Spheresword's Journal
From Rathe
This is a collection of Sphere's journal entries (written by Zai).
Posted 11/7/2005 to the Metagamers boards
Archive Entry: 00000001
These last couple days have been the most contradictory and absurd days of my life. I was attempting to leave Heldriech only to wake up back in the blasted town. While still wincing over my wounds, I attempted to replace my lost items at the local arcane shop. Luckily, instead of spending what remained of my precious gold I heard of a chance to get some treasure. I immediately put aside my spare spellbook that I bought and joined the party. Apparently there was a kidnapping and ransom of some townspeople and the kidnappers were demanding gold. After a small bit of discussion we realized that the town was going to pay the bandits anyway so we could just attack the bandits and keep the money for ourselves. That was the plan, but that is when things took an interesting turn. Apparently, the criminals was the very ogre who robbed me in the first place. My anger was coursing through my veins but I kept a cool head as I waited for the uh, bigger, members of our group to act first. After we started to fire, we got attacked from behind by five to six goblins with ranged weapons. The situation would have been dire if not for the fact that our lone sorceress was a part of the "family". As he singlehandedly charged the goblins behind us, we charged forward. With our rear secure, we charged and attacked the ogre and his goblin cohorts. To cover their retreat the ogre attacked us while the goblins released smoke to obscure our line of sight. I soon realized after several volleys from the goblins that the majority of them were images. I tried to inform my party but they did not heed in time to give chase to the ogre. The ogre soon retreated after we dealt blow after blow to it but it disappeared into the smoke and we could not find him. Luckily, our ranger found some goblin tracks which we followed into their hideout in a hill.
At first, I was expecting a battle, but apparently the fact that we had ale was enough for all grudges to be dropped. We entered into their lair to find their fruits of all their raids, large piles of gold and victuals. Then the ogre invited us to join him at the table to feast, most of us joined in along except for me. I, of course, was more interested in their loot, so I sifted around and bargained for a spellbook and component pouch. Before I could search the room further, there was a knock on the door. The absurdity continued when Phillip arrived at the door dressed in a goblin costume made from the very goblins which we just slain. Right after being let in, he immediatly set towards the table and proceeded to drink himself silly. As the night passed, the ogre and the rest of the goblins sober up and brough out a map. I soon realized that I had paid to buy back my own stolen spellbook but my anger was mitigated by the map the ogre brought out. I sense treasure, I shouldn't be missing what the ogre is saying; I'll finish this when I get back from his proposed excursion, whatever it is...
Posted 12/11/2005 to the Metagamers boards
It seems I'm a dwarf, but the last thing I remember was recieving ray to the face, a human face... I have been told I was reincarnated into another body which explains why my stash of gold is now gone; it seems they insist i pay for the majority of the ritual. Not that I mind but since they were willing to chip in that much, I sorta wish I bought that masterwork light crossbow from those goblins. I have come to accept being a dwarf now, luckily I can speak dwarven fluently so I can pass for one easily, unfortunatly, I dont' seem to have a complete recollection of my past life. So many skills lost, that must be retrained; tis a pity. Our party seems to stare death in the face every time we reach an encounter, it seems we arn't so bright after all. We were sent to slay a monster whos stare kills, and yet we agreed to it without a moments thought. Luckily, a observant preist caught us, and told us to contact the seers for advice. I blessed that man for a week, or at least, I wont' kill him now. In the process of fighting the monster, a grey undead thing, another of our party fell, Quarrion. Before we could slay the monster, it had already started the process to convert Quarrion; we had no choice but to remove his head as well as the monster's. We searched for its den and found 3 more bodies, all turning silver and grey as well. Like previously, we severed there heads and returned to town. Since he was slain by death magic, the only hope for him is ressurection, which none of us can afford. He will be missed, but we will press on without him. For now, there are more pressing matters to attend to. Rubich, he'll pay for all that he has done, and I am not alone in that thought.
Posted 2/9/2006 to the Metagamers boards
Archive Entry: 00000010
After finding a forge nearby Rog and Thor, I saw rocks falling when they attempted to remove the door. One of them struck Thor; while I was concerned for his health, I saw that the rock had fallen THROUGH the structure in the dome. I am very interested and I will attempt to make my way up there and study this building. On a side note, I dislike being cut off from all of civilization with the evil Dwarf on the loose. On the otherhand, I have bigger concerns to attend; Rubich has once again disappeared, and I am in a ruined, in what seems to be dwarvish, city. The mural I deciphered has only agitated me more, it seems the gods who watched over this world tore it apart and while the other gods merely observed. While I know it is a myth to serve as theory for what happened, all myths have some grain of truth. For now, I have a city to explore and treasures to pry out of the hands of Gene. That bastard sells everything we find, even things I argued that we could use. Maybe I'll have a chance to get some use out of the treasure we find now since there is nobody to sell our goods to.
