TWK - Summaries

[Daos]

Chapter One:
Go Your Own Way

The party was at the Hive Inn in the pirate town of Flotsam, rather bored and low on coin. An old man dressed like a farmer entered, looking very out of place. He spoke to the innkeep, saying something about 'heroes' and a 'dangerous quest.' Curious, Sha'al approached and asked him who he was and what he was doing. The old man explained he was Barnabas of Nixx, a small hamlet in the Tanglewood Forest to the south. Nixx was always protected by a beautiful and mysterious witch, but she vanished a few months ago. Recently, a giant had been stalking about, stealing livestock. So Barnabas traveled all the way up here alone in hopes of finding brave heroes to slay the giant. Sha'al pointed out that this was a pirate town, and he was better off finding sellswords to do a job--a paying job. Barnabas was a little taken aback by this, but agreed the people of Nixx could put together some kind of monetary reward. The party mostly sneered at the idea, but they were bored and broke, and it was better than doing nothing. So they all agreed.

After dropping some of their gear off on their boat, the party followed Barnabas into the southern woods. They discussed some of the dangers they might encounter, when suddenly an arrow hit the tree that Granker was about to pass by. A wendle centaur (basically, imagine a pony-sized centaur) emerged from the woods some distance away, an arrow nocked on her bow. She called out to the evil minotaurs violating her wood. Kaelestia spoke out in the party's defense, and the centaur--Daphne--apologized. She had assumed the elves and dwarf in the party were slaves, and she had sought to liberate them. She recognized Barnabas, citing her brothers chasing off the giant badger that had treed him on his way to Flotsam.

Daphne decides that as long as they have no ill intent, she will let them pass. But then Parra starts insulting her, which infuriates her. Luckily, Kaelestia is able to step in and smooth things over before a fight breaks out. But they part on poor terms.

The party continues on until nightfall and make camp. The next morning, they set out again. Shortly after setting out, they are ambushed by three giant lynxes; only Sha'al is not surprised (thanks to his fast reflexes). A fierce battle breaks out, but the party is able to drive the lynxes away. As they flee, though, Parra throws her shatang at one, hits it and it runs off with it.

After healing up, the party continues on. That night, they make camp. The following morning, they set out again. Barnabas promises they are almost there. Sha'al asks for more information about the giant and the witch. He learns that nobody has actually seen the giant up close, just its massive footprints leading into the forest. This has been going on for two weeks. The witch vanished about six months ago; he'd been to her house once, but she flew him there on her magic carpet. Nobody in Nixx knows how to get around in the forest, so the party would be going in blind. Sha'al is upset by these details. Sumina asks why they even care about the witch. Sha'al subtlety suggests they might rob her; Parra wants access to her spells. There is also speculation that the disappearance of the witch and the appearance of the giant were connected to each other.

A few hours later, the party arrives in Nixx. It's less of a town than it is a collection of farmhouses and a single meeting hall. A large crowd of about 50 people gather around to see Barnabas' 'heroes' and some are afraid and some are awed, but all are at least a little hopeful. A beautiful red haired woman approaches and hugs Barnabas, calling him 'grandfather.' He introduces her as his granddaughter, Rhiannon. She tells the party that the giant struck last night, and shows them the prints. They are big, but Arthogate wonders if they might be too small for a giant; an ogre, perhaps.

The party discusses their options. Some think they should try and set a trap and wait for the 'giant' to return (although it's not clear what sort of trap is meant). Others feel they should track their prey into the woods. Eventually, the latter side wins, and they decide to head out immediately into the Tanglewood. They all feel a strong magical fey presence within, even those not nature-oriented. The tracks are easy to follow at first, but they eventually lose the trail. They come across a fork and basically have to guess which way to go.

The party randomly decides on the right path. Eventually, it takes them to a dead-end with a small and abandoned castle. They poke around in it and realize it might be a safe place to camp for the night. Parra and Kaelestia have an interesting conversation about High Ogres. Parra seems a bit obsessed with them, but her knowledge of them has some pretty big gaps in it. Kaelestia pretends to have a passing interest, despite the fact she is actually one of them in disguise.

The next morning the party sets out and returns to the fork, then this time takes the left path. After a couple of hours, they find a second fork in the trail. They debate for a bit, then choose to go right again. This eventually takes them to a third fork. Now the party is pissed. Parra tries to use cantrips to determine the way, but to no avail. They guess again and take the right path, and this leads them to a fourth fork. Now ready to give up, the party decides to just turn back and go back to Nixx. However, when they try, they somehow wind up back at the fourth fork, like they had somehow gone in a full circle.

