All original material is copyright 2005-2008 Steve Johnson.

Last site update: 12/20/2007:

• Added recap of last session
• Updated Loot page

• Alden: where are my parents? Answer: seek Red Fortune.
• Aregon: how do I stop the ghosts that have been attacking me? Answer: kill he who sends them.
• Draznor: where are my parents: Answer: with the master.
• Alden: where do I find Kraken? Answer: below.

Having got what they came for, the group sneaks out of the library just in time. Apparently an alarm has been sounded and guards are rushing to the library.

The party rests. The next day, Aregon and Draznor are invited to meet with a representative of Magus Agonya, who offers them 500gp and potions in exchange for their pledge of loyalty to her guild faction. Draznor refuses, but Aregon accepts with the additional requirement that Agonya's faction help him find out who has been sending the ghost-like creatures after him. Aralan is invited to meet with Magus Majera. The female elven magus gives her a +2 Con book and asks nothing in return, but seems to be gauging Aralan's response to the gift. Majera asks Aralan to use the book "for the common good."

The party also ponders the meaning of the diagram etched inside the golden box. They believe the diagram represents the wizard guild, with the orb of dragonkind or the sun behind it and underground chambers below it. They travel around, the city, trying to see if a particular viewpoint matches the diagram, but do not have much luck. At one point, they travel past the village where Theodrid's shack is located.

Alden tells the party he wants to form a secret society dedicated to freeing all thralls and battling Kraken. The party agrees with the idea. Alden proposes they buy a tavern to use as their secret base of operations. Aralan suggests they sell some of the party's unused loot (+1 half-plate, etc.) to build capital. They also remember the silver mine that the ghost of Maury Miller showed them, back when they freed the village of Lowick from Zhentarim extortionists.

Alden also gains a follower - a bard named Khira. He then meets with his street contacts to recruit members and get the latest street info. He learns the following:

• The street urchin "Miri" was charmed by the Zhentarim or Kraken and used to lure the party into the Court of the White Bull ambush. Alden forgives Miri and asks him and all his fellow gutter rats to identify all the thralls in the city. Alden will pay Miri 1cp for each thrall's name and location. Alden also pays Miri to search for cheap, nondescript taverns for sale.
• Hadar’s severed head was found floating in the harbor. Hadar was the Kraken ranger the party captured, interrogated, and then left bound in the Dock Ward. He was probably killed by Kraken for giving the party information.
• When asking about "Red Fortune", Alden is referred to a shady street source who says "Yes, I know her. But it will cost you 50gp if you want to find her.” Alden pays the sum, and is then told, "Go to Coin Alley #7. She only comes at night when there’s little or no moon. You never saw me. We never talked.”

The party waits for the next moonless night and goes to Coin Alley, next to the harbor docks. To their surprise, they find a ship bearing the name "Red Fortune" anchored 50ft. off shore and guarded by piratical-looking sailors. The party forms a plan to knock out one of the ship's lanterns so they can sneak aboard unseen.

Session 16:

The party attacks the ship and the pirates surrender after they lose several men without the party suffering any losses. The pirates are interrogated. The grog-swilling, motley crew engages in any activity which will bring them wealth: attacking and robbing other ships, smuggling goods, and transporting slaves. So far, they haven’t had much success, though transporting slaves has been the easiest for them. They are paid by various employers to show up at secret rendezvous points (it’s different every time), pick up slaves, then drop them off at their destination. The destination is usually secluded areas in the wilderness where caravans pick them up, or ports in Amn or Calimshan, and more recently, in Highport.

Highport is a secret pirate base where pirates go to lay low and trade with other pirates. About a year ago, the Zhentarim navy discovered the island. They had some skirmishes with pirate ships that attacked them, but won most of the battles. This earned the fear and grudging respect of most of the pirates. The Zhentarim are now using the island as a base, as well. The Zhentarim let the pirates go about their business and have even traded with them.

Alden's brother Jamus may have been one of the slaves transported by Red Fortune from Waterdeep to Highport.

Red Fortune is currently in Waterdeep to pick up supplies and will only be in port for a few days. They come at night in case they or their ship is recognized by any merchants they have robbed. They have no job at the moment, they usually wait for street contacts to find them in one of the ports. If they get no jobs in port, then they will sail for Highport in hopes of finding work there. However, Highport is a dangerous place so it’s usually their last resort.

The party "convinces" the pirates to take them to the secret island of Highport far to the south near Calimshan, Amn and Chult. The island contains the ruins of an old, possibly reptilian civilization and is now inhabited by a dangerous mix of pirates, Zhentarim, and stranded humanoid thugs. There is no law, only the rule of the sword. Using his street skills, Alden learns that the most powerful slaver on the island is a Zhent called Zula. Zula’s “palace” is the partially ruined remains of an old temple. Zula never sees anyone unless they are wealthy slave buyers or sellers or have something he wants. Theodrid uses a scrying spell to try to locate Alden’s brother Jamus and Caldair’s parents. He sees a vision of Jamus in a stone prison cell. He sees a vision of Caldair’s mother working as a fearful servant in a posh kitchen.

Session 17:

The party sneaks into Zula’s palace to investigate it further. Guards patrol the walls, Alden spies on a large, exotic-looking man reading a book and sipping wine in lavish apartments – a spiked chain is on the chair near him, several courtyards are discovered – one appears to be an old temple cemetery and the largest is mostly in ruins and is patrolled by armored ogres.

Session 18:

The party sneaks past the ogres and discovers an unused passage in some ruined areas of the palace/temple. In the dark, Alden springs a trap but manages to dodge it. Bugbear guards in another chamber are quickly dispatched before they can raise an alarm. They sneak past another room that contains more humanoids and a guard dog. A crypt in the old temple cemetery leads down to the dungeon level, where slave pens are discovered. The pens are guarded by immense Zhentarim knights in spiked plate mail, so the party decides to deal with them after they have explored more areas.

Realizing it's only a matter of time before their intrusion is detected, they decide to take out as many enemies as they can before leaving. Theodrid summons a large bear and the party dispatches the soldiers guarding the exit. Their escape route secured, they go back into the building and rush a guard room of Zhentarim soldiers. Taken off guard, several soldiers are quickly taken out by spell, sword and a hurtling mass of hairy, mauling, ursine fury. The remaining disciplined soldiers react swiftly, yelling for help and forming a phalanx with their tower shields. Outside the guard room an alarm horn is sounded. Soon, additional soldiers rush to the room, but they are blocked by "Gentle Ben", as the blood-flecked bear is affectionately dubbed. When the bear is killed, the party retreats. New soldiers spill into the room and form a defensive phalanx, but do not immediately pursue the party, given their obvious strength. Only Aralan remains behind long enough to fire off another spell, then she retreats, as well. On the way out, Theodrid summons a lion and the party releases the Zhentarim warhorses, but two turn out to be supernatural, with glowing red eyes and fangs. Considering how hard it was to kill Teldorn Darkhope's supernatural steed back at the abandoned Zhentarim fort in the Ardeep Forest, the party decides not to waste time fighting and runs out. They are spotted by a guard patrolling on the roof, but he cannot stop them.

