Lord Channis Lauros Journal

Journey to the Dark Passage

When we left Vazud yesterday we never expected the events that led us into our doom. I’m right now outside the dark passage with my mind totally exhausted after our last encounters.
I look into the darkness with concern for the friends we lost and for the uncertain future we have ahead. It’s time to tell the story of our misery.

Everything began with a teleport spell from Malek’s arsenal that put us right at the entrance of the infamous Dark Passage. We traveled right toward the center looking for an entrance into the mountains, and we were lucky enough to find it real fast, or so we thought at that time.

The entrance was protected by some sort of Guardian, an ancient red dragon lich, better known among the scholars by his short name, a dracolich. He asked for our motives to be there, gave us some information about previous visitors, the Scarlet Brotherhood accompanied with a succubus, and warned us to use only our natural form of movement while wandering the sanctuary under his watch. We thank him for his advice and agreed with his requests. Finally, we entered the sanctuary inside the colossal mountains.

The sanctuary seemed to be a never ending maze full of dead ends and weird hidden gardens. We tried to get around without hurries but the place seemed to be huge. In one occasion we found ourselves in the middle of an avalanche and we survived by sheer luck rather than skill.

After several hours of travelling we really got bored. We decided to spend the night inside the sanctuary so the priest Addon could memorize a Find the Path spell to lead us into the tomb of Thariz Dun. The next day we started following the priest, but we decided to do it faster, so we used our supernatural flying abilities to gain some precious time. The spell leaded us into the exit of the cavern, where our problems began.

The dracolich guardian blocked our way out stating that we have broken his rules by not using our natural form of movement. The punishment for such behavior was a summary execution. Without giving us time to reply, he breathed a cone of fire from his mouth that burned us into ashes. We barely managed to survive and tried foolishly to repel such a devastating attack. Our efforts were in vain, the dracolich seemed to be invulnerable.

The reason overcame us and we decided it was time to get of the dragon’s lair. The problem was how to do it. The dracolich summoned an air elemental to attack us but Malek used his enchanting powers to convince the elemental to fight for us. The elemental carried us into a whirlwind and tried to escape. Unfortunately, the dracolich moved much faster. He dismissed his elemental and blocked our exit one more time.

Panic overwhelmed us. Malek used Sefrus to transform it into Jabair, our friend, a very old and powerful silver dragon. Malek asked Sefrus to use Jabair’s powers to get out of the mess we were involved. Jabair grabbed the wizard with one claw, with the other claw grabbed Ibizar and with his mouth grabbed the paladin Bahmut. Finally, the silver dragon took off and flew as fast as he could, toward the main corridor of the Dark Passage.

In front of the dracolich remained the priest Addon and myself. But suddenly something odd happened, Arath the priest of the sun appeared into scene, probably arriving using his travel domain powers. He summoned an air elemental to get us out of there. Unfortunately, the frightful presence of the dragon was too much for both the elemental and Arath, so he just ran away from danger as fast as they could, totally scared by our antagonist. Addon and I were alone one more time.

By instinct I just tried to survive, forgetting about our friend the priest and leaving him to his fate. I stopped time and moved as fast as I could. I was moving so fast that everything seemed to be frozen in time while I was moving. I reached Jabair and rode the dragon’s back hoping it was our only chance to escape.

Addon was left miserably and he would probably be eaten by the dragon. The priest lost morale, he threw his mace away telling the dragon it was the only magical item he had and that we were carrying several artifacts in our bags. Finally he used a spell to meld into the stones around and pray the dracolich would be greedy and chase us rather than waste time with a priest with nothing to collect for his treasure. His plan worked, the dracolich seeing his treasure slip from his claws chased the party and breathed fire over us again, almost killing Bahmut. Fortunately for us, we survived once again and left the cave. It seemed the dracolich could not left out his guarding post or his lair and remained at the entrance looking at us in complete anger.

When we were outside, an astral construct I had built to aid us reached the dracolich and started to attack the dragon with fury. The dragon got mad and in mere seconds smashed the astral construct until the golem fell apart completely shattered by the mighty creature. Lucky it was my construct and not me.

We started to get out of the Dark Passage to think our next move but a new enemy appeared into scene. An erineyes, a devil.

The fight against the erineyes

The devil attacked us with all his powers, he summoned two barbazus to delay our actions and shot arrows from the distance, hidden in the darkness of the passage. We could not even see our enemy. The devil targeted Malek. We knew the erineyes would attack Malek until killed, so we had to kill the creature as soon as possible.

We started our defense but our enemy was smarter, he used the darkness of the passage to hide from us, attacking us with unholy spells, arrows and illusions. He didn’t cause us much damage, but we realized he had all the advantages.

We started to look for our enemy using blindsight, blindsense and true seeing. Nothing worked. He managed to pass across our defenses and found Malek alone almost at his mercy. Malek managed to escape and called for help. We immediately tried to capture the devil but he escaped one more time.

Once again, panic overwhelmed us. We started to run away from the devil toward the exit, knowing we were just 10 minutes away. The erineyes chased us for some time but we were fast enough to avoid him. We reached a safe place and tumbled into the ground, exhausted.

Here we are now, in the middle of nowhere, with two of our friends lost into a maze of caverns warded by a powerful dracolich. We have no spells, no powers and we are severely wounded without a priest to heal us. We cannot even get out of here using a teleport spell, because Malek used his last one trying to escape from the devil.

As for me, I’m too tired to mount guard, and I have no more power points as to defend myself efficiently in case of an attack. I know Addon is alive because I mentally contacted a couple of minutes ago, but alive does not mean he is safe. I feel bad for leaving him at the mercy of the dracolich. As far as I remember, we have left from battles before, but it was the first time I left a friend in the hands of our enemy. I firmly promise that won’t happen again.