Kaelestia decides to try and commune with nature, and asks Chislev for a sign. A songbird flies off down the right path, so the party decides to trust it and follow. After following it a bit, they hear crying ahead. There is a kender sitting and sobbing his eyes out. When he notices the party, he starts crying even louder. Sumina approaches and asks him what's wrong. The kender explains that a 'big mean man' stole his kitty, who had fur the color of the belt pouch he was holding (black, it was Sumina's; she quickly retrieves it).

The party deduces the 'giant' they are chasing is the same one who took the kitty. They ask the kender to guide them to where the giant took the cat, and the kender suddenly changes his mood and cheerfully joins the group, something they aren't all pleased about. He introduces himself as Twill Topknot and takes them to a beautiful elven-made cottage in the woods. The party suspects this is where the witch lives.

Sha'al goes in alone, and finds a secret door to the cellar right away. Fortunately, Twill calls this out to the others, otherwise the sea elf would have descended alone. Sha'al finds at the bottom a cellar that looks like it was once a wizard's lab. An ogre is down there, trying to give a black cat a bowl of milk. There's also a rather anxious cow. Behind the ogre is a large mirror with an ornate gargoyle by it that seems to be missing a horn.

Twill calls out for Kitty, and Sha'al and Parra say they are only looking for the witch. Tom, the ogre, believes they were sent by the witch to steal back the house and the kitty that he stole first. He quickly attacks them. Working together, the party easily dispatches him in two rounds without taking a hit.

After the fight, the party is quickly intrigued by the giant mirror. Twill recognizes it, claiming he came through it before, and if they can 'turn it back on' it will take them back to Stevie's house (Stevie being the good witch). The party quickly realizes they need the missing gargoyle horn, and start searching for it. Sha'al finds a sealed concealed door and manages to get it open, revealing a locked chest. Twill quickly picks it, and there is a crystal horn inside.

Placing the horn on the gargoyle, the mirror 'activates' and becomes a portal. Twill hugs and thanks everyone for their help, but then suggests they come with him to meet Stevie. The party agrees, so Twill takes the cow and Kitty with him, and the others follow. Only after they are gone, does the horn shatter and the gate close. Meanwhile, Ferd was left upstairs, alone.

[Daos]

Chapter Two:
Planets of the Universe

The party emerges from another mirror in another house, but this one is not abandoned. There seems to be some kind of storm raging outside, and it's dark outside suddenly. A beautiful elven woman descends from the stairs, and recognizes Twill, and deduces the rest of the party as being from Krynn. She introduces herself as Stefanellathalasa or Stevie of Nixx. She also explains that they have been teleported to another world--specifically, the planet Chislev, fourth from the sun.

The party has a hard time grasping this idea. Stevie explains she found the mirror thirty years ago, and discovered that a crystal horn with a phase door spell on it placed on the gargoyle's head activates it, connecting it to another mirror elsewhere. She first came through the mirror a few months ago and decided to explore a bit before returning. But then she discovered that if one stays on another side of the mirror too long, they become stuck and cannot cross over again. So she is stranded here, and if the party does not find another crystal horn, so will they. The party isn't keen on this idea, especially when they learn there are no oceans so they cannot resume their lives as sailors here.

Stevie speculates the party might have a chance if they can find another horn. She found the mirror in an old wizard's stronghold not far from there, it having once belonged to an evil Black Robe. There may be another one still there. She draws up a map for them, and Twill agrees to serve as a guide. She also mentions there are ships that can sail the stars, but very rarely to they ever come here. The last one was a gnomish ship that crashed awhile ago, and they are working on fixing it, but it will likely never leave the atmosphere again. Nevertheless, the party considers trying to track the gnomes down if all else fails.

Stevie also mentions a trading outpost on the way to the citadel that they can possibly resupply at. All trades are welcomed, and the woman who runs it is particularly interested in livestock. The party discusses trading in the cow Twill brought with them (he calls her Betsy), but ultimately decide to leave it at Stevie's house for now. The party camps out in her living room, eating vegetarian foods and talking a bit with her about this world. Parra tries to learn a new spell from her (Identify) but fails.

The following morning, the storm has passed and the party prepares to head out. Stevie gifts them with some quith-pa to last them until they reach the trading outpost. Twill is seen carrying a far too big for him great sword. He claims that it belongs to his barbarian friend, Roaring Bear. He went to investigate an abandoned anhkheg burrow and asked Twill to hold his sword until he came back. Except, it's been a month, and he's never come back, and Twill is still carrying it for him (unaware that the burrow may not have been so abandoned after all). Sumina, recognizing the blade's value, convinced the kender to let her carry it for him.

