and finally a commoner who makes a derogatory remark. His troops also refuse to attack the Mycretians. The captain then has what appears to be a nervous breakdown and Henna puts him into a 'healing sleep'. He is carried away by his troops and everything reverts to normal.

Inside the caverns the party try something new called 'honesty' which goes down well with the Mycretians and they are soon talking to the senior prophet Fire Oak (as does Henna separately). He reveals, however, that the artefact they seek is not in the caverns and that returning it is not only up to him. The party must journey to the city of the Green Emperor, the City of Spices, the one city that Magar has told them to avoid at all costs. There they must meet a herbalist who will give them further information. The party find themselves agreeing to continue under the restrictions of the pilgimmage rules for this phase of their journey.

A decision is made to accompany Henna back to the coast and strike north from there. Although this takes the party back through many of the towns and villages they have already travelled through they are surprised to find that their good deeds have made a favourable impact on the populace. Leaving Henna at Wortess they first travel to Recre where a woman pleads with them to help rescue her son who has been kidnapped. Sensing a set up and a trap the party rescue a somewhat surprised son and capture a number of would-be ambushers at a remote farmhouse. The gang are not impressed with the woman who to save herself accuses them of kidnapping. The trial does not go well for the gang. The woman promises the party she will turn over a new leaf.

At Braddol a woman pleads with the party to help resue her daughter which is at least a bit of variation. The other variation is that the story appears to be true and the bandit's trail leads to a meeting in a cave where their prisoners are sold on to some drow. The party pursue the drow underground and take most of them captive despite Eluriel's obvious wish that the pilgrimmage rules exclude dealings with the dark elves. The captives are turned over to a local Mycretian who decides they are too dangerous to keep locally and must go to the Holy Cities. The sages are somewhat surprised by the existence of drow in the Wilderlands as no story or legend they have researched makes mention of them.

Meanwhile the halflings in the party have been sneaking off into the woods to dance with the fey. They encourage the rest of the party to meet their new fey friend Sir Isfahan. Midge has obviously done some kind of deal with the fey and now has a small fey druid as a companion. Sir Isfahan offers a deal to the rest of the party: if he helps them on their next two quests they will have to help him on a quest of his own. They agree at which point he mentions that they are standing in an ancient grove where promises made can not be broken. He says he will meet them later in Zothay.

The journey into Viridistan goes remarkably smoothly and they meet the famous herbalist Fernlace. Fernlace gives them a log which he says will open in the Temple of Athena to reveal the artefact they seek. In return he would like the party to rescue a young woman and take her with them to Zothay. Her name is Gisa and she is held on Gheulost Island where carbelium is mined. The rescue must be subtle as otherwise the authorities will suspect him of engineering it and also harrass her family.

The party first sneak into Gheulost Island and examine the records pertaining to those prisoners doing forced labour on the island. After much searching they discover that Gisa is one of the fortunate ones doing other jobs, in her case she is being used as a seamstress. Hanna sneaks into the latrines to talk to Gisa at which point the mission becomes more complicated: Gisa deliberately got arrested so she could rescue a friend already on the island. Hanna persuades Gisa to swap places with her and Hanna (as Gisa) quickly persuades the guards in Shir on the coast where Gisa was based to relocate her to the centre of the island for forced labour. There Hanna (as Gisa) jumps off a cliff and dies in a desperate escape bid. Gisa's dead body (which is now actually Foddlewick, hope your following this) is displayed in the camp as a warning to others then chucked in a mass grave followed by some quicklime. In the night the body slips away ready for its next appearance.

The next day Gisa's friend commits suicide by throwing herself into a deep ravine in the mine. Again after a decent interval the body slips away. Meanwhile Thatis and Olo have taken the artefact back to Zothay leaving the rest of the party to consider how much havoc they would like to reek on the way home now they are no longer bound by the rules of a Mycretian pilgramage.

In the event the journey home goes remarkably smoothly with only the driving out of the supporters of Armadad Bog from Halafic as a highlight. The party also recover a wand they had buried. When they get back to Zothay Gisa and her friend announce they will settle in the city. They also find that Thatis and Olo have already disappeared into the north to the remote city of Damkina where they hope to find some clues which will help the final two missions to recover Athena's artefacts.