Previously...
Along the way, Aldren charged a wight and lost an entire level, Mara got hypnotized and murdered the whole party, Lucian discovered that Fireball also works on vampires, and Merrick was forced to leave five thousand gold behind because nobody could carry it.
Emotionally, he may never recover.
Still, the graveyard was clear. Actually clear. The Council handed over the largest experience reward the party had ever received, Aldren reached level 7, Merrick reached level 8, and everyone walked away considerably richer, stronger, and more dangerous than before.
Unfortunately, New Phlan still had problems. One of those problems was the river, which had become so polluted that the City Council was willing to pay somebody else to find out why. And now, with absolutely no idea where the pollution was coming from, our four heroes prepared to venture back into the wilderness.
Aldren looked positively thrilled. “Alright, everyone! We’re going somewhere I know you’re all going to love!”
Mara crossed her arms. She did not look thrilled. “Somewhere far away from you?”
“Erm. No.” Aldren’s smile returned. “Horseback riding through the wilderness!”
Nobody applauded or smiled. Merrick was busy trying to rescue a rogue platinum piece from a nearby drain before a sewer rat made off with it.
“Sounds great,” he said without looking up. “Let us know when you get back.”
“No,” Aldren replied. “We’re ALL going.”
Lucian considered the idea. “Exploring the land surrounding Phlan may prove useful. The Council has several outstanding matters beyond the city, and we know very little about the region.”
“The world,” Merrick added, finishing a sentence that did not need finishing. He fanned his hands out dramatically, then returned to fighting the sewer rat for his platinum. Lucian stared at him.
“Yes,” Aldren said. “That’s the spirit!”
Before leaving, however, the party had to deal with a growing problem: they had too much money. I know. Tragic.
Gold and platinum are wonderful right up until they occupy so much inventory space that nobody can pick up any of the cool shit they find. So we searched New Phlan for something—anything—expensive enough to convert a mountain of coins into a few lightweight objects.
Eventually, hidden in the back room of an otherwise unremarkable item shop, we found a jewelry counter run by a pleasant old woman who seemed delighted to show us everything she had. The party pooled its money and bought the three most expensive pieces it could afford: emerald brooches worth a combined twenty-four thousand gold.
Only afterward did I realize we could have bought the Platinum Sphere for eighteen thousand five hundred. Whatever. Fuck it. Our pockets were lighter. That was the important thing. To the wilderness!
The party rode west in search of adventure, treasure, the source of the river pollution, and—if Aldren had anything to say about it—awesome times.
They found giant mantises.
Aldren raised one hand as the creatures skittered toward them. “Perhaps they’re friendly.”
Merrick looked at the enormous serrated limbs. “Yeah. They look fucking delightful.”
“Greetings!” Aldren called. “We mean you no—” The mantises attacked.
“Every goddamn time!” Merrick shouted as he reached for his sling.
The mantises were large, fast, and considerably less interested in diplomacy than Aldren had hoped. Fortunately, the party had come a long way since its early days of being murdered by goblins in the Slums. Within minutes, the final mantis collapsed and each party member walked away 530 experience points richer. Not a bad start.
AHEM. Aldren brought the party to a stop and reached into his pack. “Alright. Who has the wilderness map?”
Silence.
Mara looked at Lucian. Lucian looked at Merrick. Merrick looked at Aldren.
“You’re the one leading us,” Merrick said.
Aldren patted down his armor. “I thought one of you was keeping it.”
“Why would you think that?” Mara asked.
“Because we always keep a map!”
Lucian glanced across the seemingly endless wilderness surrounding them. “We have not, in fact, kept a map.”
Another silence followed. Merrick pointed east. “Phlan’s that way.”
“Is it?” Mara asked. Merrick slowly lowered his hand.
Aldren pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment. “Okay. From now on, we’re mapping everything.”
“Again,” Lucian added.
“Right. Again.”
And so the party continued west, now mapping and exploring like good little graph-paper lunatics.
