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The Banewarrens, Part 1

Players/Characters Present:
John Sikking - Basil Amantes (Ftr7)
Bruce Barnett - Bonzimir Amantes (Rog4/Hlf3)
Barbara Muth - Nereida Amantes (Clr7) and Elida (KSK4)
Chris Wood - Felix Amantes (Psi7)
Peter Drake - Demetrios Amantes (Ftr2/Wiz2/Hum3)

On an early Spring morning in the Lunar of Agaleon, the Amantes were walking through the bazaar on St. Atharius' Street, when chaos struck.  Literally.  A half-orc warrior in the street suddenly burst into flames.  They didn't seem to burn him, but burned anything around him, including townspeople and a nearby thatch-roofed building  and burned Basil, who had run up to try to put out the flames on the hapless half-orc. Terrified of this new threat, the half-orc ran...straight to Felix, who used Telekinetic Thrust to throw himback sixty feet, where he landed near a large fountain. As the other siblings attempted to put out the house fire, Basil bull-rushed the flaming half-orc straight into the fountain and forcibly held him under for a few seconds until the fire went out.

The thick thatch of the roof of the burning building caught fire easily and threatened to spread the flames to nearby buildings. As the crowd scattered, Nereida used several Create Water spells to slow the flames, while Felix dragooned two townspeople into helping him carry a heavy water trough. A second Telekinetic Thrust threw the trough and its contents up onto the roof, putting out the flames.

[GM's Note: this wasn't really a combat encounter, and we played fast and loose with the rules. I let anything work that sounded like a pretty good idea.]

Meanwhile, the Amantes noticed an older man who began to shoot lightning bolts from his eyes every few seconds, blasting buildings and killing those he looked at, while up ahead in the crowd, a poor old woman flew into the air, screaming that demons had ahold of her.  As Felix and Nereida struggled with the fire, Demetrios and Bonzimir went after the man with the lightning bolts, trying to convince him to keep his eyes aimed at the ground.

Meanwhile, Elida had run over to thrust her guisarme into the air, allowing the old woman to catch hold of it. This provided enough of a delay for Basil (fresh out of the fountain) to leap onto a carriage and into the air to snag her.This did not cause her to descend, but it did stop the ascent. The thankful half-orc pitched in to add his weight, dragging them all to the ground.

The continued bolts of lightning terrified the man who was firing them from his eyes.  He fled, and thus spread more injury. Demetrios and Elida pursued him, tackling him and forcing him to stare at the ground.

Meanwhile, a huge black hound (a shadow mastiff) appeared and began to howl.  Its terrible baying spread panic through the crowd, causing everyone but the Amantes and the half-orc to flee in a mad panic.Demetrios injured the beast with a magic missile spell, and Basil (leaving the old woman to the half-orc), ran over to engage.  There, he noticed a weird, tentacled beast dying.  It was half-merged with the wall of a building.  He also saw a dwarf fleeing the scene.  He noticed the dwarf moving his hands in a casting ritual just as another monster (a formian worker) appeared.

[GM's Note: This is the first time that Basil's new Amulet of Clarity allowed him to pass a Will save!  Huzzah!]

About this time, both Bonzimir and Demetrios spotted a tall, thin elf with dark skin (a drow!), walking down a parallel street, and noted that he was the only person they could see who was completely unconcerned with the chaos around him. They both decided to follow. Nereida did likewise.

As the City Watch arrived, Elida briefed them on the Lightning Man's condition, then ran off to follow Nereida. The watch, trying to absorb the utter weirdness of it all, failed to heed Elida's warning. Lighting Man accidentally killed one of their number, and they then killed him in a fashion somewhat less than accidental.

As Demetrios and Bonzimir ran after the dark elf, Elida, Felix and Nereida confronted the dwarf Basil had seen, who refused to believe that he was the cause of all the strange summoned monsters, even as he summoned (in quick succession) a formian worker and an unholy imp. Nereida and Elida, being a priestess and holy warrior, attacked the imp on sight, causing the dwarf to try to defend it.

Meanwhile, Demetrios had caught up to and blocked the path of the dark elf, who warned him in a heavily-accented archaic form of High Conorrian "Do not seek to stay my journey; I am sent by the gods to do Their work. I am the avatar of Chaos!". Puzzled, Demetrios thought about this, decided that the dark elf was either evil or mad, and destructive in either case and decided to attack. He unleashed a volley of magic missiles which greatly injured the dark elf. Bonzimir immediately took this as his cue and rained down sling stones on the ol' avatar.

Meanwhile, after killing the imp, the rest of the party decided to ignore the dwarf and instead help with the apprehending of the dark elf.  The drow cast Darkness to hide himself. Demetrios countered with a web spell dropped on the drow's position. Although his spell resistance defeated the Web, it nonetheless blocked his forward passage. The drow quickly climbed a nearby building to escape.