Session 19:

Allester and Loam join the party. Allester is a member of the Xaltheon Consortium and was sent by Mondragon to aid the party, who has apparently divined that his destiny is intertwined with theirs. Allester also has a grudge against slavers. Loam has a deadly grudge against slavers and prefers not to talk about his past experiences with them, except that he wants to help defeat them, particularly a slave merchant named Mulsh who is hiding out at Zula’s palace.

Allester, Loam, Aralan and Aregon pretend to be bounty hunters/captives in order to gain an audience with Zula, while Alden sneaks into the palace via the roof. Theodrid assumes eagle form and distracts the guards.

Zula’s audience chamber is both an altar to Umberlee and a den of decadence. Several slave merchant guests of Zula are also present, one of whom Loam holds a grudge against. Zula falls for the ruse and when he sends his servants to fetch the reward for the capture of Aralan and Aregon, Aregon uses invocations to shatter his and Aralan's manacles. Combat ensues and Zula is quickly slain. Loam kills the slave merchant Mulsh. Elite ogre guards and merchant bodyguards wound several party members badly. Zhentarim knights attempt to reinforce but are inhibited by a wall of gloom and a grease spell. All are slain except one, who flees. When fight is over, party has captured one of the slave merchants and his bodyguard, finds 10,000gp and several scrolls/potions, and records detailing some of Zula’s operations and a map. Loam reclaims his stolen ring of protection from Mulsh’s lifeless finger. Mentions that slave merchants will be visiting a secret stockade to view “special” slaves they may be interested in buying and that the stockade is expecting them.

Party frees 20 of Zula’s personal slaves, including Caldair’s mother and leads them out of the palace via a secret tunnel that runs beneath the palace and out to sea. Caldair’s mother tells Alden that she has heard of his enslaved brother Jamus – he was held at Zula’s palace but was taken away somewhere several months ago because he was too hard to break. Caldair’s mother also tells the party that her husband is held captive in the slave pits somewhere in the palace dungeons.

The party takes the freed slaves back to the Red Fortune, somehow escaping the notice of Zhentarim patrols. Red Fortune does not have enough room to hold the crew, the party, and all the freed slaves, so the party orders the captive slave merchant to have his ship brought over to the docks near Red Fortune. Fearing for his life, the merchant agrees. Red Fortune and the merchant’s ship sail away from Highport, planning to hide at sea until the party decides how to free the rest of the slaves in Zula’s palace (including Caldair’s father).

Session 20:

Party makes a deal with the pirates of the Red Fortune, promising them their ship back and the ship of the captured slave merchant in exchange for their help. The party returns to Zula's palace, sneaks into the slave pits, defeats the guards (order of the Tyrants), gain wand of cure moderate wounds, encounters beholder, frees more slaves (including Caldair's father), escapes via the cemetery. Freed slaves tell that Jamus was here but was moved. Pits with beholder are used to break troublesome slaves. Those that can't be broken by the beholder or show rare talents were taken away somewhere.

Use Zula's map to travel to hidden cove on the coast of the jungles of Chult. They disguise themselves as the slave merchants found in Zula's palace and who were mentioned in Zula's letter to the stockade as wealthy buyers, to be treated well. In the cove, a hidden voice asks for the password. When it is given, several Zhentarim emerge from the jungle and welcome the party, saying they are expected. Palanquins borne by slaves are brought forth and the party is led into the jungle, following a hidden trail to the slavers' stockade. Along the way, they encounter a dinosaur stampede and fight raptors and two allosauruses. Several Zhentarim soldiers die in the encounter, and two party members come close.

Session 21:

The party rests and continues the journey. Aralan gets a strange sensation, as if she were being watched. Theodrid speculates that perhaps she is being scried upon. When the party arrives at the stockade, they see it is a heavily fortified building in the middle of dense jungle. There are many guards, including gnolls, a gnoll shaman wearing studded leather made from some exotic beast and holding the leash of another supernatural guard dog, Zhentarim soldiers, Zhentarim knights. Beastmen are encamped in one courtyard, fascinated by crucified, renegade Zhentarim sorcerer and soldier.

The party is led into an audience chamber to meet Blackthorn, the stockade's second-in-command. Blackthorn appears to be a tall, emaciated man - a massive greatsword that is obviously too large for a human to wield hangs on the wall near him. Other slave merchants are present. The party notices Leif Baeren, a famous Waterdeep nobleman trapped in a cage suspended from the ceiling. Leif is the heir to one of the noble houses of Waterdeep and has a reputation for shrewdness and generosity and is generally admired by the common folk. He also has a reputation for being a competent swordsman.

Talk to Blackthorn:

The party are shown to their rooms. Later, during the evening festivities, the party talks to Blackthorn, Uther and Andra and asks a few more questions. Aralan, disguised as a human, passes her falcon familiar off as a prize game hunter. Admiring guests advise her not to hunt with it near the stockade, as the area is infested with large vampire bats that attack anything that files. Khira uses a special bardic ability to disguise a detect thoughts spell with her music, then scans the room as the partiers converse.

Learn about "special" slaves. Blackthorn promises a demonstration of special slaves the next day.

The next day: slave demonstration in the courtyard. Shackled slaves, connected by an iron chain, are brought forth by "Executioner" - a large, immensely strong and hideously ugly beastman who almost appears to be a cross between a beastman and an ogre. However, only tradesmen and gladiators are displayed, no "special" slaves. Blackthorn informs the party that Markessa has delayed the special slave demonstration, saying they need more "conditioning" before they can safely be shown to the slave buyers. To appear to be a legitimate slave buyer, Aregon buys one of the gladiator slaves and secretly tells him that he will have his freedom if he helps the party. The party asks for a tour of stockade and are shown the guard barracks, stables, alarm gong, temple of Bane, and mess hall. They then attend yet another party, then retire to their rooms.

Alden uses camouflage (cast by Theodrid) and a potion of invisibility to scout out areas of the stockade that were not shown during the tour. He discovers and temporarily disarms two deadly traps, a council room, a hallway guarded by knights of the Order of the Tyrant, and learns that the temple of Bane emits some kind of dispelling magic when it causes his invisibility to drop. Still, he manages to sneak back to his room without being discovered.

The next day, the party joins the slavers on a hunting expedition to pass the time. Theodrid takes the opportunity to use a natural pool of water to cast a scrying spell on Blackthorn. He sees Blackthorn in his true form - an ogre mage - in a small stone room without windows, gleefully stacking gold coins and sorting through treasure.

The next day, the "special" slaves are finally demonstrated. The slaves have somehow been necromantically crossed with vicious animals and brainwashed to be loyal, deadly assassins, gladiators, shock troops, and bodyguards. Uther has a surprise - he already owns two of the special slaves and shows them off to the party, ordering them to bring him his wine and abusing them when some is spilled. The abominations appear to be hideous crosses between men and snakes. The party is shocked when Uther calls one of them by name - "Jamus". Alden then realizes the hideous fate that has befallen his brother.

Session 22:

The party decides to buy Jamus and one other aberration slave, secretly hoping that the necromancy that created them can be reversed somehow - perhaps with the aid of the wizard's guild in Waterdeep. This also makes them appear to be legitimate slave buyers.

Two Zhentarim covered wagons arrive at the stockade. Soldiers unload a sheet-covered, cylindrical object and carry it somewhere into the stockade. The second wagon has protection from evil runes painted on it, something large inside seems to be moving around, and the Zhentarim soldiers guard it nervously. When Blackthorn sees the party observing, he sends them back to their rooms.