Before long, they discovered a keep. A small group of armed men rode out to meet them, led by a particularly unfriendly fellow on horseback.
“You are trespassing on private land!” he shouted. “Leave now or face the consequences!”
Merrick flipped him off. They attacked. Aldren sighed.
“Hey, Lucy,” Merrick said as the riders charged. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
As it turned out, Lucian was. He raised both hands and sent a tiny point of light streaking into the approaching formation. BOOM. Fire tore through the riders. Seven or eight of them vanished inside the blast and emerged as considerably less mounted piles of ash.
Aldren charged what remained. The survivors took one look at him and did the exact opposite, while Lucian put three of them to Sleep before they made it very far. Soon, every enemy had either fled or been made dead, and each party member earned another 115 experience points.
Private property successfully inspected.
They traveled onward, mapping and exploring, exploring and mapping, until they explored themselves directly into a wyvern. The creature barely had time to spread its wings before Aldren struck it for sixteen damage, then hit it again for eighteen.
It died.
Aldren stared down at the enormous winged corpse, then slowly looked at his sword. “Am I a dragonslayer?”
Lucian adjusted his robes. “That was a wyvern.”
“But they’re LIKE dragons, right?”
“They are distantly related draconic creatures, but the anatomical and intellectual differences are considerable.”
Merrick poked the wyvern with one foot. “It’s basically a dragon missing some parts.”
Aldren smiled. “So… dragonslayer?”
“No,” Lucian said.
Mara shrugged. “Close enough. Let him have it.”
“You are encouraging a factually incorrect conclusion.”
“Yup.”
Aldren wiped the blood from his blade, looking very pleased with himself. “Dragonslayer,” he whispered. Lucian heard him and did not approve.
As the party continued gallivanting around the countryside, a group of ankhegs burst from the earth and sprayed them with acid. Merrick threw rocks at them, Lucian dropped Stinking Cloud on one, and Aldren and Mara dealt with the ones still capable of standing. The party won, though not without acquiring several new smoking holes in its equipment.
From there, our four idiots continued to dominate the countryside. Centaurs. More mantises. Kobolds. Assorted wandering monsters that had made the unfortunate decision to cross four increasingly overpowered psychopaths on horseback.
Eventually, the party returned to the mysterious pyramid they had spotted during their first trip through the wilderness. Nearby, a collection of ruined huts sat along the edge of the polluted water. Naturally, we investigated.
The ruins had no helpful coordinates, so I opened to a fresh page, picked a spot somewhere near the middle, and started drawing, which turned out to be a terrible fucking idea.
Inside one of the huts, the party discovered four kobolds chained to a wall.
“Release us!” one pleaded. “The lizard men will eat us!”
Well, it was Decision Die time. Aldren wanted to free the prisoners because, of course, Aldren wanted to free the prisoners. Mara and Merrick wanted to kill them because Mara and Merrick were bloodthirsty fucks. Lucian believed eliminating potentially hostile creatures was the safest course of action.
That left Aldren alone. A roll of 1 meant the party released the kobolds, while a roll of 2, 3, or 4 meant things were about to go very badly for four chained prisoners.
I rolled a 3. Well, shit.
Aldren stepped toward the kobolds. “Of course we’ll help you! Let me just—”
“HI-YA!”
Merrick launched himself through the air and dropkicked the nearest kobold directly in the head. The creature flew backward, cracked its skull against the stone wall, and fell dead. The other three began screaming.
“I’ve got this,” Mara said, then proceeded to bash every last one of them until the screaming stopped.
Aldren stood frozen, one hand still reaching toward the chains. “They were prisoners!”
Mara wiped her hammer clean. “They were kobolds.”
“They asked us for help!”
Merrick searched the first body. “And now they don’t need any.”
Aldren looked toward Lucian, desperate to find one other sane person in the room, but Lucian was examining the western wall. “There appears to be an awful stench coming from the west.”
“That is NOT the most important thing happening right now!” Aldren shouted. Nobody listened.