Parra tries to convince Stevie to give her some history books, but all of Stevie's books are written in Elvish, so Parra cannot read them. She becomes determined to find some potent magic in the citadel, but Stevie warns her that such power is beyond a student's grasp and might destroy her.

The party sets off, with Twill leading the way, but Arthogate wants one of their best trackers with him--despite the fact the party has no trackers (which is why they kept getting lost in the Tanglewood). Eventually they settle on letting Granker and Arthogate take the lead with him. Twill rambles on about how his family eventually wound up stranded on the planet of Chislev.

Eventually, they come to a stream. On the other side are three creatures, drinking from it. Two resemble fallen ogres, but are only around 6 feet in size. The third one looks just like an Irda, but has purple skin instead of blue. Kaelestia starts speaking to him in a language the others don't recognize. She says something to him and he becomes upset and attacks. Parra, who mistakes him for an Irda, tries to parley but fails; the others prepare for battle.

The rest of the party is genuinely confused as to what is going on, and strangely none of them think to ask the native. Twill volunteers, though, as they are fighting, that the purple man is a Nzunta and the small ogres are Orughi, whom the Nzunta enslave. The party scares off one Orughi, kills another, and Granker lands the killing blow on the Nzunta just as he tries to escape. Parra becomes very upset about this. They search the body and Kaelestia finds a note written in Kolshet. It seems to be a fairly mundane letter, but Parra tries to puzzle out some deeper meaning. It mentions a 'Shou' witch, and Twill explains that the Shou are a race of humans that are not from Chislev or Krynn, but much further away, and they sometimes visit this planet.

Later that afternoon, the party comes across what appears to be a long abandoned graveyard with a large mausoleum. Twill is fascinated and thinks they should check it out. The party is reluctant, but agree--despite the numerous warning signs that the place is cursed (eerie silence, sense of dread and fear in everyone but the kender, a mysterious bank of fog coming from nowhere). This gives the party pause, but when Twill starts to fake cry about it, they agree to let him check out the mausoleum.

Once Twill breaks in, they find three slabs with bodies on them, and three chests filled with treasure. Immediately, the bodies got up and attacked. What's more, seven more bodies started to claw their way out of the ground. The party took out the first three and fell back to the mausoleum, but several party members either fell or were paralyzed by the touch of the ghouls. Sha'al went first, and then Granker. Arthogate and Twill got paralyzed, as did Parra. But Twill managed to shake it off and it turned out Kitty was somehow capable of instantly stabilizing the dying. Kaelestia and Sumina, along with Twill, managed to make a final stand and finish off the last remaining ghouls.

The party withdraws into the mausoleum to wait for paralysis to wear off and heal up a bit. They also comb through the treasure, finding thousands of iron and silver coins, three scrolls, a scimitar and some gemstones. They determine that two of the scrolls are spell scrolls, but are encrypted. The other one is a Protection from Undead scroll. After dividing up the treasure, they decide to push forward to the trading outpost, despite their injuries.

Along the way, they come across a small clearing with a stream, and find two massive deer--taller than the minotaurs if you include antlers, drinking from it. They decide to leave the deer alone, and eventually they move on.

The trading outpost, as it turns out, is inside a massive hollowed out tree. They find a door and knock. A Shou woman named Mei-Ling answers, asking what they want. Arthogate introduces the party as 'Twill and friends' but Mei-Ling mistakes him as being Twill. Kaelestia explains they are just travelers looking to do business. Mei-Ling insists they agree, in writing, to keep an eye on Twill before letting them in. The party is content to allow Twill to wait outside, even though a storm is brewing. It's only when Twill points out that he might get blown away by the storm, and then the party will have nobody to deal with the citadel's locks and traps, that Sumina agrees. She signs some kind of magical contract, that will ensure she will take responsibility of Twill takes anything. The party emphasizes to Twill to keep his hands to himself, and he assures them he totally will, all while idly handling items from each of them (including Tom's tooth that Parra harvested, Sha'al's mirror, and one of Arthogate's arrows). Sumina quickly grabs all of the items and hands them back to their respective owners.

