Mindsgate: Introduction

Many years ago the Empire of Mellas was faced by devastation and collapse, enemies both internal and external worried its borders with war, ravaged the city-states deep within its territories, and allowed monstrous denizens to maraud its lands. The good but young Emperor was beside himself and knew not what to do, until one day a bent cloaked figure was admitted to the Imperial court. The mysterious being told the king that it had a gift that would rid the Empire of its woes, but only one of the ancient blood of Mellas could use it to do so. With that it drew out a large sepulcher black opal, the Midnight’s Hunger. The Emperor was greatly intrigued and asked that this gift be bestowed on him. The cowled enigma responded saying that although the Midnight’s Hunger was a great and powerful gift, these powers came at great cost to the wielder: The Midnight’s Hunger could consume the evils of the land, but these evils would be trapped in the heart of the Emperor. Despite his loyal council’s dismay how little was known about the gift or the giver, the desperate Emperor said he would accept the gift.
The stooped shadow mounted the stairs growing taller and more menacing as it approached the Emperor the Midnight’s Hunger thrust before it in a claw-like hand. Now towering over the Emperor, it retracted its hand and then plunged the ebon gem deep into the Emperor’s left eye. With an unearthly scream the Emperor fell, clutching his eye from which a foul ember smoldered to the accompaniment of the cloaked figures cackles of mad glee. The Emperor’s bodyguards struck the figure down, only to find the remnants of a dark and tattered cloak on their blades. The Emperor lay pale and senseless on the ornate floor, bloody tears falling from under his quivering lids.
The Emperor was brought to the Imperial chambers where he lay senseless and feverish for many days. Finally, the Imperial Magus, Daerrus, and the Imperial chirgeons could wait no longer declaring they would examine the left eye of the Emperor entered his chambers and were never seen again. The Imperial Vice-Magus, Hasjan, sealed the Emperor’s left eye with spells and instructed the new physicians to tend their liege with care. For many weeks, the Emperor was delirious but with time came healing. Finally, he rose from his sickbed, pale and worn but ready to face the invasion by a small goblin kingdom to the North.
Riding to the North, the Emperor surveyed the goblin encampment pried off his eye patch, and the despicable horde vanished in a maelstrom within his left eye. With time more enemies fell to the Emperor’s dark devouring eye; the wyrm Grimspyne among others, the Sprayspawn barbarians and brethren tribes, the rebel lord Nolduran and his allies, as well as other criminals both enemies of state and ordinary murderers, thugs, and the like. Peace began to return to the Empire of Mellas as disquiet was sown in the mind of its Emperor.
Ever since receiving the “gift” of the Midnight’s Hunger the Emperor had increasingly intense and frequent headaches along with dark visions. His mood changed along with the fading joy and prosperity of the Empire. Now the source of the Empire’s despair came not from without but from the Mellian Throne itself in the form of increasingly heavier taxation, foul edicts, and brutal reprisals to perceived threats. Increasingly the disintegrating gaze of the Emperor was cast upon the unjustly accused. The Emperor was rumored to be mad.
Meanwhile Hasjan had been questing the Empire and beyond, gathering lore about the Midnight’s Hunger. What he revealed horrified him, the Midnight’s Hunger was not simply a magical pearl but the bitter, pitch black heart of the demon prince, Naberaxus. The Empire of Mellas had been established by a pact with this very demon but the Emperor’s ancestor had tricked Naberaxus and slain him. With his dying breath the demon had cursed his own heart to be used as a weapon against the Mellian Throne. The demon’s vile essence had survived within that opal prison for millennia. Naberaxus’ vile heart would devour the Empire at the willing hand of it’s own Emperor. Hasjan returned to the Mellian Throne only to provoke the wrath of the Emperor with this grave news. The Emperor tore his eye patch from his face, but before he could cast his ravenous orb on his faithful wizard, the Emperor’s sister, Larassa, leapt between the two and was consumed.
The Emperor went near mad with grief but felt his control over the essence of Naberaxus slipping further along with a shattering pain within his skull. A pain that he could only relieve by opening his left eye and absorbing more lives within its dusky confines. Hasjan knew not how to remove the Midnight’s Hunger but devised a plan to split the essence of Naberaxus that rode the Emperor’s shoulders and store it within several loyal retainers of the Emperor.
As Hasjan placed the arcane mirror before the Emperor and his valiant vassals to perform the ritual that would split the essence of Naberaxus, the demon prince struck, forcing the hungry eye of the Emperor to open…