Thus began a mad chase across rooftops and down twisting alleys that left the party spread out across the neighborhood. Demetrios's raven familiar Kryee kept an aeriel watch on the dark elf as everyone tried to find him. Demetrios caught up to the dark elf (with the aid of an expeditious retreat spell), but the dark elf ambushed him, getting in several vicious blows before the wizard managed to bring him low with a pair of well-placed Scorching Rays and good rolls against damage resistance.

Not long thereafter, the City Watch caught up to the party and arrested everyone. The party wisely surrendered their weapons and went with the Watch, half-expecting some retaliation for their earlier actions against the Magister Civites, Pertinax, but no such retaliation was forthcoming. They party was interrogated all afternoon, but finally released, having been told that they had "friends in high places".

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So, as the party made its weary way home to their new house, Demetrios received a mental message from Flavia, his new mentor, (the woman whom Quintus Amantes had mentioned and with whom Demetrios has been studying for the last two months) to bring his family and meet her at the Ghostly Minstrel. They went, and were happy to see their friend Admeh the bard singing sea chanties to entertain the crowd.

They went into the back room, and there Flavia told them that she was a member of a group of colleagues that "keep an eye on many interests" and that she had discovered through divination that the "Avatar of Chaos" had somehow escaped from the Banewarrens.  Further divination revealed that he had entered the city through the basement of a particular abandoned building in the Middle Ward.  She then told them the story of the Banewarrens. She was surprised that they already knew some of the tale (see last adventure summary), but filled them in on the rest.

If the Banewarrens had somehow been breached, Flavia theorized that its supposedly perfect sealing had never been finished by Danar.  If so, a powerful spell like wish could possibly breach the incomplete sealing.  If the Banewarrens were open, the entire city was in danger.  Flavia and her colleagues were willing to offer the Starborn a reward for following the Avatar's route back towards the Banewarrens and returning with knowledge of the breach, and hopefully, of how to reseal it.  She offered them 850 T. each (a total of 5100 T.), with 150 T. up front for this service.  The Starborn agreed and returned home.

At their home, they found a priest of the Great Church waiting for them, a cleric they had seen before named Brother Fabitor, priest of the small Chapel of St. Gesius in the Maze.  Fabitor was worried because an important paladin of the church, named Kalerecent, had gone missing with his cohort, a monk named Rsanir.  Kalerecent and Rsanir had been important fixtures in the Maze, and after saying that they had discovered something important, they had both disappeared.  They were missing for two days.  Augury had revealed that Kalerecent's disappearance had something to do with the chaotic events experienced by the Starborn that morning, and so Fabitor came to them for help.  He offered 2,000 T. if they could find Kalerecent and bring him home alive, or 1,000 T. for the return of his dead body.

The Amantes insisted on searching Kalerecent's cell at St. Gesius's for clues. Though the paladin's cell was bare, they found a journal kept by his cohort, the monk Rsanir. In it, Rsanir recorded that Kalerecent had heard from his contacts that monsters had been seen in a certain neighborhood...the same neighborhood where stood the house mentioned by Flavia.

As the search continued, Felix (fragile, fragile psion that he is) went out into the Maze to gather information about Kalerecent's comings and goings. This quickly brought him to the attention of a pair of local toughs who ambushed him, stole all his goods and left him for dead. It was only his amazing ability of autohypnosis that allowed him to survive the ordeal until he was found by his siblings.

The next morning, recovered and refreshed, the team bought Felix some new equipment, bought a Delver's Permit (necessary for any underground exploration in Echoriath) and headed to the abandoned house. There, they encountered a weird half-lizard man/ half-illithid who tried to kill Bonzimir and blasted Elida with psionic energy, but was quickly cut down by Basil.  On searching the monstrous intruder, they discovered not only magical armor and weaponry, but something that made their blood run cold: a ring of the Quann under the thing's skin.

In the basement of the house they discovered a tunnel leading into the rock.  The tunnel had been dug out by the claws of some monster...recently.  About a quarter-mile in, they discovered a side passageway, and decided to investigate.  This turned out to be the lair of the Umber Hulk which had dug the tunnel.  It had also dug a clever pit trap that injured everyone in the party.  The Hulk's attack, however, was not nearly as terrible as it might have been.  Every member of the party made their saves against the Confusion effect of its eyes and began to attack.  The creature (and its ochre jelly roommate were quickly dispatched.

Having searched the Hulk's chambers and discovered its small treasure hoard, the Starborn are now ready to delve deeper into the tunnels beneath Mons Tarteros.

Tune in next time for....Enter the Banewarrens!

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