The party continued combing the ruins and entered another hut, where several lizard men promptly attacked.
“Am I going to die?” Aldren asked. “What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I move?!”
Mara looked him over. “You seem perfectly fine. Are you sure you can’t move?”
“YES!”
“We could leave him here,” she said. “In the hut. With the lizard corpses.”
“No! You have to help me!”
Merrick walked behind him. “Hey, check this out.” Then he pushed Aldren.
Aldren toppled forward, landed flat on his face, and remained there because he couldn’t move. “Mmmf! Mrrph mm up!” he shouted into the floor.
Mara tilted her head. “What did he say?”
“I think he said he likes it down there,” Merrick replied.
“MMMF!”
Lucian crouched beside him. “Let me try something.” He raised both hands, formed a series of intricate symbols in the air, and cast the ancient spell known as File Explorer. The world went black, then came back into focus.
Merrick looked around. “What the fuck did you do, Lucy?”
“Mmmf it wrrk?” Aldren asked, still face-down on the floor.
“Help me place him on his horse,” Lucian said. “We will not know whether it worked until the next battle.”
Mara grabbed one of Aldren’s arms. “What exactly did you do?”
“I attempted to modify the fabric of our reality in order to restore Aldren’s ability to walk.”
She stared at him. “Right. Well, Aldren, let’s hope the wizard didn’t fuck up our entire reality because your lazy ass refuses to move on its own.”
Merrick and Mara hauled him upright. “Yeah,” Aldren said. “This is clearly MY fault.”
And so the party ventured forward with hope. Well, three of them ventured. Aldren was propped up on his horse like an action figure.
Eventually, the ruins opened onto the polluted water, where the party discovered a small rowboat leading toward the pyramid. The strange structure appeared to be the source of the foul black water flowing into the river. This had to be the place.
They loaded Aldren into the boat, arranged his arms into what they hoped was a natural position, and rowed toward the island.
Inside the pyramid, they followed a long hallway lined with several alcoves. The moment they stepped into one, a flash of light filled the passage and the entire party was transported somewhere else. Fantastic.
There were no coordinates here either, and nothing showed how the new corridor connected to the one we had just left. I started another disconnected little chunk of map wherever I could find room on the page and hoped it would eventually attach to something. My map was already fucked.
Further exploration revealed a secret door leading into a huge chamber filled with horrible instruments of torture. At its center stood a large metal table fitted with restraints.
Merrick looked around. “How did we get to your bedroom, Mara?”
Mara examined a particularly unpleasant collection of hooks. “My bedroom is cleaner.”
Merrick pointed toward the table. “Same furniture?”
She smiled. “Why? You volunteering?” Merrick stopped smiling.
Lucian cleared his throat. “This conversation has become deeply uncomfortable.”
“Can someone please stand me up?” Aldren asked from the floor. Nobody had noticed him fall over.
A few minutes later, the party found another secret room occupied by half a dozen lizard men. Combat began—and Aldren moved.
He took one step, then another. His eyes widened. “I CAN MOVE!”
One of the lizard men swung at his head. Aldren ducked, spun around, and buried his sword in the creature’s chest. “Lucian, you’re a genius!”
Lucian smiled. “Yes,” he said. “I am.”
Merrick launched a stone across the room. “Think you could modify reality and make me rich?”
“No.”
“Taller?”
“Also no.”
“Worth asking.”
Mara crushed a lizard man’s skull. “Can we celebrate after we kill these fucking things?”
With Aldren mobile again, all six lizard men were dead within minutes, and our Fighter was pacing around the room simply because he could.
The party continued through the pyramid and discovered another secret chamber filled with large vats of oily black filth fed by a foul-smelling fountain. Behind yet another hidden door, they found an alchemist’s laboratory. A notebook on one of the tables described experiments involving numerous test subjects and aquatic creatures. Whatever was happening here, somebody had been busy.
And then I discovered just how completely wacky this place truly was. The pyramid’s transporters did not lead to one fixed destination. Every time we threw a rock into one, it changed where the transporter sent us. Of course it did.