Shipwrecked! An Adventure on the Elfdrown Sea

On the evening of the 23^rd day at sea, the sky was clear and the Wayseeker drifted calmly at anchor just off shore from one of the small islands that dot this strange sea.  Pelor, God of the Sun, slipped under the distant horizon for the night letting the moons and stars guard the night sky.  The crimson sunset yielded to a royal blue before settling into blackness illuminated by a thousand incandescent stars.

The clear sky became blocked by great cloudy tentacles that seemed to twist into being above the Wayseeker.  The moons and stars winked out, hidden by dark, writhing tendrils of mist.  A blood red light seeped from the storm clouds and drowned, demented faces appeared in the wine red waters.  The wind whipped the sails, as the waves tugged hungrily at the Wayseeker.

The Wayseeker bound from the water and twisted momentarily in the air before lunging sideways back to the clutching waves.  The brave adventurers were cast from the deck into the warm waters amongst other tormented souls both real and imaginary.  The graceful Wayseeker was broken and rapidly sunk to her grave.  In the water, something large passed by.  Some swore a draconic head rose from the waves before pursuing Wayseeker to the depths.

The comrades woke the next morning on a narrow sandy beach.  At their feet the surf from the Elfdrown Sea lapped gently, all evidence of the witchstorm and the Wayseeker gone.  The beach was a broad V and only 20 feet across before ending again in the water guarding a stone ruin.  At each end of the sandy platform, crude driftwood bridges climbed to two small grassy cliffs.  The beach was pristine white sand, like that at the bottom of the Elfdrown, and was mostly unmarked except for the imprints of the heroes' bodies and several other large reptilian bodies in the sand.

Suddenly two 20 foot long salt water crocodiles exploded from the water, hungry and intent upon the shipwrecked comrades.  Unfazed they fought a retreating action back to the driftwood bridges.  They climbed to an islet, a square surface about 10 feet above the surf.  Thick grass and some palm trees covered this 40' by 40' platform.  Strange flowers and insects were in abundance, the area pungent with rich pollens and wet undergrowth.  On the opposite edge another primitive driftwood bridge stretched over to a larger overgrown square islet.  To the right the ruin continued, blocking the heroes view, while to the left the surf crashed at the base of this lush islet.  Unfortunately a 20 foot by 20 foot spiked pit trap was hidden at the center of the islet and injured the party.  The bottom of the pit was filled with coral stakes and the badly decomposed corpse of a dwarf lay broken and punctured at the bottom of the pit.  Small mounds of debris lay in the corners of the room, within one such pile they discovered elven chain mail.

The next islet was about 45 feet in both directions and mostly covered by grass.  To the left and ahead, the Elfdrown Sea stretched.  About halfway on the right side a bridge stretched to another islet of similar size. This slate island was bereft of anything alive except for five, bulky humanoids.  These creatures were about 7 feet tall and heavily muscled.  Light green skin, no, scales covered their bodies, their menacing yellow eyes glinting from beneath heavy brows.  They were armed and gesticulated with cruelly spiked greatclubs, hissing and chirping in an abominable reptilian tongue.

This was the advanced guard of the tribe of Falkiss, behind these the adventurers spotted eight more aggressive lizard warriors amassed and ready to attack.  The party dispatched the advanced guard before facing the next group, lead by a lizard folk fighter named Nazrik.  These lizard folk attempted to drive the party over the edge and back into the Elfdrown Sea to be eaten by a waiting chuul.  However they were unsuccessful and they fled by leaping over the edge.