Lord Channis Lauros Journal

Mistbow and the orthodox wizards

These few days have been a complete mess and although I’m completely tired I feel compelled to write some lines to describe the awful events that resulted in Bahmut’s death. A dark job performed by Mistbow, the infamous assassin.

Everything started a few days ago with the damned mist, a typical sign that Mistbow the Assassin is approaching. Of course when the mist appears everyone starts to scream and run and hell unleashes. This time it was no different.

Our chariot was ambushed while we were leaving the cartographer’s building, so we had to stop and fight. The assassin was over the rooftop of a small building with his bow at hand. The first two arrows were shot by the assassin, and traversed through the air with a characteristic hiss. More screams and shouting were heard when the attack was confirmed by the people. Most of them closed their doors and windows and sought for cover inside their homes.

When the arrows broke the windows of our chariot and made strange curves to hit exactly Bahmut’s chest, I suddenly knew we were facing a formidable foe. Addon promptly cured the paladin using a Heal spell. The rogue Canrith charged the assassin with bravery and ran until he found himself face to face with the murderer. I decided it was best to fight this rogue in melee so I conjured a dimension door to place Ibizar and me just right at the assassin side.

Ibizar attacked the rogue but he escaped and ran away until he fell over the rooftop. Canrith followed him and jumped down but there were no trace of our enemy. The mist was covering the whole place so we decided it would be safer to return to the chariot and stay together.

We waited several minutes until the mist disappeared. Mistbow never returned and we continued our way, feeling safe for the moment. At this time I realized I was more powerful than ever before, some psionic knowledge was suddenly unleashed inside my head and I felt like reaching a new psionic status. This caused me a bit of fear because I’m starting to feel unsecure about how more power I could handle. Probably I should talk to Muido about this so he could mentor me once again.

After the first attack we decided no party member would travel alone through the city. So we started to go everywhere together, knowing our dangerous enemy would be lurking in the shadows of every alley.

We visited some weapon and armor smiths first but we could obtain no help from them. Ibizar wanted to enhance his magical equipment but it seemed the “arts” are an obscure and very dangerous topic here in Vazud. Although it is not illegal, it seems some people are afraid to talk about it openly.

After this failure, we went outside the city to look for the Church of the great harvest. We traveled on foot because we didn’t want to call attention upon us. The journey took several hours and night arrived before reaching the chapel. We had to ask for shelter to one of the farmers outside the city gates. Fortunately, night passed away and everything remained calm.

Next morning we continued our journey to the church. On our way, we found several crops dying and very poor people surviving in miserable conditions. The world seemed to be falling apart, but we had no time to solve every single problem. We headed directly to the chapel.

The chapel was really a small hut. We found a farmer-priest who received us with a sad expression on his face. Before we could ask anything, he told us he could not solve the problem with the crops. He explain we were there trying to find a replacement for the administrator of our farm who had recently passed away. He told us he was alone there, although he suggested us to ask a couple of farmers who could be prepared to take the position.

We leave the poor cleric after giving him some gold pieces for his church and returned to Vazud. There was no way for these poor people to help us.

Right after we went through the city gates, the mist appeared again. I was wondering this Mistbow should be a terrible pain in the ass for the authorities. Five hundred thousand gold pieces of bounty is a great price for an assassin’s head. Just to confirm my suspicion, the guards at the gate stepped aside as if trying to avoid any confrontation with the rogue.

This encounter was much more difficult than the first. Mistbow started attacking Malek this time causing him several wounds. Fortunately, Addon was doing a great job healing the party and Malek recovered almost immediately. After this first strike, Mistbow disappeared again in the mist.

We waited outside the city for a very long time. Ibizard, Addon and Bahmut decided to look for the rogue right at the middle of the mist, a dangerous move in my opinion, but that was what they did. I couldn’t wait any longer and entered the city again.

To my amusement, when I approached my friends I heard a terrible scream. Mistbow was attacking my friends again. I summoned a construct with the ability to use blindsight to locate his enemies and used a dimension door to appear near the rest of the party. My construct located Mistbow immediately and charged. Bahmut followed the golem and used a fireball to try to disperse the mist. It didn’t work.

After such futile intents we could see a shadow attacking Bahmut with a single arrow. An attack from an assassin received from ten feet away could prove to be very dangerous. And so it was. Bahmut fell to the floor, he was dead.

Mistbow disappeared and I ordered my construct to bring Bahmut’s body near Addon. Maybe it was not late to save our friend. Fortunately, Addon powerful magic worked. Our priest managed to catch the paladin’s last breath and returned him to life, although he seemed to be terribly weak, probably due to the effects of such a devastating arrow.

After the attack we decided to go back to the library and claim for our research papers. After leaving the building, something completely unexpected happened. We were targeted by a group of spellcasters. The orthodox wizards, whose dogma is centered on the phrase “magic is not for everybody”, attacked us fiercely probably attracted by the display of magic we caused when fighting Mistbow.

The attack lasted only a few seconds, we tried to defend ourselves and used more magic in the attempt. All the explosions attracted a nearby inquisitor who immediately demanded for an explanation. The orthodox wizards quickly disappeared.

We explained the authority we were just defending ourselves from Mistbow the famous assassin and from the orthodox wizards, a branch of violent spellcasters. Nevertheless, the inquisitor took all of us into custody for further interrogation. The questioning took several minutes and the inquisitor decided to let us go but recommended us to watch our steps. We told the old man we were just leaving the town in order to avoid more conflicts and he seemed to be pleased with our decision.

As a final conclusion, this day was a complete disaster. We have been provoked, attacked and one of our friends practically died. I believe such violent behavior demand a more violent response from our part. All attempts of reaching a peaceful solution with our antagonists have been discarded. The next time, we will be prepared.