Things you learned

Their is a very large graveyard in Ptolus, known as the Necropolis. It is very dangerous at night.

The Necropolis houses the Dark Reliquary which is home to many powerful demons and undead.

The Necropolis is patrolled by the Knights of the Veil and Knights of the Pale. Who fight the demons and the undead.

You discovered a secret passage from the Necropolis to the Prison underneath the Dark Reliquary. The Knights of the Veil are currently guarding it.

You met Beck von Tibbitz leader of the Knights of the Veil.

You resecued an angel, Falstef, from the Dark Reliquray prison. Falstef is the leader of a group of angles known as the Malkuth, he has been missing for hundreds of years. Most Ptolus residents thought he was a legend.

The Malkuth live in a tower in old town known as the Pale Tower. You also rescued an Ork, Tinareg from the prison, who apparently had a demon prince stored in his tooth.

Everyone Played 250 xp Each

Symba, Cheva[whatever], Elanna, and Yarkblar all played in session 2. Each of you got 300xp.

You returned the Angel Falstef to the Pale Tower, and met Aoska, a half celestial, she promised you each a reward for rescuing Falstef.

You got two jobs.

Rastor, a weapon smith and merchant wants you to retrieve a green dragon skin from a group of ratmen who stole it from a trade caravan.

Sorum Dandubal, guildmaster of the Delvers guild promised full membership for 6 people, if you would find out who was leading the ratmen.

In the Ratmen’s lair you found an altar to Abhoth, chaos god of filth and disease. Also, ratmen like to use firearms.

You met: Aoska – Half Celestial, member of the Malkuth.

Steron Vsool – Paladin of Gaen, god of light, former adventurer and most likely of Paragon level.

Rastor – Litorian Weaponsmith and Merchant

Sheva Callister – Former Adventure who struck it rich pulling loot out of the dungeon below the city. Drinks Heavily. Knows a lot about the dungeon.

Daersidian Ringsire – Evlen Adventurer who rides a wyvern.

Brusselt Airmol – Halfing adventurer. Owns many knives.

Ebbert Boltcraft – Dwarven owner of Ebberts outfitters, who provides a 10% discount to all Devlers guild members. Sells many items of his own creation. (What? No one wants a rat harness?)

Gaerioth Shadowhand – Harrow Elf Monk Adventurer, Lives at Irithidils Home

Sorum Dandubal – Guildmaster of the Adventurers guild

Vard Hillman – Owner of the Ghostly Minstrel, knows much about adventuerers

Everyone played except Symba. Xp was 815 Symba gets 200 xp for participating in the first part of the quest.

You had 2 quests. One was to recover the Green Dragon Skin from the Ratman, which you did and received your reward of 40 gp each.

The other quest was to discover who was leading the ratmen and why they were so active lately. You weren’t really able to discover why they had been so active but they were being led by a young white dragon, which certainly seems unusual. As a reward for this quest you are all full fledged members of the Delvers Guild now, with the following benefits:

1. Guild Information – The guild keeps reports on the adventures of all its memebers. These can be useful for research or find new areas of the dungeon to loot. In game terms you can use the guild information for a +2 to a skill check on Dungeoneering or if you just want to find an area of the dungeon to loot.

2. 10% discount at Ebberts Outfitters.

3. Access to the guild map room and library. These will give you a +2 to almost any research check you need to make.

4. Access to guild waystations. The guild has scattered waystations throughout the dungeons below Ptolus. You now have access to maps that show the locations of them. The waystations are prepared “safe”spots” to rest in the dungeon. They are not warded or protected by magic but are hidden by an illusion making them difficult to find unless you know where to look.

5. Access to the guild Teleportation Circle. ( No one can teleport yet but this will be nice to have in the future.)

Everyone played but Cheava. You got 526 xp each.

You heard rumors about a dark elf named Shilukar who is robbing houses in the noble quarter.

There seems to be an increase in the number of Shivvel addicts on the streets. You saw a rally by the republican movement, who want Ptolus to become an independent republic separate from the Empire.

The rally was led by Helmut Islestien, a priest of the watcher of the skies religion.

Someone at the Ghostly Minstrel mentioned seeing Blue Gnolls in Midtown. This person was thought to be drunk.

