November 23, 2002 – IV, Isach, Tim, Rick, and Lisa

The group is now back in Malwander, having saved Nori from Pontylver and the insanity imposed by that place. With his wits now about him, Nori easily disproves the validity of the journal Councilman Irithan was using to have the group banished from the city. Strangely enough, Irithan doesn’t seem to mind his defeat at the hands of the party. In fact, he seems incredibly smug about the whole ordeal, giving our heroes the impression that he was able to accomplish whatever evil plans he had while they were off fighting for their sanity, and their very lives, on Serpent Isle.

The group notices that Carstos is no where to be found, so they decide to check in with Marlos and see if he has any information on what Irithan has been up to. While he doesn’t know anything specific about Irithan, he does tell the group that Carstos has been quite busy lately as the council has put considerable pressure on him to find out why some of the city’s citizens have disappeared over the past few weeks. He also tells the group that their old nemesis Maj was seen entering the Councilman’s house just a few days ago. This obviously piques the interest of Sione, wanting to avenge the death of her uncle at the hands of Maj.

Deciding that they should gear up before proceeding further, the group contacts Xifias’ uncle to find out if he can sell the shield and shuriken they found on their adventure on Serpent Isle. They also inquire about his ability to obtain a few items that they feel will help them in their battles against the agents of Kasera. The group spends a few days to learn some new spells, scribe some scrolls, and infuse some herbs while waiting for word back. They also take advantage of this time to try and get some additional information about Maj and his involvement in the disappearances Carstos is investigating. They find that Maj was apparently seen near an abandoned mine in the Hollow Highlands, in the same general vicinity that the disappearances have occurred. They also hear rumors of strange creatures having been spotted prowling around the city at night. Xif’s uncle is unable to get them everything they want, but he does manage to get them most of the items they requested. This forces the group to take a few more days to travel to New Keep to deliver their goods and purchase their items.

Finally, the group gets back to Malwander and heads out to help find out what is going on. Sione is able to find some strange tracks outside of the city, apparently made by some form of large dog or wolf. Not finding much else of interest here, the group begins the search for the mine Maj has been spotted near. Running into Carstos, he tells them that he has his men scouring the area for any information they may find. The party asks if he knows of any old mines in the area, and he tells them that three exist that he knows of, two old silver mines, and one gem mine. He’s had men stationed outside each of these mines just in case they are related to the disappearances. He gives them a rough map and they head off to check out the area around the first mine. Sione doesn’t find any tracks of note near the first of the two silver mines, so they decide to move on to the gem mine to see if they can find any clues there.

The party finds more of the strange creatures’ tracks near the second mine, as well as at least two separate sets of humanoid tracks as well. The canine tracks surround the area around the mine, but they do not actually travel into the mine itself. However, the other tracks definitely do travel into and out of the mine, with one heading off toward the second silver mine. Deciding to follow that lead, the group leaves this mine to explore at a later time and they travel toward the third mine.

The tracks head straight to the third mine, and proceed into the interior. Several other sets of tracks, all made by the same person are found about the area, some several days old. The party decides to investigate further before heading back to the gem mine. Xif sneaks up near the mine entrance and attempts to see if he can determine who or what may be inside. Not able to see much, he heads back and informs the group, who move closer to see if they can detect anything in the dark interior of the cavern opening. As they approach the entrance, they hear the hum of a bowstring as an arrow flies out and just misses Xif. As they move closer more arrows attempt to find their targets. Hoping to illuminate the cave, Isach lights his lantern and focuses it on the cave entrance. While that does help them see more of the interior, it does not reveal their attacker, and the lantern itself now becomes a target itself as an arrow extinguishes it quickly. Lirrim then lights and throws a torch into the mine, lighting it enough to allow the group to move forward, and revealing Maj as the aggressor.

A grand battle ensues, but it soon becomes apparent that Maj is much more powerful than the group originally thought. With the tide turning against them, especially with Maj displaying powerful magic with the help of his scimitar, the group still rallies bravely in the face of overwhelming odds. They continue to battle to the end, with several of them going down, only to be brought back up with the help of Sione’s healing magic. The melee drags on, and the group begins to run out of tricks, when Maj cocks his head as if listening to something far off. He then disengages the battle and begins moving out of the mine, only stopping to say, “You’re lucky I have other prey to hunt.” With that, he sprints out of the cave with the group having little chance of keeping up.

The hunter’s tracks head out of the cave and end abruptly in the distance. Needing to regroup the party makes camp and searches through what little Maj left behind. The only item of interest is to Maj from Kasera. Carstos catches up with them as they nurse their wounds around the campfire. He informs them that his men both here and at the gem mine have gone missing, which the group had noticed in their initial searches. They ask what he knows of Maj, and he tells them that he is renowned as a hunter of both men and creatures, with his base of operations having been Pitchfield until recently. They inquire abourt what can be done about Irithan, only to have Carstos tell them that Irithan has the majority of the council on his side, as well as some considerable support from an unknown source in the King’s Court, meaning there is little that can be done at this point to oppose him directly. Outside of that, there is very little of use that either side can provide the other. So we leave our heroes, resting in camp before moving on in the morning to see what they can find out of this new mystery at the gem mine.

