Entry 14


After breakfast, we go about the task of removing all the wards and spells that Hang had placed around the house. Jinn seemed to take to the task with some extra zeal. Jinn casts a new version of Arcane Lock on all the openings of the house and attune them to Dorn, Tyrel himself and I. We decide to head to the Temple of Lithandir to check on Luc and Liam.

Luc is there and explains that he hasn't cast the spell to revive Lim yet as he's nervous of his inexperience. Jinn asks him to remove the circlet and protections of Auril and Luc performs the task, however do to not doing this previously, it doesn't work perfectly. Him and Jinn get a bit of a bite from the removal. I offer for him to try it on me next and a little better, but not perfect. Luc then performs the ritual on Dorn and Tyrel and by now he's got it down and they are removed without issue. Once this is complete we go back to the topic of Liam. Luc asks us to go ask Morvina for assistance but he heard she was away tending to the fields. We go to Morvina's temple and inquire and are greeted by a traveling priest, or so he says. He appears to have recently crawled out of the shit room from the sewers. Michel, a halfling druid is dressed in dirty, patchwork traveling clothes with a rickety old cart next to him. He overhears our conversation to find Morvina and offers to help. With nothing to lose, we agree and Michel calls a nearby song bird to perch on his hand. He mutters to the bird and watches it fly off.Michel tells us he asked the bird to find Morvina and ask for her to visit Luc as soon as she can. With nothing else to do, we head back to Luc.

As we're walking we hear a *squeak squeak squeak* following us. We all stop and turn around annoyingly and see Michel following us with his rickety two-wheel cart. We turn back around and continue and but not before Tyrel rolls his eyes and flicks his hand at the cart casting Prestidigitation to silent the squeak. Now if he could clean the druid.

We arrive back at Lithandir's and Luc asks Michel to assist with the ritual as well, as he is familiar with the process but not having performed it himself, Michel's not sure how much help he would be. Michel seems very reluctant to do....anything. I notice him staring off into his own imagination. He's even done it mid-conversation. Is there something wrong with this fellow?

With this group being about as good as it gets, we all circle around the dias that Liam is on and Luc starts the ritual. He places one of the recovered diamonds in the center of Liam's chest and starts the incantations. The air around us gets noticeably colder and despite it being almost high noon, shadows fall across the chamber. We see a brilliant ball of white light start to descend towards the body of Liam. As it reaches about  feet above his prone body, the whole chamber goes black for an instance, the shadows get deeper, the cold penetrates my body and I can see my breath. From behind the columns step 5 different undead beasts. 3 seem to be almost transparent as the other 2 are solid but still undead. They have a black look to them all, death emanates from them. Tyrel calls upon the power of Lithandir and his sword is sheathed in a brilliant golden light, almost like sunlight.

Tyrel strikes at the nearest creature and the sword does not appear to do much but the light from the sword soaks into the creature as it cries out. I take the opportunity to summon my shadow blade, use the shadows to leap behind the incorporeal creature Tyrel attacked and slash it from behind. The shadow blade hits and encounters some resistance but as it swipes across, the sword appears to almost absorb the mist around and the creature dissipates.

One of the creatures moves to attack Dorn. Dorn doesn't appear to be effected much at first but then I see blackness spread from the impact zone and Dorn is taken aback. Another creature does the same to Jinn and Jinn is effected as well. A third character moves towards Michel, I see Michel stiffen and the creature appears to melt into Michel. Michel's eyes go completely black. Michel moves over to Luc and hits him with his scimitar. Luc yells in pain but manages to maintain the ritual, somehow.