After the battle, dead lizard folk lay twisted and broken on the sandstone structure, the malevolent glint forever extinguished from their alien eyes.  In the middle of the islet a short driftwood bridge descended slightly to a granite block in the shape of a trapezoid.  Off to the left, about 60 feet, several more lizard folk made ready to descend onto the platform via a second bridge.  Behind the granite block, the remnants of a round tower surveyed the scene.  From the tower chanting and drums began an ominous dirge, as they did a fog began to rise obscuring the islets ahead.  The granite platform became shrouded in mist, hiding the lizard folk.  Their talons scraped on the rock while the hisses and growls of their bastard draconic tongue punctuated the air.

Suddenly, more lizard folk attacked from the rear, effectively catching the doughty heroes in a pincer formation, just as suddenly the drums stopped and the arcane fog dissipated in the harsh tropical sun.  From the tower above a giant lizardman gesticulated wildly and pointed at the fray, a ball of flame bound from his hands expanded and began bouncing intelligently into the party.  By the slimmest of margins, the heroes battled out of the pincer and hid from the lizardman shaman.

This connecting islet was similar in shape to the granite one below, a large trapezoid nearly 40' across and twice as long.  Although covered in dense vegetation this was clearly the remnants of an elven city manor, ruined walls jutted up here and there and badly decayed furniture was covered in flowers and vegetation.  In the center of the ruins, a broken staircase vanished into the depths. At the end of the ruin a simple bridge stretched to a similar but perpendicular ruin. Far below and to the left lay the beach that our heroes washed up on.  While on the right loomed the tower, the lizardman spellcaster once again taking aim.

Escaping down the stairs, the party found one big chamber, divided by shattered walls.  The thick smell of reptiles and their shed skins could be seen twisted into what must be sleeping quarters.  Some light came in through ruined windows on both sides, showing both the tower and the open sea.  Disgusting offal lined the floor but both this and the level below seemed deserted.

Reluctantly leaving the relative safety of the lizard folk den and quickly scaling the bridge to the next islet, this morass of tropical vegetation and stone was linked by three bridges.  One led to the tower, where the massive lizardman shaman, Falkiss, waited with a huge club gripped in hands, his corded muscles trembling with rage.  Across the trapezoid, a bridge ran to the last ruin guarding the tower.  To the left about 60 feet away, the last bridge was being pitched into the sea by two lizard folk on a square ruin.  Several other lizard folk scaled down the far side of that islet, along with 15 or so hatchlings.  All but the lizard folk shaman fled the colony and left it to the victors.

Standing to one side of the tower, Falkiss, the huge lizard man brandished a tree sized club.  A frightening specimen indeed, nearly 9 feet tall and almost 400 lbs of cable-like muscle.  His green scales had golden high-lights and yellow eyes that were flames of pure hatred.  He wore a large turtle shell as armor and a thick leather belt around his waist.  On the other side of the tower, a huge viper, fangs dripping poison uncoiled itself and joined the lizardfolk shaman like some obscene pet.  After a grievous battle the giant viper was destroyed although Falkiss escaped by leaping over the edge.  The party examined the area and found a secret door with steps descending into the darkness.  At the bottom of the stairs a 30 foot by 30 foot square room strewn with gems, coins, weapons and other treasure.  The room itself appeared to be the crumbling remains of the upper floors of a rich elven family home and smelled pleasantly of dried herbs.

Another of the connecting islets was similar to all those that ring the tower, a long 40 foot trapezoidal ruin.  This one being the one from which the lizardfolk ambush was launched.  This islet was also covered in lush vegetation.  In the center of the islet rested a large mound of moist debris and compost.

The top level of Falkiss' tower was in surprisingly good repair, perhaps elven magic can out last the depredations of wind and sea.  A lean-to sat in one corner, perhaps the shaman's quarters.  The center of the tower was dominated by a large circular door, set in the floor stones.