December 7, 2002 – IV, Tim, Lisa

After nursing their wounds following the battle with Maj, the group decides to go and check out the gem mine since they found several sets of tracks there previously. Sione picks up two sets of recent tracks, made within the past few hours. One set appears to belong to the same creature the group found tracks for just outside of Malwander. The second set belongs to Maj, and appear to follow the creature away from the mine entrance. The group debates whether to follow the tracks and stop Maj from harming whatever this creature is, or to investigate the mine to see what clues it can reveal. The consensus is to explore the mine first, discover what they can there, and then follow the tracks to see what Maj may be up to.

The group heads into the mine, where once again, Sione has picked up several sets of tracks. The first set starts outside the cave, moves in and continues well into the mine, past an intersection the group sees ahead and on into the unknown. The second set, which also appear to belong to Maj, start outside, go into the cave, but stop short of the intersection. Another set of tracks seems to belong to the same person who made the first set, but they also appear to be dragging a body through here, and beyond the intersection. Since none of the tracks go to either the left or right passages, the group decides to follow them down the central passage. They eventually lead to a large elevator type mechanism, with large iron bars driven into the ground supporting a large, crank-like device, much like what you find suspending a bucket over a well. However, this device has two sets of chains connecting to a large wooden platform that raises and lowers as the chains are either cranked in, or let out respectively. The cranking mechanism has been oiled recently and appears to be fairly decent repair.

The group begins to notice traces of blood on the ground and on the platform here. Warily, they take the platform down, on their guard for anything unexpected. The platform only appears to go down one floor, where the group is forced to get off. A large pool of drying blood can be seen here, and the drag marks continue on down the corridor. Once again, the group decides to follow the tracks, and is led to another intersection with passages leading to the left, to the right, and straight ahead. The tracks continue on down the corridor straight ahead, so that is the direction the group continues to travel. About 100 feet up the corridor, a wooden wall with a door built into it bars the way.

The group creeps forward and listens at the door. They can hear someone speaking on the other side, but cannot make out what is being said. Lirrim suggests that it almost sounds as if the person were talking to himself given the cadence and flow of the speaking. Isach decides to sneak in and investigate further. As he reaches for the handle of the door, he notices it is covered in drying blood. He carefully opens the door and peers inside. He can see the corridor opens up into a large room about 15 feet from the door. He can see braziers hanging from the ceiling providing light and warmth. On the far wall opposite the door, a large table stands, covered in the trappings of an alchemist. To the right, he can clearly hear the man speaking to himself, “I must perfect the formula, I must find the cure.” He continues on and on, sometimes not making any sense at all, obviously not in his right mind.

As Isach sneaks forward for a better look, he sees a man in a plain, brown cloak standing at another table filled with alchemy equipment, adding various drops of liquid and pinches of powder to a vial he holds in his hand. Next to this table is a large rack, which pivots to lay the victims either upright, or horizontal. It is covered in blood, most of it dried at this point in time. On the left side of the room Isach notices that the end of the room has been made into a large cell. The door bears a heavy lock, and there are at least three bodies lying on the floor inside. He is unable to determine if they are alive or dead for none of them are facing him. Turning to regard the man once again, Isach notices that a large key hangs from a leather cord around his neck. Obviously it unlocks\ the lock on the cell door.

Isach then turns and begins to sneak back toward the door to report what he has seen to the others. Suddenly the room goes quiet, and he freezes in place, straining to listen for any signs of movement. It’s deathly quiet for a few tense moments, when the silence is suddenly shattered by the sounds of the man incanting the words of a spell. Lirrim and Isach both recognize the spell as Teleportation, and rush in the room to try and disrupt the man while he’s casting. Luckily, the man is reading the spell off of a scroll, and they are able to interrupt him with a few well-placed attacks. Not knowing what to expect next, they watch the man carefully. Suddenly, he turns towards them and says, “Well I guess I have found a few new test subjects, now haven’t I?” With this his body begins to tremble and change shape. Everyone’s stomachs turn as they realize what they are up against. This man is obviously a werewolf, and despite the group’s attempts to speak with him, continues transforming before their eyes.

If any of the legends they have heard regarding werewolves are true, they are definitely no match for the beast, so they decide that discretion is the better part of valor and flee down the corridor, and back up the elevator as quickly as possible. Hopefully, the wooden platform will at least slow the creature down, allowing them to escape. Luckily, they are able to get out of the mine, and quickly back into town where they notify Carstos what they are up against. After conferring with the council, Carstos and his guardsmen, as well as a number of the towns clergy, begin gearing up to attempt to stop the beast first thing in the morning. Despite repeated warnings from the group, he leads the mob off to fight the creature at dawn’s first light. The group has decide to join them in this futile affair, preparing what spells they can and asking Marlos and the others for whatever aid they can give.

