4th Day of Sunsebb, CY 580 - Another tragedy. . . and an encounter with greatness

Those who have played EX1 - Dungeonland, and EX2 - The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror know that at the end of EX1, there is a boat on a beach that the players can use to sail to EX2, but accessing that beach requires going through the castle of the Red Queen after completion of the plot objective. After the players made it very clear that they did not want to play the EX1 module, I decided to accelerate their path to EX2. I did this by combining the maps from EX1 and EX2 into one, so that if they stayed overland, they would come upon the Magic Mirror House fairly quickly. I tried to dissuade the party from dealing with the duchess or the queen and therefore getting to the Magic Mirror House as quickly as possible.

In hindsight, I should have just started with EX2 (which is definitely more monster and treasure heavy, rather than intrigue focused), but I thought the PCs would need the experience gain from both modules before facing off against Lolth, especially after they effectively skipped most of D1 (troglodyte caves) and D2 (Shrine of the Kuo-toa). We will just have to see how it goes.

When we left off, the party had emerged from a forest into a road on a meadow and just met a giant dog. The dog turns out to be a pet of the duchess, whose manor is just up the road. The dog was friendly enough to the party, as they had just removed some giant ticks from its back. The dog led the party up to the duchess' house.

In front of the house was a bullywug with a spear and a shield. It looked like any other bullywug, except that it spoke eloquent common. Ava decided to speak to the bullywug and negotiate entrance to the house to see the duchess. "Enter at your own risk," the bullywug said "the mistress is in a foul mood." The party could hear the screams of an angry woman coming from inside the house, along with the sounds of breaking glass.

Ava insisted that the bullywug take them inside, which seemed to upset it. After a brief argument, the bullywug said "don't make me call the guards." Ava took that as a threat and attempted to plunge her sword into the creature, a maneuver that it easily parried. It then called out "Guards!" and several more bullywugs came from around the house to join the fight. The bullywug then attacked Ava with its spear and Ava dodged out of the way. None of the rest of the party joined in the fight, making this clearly a one on one match between Ava and the bullywug.

The two opponents stared at each other after neither being able to strike a blow to the other. The bullywug then straightened itself up, dusted itself off, cleared its throat and, trying to hide its embarrassment, said "Ah, very well. You are a worthy opponent. You may go inside, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Inside the house was another bullywug - the majordomo. In the background the PCs could see kuo-toan servants running back and forth in what looked like a dining room, dodging dishes and glasses being thrown at them, all the while hearing a shrieking woman yelling about all kinds of things, from the placement of silverware, dirty glasses, wrong colored napkins, etc. The majordomo asked the party to identify themselves, which Ava did, and then he started looking at a guest list trying and failing to find their names. He asked, clearly nervous, "um, are you on the guestlist?"

Ava could easily pick up what was going on. Their names obviously weren't on the list, and the majordomo did not want to risk the wrath of his mistress. If they were let in and were not on the list, he could lose his head. If they were supposed to be on the list but were not on the list, he could lose his head. Ava grabbed the list and wrote her name on the bottom - AVA + 5. The majordomo was clearly shocked at the brazenness of this action, but did not know what else to do, so simply said "please make yourselves at home and I will announce when dinner is ready."

The party had pretty much free reign of the house at this point. The kuo-toan servants mostly ignored them as they scrambled to prepare a dinner party as the mistress continued to yell and threaten and throw things at them. After searching the house and finding very little of interest, and briefly sitting at the table and drinking some bad wine, they decided to go looking for the duchess to talk to her, and they followed the sounds of the yelling, now coming from upstairs. The duchess appeared to be a female dwarf who was decked out in fantastic, expensive, yet gaudy, jewelry. She also turn out to be, unsurprisingly, insane, and of little help to the party. They did find out that the dinner party was for the Red Queen, and they decided it might be worth staying to talk to the queen. Getting no more information from the duchess, they decided to explore the cellar while they wait.

In the cellar they found what looked like a tunnel that have been covered up (poorly) with brick and mortar. Pontus used Kord's Hammer to smash the wall and see what was on the other side. It was a tunnel that went as far as they could see. The players decided to leave it alone until after dinner.

What is funny about this is that the players had stated that they did not want to play this module, and wanted to "fast forward" to the place where they could get the sword. While that meant forgoing lots of EXP and magic items, I was trying my best to keep things moving. I hate to railroad players, but I couldn't let them stick around here and get dragged into a long side-quest. . .

Sarril's familiar, Krek, was flying around over top of the manor house and reported that the king and queen, along with an entourage that included a jester, and over 100 armored foot soldiers and crossbowmen, were on their way and almost to the house. This caused the party to rethink staying for dinner, and they took a vote and decided to take the tunnel and see where it goes. They followed for about a mile and came to a door that opened into a laboratory. . .

EX2 - The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror

This is the Magic Mirror House in the sequel module, The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, and turns out to be exactly where they needed to be to get the item they came for. This strange house appears to be the home of a wizard, judging by the alchemical and other components in the lab. But it also house a number of very strange, very foreign objects of technological origin. Most of the house resembled something from Earth's Edwardian era - not that the party would recognize what that is, but some objects, like a VCR, were from 1980s Earth. The house was electrified with light bulbs in chandeliers and wall sconces, and working light switches on the walls.

Krek informed Sarril that he remembers this place, as it belonged to his former master. Though Krek's memory was hazy, being in this place was starting to bring it all back. He knew that this place was accessible from Castle Greyhawk, before a tragic, yet wonderful, accident destroyed the castle towers.

As the party searched the rest of the basement, they found a glowing half sphere in the floor with a creature inside that appeared to be made out of pure light. The creature moved around inside of the sphere at such great speed that it appeared to be a blur, or even teleporting at times. It was smashing against the inside of the sphere trying to get at the PCs, causing sparks and flashes each time. They decided to leave that creature alone.