Opening this door, caused a hiss of pain and a scampered retreat from Pelor's light.  A bodak was found within and dispatched.  This chamber also had a two move chess puzzle, which was solved releasing an alien, stone guardian who swore fealty to the solver's of the puzzle.  A series of twisted tunnels connected Falkiss chambers to a dungeon below.  At one point the party heard distant voices through a grate in the floor.  This turned out to be another adventuring party who had found entrance to the deeper levels of the Imperial capital of Tasehaleen.  Unable to reach or aid one anther the groups parted.

They followed a rough, wet, twisted corridor and came upon an undersea cave, the home of Auqutorus, the ancient dragon turtle that the lizard folk worshipped as a god.  Here a mighty battle ensued, and was almost lost when Falkiss reappeared and stealthily entered the fray.  But good prevailed and the draconic beast and its servant laid low.  Safe to depart the island, the party crafted a raft and escaped taking with them the extensive treasury of both the lizard folk and Auqutorus.

I apologize for how stilted this story is.  I do not remember the names of the characters but I do remember the players.  Furthermore this is written up from my adventure notes, presentation, and memory of a single night 10 years ago.  This adventure was the first time I made an audio-visual presentation for Dungeons and Dragons.  I developed a series of coded PowerPoint slides with animated images and sound clips.  As the adventure was quite linear we essentially proceeded through the presentation along with adventure.  We used a borrowed projector to put it on the wall, and if only some of the player characters saw something I asked only those players to look at it.  I had a "soundtrack" which I played on a CD player.  I had already copied two or three sound effects CDs to my iTunes and played additional soundbites from there.  Prior to the adventure I had designed each islet as an Adobe Illustrator file which I printed onto an overhead.  This could be laid out on a gridded mat and then the figurines placed on top of this.
There was so much stimulus that with the first sound clip played, one of my players, Chris, lost it and began giggling hysterically (e.g. Tasha's Hideous Laughter) and of the three players two of them, Greg and the recovering Chris, didn't even notice that a projector was being used until I drew their attention to it.  After everyone settled down, the players became very engaged and enjoyed themselves, although I did set a new bar for my dungeon mastering with all these extras.

The Elfdrown Sea

Many centuries ago the elven empire of Tasehaleen ruled the known world.  The elves of Tasehaleen were the masters of war, magic, and science.  Their power was great and their pride greater.  In the end this arrogance angered the gods who sunk their beautiful empire beneath the waves, forming the Elfdrown Sea.  The Elfdrown Sea is a great shallow, calm crystal sea dotted with numerous treacherous snags, reefs and small islands.  Like great teeth, granite mountains ring the sea.  The Elfdrown Sea is a treacherous water but with many rewards.   The waters are shallow enough that divers can easily reach the bottom and retrieve elfgold and arcane treasures, if they survive the horrid abominations that make the Elfdrown their home and the frequent witchstorms, fierce magical tempests that rage briefly and disappear as quickly as they came.   It is also rumored that some of the islands are clumps of petrified trees or buildings and serve as entrances to a great dungeon beneath the waves.  In addition, rumors abound of pirates and other cutthroats using the small islands as bases or even creatures making them their homes.  All elves feel a great melancholy upon these waters and no sea elf lives within the Teeth of the Elfdrown.

Noloc Maps is a cartographer of some note and greater greed.   In an effort to reap even more bounty from the Elfdrown he has planned the single greatest cartographic project of the Elfdrown Sea.  Noloc plans to create a series of maps detailing the thousands of islands, snags and reefs of the Elfdrown Sea, as well as density maps of witchstorms and the foul creatures that make these cursed water's their home.  To this end he has hired the PCs to serve as explorers, sailors, cartographers, etc. aboard his ship the Wayseeker.  The adventurers will start on the Wayseeker after several days travel upon the Elfdrown Sea.  So far you have noticed several things:

• Sound does NOT travel very far over the waters of the Elfdrown Sea the whole area seems muted or muffled.
 

• Magic is usually "well-behaved" but seems to be the catalyst for a witchstorm.  Woe to spell-caster who uses magic during a witchstorm.  However it seems to take 2-4 days before a witchstorm can occur again within a certain area.