Someone hired a local thug, Tordian Cran to kill Apostle’s friend Phon Quatermain. Tordian farmed the job out to some other local thugs, who hired the Pale Dogs street gang. You were not able to find out who hired Tordian. The name he used was a fake.

Reward from the Malkuth:

Symba – Battle Axe +1 Aposlte – Holy Symbol 0f Radience +1 Yarkblar – Battle Forge Cloth Armor +1 Ellanna – Cherubim Armor +1 Cheava – Boots of Spider Climbing

You group is starting to build a small reputation with the residents of midtown.

Everyone played in the fun filled New Years Day D&D extravaganza! Including our new Halfling Rogue, Shaena.

Everyone got 500xp.

You were contacted by Mand Sceben, a friend of Yarkblar, and high priest of Asche, god of cities. Mand put you in touch with his friends, the lords of Castle Shard.

Castle Shard is an oddity is Ptolus, it is older than the city and the lords of Caslte Shard do not recoginze the authority of the current government. The magical shard within the castle givces the lords incredible magic power. The lords act in what they think is the best interest of castle shard. The current lords are Lady Rill a former Paladin, now a sorceress and Zavere, a former Blackguard.

Zavere wanted you to go and take a job being offered Linech Cran, a minor crime lord and brother of Tordian Cran, who you disposed of in your last adventure.

Linech wanted you to recover his daughters coffin from a sunken ship in the bay.

At Linech hideout you found that he had a large gold statue in his office and that one of the buildings is guarded by gnolls, who seems to come and go without anyone seeing.

You discovered that Linech’s Daughter had become an undead creature not unlike a vampire. A demonic possessed pocket watch stored in the coffin had brought her back. The pocket watch also held the secret to making “shivvel” the highly addictive drug being sold in Ptolus.

You brought both the watch and Linele to Zavere and Rill at Castle Shard. With their advice you gave Linele to the Society of Redemption and the watch to the Malkuth.

Zavere has offered to pay you to recover the gold statue from Linech’s office, which he believes is his friend, Lord Abbercombe.

Everyone played in this session. You got 457 xp each.

You went back to confront the Half-orc crime boss, Linech, and to recover the statue of Lord Abbercombe. You were without Linech’s daughter or the demon possessed watch, which is what he really wanted. Not surprisingly, he refused to pay you. Also not surprise, this started a fight. You defeated Linech and his bodyguards and thanks to some quick thinking on Cheva’s part you avoided fighting the rest of the guards.

On the way out, Linech’s Shivvel addicted sister threatened to have her boyfriend a powerful dark elf wizard name Shilukar take revenge on you.

Zavere and Rill were very pleased to have their friend back and you celebrated long into the night.

Later that night on your way home you encountered a group of ogres carrying a large chest. The ogre, being ogres, attacked you out of hand to defend their chest.

After defeating them, you discovered that the chest was a demon possessed box which can only be opened if you know the name of the demon.

After a few inquiries you found out that there may be a key that will open the chest. Neveran’s All Key is said to be an artifact that will open anything. Through research, you discovered that the key was last known to be in possession of the Cult of the Crimson Coil, who had taken up residence in an old Brothel known as he Pythoness House. The Knights of the Pale raided Pythoness House two years ago and chased out the cult but did not do any further investigations of the house. The reports from the Knights of the Pale stated they did not pull out any significant artifacts. It seems likely that if the cult had the Key then it is still in Pythoness House, somewhere. Both the Adventurer’s guild and the Knights of the Pale still consider Pythoness House to be very dangerous.

In the meantime, Zavere summoned you back to Castle Shard. It has proved impossible so far for Rill to free Lord Abbercombe from his paralysis. (Lord Abbercombe has always been a golden statue, apparently, he was just mobile before.) The Dark Elf wizard Shilukar contacted Zavere and offered to free Abbercombe from his paralysis, if he were allowed to come live in Castle Shard under the protection of Zavere and Rill. Zavere surmises that Shilukar must have powerful enemies that he needs to get away from. Zavere does not wish to have the dark elf living in Castle Shard,but due to his curious senses of honor, he is unwilling to hire you to simply go kill Shilukar. He did mention that he and Rill would be “very appreciative” if someone were to recover the way to free Lord Abbercombe. He also mentioned that there is already a reward of 1000 gold for Shilukar.