That evening, a fireside feast is held in the courtyard. An alchemist named Fyndax appears and distributes pleasure- and hallucination-inducing narcotics to interested slavers. Aregon, having considerable alchemical knowledge himself, engages Fyndax in conversation and learns that Fyndax is a sorcerer or wizard who works for Markessa, and that his specialties include magic and alchemy related to fire, clouds and vapors. He creates addictive drugs such as Mordayn Vapor to keep slaves docile. He is not willing to divulge any more details than that, but the party suspects that he may be working on creating a Cloud of Juiblex, similar to the ones the party encountered in the ruins of Elzid's house and in the abandoned Zhent fort in the Ardeep Forest.

The party uses charm person to privately wring more information out of the slave merchant Uther. Uther explains that the cylindrical object is The Wheel of Eternal Corruption - a device created by Fzoul Chembryl, a high-ranking Zhent. The wheel corrupts victims, turning them into evil slaves. Markessa plans to use the wheel on Leif Baeren and Lady Morwin Elissar, another captured Waterdeep noble (the party has not seen her but she is held prisoner in the stockade). Once Leif and Morwin are corrupted/mentally enslaved, they will be ransomed back to their families, and then they will act as Zhentarim spies. Since they are nobles, they will have access to noble family treasuries (and send some to the Zhents) and they can help the Zhentarim influence Waterdeep's politics. Uther also explains that there is a demon in the second wagon, and that it is used to capture nobles. This triggers Merrick's memory, and he now remembers a demon crashing through the window in his chamber in Waterdeep, throwing some kind of narcotic powder in his face, and then picking him up as he fell unconscious. He also remembers waking up in the hold of a ship with many other slaves, and being regularly exposed to more narcotic vapors and powders which kept him weak and confused.

The party also manages to discreetly talk to Leif Baeren. The captured heir to the house of Baeren is imprisoned in an iron cage suspended from the ceiling of Blackthorn's audience chamber, and is very weak. The party quietly explains that they have come to take out the slavers, and they slip Leif food and water, which refreshes him somewhat. He reveals that he has no memory of how he was captured. He has been caged for many weeks, perhaps even months. During this time, he has seen Blackthorn occasionally enter and exit the audience chamber through a secret door behind his "throne". He also says that a very small beholder-kin eyeball creature called Octus often hides behind the throne, spying on those in the room, and that it also sometimes comes and goes through the secret door. He thinks it must be Blackthorn's familiar. The party tells Leif that his bodyguard, Merrick, was also captured and enslaved in the stockade, but the party has bought and freed him. Leif is relieved to hear this and says that Merrick is a man to be trusted.

The party decides the time has come to strike and take out the slave leaders and rescue Leif Baeren. The next night, they take out the gnolls guarding their guest quarters, then attack Blackthorn's audience chamber, where yet another nights festivities are taking place. Taken by surprise, Blackthorn is badly wounded and barely escapes by changing into gaseous form and fleeing out the fireplace chimney. The party is hindered by several Zhentarim guards and a cleric of Bane, and this allows the slave merchants Uther and Andra to escape the audience chamber on foot. The party dispatches the remaining guards, including the gnoll shaman Gulyet, whose magic leather armor made from the hide of some strange beast fails to protect him. Two captains of the guard, one knight of the Order of the Tyrant, and the cleric of Bane are also killed. However, it's likely an alarm has been raised, and the party now has only minutes or seconds before the entire stockade reacts.

Session 23:

The party fights through the stockade, searching for the entrance to the dungeon where they hope to find and defeat Markessa and rescue any slaves. They fight Knights of the Order of the Tyrant and the slave merchant Andra's bodyguards. They capture Andra and eventually discover secret stairs going down into the dungeon.

In the narrow confines of the dungeon corridors, they are ambushed by crossbow-wielding bugbear guards that attack from a secret guardroom, then encounter the beastman/troll aberration Executioner and a horde of beastmen. Markessa also makes her first appearance. She is a medusa sorcerer/cleric of Bane/mystic theurge who is always accompanied by her blind knight champion bodyguard Icar. She attempts to turn Merrick to stone, then she and Icar retreat. The beastmen fall to Merricks' greatsword, Aralan's spells and Aregon's invocations.

Session 24:

The party cautiously makes its way forward through the dungeon corridors.

They eventually find a group of Zhent soldiers and knights waiting for them in a torture room, with a few bound slaves as human shields. When the fight begins, Markessa, Icar, and the sorcerer/alchemist Fyndax attack from the flanks and rear using secret doors and corridors. A solid fog spell combined with a prismatic mist spell severely hampers the party. Aberrations also appear from hiding and join the fight. Fyndax summons two hell hounds.

The party inexorably slays all the soldiers and aberrations, corners Icar and Markessa and slays them as well, then captures Fyndax. Alas, Aralan is slain after suffering severe sword wounds from Icar, followed by Markessa's ice burst spell. Merrick and Aregon's hireling are turned to stone, but fortunately two potions of stone to flesh were found on Markessa.

Session 25:

The party heals up and interrogates Fyndax. They learn the following:

• The stockade is primarily used to create aberrant/beastman creatures to serve the Zhentarim. It's location in Chult keeps it secret, and has the additional benefit of being close to a source of exotic plants and animals that are required in the rituals to create beastmen. It is also a place where kidnapped nobles are held, who would eventually be turned into evil slaves using the Wheel of Eternal Corruption (see below). The Wheel is the cylindrical device that arrived at the stockade in one of the Zhent wagons, and was later taken down into the stockade dungeon.
• Fyndax was responsible for producing addictive drugs to keep the stockade's slaves sedated, docile, and obedient. He also helped Markessa research the Cloud of Juiblex.
• Shivnar was a Zhentarim lord in charge of the Ardeep fort (a.k.a., "Shivnar's Hold". See Session 12 notes.) Shivnar was responsible for secretly developing arcane knowledge and weapons (alchemy, aberrations and magical beasts) on behalf of the Zhentarim, to be used primarily against enemies in Waterdeep. Of particular note was the Cloud of Juiblex experiment. The cloud was to be used against powerful Zhentarim enemies because it can be easily transported in nondescript containers without arousing suspicion and the cause of death is traceless once the cloud dissipates. Markessa and other Zhentarim wizards studied Shivnar’s work, before the Ardeep fort was wiped out by a Cloud of Juiblex experiment gone catastrophically wrong.
• Teldorn Darkhope (see end of Session 9 and beginning of Session 10) is a Zhentarim military commander and a priest of Bane. He has been ordered to dominate Waterdeep’s trade routes and establish a secret Zhentarim base in the Ardeep Forest. Teldorn visited Shivnar’s Hold and found it destroyed by a Cloud of Juiblex experiment that got completely out of control. He used a Word of Recall to teleport out of the Hold and return to Zhentil Keep.
• Vulgat (see end of Session 9 and beginning of Session 10) is a member of the necromantic blood druids. He worked with Shivnar in the Ardeep Forest fort to create the beastmen and assisted Teldorn in other ways. Vulgat accompanied Teldorn Darkhope when he visited Shivnar's Hold to review his progress. After Teldorn teleported out, Vulgat left on foot and led a subjugated barbarian tribe out of the forest to an unknown destination. This particularly warlike tribe was the last group of people who lived near the Zhentarim fort - The Zhents had been destroying all nearby communities (other barbarian tribes, Aralan's elven enclave, and Hidden Gulch) because they wanted the existence of their Ardeep fort to remain secret. In exchange for helping Shivnar develop the beastmen, Vulgat asked the Zhentarim to spare the tribe so they could serve him.
• “Special” slaves are those slated for Markessa’s experiments. They must be physically fit and able to endure more pain than the average person in order to survive the experiments. Markessa admired Shivnar’s work with the beastmen but thought their mental capacities were too animal-like. Markessa wanted to create fighting slaves that would be almost as intelligent as a man but totally obedient to their masters through conditioning. Markessa warps their bodies into ferocious natural fighting machines, enhanced with steel implants. Often this requires magically merging them with the bodies of vicious beasts in order to get the desired result.
• Markessa and Fyndax have only managed to successfully create a Cloud of Juiblex once, though they avoided the catastrophic mishap that befell Shivnar and resulted in a cloud that wiped out most of the Ardeep fort. Markessa and Fyndax’s cloud was stored in a wooden crate, which was picked up by a Zhentarim ship called The Scourge several weeks ago and taken away.
• The Zhents used a calling spell (perhaps planar ally) to summon winged demons, which were then given a reward (possibly a soul) in exchange for kidnapping nobles. Nobles were to be spun on the Wheel of Eternal Corruption (see below), then ransomed back to their families, where they would serve as spies. Being nobles, they would also be able to influence Waterdeep politics, and they would have access to their family treasuries.
• Wheel of Eternal Corruption. The wheel is a magical version of the torture wheel. It was constructed by Fzoul Chembryl (a Zhent leader and high priest of Bane) and is dedicated to the god Bane. It is made of carved wood, brass, and inlaid with plates of jet. At the points where the wheel spokes join the rim, there are candle holders for thick, dark yellow candles. These are lit. The victim is strapped into iron manacles and slowly spun. The victim may become an evil slave totally loyal to the spinner of the wheel (who must be an evil worshipper of Bane and either a sorcerer, wizard or cleric) for several months, after which the victim may snap out of it. The effect can be reversed by casting any two of the following spells: Break Enchantment, Dispel Magic, Dispel Evil, Remove Curse, Holy Word, Consecrate.
• Icar was Markessa's paramour and personal bodyguard. He was a knight champion of Bane.
• Fyndax explains what the captured Zhent magic items do (armor, wand, potions, sword, etc. - see the Loot page).

After the interrogation of Fyndax, the party searches his alchemy lab. A glyph of warding explodes and demolishes the central lab table. Fyndax apologizes for "forgetting" to tell the party about the glyph. The party puts him on notice that future memory lapses will be hazardous to his health. Find two potions of endure elements, a manual of skill, and a few doses of addictive drugs (Jhuild Thrallwine, Mordayn Vapor, Sezarad Root, Redflower Leaves) used to control slaves and make bugbear/gnoll guards more effective in combat.

Search Markessa's lab, which is trapped by another glyph of warding (casts unholy storm). Inside, they find half-formed, unconscious beastmen lying on surgical tables. Lady Morwin Elissar is found unconscious and strapped to the Wheel of Eternal Corruption. She is taken down and awakened, and claims Markessa did not have time to spin her because of the party's assault. The party destroys the Wheel, then finds some of Markessa's experimentation goals and notes:

• Perfect the creation of beastmen and produce as many as possible
• Create more powerful and more intelligent beastmen – seek out Vulgat, the blood druid who helped Shivnar initially create the beastmen in exchange for the last barbarian tribes’ servitude – he may be able to offer more knowledge
• Help Fyndax perfect the Cloud of Juiblex, based on Elzid’s work (see Session 1 and Session 2).
• How to create beastmen: requires a human and relevant animal type. At least one must be alive. Merge the two beings using necromantic and transmutation magic and rituals (lengthy description involving many very evil acts, info copied from Shivnar’s work in the Ardeep Forest). The initial beastman experiments were perfected by Shivnar using captured humans and elves and crossing them with wild goats and rams. After Shivnar’s Cloud of Juiblex experiment ended in catastrophe, Teldorn Darkhope sent Shivnar’s notes to Markessa. Markessa has further perfected beastmen by crossing them with vicious jungle animals, and then surgically altering them further. These new beastmen are far more vicious and must be conditioned to be obedient, whereas the goat-headed beastmen were more easily intimidated and awed into submission.

The party finds three alcoves, each containing a beast that has been experimented on by Markessa: a displacer beast covered in tumors, a digester beast covered with healed surgical scars, and a dire ape whose forelimbs have been replaced with spiked metal coverings. Markessa had perfected a method of creating exotic leather armors from displacer beasts and digester beasts, and planned to use the ape as a shock-trooper.

The party also finds a cage with winged snakes like those found in Kraken's lair. Fyndax explains that the snakes are like carrier pigeons but verbally repeat their message, and are much tougher than pigeons. Only Markessa knew how to make the snakes obey her.

A secret door in the lab leads to a room containing a gibbering, fleshy mass of quivering eyes, mouths, and flopping human arms and legs. The thing weeps and gibbers, but is otherwise harmless. Fyndax claims that it is the combined result of many of Markessa's failed experiments. The party kills it to put it out of its misery.

Another secret door leads to a ladder that goes up to a trapdoor in the floor of Icar and Markessa's room. Search the quarters of Fynax, Blackthorn and Fyndax and found several scrolls and a secret treasure room. The only entrance to the treasure room is through a 6 inch x 6 inch square tunnel, which could only be traveled by Blackthorn when in gaseous form. Theodrid assumes the form of a small snake, slithers in, grabs the treasure (chests of silver, gold, gems and magic scrolls), and returns to the party.

Free 200 drugged slaves from slave pens.

Exit dungeon. Uther is gone - the charm has worn off and he must have run off somewhere. Encounter Zhent soldiers holed up in barracks, terrified of the demon outside, which they say wiped out many guards and sucked out their souls before demanding that Markessa be brought forth. Make deal with Zhent soldiers holed up inside - they don't interfere with the party and the party will let them live.

The party goes outside to confront the demon, which turns out to be a large, hideous white-skinned brute with dirty feathered wings, three eyes, tusks, and huge claws ("zovvut" - Monster Manual II). The party tosses Markessa's head to the demon, proving that she has been slain. The demon laughs gleefully, saying that its pact is now void and it is no longer bound to serve Markessa. It then disappears in a cloud of fire and black smoke. The demon is gone, but its handiwork remains - slain Zhentarim guards who have been transformed into wights by the demon's energy draining gaze attack. The wights are quickly dispatched by the party. The party then discovers the gruesome remains of the rest of the the Zhentarim guards who were "lucky" enough to die by the demon's claws and spell-like abilities rather than its gaze.

The party and freed slaves are furious with the remaining Zhents who have survived, but refrain from slaying them. Instead, the party strips the remaining Zhent soldiers of all gear, then puts all wooden areas of the stockade to the torch, ruining most of it. They offer to let some Zhents accompany them back to the party's ships (to guard the freed slaves), but only half accept. The rest stay behind, afraid the party will go back on their word or that the slaves will kill them.

The party and freed slaves journey back to the ships. Some party members and ex-slaves come down with minor jungle fever, but fortunately no dinosaurs are encountered. The party makes plan to travel to a nearby city to resurrect Aralan and drop off any ex-slaves that want to pursue their freedom there.