Posted 2/14/2006 to the Metagamers boards
Archive Entry: 00000011
These last few days have pushed me to the limits of my abilities, I've seen comrades crushed by superior opponents and myself faced injury that almost ended my life several times. But having lost contact with my group is the most dangerous development of all, for my strength lies in the bonds I forge with my friends, and their bonds to me. In our attempt to follow the enchanted door's advice on how to get out of this plane, we ended up in a fierce blizzard. Phillistine who was with me was ripped from my shoulders and blew far from the group. I heedlessly headed after her and manage to catch her, but not before I lost sight of the group. I decided to wait out the storm with a tiny hut that I manage to cast to provide shelter but I was unable to reestablish contact with my party. When the blizzard was over, I realized I was on the same mountainous plane and that my fellow fighters had disappeared. Upon closer inspection, I realized they had left a marker for me, which I immediately followed. This obelisk lead me to another and another and until I found one that read in charcoal, "home". Assuming that my party had found the correct gateway out of this frozen plane, I followed but it lead me someplace else in the same plane. Seeing this, I began to panic so I quickly began searching activating obelisks and marking them in the hopes that one of them would reunite me with my party.
After countless tries, I realized I was going in circles so I gave up and descended down the stairs to rest and recover my spells. I am now alone save for my familiar, Phillistine, and my rations are running low, down to only a couple days worth of food and water. I fear this forbidding moutain plane may be the death of me if I do not find a way back to the material plane. My only known hope is for me to find one obelisk that I can decipher and to ask the enchanted door if he can provide more detailed information.
Posted 2/21/2006 to the Metagamers boards
Archive Entry: 00000100
After speaking to the platinum door, they told me that the generators could provide a way off the mountain plane but at a risk. I had to risk not only being transported onto the material plane, there was a chance I could end up in another plane too. Taking stock of my supplies, I realized I have no choice so I took the plunge, literally. I ended up next to my companions, except they had put themselves into the open sea. We were attacked by some sort of seamonster, but luckily, our druid managed to tame it. After that, we soon saw a goblin warship which rescued us and in return for a trip home, we promised to participate in a raid with them. Unfortunatly, our arcane archer, gene could not stand the sight of goblins and refused to help. I understand his predicament, wanting to do good but unable to do it. Anyway, the raid was a great success except for the fact that we found out the ship we raided belonged to our previous employers. This would not be a problem, since we have been planning to strike back at them for some time now, except there somebody escaped. That someone could risk our double agent status in the undead city so we could not have that. We arrived outside the gates of the city and went ashore in a tiny boat. Unfortunatly, I noticed there were several dead animals in the sea and as expected, a shark came up and swallowed our goblin rower whole. Shark did not stop there though, it then proceeded to bite me and swallow me. During my struggle my escape from the shark, my companions did nothing, though I understood why, our druid could not have violent action in order to tame the beast. That thought provided little comfort to me as I nearly died from the crushing and acidic stomach.
As soon as we came ashore, gene vented his frustrations on the goblins who brought us to shore and killed them all in one fell swoop. While the rest of the party was shocked at his rash actions, I understood why he did so, before he could not fight against evil without risking certain death, but these goblins were too far away from their stronger leaders so he knew he could take them on with almost no retaliation. As we proceeded to the town, the lone survivor of our raid was spotted running toward the gates. We knew that if we did not stop him, we would be hunted down and killed. So I and the druid immediately summoned mounts for our two fighters and I sent my familiar to watch over them. We managed to kill the lizardman survivor but not before he collasped, dead onto the throneroom of the mountaincraig. From what my familiar tells me, the battle that ensued was bloody, violent and quick. Though thor put up a valiant fight, he was no match for the dwarf alone. While I understood why thor in his rage fought the powerful dwarf, I was angry at the fact that our other fighter refused to help him. Part of me knows that he was looking out for his own skin, but lately I have been disagreeing with his motives. For one thing, he gives up the possibility for great treasure at the first sign of ale which of course leads us to more questionable adventures. I am starting to agree with gene that our party has ventured too far into the dark side and we need to turn back. For now, we are back in his good graces, our group managed to convince the dwarf that the murder was an accident. I can't help but think that he does not and never will trust or believe us.