Merrick tossed another stone into the shimmering light and watched it disappear. “Finally,” he said. “A puzzle designed around my specific skill set.”
“You throw rocks at people,” Mara replied.
“Exactly.”
Every trip spat us into another unmarked corridor with no obvious relationship to any of the fragments I had already drawn. I would walk, count squares, mark walls, find another transporter, throw another rock, and get launched somewhere else. Then I would start another disconnected piece of map in whatever space remained on the page.
After nearly an hour of walking in circles, erasing lines, redrawing lines, and questioning several of my life choices, I THINK we reached the correct section. You will have to forgive me if the map is a little fucked.
Somewhere along the way, the party stumbled into a group of 6th-level Fighters. They smiled warmly, then attacked. It was all rather disconcerting, but when the final Fighter fell, each party member received 615 experience points.
At this point, my map was completely fucked and would need to be redrawn once I had all the pieces. Whoever designed this place was an ambitious asshole.
While meandering through yet another unfamiliar corridor, the party encountered a priest. He smiled, raised one hand in benediction, and spoke. “Peace, brother. You, too, are one of my flock. I have but recently prayed for another of my flock and may pray no more.”
Aldren raised his own hand. Mara shook her head. “Oh no.”
“Hail, good priest!” Aldren said. “We are visitors to your great temple—erm—pyramid thing!”
The priest continued smiling. Nobody moved.
“Yup,” Merrick said. “Everyone here is fucking psycho.”
Aldren ignored him. The five of them continued standing there, looking at one another.
“Okay, well…” Aldren slowly lowered his hand. “I guess we’ll be on our way.”
Merrick leaned toward the priest. “Hey, priest man. What the flock?”
Mara chuckled. The priest did nothing.
“This is stupid,” Merrick said.
Mara suddenly raised her hammer. “Look out! He’s coming straight for us!”
“Wait, what?” Aldren asked.
A battle began and ended almost immediately. Mara wiped the blood from her hammer onto the priest’s robes.
“He was NOT coming right for us!” Aldren practically screamed.
“I saw intent.”
Lucian looked down at the corpse. “He did not move.”
“Spiritual intent,” Merrick suggested.
Mara pointed at him. “Exactly.”
“That doesn’t even mean anything!” Aldren shouted.
She shrugged. “Semantics.”
Anyways, after another round of portal-related mindfuckery, I—I mean, the party—found a small secret room occupied by displacer beasts. Naturally, we attacked them. Displacer beasts are fucking cool.
That was about the last noteworthy thing to happen for the next four real-time hours. Walk six squares. Mark a wall. Find a transporter. Throw a rock. Appear in a corridor that did not connect to anything I had already drawn. Start another little map fragment. Repeat until the page is covered in disconnected corridors that may or may not be anywhere near one another. Erase. Redraw. Swear. Repeat.
By the time the pieces finally started coming together, the original page looked like absolute shit and I knew I would have to copy the entire fucking thing onto a clean sheet. I hope you all appreciate the effort I’ve gone through to recreate something you could have probably found on one of a dozen websites already. Seriously. Four hours.
Finally, after what felt like a decade, the party stumbled through one of the transporters and found itself standing before a locked door. A sign beside it read:
DON’T FORGET THE PASSWORD
Beneath it were six Dwarven runes:
≠ + ⊥ ≠ + ⊥
Okay, those are not EXACTLY the symbols, but they are as close as I could get in text.
To the Adventurer’s Journal! Nope. Nothing. Hmm. Ahh. To the Code Wheel!
I lined up the symbols, turned the wheel, entered the results, and...
AHEM. Lucian studied the Dwarven runes and chuckled.
Merrick looked over his shoulder. “Well? What does it say?”
“NOKNOK,” Lucian replied with a smile.
Merrick stared at him. “You’re shitting me.”
“That’s fucking dumb,” Mara said.