Mei-Ling takes the party on a tour of the first floor, and warns them to stay out of the kitchen and out of the basement. They all sit down together for dinner, and it turns out Mei-Ling has a staff of unseen servants that do all of the menial work, like cooking and cleaning. The party asks about ways to return to Krynn, and explain they arrived here through a magic mirror. They also ask about the citadel, which they learn was called the Citadel of Que-Sanh, and built by a Black Robe named Voss who was using it to perform illegal magical experiments beyond the eyes of the Conclave. But he was found out, Renegade Hunters were dispatched, and he was killed. The citadel has been abandoned ever since.

After dinner, Mei-Ling takes the party upstairs and shows them their rooms (large, spacious rooms with multiple beds; one for men, one for women) and the bathing area (with a magical bathtub). All she charges is one steel per person per night. Her only rules is not to steal, stay out of the kitchen, and under no circumstance, go into the basement. Otherwise, they are free to roam around as they please.

The party cleans up and gets some sleep. The next day, it's still storming, and they are still injured, so they decide to stay another day, despite the risk of being stranded here. Twill insists being stuck here isn't so bad, and the world's biggest lake is almost a mile wide, so maybe Sha'al can build a rowboat and paddle around it. Sha'al is not amused. Kaelestia heals up the party with magic, and they spend the rest of the day resting.

The day after that, they pay for their rooms, gather their things and prepare to head out. Sumina empties Twill's pockets of anything he 'borrowed' or 'found' first. They then head south toward the mountains.

[Daos]

Chapter Three:
Sorcerer

The party sets off for the mountains, which seem strange and alien to the party, but perfectly normal to Twill. Once they find the path and start making their way up the mountains, Kaelestia gets surprised by a giant trapdoor spider. It grabs her boot and nearly pulls her into its hole, but Parra grabs her at the last second. Sumina joins in and they free the druid, and then the spider comes out of its hole to attack. Sumina scares it off with a fear spell, and the party decides to press on rather than chase after it.

They reach the citadel, which sits in a box canyon. But the only way to reach it is a very narrow path, half a foot wide, alongside the canyon wall. They send Twill ahead with some rope, and he ties it off to make it easier for the others to cross. Sha'al went first, followed by Sumina and Kaelestia, and then Arthogate--this left the heavier and larger minotaurs for last. While they waited, Twill finds a skeleton shot by a crossbow bolt. They also spot two doors, and have Twill check the north one for traps. Meanwhile, the path starts to crumble as the minotaurs make the climb. They speed up in time to avoid falling, but the path collapses behind them, meaning they will have to find another way to leave when they are done.

The party explores the first room, which appears to have once held the mirror that now sits in Stevie’s place. There is also a large stone altar. Looking around, Sha’al notes a concealed door behind a tapestry to the south. Sumina notices some scuff marks near the altar. The party decides to work together to push the altar, but are interrupted when four large spiders drop on them. The party quickly dispatches them, but Parra gets poisoned and her strength temporarily lowers as a result.

The party then moves the altar and finds a cache of treasure--216 stl, 75 sp, 165 pp, 650 cp, and a gold cup decorated with steel wire inlay. They decide to leave it there for the time being, as it would weigh them down further. They then check the concealed door and find what used to be a bedroom. There's a 100 gallon barrel with a spigot hanging over a drain in the floor. The party determines it has oil inside, but don't put two and two together and decide to just ignore it. So Twill uses some of the items he found around the citadel to make a torch, and lights it. The only problem is, nobody wants to carry it. Eventually, Arthogate agrees to carry it.

The party moves on, finding a room with seven empty jail cells. Sha'al notes that there is nothing where an eighth cell should be, so inspects it for secret doors. He doesn't find anything, but by chance, Sumina does. A secret door opens into a tunnel. Half-way through the tunnel is a dead priest of Takhisis, another skeleton, with several crossbow bolts in the back. The skeleton has nice chain mail and a black and silver mace. Sumina claims both, but upon touching the mace, she seems to go into a bit of a trance. Afterward, she becomes a bit possessive of the weapon.

The party moves on and finds what seems to be a mess hall with a large cistern for collecting rain water, and several tables and chairs. Once the party enters, something happens to Kaelestia. She loses all memory of the past day, including her memorized prayers. The party believes a trap of some kind triggered, causing her to forget. But they cannot find any sign of it. Eventually, they give up and move on.

They enter a large storage room of some kind, then into a long hallway, over a hundred feet in length. Sha'al tells Twill to check every inch for traps, which will take at least a couple of hours, so Twill isn't interested. The party insists, so he starts, but quickly grows bored and starts half-assing it, then claims he is done and the way is clear. Sha'al decides to send Twill ahead to test if that is true, and the kender skips off into the darkness. After awhile, Arthogate goes after him, but finds no sign of him. The hallway ends in a closed door, and the kender is just gone.