The group sets off and reaches the mine fairly quickly. They then proceed in and follow the passage up to the location of the wooden platform, which is now completely destroyed, possibly by the creature as it tried to follow the group the day before. As Carstos and the others discuss how to get down the open shaft, the group suddenly hears a growl from behind them. They, and many of the guards turn just in time to see the werewolf leap forward and disembowel one of the poor, unfortunate guardsmen. All 35 men turn and begin attacking the foul beast, doing very little to slow it down. >The group, as well as Carstos and a few of his lieutenants appear to be doing some damage, but the creature’s wounds are closing almost as fast as they are created. Several more guards go down, and the beast then turns on Isach. Isach had managed to cast Mirror Image, creating three duplicates of himself, and luckily the beast attacked one of them. Another guard goes down before the creature lunges at Lirrim.

Lirrim survives the bite, but just barely, and he is lucky the creature turns its attention elsewhere for its next attack. It mauls yet another guardsmen, lifts it’s head and howls. The ungodly sound sends a good portion of those present, including some of the party members, running in fear. The battle has degraded into sheer chaos and the beast does not look like it will slow down any time soon. Suddenly the group sees Maj appear from the shadows and engage the werewolf, who seems to recognize him and snarls. They circle each other, giving the impression that this in not the first time they have faced off. Suddenly, they spring to the attack, with Maj taking the blunt of the damage in the early rounds. The group attempts to take advantage of the fact that both Maj and creature appear to be locked in on one another to take whatever shots they can.

Maj reaches for his amulet, which glows blue, appearing to heal many of his wounds just as it did when the group battled him. Still, the creature appears to be getting the better of him, landing several more solid blows. Suddenly Maj reaches into the pouch at his belt and pulls a small length of chain from it. He hurls it at the beast, and it enlarges as it flies through the air. The werewolf gets caught up in the chain, and attempts to struggle free. However, it looks like the more it struggles, the more the chain grows, and the more it tightens its grasp, engulfing the creature swiftly. Soon, the beast can barely move and Maj moves in and grasps the chains binding it. He raises his sword for a moment, seemingly focusing his energy. Swirls of black energy twist and writhe around the blade as if made of smoke. Maj lifts the blade and plunges it through the defenseless creature, “You wanted a cure. Here you are.”

The werewolf instantly slumps lifeless on the floor and the chain begins to revert back to normal size. Everyone is already pulling back at this point, not wanting to deal with Maj considering the beating they just took at the hands of the werewolf. Luckily, they are able to get out safely just before Maj disappears once again. Carstos brings in any alchemists and the like he can get to look at the remains of the lab the man was using. They are impressed by the sophistication of the equipment, and are even stumped at what some of the ingredients they find are. It appears that this man was capturing people and turning them into werewolves like himself, so he could test his “cures” on them. Should he find one that worked, he could administer it to himself, ridding him of the curse he carried.

Knowing the legends surrounding werewolves, the group decides it’s best to lock Lirrim up a few nights later when the full moon is supposed to rise. Once it does, Lirrim begins to transform into a werewolf himself, rattling the bars of the jail’s cell, trying to escape his confinement. The cell barely holds, and once Lirrim has returned to normal the group decide to travel to the Menowood to seek the advice of the Druid Council. A few of the Council’s members have dealt with lycanthropy before and brew up a concoction of wolfsbane for Lirrim to drink. Unfortunately, wolfsbane is a deadly poison, so Lirrim must first survive its poisonous effects before he can hope to reap its curing benefits. He survives the ordeal, and the druids seem to think he is cured of the werewolf’s curse, but only the next full moon will tell for sure. With that, the group decides to travel to the City of the Black Caverns located in the Hestmark Highlands for it is close enough for them to travel to and from before the next full moon.

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Chapters - Find out what's happened so far.

Chapter One – Shapeshifters in Our Midst

Chapter Two – A Prophecy Fulfilled?

Chapter Three – The City of Black Crystal

Chapter Four – Poachers? No, Murderers!

Chapter Five – The Vast Swamp

Chapter Six – Delivery for Quarion

Chapter Seven – Evil Afoot in the Menowood

Chapter Eight – An Item in Naerie

Chapter Nine – Back in Malwander…

Chapter Ten – A Journey Into Madness

Chapter Eleven - Serpent Isle

Chapter Twelve – The Return of Maj

Chapter Thirteen – The Hestmark Highlands

Chapter Fourteen – A Spy Among Us?

Chapter Fifteen – The Bonewood

Chapter Sixteen – Return to Rook's Roost