Adventure 11

Party Members:
Hammar – 4th Level Cleric
Cloverdung – 4th Level Ranger
Othello – 4th Level Thief
Gubikla – 4th Level Magic User
Kavis – 3rd Level Fighter

The group has rested in town, and Kavis has rejoined his companions. After eating a hearty breakfast, at lunch, the group studies their options. While waiting for the group, Cloverdung runs out to the farmer to deliver his brewing license. The farmer offers Cloverdung a cask of cider ale, which he downs all in one sitting, and still manages to get back to town. The party also freshens their supplies; buy more rope and rations.

Gubikla finally remembers he found a map back in the tower. After failing to read it, the group decides to take it to Borris and see if he can read it. Borris tells them it is a moon map. It can only be read by moonlight, and if written under different moons, then there could be several layers to the map. Borris casts a moonlight spell and determines that this is some kind of reference to the Vortex. The Vortex is a teleportation-type device that has several ‘transporters’ throughout the land. One location may lead to two or three others, and so on. There is supposedly a green-dragon-hide book that contains the incantations for being able to use the various Vortex transporters. There is a rose symbol in the woods, south of town, marked on the map with lines going to other locations. The group assumes this means there is a Vortex teleporter nearby.

So, Cloverdung heads off towards the woods just south of town. As the group is walking around the charcoal making section of the woods, a scream is heard. Gubikla determines there is treasure in the same direction, so our heroes head off to defend what is in need (and recover any treasure that may be ownerless). Most of the group run towards the noise, but Othello decides to sneak. Cloverdung just walks.

When Hammar, Kavis, and Gubkila break into a clearing, they see a beast that looks like a bear but has an owl head beating on a person. Kavis charges in and drops his weapon. Hammar does some minor damage. Gubikla torches Kavis in the back with a scorching ray (luckily the other two rays hit the beast). There stands Kavis, face to face with an OwlBear, no weapon, and his back is on fire. So, the OwlBear strikes heavily on Kavis and reduces his hits to less than half. Hammar flails away some more but not doing much. Gubikla continues to damage the beast and now Othello joins in with a bolt from his crossbow. Cloverdung is searching the trees and monitoring the sky for other OwlBears (which don’t fly). Finally, the creature goes down. Kavis is bleeding profusely and Hammar has to touch himself for a cure. Cloverdung finally arrives on scene to search one of the dead bodies and cure Kavis of his wounds. One of the townfolk is unconcious so Hammar decides to break out his first aid kit. Whereupon, Hamamr fumbles the use of the kit and kills the poor fellow.

With nothing more to see here, the group decides to head back towards the main woods. Before heading out though, Hammar decides to leave a note saying he was sorry for the one man’s death.

As the party approaches the bigger woods, Cloverdung pretends to see a trail leading into the forest. He begins to hack away at the vegetation and lead the group on a 2 hour walk. Stopping at one point to check his bearrings, Cloverdung continues to lea the group south. Finally, they reach the Sleeth river. Cloverdung tells the group to head westward, along the banks of the river.

As they are walking along, a OwlBear jumps out from behind a huge tree. No one could have seen it coming because Cloverdung tried. The creature misses with his first attack and so the group responds with a flurry of attacks. Trading a few blows, the beast goes down. Suddenly, form out of the large tree, several ravens begin to fly off. Fearing these are servants from some unmet fiend, Cloverdsung downs a pair with his arrows. Gubikla and Othello unleash spells and bolts to down more. Kavis throws an axe at another while Hammar sacred flames a group. To make sure the birds are disposed, Gubikla thunder claps the tree, which kills more and causes four more to attempt to fly away. With two arrows, Cloverdung pierces the last four birds with awesome shots.

Finding nothing but an OwlBear path, Cloverdung tells the group that great things lie at the end of OwlBear paths. The group pushes into the woods again. After a short walk, the path opens into a clearing with five seats arranged around a center column. This must be the rose Vortex they are looking for. There is alos an OwlBears nest in this clearing. Cloverdung finds and OwlBear egg in the nest and packs it for safe keeping.

Sure enough, there is a symbol of a rose on the sides of the center column. Kavis sits in a seat and wets himself. Other than that, nothing happens. Kavis then sits in what appers to be the control chair. And nothing happens. Party members search the various chairs and column, but find nothing of use. Gubikla casts detect magic and has a faint hit, just outside of the clearing. He investigates and finds a cube with two symbols on it. One is pot, the other is a pomegranite. Kavis takes the cube and places it in the center column. The party members each sit in a chair. Nothing happens. The group does this several times with the cube in various poitions. Nothing happens.

Finally, the group decides to wait for the next full moon. Maybe the map will show more information or the teleportation system will work.

Cloverdung pitches a tent and casts an alarm spell on it to keep the hungry eyes of the party members from cooking his OwlBear egg. Othello climbs a tree, to avoid ground critters. Hammar goes to sleep in the OwlBear nest. Gubikla hides behind a chair. Kavis passes out in the control chair. After a while, because he is bored, Hammar places feathers in his ears and starts cooing like a baby OwlBear. Nothing happens. Finally, he gets out of the next and begins to draw a large pentagram in the dirt around the chairs. He starts dancing and singing, while trying to find a way to light the pentagram.

Suddenly, a voice calls from the woods, “Hello in camp”. Hammar stops dancing and Kavis wakes up. Hammar hollers back “Hello outside of camp”. The voice asks if it may enter our camp. Hammar says sure. Out of the woods walks a hunter with a bow. Hammar aks if he has seen anything unusual in the woods. The hunter tells of a haunted pool, up the river a ways. He warns us to not go near there. Other than that, and seeing Hammar dancing around with feathers in his ears, the woods seem to be normal. When asked about this clearing, the hunter does not know what it is for. Hammar says he has beer and when the hunter asks for some, Hamamr takes a long time to finally agree to share. Then, the whole party hears of Hammar having beer and they all join in for free drinks. Once done with his drink, the hunter bids us good luck and continues on his way.

Back to waiting for the moonlight. Finally, just after midnight, the moon begins to shine down onto the forest. Gubikla breaks out the map and sure enough, more lines appear, showing more teleporter stations. But nothing else.

The group decides that without the book there is not much luck in activating the teleporter station. They decide to head up the river and investigate the mysterious pool the hunter warned them about. Leading the way, Cloverdung takes them up the banks of the Sleeth. After walking a while, the group hears a girl’s voice from wihtin the woods cry out that she is lost. Since it is still night, Cloverdung has Gubikla cast light on his shoes so the group can investigate. The party slowly enters the woods, with Othello peeling off by himself to the left flank. The group comes to a clearing, with a tree in the center. The girl’s voice cries again. Hammar says to the little girl, show yourself.

Now that the group thinks this is some kind of trap, when a pair of manticores punce out of the tree. One towards Othello and other towards the rest of the group. With their spiked tails, the first manticore hits and pins Othello. The other one hits Kavis. The party fire back and damage the creatures. With Othello pinned, the manticore lands some more hits. Kavis kills the one on teh main group and Gubikla kills the one holding Othello down.

The beasts are dead and the group decides to rest while Hammar goes off to find us some donuts.