I played Lt. Asgrim Horikson of the Heldannic Knights. He's a grouchy, sword using chaotic cleric, suffering from a curse. Whenever he's hit by water, he turns into a woman. He stays this way until he can douse himself (herself) with hot water to turn back to normal. (If you've ever seen Ranma 1/2, this is exactly the same thing, for much the same reason.) `Remove Curse' spells have been completely ineffective in curing this.
My companions are the following:
1. A lycanthrope hunting fighter named Grimtok the Short he's human, but looks exactly like a dwarf. He really hates when people call him that though. Neutral.
2. Sigmund the elf. Chaotic. Formerly male, but turned into a woman on a previous adventure. He's also currently trapped in a cursed item,`Underwear of Virginity'. I am NOT making this up.
3. A Tiger Clan cleric. She's basically a lesbian Aztec. Neutral.
4. A magic-user. Chaotic. She basically dresses like a high fashion prostitute and is the object of desire for the Tiger Clan cleric, an idea she finds repugnant.
We went on Castle Amber, the greatest module ever produced by TSR.
We did fine on the West Wing, the Garden and the North Chapel area (nothing weird to report there), but ran into problems on the East Wing.
Grimtok was magic jarred out of his body by the spirit of a high level sorceress, and trapped in the throne she was formerly imprisoned in. Since we had no idea where his soul was being kept, and no way to reverse the spell anyway, we had to abandon him. (We would have let her continue traveling with us, but she kept casting death spells and lightning bolts at us. Besides, she kept trying to use the magic jar spell on us again, since she'd much prefer a female body to that of what looks like a male dwarf.) Therefore, we had to drive her away. We did take the magic item he had with us, his sword. (She threw it away, since she couldn't use it.)
So, we're down to 4 people now. We finish this wing and go down into the dungeon. There I became infected with werewolf lycanthropy. (Although my character wasn't aware of it yet.) Also, in a battle with an invisible stalker, the mage is killed. Her body is animated as a zombie by the cleric; we split up her magic items and spellbook, and we continue. Soon, both Sigmund and myself are teleported to Averoigne, leaving the Tiger Clan cleric and the zombie trapped in the dungeon. (You need three keys turned simultaneously to exit the dungeon, and Sigmund and myself each have one of the three.)
Sigmund and myself go adventuring around Averoigne, trying to gather the four items to summon Prince Stephan's tomb.We gather two easily, but, trying to recover the Ring of Eibon, Sigmund is mauled by the Beast of Averoigne and bleeds to death. (Yes, I could have bandaged her, but hey, she's got a lot of good stuff. Besides, we were both Chaotic. She'd save done the same to me. And finally, she was infected by a wereboar. She'd have died anyway.)
So now it's down to me. I recruit a few people to go with me to get the final item, the Viper Circled Mirror, and head out. Sadly, they all died fighting a colossus (`I get away from the colossus, but not too far away.') Happily, their distraction allows me to kill it.
Alone again, I summon the tomb. I let a sleeping dragon lie, kill a fire salamander and a stone giant, avoid a shark, and then kill a hydra. This isn't so hard when you have practically every magic item the party had accumulated. (Darn that Tiger Clan cleric for living on me.)
Okay, I break the curse and free Prince Stephen Amber. He gave me a Girdle of Giant Strength and a 10,000 gp crown as a reward, and told me he could bring back to life any of my companions who had died or were lost trying to save him.
I thought hard, but felt sorry for the louts, so I wished Grimtok back. (He's back, and with his own mind now.)
Then I wished for the mage back. (She's also back alive.)
Then I wished for Sigmund back. (She's back and in her original male body again- I mentioned that to the guy. Not only that, but the cursed underwear is gone too. I forgot all about the lycanthropy- hope he gets it taken care of.)
Then I wished for the Tiger Clan cleric back, lying through my teeth that she was a weretiger. (She's back and she's a weretiger now. The player really likes weretigers, so I think he was happy with this. I then told Grimtok about her lycanthropy, so he's getting ready to give her the wolvesbane and silver test. (I didn't really like the cleric anyway.)
Finally, I wished for another cleric back from two adventures ago. She wasn't dead, just imprisoned, I lied. She was brought back. Grateful, Stephan Amber left. I killed this other cleric immediately.
We had a religious argument awhile back, were she pretty much spit on my god, Vanya. I didn't kill her in that adventure because the player had lost two other characters THAT NIGHT, and I felt sorry for him. But now, his character Grimtok is alive and well, and he doesn't like that character anyway (which is why he made Grimtok instead of using her anymore), so she died.
I didn't split any of the items I was carrying with the party (hey, I got you back to life!) because I needed them. (I did sell the mage back her spellbook, but not the elf's. He didn't have the money.)
I sold almost all of the magic items to get a Heldannic Warbird (flying boat) and retired happily back in Heldann on the estate I bought from the sale of the rest of the items. (See? I NEEDED them.)
I don't know what everyone else did, but I do know that the Tiger Clan cleric also didn't split any of the items that she was carrying with the rest of the group.
Although most of them did not have any items, they did have as much gold and platinum as they could carry, so it's not like they walked away with nothing.
Further, the Tiger Clan was named a Lady in Glantri and Karameikos, and Sigmund was named a Lady in Glantri (not that this does him much god now). (I was named both a Lord and a Lady in Glantri and Karameikos.)
Finally, during the whole adventure, I went from 6th to 9th level, the Tiger clan went from 7th to 9th, Grimtok went from 3rd to 6th, Sigmund went from 4th to 6th, and the mage went from 5th to 7th. Not too shabby, and well worth the loss of a few inconsequential items.
The End.
Well, I enjoyed it.
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Updated 12 SEP 99