Aldren stepped toward the door and took a deep breath. “NOKNOK!” he announced in his best password voice.
The lock went kashnick and the door opened.
Merrick looked at Lucian. “Should we say ‘who’s there’?”
“No.”
Beyond the door, the party discovered a clear pipe rising through the center of the room. A column of foul black water shot upward through it and disappeared through the roof.
Aldren studied the strange apparatus. “This certainly looks like the place.”
“So now what?” Merrick asked.
“Simple,” Mara replied, then bashed the fuck out of everything.
Glass shattered. Metal buckled. Pipes split apart. Oily water poured across the floor as Mara continued swinging until the entire mechanism had been reduced to an expensive pile of broken shit.
Aldren watched her lower the hammer. “Sometimes your unholy wrath is surprisingly useful.”
Mara looked at him. “Careful. That almost sounded like a compliment.”
“It was.”
“Don’t do it again.”
In a nearby room, the party barged directly into an ancient mage working at a cluttered desk. He looked up from his studies with considerably less surprise than one might expect.
“Ah, good,” he said. “I need more specimens as controls.” Then he sicced his mutant lizard guards on them.
Lucian cast Fireball. The blast hit the mage directly, and flames tore through the room, engulfing him and his guards. Somehow, the old bastard remained standing. Worse, he got a spell off.
Aldren froze inches away from taking the mage’s head off, completely paralyzed and utterly helpless.
“Oh, shit!” Mara shouted. She charged forward, trying to reach him before one of the lizard creatures did.
Lucian sent a second Fireball into the mage for another thirteen damage. He staggered but STILL refused to fall. It would all come down to a well-placed shot from Merrick’s sling.
He loaded a stone. “Don’t worry, guys! I’ve got this!”
The rock sailed over the mage’s head.
Mara looked at him. “You missed.”
“Ya think?!”
One of the mutant guards struck the helpless Aldren and dropped him. Then the mage paralyzed Mara.
Merrick pulled out his Wand of Magic Missiles, aimed it at the ancient bastard, and fired. Unlike the rock, the magical projectile could not miss. It struck Yarash cleanly, finally killing him before he could turn his attention back to Mara.
Unfortunately, the mutant lizard men were still very much alive. Merrick dropped beside Aldren and tried to stop the bleeding while the creatures closed in. One of them struck Lucian and dropped him.
That left Merrick alone, which was not ideal considering he did not have a particularly strong history of remaining conscious during battles where three other people were actively trying to protect him. Now nobody was.
He looked at the two creatures closing in. “Well, fuck.” Then Merrick went down.
PARTY WIPE.
Moments Later...
Merrick opened his eyes and grabbed the arm that had been torn open moments earlier. “Okay. That was pretty fucking embarrassing.”
“YAAAAAAARRRGH!” Aldren roared. Before anybody could stop him, he kicked open the door and charged.
Lucian immediately launched another Fireball into the room. Aldren came through the flames behind it like an enraged, heavily armored lunatic and buried his sword in the mage before the ancient bastard could mutter a single spell. Yarash fell, and his mutant lizards died soon afterward.
Merrick stared at the bodies. “Why didn’t we do it that way the first time?”
Lucian smoothed the front of his robes. “We possessed incomplete tactical information.”
Mara leaned on her hammer. “He means we fucked it up.”
“We learned from our mistakes,” Aldren said.
“We DIED from our mistakes.”
Aldren nodded. “And then we learned.”
Nobody could really argue with that.
The party received 1,439 experience points each, along with a pair of bracers, three potions, and a wand. In the mage’s quarters, they also discovered a strange dial that could be set to one of four colors. It was currently blue.
Aldren reached toward it. “What should we set it to?”
Lucian caught his wrist. “I don’t think we should touch it at all. We have no idea what it controls.”
Merrick looked around the room. “That sounds like a vote.”
Oh, good. Decision Die time. A roll of 1 meant blue, 2 meant copper, 3 meant silver, and 4 meant gold. I rolled a 3. Silver it was.