• Even though the waters are usually crystal clear, threatening creatures seem to appear out of nowhere. Glass sharks here are fast, big, and blend almost seemlessly with the sea floor.  The great rager crabs are belligerent and very territorial.   The only welcome creatures have been the locathahs who like exchanging fish for small trinkets and saved a man from drowning.

My Tomb of Horrors

We played a most heinous module call the Tomb of Horrors.  This adventure is legendary in Dungeons and Dragons gaming circles because of its incredible player character fatality rate.  Basically the adventurers delve into the crypt of a very evil living dead creature (called a lich) named Azerack, or as my four doughty and later fewer adventurers called him @$$-crack.  I played four high level explorers:

• The brilliant witch Vaeriel
• The holy priest Muril, servant of Wee Jas, goddess of Death and Magic
• The noble paladin and Heironius' Thunderous Fist, Ileis Adlund, and
• The dwarven dungeon- and wise-cracker Durgan, "I've seen this play, the dwarf dies first"

The first choice the adventurers faced were three passageways into the horrendous crypt, one was chosen after safely tripping the traps in the other two false passageways.  We discovered a poem of clues about the crypt which helped guide us through and narrowly missed jumping into a hole in space-time called a sphere of annihilation.  Vaeriel and Muril dispatched a mutant gargoyle with spells and Vaeriel wisely used arcane arts to obtain a valuable magical item for the dungeon. Durgan daringly defeated trap after trap as we explored deeper and deeper within the tom.  We came upon a creature that appeared to be Azerack, but turned out to be a facsimile, which we destroyed anyway.  Further exploration and the poem brought us down a trapdoor, into a mummy preparation room.  Here Vaeriel brilliantly coupled her and Muriel's spells to pump acid from one vat to another.  We drilled holes in the two vats with Muril's heat metal spell and then used a cylindrical wall of force as a pipe between the two.  Lastly Vaeriel used a Tenser's floating disk and the combined weight of the dwarf and paladin to act as a pump and push the acid to the other vat.  This allowed us to retrieve a piece of a key needed to get to Azerack's crypt.

From here we entered a room with mystical tapestries and a trembling floor, that spelled the undoing of brother Muril.  When he clutched a tapestry to prevent a fall, he unleashed green slime which devoured him in seconds.  We recovered a small of piece of him for later resurrection.  Saddened we travelled on finding the lich's funereal throne room, and using his crown and scepter we passed through the secret door behind the dais.  Below we found a false sarcophagus and under one of the statue guards we found a passageway to the undercrypt.  Here, after recovering some treasure of mystical and mundane value as well as some blatantly foolish trial and error, did we manage to rouse the demilich.  It husked Vaeriel's soul from her body and trapped it within the diamond in its right orbital socket.  Enraged, Sir Ileis did smite the foul undead into tiny little pieces.  We recovered the diamond with Vaeriel's soul and left behind the evils of the Tomb of Horrors.

Thus did Ileis and Durgan return to Vendare and at the Temple of Wee Jas get Muril resurrected.  They now seek a way to restore Vaeriel to body (or a clone thereof)...

Coulmian: Forge of Fury

City of Alltrade, 17 Summerblade 496 RY

The bold adventurers three: Fletch, Gregicus and Grendig arrived by boat to the pearl of commerce, Alltrade.  A missive, offering to hire them for adventure, had been sent to them by the ancient sage Koar the Blind.  Upon reaching Alltrade the three were quickly directed to Koar’s estate and welcomed with great hospitatlity.

City of Alltrade and surroundings

Koar wanted to retrieve weapons meant to be used against the Ravening, weapons that lay unbloodied during the Exodus.  Specifically, Koar was interested in the weaponworks of one Durgeddin the Black a dwarven smith, once seduced by the Ravening who later repented.  Durgeddin’s penance was the fabrication of mystical blades meant to destroy the servants of the Ravening.  In essence,

Koar wanted Fletch, Gregicus and Grendig to explorer Durgeddin’s fallen mountain fortress, Khundrukar, the Stonetooth over the ruins of Glinder.  The kindly sage dispatched them with a scrying crystal should they need his assistance.