Session 26:

As the party emerges from the jungle and prepares to board their ships, an elven conjurer named Aelidevrin is teleported in and announces that the Xaltheon Consortium has become aware of the death of Aralan, and that he has been tasked to administer an elixir of raise dead to her. The party agrees, and Aralan is restored to life, though noticeably weakened. Aelidevrin offers his services to the party, and is accepted. An ex-slave named Tok offers his healing services to care for Aralan, and soon has her feeling much better. Tok informs the party that he is a worshipper of Ilmater and was helping a village on the coast near Waterdeep when slavers attacked and captured everyone. Now that the party has freed the slaves, Tok would like to join them.

Red Fortune and Triton sail to a nearby Chult city where any slaves that wish to exit there are dropped off an given some gold. A third ship is hired, since there are so many freed slaves on the first two ships that there is not enough room for a long sea voyage back to Waterdeep. The three ships sail back to Waterdeep, stopping at major cities along the way to drop off additional freed slaves who want to return home. Eventually, the third ship is empty and returns to Chult.

However, not all is peaceful. Out of the mist, The Scourge suddenly appears, having scried on the party and used an eagle animal companion to locate it. Supernaturally fast as a result of excessive offerings to Umberlee, evil goddess of the sea, the slaver's flagship trireme bears down on Triton, intending to ram it. A summoned water elemental stops Triton, leaving it dead in the water. Hidden casters launch silence, chain missile, blindness and flame strike from The Scourge's portholes as it closes, while Zhentarim archers send volleys of arrows. One archer in particular is very skilled and targets Aelidevrin and Tok. The party responds with spells and arrows of their own, while Red Fortune moves to flank The Scourge and attempt to board it. Alden sights The Scourge's captain - none other than Aruj Barbarosa himself (a.k.a. Azan, "owner" of Aralan), and hits him with arrow after arrow until the nefarious villain is forced to retreat below deck.

The Scourge eventually rams Triton while Red Fortune pulls alongside. Obscuring mist, web and glitterdust spells snare the Zhentarim soldiers on The Scourge's deck, while Merrick, Alden and Tok board and engage in fierce melee, cutting down soldiers in droves. More Zhent soldiers pour from below decks to provide reinforcements, while others use a side-door to board Red Fortune. Aelidevrin summons a celestial eagle which tosses armor-laden soldiers and a slave lord peerless archer into the water, while his summoned bear begins tearing into webbed soldiers. Sharks following The Scourge attack the floundering archer. Aralan polymorphs her familiar into a tiger, which likewise mauls the trapped soldiers. The soldiers are no match for the party, but they absorb numerous spells and inflict some wounds.

Eventually, slave lords emerge from the The Scourge's side door and engage. A half-orc fighter/ranger takes on Merrick, while a plate-armored cleric of Bane casts doomtide, dazing half the crew of Red Fortune and obscuring line of sight. The cleric moves in, swinging a heavy flail fashioned to look like a spiked version of the fist of Bane. A laughing slave lord rogue with a razor-studded whip spider climbs into the rigging, lashing her whip at Alden. A sorcerer summons a dire bat to engage Aregon, but a particularly deadly brimstone blast annihilates it with one hit. Aruj Barbarosa is nowhere to be seen. Merrick and Alden slay the half-orc and cleric, but are badly wounded. However, no more Zhentarim soldiers emerge, and it appears the battle is swinging in the party's favor.

Session 27:

Continue fight on The Scourge. Party clearly winning, so sorcerer slave lord "Lamonsten" teleports out, taking the other surviving slave lords (Aruj Barbarossa and Slippery Ketta) with him. Tok investigates the hold and discovers the ship has been scuttled. Opens a magic chest and releases a cloud of Juiblex. The party abandons The Scourge, bringing the slave rowers on board Red Fortune and Triton. Triton's crew repairs the damage from being rammed.

Return to Waterdeep with freed slaves. Big commotion. Rescued nobles (Leif Baeren and Morwin Elissar) thank the party and reward them with gold and promises of political aid if needed. Jamus is brought the Xaltheon Consortium to see if they can transform him back to human. The guild will try, though it could take weeks and he may not be entirely without physical, emotional and mental scars. The guild also commends Aralan and Aelidevrin and asks them to add some of their spell knowledge to the guild's library. In exchange, they are given knowledge of new spells, as well. Aregon is offered full guild membership. Merrick reports back to the Temple of Helm, and the clerics are very interested to hear about the activities of the Banites. Merrick is promoted for his efforts.

Rescued nobles arrange audience with Lord Piergieron, the ruler of Waterdeep. The heroes are invited, and Lord Piergeiron is told about the Zhentarim and Kraken plots to dominate Waterdeep's trade routes and other hostile activities (extortion of merchants, Cloud of Juiblex experiments, secret Ardeep Forest fort, beastmen, aberrations, slaves, Highport, Chult slaver stockade, kidnapping of nobles). Piegeiron thanks the party, pardons Aralan for her past crimes against the city guard, declares war on the Zhents and begins marshalling troops and readying Waterdeep's navy. Some troops are immediately sent to guard Waterdeep's outlying towns

Alden hears word on the street that Kraken is almost defunct as a result of the party's actions against them. Extortion and crimes against Waterdeep's merchants has fallen sharply, and trade is improving. The Gutter Rats (street urchins) have been gathering the names of many thralls, per Alden's instructions. Alden pays them well for the information.

Party buys a tavern and stables and calls it "Kraken's Folly." Tok consecrates the tavern. Eventually, they plan to dig tunnels from the tavern cellar to the sewers, as an escape route. They form a partnership with former dwarven slaves with mining skills. The dwarves will go to the caves outside Lowick and establish a fully operational silver mine, and share the profits with the party.

The party believes they are being scried upon again.

Session 28:

Tok receives a vision of dark, narrow, cramped tunnels of mud and clay which give him a feeling of fear and nausea. The scene abruptly changes to flickering, unholy flames and cries of fear and pain, while the ground trembles. Theodrid uses commune with nature to discern likely locations of similar clay tunnels. With this information, the party locates them in the ruins of a mausoleum in Waterdeep's vast cemetery. Find underground passages: some tunneled through clay, others the ruins of an undercity. Explore ruins, discover old elven architecture which verifies that Waterdeep was built over the ruins of an old elven city that might have been buried in an avalanche.

As the party explores the maze of collapsed ruins (the "undercity") they hear distant booms and crackling sounds. Tok and Dev's familiar scout it out, and they briefly witness the end of a battle between two mages. One mage is slain when a gray-skinned, infernal-looking horned humanoid creeps out of the shadows and backstabs him. The description of this gray humanoid matches the thing that Draznor saw stealing a book from the guild's forbidden library, many months ago. The party investigates the battle site, but the victorious mage is missing, seemingly vanishing into thin air. The loser's stripped body is found dumped in a damp trench that smells of sea water. Tok tracks the gray-skinned humanoid through the ruins. The humanoid's tracks go along the walls and ceiling, as if under the effects of a spider climb spell. Tok steps on a pressure plate, springing a trap that causes a nearby corridor wall to swing open, separating him from the party and revealing two mummies which turn out to be clay golems wrapped in mummy bandages. The extremely tough golems are defeated after nearly killing two party members, then the party returns to their tavern to rest.

