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Year of the Tankard - 1370

Trouble in Daggerfalls [Eleint 3rd]
Leaving Randal Morn to recuperate, the group realized that there was no pressure from the sigylls for them to move on, and with the offer of free land and building, they dreamed about setting up a thieves guild of their own (OOC: As most of them are "good" characters, I have no idea why they would want to do this, but I wasn't going to argue with them). Left to their own devices the group decided to explore Dagger Falls and generally get into trouble. Finding a tower that appeared to be abandoned, the group decided to break into it, fantasies of finding riches and magical items, or perhaps taking the place over as their own. Despite reports by locals of a ghost that inhabited it. together with various warning signs and magical mouths telling them not to, they went ahead anyway, much to their cost, as both Clint and Dortle were significantly aged by the ghost. Various magical traps in the tower, the maze below and the wizard's laboratory weakened the party significantly before they met the true owner of the tower, a wizard who was half-way through the process of transforming himself into a lich. LUCKILY for them, the lich was not an evil lich per say, and had in his past, been a follower of Tymora as well - so was lenient with the group - mass teleporting them back to the street outside and "persuading" Gindle to actively promote the fact that the tower was NOT unoccupied, and that the owner preferred his privacy!

Resting up in Daggerfalls [Eleint 4-5th]
Over the next couple of days the group rested and healed up - Tankrin in particular had been very close to death. They also thought more about the remaining four sigylls on their arms, and decided to do a little more investigation about the next ones. If the information Ssessibil gave the group at Beorunna's Well is correct, the first three of the remaining symbols belong to the following:

• Xarth Kistar, a priest in Zhentil Keep.
• Azimer, a lich in Myth Drannor.
• Harbet Gall, a priest in the Great Dale.
The last symbol, showing a mountain castle at night, remains a mystery.

Moving on [Eleint 6th]
The group decided to start making their way towards Zhentil Keep - even though the sigylls were yet to drive them there. On route however, they encounter a large powerful group of orcs - who surrounded the party and took them to their chief. When the party confirmed that they are not in league with the Zhentarim, the orcs press-ganged the group into joining a battle with them to attack a Zhent caravan.

Attacking the Zhent Caravan [Eleint 8th]
Having travelled for a couple of days, they approached the site of the ambush. The orc leader told them that there were Zhent magic users and priests amongst the enemy - a large Zhent caravan,, and it was their job to take them out. The battle went well, with few major injuries, and the group managed to slip away from the orcs at the end - heading south east towards the nearest town of Teshwave.

Bandit attack outside Teshwave [Eleint 9th]
Arriving at Teshwave, the group saw that there was a large refugee camp outside the town. Deciding that it didn't look like such a nice place to stop after all, the group crossed the river Tesh here, and then continued on, camping a few miles further on. They were attacked by bandits during the night however, which they managed to fend off.

Zhentil Keep [Eleint 10th-11th]
Arriving at Zhentil keep, the group managed to trick their way into the citadel. Deethan charmed the captain of the guard, and managed to do a hold person on the priest who had been hidden and was about to expose them. The main part of Zhentil Keep appeared to be in ruins - only the south "foreign quarter" side was truely habitable, and was packed with humanity. Luckily, the group managed to find an inn with rooms, and had not been there long when Joe spotted someone "watching" them. When the watcher left, Joe followed, to a seedy looking tavern in the lower dock area. He tried to listen in as the man "reported" to someone, but failed, and after being spotted, confronted and dismissed as unimpportant, returned to the inn with the others. A little later on, the group were approached by a priestess of Xvim namex Zinda and her guards. They were invited as "the sigyll bearers" to have lunch with Lord Fzoul Chembryl the following day. It was clear that the invitation was not to be refused.

Zhentil Keep - Meeting Lord Fzoul Chembryl [Eleint 12th]
The next morning, the group made their way to the dock, where they were met by Zinda again. A rowing boat carried them across the river, and Zinda and her beefy guards guided the party to one of the only three buildings still properly standing on the north side of the river. Reaching the low black building that is the Heart of the Hand Temple of Iyachtu Xvim, the group were led inside through a magical portal, through a labyrinth of confusing corridors, to finally meet with Lord Fzoul Chembryl - a red headed man with a huge moustache - in a huge dining hall attended by a half-dozen naked slaves. Zinda sat at Chembryl's right, and a small, somewhat cruel-looking dark-haired man in black clothing, without any symbols, introduced as Rardan Hurn, sat at his left.

Lord Chembryl greeted the group with a broad generous friendly smile - it was obvious that he was a charismatic fellow, and initially, he indulges in nothing but pleasentries, as the group partake in a sumptious feast - albeit nervousliy, since they were sitting in the middle of a temple of what they would normally define as an evil god . After the food, the group retired to a smaller room, where Chembryl questions them on their motives and recent past. He revealed his own theories on their sigyls - convinced that they had been made into the unwitting tools of Tiamat - a power Iyachtu Xvim was in conflict with. Expounding his theories on "being bound by the Sigylls" - he described some of his own experiences. Originally, he had been a high priest of Bane - but during the Time of Troubles, Bane had possessed his body, but then Cyric had managed to defeat Bane and bound Chembryl to him instead. In the end, Cyric read the Cyrinishad, and went insane, destroying the new church of Cyric in Zhentil Keep.