Jinn mutters a spell of Mirror Image and 8 duplicates form. Just as the 9th "Jinn" appears, one of the undead strikes him but only manages to dissipate one of the duplicates. Dorn attacks one of the creatures with little effect and the creature retaliates, again Dorn's skin turns black and he staggers a bit. Dorn shakes the cob webs off and moves to one of the more solid undead. He makes 3 massive swipes with his sword, knocking it prone and stabbing into it several times. Tyrel rushes towards Michel, muttering an incantation. You see the possessed spirit in Michel get forced out but just as it's about to fly free, it snaps back into Michel's body. Dorn's foe stands back up attacking him, Jinn gets hit by another one and his eyes turn black as well. The creature has gotten a hold of Jinn. Jinn, under the influence of the undead, conjures a fireball and drops it at his own feet. Just as it's about to hit, Tyrel realizes what happened and casts counter spell and the fireball fizzles at is it hits the floor. As I'm watching this happen, one of the undead comes to me at slashes at me. I'm barely able to keep concentration on my shadow blade. I hear Jinn scream as he pushes the spirit out of his head and the color returns to his eyes. Jinn, looking rather upset now, turns to the creature and wraps it in a sheath of fire. The creature burns and dissipates. As the fire burns, I see the spirit fly from Michel. Michel yells out, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!" and casts heal on Luc. Dorn, now looking better swipes and fells one of the undead, then turns to another, slashing deep cuts into it. Tyrel slashes with his enchanted blade at the nearest creature. Again, sunlight seems to soak into the creature and as the spell is canceled, a burst of bright light washes over the entire chamber. I fell one more creature as Michel summons...."moonlight"....inside??.....and the last creature falls.

Luc yells, "Get back into position!!" We all scramble back to our original spots and as the orb of light touches down on the diamond, a flash of light and the Lord of Bones is standing there. "Who is calling for this soul?" "We are!!" we all yell back. Tyrel reaches into his pocket and hands something to the Lord. Before we can do anything else, he looks at Tyrel and says, "Accepted." Again, another flash of light and we see Liam pop-up and take in a deep breath.

"What happened!?!?" he sputters. We explain to him what has transpired in the last few minutes. Slowly, he is regaining his strength. He stumbles a few times as he hasn't used his legs in about a month. We decide to head back to my house and invite Michel, Liam and Luc to discuss some more of what's going on over some green dragon steaks. Liam tells us there is some Ophidian trouble to the south. Michel's ears perk up. The threat does not appear to be approaching Daggerford, at the moment, but asked if we would be willing to take a look. Michel expresses his interest as that's where he just came from and his farm is down there. We discuss it some but as it will take us from Daggerford for an extended period, we decide to ask Luc and Liam for some help for an immediate need. We tell them in detail all that has transpired with Hang and her sudden departure from the group. They offer to help us rid the town of Auril's influence and they will talk with the Duke. Over the next 15 days, we spread word of the negative influence of Auil, the destruction that she could wrought and the problems that have happened since she appeared. With the help of the town, the Duke and the guard, we're able to get the Temple of Auril banned from Daggerford. The next day as we're over by Auril's Temple, we see that all of Auril's followers are gone. The temple is gone, the cold influence is gone and the structure looks to be as it was after Uilken's fire.

During the 15 days that we remove the influence of Auril, I rent a horse, ride up to Kelsen's estate and leave him a note about what transpired with Hang, Auril, the Orc Village and our parts in the story. Hopefully Kelsin will understand. On the ride up there and back, I spend the time studying the Book of Shadows. I learn the Shadow Binding spell. This might come in handy.

As I enter the house after returning the horse. Jinn and Tyrel are discussing the ducal ring they found in the sewers. Michel is still there and staring off, per usual, and there seems to be a "haze" throughout the house. Before I left for Kelsin's I offered Michel Hang's old spot in the basement and he graciously accepted. I didn't know he was going to start a smoking emporium. Better lay down some ground rules. Also, he did grow some nice orange trees in the front yard. Jinn and Tyrel finally decide to cast identify on the ring. Jinn, in his "heightened" state, casts the best Identify spell I've ever seen him do and an image floats above the ring. We see the Duke's Grandfather in the image and he appears to be stumbling, quite inebriated. The image pulls back a little and we recognize he's in the sewer and a gelatinous cube is approaching him. The image shows the Duke's Grandfather stop, attempt to bow at the cube, then fall face first into the cube. As he stands, the cube sucks the ring off his finger and the Grandfather stumbles out of view. The image dissolves. We all look at each other for a minute, then burst into laughter!! Of all the things we've been through, this is maybe the most ridiculous one yet.