The three spent the rest of the day securing provisions, mounts and magical items.  The local priest of Norbask’Kun, Sister Alonsa, supplied them with several healing potions.  They also visited Vistain’s Shoppe of the Wonderous where they acquired a floating glow rod and a sentient silk line.  After finishing their provisioning, they returned to Koar’s estate and spent the night. 

Southern Coast of Hemelass Sea, 18 Summerblade 496 RY

The brave explorers rode west in the pleasant summer morning.  The day was mostly uneventful except for a brief encounter with a green-eyed tiger the size of a water buffalo.  Fletch managed to startle the tiger with a clever illusion.  That would have been the end of it except for the growl that sounded like “vvveeerrryyy fffuuunnnyy”.  That night Grendig spotted two great green orbs—watching and waiting in the rainy darkness.

Southern Coast of Hemelass Sea, 19 Summerblade 496 RY

The rest of the trip was uneventful, the party reached the Stone Tooth at dusk, the sharp mountain that houses Khundrukar.  A single pillar of smoke rose from somewhere on or in the mountain.  The party set camp and hobbled their horses to the North of the Stone Tooth near the Glinderrun.  The night passed without incident. 

Mountain Door of Khundrukar, 20 Summerblade 496 RY

The journal ends here...

Reexplored Lands of Coulmian

Ancient Evil of a Fallen City, Part IV

The Catacomb’s of the Warriors’ Guild

The doughty adventurers are deep within the catacombs of the Fallen City’s Warrior’s Guild, trapped there by Puffthrax the dragon-lord of this domain: Lothar’s paladin, Lady Nagroma the Just and her draconic ally Scorch, Hoshido the drow warmaster, the eleven bladesinger Raven, the sea-elf wizard Matrix, and a servant of the All Mother, Dael Oakleaf.  The group had explored deep within in the catacombs working there way down to the necropolis beneath the Fallen City.

The group broke the seals to the Training Warrens and fought a pack of magically-enhanced trolls, slaying all their number with the aid of foreign warriors from Kara-Tur.  They investigated the troll lair finding Lothar’s Helm of Vengeance and an imprisoned granite-skinned giant, his mighty eighteen foot frame chained by his head to the wall of a side cavern.  After many attempts to free the giant the group was ultimately unsuccessful.  However, he did indicate that he had been put here by a witch who had an underground tower in the vicinity.  The group followed the passage nearest the giant’s vague gesturing and came upon a rough chamber with a large tower hewn out of the stone wall.  As the witch’s albino wolves attacked the party the witch ensorcelled the party members.

In a mighty battle, Lady Nagroma was turned to stone, the barbarian brothers Grimtooth and Fangblood became albino wolves as well, and Dael was also bitten an became a frenzied demi-were-wolf.  By the clever actions of Matrix and Raven they subdued their party mates and fled the spell slinging witch, Carmen.

Ancient Evil of a Fallen City, Part III

Cursed Guild of the Mages

Our story picks up in the library of the Mage Tower where our intrepid heroes were perusing the stacks looking for spells.  While downstairs in the waiting room, Fangblood waited patiently, Sir Nagrom mysteriously metamorphosed into Alvar, and Jeiro magically appeared.

Shortly there was an all tower summons to the dining room for a sumptuous buffet, which restored our health fully.  Oddly, all of the small talk and chit-chat at the table was about old, old news, events that took place in our childhoods.  Somewhere, a clock chimed and the event began to slow down, upon the the 12th chime, the blazing fire went out and we were plunged into darkness and decay as the party of feasting mages vanished and were replaced by a handful of hideously undead things.  At the head of the table appeared what we can only presume was a lich.

Our battle seasoned heroes quickly high tailed it to the corner of the room and took up a defensive V formation preparing for a sluggish onslaught by the hideous wights that now surrounded us.  We fought valiantly as Jeiro the mighty marksman managed a natural 20 on a called shot to the hand of the lich, which was holding some sort of staff that we can only assume was fearsome.  However, the lich shrugged it off and picked up his staff and the battle continued.  Fangblood was sadly lost to several strikes of a wight.