Speaking of frustrations regarding gene, the lizardman we killed to prevent him from speaking of our treachery is being revived at our expense, or more precisely, at gene's expense. His conservative nature has left him with a large pile of gold which the mountain craig seized. Unfortunately, none of our party had the means nor the motivation to compensate gene for the 9000 gold he lost. My last entry for today consists of the damned house we are enchanting, the very idea of a flying fighting fortress excites our whole group but I think they are taking it too far. A large portion of our material treasure, aka items, weapons, and armor, are being sold simply because no one in our party with the exception of gene can afford to buy it from the party treasure pool. Right now we simply sell everything we find that isn't used up or paid for by our party members by the time we return to civilization. Though I like the flexibility and fairness this system gives us, it does leave us subject to the whims of the town we reside in. Some of the items we find or want are valued between 10,000 and 20,000 gp, but instead of using it, we sell it. I think this system is flawed in that we rarely accumulate such large amounts of gold and when we do, it is subject to the dangers associated with our party. Several times, members in our party had to leave large sums of gold behind simply because we were driven from the town that stored it. Gene was the most recent victim of the risks our party takes with accumulating such gold. I think he is learning his lesson, though at a cost. He is more bitter now and I feel we are corrupting the last good member of our party. I hope I can salvage this situation proud of what I have done, not ashamed.
Posted 3/2/2006 to the Metagamers boards
Archive Entry: 00000101
A old face from my past has come to join us, for now at least. Ardana, my old party's wizard decided to drop in on us, literally. With a scry and a teleport, she came to inform us about our status in Heildregch. Apparently we are fugitives now, with a bounty on our heads for killing a friendly cleric. After some discussion, we decided to have her teleport us out and back into Heildregch, where we negotiated for our manslaughter of the cleric. After taking a vague oath to oppose the mountaincraig, we headed off in search of the body of the bone gnasher. I was annoyed to note that in order to accomplish that, I need to again, descend into the depths of a crypt that I once explored. After meeting up with a force of dwarfs that guard the prisons, they gave us a supplies and quarters for the night. As a side note, I've noted that one of my fellow companions gets himself into a state of frenzy, which stops him from discerning friend from foe. Once I knew his condition, I planned a contigency spell but the spell has a chance of failure and for me, it failed once out of the two times I used it today. Luckily, nobody was hurt and he managed to restrain himself in time. We had two encounters, a monstrous centipede looking monster and a huge assasin vine that covered a house. We managed to dispatch both of them but the vine monster severly hurt two of our companions and injured a third.
As for our obession with getting a flying fortress, we have managed to secure another builder of houses who resides in Heildregch, so we need not fear for our fortunes being taken away. Hopefully, with the addition of the ring of evasion, I hope we have enough so we can finally end this dangerous obession and just get the house ready. Last note, the bits and pieces of information that I know now is finally coming together. Apparently, the mountiancrag is attempting to ressurect the ultra powerful bone gnasher, a dwarf left to die in an underground prison. He has the crystal necessary to find the spirit of the dead dwarf, but we are in a race against time to find the body. While I do fear for the future, it seems I have no choice now but to finish this once and for all.
Posted 3/5/2006 to the Metagamers boards
Archive Entry: 00000110
After defeating the monstrous vine growing over the cabin of the warden, we found that the warden left us a gift of several summoned monsters for us to handle. Initially, our group tried to reason with them, but that fell through as both sides began taking casualties. They were quickly dispatched despite their powerful abilities and some mishaps with me being stabbed with a greatsword. Upon their defeat, they returned to their realm and inside, we found a scrying chain type item. We returned it to the temple and had it modified to find the key for the prison. We were told it would take several hours so it be best if we all took a rest but after falling asleep, the entire group fell into a nightmarish dreamland of spiders and fields of bones and graves. We slowly but surely dispatched the spiders despite heavy damage, our cleric kept us going. Several spiders were killed, including a large one that seemed to be the mother with the help of our multiple spell casters. When combat ceased, we found that the statue of the dwarf we battled in my past dream has disappeared leaving only its foundation. This worries me greatly and I sense we are running out of time to stop this madness. We quickly found that if we fell asleep, we would return to the temple, but I know that was no dream, the injuries we sustained were real enough. The second we woke up, we found that the modifications to the scrying device have been completed so we promptly got several maps and pinpointed the location of the key. Unfortunatly, we realized the key is several levels underground, most likley, locked within the prison itself. After frustrating ourselves with no avail, we decided to split up and get some help from another town. I think we plan to scry the prison, then teleport there, but this will take a minimum of 4-5 days. No matter, I believe in our group and I know we will find a way to destroy the enemy states that hound us.