Aldren turned the dial. Nothing happened. The party waited. Still nothing.
Merrick looked at Lucian. “Well?”
“Well what?”
“Do some wizard shit.”
“The device may affect something elsewhere in the pyramid.”
Mara glanced at Yarash’s smoking corpse. “Or it changes the room’s color and the silver part is broken.”
“That seems unlikely.”
“So did a password that says knock-knock.” Fair point.
“Hey, look at this!” Aldren called.
On a nearby desk, the party found a letter.
Yarash,
The time has come for you to add your power to the growing legions of my followers. Come and supplicant yourself to me and I will reward you as an important officer in my magical forces. You will serve as the advisor to the cohort of soldiers to be based at Sorcerer’s Island. Resist and you shall be crushed before my almighty power. I expect your positive reply within the week.
Signed,
The Boss
Beside it was Yarash’s unsent reply.
To:
The Boss
Valjevo Castle, Phlan
Sir,
I categorically reject your demand that I submit my island and my powers to your control. I am a free man and I will remain free. No petty tyrant can order about a true mage.
If you or your troops make any move toward Sorcerer’s Island I shall send an army of my unstoppable aquatic creations down the Barren River and sink your precious castle. Until now you have been beneath my notice. If you value your empire, let us keep it that way.
Signed,
Yarash, the Sorcerer
Merrick looked from the letter to the bloody, burned heap on the floor. “THAT must be Yarash.”
“Was,” Mara corrected.
Lucian read the first letter again. “The Boss attempted to recruit him.”
“And Yarash told him to go fuck himself,” Merrick said. “I almost like the guy.”
Aldren gestured toward the mutant corpses. “He tried to use us as specimens.”
“I said almost.”
Lucian tapped the reply. “More importantly, this confirms The Boss controls Valjevo Castle and intends to place troops here. Yarash’s aquatic creations may also explain the experiments we’ve seen throughout the pyramid.”
Mara looked down at the corpse. “Not anymore.”
“Hmm,” Lucian said, picking up another piece of paper. “This is interesting.”
BOUNTY of 10,000 GOLD!
I will pay 10,000 gold pieces for a live sahuagin! I will pay 1,000 gold pieces for a recently dead sahuagin in good condition. I need a specimen of this man-like salt water aquatic creature for my studies.
Bring your specimen to the shore of Lake Kuto and build a fire as a signal. Your specimen will be examined. If it is truly a sahuagin you could end up with 10,000 gold pieces. But beware, I will know any forgeries, and I will punish any attempt at deception.
So, capture a live sahuagin, bring him to Lake Kuto, and walk away a rich man!
Signed,
Yarash the Sorcerer
Merrick’s eyes lit up. “Ten thousand gold?”
“Yarash is dead,” Aldren reminded him.
“We could still catch one.”
“And then what?”
Merrick thought for a moment. “Keep it until we find another rich lunatic.”
“We are not carrying a live fish-man around the wilderness,” Mara said.
“Fine. One thousand for a dead one.”
“Still dead,” Aldren said, pointing at Yarash.
Merrick sighed. “You people have no entrepreneurial spirit.”
Lucian picked up a smaller note.
An active dragon has made its home in the Dragonspine Mountains to the northwest. Keep search parties away from the area so as not to catch the dragon’s attention.
Aldren straightened. “An actual dragon?”
Lucian looked at him. “Yes. An actual dragon. Which we should avoid.”
“But I’m already a dragonslayer.”
“No,” Lucian said.
“Close enough,” Mara added. Lucian closed his eyes.
“And this,” he said, lifting yet another note.
Both kobolds and hobgoblins exist in large numbers to the east. Experiments show neither makes good breeding material.
The room went quiet. Aldren looked toward the mutant lizard corpses. “Breeding material?”
“That would appear to explain his guards,” Lucian said.
Mara nudged Yarash’s body with her boot. “He was a sick fuck.”
Merrick wandered away from the growing pile of papers. “Did this asshole write down every thought he ever had?”