The party spreads out and searches, and Sha'al finds a secret door that leads into some kind of summoning chamber. Twill is there, poking at a creature that appears stuck in the floor, as if someone summoned it only half-way. Sumina recognizes it as a dretch, a type of demon. It telepathically begs to be freed, offering riches and power in return. Apparently, it was in the process of being summoned and then the summoner left and never returned; and that was 400 years ago.

The party is skeptical that they can trust a demon, even a lower one such as this. It promises them whatever they want; including instant transportation back to Krynn or where all the secret spellbooks are hidden. However, the party still doesn't trust it, and so decide to move on and leave it there. It begins screaming telepathically in rage, which the party has no defense against as covering their ears does nothing. Sumina manages to convince it they will return shortly to free it.

They head into the tower and find a raised platform to the south, and a small conference room to the north. Kaelestia stands on the platform and accidentally activates it with the word 'up' causing it to lift her to the second floor. The others are mystified as to how to retrieve her, but she discovers she can lower the lift again by saying the word 'down.' Retrieving the others, they ride the lift up to the second floor together and find a hallway with two doors, and another lift leading up to the third floor. They check the doors but find them magically locked; unable to pick them, as the locks aren't phyiscal.

The party discusses some options, including Sha'al climbing out the window and circling the tower to reach the rooms through their own windows. Sha'al also considers taking the doors off their hinges. Granker tries to kick it down, but it's too sturdy. While this is all going on, Sumina gets bored and decides to move up to the third floor. Sha'al notices at the last moment and leaps up onto the lift with her, so the two ascend.

Upstairs, they find some personal quarters. They discover a mace that glows quite brightly and a black robe with a stylized silver 'V' on it. Sha'al takes the former, Sumina claims the latter. They then examine the mirror and the pentagram.

Meanwhile, on the second floor, Parra tries to break down the door, to no avail. Twill stands on Arthogate's shoulders to reach the upper hinges, using a chisel on them. However, even after removing the hinges, the door remains stuck in place with magic. Eventually, Arthogate just manages to chop it down with his axe. Inside they find what used to be a bedroom, now fallen into disrepair. They do find an open book, though, labeled 'The Art of Summoning, Vol. I by Fistandantilus.' Parra is quite excited by it.

Kaelestia joins Sumina and Sha'al upstairs and examines the pentagram with them. They fill her in on the items they've found and the pentagram and mirror. Kaelestia deduces the mirror might work like the lifts, but the party is reluctant to try it out until they've explored more of the citadel. They return to the second floor, but when Twill learns there is another magic mirror up there, he quickly goes up to investigate. The party goes after him, worried he might somehow activate it.

As it turns out, Twill does accidentally activate the mirror and falls through it. Annoyed, the party goes after him. They wind up on the topmost floor of the tower, which is magically dark and seems to oppress any natural light (and counters magical light). There's a large hologram of Nuitari, and the entire room reeks of powerful dark magic.

Sha'al tries searching the dark room, when a strange hound seemingly made out of shadow leaps at him. The party is partly surprised, but manages to shake it off and fight back. The mastiff is quite hard to hit in the darkness. Kaelestia tries to find some way to create more light by burning the Nzunta cloak she found, while Sha'al tries to use the glowing mace only to discover it's just a mundane mace with a light spell on it. Through teamwork and patience, though, they are able to defeat the summoned creature.

Sha'al searches the room again and this time finds two crystal horns and a scroll case. With their mission complete, they just needed to figure out how to get back to Stevie's. For now, they descend back to the altar room to retrieve that cache of coin they found. After doing so, they hear a crash of some kind on the landing. Going to investigate, they find a gnomish airship has landed on the landing.

Sha'al is dead set against going anywhere around gnomes, but Twill climbs aboard the deck to talk to them anyway, and the party reluctantly follows. One of the gnome explains the ship just stopped for routine maintenance, and it suddenly took off again while the party was still on it, so he offered to drop them off somewhere. Quite literally, as he wanted to test out a new parachute, but the party managed to convince him to land so they could disembark at Stevie's.

Once back, they gave a tearful goodbye (well, Twill was tearful; the party was just eager to leave) and used one of the crystal horns to open the portal and return to Krynn. They found that Ferd was still there, having survived on local flora and a nearby stream, and all of their gear was still on him. They set up camp for the night, prepared to head back to Nixx and then Flotsam, returning to their ship.