You went back to Linech’s hideout, to find that it had mostly been burned down by the Balcazar crime family. You found Linech’s sister, who was more than willing to spill her guts about Shilukar, who had spurned her. Shilukar’s hideout is underneath an abandoned lot in the Guildsman district. It can be entered from the lot or from an entrance in the sewers.

Session 7

Everyone Played 470 xp Each

Session 8

Everyone but Marc Played

Marc gets half xp for the session and the quest xp for obtaining the Vial from Shilukar

232 xp for Marc

397 Xp for everyone else. (That’s slightly more than I told you last night)

In session 7 and 8 you delved into Shilukar’s Lair. It was defended by a tribe of gnolls and two very large demonic Blue Gnolls. You had been hearing rumors of Blue Gnolls being spotted around the city, so this must be where they came from. Shilukar had some kind of evil gnoll idol that was allowing him to both summon and control the gnolls. Shilukar was experimenting with Chaositech. A form of organic technology created by the Galchutt, the evil demons who once ruled over the area that is now Ptolus. Shilukar was creating monstrosities, such as winged spiders and rat-men with spider legs on their backs in his lab using Chaositech. He was being hunted by someone because of his experiments, though you don’t know who. He wanted to be able to live in Castle Shard so he would have protection from whoever was hunting him. After a pitched battle, you were able to defeat Shilukar and acquire the elixir to restore Zavere’s friend, Lord Abbercombe. When Shilukar died, strange “growths” covered his body and his body disappeared leaving only his clothes and items. Zavere was very pleased rewarding you with 3000 gp and giving each of you a friendship band. The friendship band allows you to pass through the wards surrounding the castle, so you can now enter and leave without being invited or escorted. (Marc I believe the group decided that your share of the 3000gp was 300, since you participated in half the adventure.)

The evil Gnoll Idol is still in his lair you might want to do something about that.

Over the next few days, while shopping resting, and training if you went up a level, you all had very disturbing dreams about 3 swords and a scraggly looking man. Soon after, You were contacted by Mand Scheben, the high priest of Asche, God of cities. He has been having the same dreams, except his dreams also include your group. He said that the swords are a prophecy from Ptolus itself. (Mand believes cities to be living organisms.) The man in the dream is Spyncer Coil, and Mand believes him to be a prophet of Asche. He asked you to find the swords. He said that Asche is not a gentle god and that if the swords and Spyncer were not found the dreams may become more and more disturbing. (Mand looked pretty haggard himself.) He also said that is Spyncer is most likely disturbed because of the visions from Asche.

Investigating Spyncer you found out that he was formerly a blacksmith who worked for the Iron Workers Guild. He had been found wandering the streets babbling about swords nearly two years ago. He was committed to the Darkbirth Madhouse for almost a year until Kalbert Nom a somewhat famous weaponsmith, secured his release. When you investigated Kalberts house you found him dead and his shop had been ransacked. You then spoke with Veda Medaris, the guild master of the Iron Workers guild. She confirmed a lot of what you knew about Spyncer and said that he and Kalbert were working on three magic swords that Spyncer had seen in a vision. Veda thought the whole thing was a load of crap until Rhunien Hand, a very scary individual, came looking for Spyncer, Kalbert, and the swords. Spyncer has another acquaintance, Lirion Voss, who is a member of the Pale Dogs street gang. She believes that Spyncer may have killed Kalbert and fled to the Pale Dogs. After some investigation, you learned that the Pale Dogs have recently been sticking to their home turf, the Warrens, and Lirion Voss has not be seen outside the Warrens in a few days. You also heard rumors that the Pale Dogs recently robbed a weaponsmith or maybe a blacksmith.

Cheva checked with his contacts in that Vai about Rhunien Hand. They said that Rhunien is, in fact, very dangerous. He’s a a vampire who often does work for the Balcazar crime family. The Vai also said that the Sorn, a group of magical assassains who work for the Kilraven crime league, are also looking for the swords.

Everyone but Cheva played in this adventure.

You got 544 xp each.

The loot had never been split up from Session 7 so Eric you have 615 more gold.

In this session you had decided to confront Lorion Voss at his home to see what he knew about Spyncer Coil, Kalbert Nom, and the Swords of Ptolus.