From his contacts, Alden receives word on the street: Piergeiron has commanded the Xaltheon Consortium to provide a guild magus to accompany him to war. Magus S'zaro, a longtime supporter of the party, volunteers to go. Piergeiron sets out with the first vanguard of troops. His first stop will be Secomber to seek allies there, then he will march toward Ardeep to investigate the abandoned Zhentarim fort, then Llorkh, a known Zhentarim outpost. Some Waterdeep navy ships leave to locate and attack Highport.

The party believes they are being scried upon yet again.

Aregon leaves the group to search for more warlock knowledge and exact revenge upon his enemies in Thay.

Session 29:

The party returns to the mausoleum ruins in Waterdeep's cemetery. This time, they decide to investigate the clay tunnels, since they appeared in Tok's vision (see previous session). These tunnels contain barefoot humanoid tracks with claws on them. The tunnels lead beneath the cemetery, and turn into another maze, with numerous tunnels ending directly below coffins. The coffins have been broken into and their contents devoured. As Tok investigates, a dire maggot attacks, then more appear, followed by ghouls and entombers. Konnal, a holy warrior of Torm, joins the group in the middle of the fight. The black armored knight explains that he was tracking a ghoulish looking creature through the cemetery and it led into the clay tunnels. He wanted to destroy the creature for desecrating the cemetery. The party invites him to join them and he accepts. The party finds nothing more of interest in the clay tunnels, and is somewhat dumbfounded as to their meaning in Tok's vision.

The party decides to return to the undercity ruins and continue tracking the gray-skinned infernal humanoid (see last session). The tracks lead to a secret spiral staircase that leads to yet another secret staircase filled with fog and containing many secret doors that lead inside what turns out to be the guild tower. The party remembers the inscription in the lid of the gold box found in the Twin Dragon library (session 15), and is convinced it is a picture of the guild tower and the spiral stairs, though they aren't sure what some of the dashed and wavy lines mean. Climbing to the top of the secret stairs, they emerge in a plain stone room with two doors, but they trigger a magic mouth which warns them, "Turn back lest you have attained the rank of Magus." Not wanting to violate guild laws, jeopardize memberships and make more enemies, the party returns to the undercity to investigate a bit more. They find more dungeon like areas that they believe are basement levels of the guild.

As they investigate the undercity ruins a bit more, a minor earthquake occurs, causing some minor collapsing and fissures in the undercity ruins. Luckily, the collapses are minor and no one is injured. What caused the earthquake is a mystery.

Having lost the gray-skinned humanoid's tracks in the hard stone staircase environment, they return to the site of the wizard battle (see previous session), and begin tracking the footprints of the slain mage. The trail leads into the water-filled city sewers, past some sort of beggar's improvised shrine, and eventually to a hideous nest of large rats and some sort of undead-like, diseased rat queen nearly 8-feet long. Repulsed by the thing and its vile brood, the party fireballs the rat nest, killing hundreds of squealing, blind, diseased ratlings. Enraged by the death of its young, the rat queen launches itself at the party, and tumor like growths on its back burst and release more diseased, unnatural-looking rats. After the rats are killed, investigation reveals strange patches of impenetrable darkness among the rocks and debris of the rat nest. With his considerable arcane knowledge, Devrin believes the patches represent a planar rift of some sort, most likely to an evil outer plane. What caused the rift is yet another mystery. The party resumes tracking the footprints of the slain mage. The trail leads out of the sewers and is lost in a beggar-infested alley in the Docks ward.

The party returns to their tavern to rest. Rest does not last long, though. The Zhentarim have located the party's tavern, and launch another carefully prepared assassination attempt. This time, the assassins are led by none other than Vulgat Min (the blood druid ally of Teldorn Darkhope - see the fifth bullet in session 25), two more blood druids (turn out to be werewolves and wereboars), Lamonsten the slave lord sorcerer who escaped the battle on the slaver trireme (see the last paragraph in session 26), and Nerelas Shademoon, the nefarious tiefling assassin of Waterdeep and leader of the decimated Kraken organization. Vulgat and his blood druid followers all eventually assume lycanthrope form and viciously attack Theodrid, a rival druid of a rival god (Mielikki). Theodrid is mobbed while Lamonsten and Nerelas occupy the rest of the group, and Theodrid is slain. The party kills the rest of the assassins, though Vulgat almost gets away until Aralan's silver arrows bring him down.

Session 30:

The party searches the bodies of the assassins. Vulgat's hood is thrown back and he is recognized as Varak Min, eldest son of the noble Min family. The Min family are nobles and are the lords of Alden’s village, Kirinova. The Min family is third in line for the Waterdeep throne, after the Elissar and Baeren families. The party ponders the significance of this shocking revelation, especially since Vulgat was working with the Zhentarim. The Min family is also known for going on safaris to exotic lands to hunt and capture dangerous animals, some of which are sold to the Waterdeep arena for gladiator games.

The party also finds amulets of the People of the Black Blood on the lycanthropes. The PotBB are a group of Malar-worshipping lycanthropes that revel in the hunt (especially sentient prey) and believe that only the strong deserve to survive. Nerelas' ninja weapon and Vulgat's dagger are both evil-aligned, so the party destroys them. When Alden breaks the dagger, a beautiful female voice is heard saying, "Health unto you, balance preserver." A light shines down from nowhere, and sprigs of mistletoe sprout from the earth, bearing three very special berries.

City guards shortly arrive, led by Captain Liviticus. They are very respectful of the party, given their reputation and recent audience with Lord Piergeiron. They take down the party's story, then take Nerelas’ body back to prison to show to the city magistrate and submit a report. Liviticus congratulates them for killing one of Waterdeep’s most notorious assassins and posts a few guards along the street for the next few weeks. Liviticus also says that Nerelas’ Kraken tattoo further solidifies the party’s testament about Kraken. Liviticus will submit a commendation on the party’s behalf to the magistrate. He also tells the party that the city guard have cleared the rubble from the burned down glassblower’s shop that used to be a safehouse of Kraken, and are now investigating the sewers in search of any leftover members of Kraken.

Worried that party members bitten by the lycanthropes might become werewolves, the party acquires belladonna (a.k.a., wolfsbane - a potential cure for lycanthropy) and gives some to Merrick. Time will tell if he is cured.

Alden gives the special berries to Theodrid's druid acquaintance, Shurakair, who believes they have holy powers. He uses one to raise Theodrid from the dead, and believes all the berries have the power to cast heal or raise dead, when eaten.

The party is wounded and Theodrid needs a week to recover, so the party begins to rest.

The next day, a message is delivered to the party, asking them to come to the Baeren's noble residence at once. When they arrive, Leif Baeren has dreadful news: strangers charmed or forced their way into the villa of the noble house of Elissar, and slew Lady Morwin, her husband, and all their heirs. The attackers were werewolves, and escaped afterwards. The Baeren's villa was attacked also, but only Leif's sister was there. She was brutally slain. All this happened the same night that the party tavern was attacked, so it seems that the Elissars and Baerens were the assassins' first targets that night, followed by the party. The Min and Baeren families were known to have a long-standing feud between them. Also, perhaps Vulgat (Varak Min) intended to wipe out all the families that stood before the Min family in line for the throne of Waterdeep. That would leave only Piergeiron ahead of the Mins. Alden speculated that perhaps Vulgat had overthrown his father, Vulthan, in order to take over the Min family. Lord Vulthan was not an overly popular noble of Waterdeep, but he was not known to be an evil man and was grudgingly respected. Alden forms a plan to sneak into the Min family lands and observe the noble's castle to see if anything unusual is going on. He also wants to visit his old village and make sure it is alright. He mentions it to Leif Baeren, who agrees to help him. Leif lends Alden a very special item for his scouting mission - a rare spyglass.