Alvar, trying to avoid melee and cast spells out of harm's way, spider climbed a wall until a dispel magic from the ol' Eye Sockets (the lich) sent him plummeting comically to the floor.  Matrix and Jeiro were suddenly gripped with a hellishly cold fear and fled to the stairs and

were teleported away.  Leaving Raven and Alvar to dispatch the remaining wights and battle the dread lich.  With a mighty blow of his Blade of Elvenkind, the lich was dispelled and his spirt was sent screaming from his corpse, which subsequently crumbled to dust.  Alvar confiscated the Staff of the Magi that the lich was wielding and we took the stairs to rejoin our comrades, but not until we ritually decapitated Fangblood to prevent his return as a hideous wight.

The room we were teleported to had a giant vat of bubbling slime with some sort of giant creature within it.  We walked around the edge of this pool and investigated a hewn tunnel exiting the room.  This tunnel ended in a sheer cliff and below we could see an active, thriving community of DARK ELVES.  Fearing for our lives, we beat a hasty retreat before being spotted by any of the inhabitants.

In the center of this pool of bubbling slime was a tower with rungs leading up to a hatch in the ceiling.  Using his wits, Alvar cleverly used spider climb and a rope to create a means for the rest of us to shinny up to the hatch.

HOWEVER... when all but Jeiro and his jaguar, Painter, had climbed to the top of the tower, and Raven and Matrix were already through the hatch and in the room above, 3 Driders came scurrying out of the tunnel and across the ceiling to engage us.  Fighting valiantly, Alvar was slumped into a coma from their poisoned swords.  Jeiro fought valiantly and Raven leaped down the hatch to assist in melee.  Fortunately, the Striders were none too dexterous and one managed to fumble into another knocking both into the pool below.  The third also slipped and during an attack and was dumped into the pool.   We quickly escaped through the hatch.

Finding ourselves in a jail with several holding cells and two live prisoners, and one golem prisoner.  We freed the human thief and the half-ogre warrior and they agreed to accompany us out of the tower.  The golem headed for the stairs leading out of the prison and began a time delayed loop of teleporting back into the room and heading for the stairs again.

Realizing the first step on the stairs appeared to be fruitless, Raven tried step number 3 and failed to return as the golem continued to do.  The rest of the party followed and we all arrived in the library.  But the library appeared much more aged this time.

Greedy buggers that we were, the three mages set out to scavenge some spell books to increase our repertoires.  We had an encounter with the ghost of the curmudgeonly librarian, who was fastidiously placing the books back on the shelves that we had dropped periodically to mark our trail since this HUGE library was labyrinthian.  He kept insisting we had been naughty and attempted to attack Raven, so we knew he wasn't being as helpful as librarians ought.  Matrix's quick thinking allowed us to escape the encounter by dumping scads of books on the floor which infuriated the librarian who was forced to pick  up before engaging us.

 Using shouting and singing to maintain contact with Jeiro at the "campsite" within the library, we rejoined the party.  The infuriated screaming of the librarian was heard from one direction, a cry for help was heard in another direction, and all in all we were simply too scared to worry about engaging any of these phantom voices and so onto the teleportation stairs we went.  But Alvar and Raven didn't go anywhere. Apparently the books we had confiscated were not allowed to leave.  So Alvar and myself had a quick reading of Book of Beneficial Magicks by Mazcorick, and the Tome of Many Things.  (you can guess which one caught our eye the most)  Raven was too wary to even attempt opening the Grim Grimoire.  But the Tome of Many Things blessed Raven with a Staff of Thunder and Lightning, as well as 50,000XP.  Alvar got one of his hands torched severely, but was also gifted with a couple magical javelins.  Happy with our looting, we took to the stairs to join our comrades and who knows what will happen in the next exciting installment of....the Mighty Mazcorick Chasers!