After all this, I go and talk to our good friend Gregoryvich. He's always entertaining. I ask if he can enchant my Dagger of Venom so it's always poisoned and does not have to be activated. He agrees to do this as a research project and doesn't charge me. Jinn and I mention if we could find another Armoring ring for Tyrel and Gegoryvich interrupts, "My friends, you have a Ring of Armoring?" Not thinking anything of it, we say yes, we both do. Gregoryvich asks if he can see it and make a copy of it. I agree and he says for our time he will give us the first duplicate he makes. Jinn also created a staff to hold his orbs that he shows to Gregoryvich. G laughs a little to himself and explains to Jinn that this was a pretty poor crafting. They start talking about the finer points of crafting, which I quickly tune out before I fall asleep. I browse the store until they're done and we thank him for his time and move on.

We head back to the house and over the next few days Jinn works on a new staff, Michel gets settled in, Jinn enchants Dorn's sword some more, Tyrel writes some lyrics and I eye clean up after all of them. Since Michel has been here, the house has been much messier and the pantry seems to be emptying faster. Can't be a coincidence.

As were tidying up there is a knock at the door. I look through the window but don't recognize him. I open the door and a rather stiff, formal looking fellow is standing there. "Are you Master Dorn?" he asks. I turn and yell through the house, "DORN!!!" Dorn approaches the man and he stutters a bit, "Master Olin has requested your presence at the gala tomorrow evening. You are all invited of course." Dorn looks him over and simply states, "ok" and shuts the door.

Energized by the thought of a party, we get the wild notion to go to the House of Pleasures. As the others are getting ready, I tell them I'll meet them there. I stay in the shadows and watch the House. Nothing seems to be off. As I'm finishing my scouting, I see the others enter the House. I head in after them. We're seated at a table when a server approaches. "My name is Islia and I will be at your service tonight." We order some drinks and when she returns with them, she asks if we would like to gamble or fight in the pits or anything else. Dorn is intrigued by the Pits so we grab a spot closer to the pits. We watch a few matches and Dorn inquires about competing but all the matches are full for this evening. Between matches we see Paine. She is hosting a very formal looking person dressed in the nobility of Waterdeep. She does not appear to notice us at all. Islia come back and we ask her about some of the other offerings in the House of Pleasures. For some dumb reason, Tyrel tries to charm her or persuade her or something and we see the wards flare preventing spells. Immediately, Islia is disturbed. She tells us we are no longer welcome at the House of Pleasures and as of now we are no longer allowed on the premises. Thanks Tyrel!

We leave without another word and head back to the house.

Before we get ready for the party at Olin's, we stop back in at Gregoryvich's. He's managed to make a duplicate or two, hands me mine back and the duplicate he promised. I give the new one to Tyrel. G tells us he perfected the spell a little more and has one that provides 50 temp hit points. Dorn purchases that one. Gregoryvich also hands me back my Dagger of Venon with a new sheath. "Be very careful my friend, I have managed to make the poison active at all times. It would be unfortunate if you nicked yourself with it." I thak him and go get ready for the party.

Around 6, another knock at the door and the same servant, Servi is there with a carriage. Olin's like 1/2 a mile away. Rich people are odd. As we enter the carriage, Servi explains some of the rules to the party to us and asks how we'd like to be announced. We all agree, except Jinn, to be announced as the Danger Magnets. Michel turned his dirty clothes into the finest tuxedo I've ever seen. Why can't he turns his other clothes into decent garb? We enter the party and most nobles are there except the Duke. We migle, drink, eat and then Servi approaches again and escorts us back to a private office. We enter the office and sit in the comfy chairs scattered about.

"Gentlemen" we hear as the door closes. There's Olin with his fine garb and a smile on his face. We greet him and introduce those he doesn't know. Exchange some pleasantries and share some information when he clears his throat. "Let's discuss the reason I've brought you all here. I was hoping to purchase Dorn's sword but that appears to not be an option. I'd like to ask you to help me with the growing dragon problem in the swamps. There is a struggle going on between the dragons, elves and the Duke for the land. I'd like you all to help me ensure the dragons do not win." "What's in it for us and you." I blurt out. Olin looks at me, "Well, for business reasons, dragons aren't good but if you'd like lands, titles, fan-fare, that could be arranged." We negotiate that, if we agree, Olin will get 40% of all coin found and we will get whatever items are there. Olin will help us procure some items for acid resistance and a map of the last known locations of the dragons. Thoss is the leader with his mate and 3 offspring around. This won't be easy. There may be as many as 5000 followers of Thoss near the swamps. This better be worth it......