“Maintaining detailed research records is an essential part of any serious magical study,” Lucian replied, but Merrick was no longer listening. He had found something else to touch.
“Hey, what does this thing—”
ZAP. The entire party vanished.
They reappeared inside a very large room filled with shelves, crates, weapons, scroll cases, and a vast collection of magical junk. Lucian’s eyes widened. “Nobody touch anything.” Merrick was already touching everything.
“You really need to start saying that sooner,” Mara told him.
Within minutes, Merrick found treasure and the party crossed another invisible portal that returned them to Yarash’s quarters. Merrick looked at the dial, then at Lucian.
“I wonder what happens if we set it to gold.”
Lucian studied the device. “There may be a correlation between the dial and the portal.”
“So it DOES do wizard shit.”
“That is not what I said.”
The connection was now obvious. Silver had opened the first storeroom, while gold and copper led to two more. By the time the party had emptied all three, everyone had gained another 1,545 experience points and collected a bo stick, a scimitar, a broadsword, a long sword, a lucern hammer, leather armor, a javelin, and two Magic-User scrolls.
Merrick looked around approvingly. “Yarash may have been an insane fish-breeding asshole, but the man understood treasure rooms.”
“He hid them behind an interdimensional transportation system,” Lucian said.
“Exactly. Classy.”
With every accessible room looted and everyone’s pockets once again filled with magical shit, the party returned to Yarash’s quarters, set the dial back to blue, and entered the portal one final time. They appeared near the entrance of the pyramid.
Aldren looked around. “I know where we are!”
Mara walked past him. “Congratulations.”
“No, really. This is the beginning!”
Lucian nodded. “Blue must return the transporter to its original destination.”
Merrick adjusted his overloaded pack. “Fantastic. Let’s get out of here before somebody changes it back.”
And so the party left the stupid pyramid triumphant, climbed into a tiny rowboat, and returned to the horses.
On the ride back to New Phlan, they could already see a difference. The blackness was fading from the water, and farther downstream, the river had begun to clear. For once, the party had actually done something good.
Aldren smiled as he watched the clean water moving past them. “We actually did it.”
Merrick shifted the treasure strapped to his horse. “And we got paid.”
“We haven’t been paid yet,” Mara said.
“We WILL get paid.”
Lucian looked back toward the distant pyramid. “We also prevented Yarash from creating additional aquatic monstrosities and denied The Boss a potential magical ally.”
Merrick nodded. “Right. Hero stuff.”
Back in New Phlan, we identified the haul and sold most of it. Nearly everything was magical. Almost none of it was useful. The exception was a Broadsword +2. Aldren claimed it immediately, which did absolutely nothing to discourage the dragonslayer situation.
The town clerk was appreciative, and each party member received 8,562 experience points, along with a healthy pile of platinum and jewelry.
And Merrick? Merrick was now a level 9 Thief. Fucking level 9.
He had spent most of the campaign falling unconscious in battles, once died so hard it cost 5,500 gold to bring him back, and had just been the final person to collapse during another complete party wipe. Level 9. Just incredible.
Aldren looked around at his companions. “Well, team, are we ready to get back at it?”
“No,” Merrick said immediately.
Mara rested her hammer on one shoulder. “Where?”
Lucian adjusted his robes. “There are still several outstanding matters beyond the city.” Aldren grinned. Merrick groaned.
The Party So Far
The river is clean, Yarash is dead, the dumbass pyramid has been stripped of anything remotely valuable, and the wilderness map exists. Sort of. It needs work.
Aldren Kestyr — Level 7 Fighter
Mara Threl — Level 6 Cleric
Lucian Eldwyck — Level 6 Magic-User
Merrick Sorne — Level 9 Thief
Next Time On...
There are kobolds and hobgoblins to the east, Valjevo Castle still belongs to The Boss, and somewhere in the Dragonspine Mountains to the northwest, an actual dragon has made its home.
Aldren thinks he’s ready.
He killed a wyvern, you know.