Aralan and Alden want to see if Magus Majera (see Session 15) of the Xaltheon Consortium (wizards' guild) can truly be trusted, because she would be a valuable ally. Aralan seeks and gets a private audience with her. Aralan tells Majera about the undercity ruins beneath the city and what the party found there. Majera is surprised, and listens intently. She intends to conduct research to learn more about the undercity, if possible. She confirms that the secret central staircase leads within the guild tower and to an area forbidden to non-council members (magi), but does not admonish Aralan for it. Instead, she again offers cryptic advice to Aralan - "Use what you have learned for the greater good." After the audience, Aralan believes Majera can be trusted.

Aralan spends a week forging a magic sword to sacrifice to the elven gods, consecrating her path down the road to becoming a full Maiden of the Covenant - an elf dedicated to the arts of sword, bow and magic.

While Aralan forges her sacrificial sword, Alden, Khira (his bard follower) and Konnal travel to the Min family lands about two days south of Waterdeep on the Sword Coast, sticking to the wilderness to avoid Min family soldiers on patrol. They encounter an unusually large and hostile wolverine, but Alden uses his wild empathy to stop the beast from attacking. Alden and Konnal use the spyglass to observe the Min family castle from a hidden place on a high bluff. They notice that instead of normal soldiers, a camp of barbarians seems to be occupying the castle and its outer grounds. Alden remembers that Vulgat led a tribe of barbarians out of the Ardeep Forest after the Zhentarim fort was abandoned (see Session 12), and he must have led them here. If Alden's theory is correct, they may have helped Vulgat overthrow his father. Alden, Khira and Konnal decide to approach the barbarians outside the castle and pretend to be emissaries of Lord Piergeiron and the temple of Torm. They demand an audience with Lord Vulthan Min, but are turned away by the hostile barbarians, who say the Lord will not see them and that Lord Piergeiron has no rights over the Min lands.

They then visit the nearby villages and learn that the fearful villagers have been "under siege by the very forces of nature." The villagers say that the animals in the countryside have become very dangerous and not as fearful of men as they should be. Wolves, wolverines, and other predators have attacked and killed villagers, and the villages have been forced to build crude barricades in an attempt to keep them out of town. It's no safer outside of town, either, and many shepherds' flocks have returned without them. Even worse, animals that are not native to the area have been sighted, such as a lion. They have asked for help from the Min family, but only get to talk to the barbarians that recently moved in with the Mins, and they have not been overly helpful. They came to the villages and hunted and slain a few predators, then claimed the villagers' problems were over. They were not - animal attacks continued. The barbarians also took many local women away to be their wives, against their will. Alden decides to track down the lion to see if it really exists. He finds it - a large male with a full mane, and uses speak with animals to learn that it was captured and brought here against its will. The lion disdains men, but says it would only hunt them if other game became scarce.

Aralan returns to the village, then uses an animal messenger spell to send a message to the rest of the party in Waterdeep, asking them to come to the Min family lands. A few days later, they arrive. Aralan's falcon familiar scouts the Min family castle. In the tallest tower, the falcon spots an older, but very fit man in shackles, sitting at a desk reviewing a stack of papers. The party thinks this could be Lord Vulthan Min. The next night, they use dimension door to teleport into the tower where the shackled man sleeps. The papers in the desk turn out to be official orders from Lord Vulthan to send troops to aid Waterdeep in their war against the Zhents, as well as other typical orders to maintain the Min family lands and power. They awaken the man and he is indeed Lord Vulthan. They explain what Vulgat has done, and offer to help Lord Vulthan, but in exchange he must relinquish part of his lands to Alden. Alden's village suffered greatly at the Min's hands, and he wants to free it. Vulthan shrewdly agrees, and explains that both his sons, the brutal Varak (a.k.a., Vulgat) and the younger, "spineless" son Lucius, overthrew him, though it was most likely Vulgat's idea and Lucius was too weak and fearful to go against it. During the coup, Varak revealed his werewolf nature to Vulthan, which repelled Vulthan and terrified Lucius. Lord Vulthan has not seen Varak in awhile, and Lucius has been running the Min lands, though he is not present at the moment. Lucius is currently leading the Min family soldiers as they help Waterdeep fight the Zhentarim -- an obligation that all noble houses of Waterdeep must fulfill in wartime. The party dimension doors out with Lord Vulthan, and plan to notify Waterdeep that the Min family has been corrupted and a coup has been instigated. They hope that Waterdeep will send forces to defeat the barbarians encamped in the Min castle. The party also plans to join the assault.

Session 31:

Need to add recap notes...

Session 32:

After defeating the werebear leader, strange things began to happen -- he began to howl and decompose, as did the werebat. A red light emanated from the remaining lycanthropes, forming some sort of circle of summoning. The remaining lycanthropes decomposed and sank into the earth. Next, the sound of many predators growling and howling was heard, and a large dome of earth was pushed up from the ground. Something very large burrowed very fast toward and underneath the party, then exploded upward, creating a crater, at the bottom of which was a huge horrible beast resembling a cross between a bear, wolverine, wolf and boar. Party members knowledgeable in nature recognized it as a minor avatar of Malar, the evil nature god of hunting and beasts. However, Mielikki formed her own avatar to help the party defeat Malar. She took the form of a glowing white elk, and used ray of enfeeblement on Malar. The party attacked, and Alden dealt Malar several severe wounds. In the end, Malar's m inor avatar was no match, and he was defeated. Mielikki was wel pleased, and her avatar faded away.

Next Alden and the party helped the villagers recover from the battle and sent them off to the Min castle for safety. The remaining gold and jewels of the Min family treasury that had been stolen by the barbarians was returned to Min castle. Alden asked the party to help him ride around the Min lands and help the villagers in any way they could, in an effort to show them that the new Min family was beneficient and kind. This was much appreciated, and the future of the Min lands now looks bright.

The party returned to Waterdeep, checked in with their tavern, and found another shipment of silver profits (800gp total) from the dwarves running the Lowick min. Konnal checked in with his temple and let them know what he had seen, and they informed him that many warriors and priests of the temple had been sent off to aid Piergeiron in the war against the Zhentarim. Currently, Waterdeep's forces were mopping up the Zhentarim fort in the Ardeep Fort, which had been regarrisoned with new Zhentarim soldiers. The temple let Konnal know that he might be called upon to aid in the war, but for the time being he should continue keeping an eye on Waterdeep to make sure all was well in the absence of its ruler.

Devrin checked in with the Xaltheon Consortium, curious to see if Majera had any news to share. However, Majera was not present -- she had left a note for Devrin and Aralan explaining that she was currently exploring the undercity ruins. She also left a delicate crystal key which she explained could be used to open the devil-faced door in the forbidden Twin Dragon library. She said that knowledge useful to Devrin and Aralan might be found beyond the door, but that they should do so in secret. She also cautioned them to obtain dust of tracelessness from the diviner Mondragon before attempting to enter the Twin Dragon library.