Heading upstairs was the most interesting of all. Here they found a conservatory with strange plants that were being watered by a floating watering can, a kitchen with an ice box powered by a trapped para-elemental of cold, a study with a lot of strange books (some bound in paper with paintings on the cover). The books were written in a strange language, but Ava's Read Languages skill was used to some effect to determine that these were fictitious novels about Earth's Wild West. One book in particular was written in Oerth's common language and titled "Murlynd’s Early Adventures & Subsequent Ventures." Sarril recognized the name of Murlynd as a famous member of a group of adventurer's in Oerth's recent history known as the Company of the Seven. Other members included Zagig, Tasha, Keoghtom, Heward, Quaal, and Nolzuur. Many magic items, and some artifacts, are named for these famous adventurers. Sarril pocketed the book for later reading.

In the study, they found a not that read:

Dear Folks,

So happy you were able to stop in during my absence. Please be careful not to disturb anything! Check to see that the plants and pets are being properly cared for—they should all be alive and healthy! Help yourselves to whatever you need to eat. Mind you don’t eat me out of house and home, though! The two scrolls might be of some small use to you in the adventures ahead. If you notice any other small objects you are in need of, help yourselves, but leave the silverware alone. If you should see Zagyg, do tell him that Keoghtom and I are waiting for Denkainen, who will be along soon enough. Have fun! 

- Dr. M

Sarril took the scrolls before the party moved on to the Collection Room, which contained a large mirror on the wall (reminiscent of one of Boccob's Mirror's, though the party did not have the command word to activate it), a grandfather clock with a strange face on it (with eyes and a mouth that moved), and a large collection of butterflies, small animals, birds, etc., all preserved in glass enclosures. The clock had a piece of paper sticking out of it that contained a note. Read Languages had to be used to read it, but it said:

Dear Murlynd, 

Sorry you weren’t home when I brought Grampa C. back all fixed and running. No time to look at the rest now. Will fix the organ when I get a spare day. See you at Cousin Z’s place? 

- Heward

Sarril, with his high intelligence and ability to notice simple illusions, and Pontus, with his natural ability to detect illusions, both noticed that the pendulum in the clock wasn't what it looked like. The swing of the pendulum wasn't right for its size and shape, and the shadows it cast just looked a little bit off. While the clock face radiated magic, no magic could be detected from the pendulum. Ava opened the glass enclosure that contained the pendulum and as soon as she did so, Sir Fenius, the paladin of St Cuthbert, immediately felt its evil aura. Sarril cast Detect Evil and could also feel the aura. This was an intense, primordial evil, the likes of which no one in the party has felt since the Golden Skull in the Temple of Elemental Evil. They knew that this might be the sword they are looking for, but were reluctant to grab it before exploring the rest of the house. After all, if this is the home of the famous Murlynd, they would definitely like to avoid getting on his bad side. Ava closed the door to the clock and the evil radiation ceased. They hoped it wasn't open long enough for whatever Murlynd is hiding it from to sense it.

They decided to explore the rest of the house before coming back to the clock. There was very little of interest on the second floor, but the attic proved interesting. It looked like no one had been in the attic in decades, as everything was covered in dust and cobwebs. Many crates and chests made movement difficult, so everyone had to wind their way around single file. In the corner appeared to be several magic items that interested the party. Ava, ever curious, was the first to approach and came face to face with a witch-ghost who immediately attempted to take possession of Ava, which she managed to resist. The rest of the party that was within range attacked, including Sarril, who fired a lightning bolt at the ghost, doing some decent damage. Varys attempted to turn the ghost and failed, so there was nothing left to do but fight.

The next round the ghost let out a piercing wail (save vs. death or die). Everyone made their save except Varys (the new dwarf cleric) and Sarril. Both had some magic resistance - Sarril from his special familiar and Varys from his proximity to the paladin's holy sword. Varys' magic resistance saved her, but Sarril's did not. Sarril immediately dropped to the ground. Rest in Peace, Sarril, one of the last two original party members.

I should note at this point that, while I forgot to mention it in-game, I did later roll for Sarril's familiar, Krek, who also had some magic resistance. Krek managed to live, though most of the party wouldn't know because he tends to stay invisible. But it could be important later.

The remaining party fought hard until the witch-ghost was dead. Luckily, it could only wail once, and after that, it didn't take long to bring it down. Ava collected the magic items while Pontus collected the body of Sarril. Pontus, having spent the longest time with Sarril, was emotionally distraught and insisted that Sarril could be brought back to life. Unfortunately, the cleric had not prayed for a Raise Dead spell that day, having opted instead for True Sight, which, it turns out, was key to obtaining the sword, which the rest of the party now agreed needed to be done.

Back to the Collection Room they went, with Sarril's body being carried by Pontus. Varys cast True Sight and, sure enough, could now see the wicked two-handed sword, exactly as the quasit had described, hanging in the clock where the pendulum should be. Pontus opened the door and Ava, using a curtain to avoid touching the sword, removed it from it's case. As soon as she did so, the room grew slightly cold, and began to warp. There was a loud POP in the middle of the room where there suddenly appeared a man in a long trench coat and a Stetson hat. He immediately threw back the sides of his coat

to reveal two strange metallic wands with handles, which he quickly drew, aiming one at Ava and one at Pontus as he said "You have three seconds to put that sword back. . . one. . ." Ava started to protest. . ."two. . ." she immediately put the sword back and backed away.

Still with his wands out, the man then asked "Who are you and what are you doing in my house!?"

It is the fourth day of Sunsebb, CY 580. To be continued. . .