As you approached the house you saw a large number of Pale Dog thugs including two Dragonborn mercenaries. You were able to draw off two of them with the clever ruse, “Sorry wrong turn.” This ruse did not work a second time however, as the Dragon born breathed fire on everyone and started a general melee. After defeating the thugs you entered the house to discover Lirion Voss and Spyncer Coil himself, who was wielding one of the swords! Lirion shouted at you to leave saying the Balcazars were one their way to buy the sword. Before you could react, Spyncer ran him through with the sword saying that the Balcazars would not get his creation. Yark then proceeded to put Spyncer in a martial arts hold and the sword seemed to slip from Spyncer’s grasp. Apostle picked up the sword and it intermediatly began speaking to her telepathically. It stated that it was the sword “Insight” whose goal was to reveal the secrets of Ptolus. Before you could come to grips with an intelligent sword you heard screaming outside and a flaming pale dog stumbled in through the front door.

Fearing the Balcarzars had arrived you went out to face them only to discover 4 mages of the Sorn assassins guild. After a pitched battle with the mages, you retreated to the Ghostly Minstrel to recover and decide what to do next. Spyncer, in a moment of clarity, told you that the two other swords are known as “Power” and “Deciet.” He said that the Skulks had taken Power and cryptically, said that Deceit cannot be found.

The skulks are somewhat of an “urban legend” in Ptolus. No one knows if they were once people who were cursed or some kind of magical being. All that is known is that that are very hard to see, extremely stealthy, and act as spies for hire in Ptolus. At this point you decided that Mand Scheben, high preist of Asche, might be able to help. Mand did know more of the skulks and was very pleased that you had recovered one of the swords and Spyncer. He was able to put you in touch with a Skulk.

The Skulk, known as Shim, told you that he did not know where Deceit was but he did know who had it. Rhunihan, the vampire bounty hunter, currently has Deceit. Deceit’s power prevents it’s owner from being detected by magic so he would be very difficult to find. Shim said he did not know where Power was either but he knew where it would be soon. A group of Skulks has Power and they are planning to sell it to Rhunihan tomorrow night at a warehouse near the Docks.

You have begun making preparations to intercept one or both of the swords.

Everyone but Symba Played.

756 Xp Each.

Symba gets 100 xp for his part in retrieving the swords.

With much preparation, you were able to set up an ambush for Ruhnihan and the Skulks. Somehow Ruhnian was able to spot someone and a battle over the swords ensued. Through clever use of sovriegn glue and the willingness to sacrifice himself for the sword, Yark was able to wrest Deceit away from Rhunihan. You were able to defeat Runihan, drive off the remaining skulks and acquire Power.

Unfortunatley, Symba was not their to help. He had been captured by Navaanna Vladaam, who is looking to get back her chest that was being delivered to her by some ogres. Symba has little love for the Vladaam’s but Navanna used power socery to pry the information from Symba and find out where you were.

At first, Navanna seemed happy to simply get her good back, until one of her servants noticed the sword, Deceit still glued to Yark’s hands. Another battle commenced over the swords. You were able to defeat Navanna and her werewolves, but Navanna escaped.

Mand Scheben, who originally told you about the swords, is very pleased that the swords have been recovered. He says that the swords choose their own wielders and that they seem to have found suitable owners for the moment.

Everyone played in this session.

You got 680 xp each.

Way back in Session Six the players defeated a group of ogres. Who were carrying a large chest. The chest was lock and impossible to open. Through various researches you discovered that an artifact that could unlock any lock was rumored to be in the Pythoness house. A former brothel and chaos cult hideout. The time had come to finally delve into the pythoness house and see what could be found.

At the entrance the players encountered a group of ratmen, who seem to infest any run-down part of Ptolus these days. Despite the ratmen’s love of firearms and bombs and their willingness to use them on anywhere who gets near they were easily defeated.

Venturing further into the house, a statue of a large, obese naked man was discovered. The statue appeared to be able to slide backwards but no amount of force seemed to be able to move it.

Exploring further, the adventures encountered a group of wights, who were the remnants of the long slain prostitutes.

In an abandoned tower, some strange items were discovered, including a jar that may have a soul trapped inside.

The session ended with a climactic battle against the Ratlord leaders of the various rats and ratmen that were infesting the house. A surreal fight as the ratlord leaders were riding giant dire rats, which is kind of like a horse riding a horse.