The party reformed, though Devrin chose to keep Majera's crystal key note to himself, no doubt taking her suggestion of secrecy to heart. The party decided to continue investigating the undercity ruins. Investigating the ruins proved to be very tedious and time consuming, but eventually several interesting things were discovered. The remains of a clay golem indicated a battle of some sort had occurred at one point. Also, a secret, lead-lined chamber (prevents scrying and other things) was discovered, and it contained a secret , trapped arcane study or library that had obviously been discovered by others before the party came along. The remains of a victim that had triggered a trap were found, and the library/study had been ransacked.

Later, a minor earthquake occurred, causing some minor damage to the undercity ruins. A voice was heard calling out in alarm at this point, and the party discovered a wizard of the guild who claimed to be trapped within the ruins. This wizard (actually a warmage) seemed to be interested in luring the party away from certain areas of the ruins. When they refused to go, he lured them into an ambush. The warmage and four other arcane casters hidden in the darkness hit the party with several scintillating spheres, a fireball, slow, great thunderclap, and eventually a web spell. They were also accompanied by a flesh golem, who engaged Alden. Even though caught off guard, the party could not be vanquished easily. The warmage was neutralized with a Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and a Wall of Thorns spell hindered the enemy mages' line of sight for some time. However, the hidden enemy mages employed several Dispel Magics, and had them in a cross-fire. The party was forced to retreat, though it seemed the enemy mages had been forced to use up most of their spells to accomplish this. As the party retreated, the enemy mages employed smoke from a Pyrotechnics spell, possibly to cover their own retreat. Angered by this attack, Alden had Khira cast silence and darkvision upon him, then grimly stalked into the smoke and darkness to exact revenge on the enemy.

Session 33:

Alden stealthily stalked after the retreating wizards while the rest of the party regrouped. The enemy wizard (actually a warmage) who had been neutralized by Tasha's Hideous Laughter recovered and attempted to slip away. Khira followed him and the two exchanged a volley of spells, including Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Ice Storm, and Lightning Bolt. Nearly unconscious and still in close range of the enemy warmage, Khira collapsed and feigned death. The ruse worked, and the warmage left in search of his retreating comrades. Now regrouped, the rest of the party hustled to catch up with Alden and Khira.

Alden caught sight of a glimmer of the retreating wizards' torchlight and eventually caught up with them. There were four wizards and/or sorcerers, and they seemed to be retreating to a known destination in the undercity ruins, with the flesh golem guarding their backs. Alden hid in the shadows and followed, but eventually paused when he noticed the torchlight of the enemy warmage appearing some distance behind him. Alden in the ruins and ambushed the unsuspecting warmage as he rounded a corner. With a few deadly strokes, the warmage was quickly slain, his cries muted by the silence spell. Alden continued tracking the rest of the wizards.

The party eventually caught up to Alden, but their torchlight gave them away to the wizards, who quickly sought cover and began buffing themselves. The golem attacked, and spells began to fly. Devrin cast an icy cone of cold on the enemy wizards, nearly killing them. Fearing for his life, one wizard dimension doored out, leaving his comrades to fend for themselves. Aralan followed with a fireball, incinerating all three. The golem proved to be harder to kill, and slew Alden with several powerful blows. Not knowing all the golem's immunities, several spells cast upon it had various effects: wounding the golem, slowing it with fire, and actually healing it with electricity. Eventually it was destroyed. Theodrid fed Alden one of the remaining berries of Mielikki, and he was raised from the dead.

The party searched the wizards and found a few potions, a spellbook, and a partial map of the undercity ruins showing four locations marked as: "Spell Lore, Potion Lore, Golem Lore, and Camp." The map also showed a route out of the undercity, ending in sea caves under Mount Waterdeep. The party recognized the potion lore location as the trapped chamber with the spiked rollers that they they had discovered during an earlier exploration. They used the map to locate the camp, and found a concealed, excavated chamber. Outside the chamber, a shallow grave containing the remains of a wizard who apparently died approximately 1-2 months ago from severe bludgeoning wounds to his face and skull. Inside, the chamber contained digging supplies, food rations, hammocks, lanterns, a +2 heavy crossbow, and nine adamantine-tipped bolts. The chamber had obviously suffered earthquake damage, and wooden support beams had been recently installed. The far end of the chamber had been most recently excavated, and revealed exotic marble pillars supporting a stone arch, leading to a hallway that ended in rubble. Apparently, the wizards had been camped here and were diligently digging out the exotic tunnel beyond the stone arch.

Aelidevrin summoned an earth elemental and sent it through the end of the rubble-filled hallway. When it returned, it reported finding an exotic room containing many "treasures of the earth plane." Guessing this to be gold and jewels, the party decided to dimension door four of them into the unseen chamber. Aelidevrin, Aralan, Alden and Konnal dimension doored and found themselves in a 10 ft. diamater hexagonal chamber supported by eight pillars. In the corners were urns filled with coins of silver, gold and platinum and various jewels. However, their weight tripped a trap, and the floor (made of stone encasing a thin lining of lead) swiveled down, dropping them into a larger hexagonal chamber filled with 2 ft. of sea water. The trapdoor reclosed, locking them in. Next, a 5 ft. section of the floor rose, revealing a statue of a bald, goateed wizard dressed in egyptian-style clothes (possibly Xaltheon, the main founder of the wizard guild), but with six faces and six arms. One arm was broken off, but the remaining arms and hands were all posed in unique gestures, which the party deduced were symbolic of strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. A magic mouth formed, speaking in a strange voice, "Choose, thief, and see if you are worth of my lore." The party decided that the statue was a test of some kind, and Aelidevrin volunteered to be the first. He touched the arm that appeared to be related to intelligence, and another magic mouth appeared, saying "“Student of the arcane, answer correctly, or suffer the consequences. Explain the metaphysics of the juxtaposition of the ethereal and astral planes.” Though steeped in arcane lore, Aelidevrin did not know the correct answer, and was struck by a green ray emitted from the statue, which feebleminded him. Aralan removed the curse with a dispel magic.

Next, Konnal attempted the Strength check. All but one section of the floor suddenly rose, slowly crushing the party against the ceiling. For several agonizing and painful seconds, the party strove to push away from the ceiling, but failed. Eventually, the floor fell back to its original position. The party was badly wounded, and apparently had failed this test, as well.

Deciding they had had enough, the party rested and the next morning cast dimension door to escape the chamber. However, some sort of magic disrupted the dimension door, and the party experienced a wrenching sensation as if they had traveled much farther than they planned, and in a different direction. They found themselves in a dark chamber, standing on some sort of magic pentagram. A huge, black, partially mummified viper-zombie rose from the corner, venom dripping from its fangs. Fortunately, it failed to hit any targets, and was quickly slain. The party found a crumbling hole in the ceiling and climbed out, then spent many hours in the maze of the undercity trying to find a way out. Eventually, the resorted to resting and dimension dooring again. This time, they chose to first cast feather fall on everyone, then go straight up 700 ft. There was no magical intereference this time, and they found themselves several hundred feet above the surface of the city. They gently floated back down, then decided to join up with Theodrid and Khira, who had not gone with them to the trapped hexagonal chamber.