Chembryl went on to explain what he knew about the remaining sigylls on the group's arm. The first was to Xarth Kistar, once of Bane, but now a "burnbones" of Cyric, who haunts the ruins of Bane's Black Altar - the destroyed temple to Bane (then Cyric) not so far away in the ruined north side of Zhentil Keep. Apparently, it was Xarth Kistar who was the cause of the vast quantities of undead that haunted the ruins at night. A magical barrier had been put in place to stop Xarth Kistar from escaping the crypts, but unfortunately it didn't stop him from using his powers to summon vast quantities of undead. The distruction of Xarth Kistar was high up Chembryl's to-do-list - however, since the sigylls were driving the group to find Xarth Kistar anyway, Chembryl saw their presense a boon, and offered to assist the group, by providing a map of the crypts and an escort in the form of Zinda. He also provided them with a magical candle, that once lit would provide protection from undead.

Zhentil Keep - Xarth Kistar [Eleint 13th]
The next morning, Zinda arrived early to take the group across the river again, and this time to lead them to the crypts where they would attempt to confront Xarth Kistar. The descended into the crypts, accidentally setting off some traps, but luckily they all remained prettty much n one piece. Choosing their route, they came across the magical ward that had been mentioned to them, and using a dispel magic, weakened it allowing them to pass. Shortly afterwards, they encountered Xarth Kistar - a mad undead priest/necromacer, permaently burning with an intense heat. Battle commenced!

Halfway through the battle, Xarth Kistar simply disappeared - and the group finished off the blazing bones that the lich had summoned. They moved on, managing to open a door, searching for lich so they could finish it off. Instead however, they found another undead spirit, that warned them that they needed the "Key of Pandemonium" to successfully enter Xarth's inner sanctum. He sent them off down another corridor, through a room of fire, to find this Key of Pandemonuim. They found it - along with some magical items, but then Clint fell through an illusionary floor into a deep pit. Unfortunately, the pit was filled with evil undead spirits - shadows who surrounded Clint. In somewhat of a panic the mage cast spider climb and scrambled out of the pit, followed by a horde of shadows, eager to drain his life force. Gindle turned many of them, and the group battled several others, several of the party becoming weakened in their efforts.

Eventually, they passed back through the room of fire and met again with the lich, who then encouraged them to go on to Xarth Kistar's inner chambre and defeat the priest/lich once and for all. This they did, though nearly got caught by the glyphs on the doors first. Their companion, Zinda, failed to survive however. After removing Zinda's magical items from her body, Tankrin put the woman's body on the altar and then the group left the room - but not before a malvolent black cloud with two burning green eyes within it engulfed the body.

Quickly exiting the crypts, the group made their way back up to the surface, where they were met by some Zhentarim soldiers. They were then led back to meet again with Fzoul Chembryl, who praised them for their efforts, providing them with powerful magical items as a gift. He also let them know of a portal which would help them on the next stage of their quest - the sigylls already tugging at them to head towards the ancient ruined city of Myth Drannor, where the lich named Azimer supposedly resided. He provided them with a 3 year out of date map, on the back of which were some notes. The group returned across the river to the Foreign Quarter, and returned to their inn for a night of recuperation.

Zhentil Keep - Meeting Lord Orgauth [Eleint 14th]
In the morning, they were invited to another ceromany, hosted by Lord Orgauth, who awared each of the party with a "Hero of Zhentil Keep" gold medal, as well as 2 large diamonds each. (worth about 1000gp). After the ceromany, the group, leaving their horses in the care of the Zhentarim, headed back across the river, and were led to the portal.

North of Myth Drannor - Orcs! [Eleint 14th]
Passing through, they found themselves in a cellar. Exiting the cellar, they could hear orcish voices. The group snuck out of the cellar, finding a group of well armed and organised orcs in the clearing outside the old ruined building. Gindle strode confidently out to greet them, and after a bit of conversation, battle was sparked. Gindle was held by his own spell, reflected off the orc leader, who went invisible. Several other of the orcs were killed, one by Joe, one by Dortle, and two others with a fireball from Clint. Tankrin, using her helm of darkness slipped a large globe of darkness over the two orcs at the far side of the clearning. Joe, pulling out his lense of seeing, told the others that the orc leader was not only invisible, but was also blinking and making good his escape into the forest. Using Joe's directions, Gindle, having managed to dispel his own hold person spell, casts another spell to dispel magic, and must have managed to target it correctly on the fleeing orc leader, as the spell was strangely also turned back on him, ruining one of his own potions. Disgruntled, Grindle used a speak with dead on one of the dead orcs, discovering that the orc leader's name was Anragh Four Rings (immeditely renamed by the players to "Anarack Foreskin"), and that he had an enchanted sword as well as the four rings.

North of Myth Drannor - Bulette [Eleint 14th]
Moving away from the Zhentarim safe-house, the group followed the only trail south, heading towards Myth Drannor. A couple of hours later, they came across an intersection, where the ground was all torn up. As they moved through, a strange creature burst up through the ground, and attacked Gindle, who was leading. Protected by a stoneskin spell, Gindle took no damage from the attack, and moments later, the creature was killed by lightning bolt from Clint. Continuing on, the group passed a clearing with a small group of odd looking birds... and moved on quickly. Similarly, the group spotted a clearing with a bunch of fresh looking statues in it - and decided to move on quickly. :A little while later, they came across an old elf, as well as some hidden elven archers. The old elf said he had been expecting them, warned by Elminster of their arrival. He explained that there was a human wizard who kept coming and going in the woods, who apparently way also looking for them. He also explained some of the problems of Myth Drannor, and said that he and his elves would not go into the Mythal, but that they would try to protect their night's sleep... They failed almost immediately, as the group were attacked by seven flying undead creatures that looked a bit like wyverns. They were realtively easily dispatched without serious harm however.

Updated 29th June 2007