Posted 3/7/2006 to the Metagamers boards
Archive Entry: 00000111
My group have finally figured a way into the prison of the temple. We received a high level spell to help our rogue pick the magical lock in the statue that covered the stairs, though at great risk to his life. Upon opening the lock, we went down the passageway deep underground into a series of prison floors, each more dangerous then the last. We soon figured out the deeper we go, the more dangerous criminals we would find. Luckily, there were only two encounters, a group of spirits that could drain levels and a team of bearded devils. A few members of our party were drained, including me and my fellow wizard, but we managed to defeat them. The two battles we fought were handled with little problem, unfortunatly, our frenzied beserker failed to end his battle lust, and all our attempts to restrain him failed. After the dust settled, Rog and the druid were down and bleeding out severely, but we managed to stabilize them and get them onto their feet with the help of our cleric. After that encounter, I descended to the last level of the prison where only the most dangerous criminals reside, after surveying the area, we found the body of a young undead boy with a knife and parchment stuck into his back. We were unable to determine the contents of the message though we were able to decipher that it is in code. Next, after much debate, we ascended to the surface without trouble except for that laugh. There was a soft maniacle laughter that sounded like it was just behind us and it gave me shivers down my spine. I fear for what is to come and I hope that I am wrong but I think we let something loose into the world...
Posted 3/12/2006 to the Metagamers boards
Archive Entry: 00001000
First, I learned teleport today off of Ardana's spellbook but just as I finished copying it down to allow the whole group to teleport at once, we heard a disturbance. Apparently, the forgotten tribes have awakened to the soon coming rise of the bone nasher. This is dire news, so we decided to head off the war party by scouting and eventually striking. Unfortunatly, we got into a debat on how to best execute the plan, eventually we decided to split up and meet up again in another spot. I followed our druid, rogue, and arcane archer and they chose to scout the enemy army. We were discovered and forced to pull back, but with no casaulties. After receiving a note from Ardana's familiar, we decided to ride around them and meet up with the other half of our party. There, we found a zoo where we could find and buy mounts. It was run by hags and stone giants, and they seem to be working for the bone nasher since they had a bridge that lead into a tunnel, I have not found out where it leads yet. After some footwork and bluffs, which only served to warn the operators of the zoo of the impending attack, we started combat. They came at us with two stone giants, one of them riding a giant T-rex. The stone giants quickly fell Rog, our fighter and the T-Rex proceeded to bite me. Luckily I managed to teleport out and strike back but our druid and rogue were not so lucky. The T-Rex bit the druid to death and swallowed the rogue whole. Unfortunatly, I did not notice this until it was almost too late. In a rage over what had happen, I immediately incinerated the T-rex with a full power fireball and ended the battle. Afterwards, we cleaned up the remaining nymph and stonegiant without a problem. With the battle concluded, our archer found several gryphons and managed to tame 3 of them for our uses. Lastly, we grabbed the body of the druid to prevent ressurection and destroyed the bridge that lead to the tunnel. With the sound of drumbeats in the air, we quickly flew out of there on our newly acquired griffions and came to rest and heal in Heildregch. I promptly cremated the druid's remains and then spread his ashes over the river that flows near Heildregch.
I know that the cremation of the druid and then spreading his ashes into the river which dumps into the ocean may seem a little extreme, but I have seen things that should not be, I have not slept peacefully since that nightmare about the fields of bones and graves. I know they arn't dreams, but an omen of things to come and possibly, no I dare not speak of it. All I know is that we cannot let such a powerful druid as him be allowed capture by our enemies, dead or alive I will not allow them to convert another of us.
Posted 3/16/2006 to the Metagamers boards
Archive Entry: 00001001
It appears things are falling apart, our attempt to head off the evil dwarvish warband failed and our attempt to prevent the escape of the bone knasher went horribly awry. After traveling to the lake where we set up traps, we found only a semi repair bridge and lots of tracks. Next, we decided to stay the night in the gutted in and received a bear encounter for our trouble. It appears that the warband repaired the broken bridge and drove off the dinosaurs that we let loose. This means that where ever they are going, we have only managed to delay them for a day at most, maybe less. After that, we went down into the 5th level of the prison and got attacked by some fire creatures who casted several fireballs on us, taking out several members of the party. After managing to defeat them, we healed up and moved down to the execution level. Once there, the two naga's that were lurking on the 5th level were of almost no consequence as several fireballs felled them in quick order, regardless of their mass charms. There, we managed to operate to open the door to cell that contained the bone knasher. Unfortunately, something from within a pyramid started to clamber out and managed to elude us. Afterwards, we found a two way portal which lead into a forested area. I realized now that we got played, and we fell for it, hook line and sinker. Though we have found immense wealth on the naga, I fear that I will not have a place to spend it if my party does not put an end to this spiraling situation. I have no choice, I will finish this, no matter what the cost.
